Bleach Fan Fiction / One Piece Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Dimensional Warriors: Assorted Stories ❯ The Dawn of War ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

My hand shook as I pushed the door open, I looked around trying to make sure our combined families weren't hanging around. They always seemed to be hanging around us whenever we even begin to get close.

Thankfully as Ranma slipped in there seemed to be no sign of anyone. I sighed as I closed the door behind me and returned my attention to the matter at hand. Ranma had already sat down and was examining the dish we had gotten.

Sanji was well known to be probably the best cook in the building, so I had no doubts about its taste, but the sheer amount of chocolate coating such a variety of fruits, veggies and pastries; I felt like I was going into sugar shock just looking at it. Ranma grabbed one of the fruits and unabashedly gulped it down.

“Man does he know how to prepare food.” I joined her, and indulged myself in the chocolate bliss.

Within ten minutes all that was left was a light sticky mix of syrups congealing on the sides of the pan. Ranma leaned back, sighing heavily as she did. I just caught her staring at me before she hurriedly looked away.

“Hey Akane...” I leaned back as well, stretching out into the dimly lit room.

“Yes?”

“In a week or so, this'll all be over right?”

“What are you talking about?” I rolled over a little to get a better look at her. She still wasn't looking at me, and I could barely see her face for the shadows.

“We're going to war right?”

“I guess you could call it that.” She looked at me, I could see her eyes trembling a little.

“Don't go to the front lines. Don't even fight. Please.” I felt my gut wrench shut. “Akane. After what happened last time, please. I know you're stronger now, but the field is going to be a blood bath. I don't... I don't want to loose you again.”

“I'm sorry.” It was my turn to look away. “I can't stay here. I... I have the strength to protect people. As a daughter of the Anything Goes Tendo School of Martial Arts its my duty to fight. And... I want to.”

“Akane...”

“No Ranma. Listen. Before you arrived I was the strong person, everyone looked up to me. Then you and Ryoga, and Shampoo, Ukyo, Mousse, hell even Konatsu all showed up. Suddenly I'm the one everyone has to protect. I'm not delicate dammit. I don't want to be protected. I was raised fighting, I grew up with ideals about helping others and being a good person. Something I don't know how you even vaguely understand considering who your father is, and how he raised you. So No Ranma. I am going to be in this fight, whether you like it or not.” Silence fell for a few minutes as we stared at each other. Finally she sighed and looked away.

“Fine. Then promise me something.”

“What?”

“Don't leave my side. I'll fight better knowing where you are.” I smiled at her, but before I could reply my door caved open and our combined families fell in, some holding cups. Nabiki broke the silence.

“Alright, nothing to see here. They weren't even making out.” She started ushering people out, but my father hung behind.

“Please tell me you won't actually be going on that horrible field!” He was practically begging.

“Sorry Dad. But I made up my mind. I'm a martial artist, and it is our duty to protect the weak. You guys just wait here where its safe.” Eventually Nabiki dragged him out, slowly, followed by Ranma who shot me a sad smile before leaving.

Chopper
We were gathered in the largest room, everyone who was going to fight. I had chosen to shift to my most human form for now, but it was getting hard to control my trembling. They were just finishing setting up on stage when Tech walked up to the mike.

“Testing. Testing. Alright this is working. I'm going to quickly explain the plan, real fast then give the floor over to Neko to do the whole rally thing.” A screen turned on behind him, displaying a large circular city in the center of a basin.

“Now, this is the enemy's main base. As you all probably already know, you've been divided into smaller units and are going to attack from five directions. North, South, East, West and Above. Now to prepare us, I had a small surgical team attack the other six enemy bases and take control of the computer terminals there.

“Those terminals will allow me to shift large portions of the planet around, particularly this mountain and any smaller space with in. I'm going to use this as an effective teleport. We're going to move this whole rock right next to the enemy lawn, at the same time I'll send the four ground based armies to their respective spots. From our new location we'll launch the air strike, that will be your cue to begin the assault.

“Now each one of you has a computer chip in your packs. I just need one of you to make it to the central tower, and put that chip into the computer there. With that terminal I can modify the entire planet to a more natural state, release the false sky above us, and return the currently vacant animal life to this dying planet's surface.” He stepped down and nodded to Neko who stepped up.

“Thank you Tech.” She turned to the rest of us. “Alright, I'm not going to mince words, there are still roughly five hundred thousand Solarus in that base and an estimated force of thousands more in demons and machines. The odds haven't been in our favor since the beginning, there will probably be death. But we must succeed; otherwise every human, demon, shinigami, and Mobian will be killed. We are fighting because we have been given no choice; and we will win because we have no alternative. Now, this rock is going to move in one hour's time. Prepare yourselves mentally, emotionally, physically, in anyway you see fit. I hope to see all of you when this is done.”

I shivered a little as I left the hall, my own emotions were running rampant. I decided to head down to the district one last time. I had an odd feeling I wasn't going to see it again.

The streets were empty, it was so quiet. The civilians were being loaded into a bunker, Tech was going to stay behind in the base and teleport them separately. I considered heading down and saying good bye to some of the people I had met down here, unfortunately most of the people I called friend were going to the field. And then only Bunnie and Sally were going to be in the same unit. I sighed. I missed fighting alongside Luffy, and Franky, and Usopp.

Figuring it was close to time, I got up; determined. After this things were going to be different. I just knew it.

It was weird, being teleported. I felt like I hadn't moved at all, but the scenery around me had. There was now a patch of picture perfect grassland in the middle of an enormous field of snow. The horizon was filled with the looming forms of both the tower and the mountain. I could see ships launch into the air, and soon after several demons move to retaliate. The battle had begun.

The Mobian Army had been given the chance to design weapons they felt comfortable with, while this meant many were running in unarmed, several were carrying everything from blades made by Thorium to guns made by Tech. Leading the charge were Jato, Moot, Sonic and Shadow; I was set to be right behind them, along with the rest of our stronger forces. They seemed to be talking amongst themselves for a moment. Suddenly Sonic called Sally over; they talked for a moment, then she nodded and turned to the rest of us.

“Mobians!” I could feel every head turn towards her. “I know what you all are thinking. I know how the other races treat us; but this isn't something we haven't faced before! Remember, we are the survivors; we survived Robotnick's purge, we survived his villainy, and we survived. We will survive here too! I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw the young ones, orphaned by these creatures, running in our streets. Unless we win here, they have no future! So we are going down there, and we are going to win!” I yelled with the crowd, feeling better about our chances now.

“Well said Sal. Let's go kick some ass!” Sonic said, more to the other four than to the crowd. Even so that was all the signal any of us needed as we charged in behind our leads.

Seconds later we faced the fray. Bullets rained down on us as we closed the gap. Thankfully Moot and Jato soaked most of them, letting their strange power drain rather than take any physical power. We only needed seconds of that to close the gap. Soon bullets of our own were flying across the field; Sonic and Shadow immediately bolted in, leaving a wide path of destruction as they went.

I shifted to my Kung Fu Point, using the extra strength in  my arms and legs to tear down the opposing forces. Then I saw something; like a large fist, plowing through Solarus and Mobian alike. I recognized the black plating and looked around. Sonic and Shadow were gone in the crowd, and that thing was beginning to tear into our forces. I saw it bulge outward to prepare another attack and instinctively pulled out my rumble ball; immediately I focused on the monstrosity I wanted to become and felt myself become larger.

Despite my sudden enormous growth when I moved to block the oncoming attack my fist was knocked aside easily. The opposing fist shrunk down for a moment, becoming hard to see in the crowd of now very tiny people, but it was soon obvious as a metal form grew outwards, rising up to challenge my height.

It looked very much like a normal Solarus, except for a few missing pieces in its armor and a silver arm plate on its left arm; that and being roughly the same height as my monster form. It caught me off guard as I stared at it, its fist growing again before pounding into me and sending me reeling backwards. I felt my mouth fill with blood and spat some of it out towards the cliff. It was dangerous to fight here, the people below were pulling away, trying to give us room to fight, but if this got any rougher it wouldn't be enough. I had to pull it towards the cliff, or else towards the city.

My jaw soaked another blow as I thought, but as the next one came in I was ready. I ducked under the blow, and moved to knock its legs out from under it. Suddenly, its legs were gone, then back again as if nothing had happened. Stunned it's other hand connected with my solar plexus. The ground cratered beneath me, and I could feel my body shudder with the sudden damage.

It settled on top of me, pressing me into the ground. I shook myself from my daze, and made to obvious choice; I reverted back to my normal form, almost immediately freeing myself and moving out of the way of the towering fist. It shrunk to match me, now we had a clear field, but I knew it was much stronger than I was. I tried analyzing it with my Brain Point as I looked for a weak spot.

This was easier said than done as the creature wouldn't stand still for long and quickly moved in to continue going fisticuffs with me. I dodged as best I could as I kept carefully watching, looking for something. The arm plate? It was different than the rest of the armor. I pondered for a moment, ducking another blow and rolling out of the way. It was stronger, faster, and able to change its form more rapidly than I could. The only thing I could come up with was dangerous at best. I checked my pocket briefly as I made some distance between myself and the creature. It was still there, the small pill I had been working on. It hadn't been tested yet, but it should work.

My options weren't good, and frankly it couldn't have worse side effects than my old Rumble Ball used to have. I had enough distance now, and popped the round green ball into my mouth.

“Rumble Energy!” I said, biting down and swallowing. Immediately I felt energy fill my small form. I could almost see the light green energy pouring off me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

“Beam Point!” I pressed my hooves together in a fashion similar to Goku's and sure enough energy poured out, forming a beam in front of me. The creature, had fortunately come up close, and took the blast at point blank. When the last of my energy faded out, I couldn't help but cheer. “A beam! A beam!” I danced a little before noticing the silver armband that was still sitting in the dirt. As I stooped to pick it up a wave of exhaustion overtook me, and I fell into the dirt.

Sango
“And you know what, we are the Goddamned Human Race, so we're gonna get our butts down there and kick some fucking ass!” I had questioned letting Yusuke give the rally, but it hadn't been too bad, except for all of the cursing. Energy was high as we moved towards the cliff, ready to take on whatever came our way. Even so I knew I was distracted. Miroku, bless him, had refused to stay behind; despite the fact that since the curse of the wind tunnel was gone he was now useless in battle. Yeah he had decent energy reserves and could fight, but that wasn't nearly enough to put him so close to the front lines. Somehow he had convinced the leaders to let him do this; but I allowed it only on the condition that he stay near me. If he was going to be reckless, I was going to be there to save him; like always.

As we approached the front lines, all hell broke loose. I recognized several demon types in the throng and immediately let my Hiraikotsu cleave into the front; behind me a barrage of other projectiles flew out, soon the air was thick with weaponry, whether it was the terrifyingly deadly bullets, or smaller things like knives or darts, or even energy blasts. Ahead I could see Yusuke, Ranma, Goku, Luffy and Naruto cleaving a huge path through the enemy forces; the variety of powers and abilities left what could only be called devastation in its wake.

I turned my attention away from them, trying to find the worst of the fighting. I spotted something moving in the distance and moved towards it.

As I approached I could see it was a mass of darkness, almost like a viscous fluid it cut its way through Solarus and Human alike; my first impression of its size was nothing. As I threw my Hiraikotsu into the beast it reared up, towering over the field before a single eye came to rest on me. I felt miniscule, cold sweat ran down my back. I trembled, but forced myself to move against this monstrosity. It lashed out against me, trying to catch me, drag me in. I cut using both my Hiraikotsu and my concealed blade; but it was undeterred and soon I felt a tendril cut across my face.

Without realizing it, I was trapped. It lifted me up slowly, looking like it wanted to savor me; big mistake. I turned my blade downward and stabbed at the thin part of the tendril. It let out a shriek of pain and threw me to the ground. I felt bones rearrange themselves as I landed hard; but this was no time for pain. I got up, wincing as I took breath.

“Over here!” Miroku? I saw him rushing to join the battle; staff out. With amazingly fast movement he knocked away the approaching tendrils as he closed the distance between us. “Are you alright?” He barely whispered as he helped me up.

“I'll be fine.” I said hesitating. “But you need to get out of here...” He held up his hand to silence me.

“Trust me. You've done your part, let me take it from here.” He said. He was staring directly at the thing with a burning intensity. I unconsciously stepped back. He began wading in towards the thing, his staff a blur as he knocked away the oncoming attacks; he got almost right up to the bulk of the creature and removed a familiar set of beads from his hand.

“Wind Tunnel!” He nearly planted his hand directly into the thing, but just as he said an amazing suction came out of the palm of his hand, the beast could do nothing to resist the suction as Miroku drew it in, bit by bit. The thing struggled horribly against the slaughter as he drew it steadily inwards. It lashed at him desperately, but he simply stood there, taking blow after blow, even as blood streaked down his face. Finally the beast gave out a final unholy shriek before being silenced forever.

The tunnel closed and Miroku retied his beads. He was breathing heavily as I rushed closer to him.

“The wind tunnel!? How? Why? Naraku is dead!” He just smiled up at me and sat down.

“It's not the real thing.” He paused for a moment. “I learned it from training with Kakashi; he taught me the technique and Tech built a little something for me to draw things into. But it takes a lot of energy to do, and that was a big one.” He looked like he was on the verge of passing out.

“Then the rosary?”

“Unnecessary, it just felt right to me.” I could help but giggle a little.

“I guess old habits die hard.” Even as I spoke I felt his hand caressing my butt.
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