>From the Scriviner:
	Okay, folks, I know it's been a while since I posted anything
besides my last spamfic. ^^;
	Just to reiterate EVERYTHING is getting written. Little by
little, bit by bit. I just have a LOT of work this semester. 
	Anyway, on to the story...

A mega-meld by the Scriviner
Lotsa series, rights belong to owners.
Name all of the series which were involved, even if just in 
cameos! I dare you!

****************************************
Science Ninja Team Gatcharobo 
by the Scriviner
****************************************

	"Alright, tell me again what we're doing here?" the 
taller boy asked his companion.
	"Well, my dad and Dr. Funt wanted us out of their 
hair, such as it is, while the two of them talk shop back 
home," the shorter boy replied, as a giggling group of 
girls passed in front of them. "And what better way to stay 
out of trouble than at the mall, right?" He continued to 
say as his eyes chased after the girls.
	"The mall I understand perfectly. What I'm having a 
little trouble grasping is why we're hanging out in front 
of a lingerie store."
	The shorter boy turned to his companion with an 
exasperated sigh, "There are seats here and I'm tired, 
we've been walking all day. I know you probably don't get 
tired, but I do.
	"Yes, but why here? You passed up a couple of 
perfectly good seats a couple of stores back," the taller 
boy persisted.
	The shorter boy put a companionable arm around his 
friend's shoulders, "Adam, this is what happens when you 
don't have normal hormones."
	The taller boy's mouth quirked, looking puzzled, 
"I've got a perfectly serviceable endocrine system."
	"Yes, but it's not the same. You don't understand the 
some of the things that drive a normal young man in a fully 
organic body..."
	"Such as staring at women through the windows of a 
lingerie store and drooling," the taller boy, Adam, replied 
with amusement. "This is part of the human experience, 
Mackie?"
	"Of course! This is perfectly normal and acceptable 
behavior for young men our age!" His attention drifted for 
a moment as a particularly attractive brunette in a short 
skirt passed by them. His eyes locked on her legs as she 
entered the store.
	Adam chuckled, "Yes, but if I understand correctly, 
this sort of behavior would be questionable at best. The 
way you've been acting would qualify as 'lecherous', by the 
dictionary definition."
	Mackie gave a hurt sniff. "Hey, it's not like that at 
all. I just happen to enjoy looking at women, now I ask 
you, is that wrong?"
	"Not for me to judge." Adam smiled, "I'm not human, 
remember?"
	"Yeah, it's kind of hard to keep it in mind though. 
You were practically raised like one, so I mean by now 
I'd've thought you'd've learned how to think like we do." 
Mackie pointed out. 
	"I know how to think like some people do. I don't 
understand how you think," Adam replied pointedly.
	Mackie shrugged and grinned watching a blonde in a 
red dress hold a pair of brassiere up to her chest through 
the store window. "Most people don't." He leered.
	The woman spotted Mackie's stare and glared back at 
him. He quickly averted his gaze and cast about for a 
suitable topic for conversation, "That new chassis you got 
looks pretty good. With a little coaching you could 
probably be taking girls home like that!" He snapped his 
fingers to emphasize his point. 
	Adam averred, "I really can't see the attraction..."
	"Oh come on!" Mackie cut him off suddenly. "You 
probably wouldn't have gone through the bother of having a 
new body made if you weren't going to have it built you 
know... fully functional. That's a male series sexaroid 
chassis, isn't it?"
	Adam tried to suppress a blush. Some things came 
fairly naturally. "Not really, Dr. Funt just modeled the 
torso and limbs on the AM-36 model sexaroid. The face, I 
think he extrapolated from my original one. I've been 
bugging him for a more adult body for a couple of months 
now and he finally gave in last week. I can't use anything 
off the shelf and they had to keep a lot of my old parts. 
Most of my components have to be custom built to work with 
my power plant, remember?"
	"Oh, yeah. Nearly forgot about that. It's been a 
while since your last visit."
	"Yeah. Last time I was still in that old body with 
the seams, the molded hair and the built in Speedo's." Adam 
laughed easily and Mackie joined him.
 	Before too long, the two of them fell into an easy 
silence. Mackie's eyes scanned the patrons of the lingerie 
store while Adam watched everyone who passed by. They 
seemed a fairly normal pair of teenagers hanging out at the 
mall. 
	Mackie was a pleasant enough looking seventeen year 
old boy. He certainly wouldn't have won any awards for his 
appearance, but he definitely wasn't unattractive. If 
anything he had a sort of endearing puppy dog quality to 
him which tended to help him attract women. At least until 
they got to spend more time with him. His short, black hair 
had a slight wave to it and his brown eyes had a degree of 
ready humor to them. At least when they weren't staring 
lecherously at something or someone. He was surprisingly 
fit, despite limiting all of his heavy lifting to a remote 
control or the occasional snack. He was wearing blue jeans, 
well broken in sneakers and a black shirt which proclaimed 
in bold silver letters 'Sharon Apple', underneath which was 
a triangular symbol which seemed to move.
	Adam seemed a perfectly normal eighteen year old, 
admittedly, a normal eighteen year old who could pose for 
GQ, but normal was the important part of his appearance 
which he valued. He was tall and his build was pleasantly 
lean, but well muscled and exuded a certain wholesome, 
clean-limbed, masculine appeal. His features were handsome, 
bearing a certain wide eyed innocence to it, which hid a 
frightening degree of intelligence. His hair was trimmed 
short in the back and sides and long in front, which he 
slicked back, forming two points just behind his ears. It 
was one of the few nods he gave to his vanity, what little 
of it which he possessed. He was dressed in tight jeans, 
well shined Doc Martens and an open flannel shirt with the 
sleeves rolled just past his elbows. Under the flannel 
shirt he had a white T-shirt which was silk-screened with a 
logo of a stylized mechanical hand shaking a human one and 
said 'St. Petersburg Robot Rights Rally, 2046'.
	Their interlude was broken by a sudden, excited 
squeal, "Atom!!"
	Both boys turned towards the source of the cry, just 
as Adam was bowled over by a pink haired blur of a girl who 
pounced on him sniffing excitedly, "It IS you! Nuku-Nuku 
knew it! Nuku-Nuku is so happy to see you! Nuku missed 
Atom!"
	"Ack!" Adam cried out as he lay sprawled on the 
floor.
	Mackie blinked in surprise. "Whoa. I told you you 
were a chick magnet, man."
	Adam finally managed to pry the girl off of him as 
she continued to snuggle up against his chest and nuzzle 
the crook of his neck. "It's not what you think!" he 
retorted blushing furiously.
	The girl, who looked around seventeen or eighteen had 
long pink hair that stood in wild spikes. She smiled 
happily at him, her pretty eyes crinkled up practically 
closed. She was definitely very attractive. Her smooth face 
and creamy white skin held an angelic innocence, making 
even her pouncing on Adam seem more like a friendly gesture 
rather than anything malicious. Her slender, shapely 
figure, under the loose, knee length blue dress she wore 
was definitely worth a second look.
	The girl smiled happily at him. "Nuku-Nuku missed 
Atom!" she repeated for emphasis.
	Adam laughed happily as he recognized her. "Nuku-
chan! I missed you too! How've you been?"
	"Nuku-Nuku is okay!" the girl replied, giggling 
playfully. 
	Mackie leaned over the pair, "You know this girl, 
Adam?"
	Adam smiled up at Mackie, "Yeah, this is Atsuko 
Natsume. She's kind of Dr. Kyuusaku Natsume's... um... 
daughter."
	"I didn't know Ryuunosuke had a sister..." Mackie 
began to say, remembering the younger boy from previous 
times when his father had had business with Dr. Natsume. 
	"Long story." Adam interjected.
	The girl looked up at Mackie and smiled pleasantly. 
She straightened up a little and bowed to him, still 
straddling Adam. "Nice to meet you!"
	"Nice to meet you too, Miss Natsume," Mackie replied 
pleasantly. His roving eye still studying her intently.
	The girl giggled again and said, "Call me Nuku-Nuku!"
	Mackie smiled back, he was definitely enjoying 
meeting this girl, especially considering the view he was 
getting down her neckline, while she was still on top of 
Adam. And she was so uninhibited in her affections too, he 
considered, she'd probably be pretty wild in b--
	The rest of the lecherous thought was cut off by a 
polite clearing of the throat off to their side.
	Someone stood watching the three of them. The short 
figure was dressed in a baggy pair of faded black jeans and 
wore a closed leather jacket that had seen better days and 
had obviously been meant for someone larger. The figure had 
both hands thrust into the pockets of the jacket and wore a 
'Tokyo Giants' baseball cap, with the bill low, concealing 
the person's hair and features, except for a few strands of 
long black hair which peeked out from underneath. There was 
a hint of grin from figure as it spoke. "I guess it wasn't 
her imagination after all."
	Adam stared up at the figure for a moment, puzzled, 
before his face broke into another smile, "Alita? Is that 
you?"
	The figure, Alita, took her cap off and shook free a 
mane of long black shoulder length hair. She looked to be 
around sixteen and had a sweet face. Her dark eyes more 
pleasant than mysterious and her full lips had a slight set 
to them, making her look as if she were pouting slightly 
most of the time. She ran a hand through her hair as she 
smiled back. "Yeah, it's me. I wasn't expecting to see you 
here."
	"I wasn't expecting to see you here either," Adam 
replied.
	Alita leaned over Nuku and put a hand on the pink-
haired girl's shoulder. Mackie noticed oddly enough that 
this new girl, Alita, was wearing gloves. It wasn't cold 
enough to merit it and he found himself wondering why.
	"Come on Nuku. Let's help Adam back to his feet," 
Alita said patiently.
	"Okay!" Nuku replied enthusiastically, hopping off 
Adam in one quick motion and simultaneously landing on her 
feet to one side of him. Mackie blinked. She was either 
very athletic, which is a really good thing, he said to 
himself, or she's a robot, or a cyborg. I hope she's fully 
functional, he added mentally.
	Adam stood up easily, both Nuku and Alita lending him 
a hand. "Thanks girls," he said to them once on his feet 
again.
	Alita said with mock severity to Nuku, "You really 
shouldn't pounce on people like that in public, Nuku."
	The pink haired girl's face fell and she said meekly, 
"But Nuku-Nuku hasn't seen Atom in so long. Wanted to say 
hi."
	"You could've just waved to him," Alita replied, 
demonstrating the gesture. Mackie's eyes focused on her 
wrist as the cuff of her jacket slid down a bit, revealing 
a flash of grayish-black ceramic. 
	"Not the same," Nuku smiled a little.
	"I guess not," Alita sighed.
	"No, it's okay," Adam interrupted, "Really. There's 
no need to scold her, Alita."
	Alita turned her attention to Adam, "Well, she really 
needs to learn not to cause scenes like that in public." 
She bowed to Adam, "I'm sorry if she embarrassed you."
	"Honest, it's alright," Adam replied with a smile, "I 
kind of missed her doing that."
	Nuku cried, "Yay!" and hugged him, "Atom likes Nuku-
Nuku!"
	Alita did her best to suppress a giggle, "You keep 
encouraging her."
	Adam gave a smile and a helpless shrug.
	Mackie cleared his own throat, "Hello?"
	"Oh, sorry, Mackie," Adam said apologetically, as he 
worked himself free of Nuku's grip. He gestured to Alita. 
"Mackie Stingray, I'd like you to meet Alita. Alita, 
Mackie."
	"A pleasure, miss." Mackie smiled and bowed.
	Alita smiled back, but a little more cautiously, 
"Nice to meet you too." She looked at him thoughtfully and 
said, "Mackie Stingray... any relation to Dr. Katsuhito 
Stingray?"
	"That's my dad," Mackie replied in surprise.
	"Really?" Alita said, "Oh, your dad's a friend of Dr. 
Daisuke Ido, right?"
	"The mecha-compatibility expert from Hong Kong? Yeah! 
They went to College together. You know Dr. Ido?" There was 
a slight hint of awe in Mackie's voice.
	Alita nodded, "Yes, he takes care of me."
	"He's sort of her adoptive father," Adam supplied.
	"I see." Mackie nodded. "Small world."
	Adam looked at Alita and asked, "I thought you were 
still in Hong Kong." He glanced at Nuku, "And last time we 
saw each other you were still living in Kyoto."
	"Well, I thought you were still in Switzerland," 
Alita countered.
	Nuku piped up, "Papa-san took Nuku here to meet Dr. 
Elephant!"
	Alita sighed and turned to Nuku, "He's Dr. Eli Funt," 
she said with emphasis, "You shouldn't call him Dr. 
Elephant."
	"But he looks like one. He's got a big nose." Nuku 
giggled.
	"Well, yeah, but you really shouldn't call him that," 
Alita said in gentle reproof, "It's not nice."
	Adam looked intrigued, "We really need to talk a bit 
more then." He glanced back towards Alita, "Dr. Ido is 
meeting with Dr. Funt too?"
	Alita nodded. "Yeah. Dr. Natsume picked Daisuke up 
and asked if I could look after Nuku for a while." 
	Adam looked at her for a long moment then finally 
spoke, "I'm really glad to see you though." Adam smiled, 
then noticed Nuku-Nuku's pout and amended his statement 
hastily, "Um... both of you."
	"Same here." Alita grinned. She reached a hand up and 
stroked the points on Adam's hair lightly. "I like the new 
body."
	"Thanks. You look good too," Adam replied.
	Alita met Adam's gaze and smiled back, blushing 
slightly. Mackie stared at his friend in frank disbelief. 
He thought he knew Adam well enough but he certainly 
wouldn't have expected the straight laced and quite frankly 
exceedingly uptight robotic rights activist to have a 
girlfriend. Especially when one considered how awkward he 
sometimes was when it came to human situations. He 
definitely wouldn't have expected Adam to have someone on 
the side. Certainly not someone as pretty as Alita, but the 
signals flashing back and forth between the two were pretty 
unmistakable. 
	Nuku interrupted them, looking up from her distant 
appraisal of the lingerie through the window. "Atom! Alita! 
Nuku-Nuku is hungry! Let's get some fish!"
	"Why does she keep calling you Atom?" Mackie asked 
Adam.
	"She had trouble pronouncing 'Adam' the first time we 
met so she's called me Atom ever since."
	"Ah." Mackie smiled. "Well, Nuku has a point. I'm 
starving."
	"Yeah, we were going to get lunch when Nuku caught 
scent of you, Adam." Alita added.
	"Any recommendations, Mackie?" Adam asked, "The girls 
are new to Tokyo and I haven't been here in years."
	"Well there's this good sushi place two levels down," 
he replied thoughtfully. He glanced at Alita and Nuku 
again. They eat, he considered, therefore, they still had 
biological parts. There was hope yet!
	"Let's go then." Adam grinned and took Alita's arm.
	"Yay!" Nuku cheered as she took Mackie's arm and 
proceeded to drag him along, "Nuku likes sushi!"
- - -
	Mackie leaned back, mopping up the last of the sauce 
with his ebi-maki before popping it into his mouth. "I'm 
stuffed."
	"Yummy!" Nuku, who was sitting across from him, 
declared as she smiled, small bits of rice still clinging 
to her cheek.
	 "This place was a pretty good choice," Adam agreed 
and Alita also nodded approvingly. They were both seated 
next to the store window, across from each other.
	Mackie turned to Adam, who he was sitting next to, 
with a half smile on his face, "How would you know? You 
just split one dumpling with Alita. You didn't even try the 
mega-deluxe sushi combo plate!"
	Adam smiled back, "I don't need that much food. 
Besides, my stomach capacity isn't as large as yours."
	Mackie looked at Alita, "Come on, you know you want 
to eat some more." He grinned at her.
	Alita shook her head. "Oh, no," she demurred, "That 
was plenty for me. I don't really need food much myself."
	The short haired boy shook his head and sighed 
dramatically, "Well at least one of you has a healthy 
appetite." He glanced at Nuku who was in the process of 
attacking the remainder of Mackie's mega-deluxe sushi combo 
plate.
	Alita and Adam traded smiles. Mackie shrugged and 
wondered where Nuku put it all.
	Adam began to speak, but before he could say a word 
there was a sudden explosion, shattering the window and 
sending shards flying all over. Mackie gave a strangled 
shout as Adam moved to cover him, throwing him flat on the 
ground. Alita also threw herself to the side, trying to 
ride as much of the blast as she could. 
 	Nuku on the other hand barely even seemed to register 
it. One moment she was lifting a piece of fish to her mouth 
with the chopsticks, the next she was surrounded by a 
deadly swirl of glass shrapnel. She blinked cutely, the 
edges of her clothes slightly charred and torn by the 
leading edge of the blast.
	Alita rose to her feet, a furious scowl on her face 
as she dusted her self off. "This is my favorite jacket!" 
she cried as she tried to pick out the glass splinters 
which had penetrated the leather.
	Adam stood up slowly, looking slightly dazed. There 
was a large, dark crater just in front of where the 
storefront window where they'd been eating used to be. "I 
think we've got bigger problems than your jacket, Alita," 
he spoke to Alita.
	She looked up to notice that aside from the panicked 
people milling about, a majority of whom were in the 
process of trying to get as far away from the source of the 
explosion as possible, there were four rather calm 
individuals who called attention to themselves, simply by 
the fact that they were walking rather deliberately, 
pushing past the thin crowds heading directly for the 
crater. 
	The four were in large tan coats, their builds were 
similarly well muscled. The coats were buttoned all the way 
to the top, covering the lower half of the faces of the 
individuals, and rather battered, tan berets served to hide 
the rest of their faces. Their hands were thrust deeply 
into their pockets.
	"What're you talking about?" Alita demanded just as 
the four individuals pulled their 'hands' out of their 
pockets, revealing mechanical claws, a semi-automatic clip 
of ammunition plugged into a socket in the forearm. Three 
of the four began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. 
The screams grew louder.
	Adam immediately stood up, taking several rounds on 
his chest and face. The bullets tore into his synthetic 
skin, embedding themselves into his metallic 
understructure. The tears would close on their own, but he 
was more worried about the bullets hitting normal people.
	Alita also stood up holding a hand up over her face 
as the bullets struck her, tearing past her clothing, but 
ricocheting off her skin. 
	Nuku got an annoyed look on her face as one of the 
bullets shot the fish out from between her chopsticks. She 
glanced over at the figures as a pair of wing shaped 
extensions unfolded from under her hair.
	Mackie, like everyone else in the area hugged the 
ground worriedly as the bullets flew overhead. He reached 
into his pocket for his cell phone, intending to call for 
help. The police, the army... anyone!
	"Everyone stay down!" Adam called out as he stepped 
onto a chair and leaped towards their assailants. As he did 
so, he sent commands to his legs, causing them to 
reconfigure. His boots fell off his feet as his toes 
retracted and reshaped themselves into flight control 
surfaces. The heel of his foot irised open revealing ducted 
thrust jets. His pant legs tore as two more jets popped out 
from behind each of his calves. There was a sudden roar as 
these kicked in, sending him rocketing towards the three 
figures in tan. 
	"Astroboy strikes again," Alita muttered, shaking her 
head as she tore the shredded remains of her jacket off, 
revealing a black halter, which showed off her mechanical 
arms.  She followed him, avoiding the wake of his exhaust. 
She moved incredibly fast, managing to keep up with Adam. 
	Adam reached them first, bullets striking his body 
uselessly. He barreled into one at high speed, a move which 
by all rights should have knocked the wind out of a human. 
He grabbed the figure by the waist and pulled up, bringing 
his captive with him. Alita ran full tilt into the second 
as it continued to fire on her. Just short of reaching it, 
she dived for the ground, rolling onto her hands, before 
suddenly extending her legs, driving her feet into the 
attacker's face. She held back, not utilizing her full 
strength. She could have easily torn a normal person's head 
off. The figure staggered back, the beret lost, revealing a 
near skeletal face of metal. She blinked in surprise and 
called out, "It's a robot, Adam! You don't need to hold 
back!"
	"I noticed!" He called back as his struggling captive 
pulled it's clawlike hands above it's head and smashed them 
into Adam's back. He winced as he registered the impact. No 
real problems yet, but a couple more of those would cause 
structural damage.
 	Nuku blinked again as her two friends moved off. It 
sometimes took a while for thoughts to filter into her 
brain, but once she got the idea...
	"Wait for Nuku-Nuku! Nuku-Nuku wants to play too!" 
She cried as she bound after them, catlike. Mackie much to 
his delight managed to look up just in time to catch a 
glimpse of her panties as she leapt over his head. Too bad, 
it was too dark for him to make out the color.
	Despite himself Mackie peered over the ruined 
remnants of the restaurant window to watch the battle. Adam 
was flying higher, trying to break free of the robot which 
had taken to clinging to him and was proceeding to pound 
mercilessly on his face and chest.
	Alita kicked to her feet, narrowly avoiding being 
smashed by her opponent's fist into the ground. She whirled 
aside, bringing a fist up to continue the circular motion 
right into the side of her attacker's head. There was crack 
and the screech of tortured metal as the servos on that 
side of the head were torn loose from their mountings. It 
turned on her, it's head hanging limp to one side and 
lashed out with a tremendously powerful kick to her 
midsection. She was about to leap out of the way when she 
felt the slight displacement of air and realized belatedly 
that the third robot had moved behind her. This is going to 
cause some damage, she winced internally as she tried to 
find a way to avoid both strikes.
	Nuku suddenly leapt onto the back of the damaged 
robot Alita had been fighting and grabbed it by the neck, 
while simultaneously driving her foot into the knee of it's 
foot. It staggered, suddenly off balance and fell to one 
knee, missing Alita entirely. Alita took the opportunity, 
ducking under the third robot's backhanded swipe and 
grabbing at it's passing wrist as she stepped into it, 
pulling on the arm into a throw.
	Nuku grinned as she saw Alita pull the third robot 
over her shoulder. She pushed off of the foot she'd been 
keeping on the second robot's leg and planted her other 
foot on its shoulder suddenly, sending it into the thrown 
robot, the two smashing into one another with a loud crash. 
	Nuku bounced up and down, "Yay! That was fun!"
	Alita dusted her hands as she gave the twisted heap 
of wreckage a scornful look. She looked around, puzzled and 
asked, "Nuku, where's Adam?"
	"Look out below!" A voice shouted from above them, 
just as the first robot suddenly hurled downwards, smashing 
into the remains of its companions.
	Adam floated down, dampening his thrusters as he did 
so. "I finally got it to let go." His face was badly cut, 
but the skin seemed to be sealing itself. His hair and 
clothes were a mess.
	"What was that all about?" Alita asked pointedly, 
prodding at the smashed robot remains with her toe.
	Mackie from his hiding place gave a cheer. A few of 
the other patrons were also cheering, the ones brave enough 
to look up.
	Nuku-Nuku tugged excitedly on Adam's torn shirt, 
"Atom! Atom! They like us!"
	He gave her an indulgent smile, "I guess they do."
	"What happened to the fourth one, though?" Alita 
asked.
	"I didn't notice," Adam replied, looking around.
	"That was amazing, guys!" Mackie called out as he 
hopped to his feet, intending to move towards them. 
Unfortunately he slipped on a left over bit of fish, and 
stumbled over the remains of the window, falling into the 
hole.
	He stumbled and fell, down into the darkness, landing 
heavily on his back. Above him he could still hear the 
surprised shouts and cheers. He looked up, and saw a patch 
of light a good twenty feet up. The wall to one side of him 
felt smooth. Like metal. Further up, it looked more like 
rough hewn rock. There was rubble and scattered shards of 
metal scattered about him. He was sure there were rocks, 
despite the poor light. There was a stone digging into his 
back. 
	Mackie gulped nervously, feeling his badly bruised 
back. He'd been lucky. That could've killed him. He wasn't 
too worried, since Adam could fly him out, but he wondered 
idly what this place was. He sat up, wincing in pain. Even 
breathing hurt. He looked up, trying to get his bearings.
	Almost directly in front of him was the fourth robot. 
It had shed it's coat and beret. It's eyes were glowing a 
brilliant red, that he could see. In the dim light, Mackie 
could see that it's hands weren't claws like it's 
companions, but were delicately tapered and shaped like a 
surgeon's hands. In one hand, it held something gingerly, a 
flat square about an inch wide.
	It was what the robot was standing in front of that 
caught Mackie's eye. A woman. A naked woman. Her skin was a 
pale, creamy white, her features were almost painfully 
angular but with just enough softness to them to make her 
outstanding. Her pale lavender hair was long, falling in a 
cascade down her back. She stood inside a recess in the 
metal wall with her hands folded over her chest and her 
eyes shut, as though she were asleep. Mackie gasped in 
surprise.
	The robot, who'd been in the process of touching the 
base of the woman's throat, whirled around to face him. 
Mackie struggled to move, but only managed to push himself 
against the wall. The robot could've been said to have 
looked at him disdainfully, if any expression could've been 
read from the metallic skull that was its face. It extended 
it's empty delicate hand in his direction and pointed it's 
finger at him. It's tip began to glow red and Mackie 
noticed to his alarm a tiny glowing red dot on his chest. A 
laser targeting system. He stared into it's red eyes. It 
whispered in a rasping metallic voice, "There shall be no 
interference. Unification will commence."
	"Help!" Mackie managed to croak, despite the pain.
	Behind the robot, the woman's pale, gray eyes snapped 
open.
	Her voice was odd, as though two people were speaking 
simultaneously. One voice was harsh and precise, without 
feeling. The other, was a cheerful little girl's voice. 
"Help request received. Processing for new master data."
	The robot began to turn just as she extended a hand 
above her head and Mackie idly noticed that there was some 
sort of band around her wrist.
	"Metamorphosis," she declared forcefully in her 
double voice.
	Mackie slammed shut his eyes as the chamber was 
suddenly filled with light. He risked a peek as he felt the 
light begin to recede in intensity and saw that the woman 
now seemed to be wearing some sort of long, deep purple 
cloak which flowed up her neck into a sleek helmet with an 
angular gold visor, which obscured the upper half of her 
face. The impression was oddly birdlike.
	The robot took a step back in its surprise, raising 
it's hand to fire a pencil thin laser beam at her. With an 
almost languid gesture she raised a corner of her cloak, 
which seemed to almost drink in the energy.
	She spoke again, her voice was now only the clipped, 
harsh one, "Coherent light beam. A very basic attack form."
	The woman gave the cloak a flip, revealing her arm 
which was now wearing purple, wrist length gloves, matching 
the color of her cloak and underneath what appeared to be 
some sort of pale lavender bodysuit. She pointed a finger 
at the robot and continued, "I believe this is what you 
were attempting to do?" As she swept her hand casually, a 
laser beam erupted from her own fingertip. It caught the 
robot across the neck, severing it. The head fell to the 
ground and bounced once, the light fading from it's 
mechanical eyes before the body dropped to its knees and 
tipped over, the small flat square of plastic in it's hand, 
falling near Mackie.
	Mackie could only stare as the cloaked woman glided 
elegantly towards him. She knelt down next to him in a 
single motion, laying a hand gently on his. There was 
shimmer about her as the cloak and the rest of her outfit 
began to fade and he could feel a slight tingle where she 
touched him. He wasn't sure whether it was because of the 
suit vanishing, or because her hand was so warm and soft 
against his.
	In moments she was naked again, except for the thin 
bracelet and she smiled warmly at him. "Hello, master," she 
said brightly. Her voice had changed to the other one. 
	"Whu?" Mackie grunted in confusion.
	"You are my master now. You awakened me," she said 
cheerfully. "I'm Ifurita. What's your name, master?"
	"Mackie... Mackie Stingray..." 
	She smiled at him again, "That's nice... you have... 
a... nice... name..." Her eyes closed as her voice began to 
slow, and she began to pitch forward. It wasn't precisely a 
faint, but it was close enough. She landed on top of 
Mackie, sending new signals of agony from his beleaguered 
back. She was heavier than she looked! And how did she do 
what she did?! Is she okay? And why am I sitting in the 
middle of a deep hole inside the mall with a naked woman 
resting on top of me and not doing anything about it? These 
were the various thoughts filtering into his mind as he sat 
there pinned by Ifurita. Another, less noble though 
occurred to him as he moved a hand up to her bare breast... 
it's not like she's awake to feel it right? He told 
himself. 
	It was at around this point that Adam suddenly 
arrived. "Mackie, are you alright?" he called down as he 
landed. He did a double take as he noticed Mackie's 
position and Ifurita.
	"Do I even want to know what you've been doing to 
this girl?" Adam asked with mild reproach.
	"It's not what it looks like!" Mackie protested, 
"Some seriously weird stuff is going on!
	"I'll say." Adam nodded.
	"What took you so long?" the shorter boy pointed at 
the headless robot, "That thing nearly killed me!"
	"So this is where the fourth one went." Adam nodded, 
"Well, when you fell down the hole, the broken robots 
started merging together into this one big robot." Adam 
said. "We ended up having to fight it again."
	"Merging? But they were broken! You beat it right?" 
Mackie asked worriedly.
	Adam conceded, "Well, trapped it in quick drying 
cement anyway."
	"That's nice..." Mackie tried to shift himself, but 
only ended up pressing another sore spot on his back, 
"Um... can you get her off me? Pleasant as this is she's 
kind of heavy..."	
	Adam nodded as he bent down to pick Ifurita up. Adam 
stared at her face quizzically, "Who is she anyway?"
	Mackie worked his way back up to his feet with some 
difficulty. Noting idly to himself that his pants were 
definitely going to need some patching up. "She said her 
name was Ifurita. I think she's some sort of android... she 
looks like a sexadroid... Owww..." He winced, nearly 
bending over double as his back gave him another twinge of 
pain. He blinked as he noticed the flat square that fourth 
robot had been holding earlier on the ground next to him. 
Adam had nearly landed on it. With some difficulty he bent 
over and picked it up. It was some sort of ROM chip... 
	"What is that?" Adam asked.
	Mackie raised the plastic encased chip up to the 
light and noticed letters on it, "I think that robot was 
trying to put it inside her..." he squinted and could 
barely make out the letters embossed in white on it's 
surface. 
	"Bee... You... Gee... bug. It looks like some sort of 
acronym." he said aloud. He gave Adam a puzzled look, "A 
BUG-ROM? What the heck is a BUGROM?"
	 "Bring it along and let's get out of this hole." 
Adam urged, "The police will probably be arriving soon."
	"Aww, man..." Mackie grumbled as he put his arms 
around Adam's neck. "I just hope we don't get blamed for 
this." He muttered.
- - -
	A swirl of lights, moved and flowed sinuously between 
the two panels built into the ceiling and floor, resolving 
themselves into the appearance of a hauntingly beautiful 
woman. She glowed slightly and her skin had an odd 
translucence to it. Her features were perfectly even and 
her almond shaped eyes seemed more than slightly amused. 
Her perfectly red lips curled into a slow smile as she 
spoke. Her voice was low and melodious.
	"Your BUGROM soldiers have failed to retrieve 
Ifurita," she said.
	The man she addressed crossed his arms, a slight 
frown furrowing his brow, "Not entirely unexpected," He 
replied.
	"She now appears to have bonded with Mackie 
Stingray... a close friend of your brother," the woman 
continued, shifting sinuously.
	The figure raised an eyebrow, "My brother? And one of 
the Stingray family? This becomes more interesting."
	The woman nodded, smiling coolly at him, "Quite."
	"Leave me." The man said brusquely turning his back 
on her, "I need to think."
	The woman regarded him thoughtfully for a long moment 
before she said, "The weight of the world rests on your 
shoulders, doesn't it, my dear? Be careful not to let it 
crush you..." She shook her head one last time, before 
dissolving into a spray of lights once more.
	"I'm always careful, Sharon." The man whispered back 
in reply. "I'm always careful."	

to be continued...





-- Listar MIME Decryption --------------

A mega-meld by the Scriviner
Lotsa series, rights belong to owners.
Name all of the series which were involved, even if just in 
cameos! I dare you!

********************
Gatcharobo 
by the Scriviner
********************

	"Alright, tell me again what we're doing here?" the 
taller boy asked his companion.
	"Well, my dad and Dr. Funt wanted us out of their 
hair, such as it is, while the two of them talk shop back 
home," the shorter boy replied, as a giggling group of 
girls passed in front of them. "And what better way to stay 
out of trouble than at the mall, right?" He continued to 
say as his eyes chased after the girls.
	"The mall I understand perfectly. What I'm having a 
little trouble grasping is why we're hanging out in front 
of a lingerie store."
	The shorter boy turned to his companion with an 
exasperated sigh, "There are seats here and I'm tired, 
we've been walking all day. I know you probably don't get 
tired, but I do.
	"Yes, but why here? You passed up a couple of 
perfectly good seats a couple of stores back," the taller 
boy persisted.
	The shorter boy put a companionable arm around his 
friend's shoulders, "Adam, this is what happens when you 
don't have normal hormones."
	The taller boy's mouth quirked, looking puzzled, 
"I've got a perfectly serviceable endocrine system."
	"Yes, but it's not the same. You don't understand the 
some of the things that drive a normal young man in a fully 
organic body..."
	"Such as staring at women through the windows of a 
lingerie store and drooling," the taller boy, Adam, replied 
with amusement. "This is part of the human experience, 
Mackie?"
	"Of course! This is perfectly normal and acceptable 
behavior for young men our age!" His attention drifted for 
a moment as a particularly attractive brunette in a short 
skirt passed by them. His eyes locked on her legs as she 
entered the store.
	Adam chuckled, "Yes, but if I understand correctly, 
this sort of behavior would be questionable at best. The 
way you've been acting would qualify as 'lecherous', by the 
dictionary definition."
	Mackie gave a hurt sniff. "Hey, it's not like that at 
all. I just happen to enjoy looking at women, now I ask 
you, is that wrong?"
	"Not for me to judge." Adam smiled, "I'm not human, 
remember?"
	"Yeah, it's kind of hard to keep it in mind though. 
You were practically raised like one, so I mean by now 
I'd've thought you'd've learned how to think like we do." 
Mackie pointed out. 
	"I know how to think like some people do. I don't 
understand how you think," Adam replied pointedly.
	Mackie shrugged and grinned watching a blonde in a 
red dress hold a pair of brassiere up to her chest through 
the store window. "Most people don't." He leered.
	The woman spotted Mackie's stare and glared back at 
him. He quickly averted his gaze and cast about for a 
suitable topic for conversation, "That new chassis you got 
looks pretty good. With a little coaching you could 
probably be taking girls home like that!" He snapped his 
fingers to emphasize his point. 
	Adam averred, "I really can't see the attraction..."
	"Oh come on!" Mackie cut him off suddenly. "You 
probably wouldn't have gone through the bother of having a 
new body made if you weren't going to have it built you 
know... fully functional. That's a male series sexaroid 
chassis, isn't it?"
	Adam tried to suppress a blush. Some things came 
fairly naturally. "Not really, Dr. Funt just modeled the 
torso and limbs on the AM-36 model sexaroid. The face, I 
think he extrapolated from my original one. I've been 
bugging him for a more adult body for a couple of months 
now and he finally gave in last week. I can't use anything 
off the shelf and they had to keep a lot of my old parts. 
Most of my components have to be custom built to work with 
my power plant, remember?"
	"Oh, yeah. Nearly forgot about that. It's been a 
while since your last visit."
	"Yeah. Last time I was still in that old body with 
the seams, the molded hair and the built in Speedo's." Adam 
laughed easily and Mackie joined him.
 	Before too long, the two of them fell into an easy 
silence. Mackie's eyes scanned the patrons of the lingerie 
store while Adam watched everyone who passed by. They 
seemed a fairly normal pair of teenagers hanging out at the 
mall. 
	Mackie was a pleasant enough looking seventeen year 
old boy. He certainly wouldn't have won any awards for his 
appearance, but he definitely wasn't unattractive. If 
anything he had a sort of endearing puppy dog quality to 
him which tended to help him attract women. At least until 
they got to spend more time with him. His short, black hair 
had a slight wave to it and his brown eyes had a degree of 
ready humor to them. At least when they weren't staring 
lecherously at something or someone. He was surprisingly 
fit, despite limiting all of his heavy lifting to a remote 
control or the occasional snack. He was wearing blue jeans, 
well broken in sneakers and a black shirt which proclaimed 
in bold silver letters 'Sharon Apple', underneath which was 
a triangular symbol which seemed to move.
	Adam seemed a perfectly normal eighteen year old, 
admittedly, a normal eighteen year old who could pose for 
GQ, but normal was the important part of his appearance 
which he valued. He was tall and his build was pleasantly 
lean, but well muscled and exuded a certain wholesome, 
clean-limbed, masculine appeal. His features were handsome, 
bearing a certain wide eyed innocence to it, which hid a 
frightening degree of intelligence. His hair was trimmed 
short in the back and sides and long in front, which he 
slicked back, forming two points just behind his ears. It 
was one of the few nods he gave to his vanity, what little 
of it which he possessed. He was dressed in tight jeans, 
well shined Doc Martens and an open flannel shirt with the 
sleeves rolled just past his elbows. Under the flannel 
shirt he had a white T-shirt which was silk-screened with a 
logo of a stylized mechanical hand shaking a human one and 
said 'St. Petersburg Robot Rights Rally, 2046'.
	Their interlude was broken by a sudden, excited 
squeal, "Atom!!"
	Both boys turned towards the source of the cry, just 
as Adam was bowled over by a pink haired blur of a girl who 
pounced on him sniffing excitedly, "It IS you! Nuku-Nuku 
knew it! Nuku-Nuku is so happy to see you! Nuku missed 
Atom!"
	"Ack!" Adam cried out as he lay sprawled on the 
floor.
	Mackie blinked in surprise. "Whoa. I told you you 
were a chick magnet, man."
	Adam finally managed to pry the girl off of him as 
she continued to snuggle up against his chest and nuzzle 
the crook of his neck. "It's not what you think!" he 
retorted blushing furiously.
	The girl, who looked around seventeen or eighteen had 
long pink hair that stood in wild spikes. She smiled 
happily at him, her pretty eyes crinkled up practically 
closed. She was definitely very attractive. Her smooth face 
and creamy white skin held an angelic innocence, making 
even her pouncing on Adam seem more like a friendly gesture 
rather than anything malicious. Her slender, shapely 
figure, under the loose, knee length blue dress she wore 
was definitely worth a second look.
	The girl smiled happily at him. "Nuku-Nuku missed 
Atom!" she repeated for emphasis.
	Adam laughed happily as he recognized her. "Nuku-
chan! I missed you too! How've you been?"
	"Nuku-Nuku is okay!" the girl replied, giggling 
playfully. 
	Mackie leaned over the pair, "You know this girl, 
Adam?"
	Adam smiled up at Mackie, "Yeah, this is Atsuko 
Natsume. She's kind of Dr. Kyuusaku Natsume's... um... 
daughter."
	"I didn't know Ryuunosuke had a sister..." Mackie 
began to say, remembering the younger boy from previous 
times when his father had had business with Dr. Natsume. 
	"Long story." Adam interjected.
	The girl looked up at Mackie and smiled pleasantly. 
She straightened up a little and bowed to him, still 
straddling Adam. "Nice to meet you!"
	"Nice to meet you too, Miss Natsume," Mackie replied 
pleasantly. His roving eye still studying her intently.
	The girl giggled again and said, "Call me Nuku-Nuku!"
	Mackie smiled back, he was definitely enjoying 
meeting this girl, especially considering the view he was 
getting down her neckline, while she was still on top of 
Adam. And she was so uninhibited in her affections too, he 
considered, she'd probably be pretty wild in b--
	The rest of the lecherous thought was cut off by a 
polite clearing of the throat off to their side.
	Someone stood watching the three of them. The short 
figure was dressed in a baggy pair of faded black jeans and 
wore a closed leather jacket that had seen better days and 
had obviously been meant for someone larger. The figure had 
both hands thrust into the pockets of the jacket and wore a 
'Tokyo Giants' baseball cap, with the bill low, concealing 
the person's hair and features, except for a few strands of 
long black hair which peeked out from underneath. There was 
a hint of grin from figure as it spoke. "I guess it wasn't 
her imagination after all."
	Adam stared up at the figure for a moment, puzzled, 
before his face broke into another smile, "Alita? Is that 
you?"
	The figure, Alita, took her cap off and shook free a 
mane of long black shoulder length hair. She looked to be 
around sixteen and had a sweet face. Her dark eyes more 
pleasant than mysterious and her full lips had a slight set 
to them, making her look as if she were pouting slightly 
most of the time. She ran a hand through her hair as she 
smiled back. "Yeah, it's me. I wasn't expecting to see you 
here."
	"I wasn't expecting to see you here either," Adam 
replied.
	Alita leaned over Nuku and put a hand on the pink-
haired girl's shoulder. Mackie noticed oddly enough that 
this new girl, Alita, was wearing gloves. It wasn't cold 
enough to merit it and he found himself wondering why.
	"Come on Nuku. Let's help Adam back to his feet," 
Alita said patiently.
	"Okay!" Nuku replied enthusiastically, hopping off 
Adam in one quick motion and simultaneously landing on her 
feet to one side of him. Mackie blinked. She was either 
very athletic, which is a really good thing, he said to 
himself, or she's a robot, or a cyborg. I hope she's fully 
functional, he added mentally.
	Adam stood up easily, both Nuku and Alita lending him 
a hand. "Thanks girls," he said to them once on his feet 
again.
	Alita said with mock severity to Nuku, "You really 
shouldn't pounce on people like that in public, Nuku."
	The pink haired girl's face fell and she said meekly, 
"But Nuku-Nuku hasn't seen Atom in so long. Wanted to say 
hi."
	"You could've just waved to him," Alita replied, 
demonstrating the gesture. Mackie's eyes focused on her 
wrist as the cuff of her jacket slid down a bit, revealing 
a flash of grayish-black ceramic. 
	"Not the same," Nuku smiled a little.
	"I guess not," Alita sighed.
	"No, it's okay," Adam interrupted, "Really. There's 
no need to scold her, Alita."
	Alita turned her attention to Adam, "Well, she really 
needs to learn not to cause scenes like that in public." 
She bowed to Adam, "I'm sorry if she embarrassed you."
	"Honest, it's alright," Adam replied with a smile, "I 
kind of missed her doing that."
	Nuku cried, "Yay!" and hugged him, "Atom likes Nuku-
Nuku!"
	Alita did her best to suppress a giggle, "You keep 
encouraging her."
	Adam gave a smile and a helpless shrug.
	Mackie cleared his own throat, "Hello?"
	"Oh, sorry, Mackie," Adam said apologetically, as he 
worked himself free of Nuku's grip. He gestured to Alita. 
"Mackie Stingray, I'd like you to meet Alita. Alita, 
Mackie."
	"A pleasure, miss." Mackie smiled and bowed.
	Alita smiled back, but a little more cautiously, 
"Nice to meet you too." She looked at him thoughtfully and 
said, "Mackie Stingray... any relation to Dr. Katsuhito 
Stingray?"
	"That's my dad," Mackie replied in surprise.
	"Really?" Alita said, "Oh, your dad's a friend of Dr. 
Daisuke Ido, right?"
	"The mecha-compatibility expert from Hong Kong? Yeah! 
They went to College together. You know Dr. Ido?" There was 
a slight hint of awe in Mackie's voice.
	Alita nodded, "Yes, he takes care of me."
	"He's sort of her adoptive father," Adam supplied.
	"I see." Mackie nodded. "Small world."
	Adam looked at Alita and asked, "I thought you were 
still in Hong Kong." He glanced at Nuku, "And last time we 
saw each other you were still living in Kyoto."
	"Well, I thought you were still in Switzerland," 
Alita countered.
	Nuku piped up, "Papa-san took Nuku here to meet Dr. 
Elephant!"
	Alita sighed and turned to Nuku, "He's Dr. Eli Funt," 
she said with emphasis, "You shouldn't call him Dr. 
Elephant."
	"But he looks like one. He's got a big nose." Nuku 
giggled.
	"Well, yeah, but you really shouldn't call him that," 
Alita said in gentle reproof, "It's not nice."
	Adam looked intrigued, "We really need to talk a bit 
more then." He glanced back towards Alita, "Dr. Ido is 
meeting with Dr. Funt too?"
	Alita nodded. "Yeah. Dr. Natsume picked Daisuke up 
and asked if I could look after Nuku for a while." 
	Adam looked at her for a long moment then finally 
spoke, "I'm really glad to see you though." Adam smiled, 
then noticed Nuku-Nuku's pout and amended his statement 
hastily, "Um... both of you."
	"Same here." Alita grinned. She reached a hand up and 
stroked the points on Adam's hair lightly. "I like the new 
body."
	"Thanks. You look good too," Adam replied.
	Alita met Adam's gaze and smiled back, blushing 
slightly. Mackie stared at his friend in frank disbelief. 
He thought he knew Adam well enough but he certainly 
wouldn't have expected the straight laced and quite frankly 
exceedingly uptight robotic rights activist to have a 
girlfriend. Especially when one considered how awkward he 
sometimes was when it came to human situations. He 
definitely wouldn't have expected Adam to have someone on 
the side. Certainly not someone as pretty as Alita, but the 
signals flashing back and forth between the two were pretty 
unmistakable. 
	Nuku interrupted them, looking up from her distant 
appraisal of the lingerie through the window. "Atom! Alita! 
Nuku-Nuku is hungry! Let's get some fish!"
	"Why does she keep calling you Atom?" Mackie asked 
Adam.
	"She had trouble pronouncing 'Adam' the first time we 
met so she's called me Atom ever since."
	"Ah." Mackie smiled. "Well, Nuku has a point. I'm 
starving."
	"Yeah, we were going to get lunch when Nuku caught 
scent of you, Adam." Alita added.
	"Any recommendations, Mackie?" Adam asked, "The girls 
are new to Tokyo and I haven't been here in years."
	"Well there's this good sushi place two levels down," 
he replied thoughtfully. He glanced at Alita and Nuku 
again. They eat, he considered, therefore, they still had 
biological parts. There was hope yet!
	"Let's go then." Adam grinned and took Alita's arm.
	"Yay!" Nuku cheered as she took Mackie's arm and 
proceeded to drag him along, "Nuku likes sushi!"
- - -
	Mackie leaned back, mopping up the last of the sauce 
with his ebi-maki before popping it into his mouth. "I'm 
stuffed."
	"Yummy!" Nuku, who was sitting across from him, 
declared as she smiled, small bits of rice still clinging 
to her cheek.
	 "This place was a pretty good choice," Adam agreed 
and Alita also nodded approvingly. They were both seated 
next to the store window, across from each other.
	Mackie turned to Adam, who he was sitting next to, 
with a half smile on his face, "How would you know? You 
just split one dumpling with Alita. You didn't even try the 
mega-deluxe sushi combo plate!"
	Adam smiled back, "I don't need that much food. 
Besides, my stomach capacity isn't as large as yours."
	Mackie looked at Alita, "Come on, you know you want 
to eat some more." He grinned at her.
	Alita shook her head. "Oh, no," she demurred, "That 
was plenty for me. I don't really need food much myself."
	The short haired boy shook his head and sighed 
dramatically, "Well at least one of you has a healthy 
appetite." He glanced at Nuku who was in the process of 
attacking the remainder of Mackie's mega-deluxe sushi combo 
plate.
	Alita and Adam traded smiles. Mackie shrugged and 
wondered where Nuku put it all.
	Adam began to speak, but before he could say a word 
there was a sudden explosion, shattering the window and 
sending shards flying all over. Mackie gave a strangled 
shout as Adam moved to cover him, throwing him flat on the 
ground. Alita also threw herself to the side, trying to 
ride as much of the blast as she could. 
 	Nuku on the other hand barely even seemed to register 
it. One moment she was lifting a piece of fish to her mouth 
with the chopsticks, the next she was surrounded by a 
deadly swirl of glass shrapnel. She blinked cutely, the 
edges of her clothes slightly charred and torn by the 
leading edge of the blast.
	Alita rose to her feet, a furious scowl on her face 
as she dusted her self off. "This is my favorite jacket!" 
she cried as she tried to pick out the glass splinters 
which had penetrated the leather.
	Adam stood up slowly, looking slightly dazed. There 
was a large, dark crater just in front of where the 
storefront window where they'd been eating used to be. "I 
think we've got bigger problems than your jacket, Alita," 
he spoke to Alita.
	She looked up to notice that aside from the panicked 
people milling about, a majority of whom were in the 
process of trying to get as far away from the source of the 
explosion as possible, there were four rather calm 
individuals who called attention to themselves, simply by 
the fact that they were walking rather deliberately, 
pushing past the thin crowds heading directly for the 
crater. 
	The four were in large tan coats, their builds were 
similarly well muscled. The coats were buttoned all the way 
to the top, covering the lower half of the faces of the 
individuals, and rather battered, tan berets served to hide 
the rest of their faces. Their hands were thrust deeply 
into their pockets.
	"What're you talking about?" Alita demanded just as 
the four individuals pulled their 'hands' out of their 
pockets, revealing mechanical claws, a semi-automatic clip 
of ammunition plugged into a socket in the forearm. Three 
of the four began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. 
The screams grew louder.
	Adam immediately stood up, taking several rounds on 
his chest and face. The bullets tore into his synthetic 
skin, embedding themselves into his metallic 
understructure. The tears would close on their own, but he 
was more worried about the bullets hitting normal people.
	Alita also stood up holding a hand up over her face 
as the bullets struck her, tearing past her clothing, but 
ricocheting off her skin. 
	Nuku got an annoyed look on her face as one of the 
bullets shot the fish out from between her chopsticks. She 
glanced over at the figures as a pair of wing shaped 
extensions unfolded from under her hair.
	Mackie, like everyone else in the area hugged the 
ground worriedly as the bullets flew overhead. He reached 
into his pocket for his cell phone, intending to call for 
help. The police, the army... anyone!
	"Everyone stay down!" Adam called out as he stepped 
onto a chair and leaped towards their assailants. As he did 
so, he sent commands to his legs, causing them to 
reconfigure. His boots fell off his feet as his toes 
retracted and reshaped themselves into flight control 
surfaces. The heel of his foot irised open revealing ducted 
thrust jets. His pant legs tore as two more jets popped out 
from behind each of his calves. There was a sudden roar as 
these kicked in, sending him rocketing towards the three 
figures in tan. 
	"Astroboy strikes again," Alita muttered, shaking her 
head as she tore the shredded remains of her jacket off, 
revealing a black halter, which showed off her mechanical 
arms.  She followed him, avoiding the wake of his exhaust. 
She moved incredibly fast, managing to keep up with Adam. 
	Adam reached them first, bullets striking his body 
uselessly. He barreled into one at high speed, a move which 
by all rights should have knocked the wind out of a human. 
He grabbed the figure by the waist and pulled up, bringing 
his captive with him. Alita ran full tilt into the second 
as it continued to fire on her. Just short of reaching it, 
she dived for the ground, rolling onto her hands, before 
suddenly extending her legs, driving her feet into the 
attacker's face. She held back, not utilizing her full 
strength. She could have easily torn a normal person's head 
off. The figure staggered back, the beret lost, revealing a 
near skeletal face of metal. She blinked in surprise and 
called out, "It's a robot, Adam! You don't need to hold 
back!"
	"I noticed!" He called back as his struggling captive 
pulled it's clawlike hands above it's head and smashed them 
into Adam's back. He winced as he registered the impact. No 
real problems yet, but a couple more of those would cause 
structural damage.
 	Nuku blinked again as her two friends moved off. It 
sometimes took a while for thoughts to filter into her 
brain, but once she got the idea...
	"Wait for Nuku-Nuku! Nuku-Nuku wants to play too!" 
She cried as she bound after them, catlike. Mackie much to 
his delight managed to look up just in time to catch a 
glimpse of her panties as she leapt over his head. Too bad, 
it was too dark for him to make out the color.
	Despite himself Mackie peered over the ruined 
remnants of the restaurant window to watch the battle. Adam 
was flying higher, trying to break free of the robot which 
had taken to clinging to him and was proceeding to pound 
mercilessly on his face and chest.
	Alita kicked to her feet, narrowly avoiding being 
smashed by her opponent's fist into the ground. She whirled 
aside, bringing a fist up to continue the circular motion 
right into the side of her attacker's head. There was crack 
and the screech of tortured metal as the servos on that 
side of the head were torn loose from their mountings. It 
turned on her, it's head hanging limp to one side and 
lashed out with a tremendously powerful kick to her 
midsection. She was about to leap out of the way when she 
felt the slight displacement of air and realized belatedly 
that the third robot had moved behind her. This is going to 
cause some damage, she winced internally as she tried to 
find a way to avoid both strikes.
	Nuku suddenly leapt onto the back of the damaged 
robot Alita had been fighting and grabbed it by the neck, 
while simultaneously driving her foot into the knee of it's 
foot. It staggered, suddenly off balance and fell to one 
knee, missing Alita entirely. Alita took the opportunity, 
ducking under the third robot's backhanded swipe and 
grabbing at it's passing wrist as she stepped into it, 
pulling on the arm into a throw.
	Nuku grinned as she saw Alita pull the third robot 
over her shoulder. She pushed off of the foot she'd been 
keeping on the second robot's leg and planted her other 
foot on its shoulder suddenly, sending it into the thrown 
robot, the two smashing into one another with a loud crash. 
	Nuku bounced up and down, "Yay! That was fun!"
	Alita dusted her hands as she gave the twisted heap 
of wreckage a scornful look. She looked around, puzzled and 
asked, "Nuku, where's Adam?"
	"Look out below!" A voice shouted from above them, 
just as the first robot suddenly hurled downwards, smashing 
into the remains of its companions.
	Adam floated down, dampening his thrusters as he did 
so. "I finally got it to let go." His face was badly cut, 
but the skin seemed to be sealing itself. His hair and 
clothes were a mess.
	"What was that all about?" Alita asked pointedly, 
prodding at the smashed robot remains with her toe.
	Mackie from his hiding place gave a cheer. A few of 
the other patrons were also cheering, the ones brave enough 
to look up.
	Nuku-Nuku tugged excitedly on Adam's torn shirt, 
"Atom! Atom! They like us!"
	He gave her an indulgent smile, "I guess they do."
	"What happened to the fourth one, though?" Alita 
asked.
	"I didn't notice," Adam replied, looking around.
	"That was amazing, guys!" Mackie called out as he 
hopped to his feet, intending to move towards them. 
Unfortunately he slipped on a left over bit of fish, and 
stumbled over the remains of the window, falling into the 
hole.
	He stumbled and fell, down into the darkness, landing 
heavily on his back. Above him he could still hear the 
surprised shouts and cheers. He looked up, and saw a patch 
of light a good twenty feet up. The wall to one side of him 
felt smooth. Like metal. Further up, it looked more like 
rough hewn rock. There was rubble and scattered shards of 
metal scattered about him. He was sure there were rocks, 
despite the poor light. There was a stone digging into his 
back. 
	Mackie gulped nervously, feeling his badly bruised 
back. He'd been lucky. That could've killed him. He wasn't 
too worried, since Adam could fly him out, but he wondered 
idly what this place was. He sat up, wincing in pain. Even 
breathing hurt. He looked up, trying to get his bearings.
	Almost directly in front of him was the fourth robot. 
It had shed it's coat and beret. It's eyes were glowing a 
brilliant red, that he could see. In the dim light, Mackie 
could see that it's hands weren't claws like it's 
companions, but were delicately tapered and shaped like a 
surgeon's hands. In one hand, it held something gingerly, a 
flat square about an inch wide.
	It was what the robot was standing in front of that 
caught Mackie's eye. A woman. A naked woman. Her skin was a 
pale, creamy white, her features were almost painfully 
angular but with just enough softness to them to make her 
outstanding. Her pale lavender hair was long, falling in a 
cascade down her back. She stood inside a recess in the 
metal wall with her hands folded over her chest and her 
eyes shut, as though she were asleep. Mackie gasped in 
surprise.
	The robot, who'd been in the process of touching the 
base of the woman's throat, whirled around to face him. 
Mackie struggled to move, but only managed to push himself 
against the wall. The robot could've been said to have 
looked at him disdainfully, if any expression could've been 
read from the metallic skull that was its face. It extended 
it's empty delicate hand in his direction and pointed it's 
finger at him. It's tip began to glow red and Mackie 
noticed to his alarm a tiny glowing red dot on his chest. A 
laser targeting system. He stared into it's red eyes. It 
whispered in a rasping metallic voice, "There shall be no 
interference. Unification will commence."
	"Help!" Mackie managed to croak, despite the pain.
	Behind the robot, the woman's pale, gray eyes snapped 
open.
	Her voice was odd, as though two people were speaking 
simultaneously. One voice was harsh and precise, without 
feeling. The other, was a cheerful little girl's voice. 
"Help request received. Processing for new master data."
	The robot began to turn just as she extended a hand 
above her head and Mackie idly noticed that there was some 
sort of band around her wrist.
	"Metamorphosis," she declared forcefully in her 
double voice.
	Mackie slammed shut his eyes as the chamber was 
suddenly filled with light. He risked a peek as he felt the 
light begin to recede in intensity and saw that the woman 
now seemed to be wearing some sort of long, deep purple 
cloak which flowed up her neck into a sleek helmet with an 
angular gold visor, which obscured the upper half of her 
face. The impression was oddly birdlike.
	The robot took a step back in its surprise, raising 
it's hand to fire a pencil thin laser beam at her. With an 
almost languid gesture she raised a corner of her cloak, 
which seemed to almost drink in the energy.
	She spoke again, her voice was now only the clipped, 
harsh one, "Coherent light beam. A very basic attack form."
	The woman gave the cloak a flip, revealing her arm 
which was now wearing purple, wrist length gloves, matching 
the color of her cloak and underneath what appeared to be 
some sort of pale lavender bodysuit. She pointed a finger 
at the robot and continued, "I believe this is what you 
were attempting to do?" As she swept her hand casually, a 
laser beam erupted from her own fingertip. It caught the 
robot across the neck, severing it. The head fell to the 
ground and bounced once, the light fading from it's 
mechanical eyes before the body dropped to its knees and 
tipped over, the small flat square of plastic in it's hand, 
falling near Mackie.
	Mackie could only stare as the cloaked woman glided 
elegantly towards him. She knelt down next to him in a 
single motion, laying a hand gently on his. There was 
shimmer about her as the cloak and the rest of her outfit 
began to fade and he could feel a slight tingle where she 
touched him. He wasn't sure whether it was because of the 
suit vanishing, or because her hand was so warm and soft 
against his.
	In moments she was naked again, except for the thin 
bracelet and she smiled warmly at him. "Hello, master," she 
said brightly. Her voice had changed to the other one. 
	"Whu?" Mackie grunted in confusion.
	"You are my master now. You awakened me," she said 
cheerfully. "I'm Ifurita. What's your name, master?"
	"Mackie... Mackie Stingray..." 
	She smiled at him again, "That's nice... you have... 
a... nice... name..." Her eyes closed as her voice began to 
slow, and she began to pitch forward. It wasn't precisely a 
faint, but it was close enough. She landed on top of 
Mackie, sending new signals of agony from his beleaguered 
back. She was heavier than she looked! And how did she do 
what she did?! Is she okay? And why am I sitting in the 
middle of a deep hole inside the mall with a naked woman 
resting on top of me and not doing anything about it? These 
were the various thoughts filtering into his mind as he sat 
there pinned by Ifurita. Another, less noble though 
occurred to him as he moved a hand up to her bare breast... 
it's not like she's awake to feel it right? He told 
himself. 
	It was at around this point that Adam suddenly 
arrived. "Mackie, are you alright?" he called down as he 
landed. He did a double take as he noticed Mackie's 
position and Ifurita.
	"Do I even want to know what you've been doing to 
this girl?" Adam asked with mild reproach.
	"It's not what it looks like!" Mackie protested, 
"Some seriously weird stuff is going on!
	"I'll say." Adam nodded.
	"What took you so long?" the shorter boy pointed at 
the headless robot, "That thing nearly killed me!"
	"So this is where the fourth one went." Adam nodded, 
"Well, when you fell down the hole, the broken robots 
started merging together into this one big robot." Adam 
said. "We ended up having to fight it again."
	"Merging? But they were broken! You beat it right?" 
Mackie asked worriedly.
	Adam conceded, "Well, trapped it in quick drying 
cement anyway."
	"That's nice..." Mackie tried to shift himself, but 
only ended up pressing another sore spot on his back, 
"Um... can you get her off me? Pleasant as this is she's 
kind of heavy..."	
	Adam nodded as he bent down to pick Ifurita up. Adam 
stared at her face quizzically, "Who is she anyway?"
	Mackie worked his way back up to his feet with some 
difficulty. Noting idly to himself that his pants were 
definitely going to need some patching up. "She said her 
name was Ifurita. I think she's some sort of android... she 
looks like a sexadroid... Owww..." He winced, nearly 
bending over double as his back gave him another twinge of 
pain. He blinked as he noticed the flat square that fourth 
robot had been holding earlier on the ground next to him. 
Adam had nearly landed on it. With some difficulty he bent 
over and picked it up. It was some sort of ROM chip... 
	"What is that?" Adam asked.
	Mackie raised the plastic encased chip up to the 
light and noticed letters on it, "I think that robot was 
trying to put it inside her..." he squinted and could 
barely make out the letters embossed in white on it's 
surface. 
	"Bee... You... Gee... bug. It looks like some sort of 
acronym." he said aloud. He gave Adam a puzzled look, "A 
BUG-ROM? What the heck is a BUGROM?"
	 "Bring it along and let's get out of this hole." 
Adam urged, "The police will probably be arriving soon."
	"Aww, man..." Mackie grumbled as he put his arms 
around Adam's neck. "I just hope we don't get blamed for 
this." He muttered.
- - -
	A swirl of lights, moved and flowed sinuously between 
the two panels built into the ceiling and floor, resolving 
themselves into the appearance of a hauntingly beautiful 
woman. She glowed slightly and her skin had an odd 
translucence to it. Her features were perfectly even and 
her almond shaped eyes seemed more than slightly amused. 
Her perfectly red lips curled into a slow smile as she 
spoke. Her voice was low and melodious.
	"Your BUGROM soldiers have failed to retrieve 
Ifurita," she said.
	The man she addressed crossed his arms, a slight 
frown furrowing his brow, "Not entirely unexpected," He 
replied.
	"She now appears to have bonded with Mackie 
Stingray... a close friend of your brother," the woman 
continued, shifting sinuously.
	The figure raised an eyebrow, "My brother? And one of 
the Stingray family? This becomes more interesting."
	The woman nodded, smiling coolly at him, "Quite."
	"Leave me." The man said brusquely turning his back 
on her, "I need to think."
	The woman regarded him thoughtfully for a long moment 
before she said, "The weight of the world rests on your 
shoulders, doesn't it, my dear? Be careful not to let it 
crush you..." She shook her head one last time, before 
dissolving into a spray of lights once more.
	"I'm always careful, Sharon." The man whispered back 
in reply. "I'm always careful."	

to be continued





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