TRTSS6: The Termination Agenda! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: "Sailor Moon", "Ranma ½", "Star Trek", "Terminator" and other properties belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is an alt-fusion story.
Part 6
CRASH!
Everyone seemed to snap to attention, when the building shook. There wasn't an explosion, however. Instead, the sensation felt as if someone had deliberately drove into the building.
"What the heck was that?" Ginger asked. She was still freaked out by earlier events-
RATATATATATAT-!
"Now, what the heck was THAT?"
"You three, stay here," Hal says, as he and a few policemen in the building went to investigate the situation.
Sarah turns to Ranko.
"Ranko, what are we going to do?" Sarah pleaded.
"I…I'm not sure," Ranko says. "I don't know if I am up to my full strength.'
"Huh?" Ginger says.
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
Ranko sighs.
"Since this whole thing began, I haven't been at my peak," Ranko says. "And seeing the other me, and not being able to be a guy…my game has been thrown off."
Silence.
"Ranko, I don't know WHAT you are talking about," Sarah says. "But I DO know that you are suppose to protect me, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"But NOTHING, Ranko. And even if you weren't my protector, I consider you my FRIEND."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then what am I?" Ginger whined.
"My BEST friend."
"Awwww," Ginger says with a smile, as she moves to hug Sarah. "That's SO nice…"
"So you see, Ranko, you're important to me either way," Sarah says.
"Fine, fine. I'll do my job."
"We should find Ranma and get out of here," Ginger says.
"No, he'll be fine," says Ranko.
"How would YOU know?" Sarah says.
Ranko smiles.
"Because I know what I would do if I were in HIS position, that's why."
Meanwhile, Ranma sighs and looks at Ed, as the police lieutenant was about to leave the interrogation room.
"Ed, you have to release me," Ranma says. "Otherwise, that Terminator downstairs will kill more men."
Ed quickly turns towards Ranma.
"How do you know?" Ed demanded.
"Intuition, okay? I had thought I had killed it by knocking the Terminator's head off, thinking that it was a standard T-800 series model. Obviously, this one has a preservation enhancement kit installed."
"Huh?"
"Never mind that! Ed, you have to trust me on this, okay?"
Ed Traxler looks at his old friend…
"Fine," Ed says, as he goes to release Ranma from the cuffs, only to see that Ranma already had the cuffs off.
"Wha-?"
"Studied 'escape tricks' from the best," Ranma says with a smirk.
"Show off. Now, what do we do?"
"Do you have any exploding rounds of ANY kind? Like Hollow-points? Or .50 caliber rounds?"
"Well, we typically have standard rounds, but there are only a few cases around-"
"Okay. Call off the boys in blue, and tell them to NOT engage the Terminator directly."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to show the Terminator what for, that's what."
And with that, Ranma leaves the interrogation room.
Meanwhile, the Terminator was making progress with its methodical search of the police precinct, occasionally killing a few brave police officers in the process.
BLAM! BLAM-!
Somewhat annoyed, if it was possible for this cybernetic model, the Terminator went to a utility box. While being shot at, the cybernetic organism pulls the primary power cable out, and then jams it into the junction box. Without a regulator, the electricity shorts the entire junction box.
POP!
With the power down, the Terminator could utilize it's night-vision capabilities-
BAM-BAM-CRUNCH!
The Terminator goes flying down the corridor, and falls out the window.
CRASH!
Ranma looks down from the vantage point of the second floor of police precinct. He wanted to finish it off then and there, but had to be satisfied with smash the hydraulic system that powered the Terminator's limbs. The martial artist adventurer could see that it tried to struggle to no avail. Ranma then gave the Terminator "the Finger", and proceeded to help any police officer that may have been stuck in dire straits…
A short time later, Ranma and company stands in the middle of the parking lot, looking for the Terminator to no avail, while the LA Fire Department put out the resulting fire that had engulfed the police precinct building.
"Ranma," Ranko says, as she runs back to the group. "That thing is gone."
"Great," Ranma says sarcastically. "I should have disposed of it right then and there."
"But more cops would have died, Ranma," Sarah says, as she rubbed Ranma's shoulders. "You did the right thing."
"Yeah, well…"
"What are we going to do now?" Ginger asked.
Ranma looks at the burning building…
"Ranma?" Sarah asked.
"That Terminator will be back, that's for sure. And I refuse to let anyone else get hurt because of our actions."
Ranma turns to the women.
"Either we stay and fight, or flee. If we fight, and based upon my own personal power, I cannot guarantee that we'll win. Your choice, Sarah."
Sarah nods her head, as she mulls over Ranma's words.
"We run," Sarah says.
"What?" Ranko says incredulously. "You mean, we run away like cowards?"
"Ranko, we have to consider all options," Sarah says. "And as YOU and Ranma both put it, the two of you are not yourselves."
"Then we'll train."
"And how many people we'll get hurt because we're wasting time?" Ranma says.
"Humph."
"But as long as we stay moving, people won't die…right?" Sarah says. "I don't want that on my conscious."
Ranma nods his head in reply.
"Okay, so…what do we do?" Ginger says. "I got a life here."
"And the Terminator would probably would want to kill you to get to Sarah," Ranma says.
"Oh, poo."
And then, Detective Traxler comes running up.
"This…horror show could have been worse, Saotome," Ed says. "But we got most of the people out in time."
"Ed, I need a favor," Ranma says.
"Okay, name it?"
"I need for you to put an APB out on our mechanical friend," Ranma says.
"Of course," Ed replied.
"And I need a new vehicle…and spare cash."
"No problem. With this fire, it's easy enough to do a cover-up. Anything else?"
"As a matter of fact…"
As the sun rises, a lone VW bug is driving down the main freeway, heading south towards the Mexican border.
"We should be in Mexico City by nightfall," Ranma says, as he continues his drive. "From there, we can see about purchasing fake identification papers and stuff."
"But do we have to be 'dead' in the process?" Ranko asked.
"You and I BOTH know that 'Sarah Connor' is a meme that will set the Terminator after us. No, as far as the world is concerned, 'Sarah Connor' and 'Ginger Ventura' were killed in a fire at a LAPD precinct."
"That sucks."
"But…I should tell my mother-" Sarah began to say.
"We'll contact her later, when everything dies down."
"Promise?"
Ranma smiles at Sarah.
"Promise."
"What am I, chop liver?" Ranko replied.
"Naw, just a girl-"
WHACK!
"Ow!"
"Just remember, bub, I'm YOU!" Ranko says.
"Ha! Fat chance."
Ginger turns towards Sarah.
"Huh?"
Sarah merely shrugs her shoulders, not really understanding the situation.
Meanwhile, in a basement somewhere, the Terminator was lying on an examining room, while a single light shines overhead.
"Interesting that a cybernetic organism has been running around with US unaware," says a female, shadowy figure. "And you say that this machine comes from a post-temporal loci?"
"Yes, ma'am," says another voice. "From a preliminary examination, the construct was manufactured in the year 2029, Common Era. "However, the coding of the CPU is slightly more advanced than our own level of cybernetics."
"Really? By how many generations?"
"The CPU's design is closer to achieving the Xth iteration than 'Iteration X' is."
"Huh," the woman replied. "I'm sure those wannabe 'fascists' would appreciate THAT."
"I take it that you do not like them, ma'am?"
"No, I do not," says the woman with a sigh. "They remind me too much of the REAL fascist I had to deal with forty years ago. Lights."
CHOOM!
The Lady-in-White puts on her glasses, before putting on her surgical gloves. At the same time, the Terminator looks at the woman, and struggled upon recognizing the woman's facial features.
"It's a good thing that my agents in the 'New World Order' caught word of this…anomaly's actions, and moved to intercept it-"
"Princess, it appears that the machine recognizes you," says Kato "Reddy" Tanaka, as he was prepared to neutralize the machine with a directed EMP pulse. The Tanaka clan of Azabuu Juuban Prefecture (Tokyo, Japan) has served the Lady-in-White since her brief reign as Empress of Japan back in the 16th century. And although the Tanaka(s) were a clan of retainers, the rewards outweighed the position of servitude considerably…
"Do tell," the Lady-in-White says, as she brought up a surgical knife to bear. "Now, let's see what we have here…"
The Lady-in-White cuts away the scalp of the Terminator, revealing a port for entry.
"Huh, the scans were correct," says the Lady-of-White, as she takes a pair of clamps to peel back the flesh. "Pliers?"
Reddy hands a pair of pliers to the Lady-in-White.
"Thank you, Reddy," the Lady-in-White says, as she sets the pliers in place.
"Ma'am."
From the vantage point of the Terminator, the machine's HUD displayed on one word repeatedly:
TERMINATE!
TERMINATE!
TERMINATE!
TERMINATE!
TERMINATE-!
With one yank, the Lady-in-White pulls the Terminator's CPU chip.
Choooooommmm…
"There we go," the Lady-in-White says, as she holds up the chip. "We should have this chip and this construct examined."
"May I ask why, ma'am?"
"If this construct is from a future temporal loci, the information could prove to be valuable to the Time Table…especially if it's a future that we do not WANT."
"Shall I pass this…thing to Iteration X, then?"
"Not quite. Those guys have been WAY to secretive of late, and I want to have SOME oversight."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"Hmmm…"
The Lady-in-White thinks for a moment.
"Ma'am?"
"Does the Syndicate have anything going on in this area?"
"Their 'Special Projects Division' has controlling interest in a start-up robotics shop called 'Cyber Dynamics'. As far as I know, that company is listed a low priority as far as Iteration X is concerned."
"Good," the Lady-in-White says. "Be sure to take lead on this…thing. And do something about the name of Cyber Dynamics."
"Because…?"
"Nothing irks the gear-heads more than changing something that THEY spent years 'perfecting', and I'm sure it took them just as long to come up with the name 'Cyber Dynamics'."
"Ah, I see. As you wish…"
Ten years later…
In a Los Angeles suburb, a red-haired woman, dressed in a bathrobe, is standing on her doorstep, as a LAPD pulls up in front of her house. She taps her feet as a police officer opens the back door of the squad car, and pulls out a ten-year old boy…
"Evening, Ms. Tendo," the police officer says, as he escorts the boy to the house.
"Hello, Officer Dan," Ranko says, as she breathes a sigh of relief. "Where did you find John this time?"
"Venice Beach, actually, hanging out with the skater punks."
"Humph. Well, thanks for getting him…again."
"Well, I wouldn't do this for anyone, except that you knew Captain Traxler."
"True, but I don't want to use my connections to search for this…knucklehead."
Young John Connor glares at Ranko, but says nothing.
"Well, the important thing is that there is one less miscreant running around."
"Indeed."
"Well, see you next time…and hopefully NOT too soon."
And with that, the police officer turns to leave the house.
Ranko looks at John.
"Inside, young man," Ranko says. "And don't think you can sneak out of the house THIS time."
"Yeah, yeah," John says, as he goes inside the house.
Ranko shakes her head, as she scans the area with her eyes before closing the door behind her.
CLICK.
Elsewhere…
A large sphere of light appears underneath a little known section of the Los Angeles Freeway system.
FLASH!
A police vehicle, which was patrolling the area for drug activities, stops. A police officer stops his patrol car to investigate the disturbance.
CLICK!
Taking out his Maglite flashlight, the police officer went around a pillar to the source of the disturbance…and found a chainlink fence says was neatly cut in a circular formation. In fact, the cut itself appeared to be "hot"…
CLATTER!
Suddenly, the police officer hears a noise. He quickly turns around to see a nude man with an icy stare bearing down on him…
WHACK!
With the police officer dead, the man begins the process of assuming his identity as LAPD 'finest'…
Elsewhere…
A large sphere of light appears near a roadhouse bar.
FLASH!
Usagi coughs, as she stood up.
"I HATE time travel," Usagi says, as she adjusted her eyes. "THANKS A LOT, JOHN!"
She then turns to her male companion.
"Bob, are you okay?" Usagi says, as tried to not notice that she and her male companion were nude.
The reprogrammed Terminator stands.
"I am fully functional, Moon Princess," the Terminator says in a monotone manner. "We may proceed with the primary objective."
"Yeah, about that," Usagi says. "We can't run around naked and stuff."
"Correct, so we will acquire clothing."
And with that, "Bob" walks into the roadhouse.
"Bob, wait up-!" Usagi says.
Usagi walks into the bar to see Bob asking one of the bikers for some clothes. One of the patrons notices Usagi's presence. Some of the female patrons were given Usagi a dirty look.
"Well, well, well," says the scruffy man in the biker gear. "It looks like the freak brought with him a pretty girl."
"Bob?" Usagi asked.
"I had requested appropriate clothes," Bob says.
"And he didn't say 'please'."
Usagi knew that Terminators were programmed with a self-preservation mode that included a termination function, unless it was over-ridden. She wished she could remember if this was the case for Bob…
"But…I am willing to trade something for it," the biker leered.
"Huh?"
"I mean, you could fetch a nice price as a 'date'."
"Oh, I see. I'll tell you what: I play you strip pool."
"YOU can play?"
"Sure," Usagi says. "All it is basic geometry and physics. For every ball I sink in, I get an article of clothing from anyone here. If I miss a shot, I go on more 'dates'. And…we can go double or nothing on ANYTHING Bob and I might want."
Usagi looks at one of the women who were obviously leering at her.
"Including the female kind."
"You're on, little girl."
Thirty minutes later, Bob and Usagi walks out of the roadhouse fully clothed in biker gear.
"That was nice of them to donate to our cause, Bob," Usagi says sarcastically. "They even provided a couple of bikes and stuff."
"Indeed," Bob says, as he gets on one of the bikes. He then takes out a pair of sunglasses from the coat pocket and puts it one his face.
"Don't forget your helmet, Bob," Usagi says, as she puts on a motorcycle helmet.
Bob simply gave Usagi a look.
"Or not," Usagi says, as she revs up her engines. "We can hack into an ATM to get more cash, so we can get funds."
"Why?"
"So we can purchase weapons, silly. If that T-1000 finds Ranma and the others first, everything that we built up thus far will be for NAUGHT."
"Considering the fact that it was you who authorized the creation of 'Cyberdyne Systems' in the first place-"
"Yeah, rub it in."
And with that, the pair begins their trek to intercept the T-1000 from succeeding its primary objective: the elimination of John Connor.
Tbc.
Next time: So, what happened to Ranma, Sarah, Ranko and Ginger after leaving Los Angeles? And how did John Connor come to be born? All questions will be answered next time on "The Termination Agenda"! See you then!