"With that much raw power, there is no reason for lying about such things, so we have to take its claims seriously," said another of the women. "It stated that it could only channel that power every five years because this boy could only handle that sort of strain that often. Since it gains nothing by admitting these weaknesses, we can proceed with the idea that these are at least mostly true."
"Right," said the first among these twelve women physically present, and the thirty linked through teleconferencing. "So let's table any doubts about the veracity of those statements for now. We can make the assumption that there's more we haven't heard, and we certainly can't rely on this 'Entity' having human motivations or desires. There is nothing we can do, even those of us with high level Talents, against something outside our dimension of that power. That leaves the boy."
"Ranma Saotome," said one of those teleconferencing in. "We've had Talents on site, particularly a Truthreader working with the Tokyo Police Department, to verify as much as we could. May I continue?"
There was a few minutes of interruptions, but mostly agreement.
"As stated, the Being that uses Ranma as a channel is extradimensional and apparently outside the scope of our emergent Talents," said Doctor Mizuno. "We have been able to get results indirectly, from Ranma himself. The Entity has apparently no need for a name itself, nor gender. The best description we've been able to get so far from Ranma is that it is a being that exists outside our definitions of life, that it exists in a form of space and time that bears little resemblence to our own four-dimensional existence. We have also managed to determine that it spoke of altering Ranma's physiology and genetic potential in particular and that this was also completely true."
"So the boy's genetic potential is what? Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?" asked one of the other teleconferencers.
"To put it bluntly?" asked Doctor Mizuno. "Yes."
"I was joking," said the other teleconferencer. "You're kidding. Right?"
"No," said Doctor Mizuno. "When he arrived he was already able to leap small buildings, punch through concrete, and move faster than many Olympic level athletes. He didn't appear to be abnormaly intelligent then, but since the manifestation is currently beyond our ability to test. When he reaches the normal peak years? I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see him able to leap tall buildings, rather I would be surprised if he couldn't."
"So what do we do?" asked another teleconferencer as they all pondered that. "Do we kill him and end the potential threat? Do we attempt to influence him and thereby control him? Do we wait until he's past puberty and use artificial insemination techniques to make him the father of a thousand advanced children?"
"The Japanese members of this consortium already know what is planned here," said Doctor Mizuno carefully. "To engage Ranma Saotome to exceptional candidates and thereby produce children that will be highly advanced and likely with strong Talents."
"Tell the rest of it," said the older woman who'd emphasized the bringing back of the dead earlier.
"You know about that, then," said Doctor Mizuno.
"I have my sources," the woman smugly informed the doctor. "The reference that the Entity made was to the fact that there were only a few superpowered defenders of Earth - these other 'Senshi' that appeared near the end of that transmission."
"Yes," said Doctor Mizuno, "and we know how Ranma can empower those individuals to full Adept status. It's just that we're reluctant to put out the information due to it apparently coming out of one of those manga Ranma's mother has placed on his bedstand - which was before anyone knew what the nature of those manga were."
"Considering his mother's preferences, it might have been predictable," pointed out the senior of those attending this teleconference of the movers and shapers in the post-Plague world.
"He's only empowered one so far, but we think it's likely to be typical of the empowerment process," reported Doctor Mizuno. Her tone was still hesitant, revealing her reluctance to throw the details out.
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(Posted Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:20)
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