[Episode 94340] [Episode 94340]Neko-Ranma was surrounded by enemies. This was not a playful cat turned loose in Furinkan though.
The two enemies came apart, their armor holding against claws of chi but their flesh shredded where it wasn't covered. Continuing strikes against the two finally broke through that tough armor, and then Neko-Ranma turned her attention to the room she was in.
Escape.
Ranma hissed at that light mental touch. Like someone needed to tell her THAT!
The walls were a good deal tougher than the armor, but eventually they fell too. By that time there was an ambush set up, but they hadn't expected Ranma's speed as she exited. Blasts scored ceiling and walls as she twisted and leapt.
Then she was among one of the groups.
These too were enemies.
Ranma had killed five more before breaking free and charging around the corner.
Weapons fired twice, one sending a wave of pain and nausea through her. Another leap though, and open sky beckoned.
Another hit and a wave of pain and weakness. Just a little farther though. Just a little farther.
Then the world was swallowed in flame.
One of the Dead Boys began scraping up the biological parts of the debris. Best to placate the lab boys when possible. "Not much of her left."
The Major sounded bored. "Plasma grenades do that. Stupid d-bee, getting out into the open like that where we had a clear field of fire."
The deconn worker looked up. "I felt some psi activity there at the end, but apparently it didn't work - whatever she was trying."
"Humanity is the only true race, everything else is naturally inferior," said the Major. "That's why we'll win this war and take the Earth back."
Ranma drifted in and out, aware of the pain but something was holding it back.
A woman's voice spoke, thick with some unidentifiable accent. "I've got the recordings they made, why you wanted them I have no idea."
A man's voice, old and somewhat sly-sounding. "Because you can never tell, my dear Phantom, what will come in handy. Afrom, how goes it?"
Another voice, male and somewhat inhuman-sounding. "He's right buggered up and beyond my abilities to do much. I can heal the soul and psyche and mend some of the flesh. Missing parts I can't replace though. Can't do partial artificial limbs though - the curse he's got makes it so cybernetics or bionics would have to change sizes and that's beyond any such tech I'm familiar with. I'm keeping him in a drowsy state and keeping the pain at bay, though this is as far out of it I can bring him without the pain kicking in and he maybe injuring himself further from that."
Ranma slowly opened his eyes. A woman who looked vaguely familiar, dressed in a suit of plastic-looking armor painted in city camouflage patterns. An old man in armor that looked to be made of leaves. A humanoid wolf in armor similar to the woman's but decorated in odd symbols.
"We arranged you to be freed and then got you out of there before they would have killed you," said the wolflike being named Afrom. "Not that that went at all well. You're not in good shape though. Need decision from you."
"You are counted as a hero of sorts," said the woman. "One of the caravanserie had listed you as a new employee, so we can bill Jabberworks for some of this and get access to things a poor group of adventurers might not. We need to know though, what you'd have done."
"How... bad?" croaked Ranma, knowing from what he was feeling that it was pretty bad. What he could remember he didn't want to.
"You've lost an eye, most of your right arm, both legs, your skin has been burned pretty badly, some vertebra were cracked, and it's doubtful you'll be able to hear out of that one ear," Afrom told him. "There's several things we can try but we have to go with one now. We're still in Coalition territory and we have maybe a couple of days before they sweep through here again."
"...choice?" gasped Ranma.
"Afrom here is a psychic healer and priest," said the old man. "He can try to petition his god for a miracle to heal you. Thing is that Forseti is likely to demand something from you for that. IF the god answers at all."
"Most likely service," offered Afrom. "He is into the whole eye-for-an-eye thing being a god of justice. It's usually pretty iffy to get something though in this case it may be exceptional enough."
"We can go with full bionic conversion," said the old man. "There's a cyberdoc nearby we can bribe, and we've got this android frame that can be rigged into a bionic form. It has to be full though. Your girl form is of sufficiently different size that you'd rip the bionics loose whenever you changed."
"We can try a final option," said the Phantom Lady. "There's supposed to be a Splugorth that is a bit less nasty than his cousins - present him with something really curious and he's supposed to get downright amicable. At least in comparison to other Splugorth. They've got their bio-technology which might be able to shift enough to replace your limbs even if they'll likely look pretty bad."
"one more," croaked Ranma. "Could die."
"There is that, but if you've survived all this, your will to live is pretty strong," pointed out the old man. "No matter which option you choose, we have to start now. Since you have to live with the results, what is your decision, young warrior?"
Ranma tried to lick his lips and his tongue noted the rough cracked feel of them. Decisions. He'd never been that good at making them, had he? Still, he was out away from those Koala-lotion guys and for the first time in his life wanted to hit the payback trail. Dead he couldn't do that. Not to mention stupid Akane knocking him out and leaving him to go through all that.
Ranma forced his mouth to work again. "I choose-"
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(Posted Wed, 03 Mar 2004 18:44)
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