The Best of Times...
By Ozzallos
A fukufics (dotcom) production
Part 8
"Got it!" Kyouko exclaimed, adjusting the display at her gunner's position behind the pilot. "Massive energy reading at one-one-five mark oh-eight-three, ten kilometers!"
The proclamation caused the pilot to produce a feral grin as she fingered the red flight helmet, flipping a shaded visor down. Arisa pulled the stick around and Poison Nine slewed through the morning sky as its nose found the new vector. "How many we got, Kyo-chan?"
The blond studdied her panel carefully. "The signature is a mess... We're gonna have to get closer."
Arisa nodded. "Right. Make the call."
"Poison Nine to Backstop, targets acquired," The gunner keyed her mic, opening a channel back to base. "Requesting a go-nogo."
"Ryu-chan?" The simple question crackled back in the form of a hard-edged female voice.
"Negative, still with Doctor Natsume." Kyouko confirmed.
"Go."
"Go confirmed." The blond repeated, flipping down her own visor. "I have the energy reading at five miles, ECM and counter-measures coming online."
Arisa stared through her heads up display as the target was illuminated through it. "Got it. Weapons hot, safeties disengaged." She replied, flipping a number of switches along her own panels. Her feral smile diminished slightly, and she gave the radar display a good thump. "Are you getting interference back there? Attack radar seems a bit jumpy..."
"Yeah, target area is saturated with it." Arisa's gunner frowned. "Switching to optics." Kyouko thumbed a small joystick, and the optics array on Nine's nose came to life orienting itself in the target's general direction. "That's the stuff!" She grinned as one cat-girl came into focus, and beside her, the cat-boy. "Designating primary target NK1124."
The pilot stared at her display and tapped the cat-girl's head. "You're mine now, bitch!" Arisa flipped the guard up on her index trigger and selected the nose mounted plasma cannon with her thumb. The tri-barrelled cannon whirrled to life, locking onto the camera's imagery.
"What the HELL is THAT?" Kyouko called out in a paniced tone and Arisa's eyes frantically searched the horizon. The damn gun ship was in full stealth mode. They shouldn't be under fire this soon-- Then she saw it, a distorted pillar of energy that began to rapidly consume the strike zone. The brunette watched in horror as the cat-girl's friends jumped away and disappeared into the shimmering distortion. "Lost readings on the secondary targets!"
"NO!" Arisa yelled as her objectives began to disappear before her very eyes. All that remained on her screen was the cat-girl, who seemed to shrug before jumping into the vortex herself. "You're not getting away this time!"
"Ris-chan, we don't even know what that is!"
"AAAAHHHHAAAaaaARRR!" Arisa let loose a primal scream, and shoved the throttle to the stops. The gunship's two shoulder slung turbofans whined painfully as they tilted forward into their maximum angle of attack. The nose dropped sharply and the gunship dove into the evaporating event horizon.
Kyouko keyed the mic in panic. "Backstop, this is Poison 9! We are engaging the target!" Her eyes widened as the ground grew at an insane rate. "Repeat, this is Poison 9, we are going in!"
Sailor Pluto took an involuntary step back as her eyes took in the figures on the wall and what they represented. Of course, there was Ranma Saotome. She knew he of all people would be here. Ranma had been her pet project for the last few years and knew his intentions beyond a shadow of a doubt. But as had become customary lately, he continued to be an unending source of surprises.
"So, we meet at last, Guardian Pluto." The Senshi eyed the shriveled old woman balanced on the cane above her and shivered. Like Ranma himself, she knew everybody on the wall, if only because she had bound them all together like some mis-woven tapestry. "We have... things to discuss." ...And so did the two teens at her side, which was apparent through the intensity of their gazes on her person.
"So many things." The banndanna'd boy next to Ranma growled and blushed at the same time, as he recalled the severe beating and the free show he'd received... . It hadn't helped her case when Ranma informed the Ryoga that Pluto was the main reason he had been getting lost as of late.
"Reow." That came from the cat girl, eliciting another shiver from both Setsuna and Ranma. It wasn't a happy sound, as Nuku Nuku had picked up on the mood of her future husband and focused her ire on the woman that displeased him.
"Setsuna, what have you been up to?" Sailor Moon arched a dangerous eyebrow upon seeing the displeasure of complete strangers focused on the Senshi of Time. While she wasn't completely happy with the newcomers joining her team, she knew any little bit would help their already slim odds.
A tiny bead of sweat rolled from the Senshi's forehead.
"We'll settle up later." Ranma stated flatly as the group stared Setsuna Meiou down. He smiled inwardly. Those memories were actually turning out to be good for something other than screwing with is gender sense. "We're here to do a job."
"Indeed." The Amazon matriarch agreed. "Much as I would like to... settle up, the threat as described is too large to ignore." Even Ryoga nodded with her statement.
Sailor Mercury handed Pluto the Mercury link on cue. "It's all there. If you can cut us a time-space hole down that route, we should exit within ten kilometers of the reactor." The Mistress of Time studied the data from the link then handed it back with a nod.
"Ten kilometers isn't exactly a Sunday stroll, you know." Sailor Neptune noted.
"Through a universe full of super youma." Haruka add darkly.
"Silly monsters no match for Amazon warrior." Shampoo sniffed with unshakable confidence. "Scared girl stay back if want."
"WHAT!" Sailor Uranus' eyes widened at the unexpected insult.
"Either way," Ami stepped in before the conflict could escalate, "It's as close as I can get us."
"Then lets be about it." Moon stated firmly and looked Ranma square in the eye. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Well, if I'm going to be wading waist deep in youma, I expect my body guard to be there as well." Usagi stated, folding her arms across her fuku-ribboned chest.
Ranma blinked. "Uh yeah, well, about that..."
Sailor Moon frowned. "Or were you just playing my friendship the entire time as well?" Ranma sighed at the hole he'd dug himself, then looked at Pluto, whose eyes still flicked from him to his new team members nervously. Okay, so it had been worth it. He shrugged mentally. Nova might as well go out with a bang, right?
"Nova Power, Make Up!" The flash of light washed over Ranma and the fuku was in place, Staff of Ascension deployed. After weeks playing the part, her hand pulled out the pigtail on reflex, unbinding her bright red hair. Sailor Nova was back in action.
"Oh, Son in-law, this is priceless!" The Elder snickered from the wall and Ranma scowled. Mousse's jaw was hanging and Shampoo blinked curiously. Nuku nuku shared the look. The resemblance was uncanny, in fact.
"When Airen join Senshi?" She asked innocently, then a smile crawled across her face. "Ranma make too-too good soldier of love and justice. Maybe Shampoo help on the love part after all over with this, yes? "
"Ranma-husband girl-cat now?"
"My, that's a nice fuku, Ranma." Ryoga's humor-laden tone prodded the newly transformed Senshi. "Should I just put you out of your misery now?" Knuckles cracked, as if to emphasize the question.
Sailor Nova simply shook her head. She'd been doing this for nearly three weeks now and the taunting didn't goad her as it would have before. "Laugh it up, all yas." Then she turned to Moon. "Ready when you are."
Usagi smiled and the rest of the Sailors seemed a bit more at easy with the familiar form by her side. "Pluto?" Sailor Pluto nodded and the team felt a large spike of power. The Senshi of Time began to glow, and before them, reality began to ripple and shimmer. The air around them shuddered, and the distortion grew, taking up a fair portion of the shrine's courtyard. The shimmering crawled skyward and stopped, seeming to solidify as it did so. The glow around Pluto faded.
"Gate's up." She stated without flourish. "Last chance to back out." Even through the statement was meant for the entire team, she cast a hard glare at Ranma specifically.
"Thought you'd have learned by now." Nova replied to the challenge with ice. "Ranma Saotome never loses." With that, she stepped into the portal and vanished. Setsuna growled and rushed in behind her. One by one the Senshi-NWC combined swirled and vanished, until only Nuku Nuku remained. She too shrugged and hopped in.
Sailor Nova landed in a guarded stance, her senses complaining as the distorted reality cleared from her person. She shook her head and another screeching of twisting metal erupted above her as Pluto landed gracefully beside her, followed closely by Moon and the rest of their strike team. Nova blinked and her words were preempted by Pluto's own observation.
"Oh shit."
It was the second rude surprise she had encountered today, this one being by far the worst. Even as Nuku cleared the gateway, Setsuna took in the view in front of her... They now stood on a dusty plain and in the distance was the glimmering sphere that was their objective, whose brilliance provided the sole illumination the pocket universe would see. Around it, stood the vast sprawl of the youma manufacturing facility, framed by the dim chaotic rainbow that comprised what could loosely be termed as "sky." Pluto knew that it wasn't sky in the traditional sense, but the boundaries of the void, literally the ends of this small universe. But none of that was what prompted the "oh shit". That came from the fact that they were literally surrounded by youma of all sizes, formed up into ranks.
"There must be thousands!" Usagi exclaimed, recovering from the wormhole transit.
"The forces arrayed against Earth is indeed formidable" Cologne observed with gravity, pogo'ing up beside Moon.
"I've got exactly eleven thousand four hundred and fifty two in sensor range at the moment." Mercury reported as she consulted her link. "Luckily, they all appear to be in standby. Don't touch any--"
WhoooOOOOOOSH!
Half the team reflexively ducked as a sudden gust of wind blew across them, the result of a sleek looking aircraft suddenly jumping out of the wormhole gate and gaining altitude.
"What the HELL is that!" Ryoga hollered above the din of engine noise. Ranma frowned. She recognized the design, as did Nuku, who hissed.
"You've got to be kid---" Ranma's complaint was cut off by Hotaru, whose voice quavered with a measure of fear.
"Um guys..."
"ROOORoooWL!"
"I don't think they're in standby anymore." She finished as the obvious became painfully apparent. Growls could be heard from every angle and the Senshi-NWC strike team arrayed itself into a circle. The ranks of youma attention turned inward, finding life where it didn't belong. Most of the monsters were pinkish and somewhat female-looking, but all of them looked to have been beat with the ugly stick at some point during their creation. Big ones, small ones...
"RAAARRRAARRR!"
The sound seemed to be a decisive one and the youma lines charged into the life that shouldn't have been. The power levels of fourteen humans spiked abruptly and the time for talk was over.
"Here they come!" Moon yelled and the team braced against the oncoming horde.
The first youma jumped in, claws aimed to eviscerate Sailor Nova's throat. The Staff of Ascention came up and it's chest met a half moon blade. The crescent bit into the youma's torso and it instantly crystallized into a solid block of ice. Nova carried the momentum through and it hit the ground, shattering the beast in half. The strike team was now decisively engaged as youma attempted to come hand to hand all along their lines, only to meet lethal resistance.
"Bakusai Tenkestsu!" Rock shattered at Ryoga's feet as his breaking point technique ripped into a group of five, showering them with what amounted to high speed granite fragmentation that shredded anything in its path. The youma fell, or rather denigrated as the fight carried on to either side. Sailor Venus' Love Me Chain slashed forth, removing another four youma from his flank. She had just enough time to give the Lost Boy a wink before being reengaged. Pluto dropped into compressed time as her own heart-tipped staff ripped through the demonic ranks pressing her own front. The staff cut through the air and a Chronos Typhoon surrounded her, clearing the immediate area. It gave her time to watch Mercury dodge a pair of claws and perforate her own attackers with a freezing mist. Anything that didn't crumble under it's own icey weight was shattered in the overpressure created by Sailor Jupiter's own Sparkling Wide Pressure attack, which vaporized her own targets in their entirety.
Cologne took the offensive brunt on the circle's opposite flank, the ancient staff she had wielded for so long blurring through the lethal chestnut technique. Shampoo's scimitar flashed in close beside her as the purple haired amazon covered her back with a grace matched only by Saotome herself. The trio was rounded out by Mousse who had come loaded to bear. Edged weaponry flew from his oversize sleeves, providing the entire circle with an exotic form of suppressive fire. Three more Youma fell as the Elder's staff tip punched through skulls, hearts and other vital organs while Shampoo chopped another two attempting to cleave her great grandmother's back.
"Silence Glaive Surprise!"
Five square blocks of youma instantly vaporized as Sailor Saturn brought her Silence Glaive down, the resulting plume of fire roaring up into the fractal dusk sky. Even as it did, another roar was heard off to the left and a giant youma seemed to spring up from the earth. It crawled up from the ground on four legs, rearing it's massive horns and gaping jaws. Charred pink scales covered the beast and it lurched forward.
Three team members spotted the threat and reacted simultaneously. It just so happened that all three had the same weapon of choice to use in dispatching the charging demon. Sailor Nova disengaged from the front lines and reversed the her staff, snapping the ringed edge at her new target. Ryoga Hibiki also noticed the rampaging youma, sliding the super dense umbrella off his back and popping it open. With a might heave, the super dense bamboo scythe flew skyward. Finally, Sailor Moon whirled around as the new combatant surfaced, and she pulled the gold shining tiara off her head.
"Moon Tiara Action!" The call rang out and all three members attack flew out at once. Nova's Kinjakan ring blazed on fire through the left arc while Ryoga's umbrella cut right. The glowing tiara blew down the center and all three weapons converged simultaneously, chopping into the beast from three separate angles. Ranma's flaming disk carved through the giant youma's torso diagonally, while Ryoga's umbrella virtually gutted the demon's midsection. Moon's Tiara all but decapitated the pink monstrosity outright. The weapons returned on separate arcs to their owners, who shared a look as the beast literally fell apart at the seams.
But as spectacular as it was... "We're not making any headway here!" Pluto's voice called out and the dilemma resonated within Usagi. The fact was they were making headway, but that headway against the horde was at molasses speeds, at best. They needed a breakout and they need one now.
It just so happened somebody heard there plea.
"Poison Nine to Backstop, come in Backstop..." Static greeted Kyouko's transmission. "Nothing but dead air, Ris-chan."
"So what the hell is happening down there?" Arisa stared at the display slaved to the nose camera, where a small war raged two hundred feet below. The blond in the gunners seat pushed her face against the armored glass canopy.
"Fighting an army of zombies?" She theorized as a fiery plum floated skyward.
"An army of darkness, more like it." The pilot commented as she zoomed the camera in on one of the larger monsters, which was promptly dissected by three guided weapons. "Got some serious firepower down there too." Arisa slewed the camera right and found her dark pink-haired target, ripping one of the demon looking things apart with her bare-hands. Dammit, she really didn't want to help cat-girl, especially when it was the perfect opportunity to ace the distracted android. She thumbed the optics joystick from cat-girl to monster and back, chewing her lips with indecision.
"Looks like they're moving toward that giant crystal thing." Kyouko observed, and Arisa came to a decision. Unless they wanted to be stuck here, cat girl was their only ticket home. There really wasn't a choice.
"Dammit!" The pilot fumed and slapped down her orange visor once more. "How we looking on fuel?"
"Approaching Bingo." Her co-pilot stated, the frown on her face evident in her voice.
Arisa growled. "Might as well make the most of it... Let's clear the road!"
Poison Nine dropped like a stone as its pilot rode the throttle to full military power. Kyouku flipped a switch and the under-slung plasma cannon tracked her eye movement, sliding onto one of the larger targets. The gunship blew over the Senshi-NWC strike team and unleashed, its tri-barreled plasma gatling gun coming to life for the first time. The barrels spun and lethal streams of white hot energy spat forth at the rate of two hundred rounds per second, immolating anything that caught Kyouko's eye. Arisa thumbed her own weapons selector once and five AX-15s flew off their racks, burning into several mobs before ripping them apart in a series of detonations, whose plasma burned scores of youma alive outright.
Poison Nine covered the ten kilometer path quickly and its crew took stock of their handiwork. The killing swath they cut had been spectacular, but the path they had carved was already being replaced by fresh monsters.
"Set us up for another pass, Ris," Kyouko ordered. "They're gonna need continuous suppressive fire if that path is gonna stay open." Arisa nodded and hauled the gunships nose around.
"With pleasure."
The strike team moved quickly through the smoldering remains, fighting the advancing youma off at a run. Anybody that could produce ranged fire quickly moved to the front of their advance in order to keep the path clear as they moved forward. Ranma let loose another ki energy burst, and the glowing blue ball vaporized a pack of demons that insisted on making their acquaintance. Three youma made it past the attack and the martial artist swung the ring tip around, turning the first into flaming ash with ease. The second hesitated slightly, only to find a crecsant blade caress its skull. The demon fell to the ground, it's head turned to solid ice. She was about ready to engage the third when her hearing picked up a loud crack at his back. He only had a second to take in the incident and found Cologne without a weapon, the result of a stressed cane buckling at high speeds. The Elder was now suddenly weaponless and facing youma en'masse.
Even if Ranma was to never marry her great grand daughter, Cologne was one of the few people outside of his own blood Ranma considered something close to family. Removing the threat to her became her number one priority, and Nova-Ranma's next actions were driven by pure instinct, instinct that had kept him and his friends alive through too many situations to count. Ki reflexively flowed into the staff, reversing the technique that had fused it together. Nova pulled the weapon apart, whipped around and threw the Gekkaja across the space, past Cologne, burying the crescent blade into the lead youma's sternum. The Elder gave the redhead a slight nod as she hopped up and retrieved the weapon from its frozen chest, cutting down the next beast in line. Sailor Nova whirled around in the same movement, decapitating another youma that had closed to hand-to-hand with razor disk of the Kinjakan. She was already moving onto the next target as the head bounced to the earth unnoticed.
Nova ripped anotherMöko Takabisha downrange and a Space Sword Blaster poured in behind it, decimating the closest platoon of advancing youma. A line of incendiary plasma rained down from on high, cutting another swath forward of their advance. Nova-Ranma looked up and watch the gunship circle right while the nose mounted cannon picked out its targets and burned them down.
"How much further?" Sailor Neptune called out and unleashed her own Deep Submerge to further carve into their advance on the Pure Heart Crystal Reactor.
"I said get off me!" Mercury hollered as more youma pressed her side of the strike team's defensive circle. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody !" Ribbons flew from the harp in her hands and solidified into massive streams of water tearing another squad of youma apart as it attempted to close on her. She turned on the Outer. "Six kilometers!"
"INCOMING!" Jupiter screamed as red ball of power streaked in, causing Saturn to whip around.
"Silence Wall!" The angry blob of power terminated two feet from Jupiter's person as Hotaru erected an energy barrier with the Glaive. The blast shattered against the wall, reflecting its potential at the nearby youma instead its intended target.
"They're getting tougher people!" Moon called out, blasting a youma with a pinkish ray after it had gotten up for the second time. The beam carved a line from the monster's neck to its ribs, an arm and good portion of torso falling to the ground in a smoldering heap. This time it stayed down."Watch for energy attacks!
No sooner had she uttered the words, another youma glowed brightly and unleashed a bright red ball of power. The only other person who could have intercepted the attack besides Saturn was a fraction of a second too late in noticing the inbound energy, having just dispatched her own opponent. Sailor Pluto's eyes came off the falling corpse in front of her and saw the perilously close energy attack. "Garnet Ba--!" The defensive bubble didn't have time to form and the blast detonated within their squad, blowing Pluto and another out of formation and into the the mob, well forward of the strike team. Pluto shook her head and pushed herself off the ground, only to quickly find herself surround. Five claws slashed toward her at once and she desperately tried to complete the technique she had started seconds ago.
"Moko Takabisha Double!"
Instead of the five pronged attack, five smoking corpses fell to her feet with independent thuds. She turned to find her savior, only to wretch. The redhead jumped in and began to fend off the other encroaching masses of claws with terrifying speed, speed Setsuna could only match if she compressed time. She was also fighting hand to hand. Had she dropped the Kinjakan? Pluto brought the heart tipped staff up into a striking stance and slowed time around her person.
"Don't think this makes us even, Saotome!" She snarled and introduced a pack of youma to her Dead Scream technique. "You will cease to be a threat by the time I'm through with you!"
Nova-Ranma's fist blurred through an attack, something that amazed Setsuna ins pite of herself. She was in compressed time and they were still blurring. "Talk's cheap, Set-chan." The youma practically fell apart under the assault. "You so need a vacation... Even if I have to be the one to give it too you!"
The implied threat didn't go unnoticed, and Pluto threw the resultant anger at three more youma, tearing the staff through them. "I have a responsibility to see the deaths of five point two billion people aren't in vein! If I need to remove you to make that probability occur, so be it!"
"Oh yeah," Nova snarled with disgust. "Crystal-fucking-Toyko can go screw itself too!" Vacuum blades slashed out, eviscerating youma in depth. She spared a withering glare back at Pluto. "How you can accept the deaths of billions on the outcome of something that has to be continual tweaked in order to occur is total insanity!" Ranma's rage began to roll to a boil.
Setsuna triggered a Chronos Typhoon in response as her own temper flared. "You think I want the deaths of those people on my hands? I've seen the future! That catastrophe is going to happen! The odds of stopping it are even slimmer than engineering Crystal Tokyo!" The typhoon unleashed and shredded demons were sent snapping around her. "Don't you DARE fucking judge me, boy!"
"JUDGE YOU?" The rage flared like Sailor Nova's namesake and ki claws rippled forth along her knuckles. She barely took notice of them as she adjusted her attacks to compensate for their reach and attack power. The ethereal blades cleaved a youma clean in two. "I have your damn memories stuffed in my head sideways! There's no way you can tell me Caesar's assassination was necessary!" Pluto nearly faltered in her attacks at the redheads words. Five more youma went down as the blur known as Ranma Saotome became a demonic killing machine, ki claws flashing in nearly every direction at once. The Senshi of Time mentally calculated their position and decided it would still be another few minutes before the rest of the team caught up to the position they were now holding. A small part of her began to know fear.
"You've overstepped Serenity's mandate so many time she'd probably thank me for taking you out!" This time her attack did falter and Pluto was reduced to blocking the inbound attacks as some pent up fragment in her psyche was jarred loose.
Claws skittered off the time key as she deflected another attack. "No... That's not true..." it was a weak protest at best and she found Ranma's eyes burning into her own.
"Setsuna Meiou... Judge, jury and self appointed executioner." A fist buried itself into one of the demons, ki slivers jutting out its spine. Pluto's eyes widened and the reality impaled her, causing her to all but drop her guard and stare at the redhead. She knew. She knew everything. And it was as if Ranma Saotome, the person she had fated to die had somehow become her conscious manifest, voicing every doubt and fear she had so successfully locked up in the annals of time. "Back on the clock, Pluto!"
It wasn't a polite warning, but it was a warning none the less. Her eyes snapped up just into time block pair of fangs with the length of her staff, wedging them open before pushing forward and sheering the youma's skull in half. She compressed time further and slid left, narrowly avoiding the next three youma attacking in unison. They couldn't keep this up. There were too many and the team was still a good hundred meters behind them. She was about to call out to Ranma when something buzzed through the fuku's embedded communications array.
"--weapons inbound! Prepare for direct fire on your position!"
Setsuna took quick stock of the message and her surroundings, finding the errant Mishima Heavy Industries Gunship approaching at high speed with ordinance already flying off its racks. White flame sprang from the nose and realization hit her like a sledgehammer. "Ranma, DOWN!"
Sheets of fire sprang forth as the world around them was torn apart violently.
Kyouko was jarred in her seat and pushed into the safety harness as another thud impacted the gunship. The ground based energy fire was thickening, and even Arisa's superior piloting skills weren't enough to evade the flashing bolts the demons seemed to be throwing at them. The gunner picked another target out and hosed it with a hot stream of plasma fire, which was incredibly effective at annihilating the larger monsters. Another thud skewed her aim, sending white heat straying off target and into the ranks of lesser youma. Kyouko shrugged and silently thanked the engineering staff who had decided to mount Poison Nine's reactive plating.
"Ko-chan, three o'clock." Arisa directed the blond's attention along the vector and she found two figures ahead of and cut off from the main group.
Kyouko panned the nose camera on to them and frowned. "They're not going to last long out there all alone."
"Right." The pilot agreed. "Coming around, set us up for close air support."
"They might get a little singed." The gunner stated and sighted the guns relative centimeters pff the hapless combatants.
"The price of doing business." Arisa stated flatly. "Lock and load!"
The nose lined up on the pair and Kyoko spun up the plasma cannon. She edged the gun sights down the corridor, then hesitated a moment, keying the radio as an afterthought. "This is Poison Nine on Guard to allied combatants, weapons inbound, repeat, weapons inbound! Prepare for direct fire on your position!" God only knew if there was anybody that could actually receive the unscrambled transmission, but it was worth a try.
She pulled down on the trigger and the thirty decawatt plasma cannon spat white death, tearing a line of fire into the youma ranks closest to the two lone fighters. The insides of her canopy flashed, and rockets flew from the wing pylons, spackling the strike zone with splashes of fire and plasma. Poison Nine flew through the resulting cloud of smoke, and Arisa pulled the experimental gunship around through a tight arc.
"One more pass!" She called out.
A thundering crash punctuated her remark and Kyoko watched in horror as her damage console lit up while buzzers squealed in protest. Some of the ground fire had finally gotten through the plating. "Avionics are out! We're losing the aft stabilizers!" The entire gunship shuttered and bucked while Arisa fought the flight stick for a level. "Crap! Hydrolic failures on the mainlines, switching to backups!" There was a pause as she flipped the requisite switches. "I'd start looking for a place to land!"
Her pilot continued to wrestle with the controls, snarling. "No way am I going down with unexpended ordinance! Arm the Death Hand!"
Kyoko bit her lips. They'd be lucky to come out of this one alive. "AX-20 coming hot! Release on your mark!"
Arisa centered up on a point between the Senshi-NWC strike team and the giant crystal thing, grinning evilly. This should give 'em some breathing room, she through and trigged the weapon. The entire gunship shuddered as the fat missile left the centerline fuselage rack, streaking into an untouched mass of youma. The missile seemed to explode into a fine mist thirty meters above the ground, showering the general area with a glimmering fog. A second later a bright spark ignited within the cloud and the fog was transformed into a brilliant fireball. The shock wave rolled out, flattening demons for hundreds of meters before incinerating them inside the air-fuel generated explosion. The fireball climbed into the dusk sky, causing Arisa's maniacal smile to grow.
It was a short lived smile.
Another jarring crash hit her aircraft, and the gunship protested by slewing hard to the right. "Say goodbye to engine one!" Kyouko called out frantically, and Arisa watched flames spiral from the stricken turbofan.
The pilot could feel the controls slipping away from her and it was no longer a matter of fighting for them as they lost life with each passing second. Arisa used the last of it to point the nose into the smoldering clearing she had just cleared.
"This is the end of Poison Nine! Crash positions!"
Sailor Moon watched the angry fire ball consume the youma in front of them as their group moved in and encircled the battered Senshi Pluto and Nova. "You two alright!" Both stared at her with a dead look, as if their disheveled state and torn fukus didn't tell all. "Um, right. I think you dropped this, Nova." Moon handed the crimson fuku her ring-tipped staff, and the redhead nodded her thanks.
"That jet did a good job at clearing--" Sailor Jupiter was commenting just as the for mentioned jet streaked overhead and into the smoking field of fire it had just created. "Crap! It's been hit!"
"Several times by the looks of it." Michiru noted as she followed the gunship down.
Both Sailor Nova and Pluto watched as well, the same thoughts running through their head. "That gunship saved our ass." Nova stated and Pluto nodded in agreement.
"Then we'd better get around to saving theirs." Pluto finished, and the Sailors set of at a dead run, whose speed was significantly aided by the fact that every youma between them and the reactor had been reduced to crispy critters. The youma behind them were a different matter entirely, and happily gave chase with claws, fangs and magical energy fire. Regardless, the Senshi-NWC strike team was out-pacing them faster then the demon's meager accuracy allowed, and were quickly left in the dust. Shampoo found the debris laden trench first and the team followed it to the gunship's crash site, whose fuselage had been mauled, but was otherwise intact... minus the wings, nose gun, and entire left side of reactive plating. Carbon scoring made it obvious to determine where the aircraft had received its fatal fire.
"Any survivors?" Mercury called into the wreckage and an armored figure stepped out from behind the aircraft. If she looked carefully, Ami could even note that it was blond behind the visor.
"I think so," The figure answered, obviously still a bit shaken. "I'm Kyoko. Arisa will be out--"
"I swear I'm gonna kill that cat-girl the minute we get out of here!" The armored brunette fumed as she stepped out of Poison Nine's cargo hold attaching a machine gun feed to the gatling gun mounted on her gauntlet.
"Reow?" Nuku stared at the familiar toys curiously. On one hand they represented both threat and playtime. On the other, they'd helped her husband-sister only minutes before. Arisa froze mid-step and stared at the source of her incessant angst.
"We don't have time for this." Pluto stated, breaking the odd staring contest. "If you can move, we've got to get to that," The Senshi pointed at the giant crystalline globe now looming large in the sky. "Before they get to us." She pointed back to the ranks of youma that were finally beginning to catch up to them. That finally focused both cat-girl and cooperate officer back on the matter at hand, and the newly formed Senshi-NWC-Mishima team broke from the dead gunship at a run. Even as they did, Kyoko was proud. Poison Nine was not only the first gunship of the Poison line to see live fire under real battlefield conditions, but it was also the first Poison model not to be taken out by a cat-girl... A rare and distinct honor.
Energy bolts continued to pepper their backsides as they found the base of the Pure Heart Crystal reactor, which seemed to float atop a giant pillar The pillar itself could only be described as technology, a power converter, Mercury termed it. It glowed an eerie green, a stark contrast to the brilliant pink crystal globe. There was only one way to the top, a long staircase whose entrance was blocked by a dull glow. The Strike team arrayed itself at the foot of the pillar.
Ami pulled out the Mercury link, aiming it at the glow. "Force shield, fourteen point eight terrawatts in strength. Don't touch it." Nuku Nuku pulled her finger back from the glow. She turned around and pointed the clamshell PDA in the opposite direction. "We have about one minute, thirty seconds before eighteen thousand youma arrive on this position to hand us our asses." Sailor Jupiter blinked at the normally reserved Senshi's cursing.
Pluto simply nodded and turned to Hotaru. "Do it."
Sailor Saturn nodded and took a deep breath, gathering her power. She balance the Silence Glaive in her hand and pointed it into the shield.
"One minute." Ami called out the time. A dull rumbling could be heard in the distance.
"Death Reborn Revolution!"
Hotaru plunged the Glaive into the shield, which exploded in brilliance as the ancient weapon triggered a reaction that siphoned the barrier's power away into impotence. The Glaive glowed a bright orange as if it were about to melt, but otherwise held its structure. The bright barrier pulsed once more and seemed to shatter completely. The shield was down.
"We need to go, now!" Ami warned as the first blasts of magical fire began to rain down on their position. The front lines of the massing youma were now visible in all their horrid glory. Something shrieked overhead and Haruka saw it first. It was a youma. With wings. She picked it out of the shifting dusk sky and blasted it with her space sword. That was the team's cue, and every member began the retreat up the stairway while the youma army pressed forward... the youma army meant for Earth, and each person on the team realized that this was only a fraction of its main host. They reached the top and platform and had barely a moment to take in the beautiful pink atrocity floating above them.
"Ris-chan! Supressive fire!" Kyouko called out and aimed her her armor mounted gatling guns down the stairs, the same stairs the youma now advanced up. Her friend took a stance beside her, raising her own gauntlet miniguns. The multi-barreled cannons whirled to life, and a buzz saw sound cut through the air as they spat six hundred rounds per second down range, shredding their front lines. The Senshi began to add their own firepower and Mousse stepped to the front, cutting loose with every edged weapon in his formitable arsenal. Even Cologne began to throw ki blasts at a rate that made Nova-Ranma pale. She was already something around three hundred years old. Throwing that much spirit energy around couldn't be good for her longevity.
Pluto stepped back and pulled the Elerium WMD out of her personal weapon space, setting it on the platform gently. The silver casing glowed pink, reflecting the PHC reactor's light above. "Princess, the codes."
Sailor Moon stepped forward and ran a gentle finger down its mirrored chrome casing. She reached into her fuku and pulled a crinkled piece of paper from between her breasts and stared at it.
"You kept the codes for a one gigaton weapon of mass destruction between your breasts?" Ami boggled, staring at the princess, who in turn stuck her tongue out at the Mercury. Usagi turned back to the deadly shining oval.
"Omicron-Omicron-Omega-Break-Five." She read and the weapon simply sat there.
"Activation codes recognized. Good day, Princess Serenity." Usagi binked. Pretty polite for a bomb.
Moon looked back down at the piece of paper in her hand, reading it word for word. "Aramament stage one, five minutes."
"Armament, Stage One, confirmed. Delayed activation set to minus five minutes." It stated calmly, a stark contrast to the frantic defense going on only a few feet away at the steps. "Awaiting final armament authorization."
Usagi Tsukino took a deep, trembling breath. "Defense of the Realm."
"Thank you, Princess Serenity." The bomb replied. "This unit will now detonate in time minute five minutes. Countermand will expire at time minus one minute. Full anti-tampering countermeasures engaged."
Moon was at a loss. "Now what?" She looked at Pluto.
"Recommend all personnel proceed to minimum safe distance." The bomb replied to the misdirected question. "Minimum safe distance for this unit is two thousand five hundred and thirty eight miles."
"In other words it's time to get the hell out of dodge!" Nova hollered over her shoulder as she cut loose with another Moko Takabisha. Her blast was augmented by Mars' Fire Snake, checking the advancing demons.
"I'm down to three thousand rounds!" Arisa called out as she reset her gatling gun's overheat breaker for the second time.
"Two thousand five over here!" Kyoko called out as the pair continued to pump 20 millimeter slugs into the stalled youma lines. She soberly noted that the only reason they were stalled was because of the narrow stairway versus the fire being poured into it.
"Four minutes, thirty seconds." The bomb added sedately.
"Forming the gate!" Pluto called out and fed power into creating a wormhole back to universe proper. The shimmering distortion formed, wavered and died in front of her. "What the hell!" She tried again, feeding more power into the gate. The result was the same. Ami was already on the problem.
"The THC Reactor is pumping out too much energy. We need to gain some distance before trying again!" She replied, interpreting the Mercury links readings.
"How far?" Usagi asked with concern.
Sailor Mercury frowned, as she was often wont to do in this miserable universe. "One kilometer."
Sailor Moon's eyes widened. It didn't take a genius to do the math. "One kilometer is out there!" She pointed into the unending tide of youma.
"One thousand rounds!" Arisa called out, the barrels on her armored gauntlet glowing with heat.
"I'm nearly dry!" Kyoko reported as the last of five hundred rounds fed through the belt.
Ranma Saotome through furiously. If the volume of fire dropped even by a small margin, the youma standstill would turn into a crushing advance, an advance their team desperately need themselves. Her brain's tactical computer spun into overdrive, calculating the team's combined firepower and the techniques at their disposal. The martial artist handed the Kinjakan back to Moon. She was gonna need both hands free for this one. "Ryoga! Breaking point on my mark!" Ryoga was at his side without question and the two stood by as Arisa and Kyoko expended the last of their munitions.
"I'm out!" Kyoko called as the cannon wound down. "Standing by on RPGs!" Secured hatches on the power armor's shoulder pods flipped open, exposing twelve rocket propelled grenades to open air.
"Out!" Arisa called, her cannon dying as well. "Cut 'em loose!" Rockets flared out from the armor and twenty four high explosive grenades settled into the youma front lines, detonating in a spectacular display of fragmenting pyrotechnics.
"NOW!" Nova-Ranma yelled and Ryoga Hibiki stepped forward, pushing his finger into the stairs at their feet.
"Bakuai Tenketsu!"
No sooner had the stone pathway shattered, Ranma herself was inside the the blast radius with the chestnut fist, tagging every one of the fragments Ryoga had dislodged, and sent them into the demonic crowd below like high-speed human machine gun. "AGAIN!" Ryoga stepped forward a second time and more stone shattered. Ranma seemed untouchable in the stone whirlwind as he repeated the dual technique. The youma lines faltered.
"Three minutes."
Cologne hopped forward and touched the ground with the not-so lethal end of the Gekkaja, duplicated the technique she had taught the Lost Boy herself. More stone shattered and this time Shampoo was in the cloud of stone, her purple hair whirling through the chestnut fist with determination. The added firepower was enough and the lines cracked. The remaining Senshi poured everything into them, while two suits of power armor and one cat-girl went hand to hand, pulverizing any demon that made it through the hail of stone.
"Saturn, take out the stairway base!" Pluto directed and Hotaru focused the Glaive.
"Silence Glaive Surprise!" Another five blocks of youma evaporated as the woman deemed a strategic weapon of war brought the stave down, mercilessly turning anything in front of her to cinders. The NWCs new Chestnut Breaking Point technique made short work of anything not consumed by the fireball, and the combined strike team secured the base of the pillar.
"Two-thirty!" Mercury called out as they moved away from the reactor, allowing Pluto the distance to try her technique again. This time, the gateway formed flawlessly and the shimmering, distorted curtain hung at the groups' center while they fought off increasing pressure from the youma army.
"Moon first!" Pluto yelled and Usagi studddered.
"What? No way! I can't leave!"
"You can and you will!" Nova countered. "Princesses and animal cursed martial artists first!"
"But--!" Nova and Pluto shared a knowing look, and the Senshi of exploding stars was by her side in a flash, locking Usagi's arm behind her. "OW!"
"In you go, your worshipfulness!" Sailor Nova took the Kinjakan from her and shoved Moon through the portal and returned to the defensive line. "Time to leave, people!" One by one, the Senshi filed through, which in turn presented a difficult problem to Ranma as they did so. The increase in open terrain worked to their enemy's advantage, allowing them to attack from all sides at maximum strength. On top of that, the teams collective firepower weakened as they retreated through the porthole one by one. The only person that truly need to remain was Pluto, with somebody to keep the demons off her as she held the gate open. Cologne gave Ranma a knowing look as she handed the Gekkaja back to her.
"Fight well, Son in-law." Shampoo and Mousse went first, followed by the Amazon matriarch. Only Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn remained, and it was the bare minimum they could cut without their lines collapsing entirely.
"Point of no return!" Mercury called out, glancing longingly at the portal as she iced another platoon of youma. "One minute!"
Sailor Nova fused the Gekkaja and Kinjakan back together. It was time to get serious. She stepped to the center of the defensive ring around the wormhole and began feeding power into the newly reformed staff. Ki flowed in a circle from her to it and back and back, twirling the staff wildly in preperation for the ultimate technique that existed only in her minds eye, up until now.
"Hiryu..."
The razor ring snapped away, igniting as it took flight. The Staff of Ascension continued to twirl in her hands, and the guided ring spiraled outward, trailing super-heated air.
"Shoten..."
The spiral continued to expand out beyond their lines, and over the youma horde. The staff spun and Ranma focused every ounce of ki into the technique. If it worked, it'd give Pluto and herself the need breathing room to retreat themselves. If not... Well, they'd both buy it in a spectacular fasion.
"Ha..."
The twisting stopped and Ranma flipped the staff around, its crescent blade facing downward. With a might heave, she shoved the blade into the ground, turning it to ice for hundreds of meters.
"ASCENSION!"
The shock wave ripped out from the staff and along the super-heated line of atmosphere, uncoiling like the dragon Ranma had unleashed so many times before. But now, those dragons seemed like fence lizards compared to the one she had now loosed. Air pressure and ki ripped outward beyond Nova , Pluto, and into the waiting army of youma where it crushed them mercilessly. The shock wave followed the heated spiral to the end and became self sustaining, forming into a tempest the likes of which few had ever seen. Saturn jumped through the portal, followed quickly by Mercury. Nova held onto the ice embedded staff for dear life as the winds threatened to rip her arms out of their sockets.
Then there was Pluto.
Pluto stood within the subspace buffer between reality and the gate, realitively unaffected by the technique. She made a mental consultation of her internal clock. Fifteen seconds and inches. She could literally leave Ranma out here to either die by her own technique or roast in the nuclear fires created by the bomb, but either way the redhead would be out of her hair for good. But could she leave such a person out to dry like that? She had before. Caesar had been a patriot too. Ten seconds. Wind sheared across Ranma without respite, while everything within ten miles was being shredded by her own hypervelocity maelstrom. Pluto considered the redhead. A patriot. Somebody who took the odds without regard for her own like and saftey. Somebody who knew Princess of Pluto just as well as she knew herself. Somebody who would do the right thing no matter what... Could she kill another one? Yes. Could she kill another one and stay sane...?
Five seconds.
Ranma Saotome's grip on the staff was beginning to slip as frost crept up the shaft she so desperately clung to. She couldn't even open her eyes as they'd be more than likely sheared out of their sockets the moment she did so. But then, nobody ever said the life of a martial artist wasn't fraught with peril, doubly so for ones that turned into magical girls, she though with grim humor. The gate was too far away for her to leap into the winds she had whipped into exitance, all of which begged the only question that mattered-- Which would kill her first? The new technique or the bomb. A bright flash of light through the condensed cloud answered her question. The Elerium blastwave rushed forward and she steeled herself for the end...
Ten women, two men and one android stared at the shimmering Earthside portal as it wavered with instability. They had all made it through with two notable exceptions. Ice checked the guts of each team member with each flicker the gateway produced. Finally it flared with power and collapsed with sudder of distance thunder. The team simply stood staring at the now empty portion of blue sky in muted shock.
Neither Ranma Saotome or Sestuna Meiou had returned.
Ami sat at a desk inside the Inner's apartment, pouring her attention over a stack of papers, cross referencing them with the Mercury link's data.
"Anything?"
She looked up into the blue eyes of Usagi, whose expression was as somber as her own. "Nothing. I've got every scrap of telemetry the second link could send us before it was vaporized, and everything I've seen so far indicates they were both still there when the bomb went off."
"They're really gone, then..." Usagi slumped into a chair beside Ami.
"By all accounts, that entire universe is gone." Ami frowned, brushing an errant strand of cobalt blue hair out of her eyes.
Moon was about to reply when a pink haired girl slipped into the room and paused, noticing the long faces on her future mother and friend. "What's wrong?"
"Setsuna and Yum-- I mean, Ranma..." Usagi started, but found herself unable to finish.
"What about uncle and Set-chan?" Small Lady asked with wide, innocent eyes.
Ami stared down at the table. "They didn't make it back with us."
Chibi Usa blinked and a smile crept across her face. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that."
Ami's head snapped up. Usagi blinked. "You wouldn't?"
"Nah." The smile grew. "Everything will turn out fine. You'll see."
Epilogue One for the original funny ending,
Epilogue Two for the DVD Directors Cut serious ending.
Author's Notes:
"Epilogue, one? Epilogue two?" Hehe... Hehehe... MwhAHAHAHAHAH! -ahem- Sorry about that. You are undoubtably wondering what exactly the deal is with the epilogue one and two bit. I ain't tellin'. So all those who thought you'd glean some useful information from these ANs, boy were you sadly mistakin'. It'll all become clear with the next update, but let's just say that one ending wasn't enough.
Beyond the teasing, I hope you've enjoyed the story up to this point, as this was the grand finale. Well, almost. You still have one more part to go. Or two. Depending on how incessantly I tease you :D
Special Thanx to Trimatter and DCG for their comments, DT and Fukufics for their help.
A note on grammar, corrections, spelling, etc... Some of you will feel compelled to note these errors and list them in the reviews section. Before you do and since I have your attention with the Epilogue stunt, know two things-- It's not that I don't care exactly, but there a balance between the enjoyment of writing, not getting paid and my own time/impatience. I make a pass at the chapter and anything that's left I can normally live with. Second, it's called a REVIEW section, not an editing section. This comment is mainly targeted at the habitual offenders who feel the burning desire to post nothing but corrections with next to no review content. I realize some of you mean well, but that much editing needs to go to my email box, not the review section.
To everybody else, keep doing what you're doing, including you, BorgRabbit. Thanks for the heads up.