This is a work of fanfiction; I do not own any of the characters, or pre-existing story elements. If anything in here does belong to me, I'll be sure to claim it.

Cold Steel, Chapter 01

Tainted Sanctuary

Wow, she sure is pretty. I hope I don't regret helping her; it's been years since I did anything for someone besides myself, however, I get the ominous feeling she's either a blessing or an omen of my undoing.

Whatever the case, I pulled her from the harbor; she's in my hands now, still better than the worthless government finding her. I wonder how long till she wakes up, or if she'll wake up, I should take her to a hospital, but they wouldn't help. Besides, she's not normal anyway, for her relatively small size, about 5' 9"; she weighs over four hundred pounds. But she doesn't look over a hundred and thirty, there is no way she is a normal human, and I am no hypocrite.

For thirteen days now I sit here and stare at this embodiment of physical perfection, and she has yet to move a muscle.

::FLASHBACK::

Priss stands at the end of a private pier, singing one of her songs to the wind, enjoying a brief moment of peace.

The sound is heard first, but only moments before the impact, a light blue streak enters the harbor with enough force to create a wave that destroys the local piers and lighthouses. Priss, knowing this means suits will be here, makes haste to depart, when she catches glimpse of a figure in the water, and a blue glow surrounding the figure.

Priss froze, caught in an inner debate of morals; she stood motionless for minutes, only brought back to reality by the approaching sound of helicopters. Without reason she quickly pulled the naked body from the water, immediately noting the unnatural beauty of the young lady she was rescuing, proceeded to wrap her in her overcoat and carry her home, or at least the dump that Priss' hideout resides in.

::END FLASHBACK::

Looking after a comatose individual is very much like taking care of an infant, except the coma victim doesn't complain when something is wrong, you have to keep checking on them.

Now I swore to myself I'd never change dirty diapers, but something had to be done when she peed all down my back and pants while I carried her to my place. After I found her lying in a puddle of her own waste a couple times, I decided to do what was right for both of us.

So I robbed a pharmacy warehouse up north, and stocked up on supplies for caring for the incapacitated. I feel like I'm caring for an infant, though feeding her has proved to be the most complicated part, she began losing color after a couple days, I started to worry, then my stomach grumble solved my worry for her, now I feed her baby food and warm milk, it goes down easily enough, with little risk of choking or drowning her. Now she gets my bed, the 4th new mattress in 2 weeks, and I sleep on my busted old couch.

She is in diapers all the time now, because I got tired of having to go steal a new mattress every couple days. It's kinda funny, I got pictures, a little something to show her when she wakes, assuming she don't try to kill me for babying her over these weeks, I couldn't resist, she is just adorable sleeping in nothing more than a diaper. I can feel myself becoming attached, even though we've never spoke.

She opened her eyes once, for about 3 seconds, and wow does she have the deepest, brightest blue eyes I've ever seen, unfortunately, she didn't respond to me.

My hideout is a dismal place, I realize this only after I look at what she's gonna see when she finally wakes, so I start my project of "fixing up" this abandon boat house I call home.

Its early summer and its hot all day long, so often I'm working or cleaning in just my underwear, If only Nene or Linna could see this, they'd never let me live it down. That thought made me realize I haven't visited Linna since I found my charge, and once I feel that I can leave her alone I'll be right back over there to see my old friend, and tell her of my newest adventure.

I know she cannot respond, but I believe she still hears me, so I continue to visit and talk with her whenever I can, and I know she gets another occasional visitor, sometimes there are flowers when I come. Well, now its time to start preparing for my next strike against Vector, this time I'm going for a research facility disguised as a hospital.

Vector, very quickly took Genom's place at the top of my shit list, by doing the same cover-up nonsense, and lies, and not accepting responsibility for what they cause. Vector may be a much larger company that Genom ever hoped to be, but they are still just as easy to hit.

Weapon of choice tonight is my .50 cal Desert Eagle and a couple clips, shouldn't need any more than that. One last look at my sleeper, "Sleep well, I'll be back later." Now for the thirty minute ride there.

This place was actually quite easy to get into, plus all of the guards were robots, so I didn't have to worry about subduing them. The company is my enemy, not the employees, this way I have no guilt on my conscience, only that wonderful warm fuzzy feeling.

One shot made quick work of all of the locks up to here, however, this is a solid steel security door, and I hate this part. One solid punch, near the lock and, "Damnit, that fucking hurts!" The entire lock assembly is in pieces, and the door is nearly folded in half, but I'm in.

Blood is dripping on the floor from my hand, it's a good thing I can't break it. Well, I'd guess I can punch with about two tons of force, by the looks of that door it's the strongest door I've hit yet. Quickly I'm on top of the guard that was behind the door, but this one is human, so I destroy his weapons and radio, take his keys and lock him in the nearest room, a lounge, on the way out I tear the phone off the wall. "Sit there, and shut up, and don't worry I'm not gonna hurt anyone."

Next up is to decide which lab to hit first, second one on the left it is. Inside is a clean room, lots of computers, not much else, in a couple minutes that lab is nothing more than scrap computer hardware, yes I hate this company enough to mindlessly destroy their work.

Onto the next, directly across the passageway, this one is much like the last, except one thing, the computers are on, and on a table in the room's center is an odd looking device. Judging by its fixation on a plain white mannequin head, I'd assume it's a form of extrasensory optics, uber shades as some would put it. It's a titanium band with a lighted blue stripe across the center, simple, I like it. So I guess I'll try them on.

The moment it contacted my head is a moment I will never forget. Searing, all consuming agony, like your brain being electrocuted, it felt like an eternity before I passed out. I freaked when I came to, still not sure how long I was out, and then I noticed how unusual my vision was. Everything has a sleight blue hue, it's a heads-up-display, like some aircraft, it shows a full system diagnostic, it seems as though my boomers adapted it. I'll try this for a while, but I need to hurry to the next lab.

The next two were pointless, lots of computers; I'd guess software development, no other gear of any kind present. Software doesn't interest me, so I simply destroyed everything here. But the last door is another story, another reinforced steel door, wow, and the optics are showing just that, I think I'm gonna like this new toy.

Now comes the painful part again, so I draw back again, but this time something happens before I can swing, something different. Linked metal plates cut their way through my skin, though it doesn't hurt, and within a second they've formed flexible armor plating from my shoulder to fingertips. "Oh my..." I stared in wonder for a moment, and then destroyed the reinforced door in one easy swing, without pain. "I guess they're becoming even more adaptive, this is getting kinda weird."

I proceeded into the largest of the labs here; first thing I take note of is the freight elevator at the far end, then the tubes. They resemble cryo chambers, I guess, tall metal and glass cylinders, with a bluish fluid and, well, people in some of them. But they do not look like normal people, they're all part machine, like me, but they are cyborgs.

I'm quite different, the worlds first successful human-boomer hybrid. My presence in the room triggered more lights, and now I can see the researcher hiding in the corner, once he sees me he gets up and approaches me. "What the hell are you doing wearing those, the implants aren't even completed, how are you wearing..."

Ok, I don't want to listen to this. "Shut up old man, what are you doing here so late!?" I started moving towards him, gun pointed at him, and crazy armor plating still on my arm.

"I live here, ain't got nowhere else to go."

That's pathetic, "Well, consider yourself unemployed, now get the hell outta here!" I think I might have been a little too loud there, but he took off none the less. Alright what do we have in here, computers, great, more crap to destroy, but these are hooked up to those cryo looking' tubes. I'm not gonna risk hurting those people, if they're alive at all.

Oh, a notebook PC, that's going in the bag, but when I unhook it, one of the tubes comes to life. It looks like its only parts inside, nobody whole at least, and then a crane system in the ceiling picks up the pod and carries it over to a large black van, and loads it inside.

Then it hits me, that vehicle, its Sylia's mobile pit, only black. I'm taking that, at the very least I will get a lot of money for it, and then there is a big crash and a lot of commotion at the end of the passageway, where I came in. "And that's my queue to leave." I announce to nobody in particular. So I jam the destroyed door in the doorway, hop in the van and head to the elevator.

On the streets they give chase, but this is my city, within fifteen minutes I've totally lost them. A couple minutes with these nifty shades and I've found and removed both tracking devices from the van, and quick trip back for my bike, then it's straight to home sweet home.

First thing when I get home, I get the ominous feeling that someone was here. After hiding the van, I make a quick check of my place, and find that none of my tattle tales were tripped. Everything is as it was, and the blue-haired mystery is still sleeping on my bed, but what was that ugly feeling. "Oh well, I hope its nothing." Now onto my late night dinner and some well earned sleep.

Three shrouded figures float about a hundred feet up near a certain run down boat house, quietly observing. The middle one, a small figure, says in a young girls voice, "Well girls, I think you're right when you say we'll be talking to them soon, the android that is currently non-functional is Vector property, however, it has a temporal trace signature from late in the 69th century."

"Really, are we gonna have to fix that mess in time as well?" The one on the left queried.

"We won't know that until I can discern whether her presence here and now is natural, or engineered. The other girl there has my interest as well, even though she is a local, she is not human, at least not anymore, and she bears a deep rooted hatred for Vector."

The third responds, much quieter than the other two, "So, when do we make contact?"

"Soon, very soon."

Author's Notes:

Well, first off I'm sorry to everyone who's been waiting for chapter 5 of Matron Draconus. I swear, I haven't given up, I'm just at a bit of a block, I've even started putting together future chapters, just can't put the current one together, and have it flow with what I'm intending. If anyone has suggestions for Ranma's first meeting with the Tendo's, I'm all ears

Anyway, this little piece here. I wrote this about 4 years ago, and never posted it online, in fact it hasn't even been proof read by anyone. I have more chapters already written, I just need to type them up, and make sure my horrible formatting is correct. Please, R&R. And I promise, I am working on MD, I'm just kinda stuck.