Ranma sat in one of the helicopters sitting scross and among the Mithril strike force.
Mithril.
It was hard to do anything in the shadows without hearing about that group, and here she was working for them.
This wasn't her normal beat, but close.
The red head'd done something similar while she was still living in Greece, when she was still establishing herself and earning money...and the understanding to use it properly.
A quick rescue and raze of a KGB psychic research facility.
She'd only been one of a team on that one.
Twenty-three, still bitter. She'd probably still be controlled by that bitterness except for the combination of her children, who she didn't believe deserved punishment, and the repeated "thank yous" from the jobs she'd taken.
Most of that team had been mercenaries just like this one, with herself the token "sensitive" to help finding the objectives. They'd been surprised that she could handle herself.
"So, you're psychic?" the lieutenant across from her asked.
"Hmm, not really," she said. "But close enough."
"And your kids are down there," the other added.
"Yep," Ranma said, realizing where the man was going with this.
"Don't go Akira and threaten the mission on us, got it?" the man said.
"Minimal effort, maximum impact," Ranma said. "I'm supporting you."
"I heard we're covering you," the lieutenant said with a smirk. "Need a gun?"
"Not a good idea," Ranma said shaking her head. "I haven't trained in gunfire. Last time I tried, I almost got myself killed playing gunslinger."
"We're not going to be getting in hand to hand range if we can avoid it," the lieutenant warned.
"Trust me, I can cope," Ranma said with a smile.
****
The helicopters came in amidst gunfire, though most of that was drawn by the M-9s that had landed ahead of them.
Ranma disembarked and immediately moved for cover with the rest of the team she was with.
She could dodge pistol fire, and didn't worry much about a stray bullet striking her, given the bakusai tenketsu, even her reverse-engineered version of the body hardening, but there was no reason to invite gunfire.
Small injuries and pains were still injuries and pains. It was like walking onto broken glass with bare feet.
The team moved forward cover to cover, firing to cover the next person. Soon enough her turn to move came and, as she came to the next piece of cover she lashed her hands outward.
A whirling vacuum blade left her hand and slashed easily through the barrels and crates covering the soldiers behind them. In fact it slashed through some of the soldiers behind.
The lieutenant came up next behind her and smirked at her as he passed.
"I see what you mean now," he said.
The rescue squad worked their way through as the main assault worked to subdue the base and establish a perimeter to get the hostages out.
Ahead of the main fighting lines, where M-9s were securing the runway, Ranma and the rescuers were spearheading the path to the hostages for the demolitions crew and pilots. Turning a corner when they found a savage in firing position.
"Think you can take out an AS?" the lieutenant asked her.
"Give me three, five minutes," Ranma said peeking around the corner. "Maybe. Big maybe."
"How about just disable?" the man asked.
"I think that'll take less time," Ranma said.
"All right, I wan...the hell!?" the lieutenant gasped as the savage around the corner was engulfed in power and energy.
As the attack faded, the savage appeared visibly dented from several directions, some vital components sparking outward. Disabled but not destroyed.
"Ryu Sei Hisho," Ranma said narrowly as she saw the end result of the attack. "Too weak to be Herb unless he hasn't improved all this time."
"What's that?" the lieutenant asked. "One of your kids going crazy?"
"No," Ranma said. "There's a third party involved. He has to be able to fly to pull that move off, so watch up. There are probably more on the ground, dressed as ancient warriors."
The lieutenant nodded and gestured for the team to move past the now safe corner, eyes upward.
They were moving further in when a pink-haired figure carrying a chi sword swung around a further corner, hanging twenty feet off the ground, and turned to face them. A sneer covered his face as he unleashed a blast of chi towards them in the form of a scything line of chi.
Ranma immediately leaped forward and lashed outward with her arms, sending two vacuum blades to disrupt the chi blade.
"I've got this Musk brat," Ranma said to the men behind her. "Keep going, I'll catch up."
"Watch yourself, Ma'am," the lieutenant said as the rescue squad moved past her.
"Woman," the young-man said. "Don't presume to get in my way. If you know who we are, then you know we are not to be stopped. I am Basil, son of Herb, Prince of the Musk!"
Ranma responded by charging down the alley way between the warehouses toward where Basil was hovering. The young dragon prince unleashed chi blades and chi blasts growling bitterly as Ranma dodged them aside easily.
As the swift red-head, with speed probably surpassing Bay's, approached closer, the surprised young man dived downward with a series of chi-balls she hurled down to the location Ranma would reach.
Ranma grimaced as he recognized the Ryu Sei Hisho coming and wondered if her theorized counter would work. As the chi blasts struck the ground and started to bounce into her, she was already whirling into the dance.
"Kijin Gun-Dai Ranbu!" Ranma shouted as vacuum blades lashed out in all directions, obliterating the buildings on either side of the red-headed martial artist and disrupting the chi bombs that had been about to smash her into unconsciousness.
Basil stared in shock as the unbeatable move of the dragon princes was so thoroughly demolished.
"Saidaikyû Kijin Raishû Dan!" Ranma shouted launching a salvo of vacuum blades upwards at the prince.
Basil barely dodged aside dipping low as the fatal projectiles passed inches in front of his face.
Concentrated as he was on the projectiles, he failed to note the martial artist leaping to the highest point of the ruined structures around her and then upward again.
As the vacuum blades vanished harmlessly into the sky, he looked down and in front for Ranma as the peak of her second leap came in above and behind the young Musk.
In the rain, he failed to note Ranma's presence until the woman slammed into him from above, a kachuu tenshin amaguriken fist striking repetively into his shoulder until he felt it crack multiple times in multiple spots.
They landed with Ranma in control, her feet striking the ground as she slammed Basil into the ground first and then a piece of debris.
She couldn't hold back against the Musk, she knew from experience that the dragon princes had to be overwhelmed with skill and tactics and not allowed to bring their inhuman chi levels to the fight.
Basil for his place barely had time to recover from the surprise mid-air assault as he slammed physically again and again, something his father had assured him no outsider could possibly do. He was cognizant enough to know that his attacker was actually avoiding the most vital locations and instead focusing on causing pain and bruises.
And finally, the brutality stopped and he was facing the female's face that had so thoroughly humiliated him.
"Your Herb's son I'm guessing," Ranma said darkly. "He and I have an understanding, and that's the only reason I'm letting you live, Musk. If I find one of you Musk bastards has even touched one of my daughters, you're going to wish I'd killed you here."
Bleary but conscious, Basil slashed out clumsily with a chi sword, forcing Ranma backwards and giving him more than enough room to unleash a blast of chi that the martial artist was hard pressed to dissipate at such short range.
She just managed the Kijin Raishu Dan to create two vacuum blades across his position, affording her a small safe place in the powerful chi blast.
When it faded away, Basil was a speck in the sky.
Ranma sneered at the retreating form, Herb would never have run like that.
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(Posted Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:33)
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