Ranma pulled out his iphone and selected face time. Using the speed dial she selected a number. It didn't take long for the other person to pick up. "Ranma, where have you been?" The woman on the other end asked with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
The redhead was about to answer when she was interrupted by a second female voice. "Who are you calling Ranko? And why did she call you Ranma?"
"KATT I'm on the phone could you please give me some privacy?" Ranma asked in a polite tone that one would use to a child or a lover. "Yeah Nabiki, that's why I'm calling. I meet a new friend today."
Nabiki was not worried. Ranma was always making new friends ever since the two of them moved to the States. "Ok then, when are you coming home?"
There was a slight pause on the line then Ranma replied. "I'm not coming home." There was a look of shock on Nabiki's face. She had feared this day for a long time. The two of them had never stated that they were in a relationship, but she thought he felt the same way for her as she did for him. Tears started to roll down her cheek. "I see. Well I can't say I didn't know this day would happen."
Ranma had a confuse look on his face. "What are you talking about Nabs? I just wanted you to bring me some clothes and meet my new friends. We have lots to talk about. After I thought we could celebrate." Ranma wondered why Nabiki looked relived. Then it dawned on him, how what he just said sounded. "Nabs I'm sorry. That did not sound right. No I am not leaving you. I may not have said it but I need you in my life and that is why I need you to join us now."
Feeling foolish the woman with short hair wiped her eyes. This was exactly something her sister would have done. Nabiki's mood darkened thinking about the youngest Tendo. "Sorry." She said. "Where do you want me to come and which clothes would you like?"
"It's ok. We should talk about this later though." Ranma gave the directions and ask her to pick out something nice for his male side.
Ranma had just finished telling Bonnie and KATT his life store, and was just demonstrating his cures to them when there was a knock at the side door of the trailer. Bonnie opened the door to reveal a young Asian woman with short hair. "May I help you?" the older woman asked.
"I'm looking for my friend she said to meet her here. A short redhead goes by the name Ranko." Nabiki looked around the other woman to see if Ranma was there. All she saw was not what she expected from the inside of a tractor-trailer. It looked like a room out of an eighties Sci-fi movie or TV show.
"Oh you must be Nabiki. I have heard so much about you. Come in your friend is waiting for you. My name is Bonnie." With that Bonnie stepped aside to allow Nabiki into the trailer. Getting a better look did nothing to change her first impression of the interior.
When Nabiki spotted the male Ranma she was a little confused. "Didn't you leave this morning as a girl? Here are the clothes you requested." She said while tossing the bag to the pigtailed man.
"Yeah I did." He replied 'But I meet a new friend and you know how I feel about not telling my friends. It never goes well when I lie." Nabiki did know and she knew exactly which incident Ranma meant by that. "So I would like to introduce you to my new friend."
Ranma stepped aside to reveal a red and black motorcycle. Red lights were pulsating up and down on the air intakes of the bike. Nabiki almost swore the lights changed speed when she looked at it. "This is KATT. She wants me to become her new partner." Nabiki could almost swear Ranma had a tone of pleading in his voice. As if he was looking for her permission.
"Please to meet you Nabiki san." KATT said in perfect Japanese. "Ranko has told me so much about you." The voice from the bike was gentle and reminded Nabiki of a young girl, and yet Nabiki was not at all surprised. Only Ranma would make a friend with a talking motorcycle.
"Your Japanese is perfect KATT. But you can speak English. We live here now and I for one want to forget about my old home." The sadness was evident in Nabiki's voice.
Ranma sighed. He knew it was his fault that Nabiki had to leave Japan, even if she would never admit to it. "KATT, would you please call me Ranma when I am a guy." Turning to Nabiki, Ranma said "You met Bonnie already."
Bonnie took the opportunity to bring things back to business. "Welcome Nabiki. We were just discussing with Ranma here, a job opportunity. Well KATT wants Ranma as her partner." She said looking at the motorcycle with affection.
"What kind of job?" Nabiki's business sense kicked in. "and what does it pay?" She gave Ranma a puzzled look. Just what is going on here she thought to herself.
Ranma was glad he thought to ask Nabiki to come. He would have just taken the job and not even thought about being paid. He sat back and watched the two women discuss his future. He had already made up his mind to take the job anyways.
"We are members of a non profit organization known as F.L.A.G. The Foundation for Law And Government." Nabiki frowned at the term "Non profit" "Actually we are a more covert division. The main team does not even know we exist. We mostly are composed of the original surviving FLAG members, Michael Knight Sr. and KITT Sr. and myself. Our purpose is to help the less fortunate that normal law agencies cannot. We have many resources at our disposal. Some high tech." Bonnie said as she pointed to KATT and gestured to the interior of the trailer. "And some intelligence. What we need is some field agents and support staff. I understand you are studying Business law?"
"That Civil Law and Public Relations." Said Nabiki proudly. "I will be graduating in three months. But yes Business Law is my major." She looked at Ranma knowing exactly where Bonnie must have gotten that piece of information. Ranma just smiled. He was very proud of Nabiki's achievements.
"Have you found a place to intern yet?" Bonnie asked. "We have an opening here and the pay is decent for starters. I only ask because Ranma has spoken very highly of you and I think you two would make a great team."
Nabiki looked again at Ranma who just shrugged. "Sounds nice but exactly what does that mean. What do you do with your high tech toys?"
"I'm not a toy protested KATT. I am state of the art technology for the purpose of defending the weak." KATT replied using the term Ranma had earlier.
"What KATT was saying is we use these high tech toys." Bonnie said in a teasing manner. "To full fill our missions. We get calls from small towns or individuals that need help and we send undercover agents to investigate or intervene. The AI's assist in many ways, such as a cover, or back up. Not only that they provide intelligence data, protection from harm and companionship. We have been doing this since the early eighties with KITT Sr."
"So are all the AI's Harley Davidson's? And why a motorcycle anyways?" Nabiki's curiosity had been peeked now. She was not sure if she wanted to join this group of what appeared to be a form of vigilantes. But it was right up Ranma's ally.
Bonnie was impressed. She had reservations about this strange young man that turned into a woman. But he was very smart she could see. He insisted to have this young woman here to ask the questions while he sat back and observed. And observe was exactly what he was doing. Plus his "curse" as he called it would be a great asset in undercover work too. Nabiki also impressed her as well. They had to get these two as a team. "To answer your first question. No the Knight Industries Two Thousand is an eighties Pontiac Trans Am, and the Knight Industries Three Thousand is a Ford Mustang."
"He can turn into a Ford Explorer as well." KATT added helpfully.
"Yes he can." Bonnie Agreed. "As for KATT here. We wanted to go a different direction. We figured a motorcycle could blend in a different type of crowd. Biker gangs, bike clubs and just the ordinary weekend warriors. Harleys lend a certain amount of street cred. And the V-Rod could blend in with the sport bikes as well."
"Ok that makes some sense. But what else can she do that a regular bike could not other than talk?" KATT was hurt by Nabiki's comment. She could do lots of useful things.
"Well other than talking, which she seems to do enough of," Bonnie said with a little amusement. "She is extremely fast and manoeuvrable, more so then her brother. She can call up any information on the net as required. She can monitor her partner's health at all times, and with special system packages that are built into changeable hard saddlebags, her abilities are expandable for special duties. One other advantage of KATT being a bike it increases her stealth ness. We have used a bit of old foundation tech and new on her as well. Molecular bonding on her tires and nanite machines on her skin makes her lighter and near indestructible. The nanites also give her some minor shape shifting abilities. Mostly moving foot pegs and the seat."
"I can change colour too." KATT said demonstrating by changing her black and red colour scheme to a pink and white one. Ranma kind of flinched at this, not too sure why he liked the idea for a different colour when a girl.
"So she is bullet proof? How does this help her rider?" Nabiki asked worriedly. If they thought the bike needed protection that meant the rider was also in danger of being shot.
Bonnie grinned. "This was a big problem for us as well but we found a solution that was tested and worked very satisfactory. There is this new form of bulletproof clothing in Brazil. I guess with all the kidnappings down there they had a need to fill. Well we took a close look at the clothing and felt we could expand on this by infusing them with the nanites. A side effect is, the clothes along with the helmet interface, it becomes morphable. In other word the clothes change shape with whoever wears them."
Ranma's eyes lit up. "Do you mean if I change into a girl the clothes will change to fit me?" This was really the last thing that bothered Ranma about his curse. Always having to wear baggy clothes as a girl so if he changed into a man they would fit and not strangle him.
"Quite possibly we will have to test it." Bonnie was in deep thought for a second. Then her eyes lit up as an idea hit her. "We might even be able to have them change style as well. KATT could you look into this for me?" KATT agreed and set herself to the task. Bonnie turned back to the young couple and smiled.
"KATT mentioned that she could take control of the driving. How could she do that with only two wheels?" This was the first real question Ranma had asked.
"A very good question. KATT can take control with a rider very easy by, not going into too much tech mumble jumble, using the rider as a gyroscope. Anyone that has ridden a bicycle or a motorcycle does this without thinking and that is using their weight to balance the bike. KATT can also operate autonomously. KATT would you demonstrate please." KATT's rear wheel seemed to split into two, separating about two feet. "She has independent suspension that allows her to corner at high speeds, but when a rider is on her. The two wheels will act as one giving better control. It was another problem that gave us headaches for years during the development stage. It turns out sometimes the best solutions are the simple ones. Although it did add weight to the overall frame and we are still looking for a better solution. Until then this works fine."
Nabiki was starting to get bored with all the tech talk. As she understood the situation they were like a group of private law enforcement. They had the resources and money to fulfil the job, and they not only wanted Ranma but were hinting they wanted her as well. There was only one question left, the terms of employment. "Ok I think you have Ranma's interest but here is the real question. What does it pay?"
Bonnie was waiting for this. "I think you would be happy with the pay, plus it comes with other benefits. Let us discuss it over dinner at the Mansion." Bonnie said with a smile. Nabiki boggled at the thought of going to a private Mansion for dinner.
Ranma grabbed the bag of clothes Nabiki brought for him and said, " Is there a place I can change?" Bonnie took him to one of the staterooms on the trailer. Not even a minute after leaving him Ranma yelled out. "Nabiki! I asked for men's clothes."
Nabiki grinned at her host and yelled back." You said pick something nice. That is something nice. Just change already I'm starving."
KATT did a quick scan and commented. "My scans don't show that you are malnourished Nabiki." Nabiki sighed and was saved explaining to KATT that was a figure of speech. When Ranma returned female and wearing a sexy red dress. "You look very pleasing Ranko." KATT commented.
"Thank you KATT. Well let's eat going. I still need to tell you about the terminate Nabiki. Good night KATT." Ranma said as the three women left the tractor-trailer for the evening.
Author's notes: I would like to thank all of those that took the time to review the first chapter. I was quite surprised by the questions I was asked, and hope this chapter answered some of those questions. I personally find the technical end of things a little dry and just like to except it. This is what Lucas did with the real first Star Wars movies, and why they were good. But your reviews made me think more on the hows. I will be revealing more data as the story progresses. I want to focus more on plot in future chapters and not rush details. Hoped you enjoyed this chapter.