Ranma: Xero
Part 3
Firewall
Genma Saotome looked down at his son and sighed. "So boy, what is your
assessment?"
Ranma was currently laying on his futon with an ice pack on his head. He
groaned as he removed the bag and looked up at his father. "Of what? This
engagement thing?"
"You know full well what I mean boy," replied the elder Saotome with his
frown deepening.
"The tomboy has a lot of strength, but her temper could get her killed.
Something doesn't seem right about that Kuno girl either," replied the
boy as he sat up.
"You may be right, but these girls are under my tutelage now, I cannot
let my old friend down." The man paced back and forth across the floor
with his head hung low in thought.
"Why didn't he just train them himself? He's your old training buddy
isn't he?" grumbled the boy sourly.
"Don't even start that boy, we'd be here anyway if only because of the
engagement. Besides, the events have forced him away from the art. I
cannot hold him responsible for losing his edge in this situation. There
was no one else who could do what he has done."
Ranma nodded and lay back down with his hands behind his head. "So now
what? I mean, we have to do something. I don't know what we're supposed
to do about those two."
"You'd best learn boy, have you forgotten that you will have students
one day? It is your responsibility to carry on the Anything Goes style.
I'm glad this happened in a way, now you can learn first hand what it
means to be a sensei."
"Yeah, yeah. Like you did such a bang up job pop. I can recall several
times where your so called 'training' almost got us both killed."
"And are you not better because of it?" snapped the man in retort. "I
think its high time you showed me some respect boy! Come on, we're going
back to the dojo!" Genma stalked out the door and Ranma watched him for a
moment before standing up and following with a scowl on his face.
Nabiki Tendo sat down at a desk near the back of a crowded office area.
She sighed contentedly as she relaxed and flipped through a few folders
that sat in the center of the work area. "Daddy, when will you learn that
money doesn't grow on trees? Honestly, even these grants have only a
limited amount of funds in them."
"Back again I see?" said a familiar voice from behind her.
Nabiki slowly turned in the chair and smiled at the man who stood behind
her. He was in his late twenties and was wearing a uniform like everyone
else in the office. Like Nabiki's, it was black and red. He had long hair
and an unshaven look about him. "Hi Kojiro, still trying to convince my
father that we don't need central heating in this building?"
"Ouch Miss Tendo, still nosing about where you're not wanted?" retorted
the man with a cheerful smile.
"Oh please, daddy likes that I keep an eye on things around here. It
makes him feel like he has control or something," replied the girl with a
snide smile as she closed the folder and placed it back on the desk
before standing up and letting the man back into his seat.
"Well, after you go to college I'll take great pleasure in working for
you," said the man cheerfully.
"I suppose its never to early to start kissing up, ne?" replied the girl
as she walked around to the front of the desk and leaned back against it.
"Hardly, I just can't wait until you oust the ogre from his lair,"
replied the man with a small wink.
"You're a hopeless flirt you know that?" said the girl as she raised her
eyebrow and looked back at him over her shoulder.
"You're one to talk. Now scat; go bother one of the other office moles.
I've got work to do," said the man playfully.
Nabiki sighed over dramatically and started off. "Ah, the wonderful
world of peons I suppose. I'll see you later?"
"Is Kasumi working in the cafeteria again?" asked the man with his grin
widening suddenly.
"Of course, she can't clean house like she used too. What else is she
going to do?" said the girl with a small snort of laughter.
"She could be down in the doctor's office causing more injuries," noted
the man dryly.
"Daddy put in an alarm system to warn patients when she's coming. It's
been quite effective, Tofu still doesn't know what the alarm is for, the
poor fool." She turned the corner and walked away.
Kojiro looked down at his desk and smiled. Several of the financial
reports were already calculated for him. He had to admit the girl was
good with numbers, she was cute too. He sighed and put his head back with
a small frown appearing on his face. "If only she was a few years
older...Aya would kill me anyway. Oh well." He sat up and started his
work.
In the hallway Nabiki smirked as she ran into her older sister. "Hi
Kasumi, what are you doing here. I'd think you'd be in the kitchen about
now."
"I'm on my way. I'd have been there sooner, but father wanted me to make
tea for a meeting he's having right now. They seem like such nice angry
old men too."
"An interesting analogy sis," commented the younger girl as they rounded
the corner. "Is Akane where I think she is?"
"Of course," replied Kasumi cheerfully. "She's been working real hard on
getting better at piloting that robot. I hope she doesn't over do it."
"Of course she will, just like everything else she does," replied Nabiki
as she waved her hand and dismissed the matter.
"So, she has a history of this?" said a new voice from behind the girls.
Both girls turned to see Ranma standing behind them with a towel over
his shoulder.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," replied the younger girl
curtly.
"Nabiki! That isn't very nice!" exclaimed Kasumi with a shocked look on
her face.
"Even if it's true?" replied the girl with a confident look on her face.
"Well, it still isn't nice," insisted the elder of the pair.
Nabiki didn't bother to respond she looked at Ranma and smiled again.
"Where are you headed?"
"Training hall, Akane isn't the only one in training you know,"
responded the boy with a smirk on his face.
"As much as she'd like to believe it..." deadpanned Nabiki.
"I've still got to teach pop every once and a while," continued the boy
without breaking stride. He continued on his way and rounded the corner
leaving the girls alone. They both looked at each other and shrugged
before walking on their way.
"Where are you heading Nabiki?" asked Kasumi.
"I dunno, I figure I'll go torture the financial department some more or
something."
"Oh, that's where those nice angry old men in the meeting were from,"
said Kasumi obliviously. "You really should let them work though."
Nabiki hung her head and sighed. "On second thought, I guess I have to
go save daddy before he makes a fool of himself again."
Somewhere in the mountains of China...
A red streak slammed into the ground creating a crater in the center of
a small remote village. The villagers scattered as debris rained on the
ground around them in a panic. Their day had been rudely interrupted by
the intrusion of the alien object and they scattered like roaches into
the darkness of their homes. A red glow filled the impact crater as the
smoke began to clear. One of the braver villagers moved towards the
smoking hole and peered into it with a look of fear in his eyes as he
waited for something to happen.
"What is it?" called one of the men as he emerged from one of the homes.
A few cries of protest from inside were ignored as he slowly stepped
outside.
"I can't tell, there's too much smoke," replied the first man as he
turned to face him. He saw the man scream in alarm and fall back onto the
ground on his back in terror as he tried desperately to make it back into
his home. He slowly turned his head and saw something slam into his head.
He never had the chance to scream as the black, metallic, hand engulfed
his head and torso crushing him into a red gel easily.
Akane grit her teeth in anger as she jumped from the simulator and fell
to her knees pounding the ground in frustration. "Damn her!"
"You should relax more Tendo, you're much too temperamental," said
Kodachi as she passed by with a towel draped across her shoulders. She
and Akane were both covered in sweat and the collars on their uniforms
were undone as they stood off in the center of the large room that was
filled with the simulator robots. "It was a good match, but I do worry
about you."
Akane looked up at her for a moment with a rage in her eyes and hung her
head in defeat. "You're right. I'm still not good enough though..."
"You forget that we will not be facing each other Tendo. We will be
fighting together," replied the girl with a smirk on her lips as she
turned and walked away.
Akane moved from her knees and sat down placing her hands behind her to
hold herself up. She pulled up her right arm and made a fist in front of
her face with a questioning gaze. "Why? What am I doing wrong?" After a
moment she stood up and walked towards the locker room. "Next time, I'll
win for sure."
Ranma dove for his father from the air and grunted as his punch was
blocked. He shifted in the air as the elder Saotome snapped a kick at him
and grabbed the extended leg using it as a springboard to sail over his
head. Genma turned and snapped a punch out that caught Ranma on his
shoulder and threw him off balance for a moment, the boy corrected
himself and landed in a crouching stance on the ground before standing up
again and facing off against his father.
Both combatants were breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Ranma
charged again and launched himself into the air, Genma did the same and
they met in another flurry of punches and kicks. Sweat drops could be
seen shining in the air as they moved by one another through the sunbeams
that shined into the dojo through the windows that lined an entire wall
of the room. It gave the battle an almost surreal effect as the pair
darted in and out of each other's defenses in an acrobatic display.
Finally Genma landed a firm kick that sent Ranma sprawling across the
dojo floor. The boy hit hard and bounced once before coming to rest on
the mat. He slowly struggled to his hands and knees and glared at the
ground in frustration. "Damn, looks like you got me this time pop."
Genma smirked. "You're getting lax Ranma, that was far to easy. We're
going to have to step up your training schedule again."
The boy smirked as he looked at his parent. The old man was in the same
shape as he was. He had no illusions on how hard it was for his father to
best him. He rolled over onto his back and smirked. "Sure thing pop. I
could use the extra work almost as much as you."
Genma huffed for a moment, but did not reply. He turned away and started
towards the door leaving his son alone. Ranma sat up and looked around
the room. A few scattered men and women were still staring at him from
the various exercise machines in the room. None of them spoke a word and
all were seemingly frozen in shock. The battle itself took only a few
minutes and Ranma didn't quite understand what they were all looking at.
He got his reply when one of the women near him started to clap for some
reason. The room soon joined in the response and he hung his head with a
blush appearing on his cheeks for a moment. "What the heck was that
about?"
"What do you want?" cried the old man as he stared up at the huge red
demon before him. Flames burned around him, the remains of his once
prosperous village. Tears flowed down his eyes as he looked up at the
smoke-blackened sky and the thing that had caused the destruction. It was
a huge red mechanical beast with what looked like a large flat metal ring
on its back that reached over its head and across its shoulders. The head
was almost like that of a samurai helmet and two bladed horns jutted from
each side, the horn on the left was about half the size of its
counterpart.
The thing did not reply; it merely raised its hand with its palm facing
forward and shot forth a beam of fire that engulfed the last villager.
The man screamed as he burned alive, he rolled desperately across the
ground in an effort to extinguish the flame, but it didn't matter. After
a few moments he stopped on the ground lying face down, the skeletal
ashes simply burned like everything around them.
Hidden inside the surreal glow of the instrument lights inside the
cockpit a shadowy figure smiled darkly. A few locks of red hair shifted
as the thing inside the massive armor chuckled to itself.
Nabiki turned off the monitor she had been watching and smiled. She had
watched the pathetic display of training the pair had attempted earlier.
Ranma had insulted Akane while trying to critique her and had promptly
been clobbered with a nearby piece of exercise equipment. Genma hadn't
really done all that much besides watch her sister and Kodachi spar for a
few minutes after that. With what she just saw, her sister was in for a
very rude awakening. The pair's training would not be easy, that much she
was sure of. Despite being beaten earlier by the boy, her little sister
was under the impression that they would be pushovers in training.
"This should be most interesting," she commented to herself. Needless to
say, she would have a most interesting time once they started school
again. Knowing the two parents, they would force Ranma to go along with
his fiancee to school as a way to build a bond. She had no illusions
about her father not knowing about her little sister's problems at
school. She often wondered why he simply overlooked it though, perhaps he
thought of it as the training he could no longer give her? It didn't
really matter on the end. Ranma was in for quite a surprise on Monday
morning. Whether or not it would be on him or someone else was entirely
up in the air right now.
"It's coming from the south," said Cologne to the rest of the counsel.
Murmurs erupted from around the room in distress at the news.
"It would seem Fei Shal was correct yet again," said one of the women
with a stern look on her face. This incited even more whispers and
murmurs from the crowd of women.
"There is more," said the matriarch from the center of the dusty floor
as she patiently waited for silence to return. "It has already destroyed
several villages in its path, so we know exactly where it's coming from.
Unfortunately, it also means that it's heading straight for us."
"So, we are to assume that it knows that we have the giant here?" said
one of the old women in the back of the room.
"It would be best to believe that," agreed Cologne.
"We should expect more attacks then. I told you that we should have left
that damn thing where we found it!" cried the old woman with the long
pipe.
"Perhaps you were right Sin Ku; but that changes nothing. We can assume
that we are now a direct target of the invaders. The Chinese military has
failed in any attempts to stop it; they are not willing to poison the
land with a missile strike for a single giant. Shampoo is our only
defense now. However foolish our decision was, it is now something we
must live with. We will send Shampoo to intercept near the mountain pass.
All we can do from here is pray."
"Fei."
The redhead snapped its head up inside the cockpit and made a light
growling sound.
"They are reacting as expected."
"Understood."
"Do not fail me. If it is the Xero unit you know what to do."
"Yes Admiral," said the thing with a dark gleam in its eyes. "For the
Empire."
"For the Empire. Out."
"For me dear Lotus," said Shampoo as she looked nervously around the
cockpit around her. "Please be strong for me."
The forest around her was silent, the unit stood proudly with a huge
spear in its hands waiting in silence for the oncoming menace. No animal
sound could be heard around her signaling the approaching danger.
Occasionally she would see something rush by on the ground below.
Otherwise complete silence.
She waited like this for what seemed like days. Her gaze never wavered
from the foliage around her. Then she saw it, a single wisp of smoke in
the distance rising from the trees. It grew with each passing second. She
steeled herself and waited, and waited.
Almost a half-hour had passed, the smoke was growing worse, but was not
moving any closer. She grunted in anticipation. It could be just a forest
fire, or it could be trying to lure her closer. She deliberated for a
moment and scowled.
When she reached the clearing only a few minutes later she found
something she was not expecting. As she moved closer she began to suspect
only a forest fire, she could not be sure though so she pressed on. What
she found merely confused her.
It was a small spider-like robot with what looked like a torch burning
underneath it. She paused and circled around it a few times as it burned
pronounced lines in the ground for some reason. Most of the foliage had
been long since burned and it now merely set about drawing something in
the dirt. She walked over to the robot and kicked it onto its side. It
continued to move about mechanically and did nothing more than squirm
about on the ground.
"What is this?"
Her blood suddenly ran cold as she looked down on the ground. Written
clearly in Mandarin were words.
"Behind you fool."
Shampoo spun around and held her spear ready. She glanced at the sensors
and radar screens around her desperately looking for the hidden enemy.
After a moment she relaxed slightly and pulled the spear back up to her
side. "What does that mean?" Suddenly a realization hit her.
Mousse walked through the wilderness slowly as he headed home again. He
had been back at the clearing checking up on a few things with his
equipment. There wasn't much to do there without the robot itself, but he
liked the quiet sometimes. He mused as he walked along almost cheerfully.
He was kind of glad for the beast. Because of it he had gained some
respect within the village, and it also meant he had to spend more time
with Shampoo. The fact was, he could only think of one down side, and
that was what was happening right now. Shampoo had to face the invader
alone, there just wasn't much anyone else could do to help her.
He paused and looked up at the sky adjusting his glasses. "Smoke? It's
started already has it?" He sighed and hung his head in worry and
frustration. It tore him apart that there was nothing he could do to help
his beloved. After a moment of walking along sulking to himself he paused
and looked up again. Something about the smoke wasn't quite right. "Oh
no!" Mousse broke into a run.
Cologne stood watching Joketsuko burn around her. A cold frown crossed
her wizened features as she realized that they had been out maneuvered.
"Why? What purpose did such action create? Surely the village was not the
target..." She hung her head as she realized that she would probably
never know. A ring of fire twenty feet high surrounded the village
preventing any escape and their weapons were useless against the thing.
Tears flowed down the matriarch's face as she watched her finest warriors
get slaughtered. All around her the screams of the dying and burned
people of her village filled her ears.
"So, after three thousand years of history...this is how it all ends?"
she glared at the demon as it blasted into the homes mercilessly.
Streams of fire tore through crowds of fleeing and desperately fighting
men and women. "Come demon, I shall not die idly!" She let out a battle
cry and jumped at the thing with a rage in her voice.
The giant red mech blasted through the village easily. It crushed houses
beneath its feet and shot jets of flames through the flame-throwers
inside if it's palms. Occasionally it would idly send another jet towards
the ring of flames that surrounded the village keeping them burning to
prevent the escape of any of the people. The fuel used in the flames was
almost like napalm, only much stronger and longer lasting. It coated
anything it sprayed in a flaming gel that insured that they could not
douse the flames no matter what they did. It was designed to burn even in
the void of space, nothing known could extinguish the fire once it
started burning. The pilot smiled as it watched the death around it
almost passively. There was no challenge here; it was almost boring...
almost.
A single old woman performed a jump that surprised even the monster
inside the cockpit. Easily fifteen feet into the air, she extended her
staff and screamed in rage as she charged the giant beast.
Fei snorted at the act of courage. "Goodbye." The mech raised its open
hand at the old hag.
There was a sudden shower of sparks as a massive purple blur slammed
into the red mech sending a line of flame spewing wildly across the
remains of the village. Fei grunted as the mech was thrown onto its side
on top of an already crushed home. He looked up and saw a spear slam into
the ground between the mech's legs. "What have we here?" said the pilot
out loud with an amused sounding voice.
Shampoo screamed in rage and thrust her spear missing the torso and
slamming it into the ground between its legs in a clumsy strike. The
thing sent a kick up that caught her own machine in the gut and sent it
flying through the air. She landed on top of the village hall crushing
half of it flat in a second.
She gasped as the screen in front of her came to life. None of the
others had ever tried to speak with her before. "An X-09? It's more than
I expected here. I'm impressed with everything you've managed to do with
just that outdated piece of junk. Especially one in such terrible
condition." Shampoo could not speak as she simply stared at the being in
front of her.
It was a girl, a human looking girl. She was dressed in a zip up black
leather vest. A gold chain hung around her neck with what looked like a
tooth from some large carnivore hanging from it. Her most shocking
feature was her hair, long red locks that hung down covering her eyes
from view, from what she could see of them; her gaze was cold and
excited.
The alien continued to speak, although not to her directly. "It isn't
Xero."
Another voice came through the transmission, someone she could not see,
this one clearly masculine. "Destroy it then."
"Affirmative," replied the girl with her dark smile widening. She never
took her eyes off of Shampoo during the whole conversation.
"You can try!" screamed the Amazon in challenge as she stood the mech up
and took up a ready position.
TBC...
Next time: Fei vs. Shampoo. Ooh, I know you hate me for this one.
C&C to: Carrotglace@juno.com
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