Series:    La Femme Ranma
Chapter:   #4 "The Chameleon is Born"
Author:    Akraen (S. Metcalf)
Email:     akraen@hotmail.com
Website:   http://www.akraen.com
Category:  Ranma x-over with La Femme Nikita (+ cameos)

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

* Author's Note - Comments expressed by the characters do not
represent the author's personal views. They are simply what has
been said by others with personalities like the characters in
question.

"As the schematics show, security on the target floor is
extremely tight. Because of this a direct assault would have at
best a negligible percent of successful mission completion.
Normally we would take the risk with a target as important as
this one is and the infitesimal chances of ever having a shot at
him again. Luckily we have other methods at our disposal."
stated the head of section one.

Operations continued his briefing, "Your two teams will stage a
diversionary direct assault upon the complex. You will press the
hostile forces up to this point." Operations zoomed in the
holographic display to show the lobby of the target floor.

"You will not press any farther than your marks, here, whereupon
you will engage in a firefight with their defenses. You are to
hold your position until you are told to fallback." Operations
swept his gaze upon the emotionless faces of some of his best
agents.

"The rest of your two teams aside from the personnel in this
room will comprise of abeyance operatives. I am sure you all
understand the seriousness of this mission. Do not mess up on
this one, people." After saying this Operations turned away from
the people sitting at the briefing table. After a moment of
uneasy silence for the operatives he announced, "Dismissed."

As the operatives began to walk away to prepare themselves for
the mission Operations called out, "Michael I'll need to speak
with you before you leave. Come to my office once you're team is
prepared."

Nikita confronted Michael as he left the darkened office. "What
was that about?"

"We leave for the mission shortly." Michael replied as he walked
towards the transport hold.

Nikita stared after the man she loved in silence. 'I hate when
he does that..'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"I'm hit!" another one of the abeyance operatives cried out. It
wasn't any wonder to Nikita that these people had been put into
abeyance. Yelling out when you were hit only helped the hostiles
to know your location and force power. Every op was issued a
communication device for a reason. Quietly stating into those
your status was supposed to be drilled into every operative
before they even became one.

The chime from the arrival of one of the elevators to the floor
snapped Nikita out of her thoughts but Michael had reacted
quicker. The secretary fell to the floor as his shot pelted
against her skull. Nikita returned her attention to the forces
in front of her as she tried to forget about the image of the
secretary going down from the bullet. 'Michael why did you have
to do it..?'

Her thoughts were lost once more amidst the fury of exchanged
gunfire. Suddenly a scream rang out from the other side of the
floor. In her peripheral vision, Nikita saw that the last of the
abeyance operatives had just taken a hit. The unusual thing
about it though was that his body had fallen forward instead of
backward.

'That shot came from behind! 'As the thought made itself known
she risked a glance in that direction and saw that the secretary
who had fallen to the floor had managed to pick up a weapon from
one of the abeyance ops and had used it to shoot the last living
one. Before any of the section agents had a chance to return
fire the secretary was behind the elevator doors as they closed
behind her causing the shots to ping harmlessly off the doors
and wall.

Nikita heard Michael's voice through the communicator as he let
HQ know of the development. Finally the word came that she had
been waiting for. As the living ops helped the wounded to escape
she reflected on what she saw. She noticed suddenly that the
last of the abeyance operatives was getting back up. Apparently,
the secretary had not killed him. She turned to help him to the
other elevator where her team was escaping into only to see him
riddled with shots from the hostile forces.

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"Sir, they're retreating. We need to get you out of here, now."
the head of security forces said to the man who had been the
target of the assault.

"I've been watching the feed, Trevors. Your men can handle
holding this floor for now. I want you to look at the tape of
the attack with me first. I would like someone of your
experience to give me his thoughts on something."

The target rewound the recorded tape to just before the assault
and let it play. The two men watched as the shooting crossfire
began.

"I don't see why you needed my opinion on this, sir. Other than
the fact that they were very professional there isn't anything
unusual about their attack."

"Wait for it, Trevors..." the target replied as he paid close
attention to the image. The two men heard the sound of a
chiming as the elevator arrival lights flicked on and the doors
slid open.

After watching the person leaving the elevator go down from a
shot the other man said aloud, "A shame that, there was a
betting pool out on who would get her to loosen up first. I had
$20 in it myself." he broke off from his thoughts and said more
persistently, "Was that what you wanted to see, sir? I don't
know why she had come onto the floor, she didn't have security
for that yet. We can find out afterward once we have you to a
more secure location..."

The target let out a sigh of exasperation, "I'm running low on
patience, Trevors. Just keep your eyes on that screen and watch
the girl."

No sooner had he said that than Trevors noticed the secretary
cautiously looking over at the attacking forces. He was about
to say something but decided to watch the rest of the tape
before saying anything else just in case. His discretion proved
worthwhile as he saw the secretary reach out with one of her
hands and snag the weapon from one of the downed assaulters.
'What is she doing?' he asked himself as he now watched as
raptly as the target had been doing.

He realized the answer to his question as he saw her slowly
crawl back into the elevator and then rise up to shoot one of
the people who had been in the attack. Before the invaders could
return fire the elevator doors had closed and the girl was gone.

The tape continued to play showing the evacuation by the
assaulting force. He saw the guy she had shot rise back up off
the floor. 'Not a very good shot, then. Shouldn't have expected
much from a simple secretary...' he mused.

"So what are your thoughts on this, Trevors?" the man asked as
he stared thoughtfully at the screen as it replayed the entire
incident over again.

"Brave girl, smart too. I'd like to know what she was doing
there though.."

"Would you say she would make a good security agent?" the
target mused.

"Like I said.. she's brave and smart.. not much of a shooter
though." Trevors replied.

"How long would it take to train her to the status of let's say
a bodyguard."

"Sir, you can't be serious. She's just a secretary.." Trevors
trailed off as he stared at face of his employer. "If we make it
a priority and just concentrate on certain aspects a month tops.
But we'd have to keep training her beyond that time to fully
flesh her out for the job. It may take years to get her fully
trained to master status. Her size is a problem too. I don't
think many people would take someone as short as her seriously."

"That's the point." the target returned with a cold smile. "This
latest attack has confirmed something that has been on my mind
for a while now. I've got a lot of enemies but I can't afford to
be seen running around with a bodyguard everywhere. If it looked
like I felt threatened enough to have bodyguards with me at all
times you can bet that they would be after me like a pack of
sharks. No, what I need is someone who can help protect me but
looks like they were something else. She's perfect for me,
actually. With her small size and having been a secretary no one
would ever think she was a bodyguard. She could pass off as just
my personal secretary or a mistress." the man broke off what he
was saying as he thought about the implications. "Find her and
bring her with us to the new location... but put her in a
holding cell there. She may be a godsend but I'd never trust
something he sent me without taking a good look at it first.
Find out why she was there and double check her background for
clearance." the man began to leave the room after saying these
words.

"And if she fails the clearance check?" Trevors asked although
he thought he knew the answer.

"I doubt she will. I checked her files and she isn't in charge
of anything that one of my enemies could have an interest in and
she wasn't in a position close enough to be a threat to myself
personally. No, you shouldn't find anything wrong with her." the
target left the room but Trevors heard his voice just as loud as
if he had still stood next to him. "If you do... kill her."

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"Why didn't you tell me?" Nikita heatedly asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Operations called you into his office to tell you about
something before we left but you wouldn't say what. You knew she
was going to be there. You knew that you would have to shoot
her. How could you just shoot her like that. She wasn't some
hostile trying to kill us or anything. There had to have been
some other way..."

"It was the only way. I thought you had learned by now that
sometimes you have to do something you don't want to be doing.
Haven't I already told you that you have to pretend to be
emotionless to survive here in section."

"Yes and you're probably right about my needing to pretend to be
like that. Not all of us here in section needs to though it
seems..." the blond operative replied bitterly as she turned
away from Michael.

Before she could leave, however, Operations came up to them. "I
wanted to congratulate you both on a job well done. You
succeeded in your primary goal of diverting their attention
with minimal operative casualties. You're free from duties for
now, there's nothing more that can be done... it's all up to our
primary attack plan."

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

The secretary was huddled in the elevator car still crying from
having shot someone when they found her. The gun had been
discarded to the other side of the car like if she was afraid to
even touch it.

"We're taking her with us to the new location. When you get
there, put her in one of the holding cells." Trevors ordered his
men as he turned and left.

"Please! I d-didn't mean to sh-shoot him! Y-you have to believe
m-me!" the girl pleaded as the men hauled her away.

Their reply was considerably less wordy as they began to drag
the now unconscious woman with the steadily growing lump on her
head away.

The girl who had entered into the crossfire opened her eyes and
shook her head at the blurry vision she woke up to.
Unfortunately, that only served to bring her headache into
notice with a cutting pain from the motion.

"Sleeping Beauty awakes.. and I didn't even get to the kiss part
yet..." a voice mockingly said.

She focussed on the spot where the voice seemed to have come
from and eventually she made out the form of a man through her
blurry vision. "Wh-who are y-you? Wh-where am I?"

"My name is John Trevors but you will call me Sir, as for where
you are... you're in your new home for the next month. I would
suggest you become acceptive of that as the only ways you are
going to leave this room is if you're dead or ready to accept
your new job."

She stared at him in shocked horror, "You can't keep me here...
I've got a life..."

Trevors laughed in response. "You had a life you mean. It's
remarkably easy to turn a live person into a dead one in someone
else's mind. It's even easier with you... Did you know that
there was a security camera aimed at the elevator section of the
lobby? I'm sure everyone in that front company you used to work
in is having a good cry over the footage where you were shot."

"But I'm alive the camera must have shown me after I got shot.."

"As I said before... it's remarkably easy to turn a live person
into a dead one... somehow the camera feed was lost, shortly
after your... demise, due to a stray bullet... how tragic."

The girl shivered at his cold mocking tone. "Wh-what do you want
with me? I'm just a secretary... I didn't mean to kill anyone.."

"You didn't. Kill anyone that is. Which is why you're under my
supervision for the next month." The man turned around to leave
the room. He stopped at the door and stated, "Training begins in
the morning. We don't really have the time to wait until then
but it would be useless if we began before you could see
correctly. I suggest you get some sleep... neither of us will be
getting much of that for a while..." and then he was gone and
the reinforced door shut with a loud final clang.

The girl was left alone in the empty room to her thoughts.

'I'm in...'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"Nikita..." the voice of the man that she both loved and hated
said from the other side of her door.

"Go away, Michael. I don't feel like talking with you right
now." she exhaustedly replied.

"You're thinking too emotionally about this. It was the only way
to do the assignment."

She jerked open the door and stared incredulously at his
expressionless face. Before she could reply he had entered into
her flat as if invited. Snarling mentally she closed the door
and leaned against it as she tried to gain control over her
anger. "Explain to me again please how not telling me that the
mission protocols included shooting one of our own operatives
was the only way? Do you realize that if I had been facing that
way to begin with or had been any faster she would be dead right
now? Why wasn't I informed of what was going to happen? It can't
be because you didn't think I was good enough at shooting to
miss while looking like hitting... I'm the one that trained her
after all... and Operations knows how exacting she is when it
comes to not killing anyone... I spent hours having to teach her
how to precisely position her shots to make them non-lethal
every time..."

Michael interrupted her ranting by jerking her around and
kissing her passionately. When he finally leaned away from the
kiss he coolly answered, "Operations knows your shooting
capabilities. He also knows your emotional capabilities and
decided he couldn't take the chance of you giving away how hard
it would be to shoot her. It was the right decision... you're
better off not having had to take the shot yourself."

Before she could reply he had already left the flat. She really
hated when he did that...

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

Trevors smirked to himself as the girl went down for what must
have been the hundredth time in the short period since he had
begun training her. He had to have her ready for service as
quickly as possible and, as anyone in the business knew, the
fastest way to do that would be to totally break her spirit and
then rebuild from there gaining her trust and loyalty. Along the
way he hoped she would learn something useful from this
'training' of course but for the moment he only cared about
breaking her.

'I really should delegate this responsibility to someone else,
but I wouldn't miss this for anything...' he thought to himself
as he immediately began pounding upon her once again. The truth
of it was that this was actually a pleasure to him. His
preferences actually leaned more towards boys than girls but he
didn't mind either. With boys he tended to be gentle and caring
but his women he liked to be able to control and dominate. That
in itself would have made this experience of smacking around the
small redhead a thrill. But this one angered him as no other
ever had before.

She had acted like he was sick when he suggested they get
together. He had only done it really to win the betting pool pot
but her rejecting him as if the mere thought disgusted her
really had caused feelings of ill will toward her. He later had
seen her looking at some of the other female secretaries and
realized she must have been one of those feminist bitches.
'Probably too scared to let a real man handle her. 'he thought
spitefully. The only thing keeping him from teaching her to
learn what a real man was like was the edict from his employer.
The man's sister had been raped once. Murder and torture was
allowed in his organization but if he caught anyone raping they
never made the mistake a second time. 'They were never even seen
a second time' he rued.

As his fist smacked her stomach and she went down heaving for
her breakfast once more he thought about how pathetic she really
was. However the whole time he 'trained her', in preparation of
the actual training, he couldn't shake this disquieting feeling
that something wasn't right. He was in control here though and
so he tried to ignore the feeling of wrongness and concentrated
instead on the pleasure of seeing this pretty girl turned into a
bloody, bruised mess. 'Oh, yes... he was going to enjoy this...'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"So how's the project coming along, Trevors?" the man asked as
he checked through the reports by his various subordinates. He
could have just hired someone else to pass through the
tediousness of it but he didn't trust anyone that much.

"Kincaid's finishing up her knife training now, sir. I still
don't think this is a good idea though... there's something
about her that makes me uneasy."

"I do not care what you like or don't like. The only opinion
that really matters here is my own... is that understood?" the
man paused to stress the point. "Good. Now back to my question..
is she ready, now?"

Trevors tried to come up with some excuse but could only
reluctantly nod his head. "Yes... she could do with some fine
tuning but she is ready for service, now." he managed to say
with extreme reluctance.

"Fine, then. Bring her to me, now. I need to leave to oversee
the interrogation of a captured agent by an ally of mine.
Normally I would just send a representative but this time if he
tries anything I'll have my little surprise with me." he said
with an evil smile.

"Sir? Are you sure this is a good idea? Maybe I should come
instead..."

"That would destroy the whole point of having her as a
bodyguard. No, she's coming with me. You, however, can join us
but only as an escort to the rendezvous. You will remain with
the car... is that clear?"

Trevors snarled mentally to himself but quickly nodded, then
turned to retrieve the prodigal bodyguard.

When he returned he smirked internally at seeing his boss's
consternation after seeing the bruises that marred her face. He
smiled sadistically at the private knowledge that bruises much
like those covered every external part of her skin. The
'training' had been very fun, indeed.

"Was that really necessary?" the man said, exasperated at her
condition.

"Yes. You shouldn't have any problems with her though. She wants
to be the perfect bodyguard... don't you, Sally?" he said with a
thinly veiled threatening glance.

Emotionlessly she replied, "Yes, sir!"

The man sighed in disgust once more at what had been done to the
beautiful face and arms of the girl standing at attention before
him. Finally he turned to leave the office. Trevors pushed her
forward in the direction he was heading in a none-too-gentle
gesture to follow him.

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"If that's everything I'd like to go change. I've been stuck
pretending to be a girl for too damn long." Ranma grumbled.

From outside the room Trevors jerked as if struck.

He'd been right to be worried after all. He was supposed to have
just stayed in the car but something about the entire situation
had just rubbed him the wrong way. He had followed his employer
and the girl from a distance and been witness to the entire
meeting.

The entire thing had been a setup. The car that he and his boss'
driver had been in had blown up. If he hadn't followed like he
had he would have been dead. The 'captured agent' had actually
been one of the capturer's while the ally had been the captive
who had been forced to setup his colleague. All of his guards
had actually been other agents. But the biggest shock had been
the girl herself. The entire time she had been a plant. If he
was better prepared he would have stormed in and made her and
her group pay. Instead he could only stand here listening to
what was going on and seethe in anger.

One of the enemy agents had gasped when she had seen the
bruises covering the redhead's face causing him to smirk in
some satisfaction. Then the redhead had destroyed some of his
earlier good humor by saying in reply, "Aww this is nothing. My
father did much worse than this amateur work when he used to get
in his moods."

All of his attacks upon her compared to a father's beatings and
made fun of. He had never hated anyone as intensively as he now
loathed that girl.

But her latest comment had struck him with shock. He couldn't
understand what she could possibly be talking about.

He watched as the girl made the traitor, who had helped setup
his boss, tell her the directions to the closest shower room,
then left for it.

He followed as closely as he could but even from a distance,
so conservative that he feared he would lose her, he had almost
been caught by her as she had turned around suspiciously as if
she knew she was being followed. When he saw her enter the
shower room he had tried to get as close as possible but her
earlier suspicious nature was kept in mind. So he ended up in a
position where the only thing he saw was her arm as she bathed
in the stream of the shower water.

When next she appeared she was no longer the girl he knew. Gone
was the red hair, big breasts, and short stature. In its place
was a handsome boy with black hair and definitively taller.
'That's not possible... she can't have been a guy... I would
have known if that had all been makeup!' he screamed mentally at
himself in shock. Just in case he checked the room out once the
boy had left but as he had feared it was empty without any sign
of where the girl had gone to and where the boy had come from.
Even if there had been signs of an entrance though that had to
have been her... he had kept an eye on the arm of the girl the
entire time. 'There was no way there could have been a switch..'

He didn't know how the boy had managed to pretend to be a girl
like he had... he didn't think latex technology was that far
advanced... when he had been punching her around he had gotten a
good look and feel of those breasts... 'I could have sworn they
were real at the time...'

Hurriedly the scared, confused, and shocked man raced away with
one last thought spoken aloud in fear and horror... "He's a
goddamn chameleon!"

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"If it isn't Ms. Sally Tomet..." a voice teased one of the new
arrivals.

"That is not funny." Ranma snarled angrily back.

"Relax, kid, I was just yanking your chain. Anyway... Operations
wants to talk to you in his office."

Ranma turned away and left without another word. Before he
entered the office though his sensitive hearing heard the
conversation about him.

"What's up with the kid?" the jocular and friendly voice asked
one of the other new arrivals.

"Ease up on him, Walter. He still doesn't like the existence of
that side of him. He just can't handle teasing about that yet.
Give him a few years..." he heard Nikita reply. He smiled once
at her kindness before resuming the angry scowl and setting foot
in the private domain of the head of section, Operations.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked somewhat respectfully.

"Yes, I wanted to congratulate you on your first mission. We
wouldn't have been able to draw him out without your help."
Operations stated with a smile.

Ranma shrugged as if indifferent. "Yeah well it's not like there
was anything else I could do. Is that all?"

Operations muttered beneath his breath "I had to put him with
Nikita..." Raising his voice back up to normal he said,
"There's nothing else, no."

Ranma turned around to leave but Operation's voice stopped him.
"I don't know whether it interests you or not but you've become
somewhat the celebrity... it seems one of the employees of the
man you helped to take down survived and escaped our
organizational wide assault. He's mouthing off all sorts of
madness but one thing he's said and is connecting is a name he
is calling you..."

Somewhat interested Ranma drawled, "... yeah?"

"He called you the chameleon." Operations said with a wry smile
and a humorous glint in his eyes.

Offhandedly Ranma replied, "Thanks for the info..." before
exiting the office.

What had been said dwelled on his mind more than he had let on
however. 'The chameleon... I like it...'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

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