Mid-morning over the Niagara peninsula of Ontario…
Located in the southern half of the peninsula where the Welland River had intersected the original route of the first Welland Canal in the late 1820s, the city of Welland had, in the last five years, seen a surprising surge of growth and renewal thanks very much to well over thirty thousand new residents — only the most sharp-eyed of the locals having noted that almost ALL of the newcomers were young women — who had decided to make the Rose City of Ontario their new home after escaping years and decades of inhuman slavery on another planet. The most visible sign of this influx of population was the complete and thorough rehabilitation and reconstruction of the old route of the Welland Canal through the urban part of city, from Port Robinson in the southern part of Thorold at the northern end to Ramey's Bend in Port Colborne at the southern end. Where there was once a stagnant tree-lined waterway partially filled in at Townline Road (due to the long approach trenches for a rail tunnel that passed the southern end of Welland itself), there now was a fully operational waterway open to tour ships and sailing craft from around the world, access granted thanks to fully-functional vertical lift and swing bridges (not to mention a high-level skyway carrying Highway 406 into the city) and strictly enforced by the local division of the Canadian Coast Guard, who made sure traffic in the old Canal kept to VERY strict speed limits. Of course, cargo ships still used the Welland By-Pass to the east of the urban part of the city, still unobstructed by lift bridges and tight curves in the waterway.
Welland, having once been an industrial hub for various manufacturing companies such as John Deere, Union Carbine, Plymouth Cordage and Page Hersey, was now an information centre gaining international reach. Customer service support call centres — chief amongst them Canadian Tire Financial Services and Convergys — were everywhere, employing a growing workforce of people dedicated to ensuring customers from around the world were able to do whatever they want with whatever services they used, from cell phones to credit cards and computers to home appliances. Helping support this growing industry was Niagara College, whose main campus was in the northwest part of the city, not to mention many private and public high schools, including the newest school, the Aqueduct Montessori Academy of Welland, located on the grounds of the old Welland High School at the corner of West Main and Denistoun Streets west of downtown.
Getting out of her car, Carol Johnson took a deep breath before she headed over to the main entrance of the Academy. A blonde woman appearing in her late twenties, the Toronto native was the product of a Montessori style education — she graduated from Town Centre Montessori Private School in Markham before getting her degree in teaching from the University of Toronto — she had jumped at the chance to help form her own school here in this small city near Niagara Falls. While she had balked a little bit when she learned WHAT type of students she was getting, Carol had been persuaded both by the promise of considerable government funding — she had relatives who had served in the Forces even if she herself had never joined — as well as unlimited access to some remarkable alien technology thanks to some of her staff, whose experiences…
Carol tried not to shudder TOO much as she remembered the one time she had mind-melded with her senior mathematics teacher, Katagiri Mirei…
"'Morning, Carol."
The principal smiled pleasantly at Jeff Merritt, who taught geography to the senior students and social studies to the lower grades. "'Morning, Jeff. We should have quite a quiet day with all the ship crews gone for their exercise."
He laughed. "Yeah!" he affirmed as they went inside and headed into Carol's office, where a cup of coffee from Tim Hortons was waiting for her thanks to the secretary, Pearl Hart. "Just have to deal with all the tankers, the grunts, the sappers…"
Both of them laughed as Carol sat down to sip her drink, and then she looked up just as Mirei walked inside, a cup of English breakfast tea (also from Tim Hortons) in hand. "Hey, Mirei! Looking forward to quiet classes today!"
"A little more quiet than usual. Good morning, you two," the silver-haired woman — she appeared to be in her mid-twenties — with the caramel eyes said as she walked over to playfully kiss Jeff on the cheek before leaning over Carol's desk to do the same to her. "And it's going to be even quieter than usual today."
"What do you mean?" Jeff asked as Mirei headed to the door to the teacher's lounge.
"Everyone in the city got called to the armouries an hour ago," Mirei stated. "'Fort Erie' deployed from the dockyard at two this morning."
"What?!" Carol gasped. "The exercise doesn't start for two days."
Mirei shrugged. "I don't know. No one gave me details."
She headed off. Watching her go, both Carol and Jeff sighed. "You know, I dread the day this all goes public," Jeff mused before he sipped his own cup of coffee. "All the things we — not to mention people like us all around the world! — had to do to bend for thousands of alien girls who came to us five years ago…"
"Do you regret it?" Carol asked as she gave him a knowing look.
He smiled. "Hell, no!"
Both of them laughed, and then they jerked as a slow rumble seemed to echo through the windows from the southeast. "What the hell…?" Carol asked as she got up to look outside, quickly noticing a dark cloud sweeping in from the direction of Lake Erie. "It's cloudy?! Weather Network said it'd be sunny today…"
"That's not a cloud!" Jeff exclaimed. "It's a ship!"
"WHAT?!"
Both — soon joined by some of the other teachers as well as Carol's secretary — all watched as the cloud seemed to billow for a moment before it faded, revealing a kilometre-long, wedge-shaped craft with small wings sticking out from its sides to form large guiding planes, a stacked structure fitted to the keel and something of a superstructure on the ship's spine. Painted a deep orange overall, it had black tiger-stripe markings all over the main hull. "Holy SHIT!" Jeff exclaimed. "What is that?!"
"Kashin-class battlewagon."
Everyone frozen, and then they turned to gaze on Nonomura Misato, who was another of the Avalonian-born teachers at the school; she watched over one of the primary school classes alongside her bond-mate, Yasuda Azumi. "You mean…?!" Carol began before she went pale. "Oh, my God! They're the Niphentaxians?!"
As the other Terran teachers all gasped and paled, someone then said, "It is not them."
Everyone cried out on hearing that aged, cracking voice, and then they all turned to see a diminutive form at the doorway to the office, dressed in his normal dark robes with the straw hat that hid his bald head from the sun. "Cherry?!" Jeff snapped. "What the hell are you doing here?! Tariko's up in space right now…!"
The narrow, beady eyes of Sakurambō Hayao — his family name served as his monastic name, though everyone called him by an odd translation of that name, "Cherry" — focused on him for a moment, and then he walked over to stand close to Mirei, Misato and Azumi. "Venerable, what can you tell us about that ship?" Mirei asked.
Before Cherry could answer, another rumble — this one sharper and closer — shook the building, which caused everyone to cry out in shock before Pearl's husband Alex (the groundskeeper) looked out the window before his jaw dropped in shocked disbelief. "Holy! They got tanks and LAVs on the streets outside!"
Everyone turned to look as the ominous shape of a Leopard 2A6M main battle tank rumbled past the Academy parking lot, stopping at the far end of Denistoun Street by the Welland River before it swung left and climbed over the curve onto the lawn around the school's sports field. It was followed by three more vehicles, all of which formed a line of review at the east end of the field. Soon enough, a platoon's worth of LAV IIIs came down the street, turning onto the sports field to the left of the troop of Leopards, they forming a line between the field and the school building itself. "What the HELL is going on here?!" Carol demanded as she marched out of her office and walked to one of the north doors of the building, her staff right behind her.
Stepping outside, she stopped and gaped on seeing ANOTHER troop of four Leopards on the west end of the sports field, they having driven onto the property through the driveway that led in right from West Main Street. As sirens announced the presence of police vehicles to the south of her — no doubt to block off the streets nearby as curious onlookers all began to peek out doors and windows of nearby residences — Carol then gaped as the unmistakable moan of space jets echoed through the sky from the northwest. Turning, she gaped on seeing a Star Flare soaring over the Welland River as the wings folded up and the landing gear deployed, it settling down right in front of the west troop of tanks. The main boarding doors then opened, revealing a familiar woman in navy combat dress, she followed by a man in civilian clothes. "Is that…?"
"It's Shinobu's husband!" Mirei gasped before she ran over.
Everyone watched as Shinobu embraced her homeroom teacher, and then she waved her over to Ranma as he gladly shook her hands. By then, four other people were moving to join them, all dressed in CADPAT combat uniforms. Carol recognised them all: Tanaka Misa (an infantry captain with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, assigned as operations officer of C Company based in Welland), Mizuno Tomomi (an armoured major who commanded A Squadron of the 2nd/10th Dragoons), Katō Minori (her opposite number in B Squadron of that regiment; both squadrons were based in Welland), and Maijima Karen (an engineer major who commanded 101 Field Park Squadron of the 10th Combat Engineer Regiment). As everyone conferred together, a voice then called out, "Carol?!"
She turned as a man stepped out of a militarized version of the Chevrolet Silverado (the "Milverado") truck. Noting the three thick stripes of a lieutenant colonel on his CADPAT uniform top and the beaver badge of the Canadian Military Engineers on his beret, Carol walked over. "Claude, what the hell's going on here, anyway?!"
In civilian life, Claude Freeman was one of the Academy's teachers; he taught algebra to the senior high school classes. But he was a militia officer, too; he currently served as commanding officer of the 10th Combat Engineer Regiment, whose headquarters, integral armoured engineer squadron, field park squadron and one of the field squadrons were all based at the Welland Armouries at the southwest end of the city. As he was the senior officer based in the city of Welland, he had been assigned as Task Element Commander for this operation, to ensure no one tried to interfere with what was about to happen. "First contact, Carol," he said. "Operation Plan Black Trident."
Everyone stared at him. "The Urusians?" Misato asked.
He nodded. "Up on that ship there…" — he turned to point up to the hovering Kashin — "…is none other than Lum Redet herself. She'll be challenging Shinobu's husband in a tag race to be run here in Welland."
Jaws dropped. "It's Fate," Cherry mused from nearby…
Minutes later — after a quite flashy entrance thanks to a simulated bolt of lightning which hid a teleport beam — Invader and his daughter were now relaxing in the student lounge, enjoying their first taste of Tim Hortons coffee thanks to Shinobu's classmate Sugimoto Sakurako, who was one of the few Academy students above age 12 who was NOT serving in the Canadian military. A woman with precognitive abilities (a quirky mutation in her genes which appeared right after the Avalonians were liberated) and some magical abilities in her body (she would be seen as just being slightly more powerful than a "squib" by old-fashioned European societies), she had foreseen what was happening and had come from her residence after a visit to the local Tim Hortons to introduce the visitors from Uru to the classic Canadian double-double. "This is really good," Invader said after finishing his cup. "We ought to get some of this and take it back home." He nodded his thanks to Sakurako. "Thanks very much for the coffee."
The green-eyed woman with the long, wavy brown hair tied in a very loose French braid smiled. "You come here in peace and friendship even if you publicly act as if you desire us harm, Captain. Everything we do to ensure the peace is required." She then leaned over to kiss Lum on her cheek. "I am so happy for you and Tariko both," she quietly whispered to the now-blushing Oni teenager. "We will be good friends."
And with that, she walked out of the room, many of the people watching her go with knowing smiles on their faces. Invader gave Lum a curious look before he turned to gaze warily at Carol. "Um, is she always like that?"
"Sakurako kind of grows on you, Captain," the principal stated. "So, just to recap: This whole 'tag race' thing is actually a sort of deception play — a maskiróvka as the Russians would call it — where you're hoping to make sure those on your planet who WOULD invade us at the drop of a hat would be convinced we're 'subdued,' right?"
The large Oni looked embarrassed. "Unfortunately, yes."
People exchanged looks. "Well, if this'll stop a real invasion until such time as we're really ready for one, I suppose we got no choice but to play along," Jeff noted with a shrug, and then he looked over at Ranma. "You up for this?"
Ranma nodded. "It'll be easy. Loads of high trees on many of the main and side streets, you got a big vertical lift bridge right in the centre of town with a swing bridge just south of it and multi-floor buildings all in a quarter-square kilometre zone around those bridges." He gave Lum a knowing look. "Once I chase Lum downtown, it should be easy to tag her. I can leap high enough to get halfway up the towers on the Main Street Bridge, so I can easily get at her from there."
"Just as long as you don't fall into the canal, Ranma," Shinobu warned.
"Huh?!"
She gave him a punch on the arm, which made him yelp. "Your curse, remember?!"
"He's cursed?"
Eyes locked on Cherry. "It's Jusenkyō. Spring of Drowned Girl," Shinobu stated.
The small monk moved over to gaze intently at her husband for a moment. "Yes, I see that now." With that, he pulled out a flask of water and poured it on Ranma.
"HEY!" she gasped as the transformation occurred, causing people to gasp in shock and many of the Avalonians — especially all of Shinobu's peers — to swoon in envy.
"Miyake, I'm going to tell you this just once: You are an unspeakably lucky bitch!" Karen stated as she shook her head in awe on seeing such a prime specimen of male beefcake transform into a redhead with breasts that were literally to die for.
Shinobu glared at the part-time fashion model/field engineering officer. "Back off, Maijima!" she snarled as she embraced her transformed husband as people around them all laughed. "He's MINE! You're dating Yui's adopted brother now! Leave him alone!"
Laughter filled the room; before Shinobu met and married Ranma, she and Karen — who were often seen as two of the prettiest girls attending the Academy — had been rivals dating men (and women) from nearby high schools. "Well, I will say this, son," Claude mused. "You will DEFINITELY learn how the other side lives, especially when your wife faces the time of the month…" — he then winked at Ranma — "…the non-Avalonian version, by the way!" he added as people around them howled with laughter. "Not to mention all the other wonderful things women go through in their lives."
"Will he be coming here?" Carol then asked Shinobu.
"Yes, ma'am," the commander of Fort Erie stated. "When the Special Committee found out about our marriage after Lum's father chose my husband as our 'champion,' they promised they'd come in right away to help DND get his records transferred over."
"Haven't had much schoolin' since I've been on the road for so long," Ranma admitted. "Just a year of middle school when I met Ryōga, plus the cram schools Mom got me to go to when I was staying in Nerima just before I married you."
"Well, we can definitely help there," Carol noted as Tomomi walked over to prepare a glass of warm water to help Ranma transform back. "Our school is VERY flexible when it comes to people with special needs. Or those who've missed out on a lot of schooling. But I have to admit, I've never encountered a case quite like yours."
"Sorry…ah, thanks, Tomomi!" Ranma said as she took the cup of water from the tank officer, and then she poured it over herself to transform back.
Around her, many of the Avalonian girls could only gaze enviously at Shinobu. Child-mate AND bond-mate all in one sweet and eye-pleasing package; just add water at any temperature! And many of them were wondering the same thing:
Where can I get my OWN Ranma?!
And now…
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(Posted Sun, 16 Jan 2011 03:56)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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