Here's the new stuff! I know it's short and that you've been waiting for an
eternity. Gimme a break, I was on vacation!

As always, thanks to Mr. Beaubien for suggesting an idea and the creators
of two wonderful anime
series. And C&C is greatly appreciated!

BEN
--
The Original Sweat Pants-Wearing Man presents
Ben's Heap o' Non-Essentials n' Stuff:
at http://cyniska.ubishops.ca/Benny/
"Keyboard stuck failure. Press F1 to continue."
--
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Noa's New Fiancee - SURPRISE!
By: BEN
All characters attached to the Patlabor label are created by Headgear. They
are used without permission. All characters attached to the Ranma ½ label
are created by Rumiko Takahashi and are also used without permission.

Chapter 3: Love in the Air?
	She stood at the hangar doors as she liked to on days like this one. There
was no wind, but a gentle stir was in the air. And the sun? It watched the
whole base from above, peeking out from the clouds that decided today just
wasn't such a good time to start raining. And so, Noa stood just out from
the doorway and looked out across the field. And out on that field, was a
young man. He was a little bit younger than she - perhaps a few years. And
she was engaged...
	His kata was improvised. All he wanted to do was keep himself busy, not
quite a work out, but at least to focus his mind and body so that he was at
his best. One foot slid forward while the other stayed behind. His arms
crossed at his chest and slowly extended outwards, flexing his deltoids. He
felt the air passing him by - no wind, just the stir of a small breeze. His
second foot swept wide, this time his first foot remaining still. And
again, he let his arms wander a little. They flew forward in a rapid
succession of punches. And his legs kept him upright. That's all there was
to it - keeping his body at ease while going through the motions that made
him a martial artist.
	Her eyes closed for a moment. When she opened them, Ranma was standing in
the field as he was before, but now he was no longer in his combat stance.
She took it that he had finished his training kata for now. Taking a deep
breath, Noa strode to forward to him. It was a long distance and before she
knew it, they were more or less alone in the field. The sound of an
Ingram's leg actuators could be heard in the background. That would be Ohta
practicing with Officer Clancy, Noa decided. She went to Ranma and tapped
him on his shoulder.
	Ranma turned to her, his eyes shining with life. There was a strength she
had never seen before, like a raw power that could conquer anything. But
that wasn't important to her at the moment, and she hoped it wasn't
important to him either. They sized each other up, then stepped into each
other. And there in the empty field in the late afternoon sun, they
embraced.
	Noa shook herself from her day dream. The day went on and she decided that
disturbing Ranma in the middle of the kata wouldn't be right.
	Ranma felt the air pass around his leg as he swung out with a cresent
kick. He was oblivious to Noa watching from the hangar doors. For him, the
motions were important.

	The sweat dripped from his forehead uncontrollably as he straightened out
from his training stance. He had stood for an hour and the while the breeze
kept him from boiling over, Ranma felt that he was rather well cooked for a
human being in the sun. And at this time, the smell of the day's catch
drifted out from the hangar. He wiped his brow and strode towards the
hangar. His nose guided his way to a nicely broiled fish.
	Ranma was greeted at the door by several of the mechanics who shifted
aside nervously. He didn't care - they could say all they wanted behind him
- that he was one of those weird martial artists from the old country -
that he and his father probably just got of the boat from China (which,
incidentally, they had almost a week ago). But so long as no one got
between himself and the fish stew that bubbled in the over-sized wok at the
mechanics' lunch table, life was fine.
	Around ten seconds after those thoughts, Genma had decided that he himself
would make sure that he had his own share of lunch. After all, raising a
son on his own was hard work. And what better to replenish his energy than
to partake of the fish that he had caught with his own net last night? He
was a proud man and to have the opportunity to catch his food told him,
<I'm a gifted man to have been able to catch this!>
	Of course, the collective thoughts of the mechanics at large went along
the lines, <what an idiot, waving that net in the water last night...> The
truth as it stood, involved the a coast patrol's boat and it's secret stash
of fishing nets. The mechanics crew of SV2 had a certain understanding with
the crew of the patrol boat and once in a while, the boat would make an
extra pass with a small net dragging behind. The fish they caught made the
daily catch of the mechanics' rod and reel operations look pathetic in
comparison. Needless to say, they were all very grateful.
	A large panda made it's way over to the steaming cauldron of fish and
produced a bowl from behind its back. Although it wasn't terribly
identifiable as one, it gave what could have been a smile to the chef at
the table and accepted its portion. And while it walked away, the chef
stared after it unsure whether or not to report the incident... It seemed
Panda bears where sighted rather frequently here lately...
	Ranma pushed his way through the crowded hangar. The place wasn't usually
this full - only around meal time. Everyone working at this post suddenly
materialised in the hangar together at this one time. And Ranma felt that
he would be crushed in the masses. He found it somewhat disturbing so be in
a place with so many people. Ranma had spent a great deal of time out in
the wild for the majority of his life where there was hardly a soul to be
seen with the exception of the occasional herdsman moving his cattle around
or the generous farmer who agreed to let them stay the nights. Civilisation
seemed such an imaginary thing out there.
	Jostling about in the crowd, Ranma eventually arrived at the serving
table. His hand went for a bowl on the table but encountered a soft
resistance. Apparently someone else had tried reaching for the same bowl as
well. He strained to see around the burly man next to him. But all he saw
was the smallish hand that his own fingers had collided into. That was all
he needed to know it was Noa. He used his fingers to pluck two bowls from
the stack and offered one to his unseen friend behind the big man. He
handed his bowl to the chef. The thick broth dropped into his bowl like
mud, but it smelled good enough for him. Ranma also turned hoping to catch
a glimpse of the red hair that would be bobbing somewhere around the table.
It was about time he spent some time with his supposed fiancee, whether he
agreed with the deal or not - she deserved his attention. And he believed
in his own heart - it would be the honourable thing to do anyway. And as it
was, he knew exactly where he could find her.
	Sure enough, seated at the hydraulic lift mechanism of Alphonse's bed, the
young woman sat with a bowl of fish stew. Ranma approached her carefully
trying to keep any emotion from seeping around his face. "Nothing to worry
about..."
	"What?" Noa looked up from her dinner.
	Ranma laughed, more at himself than to cover his blunder of having spoken
his thoughts out loud. With incredible agility, he leapt from the hangar
floor to the top of Alphonse's bed. He stepped over to Noa where she sat as
if sharing he dinner with the giant labor at her side. "Oh nothing," he
smiled. "I was just thinking about... you know."
	"Our relationship, you mean?"
	Ranma, not being terribly good at tackling this particular kind of
subject, was relieved that Noa had caught on easily. "I never did tell you
what happened up north, did I? With your father, I mean."
	"No... you didn't." Although Ranma would be oblivious to such nuances, Noa
found herself suddenly holding her breath. They had avoided this subject
for the two days since they had met. From the tales the boy recounted to
her, Noa firmly believed that while Mr. Saotome was certainly a good man at
heart... his capacity for honestly left something to be desired. In a
strange way, Noa was somewhat glad Ranma had come to her to finally explain
how they ended up engaged while still total strangers. "So you came back
over the Sea of Japan from Siberia..." she started.
	"Yes... well. We sort of went along the borders keeping out of site from
Soviets. After all, he had only passage to and from China, but that didn't
leave nearly enough room to travel, according to Pop." Ranma ran through
his memory trying pick out details that might make for an interesting
story. But all that he worried about most was how he and his father had
rounded northern Hokkaido and eventually made their way down past the small
city of  Tomakomai... the place where his life unexpectedly turned on its
side and twisted his existence.
	"You made a circular trip, then?"
	"We left from south west Japan and up towards China." Ranma tried to fetch
the geography from out of his head. "Hmm... we actually went around Korea,
along the eastern border of Mongolia. But that's not important, we arrived
back in Japan by boat at the north west coast and landed on the Shakotan
peninsula, I think."
	Noa considered the path Ranma was giving her. "Wait, Tomakomai is much
further inland than that!"
	"Ah yes, we didn't head south right away. Pop was busy showing me the
sights since we were in the homeland, if you know what I mean." Ranma took
a sip from his dinner bowl before continuing. Looking at his friend, he
knew what was on her mind. "But I guess you do want to get to how we met up
with your father, right?"
	Noa nodded vigorously.
	"Beer." Ranma sighed. "Pop was talking about the breweries that were
popping up around the country and he decided that stopping at one would be
a good idea."
	Ranma didn't seem to be the type to drink, thought Noa. At least, he
didn't seem the kind of guy who would kick back with an alcoholic beverage
- not with the kind of strict physical discipline she had witnessed in the
few days she had known him. In any case, she decided that what he did with
his father was his own business; if Mr. Saotome saw fit to allow the boy to
drink at an early age, it wasn't her concern. After all, she was hardly an
innocent child herself. She giggled.
	"What's the matter?" Ranma asked curiously. "Did I say something funny?"
He caught himself, "No wait, I mean, I don't drink."
	"It's not that. I just thought it was funny that your father would take
you along everywhere to train - including a brewery."
	"Oh well... training isn't everything," he laughed.
	At this, Noa was genuinely surprised. It had seemed to her that all Ranma
ever thought about was keeping himself in shape... now... who was this
person sitting next to her? She spooned a little stew into her mouth and
listened to the story.
	It seemed that her father admitted that he wasn't very happy to have
raised Noa in a brewery. But business was business and this home brewery
was what brought in the money. He was proud of his daughter for her having
achieved what she had wanted all along since the first labors began
appearing from Shinohara Heavy Industries and Toyohata. That she wanted to
be a labor pilot however, wasn't exactly pleasing to know. He thought
perhaps growing up in a brewery played a major part in her development -
why she seemed such a tomboy sometimes. But that wasn't important. After
all, she was a young woman now and it was important that she lived a good
life - if that meant finding a husband, then maybe marriage wasn't such a
bad idea. A strong young man would bring out the woman in her, he reasoned.
And somewhere along that line of logic, he also reasoned that Ranma would
grow to be such a man....
	Noa sat in silence digesting both this new information and her dinner.
Somehow she had guessed it would have been something like this. But all of
this still begged the question, "Why? How did Mr. Saotome agree to that?
What made the arrangement so... final?"
	Ranma saw the question coming from a mile away. He knew he wasn't terribly
wise in the ways of the woman, but he knew what Noa really wanted. "You
want to know what your father offered that sealed the agreement, don't
you?"
	Again, Noa nodded silently. A chill of nervous fear run down her spine.
Somehow, she knew Mr. Saotome duped her father.
	"It's really simple... the brewery is ready for expansion... or sale."
	Noa's heart skipped a beat. No, this couldn't mean her father had given
the family business away... could it?
	Ranma laughed in his bowl as he drank down the last of the stew. "Oh don't
look so shocked! No, Pop isn't the new owner... but your father offered to
pass a pretty big share of the business when he expands with a new brewery.
He said he didn't want to give up the business that he had worked so hard
to build from nothing."
	Noa was truly relieved now. Everything, as unbelievably crazy as it was,
made sense. Her engagement was a set-up by her father and was sealed only
by an offer to bring in a new business partner. So essentially, she slowly
realised, the situation was not a done deal. And now, staring into her
empty bowl, Noa had the uncomfortable feeling that the final decision was
resting heavily on her shoulders... would she finalise the deal?
	And Ranma sat with his eyes wandering the dispersing crowd in the hangar.
He felt this was making a lot more sense than that Amazon bunch they had
run into while in China. At least this time, he felt it was up to him
whether he would bring this situation to a close and marry this girl. But
would he? Even Mr. Izumi had said, he would grow to be the man for her...
Would he really be good for her? Was it fair to assume so? Besides, the
engagement and propriety deal was conditional on whether or not they
eventually married. "Nothing to worry about," he said out loud.
	Noa giggled at that as she lay back on the tarp that currently served as
Alphonse's blanket. Beside her, Ranma set down the empty bowl and dropped
back with her. They let the world go on about its own business and stayed
on their backs contentedly in silence.

	Late that night, the hangar was deathly silent except for the breathing of
two figures hidden atop a large metal object. In the darkness, one would
have to be up close to see that the object was a vehicle - a very large
vehicle. The vehicle had a large number "1" painted on it which would
identify it as carrier one, currently the sleeping arrangement for an
Ingram police labor and two tired humans.
	But from the top, one would see something a little different. For the
observer would probably understand that there were (although one was a
machine) actually three friends asleep on the carrier. One of them began to
move.
	Ranma blinked sleepiness from his eyes. He slowly sat up feeling the
stiffness in his back. <Funny,> he thought, <it was comfortable enough to
fall asleep on, who knew I'd wake up in pain?> He turned to see his
companions. He grinned in the dark at the still form of his fiancee by his
side. <Didn't realise how pretty she was until just now... ugh, I really
gotta get up to the barracks to sleep better...> They had enjoyed hiding up
on the carrier top even as the last of the mechanics left for the day to do
whatever off-duty things they did - probably getting more fishing done. Out
of sight no one had missed them or noticed where they were all evening
while they simply enjoyed each other's company and eventually fell asleep
with Alphonse underneath them both.
	The boy got to his feet and was about to drop the five metres off the side
of the carrier when he stopped to check once more on Noa. He decided to
save her the aching back that he was feeling now and tip-toed around the
giant beneath the tarpaulin. Satisfied with the spot he found, Ranma picked
up the sleeping girl and gently put her down in the crevice between
Alphonse's arm and his waist. <This will do as a hammock would, I guess,>
Ranma thought. Finally, he jumped to the ground and bounded up towards his
assigned cot in the duty barracks.

	Clouds sat lazily in the morning sky doing nothing but blanketing the
world in dimness. The sun could only peek through the holes left uncovered
by the clouds. In short, the day was going to have crappy weather. And
Ranma hated waking up to that kind of morning.
	His father slapped him silly until he drifted to consciousness and punched
the panda bear hard enough that he flew across the room. But it didn't
matter, not anymore anyway. Ranma was awake and he still felt a soreness in
his back from having slept part of the night against Alphonse's uneven
shoulder joint. The soreness also reminded him of the other person he had
been with during the night...
	Ranma hopped out of bed and threw on the crumpled red shirt he found on
the floor. Heading out the door, he stumbled into his shoes and tore around
towards to the main hangar bay wondering if his fiancee had woken up yet.
But as he came out onto the walkway to the stairs, it occurred to him that
most of the crew were already milling about. "How could she be asleep in
this kind of noise...?" That thought in mind, Ranma bounded up to the
walkway's hand rail to get a better view of the activity below.
	Thankful for the extensive training he already had, Ranma was completely
comfortable on the rail. The solid feel of the thin rail was as reassuring
as the feel of a single pole of bamboo holding him high above the ground,
or in this case, above Alphonse's carrier. However, this morning, the
carrier's bed was upright and Ranma couldn't see the back of the carrier
beyond the lights and rigging of the carrier's bed. He decided to get a
closer look now that he was sure Noa was awake.
	His legs propelled him forward away from the walkway and he grabbed the
maintenance grips along the top end of the carrier's raised bed. Ranma
swung around to the opposite side just as Alphonse's eye camera swung to
the right and stared right at him. "Gah! Give a guy a heart attack, why
don't you?!"
	From Alphonse's neck, a glass windshield went upright and Noa's head
slowly came into view from inside. Without the standard pilot's helmet, she
didn't look the part of a labor operative. In fact, Ranma noticed that she
was actually wearing a pair of mechanic's overalls like the maintenance
crew in place of her usual officer's uniform. "Surprise! I saw you from the
moment you came onto the walkway!"
	"Yeah... right. I'm happy to have been your subject for a joke," he
started sarcastically. His frown quickly disappeared anyway as he
considered that he had never been much of a liar anyway. "What're you doing
with Alphonse so early?"
	"I'm just running a daily diagnostic. If you look down, he's still plugged
into the carrier's charging lines. This is just to make sure everything's
running on Alphonse - we don't want him burning out due to some unnoticed
system error at the wrong moment, do we?"
	"I guess not." Ranma took a seat on Alphonse's shoulder. And watched as
she descended into the depths of the labor's chest cavity again. "I don't
see Ohta-san working on his labor this morning."
	Noa's voice had a slight echo when she answered. "This isn't a required
systems check - I do it just because I love my Pat-chan," said the cheery
voice from within.
	<That's right,> Ranma remembered, <She treats this machine like a
person... Her patrol labor-chan.> He smiled at the thought... that she
found love in an inanimate object wasn't really as funny as it was just
cute. But for the moment, he felt as if he were actually talking to
Alphonse rather than the person inside. Could he himself be turning into
the labor-freak that his fiancee was?
	Ranma continued talking to the general area of Alphonse's head. To the
people below, he realised, he may as well have been talking to the labor
itself anyway. "Did you sleep well?"
	"Yes, thank you for moving me! I must have been in a deep sleep not to
have noticed until I got up this morning."
	"Well, I didn't want you as sore as myself - as comforting as Alphonse can
be, I don't think sleeping on his shoulder's really the best thing for
humans!" This was beginning to feel silly. Ranma decided to climb across to
the nape of Alphonse's neck and peered into the darkness. He was surprised
to see that the many displays and lighted switches inside the cockpit was
enough to illuminate Noa's face to him.
	Noa continued to work at each system, including the various imaging
systems. At the moment, she went to infra-red heat view and saw Ranma's
legs to either side of the right shoulder. That meant he was probably able
to look down on her from above the pilot's seat. She thought it would be
fun to run her check on Alphonse's hand actuators now.
	While sitting the main torso, Ranma would feel the insulated vibration of
the shoulder joints moving. As the arms reached up to surprise him a second
time this morning, Ranma continued to stared into the darkness of the
cockpit. Noa knew that the light around her was barely bright enough to see
her face; hid her arms under the side consoles and hoped Ranma couldn't
make sense of the displays. The hands crept closer to the neck as if the
labor was reaching to scratch an itch much as a human would. But what Noa
didn't take into account was the fact that Ranma was a martial artist with
an unrecorded level of proficiency.
	The hand came a foot from Ranma's back but for all her sneakiness, Noa
knew that it was too late by then. The flash of red whipped across the
front of Alphonse's chest and beyond the reach of the right arm. And while
Noa jerked the left arm up at him, Ranma used that momentum to hop above
the carrier's raised bed and over to the walkway. His jump didn't need to
bring him past the hand rail as he kicked off from outside the railing and
swung towards the ground one support beam to the next like a monkey.
	Following him, Alphonse bent over at the fleeing form. "You're not getting
away," the external speakers boomed.
	Coming out of stand-by mode, the Ingram's automatic systems signalled the
carrier to release the holding clamps. Ranma bolted for the hanger doors as
Alphonse pulled his legs free from the charging lines. He tugged hard on
the doors and they slowly moved open. "No wonder that Shige guy had to put
all his weight into opening these suckers!", he screamed to himself. With
the doors ajar, he squeezed through the crack with hoards of mechanics
cheering for him. "They think I'm as good as caught - I'll show them all! I
can beat the cat and mouse game! I can beat the labor!"
	The Ingram came thundering at the hangar doors while the mechanics crews
followed to see the showdown between the labor and the human. Ranma was
right -  they all had faith in not only the abilities of the labor, but
driven by Noa, that was a sure bet. Or so they thought. The Ingram moved to
the doors and gave them a push and with a fraction of Ranma's effort,
pulled the doors wide open. Alphonse's sensors quickly scanned the area for
a small human male. Noa's eyes darted from one display to the next
searching for her fiancee...
	The human shape on the front screen dashed to the side, but Alphonse's
field of view was nearly a full 180 degrees. Noa pivoted and followed Ranma
as he leapt over and past Chief mechanic Sakaki's returning car.
	The brakes jammed down and the car screeched to a halt. In his driver's
seat, the old gentleman cursed at Ranma. "That brat! What does he think he
doing jumping around like an animal?!"
	But Ranma knew exactly what he was doing. Sakaki was coming in for the day
since unlike the rest of the mechanics, the Old Man came and went every
night. And Ranma also figured that it was to his advantage. The Old Man's
sudden appearance would surely slow down Noa in her labor for fear that he
would disapprove of the labor's use in this manner. And above all, he
doubted very much that Noa would dare step over the senior mechanic's
personal car. He easily cleared the car and sped around the corner away
from his pursuer.
	The Ingram moved around the car quickly and smoothly as if the obstacle
were merely a pebble in its path. Noa kept Alphonse low to the ground
anticipating Ranma's small form as she spun around the corner. But for all
the Ingram's mobility, it was still as a man swatting at a fly. The
mechanic's crew in tow, Alphonse's sensor eye scanned the area around the
corner. Not one of the 30 pairs of eyes or Alphonse's camera caught the
movement along the roof.
	Ranma remembered something particular about the labors that Noa had told
him the second day of his stay. He remembered admiring her guts when she
talked about Alphonse's missing arm that afternoon he arrived. She had been
in a terrible fight against a mysteriously powerful labor that was later
revealed to be created by Schaft Enterprises. She had complained that it
seemed Alphonse was losing one arm after another. A few months before that
incident, she and Alphonse had battled something she called a Zero. He was
impressed by what she had told him about dangling high above the ocean and
climbing up to the enemy. Her goal had been to disable the labor by using a
manual override on the back of the neck. He ran.
	The Ingram straightened up and the head turned to catch Ranma in it's
tracking system.
	Ranma had no idea whether or not an Ingram had a similar kill switch, but
this was his one chance to show up all those mechanics on the ground. <A
well-trained man can defeat the most powerful of enemies,> he remembered
his father saying some time ago. Although Alphonse was near the hanger, he
wasn't as close as he could have been. Noa has manoeuvred the Ingram so
that she would be able to catch Ranma against the wall when she had rounded
the corner... and now, that had Ranma at a disadvantage. Ranma jumped the
impossible distance.
	The air beneath him was inviting. It asked Ranma if he'd like to descend
into it, but he knew falling to the ground wasn't the wisest of actions. As
Noa moved to catch him, Ranma took hold of the extended labor sized hand
and flipped over towards the antennae fixed to the right side of the
Ingram's head. Ranma gulped suddenly in the split second it took to get
there, <I hope those things are solid.> He made for the grab and sure
enough, they supported him as he landed on the torso right where he was to
begin with that morning. His gambit paid off. Right there behind the head
was a small access panel with a snap-open cover next to it. The big red
button beckoned his ego. Hitting it, Ranma knew he had won. The access
panel slid open and he thought, "One punch should jiggle a few wires loose
in there. I don't want to break anything important after all!" He smiled
and drove his fist at the override system.
	Alphonse came to a dead stop. The mechanics were silent. Sakaki had
witnessed the defeat and chuckled softly. Ranma sat down on Alphonse's
shoulder.
	The pilot's seat, which was on an independant motorised lift pushed her
head up into the cloudy day. "I can't believe you... you start praying that
you didn't do any serious damage to my Pat-chan!" She had a frown and pout
to which Ranma started laughing.
	<Yes... she's cute...>
---end chapter 3---
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