Wild Boot: The Net Games
By David Farr
Tenchi Muyo is copyright of AIC : Pioneer LDC, INC. ReBoot is the
property of Mainframe. Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan,Inc. All are used here respectfully for the
purposes of fanfiction. This story may be redistributed only if
unchanged and no fee is charged.
The prequel to this story "Wild Boot", other parts of this story my
other works of fiction and a full list of copyrighted material used in
this fiction may be found at:
http://www.homepages.co.nz/~djfarr/
------
Akane: I protect Mainframe,
From Viruses, Corruption and Games,
My Code,
To Mend and Defend,
For I am a Guardian,
Alone in my fight.
V 2.2.1: Cyber Senshi
*****
Ribbed walls arced above the platform, meeting at a point deep in the
darkness. Beneath, sitting alone atop her demonic throne was the virus
Kodachi, her clawed hands hovering in the air either side of a glowing
mirror. She watched as her brother, the large navy blue virus named Kuno,
faced off against Nabiki Tendo. Her cackling laughter exploded as Akane
and her bug-like Fuchikoma defeated him.
" I can never get enough of that scene," she waved her hand again and
the sequence repeated in the mirror. "Oh, I tire of this." Another wave
caused the image to dissolve into static. "MR TURTLE!"
The strange floating triangle that Kodachi kept as a pet appeared,
floating in the air not far away. It snapped its jaws a few times at her.
"Ah, there you are. What took you so long?" Kodachi continued to wave
her hands on either side of the mirror. "How is my latest project
coming?"
Mr Turtle snapped a few times in answer, then quickly flew through the
air, leaving a glowing green tick floating in the air.
"Excellent. Now those fools will PAY for taking my darling Ranma away
from me!" The random virus threw her head back and let her best evil
laugh roll across the room.
*****
"Achoo!" Akane rubbed her nose and looked about. The Nekohanten, still a
place to hang out if despite the loss of Shampoo, was packed with
binomes. She was getting used to being the focus of attention again, but
wished that they weren't all so obvious about it. Just a single sneeze
had caused everyone in the room to stop and watch her, concern written on
their faces.
Sighing, Mainframe's new Guardian turned to look out the window. Her
trusty Fuchikoma was sitting in the parking lot, too big to make it
through the doorway without effort. Unsurprised, she saw that it had
drawn a crowd as well, although it seemed to enjoying the attention and
was going through a null juggling routine for a group of kids.
"You sneezed ma'am?" Mousse drawled, gliding up to her booth.
"I'M FINE!" Akane snapped turning to glare at the file server.
Mousse adjusted his glasses and looked at her. "I wasn't saying you
weren't. I was however inquiring what you wanted."
"For Ranma to still be here doing this," Akane murmured, turning back to
gaze out the window.
"I'm sorry, I believe we're out of that, would you like something else,"
he deadpanned.
Akane waved at him irritably. "Oh, just the usual."
Fed up, Mousse placed his hands on either side of his box. "Akane, you
change your order almost every cycle. You don't have a usual."
"THEN ANYTHING!" she raged.
Shrugging, Mousse pulled out a notepad and a pen. "Yes, ma'am. That's
one energy sea squid platter, one bowl of Quantum Miso soup and a herb
electron tea."
Akane dropped back into her depression. "That's fine."
Mousse shrugged and zipped off.
*****
Repairs to the system had been costly, and resources were going to be
scarce for a long while. Coupled with Mainframe's isolation from the net
that meant that Nabiki could only predict hard times for the sprites and
binomes of the system. The win against Kuno, especially Akane's sudden
return to strength, had boosted morale, but still, many of the more
influential citizens were starting to gather their assets in preparation
for the coming storm.
Thus it fell to Nabiki to convince those hoarding needed data and energy
to give their aid for the sake of the system. Convince not beg, for
Nabiki never begged.
"Well Mr Gates, the way I see it, we have only two options," Nabiki
crossed her arms and stared down at the nerdy little zero before her.
"Either you invest in the repair schedule now, in hopes of a rise in
business and some good PR or we wait until the situation is so bad that
the command.com has to step in and start requisitioning what she needs. I
don't know about you, but I don't want to face a displeased Kasumi."
Mr Gates swallowed visibly. "Surely it won't come to that."
"Well, no, it may not, but if it does, well... let's just say I made no
secret of the reason I came to see you."
"Th-that's blackmail!" Mr Gates accused.
Smirking Nabiki leaned down to stare into the binomes eyes. "I prefer to
call it bargaining from a position of power."
"Alright, give me the list and I'll get onto it," Mr Gates sighed. He
held out his hand.
Nabiki pulled a PADD out from her coat and started to give it to the
binome. Then she stopped. The PAD fell to ground as Nabiki spun and
stared out across the city. She could feel it... something... wrong.
*****
The spoon clinked off the side of the bowl again, then circled around,
continuing to mix the now cold broth. Akane stared at it unseeing, her
mind so deeply in her problems that she had failed to notice her tea get
up and sneak away some time before.
High-pitched screaming shattered her brooding, snapping her attention to
the parking lot. Thankfully the sound came not from binomes, but from the
nulls clutched tightly, too tightly, in the Fuchikoma's claw-like
manipulators. The red bug mecha was staring across out the city, its
optics fixed on some distant point. Akane knew what was in that
direction, one of the two most feared places in Mainframe.
Then she felt it too.
*****
Kasumi muttered an oath, and was instantly glad there was no body nearby
to hear it. The sudden feeling had shocked her, causing her to want to
sit up and take a look. That was the reason for curse. Actually no, the
reason for her curse was when she had tried to sit up she had been
painfully reminded that she was lying under the body of a massive tank.
She shoved herself out, rolling free on the back of the trolley, and
leapt to her feet. With uncharacteristic haste she ran to the workstation
of her lab and started tapping in codes. After a few seconds, displays
started appearing, overlaying on each other only slightly slower than she
could read them.
"Oh my," she said mildly, "I'd better get everyone together."
*****
Mike could feel it coming.
It was getting closer, and it was big!
This was going to be the worse one yet.
They'd never faced anything like this before!
"BAAAAARRRRRRPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!" Mike covered his speaker with a hand.
"Ecshuse me."
Laughter filled the bar, and another can of Pulselager was shoved in
front of him. "Hey Mike that was a killer burp, have another on me!"
"No shhanks, I gotta go ta work," he got up and stumbled out of the bar,
leaving behind a drunken pile of zero binomes.
*****
As has been discussed before the sector known as Floating Point Park was
by far the prettiest part of Mainframe. It was here that families came to
enjoy picnics and couples went for romantic walks. At almost any time in
a cycle you'd be able to watch as one and zero binomes wandered through
the trees and sculptures. Here and there children played Viruses and
Guardians or tried to catch the fountain's statue moving.
It was into this scene of beauty and innocence that the latest creation
of Kodachi, Queen of Chaos stepped, its short shadow darkening the ground
as it ominously approached a group of playing children. The leader of the
group, wearing what could possibly have been a Guardian Uniform, but
looked more like a pair of pyjamas, turned to the newcomer.
"What do you want?" the young zero binome demanded.
"Can I play too?" the strange sprite gushed, clasping her hands before
her.
The pretend Guardian looked her over. She was a humanoid sprite, like
the Tendos, only much younger, probably only oh-one. A loose fitting
yellow dress covered her strange grey bitmap and long dark brown hair
flowed down to her waist. Still she seemed like the outgoing type. "Sure,
what side do you want to be on?" he asked.
"How about I play..." she whipped out a small coin, holding it between
her middle and index fingers, "VIRUS! Happo Five-YEN SATSU!" Light
collected into the hole in the centre of the coin, and yellow light
filled the area about the children.
"Delinquents, you should be in school, I Hinako Ninomiya will punish
you." Her voice was richer, fuller, dripping with sexuality. As the light
cleared, those staring at the scene saw first the forms of the children,
drained of colour, lying on the ground like empty see-through husks.
Standing over the unconscious forms was a tall woman in a skin-tight
yellow dress. She had the same grey bitmap and long hair as the child and
held the young sprite's coin in her hand.
Danger senses refined by living in a system with two viruses and a
short-tempered defender kicked in. Screaming and going bug-eyed binomes
started dashing about the park.
"More delinquents," Miss Hinako declared, looking at the panicking
binomes. In a flash she changed her coin for a larger one. "Happo
Fifty-Yen Satsu!" Tendrils of energy snaked from her victims, sucking
into the hole in the centre of the coin.
Left and right binomes fell to the ground, drained of energy and colour.
As the last wisps were sucked into the tall woman a hurricane of petals
formed above her. Appearing amidst the Sakura petals, the black figure of
Kodachi appeared, grinning maniacally. Watching her creation survey her
victims the self-proclaimed Queen of Chaos burst into her best evil
laugh.
*****
Sensing the approaching cloud of anger the doors to the Command.com's
conference room snapped open, allowing Akane to storm in. Nabiki raised
her head from the table-like window, showing no concern about her
sister's mood. Beside her Kasumi gave Akane a worried look before
returning her attention to the images in the display. Along with the two
sprites was Mike, standing on a box staring at the images. A cold
compress sat nestled between his antennae.
"What's the idea with calling me back?!" Akane demanded, stomping up to
the table. Behind her, Fuchikoma scuttled through the door as it snapped
shut.
"Come, see for yourself," Kasumi waved at the window.
The image of Floating Point Park was overlaid in the display area by
graphs and dialogs. Most of the information pertained to the sprite
standing in the centre of the picture. Akane didn't recognise her, and
she knew all of the humanoid sprites in Mainframe, not hard considering
how few were left after her mother's accident.
"So?" Akane exclaimed. "She's dangerous, let's go get her!"
Nabiki shook her head. "She's Kodachi's handiwork, we can't face her as
we are now."
"How can you possibly know that?" Akane sneered. Nabiki's answer was to
reach out and touch the scroll bar on the window. The image flickered,
showing Hinako's head and Kodachi floating above her. An energy drop
formed on Akane's brow.
"Now that you are here we can get to work," Kasumi said, looking about
the group. "I have something that will temporarily increase our powers so
that we can defeat this viral monster and maybe its creator, but no one
must know about it."
"Why not?" Nabiki inquired suddenly.
Ignoring her Kasumi pulled out five objects. Four of them were pens;
gold plated at one end and uniquely coloured at the other. A globe,
matching the pen's colour, (red, green, blue or orange,) topped the rods.
The final object was a pink locket, five gems, each a different colour,
were set in the cover, linked by lines to form the points of a star.
Akane put her hands on her hips and glared at her oldest sister. "Why
didn't you give us these things when we had to face Da Principal?!"
"I didn't think Ranma and Ryoga would look good in a sailor fuku."
Kasumi answered, stumping her sister. "Akane this is for you." Kasumi
held out the locket, which Akane took and looked at confused. "Nabiki."
she handed the red pen to her sister. "Mike." The orange pen was offered
and taken. "And the blue one is mine."
Nabiki levelled a glare at Kasumi. "Ah, sis, there are four pens, whose
is the last?"
Kasumi pointed a finger up, causing everyone to look at the ceiling.
Clapping wafted down as Nabiki groaned. "I don't believe it."
*****
Kodachi laughed evilly.
"Are you going to stop sometime soon?" Hinako asked, staring up at the
floating virus. She was starting to get tired of the non-stop cackling of
her mistress. They had been in the park for so long that the energy she
had built up draining all the delinquent binomes was starting to leak
away.
"Enjoy yourself my precious Youma, this is just the first taste of those
who will fall before you. We have yet to face those that killed my
precious Ranma!" Kodachi threw back her head and, much to the other
sprite's disgust, started laughing again.
Hinako's face darkened. "And just what is a Youma?"
"Why you are!" Kodachi cried amidst her cackling, pointing a hand in
Hinako's general direction.
"That's just the kind of circular logic we expect from you, Kodachi!" a
strong voice sneered.
Both Kodachi and Hinako snapped to attention, and scanned the area
around them. "Who's there!" the virus demanded.
A figure stepped out from behind a tree. She had a green bitmap and was
wearing a bitmap tight white leotard with a blue skirt and a deep pink
bow on her back that matched her knee high boots. A gold tiara peeked out
from beneath her short brown hair. "I am the champion of justice Sailor
Moon, I fight for love and freedom against the forces of evil, and that
means you!" As she spoke Sailor Moon went through a series of poses,
ending pointing towards the virus and her minions.
Stepping out on the other side of the tree was a taller girl, like
Sailor Moon's she was dressed in a blue sailor fuku, although her bow and
boots were also blue. Her brow was also adorned with a tiara, hiding
beneath her long flowing black hair. "In the name of the god of Knowledge
I will protect the innocent, for I am Sailor Mercury!"
The next girl emerged from behind Sailor Moon to pose dramatically. As
with the previous two she wore a white sailor fuku, but the dress and bow
were both coloured red. The tiara on her forehead showed easily with her
boyish haircut. Surprisingly her feet were adorned with a pair of
high-heeled shoes. "I, Sailor Mars, will fight for justice in
high-heels!"
There was a pause before a box fell from the tree above, bouncing a few
times before coming to rest beside Sailor Mars. It got to its feet,
revealing its eyes in the centre of the screen and the orange dress
resting beneath its speaker. "Protecting love and the freedom of speech,
I am Sailor Venus." Everyone glared at him.
Finally a fifth figure leapt out of the tree. It looked like a red
mechanical bug wearing a green dress over the back segment of its body. A
large golden circlet sat around the "head" section and each of its limbs
ended in sandaled claws. "As Sailor Jupiter I will fight for the weak and
down-trodden!"
Sailor Mars looked at the others out of the side of her eyes, still
standing in her pose. "Does anyone know why we did that?" she whispered.
Sneering Kodachi crossed her arms. "So the defenders are too cowardly to
come themselves, instead sending a group of girls to face me! Well I will
destroy you, then I will go on and make them pay for destroying my
precious Ranma!"
"I AM NOT A GIRL!" Sailor Venus objected loudly. Everyone turned to look
at him, then the dress he was wearing, then back to his screen, disbelief
in their eyes. "Okay, okay, whatever," he grumbled.
"She doesn't recognise us?" Moon whispered to Mercury.
"Must be some kind of data mask in the codes," Mercury replied equally
quietly. "Just run with it."
Sailor Moon stepped forward, and stared heroically at Kodachi. "This
system's defenders know that we are better suited to defeat the likes of
you, evil Queen, and defeat you we will, for we are the Sailor Senshi!"
"We shall see!" the evil Queen Kodachi cried. "Get them Hinako, punish
these fools!"
Hinako whipped out her small coin again. "Happo Five-Yen Satsu!"
The five scouts leapt away, leaving the blast to impact on the tree,
leaving it colourless and drooping. Each of the Scouts landed on their
knees, ready to fight.
Sailor Venus raised one finger to point into the sky. "Venus Crescent
Beams smash!" she, ah he cried, swinging his arm down. A beam of light
shot from his finger, lancing towards the evil Youma.
Miss Hinako dove to the side, and aimed at Venus for an energy draining
blast. However she found her fingers empty. "My coin! Where's my coin?!"
She started looking about, before finding it resting not far away.
Sailor Mars, also spotting the object of her attention, linked her hands
before her in a childish imitation of a gun. She lowered her head as if
praying. "Fire soul!" Pointing her outstretched fingers towards the coin
she sent out a burst of fire that erased it. A pang of regret at the
necessity of it struck Sailor Mars.
"Curses!" Hinako cried, and pulled another coin from a pouch at her
waist. "Happo Five-Yen Satsu!" Another blast shot towards Sailor Mars,
sending her scrambling out the way.
Unnoticed the blast continued on its way, until striking a young one
binome with brown hair wearing a more sedate sailor fuku. She collapsed
to the ground, drained. A zero binome wearing glasses so thick that they
distorted his eyes ran up to her. "Naru!" he cried picking her up to
cradle her.
Back on the battlefield, the Sailor Senshi found themselves on the
defensive, leaping out of the way as blast after blast flew from Hinako's
coin. Sailor Mercury had managed to find herself a hiding place and had
pulled out a small compact. Opening it revealed a tiny keyboard and
display screen. Touching a few controls she brought up a display on the
Youma. It confirmed what she had already guessed.
"Everyone, get ready to act!" she called, stepping out from her cover.
As Miss Hinako readied herself for an another attack Sailor Mercury
stood arms crossed before her and eyes closed in concentration. "Shabon
SPRAY!" she yelled, sending a cloud of bubbles flying out. A heavy fog
settled over the area, leaving each of the combatants standing in a world
of their own.
"How dare you delinquents hide from me!" Hinako cried and sent out
blasts at wild.
"I think you won't be needing that!" Jupiter cried cheekily from the
fog, and a claw whirred out of the mist to lock around the coin. The
youma stumbled forward as it jerked from her hand. As Hinako reached for
her larger coin a figure materialised behind her and grabbed the pouch
containing all of Hinako's money.
"Mars debt collection!" the girl cried, vanishing back into the fog.
"How dare you!" Hinako exclaimed.
"Now Sailor Moon!" Mercury's voice rang out strong through the rapidly
thinning fog.
Shapes became discernible to the Youma, but the one that captured her
attention was standing in front of her, arm raised above its head. A
crescent shape on the end of a short rod was visible.
"Moon Healing," Sailor Moon sang, waving the Crescent Moon wand before
her, "ACTIVATION!" Power flowed from the wand and into Miss Hinako,
causing her to scream as all the evil Kodachi had fed into her was
cleansed from her body. She collapsed to the ground, no longer quite the
buxom woman she had been, but healed of her pain.
Kodachi, seeing her creation defeated became infuriated. "Curse you
Sailor Senshi, I will return!" she vanished in a hurricane of petals,
leaving only her grating laughter to mock them.
*****
Fuchikoma peered through the window into the Nekohanten. Inside, sitting
at Akane's usual both were the rest of the Sailor Senshi in civilian
forms. Unusually the group wasn't the centre of attention. Instead the
patrons of the restaurant were discussing the new heroes in Mainframe.
While speculation as to their real identities was rife, not a single
guess was anywhere near the truth.
Mousse glided up beside the booth. "What can I get the most important
family in Mainframe?" he inquired pleasantly. Mike cleared his throat.
"Oh yeah and you."
"Just a quantum shake thanks," Akane replied, overriding Mike, "heavy on
the chocolate quarks."
"I'll have some electron herb tea thanks Mousse," Nabiki added.
Kasumi was still looking at the menu before her. "And I'll have a power
salad, two data burgers and a large strange quark sundae please." She
looked up to find everyone staring, surprise in their eyes. "Is something
wrong?"
"Of course not madam," Mousse replied, adjusting his glasses. "I'll be
back with your order in a moment." He glided off down his rails.
"Hey, he forgot me!" Mike cried, watching Mousse vanish into the
kitchen.
Nabiki looked askance at Kasumi "Hungry sis?"
"Oh yes, saving the system is hard work." Kasumi smiled sweetly and
Nabiki couldn't tell if she was joking or not.
"Yeah, but not a person knows we did it," Akane grumped.
Nabiki shrugged. "Look on the bright side sis, now Kodachi is looking
for the Sailor Senshi instead of chasing us to get revenge. And we don't
have to worry about Mike blowing the secret."
"Got that right," Mike grumbled. "No way I'll admit to wearing that
skirt."
Their laughter carried across the restaurant, causing heads to turn.
-----
-----------
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz