Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
Sousuke frowned at the girl sitting next to him and chanting in a low voice. More pointedly, he considered the arc of concealing darkness between their little corner and the world outside. He knew that from outside it looked just like a normal if thick shadow, but was somewhat transparent from inside.
He'd heard rumors of such people, sensitives and kinetics and others, but this was the first time he'd worked with any. He'd originally assumed that their abilities were minor and perhaps a bit exaggerated by campfire stories.
He was finding the truth to be a bit more impressive than his assumptions.
At the same time, he was a bit underwhelmed by at least Naiki Satomi's actions, even if it had given them a bit of a distraction.
In any case it was time to make his report.
****
"As it stands," Sousuke said. "Kaname Chidori is captured, as are two of the Satomis. Naiki Satomi is injured but alive, I was not able to ascertain more than that."
He went on to discuss damage done to the enemy in the attempted retaking of the plane and the landing that followed, as well as the ongoing transfer of the hostages to the transport plane and the bomb reported by Eija Satomi.
"One last thing, Commander," Sousuke said. "It's Gauron."
"Are you certain?" Kalinin said, more surprised by this than he was by the report of how much damage they'd been able inflict. "I thought he was dead."
"I know, but it's definitely him," Sousuke said. "He has the scar from where I shot him."
"Understood, Urzu-7," Kalinin said. He was about to cut off the communication when their guest raised her hand to ask to be heard.
"Mind if I ask him to pass on a message for me?" Ranma asked.
Kalinin glanced over toward Tessa who nodded.
"Stand by for our guest expert, Urzu-7," Kalinin said before inviting Ranma over to the microphone.
"Soldier-boy, you've got my youngest daughter there," she said.
"Affirmative," Sousuke said.
"All right, tell her she's to follow your lead," Ranma said. "Remind her you're the sensei here. You'd probably say superior officer, but sensei will be easier for her to understand."
"Understood," Sousuke said.
"If she hasn't already, tell her to inform you what she can do, family secrets included," Ranma said. She took a breath and continued. "And also tell her drawing blood might be needed."
"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "Is there anything else, Ms Satomi."
"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive," Ranma said. "That's it."
"Keep looking for Kaname Chidori and the other ," Kalinin said. "And stay safe. Next contact will be at 2200, we'll let you know the next move then."
"Understood, sir," Sousuke said. "Urzu-7 out."
"That leaves us to plan the rescue then," Tessa said. "Ms Satomi, you've admitted that you're not used to military action, can we trust you to follow a plan?"
"Like I said, you're the senseis here," Ranma said.
"I'm surprised," Kalinin said. "Most of the time your sort of people tend to place more confidence in their own abilities over 'normal' people."
"Bah, skill and expertise overwhelm talent everywhere," Ranma said dismissing the concern. "But you're right, most psychics trust only the abilities that nobody else has and don't think crap through."
"All right," Tessa said. "Then you don't mind if I ask what you can do?"
"Don't mind," Ranma said. "All our eggs are the same basket, after all. I'm not good on the science terms though, so I'll just try to give practicals."
"Headache better?" Tessa asked.
"Getting there," Ranma said.
"Then let's get started," Tessa said.
Ranma took a deep breath and started to say what she could and could not handle.
****
Sousuke looked up from the radio to note Eija dragging a soldier into their corner and sitting down to continue her concentration on their cover.
"Did you hear?" Sousuke asked.
"Hai," Eija said. "I'm ready to do as you need, sensei."
"Then we find our comrades and wait for word," Sousuke said.
****
Naiki and Deimosu Satomi were kept under armed guard near three large trucks with trailers wired together.
A mobile lab unit.
It took a look to see that two Satomis were wearing a vest rigged with a detonator and bombs and that three heavy machine gun positions were placed about them. Naiki was still unconscious and lying on a cot with medical machines around her.
"Miss Chidori should be in one of the trailers," Sousuke said rationally. "This is bad. They have a squad strength there. This is likely a trap."
"I can get a closer look," Eija whispered.
"Are you confident of not being seen?" Sousuke said.
Eija nodded.
"Do it," Sousuke said. "See if you can find who has the detonator. And if there are any snipers."
Eija hesitated a moment.
"If I find any snipers, should I remove them?" Eija asked.
"I'd like to delay awareness of our presence as long as possible," Sousuke said. "But it would be best to remove all possible dangers."
"Delay the discovery," Eija said. "I understand."
She stood up and started to fade away.
Under the cover of the umisenken, Eija filtered in among the soldiers guarding her siblings, resisting the urge to fiddle with the machine guns or explosives that she knew nothing about.
She almost lost her focus as she got close to Naiki and saw that death was creeping up on her sister. It was hours away, and these villains would probably stop it completely, but that wasn't much comfort.
As Sousuke suspected, she found another squad of soldiers in hiding behind boxes deeper in the warehouse they'd taken their "special interests" to.
Taking a deep breath, she walked in among them and started the uncomfortable work.
She couldn't understand the Korean as she walked amongst them, but it was clear that they didn't realize anything weird was happening.
"Hey, watch where you're pushing," one of them said.
"You watch it," another protested quietly.
"Everyone keep your mouths shut," the squad leader said.
Eija was through like a ghost and out the other side.
A few pounds of force applied with expert percision to the right meridian points and slow build up of chi would have a particular effect.
Dim mak.
Eija aimed for the spleen.
It was a lethal attack, painful and sudden death by internal bleeding, but she didn't have time to closely study each target in the way that would make the non-lethal attacks most accurate and sure. If there was something anomalous about them, at the very least they'd be incapacitated with pain.
She needed that certainty.
However, as she left, it was obvious to her blood red eyes that the blackness of death was creeping up swiftly on the majority of the squad.
And she could already see more blood on her own hands.
She was at Sousuke's side and into view not long after.
"There's an ambush," she said. "But they're all dead or incapacitated in about thirty minutes. Naiki needs a doctor, or me."
The mercenary nodded.
"Any sign of the man from the cabin?" Sousuke asked.
"Not yet," Eija said. "And I'd only call him a man in the strictest sense."
"Agreed," Sousuke said. "I've had some experience with him. Can your sister hold out until the ambush is finished?"
"She has hours," Eija said. "But..."
"Then we'll move when the ambush is down," Sousuke said. "Get close and take out the man with the detonator and anybody near, those vests are jury-rigged, it doesn't look like they're wired to go anyway but with a detonator. I'll handle everybody else. As soon as I see you, I'll start firing. Got it?"
They sat and waited patiently, Eija feeling the building approach of death on the soldiers she'd already taken care of.
They had five minutes, maybe less, when everything went crazy.
First, there was the sound of a gunshot from inside one of the trailers.
Eija turned to look at Sousuke and saw he was already moving.
Watching the squad leader in charge of the detonator starting to get itchy, she couldn't hold back and moved, dropping the umisenken's cloak as she stole the detonator out of his hand and thrust her palm into his chest, sending a wave of force that damaged lungs and heart.
The two soldiers about the man raised their rifles her way but were too slow to stop her attack on their superior or the crescent kick that followed immediately afterward, taking them out of the fight.
Sousuke responded by taking out two of the heavy machine gun crews with the pistol he'd taken from Gauron earlier.
Deimosu was quick to take action as well, jumping into the distracted third machine-gun crew's midst and tearing them and their support apart. Taking the wired vest off a moment later.
The ambush squad was pouring out to the attack as Sousuke moved on the trailer, catching the detonator as Eija tossed it to him, but at the same time, a wall in the warehouse exploded inward as a large, dark-haired man moved to join the fight. Behind him another figure swarmed in, moving incredibly fast.
"Hey, Thyme," the slender one said. "That must be the dark-haired bride Basil was talking about. That's all three!"
"Good day for the Musk," the large one said.
Deimosu and Eija both turned to look at the two with a sinking feeling. Musk warriors were big on their mother's danger lists.
It turned into a brief threeway battle as the ambush, lives shortened by their activity started dropping all at once.
"Get to Naiki," Deimosu shouted. "I'll handle these."
Eija nodded and rushed to her sister, focusing her mind on healing and fixing the injuries that were threatening her sister.
Deimosu dodged aside a swipe from the large dark man, and leaned into a speeding charge by the slender speed-freak. Eija heard the crackling thunder of his inner-power striking out like lightning, but this was more or less familiar to her.
The sweat came out of her as if she was a towel being wrung out, but the internal damage faded away and, Naiki started to wake up.
"Whaz..." Naiki wearily as she started to come to.
"Fight," Eija said gasping as she tried to recover from the effort of healing. "Musk."
"Musk?" Naiki said confused before it came to her and she sat up to look at her brother competing with the two warriors coming in and getting the overall worst of it. "MUSK!"
She started to move forward to help and collapsed to the floor, or would have if Eija hadn't caught her.
"Not yet," Eija said, helping her sister to her feet and tossing the explosive vest aside. She started moving for the escape route Sousuke had determined earlier.
As she did so, Sousuke came out of the trailer behind them.
"Miss Chidori, help them," he said shouted moving forward to grab one of the personal assault weapons the guard squad had had.
Deimosu fell back, forcing a space between the two Musk and himself with a blast of electrical power and giving himself a chance to catch his breath. In doing so he gave Sousuke an opening.
Automatic fire hedged the speedy flame-haired slender one away, letting Deimosu focus his attention on the huge one. Thyme out massed and out-strengthed Deimosu, but couldn't compete in speed or skill with the young demigod.
A swift exchange and the brute was tossed aside and dazed long enough for Deimosu and Sousuke to backaway from the fight and catch up to the girls.
Which was when the ceiling blew inward to reveal an angry looking pink-haired young-man floating downward.
"I claim these females for the Musk Dynasty," he said imperiously, hovering over the space that the Satomis had been held earlier.
Around them, the other two Musk, mostly undamaged started to come to his side on the ground. Which was littered with two explosive wired vests.
"I'm afraid I can't comply," Sousuke said, setting his weapon aside and rising the detonator switch in his hand.
Basil looked confused as to why the outsider would drop the powerful gun, dangerous even to him if he weren't careful, and instead raise what looked to be one of the radios these outsiders talked through.
Then the world flashed brilliantly white and he was thrown backward into a truck.
When vision came back a few seconds later and he was looking to see the incredibly resilient Thyme shake free of the impact and the speedy Bay leaning against the wall and catching his breath. All the outsiders had vanished.
Growling in rage he limped the first few feet out into the middle of the warehouse before recovering himself and starting to consider rising into the air.
Which was when more of these monkey-ish outsiders came pouring in with more firearms and the three Musk had something to occupy themselves with before hunting their prize.
****
"Sousuke, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Kaname demanded as the five of them snuck away from the fire fight.
"I'm afraid our original plan has been scuttled by that third party," Sousuke said. "But they should still cause enough confusion and distraction for us to get somewhere secure to wait for reinforcements."
"Why don't we just get out of here?" Deimosu said, pointing outside the complex.
"In a moment," Sousuke said. "But we need time to catch our breath and re-equip. If possible we'll need to contact my superiors."
"Your superiors," Kaname said from where she was helping Naiki walk along. "What do you mean your superiors? Hayashimizu?! What's he going to say? 'The terrorists wouldn't dare impinge on the autonomy of the students'?"
"No, I do not believe his excellency has anything to do with this situation," Sousuke said. "Now please keep your voice down until we get to that hangar."
"S...souskue!" Kaname snapped. "This isn't a video game. This is the real thing!"
The young man turned around to catch her eye firmly.
"Miss Chidori, I will protect you," he said. "That is my duty."
Kaname felt herself blushing as he said that, and she couldn't continue to voice out her anger at the young man.
"I still say we should just roof-hop out of here," Deimosu said. "Leave the Musk behind and let soldier-boy's friends save everybody else since they're coming."
"Mother said to follow Sousuke's lead in this," Eija said quietly, still breathing heavily. "When we get to the hangar, I'll heal Naiki a little more."
"Can you handle another spell like that?" Deimosu asked.
"I'll be fine," Eija said as they reached the hangar.
"Hide in the back," Sousuke said eyeing the savage in the hangar. "Deimosu, keep a watch for any incoming."
"I still think this is a mistake," Deimosu muttered.
"What are you going to do?" Kaname asked, wondering about the tall robotic fighter in front of her.
"I'm re-equipping," Sousuke said as he moved to the ladder and started to climb up it.
"Look, cut it out," Kaname said. "I'll admit your good. But even if you've spent hours on the paintball range and simulators, that doesn't mean you can pilot an arm slave against real soldiers. An amateur can't control one of those."
"Amateur?" Sousuke said, coming to the top of the arm slave. "I'm no amateur, I'm a specialist."
****
The sound of battle outside was spreading across the base, much more than could be accounted for by just the three Musk warriors.
Kaname had moved to the back of the hangar with Naiki and Eija after Sousuke opened the cockpit of the AS and got inside, rather easily much to her surprise.
Naiki looked much better, the bruises and cuts on her arms miraculously healed to a level that looked like she'd taken a rough fall.
Eija on the other hand, was lying on her back with a grey pallor and breathing heavily as she recovered from what whatever it was she had down to help her sister.
"So, what was with that guy back there?" Kaname asked. "The one that was flying?"
"He's a Musk Prince," Naiki said. "They're a tribe from China somewhere near some magic springs. Mother told us all about them and told us to be very careful around them and to fight all out if one even hinted at attacking us."
"Why?" Kaname asked.
"They kidnap strong female martial artists and female psychics to strengthen their bloodlines," Eija whispered.
"We're breeding material," Naiki confirmed, pointing to all three of them.
"What, but I'm not anything like a psychic!" Kaname protested, not mentioning what that scientist had said about "Whispered".
"Something's coming," Deimosu shouted. "Something big!"
In his cockpit Sousuke growled at the soviet piece of junk, waiting for it to boot up so he could move.
From his position, Deimosu unleashed a chi blast followed by an electrical discharge as the approaching savage trained a cannon towards his position. The impact staggered the AS, but didn't seriously damage it.
Cannon fire blew through the wall just over Deimosu dodging down and rolling to standing. In the back, Eija was getting to her feet much slower than either Kaname or Naiki.
Naiki rushed in and ripped her arms out at the savage, watching as her vacuum blade sliced into the thing's chest armor, but found nothing vital.
The cannon aimed toward her as she threw more vacuum blades instead of dodging aside, chipping away at the armor, but failing to aim or hit something specific.
Before the cannon could fire again another robot rushed in and shoved the attacker away, grabbing its hand cannon away. A movement later and the cannon blew a sizeable hole in the enemy savage.
Kaname could only watch as a second savage appeared and was destroyed before it could even register Sousuke's savage.
"Let's go," Sousuke called out over the comms.
The robot kneeled down and lowered a hand for the others to climb on.
"Let's get out of here," Sousuke shouted. "No time to talk!"
"We can keep up," Deimosu said. "Even carrying Eija."
"I can move," she said.
"Negative," Sousuke said noting that Naiki's and Eija's health status had almost reversed. True the dark-haired girl wasn't at risk of death, from what he could tell, but she was exhuasted.
"Your brother carries you! We go now, reinforcements are already heading here," Sousuke continued.
Then they were rushing out of the hangar, Naiki bringing up the rear and lashing out with a storm of vacuum blades to tear through the approaching tanks, which lacked the futurisitc alloys that made up the AS bodies.
Then she followed after.
****
Ranma sat in one of the helicopters sitting scross and among the Mithril strike force.
Mithril.
It was hard to do anything in the shadows without hearing about that group, and here she was working for them.
This wasn't her normal beat, but she'd been close to this sort of work once or twice before.
The red head'd done something similar while she was still living in Greece, when she was still establishing herself and earning money...and the understanding to use it properly.
A quick rescue and raze of a KGB psychic research facility.
She'd only been one of a team on that one.
Twenty-three, still bitter. She'd probably still be controlled by that bitterness except for the combination of her children, who she didn't believe deserved punishment, and the repeated "thank yous" from the jobs she'd taken.
Most of that team had been mercenaries just like this one, with herself the token "sensitive" to help finding the objectives. They'd been surprised that she could handle herself.
"So, you're psychic?" the lieutenant across from her asked.
"Hmm, not really," she said. "But close enough."
"And your kids are down there," the other added.
"Yep," Ranma said, realizing where the man was going with this.
"Don't go Akira and threaten the mission on us, got it?" the man said.
"Minimal effort, maximum impact," Ranma said. "I'm supporting you."
"I heard we're covering you," the lieutenant said with a smirk. "Need a gun?"
"Not a good idea," Ranma said shaking her head. "I haven't trained in gunfire. Last time I tried, I almost got myself killed playing gunslinger."
"We're not going to be getting in hand to hand range if we can avoid it," the lieutenant warned.
"Trust me, I can cope," Ranma said with a smile.
****
The helicopters came in amidst gunfire, though most of that was drawn by the M-9s that had landed ahead of them.
Ranma disembarked and immediately moved for cover with the rest of the team she was with.
She could dodge pistol fire, and didn't worry much about a stray bullet striking her, given the bakusai tenketsu, even her reverse-engineered version of the body hardening, but there was no reason to invite gunfire.
Small injuries and pains were still injuries and pains. It was like walking onto broken glass with bare feet.
The team moved forward cover to cover, firing to cover the next person. Soon enough her turn to move came and, as she came to the next piece of cover she lashed her hands outward.
A whirling vacuum blade left her hand and slashed easily through the barrels and crates covering the soldiers behind them. In fact it slashed through some of the soldiers behind.
The lieutenant came up next behind her and smirked at her as he passed.
"I see what you mean now," he said.
The rescue squad worked their way through as the main assault worked to subdue the base and establish a perimeter to get the hostages out.
Ahead of the main fighting lines, where M-9s were securing the runway, Ranma and the rescuers were spearheading the path to the hostages for the demolitions crew and pilots. Turning a corner when they found a savage in firing position.
"Think you can take out an AS?" the lieutenant asked her.
"Give me three, five minutes," Ranma said peeking around the corner. "Maybe. Big maybe."
"How about just disable?" the man asked.
"I think that'll take less time," Ranma said.
"All right, I wan...the hell!?" the lieutenant gasped as the savage around the corner was engulfed in power and energy.
As the attack faded, the savage appeared visibly dented from several directions, some vital components sparking outward. Disabled but not destroyed.
"Ryu Sei Hisho," Ranma said narrowly as she saw the end result of the attack. "Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."
"What's that?" the lieutenant asked. "One of your kids going crazy?"
"No," Ranma said. "There's a third party involved. He has to be able to fly to pull that move off, so watch up. There are probably more on the ground, dressed as ancient warriors."
The lieutenant nodded and gestured for the team to move past the now safe corner, eyes upward.
They were moving further in when a pink-haired figure carrying a chi sword swung around a further corner, hanging twenty feet off the ground, and turned to face them. A sneer covered his face as he unleashed a blast of chi towards them in the form of a scything line of chi.
Ranma immediately leaped forward and lashed outward with her arms, sending two vacuum blades to disrupt the chi blade.
"I've got this Musk brat," Ranma said to the men behind her. "Keep going, I'll catch up."
"Watch yourself, Ma'am," the lieutenant said as the rescue squad moved past her.
"Woman," the young-man said. "Don't presume to get in my way. If you know who we are, then you know we are not to be stopped. I am Basil, son of Herb, Prince of the Musk!"
Ranma responded by charging down the alley way between the warehouses toward where Basil was hovering. The young dragon prince unleashed chi blades and chi blasts growling bitterly as Ranma dodged them aside easily.
As the swift red-head, with speed probably surpassing Bay's, approached closer, the surprised young man dived downward with a series of chi-balls he hurled down to the location Ranma would reach.
Ranma grimaced as he recognized the Ryu Sei Hisho coming and wondered if her theorized counter would work. As the chi blasts struck the ground and started to bounce into her, she was already whirling into the dance.
"Kijin Gun-Dai Ranbu!" Ranma shouted as vacuum blades lashed out in all directions, obliterating the buildings on either side of the red-headed martial artist and disrupting the chi bombs that had been about to smash her into unconsciousness.
Basil stared in shock as the unbeatable move of the dragon princes was so thoroughly demolished.
"Saidaiky? Kijin Raish? Dan!" Ranma shouted launching a salvo of vacuum blades upwards at the prince.
Basil barely dodged aside dipping low as the fatal projectiles passed inches in front of his face.
Concentrated as he was on the projectiles, he failed to note the martial artist leaping to the highest point of the ruined structures around her and then upward again.
As the vacuum blades vanished harmlessly into the sky, he looked down and in front for Ranma as the peak of her second leap came in above and behind the young Musk.
In the rain, he failed to note Ranma's presence until the woman slammed into him from above, a kachuu tenshin amaguriken fist striking repetively into his shoulder until he felt it crack multiple times in multiple spots.
They landed with Ranma in control, her feet striking the ground as she slammed Basil into the ground first and then a piece of debris.
She couldn't hold back against the Musk, she knew from experience that the dragon princes had to be overwhelmed with skill and tactics and not allowed to bring their inhuman chi levels to the fight.
Basil for his place barely had time to recover from the surprise mid-air assault as he slammed physically again and again, something his father had assured him no outsider could possibly do. He was cognizant enough to know that his attacker was actually avoiding the most vital locations and instead focusing on causing pain and bruises.
And finally, the brutality stopped and he was facing the female's face that had so thoroughly humiliated him.
"Your Herb's son I'm guessing," Ranma said darkly. "He and I have an understanding, and that's the only reason I'm letting you live, Musk. If I find one of you Musk bastards has even touched one of my daughters, you're going to wish I'd killed you here."
Bleary but conscious, Basil slashed out clumsily with a chi sword, forcing Ranma backwards and giving him more than enough room to unleash a blast of chi that the martial artist was hard pressed to dissipate at such short range.
She just managed the Kijin Raishu Dan to create two vacuum blades across his position, affording her a small safe place in the powerful chi blast.
When it faded away, Basil was a speck in the sky.
Ranma sneered at the retreating form, Herb would never have run like that.
****
AN: I figure Naiki and Deimosu have the potential but not the experience or skill to take an AS with their powers. Sousuke in an AS would be quicker even when they get powerful enough. None of them can do anything to Gauron+Lambda Driver.
I think Ranma is going to be able to attack the joints with vacuum blades or something similar, but might take two or three minutes and would have a lot harder time with a skilled opponent.
Also, I've decided, in retrospect, that Ranma's overall power level (chi at least) is less than Herb and loads less than Saffron. She's definitely got a lot less potential than her children do as well (being demigods they're potentially up there as well). However, she's got skill, tactics and adaptability. In this case, she knew all the Musk tricks already and didn't even try a hiryu shoten ha, even with the hiryu korin dan. At this point, Basil probably has multiple hairline fractures across his body so that he's in lots of pain and in a vulnerable state, but not beyond his ability to recover via chi healing.
Vacuum blades versus chi blasts. Chi is based on the reaction of all things in the world. The vacuum blades are a small area of nothing. When the chi blast meets the vacuum blade, the fraction of nothingness causes it to fracture and dissipate.
Also, I figure that Eija can heal via chi-healing which is more like professional medical treatment in effect, not an instant heal. Or she can do a miraculous style healing, but that takes a lot out of her, as is apparent.
also, Sousuke's willingness to accept they can keep up, by this time, Eija's told him how fast they can travel (as per mother's instructions)
Also, the Musk resilience to gunfire being less than Naiki's
Bakusei Tenketsu is a very powerful body hardening technique...
by comparison, the Musk tough-guys are mostly born that way, so while still tougher than base human and able to survive small arms fire, it isn't something they can ignore.
Comment of who's attack Ranma first witnessed edited to fit Ranma's personality
He'd heard rumors of such people, sensitives and kinetics and others, but this was the first time he'd worked with any. He'd originally assumed that their abilities were minor and perhaps a bit exaggerated by campfire stories.
He was finding the truth to be a bit more impressive than his assumptions.
At the same time, he was a bit underwhelmed by at least Naiki Satomi's actions, even if it had given them a bit of a distraction.
In any case it was time to make his report.
****
"As it stands," Sousuke said. "Kaname Chidori is captured, as are two of the Satomis. Naiki Satomi is injured but alive, I was not able to ascertain more than that."
He went on to discuss damage done to the enemy in the attempted retaking of the plane and the landing that followed, as well as the ongoing transfer of the hostages to the transport plane and the bomb reported by Eija Satomi.
"One last thing, Commander," Sousuke said. "It's Gauron."
"Are you certain?" Kalinin said, more surprised by this than he was by the report of how much damage they'd been able inflict. "I thought he was dead."
"I know, but it's definitely him," Sousuke said. "He has the scar from where I shot him."
"Understood, Urzu-7," Kalinin said. He was about to cut off the communication when their guest raised her hand to ask to be heard.
"Mind if I ask him to pass on a message for me?" Ranma asked.
Kalinin glanced over toward Tessa who nodded.
"Stand by for our guest expert, Urzu-7," Kalinin said before inviting Ranma over to the microphone.
"Soldier-boy, you've got my youngest daughter there," she said.
"Affirmative," Sousuke said.
"All right, tell her she's to follow your lead," Ranma said. "Remind her you're the sensei here. You'd probably say superior officer, but sensei will be easier for her to understand."
"Understood," Sousuke said.
"If she hasn't already, tell her to inform you what she can do, family secrets included," Ranma said. She took a breath and continued. "And also tell her drawing blood might be needed."
"Affirmative," Sousuke said. "Is there anything else, Ms Satomi."
"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive," Ranma said. "That's it."
"Keep looking for Kaname Chidori and the other ," Kalinin said. "And stay safe. Next contact will be at 2200, we'll let you know the next move then."
"Understood, sir," Sousuke said. "Urzu-7 out."
"That leaves us to plan the rescue then," Tessa said. "Ms Satomi, you've admitted that you're not used to military action, can we trust you to follow a plan?"
"Like I said, you're the senseis here," Ranma said.
"I'm surprised," Kalinin said. "Most of the time your sort of people tend to place more confidence in their own abilities over 'normal' people."
"Bah, skill and expertise overwhelm talent everywhere," Ranma said dismissing the concern. "But you're right, most psychics trust only the abilities that nobody else has and don't think crap through."
"All right," Tessa said. "Then you don't mind if I ask what you can do?"
"Don't mind," Ranma said. "All our eggs are the same basket, after all. I'm not good on the science terms though, so I'll just try to give practicals."
"Headache better?" Tessa asked.
"Getting there," Ranma said.
"Then let's get started," Tessa said.
Ranma took a deep breath and started to say what she could and could not handle.
****
Sousuke looked up from the radio to note Eija dragging a soldier into their corner and sitting down to continue her concentration on their cover.
"Did you hear?" Sousuke asked.
"Hai," Eija said. "I'm ready to do as you need, sensei."
"Then we find our comrades and wait for word," Sousuke said.
****
Naiki and Deimosu Satomi were kept under armed guard near three large trucks with trailers wired together.
A mobile lab unit.
It took a look to see that two Satomis were wearing a vest rigged with a detonator and bombs and that three heavy machine gun positions were placed about them. Naiki was still unconscious and lying on a cot with medical machines around her.
"Miss Chidori should be in one of the trailers," Sousuke said rationally. "This is bad. They have a squad strength there. This is likely a trap."
"I can get a closer look," Eija whispered.
"Are you confident of not being seen?" Sousuke said.
Eija nodded.
"Do it," Sousuke said. "See if you can find who has the detonator. And if there are any snipers."
Eija hesitated a moment.
"If I find any snipers, should I remove them?" Eija asked.
"I'd like to delay awareness of our presence as long as possible," Sousuke said. "But it would be best to remove all possible dangers."
"Delay the discovery," Eija said. "I understand."
She stood up and started to fade away.
Under the cover of the umisenken, Eija filtered in among the soldiers guarding her siblings, resisting the urge to fiddle with the machine guns or explosives that she knew nothing about.
She almost lost her focus as she got close to Naiki and saw that death was creeping up on her sister. It was hours away, and these villains would probably stop it completely, but that wasn't much comfort.
As Sousuke suspected, she found another squad of soldiers in hiding behind boxes deeper in the warehouse they'd taken their "special interests" to.
Taking a deep breath, she walked in among them and started the uncomfortable work.
She couldn't understand the Korean as she walked amongst them, but it was clear that they didn't realize anything weird was happening.
"Hey, watch where you're pushing," one of them said.
"You watch it," another protested quietly.
"Everyone keep your mouths shut," the squad leader said.
Eija was through like a ghost and out the other side.
A few pounds of force applied with expert percision to the right meridian points and slow build up of chi would have a particular effect.
Dim mak.
Eija aimed for the spleen.
It was a lethal attack, painful and sudden death by internal bleeding, but she didn't have time to closely study each target in the way that would make the non-lethal attacks most accurate and sure. If there was something anomalous about them, at the very least they'd be incapacitated with pain.
She needed that certainty.
However, as she left, it was obvious to her blood red eyes that the blackness of death was creeping up swiftly on the majority of the squad.
And she could already see more blood on her own hands.
She was at Sousuke's side and into view not long after.
"There's an ambush," she said. "But they're all dead or incapacitated in about thirty minutes. Naiki needs a doctor, or me."
The mercenary nodded.
"Any sign of the man from the cabin?" Sousuke asked.
"Not yet," Eija said. "And I'd only call him a man in the strictest sense."
"Agreed," Sousuke said. "I've had some experience with him. Can your sister hold out until the ambush is finished?"
"She has hours," Eija said. "But..."
"Then we'll move when the ambush is down," Sousuke said. "Get close and take out the man with the detonator and anybody near, those vests are jury-rigged, it doesn't look like they're wired to go anyway but with a detonator. I'll handle everybody else. As soon as I see you, I'll start firing. Got it?"
They sat and waited patiently, Eija feeling the building approach of death on the soldiers she'd already taken care of.
They had five minutes, maybe less, when everything went crazy.
First, there was the sound of a gunshot from inside one of the trailers.
Eija turned to look at Sousuke and saw he was already moving.
Watching the squad leader in charge of the detonator starting to get itchy, she couldn't hold back and moved, dropping the umisenken's cloak as she stole the detonator out of his hand and thrust her palm into his chest, sending a wave of force that damaged lungs and heart.
The two soldiers about the man raised their rifles her way but were too slow to stop her attack on their superior or the crescent kick that followed immediately afterward, taking them out of the fight.
Sousuke responded by taking out two of the heavy machine gun crews with the pistol he'd taken from Gauron earlier.
Deimosu was quick to take action as well, jumping into the distracted third machine-gun crew's midst and tearing them and their support apart. Taking the wired vest off a moment later.
The ambush squad was pouring out to the attack as Sousuke moved on the trailer, catching the detonator as Eija tossed it to him, but at the same time, a wall in the warehouse exploded inward as a large, dark-haired man moved to join the fight. Behind him another figure swarmed in, moving incredibly fast.
"Hey, Thyme," the slender one said. "That must be the dark-haired bride Basil was talking about. That's all three!"
"Good day for the Musk," the large one said.
Deimosu and Eija both turned to look at the two with a sinking feeling. Musk warriors were big on their mother's danger lists.
It turned into a brief threeway battle as the ambush, lives shortened by their activity started dropping all at once.
"Get to Naiki," Deimosu shouted. "I'll handle these."
Eija nodded and rushed to her sister, focusing her mind on healing and fixing the injuries that were threatening her sister.
Deimosu dodged aside a swipe from the large dark man, and leaned into a speeding charge by the slender speed-freak. Eija heard the crackling thunder of his inner-power striking out like lightning, but this was more or less familiar to her.
The sweat came out of her as if she was a towel being wrung out, but the internal damage faded away and, Naiki started to wake up.
"Whaz..." Naiki wearily as she started to come to.
"Fight," Eija said gasping as she tried to recover from the effort of healing. "Musk."
"Musk?" Naiki said confused before it came to her and she sat up to look at her brother competing with the two warriors coming in and getting the overall worst of it. "MUSK!"
She started to move forward to help and collapsed to the floor, or would have if Eija hadn't caught her.
"Not yet," Eija said, helping her sister to her feet and tossing the explosive vest aside. She started moving for the escape route Sousuke had determined earlier.
As she did so, Sousuke came out of the trailer behind them.
"Miss Chidori, help them," he said shouted moving forward to grab one of the personal assault weapons the guard squad had had.
Deimosu fell back, forcing a space between the two Musk and himself with a blast of electrical power and giving himself a chance to catch his breath. In doing so he gave Sousuke an opening.
Automatic fire hedged the speedy flame-haired slender one away, letting Deimosu focus his attention on the huge one. Thyme out massed and out-strengthed Deimosu, but couldn't compete in speed or skill with the young demigod.
A swift exchange and the brute was tossed aside and dazed long enough for Deimosu and Sousuke to backaway from the fight and catch up to the girls.
Which was when the ceiling blew inward to reveal an angry looking pink-haired young-man floating downward.
"I claim these females for the Musk Dynasty," he said imperiously, hovering over the space that the Satomis had been held earlier.
Around them, the other two Musk, mostly undamaged started to come to his side on the ground. Which was littered with two explosive wired vests.
"I'm afraid I can't comply," Sousuke said, setting his weapon aside and rising the detonator switch in his hand.
Basil looked confused as to why the outsider would drop the powerful gun, dangerous even to him if he weren't careful, and instead raise what looked to be one of the radios these outsiders talked through.
Then the world flashed brilliantly white and he was thrown backward into a truck.
When vision came back a few seconds later and he was looking to see the incredibly resilient Thyme shake free of the impact and the speedy Bay leaning against the wall and catching his breath. All the outsiders had vanished.
Growling in rage he limped the first few feet out into the middle of the warehouse before recovering himself and starting to consider rising into the air.
Which was when more of these monkey-ish outsiders came pouring in with more firearms and the three Musk had something to occupy themselves with before hunting their prize.
****
"Sousuke, what the hell do you think you are doing?" Kaname demanded as the five of them snuck away from the fire fight.
"I'm afraid our original plan has been scuttled by that third party," Sousuke said. "But they should still cause enough confusion and distraction for us to get somewhere secure to wait for reinforcements."
"Why don't we just get out of here?" Deimosu said, pointing outside the complex.
"In a moment," Sousuke said. "But we need time to catch our breath and re-equip. If possible we'll need to contact my superiors."
"Your superiors," Kaname said from where she was helping Naiki walk along. "What do you mean your superiors? Hayashimizu?! What's he going to say? 'The terrorists wouldn't dare impinge on the autonomy of the students'?"
"No, I do not believe his excellency has anything to do with this situation," Sousuke said. "Now please keep your voice down until we get to that hangar."
"S...souskue!" Kaname snapped. "This isn't a video game. This is the real thing!"
The young man turned around to catch her eye firmly.
"Miss Chidori, I will protect you," he said. "That is my duty."
Kaname felt herself blushing as he said that, and she couldn't continue to voice out her anger at the young man.
"I still say we should just roof-hop out of here," Deimosu said. "Leave the Musk behind and let soldier-boy's friends save everybody else since they're coming."
"Mother said to follow Sousuke's lead in this," Eija said quietly, still breathing heavily. "When we get to the hangar, I'll heal Naiki a little more."
"Can you handle another spell like that?" Deimosu asked.
"I'll be fine," Eija said as they reached the hangar.
"Hide in the back," Sousuke said eyeing the savage in the hangar. "Deimosu, keep a watch for any incoming."
"I still think this is a mistake," Deimosu muttered.
"What are you going to do?" Kaname asked, wondering about the tall robotic fighter in front of her.
"I'm re-equipping," Sousuke said as he moved to the ladder and started to climb up it.
"Look, cut it out," Kaname said. "I'll admit your good. But even if you've spent hours on the paintball range and simulators, that doesn't mean you can pilot an arm slave against real soldiers. An amateur can't control one of those."
"Amateur?" Sousuke said, coming to the top of the arm slave. "I'm no amateur, I'm a specialist."
****
The sound of battle outside was spreading across the base, much more than could be accounted for by just the three Musk warriors.
Kaname had moved to the back of the hangar with Naiki and Eija after Sousuke opened the cockpit of the AS and got inside, rather easily much to her surprise.
Naiki looked much better, the bruises and cuts on her arms miraculously healed to a level that looked like she'd taken a rough fall.
Eija on the other hand, was lying on her back with a grey pallor and breathing heavily as she recovered from what whatever it was she had down to help her sister.
"So, what was with that guy back there?" Kaname asked. "The one that was flying?"
"He's a Musk Prince," Naiki said. "They're a tribe from China somewhere near some magic springs. Mother told us all about them and told us to be very careful around them and to fight all out if one even hinted at attacking us."
"Why?" Kaname asked.
"They kidnap strong female martial artists and female psychics to strengthen their bloodlines," Eija whispered.
"We're breeding material," Naiki confirmed, pointing to all three of them.
"What, but I'm not anything like a psychic!" Kaname protested, not mentioning what that scientist had said about "Whispered".
"Something's coming," Deimosu shouted. "Something big!"
In his cockpit Sousuke growled at the soviet piece of junk, waiting for it to boot up so he could move.
From his position, Deimosu unleashed a chi blast followed by an electrical discharge as the approaching savage trained a cannon towards his position. The impact staggered the AS, but didn't seriously damage it.
Cannon fire blew through the wall just over Deimosu dodging down and rolling to standing. In the back, Eija was getting to her feet much slower than either Kaname or Naiki.
Naiki rushed in and ripped her arms out at the savage, watching as her vacuum blade sliced into the thing's chest armor, but found nothing vital.
The cannon aimed toward her as she threw more vacuum blades instead of dodging aside, chipping away at the armor, but failing to aim or hit something specific.
Before the cannon could fire again another robot rushed in and shoved the attacker away, grabbing its hand cannon away. A movement later and the cannon blew a sizeable hole in the enemy savage.
Kaname could only watch as a second savage appeared and was destroyed before it could even register Sousuke's savage.
"Let's go," Sousuke called out over the comms.
The robot kneeled down and lowered a hand for the others to climb on.
"Let's get out of here," Sousuke shouted. "No time to talk!"
"We can keep up," Deimosu said. "Even carrying Eija."
"I can move," she said.
"Negative," Sousuke said noting that Naiki's and Eija's health status had almost reversed. True the dark-haired girl wasn't at risk of death, from what he could tell, but she was exhuasted.
"Your brother carries you! We go now, reinforcements are already heading here," Sousuke continued.
Then they were rushing out of the hangar, Naiki bringing up the rear and lashing out with a storm of vacuum blades to tear through the approaching tanks, which lacked the futurisitc alloys that made up the AS bodies.
Then she followed after.
****
Ranma sat in one of the helicopters sitting scross and among the Mithril strike force.
Mithril.
It was hard to do anything in the shadows without hearing about that group, and here she was working for them.
This wasn't her normal beat, but she'd been close to this sort of work once or twice before.
The red head'd done something similar while she was still living in Greece, when she was still establishing herself and earning money...and the understanding to use it properly.
A quick rescue and raze of a KGB psychic research facility.
She'd only been one of a team on that one.
Twenty-three, still bitter. She'd probably still be controlled by that bitterness except for the combination of her children, who she didn't believe deserved punishment, and the repeated "thank yous" from the jobs she'd taken.
Most of that team had been mercenaries just like this one, with herself the token "sensitive" to help finding the objectives. They'd been surprised that she could handle herself.
"So, you're psychic?" the lieutenant across from her asked.
"Hmm, not really," she said. "But close enough."
"And your kids are down there," the other added.
"Yep," Ranma said, realizing where the man was going with this.
"Don't go Akira and threaten the mission on us, got it?" the man said.
"Minimal effort, maximum impact," Ranma said. "I'm supporting you."
"I heard we're covering you," the lieutenant said with a smirk. "Need a gun?"
"Not a good idea," Ranma said shaking her head. "I haven't trained in gunfire. Last time I tried, I almost got myself killed playing gunslinger."
"We're not going to be getting in hand to hand range if we can avoid it," the lieutenant warned.
"Trust me, I can cope," Ranma said with a smile.
****
The helicopters came in amidst gunfire, though most of that was drawn by the M-9s that had landed ahead of them.
Ranma disembarked and immediately moved for cover with the rest of the team she was with.
She could dodge pistol fire, and didn't worry much about a stray bullet striking her, given the bakusai tenketsu, even her reverse-engineered version of the body hardening, but there was no reason to invite gunfire.
Small injuries and pains were still injuries and pains. It was like walking onto broken glass with bare feet.
The team moved forward cover to cover, firing to cover the next person. Soon enough her turn to move came and, as she came to the next piece of cover she lashed her hands outward.
A whirling vacuum blade left her hand and slashed easily through the barrels and crates covering the soldiers behind them. In fact it slashed through some of the soldiers behind.
The lieutenant came up next behind her and smirked at her as he passed.
"I see what you mean now," he said.
The rescue squad worked their way through as the main assault worked to subdue the base and establish a perimeter to get the hostages out.
Ahead of the main fighting lines, where M-9s were securing the runway, Ranma and the rescuers were spearheading the path to the hostages for the demolitions crew and pilots. Turning a corner when they found a savage in firing position.
"Think you can take out an AS?" the lieutenant asked her.
"Give me three, five minutes," Ranma said peeking around the corner. "Maybe. Big maybe."
"How about just disable?" the man asked.
"I think that'll take less time," Ranma said.
"All right, I wan...the hell!?" the lieutenant gasped as the savage around the corner was engulfed in power and energy.
As the attack faded, the savage appeared visibly dented from several directions, some vital components sparking outward. Disabled but not destroyed.
"Ryu Sei Hisho," Ranma said narrowly as she saw the end result of the attack. "Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."
"What's that?" the lieutenant asked. "One of your kids going crazy?"
"No," Ranma said. "There's a third party involved. He has to be able to fly to pull that move off, so watch up. There are probably more on the ground, dressed as ancient warriors."
The lieutenant nodded and gestured for the team to move past the now safe corner, eyes upward.
They were moving further in when a pink-haired figure carrying a chi sword swung around a further corner, hanging twenty feet off the ground, and turned to face them. A sneer covered his face as he unleashed a blast of chi towards them in the form of a scything line of chi.
Ranma immediately leaped forward and lashed outward with her arms, sending two vacuum blades to disrupt the chi blade.
"I've got this Musk brat," Ranma said to the men behind her. "Keep going, I'll catch up."
"Watch yourself, Ma'am," the lieutenant said as the rescue squad moved past her.
"Woman," the young-man said. "Don't presume to get in my way. If you know who we are, then you know we are not to be stopped. I am Basil, son of Herb, Prince of the Musk!"
Ranma responded by charging down the alley way between the warehouses toward where Basil was hovering. The young dragon prince unleashed chi blades and chi blasts growling bitterly as Ranma dodged them aside easily.
As the swift red-head, with speed probably surpassing Bay's, approached closer, the surprised young man dived downward with a series of chi-balls he hurled down to the location Ranma would reach.
Ranma grimaced as he recognized the Ryu Sei Hisho coming and wondered if her theorized counter would work. As the chi blasts struck the ground and started to bounce into her, she was already whirling into the dance.
"Kijin Gun-Dai Ranbu!" Ranma shouted as vacuum blades lashed out in all directions, obliterating the buildings on either side of the red-headed martial artist and disrupting the chi bombs that had been about to smash her into unconsciousness.
Basil stared in shock as the unbeatable move of the dragon princes was so thoroughly demolished.
"Saidaiky? Kijin Raish? Dan!" Ranma shouted launching a salvo of vacuum blades upwards at the prince.
Basil barely dodged aside dipping low as the fatal projectiles passed inches in front of his face.
Concentrated as he was on the projectiles, he failed to note the martial artist leaping to the highest point of the ruined structures around her and then upward again.
As the vacuum blades vanished harmlessly into the sky, he looked down and in front for Ranma as the peak of her second leap came in above and behind the young Musk.
In the rain, he failed to note Ranma's presence until the woman slammed into him from above, a kachuu tenshin amaguriken fist striking repetively into his shoulder until he felt it crack multiple times in multiple spots.
They landed with Ranma in control, her feet striking the ground as she slammed Basil into the ground first and then a piece of debris.
She couldn't hold back against the Musk, she knew from experience that the dragon princes had to be overwhelmed with skill and tactics and not allowed to bring their inhuman chi levels to the fight.
Basil for his place barely had time to recover from the surprise mid-air assault as he slammed physically again and again, something his father had assured him no outsider could possibly do. He was cognizant enough to know that his attacker was actually avoiding the most vital locations and instead focusing on causing pain and bruises.
And finally, the brutality stopped and he was facing the female's face that had so thoroughly humiliated him.
"Your Herb's son I'm guessing," Ranma said darkly. "He and I have an understanding, and that's the only reason I'm letting you live, Musk. If I find one of you Musk bastards has even touched one of my daughters, you're going to wish I'd killed you here."
Bleary but conscious, Basil slashed out clumsily with a chi sword, forcing Ranma backwards and giving him more than enough room to unleash a blast of chi that the martial artist was hard pressed to dissipate at such short range.
She just managed the Kijin Raishu Dan to create two vacuum blades across his position, affording her a small safe place in the powerful chi blast.
When it faded away, Basil was a speck in the sky.
Ranma sneered at the retreating form, Herb would never have run like that.
****
AN: I figure Naiki and Deimosu have the potential but not the experience or skill to take an AS with their powers. Sousuke in an AS would be quicker even when they get powerful enough. None of them can do anything to Gauron+Lambda Driver.
I think Ranma is going to be able to attack the joints with vacuum blades or something similar, but might take two or three minutes and would have a lot harder time with a skilled opponent.
Also, I've decided, in retrospect, that Ranma's overall power level (chi at least) is less than Herb and loads less than Saffron. She's definitely got a lot less potential than her children do as well (being demigods they're potentially up there as well). However, she's got skill, tactics and adaptability. In this case, she knew all the Musk tricks already and didn't even try a hiryu shoten ha, even with the hiryu korin dan. At this point, Basil probably has multiple hairline fractures across his body so that he's in lots of pain and in a vulnerable state, but not beyond his ability to recover via chi healing.
Vacuum blades versus chi blasts. Chi is based on the reaction of all things in the world. The vacuum blades are a small area of nothing. When the chi blast meets the vacuum blade, the fraction of nothingness causes it to fracture and dissipate.
Also, I figure that Eija can heal via chi-healing which is more like professional medical treatment in effect, not an instant heal. Or she can do a miraculous style healing, but that takes a lot out of her, as is apparent.
also, Sousuke's willingness to accept they can keep up, by this time, Eija's told him how fast they can travel (as per mother's instructions)
Also, the Musk resilience to gunfire being less than Naiki's
Bakusei Tenketsu is a very powerful body hardening technique...
by comparison, the Musk tough-guys are mostly born that way, so while still tougher than base human and able to survive small arms fire, it isn't something they can ignore.
Comment of who's attack Ranma first witnessed edited to fit Ranma's personality
Great, now that Sousuke is finally in his element, is time to demostrate how good he really is. On that matter he is not demigod material, but amybe one of the heroes of mythology. You can use the fact that Sagara's past is a total mistery, so that his Family or Clan could be of any kind of Samurais, knights, or warriors.
well, one of the fun parts about Asian mythology
a higher percentage of the gods and immortals are former mortals
and yeah, considering the fact that Sousuke took care of Basil with an observation and a fraction of a second compared to Ranma's and Basil's fight
granted, the convenient placement of explosives helped and Basil wasn't nearly as hurt afterwards, but he accomplished his objectives cleanly.
a higher percentage of the gods and immortals are former mortals
and yeah, considering the fact that Sousuke took care of Basil with an observation and a fraction of a second compared to Ranma's and Basil's fight
granted, the convenient placement of explosives helped and Basil wasn't nearly as hurt afterwards, but he accomplished his objectives cleanly.
2nd sentence is a bit messed up in this paragraph.
"from outside it looked... shadow from outside"
also, using the word outside even twice in a row is a little awkward.
try something more like
"... between their little corner and the rest of the cargo bay. He know that it looked just like a normal, if thick, shadow from the outside, but was somewhat transparent from the inside."
"from outside it looked... shadow from outside"
also, using the word outside even twice in a row is a little awkward.
try something more like
"... between their little corner and the rest of the cargo bay. He know that it looked just like a normal, if thick, shadow from the outside, but was somewhat transparent from the inside."
by the way, when I initially established that Kaname as a whispered had some understanding of the demi-gods...I didn't realize exactly what they were
knowing they're conduits from the future, I'm guessing that means that some time in the future, the relationship between Gods, Humans and Demons is more public and common. (even if only known to governments)
I'm also thinking at this point that the Gods and Demons are other terrestrial species, three-dimensional entities like ourselves with access to intense innate abilities that give them peeks at the other dimensions reliably but not constantly, and that they have lived in side-pockets of reality connected to Earth.
Tessa Testarossa theorizes that the Whispered are being used to change history towards some end (or to avoid another)
I'm actually starting to think that, in this case, that their continuation of the American-Soviet Cold War might be an unavoidable side effect to attempts to break the God-Demon Cold War.
knowing they're conduits from the future, I'm guessing that means that some time in the future, the relationship between Gods, Humans and Demons is more public and common. (even if only known to governments)
I'm also thinking at this point that the Gods and Demons are other terrestrial species, three-dimensional entities like ourselves with access to intense innate abilities that give them peeks at the other dimensions reliably but not constantly, and that they have lived in side-pockets of reality connected to Earth.
Tessa Testarossa theorizes that the Whispered are being used to change history towards some end (or to avoid another)
I'm actually starting to think that, in this case, that their continuation of the American-Soviet Cold War might be an unavoidable side effect to attempts to break the God-Demon Cold War.
Kaname was finding it hard to hold on to her preconceptions in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Terrorists
Whispered.
Musk.
Specialists.
Flying men shooting fireballs.
Her world had just turned upside down around her, and one thing was certainly bothering her.
Why hadn't Sousuke mentioned any of this?
Why hadn't he told her?
Her mind wandered back a few days to a roof-top discussion.
"I'm under orders to tighten security...you are in danger of being abducted by a certain organization...Mithril has dispatched one of its soldiers."
Kaname smacked a hand to her face.
He had told her, it had just seemed too fantastic to believe.
Of course that hadn't explained the Satomis. She looked off to the side and watched as Deimosu and Naiki kept pace with a frigging AS unit leaping from tree to tree.
And that with the blonde young man carrying Eija.
The girl looked more than a little out of sorts. She remembered the sensation she felt in the hangar as Eija healed her sister. That same world gone negative sensation accompanied by whispers that weren't as inaudible as they used to be.
She wanted to keep saying she wasn't a psychic or anything like that, but she had thoughts running around in her head that felt like knowledge even though she had no idea where she knew it from.
In any case, they were just caught up in the same thing she was.
They weren't really the main part of her problem.
Sousuke was.
And it was a problem she couldn't as easily work into focus as psychic powers.
Kaname was just starting to come to grips with the fact that the world wasn't anything like what she thought when she saw a swirling object heading in towards them just moments before it exploded under fire from Sousuke's robot.
****
"Musk?" Tessa asked.
"A third party," Kalinin said. "Our guest identified them as a primitive tribe with a tradition of snatching women of power to enhance their bloodlines. She marks them as very dangerous."
"How did they know the girls would be here?" Tessa asked.
"That is unknown," Kalinin said. "The hostages are secured and the bomb is detonated. Unfortunately, we have not recovered Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori or the Satomi children. Reports indicate that Sergeant Sagara and Eija Satomi may have secured the escape on their own when the Musk interfered."
"Keep searching, but our primary task has to be the safety of the collected hostages," Tessa said. "We've reports on enemy reinforcements coming in so we don't have long to stay."
Quietly to herself, she prayed for everyone to come back safely.
****
Kaname found herself flying through the air as the savage was rocked backward by the explosion. Naiki Satomi caught her before she could have a hard landing, behind her she could almost hear Sousuke calling out her name, even through the robot's cockpit.
She actually knew it somehow.
Even as Naiki brought her safely to the ground, Sousuke's AS was riddled with fire and Kaname watched in horror as the savage fell back and its body and cockpit were torn open by the cannon fire.
She heard herself calling out his name now, as if watching it on TV or hearing it on an intercom.
Deimosu said something to her and handed off Eija as he moved forward with his sister and the two of them tried use their funky superpowers on the attacking robot only to have some sort of field spring up around the thing, rendering their attacks useless.
"You have interesting friends, Kashim," a voice said.
It was the same voice that had been speaking over the airline intercom earlier. The same man that she had briefly seen before being taken to that lab.
"Why the hell are you still alive?" Sousuke asked from his exposed place in the cockpit.
"Well, it seems I have titanium plate in my skull from a previous injury," the manic voice said, pointing to his skull.
Besides her Eija started to sit up and form up her hands to do something.
Instinctively, Kaname reached out to grab the girl's hands.
"Stop it, without a link you need more time to recover from high end magic," Kaname ordered, wondering just what the hell she meant by that.
"But, I need to do something," Eija said insistently.
Above them the AS's lunatic pilot was gloating over his knowledge of the Whispereds and Sousuke's lack of understanding.
"I would have liked to see more of what you two were capable of as well," Gauron was saying. "But it appears that I'll have to be satisfied with just your sister."
The cannon raised and was subsequently destroyed by an attack from above.
"Yahoo!" shouted the speakers of the incoming M-9 AS. "Urzu-6 on the ground. I've located Urzu-7, Angel and friends, engaging hostile mech. Sousuke, can you get out?"
"I'm good to go," Sousuke said, climbing out of the cockpit and moving toward Kaname.
"Okay, you five minutes to get to the air-field!" Kurz said. "Go!"
"Watch that AS! He's got some sort of..." Sousuke was uncertain how to describe it. "...force field."
"Think who're talking to," Kurz said. "I got him once, I'll get him again."
"Is that the blonde guy from the other day?" Kaname demanded as Souske came to her side, holding a hand to his waist for some reason.
Kaname moved to his side to help support him as Deimosu started to pick up Eija again.
"Let's go," Sousuke said.
They were yards away before they noticed that Naiki wasn't with them.
****
Kurz watched as the strange AS dodged his fire and vanish into the bush around him. His opponent had an ECS camouflage system and good evasion capabilities, but he was also down to his melee back-up, so Kurz had the advantage.
As long as he paid attention
He prepared his weapon and waited for the attack.
"There!" he shouted aiming towards the flash of movement heading his way.
To his surprise the ground below him started shaking momentarily setting off his aim as a crack spread outward from between his legs straight for the approaching enemy AS, widening until it was big enough for the attacker's foot to jam inside and hold, stopping the charge.
"The hell?" Kurz muttered. "Convenient time for an earthquake."
In any case, turkey shoot time, he thought as he smirked and took aim at his opponent struggling against the grip of the Earth around him.
The round launched outward and impacted hard against a spherical flash of light that stopped it dead and dug a channel several meters ahead of it.
"Damn," Kurz said. "Any closer and my M-9 was trash. Time to get out of here. This is Urzu-6, enemy AS unknown type with unknown defensive system immobilized at my position. Fire ineffective, am heading toward pick-up. Urzu-7 and guests should be on the way to you already."
He started to turn about to leave when he heard something over the intercom.
"Mind if I hitch a ride?" a girl's voice asked from nearby.
Twisting the external cameras he found the green-haired Satomi daughter catching her breath on his unit's shoulder.
"Sure, pretty lady," he said, not asking how she got up there. "Hold on."
The M-9 sped away from the site leaving the venom behind, foot stuck in the ground for several minutes before it managed to rip it free.
The unit limped away, a frown on its pilot's face as he stared at the overheat warnings flashing in front of him. A few more minutes of operation and he'd be able to catch up with and destroy that M-9.
The only thing he got out of this was footage of the Satomi girl somehow initiating the cracked earth that trapped him just too long.
****
"We have to go back!" Deimosu said. "She's going to try to help in that fight."
"We don't have time," Sousuke said. "The transport leaves too soon."
"You're just going to leave her back there?" Deimosu said, growling as he came up to Sousuke's face.
"No, you are taking your sister and Miss Chidori to the air-field," he said. "I'll go back to see that she's safe."
"Sousuke, you're unarmed and...wounded," Kaname said. "You can't be expected to be res..."
"I am expected to be responsible," Sousuke said. "The rest of you are civilians. And only one of you can be expected to fight currently. And I'm not unarmed."
He drew a pistol and started to turn around with a resigned look at Kaname.
"Look out!" Eija called out.
Sousuke caught the incoming attack out of the corner of his eye and barely dodged out of the way as a large meaty fist swung in at him.
A flash of movement came in from the other direction which Deimosu just barely moved to intercept.
"Go! Go!" Souske shouted at the girls as he rolled aside again and Thyme's large fist crated the ground under where he'd been standing.
Reluctantly, Kaname started to pull Eija aside to run for the base but stopped cold as the flying freak from earlier came floating down in their path.
"Okay! Not this way," Kaname said, running at a bee-line away from the dangerous fighter.
"I didn't come out to these barbarous lands to be denied," Basil shouted, ignoring the pain of his injuries from that battle with that red-headed woman earlier.
Sousuke fired his pistol at the base of Thyme's skull as the giant missed him again, marveling as that managed to do little more than stun the big man.
Still it was all he needed.
Rolling aside he moved himself between the girls and Basil, his gun flashing out forward.
The dragon prince's eyes widened as he tried to force his battered skeleton and muscles to move at customary speeds and dodge aside of the bullets.
Even so, he felt impacts in his shoulder and body as he swept up into the air.
Rage burning in his eyes, the dragon unleashed a long burst of chi downward, igniting the dry grasses into a catching flame. As he did so, the battered and injured dragon prince lowered himself to the ground to catch his breath.
"Prince Basil!" Bay shouted as he zipped around Deimosu to help his master.
"Subdue the warrior!" Basil snapped angrily, standing up and holding his shoulder.
Sousuke grimaced as he and the two girls were forced back away from the flames, further away from the base. There wasn't much chance of them reaching the base in time now.
Eija looked towards her brother as Kaname held her hand and, despite the warning earlier, she quietly intoned a quiet prayer of protection and blessing.
Kaname felt it happening almost instantly, but couldn't do much more than catch Eija as she passed out.
Sousuke was quickly with Kaname and taking Eija before grabbing Kaname's hand and running from the growing flames as quickly as possible.
Behind them, Deimosu and the Musk were similarly pushed back from the flames scattering the lot of the fighters in several directions.
The blonde Satomi could have leaped over the flames if it wasn't for the Musk in his way, attacking him and pushing him away from the flames.
He recognized the nimbus of darkness that appeared to shroud his form whenever they attacked him, Eija had cast it on him or Naiki in the past.
However, given the amount of magic she'd been casting all day, including healing Naiki, she had to be tired. And he couldn't be with her to protect her. She was with that soldier who, skilled as he was, was running out of ammo and equipment.
That worry turned to angry as he watched Basil simply moving off and watching as his henchmen did the fighting. The man couldn't even be bothered to try and get in the fight? He was just going to watch?
It was several minutes of backing away from fight and flame before the Musk scattered at the approach of an M-9. As the Musk scattered, his other sister's form dropped down to his side and looked around.
"Where's everybody else?" she asked, flinching at Deimosu's angry glare.
"Hey," Kurz called out. "No time for reunions, I need to at least get you two safe."
****
"Urzu-6 has returned with two of the Satomi children on the transport helicopter," Kalinin said. "Apparently Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori and the third Satomi were driven off by the flames west of the base when these Musk attacked."
"How about their mother?" Tessa asked.
"Returning with one of the tactical teams," Kalinin said.
Tessa was silent for a long time.
"Unfortunately, we can't stay any longer, armored patrol ships are on their way," Tessa said. "However, we'll have a second opportunity, what might we be able to do if we surfaced here for a few minutes at dawn?"
Terrorists
Whispered.
Musk.
Specialists.
Flying men shooting fireballs.
Her world had just turned upside down around her, and one thing was certainly bothering her.
Why hadn't Sousuke mentioned any of this?
Why hadn't he told her?
Her mind wandered back a few days to a roof-top discussion.
"I'm under orders to tighten security...you are in danger of being abducted by a certain organization...Mithril has dispatched one of its soldiers."
Kaname smacked a hand to her face.
He had told her, it had just seemed too fantastic to believe.
Of course that hadn't explained the Satomis. She looked off to the side and watched as Deimosu and Naiki kept pace with a frigging AS unit leaping from tree to tree.
And that with the blonde young man carrying Eija.
The girl looked more than a little out of sorts. She remembered the sensation she felt in the hangar as Eija healed her sister. That same world gone negative sensation accompanied by whispers that weren't as inaudible as they used to be.
She wanted to keep saying she wasn't a psychic or anything like that, but she had thoughts running around in her head that felt like knowledge even though she had no idea where she knew it from.
In any case, they were just caught up in the same thing she was.
They weren't really the main part of her problem.
Sousuke was.
And it was a problem she couldn't as easily work into focus as psychic powers.
Kaname was just starting to come to grips with the fact that the world wasn't anything like what she thought when she saw a swirling object heading in towards them just moments before it exploded under fire from Sousuke's robot.
****
"Musk?" Tessa asked.
"A third party," Kalinin said. "Our guest identified them as a primitive tribe with a tradition of snatching women of power to enhance their bloodlines. She marks them as very dangerous."
"How did they know the girls would be here?" Tessa asked.
"That is unknown," Kalinin said. "The hostages are secured and the bomb is detonated. Unfortunately, we have not recovered Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori or the Satomi children. Reports indicate that Sergeant Sagara and Eija Satomi may have secured the escape on their own when the Musk interfered."
"Keep searching, but our primary task has to be the safety of the collected hostages," Tessa said. "We've reports on enemy reinforcements coming in so we don't have long to stay."
Quietly to herself, she prayed for everyone to come back safely.
****
Kaname found herself flying through the air as the savage was rocked backward by the explosion. Naiki Satomi caught her before she could have a hard landing, behind her she could almost hear Sousuke calling out her name, even through the robot's cockpit.
She actually knew it somehow.
Even as Naiki brought her safely to the ground, Sousuke's AS was riddled with fire and Kaname watched in horror as the savage fell back and its body and cockpit were torn open by the cannon fire.
She heard herself calling out his name now, as if watching it on TV or hearing it on an intercom.
Deimosu said something to her and handed off Eija as he moved forward with his sister and the two of them tried use their funky superpowers on the attacking robot only to have some sort of field spring up around the thing, rendering their attacks useless.
"You have interesting friends, Kashim," a voice said.
It was the same voice that had been speaking over the airline intercom earlier. The same man that she had briefly seen before being taken to that lab.
"Why the hell are you still alive?" Sousuke asked from his exposed place in the cockpit.
"Well, it seems I have titanium plate in my skull from a previous injury," the manic voice said, pointing to his skull.
Besides her Eija started to sit up and form up her hands to do something.
Instinctively, Kaname reached out to grab the girl's hands.
"Stop it, without a link you need more time to recover from high end magic," Kaname ordered, wondering just what the hell she meant by that.
"But, I need to do something," Eija said insistently.
Above them the AS's lunatic pilot was gloating over his knowledge of the Whispereds and Sousuke's lack of understanding.
"I would have liked to see more of what you two were capable of as well," Gauron was saying. "But it appears that I'll have to be satisfied with just your sister."
The cannon raised and was subsequently destroyed by an attack from above.
"Yahoo!" shouted the speakers of the incoming M-9 AS. "Urzu-6 on the ground. I've located Urzu-7, Angel and friends, engaging hostile mech. Sousuke, can you get out?"
"I'm good to go," Sousuke said, climbing out of the cockpit and moving toward Kaname.
"Okay, you five minutes to get to the air-field!" Kurz said. "Go!"
"Watch that AS! He's got some sort of..." Sousuke was uncertain how to describe it. "...force field."
"Think who're talking to," Kurz said. "I got him once, I'll get him again."
"Is that the blonde guy from the other day?" Kaname demanded as Souske came to her side, holding a hand to his waist for some reason.
Kaname moved to his side to help support him as Deimosu started to pick up Eija again.
"Let's go," Sousuke said.
They were yards away before they noticed that Naiki wasn't with them.
****
Kurz watched as the strange AS dodged his fire and vanish into the bush around him. His opponent had an ECS camouflage system and good evasion capabilities, but he was also down to his melee back-up, so Kurz had the advantage.
As long as he paid attention
He prepared his weapon and waited for the attack.
"There!" he shouted aiming towards the flash of movement heading his way.
To his surprise the ground below him started shaking momentarily setting off his aim as a crack spread outward from between his legs straight for the approaching enemy AS, widening until it was big enough for the attacker's foot to jam inside and hold, stopping the charge.
"The hell?" Kurz muttered. "Convenient time for an earthquake."
In any case, turkey shoot time, he thought as he smirked and took aim at his opponent struggling against the grip of the Earth around him.
The round launched outward and impacted hard against a spherical flash of light that stopped it dead and dug a channel several meters ahead of it.
"Damn," Kurz said. "Any closer and my M-9 was trash. Time to get out of here. This is Urzu-6, enemy AS unknown type with unknown defensive system immobilized at my position. Fire ineffective, am heading toward pick-up. Urzu-7 and guests should be on the way to you already."
He started to turn about to leave when he heard something over the intercom.
"Mind if I hitch a ride?" a girl's voice asked from nearby.
Twisting the external cameras he found the green-haired Satomi daughter catching her breath on his unit's shoulder.
"Sure, pretty lady," he said, not asking how she got up there. "Hold on."
The M-9 sped away from the site leaving the venom behind, foot stuck in the ground for several minutes before it managed to rip it free.
The unit limped away, a frown on its pilot's face as he stared at the overheat warnings flashing in front of him. A few more minutes of operation and he'd be able to catch up with and destroy that M-9.
The only thing he got out of this was footage of the Satomi girl somehow initiating the cracked earth that trapped him just too long.
****
"We have to go back!" Deimosu said. "She's going to try to help in that fight."
"We don't have time," Sousuke said. "The transport leaves too soon."
"You're just going to leave her back there?" Deimosu said, growling as he came up to Sousuke's face.
"No, you are taking your sister and Miss Chidori to the air-field," he said. "I'll go back to see that she's safe."
"Sousuke, you're unarmed and...wounded," Kaname said. "You can't be expected to be res..."
"I am expected to be responsible," Sousuke said. "The rest of you are civilians. And only one of you can be expected to fight currently. And I'm not unarmed."
He drew a pistol and started to turn around with a resigned look at Kaname.
"Look out!" Eija called out.
Sousuke caught the incoming attack out of the corner of his eye and barely dodged out of the way as a large meaty fist swung in at him.
A flash of movement came in from the other direction which Deimosu just barely moved to intercept.
"Go! Go!" Souske shouted at the girls as he rolled aside again and Thyme's large fist crated the ground under where he'd been standing.
Reluctantly, Kaname started to pull Eija aside to run for the base but stopped cold as the flying freak from earlier came floating down in their path.
"Okay! Not this way," Kaname said, running at a bee-line away from the dangerous fighter.
"I didn't come out to these barbarous lands to be denied," Basil shouted, ignoring the pain of his injuries from that battle with that red-headed woman earlier.
Sousuke fired his pistol at the base of Thyme's skull as the giant missed him again, marveling as that managed to do little more than stun the big man.
Still it was all he needed.
Rolling aside he moved himself between the girls and Basil, his gun flashing out forward.
The dragon prince's eyes widened as he tried to force his battered skeleton and muscles to move at customary speeds and dodge aside of the bullets.
Even so, he felt impacts in his shoulder and body as he swept up into the air.
Rage burning in his eyes, the dragon unleashed a long burst of chi downward, igniting the dry grasses into a catching flame. As he did so, the battered and injured dragon prince lowered himself to the ground to catch his breath.
"Prince Basil!" Bay shouted as he zipped around Deimosu to help his master.
"Subdue the warrior!" Basil snapped angrily, standing up and holding his shoulder.
Sousuke grimaced as he and the two girls were forced back away from the flames, further away from the base. There wasn't much chance of them reaching the base in time now.
Eija looked towards her brother as Kaname held her hand and, despite the warning earlier, she quietly intoned a quiet prayer of protection and blessing.
Kaname felt it happening almost instantly, but couldn't do much more than catch Eija as she passed out.
Sousuke was quickly with Kaname and taking Eija before grabbing Kaname's hand and running from the growing flames as quickly as possible.
Behind them, Deimosu and the Musk were similarly pushed back from the flames scattering the lot of the fighters in several directions.
The blonde Satomi could have leaped over the flames if it wasn't for the Musk in his way, attacking him and pushing him away from the flames.
He recognized the nimbus of darkness that appeared to shroud his form whenever they attacked him, Eija had cast it on him or Naiki in the past.
However, given the amount of magic she'd been casting all day, including healing Naiki, she had to be tired. And he couldn't be with her to protect her. She was with that soldier who, skilled as he was, was running out of ammo and equipment.
That worry turned to angry as he watched Basil simply moving off and watching as his henchmen did the fighting. The man couldn't even be bothered to try and get in the fight? He was just going to watch?
It was several minutes of backing away from fight and flame before the Musk scattered at the approach of an M-9. As the Musk scattered, his other sister's form dropped down to his side and looked around.
"Where's everybody else?" she asked, flinching at Deimosu's angry glare.
"Hey," Kurz called out. "No time for reunions, I need to at least get you two safe."
****
"Urzu-6 has returned with two of the Satomi children on the transport helicopter," Kalinin said. "Apparently Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori and the third Satomi were driven off by the flames west of the base when these Musk attacked."
"How about their mother?" Tessa asked.
"Returning with one of the tactical teams," Kalinin said.
Tessa was silent for a long time.
"Unfortunately, we can't stay any longer, armored patrol ships are on their way," Tessa said. "However, we'll have a second opportunity, what might we be able to do if we surfaced here for a few minutes at dawn?"
Immunity to heat thing:
I remember one fic where Ranma, -chan in the fic, was able to get her freezing aura down to zero Kelvin. Absolute zero is immune to fire as fire can't work if fire can't release electrons or break bonds. Or it could have been in Come the Cold Dragon. Maybe both, and others. Exaggerating Ranma's control of heat/cold is popular.
Beyond the rather dark opening where once again the Ah! Megami-Sama greek pantheon gets put through the ringer I like the thread string. Some interesting xover elements, and has Ranma doing something, her cover, I could actually see happening if everything went tits up.
I remember one fic where Ranma, -chan in the fic, was able to get her freezing aura down to zero Kelvin. Absolute zero is immune to fire as fire can't work if fire can't release electrons or break bonds. Or it could have been in Come the Cold Dragon. Maybe both, and others. Exaggerating Ranma's control of heat/cold is popular.
Beyond the rather dark opening where once again the Ah! Megami-Sama greek pantheon gets put through the ringer I like the thread string. Some interesting xover elements, and has Ranma doing something, her cover, I could actually see happening if everything went tits up.
The fighting ended and the pursuit not yet begun, Sousuke found himself moving a bit slower. Especially as he was carrying Eija Satomi at the moment.
"Is it okay?" Kaname asked hesitantly.
"We're still not safe here, but staying there was impossible," Sousuke answered.
"No, I mean your injury," the blue-haired girl asked, she was still wearing the jacket Sousuke had given her when they came out of the trailer. "Doesn't it hurt?"
"Yeah, hold on just a second," the mercenary said moving to a tree and gently laying Eija down. "Miss Chidori, hand me the little packet...in the jacket pocket."
"You mean this first-aid kit looking thing?" Kaname asked. "Hold on, let me do it."
Her resolve faded as she saw the size of the piece of shrapnel stuck in Sousuke's stomach.
"I'm lucky," he said. "It doesn't look too serious."
"But," Kaname said.
"I know."
There was an emphasis to that statement that showed an intensity of purpose that Kaname hadn't seen in anyone before.
Except perhaps the spiky haired lunatic that she had seen before.
"We have to move on."
He rose up in front of her like a bloody specter and held his hand out toward her.
"Hand me the smelling salts."
Perhaps because of the fact that she hadn't really taken in the inhuman abilities of the other people she'd encountered.
Perhaps because despite those abilities they seemed, for all she could tell, basically normal kids.
Perhaps because Sousuke had been keeping up with, even directing those super-powered kids without any special ability of his own that she could see.
Perhaps because looking at him now reminded her most of that man, Gauron that had been running the kidnapping.
But at the moment Sousuke was the scariest thing she could think of.
"Don't! Don't come near me!" she snapped and immediately wished she could take it back.
In the instant she said it, Sousuke had looked so devoid of hope.
"I guess I understand," the other teen said. "People like you have a hard time trusting people like me. But be patient for now. All I care about right now is getting you and Miss Satomi back to Japan safely. You'll never see me after that, so...for now...just trust me."
The intensity didn't fade, but it seemed redirected. As if he was afraid of hurting her by thinking too hard. A sort of gentleness that he wasn't aware of, perhaps wasn't able to express physically, and was all the more poignant because he was standing and bleeding while trying to keep from hurting her.
And the pain wasn't just physical, she could see it in the eyes that turned down and looked like they wanted to tear up but didn't know how.
She'd hurt him with her comment.
She thought back to all the times he'd acted in ways that had seemed quirky or even down right insane.
And she realized.
This is what he'd meant by protecting her. Taking all the pain intended for her onto himself.
"How could I tell him not to come near me?" she thought to herself.
Almost mechanically, she reached into the packet and handed over the smelling salts and bent to check Eija's vitals before holding the smelling salts under her nose.
Eija blinked awake and looked around.
"Where are we?" she asked wearily.
"We've come about three miles away from the base," Sousuke said. "You've been out for about an hour."
"That's about twenty minutes a mile. I slowed you down," Eija commented starting to get to her feet, getting help from Kaname and Sousuke as she did so. "I'm sorry."
"No need," Sousuke said. "But we aren't safe here, are you okay to travel on your own."
"I should be," Eija said.
"Good, but you are a non-combatant from this point," Sousuke insisted. "Your abilities have worn you out too thoroughly."
"Hai," the dark-haired woman said. "I...suppose I should stop suppressing my sight as well."
"If it tires you, yes," Sousuke said.
"We...we'll be fine," Kaname assured Eija quietly.
Eija took the tone to be gentleness as the blue-haired girl let her lean on her shoulder. Most people couldn't bare to touch her when the red of her eyes flooded into the white like she was letting them do now.
"Your abilities seem to come with a heavy price," Sousuke said.
"Not all of them. Just the magic," Eija explained wearily. "My brother and sister rarely use it for that reason. Naiki knows a few elemental spells, mostly water and earth. Deimosu knows parlor tricks, really."
"Weren't they casting spells or something back there?" Kaname asked.
"No, Naiki was using the Kijin Raiju Dan," Eija said. "And Deimosu was using the Moko Takabisha. Both are advanced martial art techniques requiring chi manipulation in different ways. My brother is also electrokinetic, which is a psionic affinity. All tiring, yes, like heavy exercise, but not like magic."
"Is there a reason for it?" Sousuke asked.
"One of our teachers told us we're cursed," the girl explained quietly. "It's like someone hid us from the universe and we have to shout with all our might to get it to hear us. Okaasan is the same way, but I think she...disliked magic before she knew that."
Eija continued to think about chi and magic while Kaname was thinking about anti-virus programming for some reason she wasn't sure of.
She supposed it was easy for the layfolk to mix up things like feng shui and chi blasts for true magic. Both dealt mostly with chi. Magic was different somehow, like having your hand on the codes to reality itself.
It could do things chi couldn't...
...and she had to admit it was addicting.
"If you're so cut off from it," Kaname said. "Why learn it?"
"I asked her once," Eija said. "She just said we had to be prepared. I...think, sometimes, it might be about our father."
There was a vast uncomfortable silence behind that statement and it seemed obvious to Kaname that the girl didn't particularly like to think about it.
Eija frowned for a moment as she felt herself fading again when she thought back to earlier when she had been considering tools.
Sousuke looked down at Eija, now being carried again between him and Kaname, and realized that her feet were moving almost on automation. He was just deciding to let her sit and rest again as they broke out of the trees to the edge of wide plain leading off toward the horizon.
"Wow," Kaname said.
"It looks like we can't go any further on foot," Sousuke said. "Let's sit down for now."
They laid Eija down first and then Kaname sat down herself.
Sousuke remained quiet as Kaname looked over Eija and rested herself before he finally spoke up.
"Miss Chidori," he said.
"What?" Kaname asked.
She noticed his eyes were closed and there was a quietness about him that seemed worrying.
"We're not in a good situation," Sousuke said. "It's impossible to cross the field with me wounded and Miss Satomi so exhausted. My comm unit has a limited range and the enemy will be closing in on this position as we speak. If we stay here, they'll eventually catch us. Or the fire will move this way and catch us, either way is no good."
"So, I'll stay here as a bait," he said. "And I want you to carry Miss Satomi west and take the comm device with you."
"What?!" Kaname snapped.
"You should be able to contact my comrades by the beach if they're in that area," he continued.
"So, what you're saying is that you are..."
"Don't worry about us," he instructed emphatically. "We're here to protect you. This is the only way you can survive. Now go!"
"...no," Kaname said.
"What?" Sousuke said, uncomprehending of the response.
"I'm not going to leave you here," she said.
"Miss Chidori!" Sousuke responded. "I'm the specialist here. I've considered the situation and this is the only way."
"'The only way!?'" the high school student quoted. "Is that really what you think?"
Sousuke stared at her eyes wide as she took a deep breath and then unloaded.
"Don't tell me you're a specialist! You are just a weapons freak. It's clear as day!! So you're ready to die for me? Spare me the ego trip! How do you think I'd 'survive' knowing the 'only way' you could save me was to sacrifice your own life?! Is your life worth so little? You have to live...you have to want to live. We'll find a way! I'm not going to give up so easily! All three of us are going home alive, okay!!"
"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, trying to reason with her. "I understand that, but your will isn't enough to change the current situation. So at least you..."
"I said no!!"
The next thing Kaname knew there was a gun pointed at her.
"So, you're gonna shoot me if I don't go?"
"That's correct."
They stared at each other, eyes and faces seeming calm across the small gap until Kanama reached out and moved forward into Sousuke's body.
"I'm not scared," she said. "Because...I believe in you now."
The look on Sousuke's face was shell-shocked as his gun dropped from his hand.
"I was so scared of you a minute ago...because you were acting like a stranger to me, but...when you told me to trust you, I felt I had to pull together and help you as much as I could. I can't lose sight of that now. So we're going to keep fighting...as long as we're still alive!! We're going home together!!"
The shocked expression in Sousuke's face seemed to fade a little, being replaced by one of realization and consideration.
"I really hate to interrupt this shoujo moment," Eija said, sending a surprised shiver through Kaname and Sousuke who turned slowly around to look at each other. "I mean, I can tell you two are in your own world right now, considering I think you forgot to include me in statements a couple of times..."
"This is not what you think it is!" Kaname sputtered. "I was just..."
"Kaname you want to stop there," Eija said quickly, glancing toward Sousuke's confused face. "But...I might have an idea."
She reached in her pocket and pulled out her scroll.
"We've already established that you can't cast anything in your current state," Sousuke said.
"True," Eija said. "But I think should remember using this on the plane."
"Your brother prepared the message," Sousuke said. "All I did was visualize Sergeant Major Mao and blow on the paper."
In truth, he hadn't even been sure that the message had worked until he'd contacted mithril later and heard that the Sergeant Major had gotten the information in fact.
"It's a tool," Eija said. "We prepare these ahead of time, the magic is already in them."
"If that is true can't you send the message?" Kaname asked.
"But I don't know if Okaasan or my brother and sister are with Sousuke's comrades and I don't think either of us knows many of his companions very well," Eija said. "The only one of us who can strongly visualize someone that would be for sure able to help us is Sousuke."
The mercenary frowned and looked up at the stars briefly now that the clouds were parting.
"Okay, if you'll prepare it, I'll send it," Sousuke said.
********
AN:
I know a lot of this is word for word from the manga, but I couldn't bring myself to chop those two scenes...
"Is it okay?" Kaname asked hesitantly.
"We're still not safe here, but staying there was impossible," Sousuke answered.
"No, I mean your injury," the blue-haired girl asked, she was still wearing the jacket Sousuke had given her when they came out of the trailer. "Doesn't it hurt?"
"Yeah, hold on just a second," the mercenary said moving to a tree and gently laying Eija down. "Miss Chidori, hand me the little packet...in the jacket pocket."
"You mean this first-aid kit looking thing?" Kaname asked. "Hold on, let me do it."
Her resolve faded as she saw the size of the piece of shrapnel stuck in Sousuke's stomach.
"I'm lucky," he said. "It doesn't look too serious."
"But," Kaname said.
"I know."
There was an emphasis to that statement that showed an intensity of purpose that Kaname hadn't seen in anyone before.
Except perhaps the spiky haired lunatic that she had seen before.
"We have to move on."
He rose up in front of her like a bloody specter and held his hand out toward her.
"Hand me the smelling salts."
Perhaps because of the fact that she hadn't really taken in the inhuman abilities of the other people she'd encountered.
Perhaps because despite those abilities they seemed, for all she could tell, basically normal kids.
Perhaps because Sousuke had been keeping up with, even directing those super-powered kids without any special ability of his own that she could see.
Perhaps because looking at him now reminded her most of that man, Gauron that had been running the kidnapping.
But at the moment Sousuke was the scariest thing she could think of.
"Don't! Don't come near me!" she snapped and immediately wished she could take it back.
In the instant she said it, Sousuke had looked so devoid of hope.
"I guess I understand," the other teen said. "People like you have a hard time trusting people like me. But be patient for now. All I care about right now is getting you and Miss Satomi back to Japan safely. You'll never see me after that, so...for now...just trust me."
The intensity didn't fade, but it seemed redirected. As if he was afraid of hurting her by thinking too hard. A sort of gentleness that he wasn't aware of, perhaps wasn't able to express physically, and was all the more poignant because he was standing and bleeding while trying to keep from hurting her.
And the pain wasn't just physical, she could see it in the eyes that turned down and looked like they wanted to tear up but didn't know how.
She'd hurt him with her comment.
She thought back to all the times he'd acted in ways that had seemed quirky or even down right insane.
And she realized.
This is what he'd meant by protecting her. Taking all the pain intended for her onto himself.
"How could I tell him not to come near me?" she thought to herself.
Almost mechanically, she reached into the packet and handed over the smelling salts and bent to check Eija's vitals before holding the smelling salts under her nose.
Eija blinked awake and looked around.
"Where are we?" she asked wearily.
"We've come about three miles away from the base," Sousuke said. "You've been out for about an hour."
"That's about twenty minutes a mile. I slowed you down," Eija commented starting to get to her feet, getting help from Kaname and Sousuke as she did so. "I'm sorry."
"No need," Sousuke said. "But we aren't safe here, are you okay to travel on your own."
"I should be," Eija said.
"Good, but you are a non-combatant from this point," Sousuke insisted. "Your abilities have worn you out too thoroughly."
"Hai," the dark-haired woman said. "I...suppose I should stop suppressing my sight as well."
"If it tires you, yes," Sousuke said.
"We...we'll be fine," Kaname assured Eija quietly.
Eija took the tone to be gentleness as the blue-haired girl let her lean on her shoulder. Most people couldn't bare to touch her when the red of her eyes flooded into the white like she was letting them do now.
"Your abilities seem to come with a heavy price," Sousuke said.
"Not all of them. Just the magic," Eija explained wearily. "My brother and sister rarely use it for that reason. Naiki knows a few elemental spells, mostly water and earth. Deimosu knows parlor tricks, really."
"Weren't they casting spells or something back there?" Kaname asked.
"No, Naiki was using the Kijin Raiju Dan," Eija said. "And Deimosu was using the Moko Takabisha. Both are advanced martial art techniques requiring chi manipulation in different ways. My brother is also electrokinetic, which is a psionic affinity. All tiring, yes, like heavy exercise, but not like magic."
"Is there a reason for it?" Sousuke asked.
"One of our teachers told us we're cursed," the girl explained quietly. "It's like someone hid us from the universe and we have to shout with all our might to get it to hear us. Okaasan is the same way, but I think she...disliked magic before she knew that."
Eija continued to think about chi and magic while Kaname was thinking about anti-virus programming for some reason she wasn't sure of.
She supposed it was easy for the layfolk to mix up things like feng shui and chi blasts for true magic. Both dealt mostly with chi. Magic was different somehow, like having your hand on the codes to reality itself.
It could do things chi couldn't...
...and she had to admit it was addicting.
"If you're so cut off from it," Kaname said. "Why learn it?"
"I asked her once," Eija said. "She just said we had to be prepared. I...think, sometimes, it might be about our father."
There was a vast uncomfortable silence behind that statement and it seemed obvious to Kaname that the girl didn't particularly like to think about it.
Eija frowned for a moment as she felt herself fading again when she thought back to earlier when she had been considering tools.
Sousuke looked down at Eija, now being carried again between him and Kaname, and realized that her feet were moving almost on automation. He was just deciding to let her sit and rest again as they broke out of the trees to the edge of wide plain leading off toward the horizon.
"Wow," Kaname said.
"It looks like we can't go any further on foot," Sousuke said. "Let's sit down for now."
They laid Eija down first and then Kaname sat down herself.
Sousuke remained quiet as Kaname looked over Eija and rested herself before he finally spoke up.
"Miss Chidori," he said.
"What?" Kaname asked.
She noticed his eyes were closed and there was a quietness about him that seemed worrying.
"We're not in a good situation," Sousuke said. "It's impossible to cross the field with me wounded and Miss Satomi so exhausted. My comm unit has a limited range and the enemy will be closing in on this position as we speak. If we stay here, they'll eventually catch us. Or the fire will move this way and catch us, either way is no good."
"So, I'll stay here as a bait," he said. "And I want you to carry Miss Satomi west and take the comm device with you."
"What?!" Kaname snapped.
"You should be able to contact my comrades by the beach if they're in that area," he continued.
"So, what you're saying is that you are..."
"Don't worry about us," he instructed emphatically. "We're here to protect you. This is the only way you can survive. Now go!"
"...no," Kaname said.
"What?" Sousuke said, uncomprehending of the response.
"I'm not going to leave you here," she said.
"Miss Chidori!" Sousuke responded. "I'm the specialist here. I've considered the situation and this is the only way."
"'The only way!?'" the high school student quoted. "Is that really what you think?"
Sousuke stared at her eyes wide as she took a deep breath and then unloaded.
"Don't tell me you're a specialist! You are just a weapons freak. It's clear as day!! So you're ready to die for me? Spare me the ego trip! How do you think I'd 'survive' knowing the 'only way' you could save me was to sacrifice your own life?! Is your life worth so little? You have to live...you have to want to live. We'll find a way! I'm not going to give up so easily! All three of us are going home alive, okay!!"
"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, trying to reason with her. "I understand that, but your will isn't enough to change the current situation. So at least you..."
"I said no!!"
The next thing Kaname knew there was a gun pointed at her.
"So, you're gonna shoot me if I don't go?"
"That's correct."
They stared at each other, eyes and faces seeming calm across the small gap until Kanama reached out and moved forward into Sousuke's body.
"I'm not scared," she said. "Because...I believe in you now."
The look on Sousuke's face was shell-shocked as his gun dropped from his hand.
"I was so scared of you a minute ago...because you were acting like a stranger to me, but...when you told me to trust you, I felt I had to pull together and help you as much as I could. I can't lose sight of that now. So we're going to keep fighting...as long as we're still alive!! We're going home together!!"
The shocked expression in Sousuke's face seemed to fade a little, being replaced by one of realization and consideration.
"I really hate to interrupt this shoujo moment," Eija said, sending a surprised shiver through Kaname and Sousuke who turned slowly around to look at each other. "I mean, I can tell you two are in your own world right now, considering I think you forgot to include me in statements a couple of times..."
"This is not what you think it is!" Kaname sputtered. "I was just..."
"Kaname you want to stop there," Eija said quickly, glancing toward Sousuke's confused face. "But...I might have an idea."
She reached in her pocket and pulled out her scroll.
"We've already established that you can't cast anything in your current state," Sousuke said.
"True," Eija said. "But I think should remember using this on the plane."
"Your brother prepared the message," Sousuke said. "All I did was visualize Sergeant Major Mao and blow on the paper."
In truth, he hadn't even been sure that the message had worked until he'd contacted mithril later and heard that the Sergeant Major had gotten the information in fact.
"It's a tool," Eija said. "We prepare these ahead of time, the magic is already in them."
"If that is true can't you send the message?" Kaname asked.
"But I don't know if Okaasan or my brother and sister are with Sousuke's comrades and I don't think either of us knows many of his companions very well," Eija said. "The only one of us who can strongly visualize someone that would be for sure able to help us is Sousuke."
The mercenary frowned and looked up at the stars briefly now that the clouds were parting.
"Okay, if you'll prepare it, I'll send it," Sousuke said.
********
AN:
I know a lot of this is word for word from the manga, but I couldn't bring myself to chop those two scenes...
