Akane turned from the TV set to address the man in the room with her. "That was Ranma and my sister!"
The man nodded.
Akane stood up. "I need to go see them..."
"That would be unwise at this point, Ms. Tendo." the man said.
"But Shiro..."
The nondescript man shook his head. "Not yet, Ms. Tendo. Despite what it may seem like, Ranma and your sister Nabiki were being led by a known Yakuza boss. Not to mention that whoever attacked your families might still be looking for you. Let us ascertain the situation before you contact them. If Yashida has some sort of hold and is forcing them to act..."
Akane slumped back down in the couch, "Then he might force me too, and no one would be left to help us."
Shiro nodded. "Exactly. For the time being, just be patient."
Akane grumbled in her seat. "I don't like doing nothing..."
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Then you need not worry. We have a job for you to do in the meantime..."
***
At another location, two other people watched the exchange.
"So," Hakase Ni addressed his fellow. "How did everything work out?"
Dr. Yoshimatsu shrugged. "Dr. Vossen's technique worked, although not as well as we'd hoped. She can now easily lift only around one ton, rather than the expected three or four. Instead of super speed, she developed hyper-reflexes. Her skin and muscles are very dense, giving her some additional protection, but it would only stop low caliber bullets. On a positive note, she does heal very fast, roughly five times faster than a normal human. Also, I believe you noticed her eyes..."
Hakase nodded. "Yes, they turned yellow?"
Yoshimatsu smiled. "Not just that, but they now can see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. It took her a day or so to get used to it, but now has a distinct advantage in what would to most people be darkness."
"Anything else?"
"Actually, yes. It seems we may have corrected something. I am still correlating with the previous reading, but it looks like our meddling actually corrected a chemical imbalance in her brain. She still gets angry and frustrated easily, but she hasn't fallen into a rage since she woke up."
Hakase raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. And the memory alterations?"
Yoshimatsu waved at the screen. "A complete success. She doesn't remember you, or AIM, at all. As far as she is concerned, she works for a altruistic research and development company called New Dawn Research, and her immediate superior is Mr. Shiro. She hasn't even realized that Shiro is an android."
"And the contingency?"
Yoshimatcu grinned cruelly. "If she does turn against us, then with the press of a button, my little surprise will go off in her head. It will wipe out her normal personality and replace it with a very basic one. A personality that's only goal is to come back to AIM, after which we can reprogram her as we wish."
"And armaments?"
"We've outfitted her with a small array of devises we reversed engineered from other sources." Yoshimatsu smiled again, "getting that agent into the Vault security was well worth the effort..."
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(Posted Fri, 27 Dec 2002 23:00)
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