Realities Warped!
By Jim Robert Bader
(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi and other artists too numerous to mention)
Chapter One.
Rocket Scientists
Continuum #10034527
"Genma?" a lovely voice asked with surprising familiarity, "Saotome Genma?"
"Eh?" Professor of Astrophysics Genma Saotome asked as he turned to see who was addressing him in such a curious tone, only to have his eyes widen beneath his spectacles as he caught the sight of a very tall woman with purple hair done up in a long pigtailed braid. Though she was much older than he remembered he could have little difficulty in placing her face, which was why he turned fully around and said, "Kho-Hom? Is that you?"
"In the flesh," she smiled, "Which I see you've added a bit to since the last time I saw you..."
"Hmph," he replied in ruffled dignity, "It's not the girth of the man that counts, it is the breadth of his accomplishments."
"That I well can believe," the Chinese woman said as she looked him over, "You've done well for yourself over the years...three PhDs, a Nobel Laureate, the Distinguished Service Medal for service to the Republic..."
Genma adjusted his glasses before replying, "And what of you? I'd heard you were given several military decorations for service to the Empire, to say nothing of your own considerable accomplishments in the field of Astrophysics."
"I fear my military days are a thing long in the past," she sighed, "But why the look of confusion at my being here? Surely you must have noticed that my name was on the list of contributing specialists in this joint rocket venture."
"Eh?" Genma consulted the clipboard in his hand and scanned down the list until he saw her name, followed by the prefix "Li," at which point he looked up at her and said, "You're married?"
"Have been for the past eighteen years," she sighed, "He's a good man, you probably would like him. And you? Did you finally settle down with Nodoka?"
"Best decision I ever made in my life," he replied, then mentally cudgeled himself as he looked at her and added, "Um...a natural balance for the...other mistake I made in letting you go..."
"Nice try," she gave him a weary smile, then said, "This must be a very proud day for you. We're about to launch a joint satellite that is one of your major accomplishments."
"Actually, I just supervised the project," Genma said modestly, "It's my son, Ranma, who had engineered one of the tests which we will be running once it reaches orbit."
"Ranma eh?" Comb mused, "Well, that is an interesting coincidence, isn't it?"
"Eh?" he asked, "What do you mean?"
"My own daughter, Xian-Pu, will be conducting an experiment that she helped to devise regarding gravitonic variables in the upper atmosphere," Comb replied, "I'm quite proud of her...she's quite the prot g , just like your Ranma."
"You don't say?" Genma mused, "Hmm...I wonder if the Boy has any idea that he's in for some major competition..."
"You haven't told him about me, have you?" Comb asked softly.
"Ah...no," Genma admitted, "I...felt it best to leave certain aspects of the past...to the past. I mean...I have no regrets about those days, but..."
"You're probably right," Comb agreed, "Still...I can't help wondering if those two might strike sparks if they could meet...like mother and father, like offspring."
"Ah," Genma said reluctantly, "I don't mean to be rude about it...but the Boy already has a fianc e..."
"So?" Comb replied, "They're still young, let them live a little, and besides...he can't be much older than my Xian-Pu, which puts him at seventeen or sixteen years of age..."
"Sixteen," Genma replied, silently thinking to himself that his son and heir might do well to watch his steps if there were an Amazon loose in the building who was even half the spitfire that had been her mother...
"You there...what are you doing?"
"Huh?" Ranma looked up from his computer console and saw a strange looking girl looming over him, one who seemed to be close to his own age but had a mane of long, absurdly lavender hair stretching down almost to the small of her spine, done up in a curiously Chinese type of odango hairset.
"I was asking you a question," the girl asked patiently, "Are you deaf?"
Ranma bristled a bit at the rude comment, "No, I'm not deaf, and you're not supposed to be here. The tour groups aren't allowed on this level..."
"I'm not here with any tour group," she said in a frosty tone, "I'm one of the project advisors. My name is Li Xian Pu."
"Saotome Ranma," he automatically responded, looking the girl up and down and noticing at once that was unusually beautiful in an exotic kind of way. He did not, however, take her serious at her word as he scornfully responded, "Aren't you a little young to be a project advisor?"
"Look who is talking," the girl shot back with a cute kind of scowl on her lovely features.
It was Ranma's turn to scowl, "If you must know, I'm supervising a project in Warp Anomalies Curve Vectors..."
"Oh," she said, "Then you're the one who mixed up the valances and got the Lanier equations all wrong..."
"What?" Ranma turned a really annoyed look her way.
"I read your paper," the annoying girl replied, "You made several miscalculations in your formulas, and your proposal sounds more like something out of science fiction. You want to measure warp curving effect by studying how the light bends around the sun at certain refraction angles but you fail to take into account the distortion of the lunar field when calibrating your instruments. That could affect the readings in a number of ways and spoil the results of your experiment, in which case you'll have accomplished a fat lot of nothing."
"And what are you?" Ranma asked, "A rocket scientist?"
"As a matter of fact I am," she countered, "And what are you, the Mascot?"
Ranma frowned in annoyance then said, "You think I made a mistake? Show me."
"All right," she smiled, arising to the challenge, "If you square the P-r and raise the dimension constant by a factor of one-point-eight-seven, carried to at least seven decimals..."
"Then you'd have a formula that came out heavier on one end, and that would totally affect the results of the warp curve structure," Ranma blinked, "I never thought of that...I don't believe it!"
"And that is why you failed in all your ground-based experiments," Shampoo smiled triumphantly, "But there's still time for you to input new calculations, if you don't mind taking advice from a mere woman."
Ranma's annoyance level increased geometrically, but still he managed to say, "Despite whatever impressions you may have formed about me in the last ten seconds, I am not stupid. I'll recalculate the formula and re-input the equations, but don't take it personal if I double-check and...what are you smiling about?"
"I was just noticing something about you," Xian Pu mused, "When you wrinkle your nose and frown like that you get the cutest dimples..." her expression fell, "Um...did I just say that aloud?"
"Huh?" Ranma looked at her in open confusion, then without knowing quite why he started to color.
"Anyway," the purple haired girl smiled in a more relaxed sense and said, "It is very good to meet you, Saotome Ranma-san. Let us hope that we can work together on this project and resolve any differences that may result from our different approaches to doing research."
"Ah...likewise," Ranma replied, studying the Chinese girl before him carefully before saying, "Er...your name in Mandarin means Mountain Girl, right?"
"Yes," Shampoo had that impious look in her eyes again as she replied in kind with, "Do you want to know what Saotome sounds like in Chinese?"
"Ah...no thanks," Ranma colored, having a VERY good idea of what she was implying, "It was just...your name sounds a little like a Japanese word for Coral...which, I think, is kind of nice..."
It was Xian-Pu's turn to look surprised, but she recovered swiftly enough to come back with a lilting, "Well, you are a charmer, but first impressions can seldom be trusted. What saw we begin this all over. I am here as an assistant to my mother, Kho-Hom, who is here as a Project Coordinator, and my matrilineal great grandmother is one of the faculty board members overseeing the program's funding, while your father is the director in charge of operations, so...I guess that means that we're going to be working together."
"I guess..." Ranma reluctantly conceded.
Xian-Pu eyed the boy quixotically before remarking, "You don't sound very thrilled about it."
"It's not that," Ranma said rather dubiously, "It's just...well, understand something, you're a very pretty girl, and it's obvious that you're smart enough to be here and all that, but..."
"And that's a problem?" Xian-Pu marveled.
"It is for me," Ranma replied, "Not that there's anything wrong with you showing up here and all, but...well...your timing right now is really awkward and..."
"RAN-MA!" a harsh voice barked in their direction, causing the boy so-named to flinch instinctively, his face assuming a nonplussed expression as he glanced over his shoulder to see the one who was hailing him so rudely.
Xian-Pu followed the boy's gaze and saw a trio of Japanese girls heading in their general direction, one of them-the shortest and most unhappy looking of her group-bearing down on Ranma with a vengeful look of affront in her eyes, her attitude and general manner at once unpleasant.
"I thought I'd catch you slinking off to do something behind my back!" she declared angrily, "And who is this? Another pen-pal for your collection?"
"It's not like that at all, Akane," Ranma said in a tired, annoyed tone of voice, "Xian-Pu and I just met and..."
"Shampoo?" Akane glared at the Amazon in an overtly challenging manner, "You're named for a hair care product?"
"No," Xian-Pu glared at the pugnacious girl with immediate disliking, "I am named for a great warrior of my people who lived long ago in legendary days before the founding of the current Empire. And what are you named for, 'Scarlet?' That red haze in front of your eyes?"
"Why you-!" Akane started to move forward when one of the other two girls said, "Akane-chan, behave yourself. This is not a place for such rude behavior."
At once the dark haired girl flinched and stared at the taller of her two companions, "But Kasumi..."
"Not another word," the older girl said sternly, "You apologize now to Ranma's friend and we will try to pretend the incident never happened."
"Friend?" Akane glared back at the purple haired girl, but then forced herself to say with as much contriteness as she could stomach, "I am sorry for calling you a hair care product."
"That's all right," Xian-Pu replied, "I know you meant it."
"Hey, Ranma-kun," the middle of the three girls said sidelong, "Who is she, really? Another of your secret admirers?"
"Very funny, Nabiki," Ranma sniffed, "I only just met right now. Li Xian-Pu, these are the Tendo sisters, Kasumi, Nabiki and...you've already said hi to Akane."
"Misty, Fluttering and...Scarlet?" Xian-Pu asked with a puzzled expression, "You are named for cloud formations?"
"It's something of a tradition for the women in our family," Kasumi replied with a gentle smile, "I thought I recognized you from an article I read in the Times. You're the daughter of Li Kho-Hom, the Chinese delegate to the Advisory board and a project coordinator. You also published a very remarkable article upon Quantum State Flux that I found quite...enlightening."
"You read that?" Xian-Pu replied, "I am impressed."
"Kasumi here's a voracious reader of technical things," Nabiki explained, "Me, I'm more of a mechanic at heart. I like doing things with my hands, something of a side-profession..."
"Don't let her kid you," Ranma warned, "Nabiki here studies law at the Technical university of Kyoto. Tinkering is just a hobby for her, but if she really wants to frisk you she'll hit you with legal rigmarole that you've never even heard of, laws so obscure that many in the Empire don't even remember that they exist, and if you want to keep the patent rights for an invention, then she's the one to talk to."
"Thanks for the free advertisement, Ranma-kun," Nabiki smiled, "But I usually do my own promotions."
"So," Xian-Pu turned to the shorter sister and said, "What's your specialty in? Are you also here on a technical degree?"
"Hardly," Akane snorted, "You nerds may look down your snooty noses at people who actually have to work for a living, but at least some of us earn our way through sweat, hard work and labor..."
"Akane's a Pro-Tennis star," Nabiki clarified, "Near the top of her field...I'm surprised you've never heard of her, she's famous."
"I don't pay much attention to sports," Xian-Pu replied, "When I want to work out I practice the traditional Wushu, of my people, but other than that..."
"You study martial arts?" Akane gained a curious look of speculation.
"It's the way of the Amazons," Xian-Pu frowned, "Why?"
"I study Kempo Karate myself," Akane smiled unpleasantly, "Care to have a match?"
Xian-Pu cocked an eyebrow at that and considered how to respond to this obvious challenge when Ranma spoke up again and said, "That may not be too good an idea, and anyway, like Kasumi said, this is hardly the time or the place for any roughhousing. Besides, there's no sense in anyone getting hurt over..."
"I accept," Xian-Pu at once replied, "Name the time and place and we'll have a...friendly match together, just you and I. Is that acceptable to you?"
"I'll be counting the hours," Akane's grin took on a nasty quality, and she rather ominously smacked fist-to-palm with gleeful anticipation.
Ranma was not so sanguine over this, "Um...would you excuse us for a moment, girls. I need to explain something to Xian-Pu here...okay with you, Akane?"
"Just no funny stuff," Akane glared back, "And stay where I can see the both of you at all times."
"Who died and made you the Empress?" Xian-Pu murmured under her breath as she allowed herself to be led away a short distance, just out of earshot of the three sisters, where Ranma paused and turned back to look at her with an obviously worried expression.
"Are you out of your mind?" he demanded, "Akane holds a Third Dan in Kempo, and she knows a lot of other systems I can barely even pronounce. She also likes to hurt people who get on her bad side, so unless you're looking for a world of pain I'd find a way of declining right now to save face for later...and by save face, I mean saving your face before you're black and blue all over."
"My, how gallant of you to be so concerned for my welfare," Xian-Pu replied before voicing her own immediate concern, "And what is with you and that other girl anyway? You act as though she owns you..."
"In a way she does," Ranma sighed, "She's my iinazuke...fianc e..."
Xian-Pu's lavender colored eyebrows rose beneath her front bangs, "She's you're what? You mean...you and that...Jock?"
"Not so loud," Ranma urged, "And it isn't like it's my idea or anything of that sort. It's an arranged engagement, set up by our two fathers when we were both too little to talk. My father promised that I would marry a girl from the house of Tendo and her father decided it would be Akane instead of his other sisters..."
"Why her?" Xian-Pu scowled, "If you can excuse me for saying this, but the two of you don't exactly seem like a harmonious match. At least the other two girls appear to have some brains..."
"Oh, Kasumi and Nabiki are both geniuses in their respective fields," Ranma sighed, "But they've both been pledged to other men from the time when they were little. Kasumi's engaged to marry a doctor while Nabiki's engaged to some French nobleman named Picardin. I get along with them well enough, but there's no sense working my hopes up about getting the engagement transferred. Problem is...Akane hates my guts and wants out of the engagement as much as I do, but she's worried about the sort of scandal it might cause, so she's always looking for an excuse to accuse me of infidelity. Not that I do anything to give her an excuse, but if I so much as talk to a pretty girl..."
"And you think I'm pretty?" Xian-Pu asked.
The boy seemed to mentally shift gears with all the rapidity of a drunk on a wet road, "Uh...excuse me?"
"Just tell me something," Xian-Pu smiled, "So you want out on your engagement?"
"Well...if I could do so honorably, sure," Ranma shrugged, "Who wants to marry a girl who can't stand to look at you, and who resents me because I like science and she doesn't?"
"Then leave it all to me," Xian-Pu looked at him serenely, "I thought it might be destiny when I saw you standing here looking out of sorts. Now I understand what the Powers that Be had in mind for me all along."
With that the purple haired girl turned and walked back to where Akane was glaring daggers at them both, then she and the dark haired girl fell into low-
voiced conversation that Ranma could not overhear and thus was unable to fathom, save that Akane gave him a puzzled look before turning to the other girl and extending her hand in an almost friendly shake that had both girls grinning like stray bobcats about to fight over a piece of meat.
"Huh?" Ranma blinked his eyes then shook his head, "I'll never understand women..."
"Does that include me, Doc?"
Ranma turned around and said, "Ucchan? What are you doing slinking around like that? You could give a guy a heart attack..."
"Oh, poor boy," said the rather attractive girl in greasy coveralls, "I was just coming to tell you that I've finished running the tests that you asked about...and what's with the new girl? You working to make Akane jealous enough to put you into a coma?"
"Heh...well...to tell the truth," Ranma said as he reflexively ran a hand across the ponytail in the back of his head, "I only just met her...she says her name is Li Xian-Pu..."
"Li Xian-Pu?" Ukyo gawked, "Are you serious, Doc? She's the daughter of the Chinese Project Advisor? But she's brilliant, said to be a genius, almost as smart as you..."
"Heh, right," Ranma said as he saw the purple haired Chinese girl walking back his way, the red eyes of Xian-Pu immediately sizing Ukyo up as if wondering if she were another potential challenge, a thought which prompted Ranma to hastily say, "Xian-Pu...I'd like you to meet my adopted sister, Kuonji Ukyo ne Saotome. Ukyo, this is Xian-Pu..."
"Ah yes," Xian-Pu remarked as though only just placing a name to the face of the brown haired girl before her, "The Electrical Wizard. I remember your name coming up at a briefing. You handle systems analysis, quite a remarkable accomplishment at your age."
"Hey, I'm flattered, Sugar," Ukyo chuckled in a friendly, off-handed manner, "But Doc here does most of the real brain work. I just make sure everything's connected according to his instructions, just like Monk makes sure the fuel mix is up to standards..."
"Monk?" Xian-Pu once more lifted an eyebrow.
"She means our half-brother, Ryoga," Ranma sighed, "He's the Chemical wizard in the family, I'm just the overall technical wiz kid who's dad talked the science board into taking on with the rest of my team. Ukyo, Ryoga and I have been designing and building stuff for as long as we're known each other, so the Quantum Flux program is kind of like our baby. Heck, even Nabiki's hand her hand on helping to build the thing that they're shooting into orbit so we can measure the Time Dilation Field of the Earth's Polar Gravity Well. If everything goes off according to plan we should be reading the data from two hundred seventy kilometers orbit in a matter of hours."
"Be a big day for all of us at Team Ranma," Ukyo grinned, "And Ham and me are going to go out and celebrate with Monk and Moosey after it's all over...how about joining us and making it a party?"
"Um...thank you...I would be honored," Xian-Pu looked in confusion at the other girl and said, "Would you mind telling me why you are in the habit of giving nick-names to both of your brothers and your friends?"
"Well, why not?" Ukyo grinned, "It's only fair to me since Monk and Moosey tease me right back. They call me Long Wire, can you believe that? 'Guess it's because I don't have a short fuse like Miss Gorilla over there..."
"Don't call her that, Sis," Ranma said tiredly before leaning over to Xian-Pu and saying, "You'll have to forgive Ukyo, she's from Kansai. They talk a little different in that prefecture..."
"I see," Xian-Pu looked from the boy to the electrician and said, "So why does she call you Doc?"
"Because Ranma here got his first Ph.D. by the time he turned fourteen," Ukyo replied, "So ever since I've been calling him Doc, short for Doctor Saotome Ranma, Professor of Applied Theoretical Physics and all around Bronze Wonder-Kid from the humble province of Nerima," she finished the last part with a playful punch to her step-brother's shoulder.
"And those other names?" Xian-Pu asked.
"Well, Ryoga's a bit shy and reclusive, if you know what I mean," Ranma shrugged, "Kind of lives like a hermit, even studied for a while at this temple that taught him to manage a...um...little problem he had with directions. He's great with test tubes and explosives, but a little...um...reserved around women, if you know what I'm saying?"
"So I call him Monk," Ukyo smiled, "While with Ham..."
"I've asked you nicely to stop calling me that," said Nabiki as she came up to join their group, "And one of these days I'm going to take you to civil court, Saotome, and force you to withdraw that ridiculously inappropriate nickname."
"Whatever you say, Ham," Ukyo said without the least hint of shame in her voice, "Ah...and speak of the Oni himself, here comes Monk now, along with Moosey."
"Moosey?" Xian-Pu started to turn around as a pair of boys were headed their way, only to pause with a startled expression and a faintly hissed, "I do not believe this...!"
The one boy with the shy expression looked remarkably a lot like Ranma himself save for the manner in which he was dressed wearing a heavily stained lab coat, and in one hand he was carrying a small black piglet that rested comfortably in the crook of his arm as though in the manner of a stray pet, a thought that made Xian-Pu pine briefly for her own pet cat left home in China. But as pleasant looking as this boy was, she almost immediately dismissed him from her mind at the sight of the other, taller boy walking beside him. This worthy wore a thick pair of glasses and was wearing a long Chinese-style robe that allowed him to walk with his arms folded together. As quick as she was to identify this individual, the boy in question did not even seem to notice her until he was nearly on top of her, at which point he halted in his tracks and did a sudden double-talk, exuding surprise as he said, "Xian-Pu? Is that you?"
"Mu-Tsu," Xian-Pu said coldly, "What are you doing here?"
"Huh?" Ranma glanced from the Amazon to the tall boy, "You two know each other?"
"Um...kind of..." Mu-Tsu wilted, "Xian-Pu and I are from the same village in rural China..."
"Whoah," Nabiki remarked, "Talk about coincidences..."
"I asked what you are doing here, Mu-Tsu," Xian-Pu sternly demanded, "Must I repeat myself again?"
"Um...no..." the tall boy's shoulders slumped and he refused to raise his eyes to meet the glare of the purple haired girl, instead remarking, "I didn't know you would be here, honest, I swear it! I'm here with my friends from Japan..."
"Friends?" Xian-Pu raised an eyebrow, giving Ranma a studied look before asking, "You are friends with...that?"
"Ah...well, yeah," Ranma said, "Is there a problem with that?"
"Moosey came to our little corner of Japan a few years ago and got involved in our little gang of five," Ukyo said with just a hint of defensiveness in her tone, "He's been a good friend to all of us, Sugar, so don't taking no attitude with our resident Archeologist..."
"Archeologist?" Xian-Pu cocked the other eyebrow.
"Ah...yes...I'm studying Archeology at Kyoto University," Mu-Tsu replied, "I've got a job with the Department of Antiquities...I help to find and locate rare and unusual artifacts at archeological digs..."
Xian-Pu turned and looked at the others present, "And none of you have questioned why this one was kicked out of our village and forced to live as an exile?"
"Er...no," Ranma replied, "We never did."
"Why?" Nabiki asked, "Was it something awful?"
"Only if you consider attempted rape something awful," Xian-Pu glared at the tall boy once again, having the satisfaction of seeing the shock and horror reflected in the expressions of the others present.
"Attempted Rape?" Kasumi blinked, "Oh my..."
"I...wasn't guilty of attempting to rape anybody, honest," Mu-Tsu replied, "It was all a mistake..."
"A mistake," Xian-Pu sniffed, "Not likely."
"You've got it all wrong," Mu-Tsu shook his head and all but pleaded to the purple haired girl, "I was framed, falsely accused of attempted rape by that pink-haired witch, Pur-Fum. It was all a plot to drive me away from you and the other people of our village, Xian-Pu, honest!"
"Then why did the Council order you to leave our village?" Xian-Pu demanded.
"Don't you mean why did they let me live?" Mu-Tsu countered, "You know what the laws among the Amazons are concerning even attempted Rape, Xian-Pu. Why do you think that I was allowed to walk out of there with my genitals still attached? It was because the Council found me INNOCENT, but they did not want to risk a scandal by pointing the finger of blame at the real guilty party. It's Pur-Fum who disgraced herself, she's the one who should have been penalized, but her family is too powerful and the Council feared triggering a clan feud if they made it an issue..."
"Are you telling me you accepted voluntary exile over staying and possibly triggering a clan feud?" Xian-Pu asked with a frown, "And you accepted?"
"Yes," Mu-Tsu sighed, "What else was I to do? Your family stood to lose as much as mine, and even in these days where clan feuds are rare and all but forgotten, there are several who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of the ensuing tension to settle a few old scores, and then Joketsuzoku would resemble some Balkan village in central Europe, and how long after that do you think it would take the Empire to come down on all of us? Believe me, Pur-Fum was the real villain all along, but rather than expose her I had to do the right thing for the good of all our people."
Xian-Pu's expression softened as she asked, "Why did you never tell me this before?"
"Would you have believed me over the word of your best friend?" he said the latter part with a special twist of bitterness, then saw how Xian-Pu winced accordingly and nodded, "So...she betrayed you too, eh? And after she professed to care about you...right?"
Xian-Pu did not immediately answer, but as she glanced away it was plain from her expression that she was silently conceding the point, only shame and pride preventing her from saying so outright.
Mu-Tsu nodded at this and said sadly, "So now you know the truth...about why the Council did what they did...what they had to do, and why I had to find another place to live where I would not be judged by my past behavior."
"Whoah," Ranma said with raised eyebrows, "Mousse...we never even suspected..."
"No, my friend," Mu-Tsu said sadly, "Nor was there any reason for you to suspect, which is how I wanted it. I would rather be judged by my actions in the present rather than be condemned for past mistakes that tarnished my name in my own homeland."
"Moosey, old Buddy," Ukyo grinned, "You are such a romantic...for a Jackass, I mean."
"Well then," Nabiki noted, "If we have all of that cleared up now, then maybe we should all make our way to the launch area so we can see the results of our labor get hurled into orbit."
"Very good thinking, Little Sister," Kasumi agreed, "They have already begun the final countdown, and in another forty minutes your big project will begin, Ranma-kun, and then you'll be famous."
"Hey, it's not like I did this all by myself, you know," Ranma responded, "You guys did as much work, you deserve most of the credit."
"Hey, it's a team effort, Doc," Ukyo assured her adopted brother, "What works for you works for all of us, so if you're famous than we get recognition just from basking in your glory."
"Glory," Akane sniffed, "At best you'll be on page six or seven of the Nerima Times, right after the Prime Minister's big speech to the Senate, or the Emperor's latest visit to dedicate one of the Shogun's temples..."
"It's not that bad, Akane-kun," the shy boy named Ryoga finally spoke up, not daring even to look at the girl so named as though the very sight of her unnerved him, "The Empire stands to profit from this enormously, and with a new revolutionary means of measuring Quantum energy..."
"I wasn't saying that it's not important, Ryoga-kun," Akane said almost defensively, also avoiding looking at the boy so named, "It's just...OOOOH...you eggheads drive me so crazy sometimes. Can't you just behave for once like normal people?"
She turned and stormed back off down the corridor, leaving Xian-Pu to remark, "And that's the girl you intend to marry?"
"Hey, she's not like that all of the time," Ranma shrugged, "But...well...like Dad says sometimes, we don't marry for love, we marry for tradition."
"Don't get me wrong, Ranma-kun," Nabiki replied, "But sometimes tradition can take a hike. I mean...have you seen the mouth on my fianc e? I once saw the pig swallow a melon whole! What girl wants to marry a guy with a mouth that can do that?"
"Oh, I wouldn't complain too much if I were you, Nabiki," Kasumi said with a look of mischief, "That tongue of his is pretty long and flexible, after all, and if applied in just the right way..."
"Kasumi!" Nabiki reacted with a wince, followed by some serious blushing.
Xian-Pu looked at one face after another in this odd group of child savants, feeling at once a strange kinship to their combined level of evident genius and at once started to feel as though she might actually fit in, a very odd sensation to be certain. On some level she was already starting to warm up to the charming smile of the one named Ukyo, the sultry Nabiki and the serenely mischievous Kasumi, while Ryoga was a bit of an enigma, and Ranma himself...
Of course there was also Mu-Tsu, and in light of the startling revelation that he had just unveiled she was going to have to have a serious conversation with her tribal Matriarch and great-grandmother. If what he said was true...then she was going to have to rethink a great deal that she had formerly been taking for granted...
All at once she heard her name being called and turned her attention towards the public address system, surprised to find that both she and Ranma were being addressed, "Would Li Xian Pu and Saotome Ranma please report to the main control room. Li Xian Pu and Saotome Ranma, please report at once to the central control room. Your presence is urgently requested by the Program Director."
"Huh?" Ranma glanced up, "What does dad want now?"
"I dunno, Doc," Ukyo shrugged, "But at this late stage of events, it's probably important."
"We should all go then," Ryoga spoke up, "There might be a problem that they detected.
"Indeed, Ryoga-kun," Kasumi turned and said, "Let's all go together, just in case Ranma-kun needs our technical support. At the very least we should not miss the actual launch itself, unless they are forced to cancel things at this late stage of events."
"What a pity that would be," Mu-Tsu remarked, "And it would take another week to find a better launch window."
"That's not going to happen," Ranma frowned, already moving down the hallway, "Come on, guys, let's do our jobs."
Shampoo only blinked once before following after these individuals, impressed to see that they fanned out behind Ranma's leadership automatically, as though such a thing were second nature. Even the shy Ryoga moved with surprising confidence to flank his brother's right side, Ukyo taking position at his left elbow, while Nabiki, Mu-Tsu and Kasumi formed a natural wedge behind the swift moving Ranma. As Shampoo took a point slightly off to one side she had a good view of the handsome boy's backside, and the more she studied his movements the more impressed she was by his natural grace and general air of charisma. Without needing to be informed of the fact she at once recognized that he had martial arts training and was good enough to hold his own even up to Amazon standards. She would definitely need to test him out later to determine his true capabilities...after she won a certain bet with a certain other girl and earned herself the right to spend more time in this Wonder Boy's immediate presence...
Mid-way to the main control booth, the group was met by an impulsively kawaii redhead whose resemblance to Ranma could not be mistaken. Xian-Pu was about to ask about this when the younger girl said, "Hey, Big Bro! What's going on in there? Pop and some really strange Chinese lady...um...hello?" she blinked as she caught sight of Xian-Pu as if doing a double-take.
"Not now, Squirt!" Ranma said hastily, hurrying on past the cute redhead, who automatically fell in with their group and started to follow, the others accepting her presence without remark, much to Xian-Pu's growing interest.
"Mind your brother, Sport," Ukyo softly chided her adopted kid sister, giving Xian-Pu a nod before making hasty introductions, "Saotome Ranko, Shampoo...Shampoo, Saotome Ranko."
"That's Xian-Pu," the Amazon automatically corrected, wondering if this were going to become a regular habit for her since these Japanese seemed to keep mixing her name up with their word for coral.
"Cool," the spunky pigtailed girl remarked, then added the inevitable, "Is that color for real?" that Xian-Pu was also now growing to both expect and loath with equal fervor.
The group arrived at the main control center, but-to their surprise-only Ranma and Xian-Pu were admitted beyond the observation chamber to the main control station. There they encountered their respective parents, Professors Genma and Kho-Hom, who turned mutually surprised looks in the direction of their children before exchanging another quixotic look with each other, and only then did Genma clear his throat with a polite cough and address himself to his son and heir.
"Ranma," he began, "There's been a problem at the launch tower. I don't know what to make of this, but...would you come here and see for yourself?"
"Huh?" Ranma asked as he walked up beside his father and noticed the monitor so indicated, "What is it, Dad? All I see is-KAMI!"
"What?" Xian-Pu looked up in surprise at the boy's astonished expression.
"I don't believe this!" Ranma exclaimed, waving to her frantically, "Come here, you gotta see this, Xian-Pu! There two guys...I mean...a girl and a guy...they're climbing along the tower!"
"What?" Xian-Pu came to stand beside the curious boy then turned and looked at what was making him behave so oddly. Almost at once her eyes widened like saucers and she gave a startled oath, mentioning her ancestors in terms that brought a frown from her mother, who nonetheless looked tolerantly in her direction.
"Who are those two?" Ranma pointed at the monitor screen, "They look like..."
"Like us," Xian-Pu agreed, "But that's insane! Impossible! We've been inside the building the whole time..."
"We know," Genma replied, "We tracked you down in the hallway where you were discussing matters with the others, but as near as we can tell these two intruders just look a good deal like the both of you. No doubt those looks allowed them to bypass certain security channels, but considering that they are climbing around a seventeen story, multi-billion yen launch tower and are attempting to make their way into the shuttle that's awaiting final launch clearance, we thought you ought to be notified."
"We have teams of security people attempting to get to them," Comb remarked, "But as none of them can climb the superstructure of a tower as though they were pair of monkeys..."
"We've got to get out there," Ranma said urgently, "We can't let them wreck our experiments at this time of the evening..."
"Especially with our life's work of Nobel prize winning research about to go up in very expensive smoke," Xian-Pu immediately agreed, wondering why she felt the urge to give those strange interlopers a good, hard spanking.
"It's too dangerous for you both to risk yourselves at this late stage of the game," Genma said sadly, "Better to wait and let the experts...WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"
"Sorry, Dad," Ranma said as he raced Xian-Pu back out the door, "But we all worked so hard on this, we can't let it get scrubbed by a pair of interlopers...!"
"That boy..." Genma swore then touched his collar mike, "Security...!"
A gentle hand on his wrist caused him to turn in surprise at Comb, who smiled gently and said, "Let them do what comes naturally to them. After all, they deserve the same chance that we had when we were their age."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Genma asked with a worried expression, turning to see his sons and adopted daughter were joining up with the rest of their group and heading en mass towards the nearest expert, "They might prove to be a little too much like us."
"That is the risk to be taken," Com nodded sadly, "But I think they could well be the only hope this project has if those saboteurs are not stopped quickly."
To that Genma could only nod in tacit agreement, thinking to himself that the boy had too much of his mother in him, which was not necessarily a good thing, especially in light of how much that Xian-Pu reminded him of her mother...
"Keep going, little brother!"
"I'm going already!" the purple haired boy called back, "Come on, Sis, you know I'm as committed to stopping this thing as you are, at least before you-know-
what is allowed to happen."
"Well, you already made a royal cock-up by triggering that alarm device and alerting everyone to our presence within this timeline," the dark haired girl said to her (slightly) younger twin brother, "The last thing we need at this stage is to get caught by security and then be forced to tell them why we came back in the past to avert a future-time disaster."
"Oh sure, I can just see it now," her brother remarked with a rolling of his eyes towards the heavens, "We'll just say that we're here in the past, before either of us was even born, come to prevent our parents from cocking up the world with one of their very first experiments. Oh yes, that should land us a dandy spot in adjoining padded cells at the booby hatch, thank you very much..."
"Well, one thing's for sure," the girl sniffed, "You sure inherited Mom's gift for sarcasm. Of course with the luck we've been having on this project so far we might very well run into our parents, or-failing that-some of our aunts and uncles from the Fantastic Five. Yessiree, Doc Saotome, Man of Bronze, finds out about the project he set into motion and what effect it will have on the Earth's Bipolar field over the course of the next two decades that it's in operation. Sure put our family name in the history books..."
"To say nothing of what it did to history," her brother agreed, "Still and all, if we manage to input a few changes in the mass calculations, correct the problem that Mom inputted, then adjust for the time vector constant..."
"At least in theory anyway," his sister reminded.
"Right, in theory," her brother agreed, "Using the Quantum Relay Flux Coil and reversing the polarity of the internal magnet should create a slingshot effect that will not only fix this timeline but catapult us back into our own time, which will then readjust itself according to the changes we've calculated, and then it will be as though none of this has ever happened. The timeline we know will be voided, the one we create will become the new timeline, and we'll phase back into reality with our parents and the world none the wiser for the crisis that was avoided."
"Assuming this doesn't backfire horribly and unwind all of reality as we know it," his sister reminded.
"Well, yes, there is that," the boy admitted as he and his twin managed to at last reach the side of the shuttle, at which point he set to work placing a device along the side and then imputing commands on a key-pad.
"Time?" his sister asked as she attached a similar device to the tower and started inputting on a different keypad, her fingers flying at a speed that was quite dazzling to behold, though easily matched by the flying fingers of her brother..
"Estimated at two minutes, thirty-seven seconds," the boy replied, "Piece of Tofu, Sis, the kind you eat, not marry."
"Very funny," his sister replied, risking a glance over her shoulder, "Uh oh...better hurry. Those security people must think we're planting bombs. I think they're calling in the sharp shooters."
"Damned nuisance if they do start shooting," the boy sniffed, "I tell you, Sis, the one thing I won't miss about this timeline is the insecurity of the military forces. The Empire in these days was pretty much dominant over a third of the known world, and still they operated as though they were under constant siege by hostile powers, and this long before the Oni ever showed up on our doorstep."
"Stop thinking about your girlfriend and concentrate on doing your job," his sister replied, "We have less than a minute twenty-three seconds to save the world, and even for Dad and Mom that would be cutting it a bit too close and..."
"STOP!" a voice cried out imperiously, "Back away from the shuttle now or else!"
Both twins momentarily halted in their motions, turning to see the group assembled on the platform just short of where they were clinging like spiders to the side of the spacecraft, then the boy remarked, "I don't believe it...Dad?"
"Mom?" the girl said with an equally surprised expression, not having been prepared to find herself confronted by someone approximately her own age.
"Holy Moley," remarked Ukyo as she glanced from the pair of oddly dressed teenagers to her own brother and back again, "Doc?"
"I see it," Mu-Tsu averred, "But I don't believe it..."
"Oh my," Kasumi said in a puzzled tone of voice, "Ranma-kun...it's you!"
"Or somebody who looks a lot like him with purple hair," Nabiki averred before glancing sidelong at the purple haired girl standing beside her nominal "brother-in-law," to which she donned a speculative expression.
"Ranma...?" Ryoga gasped.
"Yeah, I know," Ranma said, "And I don't believe it either..."
"Well, that makes three of us," the purple haired boy remarked, "But how did you get up here so fast?"
"We used the elevator," Xian-Pu rather tonelessly responded.
"But we jammed the elevator to prevent this!" the black haired girl protested.
"Yeah, we know, Sugar," Ukyo replied, "Took Ham and me all of a minute to unjam it."
"I said not to call me...oh hell..." Nabiki shrugged in tacit resignation.
"Dad," the boy called out, "You have to let us finish this. It's very important that we input the right equations."
"Your formula was brilliant, Mother," the girl called down, "Just a little flaw you failed to take into account about the mass constant of the orbital vector."
"What?" Xian-Pu blinked, "What are you talking about...?"
"The new formulas that you talked Dad into imputing into the guidance relays of the satellite you are about to send up," the boy replied, "It worked a little too well and brought your device in direct line with the quantum polar shift of the planet. When the Warp curvature experiment begins it will synchronize with the Earth's Temporal field and create a tiny but significant anomaly whose effect will not be noticed for some time leading into the future. Ten years from now the results will become measurable, and then the effect will create a precession that will cause a Timefield Wake that will disrupt the normal flow of energies over the entire planet. In twenty years, about our time, the effect will cause an irreversible cascade that will literally rip the timefield apart, which is why we came back in time to prevent this..."
"Wait, wait! Slow down there a minute!" Ranma urged, "Are you saying that my device is dangerous? That it has the potential of adversely affecting the planet's timefield?"
"But that would mean...the Lanier equations..." Xian-Pu blinked then started at the two claiming to be from the future and said, "Who are you?"
"Um...well..." the girl hesitated.
"We have to, Sis," the boy urged, "Besides, if this works out, then they won't remember us as ever having been here."
"I see the logic of this," the girl sighed, "My name is Arashi...Saotome Arashi."
"And I'm Saotome Kinma," the boy revealed, "Now let us do our job, Dad. We're almost halfway through inputting the new equations."
"Wait a second, wait a second!" Ranma waved his hands, "I mean...you can't be...no way! Timetravel's not possible..."
"It's not only possible," Arashi replied, "But you made the discovery that makes it happen."
"Thirty-six seconds," Kinma started moving his hand over the keypad once again, a gesture followed rapidly by his sister, "Sorry, Dad, but there's no more time to waste. If we don't do this in time we'll miss our window and fail to slingshot our way back to our own timeline, so as much as we'd like to stay and chat with you and our aunts and uncles..."
"Uh...just one problem...Son?" Ranma said dubiously.
"And what is, Father?" Arashi asked.
"Xian-Pu and I...we haven't had time yet to input the new equations."
There was a brief pause before the twins exchanged horrified looks, then they turned and stared back at their elders with Kinma saying, "Please tell us you're joking, Dad..."
"I'm not joking," Ranma scowled, "Now who are you...really?"
"Oh Frak!" Arashi hastily stared at her watch and cried, "TIME QUAKE! EVERYONE BRACE YOURSELVES, IT'S GOING TO HIT-NOW!"
"Huh?" Ranma responded when he noticed that the tower that he and the others were standing upon was starting to shake beneath their feet.
"What in the name of my ancestors...?" Xian-Pu started to say when the shaking intensified, all but knocking their group off their feet as they hastily scrambled to lay hold of something supportive.
"What's happening?" Ryoga cried.
"Is it an earthquake?" Ukyo asked.
"No," Kasumi cried over the increasing volume of the tremors, "It feels much worse than an earthquake...it's not just the ground that's shaking...!"
"Oh hell!" Nabiki said with widened eyes as they all turned to see a massive fissure form in the air, literally ripping a tear in the fabric of reality.
"We're too late!" Kinma cried, "It's gonna happen!"
"Worse than that!" Arashi turned a horrified look towards her brother, "We made it happen! We're the ones who screwed up the formula! We've doomed our own future!"
For some strange reason Xian-Pu felt the urge to send these two to their rooms without supper, but even as she started to ask why she felt this way the fissure bore down upon the lot of them, and then the entire tower seemed to rip apart as reality became a solid white oblivion into which their universe was inverted...
Continued.
Comments/Criticisms/Cerulean Blues: shadowmane
A new crisis dawns for the Multiverse, which recalls to active service the gallant defenders of Time and Space that we know from the previous "Realities" series, but can even the Time Patrol put to rights a threat this massive, and who will be called upon to save the day for the cause of right, virtue and clean living? Yeah, another screwy bunch of kids gets drafted into the war, more square pegs in round holes who's job it is to protect reality as we know it against the forces that would bring oblivion to us all (Boy, are we in trouble!), so stay tuned for: "Ranko on a Roll," or, "Pop Chasing on the Timestream!" Be there!
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