Chapter 2: Shock Troops (Tuesday December 31st, 2002)

Ryoga felt his windpipe crushed beneath the powerful blow. Pain flooded up from his neck as the bones of his spine were ground against each other. "NO!" he thought. "They have Akari! I have to fight! I have to live!" He summoned his willpower and tried to focus on his critical injury, but it was so hard to work with all the stars and blinding lights going off in his mind. "MUST FIGHT!" He felt blood flowing out of his mouth. "NO!" he thought again as he felt himself start to slip away.

"The bandana!" Suma's voice sounded in his mind. "Focus everything on the bandana! Your Will and your Anger! Focus! It's got Apay's protection rune on it!"

Ryoga did as he was told and felt something grab the smashed throat firmly. Fire seemed to race up and down his spine. The constriction in his throat vanished as his windpipe inflated again. His blood ran across his neck only to get soaked up by the bandana. His thoughts cleared as all his pain vanished. The fire was now external - the bandana was burning. Ryoga sat up and pulled the remains of the bandana from his neck. The bandana continued to burn in his hands but the fire did not touch him. He watched dumbfounded as the cloth was quickly consumed and there was nothing left but ash in his hands.

"The rune absorbed all the damage," Suma told him. "That's its job. It just took the killing blow. We'll have to get Akane to make a new one for you later."

"We have to find Akari!" Ryoga shouted internally.

"No crap!" Suma shouted back. "I'm working on it, but the Water Sprites are shielded somehow. They shouldn't be able to do that! Open your eyes, look for clues, and call the freaking cavalry while you're at it!"

"What?" Ryoga asked confused.

"Pull out your phone, call Ranma, Akane, Mousse, Maomolin, Tofu, Hideo, and anyone else you can bloody think of. But do it while you're hunting for Akari!" Suma ordered.

Ryoga scrambled up and scanned the alley he had been knocked into. Meanwhile he pulled out his phone and texted "505" (numerical "SOS") to Ranma as Daran had taught him (and the rest). There was a trail of wet ground leading away from the attack, so he started to follow it. After 20 meters, the trail vanished in to a closed manhole. It was at this point that Mousse leaped from a building to stand before Ryoga. "I can't find Akari - she's being shielded," Mousse stated bluntly.

"We were attacked by Water Sprites," Ryoga answered. "There was no warning. I was sucker punched from out of nowhere." He gestured at the trail leading into the sewers.

"Akane showed me how to break a Shield long range. Give me your hand, think about Akari, and focus a Nova Burst into me," Mousse ordered.

"But…"

"Do it before it's too late!" Mousse commanded.

Ryoga grabbed Mousse's hand and did as he was told. The Burst erupted as a perfect sphere with Mousse as its center. Ryoga watched as it quickly faded, but Mousse was standing still for several moments after that, apparently still tracking it. "Got her!" Mousse suddenly exclaimed. "They just hid her again, but she's alive and slowing them down."

Suddenly, Tofu appeared in his Spirit/half-Kitsune form. Maomolin also appeared as a panther with glowing eyes. Mausu stepped out of the shadows and doped-slapped Ryoga. "When you send out an SOS, keep sending it until you get a reply," the little man rebuked the Lost Boy. "You're lucky Mousse was already sending one for you."

"I sent it to Ranma - I thought he'd get it," Ryoga defended himself.

"Ranma's on a top of a speeding train coming in from Ginza. He probably can't hear his phone right now," Tofu commented with a roll of his eyes as he ripped the manhole cover off its seating. "You knew he and Akane went to Ginza. Send to the closest ally - not the farthest!" He looked at Mousse. "Put on Akane's bandana and lead the way."

Mousse started down the manhole as Daran ran up to them. "Ciren's on her way," the dark skinned man announced breathlessly. "Ojima is on alert. Hideo and Olaf are about five minutes away. I heard from Konatsu…"

"Konatsu is here," a feminine voice announced as its owner stepped into the light. "Sasuke will join us shortly. Let's go."


Akari hung in the grip of the water creature, biding her time. The thing looked like a translucent ape and was about twice as big. Four other twisted creatures glanced at her with angry faces. She had managed to inflict a small amount of damage and almost get away when Ryoga somehow burst the Shield hiding her, but her captors had managed to stun her again. Now they were annoyed.

"It's obvious they would prefer to kill me and be done with their task," Akari thought as she faked unconsciousness. "But something is preventing them from killing me liked they tried to do to Ryoga."

For a few minutes, Akari had thought the things had succeeded in killing Ryoga (which had broken her spirit), but then Ryoga's Nova Burst had come to her and restored her with a vengeance. All her anger awoke and she had thrust her hands into the creature holding her. It was the first time she had ever cast a Chi blast - she never knew she was capable of it. The creature holding her was even more surprised - it blew completely apart. Unfortunately, the others were only stunned and one of them grabbed her again. Her former captor managed to reassemble itself and charge at her, only to be knocked away by another. The things screamed at each other for a few minutes until the largest of them managed to re-assert control. Then it slugged Akari, almost knocking her out, and it took possession. Now it held her tightly, checking frequently for any signs of consciousness, but Akari just lay still with her eyes closed and her mind open.

"These things are really hideous," Akari thought. "They remind me of a polluted lake - certainly smell like one. They have to be some sort of corrupted Water Elemental. They're also not that bright if I can fool them this easily."

She considered her situation. "We've moved above ground again and they're limited in how fast they can move - probably because of me on both counts. But I'm out-numbered and out-powered. I need help, but they're Shielding to keep me hidden. I can't break their Shield, but maybe I can bypass it…" Akari slowly raised a hand to her throat and the pendant Ryoga gave her for Christmas. The body of the small pedant was a hard, sharply carved crystal. Very deliberately, she pressed the crystal into her hand and drew its bottom point across the base of her thumb to create a deep cut. She felt the blood flow and dropped her hand, only to receive another cuff from her captor. She drooped immediately and faked unconsciousness again, with her bloody hand hanging free and dripping a trail through the alleyways they traveled….


Mousse led the way out of the sewers.

"Are you sure they came this way?" Ryoga asked.

"No, but this is the most likely path," Mousse answered. "The local spirits are freaked out and whatever has her couldn't have carried Akari any further down those pipes - things are either getting too small or they are locked. We passed the point where I Saw Akari. We need to spread out and see if we can find any…"

"Blood," Maomolin the panther cut him off. "I smell blood - Akari's."

"What!" Ryoga shouted.

"This is the part of the mission where we practice being quiet!" Daran hissed at him.

"I smell it too," Tofu agreed. "It's faint though - like from a small cut. That way," he added pointing.

Sasuke tapped Konatsu and pointed upward. The male Kunoichi nodded and both leapt upwards into the shadows. The other men followed the trail carefully, looking for an ambush, but moving as fast as possible. After a few blocks Tofu cursed. "Ciren's busy," he said. "We need to keep moving on our own here…"


Ranma and Akane rode on top of the train heading back to Nerima. Boarding the train like normal human beings was right out - the train stations were completely packed with party-goers. "The problem with living in Tokyo!" Ranma yelled as he pointed at the streets the elevated train passed over.

Akane just nodded. She and Ranma could communicate despite the train's speed courtesy of Ranma's Wind Magic, but the train was still loud. She was also typing something on her phone. At his glance, she said "I'm trying to find out where everyone is!"

Ranma nodded and pulled out his phone. He immediately saw the SOS message from Ryoga. "Ah crap!" he shouted as he showed the phone to Akane.

Akane looked frustrated as she yelled: "He and Akari stayed in Nerima! Why the hell didn't he contact Mousse or Tofu first?"

"Maybe he did!" Ranma answered. He sent his thought out to Ryoga. "He's alive and moving!" Ranma shouted to Akane. "We ne…"

Ranma never finished that sentence. Something jumped down from an overpass and swept him from the train. "RANMA!" Akane screamed. She checked her surroundings and leapt from the train after him, skidding along a guardrail to shed speed. Then she jumped down into an empty parking lot. Her landing was a lot more graceful than Ranma's: Ranma and his – now her – attacker bounced and rolled along the ground punching through fences and crushing random objects (mostly garbage cans) in their path. The featureless thing Ranma was fighting was large - easily three-times the shape-shifter's size – and had a vague humanoid shape. It seemed to have its hands tightly around Ranma's throat. Ranma's fists sunk into her attacker again and again with little effect. Then she released a blinding Chi blast that blew her attacker to bits. Akane watched as the bits rained down on the other side of the parking lot and began to flow together. "Water Sprite," she thought. Ranma seemed to be catching her breath. As Akane watched, the Sprite began to grow. "Water Elemental," she corrected herself. "This could be fun." She stomped barefoot toward the translucent monster (her shoes were long gone). "Yo, jackass!" she shouted at it. "No one attacks my fiancé!"

The thing's non-face looked and shot a huge jet of water at her, obviously wanting to flood her away. Akane concentrated and the water flowed past her without disturbing her - it smelled horrible though. "My turn!" she yelled as she sent a blazing softball of fire at it. The ball impacted the creature and forced it to step back. While it had no face on its humanoid shape, Akane got the impression it was surprised. It then pulled three balls about the size of Akane's head from its substance and threw them on the ground in front of it. With a start, Akane realized they were human skulls. "What the hell?" she thought. "Where did those come from?"

The skulls sprouted bone legs covered with a thin layer of skin, followed by an emaciated torso and bony arms - Akane could see the fore bones in each arm. A fanged jaw descended from each skull and a nose-less face of sorts formed. The three creatures, all standing about a meter and half tall, looked at Akane with hollow sockets and moaned. "Oh crap," echoed through Akane's mind from both her and Apay.

"Akane! MOVE!" Ranma shouted as the three creatures leapt at her with astonishing speed. She dodged them, but felt a chill as their claws just missed her.

"They steal life force!" Apay yelled internally. "No Chi weapons!"

"Crap, crap, crap…" Akane thought as the creatures re-oriented on her. Meanwhile the Elemental charged Ranma again and the shape-shifter was forced to concentrate on her own challenge.

"I thought zombies were slow!" Akane called to Apay.

"Don't blame me if your books got it wrong! DUCK!" Apay shouted as Akane dodged claw swipes again and again. "Find a weapon! Steel preferably!"

The brown-eyed woman nimbly leaped over a leg sweep attack. "A leg sweep? From a zombie?" Akane thought in surprise. "Hell, these things are warriors! All bets are off!" She dodged a sequence of attacks and then did a fast series of tumbles away from the monsters to the edge of the lot - and its fence. As the zombies closed quickly on her, Akane ripped a three meter pipe from the fence. She heated the pipe causing it to glow and, using it like a baseball bat, she swept the three from their feet, knocking them over a second fence. She smelled burning flesh from the pipe and tried not to think about it.

Akane gave a quick glance at Ranma which showed she was holding her own. Unlike Akane, she could use Chi weapons and she was turning part of the Elemental to ice and then smashing it. The water thing was not enjoying the experience, but it was healing itself as fast as Ranma was damaging it. Unlike the Elemental at the clinic, this one was unbound by a Circle, so it could generate water. Unfortunately, Akane couldn't help because her zombies were picking themselves up. "But I surprised them," she thought as she watched the things exchange glances with each other. "They weren't really expecting any real resistance. These things aren't mindless!"

She watched as the shrunken forms shared a final glance with each other and then ran at Akane, leaping and somersaulting through the air. During one particular high-flying tumble, a zombie seemed to pause and flare its limbs dramatically in an attempt to intimidate Akane. The move did send a shudder through Akane, but not for the reasons the zombie hoped. The thought "I've seen that move before!" fired through Akane's brain. As the implications crashed down on the young woman, the three undead figures leapt to the top of the fence separating them from Akane and then flew at the young woman.

"Breaking point!" Akane shouted as she tapped the ground and raced away. A pit opened up just as the zombies landed - and swallowed them. Akane smashed the ground and the pit closed. "That won't hold them," she muttered to herself as she raced toward Ranma and the Elemental.

There was an explosion of dirt and gravel behind her. "Incoming!" Ranma yelled at her. She didn't bother answering back the obvious. Instead she concentrated and leaped at the back of the Elemental. She tumbled through it and it staggered as her weird power disrupted it. Ranma immediately went on the attack with a wind storm that lifted the creature up and threw it back on the zombies.

The red-head watched as the creature lost its shape on top of the undead and flooded the zombies away. Ranma looked at Akane as she said breathlessly: "They steal life force. I don't know if they steal Elemental energy, but our enemies don't look happy anyway. They'll be back though."

Ranma pulled out her cell phone and said: "We need help." She tapped '505' and hit send a few times. "Any ideas?" he asked.

"Working on it!" Apay sounded in Akane's mind. "I need five minutes and you have to get rid of the zombies!"

"My inner self has a plan," Akane told her. "We need to buy time."

Ranma shrugged as she watched the Elemental re-form and the zombies get up again. "I'm still good."

"Fine," Akane answered. She eyed the rail line overhead. "You deal with big and ugly. I know how to draw off the night brigade." With that she leaped toward the train trestle. She landed half the distance there, turned, and yelled something that could have been Mandarin Chinese: "-"

The reaction was immediate: the zombies screamed like the damned and ran at her, ignoring Ranma completely. Ranma looked surprised but had to concentrate on 'big and ugly' bearing down on her. Akane bounced up to the train track above with the zombies in hot pursuit. She ran fast on top of one of the rails, using it as a 'ground' as her thoughts tapped into the overhead power line. She began to glow brightly, causing her surroundings to fade.

The zombies were closing the distance, focusing completely on Akane and her glow. They ignored everything else - including the oncoming train Akane was racing toward. At the last moment, Akane killed the glow and leapt aside; the train struck her pursuers squarely. She continued racing alongside the train toward its fast approaching end. Once it was gone, she turned and saw her three opponents still running toward her, looking somewhat worse for the wear. Akane pulled everything the overhead line would yield into herself. The whites of her eyes turned blue. She looked at the zombies, held up her hands about 30 cm apart, and yelled: "Thunder Strike!"

The zombies were blown back by the blast and tumbled along the track, lucky that the Nerima lines didn't use a third rail. Akane knew that if they could hear her challenge before and be thrown off by her light, then there was a possibility that they could be stunned by her blast - which seemed to have worked. While they were still confused, she ran forward at warp speed and mapped out a twelve step circle around them with throwing a massive amount of heat at them. Unnecessarily, she yelled: "Hiryu Shorten Ha!"

Immediately, a tornado sprang up sweeping the zombies up. Akane intensified the heat difference at the center of the tornado. "Hotter" she shouted at herself. She fed more and more energy into the twister lifting the zombies higher and higher - right into the overhead line. Immediately, Akane created a path to ground and the zombies burst into flame.

"It's not enough," Apay shouted internally. "Let me speak!"

"Done!" Akane told her.

Akane's mouth shouted long forgotten words of Power. The Words resonated through Akane and she understood the nature of the Spell, even if she didn't understand the Words. She set her will behind the Spell. Now her captives started to scream between the fire and the windstorm pulling them apart, but Akane set her jaw grimly and willed the flames on the zombies to burn hotter. Finally, a scream of "SHISHEN!" tore out of the tornado and the zombies began to break apart. The limbs crumbled to dust and ash, followed by the torso. Then the jaws crumbled until only the bare skulls remained. Akane slowly backed the tornado down until the skulls were resting on the ground in front of her. She walked over to the side of the elevated track, yanked free a long metal bar, and smashed one of the skulls. It immediately crumbled to dust. A light breeze blew the dust away. Akane oriented on the other two skulls…


Ranma continued to fight the Water Elemental. Fortunately, she and Akane had made it back to Nerima before the thing attacked, so Ranma was able to replenish herself from the Nexus. It wasn't perfect, but it allowed her to keep up with the shambling monster - especially since she had to rely on Magic rather than Martial Arts to counter the creature. She was forced to dodge the Elemental's blows again and again, and attack by freezing it. The creature was hurt by the freezing, but would withdraw its essence from the ice, limiting damage. Smashing the ice freed up Ranma's movements, but did not hurt the monster further. "My strikes don't really do anything," Ranma thought. "My knives don't do anything, and I don't have a weapon large enough to strike a big enough area of it to make a…."

Her eyes fell on the three meter fence pole Akane had discarded. A staff was also useless, but Ranma had another idea. She touched the ground to open a pit that swallowed the Elemental - a distraction at best, but that was all she needed. She leaped and snatched up the pole while the beast was climbing out of the hole. While she was waiting for it, she drew in more power from the Nexus and sent a searching thought out to Akane - the blue-black-haired woman was alive, healthy and her confidence was high. "I have to trust her," Ranma thought. "And I can't lead this thing to her anyway or it could short out her power sources."

The Elemental charged Ranma and the young woman swung her weapon through the beast. She had super-chilled the pipe, and it immediately froze part of the Water Elemental on the pass thru, causing the Elemental to lose mass again. The think staggered slightly and sent jets of water at Ranma, but she froze them mid-stream and stepped away from the ice masses. As it had during Ranma's last attacks, the Elemental healed itself and regained its normal size again. But there was one slight change this time around - there was a mass of frozen ice at the far end of the pole Ranma was wielding. Ranma quickly swung his ice club back at the Elemental, making the club practically radiate cold. The monster blocked the swing this time, losing an arm to the club. Again, the monster healed the damage, but Ranma's club was bigger. After a few more swings, the mass of ice at the end of the pole was nearly a meter in diameter and extremely heavy. "That's enough," Ranma muttered to herself. "Any more and I won't be able to fight with it." Then she yelled: "Roasting Chestnuts!"

The Elemental could not counter the speed of the attacks or keep up with the water dispersed by the huge club. As it tried to create more water, Ranma kept smashing it away. The creature had stood 4 meters tall, but it was soon down to 2 meters, and then one meter. It could control water, but not the ice Ranma continued to generate. Now it was in danger of Ranma's power freezing it solid, and then it would really be in trouble. It quickly faked an attack at Ranma and retreated, not by running, but by collapsing its form and simply flowing away from the young woman like a snake along the ground.

Ranma paused in confusion as her enemy retreated. Then she recognized the Saotome Secret technique in action. "Oh hell no!" she shouted after it. "You're not sneaking away after all this!" She ran after it with her club. The water snake continued to flow faster - and increase in length. Ranma knew she had to finish this quickly or that thing would attack again at a more advantageous time. "We're ending this now!" she called out.

The thing looked back and shot a ball of water at her, forcing Ranma to dodge. It should have paid attention to where it was going though. Akane Tendo stepped out from behind a bridge support and reached a hand straight down into its head. "Gotcha!" she shouted. Immediately, the water snake collapsed and the water dispersed.

Ranma looked surprised for a moment and then strode over to Akane and gave her a fierce bear hug. "Ah, were you worried about little old me?" Akane teased. Ranma dope-slapped her lightly and Akane laughed. Then Ranma's fiancée returned the hug just as fiercely.

Ranma pulled back a little and asked: "What did you just do to the Water Elemental?"

"I didn't; Apay did," Akane answered. "Somehow, she's learned a way to imprison it. I think she figured it out from looking at that trap Kuno's wizard had."

The shape-shifter looked impressed. "Did Apay take out the zombies as well?"

"She taught me how, but I did that," Akane replied somberly.

"Where are they?" Ranma asked.

"Gone," Akane stated bluntly. "Literally blown to bits. I'm not happy about that."

Ranma said seriously: "They were already dead, Akane."

"I know, and maybe they're at peace now. But, Ranma, they were Amazons."

"What?"

"They were Amazons," Akane repeated. "One of them used an intimidation tactic Shampoo use to use… And that thing I yelled at them - Shampoo use to mutter it at me anytime I really pissed her off. I don't know what it really means, but Cologne once dope-slapped Shampoo for saying it. And all three of the zombies responded to it."

"Whoa…" Ranma breathed out in amazement.

Akane nodded her head. "They weren't mindless; overconfident maybe - they expected to just kill me quickly, but not mindless. And they didn't really know what train tracks were or that it might mean an oncoming train - it never even registered until too late."

"So they were old Amazons," Ranma concluded. Akane nodded her head again. Ranma sighed and added: "Sort of makes sense I guess: undead warriors that drain life - hell of an army.

"Literally," Akane agreed. "Conventional arms won't really work. They were hit by a train and sustained light damage. They're somewhat vulnerable to fire, but it has to be very hot."

Something about that assessment bothered Ranma, but she'd have to think about it later. Akane had won with no real damage - her dress was trashed and her shoes were history - but she was fine. That's what counted. Ranma's gi (which had switched in with the shape change) was soaked thoroughly. Fortunately, the cold didn't bother her anymore. She also had a few bruises around her throat from where the Elemental had tried to choke her, but that would heal quickly - even more so when she found some hot water.

Ranma hugged Akane again and then released the other woman. "We need to catch up with the others," Ranma stated as she pulled out the phone again and showed the "505" messages stacking up. There were also "411" (info requests) and "20" (location requests) from Tofu and Ciren, but Ranma ignored them for now. "Something's up with Ryoga," she added.

Akane closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them she replied: "We'd better get going. He's on the other side of town."

Suddenly there was a screech of tires nearby and headlights appeared. The two women turned to see a red Ferrari 550 Maranello fly into view. "I suppose we *could* accept a lift," Ranma noted.

The headlights fell on the couple and then adjusted away from them as the car picked up speed. It then crashed through two chain link fences and swerved through the ice covered battlefield.

"Oh gods," Akane sighed.

The car swerved about and eventually skidded to a halt six meters away. The door popped open and Ciren looked out over the door at the couple. "Holy cripes," she muttered at the bedraggled woman. The Siren looked at the lot covered with twisted ice sculptures and huge cracks and shook her head. Then she became all business as she climbed out of her car. "Next time, answer the bloody '20' requests!" she yelled at them.

"We were a little busy," Akane replied as they both ran toward the car.

"How did you find us?" Ranma asked.

Ciren popped the truck. "Your phones aren't standard. As soon as you messaged '505', it started a homing beacon." She quickly sorted through items in her trunk. "I followed the rail line until I found the beacons." She pulled out two sets of black fatigues and threw them to Ranma and Akane. "Put these on quickly! Akari's been kidnapped by a group of Water Elementals. We've gotta go!"


A/N: I'm not going to be using footnotes in this story - I'd have to footnote every other line. If you have any questions about the above, see the character descriptions in my profile or browse the supporting storylines. You can also drop me a line...