Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong	


Just won't die 1





     "Hiryu Shoten Ha!!!" Ranma shouted as he released a massive hurricane blast 
toward the dark blue boomer hovering high above him, "You ain't gonna get away 
that easily,"
  The hurricane formed right in front of Ranma, engulfing him but leaving him 
unharmed. The blast was so powerful it kept expanding rapidly, some of the 
surrounding buildings being torn to shreds as they were engulfed in the blast. 
  Ranma was in middle of an abandoned town, the slums. He knew those buildings 
weren't occupied. This was the battle field he wanted.
  He watched as the dark blue boomer hovered backwards at an intense speed, 
avoiding the blast just in time. The hurricane blast soared high into the air, 
ripping apart some hapless clouds in its path.
  "Damn, this boomer's nothing like the other ones I fought!!!" Priss said to 
herself, regarding the attacking boomer. She had to push her hardsuit to the 
limit just to avoid something that powerful. 
  She looked at her view screen within the helmet and noticed that her scanners 
were going ballistic. She couldn't get a reading on what class the boomer was. 
To her, it seemed like this boomer was equipped with some scanner jamming 
devices. 
  This frustrated Priss even more, making her want to get rid of this new breed 
of boomer even faster. 
  The hurricane blast dispersed, leaving Ranma standing in the middle of the 
street, a massive crater surrounding him. 
  "Damn, I'm never gonna be able to hit that boomer at this rate," he swore 
silently to himself, "It's too fast,"
  He stood there patiently, waiting for the boomer to hover lower so he could 
jump up toward it. He was able to leap high into the sky, but nowhere near as 
high as the boomer was hovering.
  Priss looked down at the boomer, "Why isn't he following me?"
  She hovered down and settled on the top roof of one of the taller buildings, 
gazing down at him, "Hm, it looks like this is going to be easier than I 
thought. This boomer can't fly. Strange, considering how much energy it could 
generate. I guess I better pick him off from up here,"  
  She pointed her arm toward him and released several laser blasts directly 
toward the boomer, only to have the boomer skillfully avoid it, "Damn, this's 
one goddamn agile boomer. And it's able to anticipate my 
attacks,"
  Ranma managed to dodge the blast just in time, leaping out of the way. As he 
rolled to his feet, he looked back toward where he was standing and saw three 
tiny craters there. 
  He looked up at the boomer and said to himself, "Damn, that boomer's got a 
good AI. It's tryin' to pick me off from a distance,"
  Ranma dusted the sand off his clothes as he smiled confidently to himself, "If 
it's gonna play that way"
  Priss watched in astonishment "Man, that boomer's even got an AI that makes it 
brush its clothes when it's dirty. What kinda monsters are Genom creating?! And 
it's even smiling!"
  "Mouko Takabisha!!!" he shouted as a gigantic ki-blast tore from his hands, 
flying straight toward the boomer at an intense speed. The blast was so strong 
that even the ground below it melted from the heat. The building even started to 
melt before the blast hit it. Ranma was far more powerful than he ever was and 
the intensity of his ki-blasts was a good indication of just how powerful.
  Priss lunged forward and off the building roof just in time as the blast 
ripped the entire building to shreds, continuing onward into the sky behind it. 
  She twisted in mid air as she fell toward the ground and looked up and saw 
half the building just disappear from the intense heat and power of the blast. 
  Before she hit the ground, she managed to land safely via the use of her 
boosters. 
  As she stood on the ground, her heart was racing. How on earth can this boomer 
generate so much energy, she thought to herself. This boomer was absolutely 
nothing like she had ever fought. Nothing!
  As much as she hated to admit it, she knew she had bitten off far more than 
she could chew by trying to take on this boomer on her own.
  Ranma stood there, watching the boomer intently, waiting to see what it would 
do next. He knew that boomers always had a tendency to charge forward to attack, 
and that would be its fatal mistake. He would use his Kashuu Tenshin Amaguriken 
technique on it to finish it off.
  Priss stood there, waiting for the boomer's next move. She looked down at her 
arm and noticed that it was a bit singed from before. She knew her armor would 
not be able to sustain a direct hit from another one of those deadly blasts. And 
she had to do everything in her power to avoid it. It scared her to death to 
realize the damage her armor was take from being within close proximity to this 
boomer's projectiles, let alone a direct hit.
  Why isn't it coming at me, Ranma thought to himself. He was eager to finish 
this boomer off, but it wasn't moving. He took a step forward, only to have his 
steps matched by the boomer taking a step back.
  Hm, it looks like it's trying to avoid me, he thought. He shrugged his 
shoulders. That doesn't matter, I'll just pick it off from here. 
  "Horizontal Blast revised, Hiryu Shoten Ha!!!" he shouted loudly as a huge 
horizontal hurricane ripped from his hands straight toward the boomer.
  Priss wasn't able to react to it in time as the blast engulfed her entirely. 
She was blown backwards into the building, the wall collapsing in from the 
impact. If it weren't for her wearing the armor, every bone in her body would 
have been broken, especially her spine.
  She slowly got up to her feet, clutching at her ribs. A few of her ribs must 
have been bruised or broken.
  Man, that boomer even acts like it's in pain, Ranma thought with a bit of awe. 
I can't believe Genom got this far with its AI. It really looks like it's hurt. 
For a quick second, he almost felt a bit of remorse.
  Priss slowly made her way back out of the building through the hole. She knew 
she was done for, all the boomer would have to do is finish her off. But for 
some reason, it wasn't moving. It just stood there, looking at her.
  Ranma took a few steps forward and stopped, still a bit cautious about 
attacking. He knew the boomer was faking an injury so he didn't want to be 
fooled.
  "Priss, are you okay?" Priss heard the communicator in her helmet come to 
life, "Just keep it busy for a minute. We're on our way,"
  "Sylia," Priss spoke back, "Stay away! This thing's a goddamn monster!" 
  It was too late. 
  The communicator went off. 
  Her friends were on their way. They would surely die if they attacked this 
boomer. This boomer was probably capable of taking on a dozen Knight Sabers. She 
knew what she had to do. She would have to turn on the suit's auto destruct 
mode and sacrifice herself and blow the boomer up in the process.
  Ranma stood there for a few moments, wondering what the boomer is up to. It 
wasn't moving. He knew there was no chance it could ambush him since he was too 
far away. He could just finish it off with his Mouko Takabisha but something 
prevented him. 
  He felt this bit of compassion toward the boomer. Even though it was faking 
pain, it almost looked like it was really hurt. Afterall, he wasn't some kind of 
monster that didn't possess some form of human emotions.
  The ground behind him exploded as Ranma instinctively jumped forward out of 
the way. He rolled to his feet to see a small crater in place of where he was 
just a second ago, "Damn, that was close!" 
  He looked up into the sky to see two more boomers hovering above him. They all 
looked like the same boomer he had been fighting all this time yet different in 
some way. He noticed they all had a slightly different exoskeleton and color. 
  Ranma could feel the adrenaline surging through him as he realized he was 
outnumbered. 
  "Ah, it did that to distract me so it's backup will arrive in time," Ranma 
said to himself, realizing the boomer's plan.
  This would be a very hard fight for his life. But as he stood there, he knew 
there was a good chance he could take all of them down before he succumbed. He 
turned around to look at the boomer. He wanted to finish it off so he wouldn't 
worry about it later on.
  When his eyes rested on that supposedly injured boomer, he was shocked to see 
another boomer, a small purple and pink one helping it out.
  Man, what kinda AI chips do these things have, he thought to himself. He 
watched as the smaller boomer used its thrusters to fly it to safety, placing 
the blue boomer down in the middle of the street a dozen meters away from him, 
definitely out of his immediate reach.
  "You guys have to get out of here!" Priss told Nene, "It's a goddamn 
monster! It's got energy blasts that's far worse than any boomer we ever 
encountered!"
  "What?!" Priss heard Sylia's voice from the communicator, "It's got 
what?!"
  "Energy blasts!" she talked into the communicator "They're powerful 
enough to destroy this entire town," 
  She looked up and noticed Linna and Sylia turn their attention toward her 
after hearing something like that.
  They looked back down at that single boomer and hovered backwards a bit 
defensively.
  "It's got a weakness," Priss said through clenched teeth, "It can't 
fly,"
  Ranma's gaze went back and forth between the two hovering boomers and the 
other two in the middle of the street. It looked like they were trying to 
communicate with each other. They were probably sending out communication waves 
that he couldn't hear.
  He knew there was one thing he could do if his assumption was correct. He 
would have to destroy that injured boomer before it would transfer the data of 
his fighting techniques. 
  "Mouko Takabisha!" he said as he sent a ki blast rocketing toward the two 
boomers on the street. He smiled at the thought of killing two boomers with one 
blast but was shocked to see the little purple and pink boomer's boosters blaze 
to life as it jetted them both away from the huge blast. The blast kept going 
straight down the street until it struck a building a short ways down the road, 
incinerating it.
  "God, that thing's hot!" Nene commented about the ki-blast as she looked at 
her suit. Part of her armor was singed like Priss' armor. It was a lot worse 
than Priss' because she had reacted a bit late.
  Sylia and Linna, as they both hovered high in the sky, both shot several laser 
blasts at the human-looking boomer, shocked to see it jump out of the way 
skillfully. They watched the boomer roll to its feet and shout something.
  "Damn, how's that thing dodging lasers?!" Linna commented in shock.
  "It's anticipating our attacks somehow," Sylia answered.
  "Hiryu Shoten Ha! Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Ranma said twice. He let loose two 
hurricane blasts, one emerging from each fist, like a double uppercut. The first 
one was thrown vertically toward the sky as the other was thrown horizontally. 
The vertical and horizontal blast engulfed each other to form a diagonal blast 
directly toward the two hovering boomers. 
  Suck on that ya damn boomers, Ranma thought with a smirk.
  Both boomer managed to avoid the blast just in time, hovering to safety.
  "How the hell is it able to generate so much power?!" Nene said as she watched 
the boomer attacking her friends while they did all in their power to dodge its 
attacks, "How can it be so dangerous from a distance?!"
  "Waitaminute!!!" Priss said into her communicator "Maybe that's the only way 
it's dangerous, from a distance. If you close the gap between the two of you, 
you might stand a chance. It wouldn't be able to throw those blasts because it 
would also get caught in it,"
  Priss watched as her two friend nodded toward her to acknowledge her idea.
  "Let's get close to it and fight it hand-to-hand!" Sylia said, readying to 
punch right through the boomer. She had activated her exploding punch and was 
ready to blow the entire boomer to pieces. Linna did the same. 
  Slowly, both of them hovered closer and closer toward the boomer on the 
ground.
  "That's it," Ranma said to himself with a smile, "Come a little closer,"
  He got into his battle stance, a smirk on his lips, as he waited patiently for 
the two boomers to charge. He knew that this was where it would all end. He was 
actually grateful. Not that he was near total exhaustion, but he was getting 
tired from throwing all those ki-blasts. His breathing was heavy. 
  "Why's it smiling?!" Linna said when she noticed the boomer's lips.
  "I don't know," Sylia said, gazing at her opponent intently, "It's probably 
got something to do with the AI chip it has,"
  Both of them stopped hovering as Linna spoke, "How come I got this funny 
feeling that that's what the boomer wants, for us to get closer?"
  While still in mid-flight, Sylia turned toward Linna, one eye still cautiously 
on the boomer "You saw what it could do from far away. Our only chance is close 
combat,"
  C'mon, why aren't you charging me, Ranma thought. Why are you two hesitating? 
Does it have to do with their AI chips? Are they weighing the odds of close 
combat as opposed to fighting from a distance? I better not give them a chance 
to react and finish the job now.
  Ranma leapt into the sky directly toward one of the boomers. He maneuvered his 
body in mid-flight so that his legs would wrap around one of the boomer's arms 
while he would use one of his own arms to grab the boomer's other arm. That 
would allow him to use his Kashuu Tenshin Amaguriken on it while he held its 
limbs in place, allowing him to land every single blow on the boomer's chest.   
  The maneuver brought back memories of when he and Ryoga had fought shortly 
after Ryoga had learned that really annoying Bakusai Tenketsu technique.
  "Eek!!!" Linna shouted as saw the boomer jump straight at her. Everything 
moved in slow motion as she watched the boomer twist in mid-flight. Before she 
knew what happened, the boomer was attached to her, holding her arms from 
moving.
  "Help!!!" she screamed into her communicator as she saw the boomer cock its 
arm back, ready to smash a hole right through her chest.
  Ranma placed one of his feet and kicked as a laser blast almost took his head 
off. He had used the boomer's chest to do a kickout so he would be propelled 
backwards to avoid the laser shot. He twisted in the air and landed back on the 
ground safely. He landed on the sidewalk.
  "Damn, how am I gonna be able to get close to them to use my technique?" he 
said to himself. 
  He jumped out of the way just as two bullets whizzed by his head. When he 
rolled to his feet and looked toward where it had come from, he realized it was 
now far from the purple and pink boomer.
  "Whoa, that was close," he told himself, "I better be more careful"
  He looked up toward the two hovering boomers and noticed they seemed a bit 
distracted.
  "Are you okay?" Sylia said.
  "I-I'm fine," Linna said. But she wasn't. Her heart was beating faster than it 
ever had. She had seen her life flash before her eyes. She thought she was going 
to die right there, in mid-air.
  "Where'd it go?!" Sylia said as she realized the boomer was still nearby on 
the ground somewhere. She placed a hand on Linna's arm as her booster went into 
full blast, rocketing the two to a higher altitude to avoid the boomer in case 
it decided to jump again. Now that they were high enough from its jumping 
distance, they were sitting ducks for that hurricane-like projectile that comes 
from its fists.
  Ranma looked up at the two hovering boomers "Damn, I can't jump up and reach 
them now,"
  He turned toward the two boomers in the middle of the street. The best course 
of action was take care of those two instead. He started to run toward them.
  "Eek!!!" Nene said as she raised her hand and shot several laser blast in the 
boomer's general direction, all of them missing, "Stay away from me!!!" 
  She continued to shoot toward the boomer as it got closer and closer to the 
two of them.
  As Ranma got closer and closer, he wondered why that purple and pink boomer 
was missing him so badly. Boomers had perfect aim, and this one was missing him 
completely. Or then again, maybe it was missing him on purpose. Maybe it was a 
trap. 
  Ranma stopped dead in his tracks, not wanting to fall for a trap.
  You ain't gonna get me that easily, he thought to himself. He stood still 
waiting for something to happen.
  "Why'd it stop?" Priss said as she slowly made it to her feet.
  She was still clutching her ribs, more like the section of armor protecting 
her rib, wincing as jolts of pain shot through her. She placed a hand on Nene's 
shoulder to help keep her footing, "Why is it hesitating? Why isn't it 
attacking?"
  As Ranma stood still, even without having to look, he knew the other two 
boomers had landed on the ground behind him. He didn't bother to turn around. He 
knew they were trying to silently sneak up behind him. To let the boomers know 
that he didn't realize they were behind him, he slowly made his way toward that 
purple and pink boomer, taking slow, steady steps, pretending he was getting 
ready for that boomer to shoot another laser blast at him. But he knew it 
wouldn't because if it did, it might hit the other two boomers behind him.
  Priss and Nene watched silently as the boomer slowly made its way toward them. 
They were holding their breath, not daring to breath. In just a few short 
seconds, it would all be over. They both knew that boomers had a weak spot that 
they couldn't see what was coming up from behind them.
  Once Ranma could sense that the two boomers were close enough behind him, he 
squatted low to the ground and made a wide sweep backwards, hitting one of the 
boomers in the ankle. A loud clank could be heard echoing through the streets of 
the slums as his foot connected with solid steel. 
  The boomer he swept, fell to the ground clutching its one leg as the other 
boomer executed a perfect roundhouse toward Ranma's head, intent on cleaving it 
off his shoulders. He wasn't expecting the boomer to kick him, him expecting it 
to attempt a punch, so he was caught a bit off guard. All he could do was block 
the kick.
  The boomer's foot connected with Ranma outstretched arms, and when it hit him, 
tiny boosters located around its ankle blasted, allowing it to follow the kick 
through. Ranma could do nothing but absorb the impact. He was sent flying into 
one of the building walls, the wall collapsing down on him.
  "Are you all right?" Sylia asked, squatting down next to Linna as she held her 
ankle.
  "I think my ankle's broken," she said. She looked down at the armor around her 
foot and noticed that part of it had been dented in by the shear impact of that 
sweep, "I can't believe it did that. How'd it know we were behind it?"
  "I don't know, but let's get out of here," Sylia said as she placed Linna's 
arm around her shoulder and gently helped her to her feet, "We have to retreat. 
That thing's a monster,"
  Slowly, the two made their way toward Priss and Nene.
  Ranma sat upright, holding his head, "Man, that really hurts," 
  He rubbed at a sore spot, wincing at pain jolted through his body. He then 
looked down at his ankle "Damn, that metal's harder than I thought," 
  His ankle was swollen a bit. He tried to get up, but one of his arms wouldn't 
move. It must have been dislocated from the impact of that kick. He gritted his 
teeth as he used his good arm to pop it back into place. In all his years of 
fighting, he had never experienced so much pain as what had just surged through 
his body.
  "Arghh!!!! That hurt!!!!" After a few moments, the pained died down and he was 
able to move his arm around a bit, "I guess it's better than not being able to 
use it at all,"
  "Damn, that was a nice kick," Ranma commented to himself, "I never knew 
boomers could kick that high and hard,"
  He threw some of the rubble off his body and used his one good arm to stand 
up. Although he could still use his other arm, it was almost useless. What he 
would do right now for some cold water?
  He brushed some of the debris off his shirt and made his way back out the hole 
he had created when he slammed against the building. As he stepped onto the 
sidewalk, he caught sight of four boomers huddle together.
  I have to hand it to 'em, Ranma thought. This was one hell of a fight, 
and he hadn't had this much fun in years. He didn't know if this would 
be his last fight but he knew that if it was, he was going to go down 
fighting. These boomers were like nothing he had ever fought before.
  He snapped a crick in his neck as he got back into his battle stance, "I 
guess it's time for round two," he said to himself with a smirk.
  "Suck on this, boomers!" Ranma said as he launched another one of 
his blasts, "Horizontal blast revised, Hiryu Shoten Ha! Horizontal blast revised 
Hiryu Shoten Ha!" 
  He let rip another massive hurricane blast. Without hesitating, he let rip a 
second blast, the blast every bit as powerful as the first. He decided to give 
it everything he got as he let rip two more blasts "Horizontal blast revised 
Hiryu Shoten Ha! Horizontal blast revised Hiryu Shoten Ha!" All in all, he had 
thrown four hurricane blasts, each one right after another.
  "Protect Priss!" Sylia managed to say just in time as the blasts enveloped 
them. Nene and Linna had reacted instinctively and had jumped in front of Priss 
just as all three girls were engulfed. They struggled for a second while within 
the blast, but it was too much for them. 
  The force of the blast propelled all three girls backwards into Priss as they 
were all thrown into one of the building walls. Although the three girls were in 
front of Priss to protect her from the blast, Priss still got hurt as she was 
slammed up against the wall.
  Ranma took a step forward, cautious about charging. One of his arms 
weren't working, and his foot was aching from when he swept one of the 
boomers.
  Sylia, Linna, and Nene all fell to their knees, terribly shaken from the force 
of the impact against the building. Their armor started to crack around their 
chest. Priss wasn't as hurt since they protected her, but she still sustained 
some damage to her armor. Her armor was still intact.
  "We must retreat!" Linna said as she slowly got to her feet, "Our suits can't 
take much more damage!" She was shocked to look down and see a large chunk of 
her armor fall to the floor. The armor's exoskeleton had fallen off. All that 
remained was the thin inner armor that protected her body. 
  She was shocked to see her other two friends' armor fall off.
  "Retreat!" Sylia said. She would have to worry about taking care of the boomer 
later, another day. The only thing she could do was upgrade their battle suits. 
It probably wouldn't do much help against a boomer this powerful, but they would 
definitely be better off than they were now.
  Sylia reached down and picked up the breast plate to her suit as Nene and 
Linna did the same. She couldn't allow Genom to get hold of any part of their 
armor. She then helped Priss to her feet, "Let's get out of here!"
  All three girls' booster burst into life, only to die on them. Somehow, their 
thrusters must have been damaged in that blast. They attempted again, but it 
wouldn't work anymore. They couldn't retreat even if they wanted to. They would 
have to fight this boomer to the bitter end.
  The three girls got into their battle stance. There was nothing else they 
could do but fight.
  Ranma seized the chance to attack. Now that they couldn't fly away, he would 
now have a great advantage. They were stuck on the ground with him.
  Linna tried to punch the boomer's head off only to see it dodge her attack 
skillfully. Before she knew it, her extended arm was grabbed and she was being 
thrown through the air toward Sylia. If her boosters had worked, she would had 
been able to twist in the air to avoid her, but they didn't. 
  She was slammed bodily into Sylia, the two of them falling down on top of 
Priss.
  Ranma smiled he watched the boomers desperately try to get to their feet. 
  He was distracted for a moment as he wondered why the two boomers looked like 
they were in pain, which was all that was needed for Nene to execute a kick to 
his ribs.
  Ranma saw the kick coming but wasn't able to dodge it in time. A sharp pain 
surged through his body as he sent flying through the air. He twisted in the air 
to land safely on his feet in the middle of the street. 
  His gaze rested on the boomer that had kicked him in the ribs. He clutched at 
his ribs. 
  "Damn, I can't believe I couldn't dodge that. I could have easily dodged that 
in my other form," he swore silently to himself, "That boomer's gonna pay for 
that,"
  He watched as the boomer charged into the street straight toward him, ready to 
punch a hole through his gut.
  "Horizontal blast revised, Hiryu Shoten Ha!" he shouted again as he ripped yet 
another hurricane blast loose. 
  The blast enveloped Nene entirely. Before the blast abated, he launched a 
massive ki-blast "Mouko Takabisha!!!" 
  Ranma watched with a smirk as the ki-blast was propelled forward from 
his hurricane blast. He watched at the boomer stuck its hands out to block it, 
but it was useless. The blast struck the boomer at such intensity that it was 
blown backward a dozen yards, sliding on the ground to a halt in the middle of 
the street.
  Nene was shaken terribly from the impact of that blast, but thanks to the 
inner armor that remained for her suit, she wasn't killed. She knew she would 
have the biggest headache the next day, provided she survived this fight.
  As she laid there on the ground, she wondered how on Earth they were going to 
defeat this boomer. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt this burning 
sensation on her chest. She looked down at her chest and realized that her armor 
had melted from the intense heat. 
  The armor was glowing bright red. She knew that the heat would eventually 
engulf the entire suit, and the best course of action was to get out of her suit 
before the armor melted completely, fusing onto her skin and killing her.
   Nene quickly rolled around to her stomach and the back of her suit opened. 
She quickly and instinctively got out of the suit before it turned into a pile 
of melted metal. She stood there, in nothing but her skin-tight suit as she 
stared down at what remained of her battle suit.
  Ranma stared at the short, pink-haired girl is disbelief. What was going on 
here? Why did a boomer just come out of that boomer? And why did that boomer 
look totally human? 
  Sylia noticed that the boomer was distracted watching her friend break free 
from her hardsuit. She used that opportunity to land a powerful kick across the 
boomer's back.
  She watched in disbelief as the boomer twisted in the air and landed on the 
ground safely, unaffected by the attack. She wished that the boosters in her 
legs were working because it they did work and went on during her kick, 
she would have kicked that boomer in half at the waist.
  Ranma smirked as he rubbed his back a bit. He realized that that 
boomer's power must be real low because that kick it landed didn't 
hurt at all. Now that he was sure there was no way he could get hurt, 
he was about to have some fun.
  He lunged forward and shouldered the gray boomer right into its gut, 
falling down on top of it. He sat on top of the boomer's stomach as his 
legs hooked around the back of the boomer's knees in a mounted position. 
  He brought his fist backwards and he readied to punch right through the 
boomer's weak spot, its open chest. Although he could punch through a 
full armored boomer, he knew this would be easy since the outer armor on 
the boomer's chest had fallen off.
  Ranma's hands glowed blue as he focus all his battle aura into his hand. He 
would make the boomer die a horrible death. He wanted to make it where there was 
no way Genom could salvage this prototype boomer. These boomers must have been 
prototypes. None of the other boomers were remotely as advanced as these.
  As the boomer was about to punch a hole right through Sylia's chest, Linna 
used her one good leg to propelled herself forward onto the boomer.
  She had managed to put enough force behind her lunge to knock the boomer off 
her friend, managing to landing on top of it. The boomer punched her in the face 
once, but her helmet managed to absorb most of the impact.
  Before it had a chance to punch her again, she grabbed the boomer's hand and 
entwined her fingers with its own and pinned it down to the ground. She then 
leaned forward and pressed her weight down on the boomers hands so its arms 
would be pinned to the ground. She knew if it pinned the boomer to the ground 
long enough, Sylia would be able to finish it off.
  Ranma gritted his teeth. The boomer was pinning him down. It wasn't attacking. 
It was just holding him down. He knew that the boomer was waiting for the other 
one to come and finish him off. He knew he had to get out of there and fast.
  Ranma gritted his teeth as pain from his injured shoulder shot through his 
body. He flexed his arms, using all his strength to push the boomer's arm back. 
Despite the fact that the boomer rested most of its weight on his hand, which 
must have been several hundred pounds, Ranma was able to move it back slowly.
  Clenching his teeth, he pushed forward with all his might. If he didn't get 
this boomer off him, he was a goner.
  Linna stared down in astonishment. She couldn't believe such a small boomer 
could generate so much power to overpower her suit and its weight. Her suit had 
been recently upgraded yet it was still underpowered. She could hear the motors 
in her arm straining to stay locked in place. She turned her attention toward 
Sylia as she was slowly getting to her feet, "Help, it's getting up!"
  Ranma arched his hips upward as he brought his hand back down to his sides. 
Since the boomer was holding his hands, it had no way of stopping itself from 
falling forward from the forward momentum his hips and its weight had created. 
  The boomer hit its head on the ground with a loud thump as Ranma pushed it off 
and got back onto its feet.
  That was a close call, he thought to himself.
  "Damn, that thing's also extremely strong!" Linna said as she quickly scooted 
to her feet as she made her way to Sylia's side. She then shook the cobwebs from 
her head from when it hit the ground "Even with our upgraded suits, it's not 
enough! And damn, how the hell does it know how to get outta moves like that?! 
I've never seen a boomer use my own momentum to its advantage before!"
  Ranma smiled at the boomers. These things aren't that hard. Their power supply 
seemed to have been exhausted. He took a look over his shoulder toward that red-
haired, human-looking boomer. He saw it kneeling down next to that blue boomer 
clutching its ribs. It looked like it was helping the injured boomer to its 
feet.
  Sylia noticed that the boomer's attention was toward Nene and Priss. It was 
going to attack them. She stepped forward in front of the boomer, directly 
between it and her two friends.
  Man, what's with these boomers, Ranma thought. Why is it helping each other 
out? It's as if it's trying to protect the other two. He smiled. It didn't 
matter though. He would get to them as soon as he finished this one off.
  "Look out!!!" Linna managed to say to Sylia, but she was too late.
  Ranma lunged forward as he shouted, "Kashuu Tenshin Amaguriken!!!" 
Hundreds and hundreds of punches struck the boomer within mere seconds. Most of 
his attacks struck the boomer's chest, but he landed several good shots on its 
head and gut also.
  Linna watched in absolute horror. She had no idea this boomer was this 
dangerous up close. Its physical attacks were far worse than its energy blasts. 
She watched as her friend was struck hundreds of times in the blink of an eye.
  Ranma cocked his arm back to shove his fist right through the boomer's chest, 
but he hesitated. He saw the boomer in front of him fall down on to its hand and 
knees. It fell down before his feet, no longer moving.
  As his arm still remained back cocked backwards, he couldn't bring himself to 
finish the boomer off. Before he knew it, a sharp pain surged trough his lower 
back as he was sent flying through the air. 
He twisted in the air and landed on his feet a few feet away.
  He watched as the boomer that kicked him knelt down before the boomer he had 
just punched several hundred times. He couldn't explain why, but he felt a brief 
sign of remorse as he watched the boomer help the damaged one. The boomer was 
acting human, as if it were helping out a fallen comrade.
  "Sylia!!!" Linna said as she gently cradled her friend in her arms "Speak to 
me!!! Wake up!!!"
  "Get away from here," Sylia managed to say before lapsing into 
unconsciousness.
  "No!" Linna said. She looked over at the boomer and then back at Sylia. She 
had to get her friend to safety. She opened Sylia's suit up and took her into 
her arms. She then proceeded to limp toward Priss and Nene.
  "Get out of here!!! Priss, use your boosters to take Nene and Sylia to 
safety!!! I'll keep it distracted!!!" Linna shouted.
  Linna felt something grab hold of her shoulder. She knew it was the boomer. 
She and Sylia were done for. She placed Sylia to the ground and turned to face 
the boomer. She had to go down fighting. She cocked her arm back and punched 
toward the boomer, only to have the boomer catch her fist. She tried to punch it 
with her other hand, but the boomer also caught it. It regarded Linna with 
curious eyes.
  "What are you waiting for?!" Linna said, "Finish us off!"
  Ranma released his hold on the boomer's hands as he placed one of his hands 
over the boomer's throat but didn't squeeze. He watched as the boomer used both 
of its hands to free itself from his grasp.
  Why isn't it trying to attack me, Ranma thought. What is this, some form of 
self-preservation Genom incorporated into its AI chips. It should be fighting me 
until it can fight no more. 
  He placed his other hand on the boomer's shoulder and ripped the outer armor 
off. He then ripped the outer armor over the boomer's other shoulder. Even 
though this was a boomer, Ranma wasn't enjoying this at all. Even though this 
was the same kind of thing that killed his friends and family, his heart was 
aching. 
  As he held the boomer, Ranma looked down at the unconscious boomer behind it. 
It looked human, just like that short, pink-haired boomer.
  Ranma turned his attention back onto the boomer he was holding, regarding it 
curiously. Maybe this boomer was like the other ones. He brought the boomer 
closer to himself as he inspected for some way of getting the inner armor off.
  I wonder how I can get this thing off, Ranma thought, still looking at the 
boomer seriously. He was no longer scared of the boomer hurting him. It had 
exhausted its energy supply. After a few moments, he saw something that might be 
able to get that helmet-like skull off. He hooked two fingers under the boomer's 
chin and yanked upward, ripping the skull off the boomer. 
  Ranma realized he was right. There was another boomer underneath.
  This must be some kinda exoskeleton armor or something, he thought. To his 
surprise, he found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful female boomer 
with short black hair. 
  Linna stared up into the boomer's eyes. She didn't know what to do. There was 
nothing she could do. She was in the mercy of this boomer. Actually, boomers 
didn't know what mercy was meaning she was as good as dead. But why was it 
looking at her curiously? 
  The boomer let go of Linna's neck. It stood there, doing nothing.
  Linna used the boomer's hesitation to get herself and Sylia to safety. She 
quickly knelt down and threw one of Sylia's arm around her shoulders, but when 
she took a step, her ankle throbbed as she fell to the ground clutching her 
broken ankle in pain.
  Ranma stepped forward. He couldn't believe how human these boomers acted. 
Since it actually looked like it was in pain, it actually made his heart ache. 
He caught himself almost wanting to kneel down and help the boomer out.
  He didn't know why, but he couldn't finish these two boomers off. He couldn't 
finish any of them off. They were acting way too human, and it bothered him. 
Even though they were acting, Ranma had a soft spot. He would never kill humans, 
and his hesitation proved it. 
  Ranma continued to look at the boomer curiously. He didn't really need to kill 
these boomers. If he met them again, he would be able to defeat them again. 
During this battle, he had only exerted a small bit of his energy. There was no 
need to kill these boomers. He didn't have to worry about them returning back to 
Genom headquarters and give them data on his fighting abilities because all of 
his energy came from his ki, and there was no way Genom could reproduce that. Ki 
was something only humans could possess.
  Why isn't it attacking, Linna thought. She didn't care though. If it wasn't 
then that mean she might be able to get Sylia to safety. On one leg, she half-
dragged Sylia toward where Priss and Nene was. 
  Maybe it's best that I finish 'em off, Ranma thought. He didn't want to 
underestimate them. He didn't want them coming back and perhaps finishing him 
off. Afterall, since these boomers had fought him, they would be familiar with 
his way of fighting. 
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders. This was the best thing to do. Even though he 
would most likely not sleep well tonight, there was no better way. One thing he 
had learned over the decades of training was not to underestimate his opponents.
  He walked up to one of the boomers and grabbed it by the neck. He slowly began 
to squeeze.
  Linna knew the end was near as she tried desperately to make the boomer 
release its grasp. It was futile though. She was too weak to fight anymore. 
Whatever feeble attempts she used to make it let go would be useless. She 
swallowed the lump in her throat as she waited for death to take her. Tears 
started to form around her eyes as she realized she would never be able to do 
the things she always wanted to do, that this would be her fate, to die by a 
boomer's hands.
  Ranma released his hold, shocked. He couldn't believe the boomer was crying. 
What kind of boomer is this, he thought. This seemed to make him feel a huge 
wave of remorse. He just had to find out.
  "Are you scared to die?" he asked. Although he didn't like asking something 
like that since it made him feel like some kind of monster, but he just wanted 
to see how the boomer would respond. He was amazed at how well the boomers could 
imitate humans, but he wanted to know if it had any form of human emotion.
  Linna gasped for breath. After a few moments, she looked up at the boomer. Did 
she hear correctly? Did the boomer just ask if she was afraid to die? What was 
it doing, toying with her? She wiped the tears from her eyes but said nothing.
  "I figured," Ranma said, "You can imitate human emotions, but you can never 
feel it. For a moment there, I felt compassion toward you. Heh, what a fool I 
am!" 
  He bent down and picked Linna up by her collar. He cocked an arm back, ready 
to cave this boomer's face in and end its so-called life. But he stopped when 
the boomer spoke in a soft and timid voice.
  "W-what are you talking about?" Linna said.
  "I said you seem to imitate human emotions quite convincingly, but you 
would never be able to feel it," Ranma repeated, "For a moment there, I 
felt compassionate not to destroy you,"
  "Compassion? How can you feel compassion?" Linna said. She couldn't 
believe the response her words had made on the boomer. It released 
its grasp on her.
  "You mean you're human?" Ranma asked slowly, cautiously. He looked 
down at the boomer that was on the ground, supposedly unconscious.
  Linna nodded cautiously, "Yes, of course I'm human," She noticed the boomer 
was looking at Sylia. When her gaze rested on Sylia, she noticed a trickle of 
blood flowing from her mouth. Tears started to form around her eyes again as she 
ran toward her friend's side. She didn't care if the boomer was going to kill 
her, but Linna wouldn't let the boomer hurt her friend unless it killed her 
first.
  Ranma's face displayed sadness, as if on the brink of tears as he watched 
Linna cradle Sylia in her arms. At that moment, he realized that there was no 
way she could be a boomer. He saw Linna cry and he realized that she was human. 
He knew one thing that could never happen, boomers crying 
  He turned around "What have I done?! I-I thought you were a boomer!" 
He looked down at the ground, ashamed. He couldn't believe he had almost killed 
someone. Her death would have been on his hands for the rest of his life. He had 
been steadfast to protecting people from boomers, but here he was, about to kill 
the people he was supposedly protecting.
  Linna looked up at Ranma. Boomers were programmed not to attack other boomers, 
meaning if he thought she was a boomer, then that meant he was human since 
boomers never deviated from its programming, "Y-you mean you're not a boomer?"
  Ranma turned to face Linna, "No, I'm not,"
  He bent down next to Sylia and checked for her pulse, "Oh god, what have I 
done?!"
  He sighed in relief when he felt a steady yet weak pulse. He gently picked 
Sylia up in his arms, her head resting against the crook of his neck and 
shoulder as her arms fell over his back, "We have to get her to a hospital"
  "You get away from her!!!" Ranma heard the pink haired girl yell at 
him, "You leave her alone!!!"
  Ranma stopped for a moment before replying, "We need to get all of you to a 
hospital," When he received a confused look from Nene, he continued, "I'm sorry 
for this. I thought you were boomers. That's why I attacked you. I thought you 
were boomers,"
  He looked down at Linna with soft eyes, "Are you all right? Can you 
walk?"
  Linna looked down at her broken ankle and then back up at Ranma. 
She nodded her head, "I-I think so," 
  She tried to put a bit of pressure on her foot, but it was too much for her as 
she feel forward.
  Ranma reached forward and grabbed Linna's arm before she hit the 
ground, "Here," he said, "Lettme help,"
  Linna didn't pull her arm away from Ranma's grasp. She couldn't help but 
notice how warm his hands felt as they were pressed against her. She could feel 
her heart skip a beat as Ranma knelt down and threw one of her arms around his 
shoulder "Here, lean against me,"
  As Ranma gently carried Sylia, Linna took careful steps as she leaned her 
weight against it. She was so close to him that she could smell the faint scent 
of his perspiration. It looked like the battle had taken a bit out of him.
  Nene left Priss' side and ran forward and stopped in front of Ranma and Linna, 
"I said for you stay away from them!" She had no idea what she was going to do, 
but she had to get her friends to safety. She took a step back as Ranma looked 
at her with soft eyes.
  "Look," Ranma said, "I'm sorry for what happened. I thought you were boomers. 
Your friend here made me realize that you're human. I'm human also, just like 
you,"
  Nene said nothing. She just stood there and looked up at Ranma in disbelief. 
He was human? How could that be? Her sensors had never picked it up. But then 
again, the power that he was able to generate might have keep her sensors from 
picking it up.
  "Are you okay?" Ranma looked over Nene's shoulder toward Priss, who was trying 
to stand up while clutching her ribs. She had managed to make it to her feet, 
but she couldn't walk. It was too painful. He stepped up to Priss and extended 
one of his hands forward. He used his other hand to carry Sylia. 
  Priss just stared at Ranma's outstretched hand. What kind of joke is that, she 
thought. This boomer was acting human. There was no way a human could generate 
this much power.
  "You're not human. You lie," She gritted her teeth as pain shot throughout her 
body as she cocked her arm back. She was about to cave this boomer's face in, 
but the pain was too much for her to bare.
  She fell to her knees in pain. Nene rushed to her side and grabbed hold of her 
"Priss, are you all right?"
  "Do you need help?" Ranma asked. 
  Priss shook her head. She didn't need his help. Even though there was no way 
she could do anything, and her suit and her body had taken too much damage, she 
didn't want his help.  
  "Well, I don't care. You need my help," Ranma said. He reached forward and 
took a hold of Priss' arms and was about to help her to her feet, but Priss 
jerked her arm away. 
  She clutched at her ribs as pain shot through her from when she jerked her 
arm. She quickly removed her helmet as a small trickle of blood emerged from her 
mouth. The pain was intense and piercing. She was in trouble. She would pass out 
from the pain in just a few moments from now.
  "Your ribs are broken," Ranma said, "You mustn't do this to yourself or your 
ribs will puncture one of your lungs. You have to take it easy," He reached out 
forward again to take her arm but she didn't take it. He waited for her to take 
his hand this time. Even though he knew she was the prideful type, he knew she 
needed his help.
  He smiled as Priss took his hand and slowly made her way to her feet. 
  Nene rushed to Priss' side and threw one of her arms over her shoulders. Priss 
smiled a bit as she realized how much the pain had went away now that Ranma and 
Nene was helping her out.
  "Which way to the nearest hospital?" he said. He had no real idea where he 
was. He knew he was on some deserted, slum-like, man-made island that was 
usually used as testing grounds for Genom's prototypes. He had found out that 
this was where most of the advanced boomers were being tested, and he wanted to 
get rid of them before they had a chance to be put into production.
  "The nearest one is five miles west of here," Linna said pointing toward the 
horizon where the sun was now setting.
  "Damn," he swore as he clenched his teeth, "That's gonna take over two 
hours to walk," He turned to face Priss and then looked over at Nene 
"What are we gonna do?"
  "I'm going to call Mackie," Nene said as she turned her attention toward 
Priss, "I'll use your communicator to call him,"
  She scooted out from under Priss' arm and walked over to where her friend had 
dropped her helmet. She picked it up.
  "Mackie! Mackie!"  Nene yelled into the helmet "You there? Mackie!"
  A voice came from the helmet "Mackie here. What is it, Nene?"
  "We're in trouble," she said, "We need you to come pick us up. I'm sending you 
our coordinates,"
  She opened up a small panel on the side of the helmet to reveal a small number 
pad. She then punched in a few numbers.
  "Now what?" Ranma said. He didn't know how long it would take for this so-
called Mackie to arrive.
  "We wait," Linna said.

  Ranma entered the tiny room carrying Sylia and Nene's battle suits, each suit 
slung around each shoulder. Sylia's suit, although the front was dented and the 
breast plate was gone, was still intact. Nene's suit wasn't so lucky. Most of 
the metal had melted into a heaping mess.
  "Where'd ya like me to put this?" Ranma asked. 
  "In the corner," Linna said, pointing.
  Ranma and the four girls were in a tiny room that was in one of the abandoned 
buildings. They needed to take cover because the Knight Sabers didn't want their 
identities revealed in case a boomer was running around. The room was only a few 
meters wide, and there was a bit a debris everywhere, but it was good enough for 
now.
  Linna watched as Ranma placed the suits in the corner she had said. She was 
dumbfounded and wondered how Ranma was able to carry two suits at once. Each 
suit weighted several hundred pounds and he was carrying both of them like they 
were as light as a feather. Both suit must have weight somewhere around a 
thousand pounds combined.
  Ranma walked over to the window and looked out the front window of the 
building, "When's your backup gonna get here?" 
  They had been in the building for around fifteen minutes already. He was 
starting to get impatient. For every minute passed, the chance of Sylia not 
waking up was more probable.
  Nene walked up to Ranma and stood next to him, the top of her head barely 
reaching his chin, "He'll be here in a little while. It takes a little time for 
him to get the transport ready. That's all,"
  Ranma squinted his eyes, "Hey, what's that over there. Is that your 
friend?" 
  He pointed toward four hovering dots about two miles away from where they were 
hiding out.
  "No," Nene said, "Those look like boomers. Afterall, this is a boomer training 
ground," She looked more carefully "Those must be the boomers we wanted to 
intercept,"
  "Huh?"
  "We heard Genom..." Linna said as she got up and slowly made her way 
to Ranma and Nene, using the walls for support. When Ranma saw her standing next 
to him, he reached out and gently placed her arm around his shoulder, "We heard 
Genom was trying out some new prototype boomers around here and we were waiting 
for them to arrive. That is, until you attacked us,"
  Ranma scratched the back of his head, "Oh, you were here to do that also? 
That's why I was here. I wanted to blow them up before they can go into 
production. That oughta hit Genom where it hurts,"
  "Why are you doing this?" Priss couldn't help but ask. She stayed where she 
was, in the back of the room, next to the unconscious Sylia.
  "You mean about my hatred toward Genom?" Ranma started out slowly. When Priss 
nodded, he sighed and spoke, "Everyone I cared about was killed by combat 
boomers that Genom created. The boomers went berserk and killed 'em all. Boomers 
should have never been created in the first place. And for that, I'm gonna make 
Genom regret having done so. It's all personal,"
  Nene gasped, "Oh no. Look over there, there's Mackie," She pointed toward the 
ground where a truck was coming down one of the deserted streets toward the 
building. The truck could be easily spotted by those boomers from high above 
"He's gonna be spotted!"
  Ranma gently let Nene take hold of Linna as he smiled a bit "If those are the 
prototype boomers we came here to destroy, then I'll take care of it,"
  He then quickly ran out of the building "I already got my second wind,"
  Curiosity got the better of Priss as she slowly and cautiously made her way to 
where Nene and Linna was standing. Once there, Nene threw her arm around her 
should as she held both Linna and Priss stand. Together, the three girls watched 
as Ranma walked out to the middle of the street and wave toward the incoming 
truck.
  "Over here," Ranma said as he waved his hands. He wanted to get this Mackie 
person out of harm's way while he did his business. He pointed toward the 
building as Mackie stopped the truck and look at him cautiously, "They're in 
that building. Don't worry, it's not some trap. Damn, they're already here!!!"
  A massive explosion exploded on the ground just behind Mackie's truck. The 
truck was sent flying forward and skidded to a halt a few feet away. Another 
explosion struck the side of the truck this time as the truck was toppled over 
onto its side. 
  Ranma quickly hopped on top of the truck and opened the driver's side door and 
reached in a grabbed Mackie's arm, "Quickly, get into the building. Those damn 
boomers saw ya!" With one arm, he lifted Mackie out of the truck and placed him 
down on the ground. When he noticed Mackie just standing there, staring at him, 
he shouted, "Hurry, get outta here! Here they come!"
  Another explosion occurred, this time a few feet away from Ranma. Ranma was 
blown backwards off the truck, landing on the ground on his back with a loud 
thump. 
  He quickly flipped back up onto his feet, wiping a bit of blood trickling from 
his mouth, "That was a lucky shot!"
  He quickly jumped out of the way as another blast exploded right where he was. 
He continued to do this as the four boomers got closer and closer. He watched 
intently for the boomers' next attacks as they all landed on the street about 
twenty feet in front of him. Each boomer looked slightly different from each 
other, and was carrying a heavy arsenal of equipment. Two boomers had rocket 
launchers attached to their shoulders while carrying a shield while the other 
two each carried two large caliber tank rifles. All stood close to four meters 
high each. They all resembled a bigger, heavier version of these big brown heavy 
duty combat boomers he remember destroying a few days ago. He remembered those 
boomers had a large cannon for an arm. He couldn't remember what kind of model 
they were, but he didn't have much trouble destroying those. Hopefully, these 
boomers would be as easy also.
  Ranma ran straight toward the four boomers as they all opened fire on him. His 
voice echoed through the empty streets of the abandoned town.
  "Mouko Takabisha!!!"
 
  Ranma looked at the truck that had been toppled over onto its side. 
  "Will you stand back for a moment?" Ranma said, walking up to the truck.  
  Linna was the first to ask, "What are you going to do?"
  Ranma didn't reply back. The girls and Mackie watched as Ranma squatted low to 
the ground, his back straight, and slipped his fingers under the truck. He then 
gave out a yelp as he used all his strength to lift the truck up, his muscles 
straining intensely. 
  After several moments, Ranma managed to lift the truck about a foot of the 
ground. 
  He then squatted lower to the ground and shoved his shoulder underneath, using 
that as a lever, gritting his teeth against the effort to lifting.
  As the truck was slowly lifted from its side, Ranma got impatient.  
  "Goddamnit!!! Move ya damn truck!!!" He got angry at his lack of strength in 
righting the truck that he gave one final burst of strength, bringing his legs 
up and pushing his arms out at the same time.
  Unfortunately, Ranma seemed to have gotten a bit too angry for he put too much 
strength behind his final push, the truck landing back on its wheel only to 
topple over onto its other side.
  "Shit!" Ranma swore. He wished he could control his anger more. Sometimes, he 
didn't know his own strength.
  Ranma walked over to the other side of the truck and proceeded to lift it back 
up, and hopefully, onto its wheels.
  Everyone watched, mouths open wide.
  When the truck was back on its wheels, Ranma turned toward the staring group, 
unperturbed by the astonishing glances. 
  "All right, we better get going,"

  Ranma was sitting patiently in the corner of the hospital room when Sylia 
awoke. 
  She quickly sat upright in her bed "What's going on here?! Where am I?" 
  She scooted away to the back of her bed when she caught sight of the boomer 
that had beaten her unconscious. Although that was her first reaction, she 
managed to look at everything logically.
  She noticed that Priss and the others were in the room, along with the boomer. 
Priss was sitting on her own bed, some bandages wrapped around her ribs. Linna 
was sitting on Priss' bed, her foot in a cast. Nene was sitting in a chair 
at the foot of the bed. She realized that this boomer couldn't be a boomer. 
Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.
  "You're never going to believe it," Nene said with a smile.
  "Try me," she said with a suspicious eye. She was regarding Ranma as he weakly 
smiled back at her. 
  "It turns out that..." Nene began. She stopped, realizing that she didn't know 
this man's name.
  "Ranma,"
  "It turns out that Ranma here isn't a boomer," she continued, "I know what 
you're going to say, 'how come we could pick it up on our scanner?'. I checked 
out the suits, at least the suit that we have left, and it turns out that they 
were perfectly functional. It turns out that there seems to be something 
surrounding Ranma here that prevents it,"
  "I think I can explain," Ranma began, "Have you ever heard of battle aura?"
  Sylia shook her head. She had have sworn she had heard of it before though.
  "Well, I have this weird battle aura always surrounding me that...I guess, 
messes up those scanner thingies of yours," he continued, "But enough of that 
now. Are you okay?"
  She regarded him with cautious eyes. Ranma looked like he was somewhere in his 
early or mid twenties, but his eyes showed that he was a lot older. His eyes 
showed that of life long experiences, something never evident in someone that 
was as young as he looked. 
  She nodded at Ranma's comment. It was nice that he seemed concern, but it 
might all be an act. She had to remain cautious. But as she sat there in her 
bed, she realized something, Ranma was there, meaning he must be aware of their 
hidden identity.
  "So, I assume you now know our identity," she said slowly, watching him. She 
wanted to see how he reacted. She wanted to know if his words were genuine. She 
could tell simply by the tone in his voice.
  "Your identity?" he asked "Whatcha talking about? You mean those things you 
wear are supposed to be a secret?" He shrugged his shoulders, "Whatever,"
  All four girls said nothing. They all looked at Ranma curiously, Sylia the 
most. What kind of person was he? He knew of their identity, but it didn't 
really matter to him? Something must be wrong.
  "Well, I don't really care who you really are," Ranma said, turning to face 
Sylia, "As long as you're not some combat boomer, I'm glad you're okay. I better 
get going now,"
  "Wait," she said, "Can you do us a favor?" It didn't really matter if he 
didn't want to, she still had to ask. Even though there was no way they could 
stop him, she had to ask him this question "Can you please not let anyone know 
who we are?"
  Ranma shrugged his shoulders "Even though I don't really know what kinda 
secret it is, yeah, sure. I'll keep your secret," 
  He left the room.

  Sylia was looking at the computer screen when she realized how tired she was. 
It was around three in the morning. She hadn't slept in two days, and it was 
taking a toll on her, especially her mind. Everything on the screen was starting 
to look like gibberish. Even the simplest words seemed indiscernible. Naturally, 
she would have had Fargo do the extensive research of that person named Ranma, 
but ever since he got hurt during that boomer rampage a few days ago, he was in 
the hospital recuperating.
  She immediately broke out of her sleepy stupor when her eyes rested on a 
familiar face.
  On the computer screen, she saw Ranma's face. All that extensive background 
checking had finally paid off. She was looking at a profile on a man named Ranma 
Saotome. For the past two days, she had been looking through the police logs for 
the man that she only remembered was called Ranma.
  A portrait of a handsome man was on the screen as Sylia stared up at it. It 
was definitely him. It was definitely the man she fought a few days ago.
  She read the profile of him. She was immediately shocked to find out that 
Ranma was well in his fifties. That wasn't all that surprised her. She found 
that he used to live in Nerima, the same city that was leveled to the ground by 
a bunch of berserking boomers that she had read about many years ago.
  "Hm, that seems right," she said to herself, "If the family he was talking 
about was indeed killed, then they must have died during the 'Nerima Massacre' 
when those boomers went berserk at the same time. That would confirm why he 
hates boomers so much," 
  She read some more.
  Sylia leaned back in her chair as she finished with Ranma's background check. 
Unless Genom messed around with AD Police's citizen archives, Ranma was 
definitely human. The research had proved quite useful. She found out that Ranma 
had been arrested several times for the destruction of Genom buildings.   
  "Buildings?!" Sylia gasped.
  How can he destroy entire Genom buildings, Sylia thought. All of Genom's 
companies are heavily fortified. Although they aren't fortified as their main 
corporate building, Genom's security fortifications could take out small armies 
before being overwhelmed. That would mean Ranma is more powerful than a small 
army.
  "That's impossible!" Sylia said, "How can one man destroy entire Genom 
buildings?" She decided to take back those words when she recalled seeing Ranma 
throwing all those ki-blasts from his hands. And of course, he had managed to 
break the Knight Sabers' armor, which was much stronger than any of Genom's 
boomers.
  But if he's capable of taking out Genom buildings, she thought, how can the 
police manage to apprehend him. She scanned his profile again. She remembered 
coming across something that might explain it.
  Hm, she thought, it says here that he currently unemployed. Unless he works as 
a mercenary like us, he has no source of income. Could he be allowing himself 
get caught so he could spend time in jail, where he would have food and shelter? 
Hm, and it says here that he has no place of residence because his house was 
destroyed during that boomer rampage many years ago.
  She thought, how come we never heard of a man like him before? Surely, if he 
took out Genom buildings, we would know about it. How can we miss something like 
this? Hm, it says here he took out nineteen Genom buildings that were scattered 
around Europe and North America. Hm, maybe it's because the building taken out 
weren't in Japan that we missed it.
  But that was highly improbable. If anybody attacked Genom, they would 
had known.
  "Wait a minute?!" she said, realizing something "That was HIM doing that, 
destroying those buildings?!" She remembered hearing about Genom destroying 
nineteen of their own buildings in hopes of rebuilding a better, more advanced 
version. Perhaps it was him that destroyed those buildings. No. It must be. And 
since the police hate Genom secretly, some would prefer no to let the public 
know because they actually viewed Ranma as a savior, not some saboteur,"
  Sylia smiled to herself, a great weight lifted off her chest. Although all of 
those were simple hypotheses, it was much better than what she had before, 
nothing.
  She was glad that this background check had paid off. 
  Sylia yawned. Before she would tell the others, she needed some sleep. She 
knew she needed it because she caught herself talking to herself several times.
  
  While at work, Nene looked at her dispatch screen in disbelief, not believing 
what she was seeing. On the screen, five boomers had gone berserk, all of them 
in the same location. Phones in the background were blazing to life as concerned 
citizens informed the AD Police of the carnage that was ensuing.
  "Oh man, this is bad!" Nene said to herself. She looked around to see if 
anyone was watching. When she realized that all her fellow co-workers were busy 
tending to all those incoming phonecalls, Nene quietly relayed the dispatch 
readings to Sylia's computer terminal.
  Sylia woke with a sudden jolt when her computer alarm went on. She swore to 
herself, wishing the boomers would give her just eight hours of sleep before 
they go on a rampage. She had had a very rough two days. She needed her sleep.
  "I'm here," Sylia said as she turned her computer terminal on. She wiped the 
sleep from her eyes. She looked at her clock and noticed she had only slept for 
ten minutes. An audio of Nene's voice echoed into the room.
  "We have big trouble," she heard Nene's voice, "There are three heavy duty 
'BU-12b' and two 'Doberman' model boomers trashing up district seven,"
  Sylia swallowed the lump in her throat.

  Priss was racing down the highway at fifty miles per hour over the speed limit 
when she caught sight of a familiar looking man. It was Ranma. He looked like he 
was headed toward nowhere in particular. She smiled as she figured she'd give 
him a good scare. 
  She ended up skidding the bike to a halt just inches from him. She executed a 
maneuver called a stoppie which resulted from her applying only her front 
brakes, making her back wheel leave the ground as she skidded to a halt.
  "W-what're ya tryin' to do?!" Ranma said, "Are you tryin' to give me a heart 
attack or something?! I'm not as young as you think I am," 
  He looked like he had been ready to jump out of his skin.
  Priss regarded Ranma for a second. The comment brought a small smile to her 
face. Ranma did not look old. It had been three days since their battle, and she 
had all but forgotten about it. She had learned to live with the thought that 
she had lost that battle miserably. Although she did hold a grudge toward Ranma 
for what he had done to her and her friends, she knew it was all a case of 
mistaken identity. She, too, had fallen for that mistake.
  "Whatcha doing around here?" he asked. His eyes regarded Priss for a moment 
before dropping down to the great looking bike. He had no real idea if it was a 
fast bike or not. He was little behind on the times. He didn't really understand 
technology that much.
  "I'm on my way to district seven," she said, "Five boomers seem to be on the 
rampage there," She figured it'd be best to at least let him know that boomers 
were on the rampage. Although she did resent him for the power he could wield so 
easily, he was, in a way, on their side.
  "How're your ribs?" he asked. 
  Priss smiled a bit and said, "Yeah, I'm fine," She then revved the motor to 
the redline mark and popped the gear into first, the front wheel leaving the 
ground as she did a wheelie away from Ranma at high speeds.
  Ranma stood there amazed "Wow, that does look like a fast bike,"  
  He began walking down the street toward the direction Priss was 
headed. 
  "Now, toward what district did she say she was headed?"

  Sylia and Linna were both in their hardsuits when Priss arrived in their 
hidden headquarters under Raven's Garage. Although their suits were nowhere near 
as good a condition as before the battle against Ranma, Mackie had managed to 
fix it up considerably with the spare parts that he had. Nene's suit was 
unsalvageable, meaning a new one would have to be built. It didn't matter though 
because Nene was still at work over in the AD Police headquarters.
  The fact that their suits were in need of some repair didn't really matter 
that much though. They needed to upgrade their suits anyway. This just made the 
reason more appropriate.
  "It's about time you got here," Linna said to as Priss got off her bike.
  Priss gave Linna a smirk, "Well, I got caught up for a moment on the way here. 
I saw Ranma,"
  "Y-you did?" Linna said with a smile. Although she didn't want to give away 
her obvious interest toward Ranma, it was too late. Priss and Sylia noticed the 
change in her mood, and they knew she seemed to have a thing for him.
  "Man, I wish those boomers weren't rampaging near Sylia's building," Linna 
changed the subject, "That way, we could let the AD Police take care of them,"   
  She sighed. She remembered when it last happened. Sylia's lingerie store had 
been trashed and it took forever to get it cleaned and fixed.
  "I told Ranma where they were rampaging," Priss said as she got out of her 
clothes and into her skin-tight jumpsuit, "Maybe he could take care of them," 
She climbed into her hardsuit and activated it, putting the helmet on, "Man, 
this feels a bit awkward, but I guess it'll have to do for now. When'll Mackie 
have this fixed completely?"
  "Tomorrow," Sylia said.
  
  The three Knight Sabers arrived at the scene of the crime. Priss was in her 
motoslave suit as she hovered down to the roof of a nearby building. The 
motoslave suit was basically an addition suit one could put on for more 
firepower. In a sense, it was kind of like a hardsuit for a hardsuit.
  She was carrying a cannon capable of blowing a hole right through an entire 
building. Linna was also in her motoslave suit as she, too, hovered down next to 
Priss. 
  Sylia, only in her hardsuit, had landed on the roof carrying a high caliber 
sniper laser rifle. Her suit was in worse condition than both Linna and Priss' 
so it was best she stayed a short distance away and pick the boomers off with 
the rifle.
  As Sylia set her rifle up and looked through the high powered scoop, she 
noticed that the five boomers seemed to be working together like a team. The 
three brown BU-12b boomers, more powerful versions than standard combat boomers, 
were firing their heavy duty cannons to destroy nearby police cars and trucks 
while using their machine guns to kill the hapless 
police officers. The AD Police didn't stand a chance.
  The two 'Doberman' boomers, boomers meant for use in space, not Earth, had 
their backs to the police, using their miniguns to riddle the stores with 
thousands of bullets. These boomers definitely didn't go berserk. It looked more 
like Genom was trying out some new AI chip on their boomers. It looked as if a 
network had been setup between the five boomers, to see how they would work as a 
team rather than individually.
  "Be careful," Sylia spoke into her communicator, "These boomers seem to be 
working together, like there's a network set up between them,"
  She aimed her rifle toward one of the BU-12b boomers. She waited for the 
perfect moment to fire. She didn't want to give away her location because if the 
boomer realized where she was attacking from, she would be in trouble.
  Linna hopped off the roof as she used the massive cannon that her motoslave 
was carrying to blow a hole through the chest of one of the BU-12b while Priss 
did the same. Unfortunately, Priss' shot was slightly off, and it missed its 
mark. It only blew off the boomer's left arm.
  Priss landed just in time to jump out of the way as the boomer returned fire, 
missing her by inches. The blast blew one of the hover jets to her motoslave. 
The boomer strafed toward the right as it continued to fire its cannon at Priss, 
narrowing missing her with every shot. The boomer exploded as a laser shot 
pierced through it chest from Sylia's sniper rifle.
  "We have to get them to follow us," Sylia said, "They're causing too much 
damage around here. We have to get them away from the stores," 
  Linna and Priss acknowledged her suggestion. 
  "Follow me, Linna," Priss said as one of the boosters to her motoslave blazed 
to life. Although the other booster was destroyed, her other booster still 
allowed her to hover.
  Linna quickly followed.
  The three remaining boomers followed. Sylia quickly held a tight grip on her 
rifle as she hovered from rooftop to rooftop, wondering where Priss was headed. 
  "Where are you going?" Linna said as she followed closely behind Priss.
  "Remember when I said I saw Ranma a short while ago?" she said, "We could have 
him take care of them and get them away from Sylia's store at the same time,"
  A cannon blasted from behind them, hitting the Priss' motoslave from behind. 
Priss screamed as she was propelled forward from the impact of the blast, 
sliding down the street several dozen yards before she came to a stop. She tried 
to get her feet just as Linna hovered down right next to her.
  "You okay?" Linna asked.
  "Shit, I can't move," Priss noticed that her motoslave had been damaged badly 
from that blast. It was having trouble responding to her commands. 
  "Get out of it then," Linna quickly said as she turned toward the three 
incoming boomers and returned fire, her machine guns and the cannon her 
motoslave carried firing for all their worth. The last BU-12b was destroyed by 
the onslaught of firepower, but the two 'Doberman' boomers skillfully dodged. 
They stopped about a dozen meters in front of Linna and Priss and opened fire, 
their miniguns firing rapidly.
  Linna was able to react in time to protect Priss, jumping in front of her, as 
the bullets riddled her motoslave with holes. Knowing that it was useless to 
remain in her motoslave, Linna disengaged to suit and hopped out of it through 
the back, picking up the massive cannon Priss' motoslave was carrying.
  She fired a shot toward one of the 'Doberman', thrown back from the kickback 
of the cannon. She would had hit the floor very hard as she fell backwards if it 
weren't for two hands pressing against her back, preventing her.
  Linna turned to see who saved her and her gaze rested on Ranma.
  "R-Ranma!" she said. She regarded Ranma as he smiled a big grin.
  "Look out!" Ranma shouted as he pushed Linna to one side, also jumping out of 
the way as a laser blast ripped across their path, exploding against a small 
building a quarter mile down the road. 
  Linna used her boosters to hover to her feet before she hit the ground after 
being shoved. She caught sight of Ranma as he rushed toward Priss sitting 
helplessly as bullets riddled her motoslave. Her suit wouldn't respond anymore 
to her commands. She was a sitting duck.
  "Mouko Takabisha!!" Linna watched him shout as a ki-blast ripped from his 
hands. The blast flew through the air an intense speed, hitting one of the 
'Doberman' in the chest, destroying it on impact. The impact of the blast was so 
intense that several windows of nearby stores exploded. 
  The explosion of his energy blast had managed to create a smoke screen between 
him and the boomer. Without even bothering to think, Ranma quickly ran up to 
Priss and grabbed one of the motoslave's arms.
  "Damn, this thing's heavy," he said as he tried to drag it, much to no avail. 
He noticed that trying to drag it was worthless since the suit was embedded 
slightly into the ground from the sliding. The only thing he could do was pick 
the damn thing up.
  Ranma gritted his teeth as the muscles in his forearms strained. He lifted the 
suit up and pushed it onto its side "C'mon, get out already,"
  "I can't!" He heard Priss said through her helmet. She was struggling to free 
herself from the suit, much to no avail.
  Ranma punched a hole through the chest of the motoslave suit and grabbed hold 
of the breastplate of Priss' suit. He pulled for all his worth, but it was still 
useless. He couldn't get her out. He'd have to break the entire front part of 
the motoslave to get her out. He gripped the chest piece to the suit and ripped 
it off completely. He then reached in and grabbed Priss and pulled her out, 
pushing her to safety.
  By now, the smoke had cleared out, allowing the 'Doberman' to set its sights 
on the target again. It shot at the damaged motoslave.
  Ranma managed to jump out of the way just in time as the suit exploded. He 
rolled to his feet quickly and lunged toward the boomer and grabbed one of its 
arms and threw it over his shoulder, the weight of the boomer as it struck the 
ground causing it to create a small crater. He then smashed his fist right 
through the boomer's head, the boomer ceasing function immediately.
  Ranma smashed an open palm into the boomer's chest, causing it to collapse 
inward, just to make sure it was no longer functioning. He then hopped off the 
boomer and picked it up, all two thousand pounds of it, and slammed it on the 
ground again further embedding it in to the ground.
  "Man, if that doesn't stop it, nothin' will," he said with a chuckle. The 
boomer had stopped functioning when he had smashed a hole right through its 
head, but he wanted to have his fun. He knew it didn't matter how much more he 
destroyed it. Once the AI chip was destroyed, the boomer was harmless.
  He sat down on the boomer's chest, "Are you two all right?"  
  Linna pulled up the visor of her helmet.
 "Yeah, thanks,"

  Sylia finally caught sight of her two companions. She had seen them take off 
toward the outskirts of the city but she couldn't keep up since she was only in 
her regular hardsuit. Linna and Priss' motoslaves were far more powerful than 
her suit, allowing them to surpass her rate of follow.
  She landed in on a nearby roof when she noticed her two friends standing in 
the middle of a quiet, battle ridden street, both of them sans their motoslave 
suits. She noticed that there was also another person standing by them. She 
quickly brought the scoop of her rifle to her eye level as she looked through it 
for a clearer view. It was Ranma. She was surprised when she caught herself 
sighing in relief as she noticed it was him.
  As she looked through the scoop, she knew she had a clear shot to blow his 
head right off of his shoulders. There was no telling who this man was, or why 
he was here. Sure, he was destroying boomers, but there might have been some 
hidden agenda she didn't know about. Who knew, maybe he wanted to get rid of 
Genom so he could take over the corporation.
  Thoughts raced through Sylia's head as she contemplated on whether or 
not she should pull the trigger. He already knew of their secret 
identity, and that could spell big trouble for them if word got out. 
Only a few people outside of the group knew of their identities. Having 
another person know about it just made the chances high that they would 
soon be discovered.
  But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. As 
of right now, he proved no threat. Their little battle the other day was 
over mistaken identity, something she couldn't hold a grudge over him 
because she, too, had mistaken him for a boomer as he did them. 
  She dropped the rifle to her side, having this weird feeling that she 
might come to regret it. But she couldn't help but remember seeing the 
caring and concern in his eyes when she had awoken in that hospital bed. 
She remember how warm those beautiful blue eyes of his looked when their 
gazes met, and she knew that was something she would never forget. 
  Sylia sighed a bit as a small smile crossed her lips. 
  "What was that thing you were in?" Ranma said as he still sat on the 
boomer's chest, jerking a thumb over his back at the remnants of Priss' 
motoslave suit. He noticed that this big red suit seemed to be some 
extra outer that Priss wore that seemed to cover over Priss' hardsuit.
  "That's a motoslave," Linna said as she looked down at her own 
motoslave. The suit was badly damaged but was definitely salvageable. 
Mackie would go ballistic when he saw the damage, but he would still be 
able to fix it after a few days.
  "A moto-what?" Ranma asked confused. He was scratching the back of his 
head as he felt a bit embarrassed that he wasn't up-to-date with current 
technology. He had been training in the mountains of China most of his 
life. The only technology he knew was boomer technology, and that they 
were something he tried his hardest to get rid of, "Well, whatever it is, 
I'm glad you two are all right. So I guess I better get going now," 
  He causally hopped off the boomer's chest and proceeded down the street.
  Priss was about to ask where he was headed, but it was none of her 
business. She had already thanked him. There was nothing else she needed 
to do. But for some odd reason, she didn't want him to leave. She found 
herself watching Ranma as his figure grew smaller and smaller as the 
distance between them got larger and larger.
  "Priss, I'm glad you spotted him on your way to the garage," Linna said 
as she stood next to Priss, also watching Ranma intently, "We would have 
been in a lot of trouble if it weren't for him,"
  Once Ranma was out of sight, Priss did something that caught Linna by 
surprised. She kicked the boomer as she swore to herself.
  "Shit. I can't believe how I screwed up like that!" she said, "We 
should have taken care of them easily, even without the help of Sylia or 
Nene. We had our motoslaves!"
  "But Ranma managed to save us," Linna said softly, a bit worried over 
her friend. Priss looked seriously ticked off.
  Priss shot Linna a cold glance, "That's what I'm pissed about! How come 
we're screwing up all of a sudden?! We fought Dobermans before, and 
without out motoslaves, and we managed to beat them. And here we are, 
with the motoslaves, and we get trashed! I don't get it. Why?"
  Sylia's boosters flared as she gently landed on her feet a few years 
away from the two girls "I know why,"
  Priss turned her attention toward Sylia "Why?"
  "It seems Ranma has something to do with it"
  
  "Madigan-sama. It seems your plan worked," her assistant, Carper, said 
as she entered his office. Carper was a young man with short brown hair and 
a square face. He was more like Madigan's right hand man than her 
assistant.
  Madigan smoothed a lock of her purple hair from her face as she peered 
out of his window that overlooked the entire city of MegaTokyo. The view 
gave her a great shot of the a huge fault that was a result of the Kanto 
Earthquake that separated the entire west and east side of the advanced 
city, "We managed to collect enough data on the superboomer that seems to 
be accompanying the Knight Sabers. After a few more encounters with it, 
we should know more about it,"
  "Good," she said with a smile, her reflection seen as it reflected off 
the glass window that separated her from Carper's office and the 
polluted air that was outside Genom Tower, "What have you got so far? 
Exactly how powerful is this superboomer? And where did it come from?"
  "Well, since you're familiar with the boomer association classes," 
Carper said, "is it all right if I use it as an analogy?"
  Madigan nodded.
  Carper walked over to a screen that was on one of the walls of his 
office and clicked on a button. It showed a profile of a household 
boomer, the first kind of boomer Genom had created, "Well, there's the 
simple boomers, the ones used for everyday human chores, which is a 
class 1-A boomer. The number '1' states its powerlevel output, while the 
'A' states its revision type"
  "I know that," Madigan spat, "Now get on with it,"
  "Sorry," he said. He took a breath and continued, "Well, as you know, 
the C-55 combat boomer is a class 3-C Boomer model. The BU-12b is a 
class 4-B model while the Dobermans are a class 4-E model. And as you 
know, the higher the revision number, the deadlier the boomer. That 
means a C-55 boomer which has been upgraded to class, say, 3-E or even 
class 3-F, would be able to destroy a class 4-A or even a 4-B boomer"
  "Yeah," Madigan said, leaning up against Caper's chair. She felt a bit 
angry for the little lecture, but she knew he was trying to getting to 
the point, "get on with it,"
  "Well, our most advanced boomers, the four prototype one that 
were wiped out on the artificial island not too long ago, were class 5-A 
models. So that means, as of right now, the strongest boomer Genom can 
create is a 5-A model boomer. Now, based on the boomer association class 
scale that we have and use, this superboomer that the Knight Sabers 
seemed to have created seem more along the lines of, get this, a class 
23-A model boomer,"
  "What?!"
  "Yes," Carper said "As of right now," He emphasized his words as he slapped 
his open hand on his table, "he would be considered a 23-A model superboomer," 
  "What do you mean 'right now'?" Madigan asked. She swallowed the lump 
that had formed in her throat. This was almost too much for her. 
Something of that class must be out of Genom's technological grasp by 
over fifty years.
  "This is the class it is associated with because of what we know about 
it," Carper continued, "Its projectiles are that of a class 23-A model 
boomer, but we have no idea what kind of class it is in hand-to-hand 
combat. Also, we have no idea what else it is capable of. Even though it 
seemed to have destroyed all four of our prototype 5-A boomers, we have 
the funny feeling it was not only holding back, but had only used a 
fraction of its energy,"
  Madigan sat down in one of the office chairs. This was too much for 
her. How can the Knight Sabers have created a superboomer this powerful? 
It was impossible.
  "Well, what do you think about the Knight Sabers," Madigan asked, 
looking up at the screen. It showed a green, wire-framed outline of 
Ranma, all the way down to his pig-tail, "What class would you consider 
them in?"
  "Well, this is just a hypothesis," Carper began "I think it's somewhere 
around the 6-A to 6-B class,"
  "You mean they created a boomer that is nearly four times more 
powerful?" she asked shocked.
  "Yes," he said in a calm and rational voice, "This superboomer seems 
capable of taking out the entire Knight Sabers at once,"
  "Shit!" she cursed. She knew how powerful the Knight Sabers were, and 
the thought of something that was as powerful as all four of them at 
once made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She was  
here to take over Mason's job after his death, which also meant the 
disposal of the Knight Sabers. And now that they had this superboomer 
working along side them, things had taken a turn for the worse.
  "I wonder why they would create a monster so powerful?" she said to herself 
thoughtfully, "I can't imagine what might happen if it goes berserk?"
  "As much as I want it to go berserk while in the presence of the Knight 
Sabers," he took a deep breath, wondering if it was all right to speak 
even when he wasn't being spoken to, "I would rather not find out,"
  "Well, what about this boomer's intelligence level?" she asked. Maybe 
the boomer lacked intelligence because something might had been 
sacrificed for the extreme power output, and intelligence was most 
likely. Heck, if there was something that could generate that much 
power, it wouldn't even need an AI chip. All it needed was a program 
that discerned the Knight Sabers from boomers.
  "Well, if we use the same boomer association class, it would still be 
leaps and bounds over out own boomer AI chips. It seems to have the same 
intelligence as the Knight Sabers, except it also has the ability to 
adapt. It seemed like it is capable of incorporating strategy into its 
fights,"
  "Please elaborate," she said.
  "Let's say that superboomer is engaged in combat with, say, ten of our 
prototype boomers," Carper said, "And it's fighting them under an 
overpass or major highway. It is probably capable of realizing that 
blowing up the highway above the boomers would easily wipe out all ten 
boomers at once instead of fighting them all one at a time,"
  "Goddamn!!! How is it capable of doing such things?! This is 
absolutely ludicrous!" Madigan felt a bit dizzy. This wasn't a 
superboomer. It was more like a walking army.
  "It's so intelligent that it wanders the streets as we speak. It seems 
capable of interacting with society as if it were totally human. Also, 
there's more," Carper continued, "This superboomer is extremely agile, 
so agile that it is capable of dodging bullets,"
  Madigan has heard enough of the bad news. She needed some good ones 
"Okay, enough already on its capabilities. What do you have on its 
weakness?"
  Carper smiled "You're going like this. This superboomer can't fly. 
It's most probable that the ability to fly was sacrificed for the power 
output. Also, it has virtually no armor whatsoever, meaning a single 
cannon blast would destroy it. This boomer also seem to be programmed to 
protect human life if possible. That's all I have on it so far, but this 
definitely helps balance the scales a bit,"
  Madigan sighed. Although she now knew of its weakness, it wouldn't 
help much at all.
  "But don't worry," Carper said, "I have a plan. We found someone, a 
human, that is capable of generating powers akin to this superboomer 
we're up against,"
  "Human?" Madigan said in shock "This has got to be some mistake. How 
can some human generate power like that? Where is it all coming from?"
  "I can't explain it," Carper said, "We found him living in the 
mountains around China a few weeks ago while we were up there looking 
for another location to set up another boomer manufactory. We tried to 
scan him, but we couldn't, so we assumed he was some new superboomer our 
competitors created, so we sent one of our scouting boomers in for a 
closer inspection. The person, somehow, was able to feel the boomer's 
presence, but he showed no hostile intentions. He actually started 
communicating with our boomer, and it turns out that the person was not 
only human, but was fooled that our scout wasn't a boomer. From what I 
gather, although he's Japanese, I believe he's been living in China for 
most his life, and has no idea about boomers, how much technology had 
advanced since China isn't as developed as Japan,"
  "Where is he now?" she asked, "I want him to help us out,"
  "I'm sorry," Carper said weakly, "But that's not possible. We have no 
idea where he is," 

  Ranma rubbed his stomach as it rumbled for the second time this late 
morning. He was starving. He needed something to eat and fast. His eyes 
caught sight of a familiar looking girl through a large glass window. It 
was that same black haired girl he had almost killed during that 
mistaken identity incident, and then later came to save a just few short 
days ago.
  Ranma stepped into studio as several of the women eyed him fondly. He didn't 
seem to realize this. Luckily for him, he had spotted Linna just as she was 
finishing teaching her aerobics class. She, too, had spotted him.
  "Hiya," Ranma said. He would have greeted her by name if he knew it 
"Um..... " He wondered how he was going to ask her for her name.
  Several of the girls in the classes gave Linna a mischievous grin 
behind Ranma's back. It was perfectly like Linna to have all the fun. 
Most of the guys seemed attracted to her.
  "My name's Linna. Linna Yamazaki," she said with a polite bow. She 
pretended like she had never really met Ranma before, just to give the 
other girls a show.
  "Oh, okay," Ranma said with a warm smile. He noticed that Linna looked 
very beautiful and the skin tight shorts that she was wearing accentuated 
her curves quite nicely. She had a very beautiful build, and Ranma 
seemed a bit embarrassed when he caught himself staring at her for a 
little longer than he was supposed to.
  "Um, how's the ankle?" was the first thing that came to his mind.
  "It's fine. It was broken, but thanks to technology, it was repaired without a 
hitch," she replied.
  "Wow, they can do that? I figure they'd put a cast on and let it heal for a 
few months," he said, a bit surprised.
  Linna gave a slight giggle, "Yeah, if broke any of your bones thirty years 
ago, that's how it would've been done. But nowadays, it's different,"
  Ranma gave a slight smile, "I never knew that. Well, I guess I have been a bit 
behind on the times," He shrugged, "Well, I'm glad to see that you're all right. 
I best be going now," 
  He turned to leave.
  "Wait a minute," she called out for him, causing him to stop. She 
wasn't expecting him to leave so soon. She was expecting him to be just 
like every other guy she had met, that he would ask her out to dinner or 
something. She was caught by surprise when she saw him about to leave. 
She also had to do all in her power to hide her blush when she had 
noticed Ranma's gaze on her. His warm eyes made her nervous, as it they 
could see al the way into her soul, all the way into her darkest secret.
  "What is it?" he asked. He felt his stomach grumble again. He really 
needed to eat. Unfortunately, he had no idea where he was going to find 
food at a time like this.
  "How about lunch?" she asked casually. Although it looked casual, she  
was definitely nervous asking a question like that. She had never asked 
that to a man in her life before. It was usually them asking her to go to 
lunch or dinner with them.
  Ranma felt his stomach grumble again. He really wanted to, but there 
was no way he would be able to pay for the meal "I-I'm sorry, I don't 
have any money," He turned to leave again.
  "My treat,"
  
  Ranma was finished with his meal within seconds. He hadn't eaten in 
days. Linna watched him eat with a smile as she ordered him a second 
portion, and then pretty soon a third portion. She was only nibbling on 
a small salad as she watched him. He wasn't paying all too much 
attention but noticed her regarding him when he bothered to look up.
  "What?" he said, "Do I have somethin' on my face?"
  Linna giggled, "No. Don't worry about it," she said as she began eating some 
more of her salad. She didn't know why, but she noticed that her day was looking 
better than it had ever been in weeks. Actually, she knew what the reason was. 
No. Actually, she knew who the reason was.
  Ranma placed the bowl on the table, "Man, that was good," He was about to 
burp, but realized he was in the presence of a lady, more like a very beautiful 
lady, "I'll pay you back for this. I promise,"
  "Don't worry about it," Linna said, "Think of it as a form of thanks for 
helping us out,"
  Ranma looked at her for a second before speaking softly, "Helpin' ya 
out? I thought I was supposed to keep that a secret,"
  Linna giggled again. At the most inconvenient time, her watch went 
off. Sylia was trying to contact her. It must be another berserking 
boomer. Two days had passed since the last incident, but she wished she 
had more time to herself than just two days.
  "I'll be back in a sec," she said as she got out of her seat and 
headed toward where the phones were located in the back of the 
restaurant.
  "Man, this places looks like the Nekohanten," Ranma commented as he 
brought the soup bowl back up to his mouth and began drinking the 
delicious broth.
  "Boy, do I miss those days," He sighed as he placed the empty bowl down on the 
table again. Although he remembered having many fiancees vying for his 
affections, life still wasn't as complicated as it had become since he came back 
to Japan after his training trip to China.
  He had come back to a country that he couldn't recognize. Everything 
was all high-tech. The technology was beyond him. Half the stuff 
nowadays he had no idea how they worked. Heck, he had no real idea how 
to work a car back when he was young, and now he would have to drive 
something much more complicated? Life was harsh.
  "I gotta go," Linna said as she handed him several thousand yen, "This should 
be enough for the bill. I'm sorry to leave like this, but it's important. I hope 
I'll see ya around. Bye,"
  Ranma watched Linna leave the store. After she left, he looked down at 
the amount of money she had left behind. She had left behind way too 
much money. But then again, it might be fortunate for him. That meant he 
would be able to eat decently for the next few days. But still, he would 
pay her back. 
  Now, the hard part was how.

  Ryoga was walking down a street, glad that he was finally back in his 
birthcountry. He had been trying to get back here for several years, but 
his lack of direction always prevented him. 
  He looked up at all the huge buildings towering over him, making him 
seem like an insignificant speck in this world. He had no idea how 
things had changed. He recognized nothing. Everything was so different. 
He might as well be in another country and it wouldn't matter because so 
much had changed.
  Ranma was walking down one of the busy streets MegaTokyo late into the 
afternoon when he caught sight of a familiar looking face from his 
youth. It was a young looking man sporting a yellow sleeveless shirt and 
black pants wearing a yellow and black headband.
  "Hey, Ryoga, is that you?" he said, waving toward his friend from 
across the street, "Damn, it is you! How's everythin' going?"
  Ranma didn't even bother to wait for the light to turn red. He just casually 
leapt into the air and over the entire length of the street, landing right next 
to Ryoga.
  "R-Ranma?" Ryoga looked at him curiously, "Is that really you?"
  Ranma nodded, smiling, "Long time no see, Ryoga"
  "YOU!!!" Ryoga said, aura glowing bright red "DIE!!! Shi Shi 
Hakodan!!!" 
  A massive ki-blast shot from Ryoga's hands, just as Ranma skillfully 
jumped out of its path. The blast struck the building behind him, 
blowing a hole the size of the blast right through it, the walls melting 
from the extreme heat.
  "Hold on there, Ryo-" Ranma managed to say just as he lunged out of the 
way as another ki-blast jetted right by him, striking yet another 
building causing it to exploded. It had just missed hitting him in the 
head. He was lucky he had been able to dodge it in time. As he rolled to 
his feet, he couldn't help but notice how skillful Ryoga had gotten over 
the years. Ryoga was now a definite force to be reckoned with.
  "How dare you let her get killed!!!" Ryoga said "How dare you let 
Akane get killed like that!!!"
  Ryoga attacked with several punches, all of them narrowly missing, all 
except for the last attack. He managed to land his last attack, an open 
palm strike, on Ranma's chest. Ranma was propelled backwards into one of 
the walls of the buildings, the wall collapsing in on itself from the 
impact.
  
  "This Ryoga Hibiki person," Madigan asked impatiently toward the now 
nervous Carper, "I want his help. He might be capable of defeating this 
superboomer running loose. Where could he be?"
  "I don't know," he said, "I don't know. I remember he mentioned to our 
boomer scout that he wanted to come back to Japan, but there seems to be 
no sign of him anywhere. I think he got lost on the way here. That's the 
only thing I can think of. He does, afterall, have a very bad sense of 
direction"
  "That's a bunch of bull!!!" Madigan spat, "How can you lose track of 
someone like that?"
  Carper's screen went on. It showed a facial shot of a man, or boomer, 
wearing headgear, "Carper-sama, we have located the person," The screen 
shot switched to a bird's eye view of the two people, one superboomer 
and one human, battling each other. The shot was being taken from a 
helicopter hovering nearby, "We've located Ryoga Hibiki. It seems he's 
already in battle with the superboomer, and he's winning,"
  "W-why's he fighting the superboomer in the first place?" Madigan 
asked "What caused them to fight?"
  "I don't know," he said, "Perhaps it's just some freak coincidence,"
  Madigan looked at Carper curiously. She never really believed in 
coincidence. There was always a logical explanation for everything, and 
this situation wasn't any different.
  "I surmise that since that superboomer seems to be programmed to fight 
other combat boomers," Carper started, "it might've had troubled 
scanning this Ryoga Hibiki we had trouble with and thinks he's another 
prototype superboomer we created, and thus, is attacking it. That's the 
best I can come up with"
  "I have to watch this," Madigan said, her eyes intent on the screen. 
She had never seen what the superboomer was capable of but had only 
heard of it. Now she had a chance to see his capabilities and she wasn't 
going to give up the chance.
  
  Nene stared at the dispatch screen and sighed. It was probably another boomer 
incident. But her eyes widened when she noticed something. It showed that there 
were two boomers fighting each other in the heart of MegaTokyo, right near where 
she saw Ranma earlier on her way to work this morning. She had seen him walking 
on the sidewalk as she drove her little scooter down the street, but she never 
bothered to stop. She noticed that Ranma didn't recognize her with her bike 
helmet on. 
  "Hmm, could that be Ranma?" Nene said to herself. In an incident like 
this, she would had only dispatched the AD Police to deal with this, but 
the thought that it might be Ranma made her think otherwise. She 
wouldn't mind seeing him again and she knew the others didn't also, "I 
guess I better tell Sylia and the others,"

  "That hurt!!!" Ranma yelled as he stepped out of the building "What'd 
you do that for?!"
  "Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga yelled as he struck his finger down on the 
sidewalk. A massive explosion occurred as the sidewalk shattered to 
pieces, the shrapnel flying everywhere. Even though most of the pieces 
were hitting him, Ryoga was totally unaffected by the explosion for he 
had grown accustomed to it completely. He had gotten a lot stronger over 
the years and he wanted to show Ranma what he was capable of.
  Ranma's arms flew at lightning speeds as he caught every rock that was 
intended to hit him. He remembered Ryoga using that technique on his man 
many years ago, and it was the same now as it was before. But this time, 
Ranma wasn't going to get tired for a long long time. He had, too, had 
gotten stronger over the years.
  "Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga shouted as his finger jabbed into the wall 
of the building Ranma was standing next to. The entire building exploded 
as all the debris fell down on Ranma. Ranma couldn't react in time as he 
was buried alive under the debris.
  Ryoga stood there for several moments, wondering if it was all over, 
that he had finally avenged Akane's death. He had swore to kill Ranma 
because Ranma hadn't been able to protect her from death when those 
machines lay waste to the entire town of Nerima. He had gone out on a 
training trip to develop his skills so he would someday come back and make 
Ranma suffer miserably.
  But as he stood there, not moving, he was hoping his revenge would had 
lasted longer. 
  At that moment, the rubble exploded upward as a huge hurricane sent in 
hurling to the heavens. All the rubble was gone as Ranma stood where the 
building had fallen on him, a massive blue aura forming around him. 
  "You're gonna pay for that!!!!" 

  "Goddamnit!!!" Madigan swore, "What the hell's going on?!"
  She was trying to see the battle on the screen but a cloud of dust had 
formed after the building was destroyed as if fell down over the 
superboomer. The visibility was next to none as she saw nothing but 
dust.
  The dust finally began to settle as she caught sight of Ryoga standing 
in front of a pile of rubble.
  That's it, she thought. That superboomer was defeated in a matter of 
seconds. But she wished she didn't think that way when she saw the 
rubble explode upward in a hurricane as she caught sight of a massive 
blue aura through the dust cloud as it settled again, preventing her 
from seeing anything again.
  "Shit!!"

  "Good, I was hoping you didn't die from something like that," Ryoga 
said with a grin, "I want you to suffer,"
  "You got lucky with that attack," Ranma said, his aura glowing 
brightly, "I wasn't expectin' you to use strategy in your fight," He 
cracked his knuckles, "I guess that's enough for our warm up. Let's 
fight!!!" 
  He got into his battle stance as Ryoga got into his. They were both 
regarding each other carefully, waiting for the other to make the next 
move. Ranma slowly started strafing out toward the middle of the street. 
He didn't want anymore buildings to be destroyed. The streets were now 
empty, all the cars having stopped about a hundred yards back in both 
direction, mostly because of the accidents that was caused from the 
distractions and destruction of seeing such power being produced.
  "Horizontal Wave Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" Ryoga shouted as he slammed an open 
palm down on the ground. What happened next caught Ranma by totally 
surprise. He was expecting to see the shrapnel of the explosion coming 
toward him, but that didn't happen. The ground Ryoga was standing on 
didn't explode. Instead, the ground below Ranma exploded.
  "What the-" Ranma managed to say right before he was consumed in the 
explosion. When the explosion abated, Ranma fell to one of his knees, a 
few cuts and bruises covering his arms from when he used them to protect 
himself. He began laughing as he slowly got to his feet, "I-Is that all 
you've got?!?!"
  Ryoga's aura flared brightly as Ranma continued to mock him.
  "I thought I was in trouble there for a second," he said, wiping the 
dust from his clothes. He smiled wryly at Ryoga, "But you have gotten 
stronger over the years, much stronger. I must give you that. You 
actually had me worried for a second. Now its my turn!!!"
  Ranma held one hand in front of him, palm toward the sky "Mouko 
Takabisha!!!" he said as a huge ball of energy formed, hovering just 
inches above his hand. While still holding the ball in one hand, Ranma 
placed his hand in front of him in the same fashion "Mouko Takabisha!!!" 
  Ryoga took a step back cautiously as he noticed Ranma smile.
  "Here's where it gets interesting," Ranma said with a smile as he threw both 
of his ki-blasts at once. Ryoga was caught watching in disbelief as both spheres 
of pure energy rocketed toward him at lightning speeds. Both of the blasts 
struck Ryoga in the chest, sending him flying into backwards a hundred yards, 
smashing into the abandoned cars down at one end of the street.
  Ryoga didn't move as Ranma walked up to him, stopping a dozen yards 
away. 
  Ryoga began laughing as he slowly got to his feet, "Man, that felt like a 
baby's kick!!! It didn't hurt one bit!!!"
  Before he had a chance to react, Ranma lunged forward, "Kashuu Tenshin 
Amaguriken!!!" He punched Ryoga well over a thousand times in the 
stomach. The impact of the punches sent him flying backwards another hundred 
feet, smashing into several cars in the process.
  Ryoga managed to recover in time to roll to his feet just as Ranma was 
about to land another thousand punches on him. He wiped a very tiny 
trickle of blood from his mouth.
  "So, Ranma, you think you can defeat me like you did over forty years 
ago?" Ryoga said with a smile, "I don't think so. I've learned a lot 
over the years, and that trick won't work on my again. That I promise 
you,"
  "Who says I'm trying? I'm not even using a fraction of my energy," 
Ranma replied with a smirk.
 
  Sylia and Priss and Linna hovered down on to a nearby roof as they saw 
how much destruction had taken place already. The streets and most of 
the buildings were destroyed.
  "God," Linna said, "This is horrible. Who would do something like 
that?"
  "That's who," Priss said pointing toward Ranma and Ryoga as they both 
stood in front of one another, slowly circling one another. None of them 
were attacking, both of them sizing each other up.
  "Who's he fighting?" Linna asked. 
  Sylia brought the scope of her rifle up to eye level and peered 
through it. Her gaze rested on a young looking man sporting a yellow and 
black headband. As she looked at him, she wondered if this was another 
prototype boomer or another human with powers akin to Ranma's. He looked 
human, but there was no telling for sure. As of right now, she considered him a 
boomer, "I can't really tell, but I think it's best we pick him off before he 
causes anymore damage,"
  She aimed her rifle toward the boomer's head.
  "Hey, what are you doin'?" Linna asked, placing her hand on Sylia's shoulder, 
"How do you know if he's a boomer? We can't just going around killing boomers 
unless we know for sure,"
  "I know, but look at all the damage he and Ranma are creating," she replied 
"It's best that we get rid of him before something really bad happens, like 
their battle spanning all the way down to the coliseum where many could get hurt 
or killed.
  She aimed her rifle.

  Ranma stopped for a second and said, "Hey, Ryoga, exactly why are we 
fighting?"
  "What do you think?!" he said viciously, his fangs showing, "Akane died 
because you couldn't protect her. You should have been the one that died, not 
her. I'm here to avenge her death!"
  He charged forward toward Ranma, his arm cocked back, ready to punch a hole 
through his face, "Now, prepare yourself!!!"
  "Wait a minute!" Ranma said, holding his hand in front on him, causing 
Ryoga to stop dead in his tracks.
  "What?!"
  "What about you?" Ranma said, "How come YOU couldn't protect her? YOU 
were there also. How come YOU couldn't stop her from gettin' killed, 
huh?"
  "I was a pig at that time!!" Ryoga said, his obvious resentment now beginning 
to show, "I couldn't do anything. It was your fault! You're the one who splashed 
me with cold water!!" Tears were now starting to flow from his eyes. He resented 
the fact that he couldn't do anything to save his beloved Akane, all because he 
was a pig at the time, all because of Ranma, "I would have saved her if I was in 
my human form!"
  "Are you sure about that?" 
  "Yes, I would have laid down my life for her!!!" Ryoga said.
  "And then what?" Ranma said "You AND Akane would have been killed. 
Dontcha get it? It wasn't any of our faults. We were caught unprepared. 
We never saw those missiles coming. Even though the two of us HAD to run 
away, there was nothing we could do. We, too, would have been killed if 
we stayed behind,"
  Ryoga was silent for several long moments. As much as he hated to 
believe it, Ranma was right. Both of them would had been killed. He 
wiped the tears from his eyes.
  "I'm glad we survived," Ranma said, "That way, we can avenge their 
deaths. None of them should have died, not Kasumi, not Nabiki, heck not 
even my father should have died, but they did. And they won't rest easy 
until we stop the killers that killed them,"
  "We're cowards!!!" Ryoga shouted, "We should have died along side 
them!!! It would have been the honorable thing to do, to die fighting 
rather than run away like cowards!!!" Ryoga's aura started growing as 
his sense of depression started to delve deeper than it ever had.
   "It's not our fault!" Ranma replied, "It's Genom's. They were the one 
that created those boomers, and they were the one that didn't do a thing 
to stop those boomers when they went berserk all over Nerima. They're the 
cause of all of this,"
  "Genom?" Ryoga said.
  "Yeah, Genom is the company that created those boomers that supposedly went 
berserk in Nerima," Ranma replied, "Even though they denied they had any 
involvement in them going berserk, I know, for a fact that they sent those 
boomers to Nerima, using it as a testing ground,"
  Ryoga said nothing. He remembered catching sight of several boomers 
right before one of the missiles struck the Tendo's home. He had been 
knocked unconscious and had trouble remembering anything else after 
that. All that he knew was Akane was dead, and someone was going to pay. 
And if it was going to be Genom, then so be it.
  "That's Genom tower," Ranma said, pointing up toward the thousand 
meter high tower that loomed high above the clouds several miles away 
from where they were. Even from the coastline of Japan, Genom tower 
could be seen easily.
  "If that's the tower, then way aren't you attacking it?!" Ryoga 
sneered, "Why dontcha just walk up to the front door and destroy the 
entire blasted thing?!"
  "I can't!" he replied. He really wanted to but he knew that if he did, 
the entire world would plunge into financial chaos. And not only that. 
Hundreds of innocent people that lived near the site of the blast would 
be killed. And for what, some lousy revenge, "I can't do that,"
  "Then I will," Ryoga said, turning toward the looming tower. He 
brought both hands in front of his body, angled toward the center of 
Genom Tower. He intended to collapse the building in a single blast. His 
aura grew bright red as he gathered all the depression he had from the 
years of living without his beloved Akane. 
  "No!!!!" Ranma yelled. But it was too late.
  "Shi Shi Hakodan!!!"
  Ranma, knowing that the blast would kill hundreds, jumped in front of 
Ryoga as the ki-blast was shot from his extended hands. The blast that 
hit Ranma was so powerful that a huge ring of fire extended from the 
impact, like a ripple in a pond, causing both him and Ryoga to be 
consumed. The fire consumed everything in its path.
  The impact of the blast had been so powerful that every glass window 
within a city block away shatter from the vibrations. The buildings that 
stood nearby where the explosion was crumbling to the ground from the 
violent shaking, as if an earthquake was taking place. Sylia, Priss, and 
Linna were all knocked off their feet as they watched the ripple of 
flames expanded away from him. 
  Sylia was forced to drop her sniper rifle in order to avoid the 
destructive blast. She and Linna and Priss used their boosters to hover 
backwards to a safe distance. But it was too late as the blast struck 
the building they were on, causing it to collapse. The three girls were 
buried under the pile of rubble.
  Both Ranma and Ryoga stood at the center of the explosion, both of 
them practically charcoalled black from the flames the ki-blast had 
produced. The ground surrounding them was also scorched, all except for 
the ground directly behind both Ranma and Ryoga.
  Ranma and Ryoga were both looking at each other, both of them deathly 
silent. Long moments passed, neither of them saying a word.
  Ranma then keeled forward and fell to his knees in front of Ryoga, 
blood flowing from his lips, creating a small puddle of red by his 
knees. 
  He fell forward onto his hands, "T-that h-hurt y'know," he managed 
to say, blood still trickling from his mouth. He clenched his teeth as 
surges of pain consumed every inch of his body. He noticed the hands on 
the ground becoming blurry as his vision started to fail him. He was 
just moments from unconsciousness.
  Ryoga looked down at Ranma, noticing the puddle of blood forming 
around his feet. He clenched teeth  from the pain surging through him. 
He shuddered, wondering how much worse it could had been if he had 
actually used one of his more powerful ki-attack. If he had used that, 
they would had wiped out more than half of MegaTokyo.
  Ryoga was looking at Ranma in absolute disbelief. But soon, the sight 
of Ranma started to blur for Ryoga. He, too, keeled over, blood gushing 
from his lips. The blast had been too much for the both of them. The 
pain was excruciating, too much for any human to endure. His brain was 
trying to avoid the pain as his body tried to shut itself down by going 
into the deep slumber of unconsciousness.
  Ranma and Ryoga lay in a pool of their own blood, both of them unmoving.
  "Y-you're right, R-Ranma. T-that did hurt," Ryoga said weakly, right 
before passing out

  Madigan and Carper were staring at them in disbelief.
  "W-what the hell was that?!" the woman said. She had seen the 
explosion clearly from the safety of Carper's office, but what scared 
the hell out of here was that she felt the entire building shake from 
it. The building had been several miles away from the explosion, yet she 
felt it. And it disturbed her terribly. She wondered how powerful that 
blast must had been if it was capable of shaking a building from that 
distance. 
  Carper glanced out the window of his office. He looked down at the 
horizon, noticing the ripple of fire spreading outward away from the 
site of the explosion. The ripple of flames seemed to be the size of an 
entire city block before it abated. Even from several miles away, he 
could see the destruction it had caused quite easily.
  The smoke on the screen cleared up, revealing a good view of two 
individuals facing one another. From an explosion like that, she was 
expecting to see the remains of what was left of the superboomer and 
that human. That was why she was shocked to see both that human and 
superboomer still standing, the only visible sign of damage among them 
being some darkly scorched clothes.
  "What the fuck?!" she cursed unlady-like. There were no words to 
describe her shock. She had never seen something like this before 
"They're both standing!!!"
  Carper walked away from the window and looked at the screen again. He 
didn't know what to say. He felt a sense of fear that humans were 
capable of evoking such power, but he also felt awe from the thought 
that the same human could survive a blast like that. And not only that, 
but the superboomer survived that also.
  "Hey, look at that," Carper said, pointing toward the screen. He noticed the 
superboomer falling to its knees, its limbs seemingly no longer functioning. 
  Madigan and Carper both noticed the superboomer cough up some blood 
before it ceased its functioning. The two of them both gasped in relief 
as they realized that they no longer had to worry about it anymore, that 
it can no longer interfere with Genom's affairs. 
  Madigan felt this sense of accomplishment at a job well done, even though she 
and Carper had nothing to do with getting that Ryoga Hibiki person to fight that 
superboomer. Even though the sense of accomplishment did feel good, she felt a 
bit disappointed. Someone like Ryoga Hibiki working for Genom would do the 
company proud. It was too bad he was consumed in the blast. But then again, if 
his death meant the destruction of that superboomer, it was worth it.
  Madigan laughed, glad that the situation with that superboomer had 
finally been resolved.

  "Well, judging from the fingerprints, it turns out that he is human, just like 
Ranma," Nene told the other three girls and Mackie over her communicator. She 
was at AD Police Headquarters, having stayed late after finding out that AD 
Police had responded to that explosion and found two people unconscious in the 
middle of the street. Her department thought that they had been an innocent 
bystander to that explosion and had taken them to the closest hospital for some 
medical treatment. It was now several hours since that battle between Ranma and 
Ryoga.
  "The person's identified as a Ryoga Hibiki. Place of residence is unknown. 
From what I could dig up on his background in such a short notice, I found out 
that he and Ranma used to go to school together. I assume they were fighting 
each other because of some rivalry between the two of them or perhaps they were 
enemies,"
  "What have you found on the person named Akane, Kasumi, and Nabiki?" Sylia 
spoke into the computer. She and Priss and Linna and Mackie were all sitting in 
front of the computer screen in Sylia's penthouse. Sylia and the others had been 
lucky that Mackie managed to find them before anyone else could. They had gotten 
back shortly after having been buried alive under all that rubble. Sylia 
remembered hearing the conversation between Ryoga and Ranma. She remembered 
hearing those names, and it might prove to be useful in finding out who Ryoga 
really was.
  Nene smiled. It had taken her quite a lot of effort to search through 
all those lists of people either named Kasumi, Nabiki, or Akane, but she 
hit the jackpot when she found three people that shared the same 
familyname ,"I found three of people of that same name, and the same 
family name. Their familyname was Tendo, and they resided in Nerima. I 
think they were the family Ranma was talking about that died during the 
'Nerima Massacre',"
  "What about Ryoga Hibiki?" Linna said, now speaking toward the computer screen 
"What else have you found out about him?"
  "Not much," Nene's voice echoed into the livingroom, "Most of the data based 
on him is unknown. Aside from some minor identifications like his name and date 
of birth, there's not much else I can find on him. He's a mystery as of right 
now. The only thing I can think of is that Ranma and Ryoga are enemies. It's 
either that or Genom somehow found a way to hire or manipulate him into fighting 
Ranma. I think it's the former. I think Ryoga liked this Akane person, and seems 
to have some great resentment toward Ranma because Ranma couldn't protect her"
  "I think that sounds romantic, avenging the death of a person you love," Linna 
said, sighing. Why couldn't she meet someone like that?
  "Now's not the time to be thinking about something like that, Linna," Sylia 
said, "We have to find out more about Ryoga. We can't just second guess this 
situation," She turned her attention away from Linna and then back onto the 
computer screen, "Nene, where were they taken, what hospital?"
  "Both were taken to Mizunkan Hospital," Nene said "Why?"
  "Well, I think we should pay them both a visit, so we could find out 
what's going on here," she replied "What rooms are they in?"
  "Hold on one second," Nene said. The sound of her typing quickly on 
her keyboard could be heard.
  "I don't understand," Linna said to Sylia "Why are we going through 
all this trouble to find out who this person is?"
  "Yeah," Priss added "It's really none of our business,"
  "I know that battle between Ranma and this Ryoga person is really none 
of our business," Sylia replied, "but imagine what might happen if their battle 
happened to make its way down to the coliseum. Many could be killed,"
  That seemed to make Priss keep quiet. Sylia was right. 
  Nene's shocked voice echoed into the room 
  "Oh my god!!! They're sharing the same room!!!"
  
  Ranma opened his eyes slowly, not really knowing where he was. He quickly 
realized that he was lying in a bed as he sat upright and surveyed his 
surroundings. The room was in was filled with advanced medical equipment, most 
of the wires from them attached to his body, as if they were there to observe 
his condition. He noticed Ryoga lying in a bed on the other side of the tiny 
room. 
  "Yo, Ryoga," Ranma said, wincing a bit from the pain that shot through 
him, "You all right?"
  Ryoga slowly open his eyes, facing the direction the voice came from. 
When his eyes rested on Ranma, he quickly sat uptight, only to be seized 
by a spasm of pain. Ryoga sat still, waiting for the pain to subside, 
allowing Ryoga to survey the tiny room.
  "W-where are we?" he said, looking down at himself and noticing that 
there were bandages wrapped around his chest. He took a deep breath and 
felt a bit of pain, realizing that he must have a few bruised ribs. 
  "I don't know," Ranma said, looking around. He slowly flipped his legs 
around the edge of the bed, the wires attached to his body being pulled 
taut, as he hopped off. A bolt of pain shot through him "Man, that 
hurts....,"
  Ranma quickly sat back down on the bed and laid back down, not wanting 
to really move. He needed some rest, that was all. His body would heal 
in no time. But then again, if he wanted to heal even quicker, he could 
do something else....
  Ryoga chuckled a bit but the spasm of pain caused him to think 
otherwise.
   "Man, what happened?" he said. He looked at his hands and arms 
and noticed that they seemed a bit red, like he had suffered from an 
extreme sunburn. Upon seeing that, he remembered what had happened. He 
remembered seeing Ranma jump in front of his hands as one of his ki-
blasts shot from his hands.
  Ryoga opened his mouth to give Ranma a piece of his mind for doing 
something like that, but he stopped when he realized there must had been 
a good reason. The both of them could had been killed. Surely, Ranma 
wouldn't do something that stupid. Not unless there was a good reason, "I hope 
you have a good reason for what you did,"
  "Yeah, I did," Ranma said, looking up at the ceiling.
  "Well, I'm waiting for an explanation,"
  "Man, I figured over the years, you would at least've learned to think before 
you do something that stupid," Ranma started.
  "What did you say?!" Ryoga spat, sitting upright, ready to pummel 
Ranma for a comment like that. Even though they were sharing the same 
room, it didn't mean he needed to put up with stuff like this. He was 
about to get up out of bed but stopped when the fit of pain jolted 
through him. He realized it was best to just take a rest. He'd pummel 
Ranma later, after he healed.
  "Do you once think about what would had happened if that blast hit the 
building?" Ranma said.
  "Yeah, it would've caused some major damage to it," Ryoga said, 
"What's your point?"
  "It would have also killed the hundreds of people that lived around 
that building from the falling debris," Ranma answered, "I'm pretty sure 
you don't want to do something like that,"
  Ryoga was silent for a moment. Ranma was definitely right. Many would 
had died if that blast had struck the building. And that was something 
he didn't want to live with. He wasn't a murderer. Well, perhaps he 
would kill Ranma for letting Akane die, but he would never take the 
lives of innocent people.
  When Ranma realized that Ryoga was silent, he shook his head "Ah 
what's the use of explaining it. You're too pig-headed to understand 
something like that. Right, P-chan?"
  "Stop calling me P-chan!!!" 

  Nene's heart was racing as she sped down the highway on her scooter. 
She had never pushed her scooter to go this fast before. Sure, Priss 
went this fast on a regular basis, but Nene wasn't used to this. The 
engine of her scooter sounded like it was going to explode from being 
constantly redlined.
  She swore to herself, wishing AD Police Headquarters wasn't so close 
to the hospital both Ranma and Ryoga were staying. Since it was so 
close, she had to be the one to get over there and have the two of them 
separated so there were no chance of them fighting each other again. Yeah 
right. Like she would be of any use.
  Nene saw the giant hospital off in the distance as she got closer and 
closer. She was only a mile away from it now. She'd be there in less 
than a minute at the speed she was going.
  Nene almost fell off her bike going at such a high speed when a huge 
blast exploded on the east side of the hospital, the side Ranma and 
Ryoga's room were. Her heart dropped as she realized that Ranma and 
Ryoga must had already awaken.
  She quickly slowed down to a stop, wondering if she should continue 
on. Would she be of any use to stopping the fighting between the both of 
them? Most likely not. What could she do?
  Nene decided it was best she avoid the situation. She jerk the handle 
bars toward one direction as the back wheel of her scooter spun. She was 
going to get out of there as fast as possible.
  A huge explosion occurred some distance away from her, but the impact was so 
great she was thrown off her scooter. Nene frightfully looked back in the 
direction of the hospital and noticed that the explosions were getting closer. 
The first explosion had occurred at the hospital. The second one had occurred a 
about a few hundred feet away, in her direction.
  "I told you to stop calling me P-chan!!!" Ryoga said as he ran down 
the street, closely behind Ranma's trail. He sent a massive ki-blast 
toward Ranma, intent on hitting him directing in his back, but Ranma 
skillfully dodged it.
  Ranma began taking great leaps backwards as he stuck out his tongue 
"What's up, P-chan, can't take a joke?! Look at you. Your aim's lousy. I 
betcha you couldn't even hit the ground!" He took those words back when 
a ki-blast missed hitting him directly in the face by inches. His hair 
was singed from the extreme heat as it whizzed by his head.
  "How dare you say something like that?!" Ryoga said, his aura glowing. 
He leaped high into the air and landed on the roof of one of the 
buildings. From his vantage point, he would have an easier shot. Ranma 
also lest up onto a roof.
  When Ranma noticed Ryoga's growing aura, he realized that there might 
still be people around, even if it was late, "Hey, Ryoga, lighten up. I 
was only kidding. You're going to get someone killed if you keep this 
up,"
  Anger had prevented Ryoga from hearing as he let loose another ki-
blast, intent on toppling the entire building Ranma stood upon.
  "Shi Shi Hakodan!!!" Ryoga shouted.
  Ranma lest into the air, landing safely several hundred feet away, 
as the building he once stood on crumpled to the ground in a fiery mess 
"Hey, Ryoga, stop it already. Enough's enough. You're going to hurt 
someone!" 
  He lest away another several hundred feet as that building was destroyed.
  Nene's heart almost stopped when she caught sight of two shadowy figures 
leaping from rooftop to rooftop, the few buildings being destroyed in the 
process as they were coming directly toward her. She tried to get on her scooter 
again, but the shockwaves of the explosions kept knocking her off.
  Ranma caught sight of Nene out of the corner of his eye just as the 
building behind him exploded. While he was soaring through the air from 
one of his bounds, he realized that the falling debris would bury Nene.
  "Eek!!!" Ranma heard Nene say, just as he landed against one of the 
walls of another building and kicked away from it, using it to recoil 
down toward Nene. He landed quickly and let loose one of his own ki-
blasts.
  "Hiryu Shoten Ha!!!" he said as he sent a hurricane spiraling from his fist, 
up toward the heavens. The falling debris was absorbed into the blast and sent 
flying in different directions, all of them away from Nene. Unfortunately, Ranma 
had forgotten that Nene would also be brought up in his blast.
  Ryoga had caught sight of Nene just as Ranma landed on the ground 
right near her. He quickly realized what Ranma was trying to save her 
with his hurricane blast but noticed Nene was taken up along with the 
falling debris. Already having forgotten his anger toward Ranma, Ryoga 
lest through the air and caught Nene in mid-flight, twisting in mid-air 
so his back would absorb the impact of the debris. Once the ki-blast 
subsided, Ryoga found himself falling down toward the terra firma. He 
reacted easily by twisting once again in mid-air and landing softly on 
his feet, Nene safely in his arms.
  Ranma gave Ryoga a quick look. It was about time they finally stopped their 
bickering. Their fighting could have gotten Nene killed. And it would had been 
over something so petty as teasing. They had to stop going on like this. They 
had to stop fighting.
  "Truce?" Ranma asked "No more fighting?"
  "No more fighting,"
  
  Nene awoke shortly after having passed out from such a terrifying 
experience. She was shocked when she realized she was flying through the 
air. She immediately looked down and noticed that she must had been 
several hundred feet above the ground, the ground traveling passed below 
her at intense speeds. Her first reaction was to scream, but something 
stopped her. She felt someone's arms wrapped around her, holding her 
gently.
  She looked up and noticed that she was in Ranma's arms as he continued 
to jump from building rooftop to rooftop, jumping from one building to 
the next in a single bound. Immediately, her heart lest into her throat. And it 
wasn't the fact that she was flying through the air hundreds of feet above the 
ground that was causing it.
  "You're awake," Ranma said softly, taking a second to regard the now 
conscious Nene. Before Nene could say anythin