Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Umbra Aureola ❯ Chapter 20 - Free the Nukes ( Chapter 20 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Xylix 
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Adventure / Action / Martial Arts | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.22.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 467 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Adventure / Action / Martial Arts | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.22.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.1K | Visits: 467 | Status: Completed
CHAPTER XX: FREE THE NUKES!
"Hmm, a secret meeting. I feel like I'm in some sort of secret organization." Nabiki said.
"Um... actually I think we are." Ranma replied.
"That wasn't supposed to be answered." Nabiki replied back in turn to Ranma with a light voice.
Anito laughed and then cut in with a grin. "As much as arguing the secrets of the not so secret secret meeting... I would rather get more directly to the point."
"Do be a dear Anito... You still owe me quite a bit." Nabiki said sliding in the reminder of Anito's promised pay into the conversation.
"Hey, I don't get pay." Ranma said with a glare.
Anito coughed, "That would be because you are still working off a debt. Pay will be taken care of soon Nabiki. First I have to get rid of the rather annoying and pressing matter of Kinjakan."
"Well then by all means." Nabiki said giving her go ahead.
Anito chucked continuing with a grin. "For the most part everything is prepared for the completion of the artifact. Unfortunately, I lack a key ingredient, true essence of fire. This matter is made worse by the fact that there have been to my knowledge no reports of even a single witness of true essence of fire in the last two thousand years. Luckily, the true essence of fire can, like most mystical ingredients, be mimicked, but it requires that I have a... very abundant source of energy."
"If you are borrowing electricity you are going to pay for it." Nabiki stated.
"Why do I know this is going to be bad, and is going to involve me." Ranma muttered to himself. "Oh wait, because it is always bad and always involves me."
"My first thoughts exactly Nabiki. Unfortunately, the desired amounts of energy are too great to be provided by reasonable electrical expenditure. It was then that I read this." Anito tossed a news paper on the table. "It immediately occurred to me that I can help remedy a political situation and ... solve my personal dilemma at the same time."
"Hmm, didn't know you played diplomat." Nabiki picked up the paper and read the headline out loud. "United States and Russia discuss nuclear arms reduction treaty. If you are thinking what I am thinking I must say that I need to see your qualifications."
Ranma scratched his head. "What are you...," suddenly it dawned on Ranma exactly what they were talking about. "You have got to be kidding me. You are going to use nukes to provide the juice for Kinjakan!"
"That is one way of putting it." Anito said with a grin. "I prefer to think of it as advantageous use of resources while encouraging a good trend. Oh, and Nabiki here are my qualifications. I wouldn't play with plutonium if I didn't know what I was doing." Anito tossed a framed paper to Nabiki.
Ranma let out a snort at Anito's comment. "Yeah, you would."
Nabiki ignored the pigtailed martial artist. Looking at Anito she raised an eyebrow. "PH.D in physics from Tokyo U. I must say I'm impressed, you didn't look old enough to be a college graduate."
Anito stopped glaring at Ranma to reply to Nabiki. "I'll have you know that I am twenty six years old."
"Really?" Nabiki and Ranma said leaning a bit closer to Anito.
Anito chose to maintain his dignity and ignore the two. "So tell me Nabiki, do you think you can get me the information I need so that I can kindly provide the arms reduction for both these esteemed countries."
Nabiki shrugged. "It really shouldn't be that hard. If any of us die from radiation poisoning though, know that I'll make your seriously shortened life miserable."
"You don't really think we should be doing this? I mean we will be breaking into heavily guarded facilities, possibly fighting large military forces and stealing some of the most powerful weapons in the world, all so that we can use them for our own petty desires." Ranma paused thoughtfully. "Actually, that doesn't sound a whole lot different than some of my other adventures, except for the stealing part that is. Still, we can't be doing that!"
Anito looked at Ranma as said with dead seriousness. "Why not?"
"Well... its... its just wrong! Nabiki come on, back me up on this!"
Nabiki seemed to be carefully considering Ranma's words when Anito slid in on his defense. "Now Nabiki, the sooner I have the resources the sooner you can get paid. Besides, just imagine the kind of items I can create with such an energy source."
Nabiki shrugged and then turned to Anito. "Don't get caught."
Ranma's eye twitched. "You know, that wasn't exactly what I was thinking."
"Now Ranma, I don't see what your problem is. You get to play good guy and rid humanity of some of the world's most dangerous weapons." Nabiki said in answer to Ranma.
"Besides, they aren't using them anyway." Anito added in.
Ranma held his head while looking down at the table. "I can't believe I am having this conversation. You know Anito, not using them is a good thing! Besides, we aren't getting rid of them, we are just giving them to a madman!"
"Ah, the sacrifices a girl must make to turn a profit." Nabiki said theatrically.
"Ranma its not like I am going to nuke anything... Well, at least I don't have any plans to nuke anything right now." Anito said quickly revising his own words.
Ranma's eye twitched some more. "Case and point."
"Fine, if you help I'll eliminate your debt and give you a nifty magic item." Anito said with a grin.
Ranma's eye only twitched more at that comment. "Why do I even bother?" Ranma muttered to himself.
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"I can't believe I am doing this." Ranma muttered as the two walked through yet another military installation. It was a rather interesting experience to stand amongst weapons so powerful that in a single instant they could reduce entire cities to ash. Finding out that a single ICBM, intercontinental ballistic missile, carried not one, but dozens of these warheads had been a shock to the pigtailed martial artist. It gave Ranma a strange sense that though Saffron had claimed to be a god, god's true power had been stolen by man nearly fifty years earlier.
"Think of it as stealth training, and a possible crash course in fighting modern firearms with insanely overpowered martial arts techniques." Anito said thoughtfully in response to Ranma. Even as the arch-mage spoke he extended his essence into another warhead and wrapped the plutonium in his ki. Then with what would look to an outsider as a single easy motion Anito teleported the object out. Finally, finishing the systematic motion Anito would tie in a few unidentifiable, to Ranma anyway, ki structures and deposit the metal sphere into the never inflating bag.
"Thanks Anito, that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling." Ranma said dryly. "You sure that this technique you are using will prevent them from catching us on camera?" Ranma said nervously eyeing a camera that was pointing their way. This was the fifth facility they had raided so far and Ranma could tell that the guards were on high alert. Someone somewhere had noticed what was happening and had warned the troops here. "The last thing we need is them knocking on the Tendo Dojo with some questions."
"Don't worry it should work just fine." Anito said without even the slightest concern as he pulled another core free. "Besides, even if it doesn't its not like they will have the guts to do anything when we are sitting on the third largest nuclear armament in the world."
"I'm so glad I asked." Ranma said his voice thick with sarcasm. "What exactly am I here for anyway. Your doing all the work."
Anito chuckled, "Your the safety. You see the problem with my long range teleportation is that it is slow to use. Further, it is one of the few techniques I can't move, or shadow step while preparing. Basically, if combat breaks out I won't be able to use it until the fighting has ended. Thus your job is, in the case of discovery, to help flatten our enemies quickly so we can get the hell out of here." Some how the arch-mage said that all cheerfully. Ranma half wondered if Anito actually wanted to smash a military garrison.
Not that Ranma wasn't tempted himself. For any normal martial artist fighting enemies armed with assault rifles would be suicide. Ranma however, was far from the normal martial artist. While he certainly couldn't side step bullets, Ranma could definitely outmaneuver almost anyone that was trying to aim at him. Further, if movies were any indication Ranma already had as much or more fire power in just his Moko Takabisha than a rocket launcher. That was, to say the least, quite a statement. For Ranma there was a slight thrill at the prospect of taking down an armed host. Could he do it? Could it be done?
By equal proportion Ranma feared it. Bullets were deadly little objects packing an enormous punch. Ranma wasn't quite sure how his ki enhanced body would react to such a projectile. Ranma was pretty sure if he could escape Kuno's sword with only a fair injury, a weapon that sliced trees in half with incredible ease, that he wouldn't be mortally wounded by a bullet. Yet, at the same time Ranma had never taken a blow from such a weapon... so he couldn't be sure.
That Anito seemed to lack that fear helped. The arch-mage tended to be cautious by nature... not liking to play a risky hand if it could be avoided. Ranma doubted the wizard would risk such an endeavor if he didn't know that his body could absorb such a projectile. That however, wasn't about to make Ranma jump in front of an assault rifle just to see how much it hurt.
"Well looks like this place is clean." Anito said cheerfully placing the bag wherever hidden weapons go. "There should be one last room up ahead."
Ranma nervously followed Anito's lead. Crossing through the hallways is always the most dangerous for those practicing stealth. It is there where the most people pass, and at the same time where hiding places were minimal. Given how nervous Ranma already was about what he was doing, Ranma was quite surprised when he bumped straight into Anito.
"What? Why did we stop." Ranma said his heart sinking when he saw an unhealthy glow of insanity in the arch-mage's eyes. Looking up he saw a sign marked in English. Taking a moment to decipher the cryptic symbols Ranma read. "Ar-mo-ry... isn't that where they keep their weapons?" Ranma asked. He was pretty sure that this isn't where they kept the nuclear weapons. Those signs tended to make things quite... visible. Further, Anito had been forced to shadow step past all of those doors. This one looked more normal, if one could really say such a thing about a high security military facility.
"Yep!" Anito said with glee. "Come on, I want to pick up some souvenirs."
"As if the nuclear warheads wouldn't serve as a large enough reminder of this trip." Ranma muttered under his breath.
"Nukes last only a moment, but a good gun is forever." Anito said with great wisdom. "Now I think you can have the honor of opening this door."
Ranma looked at Anito and then shrugged. Grasping the door handle with one hand Ranma wrenched. "Eeeeerrrrrr!" was a short scream of metal as the door was torn open under Ranma's powerful grip. Both the pigtailed martial artist and the arch-mage winced upon hearing the sound.
"I don't think that was a good thing." Ranma said out loud as he dropped the steel door onto the ground with a loud, "Clang!".
Anito nodded in confirmation. "Well the jig is up. May as well take everything." The arch-mage didn't waste a second tossing entire boxes of ammo and vast collections of military weapons into his hidden weapons space with abandon.
"You know, I was kind of thinking we would leave... Yeesh, how much can you carry!" Ranma said as he watched Anito devour an entire weapon rack with his hidden weapons technique by using a handy tarp.
"A lot." Anito paused for a moment as if straining to further describe his storage capacities. "Whole lot."
"Thanks, I feel enlightened."
"Your welcome. There are a group of soldiers moving to check things out. Take care of them."
"And what will you be doing?"
"Yes! Grenades and there are seven crates of them!"
Ranma rubbed his head while he set out to meet the troops. "Why did I even ask."
Stepping out of the armory Ranma caught sight of six soldiers rushing around the corner. They came to a hard stop upon seeing the pigtailed martial artist standing next to the steel door that Ranma had wrenched off its hinges a few moments ago. The ceased motion was so quick that for a moment several soldiers ran into each other setting the whole group off balance. Their training maintained a certain amount of their dignity though by allowing the group to recover before being knocked totally off balance.
"Stop! You are under military arrest for breaking and entering in a U.S. Military base." One of the soldiers shouted out in challenge.
Ranma wasn't particularly good at English, and this wasn't exactly the kind of situation that Japanese students were trained for, not that it would have particularly mattered in Ranma's case. As such Ranma didn't understand a word that soldier boy said. However, Ranma was pretty sure he got the jist of it. Lazily lifting one hand the martial artist introduced himself in Japanese. "Yo, sorry about this, but I have to beat the living crap out of you now."
"What the heck did he say?" One of the soldiers asked quietly.
"How the heck should I know." The other hissed back pointing his gun at the martial artist nervously.
Then he moved. One moment the pigtailed enemy had stood perfectly still. The next he was a red blur. It was easy to forgive the soldiers' mistake. Who could have expected that an unarmed man would attack a group holding assault rifles? Who could have guessed that he would move so fast as to cover ten meters of corridor in the time that they could blink? In fact, it should be a credit to their reflexes that even one of the soldiers managed to fire his gun... Of course, by the time that soldier's action had taken place the target was elsewhere.
Ranma barreled in on the soldiers like inevitable doom. In three steps he at full speed cruising down the corridor as fast as a car down the freeway. The martial artist used the concrete walls to his advantage bouncing off the left wall, then the ceiling, to finally drop right into the middle of the group from above. The loud, "Rat-tat-tat-tat," of the assault rifle sung in Ranma's ears as he plunged down amongst the camouflage clothed men.
For a moment there was stillness, as if time had stopped. Somehow the martial artists presence registered on the minds of the soldiers. Yet, it was already too late as Ranma exploded into a whirlwind of motion. A fist slammed into the face of one soldier crushing away his consciousness as easily as one would swat a bug. So fast the eye couldn't even see the movement a front kick sent another flipping through the air. A back hand knocked another three meters down the corridor where Ranma had been just a second ago. A back crescent kick helped a fourth complete a quadruple axle that would put a Olympic ice skater to shame, though the ice skater would note that his technique was far less painful. The last two fell from a lightning fast elbow to the gut and a ridge wrist to the head.
Ranma blinked noticing that his enemies were all defeated. "That was disappointing." The pigtailed martial artist said at last. Ranma had always imagined that soldiers would be tough. As it was though Akane would make mincemeat of these guys in hand to hand.
"Good you took care of that group." Anito said walking out of the armory.
"Eh, there is more?" Ranma said cracking his knuckles.
"Ah, your finally getting into the spirit." Anito said with a grin. "So what do you say, we see who can take out the most?"
"Huh? Why don't we just leave?"
"The gun fire just set off every alarm. So I doubt that I will have time to teleport for quite a bit."
Ranma shrugged, he had to admit it was kind of fun taking down those six soldiers. Maybe the rest would be a bit of a challenge. "Sure, since we are stuck here why not."
"Meet you up top." Anito said dashing down the corridor.
"Heh, you better hurry then." Ranma said in return dashing down another direction.
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"Get up now you lazy dogs! We are under attack so get your asses out of your beds and get out there and fight." The Sergeant yelled at the crew. Seeing more of the garrison moving the Sergeant instead spoke into the radio. "Gold unit have you encountered the shadow."
"No sir.... holy crap did you just see that... pssshhtt ... he can't be human ... fire at will fire at will ... psshhtt ... Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
The Sergeant flipped the channel. "Silver reinforce gold's position now."
"Yes si- Bo-b-b-booooom! .... psssshhhhhhtttt."
"Silver?" The Sergeant paused. "Come in Silver." The Sergeant threw down the radio in disgust. Turning to his assistant the Sergeant yelled out his commands. "That's it, I want every man woman and child that can carry a gun out there taking these guys down. Get those cobras into the air and move the tanks into position. We will teach these bastards what it means to mess with the U.S. Military!"
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Ranma tore down the corridor like a bat out of hell. The martial artist didn't even pause for the heavy door that stood in his way. A single powerful flying kick sent the obstacle flying off its hinges giving Ranma entrance to an exterior garage. Ten military soldiers stared in awe as the pigtailed martial artist flew through the newly made opening, the door flying in a low arc through the air.
The one holding a radio looked stunned. A soldier next to him yelled out in total shock. "Holy crap did you just see that!"
Ranma caught sight of the soldiers instantly. Jumping high through the air Ranma aimed for the first knot of five soldiers that had taken position directly in front of him. As soon as the red blur touched the ground soldiers were sent sprawling like a bunch of bowling pins.
"He can't be human!"
"What are you idiots waiting for! Fire at will fire at will!" The group commander said panic evident in his voice. It isn't everyday you see one man tear apart five trained soldiers in the blink of an eye.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" The other group of five opened up with full auto-fire on the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma dodged out of the way like a snake. A lone bullet managed by pure luck to burrow itself in Ranma's shoulder despite the martial artists phenomenal efforts.
"That hurt! Moko Takabisha!" The energy blast streaked and exploded right in the middle of the group sending soldiers flying through the air. Only one managed to escaped the concussion wave and the heavy landing with consciousness intact. The remaining soldier scrambled to get his gun and to get back onto his feet. It was already too late. Ranma grabbed the soldier by his arm lifting the heavily armed and armored soldier off the ground with one hand. "That hurt, but this will hurt a lot more." Ranma said before flinging the soldier away against one of the concrete walls.
Ranma paused for a second to inspect the wound. The bullet had penetrated several centimeters before the massive forces had melted it into a misshapen slug. The little bastard was going to be a pain to remove Ranma noted with a grimace. "Heh, thank god for ki. If it weren't for that it would have gone straight through."
It good to know that though the bullets hurt like hell, they were not going to kill him outright. Well, at least not easily. For now though Ranma may as well pop that bullet out from where it was interfering with his arm movement. Ranma had a feeling that he was going to need that hand at full operation motion really soon. "I'm definitely working on that wind barrier technique when I get back." The pigtailed martial artist muttered under his breath.
Glancing down at the soldiers Ranma grinned viciously. "Well that gives me sixteen."
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Anito didn't run nearly as fast as Ranma did. The wizard though did have one major advantage over the pigtailed warrior. Actually, make that two. First was with Anito's aura sight the humans stuck out like sore thumbs. Anito could, quite literally, see them through the walls. The second advantage was that the arch-mage didn't need a door, or even stairs. Thus, when Anito closed in on the second group that was sent to take care of the invaders he wore a malicious grin.
Silver group never knew what hit them. One second they were slowly scanning the room for the suspected terrorist enemy. The next Anito was sailing high in the air having shadow stepped straight to their location. Most didn't even have time to see the wizard before it was to late. "Rajin's Hammer!"
The lightning exploded forth tearing the loose formation to shreds. The concrete floor was ripped into rubble in a heart beat. Five lines of destruction lanced through the party frying those unlucky enough to be hit and generally blasting those remaining fortunate ones that were not hit directly right into unconsciousness from the shock wave alone. Anito's movement didn't stop for even an instant. Pulling out a staff the arch-mage sent the two stunned soldiers sprawling with a pair of lighting fast strokes. Then Anito paused only long to pull out two grenades. Then dashing forward he jerked the two the pins out with his teeth before tossing the explosives over his shoulder and teleporting to the safety of the next room. There Anito continued his run not even looking back.
"That's ten! Now to take out the security station and stop off topside."
********************
"Hey Ranma!" Anito said cheerfully behind the pigtailed soldier. Moving to these locations had only taken seconds, one of the advantages of not having to use stairs.
Ranma jumped and then calmed down. "Oh, its just you."
"Booooooom!" The whole building rocked under the force of an explosion. Ranma winced at the sound.
"What the heck was that?"
"I left a little present for the security station upstairs. That gives me fifteen." Anito said grinning like mad.
"Eh, what did you leave them?" Ranma asked curiously.
"A block of C4."
"Ah," Ranma didn't really know his explosives so he left it at that. Instead the martial artist took a peek outside. "Yeesh, they got a whole lot out there." Ranma said noting the vehicles that had pulled up. Soldiers were lined on the other side of them using the steel as a barricade. From the look of it they where gathering forces for an assualt
"Looks like you got hit." Anito said seeing the shoulder wound.
"Yeah, I dodged a bit slow." Ranma admitted.
"Here." Anito tossed a military bullet proof vest and helmet onto the ground.
Ranma blinked seeing the equipment. Putting it on gratefully the pigtailed martial artist said, "Thanks. You sure looted that place didn't you?" Noticing the Anito wasn't wearing a vest Ranma asked, "You going to wear one?"
"Nah... my clothes are bullet proof." Anito said brushing off Ranma's question. "Probably should put a helmet on though." Anito said immediately following his own advice.
Ranma shrugged turning his attention back outside. "Suit yourself. Just remember I need you to teleport me out of here. You die and I'll kill you."
Anito laughed, "When I'm dead, you killing me will be the least of my worries. Well we can't be keeping our friends waiting now can we. I'll break open the middle and then sweep the outskirts for lone gun men. You finish off the rest."
Ranma's nodded indicating his understanding of Anito's tactics. "I can see you taking down the outskirts, your aura sight gives you an advantage there. However, how do you plan to take out the middle?"
Anito smiled evilly. "You aren't the only one working on new techniques. Check this out." The wizard started to chant, quietly rippling bands of lightning growing increasingly bright around his hands. "Chaotic storm of power that the gods themselves do fear. Let loose thy wrath upon this world!"
Anito shadow stepped vanishing from in front of Ranma. Knowing that whatever was coming was coming soon Ranma coiled his legs for a full speed dash the moment Anito attacked. Ki surged from the martial artist forming into two Moko Takabisha's, one in each hand, glowing with fierce power that roared for its release. For a moment Ranma watched the arch-mage as he hung in the sky where he had appeared but an instant ago. Crackling lightning raged around Anito's body, the bright light shining through the night like a miniature sun. Then with a wave of his arm the Anito unleashed his attack. "Thunder Storm!"
If Rajin's Hammer was small burst of lightning bolts, Thunder Storm was an entire clip fired off in a single moment. Thirty lighting bolts sailed from the arch-mage's hand in only a single second. They fell like a curtain of death upon the defensive position of the soldiers. Armored jeeps exploded as heat stress and massive instantaneous currents shattered them apart igniting the fuel and ammunition. Powerful arcs of electrical energy ripped through concrete like giant claws the surging power ripping entire formations to shreds. It was, put simply, a cacophony of destruction.
Anito vanished as soon as he touched the ground closing rapidly with seemingly random intermixed teleporation and simple running toward the guard towers that surrounded the area. Ranma left Anito to his own job having plenty of work to concentrate on himself. The pigtailed martial artist burst forth at full speed while the confusion was at its max. Two Moko Takabisha's lanced into the recovering formations of soldiers tossing the unfortunate souls like toys.
Ranma's movement wasn't halted at all by the ki attack. For him the energy strike was little more than a flip of the wrist at this point. Instead he blurred forward leaping clean over a burning hummer and landing amongst a small pack of dazed soldiers on the other side. With lightning fast punches and kicks Ranma rolled over them like an angel of death. Eight soldiers were beaten into the ground before a single shot was fired.
Those precious seconds were enough for his enemies though. In that time either by insight or simple panic the soldiers had been able to lock onto the lightning fast monster and opened fire. Ranma bounced out of the lines of fire with contemptuous ease. It was only the stray misfired burst that caught Ranma, pegging him in the upper leg and in the chest. Ranma winced as fiery pain swept up his leg from the lower bullet's entrance. The latter however found little penetration in Ranma's from the combination of ki enhanced toughness and combat armor. In fact the power was so low that Ranma almost didn't notice it.
"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma yelled tossing two blasts one after the other at two more distant groups of reforming soldiers. Even as the attacks left his hands Ranma swept forward smashing through three others unfortunate enough to meet someone of his skill and power in hand to hand combat.
"Whhhhssssshhhhh! Booooom!" The ground exploded in a terrific concussion blast as a rocket hit the ground near the pigtailed martial artist. Lances of pain shot up Ranma's back as the shrapnel buried itself in his skin. Lots of experience with explosions let Ranma ride the attack into the air. From the aerial vantage point Ranma could clearly see his attacker. Dropping down Ranma bounced off the ground shooting forward like lighting. A second shot wasn't even fired before Ranma was cleaning the clock of five more enemies.
"Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud." Powerful bullets pounded through the nearby hummer easily piercing the heavy armor. Ranma's eyes widened and he dropped to the ground to avoid the enemy fire.
"I definitely don't want to get hit by that." Ranma said out loud. Suddenly grinning Ranma plucked up another plop rocket launcher and shot to his feet. Taking aim he let loose at the most recent annoyance.
"Booooom!" The man arming the heavy gun on on the hummer met pure rocket power head on curtesy Ranma's uncanny aim.
"Heh, that was kind of fun." Ranma said to himself. There was something to be said about using weapons that didn't suck your own energy source dry. As it was Ranma was running a bit dry from repeated energy blasts.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat." More bullets hailed down on Ranma's position as soldiers began to notice their enemy's position.
"Keh, guess there are more rats to stomp."
***********************
Anito encountered notably less resistance than Ranma in his sweep of the outskirts of the camp. In fact, it took him a moment to find anyone this far from the action. Grinning the arch-mage noticed two in a fortified bunker. From his guess they were readying sniper rifles or other long range weapons to take out the pigtailed monster from a distance.
Smirking Anito teleported behind the crew. The two were taking such careful aim that they didn't even notice the arch-mage's presence. Laughing silently to himself Anito asked in heavily accented English. "Excuse me, but is does that box have any grenades?"
"Uh yeah they won't do you a lot of good though... wait who the heck are you!" The soldier shouted suddenly remembering the distinct lack of Japanese at this military base.
"Thanks." Anito said in Japanese picking up the box. "And these are for you."
"Don-don-dong... d-d-dong" The three metal egg like shapes bounced off the ground once and then twice. The most notable feature being the fact that both were suffering a distinct lack of pins.
"Crap, we're dead."
"Booooooom!"
Outside the bunker Anito slipped the small box of grenades into his increasingly crowded weapon space. "Well that was fun... hmmm what do we got here?" Anito said out loud noticing four figures rushing to a location.
Medium distance teleports were not Anito's specialty. As such the arch-mage simply hot footed it at a speed that Ranma might call slow, but the soldiers would probably refer to as a mind boggling sprint. "Rajin's Hammer!" Anito yelled out when in range blasting the four straight into oblivion.
"Now what were you all anxious to get to?" Anito said thoughtfully. "Ahh, now I see." See it he did. It was rather hard to miss even in the darkness. Roaring in at 12 m/s was a 55 ton M1A2 Abrams Tank. Grinning Anito shadow stepped to the give the tank a friendly swat in the direction it was going.
Now for a normal human the fact that Anito's staff hit like a 20 ton sledge hammer wasn't all that important. As at those masses the difference between one ton or twenty is rather negligible. It was in general sufficient to say that Anito's staff was an overwhelming force that could not be resisted. The importance of this fact changed dramatically however, when the object the staff happened to be swatting was a 55 ton tank.
Anito reared up and swung with all his might smacking the tank like it was a golf ball. The end impacted with mind numbing force smashing in the tank's armor like it was an aluminum can. That however, was only the beginning the massive forces propelled the tank flip flopping through the air for nearly a second before the steel object hit rolling and hopping like mad over the concrete ground, which by no measure survived such a brutal assault.
Anito took a moment to admire his handiwork. The serene, peaceful beauty of a tank flip flopping, if only briefly, through the air over a burning battlefield. Then with a tear in his eye Anito said, "That was a Kodak moment... now to steal that guy's brother!"
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"Sergeant things aren't looking very good." said the Assistant nervously. The Sergeant was currently traveling with ten dozen troops that were going to enter the battle.
"Damn it, as soon as I got my tanks and copters we'll clean this mess up fast." The Sergeant said annoyed. The kind of rapid losses really were not in the play books the Sergeant had received. With relief the Sergeant heard the chopping sound of the Cobras overhead as the mentioned helicopters finally approached the battlefield. "About time. Now if I could get my tanks."
One of the soldiers that was staring wide eyed and the quickly approaching tank most especially when the cannon briefly dug into ground sending the tank high above their heads. "Um Sir, I think I see one." He said pointing up.
"What in the nine hells are you talking about bo- holy mother of god!" The Sergeant cried out. His words cut off from seeing one of his beautiful M1A2 Abrams come crashing down on the barracks where it promptly crushed through half the structure before coming to a halt.
The Assistant thought now would be a great time to bring up something he had been wanting to do for a while. "Sir, may I suggest a strategic retreat?"
The Sergeant was slow in responding his mind caught between military pride and utter mind numbing terror. "Not yet son, but I think we will hang back here until we see what our cobras can do." Lifting up his radio the Sergeant spoke to his last intact force, "You boys better catch these bastards when they try to leave the perimeter, or I'll have your heads!" Satisfied the Sergeant was content to wait until either the vehicles did their damage, or he had support. All in all the soldiers seemed quite content with this state of affairs.
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Ranma finished off the last conscious... or at least the last conscious individual with the guts to actual fight with a nice strong kick. The blow was enough to cause the poor guy to put a dent in the hummer. Ranma let out the sigh of contentment with the completion of the fight. "Ahh, nothing like a good fight before hitting the books." Ranma said not forgetting at all his personal oath to work on that wind barrier technique. Bullets hurt way too much to not have a defense against the little demon projectiles.
"Thu-thu-thu-thu-thu!" A sharp sound of rotary blades filled the air and Ranma turned to spot three Bell AH1F Cobra Helicopters entering the burning battlefield.
"Heh, what do you know company." Ranma grinned evilly, he had something special saved up for babies like these. The pilots were in for a real treat.
The cobras opened fire with their dual side rocket launchers sending explosive death onto the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma simply laughed at the attack and then called out his return technique. "Hiyouryu Uzumaki!"
The tunnel of wind erupted immediately feeding off the massive heat surrounding the battlefield. Not merely the fires, or the puny, but numerous, battle aura's of the soldiers, but the incredible energies left over from Anito's Thunder Storm and quite a few Moko Takabisha's entered the mix. It was a declaration of Ranma's improvement that the technique traveled for a few instants before erupting in an enormous tornado. The winds plucked the rockets out of the air and tossed them in new directions. Explosions ripped through several buildings via the military's own firearms.
The cobras didn't stand a chance. Incredible winds spun the crafts out of control instantly sending them flying erratically into the ground. The hard concrete crushed the rotors instantly and metal screamed in protest from the impact. Ranma simply dusted off his hands and declared. "Well that takes care of that. Now to find Anito."
***************************
Back at the Tendo Dojo Ranma used a pair of tweezers kindly lent by Kasumi to pull another piece of shrapnel out of his skin. The metal freed Ranma unceremoniously dropped it into a bowl set down to collect the hard won trophies. "I really need a set of bullet proof pants." Ranma declared shifting on his heavily wounded butt.
Akane snorted, "Well if you weren't out raiding military bases it wouldn't be a problem."
Nabiki looked at the news paper and smiled. "Look the two of you made it on the news."
"Odd, that shouldn't of happened." Anito said thoughtfully. "Let me see it."
"What does it say?" Ranma asked curiously while trying to work a bullet free.
"Mysterious explosions at a U.S. Military Base. Hmm, apparently 127 people were injured, but there are no reported fatalities."
Ranma blinked twice. "Odd, but good. I was kinda worried I hit a few too hard."
Anito shrugged. "I am more concerned about the quality of those grenades I stole if they didn't kill anyone. In any case the government declared that it was a massive explosion of the munitions in one of the armories. Witnesses however disagree. Some describe ten foot giants tossing cars and tanks around like toys. Another said that Thor himself came down from the heavens to smite them. A particularly strange case is a man that firmly believes that he saw a tank devoured right before his eyes. Whatever the truth is it is doubtful we will ever know as the government has put it under heavy wraps."
Ranma chuckled, "I guess I'm bigger than life."
Anito grinned himself. "Perhaps, I should get myself a hammer."
Akane just shook her head. "What is wrong with those two."
"Don't know sis, but I thought it was pretty funny myself." Nabiki added in.
Akane just looked at Nabiki like she was mad. "Great, now you too. Next thing I know my whole family will be crazy."
"Hmm, a secret meeting. I feel like I'm in some sort of secret organization." Nabiki said.
"Um... actually I think we are." Ranma replied.
"That wasn't supposed to be answered." Nabiki replied back in turn to Ranma with a light voice.
Anito laughed and then cut in with a grin. "As much as arguing the secrets of the not so secret secret meeting... I would rather get more directly to the point."
"Do be a dear Anito... You still owe me quite a bit." Nabiki said sliding in the reminder of Anito's promised pay into the conversation.
"Hey, I don't get pay." Ranma said with a glare.
Anito coughed, "That would be because you are still working off a debt. Pay will be taken care of soon Nabiki. First I have to get rid of the rather annoying and pressing matter of Kinjakan."
"Well then by all means." Nabiki said giving her go ahead.
Anito chucked continuing with a grin. "For the most part everything is prepared for the completion of the artifact. Unfortunately, I lack a key ingredient, true essence of fire. This matter is made worse by the fact that there have been to my knowledge no reports of even a single witness of true essence of fire in the last two thousand years. Luckily, the true essence of fire can, like most mystical ingredients, be mimicked, but it requires that I have a... very abundant source of energy."
"If you are borrowing electricity you are going to pay for it." Nabiki stated.
"Why do I know this is going to be bad, and is going to involve me." Ranma muttered to himself. "Oh wait, because it is always bad and always involves me."
"My first thoughts exactly Nabiki. Unfortunately, the desired amounts of energy are too great to be provided by reasonable electrical expenditure. It was then that I read this." Anito tossed a news paper on the table. "It immediately occurred to me that I can help remedy a political situation and ... solve my personal dilemma at the same time."
"Hmm, didn't know you played diplomat." Nabiki picked up the paper and read the headline out loud. "United States and Russia discuss nuclear arms reduction treaty. If you are thinking what I am thinking I must say that I need to see your qualifications."
Ranma scratched his head. "What are you...," suddenly it dawned on Ranma exactly what they were talking about. "You have got to be kidding me. You are going to use nukes to provide the juice for Kinjakan!"
"That is one way of putting it." Anito said with a grin. "I prefer to think of it as advantageous use of resources while encouraging a good trend. Oh, and Nabiki here are my qualifications. I wouldn't play with plutonium if I didn't know what I was doing." Anito tossed a framed paper to Nabiki.
Ranma let out a snort at Anito's comment. "Yeah, you would."
Nabiki ignored the pigtailed martial artist. Looking at Anito she raised an eyebrow. "PH.D in physics from Tokyo U. I must say I'm impressed, you didn't look old enough to be a college graduate."
Anito stopped glaring at Ranma to reply to Nabiki. "I'll have you know that I am twenty six years old."
"Really?" Nabiki and Ranma said leaning a bit closer to Anito.
Anito chose to maintain his dignity and ignore the two. "So tell me Nabiki, do you think you can get me the information I need so that I can kindly provide the arms reduction for both these esteemed countries."
Nabiki shrugged. "It really shouldn't be that hard. If any of us die from radiation poisoning though, know that I'll make your seriously shortened life miserable."
"You don't really think we should be doing this? I mean we will be breaking into heavily guarded facilities, possibly fighting large military forces and stealing some of the most powerful weapons in the world, all so that we can use them for our own petty desires." Ranma paused thoughtfully. "Actually, that doesn't sound a whole lot different than some of my other adventures, except for the stealing part that is. Still, we can't be doing that!"
Anito looked at Ranma as said with dead seriousness. "Why not?"
"Well... its... its just wrong! Nabiki come on, back me up on this!"
Nabiki seemed to be carefully considering Ranma's words when Anito slid in on his defense. "Now Nabiki, the sooner I have the resources the sooner you can get paid. Besides, just imagine the kind of items I can create with such an energy source."
Nabiki shrugged and then turned to Anito. "Don't get caught."
Ranma's eye twitched. "You know, that wasn't exactly what I was thinking."
"Now Ranma, I don't see what your problem is. You get to play good guy and rid humanity of some of the world's most dangerous weapons." Nabiki said in answer to Ranma.
"Besides, they aren't using them anyway." Anito added in.
Ranma held his head while looking down at the table. "I can't believe I am having this conversation. You know Anito, not using them is a good thing! Besides, we aren't getting rid of them, we are just giving them to a madman!"
"Ah, the sacrifices a girl must make to turn a profit." Nabiki said theatrically.
"Ranma its not like I am going to nuke anything... Well, at least I don't have any plans to nuke anything right now." Anito said quickly revising his own words.
Ranma's eye twitched some more. "Case and point."
"Fine, if you help I'll eliminate your debt and give you a nifty magic item." Anito said with a grin.
Ranma's eye only twitched more at that comment. "Why do I even bother?" Ranma muttered to himself.
***********************
"I can't believe I am doing this." Ranma muttered as the two walked through yet another military installation. It was a rather interesting experience to stand amongst weapons so powerful that in a single instant they could reduce entire cities to ash. Finding out that a single ICBM, intercontinental ballistic missile, carried not one, but dozens of these warheads had been a shock to the pigtailed martial artist. It gave Ranma a strange sense that though Saffron had claimed to be a god, god's true power had been stolen by man nearly fifty years earlier.
"Think of it as stealth training, and a possible crash course in fighting modern firearms with insanely overpowered martial arts techniques." Anito said thoughtfully in response to Ranma. Even as the arch-mage spoke he extended his essence into another warhead and wrapped the plutonium in his ki. Then with what would look to an outsider as a single easy motion Anito teleported the object out. Finally, finishing the systematic motion Anito would tie in a few unidentifiable, to Ranma anyway, ki structures and deposit the metal sphere into the never inflating bag.
"Thanks Anito, that gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling." Ranma said dryly. "You sure that this technique you are using will prevent them from catching us on camera?" Ranma said nervously eyeing a camera that was pointing their way. This was the fifth facility they had raided so far and Ranma could tell that the guards were on high alert. Someone somewhere had noticed what was happening and had warned the troops here. "The last thing we need is them knocking on the Tendo Dojo with some questions."
"Don't worry it should work just fine." Anito said without even the slightest concern as he pulled another core free. "Besides, even if it doesn't its not like they will have the guts to do anything when we are sitting on the third largest nuclear armament in the world."
"I'm so glad I asked." Ranma said his voice thick with sarcasm. "What exactly am I here for anyway. Your doing all the work."
Anito chuckled, "Your the safety. You see the problem with my long range teleportation is that it is slow to use. Further, it is one of the few techniques I can't move, or shadow step while preparing. Basically, if combat breaks out I won't be able to use it until the fighting has ended. Thus your job is, in the case of discovery, to help flatten our enemies quickly so we can get the hell out of here." Some how the arch-mage said that all cheerfully. Ranma half wondered if Anito actually wanted to smash a military garrison.
Not that Ranma wasn't tempted himself. For any normal martial artist fighting enemies armed with assault rifles would be suicide. Ranma however, was far from the normal martial artist. While he certainly couldn't side step bullets, Ranma could definitely outmaneuver almost anyone that was trying to aim at him. Further, if movies were any indication Ranma already had as much or more fire power in just his Moko Takabisha than a rocket launcher. That was, to say the least, quite a statement. For Ranma there was a slight thrill at the prospect of taking down an armed host. Could he do it? Could it be done?
By equal proportion Ranma feared it. Bullets were deadly little objects packing an enormous punch. Ranma wasn't quite sure how his ki enhanced body would react to such a projectile. Ranma was pretty sure if he could escape Kuno's sword with only a fair injury, a weapon that sliced trees in half with incredible ease, that he wouldn't be mortally wounded by a bullet. Yet, at the same time Ranma had never taken a blow from such a weapon... so he couldn't be sure.
That Anito seemed to lack that fear helped. The arch-mage tended to be cautious by nature... not liking to play a risky hand if it could be avoided. Ranma doubted the wizard would risk such an endeavor if he didn't know that his body could absorb such a projectile. That however, wasn't about to make Ranma jump in front of an assault rifle just to see how much it hurt.
"Well looks like this place is clean." Anito said cheerfully placing the bag wherever hidden weapons go. "There should be one last room up ahead."
Ranma nervously followed Anito's lead. Crossing through the hallways is always the most dangerous for those practicing stealth. It is there where the most people pass, and at the same time where hiding places were minimal. Given how nervous Ranma already was about what he was doing, Ranma was quite surprised when he bumped straight into Anito.
"What? Why did we stop." Ranma said his heart sinking when he saw an unhealthy glow of insanity in the arch-mage's eyes. Looking up he saw a sign marked in English. Taking a moment to decipher the cryptic symbols Ranma read. "Ar-mo-ry... isn't that where they keep their weapons?" Ranma asked. He was pretty sure that this isn't where they kept the nuclear weapons. Those signs tended to make things quite... visible. Further, Anito had been forced to shadow step past all of those doors. This one looked more normal, if one could really say such a thing about a high security military facility.
"Yep!" Anito said with glee. "Come on, I want to pick up some souvenirs."
"As if the nuclear warheads wouldn't serve as a large enough reminder of this trip." Ranma muttered under his breath.
"Nukes last only a moment, but a good gun is forever." Anito said with great wisdom. "Now I think you can have the honor of opening this door."
Ranma looked at Anito and then shrugged. Grasping the door handle with one hand Ranma wrenched. "Eeeeerrrrrr!" was a short scream of metal as the door was torn open under Ranma's powerful grip. Both the pigtailed martial artist and the arch-mage winced upon hearing the sound.
"I don't think that was a good thing." Ranma said out loud as he dropped the steel door onto the ground with a loud, "Clang!".
Anito nodded in confirmation. "Well the jig is up. May as well take everything." The arch-mage didn't waste a second tossing entire boxes of ammo and vast collections of military weapons into his hidden weapons space with abandon.
"You know, I was kind of thinking we would leave... Yeesh, how much can you carry!" Ranma said as he watched Anito devour an entire weapon rack with his hidden weapons technique by using a handy tarp.
"A lot." Anito paused for a moment as if straining to further describe his storage capacities. "Whole lot."
"Thanks, I feel enlightened."
"Your welcome. There are a group of soldiers moving to check things out. Take care of them."
"And what will you be doing?"
"Yes! Grenades and there are seven crates of them!"
Ranma rubbed his head while he set out to meet the troops. "Why did I even ask."
Stepping out of the armory Ranma caught sight of six soldiers rushing around the corner. They came to a hard stop upon seeing the pigtailed martial artist standing next to the steel door that Ranma had wrenched off its hinges a few moments ago. The ceased motion was so quick that for a moment several soldiers ran into each other setting the whole group off balance. Their training maintained a certain amount of their dignity though by allowing the group to recover before being knocked totally off balance.
"Stop! You are under military arrest for breaking and entering in a U.S. Military base." One of the soldiers shouted out in challenge.
Ranma wasn't particularly good at English, and this wasn't exactly the kind of situation that Japanese students were trained for, not that it would have particularly mattered in Ranma's case. As such Ranma didn't understand a word that soldier boy said. However, Ranma was pretty sure he got the jist of it. Lazily lifting one hand the martial artist introduced himself in Japanese. "Yo, sorry about this, but I have to beat the living crap out of you now."
"What the heck did he say?" One of the soldiers asked quietly.
"How the heck should I know." The other hissed back pointing his gun at the martial artist nervously.
Then he moved. One moment the pigtailed enemy had stood perfectly still. The next he was a red blur. It was easy to forgive the soldiers' mistake. Who could have expected that an unarmed man would attack a group holding assault rifles? Who could have guessed that he would move so fast as to cover ten meters of corridor in the time that they could blink? In fact, it should be a credit to their reflexes that even one of the soldiers managed to fire his gun... Of course, by the time that soldier's action had taken place the target was elsewhere.
Ranma barreled in on the soldiers like inevitable doom. In three steps he at full speed cruising down the corridor as fast as a car down the freeway. The martial artist used the concrete walls to his advantage bouncing off the left wall, then the ceiling, to finally drop right into the middle of the group from above. The loud, "Rat-tat-tat-tat," of the assault rifle sung in Ranma's ears as he plunged down amongst the camouflage clothed men.
For a moment there was stillness, as if time had stopped. Somehow the martial artists presence registered on the minds of the soldiers. Yet, it was already too late as Ranma exploded into a whirlwind of motion. A fist slammed into the face of one soldier crushing away his consciousness as easily as one would swat a bug. So fast the eye couldn't even see the movement a front kick sent another flipping through the air. A back hand knocked another three meters down the corridor where Ranma had been just a second ago. A back crescent kick helped a fourth complete a quadruple axle that would put a Olympic ice skater to shame, though the ice skater would note that his technique was far less painful. The last two fell from a lightning fast elbow to the gut and a ridge wrist to the head.
Ranma blinked noticing that his enemies were all defeated. "That was disappointing." The pigtailed martial artist said at last. Ranma had always imagined that soldiers would be tough. As it was though Akane would make mincemeat of these guys in hand to hand.
"Good you took care of that group." Anito said walking out of the armory.
"Eh, there is more?" Ranma said cracking his knuckles.
"Ah, your finally getting into the spirit." Anito said with a grin. "So what do you say, we see who can take out the most?"
"Huh? Why don't we just leave?"
"The gun fire just set off every alarm. So I doubt that I will have time to teleport for quite a bit."
Ranma shrugged, he had to admit it was kind of fun taking down those six soldiers. Maybe the rest would be a bit of a challenge. "Sure, since we are stuck here why not."
"Meet you up top." Anito said dashing down the corridor.
"Heh, you better hurry then." Ranma said in return dashing down another direction.
************************
"Get up now you lazy dogs! We are under attack so get your asses out of your beds and get out there and fight." The Sergeant yelled at the crew. Seeing more of the garrison moving the Sergeant instead spoke into the radio. "Gold unit have you encountered the shadow."
"No sir.... holy crap did you just see that... pssshhtt ... he can't be human ... fire at will fire at will ... psshhtt ... Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
The Sergeant flipped the channel. "Silver reinforce gold's position now."
"Yes si- Bo-b-b-booooom! .... psssshhhhhhtttt."
"Silver?" The Sergeant paused. "Come in Silver." The Sergeant threw down the radio in disgust. Turning to his assistant the Sergeant yelled out his commands. "That's it, I want every man woman and child that can carry a gun out there taking these guys down. Get those cobras into the air and move the tanks into position. We will teach these bastards what it means to mess with the U.S. Military!"
**********************
Ranma tore down the corridor like a bat out of hell. The martial artist didn't even pause for the heavy door that stood in his way. A single powerful flying kick sent the obstacle flying off its hinges giving Ranma entrance to an exterior garage. Ten military soldiers stared in awe as the pigtailed martial artist flew through the newly made opening, the door flying in a low arc through the air.
The one holding a radio looked stunned. A soldier next to him yelled out in total shock. "Holy crap did you just see that!"
Ranma caught sight of the soldiers instantly. Jumping high through the air Ranma aimed for the first knot of five soldiers that had taken position directly in front of him. As soon as the red blur touched the ground soldiers were sent sprawling like a bunch of bowling pins.
"He can't be human!"
"What are you idiots waiting for! Fire at will fire at will!" The group commander said panic evident in his voice. It isn't everyday you see one man tear apart five trained soldiers in the blink of an eye.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!" The other group of five opened up with full auto-fire on the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma dodged out of the way like a snake. A lone bullet managed by pure luck to burrow itself in Ranma's shoulder despite the martial artists phenomenal efforts.
"That hurt! Moko Takabisha!" The energy blast streaked and exploded right in the middle of the group sending soldiers flying through the air. Only one managed to escaped the concussion wave and the heavy landing with consciousness intact. The remaining soldier scrambled to get his gun and to get back onto his feet. It was already too late. Ranma grabbed the soldier by his arm lifting the heavily armed and armored soldier off the ground with one hand. "That hurt, but this will hurt a lot more." Ranma said before flinging the soldier away against one of the concrete walls.
Ranma paused for a second to inspect the wound. The bullet had penetrated several centimeters before the massive forces had melted it into a misshapen slug. The little bastard was going to be a pain to remove Ranma noted with a grimace. "Heh, thank god for ki. If it weren't for that it would have gone straight through."
It good to know that though the bullets hurt like hell, they were not going to kill him outright. Well, at least not easily. For now though Ranma may as well pop that bullet out from where it was interfering with his arm movement. Ranma had a feeling that he was going to need that hand at full operation motion really soon. "I'm definitely working on that wind barrier technique when I get back." The pigtailed martial artist muttered under his breath.
Glancing down at the soldiers Ranma grinned viciously. "Well that gives me sixteen."
********************
Anito didn't run nearly as fast as Ranma did. The wizard though did have one major advantage over the pigtailed warrior. Actually, make that two. First was with Anito's aura sight the humans stuck out like sore thumbs. Anito could, quite literally, see them through the walls. The second advantage was that the arch-mage didn't need a door, or even stairs. Thus, when Anito closed in on the second group that was sent to take care of the invaders he wore a malicious grin.
Silver group never knew what hit them. One second they were slowly scanning the room for the suspected terrorist enemy. The next Anito was sailing high in the air having shadow stepped straight to their location. Most didn't even have time to see the wizard before it was to late. "Rajin's Hammer!"
The lightning exploded forth tearing the loose formation to shreds. The concrete floor was ripped into rubble in a heart beat. Five lines of destruction lanced through the party frying those unlucky enough to be hit and generally blasting those remaining fortunate ones that were not hit directly right into unconsciousness from the shock wave alone. Anito's movement didn't stop for even an instant. Pulling out a staff the arch-mage sent the two stunned soldiers sprawling with a pair of lighting fast strokes. Then Anito paused only long to pull out two grenades. Then dashing forward he jerked the two the pins out with his teeth before tossing the explosives over his shoulder and teleporting to the safety of the next room. There Anito continued his run not even looking back.
"That's ten! Now to take out the security station and stop off topside."
********************
"Hey Ranma!" Anito said cheerfully behind the pigtailed soldier. Moving to these locations had only taken seconds, one of the advantages of not having to use stairs.
Ranma jumped and then calmed down. "Oh, its just you."
"Booooooom!" The whole building rocked under the force of an explosion. Ranma winced at the sound.
"What the heck was that?"
"I left a little present for the security station upstairs. That gives me fifteen." Anito said grinning like mad.
"Eh, what did you leave them?" Ranma asked curiously.
"A block of C4."
"Ah," Ranma didn't really know his explosives so he left it at that. Instead the martial artist took a peek outside. "Yeesh, they got a whole lot out there." Ranma said noting the vehicles that had pulled up. Soldiers were lined on the other side of them using the steel as a barricade. From the look of it they where gathering forces for an assualt
"Looks like you got hit." Anito said seeing the shoulder wound.
"Yeah, I dodged a bit slow." Ranma admitted.
"Here." Anito tossed a military bullet proof vest and helmet onto the ground.
Ranma blinked seeing the equipment. Putting it on gratefully the pigtailed martial artist said, "Thanks. You sure looted that place didn't you?" Noticing the Anito wasn't wearing a vest Ranma asked, "You going to wear one?"
"Nah... my clothes are bullet proof." Anito said brushing off Ranma's question. "Probably should put a helmet on though." Anito said immediately following his own advice.
Ranma shrugged turning his attention back outside. "Suit yourself. Just remember I need you to teleport me out of here. You die and I'll kill you."
Anito laughed, "When I'm dead, you killing me will be the least of my worries. Well we can't be keeping our friends waiting now can we. I'll break open the middle and then sweep the outskirts for lone gun men. You finish off the rest."
Ranma's nodded indicating his understanding of Anito's tactics. "I can see you taking down the outskirts, your aura sight gives you an advantage there. However, how do you plan to take out the middle?"
Anito smiled evilly. "You aren't the only one working on new techniques. Check this out." The wizard started to chant, quietly rippling bands of lightning growing increasingly bright around his hands. "Chaotic storm of power that the gods themselves do fear. Let loose thy wrath upon this world!"
Anito shadow stepped vanishing from in front of Ranma. Knowing that whatever was coming was coming soon Ranma coiled his legs for a full speed dash the moment Anito attacked. Ki surged from the martial artist forming into two Moko Takabisha's, one in each hand, glowing with fierce power that roared for its release. For a moment Ranma watched the arch-mage as he hung in the sky where he had appeared but an instant ago. Crackling lightning raged around Anito's body, the bright light shining through the night like a miniature sun. Then with a wave of his arm the Anito unleashed his attack. "Thunder Storm!"
If Rajin's Hammer was small burst of lightning bolts, Thunder Storm was an entire clip fired off in a single moment. Thirty lighting bolts sailed from the arch-mage's hand in only a single second. They fell like a curtain of death upon the defensive position of the soldiers. Armored jeeps exploded as heat stress and massive instantaneous currents shattered them apart igniting the fuel and ammunition. Powerful arcs of electrical energy ripped through concrete like giant claws the surging power ripping entire formations to shreds. It was, put simply, a cacophony of destruction.
Anito vanished as soon as he touched the ground closing rapidly with seemingly random intermixed teleporation and simple running toward the guard towers that surrounded the area. Ranma left Anito to his own job having plenty of work to concentrate on himself. The pigtailed martial artist burst forth at full speed while the confusion was at its max. Two Moko Takabisha's lanced into the recovering formations of soldiers tossing the unfortunate souls like toys.
Ranma's movement wasn't halted at all by the ki attack. For him the energy strike was little more than a flip of the wrist at this point. Instead he blurred forward leaping clean over a burning hummer and landing amongst a small pack of dazed soldiers on the other side. With lightning fast punches and kicks Ranma rolled over them like an angel of death. Eight soldiers were beaten into the ground before a single shot was fired.
Those precious seconds were enough for his enemies though. In that time either by insight or simple panic the soldiers had been able to lock onto the lightning fast monster and opened fire. Ranma bounced out of the lines of fire with contemptuous ease. It was only the stray misfired burst that caught Ranma, pegging him in the upper leg and in the chest. Ranma winced as fiery pain swept up his leg from the lower bullet's entrance. The latter however found little penetration in Ranma's from the combination of ki enhanced toughness and combat armor. In fact the power was so low that Ranma almost didn't notice it.
"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma yelled tossing two blasts one after the other at two more distant groups of reforming soldiers. Even as the attacks left his hands Ranma swept forward smashing through three others unfortunate enough to meet someone of his skill and power in hand to hand combat.
"Whhhhssssshhhhh! Booooom!" The ground exploded in a terrific concussion blast as a rocket hit the ground near the pigtailed martial artist. Lances of pain shot up Ranma's back as the shrapnel buried itself in his skin. Lots of experience with explosions let Ranma ride the attack into the air. From the aerial vantage point Ranma could clearly see his attacker. Dropping down Ranma bounced off the ground shooting forward like lighting. A second shot wasn't even fired before Ranma was cleaning the clock of five more enemies.
"Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud." Powerful bullets pounded through the nearby hummer easily piercing the heavy armor. Ranma's eyes widened and he dropped to the ground to avoid the enemy fire.
"I definitely don't want to get hit by that." Ranma said out loud. Suddenly grinning Ranma plucked up another plop rocket launcher and shot to his feet. Taking aim he let loose at the most recent annoyance.
"Booooom!" The man arming the heavy gun on on the hummer met pure rocket power head on curtesy Ranma's uncanny aim.
"Heh, that was kind of fun." Ranma said to himself. There was something to be said about using weapons that didn't suck your own energy source dry. As it was Ranma was running a bit dry from repeated energy blasts.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat." More bullets hailed down on Ranma's position as soldiers began to notice their enemy's position.
"Keh, guess there are more rats to stomp."
***********************
Anito encountered notably less resistance than Ranma in his sweep of the outskirts of the camp. In fact, it took him a moment to find anyone this far from the action. Grinning the arch-mage noticed two in a fortified bunker. From his guess they were readying sniper rifles or other long range weapons to take out the pigtailed monster from a distance.
Smirking Anito teleported behind the crew. The two were taking such careful aim that they didn't even notice the arch-mage's presence. Laughing silently to himself Anito asked in heavily accented English. "Excuse me, but is does that box have any grenades?"
"Uh yeah they won't do you a lot of good though... wait who the heck are you!" The soldier shouted suddenly remembering the distinct lack of Japanese at this military base.
"Thanks." Anito said in Japanese picking up the box. "And these are for you."
"Don-don-dong... d-d-dong" The three metal egg like shapes bounced off the ground once and then twice. The most notable feature being the fact that both were suffering a distinct lack of pins.
"Crap, we're dead."
"Booooooom!"
Outside the bunker Anito slipped the small box of grenades into his increasingly crowded weapon space. "Well that was fun... hmmm what do we got here?" Anito said out loud noticing four figures rushing to a location.
Medium distance teleports were not Anito's specialty. As such the arch-mage simply hot footed it at a speed that Ranma might call slow, but the soldiers would probably refer to as a mind boggling sprint. "Rajin's Hammer!" Anito yelled out when in range blasting the four straight into oblivion.
"Now what were you all anxious to get to?" Anito said thoughtfully. "Ahh, now I see." See it he did. It was rather hard to miss even in the darkness. Roaring in at 12 m/s was a 55 ton M1A2 Abrams Tank. Grinning Anito shadow stepped to the give the tank a friendly swat in the direction it was going.
Now for a normal human the fact that Anito's staff hit like a 20 ton sledge hammer wasn't all that important. As at those masses the difference between one ton or twenty is rather negligible. It was in general sufficient to say that Anito's staff was an overwhelming force that could not be resisted. The importance of this fact changed dramatically however, when the object the staff happened to be swatting was a 55 ton tank.
Anito reared up and swung with all his might smacking the tank like it was a golf ball. The end impacted with mind numbing force smashing in the tank's armor like it was an aluminum can. That however, was only the beginning the massive forces propelled the tank flip flopping through the air for nearly a second before the steel object hit rolling and hopping like mad over the concrete ground, which by no measure survived such a brutal assault.
Anito took a moment to admire his handiwork. The serene, peaceful beauty of a tank flip flopping, if only briefly, through the air over a burning battlefield. Then with a tear in his eye Anito said, "That was a Kodak moment... now to steal that guy's brother!"
***********************
"Sergeant things aren't looking very good." said the Assistant nervously. The Sergeant was currently traveling with ten dozen troops that were going to enter the battle.
"Damn it, as soon as I got my tanks and copters we'll clean this mess up fast." The Sergeant said annoyed. The kind of rapid losses really were not in the play books the Sergeant had received. With relief the Sergeant heard the chopping sound of the Cobras overhead as the mentioned helicopters finally approached the battlefield. "About time. Now if I could get my tanks."
One of the soldiers that was staring wide eyed and the quickly approaching tank most especially when the cannon briefly dug into ground sending the tank high above their heads. "Um Sir, I think I see one." He said pointing up.
"What in the nine hells are you talking about bo- holy mother of god!" The Sergeant cried out. His words cut off from seeing one of his beautiful M1A2 Abrams come crashing down on the barracks where it promptly crushed through half the structure before coming to a halt.
The Assistant thought now would be a great time to bring up something he had been wanting to do for a while. "Sir, may I suggest a strategic retreat?"
The Sergeant was slow in responding his mind caught between military pride and utter mind numbing terror. "Not yet son, but I think we will hang back here until we see what our cobras can do." Lifting up his radio the Sergeant spoke to his last intact force, "You boys better catch these bastards when they try to leave the perimeter, or I'll have your heads!" Satisfied the Sergeant was content to wait until either the vehicles did their damage, or he had support. All in all the soldiers seemed quite content with this state of affairs.
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Ranma finished off the last conscious... or at least the last conscious individual with the guts to actual fight with a nice strong kick. The blow was enough to cause the poor guy to put a dent in the hummer. Ranma let out the sigh of contentment with the completion of the fight. "Ahh, nothing like a good fight before hitting the books." Ranma said not forgetting at all his personal oath to work on that wind barrier technique. Bullets hurt way too much to not have a defense against the little demon projectiles.
"Thu-thu-thu-thu-thu!" A sharp sound of rotary blades filled the air and Ranma turned to spot three Bell AH1F Cobra Helicopters entering the burning battlefield.
"Heh, what do you know company." Ranma grinned evilly, he had something special saved up for babies like these. The pilots were in for a real treat.
The cobras opened fire with their dual side rocket launchers sending explosive death onto the pigtailed martial artist. Ranma simply laughed at the attack and then called out his return technique. "Hiyouryu Uzumaki!"
The tunnel of wind erupted immediately feeding off the massive heat surrounding the battlefield. Not merely the fires, or the puny, but numerous, battle aura's of the soldiers, but the incredible energies left over from Anito's Thunder Storm and quite a few Moko Takabisha's entered the mix. It was a declaration of Ranma's improvement that the technique traveled for a few instants before erupting in an enormous tornado. The winds plucked the rockets out of the air and tossed them in new directions. Explosions ripped through several buildings via the military's own firearms.
The cobras didn't stand a chance. Incredible winds spun the crafts out of control instantly sending them flying erratically into the ground. The hard concrete crushed the rotors instantly and metal screamed in protest from the impact. Ranma simply dusted off his hands and declared. "Well that takes care of that. Now to find Anito."
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Back at the Tendo Dojo Ranma used a pair of tweezers kindly lent by Kasumi to pull another piece of shrapnel out of his skin. The metal freed Ranma unceremoniously dropped it into a bowl set down to collect the hard won trophies. "I really need a set of bullet proof pants." Ranma declared shifting on his heavily wounded butt.
Akane snorted, "Well if you weren't out raiding military bases it wouldn't be a problem."
Nabiki looked at the news paper and smiled. "Look the two of you made it on the news."
"Odd, that shouldn't of happened." Anito said thoughtfully. "Let me see it."
"What does it say?" Ranma asked curiously while trying to work a bullet free.
"Mysterious explosions at a U.S. Military Base. Hmm, apparently 127 people were injured, but there are no reported fatalities."
Ranma blinked twice. "Odd, but good. I was kinda worried I hit a few too hard."
Anito shrugged. "I am more concerned about the quality of those grenades I stole if they didn't kill anyone. In any case the government declared that it was a massive explosion of the munitions in one of the armories. Witnesses however disagree. Some describe ten foot giants tossing cars and tanks around like toys. Another said that Thor himself came down from the heavens to smite them. A particularly strange case is a man that firmly believes that he saw a tank devoured right before his eyes. Whatever the truth is it is doubtful we will ever know as the government has put it under heavy wraps."
Ranma chuckled, "I guess I'm bigger than life."
Anito grinned himself. "Perhaps, I should get myself a hammer."
Akane just shook her head. "What is wrong with those two."
"Don't know sis, but I thought it was pretty funny myself." Nabiki added in.
Akane just looked at Nabiki like she was mad. "Great, now you too. Next thing I know my whole family will be crazy."