Title: Chaos Returned: Chapter 1b
Author: MJRD
Rating: PG-13 for now
Feedback: Please! C&C craved: meghan@zizania.org
Disclaimer: Not mine, both Ranma ½ and Gundam belong to people with more talent and money (and lawyers) than me. This is being written for fun, to get over writer's block and with the possibility of entertaining a few people.
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NOTE: This is set in 199 AC, about two years after the events in Endless Waltz. All five of the pilots are working for the Preventers. The Ranma timeline is the same as canon (manga) except for happening in the GW universe: knowledge of the colonies, slightly higher tech level. Genma and Ranma arrived in Nerima in 194 AC. The fight with Saffron occurred shortly after the formation of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. The GW pilots are about 19 years old, while Ranma is 20. The age difference and passage of time would change behavior patterns somewhat; some characters have matured (I don't think that really counts as OOC)
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Wufei glanced down at the top folder. He didn't recognize the name. "You're assigning a rookie to work with us on this?"
"I'd hardly call myself a rookie," an amused voice commented.
The five spun to find a young man of obvious Japanese descent leaning against the wall, not five feet from Quatre. Bright blue eyes tracked their every movement. Before the boys could fully react Une's voice rang out, "Stand down!" freezing them, Heero's gun already in his hand.
Une sighed and looked over at the dark-haired youth. "Ran, I really wish you wouldn't do that."
He shrugged, unperturbed. "Would you rather that I announce my presence to the whole building?"
She shook her head, giving up on what was obviously an old argument. "How long have you been here?"
"Since an attempt at world domination became the preferable option," he answered, nodding at Wufei.
Five pairs of eyes flashed back and forth between their commander and the newcomer. The tension in the room was somewhat relived when Duo yelped, "How the hell did you do that?"
A muttered 'baka' came from Heero direction as his gun disappeared again. The boy that Une had called Ran watched this process with interest before answering, "Practice, lots of it."
Wufei watched with narrowed eyes. "I take it that you are our new teammate?"
Ran nodded as Une cleared her throat. "This is Morisato Ranma. He has a working knowledge of this case that, along with his specialties, should help you out with the investigation. Ran, I believe you recognize everybody." The youth nodded again.
Trowa looked up from the file he had taken from his partner. "Stealth, demolitions, and hand-to-hand combat?"
Ranma made a face. "Martial Arts. I still don't get why they say it that way."
Wufei regarded him with a raised eyebrow. "What form do you practice?"
"Forms. I'm the equivalent of master rank in several and grand master of Ganso Musabetsu Kakutou Ryuu."(1) He said the last with a cocky grin that didn't quite hide the slightly wistful expression in his eyes.
Wufei's other eyebrow rose to join the first. "We will have to spar sometime."
"Great!" responded Ranma, eyes lighting up and grin widening. "I haven't had a real spar in too long."
Lady Une's expression was a cross between amusement and annoyance. "Now that you've got that out of the way . . ." The ringing of her vid phone interrupted her. "Yes?"
Everyone could hear Sally's worried voice on the other end. "Do you have any idea where Ran is? He still hasn't come to see me after that last mission and he isn't answering the phone at his place." All eyes in the room turned to the person in question, whose hand went behind his head in a habitual gesture of nervousness.
"Umm, hi, Sally." He gave the screen a sheepish smile as he stepped into view behind Une, flicking his ponytail back over his shoulder.
"Just where have you been? The report said you'd been injured!"
Ranma tried to interrupt, "I'm fine . . ." but the medic just ignored him.
"I want you down here now, mister," Sally finished.
The beleaguered boy glanced over at Une, who simply raised an eyebrow. He sighed, "Fine, just give me five minutes."
"Just get your rear down here." Sally signed off.
Another pleading look was sent at his commander as Ranma spoke. "There's some more stuff you guys are gonna have to know if we're gonna work together. Would you be willing to meet me in 'bout an hour?"
There were five hesitant nods as the boy turned to face Une again. "Give them directions to my place?" He fished in the pocket of his jeans for a moment, then handed her a key. "It's still raining out," he told her, a seeming non-sequitur.
She nodded as she accepted the key. "Now get out of here before Sally calls again."
All eyes followed the boy as he literally disappeared out the door. Heero was the first to speak. "He was the one who brought back the newest information on the case."
Une nodded even though it wasn't really a question. Quatre's soft voice was the next to break the silence. "Why haven't any of us heard of him before? Between us, we know everybody in the Preventers."
Une sighed and looked at her hands for a moment. "This all started just shortly after the Preventers were formed." She looked up. "Up until this point the only people who knew of Ran's existence were Sally and myself."
"So why are you putting him on a case with us now?" Duo asked.
Lady Une gave a small smile. "Actually, it's the other way around: I'm putting you on the case with him. He has been involved with this set of cases for over a year." She held up a hand, forestalling more questions for the moment. "I realize that you must have a lot of questions about him, but I feel it would be best if he were the one to answer them."
She paused and looked at each of them. "I just ask that you give him a chance to explain before you make any judgments. Ran had a very . . . strange life before he joined the Preventers." A sad smile crossed her lips. "Ran just chalks it up to an old Chinese curse."
Wufei blinked. "'May you live in interesting times'? And I would assume that you are referring to more than the 'interesting times' we have all lived through."
Une nodded. "Do you have any other questions now? There are some detail of the case that I want to cover and I want you to have time to go over those files." She gestured to the folders that Wufei still held.
With a slight frown Trowa nodded and held out the paper he was holding. "This mentions psychiatric counseling – is there anything that we should know about?"
With a blank face she started to explain, "Ran had an extreme phobia due to an incident during his childhood." Une's hands had clenched into fists; she stopped and visibly forced herself to relax. "Thankfully, Sally and a few others were able to help him deal with it before anything disastrous happened."
Quatre's eyes widened at the suppressed anger radiating from Une. "This is one of the issues you want us to hear from him, isn't it?"
Une nodded again. "Ran has a unique view of the world; you should hear his story from him first." She forced a small smile. "Without my opinions getting in the way."
As no other questions seemed to be forthcoming, Une started the briefing. "As I mentioned earlier, this group has their fingers in many different areas: drug labs, prostitution rings, money laundering, extortion, arms manufacture/distribution, and some type of unknown experimentation on humans. We are not sure whether these operations are functioning semi-independently or if there are joint endeavors between the different branches.
"These operations span the entire globe, centralizing in North America, Central Europe, and Japan. As far as we can tell, there are no major operations in the colonies yet. We have been unable to get any leads on who is running things, be it a group or an individual. All available information points to operatives in high levels of the government. There is even the possibility that we have a leak in the department. In light of this information this assignment is completely undercover; if anybody asks the five of you are on leave. The only people to know that you are working on this case are Sally and myself.
"There are more details in the files, but there are a few things I would like to bring to your attention now. We do know that they are developing heavy weaponry, possibly mobile suits. That was another reason you were brought onto this case; you are the most likely to be able to deal with things if it is confirmed.
"The other issue of main concern is the experimentation. We know very little beyond the fact that they are doing something that unnerves the other underground elements. Some of our contacts may know more; I will look into finding out more from that end. From the little information that has been gathered it seems that participation in these experiments is not on a voluntary basis; we don't even know what the survival rate is."
All five of the young men stared at Une for a moment after she finished. There was a collective blink when it was obvious that there was no more information forthcoming.
Not surprisingly, Duo was the first to break the silence that had descended on the room. "Is there any chance that the curse you mentioned earlier is contagious? 'Cause it sure sounds like the times are about to get pretty interesting."
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(1) Original Indiscriminate Hand-to-hand Style (also called Anything Goes Martial Arts)
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Authors Notes: Only got a few things this time around: big thanks to my beta reader, X-parrot, she is the one that is keeping this coherent ^_^ If you want to know the pairings that will come up e-mail me otherwise wait ^_~ And finally I plead, beg, whatever for C&C. This will be continued whether or not I get it but it may come out faster with responses ^_^