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. All parts to this and other of
my stories may be found at:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
-----
Ukyo: I travel the net,
Hacking systems for profit and fun.
My format: I have no format.
I am a rogue sprite,
Searching the net,
For home.
v 1.8.2 : Aloha!
The binome wore a hardhat and overalls. In the window Nabiki could see
the destruction caused by the recent battle against Nullzilla behind him.
"Clean up has begun ma'am. Reconstruction crews have moved in."
Nabiki nodded. "How are you moving the giant robot? I don't want any
more damage to the system."
In the window the construction binome shifted nervously. "Ah, we have a
problem there ma'am."
Mainframe's Indexer gave him a look that would've disassembled a quantum
shake. "What?"
"It seems that Mike the TV, the game sprite and a couple of binomes took
it on a joy ride."
"THEY WHAT?!" Nabiki paused for a second to massage her temples. "Never
mind, I'm sure they'll turn up, even with RyoGA at the controls." She
closed the window with a sigh.
*****
Kodachi groaned and shifted slightly, unconsciously showing off her
lean form. Her bitmap was smooth once and glossy black once more and the
mask was an expression of peace.
Ranma knelt over the prone virus. "There doesn't seem to be any side
effects to whatever it was," he said into his keytool.
"In other words, no leads," Kasumi commented.
"I'm not so sure. This thing went after a virus, it might do so again."
In Glitch's display Kasumi frowned in thought. "So you think it might go
after--"
"Kuno..." Kodachi gasped faintly.
Ranma looked up in surprise. "That's right, how did you know?"
"No, KUNO!" She pointed past him.
"Huh?" He half turned, just in time to see the black arm crash into him.
Ranma arched away as the Kuno stepped towards Kodachi. Mainframe's sword
wielding virus was obviously not himself. Instead of dark blue his colour
palette was jet black and his eyes, no longer lust obsessed pools, held
an animal fury.
"NOOOOO!!!!" Kodachi shrieked as she was lifted from the ground. In a
shower of sparks the blackened virus' arm started to fuse into her.
Inhuman howls of pain tore from Kodachi's mouth.
"GLITCH, REPLUSOR!" An explosion of light separated the viruses, sending
Kuno flying away. "Glitch, car!" The keytool flew off Ranma's arm as he
dashed over to help Kodachi to her feet. "Come on, lets get out of here."
Kodachi nodded weakly as Ranma's car pulled up beside them. Like a
gentleman, the Guardian helped the weakened mistress of mayhem into the
passenger seat before vaulting over her into the driver's seat.
""Mach 5 or bust!" laughed Ranma as he put his foot to the floor. The
car roared to life and zoomed up into the air above the system.
Once they were safely soaring above the city Ranma turned to Kodachi.
"Ah, what happened back there? I mean, the two of you started to fuse,
how is that possible?"
The virus clasped her hands before her. "Why Ranma darling, I thought
you knew, he's my brother."
"YOUR BROTHER?!" The car dropped a few hundred pixels before Ranma
managed to regain control. "That explains so much. What'll we get the two
of you merge?"
"The next GENERATION!" Kodachi threw her head back and cackled.
Kodachi's mirth (and the stability of the car) were short lived as Kuno
crashed onto the bonnet. The black virus hissed once at the surprised
Guardian, then grabbed his sister and dropped off the hood.
"SPAM!" Ranma cried righting the car, then hit a button on his
dashboard. "Kasumi... we have a problem!"
*****
Shampoo stormed through the corridors of the Principal Office and
slammed open the door to the Command.com's office. "Shampoo want know why
Nekohanten closed!" she announced.
Kasumi answered with a smile. "Excuse me Shampoo, I'm busy, could it
wait?"
Shampoo crossed her arms and glowered, but was only ignored by Kasumi.
Settling down she noticed RyoGA standing in one corner. "Where game
sprite been?"
"I got to this strange place with people wearing Icon's like Ranma's,
but they didn't seem to like me, so I came back," RyoGA answered with a
shrug.
Shampoo's jaw hit the ground. "Game sprite get to Supercomputer?! How?"
Before he could reply the two were interrupted by an exclamation from
Kasumi. "THEY DID WHAT?!"
*****
Ranma shielded his eyes from the glare. "Kodachi and Kuno have merged,"
he repeated. "They seem to have formed some kind of energy sphere. I'm
guessing the new virus is compiling inside." He glanced over from his car
at the sphere in question and immediately covered his eyes as the
multicoloured light stabbed at his eyes.
"What are you going to do?" Kasumi asked across the comlink.
"I'll approach, its possible they've formed a benign virus, or at least
one with enough personality problems to be ineffective."
"All work and no play make Ranma random." Ranma could barely hear
Shampoo's voice across the link.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he shot back.
"Be careful Ranma," Kasumi added before closing the comm.
Boldly Ranma leapt from his car and strode across the road. "I am Ranma
Saotome of Mainframe, Guardian Number 698. Identify your function and
file name!"
In answer an object flew out of the sphere at the Guardian. Reflexively
Ranma caught it and examined it. It was a ball of some kind, slightly
oval, its outer skin covered in small fibres.
"Huh?" Ranma asked intelligently. The coconut exploded, throwing Ranma
to the ground.
"ALOHA KEIKIS!" The voice forced Ranma to struggle to sit up. The
colours had vanished, revealing perhaps the silliest virus the Guardian
had ever seen. It was the same dark blue as Kuno and sat cross-legged in
the air, strumming a white Ukelele. From the top of the virus' head grew
a small golden palm tree.
"I am Da' Principal," the virus announced, pulling out a set of shears,
"and you hav' a bad cut, brudda." Da Principal strode forward and grabbed
the stunned Ranma by his pig-tail. #"HAHAHAHA!!!"
A large red blur slammed into Da Principal's side, knocking Ranma out of
his hands.
"That's one you owe me!" Akane cried from inside her Fuchikoma mecha.
Ranma struggled to his feet. "Call it even," he gasped, stumbling away.
Akane and her Red bug mecha faced off against the mega-virus. Da
Principal raised his shears. "Bad wahine, no pets allowed on da school
grounds."
"WHAT SCHOOL?!" Akane growled, urging the Fuchikoma to attack. Virus and
mecha crashed together. For a few moments it looked like Mainframe's
defender was getting the upper hand, unfortunately with the tortured cry
the mecha's manipulator was sheared off.
"My ARM!" the Fuchikoma squeaked. "Better eject ma'am!" The pilot's
hatch exploded, then Akane herself shot up and out.
Akane soared through the air and landed in the waiting arms of Ranma.
"Let's get out of here!"
Mainframe's defender glared at him. "You seem to be saying that a lot,
recently."
"Saotome secret technique," grinned Ranma.
The final tortured screams of the Fuchikoma interrupted them. Ranma
threw out a zip-board and zoomed back into the sky, Akane following only
seconds later.
Looking back Akane sniffed. "Poor Fuchikoma, I knew him well."
"You should take better care of your tools," Ranma commented, earning a
glare from Akane. Ignoring her the Guardian touched Glitch. "Kasumi, we
have an class 4 attribute shifter. I want you to shut down the system,
that way it can't shift the buildings, just the sprites." He paused for a
few seconds. "Yes, that's right, a full system shutdown." He touched the
Keytool again. "Glitch, record and transmit net wide alert. This is
Guardian 698 of Mainframe, we have a class 4 virus alert. Request any
aid. End Transmission."
The system around the two flying sprites darkened. "Ah, Ranma.. if the
system shutdowns, there won't be any power for the zip-boards."
"I know," Ranma replied as the zip-boards powered down and the pair
coasted downwards. "We'll have to escape on foot."
*****
Nabiki stormed into the Principal Office. "Why is the system shutting
down, AGAIN?!" she demanded.
Kasumi looked up from the core controls. "Ranma reports that Kuno and
Kodachi have fused into a attribute shifting virus. We're locking down
the system to restrict his access."
"Spam!" Nabiki swore. "Do we have any idea of its conditionals?"
"None."
"Excuse Shampoo," the cute sprite interrupted. "What attribute shifting
virus?" Behind her RyoGA nodded.
The two Tendos shared a glance before the younger explained. "Its a
virus which alters sprites and data objects to conform to a strict set of
rules. They aren't very effective because the code resets itself after a
few micros, but they can cause a lot of havoc. The greatest problem is
thst unlike Kuno it can infect and control sprites without extracting a
PID first, and the User knows what else."
"That bad, very bad."
*****
Ranma glanced at the useless zip-board then threw it away. The alley
they had landed in dead ended not far away in a large graffiti covered
wall. On either side of them heavy locked doors leading into tall
buildings.
"Let's get out of here before..." Akane trailed off.
"'Fore what wahine?" the sent chills down the bitmaps of both sprite.
Turning, they found the only exit to the alleyway blocked by the massive
form of Da Principal.
"Glitch, tennis racket." Ranma's keytool shifted just in time for Ranma
to parry another Coconut.
"Eh? Nice backhand dere brudda, but it won't protect ya from my shears!"
Da Principal held up his wicked implement of hair removal in one hand.
Ranma and Akane both gulped and started backing away.
For a brief instant a flash of light obscured Da Principals head, then
the large virus fell forward to crash before them.
"Ya know Ranma honey, ya really shouldn't let yaself get backed into a
corner." The two sprites looked up to find a familiar figure with flame
red hair.
"UKYO!!" the pair cried.
"Let's get out of 'ere before big, dumb and ugly comes to." The hacker
jerked her finger towards the virus, before she turned to run.
*****
Ranma looked down at the darkened city as it slid along beneath them.
Ukyo's craft was a sleek metallic fighter craft, probably a design stolen
from a game. Unlike all the other vehicles in the system the ship was
still fully powered.
"This why you left?" the Guardian asked, turning to the sprite in the
pilot's seat next to him.
Ukyo nodded. "Ya can only leave a ship like this lying around for so
long before someone up and decides to take it."
Leaning forward, Akane poked her head between them. "Ego stroking aside,
we have bigger problems!"
"She's right, make for the Principal Office, we can regroup there."
Ranma reached for the ship's commlink. "I'll get Kasumi to open the
shield for us."
*****
"ARE YOU RANDOM?!" Nabiki slammed her fists on either of the window.
"I'm not willing to trust that hacker in here during an emergency of this
magnitude."
"Spammit Nabiki, I've vouched for her, open the shield!"
"No way Ranma, she can drop you off and then circle, she's not--"
"Shield's down," Kasumi reported.
"--coming in... Did she just hack the shields?"
Ranma was shoved out of the way. "No sister dear," Akane smiled, "I
opened them. Now want to guide us to a landing spot, or shall we just
hover here for awhile."
Kasumi leaned across. "There's an empty space on parking level 4 section
G."
"Section G?!" Ukyo complained in the background. "Does she realise how
far we'll have to walk to the elevator?"
*****
Ignoring Nabiki's dark stares Ukyo, Akane and Ranma strode up to the
small group clustered around the table. Somehow Shampoo had managed to
keep RyoGA from wandering off, so the pair were joined the two Tendo
sisters in waiting for them.
"We need a plan," Ranma stated, looking around the table. "Any ideas?"
"Why can't we just shot it?" RyoGA asked.
Kasumi shook her head. "Virus code has greater integrity than ordinary
sprites. We'd need to channel a lot of power to destroy one, either the
entire core, a game or maybe a tear..."
"... a tear," repeated Ranma, "the ultimate in random energy. If we
could..."
"I could," Ukyo interjected, "but there ain't no way I can chorale a
tear alone, I'll need a co-pilot Ran-chan." She smiled sweetly at him.
Ranma turned to Akane. "Think you can handle Ukyo's ship?"
"Sure."
"But Ran-chan..."
Ignoring Ukyo Ranma nodded. "Right, the two of you get going. I'll buy
you the time, and see if we can't find a better way of dealing with
this."
"But Ran-chan..." Ukyo whined again.
Akane grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the door. "Come
on, we've got a long way to go, and I'm not talking about flying to the
energy sea."
"While those two are off playing tear jockey, we have to keep this virus
busy," Ranma looked up at Kasumi. "I think I'd better raid the armoury
again."
Nabiki reached out and grabbed Ranma's hand. "I want someone here to
defend the Principal Office. With our data stores he can alter the entire
system."
"RyoGA, Shampoo, your job."
"But that leave Ranma to fight virus alone," Shampoo pointed out.
"Hey, its my code."
*****
Akane sat in the co-pilot seat, leaning and twisted to stare as the city
receded into the background. "Do you think he'll be alright?"
Next to her, manning the controls, Ukyo chuckled. "Honey, I've seen
Ran-chan get out of tighter scraps than this with a lot less resources.
He'll be fine, if we do our jobs."
Turning back Akane looked at her in confusion. "Huh? Oh, right." She
reached for the panel before her. "Scanning for tears." For a few seconds
she worked. "HEY! Who said I was talking about Ranma?!"
Ukyo laughed as the ship flew on.
*****
Her car was a nice new sport car, cherry red built to go, and as dead as
the rest of the system. The binome hopped out and straightened her skin
tight outfit. A chill ran up her back as a shadow loomed over her. She
turned and gazed in fear up at the virus.
"Two demerits for being out of da uniform, sister." Da Principal
exclaimed, grabbing the binome. Lightning crackled around her, and her
clothes shifted from the latest fashion to a drab skirt and blouse, but
she didn't care, it was the proper school uniform.
Da Principal put down his student. She glanced at her watch. "Waaah! I'm
late for class!" she shrieked running off.
*****
The console before Akane beeped. "I've got a tear. Come about to 095
mark 25."
"Right." Under Ukyo's guidance the ship yawed right and zoomed upwards.
Afterburners roared to life and the occupants were pressed into their
chairs.
"Like acceleration, don't you," Akane gasped.
"Just trying to make up lost time honey," Ukyo returned with a smile. It
didn't take long for the vessel to reach its objective, the shifting
energy form of a tear in the interface.
With the flair of an expert pilot Ukyo skidded her ship so that the tear
sat immediately behind it. "Akane honey, take the controls. Just keep 'er
still while I rope this baby."
Akane grabbed the flight stick before her as Ukyo lifted herself from
her seat. "Fine, just be careful."
"Ain't I always?" Ukyo strode out of the cockpit.
Thinking of the fight with Kodachi, Akane called: "NO!"
Shaking her head Ukyo looked at the tear before her. The ball of random
energy crackled in the air, sending sparks and flares of light lashing
through the air. She gripped the controls, lassoing something this
unstable was dangerous at the best of times, and she was on a very short
and unknown schedule.
*****
Floating point park looked very different in the dark. Normally Ranma
would have thought romantic, but considering the monster stalking it,
this was the worst place a couple could go for a walk. Kasumi's scanners
had detected the viral energy there, and the only virus in the system was
the Da Principal.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are," Ranma called, waving the rifle
he'd retrieved from the armoury before him.
Laughter announced a presence behind him. "Ya think ya can defeat Da
Principal alone brudda?"
Suddenly a pair of black robots appeared on either side of Ranma.
"He's not alone!" Sasuke declared in his squeaky voice.
"Yeah, we're a gang!" Gosunkugi added.
Ranma smiled. His day seemed to be looking up.
*****
The buoys surrounding the tear continued to rotate. To an untrained eye
the movements seemed random, but Ukyo, skilled in such things, knew the
patterns and when to launch a new buoy.
'Three to go,' Ukyo thought, 'and it only gets harder.' She jabbed the
circle button on the pad and a another buoy ejected from the platform
beneath her.
"Hurry it up Ukyo, we've got to get back before something happens!"
Akane called from the cockpit.
Normally Ukyo would've shot off a reply, but a single distraction could
erase all her work. A twitch of her finger launched the second to last
buoy into place.
With only link lift to be made in the net, Ukyo rock still, her body in
a relaxed, yet ready state as the network of beams spun before her. The
point approached, and suddenly the spin changed, taking it out of reach.
'Come on, just a little more.' The point twisted once more into sight,
and as it passed Ukyo stabbed at the button on her pad. As final buoy
clicked into place light flared, forcing Ukyo to close her eyes.
Opening them she looked up, and up, and up, then sighed in relief. The
tear hovered quite happily in its cage above her, an energy rope
attaching it to the ship. Then she realised. The flare had morphed her,
she was a mouse.
"Ukyo, what's happened?" Akane called.
Quickly Ukyo dashed back toward the pilot's chair. As she jumped into
the seat, her co-pilot double-taked.
"Is the tear safe?" Akane demanded. Ukyo did her best to nod, causing
Akane to breathe out in relief. "Good, I'll get us back to Mainframe."
*****
Gosunkugi and Sasuke continued to fight Da Principal, dodging in and out
and attacking past the thrown coconuts. Nodding Ranma turned away and
lifted his arm.
"Okay Kasumi, we're keeping him busy, eject the sector," he said into
Glitch.
"Doing so now," the Command.Com reported.
There was a loud clunk and the sector started moving with a jerk that
sent the three sprites and virus reeling. Ranma watched as the city shot
away. Ranma smiled, with Floating Point so far from the rest of the
system the virus would severely limited.
Gosunkugi's cry grabbed Ranma attention. The bot was held in the hands
of the virus lightning playing about his body. Before the shocked eyes of
Ranma and Sasuke, Gosunkugi's body started to shrink and become paler.
Instead of the robots streamlined form Da Principal held the humanoid
form of a pale grey youth with sunken eyes.
"Gosunkugi!" Sasuke wailed, then wound up his fist and smashed an
Uppercut into Da Principal. The virus shot into the air and arced back
towards Mainframe.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" roared Ranma, towering over the small
bot. "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP HIM HERE!!"
"But he hurt Gosunkugi!" Sasuke whined.
"Uh, excuse me," Gosunkugi interjected. The other two turned to look at
him. "Do either of you know where 1F is?"
*****
The access bridges to the Principal office were retracted within the
glowing bubble of the forcefield. Nabiki paced the circumference scanning
it with a small box, followed close behind by Shampoo.
"I suppose we should be glad its not an energy absorber," the Indexer
commented, "then the shield would be useless, he could just drain it."
Shampoo scratched her head. "Why you telling Shampoo thing she already
knows?"
"Who said I was telling you?" Nabiki asked with a shrug.
"Then who Mercenary Indexer talking to?"
"The readers."
Shampoo paused, confusion on her face. "What Indexer talking about?"
Before Nabiki could answer her PDA beeped. She quickly pulled it out.
"Nabiki here."
Kasumi appeared on the screen. "Ranma reports that Da Principal is back
in Mainframe. He'll probably head here know."
Tuning Nabiki spotted a large figure pull itself up onto the outer ring.
"I can confirm that, he's arrived, but with the bridges up he'll have to
spend a lot of time climbing."
"Well, there may be a problem there. According to Ranma he infected
Gosunkugi, and if he's able to mimic attributes he may be able to..." as
Kasumi talked Nabiki was surprised to see a massive pair of wings sprout
from the back of Da Principal, "... fly."
Da Principal, borne aloft by his wings, flew the distance from the
Principal office's outer ring to the force field. Reached out and
gingerly touch the glowing barrier. In the blink of an eye the field
vanished, to be replaced by a stone texture wall surrounding the sphere.
Da Principal floated down to stand in the gate. "Schools in."
Shampoo pulled out her bonbori. "Not while Shampoo process."
Looking at the two female sprites Da Principal laughed. "You two wahines
'ave been very bad."
"Not yet we haven't," Nabiki shot back with a smirk. She put two finger
between her lips and whistled loudly. Suddenly a red and yellow blur
smashed into Da Principal. "Ah, the advantages of surprise."
Her smug smile vanished when Frisket was tossed aside. She glanced at
Shampoo and the pair started backing away. "Did he zap him?"
"Shampoo not want to find out."
"Back foul fiend," Ranma cried as he dropped between the repeating pair
and the virus.
"Ah, Ranma Saotome, you will get da buzz-cut."
Ranma raised his fist. "Not if I take you out first."
"If you strike me down, Guardian you will only make me more powerful!"
Da Principal announced.
"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!" Akane screamed as Ukyo's ship roared past. The
tear snapped free and slammed into the massive virus. Inside the globe of
crackling energy Da Principal stretched.
"Finish him!" Shampoo called.
Ranma threw out his arm. "Let's give then a really bad case of split
personalities. Glitch, file splitter!" The keytool shot out and stretched
out to surround the tear. The tear became a smooth globe filled with Da
Principal's face. Glitch extended itself and the globe was split into
three. The left one showed an enraged Kodachi, the right an angry Kuno,
but the centre one was black. For a brief moment the three spheres just
hovered there, then they shot into distant parts of the system.
"Three?" Ranma murmured.
"We win, we win!" Shampoo threw herself at Ranma, knocking him to the
ground. "Virus gone and all good again!"
"Sha..." THACK! Akane's mallet slammed down on Ranma, silencing him.
"Just couldn't keep you hands off her, could you!"
Shampoo popped to her feet. "Defender girl no hit Ranma!"
A pair of purple hands extracted Ranma from the argument. "Ran-chan, we
have a problem," Ukyo spoke in a hush.
Ranma's shoulders slumped "What now?"
"On ma way back to Mainframe I had to run a Guardian blockade. Ranma,
they're trying to disconnect Mainframe from the net."
Ranma paled. "But they would only do that if..."
"... there's a web creature in Mainframe," she finished.
Silence fell as the arguement died. Nabiki, Akane and Shampoo stared in
horror at the pair.
Ranma looked at each of them. "This is bad, very bad."
-----
Author's note
Well, if I'd seen the Ms Hinako episode before I'd written this she would've
starred in this story. Oh well, maybe in a future. Wait, there's only one
part left, so I
guess not.
-----------
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz