Special disclaimer applies. That means that although I'm using other people's characters for my own diabolical purposes, I can claim that they're mine and they can't sue me, based on the fact that I'm a loon. Need evidence? Just keep reading.

Guardian
Chapter 4
And Now we Introduce the Shadowy Guy in a Lab Coat......

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With a barely noticeable click the entire room lit up brightly, instantly blinding anyone who had been accustomed to the pitch blackness of half a second previous.
That only applied to a single person, however, and she just smiled.

Alexandra Tokima, vice president of Wraith Labs Incorporated, slowly walked down the huge, sterilized hallway, lined with hundreds of lab tables, computers, wires, and almost every kind of scanner or diagnostic tool ever devised.
Not to mention the hundreds of glass cylinders. Containing humanoid skeletons with a grotesquely thin layer of skin covering each one.
The bodies just floated in the nutrient water, in perfect hibernation, with the small articulated claws hanging overhead, holding little sacs full of pearly white spheres.

Alex smiled wider. Walking up to one of the tubes with a wide, flat control panel next to it, she pulled up a plastic box covering a switch. Then, typing in an access code known but to a select few, twisted the switch, causing a thousand more lights and machines to come alive.
The claw moved, grasping the plastic sac with two fingers and slicing deep into the chest with the third. Then, cutting open the bag, the spheres were quickly jammed into the slit, with a few more falling out the edges and slowly floating to the bottom of the tube.
Alex's smile never wavered as she walked up to the cylinder. The arm retracted itself, and a red light shone through the glass as indication as electricity and new fluids were pumped into the tank. At the bottom, one could see the small pearly orbs already trembling with life and breaking open, spilling black inky clouds upward.
Within moments the body itself moved. Beginning with the flexing of a finger, the monstrous creature inside soon began struggling inside the tube, futiley seeking release from its glass prison, even as the creatures injected into its body began to writhe, causing its rubbery skin to bulge and swell. It banged on the glass, but its own almost negligable strength, combined with the density of the nutrient fluid, sapped all the force from its strikes. The slugs inside the eggs had already finished hatching, and certain ones had fused to its spinal cord and elongated into slimy tenacles as they broke the surface of the skin.

Most people would have vomited badly at the sight.

Alex's smile only slightly lessened, becoming more somber with a hint of longing, and she brought her hand up to stroke the outside of the tank gently. The monster inside tracked her movements, sensing her body's heat and energy, desperately trying to grab her and suck the life from her body.
Alex slowly kissed two of her fingers, then pressed them tenderly against the glass where the creature's tentacles touched. It seemed to somehow understand the display of affection, and quickly calmed down, opting to simply stare at her through its empty eye sockets.
She sighed. "Soon. Very soon. We will let you go to do as you wish. But you must be patient. A scorpion has to hunt its prey and kill it. A spider traps its prey and gets to watch it struggle as it slowly dies." She was quite certain the monstrosity inside the tube couldn't even hear her, but it had felt right anyway.
Walking over to one of the nearby lab tables, she stuck her hand into an open tank of bluish slime, quick pulling out a large black slug. It immediately started thrashing in her grip, as she was holding it so that it couldn't get a hold of her arm.
She gently stroked the mutant creature, heedless of the danger it represented. This was what she had worked for all these years. These creatures she had created were small, nearly undetectable, and more sophisticated than even a human being. They were lethal too, not to their victims, but to their victim's victims. They turned rational, thinking creatures into mindless killing machines. They were the ultimate terror weapon.
"So beautiful... and this is only the beginning. With your DNA programming, we can make all sorts of little nightmares even more wonderful than you are. With just a few more years..." she whispered to the creature.
"Only you could find beauty in a mutant slug."
Alex didn't even turn around, instead petting the black slimeball a final time before gently dropping it back into its tank.
"I find beauty in power. Those that judge by appearance are fools to be crushed by those that know better, Konta." She turned around to face him, sliding to a sitting position on the table as she did so, giving an excellent view of everything her miniskirt didn't cover. Which was a lot.
The man in the large lab coat didn't even bother to look, instead walking up to the tank holding the creature she had activated. Yoshi Konta was 48 years old, bald, bespectacled, short, and had the complexion of a man that rarely, if ever, left his computer station at work. He was the head scientist at Wraith Labs, at least ever since the last one had "mysteriously" disappeared after Wraith Labs had its chain of crises.
Yoshi observed the Creature in the tank for a moment, then laughed out loud. Tokima raised an eyebrow, and he turned to her suddenly, slapping the control board in good humor.
"Ha ha ha! That's funny coming from you, Alex!"
She smiled seductively. "True beauty comes from power, not looks. But looks don't hurt, either."

Despite her cool demeanor, Alex was totally off-balance, as she usually was when dealing with Yoshi. She never was completely sure what it was about the little geneticist that unnerved her so. Perhaps it was his knowledge, that always seemed to include things that a man of his position shouldn't know. Perhaps it was his genius, powerful enough to decrypt the DNA code necessary for their latest project, and cunning enough to always improve upon her own plans and designs. Perhaps it was his cold logic, that would always take any advantage, no matter what the cost, whether it be money or human lives. What most people thought, and what was probably the truth, though, was that he was the only man that was neither uncomfortable or too comfortable in her presence. Her raw sexuality, which could reduce most men to putty, never even fazed him.

She was still thinking about that when she realized that he had spoken. "What was that Konta?"
The man's smile widened at catching her off guard again, and her face flushed. She hated him, and hated the little games he always liked to play, but she had to admit that he was far more vital to the project than even she was. Besides that, killing him would be like executing Einstein for slurping coffee, and firing him would be sending him into someone else's hands.
"I said, 'the results from the last test are complete'. I've got good news and bad news."
Alex nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Yoshi coughed. "First, the good news: Subect E-777 was released successfully, and completed its mission well beyond projected test parameters. The control and programming functions were flawless, and with additional tests we're planning to move on to the next phase ahead of schedule."
Alex smiled. "Excellent. My superiors will be very glad to hear that. How did the recovery go?"
Yoshi adjusted his glasses, wiping them with his coat. His smile never left his face. "That's the bad news. There was no recovery. E-777 was destroyed after the primary analysis of the testing area."
Alex raised an eyebrow. The return of 777 hadn't been a sure thing, they knew, as the new mutants hardly had the capability to take on even a small heavily armed task force, but the way Konta had mentioned it seemed to imply that there was more to it than that.
Yoshi lead Alex to a small round table in the center of the room, then pushed a button on the edge. A detailed hologram of Shiromir's office complex appeared. The walls and floors quickly disappeared, giving an unobstructed view of the inside of the building.

"Here's what the recording shows. At 10:49 AM subject E-777 was released here via a disguised supply truck."
A small, blinking red light appeared to mark where the test subject had been released.
"From there, 777 made its way up the first two levels, and from there managed to infect the entire complex."
The red light started to move, following the monster's trek through the building. Wherever it went, a large patch of yellow seemed to mark its passage, then independently spread to the surrounding area. The whole time, several blue lights appear marking the subject's victims. Before the yellow patch had spread to the final three floors of the building, Yoshi hit one of the buttons, causing the video to pause.
"At this point, 12:14 PM, a bystander noticed the disturbance and contacted the authorities." Yoshi unpaused the simulation, and the yellow patch finished spreading through the rest of the building. Screens worth of data suddenly appeared on two windows that opened up on either side of the hologram, only to be ignored by the audience.
"The police arrived at 12:17 PM to evaluate the scene. The SWAT team arrived at 12:22 PM."
Alex looked up at him. "So they infiltrated the building and destroyed subject 777. This was not completely unexpected."
Yoshi grinned, then shoved his index finger in her face. "Wrong!" Alex blinked. "The SWAT team never got the order to infiltrate the building, only to lock it down! At exactly 12:39 PM the DAPC arrived on the scene to take over the operation. Two units consisting of two officers each infiltrated the building 3 minutes later at these points here, on the first and third floors."
Alex frowned. "The DAPC? I've never heard of them. But they must be suicidal to try that kind of operation with four men."
"They're the Department of Abnormal Phenomenae Containment. What can I say, this qualified. In any case, whether they're suicidal or not, at 1:02 PM E-777 encountered a disturbance. Unfortunately, since the test had already been completed and the diagnostic equipment was so precise, we have no data on the encounter or the DAPC's progress through the building, but I can tell you that E-777 was destroyed, and the four officers all emerged alive, if not a little queasy."
Alex frowned. "This is rather odd. Nonetheless, casualties and setbacks happen, and this is a rather minor one. What about the aftermath?"
The light from the overhead lamps seemed to glint of Yoshi's glasses in a particularly evil-looking manner before he simply smiled again. "4 Shiromir employees dead. The rest were all wounded, most sporting either bad bruises, minor burns and paralysis, and a few concussions and broken bones here and there. Overall, Shiromir got through this much better than we expected."
Alex's jaw dropped. "Only 4 dead?! But-but how? What happened to the others?"
Yoshi chuckled. "There's more bad news. Apparently our little secret's out. The DAPC called in with information regarding our little parasitic friends, and told everyone how the slugs worked. Apparently they had come upon one of our other tests prior to this incident and picked up one of our subjects. On Sunday they called in all the information they had regarding the slugs, and that made its way to the SWAT teams before they got a chance to mow everyone down. It would seem that they're fairly close to figuring out what's going on.
Alex's entire plan shattered before her eyes. Ideas were ripped apart and thrown away in just seconds, due to one little lucky revelation. Her boss was not going to be pleased. They had predicted that it would be another few phases before any connection between the "zombies" and the harmless black slugs were made.
Trying to reign in her anger and frustration, she focused on Yoshi, who was still grinning like an idiot. "Have they connected it with us at all? How long have you known that they had this information?"
Yoshi leaned up against a glass tube and feigned deep thought. "Oh, all they know about who's involved is that Shiromir Industries has something to do with it. As for your second question, I was informed roughly two minutes after the DA's commanding officer made the phone call Sunday afternoon."
"AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?!?!?!"
Yoshi blinked, then shrugged innocently. "You never asked."
She wanted to kill him. She wanted to kill him so badly. She wanted to see him die painfully and slowly. Anything to rid herself of that sardonic grin!
Yoshi, to his credit, did an excellent job of simply smiling at her reddened face, rather than watching her ample chest heave up and down, a sight which certainly would've attracted any other man's attention.
Eventually Alex was able to calm down, and she fixed Yoshi with a sub-zero glare. "I want detailed reports on this DAPC. Budget, personnel, exploits, history, EVERYTHING."
Yoshi's smile didn't budge as he picked up three huge binders out from under his lab coat. "Fortunately I anticipated your interest. These three files contain past and present personnel, history of the department, and the budget and assets. I certainly hope it's helpful."
Alex's eye twitched ever so slightly as she took the folders. "Thank you Konta." She started to open the folders on a nearby table, when Yoshi coughed.
Looking around quietly, Yoshi leaned in a said slowly. "Not to be a bother, but could you look at those somewhere else? The lab's working hours start soon, and most of my personnel don't need the distraction, if you know what I mean."
Alex picked up the folders, adjusted her miniskirt, and walked out without a single word.

Yoshi watched her go, then looked toward the tube holding the creature she had activated. "Oh yes, Tokima. You're right. Power is beautiful. But who will be the most beautiful after the scars have been set? I think you don't realize just how interesting this could get." Yoshi stared at the monstrosity in the tube for a few moments more. It had reached full growth, with four long, black tentacles bulging from its forearms and shoulders, and with the rest of its body swarming in masses of slugs, both inside and outside its body. Then he laughed.
__________________________________________________________________________________

The shadowy evil people weren't the only ones having a debriefing, however. Several kilometers away, Asuka was giving a final evaluation on the raid on Shiromir.
She took a moment to glare at Ranma some more before activating the projector (she had been glaring at him since he got in that morning, she saw no reason to stop now). A magnified picture of a very familiar black garden pest appeared on the screen.
"This, as you all know, has now been confirmed as the cause of the latest string of 'zombie' attacks. These parasites are small, fairly quick, and above all extremely dangerous. And now they have a name. The guys at the top have code-named these creatures as 'vamps'."
The members of the audience all turned and looked at each other, then shrugged and returned their focus to the screen.
"All right, now hold onto your stomachs..." Asuka hit a button, and the picture on the screen changed to a crudely drawn depiction of the skeletal creature they had encountered.
The reactions varied. Ranma and Kyle grimaced at the reminder of the whole encounter. Sakura flinched and tried not to look at the picture. Tiro fell out of his chair. Snake leaned forward. Junko gagged. Tycho, who was still suspended but was allowed to come to the briefing anyway just stared wide-eyed.
"What the hell is that? You can't tell me that that thing's real!!" Junko's protests were quickly cut off by a look from Asuka.
"This is a new biological unit that seems to work in conjunction with the vamps. Because of its ability to transport and spread hundreds of vamps at a time, these mutants have been code-named 'carriers'. It's estimated that one carrier can spread over 250 vamps and infect an area of roughly 400 square meters, assuming normal population density. Unfortunately, we don't have any more information on the carriers, or even a good picture of one, due to the fact that the only encountered carrier was completely obliterated."
Asuka glared at Ranma meaningfully, and he just rolled his eyes.
Tiro raised a shaking hand. "We're not going to *gulp* have to fight these things, will we?" Asuka sighed. "That remains to be seen. However, if you do encounter a carrier, engage it only with extreme caution, and only with heavy, preferably explosive weaponry."
As predicted, Snake started cheering at the prospect.
Tycho slapped Tiro on the shoulder. "It's alright, man, we can handle it."
Asuka quickly turned towards him, and gestured towards the door. "Wattai, there's nothing more here that you need to know. Your suspension is now in full effect. Go away."
Tycho blinked. "But-" Asuka glared at him, and the driver quickly backed down. Head hanging low in shame, he slowly walked out of the room and out the building.
Junko watched him go, then pouted. "Aw, he looks so sad...... he needs some more therapy!" Blowing a kiss to the others, she quickly walked out of the room after the depressed driver.
Asuka stared at the door way with her mouth hanging open. Snake and Tiro were muttering under their breaths about how lucky he was. Ranma, Kyle, and Sakura were too clueless to know what was going on, so they ignored the whole occurence.
" Th-th-that little tramp! What does she think this is?" Asuka stuttered. Suddenly she realized that the debriefing wasn't over yet, and zipped back around.
"*Ahem* Our recent investigation of Shiromir Industries have turned up nothing. Shiromir claims no knowledge of what's going on or why they seem to be at the middle of it. All known facilities of theirs have been checked. However, this does not completely exclude Shiromir from suspicion. The local authorities are going to be making triple rounds on all Shiromir properties to insure that any more disturbances are acted upon more quickly."
She took another glance around the room, stopping only to glare at Ranma, and nodded once she made sure that she still had everyone's attention. "Look, we may know more about these things than any other department, but we still have no clue where they're coming from. I want you all to be extra careful when on patrol, and if you encounter any more similar disturbances, try to gather as much evidence as possible before blowing anything up!" Ranma rolled his eyes as her cold gaze shifted to him a final time.
"That is all. You're dismissed."
__________________________________________________________________________________

"For the last time, NO, we're not gonna go see a movie. We're on patrol duty!"
Tiro pouted. "But Ranma, patrol is so boring. It's not like anything's gonna happen that we'll have to take care of. They've got real police around here too, ya know!"
Ranma growled slightly at the reminder of the reputation of the department, and therefore himself. "Listen to me: Forget about it!"
Tiro sighed wearily and returned his focus to the road ahead of them. "What about the arcade down the street? I'll play you a quick game of Time Crisis."
"No!"
"The college! Why don't we go scout around there, pick up some dates for next friday? It's an all-girl college..."
"NO!!"
"Donut shop? Their cinnamon/maple twists are excellent!"
"No--Wait, donuts? ............ Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to just pick up a few......"
Snickering to himself, Tiro made a quick U-turn and headed off their patrol path.

"Say, Saotome, why don't you drive after we get there? I'm getting pretty tired of this."
Ranma leveled a stare at him before returning his eyes to the sidewalk. "I don't have a license."
Tiro blinked. "Seriously? You don't? Why not?"
Ranma shrugged. "Why would I need one?"
Tiro quickly turned his eyes to the road in time to avoid running into a taxi, then turned back to Ranma. "Well... you know... as transportation! How do you get to work without a car? Do you take the subway?"
Ranma was about to shake his head no, but then stopped to think about it. How do you explain to a totally normal person that you preferred to jump from rooftop to rooftop to get anywhere more than 100 meters away?
"............................. I manage."
Tiro apparently accepted this explanation, then started humming a random tune to himself.
Eventually he thought of something else to talk about, and turned back to Ranma. "So, are you and Sakura dating? Or are you *ahem* more intimate than that? Eh? Eh? Wink wink nudge nudge?"
Ranma stared at him like he had grown another head. "No, we're not."
Tiro sighed in exasperation. "C'mon man, you've got to hurry up and make your move! You're living in her house! As a friend, I can't let you waste an opportunity this perfect!"
Ranma continued to stare at him. "Now, remind me for a moment, what exactly did I say I'd do to you if you brought this up again?"
Tiro bigsweated. "Uh... well, you see..."
"Pull over."
Tiro gulped as he heard the hard seriousness of the command, and thought that he was really going to get beat up, until he realized that Ranma wasn't even looking at him anymore. Curious as to what was going on, he quickly cut across to the sidewalk and put the squad car in park.
Tiro stared at Ranma worriedly. The martial artist was obviously troubled by something, but everything looked okay to him. "What's the matter? You feel a disturbance in the force?"
Ranma sighed and looked back at him. "Knock it off, will ya?" Ranma looked back out the window of the car. "Something's not right here."

Tiro leaned over Ranma's lap to get a look outside. They had stopped right in front of a small, independently run bank. The people outside were acting completely normal, and peering inside, there was nothing unnatural going on in the bank either.
"I don't know. Everything looks fine here. C'mon, the donut shop's just ahead." Tiro moved to get back into the driver's seat, but Ranma grabbed his shoulder.
"No. Something's wrong. Follow me."
Ranma got out of the car, followed by a befuddled Tiro. Looking around, the only thing that seemed even remotely out of place was a man next to the bank reading a newspaper in such a way that it hid his face.

Ranma gave a short flick into a page of the paper to get his attention. The man lowered the paper enough to see who it was and gasped.
Most people would say that Ranma couldn't read people worth a wooden nickel, but even he could tell that the man was panicking badly from seeing him. The poor fellow was sweating, struggling to speak, and was even trembling slightly. He wondered why. Quickly going through his memory, he couldn't manage to recall seeing him before.
There was an almost inaudible *click* followed by the man's stuttering "H-h-hello off... off... officer!"
Tiro hadn't heard the soft noise, but Ranma did. Ranma tore away the newspaper, and the man gave off a squeak of fear as the walkie-talkie he had been hiding was exposed.
Tiro's eyes narrowed as he began to catch on that something was up. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Tiro snatched away the object, and the man shrunk back even more. "Looks like a plain, two-way walkie talkie... and it's off."
The man blinked. "Off?" Then he gave off a cry of frustration and started banging his head against the wall. "Stupid, stupid, STUPID!!! The damn thing was already on and I turned it off!"
Ranma and Tiro sweatdropped. "Um, excuse me, but-"

*KABOOOOOOM!!!!!!*

The explosion nearly shook the ground with sheer force, and all the windows of the nearby building shattered from the blast. Tiro was held up before he hit the ground, though the man tumbled away and banged into a telephone pole.
He looked up to see the bank practically collapsing in on itself, the roof swathed with flames and the interior a ruin. Looking next to him, he saw that Ranma was holding him up by his arm, having somehow withstood the explosion easily.
Tiro had no idea what to do. He simply looked up at Ranma, who stared coldly into the flaming interior of the bank, hoping against hope that he would somehow know what to do.
Ranma looked down at Tiro, then pulled him up the rest of the way. "I'm going in to find any survivors and get whoever did this. You call for backup, then get your gun." He started to leave, when Tiro grabbed his arm.
"Are you crazy? You're just gonna stroll in there?"
Ranma blinked. "Yes."
"And what am I supposed to do after I get my gun?!"
Ranma shrugged. "I don't know. Find somebody to point it at, I guess." With that he quickly picked up his rail gun from the interior of the car before running into the bank.
Tiro watched helplessly as the pigtailed man started hauling the injured and dead bodies out, two at a time, at an alarming pace. Then he sighed and retrieved his gun from inside the car and slipped it into its holster. "Sheesh. Over 200 violent crimes in Tokyo every single day, and I just happen to be at the one that involves explosives."
Then, kicking the unconscious man to make sure he was out cold, Tiro got back into the car and pulled out the radio.

Ranma sweated heavily as he waded once more into the burning remains of the building. He had to hand it to the people that made the uniform he was wearing, for they had made it well. He already been directly exposed to several gouts of flame and the stuff had yet to burn away completely or even catch fire.
He stopped at the receptionists' desk and looked through the shattered sections of wood and plastic.
Bodies were lying everywhere, having been closest to the explosion. Not a single one survived. Ranma merely looked at them as he passed, but he was beyond cold rage now. He was going to find whoever did this, and... and...... well, he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do, but it would involve a lot of pain and probably some humiliation, followed by a nice long jail sentence courtesy of the legal system.
Ranma stopped suddenly as he heard scraping noises from behind the wall. Looking to the safe, Ranma saw that explosives must have been placed outside the safe on the banker's side, though how they had gotten there he didn't know. The safe door was still on its hinges, and the extremely heavy and thick metal had apparently protected most of, if not everything, that was inside.
Ranma gave a grunt as he walked up to the safe door, then pulled the thing off its hinges, tossing it aside further into the interior.

The men inside were caught completely off guard. Ranma had ample time to take in their appearance and the situation before they gathered enough wit to respond to the intrusion.
Five men were dressed in full-body wool suits, plust masks and gloves, probably so as not to leave any DNA evidence behind. All they carried were sacks, in which they were stashing money as quickly as possible. At least until he had come in. Behind them was a large hole with burn marks around it. Ranma figured they must have used explosives on the other side too, then detonated them both at the same time. Beyond the hole were three men in sleeveless body armor carrying large machine guns. The last thing he noticed before taking his gun out of the sheath strapped to his back was that each of the gunmen had a tattoo with a cobra coiled around a length of barbed wire.
One of the men grabbing the money broke out of his stupor. "Aw, man! Telos was supposed to warn us if the cops came around!"
Another one gulped and started to back away fearfully. "Did... did he just rip the door off the safe?"
One of the gunmen quickly shoved that one aside and took aim. "No you moron, he just opened the door and it fell off due to the explosion." He turned to Ranma and grinned contemptuously as his finger settled on the trigger. "And as for you, you're gonna wish you had just turned around and walked away."
*Thoom!*
Reflexively, the thug pulled the trigger as soon as he heard the sound of the shot going his way, theoretically sending a hail of bullets right toward Ranma.
In practice, it's hard to fire a weapon that's been blasted in two by a metal rod propelled at a speed way faster than the average simpleton's reflexes.
Ranma didn't smile, didn't smirk, didn't grimace. "You're all under arrest for assault, destruction of private property, first degree murder, and whatever else I can find afterwards. You have the right to remain silent. Please, give me an excuse to shoot you."
Several audible gulps could be heard, and the other gunmen quickly pulled themselves to the sides of the hole in back of the building, then started pouring gunfire in while exposing them to as little return fire as possible.
The men inside the safe scattered; Ranma simply jumped to one side and narrowed his eyes. These guys weren't your normal, everyday criminals. They were fighting intellingently (well, not the first one. The others did, though)... which meant they might know when to quit, too.

Outside the bank, the three gunmen were still laying down cover fire so that their companions could crawl out of the building and escape, when several loud shots rang out from inside.
*Thoom!* *Blam*
*Thoom!* *Blam*
*Thoom!* *Blam*
*Thoom!* *Blam*
The henchmen stopped firing as they watched the electro-magnetically propelled rails easily punch through the thick, hardened metal of the safe wall, and come through the other side to impact the nearby buildings or whatever happened to be in their way.
Though none of the shots had come even close to hitting them, that could have meant one of two things: he's a lousy shot, or he was trying to hint that there wasn't a piece of cover within 50 kilometers which could possibly hope to protect them from his weapon of choice.
Considering what he had done to the first guy's gun, they opted for choice # 2.
Evacuating the last of their people, they quickly put as much distance between themselves and the bank. The leader of the gang slipped a detonator from his pocket. Flipping a switch on the side, he then pushed the single button on the device, which sent off two more explosives on either side of the building.
The structure gave a final groan of protest before it collapsed totally, burying everyone in it at the time.

The men had just started congratulating each other on a job well done, and were gathering into their escape van, when there was a blinding flash of blue light, and debris rained down on top of them.
Ranma, in his tattered but still intact uniform, stood atop the rubble, taking aim with his rail gun.
Two shots later, their escape vehicle's back left wheel was completely destroyed.
The thugs were about to return fire when another voice rang out from off to the side.
"All right, drop your weapons!" Tiro aimed his gun at the nearest criminal and waited.
The criminals looked back and forth, then decided that it was too risky to shoot it out. Three of them dived into the disabled van and tried to move it anyway, while the others, including all those presently armed, made a break for it behind the van and off into an alleyway.
Ranma blinked as the van clumsily tried to make its way to the street, then sighed and took aim with his rail gun again. "Don't these jerks know when to just give up and take a jail sentence?"
*Thoom!* *Boom!*
Their other wheel snapped off its axis and rolled away, while the entire back of the van scraped on the ground as it collided with a nearby dumpster, losing the last of its momentum.

Tiro nodded. "Nice shot."
Ranma grimaced. "We'd better hurry up and get those other guys... huh? What's that?"
They both looked off into the alley that the thugs had retreated to, hearing automatic gunfire.
There were a few more bursts, then some screams.
More screams.
One man rushed out of the alley as fast as he could, tripping in the process and starting to crawl away.
Another one came out, this one armed, and was still firing into the alley way.
What was interesting, though, was that both men had several vamps attached to them.
Ranma covered his face in his hands. "Aw man, why now?"
Tiro blinked. "Are those...?"
Ranma nodded and trudged forward. "Yeah, and judging by how many of them there are, there must be a carrier back there." He sighed forlornly. "Well, we better go kill it."
Tiro was about to say something else when he saw it staggering out of the alley. The carrier looked more or less how it was described to him, except the many bullet holes oozing black slime gave an extra-ghoulish effect.
"HOLY JESUS!!! Is that thing for real?!"
Ranma simply nodded and brought out a spare rail cartridge.
*Ch-chunk*
Fully armed, he kicked away the man that was still crawling away from the fiend, then advanced towards it.
The carrier focused on the only man presently shooting at him, the last armed criminal, and threw an arm out, causing a tentacle to whip around and slap away the gun. A second black tentacle slipped around his ankles, then tossed him away.
*Thoom!*
The creature refocused his attention as one of his arm joints were blown clear through, and saw Ranma taking careful aim a few meters away. It raised a tentacle to retaliate.
*Thoom!*
That tentacle was soon removed, along with the rest of his other arm.
*Thoom!*
The carrier fell onto the ground as its leg was blown away at the knee.
*Thoom!*
Its other leg was gone......
*Thoom!* *Thoom!* *Thoom!*
Its head was reduced to blackened shreds of flesh, bone, and dark mucus as the rails tore it apart and embedded it into the ground.

Ranma sighed. The thing was still moving, albeit slightly. He slipped the rail gun back into its holster on his back, then turned around to find Tiro emptying his stomach into a nearby garbage can. Ranma politely waited for him to finish.
Tiro groaned as he walked back to the battlefield. He looked at the dismembered corpse lying in a puddle of black slime, with several vamps crawling away from the dead body.
He snorted. "I was under the impression they were harder to kill than that."
Ranma gave him a look. "It's not totally dead, you know. Look, it's still twitching."
"AAAAH!!"
Ranma sighed as Tiro jumped into his arms in terror.
"What are you waiting for?! Finish it off!"
Ranma rolled his eyes. "Sorry, can't. Captain's orders." He dropped Tiro on the ground, then headed toward the alleyway. "Would you mind getting the vamps off those two guys? I have to take care of these fellas before they 'zombify'...... say, have any other police arrived?"
Tiro nodded as he absenly slapped away a slug trying to crawl up his boot. "Yeah, a few units came just before I got here."
Ranma nodded in approval. "Good. They can handle the guys in the van. We'd better get to work."
__________________________________________________________________________________

"And then we opened fire on the thing and blew it apart! Blood was everywhere! I swear, you guys should have seen it!" Most of the group listened anxiously as Tiro related their tale of horror to their co-workers.
Ranma sighed. "As I recall, I did the shooting while you were... busy elsewhere."
Tiro laughed nervously. "Uh... true, true, but I was ready to back you up!"
Snake looked at Tiro. "Was the one you saw as ugly as the one the captain drew?"
Tiro nearly gagged. "It was worse. Much worse! Long, thick tentacles, slimy pores oozing with black goo, vamps everywhere, and jagged spikes covering-"
"No jagged spikes." Ranma interrupted calmly.
"Er... well, yeah, no spikes. But it was huge! At least 10 feet tall with the body of a wrestler!"
"It was 5 foot 6 and thin as the rails I was shooting at it." Ranma took a sip of soda pop, then relaxed more deeply into the large leather chair.
Tiro glared at him. "You know, you really know how to ruin a story."
Sakura leaned Ranma's chair back slightly so that she could peek over it from behind. "So what happened when you faced the robbers? Didn't they have guns?"
Everyone turned to Ranma. He just shrugged. "Eh, a few of them did. Nothing much happened, except they tried to bring down the building on top of me."
His audience was about to try to pry for more details when Asuka yelled out. "Quiet! The news report is starting!"

Everyone in the room focused their attention on the large television screen that was suspended from the ceiling.
Asuka beamed. He had had her doubts about Saotome, but he had pulled through. Their exploits at the Shiromir infiltration had been lost in the confusion of an entire office building being attacked by mutants, but this time they would net all the glory. 'Finally, the DAPC will get some good publicity! And then maybe some good officers to replace these jerks I have to deal with!'
*-In other news, today an attempted robbery occured at 4:20 PM at the Nyamutsu 1st National Bank. Several explosives were placed both on the inside and outside of the bank, detonated remotely from a safe area outside. Several lives were lost as the interior explosive went off, which served as a distraction as the crooks looted the safe after another explosion created an entrance near the back of the structure.*
*Luckily, police forces arrived on the scene and stopped the criminals, while also managing to rescue those that had survived the blast.*
Tiro blinked. "Police forces? Just 'police forces'?"
"Say the name......" Asuka muttered softly.
*The criminals were all part of a recently identified radical terrorist group called 'Freedom's Angels', a group which seeks to overthrow the Japanese government in favor of a complete anarchy. The gang members can be identified by their mandatory tatoo, which is a cobra coiled around a piece of barbed wire.*
Ranma blinked. "Yeah... that's the tattoo I saw on all the guys without sleeves..."
"When are they going to get to how we heroically saved the day?" Tiro complained.
Kyle scratched his head. "I'd like to hear about the fight with the carrier. When do they get to that?"
"Quiet!" Asuka turned up the volume slightly.
*And now, we have an interview with today's hero!*
Tiro glanced at Ranma. "They interviewed you?"
Ranma pointed to himself. "Me? No."
The news anchor walked up to a man with long, dark hair and put a hand on his shoulder.
*Mr. Toryama Nakeeguchi saved a young girl's life today, administering CPR quickly when she suddenly stopped breathing from shock.*
*THUD!* Everyone in the room hit the ground face first.
*"It was my duty as a police officer to help her. The medics hadn't arrived yet, so I was the only one that could administer CPR in time."*
The officers of the DAPC slowly dragged themselves off the ground...
*And now we have a short meeting with the victim.*
The camera panned around to a young woman whose arms were lightly burned, along with an abrasion along her leg. She was crying softly as the medics tended her wounds.
*"It was horrible... he was so brave... I could have DIED if he hadn't been there!"*
"You WOULD'VE died if we hadn't been there!!" Tiro's yelling at the TV was, predictably, ineffectual.
*And there you have it! Officer Nakeeguchi will be recieving a medal later today to award his efforts, as well as a promotion. Now for the weather...*
Asuka looked up at the TV passively. Then she slipped her gun from its holster and flipped off the safety.
"Uh oh..."
"She's gone postal!"
"Take cover!"
*Blam* *Blam* *Blam*
The TV was totally wasted as the bullets tore through the many necessary components for it to function properly. Asuka lowered her gun, then flipped the safety back on and holstered it.
The others peeked up from behind their various cover. All except Ranma, who hadn't moved from his chair.
Kyle scratched his head as he stood up again. "Hmmm... they didn't mention the carrier at all."
Snake got up to, but was more careful to distance himself from his Captain. "Yeah, but that's politics. They don't want to frighten people by saying that there're mutants running around out of control."
Asuka stared passively at the remains of the TV. "Those bastards... they did that on purpose. Didn't want us to gain any publicity." She turned around to address the others in the room, who gulped and stepped back. "You can all go home."
Then she walked out.

There was a moment of silence.........
"Ya know something?" Tiro ventured.
Ranma looked up at him. "What?"
"She's kinda cute when she's angry!"
*THUD!* Another group facefault.

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

End Chapter 3