Please take into consideration that this used to be one huge fic and it was
broken into parts. If you wish to find this story in its entirety, you can find
on my webpage http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~jeffwong/index.html
Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong
Bubblegum Crisis/Ranma 1/2: Just won't die 1 part 2
Ranma entered the tiny room carrying Sylia and Nene's battle suits,
each suit slung around each shoulder. Sylia's suit, although the
front was dented and the breast plate was gone, was still intact.
Nene's suit wasn't so lucky. Most of the metal had melted into a
heaping mess.
"Where'd ya like me to put this?" Ranma said.
"In the corner." Linna said.
Ranma and the four girls were in a tiny room that was in one of the
abandoned buildings. They needed to take cover because the Knight
Sabers didn't want their identities revealed in case a boomer was
running around. The room was only a few meters wide, and there was a
bit a debris everywhere, but it was good enough for now.
Linna watched as Ranma placed the suits in the corner she had said.
She was dumbfounded and wondered how Ranma was able to carry two suits at
once. Each suit weighted several hundred pounds and he was
carrying both of them like they were as light as a feather. Both suit
must have weight somewhere around a thousand pounds combined.
Ranma walked over to the window and looked out the front window of
the building "When's your backup gonna get here?"
They had been in the building for around fifteen minutes already. He
was starting to get impatient. For every minute passed, the chance of
Sylia not waking up was more probable.
Nene walked up to Ranma and stood next to him, the top of her head barely
reaching his chin, "He'll be here in a little while. It takes a little time for
him to get the transport ready. That's all."
Ranma squinted his eyes, "Hey, what's that over there. Is that your
friend?" He pointed toward four hovering dots about two miles away
from where they were hiding out.
"No." Nene said "those look like boomers. Afterall, this is a
boomer training ground." She looked more carefully "Those must be the
boomers we wanted to intercept."
"Huh?"
"We heard Genom." Linna said as she got up and slowly made her way
to Ranma and Nene, using the walls for support. When Ranma saw her
standing next to him, he reached out and gently placed her arm around
his shoulder, "We heard Genom was trying out some new prototype boomers around
here and we were waiting for them to arrive. That is, until you attacked us."
Ranma scratched the back of his head, "Oh, you were here to do that also?
That's why I was here. I wanted to blow them up before they can go into
production. That ought to hit Genom where it hurts."
"Why are you doing this?" Priss couldn't help but ask. She stayed
where she was, in the back of the room, next to the unconscious
Sylia.
"You mean about my hatred toward Genom?" Ranma started out slowly.
When Priss nodded, he sighed and spoke, "Everyone I cared about was
killed by combat boomers that Genom created. The boomers went berserk and
killed 'em all. The boomer should have never been created in the first
place. And for that, I'm gonna make Genom regret having done so. It's
all personal."
Nene gasped, "Oh no. Look over there, there's Mackie." She pointed
toward the ground where a truck was coming down one of the deserted
streets toward the building. The truck could be easily spotted by
those boomers from high above "He's gonna be seen!"
Ranma gently let Nene take hold of Linna as he smiled a bit "If
those are the prototype boomers we came here to destroy, then I'll
take care of it." He then quickly ran out of the building "I already
got my second wind."
Curiosity got the better of Priss as she slowly and cautiously made
her way to where Nene and Linna was standing. Once there, Nene threw
her arm around her should as she held both Linna and Priss stand.
Together, the three girls watched as Ranma walked out to the middle
of the street and wave toward the incoming truck.
"Over here." Ranma said as he waved his hands. He wanted to get this
Mackie person out of harm's way while he did his business. He pointed
toward the building as Mackie stopped the truck and look at him
cautiously "They're in that building. Don't worry, it's not some trap.
Damn, they're already here!!!"
A massive explosion exploded on the ground just behind Mackie's
truck. The truck was sent flying forward and skidded to a halt a few
feet away. Another explosion struck the side of the truck this time
as the truck was toppled over onto its side.
Ranma quickly hopped on top of the truck and opened the driver's
side door and reached in a grabbed Mackie's arm, "Quickly, get into
the building. Those damn boomers saw ya!" With one arm, he lifted
Mackie out of the truck and placed him down on the ground. When he
noticed Mackie just standing there, staring at him, he shouted
"Hurry, get outta here! Here they come!"
Another explosion occurred, this time a few feet away from Ranma.
Ranma was blown backwards off the truck, landing on the ground on his
back with a loud thump. He quickly flipped back up onto his feet,
wiping a bit of blood trickling from his mouth "That was a lucky
shot!"
He quickly jumped out of the way as another blast exploded right
where he was. He continued to do this as the four boomers got closer
and closer. He watched intently for the boomers' next attacks as they
all landed on the street about twenty feet in front of him. Each
boomer looked slightly different from each other, and was carrying a
heavy arsenal of equipment. Two boomers had rocket launchers attached
to their shoulders while carrying a shield while the other two each
carried two large caliber tank rifles. All stood close to four meters
high each. They all resembled a bigger, heavier version of these big
brown heavy duty combat boomers he remember destroying a few days ago.
He remembered those boomers had a large cannon for an arm. He couldn't
remember what kind of model they were, but he didn't have much trouble
destroying those. Hopefully, these boomers would be as easy also.
Ranma ran straight toward the four boomers as they all opened fire on
him. His voice echoed through the empty streets of the abandoned town.
"Mouko Takabisha!!!"
Ranma looked at the truck that had been toppled over onto its side.
"Will you stand back for a moment?" Ranma said, walking up to the
truck.
Linna was the first to ask, "What are you going to do?"
Ranma didn't reply back. The girls and Mackie watched as Ranma squatted
low to the ground, his back straight, and slipped his fingers under the
truck. He then gave out a yelp as he used all his strength to lift the
truck up, his muscles straining intensely. After several moments, Ranma
managed to lift the truck about a foot of the ground. He then squatted
lower to the ground and shoved his shoulder underneath, using that as a
lever, gritting his teeth against the effort to lifting.
As the truck was slowly lifted from its side, Ranma got impatient.
"Goddamnit!!! Move ya damn truck!!!" He got angry at his lack of strength
in righting the truck that he gave one final burst of strength, bringing
his legs up and pushing his arms out at the same time.
Unfortunately, Ranma seemed to have gotten a bit too angry for he put
too much strength behind his final push, the truck landing back on its
wheel only to topple over onto its other side.
"Shit!" Ranma swore. He wished he could control his anger more.
Sometimes, he didn't know his own strength.
Ranma walked over to the other side of the truck and proceeded to lift
it back up, and hopefully, onto its wheels.
Everyone watched, mouths open wide.
When the truck was back on its wheels, Ranma turned toward the staring
group, unperturbed by the astonishing glances.
"All right, we better get going."
Ranma was sitting patiently in the corner of the hospital room when
Sylia awoke. She quickly sat upright in her bed "What's going on here?!
Where am I?"
She scooted away to the back of her bed when she caught sight of the
boomer that had beaten her unconscious. Although that was her first
reaction, she managed to look at everything logically. She noticed that
Priss and the others were in the room, along with the boomer. Priss was
sitting on her own bed, some bandages wrapped around her ribs. Linna was
sitting on Priss' bed, her foot in a cast. Nene was sitting in a chair
at the foot of the bed. She realized that this boomer couldn't be a
boomer. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
"You're never going to believe it." Nene said with a smile.
"Try me." she said with a suspicious eye. She was regarding Ranma as
he weakly smiled back at her.
"It turns out that...." Nene began. She stopped, realizing that she
didn't know this man's name.
"Ranma."
"It turns out that Ranma here isn't a boomer." she continued, "I know
what you're going to say, 'how come we could pick it up on our
scanner?'. I checked out the suits, at least the suit that we have left,
and it turns out that they were perfectly functional. It turns out that
there seems to be something surrounding Ranma here that prevents it."
"I think I can explain." Ranma began, "Have you ever heard of battle
aura?"
Sylia shook her head. She had have sworn she had heard of it before
though.
"Well, I have this weird battle aura always surrounding me that...I
guess, messes up those scanner thingies of yours." he continued, "But
enough of that now. Are you okay?"
She regarded him with cautious eyes. Ranma looked like he was somewhere in his
early or mid twenties, but his eyes showed that he was a lot older. His eyes
showed that of life long experience, something never evident in someone that was
as young as he looked.
She nodded at Ranma's comment. It was nice that he seemed concern, but
it might all be an act. She had to remain cautious. But as she sat there
in her bed, she realized something, Ranma was there, meaning he must be
aware of their hidden identity.
"So, I assume you now know our identity." she said slowly, watching
him. She wanted to see how he reacted. She wanted to know if his words
were genuine. She could tell simply by the tone in his voice.
"Your identity?" he asked "Whatcha talking about? You mean those
things you wear are supposed to be a secret?" He shrugged his shoulders,
"Whatever."
All four girls said nothing. They all looked at Ranma curiously, Sylia
the most. What kind of person was he? He knew of their identity, but it
didn't really matter to him? Something must be wrong.
"Well, I don't really care who you really are." Ranma said, turning to
face Sylia, "As long as you're not some combat boomer, I'm glad you're
okay. I better get going now."
"Wait." she said, "Can you do us a favor?" It didn't really matter if
he didn't want to, she still had to ask. Even though there was no way
they could stop him, she had to ask him this question "Can you please
not let anyone know who we are?"
Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Even though I don't really know what
kinda secret it is, yeah, sure. I'll keep your secret"
He left the room.
Sylia was looking at the computer screen when she realized how tired she was.
It was around three in the morning. She hadn't slept in two days, and it was
taking a toll on her, especially her mind. Everything on the screen was starting
to look like gibberish. Even the simplest words seemed indiscernible. Naturally,
she would have had Fargo do the extensive research of that person named Ranma,
but ever since he got hurt during that boomer rampage a few days ago, he was in
the hospital recuperating.
She immediately broke out of her sleepy stupor when her eyes rested on
a familiar face.
On the computer screen, she saw Ranma's face. All that extensive
background check had finally paid off. She was looking at a profile on a
man named Ranma Saotome. For the pasted two days, she had been looking
through the police logs for the man that she only remembered was called
Ranma.
A portrait of a handsome man was on the screen as Sylia stared up at
it. It was definitely him. It was definitely the man she fought a few
days ago.
She read the profile of him. She was immediately shocked to find out
that Ranma was well in his fifties. That wasn't all that surprised her.
She found that he used to live in Nerima, the same city that was leveled
to the ground by a bunch of berserking boomers that she had read about
many years ago.
"Hm, that seems right." she said to herself, "If the family he was
talking about was indeed killed, then they must have died during the
'Nerima Massacre' when all those boomers went berserk at the same time.
That would confirm why he hates boomers so much."
She read some more.
Sylia leaned back in her chair as she finished with Ranma's background
check. Unless Genom messed around with AD Police's citizen archives,
Ranma was definitely human. The research had proved quite useful. She
found out that Ranma had been arrested several times for the destruction
of Genom buildings. Buildings?!
How can he destroy entire Genom buildings, Sylia thought. All of
Genom's companies are heavily fortified. Although they aren't fortified
as their main corporate building, Genom's security fortifications could
take out small armies before being overwhelmed. That would mean Ranma is
more powerful than a small army.
"That's impossible!" Sylia said "How can one man destroy entire Genom
buildings?" She decided to take back those words when she recalled seeing
Ranma throwing all those ki-blasts from his hands. And of course, he had
managed to break the Knight Sabers' armor, which was much stronger than
any of Genom's boomers.
But if he's capable of taking out Genom buildings, she thought, how
can the police manage to apprehend him. She scanned his profile again.
She remembered coming across something that might explain it.
Hm, she thought, it says here that he currently unemployed. Unless he
works as a mercenary like us, he has no source of income. Could he be
allowing himself get caught so he could spend time in jail, where he
would have food and shelter. Hm, and it says here that he has no place
of residence because his house was destroyed during that boomer rampage
many years ago.
But how come we never heard of a man like him before? Surely, if he
took out Genom buildings, we would know about it. How can we miss
something like this? Hm, it says here he took out nineteen Genom
buildings that were scattered around Europe and North America. Hm, maybe
it's because the building taken out weren't in Japan that we missed it.
But that was highly improbable. If anybody attacked Genom, they would
had known.
"Wait a minute?!" she said, realizing something "That was HIM doing
that, destroying those buildings?!" She remembered hearing about Genom
destroying nineteen of their own buildings in hopes of rebuilding a
better, more advanced version. Perhaps it was him that destroyed those
buildings. No. It must be. And since the police hate Genom secretly,
some would prefer no to let the public know because they actually viewed
Ranma as a savior, not some saboteur"
Sylia smiled to herself, a great weight lifted off her chest. Although
all of those were simple hypothesis, it was much better than what she
had before, nothing. She was glad that this background check had paid
off.
She yawned. Before she would tell the others, she needed some sleep.
She knew she needed it because she caught herself talking to herself
several time.
Nene looked at her dispatch screen in disbelief, not believing what
she was seeing. On the screen, five boomers had gone berserk, all of them
in the same location. Phones in the background were blazing to life as
concerned citizens informed the AD Police of the carnage that was
ensuing.
"Oh man, this is bad!" Nene said to herself. She looked around to see
if anyone was watching. When she realized that all her fellow co-workers
were busy tending to all those incoming phonecalls, Nene quietly relayed
the dispatch readings to Sylia's computer terminal.
Sylia woke with a sudden jolt when her computer alarm went on. She
swore to herself, wishing the boomers would give her just eight hours of
sleep before they go on a rampage. She had had a very rough two days.
She needed her sleep.
"I'm here." Sylia said as she turned her computer terminal on. She
wiped the sleep from her eyes. She looked at her clock and noticed she
had only slept for ten minutes. An audio of Nene's voice echoed into the
room.
"We have big trouble." she heard Nene's voice, "There are three heavy
duty 'BU-12b' and two 'Doberman' model boomers trashing up district
seven."
Sylia swallowed the lump in her throat.
Priss was racing down the highway at 50kph over the speed limit when
she caught sight of a familiar looking man. It was Ranma. He looked like
he was headed toward nowhere in particular. She smiled as she figured
she'd give him a good scared. She skidded the bike to a halt just inches
from him.
"W-what're ya tryin' to do?!" Ranma said, "Are you tryin' to give me a
heart attack or something?! I'm not as young as you think I am."
He looked like he had been ready to jump out of his skin.
Priss regarded Ranma for a second. The comment brought a small smile to
her face. Ranma did not look old. It had been three days since their
battle, and she had all but forgotten about it. She had learned to live
with the thought that she had lost that battle miserably. Although she
did hold a grudge toward Ranma for what he had done to her and her
friends, she knew it was all a case of mistake identity. She, too, had
fallen for that mistake.
"Whatcha doing around here?" he asked. His eyes regarded Priss for a
moment before dropping down to the great looking bike. He had no real
idea if it was a fast bike or not. He was little behind on the times. He
didn't really understand technology that much.
"I'm on my way to district seven." she said, "Five boomers seem to be
on the rampage there." She figured it'd be best to at least let him know
that boomers were on the rampage. Although she did resent him for the
power he could wield so easily, he was, in a way, on their side.
"How're your ribs?" he asked.
Priss smiled a bit and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." She then revved the
motor to the redline mark and popped the clutch into first, the front
wheel leaving the ground as she did a wheelie away from Ranma at high
speeds.
Ranma stood there amazed "Wow, that does look like a fast bike."
He began walking down the street toward the direction Priss was
headed.
"Now, what district did she say she was headed toward?"
Sylia and Linna were both in their hardsuits when Priss arrived in
their hidden headquarters under Raven's Garage. Although their suits
were nowhere near as good a condition as before the battle against
Ranma, Mackie had managed to fix it up considerably with the spare parts
that he had. Nene's suit was unsalvageable, meaning a new one would have
to be built. It didn't matter though because Nene was still at work over
in the AD Police headquarters. The fact that their suits were in need
of some repair didn't really matter that much though, they needed to
upgrade their suits anyway. This just made the reason more appropriate.
"It's about time you got here." Linna said to as Priss got off her
bike.
Priss gave Linna a smirk, "Well, I got caught up for a moment on the
way here. I saw Ranma."
"Y-you did?" Linna said with a smile. Although she didn't want to give
away her obvious interest toward Ranma, it was too late. Priss and Sylia
noticed the change in her mood, and they knew she seemed to have a thing
for him.
"Man, I wish those boomers weren't rampaging near Sylia's building."
Linna changed the subject, "That way, we could let the AD Police take
care of them." She sighed. She remembered when it last happened. Sylia's
lingerie store had been trashed and it took forever to get it cleaned
and fixed.
"I told Ranma where they were rampaging." Priss said as she got out of
her clothes and into her skin-tight jumpsuit, "Maybe he could take care
of them." She climbed into her hardsuit and activated it, putting the
helmet on, "Man, this feels a bit awkward, but I guess it'll have to do
for now. When'll Mackie have this fixed completely?"
"Tomorrow." Sylia said.
The three Knight Sabers arrived at the scene of the crime. Priss was
in her motoslave suit as she hovered down to the roof of a nearby
building. She was carrying a cannon capable of blowing a hole right
through an entire building. Linna was also in her motoslave suit as she,
too, hovered down next to Priss. Sylia, only in her hardsuit, had landed
on the roof carrying a high caliber sniper laser rifle. Her suit was in
worse condition than both Linna and Priss' so it was best she stayed a
short distance away and pick the boomers off with the rifle.
As Sylia set her rifle up and looked through the high powered scoop, she
noticed that the five boomers seemed to be working together like a team. The
three brown BU-12b boomers were firing their heavy duty cannons to destroy
nearby police cars and trucks while using their machine guns to kill the hapless
police officers. The AD Police didn't stand a chance.
The two 'Doberman' boomers, boomers meant for use in space, not Earth, had
their backs to the police, using their miniguns to riddle the stores with
thousands of bullets. These boomers definitely didn't go berserk. It looked more
like Genom was trying out some new AI chip on their boomers. It looked as if a
network had been setup between the five boomers, to see how they would work as a
team rather than individually.
"Be careful." Sylia spoke into her communicator, "These boomers seem to
be working together, like there's a network set up between them." She
aimed her rifle toward one of the BU-12b boomers. She waited for the
perfect moment to fire. She didn't want to give away her location
because if the boomer realized where she was attacking from, she would
be in trouble.
Linna hopped off the roof as she used the massive cannon that her
motoslave was carrying to blow a hole through the chest of one of the
BU-12b while Priss did the same. Unfortunately, Priss' shot was slightly
off, and it missed its mark. It only blew off the boomer's left arm.
Priss landed just in time to jump out of the way as the boomer
returned fire, missing her by inches. The blast blew one of the hover
jets to her motoslave. The boomer strafed toward the right as it
continued to fire its cannon at Priss, narrowing missing her with every
shot. The boomer exploded as a laser shot pierced through it chest from
Sylia's sniper rifle.
"We have to get them to follow us." Sylia said, "They're causing too
much damage around here. We have to get them away from the stores."
Linna and Priss acknowledged her suggestion.
"Follow me, Linna." Priss said as one of the boosters to her motoslave
blazed to life. Although the other booster was destroyed, her other
booster still allowed her to hover. Linna quickly followed.
The three remaining boomers followed. Sylia quickly held a tight grip
on her rifle as she hovered from rooftop to rooftop, wondering where
Priss was headed.
"Where are you going?" Linna said as she followed closely behind
Priss.
"Remember when I said I saw Ranma a short while ago?" she said, "We
could have him take care of them and get them away from Sylia's store at
the same time."
A cannon blasted from behind them, hitting the Priss' motoslave from
behind. Priss screamed as she was propelled forward from the impact of
the bast, sliding down the street several dozen yards before she came to
a stop. She tried to get her feet just as Linna hovered down right next
to her.
"You okay?" Linna asked.
"Shit, I can't move." Priss noticed that her motoslave had been
damaged badly from that blast. It was having trouble responding to her
commands.
"Get out of it then." Linna quickly said as she turned toward the
three incoming boomers and returned fire, her machine guns and the
cannon her motoslave carried firing for all their worth. The last BU-
12b was destroyed by the onslaught of firepower, but the two 'Doberman'
boomers skillfully dodged. They stopped about a dozen meters in front of
Linna and Priss and opened fire, their miniguns firing rapidly.
Linna was able to react in time to protect Priss, jumping in front of
her, as the bullets riddled her motoslave with holes. Knowing that it
was useless to remain in her motoslave, Linna disengaged to suit and
hopped out of it, picking up the massive cannon Priss' motoslave was
carrying.
She fired a shot toward one of the 'Doberman', thrown back from the
kickback of the cannon. She would had hit the floor very hard as she
fell backwards if it weren't for two hands pressing against her back,
preventing her.
Linna turned to see who saved her and her gaze rested on Ranma.
"R-Ranma!" she said. She regarded Ranma as he smiled a big grin.
"Lookout!" Ranma shouted as he pushed Linna to one side, also jumping
out of the way as a laser blast ripped across their path, exploding
against a small building a quarter mile down the road.
Linna used her boosters to hover to her feet before she hit the ground
after being shoved. She caught sight of Ranma as he rushed toward Priss
sitting helplessly as bullets riddled her motoslave. Her suit wouldn't
respond anymore to her commands. She was a sitting duck.
"Mouko Takabisha!!" Linna watched him shout as a ki-blast ripped from
his hands. The blast flew through the air an intense speed, hitting one
of the 'Doberman' in the chest, destroying it on impact. The impact of
the blast was so intense that several windows of nearby stores exploded.
The explosion of his energy blast had managed to create a smoke screen
between him and the boomer. Without even bothering to think, Ranma
quickly ran up to Priss and grabbed one of the motoslave's arms.
"Damn, this thing's heavy." he said as he tried to drag it, much to no
avail. He noticed that trying to drag it was worthless since the suit
was embedded slightly into the ground from the sliding. The only thing
he could do was pick the damn thing up.
Ranma gritted his teeth as the muscles in his forearms strained. He
lifted the suit up and pushed it onto its side "C'mon, get out already"
"I can't!" He heard Priss said through her helmet. She was struggling
to free herself from the suit, much to no avail.
Ranma punched a hole through the chest of the motoslave suit and
grabbed hold of the breastplate of Priss' suit. He pulled for all his
worth, but it was still useless. He couldn't get her out. He'd have to
break the entire front part of the motoslave to get her out. He gripped
the chest piece to the suit and ripped it off completely. He then
reached in and grabbed Priss and pulled her out, pushing her to safety.
By now, the smoke had cleared out, allowing the 'Doberman' to set its
sights on the target again. It shot at the damaged motoslave. Ranma
managed to jump out of the way just in time as the suit exploded. He
rolled to his feet quickly and lunged toward the boomer and grabbed one
of its arms and threw it over his shoulder, the weight of the boomer as
it struck the ground causing it to create a small crater. He then
smashed his fist right through the boomer's head, the boomer ceasing
function immediately.
Ranma smashed an open palm into the boomer's chest, causing it to
collapse inward, just to make sure it was no longer functioning. He then
hopped off the boomer and picked it up, all fifteen hundred kilograms,
and slammed it on the ground again further embedding it in to the
ground.
"Man, if that doesn't stop it, nothin' will." he said with a chuckle.
The boomer had stopped functioning when he had smashed a hole right
through its head, but he wanted to have his fun. He knew it didn't matter
how much more he destroyed it. Once the AI chip was destroyed, the
boomer was harmless.
He sat down on the boomer's chest "Are you two all right?"
Linna pulled up the visor of her helmet "Yeah, thanks."
Sylia finally caught sight of her two companions. She had seen them
take off toward the outskirts of the city but she couldn't keep up since
she was only in her regular hardsuit. Linna and Priss' motoslaves were
far more powerful than her suit, allowing them to surpass her rate of
follow.
She landed in on a nearby roof when she noticed her two friends
standing in the middle of a quiet, battle ridden street, both of them
sans their motoslave suits. She noticed that there was also another
person standing by them. She quickly brought the scoop of her rifle to
her eye level as she looked through it for a clearer view. It was Ranma.
She was surprised when she caught herself sighing in relief as she
noticed it was him.
As she looked through the scoop, she knew she had a clear shot to blow
his head right off of his shoulders. There was no telling who this man
was, or why he was here. Sure, he was destroying boomers, but there
might have been some hidden agenda she didn't know about. Who knew,
maybe he wanted to get rid of Genom so he could take over the
corporation.
Thoughts raced through Sylia's head as she contemplated on whether or
not she should pull the trigger. He already knew of their secret
identity, and that could spell big trouble for them if word got out.
Only a few people outside of the group knew of their identities. Having
another person know about it just made the chances high that they would
soon be discovered.
But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. As
of right now, he proved no threat. Their little battle the other day was
over mistaken identity, something she couldn't hold a grudge over him
because she, too, had mistaken him for a boomer as he did them.
She dropped the rifle to her side, having this weird feeling that she
might come to regret it. But she couldn't help but remember seeing the
caring and concern in his eyes when she had awoken in that hospital bed.
She remember how warm those beautiful blue eyes of his looked when their
gazes met, and she knew that was something she would never forget.
Sylia sighed a bit as a small smile crossed her lips.
"What was that thing you were in?" Ranma said as he still sat on the
boomer's chest, jerking a thumb over his back at the remnants of Priss'
motoslave suit. He noticed that this big red suit seemed to be some
extra outer that Priss wore that seemed to cover over Priss' hardsuit.
"That's a motoslave." Linna said as she looked down at her own
motoslave. The suit was badly damaged but was definitely salvageable.
Mackie would go ballistic when he saw the damage, but he would still be
able to fix it after a few days.
"A moto-what?" Ranma asked confused. He was scratching the back of his
head as he felt a bit embarrassed that he wasn't up-to-date with current
technology. He had been training in the mountains of China most of his
life. The only technology he knew was boomer technology, and that they
were something he tried his hardest to get rid of, "Well, whatever it is,
I'm glad you two are all right. So I guess I better get going now."
He causally hopped off the boomer's chest and proceeded down the street.
Priss was about to ask where he was headed, but it was none of her
business. She had already thanked him. There was nothing else she needed
to do. But for some odd reason, she didn't want him to leave. She found
herself watching Ranma as his figure grew smaller and smaller as the
distance between them got larger and larger.
"Priss, I'm glad you spotted him on your way to the garage." Linna said
as she stood next to Priss, also watching Ranma intently, "We would have
been in a lot of trouble if it weren't for him."
Once Ranma was out of sight, Priss did something that caught Linna by
surprised. She kicked the boomer as she swore to herself.
"Shit. I can't believe how I screwed up like that!" she said, "We
should have taken care of them easily, even without the help of Sylia or
Nene. We had our motoslaves!"
"But Ranma managed to save us." Linna said softly, a bit worried over
her friend. Priss looked seriously ticked off.
Priss shot Linna a cold glance, "That's what I'm pissed about! How come
we're screwing up all of a sudden?! We fought Dobermans before, and
without out motoslaves, and we managed to beat them. And here we are,
with the motoslaves, and we get trashed! I don't get it. Why?"
Sylia's boosters flared as she gently landed on her feet a few years
away from the two girls "I know why."
Priss turned her attention toward Sylia "Why?"
"It seems Ranma has something to do with it"
"Madigan-sama. It seems your plan worked." her assistant, Carper, said
as she entered his office. Carper was a young man with short brown hair and
a square face. He was more like Madigan's right hand man than her
assistant.
Madigan smoothed a lock of her purple hair from her face as she peered
out of his window that overlooked the entire city of MegaTokyo. The view
gave her a great shot of the a huge fault that was a result of the Kanto
Earthquake that separated the entire west and east side of the advanced
city "We managed to collect enough data on the superboomer that seems to
be accompanying the Knight Sabers. After a few more encounters with it,
we should know more about it."
"Good." she said with a smile, her reflection seen as it reflected off
the glass window that separated her from Carper's office and the
polluted air that was outside Genom Tower "What have you got so far?
Exactly how powerful is this superboomer? And where did it come from?"
"Well, since you're familiar with the boomer association classes."
Carper said, "is it all right if I use it as an analogy?"
Madigan nodded.
Carper walked over to a screen that was on one of the walls of his
office and clicked on a button. It showed a profile of a household
boomer, the first kind of boomer Genom had created, "Well, there's the
simple boomers, the ones used for everyday human chores, which is a
class 1-A boomer. The number '1' states its powerlevel output, while the
'A' states its revision type"
"I know that." Madigan spat, "Now get on with it."
"Sorry." he said. He took a breath and continued, "Well, as you know,
the C-55 combat boomer is a class 3-C Boomer model. The BU-12b is a
class 4-B model while the Dobermans are a class 4-E model. And as you
know, the higher the revision number, the deadlier the boomer. That
means a C-55 boomer which has been upgraded to class, say, 3-E or even
class 3-F, would be able to destroy a class 4-A or even a 4-B boomer"
"Yeah." Madigan said, leaning up against Caper's chair. She felt a bit
angry for the little lecture, but she knew he was trying to getting to
the point, "get on with it."
"Well, our most advanced boomers, the four prototype one that
were wiped out on the artificial island not too long ago, were class 5-A
models. So that means, as of right now, the strongest boomer Genom can
create is a 5-A model boomer. Now, based on the boomer association class
scale that we have and use, this superboomer that the Knight Sabers
seemed to have created seem more along the lines of, get this, a class
23-A model boomer."
"What?!"
"Yes." Carper said "As of right now." He emphasized his words as he slapped
his open hand on his table, "he would be considered a 23-A model superboomer."
"What do you mean 'right now'?" Madigan asked. She swallowed the lump
that had formed in her throat. This was almost too much for her.
Something of that class must be out of Genom's technological grasp by
over fifty years.
"This is the class it is associated with because of what we know about
it." Carper continued, "Its projectiles are that of a class 23-A model
boomer, but we have no idea what kind of class it is in hand-to-hand
combat. Also, we have no idea what else it is capable of. Even though it
seemed to have destroyed all four of our prototype 5-A boomers, we have
the funny feeling it was not only holding back, but had only used a
fraction of its energy."
Madigan sat down in one of the office chairs. This was too much for
her. How can the Knight Sabers have created a superboomer this powerful?
It was impossible.
"Well, what do you think about the Knight Sabers." Madigan asked,
looking up at the screen. It showed a green, wire-framed outline of
Ranma, all the way down to his pig-tail, "What class would you consider
them in?"
"Well, this is just a hypothesis." Carper began "I think it's somewhere
around the 6-A to 6-B class."
"You mean they created a boomer that is nearly four times more
powerful?" she asked shocked.
"Yes." he said in a calm and rational voice "This superboomer seems
capable of taking out the entire Knight Sabers at once."
"Shit!" she cursed. She knew how powerful the Knight Sabers were, and
the thought of something that was as powerful as all four of them at
once made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She was
here to take over Mason's job after his death, which also meant the
disposal of the Knight Sabers. And now that they had this superboomer
working along side them, things had taken a turn for the worse.
"I wonder why they would create a monster so powerful?" she said to herself
thoughtfully, "I can't imagine what might happen if it goes berserk?"
"As much as I want it to go berserk while in the presence of the Knight
Sabers." he took a deep breath, wondering if it was all right to speak
even when he wasn't being spoken to "I would rather not find out."
"Well, what about this boomer's intelligence level?" she asked. Maybe
the boomer lacked intelligence because something might had been
sacrificed for the extreme power output, and intelligence was most
likely. Heck, if there was something that could generate that much
power, it wouldn't even need an AI chip. All it needed was a program
that discerned the Knight Sabers from boomers.
"Well, if we use the same boomer association class, it would still be
leaps and bounds over out own boomer AI chips. It seems to have the same
intelligence as the Knight Sabers, except it also has the ability to
adapt. It seemed like it is capable of incorporating strategy into its
fights."
"Please elaborate." she said.
"Let's say that superboomer is engaged in combat with, say, ten of our
prototype boomers." Carper said, "And it's fighting them under an
overpass or major highway. It is probably capable of realizing that
blowing up the highway above the boomers would easily wipe out all ten
boomers at once instead of fighting them all one at a time."
"Goddamn!!! How is it capable of doing such things?! This is
absolutely ludicrous!" Madigan felt a bit dizzy. This wasn't a
superboomer. It was more like a walking army.
"It's so intelligent that it wanders the streets as we speak. It seems
capable of interacting with society as if it were totally human. Also,
there's more." Carper continued, "This superboomer is extremely agile,
so agile that it is capable of dodging bullets."
Madigan has heard enough of the bad news. She needed some good ones
"Okay, enough already on its capabilities. What do you have on its
weakness?"
Carper smiled "You're going like this. This superboomer can't fly.
It's most probable that the ability to fly was sacrificed for the power
output. Also, it has virtually no armor whatsoever, meaning a single
cannon blast would destroy it. This boomer also seem to be programmed to
protect human life if possible. That's all I have on it so far, but this
definitely helps balance the scales a bit."
Madigan sighed. Although she now knew of its weakness, it wouldn't
help much at all.
"But don't worry." Carper said, "I have a plan. We found someone, a
human, that is capable of generating powers akin to this superboomer
we're up against."
"Human?" Madigan said in shock "This has got to be some mistake. How
can some human generate power like that? Where is it all coming from?"
"I can't explain It." Carper said, "We found him living in the
mountains around China a few weeks ago while we were up there looking
for another location to set up another boomer manufactory. We tried to
scan him, but we couldn't, so we assumed he was some new superboomer our
competitors created, so we sent one of our scouting boomers in for a
closer inspection. The person, somehow, was able to feel the boomer's
presence, but he showed no hostile intentions. He actually started
communicating with our boomer, and it turns out that the person was not
only human, but was fooled that our scout wasn't a boomer. From what I
gather, although he's Japanese, I believe he's been living in China for
most his life, and has no idea about boomers, how much technology had
advanced since China isn't as developed as Japan."
"Where is he now?" she asked, "I want him to help us out."
"I'm sorry." Carper said weakly, "But that's not possible. We have no
idea where he is."
Ranma rubbed his stomach as it rumbled for the second time this late
morning. He was starving. He needed something to eat and fast. His eyes
caught sight of a familiar looking girl through a large glass window. It
was that same black haired girl he had almost killed during that
mistaken identity incident, and then later came to save a just few short
days ago.
Ranma stepped into studio as several of the women eyed him fondly. He didn't
seem to realize this. Luckily for him, he had spotted Linna just as she was
finishing teaching her aerobics class. She, too, had spotted him.
"Hiya." Ranma said. He would have greeted her by name if he knew it
"Um..... " He wondered how he was going to ask her for her name.
Several of the girls in the classes gave Linna a mischievous grin
behind Ranma's back. It was perfectly like Linna to have all the fun.
Most of the guys seemed attracted to her.
"My name's Linna. Linna Yamazaki." she said with a polite bow. She
pretended like she had never really met Ranma before, just to give the
other girls a show.
"Oh, okay." Ranma said with a warm smile. He noticed that Linna looked
very beautiful and the skin tight shorts that she was wearing accentuated
her curves quite nicely. She had a very beautiful build, and Ranma
seemed a bit embarrassed when he caught himself staring at her for a
little longer than he was supposed to, "Well, I jus' wanted to say hi.
That's all."
He turned to leave.
"Wait a minute." she called out for him, causing him to stop. She
wasn't expecting him to leave. She was expecting him to be just like
every other guy she had met, that he would ask her out to dinner or
something. She was caught by surprise when she saw him about to leave.
She also had to do all in her power to hide her blush when she had
noticed Ranma's gaze on her. His warm eyes made her nervous, as it they
could see al the way into her soul, all the way into her darkest secret.
"What is it?" he asked. He felt his stomach grumble again. He really
needed to eat. Unfortunately, he had no idea where he was going to find
food at a time like this.
"How about lunch?" she asked casually. Although it looked casual, she
was definitely nervous asking a question like that. She had never asked
that to a man in her life before. It was usually them asking her to go to
lunch or dinner with them.
Ranma felt his stomach grumble again. He really wanted to, but there
was no way he would be able to pay for the meal "I-I'm sorry, I don't
have any money." He turned to leave again.
"My treat."
Ranma was finished with his meal within seconds. He hadn't eaten in
days. Linna watched him eat with a smile as she ordered him a second
portion, and then pretty soon a third portion. She was only nibbling on
a small salad as she watched him. He wasn't paying all too much
attention but noticed her regarding him when he bothered to look up.
"What?" he said, "Do I have somethin' on my face?"
Linna giggled "No. Don't worry about it." she said as she began eating some
more of her salad. She didn't know why, but she noticed that her day was looking
better than it had ever been in weeks. Actually, she knew what the reason was.
No. Actually, she knew _who_ the reason was.
Ranma placed the bowl on the table, "Man, that was good." He was about to
burp, but realized he was in the presence of a lady, more like a very beautiful
lady, "I'll pay you back for this. I promise."
"Don't worry about it." Linna said, "Think of it as a form of thanks for
helping us out"
Ranma looked at her for a second before speaking softly "Helpin' ya
out? I thought I was supposed to keep that a secret."
Linna giggled again. At the most inconvenient time, her watch went
off. Sylia was trying to contact her. It must be another berserking
boomer. Two days had passed since the last incident, but she wished she
had more time to herself than just two days.
"I'll be back in a sec." she said as she got out of her seat and
headed toward where the phones were located in the back of the
restaurant.
"Man, this places looks like the Nekohanten" Ranma commented as he
brought the soup bowl back up to his mouth and began drinking the
delicious broth.
"Boy, do I miss those days" He sighed as he placed the empty bowl down on the
table again. Although he remembered having many fiancees vying for his
affections, life still wasn't as complicated as it had become since he came back
to Japan after his training trip to China.
He had come back to a country that he couldn't recognize. Everything
was all high-tech. The technology was beyond him. Half the stuff
nowadays he had no idea how they worked. Heck, he had no real idea how
to work a car back when he was young, and now he would have to drive
something much more complicated? Life was harsh.
"I gotta go." Linna said as she handed him several thousand yen, "This should
be enough for the bill. I'm sorry to leave like this, but it's important. I hope
I'll see ya around. Bye."
Ranma watched Linna leave the store. After she left, he looked down at
the amount of money she had left behind. She had left behind way too
much money. But then again, it might be fortunate for him. That meant he
would be able to eat decently for the next few days. But still, he would
pay her back.
Now, the hard part was how.
Ryoga was walking down a street, glad that he was finally back in his
birthcountry. He had been trying to get back here for several years, but
his lack of direction always prevented him.
He looked up at all the huge buildings towering over him, making him
seem like an insignificant speck in this world. He had no idea how
things had changed. He recognized nothing. Everything was so different.
He might as well be in another country and it wouldn't matter because so
much had changed.
Ranma was walking down one of the busy streets MegaTokyo late into the
afternoon when he caught sight of a familiar looking face from his
youth. It was a young looking man sporting a yellow sleeveless shirt and
black pants wearing a yellow and black headband.
"Hey, Ryoga, is that you?" he said, waving toward his friend from
across the street, "Damn, it is you! How's everythin' going?"
Ranma didn't even bother to wait for the light to turn red. He just casually
lest into the air and over the entire length of the street, landing right next
to Ryoga.
"R-Ranma?" Ryoga looked at him curiously, "Is that really you?"
Ranma nodded, smiling, "Long time no see, Ryoga"
"YOU!!!" Ryoga said, aura glowing bright red "DIE!!! Shi Shi
Hakodan!!!"
A massive ki-blast shot from Ryoga's hands, just as Ranma skillfully
jumped out of its path. The blast struck the building behind him,
blowing a hole the size of the blast right through it, the walls melting
from the extreme heat.
"Hold on there, Ryo-" Ranma managed to say just as he lunged out of the
way as another ki-blast jetted right by him, striking yet another
building causing it to exploded. It had just missed hitting him in the
head. He was lucky he had been able to dodge it in time. As he rolled to
his feet, he couldn't help but notice how skillful Ryoga had gotten over
the years. Ryoga was now a definite force to be reckoned with.
"How dare you let her get killed!!!" Ryoga said "How dare you let
Akane get killed like that!!!"
Ryoga attacked with several punches, all of them narrowly missing, all
except for the last attack. He managed to land his last attack, an open
palm strike, on Ranma's chest. Ranma was propelled backwards into one of
the walls of the buildings, the wall collapsing in on itself from the
impact.
"This Ryoga Hibiki person." Madigan asked impatiently toward the now
nervous Carper, "I want his help. He might be capable of defeating this
superboomer running loose. Where could he be?"
"I don't know." he said "I don't know. I remember he mentioned to our
boomer scout that he wanted to come back to Japan, but there seems to be
no sign of him anywhere. I think he got lost on the way here. That's the
only thing I can think of. He does, afterall, have a very bad sense of
direction"
"That's a bunch of bull!!!" Madigan spat, "How can you lose track of
someone like that?"
Carper's screen went on. It showed a facial shot of a man, or boomer,
wearing headgear, "Carper-sama, we have located the person." The screen
shot switched to a bird's eye view of the two people, one superboomer
and one human, battling each other. The shot was being taken from a
helicopter hovering nearby, "We've located Ryoga Hibiki. It seems he's
already in battle with the superboomer, and he's winning."
"W-why's he fighting the superboomer in the first place?" Madigan
asked "What caused them to fight?"
"I don't know." he said, "Perhaps it's just some freak coincidence."
Madigan looked at Carper curiously. She never really believed in
coincidence. There was always a logical explanation for everything, and
this situation wasn't any different.
"I surmise that since that superboomer seems to be programmed to fight
other combat boomers." Carper started, "it might've had troubled
scanning this Ryoga Hibiki we had trouble with and thinks he's another
prototype superboomer we created, and thus, is attacking it. That's the
best I can come up with"
"I have to watch this." Madigan said, her eyes intent on the screen.
She had never seen what the superboomer was capable of but had only
heard of it. Now she had a chance to see his capabilities and she wasn't
going to give up the chance.
Nene stared at the dispatch screen and sighed. It was probably another boomer
incident. But her eyes widened when she noticed something. It showed that there
were two boomers fighting each other in the heart of MegaTokyo, right near where
she saw Ranma earlier on her way to work this morning. She had seen him walking
on the sidewalk as she drove her little scooter down the street, but she never
bothered to stop. She noticed that Ranma didn't recognize her with her bike
helmet on.
"Hmm, could that be Ranma?" Nene said to herself. In an incident like
this, she would had only dispatched the AD Police to deal with this, but
the thought that it might be Ranma made her think otherwise. She
wouldn't mind seeing him again and she knew the others didn't also, "I
guess I better tell Sylia and the others."
"That hurt!!!" Ranma yelled as he stepped out of the building "What'd
you do that for?!"
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga yelled as he struck his finger down on the
sidewalk. A massive explosion occurred as the sidewalk shattered to
pieces, the shrapnel flying everywhere. Even though most of the pieces
were hitting him, Ryoga was totally unaffected by the explosion for he
had grown accustomed to it completely. He had gotten a lot stronger over
the years and he wanted to show Ranma what he was capable of.
Ranma's arms flew at lightning speeds as he caught every rock that was
intended to hit him. He remembered Ryoga using that technique on his man
many years ago, and it was the same now as it was before. But this time,
Ranma wasn't going to get tired for a long long time. He had, too, had
gotten stronger over the years.
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga shouted as his finger jabbed into the wall
of the building Ranma was standing next to. The entire building exploded
as all the debris fell down on Ranma. Ranma couldn't react in time as he
was buried alive under the debris.
Ryoga stood there for several moments, wondering if it was all over,
that he had finally avenged Akane's death. He had swore to kill Ranma
because Ranma hadn't been able to protect her from death when those
machines lay waste to the entire town of Nerima. He had gone out on a
training trip to develop his skills so he would someday come back and make
Ranma suffer miserably.
But as he stood there, not moving, he was hoping his revenge would had
lasted longer.
At that moment, the rubble exploded upward as a huge hurricane sent in
hurling to the heavens. All the rubble was gone as Ranma stood where the
building had fallen on him, a massive blue aura forming around him.
"You're gonna pay for that!!!!"