Project A-Ko Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Vampire Hunter (Darkstalkers) Fan Fiction ❯ Nabiki 1/2 (A Very Scary Thought) ❯ Invasion Rakshasa!... ( Chapter 133 )

Nabiki 1/2

(A Very Scary Thought)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

Based Upon the Altered Destinies Storyline

Inspired by the works of such fans as

Wade Tritshler

Richard Lawson

James Jones

And Many Others

Standard Disclaimer: This is inspired by the work of Takahashi Rumiko and is not my original creation. All characters belong to her. This is only a fanfictional work, and is not intended to compromise the rights of the original owners, distributors and publishers of the Ranma series. I have no money to spare and would very much appreciate if no one tries to sue me.

"What a revolting development this is…"

"Quiet you," D snapped, "Less lip and more chewing."

"Easy for you to say," his normally silent partner reacted, "You're not the one who has to bite through these tough vines of proto-matter! Do you have any idea what this stuff tastes like? Blech!"

"Nonetheless," D responded, "The sooner you get through this the better it will be for both our sakes. Do you think our enemies stuck us here to be merciful?"

"Thought never even crossed my mind, Boss, honest," his right hand responded before taking a few more bites out of the tough vines that were presently holding them immobile, the Vampire Hunter and his Demon Hand being stuck fast like a black-clad fly in the web of some enormous spider.

"And before you say it again," D added with some annoyance, "This was NOT the result of poor planning and the gross underestimation of our enemies, so spare me from hearing you say that because I have had it up to here with your continuous…"

"I'm through!" his hand announced with a bit more alacrity than would normally be the case, and---sure enough---the vines began to fall away from D's body, allowing him to slough off his remaining restraints and stand free once again with his dark cloak waving to some nebulous breeze kicked up by the surrounding ether.

"About time," D said with some satisfaction, "There's no telling what evil work Jeddah and Dimitri have been cooking up while we were stuck here playing little Miss Muppet…"

"That's Miss Muffet, Boss," his hand corrected, "Sheesh…sometimes I wonder if you've ever really even had a childhood. You could really stand to spend more time around some ordinary humans picking up their nuances so that you didn't always have to come across as such a hermit. Take that new girl on the block for an example…now there's a real cutie, and the best thing about her is that she's already converted, so you don't have your usual excuse for avoiding feminine…"

"Mind your own business," D snapped, "She is still very much an innocent and there is no way that I would drag such a one into my dark and dangerous business."

"Meaning you're shy and she's a bit too classy for your admittedly low standards," the hand remarked, then when it picked up on its master's harsh reaction to this it hastily said, "All right, all right, I'll admit that wasn't called for, but have a break, D-man, I'm only attached to you by the wrist, and who do you think gets all the service when you're feeling a bit too moody and need cheering up…"

D used his powers of concentration to imagine a really hard boulder, then slapped his hand against the side, palm-first, with force enough to be actually quite painful.

"OW!" his hand cried out, "What did you do that for?"

"Try listening to yourself sometime and figure it out," D said as he turned away and started searching his gray horizons, "Now where do we go to find these malefactors? Subspace is a vast, an almost infinitely large playing field, yet objects are no farther apart than your imagination, so we ought to make up for lost time and find our quarry before they can work too much mischief on the universe at large."

"Yeah," his hand replied, "But these bad guys are good at masking their presence, especially that Pyron guy. I doubt that they'd make it easy on you by giving you something to lock onto."

"True enough," D smiled, "But I can lock onto the pattern of our allies, and they have no reason to block me off, so…following their life-patterns I ought to be able to…"

All at once the black-cloaked and hatted Vampire Hunter sensed something very strong from quite close nearby, and with a softly murmured, "I wonder who that could be…?" he turned to face in a particular direction.

"Whoever it is, he's giving off strong vibes, Boss," the hand dutifully warned him, "And very close nearby by the feel of him. I'd suggest employing a great deal of caution when approaching this fellow."

"Duly noted," D replied as he reached over his back and drew an enormously curved katana-like long blade and held it at the ready, "But you know what sort of a cautious man I can be when confronting danger."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm so worried," the hand remarked, "If you get killed---permanently, that is---then what do you suppose is going to happen to me?"

"You'd leave my body and go in search of a new owner," D answered.

"True, but I'd still feel pretty bad about it," the hand grudgingly conceded, "We make a pretty fair team, and though you may not always value my commentary and rapier wit, you'd still be lost and lonely without me, admit it."

D did not deign to dignify that remark with a response and so instead began to stalk his way over to where he was sensing the incredibly strong energy signature, prepared (or so he supposed) for anything that he might encounter…and thus winding up totally unprepared for the sight that greeted him as he arrived at yet another point in the weirdly unstable frame of space and time that existed within this quasi-sub-dimension.

Rather, D was momentarily taken aback, leaving it to his hand to observe, "I don't believe this. The entire world may be coming to an end and this guy still has time enough to think about THAT?"

"Apparently," D said with understated amazement, witnessing the ancient martial arts master known as Happosai lounging around by a pool area sipping iced tea while his every care and fancy was being tended to by a gaggle of breathtakingly beautiful young women wearing lacy see-through panties.

"Ah, this is the life!" Happosai remarked in blissful contentment, "Who needs the hassle and bother of combat to interfere with a man's simple pleasures?"

It occurred to both D and his hand at that moment that many of the gorgeous women fanning Happosai down or picking grapes to feed him, or otherwise prostrating themselves at his feet in various reclining and submissive positions---while yet another girl gratefully gave him a massage to his shoulders---all bore a strong resemblance to many of their female allies of the benighted evening, everyone from Ling-Ko and her cousins to Lenore, Miyu, Yui and Yasmina to the female members of the Tendo/Saotome household with detectives Miyuki and Natsumi and some women D did not even recognize all giving one the impression that these conjured up Houri were the result of the old man's powerful and perverse imagination. It left one with a peculiar sense that the old man's priorities were somewhere other than with the mission.

"Shall I rub your feet with my chest to ease your comforts, my Master?" a girl strongly resembling Tsien-Ko asked, parting the silken fabric of her top to reveal her perfect melon-shaped breasts while another girl resembling her sister, Mei-Ling, poured tea and offered it to Happosai.

"Oh yes," Happosai said to both offers, "You girls are just too good for me…a little lower, would you, Kasumi dear?"

"But of course, honored grandfather," the girl rubbing his back pleasantly answered.

"I think that I am going to be sick," the hand remarked to its owner.

"I may just join you on that," D added as he reflected that this was coming from something that used to belong to a greater demon no less.

"Master," one of the girls looked up and remarked, "Look, we have company…and he looks very handsome."

"Not that he would compare with you for looks, Master," another girl hastily added.

"Eh?" Happosai glanced in D's direction then said, "Oh, it's you…you're Vlad's boy by that gypsy woman…what was her name again? I'm getting a bit too old, it seems, and I have trouble remembering names…"

"You no so old, Master," a girl with purple hair assured the wizened old man, "Next to great-grandmother you is strong and virile warrior…"

"Excuse me?" D asked, "You are familiar with my father?"

"Of course I am, my boy," Happosai sat upright, "Just about everyone is, not that you should believe all of the rumors about him, of course…"

"Even the ones that are true?" D asked with arched eyebrows.

"You get to be my age and rumors have a way of proving to be a mere distraction from the big picture," Happosai replied, "Course I knew you when you were little more than a mewling sprout…"

"I think that somewhat unlikely," D candidly observed.

"Pish-posh," Happosai waved the point along, "I've known Frank almost as long from the time he paid me a visit in Japan just a few years after he was created. Now, what can I do for you, Junior? Or do you prefer to play the mysterious type so you can keep the ladies guessing what your real name is, Den-"

"Pardon me, but that's no one's concern at the moment," D said a bit too hastily for it not to sound half-panicked.

"Hey, wait a minute!" his hand spoke up, "What's this about your real name? I've been attached to you for a century and even I've never learned that."

"Oh," Happosai glanced down at the hand in question, "Heard about how you lost that…terrible shame and all that. Well, at least you found a useful replacement. Now, as I was saying before…"

"We have no time for that!" D hastily snapped, "We are looking for Jeddah, Pyron, Dimitri and Morgan, to find them and put a stop to whatever it is that they are planning…"

"Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Happosai said before pausing to stroke his chin, "Come to think of it, that's what I came here to do, but when I met up with the ladies…I sort of became distracted."

"We've noticed," the hand snidely noted.

"That's the nature of this place, old timer," D explained, "This is a between-matter realm known as Limbo…or as Subspace to modern theoretical science…which shapes itself in accordance with your will and imagination…"

"Of course it does that," Happosai snapped, "Who do you think you're lecturing to here, some kind of novice?"

"Um…excuse me?" the hand said on behalf of itself and its master, "You know about subspace and the effect it has on normal human perceptions?"

"What do you think, it's my first time here or something?" Happosai shot back.

"You mean…you know that the illusions it creates are only figments of your perception…and that these young ladies here are only projections of your own subconscious given life and a semblance of token sentience by your own desires to see them in this light?"

"Of course," Happosai replied, giving both D and his hand a frankly sobering look before adding in a low voice, "You think any of these cuties would be responding this way around me if this weren't all a fantasy projection? Give an old man some credit, son, I wasn't born yesterday, but I'm not fool enough to look a gift horse in the mouth when it's presented to me either."

D actually blinked his eyes at this, then glanced down at his hand, who glanced back up at him in token acceptance of this statement as was given.

"Oh, but Master," the girl next to Happosai (who looked suspiciously like a scantily clad Nabiki Tendo) cooed, "You know that we adore and appreciate you for what you are, not what other people think about you."

"I know, girls, but it's time I got back to serious business," Happosai hopped off the divan and waved a dismissive hand in the direction of his harem, "Hopefully we'll meet again and all that when this is over, but for now…"

All of a sudden the wizened old codger turned an astonished glance off to the side, even as the hand murmured to D, "Boss…?"

"I feel it too," D said as he turned his eyes in a similar direction, "It is coming from over there, just beyond that figmentary ridge…"

"So what are we waiting for?" Happosai cried as he took off in a fast hop and run, even as his harem dissolved into the subspace proto-matter from which they had been conjured, "Some fool has opened a gate that ought to be kept shut and we have to go and close it!"

D watched the little man run off then heard his hand remark, "There goes a real pervert, even by the standards of most humans."

"Most demons you mean," D sagely noted, "In fact I would venture to say that we were just in the presence of a most extraordinary pervert, a pervert beyond most kinds of perversion."

"In other words a real freak of nature," the hand observed, "But he does have a good point…if someone has opened the gateway to the dimension of the Rakshasa…"

"Then there's not another moment to waste debating the subject of human perversion," D agreed as he started to move forward, "If the Rakshasa get loose and make it to the earth plane…"

"Right," the hand affirmed, "There's perversion and then there's obscenity, and we all know which category the Rakshasa fall under."

And with that the cloaked man (and his demon hand) vaulted into air and levitated towards the source of the coming conflagration...

"Okay," Talbain said as he stared down at Jeddah's body, "I'll admit that I never saw this one coming."

"He killed himself?" Keiko asked with a mildly disquieted expression.

"Fanatics," Pyron sniffed, "What else could you expect from one of his ilk?"

"Better him than me," Morgan said with a sigh of token resignation.

"Nonetheless," Natsume said as she looked up from the fallen Jeddah to the swirling vortex of energy that hovered above him, "His death appears to have set something in motion, and I do not like the air of foreboding that rises now within my breast."

Ranma nodded in agreement and said, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"You and me both, Ranma-kun," Nabiki murmured at her husband's side, "And if these Rakshasa characters are as nasty as everyone keeps hinting…"

"Nasty don't even cut it," Frank assured, "Rakshasa are just pure bad news, as you're gonna find out in another minute or two."

"Or less," Talbain added with evident nervousness in his lycanthropic expression.

"Oh my," Kasumi said as she stared into the gap that was forming in the air, "I have never felt anything so…so wrong in my life. It goes against the very Wa of Nature…"

"I totally agree with you, Sister," Natsume averred, "I can feel them…so evil…so cold and alien…like nothing that can be described…"

"If these truly are Rakshasa," Mousse affirmed, "And they're even a tenth as nasty as I've heard about, then we are definitely in a great deal of trouble…"

"Then bring them on," Tatewaki affirmed, holding his bokken at the ready, "They will find us more than equal to any challenge…"

"You sure about that?" Kurumi asked, "'Cause my weird vibes meter is off the charts right now…"

"And with good reason," Dimitri assured them, facing the fissure in time and space with resolute determination in his expression, "My father's realm is an unnatural void where the rules of physics do not behave the same as with what we consider normal. His kind are the dominant life form of a realm that is both dark and chilling, existing beyond the pale of earthly matter. Jeddah's ritual was intended to bridge the gap that exists between our two realms and the ring of light that surrounds our planet and protects us from such perverse and twisted creatures."

All at once a voice overhead declared, **You find us dark and unnatural, my son? But then what do you call yourself who are but a changeling half-breed of tainted stock on the side of your mother?**

"Do not speak to me about my mother," Dimitri snapped, "It was you who tainted her with your seed to produce me, your whelp of a half-breed. But I have spent long years preparing for this moment, old one, and you will find that Dimitri Maximoff is ready to meet any challenge you may have to offer!"

**Bold words coming from a weakling, Whelp,** the voice high above snapped back, **Even those useless allies that you have gathered to your cause show more spark and potential than someone who cannot even prevail against his own accursed half-brother,**

"If you think Donovan is weak then I encourage you to continue in that assumption," Dimitri dismissed, "Though we captured him and the girl through trickery and misdirection, still my hated do-gooder of a half-brother remains a danger to anyone whose cause threatens the welfare of those innocents that he so values. His strength comes only partially from the dark blood that courses in both of our veins, and once riled to anger his temper is equal to that of a hundred dragons…"

**I hear only the same tired old excuses, Dimitri,** the disembodied voice snapped back, **Show me something truly impressive and equal to your bloodline and then you may presume to face me as a worthy heir to the power of the Rakshasa!**

"You wish to test me now, is that it?" Dimitri scoffed, cupping his hands and causing a peculiar glow to surround his body, "Then come on ahead and let us settle this like father and son…!"

"Uh…Boss?" Raptor spoke up, "Y'think that's a good idea rilin'im up like that? 'Cause the vibes I be feeling say this guy's pretty strong even by yer measure."

"Yeah," BB Hood added in, "You're playing with high grade material here, Fangs, not your average level Hellstomper."

"Boss," Darkwulf all but whimpered, "I really don't think taking this guy on is such a good idea…"

"Then stay out of my way and learn for yourselves, Fools!" Dimitri shot back, "I have been waiting for this moment since the time when I could crawl on two legs and call myself even nominally human. I will not back away now when the time of my revenge is all but certain!"

"You sure about that?" Lilith asked, displaying a nervousness that was reflected in the eyes of her "big-sister," Morgan.

"Thizzz goezzz beyond what we bargained for," the Queen-Bee reflected.

"Enough talk and pointless debate," Pyron snapped, "The die has been cast, now it but awaits for you to cross over and make your challenge, Lord Mor'ghul, and then we shall see which of us is the stronger player in this particular drama."

**And you are proposing to challenge me…with him?** the Rakshasa lord sneered haughtily, and then all at once a blast of energy lanced out from the swirling vortex to strike Dimitri in the chest and send the renegade Vampire lord hurtling backwards for a fairly impressive distance.

"DIMITRI!" Morgan cried and at once took off after her vampiric partner in crime.

"Not good," Talbain said anxiously, "He just took out Fangs with one shot, which means the rest of us are toast if that Rakshasa guy nails us."

"Maybe," Frank said in more cautious tones, "Call me crazy, though…but I don't think we warrant that high on More-ghoul's attention-meter…"

"What the…?" Ranma reacted with a start.

"I feel it too," Keiko softly averred, "We've got trouble."

"Trouble?" Nabiki asked, "What kind of trouble?"

"Big trouble, sister of mine," Natsume affirmed, nodding towards the gap as they all looked up to see a swirl of shapes moving forth from the swirling mass to materialize before them all in the form of living nightmares.

To call them ugly would have been a gross understatement, for they were long and sinuous of body with multiple limbs and tentacles protruding from a torso that was more insectoid than human. They had elongated heads and distended mouths that were full of razor-sharp teeth and they had wings protruding from their backs that permitted them to glide like the long-legged terrors of the night that they were manifesting, and their crimson eyes blazed with horrifying lust for human flesh as they extended razor-sharp clawed arms and swooped down on their open-mouthed prey with a hungry need to rend, rape and mangle that was anything but human.

"Rakshasa," Frank murmured faintly.

"O-shit," Talbain murmured, "We're in for it now…"

Nabiki, Keiko and Natsume were first to encounter these strange beasts, but as they stood ready to dodge their attackers, the Rakshasa paused before them then expanded their bodies, literally opening up from the chest outward to form an enveloping cocoon that they cast about their intended prey, ensnaring all three women before they had a chance to defend against this type of assault. Once surrounded by the translucent pink membrane other tentacles reached out to grip them by their arms, legs and torsos, then even more probing tentacles thrust out to rip through the clothing on their bodies, thus exposing them to further envelopment.

"Natsume-chan!" Tatewaki cried even as he used his bokken to slice one of these horrors in twain, even as Ranma raised a hand and projected a wall of flames that balked the assault by the Rakshasa targeting him, allowing him to spare only a moment to recognize Nabiki and Keiko's plight, even though at the moment he could do nothing to assist them.

Kurumi cried out as another one of these creatures attempted to descend her way, but before it could lay a tentacled upon her body a swarm of chains lanced out to grip the horror in their embrace and arrest its forward movement, even as Mousse strained at the bit and called forth his own energies to protect his defenseless Airen.

"You---won't---touch her!" the Chinese boy snarled, momentarily ignoring the threat posed to him by other Rakshasa, who were baring their claws with a clear intent to rend him to pieces.

"Mousse!" Kurumi saw the young man's peril and forgot all about her own paralyzing fear, whipping out her ribbon and sending the force of her Ki along its length, transforming the seemingly simple piece of silk into a deadly instrument that sliced through Rakshasa bodies as though it were a hot butter knife.

Others fared less well, BB Hood and Lilith falling immediate prey to the enveloping creatures while Queen-Bee and Atros took more evasive action. Only the cyborg Gunther failed to show any sort of a reaction as the Rakshasa descended upon him from all sides, leaving it to Frank to see the peril of his nominal "nephew" as the leather clad giant cried out, "NEPH! Snap out of it! Defend yourself!"

At the last second something came alive in the eyes of the motionless cyborg, and suddenly Gunther snapped to attention and whipped out a weapon arm, and then the Rakshasa intending to strike at him were dismayed to find their situations reversed as machine-gun bullets began ripping apart their semi-ethereal bodies.

"Natsume-chan!" Tatewaki snarled as he ripped through the ranks of his opponents, pausing only to face the horrifying creature who had entrapped his beloved before leaping high in the air and bringing his bokken down in a slash that spit the creature's skull asunder.

Ranma worked his way free from those Rakshasa who had been attempting to envelope him and spared enough energy to send a jet of water lancing out from his left hand to spray the two Rakshasa presently entrapping Nabiki and Keiko, and to his amazement those horrifying creatures screamed out in pain and dissolved before his eyes, leaving both women naked but otherwise unhurt as they fell to the ground choking and sputtering on foul-tasting fluids.

"Nabiki, are you okay?" he cried as he rushed to the side of his wife, "Talk to me…what?"

All at once he felt a tingling in the air as he knelt down to cradle a moisture slickened Nabiki and to his surprise he found Kasumi standing there with her arms raised, a globe of force projecting from her hands to surround an area that included Natsume and Tatewaki as well as the sputtering Keiko.

Even as they began to take stock of the surprising field of tranquility that was keeping the Rakshasa at a distance, one of those not within their sphere of protection got caught in mid-air by yet another of the creatures, and suddenly Queen-Bee found herself swallowed whole into the monstrous belly of the demon. As all eyes turned to see her helpless struggles against the tentacles that wrapped themselves about her body the nearby witnesses were horrified to see those tentacles enter through her mouth, vagina and rectum, and then all at once her body began to dissolve before their eyes, the flesh melting away to reveal her skeleton, then her bones dissolving, and all at once she was reduced to her constituent chemical components.

"How awful," Kasumi breathed, clearly taken aback at the sight of what had just happened.

"She…she…disintegrated?" Ranma gasped.

"More like…digested, Ranma-kun," Tatewaki said with evident distaste as he held Natsume tightly in his arms and added, "And such a fate nearly befell our own loved ones but for your timely intervention, brave Kasumi."

"But…I'm not brave," Kasumi repeated numbly, glancing down at her afflicted sisters, "I'm not…I…"

"Courage is not found in brave words but brave deeds," Tatewaki informed her, "And even as changed as you are, your actions prove to me that you are the woman you have always been, the adopted sister to my beloved, who acts from the heart in no mere show of bravado. Believe in yourself and others will believe in you…as I do from this moment onward."

Kasumi looked up towards the dashing swordsman and saw the sincerity in his eyes, then at her recovering sisters, and at the shuddering form of Keiko, and though she doubted her courage was a match to these trained warriors, she knew implicitly that she would do whatever was in her power to protect them against these fearsome Rakshasa, whose intentions were clearly a threat to all that she held dear, and especially to her fellow woman…

Meanwhile someone else was struggling and writhing against the horror that had ensnared her, her eyes wide with the realization of what had just befallen a friend, and which was about to happen to her for all her attempts at winning her freedom, though mere human flesh was only fodder to the Rakshasa and she was helpless, without any weapons to manage her own defense…

"RED---NO!" Talbain cried as he saw the plight of the blonde mercenary, then like a savage beast he began to slash and hack at the creature holding BB Hood captive, showing animalistic fury as he ripped the thing to pieces then pulled the naked blonde to relative safety. She was coughing and sputtering out dissolving fluids while she whimpered like a little girl huddled in the werewolf's arms even as he drew her away from yet more of the slavering creatures.

As he carried BB Hood into the protective sphere being maintained by Kasumi, however, the Rakshasa holding Lilith captive suddenly learned of its grave error as the Succubus managed to turn the tables from within and absorbed enough energy from the creature to shrivel it up from inside, causing its body to dissolve into a puddle of bubbling acids while she stretched lithely and displayed her magnificently nude body.

"Ah…refreshing," the blue haired girl smiled, "Now who else wants a piece of me? C'mon, don't be shy…Lilith just wants to play with you boys…er, you are boys, right? Oh well, I never was too discriminating about my bed partners…"

Those Rakshasa who had just witnessed the fate of their dissolved comrade looked back at the succubus dubiously then seemed to internally debate the wisdom of her proposal…

"My lord?" Morgan asked from where she was kneeling over Dimitri.

"Do not concern yourself with me, Woman," the vampire said testily as he managed to sit up on his own power, "Rather defend yourself, for we have company come calling."

"Indeed?" Morgan turned an angry glare to those Rakshasa nearest to her and said, "More fools they to think that they can take the rightful queen of Makai as one defenseless."

All at once tendrils of dark energy lanced forth from her body to pierce Rakshasa flesh and rend those hapless demons asunder. Dimitri rose to his feet and began snarling, baring fangs and clawed hands as he prepared to unleash his own deeply suppressed fury on the minions of his inhuman father.

No longer held in check by her fears Kurumi was everywhere active fighting back-to-back at the side of Mousse while the two of them managed to fend off yet more of the Rakshasa with chains and ribbons that held the horrifying creatures at a distance.

Frank had a more blunt approach to dealing with his share of the Rakshasa, using his fists to batter them like clubs when they got within his considerable arms reach. His bio-electrically-charged golem flesh was impervious to the best efforts of these demons, and when he struck with enough force there was no doubt to be had that they felt it as many openly dissolved, having lost all coherent hold over their basic dimensions.

Similarly, Pyron was having no difficulty swatting the Rakshasa who dared to challenge him away before burning their bodies into ashes, seeming almost palpably bored at the lack of any real challenge posed to his fiery body by the hideous creatures, a point of fact that he confirmed with his next comment.

"This is pathetic!" he snarled, "I would have expected better from the fearsome legends regarding your Rakshasa minions. Is this the best that you have to offer me, lord Mor'ghul?"

**Of course not,** the Rakshasa Lord replied, **This was merely a testing phase to see how formidable you and your allies might be, but while you dally here yet more of my minions are slipping past you and invading the Earth plane, seeding the way for my eventual crossover.**

"What?" Frank whirled about only to find a second vortex had opened through which dark shapes were moving, "Oh no…this is bad…way awful…"

"Frank?" Talbain asked as he crouched outside of Kasumi's protective force-globe, "What are we gonna do?"

"No choice about it," Frank snarled, "We need Donovan…the REAL one! He's the only one of us who can cope with an enemy force numbering in the hundreds…maybe even thousands."

**Try millions, fools,** Mor'ghul boasted, **Slay a dozen, slay a hundred, slay a thousand of my minions and thousands more will advance to replace them. As powerful as you may be you cannot hope to stand against such numbers, and sooner or later my forces will overwhelm and devour your flesh, and then all of the earth plane shall stand open and defenseless before the fury of my legions! You are doomed no matter how you attempt to defend yourselves, and soon I will claim the victory denied to my dark sire long ago…**

"Uh oh," Ranma murmured faintly to himself before looking down at the recumbent woman in his arms and saying, "Nabiki…come on, snap out of it! We need you! I need you…come on, you're stronger than this…"

Nabiki opened her eyes and looked up into his then said, "R-Ranchan …wha…?"

"Whoo, what a rush," Keiko managed to say as she rolled over onto her side and ceased heaving up her guts, "I've swallowed a lot of crap in my time, but this…"

"Natsume-chan…please, speak to me," Tatewaki urged of the woman who lay huddled in his own arms.

"C-C-Cold…" Natsume murmured faintly, "So cold…so…alien…inhuman…"

"I hear you," Nabiki blinked then managed to sit upright, "What happened? What did those…things do to me?"

"To us you mean?" Keiko replied, "Nothing much, maybe dissolved a layer of skin at most, but not as bad as being digested altogether. I think the guy who had me was kind of sweet on redheads and wanted to chew his food a little. Can't fault those tentacles, though…almost as sweet a ride as I used to get with the Kraken."

"You would say…I'M NAKED?" Nabiki said with a start, taking in the fact that Ranma had removed his shirt and was offering it to her with an apologetic expression.

"This is…highly undignified," Natsume murmured as she reluctantly accepted the top part of Tatewaki's gi and wrapped it around her moistened torso.

"Gee, no one's offering me a shirt?," Keiko complained, then smiled, "Oh well…I do my best fighting without restrictions, and who needs clothing anyway, especially around those guys?" she nodded towards the rapacious monsters being held at length by Kasumi.

"Will you be all right, Sisters?" Kasumi asked.

"Oh yeah…just peachy," Nabiki tried to sit up but found she lacked the strength, so she reluctantly refused the shirt offered to her but gladly accepted Ranma's assistance in remaining upright, "So…those are Rakshasa, huh? I feel like filing a claim for sexual harassment…"

"That's Rakshasa for you, Nab-chan," Keiko smiled with her usual resilient humor, "Tentacle rape beasts par excellence, never miss an opening they can't invade when they try and impregnate you with their seed…"

"Impregnate?" now Nabiki did sit upright under her own powers, shock and horror evident in her expression.

"Yeah, but these guys were more into eating us than raping us, so I wouldn't worry too much over that," Keiko said as she got to her feet on her third attempt, "The thing that's worrying me is…what are those things doing on the earth right now if they've managed to penetrate all the way through to our world?"

"Nothing good," Ranma assured them, the tattoos on his arms flowing and rippling as he stared up towards the glowing vortex through which these monsters had been pouring out the whole time that they had been talking, "I think I know what that Mor'ghul guy's up to, and it's nasty."

"Then…we must…go to earth to defend…our loved ones," Natsume managed to say as she sat up in the lap of her fiancé.

"My love, you best not go anywhere at the moment," Tatewaki urged, only to look up to see Kurumi and Mousse joining them as the swell of Rakshasa pressed in thickly beyond the barrier held erect by Kasumi.

"Oh my," Kasumi herself remarked as she stared at the hideous creatures seeking to ravish and devour both herself and her loved ones, and all at once she knew a previously unknown resolution that filled her being with heretofore unfelt determination. With hardly any effort she expanded the radius of her globe of protection, forcing the creatures back while sparing Talbain and Frank, who seemed surprised at no longer finding themselves in the midst of heavy action.

"This must end soon," Kasumi said simply, "Or innocent lives will be lost to these horrible creatures."

"Er…right," Frank turned to regard the young woman who seemed to radiate an inner light that repelled the creatures of pure darkness.

"We gotta close the gate somehow," Talbain said, "Seal up the portal that's letting the Rakshasa in here…only to do that we need Donovan badly."

"Agreed," Kasumi said with quiet resolution, "But how can we contact him?"

"Good question," Ranma said as he stared at his tattooed arms then said, "Anyone got a suggestion?"

"Huh?" Talbain said, "Talking to yourself, Kid?"

"In a manner of speaking," Ranma replied, then he nodded and said, "Okay, it's up to you, go get 'im, Karina."

"Hah?" the fully nude Nabiki reacted, "Karina? Who the heck is…?"

All at once Ranma's right hand glowed a bright golden coloration, and then something shot from the tips of his fingers taking the form of a fast-moving winged object that was a blur to the eye though it left an impression of something distinctly feminine in outline.

"Whoah," Keiko said before giving Ranma a side-glance, "You have been busy, Boyo."

"Ah…yeah," Ranma winced, "About that…"

"Save it for now, Kid," Frank said, turning to the others and saying, "I just hope Donny gets here in time. I don't like the way those Rakshasa are swarming on both ends of the gate. We could be talking major invasion here, and if they attack in the numbers Ghoul-face was suggesting…"

"Then they will overwhelm the earth and turn our world into a charnel house," Tatewaki averred, "Unless we somehow manage to stop them here and now before this goes any further."

"Agreed," Natsume averred softly, "Only…what? Those…things are nearly unstoppable save by extraordinary means, and when they captured me…when they captured us up into their foul gullets and subjected us to such loathsome abuse…"

"Right," Nabiki nodded, "Like being with Madam Lao's pet Kraken, only worse…much, much worse."

"Hey, the Kraken's a pussycat compared with the Rakshasa, who ain't too concerned with the welfare of their victims," Frank said in a somber voice, "I just hope that the guys we left behind can handle whatever gets through. Vampires can kill Rakshasa, but even a Master can be overwhelmed if you send enough of the murderous buggers up against them…"

Even as these sentiments were spoken a war-zone was breaking out in the formerly sleepy graveyard adjoining to the suburbs of Nerima. The vampires and their allies, plus several dozen heavily armed police officers and SWAT team members were all caught by surprise as the gateway flung open and admitted a mass of hideous, swarming shapes that swooped down over everyone before the impulse to shoot could reach those with fingers on weapon triggers.

"Rakshasa!" Leguire exclaimed in shocked disbelief.

"What's happened?" Yasmina asked, "How did they…?"

"Talk later!" Lenore cried out, even as a creature descended upon her, and all at once she launched herself right at the monster and slashed it with her hand, which automatically distended nails as sharp as claws that tore into the Rakshasa flesh and caused the creature to scream as though its very soul were being torn from its body.

The same could not be said for the various policemen and women under siege by the winged beasts, and before anyone could do more than squeeze off a single shot the wave of nightmarish horrors was upon them, and one by one the humans went down, engulfed by the enfolding flesh envelopes that the creatures used to entrap their victims.

Two policewomen in particular were the first to fall prey to these horrors, but in the case of Miyuki and Natsumi they were fortunate enough to have allies near to hand who were quick of wit and twice as homicidal. Leguire moved before the Rakshasa even knew there was a vampire in their midst and suddenly the two engulfing the off-duty policewomen were sliced cleanly open, waves of energy leaching out from the creatures into Leguire as he fed upon their deaths, growing stronger in the process as he turned to lash out at other creatures that were only just then turning to confront him. He reigned havoc in the midst of those foul demons while the two women he had just liberated coughed and sputtered at their near-encounter, a rescue that-unfortunately-was none too evident in the case of many of their police brethren, both male and female.

Entrapped in the midst of the Rakshasa stomachs those hapless victims were left to writhe and struggle with impotent efforts that were muffled by the liquid folds of the ethereal creatures. The Rakshasa drained their victims even while inducing stimulating sensations to their central nervous systems, waiting until the moment of peak ecstasy was reached before unleashing powerful stomach acids that dissolved their prey into their constituent chemical components. In this manner eighteen policemen and women perished while their comrades looked on in horrified amazement, while yet more of their number succumbed to the Rakshasa, even as the remaining officers finally gave into their warrior instinct and unleashed a deadly salvo of bullets and buckshot, all to little avail as much of their projectile weaponry passed harmlessly through the ethereal bodies of these predatory creatures.

But one human proved to be less impotent than the rest, and her sword was of a fine tempered steel that could slash through anything, either living or unliving. Rakshasa after Rakshasa met its end with a high-pitched scream as Nodoka wove a deadly pattern with her family's katana and claimed every creature that came within reach of her all-too-effective sharp-edged weapon.

"Fight you two!" she snapped to the side as Soun and Genma cowered behind a pair of headstones.

"Fight?" Soun asked, "But…with what?"

"Anything, Tendo-kun," Genma responded as he saw his wife standing alone in the midst of their adversaries, then spotted the discarded Naginata left behind by Natsume and snatched it up, turning it into a helicopter-blade like glaze of steel and fury that began felling Rakshasa at a distance, soon rivaling the total racked up by his wife in fallen and dissolving demonic bodies.

"Oh hell," Soun declared when he reacted with a start, finding the hilt of a sword being handed to him, and with a look of surprise he found Leguire was the one who was making him the offer.

"I assume you know how to use one of these?" the French Vampire asked before turning and using his claws to rend the flesh of yet more Rakshasa victims.

Soun never got the chance to make a verbal response as he was soon seen fighting for his life with the rapier being wielded Chinese-style and Soun fighting furiously to reach the side of his best friend and Genma's wife, the three of them holding their ground against the deadly tide seeking to overwhelm them.

Meanwhile Julian was darting about with his twin blades, slicing through Rakshasa as if weaving a dance of death that cleared the center of all evil creatures who came anywhere near him. Chloe the Werewolf had already taken on the bestial form of her ancestors and was slashing Rakshasa with powerful blows that left dissolving bodies everywhere within her wake. As for Kiima the Ghost, the first Rakshasa who came near her learned to its ruin that her ethereal nature was altogether deadly to its kind as she seemed to expand and contain the deadly creature, then tore him apart as effectively as if he had been subjected to a Cuisinart, leaving nothing behind but rapidly dissolving pieces.

"Not good!" Yasmina called out as she found herself fighting back-to-back with Leguire, standing guard over the remaining humans, who had somehow managed to wind up huddled together between several overturned police cars.

"You are right," Leguire said, "There are too many of them and not enough of us to staunch the tide, and they keep coming."

"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" Lenore asked, ducking low beneath a claw slash that came close to decapitating her.

"We keep fighting until we drop, of course," Julian responded, "Unless, that is, you have a better suggestion."

Leguire was about to say something when he felt a tugging at his pant leg and glanced down to see a fierce-eyed and determined Natsumi looking up at him, then very clearly the policewoman said, "How do we kill these creatures?"

Leguire turned to regard the encircling mass of Rakshasa, who were now formed solid ranks to contain the defenders like rabid hounds that had surrounded the hunters. Licking his lips the Loire Vampire said, "Several means come to mind, but none that we can use. Rock salt and any electrolyte will cause a massive disruption to their energy matrix, but as for bullets…you have to hit them precisely in the forehead, right where the pineal gland would be located in a human…"

"That's all I need to know," Natsumi replied, and then she took a revolver borrowed from a fallen comrade and place three quick shots into the foreheads of the nearest of the Rakshasa.

Those creatures cried out and dissolved before the eyes of their astonished comrades, leaving Natsumi to smile as she took careful aim at the rest and said, "Anybody else feel lucky?"

Miyuki cocked her own weapon and took careful aim then said, "Care to make a wager over which of us is the better shot here, Monsters?"

Other surviving officers got the hint and quickly pointed their weapons at the hideous faces before them, while the Rakshasa snarled, momentarily checked by this threat, though clearly intending to press the battle again at any moment.

Yasmina risked a quick glance at Leguire and said, "Are you smiling, Jean?"

"It's just that I am suddenly remembering what it is I like so much about humans," the Loire replied, "They live short and shallow lives, but some know how to live indeed."

"Really?" Miyuki asked, "And I just thought you liked us because we taste like ketchup."

"Detective, you wound me," Leguire said in mock derision, only to pause and cock his head to one side then say, "Odd…what is that sound?"

"Sounds like a motorcycle," Lenore spun around, "And it's coming fast…this way!"

Chloe looked up from where her jaws were dripping with black ichor and her bestial face took on a surprised expression. Kiima read her intentions and said, "Yes, I too recognize the motorcycle in question."

"Really?" Julian said as he turned around and got a very surprised expression, "Holy…!"

That was when the night suddenly opened up and the fireworks began in earnest. A motorcycle nearly as large as Frank's Monster came vaulting high into the night air spitting rockets of death into the massed ranks of the Rakshasa, then---while still in mid-air---the rider hopped up onto the back of the seat and vaulted high into the air, executing a perfect somersault before unslinging a blade that it had kept in a back sheath, a blade that snapped out to twice its folded length and was all at once slicing through Rakshasa after Rakshasa, further thinning their ranks even before the mysterious rider touched down on top of the roof of a nearby police car, larger than life and black clad in gleaming leather.

For a moment Miyuki gasped, "Ken?" earning a sour look from her partner, but then Miyuki added, "No…not Ken…I mean…Nakajima-san…but…who?"

Very calmly the black-clad rider reached up and removed the helmet that he-or rather SHE-was wearing, and then a long mane of hair spilled down her back, black to the sides but utterly white down the center, forming a streak four inches wide like a skunk's tail. The womanly figure herself was huge and quite impressive, easily over six feet-plus and yet oddly well proportioned. She tossed her helmet to one side then smiled…the kind of smile that a dragon might wear, and then nodded towards the Rakshasa and spoke in a voice that was deep, deceptively mild and yet hinting of real mischief.

"Good evening," she said, "My name is Eve, and it's the last name you boys will ever hear. I've heard that Rakshasa feast on female prey because you like to rape and devour them. Well, as you can see I was made to be quite female, but if you want a piece of me then you are going to have to step forward and…try me."

Julian shuddered, "Oh no…I knew it, it's her!"

"Her who?" Natsumi asked.

"The Bride," Leguire said in tones of fear and reverence, "The bride of our much feared master!"

"Bride?" Miyuki blinked, "You mean…? Oh…"

"One and the same," Eve bowed with a flamboyant wave of her sword, "Made flesh of all womanhood, and of top rate manufacture if I do say so for myself. But is there no man here…or creature…who will take me up on my little offer?"

The Rakshasa ranks snarled viscously and started to advance, leaving Eve to smile and say, "Chivalry is not entirely dead it seems. You boys know how to show a girl a good evening."

"Oh my," Nodoka remarked as the Rakshasa horde dove mercilessly at the lone giant of a woman, yet somehow Eve seemed confident and proud as she stood at the ready, and then the battle was joined in a bloody no-holds-barred fury as tempered steel began to weave a deadly tale of feminine fury…

Continued

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