*Beep* *Beep *Beep* Click. One eye squints at the clock. Rolling out of bed with a somewhat dainty grunt, Nene Romanova is ready to begin her day.
“Where did I put that duffle bag?” Well she’s almost ready, anyways. Her normal morning routine grounds to halt as she looks around her apartment for the third time. The still slightly groggy red head gets a fresh uniform from the closet as she finally concludes that that she must have left it in her car. Ready for another day of work, she grabs her purse and keys.
Nene looks up at the sky idly as she walks to her car. I wonder if Makie is ok, wherever he is now. I hope Sylia is all right. Maybe I’ll leave work early, and see if the security cameras caught anything. I hope that guy from last night isn’t some GENOM spy. If GENOM were behind this then they would have some sort of record of freaky teleport glowing thingies. I bet I could hack in and get that data.
If he can be trusted then we can go out. If a boomer attack happens then he would understand and wait for me, then congratulate me on my hard-earned victory. From there this and that might happen.
Fortunately, for us, a salary worker on his way to work interrupts her musings. She’s seen him around, but never talked to him before.
“Excuse me, but you’re Nene Romanova right?” He smiles at hearing her affirmation. “Wow. I’m Seiji. I thought you lived here, but I wasn’t sure. It’s good to meet you. I just wanted to thank you for your hard work in keeping this place safe for all of us. Wait till I tell everyone at work I live near you!” He drives off leaving a slightly befuddled and blushing officer.
While driving to the station she stops at a cross work. A policewoman is letting some small pre-school kids cross. She sees that several of the small kids are gathering near the sidewalk by her driver door.
A few brave ones leave the safety of the sidewalk and approach to find out her name. Upon finding out her name the rest of the school kids gather near her door.
“You’re really cool!” “I want to grow up just like you!” “How old do you have to be to join the A.D. Police?”
A small boy with spiky black hair and a bandage on his cheek pushes his way to front.
“It’s great how you fight boomers!” He starts to fake punch and kick in the air with appropriate sound effects.
Nene is having trouble keeping up with the rapid speech of all the school kids, but tries to answer each.
“Thank you. Well work hard and eat right you will. Um I think you have to be 18 years old. I don’t really fight boomers in a K-11 or K-12S power suit.” All of the kids all nod their heads knowingly and happily say in chorus,
“WE KNOW!” One small cute girl with blue hair in long braids approaches and asks,
“Are you the green Knight Saber?” Nene hair toings as she replies,
“N…No. Of course I’m not.” The boy with the black spiky hair nudges the girl and states,
“No way! Blue is a cooler color. She’s gotta be the blue one.” Nene smiles as she answers back to the children.
“Well I think the pink one is cool.” The boy shakes his head sagely.
“Nope! The blue one has cooler weapons and has great moves!” Nene has small depression fires around her as the two kids argue about the best Knight Saber. Inwardly, she can’t believe she’s actually wishing now that she had Priss’s armor. The two children continue to discuss their points with unflappable logic.
“BLUE!”
“GREEN!” This continues until a very petite girl with long black hair tugs on both their sleeves and quietly says,
“I think the pink one is pretty.” The boy and girl look at each other and smile. Ruffling the petite girl’s hair, they agree that the pink one is the prettiest. This brings Nene out of her depression and she smiles at the little girl. A warning bell goes off at a nearby school and all the children quickly rush away yelling their good-byes. Nene drives on and is surprised by the jaunty salute from the traffic cop. She returns the salute as she assumes that the traffic cop must have enjoyed the cute kids’ enthusiasm as well.
After two ego boosting encounters in one morning, Nene is sure that today is going to be a great day. Driving up to the A.D. Police station, she sees a bunch of people gathered in what appears to be some sort of demonstration. Upon getting closer, she sees the crowd is composed of a mixture of reporters, people, and souvenir stands. The contents of the stand shock her, as her face appears on everything. T-shirts, mugs, beach towels, key chains, and luck charms.
The crowd spots her and quickly surrounds her car. Reporters were on the left of her, people waving Nene T-shirts in front of her, and Nene Cosplayers to the right of her. Panicking a bit, she looks around wildly for an escape. Leon and Daley lead some of her fellow officers to break up the crowd. Leon gives her a wink and waves her in. Grateful for their assistance she gets to the garage and tries to get a hold of the situation.
She is frantically looking for her badge in her purse when Naoko runs up and gives her a big hug. Her fellow Operator grabs on to both of her hands as she gushes,
“I’m glad you’re OK! I never knew you were so strong! Do you think they’ll promote you? Can you believe how popular you are now! I bet you’ll have no trouble getting a great boyfriend. I bet as your friend I can get a good catch too!” Nene lets go of Naoko’s hands and points toward the garage exit.
“Naoko, why am I so popular? Where did they get my picture?”
“I think they got the photos from the A.D. promotional pamphlet. You appeared in one photo and the group one, but they’re really good at zooming in and cleaning up the photos. You’re a popular because you’re a hero! It’s not every day that an A.D. police officer can take down a rouge boomer by herself!” Nene looks at Naoko in disbelief. Oh no, they know I’m a Knight Saber. Hesitantly she says,
“Is everyone angry at me?”
“Nope, the A.D. Police is getting some really good P.R. between the boomer Leon took down and you. In fact, the Chief wants to see you when you get in. Hey Nene, can you do me a favor?”
“Sure. What can I do for you?” Naoko whips out a T-shirt that had the A.D. police group photo on it with Nene being the only one in color.
“Sign this for me please!” Nene stares at the T-shirt in disbelief. I think that somehow I must have been put in an alternate dimension!
It is the right conclusion, but for the wrong person.
GENOM’s lead scientist Miriam is inside one of many secret labs. He stands by some consoles peering beyond the safety glass into the test room. The green cross over crystal pulses with a dim inner light while it is propped on a metal stand with sensors and probes surrounding it.
Miriam starts a recorder on the console.
“Subject: green shard of unknown composition. It was discovered in the wrecked core of the boomer that was destroyed last night by the A.D. police squads.” He ponders the event. Bah. They got lucky last night and they continue to be of no threat to a well-designed boomer. Heh, I doubt they would be able to take on the newest design. It should easily be able to stop the Knight Sabers. Focusing once again on the console display, he continues, “It glows, but does not appear to be a chemical or radioactive source. Spectral analysis shows that it is actually absorbing energy and then releasing as a light. This experiment will expose shard to different types of energy to see what it absorbs.”
*** Some time later ***
“Bright light and heat appear to have only a slight affect. Electrical energy appears to have an effect and stabilizes the pulse a little.” He pauses to wipe some sweat from his brow and adjust some switches on the console.
*** Several Hours Later ***
“The amount of electricity it can absorb seems to fluctuate. Too much or too little seems cause it to pulse and restarts the process.” Looking at the rapidly changing readings and manually flipping switches and dials begins to take their toll as he begins to breathe heavily. A portal forms slowly as the crystal glows grow stronger and steady.
Inside the portal, a figure can be seen. Godzilla and MST3K fans would recognize the robotic silhouette of Jet Jaguar. Miriam just saw a new boomer that he had to have. Suddenly the crystal energy readings spikes and it draws all the energy in the building and a good portion of the city block towards it. The power stops as breakers cut in. The portal collapses at the sudden loss of power and Jet Jaguar returns to its own universe.
“Amazing! This crystal appears to have some ability to create boomers.”
Well, we all know he is wrong, but no doubt with the scientific process he will be able to figure it out, and hopefully before he crosses over something big like Mistress Nine, Cthulhu, or Gozer.
Ranma walks slowly through a park in Mega Tokyo. His attempt to find Nerima and the Tendo Dojo did not go well. It was late morning when he resigned himself to the fact that nothing looked the same between fifty somewhat years and what remained after the earthquake. There were no trains to jump on and signs were either missing or twisted beyond usefulness. He turned back to the city to get the camping gear and supplies he would need to search the earthquake ruins. While he did hope that the Dojo survived intact, but at this point, he would be just as happy if there were clues to everyone’s current whereabouts.
Sitting down on a park bench, Ranma ponders what to do next. Searching his pockets he finds only enough money to buy a school lunch and snacks. The duffle bag and empty bento were hidden a few blocks away from the construction site in a billboard. There was nothing in there of any monetary value. He couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to buy Nene’s slightly used police uniform. (Dozen of newly christened Nene fans sneeze everywhere.)
Ranma stands up as he suddenly feels a strange power burst. It is very similar to power he sensed when that portal grabbed him. The power vanishes before he can pinpoint a direction. At least he knows that the portal is somewhere out there. It could be a way to send him back to his own time!
Something flies toward the black haired martial artist. He grabs it and falls into a loose stance while scanning for possible attacks. Sensing nothing, he relaxes, and sees that he caught a feminine gold ring. Deciding to investigate, he walks in the direction of the ring’s origin. He soon hears arguing voices.
An angry female voice says, “So you simple think by giving me a ring entitles you to certain ‘benefits’?” A male voice responds that sounds sweetly insincere to Ranma’s ears.
“Now Baby, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that there are natural steps in a relationship. That ring represents my commitment to you. Um…Did you really throw the ring?”
“You bet I did. As if a creep like you could understand commitment.”
“Yes, let’s talk about understanding commitment. I’m tired of all the times you just ‘happen’ to have an emergency and leave.”
“Oh! You could never understand what I go through.” The female furiously responds.
“Yeah, you know what? I don’t think I want to know!”
“If that’s the way you feel then we’re through!”
“Yes! GOOD-BYE!” With that, the ex-couple stomps off in opposite directions. Ranma toys with the ring in his hand. He was well in his rights to keep it since it was thrown away, but on the other hand, he knew where the owner was. Who WAS the rightful owner? The guy was the one who bought the ring, but then he did give it the girl. Therefore, it was her ring that was thrown.
Coming to a decision, he walks in the direction of the female’s lighter footsteps. She must have gone a fairly good distance as Ranma didn’t see any trace of her. After a bit, he hears her voice in another conflict that was going on with several guys this time. He jumps into a tree to get a better view.
He sees five guys confronting a lady with triangle like hair. One tries to grab her purse, but is tossed by a counter throw from the lady. Unfortunately, her recovery is slow, and another thug clocks her on the back of the head, which drops her to the ground. The purse is forgotten as the gang surrounds her to get pay back.
The pig-tailed youth observes that she is in shape, and graceful, but not a serious marital artist. She appears to have very little power behind her moves. Ranma decides to act when the thugs pin her to the ground, and the purse-snatching thug pulls out a knife. He jumps out of the tree and lands on the knife welding thug’s head.
The rest of the gang, who is busy trying to disrobe the young lady, looks up in time to receive either a foot or fist to the face.
Ranma gives her a hand up, blushes, and looks away. She sees the source of his distress and fixes up her clothes that are thankful not badly damaged. She puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you for rescuing me. My name is Linna. I’m really glad you were nearby.” The pig-tailed youth turns to Linna and says,
“No problem. I’m Ranma. I was just here to return your ring to you.” Linna looks at the ring he puts in her hand.
“Oh that. You can have it if you want.” She sees him taking money from the thug’s pockets. “Do you need money? It’s the least I can do for your help.” Without looking up Ranma responds,
“Nah. This should be good enough for a tent and some food.”
“Oh. You don’t have a place to stay?” Now that the adrenaline is fading, she realizes that he looks familiar. “Wait a sec. You’re that guy who appeared last night. What are you doing out?” Ranma tries to look innocent.
“Would you believe they let me out for good behavior?” Before she can respond her Knight Saber alert goes off signaling a boomer attack.
Turning toward Ranma she says,
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(Posted Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:52)
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