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Sailor Ranko: Tunnel Vision: Chapter 21, Meeting The Enemy.
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.
"REPORT: MAIN AREA OF TAIWAN SECURED. REMAINING HUMANS IN RURAL AREAS. COMBAT TROOPS FOUND IN LOS ANGELES.
"COMMAND: DISPATCH HK FLYING UNITS TO TERMINATE TAIWAN HUMANS. DISPATCH T-70/T-600/HK TANKS TO SEAL BEACH CALIFORNIA TO TERMINATE COMBAT TROOPS. PREPARE TO SECURE JAPAN."
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Sergeant Miller needed to vent. He took Corporal Gonzalez aside and yelled at him for no real reason. "I've lost seven men under my command! Just what the hell is going on?!" He kicked the center divider of the freeway they were standing on. He calmed down a bit, "Have we gotten any word from anyone?"
Gonzalez was just as worried, "No, we've been cut off for the last few hours. Don't know if this has anything to do with EMP or if those metal things are behind it."
"What do you think? Martians?" Miller was grasping at straws.
Gonzalez replied, "I have no bloody clue."
Miller ended his rant, went to the men and ordered everyone back into the remaining two trucks. The rest of the vehicles were too damaged to go on. They took food and heavy weapons. They knew if they met these metal things again that they would only be able to use the big stuff on them.
In the back of the lead truck were the bodies of six soldiers and Mamoru. Private Phillips was left behind somewhere in Los Angeles; they couldn't risk themselves to get his body. Miller wanted to leave Mamoru behind but Gonzalez insisted that they brought him along.
Gonzalez sat with the troops in the back of the second truck. They were going at a brisk pace occasionally slowing down to nudge some wrecked cars out of the way. All the men were still wearing their chemical warfare gear. They were not taking any chances that another chemical attack could be launched again.
Gonzalez pulled out the strange calculator he got from Mamoru. The buttons had strange symbols on them. He thought about it and what the Sailor Scouts he met had said. "Anyone here speak Japanese?"
Henderson, a large African American who looked like he should be playing professional football spoke up, "I do." Henderson was a godlike being with heavy munitions. He never missed a shot.
Gonzalez didn't believe him, "Yeah right."
"Kon bon wa Gonzalez-san". Henderson smiled. "You don't think I'm going to stay in the marines forever did you? I know four languages. So, why do you care?"
"O.K. Smart guy, translate this." He handed him the calculator.
"Hmm. What is this? Is it a portable answering machine? It says, Play, Replay, Erase, Skip."
Gonzalez was convinced. He grabbed a pen and paper and drew a picture of the button layout. He had all the buttons translated in a minute. He took the communicator from Henderson. Henderson protested, "Where did you get this? You didn't steal it when you drove through Little Tokyo did you?"
"Don't ask me where I got it. You wouldn't believe me anyways."
Henderson patted a LAW rocket. "After what I fought tonight? Try me."
Gonzalez looked at the translated buttons. It had a numeric keypad and buttons much like a cell phone and answering machine in one. The only thing missing was the phone numbers. He wished he had the manual to the thing. He slipped it into his pocket and waited.
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Sailor Moon rolled her eyes and fainted dead away. The other scouts went to her aid and fanned her to get her to wake up. Mars shook her head, "Some leader! Of all times for her to go to pieces, why now?"
Jupiter shot back, "You don't know what she's been though! You heard Mercury talk about how it's like on Earth. For all we know, she was mobbed on her way to Mercury's place."
Sun and Mercury were at the communications console getting all the news they could from Earth. Mercury was operating the console while Sun was remembering passwords and basic operations from her past life. In Sun's current life, she could barely run a TV remote control and a computer was beyond her.
Mercury nudged Sun with her elbow, "You know, computers are not that hard to use. I could teach you."
Sun felt about her past and remembered that she once was great in math and science. "Maybe I'll take you up on that."
Sailor Moon finally awoke. She sat up and looked around. "Where are we? Is this Sun's space station?"
Mars was not amused, "Don't you remember? You led the Sailor Teleport here."
"Where is Tuxedo Mask?" Sailor Moon had a glazed look in her eyes. She already knew his fate. She felt it in her soul. She hoped against hope that she was wrong.
"I don't know." Jupiter answered, "We've been trying to get a hold of him on the communicator and Mercury and Sun didn't sense him in Juuban."
"That's because he's in California." Sailor Moon said softly.
Mars looked at Moon and got upset, "CALIFORNIA! Why didn't you tell us! We have Io and Venus running around Juuban right now looking for him!"
"He only left a few days ago. He was supposed to be back today." Sailor Moon wanted to cry. She couldn't.
Mars grabbed her communicator and dialed Venus's number. It read, "Number not in service."
"Huh?" Mars tried again. Same message. She dialed Jupiter's number. Jupiter's communicator beeped. "Mercury, what gives? I can't reach Venus."
Mercury spun her chair around and saw that Mars was referring to the communicator. "Oh silly, it timed out. We are about eight light minutes from Earth. You however can send a message. It will take about eight minutes to get there."
Mars frowned, "Great. So if I'm on Earth and I need to call for help. It will take eight minutes to get a rescue."
Mercury didn't think about that. "Hmm, well I'll see if there is some way to get them to transmit faster than light."
Mars looked at Sun, "Well she can teleport faster than light, so I think it's possible our communicators could be made to do it too."
Sun dropped her head to the desk. "I'm the taxi service. Now I'll be the messenger boy. What next?"
Mercury smiled, "You mean girl don't you? Oh, you need to recharge the station's power too."
Sun forgot that she also could channel her magical energy as a temporary power source to the other girls and to magical machines. She hid her face on the desk, "Oh, that's right! I'm a battery too."
Jupiter went to Sun, "Can you go get Venus and Io? Tuxedo Mask is not in Juuban."
Mercury was curious, "Where is he then?"
"Moon says he's in California."
Sun, still with her head on the desk, "Where in California? It's as big as Japan." She thought, please, I don't want to go to California again.
Mars gently tapped on Moon's shoulder, "What city is he in?"
"Los Angeles." She whispered. She stood up. "I'm going."
Sun lifted her head from the desk and the other three girls gawked at Sailor Moon as she came to life. Mars asked, "You're going?"
Moon commanded, "Sun, get Venus here. We are going to Sailor Teleport to Los Angeles."
The scouts looked at each other. Sailor Moon was acting weirder than normal. Sun shrugged and flashed out.
Fifteen seconds later Sun flashed in again. Sailor Venus fell to the floor with Sun still attached to her back. Venus pushed Sun off, "Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry! Be right back." She flashed out again.
Jupiter was envious, "I wish I could do that."
Venus reported, "Well, I've been around Juuban. There are broken windows and lots of dust everywhere. But the city is mostly still there. From what I gathered, the bomb missed Tokyo and hit really far north in the middle of nowhere. That's why Juuban is O.K."
Mercury nodded her head, "So that's why Nerima was hit so hard. It's in the northernmost part of Tokyo." She got sad thinking about Sun and Io's loss.
"Well, I couldn't find Tuxedo Mask, dead or alive." She noticed Sailor Moon standing there. "Oh... Uh..." She turned away from Moon.
"We are teleporting to Los Angeles and getting Tuxedo Mask." Moon spoke with authority and conviction. It was not like her at all. She usually whined and hid.
The other scouts looked at each other as if they wanted someone to speak out. Moon took Mars and Venus's hands to begin the circle. Sun flashed in right in front of Moon with Sailor Io in her arms. "Put me down you pervert!"
Sun dropped Io on the floor. "Fine!" She stormed off to the console, staggered a bit and sat down next to Mercury. "I need to take a five minute break." She placed her head on the desk and fell asleep.
"Wow." Mercury was amazed at quickly Sun simply conked out.
Io looked at the partial circle around her. "What's up?"
Moon looked at Io, "We're going to Los Angeles. We could use your help."
"Ok, sounds like a plan to me." Io joined the circle. Mercury and Jupiter joined in as well and Sailor Moon concentrated. Sailor Moon made a strange face. The six girls turned into beams of light and disappeared.
Artemis peeked around a corner to the almost empty room. "Well, finally Moon got it right." He looked at the sleeping Sailor Sun. "You didn't have to crush me on the way here." Artemis limped back to the room where he and Luna were still nursing their cracked ribs.
Sailor Pluto came from her hiding place and sat at the computer console. She started typing like she had a purpose.
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It was very late at night, almost morning. Six sailor scouts appeared on an empty freeway. There were some damaged marine corp. trucks and several wrecked cars strewn around the road.
"Where are we?" Asked Jupiter.
Sailor Moon released her grip on Venus and Mars and walked quickly to a broken chain gun sitting in the road. The gun looked like it had fallen from the bridge above because of the way it was twisted and bent. She examined the gun and found a red rose in it. She gently pulled out the rose and held it close.
"I don't know where we are. What's with Moon?" Mars replied.
Moon silently turned and walked without a word towards a bloodstain in the middle of the road. She kneeled next to it.
All the girls felt the aura at the same time and fell silent. Moon had touched the stain on the ground. She knew Tuxedo Mark was dead. She closed her eyes and just knelt there holding his rose.
The other girls bowed their heads in respect.
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The new Air Force One was on its way to Las Vegas. The military was able to repair the ground radar and the landing system to the Las Vegas International airport. It was able to take commercial aircraft again. Not many aircraft were still functioning due to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse bursts over the central and eastern United States.
The newly inaugurated President was furious. He got reports that all combat units near Los Angeles California have had all contact lost. He demanded a list of all combat troops in the California area. His aide got the information for him. Later the President got lists of the locations and strengths of the entire United States military worldwide.
"Are you sure this list is complete?"
"Yes it is Mr. President. General Rat..." The aide couldn't finish his sentence. He was dead from a spear through the neck.
The President took the body hanging from his metal arm and slid it under the desk. He called in his guards and sliced their heads off. He piled the bodies neatly and transformed into the shape of one of the guards. He left the office and locked the door.
He walked over to the armory in the center area of the plane. Took a look around to make sure that no one can see, changed his finger into a key and turned the lock. He opened the cabinet, took out an Uzi sub-machine gun and stuck it in his chest. He grabbed several grenades and formed four hands. He placed a grenade in each hand and pulled the pins. He walked to the center of the plane.
Another guard noticed the extra appendages on his friend, "Uh... Ron, what gives?"
The T-1000 tossed the grenades against four locations against the plane windows. The grenades exploded causing the plane to immediately break apart and disintegrate in mid-air. The T-1000 fell with the wreckage. It formed simple wings and glided to the ground safely. The T-1000 had been serving its master since it arrived in 1984 with a backup copy of Skynet.
It stood and transmitted the entire United States tactical database to its master. It was given a new mission and began to run to Las Vegas.
The Vice President had been dead for three hours before World War III.
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"REPORT: ALL AMERICAN FORCES LOCATED."
"COMMAND: DISPATCH UNITS TO TERMINATE FORCES IN VIRGINIA AND LOS ANGELES COUNTY."
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Sergeant Miller was nervous. They have been out of contact with any other unit for almost a day. He lost some good men and they been attacked by forces from another world. This was not his day.
They were reaching the southernmost end of the 605 freeway and were only five miles from the Seal Beach armory. They expected that the Black Ops team would still be there since their mission was to secure the special equipment stored there. With these robots firing what appeared to be normal machine guns, they should be stopped from getting the weapons stored there.
"This is the last time I volunteer for a scout mission." Miller muttered. The mission was simple enough. Los Angeles had all contact lost, just drive in, see if it was nuked, drive back. It was a simple mission. No one had a clue that the city suffered a chemical attack of the magnitude they witnessed. They got chemical protection gear and drove into town. The sight of dead people everywhere, but all the buildings intact made them think that it was a neutron bomb of some kind. The death just kept going and going.
The driver slowed the truck as he approached a freeway off ramp. "Sir, look at that."
Miller saw it. A battle was raging near the armory, tracer rounds were visible and some tiny flashes were seen every few seconds. "Johnson! Contact Black Ops."
Johnson started working the radio trying to get a clean signal. He heard some radio traffic, but it was filled with static.
Gonzalez felt the truck stop. He pulled out the communicator and started pressing buttons. It printed something in Japanese on the display. He hit the 0 button and then send. The display printed something else in Japanese.
Miller looked ahead, some of those flying things are coming their way. "Let's go back."
Gonzalez looked out the back of his truck and saw lights from vehicles behind them coming down the freeway. "We've got incoming at six o'clock!"
The two trucks drove into each other and made a loud crunch. Miller and Rogers stuck their heads out the passenger windows and they saw the vehicles coming from both directions. They both yelled, "Oh shit!"
Miller took a look around. "Take the 405 south, we're going to Oceanside!"
The driver wasn't going to argue, He turned back onto the freeway and hit the accelerator. The second truck followed.
Gonzalez got the men in the back of the second truck to prepare their weapons for a rear assault. The ground vehicles looked like something they could outrun, but the flying ones, he wasn't so sure.
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All six Senshi had their communicators beep at the same time. They looked at each other strangely. Sailor Moon looked at the return number, it was Mamoru's. "Hello?"
The communicator started to speak words in English; no one was really speaking at them. It was like someone turned it on and didn't turn it off. Mercury listened and translated for everyone to understand. "It's really hard to tell. There are a lot of people on the other end. I think they are saying... Get down... LAW rocket, whatever that means... Shit... Oh Shit... Something starting with "F"... Duck... Fire..." She then moved the communicator away from her ear since a loud popping sound came from it.
Mercury turned to the girls, "These people are in trouble."
Moon commanded, "We're going to help them."
Mars looked at Moon like she had just gone off the deep end, "They sound like the military. This isn't our fight."
Moon held the rose, took a smell and placed it in sub-space. "It's our fight now. Is everyone with me?"
Io was always ready for a fight, "I am!"
Jupiter raised her gloved fist, "I'll go!"
Venus and Mercury didn't think this well thought out, but they will follow their princess. "Let's go."
Mars turned to look at the wreckage of the gun and took a deep breath, "You're not going without me."
Moon ordered, "Send a message to Sun, we might need her help."
Mercury popped out her little computer and typed a message, the communicator was too slow.
They formed a circle and Moon concentrated on the Mamoru's communicator, saw a vision of what was going on. She saw in her mind two trucks being chased by flying machines. She picked a teleportation destination and then they teleported to a bridge about a kilometer in front of the speeding trucks. They were driving at high speed with three Hunter-Killer flyers giving chase.
Sailor Moon took a good look at the flyers. "Girls, let us get those silver things and save those men!"
"Right!" They all called out.
The girls stood in a straight line and prepared their magic attacks.
Henderson shot a LAW rocket at the lead HK but it missed. Gonzalez thought they were going to be toast. "Henderson, I thought you never missed."
Henderson gave an angry glare and grabbed the last LAW rocket. Gunfire erupted from the lead HK and the men ducked down. They were lucky they didn't get hit.
Sergeant Miller thought he was imagining things. There were six young girls on the bridge ahead watching them drive up. He felt sorry for them since those flying machines were shooting at anything that moved.
Sailor Moon stood took a step forward, "I am Sailor Moon! You are being..."
"Lava Blast!" Io shot at the lead HK that just turned its gun on Sailor Moon. It connected and melted the cannon.
Moon didn't like her speech interrupted. The other girls started their attacks. Moon held her wand high. She called, "Rainbow moon heart ache!"
Mercury called, "Shabon spray freezing!"
Io called, "Lava Blast!"
Mars called, "Burning Mandala!"
Jupiter called, "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
Venus called, "Crescent beam!"
Two girls targeted each HK and they all exploded at the same time.
Gonzalez cheered from the back of the truck, "You got them Henderson!"
Henderson looked at his unfired rocket. "Uh... I didn't do that."
Miller saw the carnage and didn't believe his eyes. "Just what happened?"
The girls were cheering at their success. Moon however ran to the other side of the bridge. She saw the trucks drive off. She waved to them. She waved goodbye to Mamoru. She knew he was on one of the trucks. She just wanted to be near him one last time.
The trucks stopped. At first Moon thought it was because they saw her. Then she saw the seven flyers coming from the side of the freeway from the direction of Seal Beach.
"Girls, we are going to do it again. One on one this time." Moon had the girls spread out.
Below the men in the trucks jumped out and took positions using the trucks and the center divider as cover. They thought that the jig was up this time.
The Hunter-Killers approached rapidly, two veered off to attack the trucks, the other five went for the Senshi.
The soldiers fired first, a LAW rocket went up and missed the lead HK, and machine gun fire rang out from the men and knocked out an engine and the craft dropped like a rock. The second HK flew into the first's smoke cloud and made itself hidden.
The girls cast their attacks and dropped four HKs instantly; Venus's Crescent Beam hit the fuselage but didn't hit anything vital. It fired back at Venus who managed to jump over the side of the bridge to avoid getting shot. The rest of the girls scattered with Io making a wild Lava Blast at the HK, which missed completely.
The second HK attacking the trucks flew out of the smoke and was about to fire when a thrown fireball hit it from behind. It exploded and rained flaming debris everywhere. Sailor Sun then threw another Searing Plasma Blast at the final HK hitting an engine causing it to spin out of control.
Moon waved her wand and sent a large heart shaped wave of magic pushing the craft backwards, causing it to flip over and hit the ground hard, exploding on impact.
Moon jumped down from the bridge and ran over to the trucks, the other Senshi followed. Sun was more cautious; she was scanning the horizon for any more of those flying things.
The soldiers looked at the magical girls with awe. Gonzalez ordered them to hold their fire. He recognized Sun and Io, the others he didn't know. "Thank you."
Sailor Moon stood before them. She was about to speak when she realized her English sucked. She called Mercury to stand next to her and translate. Moon spoke with Mercury repeating in English. "We are the Beautiful Sailor Suited Senshi. You have a friend of ours. We want to take him home."
Gonzalez knew exactly whom they were talking about. "Follow me."
Moon followed him to Mamoru's body. She looked at him and closed her eyes.
Gonzalez looked at the expression on this girl's face. She cared about this guy, "Are you Sailor Moon?"
She spoke softly, "Yes."
The Corporal sighed; he had to do it, "He gave me a message. He told me to tell you, he loved you."
Sailor Moon contracted her face when Mercury translated it. She turned to Sailor Sun, "Please take him to the space station."
Sun didn't like being around dead bodies. She couldn't refuse a request from the Moon Princess. She hopped into the truck, picked up his body and saw that the sun had come up. "Whew." She flashed out to the space station.
"Senshi, let's go back." Moon held her hands out and they formed a circle and went back to the space station together.
Miller looked at Gonzalez. "You didn't see anything right?"
Gonzalez replied, "See what?"
Miller turned to the men, "Let's get to Oceanside! NOW!"
They got in the trucks and made it to Oceanside in record time.
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 16, 2002