"Now, THIS was WAY beyond stupid."
Seven hummed as she and the transformed Ataru watched the goings-on in space thanks to a three-D projection the latter was now creating between his metallic hands. Seeing two additional starships emerge from the space-warps forming some distance from the Windrider's fantail was one thing. But seeing several PEOPLE in very garish clothing flying out WITHOUT ANY SIGN OF PROPULSION -- and WITHOUT any signs of life support! -- from those wormholes was something else. Staring at one particular figure, a fellow dressed in a blue-red-and-gold uniform with a stylized "S" insignia on his chest, the Borg blinked as she recalled Tom Paris' many tales about the "flowering" age of Earth popular culture in the late twentieth century. "Ataru, I believe this particlar fellow is..."
"Superman, also known as Clark Kent of the city of Metropolis, born as Kal-el on the late planet Krypton," Ataru finished as he looked at her, a twinkle of amusement flashing in his good eye. "Originally appearing in a form of manga called 'comic books' in America many decades ago. Rinrin-chan collects them over the Internet. I assume it was Paris-chuui who told you about him?"
"It was," Seven confirmed, then blinked on hearing a door open off to their left.
"Ataru-san, are you here?!"
"Anigimi-sama, where are you?!"
"In here," Seven called out.
A stream of people marched into the control room, led by Kathryn Janeway. "There you are, Seven..." the Voyager's captain began, then her voice trailed off as her eyes locked on the entity standing beside her shipmate.
As the others in the group halted, they taking in the transformed Ataru's Terminator-like features with a mixture of shock, fear and simple curiosity, his sisters were quick to converge around him. "Onii-chan, what are you doing like this?!" Karen cried out. "You know you can't stay this way for much longer! Transform back now before you let him take you over completely!"
"Relax, Karen-chan," Ataru assured her with a wink of his good eye as Sakuya swang around to give him a kiss on the right temple. "Now that you girls are there, things should be alright!"
"Please don't stay this way for long, Anigimi-sama," Haruka insisted.
"Hai, hai," Ataru replied as the sisters embraced him...
Watching this from nearby, Ranma's eyes narrowed as he watched the shade of Ataru's armour begin to lighten from a gunmetal shade of grey to something more akin of rain-laiden storm clouds. Sensing the massive shift of chi energy within Ataru's body, the martial artist slowly nodded, then tensed on feeling people walk up to him. "Saotome-san, what's going on with Moroboshi-san?" Ijuuin Rei whispered.
"Can't really tell," Ranma replied. "But if the amount of pure chi energy he's tapping into now's anywhere close to his real potential, he could easily've ripped Saffron apart with his bare hands and not break a sweat."
"Saffron?" Tatebayashi Miharu asked.
"That's the king of the mountain near the place where Saotome-san acquired his gender-altering ability," Himoo Yuina replied.
The small group of people from the Tokimeki Memorial universe stared wide-eyed on the blue-eyed brunette who combed her hair over her right eye. "Wait a sec' here, Himoo! YOU read manga?!" Kiyokawa Nozomi demanded.
A tired sigh escaped the teen scientist from Kirameki. "I rather have no choice in the matter, Kiyokawa-san. You'd be AMAZED at how much of that stuff gets downloaded into the school computers!" She rolled her eyes to emphasize her point.
"I'll speak to Grandfather about that when we get back, then," Rei announced...
A buzzing sound echoed from somewhere close to the Cyborg, then he relaxed as a retractable communicator deployed from his right upper arm. "Yes, who is this?" the transformed Ataru called out.
"It's me, Aniue-sama."
"What's going on, Marie-chan?" Sakuya asked.
"We've got new arrivals courtesy of the Entity who brought Aniue-sama here, Sakuya-chan. The Justice League, the Avengers, the Titans and the Fantastic Four, plus extras, from the D.C. and the Marvel comic book universes according to Rinrin-chan. Superman, Captain Marvel, Thor and the Silver Surfer are directly engaging the two new basestars that just arrived. According to the Martian Manhunter, Doctor Strange has gone aboard the Enterprise to look in on Counsellor Troi. If you can do to those ones what you did to the first one, Aniue-sama..."
"Right. Let me check it out," Ataru replied as the communicator retracted back into his arm, then he dispersed the hologram before walking over to plunge a probe into the console before him.
"Be careful that you don't allow a virus to infect you in return, Ataru," Seven advised.
"Seven-san, given how powerful Anigimi-sama is in this form, the virus doesn't exist that could bother him," Haruka assured her.
Ataru's good eye closed as he allowed elements of his mind to reach into the Cylons' command and control network. Sensing doors slam down in front of his mind's eye, the transformed teenager could only shake his head before withdrawing his probe, it retracting under his arm-shield as he turned to face the others. "They've got firewalls up to protect their systems from my probes. And I don't have anywhere near the experience in this form to brute-force my way through a computer's defences to get at the inner programming core."
"Wait!" Miyauchi Lemmy spoke up from the group of people from the To Heart universe. "Data-shoosa's aboard the Enterprise, everyone. He could do that! He did it when the Borg assimilated Picard-taisa before the big fight at Wolf 359!"
Kathryn Janeway blinked as she took the young archer's words in, then she tapped her communicator. "Janeway to Enterprise."
"Enterprise, Picard here," came the response. "It's good to hear your voice again, Kate."
"Good to speak to you as well, Jean-Luc," the Voyager's captain replied as she walked over to where the unconscious Miroku still laid. "I want to send a present up to you if I can. A humanoid Cylon; she was the one who took direct charge of our being absconded from our various home dimensions. Do you think Commander Data can break into her systems to help you with those other basestars?"
"We can beam her up right away," the Enterprise's captain responded. "It appears that several of the new arrivals are physically about to tear these new basestars apart with their bare hands. Data's heading to his laboratory right now."
"Acknowledged," Kathryn slipped her communicator from her tunic, then placed it on Miroku's stomach. "Energize!"
The Cylon disappeared in a shower of transporter energy -- just as an explosion staggered everyone from close to Ataru's position. Spinning around, Kathryn gasped on seeing a dark-skinned, tall and muscular man dressed only in black pants emerge from the flames to charge the Cyborg head-on. "DIE!!!!" Largo bellowed as his mouth distended enough to allow an ion cannon to deploy.
Automatic weapons fire from several directions -- thanks to Miharu, Nanase Yuu and Nagaoka Shiho as well as a small group of others equipped with Range Hunters from the Windrider -- sliced into the rampaging boomer "messiah", shredding his arms and legs and making him fall face-first into the ground at Ataru's feet. Tilting his head in an imitation of a smile, the Cyborg then announced as he picked his left foot up to hover over Largo's head, "I've always wanted to do this to this bastard."
The foot came down, nearly crushing Largo's skull from the impact. Watching this from around their brother, the sisters began to hoot and holler as they cheered Ataru on. "Gee, who's the 'mere machine' now, eh?!" Sakuya taunted.
"Yeah, it's about damn time that the real jerks in your universe get what's coming to you!" Mamoru added.
"Wait!! Anigimi-sama, stop for a moment!"
Ataru picked his foot up, turning to gaze at Haruka. "What is it, Haruka-chan?"
"Anigimi-sama, you did promise Stingray-san that she would be given the right to deal with this villain!"
Ataru's good eye blinked, then he slapped his forehead with his hand, creating an odd clanging sound. "Oh, damn! I forgot about that! Thanks for reminding me, Haruka-chan! Hey, Sylia-san, get over here!!" He waved the Knight Sabres over from where they were standing.
The four girls in high-heeled armour marched up to stare derisively at the boomer who had come pretty close (in 2033) to destroying the Earth of their home dimension, not to mention coming pretty close (in 2034) to killing the Knight Sabres. "Oh, look who it is, girls!" Asagiri Priss taunted as she deliberately stepped on Largo's shattered legs to place herself on his left side. "Old home week, huh?!"
"Gee, doesn't look so much like a 'god' now, does he?" Yamazaki Linna leered.
"No, he does not," Sylia Stingray confirmed with a nod, then she glanced at Ataru. "Given that your counterpart went to a lot of trouble to rescue all the 33-S's from our universe, what do you think he'd feel should happen to this thing?"
Her eyes briefly flecked towards Largo, the hatred she felt towards this insane mental replica of the man who murdered her father Katsuhito blazing from those dark brown orbs. Considering Sylia's question, Ataru hummed for a moment, then he reached down to grab Largo by his seared hair. "Well, let's find out what's been going on with our 'friend' here behind your backs."
The Cyborg slammed a probe into Largo's left ear, nearly punching the sharp rod right through to the other side of the head. The omniboomer trembled slightly for a moment, then became very still as Ataru drew the probe back out. "Onii-sama...?" Sakuya whispered.
Ataru stared on Sylia, he keeping a firm grip on Largo's head. "You know about the OMS?"
The Sabres' leader blinked for a second, then her eyes widened. "Yes. It's a system by which boomers can be mentally slaved to a master control unit, thus retarding their ability to evolve their programming, their sense of self. It's also theoretically possible to use the OMS to take over a boomer practically by remote, force it to do whatever the controller desired."
"Fuck!!" Priss gasped.
"If I recall what happened to you guys, Largo was after the OMS when Sylvie-san and Anri-san came to Megatokyo," Karen noted.
"And Genom controls this system?" Nene Romanova demanded.
"I would believe so," Sylia replied. "The whole debate over an OMS-type system was one of the things my father voicferously disagreed with when Mason first brought it up. And that, added to everything else that happened..."
"Is what led to Genom having your father killed," Linna finished.
A pause, then a faint nod. "Yes."
"You know, Sylia, you can do Genom a lot of damage if you want to."
Eyes locked on Ataru. Noticed by a few, his armour had once again darkened almost to a near pitch-black. "Seize the OMS, you mean?" Sylia wondered.
"No," the Cyborg cooly replied. "Destroy all your father's so-called 'children' THROUGH the OMS."
What will Sylia do?
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(Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2004 08:34)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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