Homo Superior
Broken Future: Part One
**** New York, 21XX ***
Corporal John Wilson, a tall scarred man in his early thirties, opened his eyes in anticipation of the battle that was to come. The War, as it has been called since anyone could remember, was about to end, one way or another. The machines were on the ropes, their bases all in ruins, their last surviving stronghold was here, in what was once called New York. The Free People of Earth had wanted to avoid this last battle, they had wanted to bottle up the damn Machines inside the New York area,but the High General had convinced them that if they didn’t strike now, with everything they had, the Machines would rebuild faster than the Free People could recover.
And when the High General spoke, you listened.
This battle would be for all the marbles. Either they would die, or the machines would, there would be no compromise. So here he was standing, clad in power armor on the troop transport to the final battle. He looked across from him to see his comm officers listening intently to the chatter through their headset. Everyone in the transport, all two hundred of them, all clad in clunky battle armor, strained to eavesdrop on the battle chatter.
The comm officer, Hicks, saw everyone's expectant looks toward him and grinned. “The High General has broken through the main front! The Seventh Army is moving into the heart of the Sentinels factory!”
There was a thunderous roar from all the men and women in the transport. It was as if they too had played a part in the victory. Their captain, a tough grizzle man wearing with a bird emblem on his chest, activated his power suit and walked on the ramps inside the transport.
“Well then boys and girls, look like it is our turn. We're gonna hit their god damn flanks and hit it fucking hard! We are the 12th boys, it's now up to us to finish this!”
There was another thunderous roar. Moments later the floor underneath the soldiers opened up, showing dark clouds. Wilson had heard that the sky wasn't always dark and gray. It even used to have something called sunlight filtering through. His mother had said that it was due the nuclear fallout or something of that nature that smog had blanketed the Earth. He wasn't too sure himself.
Suddenly the transport rocked hard and their Captain looked up, smiling fatalistically.
“Look's like we're here for the party boys! All units DROP! DROP! DROP! DROP!”
Even as their captain spoke the soldiers hit the release switch on their clamps and dropped down to the battlefield. Wilson hit his a few second later and saw his HUD kick in as he was in freefall. Looking up in the distance, he could see blue and red dots tangled up on his display and in the air all around them. There were explosions that detonated near him from the destroyed crafts, or lucky hits on the dropped soldiers, there must have been at least one hundred and fifty thousands troops being dropped, and still more were being released.
A few second later, Wilson fell to the ground, his battle suit cushioning the impact, he was not like a Gifted, he was just a normal Flatscan. Thankfully the suit made up the difference. Looking up at his transport, he saw that as soon as the last soldier was dropped, the transport itself began to transform in to a giant machine and flew toward the aerial battle. From the ground he could see hundreds of red dots light up the sky over the Machine base.
“Alright boys! Forward!”
“HUAH!” The soliders yelled as one as they regrouped and charged toward the main battle. Over their heads there were streaks of light originating from behind them where massive artillery strikes hammered the machine army in front of them. The machines in turn fired beams of energy the size of cannons, disintegrating the soldiers that it touched instantly.
“Move! Move! Move! Move!” The Captain yelled, ignoring the beam that nearly grazed his own group. “Come on maggots MOVE!”
Wilson felt his heart beating fast, his bio display confirmed as much. A quick glance from the corner of his eyes showed the surge of the Free People Army in a blanketing wave, even as the yellow beam hit them at various points in their line.
Keeping his legs churning, he noticed that the ground began to elevate slightly. Eyes forward, Wilson could see that they were getting closer to the artillery strike zone. Sending the command to his suit to load up his energy packs, he heard thousands of mechanical arms raise in anticipation of the fight to come.
They were not disappointed as from the artillery strike zone, thousands of black sentinels, Nimrod- Class Sentinels and even giant fifty footers, damaged as some of them may have been, moved out in a single file line and began firing at the sea of humanity.
“FIRE!” The captain shouted and thousands upon thousands of rounds of pulse ion energy fired into the sentinels, destroying the front line of the group immediately.
There was a furious exchange between man and machine for a few minutes before the machine front crumbled.
“Push Forward!” the Captain shouted as he took aim at a half broken sentinel and destroyed it with his pulse canon.
Wilson saw a few broken Sentinels that still had life in their eyes and leveled his guns to it. Releasing a quick burst of fire, he put them out of their misery and continued to surge forth with his unit.
“Melee units!” Some shouted in alarm as thousands of Sentinels, these ones made to look like four legged animals, burst up through the ground and killed thousand of soldiers instantly. There was panic fire as these 'Feral' Sentinels, notoriously known as the 'dogs' of the Machines, wreaked havoc in the human’s line and blunted the surge.
“Damn it! Damn it!” Someone yelled in panic as he fired his weapons at the beast. The worst part about the feral type was the metal it was made with was partly vibranium, ensuring a harder carapace.
“Concentrate your fire!” The captain yelled as hundreds of guns turned on each of the Feral Sentinels and fired into it. Even under fire, the four legged machines kept moving toward them, but eventually, the ionic energy of their weaponry melted the armor and fried it's internal circuitry.
By the time the soldiers took care of that, a second wave of Sentinels surged out from their facility.
While the High General, with the combine force of the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th and Gifted, were hammering the front lines of the Sentinels. The 1st and the 12th were responsible for trying to destroy the special power processing plant that was tied in to much of their automated defenses.
Wilson took cover and leveled his guns as more 10ft sentinels made their way out. The Urban warfare kind. Firing immediately, the Sentinels turned and began a vicious fire fight, denying them access to the facility. If they didn't take out the power source they couldn’t hit the Sentinels factory with the super EMP bomb that would shut down most of the machines except for the specialized unit type.
Ducking under another beam, Wilson noticed that his energy pack was starting to get low. The battery should last a good two hours of continuous fire. He had used it sparingly, not wanting to waste it. Looking at his extra energy pack he saw that he had been grazed by an attack and his extra ammo reserves had been destroyed.
“Damn it,” Wilson cursed and turned around to his closet squad mate to ask for ammo. “You got anymore extra..ah...”
The person that had been behind him was slump forward, his head missing. Wilson couldn't even remember the person name but he had ammo packs on him. Taking it off the dead soldiers body, he saw that there was still a heavy fire fight being waged in the darkness. Leveling his guns he took aim and fired at the turtling Sentinels forces.
How long the next section of the battle went on for, Wilson did not know, only when he heard the clacking of his empty armament was when he realized he was once again out of ammo. Time mattered little to him at the moment, just surviving. The rate of fire still had not let up as both sides still seemed stuck in this damn entrenched warfare. Looking around, he found that most of his squad mates were dead, the ones that weren’t were still firing. He noticed that most of the bodies of his fallen squad had been rummaged for extra ammo. He was about to give up all hope of continuing the fight when he spotted one another fallen.
“Thank Blessed Xavier,” Wilson breathe in relief, he did not want to go all the way back to the rear to resupply. It was a point of honor to be here and when they brought the machines down.
“Arggggh!”
“AAHHHH!”
“Noo -ukrrrrkk!”
Alarmed, Wilson turned around to see a dark cloud had washed out over the area over the soldiers. Many where now writhing in agony.
“Sentinels -Nanite Cloud detected, Suit compromise in thirty second.”
Wilson’s eyes widened in fear. He remembered the Nanite cloud that had been used on the colony of Latveria. All of the people of that nation had been dissolved into a mass of flesh and blood. Thankfully the battle suit he was in had anti-nanites called Jarva, but it was nowhere near enough against the encroaching dark cloud.
“Fall back!” the Captain shouted as the firing on the front line lighten amidst the screams of the dying. Soldiers caught up in the Sentinel Nanites fatal embrace were written off as lost. Some even detonated their suits before they could be taken.
Wilson ran even as his suit showed that he it was beginning to lose integrity. However as he ran, a strange thing happened. A fog had somehow appeared and blanketed the soldiers, his HUD was covered in mist, allowing for zero visibility.
“Secondary presence sensed, Sentinel's Nanite purged, system operating withing normal range.”
Wilson looked at his HUD readout on his frame, which had been red, now glowed a pleasant blue. Blinking, he turned around and saw the misty fog mixed in with the dark cloud and detonated across the entire front line. After the explosion cleared, he could see the white mist intertwine with the dark cloud and floated high into the air.
“I'll be damned! It's General Myst!” the Captain shouted in disbelief while laughing. His celebration was cut short when an explosion engulfed the turtling Sentinels at the facility entrance.
“What the!?”
“Did you see that!”
“It can't be!”
“By Xavier, it's the Angel!”
Wilson made his way to the front through the white mist which he now realized was the powerful mutant general, and went to catch a glimpse of the Angel. He had heard of her and soldiers regularly invoked her name as a good luck charm.
The first thing he saw was pure white pristine wings, wings he had only once seen in a rare book as a child. His mother had called it a dove. It was however the person that the wings were attached to that arrested his attention, even as the Sentinels burned before her. Beautiful red and white hair cascaded in curls all the way to her shoulders. Arresting green eyes on a face that look cleaned and unmarred even as she waded through the machine ranks. She appeared tall, but not too tall, and she had wore a body suit of pure white and red. In her hand were two staves, one with a crescent like hook, another a spinning fiery disk. Finally the last thing that stood out was the emblem of a bird of some kind over her generous breast.
She was... perfect.
Suddenly the sky was painted with flames as the dark cloud that been interlocked with the white mist appeared reduced and fleeing.
“Commander!” the Captain snapped to attention as the last the Angel stood surveying the destruction she had wrought.
The Angel turned and looked at the captain and gave a soft smile acknowledging him. “Captain, status report.”
Even her voice sounded perfect in Wilson’s mind. He was smitten and he had no doubt many of the other men in the army were as well.
“Commander,” the Captain smartly saluted. “We have taken Twenty five percent causalities so far, and more then a third of our siege weaponry has been destroyed.”
The Angel turned to look at the facilities and the men be who were starting to gather behind with an impassive face. “We need to take this facility, no matter the cost. You realize this?”
“We are ready, we all are.” the Captain responded, and the men behind him grumbled in kind. They had been fighting for the better part of the day. They were tired, exhausted, ragged, and dirty, but they had to do this. Over four hundred thousand had landed with them, only three hundred thousand remained, and more were dying as they spoke. They had to end this now or else the lives lost would be meaningless.
The Angel looked at the soldiers with soft compassionate eyes before closing them. “Then ready yourselves, for this will be for your very freedom.”
“HUAH!” The Army shouted as the Angel flew up and over the facility's walls.
“MEN! You don't quit unless you are dead!”the Captain shouted over their shared comms and heard a roar of approval in kind.
As one, the Free People Army charged through the facilities, even as the anti-air defenses started to turn on the ground group, killing many instantly.
“Never surrender!” the Rally cry went up as their artillery strikes and siege weaponry fired at the defensive tower.
Wilson was the first to rushed inside after the Angel, and could hear the sounds of battle waging through the halls even as he took aim at the worker Sentinels.
“Intruder, Flatscans and Mutants, Eliminate!”
“Die!” Wilson roared with hatred as he continuously fired at the hated machines.
More and more soldiers poured in behind them and began firing into the machines, the machines returned fire as best as they could as the Free People finally flooded the hated stronghold of their enemy.
Wilson charged in, peeking behind every corner at ever corridor, his squad mates falling behind him but still he survived. He was wondering if he was skilled or lucky when a Sentinel beam missed him by a narrow margin. He spotted the attacker and turned his weaponry to it, blowing it's head clear off.
“Scales coming this way!”
Turning to look at the enemy, he barely dodged the attack of flames by the Sentinels. These Sentinels, the black scaley ones, were different. They had the Gifted powers. Already some of them had turned into diamond form and were wading through the ranks of the soldiers. Diamond was still one of the hardest substance on earth. Some of them turned into metal, whiles others had their face opened up and fire red solar energy at them, killing many soldiers instantly.
“Concentrate your fire!” Wilson shouted as he leveled his gun and fired missile after missile at the machines. His new squad mates did the same, taking a few of the Scales down.
“These are suppose to be fucking old models damn it!” The Captain yelled harshly as his soldier’s surge was one more blunted by the Sentinels. Some of the Sentinels were turning into ice and freezing the soldiers, while others had turned their hands into metal claws and sliced through the weaker power suits.
“We're getting slaughtered in here Captain!” a panicky soldier shouted as he saw more of his friends get killed by the damn Scales.
“Not if I can help it!” A female voice spoke aloud.
Suddenly a large figure brushed pass the soldiers and slammed into a few of the scaled Sentinels. The female in question was wearing a dome helmet. Her figure weren't as attractive as those of the Angel, she was more muscular and had little feminine curves. No sooner had she done that when other Gifteds followed her in, some had water as bodies, while others were multiple shade of light.
“Juggernaut! Wait for us!” A male who’s face appeared inhuman with fur on it shouted at the first female companion. Turning to the soldiers, he gave them all a smile. “Leave these Sentinels to us, go! Help the Commander shut down this damn facility!”
“Aye Aye!” the Captain who had taken a moment to watch more and more Gifted stream in and battle the Scales acknowledged. “We won't fail!”
“I should hope not! Take Techno with you, he's good with Machines, and can help shut down this place faster.” The furry leader ordered as a black boy who had machinery on part of his face walked up to the Captain.
“If your name means what I think it does, then I'm glad to have you with us,” The Captain greeted the Gifted. Immediately, he ordered a security detail for the kid.
“For the Free People!” the Furry mutant shouted as he let loose a bestial roar before smashing into the Scaled Sentinels.
“This one has Diamond Skin!” One of the larger Rock gifted shouted, as he had been slugging back and forth between it, neither side winning.
“I got it!” A young man shouted as he ran toward the diamond Sentinel. What happened next was strange, as with put a single touch of the man's finger, the Sentinels arm exploded, exposing it's interior.
Wilson, took aim at the opening and fired directly into it, the outer shell was diamond but the inside was still machine parts. The Sentinel blew up immediately, sending many of the Gifted smashing all over their corridor factory.
“Go! Go! Go! Go!” the Captain shouted but made a motion for some squad to stay behind and lay down covering fire for the Gifted Battalion.
Wilson was point man for Techno's group as they battle deeper into the facility. Along with the guard details of the normals, Techno was protected by four of the Gifted. One with telekinetic power, one with pure fire power, one with energy dispersion and the final looked like a fighter type.
“Wait!” Techno shouted as he looked around and closed his eyes. His head whipping back and forth between the corridors. A moment later, he opened his eyes with clear alarm in it. “The Sentinels are up to something, they are diverting a huge amount of power to a specialized room two klicks west of here.”
“So? We need to shut down the facility, the more power they drain the better!” The energy wielder spat as the group took a reprieve.
However, Techno face look even more worried. “That's the thing, the amount of power I feel them channeling is going to shut down the entire facility for us. Why would they do that?”
Wilson and many of the soldiers felt uncomfortable. The enemies were going to do something they wanted? “How much further is the power plant area?”
“Two miles.” Techno answered.
“Captain...” Wilson prodded his commanding officer for a decision.
“God damn it, the Machines never do something with a good reason,” the Captain spat. “They have a plan and I'll be damn if I let them do it, we go to the specialized room.”
“Yes Sir!” The Soldiers shouted as they started to fight their way toward the closer room instead. Meanwhile, the Captain was updating his superiors about the change in plans.
“Sentinel's Android!” A soldier shouted in alarm before his head was sliced cleanly off.
Wilson and the Gifted immediately began firing in the Androids location. Unlike other Sentinels, the Android class was designed to mimics the top tier fighters. Their core were not strong, and their bodies were genderless, but they had specialized moves that could wreak havoc just like the Scales could. Unlike the hunter, the skin on these Sentinels was mixed with a smaller amount of adamanitum.
“Protect the kid!” the Captain ordered as his soldiers got in front and fired at the Android Sentinels. To his frustration, they evaded his attack with ease and sent even more air blades at his soldiers. Cutting several cleanly in half.
Techno’s eyes locked onto an android and held out his hand. Immediately, the android in question jerked as if frozen. Data numbers flitted across the black boy’s eyes before the Android he had held in place began turning on it's fellow machines.
“Don't target the one that's not attacking us,” the Captain ordered, seeing as how the boy appeared to be giving one of the androids a command.
With years of practice, the soldiers fired upon the other androids. With the addition of an android on their side, they were eventually able to destroy all of the fighter types.
“Go!” the Captain shouted as more and more of his remaining squad moved down the corridor into a large chamber. Upon their entry, a large surge of energy condensed in the center of the room and winked out. The entire facility structure cut off immediately, leaving them in the dark.
A moment later, lights from the battle suits flooded the room as the backup generators for the facility kicked in.
“What the hell was that?!” the Gifted energy user shouted as everyone remained on alert for anymore signs of attack.
“What happened? Report Captain,” the Angel demanded as she strode into the room with the two stave’s in her hands.
“Commander!” the Captain greeted but remained on alert just in case. The Angel appeared to take a look around the room and did not seem worried.
“Commander, Techno is trying to find out now,” the Gifted Fighter answered his direct superior.
Techno had placed his hand on one of the mainframes in the room. His eyes once more lighted up in data language before he released it, letting it goes as his eyes widened in horror.
“What is it Techno?” the Angel asked in concerned.
“They... they knew they lost,” Techno whispered softly. “They had calculated our inevitable victory twenty five years ago...”
“What?” Wilson spoke up out of turn and looked contrite.
“They have been trying to build a temporal device all this time to counter our inevitable victory... they just finished today,” Techno looked over at the machine in the middle of the room with something akin to respect.
“You telling me they built a time machine?” the Captain asked incredulously.
“Yes sir,” Techno replied. “They are planning to travel back far enough to kill the High General in his infancy.”
The Angel’s green eyes widened in shock and looked at Techno. “They... they're using the Terminator plot to kill the High General?!”
Everyone in the room gave the Angel an odd look. It was the Captain that spoke up first.
“Terminator... plot?”
The Commander suddenly blushed, some might even say prettily at her outburst. “You know the movie with the machine going back in time to kill the leader of humanity!”
“Movie?” Wilson asked in confusion. What's a movie? However, his commander seemed to be more concerned with the situation at hand, which was the Sentinels plot to kill the High General.
“Which unit did they send back in time to kill the High General?” the Angel asked looking at the tech Gifted.
Techno gulped and answered. “It was the Omega Class Sentinel, sir...”
Everyones eyes widened at that, the Omega class Sentinel was rare in that it was made for the purpose of destruction, but didn't have massive fire power at it's disposal. It had a very powerful core, but there were only a few handful in existence due to the fact that it's entire body, down to the wiring, had to be made or coated in pure Adamanitum. It was so feared that a single unit could change the tied of battle. It's destructiveness came from it's durability and unending power core, despite having weaker armaments. There weren't suppose to be any left, the High General had seen to that.
It was than an alarm blared.
“POWER PLANT OVERLOAD, BASE DESTRUCTION IN T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES!”
Everyone looked up in alarm as the base echo with the Sentinel voice.
“Can we send someone else back?” the Angel asked, her eyes had a worried gaze to it.
“Yes, they calculated the energy needs wrong hoping to shut down the base with it, however they overloaded the power core and it is now expanding at an exponential rate, I can use that energy and only one person back before that platform burns out,” Techno replied.
The Angel looked over to Pulse, the energy Gifted. “Do it. Send me back.”
“Yes sir,” Techno nodded and moved over to the mainframe. “Stand in the center of that platform, and prepare yourself, I can send you back in fifteen seconds.”
“Okay,” the Winged beauty nodded as she looked to the Captain. “I already ordered a full retreat, take your men and get out of here, now. I also entrust you with these two staves to give to the High General.”
“Yes Commander!” The Captain saluted and took the staves reverently. He looked over to the black boy and waited for Tehcno to finish his interface with the mainframe.
“Okay Commander, you are good to go.” Techno nodded and heard startled gasps behind him. Turning around he had to cover his nose at the vision of loveliness before him. His commander, their commander, the Angel, was discarding her clothes and had just finished discarding a red lace pair of panties before she stood in the center of the platform. “Why are you naked?!”
“Huh? Don't I have to be naked for time travel to work?” The winged woman asked as she felt the energy all around her begin to hum to life.
Techno gaped and saw his beautiful Commander completely nude looking at him with such an adorable puzzled expression. The time machine began to glow even brighter as energy condolence all around it's occupant. “N-No! Not at all! You could have brought your weapons too!”
The winged woman looked stunned as the energy began to close in on her at a quick pace.
“But...that's not how the Terminator went...”
*** Present Day, Jersey Shore ***
“And blue team wins!” Strong Guy declared proudly, who had on swimming trunks.
“Hell yeah! Up high Ranma!” Evan shouted as he went to high five his team mate, the incredibly sexy red head in a once piece with the world 'BOY' emblazened across her very impressive chest. He was immediately pushed aside by two of his friends as they too tried to high five the their boy turned girl team mate.
Unfortunately, the boy turn girl had already turned around and slung her arms around Beak’s neck, talking with him excitedly.
“Damn Beak, Maybe those wings of your ain't show after all!” Ranma congratulated her room mate. Her face flushed with the thrill of victory and her smiled was so wide it almost split her face open. She just didn't realize it made the shy bird boy incredibly nervous.
“S-a- I- that is, th-thank y-ou Ranma,” Beak stuttered as he try to be anywhere else but here from his room mate who showed him her – his curse to turn into a girl. Suddenly he became very self conscience of her even though she professed to be a boy at heart.... why would a boy dress in something so sexy?
Ranma turned around and saw her other three team mates had crumpled into a heap on the sand. After sweating a bit at the scene she decided to make her way back to the Xavier's student shade.
“Ranma, how the hell can you be so shameless?” Ryoga berated his rival in an accusing tone.
Ranma raised her eyebrow and took one of the coconut drink in her hand sipping from it daintily. Ever since she got back from that robot factory two months ago, Ryoga had been nicer. It had unsettled her at first, but whatever happened to him down there changed him. He no longer spout about seeing hell because according to him, he had seen true hell. Still, Ranma couldn’t let that comment slide.
“What's a matter big boy, seeing me like this making you all all excited?”
As if to emphasis the point, Ranma took a page from Shampoo and did a supermodel stretch jutting her chest out causing the boy to blush and turn away. Next to the pig boy was Claire, aka Blink, who shot a glare at Ranma before turning to whispered softly into Ryoga's ear.
Since Ryoga returned, the girl had been constantly at his side , and blamed herself for why he was tortured so. In Ranma’s eyes, with the way the girl was sticking by Ryoga and just looking at him, they might as well declare themselves a couple.
Going to her towel, Ranma laid on her back to observe her surroundings. Lazily sipping her coconut drink from the coconut shell itself she said a silent thanks to Storm for the clear day. Also thanks to most of the water mutants, the water was a deep dark blue as the Xaiver students enjoyed their little beach trip after mid terms.
“Daddy!”
Ranma groaned but sat up and looked at the happy winged boy who had been playing in the sand castle with other human children. The boy was pointing over to her and waving enthusiastically, the children look surprised but waved also. Ranma, not wanting to be rude, waved back. Surprisingly enough, when ask why most people on the beach weren't freaking out by all the mutants, the only replied she received was. “Hey, it's Jersey.” As if that explained everything.
After closing her eyes for a few minutes, she felt an overcast shadow on her. Opening her eyes she recognize it as one of the Cuckoo's. In particular, Celeste.
“Hey Celeste,” Ranma greeted lazily as the girl had set up her towel to his left. Of course next to her were two other matching towels.
“You... played a game of volleyball with the boys.” Celeste accused, even as her two sisters arrived, with Myst in tow. The three girls had matching blue swimsuits that exposed a lot of their pale skin while Myst wore a big straw hat somehow, along with a monocolor one piece bathing suit.
“So?” Ranma shrugged, enjoying the shade as she sipped more of her coconut drink.
“Do you know that they were ogling you the whole time, with the way you were moving around with... those?” Celeste motioned to Ranma's breasts while her two sisters nodded their heads in agreement.
“So? Ain't my problem they're pervs,” Ranma replied easily, then looked down at her chest. “Ain't my fault I'm stacked like this either. I wish I could be flatter, like you girls or maybe even Myst. It's a pain to move with, that's for sure.”
The three girls were taken aback and looked down at their own modestly sized chests before back at Ranma's enviously. For a boy to have such amazing breasts was criminal. After a quick Hive mind meeting, Celeste glared at Ranma while the other two folded their arms behind her.
“We have decided,” Celeste began glaring hard. “We hate you.”
“Bitch.” Myst agreed as she enviously eyed Ranma’s breasts.
“Love you guys too,” Ranma grinned and rolled onto her front, showing off her perfectly pert bottom. “Wake me up in a bit would ya?”
And just like that the pig tailed girl closed her eyes and fell asleep quicker than most thought possible. The girls began to chat to themselves, mostly using the hive mind, while Myst, not wanting to evaporate, stayed in the shade close to the coolers to take the excess moisture to read a book.
+++Later+++
“Ranma.”
A soft touch poked at the pig tailed girl cheek. Waking up, she saw that it was Jean in a risque green bikini crouching near her. Blinking her eyes blearily, she woke up noticed that there seemed to be sand all around her. Turning her head a bit, she gaped at the Sand castle that had been built on top her.
“The girls encouraged Saffron to build the sandcastle on top of you. Evidently, you didn't view them as a threat,” Jean giggled while looking at the boy turned girl’s expression of disbelief. “You said you only avoid harmful intent, well I am sure it was all done in good fun.”
“Ugh, those girls, where are they anyway?” Ranma asked, turning to his right to see a discombobulated cloud lazily hanging in mid air. “Oh, Myst's taking a nap too.”
“Out breaking boys hearts last I checked.” Jean answered as she took a seat next to Ranma, gazing out into the sea.
“And Saffron?”
Jean looked at Ranma and looked back to the sea. “With Kiima, but she figured she shouldn't be near you in her current... form.”
Ranma narrowed her eyes and grudgingly admitted it was smart thinking on Kiima’s part. That form of hers was a reminder that she had killed Akane. “Well tell her to avoid the tomboy too... you know murderer and murder victim.”
Jean sighed at the unkind tone in Ranma’s voice, but what could she say, her secretary did try to kill Ranma’s ex-fiancee. “Well me and the girls plan on getting some ice cream after this, maybe going shopping, you wouldn't happen to be interested in a girls night out, would you?”
Ranma paled at the thought. “No, no thank you, going straight back to the dormitory and not for all the Ice Cream in the world would I join you. Screw shopping.”
Grinning, Jean raised an eyebrow. “I'll take that as a no? The girls will be so disappointed.”
“I'm sure they’ll get over it,” Ranma said with an arched eyebrow. “I don't fancy being anyones dress up doll.”
“Drat,” Jean pouted as a smile danced on her lips. “You’ve seen through our true objective, how often can we say we help a boy dress up and look good?!”
“Ain't happening, no way no how!” Ranma shouted back a bit miffed. Girls and shopping.
“It's funny that you can pick something stylish yet sexy for your girl form, yet when it comes to your guy form you choose ugly outfits,” Jean teased the sand trapped girl.
“Ugh! Come on, the orange shirt wasn't that bad!” Ranma protested. “And that Green shirt was not ugly!”
“It belonged on an old man!” Jean fired back at the fashion disaster that was Ranma’s male form. Surprisingly, if she super imposed those outfits on Ranma’s girl form, It would work better.
“Well, I appreciate the red shirt and black khakis' you got me,” Ranma replied after moment. “Could have done without the bird boxers though.”
“Aww, but it was so cute, I even got Saffron a matching pair,” Jean’s emerald eyes lit up. “Like father like son.”
“He ain't my son!” Ranma immediately replied with a huff. Then she proceeded to grumble under her breath about pain in the ass Phoenixes. Jean only replied was that soft smirk on her lips. Well two can play that game.
“So... you and Wolverine dating yet?”
Jean, who had been drinking some cola, spit it out looking at Ranma wide eyed. The girl had a teasing grin on her lips.
“Me and Logan are just good friends!”
“Uh huh,” Ranma answeredin a tone that said she clearly didn’t believe Jean. “Right, and I only have one fiancee. Anyone can see that he has a thing for you, even Ryoga! and that guy is denser than a rock about Claire!”
Jean blushed a bit as her mind turned to the wild man of the X-Men. The one that she found herself highly attracted to even when she was with Scott. Glaring at Ranma because she now became flustered . “Hey, I don't think you are exactly in a position to give relationship advice you know.”
Ranma only grinned wider in response. “Heh, you’ve got a guy who’s been eyeing you like a how Ryoga use to eye Akane and you’re telling me you don't notice it? Maybe I should get a new therapist.” She finished off her sentence by sticking her tongue out at the other redhead.
The normally unflappable Jean could only blush in embarrassment. Was it that obvious that Logan was into her? There had always been a tension between her and Logan, and there might have been some indiscretion here and there, but nothing more than kissing. She just wasn't ready for anything yet and hope that Logan would understand. It didn't help that Logan seemed to be insanely jealous of her relationship with Ranma now, especially given Saffron’s immense dislike for the X-Man in question.
Letting the banter fall off, the two remained in a comfortable silence as a happy Saffron came running back with a huge cotton candy in his hand.
“Daddy! Mommy!”
Jean immediately greeted her 'son' with a soft smile while Ranma looked on in chagrin. Jean was all but convinced that Ranma had accepted Saffron on some level. Just that he would usually go overboard with anything he was not comfortable with. Taking her 'son' into her arms, she rested her chin on his head as he babbled on about where Kiima took him.
“Oh Daddy! Do you like my castle? Celeste said that we should have made it higher, but Phoebe said no.”
Ranma sweated a bit, but looked at her 'son'. “It's... fine.”
“Yay! Celeste said you'd love it!”
“Yeah... I bet she did,” Ranma grumbled in a dark tone of voice. Looking at the kid she saw him happily munching away at the cotton candy. He looked to the kid Phoenix’s 'mother'.“So, who’s gonna babysit him when you girls go shopping?”
Jean turned to look at Ranma with a smile that made him gulp audibly.
*** In Transit ***
Ranma’s eyes twitched as she remained in her girl form so that Saffron could use her breast as a pillow. It wasn't exactly planned, but it just happened that way. The boys, Chaperoned by men were making their ways back to the Xavier Institute, while the girls were going to downtown Manhattan. Surprisingly enough, Ryoga was taken along mainly because Claire was adamant about not letting him out of her sight. Worse than a mother hen that girl, but then again, Ranma could understand why the girl was worried.
“I think the Cuckoo's bikini was the hottest.”
“No way, gotta be Veronica’s black two piece! what was that made out, of floss?”
“Pfft! You wanted to see a floss bikini, did you see Ms. Frost? It was nothing but floss all over the damn place!”
“Oh yeah I saw, shit, I think everyone saw!”
“Surprised Wildchyld didn't just hump her legs.”
“What about Ms. Grey, did you see that green two piece, damn I want me some of that hot Phoenix.”
“Shhh! Dude! Ranma's here!”
Ranma glared at the boy who made that comment, who was a bit on the heavy set side, his mutation was almost like that of the Blob. Under her withering glare, the boys whispered even lower.
“I am really surprised you didn’t have a problem wearing that swimsuit.” Evan said, seated next to Ranma.
“Pfff, what I am gonna let this damn curse stop me from taking a swim?” Ranma scoffed. Before she turned to see Beak sleeping in the seat behind her. “You guys aren’t gonna weird out on me are ya?”
Evan, who was now in his regular street clothes, waved his hand away. “No, no, not at all, still you do make a good red head, a pity you weren't a girl.”
Ranma kicked her friend’s leg and saw him wince. “Yeah, that's what you get, I am always positively, forever, 100% guy, even if I do have this stupid curse.”
“Hah,” Evan laughed as he rubbed the sore spot on his leg. “Too bad most of school believes it's your mutation.”
Ranma rolled his eyes. “Yeah, uh huh, shape shifting is such an awesome ability. Not! If it is a mutation, it's a shit one.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know Mystique is considered very dangerous because she's a shape shifter,” Evan replied, but saw Ranma’s confused look. “She's with Magneto’s brotherhood. Let's just say she can double as anyone and case havoc.”
“How?” Ranma asked curious. If it's not an offensive powered mutation, than it wasn’t worth it in Ranma's eyes.
Evan looked at his friend and saw that he really didn't see how shape shifting could be so dangerous. “Imagine if you can train yourself to be such a perfect shape shifter, you can impersonate the president, down to the thumb print. Now imagine if you were evil and can order the U.S military to attack anybody.”
Ranma blinked, as she had never thought about it that way. “So it's mostly a useful mutation if people can be fooled...”
“Well yeah! Only Wolverine and feral type of mutants can spot a shape shifter, and only if they’re familiar enough with their scent.”
“Or can pick up their ki signature.” Ranma added as everyone had a distinctive signature and can't be so easily fooled.
“... Right, that.” Evan replied, confused, but before he could say anything else, he saw Ranma’s eyes narrowed out the window. “What is it?”
“Thought I saw somet- there it is again!” Ranma pressed her face closer to the window. She had noticed it earlier, thinking it was the light glinting of the sun, but there appeared to be something in the woods. Tailing them.
“What is it?” Evan asked, also concerned, having learned to trust Ranma’s instincts, he looked out of the window and tried to focus really hard. It was than he saw it, a flash of silver in the passing tree forest. “I am going to get one of the Professors.”
Ranma nodded, but she had an ominous feeling. Something was tailing them and the worse part is she couldn't tell what it was. There was no ki signature.
A moment later, Sam Guthrie, her home room teacher, arrived in the back of the bus. The mutant known as Cannonball had a healthy dose of respect for the pig tailed bo-... well... girl now, after what happen with the out of control Saffron and the Sentinel Factory. If the boy/girl said she saw something, then he would damn well listen.
“What is it Ranma?”
Ranma’s eyes narrowed some more, tracking the thing in the forest. It was too off. “I dunno, but there might be something or someone following us.”
“You sure on that?” Sam said, looking at the girls deep blue eyes with his own. Seeing her nod, he went back to the front of the buss to let Sunspot know Ranma's concern.
“Be careful,” Bobby Costa, aka Sunspot, told his friend while tensing up in case it was anything serious.
Cannonball opened the coach bus and jumped outside, immediately taking flight as he did so and rocketing toward the forest.
Ranma watched with interest as her homeroom teacher flew off. The ability to fly fast was awesome to her, and the way her teacher seem to be doing it was by generating some kind of protective field around him. He could also literally smash into people just like his codename, a cannonball. She wondered if she could do something similar with ki, after all, Herb could fly...
Evan was also keeping an eye with his friend. If Ranma felt that something odd was going on, Evan would do well to remember it.
It was then Ranma spotted the silver glint again and widened her eyes in alarm. “Teach! Stop the BUS! NOW!!!”
Bobby Costa’s honed instincts made him follow the order and stepped on the breaks, only to find it was too late as an object appeared in front of the vehicle. Whatever the thing was, it was like smashing into a thick concrete wall. The students were tossed all over the place in the collision.
Ranma instinctively held a startled Saffron protectively to her and curled up into a ball to take the brunt of the impact. With her quick speed, she was able to keep a startled Beak and an out of control Evans from being slammed into the bus’s bulkhead as the vehicle overturned.
The moment the collision stopped, Ranma looked toward the front and saw their driver dizzy from the impact, possibly concussed. It was the other figure that concerned Ranma. It was a machine, in it's right hand was a canon, it had openings all over it's body, possibly as vent. It's left hand had morphed into a secondary set of guns. And it was aiming all of that in her direction.
“Crap.”
Thankfully, just as the gun was about to fire, Cannonball returned and smashed into the robot, sending the two flying off into unknown parts.
“Double crap,” Ranma commented. Looking down at her 'son' she rubbed his head to make sure that everything was okay. “Have you forgotten? I'm here.”
Saffron smiled and nodded to Ranma trusting her words.
“Evan, Beak, you guys alright?”
Evan groaned in reply, but was slowly reorienting himself. Beak groggily shook his head and came to just in time to nod to Ranma.
“Good, I'll check on the others.” Ranma responded as she held Saffron protectively to herself and started to see to the injuries of her peers. Most of it was minor bruising, nothing too serious. It was then she saw some of the buses in front had stopped. She made out Wolverine, Hank, and Strong Guy making their way hurriedly over to them.
“What's happened kid?” Wolverine growled out as he sliced open the side of the bus to start getting the kids out. Hank was already tending to Sunspot while Strong guy had carried a few unconscious boys with him to the other bus.
“We gotta get out of here, I think it's those robots again.” Ranma said hurriedly her senses alert and looking around for an angle of attack. “Mr. Guthrie smashed into that thing and went that way.”
Wolverine and Hank looked stunned for a moment before their expression turned dark. “Then we better get a move on, come one help us get a few guys out.”
“Sure, lemme get Saffron to the other bus first.” Ranma said as she made her way to one of the undamaged busses. She saw the boys from school look at the scene worriedly from the windows. However the moment she was out in the open, a light from gleamed from the edge of her vision, forcing her to quickly duck to the ground.
A moment later, a yellow beam passed over Ranma's head and made a hole in the road the were on.
“Kid!” Wolverine shouted in alarm as he turned to the trees, his claws popping out, his nose already searching for the robot. Even as more beams were fired at the kid. He immediately headed into the forest to stop the attacker. Permanently.
As soon as Ranma dodged the first attack, she knew a second and third was coming and continued to rolled with Saffron in her arm. Each beam narrowly missing her. She couldn't take cover behind the bus because the students were in there, and the bus didn’t appear to be strong enough to take a hit. She wouldn't be responsible for their deaths. Of course now she had Saffron in her arms and couldn't let the frightened boy go either.
'Crap! Crap! Crap! Think Ranma!' She thought to herself as she got to her feet and ran away from the scene of the attack. Sure enough, several more beams narrowly missed her even as Saffron shook in her arm like a panicky bird.
Even deep in the forest, the beam continuously fired in her direction with great accuracy, making her wince from the exploding tree bark two feet next to her. Had she not zigzagged at the last moment, she would have been hit. It was then she saw a red beam fired from the bus area and knew that it was Mr. Summer attacking their robot attacker.
'Dumbasses! Get the other students out of here!' Ranma viciously thought to the teachers, but relented as she knew that they too were only trying to do what was right. Besides, these were the X-Men, they wouldn't fall easy.
She heard the clang of metal on metal for a moment and gritted her teeth. If she didn't have to take care of Saffron, she would be in the thick of the fray already.
Ranma turned around only to see the robot, with it's weapon out already firing toward her, with a bloodied Sam Guthrie chasing it. Unfortunately, The robot was faster as it smashed into Ranma with great force, sending her flying through some trees. The split-second it took for that attack was all Cannonball needed as he smashed into the robot with his own concussive force and sent it flying in another direction.
“Ranma!” Sam said in alarm, but was relieved to see the pig tailed girl relatively unharmed. “We need to get you out of here, it completely ignored the rest of us, it wants you!”
No sooner had Sam warned her that several dozens of missiles fired into him, sending him wounded into a tree.
“Mr. Guthrie!” Ranma said looking at her teacher before turning to the robot. “Alright, no more Mr. Nice Guy!”
With a swipe of her arm, the vacuum blade fired and smashed into the robot and sent it flying away.
Not cut in half.
“What the hell?” Ranma muttered, as her vacuum blade was the sharpest attack in her arsenal. Still, at least the machine was knocked back. Grabbing her home room teacher, she slung him over her shoulder and headed back in the direction of the buses.
As she cleared the forest, Ranma saw that her over turned bus was cleared of students. Several of the buses had already driven off already as well, a good move in Ranma's opinion.
“Kid,” Wolverine said in relief after spotting her with Jean's kid and Sam. “Get in the bus quickly, we'll hold it off!”
“Yeah no, that thing is after me, I get on that bus, it's a death sentence,” Ranma pointed out to Wolverine who could only glowered at being defied. “Look it's for the best, here, take Saffron and go, I can travel faster without having to worry about people.”
“Kid...” Wolverine replied, not liking it even as he handed Sam over to Hank to look after. It was then he smelled metal closing in fast. To his surprise, Ranma reacted first and shoved him away with the little bird boy into his arms just as the newest Sentinel cleared the forest and slammed directly into the girl.
Ranma heard Wolverine curse, but now that she was unburdened by the Saffron she could fight. Twisting in the robot arms, she punched it's face with all her strength, only to find that it still maintained a death grip on her. She realized that the robot thing couldn't fly as it land on the ground on top of her. Straining her muscles, she was able to pry the robot arm slightly and enabled her to slip out quickly.
“What the hell do you want from me?” Ranma demanded of the robot, her reply, however, came from an unexpected source.
“To die.” a third voice answered from above them.
Immediately, a condensed ball of fire smashed into the robot and sent it flying away.
Ranma and Wolverine looked up in the sky to see a beautiful, naked, winged mutant slowly hovering down onto the ground. Her eyes on the machine that had just attacked them.
“But I am not going to let it happen.” The winged mutant spoke up as the robot gunned straight for Ranma, only to be met by her.
Ranma was taken a back by the skill the naked girl had shown for a variety of reasons. One, the girl was good, very good, as the machine was being pushed back on every front. Two, the machine didn't seem to have a single dent on it but it was the third thing she realized that made her jaw drop in shock. The girl knew Anything Goes, not just any Anything Goes, she knew the Saotome style.
“Bakusai Tenketsu!” The Winged girl shouted as her fingers touched a part of the robot.
To Ranma’s surprise, the robot’s chassis cracked instead of exploding like normal. Still, it seemed to land a powerful punch to the winged girl, who looked stunned from the hit. Well that was all the incentive Ranma needed to join the fight as she leaped in front of the stunned winged girl and unleashed a full force Amiguriken on the cracked area.
That seem to have done the trick as the robot’s hairline fracture got noticeably larger. The winged girl had recovered and touched the robot’s arm this time making hairline fractures there. Between the winged girl and Ranma, they appeared to have been too much for the robot as it decided to use it’s rocket boost and flew back into the forest. The sound of trees breaking further and further away let them know that they were out of danger, for now.
“Okay, who are you and how did you know the Saotome style?” Ranma turned on the winged girl, who was still naked and giving Ranma a serious look.
“Come with me if you want to live.” The winged girl told the shorter pig tailed girl in a grave tone with her hand outstretched.
There was a moment of silence as pig tailed girl stared at the winged girl’s outstretched hand. It tickled at her memory, something Myst showed her. Her look became confused as she realized exactly where she’d heard that line and seen that body language from before.
Wolverine, who had just remembered that movie also looked at the girl, while Saffron had bit his arms to be released. He ignored it.
“Are you... trying to act out the Terminator scene?” Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.
The winged woman who had up till now looked every inch the warrior bashfully put her hand behind her head in a very familiar style and grinned in embarrassment. “Heh heh heh... sorry.... couldn't resist!”
Wolverine facefaulted, a skill he picked up in Japan, at the woman’s admission.
“Who are you?” Ranma asked looking at the girl. “And why are you naked?!”
“Well... I found out too late that you didn't need to be naked to travel through time...” The winged woman replied, blushing in embarrassment.
“You don't?” Ranma said in surprised. “Well... that's good to know, so you’re from the future, huh?”
The winged woman looked disappointed at Ranma’s comment. “You mean to tell me you are not surprised that I came from the future?”
“Nah,” Ranma waved it off. “We got three of those guys running around.... well, maybe four if you count Nate Grey...”
“Nobody counts Nate Grey.” Wolverine chimed in, feeling a headache growing. Just what he needed, MORE future bullshit. He noticed that the baby bird was still biting down on his hand and tossed the runt unceremoniously to the ground.
“Aww!” The Winged woman suddenly pouted making the remains of the hardened fighter they saw earlier go away. “You suck!”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard that before.” Ranma shrugged as she looked at the woman up and down. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar. “You wouldn't happen to be a descendant of some rich guy name Warren Washington III would you?”
“No way, his lineage sucks,” The winged woman said immediately. “My lineage is a lot more awesome!”
“... and that would be?” Ranma prompted.
The Winged woman coughed politely into her hand and took on a very formal stance before bowing.
“I'm Fyro Grey-Saotome, Sorry about this, Grandpa.”
TBC...
So first off for those that are not familiar with X-Men, Days of the Future Past was a Terminator parody/homage. I am doing the same here and kind of making it into a running joke. Like the Sentinels got the wrong time even though it's suppose to kill Ranma in his infancy. Also Wilson at the beginning is a descendant of Avengers member Falcon.
1. Did the future war comes off okay?
2. Did the beach scene come off okay and the bonding.
3. Got a good image of Fyro?
4. Should I omit the word grandpa at the end there or keep it?
Those are just my pressing concerns. Got any other tweaks you'd recommend or take issue with please lemme know
Funny thing that's what I had originally in my outline by scrapped it. Plots need to move forward.
