DISCLAIMER: Relatively standard stuff. Existing characters are properties of the people who made them up. Mitsuki, and several other characters are mine, and so's the story, hence ownership and copyright of them belongs to me. Contact me at misato_98@yahoo.com if you want permission to use anything I've written for whatnot purposes.
Note: Thanks go to Pana for assistance with finding information on military vehicles and weapons for the opening sequence this chapter, as well as out-and-out giving me information :)
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 13
** We Stand Together... **
There was no doubt about it. The creature that exited the bay at Minato was massive, and it was hell-bent on destruction.
The giant heaved itself up out of the water in the docks district, and headed inland on a north-north-west bearing. Directly for the centre of Tokyo city proper, where it could cause untold billions of yen in damage. People were lucky in that the first few buildings that the giant stepped through were uninhabited, derelict, slated for demolition. The very few homeless who had taken up residence there, and the occaisonal child skipping school, had plenty of time to vacate the premises.
The next few, the inhabitants weren't so lucky. Giant monsters had long been thought abolished from Tokyo, and many people had simply forgotten how to deal with the addition of a new one to the city's population. In the late 50's and 60's, monsters had run rampant through these very streets, but most had been made extinct or relegated to theme parks like Monster Island off Hokkaido. Quick government checks had shown the forces that once could be gathered to fight creatures such as Gojira, Rodan or Mothra had suffered attrition to the point these forces were too deteriorated to fight even a baby Gojira.
Which, obviously, wasn't good.
Thankfully, the United States' 7th Fleet was stationed in Yokohama, and while the ships were undergoing a minor refit at the time, the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk was clear of obstructions, and the flight crews on hand. With less than twenty kilometres to the target, flight time was negligable and the F/A-18's were lining up their target almost as soon as they were airbourne. Multiple racks of AGM-65 Mavericks were launched, and quickly acquired their target: the monster rampaging as yet through the uninhabited docks region.
Those who were still running and evacuating as the mighty giant smashed feet down around them, striding inland, saw and heard the missiles streak in for a scant second before they impacted and erupted into gouts of flame and smoke. Several missiles shot past and hit nearby buildings - which, thankfully, were empty.
Those running from the area paused, turning and looking up as flaming wreckage fell from the skies onto the streets below. They raised arms and cheered, and the city was saved.
Until the smoke cleared, and the giant monster still stood.
In fact, it looked a little angry.
Although the Super Hornets were still a number of kilometres away, and turning back for a second shot, the monster turned, faced them, then opened it's cavernous jaws. A blast of intense radiation exploded outwards along a coherant path, which detonated the first plane, then was swung around, tracking the other jets before they could fire again. Within a matter of seconds, the US aircraft were gone, melted and exploded from existance.
Then, the creature turned again, and continued it's remorseless gait towards the centre of Tokyo, the only visible damage made by the jets' barrage of explosives a light column of smoke billowing from its back in the wind.
******
It was on a nearby building that the government observers reported the airstrikes had done no damage whatsoever. And in dim government emergency offices, officials discussed furiously what was next on the list.
"We could always use a small tactical nuclear weapon," one man offered slowly and hesitatingly.
There was shocked silence in the room, and horrified glares directed at the man. "What you suggest is unthinkable," the Prime Minister said, finally. "Nuclear weapons are not an option in an inhabited region."
"It should be considered as a last resort effort. We cannot allow this creature to leave Tokyo," the junior official continued.
"No. Japan has... other defenders." The Prime Minister leaned forward, steepling his fingers together. "I only hope they can reach us in time."
******
Some such defenders stood overlooking the monster themselves. Ranma. Sailor Moon. Sailor Mercury. Sailor Venus. Sailor Mars. Sailor Jupiter. Sailor Saturn, at the back. All on a rooftop, overlooking the monster and the government team now evacuating their position as the monster turned their way and moved closer. Ranma saw they wouldn't make it out of the building before the creature was upon them, and turned back to the senshi. "Can any of you's fly?"
A lot of head shaking went on. "Damn," Ranma said, then punched out the window and leapt, springing out laterally to reach the other building's rooftop. He didn't see the senshi behind him exchange glances, then spring after him, but he could feel their presences as they followed. He'd have smiled, but the roof was coming up fast, and he had too much speed to make a decent landing.
So he went for a controlled crash, rolled off his feet onto his shoulders, and continued rolling until he'd bled off some speed. Not being a magical person such as the senshi were, he had to rely on such old-fashioned techniques to stop. As he got to his feet, ignoring the pain as grazed skin pulled shut again, he noted that the senshi, while they might not be able to fly, certainly had some kind of powers of levitation, as they all landed gracefully. But he had no time to curse the fact he'd broken his own henshin wand, and instead threw open the door to the stairwell, jumping down flights at a time until he had caught up to the government agents hurrying down the stairs ahead of him. He grabbed one, threw open the door at the next landing, and shouted "Follow me!" before exiting through it and looking for a window facing an adjoining building not in the path of the oncoming monster. Damn. There were windows, but the next building was at least ten floors lower. Not so bad for him, but perhaps it would be serious for whomever he was carrying.
He looked back, and realised the senshi were there, pairing off with other agents, ready to grab them as soon as Ranma grabbed his and showed them where to go: they'd picked up on his plan quickly, obviously, and suddenly there was a sound fro the stairwell of something huge coming through the wall at speed and then there was no time and Ranma grabbed his agent and went through the window watching the next rooftop coming up fast.
An idea hit him halfway down, part of his memory, and he oriented himself so his feet were facing the oncoming rooftop before blasting out with his ki through his feet. Not quite useful for flight, Ranma remembered, and not any use in this manner for speed - but it would make landing much more comfortable. His feet touched down a moment or two after the senshi had landed, and he put the agents down. "Go, get outta here," he said, waving his arms. "We gotta think."
Not Ranma's best attribute, but perhaps the senshi had seen something like this before, faced some giant rampaging monster -
No. No, else he'd likely have heard of it. The only giant monsters Ranma could think of were the huge animals of Ryugenzawa he'd seen. A glance at the senshi showed him he thought right: most of the monsters they'd fought over the years had been human-sized, and a monster-sized creature with the abilities and strength this monster was displaying was obviously something they hadn't encountered before.
Oh, there were the rumours from a few years before that a giant phoenix and dragon had battled it out in the CBD and that the defence forces had been called in, but as there had been no evidence of such an intrusion into the captial, it was assumed it was just massed hysteria.
The monster continued through the building the senshi and Ranma had just leapt from, and all on the rooftop had to take cover from the exploding walls above. Cement chunks rained down, but more dangerous were the metal structural supports that protruded from the boulder-sized chunks of material. Ranma could take the hits, as could the women there, but not the government agents.
Turning, Ranma gathered his agent, and leapt again for the next building, smashing in through a window a few floors down and managing once again to keep his passenger in one piece. Senshi followed behind him and through other windows. By now, the monster was moving onward, not paying them any attention, and Ranma gathered his students and left quickly as the agents struggled to catch up with the last twenty seconds.
******
Outside again, closer in towards the city's taller buildings, Ranma felt useless. He hadn't yet tried a frontal assault - and likely wouldn't, he knew. He'd fought one giant monster before, and knew how useless physical strength could be, much and all as he hated to admit it. The senshi were more capable at fighting this kind of adversary, and Ranma had noticed Sailor Mercury was already reviewing plans of attack and discarding them almost as immediately as they flashed up on her visor.
Oh well, it was worth a shot. "Mercury, have you figured out how ta beat this thing yet?"
Sailor Moon, a moment too late, tried, "Sailor Mercury, have you... damn." Too late. But rather than complain Ranma had asked what should have been her question, she turned from the young man to face her friend.
Mercury shook her head. "I haven't yet been able to get a good reading on it - it's energy is all over the place!"
"Anything you've figured out about it?" Sailor Moon shot in before Ranma could. She was rewarded with a slightly angry glare from him as they crested yet another roof's lip.
"According to records from the Moon Kingdom, based on the energy output of the Dark Kingdom, this creature is dwarfing existing figures dramatically!"
"What?" Ranma asked.
Nemesis translated. "It's stronger than anything we've faced before."
"Stronger than the combined fleets and armies of the Moon Kingdom," Mars added.
"We're dooooomed," Sailor Moon wailed.
Ranma's head snapped up and around, and he directed the course of transit towards Tokyo Tower. "We're not doomed yet," he said, with a bit of a smirk.
******
The view from the tower was staggering, and Tsubasa was too afraid to step right up to the window on the viewing level. Hikaru, though, her twin, was pressed right up against the glass, peering downwards. "DD! I can see your car from here!"
"Hikaru! Come back from the window!" Tsubasa wasn't that sure about approaching the glass, considering what she could see approaching from the bay area. It had started out so far away, but it was close now and it looked massive, and was approaching much faster than Tsubasa would have enjoyed.
The ten year old at the glass pouted. "But I've never been to Tokyo before! And... and I probably won't come back here again... so I want to see things!"
"Hikaru, perhaps it would be best if you stepped back from the window," A man with light blue hair said in a tone that brooked no argument. Hikaru pouted more, but stepped back to hold hands with Tsubasa.
"DD, you're no fun..."
The rest of the observation deck had been evacuated a few minutes earlier, but DD, Tsubasa and Hikaru had stayed behind, hidden from the hurried checks by staff for stragglers. Tsubasa's father had left with the evacuated groups, and would no doubt be nervous now and worried for the safety of his daughter and Hikaru, his other 'daughter'. To be honest, Tsubasa was worried about him, too, but Hikaru and DD had held her hand and told her she could best help him by helping everyone else.
She thought that was kind of true, from a certain point of view, but her courage, while enough to help Hikaru fight Magi spawn, wasn't up to the task of the oncoming monster that appeared to be headed directly for the tower, and she was starting to panic.
The elevator doors swished open, and Tsubasa turned, half-hoping that the tower's staff had returned to double-check they had left no one behind, but no. It was a young man and some women, and while the man was dressed in some stylised Chinese outfit, the women were dressed in some really weird kind of stylised... Tsubasa didn't know. Almost like a school uniform, but much more stylised. Hikaru, of course, was excited to see more people, who's attention, in turn, was concentrated on the behemoth.
Tsubasa didn't really want to look at the creature, but there wasn't much of a choice - there was something about it that kept drawing one's gaze to the thing, an almost magnetic pull. Huge, it was, scaled, bipedal with a forward leaning stance. It looked like a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex Tsubasa had seen in books. It was much larger, though, and the head was larger, boxier, the mouth large enough to swallow a dump truck or two without needing to chew. And still it came.
Hikaru was saying something to the new arrivals when the elevator pinged again. A pair of young women stepped out, one dressed in a black-and-white diamond-patterned jester's outfit with a staff, the other with a digital camera, looking this way and that. Tsubasa almost missed the yellow stuffed animal sitting on the jester's shoulder, until it shifted back and glanced at her, frowning. Behind them walked an angel, sniffing with some distain as he took in the people present on the observation deck. Scowling even more, and blushing fit to burst, was a young man behind them, face buried in his ceremonial robes whenever he thought he didn't need to look where he was going. As soon as he cleared the elevator doors, they shut with a ding, and dropped back down towards ground level: someone else had called for it.
Tsubasa didn't understand why all these people were turning up on a conscious level. But subconsciously, she knew they'd been drawn here for the same reasons she had: drawn to power, drawn to help. There was something about this place that brought people here, a reason for this gathering of power. But not knowing it consciously, it wasn't something Tsubasa could think about. And even if she had realised this, she simply wouldn't know the answer. These monsters were nothing like the Magi she had fought.
They frightened her. They were immensely strong, super fast, and were proving to be a global danger in the extreme as they took hold on their new "adopted" planet. But what scared Tsubasa about this oncoming monster... it was bigger, yes. It was slower, though. And possibly a lot weaker, she didn't know. She knew next to nothing about it, and she wouldn't have access to any of the "hard" data Hikaru had on it until they joined... but Tsubasa knew.
Hikaru was afraid. She could see that now. The twin peered at everything with an excited expression... but lurking behind that was doubt. A gathering of power, she openly realised now, as she watched the teddy bear turn into a winged lion with a slightly whining, pouting voice as he complained of hunger. And yet, Hikaru still acted... afraid. As she would right before grabbing Tsubasa and telling Tsubasa to concentrate, to let Hikaru protect her...
The scowling young man with black hair and a long ponytail glared out of a window. The women behind him muttered amongst themselves, more visibly worried than he, glancing out occasionally, also sweeping the odd eye over the growing crowd on the observation level of the tower.
"It's so undignified, riding to save the world in an elevator," a blond with twin pigtails streaming back from her head muttered to her friends.
Another, in red, sighed. "If you'd only turned into Neo Serenity back at the hospital, none of this would have happened."
"Don't be so sure of that," one dressed in green added. "We're not pushovers, and what Ranma lacks in strength, he makes up for in skill... and he's frightened of the guy."
"He's not frightened," a girl, shorter than the rest and standing slightly separated from her companions, interjected into the conversation. "He's worried. There's a big difference."
"That being?" asked the one in green.
"That he thinks it's unwise... to face Yoshihiro right now, as compared to not facing him at all."
"Well, he's not a coward," a girl in blue with a visor murmured.
"Hmph," a black-clad member of the group shook her head and turned away, preparing to down a pair of pills. As she tipped her head back, the man reached out and stopped her. She looked embarrassed, tried to continue on to swallow her pills, but he stopped her again. "Hey, Ranma, you know, uh, how I get without -"
"I do." Ranma, the man, nodded out the window at the monster. Tsubasa noted it was much closer now. "And I know how dulled your movements get, how much weaker you become. Can you hold it together long enough to...?"
She wouldn't meet his eyes. Tsubasa guessed soemthing bad had happened between the two of them relating to these pills. Of course, this was Tokyo, and there was every chance that this woman was a drug addict... even superheroes had to have bad qualities, Tsubasa guessed. "You know I can hold it together for a while without them, Ranma. It's just hard -" She broke off and looked away from her feet, accidentaly straight into Tsubasa's eyes. She searched them for something, the force of her personality, her pain and anguish, held the older woman in place.
She apparently found it, because she drew herself up, looked into Ranma's eyes. "It's just very hard... to go back on them when I've been off... when I'm quiet for so long... when I don't, when... when I don't see and hear things... I think I'm cured. I have, before, and I've stopped taking my medication, and that's how... that's how..." Her voice faltered, and she looked away again. The girls behind her had continued talking, but the short one in purple had taken a sad interest in what was going on with Ranma and the older woman, and was almost nodding to herself. "Get me... to take them right after, okay?"
That was all Ranma wanted to hear. He touched her elbow as he passed back towards the window, and she stiffened, like shocked with an electric charge before placing her pills back into a pocket Tsubasa couldn't see. She turned around then, left her gorup, and headed for Tsubasa.
When she reached Tsubasa, the older women squatted down in front of her, to look into her eyes. They were very pleasant, Tsubasa found. A warm, rich purple, in a face framed by long violet hair. She didn't look angry, or frightening, or embarrassed, or concerned now, just curious. "So... what are you doing here?" she asked. "It's not exactly the place for little girls at the moment."
Tsubasa pointed at Hikaru, who was gazing up in adoration at one of the woman's friends. "I'm with... her. And him," she added, pointing at DD, who was entertaining the winged lion for the moment.
"It's not safe here, you know," the older woman continued.
"I know," Tsubasa nodded.
"Shouldn't you and your family get to safety?"
"Isn't this the safest place in Tokyo at the moment?"
The woman grinned a little on the wry side. "That it could be." She glanced over her shoulder and said, "Not now," before turning back to Tsubasa. "But you should get your family to evacuate, all the same."
"Oh, they're not my family."
"But -" The woman turned to look at Hikaru. "She's your twin. Isn't she?"
"Kind of." Tsubasa noted Hikaru was bouncing back across the floor towards them, holding out a hand for her friend to grab.
"It's time, Tsubasa-chan!" she called out as she arrived, smiling happily at the older woman talking to Tsubasa. Tsubasa took her outstretched hand, and dissolved in a green glow, resolving into a woman the height of the senshi before her, coloured in muted purples and greys. She nodded at the senshi, and stepped towards DD.
******
"Great," Nemesis muttered to herself as the twins combined into an adult, obviously super-powered, form. "Can I be nice to anyone today without having it thrown in my face?"
"You know," Kozuma breathed, leaning from behind her, in close over her shoulder, "you didn't have to be nice to Ranma."
Nemesis turned away from him. "You know I need my medication. It's not good for me - ME! - to be off it."
"You've been off it for a while before, what's the difference now?"
She shrugged, kept her gaze away from him. "My head - my mind - is mine. And when I'm not taking my medication, it becomes someone else's."
"Like Kari's."
Now Nemesis shuddered, wrapped her hands around her shoulders trying to hide herself. "Don't even mention her. She's... she's not nice."
"In a lot of ways, she's better than Mitsuki ever was. Poor little Mitsuki. Did she think she's the only person to have lost a parent?" Kozuma smirked; Nemesis could hear it in his voice. His breathing raised fine hair across her shoulders. Kozuma, the seducer. She knew what he wanted - the control he directed - and the chaos he would create. And he knew how to make her lose control. Losing control didn't bode well for those in her immediate location. Usually.
"Yeah. Perhaps now would be a good time to lose control...?" he asked, a hand stroking around the side of her stomach, fondling her navel. She pulled away, moved further from the groups of heroes still assembling in the main elevator lounge. Kozuma followed her, hands running electric chills up and down her spine. A door closed behind him, and his hand gripped her firmly, pressing her up against the wall, lips on her collarbone. "Poor child... so very sad what happened to Megumi... are you sure he's all right? What about the kid? Poor little kid... it's always the young ones who get hurt..."
"Shut up!" Nemesis whispered fiercely, through tears that had appeared from nowhere.
"That poor girl. Thirteen, and still not in high school. She'll soon become... well, you know... one of THOSE people, down in the docks district..." Kozuma's voice trailed on, the tone seductively sweet, contrasting the content of his words. His seductions were intended for others; his stabbing, biting words were intended only for her.
"Shut uuuup!" But the tone was more plaintive now, Nemesis was weakening. She could feel it. She'd waited too long to take her medication today, and the enhanced hormones that swept through her as a senshi pushed all control provided by them away. She was being led down a very dark road. She could feel it, feel the others crowding her. Glancing up, she saw them. Some concerned, like Shin-chan and Tetsuya-kun. Others indifferent - Maho, Omiko, Shuuji, Ami. And those eager for her to slip up, to leave the motor running, as it were - Taki, Moyo, Suu-chan, Kusanagi-kun. And Kari. Nemesis couldn't forget Kari, with her burning eyes, and hateful distain of everything Mitsuki Matsuda. She stood at the rear of the group, arms folded, shooting daggers of flaming bile from her eyes. Kozuma was behind her again, hands stroking at her hips, at her breasts, along an arm, drawing it out further ad further from her body. Nemesis tried to draw it in again, cover herself, push Kozuma away.
And found her hands no longer obeyed her command.
She sobbed. "What is it with you all?" she cried as she sank through Kozuma's arms to the floor. "Why do you hate me so? Aren't you here to protect me?"
Kari pushed through the crowd, bent down to peer directly into Nemesis' eyes. Her eyes were a slightly darker shade of purple than Nemesis', and promised much fun, much danger. Much destruction. "But Mitsuki, dear," she cooed, falsely pouring light and compassion into the words, "we ARE here to protect you. You're a danger to yourself. You're a problem. We," she gestured back at the others, "are much more worthy of running your life. We, not you, have gotten you where you are today. You... you ran away. You made us to face life for you... and now you don't want us? Tsk tsk, little one, life isn't that easy."
"We outnumber you," Kozuma added.
"She's the original," Shin mentioned from the background. "We're just figments. Incorrect brain chemistry. Shattered fragments of a persona smashed when her mother died." She shook her head. "We're nothing special. We're not deserving. We are all her."
"Lies. Lies and deception. But what would we expect from you?" Kari rounded on Shin, the only person with glasses in the room, and neatly-tied back violet hair. "Intelligence. The aspect least able to make decisions. Because intelligence alone has no emotive worth, no capabilities to problem-solve, no method of attaching importance to data. You're just a walking memory."
Tetsuya stepped forward, to stand between Kari and Shin. "Leave her alone. You wanna pick on someone, Kari, you try me."
"Oh, I don't fall for protectiveness, Tetsuya," Kari smirked. "That's useless, too. I'm the most important, most relevant aspect to our lives here - aggression. Without me, we'd have all died prematurely. I'm raw, I'm naked, I take what I want and I care little about what gets in our way..."
"And yet you won't touch me?"
"Protectiveness... the will to shield others from harm... it's a useless concept, and beneath my notice." Kari turned back to Nemesis, who was now huddled on the floor. Then glanced at the door - footsteps! Someone was coming. She glared up at Kozuma again, who bent down and whispered in Nemesis' ear.
******
Ranma opened the door to the storage area, and found Nemesis dusting off her skirt, standing around peevishly. She glared up at him, and he saw something flit across her face - something he wouldn't identify. She walked up to him, trailed a hand across his chest as she passed. "Is it time yet?" she asked.
"Uh... yeah. It's only two blocks away now."
"Cool." Nemesis continued past, and rejoined the senshi.
Ranma shook his head. That wasn't lust in her eyes. Couldn't be. They'd dated - once; well, double-dated, really - but that didn't mean anything from Ranma, and she had cooled off a lot. But he thought he'd hear talking, or sobbing from this room, and nothing. No one else was in there. Everyone who was coming seemed to be assembled, although he was surprised this 'Tuxedo Kamen' character Sailor Moon was waiting for apparently hadn't showed up yet, and so it looked like time to get underway. He closed the door, and walked back towards the senshi. The feeling was in the air already; it was just a matter of who was going to make the first move.
No one wanted to leave the perceived safety of the tower, though, and so Ranma guessed he, the one with NO super powers, would be the first to launch an attack...
******
Sailor Moon glanced at Nemesis as she rejoined them at the window and smiled. The older senshi looked set for action, which was good in a way. Neptune and Uranus hadn't shown up, neither had Tuxedo Kamen, and Sailor Moon was worried. Something didn't look quite right with Nemesis, though. Her hair looked ruffled, but that wasn't it. Nemesis glanced sideways at Sailor Moon and smirked.
"Let's get this show on the road," she said.
It was the eyes, Sailor Moon realised. Sailor Nemesis' eyes were wrong.
And then she jumped through the plate-glass window and all hell broke loose.
******
The monster saw the tower. Its target. Close now, so close. It heaved itself forward, stepping agily around a small multi-storied building as it continued forward. But that was slow, so the creature reached out, grasped the lip of the building in front of it, and hauled itself up.
******
A helicopter for Japan Today swung around one of the taller buildings in the city's heart as the monster steadied itself on the top of the building. Surprisingly, the ediface didn't collapse; it crumbled, but held firm for the moment. The cameraman, Kenji Morioka, leaned out of the door with his camera, the active light a steady red light above the lens. A pair of loosened straps held him in while beside him, the reporter who he'd been assigned to stood at the open door, no safety straps holding her in as she clutched a microphone in one hand, a roofstrap in the other.
Jun Yamamoto shouted into her microphone to be heard over the incessant beat of the rotors above her. "Climbed to the top of the Koga building, but still heading for Tokyo Tower... the American carrier fleet at Yokohama has failed to injure the monster and has taken heavy losses. Estimated casualties at the moment are in the hundreds, with more found wounded or dead in the monster's path every minute now it has reached a crowded region of the city."
Morioka panned the camera down to take in the streets of fleeing people, pushing past one another without regard for any other's safety. A car beeped its horn before blasting into the street, knocking people down in the driver's mad rush to flee before the monster could turn their way. When he panned back up, he saw they were much closer to the monster now, coming in from the rear. Yamamoto was continuing to yell about the fleeing population, how hundreds of thousands were still being evacuated from the area, as the creature brought its tail around and smashed through another building.
The helicopter lurched as shrapnel peppered the outer skin of the vehicle, and although both in the passenger compartment were reasonably unaffected, the pilot wasn't so lucky. He slumped dead over his controls, and the chopper tilted downwards, headed for another building. Morioka caught sight of something spilling from a shattered window in the tower, but the falling craft disappeared too quickly behind a building before he could make out what it was.
"We're going to die!" Yamamoto screeched into the microphone, knocked off her feet and slamming into the front of the passenger bay. Morioka was only thrown to the limits of his straps, which he tightened in the off-chance he survived the initial impact. A moment later, and he swore he could see a dozen roses shot past the door, heading under the helicopter, and a scant instant after that, the helicopter stopped falling.
In fact, it started bouncing.
A shadow at the door made Morioka turn: a man in a tuxedo with an old-fashioned top hat and cane stood there, a mask pulled across his eyes. "Fear not, for you are not yet dead. But evacuate this area, as it won't be safe for much longer." Morioka nodded, but the man was already gone, leaping off with a whiff of rose-scent in the air.
Yamamoto moaned, what looked like a broken arm dangling at an angle completely wrong back into the pilot's cabin, and spoke into her microphone. "Jun Yamamoto, Japan Today, signing off."
******
Nemesis didn't see the helicopter go down, nor did she really care, but she was the cause of it.
Bursting from the tower, she had pushed off with enough force to produce a mini-sonic boom behind her, and she smashed into the monster with both arms outstretched, elbows slightly bent so they would give rather than snap on contact, and she sank deep into the beast's hide.
Yet it wasn't enough. She didn't penetrate the deeply-lined flesh with the force of the blow, it was only enough to annoy it: a bruise formed even as the beast roared, waved its head, and then slammed its tail around in anger. A building shattered, sending more debris down on the fleeing people in the streets below, but Nemesis didn't care much about that, either. She bounced back from the creature's hide, landed on a nearby rooftop, and flung up her hands. "Nemesis Arctic Fire!" The energy that spilled from her palms coruscated over the creature, and it roared again in pain and annoyance, and this time swung it's head around so it could fix one baleful eye on the senshi. She stared back, hate and bile filling the space between them. It opened it's mouth to growl -
- and blasted Nemesis with a powerspike she couldn't avoid. She smashed through three buildings behind her, hit the fourth, and slid slowly to the ground.
Ranma took charge of the senshi's efforts for the moment, as the shock of Nemesis' actions cleared. "Sailor Saturn! Go help Nemesis. Sailor Moon, get your... your troops and follow me." Ranma leapt from the tower for battle, and Sailor Moon wrapped her fingers tighter around her scepter and followed. The senshi followed behind without a word.
As if the senshi were rats leaving a sinking ship, the others assembled joined in the exodus, making for the battle to save Tokyo.
Events around the creature became mildly chaotic, as attacks flared past allies to strike at the beast, and the beast struck and bit back.
Every so often, there would come a lull in the noise as one side or the other rested momentarily to reassess the situation. The look the beast got into its eyes told Ranma there was something more going on here than a random, mindless monster - the fact this one was unknown to anyone suggested a lot to him, and it wasn't just a normal monster... Sailor Mercury ahd said its energy was definitely Dark Kingdom and was greater than any monster faced before... stronger than the Dark Kingdom had been during the time of the Moon Kingdom. So, was this a small monster Yoshihiro had found somewhere and altered?
In one of those lulls, Ranma remembered something. It hit him like a bolt of lightning between the eyes.
******
The skeleton. Around for a while, stronger than the monsters previous. Tohkar had also been stronger than the dragon they'd faced. Mercury had theorised that the longer a monster from this brood had existed, the more powerful it became. Natsumi had been insanely strong. And Yoshihiro... Ranma didn't even want to go there.
******
So this monster... was one of the originals. Tohkar had slowly been losing the power of speech, and this monster apparently had none, so was that a trend in Yoshihiro's kin? Did they get stupider as they grew older? Perhaps. It didn't seem to need to announce its attacks - definitely an advantage over most of the people assembled here to fight, Ranma thought dryly to himself.
"Big Card! Make me as strong as this monster! BIG!"
Movement captured Ranma's eye, and he watched a young girl dressed as a jester grow to the size of the monster. She was armed with a staff of some kind, and swung it around into the beast's jaw. It staggered backwards with the force of the impact, which also shattered nearby windows, creating a cascade of glittering glass shards that dropped onto the fleeing people in the streets, and as the beast moved back to strike again, she swung the staff the other way, smashing into the monster's chest. That threw it to the other side, but it caught on a building, grabbed that, and used it to swing around, stiffening its tail behind it.
The tail smacked into the girl, and she was thrown backwards into a building of her own, where she disappeared from sight again. Not good. Probably the most concentrated magical force since... well, since the Gods created Japan... and it was incapable of stopping a single monster.
The beast stood up, threw back its head, and roared. More windows shattered, hands were clapped to ears, and nearby eardrums burst. Ranma found himself momentarily deafened, but instead watched Mercury and Venus shout attacks, and launch chains and ice at the beast's leg, obviously trying to tie him down. Didn't work. The monster lifted its leg and took part of the street with it. Bending its head again, it launched another oral powerspike. Mercury and Venus dodged, but not by much, and the shockwave from the blast picked them up and threw them like ragdolls. It roared again as the senshi bounced off the street and rolled into a brick wall before turning its attention on a purple and grey woman who danced about it, attempting to stab into it.
No luck. A vicious backhand from the creature sent the woman into the ground. Ranma thought he caught a green glow for a moment, but turned his attention to Saturn, visible two blocks away, working on Nemesis. The older woman was sitting upright again, at least, holding her head. Ranma didn't quite know what had happened with her, but hoped it wasn't related to him asking her to stop her medication for the moment. He feared it was, though, and so shifted his gaze back to Sailor Moon, swinging her crescent wand around, but the healing lights did nothing but irritate the monster. It stamped a foot near her, and she panicked, running.
A man in a black tuxedo and top hat danced around behind and above her, tossing razor-sharp roses at the monster to cover her retreat. Tuxedo Kamen, Ranma guessed.
So what now? The fight was falling apart. Ranma wasn't the kind of person who could lead... his students, yes, but that was different. He was incapable of directing a large-scale offensive, of the kind that was needed here, especially without knowing what everyone was capable of. Knowing that someone could be made big would have been a help, at least.
He watched, proud as a teacher, as Mars combined her more violent powered attacks with combination kicks and punches he'd shown her in the last few days. Nothing like battle experience to finetune them; concentrating her magical energies at the same time she focussed her physical abilities was increasing the power of both, something Ranma had been hoping. Jupiter was also doing the same, picking up from Mars as they fought, each trying to cover the holes one would leave in their defence as they made an assault. He thought it strange that, as yet, the senshi had really only relied on magical prowess... while Jupiter and Mars had been somewhat competant fighters for average people, he'd have expected them all to be some kind of super-human martial artists... but they hadn't been. Up until his training, in physical combat, apart from Jupiter and Mars, and lately Nemesis, they were useless.
But it wasn't enough. His strength wasn't enough to bring any kind of hurt to this monster, and Ranma knew that, but the forces of good were still being forced back, towards the tower. Instead of fighting, he bounced around, helping people get clear, trying to take out some of the big debris before it could kill innocents on the ground, checking on the combatants and making sure none were severely injured.
The beast stretched and roared again, and lightning blasted down from a clear blue sky, striking the beast's back and coruscating down in a cascade of blinding bluish-white light. Ranma cursed and averted his eyes, bringing an arm up to cover them when that proved not enough -
- and was slammed into a wall.
Fearing the beast had caught him, he brought his fists up to strike back at faster-than-sound speeds, but then he realised this monster had breasts and a hot breath that almost seared his cheek as it panted on him. "Sempai! Stay out of the way! You nearly got killed!"
"H... Saturn?"
"Yes, sempai." Ranma's vision hadn't returned properly, but he could see blurs moving about, and the black-haired blur in front of him turned around, looking out through the wall, embarrassed but not pulling back from being wrapped around him just yet. "The lightning... it blinded almost everyone out there. And it did that fire-breath thing at you. Nemesis was really badly hurt, but she's okay now... so she says... and I saw that thing go to hit you."
"Why? Why me? I'm not strong enough to fight that thing, let alone hurt it..."
"This doesn't sound like you, sempai... what's wrong?"
Ranma shook his head. "I've grown up a lot, Sailor Saturn, and part of that growing up... I'll fight. And I'll fight ta win. I don't think we CAN win at the moment, but somethin'll show up, somethin'll happen. But for now, I wanna try and get these people out of the way. I... when you were bad, I watched you revel in destroying a school with people trapped inside... an' they're people who were used to the big fights between me and Kuno, Ryoga, Shampoo, Akane..." He sighed, unconsciously, before continuing. "But these are just normal people, and can't take what we take. And..."
"Have you thought, maybe, that you could help them better by trying to stop this monster now?" Saturn asked, slowly. She peeled herself off his body, stepped back to give them each a little room. "That stopping it now, or holding it up from moving any further, would save a lot more people?" There was a roar outside, and the increased heat from a powerspike nearby. Ranma, through the hole in the wall, watched magical fires blast the street below. There wasn't even time for the evacuating people to scream out in pain, let alone horror. Saturn turned to face the scene as well. It wasn't pretty.
"Saturn..." Ranma's eyes never left the road below, letting the horror of it sink in completely. "No. I can't let that happen. I think..." He fell silent.
But Saturn could guess. He'd almost been wiped out trying to fight a single monster once before, and since then, apart from fighting her in Nerima, he hadn't had a good, decent workout and was beginning to doubt he had what it takes anymore. Especially when in terms of magical powers and strength, these monsters were stronger than him. But that bravery was one of the things she loved about him so much... that he would willingly throw himself into the fray for those he cared about. He'd done it for her, for Nemesis, even apparently for that ex-fiance of his on a number of occasions. While he still seemed self-centred, and Saturn thought he would always seem that way to people, he helped out a lot, helped others a lot, just made it look like he was doing it for himself.
But sometimes he needed a boost.
And while Saturn didn't feel terribly good about being this close to her... well, to her boyfriend, especially after recent events, she had to give him something, shake him from this inaction. She'd been watching him in the tower, and he'd been psyching himself up to make the first move... had he done that, he'd likely have joined in by now already. But Nemesis had charged in - and Ranma had watched her get almost splashed across the ground. Not the best thing to see happen to a magically near-invulnerable woman, and consider what would happen to you as a very mortal - albeit very strong - man.
What to give him? That was easy. She closed her eyes, stood up on tiptoes, and kissed his lips. Briefly, she couldn't afford to allow herself to feel too happy doing this, but it lasted long enough for Ranma's hands to find their way to her shoulders. Then she broke apart, looked away. "Sempai... you know why I can't be more... open with you at the moment. But... we need your help." And then, before his hands could bring her back, she leapt from the hole in the wall out once more into the fight.
Ranma paused a moment, feeling butterflies in his stomach, as he looked down at the road. Usually... in Nerima... if he'd faced anything like this, he'd have run. Maybe trained until he could beat it, but he'd have ran all the same. But now? Now there were some six to eight million people in the region, all possibly about to be killed. Ranma couldn't stop the monster himself. But maybe if he helped the others...
Another powerspike that evaporated, melted and charred over a thousand people to death made his mind up. Ranma climbed out of the building, leapt for the one opposite, then bounced back, working his way up to where the monster was.
******
Nemesis stood shakily on a building opposite from the monster, gathering energy, gathering strength, biding time. While the others danced around and fired off spectacularly useless attacks, Nemesis focussed on bringing strength from all over herself, drawing it into her chest, ready for release. And she kept building.
Kari didn't like losing. Kari hated even more being hit. This monster was going to pay.
Nemesis kept drawing on herself.
******
Yue and Kerberos fired arrow and flame at the beast, but nothing stopped it. At best, the assembled forces had slowed it considerably, by creating a massive distraction. Since the first senshi had leapt from the tower, it had moved only two footsteps closer to the tower, it's obvious target.
They paused, watching as a young black-haired man burst from the base of the building it stood on, firing energy blasts at it. They did nothing but make it a bit angrier than it had been, and it fired another powerspike down at the ground in the man's general direction.
He dodged to one side, bouncing back to the building opposite, continuing to work his way up to the level everyone else was on. As he touched on a wall, he sprang off again, at the same time firing off an energy blast or two. The constant rain of energy irritated the beast, and it turned again, sending a powerspike at the point where the young man was next to bounce from. It missed him, but he lost his footing, and tumbled, and before he could grab something, begin his climb up again, the beast fired another blast into the building, and it started to collapse.
The man saw this, and tried to dodge, but didn't have time. Several large chunks of concrete seemingly exploded before they reached him, and Yue's and Kerkeros' magical senses let them keep up with his movements, as fast as they were, but then more and more chunks fell, each larger than the one previous, and the dust that fell with the chunks, as well as the dust the chucks got blasted into, began blocking the young man's vision. When the real big pieces started hitting him, he couldn't prepare for them, only react once they'd passed. And they were dragging him down.
The dust cleared for a moment, and Yue watched a huge chunk smash the young man in the back of the head. He fell, then, limp, unconscious. Just before the huge pile of rocks covered him up, possibly for good, Yue caught sight of something leaping at him, female, a touch of black in her costume.
And then the final rocks fell, and Yue saw them no more.
While Kerberos would have liked to have saved them... Yue didn't tell him they could possibly still be alive. That would distract the other Guardian Beast from his duty - to save everyone else in Tokyo - and could have disastrous results. So, Yue kept silent, and returned his attention to the beast at hand.
******
In the netherworld sewers, Yoshihiro smiled at Umiko as he heard the report. "Yamazaki says the martial artist Ranma is down."
"That's certainly good news," Umiko smirked as she cleaned her cheeks with the back of her hands. "Can your plans proceed again, then?"
"Yes," Yoshihiro mused. "Of course, it's not that he's a threat now. Soon, maybe. But not now." He paused, looked into the portal in his mind that Yamazaki was transmitting. "Not now. But I look forward to the challenge. For now, let's just watch Raijin cause some much-needed panic on his way to do my bidding."
Umiko grunted, and continued cleaning herself.
******
And in the dark, stuffy darkness, Ranma Saotome slept...
TO BE CONTINUED...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Bah. Too long to write. But done now. And twice the length of what I took up writing when I started Truth... I did used to write much longer fics, but I found 25k to be about good for a semi-episodic feel that I could get out fairly regularly. Well, this is about 45k or so, and took some thinking as to how to sustain the story while extending the length of it and the like. Most chapters will likely be this long now, maybe the occasional filler a bit shorter, and thus, the series will also shorten considerably in terms of chapters - this would have ben 2, normally, the next 2, and a couple of the ones after this... also 2 or 3. As I was planning for the same 20-22 chapters I did for Truth, and this is technically 13/14... well, that brings it closer as I tighten the story up. Ah well. so that's explained. Anyone who reads my other fics, fear not: X-Com chapter 5 is progressing with a terror site in London, and Love Song of Tomorrow (SaiKano/Eva combination) chapter 3... is on the horizon somewhere ^^; But that's coming, too. Anyways, it's late, I'm heading to bed.
Next chapter: ... Or We Fall Together. Ranma awakens, piled under a couple of thousand tonnes of building, with only a badly positioned senshi above him to keep everything up. The monster Raijin's plan is revealed - will anyone be alive in Tokyo to appreciate it, though? And a few more cameos that there weren't time for in this chapter...
Note: Thanks go to Pana for assistance with finding information on military vehicles and weapons for the opening sequence this chapter, as well as out-and-out giving me information :)
LOVE
By
Raymond Cooper
Chapter 13
** We Stand Together... **
There was no doubt about it. The creature that exited the bay at Minato was massive, and it was hell-bent on destruction.
The giant heaved itself up out of the water in the docks district, and headed inland on a north-north-west bearing. Directly for the centre of Tokyo city proper, where it could cause untold billions of yen in damage. People were lucky in that the first few buildings that the giant stepped through were uninhabited, derelict, slated for demolition. The very few homeless who had taken up residence there, and the occaisonal child skipping school, had plenty of time to vacate the premises.
The next few, the inhabitants weren't so lucky. Giant monsters had long been thought abolished from Tokyo, and many people had simply forgotten how to deal with the addition of a new one to the city's population. In the late 50's and 60's, monsters had run rampant through these very streets, but most had been made extinct or relegated to theme parks like Monster Island off Hokkaido. Quick government checks had shown the forces that once could be gathered to fight creatures such as Gojira, Rodan or Mothra had suffered attrition to the point these forces were too deteriorated to fight even a baby Gojira.
Which, obviously, wasn't good.
Thankfully, the United States' 7th Fleet was stationed in Yokohama, and while the ships were undergoing a minor refit at the time, the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk was clear of obstructions, and the flight crews on hand. With less than twenty kilometres to the target, flight time was negligable and the F/A-18's were lining up their target almost as soon as they were airbourne. Multiple racks of AGM-65 Mavericks were launched, and quickly acquired their target: the monster rampaging as yet through the uninhabited docks region.
Those who were still running and evacuating as the mighty giant smashed feet down around them, striding inland, saw and heard the missiles streak in for a scant second before they impacted and erupted into gouts of flame and smoke. Several missiles shot past and hit nearby buildings - which, thankfully, were empty.
Those running from the area paused, turning and looking up as flaming wreckage fell from the skies onto the streets below. They raised arms and cheered, and the city was saved.
Until the smoke cleared, and the giant monster still stood.
In fact, it looked a little angry.
Although the Super Hornets were still a number of kilometres away, and turning back for a second shot, the monster turned, faced them, then opened it's cavernous jaws. A blast of intense radiation exploded outwards along a coherant path, which detonated the first plane, then was swung around, tracking the other jets before they could fire again. Within a matter of seconds, the US aircraft were gone, melted and exploded from existance.
Then, the creature turned again, and continued it's remorseless gait towards the centre of Tokyo, the only visible damage made by the jets' barrage of explosives a light column of smoke billowing from its back in the wind.
******
It was on a nearby building that the government observers reported the airstrikes had done no damage whatsoever. And in dim government emergency offices, officials discussed furiously what was next on the list.
"We could always use a small tactical nuclear weapon," one man offered slowly and hesitatingly.
There was shocked silence in the room, and horrified glares directed at the man. "What you suggest is unthinkable," the Prime Minister said, finally. "Nuclear weapons are not an option in an inhabited region."
"It should be considered as a last resort effort. We cannot allow this creature to leave Tokyo," the junior official continued.
"No. Japan has... other defenders." The Prime Minister leaned forward, steepling his fingers together. "I only hope they can reach us in time."
******
Some such defenders stood overlooking the monster themselves. Ranma. Sailor Moon. Sailor Mercury. Sailor Venus. Sailor Mars. Sailor Jupiter. Sailor Saturn, at the back. All on a rooftop, overlooking the monster and the government team now evacuating their position as the monster turned their way and moved closer. Ranma saw they wouldn't make it out of the building before the creature was upon them, and turned back to the senshi. "Can any of you's fly?"
A lot of head shaking went on. "Damn," Ranma said, then punched out the window and leapt, springing out laterally to reach the other building's rooftop. He didn't see the senshi behind him exchange glances, then spring after him, but he could feel their presences as they followed. He'd have smiled, but the roof was coming up fast, and he had too much speed to make a decent landing.
So he went for a controlled crash, rolled off his feet onto his shoulders, and continued rolling until he'd bled off some speed. Not being a magical person such as the senshi were, he had to rely on such old-fashioned techniques to stop. As he got to his feet, ignoring the pain as grazed skin pulled shut again, he noted that the senshi, while they might not be able to fly, certainly had some kind of powers of levitation, as they all landed gracefully. But he had no time to curse the fact he'd broken his own henshin wand, and instead threw open the door to the stairwell, jumping down flights at a time until he had caught up to the government agents hurrying down the stairs ahead of him. He grabbed one, threw open the door at the next landing, and shouted "Follow me!" before exiting through it and looking for a window facing an adjoining building not in the path of the oncoming monster. Damn. There were windows, but the next building was at least ten floors lower. Not so bad for him, but perhaps it would be serious for whomever he was carrying.
He looked back, and realised the senshi were there, pairing off with other agents, ready to grab them as soon as Ranma grabbed his and showed them where to go: they'd picked up on his plan quickly, obviously, and suddenly there was a sound fro the stairwell of something huge coming through the wall at speed and then there was no time and Ranma grabbed his agent and went through the window watching the next rooftop coming up fast.
An idea hit him halfway down, part of his memory, and he oriented himself so his feet were facing the oncoming rooftop before blasting out with his ki through his feet. Not quite useful for flight, Ranma remembered, and not any use in this manner for speed - but it would make landing much more comfortable. His feet touched down a moment or two after the senshi had landed, and he put the agents down. "Go, get outta here," he said, waving his arms. "We gotta think."
Not Ranma's best attribute, but perhaps the senshi had seen something like this before, faced some giant rampaging monster -
No. No, else he'd likely have heard of it. The only giant monsters Ranma could think of were the huge animals of Ryugenzawa he'd seen. A glance at the senshi showed him he thought right: most of the monsters they'd fought over the years had been human-sized, and a monster-sized creature with the abilities and strength this monster was displaying was obviously something they hadn't encountered before.
Oh, there were the rumours from a few years before that a giant phoenix and dragon had battled it out in the CBD and that the defence forces had been called in, but as there had been no evidence of such an intrusion into the captial, it was assumed it was just massed hysteria.
The monster continued through the building the senshi and Ranma had just leapt from, and all on the rooftop had to take cover from the exploding walls above. Cement chunks rained down, but more dangerous were the metal structural supports that protruded from the boulder-sized chunks of material. Ranma could take the hits, as could the women there, but not the government agents.
Turning, Ranma gathered his agent, and leapt again for the next building, smashing in through a window a few floors down and managing once again to keep his passenger in one piece. Senshi followed behind him and through other windows. By now, the monster was moving onward, not paying them any attention, and Ranma gathered his students and left quickly as the agents struggled to catch up with the last twenty seconds.
******
Outside again, closer in towards the city's taller buildings, Ranma felt useless. He hadn't yet tried a frontal assault - and likely wouldn't, he knew. He'd fought one giant monster before, and knew how useless physical strength could be, much and all as he hated to admit it. The senshi were more capable at fighting this kind of adversary, and Ranma had noticed Sailor Mercury was already reviewing plans of attack and discarding them almost as immediately as they flashed up on her visor.
Oh well, it was worth a shot. "Mercury, have you figured out how ta beat this thing yet?"
Sailor Moon, a moment too late, tried, "Sailor Mercury, have you... damn." Too late. But rather than complain Ranma had asked what should have been her question, she turned from the young man to face her friend.
Mercury shook her head. "I haven't yet been able to get a good reading on it - it's energy is all over the place!"
"Anything you've figured out about it?" Sailor Moon shot in before Ranma could. She was rewarded with a slightly angry glare from him as they crested yet another roof's lip.
"According to records from the Moon Kingdom, based on the energy output of the Dark Kingdom, this creature is dwarfing existing figures dramatically!"
"What?" Ranma asked.
Nemesis translated. "It's stronger than anything we've faced before."
"Stronger than the combined fleets and armies of the Moon Kingdom," Mars added.
"We're dooooomed," Sailor Moon wailed.
Ranma's head snapped up and around, and he directed the course of transit towards Tokyo Tower. "We're not doomed yet," he said, with a bit of a smirk.
******
The view from the tower was staggering, and Tsubasa was too afraid to step right up to the window on the viewing level. Hikaru, though, her twin, was pressed right up against the glass, peering downwards. "DD! I can see your car from here!"
"Hikaru! Come back from the window!" Tsubasa wasn't that sure about approaching the glass, considering what she could see approaching from the bay area. It had started out so far away, but it was close now and it looked massive, and was approaching much faster than Tsubasa would have enjoyed.
The ten year old at the glass pouted. "But I've never been to Tokyo before! And... and I probably won't come back here again... so I want to see things!"
"Hikaru, perhaps it would be best if you stepped back from the window," A man with light blue hair said in a tone that brooked no argument. Hikaru pouted more, but stepped back to hold hands with Tsubasa.
"DD, you're no fun..."
The rest of the observation deck had been evacuated a few minutes earlier, but DD, Tsubasa and Hikaru had stayed behind, hidden from the hurried checks by staff for stragglers. Tsubasa's father had left with the evacuated groups, and would no doubt be nervous now and worried for the safety of his daughter and Hikaru, his other 'daughter'. To be honest, Tsubasa was worried about him, too, but Hikaru and DD had held her hand and told her she could best help him by helping everyone else.
She thought that was kind of true, from a certain point of view, but her courage, while enough to help Hikaru fight Magi spawn, wasn't up to the task of the oncoming monster that appeared to be headed directly for the tower, and she was starting to panic.
The elevator doors swished open, and Tsubasa turned, half-hoping that the tower's staff had returned to double-check they had left no one behind, but no. It was a young man and some women, and while the man was dressed in some stylised Chinese outfit, the women were dressed in some really weird kind of stylised... Tsubasa didn't know. Almost like a school uniform, but much more stylised. Hikaru, of course, was excited to see more people, who's attention, in turn, was concentrated on the behemoth.
Tsubasa didn't really want to look at the creature, but there wasn't much of a choice - there was something about it that kept drawing one's gaze to the thing, an almost magnetic pull. Huge, it was, scaled, bipedal with a forward leaning stance. It looked like a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex Tsubasa had seen in books. It was much larger, though, and the head was larger, boxier, the mouth large enough to swallow a dump truck or two without needing to chew. And still it came.
Hikaru was saying something to the new arrivals when the elevator pinged again. A pair of young women stepped out, one dressed in a black-and-white diamond-patterned jester's outfit with a staff, the other with a digital camera, looking this way and that. Tsubasa almost missed the yellow stuffed animal sitting on the jester's shoulder, until it shifted back and glanced at her, frowning. Behind them walked an angel, sniffing with some distain as he took in the people present on the observation deck. Scowling even more, and blushing fit to burst, was a young man behind them, face buried in his ceremonial robes whenever he thought he didn't need to look where he was going. As soon as he cleared the elevator doors, they shut with a ding, and dropped back down towards ground level: someone else had called for it.
Tsubasa didn't understand why all these people were turning up on a conscious level. But subconsciously, she knew they'd been drawn here for the same reasons she had: drawn to power, drawn to help. There was something about this place that brought people here, a reason for this gathering of power. But not knowing it consciously, it wasn't something Tsubasa could think about. And even if she had realised this, she simply wouldn't know the answer. These monsters were nothing like the Magi she had fought.
They frightened her. They were immensely strong, super fast, and were proving to be a global danger in the extreme as they took hold on their new "adopted" planet. But what scared Tsubasa about this oncoming monster... it was bigger, yes. It was slower, though. And possibly a lot weaker, she didn't know. She knew next to nothing about it, and she wouldn't have access to any of the "hard" data Hikaru had on it until they joined... but Tsubasa knew.
Hikaru was afraid. She could see that now. The twin peered at everything with an excited expression... but lurking behind that was doubt. A gathering of power, she openly realised now, as she watched the teddy bear turn into a winged lion with a slightly whining, pouting voice as he complained of hunger. And yet, Hikaru still acted... afraid. As she would right before grabbing Tsubasa and telling Tsubasa to concentrate, to let Hikaru protect her...
The scowling young man with black hair and a long ponytail glared out of a window. The women behind him muttered amongst themselves, more visibly worried than he, glancing out occasionally, also sweeping the odd eye over the growing crowd on the observation level of the tower.
"It's so undignified, riding to save the world in an elevator," a blond with twin pigtails streaming back from her head muttered to her friends.
Another, in red, sighed. "If you'd only turned into Neo Serenity back at the hospital, none of this would have happened."
"Don't be so sure of that," one dressed in green added. "We're not pushovers, and what Ranma lacks in strength, he makes up for in skill... and he's frightened of the guy."
"He's not frightened," a girl, shorter than the rest and standing slightly separated from her companions, interjected into the conversation. "He's worried. There's a big difference."
"That being?" asked the one in green.
"That he thinks it's unwise... to face Yoshihiro right now, as compared to not facing him at all."
"Well, he's not a coward," a girl in blue with a visor murmured.
"Hmph," a black-clad member of the group shook her head and turned away, preparing to down a pair of pills. As she tipped her head back, the man reached out and stopped her. She looked embarrassed, tried to continue on to swallow her pills, but he stopped her again. "Hey, Ranma, you know, uh, how I get without -"
"I do." Ranma, the man, nodded out the window at the monster. Tsubasa noted it was much closer now. "And I know how dulled your movements get, how much weaker you become. Can you hold it together long enough to...?"
She wouldn't meet his eyes. Tsubasa guessed soemthing bad had happened between the two of them relating to these pills. Of course, this was Tokyo, and there was every chance that this woman was a drug addict... even superheroes had to have bad qualities, Tsubasa guessed. "You know I can hold it together for a while without them, Ranma. It's just hard -" She broke off and looked away from her feet, accidentaly straight into Tsubasa's eyes. She searched them for something, the force of her personality, her pain and anguish, held the older woman in place.
She apparently found it, because she drew herself up, looked into Ranma's eyes. "It's just very hard... to go back on them when I've been off... when I'm quiet for so long... when I don't, when... when I don't see and hear things... I think I'm cured. I have, before, and I've stopped taking my medication, and that's how... that's how..." Her voice faltered, and she looked away again. The girls behind her had continued talking, but the short one in purple had taken a sad interest in what was going on with Ranma and the older woman, and was almost nodding to herself. "Get me... to take them right after, okay?"
That was all Ranma wanted to hear. He touched her elbow as he passed back towards the window, and she stiffened, like shocked with an electric charge before placing her pills back into a pocket Tsubasa couldn't see. She turned around then, left her gorup, and headed for Tsubasa.
When she reached Tsubasa, the older women squatted down in front of her, to look into her eyes. They were very pleasant, Tsubasa found. A warm, rich purple, in a face framed by long violet hair. She didn't look angry, or frightening, or embarrassed, or concerned now, just curious. "So... what are you doing here?" she asked. "It's not exactly the place for little girls at the moment."
Tsubasa pointed at Hikaru, who was gazing up in adoration at one of the woman's friends. "I'm with... her. And him," she added, pointing at DD, who was entertaining the winged lion for the moment.
"It's not safe here, you know," the older woman continued.
"I know," Tsubasa nodded.
"Shouldn't you and your family get to safety?"
"Isn't this the safest place in Tokyo at the moment?"
The woman grinned a little on the wry side. "That it could be." She glanced over her shoulder and said, "Not now," before turning back to Tsubasa. "But you should get your family to evacuate, all the same."
"Oh, they're not my family."
"But -" The woman turned to look at Hikaru. "She's your twin. Isn't she?"
"Kind of." Tsubasa noted Hikaru was bouncing back across the floor towards them, holding out a hand for her friend to grab.
"It's time, Tsubasa-chan!" she called out as she arrived, smiling happily at the older woman talking to Tsubasa. Tsubasa took her outstretched hand, and dissolved in a green glow, resolving into a woman the height of the senshi before her, coloured in muted purples and greys. She nodded at the senshi, and stepped towards DD.
******
"Great," Nemesis muttered to herself as the twins combined into an adult, obviously super-powered, form. "Can I be nice to anyone today without having it thrown in my face?"
"You know," Kozuma breathed, leaning from behind her, in close over her shoulder, "you didn't have to be nice to Ranma."
Nemesis turned away from him. "You know I need my medication. It's not good for me - ME! - to be off it."
"You've been off it for a while before, what's the difference now?"
She shrugged, kept her gaze away from him. "My head - my mind - is mine. And when I'm not taking my medication, it becomes someone else's."
"Like Kari's."
Now Nemesis shuddered, wrapped her hands around her shoulders trying to hide herself. "Don't even mention her. She's... she's not nice."
"In a lot of ways, she's better than Mitsuki ever was. Poor little Mitsuki. Did she think she's the only person to have lost a parent?" Kozuma smirked; Nemesis could hear it in his voice. His breathing raised fine hair across her shoulders. Kozuma, the seducer. She knew what he wanted - the control he directed - and the chaos he would create. And he knew how to make her lose control. Losing control didn't bode well for those in her immediate location. Usually.
"Yeah. Perhaps now would be a good time to lose control...?" he asked, a hand stroking around the side of her stomach, fondling her navel. She pulled away, moved further from the groups of heroes still assembling in the main elevator lounge. Kozuma followed her, hands running electric chills up and down her spine. A door closed behind him, and his hand gripped her firmly, pressing her up against the wall, lips on her collarbone. "Poor child... so very sad what happened to Megumi... are you sure he's all right? What about the kid? Poor little kid... it's always the young ones who get hurt..."
"Shut up!" Nemesis whispered fiercely, through tears that had appeared from nowhere.
"That poor girl. Thirteen, and still not in high school. She'll soon become... well, you know... one of THOSE people, down in the docks district..." Kozuma's voice trailed on, the tone seductively sweet, contrasting the content of his words. His seductions were intended for others; his stabbing, biting words were intended only for her.
"Shut uuuup!" But the tone was more plaintive now, Nemesis was weakening. She could feel it. She'd waited too long to take her medication today, and the enhanced hormones that swept through her as a senshi pushed all control provided by them away. She was being led down a very dark road. She could feel it, feel the others crowding her. Glancing up, she saw them. Some concerned, like Shin-chan and Tetsuya-kun. Others indifferent - Maho, Omiko, Shuuji, Ami. And those eager for her to slip up, to leave the motor running, as it were - Taki, Moyo, Suu-chan, Kusanagi-kun. And Kari. Nemesis couldn't forget Kari, with her burning eyes, and hateful distain of everything Mitsuki Matsuda. She stood at the rear of the group, arms folded, shooting daggers of flaming bile from her eyes. Kozuma was behind her again, hands stroking at her hips, at her breasts, along an arm, drawing it out further ad further from her body. Nemesis tried to draw it in again, cover herself, push Kozuma away.
And found her hands no longer obeyed her command.
She sobbed. "What is it with you all?" she cried as she sank through Kozuma's arms to the floor. "Why do you hate me so? Aren't you here to protect me?"
Kari pushed through the crowd, bent down to peer directly into Nemesis' eyes. Her eyes were a slightly darker shade of purple than Nemesis', and promised much fun, much danger. Much destruction. "But Mitsuki, dear," she cooed, falsely pouring light and compassion into the words, "we ARE here to protect you. You're a danger to yourself. You're a problem. We," she gestured back at the others, "are much more worthy of running your life. We, not you, have gotten you where you are today. You... you ran away. You made us to face life for you... and now you don't want us? Tsk tsk, little one, life isn't that easy."
"We outnumber you," Kozuma added.
"She's the original," Shin mentioned from the background. "We're just figments. Incorrect brain chemistry. Shattered fragments of a persona smashed when her mother died." She shook her head. "We're nothing special. We're not deserving. We are all her."
"Lies. Lies and deception. But what would we expect from you?" Kari rounded on Shin, the only person with glasses in the room, and neatly-tied back violet hair. "Intelligence. The aspect least able to make decisions. Because intelligence alone has no emotive worth, no capabilities to problem-solve, no method of attaching importance to data. You're just a walking memory."
Tetsuya stepped forward, to stand between Kari and Shin. "Leave her alone. You wanna pick on someone, Kari, you try me."
"Oh, I don't fall for protectiveness, Tetsuya," Kari smirked. "That's useless, too. I'm the most important, most relevant aspect to our lives here - aggression. Without me, we'd have all died prematurely. I'm raw, I'm naked, I take what I want and I care little about what gets in our way..."
"And yet you won't touch me?"
"Protectiveness... the will to shield others from harm... it's a useless concept, and beneath my notice." Kari turned back to Nemesis, who was now huddled on the floor. Then glanced at the door - footsteps! Someone was coming. She glared up at Kozuma again, who bent down and whispered in Nemesis' ear.
******
Ranma opened the door to the storage area, and found Nemesis dusting off her skirt, standing around peevishly. She glared up at him, and he saw something flit across her face - something he wouldn't identify. She walked up to him, trailed a hand across his chest as she passed. "Is it time yet?" she asked.
"Uh... yeah. It's only two blocks away now."
"Cool." Nemesis continued past, and rejoined the senshi.
Ranma shook his head. That wasn't lust in her eyes. Couldn't be. They'd dated - once; well, double-dated, really - but that didn't mean anything from Ranma, and she had cooled off a lot. But he thought he'd hear talking, or sobbing from this room, and nothing. No one else was in there. Everyone who was coming seemed to be assembled, although he was surprised this 'Tuxedo Kamen' character Sailor Moon was waiting for apparently hadn't showed up yet, and so it looked like time to get underway. He closed the door, and walked back towards the senshi. The feeling was in the air already; it was just a matter of who was going to make the first move.
No one wanted to leave the perceived safety of the tower, though, and so Ranma guessed he, the one with NO super powers, would be the first to launch an attack...
******
Sailor Moon glanced at Nemesis as she rejoined them at the window and smiled. The older senshi looked set for action, which was good in a way. Neptune and Uranus hadn't shown up, neither had Tuxedo Kamen, and Sailor Moon was worried. Something didn't look quite right with Nemesis, though. Her hair looked ruffled, but that wasn't it. Nemesis glanced sideways at Sailor Moon and smirked.
"Let's get this show on the road," she said.
It was the eyes, Sailor Moon realised. Sailor Nemesis' eyes were wrong.
And then she jumped through the plate-glass window and all hell broke loose.
******
The monster saw the tower. Its target. Close now, so close. It heaved itself forward, stepping agily around a small multi-storied building as it continued forward. But that was slow, so the creature reached out, grasped the lip of the building in front of it, and hauled itself up.
******
A helicopter for Japan Today swung around one of the taller buildings in the city's heart as the monster steadied itself on the top of the building. Surprisingly, the ediface didn't collapse; it crumbled, but held firm for the moment. The cameraman, Kenji Morioka, leaned out of the door with his camera, the active light a steady red light above the lens. A pair of loosened straps held him in while beside him, the reporter who he'd been assigned to stood at the open door, no safety straps holding her in as she clutched a microphone in one hand, a roofstrap in the other.
Jun Yamamoto shouted into her microphone to be heard over the incessant beat of the rotors above her. "Climbed to the top of the Koga building, but still heading for Tokyo Tower... the American carrier fleet at Yokohama has failed to injure the monster and has taken heavy losses. Estimated casualties at the moment are in the hundreds, with more found wounded or dead in the monster's path every minute now it has reached a crowded region of the city."
Morioka panned the camera down to take in the streets of fleeing people, pushing past one another without regard for any other's safety. A car beeped its horn before blasting into the street, knocking people down in the driver's mad rush to flee before the monster could turn their way. When he panned back up, he saw they were much closer to the monster now, coming in from the rear. Yamamoto was continuing to yell about the fleeing population, how hundreds of thousands were still being evacuated from the area, as the creature brought its tail around and smashed through another building.
The helicopter lurched as shrapnel peppered the outer skin of the vehicle, and although both in the passenger compartment were reasonably unaffected, the pilot wasn't so lucky. He slumped dead over his controls, and the chopper tilted downwards, headed for another building. Morioka caught sight of something spilling from a shattered window in the tower, but the falling craft disappeared too quickly behind a building before he could make out what it was.
"We're going to die!" Yamamoto screeched into the microphone, knocked off her feet and slamming into the front of the passenger bay. Morioka was only thrown to the limits of his straps, which he tightened in the off-chance he survived the initial impact. A moment later, and he swore he could see a dozen roses shot past the door, heading under the helicopter, and a scant instant after that, the helicopter stopped falling.
In fact, it started bouncing.
A shadow at the door made Morioka turn: a man in a tuxedo with an old-fashioned top hat and cane stood there, a mask pulled across his eyes. "Fear not, for you are not yet dead. But evacuate this area, as it won't be safe for much longer." Morioka nodded, but the man was already gone, leaping off with a whiff of rose-scent in the air.
Yamamoto moaned, what looked like a broken arm dangling at an angle completely wrong back into the pilot's cabin, and spoke into her microphone. "Jun Yamamoto, Japan Today, signing off."
******
Nemesis didn't see the helicopter go down, nor did she really care, but she was the cause of it.
Bursting from the tower, she had pushed off with enough force to produce a mini-sonic boom behind her, and she smashed into the monster with both arms outstretched, elbows slightly bent so they would give rather than snap on contact, and she sank deep into the beast's hide.
Yet it wasn't enough. She didn't penetrate the deeply-lined flesh with the force of the blow, it was only enough to annoy it: a bruise formed even as the beast roared, waved its head, and then slammed its tail around in anger. A building shattered, sending more debris down on the fleeing people in the streets below, but Nemesis didn't care much about that, either. She bounced back from the creature's hide, landed on a nearby rooftop, and flung up her hands. "Nemesis Arctic Fire!" The energy that spilled from her palms coruscated over the creature, and it roared again in pain and annoyance, and this time swung it's head around so it could fix one baleful eye on the senshi. She stared back, hate and bile filling the space between them. It opened it's mouth to growl -
- and blasted Nemesis with a powerspike she couldn't avoid. She smashed through three buildings behind her, hit the fourth, and slid slowly to the ground.
Ranma took charge of the senshi's efforts for the moment, as the shock of Nemesis' actions cleared. "Sailor Saturn! Go help Nemesis. Sailor Moon, get your... your troops and follow me." Ranma leapt from the tower for battle, and Sailor Moon wrapped her fingers tighter around her scepter and followed. The senshi followed behind without a word.
As if the senshi were rats leaving a sinking ship, the others assembled joined in the exodus, making for the battle to save Tokyo.
Events around the creature became mildly chaotic, as attacks flared past allies to strike at the beast, and the beast struck and bit back.
Every so often, there would come a lull in the noise as one side or the other rested momentarily to reassess the situation. The look the beast got into its eyes told Ranma there was something more going on here than a random, mindless monster - the fact this one was unknown to anyone suggested a lot to him, and it wasn't just a normal monster... Sailor Mercury ahd said its energy was definitely Dark Kingdom and was greater than any monster faced before... stronger than the Dark Kingdom had been during the time of the Moon Kingdom. So, was this a small monster Yoshihiro had found somewhere and altered?
In one of those lulls, Ranma remembered something. It hit him like a bolt of lightning between the eyes.
******
The skeleton. Around for a while, stronger than the monsters previous. Tohkar had also been stronger than the dragon they'd faced. Mercury had theorised that the longer a monster from this brood had existed, the more powerful it became. Natsumi had been insanely strong. And Yoshihiro... Ranma didn't even want to go there.
******
So this monster... was one of the originals. Tohkar had slowly been losing the power of speech, and this monster apparently had none, so was that a trend in Yoshihiro's kin? Did they get stupider as they grew older? Perhaps. It didn't seem to need to announce its attacks - definitely an advantage over most of the people assembled here to fight, Ranma thought dryly to himself.
"Big Card! Make me as strong as this monster! BIG!"
Movement captured Ranma's eye, and he watched a young girl dressed as a jester grow to the size of the monster. She was armed with a staff of some kind, and swung it around into the beast's jaw. It staggered backwards with the force of the impact, which also shattered nearby windows, creating a cascade of glittering glass shards that dropped onto the fleeing people in the streets, and as the beast moved back to strike again, she swung the staff the other way, smashing into the monster's chest. That threw it to the other side, but it caught on a building, grabbed that, and used it to swing around, stiffening its tail behind it.
The tail smacked into the girl, and she was thrown backwards into a building of her own, where she disappeared from sight again. Not good. Probably the most concentrated magical force since... well, since the Gods created Japan... and it was incapable of stopping a single monster.
The beast stood up, threw back its head, and roared. More windows shattered, hands were clapped to ears, and nearby eardrums burst. Ranma found himself momentarily deafened, but instead watched Mercury and Venus shout attacks, and launch chains and ice at the beast's leg, obviously trying to tie him down. Didn't work. The monster lifted its leg and took part of the street with it. Bending its head again, it launched another oral powerspike. Mercury and Venus dodged, but not by much, and the shockwave from the blast picked them up and threw them like ragdolls. It roared again as the senshi bounced off the street and rolled into a brick wall before turning its attention on a purple and grey woman who danced about it, attempting to stab into it.
No luck. A vicious backhand from the creature sent the woman into the ground. Ranma thought he caught a green glow for a moment, but turned his attention to Saturn, visible two blocks away, working on Nemesis. The older woman was sitting upright again, at least, holding her head. Ranma didn't quite know what had happened with her, but hoped it wasn't related to him asking her to stop her medication for the moment. He feared it was, though, and so shifted his gaze back to Sailor Moon, swinging her crescent wand around, but the healing lights did nothing but irritate the monster. It stamped a foot near her, and she panicked, running.
A man in a black tuxedo and top hat danced around behind and above her, tossing razor-sharp roses at the monster to cover her retreat. Tuxedo Kamen, Ranma guessed.
So what now? The fight was falling apart. Ranma wasn't the kind of person who could lead... his students, yes, but that was different. He was incapable of directing a large-scale offensive, of the kind that was needed here, especially without knowing what everyone was capable of. Knowing that someone could be made big would have been a help, at least.
He watched, proud as a teacher, as Mars combined her more violent powered attacks with combination kicks and punches he'd shown her in the last few days. Nothing like battle experience to finetune them; concentrating her magical energies at the same time she focussed her physical abilities was increasing the power of both, something Ranma had been hoping. Jupiter was also doing the same, picking up from Mars as they fought, each trying to cover the holes one would leave in their defence as they made an assault. He thought it strange that, as yet, the senshi had really only relied on magical prowess... while Jupiter and Mars had been somewhat competant fighters for average people, he'd have expected them all to be some kind of super-human martial artists... but they hadn't been. Up until his training, in physical combat, apart from Jupiter and Mars, and lately Nemesis, they were useless.
But it wasn't enough. His strength wasn't enough to bring any kind of hurt to this monster, and Ranma knew that, but the forces of good were still being forced back, towards the tower. Instead of fighting, he bounced around, helping people get clear, trying to take out some of the big debris before it could kill innocents on the ground, checking on the combatants and making sure none were severely injured.
The beast stretched and roared again, and lightning blasted down from a clear blue sky, striking the beast's back and coruscating down in a cascade of blinding bluish-white light. Ranma cursed and averted his eyes, bringing an arm up to cover them when that proved not enough -
- and was slammed into a wall.
Fearing the beast had caught him, he brought his fists up to strike back at faster-than-sound speeds, but then he realised this monster had breasts and a hot breath that almost seared his cheek as it panted on him. "Sempai! Stay out of the way! You nearly got killed!"
"H... Saturn?"
"Yes, sempai." Ranma's vision hadn't returned properly, but he could see blurs moving about, and the black-haired blur in front of him turned around, looking out through the wall, embarrassed but not pulling back from being wrapped around him just yet. "The lightning... it blinded almost everyone out there. And it did that fire-breath thing at you. Nemesis was really badly hurt, but she's okay now... so she says... and I saw that thing go to hit you."
"Why? Why me? I'm not strong enough to fight that thing, let alone hurt it..."
"This doesn't sound like you, sempai... what's wrong?"
Ranma shook his head. "I've grown up a lot, Sailor Saturn, and part of that growing up... I'll fight. And I'll fight ta win. I don't think we CAN win at the moment, but somethin'll show up, somethin'll happen. But for now, I wanna try and get these people out of the way. I... when you were bad, I watched you revel in destroying a school with people trapped inside... an' they're people who were used to the big fights between me and Kuno, Ryoga, Shampoo, Akane..." He sighed, unconsciously, before continuing. "But these are just normal people, and can't take what we take. And..."
"Have you thought, maybe, that you could help them better by trying to stop this monster now?" Saturn asked, slowly. She peeled herself off his body, stepped back to give them each a little room. "That stopping it now, or holding it up from moving any further, would save a lot more people?" There was a roar outside, and the increased heat from a powerspike nearby. Ranma, through the hole in the wall, watched magical fires blast the street below. There wasn't even time for the evacuating people to scream out in pain, let alone horror. Saturn turned to face the scene as well. It wasn't pretty.
"Saturn..." Ranma's eyes never left the road below, letting the horror of it sink in completely. "No. I can't let that happen. I think..." He fell silent.
But Saturn could guess. He'd almost been wiped out trying to fight a single monster once before, and since then, apart from fighting her in Nerima, he hadn't had a good, decent workout and was beginning to doubt he had what it takes anymore. Especially when in terms of magical powers and strength, these monsters were stronger than him. But that bravery was one of the things she loved about him so much... that he would willingly throw himself into the fray for those he cared about. He'd done it for her, for Nemesis, even apparently for that ex-fiance of his on a number of occasions. While he still seemed self-centred, and Saturn thought he would always seem that way to people, he helped out a lot, helped others a lot, just made it look like he was doing it for himself.
But sometimes he needed a boost.
And while Saturn didn't feel terribly good about being this close to her... well, to her boyfriend, especially after recent events, she had to give him something, shake him from this inaction. She'd been watching him in the tower, and he'd been psyching himself up to make the first move... had he done that, he'd likely have joined in by now already. But Nemesis had charged in - and Ranma had watched her get almost splashed across the ground. Not the best thing to see happen to a magically near-invulnerable woman, and consider what would happen to you as a very mortal - albeit very strong - man.
What to give him? That was easy. She closed her eyes, stood up on tiptoes, and kissed his lips. Briefly, she couldn't afford to allow herself to feel too happy doing this, but it lasted long enough for Ranma's hands to find their way to her shoulders. Then she broke apart, looked away. "Sempai... you know why I can't be more... open with you at the moment. But... we need your help." And then, before his hands could bring her back, she leapt from the hole in the wall out once more into the fight.
Ranma paused a moment, feeling butterflies in his stomach, as he looked down at the road. Usually... in Nerima... if he'd faced anything like this, he'd have run. Maybe trained until he could beat it, but he'd have ran all the same. But now? Now there were some six to eight million people in the region, all possibly about to be killed. Ranma couldn't stop the monster himself. But maybe if he helped the others...
Another powerspike that evaporated, melted and charred over a thousand people to death made his mind up. Ranma climbed out of the building, leapt for the one opposite, then bounced back, working his way up to where the monster was.
******
Nemesis stood shakily on a building opposite from the monster, gathering energy, gathering strength, biding time. While the others danced around and fired off spectacularly useless attacks, Nemesis focussed on bringing strength from all over herself, drawing it into her chest, ready for release. And she kept building.
Kari didn't like losing. Kari hated even more being hit. This monster was going to pay.
Nemesis kept drawing on herself.
******
Yue and Kerberos fired arrow and flame at the beast, but nothing stopped it. At best, the assembled forces had slowed it considerably, by creating a massive distraction. Since the first senshi had leapt from the tower, it had moved only two footsteps closer to the tower, it's obvious target.
They paused, watching as a young black-haired man burst from the base of the building it stood on, firing energy blasts at it. They did nothing but make it a bit angrier than it had been, and it fired another powerspike down at the ground in the man's general direction.
He dodged to one side, bouncing back to the building opposite, continuing to work his way up to the level everyone else was on. As he touched on a wall, he sprang off again, at the same time firing off an energy blast or two. The constant rain of energy irritated the beast, and it turned again, sending a powerspike at the point where the young man was next to bounce from. It missed him, but he lost his footing, and tumbled, and before he could grab something, begin his climb up again, the beast fired another blast into the building, and it started to collapse.
The man saw this, and tried to dodge, but didn't have time. Several large chunks of concrete seemingly exploded before they reached him, and Yue's and Kerkeros' magical senses let them keep up with his movements, as fast as they were, but then more and more chunks fell, each larger than the one previous, and the dust that fell with the chunks, as well as the dust the chucks got blasted into, began blocking the young man's vision. When the real big pieces started hitting him, he couldn't prepare for them, only react once they'd passed. And they were dragging him down.
The dust cleared for a moment, and Yue watched a huge chunk smash the young man in the back of the head. He fell, then, limp, unconscious. Just before the huge pile of rocks covered him up, possibly for good, Yue caught sight of something leaping at him, female, a touch of black in her costume.
And then the final rocks fell, and Yue saw them no more.
While Kerberos would have liked to have saved them... Yue didn't tell him they could possibly still be alive. That would distract the other Guardian Beast from his duty - to save everyone else in Tokyo - and could have disastrous results. So, Yue kept silent, and returned his attention to the beast at hand.
******
In the netherworld sewers, Yoshihiro smiled at Umiko as he heard the report. "Yamazaki says the martial artist Ranma is down."
"That's certainly good news," Umiko smirked as she cleaned her cheeks with the back of her hands. "Can your plans proceed again, then?"
"Yes," Yoshihiro mused. "Of course, it's not that he's a threat now. Soon, maybe. But not now." He paused, looked into the portal in his mind that Yamazaki was transmitting. "Not now. But I look forward to the challenge. For now, let's just watch Raijin cause some much-needed panic on his way to do my bidding."
Umiko grunted, and continued cleaning herself.
******
And in the dark, stuffy darkness, Ranma Saotome slept...
TO BE CONTINUED...
SAILOR MOON SAYS:
Bah. Too long to write. But done now. And twice the length of what I took up writing when I started Truth... I did used to write much longer fics, but I found 25k to be about good for a semi-episodic feel that I could get out fairly regularly. Well, this is about 45k or so, and took some thinking as to how to sustain the story while extending the length of it and the like. Most chapters will likely be this long now, maybe the occasional filler a bit shorter, and thus, the series will also shorten considerably in terms of chapters - this would have ben 2, normally, the next 2, and a couple of the ones after this... also 2 or 3. As I was planning for the same 20-22 chapters I did for Truth, and this is technically 13/14... well, that brings it closer as I tighten the story up. Ah well. so that's explained. Anyone who reads my other fics, fear not: X-Com chapter 5 is progressing with a terror site in London, and Love Song of Tomorrow (SaiKano/Eva combination) chapter 3... is on the horizon somewhere ^^; But that's coming, too. Anyways, it's late, I'm heading to bed.
Next chapter: ... Or We Fall Together. Ranma awakens, piled under a couple of thousand tonnes of building, with only a badly positioned senshi above him to keep everything up. The monster Raijin's plan is revealed - will anyone be alive in Tokyo to appreciate it, though? And a few more cameos that there weren't time for in this chapter...