-Bzzzt-
“Hmm?” Satomi Hakase paused, lowering her soldering iron slightly. Either side of her various robotic appendages ceased their work as well, allowing the noise level to die down to tolerable levels.
-Bzzzt-
“Aw, not now!” She grunted, putting the iron down and pushing away from the workbench she sat behind, trying to move about the room quickly without knocking anything over with the rather bulky robotic arms she had attached to her back. In the cramped room she had this was quite difficult, and the vid-phone rang five more times before she was able to answer it.
“Chao, we really don't have time for you to be ringing me every five minuets right now!” She spoke into the receiver as soon as her ally/boss' face appeared on the screen. “Creating and producing a magically powered robot army capable of wresting control of Mahora from the mages isn't easy! Especially on this short time-scale! You said we'd have another year to prepare for all this!”
“Oye oye, calm down Hakase. I already told you, the records about this era at Mahora were incomplete. How was I to know sunspots would screw up the timing-yo? Besides, we're right on schedule anyway, right? Quit you're worrying down there-ne!” The rosy-cheeked girls face grinned at her through the vid-link.
Satomi sighed and began cleaning her goggles absently. Since she hadn't turned off the neural receptors in her extra arms various robot 'hands' attempted to duplicate the motions. “Yeah yeah, I guess. What're you calling for? Even if we're on schedule we don't really have much time to spare...”
“Aha, yes, well... I was wondering if you'd done the maintenance on the troops down in the South sector-yo?”
“The South sector? Ah, lemme think... Oh yes, I sent the last set of upgrades across about half an hour ago based on the test data we got from the tournament. Wasn't as much as I'd hoped for, our proto-type didn't even get past the first round, but still...”
“Right right. So if you sent that on through 30 minutes ago, it'd still have about 10 minutes to go-ne?”
Hakase blinked. Chao's was usually able to keep her verbal tic down to just one or two 'Yo's a conversation. Was she worried about something? “More like 20, I think.”
“Hmm, and there's no way to take them out of update mode before then-yo?”
“Not by remote, no. If I was there I could probably...”
“Ah, no no, that wouldn't work. Too dangerous-ne.”
Satomi paused, looking up at Chao. “What do you mean to dangerous? What's going on?”
“A group of intruders found South sector. They made quite a mess-yo!”
Satomi gasped. “Intruders? Didn't the security systems find them?”
Chao's reassuring smile didn't slip. “Oh, they were found, you'd better believe it-yo! But they had Sakurazaki-san with them, and they managed to give us the slip long enough to find the main troop bay-ne.”
“Oh no. And with the troops in update mode...”
“Yup, we lost between two thirds to three quarters of the robots we had in there-yo. Damage was done before we even knew what was happening. It's a pity-ne.”
“A *Pity*?!? Chao, that's over 200 robots!” Satomi had to put her goggles back on before she shattered them in her fidgeting hands.
“Tch, they only found one bay. We've got eleven more around. It wont impact our numbers too severely-ne. I've already put the order through to evacuate the bays closest to the one that was discovered. The plan will still go off without a hitch-yo.”
“You- you're sure?”
“Absolutely-yo!”
Satomi sighed with relief. With the plan so close to fruition, to have it fall apart now... “Alright, so... Wait. Why did they only get two thirds?” asked, her goggles sliding down her nose as her forehead crinkled.
“Aha. Yes, that would be why I was asking how long we had until those guys come out of update mode-ne. The bay they found... had a greater demon in it-yo.”
“IT WHAT?!? Chao, I haven't finished all the safety limiters for those things yet! It could actually get loose and hurt people!”
“Yeah. I know-yo.”
There was a moment of uneasy quiet. Greater demons had been known to level cities, one of the reasons they'd been sealed in various places across the world, including Mahora. Finding and unsealing them had been risky, but as long as the safety limiters were in place they wouldn't be a threat to anyone. The plan was designed specifically so that no innocent bystanders were hurt. That was a line they couldn't cross. But if the half completed limiters didn't hold up, one of their projects was about to put an end to that.
Chao began typing on her end of the connection. “I have a plan. The problem should be resolved without hurting anyone... It might even help our cause, in the long run, but that's not the goal here-ne.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don't have to do anything. It looks like it's on it's way already-yo. All I'll do is send advance warning-ne.”
“Huh?”
Chao glanced at her and flashed another smile. “Don't worry about it Hakase, I got it. But Our schedules going to be moved up again, and we'll be short a Greater Demon when the time comes-yo.”
“Uh, don't we need all six?”
“We'll think of something. Later-yo!” With that, Chao cut the connection.
Satomi groaned. Despite Chao's cheerful words, she couldn't help but get the feeling that everything was about to spin out of control. She'd better get the rest of her work done as fast as possible...
---
Setsuna had been training as a demon hunter/exterminator for as long as she could remember. On top of that, her senses were boosted far beyond the human norm thanks to her demon blood. So when her senses started telling- screaming at her that she was facing a greater demon, Setsuna didn't ignore them. No, she remembered the ancient words of wisdom passed down since the time of Shin-me-ryu's founding. She ran like the wind.
Or at least, the wind when it had some particularly air-resistant luggage.
“Go faster! Go faster!!!”
“Still not helping Misora-san!!!”
“Faster!!!”
“Whatever happened to your damn artefact?!!”
Misora paused in her flailing, allowing Kokone to use the opportunity to tighten her grip on the nuns back.
“Oh yeah, forgot about that!”
Had they not been busy running for their lives, Setsuna and Takane would have suffered rather nasty facefault induced injuries.
---
In the commentators box at the side of the stadium, Chachamaru was deep in conversation with a reluctant classmate.
“You really expect me to believe this is actually happening,” said the classmate, staring blankly at the fight between Negi and Ku Nel. A boom echoed across the stadium as one of the combatants fired a particularly flashy spell, just missing his target.
“It's not about what I expect you to believe, Chisame-san. For better or worse, you have already deduced that magic is real, and you have accepted the fact enough to attempt to help mage society suppress Chao's Internet propaganda, despite the fact that I have already informed you that you will not be capable of doing anything for either side in what amounts to cyber warfare. It is out of your league.”
Chisame snorted. “For your information I'm just trying to clear all this spam about magic off the forums I run. And even if it were true, which it's not, why would I believe you? You've already told me that if I support Negi-sensei in this, you're my enemy!”
“Ah, so you are doing it for Negi-sensei?”
The bespectacled girl choked. “That's not what I-”
“Regardless of your intent, it is true, you cannot trust me. As I stated before, I follow Chao Lingshen in this. It is unfortunate that this puts me against Negi-sensei, but so be it.” Chachamaru kept her face blank, an easy task for a gynoid, but she couldn't help but shift uncomfortably under Chisame's glare.
“You stupid robot. Why are you-”
A beep from one of Chachamaru's antenna interrupted Chisame before she could get into full-on rant mode. The robot's eyes dulled for a moment as she reviewed the orders she had just received.
“What was that?”
Chachamaru blinked. This was worrying. “New instructions from Chao.” She leaned forwards towards her microphone. “To all spectators, please step away from the viewing windows for a moment, we are upgrading our audience protection measures.” She reached underneath her desk and pushed the button hidden below.
Around the ring metal shutters suddenly shot up, momentarily blocking all view of the fight from the audience. This was corrected a moment later when various holographic view screens popped into place, activating to show the fight in full glory. Confused but satisfied, the audience went back to watching the fight, not noticing as several more subtle protection systems went into action around them, magic protection barriers forming.
“What the hell is all this for?” Chisame hissed, looking around.
“Asukura, please retreat to a safe distance from the ring,” Chachamaru messaged the commentator before looking back to Chisame. “I've been informed that we will soon be getting an uninvited guest in the ring. I am merely taking precautions to ensure none of the paying customers will be harmed by his appearance.”
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(Posted Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:14)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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