She had come to Lirith, left her home when her son, Rook, asked for her to take care of a certain nuisance. She really didn't see the point behind it, since these people had only bothered the organization once, and they hadn't even realized it. Still, she loved her son, maybe not as much as his brother, but there was still some honest affection in her cold dead heart.
King was a Banshee, and aside from the white shoulder guards, sword and shield; she pretty much looked like one. Long flowing white hair with pale blue skin and white shimmering eyes. She had no legs, but for a specter like her that's what one would expect, she simply hovered a few feet off the ground.
Ranma sighed. "King king kingy wingy. To what do we owe the horror of your presence?" he bit out sarcastically. Geesh, what did he do to piss this bitch off. "Oh wait, your not part of that Trioca thingy are you?"
King frowned. The boy seemed rather calm considering he was about to be ripped in half, at least the failure of an assassin Jato was properly quaking in his boots. He knew what she was going to do. She snorted, "So your Ranma Saotome.." she made it a point of looking him over, before wailing, "Your too weak." she sounded extremely disappointed.
Jato shivered, backing up against the wall, "Ah... heh... Ah.."
Ranma shrugged, "Weak, Strong, I'm the guy with the.." he started stuttering, as he realized he didn't have a gun, before grinning, "... Legs!"
King sweat dropped.
Jato snuck out of the room while the others were distracted. He didn't want to die, and he wasn't stupid enough to go up against the specter and expect to get out of it alive. Too bad for that Ranma guy, he was kinda cool.
***
Cecila snorted, parting her purple hair slightly. "You." she growled at the thugs around her, "Get that wagon loaded, and get out of here. I'll handle my dear Theo-woojie."
Theo grunted, pulling the arrow from his hand and healing the wound as quickly as he could. It's gotten a hell of a lot easier since he joined up with Ranma. That might have something to do with the constant life threatening events that he caused, but that really didn't matter. Leaning up against the table, Theo grunted, "What's in the wagon?"
Cecila smirked. She didn't feel like fighting with Theo just yet, or more appropriately, she couldn't until the wagon got the hell out of here. She still had her job to do, despite her personal feelings for the mage, "Odds and ends. Nothing important."
"Forgive me if I don't believe you." Theo bit out sarcastically, "I am curious."
"Oh? Whatever about dearest woojie?" Cecila chirruped, idly unbuckling her rapier and setting it down. She wasn't very proficient in hand to hand, but so oh so loved to grapple the younger mage. He certainly had a scrumptious enough body.
"If you're working for these people, why did you warn us? Why tell us exactly where this place was?" Theo had a suspicion it was a trap, but a trap for whom he didn't know.
Cecila shrugged, "Trap." she said simply, confirming his thoughts, "Boss knew that Ranma kid would jump at the chance for some danger, and you two would naturally follow to keep him from doing anything stupid." Not that it ever helped.
Theo grunted, but nodded, "Rather obvious ploy." he wasn't fooling anyone with his pathetic whining. It was rather obvious, how come none of them had pointed it out before coming here anyway? This has to be Ranma's fault! It's always his fault!
"Yo! Bi..eer.. Cecila! Wagon's loaded, were gettin the heck outta this place." one of the thugs called back as he whipped the horses, the wagon lurching forward as it began to move.
Theo sighed, pulling out a clear amethyst gem. "One chance..." he sighed to himself. Ranma was going to be pissed he used this expensive magical component, but it was worth it Theo thought.
Jumping from behind his table, Theo shouted, "BRUNT!" a smaller than previous vortex of magical energy shot from his hand directly towards Cecila. The woman dodged, rolling away and completely missing Theo as he threw that gem towards the wagon. The gem shimmered briefly when it hit its wooden side, before crumbling into dust, it's magic spent.
Cecila grinned, coming up from her roll and lunging at the mage. Unable to side step, she forced him to the ground and straddled his hips. She pulled back her fist to punch, but stopped suddenly when she felt the edged point of an arrow being pressing into the back of her neck. Just how the hell did she of all people sneak up on her?
"Get off of him, slowly." Pantha ordered with a twitch in her eye. She was not amused with the way she was straddling his hips, or the goofy grin on Theo's face. No, she was not amused one bit.
***
Ranma rolled forward, just in time to dodge a sword strike from King. Coming to his feet, he jumped in the air slightly to avoid another swing to his legs, countered with a quick kick, which she blocked with her shield and he used as a base to flip back and away from the pissed off specter.
"Stand still boy!"
"Eat me, you hag!" he spit at her in defiance.
"AIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
Ranma winced as her scream threatened to blow his head off. He wasn't totally unprepared for this attack, but it was still hurting like all hell. Plugging up his ears to dull the horrendous sound of her shrilly little voice, he stalked forward. Funny thing about King and her screams, she can't do anything but scream while she's screaming.
Ranma pulled back, and punched her in the face, only to gawk in surprise when his hand passed through hitting absolutely nothing.
King stopped screaming, and started laughing like the girly banshee she was, "You idiot! I'm a ghost! An apparition! You can't hurt me with your fists!"
Ranma snorted, "Gee, I'm such a retard I couldn't figure that out, yah dick."
"That wasn't very nice." King pouted, Ranma wanted to barf. Gah, who the hell knew King could get so freaken ugly when she was sad?
Ranma sweated. Okay, it was do or die time. He knew he couldn't hit her with his fists, and at the moment his magic wasn't going to do him a bit of good. He spared his mythiril-studded gloves a traitorous look, before coming back to the problem at hand. He didn't have a magical weapon to hurt King with, he couldn't access the ethereal stream, and to make matters worse his pride and joys were ineffective against this specter. Damn, who would of known? He had always thought he could beat anything with his fists. Pfeh.
"Yo King!" Ranma looked thoughtful, idly rubbing his chin, "Your dead right?"
King nodded, lifting up her sword to slice the pathetic human in half.
"Ahrhat." Ranma nodded. It was a long shot, but he figured what the hell. Summoning up his battle aura, he jumped at the banshee. To his eternal relief, and her shock, his fist connected this time. Pressing his advantage, he grabbed her by the head and head butted her. King staggered back as Ranma's life force sent screaming shock waves of agony through her body.
Ranma didn't waste any time and leaped at the ghostly woman, fist and feet blazing as he pummeled her body with life-saturated waves of his spirit.
King collapsed to the ground, dazed. She had numerous blistering burns over her body that were steaming. She couldn't believe it! He was using his pure life energy to hurt her! That was something she had never seen before, and she had no clue how to combat a fighter who used that source against. Growling, "This isn't over boy. Not by a long shot! Queen will get you!" she suddenly dispersed into a gaseous wind, before vanishing entirely.
Ranma blinked, "Eh.. that was easy."
***
Later that night.
Hanzo sniffed, "That wasn't a nice bed time story."
Ranma shrugged, "Never said it had to be a nice one, did I?"
"But papa.." Hanzo started, rubbing his expressive little eyes to try and combat the tears.
Ranma snorted, "Your father ran out like a sissy, leavin me ta fight the big bad banshee! What the heck does he do?!? He gets mauled by a pack of gophers and nearly killed!"
Jato, in a full body cast, tried to come up with something to say to that, but lacked the ability to speak at the moment. It wasn't really fair! He had mad it out into the street before a hoard of ravenous gophers came out of nowhere and attacked him!
"Pfeh. Get to bed kid. You'll need ta rest to take care of yah father when you get up."
Hanzo sniffled, "Rannie? You'll always be my friend, right?"
Ranma blinked, then nodded, "Unless you A. Come to kill me. B. Come to marry me. Or C. All of the above."
Hanzo didn't understand a word of that, but nodded and closed his eyes.
***
Later, at the Inn and Tavern our intrepid Trio were staying at...
"So?" Theo chuckled nervously. Pantha was giving him a real mean glare. She was still upset about Cecila groping him, but it wasn't like he had a choice in the matter!
Ranma grumble, "Well, it was pretty much a whole pointless lot of nothing."
Pantha sighed, still glaring at Theo, "It was a trap. A trap this Trioca set up for us."
"Yeah, I gathered as much." Ranma drawled, "Hey Theo?"
"Yeah?"
"You remember that time in Durpan after we got kicked out of Gneiss's place, before we went after the Tumblin brothers?"
Theo nodded dumbly. What did that have to do with it.
"I ran into King back there. That Banshee chick. She seemed hell bent on killin me.."
Theo paled slightly, but nodded, "Well, that's not good. If the Four Knights are involved..."
"Four knights?" Ranma blinked! First he heard of them.
Pantha grumbled, "King, the Warrior Banshee of the North. Rook, Undead Knight of the East. Queen, Vampire of the South, and Bishop, Holy Priest of the West."
"Yeah.." Theo grunted. This wasn't good.
"Hey.." Ranma blinked, "She did say something about Queen getting me. Yah think that means this Queen chick will be comin after me?"
Pantha drawled, "Gee? Ya think?"
Ranma frowned. That wasn't good. "So what do we do now?"
"Now, we track where that wagon went." Theo deadpanned.
"Eh? Why? How the heck are we gonna track that? Wagons come and go all tha time!" Ranma asked curiously.
"I managed to attach a tracker before Cecila.." he grimaced when Pantha kicked him under the table, "Before Pantha dealt with Cecila."
Ranma nodded, slowly, "Whatever happened to Cecila anyway?"
Theo paled.
Pantha smirked.
***
"Could some one PLEASE stop staring and cut me down?" Cecila cried, hanging upside down from a lamppost in her birthday suit. No one listened to her, many to busy ogling her breasts and unmentionables. Her weasel was nowhere in sight. Just where the heck was Happo when she needed him?
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(Posted Wed, 28 Jan 2004 22:35)
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