Not quite ten minutes later Ranma was, if anything, angrier than when she’d first issued the Challenge to that Alita girl. They were both in the right room already, and Alita was just sitting there looking bored out of her mind. The Pokégirl hadn’t even so much as bothered to stretch nor show any signs that she was about to do anything even remotely challenging.
For a second Ranma recalled some of her so-called training sessions with Akane and actually regretted treating her fiancee that way, briefly. Then she recalled just how badly Akane always preformed when she thought Ranma wasn’t even paying attention to her. ‘Heh, mind games is it? Well thanks to Pops, I already know practically every trick in the book, and I’m not falling for it, macho girl,’ Ranma thought to herself once the comparison kicked in.
Over the next minute or two, Ranma forcibly calmed herself down, dropping the temperature of the room a couple degrees in the process. Then she did a little light stretching, just to get a feel for how her female body was moving today. As expected, she didn’t find any stiff spots or tight muscles that needed working out, so Ranma was good to go.
*tap*tap*
Ranma looked down to see a small, four-inch long carrot barely thicker than one of her fingers. It was barely any bigger than those tampons Kasumi had Ranma use when she’d been stuck as a girl for month that one time and started bleeding. She shivered once at the unpleasant and half-forgotten memories that brought up, Then looked around to see if anyone noticed it falling out of her.
Akane, Nova, and the rest were all sitting on the other side of some glass wall talking to each other. Only Kasumi had been looking in her direction, and she gave a soft, apologetic smile before turning to say something or other to her two sisters. No one else seemed to have noticed however. Otherwise, Ranma was certain that they would have been staring at her, or worse, barging in there to make fun of her again.
So, crisis averted, Ranma casually kicked the thing behind her into a corner where it hopefully would never get noticed. Then she looked over to see what Alita was doing and paled. The Pokégirl was looking right at her with the classic ‘curious eyebrows’ look. Ranma blushed for a second over the embarrassment of it, then remembered she was mad at the Pokégirl and forced herself to calm down using the soul of ice again.
The temperature of the room dropped another degree as Ranma found her center again, there was no way she was willing to lose to that girl. Ranma tightened her grip on the soul of ice as she finally decided to end the waiting. “We’re here and the peanut gallery is starting to get bored; let’s do this,” Ranma announced in a loud half snarl, walking to the center of the room.
“Any time you’re ready. So what are the rules going to be, Carrot-girl?” Alita replied, baiting her as she joined Ranma at the center of the room.
“No rules; first one to give up or unconscious loses,” Ranma ground out, her temper flaring briefly before being chilled away by the soul of ice. This Alita girl had better be as good as she thinks she is, or this would be an extremely unsatisfying match.
Kasumi felt a spike of embarrassment from Ranma and looked over to see her staring at a small orange speck on the floor. Apparently the little aid Kasumi slipped Ranma earlier to help with the tingles chose a slightly awkward moment to fall back out again. She gave Ranma an apologetic smile to try and let her know she’d meant well. But she never got the chance to tell whether Ranma got the message or not as Akane drug her back into the conversation she and Nabiki were having.
“I’m sorry, I thought I saw something. What was the question again?” Kasumi asked as she looked over to her two younger sisters.
“I was asking if you agreed with me that Akane has been just a little too stubborn in insisting that Ranma is a pervert lately, Kasumi. I mean, with the umpteen million questions she hammered Ranma with last night, plus this morning; you’d almost think she was desperate for Ranma to be a pervert or something. Am I wrong?” Nabiki cajoled slyly to her.
“That’s absolutely ridiculous and you know it, Nabiki! Kasumi, please tell her she’s just making stuff up!” Akane countered with a low yell.
A familiar cackle from Professor Nova saved Kasumi from having to choose sides between her two sisters. “Kya ha haha! They’re finally starting! Lou, is all of the monitoring equipment ready to go yet?” the rather interesting man announced, directing a quick question at Lou.
“All observational equipment is fully calibrated and recording, professor. You can monitor all of the sub-visual readings from this display unit as well. Readings already show a minor yet steady thermal drop within the training chamber already. It’s just barely within measurable range, but the source of the thermal drop is definitely originating from Ranma,” Lou reported, handing over a clipboard like device. Then the two of them became eagerly silent again as Ranma an Alita stared at each other.
To anyone else, the two of them might have just been staring each other down. Yet for Kasumi, she could literally feel the tension between Ranma and Alita, like a cold sting and a sort of empty ache. Ranma was probably just barely holding her temper in check, while Alita across from her was filled with bitter disappointment and jealousy. The tension growing between them was actually beginning to hurt a bit.
“So . . . bets anyone?” Nabiki, interjected into the brief silence that followed, as the two combatants faced off.
She couldn’t really say why, but the utter determination and spirit the other girl had right now was like a slap in the face for Alita. The tiny little girl was even shorter than Alita was, and was more alive now than Alita had felt for a long time now. She was practically dead inside now, after a year without any real sort of purpose in her life; that was why she found the angry, presumptuous human girl’s presence so damning.
This fragile slip of a girl was ablaze with cold rage and fighting spirt; she had a purpose in life, a reason for living. Yet she was also one bad decision away from throwing that all away on a suicidal fool’s quest. This Ranma girl was living off of fools’ hope, while the only thing Alita had to look forward to was the next good fight.
The girl’s terms were equally suicidal, and somehow insulting to Alita. It was like this tiny little girl honestly thought she could match Alita, or any Pokégirl for that mater, on even terms. “Fine, have it your way, Carrot-girl; one knock out coming up,” Alita drawled bitterly, and threw a quick straight jab for the girl’s left temple.
An unexpected tug altered her center of gravity, and suddenly Alita was flying over the girl’s head in a body toss and about to slam into the ground. A quick adjustment and Alita bent with the throw to land on her feet and countered it with a fast trip kick. Her opponent somehow anticipated the kick and simply hopped over it, then delivered a round kick that sent Alita sliding across the floor despite blocking the blow.
‘Well, she’s at least as strong as an Amazonwu, and as fast as one too. That’s extremely good for a human, but she still doesn’t stand a chance against any decent Pokégirls,’ Alita silently observed with grudging respect. Relaxing her guard after the surprisingly powerful kick, for a human, Alita expected to see Ranma recovering from the wind up of her last attack.
Instead she saw a red, black, and pink, human-blur closing the short distance between them again in a rush. Alita got her guard back up just in time to dodge a high speed jab to her kidneys. She retaliated with a chop aimed at the base of the redhead’s bent neck. Ranma ducked under the chop however, preforming a handspring style mule-kick that connected with Alita’s chin.
This hit literally launched the Pokégirl into a short backward arch. Alita managed to land on her feet again, but this time she kept her guard up, expecting to see Ranma baring down on her again. She wasn’t disappointed and looked up in time to see Ranma rolling her way through the air in a tight ball. Alita skipped backwards a step, just in time to avoid a double healed kick as Ranma straightened out at the last second to make the most of her momentum.
She didn’t wait for the human girl to recover from her landing though and Alita nailed her with a thrusting kick that sent Ranma flying backward ten, maybe twelve, feet. Alita was honestly impressed when Ranma recovered from the kick like a Pokégirl would have and then charged at her again. Her guard was up, but Ranma still caught her a little flat footed when she jumped up as if trying to avoid Alita at the last second. The head stomp Ranma tried to deliver as she sailed over head nearly got through her guard though and made Alita stumble a bit. That was just the setup for the real attack though. The girl literally caught Alita completely off guard when a heavy weight nailed her in the shoulders and drove Alita bodily into the floor.
It felt like someone dropped a small boulder on top of her for an instant, then it was gone just as suddenly when Ranma jumped away from her. With the weight and momentum of the surprise hit gone now, Alita quickly rose to her feet in defensive pose. Ranma was sizing her up; most likely trying to gauge just how much damaged she’d managed to inflict on her with that last attack.
“Wow, Ranma must be really ticked off right now if she’s going that hard against a girl right from the start,” Nabiki observed with a small whistle. Sure Ranma had fought girls before now, but she usually had to be beaten into taking them this seriously, even in her girl form. The only exception to that was usually Elder Cologne from the Chinese Amazons.
“No kidding. If Ranma were any more serious about this match, he’d have to start using his special techniques,” agreed Akane. If there was at least one thing her little sister could be honest about when dealing with Ranma, it was Ranma’s fighting abilities.
“She’s pretty fast, and all that, but it’s going to take a whole lot more than what Ranma’s dishing out now to even slow Alita down. Once she gets serious, Ranma’s done for if that’s the best that she can do,” Sechs retorted just as Alita landed her first successful counter attack.
The kick barely even fazed Ranma though and she launched herself back across the room at the taller female fighter. “Oh, Ranma hasn’t really even gotten started yet, six. We’re just surprised that she’s even willing to hit a girl at all this early in the fight. Ranma must think that Alita girl is pretty tough if she’s hitting her this hard already,” Nabiki replied, not quite willing to spill the full extent of Ranma’s abilities yet. The Pokégirls might not actually own anything of any value, but there was at least one person in the room with the resources to gamble with.
“Ha, I’d be surprised if that little redhead in there is hitting hard enough to even tickle Alita so far,” Sechs countered primely, arms folded smugly. “And my name’s Sechs, not six, by the way,” she added just a little moodily.
“Thanks for the introduction; however, you might like to know that Ranma has an uncanny talent for beating the odds when it comes to fighting. She’s also not fighting full out just yet. I just hope that Professor Nova over there won’t mind too much if that pretty training room of his gets messed up a bit. Because if that Alita girl is as tough as you all claim she is, then I can guarantee you that room is going to get trashed before Ranma gives up, even if she doesn’t win,” Nabiki retorted calmly. Knowing Ranma, if it wasn’t short and fast, then it was virtually a guarantee that the place would still get thrashed long before either side could claim victory.
“I highly doubt that, Miss Tendo. That entire room is reinforced with some of the strongest materials this world has to offer. Why, this glass we’re looking through is comparable to twice its thickness in double-steel reinforced concrete, and it’s the weakest part of the whole room. At eighteen inches thick, any blow capable of significantly damaging it would kill all but the most durable Pokégirls if it made contact with them. Alita could take such a hit and survive; I doubt that Ranma could do the same however, despite what she’s told me about herself,” Nova countered distractedly, still watching the pair in front of them.
“Care to bet that RV you drove us here with on that, Professor? If I’m wrong and Ranma loses without anything getting damaged, I’ll answer any ten questions you want me to. I’ll even up the ante by offering to take some of that truth serum stuff of yours before you ask them,” Nabiki replied, finally catching sight of an opportunity.
“Any ten questions, Ms. Tendo?” Nova countered, actually looking away from the fight and his display thing for a moment.
Excellent, Nabiki had him hooked on the deal. Now she just needed Ranma to live up to her usual destructive tendencies, or win, while Nabiki negotiated a precautionary loophole into the deal. “Within reason or course, if I should happen to refuse a particular question, it won’t count and you get one bonus question added on as compensation. How does that sound for a guarantee?” she counter offered, hooking the Professor’s interest even more.
Back in the training room:
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(Posted Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:51)
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