Alright, this one's the last chapter and a sort of wrap up of this story. This epilogue is simply a family chapter with plenty of laughter and a bit of romance for the extra kick in the flavor part.
Again, I added two more cameos from but they are the last ones, I promise. Once again, I ask that you just read this chapter and enjoy. Reviews are simply optional.
Epilogue – On a Saturday (Sunday) Afternoon
Tsukihime Summer Residence – April 7, 2044, 10:00 AM - Saturday
Daisuke and Yuka Tsukihime had just invited the whole Omega Force as well as President Sanosuke Nonoka and his only daughter – Sayuri for a feast after all of them had received a hero's welcome in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a good two days ago from the said dignitaries.
The Chief of Louisiana's Presidential Security Group had gone to the nearest supermarket in downtown Austin along with his only daughter- Hana.
The reason being that both father and daughter had taken upon themselves the buying of ice cream, pizzas, and beer that were to be served along with what Yuka and her cooks would be preparing for the returning heroes.
Yuka herself could not believe that she was made a hero simply because she had helped organize a secret rescue mission for the good of the Louisiana's presidency and its people.
To the general public, it was due to the organized efforts of the AADA and the funding of the other Oil Barons that had made the whole rescue possible.
Yet there she was, standing in the middle of both her husband - Daisuke and her best friend - Lieutenant Commander Akane Saotome, while holding her six year old daughter's shaking left hand amidst the thousands of people cheering for them.
Hana was simply anxious at 100,000 plus people looking back at her, all of them cheering for line of heroes standing in front of the Presidential Palace.
The little girl's nervousness was clearly shown in her tight grip on her mother's gloved left hand and the fear in her light green eyes as she held on tightly to her mother's armored left leg with her other hand.
Yuka had assured the poor girl that it was alright since she and her husband were there to protect her.
A quick look to her left had confirmed her suspicions that Ryu Saotome was also similarly anxious since the six year old boy had used his parents' armored legs to shield himself from the intimidating crowd, only peeking at the little space in between the armored pairs.
The boy's parents were quietly chuckling as they had coaxed their own offspring to come out of his hiding place.
-oOo-
After one of her maids had shaken her out of her daydream, the light brown haired government official resumed cooking her special homemade gumbo for their honored and famished guests. The assault team was actually in the country club, a few blocks away from her residence.
Yuka had told them to play some basketball or something while she and her cooks readied the served food.
Almost all of the girls had asked to help out in the cooking but she politely refused since they did most of the work in the recently concluded rescue.
Luckily for her, Commander Ranma Saotome told everyone in the kitchen that most of the Omega Force women would have burned the dishes anyway with some nods in agreement from his male subordinates except for a select few whose wives or girlfriend could cook.
The immediate effect was that his wife - Akane had challenged him and the other male members of the Omega Force for a soccer game against her and the other women in Zilker Park.
Hiroshi Yamamoto and Sayuri Nonoka would be the referees and President Nonoka would act as scorer for the impromptu game.
To compensate for the lack of girls in Akane's team, one of the younger maids had told Akane that she would call on some of her friends in the neighborhood who also play soccer in their spare time to play as well.
The pony-tailed team leader had agreed to both suggestions and even added that the losing team would serve the winners hand and foot for the duration of their stay in the Tsukimori summer residence. He had also added that this would also apply to the additional players as well to Yuka's horror.
The light brown haired woman then put her foot down and said that the suggestion for the losing team to serve the winning team is forbidden in her house.
She had also suggested that the losers simply treat the winners' lunch the very next day. It was this suggestion that was seconded by President Nonoka so the guys had no other choice but to agree.
-oOo-
As Yuka and her maids were preparing the meals, they had listened to the music on the radio when an hourly news bulletin had reported that John Twoeagle's oil empire had crumbled as the whole company was undergoing a massive change in management.
In fact, TwoEagle's Oil was given by the Oklahoman government to the United States 2 as a form of apology in the former country's own inability to act upon what would have been a major hindrance in its later policies.
President Burke then had the said company be converted into a government utility that would not only provide oil for the population of America but also do some research on making synthetic oil on the side.
The prices of oil worldwide has dropped slightly since then as the United States 2 now has gotten some oil rigs and refineries of its own. As a side effect, multinational companies that have been offering alternative fuels has stepped up their own advertorial campaigns.
Thus, more and more people have been buying hydrogen powered duel cars as well as other hybrid models. It was expected that in the next ten years, the type of vehicles on the road worldwide would either be gasoline powered, electric powered, hydrogen powered or a combination of any of the three.
The Undersecretary of Energy had to sigh at the additional work in her job as a result of the changing energy but was happy at the fact that at least, she and her friends had sent Twoeagles behind bars where he belongs.
Her husband was also planning on making their own vehicles into hybrids to ease their needs of finding a charging station every two hundred miles or so.
-oOo-
Lieutenant General Soun Tendou had arrived in the Tsukihime vacation house around eleven am with his wife- Kimiko Tendou, Suzanne fon Fabre, and a few others in tow.
This was because they were asked by the other children of the Omega Force's members to bring them straight here from the Fabre mansion in Palestine to give Ryu and Hana some needed company. Soun himself did not think twice about going if it meant seeing his favorite grandson again.
Then again, they had to let Riou Sanada and his family stay in Atlanta, since their five year old daughter- Nanami had caught the flu while playing in the park when she and her parents were drenched in a sudden cloudburst. Soun was told of this when they had visited the Sanada family in their home in Atlanta nearly a week ago.
Riou and Eille did send their regards and had even sent a home baked chocolate cake through Soun for good luck as well as initiative for a successful mission but since the mission was over when the cake had been diverted to the Tsukihime summer home, it was taken in as their thanks for a job well done.
The same could be said for Syaoran Kazama since he was with his grandparents on both sides of the family along with his uncle and aunts, the reunion being in the Kazama's mansion in Olympia, Washington.
The Kazama and Tokiwa clans had sent some homemade apple pies via courier to compensate for the five year old boy's absence in the celebrations, most of them were for the boy's worried mother – Kyoko Kazama-Tokiwa.
In spite of this, Soun told the said clans that he would bring his whole team and their families in Olympia to make up for taking Shinji and Kyoko in such a dangerous and secretive mission just before school starts for most of the older kids in September.
The children had quickly entered the mansion and looked for Ryu as soon as their rides had stopped behind the said mansion's gates. The brown haired Saotome was practicing his katas in the living room when they had arrived since he was waiting for Hana to come home.
"Hey, Ryu. Wanna haf a we-match?" A three year old boy with unkempt long light brown hair said as he had neared the surprised Saotome boy.
"Sure, Aslan but we'll have to look for a dojo somewhere since we can't fight here. Auntie Yuka didn't even know that I'm doing some katas now," Ryu said as he had relaxed his stance. "How's about us playing something else instead, like… Scrabble. Yeah, Scrabble's good."
"Let's pway, let's pway." A one year old girl, with dark red hair styled in a double ox tail, had suggested to the boys' disdain. She was actually jumping up and down on the intricately designed carpeted floor in her excitement. All the while, she had ignorned the tittering of the two older girls in the said group.
"Uh, Rose. They're about… seven of us here and Scrabble can only be played by four people. Sorry, squirt." A four year old brown haired boy with well combed hair said after a bit of hesitation. "Besides, us big kids will be playing anyway while you little guys jus' watch and learn."
"Y'know, Ken. I wike you bwetta when you shwut yaw bwig mouth," Aslan fon Fabre said with an irritated tone.
"Aslan, it's not that I'm being on Ken's side or anything, but he's actually right on this one." Another girl, this time with orange hair in pigtails had spoken up while giving Ken Tenryou a pointed look.
"Guys, stop fightin' with each other. We can all play hide and seek so everyone can have some fun," This time, one of the second oldest kids with ruffled black hair and green eyes had said with authority since he and his twin sister were the oldest among the set after Ryu and Hana.
"Thanks, Teo. You too, Megumi." Ryu said as he had sat down on one of the sea green sofa seats. He felt relief that Teo Mcdohl had relieved the tension between Aslan and the slightly older kids.
He just did not want anyone to feel sad and even cry at this surprise party for their parents in the Omega Force.
"Alright, let's ask Auntie Yuka if we can play in the yard." Ryu Saotome had commanded the smaller children as they marched to the kitchen.
-oOo-
Yuka was amazed to see the second generation of the Omega Force march in line like little soldiers with Rose fon Fabre in the point position, patiently guided by one of the older girls.
In fact, she almost let go of the plastic stirrer she was holding to the glass pitcher filled with orange juice in her surprise.
One of the maids did stain her black and white uniform with some spaghetti sauce from her dish due to the sudden emergence of the children in the kitchen's door.
"Alright, kids. Whadda ya want?" She said with false harshness in an effort to hide her bubbling laughter.
"Auntie Yuka, can we pway hide and sweek in the back yard?" The three year old blonde named Hikari Kanbarra asked with doe like eyes. A chorus of "please" echoed from the platoon of youngsters surprisingly even Ryu joined in.
"Alright, jus' make sure that you don't break anything. Also Hana will be joinin' you in a few minutes since she and her father are on their way home as we speak."
The kiddie platoon shouted their glee and ran to the door leading to the back yard. They also shouted "Thank you" at the top of their lungs as they left the kitchen.
"Ma'am, you're really a softy when it comes to kids." One of the maids had remarked as she mixed the spaghetti sauce in the heated wok. The other maids were also busy making pot roast, some okonimiyaki, curry, fried chicken, and even some grilled tuna fish.
"Maybe so, but I still have to hold the line somewhere so that they wouldn't run me over." The thirty something government official said as she had placed the pitcher to the refrigerator.
-oOo-
While they were going home in their aqua blue Dodge Caravan armed with two linked machine guns in front, a military pulse laser in the turret, and a mine dropper in the rear, Hana had asked her father on what he would do if she was to have a lot of visitors around her age this very day.
"Well, pumpkin. I'll have ta make some ground rules on what they should or should not do in the mansion such as no running around in the halls and breakin' some things," The thirty three year old black haired man said with a barely hidden grimace.
In his mind, Daisuke was already imagining what their summer home's interior would look like if he and his wife did let the kids loose with no adult supervision whatsoever.
Privately, he had hoped that his wife could rein in the rambunctious "visitors" before he and their daughter do arrive back home.
"Ok, Daddy."
The rest of the thirty minute drive was quiet as Daisuke had taken some nervous glances at his dark haired daughter who was now smiling widely.
A scary thought that involved Hana and Ryu on telling their friends via Instant Messaging to come over and join the party came into mind. He immediately shook it off lest he gets into an accident or an auto duel due to a near miss.
-oOo-
Back in the Tsukihime summer home, the tired teams had arrived about half past noon and had even settled down on the seats in the living room or just sat on the carpeted floor.
Yuka had seen them coming through the house's security system and she asked them on how the soccer game was and who won when they met in the living room.
"Two words, Yuka. We lost," Ranma said with a loud groan from his place on the sofa. He then opened the TV in front of him to watch a mixed martial arts exhibition match along with the other new arrivals.
"Actually, it was a lucky shot from Delia here that won the match. The rest of us jus' paved the way," Akane added, her tired face beaming with pride as she and the others had also sat down and watched the match on TV while she nodded in the direction of the younger players.
"Miss Akane, if it wasn't for your and the other women's interference, Mister Ranma or any of the men would 'ave stolen the ball away from me before I could even take a shot." The girl with dyed pink hair interjected as she heard the compliment.
Delia was talking to her friends when she heard the given praise.
"Yeah, Miss Akane. You and the other women are the real stars of the game. We couldn't even get past the men if it were not for your effective blocking," Another teen added with stars in her blue eyes.
"Really, then that means that you guys had played your best. By the way, what was the final score?" Yuka said as she had turned to her friend- Sayuri.
"It was 2 to1. The guys were amazing at the teamwork they've been showing but the girls showed how tough a defense can really be made." The dark haired young woman was actually gushing with pride at the skill of the players.
"Well, we can talk all about it later. So how's about we eat." Yuka said as she had taken all of them at their word and led the famished players to the readied dining room where the other new arrivals were waiting for them.
-oOo-
Daisuke was about to turn into his house's driveway while his daughter was readying the remote controlled gate opener when they both spied two young people in their late teens approaching their vacation house.
Seeing the blue bandanna in the forehead of the male half of the pair, the Chief of Presidential Security had honked his mini van's horn twice and called the two over.
The symbol of a red circle was divided by a dark line that expanded slightly at its ends that was also surrounded by a yellow ring was sewn into the middle of the blue bandanna making the said dress piece so unique that only one person in the whole world wore it – Netto Hikari.
Beside the lanky brunette is his red headed girlfriend - Meiru Sakurai.
"Netto, Meiru. I thought you guys would never get here," Daisuke said as he rolled down the driver side window. Hana happily waved at her two sometime babysitters before pushing the button on the gate opener remote, making the armored gate separate and turn to each side of the driveway.
Beyond the gate and parked at the concrete driveway were the Roadrunner (a customized yellow gas burner), the Night Hawk (a black Porsche 997 GT3), the Tiger Claws (a metallic blue Ford Taurus), the Soul Eater (a black Mitsubishi GTO Spider), the Black Beauty (a black Ferrari Enzo), and the Security Six (a GMC Savanna Van LS G1500).
"Yeah, well. Dad called us up early this morning to check on his new baby," Netto replied with glee.
"Don't you mean babies, Netto?" Meiru interjected with her bare hands on her slim hips. Her brown eyes were showing her inner frustration at her best friend's (now boyfriend) omission of a particular subject that was important to her.
"Whoa, come on in so we can continue this lively discussion without much interruption." Daisuke said before driving his mini-van to the waiting garage. Hana laughed the puzzled expressions of her favorite babysitters.
"Ok, see ya there. Hey squirt; I can now put together that new dollhouse of yours since I just bought the correct parts…with Meiru's help of course." Netto added just before Meiru would pull him aside by the ear since the mini-van was already entering the five car garage.
"C'mon, bandanna boy. It's time for lunch an' Mrs. Tsukihime already told she had made a large batch of curry just for you."
"Really?" The lanky teen leaned down a bit before giving his shorter girlfriend a quick kiss on the lips then heading for the mansion's front door, running and screaming his joy.
"Oooh, the nerve of that guy." Meiru mumbled angrily as she had followed the drooling teen to the mansion, passing through the now closing gates.
-oOo-
Before lunch even began, the newest arrivals were introduced to the Omega Force and other visitors. Most of the guests were surprised to know that Dr Yuichiro Hikari was part of the research team that Mithril had invited for a special project.
But the project was top secret so the other football players were understandably never told about it.
After all the meal was eaten, the fellow football players had said their goodbyes since they have friends waiting for them at the local mall.
The children were given a grand tour by Hana while the adults plus Netto and Meiru had discussed about Dr. Hikari's latest project in the spacious den so as to preserve their privacy.
The secret project was actually the development of two more artificial intelligence programs for Netto's new Lotus Evora (Savior). The light blue sports car itself was a gift from Mithril to Dr. Hikari for his help in the research of artificial intelligence that resulted in the creation of the Arbalest, Altron, and Stiletto AI programs.
But since the good doctor already had his own car – a metallic green Honda Accord which he and his wife had quite an attachment to, he gave the new car to his only son as a present for his recent seventeenth birthday, in June last year.
For his only son's upcoming eighteenth birthday, he had planned to add the two new AIs that were currently being added to his cyber repertoire both of which are currently named – Rockman exe and Roll exe.
Both AIs would be sharing the same vehicle - called Savior, since Meiru did not have a vehicle of her own yet and that Dr. Hikari wanted to test the theory of two AIs working together as driver and gunner of a duel car when neither Netto nor Meiru were present in the vehicle.
This would also make the Evora almost fully independent as it could both drive itself and even use its two linked front machine guns and turreted twin laser at its enemies without any human intervention.
All of them had mixed feelings with an fully automated duel car since it would make them unnecessary but Soun told his team that it would only be used in case of dire emergencies.
They had completely forgotten that three of their own vehicles have the same abilities only in a limited manner (being run by a singular AI) with the rest to follow.
From what Netto had told them, it was still in the developmental stage since the personalities of both AIs were so different that a lot of software functions had to be either changed or removed altogether for the whole double AI concept to even work in the laboratories.
"Dr. Hikari told me that he had used mine and Netto's personalities in the programming of Roll's and Rockman's personalities respectively with a few added tweaks and he assured us that they will work well together when they are installed in the car's vehicular computer's operating system," The strawberry haired girl said with a sigh and some breaths.
"Well then, how 'bout we all cool off by the poolside?" Yuka said to his guest's approval. She did this since the general atmosphere in the den was too cool for her liking.
-oOo-
An hour later, the older folk were lounging in the concrete deck by the five meter by ten meter swimming pool's longer side while drinking Bloody Mary cocktails for the older women or Wife Beater for the older guys while the children had played around in the pool itself.
For the younger set with Netto and Meiru being the oldest, they had just settled for Coca Cola or Dr. Pepper served in glasses filled with ice cubes as they exited the pool temporarily through the steps or the grab rails.
The two teens had also worked on Hana's two story dollhouse on the grassy lawn a meter from the pool's shorter side with some help from the other children especially Ryu.
After the job was finished, they once again looked over their new charges. The said dollhouse was later delivered to Hana's room by cheerful maids since they were about to clean it anyway.
Rose even went back and forth between the teens and her mother – Tear fon Fabre as well as her doting grandmother – Suzanne fon Fabre as the latter two women had drank and talked with the other women.
Meiru had quickly fallen in love with the red headed and slightly chubby little girl who always jumped into her lap as soon as she arrived while the other younger girls watched and laughed from their vantage points in the pool's shallow end.
Netto had to gently lift Rose away from the bowled over older red head before slowly lowering her in the two feet deep part of the pool where Hana, Hikari, and Megumi were waiting for her, along with the dirty yellow rubber tube that Meiru had slipped up her chubby legs.
But when the most of the men had started to complain about the Hollywood hunks being talked about by their significant others (as well as the mothers of two of the team members), the kids were ordered out of the pool before the older men and Netto himself were either thrown or pushed into it.
The brunet teen even had a minor argument with his red headed best friend and now girlfriend since he had believed that he looked more handsome than her crush as soon as he had surfaced violently above the clear water, complete with him shaking the said water off his dark brown hair.
"Why were Dad and the others thrown in the pool, Teo?" Ryu asked in behalf of the younger kids who were now sitting right behind Meiru near the shallow end of the pool just as their red headed babysitter was pulled by her slim waist into the cool water below by her brunet boyfriend.
The accompanying screech just before the red headed teen had hit the water surface almost drowned out the spoken question.
"I don't know Ryu but it has something to do with what they said about them being more handsome than that Brad Pitt person in the classical movies," Teo answered as he had watched his own father emerge from the pool, grab his surprised mother from her lounge chair, and carry her bridal style before leaping back into the pool with a big splash. All of this while shouting "Cowabunga."
Prior to his leap back to the waiting chlorinated water, Tir's bare chest was lightly pounded by his slightly shorter wife (Kasumi's) equally bare fists.
'Dad sure can be weird sometimes,' Teo thought with a slight shake of his head upon seeing the aforementioned scene.
"Man, Dad's goin' to be sleepin' on the couch tonight huh, bro?" Sonia Mcdohl had said to her twin brother as she had sat down on his right side.
Both of them were watching the wacky events unfold before their very eyes along with the other mystified kids.
It was around this time that the other men had caught on to what was happening and where chasing their loved ones in the lawn and pool side before duplicating Tir's wet attempt at revenge.
To show off his superiority to his men, Ranma had even jumped high enough to do a shallow half-twist dive while holding his screaming wife by the waist at the pool's deepest end.
As for the rest of the guys, they had either carried their wives, bridal style or caveman style, before leaping back into the pool or in Shinji's case - grab his wife's waterproof Nikon camera and glasses while giving her a long kiss on the lips.
He then threw the said items along with his own glasses at Junpei's and his girlfriend's hands and falling back into the pool with Kyoko still in his arms.
President Nonoka and General Tendou were actually slapping their bare knees as they had laughed heartily at the wild scene from their aluminum seats in the other end of the pool.
The former was simply amused at the antics of the team that saved his bacon less than a week ago.
The latter, on the other hand, was actually thinking at how funny the women looked as they emerged from the pool depths, a good six feet at its deepest point.
Soun did glare a little at Ranma for his nearly dangerous stunt but his anger evaporated as soon as Akane emerged from the pool, already fuming mad.
Even Suzanne and Kimiko was getting into the act as they half halfheartedly scolded the men for setting a bad example to their children through their horse play. They did excuse Shinji's attempt though since the younger boys were already showing their disgust by saying at the top of their lungs - "Eww...cooties!"
"Yeah, sis but you know Dad. He simply enjoys doing it even if it means that he'll sleep on the couch again and again." Teo now looked at his "younger by half a minute" sister before telling the kids and their guardians that they will all be heading for the garage in the meantime.
"You guys, go on ahead. I'll just tell Mom where we'll be going," Megumi Karakuchi had told her friends while she headed to the group of wet and angry older women who were clutching onto the terracotta paving on the pool's longer side facing the house as they also surfaced abruptly.
-oOo-
In the five car garage on the opposite end of the mansion, the three AIs in their specialized vehicles were surprised to see though their front and side cameras - a group of children heading towards them. As before, Rose was guided along with one of the older children on their way to the said garage.
"Hey, guys. What brings you ta this neck of the woods?" Angela was the first to speak up as the children neared them.
"Sorry, Miss Angela but we're wondering on how handsome that Brad Pitt person really is?" Ken Tenryou said in a polite manner since he did not want a repeat of the tongue lashing he got from both the Stiletto's AI and his mom when he said something impolite to Angela the last time they had met.
"Oooh, now that's one sexy hunk of man beef. Too bad he's an old foggy now," She said in a sing-song voice.
"Angela, would you kindly repeat the answer you gave us and in English please." Al said as he was thoroughly confused with the given reply as with the others who were scratching their heads, virtual or not.
The only one that did understand Angela was the now arriving and still slightly damp Meiru who was pulling her boyfriend along by the arm.
As with the children who had arrived in the garage before them, they were still in their swimsuits.
"Actually, she said that Brad Pitt was hot in his younger years." The strawberry haired teen said impassively to the surprise of the children and AIs who tried so much to understand what the Stiletto's AI meant.
"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Nataku said in exasperation. The only answer from the Stiletto's external speakers was the sound of a raspberry being blown.
It was this action that caused a lot of laughter to echo in the filled garage's white concrete walls and ceiling with the Altron's AI not even respecting the childish insult with a comeback of his own.
"Wait; are you Netto Hikari, the only son of Dr. Yuuichiro Hikari?" Al said to the laughing older brunet, stemming the latter's guffaws a bit.
"Yep, that's me so you guys must be the three Artificial intelligences that my dad had a hand in makin'." Netto replied as he had looked at the three cars parked side by side in the spacious garage. "Am I right or am I right?"
The brunet then ducked accordingly as a lithe hand had just passed the empty space where his head had been a second earlier. "I was just joshing 'em, Mei."
"That we are, Mr. Hikari." Al replied with an uncharacteristic grin evident in his tone of voice.
"I was wonderin' if Dad had some ways to get in touch with you since he did develop your core programming and all," Netto said as he neared the Vanquish's front end. "Then again, you don't have to answer if you don't want to. By the way, just call me Netto, ok?"
"We want to, Mr. Hik-Netto. We actually communicate with him through electronic correspondences where he also attaches our necessary upgrades and updates," Nataku responded with an audible grunt.
When Al had noticed that most of the children and even the teens were scratching their heads in confusion, he told them that Dr. Hikari communicates with them through e-mail.
"Al, that is exactly what I told them in our terms." Nataku now said with incredulity noticeable in his own tone of voice.
'These human children should not have knowledge fed to them in a silver spoon. It would lessen their hunger for such useful things,' The Altron's AI thought with some bitterness. 'They should be able to learn things on their own even at such an early age.'
Coming back from his musings, Nataku noticed that Netto was worried about the inclusion of two AIs in his new sport car's vehicular computer system since it may only bring more harm than good.
But if the AIs do learn to cooperate with each other as he and his electronic siblings had done in the recent past, then Netto was worried over nothing.
Nataku had kept silent as he panned his front cameras on the curious scene before him where the little ones wanted to know more about artificial intelligences and how do they work as they had asked the "experts" composed of Netto, Al, and that loudmouthed brat - Angela.
'Hmm, maybe there is hope for them after all.' Nataku had mentally added, not noticing his virtual mouth curving downward in the form of a smile.
-oOo-
Netto had thanked the stars above when Doris Halloway came in the garage with news that the other adults were having a barbecue in the lawn outside to keep himself from answering any more difficult technical questions from the inquisitive children.
Doris is actually Junpei's girlfriend who is a news reporter of the National Broadcasting Corporation. The said television network would be celebrating its 117th year of broadcasting in June with a special presentation about a ten story building being constructed to house a facility producing farm products.
The whole building would be self powered by means of methane gas that come from the dairy and piggery farms in two of its lower floors. Doris was one of the reporters who was chosen to be given a segment in the said special.
"Come on or you'll miss the smoked salmon that Mrs. Tendou is preparing. It's deelish," The blonde haired twenty nine year old said with aplomb as she had waggled her eyebrows at the younger set making them laugh yet again.
The humans said their goodbyes to the three AIs as the former had trooped off towards the lawn beside the swimming pool.
The AIs had responded in kind before logging in the internet thanks to the specially made infrared hub hastily attached by Daisuke and the others early that morning.
As they arrived at the tables was already set with barbecued meat and grilled fish. The kids were also guided by mothers to the three stall shower room so that they could rinse off the nearly dried off chlorine filled water that had stuck to their skin and change to their drier clothes.
The teens had first picked up their duffel bags before heading towards the showers near the pool's northern and shorter side where they had showered and changed.
The men had also set up a Bose DVD Home Entertainment System as far away from the pool as possible while readying a transformer and extension cord to power the whole system.
Sayuri had already pulled out some Karaoke box DVDs that she had bought from the local Chinatown in Lamar Boulevard and was already picking out her favorites among the set.
-oOo-
After filling their belies under the twinkling stars, everyone even the maids each had their turn to sing their favorite song as they watched the words pop out of the video screen.
Daisuke and Hiroshi once tried to sneak in R Kelly's song "Ignition" but the video was stopped midway by an angry Sayuri and Yuka to the children's puzzlement and the other men's embarrassment.
The other women themselves were similarly upset that two of their friends had tried to sneak an adult song in the celebrations even when there were children nearby.
Instead, both men had changed their selection to his other song - "I'm Your Angel" so as not provide a bad example to the children who were intently listening.
The children themselves asked their parents as to why the song was changed only to be told that the previous song was not meant to be listened to by anyone under the age of eighteen with some knowing glances at Netto's and Meiru's direction.
Later, Ranma had tried his hand at singing by making his own rendition of "Wild Boys" by the English group Duran Duran. His voice was not the best but it was raw enough to make the song a sort of anthem for the Omega Force from then on.
What actually brought the house down was the energetic rendition by Netto and Meiru of a J-pop song named "Doobee Doowop Communication" originally sung by the group Babamania.
Netto rapped while Meiru sang her heart out in tune with the beat, while keeping their eyes on the flapping white wide screen.
Their voices had blended so well with the music that almost everyone else had thought that they had experience in singing the J-pop hit before.
The small crowd had even jumped in sync with the brunet near the end of the song as Netto himself had a lot of fun in the rapping part of the said song, complete with hand movements as he had set his wireless mike on a mike stand just so his hands were free to move.
Little Rose was actually carried in both arms by her gyrating dad, Luke. He even jumped for her when everybody else did, to her mom's and even her grand mom's delight.
The other men were also dancing in cadence with the pounding beat to the amusement of their wives and children.
Even the kids were also lending their voices to the loud cheering and even asking for an encore, especially Rose and Hana who loved seeing their idols sing to them and the other youngsters.
-oOo-
After the party had ended at eight o'clock with most of the children being escorted by their mothers and grandmothers to the latter's rooms. Rose was even carried to her room by her doting mother.
The men had helped the maids clean up the mess and return the Home Entertainment System back to the storage shed. As for Netto and Meiru, both teens had left after getting a tearful goodbye (complete with group hugs) from the younger set.
Both Soun and Sanosuke did well in organizing the clean up, stating that they were too old for strenuous stuff like picking up the trash, wiping the garden tables, et cetera. There were a few dissident voices from the younger men but a glare from either or both old men were enough to silence them.
As a result of their earlier stunt, most of the men were also forced to sleep in both the living room and the den while the children slept with their mothers.
It was around eight in the evening that the children had gotten two long distance calls from Olympia, Washington and Atlanta, Georgia respectively from the wide screened video phone at the living room. The mothers had stayed in the rooms to prepare the beds and whatnot.
The callers were identified as Riou Sanada and Hiromi Kinomiya-Tachibana. They were joined by both five (nearly six) year olds Nanami Sanada and Syaoran Kazama.
Nanami was still suffering from her influenza but seemed to be getting better. Her father still sat behind his only daughter as an added precaution though.
"Hey, guys. How's the party going?" Syaoran said first as he saw all of his friends in his seven inch screen.
"Very well, Syaoran. I still wish both of you guys and maybe even Makoto would be here as well," Ryu said with his head down to hide his sad face. "We'll visit you, Nanami next week so cheer up."
"Thanks, Ryu. I wish I really had brought my pink umbrella with me back then," The brown haired little girl said with disdain based from her image on the screen. "Mom's still busy preparing my medicine, yuck, as well as a bowl of her special chicken soup, yummy."
"We all make mistakes, Nanami. So don't worry 'bout it," Hana said in reply, while trying to keep herself from laughing at the younger brunette's drooling expression at the prepared meal. "Syaoran, where is your cousin - Makoto anyway?"
"Makoto is with his dad, watching an auto duel on TV." Hiromi replied. She then looked at something beyond the screen as she sat behind the youngest Kazama before adding. "I'll call him if you want to."
"Um, no thanks, Missus Kinomiya. We're cool with Syaoran anyway," The girl said with a blush beginning to form in her cheeks that were framed by her dark brown hair.
"Alright, where is that candid camera cousin of mine anyway? I haven't seen her with you guys yet," The brown haired mother of one (make that two) said in the screen with a small grin on her face.
Syaoran had nstantly missed his bespectacled parents so he added. "Yeah, where are mom and dad anyway?"
"Oh, your mom's a little busy takin' some candid shots at our dads who are still cleaning the lawn." Megumi said with a big smile on her freckled face. "Your dad is with them since he joined the others in splashing our moms in the pool hours earlier."
"Yeah, they even shared cooties when your dad splashed your mom earlier too." Ken had piped up before getting elbowed in the ribs by his orange haired childhood friend.
"Ow. That hurts, 'Umi." The boy added as he had rubbed the sore portion of his little body.
"They never changed," Hiromi said with a grateful sigh. "Alright, jus' tell her not to take too many snapshots or somebody would have the bright idea of exposing the film before it's even developed. See ya, kids."
The image of Syaoran and his aunt disappeared after the five year old said his own goodbyes while waving both his hands.
"Um, my mom's calling me. Bye-bye," Nanami said as the other line was also closed. Her image as well as those of her laughing father behind her also derazzed with both father and daughter waving at the group.
-oOo-
After everyone had tucked in for the night, Ryu asked his mom if he could lead the next generation of the Omega Force when he grows up as he turned to Akane's sleeping form.
"I'm sure you can, Ryu." She replied as she had rubbed her eyes when she woke up. "Jus' remember to do your studies so that the Army can recruit ya after graduating from high school and then place you in the Omega Force after officer's training."
"Thanks, Mom. You're the best," The youngest Saotome said as he had turned around and slept soundly.
"You're welcome, my son." Akane replied as she too let sleep overcome her. "Your welcome."
(Wipes tears forming in eyes) Love that mother and son moment. So yeah, I've got two (make that three) more stories up in the soon to be posted list before I finally skedaddle out of this great website. Probably for good too.
The first of the two stories would be a prologue for the story that started this Anime Car Wars series of mine- Fuel's Gold. I would have it posted probably in May 2010.
Goodbye for now.