Hild's son
Chapter 24: A peaceful solution?
Disclaimer: You all know the drill
Ranma and Mara arrived in Nifelheim and went to see Ranma's mother and to tell her of their little situation in which she did not take to well before they go to get Ranma's injury healed.
"What else do we need?" Mara asked.
"Some kind of light weight armor, just incase they have more weapons like Kuno's." Ranma replied, after he got his wound healed they went to an armory and got some lightweight armor when the demoness in charge of the armory looked at them.
"You two going up against Asgard or something?" the demoness asked.
"No we're not going up against my old man, we're just going to mount a rescue mission." Ranma said as he signed his name on the release form and then Mara did the same before they left the armory and got changed into the armor.
"Time to go?" Mara asked.
"Time to go." Ranma replied before they left Nifelheim and arrived in China and they make their way to the rallying point, which was decided by Herb, saffron and Ranma. When they got to the rally point they found Musk and Phoenix warriors side by side and Ranma asked where Herb and saffron were and a Musk warrior pointed them in the direction of Herb and saffron and they headed in the direction of Herb and Saffron.
"Hope you haven't started without me." Ranma said.
"Glad you could make it." Herb replied.
"Who's this?" Saffron asked pointing to Mara.
"A very close friend of mine." Ranma replied.
"Name's Mara." She replied.
"What's the situation?" Ranma asked.
Herb pulled out a map from somewhere and opened it before pointing to a mountainous region on the map "this is the region where they've been getting reinforcements from." Herb said.
"That area's nothing but mountains." Ranma said.
"We know, but that's where they've been getting through." Saffron replied.
"Me and Mara will go and check it out." Ranma said before he and Mara left and headed off in the direction of the mountainous region were the Joketszuko tribe has been getting reinforcements from.
"You get the feeling he's not telling us something?" Herb asked.
"Yes." Saffron replied meanwhile Ranma and Mara were well on their way to where they heading towards.
"Why didn't you tell them about Setsuna?" Mara asked.
"Because it might end up differently." Ranma replied, his hand on the handle of Hadafang just incase they get jumped by some Amazons, when they got to their destination they look up at the mountains.
"Sure are big." Mara said.
"Yep, now let's find how they're getting through." Ranma said as he flew to the top of the mountain and started to look around while Mara searched around the base of the mountains.
"Found anything?" Mara shouted.
"No." Ranma replied before he came back down to earth and Mara sat down on the floor.
"There has to be a way that they're getting through." Mara said.
"There has to be a way, they don't have a mage." Ranma replied to that question, meanwhile at the Amazons village Shampoo was tormenting Setsuna who had her hands tied together.
"You not good enough to carry airen's child." Shampoo said.
"He's not you're airen.' Setsuna replied before Cologne pogoed into where Shampoo was tormenting Setsuna.
"Shampoo, leave now." Cologne told the Amazonian warrior and did as she was told, "I'm sorry about kidnapping you, but our laws state…" Cologne added before Setsuna cut her sentence off.
"Your ways are dying." Setsuna told her.
"I WILL NOT HAVE AN OUTSIDER TELL US OF OUR WAYS!" Cologne shouted, meanwhile Mara and Ranma were still looking for that elusive tunnel or mountain pass that the Amazons have been using to get through.
"Why don't we just blast the mountains?" Mara asked.
"No can do Mara, we do that and we kill everyone in the fall." Ranma replied when he smelt something in the air "you smell gunpowder?" he added.
"Now that you mention it, yes." Mara replied as Ranma walked over to a large bush and pushed his arm into it, Mara watched as his arm went through it then he pulled his arm out before he moved the bush.
"Well, I'll be damned this tunnel must be older than I am." Ranma said as he looked around the entrance of the tunnel before going further inside the tunnel and Mara followed him.
"What are we looking for?" Mara asked.
"A cache of gunpowder, the smell of it's getting stronger." Ranma replied.
"What would they want with gunpowder?" Mara said.
"Quite simply as a weapon in arrows and possibly other weapons." Ranma replied as the air got thicker with the smell of gunpowder and it wasn't long before they found the cache of gunpowder barrels of it piled up.
"We found it, what do we do now?" Mara asked.
"Blow it." Ranma said as a grabbed a barrel of gunpowder and opened it before Mara grabbed another keg of gunpowder and followed Ranma as he left a line of gunpowder, when the keg that Ranma was carrying was empty Mara passed him the keg that she was carrying and did the same as the first keg and when that keg was empty he let Mara have the honor of blowing the cache of gunpowder up before they head back to the rally point.
"You find how they were getting through?" Saffron asked.
"Surprised you didn't hear the bang." Ranma replied.
"What bang?" Saffron asked.
"They hid gunpowder where they were getting through." Mara told them.
"There's something that you're not telling us." Herb said.
"I'm also here to get someone back." Ranma replied.
"Who might that be?" Saffron asked.
"Someone very close to me, I'm going to give them one chance to let her go." Ranma told them when he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and proceeded to write a message on the paper before he and Mara left and headed towards the Amazon village, when they get there they stand on the outskirts of the forest when Mara drew an arrow from the quiver of arrows and passed to Ranma who tied the message to the shaft of the arrow and passed it back to Mara.
"Where do you want this to hit?" Mara asked.
"Anywhere they can find, and try to take one of them out." Ranma told her and watched as she drew back the string of the bow and let it go and watched the arrow with the message fly and took out one of the Amazon guards before they got out of there quickly.
"What's going on?" An elder asked.
"An attack, we lost one of the guards." An Amazon replied when Cologne pogoed onto the scene.
"What's going on?" She asked as another Amazon pulled the arrow out of her fellow deceased warrior and found the message and passed it to an elder.
"Let Setsuna go, this is your only chance. This mean anything to any of you?" The elder asked.
"No." Came the reply from the elders as the elder who read the message screwed it up and threw it away.
Authors note: R&R!