Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or Terminator. In addition if you aren't allowed to watch 'R' rated movies you probably ought to avoid this story…

Baba Yaga's Curse: Friction with the machine

Chapter 8

Gusoin laughed and said, "Valiant words Ranma and now I am done speaking and I think you are as well," He peered behind him and said, "Before we begin our battle I will tell you one last thing. You have less than three minutes to defeat me and destroy Skynet before it begins launch sequence. After that the missiles will be on their way and billions will die."

With that last statement the Large Minotaur Machine Demon God rushed towards the three senshi with death in its eyes.

3.00

Sol spun out of its way, appeared behind its back and slammed punches there, while Saturn redirected a blow from one giant metallic fist with her Glaive and Earth went under the creature's guard and delivered a powerful blow to its throat.

The beast continued its forward momentum, while his metallic body ignored the blows as if they hadn't occurred, and sent a blow directly for Saturn. The girl had to block the blow directly with her glaive and was sent flying backwards for her troubles.

Sol and Earth continued their assault on the creature, but it ignored their attacks as if flies were buzzing around it. Suddenly with a very quick gesture it used a single fist to backhand Sol off of it and another that made Earth dodge out of the way and cease her attacks. Then it continued its forward momentum again inexorably towards the recovering senshi of Saturn.

Earth shouted, "Sol destroy Skynet, I'll help defend Saturn."

2.30

Sol nodded and quickly went into the room and sent a bolt of plasma flying towards the machine. The magic went away and when she started to physically attack the machine a wall of impenetrable metal appeared. Down the hall she could hear Gusoin laughing and then an image of him appeared smiling a cruel smile as it said, "Did I neglect to mention that I put a powerful warding spell on that precious device? You'll need to defeat me in order to inflict any harm on it."

Sol growled at the image and flew down the hall way at full speed and hitting Gusoin's back with a powerful blow. For the first time the demon god actually responded to her blows, but only with a single grunt. He turned momentarily to and swung a punch for her which she easily dodged. Then, both she and Earth attacked with Twin versions of the Amaguriken that patted into his metallic body like rain. A few more grunts was all the response they got until he focused on the girls for a moment and attacked them both. Moments later each of the Senshi was sent flying down the hallway towards Saturn.

Saturn was up by then and quickly ran next to her fallen allies to intercept Gusoin as he was just about to unleash his fury upon their fallen forms. This time Saturn was easily able to take the multiple powerful impacts directly on her Glaive without being moved at all. Her allies stood and watched with awe as the beast continued to throw punch after punch at her, while she was unfazed by the powerful assault.

The demon shouted, "How are you doing this girl! I have nullified your known magical abilities."

Sol and Earth were shocked for a moment and then they saw it. Saturn had modified her silence wall. No longer was it a simple wall or even a rounded shield, now it was acting as a shock absorber on the silence Glaive itself, taking almost all of the immense punishment that the large creature was dishing out and negating it upon impact..

That gave Earth and Sol a small amount of time to confer and form an idea. Gusoin saw the two making plans and tried to break through Saturn's defenses, but the girl had been trained well.

2.00

Sol said, "He's immune to our direct magical attacks so I can't hurt him with my plasma, but I could heat the area around him while you perform a spiral for the Hiryu Shouten Ha."

Earth's face lit up as she said, "Wait I have an even better idea, heat the area and keep doing it until you see him glowing white hot."

"What are you going to do?"

The Sailor just smiled and shouted, "Earth super secret technique!"

Gusoin mentally prepared for a new spell and slowed his attacks when Earth shot towards him and then ran off into the distance. He screamed at her departing form saying, "Foolish girl. One I defeat your friends I will come looking for you and I will find you. There is no time or place that Gusoin can not find you!"

1.30

With those words the large metallic demon upped his speed and reduced his power looking for a single weak point in Saturn's defense and then he found it. A large metallic fist slammed into Saturn's head and sent the girl crashing into a wall. He started to walk towards the fallen girl, but Sol stepped in his way. "You're gonna have to get through me ugly!"

Gusoin scoffed and began a new assault on the red haired senshi. To his surprise she was also able to block his blows and in addition he could feel the heat of the room begin to rise around him. As it did he shot a fist to the wall and said, "I've seen that technique and it won't work on me girl!"

Sol used that moment of distraction to send a single superheated digit directly into his eyeball.

That attack worked and he screamed out in pain and said, "I will hang your broken body naked before my legions in hell to do with as they please and only when you are begging to die, only then will I bring you before Baba Yaga!"

1.00

Sol just spat in his face and said, "You're welcome to try ugly, but Ranma Taya don't lose to the likes of wimps like you!"

Now, the anger rolled off the demon god in waves and his ruined eye healed faster than even Saffron's abilities could have done. Moments after his eye healed, Gusoin screeched an unrecognizable bellow of rage, and a symbol appeared upon his chest. Suddenly his speed was even faster than it had been. When Gusoin sent another relentless barrage of attacks towards the girl, she was forced to back down the hallway and towards the comatose body of Saturn.

Gusoin continued his assault going down the hall one slow step at a time. Barely noticing as the temperature became hotter, and hotter around him. His skin was becoming a cherry red color and small items spontaneously bursting into fire around him. But he did not see that, all he saw was the ultimate destruction of his prey.

.30

Ranma continued her defense and continued to pump heat directly into the air around them super heating Gusoin in the process. She backed down the hallway another step and noted that they were scant meters away from Saturn and that Gusoin was glowing white hot. She realized that she couldn't risk getting any closer to Saturn for fear of injuring her with the immense heat and was desperately trying to keep Gusoin from moving another centimeter forward when she heard the voice of Sailor Earth shouting, "Earth Nitrogen Blast!"

Gusoin was an immensely powerful demon god and he had thought that making his body into strong metal would make him invulnerable to all physical damage. Incorporating that metal with powerful mystical symbols allowed him to nullify most any magic that was used directly on him. For all intents and purposes he should have been immortal, despite that fact when Earth hit his white hot metal body with a stream of super cooled liquid nitrogen the temperature inversion froze him solid and shattered him into thousands of small pieces.

.10

Sol glanced at the pieces of Gusoin aside and said, "Skynet!"

.04

Earth nodded in agreement and the two girls quickly teleported to the machine sent their powers directly into it destroying it utterly. The two senshi teleported back to check on Saturn. When they arrived Sol kicked one of the now inert pieces of Gusoin and said, "Well that's the second self described God I think I've killed."

From the floor Saturn moved a bit and Earth helped her to her feet as she said, "Isn't it actually three Ranma?

"Saffron and Gusoin, that's two."

"What about Master Pharaoh 90?"

Sol thought a moment and the said, "Did that thing ever mention being a God?"

In a quiet voice Saturn said, "Mistress nine used to call it one."

Earth piped in saying, "Well that settles it three self describe gods then."

Sol scratched her head and was about to say something when they all heard a strange dual voice from the room with the now defunct Skynet device.

"Someone, can anyone help me? I feel…feel something happening to me."

The group slowly approached the room where Skynet had been wary of a trap. As they entered they were greeted by the site of Amnar. The creature was left over from Gusoin's plans a horrible wreck of what was previously two whole and healthy human beings one male and the other female merged into one hideous creature. The masculine hand on the right was pulling at its shirt trying to rip it off, while a petite feminine hand was doing the same on the left. Finally the shirt material ripped apart and the thing's chest was revealed.

The half male and half female torso was slowly splitting down the very middle with a shiny metallic item slowly appearing there. The creature's two heads each spoke as if one, "Please save me. The pain is more than I can bear!"

Earth put Saturn down and approached saying, "I have some healing power, but I don't know what I can do for you."

As Earth touched the creature it seemed to sigh as if its pain was being relived, but there was no change in what was happening. The creature was still splitting down the middle, with an entirely female torso and head on one side of a metallic rod and an entirely male torso and head on the other. Suddenly the creature started to scream in pain again and Saturn approached.

The small girl saw the problem and then apologized as she said, "Sol we need to remove its clothes." The senshi of the sun heard her and helped to take the creature's clothes off. The creature seemed to be relieved of pain momentarily, but as it continued to split into two Earth and Saturn had to touch it with their healing powers.

Sol joined in as well and the creature became two distinct people again, the strange metal cylinder in-between them glowed with a deep red light and a single symbol glowed on its tip. Suddenly, all three senshi were caught up in a single bright flash…

Ranma woke up in a featureless white expanse that he recognized almost immediately. It was the place where she had first seen the Gate of Time. He looked around and spotted his companions as well. All of them were in their civilian forms and each of them looked at the others with confusion as they stood up and gathered together.

All of them tried to speak at the same time and then they each paused and began again. Finally after two more aborted attempts, Beryl held up a hand and the two others nodded. "I think we can all agree that this looks eerily like the place where Pluto kept the Gates of time."

The two others nodded and Beryl continued saying, "The last thing I remember is hat metal cylinder glowing with a strange symbol, what about you?"

Ranma and Hotaru nodded and then Ranma said, "When that happened all I could think of was getting out of there. I don't remember what I did, but that was my last thought until waking up here."

The black haired girl said, "I had the same thought, to get to safety and then I woke here."

Beryl nodded and said, "I remember something similar, perhaps we triggered something in the Time Gate?"

Ranma relied saying, "Well, there is one way to find out."

The black haired boy tried held up his pen and tried his transformation, but nothing happened. The two others tried as well, but nothing happened with them either.

Ranma sighed and said, "Okay now what?"

"Perhaps we should concentrate on the time gate?"

Ranma and Beryl nodded and the three concentrated and then a silver disk appeared in the air before them. The disk settled down into the white featureless plain and a voice said, "Recovery protocol 3 complete, recovery protocol 1 and 2 still in progress…"

Ranma looked confused and said, "Huh? Since when did this thing speak?"

The voice spoke again saying, "Query from designate Ranma Taya also know as Guardian Sol recognized, processing" a few moments passed and the voice said, "This system has always been able to speak, but all Gate systems were in need of repair due to massive damage from Chronological backlash and subsequent Gate explosion. Voice recognition and speaking centers were finally repaired to functioning status 48 standard hours ago."

Hotaru heard that and said, "So uhm Gate-san what is the current repair status?"

"Query from designate Hotaru Tomoe also known as Guardian Saturn recognized, processing," once again a short moment elapsed and then the voice spoke again, "Systems currently at 78 of normal levels. Emergency protocol 3 has been initiated and was successful. Recovery protocol 2 is still processing and complete repair of gate functions are estimated to occur within 3 standard years."

Beryl added her own question saying, "Wait, what are the recovery protocols?"

"Query from designate Beryl also known as Guardian Earth recognized, processing… The recovery protocols are a number of complex programs set up with in my systems to handle certain events. Recovery protocol 3 was recently initiated and was successful, it was put in place in case the guardian or in this case guardians of the gates were forcefully subjected to time, space, or dimensional travel. It sets up a protected dimensional bubble that keeps the guardian from interacting with any surroundings and allows the guardian to use the gates to rectify the situation."

Ranma interrupted it saying, "So then where are we?"

"Position within time, space and relative dimension will not be provided unknown at this time."

"Why not?"

"Multi universal, dimensional and chronological tracking system is off-line."

Ranma groaned and Hotaru said, "Gate-san how can we use you to rectify our situation then?"

The processing time took quite awhile this time, but the voice finally said, "Recovery protocol 1 must be entirely completed before that information can be given."

Beryl flipped a stray lock out of her eyes and said, "So tell us what recovery protocol 1 is and how to complete it then?"

"Recovery protocol 1 is initiated when the previous guardian is deceased and a new guardian is instituted. Normally this would require a simple bonding with the Guardian's senshi form and powers, but current analysis suggests that one guardian was not enough to prevent catastrophic damage. In addition, designates Ranma, Beryl, and Hotaru are already physically bonded to this unit and thus are intrinsically linked with gate functions. With both items taken into consideration protocol 1 is now being revised."

"Meanin' what exactly?"

"Apologies designate Ranma, this means that the gate systems will have to bond with all three distinct senshi powers and forms. You will be able to access only the most minor powers and defenses of your transformations in the interim."

"How long will this interim last?"

"Approximately three weeks designate Beryl."

"I ain't gonna wait here in this featureless dump for three weeks."

Hotaru touched Ranma's shoulder and said, "I concur we should try to find a way out of here. Perhaps we can use the gate itself to transport us way from our current location."

"Teleportation at this time is not advised. Guardians would be vulnerable to many things that would not normally affect them."

Beryl smiled a bit and said, "Yes thank you gate we understand the danger, now show us some of local space."

"Unable to comply."

Beryl growled and Hotaru said, "Then show us the nearest safe location to teleport."

"Unable to comply."

It was Hotaru's turn to growl as Ranma said, "Wait we've controlled this thing before. Despite it having a voice we're in charge right? I say we concentrate and force this thing to turn on the multi dmiension thingy and then send us to earth."

The other two agreeed with the idae and then the three of them concentrated on making the gate work their will when it said, "Multi universal, dimensional and chronological tracking system on-line. Spatial interference detected. Alien system using major pathways through time/space continuum, linking with alien system and finding coordinates for known planets."

The gate went from being completely silver to showing a large circular metallic disk. "Earth located."

"What do ya mean Earth located? That's a blank silver disk?"

The gate responded by saying, "Security measures are in place on alien transit system."

"Then remove them!"

"Understood designate Beryl, countermeasures activated."

The metal wall suddenly irised open and the three companions stepped through to the other side. The greeting they received there was less than cordial…

Author's Notes: Thanks for waiting, sorry about the cliffhanger and all. I'll be posting more often now…I hope…please muse don't fail me now…