Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Mousse Muad Dib ❯ Chapter 12: Death Battle ( Chapter 12 )

Mousse Muad Dib

By

Mari

Co-author by rob

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is the Ó property of Rumiko Takahashi. Tenchi Muyo-Universe is the Ó property Kajishima Masaki.

Dune is the Ó property of Frank Herbert. Star Wars is the Ó property of George Lucas.

Chapter 12: Death Battle

Mousse holds onto the side of the roof and eases himself up a bit, spying the fleeting shape of his opponent. "Damn she travels pretty fast." He thinks to himself, pulling himself fully to the top and running lightly over the tiles. The darkness presses on all sides hiding in the shadows the sinister shapes of the monsters of the subconscious. The chill in the night air at first is refreshing but soon causes his breathing to be labored and harsh. It has been a long and eventful day and he hopes Shampoo decides to stop and fight soon.

Jumping onto the next roof he misses the wire that shampoo has set as a trap and starts to tumble forward and roll with the trip. Attached to the wire is a small cask that opens and a cloud of dust starts to sprinkle all around. Mousse holds his breath and jumps back quickly from the poisonous powder. His heart palpitates quickly and seems to almost want to jump out of his young chest in surprise at how quickly she set this trap.

"You will have to be smarter than that young one to beat me." Her voice echoes into the night.

"I will beat you Shampoo, this time I swear I will." He gets back up from where he has landed from his jump and surveys the immediate surroundings. Turning slowly to get his bearings he is overjoyed that they have ended up near the school grounds. At this time of night it should be safe enough for them to fight without hurting any innocent bystanders.

In the school grounds near the football posts he see's a small shadow move and starts to dash over to see if he can confront her and get this fight over with. Feeling in his robes he prepares several weapons that he has strapped to his wrists and arms. He silently starts to count the steps he makes in preparation for several techniques he had learned to enhance his hidden weapons technique.

His foot feels the ground give slightly and he backs up as the ground drops away from in front of him. Below the soft sound of dirt hitting spikes and ground can be heard. He glances quickly around and then down into the pit. Glinting in the moonlight are several spikes laid point up in the ground. "Nasty, nasty. Dirty way to fight that is." He laughs softly "I'm kinda proud of you Shampoo!" he calls out into the darkness. A flutter of sound and his arm flash's and releases several shurken into the dark, aimed a little to the left and right of the sound. The soft hiss and plunk of them hitting wood tells him all he needs to know. He missed. Bending at the waist quickly, he folds forward looking for all the world as if he had collapsed directly into the hole, but in fact, he fell over and to the left slightly landing quietly on the ground and rolling.

The sounds of small metal objects flying over his body and passing through the space he had just previously occupied tells him his instinct are still on high. "Good move, BOY!" Shampoo sneers at Mousse in contempt. "Almost got you with that one."

Kicking out with his foot he releases a hidden dagger that sails into the direction of her voice but sadly another wooden thunk lets him know that he once again missed his target.

'Damn she's fast' He thinks to himself rising quickly and dashing for the posts in the dark. A large lump at the end of the field shows the hillock that all the boys used to play king of the mountain on. It looks strange in the moonlight tonight. Larger for some reason, more ominous. A chill sweeps his body deep into his very soul and a certain feeling of dread comes over him. Did that hill just move? Impossible. He must be imagining things. But there it is again .the earth itself seems to shift and turn slightly shaking the ground slightly even from the distance that he is, he can feel it distinctly in the ground.

"Come out Shampoo, Come out and surrender." He uses the controller voice.

The shadows part slowly and Shampoo slightly dazed starts to walk out to meet him. He smiles and relaxes slightly. This may actually be easier than he thought. As she gets closer he notices her shiver and shake slightly with each step. Almost too late he ducks back and twists as her arm lunges forward into a classic snake strikes fist. Both of her forward fingers like steel enter his shoulder piercing his coat and skin to enter flesh and deflect slightly off of bone. Agony shoots through him as he continues to fall away from the punch.

Growling she continues to leap forward and sweep kicks at him with a graceful turn. He rebounds backwards off his good arm and launches himself into the dark away from her. Sweating he feels his arm catch fire and burn with an agony he has never felt before in his very short life. His fingers tingle slightly but still move. He turns his hands and twists his elbow. 'Good no nerve damage' he thanks his gods for that good news.

"What you silly boy, did you actually think I an Amazon fighter in my condition would fall for small mind games like that, bah! You are a fool" Shampoo calls to him as he lays around the building breathing slowly, focusing his mind on ignoring the pain and slowing the blood flow to his arm.

As he concentrates he notices inside himself a slight spark, a tingle of energy that he can feel starting to build. He prays for strength and can feel it return to him slowly but, yes, he can feel it. He actually feels stronger, more active. He bends his shoulder and the blood now congealed and not flowing aches like fire but is movable. 'What is this, this power I feel. How can I feel so strong now?" he questions himself and grins. Reaching into his robes he pulls out a long chain whip with a small spear at the end of it. Twirling it slowly as to make no sound he gets it into motion and puts it into his damaged hand. Twirling the rope in a way to make it look like he is just dragging his arm uselessly he keeps the chain in motion and steps out from his hiding place to confront shampoo.

She stands there grinning and starts to run quickly forward almost skimming over the ground. He notices the locket, the one his mother was telling him that was his fathers bouncing and glinting in the pale moonlight.

"Why Shampoo, why are you like this. What is it that drives you do such unspeakable evil."

She stops amazed at the termidity of this mere boy questioning her philosophy, her ways. "Evil?" She laughs her white teeth shine in the night.

Mousse stops and looks at her. He still cant help it. He has felt many things for her, love, passion, friendship, even in some ways fear. He had hoped to win her as a wife to make her his bride. His dreams dashed by the reality of her actions. The goodness in his heart. These things have to way to merge and be one. His heart breaks slightly as he realizes what he must do.

"I am not evil, I only do what I have been raised to do. To gain knowledge and power for my tribe." She steps forward a step and he tenses as he searches her for any sign of attack. The blackened steel chain swings in the night, unnoticed and unobserved by the Murderous Amazon.

"You could do it so many different ways though." Mousse argues. "You could help people, you could show others the truth and beauty that is martial arts and gain stature and harmony that way."

"Too slow, I don't wish to be an old women when I gain that prestige, I will wrest it with this new power that the old man has given our tribe."

Mousse shakes slightly at the thought, "It's poison Shampoo, It will kill you slowly and painfully, and you will beg for more of the poison before you die."

She shakes in anger at his words. "Lies, lies and jealousy." She lunges quickly and he twirls the small dagger in such a way as to slice the very air in front of him. Warding her knife thrust and slicing her hand deeply. Gasping she clutches at the wound in her hand and sucks a deep breath at the sharp tangs of pain it brings. "Tricky little duckling very tricky" and backs away quickly. Yet she is not prepared for his other strike and screams in pain as the dagger still attached to the chain rope springs forward and pierces her stomach. Clutching at her abdomen she collapses to the ground.

Rushing forward Mousse reaches down and grasps the pendant firmly and whispers "This IS mine!" and tears away the golden pendant.

Shampoo not completely finished pushes upwards using the ground as her backing and launches a punch that lifts Mousse off the ground and backwards several feet to land sprawled on the school lawn. Gasping she plucks the dagger out of her stomach and turns onto her stomach to pull herself up to continue the fight.

Mousse hears the rumble get louder and louder and the hill which he had thought had always been there splits open and a large spaceship covered in dark earth and gleaming metal slowly raises itself out of the depression. He turns limply in the direction of Shampoo and watch's her slowly get to her hands and knee's and look in his direction. Completely ignoring the amazing sight of the hill turning into a large spacecraft. The pendant he had risked so much to get no longer in his hands. A flash of thought and he realizes that it must have flown from his hands as he was stuck by her amazing punch.

A door opens in the side of the spaceship and a person dressed in black gets out. It walks mechanically towards the two and Shampoo recognizes it first and stops amazed. The darkly dressed figure stops and motions for her to go to the ship. She argues quietly first and then with a gasp she stops as the figure grabs her and holds her close for a moment and kiss's her. The tension builds in her body at first. The glow of the ship outlining the two in the dark and she starts to relax. She steps back demurely and nods at the darkly dressed figure.

As she limps towards the door a smaller figure at the door, bent and misshapen holds out a hand and welcomes her aboard.

Mousse having taken several deep breaths and relaxed his muscles sat up and stared at the mysterious figure approaching him. Standing quickly he gets into a defensive stance and places his hands quickly on several weapons that would help him.

The face resolves itself into Ranma, His friend stares at him slack jawed for a second then anger fills his face.

"You have struck my bride to be, you shall die for that stranger." He rasps.

Shocked Mousse jumps back as Ranma lunges forward with his toes pointed into a spear. The thrust aimed at the center of his chest if connected would surely have collapsed his chest, killing him instantly.

"Wait." Mousse yelled. "Ranma what are you doing."

Ranma leapt forward and Mousse barely blocks the kick as Ranma continues the assault by spinning in mid air and taking another kick at his former friend. "Who is the Ranma you speak of" The young martial artists exclaimed raspily. "I am Nakamura Sampan, servant to Ojino the Great."

Mousse dodges the forward palm thrust and strikes out at Ranma with the flat of his hand smacking his friend squarely in the chest and pushing him back.

'What can I do, I can't hurt him, he is my friend.' Mousse ponders and circles, blocking the lunges and punches that Ranma is throwing at him.

"What kind of martial artist are you? You fight like a sissy!" Taunts the mesmerized Ranma / Nakamura."

"Ranma!!!" Mousse pleads, "try to remember, we are friends. Not enemies." Ducking under a fingers forward thrust delivered by a persistent Ranma, Mousse rolls out of reach of Ranma for a moment and stares at his friend. He can hear Ojino's taunting laughter coming from the light of the entranceway into the spacecraft. Quickly turning to Ojino he swears loudly "You fiend I will get you for this."

"Your friend is no more little warrior. Today here and now you shall die." Ojino rasps loudly in the chill night with Shampoo standing only as a mere shadow behind the shriveled up shrunken image of the ancient alien dark lord.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction Ranma reach's forward and plucks at the sleeve of Mousse's shirt and pulls Mousse off balance. Tumbling into an inverted drop Mousse unconsciously lash's out with a dagger he had slipped up his sleeve and feels the soft press of the blade scoring flesh and the sibilant hiss from Ranma as the pain registers in his eyes at the mark along his left leg where the dagger landed. Kicking out, Ranma connects against the still falling form of Mousse and launches Mousse across the field to land sprawling against the trim grass of the schools practice field.

Mousse grunts as he lands and the impact makes him lose the small dagger that he had momentarily ago used so successfully. Reaching into his robe as he continues the body roll on purpose he feels the impact against the earth itself as Ranma launches a series of kicks at the previous location he had been. As Mousse continues the rolls causing Ranma to miss in his strikes he feels and finds the weapon he is looking for. A small, but very strong metallic rope, with an anchor on one end and a dagger on the other. After 6 more rolls and he notices that Ranma's strikes are getting closer and closer. Mousse jams the anchor into the ground on the flat end of his turn and lets go of the anchor holding onto the near invisible rope. Twisting his legs slightly he plays out the rope with each turn and changes his angle slightly so that he is now turn at angles to each unsuccessful strike. With a grunt he reach's the end of the rope and jumps up twisting in mid air. The result startles Ranma for a moment as he feels the steel cable surround him, entrapping him in its tight embrace. Rushing forward Mousse prepares to thrust in with the dagger feeling victorious but hesitates at the sight of his friend trusseled up in the near invisible cable.

"As you can see Ranma / Nakamura who ever you want to call your self. I am NOT your enemy I am your friend. Help me and together we can defeat this evil man."

Ranma seeing the pause and hesitation in his opponent lash's out with both feet falling down to the ground and jerking the wire from Mousse's hands. Rolling quickly he untangles himself and swears."I wont fall for that twice." And uses the wire as a lasso to swing around his head and on the second swing of his arms the anchor which had previously been firmly planted into the soft grass is pulled from its mooring and launches directly at Mousse.

Mousse not so quick doesn't see it and feels the tines of the anchorage pierce him on his left shoulder and then feels the wire go tense as Ranma takes advantage of the barb being stuck in his skin. Ranma quickly attaches the loops of cable around Mousse and trusses him up like a calf in a rodeo. Completely at Ranma's mercy Mousse stares at his friend now opponent and prays for a swift death.

Ranma gloats over the fallen foe and stands victorious over Mousse for a moment with one foot on his ex-friends face. "All shall kneel before Ojino and proclaim him master of the universe." Howled the Mesmerized Ranma. Ranma then reaches into his clothing and comes out with a wicked metal dagger, which he turns to show to the fallen Mousse. Mousses heart starts to pulse faster as he sees death approach. Whispering to himself. 'Ranma please don't.' then a glassy look comes over Mousse and he seems to feel himself floating upwards. He can now see Ranma from a different perspective. He can see him as if he were standing next to him instead of tied up at his feet. The image of it all is so clear as to be surreal, hauntingly familiar Mousse realizes he is out of his body and staring at his upcoming demise. Reaching out he wills the scene to freeze and a passing butterfly stills its wings. Silence deeper than any he had ever felt before descends on him and he looks again at the tableau of bodies. Frozen in time. Even the air seems to shimmer and pulse with pent up energy.

Reaching out with his mind Mousse moves Ranma slightly and reach's down to try to grab his own body. His ethereal hands pass through himself without feeling the firm pressing of flesh. 'I guess I'm going to have to do this with my mind like Stilgard taught me. Reaching with his mind for the energy all around him he grunts at the feeling of weight added to his thoughts. He sees his body start to rise.

"Yes that's it." He says to no one in particular.

Turning himself around slightly the agonizing slow process unweaves the wire rope that entraps him and he sets himself down on his feet several feet from Ranma. Then with a physical click he is once again standing but now everything is in motion again and he is once more in his own body.

THUD! Is the sound that echoes through the glade as the force of the dagger impacts the grassy soil and buries itself and Ranma's hand up to his forearm. Mousse winces at the thought of that blade piercing his chest, which is what would have happened if he had not moved himself away in that mysterious no-time place. Ranma looks up shocked at the fact that his prey is no long attached and tied under him. The satisfying feel of warm blood pulsing onto his blade hand is not there. Momentarily giving Ranma a sense of loss.

"How!" Ranma sputters. "That's not possible .. YOUR DEAD!" he screams and launch's himself with a frenzy at the still form of Mousse.

"No!" Mousse whispers and reach's once more out with his mind and blocks Ranma's forward momentum. Ranma rages against an invisible wall that he is powerless to break through. Yet his not aware at how Mousse flinches with each blow to the wall. Nor can he see the small bruises that appear under Mousses clothing at each blow to the protective barrier. "I hope he stops soon" Mousse whispers to himself feeling the draining effect of holding onto the barrier with his will.

"Come!" Ojino calls out to Ranma. " You will not win today. But I will show you how to defeat this." Ojino turns into the hovering ship and his silhouette disappears.

"Come to me!" Ranma growls at Mousse. "Come to me in the world of sand , the world of spice. My master says he will rule the universe from the seat of power there. Come to me and die! If you dare." With that he dash's away from the exhausted Mousse and into the glowing portal of the doorway. Moments later the door iris's shut and darkness once more rules the school ground. The ship one shadow among many. Then faster than thought itself the shape rush's forward and upward causing Mousse to duck in fear.

Mousse watch's the ship go with his enemy and his friend aboard. His heart heavy with the burden of it. Clenching his fists he vows to the stars "I will find you Ranma , find you and save you . Shampoo guard well for you murderous days are numbered." Looking at the dim lights of the school he scans the torn and abused grounds for the locket . He had to find it. He new it was here somewhere for it had fallen from his hands in the battle. Walking with a slight limp he continued to search the entire night only finding it moments after the sun rose with the first glint of dawn's light shining off the golden amulet. Placing it carefully in his pocket Mousse heads for the diner and hopes that everything has turned out ok there. For he would need the strange police officers help and Stilgards to catch up to Ojino and find this World of sand . This world of Spice . This destiny that calls to him.

Will Mousse find a way off of earth? Will Ojino rule the universe , what is in the locket that is Mousse's heritage. Will he find his destiny or die fighting Ranma / Nakamura. What is Shampoo's part in all of this and will Mousse get revenge. Stay tuned and find out this and much, much more , in the next chapter . number 13 have spaceship will travel