Insertion

Part 42: The Return

by Sean D'Anna

=====

"Loki," said Urd as she stood in the middle of the street and glanced around 
angrily. "Come out! I know you can hear me!"

Belldandy and Skuld both stood nearby, looking on as the elder goddess grew more 
and more frustrated.

"I don't think he's coming," muttered Skuld with a small frown.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said a familiar voice.

The goddesses all turned to see a familiar green headed figure lounging on the 
roof of a car nearby. "Did you want something? I'm missing all the fun," said 
the thing lazily.

"I want you to stop this thing," said Urd.

"Do it yourself," said Loki calmly as he looked at his fingernails for a moment.

"We can't," said Urd in disgust. "You know that."

"Ah, but you can," he said as he smirked at them. "You just don't want to."

"We can't," insisted Urd. 

"You could easily stop this, don't play the goody two shoes with me Urd," 
snorted the god as he sat up and crossed his legs, still grinning playfully.

"Bending the rules is one thing, but breaking a direct order from father is 
something completely different," said Urd calmly. "You know we can't do that."

"Fine, fine," snorted Loki casually. "Why should I?"

"The whole world will be destroyed!" cried Skuld.

Loki smirked at her for a moment. "I know. Isn't it grand?"

"Please! Help us!" said Belldandy with tears forming in her eyes. She looked at 
him and almost fell to her knees.

Loki arched his eyebrow at this. "A heartfelt plea? Something you don't want 
destroyed here? My, my..."

"I can't do anything for you, but please!" pleaded Belldandy as she fell to her 
knees completely.

"Sis!" gasped Urd.

Loki grinned and stood up on top of the car. "Please Bell, it doesn't suit you. 
That cheery goodness of yours may sway some demons, but frankly it sickens me."

The goddess looked up at him and gasped, tears streaming down her face.

"Don't look at me that way. I'm imprisoned on this world for as long as it 
exists, stuck inside this damn mask! You think any amount of pleading will make 
me help you? When the Sub-zero program is complete, I'll be free at last!" He 
sneered down at her for a moment.

"You! You did this!" gasped Urd.

"Oh, you give me far too much credit," said Loki as he smirked at her. "My power 
is limited to extreme levels in this prison. I'm hardly capable of bringing such 
a nasty program to Midigard. I can't even perform a low level program on the 
Yggdrasil system."

"But you do have enough power to stop this," said Urd as she glared at him.

"Of course, but you're asking me to go against Father's will? To break the rules 
for you?" he chuckled at them for a moment. "As much as I'd enjoy seeing you all 
brought down a peg or two by doing it. I'd rather just sit back and wait for my 
freedom thanks."

"What does he mean?" asked Skuld.

"He's right," growled Urd. "By asking someone else to do it for us, we might as 
well be doing it ourselves. Father will see it the same way." She paused and 
turned towards Belldandy. "You already knew that didn't you sis?"

Belldandy looked away. "I won't let it hurt Keiichi."

"Damn," growled Loki. "Something...oh no!" He screamed and jumped up and down. 
"No! It can't be!" He started to move away and paused when a bolt of lightening 
struck the ground in front of him.

"Leave it alone," said the message from the almighty on the hood of the car.

Loki snarled and shook his fist up at the sky. "You! 
You...AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!" He screamed and pulled open the back of his head, 
ripping himself from his host.

Hikaru Gosunkugi stood dumbly, staring at the mask in his hands for a moment. 
"What happened?" he muttered to himself. He often had trouble remembering what 
had happened while he was wearing the mask, but he'd never completely blacked 
out before.

Urd frowned at him, and was about to force him to give her the mask. However, a 
rumble from above made her pause and she backed away. She turned towards her 
sisters, "Come on. We're going home."

++++++++++++

Jiro sat looking at the television dumbly. He was a large man in a dirty pair of 
gray overalls. A toothpick hung from his mouth as he stared at the screen for a 
moment rather dumbly. "What the heck?" He paused and looked over his shoulder. 
"Hey! Keiichi! C'mere and check this out!"

Keiichi strolled up with a confused looking smile. "What's up boss?"

"Says here the aliens have landed," said the man as he flipped through the 
stations. It was on every channel.

"Hey. It's those guys from that Dragon Ball show," said Keiichi with a small 
frown. "Must be some sort of publicity stunt."

"Dragon Whazzit?" muttered Jiro as he looked at the boy.

"It's a Cartoon show. One of my old friends is kind of an Otaku, I've heard 
about it that's all."

Jiro snorted and flipped it off. "Oh well, back to work."

"Right," grumbled Keiichi.

+++++++++++++

"HA! Look at them run!" said Frieza as he blasted a young girl who cowered in 
front of him with a sphere of black energy. She was vaporized in an instant, 
leaving her boyfriend screaming as he continued to run. "Weak little things."

"So fragile," commented King Cold as he grabbed the boy and ripped him in half. 
"Really son, quit sulking and join us."

Kooler simply floated above them, looking rather bored. "Enjoy yourselves and 
leave me out of this. There's nothing of interest on this pathetic rock."

"I wouldn't say that," said Ranma as he walked up to the group with a confident 
looking smirk on his face. "Man, that chick was cute too. Can't you evil aliens 
kill all the ugly people first? Why do you always have to go for the cute ones?"

"You monkeys all look the same to me," commented Frieza as he looked at the 
newcomers for a moment.

"You must be Frieza," said Chibi-Usa as she smirked at them with an equal amount 
of calm.

"Oh? And who might you be?" snorted the smallest of the creatures as it floated 
out of its chair and landed in front of them.

Ryoko hovered above the pair with Hotaru at her side.

"Saturn, Crystal Power," said Hotaru as she glared at the scene below. She was 
bathed in light and ribbons as her senshi uniform formed over her small and now 
nude form. Within a second's time, her transformation was over and she smirked. 
"I feel an immense power. At last, a real fight."

"Huh?" said Ryoko as he looked at the girl in shock. She turned her attention 
towards the alien group and landed beside Ranma and her younger sister. "Who are 
these guys? I've never seen anything that looks like them before."

"Oh. That's simple. This is Queen Cold, Princess Frieza, and Kooler," said 
Ranma.

"That's King Cold and Prince Frieza," said the largest of the creatures with a 
frown forming on his face.

"Of all the insolent..." snarled Frieza.

Kooler chuckled at this, but remained above them.

"King Cold?" said Ranma as he blinked at the largest of the creatures. "Then why 
are you wearing lipstick?"

"What?" said the thing as it stared at them.

Chibi-Usa stared at them for a moment and blinked. "Hey! My god! You're right! 
These men -are- wearing lipstick!"

"You'll die for that," snarled Frieza.

"Let's just destroy them," said Saturn as she glared at the trio and started 
foreword.

Ranma grabbed her by her collar and pulled her back. "Hold on."

"What?" said the girl as she looked up at him in surprise.

"There's a way to do these things," said Ranma.

"What do you mean?" snapped Ryoko. "We should just kill them right?"

"No. First we talk about how we're going to kill each other for about an hour, 
and then we fight one on one, hiding our power so they think they have us. Then 
we run away for a little while when they appear to win. We get scared and talk 
about how we're going to kill them again. After that, we suddenly boost our 
power, fight them again, and beat on them for a while. Then they transform and 
beat us up some more. After that we transform too, and fight them, then they 
transform evening out the fight for a short time before we finally overpower 
them, dramatically killing them with the last of our power."

Saturn frowned at him. "I'd rather just kill them now and get it over with."

"Yeah, I'm getting kind of hungry," commented Chibi-Usa.

"Well, maybe we could skip the talking part, that's pretty boring anyway..." 
said Ranma as he thought about it.

Kooler frowned as he peered at them. "This group, there is something different 
about them..."

"The monkeys seem to think they can win," said Frieza with a snort.

"Shall we show them the error of their ways?" asked King Cold as he smirked at 
his son.

"Yes, let's. It's always amusing to see the looks on their faces when they 
realize how pathetic they are."

"I was just thinking the same thing," said Ranma as he stepped foreword.

"Spore, you and Hotaru take care of the other two, I'll handle the small one," 
said Ranma as he smirked at Frieza.

"Aw man," grumbled Chibi-Usa as she frowned and stood off against King Cold.

"What is this? A child?" snorted the thing as it looked at Ranma in irritation. 
"How dare you mock me like this!"

"What a jerk! Leaving the girls with the biggest ones!" cried Ryoko.

"You stay out of this, this is beyond your power level," said Ranma as he 
glanced back at her.

"Yeah right! You chicken shit!" snapped Ryoko.

Hotaru looked up at her and frowned slightly. "Ranma-sensei is fighting the 
strongest of them. She paused and looked up at Kooler, who was simply watching. 
"Perhaps I am mistaken..." She stepped foreword and vanished, appearing next to 
him.

"Eh?" he muttered as he uncrossed his arms a little and looked at her. 

"It seems I am to be your opponent," said Saturn calmly as she watched the 
others face off below.

"Heh. I wouldn't be bothered," snorted the thing as it frowned at her.

"I see. We shall wait then," said Saturn as she simply floated beside him and 
watched.

++++++++++++++

Ranma stood glaring at Frieza. The thing was screaming as an aura of power 
burned around it. It was still in its weakest form, and looked rather strained 
as it powered up.

"Tell me you can do better than this," said Ranma with a snort.

"What?" gasped Frieza.

"Look. As much as I'd enjoy spending all day fighting you, I'm afraid it's 
getting late. Why don't you just power up to your strongest level and we can 
just finish this early?"

Frieza glared at him. "What do you know?"

"I know that this is just a form you use to conserve power. If you don't go all 
out, you'll lose," he replied as he glared at the thing for a moment.

"Ha! You couldn't handle my strongest form!" snapped Frieza.

"Try me," snorted Ranma coldly.

"Fine! I'll test you!" snapped Frieza.

Ranma smirked at this. "I'm not in the mood for playing around."

The alien attacked him, charging foreword with his hands extended, meaning to 
demolish the boy with a single attack. He gasped in shock when his strike didn't 
connect and screamed in pain. "What!? How can this be?"

Ranma had his forearm in one hand, and was squeezing his shoulder with the 
other. He had a calm smirk on his face as he pressed his fingers down harder, 
puncturing the thing's skin. Purple blood oozed out of the wounds beneath his 
fingers. "I'm warning you. You'll die before you get the chance to transform if 
you don't do it now." He released Frieza, moving back a little to give the thing 
some room.

The only reply the alien gave was a short angry growl. 

++++++++++

Chibi-Usa frowned as King Cold ignored her and started to move towards a large 
group of people who had stopped to look at the fight in awe. There were dozens 
of cameras flashing. "Interesting," he said as he looked down at them for a 
moment. A ball of power formed in his hand and he tossed it towards them idly.

Chibi-Usa appeared in front of the ball and backhanded it into the sky. It 
sailed away and the large alien paused to watch it move off into the distance. 
"What?"

"You bastard. How dare you ignore me!" she snapped

"What sort of humans are these?" snapped King Cold as he growled at her.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" cried the little girl as her aura exploded around her, 
bathing her in a golden light.

"These aren't humans!" cried the thing in alarm.

Frieza paused his battle with Ranma for a moment as he heard this. "What?" He 
saw the golden aura that surrounded the little girl and turned to face Ranma 
again. "What are you?"

The boy was grinning at him, his tail wagging behind his back slowly. "Surprise. 
I must say, you saving me the trouble of coming to get you for destroying my 
planet certainly was nice."

"Saiyans!" snarled Frieza as he backed away slightly.

"Eh?" muttered Kooler as he glanced down at the blue haired woman who wasn't 
fighting, and the girl who was still floating calmly beside her. "So. A nest of 
Saiyans?"

"Not Saiyans," replied Hotaru calmly. "Super Saiyans."

"That's just a legend," snarled Frieza as he glared at her.

"No, I'm afraid not," said Ranma.

Chibi-Usa blasted foreword, slamming her fist into King Cold's gut, passing 
through his body completely. He lurched foreword with a look of shock in his 
eyes as he spat up a huge spray of purple blood.

"Impossible!" gasped Frieza.

"Father?" muttered Kooler as he watched in a sort of stupefied awe.

Chibi-Usa smirked, rather than pull her arm off of him, she lifted him over her 
head by shifting her arm up. The thing tried to grab her as he struggled, but 
she merely stared at his face from over her shoulder. "I'll never forgive Pop 
for making me fight the weakest one."

King Cold tried to speak. "You...can't do this!"

"HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" screamed the girl as her aura flared to life again. King 
Cold exploded in a huge burst of power and smoke. When the debris finally 
cleared away, there was nothing but the little girl standing with her arm raised 
in the air. "Pathetic."

"This is impossible!" gasped Frieza.

"No, I'm afraid that your days of planet raiding are over Frieza," said Ranma 
calmly.

"You Monkey!" snarled Frieza as he began to power up.

Ranma turned towards Ryoko and smirked. "Should I wait on him?"

She stared at the scene for a moment and shrugged. "How the heck should I know?"

Ranma shrugged as well. "Nah." He shot foreword, blasting through the field of 
power that surrounded the alien. He punched the thing dead in his face and sent 
him into the ground.

Frieza growled as his energy collecting was disrupted and staggered to his feet. 
"You'll die for that!"

Ranma was already there, he punched the thing again, repeatedly pummeling it and 
forcing it on the defensive. It was all Frieza could do to keep up. "Damn you!"

Ranma frowned and cupped his hands. "Mokou Takabisi!" he screamed as he sent a 
blast of power into the monster's chest, it sailed into a grove of trees, 
passing through several of the thick trunks before landing.

Frieza screamed in rage, his aura exploding around him as he continued to power 
up. "Damn you! I'll destroy this whole planet!"

"You shouldn't have said that," said Ranma. 

"Oh? What are you going to do! You can't stop me!" snarled Frieza "I'll destroy 
this whole planet, and take you with it!" The alien thing began to laugh out 
loud.

"That wouldn't be proper," snorted a new voice from behind him.

Frieza paused and looked down to see a purple covered object poking from his 
chest. "What?" he sputtered as blood began to trickle out of his mouth.

"No one shall lay a hand on him, not until I've finished with him," said Ryoga 
as he shook the thing off of his umbrella and stepped on it's back. "You're 
certainly not going to destroy my planet to do it either."

He walked across Frieza's back, popping sounds emitted from the fallen alien. 
Ryoga paused on his shoulders and glared down at the thing. He lifted his foot 
up and slammed it into the back of Frieza's head, pushing through it in a rather 
messy display.

Ranma frowned as he looked at the boy standing opposite him. "Ryoga? Ryoga 
Hibiki?"

"Indeed," replied the boy as he looked up at him. He was dressed in a suit and 
still had a bowl hat on his head. "It has been some time Saotome. You blaggard."

Ranma gasped as he backed away. The boy's appearance was far from what the two 
voices in his head remembered. "We've been so busy lately, that I'd forgotten 
that he hadn't show up yet!" he whispered to himself.

Ryoga removed his hat as he passed by Ryoko, revealing a small R that seemed to 
be tattooed on his forehead. "I don't go by Ryoga Hibiki any longer. I am now, 
Mr. Where." He smirked at Ranma coldly and twirled his umbrella around his hand 
for a moment. "For almost two years I have hunted you, traveling across the 
world. For this suffering, I shall destroy you."

Ranma looked confused for a moment, and then his face changed again. "You've got 
a lot of nerve showing your face to me after what you pulled!"

Ryoga blinked. "Pardon?"

Ranma sneered and pointed at him. "You coward! You dare even speak to me after 
you ran out on our fight?"

"Ran out!" snapped Ryoga. "I have suffered to..."

"You never showed up! I waited three days for you!" snapped Ranma rudely. 

"And when I arrived on the fourth day, you had already run away!" retorted 
Ryoga.

"Fourth day? You asshole! You're the one who never showed up! How dare you try 
and put this on me! You acted dishonorably when you were late to your own 
challenge! I even gave you an extra two days!" retorted Ranma.

Ryoga growled and clenched his fists. "You dare..."

"I dare! You've got no right to show your face to me coward!" snapped Ranma.

"What the heck is going on?" said Ryoko as she looked down at Chibi-Usa.

The girl wasn't paying any attention, she was looking at Ryoga with a rather 
blank expression on her face. "That's..."

"Ranma Saotome! I have come to avenge my honor!"

"Stuff it! I'm refusing your challenge on the basis that you're a cowardly 
weenie!" 

Kooler simply stared at the scene next to Hotaru, not saying a word. "I cannot 
win can I?"

"No," replied Saturn. "It would be a short battle. I am not only like them, and 
a Saiyan as you put it, but I am also the Senshi of Death and Rebirth."

"My family must be avenged, even though I did not care for them much," he 
replied as he looked at her for a moment.

"I'll make it quick then," she replied as a golden aura appeared around her.

Kooler frowned at this and looked back at the fight that was about to start on 
the ground. "I shall withdraw then."

"I'm not giving you any choice. You have destroyed countless worlds," she 
replied calmly.

Kooler simply turned his eyes away from the fight and faced her. "I can't stop 
you."

She smirked, the Silence Glaive appearing in her grip and she pointed it at him. 
"Well, how interesting. You really have given up have you?"

"I once thought of myself as the strongest being in the entire universe. You and 
your friends have destroyed the only two I even thought came close to my power 
in a matter of minutes. I may be a bit arrogant, but I'm not stupid."

Hotaru's smirk faded away into a rather twisted and evil looking grin. "Go 
then."

"You're letting me go?" he gasped.

"If you're not stupid enough to try and destroy the planet from orbit. Only two 
of us need air to survive, and I would surely survive the destruction of the 
planet. I am designed to destroy it after all."

He frowned at her and nodded. He was intending to obliterate the world from 
above. He was now reconsidering his options rather carefully. "You're bluffing."

"Think what you like, but you're not strong enough to risk finding out are you?" 
she said calmly.

He blasted away, moving back towards his spaceship.

Hotaru turned back to the two boys facing off below and smirked again. 

++++++++++++

"You'll fight me!" snarled Ryoga as he pointed his umbrella at Ranma. "You've 
got no choice."

"On two conditions," said Ranma coldly. 

"You're in no position to make demands," snarled Ryoga hatefully.

"Actually I am," said Ranma as he glanced at the little girl who stood beside 
him and her older sister. "You may be stronger than I'd ever thought you'd be, 
but you're still no match for all three of us."

Chibi-Usa stomped on her father's foot. "You leave him alone you asshole!"

"Ouch! What the hell!? Spore!?" snapped the boy as he looked at her.

"Ryo-chan!" cried Chibi-Usa with huge hearts appearing in her eyes.

"Huh?" muttered the boy dumbly. "Now...now...now dear child! I must insist 
that..." He looked down to see the little girl attached to his leg like a cute 
barnacle.

"Ryo-chan! Imagine seeing you here!" she cried happily. "Oh! You're so cute when 
you're younger!"

"Now see here!" he cried as he shook his leg desperately. "Young lady! I'm 
afraid that you're too...Hey! Let go of that!"

Ranma simply stared at the scene dumbly, not sure what to say or do. He looked 
at Ryoko and then back at Ryoga, who was now trying to use his umbrella to pry 
her loose. "Well, she's your sister all right."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" cried the woman as she glared at him.

"Saotome! I must insist you get this child off of me!" cried Ryoga as he glared 
at the boy.

"You hate me. Why should I help you? You coward," said Ranma with a small shrug. 
He looked up at the sky at Hotaru. "You coming down or what?"

"Fine," said the girl as she floated down and landed next to him. "This is your 
daughter?"

"Uh-huh," he said as he scowled at the scene.

"A very...interesting child," commented Saturn lazily.

"Come on, let's just go," said Ranma as he turned away.

"Saotome! I demand that you...Keep your hands off of those young lady!"

"My darling!" cried Chibi-Usa.

"I don't feel well," grumbled Ranma as he held his stomach.

"Hey...did we miss it?" asked Akane as she strolled up to them with the rest of 
the MIB behind her.

"Afraid so," said Ranma. "Man. That jerk Ryoga. I didn't even get to power up."

"Oh," said the girl as she blinked at them.

"Well, that was pointless," commented Ryoko lazily.

"Who's this?" asked Akane as she noticed Ryoko.

"My other daughter, Ryoko, Akane, Akane, Ryoko," said Ranma as he introduced 
them. "I'm going home now."

"What's going on over there?" muttered Akane as she noticed the commotion.

"Nothing, just some perverts," said Ranma as he brushed it off.

"Damn you Ranma!" cried a voice from behind them.

Akane blinked as she saw Chibi-Usa pulling on someone's leg. He was holding a 
tree trunk in his arms that was being dragged along the ground as the girl 
pulled at him.

+++++++++++++

Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld all looked down at the scene from above.

"What just happened?" muttered Urd.

"They beat them?" gasped Belldandy with a barely hidden joy in her voice.

"It seems that way," commented Urd. "This is weird. Father hasn't said anything 
to us."

"How can a demon be that strong?" said Skuld fearfully.

"There was more than one," said Belldandy with a worried looking frown.

"So it seems," said Urd with a short nod. "Any demon authorized to work on 
Midigard can't be this strong."

"So, they're something else then?" asked Skuld.

"I don't know," replied Urd.

"Perhaps we should find out then," replied Belldandy.

"I didn't see the one we were after before though, just those two little girls," 
said Skuld.

"Who were those two guys?" Urd asked no one in particular.

"Well, it seems that we're not going to find out tonight. We should go back," 
said Belldandy with a sigh.

"Right," agreed the other two.

+++++++++++

TBC...