"Four months," Motoko said in a flat tone. "It's been four months since..."
"Four and a half for me," Ranma spoke up when Motoko trailed off. "Everyone probably thinks I'm dead."
Motoko looked over at him and caught the bag of medical blood he tossed to her. She watched as Ranma sucked the blood from his own bag as if it were merely a juice box.
"How can you be so casual about drinking human blood?" Motoko demanded sharply, but the look of fascination on her face gave lie to the disgust in her tone.
Ranma shrugged.
"It ain't like people don't eat weirder stuff all the time," he replied. "I mean really, what's more disgusting: eating rotten duck eggs that have been buried in the ground, eating raw monkey brains right from the skull, or drinking some blood from a bag? Besides, after being forced to eat Akane's cooking, this is nothing. We gotta eat after all and I get the feeling if we don't, it could be...bad."
Motoko eyed the bag of blood in her hands distastefully. Now that Ranma had mentioned it, the memories stuffed into her head gave her the same impression that allowing herself to get too hungry wouldn't be a good idea. Reluctantly, she pinched the end off the tube and slid it between her lips. Stealing herself, she gently squeezed the bag, forcing the crimson blood inside up the tube and into her mouth.
Motoko had tasted blood before, having had her share of split lips and such while training, but she was unprepared for the explosion of flavor that burst across her palate. It tasted exactly like she expected blood to taste, but the taste had somehow been recategorized from 'stomach-turning' to 'delicious'. Unconsciously, her hands squeezed the bag harder as she drank greedily.
Realizing that the cessation of fluid flowing from the tube meant she had emptied the bag already, Motoko suddenly felt eyes on her. She looked up to see Ranma staring at her with a glazed look in his eyes. Immediately, Motoko began to feel self-conscious.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, fidgeting nervously.
Ranma blinked, shaking his head to snap himself out of the daze he was in. He desperately cast about, trying to think of something less likely to get him pounded than telling her the truth: that the look of ecstasy on her face as she fed—coupled with the outfit she had on—made Motoko look insanely hot.
"You were just...it was nothing. Forget it," he said, blushing and tossing a second bag of blood to her before turning away.
Motoko would have pressed him for an answer, but she was too busy sucking on the fresh bag of blood which she had practically dove out of her chair to snatch out of the air.
"There's more in the refrigerator in the kitchen," Ranma said over his shoulder as he left the room to go pound his head against a wall somewhere in hopes of knocking the bad thoughts out.
Outside the mountain-side mansion, six figures watched from the trees. Each was clad from head to toe in heavy, black, neoprene suits. Their faces were covered in close fitting masks with large, dark tinted lenses over their eyes and built-in respirators over their noses and mouths. Strapped to the suits in combat webbing were various weapons ranging from knives to guns to explosives. Each also carried a submachine gun of some type ranging from MP5s to FN P90s, except for one figure that clutched an M4 carbine.
"Looks quiet," one of the figures commented.
"Too quiet if you ask me," another added.
"It is the middle of the day so that's not exactly unexpected," a female voice observed.
"We haven't heard from anyone inside this facility for two days now," the one with the M4 pointed out. "We have to assume they were hit by someone. We're going in. Chances are whoever hit them is gone, but keep on your toes and watch for any surprises that might have been left behind."
With silent, military precision the team broke from the trees and rapidly closed in on the building before flattening themselves on either side of the door. The one with the M4 reached up and gently tried the doorknob, finding it unlocked. Cradling his M4 in his lap, he counted off with his fingers before throwing the door open. The figure opposite him rushed inside, sweeping her MP5 from side to side looking for a target as she cleared the doorway to couch off to the side in a covering position. The others rapidly followed her through taking their own covering positions.
There was no sign of any hostile targets, but as soon as the team had entered, they caught the smell of blood even through their respirators. Entering last, the figure with the M4 made hand signs to the others and the team began to move deeper into the building.
Ranma paused in his head banging when he caught the sound of a door opening followed by the faint sounds of booted feet hitting the floor. He knew instantly that they had company and it was much too soon for Motoko's people to have arrived.
He quickly returned to the room he had left Motoko in finding her just finishing her meal. She looked up at him questioningly but he held his finger to his lips before she could speak.
"We have company," he whispered softly, taking her P4X pistols and her MP5/40 out of stuff-space, placing them on the table next to her.
Motoko stood, nodding her understanding. After slipping the pistols into the waist band of her pants, she slung the strap of the SMG over her shoulder and accepted the extra magazines from Ranma while marveling that he could pull out exactly what he wanted instantly. She stuffed the extra magazines in her jacket pockets and picked up her sword which was leaning against the table beside her as Ranma produced his Mossberg 590 and chambered a round as quietly as he could.
"Time for some payback," Ranma growled softly, his eyes turning ice blue.
"Agreed," Motoko whispered, her eyes matching his.
The assault team had split up into three two-man teams. Two had gone up stairs to clear the upper levels while the third began clearing the ground floor. The pair on the ground floor was rapidly moving down the corridor clearing rooms as they went.
"Fucking Lycans," one of them spat as they came across the first Lycan body.
They had discovered ten vampire bodies thus far either riddled with bullets or torn apart.
"At least now we know who hit us," the other one commented. "Let's keep moving."
The pair continued down the hall and entered the next room, the dining room. The first one through the door never saw the sword that separated his head from his body.
"Holy shit!" his partner exclaimed as he came through the door to see the leather-clad swordswoman completing her stroke.
He brought up his P90 to fire at her but before he had the chance he was grabbed from behind.
Ranma gave the head in his hands a sharp twist. With a crack of bone, the vampire's neck snapped and the body went limp. He lowered the body to the floor, the head now facing backwards.
As he stepped back, Motoko drove the point of her sword through the commando's heart causing Ranma to look at her quizzically.
"Better safe than sorry," Motoko explained with a shrug, withdrawing her blade and giving it an expert flick to cast off the blood.
Ranma nodded and unslung his shotgun before peeking into the hall.
"Let's go get the rest of them," he said softly over his shoulder before stepping out of the room.
He didn't look behind him to see if she was following. Instinctively, he knew she was there and he trusted her at his back without question, as if they had been training together for years.
"Martin, Reyes, report," Kristos, the strike team leader demanded quietly over the radio built into his head gear. "Martin? Reyes?" There was no response. "Dammit. Something's wrong. Dietz, you and Carson continue to sweep the upper levels. Dreaggen and I are going down to see why Martin and Reyes aren't answering."
"Yes, sir," came Dietz's reply.
Kristos and Dreaggen headed back to the stairs toward the area that Martin and Reyes where supposed to have been.
"Keep your head on a swivel, Dreaggen," Kristos cautioned. "I don't want to get taken by surprise."
"You got it, Boss," Dreaggen replied as they quietly descended the stairs.
The two commandos reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to proceed cautiously up the short corridor that lead to the main corridor on the ground floor. As they approached the intersection, Kristos, who was in the lead, signaled Dreaggen to stop and flattened himself against the wall just short of the corner.
Several tense moments later, the barrel of a shotgun slowly appeared around the corner. Kristos suddenly reached forward and grabbed the barrel, yanking it forward while preparing to fire a burst from his M4 into the enemy on the other end.
Motoko followed as Ranma cautiously approached the corner of an intersection, the smell of the rubber outfits like the two vampires they had already taken out had worn strong in her nose. There were more of them nearby. Reaching the corner, Ranma started to warily turn, leading with his shotgun when suddenly a hand grabbed the barrel and pulled him off balance. He resisted the surprisingly strong pull for a moment before letting go of the shotgun and diving forward into a roll that would take him across the intersection.
A burst of gunfire shattered the silence as bullets tore up the floor and walls behind Ranma's tumbling form. Another black-clad figure partially stepped out into the corridor to track Ranma with his weapon. Motoko's sword sung as it sliced through the air. It passed through the vampire's neck effortlessly...a little too effortlessly as it continued on to bury itself several inches in the corner of the wall.
The vampire's head rolled off his shoulders and the body dropped like a sack of potatoes. Motoko, unaccustomed to the increase in strength she now had, struggled to remove her sword from where it had become wedged in the wall. Before she could free the blade, a second vampire stepped into view preparing to fire a P90 at her.
The vampire never got a chance as heavy muzzle blasts exploded into the air. The vampire was spun around and thrown back down the hall by the impacts of several .50 caliber bullets slamming into her body and weapon. Glancing to the side, Motoko saw Ranma had reversed his tumble and was now on one knee with his pair of Desert Eagles aimed at the downed vampire.
Nodding gratefully to Ranma, she finally freed her sword as he stood up and walked over to the moaning vampire that was laying on the ground bleeding heavily from several massive wounds. Ranma stood over the vampire and looked down at the masked face before emptying the last few rounds in one of his pistols into her head.
Motoko fought down the urge to gag as the vampire's head cracked open like an egg, spraying chunks of brain matter, bone, and blood across the floor. Ranma looked a bit sick himself as he reloaded his pistols before making them disappear with his hidden weapons technique.
"Are you okay?" he asked, collecting his shotgun from where it had fallen on the floor.
"I'm fine. How about you?" Motoko returned.
"Great," Ranma replied. "Thanks for having my back. We make a pretty good team."
"Thank you as well," Motoko said. "And, yes, we do make a good team."
Ranma smiled at her before looking up at the ceiling where the sounds of booted feet were heard.
"Looks like we have a few more to take out," he commented.
"After you," Motoko said with her own grin as she sheathed her sword and cycled the action of her MP5/40 now that stealth wasn't an issue anymore.
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(Posted Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:04)
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