Yesterday, it had been an establishment of higher learning.
Today, two words described Mugen Academy.
War Zone.
Sailor Uranus ducked behind a concrete column and snarled as B.B. Hood emptied another clip from that machine gun at her. Ordinarily, Haruka would have no fear of bullets in her transformed state - but B.B. Hood had taken extra care to make her ammunition _effective. Senshi enchanted and blessed Silver jacketed depleted Uranium Rounds at ultra-high velocity were good enough to give most supernaturals at least something like pause.
They still wouldn't penetrate Uranus's Fuku, or deeply into her, but they *could* make shallow wounds and bruises; And the little freak who had started shooting without talking was good with guns, too, good enough to keep her on the run, not giving Uranus time to setup a magical attack that would take her down or time enough to get close. B.B. Hood had learned the folly of that early on in the fight. Only the layer of armor under her red cloak had prevented the one love tap Uranus had gotten in on her from breaking a rib.
The situation was only managing to make Haruka angry. Frighteningly, furiously angry.
Hotaru was missing. Now Makoto was missing as well, chasing monsters in the empty school And Michiru was back in the classroom *by herself* in a school that had whatever had exploded an entire floors worth of windows.
And this little freak from Gajin folktales was keeping her pinned down behind faux-stone walls.
Haruka had always had a terrible temper - a mark of her Draconic race, though she knew nothing of that. Slow rage built up in her, moment to moment, hour to hour, and if she did not spend that anger deliberately - on running, or racing, or something else that she could pour concentration and effort into - it would periodically erupt into a savage explosion.
As a child, Haruka had realized quickly that those rages destroyed things she might otherwise like to keep - favored toys, for example - and had trained herself to always keep the anger in check, harvesting the worst of it for her passions, and - as a side effect, never allowing herself to shift to her full dragon form, quite by accident.
As a young woman she had found another balm for it: Michiru, in herself and her music, could soothe the anger, check the rage, and so, Haruka no longer had a problem with her temper and had become all around more cheerful.
Except where threats against her lover were concerned. Lately, that chink in her emotional control had expanded, too include Hotaru as well, and more and more - all of the Senshi.
"Hey, Darkie, you just hide there a bit and I'll feed you some explosives! Then I can go find your friends that I can sense in here and cut them down, too! You're going to make me a lot of money!"
And while taunting your enemies into making mistakes was normally a sound tactic, that was probably not the best thing for B.B. Hood to say; Haruka saw white, then red, as what had been savage anger become under the influence frustration, worry, and the disturbing feeling in the back of her head, became more than simple anger, and for the first time in her adult life, Tenou Haruka exploded into a full blown Dragonrage - and into her full draconic form.
The stone pillar that was her cover exploded under the sudden change, ripped apart by a savage punch that tore through it like paper - and though the arm that lashed though it was still thin and elegantly shaped, it was now much longer - and tipped with ten inch talons that were more like knives than claws.
Only a desperate dive backward saved B.B - but Nothing was going to save her gun or her red cape. The former had been mangled, and the latter -had- been caught, and abandoning the chainmail lined cloak was all that saved the slayer from being the contents of an enraged Draconic blender.
One look at the Darkstalker she'd been taunting's true form was more than enough to persuade B.B. to change tactics.
Haruka had spent her entire life in human form, so far, and never in Draconic. Because of that, she had grown up slim and fast as she was unable to eat enough to let a Draconic body develop stockily - in fact, only the magic of Her Sailor Senshi powers kept her from being undernourished.
The result, however, did not look weak. Her Dragonform was long and whip thin, half eastern and half western, scaled a mesmerizing ebony black with elegant liquid stripes of yellow scales and a white mane and pale yellow wings, it held in the elegance and grace of a viper, and a great cat at the same time.
And in this form, though undernourished, she still outmassed B.B. by at least twenty times - without loosing any speed at all, and gaining considerably more armor into the bargain.
"I guess that's a no go." B.B. muttered as she jumped down the stairs, Haruka's enraged dracoform spitting a black lance of gravity energy out to implode and shred the place the slayer had just been standing, causing her to glance back up at what *had* been a landing and not shrapnel a moment ago and shout, "Right. Time for me to leave!"
Haruka flowed down the stairs like a small Tsunami, rage still washing out the world, bearly a dozen feet behind - and Space sword still clasped in one draconic hand, the blade having grown to fit the Dragon-Senshi's new form.
As B.B. Bood was running for her little Red Ridding Hooded life -
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(Posted Tue, 18 Feb 2003 05:16)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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