Subject: [FFML][Fanfic][Fusion][Ranma][Reboot] Wild Boot pt 2
From: David Farr
Date: 6/6/1998, 10:43 PM
To: ffml@fanfic.com


Wild Boot
By Rarstarr

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and
Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without
permission.

Thanks to my two prereaders, Jin and David Johnston.

-----

Part 2: A Pig in a Poke

*****

	The window showed a female Ranma dragging a panda bear through the
streets of Mainframe. The scene was still and darkened, with the word "paused"
floating in the center.
	The room in which the window floated was large and dark. The floor 
consisted of a set of metal mesh platforms and catwalks lined with metallic 
railings. Machines rose from the darkness past the edge of the floor and 
continued up to fade out of view as they reached towards the roof.
	Standing before the window was Kuno, one of the two viruses that had
invaded the system. A superior sneer seemed to be almost permanently set
on his face; he stood with what would be a noble bearing if he didn't
appear so evil. His robes and skin were both a dark blue and in one hand
he casually held a glowing sword.
	"Strength, beauty. I am indeed blessed to have one such as her grace my
system." He turned from the window. "Gosunkugi, Sasuke!"
	Two robots entered, both jet black. They are almost identical to one
another except that one was twice as tall as the other. Both rolled around 
on a sphere where their feet should have been and as they approached their 
oversized hands snapped in comic salute. Their heads are domes with two large 
arcs surrounding their white eyes. On their torsos was a section of white, 
which flashed black as they spoke.
	"Sasuke online," the shorter robot announced.
	"And Gosunkugi too," the larger one sighed.
	"Ah, good. I wish to know more about this new sprite!" Kuno pointed at
the window.
	Gosunkugi and Sasuke rolled forward to peer at the window.
	"Its a panda," Sasuke announced.
	"Not that one, the female!" Kuno roared.
	"She's beautiful," Gosunkugi sighed.
	"GO!" Kuno yelled.
	The two robots pulled away from window and cruised over to the elevator.
Sasuke slammed the controls and the elevator shot downwards. Sasuke and
Gosunkugi hovered in mid air for a moment blinking before gravity
remembered them. The two robots disappeared into the inky depths and
moments later a crash echoed throughout the Tor.
	Kuno groaned, then turned away. He strode purposefully to the edge of
the platform and leapt off. Calmly he fell almost the height of the Tor,
landing before a massive vault door. A sign taking up most the door
announced "No Unauthorized Access. Kuno's Vault!" Beneath it in an
extremely small
font on an extremely small sign were the words: "If you can read this,
you don't need glasses."
	The massive door swung open as Kuno approached revealing a darkened
chamber. A small balcony jutted out from the wall beneath the door, and
was the only floor in the room. Kuno stalked across to the control panel
on the balcony's railing. He hit a control, then turned to watch the
vault door close behind him. Another button was pressed and windows
started popping into existence around the balcony.
	Window after window opened, each showed a different scene of Akane.
There were thousands of them, including shots of her in skimpy outfits.
	"I have not forsaken you my dear. I will have you both, even if I have
to infect all of Mainframe." Kuno threw back his head and laughed evilly.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

*****

	Kasumi looked at Akane, then Nabiki standing about her in their father's
private office. Soun had decorated the room with bitmaps and jpegs of
ornate weapons and armour. In fact he'd constructed a theme for the room,
including a desktop image of a collection of beautiful jeweled daggers.
Nabiki had made a tidy profit copy and pasting it to other binomes.
	"Ranma and I found this in the com room," Kasumi explained, holding up a
PDA. "It's from father. There's also a message for Ranma from his father,
but he's already downloaded that."
	"What is it Kasumi?" Akane asked.
	"Well, its bad news," Kasumi started.
	"Don't bother summarizing it Kasumi, just upload it to us," Nabiki
instructed. "I really don't have the time slices to listen to it twice."
	Kasumi nodded. "Okay." See touched the PDA and a three dimensional image
of their father formed standing on the device.
	"My dearest daughters," the image started. "After spending many cycles
watching you three grow, I have decided that it is now best to leave the
continued operation of Mainframe to your capable functions. This is not
something I do lightly, or without thought. It is time for you three to
experience run time on your own, and the only way to do that is for me to
leave you alone.
	"Look to the each other and the other sprites for aid, especially Ranma.
He has functions that none of you were coded with. I wish you luck and
happiness. Function well my daughters." The image faded out.
	"HOW DARE HE?!" demanded Akane.
	"You checked to see if he did in fact leave, of course," Nabiki stated.
	Kasumi gave a quick nod. "The com system shows two sprites left
Mainframe using father's access permission."
	"We have to go after him!" Akane exclaimed.
	Nabiki gave her a wry smile. "Oh father processed this thoroughly.
Kasumi and I can't leave, and it's not in your code. Remember: "to
protect and do battle." Despite which none of us have any extrasystem
experience. Of course narrowing down our search criteria to that, we only
get Ranma, Shampoo and Mousse."
	"Ranma said that he couldn't go after them, part of his code comes from
the honor.lib," Kasumi interjected.
	"And considering why Shampoo and Mousse are here, do you really want to
trust them out there?" Nabiki added.
	Akane growled softly. "He's really set our pointers static hasn't he."
	"I'm certainly impressed, I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki
smiled. "I guess some of my source code did come from him." She paused in
thought for a moment. "Kasumi, where did Ranma go after he downloaded his
father's file?"
	"He said to his apartment."

*****

	The apartment was bigger than Ranma needed, after all, he was supposed
to share it his father. It was fully furnished, thanks to the previous
occupant, who had come to an unfortunate end in a game cube. Ranma sat on
the large sofa. He'd tried pacing, that hadn't worked. Then he'd done a
work out with a practice drone. All that had done was waste his
resources.
	So now Ranma sat on the sofa, wondering what to do. He looked around. A
table, a shattered practice drone, a couple of chairs, a few doors, a TV.
Hmm, a TV, something to do at the very least. Ranma looked around for the
remote. He finally found it, buried deep under the sofa.
	The remote clicked loudly as the Guardian sprite pressed the power
button.
	The TV jumped to life; a pair of eyes appearing on its set. "HOWDY,
HOWDY, HOWDY!"
	"Howdy, howdy, howdy?" Ranma repeated, surprised.
	The TV waddled over to Ranma, gripped his hand and shook is hand. "Glad
to meet ya!" the TV greeted Ranma enthusiastically. "I'm everyone's
favorite appliance, Mike the TV!" Mike's screen changed to show an
audience of binome's applauding.
	"Uh, hi Mike," Ranma managed.
	"Hi yourself kiddo! And who is tonight's first contestant?" Mike asked
loudly.
	Ranma looked around in confusion. "Huh?" he replied intelligently.
	Mike leaned in close and raised a hand to his mouth to talk in a
conspiring whisper. "That's you my boy."
 	Ranma looked at the appliance in confusion. "I'm Ranma."
	"Hey folks, getting data out of this guy is like pulling energy from a
null!" There was a drum string as Mike spoke to thin air. "So what's your
format Ranma?"
	"I'm a Guardian." Ranma really wasn't sure how to handle the strange TV.
	"A GUARDIAN!" Mike screamed like a fan-girl. "WOW, I've never met a
guardian before, this is my lucky, lucky day!"
	It was at this point that Mike's remote decided to quit file the scene.
Twisting from Ranma's hand it dropped to the ground then shot out the
door, making tire squealing sounds as it went. Ranma and Mike watched it
go, standing there blinking for a few seconds.
	"Why do I get the feeling this is a baaad sign," muttered Ranma.
	Mike slapped Ranma on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Don't worry,
we don't need that little ingrate! We can have lots of fun together!"

*****

	Nabiki pressed the door chime again, then looked around. Ranma's
apartment was in one of the central sectors of Mainframe, that way the
distance to most sectors was minimized. Unfortunately it also meant that
his apartment was in one of the less exclusive areas. But, at least it
was on level 1.
	The corridor was messy. Cartons from take away data food joints hid in
the corner. Literally cowering as another appeared to be giving them a
speech. Nabiki hated mess; it was inefficient and had a habit of taking
over a room.
	Nabiki stepped out of the way as the door was thrown open by a TV
remote. The small sprite zoomed down the corridor, slamming open the
stairwell door before vanishing. Moments later Ranma appeared at the
door.
	"Did you see which way it went?!" he demanded, a little crazy eyed.
	"It escaped down the stairwell," Nabiki replied quickly. "Ranma, what's
processing?"
	"It's Mike, he's driving me random, and I've been trying to catch his
remote," Ranma replied, hurrying to the stairwell. "Damn, it got away."
	At that point a TV waddled out of Ranma's. On it's screen was a
starscape. "Cache," it said a strange halting voice, "the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the MSS Venture. They're five megacycle
function, to find new systems, hunt down new peoples, and to boldly go
where no binome has gone before."
	"MIKE!" Ranma screamed. "SHUT UP!"
	Mike's screen fuzzed for a second. Then a picture of a crystal brooch
appeared. "And this beautiful piece of jewelry would be perfect for the
little lady." Mike said in hushed tones. "Best way to say I love you or
I'm sorry. Yours for only ninety-nine ninety-nine ninety-nine." Mike
declared.
	"Hmm, that would go perfectly with one of my dresses," Nabiki commented,
leaning forward.
	"Don't encourage him!" Ranma cried.
	Mike changed channels again. "And now, back to Days of Our --."
	Sparks flew from the lighting in the corridor, and the three sprites
were plunged into darkness. The only light came from Mike's screen, which
was fuzzy with static and Ranma and Nabiki's eyes.
	Ranma blinked. "What was that?"
	"Power surge, we've been getting them ever since Kuno and Kodachi
arrived," Nabiki explained.
	"Who and who?"
	"Our resident viruses." The two pools of light that were Nabiki's eyes
moved towards the door to Ranma's apartment. "They've destabilised the
power grid and nothing we do can fix it. Ranma, where's the handle on
this door?"
	"It's about chest height," Ranma replied. "You've got two viruses in
Mainframe?"
	"Yes, thankfully Kodachi's so random she just sits out in Lost Angles
and plays games. Kuno though is a problem. Ah, here it is." The door
clicked open and the three were bathed in the light streaming through the
window in Ranma's lounge. Ranma and Nabiki looked at Mike, who was
slumped over.
	"Poor Mike, guess he's not much use without any power," Ranma commented.
	Nabiki stood at the window peering out. "Hmm, looks like a sector wide
outage. Kasumi will pick up on it and get it fixed soon. I wonder where
Akane is, she said she'd meet me here."
	"She probably got downed when the power failed. Don't worry I'm sure
she's safe..."

*****

	Akane stood in the darkness. "Bitwise elevator!" she muttered.

*****

	"...besides which, things could always be worse," Ranma told Nabiki.
	The sky outside darkened to a deep purple. "Warning incoming game."
	Nabiki turned on Ranma. "You had to open your big mouth!"
	Ranma ran to the window. "Where's it falling?"
	Nabiki pushed her face against the window, looking up. "Three guesses
and they're all..." the room around them vanished in purple light,
"...here."

*****

	Stars twinkled in the night sky above. The sprites looked around them.
Nabiki and Ranma found that Akane, Mike and a number of binomes had
joined them. They stood before a sprawling squat building. Through the
lighted windows shapes could be seen moving around inside. The large
double doors seemed to be the only entrance.
	Behind the group sat a large vehicle, the ramp lay open just behind
them. It looked like the vehicle was supposed to fly, but there was no
obvious means of propulsion.
	"Nice of you to join us Akane," Ranma commented, reaching up and tapped
his icon twice. "Reboot!" The column of green light fell on him, hiding
him from view for a few moments before vanishing into the ground. Ranma
was clothed in blue futuristic armour, which covered every pixel of his
bitmap. In one hand he casually carried a long laser rifle, the other
hand rested on a sword at his hip.
	Akane snorted. "You didn't get stuck in the elevator when the power went
out." She doubled clicked her icon. "Reboot!" She vanished in the column
of light, reappearing moments later in red armour similar to Ranma. In
her arms she carried her only weapon, a massive cannon linked to a pack
on her back.
	"Now, now, lovers, don't fight," Nabiki tutted. She tapped her right
armband twice. "Reboot." Nabiki vanished for a moment before reappearing
wearing armour as black as the sky above. Her weapons were a strange
rounded pistol a pair of daggers at her hip.
	"What's that suppose to mean?" Akane demanded, an electronic ring in her
voice. There were flashes of light as the binomes started rebooting.
Moments later they all stood in an armour of red, blue, black or green.
	Inside her armour Nabiki smirked. "Oh, never mind. Now, who recognises
this game?" she inquired.
	"It's Alien Hunt," Ranma declared. "We have to stop the User from
killing all the civilians."
	"So we kill the User, that shouldn't be hard," Nabiki lifted the gun. If
her helmet hadn't hid her, the others would have seen her grinning
evilly.
	Ranma shook his head. "It's never that easy. The problem is that the
user has a few dozen aliens spread throughout the building, and we have
to kill them all to win."
	"What's with the colour coding of the armour?" Akane inquired.
	"We have twelve units divided into four teams, red, green, blue and
black. Each team is made up of three units: heavy weapons, speed attacks or
stealth
attacks."
	"So who's the leader of green team?" Nabiki asked.
	"And here he is folks, MIKE THE TV!" A voice announced to the sound of
cheering. The three sprites turned to find Mike now wrapped in green
armour, happily waving around a cannon.
	"MIKE!" screamed Ranma. "Keep it down, we don't what the User to find us
yet."
	"You're a little late there Ranma," Nabiki commented dryly.
	Instinctively everyone snapped their heads round to face the building.
Standing at the doors leading inside was a bug like alien holding a
staff. The creature hissed once before lowering its staff to point
towards the assembled Mainframers. A bolt of energy flew through the
group to strike the side of the vehicle, leaving a scorch mark.
	"Hey, he damaged the paint work!" one of the zero binomes complained.
	The alien's face fell as the Mainframers whipped out weapons.
	"Bye-bye!" Ranma waved at the alien.
	The flash of light that enveloped the bug was accompanied by a
thunderous detonation. Everyone turned to look at the blue armoured zero
binome that had fired. He tried to look innocent by hiding a gun twice
his size behind him. "Sorry, my finger slipped." Everyone regarded him
coolly.
	"Okay Guardian, what's our strategy?" Nabiki asked.
	Ranma shrugged. "Last time I played this, our group leader had us set up
a secure room with one group while the other three hunt aliens and ferry
any civilians back."
	"Akane?"
	"Sounds like as good a plan as any," Akane agreed. "Okay, Mike, your
team's on station keeping. Once we find a suitable room we'll spread out,
and keep com chatter to a minimum."

*****

	The one binome in green armour glanced back into the room, then returned
his gaze to the corridor. The Sprites and binomes had found a room whose
only entrance was at the end of a long corridor. After checking it for
hostiles and welding shut all the airvents, Ranma, Akane and Nabiki had
left Mike and his two binomes to search for the rest of the User's
aliens.
	While searching the Mainframers had found three civilians, who they had
brought with them. They were typical game sprites, only able to react in
the way
they had been programmed. At the moment that meant that they kept running
around the room yelling for help, stopping, then starting to run again.
It was starting to get on the binomes' nerves.
	Everything else seemed peaceful.

*****

	Everything seemed peaceful.
	Akane watched as the zero binome on point moved forward. She tensed
as he reached the corner and peered round. He held a finger to his lips,
then waved the others forward. Without a sound the sprite and the one
binome crept forward. They joined their quiet compatriot at the corner
and sneaked a peek.
	Another of the bug aliens stood before a set of inset elevator doors.
Its dark green leathery armour (or was that skin) gleamed slightly in the
fluorescent lights. They could see ichor dripping from its mandibles and
in one clawed hand it held an energy staff.
	Akane turned to the one binome that was carrying the rifle and sword.
She pointed to him, then around the corner. He nodded his top block then
unslung his rifle. The other two shifted out of his way as he slowly and
carefully took aim. Energy sizzled through the air, striking the bug.
With a scream the alien collapsed to the ground.
	The group waited a few anxious moments to see if the cry had altered any
other aliens. They listened, but nothing broke the silence. Akane moved
forward, sweeping the corridor with her cannon.
	"Area clear," Akane announced, lowering her weapon.
	"Do we go up Miss Tendo?" The one binome indicated the elevator.
	Inside her armour Akane frowned in thought. "Hold on a moment, I want to
check something." She slung the cannon on her shoulder then touched a
control on her arm, calling up a map on the inside of her visor. The map
showed all four teams and the area they had explored. Nabiki and Ranma
had both reached the ends of the building, exploring only one side. Her
own course had been somewhat more random. Guessing the general layout of
the floor she realised that Ranma and Nabiki would pretty much have to
loop back and explore the area she was in.
	She touched another control, activating her communicator. . "Red team
reporting," she said. "We've found an elevator and are going up to the
next level."
	"Black team," Nabiki's voice crackled through the radio. "Be careful
sis, I've just encountered a pair of game sprites who have been
unformatted."

****

	Nabiki closed down her com. The rooms in this building seemed to be
furnished almost exactly the same. True, the layout tended to be
different and sometimes the number of pieces changed, but in this place
when you'd seen one sofa, you'd seen them all.
	This room was the main room of a set of apartments, apparently inhabited
by a mother and child. Well, those were the sprite parts that were
scattered around the floor. Nabiki knelt next to the torso of the mother
sprite. She poked one of the wounds experimentally. Not being an expert
she couldn't be sure, but the wound didn't look like it had been caused
by the energy weapons.
	"Ah, Ms Tendo," one the binomes interrupted her, "we found something you
should see."
	Nabiki turned to find the black clad binome standing at the doors into
one of the rooms. She stood and nodded. "Show me."
	The binome took Nabiki into the room. It was bathroom, built in exactly
the same way every other bathroom she had been in since entering the
game. Nothing seemed out of place, so she turned to gaze to the binome,
who immediately pointed up. A vent in the roof, barely big enough for the
one binome to fit through, had been cut away. The slices looked to be
smooth and precise, no energy gun had caused them.
	Nabiki opened her com again. "I can confirm something is using the air
vents to move around. Whatever it is its small and has some kind of metal
cutting blade."

*****

	A bolt of energy flew past Ranma's head as he listened to Nabiki.
"Great, something else to worry about," he complained without opening his
com. He leaned, back to the wall, holding his rifle. The zero binome
carrying the cannon sat in a similar position across the corridor
intersection while the stealthy binome sat nearby. Round the corner and
down the corridor a way a pair of bugs were holed up, managing to keep
Ranma's group pinned.
	"One grenade, just give me one grenade," Ranma sighed.
	"Yes, sir!" The zero binomes tossed a small sphere to him.
	Ranma instinctively caught the object. It was a grenade, minus the pin.
MINUS THE PIN?! He immediately leaned out into the corridor and tossed
the grenade down the corridor. Silence fell as Ranma ducked back in, only
to be shattered by the explosion.
	Ranma and the two binomes leaned out around the corners. The explosion
had vaporised the aliens, leaving behind only a pair of evidence. Ranma
blinked and spun to face the zero binome. "WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?!"
he demanded.
	The binome saluted. "Orsky Pavlov, sir!"
	"Orsky?" Ranma repeated, then shook his head to clear it. "I meant are
you a friend or a spy for the User?"
	"Oh, a friend, definitely sir."
	"Then if you ever throw me a grenade without a pin in it again I will
personally throw you into the energy sea."
	"Yes, sir!" The binome smiled happily.
	Ranma wondered what it felt like to be nullified

*****

	The loud ding caused Akane to wince visibly. Her team rushed through the
opening elevator doors, brandishing their weapons. A quick sweep of the
corridor revealed no hostiles.
	Akane turned to her two binomes. "Okay, gang lets--"
	Suddenly the roof fell upon the pair of binomes. All Akane saw was teeth
and claw as something vanished back into the hole with the two binomes.
Akane stood in shock for a few seconds before diving into a roll. The
crash from behind her told her reaction had been right. She rolled onto
her back, firing randomly at the roof.
	Silence fell as her finger eased off the trigger. Through the roof she
could see up to the next level, but there was no sign of whatever was
attacking her.
	She took a moment to thumb her com open. "I'm under attack," she
whispered urgently. "Two men down timed."
	"Akane backspace!" Ranma ordered. Akane was surprised at the worry in
his voice.
	"No can do, its attacking from the ceiling," she returned.
	"Crash it," Ranma swore. "Okay, we're on our way."
	Akane lay for a few moments before deciding that she didn't need Ranma.
She put the cannon down and stated to climb to her feet. Reaching out she
fetched her gun and slowly, keeping her eyes on the roof and the corridor
back towards the elevator.
	It all happened so fast that she was barely aware of it. First a slimy
claw yanked the cannon from her hands, then It dropped from the ceiling
right in front of her. Akane's eyes immediately became fixed on the
thing's jaws as it loomed over her. Ichor oozed from its bared teeth as
it hissed. The alien reared up to strike the killing blow and fell into
two pieces on the ground.
	Akane blinked. Fell into two pieces on the ground? What kind of attack
was that?
	Beyond the remains of her attacker Akane saw a sprite that appeared her
own age. His skin was orange and he was clothed in a brown cloth jacket
and black trousers with a bandana wrapped around his head. A hiking pack
was hung across
his back, a myriad ofitems attached to it including a large parasol. In his
hands he held
a sword, his stance suggested he had just finished a long swing.
	Akane reached up and released the latches on her helmet, pulling it off.
With one hand she held the helmet at her side while she offered the other
to the stranger. "Hi, I'm Akane. Thanks for the save."
	The stranger straightened, then twirled the blade in one hand and shoved
the blade into the handle of the parasol resting behind his head.
"You're, ah, welcome. Um, I'm RyoGA, what are you doing here?" he asked.
	Akane gazed down at the two alien halves at her feet. "We're supposed to
be deleting these things."
	"Deleting? What a strange way to put," RyoGA looked around. "Who's we?"
	Before Akane could answer the elevator behind her let out a ding. In a
single fluid movement she snatched her cannon from the dead aliens claws
and spun to kneel facing the opening elevator doors. Behind her she heard
the sound of sliding metal on metal.
	The doors were open for a few nanoseconds before a blue blur dived out
rolling along the floor and coming to a rest facing towards them, rifle
pointing towards them. All three sprites held the scene for a few seconds
before Ranma jerked his gun away. The blue team leader stood and touched
one of the controls on his arm.
	"Blue team reporting. I've found her Nabiki. She's fine, she's just
taken her helmet off, that's all." Ranma shut down his com and approached
the pair. "What 's with scaring us like that? First we here the sounds of
battle through the com, then we can't raise you."
"What business is it of yours? I handled things fine!" Akane snapped.
	"Oh yeah?" Ranma managed to glare at her through his helmet. "And I
suppose you managed to slice the alien apart with your cannon."
	Akane was about to reply when RyoGA stepped between them, facing Ranma.
"That is no way to talk to a lady, I demand you apologise at once!"
	"What's it to you katana boy?!" Ranma demanded looking him up and down.
	"Ranma, don't you dare talk to him like that!" Akane yelled.
	Ranma opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by a one binome
clearing his throat. The three turned to look down at the one. "Excuse
me, but shouldn't we be getting on with the game?"
	RyoGA looked at the small sprite in surprise. "You call this a game? Is
it really so little?"
	Now it was Ranma, Akane and the two binomes to look at him strangely.
	"Games are a matter of formatting and deletion with us," Ranma replied.
"What's the matter with you? Everyone knows that."
	"What are you people?" RyoGA demanded.
	Ranma and Akane shared a glance. "We're sprites, trying to beat the User
at a game so we don't get nullified." she explained.
	"Sprites? Game? Nullified? I don't understand any of this," RyoGA looked
about in confusion.
	Ranma swore suddenly. He was looking at glitch on his wrist, the little
device had extended its disc. "He's a game sprite!"
	Akane turned to face him. "What?"
	"I think we'd better get Nabiki in on this."

*****

	Nabiki was waiting for them when they returned to the secure room. Akane
and Ranma immediately removed their helmets, then glanced around the
room. Nabiki had found another five civilians, so now eight game sprites
were randomly running around the room yelling for help.
	Nabiki immediately pulled Ranma aside. "Who is he?" she demanded.
	"His name's RyoGA and Glitch says he's a game sprite. The thing is he
acts nothing like any attack, passive or random I've ever met," Ranma
explained.
	Nabiki looked over at where her sister talked to the stranger. He wasn't
really paying attention to her, but watching the other game sprites.
Confusion was written all over his face. "Ranma have you ever heard of an
AI?" she asked.
	Ranma shrugged. "Some rumours, that's all. Game sprites that act like
normal sprites. They learn, adapt to new situations, that kind of thing.
I've never met one."
	"Well either you're key tool needs debugging, or you have now." Nabiki
turned to watch as RyoGA walked over to one of the other game sprites and
waved his hand in front of it. "I'd say our input is adding dimensions to
his code that he's never even considered."
	Akane wandered over to the pair. "And what are you two whispering
about?" she asked waspishly.
	"Our friend there, we think he's breaking free of the game," Ranma
replied, nodding towards RyoGA.
	"So you think he's safe to be around?" Akane asked.
	Ranma and Nabiki both shrugged, but didn't answer. Akane felt a presence
step up behind her, and turned to find RyoGA standing there. He appeared
to be upset about something.
	"If this is a game," he said with false calm, "what happens to me when
it ends?"
	The three sprites shared a glance.
	"You'll leave with the game, probably reset to your original state,"
Ranma answered honestly.
	"I can't let that happen!" he seethed.
	Nabiki shook her head. "You can't stop it. Sooner or later either we'll
defeat the User or he'll defeat us."
	"And you'll be nullified? What does that mean?" The sprite asked
seething like a volcano.
	"Reduced to nulls, gone, nothing left of us but a mindless energy
eaters. Its one of the worst fates a sprite can suffer," Akane explained.
	RyoGA closed his eyes, thinking for a few nanoseconds. "I will die
anyway, but if you win, you'll live," he mused aloud. His eyes snapped
open and he nodded resolutely. "I will help you win, at least then my
life will have had a purpose."
	Akane smiled at him brightly. "Th--"
	Gunfire drowned out her words. The two binomes at the door had opened
fire. Ranma immediately dashed towards the door, unslinging his rifle and
slamming his helmet on his head. A hoard of aliens were attempting to
charge down the corridor, but were starting to pile up under the
relentless auto-rifle fire from the binomes guarding the door.
	"They're attempting to break in!" Ranma yelled, adding his fire to that
or the guards. "The User must have killed the rest of the civilians and
is going all out at us!"
	"Watch your backs, he may try to break in else where!" Nabiki shouted.
She was proved right moments later when a bunch of aliens broke through
the roof. The room was full of explosion, screams, cries of "help me!"
and hisses. The battle raged, Ranma paying only a little attention to
what was going on behind him as the waves of aliens rolled down the
corridor.
	It wasn't long before the numbers ahead of him started to diminish so
Ranma turned to survey the battle inside, just in time to hear RyoGA cry,
"AKANE!!" A single alien sprung up in the ceiling carrying a familiar
looking red suit.
	Ranma saw red. He leveled his gun and started firing. With pinpoint
accuracy he downed every alien inside the room. Peace descended as the
last of the aliens fell, the assembled sprites standing there, staring at
the enraged Ranma.
	"Casualties?" he demanded.
	Nabiki looked around. "We lost one heavy weapons and one stealth to
aliens and Orsky shot himself, not lethally." Everyone paused for a few
moments, trying to figure out how you shot yourself with a gun that was
bigger than you. "They got Akane, and six of our eight civilians."
	Ranma nodded. For a moment he debated whether or not to risk using
Glitch to find out their enemies condition, then lifted his arm. "Glitch,
game stats," he ordered. He looked at Glitch's display for a moment.
"Akane's alive and the User has two aliens," he informed the others. "Our
two remaining civilians are all that are left."
	Again Ranma nodded. "Okay Nabiki, take the civilians, Mike and the
binomes. Go out to the aircraft. Sweep it before locking the civilians
in, and stay there."
	"What are you and RyoGA going to be doing?" Nabiki asked.
	Ranma held up his rifle. "Can you say rescue mission?"

*****

	The corridors of the third level were dark and gloomy. Shadows played
across the green ribbed walls constructed by the aliens. They'd been
busy, these aliens, or more to the point, the User. As far as the two
sprites could see the entire third floor had been redecorated in late
Escher.
	Ranma and RyoGA crept through the corridors, following Akane's suit
signal on Ranma's map. Ranma held his rifle ready while RyoGA's sword
glinted in the dim light. It wasn't long before the winding corridor came
to an end. The wall seemed just like the others.
	"Great, no turn offs and no way on," RyoGA complained.
	Ranma, ignoring him, pulled off his suit gloves and started feeling
along the wall. "There's a seam here, it used to be a door." He pulled
his sword from its sheath and started chipping away at the wall. After a
few moments he jammed the sword into the hole he'd made. He started using
the blade as a lever.
	"Need some help?" RyoGA asked, watching him.
	"If you don't mind!" Ranma returned.
	RyoGA laid his hands over Ranma's and the two sprites strained. There
was a snap and the two sprites went sprawling. Ranma held up his now
broken sword. "Crash it!"
	RyoGA chuckled. "Look at that." He pointed to the door. Their efforts
had managed to push it open.
	The room beyond was a forest of columns, so dense that the duo couldn't
see more than a few hundred pixels. Ranma reached up and pulled off his
helmet. "This thing's restricting my vision." He tossed the helmet away.
It bounced a couple of times before disappearing from view.
	"That was stupid Ranma, you could have awakened something," RyoGA
commented. Moments later the columns exploded.
	The two sprites instinctively raised their arms to cove their faces as
the shards pelted them. A huge alien, all teeth and claws, dove from the
darkness. One of its huge pincers struck at Ranma, sending him flying
away. Ranma struck the wall head first and last thing he saw as the
darkness of unconsciousness took him was the alien's claws wrapping
themselves around RyoGA.
	"RANMA!" RyoGA yelled, seeing the other sprite collapse to the ground.
The alien's claws were vice strong around his waist. He spun his sword in
his hands and struck down at the claw, trying to chip away the armour.
	The Alien hefted the struggling sprite to its gapping maw. Its long
eyestalk bent down to watch its meal. "Your last mistake, monster," RyoGA
chuckled, reversing his sword once more. With a single thrust the blade
pierced deep within the creature's orb. The alien's death scream was
joined by RyoGA's as the claw crushed him.

*****

	Nabiki frowned. She'd secured the final two civilians in the aircraft
then set up patrols. Now she had just one problem. Where were those
three?

*****

	Ranma groaned as he awoke. His eyes snapped open and he gazed around.
The alien, the same one that had kidnapped Akane and then attacked him,
lay dead not far away.
	How long had he been down timed? he wondered. There was no sign of
RyoGA, Ranma wondered what had become of him. "Glitch, stats, RyoGA and
Akane." Glitch's disc increased in side and slid up to form a screen.
"RyoGA - Genius Artificial, Condition monitor zero." Ranma paused, eyes
closed. He'd only known the sprite for a short time, but he seemed like
he had a good code. "Akane - Mainframe Data sprite, Condition monitor
one."
	Ranma smiled, at least there was some good news. He searched around,
finding his rifle, or at least the both halves of it. Unfortunately it
had broken in the fall. Now he needed a new weapon.
	He spotted it. The hilt of RyoGA's sword stuck out of the dead alien's
eye. It appeared to be Ranma's only choice so he walked over gripped the
handle and yelped in shock.
	"What's with this bugged sword?" Ranma demanded waving his hands in
pain. He immediately grabbed the sword again and yanked it from the eye.
This time there was no shock from the weapon.
	Ranma held the sword before him, an evil grin on his face. "Watch out
User, 'cause I'm coming to get you!" Light glinted off the blade of his
sword.

*****

	"You random piece of bugged code! Keep you eyes to yourself!" Akane
yelled. After she been captured, the alien had brought her to what
appeared to be some kind of main chamber. Her capture had pushed against
the wall and secreted green bile on her arms and legs that had hardened,
trapping her against the wall. Once it was sure she was firmly affixed it
had ripped her helmet off. Akane didn't know why, but the large tentacled
alien in the center of the room had spent a lot of time examining her
with an eyeball on a pseudopod.
	"HEY UGLY!" A voice shouted from the other side of the room. "How about
facing someone who can fight back!"
	All the thing's pseudopods pulled away, shifting their attention to new
comer.
	"I'm Ranma Saotome, Guardian of Mainframe and member of the Anything
Goes School of Gaming!" The voice declared. "Prepare to lose!"
	"RANMA!" Akane cried happily. From where she was trapped she saw the
pseudopods start withering, then one of the tentacles slid sideways and
Ranma flew into sight. He bounced off one of the walls and soared
straight towards her, sword outstretched. There were two flashes of light
and Akane fell forward into Ranma's waiting arms.
	"Hang on tight Akane," Ranma said, bounding off the wall and arcing
upwards, "we're finishing this game!"
	Akane wrapped her arms around him tightly and craned her head around as
they reached the apex of their flight. She saw where they were heading.
"Ranma, have you gone completely RANDOM!!" she screamed, closing her eyes
tight as they plummeted towards the center of the alien. She felt the
jolt as they impacted.
	"Game Over," the computer announced moments later.
	"Ooooh!" a collection of voices chorused from around them.
	Akane cracked her eyes open. They now stood on the roof of Ranma's
apartment building, surrounded by the sprites and binomes that had
survived the game. And to all appearances she was in a loving embrace
with Ranma.
	She let her arms fall to her side and took a step back. She was quiet,
too quiet. From behind her back she pulled the largest mallet Ranma had
ever seen. Ranma's face fell and he tried to parry with the sword. Akane
swung the mallet around clubbing Ranma. "RANMA YOU JERK!"
	Nabiki stepped up beside her. "You're in good form today," she
commented, watching Ranma vanish into the sky.

-----

Glossary of Mainframe Terms

Setting our Pointers Static - A pointer is a variable that points to
another variable. A static variable is a variable that can't be changed.
Thus "Setting our Pointers Static" is analogous to "nailing our feet to
the floor."

-----------
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz