Meanwhile, her crusade against red-heads continued. And she was starting in Nerima, for, to all appearances, this red-head had the power necessary to oppose her if necessary. Just like that little flat-chested tramp that had stuck her in this body before.
Well, the boy turned girl was supposed to be the prime power and hero in the area. Perhaps a little display to draw him out.
****
The Sorceress's target was currently resting, unconscious in the Furinkan Nurses office. A concerned friend/fiancee watched over him as he slept and investigated the electrical burns over Ranma's body.
Akane knew the laws of action and reaction. Had this new power of Kuno's been a reaction to the power she and her sisters had received. Or were they a reaction to the rise of new threats? She didn't know, but she hoped this wasn't there fault, even in an oblique metaphysical why.
"Akane, Kasumi," Nabiki's voice whispered by her ear and she immediately looked up and around to locate it. "We've got trouble at the park."
As Nabiki's body continued to make a non-appearance, Akane understood what it was. Especially as Kasumi's name was included in the mix. Nabiki was sending them a call on the winds. And now that Akane thought about it, she could feel some sort of disturbance in the feel of the Earth beneath her, faint, but definitely in the direction of the park. She wouldn't have felt it if she hadn't been looking for it though.
"Sorry, Ranma," Akane said, apolgetically stroking his face and grasping her amulet. "I've got to go."
****
Akane invoked the power of her amulet as she turned the corner outside the school. As she ran she was quickly encased with stone armor, designed like something out of one of her samurai romance mangas. A glass-like visor and helmet formed over her face, doing little to hinder her vision while hiding her face from the world.
She saw Nabiki in her transformed state, flowing robes and ribbons that twirled about her, making easy identification of the woman underneath a difficulty. Especially as her short brown hair grown long and silvery while transformed. Most of it, all aside the hair, was a deliberate effect produced by Nabiki to hide her identity, the way Akane's armor hid hers.
"Where's Ka..." Akane's voice soounded deeper and more resonant while still firmly female. Nabiki raised a hand and wagged a finger. "Sorry...where's Kagayaki?"
"I am here," a crackling variation of Kasumi's sweet voice declared as a woman seemingly made of fire virtually exploded into being out of a small bush.
"The bush is burning I see," Nabiki remarked with a characteristic smirk, her own voice seemingly wispy while always reaching where she wanted it too. The sexual connotations, however, that she had filled it with flew wide over the heads of her audience, thus providing no entertainment. She sighed and shook her head.
"What's going on Nabiki?" Akane asked.
Her question was then answered by the sound of a large crash and several screams.
"I believe that is going on," Nabiki said, indicating the large metal...thing that was chasing people towards them. "I wasn't certain I could take that alone."
"It doesn't look so tough," Akane said, moving forward.
"Not that," Nabiki said, Then she pointed. "That." And four more of the metal creatures, like great walking pieces of armor, appeared.
"Okay," Akane said, faltering. "That's a little tougher."
"I've been getting people out of their way," Nabiki said. "But that is about all."
The armored golems twisted their heads as the people they were pursuing fled. Their programming detected magical power in the nearby area, and as such their primary task was brought online. They turned to face the three Tendo sisters, and immediately all their attention was placed upon the fiery Kasumi.
"All of flaming hair must die," the creature's spoke in a metallic grating monotone. Akane and Nabiki looked toward Kasumi and blinked.
"Oh my," Kasumi said.
"They must be joking," Nabiki said. Then the five golems charged forward, more or less ignoring the other two sisters.
"Oh no you don't!!" Akane declared rushing forward, her own feet sending a thundering wave with each step over the earth.
She slammed into the golem with a stone-encased fist and smirked triumphantly under her helmet as she saw the creature reel back and its armor dented.
Then she barely blocked the swinging greatsword of the golem behind that and had to dodge away for the third, leaving the path open toward Kasumi.
Kasumi blinked and unleashed a blast of fire at the golems, but quickly realized that the metal creations seemed to be resilient to the flames.
As they reached her she barely managed to vanish away in a burst of smoke and fire to appear across the courtyard holding a barely remembered stance.
Nabiki floated over to stand with her younger sister, between the golems and Kasumi and considered the golem her younger sister had already damaged. She noted a crack within the thing and flexed her shoulders as she went about trying something upon the charging five.
The golems had been all but invulnerable to any attempt she made at bludgeoning them with a simple blast of wind from the outside. However, with that small crack, she could now force air into the creature. And quickly enough it bulged and shattered into a rain of shards.
"Jishin," Nabiki shouted, then calling a small burst of wind to smack her sister on the back of the head when she failed to respond to the name.
"Huh?" Akane blinked, rubbing the back of her stone helmet, and almost glancing away from the oncoming golems. "What is it N..." another burst of wind, Akane rolled her eyes. "What is it Soyokaze?!"
"Jishin make cracks in the armor," Nabiki yelled. "I think Kagayaki and I can handle them then. Got it Kagayaki?"
"Oh I quite understnad," Kasumi agreed, fire crackling between her fingers.
"Got it!" Akane said, then she smiled. "Well, if I don't have to focus on taking one down..." She charged forward again, lashing out with fists and kicks, in a strange parody of her time fighting the hentai horde. Only this time, as she passed a (still-standing) opponent, they were swiftly destroyed by rushes of flame and wind behind her, and scattered shrapnel bounced off her stony armor.
All except for one large piece that sliced into her shoulder as the last golem was destroyed.
"AHH!!" Akane gasped, reaching back to clutch at the injury and unthinkingly removing the spear-like object.
"Oh! Oh no!" Kasumi gasped, and quickly vanished to reappear near Akane.
Akane was trying to staunch the bleeding as her eldest sister's burning hands lowered over the bleeding wound, her fire rushing into the torn hole in her stone armor. Only where this fire burned, life and health returned to her form, until she was left feeling only fatigued.
"Sorry, A..." Nabiki started.
"Uh!" Akane said, raising a hand and wagging a finger. Nabiki rolled her eyes.
"Sorry, Jishin," she said. "I guess we'll have to be more careful about this."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Fri, 06 Dec 2002 16:23)
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