Assassin Drones: The original saga

Fuyuki's training Arc. De Arimasu!

By Alex Young

The Hinata residence, 2:00 am. January 17, 2003

Giroro could be seen preparing a large cargo box in the dead of night. "What is it that you got in there? Where are you going with it?" Natsumi piped up as she emerged form her bedroom window. "I-It's a secret, really." This was Giroro's only response to both questions as he resumed his final inspection before he retired to his tent. A highly quizzical Natsumi continued staring at the package in wonder as to what exactly it was for, hence the reason why she summoned P-chan from her closet.

"Puki puki puki puki pukureegggereh?" P-chan squeaked in wonder. "I want to know exactly what it is that Giroro is trying to hide from me Ryoga, which is why you're coming along for the ride." Natsumi chided as she arranged her partner's clothing and strode into the bathroom. "Get dressed. I'll get you when I'm ready." Natsumi urged as she turned the bathtub faucet on to pour hot water and rushed back in to her room to get dressed herself.

The black piglet dove right in to the tub, emerged as Ryoga, and got himself dried and dressed within a very short time span. Natsumi wore a black winter jacket over a long shirt and a pair of jeans. As soon as Ryoga and Natsumi met up outside the bathroom, she grabbed him by the hand, and stealthily slid themselves into the cargo bay, never to leave Giroro the wiser as he headed off.

The Tendo residence, 4:00 am. January 18, 2003

Radon was scaling the walls of the family home, and broke into Nabiki's room. That look in her eye was clear as Radon set foot inside; she wanted the alchemist's cartographer back from Happosai, pronto. Radon dutifully nodded as he took his leave in search of the cartographer.

Radon slid into Happosai's room, silently lifted the black on gold detailed square pyramid from Happosai's clutches and returned it to Nabiki's room, where it can be hidden much more securely. Radon took his leave upon collecting his payment of 10,000 yen, leaving Nabiki with a greater peace of mind than when she had the cartographer stolen form her by Happosai.

Kululu's computer room, 9:00 am. January 19, 2003

Kululu was busily studying Fuyuki's movement, speech, and other behavioral patterns in designing a new android built to resemble Fuyuki as closely and convincingly as possible. "Well, Nibiru-san. I've already begun working on your new Fuyuki replica and will finish very soon." Kululu reported citing that he's helping Nabiki to help Ranma get more of Fuyuki's training in, with a little cross dressing on the apprentice's part.

The idea behind the cross dressing and replica scheme was to help Fuyuki grow and expand as a martial artist without the need for a Jusenkyo curse. The idea behind the replica was instead of having one, why not have two to trick the system into thinking the faker is the real McCoy. Ranma had already thought up a feminine, yet similar name for our cross dresser to be.

That name was Fukira Musashi Saotome, adopted daughter of Genma Saotome, and Ranma's little sister. \Alright, Kulu-san. Let me know when you're finished. Oh, and I got the alchemist's cartographer back via Radon from the old goat./ Nabiki reported. "Good to hear, Kukukuuuu!" Kululu sniggered as he hung up the phone to resume his part in this rather complex plot that has been brewing for days on end.

Somewhere over the pacific ocean, 2:30 am. January 20, 2003

Zane was out flying his Mantis on an early morning patrol when something caught his eye, that something being Giroro going off to his secret location. "This is Stinger. Requesting permission to engage." Zane asked of his superiors. \Permission denied, but keep a close eye on it, however./ His commander replied, to which Zane only nodded as he ordered the rest of his squadron to follow suit.

Keroro's command center, 8:00 am

"Hmm, so that's where you're headed off, to?" Keroro mused as he and the rest of his team, including Dororo, were keeping tabs on Giroro's secret little trip. "Hey, Sergeant! I have'nt seen my sister for four days straight, now." Fuyuki exclaimed panting very hard. "WHAT!?" Keroro screeched surprised. "Hey, uncle Keroro. Giroro's also taking a pair of Pekoponians with him, albeit unkowingly." Mois reported.

With that, Fuyuki, along with the Sarge and company, decided to head off to the location indicated on the newly printed map. "Hey, Ranma. You caught us at a good time, today." Fuyuki brought up as he headed out with the Sarge close behind. "Satsuma? That's a pretty long way off, but nothing that can't be done." Ranma replied as he, along with Akane, Genma, and Soun joined Fuyuki in their quest for Satsuma, Kagoshima.

Somewhere in Satsuma, 7:10 am. January 21, 2003

Giroro had just landed his levitaion vehicle, along with the cargo bay before having cocked his gun. "I know that you're in there, so come on out with your hands up!" He ordered as the door opened up. "You sure about this?" Ryoga panicked quietly. "Just trust me! Giroro won't hurt you, not as long as I'm around!" Natsumi reassured as they both emerged from the cargo container with their hands behind their heads.

"Don't shoot, and don't hurt Ryoga either." Natsumi stuttered as she turned to face Giroro. "NATSUMI!? WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE!?" Giroro spat out blurting out some unintelligible gibberish at a loss for words. "Oh alright! Guess you two are just along for the ride, then." Giroro heaved in utter defeat before checking the skies. Upon a good once over, it would appear as though Zane and the stinger squadron decided they'd just as soon go elsewhere, therefore making it safer for he and his two stowaways to proceed on ahead.

Meanwhile, we can find our search party trundling along Kagoshima's back woods within what turned out to be an island known as Sakurajima. Out in a thicket somewhere, we could see a familiar predatory glint of one eye, followed by and equally familiar purr. Coincidence or not, it was no mystery that Gial had tracked them all the way to where they believe that Giroro had run off to.

It was also unsurprising to see that Gial was not alone, with Raikoume and Kamikase back with a vengeance, and a hungry look in their eyes. All three know full well that Giroro was actually tending to a sweet potato plantation just behind them. The plan of attack had already been decided after much discussion between our three assassin drones.

That being Gial would sneak in and steal some sweet potatoes, drawing Giroro's attention, while the raptor twins move in straddling the plantation, hog tie Natsumi with silk, and head off somewhere near the recently set up hive mind capture module with Naozi and Fuhinga on standby. Natsumi would be used as bait to draw the search party into a trap where Ranma would have the hive mind sucked out of him within mere seconds on the spot.

With all that said and done, Raikoume and Kamikase split up with Gial going into the plantation to dig up some sweet potatoes himself, which he began. Gial kept on digging and cropping up more sweet potatoes until Giroro noticed that a thief had gotten past all his traps. Gial was the thief in question as Giroro gave chase leaving Natsumi behind at the other two assassin drones' mercy.

Raikoume and Kamikase ambushed Natsumi from opposing sides and trapped her in a silken embrace. Raikoume then straddled the tied up Natsumi onto Kamikase's back and they both headed off. Giroro, realizing that Natsumi was in grave danger, came to her rescue. Giroro went in Ryoga's direction this time knowing that he may need some help form his rival in love.

Giroro had collided with Ryoga, and after a little explanation gave Ryoga a ride. Fuyuki had spotted Giroro gunning it on his large hover platform chasing after Raikoume and Kamikase with Ryoga in toe, and he with the rest of his gang took up the pursuit as well. Ranma went out ahead of everyone else, including Fuyuki, as he cut the twins off at their destination.

Fuyuki and Akane rushed in to Natsumi's rescue when Giroro and Ryoga caught up to all the commotion. "C'mon guys. Let's get out of HEEEEEEEERRREEE!" Ranma shrieked as he, Fuyuki, Ryoga, and Akane, all fell into the pit trap. Ranma deployed his legs upon grabbing Fuyuki and Ryoga with Akane holding on to his back, and ground to a screeching halt midway into their fall. Just in time, too because they have not fallen too far for Fuyuki and Akane to quickly escape.

Fuyuki joined in the battle as he grappled Raikoume and spin kicked Kamikase in the left side of her lower jaw. Fuyuki then lifted his captive assassin drone high into the air and slammed her into his knee as he braced it in position. Gial then rushed in behind Fuyuki, only to get blindsided by Giroro's plasma bullets from the same weapon that he was armed with the last time they met.

Ranma and Ryoga stayed behind as part of a strategy to destroy the machine that was moving in to seal their fate. Ranma and Ryoga both built up a lot of battle aura energy, focusing it all in one strike on one singular point. "You ready, P-chan?" "Let's do this, Ranma." Ryoga and Ranma conversed as the latter simply supplied their emotional energy to the former, whose job was to focus that energy.

Ranma felt miserable in thinking that he was going to die if they didn't act fast, yet confident in knowing that their combined power will avert such a fate. "ASSASSIN SUPER MAGIC COLLABORATION: CHORIKI SHISHI HOKODAN!" Ranma and Ryoga both screeched in unleashing their assassin super magic collaboration: overpowered lion's roar shot together.

This occurred just as the hive mind extraction machine completely covered the trap hole. "EEEEEK! SACRE BLEU! WE NEED TO GET EUT OF HAIR!" Naozi panicked as he and Fuhinga both evacuated the machine, which was suffering from an energy feed overload. This caused it to become dangerously unstable and highly volatile, eventually exploding as a result of Ranma's and Ryoga's combined efforts.

By the time Ranma and Ryoga finally emerged from the trap together, the assassin drones had already cut and run, retreating to a safer position! "Whew! Talk about a close shave!" Ranma huffed as he squatted down before eventually joining Giroro and company in his sweet potato harvest after having retrieved the spuds stolen by Gial.

Back at the Tendo residence, 6:30 pm

"Time for dinner everyone." Kasumi called out of the family as they all sat down to dinner with a banquet full of sweet potato themed dishes to be had. This time, Fuyuki decided that he would stay and sleep over for the next week and a half, thereby saving money on taxi fares and leaving Nabiki even richer. Fuyuki was already looking to go along with the plan to dress him up as a girl in order to get down to the more female dominated martial arts.

Aboard the Rapier, 1:00 am. January 22, 2003

Aoryuzen was glaring at the screen as usual with the results if his latest failed attempt to extract the hive mind from Ranma. "With this much power going for them, and EX.W.A.T.I. getting ever closer to bringing their network fully online, I may need some more firepower on the ground. Computer! Get the berserkers!" Aoryuzen barked authoritatively as the A.I. processed his request.

It was then that a specialized detachment of no less than six berserker drones, all male, have lined up ready for launch at Aoryuzen's behest. Like the main assassin drone force of Alpha 134, the detachment of berserker drones also had names. Those names were Kraank, Rotoran, Gatlinger, Jujohgi, Raukeren, and Taembraki.

First up is Kraank, based on a dog tick, with left and right, inline roller skates attached to all eight of his feet on each side. Powered by a monstrous, 11 liter, quadruple supercharged V16 churning out an even more monstrous 4000 brake horsepower along with a whopping 4000 pound feet of torque, he has all the necessary get up and go to haul ass all the way to the battlefield before anybody could say "total annihilation!"

Kraank uses the roller skates like twin hook swords, slicing anyone, and anything that gets between him and Aoryuzen's end goals. He often goes airborne when stretching out his roller swords for a short while. Kraank is also equipped with a huge artillery gun in his abdomen, and when he links up with Trokyushe and/or Shiclerin, the firepower and accuracy of which is multiplied by a factor of at least six.

Rotoran, based on a dragonfly, was a twin engined, tilt rotor turboprop aircraft that can cruise at just north of 500 mph territory. Equipped with twin .50 caliber machine guns, grenade launchers, rockets, missiles, and a charge laser, Rotoran decidedly does not fall short on firepower. In fact, Rotoran finds himself packing firepower disproportionate to his size, weight, and dimensions. On top of that, with 50,000 lbs of thrust on tap from each scimitar turboprop engine, Rotoran can get to any battle quickly and with utmost impunity.

Gatlinger, a North American style semi truck with a cargo trailer based on a tsuchinoko cryptid, has a bulldozer blade up front to plow through any obstacles. That, or he can simply drive over them in variable terrain mode, giving him multiple options from which to choose. With a multitude of weapons to choose from in the trailer that can turn into a tank turret, Gatlinger can readily adapt to any situation as it unfolds before his bionic eyes.

Jujohgi, based on a king cobra as a steam locomotive engine, is much the same as Gatlinger. All with a few key differences to note; he may not be able to drive over anything, but he can climb even the sheerest angled vertical surfaces at speed. All that, yet still being able to provide fire support with several highly specialized box cars, each equipped with a certain weapon or two. Jujohgi with his partner Gatlinger, can also lead a full frontal assault for when things get really hairy.

Raukeren is based on a huntsman spider crossed with an ogre faced spider, and takes up the form of an H-shaped tank. The tank rides on two sets of thin, yet rather wide (at no less than some 40 inches, by the way) motorcycle wheels. Raukeren can adjust the caster and camber of his wheels accordingly, from top speed mode, to cornering, etc.

Raukeren can also adjust his wheel base accordingly, shortening it for going around corners, and lengthening it for ripping down long straights. He handles like a sports car, guns it like a motorcycle, and hits like a tank at the same time. All that, while he can also transform into his ogre faced huntsman chimera spider form.

A true predator, Raukeren takes the fullest advantage of both animals' natural capabilities, and is most often seen hiding in abandoned places, awaiting his prey. A pair of dual stabilizer apparatuses can turn into two smaller, shorter pairs of legs in the middle that are mostly used for walking around and collecting sensory information.

So, too are the two larger, longer pairs of legs, but the difference being that they don't collect any sensory information at all, but rather as weapons. The vertebra like tires transform into two digits snaking around his feet as one unit. Raukeren's digits are also padded to deaden his every foot fall, and strike when the time is right.

Lastly, Taembraki, based on a lobster, has two, dual chainsaw treads, machine guns, torpedo launchers, and tow missiles. Taembraki can glide right over the water like a hot knife through butter, even at his top speed of over 155 nautical miles per hour. Powered by a twin supercharged and twin turbocharged Dodge Viper V10 churning out at least 2450 tread horsepower at 3750 pound feet of torque, Taembraki has all the necessary grunt to close the gap between himself and his prey in the blink of an eye.

Buzz saw turbine propellers gives Taembraki some additional the get up and go, along with another pair of weapons within the same package. The chainsaws and buzz saws slice through plasma armor with ease as close quarters weapons. The machine guns serve as mid range weapons, while the tow missiles and torpedo launchers serve as long range weapons.

Taenbraki can also launch his chainsaw claws at enemies larger than himself attached to bungee cables. The cables themselves have all the necessary tensile strength to lug Taembraki up mountains, and catapult him all the way to the battlefield in a pinch. The buzz saws can also turn into electrified claws, that he can ground for deflecting electricity based attacks, and spew seawater out the turbines to act as a conductive surface for his own electricity attacks.

When Taembraki links up with his partner Raukeren, Shiclerin, and/or Gial, he can either become invisible, become even more lethal at any range, and/or be better able to spot enemies at longer distances. Overall, all six berserker drones are highly capable killers, packing a lot of firepower and heat relative to their body sizes, and are Aoryuzen's back up unit for when things go badly wrong in a New York minute.