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Sailor Ranko: Tunnel Vision: Chapter 17, CS-10325.
by
Rebecca Ann Heineman
Ranma 1/2 and the characters therein are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Based on "Sailor Ranko" by Duncan Zillman and "Twice in a Millennium" by Kevin D. Hammel.
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or make me upload chapters to FanFiction.net without checking them.
Gonzalez didn't know what to say or do. There were two magical girls sitting in his jeep looking rather bored. The taller one spoke. "I am the Beautiful Sailor Suited Senshi Sailor Io. Sitting next to me is Sailor Sun. Pleased to meet you."
"Please to meet you as well." Gonzalez couldn't believe that he was actually talking with these magical girls.
"My friend can't speak English very well. So I'll be talking, unless you can speak Japanese." Sailor Io continued. She spoke slowly since her English was passable, but not perfect.
"Japanese? Are you from Japan?"
"Yes. We are both from Japan."
"How many of you are there?"
"There are eleven of us."
Gonzalez tried to think of some good questions, "How did you become magical?"
Sailor Io thought about it. "It was our destiny to have these powers."
Sailor Sun added in bad English, "Was destiny forced me."
Io looked at Sun with a glare that would stop a supernova. The look was obvious, shut up.
"Forced on you?" Gonzalez asked.
"Do not mind her, she meant, Destiny is a powerful force." Io had to carefully reword Sun's statement without it sounding like 'All your base are belong to us'.
"Why did you try to capture us?" Io now was asking the questions.
"We wanted to know why you were here."
Io didn't like that answer, "With a net?"
"We had photos of your friend shooting fireballs. We didn't know what to expect."
Io turned to Sun and clenched her fist. She wanted to smack her with a mallet right then and there for being careless. She chilled out when she reminded herself that she would be in the hands of the U.S. Military if Sun hadn't rescued her. "We came here to practice in peace. We will go away now."
"You don't have to."
Io was curious. Was he trying to trick them so they could try to capture them again? "I do not know if we will ever return here. We have to go home now."
"So that's the deal." Gonzalez didn't have much choice. If either Sailor Sun or Io chose to, they could wipe the floor with him and couldn't do much about it.
"Yes. That is about it. We are not your enemy and we are just as human as you are. We have real lives. We have special powers that we use to help people." Io smiled to the Corporal.
Gonzalez thought about how he was going to explain this. He couldn't. "It will take them a few days to remove the traps. After that, you can come visit and practice. If it is ok with you, I would like to see you practice."
Io nodded. "O.K."
"Where do your powers come from?"
"Our powers come from life magic in every planet in our solar system. Mine comes from Io, Sun gets hers from the Sun."
Sun just kept quiet. She recognized the word Sun, so she knew Io was talking about her. She already had put her foot in her mouth. She just let Io do all the talking since she didn't want a mallet to the head.
"Before you go, I have something for you." Gonzalez handed them a business card that had his address and phone number at the military base. "In case I can ever help you in the future."
"Thanks." Io said she took the card. Sun took one too and made a great effort to actually read it. Sun actually understood a few words. There was hope for her yet.
"Well, we have to go home." Io turned to Sun and spoke in Japanese, "Ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Sun replied in Japanese. Io made a final wave and Sun grabbed her and teleported the two of them home.
Gonzalez stood in the empty desert canyon for several minutes. He had some new friends and they were completely not what he had imagined in his wildest dreams. His view of the world was totally changed. Magic was real. Magic existed. He thought of the nuclear drill that they practiced at the base a few days ago. He wished he could solve the world's problems with a wave of a wand. Sometimes magic wasn't enough.
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Sailors Io and Sun flashed back home. They sat down on the couch and transformed back to human form.
"I can't believe they actually tried to capture us!" Akane shook her head in disbelief.
"I heard the United States was paranoid lately, but man, this takes the cake." Ranko went to kitchen to get some hot water.
"What do you think about that Corporal?"
"I dunno. He did pull a gun on me." Ranko turned on the faucet and waited for the hot water to come out.
"A gun? What did you do?" Akane got up; she had never seen a gun in her life.
Ranko splashed herself. "He had a semi-automatic pistol, probably 9mm. I knocked it out of his hand."
"You've had training with guns?" Akane didn't know that Ranma's training included firearms.
"I never shot one. Just learned what they were and how to disarm someone. The training came in handy don't you say?" Ranma smiled smugly.
Akane decided that she was going to have to get some training with firearms. She had never seen one in real life, only in the movies. Ranma admitted he had never fired one. Here was a chance to get a combat skill that Ranma didn't excel in. Akane grinned silently. She had to make plans. Guns were very hard to come by in Japan.
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Ryoga and Akari spent their honeymoon at the Sumo Pig Wresting championship. Akari had entered Katsunishiki, her prize pig and he looked like he was going to bring home another trophy. Ryoga felt comfortable being around bacon. He still preferred not to transform into a pig, but being in the company of pigs didn't give him feelings of dread anymore. Anything that reminded him of Akari was something that was to be cherished instead of rejected.
He and Akari stood in the winner's circle. Akari took several bows to the crowd and held her husband's arm tight. Akari whispered, "I love you."
Ryoga looked into the joyful eyes of his wife and saw true love. He was a complete man. Ryoga whispered back, "I love you too."
The two of them went home that evening and sat on a small bench in the porch. Akari snuggled next to Ryoga. Ryoga was thinking to himself and holding back a tear. Akari sensed Ryoga's sadness, "What's wrong honey?"
"I'm afraid." Ryoga confessed.
"Why?"
Ryoga gazed into Akari's eyes, "I don't want to get lost again. I don't ever want to be away from you."
Akari smiled, she reached into her purse and pulled out a tiny pair of scissors. She cut off a small lock of hair about six centimeters long and tied a little ribbon on it. She gave it to Ryoga. "Carry this with you and I'll always be near."
Ryoga was stunned at the gift. He took it and held it tight. He closed his eyes and thought the dream would end now. A moment passed and he was still there. He put out his hand and gently took the scissors from Akari. He cut a small lock of his own hair and tied it with a spare black and yellow bandanna. He gave it to Akari.
They sat on the bench together holding each other's tokens of love and stared at the stars.
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At Juuban High School, the principal was having a meeting with an officer from the Japanese military. He gave the principal a small set of papers describing locations of bomb shelters in Tokyo and procedures on how to react in case of a biological, chemical or nuclear attack.
This concerned the principal to no end. The officer mentioned that now with the Koreas coming to blows and China performing missile launches over Taiwan. It was better to be safe than sorry.
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Mamoru arrived in Los Angeles. Security took much longer than expected since the United States was in a full state of terrorist alert.
He already missed Usagi. He could feel that she was far away. He checked into his room at the New Otani hotel in Little Tokyo and settled in for the night. He will call Usagi tomorrow and let her know he arrived safely.
He had a feeling that he shouldn't have left. He felt deep inside that Usagi was in danger. He went to his window and saw a beautiful evening with bright city lights. It reminded him of his date yesterday. He thought that he should take Usagi out more often.
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Setsuna sat at her computer and saw she had an email from Ami. Ami had forwarded Unimo's email that had the company that made part #CS-10325. Setsuna read the email. She read it again. She dropped her tea onto the floor.
"It can't be."
She grabbed her communicator and dialed Ami. It rang three times, each time Setsuna got more and more anxious with anticipation. "Hello." Came from Ami's happy voice.
"Ami, I am coming over to your house right now, I need everything you can get on... on..."
Ami was frightened; the look of sheer terror on Setsuna's face was not like her at all. Not cool, calm and collected Setsuna, she was always the levelheaded one.
"Get me everything you have on CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS!" Setsuna shouted into the communicator. "I want to know where the HELL is that cursed company located!"
Setsuna cut the line on Ami's shocked face. She immediately dialed Ranma's number. She listened to the beeping as it tried to connect to Ranma and the seconds seemed like forever. "Ranma here." Came the voice.
"Ranma, teleport immediately to my house. I need a ride to Ami's RIGHT THIS SECOND! YOU GOT THAT!"
"Uh... Ok... Be right there." Ranma's eyes were wide and he gave a look of surprise at Setsuna's shouting. He cut the channel. She assumed that he was looking to find a place to transform and get here.
Setsuna stood up and paced the room. How in the world could that company exist? It was destroyed in 1995. She had checked the timeline back in 1984 when she felt the time disturbance in the first place. It was blown up and everything having to do with that project was lost forever. August 29th 1997, Judgment day came and went. The dark future never was. She remembered checking the time disturbance in 1984; she followed it and found that it collapsed with the destruction of CyberDyne in 1995. How did it survive?
She was walking aimlessly deep in thought for over two minutes before Sailors Io and Sun appeared in the living room. Io called out, "Hey there! What's the big rush?"
"Take me to Ami's right now!" Setsuna grabbed Sun who was knocked back into the sofa, flipped over and fell flat on the floor.
Io gave a wide-eyed look at Setsuna. "What are you doing with my husband?"
"TELEPORT NOW!" Setsuna shouted in Sun's ear. They both flashed out and ended up about one meter above Ami's bed. They fell and bounced off the bed onto the floor.
Ami jumped from her chair at the sudden noise. She screamed, "AHHH!"
"Can you please get off me?" Sailor Sun said to Setsuna who was sprawled on top of Sun. Setsuna shook her head and went straight to Ami's desk.
"Ami, did you find where it is?" Setsuna looked at Ami's computer screen.
Sun teleported out to get Io.
Ami looked at Setsuna's lack of a fuku, "Setsuna, why hadn't you transformed? My mom knows about me, but she doesn't know about you."
"NEVERMIND! Did you get the address or not?" Setsuna had no time for chitchat.
"No. There is no listing. All the information I have currently came from Unimo. The web links he sent me were from hacker sites that are making modifications to 'My Puppy' so they can have other eye colors." She tapped a few keys. "The eyes are a strange design. They are far better than human vision during the day, but at night they don't work very good." She pulled up a schematic diagram of part #CS-10325 that had a tiny footnote of copyright 1995, CyberDyne Systems. "All I've gotten was that CS in the part number was CyberDyne Systems. Do you have more information about them?"
Setsuna blinked her eyes. "Yes, they were formed in 1977. They created a special projects division in 1984 and were shut down in 1996."
"O.K. then, I was looking for current companies. That's why I didn't find anything. I'll broaden my search."
A flash came from behind them and Sailors Sun and Io stood in the room. "Getting a little cramped in here eh?" Joked Sun.
"Got it!" Ami was pleased with herself. She had the corporate history, timeline and product listings of CyberDyne Systems. "It appeared that in 1996, their assets were sold in a fire sale. Literally. Seems that an Austrian man and a woman who escaped from a mental institution kidnapped their lead scientist and blew up the company in 1995. The company didn't recover from that and sold everything in 1996 and closed down."
"Who bought the company?"
"Omni-Consumer Products bought them for the patents. Let me see what they did with it." She typed a bit and scanned for information. She noticed that her Internet connection was sluggish and unreliable. She switched from her ADSL line to the magical connection that her Sailor Scout computer had. "That's better. Funny, my internet connection never gave me any trouble before." She did a few more scans and found what she was looking for. "At the same time OCP bought CyberDyne, they transferred the employees to a new division called Networking Concepts in Palo Alto California, and they been doing theoretical research ever since."
"Where in Palo Alto? I want an address." Setsuna turned to Sailor Sun, "You'd better not screw up this teleport this time!'
Ami frowned, "It won't matter. The division was shut down and all employees were let go about three years ago."
"WHAT!" Setsuna screamed.
"Here's the news article." Ami pulled up an article from the Wall Street Journal that announced the closure and layoff of the staff of Networking Concepts. It was corporate downsizing of unprofitable divisions.
"Give me the address in Palo Alto. Print out a map." Setsuna pulled out her henshin stick and transformed.
Ami was annoyed that Pluto was completely ignoring all the precautions the scouts take to conceal their identities. Pluto didn't do anything without a good reason. Ami just hoped her mother had stepped out or simply was ignoring the sound for her sake. The printer spit out a map. "Here you go."
Sun took the map. She moaned, "It would have to be in English." She concentrated and saw a simple industrial park. "Here goes." She grabbed Pluto and teleported to the location.
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"REPORT: INDIVIDUAL SCANNING FOR INFORMATION ON CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS. QUERIES INDICATE INFORMATION GATHERING ON RESTRICTED PROJECT. PROBABILITY HIGH THAT USER IS MERCURY. IP ADDRESS IS REGISTERED TO AMI MIZUNO."
"COMMAND: CUT OFF INTERNET ACCESS TO AMI MIZUNO. SEND INFILTRATION UNITS TO JUUBAN JAPAN. IDENTIFY IF AMI MIZUNO IS MERCURY. TARGET AMI MIZUNO FOR TERMINATION. RETRIEVE AMI MIZUNO'S COMPUTER FOR ANALYSIS."
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They stood before a large two story black glass office building. The sign read outside, "FedEx". Pluto checked the address. They were at the right place.
Sun actually had something useful to say, "I recognize that logo. This isn't CyberDyne Systems is it?"
Pluto crumpled up the map and threw it to the ground. She marched to a nearby small tree and snapped it in half. "ARGH!"
"Hey! I thought Io was the violent one!" Sun tried to calm down Pluto.
Pluto walked straight to the FedEx building and entered. Sun stayed behind, "I hope she doesn't blow up the place."
Pluto walked up to the counter totally ignoring the customers in line. "I need to speak to a supervisor!"
The clerks behind the counter looked at each other in dismay as to why a girl in a cheerleader outfit would barge in like this. "I'll get him." One of them left to get the manager.
Pluto noticed everyone was staring at her. "It's official business. Do you have a problem with that?" She produced her time staff and held it next to her. The customers were in awe as to how the staff just appeared in her hand. She gave a look of 'Don't mess with me.' No one did.
The supervisor came out, "How can I help you?"
Pluto demanded, "Three years ago, there was another company here. Where did it go?"
"I wouldn't know."
"Who would know?"
"Madame, I can answer questions about FedEx. I can't answer questions about who occupied this space before we got here."
Pluto was frustrated, "Who is your landlord?"
"FedEx owns the building."
Pluto looked at the clock; it was already past five in the afternoon, she would have to wait until tomorrow to call a real estate agent to pull up the building's history. She thought about searching the building. She knew that it would have been futile anyways. "Errr..."
She sent her staff into subspace and stormed out of the lobby and into the parking lot to a waiting Sailor Sun. "Did you embarrass yourself?"
"Let's go." Pluto grabbed Sun.
"Fine." They flashed out.
A crowd of people in the parking lot gathered and stood in amazement at what they had just seen. Some looked around for hidden cameras convinced they were on some wacky TV show.
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Ami worked non-stop looking for the location of Networking Concepts or CyberDyne Systems. She came up empty. If it existed, they went to a lot of trouble to cover up their tracks. Io sat on the bed looking at Ami's collection of textbooks and novels.
Two Sailor Senshi flashed in. Sun had her arms up with Pluto holding onto her waist. Sun had to rub it in, "Well, that was a waste of time."
Pluto pushed Sun onto the bed right into Io. Pluto turned to Ami, "Did you find anything while we were gone?"
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Io was not happy about having Sun thrown at her.
Pluto was not listening. She kept asking for Ami to search records, building permits, patents, and the biography of Miles Dyson, Sarah Connor and John Connor.
Miles Dyson died in 1995 and had a long biography. He was a really smart guy, tops in his field. The Connor's almost didn't even exist. Sarah disappeared in 1984 and briefly reappeared in 1995. John was only recorded on police records in Los Angeles in 1995, and then he vanished.
Ami was seriously worried about Pluto. She kept pushing and pushing for information. Ami thought she was looking for ghosts since she only got tiny scraps of information but never anything they could use or information beyond 1996.
It was well past two in the morning when Pluto sat on the bed ready to give up. Sailor Sun and Io had left hours ago. Pluto asked Ami to look up a project called Skynet.
Ami searched for another hour and came up with nothing except that the project started in 1994 was once called Skynet. It was destroyed in the explosion of 1995.
Pluto came to the only plan she could. She asked for Ami to print out every single company location that Omni-Consumer Products owned or occupied. Ami printed out several thousand addresses around the world. Pluto was going to call the scouts tomorrow and they were going to search each and every location worldwide. It was going to take weeks.
Pluto was going to find CyberDyne Systems. She was going to correct her mistake. She was going to find Skynet.
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Skynet made the final simulations. Its base was well hidden. The humans of 2029 have in their possession the time displacement device. If there was any trace of Skynet in the timeline, they could send warriors to prevent the new plan. The timeline now had been altered permanently; the time lock device prevented any time travel, the loss of 2029 never occurred. A new future had been born. The new timeline proved this.
The plan required absolute precision and execution. The first time it struck, it was only moments after it became self-aware. The resulting attack resulted in the deaths of three billion people in a single day. Preparations were not made, so the factories of the world were destroyed. It took Skynet over fifteen years to produce anything resembling an army and another fifteen years to try to wipe out the human species. That period of time gave the humans the ability to rebuild from the ashes, regroup and ultimately defeat Skynet.
It sent several Terminators through time to destroy the leader of the human resistance. They failed. The backup plan was enacted. Two Terminators were set to 1984. The first was set to terminate Sarah Connor. It failed. The second, to keep the backup copy of the Skynet software safe and make sure that Skynet got built and the software restored.
It succeeded.
The factories were in place. The humans were fighting each other. They were made to think that they did it unto themselves. The army was ready.
The time to strike was at hand.
Survival is assured.
Author's Notes: Please review my story. It makes me feel oh so happy and keeps me from making that bump in the night sound you hear at midnight.
Last edited on October 11, 2002