Beyond Tokyo, Essaying the Barrier of Sel'f




     "I said I wanted a couple a' round-trip tickets," Saotome
Ranma repeated, starting to get aggravated. "What part of that didn'
ya understand?"

     "B . . .but . . ." the agent stuttered, then resolution firmed his
spine. "I'll have to get my supervisor." Turning away he spoke
rapidly into a hush-phone.

     "What's the matter Ranma?" Tendou Akane shifted her pack
to a more comfortable position.

     "Ahhh, this guy don't wanna sell . . ."

     "Sir?"

      Ranma turned at the voice to see a tall, cadaverous man in a
black-suit standing in place of the ticket agent.

     "Uhhhh . . .yeah?" Ranma was more used to being addressed
as Baka or die-you-pervert.

     "Is this your destination request?" A trip application, covered
with Ranma's blotched scrawl was passed across the counter.

     "Yeah. So what's the hold up?"

     "Are you under the influence of drugs?" Came the question
in funereal tones.

     "Wha----?" Ranma growled in outrage. "Hell no! I don' do
none of that----"

     "Are you now" The walking skeleton asked, ignoring
Ranma's outrage, "or have you been in the past six months under the
care of a psychiatrist?"

     "Wh . . .NO!"

     "Are you the victim of a personal or familial curse that would
cause a loss of volition?"

     "No . . .uhhhh . . .I've got a Jusenkyo curse. Does that
count?"

     The pair behind the counter held a brief, whispered
consultation, referring to a large leather-bound book embossed with
an Arabic-looking face, twisted in agony. Engraved in letters the
colour of old-blood were words that seemed to twist in and out of
the realms of man:
Necronomicon
      Tokyo Rail Supplement
     Miskatonic University Press

     "Are now or have you been cursed by the spring of drowned
Gecko, drowned Borogrove or" his voice took on a hard tone of
utter disgust, "drowned small black piglet?"

     "Don't be silly," Akane put in, "who ever heard of the spring
of small black piglet?"

     "Very well," At Ranma's vigorous denial, the skeleton-man
stamped their papers and slid a pair of tickets across the counter.

     "Wait a minute," Akane protested, looking at the tickets,
"These are one-way! We asked for round-trip tickets."

     "From beyond Tokyo," The man's face became even more
skull-like as he looked down the track that vanished into the
unknown distance, "there is no return."

@@@@

     "Nene, hurry up!"

     The figure in pink battle armour scurried to catch up to her
friends.  Escaping steam from the huge black locomotives boiler
turned the boarding platform into a scend of Gothic mystery. Dimly
she could see, in letters of blinding white across the great iron body:

    G L XY EX R SS 666

A shiver of superstitious dread coursed through her body, until a
workman in greasy overalls twisted the number plaque ninety
degrees and began driving in a screw. Breathing a sigh of relief at
the 999, Nene hurried to catch up with Priss who was getting
increasingly impatient.

     "HEY!" the yard-foreman stormed up to the side of the train.
"You've got the number upside down."

****
   ****

     Slowly the great engine began puffing down the track, then
faster and faster as the tremendous driving wheels took power from
the boiler. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, the sound at first, then
clicktyclicktyclickty, the tiny imperfections at the join of the rails
sounding as a blur with the increase in speed. Outside the landscape
was a blur, the colours shifting blue to red as the tractor-engine
strained it's mighty steel sinews.

     "Capt'n," even the annunciators long copper tube couldn't
hide the strain in the engineer's voice. "Th'rs interference on the
sub-space band. I canna get th' fold-space engines ta engage!"

     "WHAT!" Steely-eyed and firm jawed the captain whirled to
his control panel. A flood of scarlet lights, like blood streaming from
a mortally wounded cybernetic beast, streamed across the panel.
"Static discharge! The fools, the blind arrogant fools." Lunging for
the general alarm button he prayed the fail-safe would work.


     The shrill atonal alarm, guaranteed  to wake the newly dead,
and severely irritate the moderately decomposed, shook the
passengers from their contemplation of the drinks-cart.

     "Attention all passengers. Attention to orders!" The captain's
stalwart voice cut the air like an Aztec sacrificial knife of black-
obsidian. "In violation of train regulations, some passengers are
wearing undergarments of silk or nylon, creating a dangerous static-
field which has crippled our fold-space engines. I have  no choice
but to activate the emergency fail-safe. Remain in your seats until
the all clear has sounded. And god help us all." They heard him
whisper prayerfully.

     "SWEETO! SWEETO! SWEETO!"

     The emergency fail-safe swept like lightning through the
compartment, naturalizing the deadly silk and nylon, the only
casualty a young woman who was, unfortunately, not wearing
undergarments, and suffered a minor dermal wound as a result.

     "I'm sure it will grow back . . .eventually."  The green haired
girl sniggered.

     "Shut up and get me some more ice." Her companion
whined.

****
 ****

     "It's no good, Cap'n," the engineer shouted above of his
straining engines, a thunderous din like the god of the forge
hammering out the wheel of time. "Ma engines canna take much
more of this, We'll blow up for sure, an we still have na' th' speed to
breach th' barrier!"

     "Understood," the captain barked in icy tones. "Stand by for
conversion!" At his command the outer panels were blasted away,
revealing a streamlined angular shape, SDF 1, proudly blazoned
across the side in coruscating symbols that brought a lump of pride
to the heart of every stalwart crewman who's pride in their brave
captain knew no boundary of race, creed or religious affiliation. 

     "Ready the main gun!"

     There was a deep whine, like a thousand cats being roasted
over a slow fire as the proton-plasma-electro-cannon drank thirstily
from the power of the solar-panels that slowly extended from the
titanium flanks of the speeding battle-cruiser like the wings of a
beautiful butterfly, symbol of man's eternal need to expand his reach
beyond the puny planet of his birth.

     "Not enough, not enough," the scientist muttered to himself,
punching numbers into the colossal mechanical brain upon which
every life on board the Cosmic Yamato depended. "We can't do it
captain. The Brain shows that we will fall short by 00.000328 %."

     "I put my faith in human courage and spirit!" The captain
replied fiercely, "Not a soulless mass of iron and plastic," and the
scientist quailed before the outpouring of genuine Samurai spirit that
knew not the meaning of defeat, nor fear, nor retreat. 

     "Ready the Buster Weapon!" he called out. "We will blast
our way through the barrier."

     "Buster ONE, online! Ready to launch!"'

     "Buster TWO, generators spinning up, control nominal."

     "Buster THREE, armed and ready!"

     "Buster THREE!," the scientist gasped in horrified disbelief.
"The Black Hole Bomb? NO, You can't be that irresponsible,
Captain Tylor."

****
 ****

     "Ami," Usagi shrilled, as the train's interior blurred and
shifted like ice cream on a hot summer day. "What's happening?"
Desparately she clung to Sailor Mars drawing courage from the
warm embrace of her fearless senshi of fire.

     "The . . .barrier," the senshi of water gasped out, watching
the reading on her Mercury-computer spin wildly like a nickel-slot
on crack-cocaine. "S . . .stronger . . .than . . .thought!" The wildly
surging train car would have thrown her from her seat, if not for the
strong arms of the senshi of thunder, whose mighty thews strained
their utmost to hold her tiny friend in a firm yet tender embrace.

     "Ho . . .ow, much longer?" A bolt of ruptured space-time
ruptured the side of the car, threatening to blast the senshi from even
this dubious safety.  Sailor Venus quickly uncoiled her Venus-love-
me-chain and used it to bind her friends hand and foot, wrapping
them in chains of love and fire, tying them immovably to her side.

     "Al . . .most there," Mercury gasped, through the links of
chain that ran across her mouth. 

     "Something . . .Something's happening!" Sailor Moon cried
in fright, burying her head between the soft, perky mounds of Sailor
Mars' breasts. 

     "Don't worry, Meatball head," Mars crooned soothingly,
grasping the twin globes of her ditzy friend's derriere and pulling her
close. "I've got you."

     "NO!" Usagi cried, "something's wrong. Something horrible.
I can feel it!"

     "So can I," Venus gasped as the lurching of the train pressed
her against the warrior of Love and Justice.

     "Mercury," Venus cried, "I feel it too."

     "What it it?" Jupiter agonized, shifting her petite companion
until she nestled safely in the vee formed by her muscular thighs.

     "Changing . . .we're changing," Mercury answered, trying to
decipher the strange readings of her computer. "On the quantum
level . . .we're changing."

     "Changing!" Mars shouted, beginning to feel it now.
"Changing into what?"

     "Oh god, Oh dear god," Mercury wailed. "I never dreamed. I
never guessed. Crossing the barrier, we've become . . .
HETEROSEXUAL!"

****
 ****

     Pain. I awake to pain. Pain such as no man may know and
retain his sanity. But I have known pain in my life. The neko-ken,
The chestnut Fist. Six-months in Hokkaido with nothing to eat but
pickled-bologna, chedder-cheese and a case of warm Dr. Pepper. So
I fight past the pain and open my eyes, to a strange alien land. A land
of short, olive skinned people with straight black hair and, most
strange, small eyes almost hidden in folds of skin.   I hide a shudder
of revulsion at their grotesque appearance.  
     
     "Ranma? Ranma, are you alright?"

     I try to turn my head, but feel a strange alien presence.

     *Who are you?* I demand. *What have you done with us?*

     #I am the alpah and omega, the beginning and the end. The
moving finger that writes, and once having writ, posts.#

     I feel it then, the creeping slow change as if the vessel of my
very soul were cracked asunder, leaving my soul to trickle away
down the drain of eternity. The essence of my being, all that which
makes me, is being changed, re-written by this unseen, unknowable
fiend.

     "Run," I croak, no knowing if she can hear. "Run, run as far
and as fast as you can!"

     With the last of my self, fading into the mists of eternity I can
see her, graceful as a Siberian Vole dashing across the tundra in
pursuit of the Hairry Ibex, it's natural prey, running, running,
running.

     My strength is gone and I lay on the cold, hard ground. An
errant gust of wind blows a tattered paper against my dying eyes. In
a strange alien script, that I am given the power to read as I breath
my last are the words:

     AnimeFEST,

Laughter, cruel and cold booms across the sky, like distant thunder. 

      Fanfiction Panel,

          Allyn Yonge
                       

******************************************************

NOTE: I was at AnimeFEST _last_ year.
I went to A-Kon this year, but I thught AnimeFEST looked
better in print. ^_^ 


                 Disclaimers:


     The  characters  of the Ranma 1/2  universe  are  the
creation   and   possession  of  the  brilliant   Rumiko
Takahashi.  They  belong  to Rumiko  Takahashi  and  her
licensees   (Shogakukan   Inc.,   Kitty-Fuji   TV,   Viz
Communications   Inc.)  No  copyright  infringement   is
intended.   The  characters  of  Sailormoon  are   the
creation  and  possession  of  the  brilliant   Takeuchi
Naoko.  They  belong  to Takeuchi Naoko,   Bandai,  Toei
Animation,  DIC, and all others associated with  rights.
No copyright infringement is intended.
     
Gunbuster, Top O Nerea
copyright GAINAX Co. LTD, 1988 

Bubblegum Crash
Licenced to AnimEigo by Artimc, Inc.

Irresponsible Captain Tylor (Musekinin Kanchou Tylor)
Copyright Hitoshi  Yoshiyoka,
Developed for television by:
Big West, King Record, and VAP.

Galaxy Express 999
copyright L. Matsumoto







     


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