The original Ranma had been unprofessional as well, which was why he'd ended up dying on a hospital bed as a chestburster tore out of him. He'd been talented, but he hadn't been professional. Nor were the assorted martial artists that went into the hell with him.
Of the lot, only Kodachi and Ranma had returned alive, Ranma dragging Kodachi with him, but they'd died soon afterward. Leaving only their bodies and DNA behind to research. As for the others, there had been a massive explosion of some kind of green light that had torn the hive from inside out, but nothing else was ever seen of them.
Their next of kin, children, siblings and spouses, were given a speech about heroism and such, fed some story about terrorists and then they were shuffled off to be forgotten.
And, as the drone appeared, those were the memories that suddenly locked into clarity around Kodachi and Ranma. Fighting in the hive, being swarmed by things that did not have the same vital points as a human being, being dragged off one by one. Escaping, and finally dying as another of the things birthed to life out of their chest.
They gasped, hands reaching for a phantom pain there as the drone leaped forward.
And Nanami, her eyes just as glazed over as she contemplated a death like her brother's, when the fool had decided to try and make a bundle on xenomorph biology, was the one that acted. It wasn't necessarily the most well-thought out action considering how close the drone was by the time she did act, but it did end the situation quickly.
The carbine in her hand fired in a full spray, HEAP rounds pumping into the mutated drone and exploding with a shower of caustic acid that washed over Nanami. Her scream of pain, both mental and physical, snapped Ranma and Kodachi out of their torpor and they moved.
Kodachi grabbed the acid-soaked bag of ordanance from Nanami's back and tossed it around the corner they had just previously taken while Ranma pulled Nanami herself away from the rain of acid blood, grabbing a bottle of water to pour over Nanami's face.
If Nanami were still human she would have been dead in instants after the acid hit. As it was, the neo-mitochondria in her body reacted, activating some of the xenomorph DNA in her body. The pain was still intense, but the deadliness of the acid was defeated as Nanami's skin changed, became more slick, thicker.
The acid easily poured off Nanami's new flesh as the water pushed at it, but it still burned like hell itself. She scratched at her face until Ranma grabbed her hands and held them away from her.
The sound of several explosions in the hallway behind them announced the fact that the acid had reached the ammunition she'd been carrying. Kodachi winced and shielded her eyes from the sudden light but quickly glanced past the corner after the explosions died down to see that the path remained unblocked, the structure having held, though there were scores and blast marks everywhere.
She turned back to where Ranma was holding the writhing Nanami and trying to keep her from further injuring herself. She gestured with her tail, head and hand back to the passageway, somewhat imperically.
"There was a bathroom with a shower several turns ago," Kodachi said.
Ranma nodded and soon they were carrying Nanami away.
It was several minutes under the shower before Nanami's new development and her regenerative abilities had driven the majority of the pain away and she sat in the shower under the water staring at her newly slick skin and the longer claws, not nails any more, that she had nearly clawed her face off with.
"I...I..."
She was like them now, the xenomorphs.
Nanami shivered for a moment, and Ranma and Kodachi hesitated to drag her away from the realization.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:08)
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