Sailor Moon ST: Hero Unlimited – DS Wynne
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, Star Trek, Justice League Unlimited and other properties belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Part 16: "Endgame"
In an eatery in the center of Juuban Park (of the Azabuu Juuban district in Tokyo, Japan) called "Café Americana", Setsuna ("Sailor Pluto") Meioh was eating a light meal, while reading her early morning paper. Café Americana was owned by a subsidiary of the Mishima Zaibatsu, which was majority-owned by the Rantsu clan (50 percent shares plus one). Ranma Saotome (as "Lord Ranshin Rantsu") and Usagi Tsukino-Saotome (as "Lady Usashinko Rantsu") were the clan elders, but typically allowed their son Kenshin manage day-to-day affairs while pretending to be ordinary (an unmarried) high school students. So far, the plan has been working…in spite of certain difficulties pertaining to past relationships. Hopefully, when the time is right, Ranma and Usagi can make their mutual affections known by have a second wedding…after graduation, of course.
As Setsuna picks up her teacup, the handle suddenly breaks, clattering on the saucer.
'And so the countdown towards 'The Great Freeze' begins…or not,' Setsuna mused to herself. 'It will be up to the Princess and 'the stud' to deal with this matter.'
"My apologies, ma'am," said a waitress, as she went over to clean up the mess. "I will get you another cup of tea, if you like."
"That will be fine," Setsuna says, as she gets up to leave. "Here."
Setsuna pays the waitress a nice sum of money, which was more than necessary.
"But miss-"
"Take it. ENJOY it. You never know when the world will end."
As Setsuna leaves the eatery, the waitress wonders what she meant by her words…
Meanwhile, as Nabiki typed away, Ranma appears.
"So…adding 'thievery' to your resume, huh Nabs?"
Nabiki turns around startled.
"YOU!"
"Yeah?" Ranma said, as he produced a virtual window, and resets the security systems and protocols. "You know, I never knew you to be a thief."
"ME?" Nabiki retorted. "You got some nerve."
"Hey, I didn't know better, dig?"
Ranma completed his actions, and made the "screen" disappear.
"So, why are you here?"
"I want to know what you are up to, Saotome. And what the hell is all this?"
Ranma mused for a minute.
"The answer will cost you a bit of yen."
"Or, I could get that information for free, by threatening you with exposure-"
"-Which will result in you being locked in a loony bin from 'believing' that an ordinary jock has access to a place like this…especially when it is relocated."
'Damn, he got me there,' Nabiki thought to herself. "Okay, Saotome, you have yourself a deal. 10,000 yen, and not a yen-piece more."
"Fair enough. SELMA."
A holographic image of Nodoka appears.
"Good afternoon, Captain Saotome.
"Gah!" Nabiki exclaimed.
"She is a bit jumpy."
"Yes, so it appears. Any way, this is 'SELMA'. Normally, she is my own personal computer, but I have her hooked up to the USS Rantsu."
"'Wild Rabbit'?"
"Yeah. Anyway, this is a starship we are on, presently buried underneath the lot behind the Tendo Compound."
"What's it doing here?"
"Well, I needed a place a park it, why else?"
"…"
"Anyway, it's been here for a while now, and I don't have plans on moving it until I feel the need to."
"From what I can see, you have a lot of 'future tech' at your disposal."
"Yeah, I guess so, since I got from the 31st century."
"What?" Nabiki exclaimed.
"You've been saying that a lot."
"Well, excuse ME, Saotome for being honest."
"I forgive ya."
Before Nabiki could reply, the emergency "klaxons" began to sound, prompting SLEMA to disappear.
"RED ALERT! EMERGENCY SIGNAL HAS BEEN RECEIVED!"
"Great," Ranma replied. "I'll take it here."
The screen lights up, showing a distressed Sailor Moon.
'Sailor Moon?' Nabiki thought.
"Ranma, you got to do something!" 'Moon says.
"Hold on, what's happening?"
"Someone has activated our binary fusion canon, and it is being aimed at Tokyo!"
"WHAT?" yelled Ranma and Nabiki.
"It's about to fire-"
SKRREEE!
"Signal has been lost.
Nabiki looked at Ranma frantically.
"What are we going to do?"
"'We' are going to activate Tokyo's defenses."
"But how can I-?"
"The power that I am going to need to stop the attack will consume a lot of juice. Unfortunately, each of the five points need to be manually activated. So, with the help of your Minerva Computer, we should be fine."
Ranma then turns to the computer.
"Computer, activate 'Protocol: Siege'."
"Initiating protocols."
Suddenly, Nabiki sees her computer running a program that she has never seen before. Then, the family crest of the Rantsu clan pops up.
"Yes, I made modifications on your computer, and you can ream me for it LATER."
"Incoming haling frequencies open," SELMA says.
The screen lights up, and is divided into four screens.
"Ranma, we got the protocols," Ami ("Sailor Mercury") Mizuno says. "I'm almost finished with things on my end.
'Ami?' Nabiki thinks to herself.
"I'm all set here," says Keiichi Morisato. Keiichi was a graduate student at the Nekomi Institute of Technology, and a friend of the family. "You actually think someone is trying to destroy Tokyo…again?"
"Of course!" shouted the former police detective-turned-street paladin Maniwa ("Radar-Man") Mitsuhiro. Maniwa has only recently become lucid enough to fight that which cannot be seen, like the fae or ghosts (for example) but are threats to the citizens of Tokyo. In his spare time, he operates a pirate radio station. "This land is center of paranormal activity, after all."
"Tell us what to do, sir," says the young Izumi ("Izzy") Koushiro. He was a young teenager who was a computer wizard and "Digimon" tamer.
"I want you guys to manually reprogram the refraction node of each point of the deflector grid," Ranma said.
"Why is that, Saotome?" Nabiki asked.
"Good question. Here is the answer. One, I don't want ONE person to ever have control over a power system like the deflector grid, so I would need five other people to 'man' the station. Two, I don't want this system to fall in the wrong hands, especially when you have a system this potentially dangerous. And, three, I will need to do this, because a certain friend of my hasn't built my quantum generator yet…which I would need for auxiliary power."
Down around the outskirts of Okayama, a certain universal scientific genius sneezes.
"So…you will need MY help, too?" Nabiki says with a smirk.
"Well, yeah…if you want to live."
"Good point," Nabiki said, as she examined the data. "Simple enough. I'm on it."
"Okay, people," says Ranma. "We only have thirty seconds left, so let's get this thing DONE."
"RIGHT!" said everyone in unison.
All over time, five small towers (all of which built on the key nexus points that will make up the foundation of the future "Crystal Tokyo") emerge from their respective hiding places…with Tokyo Tower being at the center. An emergency alarm sounded, effectively forcing everyone in the vicinity to flee the tower.
"Five seconds until impact."
"I'm finished," Ami says.
"Done," Keiichi replied.
"My task has been completed," replies Maniwa.
"Got it!" Izzy interjected.
"Nabiki that that last tower aligned!" Ranma yelled.
"I've been done a few moments ago, Saotome," Nabiki smirked.
"Ha, ha," Ranma replied. "Activating defense grid…NOW."
CHOOOOOM-!
At the last minute, the energy expulsion from the binary fusion canon made contact with an erected shield. There was a rumbling sound, but the shield held.
Within the Rantsu, the lights dimmed a bit.
"Will restore primary power in five minutes," SELMA replies.
"Thanks, Nabiki for your help," Ranma says.
"Any time, Ranma-baby," Nabiki replied.
"SELMA, do we have enough power to employ 'the flash'?"
"Affirmative."
"'The flash?'" Nabiki inquired.
"Oh, yes," Ranma replied, as he puts on a pair of sunglasses. "Take a look at the view screen of Tokyo Tower."
Nabiki did as she was told.
'Now, why does that sound so familiar-' Nabiki thought.
FLASH!
Tokyo Tower emitted a flash of light that erased short-term memory of everyone in the city, save for certain individuals who either knew to expect such a thing, or who were naturally resistant the effects to the "neuralizer".
"Now, Nabiki, everything that you have experienced, is nothing more than a dream."
"…A dream…"
"Good. SELMA, beam her into her own bed, and make sure she is dressed in her sleepwear."
BRRRRRRIIIIIING!
With Nabiki gone, Ranma could now relax.
"I can't believe that this is the fourth time this month I had to erase her memory like that," Ranma said with a sigh.
"Actually, it was the seventh."
"I see. Are you sure she won't get brain-damaged or something?"
"Psychosis developed from being exposed by multiple neural neutralization is a rare occurrence, Captain."
"Be as it may, I may not like Nabiki as she is NOW, but I don't want her to be 'handicapped' in any way."
And then…
CHIRP-CHIRP!
"That is a call from the Prime Minister's office."
"Great," Ranma said, as he taps a keystroke on the consol. "Too bad the Prime Minister wasn't the ones affected by the clean-up…"
A few hours later, the Sailor Scouts (with the exception of Usagi and Rei) were watching TV over at the Cherry Hill Temple.
"…And in late-breaking news, the founding members of the Justice League have turned themselves over to the custody of Federal authorities, for unlawful use of a 'weapon of mass destruction'," says "Snapper" Carr. "And in a surprising turn of events, it has been learned that the Japanese super-heroine, Sailor Moon, will be charged as an 'enemy combatant', since she is NOT a U.S. citizen. This would be the first step towards charging her as a terrorist, under present statute."
"This is horrible!" Luna wailed.
"I'll say," Artemis replied. "It is conceivable that she could be jailed for at least twenty years."
"WHAT?" the other girls said…save for Ami, who was monitoring all forms of communications concerning their leader; the other absentees were Rei and Makoto, who were now stuck on the JL Satellite, thanks to the activation of the cannon (which drained the power supply that ran the station). Suddenly, the girls wondered if Usagi, after spending years in prison, would return to Japan "butch". Strangely, this had some appeal to Michiru…
"And where are Rei and Makoto, for that matter?" asked Haruka.
"I…I hope that there are fine," Hotaru asked.
"They are…for the moment," Ranma replied, as he finishes climbing the steps of the temple.
"YOU!" Haruka yells, as she goes over to attack Ranma. "Because of your meddling with the Princess' life she is trouble-"
"Peace be with you," Ranma replied in an eerie voice.
Suddenly, all the fight was drained from her.
"Huh?" Haruka said with a confused look.
"That's MUCH better," Ranma says with a smirk.
"What did you do to Haruka?" Michiru demanded.
"Hypnotic suggestion," Ranma replied. "Okay, listen up. Usagi is in custody, until things gets cleared."
"Do you think she will be okay?" Naru says. "Do I need to be activated?"
"Sure, why not? As for Usagi's well-being…it's safe to say that she'll find some bright side…"
In one of Cadmus' prison facilities, 'Moon undergoes a "strip-search".
"Okay," Usagi replied contently, as she faced the prison walls in holding. "You may…search me."
The other justice leaguers (save for Batman, who wasn't present) sweat-dropped. Rae (as the Martian Manhunter) was trying his best not to blow "his" stack.
"Um, we weren't going to be 'stripped'," said Wally ("The Flash") West.
"Oh, we weren't?" 'Moon said, trying to act innocently.
John ("Green Lantern") Stewart turns to Superman.
"You were MARRIED to her?" John asked.
Superman did his best to be embarrassed.
"SHE is a founding leader?" Hawkgirl asked Wonder Woman.
"Auntie can be a bit…eccentric, sometimes," Wonder Woman replies.
"I see. Makes me feel sorry for her husband."
Meanwhile, up at the JL Satellite…"We should be down there and see if our families are okay," Sailor Diana said.
"Trust me, we would have known if Tokyo was destroyed," Sailor Jupiter replied. "Besides, we should do what we can to help people here."
"But…but how? I don't know anything."
"Take a look at those guys," 'Jupiter says, as she pointed to a group of workers ferrying boxes and equipment. "Apparently, they need to replace much of this equipment, which has shorted out."
"Oh, I see…"
"Good. We ALL have uses. Earlier, I used my electricity to help recharge as much of the station as possible, but I will still find a way to help. Maybe…I can help feed some of these people-"
"Guys!" Supergirl says, as she peers into space. "We got incoming missiles!"
"Great!" says the armored warrior named "Steel", who created a suit of silver armor to mimic both Superman's powers and the mystic hammer of Thor. "Just what we need."
"What's going on?" 'Diana asked.
"We're being attacked by 'Domiciles' missiles," Steel replied.
"Huh?"
"They're designed to drill into the satellite," says Pat Dugan, as he gets into his power armor called "STRIPE".
And then-
BOOM!
The satellite rocked, as fifty missiles penetrated the hull all over the satellite.
"Oof!" 'Diana said, as she fell down.
"You okay?" 'Jupiter asked, as she helped up the Sailor of Diana.
"I guess so-
FWOOSH!
Suddenly, the nose of the missiles popped opened to reveal the cloned doppelgangers of-
"'The Ultimen'?" Supergirl said.
The Ultimen was another government-sponsored team that was used by Cadmus to test new superpowers. Unfortunately, the original members—the Japanese "Wind Dragon", the Native America "Long Shadow", the African-American "Juice" and the alien twins (boy and girl respectively) Downpour (Zan) and Shifter (Jayna)…with their monkey Gleek—were placed in stasis until the bodies stabilized. Even more unfortunate is the fact that Cadmus decided to clone the Ultimen to be used as "living weapons", which were being controlled by-
BOOM!
"This is 'Power Girl'," said the buxom daughter of Superman and Sailor Moon into her wireless mic. She stepped out of her own Domiciles missile, which "landed" close to the engineering.
"I'm in, and, soon, I will cause the Justice League's power to…KA-BOOM!"
Tbc.
Next (and final) time: "Free Fall" & "Finale".