Unfortunately for Ranma, the powers given to him by the wizard Shazam were a bit antiquated. Created back during the time when most metal weapons were made from brass, iron, or any other natural metal that could be found lying around, the Marvel persona hadn’t been given any long range combat capabilities simply because they weren’t needed at the time. Even when magic became widespread at the height of ancient civilizations, Ranma’s predecessors to the Marvel name could easy close a gap of miles before any human mage that saw him or her could possibly cast a spell.
However, Brimstone wasn’t a human that threw stones, knives, or even shot bullets from a gun. It was a giant, nuclear powered robot that was created for the specific task of countering the growing number of super beings that were popping up in the west. As such, it had targeting computers that could easy track things that flew faster than the speed of sound and calculate a proper intercept course with little margin for error.
Ranma quickly discovered this little fact when the creature raised one of its arms and fired a blast of nuclear energy strait at her. Still a little new at the whole flying thing, Ranma barely had time to alter her trajectory just enough to avoid being caught in the blast, but she still was forced back a bit by the heat; or up really, since she had flown above the attack to avoid it.
Another shot quickly followed the first, with a third coming shortly after that. Once again, Ranma was barely able to get out of the way thanks to the inhuman reaction time that she gained from Mercury.
It only took her a few seconds to surmise what was going to happen. At the distance Ranma was at now was the line where she could effectively dodge the robots attacks. The thing took about two seconds to charge its cannons, but as long as it had one free hand to shoot at her while the other one charged, that was a moot point. There was also the fact that it could just decide to start walking forward, closing the gap between the two of them, and either eliminate her safety zone, or just push her back to the point where it could step on the people who were still alive below.
A ki blast was out. Even if her powers would enhance the range enough so it wouldn’t fizzle before hitting the monster, and beef up the damage enough to affect it, gathering the energy would take too long. So, without anything to actually draw its attention, and no long-range attack powers at her disposal, Ranma was barely stalemating the thing.
But luckily for Ranma, she wasn’t the only person considering the problem at the moment. A few hours prior to when her fight even started, a captain in the US Air Force, a member of an intergalactic police organization, and a teenage girl who had the day off from school had landed in China because orbital satellites had picked up the radiation coming from Brimstone. Normally, the organization that detected what appeared to be a nuclear disaster would have just sent its some of its weaker members as a rescue team to help with the damage control, but as aforementioned nuclear disaster was moving, the more powerful ones got sent out. They were the current Green Lantern assigned to Earth’s sector of space, the Kryptonian/Argonian (depending on who you asked) Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, and Captain Nathaniel Adams, whom had taken on the code name Captain Atom.
However, after a rather harshly worded ‘request’ from the Chinese government, the heroes were now sitting in the jet that had brought them down to Earth, and wondering what to do next. John Stewart, the Green Lantern, was talking to the man who had assigned him to this headache of a job, while Captain Atom stood guard outside against the vile communists, and Supergirl headed to the back of the ship to get a drink from the fridge.
It was then she noticed that the fourth member of their little group, who was really more of a passenger they had planned to drop off, was missing. A sneaking suspicion made her do a quick search of the jet, and she saw the archaic device humans use to measure radiation was missing. Using one of her powers, she looked through the hull of the ship, and after not finding him anywhere in the vicinity of the jet, quickly ran to tell the mission leader what was going on.
Meanwhile, a man in a green costume and high-tech quiver on his back made his way through a trench of melted ground big enough to drive a division of tanks through. Although he stole the design for his clothes from the old Robin Hood movies, Oliver Queen decided on the name Green Arrow to avoid total copyright infringement. Not that couldn’t afford the lawsuit that would come from it of course.
After looking at the readout of the small box in his hand, the world-class archer wondered what the hell he was doing here. I’m not one of the big leaguers the man told himself. He wasn’t Superman, or the Flash, or even the bigwig Batman had become lately. Oliver Queen was just a concerned citizen who did his part to save the common man from common threats. He could leave the monster killing stuff to the big guys up in their orbital tower.
Only, the big guys weren’t going after this monster. Just a few words from a pompous ass of a general, and the big shots were ready to pack up and go home. So, being the hero that handled the stuff no one else seemed to care or do anything about, Oliver found himself chasing something that seemed to be leaving a rather large path of destruction just by walking around.
Another glance down told Green Arrow he was getting closer, he didn’t actually need to follow the radiation to track whatever he was on the trail of. The giant hole it had blown through the mountain range was more than enough. A huge jump in the clicks drew Green Arrow’s attention and made him look around as soon as he made the last turn that brought him out of what was once the Bayankala mountain range.
It was big, like something you expected to see on a monster movie big, and definitely non-organic. Didn’t the Asians at least by into their own hype? Everyone on the eastern side of the world knew that if you built a giant robot, it was bound to go berserk and head for the nearest highly populated city. The Green Arrow let out a sigh and shook his head. “Where’s Godzilla when you really need him?”
The rads shot up again for a brief moment, coinciding with a flash that climbed over the robot’s shoulder, and brought Oliver out of his wishful depression. Great, it’s not just leaking radiation, the damn thing’s weapons are powered by it Green Arrow thought with a frown. He had to wonder if the guys who built atomic bombs nowadays ever thought about a little thing called nuclear fallout.
Another bright light made the green clad man frown. What the hell was it shooting at anyway?
Green Arrow ran up the small hill that had once been a mountain to get a better vantage point. With the sun setting, it was almost impossible to make out, but there was something there. Too small to be an aircraft, whatever the walking nuclear accident was taking potshots at had to be a flying meta-human.
Whoever it was seemed to have her hands full just avoid the thing’s guns, but it did give Oli a very tempting target. He reached back to the quiver on his back and pulled out three of his explosive arrows and fired them in a volley at the things back. All three connected with what would have been the back of the creature’s neck, if it had been a human that is.
Three puffs of smoke rose from were the arrows had connected, and there appeared to be a few smug marks on the back of the things armor, but other than getting it a little dirty, Green Arrow couldn’t see that he had done any damage. Then when it looked at him and started to turn around, the hero of the common man had a revelation. “Some days it just don’t pay to get outta bed,” he mumbled as the creature raised one of its weapons towards him.
Half a mile away, Ranma blinked as Brimstone turned away from her for a moment. Now, while the Mary Marvel transformation had put a bit more fair play into her personality than what was there previously, Ranma still had enough underhandedness to kick the crap out of an opponent at the first opportunity that presented itself. So when she saw her opening, a sonic boom resounded through the air as Ranma flew towards the creature at full speed.
When Ranma rammed into the monster half a second later, a small shockwave caused by the impact caused the ground for a quarter mile around to shake. Brimstone stumbled back a step… and then another… and then turned to face the girl that nearly knocked it down.
“You got to be kidding me,” Ranma mumbled as she looked up at the monster. She had just hit it with enough force to level a mountain, and it barely phased the damn thing.
A quick look back at the creature’s arms gave her a good assessment of the situation. Even if Ranma hadn’t been able to take the monster out, that attack had to of hurt it. As close as she was to its body, the monster couldn’t shoot at her any more. The magically enhanced girl clenched her fist. All I gotta do now is keep working on it. The thing has to crack eventually, she thought before throwing a punch that sounded like thunder when it connected.
Two punches into her assault, Ranma’s wisdom was starting to find holes in her plan. The area around the creature was, hot, sweltering. In a few seconds she’s have to draw back a few feet just take a breath. Then there were her hands, the monster’s skin was insanely hot, and just a few punches had already burnt skin that was supposed to be invulnerable.
Ranma was about to try and just get something heavy, hard, and very big to just smash against the damn thing, when the sound of creaking metal made her look up at the monster’s head. A black head that looked like a skeleton, surrounded by flames looked down at her and… why were its eyes glowing?
Once again, Ranma’s Mercury enhanced reflexes saved her skin as she flew back just in time to avoid being barbecued, but with her focus drawn to what could have been her untimely demise, she didn’t see the creature swing its arm at her until it was a few inches from her face. The sound of thunder was heard once again over the skies of the small Chinese province, and Ranma found herself flying through the air. Even with her practically impenetrable skin, the girl was too dazed to stop until she crashed into the nearby mountain.
When she managed to shake off the dizziness, Ranma looked at the image in front of her and gulped. Brimstone was pointing one of it’s hand cannon’s right at her, and it was already fully charged.
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(Posted Sat, 18 Nov 2006 05:22)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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