Dark Titans – Arc 2 - Big Trouble In Little Tokyo

Chapter Six

Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't

Ranma spun around to look at whatever it was that the Lieutenant was going on about. Quickly, his gaze scanned down the street, then further down the street, then several more blocks down the street . . .

He let out an inaudible squeal as his eyes threatened to pop out of his skull!

Then his eyes scanned up, up, up and up some more . . .

His frantically flailing arms dropped limply to his sides at the impossible sight before him. All around him, his companions looked down the street as well, slack jaws and glazed eyes matching his own. Slowly, he turned back to the cop that had become his erstwhile partner, a disbelieving look in his eyes.

"You have got to be kidding me!" he cried indignantly.

Daizo just stared back at him, his expression completely unreadable to the inexperienced young martial artist. Ranma didn't quite feel that he'd gotten his point across, so with a grand wave of his arm, he gestured to the spectacle directly behind him-

To the twenty some-odd story giant lizard that was happily stomping down the center of the city! The thing had to be eighty meters tall, easy! Every single thing about it screamed "I'm very similar to, yet legally distinct from, Godzilla", it almost made the pigtailed martial artist want to run to the nearest copyright office and call it in. However, despite its rather familiar and 'guy-in-a-big-rubber-suit'ish' appearance, the huge beast still gave off an aura of menace and fury loosely restrained, as it marched towards them.

"You want us to fight that thing?" he asked incredulously.

To his side, Kurumi suddenly made a break for the taxi, waving her arms frantically. "Taxi, taxi, get me outta here!" she screamed in a high-pitched squeal.

Before Natsume could even rein the young girl in, the taxi driver just scoffed loudly. "Forget you, girlie! I'm outta here!" The cabbie then put the pedal to the metal and tore off down the road, leaving only two streaks of melted rubber as a testament to his existence.

The Lieutenant just smirked at the display. "Heh, probably the two smartest people on this entire damn street," he muttered quietly. He then looked up, matching Ranma's stare with a piercing one of his own. "And you're damn straight we're gonna fight it! What's wrong, Saotome, things get a little tough and you wanna run away like a girl?"

Ranma bristled nastily at the pointed question, though not quite as badly as Natsume and Kurumi to his side.

"What!" all three of them shouted in stereo. Ryu chuckled weakly and the Lieutenant's smirk just widened. Ranma knew he was getting played, big time, but decided to just go with it.

So, he took an angry step closer to his partner. "I ain't no girl! How many times I gotta tell ya that! Why I oughta-"

He was cut off when Ryu stepped forward, pushing him aside bodily. "Look, Saotome, we don't have all day for you to complain. What we do have, is a giant monster that wants to stomp us into paste. Now why don't you quit your whining and lets get down to business!" barked the Yamasen-ken master.

Ranma stared at him incredulously for a moment, but he was cut off from responding again.

Natsume moved to Ryu's side, dragging her rather more reluctant sister with her. Her intense eyes impaled his own with a piercing stare. "Mr. Kumon is correct, though the scenario is unsettling, it is unlikely that such a massive beast will be able to compensate for our superior speed and agility."

He mulled that thought around for a second, before a small smile began to form on his own lips.

"Well, sure, I already knew that I could keep a step ahead of it. But, are you guys sure that you can keep from gettin squashed?" he asked cockily.

He didn't feel like pointing out the fact that he had faced several massive beasts that were impressively fast as well as powerful. The Orochi had been hellish to avoid and Tarou's cursed form was insanely fast for its immense bulk . . .

Ryu and Natsume both nodded in the affirmative, handily outvoting poor Kurumi who was shaking her head from side to side wildly.

Ranma just smiled, meh, what the hell? When was he ever gonna get an opportunity like this again? The gods only knew that this was one opponent that he didn't have to worry about holding back against. Besides, if it moved at all like in the movies, then Natsume's claims were quite believable. That in mind, he returned their confident nod.

"Alright then," he started. He then put his hand out before him, feeling oddly companionable for some reason. It was odd to actually work with people, instead of constantly infighting all the time. A second later, Ryu and Natsume put their hands on top of his, smiling nearly ferally. They all turned to stare at Kurumi for a moment, before the girl finally submitted and placed a hesitant hand on top of her sister's. At that signal, Ranma smirked the cockiest smirk he could muster.

"Alright then! Let's show that oversized bastard what the masters of the Anything Goes School of Indiscriminate Grappling can do!"

The dynamic moment was broken almost instantly, though, as Ranma felt someone's hand smack into the back of his head. He turned irately to glare at the perpetrator . . . only to see it had been the Lieutenant. The gruff older man just glared at him in return, before grumbling loudly, "Damn kid, quit stealin my lines!"

Before Ranma could say something that wasn't age appropriate for his current company, the officer then turned to face the gathered police force. "All right, you lazy bastards, you all just won the lottery! Now I want everyone to spread out and take up sniping positions at whatever the hell the maximum effective range of these damn guns are! I'm going in with Saotome's team, so you ladies sure as hell better mark your targets carefully. If I even see a pen light aimed in my direction, I'll bust every god damn one of you idiots down so far that you'll be scrubbing toilets with tooth brushes for the rest of your natural lives, you hear me!"

The Saotome Heir could only watch in awe, as suddenly, fifty grown men scattered like a herd of Gazelle in front of a hungry lion. Heck, he nearly wanted to run himself. Behind him, Natsume and Kurumi both watched, wide eyed and clutching each other; Ryu, on the other hand, gazed on with grim satisfaction. Ranma shook his head, it figured that a paramilitary looking goon like Kumon would just love something like that.

A second later, the cop turned back to them, smiling widely. "Heh, I wonder how long it'll take those guys to realize that half of them are my rank or higher?" he asked in an amused voice. Shifting gears suddenly, the older man suddenly turned serious once more. "Okay, Saotome, how do you think we should go at this thing?"

Ranma mulled that over for a second. Quickly, he turned back to survey the truly mammoth monster, in the few moments they had been talking, it had already covered a block and a half. It would likely be literally on top of them in another half a minute . . . providing that it didn't run or blast them to ash with some kind of radioactive breath or something . . .

With a shrug, he turned back to Lieutenant Uehara. "Well, I figure we can take the elevator from its toe up to its knee and work our way up from there," he muttered sarcastically. He quickly waved off the heated glare aimed his way. "Sheesh, Gramps, I dunno, this thing is just huge, let's just go with the direct approach and figure it out from there."

Ryu nodded. "That's as good a plan as any right now, we need to gain its attention so it doesn't destroy everything around us, and once we've actually moved in, we can use the buildings to get high enough to actually attack its vulnerable points," offered the serious young man.

The Lieutenant nodded in agreement, even as Kurumi scowled irately at the bandanna wearing boy. Natsume just stared at the young man out of the corner of her eye, an odd look on her face that Ranma couldn't place. Rather than waste time figuring out what she was thinking, he just nodded. It made sense, if the thing was trying to kill them, it was less likely to kill anyone else. Of course, it had been his plan, Ryu had just explained it a bit better, that was all . . .

Feeling the need to take back control from his (subordinate) teammate, Ranma quickly spun around and gestured grandly to the monster. Taking orders from an adult police officer was one thing, taking orders from one of his old enemies was quite another! "Alright! Let's head in! Lieutenant, you cover us!" he yelled out.

Lieutenant Uehara ran up beside him at that, and dropped to a knee taking aim at the monster's immense head. The older man then looked his way. "Heh, let's get this soiree started right then," barked the older man confidently.

Then the policeman lined up his shot carefully, and pulled the trigger. Coherent light blazed through the night sky, lighting up the entire street for over a block and a half, as it flew forward with deadly intent . . .

It's journey would turn out to be a much longer one than anticipated though, as the massive beast had chosen several seconds earlier to look to the side at one of the many helicopters circling the area.

The beam of concentrated energy passed by the creatures skull, missing harmlessly by several yards.

For just a second, Ranma forgot how to run, collapsing to the ground in shock. Not even bothering to get up, he swung around to stare at Daizo, complete shock on his face . . .

"You . . . you missed!" he nearly shouted in disbelief.

The cop just looked back at him, wearing a slightly sheepish look. "What? Nobody's perfect, ya know?"

Ranma just shook his head in wonder. He didn't even know what to say to that. No, he wouldn't think about it. He knew there were a thousand jokes he could make, concerning barns and the broad sides which support them, but he just couldn't bring himself to speak them. So instead, he simply shook his head, hopped back to his feet and charged after his companions, his companions that hadn't been witness to weeks of flawless marksmanship, his companions that hadn't even been fazed by the near miss.

Hell, he'd show everyone how it was done! The big dino-freak hadn't even noticed the beam of light nearly grazing its head. Well, he'd give it something to notice! Skidding to a stop, he crossed his arms tightly over his chest, willing all of his power to a swelling sphere before him. Confidence boiled up from the center of his soul, confidence in his victory over the Yamata no Orochi, confidence in his victory over Pantyhose Taro, confidence in his victory over the Dragon Prince. Damn straight! He'd give monster-boy a present to remember!

"Mouko Takabisha!"

From several hundred yards away, Shotaro Kei, Ace reporter of the Fuji News Network, watched in awe from her seat in the company's news helicopter. She literally couldn't believe the sight that loomed before her. It was so unreal, yet so tangibly present, that even a seasoned news person such as herself was left at a loss for words . . . truly a rare occasion indeed.

A smile crept across her face, one that she studiously hid from the camera currently perched several inches to the side of her attractive face. She couldn't believe how incredibly lucky she was! Imagine, her, one of the first ones on the scene! She wouldn't be surprised if her face was on televisions the world round, by this time tomorrow.

She shook off her gleeful thoughts for a moment; carefully constructing the proper, serious, expression that such a catastrophic event called for. Slowly, she shuffled around the cramped cabin of the helicopter so that her face was in front of the camera, the colossal monster carefully framed behind her. It was time for her to start telling it like it was.

Behind her, barely even visible to the ridiculously expensive camera that was recording her . . .

Like the twinkle of a star, a tiny speck of light flashed on the monster's knee, then was gone.

Ranma looked down to his smoking hands, then back up to the massive beast that he had just blasted with the full extent of his rampant ego . . . he then looked back down to his smoking hands.

"Ahhhh, hell," he muttered weakly.

He couldn't even see high enough up to tell if the attack had so much as scratched the monster's scaly hide. Sadly, the closer he got, the worse his sense of scale was becoming. He had aimed that attack straight at the beasties ugly face . . . and he had only managed to hit its knee. Of course, considering that was a good five or six stories up, and from a block away, it was pretty damn impressive . . . just not impressive enough apparently.

He let out a long sigh; this was going to be a long night.

Unfortunately, as ineffectual as his attack seemed, it did have one very notable effect indeed. He stared in dread, as the snarling mass that composed the creature's head swung away from glaring at the circling helicopters. Much like a crane swinging into place, the creature swung its head in his direction, he could actually feel its gaze pick him out of the crowd, could practically feel those jaundiced orbs of hatred pin him to the ground.

Then the monstrosity reared back, its entire body wracking with the motion, before letting out a bellow of challenge. The dragon's roar tore through the city with hurricane force, windows shattered for a hundred yards in every direction, helicopters were sent spinning wildly. Everyone on the street, himself included, were nearly blown off their feet by the force of the roar, Ranma could almost feel his ears bleed at the inconceivable volume.

After thirty seconds that felt like thirty eternities, it finally ended and Ranma was able to remove his hands from their positions of desperately clutching his ears. Luckily, he noticed there was no blood actually on his palms . . . Also luckily, he was more or less in the middle of the street, so the rain of shattered glass that the roar had heralded hadn't lacerated him to the bone.

He noticed that he was still shaking slightly, his entire body vibrating from the experience . . . probably due to the sonic effects of the roar. Yeah, that was it, he sure as heck wasn't gonna get scared by something as trivial as a monster mating call. Straightening his back stubbornly, he glared right back at the monster as it once more turned its eyes his way.

Still . . . he looked around the street, seeing the devastation that the creature had caused with a simple howl. Hell, the thing hadn't even started fighting yet . . . Ranma gulped a bit nervously at that thought.

"Damn . . . where are the anemic mecha when ya need them?"

Natsume dove to the side using every ounce of energy her legs could generate. Not a second too soon, either, as a foot as large as a transport truck smashed into the pavement only a scant few feet behind her. She had to admit, this megalithic beast was slightly faster than she had first estimated . . .

But it was playing perfectly into her plan.

She rode the torrential gust of air displaced by the enormous impact beside her and flipped in midair; a second later, her feet hit the side of the nearby building and she pushed off with all of her considerable strength. The added energy and height allowed her to land safely on the top of the creature's foot.

The rough, scaly surface rocked under her wildly, as the monster lifted its foot again to smash some other infuriating martial artist, however it was a simple matter for her to maintain her balance. A second later, her weapon of choice, the ornate rug-beater that had been in her possession for longer than she could even remember, was in her hands, and she swung it with lethal force.

The unique weapon didn't just tear through the air, imbued as it was with her frozen chi, rather it shepherded the air, guided it to her whim even as it chilled the winds to an arctic gale. While her swing itself was unimpressive, missing the heavily armored ankle of the beast by a dozen yards, it was, rather appropriately, only the calm before the storm.

A deadly whirlwind shrieked to life in the aftermath of her masterful stroke, winds honed to a razor's edge by her very will. The tiny typhoon screamed through the distance, before tearing hungrily into the hide covering the beast's vulnerable ankle; dense, emerald pieces of scale scattering to the four winds under her ferocious onslaught . . .

To reveal a roughly circular patch of wind torn hide roughly six foot around and about half a foot deep at its heart.

Natsume let out a long, put-upon sigh, looking up, up, up at her opponent. She hadn't even pierced its scaly skin, let alone harmed it. Obviously, this was going to take some serious effort. Knowingly, she looked across the gulf, to where she knew her sister to be.

Kurumi was standing easily on the beast's other foot, her crimson, glowing ribbon lashing out again and again. A dozen lines of scorched carbon covered the monster's shin, a testament to her sister's tenacity, and also a testament to the ineffectual nature of her attacks.

The elder Not-Tendo sister sighed again, unconsciously maintaining her balance as the creature stomped heedlessly after the pigtailed boy and the police officer that had been with him.

Hmmm, where was their other partner, that rather interesting young man, Ryu? No doubt he was having a much less frustrating time than her. Though she hated to admit it, she was somewhat envious of the young man's abilities. The many techniques that he had practiced over the past week, they were all so violently powerful, perhaps even outshining her and Kurumi's ultimate technique.

Suddenly, she lashed out again, unleashing an even more furious whirlwind, then danced to the side and used her momentum to unleash a second, even more powerful cyclone or razor winds. She wasn't sure why, but her thoughts of the intriguing young man made her want to push herself harder. After all, why should he be any stronger than her? Did they both not have such similar backgrounds? Both orphans, both training in Anything Goes styles their entire lives?

Yes, if anyone could understand her, asides from her sister, Ryu seemed to be that person. Essentially homeless after his father's tragic accident, wandering the world with only the distant hope of rebuilding his families dojo. It did not seem so far removed from her own history.

A spectacular spinning pirouette unleashed a fifth and sixth cyclone in rapid succession, both attacks tearing mercilessly into the deepening crater she had created. Now over a dozen feet in diameter and nearly two feet deep, the deepening hole looked like it had been clawed out by a thousand thousand feral cats.

And yet she had not injured the great beast!

The familiar sound of her sister's footfalls sounded behind her. Without even thinking, the elder sister rolled to the side and took up a new stance as a blazing ribbon tore through the air to slash a slightly deeper scar into the heart of the widening crater.

"Wow, sister! You're doing so well over here! Way better than I was on that other leg," cheered her adorable younger sister. Natsume simply nodded, understanding why her sister decided to come and join forces with her. It wasn't that her sister was less skilled, just that her ribbon attacks were less well suited to this particular task.

"Then let us combine our efforts to hobble this leg. If we can limit this beast's mobility, it will make it much easier to attack its head later," she stated calmly.

Kurumi smiled widely, dancing around as she lashed out with her deadly ribbon. Natsume narrowed her eyes, carefully calculating her target. If only the creature wasn't moving around so haphazardly, it was the only thing preventing them from simply using their ultimate attack right then and there. Surely a full power strike from their Ring of Dragon Fire would cripple the monster's leg easily. Unfortunately, it would be impossible for them to maintain their precarious perches long enough to actually pull off the intricate maneuver as things stood.

So, instead the two sisters entered into a dazzling dance, intent on accomplishing their goal. Despite her total concentration, though, Natsume still found her attention wandering . . . looking for a certain bandanna clad man amongst the chaos of their battle. She wasn't sure why she was scanning the area for him, why she desired to see him at all, though she would hesitantly admit that he was rather pleasing to look upon.

Ahh, there he was. Ryu had just alighted on the other foot, taking up where Kurumi had left off. Instantly, the muscular male began a furious assault, lashing out with terribly violent strikes of every kind. Natsume found herself watching the display out of the corner of her eye, even as she danced expertly around her sister. Unconsciously, her own attacks became more intense, even as an odd thought ran through her mind.

She would not be left behind.

Ryu lashed out again and again, chunks of scale flying with every heavy impact of foot and fist. He smiled to himself, noting how much more effective even his mundane attacks were compared to that ribbon wielding girl's rather lackluster efforts. Of course, he was still just warming up himself. Gauging his opponent's speed, its movements, its intelligence, he wanted to make sure that he had a good measure of the monster before he began using his full potential.

Luckily, speed and intelligence didn't seem to be this monster's strong suits. In fact, it seemed to be completely ignoring both him and the two girls on its other foot. Rather, it seemed to be focusing all of its rather singular efforts to stepping on Saotome for some reason. He turned to regard his erstwhile companion, as the pigtailed boy ran frantically back and forth down the street, doing everything in his power to keep the beast's attention while keeping himself alive.

The last Kumon smirked, enjoying the rather undignified show that Ranma was putting on . . . His smirk died away quickly though. He knew that the pigtail wearing martial artist was just putting on a show, Ryu knew in exquisite detail just how effortlessly Ranma could simply vanish from his enemy's sight. If the Saotome boy so chose, he could have escaped at any time, leaving Ryu, Natsume and Kurumi to deal with the monster's wrath.

Hmm, speaking of which, he let his gaze travel over to the monster's other foot, so far away. His eyes shot open in surprise at what he saw. If Kurumi's efforts had proven ineffectual on this limb, Natsume's efforts had yielded a much more impressive result. He let out a small whistle at the damage that the weapon wielding girl had produced in such a short time . . . though he had to admit that some of that whistle was dedicated to the girl herself.

Considering what a conservative girl she appeared to be, Natsume wore a very revealing top to fight in.

He shook his head quickly to clear it of such unworthy thoughts. Well, the last thing he wanted to do was appear to be a slacker in front of the cool and serious young woman. He chuckled evilly, he'd show those girls how a real man fought his battles. Rearing back his right arm, he brought all of his focus to bear on a single point before him-

"Poison Snake Deep Hole Blow!"

His hand shot out in a blur of violent fury, his fingers as rigid as steel, a most literal spear hand strike. Any other person would have shattered every bone in their hand attempting such a reckless strike, but a lifetime of rigorous and dangerous training had honed Ryu's hand into a lethal weapon beyond compare. Just like the spear it emulated, his iron hard fingers tore into the armor-like scales of the beast.

Leathery hide parted around his hand, as his heart-rending strike continued almost unimpeded. First his wrist vanished, then his elbow-

Then his strike ended abruptly, as his shoulder slammed heavily into the beast's leg.

Ryu just stood there for a moment, eyes wide as he took in his predicament. Sure, this was the move that he had used to nearly kill Ranma in a single strike, but not even he had anticipated anything like this. Hmm, an odd sensation gained his attention . . . Idly, he wiggled the tips of his embedded fingers slightly.

A wicked chuckle escaped his lips.

He felt blood on the tips of his finger! He had actually pierced the monster's invincible armor! Of course, from the feel of it, it was only by an inch or two, but still, it was pretty damn impressive! At that, he looked up, hoping to see if he had actually gained the monster's attention with his successful attack. Unfortunately, since he was pretty much hugging the monster's leg, he couldn't even see past its damn knee.

He chuckled to himself again, though a rather less joyful chuckle than before. Considering just how massive the monster was, what he had just done wasn't even the equivalent to a splinter, he bet. In fact, he was starting to wonder if it was even possible for them to actually defeat this monster. Sure, it had seemed like an interesting challenge, but now that they were actually fighting it, and he was close enough to realize just how excessively huge it was . . . he wasn't so sure.

Well, it wasn't like they were all out of tricks yet, that was for certain. Giving a quick tug, he pulled his arm out of the rather deep hole he had p-

Instantly, his world turned jade and a sound like a fire hose spraying at full blast exploded right in front of him. A force like a sledgehammer slammed directly into his chest and he felt himself flying through the air, being pushed along forcefully by something he couldn't see as some kind of green substance filled his eyes, his nose and his mouth!

He slammed heavily to the ground a few seconds later, bouncing and sliding in a slippery mess until he finally stopped, the gods only knew how far away. Even as he threw up a disgusting lung full of the green liquid, he quickly wiped the gunk out his eyes so that at the very least he could see somewhat clearly. He ignored the aching bruise that he already forming on his chest as he struggled to his feet.

There! Right where he had struck the beast, which he was now fifty feet ahead of him after his short flight, a tiny stream of green liquid was jetting out of the ankle not much unlike the firehouse he had imagined hearing earlier. It just didn't make any sense! Blood didn't spray out like that when you pricked someone with a needle . . .

Suddenly, there was a hand on his arm, helping him to his feet. He looked quickly to his side, seeing it was Saotome that was helping him up. Angrily, or more to the point, somewhat embarrassed, he quickly tore his arm out of his nemesis' grasp.

"What the hell was that?" he asked rhetorically.

A second later, the stream of liquid stopped dead, the remains of the emerald liquid arcing through the air to slosh onto the ground ten feet in front of the two of them messily. Almost as if he understood what was going on, which Ryu was pretty sure was impossible, Ranma nodded somberly.

"Hmm, it looks like it just healed the damage ya did. It must only kick in when it's actually hurt, though, considering Natsume made a heck of a lot bigger mess than you did, and the damage she's done hasn't healed yet," muttered the young man, almost to himself.

Ryu shook his head at that. "What? Not only is this thing as big as a mountain, it's gonna heal all of the damage we do to it instantly?" he asked in shock.

Ranma just rolled his eyes, even as he grabbed Ryu's shoulder again and started dragging him into a dead run. A second later, the calamitous sound of monstrous footsteps began to follow them. "Ryu, you already knew about that, we mentioned it after the c-c-cat fight."

Ryu scowled darkly as he continued to run, his brightly stained shoes skidding uneasily beneath him as he ran. In retrospect, he had known, he just hadn't thought it would be possible for such a monster to do the same thing. Heck, it wasn't even fair! How could such a monster be so huge and have such a power as well? Now he was even less confident in their ability to win.

Still, it would be a cold day in hell before he admitted something like that to Saotome.

Without warning, the night sky above them lit up with over a dozen beams of crimson, coherent light. Apparently the cops had finally started getting into position. Ryu spared a few moments to look back at the monster that chased the two of them so mercilessly. As the Yamasen-ken master expected, pretty much all of the shots were aimed at the monster's head and face, the angry beams digging hungrily into the creature's hide.

Of course, from this distance, he had absolutely no clue how effective the lasers were. Considering the monster's head was over twenty stories away, it was a wonder he could even see the lasers at all, really. Still, it did seem to get the monster's attention, as it noticeably slowed in its pursuit of the two Anything Goes masters.

A weak chuckle from his side gained his attention. Balefully, he turned to glare at Ranma, just daring the boy to continue laughing at his condition. Unfortunately, the boy obliged him. "Heh, heh, Ryu, you look just like that love letter that Ryouga wrote for Akane that one time!" laughed the infuriating boy jovially.

Ryu just scowled in return. "Ha ha, aren't you just the most clever little girl in the world?" he muttered with dark sarcasm. The indignant look that formed on the pigtailed boy's face was enough to lighten Ryu's mood right back up. Hmm, speaking of matters of the heart . . .

Studying his pigtailed companion for a moment, a small smile formed on his lips. "So . . . that Natsume girl, she's pretty cool, huh?" he asked rather casually.

Ranma looked back at him, even as they both continued to run along, a slightly confused look on his face. Then the pigtailed boy shrugged absently. "I guess she's alright. I mean, that whirlwind technique of her's is pretty awesome, but I think she overuses it way too much," replied his companion.

Ryu just stared at him, almost at a loss for words. "Um, I wasn't talking about her fighting style, Saotome."

This time, a clueless look entered the Saotome heir's eyes. "Whatchya mean? What else is there to talk about Natsume . . . um, about?"

It was precisely that moment, that Ryu remembered he despised Saotome Ranma. Ryu was just as dedicated to the martial arts as anyone out there, but did Ranma not have one single clue in his possession? What else is there to talk about a girl than her fighting style? What kind of moronic question was that?

Ryu let out a disgusted grunt, still continuing his run.

"Why the hell am I talking to you about this for?"

"Darn it all to heck," Beast Boy grumbled loudly to himself, "Eleven hundred and forty-two channels, and there's still nothing to watch!"

Absently, he continued to flip through the channels. He looked around the darkened interior of the main room that surrounded him, desperately wanting someone to wander in and distract him from his mind numbing boredom.

Of course, considering it was about four in the morning, that was highly unlikely. Not even someone as prone to unexpected entrances as Ryouga would be popping up at this hour. Of course, if Beast Boy knew the guy at all, the Lost Boy was probably still down in Terra's cavern, having passed on the all night movie marathon offer that Beast Boy had made around eight hours ago.

Which was exactly why Beast Boy was up all night in the first place. The emerald changeling knew for a fact that even without the totally awesome movies gripping his imagination so completely, he would have been completely incapable of sleeping. The past few days had been particularly stressful for him, the way that Hibiki kept floating around, almost like a ghost, a far away and contemplative expression on his face all hours of the day, no matter what he was doing.

Beast Boy just knew that the master martial artist was close to a breakthrough. He could feel it in his bones. Heck, Ryouga was so obsessed with freeing Terra, that he only came out of the cave when Starfire went and bodily dragged him out of there to eat. Even then, Ryouga just sat around with that spaced out look on his face.

Not that Beast Boy was gonna complain, he could live without a little conversation if it meant he'd get to see Terra again. Of course, Raven didn't seem to be quite as understanding as he was . . . which was just plain weird now that he thought about it. Raven was always more detached and objective than he was, but the Lost Boy's complete lack of attention to anything that wasn't: a) stone or b) Terra, was really getting under the Goth girl's skin for some reason he couldn't understand.

He chuckled evilly to himself. It served the girl right, really, she'd been ignoring him and Cyborg for years, it was about time she got to feel what it was like to have someone completely ignore her for a change.

Ah, well, it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it; asides from covering for Ryouga whenever some petty criminal popped up. He groaned loudly as his train of thought came full circle to the, apparently, imminent revival of Terra.

It was always there now, the racing thoughts at the back of his mind. Was it really possible? Could Ryouga actually do it? If he did, what the heck would Beast Boy say to her? Hundreds of scenarios played themselves over and over again in his mind; some heart burstingly wonderful, others heart breakingly tragic.

"Argh, dammnit!" he cursed loudly.

He clicked the up button on the remote again, continuing his desperate search for something to distract his sorely overtaxed mind.

"The Wonderful World of Fungus . . . hmm, I should Tivo that for Star . . ."

-Click-

"Nascar . . . Oooh, only three hundred more laps in that race – Not!"

-Click-

"Japanese Weather Channel? Heh, looks like the weather outside is frightful, there."

-Click-

"Hey! A Godzilla movie, sweet!" he cheered happily. If anything could numb his poor, abused brain cells for the next few hours, this would be it.

"Hmm, which one is this, anyway? Looks like a new one . . . what the heck is he even fighting?"

The emerald changeling looked closer at the screen. Man, the camera work on this one was just terrible, all shaky and stuff, you'd think they were shooting it out of a helicopter or something. Ahh, now he saw what was going on.

He groaned loudly in disgust.

"Godzilla versus Martial artists? That's gotta be the lamest idea for a fight ever." Man, not even he was that desperate for entertainment. He was about to hit the channel changing button again, when suddenly something caught his eye, a strangely familiar flash of red that just seemed to catch his hind brain and twist . . . hard. Instantly, the changeling's face was practically plastered to the television screen.

"No way!"

Ranma leapt up quickly, gripped the outstretched arm of the lamppost and used it to instantly reverse his momentum and send himself flying in the opposite direction. A moment later, the post and everything within thirty or so feet of it were crushed to less than nothing by another tremendous crash of the beast's foot.

He landed easily about forty feet away, landing gently between his heavily breathing companions. To his left, practically dyed green from head to toe, was Ryu. On his other side, Natsume and Kurumi were also gasping for air, though now the two sisters wore outfits that nearly matched the Yamasen-ken master's.

Apparently, the only reward for their hard earned success of hobbling the monster had been a tremendous burst of green liquid spewing out of the gash they had carved. Luckily, the girls proved to be slightly quicker than Ryu, and had gotten away with only a moderate splashing, as opposed to a complete dunking.

Of course, that left the four of them in the rather depressive state they were in now. Sure, they were easily capable of staying out of harm's way, especially considering that their opponent's only method of attack appeared to be stomping them . . . so far,anyway. It was far too huge to actually reach down and swat them, thankfully.

"So -gasp- what . . . the hell are we supposed to do now?" asked Ryu rather irately.

Kurumi nodded desperately. "We should run away! Even when we do hurt it, it just heals up anyway! There's no way we can beat this thing!" she cried out.

Ranma was starting to wonder if that might not be the smart thing to do. Unlike Mecha-Boi, the Godzilla look-a-like hadn't even been fazed when he tricked it into following him through a set of dangling hydro lines. His chi blast had already proven woefully inadequate, and there was no way in heck he would be able to lead that thing into a spiral without destroying half the city anyway.

Unfortunately, it appeared that he didn't have anything powerful enough that would actually work on this thing. Rather reluctantly, partly out of stubborn pride and partly out of envy, he looked at his companions. With a long sigh, he took a step forward.

"Alright, I'll go ahead and distract it. Natsume, Kurumi, when it's safe, use your ultimate technique. Ryu, you use yours at the same time. Maybe, the combined forces of your two attacks will be enough to faze this thing," he stated seriously.

Rather than argue, which considering the kind of guy Ryu was, surprised him greatly, all three of the master martial artists simply nodded. A second later, the fighters leapt back, looking for favorable places to launch their attacks from.

Letting out another beleaguered sigh, Ranma turned back to the walking maelstrom that was trying to kill him this week. Craning his neck painfully, he once again stared his enemy right in the beady eyes.

"Alright, ya titanic Geico commercial! Let's dance!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. Who knew, maybe the thing even heard him?

Then, things went crazy . . . the monster lifted its leg once more to crush him, but suddenly moved the leg back behind it. Ranma's danger sense suddenly flared to life with the force of a bomb, as the monster's whole body began to twist around.

Ranma stared in shock, as the locomotive sized tail of the beast suddenly started swinging through the air towards him! The air howled in angry resistance to the unbelievable mass that was now tearing through it. The vacuum left in the tail's wake lifted debris and cars alike, sending it all flying like chaff. Then at least forty feet of the monster's tail smashed into the buildings on the far side of the street, tearing through entire foundations like wet tissue paper.

His stare of shock turned into a scream of terror as a three story wall of solid muscle and scale came flying in his direction, a row of five commercial buildings collapsing completely in its wake. The deafening cacophony of the demolished buildings, the angry roar of the monster and the screaming protest of the very air itself, it all came crashing down on the young martial artist like a ten ton statue of Buddha. It was all so much, that it wasn't until he was seconds away from becoming so much ground beef . . .

That he remembered he could easily jump five stories.

Mentally kicking himself at Amaguriken speed, a second later, he was airborne. He easily cleared the swinging tail, grinning madly with relief . . . At least until he got caught up in the windstorm that was trailing the tail!

For about seven and a half seconds, Ranma had a pretty good idea what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the Hiryua Shoten Ha when you didn't actually know the technique. After being tossed around like a rag doll and smashed into several different pieces of flying debris, he finally crashed to the ground, a veritable mass of bruises.

Groaning weakly, he lifted himself up onto his elbows, watching as the monster continued it's massive spin. Eventually, its attack was stopped as its tail crashed fully into about seven buildings on that side of the street. Gods, he hadn't seen this much destruction in his entire life! Luckily, having half of a city block collapse on the monster bought Ranma enough time to drag himself to his feet.

Ranma was about to start moving forward to continue his distraction, when, finally, he heard his companion's war cries at his back.

"Hiryua Karimbou!"

"Saidaikyū Kijin Raishū Dan!"

The pigtailed warrior smiled grimly. The monstrous monster had just enough time to face his direction again, when suddenly a flurry of massive vacuum blades slammed heavily across its stomach and chest. Each blade, probably a dozen feet across, slashed through the beast's hide like a knife through butter. Half a dozen sprays of green liquid sprayed out into the night sky-

Just in time to get sucked into a swirling wind funnel that snaked through the air to slam heavily into the center of the monster's chest. The crimson and azure wind tunnel actually pushed the monster back several yards, even as the energy of Natsume's and Kurumi's combined attack tore angrily into its scaly skin.

Ranma could only stare, impressed, as the two girls continued to pour on the attack. Ten seconds, twenty . . . twenty three . . . finally the ultimate technique died away. Behind him, even from such a distance, he could hear both girls collapse to their knees, breathing heavily in exhaustion.

The result of their attack was even more noticeable than Ryu's. A hole, over a dozen feet in diameter, had been drilled into the creature's chest. Where each of Ryu's attacks were spraying wide arcs of goo into the air, their attack was pouring out a veritable waterfall of the stuff . . .

For about five seconds anyway, before the hole and all of the slashes suddenly sealed up, glowing a bright crimson, then azure, then yellow, before once again blending in seamlessly with the rest of the monster's hide.

The beast rocked unsteadily for a moment, before reorienting itself once more, as if nothing had even happened. It then took a threatening step forward.

Ranma cursed loudly. It just wasn't fair! Hell, even as amazing as the attacks had been, they had been little more than scratches, really. This thing didn't need to regenerate from their attacks . . . the fact that it did was just – just insult to injury.

Still . . . something about the way it was spewing green liquid everywhere was rebounding around the back of his mind. Why was it reacting like that? It made him think of Mecha-Boi for some reason . . . or more specifically, the robot boy's grim demise. When the mechanical kid had exploded, well, it had just burst apart, almost like a water balloon or something . . .

. . . Like a water balloon . . .

All coherent thought fled his mind, though, leaving him quite unable to continue on that particular line of reasoning. In fact, he nearly lost control of his bladder at what he saw next.

The draconian beast reared back its head, a dancing emerald light starting to flare at the back of its throat.

Akane sat about three inches away form the television, a pillow clutched tightly to her chest, as she watched the screen with morbid fascination. She chewed fretfully on the corner of the pillow, not caring if she ruined the textile in the least. It was all just so unbelievable, so impossible, so terrifying!

Thank the Gods that she had decided to stay out of this madness!

As proud as she was of her martial arts skills, even she wasn't crazy enough to think that she would have actually been of any help out there at all. It was like – like fighting an entire apartment complex. How did one even go about something like that?

Another near miss made her nearly tear off the corner of the pillow with her teeth. She couldn't stand the suspense, wondering if her fiancé would be alright or not. Every missed stomp, every swing of the tail; it was all she could do to stop herself from pulling out her own hair. This wasn't anything at all like watching the stormy eyed boy battling against his usual rivals.

Even the Orochi hadn't been this impossible of an opponent. It had been deadly, for sure, and tough as nails, but it could still be knocked out, injured.

She watched as a hail of vacuum blades and a familiar wind funnel slammed into the monster's chest, hope flaring in her chest for a second . . .

Only to be dashed, as she watched every single wound heal like magic. If Ryu's ultimate attack couldn't hurt it, then what could?

A sudden flash of light from the windows shocked her, nearly lighting up the entire night sky. A second later every window in the house rattled dangerously as it was followed by a titanic crash of thunder! So close, too! It almost sounded like it had been right next door.

Just shocked enough to be distracted from the television for a moment, Akane rushed to the nearest window . . .

To look up at the black velvet dome and brightly twinkling stars of a perfectly clear sky.

Lieutenant Uehara carefully peeked out from the remains of the post office, taking in the current scene before him. A second later, he ducked back behind the crumbling wall, breathing in long, wheezing gasps, just thankful that the battle wasn't coming his way that second. Not that he was a coward, and he'd pistol whip anyone that said otherwise, but seriously, what could one normal man do against a monster like that?

The experienced officer took a moment to take in his own condition. He was currently a mess, covered from head to toe in dust and glass shards from the billions of yen worth of damage that now surrounded him. He hadn't run so long or hard since his academy days; frankly, he was amazed he was still alive.

"Gods," he groaned weakly, "This just ain't working. We need some kind of . . . some kind of special task force for this, not an old man and a pack of crazy kids . . ."

Never in his life had he imagined that he would end up in a situation even half as crazy as this. Huddled behind a destroyed building, clutching a half dead laser weapon and desperately hoping that the city destroying monster that he was fighting didn't notice him . . . Sure, he'd heard about crazy things like this happening in the States, but those lucky bastards had super heroes crawling out of the damn woodwork!

He snuck another peek at the battle, marveling as Kumon unleashed a series of blade shaped . . . well, he didn't actually know what the arcs were, but they slashed into the monster's chest with devastating force. Then he stared in awe as the two girls somehow unleashed a Technicolor typhoon right into the beast's chest as well.

Of course, neither attack had any lasting effect, but it was still pretty inspiring . . .

No, Daizo wouldn't trade any of these crazy kids for even a dozen super heroes. The pigtailed brat that he'd been saddled with for these past weeks and his friends, they had trained hard and reached a level of skill that few people in the world could even imagine. They might not be immortal supermen, but he damn well respected them for their achievements.

Well, never let it be said that Lieutenant Uehara Daizo would let something as fleeting as sanity stop him from standing side by side with his nearly mythical comrades.

He saw his opening instantly, as the beast reared back, an ominous light beginning to glow from its slavering jaws.

He dove out from behind his tenuous cover and aimed carefully. A second later, protesting angrily, his laser flared to life again. With unerring grace, the beam of crimson energy lanced through the air, burning a dime sized hole at the very center of his target. He smirked proudly, damn he was good!

Instantly the monster flailed to the side, a belch of radioactive gases escaping its mouth at the aborted attempt to breath fire. The earth quaked under its feet as it staggered around blindly, its limbs and tail swinging wildly in every which way.

The Lieutenant chuckled to himself. Well, he supposed getting a laser in the eye would hurt, even as small as it was.

He knew the thing was likely already healing, so he ran out and skidded to a stop next to his pigtailed protégé. He nearly laughed at the look of mingled shock, fear and relief that rolled over the boy's face like a luxury sedan.

"Heh, I don't suppose you kids have any more tricks up your sleeves, do you? I really hope so, because I sure as heck can't keep up the corrective surgery all night," he stated perhaps a little too lightheartedly for the situation.

Surprisingly, Saotome just laughed in reply. "Heh, don't ya know that necessity is the mother of all invention, Lieutenant? I'm sure if we last a few more minutes, something'll come to me . . .," the boy stated, maybe a little unconvincingly.

A moment later, Natsume, Kurumi and Ryu joined the two of them, all of them looking just as worn out and weary as himself . . . though decidedly more green. Behind them, the monster's thrashing began to slow, and would probably stop all too soon.

Ryu glared impotently at the mammoth beast as it continued its thrashing. "If we don't get out of here soon, we're likely going to die," he stated seriously. He then turned to face Daizo, "How long do we have to distract this thing before the people with the big guns get here?"

Uehara considered that question for a moment, impressed with the boy's ability to accept that they couldn't win, but to keep fighting regardless. "Unfortunately, this fight is happening in one of the busiest districts in the entire city, and it's only been about half an hour so far. I wouldn't be surprised if it took another ten minutes before any air support gets here and likely a half an hour at least before any tanks arrive," he summed up quickly.

Of course, he had no real idea if he was right, he'd never seen the army mobilize before, but he didn't wanna make it seem too hopeless for the kids.

Any further discussion was killed quickly, as the Godzilla-looking beast suddenly stopped its agonized flailing. With another bellow, the monster turned their way once more, blinking its completely uninjured eye for all the world to see. The beast then reared back again, the temperature of the entire street raising by several degrees instantly, as it prepared to unleash its atomic fire on them.

Kurumi screamed in fright as the nuclear furnace in the monster's mouth built up to critical mass, a glowing aurora Borealis shimmering in its open mouth.

"Ryu!" Ranma screamed desperately.

At the same time that Daizo himself was trying to line up another shot on the beast's eye, to no avail, suddenly the other martial artist sprinted ahead several yards.

Then Ryu suddenly leapt forward, both hands clenched tightly together at his side. As soon as the boy's toe left the ground, he swung his powerful arms in a massive arc before himself, spinning himself completely around in midair. The movement of Kumon's arms were so blindingly fast, that Daizo didn't even register the movement until the boy had already landed from his spin . . .

However, the effect was immediate, as the air shrieked in protest to the inhumanly fast passage of his joined hands. The unearthly shriek gave life to a massive distortion in the form of an arcing blade, easily three times larger than any other that the boy had unleashed earlier. That had to be it! The boy's movement was so fast, that it had actually created a vacuum in the air, and now that vacuum was traveling through the air at unbelievable speed.

The fact that Daizo actually figured that out, or that it suddenly seemed so reasonable compared to everything else he had seen lately, worried him to the bone.

The massive vacuum blade was so powerful, that it almost dragged its creator along for the ride! Ryu had to spin and slam his fingers into the unforgiving pavement just to stop from being sucked along by his own oversized attack!

Its trajectory, curved, but true, slammed heavily into the monster's chin. The esoteric attack actually snapped the monster's mouth shut, jets of radioactive exhaust shooting out from between its clenched teeth as the atomic fire sought escape. The beast staggered back, as suddenly its mouth burst open to release a fifty foot mushroom cloud of nuclear gases. The force of the blast sent it to crash bodily into a nearby mall complex, devastating another several billion yen worth of real estate.

Kumon then dropped to his knees, utterly exhausted. The Lieutenant and the three other martial artists ran forward to check on the young man. When they got there, though, Ryu simply waved them off.

"Heh, I'm fine, just took more out of me than I expected to make such a huge one . . ."

Saotome stared at the other boy, confused. "Why did ya make it blunt? Why didn't ya just cut the damned things head off with that?"

Daizo nearly pistol whipped the insensitive brat, but Ryu quickly replied. "Shut it, Saotome! If I cut off its jaw, it probably just would have started spraying fire everywhere, then heal instantly. At least this way we have a few more seconds while it recovers," stated the bandanna wearing youth.

The Lieutenant just grumbled to himself. "Damn, all we're doing is delaying the inevitable here! It's just gonna keep on doing that and we can't keep this up for ten minutes, let alone all night!" he growled loudly.

Just then, their insanely persistent opponent turned their way, wafts of smoke escaping its mouth. Daizo could feel the hate in its gaze as it just stared at the five of them standing there. Not even the few, random laser blasts that were striking it from all angles fazed it in the slightest. There was something suddenly different about the beast, something that terrified him more than he ever imagined possible. It was like all of the hatred in the world was swirling in those yellow spheres.

They all understood, then and there, that they wouldn't be able to stop the next attack. No laser, no vacuum blade, nothing they could do would stop this monster from unleashing a radioactive hell storm right in the heart of downtown Tokyo . . .

A silent rumble filled the air, no doubt from the monster before them.

Slowly, the monster opened its mouth one final time.

The silent rumble gained in volume, now like distant thunder.

Once again, an unholy glow filled the beast's gaping maw, though this time they could see the hellish furnace at the back of the monster's throat with their own eyes.

The roll of thunder continued to build, as if a storm was rapidly approaching; boy, but this thing liked to build up the tension.

The demon beast loomed over them, looking like it was just going to vomit a gout of flaming napalm right on their heads, as if destroying the five of them was the sole purpose of its existence . . .

When, against all reason, the sky was torn asunder by a flash of light so pure and blinding that everything went completely white! It took the Lieutenant several precious seconds to rub the sight back into his aching eyes, just in time to see a streak of azure light flying through the sky from the west, a shooting star flying just above the buildings. The roll of thunder seemed to follow the small stream of light, shaking the earth and rattling every shard of glass for as far as his spot filled eyes could see.

Daizo watched in awe, starting to wonder if, perhaps, miracles actually did exist. The shooting star flew a thousand feet in the span of seconds, a plume of debris following in its wake as it began to descend closer to the buildings it passed over. Absently he heard Natsume whispering a prayer to the Gods . . . maybe they were making a house call?

Natsume's prayers were answered, then, as the careening comet slammed directly into the side of the great, staggering beast's head. The sky was torn asunder again, this time by the sound of a thousand thunder claps all happening at the same time! A spherical wave of force washed out from the point of impact, demolishing buildings, overturning vehicles . . .

And then Daizo's world turned upside down.

Suddenly, he was rag dolling through the air; it felt like a bulldozer turned race car had scooped him up and taken him for a ride. He shut his eyes tightly, expecting a painful landing followed quickly by a number of harsh impac-

And then it was over . . . The police officer looked around in confusion . . . why wasn't he bean paste again? Slowly, his sense of touch returned to him, though he figured his sense of hearing would be a little longer in recovering. There was something wrapped around him, something warm, yet cool; something soft, yet very hard . . .

He looked up tentatively . . . to see Tendo Natsume holding him tightly to her chest. A second later, his savior landed lightly on the ground, apparently she had jumped to catch his sorry butt. As soon as they touched down, she looked at him, possibly inspecting him for any injuries. She said something, then, but he had no idea what it was. Not only couldn't he hear a word she was saying, he was just lousy at lip reading.

So instead, he just shot her a thankful look and gave her a thumbs up. Then he carefully grabbed her shoulders and pushed himself back up to a standing position. He chuckled soundlessly to himself, he was far too old to be caught in a compromising position with such a lovely young woman. That kind of thing was better left to his young partners.

After taking a moment to reorient his spine after his uncomfortable flight, he turned to see what the heck had happened. Not too far ahead of him, he saw Saotome, Kumon and the younger girl . . . um – Kurumi, yeah, that was it, he saw the three of them also land gracefully from their turbulent travels.

Damn kids, making this look so easy!

Further down the ruined street, the immense bulk of the beast toppled to the side, collapsing heavily into a row of commercial buildings, causing yet another billion yen of damage. He could only thank the Gods that he couldn't be held responsible for those buildings at least. It was all so surreal, though, watching entire buildings being destroyed in complete and absolute silence. The only thing that he could hear, was the ringing in his own ears.

He looked around to his companions, seeing them all staring around in confusion as well. Ranma was sticking a pinky in his ear and twisting it around, while Ryu banged the side of his head. Obviously they had suffered the same hearing loss that he had . . . he sure as heck hoped it was just temporary.

And then, another impossible thing happened, which brought the count for today to around seven . . . hmm, a pretty slow day since he started hanging out with Saotome, really.

Suddenly, from the perfectly clear sky above them, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the Heavens themselves! The bolt crashed down into the ground several dozen yards ahead of them, dissolving the world into another wash of white filled with dancing spots of black. When it finally cleared once more, the bolt of lightning had resolved itself into . . .

A young man!

Though his back was to them, Daizo could see the slender youth was wearing a bright orange breast plate that looked like it belonged to an ancient set of samurai armor. He was also wearing an ornate orange head guard that held up a shock of pale yellow, almost white hair which invoked the very lightning bolt that he had just descended from the Heavens in. Most striking, was the boy's skin, it was such a pale white, that the boy wearing it looked almost . . . divine . . .

Holy Hell! The Gods actually had arrived to save them!

Daizo desperately tried to remember the last time that he had visited a temple, and how they had gone about praying there. He was about to drop to his knees in prostration - Except he was distracted, as surprisingly, it was about then that sounds began to trickle back to the tired Lieutenant . . . another miracle? There were three sounds that stood out. He turned to his left, to see Natsume and Kurumi on their knees, praying. Apparently they had beaten him to the punch. On his right, the two boys were sputtering in shock, unsure what they were seeing. Before him, in the distance, the sound of rubble raining to the ground as the behemoth started to drag itself out of the husks of the destroyed buildings.

Then the young God raised its arms before it . . .

It started small, a small spark at the young man's elbow. It was followed by an arc of electricity dancing along his forearm. Then another, larger arc appeared. All too soon, his arms were wreathed in lightning, dancing to a chaotic rhythm that no mortal could understand. The dangerous energy sinuously climbed up the boy's arms until the infant bolts of lightning gathered in his hands, forming a sphere which crackled angrily over its unnatural containment.

And then the wrath of the Gods was unleashed! A bolt of lightning exploded out from the God's hands, scorching through the air in search of its unfortunate prey. Over a hundred yards away, the lance of electrical fury lashed out at the great beast, scorching a three story gash up the monster's underbelly.

Instantly, a waterfall of green liquid began to rush out of the immense wound, and the creature crashed back down into the demolished buildings once more.

Then, the young man turned around, a broad smile on his pale lips and a joyful laugh on his lips. A second later, another figure appeared, descending from the sky riding what appeared to be a living cloud. This second figure, also looking like a young man, was the polar opposite of his companion. Where the first was fair and slight, the second was dark and massive. The newcomer wore a breast plate that was similar to his companion's, though a dark blue in color. He also wore a simple helmet which flared out to protect the back of his neck. Oddly, the young man's skin was a pale blue, almost purple in color. Surely, if riding to the earth on a living cloud wasn't enough of a sign of supernatural origins, that skin had to be.

"What tremendous fun that was, my brother!" cheered the fair youth.

The large framed youth nodded, smiling weakly himself. "Indeed, brother, your skill is magnificent as always . . . But I feel that this is not that which we seek."

Daizo could only stare in shock . . . still not sure what to do, what to say. What did you say to a god, really?

"W-who the hell are you two!"

Daizo groaned loudly at the sound of Saotome's voice. It appeared that he was about to find out exactly what you shouldn't say to a god.

The two colorfully clad youths turned their way, as if just noticing them for the first time. Suddenly, the lighter of the two stepped forward, a look of such intense pride on his face, that Daizo was certain that it belonged on his idiotic protégé's face. The young man then gestured grandly with a sweeping of his arm.

"We are Thunder and Lightning!" he stated dramatically, his voice high and excited. Behind him, his sibling, Thunder, bowed politely to them.

The pigtailed boy strode forward, sputtering angrily, and poked an irate finger into the center of Lightning's chest.

"Yeah, well, Lightning," Ranma sneered the name disrespectfully, "Who the hell do ya think you are? This was our fight, we didn't need your help!"

The Officer slapped a hand to his face, desperately groping for an implement to pistol whip the loud mouthed idiot with. What was he doing?

The self titled Lightning stared back angrily at the blue eyed martial artist, obviously not amused by the blatant lack of respect or gratitude. However, his angry retort was cut off, as the fair haired God was interrupted by something tugging insistently at the bracer which covered his forearm.

Everyone looked down to see Kurumi holding the youth's arm, looking up at him with a look that was so hopeful, that it nearly broke his old, policeman's heart.

"Excuse me, sir . . . but are you really . . . really a God?" she asked, wonder and awe overflowing in her voice.

At the same time, a look of sheer superiority formed on Lightning's face and a look of indignant rage appeared on Ranma's. However, before either youth could blurt out whatever it was they were going to say, Thunder suddenly stepped forward.

The seemingly soft spoken Thunder carefully dropped to a knee directly in front of Kurumi and placed his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. He then looked deeply into the girl's eyes, smiling weakly, and shook his head slowly.

"No, young one, we are not Gods. My brother and I are merely gifted with the powers of nature. However, these powers do not make us any better than you, or anyone else. So please, do not look at us with such eyes," explained the young man with surprising eloquence.

Behind him, Lightning deflated visibly, apparently disappointed for some reason. Ranma also deflated, though more likely out of shame then anything else. Daizo smirked weakly at that . . . so, not gods, eh? Well, that didn't mean he still couldn't chalk this whole thing up to being a miracle.

Kurumi suddenly leapt forward, ensnaring the large youth in a tight hug, tears in her eyes. Thunder actually looked around in surprise, totally unsure what was going on. Well, that settled that then, getting flustered by a pretty girl was a definite sign or mortality.

A moment later, the young Tendo girl released her constricting hug, then stared tearfully at the larger teen. "I don't care if you're not a god! You still saved us all, so I wanna thank you anyway!" she stated in a cutely firm manner.

Again, Thunder looked to everyone present, looking for any help on what he should do. Apparently getting thanked for his actions wasn't something the large boy was used to.

Behind the two, Lightning turned to Ranma, a cocky sneer on his lips. "Yes, boy, we did save you all, so feel free to thank me any time you like."

Uehara nearly choked on his tongue as he watched Saotome's face turn as red as a beet. "Are you crazy? Why on earth would I thank an arrogant jerk like you for? There's no damn way that you saved me, cuz I was never in any danger!" shouted the irate martial artist.

Lightning matched his scowl. "Who are you to call me arrogant? You are unable to even admit that you were in danger! If my brother and I hadn't arrived when we had, that great beast would have unleashed its fire breath upon you all!"

"As if! I woulda stopped that thing easy! I don't need no fancy dressin lightning bugs butting in on my fights!" fired back the pigtailed fighter.

The electrical powered teen gasped angrily. "You dare to compare one such as myself to a lowly insect? Are you completely lacking in common courtesy, you debased scrapper?"

Daizo groaned loudly again. Was this the time or the place for an argument like this? These damn kids were embarrassing him in front of his fellow officers! Luckily, Thunder stepped forward and began to calm his brother, even as Kurumi started kicking Ranma repeatedly in the shins for his rudeness-

"Hey, idiots!"

The shout gathered everyone's attention in a flash. Everyone present turned to face the speaker, glaring slightly at the Yamasen-ken master. Kumon met all of the glares evenly, before pointing casually over everyone's shoulder.

"In case you morons hadn't noticed, this fight isn't over yet." Everyone followed the path his finger made, to see the collapsed Godzilla-clone climbing to its feet once more, not a scratch present on its massive body. "So, unless you all wanna get killed over a stupid argument, I suggest you all shut the hell up and we figure out how to take this thing down for good."

Thunder and Lightning turned to face each other, shocked expressions on their faces. "B-but how is that possible?" asked the gentle giant. "Your strike had rent its flesh asunder . . ."

The Lieutenant stepped between the two boys and clapped a hand onto each of their shoulders. "Look, we'll fill you in on what the hell is goin on later. Here's the basics: big lizard thing no die. There, you're caught up now, lets move on."

He just smiled wickedly as the two teens stared at him, totally confused. He chuckled happily, tweaking these super powered kids was one of the last simple joys that life seemed to be offering him lately. Of course, he had absolutely no idea how they were gonna do it, but hey, the more the merrier.

Then suddenly, apparently for no reason at all, Ranma snapped his fingers loudly. Everyone turned to face the boy, curious as to why the young man had started laughing in such an evil manner. He just met their gazes, a slightly manic look in his eyes.

"Oh, yes, I gotta plan."

Everyone stared at him, worried and confused looks on their faces. He didn't even bother answering their unasked question. He didn't have time, the inspiration was burning too hotly in his mind, it was co-opting every neuron that wasn't dedicated to breathing or pumping blood. The plan was rough, but it was all sliding together like some mad genius' jigsaw puzzle.

He wanted to laugh out loud -

Water Balloons! Of course, he knew it would work, there was no way that it couldn't work, all of the pieces were right there and waiting to be used!

Oops, the looks on everyone's faces were starting to slide from worried to concerned for their own well-being. He didn't want to scare them away now . . . though he was having trouble hiding his smile.

The heir to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling took a long, calming breath. He then looked around to he collective comrades.

First, he pointed to the massive teen, Thunder. "Alright, Thunder, on my signal, I want you to do that flying attack again. I need you to stun the monster long enough for the rest of us to get ready," he stated carefully. Thunder looked to his brother, a questioning expression on his face. Lightning looked to Ranma, then back to his brother . . . then nodded, once. With that, the blue armored warrior also nodded.

Ranma then looked to the other four fighters. "Alright, I need you all to do what I say, when I say it, okay? It probably won't make a lot of sense at the time, but just trust me, I know this will work," he asked eagerly.

He then looked to the Lieutenant. "Hey, old man, you might wanna get clear, this is gonna get pretty wild in here." Rather than argue, the tired looking officer simply nodded and retreated.

A minute later, Ranma had everyone arranged like he wanted. The six of them facing down the eighty meter monstrosity. The pigtailed fighter was nearly shaking in anticipation, it was an all or nothing gambit, but then, they all were really. The monolithic beast stared down at them, rage boiling out from its hateful eyes.

Then the monster took a step forward.

"Now, Thunder!" he shouted.

In a flash, the cloud riding thunder spirit took off, a tail of azure light trailing him. A second later, Thunder crashed into the beast's head again, unleashing a punch with all the fury of a thunderbolt behind it. Though not nearly as impressive as his first strike, it was still enough to send the monster's head snapping painfully to the side.

Ranma quickly turned to Natsume and Kurumi. "You two, use the Hiryua Karimbou on its chest, now." he ordered quickly.

With grace borne of countless repetition, the two girls came together. Kurumi unleashed her crimson ribbon and started twirling it rapidly, a second later, it began to glow ominously as she funneled her molten chi through the narrow strip of cloth. Then Natsume pulled out her rug beater and expelled a gust of her arctic chi in a whirlwind of force. The two opposing powers combined instantly, and a massive wind funnel a dozen feet in diameter roared to life.

"Hiryua Karimbou!"

Just like before, the sinuous cyclone tore through the air and slammed into the monster's chest, pushing it back slightly with the intense pressure they were creating. Ranma nodded, happy with the progress so far. Now it was his turn. He positioned himself carefully around eight feet to the side of the girls and focused his own power. He clinically studied the rapid flow, the spiraling power of the girl's cyclone attack . . .

"Hiryua Shoten Ha!"

The pigtailed martial artist chuckled evilly to himself. He had done this before, used their Hiryua Karimbou to create a horizontal Hiryua Shoten Ha. Of course, he had been countering their attack that time, and thus his attack had been much weaker than normal . . .

This time he was adding the power of their attack to his own!

Suddenly the base of the wind tunnel the girls were creating swelled to double its original diameter, growing in his direction so that the center of the vortex was now between him and the sisters; rather fitting since it now belonged to both of them. The power of the combined attack flowed up the entire length of the cyclone, transforming an angry serpent into a raging dragon! Then the force of his super attack slammed into the chest of the monster, actually forcing it back several steps.

The monster howled in pain, as the full-fledged tornado began to tear angrily into its leathery hide.

Then, shouting as loud as he could to be heard over the howling winds, Ranma turned to Lightning.

"Lightning! Fire right up the middle of the tornado! Tear this oversized bastard a new one!"

The master of lightning actually stood there for a moment, staring in awe at the elemental force they had wrought. A second later, the spiky haired warrior shook off his amazement and stepped between Ranma and Natsume and Kurumi. He then unleashed a terrible and powerful bolt of lighting, which traveled straight and true up the length of the vortex. In the blink of an eye, the bolt hit home, exploding a hole in the center of the beast's chest. For a moment, green ooze began to spray out of the wound, but almost instantly, the force of the winds pushed the liquid forcefully back into the gory wound.

Finally, Ranma turned to the master of the Yamasen-ken.

"Ryu! Start firing vacuum blades into the tornado!"

Quickly, Lighting moved out of the way and Ryu took his place at the center of the tornado's mouth. The Kumon heir looked at him quizzically for a moment, before simply shrugging. Then -

"Saidaikyū Kijin Raishū Dan

His arms blurring faster than anyone other than Ranma himself could follow, Ryu unleashed his ultimate technique. Vacuum slash after vacuum slash flew into the mouth of the ravenous wind tunnel. Ranma smiled, as he critically watched each and every blade, marking exactly how far each one made it up the length of the tornado before dissipating into the winds. Carefully, the blue eyed martial artist started creeping off to the side, away from the center of the tornado.

Ryu just continued his deadly onslaught, sweat flying in arcs as the boy put every possible ounce of energy into his attack. Judging by the confused look on the guy's face, it was becoming apparent that he had no idea what Ranma was thinking. The Yamasen-ken master could see just as clearly as Ranma could that the vacuum blades were all dissipating harmlessly before even reaching the monster's chest, which had already been cut open anywa-

Suddenly, a great howl filled the air, as the monster suddenly started roaring in pain. The bellow was quickly followed by a loud, incredibly loud rumbling sound. Ranma took several more quick steps to the side, positioning himself on the very outer edge of the massive tornado, just close enough to continue feeding his powerful cold aura into the wind funnel.

Ranma smiled widely then, as the rumbling sound rapidly increased in volume, beginning to sound suspiciously similar to a raging river. Suddenly, Ryu stopped his assault, dropping his arms to his side. Instantly, the Kumon boy turned to face him, stark understanding appearing on his face.

"Wait a second! I know what you're up t-"

The word 'Splash' didn't even do justice to the sound as the torrential river of green ooze being sucked down the wind funnel suddenly crashed into the poor boy with the force of a runaway freight train. Luckily, Natsume and Kurumi had mirrored his movements, so they were at the far side of the tornado as well, and weren't washed away in the flood like Ryu had just been.

Ranma laughed loudly in triumph! "Anything Goes School of Indiscriminate Grappling Ultimate Attack!" he roared to the heavens themselves.

"Demon God Assaults the Flying Dragon Drinking Through a Straw Technique! You scaly bastard!"

The master of the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling shouted the name of his masterful new technique for all to hear. It had all come together so perfectly, even better than he could have imagined!

The way that the monster had behaved when injured, spraying out green liquid, hadn't coincided with any known injury he had ever seen before. Instead, it had reminded him strongly of what happened when you poked a hole in a water balloon. The water shot out in a spurt, and the lower on the balloon you made the hole, the stronger the stream because all of the weight of the water above it was pushing it out.

A living body didn't work at all like that. Blood traveled through veins and arteries and capillaries, people just weren't blood filled sacks (contrary to what it seemed like in some anime he watched), if you pricked a person, blood would just drip out. And that had made him think back to Mecha-Boi, when he had burst open, there hadn't been anything inside, no computer parts or circuits, or whatever was inside a robot. It was like the mechanical boy had just been a sack of liquid.

And since this Godzilla-look-alike shared the same powers, it only made sense that it was made of the same goo . . . just green in this case.

Of course, none of that information had actually meant anything to him before. After all, what did it matter if it was a sack full of juice, if it healed nearly instantly anyway? Not even an attack as devastating as Lightning's first strike had been enough to keep it down.

It had all clicked, ironically like a bolt of lightning in his mind.

He squinted his eye and looked away, not wanting to get any stray drops of juice in his eyes as the river continued to flow past him. In the distance, at the other end of the tornado, he could see the monster, still writhing and howling, even as the vortex continued to drain its lifeblood out at an astonishing rate. And, if he wasn't mistaken, the monster actually seemed to be . . . deflating.

He smiled even wider. It might take a few minutes, but . . .

This fight was over!

Lieutenant Uehara continued to watch in morbid fascination. It had taken ten minutes, but the monster had finally collapsed into nothing more than a huge pile of empty leather. It was probably going to be another one of those traumatic events that would be forever branded into his memory.

He had never seen anyone bleed out a monster before, it was . . . a powerfully disturbing image. It had long since stopped moving, but apparently Saotome and the girls weren't taking any chances, they hadn't stopped until the every last drop of green liquid had been sucked out of the damned beast. He looked down the street, the river of emerald stretching out beyond sight. May the gods take pity on the poor bastards that had to clean that mess up.

He didn't even turn to regard the slopping sounds of someone approaching from behind him. With an exhausted sigh, what he . . . assumed to be Kumon, dropped down to sit on the tipped over phone booth beside him. The entire boy was coated from head to toe in a thick layer of the stuff that covered the street.

Nasty trick that had been of Saotome, getting Ryu stuck in the middle of all of that. He wouldn't have been surprised if Ryu had been washed out into another district by the river of goo that had carried him off. Shame, that, Saotome and Kumon didn't seem to get along that well before, this probably wasn't gonna help much.

A few minutes later, an exhausted group came over to join them. Ranma was practically dragging himself across the pavement, as Thunder and Lighting carried Kurumi and Natsume respectively. The younger of the two sisters was completely unconscious from the effort and the elder sister didn't seem too far behind. Apparently not feeling up to carrying the larger girl, Lightning walked over to their seat and was about to set her down beside him.

Daizo rolled his eyes at the young hero and nodded his head to the side forcefully, indicating the boy on his other side. Lighting looked at him, confused for a second, before smiling slyly. The pale boy then walked over and placed the girl at Ryu's side, leaning her carefully against him. If the bandanna wearing boy or the pony tailed girl minded, neither one gave a sign.

"Well, Saotome, maybe once you're done smiling like you just found the cure for cancer, you could tell us just what the hell that was that you just did?" he barked, a little cranky. Hmm, not that he should have been cranky, considering they had just done the impossible . . . what was that, the eighth time that night, or the tenth? But . . . it had been one hell of a night, that was certain.

The look on the boy's face was priceless as he mulled over the request. It was obvious that the boy had an entire spiel prepared, explaining every detail of his oh-so clever plan in intricate detail, but the boy looked so damned exhausted that even he realized he'd probably pass out before he actually finished his explanation.

So instead, the pigtailed boy took a long, deep breath. "That thing healed any wound instantly a few seconds after every attack. So we just made an attack that didn't stop," Saotome stopped for a moment, taking a few more breaths before continuing. "The only real trick to it, was usin Ryu's attacks together with ours. The Hiryua Shoten Ha, it sucks things up from the bottom and shoots em out the top, same with their attack." He gestured meaningfully to Natsume.

"All we did was use the vacuums that Ryu made. They dispersed all of the air in the tornado, and since air could only get in the top and the bottom, but not the sides, something had to fill the vacuum. Since Kumon over there was pretty much stopping anything from getting in on our end, the only thing that could fill in said vacuum was the goo that filled up that monster."

Ryu nodded, "And by the time the stuff shot out and washed me away, there were already thousands of liters of the junk shooting out the bottom of the tornado, so no air could get back in. After that, it was pretty much all the work of gravity: the monster goo escaping to the lowest point."

Daizo stared back and forth between the two boys, astonishment clear on his features. "W-what the hell? That actually sounded like you knew what the hell you were talking about? Who are you two and what have you done with Saotome and Kumon?"

Ranma just chuckled. "Heh, as much as I don't care about school, old man, martial arts is pretty much all physics. We might not look like those fancy guys with lab coats, but when it comes to knowing how things work we do know what we're talkin 'bout," stated the boy, a hint of pride in his tone.

The Lieutenant could only shake his head, utterly amazed. It was so easy to forget just how skilled these crazy kids were, and the incredible amount of knowledge they would need to possess to attain those skills. Still . . .

"Kid, I just gotta know, where the heck did you get the idea?"

The pigtailed boy shrugged weakly, actually blushing slightly in embarrassment. "Well, ya see, right at the end there . . . I suddenly remembered something that I had seen earlier . . ."

Everyone continued to stare, urging the kid to continue. "Well . . . ya see, I just remembered this nifty commercial I saw on TV the other day . . ."

"For Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaners . . ."

Brushogun howled in rage! His clawed limbs flashed out, tearing through wall, furniture and minion alike. Everything around him vanished in his fit of rage, torn to shreds, smashed to pieces or splattered into unrecognizable ink splotches against the remains of the building's interior.

And every single ink blot looked exactly like Saotome being disemboweled in the most painful ways imaginable!

How? How was it possible for Deka-Mido to be defeated? His creation had been unstoppable, indestructible . . . and yet, it had been destroyed . . .in the most bizarre method imaginable. He had no idea how the martial artist had done . . . whatever it was that he had done, but it was becoming crystal clear that his enemy's power was growing more dangerous with every passing minute.

And now the bastard had two more comrades! These ones wielding power over the elements of thunder and lightning no less! If things continued at this rate, the Ink Demon would be buried under a veritable mountain of martial artists and super heroes before two months passed.

No . . . no, it was time to end this! He had to stop Saotome and his companions now, before they had a chance to gain even more power and allies. Not only that, he needed to make an example of these impudent heroes. He had to crush them so utterly, break their spirits so completely, that no one would ever dare to even raise a hand in defiance again!

Yes, a duel, that was it! A final, climactic battle between the forces of good and evil. Brushogun with his infinite power and evil versus Saotome and his pathetic skills and worthless companions.

A long, liquid chuckle escaped his lips. Yes, a duel, at a time and place of his own choosing, just as it was meant to be. It was time to close the chapter on the life of Saotome Ranma . . .

And he knew exactly how to make the challenge.

Ranma led his rather sizable entourage back to the Tendo Dojo. They had left the Lieutenant back at the scene of the battle, literally shouting curses to the heavens at the mountains of paperwork that were going to result from that battle. The pigtailed boy certainly didn't envy the old man that task, in fact, he was pretty sure that he had gotten the better end of the deal, after all, Ranma only had to defeat a twenty story, radioactive dinosaur, the Lieutenant was stuck actually cleaning up after that fight . . .

The walk back had been long (there wasn't a taxi in the city that would pick them up the way they were looking) and it had been rather quiet as well. They had taken a few minutes to explain the situation a bit to the elemental twins, and how bad things had been getting lately, so the two of them had agreed to stick around for at least a little while to see if they couldn't help out.

The reason that the walk had passed in comfortable silence was because of the sleeping girls in Ryu's and Thunder's arms. Natsume had lasted pretty much just long enough to hear Ranma's explanation of their victory, before she had joined her sister in slumber. So, no one really wanting to wake up either girl, and everyone being pretty much just too emotionally drained to wanna talk anyway, they had silently consented to introduce themselves a little more formally later.

Preferably after a bath, or three.

Finally! Finally, after what felt like forever (he was so going to ask for a ride next time) the roof of the Dojo came into sight. Gods, that was the last time that he ever walked that far after a pitched battle against a Godzilla lookin monstrosity . . .

Hell, he sure as heck hoped that was the last time that he had a pitched battle against a Godzilla lookin monstrosity.

Wait a second . . . something was wrong - something felt off.

He stiffened slightly at the foreign sensation, his companions doing likewise.

"There is a foul scent in the air, one that runs contrary to the laws of nature itself . . .," muttered Thunder in a somber tone.

Well, that was a good a way to put it as any. Not wanting to wait, Ranma signaled for Ryu and Thunder to wait and for Lightning to come with him. No need to endanger the sleeping girls.

The two of them ran towards the Dojo. Damn! There was a hole in the exterior wall! It looked like something had just smashed through the structure, spraying the backyard with rocks and mortar. They ran through the hole, scanning everything quickly. He . . . he didn't sense anything there, just the lingering traces of something that had been there. But whatever it was, like Thunder had said, it didn't feel right, not at all.

It took less than a second to see that a battle had taken place here. There was a gaping hole where the screen door used to be, but not from the usual, relatively controlled entrances of Shampoo, this looked like something had just torn half the wall away in one furious swipe.

In a flash, his armored companion hot on his heels, he jumped through the hole and into the Tendo's dining room. Again, the room was utterly destroyed, the obvious signs of a terrible and terribly swift battle everywhere.

A sense of dread began to build in the young martial artist's heart. He was sure he knew exactly what had happened here, exactly why they had come. He knew, without even taking another step, that he wouldn't be able to find his fiancée within the confines of this house . . .

Suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the entire night drop down on his head, he collapsed to his knees, lacking the strength to even stand any longer. All he could do was stare at the floor, his eyes as empty as his heart. He was pretty sure he was going into shock . . . but strangely, the knowledge didn't seem to help him do anything about it.

It – it was all his fault . . . It was just like Nabiki said, because he was such an idiot . . .

A . . . Akane . . . she was . . .

"Ranma, look at this!" Lightning's shrill voice seemed like it was coming from another world, the words didn't even register to him as he continued to kneel there, the weight of his actions starting to crush down on his soul.

"It looks like a – a challenge letter . . . how traditional . . ."

The words continued to flow over Ranma like water over a rock, nothing the other boy could possibly say could reach him, not in the state he was in.

"Hmm, very nice calligraphy, hmm, I wonder who this 'Akane' girl is that he keeps going on abo-"

An instant later, Lightning was embedded in the far wall as Ranma slammed into him and tore the piece of paper from the boy's fingers with wild desperation. Quickly, as quickly as he could, Ranma started to read the artfully written letter. It began rather poetically . . .

'Dear Saotome,'

'I am known as Brushogun,'

'I have Akane.'