Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong	

Bubblegum Crisis/Ranma 1/2: The boomer that just won't die part 1/8

This story is meant to be read non-stop all the way through, but 
I have taken the liberty to break them into parts. If you wish to
download the entire story, you can grab it from my webpage,
http://www.li.net/~jeffwong/index.htm :)

On with the story:



     "Hiryu Shoten Ha!!!" Ranma shouted as he released a massive 
hurricane blast toward the dark blue boomer hovering high above him "You 
ain't gonna get away that easily"
  The hurricane formed right in front of Ranma, engulfing him but 
leaving him unharmed. The blast was so powerful it kept expanding until 
it was about twenty meters in diameter. Some of the surrounding 
building were torn to shreds as they were engulfed in the blast also. 
Luckily, Ranma knew they weren't occupied since he was in the middle of 
an abandonned town, the slums.
  He watched as the dark blue boomer hovered backwards at an intense 
speed, avoiding the blast just in time.
  "Damn, this boomer's nothing like the other ones I fought!!!" Priss 
said to herself. She had to push her hardsuit to the limit just to avoid 
something that powerful. Heck, she had to push it to the limit just to 
avoid the boomer down below her. She looked at her view screen within 
the helmet and noticed that her scanners were going ballistic. She 
couldn't get a reading on what class the boomer on the ground below was. 
It seemed like this boomer was equipped with some scanner jamming 
devices. This frustrated Priss even more, making her want to get rid of 
this new breed of boomer even faster.
  The blast abated, leaving Ranma standing in the middle of the 
street, a massive crater surrounding him.  "Damn, I'm never gonna be 
able to hit that boomer at this rate" he swore silently to himself "It's 
too 
fast" He stood there patiently, waiting for the boomer to hover lower 
so he could jump up toward it. He was able to leap high into the sky, 
but nowhere near as high as the boomer was hovering.
  Priss looked down at the boomer "Why isn't he following me?" She 
hovered down and settled on the top roof of one of the taller 
buildings, gazing down at him "Hm, it looks like this is going to be 
easier than I thought. This boomer can't fly. Strange, considering 
how much energy it could generate. I guess I better pick him off from 
up here"  
  She pointed her arm toward him and released several laser blasts 
directly toward the boomer, only to have the boomer skillfully avoid 
it "Damn, this's one's freakin' agile boomer"
  Ranma managed to dodge the blast just in time, leaping out of the 
way. As he rolled to his feet, he looked back toward where he was 
standing and saw three tiny craters there. He looked up at the boomer 
and said to himself, "Damn, that boomer's got a good AI. It's tryin' to 
pick me off from a distance since it knows I'm dangerous up close"
  Ranma dusted the sand off his clothes as he smiled confidently to 
himself "If it's gonna play that way"
  Priss watched in astonishment "Man, that boomer's even got an AI 
that makes it brush its clothes when it's dirty. What kinda monsters 
are Genom creating?! And it's even smiling!"
  "Mouko Takabisha!!!" he shouted as a gigantic ki blast tore from 
his hands, flying straight toward the boomer at an intense speed. The 
blast was so strong that even the ground below it melted from the 
shear heat. The building even started to melt before the blast hit 
it.
  Priss lunged off the building roof just in time as the blast ripped 
the entire building to shreds, continuing onward into the sky behind it. 
She twisted in mid air as she fell toward the ground and saw half the 
building just disappear from the intense heat and power of the blast. 
Before she hit the gorund, she 
managed to land safely via the use of her boosters. But as she stood on 
the ground, her heart was racing. How on eartg can this boomer generate 
so much energy, she thought to herself. This boomer was 
absolutely nothing like she had ever fought. Nothing.
  Ranma stood there, watching the boomer intently, waiting to see what 
it would do next. He knew that boomers always had a tendancy to 
charge forward to attack, and that would be its fatal mistake. He 
would use his Kashuu TenshiAmaguriken technique on it to finish it 
off.
  Priss stood there, waiting for the boomer's next move. She looked 
down at her arm and noticed that it was a bit singed from before. She 
knew her armor would not be able to sustain a direct hit from another 
one of those deadly blasts. And she to do everything in her power to 
avoid it. It scared her to death to realize the damage her armor was 
take from being within close proximity to this boomer's projectiles, let 
alone a direct hit.
  Why isn't it coming at me, Ranma thought to himself. He was eager 
to finish this boomer off, but it wasn't moving. He took a step 
forward, only to have his steps matched by the boomer taking a step 
back.
  Hm, it looks like it's trying to avoid me, he thought. He shrugged 
his shoulders. That doesn't matter, I'll just pick it off from her 
"Horizontal Blast revised, Hiyru ShotenHa!!!" he shouted loudly as a 
huge horizontal hurricane ripped from his hands straight toward the 
boomer.
  Priss wasn't able to react to it in time as the blast engulfed her 
entirely. She was blown backwards into the building, the wall 
collapsing in from the impact. If it weren't for her wearing the 
armor, every bone in her body would have been broken, especially her 
spine. It would have been shattered into a million pieces.
  She slowly got up to her feet, cluching at her ribs. A few of her 
ribs must have been bruised or broken.
  Man, that boomer even acts like it's in pain, Ranma thought with a bit 
of awe. I can't believe Genom got this far with its AI. It really looks 
like it's hurt. For a quick second, he almost felt a bit of remorse.
  Priss slowly made her way back out of the building through the 
hole. She knew she was done for, all the boomer would have to do is 
finish her off. But for some reason, it wasn't moving. It just stood 
there, looking at her.
  Ranma took a few steps forward and stopped, still a bit cautious 
about attacking. He knew the boomer was faking an injury, so he 
didn't want to be fooled.
  "Hey, Priss, you okay?" Priss heard the communicator in her helmet 
come to life "Just keep him busy for a minute. We're on our way"
  "Sylia," Priss spoke back "Stay away! This thing's a goddamn monster!" 
But it was too late. The communicator went off. Her friends were on 
their way. They would surely die if they attacked this boomer. This 
boomer was probably capable of taking on a dozen Knight Sabers. She knew 
what she had to do. She would have to turn on the suit's auto destruct 
mode and sacrifice herself and blow the boomer up in the process.
  Ranma stood there for a few moments, wondering what the boomer is 
up to. It wasn't moving. He knew there was no chance it could ambush 
him since he was too far away. He could just finish it off with his 
Mouko Takabisha , but something prevented him. He felt this bit of 
compassion toward the boomer. Even though it was faking pain, it 
almost looked like it was really hurt.
  The ground behind him exploded as Ranma instinctively jumped 
forward out of the way. He rolled to his feet to see a small crater 
in place of where he was just a second ago "Damn, that was close!" 
  He looked up into the sky to see two more boomers hovering above him. 
They all looked like the same boomer he had been fighting all this time 
yet different in some way. He noticed they all had a slightly different 
exoskeleton and color. 
  Ranma could feel the adrenaline surging through him as he realized 
he was outnumbered. This would be a very hard fight for his life. But 
as he stood there, he knew there was a good chance he could take all 
of them down before he succombed. He turned around to look at the 
boomer. He wanted to finish it off so he wouldn't worry about it 
later on.
  When his eyes rested on that supposedly injured boomer, he was 
shocked to see another boomer, a small purple and pink one helping 
it out.
  Man, what kinda AI chips do these things have, he thought to 
himself. He watched as the smaller boomer used its thrusters to fly 
it to safety, placing the blue boomer down in the middle of the 
street a dozen meters away from him, definitely out of his immdeiate 
reach.
  "You guys have to get out of here!" Priss told Nene "It's a goddamn 
moster! It's got energy blasts that's far worse than any boomer we ever 
encountered!"
  "What?!" Priss heard Sylia's voice from the communicator "It's got 
what?!"
  "Energy blasts!" she talked into the communicator "They're powerful 
enough to destroy this entire town" 
  She looked up and noticed Linna and Sylia turn their attention 
toward her after hearing something like that.
  They looked back down at that single boomer and hovered backwards a 
bit defensively.
  "It's got a weakness," Priss said through clenched teeth. "It can't 
fly"
  Ranma's gaze went back and forth between the two hovering boomers and 
the other two in the middle of the street. It looked like they were 
trying to communicate with each other. They were probably sending out 
communication waves that he couldn't hear.
  He knew there was one thing he could do if his assumption was 
correct. He would have to destroy that injured boomer before it would 
transfer the data of his fighting technique 
  "Mokou Takabisha!" he said as he sent a ki blast rocketing toward the 
two boomers on the street. He smile at the thought of killing two 
boomers with one blast but was shocked to see the little purple and pink 
boomer's boosters blaze into life as it jetted them both away from the 
huge blast. The blast kept going straight down the street until it 
struck a building a short ways down the road, demolishing it.
  "God, that thing's hot!" Nene commented about the ki-blast as she 
looked at her suit. 
Part of her armor was singed like Priss' armor. It was a lot worse than 
Priss' because she had reacted a bit 
late.
  Sylia and Linna, as they both hovered high in the sky, both shot 
several laser blasts at the human-looking boomer, shocked to see it 
jump out of the way skillfully. They watched the boomer roll to its 
feet and shout something.
  "Hiryu Shoten Ha! Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Ranma said twice. He let loose two 
hurricane blasts, one emerging from each fist, like a double uppercut. 
The first one was thrown vertically toward the sky as the other was 
thrown horizontally. The vertical and horizontal blast engulfed each 
other to form a diagonal 
blast directly toward the two hovering boomers. 
  Suck on that ya damn boomers, Ranma thought with a smirk.
  Both boomer managed to avoid the blast just in time, hovering to 
safety.
  "How the hell is it able to generate so much power?!" Nene said as 
she watched her friends attack the boomer. Actually, it was more like 
the boomer attacking her friends while they did all in their power to 
dodge its attacks "How can it be so dangerous from a distance?!"
  "Waitaminute!!!" Priss said into her communicator "Maybe that's the 
only way it's dangerous, from a distance. If you close the gap 
between the two of you, you might stand a chance. It wouldn't be able 
to throw those blasts because it would also get caught in it"
  Priss watched as her two friend nodded toward her to acknowledge 
her idea.
  "Let's get close to it and fight it hand-to-hand!" Sylia said, 
readying to punch right through the boomer. She had activated her 
exploding punch and was ready to blow the entire boomer to pieces. Linna 
did the same. 
  Slowly, both of them hovered closer and closer toward the boomer on 
the ground.
  "That's it," Ranma said to himself with a smile "Come a little closer 
and taste my Kashuu TenshinAmaguriken. I'm gonna break both of your 
heads once ya get close enough" He got into his battle stance, a smirk 
on his lips, as he waited patiently for the two boomers to charge. He 
knew that this was where it would all end. He was actually grateful. Not 
that he was remotely near exhaustion, but he was getting tired from 
throwing all those ki-blasts. His breathing was heavy. 
  "Why's it smiling?!" Linna said when she noticed the boomers lips.
  "I don't know," Sylia said, gazing at her opponent intently "It's 
probably got something to do with the AI chip it has"
  Both of them stopped hovering as Linna spoke "How come I got this 
funny feeling that that's what the boomer wants, for us to get closer?"
  While still in mid-flight, Sylia turned toward Linna, one eye still 
cautiously on the boomer "You saw what it could do from far away. Our 
only chance is close combat"
  C'mon, why aren't you charging me, Ranma thought. Why are you two 
hesitating? Does it have to do with their AI chips? Are they weighing 
the odds of close combat as opposed to fighting from a disatance? I 
better not give them a chance to react and finish the job now.
  Ranma leaped into the sky directly toward one of the boomers. He 
manuevered his body in mid-flight so that his legs would wrap around 
one of the boomer's arm while he would use one of his own arms to 
grab the boomer's other arms. That would allow him to use his Kashuu 
TenshinAmaguriken on it while he held its limbs in place, allowing him 
to land every single blow on the 
boomer's chest. The maneuver brought back memories of when he and Ryoga 
had fought shortly after Ryoga had learned that really annoying 
BakusaiTenketsu technique.
  "Eek!!!" Linna shouted as saw the boomer jump straight at her. 
Everything moved in slow motion as she watched the boomer twist in mid-
flight. Before she knew what happened, the boomer was attached to 
her, holding her arms from moving "Help!!!" She screamed into her 
communicator as she saw the boomer cock its arm back, ready to smash a 
hole right through her chest.
  Ranma placed one of his feet and kicked as a laser blast almost 
took his head off. He had used the boomer's chest to do a kickout so 
he would be propelled backwards to avoid the laser shot. He twisted 
in the air and landed back on the ground safely. He landed on the 
sidewalk  "Damn, how am I gonna be able to get close to them to use 
my technique?" he said to himself.  He jumped out of the way just as 
two bullets wizzed by his head. When he rolled to his feet and looked 
toward where it had come from, he realized it was from the the purple 
and pink boomer.
  "Whoa, that was close," he told himself "I better be more careful"
  He looked up toward the two hovering boomers and noticed they 
seemed a bit distracted.
  "Are you okay?" Sylia said.
  "I-I'm fine," Linna said. But she wasn't. Her heart was beating 
faster than it ever had. She had seen her life flash before her eyes. 
She thought she was going to die right there, in mid-air.
  "Where'd it go?!" Sylia said as she realized the boomer was still 
nearby on the ground somewhere. She placed a hand on Linna's arm as 
her booster went into full blast, rocketing the two to a higher
altitude to avoid the boomer in case it decided to jump again. Now 
that they were high enough from its jumping distance, they were 
sitting ducks for that hurrican projectile that comes from its fists.
  Ranma looked up at the tow hovering boomers "Damn, I can't jump up and 
reach them nowe" He turned toward the two boomers in the middle of the 
street. The best course of action was take care of those two instead. He 
started to run toward them.
  "Eek!!!" Nene said as she raised her hand and shot several laser blast 
in the boomer's general direction, all of them missing "Stay away from 
me!!!" She continued to shoot toward the boomer as it got closer and 
closer to the two of them.
  As Ranma got closer and closer, he wondered why that purple and 
pink boomer was missing him so badly. Boomers had perfect aim, and 
this one was missing him completely. Or then again, maybe it was 
missing him on purpose. Maybe it was a trap. Ranma stopped dead in 
his tracks, not wanting to fall for a trap.
  You ain't gonna get me that easily, he thought to himself. He stood 
still waiting for something to happen.
  "Why'd it stop?" Priss said as she slowly made it to her feet.  She 
was still cluching her ribs, more like the section of armor protecting 
her rib, wincing as jolts of pain shot through her. She placed a hand on 
Nene's shoulder he help keep her footing "Why is it hesitating? Why 
isn't it attacking?"
  As Ranma stood still, even without having to look, he knew the 
other two boomers had landed on the ground behind him. He didn't bother 
to turn around. He knew they were trying to silently sneak up behind 
him. To let the boomers know that he didn't realize they were behind 
him, he slowly made his way toward that purple and pink boomer, taking 
slow, steady steps, pretending he was getting ready for that boomer to 
shoot another laser blast at him. But he knew it wouldn't because if it 
did, it might hit the other two boomers behind him.
  Priss and Nene watched silently as the boomer slowly made its way 
toward them. They were holding their breath, not daring to breath. In 
just a few short seconds, it would all be over. They both kenw that 
boomers had a weak spot that they couldn't see what was coming up 
from behind them.
  Once Ranma could sense that the two boomers were close enough behind 
him, he squatted low to the ground and made a wide sweep backwards, 
hitting one of the boomers in the ankle. A loud clank could be heard 
echoing through the streets of the slums as his foot connected with 
solid steel. The boomer he sweeped fell to the ground cluching its one 
leg and the other boomer executed a perfect roundhouse toward Ranma's 
head, intent on cleaving it off his shoudlers. He wasn't expecting the 
boomer to kick him, him expecting it to attempt a punch, so he was 
caught a bit off guard. All he could do was block the kick.
  The boomer's foot connected with Ranma outstretched arms, and when 
it hit him, tiny boosters located around its ankle blasted, allowing 
it to follow the kick through. Ranma could do nothing but absorb the 
impact. He was sent flying into one of the building walls, the wall 
collapsing down on him.
  "Are you all right?" Sylia asked, squatting down next to Linna as 
she held her ankle.
  "I think my ankle's broken" she said. She looked down at the armor 
around her foot and noticed that part of it had been dented in by the 
shear impact of that sweep "I can't believe it did that. How'd it 
know we were behind it?"
  "I don't know, but let's get outta here" Sylia said as she placed 
Linna's arm around her shoulder and gently helped her to her feet "We 
have to retreat. That thing's a monster"
  Slowly, the two made their way toward Priss and Nene.
  Ranma sat upright, holding his head "Man, that really hurts," He 
rubbed at a sore spot, wincing at pain jolted through his body. He then 
looked down at his ankle "Damn, that metal's harder than I thought" His 
ankle was swollen a bit. He tried to get up, but one of his arms 
wouldn't move. It must have been dislocated from the impact of that 
kick. He gritted his teeth as he used his good arm 
to snap it back into place. In all his years of fighting, he had never 
experienced so much pain as what had just surged through his body 
"Arghh!!!! That hurt!!!!" After a few moments, the pained died down and 
he was able to move his arm around a bit "I guess it's than not being 
able to use it at all"
  "Damn, that was a nice kick" Ranma commented to himself "I never knew 
boomers could kick that high" He threw some of the rubble off his body 
and used his one good arm to stand up. Although he could still use his 
other arm, it was almost useless. What he would do right now for some 
cold water?
  He brushed some of the debris off his shirt and made his way back out 
the hold he had created when he slammed against the building. As he 
stepped onto the sidewalk, he caught sight of four boomers huddle 
together.
  I have to hand it to 'em, Ranma thought. This was one hell of a fight, 
and he hadn't had this much fun in years. He didn't know if this would 
be his last fight but he knew that if it was, he was going to go down 
fighting. The boomers were like nothing he had ever fought before. He 
snapped a crick in his neck as he got back into his battle stance "I 
guess it's time for round two" he said to himself with a smirk.
  "Suck on this, boomers!" Ranma said as he launched another one of 
his blasts "Horizontal blast revised, Hiryu ShotenHa! Horizontal revised 
Hiryu ShotenHa!" He let rip another massive hurricane blast. Without 
hesitating, he let rip a second blast, the blast every bit as powerful 
as the first. He decided to give it everything he got as he let rip two 
more blasts "Horizontal revised Hiryu ShotenHa! Horizontal revised Hiryu 
ShotenHa!" All in all, he had thrown four hurricane blasts, each one 
right after another.
  "Protect Priss!" Sylia managed to say just in time as the blasts 
enveloped them. Nene and Linna had reacted instinctively and had 
jumped in front of Priss just as all three girls were engulfed. They 
struggled for a second while within the blast, but it was too much 
for them. They force of the blast propelled all three girls backwards 
into Priss as they were all thrown into one of the building walls. 
Although the three girls were in front of Priss to protect her from 
the blast, Priss still got hurt as she was slammed up against the 
wall.
  Ranma took as step forward, cautious about charging. One of his arms 
weren't working, and his foot was aching from when he sweeped one of the 
boomers.
  Sylia, Linna, and Nene all fell to their knees, terribly shaken 
from the force of the impact against the building. Their armor 
started to crack around their chest. Priss wasn't as hurt since they 
protected her, but she still sustained some damage to her armor. Her 
armor was still intact.
  "We must retreat!" Linna said as she slowly got to her feet "Our 
suits can't take much more damage!" She was shocked to look down and 
see a large chunk of her armor fall to the floor. The armor's 
exoskeleton had fallen off. All that remained was the thin inner 
armor that protected her body. She saw shocked to see her other two 
friends' armor fall off.
  "Retreat!" Sylia said. She would have to worry about taking care of 
the boomer later. The only thing she could do was upgrade their 
battle suits. It probably wouldn't do much help against a boomer this 
powerful, but they would definitely be better off than they were now.
  Sylia reached down and picked up the breast plate to her suit as 
Nene and Linna did the same. She couldn't allow Genom to get hold of 
any part of their armor. She then helped Priss to her feet "Let's get 
out of here!"
  All three girls' booster bursted into life, only to die on them. 
Somehow, their thrusters must have been damaged in that blast. They 
attempted again, but it wouldn't work anymore. They couldn't retreat 
even if they wanted to. They would have to fight this boomer to the 
bitter end. The three girls got into their battle stance. There was 
nothing else they could do but fight.
  Ranma seized the chance to attack. Now that they couldn't fly away, 
he would now have a great advantage. They were stuck on the ground 
with him.
  Linna tried to punch the boomer's head off only to see it dodge her 
attack skillfully. Before she knew it, she was being thrown through 
the air toward Sylia. If her boosters had worked, she would had been 
able to twist in the air to avoid her, but they didn't. She was 
slammed bodily into Sylia, the two of them falling down on top of 
Priss.
  Ranma smiled he watched the boomers deperately try to get to its 
feet. He was distracted for a moment as he wondered why the two 
boomers looked like they were in pain, which was all that was needed 
for Nene to execute a kick to his ribs. Ranma saw the kick coming but 
wasn't able to  dodge it in time. A sharp pain surged through his 
body as he sent flying through the air. He twisted in the air to land 
safely on his feet in the middle of the street. His gaze rested on 
the boomer that had kicked him in the ribs. He cluched at his ribs 
"Damn, I can't believe I couldn't dodge that. I could have easily 
dodged that in my other form" he swore silently to himself "That 
boomer's gonna pay for that"
  He watched as the boomer charged into the street straight toward 
him, ready to punch a hole through his gut "Horizontal blast revised, 
Hiryu ShotenHa!" he shouted again as he ripped yet another hurricane 
blast loose. 
  The blast enveloped Nene entirely. Before the blast abated, he 
launched a massive ki-blast "Mouko Takabisha!!!" 
  Ranma watched with a smirk as the ki-blast was popelled forward from 
his hurricane blast. 
He watched at the boomer stuck its hands out to block it, but it was 
useless.The blast struck the boomer at such intensity that it was blown 
backward a dozen yards, sliding on the ground to a halt in the 
middle of the street.
  Nene was shaken terribly from the impact of that blast, but thanks to 
the inner armor that remained for her suit, she wasn't killed. She knew 
she would have the biggest headache the next day, provided she survived 
this fight. As she laid there on the ground, she wondered how on earth 
they were going to defeat this boomer. Her thoughts were interrupted 
when she felt this burning sensation on her chest. She looked down at 
her chest and realized that her armor had melted from the intense heat. 
The armor was glowing bright red. She knew that the heat would 
eventually engulf the entire suit, and the best course of action was to 
get out of her suit before the armor melted completely, fusing onto her 
skin and killing her.
   Nene quickly rolled around to her stomach and the back of her suit 
opened. She quickly and instinctively got out of the suit before it 
turned into a pile of melted metal. She stood there, in nothing but 
her skin-tight suit as she stared down at what remained of her battle 
suit.
  Ranma started at the short, pink-haired girl is disbelief. What was 
going on here? Why did a boomer just come out of that boomer? And why 
did that boomer look totally human? 
  Sylia noticed that the boomer was distracted watching her friend 
break free from her her suit. She used that oppertunity to land a 
powerful kick across the boomer's back. She watched in disbelief as 
the boomer twisted in the air and landed on the ground safely, 
unaffected by the attack. She wished that the boosters in her legs 
were working because it they did work and went on during her kick, 
she would have kicked that boomer in half at the waist.
  Ranma smirked as he rubbed his back a bit. He realized that that 
boomer's power must be real low because that kick it landed didn't 
hurt at all. Now that he was sure there was no way he could get hurt, 
he was about to have some fun.
  He lunged forward and shouldered the grey boomer right into its gut, 
falling down ontop of it. He sat ontop of the boomer's stomach as his 
legs hooked around the back of the boomer's knees in a mounted position. 
He brought his fist backwards and he readied to punch right through the 
boomer's weak spot, its open chest. Although he could punch through a 
full armored boomer, he knew this would be easy since the outer armor on 
the boomer's chest had fallen off.
  Ranma's hands glowed blue as he focus all his battle arua into his 
hand. He would make the boomer die a horrible death. He wanted to 
make it where there was no way Genom could salvage this prototype 
boomer. These boomers must have been prototypes. None of the other 
boomers were remotely as advanced as these.
  As the boomer was about to punch a hole right through Sylia's chest, 
Linna used her one good leg to propelled herself forward onto the 
boomer. She had managed to put enough force behind her lung to knock the 
boomer off her friend, managing to landing on top of it. The boomer 
punched her in the face once, but her helmet managed to absorb most of 
the impact. Before it had a chance to punch her again, she grabbed the 
boomers hand and entwinded her fingers with its own and pinned it down 
to the ground. The boomer used its other arm to punch her. The punch had 
little affect. Linna knew that the boomer's left 
arm must had be damaged. 
  She leaned forward and pressed her weight down on the boomers hands 
so its arms would be pinned to the ground. She knew if it pinned the 
boomer to the ground long enough, Sylia would be able to finish it 
off.
  Ranma gritted his teeth. The boomer was pinning him down. It wasn't 
attacking. It was just holding him down. He knew that the boomer was 
waiting for the other one to come and finish him off. He knew he had 
to get out of there and fast.
  Ranma gritted his teeth as pain from his injured shoulder shot 
through his body. Ranma flexed his arms, using all his strength to 
push the boomer's arm back. Despite the fact that the boomer rested 
most of its weight on his hand, which must have been several hundred 
pounds, Ranma was able to move it back slowly.
  Clenching his teeth, he pushed forward with all his might. If he 
didn't get this boomer off him, he was a goner.
  Linna stared down in astonishment. She couldnt' believe such a 
small boomer could generat so much power to overpower her suit and 
its weight. Her suit had been recently upgraded yet it was still 
underpowered. She could hear the motors in her arm straining to stay 
locked in place. She turned her attention toward Sylia as she was 
slowly getting to her feet. "Help, it's getting up!"
  Ranma arched his hips upward as he brought his hand back down to 
his sides. Since the boomer was holding his hands, it had no way of 
stopping itself from falling forward from the forward momentum his 
hips and its weight had created. 
  The boomer hit its head on the ground with a loud thump as Ranma 
pushed it off and got back onto its feet. That was a close call, he 
thought to himself.
  "Damn, that thing's also extremely strong!" Linna said as she 
quickly scooted to her feet as she made her way to Sylia's side. She 
then shook the cobwebs from her head from when it hit the ground 
"Even with our upgraded suits, it's not enough! And damn, how the hell 
does it know how to get outta moves like that?! I've never seen a boomer 
use my own momentum to its advantage before!"
  Ranma smiled at the boomers. These things aren't that hard. Their 
power supply seemed to have been exhausted. He took a look over his 
shoulder toward that red-haired, human-looking boomer. He saw it 
kneeling down next to that blue boomer cluching its ribs. It looked like 
it was helping the injured boomer to its feet.
  Sylia noticed that the boomer's attention was toward Nene and 
Priss. It was going to attack them. She stepped forward in front of 
the boomer, directly between it and her two friends.
  Man, what's with these boomers, Ranma thought. Why is it helping 
each other out? It's as if it's trying to protect the other two. He 
smiled. It didn't matter though. He would get to them as soon as he 
finished this one off.
  "Lookout!!!" Lina managed to say to Sylia, but she was too late.
  Ranma lunged forward as he shouted "Kashuu TenshinAmaguriken!!!" 
Hundreds and hundreds of punches struck the boomer within mere seconds. 
Most of his attacks struck the boomer's chest, but he landed several 
good shots on its head and gut also.
  Linna watched in aboslute horror. She had no idea this boomer was 
this dangerous upclose. Its physical attacks were far worse than its 
energy blasts. She watched as her friend was struck hundreds of times 
in the blink of an eye.
  Ranma cocked his arm back to shove his fist right through the 
boomer's chest, but he hesitated. He saw the boomer in front of him 
fall down on to its hand and knees. It fell down before his feet, no 
longer moving.
  As his arm still remained back cocked backwards, he couldn't bring 
himself to finish the boomer off. Before he knew it, a sharp pain 
surged trough his lower back as he was sent flying through the air. 
He twisted in the air and landed on his feet a few feet away.
  He watched as the boomer that kicked him knelt down before the 
boomer he had just punched several hundred times. He couldn't explain 
why, but he felt a brief sign of remorse as he watched the boomer 
help the damaged one. The boomer was acting human, as if it were 
helping out a fallen comrade.
  "Sylia!!!" Linna said as she gently cradled her friend in her arms 
"Speak to me!!! Wake up!!!"
  "Get away from here" Sylia managed to say before lapsing into 
unconsciousness.
  "No!" Linna said. She looked over at the boomer and then back at 
Sylia. She had to get her friend to safety. She opened Sylia's suit 
up and took her into her arms. She then proceeded to limp toward 
Priss and Nene "Get out of here!!! Priss, use your boosters to take 
Nene and Sylia to safety!!! I'll keep it distracted!!!"
  Linna felt something grab hold of her shoulder. She knew it was the 
boomer. She and Sylia were done for. She placed Sylia to the ground 
and turned to face the boomer. She had to go down fighting. She 
cocked her arm back and punched toward the boomer, only to have the 
boomer catch her fist. She tried to punch it with her other hand, but 
the boomer also caught it. It regarded Linna with curious eyes.
  "What are you waiting for?!" Linna said, "Finish us off"
  Ranma released his hold on the boomer's hands as he placed one of 
his hands over the boomer's throat but didn't squeeze. He watched 
as the boomer used both of its hands to free itself from his grasp.
  Why isn't it trying to attack me, Ranma thought. What is this, some 
form of self-preservation Genom incorporated into its AI chips. It 
should be fighting me until it can fight no more. 
  He placed his other hand on the boomer's shoulder and ripped the 
outer armor off. He then ripped the outer armor over the boomer's 
other shoulder. Even though this was a boomer, Ranma wasn't enjoying 
this at all. Even though this was the same kind of thing that killed 
his friends and family, his heart was aching. 
  As he held the boomer, Ranma looked down at the unconscious boomer 
behind it. It looked human, just like that short, pink-haired boomer.
  Ranma turned his attention back onto the boomer he was holding, 
regarding it curiously. Maybe this boomer was like the other ones. He 
brought the boomer closer to himself as he inspected for some way of 
getting the inner armor off.
  I wonder how I can get this thing off, Ranma thought, still looking 
at the boomer seriously. He was no longer scared of the boomer 
hurting him. It had exhausted its energy supply. After a few moments, he 
saw something that might be able to get that helmet-like skull off. He 
hooked two fingers under the boomer's chin and yanked upward, 
ripping the skull off the boomer. 
  Ranma realized he was right. There was another boomer underneath. 
This must be some kinda exoskeleton armor or somethin, he thought. To 
his surprise, he found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful 
female boomer with short black hair. 
  Linna stared up into the boomer's eyes. She didn't know what to do. 
There was nothing she could do. She was in the mercy of this boomer. 
Actually, boomers didn't know what mercy was meaning she was as good 
as dead. But why was it looking at her curiously? 
  The boomer let go of Linna's neck. It stood there, doing nothing.
  Linna used the boomer's hesitation to get herself and Sylia to 
safety. She quickly knelt down and threw one of Sylia's arm around 
her shoulders, but when she took a step, her ankle throbbed as she 
fell to the ground cluching her broken ankle in pain, from when that 
boomer had sweeped her earlier.
  Ranma stepped forward. He couldn't believe how human these boomers 
acted. It actually looked like it was in pain. It actually made his 
heart ache. He caught himself almost wanting to kneel down and help 
the boomer out.
  He didn't know why, but he couldn't finish these two boomers off. He 
couldn't  finish any of them off. They were acting way too human, and 
it bothered him. Even though they were acting, Ranma had a soft spot. 
He would never kill human, and his hesitation proved it. 
  Ranma continued to look at the boomer curiously. He didn't really 
need to kill these boomers. If he met them again, he would be able to 
defeat them again. During this battle, he had only exerted a 
fraction of his energy. There was no need to kill these boomers. He 
didn't have to worry about them returning back to Genom headquarters 
and give them data on his fighting abilites because all of his energy 
came from his ki, and there was no way Genom could reproduce that. Ki 
was something only humans could possess.
  Why isn't it attacking, Linna thought. She didn't care though. If 
it wasn't then that mean she might be able to get Sylia to safety. 
On one leg, she half-dragged Sylia toward where Priss and Nene was. 
  Maybe its best that I finish 'em off, Ranma thought. He didn't want 
to underestimate them. He didn't want them coming back and perhaps 
finishing him off. Afterall, since these boomers had fought him, they 
would be familiar with his way of fighting. 
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders. This was the best thing to do. Even 
though he would most likely not sleep well tonight, there was no 
better way. Once thing he had learned over the decades of training 
was not to underestimate his opponents.
  He walked up to one of the boomers and grabbed it by the neck. He 
slowly began to squeeze.
  Linna knew the end was near as she tried desperately to make the 
boomer release its grasp. It was futile thought. She was too weak to 
fight anymore. Whatever feeble attempts she used to make it let go 
would be useless. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she waited for 
death to take her. Tears started to form around her eyes as she realized 
she would never be able to do the things she always wanted to do, that 
this would be her fate, to die by a boomer's hands.
  Ranma released his hold, shocked. He couldn't believe the boomer 
was crying. What kind of boomer is this, he thought. This seemed to 
make him feel a huge wave of remorse. He just had to find out "Are 
you scared to die?" he asked. Although he didn't like asking 
something like that since it made him feel like some kind of monster, 
but he just wanted to see how the boomer would respond. He was amazed 
at how well the boomers could imitate human, but he wanted to know if 
it had any form of human emotion.
  Linna gasped for breath. After a few moments, she looked up at the 
boomer. Did she hear correctly? Did the boomer just ask if she was 
afraid to die? What was it doing, toying with her? She wiped the tears 
from her eyes but said nothing.
  "I figured," Ranma said "You can imitate human emotion, but you can 
never feel it. For a moment there, I felt compassion toward you. What a 
fool I am!" He bent down and picked Linna up by her collar. He 
cocked an arm back, ready to cave this boomer's face in and end its so-
called life. But he stopped when the boomer spoke in a soft and timid 
voice.
  "W-what are you talking about?" Linna said.
  "I said you seem to imitate human emotions quite convincingly, but you 
would never be able to feel it," Ranma repeated "For a moment there, I 
felt compassionate not to destroy you"
  "Compassion? How can you feel compassion?" Linna said. She couldn't 
believe the response her words had made on the boomer. It released 
its grasp on her.
  "You mean you're human?" Ranma asked slowly, cautiously. He looked 
down at the boomer that was on the ground, supposedly unconsious.
  Linna nodded cautiously "Yes, of course I'm human" She noticed the 
boomer was looking at Sylia. When her gaze rested on Sylia, she 
noticed a trickle of blood flowing from her mouth. Tears started to 
form around her eyes again as she ran toward her friend's side. She 
didn't care if the boomer was going to kill her, but Linna wouldn't let 
the boomer hurt her friend unless it killed her first.
  Tears started to form around his eyes as he watched Linna craddle 
Sylia in her arms, tears flowing freely. At that moment, he realized 
that there was no way she could be a boomer. He saw Linna cry and he 
realized that she was human. He knew one thing that could never 
happen, boomers crying 
  He turned around "What have I done?! I-I thought you were a boomer!" 
He looked down at the ground ashamed. He couldnt believe he had 
almost killed someone. Her death would have been on his hands for the 
rest of his life. He had been steadfast to protecting people from 
boomers, but here he was, about to kill the people he was supposedly 
protecting.
  Linna looked up at Ranma. Boomers wer programed not to attack other 
boomers, meaning if he thought she was a boomer, then that meant he was 
human since boomers never deviate from its programming "Y-you mean 
you're not a boomer?"
  Ranma turned to face Linna, "No, I'm not" He bent down next to Sylia 
and checked for her pulse "Oh god, what have I done?!" He sighed when 
he felt a steady yet weak pulse. He gently picked Sylia up in his 
arms, her head resting against the crook of his neck and shoulder as 
her arms fell over his back "We have to get her to a hospital"
  "You get away from her!!!" Ranma heard the pink haired girl yell at 
him "You leave her alone!!!"
  Ranma stopped for a moment before replying "We need to get all of 
you to a hospital" When he received a confused look from Nene, he 
continued "I'm sorry for this. I thought you were boomers. That's why 
I attacked you. I thought you were boomers"
  He looked down at Linna with soft eyes "Are you all right? Can you 
walk?"
  Linna looked down at her broken ankle and then back up at Ranma. 
She nodded her head "I-I think so" She tried to put a bit of pressure 
on her foot, but it was too much for her as she feel forward"
  Ranma reached forward and grabbed Linna's arm before she hit the 
ground "Here, he said, lettme help"
  Linna didn't pull her arm away from Ranma's grasp. She couldn't 
help but notice how warm his hands felt as they were pressed against 
her. She could feel her heart skip a beat as Ranma knelt down and 
thre one of her arms around his shoulder "Here, lean against me"
  As Ranma gently carried Sylia, Linna took careful steps as she 
leaned her weight against it. She was so close to him that she could 
smell the faint scent of his perspiration. It looked like the battle 
had taken a bit out of him.
  Nene left Priss' side and ran forward and stopped in front of Ranma 
and Linna "I said for you stay away from them!" She had no idea what she 
was going to do, but she had to get her friends to safety. She took a 
step back as Ranma looked at her with soft eyes.
  "Look," Ranma said "I'm sorry for what happened. I thought you were 
boomers. Your friend here made me realize that you're human. I'm 
human also, just like you"
  Nene said nothing. She just stood there and looked up at Ranma in 
disbelief. He was human? How could that be? Her sensors had never 
picked it up. But then again, the power that he was able to generate 
might have keep her sensors from picking it up.
  "Are you okay?" Ranma looked over Nene's shoulder toward Priss, who 
was trying to stand up while cluching her ribs. She had managed to 
make it to her feet, but she couldn't walk. It was too painful. He 
stepped up to Priss and extended one of his hands forward. He used 
his other hand to carry Sylia. 
  Priss just stared down at Ranma's outstretched hand. What kind of 
joke is that, she thought. This boomer was acting human. There was no 
way a human could genterate this much power "You're not human. You 
lie" She gritted her teeth as pain shot throughout her body as she 
cocked her arm back. She was about to cave this boomer's face in, but 
the pain was too much for her to bare.
  She fell to her knees in pain. Nene rushed to her side and grabbed 
hold of her "Priss, are you all right?"
  "Do you need help?" Ranma asked. 
  Priss shook her head. She didn't need his help. Even though there 
was no way she could do anything, and her suit and her body had taken 
too much damage, she didn't want his help.  
  "Well, I don't care. You need my help," Ranma said. He reached forwad 
and took a hold of Priss' arms and was about to help her to her feet, 
but Priss jerked her arm away. 
  She cluched at her ribs as pain shot through her from when she 
jerked her arm. She quickly removed her helmet as a small trickle of 
blood emerged from her mouth. The pain was intense and piercing. She 
was in trouble. She would pass out from the pain in just a few 
moments from now.
  "Your ribs are broken," Ranma said, "You mustn't do this to yourself 
or your ribs will pucture one of your lungs. You have to take it easy" 
He reached out forward again to take her arm but she didn't take 
it. He waited for her to take his hand this time. Even though he knew 
she was the prideful type, he knew she needed his help. He smiled as 
Priss took his hand and slowly made her way to her feet. 
  Nene rushed to Priss' side and threw one of her arms over her 
shoulders. Priss smiled a bit as she realized how much the pain had 
went away now that Ranma and Nene was helping her out.
  "Which way to the nearest hospital?" he said. He had no real idea 
where he was. He knew he was on some deserted, slum-like, man-made 
island that was usually used as testing grounds for Genom's 
prototypes. He had found out that this was where most of the advanced 
boomers were being tested, and he wanted to get rid of them before 
they had a chance to be put into production.
  "The nearest one if five miles west of here," Linna said pointing 
toward the horizon where the sun was now setting.
  "Damn," he swore as he clenched his teeth "That's gonna take over two 
hours to walk" He turned to face Priss and then looked over at Nene 
"What are we gonna do?"
  "I'm going to call Mackie," Nene said as she turned her attention 
toward Priss "I'll use your communicator to call him" She scotted out 
from under Priss' arm and walked over to where her friend had dropped 
her helmet. She picked it up.
  "Mackie! Mackie!"  Nene yelled into the helmet "You there? Mackie!"
  A voice came from the helmet "Mackie here. What is it, Nene?"
  "We're in trouble," she said, "We need you to come pick us up. I'm 
sending you our coordinates" She opened up a small panel on the side of 
the helmet to reveal a small number pad. She then punched in a few 
numbers.
  "Now what?" Ranma said. He didn't know how long it would take for 
this so-called Mackie to arrive.
  "We wait" Linna said.

  Ranma entered the tiny room carrying Sylia and Nene's battle suits, 
each suit slung around each shoulder. Sylia's suit, although the 
front was dented and the breast plate was gone, was still intact. 
Nene's suit wasn't so lucky. Most of the metal had metled into a 
heaping mess.
  "Where'd ya like me to put this?" Ranma said. 
  "In the corner" Linna said.
  Ranma and the four girls were in a tiny room that was in one of the 
abandonned buildings. They needed to take cover because the Knight 
Sabers didn't want their identities revealed in case a boomer was 
running around. The room was only a few meters wide, and there was a 
bit a debris everywhere, but it was good enough for now.
  Linna watched as Ranma placed the suits in the corner she had said. 
She was bumbfounded as wondered how Ranma was able to carry two suits at 
once. Each suit weighted several hundred pounds and he was 
carrying both of them like they were as light as a feather. Both suit 
must have weight somewhere around a thousand pounds combined.
  Ranma walked over to the window and looked out the front window of 
the building "When's your backup gonna get here?" 
  They had been in the building for around fifteen minutes already. He 
was starting to get impatient. For every minute passed, the chance of 
Sylia not waking up was more probable.
  Nene walked up to Ranma and stood next to him, the top of her head 
reaching his chin "He'll be here in a little while. It takes a litte 
time for him to get the transport ready. That's all"
  Ranma squinted his eyes "Hey, what's that over there. Is that your 
friend?" He pointed toward four hovering dots about two miles away 
from where they were hiding out.
  "No," Nene said "those look like boomers. Afterall, this is a 
boomer training ground" She looked more carefully "Those must be the 
boomers we wanted to intercept"
  "Huh?"
  "We heard Genom," Linna said as she got up and slowly made her way 
to Ranma and Nene, usuing the walls for support. When Ranma saw her 
standing next to him, he reached out and gently placed her arm around 
his shoulder "We heard Genom was trying out some new prototype 
boomers around here and we were waiting for them to arrive. That is, 
until you attacked us"
  Ranma scratched the back of his head "Oh, you were here to do that 
also? That's why I was here. I wanted to blow them up before they can 
go into production. That ought to hit Genom where it hurts"
  "Why are you doing this?" Priss couldn't help but ask. She stayed 
where she was, in the back of the room, next to the unconscious 
Sylia.
  "You mean about my hatred toward Genom?" Ranma started out slowly. 
When Priss nodded, he sighed and spoke "Everyone I cared about was 
killed by combat boomers that Genom created. The boomers went beserk and 
killed 'em all. The boomer should have never been created in the first 
place. And for that, I'm gonna make Genom regret having done so. It's 
all personal"
  Nene gasped "Oh no. Look over there, there's Mackie" She pointed 
toward the ground where a truck was coming down one of the deserted 
streets toward the building. The truck could be easily spotted by 
those boomers from high above "He's gonna be seen!"
  Ranma gently let Nene take hold of Linna as he smiled a bit "If 
those are the prototype boomers we came here to destroy, then I'll 
take care of it" He then quickly ran out of the building "I already 
got my second wind"
  Curiosity got the better of Priss as she slowly and cautiously made 
her way to where Nene and Linna was standing. Once there, Nene threw 
her arm around her should as she held both Linna and Priss stand. 
Together, the three girls watched as Ranma walked out to the middle 
of the street and wave toward the incoming truck.
  "Over here," Ranma said as he waved his hands. He wanted to get this 
Mackie person out of harm's way while he did his business. He pointed 
toward the building as Mackie stopped the truck and look at him 
cautiously "They're in that building. Don't worry, it's not some trap. 
Damn, they're already here!!!"
  A massive explosion exploded on the ground just behind Mackie's 
truck. The truck was sent flying forward and skidded to a halt a few 
feet away. Another explosion struck the side of the truck this time 
as the truck was toppled over onto its side. 
  Ranma quickly hopped ontop of the truck and opened the driver's 
side door and reached in a grabbed Mackie's arm "Quickly, get into 
the building. Those damn boomers saw ya!" With one arm, he lifted 
Mackie out of the truck and placed him down on the ground. When he 
noticed Mackie just standing there, staring at him, he shouted 
"Hurry, get outta here! Here they come!"
  Another explosion occured, this time a few feet away from Ranma. 
Ranma was blown backwards off the truck, landing on the ground on his 
back with a loud thump. He quickly flipped back up onto his feet, 
wiping a bit of blood trickling from his mouth "That was a lucky 
shot!"
  He quickly jumped out of the way as another blast exploded right 
where he was. He continued to do this as the four boomers got closer 
and closer. He watched intently for the boomers' next attacks as they 
all landed on the street about twenty feet in front of him. Each 
boomer looked slightly different from each other, and was carrying a 
heavy arsenal of equipment. Two boomers had rocket launchers attached 
to their shoulders while carrying a shield while the other two each 
carried two large calibur tank rifles. All stood close to four meters 
high each. They all resembled a bigger, heavier version of of these big 
brown heavy duty combat boomers he remember destroying a few days ago. 
He remembered those boomers had a large cannon for an arm. He couldn't 
remember what kind of model they were, but he didn' have much trouble 
destroying those. Hopefully, these boomers would be as easy also.
  Ranma ran straight toward the four boomers as they all opened fire on 
him. His voice echoed through the empty streets of the abandoned town.
  "Mouko Takabisha!!!"
 
  Ranma looked at the truck that had been toppled over onto its side. 
  "Will you stand back for a moment?" Ranma said, walking up to the 
truck.
  Linna was the first to ask, "What are you going to do?"
  Ranma didn't reply back. The girls and Mackie watched as Ranma sqatted 
low to the ground, his back straight, and slipped his fingers under the 
truck. He then gave out a yelp as he used all his strength to lift the 
truck up, his muscles straining intensely. After several moment, Ranma 
managed to lift the truck about a foot of the ground. He then sqatted 
lower to the ground and shoved his shoulder underneath, using that as a 
lever, gritting his teeth against the effort to lifting.
  As the truck was slowly lifted from its side, Ranma got impatient. 
"Goddamnit!!! Move ya damn truck!!!" He got angry at his lack of stretch 
in righting the truck that he gave one final burst of strength, bringing 
his legs up and pushing his arms out at the same time.
  Unfortunately, Ranma seemed to have gotten a bit too angry for he put 
too much stretch behind his final push, the truck landing back on its 
wheel only to topple over onto its other side.
  "Shit!" Ranma swore. He wished he could control his anger more. 
Sometimes, he didn't know his own strength.
  Ranma walked over to the other side of the truck and proceeded to lift 
it back up, and hopefully, onto its wheels.
  Everyone watched, mouths open wide.
  When the truck was back on its wheels, Ranma turned toward the staring 
group, unperterbed by the astonishing glances. 
  "All right, we better get going"

  Ranma was sitting patiently in the corner of the hospital room when 
Sylia awoke. She quickly sat upright in her bed "What's going on here?! 
Where am I?" 
  She scooted away to the back of her bed when she caught sight of the 
boomer that had beaten her unconscious. Although that was her first 
reaction, she managed to look at everything logically. She noticed that 
Priss and the others were in the room, along with the boomer. Priss was 
sitting on her own bed, some bandages wrapped around her ribs. Linna was 
sitting on Priss' bed, her foot in a cast. Nene was sitting in a chair 
at the foot of the bed. She realized that this boomer couldn't be a 
boomer. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
  "You're never going to believe it," Nene said with a smile.
  "Try me," she said with a suspicious eye. She was regarding Ranma as 
he weakly smiled back at her. 
  "It turns out that...." Nene began. She stopped, realizing that she 
didn't know this man's name.
  "Ranma,"
  "It turns out that Ranma here isn't a boomer," she continued, "I know 
what you're going to say, 'how come we could pick it up on our 
scanner?'. I checked out the suits, at least the suit that we have left, 
and it turns out that they were perfectly functional. It turns out that 
there seems to be something surrounding Ranma here that prevents it"
  "I think I can explain," Ranma began, "Have you ever heard of battle 
aura?"
  Sylia shook herr head. She had have sworn she had heard of it before 
though.
  "Well, I have this weird battle arua always surrounding me that...I 
guess, messes up those scanner thingies of yours," he continued, "But 
enough of that now. Are you okay?"
  She regarded him with cautious eyes. Ranma looked like he was 
somewhere in his late twenties, but his eyes showed that he was a lot 
older. His eyes showed that of life long experience, something never 
evident in someone that was as young as he looked.
  She nodded at Ranma's comment. It was nice that he seemed concern, but 
it might all be an act. She had to remain cautious. But as she sat there 
in her bed, she realized something, Ranma was there, meaning he must be 
aware of their hidden identity.
  "So, I assume you now know our identity," she said slowly, watching 
him. She wanted to see how he reacted. She wanted to know if his words 
were genuine. She could tell simply by the tone in his voice.
  "Your identity?" he asked "Whatcha talking about? You mean those 
things you wear are supposed to be a secret? Cool!" 
  All four girls said nothing. They all looked at Ranma curiously, Sylia 
the most. What kind of person was he? He knew of their identity, but it 
didn't really matter to him? Something must be wrong.
  "Well, I dont' really care who you really are," Ranma said, turning to 
face Sylia "As long as you're not some combat boomer, I'm glad you're 
okay. I getter get going now."
  "Wait," she said, "Can you do us a favor?" It didn't really matter if 
he didn'twant to, she still had to ask. Even though there was no way 
they could stop him, she had to ask him this question "Can you please 
not let anyone know who we are?"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Even though I don't really know what 
kinda secret it is, yeah, sure. I'll keep your secret" 
  He left the room.

  Sylia was looking at the computer screen when she realized how tired 
she was. She hadn't slept in two days, and it was taking a toll on her, 
especially her mind. Everything on the screen was starting to look like 
gibberish. Even the simplest words seemed indiscernable. Naturally, she 
would have had Fargo do the extensive research of that person named 
Ranma, but ever since he got hurt duing that boomer rampage a few days 
ago, he was in the hospital recooperating.
  She immediately broke out of her sleepy stupor when her eyes rested on 
a familiar face.
  On the computer screen, she saw Ranma's face. All that extensive 
background check had finally paid off. She was looking at a profile on a 
man named Ranma Saotome. For the pasted two days, she had been looking 
through the police logs for the man that she only remembered was called 
Ranma.
  A portrait of a handsome man was on the screen as Sylia stared up at 
it. It was definitely him. It was definitely the man she fought a few 
days ago.
  She read the profile of him. She was immediately shocked to find out 
that Ranma was well in his fifties. That wasn't all that surprised her. 
She found that he used to live in Nerima, the same city that was leveled 
to the ground by a bunch of berserking boomers that she had read about 
many years ago.
  "Hm, that seems right," she said to herself, "If the family he was 
talking about was indeed killed, then they must have died during the 
'Nerima Massacre' when all those boomers went beserk at the same time. 
That would confirm why he hates boomers so much" 
  She read some more.
  Sylia leaned back in her chair as she finished with Ranma's background 
check. Unless Genom messed around with A.D. Police's citizen archives, 
Ranma was definitely human. The research had proved quite useful. She 
found out that Ranma had been arrested several times for the destruction 
of Genom buildings. Building?! 
  How can he destroy entire Genom buildings, Sylia thought. All of 
Genom's companies are heavily fortified. Although they aren't fortified 
as their main corporate building, Genom's security fortifications could 
take out small armies before being overwhelmed. That would mean Ranma is 
more powerful than a small army.
  "That's impossible!" Sylia said "How can one man destroy an entire 
building?" She decided to take back those words when she recalled seeing 
Ranma throwing all those ki blasts from his hands. And of course, he had 
managed to break the Knigh Sabers' armor, which was much stronger than 
any of Genom's boomers.
  But if he's capable of taking out Genom buildings, she thought, how 
can the police manage to apprehend him. She scanned his profile again. 
She remembered coming across something that might explain it.
  Hm, she thought, it says here that he currently unemployed. Unless he 
works as a mercenary like us, he has no source of income. Could he be 
allowing himself get caught so he could spend time in jail, where he 
would have food and shelter. Hm, and it says here that he has no place 
of residence because his house was destroyed during that boomer rampage 
many years ago.
  But how come we never heard of a man like him before? Surely, if he 
took out a Genom building, we would know about it. How can we miss 
something like this? Hm, it says here he took out nineteen Genom 
buildings that were scattered around Europe and North America. Hm, maybe 
it's because the building taken out weren't in Japan that we missed it.
  But that was highly improbable. If anybody attacked Genom, they would 
had known.
  "Wait a minute?!" she said, realizing something "That was HIM doing 
that, destroying those buildings?!" She remembered hearing about Genom 
destroying nineteen of their own buildings in hopes of rebuilding a 
better, more advanced version. Perhaps it was him that destroyed those 
buildings. No. It must be. And since the police hate Genom secretly, 
some would prefer no to let the public know because they actually viewed 
Ranma as a savior, not some saboteur"
  Sylia smiled to herself, a great weight lifted off her chest. Although 
all of those were simple hypothesis, it was much better than what she 
had before, nothing. She was glad that this background check had payed 
off. 
  She yawned. Before she would tell the others, she needed some sleep. 
She knew she needed it because she caught herself talking to herself 
several time.
  
  Nene looked at her dispatch screen in disbelief, not believing what 
she was seeing. On the screen, five boomers had gone beseak, all of them 
in the same location. Phones in the background were blazing to life as 
concerned citizen's informed the AD Police of the carnage that was 
ensuing.
  "Oh man, this is bad!" Nene said to herself. She looked around to see 
if anyone was watching. When she realized that all her fellow co-workers 
were busy tending to all those incoming phonecalls, Nene quietly relayed 
the dispatch readings to Sylia's computer terminal.
  Sylia woke with a sudden jolt when her computer alarm went out. She 
swore to herself, wishing the boomers would give her just eight hours of 
sleep before they go on a rampage. She had had a very rough two days. 
She needed her sleep.
  "I'm here," Sylia said as she turned her computer terminal on. She 
wiped the sleep from her eyes. She looked at her clock and noticed she 
had only slept for ten minutes. An audio of Nene's voice echoed into the 
room.
  "We have big trouble," she heard Nene's voice, "There are three heavy 
duty 'BU-12b' and two 'Doberman' model boomers trashing up district 
seven"
  Sylia swallowed the lump in her throat.



-OneShot
Jeffrey Keith Wong
http://www.li.net/~jeffwong/index.htm
Site updated May 30th.