The Return

A Ranma Sailor Moon fic thingy.

By Sunshine Temple

Naturally, I own neither Sailor Moon nor Ranma. So here's the disclaimer

Ranma 1/2 and its characters and settings belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty, and Viz Video. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC.

Previous chapters and other works can be found at my fanfiction website.

http://jtemple.florestica.com/

Temporary Backup Site.

http://www.fukufics.com/fic/

Other website Temple of Ranma's Senshi Seifuku

http://fukufics.com

C&C is appreciated.

Book 4: Capital Offense

Chapter 7: Overloaded Rescue

Formerly: Reserve and Release Part 3i

Pretty Silver Succubus Sailor Earth danced. Her movements graceful and fluid, she spun and twirled. Her tail arced up and down and spiraled about like a fluttering kite on the end of a gymnastic ribbon. Long, long fingers waved, cutting through the air.

A purple aura burned around her. Jets of silver flame occasionally flared on her armor repairing some of the damage and burning the accumulated ichor away. Her skirt was loose enough for her to easily make high kicks as she took to the air, but heavy enough to protect her legs.

Sailor Earth was not dancing alone. A literal mob of squids pressed towards her. Clusters of rockets and incendiary rounds raced across the concrete corridor that led to the power vault. Smiling, the demon dipped down, snagged a blue-armored Squid with her claws, and spun on one leg. The Squid shrieked and screamed as one of the ponytail-encased jammer antennas draped over it.

An alien, toxic, signal burned into the creature's mind. Pulled by a silver spike adorning the ponytail's end, it curled and tangled with the squid's body.

The pain would not last long. As incendiaries burned against her armor she lifted her arms so that the missiles hit the impromptu dance partner. As the body disintegrated, she ended the spin and planted her hoof, right onto the midsection of another Squid.

Constantly moving, she crossed the hallway in a twirling dash. Trying to delay her, the Squids would form up into strongpoints, often centered around the handful of red-armored refrigerator-sized behemoths. One lumbered over her and stabbed at her face. She turned and dodged incoming fire from a different direction. The tentacle hit and a cheek parted in a splash of blood and silver flame.

Sailor Earth went right at them. The demon crossed the threshold and entered the power vault. The room stored backup generators for the Canadian Defence Headquarters. It was also where the Squids had anchored their invasion. The ceiling had caved in and much of the room had been torn to shreds.

Broken glossy black columns were scattered across the bare cement floor. The shattered bases formed a pointed oval-shape large enough to allow a pair of the larger red-armored squids to pass though.

The room itself was scarred with storage pods, weapons racks, and shredded, squished aliens. Ranma only took the above details in passing. Her attention was on the living squids that had been frantically trying to reopen their gateway. Plain black, they were smaller than even the blue-armored ones. They were also waving their tentacles in a vigorous argument with the more militant aliens.

Armored tentacles met glowing claws, steel-bending kicks, and silver fireballs. A glowing filaments extended out of the folds of her tail and began slashing in a shimmering rainbow of writhing mono-blades.

Once the Squids broke, she stomped with her hooves and the shadows oozing around the bottom of her gleaming armored skirt finished the job.

Squids that were further out were harried by machinegun fire and taken out by judicious usage of rifle and hand grenades. The JFT2 troopers kept their distance but they had the advantage of firepower, range, and the ability to pin down troops occupied by the succubus.

"Arc Light!" MacDowell screamed, his headset transmitting.

Just beyond the threshold, Sailor Earth did a split, dropped to the ground and lay forward. Minimizing her height. The concussive pressure beat against her.

Bishop's Carl Gustav barked. As did the two remaining rockets and as many rifle grenades as he could muster. At least Brummet's reinforcements had brought more rounds for that beast. It had taken time to get into position; time Sailor Earth had bought them. The supporting masses of squids in the vault were blown apart.

Before the smoke could clear, the succubus was up. In a flying leap, she hurtled towards a stunned group of Squids hiding behind a broken bit of rounded obsidian machinery. She landed heavily with both hooves while slicing with her claws and tail. It was quick work.

MacDowell eyed the demoness. He had to admit she had her second wind back, but he did notice that she was still husbanding her power. There were no eyebeams, no fancy black fireball orbs. No biting either. She was even keeping her sidearm in reserve. "You still good?"

Standing over a pile of burned and crushed aliens, she nodded. Shadows and silver fire were still being drawn into her. The flaming aura shimmered and her armor flexed as if something rippled beneath.

A squad of JTF2 troops rushed past her to secure the rest of the vault.

MacDowell watched as the whites of her eyes were consumed by the deep purple irises. The black slits then grew longer, as if her eyes were somehow larger than they could be.

"Package has been signed," MacDowell radioed. He looked around the ruined concrete box full of scrap metal and mint-smelling corpses. "Fuck... that's what this was all about?"

Picking up the sides of her skirt and pulling them up, she almost daintily stepped over the pulped, stripped, bodies. "Great work. I think I'll need one of those recoilless guns for my girls," Ranma said with a bow, her face shimmering slightly.

When the demon's face returned to view. MacDowell stared. The gauntness, hollowness to her cheeks was gone. Fully silver, her features had grown smoother, almost stylized, like a silvery doll.

He could see something almost like seams around her chin line and by her ears. He looked down, it was just like the edges on the silver armor protecting her upper arms. On closer look, her face even had the same slightly-woven texture as her silver under-armor.

Pretty Silver Succubus Sailor Earth released her grip, letting her skirts fall back down. "Yes?" she asked, raising a white-gold eyebrow. Metallic purple lips curled into an amused smile.

MacDowell looked her over. Her armor was almost... fused. Her gauntlets were a part of her arms, and it was hard to tell where glove ended and claw began. The wraps on her tail and the extra bows had all merged into a fluttering appendage that seemed to have a will of its own. The filaments on the end seemed to glow with a multi-hued shimmer.

Instead of buckling over her skin, the top of her chest armor was just flush with her silver neck. Her neck was now encircled by a green choker. And in front of that collar was the purple crystal four pointed star over a silver on black company logo which seemed to have grown thinner and less prominent.

The rounded, fused changes were most obvious with her chest armor. It had doubled in thickness. The armor had become a slick, almost organic-looking sculpture. A rainbow of colors gleamed in the bright polish of her sleek chest armor.

Multicolor arcs of sapphire, emerald, gold, ruby and silver had grown down from her pauldrons and collar amour. They curved down, edging her sharply curved bosom, giving the illusion of cleavage to the jutting curves.

The rainbows also accented her narrow torso simulating a slimming bodice. While her chest armor had gotten thicker, her waist had gotten thinner. She was not quite wasp-waisted, but the contrast with the armored skirting and thrusting chest armor readily gave that impression.

Her hair had not escaped either. Individual strands had blended together forming sculpted bangs. The hair on her scalp had smoothed and merged into a sculpted metal-smooth gloss. Emerald and silver inlay ran down the part on the center of her scalp.

Similar inlay was set where her hair was divided between the sections that went to her bangs and the parts that went to her buns. Resembling stark chevrons, emerald and silver lines gave the impression of access panels and armored sections.

Her horn-shaped and horn-covering buns had grown. They now dominated the sides and top of her head. Forming fused curling mountains that added over half a foot to her height. The buns themselves had swelled into curled puffs alternating gold and ruby. Resembling cotton candy the two-tone twin puffs throbbed with power absorbed directly from her horns.

Finely woven emerald threads formed meshes that strained against the softly luminescent fluffy buns. Energy accumulated up the buns culminating emerald caps that covered the tips of the twin puffy structures. Long ponytails had been extruded out of the two glossy green caps.

There was not more power, but it was more efficiently integrated and was much less of a drain on Ranma. The demoness idly wondered why the original rig had been so isolated. Doubtless it was a safety precaution.

Her ponytails had transformed twin long cord-like appendages that constantly swung and twirled. Braids had given way to alternating spiral bands of glossy gold and slick ruby. Ending green bows had turned into faceted emerald bands terminating in stout silver spikes.

Deep inside the crystal ponytails, MacDowell could see a slight blue shimmer of the jammer antennae at work. Part of him wanted to reach out and see if those ponytails were as smooth as they looked. The twin-tails swayed and swished about, mirroring the motions of the demon's tail.

A mass of tentacles flailed out as a battered squid began to rise up.

Smiling beatifically, Sailor Earth stepped to the side and stomped. A polished silver hoof the size of a saucer plate came down with the sound of crane dropping a steel I-beam. Concreted shattered.

The hoof had razor-sharp gilt armored edges that merged with her crimson leg-guards forming solid ankles. First the squid was cut, then it was crushed as if by a hydraulic ram. Ichor splattered. MacDowell saw her skirt flare as her muscles flexed. She then leaned her weight and crushed the alien a second time.

He could see that his men were staring at her. He turned to them. "Dress up that line! The squids have nowhere else to run and they can't be happy. I don't want you to be caught with your pants down."

The demoness smiled.

"A moment if I may?"

"Of course you may, my Sergeant," Sailor Earth promised in a smoky, hungry voice. A silver-tinted forked tongue came out and licked metallic lips.

MacDowell simply stared. He also stared down. Despite her armor, she was almost pixyish in height. More than two heads shorter, she now came up to his chest. She had to be under a meter and a third, not even four and a half feet. At least if one did not count her hair buns.

The soldier frowned, it was hard to tell given how she kept her knees bent at a slight angle even when standing. She might be taller, but not by much. "Are you contained because you seem to be... leaking."

A moan slipped past the demon's lips as she closed her eyes. "Oh, it's mounting up," Ranma admitted, biting her lip. She turned away, putting her back to him.

MacDowell looked down. Her hips were wider. The blue material to her skirt had also thickened and seemed to switch between billowing about and being stiff as steel-plate. Combined with her diminutive height, she bore some resemblance to an armored vehicle in miniature.

This was accentuated by her wings. They had become larger and armored at the joints, especially where they came into her back. However they were neatly folded against her back, but with the folded booms and metal accents, it looked more like something akin to a helicopter rotor growing out of her back than something organic. It did not help that MacDowell could almost swear he saw a geared hinge in there.

"Are you in control?" He asked, noting the demon's hungry eyes. She had been steadily taking in damage bit by bit, but she had yet to actually eat any... thing.

"We've both got our clothes on," Sailor Earth said, almost wistfully. She took a step forward, then turned halfway, then walked backwards. Always keeping her eyes on the front, the direction where the enemy was coming from.

The sergeant for his part was struck by how she moved. There was less of the effortless grace she had earlier. Instead she was boosted, more solid, with a lot more... inertia. It was as if she had switched over from muscle power to heavy hydraulics. He started wondering what was under her skirt...

Earth gave sultry chuckle at MacDowell's frustrated shout. She tilted her head. The connection to her family was getting stronger.

Looking around the room, MacDowell started counting. "Skeletons," he muttered.

Ranma's large, luminous violet eyes blinked. "Yeah what? These clowns don't got any." She kicked a squid; the sharp edge of her hoof slicing open its barrel-shaped body.

"No, skeleton crew." MacDowell said. "There's at most a few squads here. Seem a bit light for a last stand?"

The demon narrowed her eyes. "Where'd they go then? This is their only way out."

"Not with these pulsing about," MacDowell brushed a gloved hand against one of Ranma's ponytails. Glossy, and smooth to the touch, it waved closer to his hand and seemed almost reluctant to let his arm go.

Slitted pupils dilated into something almost round, as the succubus murmured. "Good point," she breathed.

MacDowell forced himself to step back. "The question is-"

"Red, this is Sifton," the Major's voice cut in over the radio.

"Yes? I know my girls are here." For a moment longing etched Ranma's voice.

"Landing, yes, but it's not that." Major Sifton paused for a half second.

Her tone turned more business-like. "We've secured the gate room. Sealed on our end but..."

"But the creepy monsters bugged-out somewhere else?" Sifton's voice was grim.

"Situation?"

"I'm sending the other teams to the other access points and doing a sweep of the sub-levels."

"We're pretty worn out here, running on empty," MacDowell stressed the last word.

"And us?" Ranma asked, trying to sound eager.

Noting the tone of both, Sifton cleared his throat. "You hold position, the Fifth NH will meet you and reinforce."

"Contact!" Adams screamed in both MacDowell and Sailor Earth's headsets.

Other soldiers joined in and the screams turned into terrified yells.

The demon's eyes flared and she sprinted past MacDowell towards the far side of the power vault. The screams were coming though a halfway open set of double-doors that had been sheared apart. Gunfire and dull grenade explosions came from the adjacent room, as well as a slithering, whisking noise.

"Fall back! Take position behind me!" Ranma shouted into her bone-white headset. Silver and purple flames burst around her and her tail flicked itself forward.

A trio of JTF2 soldiers rushed past the doorway: Adams, Green, and Giddings. One turned and paused to throw a grenade. He was smashed down when the door flew off its hinges. Bones broke and organs ruptured.

A churning sable mass vomited across the threshold. It was dotted with writhing tentacles that helped pull it along. Between those were blinking apertures that appeared and disappeared. Some held large glossy eye-like structures. Some were full of rows of ridge-like dull blue teeth. Others were full of delicate, whipping filaments that waved and sampled the air.

As the thing poured through the doorway a meaty pseudopodium fell onto the soldier. The soldier rolled himself over and let his grenade's spoon go.

"Cord!" Ranma cried recognizing the trooper's scent. Bright beams burst from her eyes.

Sable hide burned and smoldered. Tentacles were charred and teeth were cut apart. Furrows of flesh several inches deep were cut into the rubbery hide. The creature hardly noticed and the primitive appendage slammed down. In his last moment Corporal Cordell Giddings weakly lobbed the grenade into the circular mouth just above his head.

There was a meaty splat as blood flew. Then the grenade went off and a yowl of surprised pain came from dozens of churning mouths. Lilly Green helped pull Franz Adams back past the demon.

"Smithfield get some fucking distance!" Ranma ordered. "Machine guns! I want some rockets. Bishop where's your Gustav!"

The demoness slammed her armored wrists together and cupped her long talons. A silver-wreathed purple beam shot out from her palms and began to rake across the creature. The yowling increased, and its pace slowed, but it continued to lumber forward.

By now MacDowell's two machine gun teams had set up and tracers had started to slam into the creature. Eyes and mouths burst apart, only to be replaced by raw-looking new growth.

The creature pulled itself though the doorway. Flesh rippled as it pulled some fresh sense organs and mouths towards the front and thickened the portions being cut into. The creature logged the damage updated the status of its reserve.

Once the gateway failed, failsafe orders had been activated. They were simple: Rearguard. As the Servitor advanced previous orders floated to the surface of its mind: Collect samples from the locals. Its eyes focused on the small bilaterally symmetrical creature before it.

Several eyes burned out. The flaming jet that become annoying. Other attacks were starting to accumulate in damage. Belching, the creature spewed out its acid reserves causing the attackers to draw back as it lumbered further, closer to the small creature. This one was different from the others.

Another order floated up: Capture the Deviant Sample. The creature reared up, raising much of its bulk above the ground. Stubby tentacles waved on its exposed underside.

Machine gun and rifle fire continued to hit the creature's "face". Or at least a blank slab of thick-skinned meat that was at the front of the being's inky mass. The occasional 40mm grenade also hit.

For a moment it seemed to slow down.

Her flames guttering out, Sailor Earth took a half step back. The creature was still a few meters away. Then she noticed that while the front had stopped, the rest of the creature's mass was still oozing forward. Pressure built, and suddenly like an uncoiled spring the reared front of the beast shot right over the demoness.

Instead of running, she planted her hooves. Her wings unfurled out fold and then turned forward. Gleaming joints hinged as the long silvery membranes fell in front of her. Gauntleted hands went up and grabbed her wing's armored struts.

Tonnes of inky, mouthy, writhing flesh fell upon the reinforced membranes. Her elbows, knees, and ankles began to burn as the weight pounded down on her. Her teeth gritted, Sailor Earth drew upon her power. As hooves cut into the concrete, the strength of the Earth was drawn up.

The silver weave coating over her limbs thickened as the pressure was alleviated from her joints. Less and less of the load was being carried by her muscles. More and more was being carried by the bodysuit. Her knees almost buckled, but she found her footing. Next her elbows almost fell, but she was getting help.

MacDowell's estimate was, broadly, correct. There was something special at work beneath her skirt. Flexing reservoirs formed along the limbs of the suit. Pulses of Silver energy constricted the bladders anchoring them and giving them strength, and Earth-magic-filled them giving them more and more power.

Layering grew over her thighs and legs. Channels ran over her joints and formed a load-bearing chain that went from her hips to the tips of her hooves. More grew in place over her torso and connecting to her arms.

Chest armor clicked tighter as it formed structural arches between her hips and shoulders. Limbs became smoother and less refined as the coverings stiffened to take the load.

Her upper arms were now flush with her gleaming white gauntlets, and her crimson shin guards had now fused and become integral parts of her hydraulic system. The long blue skirt was even more volumous in order to provide more room.

Joints locked, power swelled, and the tiny demoness held the load. The creature pulled itself up, over, and to the sides as it tried to drape itself over Sailor Earth and crush her.

Her body hummed. Silver power and Earth magic was now being drawn up in regular pulses even as the supply of flesh, bone, and blood diminished. Simultaneously starved and engorged, the demoness rose. It was a slow, steady motion, but her knees had begun to straighten. Her arms were rising.

Looking out past her stretched wings, Sailor Earth set her teeth. She could feel the creature gnawing at her hide. They were nibbles, it seemed to be holding back, merely content at crushing her.

Her tail shot forward, curved around her tiny waist. Threads and mono-filaments sprung out and like a crimson kite it tumbled through the creature's underbelly. She narrowed her too-large eyes and a pair of purple and silver beams shot out.

The pressure grew upon her, but her body held. She did wish she had more limbs, given her wing-arms were indisposed. She put more power to her ponytails and was gratified to see their swaying turn into spinning gyrations. Their sharp silver tips slashed against the creature. Like a machine, it mindlessly absorbed the damage.

Swollen cottony crystal buns atop her hear pressed against the emerald mesh and grew out flaring into foot tall swept ruby and gold structures. The silver weave of her skin thickened smoothing her features into more doll-like proportions.

Her mind focused on the creature, on drawing in more power, on the pressure, on the connection to her family, on anything but the gnawing hunger that felt like it had consumed even her stomach.

She concentrated. The creature was immobilized, the Canadians were slowly chipping away at it, and her family had landed. However, it was still pressing down on her. Earth's ponytails joined with her tail and began stabbing. Combined with her eyebeams she was making some headway but...

The creature seemed almost content to keep her here. Its body elongated over her shielding wings and part of it started to creep along the floor, towards her hooves. Soon she would be enveloped. A vibrating ponytail shot forward; its silver tip slicing through a cluster of sense-organs.

The creature yowled in pain.

The demoness focused and stilled her ponytails. The squids hated her jammer. It was toxic to them. Her Jammer was already at max output, but it had grown. The signal generating gem had grown and was now rooted in her tiara.

The Jammer antennae were getting a boost from her horns. Pattern Silver energy powered the whole thing. It was a blend of WIC tech, Senshi magic, and demonic power. It was the inspiration for her uniform's modifications.

Her teeth clenched as she drew up more Earth magic to keep her arms from falling. Inspiration hit. An inter-dim jammer worked by reinforcing reality, this reality. Ranma surmised that the magic from the earth itself would be more of the same.

The connection was easy to make. Integrating the rig directly over her horns simplified putting in more power. She did wonder why the rig had originally been placed on her chest instead of on a tiara mount. Warnings about red-line limits flickered in the back of her mind.

Her ponytails began to thrash. The blue glow in the center began to tinge green. The jammer vibration grew until it started to rattle her teeth and ring her hooves. The gold and ruby spirals of her ponytails began to split and blue-green light poured out.

The creature simply pressed on with more weight.

Sailor Earth drew up more power and rammed it through. The dull-red gem on her forehead flashed. For a moment it turned a glossy ruby-red. Rays of blue light burned out of the now-translucent jammer core.

One of her ponytails flailed as the emerald end piece shattered. The silver spike on the end fell to the concrete with a ringing thud. Green-edged blue light poured out of the ponytail's seams as it twisted itself apart.

Gold and ruby spirals unzipped exposing the burning wire of the antennae itself. Pupils narrowed into thin black lines as her irises burned with purple fire. Wings shuddered as power was rammed into both her limbs and her jammer rig.

The egg-sized gem cracked. Ranma felt the explosion. Her eyes snapped shut. Crystal shrapnel peppered her armored eyelids, chin, and ears. A split second later there was another burst followed an instant later by a third.

Yowling, the creature pulled back. Ranma staggered. Pain nearly blinded the demon, the raw nerves of her horns' sense organs were thrashed and ripped apart. Her right delaminating ponytail met the surge of the self-destructing jammer core.

Odango-shaped magical capacitors had surrounded each of her two rear horns. The right hair bun exploded. The horn itself survived, but it was scoured raw.

The demoness fell. Silvery blood gushed out of ragged slashes on Ranma's scalp. Parts of her face armor peeled off around her right temple and ear.

The explosions had halted the creature for a moment, but it was about to resume.

As she fell, Ranma bent her knees, built up pressure, and at just the right moment kicked off with one hoof. Her wings flipped up in scything motions.

Her tail fluttering behind her like a streamer, the demoness flew out of the tarry mess of the collapsing creature. She hit the ground with one shoulder. The armor absorbed most of the impact, but the demon then tumbled and her charred horn ground against the concrete before she slammed into a wall.

"Oh... that's why Jammers are isolated," the demoness gasped as her head pounded and her consciousness faltered. Worse she recalled the warnings about overloads and core-burn out. A distant part briefly worried about how much worse she had made things.

Then warmth filled her; despite the pain she felt a serene warmth.

Her head pounded but one thought was quite clear: Don't integrate delicate technology, certainly not anything you plan to overpower, with your body.

The steady background noise of gunfire shifted. In addition to Canadian FALs and C9 machine guns, there was the deeper report of 17 by 65 mm WIC custom. It was then followed by the steady, pneumatic-like, pops of a 40mm grenade launcher firing.

As rippling explosions began to detonate, Ranma opened her eyes. A pale face with long black hair and bright red eyes was staring at her.

"Mommy!" Nariko cried. She had her sword out and with a free hand gently cradled Ranma's ravaged horn. "What happened?" she looked up at MacDowell.

"I have no idea," the sergeant replied. "Red got herself swallowed by that tar-monster, fought it, then blew up."

"Jammers have a do not exceed redline for a reason," Ranma muttered. It had seemed like a good idea at the time; that time being buried under a writhing inky monster.

"So, the diversion worked," Ukyou dryly remarked as she helped Nabiki lift her mother.

MacDowell tilted his head. "Hell of a diversion. What got out?"

"A bigger one of those, maybe two," the blonde succubus pointed at the creature. "And a lot of... squid things. They're trying to get out of jammer range."

"Go. Fight." Nariko ordered before glancing down at her mother. "She's starving,"

Ukyou, Misako, and Akane had gone ahead and were engaging the creature. Misako ran Sasha in steady bursts that blew rippling craters into the inky hide. Ukyou used her PUG to lob heavy 17mm bullets into various mouths and eyes. Shadows burst out from Akane and raced to claw apart and explode the flesh shredded by her sister's attacks.

Combined with the Canadians' firepower they had managed to halt the creature and were even grinding enough of its flesh to push it back. This did not keep the three fighting succubae from stealing glances back at their mother.

Nabiki had knelt down next to her mother and took out a trauma kit. "This has been going on a while." She pealed back more of her mother's face armor and pushed some burnt and fused hair aside.

MacDowell frowned. The demons were wearing drab-grey-green Kevlar and ceramic plate uniforms. It was easy to forget that Ranma's getup had started out looking like theirs. "Yeah, she just kept fighting."

"Her tail's much longer," Nabiki noted.

Nariko glared slightly at the non-com.

Nabiki turned back to her first aid. It was a worrying sign that this was even necessary; mother's normal healing rate made took care of such things.

"I'm just glad that you girls got here," MacDowell said.

"That the cavalry finally arrived?" Sergeant Olsen Brummet remarked.

"Yes, they have," Nariko agreed.

MacDowell frowned. "There's more? Wh-" His question was cut off by a huge concussive blast going off in the distance followed by a crackling explosion. The thundering noise was unmistakable a tank had entered the fight.

"Armored cavalry? Hah! I knew the Major and that slimy spook had something held in reserve." Corporal Lily Green laughed. The Royal Canadian Armored Corps were originally the Canadian Cavalry Corps. She loaded another grenade into her rifle's under slung launcher.

Next to her another soldier lumbered a far heavier, if shorter, 40mm grenade launcher. "What on Earth is Mother wearing?" Misako shouted to her mate.

After a second Ukyou got the pun. Mother's getup did look just like a battle-tarted version of her Sailor Earth uniform. "That's not funny!"

"I know, wearing the skins of your defeated enemies?" Misako gave a triumphant grin. "I didn't think Mother had it in her."

Bristling, Akane used one of her shadows to blow apart an ichor-drenched tear that Ukyou had opened up. "It's not..."

The platinum haired succubus frowned. The brood had come down in a rush, but the heaps of stripped squid-like aliens were telling. Not to mention the broken white ceramic weapons and torn blue and red bits of armor. "I think it is," her heart ached but she pushed it aside.

"Poor Mom, she must have been very desperate," Akane wanted to go over to her, wanted to hug her mother but the big space monster that hurt Mother was right in front of her.

Nabiki took a protein bar out of her harness; the redhead greedily tore into it. "What were you thinking?"

Violet slitted eyes locked onto the powder-blue haired demon. "That I had to stop an inedible enemy. Also MacDowell's boys have a recoilless gun, they're a bit bashful about using it, but the thing's a lifesaver."

MacDowell snorted. "Well maybe now that I don't have a friendly trying to dead-lift the damn ink-alien we can get a clear shot."

Nariko smiled. Once Nabiki had finished checking her mother for sources of major blood loss, she reached out and took her mother's taloned hand. Red eyes briefly took in the polished gauntlets and chest armor. She then lifted the shorter demoness up onto her hooves.

"We're here now," Nariko assured. She turned and looked at the creature. Wide area attacks with penetration seemed to have the most effect.

Ranma smiled basking in the love and warmth of her daughters.

Nariko's grin remained, but her eyes hardened. "Akane, Ukyou, take mother topside. Bring her to Eve. Get her food. Raid the commissary, hit a butcher, whatever it takes." the red-eyed demon ordered in a stern, if warm voice. "Get the status from Auntie Eve."

Relief was evident on MacDowell's face. "Green, take our wounded and escort Red and her girls out of here. Bring back whoever, whatever you can."

Ranma stared. Nabiki packed her kit and dashed to the front. The battered Sailor Earth tried to follow.

Nariko leveled her katana. "Mother..." her voice had a tiny tremble. "No."

Ukyou and Akane had pulled off the line and flanked their older sister. Looking at their mother they took a half step back.

Nariko growled and slapped Akane across the butt with the flat of her blade and shoved Ukyou forward with her free hand. "Do it. Mother won't trouble you." She gave that last line staring directly into those luminous purple eyes.

The platinum blonde demon nodded and worked on her headset. Her alabaster cheeks stiffened and her eyes widened. "Quarantine breaches! Multiple. West going to the Canal! East over Nicolas Street!"

Ranma glanced around at the scene. The shards from Nabiki's Icicle Parade were slicing right though the creature's hide where they exploded deep within its body. This complemented the concussive and shrapnel damage Misako's attack was doing. Not to mention the steady fire from the Canadian troops.

Nariko chewed her lip for a second. "Go, take mother up. Auntie Eve or Major Sifton will give you your next orders."

The brood mother flexed her hands; the tension eased from her shoulders. The pressure in her bodysuit lessened, but the roiling pain in her stomach continued. "Yes, Daughter." She bowed her head, presenting her horns. The demoness winced as a clotting pad shifted and silvery blood leaked out down the side of her face.

Ukyou and Akane walked past Nariko and stood on either side of their mother.

Ranma stepped forward, but nearly stumbled. She was caught by her daughters. Hugging Nariko she rested her head on the taller demon's shoulder.

Nariko lifted her mother back up and gently pushed her towards Akane and Ukyou. Akane took Ranma's arm and led her back out of the room while Ukyou took point with her rifle at the ready. Lilly Green and the other wounded followed.

Lightning crackled across the black-haired succubus' katana as she drew her sidearm and rushed the Shoggoth. The heavy fifty caliber bullets tore through many of the creature's eyes, and blew out heavy chunks of ropey gooey flesh, but the damage still paled compare to Misako's and Nariko's attacks.

ScarletBane swung; thick rubbery flesh parted. Nariko screamed" Lightning Devastation!" Electricity arced through the creature's body and it began to shudder and char.

Nariko pulled back and Misako resumed her barrage.

MacDowell nodded to Bishop who had reloaded Jones' recoilless rifle. "Hey girls! Get down!" He shouted as John Jones leveled the Carl Gustav at the inky horror.

End chapter 7

I'd like to thank the prereaders for their help in this project: Milanda Anza, Mahou Sensou, J St C Patrick, Crimson Vixen, DCG, Pale Wolf and Kevin Hammel.

Special thanks to Ckosacranoid for pointing out that Usagi and the Inners had a role to play in this battle.

In other good news there's some new fanart. They can be found on the fukufics forum or on my new deviant art page. There's also another piece of art with Nabiki that's in the works.

Username for that is sunny-temple so just put that in front of the deviantart com

Revision Notes: A short chapter, but Ranma did screw up and not think through her powers.