Disclaimer: Obviously, I have no ownership over Ranma, Digimon and Rockman merchandise or anything related to them that are copyrighted by someone else, not me. Not the other me, nor the past me nor the future me. Don't mistake me for the people who own it, since I'm not them. Any scenes that may seem similar to something else are pure coincidences too.
Note: I have no idea what to do with the Ranma universe for now. I got a small one, but it seems to be stupid to me. Maybe I'll get one later. Hell, you guys should chuck me into the category of slow updaters. Cause that's what I've become. A sloooow updater.
FirehedgehogThanks. Let's get started on that fic soon.
Silverscale Too bad. Is it working now?
Fatboy Thanks for noticing it, but I'm taking that part out. I don't like how my fic would develop if Ranma started learning techniques from animes like that.
DARK1 ULTIMATE: I said I didn't know how to edit my bio? I guess I said something like that, but I don't remember what it was. Oh well. Yea, and I figured that the first day submitted my prologue to FFnet.
needmore Damn, you just love to give long reviews. I love them anyways. Anyways, you're right. It's a mistake I made before I was able to read more into Ranma's character. But I've been able to get my hands on my friend's Ranma manga so I think I can write into his character better now. Haven't quite reached the end… No, not merging, I really hate too much of it. And the power thing? Well lots of things have reached that point, need more power, he's stronger, more power… God, I try to avoid it as much as I can. I don't mind your opinion, you've been reviewing since I started out, along with large reviews that can help. I like to hear opinions on my story, so thanks. Axl's a different person, he's not Ranma and so…
Hiryo Thanks for the tip, and I did so. I don't want Ranma and Axl to be similar, they are different people/Navi, so I'll be trying to avoid having them copy each other.
Xtor49: Yay! Another reader! Thanks for catching up, here's another update. I'm a slow updater, please don't mind it.
Wild Horse. Exe
Chapter 14: Underwater Fairy
Douglas entered the room after inputting the code to unlock it. Looking around the room, he found Takato sitting by his computer surfing the internet.
"Hey Takato, got a surprise for you." Said Douglas walking behind Takato.
Swiveling around in his moving chair, Takato looked at Douglas with a confused expression, "Umm, what?"
"Well, after a bit of research, the guys and I were able to come up with a firewall." Started Douglas as he went into more detail.
Takato sighed, he would stop Douglas, but he seemed to like it whenever someone would listen to him about this kind of thing. Maybe he would listen, but Douglas for once stopped himself.
"Oh yea, here's your Pet. The firewall was to block off Midi's and Techno's weird connection." Said Douglas as he handed Takato his Pet turned off.
"What?" quickly standing up and grabbing his Pet, Takato turned it on. After going through the Pet loading screen, and the password, Takato saw Midi smiling at him.
Somewhat awkwardly, but still smiling, Midi waved with a meek, "Hi."
Takato eyes widened in surprise as he jumped onto Douglas hugging him, "Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!"
"You're welcome Takato." Said Douglas smiling at Takato.
Takato merely hugged Douglas harder and buried his face in Douglas' coat happily, "Fankoufankoufankoufankoufankoufankou…"
Douglas tried to get Takato off him without pushing too hard, "I get it… Why don't you talk with Midi a bit instead?"
Immediately, Takato pulled himself out of his hug that he gave Douglas and sat back onto his chair looking at his Pet screen where Midi was still smiling. Douglas chose this chance to leave quickly to get back to his work; apparently he had pushed other matters aside and had been working on fixing the firewall, now he had a lot of work to catch up on.
"I can't believe it! They did it! I'm glad you're back Midi!" exclaimed Takato.
"I'm glad too Takato, anything happen while I was out of it?" questioned Midi.
"Somewhat, yea," muttered Takato, "Niro's gone missing, and the building was attacked last week by a lot of viruses."
"Attacked by viruses? That means you couldn't do anything Takato. Sorry." Apologized Midi a bit sadly.
Waving his arms in a wild attempt to cheer Midi up, Takato said, "No, no! Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're back."
-----
"Wily, I have been able to create four of them for you now, but only one of them has the upgrade you have given them." Said Techno from the screen, "I suggest you do the same for the other three before they are destroyed."
"I know that!" snapped Dr. Wily, "I am not stupid! When I finish modifying these programs, if not, then this'll shut down and become useless…"
-----
Elsewhere
"So you can't really control it at all?"
Axl shook his head, "Not one bit. I've run tests, but this is beyond the what the tests can comprehend." He stated.
"So you can't really use it that well." Said Ranma, "That kind of sucks…" but Ranma couldn't help but feel a bit of pride that he could control this and Axl couldn't. He didn't want his hard work to be copied so easily like that.
Axl was thinking, he then said, "Hey Ranma, can you let me onto the Net for a while?"
"Yea, sure. Why?" questioned Ranma as he moved towards his computer.
"Wander around the City, think about stuff." Answered Axl calmly.
"If you really wanna then." Mumbled Ranma as he absentmindedly plugged Axl into the computer.
A quick moment after Axl entered the city, he slowly started to walk the unfinished streets, thinking. The object of his wondering was the Navi that had so easily defeated him. So easily… Fefnir, Fire Guardian of Wily.
"Damn… What makes him so strong? Am I just that weak?" questioned Axl to himself as his feet walked as if they weren't a part of his body, "He was just playing around too!"
After a bit longer of Axl pulling himself together, he said to himself, "I'll beat him. I know I'll find a way."
-----
"Yanoto, have you ever gave a thought about giving Takato a try at it?" asked Yuuichirou from the computer he was sitting at.
"Eh? No, why?" replied Yanoto from his lazy position where he was resting his head on his arms, and his arms on his desk, slumped in front of the computer across from Yuuichirou.
"Well, I think Takato would be more accustomed to this kind of thing, considering his history and all."
"What? … Biomerge." stated Yanoto as his posture immediately turned from tired to awake.
"Exactly," Yuuichirou nodded, "Takato has experienced sharing a body with another being on a digital level. It also seems that Digimon and Navis are quite similar in their programming. I wouldn't be surprised if his Digimon are the results of technical programming and experimenting in his world, like how Navis are the results of ours."
"I'll run a number of tests, and look at the data we have of Takato's world and the Cross Fusion data once again, to see if this would work. I don't wish for the same thing to happen to Takato." Said Yanoto as he started to run a couple of programs on the computer, "It'll take some time to go through it all properly. Could you send someone to ask Takato to the front of the Lab in two weeks?"
Yuuichirou nodded as he resumed his work, "You do that, and I'll have to do it myself though, others wouldn't understand why he needs to go there. I'll do my best to cover up for you too. Who knows, having Takato try it might give us a major breakthrough in bringing the Navis over a physical side. I just hope it won't cause more trouble for the other workers."
-----
"Class, I'm sorry to inform you," started the teacher as she stood up at the end few seconds of class, "But this class will be the last class you will be having for some time." A couple of excited cheers erupted here and there, but were quickly silenced as the teacher glared at them all.
"Yes!" exclaimed Ranma as he stood up making his way to the door ignoring the glare, and the point of class not quite ending yet.
"Sit back down!" snapped the teacher at Ranma before she continued, "As you know, for the past two weeks, there have been mysterious kidnappings. So I urge you all to stay with friends or with a parental eye over you, as you never know what may happen."
As class ended, Takato spoke to Ranma, Evani, and Tom, "Like she says, it's two weeks. Two weeks since Niro disappeared, and about one week since Hurai disappeared too."
"What the goddamn hell is happening here!" exclaimed Ranma saying what was in everyone's mind.
Ranma's head was met with a quick snap with a plastic ruler, "No one speaks like that in my classroom Ranma!"
Ranma groaned as he rolled his eyes openly at the teacher, "Sorry, but it's the end of class though..."
The teacher narrowed her eyes, "Sit back down for another thirty minutes."
Ranma jumped to his feet, "What? That's not fair! I said 'Sorry'!"
"No talking back to the teacher!" and Ranma's head met with the plastic ruler again before the teacher briskly walked away.
"Damn, doesn't listen to a word I say." Muttered Ranma as he sat back down in his chair with a huff, "Abusive too."
"You realize not rolling your eyes when saying 'Sorry' would help." Evani, giggling a bit, all seriousness forgotten in the short moment Ranma had been given trouble.
"Old habit." Answered Ranma as he rested his head back on the chair.
Tom thought to himself before saying, "Even if you talk back, at least make a stronger point for yourself."
"New habit, can't argue with adults when you're a kid."
"True." Said Takato, "Although how true you wouldn't figure…" mumbled Takato quietly to himself.
"Well, see you later Ranma." Said Evani as she suddenly stood up.
Nodding, Tom also stood up, "Later."
"Sorry Ranma, but I'm not sitting here for another thirty minutes." Said Takato meekly as he also stood up to follow the other two out of the classroom.
"… Traitors, all of them." mumbled Ranma, "Well, maybe not all." Ranma pulled his Pet out and looked at the screen before dropping the Navi-less Pet back into its pouch.
"Yup. All of them."
-----
"That was kind of mean guys…" said Takato to the other two.
"Don't worry about it Takato, I'm sure Ranma understands." Smiled Evani.
"Ah, I just remembered I was asked to go somewhere today." Said Takato remembering something.
Tom gave Takato a look, wondering what it was about, "Can we come? We don't have anything else to do today."
"I'm not sure, but I guess we'll find out, won't we?" said Takato, giving them a friendly grin, "It's this way!"
After a bit of running with their short legs, Takato and the two others came to the door with the letters 'Lab' imprinted on it. The three were about to walk in, when a nearby scientists quickly rushed forward and blocked their way, "Sorry kids, but you can't run around in here. There's important stuff in there that you can't touch." He said in a tone that sounded like he expected them to go running in acting like wild monkeys.
"But I was told to come here." Said Takato trying to explain their presence.
The man looked at Takato with a scornful gaze, "Now see here, I'm sure no one would ask you to come here of all place. Don't try to play one of your tricks on me, because I'm very sure no adult with any sense would ask you to come here."
"Actually, I was the one who asked them to Takato to come by." Said Yuuichirou as the door slid open and he put a hand on the man's shoulder to indicate that he was behind him.
"Ah! I-I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize that!" sputtered the man as he realized who it was, "I'll be moving along then." he said as he quickly rushed off.
Yuuichirou gave a glance at the direction the man had gone before turning back to Takato and the two children. Crouching down to face the three at face level, Yuuichirou smiled, "I didn't realize that you would bring your friends along too Takato."
"Was it wrong of me?" questioned Takato.
"Not at all. I'm sure your friends won't cause too much trouble." Answered Yuuichirou as he stood back up, "Just follow me in." he said as he walked into the Lab.
"Thanks Mr.!" exclaimed Evani as she quickly followed after him.
Takato was silent as he walked into the room, seeing the cube shaped machine in the center, Takato couldn't help but remember the event that had taken place in this room when he last came here. Clasping a hand around the Digivice hanging around his neck, next to his goggles, Takato calmed himself down as he felt the active warmness of the machinery. Quickly moving after the others, along with Tom who had passed by him as he was thinking, Takato wondered why he was being asked to come here. But, the idea of Yuuichirou wanting him to try doing what Ranma had done probably wasn't too far off. Why else would he have been called here?
Takato soon noticed that Evani and Tom were headed in a different direction. A stairway to be exact, asking where they were going, Yuuichirou answered, "They're going upstairs so that they can watch, but not get in the way of the people that are moving around."
"Ah… Yea, that's true." Mumbled Takato as his eyes followed their movement.
"Now Takato, either you figured out why you're here, or you have a small idea. But what I want you to do is help us with an experiment." Said Yuuichirou.
"Experiment? Are you sure a child should be helping with this stuff?" questioned Takato a bit unsure of it all.
"At least listen to what he has to say Takato; I find this all very interesting. Like that machine over there, the way it's been put together, and how all those people know exactly what they're doing…" started Midi as he started rambling about the room.
"I'm positive. Ranma was doing the same thing when you had suddenly burst into this room a while back."
Takato thought a bit, it was completely sensible for him to say 'no', but last time… Last time he had been able to detect Guilmon on his Digivice. Maybe, maybe if this time the energy was centered on him, maybe he could even come in contact with Guilmon. Takato steeled himself; he would do anything to get Guilmon back.
"I'll do it."
Yanoto let out a breath, "Phew, I wasn't sure if you'd accept or not. Come on, we need to get you strapped up for this."
Obediently following after Yanoto, Takato quickly got the equipment settled on him. Walking up into the machine, Takato looked around in wonder as the digital panels started to appear around inside the machine. Takato gasped as he heard a beep from around his neck. Pulling his Digivice up, he gasped in wonder, Guilmon was near him, next to him. Takato looked to his side, there was nothing there. But he just felt, that Guilmon was right next to him.
Touching the side of the machine in curiosity, Takato felt the panels beneath his hands. For a brief moment, Takato felt like he had been able to get into contact with Guilmon, yet he couldn't get completely through. As quick as the brief moment was, the sudden shock to his hands surprised him as he fell backwards.
"Takato, what are you doing? Hurry up with it!" exclaimed Yanoto.
Takato swallowed, not yet. He was sure he could get in contact with Guilmon. "Guilmon." Takato whispered, "I don't understand. Why?"
"Takato, what's wrong?" questioned Midi, confused at why Takato hadn't initiated the Cross Fusion yet.
"Guilmon's beside me, but he's not here. I don't see him. Guilmon."
"… Takato, you're of flesh and blood right now. You can't touch the panels without seriously harming yourself. Maybe, maybe if you get the data from the Cross Fusion, you may be able to do it. Did you think about it that way? Data." Said Midi a bit quietly, he didn't know if he really wanted Guilmon to come or not. Takato would be happy, but would he? Takato seemed to dote on Guilmon much more.
"That makes sense. Maybe. I'll give it a try Midi." Stated Takato as he stood up and held his Pet in front of him, "Cross Fusion."
As the words left Takato's mouth, and the chip fell into the slot that if fit in, Takato's Pet burst into white data. The data seemed to float around aimlessly, before settling around Takato's body. As they were about to settle down, another thing not expected happened. The Digivice around Takato's neck also started to emit data, forming a continuously changing color of red and black. Both data mingled with each other as they floated around the inside aimlessly, as it were waiting.
"We're picking up very strange readings from this child!" shouted out one of the people at a machine.
From another machine, another shouted, "Not only that, but the data readings are going way off the expected levels!"
"We're picking up another strange signal from inside, no it's not inside or outside! What's going on?"
Takato stared in wonder at the area, before he saw that the black and red data was drifting closer to the right side, falling into the wall, as it seemed to meld with the panels there. All of a sudden, Takato saw a quick moment of solid white appear, before disappearing. A moment later, it appeared again, and didn't go away. A claw, behind that came a black paw. It was of a different colour, but Takato could recognize it from anywhere.
"Guilmon!" he gasped as he took a hold of the paw, tugging on it.
To the eyes of all the scientists in the room, an animal like paw seemed to be appearing out of thin air inside the machine. All were surprised, that only a few were able to keep their eyes on the machines, and the readouts in front of them.
"Guilmon! Guilmon! Come on! I'm right here!" shouted Takato as he held on to the paw for all he was worth.
More and more came out, a moment later, from another area, a mouth started to appear, "Takato… Takato!" faster and faster Guilmon started to appear, as the black and red data seemed to be falling off the wall and onto the body of Guilmon. A few seconds later was all it took, for Guilmon to completely appear, although in a different colour tone, Takato was excited, and couldn't help himself from falling onto and hugging Guilmon, "Guilmon!" he cried, "You're back! And your black? Whatever, you're back!"
"Takatomon!" exclaimed the Digimon as he leaned forward into Takato knocking him over onto the floor and nuzzling his head in Takato's shirt, "Takato!"
"A virus!" exclaimed a scientist from the outside, "It's a virus of an unknown type!"
"The readouts are of a virus with a highly developed system!"
Again, the words of virus were repeated over and over as different readouts stated different things, yet all gave the same conclusion, the newly appeared data was a virus.
Takato blinked as he heard the words, "Yea, Guilmon is a Virus-Type, how do you know that?"
As the words were said, there was no movement made to switch off the Dimensional Field, "It's alright." Stated Yanoto as he smiled at the people looking over at him, "This is not the virus that we are use to." Behind Yanoto was another man, rubbing his injured hand, "Too rough." He complained as he held it.
"Takato!" shouted Yanoto from his position, "Continue with the Cross Fusion!"
"What? But-" sputtered Takato, was Yanoto not surprised at Guilmon appearing? "But I-"
"Finish it Takato! You can enjoy your time with Guilmon later! I don't think Midi appreciates being stuck as data floating around!" shouted Yanoto in a commanding voice.
"Y-y-yes." Stuttered Takato as he got up from his position, "Just wait Guilmon…" he muttered a bit annoyed.
"Cross Fusion!" stated Takato a second time as he pushed the chip back into the slot after it had fallen out.
There was a moment's pause, before both machines owned by Takato started to show different list different readings and windows, before reading nearly the same thing. On his Pet it showed:
Link Established: Navi – Midi
New Navi Detected – Black Guilmon
System: Network Cross Fusion Activated
As for his Digivice:
Link Established: Digimon – Guilmon – Black Guilmon
New Partner Detected - Midi
System: Network Cross Fusion Activated
"What the-" was all Takato could get out of his mouth before both exploded into Data, with their own individual colours, creating a spectacle of white, red, and black around Takato.
Latching onto Takato's hands and feet, white gloves and boots started to form before the process were interrupted by the newer data, which overlapped with the previous, mixing in streaks of red in them. On the back of the gloves and top of the boot formed a black symbol, a large triangle with two smaller ones on the top sides of it. On his head formed a rather large, plain green helmet. On his forehead appeared another symbol, a hazard sign. In the middle of the center triangle appeared a blue crystal, and after that formed a white stripe going from the from the front of the forehead to the back. Yet after the last minute adjustments to the forehead, the process was joined in forming the helmet to be slimmer and streamlined. Over Takato's eyes, a red, see-through visor with green stripes on either side formed.
On his shoulders appeared the green shoulder guards usually on Midi, with the three triangle symbol appearing on each, and a small, black blade curving backwards and the suit over all appeared green with black stripes on the side towards the center, where another hazard symbol appeared with the center crystal.
As the process of joining the human, Navi, and Digimon was completed, Takato looked amazed down at himself, "Wha- What happened?"
"Amazing! The readings are completely perfect!"
"No, it was perfect! Now it's completely above perfection! The link between the living and digital has been perfected in this!"
Many murmurs of excitement started up all around the room, never would anyone would have expected this. While everyone was shocked, and some where quickly taking down notes, and saving the data, no one would have been more surprised the Takato. The joining of two was normal to him, as he had experienced it before, but the joining of three? Completely different.
"Guys… Guilmon… Midi?" questioned Takato quietly.
"Yes, I'm here Takato." Replied Midi's voice.
"Takatomon!" exclaimed an extremely cheerful voice, ringing throughout the head of Takato.
"Guilmon," Takato closed his eyes and smiled, "I'm glad I found you again, but I wish I could have found you again in a different place."
Takato suddenly imagined an image of Guilmon shaking his head and answering, "As long as Black Guilmon is with Takato, Black Guilmon is okay anywhere!"
At this moment, the scientists had completely finished their analyses. They had also recorded the process, and also saved the data. It was also then that Takato saw that the Dimensional Area was fading. It was soon, that the Cross Fusion separated into three, Takato, the Pet, and the Digivice. Takato looked wildly around, where was Guilmon? As he bent down to pick up the two objects, he noticed a very unusual scene. Guilmon was waving at him from inside his Digivice. Takato wondered how his Digivice was able to act as a Pet in this way. And why had Guilmon gone into the Digivice? Takato decided that the idea was too complicated, and decided to figure this out another time.
For now, he put the hanged the Digivice around his neck, and placed the Pet inside the holder. As he exited the machine through the glass door, Yanoto came up to him with a grin, "How was it? I made sure that no one will bother you about it, as I'm sure you don't want to be poked and prodded at for study. I'm also positive that your friends would like to talk to you too."
Nodding mutely, as he had no words to say, Takato met up with his two friends when they came down the stairs, and they were excitedly talking about how cool Takato had looked when Takato was part of the experiment. They also were questioning Takato about his Digivice, which Takato did not feel like showing off. Guilmon wasn't a zoo animal after all.
As the three wandered around the outside grounds for sometime, they wondered where Ranma had gotten to, because when they had gone back to the classroom, Ranma seemed to have already left. Soon after, the three separated as they went to their rooms, or to do personal activities.
-----
As for Ranma, the moment the thirty minutes had past, he had immediately bolted out the door as he followed the signal from Axl. As he ran into a unused room not too far off from the classroom for some privacy and quietness while he concentrated was, he grumbled, "Damn teacher for keeping me in… Now I might loose this…"
As it had happened, Axl had been in the Net City and had caught sight of the Navi named Fefnir, with a blue female Navi. Messaging Ranma and letting him know how to track him, Axl had followed after them, hoping to find something out. Plugging into a port, Ranma quickly went through Axl's status to find that no damage had been done so far, Ranma asked for the situation.
"They split up, Fefnir seems to have plugged out from an outer area, so I couldn't follow it. But the other Navi seems to be just wandering around. She seems to daydream a lot too!" exclaimed Axl quietly as he leaned against the wall across from the street watching the Navi.
"Is that so…" mumbled Ranma also watching the Navi through the screen that was looking through Axl's eyes. The two partners waited for quite a long time. While they waited, Ranma was able to take a better look at what the Navi looked like. Wearing a plain, tight, white suit with mostly a mix of blue and yellow, not too different from what Eau looked like. She wore very little armor, indicating that she was very fast. But what intrigued Ranma the most was the difference of her helmet from other Navis. She wore a blue helmet, with a few highlights of white. Protruding from the back of it where four fin like objects. Two smaller ones on the top, and two larger ones under them. She also had a red crystal on her forehead, with blue plates spread out under it like a fan.
Ranma was regretting choosing such a quiet place, and had thought about moving to another spot. But his thoughts immediately thought better of it, for the Navi might move or attack Axl while he wasn't connected.
"Ah, she's moving again. How has she been standing in that same spot!" exclaimed Axl as he started walking a few minutes after her.
"… Incredible… Two or three hours I suppose… How can she stand being so still for so long?" mumbled Ranma as his eye twitched. Watching the view screen and keeping an eye of what part of the building Axl had gotten to, Ranma wondered what this Navi was up to. Was she even someone really acquainted with Fefnir? Or was it just some random Navi?
"Axl, from following your signal, I'm guessing you're at the swimming pool…" mumbled Ranma as he bit into a curry bread that he found at the bottom of his bag along with his other things that were needed for the class.
"Yes, I realize that, but the system maintenance section of it to be exact. Just wait in that room. She doesn't seem to have moved much from the area she's in. I'm gonna go in and check it out."
"… Alright, be careful though."
A moment of silence passed before Axl responded again, "Damn! The Navi's fighting with Eau! Why is she here? The place is starting to flood too!" What Axl had said was true. Water seemed to be gathering in the area they were in. so far, the water had reached up to the Navi's ankles.
"What? That means Evani's there too, right?" questioned Ranma.
"Ranma, did you hear what I said? I said 'Why is she here?'! If I didn't know that, how am I suppose to know if Evani's there or not?" retorted Axl exasperated before holding out a hand to form his gun.
"Dammit, don't you start acting like me now!" exclaimed Ranma before calming himself down, "You should go help Eau now, since Fefnir was able to beat you so easily, this Navi is probably as stronger."
"No… Look Eau's able to hold her own." Replied Axl lowering his gun a bit from firing position.
"What? Does that mean you're weaker than Eau!"
"What! No way, this Navi is weaker than Fefnir." Answered Axl as he brought the gun back up. Not wanting to risk catching Eau in a charged blast, he braced his feet on the floor so the recoil wouldn't affect his aim too much. Taking aim, he started firing short burst at the Navi.
Suddenly Eau and the Navi took notice of him, and Eau shouted out, "Axl! Butt out of this battle!"
"What? Why?" questioned Axl shouting back.
Eau moved to the side to avoid her opponent's spear and knocked it away before firing into her opponent's face with her blaster for a second before she had to avoid the movement of the spear attacking her again.
"This is my fight, and I don't want to have someone interrupt the fight for my sake!" exclaimed Eau moving around quickly and taking precise and accurate shots only to have her opponent quickly move out of the way. As the water level increased, instead of slowing down, the two fighting Navis seemed to be able to move at the same speed as before. Perhaps faster in the water.
"But-"
"No buts! Stay out of it!"
The opponent smiled, "You'll loose if you don't have help."
"Shut up!" exclaimed Eau, "I'm going to win!"
"… Ranma? What should I do?" questioned Axl.
"She wants to fight this herself. So it's probably a matter of pride. Don't interrupt, she doesn't want to win against another opponent with another's help." Said Ranma thinking back to how he felt during many of his own fights in Nerima although he hadn't gotten what he wanted.
"So, is that the reason she's not using battle chips?" asked Axl.
Ranma thought for a moment, "Yea. Either that, or Evani's somewhere else."
As Eau took a hit from her opponent's weapon when she dashed at her spear first, Eau took hold of the spear and held it to her side; she brought her blaster up towards the Navi and fired her blaster under the water. The opponent quickly let go and jumped back to avoid taking the shots point-blank. But still was hit as Eau re-aimed to hit her in the air.
Eau ducked underneath the rising water and started to swim under the water, while at some points attempting to fire her weapon only to have it not work as well in the water. Deciding to use the spear she had grabbed, Eau let the blaster disappeared as she held the spear in both hands.
"Ranma," Axl started, "Don't you think they've been fighting without any interruptions for quite a while?"
"Now that you bring it up, yea. I'm wondering why Evani hasn't done anything yet. I don't think she would be sleeping already either."
"I think you should get to the swimming pool and see if Evani's still there." Stated Axl
Ranma scratched the back of his head, "Yea, I'm a bit worried now that you said all that. Be careful though Axl, shout towards me if you start fighting so I know too." Ranma quickly pulled the plug out and started down the hallways heading for the swimming pool quickly, following the map that Axl had downloaded into his Pet as he ran.
Keeping an eye on his Pet, Ranma burst through the front doors of the swimming pool much to the protests from others at the rude entrance. Heading into the swimming area, Ranma quickly cast an eye over the whole area while flaring his aura a bit to help identify the people whose faces were hidden. Not seeing her here, Ranma quickly ran towards the front desk and asked for the lesson time for Evani. As it took a while to convince the receptionist to let him know, and a bit of pretending to be a real child, Ranma got a bit apprehensive as he heard that her lesson had ended roughly twenty minutes ago.
As Ranma was about to take another look around the pool, a child younger than he tugged at his shirt. Looking down at the small distance between the two, the child spoke, "You're looking for Evani?"
Ranma's attention immediately turned towards the child as she spoke of Evani, "Yea, did you see where she went?"
The girl nodded, "She was really tired after swimming, so she fell over inside the change room."
Ranma narrowed his eyes as his suspicion grew, "So where is she now?"
"Her daddy had to come in and take her himself! So she's okay!" the child exclaimed innocently.
"D-Dad?" exclaimed Ranma, "She doesn't… That's not her dad..." he said quietly so the child wouldn't be worried. Looking back down at her, Ranma forced a smile and said his thanks before he turned around and walked a bit as he silently cursed.
An alerting beep came from Ranma's side as his Pet sounded. Quickly pulling the Pet out of the holder, he switched towards Axl. Behind Axl, Ranma could clearly see a lot of blue, "What happened on your end?"
"It was weird," said Axl, "Eau suddenly just plugged out without a warning or anything. She was just about to attack too, now I'm fighting the Navi. Underwater too!"
"Dammit! So it did happen!" cursed Ranma as he suddenly stopped the exit of the swimming pool and ran towards the port by the door, as it was the closest he could get to the area where Axl was, "Evani's not here anymore. Seems she was taken by someone who claimed to be her father, but we know that she doesn't have parents. So that can't be right."
"Ranma!" called Axl grabbing Ranma's full attention again, "Help here? I'm not suited for underwater battling, but it seems this Navi and Eau are completely naturals at it!"
"Alright! Give me a minute… Blasters and projectiles won't really work underwater as well, so a sword chip should help you best." Said Ranma as he pushed the chip in, "That's all I'll be able to give you. I'm going to see if I can catch up with Eau, as unlikely as it is."
"Alright…" said Axl grudgingly as jumped off the ground towards his opponent as his buoyancy was increased.
Bringing his blade down on his opponent, she quickly brought her spear up to block the attack with the pole. As the weapons made contact, the Navi said to him, "Your operator abandoned you?" the Navi laughed, "I'll defeat you before he comes back."
The Navi pushed her spear forward at Axl, who hadn't expected that he would get pushed backwards through the water without a hint of heading down anytime soon. Trying to stop his movement, he saw his opponent was shooting straight for him. As he brought his sword forward to defend himself, at the last moment the Navi flipped under Axl and came up behind him, stabbing forward with her spear.
Taking the hit directly on his left shoulder, Axl screamed in pain as the force behind him yet again pushed him forward this time. Getting use to movement in the water, he turned himself around, "Damn… Didn't expect her to go under me." He muttered holding his shoulder gently.
"But no use complaining about it now!" said Axl quickly as he turned his body to the side as the spear went past his side and instinctively he spun while grabbing the pole and attempted using it as a leverage to give a kick towards the head. Smirking a bit as it contacted, he saw the Navi fall back a bit as he let go of the spear. If he had not spun before he had tried to kick, he would have certainly had missed, as it was hard trying to quickly start a kick under the water in from a neutral point.
As Axl slowly floated down, he looked up to see his opponent swimming around a bit. Possibly thinking of what to do? Maybe. As she suddenly stopped right above him, Axl didn't know what she was up to but quickly moved out of the way. Smart of him to move, as soon after, she had plunged downwards very quickly spear first. She seemed to have very great control in the water, as she had been able to stop just before her spear touched the ground, preventing it from getting stuck.
As soon as she had come down, Axl had quickly turned and started attacking with the swords before she could swim away. It seemed that she had to take a quick moment to recover from that attack. In that quick moment she had to recover, Axl had been able to land a couple of cuts and slashes on her before she quickly moved to prevent more damage. But at the moment he had turned around to attack, he had been blown bodily back by a strong push of water flowing away from the point of the attack, leaving them both injured.
"Not bad…" she started, "The combat addict certainly was right. You are fun."
Making his gun appear in his injured arm, he ran forward as he charged the gun got himself ready for whichever way he should move. Suddenly bending down and aiming the gun at the ground and tilting it a bit, it released very strong and fast push for Axl to quickly leave the ground in the water, which he took advantage of the shock, and the recoil while recharging again. Gritting his teeth as the shock traveled up his arm, he shot right past the other Navi, who had quickly moved away. She had quickly started forward in an attempt to attack Axl, as he was vulnerable while still moving like that.
Turning around in the water, which was considerably easier to do while moving at a high speed than in the air, Axl formed again used his gun, and letting it fly, pushing him through the water right back at his opponent to her surprise as he let go of the gun and it disappeared.
"Wha-" she started but was quickly cut off as Axl hit her. Taking the pain as his side was cut by the point of the spear, he grappled with her as his movement from the air gun pushed them back and down, hitting the ground with her under him, forcing her to let go of the spear as the whole movement under water prevented the hit from hurting to much, but it still had hurt.
"Alright, who are you!" exclaimed Axl roughly as he pinned her down at sword point.
The Navi stared back with eyes unafraid of her current position in the fight, "Leviathan of the Water Guardian. And you're Axl?" she smiled.
"Why are you and Fefnir doing this?" said Axl as he continued the interrogation.
"Fefnir and I? It's not only us, haven't you realized that? There's also-" Leviathan suddenly cut herself off, "Oops," she giggled a bit, "Wasn't suppose to say that."
"Don't mess around with me!" exclaimed Axl as he got annoyed at her not caring about her current position.
"Oh don't be so uptight. You should relax once in a while, or you won't be able to stand the pressure in the future." She said playfully.
Axl glared at her, "You're doing this just to annoy me, aren't you."
"You think so?" she said with a knowing smile, not saying if it were true, or just how she was.
"Come on, have some fun. If you'd like, my little toys can help." She said smiling sweetly.
"Toys…?" Axl then looked forward, "Oh that can't be…" Axl was blown back as the homing missiles connected with his body, making him suffer some damage.
"Argh! I'll get you for that!" shouted Axl brandishing the sword.
"No, I don't think so. You're fun to play with so I'll come back another time. Bye!" Leviathan laughed playfully as she teleported out. Soon after, the water in the room started to automatically drain out.
"Damn… She left." Cursed Axl as he let the sword disappear as he lowered his arm, breathing out in an effort to calm himself down, he sent a message to Ranma before heading back to the computer in Ranma's room so he wouldn't have to come all the way to the swimming pool to pick him up.
-----
Ranma sat down rather uselessly on the couch in his room. He was absolutely certain now, that whoever took Evani was already out of the building, but this was the first time he had been so close to a kidnapping. You would think that they would ask the man who took Evani for identification before letting him take her with all the kidnappings happening.
Ranma at the time didn't have anyone to talk to, as after Axl had left a message recalling what happened, he had already started up the repair program letting himself be automatically repaired. Unless he had sustained very major damage, the program would be able to repair his program.
Takato seemed to be busy in the next room, so he didn't bother going over to tell him what happened. He sounded excited already at the moment anyways. Yanoto seemed to have left the building for some rather important business, as that was what it had sounded like when Ranma had gone to tell him what had happened. Wondering what the hell was going on in the building, Ranma drifted off to sleep.
-----
"He's not coming back you know."
"He'll be back."
"No he won't." continued the girl in a huff.
The cat yawned, "He'll… be back…"
The girl narrowed her eyes in annoyance, "If it weren't for the circumstances we're in, I would have kicked you. But that'd just injure myself."
"Don't be like her…" said the cat lazily as he started to curl up to sleep.
"I thought you were waiting."
"Sleep is counted as waiting."
"Lazy cat."
"Zzzz…"
The girl remained quiet as she played with her low ponytail, "I wonder if we'll get out like Black Guilmon did. He sounded really happy…"
Author's Note
KrayZi: Well everyone, I've finally finished another chapter after months of slow progress. I really hope I can quicken my pace, but I don't think I'll be able to do that until I reach the point where I know what to do. This chapter was basically all come up with on the spot. Well nearly all of it. Thanks for reading everyone.
Kao: Keep reading and stay with us or I'll kick yo-
KrayZi: Yea, thanks everyone. By the way, the title of this chapter 'Underwater Fairy' basically refers to Leviathan, who's crappy nickname in English is 'Fairy Leviathan'. Yea, sucks. Just like 'Fighting/Templar Fefnir' or 'Sage Harpuia'. I also found reference to Harpuia's and Fefnir's full name in Japanese, but I can't be sure if it's right. But just so you can see, it's 'Kenshyou Halperia' and 'Toushyou Fafnir'. No idea what it means, but for one thing, they both have 'shyou'. I don't know japanese, so I'll put it off for now. If anyone understands or knows more about their japanese names, don't hesitate to inform me.
Kao: Review. Now.