Disclaimer: Not mine.
***
Recovering Hearts
A Ranma½ / Robotech crossover.
By Queberjeque
***
Author's Note: There are some ideas and names that I am going to use from the Macross series, rather than from the Robotech series.
***
Chapter 4
'Life is Funny that Way'
October, 2002
***
Ranma dropped his backpack as he looked around with a satisfied smile. This place was perfect for training, not only was it secluded from the nearby beach where people often went to relax, but it was still outside the Military Restricted Zone that encompassed most of the unsettled segments of the island.
Nabiki had driven him half crazy with her repeated admonitions to stay out of the restricted area. She didn't want him to get arrested, or for the UN to get mad and kick them off the island back to where the Chinese could find them. An entire week of Nabiki lecturing him about the dangers of upsetting the UN was his reward for informing her that, once he finished the final exams he was taking, his plans were to go on a training trip. Nabiki was not worried, suspicious or jealous about him going off on his own to train, unlike certain others he could think of. She just wanted to make sure he didn't get into any trouble; he did have a talent for it she pointed out.
Nabiki also spent a great deal of time talking to him about the advantages of a college education for a martial artist, finally convincing him to promise to enroll in college courses once his training trip was complete. Ranma was fine with this agreement, the last nine months spent calmly working and studying had been very relaxing and he found that he actually enjoyed learning, especially with nobody attacking or insulting him. Since there wasn't anybody throwing water on him or otherwise disturbing his sleep and he didn't have to conserve energy to survive daily battles with premier martial artists, he was able to stay awake in his classes. He found he was actually enjoying learning at school, a pleasure he previously only associated with studying martial arts. But now he was going to spend some quality time studying his beloved art.
Fortunately for him, Ranma was certain that even Nabiki would agree that this clearing was perfect. With trees on one side to shield it from the beach and small hills surrounding it on the other three sides, nobody was likely to interrupt him, or as Nabiki would probably point out, nobody would be bothered by him, especially not the authorities. It had taken a couple of hours for him to find it, but he felt the time was well spent. With his diploma still laying in it's envelope on the kitchen table back in the apartment, Ranma finally surrendered to the siren call of learning new martial arts techniques.
He had been planning this training trip for several months now, ever since he first managed to get his first glimpse of the ki pathways both inside of him and in the world around him. He was pretty sure that Happosai and the dead and buried Kho Lon could each see ki like this. He remembered them both occasionally staring at him as if they were seeing something other than him. Now he was kicking himself for not paying attention to what they were doing.
This was his opportunity to figure it out, Ranma was absolutely positive that he was on the verge of a breakthrough that would revolutionize his mastery of the 'Art'. Maybe he could develop a new ki attack where instead of forming in his hands, it could appear right on top of his enemy, giving them no chance to dodge. Maybe he could learn to use his ki to heal others, closing wounds and curing sickness. Perhaps he could even learn to recharge his energy from the land around him, no longer needing to sleep, never tiring out in a battle. The more possibilities he dreamt up, the more excited he was to start experimenting. He had two and a half days left before he had to be at work Monday afternoon, plenty of time to get started.
***
The calming sound of the waves as they washed up against the shore, along with the happy, yet discordant squeals of children as they ran and played in the surf, filled the little clearing. The occupant never noticed them. The delicious scents of grilled hamburgers and chicken wafted in on the breeze, still the figure sat motionless in the grass. These sounds slowly faded away as the shadows grew longer. Finally there was silence, with just the sounds and smell of the ocean filling the air.
The figure that had been motionless throughout the day finally shifted, as ever so slowly his arms stretched down in order for their hands to cup the grasses in front of him. For several long minutes nothing happened until his eyes flew wide and his mouth popped open in panic. "Whoops!"
If someone happened to be taking an evening jog on the beach, looking towards the hills south of the city, they would have been astounded and probably concerned to see a bright flash of light and a muffled thunder. Fortunately nobody was around to worry about the possibly of another attack by Anti-Unification forces.
***
An automated sensor dutifully reported the unrecognized energy signature, marked the log entry and printed out a report. In the darkened room, a printer whispered for a few seconds, then quieted down as the paper settled down in the tray.
***
The late morning sunlight was warming his cheeks as Ranma opened his eyes. As he looked at his surroundings, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was at.
"That wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be," He muttered.
Carefully rolling over, he yelped as his sunburned posterior came into contact with the ground. Standing up, he looked at the pitiful state of his clothing. The back of his pants, all the way down to his ankles, was gone, the burnt edges giving mute testament to the power of the energies he had been toying with.
"Wow, that stuff packs a stronger punch than Ryoga! Bwahahaha, just wait until I figure out how to control it pig boy, then we're going to rumble!" Belying his haggard appearance, Ranma smiled as he walked over to his pack and pulled out another set of clothing.
While he was dressing, Ranma was surprised to realize that the grass he had been sitting on the night before was verdant and untouched by the energies unleashed when he lost control.
Puzzled, he sat back down and tried to figure out what he had done and where he went wrong. He remembered attempting to pull the energy flowing through the grass into a ball, like his signature ki attack. He also remembered feeling a sudden buildup of energy right beneath him, not between his hands like he wanted, but directly under his body. He recalled sensing that energy reaching a peak, followed closely by a flash of light accompanied by a flying sensation, then nothing.
"Well at least I proved I can manipulate it, control will come with practice, after all, Ranma Saotome never loses." With that confident declaration, Ranma closed his eyes and started the meditation process that would allow him to once more attempt the impossible.
***
The room was well lit this time as the printer again produced a report of an unrecognized energy buildup on the island. Loud noises were even coming through the tightly closed door, proof that it was not abandoned. Both pages lay unnoticed on the printer though, as the sudden cheering of several voices could be heard over the mechanical sounds permeating the room.
***
Ranma stood up much more quickly this time. "I almost had it," he grinned. His clothes were a little singed, but still in good shape, so that was a definite improvement. This was the most fun he'd had in ages.
"Maybe I shouldn't be attempting to pull nature's ki directly, maybe I can push my own ki out and use it like a tool to affect the natural energy…" He muttered to himself as he closed his eyes, all of his focus on this new technique he was developing.
***
"Good morning, Dr. Lang."
"Did you have a nice weekend Dr. Lang?"
"Morning Dr. Lang, I have that analysis of the flow regulator test results for you as well as Dr. Chan's progress report, sir."
Dr. Emil Lang enjoyed Mondays; the beginning of the week always seemed to beckon to him, promising new discoveries to come. He liked to arrive before seven and encouraged others to do the same. As Earth's chief Robotechnician walked through the various laboratories and testing facilities, he nodded and smiled at the people greeting him. They worked long, hard hours and helped each other out when they could, even though some were working on competing projects. He couldn't ask for better subordinates, truly these were the best and brightest minds the free world had to offer.
Entering his personal lab, he skimmed through the analysis of the testing done over the weekend. Finding everything satisfactory, Dr. Lang put it down and happily turned his focus to deciding which of his pet projects he wanted to work on today.
Torn between continuing his experiment to create a miniaturized Protoculture-cell energizer, or testing his electromagnetic-containment system for storing plasma, he almost didn't notice the stack of papers sitting in the printer tray.
"Did I forget something I printed last week?" He mumbled to himself with a half-smile. "Well, I think I was quite busy, I wonder what I was working on that I didn't finish." Pickup up the pages, he started to skim through them, then suddenly stopped and went back to the first page.
"What?!" Quickly he glanced through the rest of the papers, comparing all of the readouts and noting the timestamps on each page.
"I can't believe nobody here was considerate enough to pay attention when the system was recording this. I swear I have the laziest, most inconsiderate people working for me, trained monkeys could do better." Dr. Lang groused as he opened the door and stuck his head out into the outer room.
Glancing around, he saw two people who he was willing to trust with this development.
"Robert, Gina, please come here, both of you."
When the two project leaders were in the room and the door was once again securely shut, Lang showed them the papers in his hands. "Look at these readings and tell me if you both see the same things I am seeing?"
Both of them took a few of the pages, puzzled at their mentor's unusually agitated behavior.
"Sir, what is this, it looks like faint, protoculture-cell energizer readings…" Trailing off, Gina looked at the papers in Robert's hands. "But look here, several of the balances are way off, as if the 'cell energizer was modulated for some reason."
She tapped her fingers on her chin for a second, "It sure wouldn't be fun to stand next to whatever made these readings, the feedback harmonics would have to be noticeable." Dr. Gina Wiget, exclaimed. The Swiss blond was obviously just as confounded by the readings as Lang himself.
Dr. Robert Jordache cleared his throat to get their attention. "Yes, but look at the distance readings, that's only a couple of kilometers away but the readings are so low that a normal 'cell energizer would have to be fifty times that distance away to be that faint. That means that either an artifact has been discovered that the cleanup somehow missed, or else someone has successfully developed a 'cell energizer that is much smaller than we are currently capable of." With this last, the man looked apologetically over at his mentor, who he knew was working towards the same goal.
"Yes, those are the conclusions I came to as well," Dr Lang said as he started digging through a cabinet. "If you look, you'll notice that the last reading was early this morning, if I can find that portable particle-sniffer we used while surveying the ship, maybe we can track the source down the next time it activates."
Dr. Wiget held up her hand to get their attention. "Look at the durations though, it's obviously a clandestine operation, none of the readings lasted for much more than a minute or so. In fact, most of them lasted less than thirty seconds. Someone will have to stay here and monitor the main sensor, giving the team with the portable unit a bearing to compare their own readout with. No, wait. What we really need is two portable sensors, not just one… didn't Dr. Zand have one as well? Maybe I can go ask him for it. I know he's not the most sociable person, but maybe if I ask politely he'll let me borrow it. That way the two portable units can go in different directions and we can use them to triangulate the source of the readings. Otherwise we are never going to be able to track the source of these readings. Whoever it is will shut it down again after a minute and we will be forced to start all over again, barely any closer." When her dialogue finally tapered off, Dr. Wiget looked up to find her companions staring at her. "What?"
"Do you ever take a breath when you get like that?" Dr. Jordache asked with a grin.
Chuckling, Dr. Lang waved his hands in a shooing gesture, "Go and ask him politely then Gina, I'm sure he will be unable to refuse."
***
It took over an hour to track down both handheld scanners, during which the sensors recorded yet another burst of energy, but finally Dr. Lang and Dr. Wiget were both in driving into the city, one heading north, the other heading south.
***
Two hours later, a frustrated and bored robotechnician sat slouched in her jeep, staring at a screen that refused to obey her mental commands to show her the contact she was waiting for. "Maybe it's a weekend thing and they only want to experiment when the UN scientific staff that might notice them is at a minimum." Nodding to herself, she pickup up her cell phone to pitch her idea to the others just as the scanner beeped to register a new trace. Recording the readings, she finished dialing and didn't have to wait for more than a single ring.
"What was your bearing, Gina?" Robert asked before she could say anything.
Reading off the numbers, she waited patiently while he finished talking to Dr. Lang on the other line.
"Hmmm, ok it looks like the signal is coming from the south side of the town, near the beach. The signal is too faint to get more localized than maybe 200 meters, but hopefully that is close enough, since there aren't very many buildings in that area. Here are the general coordinates."
As she finished writing down the coordinates, Dr. Wiget was already pulling out into the road. The morning commuter traffic winding down, but with plenty of construction and military vehicles on the roadway, it took her over five minutes to drive the two kilometers. Stopping in a beachfront parking lot, which was as close as she could get, she looked at the scanner to confirm it wasn't registering anything.
Stepping out of the jeep, she started walking along the beach, glancing at the swimmers and the sunbathers that were already enjoying the summer morning.
Spotting a collection of small structures just above the high tide line, Dr. Wiget started to approach them. As she got closer, she noticed that they all sported signs proclaiming to be shops or food vendors. She wondered what a clandestine lab would be doing in such a location. Upon further reflection, she realized that it would probably be wiser to wait for Dr. Lang to arrive, or even to call for a few soldiers. The people doing this could easily be anti-unification spies or rogue government agents. They could be from the United Arab Empire, or the Liberty Party. They could even be from a government agency that is being threatened with disbandment when the United Earth Government is formally established and they are here to get a new toehold on power.
Taking off her lab coat and sitting down on a nearby beach chair, she attempted to look like someone enjoying the day at the beach.
After a ten minute wait, during which she saw several people enter and leave the various structures, she finally noticed Dr. Lang walking along the beach, staring at his scanner. Waving to get his attention, Dr. Wiget stood up.
"These are the closest buildings to the coordinates, but I felt I should wait for you before going in." She murmured. "Do you think we should call some soldiers to help? I realized this could be more dangerous than I originally thought."
Dr. Lang flashed his enigmatic smile and attempted to reassure her. "Come my dear, I don't think that anyone here is going to harm us, let us go look around."
***
Ranma glanced at his new watch, a graduation gift from Nabiki, and noticed that it was almost time to head back to get ready for work. Standing up, he stretched and looked over his clothing to make sure that he was presentable. Noticing several ragged holes in the back of his pant legs, Ranma realized that he was going to have to stop and get something else to wear for the walk home.
Grabbing his pack, Ranma left his wonderful new training grounds and walked towards a set of shops that he knew sold clothing. The last time he had been there was after Nabiki insisted that he replace a ripped shirt of hers, damaged in a training accident. Fortunately that was the only thing damaged, other than his wallet of course. Walking into one of the shops, Ranma ignored most of the other people browsing through the clothes. A man and woman did get a second glance from him though. Dressed in long white coats and carrying some sort of electronic devices, which they swung around them as they shopped, the duo were walking around the shop, but didn't appear to be looking at the merchandise.
Shrugging to himself, Ranma grabbed a pair of pants and ducked into a changing room, closing the door behind him. He was understandably startled therefore, when while he was standing with his pants down, the door opened and the woman swung her device into the room before noticing him and his state of undress. Blushing, she looked away while mumbling an apology and shut the door.
Ranma stood there for a few seconds, surprised that she had apparently forgotten to yell pervert and hit him. Not wanting to push his luck, he quickly changed into the new pants and left the changing room. Walking up to the counter to pay, he tried not to stare at faintly blushing blond standing near the window.
By the time he was done purchasing his new pants, the man and woman walked past him, heading for the door. Ranma followed them out the door and on a whim, waved to the woman as he took off towards town. Her blush once again stained her cheeks.
***
Wednesday morning dawned bright and shiny, without a cloud in the sky. The day was so perfect that Ranma decided to take a quick run down to the beach in order to attempt a modification he had thought of for manipulating nature's ki. Rather than wasting the rest of the week, he felt that the opportunity was a good one and he would be careful not to knock himself out again and be late for work.
***
A loud alarm pierced the lab. Installed the day before, this alarm was put in to let the team know instantly if the sensors detected another buildup of energy. Dashing out of their offices, Lang confirmed that the distance and general bearing matched the previous incidents, so the three ran to get into their vehicles and head to the beach.
***
As Ranma was walking home, he saw that quirky blond wandering up the beach. She still had her little handheld device, but instead of paying attention to it, this time she was staring at everyone she passed and looking under beach umbrellas.
As he walked by her, Ranma again smiled and gave a little wave. She stared at him for a second, as if looking for something, but then suddenly blushed and continued walking.
Ranma grinned and continued walking home to prepare for work. Being on this side of things was a nice change. Usually he was the one who did something to be embarrassed about.
***
Dr. Gina Wiget was frustrated. This was a condition that frightened many people, because when this scientist was frustrated she had a tendency to do something rash. There was the time at CERN when she accidentally destroyed a nearby vacuum chamber while testing a modified electron beam generator without realizing how powerful the enhanced output was going to be. Fortunately the chamber was empty and her generator was a success, but that was the standard of her career it seemed, out of near disasters or even explosions, she would come out somehow ahead.
Now she had a new problem. Someone was playing with technology that they shouldn't have and she was unable to track them down. There had to be a way to narrow the search area.
"That's it!" She cried as the obvious solution came to her. A network of detectors linked together and placed throughout the area would be able to pinpoint the location of the next test. Grabbing her laptop, she quickly brought up design of the original portable detectors and started making the necessary modifications to allow networking and remote broadcasting. She ensured that the output would be encrypted and the whole thing could be run from her PDA, once the distributed sensor network was built and operational.
Standing up, she strode over to one of her supply cabinets for materials. She could probably have them ready by tomorrow, if she worked into the night.
***
After placing her new sensors on Friday morning, Dr. Wiget was happily back at work on her normal projects, waiting patiently for her inventions to tell her everything she needed to know in order to find the people responsible for her lack of sleep during this past week. Constant worries about enemy agents and possible spies made her wake up several times during the night. But the next time those same people tried to test their equipment, she would be ready for them, along with a platoon of soldiers just to be on the safe side. No sense in being foolish.
***
At nearly noon on Saturday morning, an irritated Ranma once again entered what he was already thinking of as his clearing. Wearing only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Ranma was without his pack this time.
His frown lightened a bit as he caught sight of his martial arts refuge. Taking deep breaths to calm down and relax, Ranma tried to forget about all of the delays he had to work through that morning.
First Nabiki had insisted on getting the apartment cleaned up, and then he found out that they were almost out of food so he had to run to the store to buy groceries. When he got home, Nabiki asked him to make breakfast for the two of them. She wanted to find out from him how work and his training trip was going, asking if he would be ready to enroll in college classes soon. He was delayed nearly another hour for that strangely nice, but also slightly irritating conversation.
When he finally managed to leave the apartment, there was a traffic accident right in front of him and the authorities asked him for a statement. Arriving at the beach, a crying little girl asked him if he had seen her mother. There wasn't anything else to do but help the child locate her missing parent. Fortunately it only took twenty minutes for them to find the grateful woman.
Finishing his breathing exercises, Ranma sat down in lotus position to begin practicing. It took him several attempts to achieve the proper meditative focus, but soon enough Ranma was delving into the world of energy surrounding and flowing through him. Focusing his own ki between his fingers, he began to weave it through some of the ki in the grass, attempting to form a lattice of ki to control the natural energy.
He felt it a split second before it happened, a strand of natural energy somehow absorbed part of his ki, resulting in a weakening of the lattice in one segment. He could feel it rapidly unraveling so he decided to push the ki away into the dirt in an attempt to ground the gathering energy. The resulting explosion of dust was not nearly as painful as the previous failures, but it still was not pleasant.
Standing up, Ranma decided that he was too dirty and agitated to continue. Maybe if he wasn't so wound up, that mistake would not have happened. Looking around he decided a short swim in the ocean would solve both problems. The workout would calm him down and the water would clean off the dirt.
Walking down to the shoreline, Ranma was pleased that the nearest swimmers were at least twenty yards away. At that distance Ranma was certain they had not heard his little mishap and he doubted they were watching him closely enough to spot the change when he entered the water. Kicking off his slippers, Ranma ran into the waves. Feeling his gender change the instant his toes touched the water, she continued on, diving forward as waves got to her waist.
***
With the army driver and escort, Dr. Wiget was certain that this trip from the ship to the ocean took less than five minutes. Running down the beach with the soldiers following, she looked at her PDA using it to guide her. The location that it reported was much further down the beach than they had looked the other times. Passing the last of the sunbathers enjoying their weekend, she continued along the beach, finally turning and passing through a stand of trees. Once inside the little clearing, she looked around in confusion.
"There's nothing here!" She groaned.
Turning to the Sergeant leading her little detachment of soldiers she asked him to have his men spread out and look for anything unusual, anything at all no matter how small.
Dr. Wiget leaned against a nearby tree for a couple of minutes, barely resisting the urge to bang her head upon it. Finally she stood up and looked around. Her soldiers were obviously used to this kind of request because they were quietly and efficiently scouring the clearing.
Deciding to get out of their way, she hiked back down to the sand and stood for a bit admiring the glorious sight of the blue ocean stretching off into the horizon, with a pair of naval vessels anchored in the harbor and a pod of dolphins in the distance.
Shifting her attention closer, she noticed a person swimming maybe fifty meters out in the surf. Spotting a pair of slippers discarded near the surf, she realized that this person might have seen whoever was here earlier. Just as she was stepping forward to find a way of signaling the swimmer, she heard someone calling her name.
"Gina, there you are." Dr. Lang waved as he approached, leading a much larger collection of soldiers than the handful that had rushed down with her.
"What did you find?" He asked more quietly as he got close enough for them to speak without beachgoers overhearing.
Kicking the sand with her foot, Dr. Wiget replied, "Nothing Doctor, they were already gone when we arrived. But according to the sensors, it originated from the clearing up beyond those trees, I have the soldiers searching the area."
Glancing where she indicated, Dr. Lang waved over the nearby officer. "Take your men into the trees there and coordinate with the soldiers already there to search the entire area. I want every rock and leaf turned over. Find me something, Lieutenant."
They both watched as the soldiers entered the tree line. "Well I guess I can leave it up to you, Gina. I'm going to head back to the lab; I left a plasma converter in a rather delicate condition. Call me if you find anything." With a sympathetic smile, Dr. Lang turned to amble back to his vehicle.
After watching him disappear, Gina pulled out her PDA to double check her readings. After ensuring that there was no mistake in the epicenter, she turned back to gaze at the ocean again.
Wading out of the surf, a redheaded teenager was approaching. Dr. Wiget was surprised that instead of a getting a tan in a fashionable bikini, this young girl was dressed in dripping shorts and a soaking wet t-shirt, obviously without a bra. Looking at the girl's face, Gina was puzzled when the look of faint curiosity apparent in her features transformed into a grin. The girl waved as if she knew who Gina was, then stopped to collect her slippers.
Striding up to her, Dr. Wiget hoped that the girl was observant enough to have seen something earlier. "Hello miss, could I ask you a question or two?"
Smiling, the teen nodded. "Sure, what do ya need?"
"Did you see anyone enter or leave this area a in the past thirty minutes or so?"
"Other than you and your friends? Sorry, but I only arrived a little while before you." The teen answered politely.
Gina was disappointed, but still remained confident that it was only a matter of time before she tracked down the offenders.
Pointing at Dr. Wiget's PDA, the girl chuckled, "Got a smaller piece of equipment today, huh?"
"I beg your pardon? Have we met before young lady?"
"Oh sorry, my name's .. Ranko. Yeah, I saw you the other day down at the clothing store. We didn't really meet, but you were carrying something bigger than that and peeking into changing rooms." The teen grinned at the sudden blush that suffused the doctor's face.
Nodding at the soldiers visible through the trees and ones further up the beach, the red head responded with her own query. "Are you guys going to be here long today? I came here for the peace and quiet, but I can always come back later. I had a good swim and cooled down already."
"Nice to meet you Miss Ranko, my name is Gina Wiget, I am a doctor with the UN staff here. I'm afraid we will probably be here for quite a while today, it could be several hours." Dr. Wiget answered with an apologetic shrug. "We are looking for someone and it could take some time to find them."
"Ok, good luck with your search. I guess I'll head home for the day then." With another wave, the teen started jogging back up the beach, heading to town.
Dr. Wiget watched her go, noting her smooth and effortless stride, like an athlete's. Finally she turned back to the tree line and went to see how her soldiers were progressing in their search, hoping they had discovered something.
***
The sun was still kissing the ocean on the horizon when Ranma jogged into his clearing. Pleased that it was abandoned once again, he continued to his normal spot in the grass. Setting his breakfast down, he started meditating.
This morning Ranma had gotten up early in an attempt to leave the apartment before Nabiki could wake up and assign him another chore to do before he could go practice. Instead of eating breakfast, he simply filled a bento with some leftovers and headed out the door.
Just as he was starting to interweave the ki, his stomach rumbled loudly, demanding attention. The unexpected interruption broke his concentration and he could only watch silently as the energy whipped away from his ki threads and spun away from him like a miniature tornado. Right through where his bento was sitting.
"Aw man! My breakfast, now what am I supposed to do?" Knowing that unless he ate something, he would probably be unable to focus enough to get anywhere, Ranma decided to run over to the beachfront food stands. Gathering up the mess at amaguriken speed, he threw it into the empty box and took off out of the clearing on a mission for life-giving sustenance.
As he sat down and ordered a bowl of miso soup with fish and pickles, Ranma once again saw a crowd of military people rushing down the beach. Noticing that doctor lady from the day before hurrying past, he waved to get her attention and grinned when she looked embarrassed as she continued running up the beach with the soldiers.
Figuring that they must not have found the person they were looking for the day before, Ranma decided to wait a few hours and hope they left before too long. He really wanted to get at least one decent practice session in this week.
***
Dr. Gina Wiget could be called many things; brilliant, intuitive, friendly and other people would no doubt add other adjectives to that list. Someone reading the whole list would probably notice that the word patience was not on it. When it came right down to it, Gina hated being denied something or being forced to wait.
"Sergeant, I think we've done enough searching for today, gather up your men and follow me. I think this person is playing with us. That's fine, I can play just as well as they can. We're going to leave, but once we are a block away, we are going to wait and see if they are ballsy enough turn it on again today. My money is on them being overconfident in our slow reaction times.
***
It had taken almost half the day, but finally the soldiers left. Ranma finished his afternoon snack and walked over to the clearing. He finally had peace and quiet to experiment with his new ki training. Concentrating, he started focusing his mind onto the task before him.
This time he could feel it working, there were a couple of instances where the ki thinned out and almost lost containment, but he quickly reinforced those points and continued building his energy field.
Success! It was finally finished, to his eyes there was a glowing lattice of ki in front of him, guiding natural strands of energy, just waiting for him to attempt the next stage. Moving slowly and carefully, he started lifting the structure into the air, attempting to separate the natural energy from the ground.
Right in the middle of this delicate operation, Ranma detected movement nearby. Focusing on what he was doing, he decided to ignore the distraction. It was probably an animal or a beachgoer, either way they would probably leave him alone.
Suddenly his warning sense threw up an alert and without conscious thought he threw himself to the side, rolling into a defensive stance. The ki structure disintegrated instantly, releasing the energy back into the ground acted like a stone thrown into a pond, creating a wave of energy that knocked Ranma and the two soldiers that were standing next to where he had been sitting, off their feet.
"Dang it," Ranma sighed as he sat upright. Looking around, he noticed that the soldiers and doctor lady were back in his clearing again. "Back again? Are you still looking for somebody, doctor?" He waved tiredly at her. "I had hoped you were gone for the day. But I guess if you are still here, I'll just head home and come back another time. Good luck in your search."
Standing up, Ranma was quite surprised when he was suddenly surrounded by a group of the soldiers. Others were helping the first two back to their feet.
"Um, sorry about that, I didn't mean for them to get hurt or nothin'." He tried to apologize to the soldiers.
"It's you!"
Looking over at the doctor, Ranma saw that she was pointing at him. "Huh?"
"You're the one causing all of this. You've been playing me the whole time, haven't you? I bet you've had quite a few laughs at my expense." Marching up to him, she finished her comments waving her finger in his face.
"Huh?" Ranma repeated his elegant response.
"Well buster, now you are coming with us. We have a special place for guys like you. Guys who like to make fun of women and laugh at us while we run around trying to find you." Grinning triumphantly she stepped away and gestured to the soldiers around him. "Take him away, boys. We'll let Dr. Lang decide what to do with him."
"Huh?!" Ranma couldn't figure out what else to say, here he was being accused of something, and he didn't even know what it was about. As the soldiers grabbed him, Ranma tensed to break away and make a run for it, when he remembered what Nabiki had beat into his head. *Always obey the UN military forces on the island and never ever get into a fight with any of them. You'll only get us kicked out or arrested.*
Relaxing his muscles, Ranma sighed and allowed his hands to be bound behind him. He was escorted out of his clearing and up the beach to a collection of military vehicles parked on the sand a short distance away. A curious crowd of onlookers was gathered beyond them, held back by additional soldiers.
The soldiers guiding him, pushed him into one of the oversized metal cars and followed him in. On the inside, there were benches running along the walls and Ranma was thrust into the one furthest forward. The rest of the seating was soon filled with soldiers and he felt the rumble through the seat as the vehicle came to life.
Ranma had rarely ridden in many vehicles while growing up. Other than boats, he had only ridden the occasional bus or train. This was a completely new experience to him and he was starting to enjoy it even though he was under arrest. After all, he knew that he was innocent of whatever it was they thought he did. So he decided to sit back and enjoy the ride.
He had seen cars on the streets of course, but none of them were even a quarter of the size of this metal monster. The occasional delivery truck would probably be closer to the right size, but judging by the thickness of the door, this vehicle was much heavier. This vehicle might even be comparable to the heavy caterpillar construction equipment used around the job sites. Watching those same vehicles push dirt and lift materials he was well aware of how powerful they were.
During his long training trip he called his childhood, he remembered seeing the occasional military formations around the country. After all, they were at war. He never actually saw any of the fighting though, so he could only listen to what his father said about the military protecting them from invaders who wanted to take over the country. He did one time see the results of a warhead once hitting near a small town they were staying in.
This vehicle was pretty interesting though, out of curiosity he concentrated as he looked at the wall across from him. Searching for the breaking point that he knew all inanimate things have, he was surprised to see not one central breaking point, but many tiny points all near one another. Whatever unusual metal this vehicle was made from, it would take forever to use the Baku-sai-ten-ketsu to break through it. He wasn't even sure if he could make much of a dent if he punched it. He doubted the military would be happy with him if he tried though, so Ranma sat quietly and enjoyed the ride while it lasted.
Looking at the soldiers across from him, he noticed that they were all watching him closely, as if they expected him to attempt to escape. Instead he smiled at them and leaned back in his seat. Belatedly he realized that these soldiers weren't dressed like the army guys he normally saw patrolling the streets of the town. He was starting to wish he had paid more attention to the structure of the UN military, but he didn't remember any of his classes really covering the subject that closely.
Ten minutes later, the pigtailed martial artist felt the vehicle come to a stop. When he was escorted out of it, he was only half surprised to see the towering structure of the enormous spaceship rising above him. He didn't have much time for sightseeing though as his formidable outriders moved him towards a doorway guarded by more soldiers.
Once inside the building, they entered an elevator that took them up several stories. When it reached it's destination, they exited to come face to face with more guards in front of an entryway to the spaceship itself.
Entering the ship, Ranma was hit by the sensation that he was surrounded by power. He didn't understand it, but it felt like there was an enormously powerful martial artist in the area. Somebody with unparallel power, who could put everyone he knew including Happosai, Saffron and himself all added together, to shame. As distracted as he was, Ranma was able to pay close enough attention so as not to be confused by all of the twists and turns they made through the corridors. Finally they stopped at a doorway and ushered him inside, closing the doorway behind him.
A short while later, a group of the soldiers entered and started patting him down. He submitted to this, still not wanting to cause any trouble. He was more afraid of Nabiki than of what the UN might do to him. After taking his watch and the remnants of a bag of candy he had bought that afternoon while waiting, the one in charge asked Ranma his name and business on the island.
"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Musabetsu Kakuto Saotome Ryu. I just graduated high school and work part time for Miyagi Construction & Building Supply.
The soldier wrote down what Ranma said, then gestured for the others to unlock his restraints. After that they left the room, locking it securely.
Ranma settled in to se what happened next, still confident that they would realize they had the wrong person.
***
An hour later and the bored martial artist was starting to do some simple katas that could be performed in small, enclosed spaces.
Finally, though he didn't know the time without a watch or a window to look outside, the door opened and his escorts came back inside. He let them secure his hands again, and then walked between them as they led him out the door and down the hallway. They led him into another room, this one had a table in the middle and in one of the seats was that doctor lady, along with a couple of men, dressed in white coats like her. In the corners there were several additional soldiers, soon joined by his own pair after they planted him in a seat.
Turning his attention to the people seated at the table with him, Ranma saw that they were all staring at him, like vultures watching a dying rabbit, or a pack of dogs eying a tree they wanted to mark.
"Alright young man, where is it?" The oldest of the men finally broke the silence.
"Huh?" Where's what?" Ranma looked at them, confused.
"Where is the protoculture-cell energizer?" The doctor answered, leaning forward in her chair.
"A horticulture-sell ener-whatsit?"
The trio across from him didn't seem interested in correcting his bewildered response.
"Don't play games with us young man, I'm afraid you'll find that this is a serious matter." The man sitting on the other side of the doctor stated.
"I think you people have the wrong person. I know that the doctor lady was searching for someone, but I think she made a simple mistake. I'm sure that if you check, you'll find that I'm not the guy you are looking for. I've never even seen a protomulcher-bell thingamajig" Ranma felt more confident with his clever reply.
"Of course not, that is why we found you sitting in the exact location that our sensors detected. That's why you repeatedly mocked me with your presence during the week, knowing that I was unaware of your involvement. The evidence of your innocence is a bit underwhelming. So where is the 'cell-energizer? It's obvious that you must have heard us coming and got rid of it, where did you hide it? We turned that clearing and the ground around it inside out searching, but haven't been able to figure out what you did with it."
"I'm sorry lady, but I have no idea what you are talking about, I was just minding my own business, practicing martial arts when you guys barged in and arrested me. I didn't get rid of nothin', crazy lady." Ranma snapped back.
Sadly the line of questioning went slightly downhill from there…
***
When he was finally escorted back to his cell, Ranma was kind of regretting that comment where he called the doctor crazy, or later when he referred to the lot of them as a trio of nutcases with nothing better to do. Those probably were not the best statements to defuse the situation and get him out of the predicament he found himself in. Still, they kept talking about proto-whatsit-cell energizing and accusing him of doing it. The whole conversation on their side was mystifying. He didn't understand half of what they said. Well, except for the insults he was trading with the doctor lady, she knew some pretty good ones. She made one comment that he wasn't sure he knew the meaning of, but based on her grin at the time, it wasn't a compliment.
Oh well, they would eventually discover that they made a mistake and would release him. Hearing a sound at the door, Ranma was convinced that was about to happen.
"Here's your dinner, kid. Eat up."
Ok, so they weren't letting him go, but at least he was being fed. That was a plus in his book. The dinner didn't come with an eating utensil, but that was ok. Ranma recognized military rations, during his childhood his father would occasionally leave camp in the evenings, then come back later with a bundle of them. They tasted as good as his father's cooking and a million times better than meals the tomboy used to cook.
That memory caused him to bow his head for a while, determined not to cry in front of the camera in the corner of the room. Finally he recovered and finished his dinner. Shockingly the food was actually somewhat tasty. Of course it didn't compare to eating at a restaurant and it wasn't even close to Kasumi's delicious creations, but it was much tastier than he remembered.
After he finished and the guards removed the tray, he sat down on the bed determined to wait them out. Some time later he finally fell asleep. When he woke up, he looked at the camera and asked when he was going to be released. The lack of response didn't provide much of an answer, but he wasn't really expecting one.
Lunch came and went, similar to dinner the night before. He spent the afternoon running through all of the various kata he could fit into his cell, and then he did a few where he literally bounced off the walls.
When dinner came, he asked the guard how long he was going to be held prisoner.
"Till you answer their questions and they either let you go or decide to do something else with you," Was the soldier's shrugged response.
This dismayed Ranma. He knew that he had already missed a day of work now, plus Nabiki was going to be pissed at him no matter what happened from here on. It was time to start being a bit more proactive in his imprisonment. That meant unsealing a technique that was sealed for a good reason.
Hatching his plan, he calmly pulled the sheet from his bed while eating his dinner. Finishing off the last of the meal, he twirled the sheet in front of him. "Umi-senken," The word seemed to hang in the suddenly empty room.
When the guards burst in to confirm what the security camera was showing, all they found was an empty room. Claxons erupted throughout the ship, causing Marines to tumble out of their beds, reaching for their gear to join their fellow soldiers. The alien spaceship was suddenly as active as a hornet's nest kicked by a child.
***
Nabiki was sitting at the dinner table, wondering where Ranma was at. When she stopped to walk home with him, his boss mentioned that he hadn't shown up for work. She had hurried home to find out if he was sick, but there was no sign of the pigtailed boy anywhere. It appeared as if he never returned from this weekend's training trip.
Growing a little worried, she had walked to his favorite restaurant and from there down to the beach, but didn't see Ranma anywhere. Since she didn't know exactly where his new training ground was, she was unable to go directly there. Finally she returned to the apartment to eat and consider her options. In an hour or so the sun would go down and finding Ranma's secret training location in the dark would be impossible.
She started weighing the pros and cons of waiting until morning to see if he came home on his own, or calling the authorities to report a missing person. If he had lost track of time and was fine, then waiting to see if he returned in the morning would be best. But if he was hurt, or lying unconscious somewhere because of an unforeseen training accident, then calling the authorities now could be important.
Another thought worried the brunette though, what if despite Ranma's claims to the contrary, his training grounds of choice were located in the Restricted Zone. Right now Ranma could be in military custody and the UN might be getting ready to throw them both off the island!
Losing her appetite, Nabiki started pushing her food around her plate while she thought. Finally, she stood up and walked over to the phone.
Before she could finish dialing, the front door burst open. Ranma practically flew into the room, slamming the door and locking it behind him.
"I swear I didn't do anything wrong!" He gasped out, as he ducked down to crawl over to the window and peek around the curtains.
Nabiki slowly lowered the phone and just stared at the crouching martial artist. The last time she had seen Ranma look like this was after the first time Xian Pu appeared. The Chinese warrior had been hunting his female half while attempting to marry the male.
Walking over to the window, she glanced out and nearly fell over when she saw a line of military vehicles filling the street, with what looked like dozens of heavily armed soldiers pouring out of them.
Locking her gaze on Ranma, she gave the heir of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu her coldest glare. "What did you do this time, Saotome?"
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Ahh, finally the two worlds have met. It's good to know Ranma still has that innate ability to charm the ladies. If you have any questions comments or concerns, please post a review.
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Thanks to my beta Demonlord87 for cleaning up my sentences.
If anyone with strong knowledge of the Robotech or even the Macross universe would like to be a beta reader, I would appreciate it. I have some ideas that I want to use, but I would like someone to bounce them off of first.
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Till next time,
Queberjeque