The
Great Crossover Adventure
by
Xanthix
Chapter
2: Sneak Attack
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Maybe
this wasn't the best idea in the world, Washu thought to herself. Oh well,
nothing a scientific prodigy like herself couldn't handle.
"Okay
everyone, I'll explain it once more," she began again. "Some evil
force is trying to capture people and animals from all our dimensions. I
brought you all here, to the kidnappers' dimension, to help find them and stop
them."
The
varied group was gradually catching on, but they were still very confused.
Ryoko understood what Washu had done, but wasn't thrilled by things. But she
knew that she was stuck in this dimension until Washu brought them back home,
so she was reluctantly going along with things. Now she was sitting on a crate
in the background, scowling at her mother.
Washu
had figured that Zelgadiss would be able to deal with a transition like this,
beyond the normal scope of his universe, and she was right. His experiences
with the Astral Plane had allowed him to accept the idea of parallel universes.
It had taken a while to convince him to re-sheath his sword, but now he stood
with his arms crossed, listening to Washu seriously, trying to get the whole
story. Ameria stood by his side, not sure what to think of Washu, and still
sticking close to her companion.
Ranma
was the most confused, though he tried not to show it. Washu realized that he
probably had never dealt with any cross-dimensional happenstances, and so her
explanation was directed mostly at him.
She
continued, "Our dimensions, that is, our worlds, normally stay completely
separated, but it's possible to travel between them. Some force has found a way
to do so, but is abusing it by traveling to our dimensions and stealing people
and items. Like your friend the pig."
"Hey!
How do you know about Ryoga?" Ranma demanded, surprised.
"It's
also possible to look across dimensions without traveling through them. I've
been keeping an eye on all of you. You are all accomplished warriors and close
to the ones stolen," she explained.
"Excuse
me, Miss Washu," Ameria began. The idea of evil forces taking hostages had
caught her attention. She gestured to Zelgadiss and herself. "Who was
kidnapped from our world? In the name of Justice we will find them!" she
almost shouted. Ryoko snickered.
"I
detected that a large creature, what you would call a dragon, crossed the
time-space continuum from your dimension a week ago," came Washu's reply.
"And don't laugh, Ryoko. We too have to find anyone from our world who has
been stolen. I haven't told you yet, but Ryo'ohki has been missing, and if
Tenchi can't fight off those ships we saw, he may end up here too."
At
this, Ryoko immediately became serious, and angry. "My cabbit, and my
love, taken away, and NOW you tell me!?" She started turning red,
apparently simmering with anger, but not taking her eyes off Washu, who stared
back. Ranma and Ameria started edging away from where she was sitting.
Being
used to violent female outbursts, Zelgadiss calmly asked Washu, "Pardon
me, but where exactly is 'here'?"
Washu
turned from Ryoko to look at Zelgadiss. "We are in the cargo bay of a
spaceship, which belongs to someone else I've summoned to help. According to my
calculations, he should be arriving... right about... now."
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Fox
had been listening at the cargo bay side door for a few minutes. He couldn't
hear much through the reinforced door, but he didn't hear any explosions or
weapons fire, which he figured was good. He decided that surprise would be his
best bet against an unknown threat.
He
activated the emergency override on the door, threw it open, and burst into the
large room, preceded by his laser pistol. He saw the intruders twenty feet
away, amidst some storage crates. He heard someone say "... now," but
ignored it. He shouted menacingly, "Who are you and what have you done
with my teammates!?"
Everyone
looked up surprised, except for the one who had just spoken. She looked at Fox
and said, "Hang on, Fox, I can explain all of this. Calm down."
Fox
was starting to have a really bad day. He almost panicked as he thought, first
they kidnap my team, then they blow up my planet, now they tell me to calm
down?! He was starting to lose control.
"I
don't know who you freaks are, but I want you off my ship!!!" he screamed.
In
response, Washu sighed, America and Ranma looked around nervously, and Ryoko
got up off the box she was sitting on. Fox gradually noticed that she had
actually started to hover above the ground in front of the box. She didn't look
friendly either. Fox re-aimed his laser at her, not sure what would happen.
Zelgadiss drew his sword and assumed a fighting stance.
"Freaks?
YOU are calling US freaks? WE'RE not the ones who started this mess!"
Ryoko blared at him. She had had enough surprises for one day. She started to
charge up to throw an energy blast. The air around her glowed and crackled with
the electricity.
"Ryoko,
stop it. You're not helping things!" Washu shouted. Fox came closer to
squeezing his trigger.
"I
don't care, I want Tenchi and Ryo'ohki back!!" she yelled furiously. With
that, she let her aggression out and launched a bright yellow ball of destructive
energy straight at Fox. Washu screamed Ryoko's name again. The energy ball
screamed its way towards Fox. Ranma and Ameria just screamed.
Fox
didn't know how she had launched such an attack, but his reflexes kicked in.
With impressive speed his left hand flew from his pistol to his belt and hit
the button that he hoped would save his life. Immediately a hexagonal blue
shield appeared around him and he crouched within it.
The
shield rose just in time; Ryoko's energy bolt had just reached Fox. The light
became blinding to Fox as it was about to hit him. Suddenly, it hit the shield,
and with a loud crack it bounced off. The force of the impact disabled the
shield and threw Fox against the cargo bay wall. He quickly recovered and
rolled up into a crouching position, again covering the group with his gun.
The
energy bolt, however, wasn't finished. After ricocheting off of the shield, it
rebounded back towards its origin. Washu dodged, as she had figured that this
would happen. Ryoko quickly teleported out of the way, reappearing behind
Washu. Ranma nimbly jumped up onto a nearby crate. This left Zelgadiss and
Ameria in the path of the rapidly moving blast.
Zelgadiss
prepared to deflect the projectile with his enchanted sword, but didn't have
the chance to. Ameria shouted "Windy Shield!" and created a glowing
barrier in front of them. The energy blast slammed into it, and in an explosion
of sparks and smoke, completed its journey.
After
the smoke cleared, it was quiet. Everyone tensely looked around. No one was
seriously hurt, but would that change? Zelgadiss and Ameria were both ready for
battle. Ryoko was hovering in the air, charged and ready to fire another bolt.
Fox now had a laser rifle that he must have gotten from a wall cabinet. Ranma
was perched on a crate, in a battle stance in his now-dusty tuxedo. Washu
sighed.
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It
took a good stretch of time, but eventually Washu was able to calm everyone
down and convince them to put away their respective weapons. Ryoko and Fox were
still glaring at each other as everyone stood in a circle in the cargo bay, but
at least they weren't shooting anymore. Washu had introduced everyone and
brought Fox up to speed with the others on the situation. She was about to go
into details.
Ranma
was the first to speak up. "So, you want us all to help you find whoever's
abducting people, and stop them?"
"Exactly,"
Washu replied. "I thought it would be fitting if a representative from
each affected dimension was a part of the rescue team. As far as I can tell, so
far only our dimensions have been affected. But we should hurry or others could
be abducted too."
Fox
spoke up. "All right, so we find whoever is behind this, stop 'em, I get
my team back, and we all go home? Fine. But I don't like you taking my
ship."
Washu
said, "It was the only way. The enemy is in space, and no one else had a
spaceship. I would have built one, of course, but even the world's greatest
scientific genius can't build a spaceship in fifteen minutes." After
saying this, she found it amusing that not everyone realized that she was
referring to herself. Oh well, she thought, no need to press the issue.
"I
realize that not all of you have had experience in space or with this kind of
situation," she continued, "but if you work together and don't shoot
each other too much, it'll work." She looked at Ryoko especially as she
concluded.
Ryoko
didn't miss the insinuation. "No one's gonna stand in my way until I find
Tenchi. Got that?" she snapped, mostly at Fox, who ignored her threat.
Ameria
was the next to speak. "We'll help out. People might not miss the dragon,
but it should be returned to its home and saved from any evildoers."
Quite
the practical one, Zelgadiss then asked, "Washu, you seem to have
everything figured out. Do you have a plan as well?"
"I'm
glad you asked that, Zelgadiss," came her smug reply. "Of course I
do. But first, you should all know that this ship is about to be-"
She
was cut off by Rob64's voice over the ship's intercom. "Red Alert! Red
Alert! Hostile spacecraft closing on Great Fox. Red Alert!"
"-attacked,"
Washu finished, always happy when reality confirmed her calculations.
Immediately
after the warning, Fox started running for the cockpit. As he bolted out the
door, he barked into his wrist comlink, "Rob64! Evasive maneuvers! Return
fire if fired upon!"
As
he exited the bay, everyone was left staring blankly at Washu, who seemed to be
the unofficial leader. Everyone except Ryoko, of course. "Well, what are
you all looking at me for? Follow that fox if you want to have your first taste
of a new dimension!" she replied to their stares. With that, everyone ran
after Fox.
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The
Great Fox's cockpit was small, really only big enough to fit one comfortably.
With the rear cockpit door open so everyone in the hall behind it could see
through the windows, and with everyone trying to squeeze forward for the best view,
it felt very crowded. Fox was glad that he had arrived here first, or he might
not be in the pilot's seat.
He
had ordered a status report moments before. The ever-obedient Rob64 replied,
"Spacecraft of unknown registry closing on Great Fox. Negative response to
communication attempts. Enemy weapons systems activated."
As
the robot spoke, it conveniently located the unknown ship through the windows
by highlighting it in a green targeting reticicle. Fox didn't recognize the
ship; it looked more like a messed-up Arwing than anything of Andross's. But it
was bigger than any Arwing. It had four main wings, or arms, that came to long
slender spikes projecting out from the smaller center. There were also several
other shorter arms. And there was a large red-purple gemlike structure in the
center. There was little doubt that this was a weapons system. As the ship
approached, the center glowed brighter and brighter.
Although
Fox and most of the rest were at a loss, Ryoko recognized it immediately.
"That's my cabbit!" she suddenly shouted.
"Your
what?" came the collective reply.
Washu
tried to fill everyone in. "It's a long story, but basically it's a
powerful spaceship that loves carrots." As she expected, this didn't clear
much up. But one of the joys of being so smart was being able to confuse
people, and she wasn't a stranger to this effect. "Just don't shoot at it.
You'll make it mad."
Fox
at least understood the last part. "Rob64, try and maneuver us out of the
ship's way. Don't return fire yet." Everyone felt the thrust from the
engines as the Great Fox slid to the right, away from the other vessel.
It
wasn't enough, however, or the other ship was looking for a fight. The purplish
gem glowed incredibly bright for an instant, and a series of bright purple
beams exploded from it and sliced across the darkness of space towards Fox's
ship. The beams hit the Great Fox on its left side. One hit a forward laser
cannon, utterly destroying the barrel and lens. The rest were concentrated on
the left engine, along the side of the ship. A fuel cell was punctured, and a
geyser of blue-green gas erupted from the hull.
Inside
the cockpit, everything was in chaos. There was assorted screaming as soon as
the enemy ship fired. The explosion of the laser cannon caused a bright orange
flash that added to the confusion, and the leaking fuel erupting out of the
left engine was pushing the ship into a slow roll. "Damage report!"
Fox yelled over the hysteria. He couldn't hear Rob64's reply, but saw on a
monitor that no critical systems other than propulsion had been hit. The left
laser array was more space dust than functional equipment, but the left engine
could be repaired in time. IF they survived this encounter, that was.
Fox
tried to shoot back, but the remaining engine couldn't overcome the thrust
caused by the leaking fuel; he couldn't aim the ship's guns at the powerful
enemy. He knew he should have installed side or rear blasters, but with his
team's terrible accuracy back in his dimension, he'd figured it wouldn't matter
anyway.
It
was just as well, though, because the enemy seemed content to gloat as it
drifted by the Great Fox. After wreaking havoc on the ship that had appeared
out of nowhere, the cabbit ship hovered nearby surveying the damage. When it
concluded that it had done its job, it changed course and flew back to where it
had come from.
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"Excellent
work," said a mysterious female. "How sneaky!"
"Thank
you," her male counterpart replied. "I always did have a knack for
sneak attacks. They never saw us coming!" They both started laughing in
the smug, evil way so common to villains.
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Continued
in Chapter 3: Getting Aquainted
"Slayers" is copyright H. Kanzaka / R. Araizumi. Original ideas, artwork, and text present on this page are copyright Esther Nairn, unless otherwise noted. No reproduction is allowed without express written or emailed permission. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.