Hidden in the Shadow of Omega
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- September 21, 2012
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So, yeah. This is one of the things I've been working on lately, and, well, here.
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A/N:Hmmm where to start with this one... Oh, I know. This all Bleedman, Doormouse and Ruskbyte's fault. Well, that and too much time spent on Tv Tropes.
Anyways, I give you, Project Dark Eden.
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A little... destruction... can go a long way to making any day better.
-Unknown-
CHAOS!
-Eris-
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Finally, it would his turn to shine, to rise up and defeat the monstrous beast that was Ranma Saotome. Oh, he knew he could never defeated him in a straight out fight, his lack of athletic ability, something unusual for a student at Furinkan High, was more than made up for with a knack for the occult and an incredibly high pain threshold. Hikaru Gosunkugi had planned everything out to the last detail,upon having come across the shrunken Saotome so many months ago, and after uncovering the reasons behind his unwilling transformation, the change in age that was, he had snuck around within his dearest Akane's home and tenderly retrieved a few samples of the mushrooms for his later use.
But just using the mushrooms alone would not lead him to success, so he had spent many an hour poring through his collection of arcane tomes in search of a spell or ritual with which he could find victory. Finally, mostly thanks to fortuitous coincidence, he come across a rare ritual in one of the stores he frequented, a strange shop that popped up every once in a while in the empty lot near his house. The ritual required the target of the spell to have recently slain a being of incredible power, the spell having been developed by a spiteful young mage whose affections had been spurned for those of a dragon slaying knight. It seemed like the perfect spell for him, though he couldn't help but feel somewhat discomfited by the creepy grin of the shopkeeper as he picked out the scroll and purchased it.
Unfortunately for Gosunkugi, and rather luckily for Ranma, the pig-tailed martial artist had never been forced to the point of killing an opponent, though not for lack of trying on Gosunkugi's part, as many incidents he had taken great pains to arrange in the hopes of causing a fatality. But then he had received the greatest news in a very long time when Ranma had returned from China, having defeated and brutally slain a phoenix-GOD of all things.
And so Gosunkugi dug around the basement in search of the mushrooms he had secreted away. Looking them over he frowned, as the shortest one was still nine-inches long, and considering how strong the martial artist had been even at around six years of age Gosunkugi was leery of trying anything without backup, hence the reason why he was currently standing on the field outside Furinkan with both of Ranma's chief rivals, the third having been dispatched to keep Nabiki from interfering with the proceedings.
Gosunkugi was nervous, as so far it had been all too easily to arrange things, all of Ranma's rivals eagerly agreeing to aid him, even through their great personal dislike for the nervous boy. While Kuno was out distracting Nabiki with an extended business proposal, Ryoga and Mousse had issued Ranma a challenge that would bring him running. Both Ryoga and Mousse were carrying several of the de-aging mushrooms hidden somewhere in their clothing, or in Mousse's case, within their subspace pockets.
Just as the sun was beginning to approach its zenith, the perfect time frame for the ritual to be used, oddly enough considering its purpose, Ranma arrived on the field. Gosunkugi let himself smile as he took notice of the relaxed posture and the easy smile on the pig-tailed boy's face: Ranma was completely unaware of just how big a trap he had just walked into.
Mousse and Ryoga were waiting patiently in the middle of the field, in perfect view of the school and the various entrances to the yard, while Gosunkugi had placed himself behind a tree; it wasn't the best hiding spot, but it didn't need to be, as he had already finished the ritual, leaving only the activation of it for the right moment in time.
Ranma took up a relaxed position in the middle of the field as he watched Ryoga and Mousse carefully for any tricks. "So, what da ya knuckleheads want this time? Cus if all you want is a beat down, I'm more than happy to give ya one. More than happy." The pair looked at each other and, in a move so out of place for them that Ranma should have been worried had he not been so overconfident, wordlessly charged Ranma.
Caught off guard by the lack of shouted challenges, especially from Hibiki "It's All Your Fault" Ryoga, Ranma was put on the defensive right off the bat. Dodging under the first wild blow from Ryoga, his eyes widened in surprise as he was forced to dance backwards in order to avoid getting caught by flurry of thrown knives courtesy of Mousse.
As Ranma retreated backwards, not that he would have called his movements a 'retreat', as saying such would be tantamount to admitting his opponents were being successful against him, he was quickly readjusting his measure of Ryoga and Mousse. When he had first received the letter of challenge, sent by Mousse two days before the challenge was to occur, in order to give him time to grab Ryoga and lead him to the chosen venue, Ranma hadn't been too worried.
Now though, he was, while not truly worried yet, surprised and ecstatic. After the wedding debacle everyone had backed off, sans Kuno, to the extent that he hadn't had a decent match in several weeks. However he was slowly, ever so slowly, becoming nervous, as the pair seemed to be working together far too easily for them not to have something planned. Mousse would box Ranma in with various projectiles while Ryoga would weather the storm of metal before unleashing a series of blows against Ranma.
After the third such sequence of attacks, the pair of rivals suddenly switched tactics, with Ryoga using the Bakusei Tenketsu to herd Ranma into position for Mousse. Once again Ranma was caught off guard by the shocking display of intelligence and cunning from the usually berserker duo. The pair capitalized on the opening the unwitting pig-tailed martial artist offered as both moved in, Mousse releasing a swarm of chains as he leapt towards Ranma's back while Ryoga knocked Ranma backwards with a well positioned Bakusei Tenketsu.
With a grin and a twitch of his arms Mousse ensnared Ranma in the chains, leaving him completely helpless as Ryoga dashed forwards to shove one of the mushrooms into his mouth. Before Ranma could spit it out, he was forced to swallow reflexively as Ryoga punched him in the face. Mousse let the chains loosen as Ranma began to shrink in stature.
Ranma stood stunned as Ryoga and Mousse both stepped back to watch the rest of Gosunkugi's plan unfold. Pulling out the scroll upon which the ritual had been written, Gosunkugi stepped out from behind and tossed it onto the ground in front of Ranma, followed quickly behind by a hamster that Gosunkugi had procured and sacrificed for the ritual. For a moment nothing happened, only the sound of the wind blowing through the field and the deep breathing from the trio of martial artists filling the sudden silence.
Then, just as Ranma began to open his mouth to offer a sarcastic remark over Gosunkugi's plan, as it was obviously him who had set everything up, a small mote of darkness appeared above the open scroll. It was almost unnoticeable, and Ranma would have likely missed it, had it not possessed a small ki void, something that registered incredibly strongly to his well-honed senses.
As Ranma stared intently into the small, swirling vortex of shadows, Ryoga and Mousse began to exchange worried looks. They too had been expecting a sharp retort from Ranma, but instead they were receiving nothing but an oddly intense silence. Showing an usual grasp of reality, the pair turned to follow the direction in which Ranma's eyes seemed to be focused, only to find nothing but empty air.
The first sign that something was wrong was the soft breeze that slowly began to swirl though the school yard, whistling eerily through the branches and leaves of the trees, the sound enhanced as the wind began to rush through the metal gate at the front of the school. Soon, the wind was joined by other small things, empty wrappers and fallen leaves all picked up by the speeding air, only to be carried to and devoured by the void that had been so far hidden from view.
As it began to consume matter, the small spot of emptiness suddenly began to ripple and bubble, rapidly growing larger, increasing in size from a small near-microscopic dot, to an orb of crackling emptiness the size of small car. As the emptiness grew, so too did it's pull on the surroundings, as the only nature abhorred more than a scatterbrained fanfiction author, was a vacuum. By the time the void had reached the rough size of a small dog, it was already picking up small rocks from the ground.
Even before it had reached it's final large state Ryoga, Mousse and Gosunkugi were holding onto anything they could find as an anchor, Ranma having already resigned himself to whatever was going to happen, as he was still restrained by Mousse's chains and weakened due to his change in age. Just as what little stamina Gosunkugi possessed was about to run out, the pressure ceased, the void growing flat and still.
For a moment, none dared to breathe, as if any movement at all would possibly set the emptiness off again. Then, in a display that would have made Stephen Hawking question the validity of the laws of physics, for a moment it seemed to become something inimical to reality, as it became something shaped through non-Euclidean geometrics, before the orb somehow contorted itself into become a two-dimensional circle, a circle that still somehow managed to take up the exact same space as it had while being an orb.
From within the strange space of non-space came a sound that couldn't possibly have come from a human throat, a low rumbling that resounded and echoed through every fiber of being, something that all at once reminded Ranma of the tanks he had once seen passing by while he and his father had traveled through China and North Korea as they made their way to India and the various master's that called that land home, and the crash of thunder overhead.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. YOU WILL GET INTO THE PORTAL. OR I WILL MAKE YOU.
Ranma wasn't sure what was stranger: the fact that the rumbles somehow managed to resolve themselves into clearly understandable words; or the fact that the rumbles were asking him to enter the void, which was apparently a portal, though were it led was still unknown. Evidently, either the other's could not understand the rumbles, or they simply decided to ignore them and continue to cling to whatever object they had been using as anchors beforehand. Ranma closed his eyes as a loud burst of air exited the void, in seeming opposition to its nature, and with all the sound of something of tremendous size sighing in exasperation.
VERY WELL. TO QUOTE AN OLD FRIEND. I AM LATE. FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE. AND SINCE YOU REFUSE TO COME WILLINGLY. THROUGH THE RABBIT HOLE YOU GO.
As if what occurred before was nothing, the trio of martial artists, and Gosunkugi, were torn away from the ground as if the hand of a vengeful Kami had reached down and grabbed them. Ranma closed his eyes as he approached the portal of emptiness, his senses registering the mind-breaking sensation of his skin falling from his body, followed closely behind by the rest of his body. And though he might have tried to show otherwise, Ranma was only human, and thus it was no surprise that he fell unconscious from the overload of pain. To his credit, he did manage to last longer than the other's, none of whom lasted even a millisecond of having their skin begin to remove itself from their bodies.
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