Ranma ran toward the two-story monstrosity and jumped. The boomer tried to intercept with its right fist, but the petite red head had anticipated the attack and flipped on to the arm. She ran up its arm with the full intention of smashing its core.
She was about half up its arm when the sudden sound of hydraulics filled her ears. A large section of the arm moved, which launched her into the air, and into the rogue boomer left fist. She spiraled into stacks of ceiling tiles that broke spectacularly.
The slightly injured martial artist climbed out of the pile of debris and reassessed her opponent. It was fast for its size and the fact that every machine it absorbed was still functional made it twice as unpredictable. She wasn’t sure if she could throw something at that distance and height and still have enough force to break the core.
The reverse did not hold true as she was forced to dodge several steel girders. One clipped her shoulder, which almost spun her around. Ranma recovered in time cross her arms to block the next girder, but the force knocked her off her feet. She flew back several yards, rolled a bit and stopped at the foot of an outhouse.
She got up a little unsteady on her feet and was thankful that she didn’t knock THAT over. This is getting out of hand. It has to have some sort of weak point. I bet that it can only see out of the eyes from the original robot in its chest. The new giant head had headlights for eyes and was probably more decorative then functional. Even with that possible limitation, it’s still very quick. Aw, man. If I don’t think of something fast that thing is going to squish me like a bug. That’s it! Not like a bug, but like a tick! Ranma stood up with her battle aura glowing and yelled, “Anything Goes special technique! Tick-Fu!” She ran toward the metal monster at top speed and went into a slide that kicked up quite a dust cloud.
The boomer tracked the red headed officer as she slide under its legs. It turned around quickly and was unable to find the human. It spied a humanoid shape and stomped on it, but it turned out to be a cut out of a happy cartoon worker with a construction warning sign. It continued its search for the annoying human pest.
Half way up the rogue boomer’s back a certain martial artist was doing her best to be a pest. Like a tick would crawl towards the head of its unsuspecting victim, so did Ranma moved stealthily upwards. She made it about 3\4 up the back when a foothold that was part of a side mirror of a truck broke and fell to the ground.
Ranma heard the hissing of hydraulics. She skipped any pretense of stealth and pushed herself to the side as a section moved in an attempt to dislodge her. The entire back had become a treacherous playground, but one that Ranma had figured out how to play safely in. She simple moved quickly away when she heard the hiss of hydraulics.
While it sounded simple in theory. In practice, this meant a lot of time had to be spent jumping from side to side or even off sections that had been extended by a previous hydraulics attack and not actually going up. Despite this, Ranma was steadily making her way to the top and had just gotten to the shoulder when she felt a jerk on her right leg. Looking down she saw that some how either by chance or design her leg was wrapped in a tow cable. She heard the hiss of hydraulics underneath her. “Damn this is going to hurt.”
The luckless martial artist’s sudden flight ended with a jerk when the towline was fully extended. The boomer sensed its quarry behind it and whipped around. This led to what spectators would later recall as watching a dog chase its own tail. Perhaps the cameraman summed it up best of all to the reporter. “Ya know. Doesn’t this look a bit silly to you.”
Ranma was hardly in the position to appreciate the criticism. The rogue boomer spun around and around dragging poor Ranma along. So far, she had crashed into two trailers, several piles of construction equipment, and left several dents on the structural frame of the new building. Her vision turned red when the g-forces increased when the towline wrapped several times around an upper story steel frame. The dizzy and somewhat battered red head freed herself from the wire and tried to stand up, but ended up having to hold on to a stack of girders as the world continue to spin.
The rogue boomer had stopped turning when the towline’s winch had been wrenched from its back. The head in the chest of the monstrosity looked around. It spied Ranma as she freed her leg and started to climb up the side of the building.
The martial artist appreciated the fact that the ground had stopped moving from under her but wondered why the ground movement had changed to tremors. She looked down and saw the robot making good time up. The boomer was only a few floors away when Ranma shoved the stack of girders over the edge. It lost its grip as the mass of steel hit it and tumbled to the ground.
The faux Nene looked down to survey her handy work and was disappointed to see the robot get up again. It looked like the left arm was damaged and moved a little more jarringly now. The headlight head was askew giving it a creepy broken neck look and diesel flowed freely from damaged fuel tanks.
Ranma saw the glowing core as the robot pulled it self-free and she jumped off the side of the building. The left welding arm from the original robot blocked her kick and sent the now slightly crispy martial artist tumbling to the ground. Ranma twisted to land safely, but still ended up making a small crater from her less then graceful landing through a pile of pipes.
She wiped some blood from her mouth and turned to face her opponent. Her eyes opened in surprise to find that most of the robot was in flames as the welding arm had ignited the leaking fuel. The flames did not slow down the rogue boomer as it ran toward her direction. Ranma smiled briefly as new battle options had become available and called upon the soul of ice.
Across Tokyo many sets were tuned in to the fight.
“Reporting to you live from downtown Tokyo where a lone A.D. Police officer is still attempting to stop a rogue construction boomer. So far she has been able to prevent the boomer from getting into the streets. I’m told that additional back up has been called and will be here with in minutes. Can she hold on until… uh no! She’s been hit through a pile of piping and the boomer is on fire. She’s up! Oh. Oh. Hold on officer. Back up is on the way. She cannot find an opening to attack with all the flames. She has to be tiring as she keeps backing up. The officer refuses to retreat any where near the out side public and continues to circle the monstrosity. She must be biding her time until back up arrives. This dedication to the public safety is overwhelming to this reporter. Oh no! She got too close to the boomer and it’s about to step on her!” A female voice echoed through out the suddenly quite street.
“HI RYU SHO TEN HA!”
Ranma picked up a six foot tall pipe and tiredly looked up to the dragon shaped tornado that was tearing apart the robot. The part time girl wielded the pipe like a bo staff to block falling debris while she tracked the original rogue robot as it fell to the earth.
She walked up to it as it was attempting to move despite its lack of limbs. “It’s over.” Ranma thrust the pipe through the glowing core and watched in satisfaction as glowing eyes faded. Leaving the pipe, she walked away. The silence that followed was broken by the foreman who ran up to her. He was holding the duffle bag with her Chinese clothes.
“That was incredible! Are you OK?” She grinned, gave him a V victory sign, and said,
“Yep. Nothing food and rest won’t solve. Can you point out which way I can get some hot water again? I got turned around a bit.” He gave her wait hand signal and he rushed into a trailer that had some how remained intact. He ran back with a large bento. He bowed deeply to Ranma holding out the bento with both hands.
“Here take this. There is a thermos in there with hot water for tea. My wife makes a great bento. Please take it with my thanks, Officer Romanova-san.”
“Wow. Thanks.” The surrounding crowd burst into a cheer and took up a chant.
“Officer Romanova-san! Officer Romanova-san!”
“A.D. Police is the best!” Ranma took the duffle bag and bento with one hand and rubbed the back of her head with the other one in embarrassment.
“Heh. Heh. Um. Look both ways before crossing the street and support your local police.” With that, she ran away from the crowd and jumped over the fence. The reporter had just gotten through the crowd to see the red head slip over the fence and sighed. She heard the A.D. Police sirens and perked up. She could still get information on this Romanova and an interview or two.
(Posted Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:51)
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