He had been a little tired also, but wisely refrained from asking Tanya for the first nap. She had been bitchy all day for some reason, whenever he asked she would say something stupid like, "Lets see if you like bleeding all over the place!" and "I feel bloated! Leave me the hell alone!" and his favorite, "You fucking bastard! You have no idea what it feels like to be a woman!"
... "If only she knew." he thought with a bitter snort, before pushing the woman from his mind. While she was important, just how he hadn't figured out yet, to his plans at revenge for the Armsmaster, she was also pretty much useless for the time being.
Back to the Jailhouse. He held no illusions that he couldn't sneak in the place with out raising a fuss. Sneaking out on the other hand held problems all their own. Watching the place for the majority of the day, he managed to guess just how many guards were in the place. Well, at least he knew how many were there at the very least, since he couldn't figure out if the place held the living quarters of the Guard as well as the Jail cells.
"Pfeh. Ten. Twenty. It's just a challenge!" he thought with a bemused smirk, before contemplating other problems with the situation. Chances are that even if he managed to break out of Jail with, or with out G'nolga, some type of fuss or Alarm would be triggered. While he was decently sure he could escape with the Umi-sen-ken, he didn't think he could keep the invisible field up around Tanya as well, not too mention G'nolga if she decided to join, for as long as it took to escape the town. He didn't think they would be able to hide in the town anyway. It wasn't that big, and he guessed these cops would search the town out first once they discovered what happened.
Which meant he had to plan an escape of some sort. Great, more thinking. Not something he enjoyed by any stretch of imagination. God, this was getting hard.
***
Four hours later.
Ranma snapped to attention as a thought came to mind. "Eureka! I got it!" he grinned, nodding with himself. It was so devilishly simple! Why, he couldn't think of any reason for it not to work!
Moving up to the slumbering Tanya, he began shaking her. "Yo! Tanya! Wake up!" he whispered harshly.
Tanya wasn't the most graceful of early birds, not by a long shot. So shooting the bastard who dared disturbed her beauty sleep a glare, she growled bitterly, "What now?" Ranma's aura of obliviousness shielded him from noting her glare or her tone of voice.
"It's time! I got the perfect plan!" he crowed, walking up to the window as he grinned at the building across from them.
Sitting up, she tried to ignore the bloating pain around her abdomen, once again cursing males in general for not having to feel this type of pain. "Oh good. So what does the fearless leader have in mind?"
"Well.." he chuckled, "I'm going to sneak in there. Beat up the guards, then sneak out with G'nolga!" he made it sound like it was the simplest thing to do in the world. It was then he decided to lay his plan for escaping the city down, "While I'm doing that, your going to find us some horses or somethin, so we can escape quickly." Yeah, shoving the responsibility on some one else. Wonderful plan, at least he thought so.
"Eh.. sure." Tanya shrugged, not really paying attention.
"All right! I'll head on over there now then." Ranma said as he opened the window. Summoning on the knowledge of his birth rite, he shimmered from view before jumping out the window, shifting to Hybrid form on his way down.
It took Tanya a whole five minutes to realize Ranma was being serious about this, and she rushed from the room with one thought on her mind. "Idiot."
***
Hanza was tired. Very much so. The last time she slept was over two days ago, and at the moment she was nearing her wits end. So far, not one inkling of the smilodon's presence could be detected and she was already past the point of caring.
Debating whether or not to risk recognition by going to the Inn, she decided on the next best thing. Sneaking up to a wagon across from the Jailhouse, she jumped inside. The owners weren't going to be leaving for a few hours, or so she thought, so it wouldn't be a big deal if she caught a few winks of sleep here.
Grabbing a tarp, Hanza settled down with her BAS by her side, almost instantly drifting off to sleep surrounded by boxes, barrels, and bags of produce.
***
Ranma eased himself down the windowsill, taking the utmost caution not to make a single solitary noise as he infiltrated the building from an open window on the second floor.
He had debated whether or not going through the front door was a good idea or not, but decided against it in the end. If a guard was on the other side of that door, he or she would probably be a tad curious how the heck the door opened up all by itself anyway. At least this way, he would have some medium of surprise should this infiltration turn to more violent matters.
Quickly examining the room, Ranma was happy to find it empty except for an empty bed and dresser. Tip toeing to the door, he carefully opened it and snuck out into the hallway.
The light in the hallway was pretty much nil, making it a tad difficult to navigate towards the stairs. He still managed to do it with out making so much as a single peep.
Descending the staircase, he found himself in what he assumed was the main lobby. The room wasn't very big, maybe forty feet by twenty feet. The furnishings were sparse, a few tables, chairs, and a large desk at the entrance where a human looked to be sleeping.
Looking up at the roof, Ranma couldn't stop from grimacing. This building was apparently very old and in some short of disrepair. Even from where he was standing, he could see much of the support beams holding the roof above their heads were cracked, and almost rotting. Heck, the only reason it hadn't even fallen to the ground yet was because the main support beams were being held in place by a pillar of stone that erupted from the ground near the center of the room.
There were only four possible exits from this chamber. The stairs he had just descended led to what he could only assume as living quarters for who ever worked here, the door he assumed led to the street, and two hallways on the opposite side of the room from where the entrance was.
Shrugging, Ranma picked one at random and began searching for G'Nolga.
***
Hanza grimaced, "Rook.. you bastard." she mumbled, "Keep your hands off my chest.."
She was dreaming. Well, having a Nightmare really.
***
"What’s the world coming too Tanya old girl? You've been spurned by the one you love because of a bimbo, the world seems to hate the fact you even exist, and you allowed yourself to ally with perhaps one of the most wanted criminals in the entire dimension. Oh, and it doesn't help matters he's an idiot." Tanya grumbled mentally as she tried to find something to use as a means of escape.
She could just teleport them all somewhere, but that would leave her heavily drained and there’s no telling if the bastards from Sanctuary or the Conclave could track her or not. Of course, being 'That time of the month', the point was moot anyway. Not that she didn't have the power to cast her spells, its just the pain of actually casting them with the disturbance in her body would likely throw her into a coma, if not out right kill her. Well, if she used any high level spells anyway.
"No, teleportation is out of the question." She decided. It wouldn't do her or anyone else any good if she died while performing the spell, and if they had a way to track her casting she doubt Ranma or G'nolga, if she decided to come along, would react kindly to being surrounded by a legion of mages all out for their ass.
She briefly considered taking a boat, but decided against it. The Main Guard was only about fifty or so miles to the south, and if Ranma was right about it being a military institution, then it wouldn't be unbelievable for them to have faster ships then the ones available here.
That left Gremlaks, a Jaden version of the camel of earth, and of course horses. Gremlaks would be able to handle Seer's desert better then any horse would, since they were practically designed to transverse the desert. Problem however was their speed, which was incredibly slow even when prompted into a full run. They also tended to be stubborn creatures, and in this town they were extremely well guarded since they were the preferred choice of travel until one crossed the desert into the forest towards the East.
So that pretty much whittled her choices down to horses. Horses were common pretty much all over Jade, well.. common anywhere but here. The only horses she could find were attached to a wagon of sorts in front of the Inn. Which meant the moment she tried to commandeer them some one from the Inn would likely see her through the window.
"Well.. Ranma never did say their escape had to be quiet, did he?" she thought with an amused chuckle. She just had to wait until Ranma emerged with, or with out G'nolga, then they could hijack the horses and the wagon and escape to where ever the heck Ranma had planned to go.
***
G'nolga glared at the bastard Terry from her cell. She'd likely glare at the women in the cell over, if the wall wasn't in the way. Why won't they ever shut the hell up!?
Six sniffed, rubbing her nose sadly. "It's not my fault." she said meekly, unwilling to meet the gaze of the older woman.
Thirty Eight, or Jane as she liked to be called simply snorted before responding bitterly, "Six, its always your fault!"
"WAH! THIRTY-EIGHT! YOUR SO MEAN TO ME!"
G'nolga swore. If these damn dwarven manacles weren't holding her down, she'd break out of jail just to shut that whiner up!
***
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
Terry snapped awake at the sound, before stretching back and yawning tiredly. He stood up, the sound of his keys jingling on his belt was ignored by all save the two similarly dressed women, who eyed the keys with a hunger Terry had long since grown to ignore.
Opening the door, Terry sighed, "What is it..." he blinked. No one was there. Stepping out into the hall curiously, he looked around but neither found hide nor hair of the culprit. He shrugged, making a mental note to kick Alexander in the balls for joking around like he did, then shut the door.
He turned around to give the prisoners a quick examination when he suddenly found himself choking; some unseen hand had grabbed him roughly by the neck and was now lifting him in the air.
G'nolga raised an eyebrow as she saw that, but said nothing. Cool as a cucumber.
The two annoying women were wide-eyed as well at the sight. "What the heck is going on? You think Faunty is coming to save us?"
Thirty-Eight didn't even bother reprimanding the girl for her stupidity as she watched the sight of a man seeming to hover in mid air, his face turning an interesting shade of purple as something choked him. Faunty couldn't save them, still being cursed to remain on earth. Maybe he had sent some help? No, he couldn't have realized they were captured so soon.
***
Ranma was not so pleasantly surprised to find the back of the building a flurry of activity. Five to Eight different were's were busy filling out paper work, inspecting documents, and generally doing things that was only natural for them to do.
Still, after carefully examining the area, he realized he hadn't yet found the jail cells yet. So, making a note to be extremely careful coming back this way, he continued in search of his prey.
It wasn't until he came to a large oaken door at the end of the hall that he realized this is the place he needed to be. No, it wasn't some sixth sense or something, had nothing to do with feeling auras and the like, nor was it some divine knowledge that had suddenly been stuck in his head.
What caused him to believe this was the place? Well.. the sign that said "Jail Cells located here. Knock before entering." helped immensely. Looking back down the hallway from where he came and seeing no one, he turned to the door and knocked three times.
***
Ranma sneered as the man closed the door, lashing out with an open fist he grabbed the poor peace officer by the throat and lifted him off the ground, choking him. When the pitiful excuse for an officer lost consciousness, he allowed the aura of invisibility to fade and he dropped the man to the ground in an unsightly heap.
Turning to face the cells, he took stock of the prisoners. Two were just as the rumors said, rather attractive petty thieves caught for stealing food from a noble. The other looked exactly like the dwarf he had met when he busted Tanya out of sanctuary, a rather muscular woman that stood to a height of four, nearly five feet in height. She had long brown hair held back in a ponytail, and was currently glaring at him hatefully.
"Granola!" he began, ignoring the two women in preference to the dwarf.
'Granola' snarled, breaking her silence to say, "That’s G'nolga you bastard!" she seethed. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, besides that bitch Julia, it was people butchering her god given name!
"Granola, G'nolga, whatever." Ranma shrugged, "Tomato, Tamato." he walked up to her cell, stopping a foot or so away from the bars. "Look.." he began, only to get interrupted by the two women in the other cell.
"PLEASE! TELL US FAUNTY SENT YOU!" Six pleaded, vainly trying to grab onto him from her cell. She didn't want to spend one more minute locked up in this hole.
Thirty-Eight smacked Six in the back of the head, harshly reprimanding the girl, "You idiot! Look at him! He's a guy! Faunty doesn't employ guys! That whole penis envy he picked up on Earth! Remember?!"
Six blinked, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "Oh.. right." her gaze lowered down from Ranma's face to his pants. She stared for a moment, and then nodded, "Your right. He's bigger then Faunty... so Faunty wouldn't have hired him."
Ranma sweat dropped, thankful he had fur covering his blush. "Ah.. right."
G'nolga rolled her eyes. Those two women sounded like such sluts. "Your the Were-smilodon, aren't you." she accused, glaring at him.
"Yah heard of me, huh?" he shrugged, "Guess you would. Since it was you and the rest of yer buddies and the Armsmaster that sent all those Death Squads after me."
G'nolga blinked, before bitterly retorting, "Yeah, right. I've been in jail for over a year now. Yep, guess I sent those squads after you from all the way in here."
Ranma chuckled, scratching the back of his head before shaking off his nervousness, "Eh, sorry." he coughed, "Look. G'nolga. I'm here to offer you a deal."
"What deal?" She said with a frown.
"Well, I heard you hate the Armsmaster as much as I do. I'll bust you out of here, if yah help me take the Armsmaster down."
G'nolga was quick to reply, "No."
Ranma blinked, then nodded, "Okay."
He turned around to walk away, fully intending to leave G'nolga in her cell and sneak out of here undetected.
"Wait." G'nolga began.
Looking back over his shoulder, Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
"Kid, you do understand why I said I wouldn't help you take that bitch down, don't you?"
He shrugged, "Not really."
"Pfeh. Kids." she groaned, shaking her head irritably, "I've fought with her time and time again. Each time I joined up with some one like you, they’d want to take her down their own way. Cheating, kidnapping. Nothing was below them." she sighed, "All I want is to fight Julia. One fair, clean fight to decide who really is the best of the best."
Ranma nodded slowly, "Eh.. okay. I didn't know it was that kind of thing you two had going." he went silent for a moment, thinking, "Well. I don't mind how she goes down. If you don't mind doing some sneaky things to get the Armsmaster to agree to the fight, I sure as heck don't mind helping to set up a fair clean fight between the two of yah."
"Deal." G'nolga said suddenly. The chance to fight the Armsmaster was being offered to her! The chance to fight a fair and clean fight with her arch nemesis was the price tag for her help! Well, she'll be damned to pass something like that up!
Ranma nodded reaching for the forgotten Guards key chain.
***
Samantha yawned, pushing herself away from her desk. Standing up, she smoothed down her cloth birches some before turning away to her finished stack of paper work.
Alexander looked up for his desk, giving the human form jagwere a curious glance.
"My watch. Terry's over due for a change of shift." she shrugged, moving out of the room towards the cell area and completely missing Alexander's nod of understanding.
Samantha was bored bored bored. Oh sure, when she found out they would be guarding the Disgraced Weapon Master until a guard unit from Main Guard could escort her to her destination, she had been reasonably excited. The chance to guard such a celebrity, even if she was kind of on everyone’s shit list. The excitement didn't last very long, in fact it became a bore rather quickly all things considered.
Samantha shook herself from these thoughts, her eyes widening in surprise as she came face to fist with a creature from everyone’s Nightmares.
***
Ranma snorted, pushing the downed woman away as he sped through the hall, G'nolga and the two women he had let go out of spite for the law following him. Stopping just before the turn off where he had last seen a bunch of Edge Guards doing paper work, he leaned over to G'nolga and whispered. "Keep going. There should be some one outside waiting to get us the heck out of dodge. I'll distract these goons and catch up with you."
G'nolga nodded, running past Ranma with the two women in tow. The action caused several of the Edge Guard to jump up in surprise, ready to give chase. Ranma smirked, stepping out into view with a vicious snarl on his lips. "Let's play."
***
Tanya was getting impatient. Almost an hour had passed since Ranma had disappeared, and she felt her worry growing each and every painful second that passed with out some sign of her partner in crime.
The town was pretty much dead, anyone who was anyone had long since retired to their beds, resting for the trials and tribulations the next day would bring. Aside from a few drunks in the local tavern, all was quiet. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
"Come on, come on!' she whispered irritated, rubbing her arms to get some warmth back into her limbs.
*CRASH*
A human body exploded out the door of the jailhouse, crashing and skipping across the cobble stone street before stilling in the street.
Tanya didn't even take a moment to stare at the forms emerging from the house, immediately moving towards the horses and wagon. Unwrapping the reigns, she quickly jumped up into the drivers sear before shouting, "G'NOLGA! RANMA! OVER HERE!" she didn't see the man, but she could see G'nolga and two other figures moving in a beeline towards her.
***
Ranma ducked as a silver plated kodachi type weapon flittered overhead, countering the weird fox's attack with a brutal punch to his gut. The force of the blow flung him back towards his comrades, and like a bowling ball striking pins, knocked them all down.
Retreating down the all as fast as he could, he had to dodge bolts of fractured light and silver tipped arrows while occasionally stopping to punt another guard down the hall that had managed to catch up to him.
He emerged into the main room, not even breathing hard yet. The sounds of the guards approaching down the hall were getting louder and louder. "Damn, I need to find some way to stop them." he grumbled, looking around the room for anything that might impede their pursuit.
*SWIIIIISH*
"Shit!" Ranma shouted, ducking a hail of silver arrows as quick as he could. While most missed him entirely, two managed to pierce him through the shoulder and one in the leg. He ignored the pain as he back flipped through the room, stopping right next to the stone pillar he had seen earlier. "Kachuu houju satsu" he shouted, wrapping his arms around the support column with enough force to shatter it as if he was ripping a part an aluminum can.
The pillar fell, it's base destroyed by Ranma's Umi-sen-ken attack. Ranma turned and began sprinting for the exit, ignoring the painful arrow lodged in his leg as the roof began to tremble. The roof collapsing into itself as the rotted support beams gave way.
***
"Move it!" G'nolga roared, grabbing the two struggling women and throwing them on the wagon as it began to pick up speed. Running along side, she timed her jump just right to land next to the driver with a grunt.
The driver spare her a glance, "Where's Ranma?!"
"That cat's busy covering our escape.." G'nolga managed to bite out before a loud crashing rumble erupted behind her.
Sparing a glance back, she nearly goggled at the sight of the Jailhouse collapsing in on itself. She didn't miss the figure that had managed to clear ground Zero before getting trapped beneath the tons of broken wood and roof tiles. Even now the figure was struggling to catch up to them, and G'nolga noticed he was limping badly.
"Don't you dare slow down!" G'nolga hissed, jumping towards the back of the wagon. She idly noticed they were one body too many back here, but just didn't have the time to give a damn at the moment Grabbing it's side for support, she leaned out as far as she could with her hand. "JUMP! GRAB MY HAND!" she shouted
The were-smilodon that had freed her from prison didn't even hesitate, lunging for all he was worth. Even still, he just barely managed to catch the dwarf's hand, G'nolga grunted as her arm strained to it's breaking point from the force of suddenly pulling the creature along with the wagon, her fingers digging deep into the wood she had grabbed to stabilize herself.
Hauling the figure up, she allowed herself to collapse backwards in relief. They had made it.
***
Ranma grunted. Running with a wounded leg had not been much fun. Nodding to the dwarf, and ignoring the two women.. oh wait, make that three, though the third was unconscious for some reason, he grabbing the arrow from his leg and ripped it out, followed by the one in his shoulder.
He spared the silver arrowheads a moment of interest, before dropping the bolts to the bottom of the wagon.
G'nolga goggled as she picked up one of the fallen arrow bolts. "Silver! Shit!"
Ranma shrugged, moving up to the front, "What’s the big deal?" he asked, motioning to his already healed leg and shoulder, "Don't know why everyone thinks that stuff bothers me." he shrugged again to prove his point, before ignoring the dwarf as she stared at him wide eyed.
"Tanya!" he hissed to the driver. The woman glared back at him, before smacking him in the back of the head, hard. "Don't you ever worry me like that again! Asshole!"
Ranma looked a tad bit sheepish, but nodded, "Err, yeah. Sorry. Look, head straight until you hit the ocean. Then keep the ocean on your left and keep riding north."
"What’s north of here?" Tanya asked, sparing her friend a curious glance.
"The land of Fear, and Death's Domain." he grumbled, "I know what I'm doing. Trust me." he flashed her another of his charming smiles.
Tanya suddenly had the urge to crash the wagon into the fucking ocean.
Lets look toward:
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(Posted Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:42)
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