Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Hand Maid May Fan Fiction / Gatekeepers Fan Fiction ❯ Retake ❯ Time to bunt ( Chapter 18 )

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

Chapter 18, Retake

DISCLAIMER: Various characters belong to various people/companies/agencies/etc. Except them that don't.

--------

Ami transformed in the girls room, becoming Sailor Mercury, and immediately set the "General Broadcast" alert. She expected to just get the other Inners.

MINAKO: "This isn't another pile of dirty clothes is it? Do you *know* what they're saying about me on the radio? 'If Sailor V is going to reappear just to flush her reputation down the toilet, she might as well stay missing.'"

Ami swallowed nervously. "Yes, well..."

USAGI: "My mother asked where I'd gotten these clothes from and what happened to the outfit she'd bought me. I still don't understand how that thing taking our Senshi costumes also got our street clothes."

MAKOTO: "What did you tell her?"

USAGI: "That I was caught in that monster attack on the news and that these clothes were a gift from a friend. Now they all want details on this friend!"

HARUKA: "We're on our way!"

MICHIRU: "I've already called the news. This time we'll emerge triumphant and put all these people in the wrong!"

Ami gasped. "You didn't!"

MICHIRU: "I don't like looking bad in front of an audience!"

REI: "I'm getting a really bad feeling about this."

HOTARU: "Greylle-sempai's pretty badly injured. I'm going to stay here and nurse him back to health... Oh my goodness I can't believe I said that. I mean I really wanted to be a nurse when I grow up and all but still... And he *is* my fiancee so that's kinda all right... I mean..."

HARUKA: (somehow interrupting): "Who the heck was inviting the Senshi Of Death along anyway?!"

SETSUNA: "I also will be tending to the patient's wounds."

HOTARU: "You really should go help them. You saw that fight against the laundry monster. If someone isn't there to clean up their messes the hospital might get totalled."

SETSUNA: "Oh, and I'm just going to leave you alone with Greylle-san?"

HOTARU: "...that obvious, huh?"

REI: "Would you two knock it off, this is Sailor Business!"

MAID UNIT: "Does that mean you don't require fire support?"

HARUKA & MICHIRU: "NO!"

Mercury closed her communicator. She needed to check on her mother anyway.

---------

Higari Katsumatsu was of two minds about this. On one hand, his spells were working again. On the other, he hadn't really intended to get a not particularly attractive nurse with his spell.

"Trellain's Templative Transformation" was a fairly powerful spell. He'd had to work carefully to put it into his wand. Then all he had to do was say what he wanted the target to turn into, and until day's end - the variables that defined an individual would have the value for whatever he specified. Point it at a prince, say "frog", and the prince would be a frog until the stroke of midnight. What he'd been trying for was "loveslave" - something he honestly felt he deserved.

Against that catgirl - not a damn thing. Against a dumpy looking nurse though, it had worked. Pity.

So Higari would admit he'd gotten a little out of hand here.

In order to cover for the not-so-cute one, he'd cast it on a couple of other nurses. Then to avoid suspicion, had ordered them to tie up the doctors. He hadn't meant literally, he'd just meant to keep them busy.

So here he was with an icepack against his privates, having zapped any woman/girl that had poked her nose into his room. He'd remembered "keep a low profile" about halfway through.

The curtain shuffed open and a woman stepped in.

Higari stared. The namebadge said "Dr Mizuno - Pediatrics" but she was *gorgeous*! Elegant and beautiful, lightly made up, and flush as if she'd just been in a fight or something. Her perfect looking mouth parted.

"So you're the one. Do your parents know you've been doing things like this? You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Higari frowned. That had not been what he'd wanted to hear. Ah well, easily fixed. He pointed the wand at this woman. "Loveslave!"

Doctor Mizuno stood with her hands on her hips and glared at this troublemaker. "Who do you think you're calling a loveslave! I don't know what you did to the nursing staff here, but you'd better undo it now!"

Higari felt fear. The spell wasn't working again. Why wasn't it working?!

"D-Doctor Mizuno! Leave this to us!" A girl in a blue skating outfit came in behind the Doctor.

"Hospitals are for healing of the sick," announced a girl in a red-white-blue skating outfit.

"Whereas what you're doing is just plain sick," announced another girl, crowding the doctor aside.

"Oh let's just moondust this jerk," said a shorthaired blonde in a similar costume.

"Sailor Team, we're here to stop you!" Another girl sentai posed.

"Sailor Senshi? I've heard of you," said Higari. "Oh wow."

Several of the Senshi visibly preened. See, their reputations weren't destroyed!

"Your skirts really *are* that short!" Higari continued. "Are you gonna disrobe now like you did against the clothing monster? They had it on TV earlier."

Preening turned to disgusted.

Higari smiled. Perfect. He snapped his fingers. "Come my slaves, stop these wicked wenches from hurting me!"

The curtains to the room flew up and a crowd of mostly undressed women and young girls rushed the Sailors.

"HEY!" Sailor Venus exclaimed. "Watch what you're grabbing you hentai!"

"I'm a nurse dearie," said that one, pulling a long tube out of somewhere. "Time for your enema!"

"EEEEP! Sailor V KICK!" She was opposed to hurting civilians, but some things were too much to bear!

Higari smirked. Everyone was busy. Time to try this out on these Senshi. If *this* worked then he'd take his new slaves and become Chief Sorcerer of the club! "Loveslave!"

--------

"Oh man. i haven't done this bad against a kendoist since that little mess on timeline XS-420170," Greylle complained.

Hotaru schooled her face into a stern expression. "Don't move! We've got to get these bandages in place."

Setsuna smiled and held up a bucket and a sponge.

Hotaru shook her head. She didn't think mentioning a sponge bath would get the patient to relax at this point. As to the nurse's outfits they were both wearing, what was up with the long skirt she had and Setsuna's short one?

Setsuna smiled. Her career as a fashion designer was assured as long as she hung around the Dragon Prince. Who else would have such interesting programs and machines that would let her design and manufacture clothing *this* easily? Or... she could betray the dragon, go back to Serenity, get the Geas reinstated, and then give up these reclaimed dreams in order to be the lonely guardian of the Gate Of Time.

Yeah, right.

"So, uhm, what was XS- 4..." Hotaru tried to remember and gave it up as a lost cause.

"Crossover timeline, multiple factors. The 4xxxxx code means it gets weird." Trying to relax and letting them play with the medical equipment (besides it hurt to move) Greylle tried to figure out how to tell these two when they didn't know anything about Yggdrasil, the RRO, or alternative timelines. "There was this universe where several high schools decided to remove their violent or delinquent students and ship them to a single high school where they could deal with each other."

"Like Ranma or Akane?" Hotaru suggested.

"Exactly, in fact there were several from Furinkan there." Greylle smiled in rememberance. "I was still that lowpowered incubus back then. Man, that was a mess. Daimon Senior High School."

"Daimon?" Setsuna repeated.

"Yeah. There were students from Gateway, Ohtori Academy, Juuban 'Crossroads', Furinkan, Kolkhoz - all sorts of fighters and magical girls and devil hunters and all sorts of other problem students." Greylle let out a deep breath. "Plus there were guys from Daimon itself. Nobody was a slouch there. As far as anime series, that would be 'Combustible Campus Guardess', 'Real Bout High School', 'Revolutionary Girl Utena', some of the Senshi from 'Sailor Moon', a number of heavy hitters from 'Ranma 1/2', Riki 'Tigermask' Hyoudo from 'Battle Royal High School', Ayane Mitsui from 'Ayane's High Kick', Yohko and Ayohko from 'Devil Hunter Yohko', Sakura from 'Street Fighter', there was more but you get the idea - a real mess."

"Oh? What were you doing there?" Setsuna calmly began sewing up a jagged flesh wound and wondered how the boy could even talk with that kind of mess. Hotaru saw the injury, turned pale, and sagged onto a chair.

"Investigating. The fighting had been constant but it was always to defeat or knockout. Something happened that escalated the level of violence considerably. Turned out to be a Demon First Class named Velsper."

"You fought a kendoist there?" Setsuna asked while placing a knot.

"Not intentionally. Makes Tatewaki Kuno look like Hikaru Gosunkugi. Girl by the name of Ryoko Mitsurugi, real samurai warrior wannabe. LOTS better at fighting. Yeah, that one was... a mess..."

"He's asleep," said Setsuna after checking.

"Poor sempai," mumbled Hotaru, holding her fiance's hand and trying to channel healing energy.

"Hey now, none of that, he's got to get a break between magical healings so his body can recover resources." Setsuna reminded the girl, though gently. "Maybe we ought to see how the Sailor Senshi are doing in the meantime."

"Don't you think they can handle it?" Hotaru asked, then read the expression. "Okay. Fess-san! Please monitor his condition and let us know if anything goes wrong."

--------

Kumori Mizuno had struggled through High School, through a marriage that had gotten her stonewalled from her family, the seperation when her artist husband had gone off to pursue his "starving artist" lifestyle, and raising a daughter on her own. She had gotten through medical school, internship, and setting up her practice in a land where gender roles were pretty strict. These were pretty much true of any near-baseline Sailor Moon timeline.

In this particular one, she'd also been a minor member of a secret organization known as AEGIS in 1969 during her first year of high school.

In either case, "weak" was not an accurate description.

"This is *enough*," said the Doctor as she watched her daughter doing tricks for this pervert boy. "Gate. OPEN!"

*FWAM!*

Two icy-blue concentric circles formed in midair near her outstretched hand. If you looked closely you could see the same counter-rotating circles in her eyes.

"What?!" The Senshi that weren't grovelling at this boy's feet were rather shocked. So was the boy.

"Aren't you too old to be a Senshi?" Higari asked. "Girls, restrain her."

It hadn't been enough of a Gate ability to get her a Gatekeeper position, she'd ended up a bridge bunny on the night shift. Of course, she wasn't exactly a 15 year old kid anymore either. Not nearly what Kaoru's Gate Of Pursuit or Megumi's Gate Of Protection could do. Still, all of the Senshi were about to get their first sexual encounter and as the adult present - she wasn't going to stand for it if there was anything she could do. "Gate Of Spirits. GENMAKEN!"

"What was... that..." Higari's voice trailed off as the "Fist Of Nightmares" manifested. "Oh dear kami. AAAAAAAAA!"

The Senshi, nurses, patients, and pretty much everyone else on that floor likewise gave into screaming until they were hoarse.

Except for Doctor Mizuno, who simply walked up and took the sparkly wand away from the boy before he could recover. Followed by her running off with the villain's prop.

Because, just as you couldn't say that Doctor Kumori Mizuno was weak, she also wasn't an idiot.

------

Hotaru and Setsuna looked at each other in the gloom as the car (a 1969 Ford Mustang with anti-grav plating) settled into the parking lot near a police cordon around the building.

"Looks like the news crews are here too," said Setsuna.

Snoopy wurfed and brought up a display.

"One of the channels has gotten someone into the security monitor room? Oh that *is* bad." Setsuna tsked. "Well, how do you think we ought to handle it?"

Hotaru triggered a change. "Saturn Kitty Power, FUR up!" She made a gesture with her long claws. "Better nightvision and reflexes."

"Not to mention stealth." Setsuna nodded, knowing darn well that their catgirl modes didn't actually require an activation phrase. It just didn't seem right though to just transform without *something.* "Pluto Kitty Power, Transform."

-------

When she had been younger, the Gate Of Spirits had been a tiny effect. The Genmaken, the Nightmare Fist, caused one to momentarily face something frightening from the target's own mind and memories.

Not only was she older and more experienced than the young bridge bunny from 1969, she had just gotten a power upgrade she didn't fully know about yet. The same one that had given her immunity to Higari's transformation spell. Compared to the power level of the binding already on her, that spell had been unnoticeable.

So Kumori Mizuno, MD, sensibly ran off. With the magic wand that had been used against her daughter among others.

Higari however was reliving every rejection, every put down, every beating he'd ever gotten from women. The absolute hopelessness that was his normal day to day existence.

Still, as bad as that was, his victims were having a worse time.

------

In television sets across Tokyo, people got disgusted with the Sailor Senshi *again* falling down on the job. Though the strip tease had been nice for the young male crowd.

On the other hand, seeing "Super Doctor" use a power and then do exactly what the color commentators had been urging somebody to do was sitting very well with the audience.

A flying car? Two cute catgirls racing to the rescue? All caught by a newschopper?

People were already beginning to organize fanclubs.

------

Aware that the news people had already tapped into the video feed, Kitty Saturn and Kitty Pluto turned on a vidcam remote drone and had it follow them. Once there, the two nodded. This was Japan, they were superheroes, certain sentai elements were demanded if they were going to be on camera.

*SLASH!* A section of wall came apart in nice even strokes. From the dust a looming form with really darn long hair and lashing tail. "From the coldest and loneliest planet, I am the elegant Kitten of Solitude & Contemplation. Kitten Pluto!"

While the various loveslaves continued retching from the earlier Gate attack, the curtains abruptly exploded into thin strips. One strip came down over the new arrival's head, and she as quickly removed it. "From the ringed planet of splendor, I am the cute Kitten of Nursing &, uhm, something besides destruction... Kitten Saturn!"

Taking a spare wand out, Higari pointed it at the dangerous looking one. "Sexpet!"

*SLASH!* (clatter)

Kitten Pluto sneered at Higari (especially effective with the prominent sharp-looking teeth) over the little sliced segments of wand. "Foolish pervert! We are immune to such petty magic!"

"Yeah?" Higari wasn't ready to surrender yet. "Slaves! Attack these two!" Various nurses and Senshi tried to respond.

Pluto and Saturn smiled.

"Villains like this are *so* predictable," Pluto remarked.

"Too bad we don't have a magical attack," lamented Saturn. "All we can do is fight hand-to-hand. Oh. You two are the ones who were calling for my death earlier, weren't you? Kitty Take Down Attack!"

Higari saw his Sailor Slaves getting beaten up and he was out of wands. Time to escape!

------

"The *real* Sailor Senshi are here," announced Sailor Marionette Uranus. The entire marionette team had assembled. Of course, some extra marionettes had come along because they wanted to get in on this. Which was why there was not only the regulars (Mercury, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) but a few extras (Sailor Vulcan - one of the Rei Ayanami units, Sailor Maid, Sailor Nurse, Sailor Proxima Centauri (one of the supermodel units), Sailor Masked Catgirl (the Sakura catgirl unit), and Sailor Barbie) along as well.

Higari stopped and pointed back where he'd come. "But... they..."

The android waved off the point. "Minor stand-ins. Useful but did you really think the *real* Senshi could be subverted so quickly?"

"Uhm. You do have a point there," agreed the hentai sorcerer.

"No, we're the real Senshi!" Sailor Uranus said, running out of the hospital.

"Oh, we'll prove it then. As you know, all real sentai teams have a number of accessories and different outfits so that they can be properly merchandised!" Marionette Uranus proclaimed. "URANUS ARMOR-UP!"

Hidden speakers began playing an instrumental version of the BubbleGum Crisis song "Blow Up" as the other marionettes likewise responded with their "Armor-Up" commands, pirouette and pose as armor snapped into place around them.

Higari started sneaking off. He was going to be caught in a fire fight here? No way!

"Saturn! Ring Toss Capture!"

Higari gulped as glowing rings dropped into place around him. "Oh dear."

Having changed from catgirl to Senshi, Sailor Saturn was smiling at her powerup. Nothing to do with death or destruction and it let her catch bad guys! Pose, peace sign, smile at camera. "Ushering in a new age! Sailor Saturn!" Wink. Pose.

The marionettes, seeing their presence was no longer mandated, went in to see about their originals. They found most of them tied up and stuck out of the way immediately.

Pointing the business end of her staff at Higari and letting green crackling discharges of energy show, Sailor Pluto looked particularly menacing. "Ending the insult of those who pervert the very concepts of love and justice. Sailor Pluto. You *don't* want me to show you what my new attack - 'Pluto death sniper' would do to you, do you villain?"

Higari shook his head very rapidly in a negative fashion. He didn't know what it would do, but it sounded nasty as all get out.

"Then perhaps you should consider removing your spell," suggested Pluto.

"I can't. I'd need my wand to do that!"

*crackle* *crickle* *BOOM!*

Seeing a smouldering crater three feet wide and he didn't know how many feet deep open up in front of him, Higari practically wet himself. "But the transformation ends at midnight and I can't really do anything else now anyway..."

"Got that out in one breath," said Saturn, admiring lung capacity if nothing else.

Uranus shook her fist and stalked forward. "How dare you threaten our Master! You are not worthy of even speaking to him! WORLD SHAKING!"

"Saturn." Pose, spin, hold Glaive up, spin it around briefly, down. "Wave." The end of the Glaive glowed and formed a disc of light. "Motion." The World Shaking hit the disc and splashed harmlessly to the sides. "Gun."

"AAAAAAA!" Uranus said, picturing her atoms beings streamed layer by layer off her bones in "Star Blazers/Space Cruiser Yamato" fashion.

"Healing Version, one tenth power!" finished Sailor Saturn with a flourish.

"You get Wave Motion Gun as your new Ultimate Attack?" Sailor Pluto sounded envious as they watched the sphere of energy lock onto Sailor Uranus and begin chasing her around the parking lot. "My major attacks are dead scream, death sniper, Tempus Fugit, and death dance."

Saturn shrugged. "Oh well. Can you speed up time on the Senshi so that midnight comes faster for them?"

"I don't think that'll work, magic isn't always logical, but I'll give it a try."

One of the marionettes stuck her head out of the hospital. "Has anyone seen Sailor Mercury? I mean the other one."

-------

Various watchers weren't quite sure what to make of this. Which was the real Sailor Team? What of the two catgirls? Magical girl power armor?! And who were those two Catgirls and what was their connection to the Senshi? What was the connection of Saturn to Space Cruiser Yamato? Could someone get some better pics of those catgirls? How about those first Senshi that had been doing the strip tease?

The TV announcer to suggest this was immediately beaten over the head with a cue card by his co-anchor for being a putz.

-------

Doctor Mizuno tossed her daughter in the back of the convertible. "To that house we were at earlier."

R2 whooped and buzzed - inquiring if the doctor had noticed she had a tail and cat ears.

"Later R2. If she's been enchanted to be turned into some pervert kid's mindless slave, a stronger enchantment will override it."

R2 allowed that was so and tootled a tentative agreement.

"Did you see how they fought against those marionette versions or dealt with my attack? They were even worse off than against the laundry monster."

R2 couldn't find anything to disagree with *there* either. Weren't these supposed to fade at midnight though? That was only four hours away, wouldn't it be better to wait?

Doctor Mizuno wished that R2 would just say something instead of making all those synthesizer sounds.

------

The old President had been ousted. The Vice President had been ousted. The First Lady couldn't be impeached from office but there were proceedings on *that* going on anyway.

In fact, there were darn few in the three branches of American government who looked to survive the Day Of Truth with careers intact. Most of those who were able to, were currently secluded. It was not a happy time in the United States government.

Perhaps because of this, it was the Australians who first detected it. Followed by the Canadians, and followed by most private astronomers.

Except for the French, but most civilized nations knew better than to trust the French anyway.

However, most of the governments kept quiet about the whole thing. These might have been the ones who'd done that nasty to the USA government. In which case nobody wanted to tick them off any further.

An asteroid was going to hit the Earth.

Then it was upgraded to a small rogue moon.

Then the various viewers started getting a real handle on the size of the Intruder.

------

Fess had detected the hyperspatial emergence and recalibrated instruments and run a general diagnostic on seeing the results of the initial scan.

Speed: 1/4c and decelerating.

Length: 19 miles. Width: 118 miles. Depth: 12 miles.

An asteroid of that mass and speed hitting the Earth would be rather like using a mortar round on a watermelon. Very messy and you'd have trouble finding anything left of the watermelon.

Except that it was slowing down and had regular faces. Also wings which must be for decorative functions since there was no way it could be used for atmospheric travel.

Not an asteroid. A ship.

Fess calculated current trajectory and deceleration rate. Lunar orbit in three days.

Time for some preparations.

------

There were things about Ranma Saotome that varied from timeline to timeline. There were other things that were *usually* true about Ranma no matter what else might be different about him and his situation.

Ranma Saotome didn't like to lose - normal. It didn't matter if it was scholar Ranma from timeline RN-LH-201301 or a martial artist Ranma as in RN-100010 or a superpowered mutant as in RN-X-209177.

Now the whole idea of reincarnation was not a new one to Ranma - most Japanese are "born Shinto but die Buddhist" and in the meantime are largely nonreligious, except for the ceremonies and festivals. While he still had significant problems with the idea of being a reincarnated princess of some Earth kingdom from 10,000+ years previously, it was neither the royalty nor the reincarnation parts that disturbed him. The idea of some grand destiny laid upon his shoulders didn't bother him that much either - for one thing it meant all the crap he'd taken in his life had some Purpose behind it.

Ranma was pondering all of this, and trying to figure out *what* he wanted to do. Be some prince of some ancient kingdom, and then he could do something about the mess his life consisted of. Fight the good fight and all that sort of crap.

"Penny for your thoughts."

"WAAAAAA!" Ranma knew darn well that he had been alone on this rooftop a minute ago. "How did you..?! Nevermind. I don't wanna know."

"Suit yourself," said Morgana. "I just wanted to see this 'Earth Princess' for myself."

Ranma glared at the strange woman. "Don't call me that."

"Well?"

"Well - what?!" Ranma sulked. Try to get his head clear by finding the highest rooftop available and it didn't matter - the nutcases still found him.

"Oh. You want to be alone?" Morgana asked the "princess."

"YES, DAMN IT!"

"Fine," said Morgana, raising a hand and causing Ranma to dissolve in sparkles. "Typical spoiled princess. Ha. Oh well, maybe that'll cool him off some. Ha ha ha ha! Damn, it's been way too long since I've cut loose."

-------

"What?!" Ranma exclaimed on suddenly finding himself twenty feet up over a snowbank.

*POOF!*

Climbing *out* of the snow, Ranma said something uncomplimentary about all the crazy chicks in his life and wondered "Where the hell am I now?!"

Thousands of miles to the North, Ryouga sneezed.

-------

R2 whooped and buzzed, indicating that getting the car running again would take a few minutes.

Kumori Mizuno was many things in many timelines. In most timelines she was the pediatrician physician mother of Ami Mizuno, whose marriage to a wandering artist type had ended in seperation. In a few she had different personal names. In quite a few, she ended up one of those who would not give up her individuality and was exiled to Nemesis with all those who would not accept "purification" at the hands of Usagi Tsukino/Neo-Queen Serenity.

In *one* timeline she was actually Morgana Le Fey. In another, Ami's mother was a Chinese Amazon who had left the village ages ago. In yet another timeline, Ami's mother had married an irresponsible slob of martial artist named Genma Saotome and Ami had a brother named Ranma. Another timeline had Ami's mom marrying an American and after several years of marriage in that country returning to Japan with her daughter to try and keep Ami away from those hentai American boys.

In *one* timeline at least, in 1969 she had been a member of AEGIS (Alien Exterminating Global Intercept System) Far East Branch. She had seen the Gatekeepers off on their missions, her own Gate ability ineffective against those Invaders. The Gate Of Spirits only worked on those with a conscience to bother. She had watched from her "bridge bunny" position as Shun Ukiya, Rurippe, Megumi, Kaoru, and even Reiko had fought the evil Invaders again and again.

Therefore, in *this* timeline, it was somewhat gratifying that her own daughter was a member of her *own* generation's sentai team. Fighting off menaces not that dissimilar from the Invaders.

"Mom! I'm okay now, you can untie me!"

Of course, she'd have been a lot more pleased if Ami's track record was a little better.

First the Sailor Suited Warrior Of Love & Exams had not done terribly well against the Dark Kingdom. Yes, they'd succeeded against the bad guys, but coming home at the end of your grand adventure was a definite plus. Then the laundry monster. Now some child throwing spells around.

"MOTHER!"

"Ami, you're still under the influence of that boy's spell."

"No, seriously, I'm fine! It's worn off."

Kumori Mizuno let out a deep breath. Having children was exhausting.

"Uhm, by the way, Mother. Did you realize you have cat ears and a tail?"

"Yes, Ami." Kumori shrugged. Greater strength and speed made carrying off one's brainwashed daughter a lot easier.

"...but you weren't affected by that... oh no."

"Yes and no."

"..."

"Yes- I was affected. No - it apparently is not what you think." Kumori's ears flicked. "You might consider changing your affiliation anyway. Your Sailor Team hasn't been doing well lately."

"Just a string of bad luck," protested Ami.

"Hmmm," Doctor Mizuno commented, not sounding convinced.

"Could you at least untie me?"

"Not until you're free of that enchantment."

R2 beeped a long series of interrogatives.

"Go ahead and finish fixing the emitter, R2, we can wait until the vehicle's fixed."

"No! I have to get back to... uhm."

Kumori regarded her daughter. "Ami. Your group was defeated by myself and then by two catgirls. Your team has not been doing well of late. Let me tell you how it was when I was about your age..."

--------

Morgana checked in on a few people here and there.

She'd just put that Saotome boy/girl on a nice segment of Antarctica. Give him time to cool off before she pulled him back.

That fellow Ryouga was even worse. She didn't even bother approaching him. Otherwise she'd admit it would be likely that Ryouga Hibiki would be sitting on a lilypad for the night.

The two catgirls might be fun to hang around with. No, she had enough problems with allergies today. Damn cherry blossoms.

The sulking group of Senshi? No, not hardly. Trying to recapture their lost glory?

That big alien ship heading....

Big alien ship?!

Morgana blinked and checked the Astral. Yes, that was a rather large ship. Oh well. Size wasn't everything. She'd met many a knight who relied entirely on the size of their lance and the strength of their charge. Idiots.

Right now though she was looking for a little fun. Hmmm. Now *they* might do.

-------

Cologne watched the display and tried to put aside the questions about matchups and the little object in her possession to the side for now. "Exactly what is this, Fess?"

Fess turned his main attention from Akane's attempts to move in a 3g field. "Replay requested. Answer to question regarding behavior pattern."

The Elder frowned. "I thought it was a Japanese soap opera."

"Actually it was one of my first assignments after that abbreviated Ragnarok, and i'd never seen 'Love Hina' so i had no idea what to expect."

Cologne looked disapprovingly at the boy. "Should you be moving with those injuries?"

"Dragons heal fast," answered said boy absently. "Though yes, they *do* hurt quite a bit. Fess, are you showing everyone in creation how badly i screwed up on certain missions?"

"Not at all. Cologne's question regarded your potential acceptance of an Amazon alliance," said Fess. "I believe your response here was succinct."

"Oh?" Greylle tried to think of it. "Let's see. That was the one where Keitaro Urashima, 3rd year university ronin, had just been referred to as a 'waste of space' by his true love - Naru Narugesawa and ended up crawling off to try and find something not pathetic about himself. i ran across him on the train and listened to his story, suggested that girl he mentioned in Southern Japan might have been the girl of his past (that's how some of these stories work) and that he was abandoning his duties as manager of a place called Hinata House. He ended up appointing me emergency manager. Which gave me a base of operations while i tended to my *real* reason for being there."

"Who's the girl that just attacked you? Or that girl that's attacking you now? Or *that* girl who's trying to throw things at you?" Cologne, Elder of an Amazon village, wondered what made Japanese women so prone to violence.

"The one i threw onto the roof was Naru Narugesawa, self styled genius student. The one who just got skimmed across the hot spring and into a wall is named Motoko, and the one who threw the rock but didn't dodge very well when it was returned was Kitsune. i think what Fess wanted to point out to you was that when i'm being attacked and people are bellowing death threats, i get rather upset."

Cologne winced as the boy on screen grabbed the attacking swordswoman, took the sword away from her, then proceeded to leave Motoko-shaped indentations on various walls, ceilings, boulders, floors, and some blonde girl who'd not gotten out of the way fast enough by slamming her into said obstacles. "You don't handle such things very well, do you? Heavens, if I had a 10yuan coin for every time someone threatened me?"

Greylle shrugged. "Urashima let people walk all over him. i had just come from extensive combat training from some really sadistic valkyries. Four tenants, three of whom had attacked me while i was trying to get the sliding doors to the bath fixed. Two of which were making death threats. i flattened them, then showed the note Urashima had written for me, then began eviction proceedings. As i explained then - you attack me making death threats, don't be surprised if i take it personally."

Cologne frowned again. Two of the three girls had gone down immediately. The swordswoman had gotten back up despite the pounding she'd received, but had then been beaten up and held underwater until she stopped struggling. If one of her Amazons used the standard initially-hostile approach, they might require lengthy recuperation times. The thing was, there was only one Amazon not currently pursuing someone as a future husband. And that particular Amazon was not one that Cologne could rely on.

On the display - one girl, looking younger than the rest, had fainted. She was carefully picked up and carried into the inn.

Cologne touched the carefully wrapped bundle in her sleeve pocket. It was looking more and more necessary if she were to gain this ally for the tribe.

---------

Cameramen (and women) seemed to come out of the woodwork whenever the supermodel androids went about.

Like the originals, the androids took to the media attention rather like barbeque sauce to a chicken. The chicken might not be happy about it, but it did so very well indeed.

One of the problems was trying to remember to operate within human capabilities. While they continued to modify themselves to human existence, in the case of the supermodel series they were becoming more human inside and out. They still had superhuman levels of strength, reaction time, durability, and sensory abilities - just not as much as a purely robotic version would be.

So they smiled, and posed, and were polite, and tried to lose the paparazzi as soon as was possible. Which would have been a lot easier if they had antigrav generators or something. Roof hopping was possible, but often impractical in the sorts of clothing the originals they'd been patterned on wore.

After seeing one "chick flick" they'd been interested in others. They'd seen three and had formed a loose database labelled: "Activities - Romantic - Event & Response" based on these movies.

Unfortunately, as they quickly determined, there were three types of males they'd encountered since then.

Type 1: temporary nomenclature - "Lounge Lizard" While possessing sufficient confidence to approach one of their number, the individuals in question fit behavior patterns deemed superficial at best to wildly dishonest at the worst. As they *were* androids, this last pattern was not acceptable at all. Currently three units had encountered the more superficial varieties and were attempting to uncover further data.

Type 2: temporary nomenclature - "Geek" While possessing technical knowledge that was usually focussed into narrow channels, the Geek type was prone to some illogical behavior. One, despite the fact that their brain was part of their body and therefore affected by day-to-day activities such as eating and bathing - their dietary patterns and maintenence were poor at best. Two, they seemed to regard any intrusion into their area of specialty as encroachment on some territorial boundary. Three units were investigating further and hopefully some useful data could be acquired.

Type 3: temporary nomenclature - "Professional" Signs of intelligence, narrowly focussed as with the Geek, but also with some degree of being able to maintain basic health on their own. Unfortunately also completely locked within a narrow paradigm and unable to adapt well to changing situations. Sararimen seemed to fit largely within this category or within category "Lounge Lizard." Four units were currently accompanying individuals of this typification and collecting data.

Information was shared within the network. A fourth type was added.

Type 4: temporary nomenclature - "Fixer Upper" Seen within the films, but this was the first physically encountered. In the movie cases the male encountered had some bad habits but showed signs of being able to learn from mistakes and adapt. Many of these were gainfully employed but not all. Some exhibited initial signs of being reluctant to speak to the units, however once engaged in conversation on their area of focus became much more communicative and interested. As this new type seemed the most likely to produce useful information, two units were accompanying the single individual found so far and the remainder of the units began seeking out more of these.

Others among the units simply returned to the base. Construction of ship Arcadia was now a priority due to solar intruder. If necessary, group 4 might need to be relocated to ship Arcadia as a safe zone for further data collection.

-------

For a young man by the name of Takeshi Mori, life had been just a big disappointment.

Never dated a girl in his life. Success had always been just out of his grasp. His academic performance had been nothing special. He was good at a few things, but they were things that had little practical value in real life. His best skill so far had been in art, he could visualize a scene and how things would look best but couldn't quite draw it well enough to become a manga artist.

However, as the evening wore on, he kept pinching himself. This could *not* be happening. Any moment he would wake up and return to his dull and uneventful life of broken dreams.

"...so you think that Princess Himiko, who began the unification process of Japan in c. 200 AD, was actually Korean," said someone who looked a lot like some gaijin lingerie model.

"Yeah, there isn't a lot of hard evidence, but there is *some* to indicate she was probably the leader of a tribal migration from Wa in what is modern Korea now," exclaimed Takeshi, "maybe a kind of High Priestess according to some of the Chinese documents dating from the middle of that century."

"Fascinating," agreed Takeshi's *other* companion. "Since written Japanese history wasn't established until after 700 AD and was spotty then, by which time the mythos had already been developed for political self-validation, you'd mainly *have* to rely on outside accounts - which would tend to be slanted by their own viewpoints and agendas."

"Yes, well," Takeshi stalled while wondering when he was going to wake up. Two girls?! Both of whom had that exotic gaijin beauty, perfect makeup, perfect clothing, perfect bodies?! Nineteen years of *nothing* and now this?! "History is written by the winners, you know. Usually."

"You appear to be getting increasingly uncomfortable," noted the first one. The stares directed towards their table probably were a contributing factor. "Would a change of location to a more private one serve to set you more at ease?"

Takeshi tried to will his heart to stop beating so loudly. Had she just suggested...

"Indeed, a quieter location would probably be beneficial," seconded the second one.

"M-m-m-my apartment is nearby," weakly suggested Takeshi who was wondering if he could even stand right now. His legs felt awfully weak.

"Excellent," said the second one.

"If you don't mind then," seconded the first.

Takeshi Mori was right. His knees *wouldn't* support his weight. With the two helping him though, he could manage. And wonder how in the world he was going to thank the kami for being carried between two girls like *this.*

---------

The American government had been built on a series of checks and balances.

This said, those founding fathers had never foreseen some of the changes and technological advances that had occurred since their compromise system had been put together.

Still, it did have self-correcting elements. When most of those in power had admitted scandal, wrong doing, outright criminal activity, immoral activities, or done things that otherwise caused the public at large to become more hostile towards them, others rose up to replace them.

Investigations were called for, committees organized, long winded oratories delivered.

Things were returning to normal scant days after everything had fallen apart.

Though at certain top levels, the news of the aliens held responsible for this heading in on a ship big enough to hold a doomsday fleet was viewed with some concern. On the one hand, it was widely believed that if they could do *that* then what had occurred was simply a warning. People forced to tell the truth for one day in one major city was negligible to what various scientists were extrapolating based on speed, deceleration rate, and mass.

The scientists advised not attacking until you were darn sure they were hostile - because once you did attack you guaranteed they were hostile.

The military advised not attacking until they knew what they were facing and had the supply lines in place, besides it was 1992 and they'd just started taking massive lay-offs and downsizing.

The career politicians were advising not to do anything because they were still either making use of the new vacancies or trying to shift blame off of themselves.

The media was covering the appearance of some new supermodel lookalikes in Japan.

The movers and shakers behind the scenes were investing in handguns and canned foods.

And otherwise, life went on as usual.

-------

Morgana looked around. Harry was obviously researching these kids and their spells. What kind of idiots were running amok here?

"Really, I'm fine. You don't have to do this." Ami protested.

"She's right, NOW," said Morgana as she removed the spell. "A templative transformative? How pathetic."

Ami blinked. Blinked again. "oh... Can I get some mouthwash? Please?"

Doctor Mizuno smiled. "NOW I know you're out of it, Ami. Welcome back."

Morgana conjured a quick bottle of Listerine X-Tra Strength and passed it to the Senshi. "The spell broke apart on reaching you, Mizuno-sensei. Do you know why?"

"A stronger enchantment was already in place," said the doctor matter of factly as her daughter gargled.

"Do you know what that enchantment *is* by any chance?" Morgana asked as Ami tried to sterilize her mouth by repeating the procedure.

The doctor considered telling Ami that she was overreacting for kissing some boy's shoes. Doing the gargle/rinse/spit into a ditch routine once would have been sufficient. "According to my daughter, something I find difficult to credit."

"Have to give the dragon credit, he knows how his luck on love spells work," said Morgana quietly. "It was fairly open ended and was shaped by Hotaru and Setsuna - and their ideas on what it was. The whole idea was to have 'soldiers of love & justice' dedicated to their Prince - who happens to be that dragon. Add into that their own concepts and interpretations, and you have the current mess. You, Doctor Kumori Mizuno, view the dragon with some affection and a desire to see him expand his operations."

The Doctor's tail arched behind her. "And how am I actually different? I haven't made any secret on how much I want access to his technology, though I do tend to agree with his rationale for keeping it away from the general public."

"Your Gate abilities are stronger, and you can now transform into catgirl and physician," explained Morgana.

A shimmer and Doctor Mizuno was wearing her labcoat and hospital IDs. "You know, this could come in extremely handy."

"Yes, I suppose it would." Morgana gestured towards the house behind them. "Your daughter was within the field of effect earlier but as she neither wanted to reach the house nor be affected - she wasn't. On one level both Hotaru and Setsuna *wanted* to be affected."

"Much like Ami's doing now, standing over there," pointed out Doctor Mizuno to the sorceress.

"Well, I suppose if you just want a powerup, that *might* work too," allowed Morgana.

-------

Looking around, Greylle wondered again if Fess hadn't exceeded the term of "going overboard" here.

Yes, he was stuck in this timeline for the foreseeable future. When one is used to hopping along lines of probability and visiting alternate worlds regularly - this was restrictive. When one has a job in Heaven (well, ok, Asgard) and makes a positive difference regularly in mortal existence, this was sort of a prison sentence.

On the other hand, the glass was also half full. He was still a dragon, still the apprentice of Hephaestus, still a cleric. He was hardly restricted to the resources of, just for example, a poor Moslem girl in Argentina.

He could see how some of this had all started. He had even approved of it at the beginning. A starship certainly increased the scope of one's prison. Having people around who would live as long as he, also some appeal. Having a base of operations and some measure of safety. Also good things. Being able to make a positive difference in his new home - likewise perfectly understandable and something he approved of.

Supermodel replica androids? Martian colonies - ok. Jupiter orbital factories? Interstellar probes? Hinata House? Animeland?

Greylle blinked. "i'm sorry, Cologne-san, i missed that. Events catching up with me, i think."

Cologne blinked owlishly for a moment. "Well enough. I was simply asking about the potential of making use of your former apartment for one or two of my Amazons. As I understand it, you're already paid until the end of the month."

"Sounds reasonable," agreed Greylle. "Though space is not terribly large."

"The matter remains on how I would reimburse you for such a thing," began Cologne.

"Actually Cologne, i was hoping for your assistance in training Akane Tendo. She could benefit from the Bakusai Tenken training, if i read her right."

Cologne's eyes narrowed. "And what do you know of secret Amazon techniques?"

"Not much, other than what they purportedly do," admitted Greylle. "Otherwise I'd do the training myself."

Cologne considered the potential for goodwill versus teaching one of the more well known of their secret techniques.

"Besides, this way your Amazons get to use high gravity strength training, plus you'll be able to use Akane learning a technique into strengthening the Amazon position with Ranma." Greylle smiled at the elder. "You've seen how Ranma is about learning new martial arts - he could be quite the asset to your tribe."

Cologne nodded, seeing the point. "Yes, that might work. Though you weren't going to do anything with that apartment anyway so the cost to you is nonexistent."

Greylle shrugged.

"I suspect that you're a softie anyway," suggested Cologne with a gesture towards the display. "You didn't evict any of the girls in the end. Though you *were* pretty rough with that kendoist."

"She kept attacking me," said Greylle. "She set the rules. i attack back."

Cologne smirked as the scene showed the little girl who had fainted pleading that the three others not be evicted. A weak point that could be exploited? Perhaps.

--------

Soun startled as the shrine in his dojo abruptly fell over. "Hmmm. A bad omen."

"Buqiii," said Genma.

A mirror shattered. Soun started worrying. "I hope nothing has happened to my little girls."

"Where are your girls anyway, Soun old boy?"

"Why they're..." Soun turned pale. That hadn't been Genma's voice. "No. It couldn't be."

"SQUEEEEEEEEEE!" A little black pig caught back up with Soun and saw who else was here.

"Genma? You look a bit different somehow. Same beady little eyes though."

Slowly, stiffly, Soun turned. Then looked down.

"Is that any way to greet your old Master?"

--------

Fess listened to R2's transmission and added a third mecha.

Ranma was in the furo trying to get warm again after crossing a glacier.

Sayuri was already asleep, dreaming of a normal life not complicated by jetbikes or power armor or crazed martial artists.

A girl named Motoko in a place named Hinata House got this horrible chill up her spine and decided an extra workout the next day would help purify her. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the main story.

The Hentai Sorcerer's Club, having viewed the defeat of their fellow, realized that their single previous success had been in using a powerful minion monster. Which was why they spent the entire night getting ready to summon the next Beast.

Soun called the base from the number Kasumi had left and advised his daughters to stay over there for tonight at least.

SETI took the measure of that big rock heading their way, noticed the straight edges, and began frantically beaming signals at it while trying to confirm the images being received.

Aiel and Anne took stock of the situation and decided there was too much competition for this world and left to find another one, completely derailing the entire Doom Tree saga.

With no future Crystal Tokyo finalized yet, the future was too much in turmoil to produce timetraveling menaces like the Black Moon family. Therefore those menaces were also likewise not going to show up and begin ridiculous attacks involving blackband magical manifestations.

Ami Mizuno received a stern talking to from her mother, and was grounded for the next two weeks. Permission to go off to save the world was allowed however.

And so the world turned.