"Turn me into Ranma's fiancee!"
Order is a Very Orderly Thing. If there was no need for something, no orderly society would waste the space on it. Ordering one's thoughts to the extreme Neo-Serenity had done was a sad waste of humanity's potential, because (among other things) it eliminated the ability to lie, deceive, and so on...
... and thus, detect lies or deceit in anyone else.
So Neo Serenity had forgotten all about her old disguise pen in spite of it once having been one of her favorite toys. There was no need for any such thing in Crystal Tokyo, and thus no need to waste the mental space remembering it.
Thus, when she came up on her daughter as she called out a command for the disguise pen to activate, the disguise pen itself was completely edited out of the observation. The result was her daughter, in her presence, making a request for an engagement.
An orderly mind set upon an orderly track receiving a proper request will act upon it.
Things went rapidly downhill from there.
If one could view Neo-Serenity's thoughts, they would have gone something as follows: Chaotic Intrusion into Crystal Tokyo - Alert. Link Up With Senshi - Done. Seek Intruder(s) - running program... running program... Discover Daughter On Site - Conclusion, she has come to Battle Threat (still seeking).
Interrupt.
Daughter Proposes Marriage - Subject, Handsome Man. Compare/Contrast Archive, Personal Historical Database - Conclusion, handsome man arrives on site for Battle Vs Evil, if ally of senshi (positively identified as such by Daughter, implicit in Marriage Proposal) then equals Destined Romance of Senshi.
So she declared as much, spearing Ranma with her royal gaze. "You are my daughter's Destined Romance."
Ranma's look of horror was disregarded as having no possible relation to her statement, and was immediately tied to present Threat, whose Estimated Danger Level got elevated in emotional response observed from member of presumed first contact team of Daughter + Daughter's Destined Romance.
Neo-Serenity gave a blink as new data got considered.
"Power up. There is a threat to Crystal Tokyo and you are not in costume."
Ranma swallowed heavily. "Uh, I ain't got a costume."
The four Inner Senshi behind Neo-Serenity were having to wake up after who knew how much endlessly repetitive boredom, but despite having been completely zoned-out on the dull monotony of their daily lives there was still some capacity for thought in there. Amy was the first to offer a possibility.
"Um, perhaps his powers haven't awakened yet? Your daughter could have known about his powers before he did. She's often known the future before."
(The minor non-sequitor of Chibi-Usa's future knowledge coming from having been sent to the past at the time she used it, and that not applying here, was too much for a groggy, not-yet-fully-awake, bored to tears and beyond, mind to process, and so got overlooked.)
By the time Neo-Serenity had blinked and run though that bit of logic, her daughter was missing. The disguise field had gone into place and Ukyo (chosen by Usa as someone who did not evoke an immediate fear reaction in Ranma) was present.
Neo-Serenity's rather limited mental programs only allowed a senshi to leave a battle site if one of a few conditions were fulfilled: A) the Threat had been defeated, B) the Threat had retreated, or C) that senshi had been captured. Mere wounds or injuries were not a cause for retreat in the face of a battle, as she could simply repair whatever harm had been done.
No battle had taken place, so options A and B were impossible.
A kidnapped senshi was a crisis, her own daughter doubly so. During moments of crisis all powers must be mobilized to resolve the emergency. Ranma, as a Destined Romance of a senshi, was clearly a power. Having his transformation unavailable to help resolve this crisis was unacceptable. So, without a word of warning to anyone, she shot a bolt of Silver Moon power into Ranma's chest, triggering a transforming FOR him!
Ranma, for his part, was caught in his typical deer-in-the-headlights 'surprise fiancee' reaction that immobilized him long enough for just about anyone to beat him to the ground (once) and so didn't get to dodge.
Fortunately for him, an otherwise undirected Silver Moon surge draws upon one's past experience for concepts, and the generic 'weapons and armor' order Neo-Serenity had sent into his system pulled out a set of dragonscale closely based on what Herb wore, and his mother's katana, as gear he respected that matched those parameters, and garbed him in those, appearance-wise. Although the magic behind them was considerable.
Seeing her mom get riled up, Usa-in-Ukyo-guise (and forgetting she was in disguise) stood by Ranma's side and took his arm. "So, I'm Ranchan's fiancee, huh? Great!"
The Queen speared this newcomer with a regal gaze. "You are not his fiancee."
Ukyo-Usa blinked. "But you just said I was!"
Neo-Serenity experienced an all-too-rare moment of confusion. It had not been overlooked during the founding of Crystal Tokyo that non-purified strangers might come as diplomats or whatever, and that such people could lie, so there was a strong aura of lie-detecting magic in place around the Queen. This lie detecting magic revealed no falsehoods as coming from the lips of young girl in front of her, currently hugging the arm of her daughter's consort.
Error.
Seek for clarification.
Just as Neo-Serenity's mouth opened to form a question, the previously-stunned Ranma, Consort of Usa, Princess of Crystal Tokyo, reared back and yelled (totally oblivious to his new costume), "Oh, man! I got ANOTHER fiancee!! How does this stuff happen to me?"
That resolved everything.
This girl was fiancee to Ranma, just as her own daughter was. Ranma had just confirmed it, and he was a previously-registered ally of the senshi, so his words could be trusted utterly. Besides, that same magic showed that he wasn't lying. He had multiple fiancees. She had done the arranging herself, and so it must be alright.
That the reasons behind this arrangement were currently unavailable was cause for concern, however. She couldn't even recall telling this new girl she was to be Ranma's fiancee, much less the reasons behind it all. But she knew, from the lie detecting magic, that this girl was honest in her statement that Neo-Serenity HAD made her engaged to Ranma!
Obvious indication of memory tampering!
Coupled with the current crisis of her missing daughter, and this was enough to instill a vague sense of unaccustomed almost-panic in the former Usagi's now well-ordered mind.
Several of her senshi were actually perking up at this turn of conversation. The guy had multiple fiancees? And Neo-Serenity was allowing this? So... in spite of being engaged to the Heir to the Throne, he might still available? At least on a time-share basis?
Beefcake dreams began to be considered. They would have been discarded just as quickly as endless past romantic failures smothered the small embers of hope, but...
"Quickly, Ranma!" The Queen commanded, "You must tell me what you know of this emergency!"
Ranma scratched his head, mouth moving faster than his mind, as usual, as he thought back to his rather sparse instructions. "All Usa was telling me was that some Guardian or other needed to get laid for a week or two."
"Me!" Venus squeaked, surprise at the chance this hunk was offering to raise her libido from the dead jolting her out of her doldrums.
"And me!" Jupiter's own libido awoke with a terrifying drive.
"And me!" Mercury proved that hormones are not limited to athletic types.
"And me!!" Mars launched herself in a flying tackle onto the first real hunk of man they'd seen in decades that couldn't star in a zombie movie. "You must give us all a good screwing!"
Neo-Serenity blinked. "So..." she was unsure how to put it, and merely sought clarification of what the evidence before her seemed to suggest. "You are all engaged to Ranma?"
"YES!" all of her Inner Senshi yelled back simultaneously, dogpiling the man in question.
The Queen of Crystal Tokyo felt this confirmed her fear of having missing memories, as she did not recall arranging ANY of those engagements!
"ARGH! I KNEW IT! THEY ARE FIANCEES!!" Ranma's shout of fear inadvertently gave proof to previous assumptions and erased all doubt while his panic paralyzed him so the group of love-starved senshi could tackle him to the ground.
Usa-Ukyo stood nearby, completely confused.
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(Posted Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:23)
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