Three Beauties and a Beast - 4

"Get those cameras into place!" News reporter Akemi Shutaro turned away from the scene of destruction that the two opponents were waging and looked at the men that had been assigned to her to cover the 'Mad Creature' story. Her boss was angry enough that Arika Miamata and channel 4 had already gotten the scoop on her and the station, but if they couldn't even get down there to send live images of the fight, Akemi might as well not bother going back to the station.

The cameras were set up, and Akemi began to consider what to say as they prepared to go live on the air. She made up a quick, simple speech in her mind and began. "This is Akemi Shutaro of Channel Six News, proud to bring you live coverage of the emerald monstrosity and mysterious masked man that are doing battle in the streets of Nerima. The two as yet unidentified participants are waging aAHH!" Akemi suddenly discovered a large panda directly in front of her. She was about to bash it in the head with her microphone when it held up a sign.

*I know who that heroic paragon of superheroism is.*

Genma-panda found himself lifted up by the fur on his neck. "Tell me," Akemi growled, smelling blood as she knew she was at last going to get the scoop on that bitch, Arika. The next news award would go to her instead of that undeserving little hussy that had slept her way to the top.

*His name is Captain Japan. He is Japan's greatest superhero. He is a man among men. A hero among heroes. A...* He brought a paper out from his fur and read it. *...symbol of our country's greatness and what it means to be Japanese.* Genma-panda sighed in relief. That was all of the points his wife had made him promise to make Ranma into.

"Captain Japan sounds dumb," one of the cameramen said.

"Yeah, it is," another mentioned.

"'Rising Sun' sounds better."

"And exactly how would a mere panda know all of this?" Akemi asked.

Genma-panda suddenly appeared nervous. *Umm. I'm his cute animal sidekick.*

The comments began again.

"You're not very cute."

"I thought only magical girls had cute animal sidekicks."

"Why do people call them sidekicks anyway? Are you kicked to the side often?"

Akemi came to Genma-panda's defense. "Well, I think he's a cute animal sidekick." And pinched his cheek for emphasis. Genma-panda placed his hand behind his head and laughed nervously. Maybe reporters weren't such bad people after all.

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The Iron Rose decided to listen to some music as she soared through the air. It was as she was going through the stations that she heard the news report about a fight in downtown Nerima between a monster and a masked man. Using her armor's global positioning system, she redirected her flight directly towards the area.

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Other eyes watched the drama unfolding before it. Multiple screens that took up one side of a huge room broadcasted coverage of the events unfolding in Nerima. A huge monster had easily demolished several squads of law enforcement officers without breaking out a sweat. It was now trying to destroy an elusive man with a curiously durable shield. Very interesting indeed.

A pair of hands clapped, summoning forth a diminutive man dressed in an immaculate gray uniform. "Yes, M'lady?"

"Roquat. I believe that our recent acquisition has gained me several interesting toys," the woman spoke while idly resting in her chair. "I wish to test one of them out against this creature. Let's see if Mishima Heavy Industries had anything worthwhile. Use that flying prototype."

"And the protocols for this mission, M'Lady?" the little man asked.

"I want to see the full capabilities of the machine. No restraints. And if there should happen to be civilian casualties, well, it's not as though Japan has any shortage of people, is it?"

"No, M'Lady. It is not. The prototype shall be airborne within the next five minutes."

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Ranma felt his pride suffering as he found himself backing away once again. There was nothing that could be done about it. Nothing he did seemed to really hurt the monster. Even tricking the beast into running into the fallen power lines only served to slow him down for several seconds. Ramming his face into the shield did little good either, only feeding the monster's seemingly limitless anger. Though his reflexes and agility clearly surpassed the Hulk's, even Ranma's tremendous stamina was being taken to the limit.

If there had been any doubt in Ranma's mind that he was beginning to tire, it was quickly erased as the Hulk came close enough to snag the front of Ranma's costume, specifically in the chest area. It took all of Ranma's strength to tear out of the grasp of his opponent, though it cost him the entire front of his costume as it was left behind in the Hulk's grasp. Not that that was a great loss considering how much he hated the thing anyway. With great reluctance Ranma decided it was time to unveil the Saotome Secret Technique and come up with another plan of action.

Ranma began running away.

The Hulk looked down at the piece of costume that was still in his hand. That was the closest he had come to solidly hitting his enemy and still the tiny man eluded his righteous vengeance. He looked away from the white and red cloth towards Ranma once again, only to see him begin to retreat from the field of battle at a rapid clip.

"Enemy no run away!" The Hulk bellowed in rage at the smaller youth, and he brought his arms together with such force that a tremendous shockwave emanated from the force of the blow. The shockwave caught Ranma fully, stunning and throwing him more than twenty feet forward, his flight coming to a stop as he landed in the basin of a large fountain.

The Hulk stalked forward menacingly towards his fallen foe, noting that the fallen youth was barely moving in the water. The Hulk brought his fist downward as his enemy at last sat up, giving the Hulk an unrestricted view of her generous bosom.

The Hulk's brain fixated on that one new fact: her bosom. His fist stopped abruptly stopped no more than six inches from the target's head, then twin gouts of green blood flew from the Hulk's nostrils as he felt lightheaded and dizzy. He began to back away, anger inexplicably turning into embarrassment. It was just as he was covering his eyes and about to stammer out an apology, that twin beams of energy struck him cleanly in the chest, causing him far worse pain than anything that his previous enemy had done to him.

As he tried focusing his attention on where the beams had originated, a black armored figure flew down directly in front of him and punched him with a metal encased fist. This time it was the Hulk who was sent flying through the air, his flight only stopping when he struck the side of a previously damaged building, causing the entire structure to collapse around him.

The burial lasted only a moment as the Hulk hurled the debris off, sending it in every direction. As he rose to his feet, he at last caught a good view of his opponent.

"Why did stupid-looking stove person attack Hulk?"

"I DO NOT LOOK LIKE A STOVE!" That did it. Kodachi decided she was going to streamline the armor the first chance she got.

"Hulk think stove person should take a look in the mirror."

The Iron Rose kept her anger in check, though a part of her relished the opportunity to give full release to her emotions, unconcerned with how the others viewed her. She gave a sneer of disdain beneath the armor. "Insulting monster, it is time to bring your unchecked rampage to an end."

The Hulk seemed stunned at the accusation. "Hulk not monster. Hulk, Hulk."

"Whatever." Dozens of ribbon-like projections shot out from the gauntlet's of the Iron Rose's armor, wrapping themselves tightly around the Hulk's head and chest. He was about to rip them to shreds when five hundred thousand volts of current shot through the ribbons, flowing directly into his body. The Iron Rose gave a hearty laugh as the Hulk's legs buckled under the electrical assault.

Ranma-chan shook her head free of the haze it had been under from the moment she had been caught in the Hulk's tremendous clap. She had just regained her feet when she found herself surrounded by a news team and her father/panda.

The woman bearing the microphone stepped forward and took charge of the situation. "Once again this is Akemi Shutaro bringing you the scoop on what appears to be Japan's newest superhero." She thrust the microphone into Ranma-chan's face. "Excuse me, Miss. But what connection do you have to Captain Japan?"

"Who?" Ranma-chan got out as she found herself blinded by a light.

"You know, the guy who was fighting that monster. Are you his other sidekick? What's your name? How did you pull that switch with your partner? What attack did you use that caused the monster to pull back like that? And is going around topless part of your costume design?"

Ranma-chan looked down and suddenly realized why it was so drafty out. The second realization, that her bare chest was now being broadcast to the entire nation of Japan, caused her to give out an 'Eek!' and cover herself up. She turned away from the camera, covering her chest as best she could while tearing off the remainder of her costume's top. She hurriedly managed to create a makeshift top that just barely covered her essentials.

A groan of despair issued from the two male members of the news crew. One of them said, "Aww. I think your costume looked better without the top."

"Shut up, pervert!" Ranma-chan landed a red-booted kick on his jaw. The other crewman mentioned he thought it was in much better taste to have a top with the costume.

Once again Akemi thrust the microphone in Ranma-chan's face. "Are you Captain Japan's girlfriend?"

"Who the hell is Captain Japan?" Ranma-chan asked once again.

"You know," Akemi said, exasperated enough that she felt like smacking the young girl in the head. "The hunk with the shield that was fighting the green guy."

For the first few seconds, all Ranma-chan could do was blink. Then the words set in. "Who told you that was his name?!"

Genma-panda was beside her in a flash. *It was me. Pretty cool, huh?*

Ranma-chan grabbed him by the throat. "What kind of stupid things are you tell-" The redhead was cut off as the microphone found its way between her and Genma-panda.

"And what is your name?" Akemi asked, smelling a raise if she managed to get this scoop too.

"I'm RanMURF!" Ranma-chan found herself cut off as Genma-panda clamped his paw over her mouth.

He raised a sign. *This is Captain Japan's official human sidekick: Bucky.*

That was the final straw. Wiggling free, the redhead grabbed the sign and broke it over her father's head. "Where the hell did you come up with that one?!"

"There you have it, folks," Akemi said, now focusing her complete attention on the camera. "We have now met Captain Japan's official sidekick, Bucky. A name that is as mysterious as the hero whom she follows. What is the relationship between the two? Are they lovers?"

"Of course not, you pervert! And my name's not Bucky!" Ranma-chan shouted as she hit her father again for good measure. She was fed up with the whole situation. If being a superhero wasn't bad enough, now she was two. She was about to explain to Akemi the whole, sordid situation when the sound of tearing metal caught her attention.

She turned to see that the Hulk's armored foe had her metal ribbons ripped to shreds, The Hulk overcoming the amperage running through him. In the process of destroying the ties that bound him, he had thrown the Iron Rose off balance, giving him an opening with which to bring his fist into her form. The top of the fountain was destroyed as the force of the blow sent her flying through the air, just as she had done to the Hulk earlier.

Ranma-chan told the others to get out of the area while she hurried to the Iron Rose's fallen form. "Are you all right?"

Kodachi cleared the ringing out of her ears long enough to catch what 'Bucky' was saying. "Yes. It will take more than that to prevent the Iron Rose from saving the day."

"Nice name," Bucky said, lamenting the fact that her father couldn't have come up with a cool name like that for her.

"Stay back while I deal with the beast." The Iron Rose manually targeted the Hulk's approaching form. Once she was certain he was in her line of fire, she discharged her specially designed chest laser. It was one of the few weapons she had taken the time to give a special touch. One three hundred thousandth of the laser's power was shunted to forming the shape of a rose blossoming from the center of the beam. The brief image was there but for a moment before the beam shot outward and struck the Hulk dead center, the sudden pain from it causing his knees to buckle.

"OHHOHOHOHO! Victory is mine!" Kodachi shouted out in glee at her fallen foe. The heady feeling of victory threatened to overwhelm her as she reveled in her display of superiority over her foe. Truly, donning the armor was the best thing that had ever happened in the brief life of the Black Rose.

"I wouldn't count him out yet," Ranma-chan warned as she saw the Hulk's eyes practically turn red from anger.

The Iron Rose scoffed. "The simpleton, for all of his muscle, is no match for the wondrous weaponry of my armor. None can stand up to my might."

"Hulk not need to stand to knock stupid stove person off his feet!" The Hulk dug his fingers deep into the asphalt of the street and pulled up, tearing up a huge section of the lane, including the part both Bucky and the Iron Rose stood upon. The nature of the attack caught even the more agile Ranma-chan off-guard as she suddenly found herself hurled head over heels, landing on her back and then having several pieces of asphalt land on her.

The Iron Rose was just reorienting herself from her unexpected trip when she caught sight of the Hulk's upraised fist over her head. It took her a moment to realize that this was the exact same pose the Hulk had when she had first flown overhead and spotted him about to hit the girl in the fountain. Only this time there was no armored hero to save her.

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