Insertion Part 32: The Return by Sean D'Anna ===== Ranma woke up, a throbbing pain inside his head as he slowly picked himself up off of the floor in the pitch-blackness. "Where are we?" muttered Carrot as he glanced around and saw no light. "I dunno," replied Ranma painfully. "Our head hurts," grumbled Pissant. "No shit," countered Dan softly. "What the hell is this? I can't see!" "There's no light moron," said Carrot as he tried to focus his eyes and found himself unable to make out any shapes in the darkness. "Literally. I can't see our hand in front of our face." They all felt a sharp pain across their face and fell flat on their back. "Did you see that?" said Dan irritably. "Asshole! I'll kill you!" snapped Carrot as he punched himself in the face to retaliate. "Ouch! Quit it you jerks!" snapped Ranma as he tried and failed to stop them from beating on one another. "We don't know where we are!" whined Pissant. "We could be anywhere!" "I know where we are," grumbled Carrot as he sat up and stopped fighting. Dan decked him, but he didn't retaliate and rubbed at his jaw in irritation. "Where?" said Ranma. "We're onboard the Mikon Taka. The same place we were when we left," said Carrot. "We need to find the damn light switch." "So...we're on the moon then?" asked Dan. "Yeah," replied Carrot. "Hopefully ten thousand years or so in the future, around the time we left," said Carrot. "I think it was..." Ranma paused. "Where are we standing?" "I dunno, we were sort of moving around a lot," said Dan. "Great! You got us lost!" snapped Ranma. "Oh shut up, how hard can it be to find one little light switch?" said Carrot irritably. +++++++++++++ Two hours later... "HA! This is it! We've found it!" cried Carrot in triumph. He flicked the switch he'd managed to grope on and blinked as he heard the toilet flush. "Damn it!" "Well, at least we know where we are now," offered Pissant. Their shins and forearms were covered in bruises and scrapes from fumbling around the ship for the past few hours. "We should be able to find a switch in here. There's a light in here!" cried Carrot as he fumbled along the wall again. "Great..." grumbled Dan. For once, everyone was in about as good a mood as he was. "Aha!" said Carrot in triumph. There was a bright flash of light, followed by a popping sound. "I suppose the lights are all bad after ten thousand years," said Ranma in defeat. "I um...guess so. We probably shouldn't raid the kitchen either, now that I think about it," said Carrot. "At least we know we still have power!" said Pissant cheerfully. "How badly did this thing degrade over the years?" said Ranma with a fearful tone in his voice. "Not too much. There's no real atmosphere, so no real reason for anything to degrade that way. Most of the time, stuff like that is caused by things in the atmosphere," said Carrot. "Let's see...there were extra light bulbs in the supply closet...that was over there somewhere..." Pissant looked in a general direction, based off their position in the doorway to the bathroom. "It might take us a while, but we should be able to change the bulb at least. That'll give us some light." "If they haven't all gone bad. There's an atmosphere inside here you know," said Dan irritably. "Yeah, but it should be relatively stale, no new air in or out in ten thousand years," pointed out Carrot. "It's like we're walking around inside an ancient tomb." "You people do realize that we have to turn life support on or we'll suffocate in a few hours," said Dan. "Damn it," grumbled Ranma. "How hard could changing one little light bulb be?" asked Carrot. +++++++++++++ Four hours later... "Hokay, here we go," said Carrot in a gasping breath as he stumbled out of the bathroom. The light was now on, and there were dozens of other bulbs scattered around on the ground, most of them broken. The glass crunched under their feet as they moved. "Now, we go up to the cockpit and try to turn on the power right?" said Dan. "Right," said Carrot. "It's getting hard to breathe," muttered Ranma. They managed to make it and sat down in the pilot's seat. "This is going to suck if this doesn't work," commented Carrot as he began to flip switches on the console. There was a grating sound, and the vehicle sputtered violently. "Oh man," muttered Ranma as he hung their head. Carrot frowned and smacked the console. The ship came to life in an instant, and the sound of machinery working began to float from below them. "Yes!" cried Carrot as he pumped his arm. "We don't need gas for this thing do we?" said Dan as he looked for some sort of fuel indicator. "Naw, it runs off of some sort of energy crystal. It's good for about fifty thousand years or so," said Ranma as he pointed the gage out to him. It was reading almost full. "Well, now that we're back in business, let's go home," said Carrot as he started the engines and tried to turn on the exterior lights. There was a flash like in the bathroom, and still total darkness outside. "Crap." "Hey, stuff gets old," said Dan with a small shrug. He reached down and pushed a red button. "No! You idiot!" cried Ranma as he tried to stop him. It was too late though, and a concussion missile blasted out of the front of the ship. It knocked out a wall and didn't explode, instead it merely skipped across the surface of the moon for a few thousand yards and sputtered to a start. "What? It worked didn't it?" asked Dan defensively. "There's other ships in here moron. If that went off, it might have killed us all," said Carrot. "Our shields aren't even up, we don't even know if they work or not yet." "At least we can see now," commented Pissant. The hole wasn't large enough for the ship to fit through, and they had to open the hangar doors. "Hope the space suits still work," grumbled Ranma. "Yeah, well. Come on, we'd best get started," said Carrot as he stood up and walked towards the airlock. +++++++++++++++++ "Well, there it is," said Dan as he looked up at the sky and saw the Earth in orbit overhead. They had just shoved aside one of the large hangar doors that kept them enclosed. Carrot smirked as he looked at it and turned back towards the ship. "Shall we go?" +++++++++++++++ The lights inside the ship were now all replaced and they stood looking at the interior for a moment. "Everything seems to still be intact," commented Ranma. They had just climbed out of the engine compartment and had done some checking around. Ranma's memories of his past life had helped a bit, but the basically had no idea what they were doing. Genaku had some knowledge, but he wasn't a mechanic. Everything seemed to be in order though. Nothing looked broken at least. "Good," said Carrot with a small nod. "This place is so dusty," said Pissant with a huge frown. "We'll clean it up later, I'm hungry," said Ranma. "He's right, the ship might not survive a trip back to Earth anyway," said Dan. "I don't remember there being any fluids or anything," said Ranma. "We should be all right." "Yeah, well let's go find out," said Carrot as they turned towards the cockpit again. ++++++++++++++ "Hey, where are we gonna land?" asked Carrot after they were about halfway to the planet. "Huh?" said Ranma dumbly. "Well, we can't exactly park this thing in front of the dojo you know," said Carrot irritably. "We haven't built a landing pad at headquarters so that's out." "He's right," said Ranma in shock. "Where the heck are we gonna park this thing?" "Hey. I think I've got an idea," said Carrot cheerfully. +++++++++++++ Tenchi Masaki rushed out in front of the small cave within the shrine. He scurried away excitedly, holding the sword hilt in his hand. He was screaming bloody murder and stumbled on the ground as he ran away in terror. "Wha? What was that?" he muttered to himself as he looked at the shrine. "From now on, I'm doing whatever grandpa says, no questions asked!" He calmed down a bit and sighed. Finally standing up, he started to move towards his home, hoping desperately that he'd forget what had just happened to him. He wouldn't though, in a few hours he'd probably be having a nightmare about it or something. It was around this point that a huge flat spaceship roared up the side of the mountain and hovered just above his head. He stared up at it and blinked. "Oh man. What else can go wrong?" With that, he promptly fell flat on his back and passed out. The ship landed on the ground on top of the boy and the ramp came down letting the ship's only occupant out onto the shrine grounds. "I hope they don't mind me parking here." An old man walked calmly out of the temple nearby and arched his eyebrow at the boy who had landed on top of his grandson. "I hope you have a good reason for landing here my boy." "Huh? Oh, Hi. Is Washuu here?" said Ranma as he turned to face the man for a moment. "Pardon? I'm afraid I don't know who you mean," said the man calmly. Ranma scratched the back of his head and frowned. "Dang. Could have just dumped this on her," he muttered as he looked up at the ship for a moment. "Guess she isn't here yet." "Who are you? What do you want here?" said the old man as he eyed them carefully. "Oh. Hi. I'm Ranma, you're Yosho right? Crowned Prince of Jurai in hiding? Sorry, I thought a friend of mine might be here. She's expected in the next few months according to the anim...er, I mean the Gates of Time. To be honest, I'm not sure about the exact date, for her showing up, or when I am now." "Time Gates?" said the old man as he calmly walked up beside the boy. "Yeah. You know, the ones on Pluto? Sorry to trouble you and all," said the boy sheepishly. "I don't know what you're talking about," said the man firmly. "Look, you're grandson has passed out, if that's what you're worried about. I know who you are, and to be honest, I don't really care," said the boy as he stared at the old man for a moment. "Just one question..." "Yes?" said the man as he frowned at the boy. "Why did you let Tenchi wake up Ryoko? I never did understand why," said the boy as he looked at the sleeping teen where he was lying underneath the starship for a moment. Yosho frowned and sighed. "Her sentence is up. Even I cannot hold her forever, and according to the laws of Jurai, she has served her term." "Oh. Cool. Anyway, I guess I've got to find another place to dump this thing," said Ranma as he looked up at the starship and sighed. "You are from the future?" said Yosho as he eyed the boy carefully. "Naw. I'm from here, but I've just had a rather interesting adventure in the Silver Millenium. From what I understand, your people used to have good relations with them. It's no real concern of mine though," said the boy with a shrug. "You may park your ship behind the mountain if you wish, please do not leave it in my yard," said the old man as he turned and walked back into the temple again. "Yeah. Sorry about that," said Ranma sheepishly again. Tenchi slowly sat up and shook his head. "Man. I just had the strangest..." He promptly hit his head against the bottom hull of the ship and fell back on the ground on his behind. "What the?!" Ranma looked at him and smirked. "You might want to get out from under there, I'm taking off, and this thing kicks up a lot of dust." "Ah! Aliens!" cried Tenchi as he scurried away in terror and dove into the woods that surrounded the shrine. +++++++++++++ "Who was that? Shouldn't we erase his memory or something?" asked Ranma nervously as they sat behind the controls of the ship. "Naw. In a few weeks, he'll be used to stuff like this. He's not human anyway, he's part alien. A planet called Jurai," said Carrot calmly as the ship rose into the sky. "Huh? What's he doing here?" asked Ranma in confusion. "His grandfather moved here a few thousand years ago or so. Beat some space pirate called Ryoko, sealed her up, and decided to stay. They shouldn't be a problem for us or anything. This is how we already knew who Washuu was." "You mean?" asked Ranma dumbly. "Yeah. Another Anime," snorted Dan. "He sure seemed nice," said Pissant. "You mean when he was running in terror? Or when he passed out?" said Carrot. "Um, I guess I wouldn't really know would I?" muttered the voice sheepishly. "Right, Let's just park this thing all right?" said Dan irritably. "Where to after that?" asked Ranma. "The dojo, we've got to explain where we've been to everyone," said Carrot with a small sigh. "What's the excuse?" asked Dan. "Emergency training trip I suppose. We could just say we were attacked by some weird Youma that sent us into the past for a while too. That'd be close to the truth," replied Carrot with a shrug. "Plus we've got to talk with the guys, and explain to them too," said Ranma as he hung his head. "Man, this sucks." +++++++++++++++ Akane was in trouble. They were in the middle of a largely empty stadium and Takibi was wiping the floor with the senshi yet again. They were burnt and charred as they attempted to get him where he needed to be. "Damn him! He's not cooperating!" snarled Jadeite as he sat beside her. They were hunched behind a detonator as the senshi tried to move him over the trap door on the stage. The stadium was set up for a concert later that day, some pop idol was going to sing there. Takibi had planned on attaching another of his energy sucking crystals to the sound system, while his cute blonde youma girl sang her songs and acted like a focus point. "He's almost there, just toying with them," said Jadeite coldly as he glared over one of the seats that hid them from view. ++++++++++++++++ "Damn! We're not even hurting him," said Mars painfully as she glared at the red-haired man who grinned at them. "We've got to try! We can't just let this go on!" said Sailor Moon bravely as she struggled back to her feet. Takibi's smile turned into a harsh looking frown. "You know, this has been fun. I'm getting a little sick of this game though. I think I'll just get rid of you this time, for good." "What?" said Mercury. It was as far as she got, the youma merely nodded to the tiny blonde girl in front of him. The girl was dressed in a frilly pink dress that would have to be frosted to look any sweeter. She giggled girlishly and snapped the microphone in her hand like a whip, using the chord. It wrapped around Mercury's neck and she pulled hard, throwing the girl on the ground roughly. The others tried to move to the girl's rescue, but Takibi created a wall of flames to block them that rose ten feet into the air. They could still see him standing over the girl on the other side though. He put his heel into her back and ground her shoulder down. "My, my, my. I wonder if you'll be as sweet as this little flower was?" He indicated the young blonde and leaned into her. "It was hard making a youma to look and sound just like her. You should have seen the looks on her parent's faces when their sweet little girl slit their throats." "Monster," muttered the girl painfully as she tried her best to stare up at him. "You won't get away with this!" "Who's going to stop me? You?" snorted the youma in amusement. "I'll do my best!" cried Mercury as she stood up and threw him off her shoulders with a grunt of effort. He stumbled back, only slightly surprised by the act. The smaller youma was forced back to keep him from falling on top of her. At they same instant, they both stepped over the trap door. "Now!" cried Akane. Jadeite activated the detonator and a column of light erupted from the ground, consuming both youma completely. They both screamed in pain, and the little girl was vaporized. Takibi, however, didn't even look scratched. "No way!" cried Akane in shock as she stumbled back. "That had enough force in it to vaporize a small island!" said Jadeite in horror. "That really hurt," snarled Takibi angrily as he glared at the girls in front of him angrily. "What? It didn't kill him?!" cried Jupiter. "No! We won't be defeated so easily!" said Sailor Moon sternly as she pointed at it. "Usually I'd run away now," said Takibi coldly. "But that was just too close for comfort. I'm afraid I'm going to have to call my bluff this time, and get rid of you girls for real. You were amusing until now." The senshi backed away, realizing that they were in serious trouble. Takibi grabbed Mercury by the back of her head and lifted her off the ground. The girl screamed as he began to squeeze her head, the others could hear her skull beginning to crack under the pressure. The girl thrashed around desperately, trying to escape his grip. "Any last words?" "You won't get away with this," said Mercury. "Attack!" cried Mars as she pointed at the thing. There was little she could do against it, but the others might be able to harm it enough to get it to release her friend. "But Mercury!" said Sailor Moon in shock. "She's dead anyway if we don't!" said Jupiter as she raised her hands into the sky. "Do it!" The other girl's nodded, and steeled themselves. There was little chance for success, but they would go down fighting. Takibi smirked as Mercury suddenly stopped moving, a trickle of blood ran down her forehead as she watched her friends prepare to strike. "I wish...I could have done more..." Out of nowhere a blur slammed into the Youma's side. Mercury was thrown into the air and slammed down on the ground rather roughly. Takibi snarled and whirled around to see a disturbingly familiar face grinning at him. "You! Finally decided to show up and die with your friends?" "I will not allow this to go on!" said Tsuki as she pointed at him with the Time Staff. "You may be strong and fast, but there's no way you'll win. You're too evil to go on living!" "You're not strong enough to kill me," said the thing with a chuckle as it leered at her. He rushed foreword and Tsuki bent down as he vanished and reappeared with his hand in her gut. "Tsuki!" cried Sailor Moon in shock. Takibi turned to smirk at her, shifting the girl's body as well. Usagi gasped and stepped back in horror. Takibi's hand had gone completely through the girl. "No!" The youma pushed her off his arm casually and licked the blood off hungrily as he stared down at the dying girl. "Heh. You're as sweet as that child was. Perhaps your friends will taste as good as well?" Tsuki looked up at him, she was clearly in shock, but not yet dead. "I don't think you'll ever find out," said a new voice. "Eh?" said Takibi with a snarl on his face as he turned. "You shouldn't be here..." Ranma looked up at him and smirked. He was walking through the flames that now surrounded the stage. A white glow surrounding his body as he walked up to the thing calmly. "I took a little trip. You'll have to excuse me for being late." He casually shoved Takibi aside and grabbed Tsuki, lifting her up into his arms he carried her off the edge of the stage. "I should leave you for dead girl. You've been a pain in my ass since you showed up." The girl closed her eyes and passed out finally, the loss of blood and damage to her innards finally too much to bear. He set her on the ground just off the stage and stood upright. He nodded as he saw that the wound had closed up, there was still a scar, and he couldn't spare the energy to heal her completely just yet. He turned towards the senshi and smirked. "Take her and get going." Sailor Moon nodded dumbly and rushed over to the girl's side. Jupiter had Mercury in her arms as she passed by him. "Who are you? What are you planning?" "You'll see. If you really want, you can hang around. It'll be one hell of a show," said the boy calmly as he watched the youma closely. Takibi was watching them closely, trying to gage the boy. He was different, stronger. How much stronger was the question. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." "Too bad you didn't. I'm gonna kick your ass now," said Ranma as he stepped onto the stage and moved into a combat stance. "Ranma!" cried Akane from the stands. She rushed up with Jadeite beside her. The man grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from proceeding. "We can ask him later. We can't hang around," said the man as he glared at the boy for a moment in confusion. "Hey. I've got one hell of a story for you when I get back," said Ranma as he noticed them. He put up his fists. "It had better be one hell of a story you jerk!" snapped Akane. "He won't be around to tell you. I'll just wipe you all out next time," said Takibi as he stood waiting for Ranma. He looked slightly cautious, and had not moved to attack yet. "Shall we get started?" asked Ranma as he watched the youma carefully. Takibi's body burst into flames, he merely nodded. ++++++++++ "What the hell are they doing?" said Jupiter as she turned to see the pair staring at each other in the center of the stage. They had taken cover behind some of the seats to check on their wounded friends. "Waiting for the other to make the first move," said Akane as she watched the scene for a moment. "What are we going to do? Mercury doesn't seem hurt to badly, but Tsuki isn't breathing well," said Sailor Moon as she looked the two girls over. "I don't know if I can..." There was a flash of light behind them, and Sailor Pluto stepped out. She looked the scene over for a moment and frowned. "Tsuki...I told you not to..." She sighed and lifted the girl off of the ground, ignoring the others completely. "She will live. Do not worry yourselves. That boy, will not." She looked at the fight for a moment before vanishing again. "What?" said Akane in shock as he turned to see Ranma still facing off against the youma. "We should help him!" said Venus with a stern look on her face. "What can we do?" said Akane as she turned to glare at her. "He's strong enough to beat all of you at once." "We can stay out of his way, that's what," said Jadeite. "There's nothing else. If we see an opportunity to strike, we take it. Even if he loses, the youma may be weak enough for us to finish it off after the fight." Akane shuddered at how cold blooded that sounded, but it was also the only real way they could help at all. Both combatants seemed to vanish and reappear at various places in the stadium as if to illustrate this point. ++++++++++++ "You've gotten stronger," snarled Takibi as he met Ranma in mid air and locked arms with him. The boy ignored the flames that burned around the youma and smirked. "You haven't," he replied. "I don't need to. You haven't even seen half of my power yet," snarled the thing as he shoved the boy back. Ranma was taken by surprise, and the youma attacked, pounding him relentlessly. "Shit!" said Ranma in shock as he found himself slamming painfully into the stage, shattering the raised platform completely. He slowly stood up, shaking boards and dust off of himself. "Damn. He's stronger than we thought he'd be." Takibi appeared behind him and grinned. "You have no idea," he kicked the boy in his back, sending him crashing through the standing side supports on one side. Ranma managed to stand despite himself and ended up in a large clear area off to the side of the stage. Takibi landed in front of him calmly and went onto the assault immediately. "Here I thought you might be stronger. What a fool I was." Ranma immediately went on the defensive, backing away from the thing in a slowly closing spiral. "You haven't beaten me yet." "You couldn't harm me if I let you," snapped the thing in retort. "Oh yeah?! Take this! Hiryuu shouten Ha!" Ranma raised his arm into the air and released the sleeping dragon. Takibi's eyes went wide in shock as he felt a freezing sensation cover his entire body, his flames died away in an instant and he was thrown into the air like a doll. Ranma smirked as he watched the slowly freezing youma become nothing more than a speck inside the winds of the attack. "Got ya!" He staggered for a moment under the force of the winds and paused. "This thing is huge!" he realized that his attack was much larger than it should have been. "What the hell?" He raised his arms to protect his face as he slowly began to lose his footing. Just before he was lifted off his feet, the attack died down. He was standing alone in the middle of the destroyed stage, a huge patch of grass torn from the ground around him. The base of the attack was easily thirty yards in diameter. "No way!" muttered the pigtailed boy as he glanced around. Akane was rushing down from the stands. "You...did it!" The senshi were approaching as well, but with a much more cautious attitude. "Yes. He did," said Jupiter quietly. "Yeah, well..." said the pigtailed boy as he looked up at the sky for a moment. "He hasn't come down yet. He'll probably be pretty mad when he does." "You mean...he's not dead?" asked Venus in shock. "Nope, that blast should have weakened him though," said Ranma. "It's a freezing attack, so it should have hurt him quite a bit." He turned and smirked at them. "I'm afraid this isn't over quite yet." Ranma nodded up at the sky and the others looked up and quickly moved away. A huge ball of flames crashed to the ground nearby. It burned brightly, creating a column of flames. Takibi slowly rose to his feet where he stood inside the fire and glared at Ranma. "I'm impressed. I may leave some of you to bury just because of that," he said coldly. Ranma frowned and moved into a combat stance again. "You've got to kill me first." "I plan on it. Now you'll find out why I'm a youma lord," said the man as his body began to swell. Ranma stared in shock as the skinny man began to grow, expanding into a ten-foot tall lizard with red scales. It looked like some sort of dinosaur, three claws with an opposable thumb in the center of the wrist. Its body was a deep crimson, with darker stripes running along its back. On top of its head was a sharp looking crest of spiked flesh that rose into the air for a moment before flattening against its skull. "Oh shit." The thing charged foreword, grabbing him by his leg as he attempted to jump away and slamming him into the ground repeatedly like a giant club. After a moment it flung the boy over its head and sent him flying across the field. Ranma came down in the debris of the stage, his body was lifeless and looked flailed about as it came down and bounced once before stopping behind a small portion of the stage out of view. Takibi curled its lips at the others, they backed away slowly. Terror clear on all of their faces. It roared angrily and slowly began to move towards them with slow steps. "We can't win," said Jadeite. "We're not dead yet!" said Sailor Moon with a small frown on her face. Akane nodded grimly, "We've got to get away, but I can't just leave Ranma like this. We've got to get around him and get to him." "Running away would seem to be our best option," said Jupiter nervously. Takibi roared again and they were slowly backed into the bleachers. +++++++++++++ "That hurt," said Carrot as they lie on their back. "Can we move?" asked Ranma. "No..." muttered Dan painfully. "We've got nothing left," said Ranma in frustration. "There's nothing we can do!" "Wish we still had that crystal we had when we were fighting Valdis," said Dan. "I think I can move our hand." "What about the Spirit Bomb?" asked Ranma. "No good, we need to much time. There's no way the others will distract him long enough," said Carrot as his mind worked desperately. "I've got an idea, but it's a long shot." "What is it?" asked Ranma desperately. "Remember that technique we abandoned? The advanced Kaio Ken?" asked Carrot. "That move?" gasped Ranma. "We might not be able to go back. Once we do it..."" "Only you two have enough training to pull that off," said Dan. "I'll admit I'm not upset with the idea of having one less voice in hour head." "Think we can do it?" asked Ranma. "Do we have a choice?" asked Carrot. "I guess not," said Ranma as he managed a painful nod. "Well, it's been nice working with you guys." "Yeah, see you on the other side," said Carrot. He sounded almost cheerful. "I love you guys," whimpered Pissant. They began the Kaio Ken technique, combining their power together at the beat of their hearts. This time, they went further, combining their ki completely. Carrot smirked. "It's working. Just a little more..." Ranma said nothing, and merely closed their eyes. +++++++++++++++ Takibi hissed at the group angrily as they spread out and began to move in different directions, giving him multiple targets. They all knew it was mostly useless, they couldn't run away. The monster was too fast for them to escape. All of them paused as an explosion of light erupted from where Ranma had fallen. Takibi turned his head and ignored his prey for a moment in favor of this new distraction. Ranma Saotome slowly stood up and began to float off the ground. A golden aura surrounded his body and his hair had changed to the same color. He had a dark smile on his face and he turned to look at the beast. He balled his fists and screamed as the aura exploded outward, his hair stood on end and seemed to grow slightly larger somehow. He relaxed and hung there for a moment staring at Takibi. He raised his hand in front of his face and smirked. "At last, I am the prince of all saiyans once again." +++++++++++++++++ TBC... Next Time: Takibi vs. Super Ranma!!