Warning: More blood.

Chapter 24: Domino

This thing is nothing more than an ugly cannon-less tank with legs and claws. If I can fight a tank, I can fight this. Haruka thought as she landed a solid flying kick on the Slave's body. Okay, that didn't do shit. The blond limped away but soon came back with a melon-sized concrete block in her hands and whacked the Slave's one of many legs with it. Her crude weapon bounced off the monster's metallic surface without leaving a scratch on its target.

"Haruka-chan, be careful! Move back!" Yukino shouted, her usual timid voice replaced by a booming, confident one. "Mikoto, Midori, attack from the back! Nao, distract it! Mai, attack from its left! Don't let it go the other way!"

Unlike the rest of the HiME Rangers, Yukino was not actively attacking the Slave. Instead, she worked as the HiME Ranger's strategist and gave out instructions while observing the battle from a vintage point - on top of the Director's heavy oaken desk, which was one of the few furniture left standing.

Yukino was using a delay tactic in the battle against the Slave. They couldn't run, because the Slave could easily pick them off one by one if they didn't pool their strength together. They could hide, but not for long; the Slave would eventually hack through anything in its way. The only option left was to fight. However, they soon found out that normal attacks could hardly damage the monster. They tried.

Then it was too late to run or hide now. All they could do at this point was to hold the monster off long enough so that Viola, Kruger, or Miyu could finish it off for them.

Unfortunately, five minutes into the battle, the HiME Rangers had already reached their limits before the calvary could stroll in and blast the monster away. Nao, Mikoto, and Mai had slowed down considerably, they came very close to losing their limbs a few times. Midori, Haruka, and Arika were too tired from flailing around heavy objects, they were having trouble keeping the Slave occupied.

"This is insane..." Shiho was in a state of hysteria. The girl thought she would be hiding in a safe haven after literally being dragged all the way into the Director's Office. She couldn't be more wrong. Instead of a danger-free paradise, what was waiting for her inside the Office was pure chaos. "WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!" She screamed and bolted for the door. Chie stopped her.

"You can't go outside! You think this is bad? There are three more monsters waiting out there!" Chie yelled at the pink-haired girl. "See that door over there? We are almost there! We go to the basement now, we'll be safe!"

"I don't want to die..." Shiho sobbed uncontrollably while flailing her arms around, fighting off Chie's hands.

"Move it! Bitch!" It was not Chie but Nao dragging the kicking and screaming Shiho into the corner of the room after she slapped the hysterical girl across her tear-stained face. "Shut up if you don't want to die! Do something useful and help us fight or get out of the way!"

"I'll keep her here." Chie said with a concerned frown on her face. "Your hands are bleeding."

"Leave me alone and go grab Aoi. What the hell are you two doing here anyway?" Nao didn't wait for Chie's reply. She dashed back and smashed the Slave's body with a cracked vast she picked up from the floor. "Just die already, fucker!" She cursed loudly.

If it doesn't drop dead soon... Nao refused to think along that line. Where is HiME power when I need it? An army can't kill this thing, let along a bunch of girls! We need more help! What is Kuga doing... Her eyes fell on the figure lying on the floor across the room, she felt her blood ran cold.

She is not dead, is she?

Shizuru was amazed by her own strength when she picked up her wounded girlfriend from the floor and darted toward a corner of the room before the Slave could trample them. Her arms felt like they were filled with lead after the fight with Tomoe; she had no idea how she could possibly run that fast while carrying Natsuki in her arms. It must be adrenaline. She thought.

Half sitting on the floor and half leaning against Shizuru's shoulder, Natsuki was still dazed from the beating she got earlier. She felt the world spinning. The only thing that was anchoring her to the ground was the reassuring warmth of Shizuru's embrace. "Shizu..." She tried to call out the girl's name, but the persistent spinning inside her head almost made her throw up when she opened her mouth.

"Don't talk. I am here."

Natsuki felt a soft hand tucking a few strands of loose hair behind her ear before cupping her face. "I will protect Natsuki, I promise." Shizuru's soothing Kyoto-ben caressed her ear, the melodic voice made her drowsy. Natsuki blinked slowly, she knew she was going to tell Shizuru something, but she couldn't remember what she wanted to say.

Ah, I remember now. I wanted to tell her to run away from here because it's dangerous.

Shizuru's face looked distorted in her blurred vision. But her eyes... they are so bright... like molten lava... Smiling at her own silly thought, Natsuki stared into the Kyoto girl's blood red eyes and sighed. "This feels nice." She mouthed the words soundlessly and then closed her eyes as she rested her head on Shizuru's chest.

Why bother telling her to run away? Shizuru would never leave me alone. Not a chance. Not in a million years.

Maybe it's because she had hit her head one too many times, maybe it's because Shizuru's hands were so warm; the prospect of dying in each others' arms for the second time didn't seem too dreadful to her.

Natsuki knew that everything would turn out all right even when there was nothing suggesting they would survive this. It was quite the opposite. HiME Rangers' battle against the Slave was going very badly at the moment.

Everything began to crumble when the monster attacked the brain of the operation. When the Slave aimed its claws at Yukino, Haruka immediately jumped out and pushed her best friend away. The blond's timing was excellent; Yukino only suffered a small cut on her forehead when they crash landed on the uneven floor. However, Haruka was not so lucky herself. Her little stunt had earned her a nasty cut when the Slave's razor sharp claw glanced her left calf.

Haruka's painful cry echoed through the entire room.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry, Haruka-chan..." Sobbing and apologizing, Yukino dragged her friend as far away from the battle as possible. She took off her shirt without a second thought and pressed it firmly against the bloody wound.

Shiho sat quietly in the corner, hands covering her ears. If Nao hadn't moved her earlier, surely she would have been killed. She was scared out of her mind before Nao slapped her, but now she was beyond scared. She was numb. There was nothing she could do other than watching the monster hurting everyone she knew.

And the screams... Shiho clamped her palms tightly over her ears, but she still couldn't block out the sounds. So she started screaming too, just to drawn out the agonizing cries that seemed to go on forever.

One by one, they fell like domino pieces.

Midori didn't scream, she only cursed up a storm when the slave thrown her off its back and dislocated her right shoulder as she collided against the wall. Nao was the next casualty, she was lucky that the Slave didn't hack her in halves. By sheer luck she avoided certain death because she fell through the hole on the wall and out of the building. Dropping two stories down, the redhead got away with a broken left arm and a twisted right ankle when she landed on the soft flower bed outside.

Mikoto went berserk when she saw Mai lay motionless in a puddle of blood after the Slave ran her over. With cat-like agility, the petite girl climbed onto the towering monster's body and secured herself right on top of its head. Like a demon possessed, Mikoto roared with blind rage as she repeatedly bashing the Slave's head with a bent metal bar that was part of the window frame.

"AHHHHH!!!"

At the same time the jagged tip of the metal bar went through the monster's head, the long, sharp stinger attached to the its rear thrust forward and skewered the girl through her left shoulder.

Kruger put up a force field just in time to deflect a heavy strike coming from behind her. She did a acrobatic back flip midair and caught her opponent's halberd with both hands. Another C-type tried to ambush her from above, but Kruger blocked the attack by whipping the halberd plus its owner around. The two armor clad Otomes collided painfully together. Kruger took the chance to materialize her Element, a massive cannon that took out Searrs' Golden Fleet yesterday, and pulled a quick pot shot at her enemies. She missed.

Groaning in frustration, Kruger sped forward and tried to grab one of the C-types again. Her opponent dodged out of the way and drop-kicked her on her shoulder, sent her flying toward the ground. Another C-type caught up and kneed her right in her stomach. Kruger bent over dry-heaving from the force of the combo attack. Clenching her jaw, she kept a firm hold of her opponent's leg and started spinning her around to build enough momentum before throwing her at the other C-type. The two Otomes collided together again. Instead of pulling out her Element right away, this time Kruger extended the ribbon on her Robe and bound her opponents first.

"Eat this!" She yelled as she materialized her cannon.

"Behind you!" Viola's urgent cry stopped her count down. Kruger ducked down just in time as a halberd zoomed past her head and cut her ribbon off, setting the two bound Otomes loose.

"That's fucking dangerous!" Kruger barked at the Otome who chucked the weapon.

Viola was furious. She tackled the Otome with all her strength and rammed her all the way down to the ground. The force of the attack shattered her helmet and revealed her face. It was the second in command of the Valkyrie Unit, the girl with short brown hair and a wide forehead.

All the other C-types came to Miya's rescue when Viola was about to deliver the fetal strike. Three halberds blocked her naginata inches above Miya's helmet-less head.

It was at that moment, a suffocating Tomoe launched herself out of the building and up toward the sky with Nina clinging on her back, choking her with a death grip. Their journey upward didn't last long. Tomoe's Robe was forcefully removed when Nina ripped the Cursed Obsidian GEM off her ear. They dropped like stones.

"TOMOE-SAMA!" Miya shrieked.

"No you don't!" Viola knocked the brown-haired Otome down with a sharp blow. "Go get them!" Viola yelled. Kruger got the cue and immediately flew toward the two falling girls.

The other C-types were torn between staying to keep Miya from harm and leaving to catch their captain.

"Go to Tomoe-sama!" Miya ordered with a desperate plea in her hoarse voice.

"I won't let you!" Viola unlocked her Element and chained her opponents down. She couldn't hold them for long, but she couldn't allow anyone to interrupt her plan either.

Kruger was shocked to see Nina so badly wounded when she caught her. "Oi, don't faint. Stay awake, alright?" She demanded awkwardly.

Nina was not responsive. She was having trouble breathing.

"I got her! And the stalker too!" Kruger yelled at her partner. Not so eager to help the teal-haired psycho, Kruger was using her ribbon to tie Tomoe up, letting the Otome dangle upside down like a worm on a fish hook.

"Good job." Viola flew back and grabbed Tomoe by her collar while shoving her naginata against the drugged up Otome's neck. "Now go help the others." She asked.

Kruger nodded and headed back into the building. She needed to get Nina proper medical attention too.

"The situation is reversed, isn't it ironic?" Blood red eyes narrowed at the C-types, Viola chuckled with venom in her voice. "Maybe I should just go ahead and chop her head off. I AM in a rather foul mood now, mind you."

Mikoto was tossed aside like a ragged doll. The only reason her brain was not smearing all over the wall was because Midori used her body as a cushion to break her fall.

Apparently, the metal-bar-in-head was not enough to kill the Slave.

"If Gakutenou were here..." If any of us still had our HiME powers, this small fry would greenspark in no time. Midori thought with a defeated half smirk on her face. At least Youko is safe in the basement...

"Run toward that door when I distract it." Chie said as she picked up a fist-sized concrete block.

Aoi grabbed her girlfriend's wrist with both hands. "No. You are not doing this."

"Go." Chie ordered firmly.

"I said No!" Aoi bent down and picked up a broken off leg from a wooden chair. "You stay, I stay! And that's final! Stop arguing with me, woman!"

Chie swallowed the lump in her throat and grinned widely. "As you wish, my princess."

Natsuki felt something incredibly soft and warm pressing gently on her forehead. A kiss? She couldn't help but smile at that. Leave it to Shizuru to do something like that at a time like this. She opened her tired green eyes and locked them with Shizuru's entrancing crimson orbs.

"Ikezu." Natsuki breathed as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Everything started to turn white.

"Load Silver Cartridge!"

Before Natsuki passed out, the last thing she saw was a silver blue figure standing in front of them.

Duran?

"Fire!"

TBC

Author's Notes:

1. Hmm... This chapter was more gory than I had planned. Sorry about that.

2. My brain felt like it's leaking out of my ears when I wrote this chapter. The battle scenes were difficult to write. I hope I have done an adequate job. Please read and review.

3. If you are interested, go to my Profile to see a picture of the Slave the HiME Rangers fought.