Wild Boot: The Net Games
By David Farr
	
   Tenchi Muyo is copyright of AIC : Pioneer LDC, INC. ReBoot is the
property of Mainframe. Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko
Takahashi/Shogakukan,Inc. All are used here respectfully for the
purposes of fanfiction. This story may be redistributed only if
unchanged and no fee is charged.
   Other copyright material (such as Gunsmith Cats, Pokemon and Neon
Genesis Evangelion) is used, but if I listed it all here, you'd get
bored, so I'll just give them a general nod.
   The prequel to this story "Wild Boot", other parts of this story and
my other works of fiction may be found at:
   http://www.homepages.co.nz/~djfarr/

------

	The User was a kid, dressed in a blue jacket, white shirt and jeans.
His red cap had been pulled around so that the rim covered the back of
his neck. The pack on his contained five red and white pokeballs, four
of which contained fainted Pokemon, defeated by his opponent and the
previous two.

	His opponent wore the white baseball but unlike the user her cap still
shaded her lilac face. She smiled, baring her fangs, at the scene before
them. Her Tangela, a pokemon that appeared to be little more than a
collection of vines, stood not far from an exhausted looking sphere.

	"Looks like your Voltorb is outta power honey," the Trainer smirked.
"This one's gonna be a piece a cake."

	The User glared at her. "Voltorb, struggle!"

	Wearily the sphere rocked a few times and then rolled at the Tangela.
Hurt and too slow, the plant pokemon was struck, and the pair both
collapsed to the ground, their eyes spinning.

	"Tangela return!" Ukyo yelled, holding an open pokeball in a silver
metallic hand. In a flash of red light the pokemon shot back into the
sphere, which then shrunk. She dropped the ball into her pouch and
retrieved her final ball. Pausing, she glanced over at her cheering
section.

	Shampoo stood watching her, obviously not too happy about having been
defeated. She had rebooted into a skimpy outfit and had a bunch of
pokeballs dangling from her ponytails. Next to her stood RyoGA. The game
sprite was wearing a brown and yellow striped jersey and wading pants. In
one hand he held a fishing pole, the other held a miniaturised pokeball.

	It was to the final member of the group that Ukyo turned her attention.
Ranma had rebooted as a sinister looking man in black and his three
Pokemon still awaited their chance to battle the User.

	"Stay or go?!" Ukyo cried.

	Ranma lifted his hand to his Icon and tapped it, changing it from the
yellow, white and blue triangle of a game sprite to the black and gold
badge of a guardian. "Stay. He's only got one more, and if for some
reason you
can't defeat that he still has to fight me."

	As one Ukyo, Shampoo and RyoGA reached up and altered their own Icons.
They'd all done it enough times to trust Ranma's judgement.

	Ukyo turned back to her battle. She threw the pokeball, which split
open, spewing forth red light. "Pikachu, I choose you!" The light formed
into a small yellow and brown rodent standing on it's hind legs. It's
jagged tail made it cute, Ukyo had to admit that, but it was also
dangerous, capable of discharging bolts of lightning and moving at
quickly to the attack.

	The User recalled his Voltorb and flourished out his final pokeball.
"Go! Squirtle!" In a flash a strange blue turtle appeared between the
Pikachu and the User. It was all Ukyo could do to keep from laughing,
the others didn't bother, falling to the ground and clutching their
sides in mirth.

	"A Squirtle against a Pikachu?" Ranma gasped. "That's gonna be murder!"

	Ukyo shook her head, unable to suppress a grin. "Okay Pikachu, let's
finish this in a hurry. Thunderbolt!"

	The small rodent leapt into the air, lightning playing about it's body.
"PIKA!" With an ear splitting crash electricity jumped from the small
pokemon and struck the Squirtle. The poor water pokemon flashed for a
few moments before collapsing to the ground, a wisp of steam rising from
its body.

	Ukyo threw out her hand holding the pokeball. "PIKACHU, RETURN!" In a
red flash the small pokemon vanished. At the same moment Shampoo, RyoGA
and Ranma each tossed one of their own pokeballs.

	"Game Over," announced a deep male voice.

	Ukyo caught the three spheres, which joined Pikachu's in her metal
fist.

*****

Ranma: We live in the games
	Wandering from systems to system,
	Searching for what we lost.
	Home.

*****

	A sea of mirrored skyscrapers surrounded the building on which the four
gamers stood. Above them the sky dome shifted from a dingy purple to a
dirty grey as the game cube vanished. The towers cast shadows on those
unfortunate enough to be below, blocking out much of the light. Sounds
wafted up from the street level, the impatient honk of vehicles, the
roar of engines. Strangely no hover cars graced the air.

	"Is not Mainframe," Shampoo announced turning to face the others.

	RyoGA snorted. "No surprise there."

	"It will be one cycle," Ranma's comment was half promise - half
comfort, although whether for himself or the others none could tell.
Turning away he found Ukyo still concentrating on her clenched metal
fist.

	When they lost that game they had lost a lot. Their home for one.
Ukyo's right arm, Shampoo's right eye, both things that could be and had
been replaced. They'd been lucky, in a way, the game had deposited them
in a system whose inhabitants were well versed in creating prosthetic
code. Ranma's own lose was much more total, more personal, more...
Without thinking Ranma's hand went to massage the empty spot on his left
forearm, where his closest friend should have rested.

	Ukyo's cyber-arm was more than just a replacement limb. Using the
rescued sprites as guinea pigs, those miracle workers had installed
special codes into Ukyo's arm and Shampoo's eye. Now the hacker could
pull small objects from the games, nothing that could not fit in the
palm of her hand, but at least she didn't have to worry about
stabilising it. Shampoo on the other hand, had a complex scanner, which
also linked into the gun that hovered at her hip.

	"Whatcha got Ucchan?" Ranma asked.

	Slowly Ukyo unrolled her right hand, revealing the four marbles inside.
"Let's see, shall we?" She held up one in her left hand and squinted at
it. "Well, my Pikachu made it." She exchanged it for a second pokeball.
"Hmm, Shampoo's Vulpix, cute and dangerous, I like, good choice."

	"Thank you," Shampoo returned. She had moved to one edge of the roof
and was squinting out across the city through her cyber-eye.

	Ukyo gazed at the third one. "What's this, a Starmie? Another good
choice."

	"That was mine," RyoGA volunteered.

	"Then this last one is Ranma's," Ukyo smiled. "Let's see." She paused
then looked at Ranma in surprise. "A Pidgeot, wow."

	Ranma shrugged. "It was either that, a Wigglytuff or a Mewoth, and like
crash was I giving you a cat."

	"Always knew you were a bird-brain." RyoGA slapped him on the back.

	Ranma gazed at him through half closed eyes. "Geeze, thanks."

*****

	"Wait up Rally!" Minnie-May stopped, gasping. She raised her arm and
wiped drops of liquid energy perspiration from her green bitmap. Normally
she would not be running, her short legs couldn't carry her as quickly
and she didn't carry a gun like her bounty-hunting partner, but Rally did
need backup, especially with him!

	Up ahead her friend vaulted up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
In her hand she carried her favourite piece, the CZ-75, too her mind the
best handgun ever. And for her prey, she needed the best. This sprite
was more than a bounty, it was personal.

	"GRAY YOU SPAMMER!" Rally Vincent screamed, smashing open the door with
her shoulder. The lobby was empty, but out of the corner of her eye she
saw the stairwell door swinging closed.

	"Got you," she hissed, and dived for the door. Gray, he'd been given
that nickname for his grey bitmap, was a cunning sprite, and extremely
dangerous. None knew that better than Rally. He'd threatened Rally once
before, and it was only with luck and help from her friends that she had
been able to beat him.

	Gray's footsteps echoed in the stairwell. He was still in there and
going up like Microsoft itself was after him. Rally took to the stairs,
pacing herself as best she could. She was already halfway up the
building when she heard the ground door open again and Minnie-May
complain about the steps.

	It seemed like only moments before she burst onto the roof and snapped
into position. Gray was there, and unsurprisingly he'd found himself
another hostage, a small gun pointed at her head. It wasn't a gun
though, it was the encryptor, a device that could make a sprites codes
non-functional and inaccessible. Useful device for ransoms, you could
send back the victim and they'd have to pay for the encryption key.

	The woman was strange, Rally's sharp eye took that in quickly as she
kept her gun fixed on the pair. Lilac skin and burning red hair, unusual
enough in itself, but one arm was metallic and she appeared to be
dressed in some kind of tight combat fatigues. She looked like a
fighter, in fact Rally could see that she held something in one hand. If
it had been Minnie-May, Rally would have guessed explosives.

	A electronic whine from beside Rally caused her to realise that the
woman wasn't alone on the roof. A little further away Rally could hear
the crackle of energy.

	"Shampoo, RyoGA, don't," the voice was strong, confident, male, "you
might hurt Ucchan." A fourth person, neither the one with the whine nor
the crackle, he was off to the right.

	"That's right!" Gray sneered. He looked nervous, unusual for him Rally
realised. The woman's friends must have been impressive. "We don't want
anyone else hurt, do we Rally? Now we will all put down our weapons and
let me past. Oh and tell that guy over there to stop glowing, he's
making me nervous."

	It took a lot of effort for Rally not to look. How could anyone be
glowing? "It's an encryptor," she called to whoever else was on the
roof. "He's got the key hidden somewhere."

	"And you need him and it for some reason." The voice hazarded. "RyoGA,
power down, one of your energy blasts will delete him."

	The crackling of energy diminished, then stopped. "So what's the plan
wise leader?" the one called RyoGA inquired sarcastically.

	"Shampoo say we shoot him and hope he process long enough to tell
hiding place of key." A female voice, cute, but hard, from right next to
Rally. She was holding whatever was whining.

	"Hey! I'm standing right here!" Gray exclaimed, shifting uneasily.

	The woman, Ucchan, rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed. "For once I
agree with the amazon. If he gets me, hey, bad luck, otherwise I can
hack the key for the lady with the gun."

	"Not an option," Rally interjected. "He's wanted alive, the CPUs don't
like sprites being deleted unless really necessary."

	"You no call gun held to head necessary?" the one standing next to
Rally asked incredulously.

	Rally smiled. "Yeah, but it's spamming hard to prove."

	"Crash this," Gray shoved the small device into the woman's neck, and a
flash of energy shot across her body. Her hand spasmed, letting four
small marbles fall to the ground. As Ucchan fell Gray leapt backwards
over the edge.

	As Gray disappeared from view two if the others materialised in Rally's
view. One of the men, a blue sprite in blue armour, caught the Ucchan
before she hit the floor. The other was the female Rally had been
standing next to. She suddenly appeared on the edge of the roof, a
strange and futuristic gun pointed downwards.

	"Gun, target lock." Shampoo spat, and the weapon discharged a red pulse
from above the barrel. "Got him!" she declared.

	Rally finally acted, she dashed across the roof to look over the edge.
Below
she saw Gray land in a dumpster, then climb out and run off. "Spam! He
got away!"

	The blue woman looked at Rally. "Sinister-grey-sprite no get away from
Shampoo, she able to track him anywhere in system."

	Rally took in the group for first time. This woman, Shampoo, looked as
hard as the woman called Ucchan. She was cute, but her face appeared
serious, and the yellow orb glaring out from one eye socket made Rally
shudder. Her clothing had an unusual cut, robes of some kind, not combat
ware, but serviceable never the less. The strange weapon she carried had
been absently returned to her hip, but nothing held it there.

	The young man holding the encrypted girl, almost effortlessly to all
appearances, had a noble bearing to his stance, not touched by the steel
that so characterised his two female companions. His outfit was an
armoured uniform of some kind, one unknown to Rally. As he started
moving gracefully, flowing in fact, Rally could just see that he was as,
if not more, deadly than Shampoo.

	Finally the sprite Gray had said was glowing stood stoically, regarding
her as she was him. Again a rare skin colour, orange, but at least he
wore normal clothes, although the pack topped by a massive parasol was
unusual. If what had been said during the battle was any indication,
then this one was perhaps the most dangerous.

	"Name's Ranma Saotome," the apparent leader said. "I'd offer to shake
your hand, but my arms are full." He gave her a quirky smile. "That's
Shampoo with the gun, and RyoGA standing over there. This is Ukyo."

	It was Rally's turn to feel under the microscope as Ranma sized her up.
What Ranma saw was a system sprite, not that much different from Akane.
She had the same determined look on her green face that Mainframe's
Defender
often had. The comparison brought back the pain of loss.

	Minnie-May chose that moment to make her appearance. She pushed open
the door, gasping for breath. It took only a moment for her to take in
the situation. "He got away, Rally?" she inquired.

	"Only for the moment," Rally replied. She looked at Ranma. "I'm Rally
Vincent, a bounty hunter in this system, and she's my partner, May
Hopkins."

	"Great, is there somewhere Ukyo can be looked after while we hunt down
this grey guy?" Ranma inquired, starting towards the door down. "RyoGA,
grab the pokeballs would you?"

	Grumbling the game sprite bent down to pick up the small spheres.

	Rally stepped in front of him. "Now wait a minute, who do you think you
are? You can't just hunt down Gray!"

	A whine in Rally's ear made her suddenly aware of Shampoo's presence.
"You no stop Ranma," she whispered.

	"Put it down Shampoo." Ranma returned his gaze to Rally. "Look, either
you help or hinder us, your choice. Either way we're gonna get that key
then catch the next game to another system."

	"Wow, tough guy," Minnie-May whistled.

	"Yeah, pain in the bitmap too," Rally commented. "Wait a nano, catch a
game? ANOTHER SYSTEM?" She turned to hurry after Ranma and his friends.

*****

	"So let me get this straight. They use the games as vehicles to move
between systems?" The speaker was Roy, Rally's good friend and a
detective with the CPUs. Thankfully that meant he didn't have to wear
one of those green and gold uniforms, or Rally would never have been able
to have a serious conversation with him. Just the image of the serious
dour faced sprite dressed like that sent Rally into a fit of giggles.

	Rally leant against the hospital corridor wall, arms crossed. "That's
what they said." She shrugged.

	Roy started pacing across the room. "Come on Rally, that's random talk,
there are no systems other than Chicago!"

	She glanced meaningfully towards the room where the strange sprites
were settling in their friend. "If you can come up with a better
explanation for them, your welcome to believe it, but I'm taking them at
face value for the moment. It's probably safer."

	Roy snorted. "And you're going along with them? Hunting down Gray?"

	"It'd be best. I seriously doubt we want to try and stop them, but at
least I can keep them from doing anything stupid."

	"You realise that anything they do will be on your head," Roy pointed
out.

	"Excuse me," RyoGA interjected from the doorway, "we can hear every
word you're saying and you're disturbing the troops." He vanished back
inside.

	Rally and Roy shared a startled glance, then dashed to the door.

	The hospital room was the same one that housed Gray's other victim, a
young girl who he was ransoming with the encryption key. Roy and the
CPUs had decided to place her here under guard and so it seemed the
perfect place to put Ukyo. What they hadn't expected was for the
travellers to supply their own guards.

	A large bird sat on the end of the lilac sprite's bed. It was like
nothing either of the sprites had seen before, large red and gold
feathers sprouting from above the eyes and sweeping down the length of
its powerful body. It turned fearsome eyes on the pair. "Pidgeot!"

	 "Pika pika! CHU!" Roy and Rally both looked down to find a yellow and
brown rodent standing in front of them. It was cute, especially the way
it held a stick pointed at them like a gun. However the crackling energy
about the two brown spots on its cheeks showed just how dangerous it
was.

	With a series of "Hup"s a third guard leapt out from behind the bed. It
looked like someone had taken two five pointed stars and attached them,
then placed a beautiful gem in the centre just to make a fashion
statement.

	Finally curled up on the bed next to the slumbering Ukyo lay a
beautiful red fox-like creature. Four tails swished casually through the
air as it watched the newcomers with two black pearl eyes. It stretched
and yawned, then sat on its haunches facing them. "Vulpix," it hissed.

	"Hey, calm down gang, these are friends," Ranma walked over to the bed
and sat down, stroking the Vulpix. He looked up at the two sprites in
the doorway. "We thought we'd leave them here to look after her."

	The Starmie vanished back behind the bed and Pikachu started marching
back and forth across the room, its stick resting on its shoulder. Under
Ranma's care Vulpix settled down once more while Pidgeot started scanning
the room.

	Shampoo stepped in front of the bird and looked at it. "Shampoo thought
Pidgeot bigger."

	Ranma shrugged. "Probably got shrunk when Ucchan pulled it from the
game."

	"Pidgeot!" The bird glared angrily at Ranma.

	He threw up his hands in defence. "Hey, not my fault!"

	"Ot." It humphed.

	Giving up on the Pokemon Ranma stood and walked over to Rally. "So, we
ready to leave yet?"

	Roy looked at the kid. Okay, so he was as tall as Rally, and looked
extremely serious, but he was, never the less, a kid. His friends
weren't much better. "Are you sure you want to do this? Gray has deleted
a lot of people."

	A flat stare was fixed on Roy. "All the more reason to do it. My code
is to mend and defend, I'm naturally a predator when it comes to his
type." Ranma sounded like confidence personified.

	"Come on, May's waiting in the car downstairs." Rally turned, leaving
Roy to face Ranma.

	"Well, have you got a problem with me working on this?" the youth
challenged.

	"We want him alive, and preferably as unfragmented as possible."

	Ranma pushed past him. "You have my word of honor."

	RyoGA crossed the room and squeezes past the CPU without a comment. He
was followed shortly by Shampoo, who paused only to poke her tongue out
at him before bouncing off down corridor after the others.

*****

	Unfortunately Rally's Cobra wasn't built to hold five people. Since
Shampoo needed to be in the front of the small car, that left May
squeezed tight in between Ranma and RyoGA.

	As Rally directed the Cobra up out of the hospital's sub-level garage
Shampoo activated Gun's tracking mode. "Is to right," she directed.

	"Whose elbow is that in my stomach?" Ranma asked from the back seat.

	"I think it's my knee," answered May.

	"Shampoo, mind if I ask you a question?" Rally slowly spun the wheel,
merging with the traffic on the busy road.

	"Sure, she no mind," Shampoo watched Gun closely. "Keep straight."

	"Hey RyoGA, you might want to keep your head a little lower," May
commented.

	"Why?" In answer the car jumped suddenly as Rally stopped for a red
light. THAWK!

	"That must have hurt."

	Rally ignored the conversation in the back. "Well, I was wondering why
do you travel so much? I mean, it can't be easy, jumping from system to
system all the time."

	"It okay, so long as Shampoo with Ranma, she no care." The Amazon
sighed.

	"Don't worry, RyoGA's bitmap is very dense," Ranma quipped to May.

	"RAAANNNMMAAA!" RyoGA growled.

	Rally wished she could Shampoo's face, it would have told her megabits.
"You care for him that much?"

	"It no important." Gun started turning. "Is to left a distance. Ranma
is reason we all keep going, he no give up." She leaned to the side as
Rally took the turn at speed.

	The sounds of battle from the back totally failed to affect the pair
in the front seat. "So what keeps Ranma going?"

	"He feel responsible for Mainframe, is part of Guardian code. Ranma no
able to give up so long is possibility of success. Is part what makes
Shampoo love him."

	"WOULD YOU TWO PLEASE STOP FIGHTING OVER ME?!" May screamed suddenly.
The punches stopped.

	"Sorry," both Ranma and RyoGA sounded like young sprites caught
stealing quantum fruit from an orchard. There was a short pause in the
back seat.

	Rally continued her talk with Shampoo. "So he's looking for home?"

	"Yes, Ranma take responsibility very serious," Shampoo replied.

	From the tone of her voice Rally knew that wasn't all, but that the
truth hurt the other sprite. "How much further?" she inquired, changing
the subject.

	"Not far, is just another few blocks ahead and up ten levels." The Gun
was now pointing up and to the side at an angle.

	"Then we'd better park and continue on foot."

	"Ah, how did we get in this position?" Ranma was perplexed.

	"I don't know, but I'd have thought it to be impossible," volunteered
RyoGA.

	"Nope, I been like this a couple of times," May interjected. "Of course
I was wearing a lot less at the time," she added thoughtfully.

	"I didn't wanna know that," Ranma commented.

*****

	Shampoo leaned against the corner of building and squinted upwards. It
was a rundown part of the system, many of the windows looking out onto
the street were dark with power loss behind the panels covering them.
Graffiti covered walls, touting everything from "M$ sux" to "Duke wasn't
here."

	Gray's hideout was an apartment building, probably pack full of the
poor that this system seemed to generate. Thankfully this meant that
there were two ways up the building, the stairs inside and an escape
outside.

	"So what's the plan?" Ranma asked, turning to Rally.

	She blinked in surprise as the other three stared in shock at Ranma.
"What? You're asking me?"

	Ranma shrugged. "This is your speciality, not ours. Normally we
confront problems head on."

	"Unless it's a game," RyoGA interjected.

	"Hmm, well, if we could just be sure what he was doing in there..."
Rally stepped out of cover and glanced up. Thankfully Gray hadn't chosen
that moment to look out.

	"Sinister-grey-sprite sitting watching Television," Shampoo declared.
"Pity is not Mike, then we just wait for him to run out screaming."
Ranma and RyoGA both chuckled.

	"How can you be sure?" Rally inquired of the amazon.

	"Mike is very annoying, no one stand listening him long."

	Rally stared at her through half-closed eyes. "That's not what I
meant."

	Shampoo pointed at her cyber-eye. "Remote visuals. Is ability of
targeter. Very useful."

	Rally nodded and turned to RyoGA. "Can one of those blasts of yours
blow in a wall."

	"And a good deal more," RyoGA replied. Then he grinned at her. "I've
got something better."

	"Excellent," Rally looked up at the apartment again. "Shampoo, May and
I will go up the inside. You two go up the escape. Give us twenty nanos
to get into position, then May blows the door and RyoGA does his thing
with the wall. Hopefully we'll catch Grey with his guard down."

	"I see key!" Shampoo exclaimed suddenly. "Is on table next to him!"

	Rally nodded. "Hopefully that's the right one, but it may not be, so we
keep him alive."

	"I'll call Roy the moment the door blows, just in case," volunteered
May.

	"Everyone okay with that?" A series of nods answered Rally. "Right,
fifty nanos from now."

*****

	The dingy hall of the building was everything Rally expected. More
graffiti, broken light panels and enough rubbish to fill a truck. Gray's
apartment was one of the corner ones facing onto the street. According
to Shampoo he hadn't moved except to drink from a can. That made Rally
feel good, he probably believed himself safe for at least a little
longer, few of Rally's informants could have found him so quickly.

	Shampoo and she took up positions on either side of the door while May
the bomb freak played with her explosives on the door. The pair watched
as May placed three larger wads on door, then added a group of smaller
charges on the door. Finally the small sprite stuck a bunch of
detonators into the explosives and backed off.

	"Count me down someone," May whispered urgently.

	Shampoo nodded acknowledgement and paused. The silence deeped for what
seemed an eternity. "Is almost time. 5... 4..."

*****

	RyoGA stood and pulled back his arm. A single finger pointed towards
the wall before him.

	"3... 2... 1..." Ranma counted.

	"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"

*****

	Grey wasn't too surprised when the door exploded in. He was too busy
being shocked by the wall crushing his TV. Despite that he was ready for
Rally and her friends.

	His hand flew to the gun resting at his side. Two sets of targets
presented themselves. Instinct told him to go for the ones in front of
him coming through the newly formed hole in the wall, strategically they
were more likely a rouse and the real danger was coming through the
door. All of this he ignored, instead the gun swung to point at the
cylinder resting on the table.

	Shampoo and Rally threw themselves round, both falling into wide
positions, guns outstretched before them. They watched as Ranma and
RyoGA blurred from the fading explosion on the opposite side of the
room, then froze at points either side of the hole in the wall.

	For nanoseconds nothing happened, the four hunters watched as Gray
aimed his weapon at the key. None of them dared move.

	"Another step and I delete it," Gray growled, watching all of them from
the corners of his eyes.

	"Delete it and quit file," Ranma returned simply. "It's the only thing
keeping you processing."

	"Right, like you're going to shoot me."

	"Yes."

	"Give it up Gray, you can't win!" Rally yelled. "These guys are only
here to save their friend!"

	Gray didn't answer but Rally noticed his left hand twitch. It took her
only a moment to realise that he was about to use one of her own tricks.
She squeezed the trigger.

	There was an thunderous explosion and energy splattered across the
room. Gray screamed in pain, and clutched at end of his arm, a small
hold out pistol falling from his left sleeve. It joined the remains of
Gray's other gun and right hand on the floor.

	"Spam," Shampoo gasped, staring in disbelief.

	In the silence after the explosion May's voice carried in from the
hall. "You may want to add an ambulance to that order Roy."

*****

	"Your kidding sugah, she really blew his hand off?" Ukyo stood,
adjusting her clothes.

	Ranma nodded. "Apparently he used explosive rounds and when she shot
the gun, intending to knock him off balance so he wouldn't shoot me or
RyoGA, she set them off. His gun went up in a decent ball of energy and
took his hand with it."

	"So now he's some kinda one armed bandit?" Ukyo asked, cracking a
smile.

	Ranma groaned. "That was a terrible pun."

	"Thank ya honey."

	"Come on, Rally's offered to drive us to the next Game when it falls."
Ranma turned to head towards the hospital room's door.

	"Wait a sec Ranma-honey." Ukyo pulled out one of her pokeballs and
expanded it. "Pikachu honey, its time to go."

	The small yellow and brown rodent hopped up on the bed and gave her a
pathetic look, its ears drooping. "Pika?!"

	"Sorry, got ta put ya away. Ya just can't survive in the games."

	Pikachu nodded saddly.

	"Pikachu! Return!" At Ukyo's order the pokeball cracked open and
Pikachu vanished into the ball with a flash. She turned and gave Ranma a
smile that hid her unease.

	"I wonder if we could use one of those things on another type of
sprite?" Ranma mused as the pair walked out.

*****

	"Game Over." The cube shot back up into the sky above Chicago, leaving
a deserted area of the city. It was only a few moments before the
traffic started flowing again.

	"Do you think we'll see them again?" May asked Rally, staring up at the
cloudy sky.

	"Somehow, I think so," her friend answered.

-----

Author's Notes:

	Okay, first cycle is complete. For people who complain about Ranma's
feelings about loosing Glitch all I can say is wait for season three of
ReBoot. I
know what I'm doing. 
-----------
Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz