[Ranma/Xover][FanFic] Retake chapters 7-8

[Gregg Sharp]

Chapter 7: Retake

"Dear Great Grandmother,

"I never thought of my time training under you in our village was
particularly simple or relaxing. Then I got out here in the outsider world
chasing that redheaded girl."

Shampoo stopped writing for a moment as she considered how to put this.

"I am thoroughly confused. This situation has escalated into insanity beyond
anything dreamed up by Mousse." Shampoo considered explaining that further
but decided that Mousse tendency to go off proclaiming his love to livestock
and spout about how he was the only one for Shampoo while throwing daggers
at anyone even trying to be friendly was well enough documented.

"First the redhaired catgirl who defeated me and saved my life from the
monster turned out to be a fairly handsome boy. I have given him the Kiss Of
Marriage now and he is my Airen, which at least resolves what to do there.
Maybe.

"However, between the time I was here and chasing the redhead, and before I
discovered she was a he, I was also defeated by some American boy.

"It's not my fault!

"So, I've got two airen. Both are strong warriors. One's a little weird and
the other's a LOT weird. One turns into a girl and has a number of girls
hanging around him and I'm a little confused by the relationships here.
There's talk about Ranma (the one with the confusion about his gender) being
engaged to three different girls, none of whom want him, and he's not too
happy about this himself. You ask a different girl about who's engaged to
him, you get a different answer. Heck, ask *anyone* who knows them and you
get a different answer.

"Same with who's engaged to Other Airen named Greylle. There is apparently
no formal arrangement for him to marry someone, but if you ask about
girlfriends you'll get different answers - sometimes it depends on what time
of day you ask the question!

"Greylle-airen vanished. The people agree that it is some kind of secret
mission for the Japanese government, but will be coming back to the school
after a month.

"Ranma's a lot cuter, and unspoken for, and so I decided that of the two I'd
pursue Ranma. Besides, he's actually here, and while he's a bit slow we have
a lot in common.

"I'm being assisted in my pursuit of Ranma by three of the girls he's
engaged to. It is a very strange situation, but I find myself warming to the
idea of having friends. Some of the girls here are very nice, if a bit
scatterbrained and weak outsider women.

"I'm friends with the oldest one now, she's showing me how to make the kind
of food that Ranma-airen likes.

"Just three days after other airen vanished, some new girls started up at
Ranma's school. Ranma did not take well to the idea that one of the girls
was stronger than he was. Usagi, I think her name is. He keeps challenging
her to arm-wrestling, and she keeps refusing after beating him the last
fourteen times - stating that she won't learn anything new from it. She is a
very strange but very strong girl." Shampoo briefly considered saying
something about deciding not to challenge this girl herself as she already
had enough going on that giving some oddly strong girl the Kiss Of Death
wasn't something she wanted to do. She decided against it, her Great
Grandmother could be unpredictable at times.

"Hope everything is going well at the village.

"-Shampoo."

------------

Retake chapter 7: Touching Base

Disclaimer: an unintended fic, written to be humorous and entertain only.

------------

"Aw come on, one more time!"

"No, Saotome-kun. I do not think that anything has changed to where the
outcome would be affected."

"Stop whining, Ranma, she's beat you 14 times already." Akane frowned a
little, remembering that it had taken her only seven times to decide she
just wasn't going to beat Usagi in armwrestling. Though as soon as she'd
built her strength up some more!

Usagi puzzled over this behavior. Perhaps it would be better to agree to the
match and allow Saotome-kun to win?

Rei and Makoto, this being their first day, puzzled over this development.

"RANMA, PREPARE TO DIEEEE!"

Eyes, both psuedo-organic and organic, flicked up to track a rapidly moving
incoming body.

Ranma leapt to the side. Usagi, Rei, Ami, and Makoto moved as one to
different positions from where they could coordinate assaults if this proved
to be a threat to themselves. Akane blinked for a moment and was then sent
by a small explosion of newly created gravel to land on her posterior.

"You haven't changed, Ranma! Still good at running away."

Makoto brought her hand into connection with Ami's and established a
datafeed for communication purposes. *This is neither in my engram downloads
nor personal database. I have only been active for 25 hours, 14 minutes, 17
seconds. Explain?*

Ami nodded. *The discovery of partial data collection from computer scans
during the so-called Third Labor was fortuitous, unfortunately we still
experience gaps. This is, however, why we are attending Furinkan and
associating with humans. There is currently nothing in my database to
explain this behavior. Estimate 97% chance of hostilities, extreme
likelihood of physical conflict being used for resolution of same.*

Makoto nodded fractionally herself. *Preparing battle analysis routines.
Will add to own combat potential. Disengaging comlink.*

"You?!" Ranma said, staring at the boy in the crater.

"Someone ELSE you're engaged to, Ranma?" Akane picked herself up and dusted
off the contact point.

Ranma started puzzling over it. "Uh, yeah, sure, sure, he's..."

"Don't strain your brain, Ranma," said Akane. ~Not like that would take
effort.~

Ami briefly wondered if Ranma had been brain damaged. Slurred speech + short
term memory problems + limited attention span? The amount of violence
endured by a martial artist indicated that there was a distinct possibility
of repetitive concussion injuries, and the symptoms were in keeping with
such a diagnosis. Treatment of such was possible, but she would need to
confirm this initial analysis before suggesting it.

"Just tell me one thing, Ranma. Why did you run out on our fight?"

"Airen run out on more fights than with Shampoo? That very bad." Shampoo
landed nearby from one of her roof-hops. "Shampoo have to break you of bad
habits taught by ben dan father."

"'ben dan?'" Akane asked.

"Chinese for 'baka'," supplied Ami.

"You got that right, sugar," Ukyo suggested. She wasn't sure of her own
place in this whole mess. She understood that the girl with the purple hair
was her rival for Ranma, sort of, but Shampoo herself was confused about
some point of Chinese Amazon law regarding her relationship with Ranma much
as Ukyo herself was, so nobody had gotten openly confrontational about it.
Well, at least not much. Besides, if somebody wanted to rag on Genma
Saotome - Ukyo was quite willing to agree with 'em. "He's a 'ben dan'
influence on poor Ranma-honey if ever there was one."

The crowd of regular students tried to listen to both Ranma's verbal
sparring with Ryouga and the discussion with the various new girls vs Akane.

Kuno, currently in Happy Valley Sanitarium, was currently on medication and
not available for comment. Just in case the gentle reader was interested.

"Very bad sense of direction," summed up Hiroshi upon hearing the details of
the "missed" challenge fight.

"Maybe sometime we all get together teach stupid monster not to go putting
foreign objects in mouth?" Shampoo shuddered as she recollected one of the
times she'd been halfway swallowed.

"I'll go for that," agreed Nabiki. She wanted to make it absolutely clear
that she was *not* a chew toy.

"No matter what it takes, Ranma. I shall destroy your happiness!"

"Good luck finding any 'happiness' for you to destroy," grumbled Ranma.
"Man, this place is even worse than that reform school we attended
together."

Ryouga blinked. "It can't be THAT bad."

"Wanna Bet?" Ranma shook his head.

"Enough talk, Saotome! Prepare to die!"

------------

"And exactly how do you hope to justify these expenses? You may be Emperor,
but don't forget that we have to maintain our budget and account to the
public for everything. 220,000 yen and for what? A hidden elevator to some
underground shelter?"

Naruhito shrugged. "Honestly, it's my first time here, Sanada-san."

The elevator doors dinged and opened.

Sanada blinked. "How much did you spend on this? My office only found
220,000 yen in this 'Advanced Technological Research'."

"That's it so far. Mainly we've been paying for the land for the access
tunnels." Naruhito stepped out into the spartan white corridor that seemed
to stretch off into the distance, lit by tiny squares near the floor. The
ceiling was a full 12 feet up, and shaped like a dome. The floor made of the
same fused white rock.

A shape slowly moved forward, causing Sanada a brief moment of panic and an
exclamation of interest from the Emperor. It was about five feet across and
spider-shaped, a collection of struts and motors and boxes. "Good evening.
Master is this way. One of you is designate: Emperor?"

"That would be me," acknowledged Naruhito as he began following the device
down the corridors. "Your voice is a little difficult to understand."

"Am designate repair/construction. Speech centers not priority," replied the
spider. "Reference Workspider 01 for individual reference."

"I see," said the Emperor, fascinated and wondering if he could get one
himself. "Did you build the corridor here?"

"Affirmative," Workspider admitted with a trace of pride. "Master commended
me on job well done."

Sanada realized he was being left alone and hurried to reach the two. "This
isn't a remote controlled device?!"

A cluster of sensors turned towards the individual. "Negative. Self is
entirely self-contained, though in constant communication with main computer
system. Complex is now 35% operational."

"What's down there?" Naruhito pointed to a side corridor.

"Marionette Nanotanks. Currently artificial tissues and skin are being added
to the frames for units designated 'Haruka' and 'Michiru'. 65% complete.
Programming and engram development is at 97% and should be completed within
27 minutes 14 seconds."

"And down THIS corridor?" In some ways the Emperor felt like a kid in a toy
store. The agreement they'd come to with this Greylle person was that the
other would allow use of some of this technology but actual commercial
release was to be more regulated due to some factor called "technological
shock" where the society wasn't even ready for the implications of a new
development.

"Bulk Fabrication. First release of new technology is to be a new battery
prototype that is 150% more efficient than currently available. 250 units
are ready for delivery."

"This room?" Sanada pointed, a little shakily, at a closed door.

"That room is for purging of organic wastes." Workspider seemed to hesitate
briefly. "Computer informs self that common usage term is 'toilet'."

Workspider came to the end of the main corridor and indicated a passage with
one foreleg. "Master is 15.278 feet that way. This unit needs to finish
recharging. Have a nice day."

-------------

There was the sound of breaking glass and falling pieces of brick.

"Did you *mean* to throw him into the school?" Usagi asked, wondering about
the protocols of these challenge duels.

"Great going, Ranma!" Akane's voice was full of sarcasm.

"Hey! It's not my fault!" Ranma looked around. "He's the one who started
it!"

"RANMA! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU COWARD?" (CRASH! SMASH!) (Tinkle)

"See! He ain't hurt or nothin'!" Ranma pointed to the school. "Ryouga can
take it!"

(Crunch. Shatter. Groan.)

"Sounds like we might miss school tomorrow," opined Hiroshi.

"School called on account of lack of building? A distinct possibility,"
agreed Daisuke.

(Groan. Crash. Shatter.) "SAOTOME! WHERE ARE YOU HIDING?"

"I don't believe this," groaned Akane. "Ranma, can't you take your fights
somewhere that doesn't have breakable things?"

"Where would *that* be? I'll just go get him, be just a moment. He's got
*no* sense of direction." Ranma ran into the school.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Akane as she followed.

"Then why is she going after him?" Usagi asked Ami.

Ami shrugged. Humans. Who could figure them?

--------

"This looks like..." Sanada-san wasn't that familiar with anime, though he
thought he'd seen this somewhere before.

"It's just a high speed transport, maybe Mach 5 if everything goes well.
VTOL configuration and a high speed config. Not terribly well armed or
heavily armored, but it's not meant as a combat vehicle - just to get you in
and out in a hurry."

"I'm not familiar with the design," admitted Naruhito. "I was expecting the
'Arcadia' from 'Captain Harlock.'"

"Much later. i haven't even started drawing up the plans yet. R2? Can you
finish for me?"

(Wooop-ding-ding-buzz.)

"Marionette?" Naruhito asked.

"Nah. Robot. Female androids are marionettes. Male androids are mannekin.
Genderless without the fleshy bits: robots." Greylle yawned. "Sorry, i've
been working almost nonstop since that morning."

(Woopa-woopa-ding-ding-dong.)

"i'll worry about that if i *do* put stairs in, R2." Greylle gave an
apologetic look to his two visitors. "As it is..."

"Warning," interrupted a female voice from midair. "Large explosion located
on planetary surface."

"Huh?" Greylle frowned. "Computer. Exact nature and location of explosion."

"Location: Furinkan Senior High School. Origin of explosion coincides with
tanks of natural gas used for supplying kitchen area and water heaters."

"Excuse me, gentlemen. It appears that i need to make an appearance."

---------

Yuka and Sayuri stared. "You... saved us, but..."

Makoto flinched and pulled a shard of wood out of her chest. "This is
unpleasant."

"You're... like Mighty Tetsuwan (Astro-boy)!" Yuka exclaimed, causing Sayuri
to fall over.

Makoto cocked her head slightly as she processed that. "Actually... there
*are* parallels. Fascinating."

Then a dragon did a flyby over the flaming area of the school.

"Is that a dragon?" Sayuri said, matter of factly now that she was beyond
being stunned.

"Neat! Just like in 'Dragon Century'. That's an Ice Dragon. Isn't that neat,
Sayuri!"

"Yuka, the boys will think less of us if you go showing off that you're a
closet otaku."

Usagi touched Ami's hand to initiate a data transfer. *Otaku?*

Ami responded along the same link. *Term not in my database. Seems
relatively friendly and able to adapt to situations outside the typical
paradigm.*

Usagi nodded and broke the connection. The human designated Yuka appeared to
a potentially useful contact.

"It appears that Ryouga Hibiki survived," Ami said. "As well as Ranma
Saotome and Akane Tendo."

"Could someone put out the fire in Akane's hair?!"

(Shooosh!)

"Could someone chip Akane out of the ice?!"

"What about Ranma?"

"Oh let him get himself out of it, he got himself into it!"

"Has anyone seen Nabiki?"

---------

Greylle had flown back, then returned in human shape. Having to find out
what the crap was going on. That Ryouga and Ranma's battle had gone through
a set of walls, and that Ryouga had then thrown dozens of those bandanas.

Right through a set of pipes that took gas to the kitchens, to the science
rooms, and to the water heaters.

"Nabiki... Nabiki..." Akane was digging through rubble with her hands.

"Ryouga, you jerk!"

"SHUT UP, RANMA!" Akane left the rubble to scream into Ranma's face. "THIS
IS *YOUR* FAULT! It was *your* fight. *Your* rival. *You* that all the
vengeance is about. *You* who fail to do anything about *your* problems!"

Greylle looked about, then gestured to Ami. "Ami. I need you to scan for
lifesigns."

"Negative. There is no one alive remaining," Ami responded.

"Pinpoint Nabiki's location then."

Ami went through the rubble, then found the appropriate point.

Yuka and Sayuri sidled closer, nervous as all get out, but aware that
something was about to happen.

Greylle dug the body out then set her out in the grass. "i'm probably going
to regret this." He quickly began laying strips of paper out.

"What are you doing? Are those ofuda (wards)?" Sayuri asked finally.

"Yeah. Let's see. 'Raise Dead' is out, don't have enough intact of the body.
Not high enough level for 'Resurrection' or 'Reincarnation' unless i had an
artifact."

Akane got closer herself, though after the first glance she refused to look
again. "What are you doing?"

"Bringing her back," said Greylle absently.

"There's a martial arts technique for THAT?!" Ranma was intrigued to say the
least.

"Ranma, not everything in life is martial arts," said Greylle tiredly.

Ranma blinked. "What else is there?"

"Life, death, and magic," answered Greylle while Akane was ready to beat the
snot out of her fiance. Though he was generally opposed to this sort of
behavior between fated lovers, he was able to see her point in this
instance.

"RANMA YOU... 'bring her back'?!" Akane suddenly caught up with what had
been said.

"Yeah," Greylle turned to Ami. "i need the systems prepped. Need the spare
nanotank brought online and ready. We'll stabilize what we can, cyborg
systems until i can generate flesh replacements."

"Uhm, excuse me?" Akane reached out and grabbed Greylle, shaking him
briefly. "Did you say..."

Greylle did *not* know Baseball Martial Arts. So far he'd been faking the
whole thing, using draconic strength, speed, and durability, plus other
talents such as trying to focus his flight ability on a baseball to produce
a "double curve" pitch. He didn't know what side-effect this would have, but
it was better than having his shirt ruined.

"Anger turn against its source,
tripled now by magic force,
Rebuke."

Akane staggered back, eyes widened and gasping. She finally sat down on a
chunk of wall and stared.

"I have *got* to learn this guy's special manuevers," mumbled Ranma.

--------

"So I'm dead?" Nabiki sulked for a moment, then got a very alarmed
expression. "Waitaminute, that means... uh oh."

"Daughter, I am very disappointed in you."

"It's not my fault!"

"Do you know what the odds are playing on you managing to land a kiss? 30:1.
Seducing him? 200:1. Overcoming his image of you as a manipulative,
self-serving, honorless, bottom-feeding, hurtful, money-grubbing, parasite?
500:1." Kimiko shook her head. "With odds like that, do you realize how much
I could make?"

"Urk!" Nabiki wasn't sure what hurt more. That her own mother was placing
bets on her, or that she had such long odds against being able to overcome
the Mercenary Ice Queen image. No, it hurt more that her own mother was
viewing her as something less than her darling daughter. Considerably less.
Could she help it if she liked money?

Kimiko held her hands up and implored the heavens. "Goodness. The odds of
you actually dragging him to the altar? 50,000:1 currently. The odds of
AKANE managing it is considerably better. Kasumi has better odds than that."

Nabiki gestured at the crowd of people. "But I'm dead. What can I do about
it? I mean look at my body there. I was just trying to get a decent look at
the fight so I could fix odds, and look what happened to me. Flash-fried,
hit by shrapnel, and half a building fell on me. If they hadn't identified
it as me, *I* couldn't have."

"That's okay. As soon as he figures out the spell, he'll bring you back."
Kimiko waved it off. "Providing the side effects aren't too bad. Pity he
didn't stay a dragon, he could see you then. As it is, you'd have to be
within six feet of him for him to sense your presence."

"Dragon. HE'S a dragon?!" Nabiki pointed. "I thought he was an alien
timetravelling prince here to keep the world from being destroyed!"

"Well that too," Kimiko said, aware that she might be giving out details
she'd be best holding off. "Hmmm. Maybe we ought to shift the odds some. In
your favor for once."

"How's that?" Nabiki went back to sulking. Despite being a disembodied
spirit- it really turned her stomach to see her body like that.

"You'll see."

"Mother, you're scaring me."

---------

Greylle let out a deep breath, centering himself, and brought his hands up.
This was far from ideal, but it was all he could think of. Besides *he* must
be guilty of this, somehow, otherwise Ranma and Ryouga fighting wouldn't
have gone this far.

The ofuda flared to white radiance, forming a circle of light that
surrounded the burned girl.

The assembled audience still watched, most coming to the conclusion that the
gaijin being able to do things like this was why all those important
visitors had come to see him.

"Torn early from this life,
Unfair thy fate,
Nabiki Tendo return to strife,
until at least appointed date,
Raise Dead!"

The corpse spasmed.

"Usagi, carry her. Makoto, that spell is fairly draining, if you can help me
get to the lab..."

--------

"Waitaminute, *that* is not exactly alive!" Nabiki pointed. "And I'm still
here!"

"Were you paying attention?"

"Yes, yes, YES! Three parts yerba root added to the mix on the night of a
full moon, bring to a boil, and then strain through a wire mesh." Nabiki
threw her spectral hands up in frustration.

"Then add it to a beverage. If you drink the stuff without mixing it, it
tastes like crap. Or so I'm told, I've never tried it myself." The girl with
the petite figure lectured her new student. "Oh, and Urd says not to use a
carbonated beverage. Something about weird side effects."

"Fine, fine. I don't know where I'd get half the ingredients." Nabiki kept
sneaking looks at where her body was being carried off. Though the way Ranma
seemed torn between finding out what was wrong with Akane and following
those girls carrying off her body was heartening. "What the heck does it do
anyway?"

"Hmmm. Oh just a generic attractiveness potion." The girl waved it off.
"Typical thing, try to get someone to take it unwillingly and you have
ridiculous coincidences screwing it up."

"Then what good is it?" Nabiki kept glancing away. "My body was awfully darn
messed up."

"Don't worry, don't worry. By the time you've rejoined that form, you'll
have gotten some first rate instruction in magic." The woman shrugged. "I
heard your mother tried to get you some combat training and they basically
chewed you up and spit you out."

"Yeah. So what do *you* get out of it? You don't strike me as being that
generous." Nabiki could sense a fellow mercenary in the redhead.

"I get the formula for a potion that increases my breast size!" Lina chirped
before going into an insane laugh.

Nabiki frowned. Not that *she* needed it, but maybe she could get the recipe
for that potion. It could have major possibilities.

-------

"What do you mean she's dead?!" Soun was going higher and higher into shock.

Ranma put a badly burned right arm on the table.

"Oh my," said Kasumi. Then she decided that this wasn't sufficient and
fainted.

Soun had done something similar on the other side of the table.

"Shut up, Ranma, Greylle-sama said he'd bring her back. So far *he* hasn't
lied or tried to pull one over on me." Akane grumbled. Why did everyone
insist that *she* had to marry this boy?

Soun was beginning to recover when he heard the 'sama' added to the gaijin's
name. For *Akane* to use that sort of honorific with a boy her own age was
nearly impossible. Then the rest of the statement registered. No, it was too
much to hope for. Clearly his little girl was dead.

Ranma grumbled. He *had* to learn those special techniques!

Soun's head came up, and he was going beyond demonhead. His little girl had
died because of Saotome's fight?! "Sa-o-to-ME!"

--------

Yuka and Sayuri were typical high school girls, and Akane's friends. Well,
at least Sayuri was. Yuka was a closet otaku who'd given up on "all that
stuff" because she had reached an age where you weren't supposed to pay that
much attention to anime or that kind of thing.

Except now she'd been dropped into "Captain Tsubasa meets Giant Robo meets
several different Tezuka series." Yuka had been expecting a kindly and
doddering mad scientist with a bulbous nose at any moment.

"You should not be here," stated Ami, glancing back at the two.

"Hey, I gotta see this. Hidden underground bases, secret government
organizations, and the tragic love affair between Nabiki and her foreign
hero cut short," Yuka gushed with a sparkly look to her eyes.

Ami scanned but did not detect a fever. The other human, Sayuri, was looking
frightened. Perhaps putting the two at ease would be an acceptable
compromise? Obviously they did want to check on their friend, and the two
*did* help discourage some of the others from following. "This way."

The room Ami led the two into held two girls sleeping in tubes. From there
another door led to a room with a lot more tubes, these mainly unfinished,
and a large upright tube in which floated a very familiar form.

"Man, she's really badly burned." Sayuri looked quite ill as she catalogued
the injuries of the figure floating in the tank.

"Nabiki Tendo is still alive, though barely and only due to the operation of
three spells. She has at present received: a Raise Dead, Protection From
Evil, and Cure Light Wounds. As the effects of a Raise Dead are so draining,
the Commander is resting." Ami had decided that a prior command that they
refer to him as something as other than Master was acceptable and had
settled on this as a substitute.

Yuka nodded. A foreign commander in a top secret government installation.
Where was Giant Robo?

Ami noted that Yuka had acknowledged that she understood. Sayuri looked in
shock. Further dialogue was needed? "Nabiki Tendo's condition is stable. As
you can see, she is missing both legs and one arm, there was considerable
damage to her skin - 90% of which was covered in 3rd degree burns. After the
spells, her skin is mostly recovered, however the regeneration of skin in
her face, eyes, ears, and the missing limbs would require the use of a
Regeneration spell, which currently the Commander cannot access unless
Project Moonshot occurs."

Yuka looked over the tube. "This looks just like the Bacta Tubes they used
on Luke Skywalker in that movie!"

"The gel is composed of nanites programmed to repair flesh plus an analgesic
medium. Her lungs were burned also so special preparations had to be made.
The tube attached to her remaining arm carries nutrients, nanites, and
directly oxygenates the blood." Ami noted that the Sayuri unit was still
quite nervous, though the Yuka person was far more focussed and energetic.

Yuka obviously thought of something. "You're gonna rebuild her!"

"Well, yes," agreed Ami.

"Better! Faster! Stronger!" Yuka was on a roll now. Nabiki's life was being
saved by her foreign lover and now she would become an agent of this secret
government organization which fought evil criminal organizations worldwide.

"That might be a good idea," agreed Ami. Humans tended to be fragile in the
first place. A few improvements certainly would be merited.

"The Six Million Dollar Girl!" Yuka posed triumphantly. "Adjusting for
modern rates of exchange of course."

----------

Nabiki stared. "They're not serious are they?"

"It looks like Yuka's convincing that marionette to turn you into a cyborg."
Lina frowned. "You wouldn't be able to cast spells like that. All that
machinery inside you would tend to disrupt the manna flows. Well, looks like
my job is done then."

"What?! I almost got the hang of this 'Lightening' spell!" Nabiki wasn't
happy. Did this mean she had to go back and train with the Valkyrie? That
was bad.

"Like I said, you get turned into a cyborg, magic isn't an option. Normally
at least. When they get you rebuilt as human, I'll just do a Dream Message
and teach you the rest. At least until you can cast a Drill Brand or Fire
Ball. Then you're on your own." Lina pointed. "Look at that. They didn't
have bionic breasts in those old TV series, did they?"

"Yuka no hentai," proclaimed Nabiki, floating over the girl's shoulder and
looking at the displays she was discussing with the marionette. "How can I
stop them from making me the 'Bionic Woman' of this setup?"

"I'm just an astral projection, and you're just a ghost. Try to enter your
body again and you'll be stuck and zoned out of your mind on those
medications they've got you on." Lina considered. "You can probably try to
communicate with Greylle, or you could spontaneously master a higher degree
of magic than I've been able to teach you, or you can try and possess one of
the androids, or you can pray."

"But he's asleep and I'm a ghost. HOW can I communicate with him?"

"Enter his dreams, just be sure..." Lina looked around but Nabiki had
already dove through a wall. Well, considering what Yuka was suggesting for
Nabiki's new "accessories" Lina could kind of understand the panic. "Just be
sure you don't get trapped or altered when you're in someone else's dream."

----------

Ranma had fled, Genma was hiding, Kasumi was missing. Soun had outfitted the
dojo for a funeral and placed the remains of his second oldest daughter in a
casket. Akane was looking for Genma since she knew where Kasumi would
eventually turn up.

Genma snuck into the dojo and stopped as he realized that Soun was in there.

"Old friend, how could you have raised your son to be so irresponsible?"
Soun hadn't bothered to look in his old friend's direction. How many 1500
pound bear-critters could there be in his backyard right now?

Genma looked thoughtful before he pulled out a sign. [Like Father, Like
Son?]

"True," Soun deflated a bit after he'd turned to read the sign. This had
brought other details to his attention. "By the way have you seen Kasumi?"

Ignoring the hand that popped out of his mouth with a sign reading [Help!],
Genma-snorlax shrugged and tried to look innocent.

"Old friend, we went through Hell together with the Master, forging bonds of
friendship that have withstood the passage of time, have we not?"

[Oh yes. Definitely.] Genma's sign was a little shaky as if something he had
eaten recently was disagreeing with him.

"Then would you kindly STOP SWALLOWING MY DAUGHTERS WHOLE!" If he weren't
feeling so tired and put upon, this would have been accompanied by a full
blown Demon's Head technique.

[You want me to chew?] Genma's sign asked.

"NO! I don't want you swallowing them at all! And let Kasumi go *now*!"

Kasumi was briefly spat out, covered in drool and other slimy substances,
her clothes largely eaten away. She considered saying "oh my" but it came
out considerably harsher than that.

[But they taste so *delicious*!] Snorlax-sign flipped. [Can I at least lick
them?]

"Well, I suppose..." Soun reluctantly agreed.

Kasumi stared briefly at her father, then took the shreds of her dignity
(and clothes) to hunt for the bath. Marriage to that gaijin and moving away
was beginning to look more and more like a good idea. Far far far away.

---------

"No no no, because she's so cold and unfeeling, you'd *need* to set her
libido that high. Just to bring her up to normal," argued Yuka.

Ami *still* wasn't sure about this.

Sayuri still had serious misgivings about being anywhere *near* this place.

"And I really think that while we're at it, we should redesign..." Yuka's
voice trailed off as someone walked into the room. "Uhm..."

The dog marched in from a side room, gave a sharp salute to Ami, bowed
elegantly to Yuka and again to Sayuri, then continued along his path to the
room containing the two sleeping girls.

"That was a beagle." Yuka declared. "A beagle in the uniform of a WWI flying
ace..."

"Yes. An early model to test the process of building rudimentary AI units,"
Ami looked over to where the bipedal beagle had exited. "However there
appears to be something wrong with the unit as he is frequently lost in
elaborate fantasies. He has downloaded the appropriate skill packages but
some of the personas seem to serve no useful purpose."

---------

Nabiki had drifted through the wall in the direction Lina had indicated.

Then she'd come to a complete stop and had forgotten about the problems
going on behind her.

The dragon was here too. Not that Nabiki was stopped because of that. She
couldn't know that he'd taken to sleeping in dragonform because Ami and
Usagi *still* tried to do all sorts of strange things if he tried to sleep
in humanform. Nabiki couldn't know that Workspider had accessed a file of a
story by a guy named JRR Tolkein and decided that a picture there of a
dragon's bed was accurate.

Nor could Nabiki know offhand that everything making up that dragon's bed
was synthetic, crafted by taking various raw materials and altered to energy
and then reconsituted. Nabiki wouldn't have likely understood the process
immediately anyway.

What she *did* understand was that she was looking at diamonds and emeralds
and rubies. Gold and silver and other sparklies. Enough to form a bed for a
52ft long lizard.

Immaterial hands attempted to scoop up a double handful of golden coins. Her
hand passed through a ruby half her own height. Nabiki screamed in
frustration before she got a shiver up her spine.

Turning, she found a huge eye regarding her.

*Now this is interesting. Nabiki Tendo, astrally projecting? i don't think
i've seen *that* before.*

"Uhm well..." Nabiki tried to regain equilibrium.

The dragon licked his lips then yawned to show long sharp teeth. *So, Nabiki
Tendo, why dost thou beard a dragon in its lair.*

"Uhm," Nabiki's eyes kept getting caught by all the glittering riches around
her and distracting her. "Errr."

*Or is your presence here but a dream? Though dragons don't dream in the
same manner as humans. Most curious.*

"Well, if *your* body was as messed up as mine is you wouldn't want to be
there either." Nabiki scowled. "That's right, Yuka and Sayuri! They're
convincing one of your dolls to make 'improvements' in me! You've got to
stop them!"

*What's in it for me?*

Nabiki gasped. "But..."

*Beware, Nabiki Tendo. Lest you be treated as you treat others.* The dragon
looked away briefly. *Yet I suppose that i must interfere. You should regain
your mortal form as soon as possible. Eventually the Protection From Evil
will run out and you don't want anyone else entering your form before you
return.*

"Uhm..."

The dragon slowly lifted himself off his "bedding". *Do not worry, Nabiki
Tendo. Payment will be deferred until later. Now go, i shall restrain those
wild impulses which worry you so much.*

------

"So you'll mainly communicate with me through a 'sacred mirror' from now
on?" Hotaru looked more than a little uncertain.

"Yes," said the image in the mirror. "Mainly on an 'as needed' basis. This
way you have to rely mainly on yourself and you'll develop your skills
better as a result."

Hotaru was *very* uncertain about going mainly solo. She also had other
issues and concerns to address. "Well, can you show me my fiance? I deserve
to know *that* at least."

The image of Amaterasu cleared, becoming the image of Greylle in his new
human form.

Hotaru stared for a moment. "He looks... interesting."

"Hotaru-chan, you'll find him more interesting when you get older. Keep in
mind, less than a decade seperates your births. With a lifespan measured in
centuries that shall become less problematic as the decades accrue."

----------

"Okay, he's got enough room. Send all of Greylle's stuff from storage to one
of the rooms he's using in that timeline. Because otherwise he's cut off
from his personal belongings until he comes back. No, no, no. Don't send
*that*. Yeah, just the stuff that's rated less than a Class 4 Hazard. What
do you mean 'too late'. Those bracers? No, they weren't classified. Uh huh.
Goodbye." Urd hung up the phone, sat back, and shrugged. Why hadn't the boy
figured out any of those wonderful little *extras* she had added to his
humanform? Or more importantly: used them.

Yeesh, there were times he was as pathetic as Keiichi. Speaking of which,
maybe she ought to see what Bell and he were doing on that island...

Oh ho! Now *that* was about time!

---------

Yuka and Sayuri leapt as one as Greylle entered the room, yawning and
stretching. And shirtless as he hadn't expected anyone to be here besides
his marionettes or one of the 'bots. "Ami? When did you build doubles of
Yuka and Sayuri? Oh, never mind. Outfit them with some of the Knight Sailor
powerarmor when it finishes, will ya? That way we can send them as a Rapid
Response team per that deal with the Diet."

Sayuri was about to protest when she found Yuka's hand abruptly covering her
mouth.

"Oh, and don't make too many changes in Nabiki Tendo. She's floating around
here in astral form for some reason. Just use partial bionic conversion to
reinforce her frame enough to support the replacement limbs. If she's going
to be doing astral projection and stuff, she's gonna need psychic circuits
and supporters. Nabiki, if you're still around and listening: it'll take me
a month to set up a healing chamber to the point where i can regenerate
limbs. So you'll be stuck with the bionics at least that long." Another
yawn. "Did Workspider finish the bath?"

"Not yet, sir," indicated Ami. "Other priorities needed to be addressed.
Nabiki will finished by morning, however."

"Good enough."

-------

Workspider was a fairly simple AI robot. The first thing that Greylle had
built after the elevator had been crafted, though he'd left room for
upgrades. He'd used basics from a brief stint on Rifts Earth, combined with
elements from Terratoo.

The result was a Neural Intelligence robot installed in a spiderlike
eight-limbed frame. The rear four legs had grippers based on Vice-Grip
pliers but also had roller wheels that could be rotated down below the
"jaws". The front four legs had gripper/manipulators and a similar
arrangement where a tool/hand could be rotated into place. One had a plasma
welding torch, another could extend a light-sabre like cutting tool, another
had a "shovel hand" to dig with, and the fourth had a set of delicate
manipulators for precision work.

Workspider was *not* a combat unit despite having the *physical* potential
for it. Its programming was entirely oriented to building things and being
useful. This was its simple purpose in life, and actually made Workspider
happy in as much as it was currently capable of happiness. It knew it was
programmed to be that way, and that it had been built for that function, and
could care less about its lack of freedom or career options. Asimov would
have found his Three Laws Of Robotics hardwired in place and would have been
delighted.

The robot Workspider recharged its batteries and tried to scan files and
come up with other ways it could be useful. It did the electronic equivelant
of "ooh" and "aah" as it considered various upgrades to itself. An outer
skin would keep dust from getting in its joints, so that was a definite
consideration. Memory upgrades would also be helpful. Though *other* units
seemed to be something to consider adding.

Not more copies of itself, to be sure. Nor combat units. A Med-bot to take
care of problems like that young lady's wounds. Repair-bots. Travel time
being a factor, perhaps an AI in some form of transportation.

It didn't understand magic. There were records and images of it, but it
lacked the ability to manipulate those forces, therefore these were
considered interesting but nothing that could be dealt with at present.

A probe extended to the fabricator as a decision was made. Files were
accessed and transferred. As parts were fabricated, they were taken away by
the manipulators and fitted together. The Master had been quite busy, so
approval could be sought later. In the meantime, some help around the
tunnels was required. As for the design, the possibilities seemed best
filled by marionette technology. The unease of the human units Yuka and
Sayuri had been well noted. Particularly the Sayuri unit. Causing a human
distress was not something Workspider wanted to do if it could be helped.

Workspider considered and decided full blown AI wasn't indicated by the
basic design, but it *did* increase the adaptibility of the unit. Odds were
weighed with mechanical precision. Add. Basic engram of original scanned
would increase the adaptibility and therefore usefulness.

The first unit was built and considered itself for a moment before calmly
going over and beginning to work on the nanotubes so that it could finish
itself. By the time it had done so, three more units had been assembled.

--------

Ranma was doing something he was *not* used to doing. Sulking.

It was late and he was getting heat from two of the girls. The third was
dead, and he could admit (to himself if nobody else) that he might have had
some wee tiny little smidgen of responsibility in her getting to that
condition.

He'd done the best that he could, it was just that once those pipes had
started exploding the surroundings had started coming apart.

It was just as well that he was persona non grata in the house, he had a lot
to think about. Even if the blonde pretty boy hadn't been completely honest,
what he'd accomplished had impressed Ranma. In a tiny little miniscule
manner, of course. If it had been martial arts, it had been a *lot* more
impressive than that crap with the moose.

If he ever saw another damn moose it would be too soon. Pops was still
giving him grief that he'd gotten his ass kicked by a moose. Next time he
saw one: they'd be cleaning up moose splat for blocks!

Ryouga was gonna get his butt kicked too. What was with using the Iron Cloth
manuever on thrown projectiles? Didn't he know how damn dangerous that could
be. It was *Ryouga's* fault that he was up here on the roof, Ryouga's fault
that everyone in the house was blaming Ranma for the death of that Nabiki
chick, Ryouga's fault that that girl died! The only person not blaming Ranma
for this spate of current affairs was Shampoo, who had snuck him out a
blanket.

Standing up, Ranma raised a fist to the Heavens. "RYOUGA HIBIKI! YOU SHALL
PAY FOR THIS!" Hmmm. Gee, that felt better. No wonder Ryouga was always
pulling that crap.

---------

Sayuri had known Yuka for years. Both had been into shojo manga and magical
princess series when they were younger. "Rose of Versailles" had been
something they'd heavily fantasized with and had even collaborated on a
dojinshi together when they'd been younger. They hadn't sold it or
distributed it very widely, they'd just done it out of sheer enjoyment.

Sayuri had grown out of it, turning her attention to things more in keeping
with the typical teenage girl. The occasional shojo story might be read, but
one couldn't get too much into it and risk becoming unpopular. Heavens no.

Yuka had put on the mask of respectibility. That's all it had been, a mask.
Now the mask was off and the inner otaku revealed.

"We're going to lose popularity," cautioned Sayuri on the way home.

"Who cares?" Yuka said with a smile.

"*I* do. And you should too."

Yuka shook her head. Martial arts had never interested her. Fantasy, to a
lesser extent. On the other hand, sentai series with beautiful young girls
protecting Tokyo was a fish of a markedly different color. "We'll be more
popular than ever if that's what you want."

"How do you get *that*?!"

"We keep our secret identities until the Menace shows up, then we reveal
ourselves when the Menace is beaten."

"We're gonna get killed by the first Monster Of The Week!"

"No," disagreed Yuka. "It'll go after Akane first. All the weirdness like
that Hentai Horde does. Then we go into action!"

Sayuri looked at her friend as if she'd gone nuts. This was pretty much her
opinion at the time. "Even with this 'power armor' stuff, do you honestly
think we can fight?"

Yuka shrugged. "Worry about that when we've *got* power armor."

"What's this 'we' you refer to?"

Yuka put an arm around Sayuri's shoulders and winked. "Trust me. I know what
I'm doing."

"Couldn't we just do karaoke instead?"

-----------

In an early morning dawn, several things were occurring. Besides a WWI
Flying Ace preparing to go look for the Red Baron and coming home several
hours later with several pizzas of the same name because the skies of 1992
Tokyo were mysteriously clear of red triplanes.

Besides many mysterious figures leaving Furinkan High School, their mission
complete. Well, mainly.

And definitely besides Soun getting drunker than a sailor on his first shore
leave while alternately ranting about Saotome raising his son to be such a
reckless fool, then going on about how the only way to fix this mess was to
have the wedding of Ranma and Akane *at* the funeral of Nabiki.

Something more eventful than Kasumi sneaking downstairs and trying not to
awaken Mister Saotome because she was really a lot more than merely tired of
scraping drool off of her.

No this was nearby but not quite at the dojo yet.

Nabiki had listened to the talk. Temporary repairs and enhancements. At
least a month to get the chamber where it needed to be before limbs and life
threatening injuries could be repaired. From what she understood of Shard's
often mangled Japanese: he had to build the machines that would build the
machines that would eventually be the healing tube. Then, when it *was*
finished, it would take over a week for her to be healed to where she could
rejoin society.

In the meantime she had cyborg systems that *looked* mostly normal. The
clothes were a little strange, Usagi had come up with *this* outfit based on
some files she kept consulting. Nabiki wondered what kind of strange anime
series had been in those files. Or maybe it was a fighting game. It had that
odd impractical-but-flashy look to it.

While walking alongside "the time-traveling alien prince", she wondered what
she could do.

>Query: Diagnostic.
>RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC. Cyborg Parts OK.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, which she realized was also artificial. This had
possibilities.

>Query: Detail.
>RUNNING...
>MULTI-OPTIC EYES, Mk III. Telescopic Vision 8x. Macro lens x16. Passive
Night Vision: skipped - ambient light too high for test mode. Thermo
Imaging: skipped - ambient light too high for test mode. Light Filters:
active. Targetting display: inactive.
>BIONIC HEARING. Amplified Hearing: at default setting. Ultrasonic Hearing:
default off.
>STRENGTH LEVEL: Rated at 30. Right arm and legs only. Left arm rated as 8.
>GRAV SYSTEM: offline
>TOXIC FILTER: online, inactive. No dangerous micro-organisms or substances
detected.
>BIONIC LUNG (RIGHT): online, active.
>BIONIC SPLEEN: online, active
>SENSOR SUITE: Radar: online, inactive. HAZMAT Detection System: online,
active - no hazardous materials/conditions detected. Gyro-compass: online,
inactive. Tactile sensitivity: 1/1.
>HEADJACK: online, inactive.
>INTERNAL BATTERIES: 98% charge
>BIO-COMP: active
>TRANSCIEVER: online, active
>DEFENSE SYSTEM: online, inactive
>OVER 18: online, inactive

Nabiki frowned thoughtfully while half-listening to the gaijin explain that
he suspected that Ami and Usagi had taken some liberties but he was
reluctant to yank her insides out looking for them.

>Query: Headjack

Nabiki blinked as a display letterboxed into her field of vision. A headjack
apparently gave her the ability to hook directly into machines equipped for
such, and she could even download information directly through such a thing.

Which led her to wonder about some of the other things on the list. A brief
check of "Amplified Hearing" had her clutching her ears and crouched onto
the ground.

Greylle sighed and whispered to her. "Nabiki, experiment at a different
time. Use default settings for now."

Nabiki nodded then looked relieved as she got it under control. She
*definitely* would have to check some of this out. "What's the defense
system anyway?"

"Hmmm. Oh don't worry. That was something i added. Minor forcefield
projection ability, but it'll only activate when you're in immediate
physical danger. The problem is that it'll exhaust your batteries if you
keep it active for long. If you check your pockets you'll find a recharger,
just plug it in overnight while you're sleeping."

Nabiki pulled a power cord out of her pocket. "Uhm... Do I want to know
where it gets plugged in?"

"Belly button, same as Usagi and the other marionettes. i used most of the
same systems since i want to keep a supply of spare parts handy for quick
repairs." Greylle considered. "Oh. No, it'd be fairly impractical to put it
on your back, you'd need to get help every night..."

Nabiki glanced to the side. Was he *that* clueless? Looked like it. Oh well.

Stopping at the main gate, Greylle gestured. "Are you ready to face your
family?"

Nabiki nodded, smirking. This could be fun.

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

end chapter 7 retake.

Chapter 8 Retake: Take Me Out Of The Ball Game

DISCLAIMER: an unintended fic which has gotten entirely out of control.

-----------

There had been no one at the front door, so the two had gone to the dojo.

Black crepe, a cardboard coffin, and the stand were signs that things had
progressed with Soun's usual measure of good taste and restraint.

"...but even if she was a soulless moneygrubbing mercenary whose only
pleasure in life was sucking the funds out of helpless students, she was
till my sempai and I admired..." Ryonami took one good look at the pair
coming in the door and fainted.

"Yes, so true, my poor daughter. I..." Soun stared. "Uhm..."

Nabiki asking who the funeral was for died in her throat when she saw the
picture of her atop the coffin. "..." Even though her legs were bionic, they
felt weak and she leaned against the tall gaijin for balance. "Someone tell
me you didn't notify the police or someone I was dead."

Her father's nervous look was enough.

It would take a few days for all the paperwork to circulate, but Nabiki knew
what a chaotic mess the Japanese legal system could be. She'd likely be
running into problems from this for years. There was an immediate temptation
to just take Shard-san's arm and have him take her *back* to that hidden
underground base. She wasn't sure how he'd managed to blank her senses for
five minutes while leaving, including that gyro-compass thing apparently,
but it seemed the American didn't trust her that much.

Not that Nabiki blamed him. She wouldn't trust Nabiki Tendo either.

"Well, Nabiki, i'll leave you here then," Greylle said, getting
uncomfortable with the situation. "If you notice any problems - contact me
before 4:30pm (16:30 hours) today. Otherwise i'm going to be out of town."

"Out of town," repeated Nabiki with the beginnings of a frown. What if
something happened like a joint freezing up? "For how long?"

"Depends on what i find," responded the blond. "It could be a simple trip
back as soon as i get there, or i could spend days trying to find clues."

After watching him leave, Nabiki walked over to the casket to find her
missing arm. "Don't suppose you found my legs too."

Akane demanded to know what was going on. After collecting and paying 5000
yen to Nabiki, Akane (and the others) listened to how Nabiki had been
rebuilt. At her father's disbelief, Nabiki had slid open an access panel on
her forearm.

Soun Tendo, on seeing metal and plastic inside his daughter's forearm,
fainted.

------------

Hiroshi stared. Daisuke stared. Yuka and Sayuri stared. So were all of the
students who had appeared, expecting to see Furinkan High School as it had
been yesterday afternoon. With half of the school a burned out and blasted
ruin.

"Why an extra floor?" Daisuke had counted rows of windows and he was
relatively sure that Furinkan had only had three floors yesterday morning.
Nor had it gleamed as if newly built. Or rebuilt as it were.

"Why does it have that tower thing over there?" Sayuri asked, still rubbing
sleep out of her eyes.

"Looks like steam coming off the pool," observed Yuka. "A heated *outdoor*
pool?"

Then the changes to the school were put off as insignificant. NABIKI was
walking up to the doors of the school.

Nabiki was followed by Akane and Ranma. Both of whom stared at the rebuilt
school before shrugging and walking in.

Most of the students decided to follow this lead and enter as well. When the
going gets weird, ignore it. Life as usual in Nerima to some extent.

----------

"Where is he?" asked Ami as she entered with four bags of rectangular
objects.

"Still working on the vehicle," responded Usagi. "He hasn't noticed your
departure. Your mission was successful?"

"Data was procured," agreed Ami. "They had several sections of this
reference material."

"I see," said Makoto. "Combat techniques?"

"Of a sort," Ami indicated, pulling a videotape out of a bag. "As soon as he
departs for his mission, we will be able to best determine which course of
attack to use."

Makoto frowned as she read the indicated title. "'The Amityville Hooker'?!"

"The proprietor was quite clear that this was one of his finer pieces of
cinema." Ami placed the videotape back in the sack. "It should prove quite
informative."

-------

"Workspider reporting as ordered, sir!"

"At ease," Greylle ordered. He didn't want to step on anyone's developing
personality but this paramilitary stuff was a bit odd. That Workspider also
apparently had developed a liking for polka and Weird Al Yankovich was
unfortunate and unforeseeable but at least harmless.

"Lower outer hull welded together and painted the requested color."

"That wasn't what i wanted you for, but thanks." Greylle continued to work
on assembling a sensor mast, only occasionally glancing towards the robot.

Workspider 01 had no sweat ducts, otherwise it would have been sweating.
"Sir?"

"You have been upgrading your capabilities and systems considerably," said
Greylle. "That's perfectly alright. i expect you and the marionettes to
upgrade yourselves to meet new situations and develop in both personality as
well as your physical abilities. It's this other activity."

"Sir?" Workspider was cataloguing a new experience. It was apprehensive and
nervous. Which fascinated it and pleased it to some extent, as this was
further evidence of developing a personality, even though it would have
preferred a less distressing emotional state to explore.

"You got all seven marionette manufacturing nanomachine tubes, aka
nanotanks, operational. Good work, even though i'd prefer you let me know
before you go off on your own initiative. Adding another three nanotanks
overnight was quite interesting. That doesn't trouble me as much as what is
being put together in those tanks." Greylle looked up at the large
spider-mech and made a point of looking unhappy. "Do *not* do this again."

"By your command." Workspider fidgited. Its first reprimand. Oh dear. R2
would never let it live it down.

Greylle nodded. "Now that we've established that, WHO are you building in
those nanotanks?"

"Available data indicated that Commanding Officer spent time in several
timelines prior to this one and met and interacted with female humans."

Greylle stopped putting together the sensor mast and stood up. Slowly he
turned. Step by step. Inch by inch.

Workspider was registering increased anxiety levels.

"You *didn't*." Greylle informed the Workspider. "You did *not* defeat the
password protection on my personal files and you did *not* begin to
manufacture marionettes based on girls who have broken my heart in the
past."

"...I didn't...?!"

"No," Greylle continued. "Because if you did that, i would seriously
consider downgrading your operational parameters until you were a walking
trash receptacle. Therefore, you will find a way that you did *not* do this.
Do you understand this?"

Workspider hadn't been operational for more than a few days, but it still
understood the basics here. The CO was not happy. Therefore the anchor
position in the chain of command was not a good place to be. "I understand."

"If their core processors have been developed, then you couldn't scrap them.
If the units have developed much at all, then you can't do anything but
bring them to full operation. i merely express the hope that you have *not*
brought them to this state."

"Well..."

Sighing a deep and long sigh. "Fine. Finish them but do *not* activate.
Leave them asleep and i'll see what can be done when i return. Allow *no*
outsiders into the room. Use full security protocols and cover story #4:
accident with unstable and caustic chemical solutions."

Workspider was hoping that the reference to downgrading was not actually
being planned.

--------

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once.
Nonetheless a lot can be going on at the same time.

In his underground base, Greylle was continuing to work on a transport
vehicle he'd had a few ideas regarding for some time. He'd thought
extensively about some of this while on Gehenna in fact. So he would finally
build the silly thing, and the Arcadia would eventually have a docking bay
for this vehicle. Just a multi-environment shuttlecraft/transport, but he
could always add features later. Of course, he could just go dragon and fly
to Antarctica using the ley lines for bursts of speed, but if he *did* find
the Senshi he wasn't big enough to carry all of them at once. Hence building
the transport first.

Ami and the rest of the Sailor Marionettes (save one) were trying to
continue on with expanding the base and operating it while waiting for their
Master to leave so they could watch those tapes.

Kasumi was putting a fresh coat of varnish on the upstairs hallway floor.
Her next task would be to take down all the decorations from the dojo. What
she was going to do with Nabiki's arm was another problem. It didn't seem
right to just bury it in the backyard.

Soun and Genma were getting drunk. Soun was exuberant over the return of his
daughter, saddened by her transformation into a cyborg, and ecstatic over
how well Ranma and Akane were getting along. Why just that morning, Akane
had beaten Ranma over the head with a cast iron skillet! Though Akane was
also getting along well with that gaijin. Though he also liked Nabiki enough
to bring her back from the dead!

Genma was wondering if he could ferret out that gaijin's secrets. They'd be
worth quite a lot of money. For that matter, if he could steal the bionic
limbs off that daughter of Soun's, who knew how much money he could get for
those!

Akane Tendo was gazing wistfully out the window. Shard-sama was nice and
kind and sweet and a healer. So much like a young Doctor Tofu. Akane colored
as she realized she'd started using the "sama" suffix. Not that she was
interested in some gaijin... Heavens no. She didn't like boys, right? Right!

Nabiki Tendo was sitting bolt upright in her chair and perspiring. She made
a note to *never* again go into that "Over 18" menu that Usagi had added.
Nope. At least not unless she was alone and assured of privacy. She also
vowed that somehow she *had* to beat the odds and get the gaijin. It was how
to get his trust long enough for her to latch on that was confounding her.

Yuka daydreamed of being a Knight Sailor and having her own manga and anime
series.

Sayuri daydreamed of bopping her friend Yuka with a mallet.

Hikaru Gosunkugi gazed wistfully at Akane Tendo and daydreamed of bopping
Ranma with a mallet.

Ranma wondered how he could get some food. Lunch had been over an hour ago
and he was *starving!* Of course, if he asked either Shampoo or Ukyo for
food, the same thing that had happened the last time was liable to happen.
Big fight sequence and HE would get blamed for it.

Kodachi Kuno considered ways of dealing with the Furinkan Rhythmic
Gymnastics team. She considered being open and above board, meeting them in
the match and defeating them there. Nah. Usual tactics had given Saint
Hebereke an unbroken string of victories, why change a winning strategy?

Ryouga planned his revenge against Ranma, and wondered why he kept ending up
at this small mountain village when he was trying to find Furinkan High
School.

Hotaru tended the shrine and shared a giggle with one of the girls who'd
shown up to buy a good luck charm. It was nice to be able to chat and
gossip, especially when the conversation turned to boyfriends and she was
able to respond by showing a photo and mention an arranged marriage.
Suitable comments of envy were extremely odd to be applied to Hotaru Tomoe,
but she decided she kind of liked it.

-------------

Minako was the single of the Sailor series Marionettes who was *not*
involved in building rooms and corridors and trying not to wait out a chance
to view those tapes. She was busy analyzing what data she could access and
building a database. Like the rest of her series she had engrams based on
incomplete scans of an original - in her case one Minako Aino, aka Sailor
Venus.

She wasn't building or excavating the complex because she was planning on
accompanying her Master to the Antarctic and wanted to get some research
done prior to what was potentially a long trip.

She knew fully well that she was a marionette android, an artificial
intelligence who had been created for a specific job. Her love for her
creator was artificial - part of a control program shared by all
marionettes. Neither origin was relevant. Like the others she had concluded
that she was real enough, origins didn't matter. So what she was doing was
perusing data on various originals.

Each of the Sailor series Marionettes were crafted in the likeness of an
original, and part of their programming was to emulate (to varying degrees)
that original.

One of the things each of the Sailor series were attempting to accomplish
was to upgrade themselves to the point where they could accomplish their
goals. One of the goals they sought to accomplish was to become fully
awakened as "people" - individuals with some common goals who more closely
paralleled their original.

Minako had discovered that the original Minako Aino had dreams of becoming
an idol singer. Therefore she had researched "idol singer" and had
discovered that "idol singer" careers lasted between a few months and less
than seven years. With routine maintenence, she could easily last hundreds
of years at least. Clearly this was not a compatible timeframe. Idol singer
= entertainer (music) therefore a musician with a longer active period.

Classical musicians had the longest period of activity, but were not *as*
active nor really matched the profile. Rock musicians had a period of
activity that was often short but individuals had proven able to withstand
long periods of time. Analysis of those began, looking for common themes and
practices.

Certain records indicated possibilities. Analysis did not immediately lead
to some single "star quality" but rather at several common points. Files
were accessed and downloaded.

--------

There weren't many breaks in her day, but Doctor Mizuno still found the
occasional moment when she could set down with a newspaper. She'd thrown
herself into her work for some time after her daughter's disappearance.

There hadn't been much she could do, other than find out that all her
daughter's friends had turned up missing as well. Now it was a year later
and...

Kumori Mizuno stared at the paper. It was a tiny article tucked away in a
small section of the paper.

"GENIUS GIRL TO ATTEND FURINKAN
[Ami Mizuno, infamous cram school student
[ will be attending Furinkan Senior High
[ School according to a school administrator
[ yesterday.
[ According to this same school administrator,
[ who wishes to remain anonymous, a makeup
[ entrance exam was given to Mizuno-san and
[ several of her friends, and perfect scores
[ were attained by all.
[ Furinkan Senior High School, in the Furinkan
[ section of Nerima ward, has been marred by
[ less than stellar academic achievements to
[ date."

One of the nurses wondered out loud where Doctor Mizuno was going in such a
hurry.

--------

Mamoru Chiba stared at the paper. The white cat on his shoulder likewise
stared at the paper.

"Ami?" Mamoru said in a disbelieving tone.

"It can't be." Artemis said. "It says 'several of her friends' here too. Do
you suppose that means..."

"But then why hasn't she come back?" Mamoru's jaw tightened slightly.
"Didn't Luna say that guy she saw was in Nerima?"

"At a high school," agreed Artemis. "Looks like a trip to Furinkan needs to
be scheduled."

--------

The school clock ticked from 4:29 to 4:30.

Nabiki and Akane watched as Ranma continued to play around in the water like
a dolphin. Apparently being able to swim while staying a guy was something
he missed, and the water in the pool was sufficiently warm that he stayed
male.

There was a rumble and those outside the pool could see the bottom of it
sliding aside.

Ranma yelped as the water rocked back and forth and the temperature suddenly
lowered enough that Ranma-kun became Ranma-chan.

A color was visible first, a bright yellow shade often seen on construction
equipment. Then a large shape broke the water and began rising into the air.
That Ranma-chan was clinging to it and yelling something about the
unfairness of the situation was idly noted by the people who had been
waiting to use the pool. A few noticed that the bottom of the pool had once
again slid into place.

Minako was standing on the deck and noticed the audience and pulled a
Jigglypuff manuever. Crowd = audience = need to perform. Clearly with this
particular vehicle, a specific song was called for.

"In the town where I was born,
Lived a man, who sailed to sea,
And he told us of his life,
in the land of the marines."

Lots of staring faces as the dripping vehicle slowly rotated around.

"So we sailed unto the sun,
till we found a sea of green,
and we lived beneath the waves,
in our Yellow... Submarine!"

Ranma-chan managed to yell as she fell fifty feet into the pool.
Unfortunately drenching Akane, Yuka, and Sayuri. Nabiki mysteriously stayed
dry.

"We all live in a Yellow Submarine,
Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine,
We all live in a Yellow Submarine,
Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine!"

Moving like a big fat yellow blimp, the ship began to ascend.

"And our friends are all aboard,
many more of them, live next door,
and the band begins to play!"

Ranma tried out the odd English phrasing as the ship continued to climb.
"They all live in a yellow submarine?"

"A yellow submarine?" Akane asked.

"Yellow submarine," agreed Nabiki.

"Yellow submarine," seconded Yuka.

-------------

"Full ahead, Mister Snoopy!"

The beagle turned and saluted, then focussed his attention on the controls
again.

Having only hooked up the navigator's screen and not the majority of
displays and scanners, Greylle was completely unaware that Minako was
*still* on deck singing with full musical accompaniment. Knowing that Snoopy
had programming that he was an accomplished pilot and could avoid obstacles,
Greylle turned his attention fully to continuing to hook up systems, run
wiring, and bolt seats into place.

The ship itself was relatively small, at least when compared to most modern
submarines. Fifteen feet long, seven feet across, ten feet tall. The inside
was comparable to a customized van from the era when such gas-guzzlers were
a lifestyle. It was intended only as a sort of shuttlecraft, one that could
double as a flying sub.

Minako continued to sing. When she reached the end of "Yellow Submarine" she
began dancing and singing to other groups that she had files on. Aerosmith's
"Rag Doll" was followed by the Bangles' "Venus" (which she decided to make
her signature song due to personal relevance) and ended with "I wanna hold
your hand" after the last news chopper started heading back to Tokyo and
they were way out over the Pacific Ocean.

Bored, she activated her flight engine briefly to flit about the craft but
quickly discovered that this was a *bad* manuever. Her top speed flying was
currently about 65mph. The submarine, on the other hand, was currently
travelling at 90mph and steadily accelerating now that they were away from
Tokyo.

Watching her ride disappear in the distance, Minako made a note in memory to
not do that again. Sighing deeply, Minako decided to head back to base. She
hoped that Rei didn't chastise her too much for this understandable if
unfortunate setback.

---------

"Woof." [Systems nominal. Antigrav active and performing within normal
markers.]

"Okay, increase speed to cruising." Greylle began ratcheting the last chair
into position.

"Arf!" [Increasing speed and altitude. Will attain cruising speed of Mach
4.8 at two nautical miles.]

"That's good. Keep an eye out for bogeys but do not engage."

"Urf Arf!" [But of course, mein kapitan! You still haven't loaded any
weapons, have you?]

"True," agreed Greylle. "Nor the chameleon circuit. The weapons will mainly
be on the Arcadia."

"Grrr. Arf." [While I understand that you wanted to maintain a low threat
potential so as to avoid alarming anyone, human history is liberally
sprinkled with acts of armed barbarians taking advantage of their neighbor's
more civilized beneficience - with death and pillaging their method of
annoucement.]

"i take it you disapprove of my not putting weapons on this submarine."

"Growl grrr arf." [My Sopwith Camel at least has a pair of charged machine
guns. Won't you at least consider a torpedo or two?]

"Well, eventually i hope to add trans-phasic circuitry and a chameleon mode.
Weapons would kind of mess up that just from room. i'll consider it though."

"Woof ruff." [We have reached cruising altitude and speed.]

-----------

The easiest way to deal with the tapes was to digitize them. Translated and
stored in a digital format, the marionettes could easily access that
information and then each could scan different bits for later exchange and
comparison.

Also that way they wouldn't keep the tapes past the rental period.

The translation process was subject to high speed observation by the
marionettes that had been activated to this point.

Each had their own interests, of course. Their personalities were being
shaped in part by the engram recordings of their Originals. They were
building on that foundation on their own as their Ishii Kairo developed.

Ami & Usagi watched the "hentai" tapes. Ami studied anatomy and considered
upgrades. Usagi watched techniques and situations and fashioned emotive and
reactive subroutines.

Makoto and most of the others lost interest after the first few minutes
during which the tapes showed small variants of the same scenes and acts.
Besides, it was universally decided that tentacled monsters were of limited
usefulness. Also quite gross.

More useful data was scanned from the "live action" films though again there
did not seem to be much different from one tape to the next.

It took five hours for Ami & Usagi to finish and return the tapes. They
didn't understand the looks from the various patrons and clerks at the
establishment. None mattered. Though one of the patrons followed and
attempted to accost Usagi.

Usagi reacted to the attempt to restrain her and push her into an alleyway
exactly in a manner typical of a young girl possessed of the ability to lift
1.6 metric tons. Ami verified that no vital organs or bones were broken
before they continued on.

In the meantime each of the other marionettes was occupied in research more
in keeping with their own specialties. Makoto analyzing tapes and displays
and books on the subject of martial arts. Minako studied music and
presentation, and discovered data on a time inefficient process known as
"makeovers" which went a lot further than they had originally thought.
Haruka and Michiru decided more data was needed on piloting and the artistic
process respectively. Setsuna, on the other hand, was busy.

Setsuna's data load had indicated that she wanted to be fashion designer.
This made absolutely no sense to her. Clothing served a function and
artistic value didn't seem to have a logical basis. Nor did she see anything
in the engram data to indicate what was needed in fashionable clothing.
Aesthetics were not something that she felt she could guess at.

As with Usagi, if it didn't make any sense, the illogical data was discarded
until later information could be used to make sense of it. Since "fashion
designer" was unlikely to develop without a better understanding of human
aesthetics, Setsuna turned her attention fully to the development of android
systems. Upgrading herself and the others seemed daunting beyond a certain
point, however notes as to something called "power armor" seemed to offer a
way to overcome the limitation of retaining a humanlike form while
continuing to increase their ability to overcome potential adversaries.

Which was when she ran across a common theme of sentai series. Sailor Moon
followed sentai themes, and yet it did not have a giant robot. Clearly
another gap in the datafiles that had to be addressed.

--------

Akane looked out at the night sky and sighed deeply. She was, in her own
opinion at least, engaged to an utter asshole. Cute, and every so often he
would turn loose a smile that would set sparks along her spine, but to say
he was crude and disrespectful seemed to be an understatement.

Why couldn't she be engaged to someone like Doctor Tofu? She could just see
him with his thick blonde hair, tightly muscled body, blue eyes that seemed
to change hue on their own frequently, yes she knew Doctor... ?!

With a little more effort, Akane brought Doctor Tofu's picture to mind. Yes,
with the pigtail and the... ?!

Doctor Tofu. The one with the glasses that fell completely apart whenever
Kasumi showed up. Yes. Okay. Got it.

Akane sighed a little heavier. Her father and Mister Saotome seemed
determined that she wed Ranma. Family honor. "Death is lighter than a
feather, duty is heavier than a mountain." Marriage to Ranma seemed to be
rather heavier a fate than a feather though. Would he turn out like his
father in a few years? Considering how much he ate, it seemed likely.

Akane pictured Ranma as balding, overweight, eating everything in the house
and making a mess wherever he went. Now she tried to picture herself married
to him. "Bleaahhhhh!"

"Man, that is so uncute!"

Akane blinked and realized that her fiance was hanging from his toes from
the roof. "Don't loosen those tiles, Ranma. They're very difficult to
replace and there's a storm front moving through later this week."

"Man, it sure rains a lot here," Ranma said, trying to be polite and nice
and all that. He didn't have a lot of experience nor a role model for such
behavior. "Uhm..."

"What is it, Ranma? It's late." Akane sat back in her chair and regarded her
fiance carefully. He was not, it appeared, a pervert. There were plenty of
boys in school far more perverted or sick than Ranma.

Neither Akane nor Ranma realized that due to the breakup of the morning
battles and the institutionalization of Tatewaki Kuno, as well as some high
powered healing spells, that Akane was calmer and more rational than she
otherwise would have been. She had not been driven near-psychotic by the
idiocy of Kuno's challenge, and she had been exposed to a non-hentai teenage
boy who (in her opinion at least) was in love with her. So while she was
railing against the complications in her life, she wasn't quite as hostile
towards Ranma as she *could* have been.

That didn't mean she didn't think he was an ill mannered jerk.

"Well... uhmm... that is..." (fidget, twitch, blush)

Akane sighed yet again and waited for the sometimes catgirl to get it out.

"Well. Errr..."

Akane began drumming her fingers against her tabletop.

"HEY AKANE! DIG THIS!"

Ranma fell down.

Akane blinked. "Nabiki? You're flying?!"

"Neat isn't it?" Nabiki had changed to her shorts and a tight top and was
exulting in the capabilities of being a "partial conversion cyborg" with an
antigrav flight unit. "I'm Nabiki the Super Gal!"

Neither Akane nor Ranma knew of all the soul-searching that Nabiki had been
doing lately. Nor how she was trying to "re-invent" herself, with limited
success to be sure.

"Nabiki, come inside. It's late and you're gonna scare the neighbors," said
Akane finally.

Nabiki smirked, hearing a pang of envy in there. She complied, even though
using nightvision she could tell there weren't any neighbors watching. She
could always do a little flying later when there wouldn't be any prying
eyes.

Though she couldn't help but show off her cyborg strength to Akane. It was
all a temporary thing, so best to get the most out of it while it lasted.

----------

Upon reaching the area formerly inhabited by a whole bunch of youma and a
Queen Beryl, Greylle had taken the sensible precaution of having Snoopy park
a distance away.

He took dragonform almost immediately for several reasons. First, he could
deal with the cold better. Second, his senses were a *lot* more acute.
Third, if he actually was fighting a youma it would go a *lot* different
from when he'd been in that First Labor. Dragons were *not* helpless against
youma.

Eyes picked out the scene where icy pillars had been thrust from the ground.
It had been a year and snow had fallen and winds had stirred things about,
so it wasn't *obvious* but if you paid attention and were looking down on it
all - you could make out some of it.

No bodies. Neither the youma nor the Senshi had remained of their big
battle.

There was little to see and hearing was of little use after a year, but
there were other senses that could be used. A silver dragon had a better
sense of smell than a red dragon, though a year's passage had erased that
too.

Even more obvious was the pulse of magic. A simple Detect Magic drew him to
a snowfield, and through it into the caverns underneath. Further on was more
protected from the elements, and scents lingered in the still air.

The scent of magic especially. Attack spells like the typical Senshi power
blast faded quickly. Accumulate enough of them in an area and if there
weren't a lot of people to disturb the traces there would still be
resonances in the area.

Greylle was initially reluctant to cast a spell and destroy what traces
remained. That meant gathering information from his senses first in the
cramped tunnels and chamber.

Well, they were cramped if you were fifty two feet long. Squeezing through
them was a pain. Literally at times. Still the place was dark and cold and
being a large armored creature was a definite plus. Not that he found dark
spooky caverns where youma had been known to gather in vast numbers ready to
suck the life out of people to be the sort of thing that made him nervous.
No. Maybe a little apprehensive. Just a touch.

Then a glimmer of light in the darkness drew him.

Which brought a dragon named Greylle to stare at a certain crystal.

Greylle had had extremely busy periods in between adventures, and extremely
busy periods during adventures, but some of the times he had been *on*
adventures had been dull and boring. So he'd studied and tinkered during
those periods.

In a D&D world, Artifacts were one-of-a-kind magical items. Usually
indestructible except by a single preset manner and pretty darn powerful.
Some were merely minor items like the Ring Of The Rose(1) while others
qualified as Don't-Mess-With-It and caused the maps to be rewritten when
someone was foolish enough to use the damn thing.(2) There tended to be
something of balance involved, the more powerful the effect from using it,
the more disastrous the down side or price to be paid.

Call it the Ginzuishou, the Eternal Silver Millenium Crystal, the Silver
Crystal, or something else, it was still an Artifact.

In fact, looking at it with the earlier cast Detect Magic still running, he
could see the weaves and knots of magical force in the outer layers (too
bright to make anything out in the more inward section) and could tell that
there were some things about this Artifact not covered in the anime or
manga.

Like an awful lot of Artifacts, the Ginzuishou was not intelligent that he
could see. It *was* however, aware on some level. Like a low level
Artificial Intelligence, one that couldn't pass a Turing Test but could
respond to a wide variety of stimulus.

Further examination gave him a theory. Each wielder of the Ginzuishou left
something of themselves behind, or at least an echo of themselves, which
accumulated. It might not be completely correct, but it fit what he was
seeing. The Ginzuishou was also pretty darn powerful but not all-powerful.
It ran off a "battery" of energy that accumulated while it was in someone's
possession, a continual leeching of "positive" energy from the environment.
When this battery was depleted, it would drain the life force of the
wielder.

There was a few problems with using it, and he *did* want to use it. Without
it he couldn't cast the higher level spells until he was considerably older
and therefore couldn't find out what had happened to the Senshi or bring
them back from the dead (if they were dead).

The first problem was that it was made to be wielded by a member of the
royal family of the Moon Kingdom. Or at least someone from the Silver
Millenium. Basalt was *gone* - that Aspect of himself had seperated and gone
off and died somewhere. It was no longer part of him, therefore he no longer
had any connection to some Silver Millenium.

Still, he was a Healer and a cleric, or a White Mage if he had the basics of
this particular timeline right. He was also a dragon, in his proper form so
magic was something that came fairly easily to him. Magical artifacts of
Order were stubborn cusses, but without a Wielder it couldn't focus its full
power against him.

Greylle focussed his will on the Ginzuishou, which responded by sending
licks of lightning across his scales.

"Idiot damn crystal, I'm trying to resurrect the Senshi here and bring your
proper wielder back..." Greylle grit his fangs and further focussed his will
on the device. Without the Crystal, he just wasn't high enough level to
manage either a Resurrection or a Reincarnate, and without bodies he'd be
best off with Reincarnation. Raise Dead was within his ability, but the
spell's limits made it useless here.

Okay, there were problems with Reincarnation. For one thing there was no
control over *what* they came back as, it was all either random or karma
dependent. Though with the Senshi linked together: if one came back as (for
example) a Delphins Amazon, then likely they all would. If Usagi came back
as a faerie, most likely Makoto would be a dryad and Ami a snow pixie or
something otherwise maintaining them as a group.

Problem was, the Ginzuishou was *not* cooperating. It was reacting to him as
an outsider, one who had no business playing with it. Only thick armored
scales and innate magic resistance were allowing him to keep ahold of it.

Trying another tack he focussed his need and the task to be done at the
Crystal.

Which seemed to pause and then attacked on several fronts at once, thrusting
through his mind and body with white light.

---------

Ami snapped to attention from where she had been recharging. "Alert.
Detecting energy field of unknown origin. Analysis of waveform: magic.
Summoning spell with white band pattern. Analyzing pattern. Outer overlay =
Master. Power level considerably in excess of Master's estimated
capabilities."

The other Sailor Marionettes looked to her. Ami had the most sensitive and
wide-range sensors.

Setsuna frowned as she processed this. "Targets of magic?"

Ami looked down at herself and at the other androids. "Ourselves."

"Running diagnostic," responded more than one of the substitute Senshi
simultaneously.

"Interesting," stated Minako. "Engrams have been reinforced regarding base
persona and there was some kind of energy field that has... we have Maiden
Circuits?"

"Confirming transformational charge. Interesting." Ami sounded more excited,
which would only have been obvious to the other androids. "Though not much
can be done at this point. Powering down to recharge mode."

The other marionettes gave electronic shrugs. It was true that they couldn't
actually do much about it, the whole thing was pretty much out of their
hands. Better to enter rest mode now.

Especially since Minako had hit on the idea of a sentai team/rock band after
scanning some of those sentai series. After school tomorrow would be their
big debut.

The appropriate files had already been downloaded.

------------

Nabiki had double checked her charge, found it very low, and reluctantly
left her exploration of her newfound power to a later date.

Flight, enhanced strength and durability beyond anything her younger sister
had (she had demonstrated to Akane and caught the glimmerings of envy -
adequate for Nabiki's own measure), enhanced senses beyond anything she
could have afforded, the ability to run at great speeds, and ability to
enhance her own ability to experience pleasure...

Okay, there were some downsides. She'd need to be completely organic before
she could have kids, though that was something that was far from being an
immediate concern. Between the explosion and all the shrapnel, her torso had
lots of bionic parts. While a self-exam had produced a pretty good duplicate
of all the original equipment, she knew just from running a diagnostic that
her skeletal framework had been reinforced so that the powerful cyborg limbs
didn't rip loose from the organic parts. Other parts functioned pretty much
as the originals or better, but kids would not be an option.

There was also the relatively minor problems with having a large part of
your body composed of metal, psuedo-organic tissues, plastic, and
nanomachines. You could place refrigerator magnets on her and they'd stick.
Large industrial magnets would cause the nanomachine parts to freeze up.
Airport security devices and the similar sort of things at various stores
would get set off regularly by her.

Changing into pajamas, plugging in the adaptor, then inserting something
that looked a lot like a large stereo jack into her navel had a certain
degree of creepiness. It went in with a "schnick" sound and a feeling of
warmth, which added to the weirdness factor, and Nabiki had felt an
immediate wave of drowsiness as internal systems began shutting down to a
different mode.

She had a month to explore this before she went back to being normal Nabiki.
Since it *was* just a temporary situation, the middle Tendo daughter found
the whole thing amusing and interesting as opposed to something to panic
about.

Though she'd have to talk to Usagi and Ami about that Over-18 section. She
*had* to get the passcodes for the higher functions. Heh.

----------

Akane may have been suppressing envy of her sister now being The Bionic
Woman (or at least Schoolgirl) as well of her fiance being a better martial
artist and better built as a catgirl than she was. (Actually there was more
than just one pang of jealousy as far as Ranma's cursed form went,
especially as she could see how Ranma's strength and speed actually
increased in what everyone *except* Ranma realized was a catgirl.) Akane may
also have been suppressing envy of her not-boyfriend's association with
fuku-clad superheroines, and once she learned of Yuka and Sayuri as
powerarmor-wearing Knight Sailors she'd likely be envious of *them*.

As to the fact that Nabiki had never looked better, was more toned and
"talented" than ever, and had just this air of superiority now? Akane
hadn't even noticed. Really. Well, at least she'd be the first to deny it.

Which is likely while Akane was asleep, she was tossing and turning and
dreaming dreams of being left behind by everyone in her family and school
all developing amazing superpowers and going out on really exciting
adventures and saving the universe from all sorts of vile beasties.

However, in the Tendo household, she was not the only one feeling the barbs
of envy and wounded pride.

Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School Of Martial Arts was feeling
serious envy. That foreigner might not have had the basics down right, but
he had some special manuevers that were quite impressive. Serious strength
and durability too. And now NABIKI was flying about and showing some serious
strength of her own.

Ranma hadn't, it should be noted, quite gotten his mind wrapped around the
concept of a cyborg. He had seen the metallic framework in Nabiki's forearm
and the cables and gadgets when she'd activated an access panel. He had the
pieces (so to speak) but hadn't fitted them together.

So Ranma was still working out ways that he could duplicate the effects of
these martial arts special manuevers. Flying would be especially good, the
Saotome school specializing in mid-air combat after all.

Kasumi also had dreams. While some of these dealt with Snorlax Au Gratin or
similar scenarios, there was the occasional one where she was studying to
become a Medical Assistant and married to some blond gaijin and living far
far away from her ancestral home.

Genma dreamed too. Mainly of food.

Soun dreamed of uniting the two houses by getting Ranma and Akane together
and a long peaceful retirement with the future of the Anything Goes school
assured. That nothing weird happened and that there were no dojo
challengers, monsters-of-the-week, or even any friction between Ranma and
Akane was attributable to this being Soun's dream sequence.

Shampoo dreamed of having two handsome and talented airen, showing them off
at the village, then returning to Japan with them. The dream turned a bit
strange halfway through, with giant robot transforming Nabiki and at one
point she dreamed of holding Ranma's hand only to turn around and find it
was *Akane* she was holding hands with. But this was attributable to having
sampled one of the cookies that Akane had tried to bake earlier.

Away from the Tendo dojo, others dreamed. Yuka dreamed of being a
world-famous Magical Girl With A Big Gun. Sayuri dreamed of throttling her
best friend Yuka. Usagi dreamed of electric sheep. Ami dreamed of solving
unsolvable math problems. Rei dreamed of Usagi getting a clue. Makoto
dreamed of understanding humans. Minako dreamed of riding the space shuttle
and being a big rock star while juggling salmon. Michiru dreamed of Haruka
swimming. Haruka dreamed of Michiru driving a racecar that transformed into
a giant robot for no apparent reason. Setsuna dreamed of becoming real.
Hotaru dreamed of a wedding, during which there were giant robot battles
overhead and she was on the deck of the Space Battlecruiser Yamato.

In other words, it was fairly much what would you would expect of the
circumstances.

--------------

(1) - Ring Of The Rose, created long ago by an old elven wizard named
Rosewood. Who apparently had been rejected by nearly every beautiful nubile
elven girl he'd come into contact with. He decided that his loneliness was
caused by the scarcity of same, and not certain odious personal habits, and
so came up with the Ring. It grants some special abilities such as
Darkvision, but every use causes a 10% alteration in the wielder until they
are a beautiful nubile elven girl. There is an elven village of Larktree
where beautiful elven maidens come to spit on the grave of an old elven
wizard named Rosewood.

(2) - Hand and Eye Of Vecna, Rod Of Priapus, Orb Of Conflagration, The
Monkey's Paw, The Suloise Trump, Amulet Of Meteor Summoning, and other
things that are generally passed around in cautionary tales as "Things Only
A Total Idiot Would Consider Playing With".

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