As Nabiki clicked off yet another picture she casually thought to herself, “Huh... perhaps there is something to this 'digital' stuff.” Pocketing the contents of another abandoned purse she leveled the camera clicking off another half dozen shots. She shook her head looking at the partially demolished office building, “I can't believe the fan fic's were right, they really do have the accuracy of a blind man.”
Her assessment wasn't completely correct. Rei's flaming arrow had hit the 'head' region of the creature however the fire did little to react with fire and pass through the creature harmlessly.
“God damn tomboy!” Perhaps harmlessly wasn't the right word.
Ranma rebound from the impact of the flaming arrow as Nabiki shouted from the side lines, “Hurry up and kill it Saotome before they get you killed!” Several more picture clicked off as she watched from her most recent bit of cover.
“Petty theft aside just what do you think you're doing?” A slightly irritated voice asked from behind.
The middle Tendo did her best not to flinch as the cold steel of the space sword pressed against the small of her back. She quietly quipped, “Um... good question...” Nabiki seriously considered what to say for a moment. Fortune however, seemed to smile on her as a pillar of flame cut through a shimmering blue attack, “A better question is why aren't you helping Michiru?”
Uranus fought down her shock that someone knew her civilian identity. Instead she calmly moved her eye from the girl in front of her to her lover. Unable to tell if her partner would be able to evade the attack the blond sprung into action. Nabiki smiled as the sprinting woman's blue skirt flittered up providing her with a good six seconds of panty shots. The pilfered camera cycled through fifteen shots before the two met just at the edge of the blast radius. Nabiki snapped several more pictures of their embrace.
A belligerent male voice shouted out, “Back off I got this!”
While Nabiki Tendo wasn't a ki adept by any measure she knew that feeling. She could feel that cool pull in the air that seemed to always follow Ranma around when he decided to get serious. Snapping several pictures she smiled. Her angle was perfect, these shots were going to come out great. She crouched down and steady the cheap lens waiting for the spiral to reach its inevitable climax.
She watched with a critical eye as Ranma began to make his circle. Snapping pictures as he spiraled in tighter and tighter. Something clicked with her, she hadn't seen him actually run a spiral around something in a long time. She judged her distance between herself and the ongoing melee not nearly enough.
A panicked voice cried out from the side, “No wait don't!”
Nabiki turned to see Sailor Mercury shouting from the sides and her face turned pale. The middle Tendo quietly whispered to herself, “Oh, shit.”
The dragon formed in all of its beautiful glory. Cold ki clashed with hot angry mana and the serpentine figure carved a trench in the asphalt three feet deep as it coiled around it's elemental prey. The creature paused for an endless moment as its mana fueled flames were torn away. The rigid metal construct beneath creaked and moaned as its frame shifted and distorted from thermal shock. The oppressive heat that seemed to blanket the entire shopping district faded away.
Ranma's foot landed on the bronzed frame as he slowly descended. As his slipper clad foot touched the skeleton of the behemoth an erie wrongness settled into his thoughts. He looked down from his perch on the constructs head and saw a spider web of cracks emanating from where he had landed. A cool energy seemed to leak from the inanimate metal frame. The cool sensation quickly became a bitter cold far different from his own soul of ice. A devouring nothingness seemed to grab at his leg.
The martial artist pushed back leaping away from the metal shell his senses screaming danger.
“Space Sword Blaster!”
“Submarine Reflection!”
Looking at the twisted metal face Ranma would swear the thing smirked at him as the metal cooled from thermal stress. As air and water slammed into the stationary frame the head and left shoulder just seemed to dissolve. A fine white mist started to pour off the remains of the unnaturally cold frame. A flaming arrow in the form of a phoenix harmlessly dissolved before it could even touch the crumbling remains. White mist pooled and swirled on the ground. A slivery gem seemed to rise up supported by a column of pure white clouds.
Ami watched frantically as beast's core temperature dropped to nearly absolute zero. The atmosphere around the thing condensed and rolled. The genius senshi shouted out, “Get back! Don't touch it!”
From their position above the battle Sailor Moon turned and questioned Sailor Mercury, “What is it?”
Data describing a spell more complex than anything she had run across in this life time filtered across her visor. She looked at the thing before her and one thought escaped her lips, “Pure Cold.” Her fingers worked across the tiny blue palm top as she tried to figure out just what she was up against.
A fiery voice growled out defiantly, “Then I'm going to melt it!”
The Senshi of Mercury did not spare her teammate a second glance as she tried to translate became more and more of a technical read out into something she could understand. As the computer crunched the numbers it was clear this war machine did not have an easily discernible weak point.
Tendo cycled through another twenty pictures as a new enemy formed out of the remains of the old one. A small breeze pulled towards the growing clouds as more and more atmosphere liquified and rolled off its perimeter. Five flaming arrows crashed down upon the cloud in rapid succession pounding the mist into the pavement. Plumes of white mist shot up into the air with each arrow. Tendrils of liquified atmosphere curled around in a lazy spiral before lancing out with killing intent.
Nabiki managed to snap several excellent shots of the Sailor scouts leaping to safety as the building they were on collapsed into its quickly freezing frame. Despite the violence Nabiki remained focused. Even if this was Ranma's fault it was still her fight too. Two outer senshi along with Ranma landed near her. She choked down the urge to tell them to find their own hiding spots.
Ranma turned to her and shook his head, “Well, I'm out of ideas.”
The blond and teal haired senshi didn't wait for any debate or ideas from the strangers. The two quickly stood up and fired off their signature attacks. Nabiki let out an audible groan snatching the two trigger happy defenders of love and justice by the ears. As she was about to curse them out the ever observant Tendo watched the conjured orb of water impact the creeping tendrils of frost. As the frozen water fell to the ground she considered the situation. Then she yelled, “Yes because pissing it off and drawing it over here is a great idea!”
Uranus snapped back, “I don't see you helping”
“Shut up!” Nabiki cleared her mind and mumbled to her self, “I swear to god if you get me killed by a magic girl I'm gonna haunt you Saotome... as a cat!”
The seemingly irrational comment made the two sailor soldiers look at her with a curious silence while Ranma turned slightly pale.
As Sailor Mercury watched the screen of her computer she could not make heads or tails of the readings. The energy had to be coming from some where. Their had to be a source, a keystone to the entire construct. If she had a few more years of self training under her belt it would have been a very simple riddle. Her time with the senshi had done little to broaden her tactical horizons further than, 'shoot what the little box tells you and shoot it till it turns to dust'.
Nabiki however had a much broader breadth of experience both first and second hand with a basic education in science to back it up. More importantly she had a vast collection of comics both foreign and domestic. Looking down each street of the intersection a plan came to mind. She turned to her pig tail guardian and order, “Open up every fire hydrant on the street.”
Ranma blinked at the her seemingly useless order. Nabiki nodded and said it again, “You and blondie open up every one you can find.”
Uranus turned to the civilian girl and found her nose in a vice like grip, “Do it blondie or your fearful leader will be resurrecting all of us real soon.”
The two locked eyes for a charged moment. The senshi eeped out, “But I don't have a wrench.”
Nabiki pulled hard on the guardian's nose, “For the first time in your life do what you do best and smash the god damn pipes!”
Jupiter rebounded and landed beside her leader and tactician on the roof top above and behind Nabiki and to her left, “Just what are they doing?”
Mercury looked down the street and wondered. Her eyes settled on the flowing water then at the data on her screen. Quickly putting two and two together she agreed with the plan, “I think they are trying to freeze it.”
Mars turned and scowled, “Just how does freezing pure cold help us. Kill it?”
“It doesn’t but it takes energy, lots of energy to stay that cold.” Mercury started looking for more sources of water, “Even if it doesn’t kill it we could trap it.”
“Pluto...” Before Mercury could finish her sentence the woman simply teleported away with Saturn moving to a near by roof top with a water pressure reservoir on top of it. The blue haired senshi turned to Jupiter and Mars, “Get ready to knock over that pressure tower.”
As the tendrils of frozen mana crept down the street Neptune looked the young girl, “And just what are we going to do.”
Nabiki looked at the girl and wondered if she was just screwing with her, “Well I was hoping that you wouldn't mind getting it's attention and baiting it into our little trap.”
The teal haired teen launched her attack down the half frozen street as Nabiki turned and ran.
On the roof top above Mercury waited with her computer in thermal observation mode. As the coldest part of the cloud entered the street infront of her she shouted, “Now Jupiter!”
A wall of water descended upon the street washing over the gaseous creature. As it tried to retreat down the street Ranma pressed his hands down on the open hydrant directing it's spray towards his slowing target. As his hands shrunk and the transformation took hold the red head cursed his tiny girl form's hands.
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(Posted Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:41)
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