Previous chapters can be found on FFN here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2314624/1/ Or on my website here:
http://www.wagnergrp.com/JBW_Website/

On my website, I've also set up a New UFOpedia, with all the info from
the XCOM game, plus more in-depth fluff on the universe, the weapons,
base locations, etc.

The year is 2005. For six years, mankind has waged a Secret War against
an enemy from Beyond the Stars. The Nerima Wrecking Crew and their
families have been relocated to Seiran Mountain, XCOM headquarters for
the Far East. Finally, a mission is sent down for the newly militarized
Nerima Wrecking Crew, to cut their teeth against the Alien Menace...


-----

The Road To Cydonia
Chapter VII (version 1.0)
Take Me to War

-----

Written by:
Capn Chryssalid
jbraveboy@gmail.com

-----

The tatami mat under Ranma's feet buckled, the force from blocking
Ryouga's downward heel kick transferring through his body and into the
woven and packed rice straw. Beneath the mat, however, lay an all but
indestructible layer of exotic alloys. A blow with the power Ryouga had
put into it could have easily punched a hole in the floor, wall, or
ceiling of the old Tendo Dojo. This new one, however, was a totally
different beast.

Despite stopping the lost boy's downward momentum, he was still
prodigiously strong, and twisting his foot, he pushed off Ranma's
crossed forearms with his toes, separating them and buying space to
bring his foot back down. Ranma juked to the side, bringing down his
right arm to deflect a tiger palm strike that would have hit his
sternum, and supporting the move with his left. He kneed up, but Ryouga
blocked the blow with his own left hand, and tilted his head to avoid
the follow up snap kick.

The lost boy brought his right elbow up, aiming for the bridge of his
rival's nose, but Ranma was faster than his opponent, and countered with
his left elbow, before straightening his arm and grabbing Ryouga by the
inside of his wrist. He ducked, turned, and twisted, stepping out the
bandanna'd martial artist's guard, and moving him into an outside arm
lock.

It would have been the beginning of the end of the fight with a normal
opponent, but both young men were far from normal. Ryouga's style of
fighting wasn't typically very agile compared to that of Ranma's
'Anything Goes' or Musabetsu Kakuto, but that was not to be mistaken for
an inability to take to the air. If he wished to, and if he was
motivated to, Ryouga Hibiki could move very quickly and with surprising
agility. Rather than succumb to the hold, he fell forward, hit the
ground with his left hand, and pushed up, forcing himself into the air.

The leverage advantage lost, Ranma had to let go of the lost boy's
wrist, and dance back as the other boy's feet touched the ceiling.
Unlike in the old dojo, the ceiling here was smooth, with no surface to
cling to with bare feet (not that Ryouga could do so effectively; he'd
never had the martial arts tea ceremony training that Ranma had
benefited from shortly after the bakusai tenketsu fight). The lost boy
had to immediately rebound back to the ground, and the maneuver served
both to give him a height advantage and a movement vulnerability.

Typically, Ryouga chose to attack head on, and keep attacking, rather
than bounce back and try a less risky approach. Powerful leg muscles,
and the inevitable call of gravity, forced him back down, and he spun
towards Ranma, one hand forward the other held back. Even before he saw
the flickers of ki, the pigtailed martial artist recognized the move
about to be executed.

"Shishi Hokoudan!" Ryouga thrust his right hand forward, but didn't
fully launch his ki projectile. It was a trick Ranma remembered from
their second hokoudan duel, like using the ki blast as an extension of
his fist. Ranma immediately summoned his confidence; the first time
Ryouga had used that trick, he'd had nothing to effectively counter it.
That was then.

This was now.

"Moko Takabisha!" Ranma cried, sweeping one hand low, unleashing his
reciprocal ki attack. Ryouga's partly dissolved on contact, the two
conflicting emotive energies nullifying each other. It was obvious that
the lost boy wanted to up the ante, finally, and push the limits of the
new dojo. Ranma smirked. He'd been thinking the same thing. With his
right hand, he fired off a short series of ki blasts.

Ryouga ducked one, and countered the other two with a left hand sheathed
in black and green mental energy. He crossed his arms and held his hands
at an angle, about forty degrees from front. Energy crackled from his
fingertips, and he unleashed dual shishi hokoudans without so much as an
announcement.

"A smokescreen!" Ranma hissed, blocking the attacks with his own
confidence based ki energy. The bright flash and the roar, however,
easily masked whatever his opponent had planned next. He searched with
his eyes and with his Sakkijutsu, but the emotive ki still lingering all
around him made it difficult. Instead, he relaxed his stance, and used
the Umisenken to fade from sight.

As he fell back to a better position, Ranma could see that the walls of
the dojo were unharmed, even by the recent exchange. The new dojo was
durable, no doubt about that, but it also presented a very new non-
destructive environment for the two fighters inside it.

Not only did hitting the walls really hurt, simply because there was no
give to them and they didn't buckle even a fraction, but they made
Ryouga's bakusai tenketsu essentially impossible to use. They also made
it hard to take a hit from a strong opponent, since you could easily end
up hitting the wall and bouncing right off. You could rebound off the
walls, yes, but because they didn't bend there was no added outside
momentum. More unfortunate for someone of the Anything Goes Style, the
dojo itself was relatively bare, and the Musabetsu Kakuto was strongly
rooted in using the environment to one's advantage.

"Using the Umisenken, Ranma?" he heard Ryouga's voice, as the lost boy
walked up to where Ranma had just been standing. Ranma could see the
other boy looking around with his eyes, even though he knew full well
that full use of the Umisenken Style, or Silent Thief, rendered one
invisible to sight and Sakkijutsu. Still, there was something to
Ryouga's voice that made Ranma wary of jumping headlong into an attack.

Ranma inched around, careful to conceal his ki, his intent, and his very
presence. The Umisenken's "cloaked" form made it offensively tricky to
use. He still had his normal ki enhanced strength, speed and durability,
but he couldn't use them without momentarily breaking the invisibility
effect. In a way, it would be similar to his normal way of fighting
Ryouga, which was to set him up for a series of very powerful blows,
aiming for a knock out.

Ryouga's constitution during the first bakusai tenketsu fight had been
frightening - it had taken hundreds of blows to the same spot on his
body to hurt him, and rather special circumstances to actually knock him
into momentary unconsciousness. Ranma had gotten stronger since then,
and his stamina had improved, while Ryouga's insane durability hadn't
improved much at all (mostly because he wasn't routinely plowing face
first into boulders anymore). Still, Ranma knew he had to be careful
when he used his amaguriken punch technique against Ryouga. He could
still exhaust himself without managing a KO if he didn't set up his
blows properly.

Finally, he was in place.

"Hakuda Toshin Shou!" he whispered, his hands blurring as he passed
behind the lost boy. The first time he'd used the attack on Ryu Kumon,
it had sent him to the ground, stunned. Ryouga, however, was made of
sterner stuff, and he whirled, a crescent kick passing just an inch from
Ranma's right cheek as he jumped back and reactivated the Umisenken's
stealth mode.

The 'White Snake Spitting True Palm' was the main offensive maneuver of
the Umisenken that didn't rely on being in a grapple with the enemy or
throwing the enemy's attack back at them. It normally left a series of
painful welts on the back of the opponent, from the many rapid and
powerful piercing blows. Ryouga, however, seemed mostly unharmed. As
expected, it would have to be beefed up a bit to be more effective.

Ryouga was turning now, rather than standing still and waiting for a
chance to counterattack. Ranma slipped just close enough to attack his
back, when Ryouga turned again, facing him directly, forcing Ranma to
back off again. This was unlike the high intensity of their normal
fights, but the pigtailed boy found himself really enjoying the change
of pace. It was a little more cerebral than their normal spars. Ryouga
had earlier boasted that he could find a counter for the Umisenken,
since he had seen it back when they'd attacked the alien ship, and Ranma
was eager to see if he could manage it.

"Hakuda Toshin Shou Kaiteiban: Dokuja!"

Ranma lingered a second longer than he'd planned executing the move (it
didn't help that the name itself was rather long), and paid for it with
a back kick to the stomach that sent him skidding off the ground and
into a wall.  He recovered quickly, guarding his injured abdomen as he
jumped to his feet, expecting a follow up from the lost boy. Ryouga,
however, seemed to be reeling from the improved attack Ranma had used on
him. Tossing off his yellow shirt, Ranma could see that the "Revised:
Poisonous Serpent" variant of the attack had left a series of bloody
wounds on Ryouga's back. Still, he hadn't been knocked off his feet, and
his expression indicated he didn't want to stop the fight.

Ranma wondered why he hadn't at least tried to charge, or otherwise
prevent Ranma going into the Umisenken form again, but didn't question
the lost boy's hesitation. While he didn't exactly like hurting anyone,
he was happy to see that his revised attack had been a success. Mostly.
It had been difficult and exhausting to execute, striking each spot a
hundred times, and his arms felt like silly putty. Even worse, it had
taken long enough to give Ryouga a chance to counterattack.

Ranma's opponent, meanwhile, reached up to his yellow and black bandanna
with his right hand. He kept moving erratically, but slowly, circling so
his back was never in the same place. In his hands, he began to spin his
bandannas, forcing ki into them. They quickly straightened and
sharpened. Ranma knew very well what Ryouga could do with his bandanna
shuriken trick, and considered him far more dangerous with them than
Konatsu with his ninja stars or Ukyou with her mini-spatulas. He'd seen
one cut cleanly through a tree once...

Ranma froze, as Ryouga threw his bandannas, his arms snapping to his
sides. None came anywhere near the pigtailed boy, but it didn't seem
like Ryouga had thrown them randomly or haphazardly either. They all
imbedded into the tatami mats, roughly equidistant to their thrower,
circling the lost boy like the hours of a clock. Ranma moved carefully,
keeping his distance from the nearest bandanna. He was about to move for
another strike at Ryouga's back, when he felt something in midair brush
against his skin.

Looking down at it, surprised, he saw an extremely fine wire... no: it
was just a bit of string, hardened to the strength of wire. He tensed to
move, jumping up and away, but it was too late. One of Ryouga's fingers
tucked in, and then two more and in an instant Ranma felt the steel-
cable strength string wrap around him. His arms became pinned to his
side, but his feet were still free, and he jumped, spinning in midair,
trying to unwrap himself.

Like an ensnared insect, Ryouga turned and pulled his rival towards him.
Ranma could see the lost boy lifting one foot, a second before he saw
stars. If Ryouga had pulled the blow, it wasn't by much, and Ranma felt
himself corkscrew through the air and hit the ground. If anything, he
was fortunate, since the rough landing shook him up enough to keep him
conscious.

"Still breathing, Ranma?" Ryouga asked, and Ranma felt himself go
airborne again. He struggled against the wires binding his sides, but
true to the so called 'Iron Cloth Technique" the strands of Ryouga's
bandannas were suffused with his ki, and impossible to break from his
current position. Only his feet were free. Seeing that the lost boy was
about to repeat the earlier blow, Ranma gritted his teeth and came up
with a desperate ploy.

"You're finished, Ranmaaa!!" Ryouga lifted his leg slightly, setting up
for a devastating kick to Ranma's midsection.

"Goshin Ryu Sei Fu!" Ranma bent his leg, in a motion that would make a
contortionist proud, and reached into his shirt with his right foot. The
"Self-Protection Falling Star Cloth" was meant to be taken out with your
hands, though the last time he'd used the technique, he'd made due with
one hand and his mouth. He desperately flipped out the black and red
cloth wrapper, and held it between his feet, using the strength he'd
built up in his toes from learning martial arts tea ceremony.

The cloth served as a makeshift shield, blocking and then wrapping
around Ryouga's foot as he tried his snap kick. A measure of control
lost over the situation, Ranma shifted his center of balance, and pulled
off another improvised revision version of an Umisenken technique.

"Ri Giyo Hon Shin!" Flipping down next to Ryouga's left foot, Ranma
pulled back and in with his legs, throwing Ryouga off his balance and
into the air. The "Carp Fish Bodyflip" was supposed to be used over an
opponent's head once he was blinded and choking, but the makeshift
version would work just as effectively on Ryouga's trapped foot. Ranma
twisted even before the lost boy hit the ground, putting pressure on his
opponent's trapped appendage. Ryouga's hissed in pain, as his ankle
twisted.

That was one way around Ryouga's constitution: he was still vulnerable
having his joints manipulated. The lost boy's concentration on the
cloth-turned-wires wavered due to the pain, and with a grunt of effort,
Ranma broke free. Before he could plan anything else, however, Ryouga
palm's shot out in his direction.

"Oh geez..." He quickly covered his face and shielded himself.

Ryouga's hands erupted with ki. "Shishi Hokoudan!"

Ranma finally came to a stop at the far end of the dojo, his arms and
body smoking. He had barely been able to shield himself with confident
"light" ki, and what he had managed to call up hadn't been quite equal
in gross quantity to the depressive, angry "heavy" ki that Ryouga so
readily pumped out. By the time Ranma got back to his feet, he saw that
his opponent was also up and about, and holding his 'shooting star
cloth' as well.

Both were breathing heavily, flickers of waning energy sparking off
their bodies. Hit by the lull in the fighting, Ranma ran his tongue over
his teeth, and confirmed that they were all still there. Still, his
lower lip was busted open and bleeding, and so was a cut in the inside
of his mouth. A few flecks of blood on the ground were testament to the
wounds on Ryouga's back. The lost one shook his hands, the wires still
going between his fingers and his bandannas hopelessly tangled.

"That was a pretty nice trick," Ranma commented, smiling cockily. "But
do you think it'll work a second time?"

"Probably not," Ryouga admitted and sighed. "Why don't you use the
Umisenken again and find out?"

"It isn't like I don't like beating you normally... but since you asked
for it!" Ranma let out a long, deep breath, and assumed the ghost-like
Umisenken stance. He wondered if Ryouga knew the trick to beating it -
that you had to make the person using the stance angry, and unbalance
his neutral ki. It was likely that he did know that so called secret,
but that it wasn't particularly reliable. Just like Ranma didn't think
he could defeat every 'perfect shishi hokoudan' by lying about being
able to see Akane's panties or about kissing her. Though at least that
last one now had a basis in truth.

He smiled.

"Problem?" Ryouga asked, looking over his shoulder at the now visible
Ranma.

Ranma laughed embarrassingly. "Sorry. My mind strayed."

"You're lucky I don't eagerly take cheap shots," the other boy replied,
and actually stood by and let Ranma get back into the invisible Thousand
Sea Fist. Ranma made a quick note about not thinking about Akane when
using the technique. He circled Ryouga, looking for an opening.
Unfortunately, the lost boy had his cloth stuffed into his belt, and it
was an important tool in the Umisenken's repertoire.

He swooped in; aiming to steal back the cloth, but Ryouga whirled in his
direction, and lashed out with a backhand. Ranma easily ducked under it
and jumped back, taking the cloth in the process, but it worried him how
the lost boy had guessed his angle of approach. As far as he knew, he
wasn't making any sound to give himself away, and it seemed improbable
that he was being tracked by smell.

He made another approach, this time zigzagging. Ryouga moved on the
balls of his feet, and faced Ranma's general direction. His aim was
slightly off, however, and the pigtailed martial artist slipped under
his guard, struck him in the neck, and got around to his back. He began
the Hakuda Toshin Shou Kaiteiban: Dokuja, but Ryouga spun like a top,
and hit Ranma in the shoulder, barely avoiding his cheek. Ranma jumped
back, and faded away in midair.

While in the air, Ranma noted that Ryouga's eyes darted back and forth,
but then when he soundlessly landed on a tatami mat, the lost boy zeroed
in on his location. Ranma jumped again, testing his theory, and sure
enough the other fighter again began to looking around, as if having
lost a sense of where his opponent was. When Ranma landed in a different
spot, Ryouga slowly turned to face it.

'Something to do with the ground,' Ranma thought, moving slowly.
'Probably vibrations. But the mats here are straw. How could he sense
vibrations through them? He can't even use the Bakusai Tenketsu on the
stuff.'

'Well...' Ranma tensed up the muscles in his legs. 'I guess I'll just
beat the answer out of him...'

He jumped, hit the ceiling, and rebounded down towards his target. It
wouldn't quite be the equal of a shooting star kick, like he'd used
against Taro's cursed monster form, but combined with a rapid hundred-
blow combo to the back of the head, it would do the trick. Except,
instead of looking lost, the so-called lost boy looked up right at him.
He brought his left hand up, and pulled the right one back.

Ranma cursed silently, and summoned up his ki to defend himself,
appearing in midair. Ryouga's unannounced shishi hokoudan wasn't
anywhere near full strength, and Ranma quickly realized that it was only
intended to force him to reveal himself. His current trajectory couldn't
be changed, and he'd counted on the element of surprise. Ryouga jumped
up, deflecting Ranma's extended leg with his left hand, and introduced
his rising fist to the pigtailed martial artist's jaw with all the power
and subtlety of a jackhammer.

Normally, it would have sent Ranma twenty or more feet into the air, but
there wasn't enough room for that. He hit the ceiling, and bounced off
like a pinball before slamming into the padded floor with a loud crunch.
The tatami mat under him didn't break only by virtue of the fact that
the floor underneath it was effectively indestructible. He blacked out
for a few seconds, and when he came to, he saw Ryouga sitting next to
him, his legs crossed.

Ranma hit the floor with his fist, and lifted himself up. He could see
blood, and he tenderly reached up to his nose. His fingers came back
crimson, and the cartilage that formed below the bridge of his nose hurt
like hell. He saw Ryouga, looking at him expectantly, and silently
nodded. They'd decided not to talk too much about who "won" their
sparring matches, and instead focus on what had worked and how. They
weren't real formal matches, anyway, so Ranma didn't mind... not winning
them. Plus, it wasn't like Ryouga hadn't made a contest out of things
before. It was nothing too new or unmanning.

Besides, he knew in a fair fight, outside the dojo where his style had
an advantage, he'd be able to beat the lost boy ten times out of ten. Of
course Ryouga didn't concede this fact. The two sat in silence for a
while, checking their respective injuries, and then looking around the
Dojo. It was essentially undamaged, save for a few bloody and split
tatami mats.

"Good match," Ranma finally offered. They'd had to delay breaking in the
new Dojo for a day, but it had been worth it. Ranma grinned broadly.
"Good fight!"

Ryouga nodded. "Good match, Ranma. Good fight."

Ranma touched his nose again, and snorted loudly as he inhaled. "I think
you broke something."

The lost boy shrugged at the remark. "Bone?"

Ranma snorted again, feeling up and down his nose. "Na...nah. Should be
fine in a day or two. How's the ankle?"

"It'll swell up tonight, but should be alright by tomorrow," Ryouga
replied, not sounding really inconvenienced by the injury.

"What was with that stuff at the end there?" Ranma asked, folding his
legs and resting his hands behind him. "Did you actually see me, and
pretend that you didn't?"

Ryouga grunted in a tired way, but he wasn't about to dismiss answering
the question, especially since Ranma had been courteous enough to keep
using the Umisenken. They weren't enemies anymore, and some sharing of
techniques and other things were expected. Of course, most of Ranma's
techniques weren't well adapted to Ryouga's fighting style, and vice
versa, so there wasn't a huge risk of technique thievery. Not like when
he'd first showed Ranma the Shishi Hokoudan.

"I did pretend not to be able to follow you when you jumped," Ryouga
explained, after a few seconds composing his thoughts. "It seemed like a
good opportunity to set a trap. But I couldn't really see you... I could
only get a vague sense of where you were."

"How'd ya do it, though?" Ranma asked, snorting again. His nose was
already pretty badly clogged up.

"It's like when you tripped the wires before," Ryouga said, looking
across the room at the now limp bandannas still embedded in a half dozen
straw mats around the dojo floor.

"Air pressure?" Ranma asked, intrigued. "Some inner ear trick?"

"No..." Ryouga huffed. "You know my Bakusai Tenketsu is when I put my ki
into rocks, or metal? I can do that to liquids, too. Almost anything
inanimate. A solid and a liquid and a gas are all the same things right?
Just... states of matter with more or less energy in them. I diffused my
ki into the air, like I would with the ground, and sensed the ripples
you made in it."

"Not bad, man!" Ranma slapped him cheerfully on the shoulder. "You got a
name for it?"

"Unlike some people, I don't name my moves unless I've got them working
properly beforehand," Ryouga replied, but smiled a bit. "I was thinking
Sokumen Sen Seiri - Lateral Line Physiology. Since it's sort of like a
fish in the water."

Ranma groaned, and slowly got to his feet. "Well... you better get your
back looked at. I'll walk ya to the medlab."

Ryouga nodded, and also got up. He reached over his shoulder, and dabbed
one of his fingers into one of the red wounds Ranma had made. It stung
pretty badly, and his finger came back with crusted blood. He hadn't
expected the pigtailed boy to come up with an attack more potent than
his current amaguriken fist.

"You'll probably need a few stitches for those," Ranma observed, but
didn't apologize. They were both martial artists, and they had both
agreed that their fights, while not meant to be life threatening, were
not to be taken lightly either. An apology would have just been seen as
one of them looking at the other like he was weak and needed to be
coddled.

"Eh," Ryouga said with a dismissing shrug. As they walked by his shirt,
he picked it up but didn't bother putting it on. The dojo was well
placed near the base medical facilities, so they weren't looking at a
long walk. Opening the door, they actually entered the second dojo,
which was reserved for training instead of duels. It was longer, not a
perfect square, and still under construction.

The sound of clapping got their attention, and they saw Soun and Genma
(replete in orange work clothes and yellow hard hat) approaching with
Akane trailing behind them. She had a hard hat as well, but regular
clothes: a civilian shirt and pants. She looked a little concerned about
their physical state, bleeding and bruised as they plainly were.

"An amazing fight! We watched behind the one way wall," Soun said,
smiling and plainly happy that the new dojo design had withstood such a
furious battle. Had bystanders been in the dojo, both boys had little
doubt they'd have had to hold back, if only to keep things safe. With a
one-way mirror wall, somehow using a transparent version of the alien
alloy material, anyone could watch even the most dangerous fight in
safety.

"I can't say I approve of unsealing the Umisenken, even now, but that
was an impressive display," Genma commented, his stern expression
juxtaposed by his pride in his son, and by proxy, his techniques and
training.

"Yeah, yeah," Ranma replied, lightly, rolling his eyes but grinning
widely.

"What did you think of the dojo, Ranma? Ryouga?" Akane pursed her lips,
worried about their injuries, but didn't mention it, knowing both boy's
pride in their martial arts lifestyle.

"It's a little constricting," Ranma began, crossing his arms as he
thought of anything else to mention or suggest. "You said it's a little
bigger than the old one, but it feels a bit smaller. You should probably
put up some padding or something for the walls, too. A weaker guy could
break his neck hitting that thing."

"You're supposed to bounce off walls, not go through them," Ryouga
interjected, and his criticism was more positive. "It is very sturdy,
and well suited to more technical fights. Not everyone wants to bounce
around when they fight, so I like the size."

"Except the Dojo is designed to teach Saotome and Tendo Style 'Anything
Goes' Martial Arts, and that means motion, contemplation, and counter
attack. How often does anyone fight a real world battle in a square
room?" Ranma then relented to practicality. "Still, since we can't build
a 'Danger Room' or anything, it'll do."

"High praise," Akane quipped.

Ranma opened his mouth to retort, but Ryouga coughed, and the other boy
nodded his head. "I'll see you guys later, ok?"

The two made a few short goodbyes to the trio, and continued to the
medlab.

"Hey, Ranma," Ryouga said, once they were in the hallway and outside the
earshot of anyone else. "I... I wanted to say thanks for agreeing to
this mission. I know you weren't... eager to do it."

Ranma wanted, in that instant, to be indignant about having to put
everyone in danger just because the lost boy needed to get back at the
ones who had killed his girlfriend. Except he couldn't. If someone had
killed Akane, he'd have been frothing at the mouth to strike back at
them as soon as possible, whether or not it made sense, and even if it
put his friends in danger. It wasn't a realization he was particularly
proud of, but he knew down to his bones, down to his very cells, that it
was the truth.

Love made you stupid like that.

"Yeah," Ranma replied noncommittally, his thoughts and feelings his own
and no one else's. Entering the medlab, both wondered if they'd see
Kasumi, but instead they were sent to be treated by another doctor and
nurse they didn't know. In a half hour, they were eager to leave and be
on their way.

And get back to work.

-----

Kuno, Konatsu and Ukyou were the last three to arrive at the meeting,
following a silent trip up the elevator and towards the Conference Room.
It was a mutual sort of silence, not out of dislike, but out of a basic
lack of anything to discuss. On or off duty, Kuno tended to be aloof and
somewhat difficult to approach, and neither Ukyou nor Konatsu had any
real incentive to try their luck.

All three wore the same basic uniform, but over the last week they had
grown comfortable enough with it to make some customizations to break
the general monotony and homogeneity it engendered. Kuno, of course, had
ordered a handsome leather and steel chassis for his bokken, since he
had been forbidden to wield the Kuno family sword in the base. Konatsu,
deprived of being able to formally dress like a female ninja, or
kunoichi, had to settle for a red bow and lipstick to complete the
illusion of a pretty girl. Not considering them normal weapons in the
conventional sense, Ukyou had been permitted to carry a bandolier
sporting a half dozen of her mini-spatulas.

All three had, just the night before, received emails informing them
that there had been an important development in their training schedule,
and that they would get the details in a mandatory group meeting that
afternoon. Ranma and Ryouga had been the first two in the room; fitting
since they were the ones presenting the 'important development' and as
such they had printed out several documents for their teammates and laid
them out beforehand. Ukyou saw Shampoo sitting a few chairs removed from
the others, reading through a stapled together document.

It quickly became obvious that their seating was assigned by the name on
the papers in front of each chair at the conference table, and Ukyou saw
that she was given a spot in the middle of the two groups. It wasn't
hard to determine the general arrangement: there were eight chairs to
each long side of the table, but they were all lined up on the same
side, Ryouga's team in the left four chairs, Ranma's in the right.
Mousse sat on the far left, followed by Kuno, then the boy she knew the
least about: Ryu Kumon. She took her seat next to him, and Konatsu sat
between her and Shampoo, at the far right of the table.

To her surprise, the boys to her left all nodded in polite greeting to
each other.  It was a gesture she couldn't remember seeing between
Mousse and Kuno before, and she wondered how well the lost boy's group
had managed to get along. Did they have some kind of dynamic? They
seemed to, and Ukyou felt a pang of jealousy. She was happy to be with
her Ran-chan, of course, but it would be nice to be in a circle of
friends. Konatsu had an obvious crush on her, which she had exploited
easily before for criminally low wage labor in her restaurant, but he
wasn't really a friend or a peer in her eyes. Shampoo was an enemy at
best, a rival at worst.

She looked up at the large projection screen pulled down and put against
the wall opposite them, and saw that Ranma and Ryouga were still setting
up whatever it was they were supposed to present. She caught herself and
kept from giggling at the sight. No doubt Ryouga, that plan-wrecking
jackass, had caused some sort of problem and it was up to Ranma to fix
it. Not that she could tell, but it would be typical. In light of that,
it seemed like they had a little extra time.

She looked to her left, and at the Kumon boy. He was tall, though not
quite as much as Kuno, and built more heavily than the swordsman. He had
exceptionally black hair that spilled out over his white bandanna,
drawing the inevitable comparison to a certain Nerima regular, and black
fingerless leather gloves. When she'd seen him before he'd tended to
have a very serious look to him, but here he seemed more relaxed and at
ease with his surroundings and present company. He also seemed to sense
her studying him, even if she'd been quick and rather discrete about it.

"Miss Kounji, right?" he asked, and his eyes quickly went over her face
and neck.

"Mr. Kumon," she said back, and looked away from him, a little
embarrassed by being looked at like that. She certainly hadn't been on
the receiving end of those looks much since she'd renounced her
femininity, and even back at Furinkan when she'd started dressing more
normally. Still, Ranma had called her cute, and she thought she was
comparatively pretty, so it wasn't like she had self-esteem problems.
She just wasn't used to concerted male attention like that.

Suddenly a little more self conscious, she adjusted the white scrunchie
that held back her brown hair. Ryu stared at her just a little longer,
and then turned his head after Mousse asked something that raised Kuno's
ire. Well, she figured, at least she always had Konatsu's attention, and
that was better than nothing.

"You assume so blithely that you are ready to face the blade of Tatewaki
Kuno? Methinks you rate yourself too highly, blind fool!"

Mousse lolled his head back in faux ignorance. "Isn't that what you told
Ryu before he kicked your ass?"

"It was something to that effect," Ryu answered

Kuno crossed his arms in a dour pout. "I was not expecting such
unorthodox attacks. He will not be so lucky a second time, nor will you
a first."

"We'll see..." Mousse smirked, his thick glasses glinting in the light.

"Have you guys been fighting?" Ukyou asked, interrupting them and
leaning forward with her right elbow on the table.

"Haven't you been training with Ranma?" Mousse asked, pre-empting the
other two boys who were less well acquainted with her.

Ukyou shook her head. "Not really. We mostly train by ourselves."

"Why don't you spar with that other girl?" Ryu asked, and then
remembered her name. "Shampoo, isn't it? Or your cross dresser friend?"

"As if I'd waste my time training with an amateur," Shampoo spoke up
from the end of the table. Konatsu seemed to want to say something, but
he didn't really have the inclination to burst into an already heated
discussion.

"Amateur!" Ukyou whirled around, fire in her eyes. "AMATEUR?!"

"Are you short of hearing, too?" Shampoo replied with a wide grin. "Let
me spell it in plain simple English: A M A T E U R."

"Why don't you say half of that in coherent Japanese?" Ukyou gasped.
"Oh, that's right. You can't!"

"At least I learned another language!"

"Badly!"

"Which one of them is stronger, anyway?" Ryu asked, instantly diverting
the two girl's attentions. Kuno and Mousse just exchanged looks and
shrugged. Before Shampoo and Ukyou could start up again, Ranma and
Ryouga cleared their throats, again shifting the attention of the
groups, this time to them. Both looked rather irate, either at the
trouble they'd had, or the immaturity of some of their teammates, it was
hard to tell which.

"All right," Ranma spoke up, while Ryouga walked around the table to one
of the chairs at the narrow ends of the conference table. Behind the
pigtailed martial artist, the projection screen displayed a field of
black.

"Welcome, everyone. Me and Ryouga have got some important stuff to show
you." Ranma coughed, a little nervous about what he had to talk about,
and how. He'd had to do class presentations at Furinkan, and he'd never
been very comfortable with the role. "This is about our upcoming mission
assignment."

"Mission assignment?" Konatsu finally spoke up, his mezzo-soprano voice
belying his true gender. "I thought we had at least another week or two
of training?"

"We should still have that," Ranma assured them, and reached down to the
laptop he and Ryouga had been working on. Behind him, the screen changed
to display a standard security clearance warning.

"Before I begin," the pigtailed boy noted. "I have to inform you that
the following information is classified Angel/0A, and that the mission
outline and background we will also cover is Archangel/1B. You can talk
to your mentors about it, but otherwise keep it under wraps, got it?"

Ranma pressed a key on the laptop, and the presentation moved forward,
changing the projected picture to that of a map of East Asia. There were
several red dots marked prominently on the map: four in Japan, four in
the Korean Peninsula (all in the south), and two in northeastern China,
the Shandong Peninsula, just inland from the coast. Each was labeled
with a date, and a set of exact geographical coordinates in latitude and
longitude.

"What we've got here is information on alien cattle mutilations," Ranma
explained, and pivoted to look at the map with the rest of them. "Many
of these were also accompanied by abductions which resulted in...
missing persons. There are ten here over a five week period. In addition
to an estimated one hundred animals, of several types, eleven people
have been abducted and are presumed dead, four of them Japanese."

Ranma glanced over to Ryouga, but the lost boy sat calmly, with his eyes
closed and arms crossed. What only the two of them knew, among all the
martial artists present, was that Akari and her grandfather were two of
those four fatalities. Ranma's counterpart had not told him much about
what he remembered from the ordeal, but he could tell it was something
beyond horrible.

"Our countrymen have been slain by these foul creatures?!" Kuno pounded
the table with his fist. "Justice must be meted out swiftly and
terribly! How could such a travesty happen on our soil?!"

"Why weren't they shot down?" Ukyou asked, more reasonably. "Um...
Intercepted? Like they did the other day?"

"Well, firstly... when multiple UFOs are detected, priority is not
generally given to intercepting those on a Harvesting mission. More to
the point in this case," Ranma explained, pointing to the red dots
around Japan, almost all in the north - three in Honshu, one in
Hokkaido. "Intercepting a UFO requires that it be detected in flight,
which is difficult. Alien ships have a sorta stealth technology, which
makes it hard to track them using radar."

"From what me and Ryouga were told, this is probably the work of two
ships doing something called 'puddle jumping.' Instead of visiting the
planet and leaving, they're flying real low and landing somewhere
between missions, probably a lake or river or real thick forest. There
is also a possibility that they are using an alien base somewhere in the
area, probably in North Korea."

"Why North Korea?" Shampoo asked, by this point focused on the mission
and dangers ahead.

"Because those idiots made a deal with the aliens," Ranma said, and
shook his head in undisguised disgust. "It's pretty much friendly
territory for them. UNETCO isn't supposed to operate in their airspace
either, but they still do anyway. The charter says to protect the
planet, all of it, and that's what we're going to do."

"What the aliens're doing here is tough to stop, as long as they've got
a base on the ground." Ranma noticed that the group was looking at him
hopefully, and he smiled. "But there's a plan to stop em, so don't worry
about that. Based on flight patterns and missing animals and stuff, some
of the science types made some projections about where the aliens are
likely to attack next. Commander Yasuda tells me that they're already
set up listening devices in those areas, or somethin like that, so we'll
know when they come out of hiding."

"Our job will be to storm their ship when they land and take it intact,"
Ranma finally said, revealing their new mission. A few chairs squeaked
as the eager martial artists that were assembled looked at each other
and made aggrandizing remarks. Kuno and Ryu looked eager for a fight,
and so did Ukyou. Shampoo and Mousse were rather more subdued, but
obviously anxious to do something. Konatsu was quiet. He didn't look
afraid, but he had had a close run in with the aliens during the attack
on Nerima, and it had left him cautious.

"Heavenly justice shall find them; a swift and righteous end to evil
lives!" Kuno boasted.

"So what're we up against?" Ryu asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Ryouga?" Ranma nodded to the lost boy, and walked to his seat at the
end of the table closest to his group. The bandanna clad martial artists
got back up, and took his position where Ranma had just been. He pressed
a key on the laptop, and the screen changed. This time it showed an
isometric picture of a three-tiered ship, octagonal with smooth, round
surfaces.

Next to it, the three tiers were outlined by floor plans. The first
floor had a wide-open area, its areas marked off with labels like "Alien
Storage" and another described as "Surgery Apparatus." There was a
smaller triangular area, with a square representing a "gravity lift" and
a door to the "engine room" which was planted right in the center of the
first floor, in a rectangle blocked off by "reinforced alien alloy
walls." Another rectangle on the first floor, possessing another gravity
lift, and encapsulated by walls of alien alloys, ran adjacent to the
engine room and out to the outer hull; it was labeled "Entrance Alpha."
Another door was indicated in the hull, leading directly into the
storage and surgery area, called "Entrance Beta."

Above that, on the second floor, there was a square room, directly above
Entrance Alpha, with a door leading to another triangular room that led
down to the engine room. Two other doors led to a smaller area, also
marked for storage, shaped like a ladle. At the two ends of the ladle
shaped area, smaller triangular rooms contained gravity lifts, obviously
leading to the third floor. There was also another door in the middle of
the 'ladle shaft' that oddly led out to the surgery area the floor
below. Anyone going through it could jump down, or float down, since
more than a few aliens had that capability.

The third floor was the simplest. Each of the lifts led to larger
triangular rooms than the ones on the second floor. Up against one side
of the ship, between the lift rooms, a small antechamber ran in a short
rectangle. The rest of the third floor was one large room, and labels
there indicated 3C: command, control, and communications.

"This is the ship we will have to assault," Ryouga said, speaking more
slowly than Ranma, but more succinctly. "I want all of you to memorize
this layout. It is a typical Alien Harvester. Thirty-two meters in
diameter, over five hundred cubic meters of internal volume... think of
it like a big house with indestructible walls."

"Indestructible?" Shampoo asked, in English. "What about the Breaking
Point?"

"Alien alloys don't have breaking points as far as I can tell. None of
us will be able to break through using raw strength," Ryouga conceded,
strongly disliking this fact. It obviously didn't sit well with the
other Nerimites, either. They were used to being able to smash through
walls or other obstacles as necessary.

"If necessary," he added. "We can requisition a M150 PAM. This is a
'Penetrating Augmented Munition' equivalent to ninety one kilograms of
C4."

"Ninety one kilograms of high explosive?" Ukyou was familiar with bombs,
since she used explosives as part of one of her techniques. 91 kilos was
about twice her weight. By the name, she could guess that it was a
shaped charge, too. That was a mind-boggling amount of force.

"Two charges of that size are recommended to open a man sized breach in
the hull of a UFO," Ryouga informed her with a straight face. He wasn't
kidding or exaggerating, and she deflated a bit, overawed by the
information. Just what were they getting into?

"As I was saying. I want all of you to memorize these floor plans. Ranma
and I will be holding another meeting at a later time to discuss more
detailed strategies, but I can quickly point out the objectives we will
need to secure. First, we will have to eliminate all of the crew...
except (if it can be helped) for the leader or the navigator, who are
likely to be on the bridge."

"Interrogation?" Mousse asked, sounding familiar with the concept.

"The goal of this mission isn't just to stop this one ship. It is to
find the location of the base it is operating from. Which means we
should approach all the enemies on the third level in a non lethal
fashion." Ryouga didn't seem to enjoy that bit of advice, and he quickly
moved on, pointing to other areas on the floor plan. "Aside from the
bridge, we will have to secure the engine room and the fuel there. If we
encounter any civilians, they will likely be here, in the surgery area.
If they are in danger, you have permission to free them. If they are
restrained, but safe, it is better to leave them be until after the
mission."

"What if that puts them in danger?" Konatsu asked. "Shouldn't we free
anyone we find as soon as possible?"

"No," Ryouga answered, curtly. "This is a secret organization, remember?
Standard Operating Procedure dictates that any survivors must be
screened properly, and be kept out of the way whenever possible."

"It is believed that the crew is mixed, a combination of two alien
species. The first are the sectiods, or grays." Ryouga keyed up the next
screen, which showed both a picture of the small, creepy bulbous
creature alive and unharmed, and a picture of it splayed out on an
operating table. Luckily, no one present was the squeamish type.

"You'll find more information on these things in the stuff we printed
out," Ryouga began, and paused to let the other martial artists open the
papers that had been placed in front of their seats. "There is a library
in the Archives room, and sometime over the next few days, I think we
all should go to the morgue and see a corpse first hand."

"The presence of sectoids means we will have to be on alert for psionic
attack," the lost boy turned back to face the screen. "Some of these
creatures are capable of telekinesis equivalent to a ki or aura attack.
They can paralyze you with a thought, cause you to panic, or even
control your mind. Ranma and I killed one before... but if it had been
either of us alone..."

Ryouga growled, but it sounded more remorseful than angry.

"Lastly," he said, and changed the screen again, this time revealing a
more humanoid and properly proportioned creature, save for the fact that
much of its torso and lower body was a smooth metallic container that
reached down to around where its knees should have been. "We can expect
these as well: Floaters. That ... thing replacing their lower body holds
their vital organs and allows them to hover in the air. Silently, too.
They generally have little to no psionic ability, no ki, so it shouldn't
be difficult to kill them."

"That is," Ranma clarified, speaking up from his seat. "There is a small
chance that they may have some martial arts abilities of their own, and
some mastery of ki."

"Ki attacks?" Mousse asked. While he considered Ranma and Ryouga his
peers, and even rivals in a roundabout way (more rivals-by-association
than anything), he was the only one of the trio without a real ki attack
of his own.

"There's no way to know for sure," Ranma explained. "But you all should
be aware of the possibility."

"Also," Ryouga spoke up, changing the subject. "Because of the nature of
this mission, which can be activated at any time, day or night, we will
have to suspend any trips far from the base..."

He started towards his seat, but paused, and turned towards the other
martial artists. Unlike even a moment before, there was a burning
intensity to his daze, and a haunted, obsessive look. He tilted his head
forward, and looked from one of them to the other, from Mousse to
Shampoo.

"This mission is very important; let's all do our best to train," he
said, and though his words were innocuous enough, every person present
could feel the tingle of killer intent emanating from the lost boy. He
then took his seat, and cupped his hands in front of him. Opposite
Ryouga, at the far other end of the conference table, Ranma alone knew
the truth.

Ryouga had volunteered them, again, and against Ranma's better judgment.
Commander Yasuda hadn't forced this mission on them. She had said that
it might have been too difficult for a first run in with the aliens.
Ranma had agreed, and preferred to delay any real missions for at least
another week, preferably two. Ryouga, however, wanted - or maybe needed
- to take this mission. The ship they were after, the aliens they were
hunting, were the ones that had, safe and secure in their hidden base,
killed Akari right before his eyes.

Ryouga had a naturally vengeful personality. Hell, he had somehow hunted
Ranma down from Japan to China and back again, despite not knowing any
spoken or written Chinese beforehand, and not having any contacts or
information on where his enemy had gone. And that was over a missed
fight and some stolen bread! Ranma couldn't imagine what Ryouga felt,
even as close to despair as he came when Akane almost died in Jusendo.
The taste of his aura, however, and the murderous intention he had
behind his eyes, betrayed him.

Ranma just hoped the lost boy's bloodlust didn't get anyone killed.

That was something he wouldn't forgive himself or Ryouga for.

"From this point on, until the mission has been completed, it will be
referred to as Operation: Zebra." Ranma narrowed his eyes at his group
in particular. "When the time comes... everybody will follow the orders
they are given. Everybody will fight. And everybody will come home."

-----

From: Sqd. 1stclass. Shampoo [mailto: chineseamazon@unetco.org] Sent:
Saturday, November 11, 2006, 00:10 To: SSgt. Linda Kinoshida [mailto:
Lkinoshida@unetco.org] Subject: Journal Submission

I'll just cut and paste - OK?

Journal Entry: November 4

I met with Ranma and the others in the morning, and we practiced
marksmanship. The girly boy (I-don't-know-his-last-name Konatsu) showed
some improvement, and the boyish girl (Kounji Ukyou) was a little
better, too. Ranma spent extra time with them, which I thought was
unfair. He should have been practicing with me, since he learns very
fast, and I am still better with a rifle. It is better to have two very
good fighters with a weapon than one good one and three mediocre ones. I
think.

After that, we went to the library to study the creatures we are
supposed to fight, and their ship. I do not think they were the same
types that attacked Nerima and killed Great Grandmother. They are too
weak, I think. A man showed us how to access library information from
the computers in our room and but I prefer to read things on paper.

Last week you suggested that I get to know the other people here better,
even if I didn't like them. So I tried to see what they were doing every
day with a different person. I decided to visit with the boy I didn't
know, named Kumon Ryu. He was practicing his martial arts at the
shooting range indoors. He is not as good a fighter as Ranma, but he is
definitely better than stupid Mousse.

-----

"Kijin Raishu Dan!" Ryu could be heard from either entrance of the
indoor shooting range, his deep voice booming especially loud as he
shouted that last syllable of the powerful Yamasenken technique. The
range wasn't empty; in addition to the hissing sound of Ryu's attack as
it shot downrange, there was also the relatively silent rapport of
someone firing a laser rifle.

Shampoo had seen the laser weapons used by XCOM before, and though she
hadn't practiced with one yet, she was thinking about giving it a try.
The sniper rifles they were practicing with were largely obsolete,
fallen out of favor with soldiers who preferred the T-7A2 ALR, or
Advanced Laser Rifle. As she walked down the range, holding her MSG-90,
she saw a man she didn't recognize using the weapon in conjunction with
the helmet that went with his personal armor.

Her pedagogical instruction had left a basic imprint of the weapons
technology used by XCOM, containing information she otherwise never
would have had. As the man fired, there was a sound like someone lightly
clapping their hands, and the target downrange registered a hit in the
center of the target. The actual laser beam was invisible to the human
eye, but she could see a faint trail of steam in the air that marked its
passage. It was the nature of the laser, creating both steam and
ionizing the air it passed through; normally this caused a mild boom,
but the laser rifle mitigated this somewhat by firing a low power laser
a millisecond before the high powered beam was emitted, preemptively
ionizing the air. The only recoil from the weapon was due to air being
ejected from the sleeve surrounding the barrel.

The man glanced at her as she walked behind him, and then went back to
his practice. Shampoo wondered briefly what he thought about her, if he
thought anything at all. While she'd been raised by the warriors of her
tribe, she was less used to being around the professional soldier types,
foreigners all of them, who populated Seiran Mountain. She was well
aware of how, back in Nerima, she had obtained a reputation as a
somewhat comical Chinese gaijin, with no sophistication or redeeming
qualities besides her physical beauty. Things would be different here,
she hoped. Here, she didn't have problems with the language, and here
(in a base full of skilled people of so many nationalities) she didn't
feel like the sore thumb who stuck out all the time.

If anyone doubted her here, it would be because she was so young.

But time would prove those people wrong. She was the finest warrior of
her generation from a village with a warrior history dating back three
thousand years. She was her Great Grandmother's heir, and she was
determined to prove her worth in that respect by avenging the wrongs
committed on the Tribe by the space borne devils that had killed their
Matriarch.

"Kijin Raishu Dan!"

A crescent shape flashed through the air, hitting a target at the fifty-
meter mark, shaking it slightly. She saw Ryu himself now, devoid of ear
protection, and wearing only a pair of green and brown cargo pants and a
black sleeveless muscle shirt. She had seen the ensemble before: it was
what he wore when he did his martial arts training, presumably because
it was easier to practice the "Demon God Assault Bomb" without anything
on your arms.

"Kijin Raishu Dan!" He yelled again, this time snapping his left arm
forward and back in a blur of motion, pure speed, and ki. Another
crescent shaped attack shot through the air, hissing like an angry
snake, but unlike its predecessor this one missed the target and hit the
wall behind it. Both were constructed of alien alloys, well able to
stand up to punishment.

"Damn..." Ryu said between breaths, his work taking a toll on his
stamina. He worked the stiffness out of his neck with his right hand,
and finally took notice of her.

"Hey," he offered.

"Interesting attack," Shampoo replied, sticking to English. She smiled
that he had made the expression in that language. He had obviously
picked up on how she preferred it to her imperfect Japanese.

"Thanks. I still have a little trouble with this left arm, though," he
spoke in a comfortable manner, considering they didn't really know each
other. Shampoo suspected, however, that Mousse had been active enough
telling his friends about the 'love of his life, Shampoo.'

"Is that your strongest attack?" She then asked, selecting a target type
for herself from the automatic menu. There were ones in the shapes of
different sorts of aliens, in addition to the more basic cross or
'bull's eye' circle. All were effectively indestructible to most forms
of weaponry, so rather than record holes made in it, a computer detected
where it had been struck and recorded it on a small digital display.

"The Yamasenken actually has two more powerful techniques," he
explained, but didn't say what they were exactly. Shampoo didn't mind.
It was the tendency of martial artists to guard the details of their
secret techniques closely. Some would never even admit to their
existence, or even say their names, outside of a life or death duel.

Ryu, however, gave her a little info on them when he added, "But they're
not as accurate as the Kijin Raishu Dan, and it isn't as if we're being
told to level every building with an enemy in it."

He patted his face with a white towel that had hung from a nearby
clothing hook.

"What about you?" he asked. "Do you have any ranged special techniques?"

"Not really," she admitted, though she didn't like the fact. "Among the
women of my tribe, it is considered more... honorable to focus on close
combat techniques."

"Well, that's ok," he replied, with a casual shrug. "After all, I don't
think we want to stand around and trade shots at long range with the
enemy if we can help it, right? The whole idea is to get close and find
an opening."

Shampoo gave him a sideways glance, unsure whether he was just being
polite or whether he was being condescending. Taking a deep breath, he
seemed content to end the conversation there, and went back to hitting
his target downrange. Shampoo took a similar approach, hitting her
circular target over and over again with her MSG-90. Ranma was already
asking her to practice with heavier weapons, since she was stronger than
Konatsu or Ukyou, but none of them were as... elegant as the sniper
rifle she had in her hands.

"Kijin Raishu Dan!" She saw, between shots, how one of Ryu's attacks
missed again, going over his target's head. She waited a few seconds,
and he tried again, this time hitting the target on the neck. Gradually,
it became more and more obvious Ryu was only aiming at the upper body.
The digital marksmanship display confirmed this fact, and as he finally
wound down and got ready to leave, she decided to ask him about it.

"Aiming high?" He'd asked, a little bemused by the question when she had
gotten around to posing it. "Look at the target."

Shampoo did, and then back at the marksmanship record that she could
hear being printed out next to the main computer console that serviced
the firing range's systems. Ryu walked a short way to retrieve it, and
by the time he got back to pick up his duffel bag, she still hadn't
caught what he meant.

"What do you mean, look at the target?" Shampoo asked, growing a little
testy at his answer from before.

"I mean, the target is a Floater type," Ryu said, and held up the
hit/miss marksmanship paper, which showed the target he'd used, where
he'd hit it and when, and even when he'd missed and hit the wall. The
target itself was in the shape of one of the aliens called "Floaters" -
the round legless bulb below the torso made it obvious.

"Most of a Floater's body, the abdomen area and up to most of the upper
torso is made up of machine parts. It doesn't have any vulnerable organs
except those in the head." He saw she still didn't quite get it. "In
other words, most of its body is made of the same stuff as that target
down range: alien alloys. It's basically a sort of body armor. Unless
you hit it in a vulnerable area, chances are that you won't do any
damage, so you should aim for the head, for a kill, or the arms, to
incapacitate it."

Shampoo nodded her head, seeing that Ryu had really done his research.
More than she had, really. She'd read about the Floaters, and how most
of their body had been replaced - effectively encased - in a shell of
metal. It hadn't occurred to her, however, that it wasn't something that
could be punched through. The concept still took some getting used to,
as used to breaking anything she could get her petite hands on as she
was.

Eventually he headed out, and as he walked away, Shampoo switched
targets, and started aiming high. She also decided that starting to
practice with a bigger gun was something better done sooner, rather than
later.

"Stupid aliens," she grumbled, missing the target downrange.

-----

Journal Entry: November 5

I just had a strange dream about Great Grandmother, and getting cursed
again at Jyusenkyou. The Guide was there, and so was his daughter, and
they pushed me into another pool. I'm writing this right after getting
up, because I know I'll forget it later. This is the first bad dream I
think I've had since I came here.

This morning we all went and got our own suits of armor: the Personal
Armor called the "PA-3 Personal Armor System for Ground Troops."
Everyone is supposed to be responsible for taking care of their armor
and putting it on, and I expect we will do a lot of training in it. I
don't really like the color or the design, but women of the Amazon Tribe
are used to wearing armor to protect themselves in battle. This is no
different.

Ranma told us to train together today, so that we can learn from each
other. What that means is that he hopes spatula girl and her weird
boyfriend will learn something useful from their betters. I play-fought
with both of them, and Ranma, and Ukyou is still as annoying as I
remember to fight. We did our training outside near the base, and when I
cooked some delicious lunchtime ramen for Ranma, Ukyou tried to
interrupt by stuffing her so-called food down his throat.

When I tried to stop her from molesting the man I am, by the laws of the
Chinese Amazon Tribe, already all but married to, she threw exploding
okonomiyaki at me! So I decided to teach her a lesson, and used the
Kinbaku Chao Mien attack on her. A normal person would have learned
their lesson, but not stupid spatula girl! Only a little while later, we
turned in for the day. I don't know what Ranma and Ukyou's pet ninja boy
did, now that I think about it.

-----

Ranma watched Konatsu carefully for the other boy's attack. It didn't
help that there were currently six identical versions of the genius
ninja, courtesy of the special Kunoichi Ninpou: Rokubu Ichitai - meaning
'Six Parts as One Body.' This was a form of multiple body technique,
long famed to be one of the pinnacles of the art of the ninja. The six
copies set themselves in place, and Ranma flexed his fingers, knuckles
popping.

"Tempuradan!!" An explosion sent a cloud of smoke into the air... a
hundred feet away. A second later, there was another explosion, and then
several small ones.

"Stupid spatula girl as blind as Mousse! No can hit even own restaurant
from the inside!"

"That was just a warning shot! Try this on for size: Okonomiyakidan!"

More explosions.

"Maybe we should move?" Ranma asked, glancing towards the growing
conflagration the two girls were kicking up. Konatsu, however, had
already pulled a disappearing trick and was nowhere to be seen. No more
than a second later, a flying disk of surprisingly explosive batter and
toppings hit the ground at his feet and blew sky high, sending him
tumbling through the air, arms and legs akimbo.

As the pigtailed boy landed in a thicket of bushes, his haunting call
echoed through the woods.

"Whhhhyyyy meeeee?"

-----

Journal Entry: November 6

I applied for permission to train with the Mk.47 Striker 40, and was
allowed to use one of the weapons under supervision. As of today, I am
now certified to use it for practice, and hopefully, I will be able to
use one by the time we have our mission. It is not very heavy and I have
no problems carrying it around, even though it is kind of bulky, and so
is the ammunition for it. It will take some time to get used to using
the special sights on it, though.

Today, we trained with the lost boy's team, all of us together. We went
over some strategies for approaching a building when under fire, and a
bunch of other things. Outside, they drew an outline in the dirt of the
first level of the ship, and we practiced moving through it. Today must
have been some kind of 'team day' because we did everything as a group.
It was strange.

I caught Mousse staring at me, of course, so I hit some sense into his
thick head. Doesn't he realize I'm betrothed to Ranma, who is a much
stronger, better groom than he could ever be? He should be happy and
help me, not always get in the way. I know he thinks Ranma will marry
that ugly tomboy Akane, but I swear that will never happen so long as I
am an Amazon and I draw breath.

Anyway, after a while, we went to the new Dojo that the Tendo family
built for more play fighting. Except we did it in our personal armor,
which was a good idea. There were two matches going on at any time, in
the two Dojo rooms, but they dragged on a long time. The armor made it
much harder to knock out my opponent, and that was true for everyone,
even Ranma. Almost everyone got the chance to fight everyone else once,
except Ranma and the lost boy, who didn't fight. Which was too bad.
Ranma always wins, but at least the fight is always interesting.

Stick boy Kuno used a real sword today again, and when he said something
about taking me out on a date if I win, I made sure to draw with him. At
least his crazy sister isn't around anymore. Still I don't want to have
someone like that bothering me all the time. I don't know how anyone can
stand him.

-----

Nabiki smirked at the exultant expression on his face.

"That'll be 20,000 yen, Kuno-baby," she said, coyly, holding the
photographs out of his reach, but at just enough of an angle that he
could see then top one, and parts of a few others.

"Tendo Nabiki, you wound me with your inflated prices!" Kuno clutched
his chest, as if fighting a terrible internal war between giving money
to such a mercenary girl and going without new pictures.

"Oh?" The middle Tendo smiled like a predatory cat. "I object to you
calling my prices inflated. This is simply supply and demand."

"But..." Kuno pleaded, his expression now dour. "I am the only one who
buys these things from you, as far as I know."

"And how far do you know?" Nabiki asked, and then added. "Besides, these
may well be the last pictures of the pig tailed girl you'll ever be able
to have, Kuno-baby. Don't you want something to remember her by? Don't
you want something to warm those lonely nights here in this isolated
little base underground? Don't you want something to blow up to poster
size and pin on your wall, for only an additional 10,000 yen?"

"Avaricious woman," Kuno grumbled, relenting. "How should I transfer
such an exorbitant amount of money?"

"Remember where we are, Kuno-baby. I work in the finance department,
after all!" Nabiki chuckled cutely, mostly at having swindled the poor
swordsman out of hundreds of American dollars to her own benefit. Cash
was mostly useless on the base, so she would have to transfer the money
from his account to hers electronically. Not that she minded. She liked
the feel of yen, be it coin or bill form, but she wasn't married to the
tactile sensation. Just the idea, the knowledge, of having more money
brought her a nice little rush.

She'd never really cared much for math, or anything of the sort. But
sums, the movement and flow of money (preferably into her coffers, and
from there, doled out in exchange for the finer things in life), were
her obsession. Nabiki Tendo loved money. And she loved buying things
with it, and finding the best possible price for what she wanted. Yes:
it was that delicate combination, that tight rope act, of paying as
little as possible for as much as possible, that truly enthralled her.
It was, in a way, her martial art.

Not that she was about to do anything illegal for it. She was only an
intern at the moment, watched closely (mostly for incompetence), and
spending her time at a desk. Still, it was amusing enough watching and
checking the sheer volume of money that went through the coffers of
UNETCO just in Japan. Besides, she had a feeling that if she actually
tried laundering money or anything else illegal, she'd get caught in
less than a day, and probably be executed for 'crimes against humanity'
or something.

UNETCO, despite having quite deep pockets, took its finances very
seriously.

"Here you go, Kuno-baby," Nabiki said, after happily loading up a screen
asking for a login, password and PIN number. "Just sign in, load up a
transfer of finances form, and send it. It handles money in American
dollars, but I know the going exchange rate."

Of course, she'd known the rate beforehand, and intended to round up
generously when she gave him the estimate. Kuno sighed, and she scooted
over in her chair to let him have access to the keyboard. His hands
wavered over the keys, and he looked at her critically.

"A little privacy?"

"Oh, of course. I'll just go get a drink of water," Nabiki said, her
voice dripping innocence as she got out of her chair, and headed towards
the water cooler. She heard Kuno typing once she was unable to see him,
and she shrugged at the missed opportunity. Nothing illegal, she
reminded herself. The true contest wasn't in robbing people, but in
tricking them, beating them at haggling, and getting them to hand over
their money consensually. It was a contest of intellect and will!

At the water cooler, she filled up two little paper cups, and in the
middle of the second, she saw someone approach. She recognized her
immediately: one of her new coworkers. Nabiki, being an intern, sat at
the lowest and least important rung of the current non-combat population
on the base. Even Kasumi, as a nurse in training, probably ranked higher
in people's eyes. All of the personnel in the base were extremely
skilled with exceptional backgrounds, and so they were rightly proud of
themselves, and naturally a little aloof to the new girl who got in
without a college degree.

But if Nabiki Tendo had the distinct honor of being at the bottom of the
current pecking order, Sun-Yu Kim was only a step above her. The spunky
girl reminded Nabiki a little of Akane; she even had hair the same blue-
black color, but grown long just past her shoulders and without Akane's
bangs. Sun-Yu was a new addition to the program here, having earned her
degree in America, at the UNETCO Sanctuary Community. Her father had
joined XCOM in 2001, and his family had been transferred to the
Community. Five years later, she had gotten the chance to work at the
same base as her father, and she'd been shipped over.

Supposedly, she had a younger brother who wanted to join up too, much to
their mother's exasperation. He was only fifteen, however, and barring
him learning powerful and esoteric martial arts, it was highly unlikely
he'd see combat with the alien menace. Unless, of course, the war
dragged on and on, or UNETCO became overwhelmed and the human race found
itself helpless and under siege...

"Who's the cute guy by your desk?" Sun-Yu asked, walking up with her own
empty paper cup. She spoke in English like everyone did at work. Nabiki
had considered herself capable with the language after her graduation
(she'd even done well in college, when she took it), but just a few
hours under the influence of the pedagogical interface, she found
herself speaking and understanding it fluently. Reading English was a
little more difficult, and writing a bit harder, but it was more than
enough to get the job done.

"You mean Kuno?" Nabiki knew she girl meant Kuno, but it was fun to play
around. There was always potential profit to be made in people's
romantic interests, or even their base lusts.

'Oh my,' Nabiki's inner Kasumi mused. 'That made me sound like a pimp.'

"Kuno, huh?" Sun-Yu noted the two cups Nabiki held, as she refilled her
own at the water cooler. "Are you and he...?" She let the sentence
trail, leaving it implied.

"Not quite my type, I'm afraid," Nabiki admitted, and it was the truth.
Kuno was sort of cute (actually, he could be quite handsome when he
wasn't acting like a pretentious fool), but he wasn't terribly
interesting. Plus, he got on her nerves more often than he didn't. His
money, on the other hand - there was something she could spend the rest
of her life with!

"He's just a friend. We've known each other since elementary school,"
Nabiki continued, and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "He's one of
the new martial artists on the base. I can get you a picture or two, if
you want..."

"Why would I want his picture?" she other girl asked, though she did
lean to her side to get a better look at Kuno, who had a sorrowful look
on account of his now smaller... account. I wouldn't mind meeting him
though."

Nabiki didn't let the disappointment of making a few easy bucks deter
her. If she could somehow foist Kuno off on Sun-Yu (or even just
distract him a little while with the more worldly young woman), she
could not only try and make some money off their relationship by selling
information, but also get a little from Akane for getting the irritating
kendoist off her back as well.

"Drop in on us in a few minutes; I'll introduce you," Nabiki replied,
and winked. "Kuno's something of a lady's man. You'll like him."

'For a little while,' she thought, but didn't say.

Heading back to her desk, Nabiki handed Kuno the drink she'd gotten him,
and sat on the corner of her desk before crossing her long legs and
smoothing over her short black skirt. It was such a shame that he was
essentially impervious to any of her attempts at seduction, or even just
throwing him off base with her looks. After years of being swindled,
he'd developed an effective immunity. Still, it was best to keep in
practice.

She didn't bother to check to make sure Kuno had filled in the right
amount of money. He'd never try to cheat her, and he'd never go back on
a deal or his word. She could respect the position. She had no qualms
about omitting truths herself, or even stretching them, but it was
usually best to cultivate at least the appearance of honesty.

"Now, Kuno-baby..." She smiled at him. "Let's talk about buying an equal
number of Akane's pictures at the same price..."

"What?" Kuno gasped. "Curse your greed, woman! How dare you ask the
noble scion of House Kuno to pay, not once, but twice, such an
outrageous sum for photographs? While it cannot be denied that the
preserved image of the beauteous Akane Tendo is worth parting with money
for, how can you justify charging as much for them as the - in your own
words 'rare' and 'limited edition' - pictures of the pigtailed girl?"

"But think what it would mean to my sister if you paid less for her
pictures than you did for the pigtailed girl?" Nabiki leaned over a
little and looked at him seriously. "Why, it would be an insult! Are you
saying you love the pigtailed girl more than Akane?"

"I... I..." Kuno clenched his right fist and stared up at the heavens
(or rather: at a light built into the ceiling).

"I must have them BOTH!" He vowed, thunder rumbling in the heavens and
waves crashing dramatically against the shore (inside his mind). "Curse
my heart, generous and bountiful enough for two such spirited ladies as
it is! For each, my love flows equally and eternally!"

Nabiki just grinned, broadly. "I knew you'd see things my way..."

-----

Journal Entry: November 7

Had another strange dream last night. Not really bad. It was about the
date Ukyou had with Ranma tonight. Tuesday, Ranma said he plans to
invite Ukyou over to eat with his family, just like I get to be with him
Thursday. Wednesday, he eats over with the Tendo family and the violent
girl they want to shackle him to. Now I can barely remember the dream,
but it had something to do with Ukyou buying Ranma from his father with
food I think. I know it wouldn't work in real life (probably), but it
was still scary.

The only unusual thing today was when we went to the morgue to look at
alien bodies. Ranma called it a Field Trip. We all had to touch the
bodies, to make them seem less mysterious and more real, or something
like that. Most of them felt and smelled like spoiled fish and cabbage.
It did help to show where some of the weak spots on their bodies are, at
least, so the trip wasn't a total waste of time.

I visited one of the workshops today, too, and saw Mousse there. Not
that I care what he does, but I was sort of curious, so I asked. After
the fool stopped being happy that I'd even bothered to talk to him, he
explained that he was customizing his personal armor to make it easier
for him to use his Hidden Weapons black magic. I'd forgotten about that,
and so I've looked into adding some personal touches to my armor, too.

-----

Mousse chuckled darkly as he worked.

None of the technicians or engineers in the workshop really understood
the purpose of Mousse's modifications to his personal armor, or the fact
that he was tailoring an overcoat for it. That was all right - they
didn't have to understand the mysteries of his Art. They just had to
help him, and to his relief, they were happy to do just that.

XCOM had the most state of the art fabrication and construction machines
he'd ever heard of. In fact, there were a lot of machines he'd never
heard of, but like those who worked here didn't question him; he didn't
question how they did what they did either. Things had come along
perfectly, in the end. He'd have to be much more economical with his use
of Hidden Weapons than in the past, but the result would be a leaner,
deadlier Art.

As his new personal armor took form, and developing from a few thoughts
and rough sketches, he smiled and adjusted his thick work goggles. He
had a whole slew of new ideas for techniques, a generation evolved from
the Hidden Weapons Art he'd learned all those years ago. It would be
another day before he was done, but when he was...

"Even the Junyoken is not outside the realm of possibility..."

-----

Journal Entry: November 8

Not much to say.

I practiced more with the Striker 40. We trained together as a group
again today, first with weapons and tactics, then with martial arts. The
stupid violent girl tried to help, but only got in the way. When Ranma
pointed this out to her, she hit him with a training sword. Good. Every
time she hits him, it means they are less likely to get together. I
don't know why Ranma bothers with that brick headed girl anyway. Even
Ukyou is better than her.

We ate at the commissary inside the base, and they served this sort of
wonton. It was some kind of American wonton I think. For some reason, I
don't know the name of it off the top of my head like I know most
English words. I didn't say as much, but it was actually surprisingly
good.

The rest of our training time we spent at a Psionics Lab, working on our
ki. There was a movie we watched about building "Ego Barriers" and other
stuff. There were a lot of fancy words, but basically what it was about
was to defend yourself from an aura attack. I wish Great grandmother
were here. She could teach how to do that much better than doctors and
machines.

We were also tested for our "Psionic Strength" and "Psionic Skill" and
shown a "PsiAmp." Supposedly, with it, you can directly influence
someone's mind, even if you can't see them. You can even take over their
minds completely.

We mostly just worked on our auras, and internalizing and externalizing
ki. I've never been very good at externalizing ki, but at least Ukyou
and Mousse have the same problem. I also want to point out the funniest
thing that happened today! At some point, Ukyou tried to have some kind
of private conversation with Ryouga. I don't know what the spatula head
said (probably she tried to talk him into some stupid scheme of hers)
but I don't think it had the desired effect!

-----

Ukyou saw him standing against a wall, watching the others practice.
Clothes aside, the grumpy expression on his face alone gave off who he
was, wherever he was. Taking a break from practicing 'pushing out her
emotions' and 'visualizing her spirit' (whatever that meant) she leaned
against the wall next to him, ostensibly to rest a bit. There were no
chairs in the room, with its white tiles all over the floor, walls and
ceiling.

He looked at her briefly, as if just to register her presence, and then
went back to gauging the progress of the others. Ukyou pouted and
frowned, miffed by the dismissing gesture. Especially since she was
willing to give him another chance to help her break up Akane and Ranma.
She knew the lost boy still had feelings for the youngest Tendo girl,
and since he hadn't brought his farmer girlfriend with him, it was
likely that he'd begin to fall back on his first love. Ukyou knew all
too well that her real competition for Ranma's hand wasn't Shampoo, it
was Akane, and her best card for wooing Akane away from her Ran-chan was
Ryouga Hibiki.

"So, how are we doing?" She asked, hoping to warm up his conversation a
bit.

He tilted his head to look at her in profile.

"Poorly," he answered.

"That's a little harsh," Ukyou replied, put off by the response. Poorly?

"This is probably the most important training you'll ever have," he
answered, and he closed his eyes and grimaced, as if tasting something
sour. "There are creatures we will have to face, have to fight... that
will tear your mind open, Ukyou. And those are the merciful ones. The
cruel ones... will let you live. Live and wish you'd died."

His words sent a chill down her spine. She was used to hearing overly
dramatic sorts of speech from him, hell: he'd even quietly quoted poetry
a few times while musing over his unrequited affections. But there was a
hollow monotone, a statement of simple fact, in what he had just said.
Still, she didn't let it deter her. She knew he took this fight against
the aliens seriously.

"You wanted us to do the best we can, and train as hard as we can,"
Ukyou reminded him, standing up straighter against the wall adjacent to
him. "That's what we're doing. One hundred percent."

He didn't reply immediately, but eventually nodded slowly. "How about
you, Ukyou? Do you need any help, or...?"

"Actually," she said, and smiled at the opening in the conversation he'd
provided. "I do need your help!"

"Really?" he asked, his voice (while not the equal of her chipper tone)
did indicate he was feeling a bit more amenable. "Well: just ask."

"Well, I noticed you're all alone here..." She did note the look in his
eyes, as his pupils grew smaller, but she pushed on. His reaction
reinforced her guess that Akari had dumped him, probably getting tired
of him getting lost.

"I'm guessing you're still a bachelor, right?" she asked, but kept
talking before he could answer. "And I'm also guessing you've been
thinking about Akane again, right?"

"Not interested," he quickly said, and looked away, turning his
attention back to the gathering kis in the room.

"You didn't even hear me out!" Ukyou complained, grabbing the sleeve of
his shirt. "Listen, Hibiki, this is our chance! Ranma isn't even living
with the Tendo's anymore, and you're around all the time now! With me
being on Ran-chan's team, I'm with him more often than he's around
Akane..."

"Ukyou..." he growled a warning.

"Think about it! Are you a man or aren't you?" Ukyou, growing more
annoyed by the fact that he wasn't even looking at her, grabbed him by
the front of his shirt below the collar, and tried to force him to face
her. "Don't be so wishy washy! Be decisive! Seize the moment! If you'd
stuck with your guns a year ago, you'd probably be happily engaged, and
I'd already be married!"

"Ranma and Akane have my blessing," he told her firmly, and she drew
back a little. At the failed wedding, she'd suspected that he'd just
given up.

"You're lying," she said, calling his bluff. "You still love Akane."

"Of course I do," he replied, keeping his voice low, almost a whisper.
"I will always care for her. But she wants Ranma. Not me."

"You're just afraid," Ukyou hissed. "A real man would fight for the
woman he loves!"

The moment she said it, she knew she'd crossed a line, even if she
didn't know why. For days now, she'd known how on edge Ryouga had been,
but eventually it had sort of faded into the background noise and been
forgotten or overlooked. Now, suddenly, she felt it sweep over her: a
cold, icy grip that caught her breath in her throat.

Partly, she knew on an analytical level, it was her Sakkijutsu - her
danger sense as a high-class martial artist - interacting with his aura,
his emotions, his state of mind, and his Intent. Sakkijutsu made one
very sensitive to such things, providing an incredible combat edge, but
also a great vulnerability. Without a shadow of a doubt, she knew that
if he wanted to, that if he acted on that sudden tidal wave of repressed
anger and depression and despair that she had called up, that he would
be able to kill her in a heartbeat.

It could have been as simple as a finger poked straight through her
forehead and into her brain, a snake strike that cut through muscle and
bone and impaled her heart, or even a ki attack that would shear and
burn the flesh from her bones. No one, even Ranma, would be able to move
fast enough to save her. Not just in spite of years of training, but
because of it, she froze in fear, a dear caught in the paralyzing gaze
of his headlights.

It lasted only as long as a lingering thought, and then it was gone.

She stumbled back, no longer frozen in place, but still having lost her
sense of balance. Her face was ashen, like a ghost, worse: like
Gosunkugi. She started to fall, but a hand reached out and caught her,
pulled her in, and steadied her. Her heart was racing, her mouth dry,
and her mind just barely downshifting from survival mode - fight or
flight.

"Ukyou, I'm sorry. Ukyou? Ukyou?"

"L... let me go, please..." she managed, and Ryouga did so. She looked
around, and saw everyone staring at them. They'd felt it, too, or a
fraction of it anyway. Ranma looked tense, like he'd been in the middle
of moving across the room in a single footstep, even though he knew he'd
still be a millisecond too late.

"Sorry," he repeated, and bowed his head to the others, as well as her.
"Sorry. I... have to step outside for a second."

Ukyou saw him go, but she felt emotionally hollow. His leaving didn't
cause relief or sadness or joy or anything. She didn't even feel
anything when she saw Ranma next to her, his hand on her arm and a
concerned expression on his face.

"Take a break, ok, Ucchan?" He asked, smiling encouragingly, and helped
her to sit back down on the tile floor. Slowly, she began to feel again,
though her body still felt numb. But even with Ranma close by, she felt
bad. How could she have said something to conjure up those feelings,
those terrible murderous feelings, in the lost boy?

"He's going to kill someone..." she said hauntingly, looking up at her
childhood friend with wide eyes. "He's going to kill someone, Ran-chan."

And, worse, Ranma didn't even try and tell her she was wrong.

-----

Journal Entry: November 9

I had a dream about Great grandmother again. It wasn't a nightmare,
though. We were training, and talking, and I was fourteen or fifteen and
hadn't met Ranma yet. I don't remember exactly what we were talking
about, but it was important. I think she was trying to tell me that
because I don't have the curse anymore I don't have an excuse to not
bring back Ranma for the Tribe. Maybe she appeared because I was going
to be visiting and eating with Ranma tonight again.

Or maybe she appeared as a warning.

Who knows if dreams mean anything really? You probably want to hear
about what happened after I woke up. November 9 was the day we had all
been training for...

 -----

Shampoo shot out of bed, still clutching the sheets to her body.

"Alert! Alert!" The recorded voice came from a hidden speaker somewhere
in her room, keyed to the communications grid. "Priority One Message!
Assemble and report to duty station immediately! Code Three is in
Effect!"

It was time.

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