Private Bet #10, Looking for some feedback

[RangerShade]

Private Bet #10
by Shade

Disclaimer: *Insert Standard Disclaimer of Ranma 1/2 being the creation
           of Rumiko Takahashi & RIFTS being the property of Pallidium Games here*

Chapter 4c: S.N.A.F.U.

"No plan of battle ever survives initial contact with the enemy."
-Murphy's Laws of Combat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although the faint moonlight shining down on his back made his silhouette
an appealing target as he stepped through across the threshold into the darkness,
the Knight had no fear of an attack. At least not this early in the game.
The Sith were fundamentally stupid, but not enough so to repeat the same mistakes
that had cost them so dearly in their last encounter.

They would face him when they were ready, and not a moment earlier.

The martial artist's trained nose took in the musky odors of the interior,
a stale aroma with just a twinge of an unsavory tang that seemed to be a
universal trait shared by every place used to house illegal contraband.

He'd never realized just how much he had missed that familiar smell until now.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkened interior at a pace that would have put
any cat to shame. He noticed that there were a lot of tall stacks of merchandise inside.
Whatever they were, the stuff was big and bulky. But they were covered up in too many
layers of tarps and protective plastic sheets for him to determine anything else about
their nature without some better light. Then he realized the reason for the lack of
any better illumination, shattered bulbs and broken light housings lay scattered
all over the cracked cement floor.

Curious. Did they honestly think to put him at a disadvantage by fighting in the dark?

Granted, Force abilities allowed Sith to fight without any real need to rely on sight.
But surely they realized he was just as much at home in the night as they were?

Ranma felt almost disappointed. He had expected better from them.

A steady sharp throbbing at the base of his skull told him they were very close now.

And there were so many places to hide in here.

Ranma made his way further inside, moving with a quiet unhurried confidence towards
the center of the building. If they weren't going to hurry out to meet him,
he'd just have to sniff them out the old fashioned way.

"Welcome, Saotome."

Or maybe not.

"Count Doodoo."

"That's Dooku'u!"

Ranma shrugged carelessly. The white bearded Count's appearance hadn't changed
much from their last confrontation. Same dark robes, dark boots and prideful
sneer on his face. But he knew better then to take anything about Dooku at face
value, he'd seen firsthand just how big a spider's web the Sith Lord had woven
in the very heart of the New Republic.

"Whatever. I still say my pronounciation is more accurate."

Scarlet bolts of raw anger briefly sizzled in the pupils
of the Sith Lord's eyes before he regained control of himself.

"I see your tongue has lost none of its edge."

"That should be the least of your concerns."

"True enough."

The whitehaired Dooku'u gave a small mocking bow in acknowledgment of the verbal point.

But despite the air of civility, the Cosmoknight knew better then to relax
his guard. One of the more annoying things he'd discovered in Skywalker's Universe
was that Dark Jedi had a bad habit of not staying dead for very long.

Damn bastards were like an infestation of cockroaches, just when you thought
you'd cleaned out one nest they'd soon pop up someplace else.

The Sith lord suddenly smiled wickedly as he noted Ranma's battered appearance,
the dried blood and many painful looking bruises showing under his torn clothes.

Most interesting indeed.

"I see that someone else has already left their mark on you."

Ranma's eyes narrowed as the faintly mocking tone rubbed salt into his wounded pride.

"Save the petty theatrics for someone who cares."

A flicker of motion came from the right. Another from his left.
And a third presence he sensed moving directly behind him.

Ranma's eyes narrowed slightly. No Sith moved like that.

There was something else here.

"I see you've brought friends."

There was just a hint of contempt in his flat statement.

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised by how many enemies you've made
throughout the galaxy. Indeed, the hardest part was deciding
who would get to do the actual killing."

Dooku'u chuckled as if to some private jest.

"And you expect my heart to bleed for your troubles," Ranma snorted.

"Oh it most certainly will, rest assured of that."

A second dark robed figure silently materialized out of the shadows at the Count's right side.

{So Dooku'u's found another sucker for a Padwan already? What was it last time, seven...no eight,
that one who wound up on the wrong side of the Talon's landing pad. I remember we had a hell
of a time scraping him off.}

This figure's nightmarish black robe had a deep hood that hid any facial features from view,
offering no clue as to gender or even species. Even the clues from body movements offered no help,
muffled as they were by the loose clothing. But the tension of barely controlled aggression
was unmistakable.

This one hadn't learned control yet, Ranma noted. That could prove useful.

Master and pupil suddenly moved smoothly to either side,
forcing him to divide his attention between the two of them.
They still didn't press the attack, always keeping just out
of easy striking range.

{Looks like they learned from what happened last time.}

Ranma took a slow deep breath, emptying his mind of thought,
letting his being find its center of calm. The familar reassuring
chill of the Soul of Ice embraced him, stifling the distracting signals
of pain and fatigue his body had been sending him. Even his Sith
allergy, which felt like well aged vomit clogging the back of his brain,
eased a bit. He would pay for this when morning came of course,
in Martial Arts there was no such thing as a free lunch.

But for now he would be able to fight closer to his regular level.

"I've heard that claim more times then you can possibly imagine. And I'm still here."

"Not for much longer...Jedi."

Dooku'u extended his arm out, summoning his weapon from its position
on his belt, its characteristic bent hilt dropping smoothly into his grasp.

The Sith apprentice, lacking the skill to imitate such a feat,
simply pulled out its lightsaber's handle from the side with
a dark gloved hand.

{Doublebladed. Fucking amateur.}


Saotome drew the unremarkable metal cylinder from its holster
and thumbed the activation switch in one fluid motion.

*Vssshhht*

A brilliant sapphire lance hissed out into the air in front of him.

"So who's first?"

The hellish glow of three crimson blades of light springing into existance
was the only reply.

They came at him from both sides, weapons raised for the killing blow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<snip>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Their simultaneous attack was almost perfect. Almost.

Against Ranma Saotome, almost wasn't quite good enough.

A short quick step and a deft flick of the wrist intercepted the tip of Dooku'u's red blade,
even as Ranma stepped forward using the momentum of his parry to block the wide slash
of the apprentice's top lightsaber that followed through half a heartbeat later.

And then back again to counter Dooku'u's second strike, golden sparks
erupting as their lightsaber blades contested each other for a long moment.

Ranma was tempted to repeat the same tactic that had let him kill the Dooku clone
last time. Grabbing a lightsaber by the blade wasn't usually an option for most
beings, which was precisely why he'd managed to do it and catch that Dooku'u
off guard for the killing blow. But there was something different this time,
almost as if he could feel a 'malevolence' emanating from the column of scarlet energy.

He hesitated for a moment.

And was promptly hit from behind by one of the still warm Yakuza corpses.

Saotome struggled to shake it off, but the distraction was enough to break his cross parry.

He stepped back and quickly twisted to the right, narrowly avoiding the apprentice's
lightsaber as it pierced straight through the corpse's ribs, releasing the foul stench
of incinerated human flesh.

More objects came flying at the dodging Cosmoknight from random directions. Chunks of metal,
boards of wood, pieces of firearms, even severed arms and legs started pelting his form
from all sides.

"OKay, now you're just pissing me off."

Ranma's eyes narrowed as he concentrated on briefly projecting the Soul of Ice
into the space immediately around his body, forming a temporary barrier
of superchilled air that deflected the makeshift projectiles away even as slashed
down at the second Sith's outstretched wrists, only to be intercepted by Dooku'u.
They fenced off, their rapidly weaving blades coming into contact for only milliseconds
at a time as they probed each other's defenses.

{So far only the Sith are attacking, I wonder what are the others waiting for? An invitation?}

But even as that thought came the second Sith's lower blade was already swinging around,
aiming to disembowel him. Ranma grunted and leaped, spinning in midflip to intercept
the Count's thrusting saber with a quick deflection from his own, before landing softly
on top of one of the many covered stacks that stood like small pillars in the warehouse.

Out of range for the moment, he had a chance to reevaluate the situation.

{Something feels out of place here. It's almost as if....BEHIND ME!}

Ranma spun, striking out at the presence he'd detected at the last possible moment.

His azure lightsaber met the incoming ebony metal point and abruptly fizzled out.

{Cortisis?!}

Only Saotome's lightning fast reflexes saved him as he continued his spin,
using the initial momentum to twist almost far enough to avoid being stabbed.
Almost, but still not fast enough to entirely dodge the attack.

Ranma let out a quiet hiss of pain. The slash felt like a line of raw fire
running along his head just past the left eye and along the side of his head.

This was not going according to plan.

Warily he eyed his newest opponent, now perched on another stack.

"We meet again, Mr. Saotome."

Suddenly things became a whole lot clearer. Because Ranma recognized
that smiling face. He'd watched Mahoro vaporize that pale blue eyed blonde
with an antimatter cannon.

"Keepers Unit 227."

"How good of you to remember me, Mr. Saotome," said a second figure now perched to his right.

{Oh Bloody Hell.}

"They cloned you."

"Indeed, most perceptive of you," a third voice chimed in from the left.

Although outwardly he betrayed no emotion on his face, Ranma's mind raced as he
recalculated this new factor into the fight. The Sith alone he was confident he could
handle, he'd get hurt but even as injured as he was there was no doubt in Saotome's mind
he could take them. A Keepers battle cyborg was a bit trickier. Not only were they
cold blooded killing machines, but completely insane to boot. And Unit 227 had been
without a doubt the nastiest one of them. Now there were three of him.

Not good. Definitely not good.

"It appears our hypothosis was correct. The protective bio-energy field generated by your body
can be neutralized by a sufficiently tempered amount of this cortisis alloy. Though it remains to
be seen how successful our partner's claims that channeling this 'Force' energy through their
looped phased plasma arrays will have similar results. We look forward to further investigation."

"Over my dead body."

"Precisely."

{So that explains why those lightsabers gave me such a bad vibe.
Well if that's the way they want to play this, fine by me.}

The Cosmoknight tapped his thumbnail twice on a small button below his lightsaber's
activation switch, then reactivated the weapon. Instead of its normal calm ocean hue,
this time the blade blazed a keen burning maroon that was so dark it was almost black.
The normal quiet hum of the blade was replaced by an audible hissing and crackling sizzle,
as if the air itself had been cut open and left to bleed.

"Let's try this again."

And then the apprentice Sith sliced cleanly through the stack that Ranma was standing on.

Metal creaked and groaned as the column started to slide down the diagonal avenue of the cut.

Ranma looked down to see both Sith waiting for his descent, lightsabers at the ready.

Then back up again just in time to see the three Unit 227s each spring toward him, cortisis
blades in one hand and some kind of heavy pistols in the other.

"Oh boy."

~~~~~~~~~

<snip>

~~~~~~~~~

There was no place to go but down.

But rather then leap into the arms of the awaiting Sith,
Saotome dashed down the side of his collapsing perch,
his feet moving so quickly that they appeared to barely touch the
vertical surface as he raced the falling column to the ground.

Dooku'u's eyes widened in disbelief.

He couldn't do that!

"After him!"

Ranma leaped to the side of another stack as the revealed metal cargo
crates came crashing down, still keeping his center of gravity on
a horizontal axis as he suddenly reversed direction and raced back up
the side before the Sith could get in range. Dooku's red lightsaber went
flying through the space he'd previously occupied and kept on going,
cutting right through this stack of metal crates as well before flying back
to the Count's hand.

The creaking vibrations from the buckling crates let Saotome know
he didn't have much time before this perch too came crashing down.
But he already had more immediate concerns.

Death came from above.

<snip>

************************

Like the topic says, I need feedback, suggestions, criticisms, the whole 9 yards....

[Edward]

I'm not sure how you get Rifts, Star Wars, and Ranma in the same setting, but as a whole the scene is fine.

Do the <snip> bits indicate places where other scenes will be interweaved?

Ranma's calling Dooku'u's statement petty rings false considering the total cheapshot he took on Dooku'u's name at the start of their confrontation.  The name Dooku'u is plenty stupid enough on its own (brilliant move there Mr. Lucas).

[RangerShade]

Do the <snip> bits indicate places where other scenes will be interweaved?

Yes.

Ranma's calling Dooku'u's statement petty rings false considering the total cheapshot he took on Dooku'u's name at the start of their confrontation. The name Dooku'u is plenty stupid enough on its own (brilliant move there Mr. Lucas).

Point, though part of it is Ranma's ego. Its one of his character flaws I'm trying to quietly emphasize.