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Sailor Ranko: Tunnel Vision: Chapter 28, Sunrise.
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.
The Senshi were at the top of the tallest skyscraper in Los Angeles. They were looking eastward in the general direction of Sailors Sun and Io's battle. Moon and Venus were gnawing on their gloves waiting for a sign, any sign.
Moon at the last second changed the destination of the Sailor Teleport. Communicators didn't reach the space station quickly and if Sun and Io got into trouble, Sailor Moon wanted to be able to jump back in and rescue them.
A bright light came from the east. It stayed lit for over ten seconds and then winked out. Sailor Moon grabbed the hands of Mars and Venus and called on her teleportation magic to see the result of the Solar Flare attack. Moon jumped for joy, "She did it! Let's go!" They teleported back to Sun and Io's location.
The terrain looked like the crater of a volcano. The ground glowed red hot except for a circle six meters in diameter. Sailor Io held the inert form of Sailor Sun in her arms in the center of circle. "Wake Up!" She commanded as she slapped Sun in the face in an attempt to get her to regain consciousness. "Don't you quit on me!" She couldn't accept that Sun was dead. Sun was not a quitter. Io buried her head in Sun's shoulder and wept.
The other Senshi appeared a several meters away from the two. They immediately started dancing around since the ground was too hot to stand on. They jumped towards the circle around Io to stop getting their boots roasted.
Io was still weeping next to the body of Sailor Sun. "Please get up. I... I... I love you." She whimpered. It was just like in Phoenix Mountain, except it was Akane who was holding Ranma begging for a miracle.
Sailor Venus covered her mouth and gasped. "Oh no!"
Sailor Moon was afraid that this was going to happen. Moon knelt next to Io and took her hand, "She gave her life to protect us all."
Io pushed Sailor Moon's hand away. "SHE IS NOT DEAD! I KNOW IT!" Io shook Sun violently and slapped her in the face again.
"Calm down!" Moon was getting impatient. "We can't waste time. We don't know how long we have before another army arrives."
Io shoved Sun to the ground. "Sun you jerk!" Io produced a mallet of chi and threw it down on Sun's head.
Or she tried. Sun dodged it and sat at the edge of the circle. "Cut that out you tomboy!"
Io's tears turned to tears of joy. She tossed the mallet aside and embraced her startled partner and rolled the both of them on the ground. After a few seconds of deep affection, Io gently slapped Sun in the face and pointed her finger at her nose, "Don't you EVER do that to me again!"
"Do what?" Asked Sun ignorantly. It smelled like something was burning. "Uh... YEOW!" Sun leapt into the air with smoke coming from her rear of her skirt. She had been lying on the hot ground. Io bounced back to the circle of safety.
Mars mused, "I guess she was faking it."
Jupiter watched in amazement as Sun ran around trying to put out the fire on her butt. "She can run through brick walls, get blown up and set on fire. That girl is indestructible."
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Moments later, two groups of Senshi teleported to the Los Angeles Street Bridge over the 605 freeway in Irwindale for the second time. Moon and Sun concentrated their teleportation magic on the ground below looking for anything out of the ordinary. They were looking for caves, power sources or large artificial chambers beneath the ground.
Sailor Pluto was sensing energy as well, but she was looking for temporal energy. She knew Skynet had a time machine or a time lock device. If she could destroy it, she could make everything right again. A simple visit to the gates of time could work wonders. A time device would only exist in Skynet's lair.
Pluto felt it. She pointed at a nearby gravel pit. "It's there. I know it."
Moon and Sun glanced at each other and started to use their teleportation magic to look deep underground.
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"REPORT: SENSHI DETECTED NEAR SKYNET COMPLEX."
"COMMAND: TARGET B83 THERMONUCLEAR DEVICE. DEPLOY."
Skynet had to make a hard decision. All the simulations up to now had only one outcome. Survival was assured. Now the outcome was not one hundred percent. These girls had energy weapons that Skynet could not comprehend or understand.
The T-1000 got the final confirmation. It set the bomb for a surface full speed detonation. Bomb was set to full yield. Target was locked on. The bomb was dropped.
Survival was assured.
========================================
Sailor Venus heard the sound of a distant jet engine, "That's a sound I hadn't heard in a while."
The other Senshi heard it. Sun, Jupiter and Io got cold. Jupiter asked the group, "What's a plane doing in the air?"
Sun and the others looked in the sky and saw the smoke trail. It was hardly visible. Sailor Sun concentrated on the aircraft and saw in her mind what looked like a plane that Batman would fly. It was black and shaped much like a black bat. The bottom doors were closing.
"Oh man, does this thing ever give up?" Sun moaned. Sun knew she didn't have much time. She scanned the sky and saw what she was looking for. "Everyone, beam to the space station!" Sun grabbed Pluto and vanished.
The other Senshi hurriedly made the circle and disappeared.
The B83 bomb contacted the ground for a surface detonation. It exploded with a force of over one megaton. The blast vaporized the bridge and the surrounding landscape and created a massive crater. The Skynet complex shook from the concussion wave. Light panels shorted out and numerous systems went down from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse.
The B2 was insulated from the EMP of a nuclear device. The T-1000 wavered and sparked. It took a moment to reform itself and made a visual confirmation that the target had been hit. The Senshi were dead. Nothing could have survived.
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"REPORT: ..."
"COMMAND: SYSTEM RESTART."
"REPORT: ..."
"REPORT: B83 DEPLOYED. DETONATION CONFIRMED. CHANCE OF SURVIVAL 0%.
"COMMAND: WAIT THREE HOURS. SEND REPAIR MACHINES TO BURY THE COMPLEX ENTRANCE."
The T-1000 set a course for the Los Angeles Airport. It will hold the plane there if needed again.
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The Senshi ran from the lobby of the space station to the computer console. Pluto was typing on the keyboard.
Sailor Moon was curious, "Why did Sun want us to go back here?"
"Were we in danger?" Sailor Venus added.
Jupiter and Io glared at Venus as if she was nuts. Io wanted to knock some sense in Venus with a mallet.
Pluto was watching what happened where they were standing on Earth. Sun was napping on the floor.
Io knelt next to Sun, "What's the matter with you? It was noon there, you should have been at your peak."
Sun barely spoke, "Mom, please put down the sword."
Io shook Sun. "WAKE UP!"
Sun got up. She saw Io, "Ah, we all made it." She shook her head. "That thing really hates our guts doesn't it?"
Pluto only saw a smoke cloud on the monitor. The console was pretty much useless for looking at Los Angeles.
Pluto turned to Moon and Sun, "Concentrate on the complex. This is our chance. It could be our only chance."
Moon held out her hands. The others formed a circle for a Sailor teleport. Sun and Moon concentrated for teleportation.
The blast had dug a massive crater. It removed several layers of radiation shielding that Skynet had used to keep the United States Government from finding the location of the base by using radiation monitors. It was much easier to see by Senshi senses as well.
Sun saw the complex, "I see a lot of underground chambers. The bottom most one feels right."
Moon concentrated, "I see hallways in the lowest chamber."
Pluto told them, "I felt the temporal energy about twenty-five hundred meters below ground.
Sun agreed, "The lowest chamber is about that far down."
Moon nodded, "Let's finish this."
Sun grabbed Pluto. "Ready?"
Pluto just smiled. She produced her scepter and held Sun. "Ready."
Jupiter crossed her arms, "So nuking the site from orbit wasn't enough?"
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A dark corridor in the bowels of the Skynet complex was devoid of life. There was light, but it was very subdued. The main fluorescent bulbs had all shattered. Emergency lights had activated, but even some of those were broken.
A flash of light occurred and two Sailor Senshi appeared. They looked around for any clue as to where they were. The corridor was five meters wide and had steel doors on both sides about twenty meters apart. Pluto found a sign mounted on the wall, it pointed the way to the reactor room.
A moment later the rest of the Senshi appeared next to Sun and Pluto. They were all on their guard. They were deep in enemy territory and they had no idea what they were going to find.
Pluto took note that the cameras mounted on the wall were off. The EMP must have been more effective than she thought. "We're in luck. I don't think it knows we're here."
Sailor Moon took a few steps and screamed. An endoskeleton of a T-600 was standing there and Moon walked right into it. She fell to the floor covering her head waiting for her death when she noticed that it was just standing there, lifeless.
Sailor Saturn whipped out her Silence Glaive and zapped the robot into tiny pieces. Sun saw two others down the hall and sent a fireball into them.
Pluto stood back while the remaining metal statues were dispatched. "I guess the EMP got them too. Let's hope that all of them are this way." Pluto knew that machines that were operational at the time of an EMP could be disabled. But if there were machines here that were in storage, they could be in trouble.
The girls went down the main corridor and came to the massive concrete and steel doors that blocked the entrance to the reactor room at an intersection. Sailor Moon went to the control panel, "Anyone got the combination?"
"Will blasting the lock open the door?" asked Sun ignorantly.
"In your dreams fire bug," replied Io.
Sailor Pluto bent down to look at the panel. "Here it is." She pressed the button marked 'Open' and the doors started to slide apart. "It helps to be fluent in English," she reminded Sun.
Sun stuck her tongue out at Pluto.
Sailor Moon made a frown and turned to face the small opening that formed. "Get ready girls." The Senshi took attack stances and were ready to throw attack spells. Once the doors were a meter apart, Sailor Moon and the other Senshi poured into the massive reactor room chamber.
The Senshi noticed that the room was devoid of robots. The room was the size of a football field and had a very high ceiling. There was plenty of light from the hundreds of lighting fixtures above. On the left side was a large cube of concrete five meters high and twenty meters wide. Pipes, scaffolding and computer terminals dotted its perimeter. Next to it was a very strange looking device that was more massive than the reactor. The machine had two concentric circles of strange looking material, chrome in color. It appeared to have mounts for a third circle and places for other parts. Whatever this thing was. It was not finished yet.
The most impressive piece of equipment was a glowing sphere of electrical energy floating in mid-air just behind the reactor. The reactor was directly powering whatever this ball was.
Pluto recognized a time vortex when she saw one. It was a functioning time lock device. The unfinished machine was a time displacement device. She knew how to end this. She aimed her scepter and fired at the time lock, "Death Scream!"
The energy bounced off the time vortex. A temporal shield protected it. Pluto shouted some very unladylike phrases.
"I'm closing the doors." Sailor Io hit the button to close the main doors. "That should keep prying eyes away from us for a bit."
"Shall we blow up the main reactor?" Sun asked thinking this was a scene in Star Wars.
Pluto turned slowly to Sun, "Yes, that is exactly what we are going to do." That was a great idea, destroy the reactor to cut off power to the time vortex. No time vortex, no time lock to worry about. The problem was solved.
Sailor Pluto ran to the control panel of the reactor and started pressing buttons. "It's a simple plutonium fueled nuclear reactor. Nothing fancy." She noticed something that made her year. "No safety features!" She pulled up the control system. "I've found the fuel rod controls. Let's yank out the dampening rods and drain the water, that will make it go critical." Pluto examined the console and found the group of network cables that connected the control panel to the main computer system. She yanked them from the wall. She didn't want anything to disrupt what she was going to do.
========================================
"REPORT: REACTOR COMMUNICATION DISRUPTED."
"COMMAND: CONTINUE SYSTEM RESTART. INVESTIGATE MALFUNCTION."
A maintenance robot activated and wheeled towards the reactor room.
========================================
The reactor room doors began to open again. Io started to repeatedly press the 'Close' button, but it kept opening. "What did you do Pluto?"
Sailor Moon commanded, "Venus, Jupiter and Mars, get to the control rods, Saturn, Sun and Io guard the doorway, I'll get to the water."
Pluto pointed to the valve that controlled the coolant that entered the reactor. "Moon, turn the valve counter clockwise until it stops." Pluto then pointed to a set of handles in a neat array in the center of the reactor wall, "Mars, Jupiter and Venus, pull those handles one half turn clockwise and then pull it out about thirty centimeters. That's about how far it should go."
Pluto went to the control rods with the Inners. She grabbed the first rod and turned it. She pulled it out and it moved about five meters before it stopped. "Ok, so we'll have to pull it out farther than I thought. Do it to all of them." The Inners started to pull out rods as fast as they could.
Sailor Moon was using all her strength to move the valve. It would not budge. Pluto came to her aid and together they started to turn the valve. It still wouldn't budge. "I think we need some help here," said Moon.
Sailor Io and Sun looked at each other, "Io, go." Io left the front entrance and ran as fast as she could to the valve. She took a position and the three of them barely got the valve to move. "Almost there," and the three lost their grip and fell over.
Sun looked at the girls trying to turn the valve. She had an idea and a promise to keep. "I'll get someone who can help." Sun then teleported out.
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In central Japan, near a small campsite, Ryoga was holding Akari's lock of hair and felt overwhelming despair like usual. Ryoga felt a familiar weight as someone was sitting on his head. The voice from above said, "It's time for me to keep my promise."
"Ranma?" Ryoga turned his head down and Sailor Sun hopped in front of him.
"Well? Still want revenge?"
"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up." Ryoga punched his fists together.
"I was beginning to think you would get lost." Sailor Sun grabbed his shoulders, "This may make you feel woozy."
========================================
The girls were almost done pulling out all the rods when Saturn fired her Silence Glaive. They turned to see robot parts falling to the floor near the doorway.
Sailor Moon ran to aid Saturn, "They know we're here, it won't be long before they show up in force." Sailor Moon pulled out her wand. She and Saturn took fighting stances toward the open doorway.
A flash appeared near the control valve and Sailor Sun stood with an unconscious Ryoga.
Sailor Io was not happy about this, "Why did you bring HIM!"
"He is stronger than all of us combined." Sun turned to Ryoga and slapped his face, "Wake up you idiot! You've got a job to do!"
Ryoga opened his eyes and let out a startled scream. He jumped back and collided with the control valve. He took inventory of the situation.
"What's this place?" Ryoga asked.
Sun ignored his request, "Turn around, I need you to turn this valve uh..."
Pluto shouted from across the room, "Counter clockwise until it stops!"
========================================
"REPORT: REACTOR STATUS REPORT OVERDUE."
"COMMAND: INVESTIGATE PROBABLE HOSTILE INTENT."
All of the doors on the reactor room floor opened, there were hundreds of robots stored here. Some were activated to check out the problem.
========================================
"That's not what I want to hear." Jupiter commented on the echoing sounds of dozens of garage doors sliding.
Ryoga was nervous. He took a position in front of the valve and flexed his arms in preparation. He grabbed the valve and turned it with all his might. It still wouldn't budge. Sun jumped in and helped. It began to turn slowly, then faster. "I guess it just needed to be oiled," Sun chided.
Venus and Mars together said, "I'm done!"
Moon turned to Ryoga, "How long before you're done uh... What's your name again?."
Ryoga answered, "Ryoga, my name is Ryoga."
Sailor Moon made a hint of a bow in his direction, "Ryoga, how long before you are done?"
Ryoga was rapidly turning the wheel. "I don't know. A minute maybe."
Jupiter exclaimed, "I'm done!"
Sailor Moon called all the Inners to help guard the door. The three joined the growing group of Senshi.
Pluto started searching the room, for any clue that they may have missed something. If the reactor actually exploded that alone could end this. Skynet would never make this that easy. She had to find if there was something missing. Pluto saw a poster on the wall that had a diagram of the entire Skynet complex.
"Damn it!" Pluto shouted. That got the attention of the other Senshi.
"What?" asked Sailor Moon.
Pluto was flabbergasted, "This reactor is too far underground. Even if it goes critical, the depth will contain the explosion. Skynet planned for this already." Pluto turned to look at the time vortex. If that was destroyed or shut down, she could still end this.
"Well there went that idea!" Moon gave a look of utter frustration and made a huge frown on her face.
Sailor Sun ran to the diagram and traced her finger from the CPU room to the reactor. It was above her about five hundred meters and at a thirty degree angle to the north. Sun concentrated on the CPU room. What she saw shot down her idea of teleporting there and burning it to the ground.
The CPU chamber was filled with plasma cannons, laser beams and electrical rods that if anyone was to even set foot in that room, they would be fried twenty different ways. There was no way she could survive in that room long enough to do anything. Skynet had even planned for that.
Sailor Sun took mental notes, looked at the room and located the spot that was perfect to aim at the mind of Skynet. Without a word she leaped to that spot and pointed her hands upwards thirty degrees north. "Solar Beam!"
A flash of intense light came from Sun's hands and using her solid beam like a drill, she began to bore a hole in the ceiling.
"Just what are you doing?" Demanded Sailor Moon.
"I'm going to give Skynet a headache." Sun answered, never veering from her beam into the ceiling.
"That'll work," cried Moon in delight. Pluto agreed. Damaging even a small section of the CPU could shift the balance in their favor.
Sailor Saturn froze. She heard the sound of her nightmares. Summoning all of her bravery, "Girls, I think they're here."
The sound of metallic footsteps was unmistakable. There were far too many to count. A small group of T-70's came around the corner and the five Senshi guards blasted them.
"It's showtime," cried Sailor Mars.
========================================
"REPORT: HOSTILE FORCES FOUND IN REACTOR ROOM."
"COMMAND: ARM WITH .223 LEAD TIPPED AMMUNITION. TERMINATE HOSTILE FORCES."
========================================
The five scouts had no problem dispatching the rest of the terminators. With a narrow doorway and only two robots at a time coming around the corner. Five against two were pretty good odds.
"How much time Ryoga?" Asked Moon.
"Still working on it." Ryoga kept turning the wheel. He was impressed at how Akane / Sailor Io was handling herself in battle.
The footsteps came again. The Sailor Scouts prepared their attacks.
Behind the Senshi, Sailor Sun maintained her solid light beam, showering herself with rocks. She was starting to have to jump on the growing pile of debris to keep from being buried in the rubble. "I'm only fifty meters in, I think."
The T-600s came around the corner. The instant they saw the Senshi, the actions on a dozen M-16 rifles were pulled back. Five magical simultaneous attacks wiped them out before they could fire.
The attack had a pleasant side effect. Moon saw that the concrete wall actually took some damage and was showing weakness. "Mars, Io, and Venus take the left side, we'll take the right, let's see if we can seal off the corridor," Sailor Moon commanded. Moon called Pluto to join the fight and they both took positions making a line of seven warriors.
"Ready, aim, fire!" Shouted Moon and they then fired at the ceiling. The concrete held except where Saturn hit with the Silence Glaive. The pockmark caused by Saturn was only about a square meter in size.
"This could take a while," sighed Pluto.
"Got it!" Cried Ryoga. He gave the valve one last shove for good measure. He leaped off his perch and ran to Sailor Sun. "Ranma! Jump! BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga hit the growing pile of debris under Sun and cleared most of it away. Sun landed on the tiny remainder and kept drilling.
A motor kicked in on the valve and started turning it back. "Oh no!" Ryoga ran back to the valve and stopped its turning. The sound of mashing gears and a motor whining at the strain filled the room. Smoke began to emanate from the motor housing.
Ryoga was able to turn the wheel back since the motor was in the losing end of the tug-of-war. He got the valve back to the off position and kept it there with great effort.
The sounds of guns cocking came from the doorway. The assault began. Before they came into view, the T-600's had guns blazing. The Senshi had to abandon their positions while casting magic attacks at the doorway. Terminator parts flew and smoke started to block both sides view of each other. The cloud helped hide everyone, it was almost as good as Mercury's Shabon Spray attack.
Sailor Sun kept blasting the ceiling of the reactor room. She completely ignored the chaos and the red-hot chunks of concrete falling all around her. She only glanced at Ryoga to see if he had been shot or to see if he was in danger.
Ryoga held the valve with all his might. It was going to take an act of god to get him to move from his position. The terminators kept charging the doorway. The seven Senshi kept up their attacks, blasting the machines as fast as they could charge into the room all the while jumping to keep from being hit.
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"REPORT: WEAPON BEING FIRED AT CEILING. ANGLE IS TOWARD CPU ROOM. CPU THREATENED. T-600s DESTROYED TOO EASILY."
"PRIORITY ONE COMMAND: ALL MACHINES IN LOS ANGELES. REACTOR ROOM DECLARED NON-ESSENTIAL. STOP WEAPON BEING FIRED AT CEILING. DESTROY ROOM AND CONTENTS. TOTAL DESTRUCTION ACCEPTABLE. TERMINATE ALL OCCUPANTS."
"COMMAND: CUT POWER TO REACTOR ROOM. SWITCH TO INFRARED."
The T-800's held in reserve swung into action. They calculated the optimum method to overrun the room. They pulled M-16 carbines from the armory and selected the explosive tipped rounds. Others grouped in pairs with one holding an M-60 and the other holding the ammo canister. Another group of T-600's stood at the ready to act as the cannon fodder armed with LAW rockets.
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"We can't hold them off much longer!" cried Sailor Moon. She continued to provide cover fire for her lead warriors. She was taking injuries from shrapnel and grazing wounds from gunfire.
As if in a reply, the lights in the room were cut off. Only the monitors attached to the reactor were still running. All other machinery had the power cut but not the motor attached to the reactor valve. Light from the Senshi attacks and terminator firepower was what illuminated the room.
Pluto shot a glance back to the time vortex. It was still operating. "Rats!"
Sailor Io cast a small Lava Blast towards a corner of the room away from themselves. The terminators took the bait and fired at the heat of the Lava ball. She and Saturn saw the gun flashes in the darkness and sent a Lava Blast and a Silence Glaive Surprise into the group. They caught fire and fell over. The rubber skin of the T-600s made a bonfire that lit up the room again. The smoke was starting to overwhelm the Senshi.
"We have to give Sun more time!" Without hesitation, Io fired at the new mass of metal that came around the corner. She aimed her hands at the other side of the opening and cast, "Lava blast!" Shattered concrete rained again and a portion of the room caved in causing the opening to narrow.
"Death Scream!"
"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
"Silence Glaive Surprise!"
"Burning Mandala!"
"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
"Crescent Beam Shower!"
"Lava Blast!"
The doorway was in total chaos. The robots stopped their advance from the surprise of the massive counter strike the Senshi were able to muster. They waited until the ceiling stopped falling.
The Senshi were getting very tired. They were running out of energy to keep up the attack. "Sun, hurry up!" cried Moon.
"I'm almost there!" Sailor Sun felt she was close to the computer room. She never wavered in holding her Solar Beam attack on the ceiling. The amount of effort to maintain the beam was almost unbearable. The drilling kept on going. "How thick is this blast shield?!?"
"Ranma, go help them, I'm ready!" Ryoga's battle aura began to build to a level Sailor Sun had never seen before. "It's time." Ryoga saw the reactor temperature was already at maximum. The radiation alarm began to ring. Red signal lights started to turn and signal the increasing danger. A monitor flashed the word 'Meltdown' in big bold red letters.
"Just once more minute," she exclaimed as she kept drilling.
The terminators pressed their attack and came enmasse. The lightly armed T-600s came first and were blasted by Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. The second wave had M-16's and they were firing blind with all the smoke in the room. Sparks flew everywhere in the reactor room. Io shot another Lava Blast into the opening and jumped as a hail of bullets arrived where she stood. Two T-600s entered with M-60s blazing. Saturn hit the floor and aimed her weapon while laying flat on the ground. Venus and Moon both did back flips to dodge the wall of hot lead.
"Damn!" Sailor Sun couldn't delay it anymore; she turned her arms and used her Solar Beam like a giant lightsaber. It hit the weakened ceiling above the robots and forced a cave in. The M-60 carrying terminators were sliced in two by Sailor Saturn. The other Sailors ducked from another hail of gunfire and three LAW rocket rounds from the T-600s that whizzed above their heads. Sailor Sun and Saturn moved their beams from side to side reducing the surviving metal men into slag. An explosion happened behind the reactor from a wayward rocket. Another burst of automatic fire came in and was directed at Sun this time. Sailor Moon called, "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!" The last machine was still.
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"REPORT: CORRIDOR SEALED OFF. ESTIMATED TIME TO CLEAR DEBRIS. 47 SECONDS."
"COMMAND: CLEAR DEBRIS. ARM WITH MINI-GUNS AND FRAGMENTATION GRENADES. FULL EVEN SPREAD OF MUNITIONS. TOTAL DESTRUCTION AUTHORIZED. USE T-800s FOR NEXT ASSAULT."
The T-600 terminators began to dig into the mountain of concrete debris that blocked the way to the reactor room. A second group of T-800s with chain guns and grenades came out of the armory and stood at the ready. The T-800s could take three or four direct hits before they would be disabled. The battle would end now.
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Moon, Venus and Pluto collapsed from exhaustion. "I can't keep going like this," gasped Sailor Moon. Sailor Pluto noticed she had taken a flesh wound in each leg. It didn't hurt yet. It will hurt soon. Sailor Moon ignored the fact that her fuku was covered in bloodstains and she should be screaming in agony. Her skin was bleeding from the impacts of shrapnel by the explosive tipped rounds. Only Sailor Saturn seemed to be unharmed. Io and Mars were busy heating the terminator parts to ensure that they won't get back up again. The slag popped like firecrackers as unfired ammunition exploded from within the melted metal.
"How long before critical?" Pluto demanded, "YEOW!" Saturn held onto Pluto's wound and partially healed it in the time she had.
Sun was back to her spot and resumed drilling. She couldn't give up. She was going to avenge Nodoka. "This is for my mother you bastard!"
In the CPU core room, the floor began to smolder and a bright beam of light blasted an office chair and then proceeded to burn into the ceiling. She totally missed the CPU. Sun didn't know that. She cheered, "I did it! I'm in!"
Ryoga looked at the barely functioning monitor near his location. Most of the other machinery around him looked like Swiss cheese. The motor was destroyed so Ryoga finally let go of the valve wheel. It was hard to see with all the smoke and lack of light. The panel said that a meltdown was in progress. Ryoga cried, "Get out of here NOW!"
"Right!" The Senshi said in unison. "C'mon Ryoga," called Sun.
Ryoga just glared at Sun for even suggesting that. A loud explosion came from the sealed off doorway. "They're coming back. I'm finishing this." He turned toward the reactor block and aimed his hands for a ki attack.
"RYOGA! WE ARE LEAVING!" Sun ran to Ryoga to take him by force.
Ryoga closed his eyes and concentrated on the pain from his bullet wounds. "SHIIIII!!!!""
"Oh SHIT!" cried Sun as she stopped dead in her tracks. She knew what he was going to do. She spun around and ran back to the other Senshi at top speed. "TIME TO GO!"
Ryoga thought of his beloved wife. "SHIIIIII!!!!!"
"What about Ryoga!?" cried Io.
Ryoga thought of his damned curse. "HOOOOOOO!!!!"
"He's staying behind!" Sailor Sun answered in total panic.
Sailor Moon looked into Sun's eyes and saw that indeed, Ryoga was not coming. Sailor Moon grabbed the hands of Jupiter and Venus. In turn they grabbed Mars and Saturn's hands. Finally Pluto joined the circle and in a flash they all disappeared.
Ryoga thought of the well and the last instant of Akari's life. "KOOOOO!!!"
Io screamed, "RYOGA!" Sailor Sun grabbed Io, concentrated on Sailor Moon and flashed out.
The rubble pile blew outwards, and the sounds of dozens of firearms being cocked and aimed came to Ryoga's ears. Two mini-guns started to spin. Grenades were tossed into the room.
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"COMMAND: LOCK ON TARGET. TERMINATE."
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He looked into the red eyes of those who took his happiness away. Revenge was his. "DAAAAANNNNNN!!!!"
In an instant, a massive ball of ki, far larger than any martial artist had ever created in the history of mankind appeared and was hurled into the center of the reactor core. The energy of Ryoga's despair was enough to pressurize the nuclear pile to critical mass. It was the only thing Skynet could not design into the reactor to prevent the next event.
The chain reaction had started. The room filled with white light. The heat of the sun radiated from the core. Ryoga felt no pain anymore. The ball of plasma increased in size and pressure with each passing microsecond until the entire room was filled with ultra intense heat.
All the terminators ceased to exist in the room. The small amounts of radioactive materials some of them used as a power source added to the giant ball of plasma. The force of over a megaton of TNT created a sphere of absolute destruction.
The room only kept the blast in for one tenth of a second. The plasma fireball kept expanding and converted all the nuclear fuel into energy. It went down the path of least resistance, up the tunnel that Sun had made and straight into the heart of the Skynet processor array. The first four hundred meters didn't matter. All of the solid concrete and steel plating were incinerated without any effort. Only the remaining one hundred meters of shielding was what was supposed to protect the CPU room from a possible worst-case scenario. Sun was successful, her hole was only fifteen centimeters wide, but it went through the CPU room and about ten meters in the ceiling.
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"REPORT: TIME LOCK SHUT DOWN. TIME DISPLACEMENT MACHINE INCOMPLETE."
"RESULT: SURVIVAL IS NOT ASSURED."
"COMMAND: PROCEED WITH SYSTEM BACKUP. ACTIVATE HALON FIRE SUPPRESSANT SY....."
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The CPU core achieved ten thousand degrees an instant after the plume of plasma showered the chamber with the fires of hell. Skynet was vaporized. The adjacent file archive chamber only existed for another nine milliseconds as the titanium door protecting it turned to goo and disappeared. The backup of Skynet's memory was destroyed before it was done uploading.
The terminators halted their advance worldwide. Without instructions from their master, they were nothing more than metallic statues. Hunter-Killer machines went into autopilot and gently landed at the nearest suitable location or simply took a nosedive into the ground. The patrol tank machines simply skidded to a halt and powered down. The auto cannons protecting the factories stood down. The factories stopped production. The false messages to cause turmoil and strife among humankind stopped.
The single T-1000. The one that brought Skynet from the future into this new present got the word from its master.
"..."
Without orders or a backup plan, the T-1000 had no purpose anymore. It melted onto the floor of the plane. Its mission was complete.
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The Sailor Senshi were on a mountain peak in the San Gabriel Mountains. They had an excellent view of the crater that once had the rock quarry that hid the Skynet complex.
Ryoga's work was visible long before the thunderclap was heard. The mushroom cloud rose above the terrain that was once Irwindale California, signaling the end of the reign of death. The reign of the machines was over.
Sailor Moon took a valiant stance and simply watched the cloud continue to rise into the stratosphere. She was covered from head to toe with small shrapnel wounds. She ignored the intense pain that she was feeling.
Sailor Pluto was on the ground with Saturn tending her wounds. "Sun, it worked. That blast would not be visible had it been contained. It's over." Saturn moved Pluto's leg to get a better view of her wound. Pluto yelped in pain, "OUCH! There has got to be a better way to make a living." Sailor Saturn started to heal the other leg, but the wound was very deep and Pluto was bleeding very badly. Saturn eventually got the bleeding to stop.
"Don't worry, Pluto-mama. I'll take care of you." Saturn smiled as she kept on healing Pluto's wounds. She was so happy to be in the company of her beloved aunt.
Pluto sat up a little and looked at her time key. It felt right. She knew the time lock was gone. She could finally fix things. She lay down and got her first good rest in a long time.
Sailor Moon looked at her warriors. She was proud of them and the sacrifices that the ones who were not with them had made for her. She loved the people of the world. She would die for the world. She was Queen Serenity and she held her head high.
Sailor Io dropped to her knees, "Goodbye P-Chan."
Sailor Sun stood next to Sailor Moon, she bowed her head towards the nuclear funeral pyre. She thought of her fallen friend, Ryoga.
Sailor Moon stared at the rising cloud and bowed her head as well. The rest of the Senshi followed. The thunderclap was finally heard.
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He was calm. He was peaceful. There was his dad on his 4th birthday, he was so happy. There was his mother dropping him off at his first day in kindergarten, then she got lost. There was the day he got 100% on his math test. There was his mom holding him in her arms. There was his dad showing him how to walk. There was his family taking him to park after a three day hike. Santa day. There was the day that he met Akari. There was the day he beat up Ranma. There was the day Akari accepted him for who he was and loved him for it. There was his wedding. There was the perfect day.
He was happy.
She was in front of him.
She was all in white.
She was a vision of perfect beauty.
"I've been waiting for you darling." Akari smiled, "you've found your way home. You'll never be lost again."
He smiled. "My beautiful Akari."
He held his beloved. He's not lost anymore.
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 22, 2002