TOKYO
Chapter 8
Incident in the Abandoned Power Plant
Nei giggled and squirmed a bit as the scanner's light touched her. "That tickles!"
Dr. Andronauts peered at the console. "Well, her DNA is definitely partly human," he said, "but mostly there's stuff I've never seen before. There's some feline DNA, definitely -- which would partly explain the ears ... but I can't figure out the rest of it." He turned to face her. "What did you mention before? 'Palmans'?"
"From the planet Palma," said Nei. "We're from ... another star system."
"I see," said Dr. Andronauts. "So ... you were the result of a genetic experiment. I suppose that's nothing new here ..."
Nei shrugged. "Actually, Neifirst was ... I'm sort of ... well, it was kinda like a split personality, and I was one of them ... um ..."
"Is that even possible?" said Zero, leaning against a wall off to one side. His armor hadn't been repaired, and he was wearing his new Cloth Armor outfit.
"I suppose it is, theoretically," said Dr. Andronauts. "Sort of like teleporting, but without a source, or perhaps a direct energy-to-matter conversion." He shrugged. "I know little of such things ... though it might make the creation of assembly-line robots much cheaper ..."
Nei shrugged. "I couldn't possibly do it again. It took too much effort ... and besides, I was trying to escape."
"Oh well," said Dr. Andronauts. "It was just a thought." He looked up. "Anyway, pending further analysis of the data we've collected, we're done here. You can go home now if you want."
"Okay!" said Nei, jumping off the bed.
"Augh, no wait!" exclaimed Dr. Andronauts.
He winced as the sirens went off.
"You know, that was really stupid," said Zero as they materialized in the front of Ars Magica.
"Aheh ... sorry!" said Nei sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.
"I'm not even gonna ask," said Seifer, looking up from a computer screen.
"She accidentally set off the 'escaping subject' alarms when she bounced off after we were done analysing her DNA," said Zero, dematerializing his cloth armor and replacing it with a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. "That bed didn't even have restraints ..."
"Oh brother," said Seifer, clicking out of a window. "Y'know, if that's all it takes to set you guys off, you must be REALLY paranoid."
"Hey, don't knock it," said Zero. "We've almost been wiped out when we've underreacted to something. Where's Zelgadis?"
"Right here," said Zelgadis, walking in from the back room. "And I'm getting a funny reading on the Mandala. Would you mind taking Soma, Nei, and Ranma to investigate it?"
"Sorry," said Zero with a shrug. "I have to go on a frickin' routine patrol mission in half an hour. Won't be able to keep my job if I'm AWOL."
Zelgadis chuckled. "All right, I suppose you know what's best in terms of the Maverick Hunters. Seifer ..."
"Aww, man ..."
"You haven't really gone out a mission since Zio arrived," said Zelgadis drily, "and you have no other job. I mean, Ranma at least works at that restaurant, Dita works here, and Soma has a job at that clothing store."
"What about Nei an' Vash?" complained Seifer.
"They're too new," said Zelgadis. "And not many people are likely to want to hire someone who is wanted for destroying several towns. That kind of thing is bad for business."
"Ah, whatever," said Seifer, standing up.
In one of the seediest, dirtiest, most crime infested areas in the town, a manhole was lifted up from below. "Why is it that we always end up in the slums?" complained Ranma as he climbed out of the manhole.
"Eh, you're just annoyed cuz of that Terry Bogard guy," said Seifer, climbing out after him. He'd left behind his grey overcoat, and wore instead a blue shirt and black pants. "Now THERE'S a guy who didn't know when to stop."
"Yeah, really," said Soma, following. His white jacket sharply contrasted to, well, just about everything there. "Um ... Nei, are you comfortable?"
Nei stopped tugging at the black out she was wearing as she sat on the edge of the manhole. "Um ... well ... no," she said. She shook her head. "I've never felt that comfortable about wearing clothes ..."
Soma, Ranma, and Seifer exchanged an unreadable glance. "Well, I suppose that the outfit you came here in is ... um ... enough," said Ranma, carefully replacing the manhole cover. "But ... um, anyway ... where's the rift supposed to open, again?"
"The abandoned power plant," said Soma. "Remember? Where Seifer made his big debut?"
Ranma chuckled. "How could I ever forget?"
"Hey, it's not my fault they shut it down!" said Seifer. "They already had a few fusion plants to power the whole city. There wasn't any more need for an obsolete one like this. My arrival and subsequent actions had nothing to do with it, nor did they have to do with the fact that this was a slum."
"Suuuuuure," said Ranma, grinning.
Nei looked from one to the other. It was obvious that it would be some time before she knew any of them as well as they knew each other, and she felt slightly left out.
"Anyway, the plant's a few more blocks away," said Seifer. "We'll wait till we're there, and then ..."
"PREPARE FOR TROUBLE!"
"What the!?" exclaimed Seifer. All four of them moved into a combat stance, back-to-back, ready for an attack from any direction.
"AND MAKE IT DOUBLE!"
Seifer pointed upwards with his gunblade. On the roof of the building on the left, two figures, dressed in white, stood in a dramatic pose, which was immediately followed by what could only be a catchphrase. In fact, it was an entire catchspeech.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
'To begin every single sentence with an infinitive,' thought Soma, but then the two of them identified themselves.
"Jessie!"
"James!"
They struck a different pose. "Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!" exclaimed Jessie.
James said, "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
A bizzare blue ... thing suddenly popped up in front of them with a cry of "Wobbuffett!"
A short, feline form kicked the creature aside. "Outta my way!" he said, striking a pose in front of Jessie and James. "Meowth! That's right!"
"Wait a minute, she isn't with them," said Jessie.
James snapped his fingers. "Damn, looks like -- What's wrong with him!?"
Soma had a firm grip on the back of Ranma's collar, preventing him from running away. "He's afraid of cats," he called up to them apologetically.
"Afraid of -- well, I'm technically not a cat," said Meowth.
"Anyway, we apologize for wasting your time," said Jessie. "You wouldn't happen to know of a young girl, who looks quite like your cataphobic, same hairstyle but with red hair, would you?"
"Um ..." Seifer considered this, and then pulled out a water bottle. He pulled the cap off and splashed it at Ranma.
"Ack!" she said. "What the ...!?"
"GAH! That IS her!" exclaimed James. "You! You prevented our men from apprehending Vash the Stampede five weeks ago! All of them were unconscious!"
Ranma blinked. "Those dweebs were part of Team Rocket?" she said. "Makes sense ..."
"Dweebs!?" exclaimed Meowth, and promptly leaped off the building towards them. "YEEAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!"
Ranma screamed, jumping into Nei's arms in terror. "CAT!"
Meowth, his intended target someplace else, crashed into the pavement. In deference to the cartoon laws of physics, he was mostly unharmed.
"Ranma's fear of cats proves more effective than the opponent's actual cat once again," said Soma, facepalming.
"Um ... I have some feline DNA," said Nei nervously.
"Thanks, I really needed to know that!" yelled Ranma, her hair standing on end.
"I cannot believe Meowth just did that," muttered James.
"Okay, screw this," said Seifer. "I know I'm probably gonna wish I'd saved these for later, but ... FIRAGA!"
There was a massive explosion of flame, sending all three Rocketeers flying into the distance, with cries of "We're blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaain!" They vanished off into the distance, with a sparkle of light.
"That was really stupid," said Ranma, dropping out of Nei's arms and taking a step back from her.
Seifer used his magic to heat up more of his water bottle and sprinkled it over Ranma's head. "I suppose I don't have to bring up your situation," he said.
Ranma rolled his eyes. "Pfft. Blame my dad. A lot of my problems are his fault."
"The sins of the father," murmured Soma. "Anyway, the power plant's over there. Let's go."
The door to the plant opened up, unleashing a musty smell. No one had been there in quite a while.
"I suddenly have a bad feeling about this," muttered Seifer.
"Me too," said Ranma. "I think there's some sort of dark aura about this place ..."
Nei suddenly gasped and pointed. The others turned. "Zio!"
The Dark Magician was standing by a hallway, facing away from them. He turned to face them, a look of pleasant surprise on his face. "Ah, hello," he said. "Oh, do put away your weapons and get out of those ridiculous combat poses. Even if you get through my barrier, you still aren't equipped to defeat me."
"What are you doing here, Zio?" snarled Seifer.
"Oh, I was just looking," said Zio. "And I'm not going to stop you from doing the same. Be my guest." He chuckled darkly, and then vanished in a black haze.
"Ugh ... He really knows how to inspire hatred," muttered Ranma.
"Must be a knack," said Soma, moving towards the passage. "C'mon, let's go." He stopped. "Unless this is some sort of trap ..."
"Hmm, didn't think of that," said Seifer. "Think we should just head home?"
"I second that," said Ranma. "It's too risky at this point. If we got all the rest of the --"
"I think we should go in," Nei said suddenly, in a quiet voice.
They turned to look at her. "What ...?" said Soma.
"It's a ... precognition, or something," she said, sounding fearful. "We need to go in ... otherwise, we might lose everything ..."
There was a thoughtful pause. "All right," said Soma reluctantly, turning around. And then the four of them retreated into the dark hallways of the power plant.
"Have they gone in?" asked Neifirst.
"Your ... sister should handle things, if her precognitive ability matches yours," said Zio. "And don't worry -- even if we don't get the pleasure of defeating them ourselves, He will reward us by leaving them alive, and then we'll come in and finish them off ourselves."
Neifirst grinned. "Excellent," she said. "And what of ... Her?"
Zio grinned back. "On schedule or not, She will awaken soon," he said. "And then ... the universe shall be brought to nothingness!"