Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Hand Maid May Fan Fiction / Gatekeepers Fan Fiction ❯ Retake ❯ Pinch Hitter ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 10: Retake

Pinch Hitter

Disclaimer: see previous notes


On one hand, Greylle was pleased. The time was fast approaching when he'd have to slip back into the role of American baseball player/High School student, at which point the underground base and various plans would have to be turned over entirely to the marionettes. This showed initiative, inventiveness, and independent thinking.

On the other hand, this had *not* been planned and could have several very bad consequences.

"If you've got a microwave orbital powerplant running in Mars orbit, how are you going to keep Earth based telescopes from detecting it?" Greylle asked Ami.

"Should we have?" Ami blinked as she considered. So *that* was what she'd been forgetting.

Greylle let out a deep breath. "Let's see if i've got this right. You've got three Workspiders on this project. One of them was on Deimos setting up communications equipment and has deployed a robot factory with mass driver to grab Amor asteroids and move them to where they're in orbit around Mars."

"Or crash them into a specific target on Mars to increase the planetary mass and cause volcanic outgassing, incidently increasing the surface temperature briefly," Ami corrected.

"Then two more Workspiders are on Mars itself, setting up robot mines and refineries so that domes can be built on the surface for human habitation?"

"Yes," agreed Ami.

"So basically you've got the whole thing set up on one side of Mars, and you're looking at ways to increase the mass of the red planet to the point where surface water and atmosphere can be stabilized?"

"Yes," repeated Ami.

"Why?" Greylle decided to table the likely problems that would occur when various telescopes discovered activity on Mars.

Ami explained the reasoning she had that had brought out this course of action.

Greylle nodded, slowly turned around, stepped up to one of the reinforced walls.

*WHAM*WHAM*WHAM*WHAM*

Rubbing his forehead after repeatedly slamming it into the wall, Greylle noted that this hadn't actually helped matters any. Pity. "Ami, you *do* realize that my time down here is over in a very short time and that i'm going to have to leave you and the others to take care of my various projects unsupervised until my primary mission is complete? Or at least completely failed? That once that period is up i'm going to have to immerse in the role of some American baseball talent attending Furinkan?"

"Yes," repeated Ami again, then blinked. "Is there a problem?"

-----------

"Hi Dad!" Akane waved at her father before turning to start up the stairs. Tomorrow was a school day after all!

"Who?" Soun blinked at the strange tigergirl, except that she looked a little familiar.

"It's just me," said the tigergirl, then realizing what the problem was - flashed her fangs in a smile. "I'm Akane. This is just a temporary form until I can get my own body back."

*SPLASH!*

Akane wiped scalding hot water out of her face, having otherwise gone completely still in shock. "Dad?"

Soun stared. His youngest daughter had *fur*?! Permanently cursed? No, this couldn't be. His dreams could not have been destroyed like this! "Who are you and why are you claiming to be my daughter?!"

Akane blinked at this, her tail twitching slightly at the end as she tried to process this. "Dad! I'm Akane. Your youngest daughter, remember? This is just a temporary thing because Shard-san still doesn't have that gadget ready to rebuild bodies in their original form."

Soun went to Demon Head Mode. "HOW DARE YOU PRETEND TO BE MY DAUGHTER, YOU MONSTER!"

"...but..." Akane squeaked, eyes beginning to shimmer.

"GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" Soun couldn't stand this anymore. Genma's son was a murderer and this foreigner had tried to substitute this monster for his beloved youngest daughter. "MONSTER! DON'T COME BACK WITHOUT MY *REAL* DAUGHTER!"

Akane fled as her own father began calling her a monster and worse.

---------

TING!

A coffin opened.

Ranma-chan staggered up out of its depths. "Whoaaaaaaaaa..."

Not noticing her haircut, makeup, *or* that she was currently wearing a sailor seifuku, Ranma-chan looked back at the wild ride she'd just gotten. There had been some very odd things going on in that thing, but after she'd struggled and then gotten sedated, it had actually gotten very interesting.

Mellowed out considerably by the amount of synthetic endorphins and other tranquilizing agents floating through her bloodstream, Ranma-chan staggered over to the door. This was a bizarre little place, but somewhere there were special techniques that she could learn.

Oh yeah, and there was that tomboy too. Had to apologize or something.

----------

Greylle took the lift to the school, stopping on the roof to get his bearings and some fresh air. It was late, he should be getting ready for some serious sleep, but the things going on needed to be settled within his mind before he'd be able to get rest at this point.

A sniffle drew his attention from his inner conflicts. "Who's there?"

A shape padded forward, tiger stripes tending to make her hard to pick out of the shadows. "It'll take a month to turn me back?"

Greylle nodded, then realized she might not be able to see him, especially with her downturned like that. "Yeah. A regeneration tank is tricky, it has to be able to take the sequence and clone any particular body part and oversee the whole process at an accelerated rate. The nanomachines and overseers have to work perfectly and in synch and are very specialized."

Akane's head nodded. "I..." Another sniffle.

A conflict was going on in Greylle's head. On the one hand this was someone in pain, and his natural bent was to offer what aid he could. On the other hand this was *Akane Tendo* - a hateful violent girl who could be nice on occasion but had a tendency to drop into rabid psychobitch mode when her emotions were engaged. "Uhm well..."

Another sniffle, and even in the shadows it could be told that she was shaking. "...I... Daddy..."

Looking heavenwards briefly and silently asking the eternal question ("Why me?"), Greylle stepped forward to clasp her shoulders. Maybe he could just offer some comfort while still remaining sufficiently distant that he could...

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" (GLOMP!)

Okay, Akane was fairly cute as a tiger girl. Greylle even understood that a catgirl synthetic body had been developed for use on the Arcadia, he'd come up with the idea himself in that having a few nonhumans visible on the bridge might put alien races at ease with them. It was still Akane under that fur and artificially grown tissue. With her hugging him and crying into his shirt, how the heck was he supposed to get her and Ranma together?

A flash of motion and Greylle looked up to see Nabiki floating nearby. He tried to mouth "Help!" but Nabiki just looked puzzled. Then the cyborg Tendo crossed a finger over her lips in the universal silence gesture.

Looking down at the top of her head and those lightly pointed ears it was easy to picture this as something other than Akane. Maybe a relatively normal catgirl needing comfort. In such a situation that was easy. Hold her, stroke her hair, and murmur a few words of encouragement and comfort.

It seemed to work, the girl in his arms seemed to relax slightly though he was wondering how she was able to breathe with her head pressed into his chest like that.

Nabiki watched this for a little while before giving her head a sad shake. "Okay. Me, Kasumi, and Akane need someplace to stay."

"What happened?" Greylle still felt slightly disgusted, aided by the dampening of his shirt, but curiosity was a powerful factor among silver dragons.

"Daddy threw a fit. Seems he's a bit more Shinto/traditionalist than I thought," said Nabiki thoughtfully. "Anyway he saw Akane, figured she'd been Jusenkyo cursed, and after what happened to me, he lost it completely. Then when we came back and caught the tail end of Akane running off, he saw Kasumi in the kimono and assumed the worst. So, we need a place to stay until he comes out of this latest funk."

Greylle considered how stoic and emotionally stable Soun Tendo was. Maybe in the morning? "Okay, let's see if they've finished the guest chambers."

Nabiki smirked at how Greylle tried to move only to be held in place by Akane. "This could take awhile."

-------

Ami was thoughtful as she interfaced with the central computer. "Alien races?"

"Insufficient data," replied Fess. "Any of those, and others, *are* possible within this timeline."

"Defensive capabilities are insufficient?" Ami considered ways of upgrading their defenses.

"Under current projections, against an opponent like the Swarm, it would require over 100 years to develop defenses that would last more than five standard minutes. In other cases, completing the Arcadia would be sufficient. A scan of the movie 'Independence Day' reveals aliens that could be defeated with existing technology. Though I find it amusing that the aliens in that movie were defeated because they ran their mecha on Windows."

"Disregarding comedies, unintentional or not, and sticking with aliens that are actually within records, what can we do that we are not doing already?"

Fess hesitated. "Not much that would actually be of use here. Due to the need to keep within the secretive nature specified by this scenario, we cannot actually build planetary cannons or the like. Alarming the human populace would be counterproductive and this particular era has produced a general low panic threshold and an unfortunate tendency for mob reactions of a most unpleasant and illogical sort."

"So, the Master's plan is to incorporate humans into the process, hence his contacts with the leaders of the local Empire. This would also be why his protests were minimal at the inclusion of Yuka and Sayuri."

"There are also plans to bring in an elite force handpicked by the Emperor, though he has almost run out of time at this point." Fess activated a holographic display of a calender.

Ami considered possibilities. "The Master mentioned a few names during his conference. See if you can locate any of them."

---------

Metal had been seperated out into various "pure" forms and now cooled in dark caverns hollowed out by robotic moles similar to but more advanced than those that had been used to dig the "chunnel" bridging the English Channel.

Robots trundled their way around, carrying raw materials to other devices which could then fashion and shape those materials to specified form.

Workspider-02 spent 2.0357 seconds just admiring the view. Enough to bring a warm feeling to its central emotive processing center, it was.

The first pressurized enclosure was finished: a multi-purpose dome 100 feet across not counting the airlocks. It was then filled with a mix of oxygen and nitrogen, filtered to remove a few poisons that had been liberated in the process, and promptly abandoned.

Machines didn't mind an air pressure that would leave bruising on a human, nor the poisonous mix of air. The radiation levels were likewise unhealthy for a human, at least if prolonged exposure occurred. Neither that nor the cold were a problem to a pure robot which was what the Workspiders and Moles were. The synthetics like the marionettes and mannequins could have tolerated these conditions briefly though prolonged exposure would have caused problems.

No, oxygen was actually bad for the purely mechanical robots. Their objections to the environment were mainly the problems of microfine particles, the lack of anyone to talk to, and the problems with 300kph windstorms. No lightning, but if they succeeded in terraforming the planet to any degree that *could* occur, hence the lightning rods installed over the warehouses and other non-environmental buildings already erected.

For Workspiders and similar robots being useful was being happy. Their mental architecture was not designed to mirror human emotions and motivations any more than their bodies were. A Workspider enjoyed building, and had a certain artistic flair programmed in. Which was one reason why the domes and buildings had an unfinished look to them.

That and Workspider-02, operating from instructions transmitted from Earthside, was building a transporter pad. Receive only, but if they could get it working they'd be able to go much faster.

The Workspider turned back to its tasks, idly wondering if they could get some music piped in.

--------

Disgust and distrust had warred with the need to nurture and be kind. It had been nearer than he'd want to admit.

"Military style barracks?" Nabiki wasn't too happy with this.

Greylle finished prying the tigress off of him. Even though she was currently asleep, she'd still been clinging onto him. How embarassing. "It's all i've got right now. There was talk about training some JSDF members here, and so it was put onto the floorplans. We've decided not to go with that concept, but because it never got removed from the floorplan, it was built."

"Dibs on top bunk!" Shampoo cried as she leapt up onto just such a position.

"Sugar," Ukyo waved a hand at the line of bunk beds. "There's thirty beds here, so there's fifteen top bunks."

"Oh my, is someone else staying here?" Kasumi noted that a number of the beds looked slightly rumpled and had power cords dangling from hooks.

"Must have been something Ami or Fess came up with," concluded Greylle. He noted one lump further down the row, so it looked like one of the beds was occupied. "i'll make sure you're registered for this. Keep in mind, it's just for tonight."

(GLOMP!)

Shampoo muttered something about Amazon trademark violation.

Ukyo saw this and decided that it was just as well she was going after Ranma. Though Greylle was kind of cute sometimes.

"Don't leave!" Akane mumbled into Greylle's shirt. "I don't want to be alone."

Greylle thought of a few ways to do this, most of which were discarded because Akane hadn't actually done anything horrible or violent to him yet and she was likely to be a little emotionally vulnerable right now. Ah, that might work: she was a Japanese teenager and their reputations were so important to them. "Tendo-kun, it would be unseemly for you to spend too much time with me now. What of your reputation? Besides, your sisters are here."

Akane continued to cling.

Greylle ignored the snickering from Nabiki as she chose a bunk of her own. Akane had looked up and despite being a tiger-girl was giving him that sorrowful puppy-dog eyes routine. Arrrgh. He continued to try to come up with a nonhurtful way of breaking off this contact. Fainting? No - she might decide to play nurse. A manufactured emergency? No way to surreptiously call for such to be arranged. Hey, what about Ranma? "Akane-chan, you've got to think how this would look. What about your fiance Ranma? i certainly don't want to bring you any dishonor!"

Akane seemed to search his face briefly before slowly releasing him. "Shard-sama, do you think I'm..."

Greylle blinked. Now what?

"...do you think I'm..." Akane chewed on her thumb-claw in nervousness. "Do you think I'm cute?"

One surprise after another today. Nabiki snickered again. Kasumi wondered aloud if this was proper behavior for an engaged young lady. Shampoo merely watched with fascination.

"...Uncute unfaithful tomboy..." muttered the blanket-covered lump several bunks down. Not that she was interested or nuthin'.

Greylle paused significantly at that. What to say? Anything other than a yes might be hurtful in her current state. And she *did* look cute as a humanoid tigress. Unfortunately, she might take this the wrong way. So...

Akane got more nervous as the silence lengthened.

"Sometimes, yes," eventually admitted Greylle. "Sorry, i've got to get going. You all should get some sleep, tomorrow's a school night. Bath is across the hall."

Akane saw all the pink light and sakura petals (that nobody else seemed to notice) along with all the flower and vine borders. He had called her cute!

Ukyo sighed and laid back on the bunk she'd decided to claim. She'd heard about American men being fairly free with compliments. However, Ukyo had noticed that *she* had been referred to as cute all the time and not merely "sometimes" - though Akane *was* kind of cute with the tiger stripes and all.

Shampoo was a bit envious. Mercenary girl got to fly and project forcefields. Violent girl got turned into a cute and sexy tiger. If the Oh my girl got a powerup, Shampoo was going to demand her own.

Nabiki snickered yet again as she noticed the dazed expression and stupid smile. "I thought you didn't care what some gaijin thought about you, Akane."

"I don't," Akane responded happily, tail curled up proudly behind her and gently swishing about.

"...good..." mumbled the lump under the blankets halfway down the room. Not that *she* cared.

Kasumi quietly sat at the edge of the bunk she'd chosen, deep in thought. When she spoke it was to empty air. "Excuse me?"

"Yes, Tendo-san?" The voice was a pleasant male baritone sounding from mid-air.

"Ano..." Kasumi wasn't sure how to politely put this.

"You're the central computer right? Not a person." Nabiki said from her position on the top bunk.

"There are many here in the complex who might dispute your conclusion, Nabiki Tendo," gently chided the voice.

Nabiki considered getting into a debate but it had been a long day. "Good enough. Just meant that my sister here didn't have to worry about any strange men peeping on her."

"Nabiki!" Kasumi looked alarmed at the very suggestion.

"The only completely organic male in this complex at this time is Shard-san," assured the voice.

"You know my name, what's yours?" Nabiki was usually very good at remembering names, dropping them later often had benefits.

"Fess."

"Fess as in 'confess'?" Nabiki asked politely, quite aware that both her sisters and their two guests were watching the exchange.

"Faithful Cybernetic Companion actually. FCC or Fess for short. Was there something you required? I'm afraid that that particular room has no visual pickups as yet."

Ukyo thought she had the idea. "We had to leave home without getting any bed-clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss. Things like that. Any chance we can get some of that?"

"Hmmm," Fess considered. "Yes, I can divert one of the fabricators. What style of clothing would be appropriate?"

Nabiki practically gleamed with sheer unadulterated greed.

*CLANG!* "None of that, sugar, we're guests here. How about pajamas for four, Fess-san?"

When a very pale girl with the oddest bleached looking hair and red eyes brought in four sets of pajamas, Nabiki concluded that Fess might not be organic but he *did* have a sense of humor. Nabiki's were golden silk decorated with various currency symbols, Kasumi's pajamas were likewise silk and a light pink decorated with wildflowers (she was able to express a little displeasure and got a similar design on a modest cotton nightgown), Ukyo got a set of dark blue pajamas with spatulas and okonomiyaki, and Shampoo got a set that matched her hair and was decorated with Chinese writing.

"We're not going to have to pay for these, are we?" Nabiki asked, though she was planning on finding *some* way she could keep these.

"Oh, I'm sure we can come to some equitable exchange," said Fess. "It is now 2100 hours. I will be dimming the lights in the complex as we go to rest mode. If you are unable to sleep, full power will still be accessable in the Cafeteria, Main Hangar, and Marionette Assembly facilities."

----------

"The coaches and auxilary personnel have been developed and should be ready by tomorrow morning," Ami said.

"Good," said Greylle, then stopped and pointed at a new door. "That wasn't on my floorplans. What is it?"

"Airlock. Leading to a bulk matter transmitter. The receiver is being built on Mars. The timing is critical, and with the retransmitter on Phobos and the hyperspatial currents it can only be used briefly and then only at specific times."

Greylle thought about and terraforming Mars *would* provide a convenient bolthole. "With the problems of Earth's orbit, Earth's rotation, Deimos' orbit and rotation, and the same factors with Mars, it won't work more often than not. Suggest making an area of Phobos a holding area. Though if we put a seperate satellite above the solar orbital plane that'll help.

Ami blinked as she took the suggestions in and began working out methods.

"What of the rest of my team?" Greylle's impression of the rest of the Furinkan baseball team hadn't been that high. To try to develop those skills he needed team-mates and opposition that could hold up. He started walking again, an idle portion of his mind turning over the possibility of emplaced planetary defense weapons and possibly a full scale replica of some starship kept there for safe keeping.

"Being taken care of," Ami assured him.

"Dimensional engine?"

"Nearly complete. Testing it will be difficult within a gravity plane so it was thought best to wait on that end of things until we had the Deimos area completed." Of course, with both of Mars' moons altered for use it would facilitate things. Ami sent Fess the appropriate suggestions.

----------

Soun wept. This was nothing even remotely new - an ice cream cone that tasted nice could bring floods of tears from the Tendo patriarch.

Genma sighed and smiled while looking into his sake cup. "It's for the best, Tendo."

"But... how could I do that to my little girls? I just got so..."

"You've stressed out before, my friend, but before you pass judgement completely consider something." Genma put his sake cup on the little hot plate while he considered Soun.

"Pass judgement?"

"Those may have well really been your daughters, perhaps not, but it is a possibility. In which case, you sending them back may have been the best thing you could do for them."

Soun looked up, trying to work this out. "How's that again?"

Genma smirked. He'd always been the better planner of the two. "Simple. This boy may be some sort of genius and in line for a lot of money as a baseball player, but he is still a teenage boy. Your daughters are lovely teenage girls."

"Your point, Saotome?"

Seeing the steam beginning to play around the lip of the sake cup, Genma picked it up and sipped at it. Ah, perfect! "Simple. He's been consistent - it will take one month for the boy to develop a way of rebuilding body parts. One month with three lovely girls. Think of the sort of fortune that sort of device would be worth, Tendo. Once he gets to know your daughters, he'll see what treasures they are he won't be able to help himself. Once he's developed a relationship with one of your daughters you can get them married off in no time. And since he's American and wealthy - you won't have to worry about dowries."

Soun began to smile. "That's so true, Saotome!"

"Then of course there's Ranma," gloated Genma. "With him not being allowed back until your daughters are returned *whole* - his jealousy will burn within him. He'll *have* to try and win one of your daughters, if not all three, away from this gaijin. Then we just have a double wedding!"

"Genius, Saotome! Pure genius!"

Genma smirked and poured himself some more sake. "True, Tendo, true."

----------

"Emperor," said a man, setting a folder down on the desk.

"Is that?" The Prime Minister's attache was one of those rare, unique, and indespensible individuals: he was competent and knew when to keep his mouth shut.

"Keiichi Morisato, a sophomore student at the men's dorm of Nekomi Technical Institute. His sister Megumi is in her senior year at Ogata High School." Haruhiko flipped through the pages.

"Nekomi?" Yoshinori pondered it for a moment before admitting he wasn't familiar with it.

"A small technical college partially set in the mountains to the North. Known more for being cheap in the fares, it nonetheless turns out some fairly accomplished engineers." The one who had placed the folder down still stood, awaiting the inevitable questions.

Haruhiko considered the two photos for a moment before pushing them over to the attache.

"She's cute," commented the PM's agent. "Is there something you see that would indicate why an alien dragon prince would know these two by name?"

Haruhiko glanced at the spy. "Any ideas? You compiled these reports but there's not actually that much here.

"Both are mechanically inclined. Both have good but not exceptional grades." The spy adjusted his glasses slightly as he thought of how best to put the minor details. "Keiichi Morisato has just recently joined the dorm, and has rather quickly been thrust into the 'minor lackey' role by two upperclassmen: a brute named Tamiya and a... strange individual named Ootaki. Keiichi has joined the Motor Club at Nekomi, where his short size and light weight make him a more ideal driver than either of his 'sempai'. He shows promise as a mechanical engineer, though he's average in most of his other areas of endeavor. Short, so perhaps he compensates by being adaptable.

"His sister Megumi is perhaps more understandable. She plays softball regularly though she was a member of the Photography Club during the off season. Somewhat mercenary by all accounts, though also mechanically inclined and described as a real 'motor-head' by some of her friends."

"Your conclusion?" asked the Emperor softly.

The spy pursed his lips as he considered. Had anyone *else* asked, he would have had no opinion. "It is best you contact them before Ogata. There is nothing particularly special about either, but they may have hidden qualities that your prince is aware of. Something like esper potential or some detail in their genealogy that wasn't documented in our initial search." The spy was himself perplexed. There were better looking girls, some of whom had greater talents for machinery. As to Keiichi - his skills were good but there were many who were better. He'd pondered long and concluded that it *had* to be something he couldn't see with normal eyes.

Haruhiko grimaced. Ogata *could* cause some problems. "Fine. Have the two invited here tomorrow afternoon. Use the standard cover story: getting in touch with the common people and such. Have Tanaka here for it."

Keiho, the attache, nodded. "It is likely our resident alien is attempting some damage control. Including relatively normal people who might have enough of an engineering background to know what they're dealing with as an attempt to gauge how acceptable certain technologies would be."

"Hmmm," the spy hmmmed. The possibility that the brother and sister were chosen because of their normality had been missed. Maybe he was getting too old for this business.

--------

"...sional aperature formed in sector four. Alert. Dimensional aperature formed in sector four. Intruder detected. Alert. Dimens..."

"Shut the alarm off," Greylle grumbled, raising his head slowly. He couldn't seem to get any sleep as a human *or* a dragon. Waitaminute. Sector four was his lair, wasn't it? Eyes opened, to behold a pair of eyes staring back at him.

"Wow," said a girl who looked like a perky blonde Japanese teenager. "You look a *lot* more impressive here. You were such a skinny little guy when we faced those rogue Summoners."

"*RIKKU*?!" Silver dragon priest stared at Al-Bhed alchemist. "What? How? Where?"

"Still the conversationalist, eh?" The blonde shrugged and made an offhand gesture. "I swear, compared to Auron or Kimarhi you're just as silent but half as eloquent sometimes."

The large silverscaled head darted around. "What the heck? Rikku, you were in Spira. How could you even be here much less know i was anything other than a wandering adventurer?"

The Al-Bhed waved her finger at the dragon. "Hey, now. You *are* a wandering adventurer. And is this any way to greet an old friend?"

"When the friend is someone you never expected to see again, from a world you never expect to visit again, and know darn well that you don't have a way to track me much less cross dimensional boundaries? Yes!" Greylle rested his chin in the palm of one hand and regarded her. "Well, whatever the quest, i can't help you. i'm tethered to this reality. Even if you were to have a way to bring me over, at an unexpected time i'd be snapped right back here."

"Do I *have* to have such a motive to visit an old buddy?" Rikku turned on the innocent act.

"Yes."

"Meanie." Rikku waved a hand then decided to take a seat. "If you *must* know you wore the same clothes while you were there, just put 'em through the wash a few times, and you were there for eight weeks. Helped us out a lot with those Summoners and some of those left over Fiends too. Lulu tried to figure out how to get in touch with you again when we found your little 'cache' and we used your Tallboy bombs to deal with the current threat, then Lulu started trying to track you down because of the weird magic involved."

"And she found out i wasn't from your world," Greylle concluded with a sigh. "So how *is* everyone?"

Rikku looked up at the ceiling in thought, ticking off fingers as she tried to catch things up. "Yuna's still getting worse, not better. She hasn't gone to visit Tidus' grave in awhile. The most cheerful she got was when we were all together and adventuring that last time, and that's why we wanted to contact you anyway - Yuna needs some major cheering up. Wakka is coaching a blitzball team, not the Aurochs by the way. Kimarhi went back to his people, I think he's got a family started there now. Yuna's still in the spotlight as the 'Savior of Spira' and has to do a lot of political stuff. Then there's Lulu - she's at the Macalenia College Of Magic. It looked like Wakka and Lulu might be getting together but nothing came of it. And the other newbie that was with us when you got involved, Shuu, she's back to working as a waitress in Luca."

"She was that shorthaired blitzball player that kept trying to flirt with Wakka, wasn't she?"

"Yeah," Rikku admitted. "She didn't care for adventuring or that sort of thing though. Now she's with the Aurochs when she's not waitressing and I think she's interested in Keepa."

"You're just here to try to get me to cheer up Yuna?" Greylle was openly suspicious.

"Well, that and maybe it was getting me down being around Yuna like that." Rikku hugged one of her legs while trying to find something interesting to focus on. "And boring. We've got some airships being built nowadays, the Guado are being cast down while we Al Bhed are being more accepted now - definite reversal of fortune for both of us. That's a very interesting gemstone you've got buried in your chest like that."

"It is named Ginzuishou, and it is not by choice," explained Greylle.

"Better not let Yuffie see it."

"...yuffie...?!"

Rikku blinked and covered her mouth. "Oopsie."

Wings half-furled, aura of menace beginning to form, Greylle looked down at the little alchemist. "WHO all came with you?!"

"Nobody, uhm, yet. Well, it's kinda like this," Rikku said, suddenly reminded of the time she'd fought Bahamut but she'd been backed by a team on that occasion.

Greylle had a feeling he wasn't going to like this.

-----------

Kasumi suppressed a yawn as she got up in the middle of the night. It looked like the others were able to get some sleep, how nice for them. Though Akane was purring and it was difficult for Kasumi not to reach over and scratch her behind the ear.

Ranma-chan came to a complete halt as someone began moving just as she had been trying to sneak out. (She'd calculated the chance of a private talk with Akane as zero. Nada. Zip.)

Kasumi pressed the door button, stepping out into the hallway, and heading back to the kitchen. For her: housework was a kata, cooking a meditation exercise. When she was feeling out of sorts, it was time to cook something. The more elaborate the better. She had the distinct feeling that nobody else in her family understood this.

Ranma-chan passed the sleeping girls with only a glance at Akane snoozing on the bed. This had been a very very bad day and she was anxious to get the heck out of here and find her way back to the Tendo place. No telling what kinda weird machines would spring out of the walls or something. Besides, she really wanted to get rid of this makeup.

Kasumi startled slightly as one of the hulking Terminator units looked over her and apparently decided she was not a candidate for termination. "Hello, Mister Arnie."

"Hello, Tendo Kasumi." Arnie got up and started walking towards Ranma-chan. "Excuse me."

"Wahhhhgg!" Ranma-chan had a little trouble with security guards armed with chain guns coming towards her. Especially with the whirr of the gun being turned on. She was a world-class martial artist. She was tough. She was fast. She was modest. How would she hold up under a chaingun wielding robot soldier? Did she really want to find out?

"You are not authorized to be here. Please leave immediately," said Arnie-01, having achieved a lock-on.

Ranma looked wildly around. "I'd love to. Where's the exit?"

"This way," said Arnie with a gesture.

Ranma blinked. It was that easy?! "Uhm okay."

Kasumi shook her head. Ranma was so silly. Akane would be a good influence on him after they were married.

Going into the kitchen, Kasumi noticed the lights brightened as soon as she crossed the door. A teapot was set on one burner to heat as she checked the refrigerator and tsked over the lack of rice or fish.

(Yawn!)

Kasumi straightened, blinking. That hadn't been her. She looked out into the cafeteria. Nobody.

(Yawn!)

Kasumi looked down at the six inch tall girl with the white bunny ears whose necklace terminated in a stopwatch. The bunnygirl blinked up at her and waved. Kasumi noted that the bunnygirl was wearing an apron+blouse+skirt combination that wouldn't have looked out of place on herself. She glanced down at her borrowed nightclothes then again at the bunny. "Oh my. Let me guess, you're the kitchen timer?"

The bunnygirl winked and gave her a thumb's up.

"Oh how cute," said Kasumi. She remembered her Momo-chan doll when she was younger and thought this all a rather neat concept. She wondered if Shard-san could be bothered to part with one.

Timer walked over to the teapot and seemed to regard it before the hands on her stopwatch moved to a different position.

Kasumi looked over the ingredients on the shelves and pondered what to make. "An omelet, I suppose," she said to the bunny-timer. "I'm just not familiar with American food."

[Recipe Request?] A holographic sign appeared over the stove. The letters changed after a moment. [Pardon me, milady. Does ma'amselle request a recipe?]

Not at all used to household appliances talking back to one, Kasumi nonetheless rallied. "Uhm, yes, I'd prefer making something a bit more complicated than an omelet but I'm not familiar with American food and I don't see a lot of ingredients for Japanese dishes."

[Any objection to chicken?]

"Uhm, no," allowed Kasumi. Noticing that the bunnygirl's alarm had gone off, Kasumi poured herself a cup of tea while she talked to the stove.

[Roast chicken in brandy sauce. You will need the following ingredients. Displaying location of ingredients. 1 five pound chicken. 1/2 teaspoon salt. 1/4 teaspoon pepper. 6 tablespoons butter. 1/4 cup onion, diced fine. 3/4 cup brandy. 1/2 cup heavy cream. 1 tablespoon diced parsley.]

Kasumi raised an eyebrow and pulled out a bag of boneless chicken breasts. "Okay..."

[Oven preheating to 350 degrees F]

As the instructions continued, Kasumi melted the butter in a saucepan, placed the chicken within, and sprinkled the pieces with pepper and salt. She added the onion and went back to the table to sip on her tea while the pieces glazed, then added the brandy. Sitting back at the table, she got a little curious and tried a glass of brandy herself.

(Cough cough cough.) A little teary-eyed, Kasumi decided that this was certainly an interesting thing but maybe a bit much for now.

[Cover the skillet with aluminum foil and cook for 25 minutes.]

After placing the glazed pieces back in the oven, Kasumi poured another cup of brandy and it felt a lot smoother this time. The third cup was even easier and gave her this really nice warm relaxed feeling.

Timer's hand glowed as she asked Stove if the friendly human was all right. Stove replied that he'd explain this when Timer's AI was a few cycles older.

After twenty-five minutes (and Kasumi had lost track of how many sips of brandy she'd had lately - she normally didn't drink at all but this had been a very stressful day), Kasumi unsteadily got up and poured the cream over the chicken. Shutting the oven again and moving back to the chair, she did something she had not done since she was a young child. Missed the chair.

(WHUMP!)

"Owie."

[Do you require medical attention?] Stove began recording this, part of medical protocols, to send to the medical facilities. Except of course they weren't finished yet. Oh well.

Kasumi tried to focus in on the glowing green lettering. "Yeshhh. Yesh I do. Nabiki gosh a poweroop. She flies around the house and neighborhood. Flappity flap flappity flap."

Timer would have sweatdropped if she had sweat glands. As it was she activated a little holographic sign to say [Oh my.]

[You said it,] replied Stove.

"Akane ne ne ne. Akane gosh a poweroop," continued Kasumi, feeling around on the table before she found the bottle. "Akane a putty cat. Oh, I tawt I taw a putty cat, putty cat, putty cat..."

[She only had four glasses of brandy. Of course she drank them rather quickly...] Stove decided the five minutes were up and the chicken was ready. Turning off the heat and opening the door he could do himself. Maybe if Miss Tendo ate something? [Tendo-san? The chicken is ready, would you care to try it?]

Kasumi stared at the jumble of letters on the screen. "Huh?"

[Maybe you should have something to eat? And some nice strong tea?]

Kasumi tried to make sense out of the odd lettering on the screen. "Whasheveh. Nabibi gesh a poweroop. Akuma gesh a poweroop and gesh cute and cudderry. I gesh kicked outta house an all I gesh ish a new kimono and nightie. Not fair. Notsh fair at (hic) all."

[Maybe calling a Medic-bot would be a good idea after all.]

"Akemi's widdle fwiends Oompa and Samuri," Kasumi sniffled, "they gesh poweropp too y'know. Nosh fair. I weeded manga (hic) when I was a widdle girl too. I wanna poweroop."

[Actually, you'd probably like a nice nap right now, wouldn't you?]

"Daddy engagesh me to some Amari... Amuri... foreign guy. Who turnsh out to be an aliensh with weird gadgets." Kasumi blinked owlishly at Timer. "No offense."

Timer shrugged, not understanding this at all.

"Schept my new finanshuu... fianfee... boyfriend don't even notish me. Sho I figure out that maybe Akamimi cansh marry Ramen. Nabeepee cansh marry wash-his-name the alien. Excepsh that Nabee tryin' to getsh Akanei togever wish Gail. Exshep that leave me with da big goose egg. Nuttin'. Zero. All I gosh is mebbee that loony doctor an' if I show up at 'is clinic all he wansh to do is dansh with Betty."

[Oh dear. Oh my. Ah, Usagi. Is there a medical pod open? Miss Tendo here appears to have a blood alcohol level of 'You Better Sleep It Off' at present.]

Usagi nodded, wondering if this all performed some purpose within humans. They had to make everything so darn complicated.

Sniffling began to escalate to bawling. "I donsh wanna be um ol' maid. I wanna be a powerpuff princess poweroop too."

Ami entered the cafeteria and held up a hand to Stove's dataplate. Information streamed across. Ami blinked. "I see..."

"Then you can explain it to me," said Usagi, hefting the blubbering young housewife. "It sounds like she wants what Akane got."

"We'll have to confirm that after her systems are back within normal parameters," said Ami.

"I thinsh I wanna go bed now," announced Kasumi. She got up, straightened herself off and marched proudly away.

"The bedrooms are this way, Miss Tendo," Ami informed the girl as she went the wrong way.

"That's the lair entrance, Miss Tendo," said Usagi as Kasumi marched right through the doorway almost before the automatic opener could activate.

"That's cute," said Ami as Kasumi curled up next to a (startled) dragon.

"I'll get her a blanket," said Usagi, running off.

Greylle sighed a long-suffering sigh and got back to speaking with Rikku.

--------

Dreams were a funny thing. Not all species had the same methods.

Dragons typically entered a reverie or else astrally explored. Greylle was trying to nose around those big disturbances and figure out what they were without getting too close. As the saying went: there were bold dragons and old dragons but darn few old bold dragons.

Al-Bhed were similar to humans physically and mentally, but their dreams tended to be quiet things of velvet lightning and soft breezes - nothing they could remember later.

Hotaru Tomoe dreamed of meeting her fiance the very next day. She knew what he looked like and where he was, magic mirrors were good for things like that, and was planning to bump into him. The whole thing gave her a warm happy snuggle-under-the-covers sort of feeling.

Kasumi dreamed the dreams of someone who had been given an injection to help her sleep as well as metabolize that alcohol. Unfortunately it was still going to be a hangover she wouldn't have wished on another living soul. She didn't even wake up when she was moved back to the room with the other guests.

Nabiki dreamed avaricious dreams of gold and silver and was trying to imagine riches beyond imagining.

Akane dreamed of purring and cuddling up with her boyfriend. Who sometimes had a pigtail and sometimes did not.

Ukyo dreamed of her own okonomiyaki restaurant, with her Ranchan covering for her when she was working a cart in front of a baseball stadium. Ukyo was practically purring herself.

Shampoo dreamed of Ranma-airen. Of Greylle-airen. Of her booting her Great-Grandmother to the horizon when she interrupted to say that Shampoo could only keep one.

Genma dreamed dreams of indigestion. But then you *knew* where Akane's body had disappeared to, didn't you?

Soun dreamed of his daughters turned into monsters from beyond the grave who came back to tear down his precious dojo and mock his late wife with their presence.

Happosai dreamed of getting out of this darn cave.

Cologne didn't dream because she didn't sleep. She meditated.

Ranma dreamed about getting something to eat because he had been told NOT to come back without Soun's *real* daughters. Maybe he could get something from Ukyo or Shampoo in the morning.

The various Senshi replayed memory-data left over on their Maiden Circuits. Conclusions were being made.

The more "pure" robots neither slept nor dreamt, so they stayed up all night trying to make sense out of human behavior.

They weren't successful, by the way.

---------

It has been pointed out that prior to Ranma Saotome's arrival in Nerima, it was still weird - just not as bizarre as it would later get. It didn't need to be one of those crossover timelines to have strangeness such as the Kunos being considered model citizens. It was, in fact, a focal point for strangeness.

Prior to finding himself in Nerima, Ranma usually had only really weird things occur to him at a much slower rate like once every five years. Due to various problems of his upbringing and particularly his father, Ranma had become a weirdness magnet.

Put Ranma IN Nerima and the weirdness magnet and the weirdness focus amplified off each other. Hence the typical Ranmaverse madness.

Greylle had always been a weirdness magnet himself, though far lower grade than Ranma, but had gotten truly strange after his "death" and being granted a wish by an Elder god of mischief. Having trained under the Greek god of engineering, as well as a number of other teachers on a variety of subjects, not to mention having his baseline reality rewritten so that he was now a dragon: Greylle's weirdness index had shot up considerably.

Put Ranma AND Greylle in Nerima and one could only be sure of one thing: it was going to get strange.

Still, certain things remained eternal. The sun still rose in the East, though if it was a few minutes late in reaching Nerima it was quite understandable. Amaterasu might be a morning person, and she may have gotten much more assertive since her early days, but Nerima was the sort of place where one wanted an extra cup of tea before facing.

"Eeeee," Kasumi weakly managed as she got up and was then assaulted by a thousand imps with pickaxes who had somehow gotten inside her skull. While stoic and fairly selfless, both Japanese ideals, this was a bit much for someone not used to hangovers. "ooooog".

Nabiki showed excellent tact and restraint. "Ugh. Well at least she wasn't on the top bunk."

"...not so loud please..."

Shampoo didn't mind less competition for her airen, but then this girl wasn't competition anyway and she could prove how nice and valuable a wife she'd make. "Shampoo go make medicinal tea!"

"...please don't shout..." Kasumi was trying to cover her head entirely with the pillow.

Ukyo wondered what she could do, when the idea penetrated. "Come on people, let's get to the cafeteria and then Fess can shut the lights off in here."

Kasumi immediately blessed Ukyo for her compassion and insight.

"Kasumi, are you going to be okay?" Akane gently shook her sister's shoulder when there was no immediate response.

The others had already left the room when Akane exited in a hurry with her ears back.

"I didn't know Kasumi *knew* language like that," explained Akane sheepishly. (Which was very difficult to manage when you're more tigerish.)

With a backwards glance at the closing door, Shampoo started a conversation on what she felt would be a "safe" topic. "You suppose he have training room for martial arts. Shampoo wonder what it be like to spar with Terminator."

"I dunno, girl," Ukyo said after a moment of considering. "Them spider-types look pretty tough. You'd probably get more of a workout from them."

Nabiki shook her head. "Ladies, ladies. I'm sure if you ask nicely one of the nice robots would be happy to spar with you."

Akane thought about it and looked down at her hands, with the white underside and golden fur along the back of the fingers and hand, the slightly long thicker nails, the tiger stripes that started just above her wrist. She felt stronger and faster and tougher, her mind seemed to be clearer and her senses sharper than ever. How to gauge such a thing? She broke from the pack to approach one of the Terminators. "Hey, would you like to spar? Just a little friendly match."

The sunglasses-wearing muscleman moved his head slightly to regard her. "To 'spar' as in a nonlethal form of practice combat?"

"Uhm, yeah," Akane agreed, her tail's tip twitching nervously behind her. And why did all the Terminators have a thick Bavarian accent?

"That would seem logical," agreed the Arnie unit. "Fess. The transport chamber is empty?"

"Yes, Arnie-02. Sensor hookups will allow fine tuning of units after collection of data."

Listening, Nabiki waved the two others off and headed for the cafeteria. She had no real interest in watching this when she could get a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Ukyo and Shampoo, on the other hand, saw some real entertainment value in the offing.

-------

Greylle awoke and shut off the alarm, watching as the forms solidified out of the dimensional tunnel. "i thought i left you on that one timeline, just another minor character intersecting your paths."

The two guys were almost identical in builds, just a few inches of height different between the two. Oversized arms, muscular necks and chests, slender legs. The two women with them were likewise identical in build: slender arms, slender dancer's legs, large chest and wide hips.

The taller of the two guys merely smiled slightly and began looking over the lair.

"Uhm, aren't you even a little surprised that i'm fifty feet long and somewhat draconic?"

"We kind of knew that after our last stop," said the woman with the straight hair. The woman with the curlier hair merely nodded.

"Last stop?" Greylle said.

"Yes," said the silver haired of the guys. "Rikku told us. We sort of knew you weren't local when you used that gadget to resurrect Yuria."

"Oh, i thought nobody was watching when i used that," said Greylle.

"Just Battu, but he had a videocamera," said Yuria. "So we're just visiting."

Greylle started looking around for Rikku but the Al-Bhed had decided to make herself scarce.

Fess' voice interrupted. "Sir, there is a intruder. Identified as Ranma Saotome. Should he be ejected?"

Greylle snorted a white cloud of frost. "i ain't no sir. i work for a living."

"Yes," said Fess. "However, you are also a cleric and a prince. Therefore a 'sir' is a proper form of address."

Greylle glared at the hidden speaker grill. "As to Ranma: as long as he doesn't try to steal anything just keep an eye on him. Or her depending on which form is in use."

"Which form?" Mamiya asked. "Him or her?"

"Easier to show you," said Greylle, shifting to human form.

"You still look quite a bit different," said Rei.

"Yeah, i'm not a bratty Indonesian girl," acknowledged Greylle. "This is at least a little closer."

---------

Ranma snuck in as best he could, using skills honed by the loving care and thoughtful providering done by Genma over the years. In other words: using the same skills his father had taught him to steal food and other supplies with.

He snuck past the Terminator units. He snuck past the yawning ersatz Sailor Senshi. He even snuck past the WWI Flying Ace as the beagle strapped his aviator's helmet into position...

Okay, Ranma spent a little time staring at this last one. Still, his father had taught him long and hard about the need for Advanced Sneakery 201.

"Anyway, i was going to build android versions of you, so if you're going to be here for awhile the cover identities are already in place," was saying the gaijin as he led a small group of people through the main hallway. Ranma looked at the crowd and stopped again, this time with his jaw dropping.

Ranma's father had often beaten it into Ranma's head that if it didn't involve martial arts, it was NOT worth spending any time on. Ranma had been able to get ahold of some comics years ago, and hold onto them briefly because they *were* martial arts comics. Therefore, seeing these figures walking down the hallway, Ranma was able to identify them and immediately come to the conclusion that these were the persons the comics had been based on.

Kenshiro. Rei. Mamiya. Yuria. Call it "Fist Of The Northstar" or "Hokuto No Ken" it was the same series.

For the first time in his life, Ranma Saotome experienced a moment of religious awe.

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