Chapter 9: At the Lab

Shampoo let herself in the same vent again. On Monday, she had submitted Mousse's DNA sample and then followed up with the lab to see how long the testing would take. Her plan was to find Mousse's and Ranma's results and swap them. Unfortunately, she needed to access the computer in the post-processing lab to switch the results and print out new copies for post-processing. Fortunately, she had a list of computer commands to enter to get the job done. She had learned all of this by waylaying two of the post-processing techs (one-at-a-time) and administering a truth potion to them. Once she had the info written down, she wiped their memories of their time with her. She had also gone to the local library to practice on the public computers there – most of the commands were actual standard operating system commands. "I'm going to shove this notebook down Spatula Girl's throat the next time she calls me a dumb bimbo," Shampoo thought smugly.

She readied a sleep bomb as she neared the vent over where the two guards held their surveillance, but froze when she peeked through. Something was wrong; the guards were slumped over in their chairs. "Oh crap!" she thought. "What the hell went on here?" Shampoo let herself into the room by removing the grate and climbing down. She let out a sigh of relief as she checked the guards' pulses and found that they were alive. "Good – murder would have complicated things. All right, someone else is here, and I bet they are after Ranma's form - the time window is way too narrow for this to be a coincidence. But are they here to destroy it, change it, or switch it? I can let them switch it or change it, but I cannot let them destroy it."

She climbed up on the desk and moved a ceiling tile to the side. She knew from her last visit here, that all the walls stopped at the drop ceiling and the area above the ceiling tiles was completely open. "Not what you'd call good security," she thought. Shampoo threw a padded hook and rope to catch the upper crossbeams and climbed up, pausing long enough to replace the ceiling tile. She then climbed quickly through the upper bay's superstructure to where she knew the post-processing room was. As she went, she swept the area below her with her mind, but could find nothing unusual. "Could they have left already?" she wondered.

Whispering from the post-processing room answered her question. She suspended herself just above a light fixture and peered through a space between the fixture and the ceiling at the room below. She saw two men (obviously ninjas) sorting through the result stacks. "I've found Saotome's gene chart," one whispered to the other.

"Good. Give me the case number and we can change the file in the computer. Then we can get out of here," the other said. The first rattled off the number (which Shampoo wrote down on her arm) after the second sat down at the post-processing machine. Shampoo couldn't see the screen from where she was, but she could see the keyboard. She noted with satisfaction many of the commands the ninja used to manipulate the machine. While one ninja changed the computer files, the second ninja idly looked through the other CODIS results. Suddenly, he stopped and pulled out a test result. He moved over to his companion and placed the paper next to the keyboard. Shampoo could see that it was Mousse's result. She wrote down his case number as well. The ninja typing at the computer closed the file he was working on and made a printout. Once he placed the new printout back in the output stack, he vanished into the shadows. The second ninja followed him.

Shampoo debated how long to wait when she suddenly realized she was in trouble. They knew she was here! They had seen Mousse's result and realized something was up! The local gossip mentioned nothing about a need for Mousse to have a DNA test done! Quickly she climbed back up into the superstructure and began following the ventilation shafts as silently as possible. She knew the two would double back to the guards and make sure they were still out. Then they would find the dust disturbed from the ceiling where she climbed up. Crap!

The Amazon followed the vents until she found the central blower. She looked back toward the guards' room and saw a ceiling tile flip up quickly and two shadows streak into the darkness that hid her as well. She reached into her hair and took out a small metal comb, which she promptly jammed into the blower's control unit, shorting out the main relay. The fan turned on hard, filling the upper bay with noise. Shampoo immediately dropped a little box near the fan, leaped up to the crossbeams, and stealthily moved away from the fan. As soon as she heard the fan shut off, she clicked a remote in her pocket.

The resulting concussion charge knocked one of the ninjas through the ceiling into the office bay below. It also lit up the remaining ninja, but he had not been looking at the flash, so he saw Shampoo. He promptly through several darts at her, but she was already moving. Because he was by the tile his compatriot had crashed through, Shampoo could still see him and launched several of her own darts at him. He managed to catch two and dodge the rest. "Ah hell," she thought. "These guys are for real. I'm going to have to kill them to accomplish my mission and the place is going to get trashed. As soon as the police see that, they are going to order a re-test of everyone in process." She began to get angry then. "These jerks have already seen me too. They are going to see me as a complication and try to hunt me down. I need to take them out one way or another now." She threw a special knife directly at the ninja only to have him catch the blade. The blade immediately exploded in his grip, burning and slicing his hand. He screamed in pain and then jumped through the missing ceiling tile opening.

"I cannot let him get away!" Shampoo screamed to herself. She scrambled to the opening and then had to leap back into the darkness as a she heard the "pifft, pifft" of a blow dart pipe. "Crap, crap, crap!" she thought as she tossed another box through the hole. She heard a curse just before another concussion charge went off. Shampoo quickly did an aura check, hoping that the ninja was too rattled to maintain his cover. "Gotcha!" she thought as she crashed through another ceiling tile on top of the ninja. The ninja fired his darts into the ceiling, missing Shampoo. Shampoo stunned him with a quick blow to the head.

"Goodbye bitch," sounded coldly behind her. Shampoo spun and rose to see the first ninja she had knocked through the ceiling holding a small crossbow on her. She readied herself to catch the bolt and beat the tar out of the ninja. Suddenly, before she moved, the weapon vanished and the ninja screamed in pain. He quickly jumped over a cubicle wall and vanished. Shampoo spun back to the ninja she had knocked down, and was just in time to see him get up off the floor stiffly and vanish into the shadows.

"Hell!" she thought as she leaped up through the ceiling opening again, landing on top of a fake wall that held her weight. She dropped some flash-bangs near the opening and leaped back into the superstructure. Someone had just disarmed the crossbow ninja with the intention of saving her life! Someone else was in the building!

As Shampoo grappled with that thought, the building's public address system buzzed to life. "You have failed," a voice sounded. Shampoo couldn't place it immediately, but it was familiar. "The girl is mine to deal with. You are done. Leave now or face me." Shampoo heard the speaker hang up.

Again, the PA sounded. "Screw you!" was the response. Before they could hang up, the power died in the building. It was 7:51PM.

Shampoo crept slowly through the girders and beams of the superstructure. Shortly, she heard the clash of steel-on-steel in the central bay. It sounded like more than one fight going on. The Amazon moved quickly to the office bay and dropped down into a private office. She unlocked the door quietly and moved into the bay proper. She crept to the central aisle which was lit dimly by emergency lights and stopped in amazement.

Three ninjas were fighting, two on one. The one wielded *two* katanas against his opponents, handling the weapons as if they were light-weight sabres. The one ninja flowed like water, easily out-maneuvering the other two who were also armed with katanas. Shampoo could see the sweat pouring off the ninja pair, but the solo artist looked almost unconcerned even though the lower part of his face was covered. One of the pair fell back to throw darts at the dual-armed ninja, but one of the solo's swords flicked out and sliced the darts out of the air. The closer of the ninja pair (the one immediately under pressure) dropped a smoke bomb, but the solo ninja ignored it as his other sword nicked out and sliced his opponent from elbow to shoulder. The damaged ninja dropped his sword and grabbed his arm, staggering to the floor. The solo ninja turned on his remaining opponent and said: "You should never have left your wing man's side. Neither one of you has a hope against me separately."

The ninja dropped a smoke bomb and ran. Shampoo heard an exterior door fly open and someone running off into the night. "He who runs away…" whispered the victor. The victor turned back to the injured man. The other ninja had managed to stagger halfway upright and pulled out a small blow dart tube. As he put it to his lips, his opponent looked on unconcerned. The downed man made an effort to puff into his weapon, but a chair crashed into his head, thrown from somewhere offstage, much to Shampoo's surprise. The wounded ninja crashed to the floor unconscious. The victor called out, "Thank you, my friend, but that was unnecessary. Come out! I have lost this night, and so have you. Let us not remain hidden from each other." The ninja then turned to Shampoo and said in perfect Mandarin Chinese: "We have no need to fight, Miss Xian Pu. I'm afraid you too have lost – you cannot stop a re-test now. There's too much damage to the lab."

A young voice called out: "I have to do what I was told! I'll be with you in a second!" The ninja just shook his head but said nothing else.

"Who are you?" Shampoo asked.

The ninja reached up and removed the mask from his face. "Hello Miss Shampoo" the man said in perfect Japanese.

Shampoo looked on in shock. "W-waitress boy?" she stuttered.

Konatsu grinned and bowed to Shampoo. "Like you, I came to switch Ranma's CODIS profile. Unfortunately, that is impossible now," he said. "I'm afraid the next profile run will be under lock-and-key. It definitely will not be in Nerima."

"You can fight like that?" she asked stunned.

Konatsu shrugged his shoulders. "Not my best performance," he said, and then held up one of the blades. "It's not as good as the other. I bought the blade cheap and worked on sharpening and balancing it. Still, it did the job. I'm saving up for a better weapon." Shampoo sank to the floor in shock. A slight smile appeared on his face. Konatsu looked beyond the Amazon and requested: "Please help the lady up. We need to leave."

"Sounds good," a young voice answered. Shampoo turned around to see a red-headed boy about twelve years old approaching her. Konatsu tended to the fallen ninja and then placed his opponent on his shoulders. The boy tugged on Shampoo's arm until she got up. Then she allowed him to lead her out the emergency door.

Konatsu scanned the property for the runaway ninja. "He's long gone. Not a very reliable fellow," Konatsu commented. He led them toward a stand of trees and the neighborhoods beyond.

"How did you know I was there?" the young boy asked.

"After the merry chase your brothers and sisters led me on, I made a point of learning about your kind and looking for signs of your presence, but I bear you no ill will," Konatsu answered. (1)

"Likewise," the boy answered.

Konatsu nodded. "You know that they will throw out the results and do a re-test?" the ninja asked.

"Yes," the boy acknowledged. "But I was told to switch the papers, and that's what I must do."

"Unless you change computer too, it not work," Shampoo said quietly.

The boy leading her nodded. "I can take that back to my Elders. They caused the blackout, so they cannot blame me for not changing the machine. Meantime, I did exactly what they told me, and I did not cause the fighting. Good enough."

Konatsu led them through the shadows until they came to an empty park. They walked among the trees until the ninja stopped and placed his defeated opponent on the ground. "This is good enough. The drug I gave him will make him sleep until just before dawn. He can wake up safely here. His arm will need more tending, and he'll have a nasty headache when he awakes, but he will be all right."

Shampoo sighed and bent down to the fallen man. Konatsu and the boy watched curiously as she erased the last twenty-four hours from the man's mind.

"Was that necessary?" Konatsu asked.

Shampoo nodded. "Shampoo have to track down the other fellow. They know Shampoo enemy now."

"I'm not sure about that," Konatsu said. "Where did you get the CODIS profile from?

"I used stupid duck's", she answered.

"Oh. That wouldn't work anyway. They will automatically check the profile against Ms. Saotome's. They already believe it should match. If it doesn't, they would do a re-test," Konatsu answered.

"Damn," Shampoo muttered. "Where did Waitress Boy get a profile?"

"I snuck into the Ono clinic and made a copy of Ranma's female profile. Then I changed it to match a male. I don't want Genma back in Ranma's life. Now I'll have to wait and see what opportunities arise," Konatsu replied. "I didn't know about the computer though. That's a complication I'll have to work through."

Shampoo nodded and sighed again. She then leapt at Konatsu to erase his memory, only to find that he was gone. She spun to where the boy was only to find him missing too. "Forget it," she thought. "They are just as guilty as I am. They won't say anything, and Waitress Boy did 'save' my life." With spirits dragging, she walked back to the test lab so she could track the other ninja.

Toshio tried his best to control his temper as he listened to the ninja's report. Shampoo got in the way and the lab was trashed. Great, just great – automatic re-test. Worst yet, the cops would find the altered CODIS profile which could lead to Toshio now. He would need to have his own CODIS profile deleted, so the fake profile couldn't be linked to him. He couldn't attempt this trick again: complete and utter failure.

He debated having the ninja killed for abandoning his partner, but decided to wait. He had a suspicion who this "master ninja" was. If Toshio was right, the other man would turn up unharmed, but probably have his memory wiped. He'd also be curious if the "master ninja" had his memory wiped as well – Toshio would have to have a few people buy Okonomiyaki tomorrow.

He also debated having the ninja in front of him assassinated for nearly killing Shampoo. Toshio had specifically ordered "no fatalities". Had Shampoo been killed, things would have gotten dramatically worse – the least of which would be Cologne going on a tear and killing anyone involved. While Toshio was sure he could have protected himself, he would probably have lost a lot of good people and gained the enmity of the Amazon tribe – something he needed to avoid.

Finally, Toshio decided that some punishment was in order. He decided that if the man's partner survived, this ninja would be sent north to deal with Toshio's brother and his family. That should serve as a lesson for the others.

Tomo stood before the Elders and gave his report. He described the fighting and the condition of the lab. He was also proud that his voice was relatively steady.

"Did you do what we asked?" the North Elder questioned.

"Yes, Sir. I left the paper as you wished and removed the one I found. But, it's probably not the original one. The ninja who got away probably has that. I know that the ninja named Konatsu did not have it. Neither did the Amazon," Tomo answered while taking the paper he had out of his jacket.

The North Elder gave a large sigh. The paper vanished from the little Kitsune's hand and appeared before the South Elder who picked it up and examined it. The South Elder said: "It has Nodoka Saotome's profile. The second profile is unknown to me."

The East Elder shrugged. "So a switch was made beforehand and the computer was altered. It does not matter." He turned to Tomo. "Very well, little one. We find no fault in your performance. You have the 'Thanks' of your Elders. Please return to Lord Ono and make no mention of this to anyone."

"Yes, Sir," Tomo answered. "I'm sorry the mission failed."

"You have no need for sorrow, little one," the South Elder said. "Again, go with our Blessing."

Tomo bowed and left the chamber with a sigh of relief. He couldn't believe the Elders let him off like that. Now, he was just anxious to escape their scrutiny.

The North Elder cocked an eyebrow at his fellows…

Mrs. Ohayashi sat in her living room in front of the fireplace. She held a glass of brandy as she sat in her comfortable chair and stared into the flames. Then her eyes focused on the present and she shook her head. "Silly puppies," she snorted as she took a sip. "Will they ever learn?" she added with a roll of her eyes.

Inside the trashed lab, the blackout ended. The lights flickered on, showing a number of tiles missing from the ceiling and weapon marks on the walls and cubicles. In the security room, two guards continued to sleep. Amazing enough, there were no alarms going off, despite the open emergency door. The lights in the post-processing room also flickered on showing a neat stack of papers arranged by the now-departed Kitsune. Interestingly enough, the stack seemed to flicker with its own light.

Slowly the emergency door gently closed and was re-armed by unseen hands. In the side room, the post-processing computer started its boot routine. Slowly the fragments of ceiling tile rose into the darkness of the upper bay. The fragments reassembled themselves in the darkness and the repaired ceiling tiles fit themselves back into place. The discarded darts became dust and blew away. The walls and cubicles healed of the sword cuts and other battle damage. Ripped and torn posters repaired themselves. In the security room, the dust blew away, removing the evidence of intruders.

In the post-processing room, strings of commands typed themselves on the computer screen and files were changed. File timestamps were altered, and then history files were cleared of any changes before 7PM. Back in the security room, the alarms came back on-line and images appeared on the security tapes showing another boring Thursday night – no ninjas and no Amazons. Finally, the guards woke with nothing but memories of a boring three hours.

The flickering faded from the stack of forms. The guards noted nothing unusual during the shift change at midnight. The two men left their replacements to have a peaceful night…

A/N: Footnotes:

(1) During the story "The Date", in Chapter 9, Konatsu mentioned having run-ins with the young Kitsunes overrunning the Complex.

A/N: Next up: "The New Clan"