Chapter 6: Surprises

Priss groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a dimly lit room with the sound of crying coming not to far away from her. Crawling slowly into a sitting position she saw Nabiki curled up in the corner of the room crying. The room itself didn't have any furniture or anything in it except for the weak light in the ceiling giving off what little light they had.

"Are you okay, Nabiki?" Priss asked as she crawled over to the girl to check on her.

"I-I'm so s-sorry…This is all m-my fault." Sobbed Nabiki.

"No it isn't." Priss said gathering the other girl into her arms and held her comfortingly. "If I didn't run off earlier…Maybe we could have talked more."

"I'm s-sorry." Nabiki repeated clutching at Priss's jacket.

"It really is okay, Nabs…You need to calm down though, we have to get out of here before they come to get us." Priss said, "If that happens…We won't be leaving."

"How do we get out of here?" Nabiki asked hoarsely.

"Let's check the door first." Priss said climbing slowly to her feet, still a little sore from that thing earlier. She froze as the memory came back to her, the memory of the face of the thing that attacked her. The face of her Miles.

"Are you okay?" Nabiki asked shaking Priss gently.

"Y-Yeah." Priss said a little shakily.

"You spaced out and wouldn't respond." Nabiki stated flatly, rubbing her eyes.

"It was just a memory…" Priss said turning away from Nabiki and examined the door. It didn't look like it was too highly secured but then again the prisoners they usually kept at these places were to weak to break free or fight against there captors. Even the strongest martial artists didn't stand much of a chance against one of their high class boomers as Ryouga…As he proved.

"Are you sure?" Nabiki asked, actually sounding concerned.

"I'm sure." Priss sighed, "Now stay quiet for a minute while I try and see if I hear anything."

Sighing she finished her examination and listened carefully for any noises outside but there weren't any. After a few moments she tried to gather up some confidence to try something that she hadn't done in so long but she just couldn't gain enough ki to blast the lock. She wasn't sure if it was from everything that has been happening along with the depression that it had been causing or if it was from lack of training in her ki abilities.

After several more tries, each one using a different emotion such depression, anger, frustration and hatred for the people who ruined her life. None of the attempts worked though, she was about to give up when that thing's image flashed in her mind again. She could see her love's face so clearly, then she started thinking about Ryouga as well as Akane. Finally she thought of the present, of Leon and the other Knight Sabers Sylia, Nene and Lina as well as Mackie, Dr. Raven a.k.a. Pops and Nigel. All of her friends and family as well as the man she loved dearly. Thinking about them she could feel her spirit growing lighter and felt like she could do anything if only she could see them again without being rejected.

Smiling as Priss decided on what emotion to try next she raised her finger to the lock on the door and concentrated. It was beyond difficult but she knew it was going to work, she had faith that it would. Slowly energy started gathering at her fingertip as she pointed it to he lock. Directing the energy into the lock Priss sent a small ki blast into the lock incinerating it without to much noise as the door swung open. She almost fell to the floor before Nabiki caught her and supported her until she caught her breath.

"Thanks Nabiki." Priss said softly as she regained her equilibrium and moved to stand on her own.

"Why did that cause you to almost faint? I remember you tossing those things around as if it was nothing." Nabiki asked.

"I gave up training to use anything like that…It's useless against boomers." Priss said. "Anyways lets get going before anyone comes looking for us."

"Great idea." Nabiki said as Priss led her out of the room. Once in the hallway they could see that it ran for a long ways in either direction. Most of the doors seemed barren except for the door to there cell and a few others which had folders hanging on them. Curious Nabiki picked up the folder on their door and read it aloud. "Test Subjects 09871 and 09872…Asagiri, Priscilla and Tendo, Nabiki. Awaiting processing."

"I don't know about you but I sure the hell am not waiting around to get processed." Priss said.

"Hold on a sec." Nabiki said walking over to another door and taking its folder. "Test Subject 08321, Saotome, Nodoka…Oh god, it's your mom."

"I doubt it Nabiki, it's way to much coincidence." Priss said though it was half hearted. She would love to see her mother again but she knew that these places just didn't operate that way. So called test subjects was lucky to last a few days if they were lucky.

"Let me check a few of these others." Nabiki said as she hurried to a few more of the doors leaving Priss with what was supposedly her mother's file. Opening it up to look herself she found a key card inside of the folder. Why the heck would they be stupid enough to do that, sure these places weren't exactly high security but this was just plain ludicrous.

"My dad is here to as well as some other missing people from Nerima." Nabiki said coming back excited, "We have to rescue them."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Nabiki. This is too easy…It feels like a trap." Priss said reluctantly.

"They already have us, why would they want to set up some stupid kind of trap like that." Nabiki said.

"We don't have time to argue about this." Priss said, "Fine…you open those rooms and I'll grab these."

"Thank you!" Nabiki cried glomping Priss before hurrying off to start opening doors letting people out of the rooms.

Priss couldn't help feeling a sense of foreboding as she opened a few rooms letting the people out who gathered into the hall. They all looked as if they were half starved and some seemed to have some trouble moving but they helped each other after thanking her. Going to the last door, the one she left to do last on purpose she took the keycard from the file and swiped it opening the door to her mother's room. Slowly Priss crept inside and found her mother lying on the ground in the corner. She looked like she was all skin and bones, as if the slightest touch would cause her to shatter.

Anger washed over Priss as she looked at the body of her mother, the woman wasn't dead but it didn't seem like she was too far off from it. Gently picking the woman up Priss carried her out in the hall where she met up with Soun and Nabiki.

"Is that really you Ranma?" Soun asked in surprise.

"My name is Priss, not Ranma, Mr. Tendo." Priss said.

"Of course, my apologies." Soun said sadly.

"We need to get out of here." Priss said.

"I know which way to go, I was still conscious when they brought me in but with this many people it will be pretty hard to sneak out." Soun said.

"Yeah…I was kind of thinking the same thing." Priss said handing Nodoka over to Soun, "Please…take care of her and lead everyone out."

"What about you?" Soun asked with concern.

"I…I'm going to make a distraction. I'll meet you back at the dojo." Priss said.

"You can't…" Nabiki started but was cut off before she could say anything else.

"Yes I can, make sure everyone gets out safe." Priss said, "I'll be fine."

"Ran…Priss, thank you." Soun said.

"Don't thank me, Tendo, thank your daughter there. It's because of her that you all were rescued." Priss said smiling at Nabiki, "Now go and make sure you take good care of her."

"I will." Soun said before turning to lead everyone quietly down the hall.

Sighing as she saw them leave Priss turned in the opposite direction straining to keep herself on her feet. She had done something else she hadn't done for years which had drained her considerably. She scanned each person's aura separately to make sure that there were no boomers hidden in the group. Surprisingly she was able to do and even more surprising there were no boomers. Everyone was human as far as she could tell.

She slowly started to increase her pace as she recovered from the strain of scanning everyone determined to make sure that everyone got out safely by making a huge distraction. She couldn't depend on martial arts to do it, she may not have been as good as she once was due to lack of training but she didn't lose everything as it transferred over to when she wore her hardsuit. Skill wasn't a question about it, it was almost impossible to fight a boomer hand to hand. Technology was needed to fight boomers, as they say it takes fire to fight fire or something like that. She needed a weapon or something to fight the boomers and make a distraction.

A muttered curse escaped her lips as she burst out a door and into the courtyard of Kuno's mansion and right in the middle of several boomers standing around in a semi circle around her as well as a few things that she wasn't sure was human or boomer. They looked human but looks could be deceiving when it came to disguised boomers. A quick aura scan didn't help either as it looked like human auras though something did seem off.

"Well hello love." A familiar voice said from behind her. "Long time no see."

Spinning around Priss found herself face to face with the thing wearing Miles likeness. It couldn't be him though could it? Miles was dead, he couldn't be standing here…Not with Genom.

"No kiss?" Miles asked in mock hurt tone of voice.

"You son of a bitch, how dare you try to pretend to be him!" Priss growled.

"Pretend…I'm not pretending to be anything love. I'm Miles, saved from the brink of death by someone who really wants to speak with you. Someone I owe everything to." Miles said with an evil smirk as he moved a little to the side to reveal someone else standing there. Someone else who should have been dead, Mason.