Partway through her fall Juna Ariyoshi--her black hair streaming wildly, her loose yellow shirt flapping--closed her eyes and began to change into her full-bore Arjuna form. Her clothes disappeared and were replaced by her glowing pink aura suit; her loose obsidian locks turned into a broad V-shape, golden in the night; translucent white ribbons appeared in the crook of her arms, stretching upwards like ethereal streamers as they sought to slow her fall; and her holy bow Gandiva, silver-bright and beautiful in its odd design, winked into existence in her roseate-gloved right hand.
She stopped her fall, and the Drop of Time levitated itself above her forehead as she exerted her powers. Her ribbons shortened and floated in the air around her, a mystical stole for a supernatural warrior. Taking aim with Gandiva, she pulled the bowstring back. An arrow with a three-pronged blade and a round, violet-glowing jewel fastened at its front appeared in her hands, already nocked, already prepared for firing.
In quick succession she loosed three projectiles against the gigantic monster. It was so big that Arjuna found it impossible to miss. Three arrows shot out from Gandiva like miniature comets and struck the hellish monstrosity near the mouth, midsection and tail.
Arjuna cringed a bit, preparing herself for the explosion that was sure to come. The monster roared in pain and shimmered.
And stayed whole.
Dumbfounded, Arjuna loosed another set of three arrows. Again they struck the apparition, and again they had no effect.
Then the Raaja charged her.
Down it roared, a ghostly presence with a horrifying open orange-colored maw, a monstrosity that in the Avatar's eyes had all the solidity of a descending freight train. She backflipped out of its path just before it would have swallowed her, and the wind of its passage buffeted her.
The Raaja snaked back upwards, intending to catch its brightly-shining victim from below. Its open mouth gaped even wider as launched a brilliant bolt of energy her way.
With the lightning quickness of a preternatural damselfish Arjuna darted to one side and fired three more arrows into the monstrous craw yawning below her.
The Raaja lurched and bellowed in pain as the projectiles burrowed into its stomach. The fiend found the meal indigestible, and flung back another energy ball at its diminutive enemy in protest.
Arjuna dodged the projectile again, then risked a quick glance down at the warehouse. She had no choice; attempting to go down there while the abomination was still alive was sure to prove fatal, to her and whoever else was in the building. She had to defeat it first before she could help anyone else. With a set look of grim determination she turned to face her enemy again, and let loose another volley of arrows.
------oOo------
Nausicaä daughter of Jhil orbited at the periphery of the battle, borne on the wind from the sea, a white angel of death lurking in the darkness of the night. She saw Arjuna flitting to and fro, battling her opponent, whom she saw as well as the girl in the aura suit did. Judging from her body language, the Avatar had looked as if she were surprised at first, but she appeared to be fighting with renewed purpose now, and seemed to be holding her own.
Juna, the wind-rider sent, do you require assistance?
The fulgent pink figure beat away a questing tentacle with Gandiva and planted her feet on the Raaja's body, using its bulk to propel herself away from it. Yes, she replied as she flew backwards, out of danger's reach, with her legs fully extended and pointing slightly forward. I need you to go down into the warehouse and see what's happening. It must be something big, otherwise this Raaja wouldn't be here. And if you can, please help whoever's in trouble down there.
Understood. The warrior Princess looked down at the warehouse, trying to find a suitable place to land. She found it in a level space in front of the structure, lit up by the glow of street lights, filled with rows of those machines called cars. Shutting off Mehve's engine, she glided to a silent, skidding landing in the open space, then stepped off it, unstrapping her helmet as she did so. She listened to the gunfire and screams, saw the bright flashes of light and heard the hollow boom of explosives coming from within the corrugated-metal building, then decided to pull her archaic rifle out from its holder in the rear of the kite. She charged it with a shell, then ran towards the side of the open front doors.
------oOo------
Teresa Wong huddled behind a stack of metal crates along with three of her men. "Where's the Chinook?" she shouted over the din of the battle.
"Escaped, Ma'am," replied one soldier loudly. "Had to leave with turbine damage just after we disembarked."
The woman with the close-cropped hair nodded grimly. Instead of heading towards Juna's triangulated position, they had caught Arkady Klimov's signature almost immediately at forty kilometers and decided to move against him instead. Almost as if the rogue TI had been expecting them, Arkady had picked exactly the right moment to attack the SEED teams; they were ambushed just as they were debarking from the CH-47M's rear ramp. More than half of the initial force had been slaughtered, quickly and silently, by the TI-5, using Pinaka in saber form to effect his kills. Not only that--the RAH-66 Comanche had been blown apart in mid-air by two well-placed shots from a captured Ring Airfoil Grenade launcher. Both of the pilots had been killed before they even knew they were under attack.
"Good news, though, Miss Wong," said another of the men. "Help is on the way, but its ETA is unknown."
Teresa groaned. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing, Here we go, holding the fort as always. I wonder where Juna is." She took a deep breath, popped out of cover, and let off a short burst with her suppressed FN P90, sending 5.7mm steel-cored projectiles downrange at the figure in the radiant icy-blue aura suit. The man beside her jumped up to do the same, and suddenly lost face. Literally. His brains, blood and bone chips showered Teresa Wong and her remaining companions as a bolt from Pinaka took off his head. The SEED leader shrieked in fright as she frantically brushed the gelatinous pink goop off her body armor.
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(Posted Wed, 20 Apr 2005 19:40)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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