Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Umbra Aureola ❯ Chapter 22 - Black Ops - Special Division ( Chapter 22 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Xylix 
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Adventure / Action / Martial Arts | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.03.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 7.2K | Visits: 397 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Adventure / Action / Martial Arts | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.03.2004 | Pages: 4 | Words: 7.2K | Visits: 397 | Status: Completed
CHAPTER XXII: BLACK OPS - SPECIAL DIVISION
"Don't look now, but we have company. Lots of company." Anito said to Ranma quietly. As he spoke the arch-mage scanned the area slowly with his eyes. Ranma though knew that it was not his eyes that Anito was really looking with. No, the wizard was using his uncanny perfect aura sight, Ranma had no doubt about that.
"Eh? Who is it?" Ranma asked picking up the underlying hint of caution. Not that his danger sense didn't provide enough of a warning.
"Some buddies that we picked up overseas if my guess is right." Anito said his eyes narrowing in thought.
"I thought you said-" Ranma cut off as he detected movement out of the corner of his eye.
Kiima, his mind whispered to him silently somehow turning the sketchy information into a absolute certainty. Somehow even this tiny movement set off a warning bell in Ranma's mind. His head swiveled twisting toward the bird woman. It was then that he saw it. The cold glint of steel in the birdwoman's eye. The hardening tension of muscles. There was no doubt, she had intent to kill.
Ranma moved. He wasn't sure why he did it and why didn't really matter. All that mattered was that he was there. As he moved he saw Kiima's hand drift down as though in slow motion. The powerful artifact Kinjakan falling with the birdwoman's hand tracing a deadly path through the air. As the weapon moved in its deadly arc the large, circular blade slowly slipped off of the silvery shaft spinning free toward Anito. But, the blade never made it. Instead it met something else. It met Ranma. Lifting an arm a golden bracer intercepted the rapidly rotating vorpal blade. There it paused the shock slowly transferring into his arm, pushing it back as the circle of death ground away at the indestructible metal like an angry buzz saw. It found no purchase. Not a millimeter of the gleaming surface gave. With no other path left the blade did the impossible, it ricocheted off deflected high into the deep blue sky.
Kiima's eyes widened at the pigtailed blur that materialized in her path like a wraith out of the shadow. Her dilating pupils gazed in shock as the incredible, unstoppable weapon was deflected with such inconceivable ease. Shock though only dulled instinct.
Kiima's wings beat back hard shoving on the air with all their might striving to drive her body away. It was too late. Ranma followed the defense up with the speed and finesse of liquid lightning. With speed born of fighting those that moved like shadows Ranma stepped in. His foot snapped up faster than the eye could see borrowing deep into Kiima's stomach. The force transferred into the birdwoman's belly making it undulate in concentric, rippling waves. The power of the blow exploded into through Kiima's body and the bird woman found herself blasted back with far more speed than she had wished for.
Leaning forward Ranma's leg muscles tensed seeking to drive his body into lightning motion. Before he could move though something snagged him from the back. No, not something, someone.
It was Anito's hand that had held the pigtailed martial artist in check. Stopping his motion cold and allowing the the bird woman to recover before more damage could be done. Ranma turned looking into the arch-mage's eyes with curiosity.
Anito yelled breaking through the battle trance that had captured the pigtailed martial artist. "Get down! Shit-"
Further words were halted when twisting dark ki wrapped itself around Ranma like a thick blanket. The dark mist enclosed around his form so fast that Ranma had not time to react. Then a sharp horrible tug ripped at his essence. For an instant the pigtailed martial artist felt as though all his insides had been twisted into a tight, coiling knot. His stomach rebelled with the urge to vomit and his eyes swam as powerful new details burned into the retina superimposing themselves upon the old. Ranma knew what had happened. It wasn't the first time for the pigtailed martial artist, nor would it be the last.
"What did you do that-" Ranma sputtered in annoyance. His words cut off as the answer made itself apparent.
"Booooooom!" Two white streaks rammed into the ground like twin meteorites. Then as if in rebellion the earth exploded unleashing a powerful concussion wave filled with dirt and rock. The almost visible force slammed into Ranma like a bucket of water. Slightly dazed from the sudden shift and the explosion Ranma stared at the thick dust around what was almost certainly a crater. A crater which now decorated the landscape on which he had stood only a second ago.
"Thanks for the save." Ranma managed to say.
"We're even." Anito answered. "Though that might not last for long." Anito continued coldly his eyes staring through the thick dust. Tracing something that couldn't be seen by mortal eyes.
Ranma had no need to follow Anito's gaze. His too had shifted in the direction that the arch-mage was staring, having followed the path of the explosive projectiles. There it was. Even through the dust it wasn't hard to miss now that Ranma knew what he was looking for. It was big. At least four meters tall. Light shimmered off the liquid, obsidian black metal. The steel machine was bipedal and loosely in its arms it carried a heavy scaled up version of an M16 with an attached grenade launcher, or in this case rocket propelled grenade.
"Powered armor." Anito supplied to the unspoken question.
"I've read some manga." Ranma shot back annoyed not taking his gaze off the metal monster for a second. "I take it we don't want to get hit." Ranma watched as the machine scanned the area attempting to locate where its target had retreated to.
"Oh, the cloth will hold up just fine. Its the fact that those bullets will probably shove your shirt straight through you none the less that you need to worry about." Anito said grinning in dark humor. The smile though didn't quite touch the arch-mage's eyes.
Ranma winced at the thought. Watching the obsidian armor Ranma's eyes sketched out another approaching the Tendo grounds with a great deal of caution. "How many-"
"Six," Anito answered. "I think they have found us."
Ranma didn't need Anito to tell him the last. The metallic heads had just swiveled in their direction and that was sufficient for him. "Got a plan?" Ranma asked as the two brought up their guns in the direction of their retreat.
"I take one, you take one. We improvise from there." Anito snagged Ranma by the back of the shirt. The dark mist of his ki surrounding the two in a suffocating blanket.
"Ta-ta-ta-ta!" Holes the size of Ranma's fist ripped through the surrounding stone wall as heavy depleted uranium slugs lanced out from the barrels of the heavy gun. Ranma fell flat to the ground at the assault, glad for his action when a hole appeared where his head used to be.
"Whatever you are planning. Now would be a good time!"
The familiar wrenching sensation of movement served as Anito's answer. Ranma blinked as his eyes informed him he was now elsewhere. Straining his eyes Ranma spotted the obsidian power armor directly blow him and approaching fast. Feeling around quickly for more information Ranma's aura sight told him that Anito had already moved to attack his own adversary.
Pushing aside such thoughts Ranma concentrated on his immediate problem. That being the cold steel armor below him. An armor that was reacting to the pigtailed martial artist's presence with surprising swiftness. With a rapid motion the steel beast repositioned the heavy barrel to fire at the falling pigtailed martial artist. It did not though take into account Ranma's uncanny aerial movement.
A pulse of air passed by Ranma as he fell. The thick pressure of the passing slug making itself known as he fell. A single shot was all the armor got. Dropping down Ranma used the side of the gun as a pad to propel himself faster at his enemy. At the same time he let his ki flow the energy kissing lightly the surface of the golden bracers. The with a light touch the life energy was twisted up into the complex inner matrix of the golden bracers. The power flared into curling orange fires that shrouded the pigtailed martial artist's fists.
The air screamed in protest as it was tortured with resonate frequencies arising from the burning golden gauntlets. Ranma paid this no heed instead smashing his hand down hard on the heavily armored head. His fist barreled into the obsidian armor with his full weight behind it and added to that was the bracer's own mystical mass. Supersaturated with ki the steel proved to be weaker than bone. Crunching through the armor the head caved in from the force.
Even as Ranma fell further to the ground the roaring orange aura ripped at the steel like a rabid wolverine. The armor cracked and split. The points nearest his hand shattered into a thousand splinters. Yet all that paled to what the aura gleefully did to the much weaker electric components inside. With almost a primal hunger it devoured the wires, electronics and small mechanical pieces turning them into dust.
Though staggered from the blow the black steel armor was anything, but done. While too close to fire the pilot brandished the gun like a giant club swinging the heavy arm the obsidian armor blindly sought to knock the pigtailed martial artist aside. Ranma though was far quicker. Tying himself to the ground with his ki Ranma caught the swinging arm with his new strength. Absorbing the gargantuan power Ranma felt the ground shifted and sink under his feet. Even with the new strength his arm strained with the effort to stop the steel arm.
The burning orange hand sank into the obsidian arm as the screaming aura shredded the steel with terrible viciousness. Not pausing to watch the damage Ranma smashed his other hand into the cockpit door. Cracks from the force and the resonance spread over the steel surface as it gave under incredible forces. Slowly his hand slipped inside. At the same time the obsidian arm fell hanging lose barely attached by cables.
With his hand inside Ranma wrenched hard the orange aura weakening the door all the while and the mystical weight adding its power to the movement. Unable to resist the steel gave with a squeal. His second hand released the steel arm and snaked up as the resonance effect vanished. Clasping the terrified pilot by the neck Ranma lifted him from the cockpit. Then almost casually Ranma tossed the pilot to the side.
Ranma grinned. That had been a bit easier than he had expected, though the enemy had pulled a few quick tricks. His elation was short lived. Not more than two seconds later two very heavy machine guns opened fire on his position. Scrambling Ranma used the newly smashed armor as cover from the heavy assault. On second thought, maybe things were not going so great after all.
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Kiima stood shaking herself out of a daze. Her diaphragm convulsed as she regained her breath. Expert mental control quashed the signals of pain and forced the inner organ back into working condition. Mind clear the birdwoman overlooked the situation. As far as she could tell some sort of war had broken over the area. Kiima wasn't so sure she wanted to be involved.
"Put down staff, surrender." A commando said in poor Japanese while pointing his gun at the bird woman. Three others backed the soldier up from various angles of fire, one though sat close to the speaker. For the most part the ground forces seemed to be trying to stay away from whatever fight was breaking out on the Tendo grounds.
Kiima glared at the landling. How dare he presume to order her around. Looking at the rebuilt Kinjakan in disgust, she prepared to follow his orders anyway. There was no reason to keep a sham of a weapon. Nothing should have been able to deflect Kinjakan's blade. Much less keep it from returning.
"Chiiiuuuuuu, chiuuuuuu." Something blurred, gleaming like a plane of light as at sped through the air. It briefly ricocheted off a stone wall slicing the stone neatly in two even as it bounced. Kiima's eye's widened in recognition as the spinning circular blade returned to the master. On second thought perhaps she was too quick in thinking the new Kinjakan was a fake.
If luck was on Kiima's side the same could not be said for the speaker and his partner. The return path of Kinjakan's blade passed straight though the two of them. The silvery circle sliced in one side of their flesh and out the other without even slowing down. Twin fountains of blood exploded as huge gaping wounds were ripped through the annoying landlings. One was missing half his chest, the other an arm and most of his shoulder. Having accomplished its job the circular blade rested once again safely on the end of the staff.
Surprise from the event lasted only a moment and the other two opened fire. The bullets spat from the M16 bearing down on the winged woman. Kiima moved with perfect martial arts prowess using the slight delay to escape the lines of fire and take to the air. With a twitch of her wrist she sent Kinjakan's blade spinning at one of the ignorant landlings, slicing the head clean in two.
Searing hot bullets rewarded her effort borrowing themselves deep into her skin causing the birdwoman to screech in pain. The mental haze of pain was not enough to stop one of her training though. Forcing the wings into movement she called out her special attack while she awaited Kinjakan's return. "Suicho Senzan Yoko!"
The blades exploded as she beat down her wings wincing from the pain of her bullet wounds as she did so. The soldier never stood a chance. A dozen air blades hit him each carving half the way through his body, only stopping then because the lesser effect the ki technique had on living creatures. Even that however, was far more than fatal. Watching the blood spurt out Kiima felt the return of Kinjakan's blade.
Freed of her obligation to this place Kiima decided to leave the rest well enough alone. Taking to the sky the birdwoman vanished from the battle ground.
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The moment Anito dropped Ranma he moved. Shadow stepping half a dozen meters the arch-mage appeared low on the ground near the leg of his target. Shooting out his glassy, black staff from a much to short sleeve the wizard pivoted. Grasping the long weapon in both hands he swung placing all his strength into the the blow. The heavy, black steel armor twisted as this happened to face the adversary that its sensors were screaming the location of.
With the advantage Anito's positioning gave it was far too late. The staff slammed into the leg with the power of a twenty ton sledge hammer. Even against the heavy armored vehicle there was simply no stopping the black staff. Armor caved and the leg was ripped out of under the obsidian beast causing the structure to fall on its hard on its back.
Shadow stepping again Anito appeared on the chest of the black powered armor. The gun arm snaked around attempting to gain a angle of attack on the arch-mage. Again Anito acted first using his staff to smash the offensive arm to the side sending the gun careening through the air. Then raising his staff high the wizard smashed into the cockpit shattering the armor and crushing in the steel structure. Coiling black lightning poured off of the dark staff when the blow landed. The dark energy shredding the delicate systems with destructive chaos lightning.
The armor struggled once and then fell silent its inner systems destroyed by the chaos energy. A second obsidian black armor though did not suffer this disadvantage. Its heavy gun opened up on Anito's position raining down heavy depleted uranium slugs. Vanishing instantly the projectiles missed their target instead putting fist sized dents and sometimes deeper holes into the armor that the arch-mage had just crushed.
Appearing again two meters to the side Anito drew sparkling lighting into one hand. "Raijin's Hammer!" The arch-mage cried unleashing the brilliant electrical energy at the deadly bipedal armor. The blue streams ripped into the metallic surface dancing along the obsidian armor tearing with all their might at the machine. The armor though shrugged off the attack giving no indication of damage other than a bit of black smoke.
Anito's eyes widened in surprise. Teleporting out of the way of another stream of bullets the wizard grinned. "Smart bugger, well of that doesn't work lets try old faithful." With that Anito shadow stepped appearing on the ground in front of the black mecha. Leaping forward the wizard swung his staff hard, ki energy rolling off the surface of the black staff in a shining, crackling wave.
The pilot did the unexpected. The heavy black armor stepped in, its free hand grasping hard onto the black staff before the swing could be completed. Still the force caused the armor to take a step back, and pressed the hand back nearly to the mecha's chest. Even with this the pilot held its grip. Repositioning the gun the armor opened fire on the annoying wizard firmly ignoring the black lightning that was slowly eating away at the armor's free hand.
Anito danced back liberally using his shadow step to dodge the lines of fire. Eyes narrowing the arch-mage glared at the obsidian armor that had stripped him of his weapon. "Okay, that's it. Now you have made me mad!"
Using a huge surge of energy Anito vanished appearing nearly a hundred meters in the air. Moving swiftly the wizard whipped out a camouflage tarp out of his hidden weapons space. Filling the heavy cloth with ki the wizard drew the surface out into an egg like oval. Then finally in a trick that would make David Copperfield proud he ripped the surface free revealing a 65 ton M1A2 Abrams tank. A tank that just so happened to be falling directly on a very surprised bipedal armor.
Grinning like mad Anito placed both hands on top of the tank causing it to glow like his staff before a blow. "Eat this, secret technique, Tank Smash!"
With the weight of the tank was doubled by Anito's technique the bipedal armor was crushed like a bug underneath the massive steel vehicle. Laughing out loud Anito called his staff to him. Briefly a length of black lightning twisted in his hand and then the staff sat there. "That will teach you to- ahk!"
Anito cut off his speech when one of the armors laying fire down on Ranma turned and opened up on him instead. Vanishing behind his tank to get cover the wizard cried out. "My tank! My beautiful tank!"
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"Hmm, it looks like they were holding back a few cards." The Sergeant said thoughtfully watching the fight through his binoculars.
"Sir?" The assistant questioned.
"Our boys are getting thrashed pretty badly right now. Tell them to prepare for a retreat. The downed armors are to be destroyed. We won't get them today."
"Then why not cancel the mission now?" The assistant queried.
"We also have a few more cards to play." The sergeant said thoughtfully. "Even with things going down as they are there is still enough time for execution B."
The assistant nodded in understanding. "Yes sir."
"Continue taking intelligence until the last minute. I want to at bare minimum get something out of this." The sergeant said coldly evaluating the battle.
The assistant nodded one final time before taking care of his superior's orders. Free to think the Sergeant hoisted a gun that by any interpretation far to heavy for him. Briefly he considered joining the fight. His presence might serve to turn the battle back in their favor. Unfortunately, he had orders strictly against doing exactly that.
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Ranma winced as another short lived hail of slugs rained down on his position. He wasn't sure how much longer his cover would last against those heavy guns. As it was the remains of the powered armor looked more like a massive twisted hunk of metal than a mechanized armor suit. To make matters worse the two others were circling for a better angle of fire. To top it off the pilots showed a degree of wisdom in staying a good distance away from their target.
The effectively left Ranma with nothing but long range weapons to return fire. If all this were not enough pigtailed martial artist was sure after sensing the failure of Anito's Rajin's hammer that his Moko Takabisha wouldn't do any damage. A brief test had only served to confirmed this. All in all he was in a bit of a spot. Ranma needed something a bit heavier and bit more powerful to take down those steel beasts from a range. Narrowing his eyes on the discarded gun of the first unit Ranma thought up a plan.
Grabbing the super scaled up M16 Ranma hoisted it in his hands. Though the gun probably only massed 150 or so kilo's it felt like a whole lot more thanks to the enormous bulk of a weapon built for someone at least twice his size. In annoyance Ranma shifted his grip instead using ki binding to hold the weapon rather than attempting to wrap a hand around a handle that was by all means far too big.
Glancing over the gun to get a feel for how it worked Ranma pumped another RPG into the launcher. Listening and using his aura sight to feel out his enemy the pigtailed martial artist awaited the right moment. He didn't have to wait long before he felt one of the obsidian armors turn when Anito crushed one of the enemy's fellows under a tank.
Knowing that there would undoubtedly be no better time Ranma popped up and fired an RPG at the steel beast that was still facing him, albeit the armor was distracted by the turn of events. A misty streak of white streamed across the distance as the rocket propelled grenade smacked the obsidian machine right in the head.
"Boooooom!" The shock wave and noise rang painfully in Ranma's ear. The pigtailed martial artist immediately dived to a new location before securing himself firmly to the ground with ki binding. Bracing and taking aim Ranma pinpointed the upper shoulder arm joint.
The obsidian armor stumbled under the force of the explosion. The anti-personnel weapon however, did the heavily armored machine little damage. Ranma had counted on that. Instead the armor was merely temporarily blinded, even so the pilot gave a good show. With skilled instinct the armor fired off a triplet of rounds at the location from which Ranma had fired in a blind attempt at seeking out the enemy.
Not wasting a moment Ranma let out a five shot burst using his normally massive strength and that gained from the bracers to keep the incredible weapon under control. The five depleted uranium slugs flew swiftly across the distance. Three landed hard on the weapon hand's shoulder joint. The first smashing with enough force to put a rather serious dent on the top, the second the same on the bottom. The last though tore half way through ripping apart artificial muscle. Between the crushed shoulder joint and damaged systems the obsidian armor found its arm's movement compromised.
Recovering from the recoil Ranma adjusted aiming for the delicate sensor array on the head. Unleashing a three shot burst Ranma's eyes widened in surprise as the armor dodged completing an acrobatic roll across the ground and switching weapon hands while completing the maneuver. Though surprised Ranma still managed to get one glancing shot off the side of the obsidian steel head. The armor didn't seem to be in the least compromised from the act.
Using the still working primary arm's hand the armor pumped another RPG into its chamber. Rolling up onto its feet the armor unleashed the rocket propelled grenade at the pigtailed martial artist with uncanny aim. Ranma released his ki binding and jumped as far away as possible. Sailing through the air the pigtailed martial artist whispered, "Kaze no Yoroi."
A swirling sphere of wind wrapped itself around Ranma as he glided through the sky. The detonation of the RPG sent spikes of shrapnel tearing across the gap Ranma had with his best efforet opened between himself and the deadly anti-personnel grenade. The tightening sphere of wind resisted the fragments like a thick cushion of air slowing the metal, but not stopping it. The pigtailed martial artist felt the hard pressure of a dozen such spikes across his body. Only the lone spike that grazed his face drew blood, the rest stopped by his armored clothes.
Flipping Ranma pumped his last grenade into its chamber. Landing on his feet Ranma immediately fell into a braced crouch. Using his ki binding Ranma took quick aim firing off a tight burst of six bullets the first two rammed into the right leg four others crushed into the armor's chest. Before the steel beast could fully adjust its sensors to see through the cloud of dust Ranma fired off his own grenade smacking the obsidian armor high on the chest.
"Gotcha." Ranma said taking aim for another bust of fire. Before he could pull the trigger the pigtailed martial artist's danger sense screamed in warning. Following his intuition Ranma leapt to the side, barely dodging three depleted uranium slugs that landed only half a meter away. Reversing direction again the moment he landed the pigtailed martial artist avoided two more shots that had been aimed at his continuing trajectory.
Ranma gritted his teeth seeing that the other armor had turned its attention back on him from the tank that Anito had dropped. With his target's sensors recovering Ranma was going to be in some real trouble this far from hard cover. "Crap I'm in a whole lot of trouble now."
"Boooooom!" A huge jarring sound erupted from Ranma's right. The second armor found itself suddenly missing half its right arm and the entire shoulder. The gun was tossed at least a few dozen meters as the obsidian beast stumbled backward trying to recover from the huge momentum of having a 120mm tank round shoved through its very heavy armor.
Ranma spared a glance at the source of the attack. Somehow Anito had managed to level his tank cannon at the obsidian armor. Ranma wasn't quite sure how the arch-mage had managed it, or even fired the cannon, but he wasn't complaining.
Taking advantage of the turn in luck Ranma fired off a several more rounds of ammunition placing two squarely in the sensor array of the of the armor that was still dazed from receiving a grenade in the face. With that system destroyed Ranma tossed the heavy weapon aside and rapidly closed in on his target. Five blind shots rang out against the pigtailed martial artist, an effort silenced when Anito appeared briefly to smash the gun out of the steel beast's hand, before turning to finish off what the tank had started.
It was more than enough for Ranma as he tore into the steel armor having finally closed into melee range. Now this pilot was going to learn what it meant to fight Ranma Saotome.
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Getting rocked by explosions was not exactly a new thing for the Tendo household. In fact, it was so incredibly common that not a single eyebrow was raised at the event. Well at least not for the normal participants Nodoka was a bit more nervous than the rest of them.
"Is that alright?" Nodoka asked nervously as Soun and Genma played Shogi without even paying the shaking walls any attention.
"Don't worry about it, Ranma is probably just fighting some idiot." Akane said a bit annoyed, but far more politely than normal. The whole seppuku contract fiasco had caused the girl to be much nicer when talking about Ranma in front of the martial artist's mother.
"Oh no what if my son is injured." Nodoka looked meaningfully at her husband indicating that he should do something about it.
"Don't worry about the boy. He is a man amongst men and can take care of himself." Genma replied using Nodoka's obsession to leave the fight in his boy's hands. The last thing Genma wanted was to get tangled up in the boy's affairs directly.
Nodoka looked a bit dreamy. "Oh yes, my son is so manly."
Another explosion rocked the house. Then a square wall section was blown free when a set of bullets ripped into the surface with shocking fury.
"Oh my, it is a good thing that Anito enchanted the walls or this would be expensive to fix." Kasumi said looking at the wall section.
"I think it will be expensive anyway sis." Nabiki said noting that one of the bullets managed to half penetrate through the enchanted wood.
"Guys, I don't think it is going to be safe up here." Akane said looking out the hole in the wall.
Genma looked nervously at his wife. "Yes, I think it might be best if we went somewhere safer."
"That might be a good idea Saotome. No need for my daughters to get injured in one of the boy's fights." Soun said standing up.
"Halt!" A new voice shouted in bad Japanese. Five military commando types filed into the room pointing guns menacingly at the group.
The whole room stopped cold. Except for Kasumi who pleasantly asked, "Oh guests. Would you like some tea?"
One of the soldiers shot the ground next to the eldest daughter's feet. Causing the whole room to jump, including Kasumi. "I said nobody move." The leader yelled out nervously waving the gun around to emphasize his point."
Nabiki's eyes narrowed coldly at the officer. There was things that Nabiki could tolerate shooting at her sister, especially her eldest sister, went far past that line. An undercurrent of rage passed through her. Had the military goons shown up a week before Nabiki would have had to coldly watch what happened. Today though even a small undercurrent was all it took.
The ribbons flared free of the space between as if parting the mists of reality. One snaked forward with the speed of a coiled serpent striking. Before anyone even knew what was happening the ribbon wrapped itself constricting the gun totting hands of the leader. Lifting the soldier high in the air the long raging red ribbon swung left and then with greater force whipped back right sending the soldier flying clear through the wall.
"What the?" One of the soldiers said stunned with the sudden turn of events.
The others did not suffer from the distraction instead they immediately opened fire on the middle Tendo daughter. The five ribbons danced in response weaving themselves across the the room in glowing, blue shield. Not a single bullet passed the fluttering fabric.
"Click-click-click." The guns' mechanism sounded coldly as the soldiers discovered themselves empty of ammo their bullets wasted on the ground. A heart chilling smirk crossed Nabiki's face and the ribbons exploded like a wave sending the rest of the soldiers through the wall.
"That takes care of that." Nabiki said with a slight smile. It appeared that she might just have to thank Anito for this gift after all.
Akane looked as if she wanted to ask her sister a few very pressing questions. Those thoughts were interrupted as a powerful ripping sound filled the room. "Crash-crunch thump!"
Tearing into the room stepped a four meter tall, obsidian, black, steel, powered, humanoid machine. Casually the huge armor whipped around its gun smashing through the upper floor to give itself some room to maneuver. Coldly evaluating the situation the steel beast casually pointed its gun at Nabiki and let out a three shot burst.
The ribbons coiled in a tight ball in response intercepting the armor penetrating bullets with their light forms. It wasn't quite enough and Nabiki found herself thrown across the room as she was forced to take blows from three coils of cloth around depleted uranium slugs each carrying ridiculously high amounts of momentum. Slamming into a wall several blocks of wood and household materials crashed on top of the girl burying her.
"Nabiki!" Akane yelled out her rage flaring into a towering red aura. Blindly the girl threw herself at the machine as if her puny form could possibly harm the huge steel construct.
Almost lazily the obsidian armor batted the girl to the side with its gun. Then the armor turned to this newest threat taking aim with its gun at the downed girl.
"Akane! You bastard!" Ryouga streaked into the room leaving the Tendo's wondering where exactly he came from. Punching the armor hard on the leg the group saw a testament of the wandering martial artist's mastery of the Jishinha Bakusai Tenketsu. A chunk of the metal armor's leg exploded outward from the blow. The steel construct though was still far too strong to be completely destroyed, even from the powerful technique.
The obsidian armor twisted aiming its gun at Ryouga instead. Akane awakening from a short trip into the darkness watched in sick horror as the steel armor prepared to execute the boy for his offense. Before that action could take place a melodic voice rang out through the confusion. "Spirits of fire arise."
The spell only summoned the smallest of fires. Certainly not enough to damage the cold steel beast before them. It was though far more than enough to ignite say a small rocket propelled grenade stored in the clip of the armor's weapon. A grenade that then promptly went off inside the gun ripping the weapon open and rendering the heavy gun useless.
Ryouga as close as he was to the steel structure was nailed by dozens of pieces of shrapnel. Unlike bullets these shards by far lacked the speed or the power to do real harm, the explosion having been dramatically weakened by effort expanding the heavy metal gun. There was though still enough power to toss the directionally challenged warrior across the room.
The armor whirled around with panic. Obviously it hadn't expected to crash into a hornets nest of low level supernaturals. In the armor's movements it almost crushed Nodoka under an injured steel leg. Moving surprisingly fast Genma tackled his wife safely removing her from danger.
Pulling himself to his feet Genma burst into a brilliant blue battle. Staring down the obsidian armor Genma's face twisted in anger. An anger Ryouga and Akane recognized from the portly martial artist's son. An anger they had once witnessed at Phoenix Mountain before Ranma Saotome killed a god. "How dare you endanger my wife!" Genma growled out. "Sai Dai Kyu Kijin Raishu Dan!"
An incredible vacuum blade exploded from Genma slicing clean through one of the mecha's arms. The cold obsidian arm fell heavily to the ground as the pilot recovered his senses. Genma dashed in with amazing speed jumping high at his enemy's chest.
Not to be so easily defeated the armor whipped around its remaining arm to smash the sometimes panda out of the sky. The effort was arrested before it could be completed when three raging red ribbons wrapped themselves tightly around the machine's biceps. Watching Genma smash into the armor Nabiki quirked her lips slightly through the pain. Two ribbons stood at ready coiled around the ice cold mercenary awaiting a danger. The debris that had trapped Nabiki lay scattered about having been shoved away by the thin strips of cloth.
Back up on his feet Ryouga joined the fray helping Genma rip the remains of the obsidian armor into twisted chunks of metal. Nodoka watched on her eyes blurred slightly with tears. "Oh my husband is so manly!"
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"Report." The sergeant said coldly.
"We have lost the last of the armors sir. It appears that execution B failed. The house is filled with unknown low level supernaturals."
The sergeant lit up a cigaret regretfully. "Well then it appears nothing more can be gained from our work here. All units are to pull back. Any one alive is to be recovered. The armors are to be eliminated. Make this quick."
"Yes sir." The assistant responded.
Hoisting his gun the sergeant watched until his last orders could be carried out.
*********************
Ranma tossed aside the last pilot letting the panicked man hit the ground. "Hey Anito where is the last one?"
Anito looked thoughtful for a second. Then he said, "It has already been taken care of."
Ranma scratched his head. As he counted there was five taken down thus far. He didn't remember any others. Glancing Ranma noticed the pilot was taking off. "Yo should we do anything about that?"
Anito glanced over at the pilot. "It might be best to question one."
Ranma shrugged and took three steps toward the retreating man. Stopping cold the pigtailed martial artist jumped back as his danger sense screamed in protest. "Ftht-Bang!"
Something slammed into the ground with godlike force. The weapon, whatever it was, ripped a hole the size of Ranma's chest clean through the armor he had just finished off. Staring in the direction his senses told him the attack came from Ranma asked with wide eyes. "What the heck was that!"
Anito looked just as startled. "Rail gun if I don't miss my guess. Now that will penetrate your clothes." Glancing at the retreating soldier. "Looks like they were buying time. Though why they would save something like that for the last minute I wouldn't know for the life of me."
Crouching in battle stance Ranma looked on nervously. "So what do you think our chances are good."
Anito's eyes narrowed. "My guess is that was just to cover the retreat. If they want to keep it friendly lets return the favor."
"Somehow the word friendly is not what comes to mind when a group sends half a dozen power armors to kill me." Ranma replied.
Anito grinned, "This from the man whose friend shows up with the line, Ranma prepare to die! Well, to us goes the spoils of war!"
Anito bent down to retrieve one of the armors. His efforts were thwarted when the metal began to dissolve into a loose lump. Anito blinked twice and then said, "Damn and now I want them even more!"
Ranma glanced around not feeling the presence of any left over soldiers. The fact his danger sense was completely calm allowed Ranma to finally completely relax. "So, what happened to Kiima."
Anito paused and then said in all honesty. "Don't know, really come to think about it I completely forgot about her."
Ranma shrugged. "Well then I suppose we should get back. I could use something to eat."
***********************
High in the sky and well on her way out of Tokyo a certain birdwoman sneezed. Wiping her nose the birdwoman winced at the pain from moving her arm. "Damn you wizard for getting me into this mess." The girl cursed as she cruised through the sky.
Well not everything had gone wrong. She still had Kinjakan and despite the first failed attack the staff did seem to work right. Still though the arch-mage had gotten away scotch free for his crimes.
Kiima though wasn't about to go back to administer that punishment. The fact that the landling Saotome could deflect the staff was problem enough. No it was the source of her wounds that prevented Kiima from returning. In fact, given what had just happened Kiima was going to be damned if she ever returned to that crazy district called Nerima. Nope, Phoenix mountain sounded like a perfectly good place to live.
Keeping those thoughts firmly in mind Kiima flew on through the cold skies her destination fixed and far far away.
"Don't look now, but we have company. Lots of company." Anito said to Ranma quietly. As he spoke the arch-mage scanned the area slowly with his eyes. Ranma though knew that it was not his eyes that Anito was really looking with. No, the wizard was using his uncanny perfect aura sight, Ranma had no doubt about that.
"Eh? Who is it?" Ranma asked picking up the underlying hint of caution. Not that his danger sense didn't provide enough of a warning.
"Some buddies that we picked up overseas if my guess is right." Anito said his eyes narrowing in thought.
"I thought you said-" Ranma cut off as he detected movement out of the corner of his eye.
Kiima, his mind whispered to him silently somehow turning the sketchy information into a absolute certainty. Somehow even this tiny movement set off a warning bell in Ranma's mind. His head swiveled twisting toward the bird woman. It was then that he saw it. The cold glint of steel in the birdwoman's eye. The hardening tension of muscles. There was no doubt, she had intent to kill.
Ranma moved. He wasn't sure why he did it and why didn't really matter. All that mattered was that he was there. As he moved he saw Kiima's hand drift down as though in slow motion. The powerful artifact Kinjakan falling with the birdwoman's hand tracing a deadly path through the air. As the weapon moved in its deadly arc the large, circular blade slowly slipped off of the silvery shaft spinning free toward Anito. But, the blade never made it. Instead it met something else. It met Ranma. Lifting an arm a golden bracer intercepted the rapidly rotating vorpal blade. There it paused the shock slowly transferring into his arm, pushing it back as the circle of death ground away at the indestructible metal like an angry buzz saw. It found no purchase. Not a millimeter of the gleaming surface gave. With no other path left the blade did the impossible, it ricocheted off deflected high into the deep blue sky.
Kiima's eyes widened at the pigtailed blur that materialized in her path like a wraith out of the shadow. Her dilating pupils gazed in shock as the incredible, unstoppable weapon was deflected with such inconceivable ease. Shock though only dulled instinct.
Kiima's wings beat back hard shoving on the air with all their might striving to drive her body away. It was too late. Ranma followed the defense up with the speed and finesse of liquid lightning. With speed born of fighting those that moved like shadows Ranma stepped in. His foot snapped up faster than the eye could see borrowing deep into Kiima's stomach. The force transferred into the birdwoman's belly making it undulate in concentric, rippling waves. The power of the blow exploded into through Kiima's body and the bird woman found herself blasted back with far more speed than she had wished for.
Leaning forward Ranma's leg muscles tensed seeking to drive his body into lightning motion. Before he could move though something snagged him from the back. No, not something, someone.
It was Anito's hand that had held the pigtailed martial artist in check. Stopping his motion cold and allowing the the bird woman to recover before more damage could be done. Ranma turned looking into the arch-mage's eyes with curiosity.
Anito yelled breaking through the battle trance that had captured the pigtailed martial artist. "Get down! Shit-"
Further words were halted when twisting dark ki wrapped itself around Ranma like a thick blanket. The dark mist enclosed around his form so fast that Ranma had not time to react. Then a sharp horrible tug ripped at his essence. For an instant the pigtailed martial artist felt as though all his insides had been twisted into a tight, coiling knot. His stomach rebelled with the urge to vomit and his eyes swam as powerful new details burned into the retina superimposing themselves upon the old. Ranma knew what had happened. It wasn't the first time for the pigtailed martial artist, nor would it be the last.
"What did you do that-" Ranma sputtered in annoyance. His words cut off as the answer made itself apparent.
"Booooooom!" Two white streaks rammed into the ground like twin meteorites. Then as if in rebellion the earth exploded unleashing a powerful concussion wave filled with dirt and rock. The almost visible force slammed into Ranma like a bucket of water. Slightly dazed from the sudden shift and the explosion Ranma stared at the thick dust around what was almost certainly a crater. A crater which now decorated the landscape on which he had stood only a second ago.
"Thanks for the save." Ranma managed to say.
"We're even." Anito answered. "Though that might not last for long." Anito continued coldly his eyes staring through the thick dust. Tracing something that couldn't be seen by mortal eyes.
Ranma had no need to follow Anito's gaze. His too had shifted in the direction that the arch-mage was staring, having followed the path of the explosive projectiles. There it was. Even through the dust it wasn't hard to miss now that Ranma knew what he was looking for. It was big. At least four meters tall. Light shimmered off the liquid, obsidian black metal. The steel machine was bipedal and loosely in its arms it carried a heavy scaled up version of an M16 with an attached grenade launcher, or in this case rocket propelled grenade.
"Powered armor." Anito supplied to the unspoken question.
"I've read some manga." Ranma shot back annoyed not taking his gaze off the metal monster for a second. "I take it we don't want to get hit." Ranma watched as the machine scanned the area attempting to locate where its target had retreated to.
"Oh, the cloth will hold up just fine. Its the fact that those bullets will probably shove your shirt straight through you none the less that you need to worry about." Anito said grinning in dark humor. The smile though didn't quite touch the arch-mage's eyes.
Ranma winced at the thought. Watching the obsidian armor Ranma's eyes sketched out another approaching the Tendo grounds with a great deal of caution. "How many-"
"Six," Anito answered. "I think they have found us."
Ranma didn't need Anito to tell him the last. The metallic heads had just swiveled in their direction and that was sufficient for him. "Got a plan?" Ranma asked as the two brought up their guns in the direction of their retreat.
"I take one, you take one. We improvise from there." Anito snagged Ranma by the back of the shirt. The dark mist of his ki surrounding the two in a suffocating blanket.
"Ta-ta-ta-ta!" Holes the size of Ranma's fist ripped through the surrounding stone wall as heavy depleted uranium slugs lanced out from the barrels of the heavy gun. Ranma fell flat to the ground at the assault, glad for his action when a hole appeared where his head used to be.
"Whatever you are planning. Now would be a good time!"
The familiar wrenching sensation of movement served as Anito's answer. Ranma blinked as his eyes informed him he was now elsewhere. Straining his eyes Ranma spotted the obsidian power armor directly blow him and approaching fast. Feeling around quickly for more information Ranma's aura sight told him that Anito had already moved to attack his own adversary.
Pushing aside such thoughts Ranma concentrated on his immediate problem. That being the cold steel armor below him. An armor that was reacting to the pigtailed martial artist's presence with surprising swiftness. With a rapid motion the steel beast repositioned the heavy barrel to fire at the falling pigtailed martial artist. It did not though take into account Ranma's uncanny aerial movement.
A pulse of air passed by Ranma as he fell. The thick pressure of the passing slug making itself known as he fell. A single shot was all the armor got. Dropping down Ranma used the side of the gun as a pad to propel himself faster at his enemy. At the same time he let his ki flow the energy kissing lightly the surface of the golden bracers. The with a light touch the life energy was twisted up into the complex inner matrix of the golden bracers. The power flared into curling orange fires that shrouded the pigtailed martial artist's fists.
The air screamed in protest as it was tortured with resonate frequencies arising from the burning golden gauntlets. Ranma paid this no heed instead smashing his hand down hard on the heavily armored head. His fist barreled into the obsidian armor with his full weight behind it and added to that was the bracer's own mystical mass. Supersaturated with ki the steel proved to be weaker than bone. Crunching through the armor the head caved in from the force.
Even as Ranma fell further to the ground the roaring orange aura ripped at the steel like a rabid wolverine. The armor cracked and split. The points nearest his hand shattered into a thousand splinters. Yet all that paled to what the aura gleefully did to the much weaker electric components inside. With almost a primal hunger it devoured the wires, electronics and small mechanical pieces turning them into dust.
Though staggered from the blow the black steel armor was anything, but done. While too close to fire the pilot brandished the gun like a giant club swinging the heavy arm the obsidian armor blindly sought to knock the pigtailed martial artist aside. Ranma though was far quicker. Tying himself to the ground with his ki Ranma caught the swinging arm with his new strength. Absorbing the gargantuan power Ranma felt the ground shifted and sink under his feet. Even with the new strength his arm strained with the effort to stop the steel arm.
The burning orange hand sank into the obsidian arm as the screaming aura shredded the steel with terrible viciousness. Not pausing to watch the damage Ranma smashed his other hand into the cockpit door. Cracks from the force and the resonance spread over the steel surface as it gave under incredible forces. Slowly his hand slipped inside. At the same time the obsidian arm fell hanging lose barely attached by cables.
With his hand inside Ranma wrenched hard the orange aura weakening the door all the while and the mystical weight adding its power to the movement. Unable to resist the steel gave with a squeal. His second hand released the steel arm and snaked up as the resonance effect vanished. Clasping the terrified pilot by the neck Ranma lifted him from the cockpit. Then almost casually Ranma tossed the pilot to the side.
Ranma grinned. That had been a bit easier than he had expected, though the enemy had pulled a few quick tricks. His elation was short lived. Not more than two seconds later two very heavy machine guns opened fire on his position. Scrambling Ranma used the newly smashed armor as cover from the heavy assault. On second thought, maybe things were not going so great after all.
*******************
Kiima stood shaking herself out of a daze. Her diaphragm convulsed as she regained her breath. Expert mental control quashed the signals of pain and forced the inner organ back into working condition. Mind clear the birdwoman overlooked the situation. As far as she could tell some sort of war had broken over the area. Kiima wasn't so sure she wanted to be involved.
"Put down staff, surrender." A commando said in poor Japanese while pointing his gun at the bird woman. Three others backed the soldier up from various angles of fire, one though sat close to the speaker. For the most part the ground forces seemed to be trying to stay away from whatever fight was breaking out on the Tendo grounds.
Kiima glared at the landling. How dare he presume to order her around. Looking at the rebuilt Kinjakan in disgust, she prepared to follow his orders anyway. There was no reason to keep a sham of a weapon. Nothing should have been able to deflect Kinjakan's blade. Much less keep it from returning.
"Chiiiuuuuuu, chiuuuuuu." Something blurred, gleaming like a plane of light as at sped through the air. It briefly ricocheted off a stone wall slicing the stone neatly in two even as it bounced. Kiima's eye's widened in recognition as the spinning circular blade returned to the master. On second thought perhaps she was too quick in thinking the new Kinjakan was a fake.
If luck was on Kiima's side the same could not be said for the speaker and his partner. The return path of Kinjakan's blade passed straight though the two of them. The silvery circle sliced in one side of their flesh and out the other without even slowing down. Twin fountains of blood exploded as huge gaping wounds were ripped through the annoying landlings. One was missing half his chest, the other an arm and most of his shoulder. Having accomplished its job the circular blade rested once again safely on the end of the staff.
Surprise from the event lasted only a moment and the other two opened fire. The bullets spat from the M16 bearing down on the winged woman. Kiima moved with perfect martial arts prowess using the slight delay to escape the lines of fire and take to the air. With a twitch of her wrist she sent Kinjakan's blade spinning at one of the ignorant landlings, slicing the head clean in two.
Searing hot bullets rewarded her effort borrowing themselves deep into her skin causing the birdwoman to screech in pain. The mental haze of pain was not enough to stop one of her training though. Forcing the wings into movement she called out her special attack while she awaited Kinjakan's return. "Suicho Senzan Yoko!"
The blades exploded as she beat down her wings wincing from the pain of her bullet wounds as she did so. The soldier never stood a chance. A dozen air blades hit him each carving half the way through his body, only stopping then because the lesser effect the ki technique had on living creatures. Even that however, was far more than fatal. Watching the blood spurt out Kiima felt the return of Kinjakan's blade.
Freed of her obligation to this place Kiima decided to leave the rest well enough alone. Taking to the sky the birdwoman vanished from the battle ground.
********************
The moment Anito dropped Ranma he moved. Shadow stepping half a dozen meters the arch-mage appeared low on the ground near the leg of his target. Shooting out his glassy, black staff from a much to short sleeve the wizard pivoted. Grasping the long weapon in both hands he swung placing all his strength into the the blow. The heavy, black steel armor twisted as this happened to face the adversary that its sensors were screaming the location of.
With the advantage Anito's positioning gave it was far too late. The staff slammed into the leg with the power of a twenty ton sledge hammer. Even against the heavy armored vehicle there was simply no stopping the black staff. Armor caved and the leg was ripped out of under the obsidian beast causing the structure to fall on its hard on its back.
Shadow stepping again Anito appeared on the chest of the black powered armor. The gun arm snaked around attempting to gain a angle of attack on the arch-mage. Again Anito acted first using his staff to smash the offensive arm to the side sending the gun careening through the air. Then raising his staff high the wizard smashed into the cockpit shattering the armor and crushing in the steel structure. Coiling black lightning poured off of the dark staff when the blow landed. The dark energy shredding the delicate systems with destructive chaos lightning.
The armor struggled once and then fell silent its inner systems destroyed by the chaos energy. A second obsidian black armor though did not suffer this disadvantage. Its heavy gun opened up on Anito's position raining down heavy depleted uranium slugs. Vanishing instantly the projectiles missed their target instead putting fist sized dents and sometimes deeper holes into the armor that the arch-mage had just crushed.
Appearing again two meters to the side Anito drew sparkling lighting into one hand. "Raijin's Hammer!" The arch-mage cried unleashing the brilliant electrical energy at the deadly bipedal armor. The blue streams ripped into the metallic surface dancing along the obsidian armor tearing with all their might at the machine. The armor though shrugged off the attack giving no indication of damage other than a bit of black smoke.
Anito's eyes widened in surprise. Teleporting out of the way of another stream of bullets the wizard grinned. "Smart bugger, well of that doesn't work lets try old faithful." With that Anito shadow stepped appearing on the ground in front of the black mecha. Leaping forward the wizard swung his staff hard, ki energy rolling off the surface of the black staff in a shining, crackling wave.
The pilot did the unexpected. The heavy black armor stepped in, its free hand grasping hard onto the black staff before the swing could be completed. Still the force caused the armor to take a step back, and pressed the hand back nearly to the mecha's chest. Even with this the pilot held its grip. Repositioning the gun the armor opened fire on the annoying wizard firmly ignoring the black lightning that was slowly eating away at the armor's free hand.
Anito danced back liberally using his shadow step to dodge the lines of fire. Eyes narrowing the arch-mage glared at the obsidian armor that had stripped him of his weapon. "Okay, that's it. Now you have made me mad!"
Using a huge surge of energy Anito vanished appearing nearly a hundred meters in the air. Moving swiftly the wizard whipped out a camouflage tarp out of his hidden weapons space. Filling the heavy cloth with ki the wizard drew the surface out into an egg like oval. Then finally in a trick that would make David Copperfield proud he ripped the surface free revealing a 65 ton M1A2 Abrams tank. A tank that just so happened to be falling directly on a very surprised bipedal armor.
Grinning like mad Anito placed both hands on top of the tank causing it to glow like his staff before a blow. "Eat this, secret technique, Tank Smash!"
With the weight of the tank was doubled by Anito's technique the bipedal armor was crushed like a bug underneath the massive steel vehicle. Laughing out loud Anito called his staff to him. Briefly a length of black lightning twisted in his hand and then the staff sat there. "That will teach you to- ahk!"
Anito cut off his speech when one of the armors laying fire down on Ranma turned and opened up on him instead. Vanishing behind his tank to get cover the wizard cried out. "My tank! My beautiful tank!"
********************
"Hmm, it looks like they were holding back a few cards." The Sergeant said thoughtfully watching the fight through his binoculars.
"Sir?" The assistant questioned.
"Our boys are getting thrashed pretty badly right now. Tell them to prepare for a retreat. The downed armors are to be destroyed. We won't get them today."
"Then why not cancel the mission now?" The assistant queried.
"We also have a few more cards to play." The sergeant said thoughtfully. "Even with things going down as they are there is still enough time for execution B."
The assistant nodded in understanding. "Yes sir."
"Continue taking intelligence until the last minute. I want to at bare minimum get something out of this." The sergeant said coldly evaluating the battle.
The assistant nodded one final time before taking care of his superior's orders. Free to think the Sergeant hoisted a gun that by any interpretation far to heavy for him. Briefly he considered joining the fight. His presence might serve to turn the battle back in their favor. Unfortunately, he had orders strictly against doing exactly that.
********************
Ranma winced as another short lived hail of slugs rained down on his position. He wasn't sure how much longer his cover would last against those heavy guns. As it was the remains of the powered armor looked more like a massive twisted hunk of metal than a mechanized armor suit. To make matters worse the two others were circling for a better angle of fire. To top it off the pilots showed a degree of wisdom in staying a good distance away from their target.
The effectively left Ranma with nothing but long range weapons to return fire. If all this were not enough pigtailed martial artist was sure after sensing the failure of Anito's Rajin's hammer that his Moko Takabisha wouldn't do any damage. A brief test had only served to confirmed this. All in all he was in a bit of a spot. Ranma needed something a bit heavier and bit more powerful to take down those steel beasts from a range. Narrowing his eyes on the discarded gun of the first unit Ranma thought up a plan.
Grabbing the super scaled up M16 Ranma hoisted it in his hands. Though the gun probably only massed 150 or so kilo's it felt like a whole lot more thanks to the enormous bulk of a weapon built for someone at least twice his size. In annoyance Ranma shifted his grip instead using ki binding to hold the weapon rather than attempting to wrap a hand around a handle that was by all means far too big.
Glancing over the gun to get a feel for how it worked Ranma pumped another RPG into the launcher. Listening and using his aura sight to feel out his enemy the pigtailed martial artist awaited the right moment. He didn't have to wait long before he felt one of the obsidian armors turn when Anito crushed one of the enemy's fellows under a tank.
Knowing that there would undoubtedly be no better time Ranma popped up and fired an RPG at the steel beast that was still facing him, albeit the armor was distracted by the turn of events. A misty streak of white streamed across the distance as the rocket propelled grenade smacked the obsidian machine right in the head.
"Boooooom!" The shock wave and noise rang painfully in Ranma's ear. The pigtailed martial artist immediately dived to a new location before securing himself firmly to the ground with ki binding. Bracing and taking aim Ranma pinpointed the upper shoulder arm joint.
The obsidian armor stumbled under the force of the explosion. The anti-personnel weapon however, did the heavily armored machine little damage. Ranma had counted on that. Instead the armor was merely temporarily blinded, even so the pilot gave a good show. With skilled instinct the armor fired off a triplet of rounds at the location from which Ranma had fired in a blind attempt at seeking out the enemy.
Not wasting a moment Ranma let out a five shot burst using his normally massive strength and that gained from the bracers to keep the incredible weapon under control. The five depleted uranium slugs flew swiftly across the distance. Three landed hard on the weapon hand's shoulder joint. The first smashing with enough force to put a rather serious dent on the top, the second the same on the bottom. The last though tore half way through ripping apart artificial muscle. Between the crushed shoulder joint and damaged systems the obsidian armor found its arm's movement compromised.
Recovering from the recoil Ranma adjusted aiming for the delicate sensor array on the head. Unleashing a three shot burst Ranma's eyes widened in surprise as the armor dodged completing an acrobatic roll across the ground and switching weapon hands while completing the maneuver. Though surprised Ranma still managed to get one glancing shot off the side of the obsidian steel head. The armor didn't seem to be in the least compromised from the act.
Using the still working primary arm's hand the armor pumped another RPG into its chamber. Rolling up onto its feet the armor unleashed the rocket propelled grenade at the pigtailed martial artist with uncanny aim. Ranma released his ki binding and jumped as far away as possible. Sailing through the air the pigtailed martial artist whispered, "Kaze no Yoroi."
A swirling sphere of wind wrapped itself around Ranma as he glided through the sky. The detonation of the RPG sent spikes of shrapnel tearing across the gap Ranma had with his best efforet opened between himself and the deadly anti-personnel grenade. The tightening sphere of wind resisted the fragments like a thick cushion of air slowing the metal, but not stopping it. The pigtailed martial artist felt the hard pressure of a dozen such spikes across his body. Only the lone spike that grazed his face drew blood, the rest stopped by his armored clothes.
Flipping Ranma pumped his last grenade into its chamber. Landing on his feet Ranma immediately fell into a braced crouch. Using his ki binding Ranma took quick aim firing off a tight burst of six bullets the first two rammed into the right leg four others crushed into the armor's chest. Before the steel beast could fully adjust its sensors to see through the cloud of dust Ranma fired off his own grenade smacking the obsidian armor high on the chest.
"Gotcha." Ranma said taking aim for another bust of fire. Before he could pull the trigger the pigtailed martial artist's danger sense screamed in warning. Following his intuition Ranma leapt to the side, barely dodging three depleted uranium slugs that landed only half a meter away. Reversing direction again the moment he landed the pigtailed martial artist avoided two more shots that had been aimed at his continuing trajectory.
Ranma gritted his teeth seeing that the other armor had turned its attention back on him from the tank that Anito had dropped. With his target's sensors recovering Ranma was going to be in some real trouble this far from hard cover. "Crap I'm in a whole lot of trouble now."
"Boooooom!" A huge jarring sound erupted from Ranma's right. The second armor found itself suddenly missing half its right arm and the entire shoulder. The gun was tossed at least a few dozen meters as the obsidian beast stumbled backward trying to recover from the huge momentum of having a 120mm tank round shoved through its very heavy armor.
Ranma spared a glance at the source of the attack. Somehow Anito had managed to level his tank cannon at the obsidian armor. Ranma wasn't quite sure how the arch-mage had managed it, or even fired the cannon, but he wasn't complaining.
Taking advantage of the turn in luck Ranma fired off a several more rounds of ammunition placing two squarely in the sensor array of the of the armor that was still dazed from receiving a grenade in the face. With that system destroyed Ranma tossed the heavy weapon aside and rapidly closed in on his target. Five blind shots rang out against the pigtailed martial artist, an effort silenced when Anito appeared briefly to smash the gun out of the steel beast's hand, before turning to finish off what the tank had started.
It was more than enough for Ranma as he tore into the steel armor having finally closed into melee range. Now this pilot was going to learn what it meant to fight Ranma Saotome.
********************
Getting rocked by explosions was not exactly a new thing for the Tendo household. In fact, it was so incredibly common that not a single eyebrow was raised at the event. Well at least not for the normal participants Nodoka was a bit more nervous than the rest of them.
"Is that alright?" Nodoka asked nervously as Soun and Genma played Shogi without even paying the shaking walls any attention.
"Don't worry about it, Ranma is probably just fighting some idiot." Akane said a bit annoyed, but far more politely than normal. The whole seppuku contract fiasco had caused the girl to be much nicer when talking about Ranma in front of the martial artist's mother.
"Oh no what if my son is injured." Nodoka looked meaningfully at her husband indicating that he should do something about it.
"Don't worry about the boy. He is a man amongst men and can take care of himself." Genma replied using Nodoka's obsession to leave the fight in his boy's hands. The last thing Genma wanted was to get tangled up in the boy's affairs directly.
Nodoka looked a bit dreamy. "Oh yes, my son is so manly."
Another explosion rocked the house. Then a square wall section was blown free when a set of bullets ripped into the surface with shocking fury.
"Oh my, it is a good thing that Anito enchanted the walls or this would be expensive to fix." Kasumi said looking at the wall section.
"I think it will be expensive anyway sis." Nabiki said noting that one of the bullets managed to half penetrate through the enchanted wood.
"Guys, I don't think it is going to be safe up here." Akane said looking out the hole in the wall.
Genma looked nervously at his wife. "Yes, I think it might be best if we went somewhere safer."
"That might be a good idea Saotome. No need for my daughters to get injured in one of the boy's fights." Soun said standing up.
"Halt!" A new voice shouted in bad Japanese. Five military commando types filed into the room pointing guns menacingly at the group.
The whole room stopped cold. Except for Kasumi who pleasantly asked, "Oh guests. Would you like some tea?"
One of the soldiers shot the ground next to the eldest daughter's feet. Causing the whole room to jump, including Kasumi. "I said nobody move." The leader yelled out nervously waving the gun around to emphasize his point."
Nabiki's eyes narrowed coldly at the officer. There was things that Nabiki could tolerate shooting at her sister, especially her eldest sister, went far past that line. An undercurrent of rage passed through her. Had the military goons shown up a week before Nabiki would have had to coldly watch what happened. Today though even a small undercurrent was all it took.
The ribbons flared free of the space between as if parting the mists of reality. One snaked forward with the speed of a coiled serpent striking. Before anyone even knew what was happening the ribbon wrapped itself constricting the gun totting hands of the leader. Lifting the soldier high in the air the long raging red ribbon swung left and then with greater force whipped back right sending the soldier flying clear through the wall.
"What the?" One of the soldiers said stunned with the sudden turn of events.
The others did not suffer from the distraction instead they immediately opened fire on the middle Tendo daughter. The five ribbons danced in response weaving themselves across the the room in glowing, blue shield. Not a single bullet passed the fluttering fabric.
"Click-click-click." The guns' mechanism sounded coldly as the soldiers discovered themselves empty of ammo their bullets wasted on the ground. A heart chilling smirk crossed Nabiki's face and the ribbons exploded like a wave sending the rest of the soldiers through the wall.
"That takes care of that." Nabiki said with a slight smile. It appeared that she might just have to thank Anito for this gift after all.
Akane looked as if she wanted to ask her sister a few very pressing questions. Those thoughts were interrupted as a powerful ripping sound filled the room. "Crash-crunch thump!"
Tearing into the room stepped a four meter tall, obsidian, black, steel, powered, humanoid machine. Casually the huge armor whipped around its gun smashing through the upper floor to give itself some room to maneuver. Coldly evaluating the situation the steel beast casually pointed its gun at Nabiki and let out a three shot burst.
The ribbons coiled in a tight ball in response intercepting the armor penetrating bullets with their light forms. It wasn't quite enough and Nabiki found herself thrown across the room as she was forced to take blows from three coils of cloth around depleted uranium slugs each carrying ridiculously high amounts of momentum. Slamming into a wall several blocks of wood and household materials crashed on top of the girl burying her.
"Nabiki!" Akane yelled out her rage flaring into a towering red aura. Blindly the girl threw herself at the machine as if her puny form could possibly harm the huge steel construct.
Almost lazily the obsidian armor batted the girl to the side with its gun. Then the armor turned to this newest threat taking aim with its gun at the downed girl.
"Akane! You bastard!" Ryouga streaked into the room leaving the Tendo's wondering where exactly he came from. Punching the armor hard on the leg the group saw a testament of the wandering martial artist's mastery of the Jishinha Bakusai Tenketsu. A chunk of the metal armor's leg exploded outward from the blow. The steel construct though was still far too strong to be completely destroyed, even from the powerful technique.
The obsidian armor twisted aiming its gun at Ryouga instead. Akane awakening from a short trip into the darkness watched in sick horror as the steel armor prepared to execute the boy for his offense. Before that action could take place a melodic voice rang out through the confusion. "Spirits of fire arise."
The spell only summoned the smallest of fires. Certainly not enough to damage the cold steel beast before them. It was though far more than enough to ignite say a small rocket propelled grenade stored in the clip of the armor's weapon. A grenade that then promptly went off inside the gun ripping the weapon open and rendering the heavy gun useless.
Ryouga as close as he was to the steel structure was nailed by dozens of pieces of shrapnel. Unlike bullets these shards by far lacked the speed or the power to do real harm, the explosion having been dramatically weakened by effort expanding the heavy metal gun. There was though still enough power to toss the directionally challenged warrior across the room.
The armor whirled around with panic. Obviously it hadn't expected to crash into a hornets nest of low level supernaturals. In the armor's movements it almost crushed Nodoka under an injured steel leg. Moving surprisingly fast Genma tackled his wife safely removing her from danger.
Pulling himself to his feet Genma burst into a brilliant blue battle. Staring down the obsidian armor Genma's face twisted in anger. An anger Ryouga and Akane recognized from the portly martial artist's son. An anger they had once witnessed at Phoenix Mountain before Ranma Saotome killed a god. "How dare you endanger my wife!" Genma growled out. "Sai Dai Kyu Kijin Raishu Dan!"
An incredible vacuum blade exploded from Genma slicing clean through one of the mecha's arms. The cold obsidian arm fell heavily to the ground as the pilot recovered his senses. Genma dashed in with amazing speed jumping high at his enemy's chest.
Not to be so easily defeated the armor whipped around its remaining arm to smash the sometimes panda out of the sky. The effort was arrested before it could be completed when three raging red ribbons wrapped themselves tightly around the machine's biceps. Watching Genma smash into the armor Nabiki quirked her lips slightly through the pain. Two ribbons stood at ready coiled around the ice cold mercenary awaiting a danger. The debris that had trapped Nabiki lay scattered about having been shoved away by the thin strips of cloth.
Back up on his feet Ryouga joined the fray helping Genma rip the remains of the obsidian armor into twisted chunks of metal. Nodoka watched on her eyes blurred slightly with tears. "Oh my husband is so manly!"
********************
"Report." The sergeant said coldly.
"We have lost the last of the armors sir. It appears that execution B failed. The house is filled with unknown low level supernaturals."
The sergeant lit up a cigaret regretfully. "Well then it appears nothing more can be gained from our work here. All units are to pull back. Any one alive is to be recovered. The armors are to be eliminated. Make this quick."
"Yes sir." The assistant responded.
Hoisting his gun the sergeant watched until his last orders could be carried out.
*********************
Ranma tossed aside the last pilot letting the panicked man hit the ground. "Hey Anito where is the last one?"
Anito looked thoughtful for a second. Then he said, "It has already been taken care of."
Ranma scratched his head. As he counted there was five taken down thus far. He didn't remember any others. Glancing Ranma noticed the pilot was taking off. "Yo should we do anything about that?"
Anito glanced over at the pilot. "It might be best to question one."
Ranma shrugged and took three steps toward the retreating man. Stopping cold the pigtailed martial artist jumped back as his danger sense screamed in protest. "Ftht-Bang!"
Something slammed into the ground with godlike force. The weapon, whatever it was, ripped a hole the size of Ranma's chest clean through the armor he had just finished off. Staring in the direction his senses told him the attack came from Ranma asked with wide eyes. "What the heck was that!"
Anito looked just as startled. "Rail gun if I don't miss my guess. Now that will penetrate your clothes." Glancing at the retreating soldier. "Looks like they were buying time. Though why they would save something like that for the last minute I wouldn't know for the life of me."
Crouching in battle stance Ranma looked on nervously. "So what do you think our chances are good."
Anito's eyes narrowed. "My guess is that was just to cover the retreat. If they want to keep it friendly lets return the favor."
"Somehow the word friendly is not what comes to mind when a group sends half a dozen power armors to kill me." Ranma replied.
Anito grinned, "This from the man whose friend shows up with the line, Ranma prepare to die! Well, to us goes the spoils of war!"
Anito bent down to retrieve one of the armors. His efforts were thwarted when the metal began to dissolve into a loose lump. Anito blinked twice and then said, "Damn and now I want them even more!"
Ranma glanced around not feeling the presence of any left over soldiers. The fact his danger sense was completely calm allowed Ranma to finally completely relax. "So, what happened to Kiima."
Anito paused and then said in all honesty. "Don't know, really come to think about it I completely forgot about her."
Ranma shrugged. "Well then I suppose we should get back. I could use something to eat."
***********************
High in the sky and well on her way out of Tokyo a certain birdwoman sneezed. Wiping her nose the birdwoman winced at the pain from moving her arm. "Damn you wizard for getting me into this mess." The girl cursed as she cruised through the sky.
Well not everything had gone wrong. She still had Kinjakan and despite the first failed attack the staff did seem to work right. Still though the arch-mage had gotten away scotch free for his crimes.
Kiima though wasn't about to go back to administer that punishment. The fact that the landling Saotome could deflect the staff was problem enough. No it was the source of her wounds that prevented Kiima from returning. In fact, given what had just happened Kiima was going to be damned if she ever returned to that crazy district called Nerima. Nope, Phoenix mountain sounded like a perfectly good place to live.
Keeping those thoughts firmly in mind Kiima flew on through the cold skies her destination fixed and far far away.