Why in the hell had he been the one to draw the short straw when it came time to pick the human up?
Speaking of whom, the wolfen looked over to the other side of the cab and saw that his expensive passenger was still asleep thanks to the small parasite attached to the top of his head to the right of his third eye. The only change in him being turned male once again thanks to the fact that after returning to the truck Afrom, set his canteen on top of the engine for a few moments to let it heat up and change it back. Humans had such strange notions about public nudity, and he really didn't want to have to deal with wisecracks from the others about being in a cramped truck with a naked girl for over two hours.
Then, the sudden sound of a low whistle in the wolf man's sensitive ears caught the wolfen's attention and he looked out the window on his side... and was greeted to the sight of a pair of miniature missiles heading strait for his ATV. Reacting on both a little bit in instinct and the knowledge that the vehicle he was in had absolutely no dodging capabalites whatsoever, Afrom immediately knocked open the door and dove to the ground before the Big Boss ATV was blown apart from the barrage of missile fire while he ducked for cover behind a nearby tree.
As the large wolf man stayed in hiding, two suits of power armor slowly descended to the ground, while he could hear the roar of at least three more overhead. The suits were humanoid, with broad wings sticking out from plates above the shoulders that folded down over the arms after landing. They were SAMAS, or 'Sams' as normal people called them. Originally the Coalition had been the only ones with that kind of technology, but over the years many kingdoms and companies had started producing knock offs, or their own versions of the armor.
Although, the two that landed were lacking any of the skull faceplates that the Coalition was famous for, which meant hat these guys were raiders of some kind, or part of a larger mercenary force. Probably coming back, or heading to Tolkieen.
For a moment Afrom lay crouched, and considered his options. Ranma was either laying in the wreckage, or had been blown away from the truck after it exploded. He knew the boy wasn't dead thanks to his reconstruction at the hands of the Splugorth. But at the same time, unless that leech- or whatever it was- was removed, he wouldn't be waking up no matter how much noise was made around him.
But then again, there's not much I can do about that, Afrom thought to himself. Even if he were to engage that group in battle, all he had on him was a blaster and the armor he was wearing. That wasn't even enough to take one suit of power armor, let alone five. Hell, he was a priest, not a fighter.
So with all the stealth he could muster, the large wolf-man slowly creeped away from the wreckage while the men in the suits were busy searching it. All that time and money to save the kid, and it ends up like this. Well, easy come easy go. Guess he just wasn't meant to make it after all, Afrom thought to himself as he made his way through the forests. Although he felt a little guilty about leaving Ranma to die, he had no intention of meeting his god just yet.
----
Meanwhile in the clearing that had recently been created by their barrage, Blair Anderson, leader of the raiding party looked around the battleground from the safety of his Wild Weasel SAMAS to try and find anyone that had survived their first assault. Continentally, there seemed to be only one, and he was unconcious.
"Hey Andy," he heard over the short range communicator. " Scountin' complete. There ain't one one else around fer miles far I can see. Cept fer dat boy Ed snagged."
Blain 'Andy' Anderson let out a low chuckle at the perfection of it all. With the big boys like the Coalition and Tolkieen blowing the crap out of each other and bringing in every merc they can find as well as attracting cyber-knights and justice rangers from all over. In other words: they were taking all the local lawmen and making idiots like the people they had just hit ripe for the pickings.
Only this time there didn't seem to be very much in the way of pickings that they hadn't blown up.
"So, what about the kid?" the man in the other suit of power armor asked the leader asked before holding up the unconscious teenager that had the blanket he's been partly covered by turned into a makeshift pair of pants. He had probably been knocked out after being blown from the truck. "Supose he might be worth a few creds to some slave traders."
For a moment Andy stood there considering it. The haul this week hadn't really been that much compared to what they were used to lately and the kid looked healthy enough for fetch a few hundred creds. But on the other hand, hauling around slaves without proper transport was risky since they tended to fall to their deaths sometimes, if the wind sheer didn't damage them too much that is.
That's when he noticed something strange about the boy, other than his slightly different features and weird starfish looking thing hanging from his head that is, he wasn't bruised, bleeding, or anything. In fact except for some minor burns he looked perfectly okay. which means he's either damn lucky, or not human, the mercenary leader thought to himself.
"Forget him," Andy ordered. "Toss the boy next to the wreckage as well as a few grenades to get rid of any real evidence in case this guy had some powerful friends." The last thing Andy needed was a cult of wackos coming after them cause he killed the leader's son or something.
---
Ranma awoke with a start, feeling as if his entire body was on fire. Then two seconds later after smelling the smoke and opening his eyes to see himself surrounded by a fiery haze, he realized it really was.
Letting out a cry of surprise, Ranma jumped up and away from the blaze before patting himself continuously to try and put out the blaze... only to realize a few seconds later that he wasn't really on fire. Although his back and some of his legs were burnt pretty bad as he discovered after slapping them a few times.
Still in a bit of a daze, as if he had been awoken from a very long sleep, Ranma let himself drop to the ground in a sitting position.
what? Where... where the hell am I? he asked himself while looking around the forest. Trying to remember how he got here, all Ranma could bring up was a bunch of images that didn't make sense: a group of people and a wolf man... a big eye with tentacles holding it up... a dark room with... with...
Ranma shook his head as he gave up trying to bring back that particular memory while a chill ran down his spine and he got the urge to throw up. The last thing he could remember clearly was Akane knocking him out while he had been trying to save her, and then he woke up here.
"Maybe I just need to give it time," Ranma told himself while rubbing the sides of his temples to try and get rid of his headache.
"Hello over there," someone called out behind Ranma. "I saw the smoke from your wreck and thought someone might be in trouble. Are you okay?"
Looking up and over his shoulder, Ranma could make out someone coming closer from out of the forest. The fire must still have been effecting his eyes, as from what Ranma could tell the stranger was surrounded by a faint glow. "What?" Ranma asked.
"I asked if you were okay," the stranger called out again after coming much closer. "I saw the smoke and came to see if anyone was hurt." A few seconds later he was easily in Ranma's line of view. "Oh you're hurt."
"Well, it's not as bad as it-h-hey!" Ranma yelled when he suddenly became aware of his state of nakedness at the moment before trying to cover himself up as the stranger tried to look at his wounds.
"Uh, sorry," the man replied before quickly backing off. "Well, the least I can offer you is to come back to my campsite so I can get you some new clothes. Can you walk?"
"Huh? O-oh yeah," Ranma said before quickly standing up and blinking a bit as a small wave of dizziness made him stumble around for a moment. "Uh, thanks... I guess. By the way, I'm Ranma Saotome."
Oh, well I'm..." the stranger began.
(Posted Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:42)
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