"It can't be!" the girl gasped. "I can't have been turned into one of those demons!"
Ranma watched as the girl shook her head violently from side to side in denial. He quickly realized she was no more one of 'them' than he was. They both appeared to be in the same boat, turned into whatever those things were without their knowledge or consent. Shrugging, he turned to the door. It was time to leave.
Ranma walked up to the door and lashed out with a kick. His foot impacted the heavy steel door with a resounding clang. The door held, but a deep dent appeared where he kicked it and it warped in its frame.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked.
"I thought it was time for us to get out of here and find some clothes," Ranma answered. "Then we can see about making the things that did this to us pay."
Without waiting for an answer, he lashed out with another kick. This time the door gave way, tearing from its hinges and loudly slamming against the wall on the other side of the corridor before slowly falling backward to crash to the ground.
Ranma stepped confidently into the corridor and looked both ways. He appeared to be in a dark hallway lined with similar metal doors. There was a dead end on one end and a doorway on the other with light streaming through the edges. He headed toward that door.
The closer he got to the door the stronger the scent of blood became. It was strangely alluring to him, as if it were reaching through his nose and grabbing some primal part of his brain, awakening a hunger like he had never experienced before. By the time he reached the door, he hadn't even realized that his eyes had turned ice blue and his fangs had extended.
"What is that smell?" a voice moaned from beside him, the tone reflecting the same hunger he felt.
Ranma looked over to see the girl standing there staring at the door, her eyes also ice blue and her fangs cutely poking out over her bottom lip.
"Blood," Ranma answered.
The girl grimaced in disgust.
"How can that be...? It smells so..." she trailed off, unwilling to finish the thought. "What did they do to us?"
Ranma didn't answer. Instead he lashed out another kick, this time tearing the door off its hinges on the first try, sending it careening across the room on the other side, knocking over a table and smashing the glassware that was sitting on it.
"It might have been unlocked you know," the girl remarked. "Now we're going to have to avoid stepping on the glass."
"Uh...heh..." Ranma scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
However, it soon became apparent that the glass would have been a problem regardless of Ranma's door opening technique. The room appeared to be some sort of lab by the microscopes, test tubes, and assorted other unidentifiable, expensive-looking equipment. It also appeared to be ransacked.
As the pair carefully picked their way through the debris of smashed glass and equipment they spotted the first body. She was a red-haired gaijin woman dressed in a short leather skirt, a black lace top, and black fishnet stockings with knee-high, clunky boots. If the lab coat she wore over her Goth garb was any indication, she was probably the one that ran the lab. Now she lay where she had been thrown against the wall in a pool of her own blood with her throat torn out.
Ranma ignored the body and the hungry feeling the sight of the blood gave him, making his way to the door. The corridor outside the lab held even more bodies. The air was heavy with the sent of blood and burnt gun powder. There was also a cloying scent of something else, like the scent of an unwashed dog. It didn't take the pair long before they spotted the source.
"T-that's a werewolf," the girl gasped.
"A what?" Ranma asked.
"A werewolf," she repeated. "You know, a man that gets bitten by a wolf and then changes into half man, half wolf during the full moon? It's a western legend."
Ranma was familiar with most of the Japanese mythological creatures, but this was a new one on him. Still, with all the weird stuff he'd seen, it wasn't a stretch to accept this one.
"Looks like these things beat us to the punch on getting some payback," Ranma remarked in an almost disappointed tone.
"Yes, well, I'm more concerned about getting some clothing and figuring out what happened to us before I worry about punishing the freaks responsible for it," the girl commented. Suddenly, she gasped. "If these are werewolves...I think we've been turned into vampires!"
Now that was one western myth that Ranma was vaguely familiar with. Nabiki loved vampire movies, which in Ranma's opinion was fitting since they could both suck the life out of a man.
"That makes sense, I guess," Ranma nodded. "That would explain the fangs and why all this blood looks so...interesting."
The girl nodded silently.
"Let's just see if we can find something to wear," she said. "Hopefully something clean. I would rather not have to strip the clothes off of the bodies."
"No arguments here," Ranma said with a grimace.
The pair moved on, searching the rooms they came to. Whoever was responsible for this place had quite a bit of cash. The place was packed with high tech electronics and sported an impressive armory. There was enough guns and ammo to outfit an army. Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed to do them any good. Ranma had counted at least fifty bodies so far, mostly vampires, but, also several of the wolfman things—Lycans, his foreign memories told him.
They soon found the residential wing and split up to look for clothing that fit. While Ranma searched the closets and dressers, his mind traveled back to the armory. Oddly, he found he knew what each of the weapons were and how to use them. Before he had only been vaguely familiar with guns and only from the standpoint of how to deal with them being used against him. However, the flashes of memory he was getting were becoming increasingly clear, providing him with information. They were also compelling him to revisit the armory because he wouldn't feel fully dressed unless he was armed to the teeth.
Ranma quickly put together some clothing that fit. It might be a problem for his female form, but they fit his male form well. He was even able to find a pair of boots that fit. He dressed quickly and headed back to the armory.
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(Posted Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:12)
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