Suggested changes: {before : after}
On Sun, 21 Jul 2002 07:11:57 -0700 (PDT) Thryth <thrythlind@yahoo.com>
wrote:
"Umm," Yuka stared down at her amulet and continued to
try to figure out what was going {: on}. "I don't know what
it's doing."
"Hmm," {: Penny} looked over the amulet closely, intrigued. "I
might need Gina's help on this one. It's Japanese
hiragana, but the words aren't Japanese."
"Those are words?" Yuka asked. She glanced back and
forth for a moment before continuing in a whisper. "I
sort of thought they were just decoration. It was made
by {: a} gaijin ancestor of mine."
The emotional response at seeing the lion-woman stride
forward seemed to just hit a brick wall and stop. It
was as if {her :} there was something beside herself
telling her to be afraid. Lydia appeared confused at
the sensation and prepared for the woman to approach
her.
"What %$^$# spells?" Lydia asked suspiciously. She
watched a stone circle form underneath her and the
woman. It was an old circle engraved with
{heiroglyphics : hieroglyphics}. "You mean the spells Iceron cast upon
you #$%@ cats to scare us."
"What the #@$%'s going on?" Lydia asked getting into
{: her fighting} stance.
He sighed and looked around himself at the comfortable
room they had put him in. A comfortable, {escape proof : escape-proof}
room. The ventilator in the ceiling above allowed some
air into the room and he took a deep breath in
preparation {of : for} a sigh.
Nabiki dropped as they untied her arms and she weakly
struggled to stand up. Her torturer kicked her in the
face as she started to rise and she fell back down,
crying out in pain. She was {dimmly : dimly} aware of the man
leaving her room and the door closing behind her.
"My apologies Miss Tendo," Gothwrain's disembodied
voice said sorrowfully. Nabiki bought it about as much
as she bought the idea that Akane had dyed her {her : hair}
white. "There was an {insistance : insistence} among the elders that
at least a little punishment be levied {towards : on} you for
your involvement with the enemy."
An amateur magician had enacted a binding ceremony to
force him into some human child. If the attempted
enslavement wasn't enough of an insult, he had used
some flawed ritual. It had almost destroyed him and
the child. Instead of an {obediant : obedient} and powerful
servant, the old fool had driven the both of them
insane.
"Oh my...." Ranma gasped quietly. Everyone turned
around to stare at him as they appeared at the sight
of the demon's death. He seemed pale even through the
fur, and just the look at how his fur was {sticking : standing} on
end set Akane's teeth on edge.
"Just..." Brianna paused worried at the sudden stop.
"Just keep on your toes and let Sheila and me handle
{the :} actually finishing them off." Sheila's expression
clearly showed that Brianna's comment was quite a bit
beyond her power.
"I...i..i..it's t...t.this way," Ranko said. Brianna
and Sheila both looked at her curiously and looked
down the cold, seemingly {fireless : lightless} tunnel she had just
pointed out.
"T...t...the Ne..kk...ko..ken...told me," she said
shivering almost {uncontrolably : uncontrollably}.
Then she noticed Lydia dipping low in what wasn't a
roll but a spin. In the next moment her feet were
taken out from under her. She rolled back to her feet
and looked with a {considerate : thoughtful : considering} frown as she looked over
her opponent. Lydia's {only :} angry and determined look
as she gracefully returned to standing was so
different than the cheerful face she {rememebred : remembered},
but...
"You think {to : too} directly," Lydia said. "You got to #@^&$
think outside the @(#@#$ box." ~When did I learn a
sweep? Zero must have taught it to us sometime.~
In an instant Lydia was {ontop : on top} of her, claws to her
throat.
"Okay, main question," Julia interrupted. "Will it
affect our {capability : ability} to deal with whatever is in this
tower?" When neither Theo nor Ranma answered she
continued. "Then let's deal with the other thing
first, and then see about this Neko-Ken."
"Ehh?" Sheila said nervously glancing at Ranko.
Brianna blinked and looked down at the {concentratiing : concentrating}
Ranko.
The shock of the released souls slowed down the demons
enough for Akane, Sheila and Nodoka to recover from
the jagwere's impromptu flight. Brianna and Ranko,
meanwhile stood up as Julia Diggers {past : passed : ran past} them in a
blur, Ranma not far behind her. The little blue cat
was no where in sight.
"DIE DIE!!!!" Brianna shouted next to her, laughing
{manically : maniacally} and fire burst after burst from her gun.
Of course after so long without a body, most of that
spent as a rather instinctual beast that just wanted
to fight, play, eat, or sleep. Thank goodness it {was :}
now had it's mind so it could attend to higher
concerns.
"Damn it!!" Ranma shouted as he approached the now
far to small hole, which {soldified : solidified} as a small shaft
that allowed them to hear what was going on in the
next part of the cavern. Several rings of releashed
souls showed that Dr. Diggers was dealing with the
last batch of demons they whose bodies they had
destroyed.
Ranko skidded to a stop and turned back to see the
corridor behind her {shutting : shifting : going} closed.
"Another werecheetah," a dry voice said. "How
{unlikey : unlikely}, and yet appropriate." Ranko turned to see an
armored form wielding a pair of swords staring at her
from behind a group of translucent men and women with
empty eyes in white robes. Her nose wrinkled as she
caught a whiff of the room. Everything in here with
the exception of her and the.....n...neko-k..ken were
dead.
~Great,~ Ranko thought. The figures {clumisly : clumsily} reached
out to grab her, but she stepped back and away from
them, growling as she saw the armored figure walk to
where the tunnel had been.
"We'll see about that, jerk," Akane said, her voice
coming out as a small squeak. Further back she {had : heard} a
call of "Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken" and knew that
Ranma had heard and gotten angry as well.
Her question was answered {: when} a flash of blue leaped past
and slashed at one of the specters. Great ripping
tears opened in the translucent image before the
specter seemed to be blown away, as if it had been
nothing but a pile of leaves {seemlessly : seamlessly} joined. Ranko
swore that a look of peace crossed the things face
before it vanished completely{: .}
"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranko shouted, she kept
the speed lower than normal however, hoping to
disguise her true capabilities from the knight.
Still, combining even a minimal Kachuu Tenshin
Amaguriken with her cheetah speed was {phenomanal : phenomenal} and
the chi charged attacks ripped through the remaining
specters.
She had just about put every remaining {once : bit : ounce} of chi
into that Amaguriken and it only took four hits. What
if he hadn't been dead before, had she just killed
someone? Was she that shallow, that the first chance
she had to compare herself to Ranma that she ignored
her earlier decisions?
He slashed forward with one sword and another, forcing
Ranko to dodge back while she was considering a way to
beat that {telepotation : teleportation} of his. She had to find a way
to get him without him knowing she was striking, that
was the only way. Then he wouldn't know to teleport.
"OH!" Nodoka said coming over and {seeiing : seeing} the burns.
"These will have to be treated!"
"She put the neko-ken into a {seperate : sperate} body without
using the familiar ritual," Dr. Diggers said.
"Without even knowing the ritual. That is
impressive." Julia nodded.
And the Neko-ken was still hanging around her {to : too}.
Every time it came close she started getting the
shivers. At the moment she thought it was basking in
the sun far away from her. She could feel warmth
spreading evenly over that piece of her chi.
"Yeah," Brianna said. "That's how Mom finally beat
him, he had her fooled {to : too}, almost killed her...{thenl : then}
he TOLD her how his armor works." She rolled her eyes
at the idiocy of that. "I guess he learned his lessen
about bragging from that."
"And do you think I could out research Gina?" At this
Ranko held just a blank expression, both of the
Diggers {genuises : geniuses} were so far beyond her in technical
knowledge that she could hardly tell their levels
apart. "Well it depends. With my inventions, I'm
probably an even match for Brit, maybe more so, Brit
doesn't do much serious training. And next to Gina,
for pure raw intellect and talent, she's head and
shoulders above me, but I find things she misses all
the time. She makes things too complicated for
herself. And when you put me all together I'm
probably the top military mind of the Diggers set. I
do my own thing, I don't try to do my sisters'
things."
"Trip to the healer's," Thropan said, looking down at
Tirga. Ranko and Ranma were applauding her and
quoting Dr. Tofu from a year or so ago.
"See how that joint's bent backwards?" Ranma asked.
In five dimensions.
The helicopter, heavily modified by a combination of
Ace, Penny, Brianna and Gina's talents, touched down
on the ground in Japan lightly and easily. As the
engines shut down the passengers and crew, meaning
Ace, immediately disembarked to be met by a tall,
{buxoum : buxom} werecheetah.
A steel blade sliced downward, narrowly missing the
dodging {serpant : serpent}. The scene shifted up to see a
jackal-headed man {weilding : wielding} a polearm with two
semi-circular blades.
Another scene flashed into view. Cats, cats,
everywhere. As far as she could see in the huge room.
{ :}All lounging about or playing, or hunting, or looking
at her. She felt herself standing up and walking, and
the cats parted before her. A pair of lions bowed as
she passed them.
"{Now sister : Now, Sister}," that other voice said. "I am not a
pervert. Leave that incestuous stuff to the
Olympians."
"I do," Sehkmet said tightly, controlled. "Thank
you."
"Certainly you'll find someone {eventually sister : eventually, Sister}," the
voice said.
An open toed boot, {revealling : revealing} clawed toes, kicked at
the body of a huge serpent.
"It is a mortal's war," the voice said reluctantly.
"We have no {reign : cause : justification} to do anything while this wizard
holds to mortals."
"Daughter, {sister : Sister}," the voice said. "Get your gear.
We're going to war."
"DIE FIENDISH MORTAL!!!" Sehkmet {: screamed,} charging forward.
"These are the deities of Egypt?" {aaccompanied : accompanied} by a
low, arrogant laugh.
The spell was a simple one, designed to implant only a
few impulses into her mind, unnoticed as she slept
through what should have been a highly unpleasant
nightmare. As the impulses began to {arrise : arise} on the
surface, she was bolstered by the fact that she was
awake and knew there was a spell in effect. Still she
could only identify with certainty a few of the
imposed thought patterns.
He inched along the ceiling until he reached the
camera and then clinged to the camera for long enough
to find the button to shut it off. That {succeeded : done} he
dropped to the floor and shifted into hybrid and
hurried to the bed to check on his rescuee.
He had to dodge patrols a few times, but more or less
he got out of there very easily. Easily enough that
it made him worried. Any easy {accomplisment : accomplishment} in Zero's
training was soon followed by something incredibly
bad, and so he worried. He was well away from the
headquarters when Nabiki started to wake up.
"The package is being delivered," his aide said.
Gothwrain smiled darkly as he considered the veritable
time bomb Romeo was taking with him.