Wild Boot: The Net Games
By David Farr
Tenchi Muyo is copyright of AIC : Pioneer LDC, INC. ReBoot is the property of Mainframe. Ranma 1/2 is copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan,Inc. All are used here respectfully for the purposes of fanfiction. This story may be redistributed only if unchanged and no fee is charged.
*****
Gosunkugi: We come from the Net,
Sasuke: No we don't! We came from a shop!
Gosunkugi: But coming from the Net sounds better!
Sasuke: Look, just say it the way we discussed.
Gosunkugi: We come from a shop. Our code: To blindly follow and obey.
Sasuke: That's right! You command, we obey!
Gosunkugi: No. Kuno commands, we obey.
Sasuke: That what I meant!
*****
v 2.4.1: A Tangled Skein
*****
Deep beneath the streets of Mainframe, in the very superstructure of the system, rivers of sickly glowing energy wound their way through darkened tunnels. Usually, the tunnels were thought too dangerous, thanks to the mutant nulls roaming them and the sudden surges of liquid energy waste, threatening to carry away sprite and binome alike. However, an intrepid band of sprites were using them in an attempt to sneak up on their prey.
It was perhaps unfortunate that the band of virals were being lead by the two bots Gosunkugi and Sasuke. Certainly that would explain why they were closer to Al's diner than to the Principal Office. The plan had been said to be fool proof, the two black bots had proven that wrong.
A loud clang rang out as something metallic fell onto the concrete beside the river, only to bounce and disappear into the green goo. Sasuke, in the lead of the column, turned, raising a finger to his dome, and shushed his partner before turning back. Gosunkugi turned and shushed the viral binome immediately behind him. That viral turned and shushed the next spy in line, who copied the maneuver and shushed Fuchikoma. Quickly the large red mecha spun and shushed Akane, who slapped her forehead.
"Eep!" squeaked the last spy in line, right before Akane vaulted over Fuchikoma and knocked him to the ground.
"Would you keep quiet!" Sasuke exclaimed, spinning around. His eyes popped open in surprise when he noticed that instead of a dozen virals, he was being followed by a single trench-coated spy, a pissed off looking defender and a large mecha.
"Fuchikoma, take care of the bots while I take care of our friends." Akane waved at the two virals.
"Yes ma'am!" Fuchikoma cried and leapt forward to tackle to the two bots.
Ignoring the melee, Akane quickly took down the last spy. Grinning, she pulled out a file locker. Once both virals were encased, she tapped the air, summoning up a vid window. "Kasumi, all clear down here. I've got all the virals. You can take them in to be reformated."
"What of Gosunkugi and Sasuke?" the inquired.
Sasuke's domed head bounced a couple of times before coming to rest at Akane's feet. "Oh, they're out of the PIC." She kicked the dome, sending it skittering into the energy flow.
"Hey, she kicked me!" Sasuke complained as his head floated out of view. Moments later, Gosunkugi and the rest of his parts joined it.
"Good job, Fuchikoma," Akane said, turning to smile at her mecha.
"Shank you, ma'am," he slurred, then collapsed to the ground.
Akane groaned. "Back to the repair bay for you."
*****
"How could you fail?!"
Gosunkugi and Sasuke glanced at each other, then looked at their boss. He stood before his floating throne, swinging his energy sword wildly. His dark blue visage was twisted in anger as he loomed over the pair.
"That plan was fool proof!" Kuno exclaimed.
Behind him, sitting provocatively on the arm of the throne, Nabiki was examining a display window. She still wore the bitmap-hugging glossy black armour that she had emerged from the cocoon in. Absently, she tapped one of her black, claw-like nails on her black lips.
"Obviously not proof against these fools," Nabiki mused, slipping off the thrones arm. She started to saunter over to the pair of bots, grinning as she stalked them. "According to the map they ended up wandering through every part of Mainframe but the Principal Office. I don't know why you put up with them.
"I could understand their defeats by Ranma, he was always very tricky and had so many friends, but now..." she reached out and tapped her nails against Gosunkugi's chest, causing him to roll backwards, "...they're losing to my guileless sister. If anything, they're hindering our - sorry - your rise to power. Get rid of them."
"Stupid they may be," Kuno rumbled, "but they are useful in both their loyalty and their power. Still." He paused and glared at the pair of bots. "Should they fail me once more, it shall be to their regret."
*****
The doors to the core control chamber hissed open, letting Akane in. A few of the technicians glanced up at her, but quickly got back to work. Kasumi worked behind the main control panel, her fingers dancing across the keys at a frenzied pace.
Wearily, Akane trudged up the ramp to stand next to her sister. "Anti-virus chamber up and running," she reported.
Kasumi replied with a sound and a slight nod.
"What are you doing?" Akane peered over her sister's shoulder. On the desk next to the console's display was a small file folder displaying an open document. Curious, Mainframe's Guardian cadet peered at the document's filename. "Indexer[Nabiki].Uninstall()?" she cried. "Kasumi, why do you have an uninstall file for Nabiki?"
Kasumi paused, and turned to her sister, placing her hands on her hips. "For just this eventuality," she replied. "I also have detailed plans on the removal of all access for you, father, Ranma, and Ranma's friends. I had to be sure that if any of you turned against the system, for any reason, I could minimise that damage." That said, she turned back to the console and got to work again.
"But..." Akane stuttered, "how could you...?"
"Mistrust you all? I didn't, but I had to be ready, just in case. Please Akane, it's hard enough to do this to my own sister without you questioning my actions."
"Ah... okay." Akane shuffled backwards. "I think I'll just go offline for a little while."
"Do that. You need your rest."
Akane stood for a moment, watching her sister work, before turning to head for the door. She paused once, leaning against the doorway, and stared at the girl tapping busily at her console. Her hesitation passed, and the doors slid closed behind her.
*****
The doors slid open, sending a rectangle of light across the room. A single figure stepped in to be framed in the doorway, then reached out to into the darkness beside her. Light swept through the room, revealing the desk sitting in the corner and the bed against the wall.
"What a day," Akane grumbled, stumbled across the room. Her foot struck a dumbbell, sending her belly flopping onto the bed with a grunt.
"Oh, great." She rolled over and stared at the roof. "What else can happen?" She reached up and tapped her Icon. A fuzz of energy ran over her body, exchanging her blue cadet's uniform for a pair of pink pyjamas.
A vid window popped open, showing a telephone with the receiver ringing off the hook. "Ring ring ring, ring ring ring, phone call, phone call."
Akane pulled herself up out off the bed and stared at the window for a nano. "Accept call," she murmured. The window flashed and a sprite dressed in black armour appeared, glancing over her shoulder.
"Nabiki?!" Akane exclaimed.
Nabiki whipped her head around, surprise showing on her face momentarily before relief replaced it. "Akane, about time. Do you know how long I've been trying to get through?" She shook her head. "Never mind, I don't have long."
"What's happening?" Akane demanded. "I mean, why are you calling me?"
Static passed over the screen for a moment, and Nabiki's image wavered before becoming clear again. "Look, I've had to hack through both Kuno's and Kasumi's security, and neither of them are making this easy, so I have no time for stupid questions. As you can guess that stupid machine of Kuno's didn't work."
"But why haven't you done something before now?" Akane blurted.
"I haven't had a chance," Nabiki replied. "I've had to play the evil schemer for Kuno to get this moment. Look, I need your help. There is no way Kuno is going to let me escape, so we're going to have to assemble something up."
Akane leant forward. "Okay, what do you want?"
*****
As the sound of Nabiki's stiletto heels striking the metal floor approached, Kuno minimised the window he was looking at. The corrupted sprite's hips swung seductively as she walked foot before foot. She wore a sly grin. "It's all set up, Kuno-baby."
"Excellent, take the men you need," the virus waved at her. "And do not fail me."
"Of course not, Kuno-baby." She spun on her heels, then turned back, a cunning gleam in her red eyes. "Do you mind if I take along the two henchbots?"
"Go ahead. I'm sure you'll put them to good use." He drew out the last word.
"Oh, I'm sure I will."
Kuno watched her saunter off, not taking his eyes off her until the doors hissed closed behind her. He reached out and tapped the icon floating before him. The window popped open, displaying Akane, dressed in her pink pyjamas and reaching out to close the window.
*****
"Wow, look what I found!" Sasuke rose out of the piles of junk, waving a pink sphere.
Sitting atop an old broken food assembler, Nabiki turned her head slowly and laid her eyes on the bot. Her eyes tightened, and she slipped off her perch, starting across the junkyard towards him. "Wow, Sasuke, that's a truly impressive find," she drawled, resting a hand on his shoulder. "It's almost as good as the Peek command Gosunkugi found." She sighed. "Why did Kuno send me on such a useless task?"
"It fits your new station," a voice sneered from above, "traitor."
All eyes turned up, to find Akane standing atop the catwalk next to the conveyor belt lead to the object destruction furnace. She casually held a rocket launcher in one hand. "A viral's function in this system is as a target."
"Capture her, and Kuno will reward us!" Nabiki screamed, stabbing her finger at Guardian cadet.
"Right!" the bots chorused, and launched themselves into the air.
Akane gave a confident bark of laughter and dropped to one knee, shouldering the rocket launcher. "Sorry, not going to be that easy." She thumbed the trigger, sending a missile spiraling towards the pair.
The eyes of both bots bugged out and the moronic pair separated, the missile sliding between them. Gosunkugi grinned at his partner, then turned to look at the Guardian. "HA! You mis--" He was silenced as explosions consumed both he and Sasuke.
Nabiki stood calmly as bot bits rained down about her. She glanced at the detonator switch in her hand, the same remote for the two mini-bombs she had slipped onto the two henchbots. Shrugging, she tossed away it
"Sorry boys, looks like you lose." Nabiki smirked down at them.
Shouting, Akane leapt, plummeting down from the catwalk. She landed with a crunch on one knee, then stood and took a single step forward. "Worked just like you said it would." Akane's smile was bright.
"Yes, sister, dear," Nabiki continued forward, her grin turning sly, "down to your naivete." She threw out her hand. "Now, take her!"
Piles of junk shifted about them and a horde of virals emerged from their hiding places. Each carried a weapon, from file blockers to more lethal energy pikes, trained on the Guardian. Akane looked around her in dismay.
"I can't believe you fell for that," Nabiki sneered. "You are so weak!"
"I can't believe you would betray us, betray me, like this, Nabiki," Akane sighed. She lifted her hand, revealing a small cylinder clutched in her fist. "But I'm not surprised." She jammed her thumb down on the end of cylinder.
The first wave of explosions caused Nabiki to throw her arms over her head in defense. A second ring exploded further out, sending more virals and junk flying into the air. As a third ring went up, Nabiki glanced up at her sister, to find Akane simply standing there amidst the fire and falling debris, watching her sadly.
A final set of explosives detonated, and the fallout crashed to the ground, leaving the sisters standing in dead silence. The green of Nabiki's face had paled, and her eyes were wide open. The corrupted sprites, mouth moved silently, unable to voice her shock.
On the other hand, Akane appeared calm, almost unflappable. It was in her eyes that Nabiki could see the pain, sadness and betrayal. Slowly Akane stepped forward, pulling a small pistol from behind her back. She raised it, slowly, but deliberately.
"YOU DIDN'T TRUST ME!" Nabiki exclaimed, stumbling backwards.
Akane shook her head taking another step. "Like Kasumi said, I couldn't take the risk."
Quickly, suppressing her shock, Nabiki smirked. "I suppose now you're going to say something cliched like: 'this is for your own good,' then shoot me."
Gun still outstretched, Akane took another step forward. "I thought about it but, it didn't seem right."
Nabiki's smirk widened. "Afraid not, sister dearest." Quickly she raised her own arms, one hand thrust towards Akane, the other wrapped about her wirst. "BIND!" A massive energy web erupted from the black armour enveloping her hand.
"Wha?" Akane's finger twitched, striking the firing stud, as the energy web wrapped around her. A single sizzling blast leapt from her weapon and across the space between the sisters. Nabiki cried in agony as the energy sliced through her armour and across the bitmap on her arm.
Helpless, trapped within the bonds of Nabiki's bind command, Akane fell heavily to the ground. She watched as Nabiki limped over, clutching at the gash down her arm, energy leaking profusely.
"You'll pay for that," she sneered. "I promise you." With her good arm, she snatched a small communicator from her side. "Get a recovery team here immediately! I have Kuno's prize!"
*****
Kasumi sighed deeply and hit the save button for the umpteenth time. Finally she had finished deleting Nabiki's access codes from the registry. A last keystroke sent a progress bar slowly across the screen as the files recompiled.
She looked up at the binomes set at the stations about the control room. A few were gazing blankly at their screens, eyes glazed over in boredom, another was playing chess against the computer, and one was even snoozing at his station. The only person in the room that still seemed busy was Kasumi's own assistant, the geek binome.
"Enty?" she called sweetly.
The one binome lifted his head and adjusted his glasses over his eye. "Yes Kasumi, ma'am?"
"Is there anything that needs my attention?"
"No, ma'am. Everything has been quiet since Akane dealt with that last attempt to break in."
Kasumi nodded distractedly. "Good, I think I'll go relax. If you need me, I'll be in my workshop, fixing Fuchikoma." A thoughtful look on her face, the swept out of the room.
*****
It was a bound and gagged Akane that was dragged before the virus Kuno. Nabiki and her battered virals strode victorious off the elevator, the later carrying their struggling captive above their heads. Their footfalls on the wire mesh rang out across the platform, causing Kuno to look up. He absently noted the reassembler patch attached to Nabiki's arm.
"Here we go, Kuno baby," Nabiki grinned. "I told you she would be gullible enough to fall for it." She slunk over to the virus, and lay a conspiring arm up onto the virus' shoulder. "So what are you going to do with her now that you've got her? See if you can force an interface?"
Kuno gave her a droll look. "Please, my villainous ally, do not speak so crudely of the lady I desire. She is, after all, your sister!"
Nabiki snorted. "She's also a sickeningly sweet goody-two-shoes." She turned and strode away. "You'll never get her to serve you. Not willingly. And you can't use that machine on her, the way you did with me."
"In that you are correct, my twisted lieutenant." Kuno stalked over to where Akane was still being held by the virals. He gazed into her eyes, meeting only strong defiance in return. "It pains me to do so, but I must take drastic measures to win her over."
Nabiki turned to look over her shoulder at him, an eyebrow raised. "Such as?"
"Tragically I must send the frail flower that is my love to have her PID exteracted." He stood, arm raised to his forehead in a symbol of tragedy.
A feral grin broke out on Nabiki's countenance. "Well then, Kuno-baby, since it pains you so much, why don't you let me take her down to the PID extraction room?"
It was Kuno's turn to stare at her inquisitively. "Surely the prospect of torturing your own sister disturbs you."
Nabiki shrugged casually. "Not in the least."
"You are truly evil."
"Thank you, Kuno-baby." She strode past him. "This way boys!" The virals, still carrying the helpless Akane, tromped off after her.
*****
The PID extraction chamber was a torture room designed for only one purpose: forcing a sprite to give up the code that would allow another to control its every action. Since time beyond measure, all process had been given an identification that registered the connected sprite with the system, in case of backup or upgrade.
Unfortunately, Viruses and Hackers had discovered that the sword had two edges. Not only could it protect a sprite, but it could also be used to access that sprite's higher functions, including their very thoughts. And so, the PID extraction chamber was built.
It was one such chamber that Akane was now held in. It was a large metal cylinder, with metal bars and chains that held the sprite spread eagle and hanging in mid-air. She had fought, of course, but the collective strength of the virals had overwhelmed her.
Nabiki stood behind the closed glass door to the cylinder, smirking at her. She reached up and slid aside a small panel. "Well sister dearest, soon all that pride and righteousness of yours will be gone, and you'll be the unwilling slave of Kuno!"
"Better unwilling than corrupted!" Akane spat back.
"So valiant in your resistance." Nabiki reached up to the control panel beside the door. "I hope you stay that way. Remember I said you'd pay for hurting me? Well, I've set this machine to a low setting. It'll hurt, probably worse than losing Ranma did, but not enough to break you quickly." She chuckled. "Hopefully, you'll be screaming for microseconds before you give up you PID."
Behind her, in the shadows, two pairs of eyes shared a worried glance.
Nabiki gave a quick salute to her sister. "Goodbye, Akane," she sneered, then slapped the controls.
Akane's scream cut across the room.
*****
Kasumi stepped into her workshop and gazed around. Before it had been a peaceful place, with strange machines and robots hanging in spotlight amidst the darkness. Now, however, the room was fully lit, and the sprites she had gathered for her think tank were busily doing what they did best, inventing.
Doc and Cid were sitting over in one corner, pouring over some of the disassembled drive parts of Ukyo's fighter. Every so often one would scribble something on a file folder and pass it to the other. It looked like the job was going to take a lot longer than they had expected, but would indeed be worth it when they had finished. For one thing, they had already started work on a new frame for the vehicle, and it was going to be much bigger than the original.
Scotty and his crew were progressing a little better, but they weren't working with hardware. Instead they were altering the very firmware of the system. They had simulations up and running. The only thing they had shown was that they would only have one chance with this, there could simply be no test runs.
Fuchikoma was the only one there not doing anything. Well, he was lying on the floor groaning every so often, but that wasn't much. The pounding he had received fighting Gosunkugi and Sasuke had bent his frame in places, and they'd even managed to get in a lucky punch that started a slow energy leak.
Kasumi knelt down next to the red mecha. "Its okay, Fuchikoma, I'm here to make you better."
"Thank you, ma'am," he managed weakly. "How's Akane?"
This gave Kasumi a reason to pause. She hadn't seen or heard from her sister for many hundreds of nanoseconds. "I don't know. I'm sure she must be off relaxing somewhere."
*****
The tortured screams could be heard even in the smelter room deep beneath the Tor. Of course, it helped that the torture chamber was also deep beneath the Tor. Gosunkugi and Sasuke, the two black henchbots, glanced towards the source of the cries, then each other, and finally returned to staring mournfully down at the river of molten metal below.
Gosunkugi hung himself limply over the railings and sighed deeply. "I hate this."
"I know," Sasuke commented. "I wish Nabiki would close the chamber so we could have some peace."
"I wish Ranma was here."
"Yeah, I... WHAT?!" cried Sasuke, then he tried to hush his partner. "Don't say things like that. If Kuno hears, there'll be trouble. Come to think of it, why would you say something like that?"
"Because if Ranma was here, he'd have rescued Akane by now. Then she wouldn't be suffering, and we wouldn't have to live with doing all this bad stuff."
Sasuke paused. "You don't like doing bad stuff?"
"It was okay when he was around, cause we knew we'd be stopped, but now..." Gosunkugi deflated a little more. "Fighting Akane isn't right. Neither is hurting her. Everything been wrong since he quit file."
Sasuke rolled over to his partner and looked down at the molten river below. "Yeah, even Kuno doesn't want us anymore." The smaller bot rolled over to his partner. "Maybe we should change sides." His tone suggested a joke.
"Yeah, maybe we should."
Sasuke looked thoughtful. "I'm sure Kasumi would pay us a lot more than Kuno does."
Next to him Gosunkugi lifted his head to gaze at his partner. "Kuno pays us?"
"Ah..." Sasuke considered it for a second. "No."
"Then I guess she'd have to." He went back to hanging over the railing. "They'd never trust us."
Glancing around to make sure they were alone, Sasuke leant in to whisper in Gosunkugi's ear. "Maybe they will if we rescue Akane."
Like a bullet, Goskungi shot upright. "Let's go!"
*****
The door to the barracks slammed open, startling the CPUs inside. Cards, chips, and rom went flying everywhere as binomes scrambled to their feet. Many relaxed when they saw it was not the defender, sorry Guardian-cadet, on a rampage, but instead the red bug-like mecha. Others were smarter.
"Where's Akane?!" Fuchikoma demanded, doing the best stomp his short legs would allow.
Zeros and ones exchanged confused or blank stares while making unknowing sounds. A zero looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking. "I believe the last time I saw here was at the armory. She was checking out a few hundred minibombs."
Fuchikoma stared at him for a few seconds. "YOU IDIOT! She's gone out on her own!" He spun about, then scuttled towards the door. "Come on, she may need our help!"
"That would be a first," a zero muttered as they filed out.
*****
Agony coursed through her pixels as the magnetic fields washed over her, searing her body and mind like an all-consuming fire. It was nothing like she had ever felt before, and there was no escape from it, except corruption. With every pass she could feel her electrons being shifted against bonds. Worse, the time between passes changed, sometimes she would come down from one blast only to immediately be struck again. Then there were the times, like now, when she hung there for what felt like seconds, with nothing but the dull aching memory of pain.
Outside, Nabiki grinned. The screams of her sister were almost musical, and certainly enjoyable. It was all she could do to keep herself from burst into an uncharacteristic bout of maniacal laughter.
She became aware of Gosunkugi as he trundled up beside her. "Excuse me."
"What is it?" she snapped, turning to glare at him. "Can't you see I'm enjoying torturing someone?"
Gosunkugi wrung his hands. "Well, yes, you see, that's why we're here?"
Nabiki's clueless "huh?" was drowned out by the sound of the metal bat striking her head.
Back inside the chamber, Akane was suffering through the longest pause yet. 'She's probably paused the machine to wait till I relax before giving me another blast,' Akane thought. 'I won't give her the pleasure.' She looked up to glare at the sprite she knew would be gloating beyond the door.
Instead, she came face to dome with Gosunkugi as he wheeled in through the open door. "Shhh, it's okay," he sounded comforting, confusing Akane.
'Is this some plot of Nabiki's?' she wondered as Gosunkugi extended his hand to release her manacles. Akane collapsed weakly over his arm, and felt his other arm surround her. Carefully, she was gathered up in the robot's metallic arms, cradled like a baby. She couldn't resist the treatment, her body and mind were still too weak from her torture.
She barely felt the movement as the robot carried her from the torture chamber. Beyond, through eyes that kept closing against her will, she saw Sasuke slamming a baseball bat into his hand. At his feet lay the black clad of Nabiki, out to the world if lump on her head and the squiggles in her eyes were any indication.
Smiling, Akane fell into unconsciousness.
"Is she alright?" Sasuke demanded of his partner.
Gosunkugi glanced down at the Guardian cadet in his arms. Akane's normally green skin had paled so far that it seemed almost tinted white and her brown hair had streaks of grey through it. The navy blue cadet's uniform she wore had shreds sliced out of it, leaving it a lot more risque outfit.
"No."
"We'd better get her somewhere safe."
"The Principal Office," Gosunkugi suggested.
"Let's go."
*****
Fuchikoma and the binome posse sailed across the sky above the sector known as G-Prime. Normally, an answering squadron of ABCs would have met an attack of this force. It was for this reasons that the CPU binomes were glancing about nervously as they flew two to a zip-board.
Their leader, desperately trying to balance on a pair of zip-boards, was first to spot the reason for the lack of response. A fire-fight had broken out around the Tor, bolts of energy flying, all missing their targets, but damaging more of the viral craft. Using his zoom lens, Fuchikoma focused on the shapes dodging wildly about the tower.
It was to his surprise that the targets were none other than the two robots, Gosunkugi and Sasuke. Briefly he wondered what was going on, then he spotted the bundle Gosunkugi was carrying and zoomed in on it. "AKANE!"
His first reaction was to rush in and save her, however, he quickly realised that the only thing keeping Akane and the bots safe were the small number of friendly units in the air. So long as the virals were bumping into each other in order to get to their targets, no one was hitting anything.
Instead he needed a plan, but plans weren't what he was good at. So he did the one thing no other hero in Mainframe would do. He opened a comm channel. "Madam Kasumi?"
"Yes, Fuchikoma?"
"Sasuke and Gosunkugi have Akane and are being chased all around the Tor by Kuno's entire force."
There was a long pause. "It sounds like they are trying to rescue her. What are your mikes picking up?"
Fuchikoma paused to check. "Cries of 'mommy', and an argument about whether or not Sasuke said this was a bad idea. Akane does not appear to be online."
"Okay, I'm putting every CPU unit I have into the air. Hopefully that mass mobilisation will draw off enough ABCs to let you get in and get Akane and the bots out. But watch them, this may be a trick."
Fuchikoma needlessly saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"
*****
Nabiki groaned as she watched the battle outside the tower. An observer might think she had a headache caused by a blow to the back of the head with a metal bat. This was an accurate observation, but not the cause of her discomfort.
No, her groan was, in fact, caused by the mounting causalities being reported. So far, twenty percent of the ABCs had been taken out of the battle by damage or straight out deleted. Kuno did not help the chaos of the battle, shouting a stream of non-stop, and often contradictory, orders.
Nabiki sighed. There had been some fun, but knew what would happen next. Glancing at the long-range scanners confirmed her belief. "Kuno! Shut UP!" she snapped forcefully.
The virus fell silent but turned to glare at his subordinate, who didn't even look up from her panels to catch it.
"All units, we have enemy incoming from adjacent sectors. Break off pursuit and form up into squadrons. Red, green and Blue squadrons, intercept units on vector oh-three-five. Gold and silver, take vector one-eight-five and one-seven-zero, attempt to flank the battlemovers approaching from sector 10011. Copper, protect Gold and Silver from the air support in that area."
"But my goddess!" Kuno spat.
Nabiki spared him an irritated glance. "We can always recapture her later. I don't think you could keep her without the Tor."
*****
The sudden exit by the ABCs left Sasuke hovering in the air, bewildered. His partner wasn't so smart.
"MOMMY!" Gosunkugi cried as he continued to dodge non-existent blasts.
"Ah, Gos... you can stop now, they're gone."
"Huh?" He looked about at the empty sky, and at the Tor. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Sasuke admitted slowly. "They just all left."
"We scared them off!" Gosunkugi cried happily. He would have thrown hs hands in the air, but decided Akane wouldn't like that, seeing as she was nestled there.
"No, you didn't!" Fuchikoma snapped, as he and his CPUs swooped down. "They're off dealing with our diversion! Now, hand over Akane."
Gosunkugi shook his dome. "Nah ah. We're saving her."
Fuchikoma paused and stared at the bots. "Whatever. Let's get going!"
*****
"A disaster!" Kuno cried, staring down at the scarred and battered ruins of his fleet of ABCs. "A complete and unmitigated disaster! How can the plots of a virus as perfect as I be foiled by such simple sprites?! Why must nothing go as planned?!"
Behind him, wrapped in shadows, Nabiki watched him carefully. "Oh no, Kuno-baby, everything is going exactly as planned."
*****
Blurry eyes opened to a blazing fluorescent panel boarded by stark white that stabbed at her eyes. Her hands ached, her feet ached, her bitmap ached, her mind ached, hell, even her clothes ached. The tired mind clicked into something resembling gear, and buzzed over the cliche questions. 'Who am I? Where am I? What happened? Who's going to pay for it?'
'Akane. Don't know. I was tortured. Nabiki,' were the answers she received. However, it hurt too much to ask questions, so instead she simply muttered. "An unfamiliar ceiling." She immediately regretted it.
First, she discovered that her voice ached, incredibly enough. It wasn't so much that her lips hurt to move, or her chest protested about having to breath so much. It was that the very words hurt.
Second was that her ears immediately protested having to hear someone say: "Akane? Oh, you're awake."
Kasumi's smiling, but worried, face appeared in her vision. "Please, don't move, don't speak. You're still suffering from the effects of the electromagnetic torture." Her smile brightened. "You will get better, but you don't have to hurry. I have two new defenders to help me out while your in bed."
Still mentally fog bound, Akane could only smile at her sisters comforting words. As she slipped back into sleep, fleeing the pain of her body, she didn't even wonder who the new defenders were.