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.

I'd like to thank my prereaders: Jin, David Johnston and Shane Burton

I welcome any Comments, Criticism or MSTs. Previous parts can be found at:
	http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/


-----

Shampoo: Shampoo searches the net,
	through systems, people and cities,
	looking for Ranma.
	Her format: Provider,
	to serve all sprites.
	Shampoo run the Nekohanten,
	Mainframes best restaurant.


v 1.6.1: Kodachi Strikes

*****

	The door to the Nekohanten jangled open and the lilac skinned form of Ukyo
sauntered in. Ignoring the stares from the binomes seated at the tables she
regarded the approaching file server.

	"'allo Mousse," she greeted with a smile.

	Mousse jerked to a stop, and adjusted his glasses. "Well, well if it isn't
Ukyo." He scanned the tables, comparing them to his expected tip. There were
a number of empty tables, all situated in desirable places. He waved his
hand at the girl. "Wait at the bar."

	"No thanks suga', I can see my table from here." Ukyo strolled across the
room, followed by the server, and took a seat at Akane's usual table. She
turned to look at Mousse. "So Mousse, what happened to you? When we were in
Jusenkyo you were a little more ambulatory."

	Mousse gave her a tragic look. "A casualty of our journeys through the net
I'm afraid. Shampoo and I got caught in a wild data stream. The loss of my
legs was a small sacrifice to pay for my beloved's safety."

	"I'm sure," Ukyo replied, unimpressed.

	"Now if only she'd get beyond this desire to link with Saotome, we'd be
happy together."

	Ukyo smirked. "Mousse darling, I doubt you'll ever..." she trailed off as
his words sank in. "SHE WHAT?!"

	Mousse shrank back from the looming female. He briefly wondered what it was
about girls and hitting him that went so well together. "She wants to link
with Saotome," he replied without thinking.

	Ukyo seethed. "I don't believe this! She's trying to steal MY Ran-chan!"
The hacker rose from her table and stormed out the door.

*****

	Ranma searched the streets below. He didn't understand how a single sprite
managed to get so lost so easily. You really couldn't get more lost in
Mainframe if you tried.

	Asking for help was a problem. Not knowing whether he was looking for
Frisket or RyoGA made questioning people a risk. If he spent all his time
asking after the pair someone would sooner or later put two and two
together.

	He glanced up towards G-Prime. Kuno's sector. Going in there would cause
trouble, and probably gain him a following of ABCs. It was also the only
place Ranma hadn't looked.

	Turning back to watch the streets below his car Ranma was glad when he
spotted his quarry heading straight into G-Prime. Either RyoGA was brave,
foolish or had no idea where was heading. In all likelyhood the last.

	Ranma dove the car, so it spiralled down towards the game sprite. At the
last moment he pulled up and screeched to a stop next to a startled RyoGA.
"Hey, been searching for you all over!" Ranma exclaimed.

	"RANMA!" RyoGA cried. "DO THAT AGAIN AND I'LL KILL YOU!!"

	Ranma shrugged. "Come on. Kasumi wants to see ya." He waited until RyoGA
was in the car before taking off again. "So where've you been?"

	"Just looking around for a while," RyoGA answered. "I found the most
interesting old man, he was selling these things he called logic probes."

	The car dipped suddenly as Ranma gasped. "LOGIC PROBES?! There's a Hacker's
Guild in Mainframe?! Where?!"

	"How would I know? I've been almost permanently lost since I arrived in
Mainframe. I mean, how far is a pixel anyway?"

	Ranma groaned. There was a highly illegal organisation in Mainframe, and he
couldn't even find them, let alone shut them down. Just great.

*****

	Shampoo stood on the stairs outside the Principal Office, staring out
across the system. Not far away Nabiki and Akane stood talking in quiet
whispers.

	"Why shouldn't I go in?" Akane hissed.

	Nabiki shrugged. "Ranma is more likely to recover from anything they do. It
is, after all, what he's trained for his whole process."

	"And what about me?! I've spent my entire process training!"

	Nabiki rolled her eyes. "No, you've had to worry about the system as well.
Ranma has done nothing but train for the last ten Megacycles and with the
Guardiians too!"

	Akane fumed quietly as Nabiki turned away to walk towards the Amazon
sprite. "Sh--"

	"SHAMPOO!" The three sprites on the stairs turned to see Ukyo storming
towards them, glaring at Shampoo angrily.

	"What spatula sprite want?" Shampoo demanded.

	"I hear you're after my Ranma honey!"

	"Is true. So what?"

	"Back off, Guardian Saotome promised that link to me!"

	Shampoo produced a pair of bonbori from behind her back. "Ranma is
Shampoo's. She delete to keep."

	Ukyo reached over her back and pulled out her spatula, holding it ready to
slam the blue girl. "Just you try, honey!"

	"Ladies, ladies," Nabiki interceded. "You shouldn't be fighting over Ranma,
it's his choice after all."

	Shampoo lowered her maces. "Indexer right.""

	"Yeah, we'll let Ranma decide." Ukyo flung her spatula back into its
sheath on her back.

	"Besides which, Akane's claim on Ranma is stronger than both of yours,"
Nabiki added, smiling.

	"I am not linking with that CORRUPTED RANDOM..!" Akane exclaimed.

	"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT MY RANMA SUGAR LIKE THAT!" "Defender girl not insult
Ranma!"

	As the three girls argued once more a large red car swooped out of
the sky and pulled up next to them. Sitting in the front were Ranma and
RyoGA.

	"Hey everyone, look who I found wandering into G-Prime!" Ranma called,
ignoring the battling girls.

	Three pairs of eyes turned to glare at him. "RANMA!"

*****

	Kasumi looked around the Principal Office control room. Akane leaned
against one wall, arms crossed, fuming quietly while Nabiki made her way up
the ramp to Kasumi's side. Standing in the centre of the room Ukyo chattered
with RyoGA, who appeared to be having trouble holding up his part of the
conversation. The only other data sprite in the room was Shampoo who stood
bouncing on her heels.

	"Where's Ranma?" the command.com asked as her sister stepped up to her.

	"He went to see the diagnostic."

	Kasumi frowned, worried. "Is he ill? He looked fine when I sent him to find
RyoGA."

	Nabiki smirked. "Oh, it was something that hit him very suddenly."

	"Will he be okay?"

	"He'll be fine in a few nanoseconds, I imagine."

	"Good." Kasumi turned back to the three on the floor below. "RyoGA, Ukyo,
Shampoo, could I have your attention please?" The three sprites turned to
look up at her. "All three of you have expressed an interest in aiding in
the defence of this system. While I'm sure all three of you are capable, I'd
like to test you to gauge your level of skill. The easiest way to do this is
let the three of you try to win a game on your own."

	Akane cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Sis, I just realised,
neither Ukyo nor RyoGA are formatted for the games. They can't Reboot and
when the game leaves then it'll be end of file."

	Kasumi stood staring at her for a second. "Oh my, you're right. I guess
we'll have to wait until we find a way around that."

	"I think I might have an idea," Ukyo announced, "if you don't mind some
help Command.com."

	"Of course, please do."

	Ukyo strode up the ramp and took a seat at the console next to Kasumi. "My
idea is to set up an alias between two icons. That way RyoGA and I can
borrow the code to Reboot and pretend to be system sprites."

	"It could work."

	Akane, uninterested in the coding discussion wandered over to talk to
RyoGA. As she talked to him Shampoo strode over to Nabiki.

	"Why Indexer trust game sprite?!" she whispered.

	"I don't, but both Ranma and Akane seem to, so I'm letting it slide for
now."

	Ukyo's voice carried across the room. "...Guardian code will strengthen..."

	"Shampoo keep close eye."

	"...use Shampoo's in case Ranma isn't back..." Kasumi was saying.

	"Good, I'm glad someone feels the same way I do."

	"...connect both ways and keep up a carrier..."

	Nabiki frowned. "Shampoo, watch him around Ranma, he's holding a grudge."

	"...extra memory?"

	"He not hurt my Ranma."

	"...use virtual, means the hack won't work outside Mainframe..."

	"Also he might be sweet on Akane," Nabiki informed Shampoo.

	"...no plans to leave..." Ukyo continued.

	The Amazon sprite huffed. "Like Shampoo care."

	Kasumi looked up. "Shampoo, RyoGA, could we have your Icons please?"

*****

	A small pulse travelled along the stream of light between the two icons.
The assembled sprites watched carefully. Ukyo reached forward and plucked
her's from the stand. She stood and set the disc on her belt, then clicked
on it. The image on the Icon shifted, to the familiar blue and white of
Mainframe.

	"So, is that all?" Ranma asked.

	"Yes thanks Ran-chan."

	The Guardian picked up his own Icon and placed it back on his chest. "There
going to be any side-efects?"

	"Not for you, but RyoGA and I have to be careful not to break the link."

	Ranma walked around the console to stand next to Ukyo. "And this'll protect
you in the games?"

	"So long as either you or Shampoo are present. Unfortunately we couldn't
think of a way to download the game code from your Icons."

	"Great!" Ranma smiled at her.

	The door slid open. "Get moving, there's a game about to fall!" Akane
yelled.

*****

	Ranma led RyoGA, Ukyo and Shampoo towards the slowly falling cube. It was
headed towards a part of floating point. "Slow game," he commented. "This
could be tricky."

	"Ranma think game be difficult?" Shampoo inquired from her own zip-board.

	"Certainly it'll be complicated. Hope you three can handle it."

	The four sprite swooped over the beautiful gardens of Floating Point, past
trees and statues till Ranma signalled a halt. The Guardian stared up at the
approaching sea of purple energy.

	"You ready?" he asked.

	"And rarin' to go, sugah." "Of course." "Shampoo ready!"

	"I'm ready too."

	Chills ran up Ranma's spine as he heard the last voice. It was high
pitched, definitely female, and held just a touch of instability to it. He
turned, dreading what he was about to find.

	Standing there was what had to be a virus. Her bitmap was black, from the
tip of her toes to the top of her head, except for the white mask covering
her face and the glowing green eyes.

	"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The virus laughed, grabbing Ranma. The Guardian jerked
a couple of times and went limp.

	"Crazy virus let Ranma go!" Shampoo exclaimed, pulling her bonbori from
behind her back.

	Kodachi laughed again and raised her hand. "Do you think you can take him
from me?" A sizzling ball of energy in the viruses hand. "Do you?!" She
threw the ball of energy, which impacted between the three sprites, sending
them flying.

	Kodachi cackled one last time and vanished in a rain of black rose petals,
taking Ranma with her.

	Neko-Shampoo got to her paws as Frisket leapt. Both transformed sprites
looked around for their comrade. She lay not far away, although at first
they didn't realise it.

	The small grey rodent that was Ukyo looked at itself. "Squeak!" it cursed
as the scenery dissolved into purple swirling energy.

*****

	"Odd," Kasumi commented, looking down at the console.

	"What's so strange?" Akane asked stepping up behind her.

	"I registered a power surge just before the game hit."

	Akane frowned. "I hope Shampoo didn't morph, she wouldn't be much use in
the game."

*****

	Meanwhile in the game, the three animal sprites scanned the landscape
around them. The dark sky above was rendered apart by flashes of lightning,
illuminating murky shapes. Rising from the ground they could see the forms
of gravestones and the jagged shapes of dead trees.

	"Mew?" Neko-Shampoo asked.

	Ukyo-Mouse shrugged, an almost imperceptible motion. "Squeak."

	Frisket rolled his eyes. "Rwoof!"

	Neko-Shampoo reached up with a paw and tapped the icon that hung from a
collar around her neck. "Me-mew!" A small column of green light struck the
cat sprite. When the energy vanished the cute little kitten was gone. In its
place stood a black spiky ball of fur sporting massive claws on its
underside. Bright yellow eyes with thin black sits glared out at the world.

	Frisket stared at Neko-Shampoo for a second before reaching up to tap his
own Icon. "Grwol-oof!" For a moment the column of energy surrounded the Junk
yard dog, leaving behind a massive grey-black dog. Frisket's mouth now
sported a set of massive fangs and his normally expressive eyes had shrunk
to small evil red dots.

	Ukyo-Mouse squeaked and vanished in the column of energy. After she'd
rebooted she stood tall once more at barely over a couple of inches. Her
form was wrapped in a cloak of midnight black, with a skeletal rat's nose
poking out of the hood. One bone paw was held the shaft of a miniature
scythe.

	"SQUEAK!" Neko-Shampoo and Frisket both shivered, Ukyo-Mouse voice seemed
somehow more real than before, and reminded them of the sound of two
tombstones rubbing together.

*****

	The User fired off another round from the shotgun into the massive tangle
of twisting vines. The plant demon gave a piercing scream and collapsed to
the ground, revealing the bridge beyond.

	The words "Level Completed" appeared in his view, then "Kills 30/30".

	"Groovy!"

	Once the words vanished the User, a tall man wearing a black vest and a
chainsaw in the place of his right hand, stepped forward and walked with a
strange bobbing motion across the bridge. As he passed the halfway point a
massive hand reached up from the chasm the bridge spanned. The User stared
in horror it fell towards him. Sprinting out from under the falling palm the
user dived forward as the bridge was ripped from beneath his feet. His good
hand snagged the edge of the chasm, and with an impressive display of
strength he pulled himself up onto solid ground.

	Turning, the User watched as his shotgun fell into the depths. "Groovy!"

	In the distance the screech of a cat rung out, followed by a canine yelp of
pain.

*****

	Neko-Shampoo glared at Frisket. The mutt was nursing the scratches on his
nose that she had put there after he had stepped on her tail. Ukyo-Mouse
slapped her forehead with a bone paw.

	"SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEEEEAK!" she yelled at the two. Both hung their heads in
shamed. "SQUEAK-EK, SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" She strode over to a bush
and dragged out a large box with the word shells on it. "SQUEAK."

	Both Frisket and Neko-Shampoo nodded their heads. The hound put his nose to
the ground and started sniffing around while the hellcat clambered up a tree
to scan the area. Seeing both her companions busy, Ukyo-Mouse turned to the
box and sliced it in half with her scythe.

	"Shenick, shenick," she chuckled.

*****

	The last skeleton had a surprised look on its skull as the Chainsaw tore
through its ribs. Stepping back the User watched as it collapsed into a pile
of bones on the ground, then crumbled into dust. Leaving the dust to the
tender mercies of the wind, the User strode on and grabbed the shotgun on
the pedestal.

	"My BOOMSTICK!" The sprite announced, holding the weapon above his head.

	A roar from behind announced the entrance of a new demon and the User spun
and fired the shotgun. The poor game sprite took the shot straight in the
chest and fell over backwards.

	"Groovy!"

*****

	Neko-Shampoo snuck along the branch of the tree, keeping a close eye on the
User below. He was busy destroying game spirtes, who just kept shuffling
stupidly towards him. Neko-Shampoo wondered what kind of basic sprite
enjoyed such mayhem and destruction, but was glad this one did.

	Reaching the thin part of the branch above the User Neko-Shampoo steadied
herself for a moment, then pounced. She fell straight towards the sprite
below, landing atop his head. Her claws dig deep into bitmap, rendering it
horribly.

	Dropping the shotgun for a second the User grabbed at the angry ball of fur
on his face. Neko-Shampoo dodged the hand, and leapt away, scampering into
the darkness. The User swept up the shotgun, but the arrival of more game
sprites kept him from following.

*****

	Small crosses and tiny tombstones littered the graveyard. There was a
monument to Fluffy, here a memorial to Rex, and finally, atop the altar at
the centre was a page of the Manual of Mortality. The User advanced towards
his goal, carefully looking to the left and right, his gun following his
gaze.

	Once he was deep in the cemetery a small figure leapt up on one of the
plaques. "SQUEAK, SQEE SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" Ukyo-Mouse commanded.

	Around the user the dirt started to churn, as the residents of the graves
dug there way to the surface. The User failed to notice as the undead
corpses hauled themselves to their feet. Little did he realise that a tide
of death washed towards him as he continued towards the important piece of
paper. Little did he care when the horde of undead gerbils, hamsters and
mice were crushed beneath his feet.

	Ukyo-Mouse slapped a hand to her face and walked away muttering to herself.

*****

	The spawn of Shub-Nigurath struck out with its tentacles.

	Frisket, Neko-Shampoo, and Ukyo-Mouse watched as the User side-stepped the
attack of the tree-like monster and delivered a blast from his double
barrelled shotgun. It roared in pain and lashed out again, catching the User
sprite and flinging him across the clearing. Landing on his feet, the User
rushed forward, chainsaw roaring.

	From their hiding place, the three animal sprites saw the user slice the
game sprite in half. A leaf of paper, another of the pages of the Manual of
Mortality, fluttered down from the darkness above, and was expertly snatched
up by the User.

	"Grrrroooowwwwlllll!" Neko-Shampoo hissed.

	Ukyo-Mouse nodded. "SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The other two nodded and the
trio scampered, scuttled and loped into the darkness.

*****

	Like the crack of doom the shack door slammed open, revealing a large dog
with glowing red eyes, a wicked looking furball and a small black robed
figure holding a scythe.

	Neko-Shampoo moved cautiously in, looking around the room. She sniffed the
air, then turned back and nodded to the others. Ukyo-Mouse strode in and
looked around. A desk sat in one corner next to a small shelf full of books.
The desk held the User's final goal, the cover of the Manual of Mortality. A
sofa leaned against one wall and a folded rug lay next to a chained trap
door on the floor. Above the piano hung a mounted moose head, gazing blankly
across the room, mouth held open.

	The small creature gestured towards the piano, then to Frisket. "SQUEAK
EEK!"

	"Gwoof!" the dog agreed, and loped across to the piano. He pushed his way
behind the large instrument, and leaned against it, pushing it easily across
the room. The door slammed shut as the piano struck it, pinning it closed.

	Meanwhile Neko-Shampoo leapt up to grab the book cover. She looked around
the room for somewhere to hide it, immediately discounting the book shelf as
being too obvious. Her eyes came to rest on the chained trapdoor. Perfect.

	She dragged the cover to the edge of the desk and pushed it off. Moments
later she dropped to the ground next to it, and gripped it in her jaws. Once
she had it at the trapdoor she dropped it again and looked for a way to open
it. Between the wooden door and the floor was a small crack so the small cat
tried to push her paw between them to pry it open.

	Suddenly the trapdoor banged up, until it ran out of chain. Surprised
Neko-Shampoo leapt back, and glared into the darkness in the crack.

	"Whadda ya want?" a voice asked in a bad Spanish accent.

	"Merrrrrooooowwwww," the small cat gestured towards the book. A hand shot
out of the darkness and grabbed the book, then vanished back. Moments later
the trapdoor banged closed.

	Neko-Shampoo blinked, then rapped on the trapdoor. Once again it banged
open. "Whadda ya want?"

	"Merow," Neko-Shampoo thanked the creature.

	"S'alright." The trapdoor banged closed.

	Neko-Shampoo proudly walked off, a job well done, then looked back at the
trapdoor in shock. The creature had understood her! Before she could
investigate further she was interrupted by a mechanical whine outside.

	With a screech the blade of the chainsaw bit through the lighter patch of
wallpaper where the piano had sheltered. Neko-Shampoo and Frisket watched
helplessly as a man shaped hole was through the wall. The wall fell in with
a mighty crash.

	"Groovy!" the User exclaimed, stepping through the hole. He looked at the
hell-hound and terror-cat standing staring at him and quickly took aim with
the shotgun held with his good hand.

	"Schnick, schnick, schnick," Ukyo-Mouse snickered from above him and sliced
through the nail holding up the Moose head. The head tumbled forward,
sending the undead rat sprite flying, and landing on the Users head, as if
trying to eat him head first.

	"Groovy," came the User's muffled comment as he stumbled forward swinging
both gun and chainsaw wildly. Cat, dog and mouse dived for cover, even as
the chainsaw sliced into the chain securing the trapdoor. The trio covered
their eyes as metal screamed.

	Neko-Shampoo mewed and pointed a paw at the trapdoor, Ukyo-Mouse and
Frisket nodded even as the User dropped his gun and started struggling with
the moose head. Neko-Shampoo and Frisket snuck towards the User, the first
going past him and the trapdoor, while the latter crouched behind the User's
legs.

	The moment the moose head came free, the sprites sprung into action. With a
loud hiss Ukyo-Mouse sprang up at the Users face, scythe flashing and
Neko-Shampoo tapped on the trapdoor with a paw. The User immediately back
pedalled away from the undead rodent, and discovered the large hound lying
behind him. Behind him the trapdoor slammed all the way open, the creature
demanding "Whadda ya want?" The User hung in mid-air for a moment before
tilting over and falling into the darkness below. With a loud bang the
Trapdoor swung back into place.

	Silence fell, leaving the three sprites wondering what was happening.
Neko-Shampoo opened her mouth, but never spoke as the trapdoor crashed open.
The User flew out of the darkness, hanging as if a puppet, his skin a pale
green.

	"I'm dead before dawn, dead before dawn!" he cackled, and dropped back out
of sight.

	"Game Over," the soft feminine voice of the system announced. In a haze of
purple the dark shack vanished, leaving the three sprites standing once more
in Mainframe's park.

	Almost immediately a fleet of vehicles descended upon them. CPUs and
diagnostics hurried up to check for wounded sprites. It was only moments
before Akane and Nabiki arrived. Seeing the three animals Akane turned her
first officer. "Number one, bring up the static shower."

	The numeral one nodded. "Yes ma'am." He turned and hurried off.

	Nabiki walked forward and picked up the small mouse. "That has to be you
Ukyo. Well I guess this explains a lot." She turned to watch a van pull
towards them. A couple of CPU binomes jumped out of the cab and ran around
to pull open the side door. Mainframe's Indexer climbed the steps and put
the small rodent on the floor before reaching in and turning on the static
shower. She closed the door behind her and waited for the hacker to return.

	Nanoseconds past before the door swung open and the cute hacker girl
sauntered down the steps. "Ah, nothing like a shower to make you feel like
yourself again."

	"I'm sure," Nabiki commented as Akane put Neko-Shampoo into the shower
truck. "Where's Ranma and RyoGA?"

	"We were attacked right before the game hit, some crazy black dame. She
activated our curses and took off with Ran-chan. RyoGA, well he..."

	"... took off after them," Nabiki interjected, glancing at Frisket.

	"Ah... yeah," Ukyo agreed, confused.

	"So Kodachi has Ranma."

	"Shampoo go get him back!" the Amazon announced, bouncing over.

	Nabiki shook her head. "No, she's too powerful for a frontal assault. What
we need, is a plan!"

-----

Author's Note:

This part was based (loosely) on "To Mend and Defend" ReBoot v3.1.1. I took
out all the good jokes (from necessity) so it doesn't spoil the episode
much. The game is based on a Doom-like engine and the movie series "Evil
Dead." Yes, the Manual of Mortality is the Necronomicon.

Also the Trapdoor is based on an act done by ventriloquist Senor Wences and
Ukyo rebooted as the Grim Squeaker from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

This part is one of two of this story so the next is numbered v 1.6.2, not
1.7 as is normal.

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