They were all well-trained, knowledgeable combat artists, and of the three, two were significantly hardened and experienced despite their youth. They spent a day in their new dwelling to set the place up and get acquainted. For Sousuke this meant setting up the first wave of traps and security systems and informing his comrades of them. Ranma and Negi were more personable in general, and spent a lot of time making small talk and discussing the magic influence in their lives.
Much to Ranma's chagrin, Negi seemed just as perplexed by the curse as anyone else once he saw it, mumbling about "chaos magic" and "obscure mana patterns". When Ranma had finally buckled down and asked straight up if Negi knew of or could find a cure, the little wizard flushed and said it was unlikely, but he'd try his best. Ranma appreciated the sentiment, but chalked the incident up as a failure.
After lunch, all three of them spent some time describing their particular abilities to each other and a little bit of their background (It proved difficult for Sousuke to reveal particular things about pretty much anything, so most of his statements were extremely vague).
Ranma and Sousuke quickly developed a deep respect for one another as fighters who had grown up amongst powerful physical hardship, being molded since childhood into the perfect weapons. Ranma came to see Sousuke's "paranoia" as a result of someone who had grown up with all the dangers and risks that he had, and had responded by dealing with every threat logically and directly. Sousuke came to see Ranma's egomania and relaxed attitude as a result of enduring constant physical hardship to the point that conventional dangers meant nothing to him anymore.
Of course, privately, both of them disdained the others' mode of combat. Sousuke thought it was ridiculous to specialize in hand-to-hand combat to such a degree that one's combat performance actually DROPPED when given a gun, given the obvious limitations of melee fighting. Ranma, on the other hand, thought that Sousuke was weak for being so reliant on his various weapons and tools (improvised or not) such that he was easily defeated if attacked directly. Both made personal vows to cover for the others' obvious shortcomings.
Negi was more or less the odd man out, but both teenagers quickly warmed up to him (though in Sousuke's case, it was difficult to tell). Frankly, it was hard NOT to. Negi was bright, optimistic, polite, and demonstrated to the two older boys that he could launch arrows of lightning from his fingertips. How could anyone NOT like him?
"So ya sure this 'magic' stuff isn't just a bunch of fancy martial arts tricks?" Ranma asked, frowning. He had come across a few martial artists who were capable of launching their ki in various forms, and was wondering if Negi's magic arrows were the same kind of trick (and thus, one he could learn!).
"Oh, no. Not at all. Martial arts deals primarily with the physical body, and as I understand it, the advanced forms align the body and spirit. Magic deals entirely with the mind, you see. It's difficult to explain if you haven't studied the basic theories..." Negi trailed off as Ranma nodded, looking suddenly disinterested.
"Ah, I gotcha." The possibility of learning Negi's trick evaporated as Ranma's attention span searched for a new target. Studying to learn a technique? Fat chance. The limit on bookwork to learn a martial arts manuever was capped at one scroll with a maximum length of two meters, and rightly so.
"I fail to understand how 'magic' is as prevalent as you say when it has not become mainstream knowledge, and it hasn't been featured in classified security reports. My previous employers have dealt in a number of irregular arenas, and I've never seen anything like it," Sousuke confessed.
Negi chuckled nervously. "It's likely that some of your employers did know of it, actually. The idea is that nobody's supposed to know about magic if they don't have to, and if somebody's told who might spread the word, then their memory is usually erased. It's entirely possible you've seen magic before, and someone simply removed your knowledge of it."
Sousuke blinked, and then his brow furrowed. "Fascinating. You have techniques to selectively erase memory?"
It wasn't lost on either of his companions that he seemed far more interested in the existence of such spells than disturbed that such things might have been used on him.
At that moment a beeping noise came from the front door, and everyone present turned as the small electric pet door embedded in the main door slid open and Orion slipped through.
Ranma had no idea where Sousuke and Orion had found a pet door with a security keypad; his only concern was that he'd have to make up the cost of the blasted thing once he got a job.
"All right, you've all been given some basic instruction, but it's time you got some solid experience," Orion said professionally, sitting down on his haunches.
Sousuke snapped straight up and stood at attention. Orion was mildly irritated that Ranma and Negi remained seated and stared at Sousuke oddly, but decided that it couldn't be helped.
"I detected a minor energy-draining operation a few days before me and Ranma secured this apartment. By now I'm fairly certain I've identified the youma heading the operation. I've already plotted our course to intercept her. We're going to identify the target, confirm her as a youma, and then engage. Springfield!"
"Y-Yes?" the British boy stuttered.
"You can identify magic auras, correct?"
"Yes, I can," Negi said confidently, his grip tightening on his staff.
"Good. You'll pass by the target on the street prior to our first strike to confirm her as a youma. Saotome, you'll go with him for added protection. Also, see if you can sense the youma as well, since you seem sensitive to life-force," the tomcat directed, jabbing a paw at the martial artist.
"I can do that."
"Good," Orion said before looking up at Sousuke. 'Now that I think about it, it IS kind of silly for him to be standing at attention like that when I don't even reach his knees.' "Sagara, you'll be responsible for the first strike. Saotome and Springfield will engage the enemy on your signal."
"Understood, Commander!" Sousuke barked.
Orion nodded. "I'm leaving the battle up to you; you're here because I believe you each already have the power and experience necessary to fight these creatures... well, other than Springfield, maybe, but I'm sure he'll do fine."
The little mage blushed and looked down at his feet, pouting.
"Though I don't expect a low-level harvester youma will be any trouble, watch for surprises and keep an eye on each other. If something goes horribly wrong and you get trapped, I'm limited in my ability to get you out, or obtain help in time. Now let's move out!"
_______________________
Hematite hummed a merry little tune to herself as she walked down the street, very nearly skipping. It was a great day to be a member of the Negaverse foothold operation.
Specifically, it was great to be a member of the operation that wasn't working around Juuban High or Furinkan High School, conducting small, relatively inefficient but nearly undetectable energy-harvesting missions. Sure, it would never get her any attention come centennial performance reviews, but she wasn't particularly ambitious anyway. Ambition had a tendency to blow up in your face in the Negaverse. Although most people thought that ambition was the only useful virtue in a dark, evil empire, it was only useful when properly partnered with competence, which was in startlingly short supply among the youma hordes.
Oddly enough, all the remotely intelligent youma such as Hepatite preferred working on small, nearly useless missions outside of the limelight rather than taking on anything important, and therefore dangerous. Imagine that.
Which is why this particular youma was feeling so smug. Ever since Sailor Mars had appeared and bumped up the Senshis' numbers to three, the youma operating around Juuban High had started dropping left and right, and Jaedite's audiences with Queen Beryl were becoming more and more perilous. Like most of the Negaverse denizens, she thought of the Senshi as a team of self-righteous idiots, stumbling around in the dark with powers they barely understood. That didn't change the fact that when they stumbled into something, they fell on it HARD, and tended to leave naught but dust and ash in their wake.
Nerima district was worse in some ways, and better in others. On the one hand, the youma there could pretty much "cut loose" and parade around stealing people's energy without people really caring very much. Some of the youma had even been a bit insulted by the way people would walk around them on the street without even quickening their pace. On the other hand, eventually the youma were found by some elite martial artist in the area and pounded flat, though they were rarely destroyed completely. It was rumored that a boy with a bandanna and an insanely heavy umbrella was responsible for pounding three of her peers into twitching spots of paste all by himself.
But not Hepatite, no sir. She was smart. She had taken the disguise of a simple lawyer, and drained people through her employment contracts and a few hand-delivered court summons.
Nobody EVER noticed when someone looked totally exhausted after reading through a lawyer's documents. It was the perfect cover. The biggest problem she ever had was this stupid tomcat who had kept appearing around her window, and she had to keep shooing away. Maybe one of the interns gave the stupid thing some cream or something.
She turned and smiled at a pair of boys who passed by her on the street, noting how adorable the smaller one with that large wooden staff was. She had discovered that she rather liked humans after being around them for a while, though they didn't seem very fond of her (she was a lawyer after all). Maybe she could get a human slave or two once the invasion was complete for not screwing up her mission at all? It would be a nice perk, and maybe teach the younger youma a thing or two about getting their job done without drawing attention to themselves and getting blasted.
So engrossed was Hepatite in her happy, idle thoughts that she forgot to look both ways when she crossed the next intersection. As it was, she was brought out of her reverie by the sudden squeal of tires and the noise of an engine's rapid acceleration. By the time she turned to see what was happening, however, it was too late.
_______________________
(Several seconds previous)
Ranma shuddered as he passed the woman by, and slipped a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. "Yo, Sousuke? We passed the target. I'd say she's definitely not human, whatever she is. It's like her ki's... reversed or something." He didn't have that much experience with ki yet, but he could distinguish particularly bright auras, and by extension, note that this woman's aura was extraordinarily "dark" for some reason.
Negi nodded in agreement, sneaking a look back. "I don't really know what kind of energy that was, but it had a... well, for lack of a better term, a 'magical taint' to it. I'd need to study her more to tell anything else, but for now I agree with Saotome."
Understood, said Sousuke's voice from the walkie-talkie, I am moving to engage. Please hold position at twenty meters away and stand by for my signal.
Negi frowned as he heard the squeal of a car's tires against the pavement further down and around an intersection. "Do you know what he's about to do?"
Ranma shook his head. "No idea. But I bet it'll involve fire."
When they saw a small two-seat Honda smash into the disguised youma and continue on into the empty intersection, Ranma was underwhelmed and admittedly disappointed.
When Sousuke, who had jumped out of the car a moment before the impact and rolled onto the sidewalk, pressed the switch on the detonator in his hand a split-second later, Ranma was vindicated as ten pounds of military-grade C-4 detonated on the dashboard of the vehicle.
_______________________
Hematite was vaguely aware of shifting out of her disguised form as her entire world briefly translated into searing pain.
True, she was as resistant to nervous reactions to damage as the next youma, but having a car ram into you and then combine its kinetic force with a fiery bomb blast will do that. Were she any less resilient pain wouldn't be an issue, because she'd be dead as a doornail. As it was, the blinding agony was the only thing that convinced her that she was still alive and twitching.
Were she more cognizant of her surroundings, she might be able to make out the sounds of people running away screaming from the explosion, or notice the two young men - one of them very young indeed - walking up to her while looking prepared for conflict.
Very slowly, Hematite moved her arms to try and push herself up. Or her remaining arm, anyway. Her left one was gone now. Phooey. Limbs were always a bitch to regenerate. Damn, it looked like the shoulder segment was gone too. THAT was going to leave a mark, magical healing or no. Coiling her serpentine lower body below her, the youma slowly rose up from the ground, blinking her burning eyes as her metabolism tried to repair her senses first to best accomodate her survival.
Wham! She didn't get the chance, as something grabbed her by the back of her head and them slammed it into the street with enough force to embed her face in the asphalt.
Ranma "tsked" as he stood up straight. "Way to overplay the first strike, Sousuke. How're me and Negi supposed to practice on THIS?" The youma's remaining hand rose up and started clawing the air blindly. Ranma stepped on it.
"It seemed wise to overestimate our opponent rather than the alternative," Sousuke confided as he approached slowly, shotgun at the ready.
Negi dubiously swatted the creature's tail out of the way with his staff as its lower body tried to wind around his leg. "Still, it was a little much, don't you think?" The tail didn't seem to get the message, so Negi mumbled "Fulguratio," and channeled a small charge of lightning in his staff before smacking the tail again with a sharp ZAP! The snake-like appendage stopped moving.
"Perhaps..." Sousuke looked at the groaning creature consideringly. "I seem to recall the news article mentioning that the Sailor Senshi announce their presence and introduce themselves before battle. Perhaps guerilla tactics such as ambushes are unusually effective as a result of these strategic practices?"
As they each stopped to consider the possibility of announcing themselves before battle (Ranma didn't mind this idea at all, as his fights were usually martial arts duels and didn't have a surprise component), Orion ran into the area via the fence next to a canal, took one look at the situation, and bristled.
"What's going on here? Is that the enemy?" The moon cat asked, ensuring that all civilians had fled the area. 'Boy, these Tokyo folks sure know how to evac.'
Ranma gave the snake-woman thing a light kick, watching it twitch in response. "Yeah, that's her. Sousuke pretty much did 'er in right away. So now what?"
Orion glanced at the blackened crater in the middle of the intersection, and made note of the many pieces of burnt, twisted metal scattered over the streets. "Well, shouldn't you finish her off?"
The humans all looked down at the pathetic-looking creature at their feet, and watched as it twitched some more.
"Do we HAVE to?" Negi asked umcomfortably, knowing that he'd probably have to do the honors since youma were less resistant to magic than to a physical pounding/blasting. "I mean, look at her. She seems so... beaten already."
Sousuke raised an eyebrow. "Considering the covert nature of the enemy, a prisoner may be a valuable asset."
Orion felt like slapping himself over the head. A prisoner! Why didn't he think of that? Of course, he himself wasn't sure how the interrogation would work, and they didn't really have the tools for that sort of thing, but it was worth a shot. "Well, I've never really dealt with them on more than an 'obliterate on sight' basis, but why not? For now though, we have to get out of the streets; people will start coming by soon." He jumped off the fence and turned around. "I think I know of an abandoned garage where we can hold her temporarily. Follow me."
Ranma nodded and grabbed Hematite by the tail before slipping it over his shoulder and dragging her along behind him. There was a slight hangup as her face seemed to be stuck more firmly in the surface of the street than he had guessed, but a good, solid tug took care of that.
Jogging a little faster to catch up with his companions, Ranma decided to voice his one other concern about the recent battle. "Hey, we won't have to pay for that car, will we?"
"Unlikely," Sousuke said seriously, ducking into an alley behind Orion. "The owner is currently unconscious, and will not be able to identify me when he awakens."
Negi blinked. "You stole someone's car and then used it as a mobile bomb?"
"Not to worry," the mercenary said in a tone that only he would call reassuring, "I found the appropriate papers in the glove compartment and left them with the owner. The vehicle was adequately insured."
Negi sweatdropped. Ranma just mumbled "Well, as long as I don't hafta pay for it..."
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(Posted Tue, 14 Nov 2006 01:51)
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