Wild Boot
by David Farr
v 1.1: The Sheriff's a w--*dong*!
Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.
*****
The city of Mainframe was hard pressed to survive. With the loss of the sister city, and the attack of the two viruses, cycles were hard. The Tendos, the last four of the original sprites of Mainframe, tried to keep the city processing. However it was a steep gradient battle and it was quickly realised that help was needed from outside the system.
That help was about to arrive.
*****
Nabiki, Indexer of Mainframe and the Tendo second daughter, was a serious sprite. She always wore a suit that nicely offset her green skin. Every morning she checked to be sure her bitmap was in perfect order and that her Icon was in its usual place on her right arm. She was an important person in Mainframe, her businesses owned most of the property and if she didn't outright run it, she at least had a major part of the sharing rights.
She was holding a meeting with some of her more important clients, so was surprised when a vid window popped up beside her. She had altered her contact status to be unavailable so only two people could contact her and Kasumi wouldn't unless there was an emergency.
The window showed her father, looking far too pleased with himself.
"Yes father?" Nabiki asked through slitted eyes.
"You must come to the Com room immediately, someone is about to arrive that I want you to meet!" their father exclaimed.
Nabiki scowled. "I'm too busy processing here to break procedure and see you father."
"But it is urgent! I have at last found a solution to our problem!"
"Oh, this I must see," Nabiki muttered. She turned to the binomes around the table before her. "I'm sorry gentlenomes, I must leave, this is very important." They grumbled and coughed out their agreement. Nabiki turned back to the vid window. "I'll be there in a nanosecond."
*****
Soun, patriarch of the Tendo clan and Mainframe's , was a tall noble looking sprite. Green skinned like his daughters he habitually wore a gi. He sat at his desk in the Principal Office.
The vid window closed and he immediately accessed another one. It popped into existence before her, but instead of a sprite or binome, the words "access denied, file in use" appeared.
"Where is that girl?" Soun muttered.
His oldest daughter, Kasumi, was downloading a readme file at the filing system. She had a quiet subdued beauty about her. She had spent a lot of time helping her father run the Principal Office, and it had gotten to the point where he was doing very little and she was running the system, with the help of her two sisters. Her icon sat in the centre of her chest.
"Do you mean Akane, father?" Kasumi asked, he voice sweet and soft as always.
"Yes, I can't seem to contact her."
"Oh, she's in a game cube in sector 100101," the girl sprite informed him. "She shouldn't take much longer."
"Well, that explains ... IN A GAME CUBE?!"
*****
The arena was well lit, the audience little more than a filled in blur. In the centre a pair of one binomes, dressed as referees, pushed a massive set of weights into position.
In the announcer's box a zero and a one binome sat staring at the down at the stage.
"Well Jim, the user really stuffed up that one, didn't he?" the one asked in an excited whisper.
"Yes Al, he did. That leaves the game open to the Mainframe team," the zero replied.
A sprite stepped out onto the stage. She was greened skinned, like her sisters and father. The game had outfitted her in a gi, which was fine by her, she'd been wearing one before rebooting in the game. Her Icon hung on a chain around her neck and her black hair was cut into a boyish trim.
"Folks, it looks like Akane, Mainframe's staunchest defender, is stepping up to do the snatch and jerk," Jim whispered excitedly.
"You can feel the tension," Al commented quietly.
"Of course, if Akane can do this then the Mainframe team will win the game," Jim replied quietly.
"Jim, why are we whispering?" Al asked in a whisper.
"I have no idea, Al," Jim replied in an equally quiet voice.
Akane gave the commentator's box an irritated look. How could those two joke at a time like this? She went back to looking at the barbell. The user had failed to hold this weight and if she could then the user would lose, and they wouldn't be nullified.
She stepped forward and dusted her hands off. Squatting down, she grabbed the bar. She paused for a few seconds to take a few deep breaths, and then she jerked the weights up onto her chest. Her face bulged with the effort.
"Oh, that was good, wasn't it Jim?"
"Yes Al, but the User got past this point."
Akane pushed the weight up, holding it above her head. Her face was starting to darken with the effort.
"Now if she can just hold it, she can beat the User, isn't that right Al?"
"That's right Jim."
Akane held the weight above her head. She was not going to fail. She was not. A few nanos passed, then the buzzer sounded and Akane threw the weights crashing to the ground. The crowd and the binomes cheered.
"Game Over," the calm voice of the computer announced.
The purple floor shot past their heads as the game cube retreated back into the sky. Immediately a vid window popped open next to Akane.
*****
The four Tendos were standing in a large room in the Principal Office. A large complex machine involving flashing lights and sparking wires dominated the room. A pair of large electrodes pointed to a space above a disc on the floor.
"YOU DECIDED WHAT?!" Akane screeched.
Soun immediately started weeping. "My daughter's yelling at me," he sobbed.
Kasumi put a comforting arm around him. "She's just upset, daddy. You really should have asked before forming a permanent linkage with this Ranma Saotome for one of us."
Soun immediately stopped weeping. "We made the arrangements many megacycles ago. When Genma contacted me, I saw it as a chance to save our system."
"He's a Guardian, bet he's handsome," Nabiki mused.
"I hope he has a high version, I prefer older men," Kasumi commented.
"Are you two just going to accept this?!" Akane demanded of her sister.
"Its for the good of the system Akane," Kasumi pointed out.
Akane fumed. "But --"
"Incoming com signal. Initiating rt/st handshake," the computer announced with a calm voice and impeccable timing. The lights on the large machine started flickering. The four Tendos immediately turned as power started flickering across the electrodes.
Suddenly the lights dimmed. "War-war-warning, power-er-er s-s-surge detec-tec-tected," the computer announced, its voice warped.
"What the?" Soun cried, cringing back in shock.
"Han-han-handsha-sha-shaking com-complete. Con-con-connection ini-initiated."
Two beams shot from the electrodes to strike the space above the dish. A silver sphere formed, but immediately started twisting out of shape.
"Oh dear," cried Kasumi. "If they attempt to come through while the portal is unstable their data structures will be randomised."
Akane glared at her sister. Somehow the way she said it made it sound so much less lethal than it was.
Soun dashed over to the control panel and started madly pushing buttons. "Nothing I do is working, the portal is becoming more unstable by the nanosecond! Someone do something!"
Akane and Nabiki looked at each other helplessly, it wasn't in their format. Kasumi though knew exactly what to do. Pulling her metal broom out from behind her back she strode purposely towards the machine. She swung the broom back and then with an almighty heave struck the machine.
"Power restored. Initiating download," the computer declared as the lights came back up and the sphere reformed.
Kasumi turned to her family, who were staring at her in open-faced surprise. She shrugged. "It just needed a woman's touch."
"Download initiated," the computer informed them.
The Tendos turned to watch the surface of the sphere rippled. Imagine their surprise when the sprite that emerged from the portal was a panda, carrying another sprite over its shoulder.
"Download complete, closing com link," the computer anounced.
"Daddy, who are they?" Kasumi asked.
The Panda dumped the other sprite to its feet. The sprite was a girl, that much was obvious, about as tall as Akane. Her skin was blue and the hair on her head was a metallic red. She wore a Guardian uniform with her Icon on her right breast.
The strange girl sprite stood, one hand scratching the back on her head. "Hi, ah, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."
"Daddy," Nabiki commented dryly, "he is a she."
*****
After Ranma's surprising arrival, Akane had invited Ranma to a game of Blaster Combat in the game simulation room. Blaster Combat was a fairly simple game, but great for working on game processing timing. The two combatants were given blasters, which they shot at each other until they hit. There were various objects to hide behind and when you played it in the game cube there were various power-ups you could pick up.
Akane was having a surprising hard time trying to hit Ranma. He didn't fire back, but even her best shots fell short as the girl dodged out of the way. She paused in firing for a moment, ducking back into shelter. No sounds came from the other side so Akane leapt out and fired at ... nothing. Ranma had vanished.
"Where did she go?" Akane wondered aloud. Suddenly she felt someone tap something on her head.
Looking up she found Ranma lying atop her shelter, lazily point her gun at Akane. "Zap," she said simply.
Akane glared at Ranma for a few seconds. Then smiled and laughed. "You were lucky," she accused.
Ranma shrugged and jumped down. "You should move more."
Akane looked at her. "I suppose you're right."
*****
Kasumi poked her head into the room in which Ranma was checking through a pack of equipment. The younger sprite looked up as she entered.
"The static shower is free Ranma," Kasumi announced. "You'd better use it before it gets taken over again."
"Ah, haha, right, thanks Kasumi," Ranma replied.
*****
Ranma stopped the shower and stood there thinking. He wondered how the Tendos would process this development. He mulled over his life with his father, the travelling Guardian inspector. He thought about the accident. He thought of old friends long gone.
'Well, I suppose I'd better go and face the MIDI,' he thought, pushing open the shower door, on a rather surprised and naked Akane.
The pair stared at each other for a few seconds. Akane, shaking, turned, reactivated her clothes and stepped out of the bathroom. Ranma watched her go, confused.
Outside Akane stood in front of the door for a few nanoseconds. She then screamed. By the time Nabiki and Kasumi caught up with her she had gone to the armoury and was staggering through the halls of the Principal office carrying a bomb ten times her size.
"Ah, Akane, what's that for?" Nabiki asked, eying the bomb warily.
"The pervert in the shower!" Akane snapped.
"Don't you think that's a little, ah, excessive?" Nabiki inquired.
"That's funny, Ranma was just in the shower," Kasumi murmured to herself.
The clearing of a throat attracted the sisters' attention. They turned to find a male sprite standing in the corridor. He was blue with black hair in the same ponytail style as Ranma. He wore what looked like Ranma's uniform.
"Ah, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."
*****
Soun stood behind his desk. Another old sprite, blue like Ranma only rotund. He also wore a Guardian Uniform. The three Tendo sisters and Ranma stood in a semicircle around them.
"I'll go over this one more time," Soun told them. "This is my old friend Genma Saotome," he indicates the large man, "and his son..."
"Ranma Saotome," Ranma finished.
"But, Ranma was a girl," Nabiki commented.
"Ah yes, how to explain," said Genma squeezing the bridge of his nose. "I know!" He suddenly tosses a small sphere at Ranma. The sphere explodes on impact, releasing jagged lighting at Ranma.
"And now he's a girl," Kasumi stated, for it was so.
"And I can change back if I process some stable energy, like in the static shower or slow food," Ranma added.
"Ah, good, then the linkage can proceed." Soun steps up and slaps Ranma on the back. "Ranma my lad, ah lass, these are my three daughters. Kasumi nineteen megacycles, Nabiki seventeen megacycles, and Akane sixteen megacycles. Pick one and she and you will be linked."
"Oh, he wants Akane," Kasumi immediately announced.
"Yes, Akane's the one for him," Nabiki added.
"Are you totally random?! Why would I want to marry that corrupted sprite!" Akane cried.
"Hey! Its not my fault!" Ranma yelled in response.
"It looks like they're well interfaced already," commented Soun in the background.
"Well who's fault is it then?!" Akane demanded.
"His!" Ranma pointed at his father. All eyes turned towards large Guardian.
Genma blink a few times, pulled out another sphere and which detonated, turning him into a panda. A window popped up above him reading "just a cute cuddly panda." Everyone turned back to Ranma.
"Want to explain this Ranma?" Nabiki asked.
Ranma sighed. "It all happened in a system called Jusenkyo. We were fixing a tear that had gotten lodged in the image archive..."
*****
The white light from the tear cast strange shadows about the large domed room. All the lights had been powered down and most of the windows were dull and lifeless. Genma and Ranma were inspecting a tear sitting in the centre of a clump of windows. Behind them, in the shadows, a pair of sprites could just be seen working at a series of controls.
"We must be very careful boy," Genma advised. "A mistake here could damage the archive."
Ranma rolled his eyes. "I know pop, I have fixed tears before."
Genma growled at him and raised his arm to point at the tear. On his arm is a Guardian key tool. "Patch, fix," he ordered.
The key tool extended its disc, turned it towards the tear, then morphed into a cone. Gold hoops shot out for the key tool to encircle the tear.
Ranma raised his arm before him. "Glitch, scanner," he told his own key tool. The disc expanded to show a number of colour bars. The tear was slowly shrinking when Glitch started beeping. "Pop, you're going to fast."
Genma snorted. "I know what I'm doing boy."
"I'm serious pop." Ranma was frowning at Glitch, who's beeping was getting faster.
"Listen--"
The tear exploded. Windows went flying everywhere. One struck Ranma, knocking him to the ground, a second collided with Genma, two more tumbled past them into the shadows.
Darkness descended on the room. A pair of glowing white eyes got up off the floor. "Pop, are you all right?" asked Ranma's female voice. "Hey, what's wrong with my voice?"
Another pair of eyes raised themselves from the floor. "Grwf?" growled a strange voice.
"Pop is that you?" Ranma asked again.
The lights came up, revealing Ranma, now female, and a large Panda. Ranma looked down herself, then over to the panda, then back herself. She turned away and screamed in shock.
*****
"... and ever since then, when there's a power discharge near us we morph," Ranma finished.
The Tendos all looked scornfully at the "cute cuddly panda".
Ranma grabbed the panda. "Come on Pop, lets go change." He dragged his father from the room.
*****
"Hello, Kasumi?" Ranma stepped into the entry hall of the Principal Office. A few moments later Kasumi swept into view.
"Oh, hello Ranma, nice to see you again. I'm afraid Akane isn't here right now." Kasumi gave him her best smile.
Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Aha, yeah, I, ah, didn't come to see her. Have you seen pop, he said he was visiting your father."
Kasumi frowned. "I haven't seen them in a while. They were near the com room last time I saw them."
"The com room?!" Ranma cried, and took off at a dash.
Ranma skidded to a halt in the com room. Nothing seemed out of place. The control panel, the com port, the PDA sitting on the floor...
"Who left that there?" Kasumi asked, pointing at the PDA lying on the ground in front of the dish. Okay, maybe something was out of place.
Ranma strode over and snatched it up. He tapped the scrolled through the message on its display. As he read his frown deepened to scowl. "That cowardly old fool! If I ever get my hands on him I'll pull him apart bit by bit!" he cried to the heavens.
Kasumi, at the control panel for the portal generator, looked at him in shock. "Ranma, what's processing?"
"Our fathers have run off to the supercomputer, leaving us to look after Mainframe!!"
"Oh, my."
