He turned to the console that girl in his late love's body had been at, managing to see the back of her coat as she left the room. Ranma knew he could easily outpace her, but he simply kept pace, following along and checking out various sections of the facility as he looked to see what caught his attention. There was a room dedicated to physical exercise, with a small track and weight stations, a staff with instructions posted next to it (for bending exercises, from what he read), and doors leading to a pool and sauna given the somewhat more humid feel to the air coming from that area. The next section had Carl. Looking like a victim of a electrical porcupine, he twitched quite a bit, muttering about Fashion columns for some reason. It wasn't very intelligible, but then his whole body was being electrically trained at the same time, so that was understandable. As Ranma watched, that hot violet panel formed underneath the suspended Kolchak, raising then lowering again. Each time, Carl came back a bit younger than before.
"I guess she wasn't kidding." Ranma mused to himself as he checked out the medical section next to Carl's little shock chamber. He saw it was very advanced, in a variety of cultural directions. There was a full section of the room devoted to eastern medicine techniques he recognized instantly from his experience in Tofu's office, alongside a examining table and gleaming equipment more along Western ideas. The door from there led into a operating theater from what Ranma saw. As with other areas, this whole section was being set up and restored by those tiny bits Ranma sensed all about, or by items dropping out of smaller panels like the ones that had brought Ranma here.
Keeping the girl in the edge of his sight, Ranma was quite pleased at the number of rooms set aside for them to stay in. The furnishings were incomplete or utterly missing in most rooms, but Ranma was coming to realize that his hosts would want to get his input on what to obtain. It was hardly as if getting supplies was difficult from Ranma's observations to date. He just hoped that promised briefing would explain how in detail ans well as in terms he could understand.
In the vehicle bay, Ranma noted the vehicles themselves were stripped down to bare skeletal frames now, but they were also new seeming frames. It seemed they were being rebuilt from the ground up, possibly into items quite different than they had been before going to rust and ruin. Ranma blinked at another full size portal forming, then nodded as those blond Asian-Americans he'd seen before stepped out, looking a bit nervous. Then they looked uncomfortable, for no reason Ranma could easily discern.
He thought it was wise to help them adjust, so they too could attend that briefing once everyone finally got around to it. Ranma began, "Welcome, ladies. I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm sort of new here myself, but if I can answer any questions, it's worth a shot, neh?"
The younger of the two girls blinked. She looked intently at Ranma as she said, "How can you be so alive without active symbionts?"
The older one just put her hand to her forehead. "Way to not blurt out, Eve." Ranma noted the very functional looking .38 caliber pistol in a shoulder holster the woman had. For all her apparent youth, she had the bearing of a American style policewoman as Ranma had seen them in factual or fictional television. Not unlike female military police from his visits to armed forces bases on the training trip, for that matter.
Ranma replied with a bit of a grinning grimace. "Don't worry about it. I'm well known where I come from for a truly amazing ability to swallow my own leg." He knew his weaknesses, and the Saotome foot in mouth syndrome was one of his worst. Turning to the older of the two, he spoke again. "I know Eve's first name now, what's yours?"
Aya shrugged to herself as she spoke to Eve first. "*sigh* That was a bit much. Tell you what, Eve; remind me to tell you what I did at a official press statement in the early days of the New York Incident sometime." Looking at Ranma, she replied to him, "I'm Aya Brea, and this is my daughter Eve. She's obviously inherited my own tendency to speak first and maybe think about it after."
Ranma chuckled obligingly, but he did wonder at that line. She's nowhere old enough to have mothered Eve, but this Aya is her mother, the life energies are so alike it's almost scary! She spoke of inheritance, too. I think I'll ask her about it once everything is settled in. He told the girls, "I'll introduce you to the others as soon as I see them. We have a tendency to not be run of the mill sorts, so don't worry about being confused. I am. There's going to be a briefing to explain this whole business before too much longer, I'm told."
Eve spoke up. "Yes, the transfer gate mentioned there would be. Why the raised eyebrow, Mr. Saotome?"
Ranma smirked back, "Call me Ranma, I'm not old enough to be a mister. Besides, to me, Mr. Saotome is my pops. Far as the rest goes, the 'gate' never spoke to me. Then again, I wasn't exactly in a conversational mood. It's a long and painful story."
Aya nodded. "Been there. Oh, but we have been there. Just tell us if and when you're comfortable about it?"
Ranma smiled a bit through the renewed pain of memory. "As long as you tell yours, when you're ready. Deal?"
Eve piped up, "Deal!" They went on to see what the others were up to.
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(Posted Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:12)
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