Let's see now... Ranma doesn't belong to me, neither does Resident Evil's T virus. That's about it... crud, was that a spoiler right there? I hope not...

Guardian
Chapter 7
Pathway to Hell

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

"I'm telling you, it 'aint natural. Things like this don't just happen." The construction worker scratched behind his ear in irritation as he regarded the steel subway tracks, which had somehow been twisted apart and torn badly.
His companion shook his head, and fingered the acetylene torch in his hand.
"It doesn't matter whether it's natural or not, we're here to fix it. It's just a lucky thing they caught it in time. Otherwise we'd have a REAL mess on our hands." The worker put his mask down, and brought the torch to the tracks, causing a bright shower of sparks.
The first worker mumbled to himself, and sat down tiredly, looking around at the dark, cavernous tunnel of the subway. "Still, I'm just wondering what could've caused it, ya know?" He turned his head away, and frowned into the darkness that marked where the subway lines intersected the sewer lines.
"I don't know, I think there may be something around here, you know? I know it sounds funny, but..."
*Shlick!*
The man's head jerked back towards his companion at the noise, and he gasped in surprise.
*Thump* The other worker's body fell forward onto the tracks, splattered with blood originating from where his back had been cut deeply. His acetylene torch fell off to the side, and the hissing flame began to recede as pressure was relieved from the trigger.
"Syeeeeee!" The angry, snake-like hiss was met with terrified and panicked screams, both of which faded away into the darkness, drowned beneath 200 feet of rock and concrete.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Snake grinned as he got out of the driver's side of the car, totally contrasting Ranma's weary expression as he left the passenger's side. Rubbing his hands together in delight, the lieutenant moved to the trunk of the police car, and opened it up.
Ranma had started moving towards the car that they had pulled over ahead of them, when he realized that Snake was pulling something heavy from the trunk of the car.
"And what," Ranma asked deadpanned, "is that?"
Snake grinned fiercely and lifted the heavy weapon, which resembled an oversized leaf blower with an enlarged metal tube running out of it.
"THIS, my friend, is a handheld 80 mm. cannon, complete with armor-piercing munitions. This is essentially a scaled-down tank gun. You've got your armor-piercing, of course, and a highly explosive shell with a timed detonation. The actually penetration probably isn't as good as that rail gun, and the rate of fire is pretty bad, but I've modified it so that heat is no longer a problem. Perfect for drawn out battles or some quick mayhem."
Ranma sweatdropped. "Would you put that thing away? All she did was run a red light! Geez!"
Ranma turned and once again walked toward the stopped car, as Snake grumbled to himself and put his weapon back.

"Hey there. License and registration please?" The teenage girl inside swallowed nervously, and handed over the requested items. Ranma pretended to look them over, not really sure why he was supposed to ask for them in the first place, before handing them back to the girl.
"So what's the deal? You ran a red light back at that last intersection."
The girl blinked, then laughed nervously. "Oh! That was a red light? I didn't see it!" She leaned back a bit in her seat, trying to afford Ranma a better view of her cleavage, and smiled warmly at him.
Ranma shook his head. "Seemed clear enough to me." He took out a pad of paper and a pen, and then nearly dropped both items when the girl gasped softly.
"You-You're not going to write me a ticket, are you?"
Ranma stuttered helplessly as tears started brimming around the girl's eyes. "Well, I mean, it-it's not a big deal, it's just-"
The girl burst into tears on her steering wheel, making sure to keep Ranma in the corner of her eye to gauge his reaction. "But you just can't! *Sob* If my parents find out I got a ticket, they'll never let me go out again!"
Ranma twitched slightly as the girl continued sobbing. He knew he was probably being played for a sucker, but he just couldn't stand to see a girl cry.
He was just about to apologize and tell her to forget the entire thing, when Snake grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.
"Out of my way, you pitiful excuse for an officer." Shaking his head sadly, he put one arm over the top of the car, and fished a baseball-sized sphere out of his pocket. Ranma blinked, and watched quizzically as the girl raised her head in confusion, tears still streaming from her eyes.
"Do you know what this is, miss?" Snake asked the girl casually, tossing the sphere into the air and catching it on its way back down. Predictably, she shook her head no.
Snake smirked, then shoved the ball almost into the girl's face, causing her to flinch back.
"This metal sphere is an LX-320 incendiary device. I prefer to call it a 'slag grenade'. You see, this thing contains hard-packed aluminum powder, mixed liberally with ferrous oxide, or common rust, along with a small, but powerful ignition charge, all surrounding a small, ordinary explosive in the inner core. You see, when aluminum is combined with ferrous oxide under high temperature, it undergoes a unique chemical reaction that creates two products: regular iron, and aluminum oxide. It also releases the most heat of any non-nuclear chemical reaction known to modern science. So, if I were to, say, drop this in your engine block, you would quite literally have boiling-hot molten iron splattered all over your car, which would reduce it to little more than scrap in moments when it reaches the fuel line."
Snake's smirk warmed considerably as he noted that most of the color had drained from the teenage girl's face.
"So, what I'm trying to say is, getting you grounded is hardly the worst we could do. So give the whole crying gig a rest, would you?"
She nodded mutely, eyes wide as dinner plates.
Snake didn't waste any time in writing out a ticket, and casually dropped it into the car.
"By the way, didn't I see you on the news?" Snake leaned in a bit, inspecting her face.
Even though she was trembling slightly, she didn't stutter as she replied. "Yes, I was in the bank explosion back a while ago. Nakeeguchi saved me..."
Snake nodded, smiling. "I thought so. Drive safely now!" He backed off from the window, then walked casually back to the squad car, slapping the back of the girl's vehicle as if to drive it off.
Ranma didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified.
Ranma followed Snake back to the squad car, ignoring Snake's "victim" as she accelerated away. Getting in, he turned to ask the lieutenant a question regarding his usual treatment of traffic violators.
*Boom!!* The explosion that came from down the road proved to be a more important matter, and when Ranma's head whipped around to face forward again, he was treated to the sight of watching the back bumper of the teenager's car go flying up into the air, as well as several pieces of shrapnel and other miscellaneous items.
"What the hell was THAT?!" Ranma stared forward blankly, then lurched forward as Snake backed up, then made a U-turn to head away from the blast site.
"Oh, just a little pressure explosive. Concussion blast only, don't worry. She'll be fine." Snake turned on the radio, and started whistling along with the American country music.
Ranma stared at him. "This probably sounds like a stupid question, but why did you plant an explosive on her car?"
Snake shrugged. "Spite."
Ranma groaned in response and leaned back against the seat.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Alex smiled licentiously at the man walking cautiously into her office, getting up from her seat as she offered him another in front of her desk with a wave of her hand.
The man had sandy blonde hair, was just under six feet tall, and heavily muscled. He was wearing a white tank top underneath a black nylon jacket, as well as camouflage-patched army pants and a pair of narrow shades.
Alex nodded to Bei, who smiled back and closed the door behind their guest. He flinched a bit and glanced behind him, then turned back to Alex.
"Won't you sit down?" She purred, "Come, make yourself at home."
The man took off his sunglasses, and stared at her skeptically. "How about not. I'm here for business, not pleasure. Give me my assignment, and I'll be on my way." His voice was thick with a German accent, though his Japanese was still just as fluent as any native.
Alex winked at Bei, who walked up closely behind the large man, pushing him slightly toward the offered seat. When he refused to budge, but rather turned and glared at her assistant, Alex's smile lessened a bit.
"Haven't you ever heard that all work and no play makes Wolf a dull boy?" Alexandra laughed melodiously as she pushed herself up onto her desk, sitting in position that afforded the man with a very generous view of her legs.
Calvin Asmodeus wasn't fooled for a moment. He had spent most of his life working for people like this, and he knew a spider when he saw one, no matter how pretty it looked. And Alexandra was pure venom.
"I didn't come here to play. I'm a fighter, not a gigolo. If you need someone killed or beaten, then you can call me for another meeting. Otherwise, there are escort services for that sort of thing." He turned around to leave.
"Stop." The seductive velvet was gone from her voice. "If you're going to be that way, fine. Your target is Ranma Saotome. Here is all the information we have available on him." Calvin Asmodeus, known to just about everyone who knew him and still lived simply as "Wolf", turned back around and took the folder without comment.
Alex stared at him with a certain mixture of respect and irritation as he looked over the files.
"Hmmmm... he doesn't seem too tough." Alex suppressed a laugh. Wolf was not aware of what Ranma was capable of; Saotome's profile didn't detail his physical abilities too much. On the other hand, it may not even have mattered; she had chosen Wolf in particular because of his own reputation as far as superhuman abilities. He was the best assassin/thug available, or at least the best one that was available for just any client with enough money.
Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Why's his marital status blank?"
"For a very good reason," Alex deadpanned. "You have your information. I'll expect him dead by tomorrow. If not-"
"I don't get paid," Wolf interrupted, turning around to exit the office. "I know how it works. I just hope this guy is worth my time." The German fighter left the room, hastily shutting the door behind him.

Alex stared at the door for a little bit, then shrugged her shoulders and walked back around her desk to take her seat. "Oh well. Maybe he'll be a little less uptight next time." She took out a bottle from under her desk and poured some of its contents into a small glass.
Bei watched in fascination as she watched annoyance flash on her mistress's face. She thought it rather interesting that she criticized men in general as being easy to manipulate and obsessed with sex, and yet was frequently annoyed (or downright angry) whenever she dealt with one that didn't fit her derogatory stereotype.
Alex took a sip of the liquor, then looked down at a manila folder on her desk. "Hmmm? What's this?"
Bei coughed into her fist. "That's a report from Konta's labs. I brought it in right before Wolf showed up for the meeting. I... um... thought you might be interested in it..."
Alex blinked, then shrugged and flipped the folder open. She lifted the glass of scotch to her lips as her eyes scanned the first page.
*Pppphttt!* *Cough!* *Hack!* *Cough!*
Bei winced as the hard liquor sprayed amongst the fine-polished hardwood desk.
Alex stared hard at the page before her, then snatched it up and held it aloft, as if better lighting might change what she saw on the page.
"What IS this?!" She shouted, then turned toward Bei. "Well? What the hell is this?!"
Bei flinched back, then swallowed nervously. "That would be Yoshi's newest creation as an extension of Project Mobius."
Alex growled at her dangerously, and Bei began to back away. "And WHO authorized him to create a whole different strain of mutants? And WHO gave him permission to begin testing..." Alex looked down at the paper, and her eyes bulged. "YESTERDAY?!?!"
Bei bigsweated heavily. "Um... well, no one, really."
The newly promoted president of Wraith Labs trembled as she looked down at the papers. "How did he do this?! It took us 8 months of testing and research to generate the genetic printouts for the T and E series mutations, and two more months to create them! HOW did Konta create a totally different strain in 3 DAYS?!?!"
Bei now had her back pressed against the far wall, and was slowly inching toward the door. "It wo-would ap-appear that the Luceed Module has s-significantly speeded up the process. This strain also utilizes the T virus that was replicated from Umbrella Corporation's genetic printouts..."
Alex appeared to calm down a bit, and looked Bei straight in the eyes, which froze her movement to the exit.
"So you're telling me... that right in the middle of a very vital project, Konta decided to change our development process, utilize unknown agents, introduce untested technology into the middle of our carefully laid plans, create an entirely new life form, and then release it into the middle of Tokyo, just like that?"
Bei nodded carefully. "Yeah... he's kind of whimsical like that..."
"WELL, WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?!?!?!" Bei fell down against the wall in surprise and cowered on the ground as she replied.
"We didn't know! Nobody had any idea what was going on except the scientists, and we've already put significant resources into getting them to keep quiet about their work! Nobody knew anything had changed until Yoshi had the first group of prototypes released to the test area yesterday, and he submitted the report just this morning! We were ordered not to bother the scientists!"
Alex softened slightly as she saw her second-in-command cowering on the ground. "Yes. Yes, I'm sorry Bei. Get up." She sighed wearily. "This isn't your fault at all."
The busty young woman watched curiously as her employer/mistress pushed her drink aside, and her eyes widened as Alex reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a 9 mm. handgun.
"Now, why don't you get Yoshi for me? We have to have a little 'chat'."
__________________________________________________________________________________

"So... what is it?" Ranma stared down at the cage of wire mesh in a sort of disgusted fascination.
Tiro poked at the side of the cage with his finger, and had the satisfaction of seeing the creature inside turn to glare at him. "Is it some sort of mutant jello mold?"
Kyle observed it from a distance, nodding occasionally as if making speculations about the life form within the cage.
Seras grinned and tapped the cage with a half-empty bottle of vodka. "I found this little fellow in a blackened crater near the coast. Funny looking, 'aint he?"
Sakura nodded, then pointed to the small red blob glaring around at those who surrounded it. "Why is his mouth stuffed with cotton?"
Yamma's gangly form walked up behind the cage, and he set an arm atop it. "We put it in to muffle the sound. It wouldn't shut up otherwise."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "It TALKS? Man, that's weird."
Seras nodded again. "Calls itself 'PQ'. I was thinking of keeping it, but it won't stop talking. Plus it called me ugly." The DA's medical officer frowned a bit, then chugged down the remaining contents of the bottle he held. "I was thinking I'll just subject it to a few cruel and needlessly painful experiments until it dies."
The little blob's eyes widened, and it started shaking in panic, more so when many of those surrounding the cage nodded in agreement.
"Oh! But it's so cute!" Sakura gushed, and poked at the wire mesh.
Seras snorted. "Just stick around long enough for him to spit the cotton out," he deadpanned.
*Ahem!*
All of those present turned at the sound of Asuka clearing her throat.
Asuka gazed over the assembled group cooly. "We've got an assignment. It's just in, so let's get a move on!"
__________________________________________________________________________________

"So what is it this time? Carriers? A vamp assault?" Tiro entered the meeting room wearily, followed by the police captain and the rest of the assembled officers.
Asuka ignored him and stopped at a table near the entrance to the room, rather than move on to the projector.
"We've got a problem. As of yesterday, 0900 hours-"
"That means 9 AM," Junko whispered to Kyle and Sakura, who nodded quickly.
"-Tokyo subway line 71 experienced a breakdown in its track system, and is presently unable to continue operations until its railway is repaired. Unfortunately, every repair crew that has been sent down to find and fix the problem has disappeared without a trace. The few investigators who have inspected the site have either likewise disappeared, or found nothing but some blood and discarded equipment. Due to a loophole in our investigative policies, this falls under our jurisdiction."
Asuka took a deep breath, then pointed to the large map of subway systems and sewers spread out on the table. "This is the area where the workers have been disappearing. We think that whatever it is that's taking them, assuming it's a 'thing', came from the sewers that intersect the subway system here." She pointed to an obvious intersection, only a little ways off from the large 'X' that marked the subway disruption.
Sakura shivered. "So, we're going down into the sewers? What do you think is down there?"
Tycho shook his head. "Rats, roaches, spiders, crocodiles, human excrement... what?" Tycho wilted a bit as everyone present glared at him.
Asuka rolled up the map. "We currently don't know what's causing the disappearances, but given the recent outbreak of mutant attacks, we can guess. Snake is already above the mission area, making preparations. We're going to have to protect Sera while he analyzes the site and takes samples, and after he's safe, then we'll have to purge the area of any obvious disturbances. Understood?"
Kyle blinked. "No."
"Anyone else?" Asuka asked, exasperated. Nobody answered.
"All right, let's go!"
__________________________________________________________________________________

Junko made a disgusted noise as she looked at the section of the street walled off with police tape.
"I can't believe we're actually going into the sewers. This is SO gross."
"Why do you think it falls under our jurisdiction?" Asuka asked, annoyed. "I would've preferred to let the regulars take care of this one, myself."
Ranma, Tycho, Tiro, Seras, and Kyle had already arrived, and Snake was already arming them as the women walked up to the Rhino transport and its ample munitions load.
Snake nodded at the police captain, and addressed all the officers. "Considering the chances of encountering vamps or carriers during the purging stage, I've selected our armaments accordingly. Given that single-shot weaponry seems mostly ineffective against carriers, I'm issuing flamers and the 10 mm. pulse rifles. Fire weaponry should be effective in destroying the carriers quickly at short range, and the pulse rifles have a high enough rate of fire to literally tear them apart. I've also got a few bolter stun guns for vamps."
Tiro glanced at the bulky pulse rifle as he picked it up out of the small pile. "I thought these were 35 mm."
Snake glanced back at him as he handed Sakura and Junko bolters. "The R&D weapon laboratories remodeled them. Cut down on the bullet size for increased ammo capacity and a higher ROF." Snake shrugged.
Ranma slipped on a double-tank backpack, and picked up the bulky flamethrower. It looked sort of like a handheld vacuum cleaner with a megaphone mouth to him, but if Snake had gotten his hands on it, Ranma didn't doubt its destructive potential.
Snake pulled up his own backpack of tank fuel, and pulled back a lever on the side of his flamer, starting up the internal motors and prompting Ranma to do the same with his own weapon.
The DA's weapon's expert lifting his flamer into the air proudly. "Are we ready to rock?!"
"No!" Called Kyle, "Seras passed out in a puddle of his own vomit next to his car!"
Snake lowered his flamer slowly.
"Okay, he's coming out of it!" Kyle dragged the drunken scientist into the circle of the police tape, ignoring the man's requests to make the street stop its constant circular motions.
"Well, that kind of ruined the mood," Snake grumbled, before turning towards the open manhole.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma found himself fairly bored as he led the way into the darkened tunnels of the subway system, and began to reflect upon his life as he continued his trek deeper into the man-made cavern. He found it wholly appropriate that this made him more depressed, as he neared the site of the disappearances.
Seras's flashlight beam cast a small, eerie gaze on small portions of the wall at once, if anything heightening the tension until the other officers had descended into the tunnel and turned on their own lights.
"Well, here's one place I never figured I'd end up," Tiro remarked briskly as he walked past Ranma and peered his light down the tunnel. "If I'd wanted to work in the sewers, I'd have taken my ex-girlfriend's advice and flushed myself down the toilet."
The others ignored him, and Seras lit up an electric lantern, casting enough light to surround the entire group.
Snake pulled up the rear. "All right, I've already set some cordex charges all around this tunnel, as well as loaded an old subway car far down on the tracks with high explosives."
Asuka whirled around and shined her flashlight in his eyes. "What? Why?!"
Snake blinked, then wagged a finger at her. "Why? 'Be prepared'. That's my motto."
"'Be prepared'?" Asuka shouted incredulously. "Prepared for what?! An enemy invasion?!"
Snake shrugged. "I dunno. Anyway, I can collapse this and three other tunnels nearby with the push of a button. I've also got the subway car on call, so if we need it, the stuff I packed into the train will come right down this track and detonate at the area of the damaged tracks. I've also cut off the gas lines to the surrounding area and tossed around a few proximity mines, so we can safely detonate those if we need to."
Tycho stared at him. "SAFELY?!"
"Well, you know what I mean," Snake shot back, annoyed.
Asuka simply turned around, muttering to herself. She had worked with Snake long enough so that she wasn't surprised, but it was irritating that he still managed to pull these things off right over her head.
Junko giggled and hooked an arm around Snake's waist. "You ever hear about a little word called 'overkill', hon?"
Snake rolled his eyes. "Of course I have. That's an old joke." He turned to his companions. "Hey, did you guys know there are actual laws banning the use of thermonuclear devices in city-based police operations?"
The entire group stopped to stare at him. Junko fell off from where she was hanging on his body, and almost hit the ground.
"It's true!" Snake insisted, "I'm not even kidding!"
"Well, thank God they thought ahead," Asuka muttered, grabbing Ranma's arm and dragging him along behind her into the depths of track system 71. The others soon followed.
"I'm totally serious! There are no loopholes or anything! They even put in restrictions in case the actual city was destroyed first!"
"Brother, Snake is scary!" Sakura whined.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, lessee here... oops! Hope that doesn't contaminate the sample!" Seras pulled his bottle of brandy away from the patch of dried blood, and continued scraping little bits of it into his sample bags.
Ranma looked gloomily into the intersection that led into the sewers and sighed. "Man, protecting the scene of a crime in a sewer. This sucks."
"Oh, I don't know..." Tiro grinned as Sakura and Junko pressed their bodies against his back, trying to force him between themselves and the long exodus of rats moving next to the subway tracks.
Asuka shook her head at the sight, and absently kicked away a rodent that was sniffing at her boot. "Cowards."
"Ah ha! All right, I got it!" Seras snapped up the packages, then put them into a large briefcase with multiple storage holds for various tools and samples. Snapping shut the briefcase, he hoisted it up and handed his electric lantern to Asuka. "I've got all the samples I need, as well as the pictures of the area. I'm done here."
Asuka nodded, then gestured to Tycho. "Wattai, you and Junko escort Seras back to the station. We'll take it alone from here."
Junko and Tycho nodded, the former stepping cautiously along the wall to keep herself as far from the various rodents as possible.
Once their individual flashlight beams had been swallowed by the hungry shadows, she lifted her lantern to begin issuing orders.
"Whoa! Hello! What have we here?" All present turned to see Kyle's flashlight beam pointed straight in the face of a young man stumbling toward the group. His face was completely pale, his movements were slow and clumsy, and he appeared to be drooling on himself.
"Looks like we got ourselves some vamps." Asuka nodded in agreement, then gestured to Ranma.
"Saotome, take him down, please."
Ranma snapped his flamer to the side of the fuel tanks on his back, then leapt forward, crossing the intervening distance between him and the empty-eyed young man almost instantly and planting a fist right in his gut. The infected young man bent over from the force of the blow to his midsection, and Ranma grabbed the back of his shirt and threw him in front of Tiro.
Asuka nodded to Tiro as he gave a disgusted grunt and kneeled on the victim to keep him from getting up.
"Find the vamp, quickly. Kyle, you see any more?"
"Uhm... yeah..."
Ranma turned around and threw his flashlight beam around, sighing as he saw several shapes moving toward him. "Oh well. This shouldn't be too bad."
"................................. Um... guys?"
"What is it, Yamazaki?" Asuka snapped, her pulse rifle up and eyes scanning for carriers among the advancing group.
"I... I don't think.... I don't think he's alive...." he gasped out. The others glanced at him momentarily.
Sakura stepped up and stared incredulously. "What do you mean? He's moving!" Indeed, the young man was now thrashing quite mightily under Tiro's weight, however vain the attempt might be.
Tiro merely swallowed deeply in response, and pulled down the collar of the boy's shirt a bit.
Even Ranma, in the middle of a snap kick to a construction worker wielding a lead pipe, was almost knocked to the ground by Sakura's scream. The others had ample time to turn and stare wide-eyed at the deep gash that clearly cut right through the back of the young man's neck; Ranma only had time to blink in surprise, then curse mentally as the pipe smashed into his shoulder.
Dismissing the pain as little more than an irritation (a lead pipe was nothing to someone who was used to being smashed through brick walls), he swept the feet of his attacker and hopped back within the sphere of lighting provided by Asuka's lantern.
Ranma gave a resigned groan as the attackers came under fair lighting. Many of them had clearly fatal wounds; others merely had cuts and gouges covered in dry blood and smeared with dirt and grime.
Sakura was literally shaking in her boots as she backed away from the body pinned beneath a panicking Tiro.
"Hey! What do I do? What do I do?!" The body under Tiro began thrashing even more violently, and he was forced to move slightly to avoid a hand reaching back to grab him.
"Kill it! Kill it now!!" Kyle shouted, even as he stared fearfully into the hordes of advancing zombies.
"HE'S ALREADY DEAD!!!" Tiro cried.
"Just move! Get off it, now!" Tiro was all too happy to comply with Snake's demand, and leapt off to where Sakura was huddling against the wall of the tunnel.
Snake quickly moved in as the resurrected man tried to right himself, and leveled his flamer.
*Fwooooosh!* A thick tail of fire washed over the lone zombie, incinerating him in moments. Tiro and Sakura turned away at the sight, only to the join the others in being more-or-less paralyzed at the sight of the advancing horde.
Ranma turned to his commanding officer. "Well, what're we gonna do?" He jabbed a thumb at the advancing wall of blood and rot.
Asuka gulped, then steeled herself and brought her pulse rifle around to bear. "Take them down now! Open fire!"
Tiro and Kyle didn't hesitate to comply, and joined Asuka in mowing down the advancing zombies. The infected men and women convulsed rapidly as hails of bullets tore into them, shredding flesh, muscle and bone.

Ranma watched in a fair amount of disgust as the wave of attackers slowly collapsed, their limbs being literally ripped to shreds by the steady streams of bullets.
His danger sense flared, and Ranma snapped one foot upward and to the side, barely deflecting a lunge that would have ended with a gash in his throat. Ranma followed with a swift roundhouse, but his attacker flipped away to land on the wall of the tunnel.
Ranma blinked. Roughly five feet from head to toe, with the thin, bony structure of the carriers he had already grown accustomed to, this new creature was dimensionally the same as its brother mutant. From there, the resemblance pretty much ended. A brownish-red, scab-like covering had replaced the rubbery-looking skin. There were no tentacles, or any sign of the black, mutated slugs that usually accompanied the larger mutants. Instead, this creature had a bone scythe sticking out of each wrist, pocked with barbs and stained with dried blood.
Perhaps most disgusting to Ranma, strangely enough, was that this creature had eyes. Strange, green, glowing eyes, that looked especially freaky peering at him from the concrete wall partially obscured in shadows.
"Syaaaaaa!" It hissed at him from its position on the wall, upside down and clinging with its fingers.
"Creepy," Ranma muttered. Then he glanced over at his companions, who were all busy mowing down the last of the lingering zombie horde (except for Sakura, who looked like she was in a state of shock).
"Hey Captain! Take a look at this freak!" Ranma grinned slightly as he returned his attention to the new mutant, who glared at him curiously.
Asuka was a little more than annoyed that Ranma was distracting her in this kind of situation; at least, she was up until she got a fair look at what was on the wall Ranma was next to.
"Kyle! Tiro! To your right! Kill it now!!"
Her subordinates didn't question her orders; in fact, they didn't even stop to aim or relieve pressure from the triggers of their weapons before carrying them out.
*Tststststststststs!* "Gyah!! Hey! Watch it!!"
Ranma hit the ground in a panic as 10 mm. fire cut a horizontal path above him. The gunfire failed to hit its actual target, however, which, seeing its enemy immobilized, jumped off the wall and raised its arm blades to attack. Ranma hoisted his body up slightly with his arms, then shot up with a kick that caught the genetically engineered monstrosity completely by surprise, and stopped its attack short of its target.
Before it could recover, Ranma used his arms to angle his body completely upwards, with the monster still stuck on his feet, before kicking it off to the opposite wall of the tunnel.
Asuka's gun was shaking, as a result of her trying to find a window for a clean shot. She watched as the creature slammed into the wall near her, and immediately turned around. "Snake-"
"Got it! Burn, freak!!" *Fwoooooosh!* The mutant was quickly wrapped in liquid light, its agonized screams dying with the flames, retreating into the thin, blackened husk that toppled onto the floor amongst the twisted metal tracks.
Asuka breathed a sigh of relief, then held a hand to her chest to try and control her heart; it felt about ready to pop out, through armor and all.
"Hyaaaargh..." Asuka's left eye twitched slightly as the faint moan was heard, she glanced below and behind her to see the still-mobile torso of a single zombie clawing its way to her.
Tiro noticed too, and gasped as he aimed his pulse rifle. "Captain look-"
Before Tiro had finished his sentence, Asuka whipped out her sidearm, flipped off the safety, and aimed in a practiced, one-handed motion.
*Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!*
Blood and gore was blown liberally around the area, and the now headless mutation fell to the concrete floor, motionless.
Kyle stared, both frightened and impressed. "Whoa... 'House of the Dead 2' style!" The others turned to level flat stares at him.
Snake centered himself and looked around. "Everybody okay?"
Ranma looked down at where Sakura had attached herself to his leg, shivering, and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, pretty much."
"Syeeeeee!" "Hissss!" "Syaaaaaaah..." The entire group turned to the shadowed depths of the sewer tunnel, and very faint points of green light started appearing.
Tiro swallowed noisily. "Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn..."
Asuka slipped her sidearm back into its holster on the side of her body armor, then raised her pulse rifle in one hand as she raised the lantern in the other.
"Syaaaaah!" The faintly illuminated eyes shrunk back from the light, and Tiro and Kyle started to move toward Asuka.
Ranma raised an eyebrow, then, on a hunch, looked up at the 20-foot high tunnel ceiling.
"Look out! Above you!" The two mutants released their hold on the ceiling at the shout, spinning around to cleave with their wrist blades.
Before Sakura knew what was happening, Ranma had hoisted her up and held her to him with one arm to free up his leg. With that same leg he executed a swift kick to the descending creature, throwing it hard enough against the wall to leave an impression in the concrete as the dead body slid to the floor.
Asuka wasn't so gifted, unfortunately. Nonetheless, she twisted at just the right moment, and the mutants blade dug into the chestplate on her armor rather than her neck, punching through the plastic composite shell but halting before the folds of kevlar underneath. Asuka took advantage of its disorientation, and spin-kicked it away. It stumbled, but recovered quickly and launched itself forward. Asuka only had time to raise the lantern in front of her to block, and sparks flew in all directions as the mutant's blades gouged deeply into the electric light.
"Oh geez! The light went out!"
"Syreeeeeeee!"
*Fwooooooooooosh!*
Snake's flamer illuminated the tunnel once more, and Asuka found herself staring into a pair of dilated green eyes, surrounded by a horrid brown and red shell...
Snarling, she smashed the muzzle of her pulse rifle into the mutant's stomach, and squeezed the trigger.
*Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak!* Each discharged bullet was followed immediately by an explosion of gore as she blew a line of holes upward through the monstrosity's twisted body. It's death scream lingered as the last few bullets tore through it skull, and it stumbled back, right before Asuka smacked it in the head with her rifle, knocking it away. The dark, useless husk of the lantern went with it.
As Asuka fumbled for her flashlight, the tunnel was being illuminated by the cremation of two more mutants, as well as brief flashes from Tiro and Kyle's guns.
"I can't keep this up forever!" Snake brought the stream of flames to the side to cut off an attacker, but the creature merely jumped away and clung to the wall, out of range.
*Tststststststststs!*
"I've got my flashlight! Tiro! On your left!"
*Tststststststststs!*
Ranma growled, and kicked away another mutant as it lunged for him. Sakura clung to him helplessly, wishing not for the first time for his strength of will.
"It's no good! Run for it guys!" Ranma snapped up the lead pipe used to beat him earlier, and threw it swiftly at another mutant advancing on the ceiling. It pierced the creature's shell, and pinned it firmly to the ceiling even as it screamed in agony.
"Ranma! Hurry up!" Tiro was already backing away with Kyle, Snake, and Asuka, but realized that Ranma wasn't making any move to do the same.
"I said go! I can take care of myself!" Ranma backhanded another mutant that lunged at him, then back-kicked yet another that tried to take advantage of his distraction.
Asuka and Kyle stopped moving, though they each took steps back when they saw more mutants advancing past Ranma, and crawling or walking toward them.
Asuka shut her eyes tight, and then threw her flashlight at Ranma, who caught it in his free hand right before kicking away another attacker. "Damn it Saotome!! Forcing me into a decision like this... I swear, if you get killed, I'll kill you!!" Asuka turned and ran to catch up with Snake and Tiro.
Kyle hesitated a bit, then called back to where the mutants were still circling Ranma and Sakura. "Same goes for me if Sakura get hurt, Saotome! You'd better take care of her!"
Ranma didn't turn back; he merely nodded with deadly seriousness as the creatures stared at him with inhuman hate and rage. "She'll make it out. Even if I don't. I promise!"
Kyle was a bit shaken by the resolve in his voice, and nearly bumped into Snake as he turned around.
"Hey Saotome! Make your way to the sewers! I'm going to call in the train!!" With that final shout, Snake grabbed Kyle's arm and pulled him away into the depths of the tunnel.

"Haaaaaaaaaaah..." "Saaaaaaaaaaaah..." "Syeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
Ranma stared straight ahead, unmoving, even as the mutations circled him warily. Many of their number already littered the concrete floor around him, dead or dying.
Pressed tightly to his body, he could feel Sakura's erratic heartbeat as she clung to him desperately. She needed to get out of here, quick.
An attack from the rear.
Ranma's left foot lashed out backward more quickly than the mutant could detect, and it was thrown back a dozen meters before it first touched the ground again.
The one that lunged during that split-second distraction wasn't so lucky, and got a return kick to the chest before Ranma grabbed its arm and hurled it into one of its brethren hard enough to smash both into the far wall of the subway tunnel.
The remaining mutants, numbering only five at present, began to reevaluate their victim's capabilities. Still, they had not been created with intelligence in mind, and so did not change tactics. Several of them tensed, and reared back slightly in preparation for a death lunge.
*Click* Ranma blinked as he felt something snap off of his armor, and started in surprise as the muzzle of his flamer fell beside his head.
Sakura trembled as she aimed the large weapon, and then clenched her teeth as several of the mutants hesitated in surprise. "Take THIS!!!" *Fwooooooosh!*
Fire blossomed out into the three mutants in the front, liquid heat sucking in their twisted bodies and sticking to their hardened skin.
Ranma watched, impressed, as Sakura continued torching the fried husks even as they disintegrated onto the concrete floor below. Luckily, he was not so distracted that the two mutations behind him escaped his notice as they charged.
Sakura cried out in surprise as she was whirled around along with Ranma, inadvertently blasting the two remaining creatures with fire. Ranma's snap kicks relieved them of their forward momentum, sending both mutants reeling away from the couple, broken and burning.
Ranma nodded in satisfaction, and then smiled toward Sakura. "Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Sakura stared emotionlessly at the blackened hulks surrounding them, flamer still in hand, and body still held tightly to Ranma's. Then she grabbed onto his neck and hugged him for all she was worth.
"I wanna go HOME!!!" She trailed off whimpering, and Ranma's eyes twitched sporadically as his ears recovered from the assault.
"Okay, okay. We'll get out of this." He shifted Sakura's position against him slightly, reasoning that he could best keep her out of danger if he didn't leave her to move at her own pace.
"Syaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Oh, fudge..." Looking around and sighing, Ranma started for the sewers.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Sraaaaaaah!"
*Tststststststststs!*
The mutant fell to the ground as bullets strafed its body, tearing a line through its chest and skull.
"Snake! Look out!"
The DA's weapons specialist tossed aside his cellular phone, and raised his flamer to block the incoming strike, knowing that the fire couldn't push his attacker back in time.
*T-chunk!* The blades dug deeply into the side of the heavy weapon, and the mutation found itself unable to extricate itself before the assault weapon was hurled over Snake's head and away from the group of defenders, fuel tanks and all.
By the time the twisted monstrosity reoriented itself, Snake had already drawn his sidearm, and taken aim at the small pressure valve near the fuel tanks' tubing.
*Blam!* *Tang!* *Ssssssssssssss... BOOOOOOM!!!!*
The rest of the mutants flinched back from the sudden light, and Tiro, Kyle, and Asuka wasted no time in covering the area in 10 mm. fire.
As the light retreated once more, the DAPC continued its slow withdrawal, laying down blankets of bullets even as the advancing mutations huddled back into the protective blanket of shadows.
"Don't worry!" Snake yelled, brandishing his sidearm and sweeping the area with his flashlight, "I called the subway; the train's on the way! We need to get back far enough so that we're not in the blast area!"
Asuka nodded, glad for once that Snake had gone overboard with his explosives. "Right! I just hope Seras and the others are okay..." She trailed off as the last bullet left the rifle's ammo casing, and looked up at the stone ceiling hopefully as she slipped in a new ammo cartridge.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Dum dee dum dee dum, ta ta ta ta ta......" Junko hummed along absently with the soft music emanating from the car's radio, bored out of her skull.
Tycho cut off another driver, and ignored the angry honking as he sped through an intersection just before the light turned red.
Seras was swaying slightly in the passenger side of the car, a newly opened bottle of rum in his lap.
Suddenly, Junko's head poked up from the back of the car. "Hey guys, what say we blow off this whole analysis thing and go back to my place? We can play strip poker!"
*Rrrrrk!!* *Vrooooooom!*
Before the words had even reached Seras's alcohol-addled brain, the car had already moved across the grass barrier separating the streets, and had left several cars braking in panic as it sped off opposite the direction it had been going.
By then, the words had reached Seras's brain. He looked down at the bottle of alcohol in his lap, memorized the brand and proof, and then looked up to nod happily at the bouncy redhead. He could do the experiments any time; why waste an opportunity like this?
__________________________________________________________________________________

"Sraaaaah!"
Ranma deflected the wrist blade aimed at his throat, then slammed roughly 50 punches into the attacking mutant's ribcage, utterly crushing the formidable bone structure before he backhanded the creature away.
Sakura was still hugged to his side, and she had more or less found a comfortable position as her curvaceous body was pressed to Ranma's shoulder. She had also more or less gotten used to the idea that none of the terrible creatures attacking them could penetrate the zone of Ranma's defenses.
Ranma hoisted his human cargo up a bit, then leapt from one side of the sewer tunnel to the other, clearing the river of murky water (???) and landing on the narrow concrete walk along the side.
Ranma looked around, not detecting anything amongst the thin chatter of various rodents and the distant rushing of water. "Think we got 'em all?"
Sakura struggled for a moment to get Ranma's flashlight, then shined it into the depths of the tunnel, revealing a stone wall as the tunnel took a ninety-degree turn. "I hope so... do you think Kyle and the others are okay?"
Ranma chuckled lightly as he shifted his flamethrower and backpack off of him and set it on the ground; it would only slow him down, at this rate. "I wouldn't worry about it. Kyle's a tough guy. Not as tough as Asuka though; if all else fails, she'll probably end up scaring the freaks away." Ranma chuckled ruefully, then swiftly moved forward around the bend.
Peering ahead, Ranma could see bars of light in the distance, and moved along the narrowing concrete walkway to a large grated floodgate, where the sewage spilled into a much larger, and much more illuminated, reservoir.
Sakura lifted her legs up slightly (incidentally cuddling her body even more closely against Ranma's) as Ranma stepped into the river of filth where the walk disappeared completely into the flood of sewage. Taking hold of the grate, Ranma gave a short grunt before prying the whole thing off. Tossing the now worthless piece off to the side, Ranma scooped up Sakura's legs in his free hand before leaping out the large drain, landing lightly on another concrete walk surrounding the pit of human waste.
Finally deeming the area safe, Ranma let Sakura back onto her feet, though she immediately backed into him to maintain physical contact. And when he took a good look around, he could see why.
Mutant bodies as well as human ones, all dead, battered, and broken, littered the area, spread thin along the walls and walks of the wide open pit.
Sakura shivered, and Ranma placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort.
"Man, what happened here? Did those freaks start killing each other or what?"
"Ranma, I don't like this... let's get out of here..."
Ranma was just starting to nod when another voice emanated out of nowhere.
"You can leave. Saotome stays, however."
Ranma and Sakura whirled around at the voice, coming from a dry floodgate just on the edge of a beam of light coming from the sewer grates above.
Wolf stepped out of it calmly, hands in his pockets.
"I must apologize for the mess. I wasn't expecting these... things to be here. But they're not so tough. I'm hoping you'll be a different story." The German fighter offered a deceptively friendly grin, and hopped down from the smaller tunnel to a concrete walk opposite where Ranma was standing.
Ranma narrowed his eyes, and cast a sideways glance at one of the mutations lying on the ground. It was covered with impact wounds, and the concrete it was lying on was cracked around its body. A quick survey of a human corpse (no doubt an accompanying zombie) revealed deep cuts. Whoever this guy was, he didn't use guns, and he was no slouch in hand-to-hand combat.
Sakura kept looking worriedly between Ranma and the newcomer, wondering what was to come of this. Suddenly, Ranma broke the stalemate.
"You wanna fight me? Fine. But let the girl go." Sakura blinked, and stared at Ranma, who in turn stared at Wolf with cold seriousness in his eyes.
Wolf chuckled. "Of course she can go. This doesn't involve her. I could never bring myself to harm such a pretty young woman anyway." Then, with a grin, he added, "Not for free, anyway."
Ranma nodded silently, and shifted one foot forward as he raised his hands slightly.
"Oh no you don't!" Both combatants blinked at Sakura's shout, and turned to watch as she unholstered the bolter that she had yet to use since descending into the subway tunnels.
"I'm tired of this! If you want to fight Ranma, you'll have to get through me!" Sakura growled at the man, and flipped a switch on her weapon.
Wolf sweatdropped as the energy cartridge on the bolter popped out and onto the floor. "Um... you're joking, right?"
"Huh? Oops! Hold on!" Ranma held a hand over his face as Sakura picked up the cartridge, then put it back in her weapon. "Now how does this work? Is it this one?" Apparently it was, as a cylinder in the bolter shifted forward, and a slight hum could be heard from the muzzle of the stun gun.
"Uh, look, Sakura, I can really handle this on my own. You don't need to-"
"Don't worry Ranma!" Sakura pointed her now-active weapon at Wolf, jabbing it at him threateningly. "Now this is going to hurt, but it won't kill you!"
Another sweatdrop rolled down Wolf's head. "..................................."
Ranma just sighed.
*Zak!* The bolt of electric energy shot forward, slamming hard into the brick wall of the large reservoir and sending electric arcs spreading in all directions from the blackened impact site.
Wolf hadn't budged an inch. "Okaaaaaay... I think you need to cool off, babe." A glint of metal from Calvin's hand was all the warning Ranma had before a bladed projectile sailed toward Sakura.
In a split second Ranma had crossed the distance and tackled her, and hadn't even hit the ground before his ears detected the ultra-fine screech of metal cutting through metal, followed by the much more grating noise of metal digging into stone.
Sakura shouted in surprise as she and Ranma hit the ground, and Ranma looked back to see the ill-fated bolter follow suit in two cleanly sliced pieces.
Wolf raised an eyebrow, and started walking towards the edge of the concrete walk. "You're fast. You didn't have to do that though; it wouldn't have hit her."
Ranma stared at him warily as Sakura slowly got up, then smiled slightly.
"Well, it's nice to fight someone who's only halfway psychotic for once."
Wolf returned the smile with a bigger one. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Sakura stared up from where she was kneeling. "Ranma?"
He didn't look at her; his attention was focused purely on his opponent. "Don't worry about me. Just get out of here. I'll be okay." When he saw the man chuckling at that, he stood up fully. "Hey, what's your name, anyway?"
Calvin Asmodeus retained his smile, and slowly took a pair of fingerless biking gloves out of his jacket pockets, slowly and deliberately slipping them over his hands before he answered. "You can call me Wolf. Now was there anything else, or are you ready to die?"
Ranma gave a last, confident smirk at Sakura, then stepped away. "Talk is cheap! Come on!"
Wolf leapt forward, clearing the reservoir with ease and readying a punch that could tear through rock with ease. Ranma likewise leapt up, then forced his leg out as he somersaulted to knock Wolf away at the point of contact.
*Ka-pow!* *Tha-wack!*
And so the battle was joined.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"There! We made it! Here is good!" Snake nodded and turned around, and then fired a few shots from his magnum advanced into the encroaching darkness that blanketed their attackers.
*Blam!* Blam!*
*Tstststststs-chk!-click-click-click*
"Dammit! I'm out of ammo!" Tiro, lacking a sidearm of his own, threw his pulse rifle to the side and gripped his flashlight desperately, waving it into the darkness in hopes of merely warding off any aggressors.
Kyle stopped shooting himself, aware that he too was on his last ammunition cartridge. "Are we sure there are any left back there?"
"Seeeeeeeeee..." "Shyaaaaaah..."
"I think it's a safe bet," Asuka deadpanned. Several more distant hisses echoed through the tunnels, and the grouped DA officers huddled together slightly.
Tiro gulped. "Well, how about we get out of here then?! How far to the nearest manhole?!"
Snake blinked. "We passed the one we entered in, actually. Don't worry! As soon as that train hits the broken tracks, then those freaks're done for!"
*Chung... chung... cha-chung... cha-chunk... cha-chunk...* Tiro breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the sound of an advancing subway train.
Asuka was silent for a moment, then turned to the DA's weapons officer. "Snake? If it was supposed to have exploded way back at the break, why can we hear it getting closer?"
The man in question blinked. "Uh......... poor acoustics?" Asuka turned her flashlight beam in his face. "Heh... bad guess..."
Tiro was REALLY scared now. "It's coming closer! We're gonna die!"
"Against the wall! Now!" Kyle suited actions to words, and jumped to the wall separating subway lines 72 and 71, pressing his back firmly against the concrete surface.
"Here it comes!"
*ShoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooom*
Asuka blinked. Kyle blinked. Tiro and Snake blinked at the same time.
No subway car had, in fact, passed through line 71. But with their backs to the separating wall, it was easy enough to feel the vibrations from a passing car in the likewise-quarantined track 72.
Asuka slapped her forehead.
"Well, crud. I guess that was the wrong train. It's really kind of funny if you think about it..." Snake chuckled slightly, which was silenced quite effectively when Asuka turned around and started strangling him.
Kyle sweatdropped. "Uhm, Asuka, I think you'd better stop..."
"Stop?! STOP?!?! He should be thanking me! I'll make sure he has a nice, clean death rather than being turned into a zombie!"
Tiro whimpered at the reminder of the peril of their situation, and continued casting his light about for attackers.
"Wa-wait! I-I... got... m-more... b-b-bombs!" Snake managed to choke that much out before Asuka threw him off to the side, and lay on the floor for a moment, massaging his throat.
"What? So what are you going to do now, huh? Blow up the city hall?" Asuka glared down at him harshly.
Snake gulped. "Well, remember those charges I set up in the subway tunnels? Those are still active. And I'm SURE that I placed those right."
"Oh geez! Run!" Tiro's flashlight illuminated the figure of a wounded mutant, and Kyle and Asuka wasted no time in opening fire as it was paralyzed by the light.
Within moments, its corpse was hitting the floor, and the angry hiss of its companions echoed through the darkened tunnels.
"Nearest exit's this way! Hurry up!" Snake ran near the opposite side of the wall, being quickly followed by the other retreating officers.
"Syeeeeeeeeeee!" Kyle jumped to one side as he ran, just barely avoiding a mutant before it skidded on the ground from its ill-timed lunge.
"Up here! Quickly!" Snake illuminated the ladder out with his own flashlight, and was nearly run over as Tiro moved past him and jumped onto as high a rung as he could catch before rushing upward.
"Tiro! Get the cover off! Now!" Snake followed Tiro up the ladder, while Kyle grabbed onto it and hung off in a firing position.
"Damn! It's heavy!" Tiro grunted with the effort, and the others found themselves groaning inwardly.
Asuka reached the ladder under Kyle, and turned around to defend the position, only to inadvertently block a mutant's swipe with her pulse rifle, jarring the creature slightly from the impact, and losing the rifle off to the side. Asuka grabbed the creature's arm before it could recover, and threw it over her shoulder, sending it sprawling across the floor on its back. Kyle located it on the ground, and finished it off with a spurt of gunfire.
"Crud! I can't lift this thing at all!" Kyle and Snake's faces darkened, and both began to panic.
Asuka's expression darkened too. "Tiro! I swear, if you don't get that thing off NOW, then you'll NEVER have ANY chance of EVER sleeping with me!!"
*Clang!* *Shhhhhhk* Light poured into the subway tunnel, stunning the few mutations still advancing as their modified eyes failed to adjust properly.
Tiro was practically thrown out onto the streets by Snake. As Snake climbed up, Kyle fired into the remaining mutants, only to run out of ammunition almost immediately. Tossing his useless weapon to the side, he followed Snake out of the hellish substratum.
Asuka jumped up onto the ladder as soon as there was room, urging her second-in-command upward.
"Syah!!"
She was just too slow, however, as one of the mutants grabbed for her, latching onto her shoulder and scraping its wrist blades across the back of her armor.
Asuka struggled upward, attempting to ignore the snake-like hissing as the horrid creature pounded her back. When she had almost reached the top and Kyle pulled himself out, she felt the weight shift on her shoulder as the mutation raised its blade for her neck.
Asuka's expression hardened, and she shouted in rage, pulling out her handgun and smashing the handle into the creature's chest. Before it could fully recover and attack, it found the more dangerous end of the weapon squashed into its throat.
*Blam!* Blood and gore blasted out into the tunnel below, and the mutant corpse slowly slid off of Asuka's shoulder as she hoisted herself onto the street.
*Shhhhhhhhhk* *Kong!* The manhole cover slammed back into place, and Tiro wiped the sweat off his brow as he sat on the deserted street.

"Oh man, that was rough. Hope Ranma got out okay." Tiro glanced over to where Asuka and Snake were sitting, the latter adjusting a dial on a remote-control detonator, and the former just trying to catch her breath and calm down. "Hey... uh, Captain. About what you said earlier..." He stopped and bigsweated as she glared at him coldly.
Then she turned away and snorted. "Get real Yamazaki. Since you managed to get the cover off and we're still alive, technically, there's a VERY remote possibility that something like that could happen." She ran a hand through her long blue hair, then stroked it to try and get out the dust and dirt.
Tiro's face fell. "But... but... come on! That's just cruel!"
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Please. It was a life or death situation Yamazaki; I wasn't THAT desperate."
*Beep!* Snake barked a short laugh, and stood up, raising his detonator to the sky.
"Ha ha ha! They're cooked in five! Four! Three! Two! One!"
__________________________________________________________________________________

*Thwack!*
Ranma rolled with the punch over the concrete, even as Wolf pressed his attack and pursued. Stopping his momentum suddenly with his arm, he pushed himself up into a kick which took his opponent by surprise, knocking him back. Ranma pushed himself into the air, spinning to bring around another kick to deflect Wolf's next punch.
Wolf grunted as Ranma's foot hit his wrist, and then reached forward to punch at Ranma's head, missing by millimeters.
Growling, Wolf threw a series of punches at Ranma's head, but couldn't land a single one before Ranma's form blurred and disappeared.
*Thunk!* Wolf gritted his teeth as Ranma's foot sunk into his stomach, and tried to hit him in response, but Ranma fell low to the ground, and then swept the German's feet out from under him.
Wolf managed to flip back rather than fall, and leapt into the air over the sewer reservoir.
Ranma followed suit, and was about to lash out with another kick, when the glimmer of steel flashed from Wolf's hands.
"YOW!!!" Ranma barely twisted in time as the knives cut in flashing arcs all around his target, landing only a meter away from Wolf as they both landed.
Wolf snapped his wrists, and the two blades whizzed toward his target, each missing to cut deeply into the wall.
Wolf chuckled, then slipped two more blades from his belt. "And here I was worried about getting a good fight. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose!"

Ranma stopped for a moment here to appreciate the irony that the first professional assassin ever hired to kill him had turned out to be one of the nicest and most reasonable men he had ever fought.
Sakura was almost crying at the danger Ranma was in. From her position across the sewage pit, she could easily make out the way Wolf's punches made craters in the surrounding concrete and his knives cut rock that they didn't even touch. That Ranma was apparently matching his opponent's superhuman abilities didn't really get through to her.

"Come on!" Wolf shot forward, his arms moving swiftly as he cut deep arcs into the air around him. Ranma was forced to keep his distance to avoid getting gutted like a fish; whoever this guy was, he was good. It was sort of like fighting Ryoga and Kuno at the same time, except that this man was more dangerous with two butterfly knives than Kuno was with one bokken.
Ranma jumped backward, then rebounded off of a wall to shoot straight at Wolf, just barely diving under a wicked horizontal slash.
*Poom!* Ranma's fist hit hard, and Wolf staggered, having the wind knocked out of him.
*Bam* *Bam* With two swift kicks, Ranma disarmed the German assassin, before sending him flying backward with a punishing roundhouse to the head.
Wolf grunted as he slid across the floor, then slowly got up and wiped some blood from his mouth.
"Damn. I'm not done just yet!" He pulled out two more blades from his belt, and flipped them open.
Ranma shifted slightly, twisting to narrow his profile to Wolf, and irritably rubbing a sore spot where his foe had already gotten in a good punch.
"Ranma? Are you okay?"
Ranma blinked, then turned around. "Sakura? What are you still doing here? It's dangerous!"
Sakura flinched back slightly, and then her eyes widened. "Ranma! Look out!!"
Ranma's danger sense warned him just milliseconds before Sakura did, and he leapt back even as the knife blade flashed its deadly arc through the air.
*Shing!* Ranma grit his teeth as he felt the cold steel graze the skin of his arm as it flew past, and launched a return kick that missed as Wolf leapt towards him in a tackle.
*Whump!* Both fighters hit the ground just a few meters away from Sakura, with Wolf on top. The German snarled, then flipped one knife in his hands before thrusting it towards Ranma's head.
*Shunk* It sank deeply into the concrete, landing just two millimeters to the left of Ranma's ear as the pigtailed man cocked his head quickly to one side.
"RANMA!!!"
Ranma ignored Sakura's scream, and let out a low growl as he tried to free his arm from under Wolf's knee. *KAAAAAA-KROOOOOOOOOM!!!!*

None of the three were expecting the titanic explosion, and they all turned (except for Ranma, who could only move his head a little) to watch as a huge blast of fire shot out of the floodgate that Ranma and Sakura had come from.
"What the blazes..." Wolf stared dubiously at the blackened gate, and frowned as he watched the walls shake slightly.
He didn't remember that he was in the middle of a fight until Ranma had already pulled his arm free.
"Eat this! Katchuu tenshin armaguriken!"
Wolf's eyes widened as hundreds of punches jack-hammered into his chest, and gasped out as Ranma followed the barrage with a fierce uppercut that hit hard enough to make his ribs creak.
Sakura watched the exchange fearfully, occasionally casting glances about as large, deep cracks started moving through the walls of the reservoir area, occasionally bursting out as the concrete barriers could no longer withstand the pressure of the sewage forced against them.
Ranma didn't pull his fist back from Wolf's chest, and grunted as he began to lift the larger man off of him.
Calvin would have none of it, and spit out a mess of blood to the side before lifting his own fist and pounding it savagely straight into Ranma's chest (so that he would have no chance to wriggle to the side).
"Ranma!! No! Please stop!"
*Crack* *Kr-r-r-r-r*
Ranma clenched his teeth as he felt his body break the concrete beneath his back. "Sakura!! Get out of here! NOW!!!"
The blonde police officer bit her lip as she watched Ranma struggle against the larger man, trying to weigh her feelings for him against her survival instinct, Ranma's orders, and the chance that she could actually help Ranma anyway.
*Chugh! Krrrrrrrk... Crash!* A large piece of piping plummeted from above, falling just inches in front of Sakura and prompting a short rain of broken concrete and debris to drive her back.
Sakura grit her teeth. "Ranma! Please, come back to me!" Choking out a quick prayer for her love's safety, she turned and ran for the nearest ladder to the streets.

Wolf glanced in her direction to watch her go. "Oomph... nice girl," he ground out, trying to force his fist down onto Ranma's throat.
Ranma nodded as he forced Wolf's fist back and freed his other hand. "Rrrrgh... yeah, she is..."
"Urgh... cute, too..." Wolf grabbed Ranma's wrist, but it twisted free, and Ranma's fist slammed into his shoulder.
"Uh huh," Ranma agreed, and tried to retract his fist, only to have his arm caught.
"So... *Cough* have you two-ugh!-you know, done it yet?"
Ranma ceased his struggles and stared at Wolf blandly. "Hey, is this a fight or what?"
The German assassin blinked. "Oh. Quite right. Quite right." He reached behind his belt to slip out a knife, and swiftly flipped it around to drive into Ranma's chest.
Ranma wrenched both his hands free, and slammed his palms flat against the cracked floor. "I... don't... THINK SO!!!" Using all his strength, he pulled both his body and Wolf's up off of the ground, and flipped the larger man off of him before he himself flipped away.
"Grrrr... give up and die!" Wolf landed on his feet, and took out several smaller knives from a pocket inside his jacket before hurling them at Ranma.
Ranma backed away from the deadly projectiles, flipping over concrete walkways and avoiding the falling debris as the sewer tunnels continued to crumble apart.
Wolf rushed after his target, grabbing up more knives and hurling them at his foe with deadly accuracy. Deadly, that is, if you weren't inhumanly agile.
Ranma backflipped into the air, landing on a pipeline above and running across it as steel blades sliced through the air (and everything else they touched) around him.
*Shing!* *Shuuuung!* Heavy iron piping was cut cleanly through, and Ranma leapt from his perch as the large metal construction splashed into the narrowing river of human waste.
Ranma turned around, and smirked slightly as he saw Wolf staggering forward to meet him. The German had gotten in a few good hits, but Ranma had gotten in more, and the two fighters were almost even in both strength and constitution.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
He was about to taunt his opponent into doing something stupid (standard procedure for Ranma's fights), when his sensitive hearing picked up a very soft electronic noise coming from behind him. Ranma turned to glance at the origin of the noise, and could just barely make out a circular object placed flat against the wall in the shadows, minutely illuminated by three small, glowing blue lights placed in a triangle around the core of the object.
'Wait. Snake said he put charges around the subway tunnel. That must've been what that other explosion was; it caused too much structural damage to just be the train. Didn't he also say something about proximity mines? And they were set at... at... oh, HELL no...'
Ranma gulped, then turned his head slightly to see a large pipe running through the ceiling and into the concrete floor. Attached to it was a pressure gauge, and a small tablet that marked it as a primary gas line.
*Whhhhhhhhssssss...* Ranma didn't need to see the incoming knife to move to the side in time, and it whizzed by to embed itself on the side of the pipe opposite the three area-sensitive explosives.
Ranma whirled around to face Wolf again. "No! Wait! The mines! Hold it!"
"What mines?!" Wolf snarled, taking out another knife and snapping it into a line for Ranma's neck.
Ranma dodged, leaping far to the side as the hurled blade dug itself into the wall firmly in the middle of the triangulated explosives.
The small, almost unnoticeable blue lights turned an angry red. *Beeeeeeeeeeep* This time, the electronic whine was loud enough for all to hear.
"Those mines," Ranma mumbled miserably.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Sakura was beside herself with worry on the streets above the surface, pacing and fretting tirelessly next to the manhole cover she had removed.
Ranma was good, but was he a match for this other man? Oh! If only she wasn't so useless!
Starting to feel depressed, Sakura stopped in front of the manhole and leaned over slightly, trying to peer down into the sewers below.
*KAAAAAABLAAAAAAAAM!!!!*
The blonde woman was blown backward more from surprise than by the force of the fiery blast exploding out of the small sewer entrance. Looking around in panic, she could see the various surrounding sewer grates also blow out violent gouts of flame.
She stared in horror at the sight, and then her fragile mental state, already severely strained by the day's events, shattered into pieces.
"WAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Ranma!! NO!!! Ranma's dead!! I'm sorry!! I'm so sorry!! I should've stayed, and... and... WAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
*Krrrnk!* Sakura looked up to see a sewer grate get pulled down, and then watched as a charred, soot-covered arm reached up.
Ranma pulled himself the rest of the way up, coughing and sputtering. "Geez! *Cough!* *Cough!* Stupid jerk! *Hack!* *Cough!* Didn't even listen..."
*Glomp* "Erk!" Ranma's eyes started tearing as Sakura formed a death grip on his torso.
"Ranma!! You're alive!! I'm so happy!! I thought you were dead and that you weren't coming back and that I would be all alone and I was so scared and I thought that you were gonna die and-"
"Sakura," Ranma choked out, "burns... hurt... hug... bad... help... pain..."
__________________________________________________________________________________

*Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!* *Blam!*
Yoshi Konta blinked, then craned his neck to stare at the bullet-holes that surrounded his head. "Is something wrong, Alex?"
The president of Wraith Labs snarled, and re-aimed her pistol, this time so that it wouldn't miss. "Stop taking this so calmly! Get on your knees and beg for your life, like you're supposed to!!" Across the room, Bei sweatdropped at the display.
Yoshi blinked again, then shrugged and slowly climbed down to his knees. "Oh. Please don't kill me," he stated blandly.
A vein popped out on Alex's head. "Say it like you mean it!!" She moved out from behind her desk and stepped closer, placing the gun mere inches from Yoshi's forehead.
The head scientist of Wraith Labs didn't even twitch. "Ah. Something IS bothering you. I can tell."
Bei winced as Alexandra started trembling slightly, and the gun in her hands wavered unsteadily as her hands shook with fury.
Yoshi, somehow, managed to ignore what was a very real threat to his future existence. "It's that little package I was working on, isn't it?"
Alex nodded slowly, her teeth clenched tight. "WHY did you go over my head like that?!"
Yoshi cocked his head to one side. "Well, I thought you might get upset about the whole thing."
"Gee, YOU THINK?!?!?!" The vein had returned. Forcing her hands downward to point the gun at a less lethal area (she DID need Konta, any way she looked at it), she counted to twenty in her head before returning her attention back to the small man before her.
"Why did you do this?! Project Mobius has a very strict schedule! You can't just go off and suddenly create entirely new subjects at whim!!"
Yoshi blinked. "Why not?"
*Crash* Alex got up slowly from her facefault, shaking once more in barely restrained anger. "You can't simply use our resources to create and test entirely new subjects on a whim! Especially using biological devices as dangerous and uncontrollable as the T-virus! Are you mad? That thing could wipe out all of Japan!!"
Yoshi lowered his head and rubbed his chin. "Yes... I suppose so. Oh well!" He smiled. "I just wanted to see if I could do it, really. Improve upon the E-series mutants, I mean."
Alex stared at him. "'See if you could do it'?! You are not playing with toys, Konta! This is dangerous technology; LIVING technology!! We must adhere to the plan, or all could be lost!"
Yoshi snorted. "Oh, pishposh. A contractor doesn't tell an artist how to paint, now does he? You wanted mutant soldiers. Well, I'll give you that. That, and more." The weasely little man grinned, and Alex shivered even as she set her 9 mm. on her desk.
Yoshi turned to leave. "Don't worry about me or my research, dear Alex. I'll have a new genetic graft, the Kain Module, completed soon. My creations will fuel your dream. Your money is being well spent. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Yoshi walked calmly out of the office, unharmed and in high spirits.

Back in the President's office, Alex and Bei both stared at the open door, stunned, and a little awed, by Yoshi's display.
Finally, Alex broke the silence.
"Arrogant asshole."
"Total," Bei agreed.
__________________________________________________________________________________

"All right! This is awesome! Hey Junko, you got any more beer!"
"*Giggle* Hold on, big guy."
Junko mostly ignored the radio as she walked into her kitchen, completely topless. She had kept it on for some background music, but somewhere down the line it had gone into some emergency news bulletin.
*And so the explosion in subway line 71 was followed by an explosion at the Narugawa subway station, where an uncontrolled subway car, apparently packed with high explosives, hit another inactive subway train and detonated, destroying much of the station itself. Luckily, there were only a few minor injuries.*
Junko grabbed a case of alcoholic beverages from within her refrigerator, and then turned to frown at the radio.
*THIS accident was soon followed by a mysterious detonation in a nearby sewer system, apparently caused by the ignition of that area's primary gas main, though it had been cut off from other gas lines earlier in the day due to safety concerns. Apparently, very valid ones. The damage is all extensive, and city officials estimate that repairs will take over a year and cost more than-* *Click*
Junko shook her head as she walked out of the kitchen, having turned off the radio. "Man, why don't you ever hear anything but BAD news nowadays? Sheesh."

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

Author's notes:
Due to the apparent popularity of my "Statue Kill Counter" in the last chapter, from now on I'll show a kill counter for every chapter. That is all.

Total zombies wasted: 27
G-series mutants annihilated: 30
Subterranean structures destroyed: 3

End Chapter 7