"Sylia..."
The voice was filled with pain, hardly sounding human at all. With his arms and legs shattered thanks to armour-piercing rifle fire and his head nearly squashed from the Cyborg's armoured foot, Largo had clearly seen better days. And with his Cylon ally now a prisoner aboard the Federation starship Enterprise, her mind about to be picked apart by that ship's android second officer -- and with the Knight Sabres and a whole host of other people who knew what sort of monster he was, including the half-machine monster now holding him in place -- the chances of the boomer "messiah" of escaping to fight again are now close to zero...
"You can do this?" Sylia asked, staring once more on the transformed Ataru.
"Child's play," the transformed teenager replied, his metal-tinged voice now frightfully neutral. "Largo has an open link to the D-hopper that brought all of you to this dimension. Through that, he maintains an active link with every boomer now slaved to the OMS network. About 99.8 percent of all boomers currently active on your Earth, I believe."
"What about the Three-three-Esses?" Priss demaned after sparing Sylvie and Anri a glance.
A hollow chuckle escaped the machine-man's metal jaws. "I think you can answer that question for yourself, Priscilla."
"Are you guys hooked to this thing?!" Nene asked.
"No, we're not," Sylvie replied. "The D-hopper...! Well, it's far more than just an interdimensional transportation device. Whoever built it also stuffed it with knowledge that spans a whole host of topics, including cybernetics."
"It was able to help us overcome our blood-dependency problem," Anri added. "And it repaired the damage to all the second gen girls from what the move-by-wire system fitted into them did to their brains." The green-haired cyberdroid then pointed to a remote corner of the room. "It even helped us come up with a way to build replacement bodies, ones that are far more organic than what we have now."
"Was it Lum's people that built such a device?" Kathryn Janeway asked.
"No, Captain," Anri replied. "As far as we could tell -- in the short time we had to research the device before we made contact with the Cylons and everything went crazy -- it was built by the counterparts to the people who gave Moroboshi-sama his ship."
Silence fell as eyes turned to Ataru and his sisters. "The Noukiites created the D-hopper?!" Sakuya demaned.
"Then how did it wind up on Lum's scoutship for the other Onii-chan to find?" Karen wondered.
"Set up."
Eyes locked on Ataru, then the sisters exchanged looks as realization dawned. "The Noukiites of that universe wanted to strike directly at Lum and the Onis," Haruka then announced. "And used the other Anigimi-sama to do it!"
"We'll confirm that in a few minutes, Haruka-chan," Ataru said, then gazed on Sylia. "But first..."
Eyes locked on the leader of the Knight Sabres, elder child of the man who had created boomers in that universe. Machines with human-level knowledge that would've become -- as Katsuhito Stingray initially envisioned it -- "partners" with humanity to create a better, brighter future for all. A future that wouldn't come to pass when Genom, the company that had initially financed Whiz Laboratories, decided to make use of Katsuhito's research for more military-like purposes. Katsuhito protested that action, wanting to do whatever he could to ensure humans could benefit the most from what he had created. His protests cost him his life, the first in a long string of shattered and ruined lives that haunted Genom's expansion across the planet, especially in the wake of the Second Kantou Earthquake of 2025.
So many dead...
So many maimed...
So many shattered emotionally...
So many...
"Is she going to do it?" Ayasaki Wakana asked.
"After what happened to her dad and who knows how many others?! What do you think?" Matsuoka Chie responded with a sneer.
"What's this about, anyway?"
The small group of women from the Sentimental Graffiti universe turned to gaze on Tom Paris, then Sawatari Honoka answered. "The company that created boomers like Sylvie-san and Anri-san there." She indicated the two Sexaroids with a finger, then pointed at Sylia. "Before it all began, they murdered Stingray-san's father -- he's the one who created boomers in the first place -- so they could do whatever they wanted with his ideas. Sylia-san there formed the Knight Sabres in hope of trying to stop them."
"Sounds like the Ferengi," Harry Kim mused.
"Do the Ferengi commit wholesale murder to get what they want, Kim-shooi?" Wakana wondered.
"Sometimes," the Voyager's operations officer replied.
"Genom does it ALL the time," Morii Kaho then announced.
"Oh!"
"His chi's changing."
Ijuuin Rei stared at Ranma. "You sure?"
"Look at the armour."
The Tokimemo group turned as one to gaze on the Cyborg. The armour was now such a dark shade of grey, it could be easily mistaken as black. "So what do we do?" Kiyokawa Nozomi whispered.
"Do nothing."
Everyone screamed out, spinning around to see a familiar purple-haired sorceress now standing behind them. "Chikage-san!!" Rei gasped.
Remembering that this was yet another of Ataru's sisters, Ranma reached over to guide Chikage to a corner of the room. "What do you mean, 'do nothing?'" the martial artist hissed. "Don't you realize what's happening to him...?"
"I do realize what's happening to him," Chikage replied. "But he needs to do this, Ranma. Just like your friend Hibiki Ryouga uses the Shishi Houkoudan to bleed off the level of depression his isolation and other matters forces on him, Ani-kun uses the Cyborg -- and his link to the Master of Entropy -- to bleed off the repressed anger and pain that's accumulated over HIS lifetime. Leave him be."
Ranma took that in, then glanced once more on the Cyborg. "Sure hope you're right, Chikage..."
"Sylia..."
Sylia turned to gaze on Largo's twisted and crushed face before an emotionless mask crossed her face, then she faced Ataru. "Ataru-san, is it possible to break into Genom's files through the OMS, then allow the knowledge there to be spread out across the planet?"
The Cyborg's head tilted slightly for a moment, then he nodded. "It is."
Watching from nearby, Ranma started to relax on seeing Ataru's armour start to lighten. "Very well, then," Sylia stated as her eyes locked once more on Largo. "My father's gift was a gift to the whole world, Mason. It was never meant to give Quincy the chance to seize economic control of the entire planet. What you took from my father when you murdered him, I now take back. And will allow it to spread far and wide across the planet, far beyond the ability to Genom to recapture or control anew. After all..." She leaned down to glare into his eyes. "I'm sure that once all of humanity learns of the OMS, not to mention whatever else Genom's kept secret..."
Ataru raised his free hand, turning it around to allow a rod to eject from under the arm shield. Seeing that, Sylia reached over to pull it clear, then noting that it was tipped with a slender cone-like point, she pulled it back.
"Humanity's destiny belongs to humanity as a whole," she announced.
With that, she rammed the point right through Largo's ear into his head.
Megatokyo...
"Have we learned what happened to all the Sexaroids?"
"We're still investigating that matter...!!"
A whine began to assault Katharine Madigan's ears as she looked up from the NAVI, she now standing in front of Quincy's desk. As her eyes fell on the chairman of the world's largest corporation, they went wide on seeing fire punch through various points on his skin and clothing. Screaming out, the purple-haired chief of security fell back from the burning boomer as it staggered haltingly to its feet. At that moment, the boomer's power core detonated, shattering the windows at the summit-level office and knocking Madigan to the floor. As her mind quaked from what she just saw, Madigan was quick to hear screams echo through the thick doors leading to Quincy's office...
"What was that?!"
"Calls are coming in from all over the city!" Daley Wong announced as he stared on Leon McNichol. Both had been relaxing in the latter's office when the news started to pour into AD Police headquarters. "Boomers of every type and model are just blowing up!"
The senior detective of Megatokyo's anti-boomer squad blinked as he took in that news, then he glanced out the windows. He was quick to see pillars of smoke pour out of various locations in the vast metropolis, including Genom Tower. "What's going on here...?"
"Madigan-sama!!"
Madigan grunted as two strong hands helped her back to her feet. "What...?"
Before she could say anything further, two of her junior executives were forcing her out of Quincy's officer. "Ma'am, we have to get you to a place of safety now," one of them announced. "Something's pouring through the OMS and destroying every boomer hooked to it!"
Hearing that, Madigan's eyes went wide. "WHAT?!! How's that possible?!"
"We don't know!" the other junior executive replied. "Someone's also breaking into the main computer through the OMS as well! All the 'black box' technology and all our secret projects are being downloaded throughout the Net across the planet!!"
Madigan nearly collapsed on hearing that. If THAT was happening, what would happen to Genom?! "No...!"
"It is done."
Sylia shuddered, then yanked the rod away from Largo's head before handing it back to Ataru. He let go of the boomer "messiah," who dropped dead to the ground, steam billowing from his ears, nose and mouth. The light in his eyes flickered for a moment before they went dark for the final time. As Ataru slipped the rod back into its housing on his arm, Sylia faced her friends. "It's over now."
"Fuckin' A!!" Priss declared with a grin and a thumbs-up.
"What's going to happen now?" Nene asked.
"That, we'll determine when we return to our home dimension," Sylia sighed, then turned...
...as cold fire washed over Ataru's body. In the blink of the proverbial eye, he is restored to normal, complete with the brown gi-like uniform and green camouflage cape he first brought into this place. As soon as the transformation was complete, his eyes rolled into his head as the strength in his legs went. "Onii-sama!!!" Sakuya cried as the sisters moved to prevent him from bouncing his head off the floor.
"What's wrong?!" Tatebayashi Miharu cried out as she ran over to help.
Chikage was already there. "I need to examine him in a more private setting," she announced as her fingers danced over the shiatsu points on Ataru's face. Taking up his communicator, she then called into it, "Marie, this is Chikage. What's the situation in orbit?"
"The two basestars were just destroyed by Superman and Captain Marvel, Chikage-chan," Marie replied. "How's Aniue-sama? I just felt..."
"He just transformed back," Chikage confirmed. "Drop shields and transport us aboard now."
"Hai!"
A shower of energy surrounded the sisters and Ataru, then they vanished. Silence fell over the room, then Kagura asked, "What now?"
What now indeed?
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 01 Mar 2004 10:58)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.