Author�s Note:

Hello, everyone. James here. Well, it�s been an awfully long time since I�ve posted to the list. After it went down a few months back, I didn�t have a way to find out that it had come back up until a friend of mine by the name of Morgan Hudson informed me that the FFML had, in fact, returned.

So here I am. I�ve been polishing up my Day of the Dead/Ranma � crossover, Twilight of the Dead, and decided that I would begin posting the story again. It�s had some heavy grammatical overhaul, so it is quite a bit different. I�ve also added some more back story to characters, so it�s a bit deeper, too.

Chapter 1 will be along some time tomorrow. I want it to be known that these are still not finished drafts. They wont be finished until I�ve got them as close to perfect as I can, so C and C would be most appreciated.

The story is still unfinished, and I�m hard at work on the final few chapters of series one. Until they come along, here is a reminder to those who haven�t read the story and to those who are new to the arc.


Ranma � belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I�m making no profit from this � I�m only having fun and working on my skill.

Day of the Dead belongs to George A. Romero. Same rules apply as above.


So, read and enjoy.

J. Thomas Jeans
--------------------------------------------------------

Twilight of the Dead - Series I
A Ranma/Day of the Dead Crossover
----------------------------------
by J. Thomas Jeans
(The Man With the Machinegun)

=============================
Prologue - Biological Weapon Ranma
=============================

"With You"
Theme: Twilight of the Dead -- Series I


"Now we are lost and are all alone
All things have changed and we can't go back
But I will always really care for you.
Though you are not near
I won't give up, No! No!
Even if to only hear
Those three small words - I love you
I will be,  joined with thee,  just wait and see
It's a lonely life, such a lonely life!
This has been one great big nightmare
Stranded  far away from you.
Even though, I don't know, could be true
I might just love you
And if this is found to be true
Nothing will ever keep us apart
But now I'm so lonely
and feel all alone.
And now, this I vow, I will be with you!"
---

(Lyrics by James Thomas Jeans)
(This song uses the melody of 'Little Date')

=============================


"Four-hundred thousand to one , Captain." The man
was irritated. Not only irritated, but frightened
as well. "We don't fair well against those odds."
He reached up to rub the back of his pudgy, short
neck, sweat coating the vicious, hard skin.

    Captain Cooper stood slowly from his seat,
his thick, greasy black hair hiding most of his
forehead. His face twisted in agitation. He
placed his hands down on the table in front of him
and leaned forward. "I don't give a goddamn what
you have to say, McDermott," he began, his voice
quiet, calm. "I'm not risking any more of my men
so you can play a hunch that some nut job doctor
came up with over a year ago."

    Dr. Everett McDermott adjusted his glasses
and sighed deeply, an act that seemed to drain
great quantities of energy from the elder
scientist. "Well we certainly aren't going to kill
them all."

    "We can try," Lt. Johnson interrupted,
sliding a bullet into the chamber of his newly
polished black 9mm berretta, to which the giant
solder had dedicated the better half of an hour
meticulously buffing the bulk of with a fine
cloth. He laughed, almost maniacally, spinning the
gun on his finger.

    Everett ignored the soldier's ignorance and
glared at Cooper. "Dr. Logan was onto something
with his research, I am sure of it. If we can
domesticate them, if we can --"

    "Can what?" Cooper barked, walking slowly
around the table. His finger tips traced along its
marble surface, causing a low, audible smear.
"Turn them into pets? Teach them tricks?"

    "Teach them to behave," McDermott offered,
following Cooper with his eyes. His gaze fell to
the soldier's hand, and he watched each pale
finger slide across the tabletop. In the equally
pale glow of the fluorescent lights,
the table and soldier both had an icy cold look.
Maybe it had less to do with the lights, and more
to do with Cooper, Everett thought.

    "At what price? My men's corpses as a
reward?" Cooper's expression grew dark. "I know
what that quack Logan did to the soldiers that
were sent to help him. The man was a fucking
lunatic."  Cooper rested his hand on his revolver.

    Everett's eyes followed Cooper's hand. He
gulped loudly, his throat drying. He was now aware
of the mask of sweat that had enveloped his face,
despite the cool, stale air of the underground
bunker. The gun looked the size of a canon.

    "I don't intend to let you do the same thing
to me, McDermott." Cooper moved stridently toward
the seat next to Lt. Johnson, pulling it from
beneath the table, sitting in it slowly. "To my
men, either."

    Johnson continued to polish his weapon.
After a moment, he placed the gun in his lap and
retrieved an empty clip from his jacket pocket.
Amazingly, he seemed disconnected from the
activities around him, as if he hadn't a care in
the world. He continued to polish his gun and
reload empty clips with hollow point rounds. It
didn't surprise Everett at all.

    The room sat in silence for a moment.
Doctors Kelly Preston and Evan Rembrant sat
quietly across the room from the only other two
soldiers -- Quinn and Brendan.

    Kelly sighed and looked around the dwindling
group of survivors, her small, pale face showing
signs of fatigue and agitation. The silence, in
her mind, spoke louder and clearer than any words
that had been vocalized that evening. "This
meandering bickering is getting us nowhere...
Fast."

    Cooper pointed at McDermott and said to
Kelly, "I don't intend on letting your friend here
endanger the lives of my men by sending them out
to round up those things." Losing interest in
McDermott, he eyed Kelly for a long, intent
moment, his ash gray eyes piercing her own light
blue orbs.

    Kelly looked at the tabletop. Cooper's
penetrating gaze made her feel as though he could
see through her eyes, into her mind. She didn't
like that idea at all. It reminded her of how her
father had used such tactics to force her into
confession, weather it be true or not, which was
quite often followed by a rather nasty razor strap
encounter. She didn't like to think about her
teenage years.

    Everett McDermott shook his head. "Tokyo is
all but abandoned, Captain. Everyone within the
main city have evacuated..."

    "Which is why I don't quite understand this
mission." Attention shifted toward Quinn. The
young man looked around the small group, his once
soft features now worn and chiseled. A blanket of
confusion enveloped his expression. "There's no
one here. We were sent on a mission of seek and
rescue."

    "My point exactly." Cooper stood and walked
to the opposing wall, where the oversized map of
Tokyo hung on a large metal spike. His hard, ash
eyes moved up  and down the wall map quickly. He
turned around and gestured toward the three
scientists. "We weren't sent here to help you yo-
yos stop these things. We just happened to find
you on the way."

    Leaning forward on the table, Kelly noted a
small folder sitting on the table in front of
Cooper. She watched for a moment, somehow
expecting it to vanish in a cloud of smoke,
accompanied by one of those cartoon-like 'POOF'
sounds. It didn't.

    She couldn't imagine the world  still being
organized enough to send a top secret group with
top secret documents on their person. The
surprises never ceased. "You were sent here for a
specific group of people, weren't you? It wasn't
just a general seek and rescue."

    Cooper hesitated, then nodded, turned, and
lifted the small manila folder. He tossed it
across the room, onto the table in front of Kelly.
She found the action rather jarring.

    Cooper said, "A small pocket of resistance
has arisen in a large sub-district of this city.
It's been reported that they've killed several
hundreds of these things over the past year."

    Johnson slid the now full clip into his 9mm.
"Without guns," he added, placing his weapon in
his lap.

    "Of course without guns," Rembrant spoke up,
shaking his head at the apparent ignorance of the
militaristic buffoon that stared at him from the
sleek, marble table across the room. "Firearms are
as illegal as heroin in Japan, if not more so."

    "Why don't you shut the fuck up, spig!"
Johnson grunted, aiming his gun at the disgruntled
scientist.

     Cooper grimaced, slamming his hand down on
the table. "I'll shot the two of you if you don't
both shut up!" He paused, looking between his two
subordinates, and then continued.  "We want to
know how they've been doing this. We might have
some kind of fighting chance against these dead-
fucks... If these people work with us. The NSA
consider these people 'Lethal Weapons' of a
biological fashion."

    "I find it hard to believe the NSA still
exist, frankly." Kelly opened the folder slowly.
She thumbed through the many papers and photos.

She stopped at a picture of a young man with
a rather muscular frame and a long pigtail. His
look caught her eye more than the name on the
file.  "I've heard of this guy," she said,
thinking back. There had been many news stories on
the young man, and a small group of his friends,
not long before the disaster. "He was a local hero
in Tokyo before this all started. He had
supposedly thwarted several unexplainable attacks
on the city."

    "And 13 months later he's still alive.  At
least he's believed to be." Cooper turned back to
face the map. "In 28 hours, Quinn and Johnson
are going to accompany Weston in the chopper over
to this section of Tokyo." He reached up and
pressed his finger against a section labeled
'Nerima'. "I trust you all know a little
Japanese?" He looked over his shoulder, glaring at
Everett.

    "Fluently," the elder scientist confirmed.
"I don't know about your men."

    "Of course they do." Cooper turned to face
the room. "You think they'd have been sent on this
mission if that didn't?"

    Everett shrugged wearily, flashing Copper an
'Excuse the fuck out of me' look. He didn't much
care to press the issue. It was like giving a
ravenous wolf a hunk of cow hide only to
decide you would take it back. It was a battle
best left alone.  "Look, even if this man CAN
help, how do you expect him alone to stop a planet
overrun by the dead?"

    "I don't. I expect him to tell us how he
does it." Cooper paused, as if to dramatize his
statement. "How his friends do it. What makes
them such powerful weapons?"

    "What if he won't tell you?" Rembrant asked,
looking up from a stack of scientific papers he
had dedicated his attention too.

    Kelly assumed that, as well as Johnson,
Rembrant had been essentially ignoring the
'briefing'.

    "Tokyo is under martial law." Cooper smiled
slightly to himself. A morbid pleasure washed
through him, like a shot of adrenaline. "If he
won't talk, I'll have him executed for
insubordination."

    Kelly scowled, her skin growing a dull gray.
Her surprise was anything but unobvious.  "Under
whose authority? The NSA couldn't declare
martial law in a foreign country, let alone the US
Military. You have no jurisdiction."

    "My jurisdiction is infinite." Cooper turned
from the map, ignoring the stunned gazes that were
bearing down on him.

    Rembrant said, "Our law doesn't apply to the
Japanese community, Cooper. You're an American
soldier. You don't have the authority to instill
martial law on this city." He watched Cooper
closely, removing his feet from the chair in front
of him. Sweat glistened on his forehead, causing
his dark walnut skin to seemingly glow in the dull
florescent lights.

    Cooper's face grew dark. "He doesn't know
that. As far as the citizens are concerned, we're
here by declaration of both governments."

    Quinn, Brendan, and Johnson all looked up at
their commanding officer. A mutual understanding
that something was amiss pulsed between them like
a strong beckon.

    Brendan shook his head. "It's immoral,
Cooper. Why should we go along with this?"

    "Because you're under MY command, Brendan.
You'd be wise to remember that." Cooper looked
over toward the map, his eyes stone cold. He
turned his back on the room.

    Kelly felt an gigantic glob of thick, cold
imaginary ice water slither down her spine,
causing her flesh to rise in many tiny goose
bumps. She shivered, foreboding engulfing her.

    Brendan stood up slowly. "I won't go along
with this, Cooper. You're trying to pull
nonexistent strings on these people. They are not
puppets." The man swallowed hard. He had never
actually taken a stand on anything in his entire
life.

    His wife often told him that he had to stand
up for himself. Not just for him, but for the sake
of her and their two children as well. He hadn't
been raised that way, though.

    Brendan's parents had been pacifists at
heart. Violence appalled them. Heresy outraged
them. And they went absolutely flippant when he
tried to watch 'Friday the 13th' under THEIR roof.

For some reason, that pacifistic nature took
a back seat to his father's leather belt. Sufficed
to say, that was the last horror film he had
watched for nearly seven years.

    And now here he stood. The eyes of his
comrades fixed on him in disbelief for his
transgression. He was trapped in his own personal
horror film.

    Brendan was scared. He tried his hardest to
hide it, but he was sure that the others could
sense it. Something wasn't right, and he wanted no
part in that something.

    "That's a declaration of Mutiny, Mister,"
Cooper said, his voice low, dark.

    Foreboding grew stronger, and Kelly felt as
she had before the earthquake last year that
destroyed her home and nearly left her open to the
cannibal jaws of the walking monstrosities that
had once been like her.

    Her lips began to quiver, and a foul taste
filled her mouth as her throat grew slowly dry.

    "Yes sir, I suppose it is." Brendan watched
Cooper, his posture rigid. He let his hand drift
slowly toward his standard issue revolver. He felt
it now, even stronger than before. A strong sense
of danger, like an animal being hunted by a
stronger, much more cunning predator. He didn't
know what hit him.

    Cooper spun around suddenly and a loud crack
rang out through the room, causing everyone to
jump in surprise. To those that hadn't been around
firearms it would have sounded like indoor
thunder.

    Kelly knew the difference, though. "NO!" She
jumped to her feet as Brendan fell to the floor
with a dull thud, a wash of blood rushing from his
chest, sloshing across the concrete floor. His
horror film had ended.

    A sick feeling rushed the young geneticist
as almost instantaneously the odor of hot metal,
scorched cloth and flesh and burning gunpowder
filled her nose, mouth and throat. She gagged.

Cooper looked toward Kelly, a stream of
smoke rising from the barrel of his revolver.
After a moment of steady observation, he glanced
from person to person. "Anyone else have any
problems with how I run this operation?"

    "Goddamn it, Cooper!" Kelly screamed,
turning on the soldier, the sour flavor in her
mouth aggravating her further. "You can't do this
to us!" She threw her hand into the air, pointing
toward Quinn. "You can't do this to your own
soldiers!"

    Cooper pulled his gun around slowly, the
barrel aiming at Kelly, toward her head. "You have
'til the count of 5 to sit down and shut the up."

    "You listen to me you asshole," Kelly
Preston continued, her emotions fuming, "We are a
civilian operation, posted here to work with
a team of the top Japanese geneticist in the
search to reverse what's happening. You don't have
any authority over US!"

    "That's three you've wasted," Cooper
replied, pulling the hammer on the revolver back.
It hit home with a high pitched CLINK.

    Quinn stood up suddenly. "Kelly, sit down.
Just shut up and sit down."

    Kelly turned her eyes on Quinn. His eyes,
like deep liquid pools, pleaded with her, and
shifted quickly between her and Cooper. She looked
back at the deranged Captain.

    "That's 4."

    Kelly looked around the room slowly, her
eyes pleading. Rembrant looked at her, then
Cooper, his eyes wide in terror.

    McDermott stared at Cooper, unbelieving,
while Quinn continued to watch Kelly, his gaze now
demanding. Johnson simply continued to observed
the activities around him, his eyes emotionless.

    Kelly Preston slowly lowered herself into
her seat. Her eyes glazed with spite, she avoided
meeting those of her peers, except Cooper. And
even through her hate, a chill passed through her
when she looked at those cold, gray eyes.

    Quinn finally descended into his own seat,
gaze shifting from Cooper to Kelly. His first
reaction had been to pull his firearm and unload
the twenty round parable clip into his commanding
officer, but something had stopped him. Something
he couldn't identify.

    Cooper un-cocked the hammer of his gun and
held it in a non-hostile manner, or as non-hostile
as a murderer could. "I'm running this show now.
Anyone who fucks with my orders gets shot. Is that
clear?"

    Everyone nodded, watching Cooper. He walked
around the table, over to where Brendan lay. He
took his coat off and threw it over the body.

    Moving over to his seat, he looked around
the room. "We continue as planned. In 28 hours, we
move in to search the Nerima sub-district of
Tokyo, and we don't come out until we've found
Ranma Saotome. Is that clear?"

    Everyone nodded again.

================================================================




_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

         .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
           | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
           | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
           |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
           `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'