[Episode 230448] [Episode 230448]Nanami yawned as the next reply came back and smirked a bit at what she saw written.
She'd like to respond that she'd pulled most of that in the midst of an evacuation and that any evidence she was still alive was gone, but that wasn't the safe sort of thing to send on channels.
It might provoke attention from a corporate Taboo, one of the technically illegal keyword search programs that filtered through the vast computer network looking for any mention of something connected to them.
She did respond, however.
"Serves you right. Thanks for the worry, yeah, I can almost feel something breathing down my neck right now. I do have some back up though in the form of Kodachi and Ranma, though. Check the files and you'll see. Also, my genetic work up isn't up to date, Kodachi 'upgraded' me while we were leaving."
She sent the message and nodded. Those names would lead them to the clone harvesting operation and the genetic recipe for the hybrids she was currently with. While it wasn't a full work up, it would give them some hint of what they were working with.
Hopefully it would dampen the shock when they found her no longer human.
She looked down at herself and wondered at it for the moment. One week ago, she'd still been spending most of her time in human form, now she was lounging about in hybrid whenever she could. Her mindset was changing in someways, that was obvious, especially since it was bothering her less.
She stood up and started to walk out of the infirmary to go find some food.
The uneasiness was still there. Something on this planet was still being very dangerous and she was still having nightmare thoughts of bugs on the warpath.
She shivered nervously and turned into the kitchen, shutting out worry for the moment as she reached into the fridge for a beer. The scientist was taking her first swig when she turned around and saw three strange men staring at her in outright shock.
Her eyes darted to the guns in their hands.
Their eyes darted to the spike-tipped tail, plenty long enough to reach across the room.
"Erm, what are you doing on my ship?" she asked, hoping speech would keep them from reacting violently a few more seconds.
The guns came up and the tail lashed out, pushing most of them away so that they went off into the tough ceiling.
One intruder got a shot off before she deflected his aim, however, and a slug of hot metal tore through the shoulder of her t-shirt and into the slick flesh beneath.
In reaction, Nanami, for the first time in her short period as a hybrid, shifted fully into the more heavily protected war-form and lunged forward.
One of the men screamed and full back out of the room calling for help, another rolled out of the way of her attack, readying his gun again. The third took the brunt of her attack, crumpling over her fist as she slammed it into his stomach.
Nanami'd kept to a fist in order to avoid killing, but she wasn't reckoning on her increased strength. Even a clawless strike from her ruptured internal organs and made death by internal bleeding a liklihood. The difference between her and Ranma being that Ranma would actually be able to target specific organs if he wanted, and destroy them in human form. Meanwhile, she was just flailing with raw strength.
Her tail whipped out to trip up the other human before she turned around to him, grabbed the man and slammed him up into the ceiling, a decidedly less lethal tactic than what she'd inadvertantly done to the first man. The second was merely unconscious, not in dire need of an emergency room.
That left the third and whoever else was on her ship.
Instinctively, she chased down the corridor, sniffing him out as he moved down the stairs toward the cargo bay. She stopped cold, however, as she found herself facing several scattered gunmen in the low-set light of the ship.
A pistol shot rang out first and she felt a burst of pain rip into her side, then she was moving as something automatic sprayed behind her.
"How'd I get into this?!" she shouted outloud as she looked for cover by leaping up into the framework that cluttered the ceiling.
"It's in the ceiling," someone shouted as she crawled about above them, looking for safety.
One of the invaders stopped to take careful aim as she paused near a girter at just the wrong time. Fortunately, before she could notice or the man could take his shot, some of her blood leaked out of the healing wounds and down toward the bay floor.
The man taking aim at her was in the way.
He screamed out as the acid started to eat into his skull and flayed about erratically as his companions tried to wash the fluid away.
In the confusion, Nanami dropped downward and picked up an empty crate, hurling it across the room and scattering several of the men clustered in a tight group.
They were unable to recover quickly enough before a fear and danger driven Nanami was in their midst. One managed to shoot her a third time, but all that did was convince Nanami to let loose the reins on her instinct.
The claws came out.
When it was done, she was sitting in a pile of bodies panting heavily as she shrank down into human form and started shaking.
The man she'd knocked unconscious in the kitchen stumbled into the cargo bay as she sat there, holding herself and trying to keep from freaking out over what she had just done. Her hands were still slick with blood, however, and it was merely spreading over her naked skin by her actions.
He looked at her and the dismembered corpses around her, and sprinted past out toward the cargo bay.
The thug was outside the ship when some of the shock wore through and Nanami started screaming.
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(Posted Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:28)
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