"Ranma-sama?"
Ranma perked on hearing his name called out, then turned, a smile crossing his face. "Hey, Haruka-san! How's your brother?!"
Moroboshi Haruka felt her cheeks start to heat on sensing Ranma's gaze fall her way. Both were now in the main control room of the castle the counterpart to Haruka's older brother and his many Sexaroid allies had used as their private base. Nearby, a small crowd of people, under the expert leadership of one Hakubi Washuu from the Tenchi Muyou universe (assisted by one Himoo Yuina from the Tokimeki Memorial realm), was busy examining the D-hopper which the other Ataru had used to travel to this universe, then was later seized by the Cylons in hopes of expanding their "terminate all humans" crusade across the infinite dimensions. "Anigimi-sama's being examined by Chikage-chan right now, Ranma-sama," she finally replied. "As is the other Anigimi-sama. I trust you're alright."
"I'm good," he confirmed her question with a nod, then glanced at the small crowd around the "Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe." "Wish I'd seen the anime," he mused with a wry chuckle.
"Given your overwhelming passion for martial arts, that doesn't surprise me," Haruka noted.
"Yeah, it did get pretty single-minded at times, didn't it?" he asked in a muted voice, then perked on remembering something. "Oh, how're your other sisters, Haruka-san? They get through what happened to your brother okay?"
"Pretty much so," she answered. "The Cyborg is an unwelcome presence in our lives, but for the most part, it's a controllable presence. Only whenever someone directly threatens one of us -- or, as we saw concerning Stingray-san and the others, when things happen that remind Anigimi-sama of things he would rather not reflect on these days -- does the Cyborg become a concern."
Ranma considered that, then hummed. "Do you have much to deal with the people back in Tomobiki?"
"Of course not," Haruka responded with a shake of her head. "Most of the people who interacted the most with Anigimi-sama until last year are dead, courtesy of either Noukiite terrorists who struck at the Oni capital city or Islamic fundamentalists who struck at Tomobiki High School in response to the 'oil-theft' incident that befell Earth shortly after the First Tag Race."
"What about this Mendou guy I heard about once? The one whose sword Ataru caught all the time?"
"Happily married to one Mizunokoji Asuka in a bond that brings peace between their clans," Haruka announced. "And with him busy with Asuka-san, he can't spare the time to try to track Anigimi-sama down to bother him anew."
"Excuse me? Haruka-sama?"
Haruka and Ranma turned as Sylvie walked up, hand-in-hand with Asagiri Priss. "Yes, Sylvie-san, what is it?" Haruka asked.
"When will we get a chance to speak to you and the others concerning 'our' Ataru-sama?" the dark lavender-haired Sexaroid wondered.
"Well, Sakuya-chan and Rinrin-chan are metting with Picard-taisa and the others aboard the Galactica right now. Once they formuate a plan as to how to get everyone back to their home dimensions, we can certainly discuss what will happen to the other Anigimi-sama. And all of you, of course," Haruka added with a raised finger and a wink.
"It's a pity we can't find some way to allow all the girls to get back to our universe and live their lives there," Priss mused.
Haruka shook her head. "After what your friend instigated with that lout Largo, Asagiri-san, I strongly doubt that will be a wise idea. Besides, given that the 33-S's are now effectively the only boomer model left..."
"It wouldn't take some idiot long to try to kidnap one of the girls and hack her apart to see what made her tick," Ranma finished.
"No thank you!" Sylvie spat out, the fearful shudder in her voice obvious to all, then she relaxed. "Besides, we all agreed to this when we were brought here. Wherever Ataru-sama goes, we go with him." She gave Priss an apologetic look. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Priss said. "You're alive and safe. That's good enough for me."
"You want more."
"Hell, yes!!" the singer/Knight Sabre snapped, she glaring intently at the Sexaroid who had affected her so much. "I love you, goddamnit! I know that you might not remember what happened between us 'cause of some fuckin' time paradox or whatever it's called, but it don't change my feelings for you, Sylvie!! Believe me, I'm tempted to drag you off to the Enterprise and ask Picard-taisa to marry us!! Federation starship captains have that right, I think! Kirk-taisa did it once as I recall!!"
Priss finished her statement with a VERY passionate kiss on Sylvie's lips. "Oh, Asagiri-san, that's so romantic!!" Haruka gushed.
"Yeah, that's showing your heart there, Priss!" Ranma added with an approving nod, then he perked. "Say..."
"What is it, Ranma-sama?" Haruka wondered.
"Are you girls considering moving the other Ataru and the 33-S's to your universe?"
Haruka considered that for a moment, then she nodded. "Well, I believe we all would consider that."
"You guys got enough room?" Priss wondered. "There're almost five hundred girls we're talking about here."
Haruka made a dismissive wave with her hand. "Oh, that's no problem, Asagiri-san. Welcome House can easily house two hundred and we can build in extra extensions if we need to. Besides, given that the D-hopper was Noukiite in origin and given that it's very obvious that the other Anigimi-sama was targetted in a way to strike at the Lum of that universe, the wisest thing to do in the long term..."
"Separate them once and for all. And this time, make DAMN sure that Oni can't threaten Ataru-sama ever again."
Eyes locked on Sylvie as that assertion sank in, then Haruka slowly nodded. "Agreed."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Why are these people still in cryosuspension?" Kara Zor-el, also known as Linda Danvers, also known as Supergirl, pointed to the row of filled suspension chambers in this nearly-empty corridor, it now being watched over by a handful of Sexaroids.
"They're from the same universe as the man who rescued us from our own universe, ma'am," Louise replied. "Given that Ataru-sama ultimately wanted to get away from those people, especially this one..." Her hand waved to the chamber now holding Lum. "Letting them run loose while we're trying to get everything back in order would be a pretty dumb thing to do in the long term."
"Ah," the Girl of Steel acknowledged that with a nod, then she perked on sensing someone come up. "Mary?"
"Hey, Linda," Mary Batson-Bromfield, also known as Mary Marvel, landed beside the blonde Kryptonian, then leaned over to give her a warm kiss on the cheek. "Billy's gone up to the Galactica to meet with Commander Adama and the others."
"Is he right about this dimension?" Linda wondered.
Mary nodded. "I checked it out myself with the Wisdom. I'd say we got a month at the most before we'd have to leave this place."
"What are you talking about, Ms. Bromfield?" Louise asked.
"This dimension you and your friends came to to 'get away from it all,'" the World's Mightiest Girl said. "Thanks to the Cylons and the overuse of that D-hopper device, this dimension is about to literally disintegrate. I say you've got a month to clear out of this place before it collapses. Billy thinks you've got about three weeks at the most, but his experience with the Wisdom isn't as refined as mine."
The blonde Sexaroid considered that for a moment, then she sighed. "We best start moving people back as soon as we can, then."
"It should be easy to do that," Linda mused. "The metaphysical gateways leading from this dimension to all our own would still be open, I think. It shouldn't cause any more problems to use the D-hopper to simply transport us back home."
"Well, that's good," Louise declared with a relieved sigh, then she thumbed the chambers holding the Urusei Yatsura girls. "But I recommend this right away, Ms. Danvers: when we start sending people home, they go first!"
"What about your Ataru?" Mary wondered.
Louise shook her head. "Oh, no! When they go home, Ataru-sama does not go with them. Period!"
Supergirl and Mary Marvel exchanged a knowing look as Louise headed off. "They're in love with him," the latter mused with a chuckle.
"He saved all their lives, Mary," the former replied. "And from what I've heard of that universe, their lives wouldn't be worth anything if they chose to go back to that world and were discovered."
"Poor girls," the red-gold-and-white clad teenager sighed...
"Are you alright, Auntie?"
Saotome Nodoka looked up on hearing that welcome voice, then smiled as Tendou Akane walked up. She and the other women kidnapped from their universe were gathered in a crowd in one of the side corridors of the castle. "Ah, Akane-chan! Have you seen my son...?! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!!" she shrilled on seeing the bruise on the younger woman's face.
Akane moaned as she sat down across from Nodoka. The wound from the buttstock of Moroboshi Ataru's Range Hunter rifle was healing, but given that Akane hadn't as much experience dealing with blows of this nature, her recuperative abilities were nowhere close to Ranma's in that regard. "Someone hit me with his rifle when he came in to help with rescuing everyone," she muttered.
Nodoka stared wide-eyed at her would-be daughter-in-law, then she demanded. "Was my son with you when this happened?"
Hearing that question, a familiar anger began to boil deep in her gut. "He was!" she spat out, then added in a mutter. "And he did nothing to stop it, either."
Silence fell as the Saotome clan matriarch considered that, then a shudder ran through her body. "I see..."
"That's not the whole story, ma'am."
Akane jolted on hearing that familiar voice, then she spun left to see a green-eyed redhead, dressed in the flattering bodysuits the 33-S's living in this castle currently wore, standing nearby. The look on her face told the youngest Tendou that she wasn't the least bit pleased about something. What it could be, she couldn't guess. "I don't understand, Megan-san," Nodoka spoke up. "What do you mean?"
Megan sighed. She had been the one who had released Nodoka and some of the others from Ranma's home universe from their suspension chambers when the general evacuation call had been made. "Ma'am, can I speak to you in private, please?" she asked.
Before Akane could try to say anything to prevent Megan from doing whatever she had in mind concerning Ranma's mother, Nodoka rose. "Of course, Megan-san. Akane-chan, I'll speak to you sometime later."
The Sexaroid offered her arm for Nodoka, then both walked away. Akane watched them go, then perked on feeling a hand fall on her shoulder. Turning, she relaxed on seeing her two best friends, Asano Sayuri and Tokoro Yuka. "Hey!!" she called out.
"Hi, Akane-chan!" Sayuri greeted her classmate, then pointed to Akane's face. "What happened?!"
Akane began to explain...
"So how long do I have to keep these damned needles stuck in my face, Chikage-chan?"
"Ah, Ani-kun, you're awake," Chikage declared with an amused titter as Ataru's eyes fluttered open. "How do you feel?"
"How I normally feel when I lose control like that," he admitted, then glanced left to see the other him, still unconscious on his own diagnostic bed. A peaceful-looking Anri now slept in a chair beside the bed, her head leaning against his shoulder. Taking a deep breath to get some more oxygen into his body, he rolled his head to gaze on the deckhead of the Windrider's nursing station. Another woman then leaned into his field of vision, someone he was quick to recognize. "Ah, Crusher-sensei. Welcome aboard."
"It's a pleasure to be here, Mister Moroboshi," Beverly Crusher replied as she passed a tricorder over him. "And thank you very much for helping rescue everyone from the Cylons. Now, just hold still for a moment..."
She began a detailed scan of his body. "How am I?" Ataru asked, glancing at Chikage.
"Recovering your personal chi stores quite nicely. It seems that whatever the Cyborg unleashed in the Bubblegum Crisis universe didn't take more out of you than was absolutely necessary. Sakuya and Rinrin are meeting with Picard-taisa and the others aboard the Galactica right now. They'll tell Adama-taisa about the humanoid Cylon infiltrators that were meant to help in their attack on the Twelve Colonies. One of them, Sharon Valerii, is now in Rinrin's lab aboard the ship, deactivated and under heavy guard."
"Good," Ataru said. "Given what those bastards were about to unleash in all our home universes, denying them the chance to destroy the Colonies in their own universe as well is the right thing to do."
"News about Baltar-hakase will have to be relayed over to them as well. I think Rinrin will handle that."
"If she doesn't, I will."
"Baltar?" Beverly wondered.
"Gaius Baltar," Ataru explained. "He's a twentysomething genius on Caprica, Adama-taisa's home colony. Won the top scientific prize in the Twelve Colonies three years in a row. Also a pretty arrogant son of a bitch, too, pardon my language. According to the Battlestar Galactica mini-series we know about, he was specifically targetted by the Cylons to gain information about their home defenses. With that, they'd be able to launch an attack on the Colonies sometime in the near future."
"Most likely, the android who was with the other Ani-kun was the one who had targetted Baltar-hakase as well," Chikage added.
"She is," a voice spoke up from nearby.
Everyone looked over to see Anri rise from her chair, she now stretching herself. "Where's that girl now?" Ataru wondered.
"Data's looking her over now on the Enterprise," Beverly reported.
"We better get the word over to them right away," Ataru mused...
"Oh, my God..."
"While I do not believe as you do, Professor, that statement is most apt."
Reed Richards stared briefly at Data, then gazed once more on the padd in his hand. It was now displaying a detailed readout of Miroku's core matrix programming code. Many lines in that code were now highlighted in red, indicative of something that did not ultimately agree with the other intensive streams of data which made the blonde humanoid Cylon what she was. "Agreed," he said before breathing out as the sheer scale of what he and the android Starfleet officer just discovered began to sink in. "We have to inform your superiors about this."
"As well as the Colonial commanders," Data added, then tapped his communicator. "Data to bridge."
"Riker here," the Enterprise's first officer replied.
"Commander, Professor Richards and I have discovered something of vital importance. This information has to be relayed immediately to Captain Picard and the Colonial commanders as well. Is the restriction on the transporter systems still in effect?"
"Is it that important, Data?"
"I believe so, sir," Data replied. "We have just ascertained that the basis of the Cylons' theological beliefs stem from a virus which was placed in the older model units during their war of freedom from the Colonies. By a human scientist."
A pregnant pause followed, then Riker announced, "I'll pass it on to the captain. Head to the transporter room."
"Acknowledged," Data replied...
"Excuse me? Are you one of Moroboshi Ataru's sisters?"
"Yes, I am...! Oh, Hakubi-hakase! Is there something wrong?"
Hearing herself called "Professor Hakubi" by the German-raised, traditionally-minded woman, Washuu winced. She always insisted on EVERYONE calling her "Washuu-chan" back home, but given the serene grace the taller, black-haired woman before her projected...! Oh, well, maybe next time. "Yes, there is," she declared, holding up the D-hopper. "I need a chance to get aboard your ship to compare the technology of this device with what that ship has. I want to see what similarities and differences are there between the Noukiites of your universe and the Noukiites of the universe this thing comes from. And there's a message in this as well, but I need it translated."
"How old's this thing, anyway, Washuu-chan?" Ranma asked.
The crimson-haired, millenia-old scientist beamed on her being addressed as that by the martial artist. "About three centuries old."
Haruka perked. "Three centuries?"
"Is there a significance to that, Haruka-san?" Himoo Yuina asked.
"Yes. In our universe, that was the time that the old Noukiite kingdom was conquered by the Oni empire. They were occupied for a full century, in conditions far worse than we Japanese imposed on the Koreans. If that's so..."
Knowing hums escaped the people around them as...
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(Posted Thu, 04 Mar 2004 04:21)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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