johnbil@wam.umd.edu (John Walter Biles)


(The film begins.  It is a late night in Mega-Tokyo.  We see a red haired  
woman, Nene Romanova, coming out of a theatre with Leon, one of her fellow  
ADPolice officers.  They are both nicely dressed.  On the marquee, we can  
see "One Night Only:  Experience the magic of Roberta Tome and Michael  
Meese!"  Leon has an arm around Nene's shoulder.  Nene looks over at the  
arm for a moment as Leon rattles on about something, deciding it isn't  
worth the effort of getting him to remove it.)

Leon:  Now, aren't you glad I dragged you off to this?  I think it was  
much more fun than wherever you're always running off to.

Nene:  (smiles)  I'm glad I went.  That act was really amazing.  They may  
be getting old, but their act is still as good as when I was little.

Leon:  You've seen them before?

Nene:  They don't perform much anymore, but they came to my school when I  
was eight.  They were incredible.  The only trick I remember them using  
both this time and that was the one where Roberta turns Michael into a  
duck.  

Leon:  That was pretty amazing.  The duck even had a little bow tie and  
glasses.

Nene:  (giggles)  I remember he flew around the auditorium at my school,  
then laid an egg on someone's hat.  I never did figure out where that egg  
could have been hidden on the duck.

Leon:  Maybe they use a female duck and it...

Nene:  (begins laughing)  Yeah, right.  I don't think you could train a  
duck to lay eggs on people's heads for real.  

(They are now passing an alleyway.  We hear the sound of some sort of  
impact, as if something had fallen--probably a person.  Nene and Leon hear  
it also.  They turn to face the alley.)

Leon:  Hey, somebody in there?

(We hear the sounds of a scuffle.  Nene gets a pistol out of her purse,  
and Leon pulls one out of his suit.)

Leon:  Stay back.  Let me handle this.  

Nene:  Hey, I'm a ...Hmph.  (She is obviously annoyed, but waits as Leon  
enters the alley.  We hear a brief patter of feet and the alley is silent.   
Leon moves deeper into the alley.  There are three unconscious men lying  
there.  All have guns, and now swelling bruises on their foreheads.  One  
has his hands near his neck as if he was trying to avoid being strangled.   
Leon quickly checks them for ID.  All three have Genom security passes and  
drivers licenses.)

Leon:  Hmm.  Someone doesn't like Genom, I guess.  But why were they armed  
and wandering around here?  They haven't been robbed.  (For a moment, we  
see a woman hidden in the darkness on top of a nearby dumpster.  She  
springs to a rooftop and leaves.  She is wearing something form-fitting,  
and has a waist-length ponytail.  Her body outline makes her look a bit  
old to be springing about in as agile a manner as she is, but she is still  
pretty slender)

Leon:  Hey, Nene!  Come over here.  (Leon has just found a disk that one  
of them is carrying.)

(Nene comes over and looks at the disk.  It is plain and black with no  
label)

Nene:  Hmm.  Looks like maybe they were acting as couriers.  We must have  
scared off whoever it was.  We'd better call for some medical help for  
these guys.  

Leon:  There's a phone just outside the alley.  I'll be back in just a  
second.  If any of them start to wake up, tell them help is coming.  And  
that guy (points to one)  Had the disk.  

Nene:  right.  (Leon leaves.  She pulls out an identical looking disk from  
her purse and a small widget.  She pops both disks into the widget and  
hits a button, keeping an eye on the three guys.  The machine pings a few  
seconds later, and she takes out the Genom guy's disk and puts it back in  
his pocket.  Then someone taps her on the shoulder.  She spins around.  It  
is a woman with hair that was once red, but is now turning gray, and is  
now bound up in a bun on her head.  She has blue eyes, a full figure, and  
looks younger than her real age.  She is wearing a tuxedo dress (Tuxedo  
like top with a black wide skirt to below the knees.)  

Nene:  Roberta Tome?  What are you doing here?

Roberta:  Do you believe in magic, Nene Romanova?

Nene:  How...how did you know my name?  (She looks a little scared)

Roberta:  (smiles)  A magician never tells her secrets, and neither do  
you, I think.

Nene:  I..uh...I don't have any secrets.

Roberta:  Not as many as your friends, but then you are the sweet and  
innocent one.

Nene:  (Sweating a little)  I..er...

Roberta:  The king, the queen, the knight, and the page of swords.  Do you  
know anything about the tarot?

Nene:  No.  I...

Roberta:  I suggest you learn before you draw the Tower.  Do you believe  
in Magic, Ms. Romanova?

Nene:  Um...I wish I could...but I've never seen any real magic.  It's  
nothing but stagecraft and tricks.  Science says that magic is impossible.

Roberta:  Science also brought us nuclear weapons, nerve gas, and  
rampaging boomers.  Better living through science with Genom corporation.   
There is more to life than science.  If you had a chance to experience  
magic, would you take it, Nene Romanova?

Nene:  (Thought)  What is taking Leon so long?  (Said)  I...well...If it  
was real, I think I would.

Roberta:  Your chance is coming soon.  Welcome to a different world.  Time  
for me to leave.  (She pulls out something from her pocket and hurls it to  
the ground.  There is a flash of light and a large billowing cloud of  
smoke.  Nene coughs.  When the smoke clears, Roberta is gone, and Leon is  
coming back into the alleyway.)

Leon:  Medical help is on the way.

Nene:  Did you see that?

Leon:  See what?

Nene:  Roberta Tome was here!

Leon:  She was?

Nene:  She must have come right past you to get in here!

Leon:  Well, I didn't see her.

(A single red hair drifts down unseen by them from above.  It floats  
gently down, then a breeze catches it.  We follow the hair as it floats  
away in the breeze, finally blowing into a club a few blocks away and  
settling to the floor.  The Club is titled, "Floating Heaven".  A sign  
says "Tonight at 9: BAD HAIR DAY".  Inside, the club is rocking to the  
beat of a band of a black haired caucasian teenager on drums, two asian  
women on guitar, a big brown haired guy who looks like a sumo wrestler and  
is wearing a "Priss and the Replicants Hurricane Tonight Tour" t-shirt.   
The lead singer is a tall male asian with green tinted John Lennon glasses  
and blue hair that comes down a little past his shoulders.  His hair has  
black and yellow streaks also.  He bears a fair resemblance to Mousse,  
except his glasses and hair color are wrong and he looks a little more  
muscular. He looks to be about 25 or so. He is busily bellowing out a song  
called "Nair in my Shampoo".)

Lead singer:  Shampoo, put Nair in my Shampoo!  (Guitar cranks out an  
elaborate riff) (He is singing in an angry manner) She won't marry me  
cause I can't see, so I put Nair in her Shampoo!  (back to a normal voice)   
That's how I threw away my Shampoo.  (Steps away from the mike and tosses  
a bottle of shampoo labeled 011 into the crowd.)

(The crowd goes wild.   The lead singer steps up to the mike.)

Lead Singer:  I haven't sung that one in years, but it was by special  
request from my good friend Priscilla S. Asagiri!  Come on up, Priss.  (He  
points into the crowd, at the wrong person.  In fact at an empty table.   
Priss is actually at an adjacent table.  The crowd laughs, but Priss comes  
up anyway.  She is wearing her motorcycle riding outfit.  She comes up,  
taps the Lead Singer on the shoulder, then ducks.  He turns and talks to  
empty air.)

Lead Singer:  Priss, hey, where'd you go?  (turns to his mike)  That you,  
Priss?

(Priss laughs, and steps out into plain sight, grabs the Lead Singer, and  
turns him to her.)

Priss:  They don't call you "Blind as a Bat" for nothing.  (everyone  
laughs, including the audience and "Blind as a Bat" himself.  )

"Blind as a Bat":  They don't call me Weapon Master for nothing, either.   
(He spins and dozens of knives, shuriken, sais, etc. come out from his  
robes, sticking into things all over the place, but not hitting anyone.    
The crowd applauds.  The bartender looks nervous.)

"BaaB" Weapon Master:  Well, my good friend Priss agreed to do a little  
song with us tonight, so here it is.  

(He hands Priss the mike, and whips out a guitar from somewhere in his  
multi-colored robes.  She launches into Asu E Touchdown. )

Priss:

          You're not the only one who's lonely.
          Try sitting on the crescent moon.
          The dreams we had as children
          Are still bright, like shining stars.

          Ride on, and never give up,
          No matter how sad or difficult things become.


( The scene cuts to a clock in a bedroom somewhere.  It reads 1 AM.  We  
see a dark haired man with a pony-tail sleeping in a bed with a brown  
haired woman.  He has stolen all the covers.  A little black pig's head  
can be seen curled up on the covers at the foot of the bed. Every so often  
one of his feet strikes the pig as he moves in his sleep. It wakes and  
starts watching the moving foot.  The brown haired woman is thrashing  
about as she sleeps, occasionally striking him.  Eventually, she wakes up  
and sits up.  We can now see that it is Akane.  She shakes the man, while  
the pig bites his ankles, and he finally groggily opens his eyes.  It is  
Ranma.  He looks up at her)   

Ranma:  Fugrkdfjjsdf  sdoda?

Akane:  (frantic)  Oh, Ranma!  I had that awful dream about dying in that  
earthquake again!  (starts to cry)  It was so real.  (Ranma tries to reach  
over to comfort her, misses, falls on top of her and they both fall out of  
the bed.  Both are wearing satiny pajamas...Ranma is wearing red, Akane is  
wearing blue.  We see the pig, which is wearing a red and black bandana  
around its neck, fall out of the covers and run into the corner.)  

Ranma:  Iasdfkd  alfjowie sorry (he gets the sheet out of his mouth.  He  
and Akane are lying tangled up in the covers on the floor now.  They both  
look like they are in their mid twenties now.  Ranma is a little more  
muscular, and Akane also.  Ranma has the same hair style, but Akane has  
let her hair grow out to the style it was in when she first met Ranma.  We  
can see a picture of Ranma and Akane in wedding garb with Nodoka, Genma,  
and Soun all smiling in the background up on the bedstand.  The little pig  
scampers up and hides behind the picture.)

Akane:  (Now hugging Ranma and vice versa)  It was just like the last  
time.  We were trying to rescue Mr. Kunou from the rubble when the High  
School got hit and caught on fire.  He was pinned by a girder when he went  
in trying to save some of the students.  And then Kodachi was squashed by  
a giant flaming palm tree that fell on her, and the roof fell on me.  And  
I died.  I could hear Ryouga screaming.    It was awful.  

Ranma:  You're safe now...where was I?

Akane:  I don't know.  I...don't think you were there.  I think you were  
doing something else.  Something important...

Ranma:  Well, the dream is over now.  We're both alive and here together.

Akane:  (Smiles a little)  I'm so glad you're alive, and I'm alive, and my  
little P-chan the 8th is alive.

Ranma:  (scowls a little)  Where is that pig anyway?  He bit me to wake me  
up.

Akane:  Oh, and my first P-chan was in the dream too.

Ranma:  He was?  

Akane:  He should have been dead by the time the Earthquake happened, but  
I remember in the dream that I had seen him or something...just before we  
went to the school.  He was in the bathtub at my house...I think.

Ranma:  Did I stay behind at the house in your dream?

Akane:  I...don't know.  It's all a blur...

(The camera cuts back to a monitor.  We see someone who is sitting in a  
chair  with his back to us, holding a remote control. We can only see his  
arm and a little bit of greying black hair sticking out. He punches the  
stop button and the monitor goes black.  Another man wearing a blue  
uniform with a red insignia on the shoulder of eight arrows radiating out  
from a center point is standing next to him)

Insignia man:  It looks like your theory may be correct, Director.

Director: (definitely male voice.  sounds a little old)   I'm surprised it  
has taken this long.  Mrs. Habayashi has been dead since the 2025 quake.   
It is now 2033.  If this was going to happen, it should have happened  
immediately.  Still, we didn't have the resources to monitor them full  
time until recently.  I may be missing something.

Insignia man:  How was the show last night?

Director:  Good.  Good.  It went well. The only question is whether all of  
our preparations will be ready before our pawn unleashes his "master  
plan."

Insignia man:  Given his reputation, it seems to have been rather well  
worked out.  Even without our intervention, the forecasters say it had at  
least a fifty percent chance of working to at least some extent.

Director:  Well, we have been nudging him towards it for a long time.  We  
just have to make sure it works properly.  We don't need another disaster  
like that Largo affair.  

Insignia man:  Years of effort to bring about the needed crisis down the  
drain because Largo proved to be more independent than we thought.  Our  
opponents must be laughing.  

Director:  Any other news? 

Insignia man:  A potential complication for the latest plan has arisen.   
Mrs. Kurenai is taking her husband to Kuonji Okonomiyaki shop # 1 as we  
speak.

Director:  Blast it!  Couldn't you stop her?

Insignia man:  I'm surprised he hasn't noticed in all these years about...

Director:  I thought she had more sense than that.  (sighs)  I can  
understand she couldn't stand to lie to him anymore...My wife still  
regrets keeping up that act with her brother all those years...If the  
Incident hadn't happened, I would never have understood her.

Insignia man:  If the Incident hadn't happened, we'd have lost a long time  
ago because none of you would have joined us.  And cold, stark utilitarian  
reason would rule over all...All for business, and business as all in all.

Director:  If we don't win this one, it may rule anyway.  MegaTokyo and  
this whole planet have suffered enough.  We have to succeed.
 
(Cut to opening Credit sequence for :


RanmaPunk2033--The Movie
>From the Mind of John Walter Biles, writer of Ranma 1/2--Putting Your  
Heart in the Right Place

Drawing upon the universes of Ranma 1/2 by Takahashi Rumiko and BubbleGum  
Crisis, by Sonada Keichi and others.

Producer:  J. W. Anthony Biles
Director:  John  W. Biles
Script by:  John Walter Biles
Animation by:  JWB Productions
Distributed by:  Giant Wombat Studios
Filmed on location in scenic MegaTokyo and Los Angeles
Housing provided by Genom Corporation and Maison Ikkoku Enterprises
Funding by:  The State of Maryland, the National Endowment for the Arts,  
and the Mega-Tokyo Tourist Bureau
Plant Training by Gumby Flower Arrangements
Giant Monster Plants provided by the Kunou Corporation
Wild Wombat Training by Pepe's Wild Kingdom
Prayer/ Scripture Papers provided by Mahayana "Pure Kingdom"  Buddhist  
Temple # 442.
Special thanks to the Knight Sabers, the ADPolice, TN corporation, the  
Jyusenkyo National Park Administration, the Magnificent Seven, Genom  
Corporation, Kuonji Okonomiyaki Shop, Inc., and Nekohanten INC. for their  
appearances in this film.


              HATENAI TABI -- HAJIMARI NO TOKI
                    (UNENDING JOURNEY -- TIME OF BEGINNING)

          People all hold more love and dreams
          Than they can hold with both hands,
          And paint those dreams for tomorrow,
          While entrusting the future
          To a new-falling star.

          If you go step by step
          On your own two legs, without stopping,
          Before everything your arms touch
          Transforms into phantasms,
          You can approach those dreams.

          Now! begins the unending dream,
          When you search for yourself,
          Sleeping in the depths of your heart.
          Now! begins the unending journey.
          Fix your sights on a faraway sky.



(The opening shot is a bridge on the highways of MegaTokyo.  Traffic is  
racing along at high speed at night.  We see a familiar motorcycle and  
rider.  A red haired cyclist is wending her way through traffic, pushing  
her motorcycle as hard as it goes.  She glances in her left mirror.  There  
is a bicyclist gaining on her.  A purple haired chinese girl wearing blue  
traditional Chinese garb and holding a box up in the air with one hand is  
somehow moving fast enough to pass cars.  She looks to be in her early  
twenties.  She blazes by the red-haired cyclist and keeps on going.  The  
cyclist just stares at her as she goes by.  A little later, we see Leon  
and Daley driving down the highway in their patrol car.  Leon sees the  
chinese girl in the rearview mirror.)

Leon:  Is that a person on a bicycle behind us?

(Daley looks back.  The chinese girl is gone.)

Daley:  I don't see any....(Suddenly the chinese girl is landing on the  
roof of their car, pedalling down the hood and jumps off the front,  
zooming ahead.  She doesn't drop the box.)  What the hell was that?

Leon:  It has to be a boomer.  No human could pedal like that.

Daley:  If we call for backup, they're going to laugh at us.

Leon:  Let's follow her for a little while and see what she's up to. Then  
we can call in.

(They speed up and give chase.  She seems oblivious to being followed.   
The chase leads out onto a covered traffic bridge.  Suddenly, the purple  
haired chinese girl turns and aims her bike straight for the side wall,  
right where the bridge crosses over another major highway.)

Daley:  The Boomer's flipped!

Leon:  We're going to have a major wreck, here.

(She jumps the bike over the edge.  As it goes, a tall dark-haired man  
wearing glasses and a long embroidered robe leaps from the roof of the  
covered bridge onto the bike's back, landing and balancing on the back  
basket.  They plummet out of sight together.  Leon and Daley pull over as  
fast as they can, Leon gets out, and looks over the edge.  Daley calls  
HQ.)

Daley:  We've got a crazed boomer on a bicycle that...yes on a bike, you  
idiots.  It just jumped off Highway 22 onto 86!  We're going to need...

Leon:  Maybe not.  Take a look.  (Daley stretches the CB mike cord and  
goes over to look down.  They see the Chinese girl and her companion  
calmly zipping through traffic on 86.  They appear unhurt).

Daley:  Just be on the lookout for a boomer that resembles a chinese girl  
carrying a box and riding a bicycle...will you stop laughing at me!  This  
is serious.

Leon:  I smell trouble.  Why would a boomer ride a bicycle?

(The scene cuts to the base of the Knight sabers.  We see now that the  
red-helmeted motorcyclist was indeed Priss, as she walks in with her  
helmet still on, then takes it off.  Linna, Celia, Nene(Still in her  
ADPolice uniform) and Mackie are all here.  Celia has set up a projector  
and screen.  Nene is munching on lemon drops, and reading stuff off the  
screen of some sort of tiny disk reader.  Mackie is just sitting back and  
watching everyone.  Linna is reading the May issue of Fitness Today.   
Priss looks vaguely annoyed.)

Priss:  Well?

Celia:  We have several nights work ahead of us.  I have acquired a  
contract for the retrieval of data stolen from Yamaguchi-Microsoft  
Corporation.  The data contains several new unreleased programs which they  
are not eager to see go on the market under someone else's name.  Given  
the use of boomers and their rivalry with Genom, we would normally suspect  
it was behind this, but the culprits appear to be Souchiro Enterprises, a  
relatively minor independent programming corporation.  Something strange  
is afoot here.

Nene:  Sounds like someone may be using Souchiro as a front.

Celia:  I suspected this.  The situation is even more complicated.   
Apparently, the Mendo-Mizonokouji Conglomerate is claiming Y-M stole the  
data from them and is sending another mercenary team, the Magnificent  
Seven to recover the data.

Linna:  I thought the Magnificent Seven was a cowboy movie.  (puts down  
her magazine)

Priss:  They're a bunch of crazy martial artists who beat each other up  
more than their enemies from what I've heard.

Nene:  I've heard some weird stories about them.

Mackie:  Like what?

Nene:  Trained Pandas shrugging off bullets, a woman who uses spatulas as  
weapons.  They're mostly teenagers, all sorts of crazy stuff.  I do know  
that they have successfully defeated at least five boomers without ever  
using a gun.

Priss:  That's impossible.  No one can fight a boomer without really  
powerful weaponry.  Even a cooking boomer could easily kill anyone in  
unarmed combat.

Nene:  They brought in a boomer with a spatula through one eye, his left  
arm ripped off, and an umbrella stuck through its torso.

Mackie:  Are you sure that wasn't on April Fools' Day?

Celia:  I have prepared a presentation with what data is available on this  
"Magnificent Seven".  Unfortunately, the 2025 Kanto Quake destroyed most  
of the relevant records.  We don't know when any of them were born, for  
example.  What we do know...

(Click.  Image of Tendo Nabiki in a business suit on screen.)

Celia:  Tendo Nabiki.  The twelfth wealthiest person in Japan. She is  
owner and CEO of TN Enterprises, the fifth largest company in Japan.  She  
also manages the Magnificent Seven, who provide special security services  
for TN and hire out to other companies as part of TN's security services  
branch.  No known combat training.  However, she has a knack for avoiding  
physical confrontation.

(Click.  Saotome Ranma.  In Male Form.  He is posing on the top of a fence  
with two fingers forming a v shape.)

Celia:  Saotome Ranma.

(Click.  Saotome Ranma as Ranma-chan.  She is wearing a red-gi and is in a  
combat stance.)

Celia:  Also Saotome Ranma.

Linna:  Eh?  What?  Is Saotome male or female?

Celia:  No one knows for sure.  He or she is a master of disguise, able to  
impersonate people of both sexes.  Even his/her voice changes.  Whatever  
his/her identity, Saotome is a skilled martial artist.  Also...

(Click.  We see Ranma kicking the head off a boomer)

Priss:  No FUCKING WAY!  

Linna:  This is a joke, isn't it.

Nene:  It's real all right.  No one knows how.

Celia:  If you think this is bad, it only gets worse.  We move on to his  
father, Saotome Genma.

(Click.  we see Saotome Genma sitting with Soun playing Shogi.  Then we  
see a still of him and Ranma sparring.  Then we see Genma-panda writing on  
a sign.  Then a dripping wet Ranma-chan sparring with the panda.)

Celia:  Saotome Genma.  Expert in Saotome Style Martial Arts which  
specializes in mid-air grappling.  Also noted as the trainer of Saotome  
Ranma, and he seems to train Pandas to write and fight.

Linna:  You've got to be kidding.

Nene:  Nope.

Mackie:  I never realized you had a sense of humor, sis.

Celia:  (sits in silence until the others fall quiet)  This is not a joke.   
These people are real.  Observe.

(Click.  Image of panda lifting a boomer.  Click.  Image of Panda throwing  
it into a blast furnace.)

Priss:  Now that's a pet I could learn to like.  

Celia:  This panda he has trained is very deadly.  And, in the same way  
that Gorillas have been taught sign language, somehow he has taught this  
panda to write.  It even goes on their missions.

Linna:  (face in hands)  I've got to be dreaming.

(Click.  Images of Akane sparring with Ranma, Akane lifting a boulder and  
throwing it in a stream, Akane kicking some gang member behind her without  
looking)

Celia:  Next is Tendo Akane, perhaps the most normal member of this team.   
She is an expert martial artist and remarkably strong.  She also is an  
expert at creating poisoned food.  She has one major flaw--she has a very  
short temper. (glances over at Priss)

Priss:  What're you looking at me for?  (annoyed)  I don't have a temper.

(Click.  Images of Ukyou cooking okonomiyaki, Ukyou sparring with Ryouga,  
Ukyou handing an okonomiyaki to Ranma while Akane fumes, Ukyou dressed as  
a boy)

Celia:  Another figure whose sexual identity is enigmatic, Kuonji Ukyou.   
Known to have attended a boys' school, but usually appears female  
nowadays.  Still seen occassionaly as a boy however.

Linna:  These people are so bizarre.

Celia:  She is an expert in Okonomiyaki-cooking Martial Arts.

Priss:  (Deliberately pitching her voice high)  Run!  It's the happy  
homemaker!  (laughs.  Linna and Mackie start laughing too.)

(Click.  Image of Ukyou flipping a man in kevlar into a tree with her  
spatula.  Click.  Image of a trashed boomer with several dozen small  
spatulas stuck in it.)

Celia:  Her style is no laughing matter.  She once took out an entire gang  
armed with guns singlehandedly.  And she owns a chain of okonomiyaki  
shops.

(Click.  Image of Ryouga.  Image of Ryouga sparring with Ranma.  Image of  
Ryouga holding a map upside down.  Image of Ryouga standing near a sign  
that says Point Blank, Texas and looking confused.  Image of Ryouga  
cutting a rope with a thrown bandana.  Image of Ryouga poking his umbrella  
through a boomer.)

Celia:  Hibiki Ryouga.  A deadly fighter, but easily lost or confused.  

(Celia stares at everyone, expecting the sarcasm to come.  No comments.   
Perhaps the level of strangeness is starting to get to them.)

Celia:  He has several strange abilities.  

(Click.  Image of Ryouga using the blasting point technique on a wall.   
Kasumi is following him carrying a duck with glasses(Mousse-duck).  Click.   
Image of Ryouga trying to blast Ranma with the Roaring Lion Bullet.)

Celia:  Ryouga seems to be some sort of genetically engineered mutant with  
energy projection techniques.  Or else he has a really tiny energy cannon,  
somehow.

Priss:  These people all seem rather mutated to me.

Celia:  (sighs)

(Click.  Image of Mousse throwing an exploding egg.  Image of Mousse  
kicking Ranma with a blade popped out of his shoes.  Image of Mousse with  
his glasses up on his head addressing a potted plant.  Image of Mousse  
slashing a boomer with his claw blades.)

Celia:  Mousse, master of a hidden weapons style.  He has dozens of  
blades, bombs, ropes, chains, and hooks hidden around his body and  
clothing.  However, he has very poor sight and often refuses to use his  
glasses.

Priss:  Hey!  That's "Blind as a Bat" Weapon Master.  No wonder he changed  
his name.  Who'd want to be named after a hair product...

Celia:  What?

Priss:  He's the lead singer for a band called Bad Hair Day.

(Linna, Mackie, and Nene start to giggle.  Priss glares at them.)

Priss:  They're a good band, even if he always sings the songs differently  
every time because he can't read the lyrics. 

Celia:  Hmm.  That might be useful to know.  Thank you, Priss.

Priss:  No problem.

(Click.  Image of Shampoo riding her bicycle on top of a train.  Image of  
Shampoo (using Bonbori--those spherical maces) sparring with Akane.  Image  
of Shampoo, wielding a sword, chasing a boomer.  Image of Shampoo target  
shooting with a bow.)

Celia:  Shampoo.  An expert martial artist with many kinds of hand  
weapons.  Also an expert bicyclist.

(Priss starts).

Priss:  I saw her on the highway on my way over here.  She passed me and  
an ADPolice car.  I couldn't believe it.  Then she jumped off the  
bridge...

Celia:  She has a knack for making seemingly impossible bicycle entrances.   
And she's fast and strong.

(Image of Shampoo crashing through a wall.)

Linna:  It must cost a lot for repairs when she comes to visit.

Celia:  Now they have a support crew as well...

(Click.  Image of the Celia at the beach in a one-piece waving at the  
camera.  She looks several years younger.)

Celia:  What?  How did that get in there?  That...That's me, not Tendo  
Kasumi...

(We see Mackie pale.)

Mackie:  (Quietly)  Oh no, I forgot to remove those photos...

(Click.  Image after image of Knight Sabers in bathing suits, negligees,  
etc. follows.  The Knight Sabers turn to stare at Mackie who is getting up  
to run...)

KS(As one voice)  MACKIE!!!!(They chase him off screen)

(Scene cuts to a street somewhere in MegaTokyo.  We see the Tendo Dojo.   
It looks much the same as ever, with some additions.  It is surrounded by  
high-rise apartments.  Two wings have been added to the Dojo proper.  One  
looks like the Nekohanten(And is labeled as such.)  The other looks like a  
cross between a Buddhist Temple and MacDonalds.  It has a cheery sign that  
says Kuonji Okonomiyaki Shop.  We hear sounds of eating and good cheer  
from the two restaurants and the sounds of combat from the dojo.  We see  
Shampoo and Mousse, who we saw earlier on the highway, come riding up to  
the Nekohanten on Shampoo's bike.  She pedals right in the front door of  
the Nekohanten.  Just before we cut to the dojo, we see a black clad  
female figure on the roof.  When Shampoo enters the Nekohanten, it leaps  
to the ground behind the dojo and starts picking the lock on the back  
door.)


(Inside the dojo, Akane and Ranma are busily sparring while Genma and Soun  
watch.  Ranma is dodging everything Akane tries to hit him with and she is  
getting increasingly frustrated.  )

Ranma:  Ha!  If you don't hit me in sixty seconds, I get to pick who cooks  
dinner tonight instead of you!  

Akane:  (Tries to fake him out by starting a punch then spinning and  
kicking him, but he leaps over the blow)  What's wrong with my cooking?

Ranma:  Hah!  After living with you all these years I can say your cooking  
is no better than when I met you!

(Akane suddenly stops fighting and starts crying.  Ranma cringes and comes  
over to her)

Ranma:  I didn't...I mean...Don't cry...(she suddenly lashes out and tags  
him)

Akane:  Got you!  (The tears have stopped.  She is smiling a little now)

Ranma:  Hey, that's not...You lied...

Genma:  Let that be a lesson to you, Ranma.  Never let your guard down  
until the fight is over.

Ranma:  (Starts striding off) Stupid, uncute girl...ever since she took  
those acting classes...can't understand anything she does...

Genma:  Is that anyway to speak to your wife?

Ranma:  My wife lied to me...

Akane:  (now she looks hurt)  I was really hurt, but when you got close to  
me...I just was mad and wanted to win...Why won't you eat my cooking?

Ranma:  I just...it's not that bad anymore, but taunting you about it  
always gets you mad and then you don't fight well...

Akane:  So, YOU taunting ME is okay, but ME bluffing YOU is bad?

Ranma:  I...

(Nabiki strides in.  She is immaculately dressed in a business suit.  She  
is carrying a briefcase.  She takes out a mini slide projector and starts  
setting it up.)

Nabiki:  If you two lovebirds are done fighting about who's going to cook  
when it's Ukyou's turn to cook, you could try getting the others.  I have  
a job for us.

Akane:  But the sign said that...

Nabiki:  Mousse forgot to turn the kitchen calendar to the next month.  He  
misread what month it was and thought it had already been turned over.   
(sigh).  
What Ukyou sees in him, I'll never understand...

Akane:  At least he and Shampoo get along better now.  But the whole  
affair shocked us at the time...

(We have a flashback.  We see
..Shampoo breaking through a wall and suddenly seeing Ranma and Akane  
actually kissing each other.  They turn red and Shampoo goes berserk.
..Shampoo chasing them through the streets.  Mousse leaps down to  
intercept her, gets clobbered to bits.
..Ukyou comes by, sees Mousse, peels him off the sidewalk with her  
spatula, and carries him off to Dr. Tofu.
..Shampoo chases them into a blind alley.  She attacks Ranma in a blind  
fury and demolishes him, while Akane starts beating on her.  Then she  
turns to finish off Akane.  Ryouga leaps in
..Ryouga beats the now tired and not clearly thinking Shampoo, then takes  
her back home to the Nekohanten and hands her over to Cologne's care.
..Various brief clips of depressed Shampoo, Ryouga, Mousse, and Ukyou.
..Mousse shows up one day at Ukyou's shop with flowers.
..Shampoo feeding Ryouga at the Nekohanten. )

Akane:  But it all worked out pretty well...except my husband constantly  
insults my cooking!  (glares at Ranma)

Ranma:  Well, it...

Nabiki:  Will you two idiots go get the others!  We don't have the funds  
to repair this place again until after the job...

A&R:  Okay, okay!

(Genma heads over to the Nekohanten, while Ranma moseys over to Ukyou's  
shop.  Meanwhile, Akane goes off to the kitchen to change the calendar.   
She changes it and the video phone rings.  She picks it up.  Kasumi is on  
the other end.  )

Kasumi:  Hello, sister.

Akane:  Hi.  What's up with you and your husband?

Kasumi:  Just fine.  Tofu is with a patient right now.  I just wanted to  
warn you.  Gosunkugi has been lurking around the neighborhood again.  

Akane:  Didn't he become the chief photographer for Mega-Tokyo Today a few  
years back?  I thought that kept him busy.  

Kasumi:  Well, rumor has it he does some industrial espionage on the side.

Akane:  No way.

Kasumi:  Well, that's what Nabiki said when I told her about it.   

Akane:  Mousse's band got a new record deal.

Kasumi:  Good.  Ryouga managed to make it back this far, but you'd better  
come get him or he'll get lost trying to get back to Shampoo's place.

Akane:  I'm on my way...He is just so lost all the time...

(Inside the Kuonji Okonomiyaki shop, we see Ukyou busily cooking  
okonomiyaki while several assistant cooks perform related tasks and the  
wait staff busily serves the customers.  Like Shampoo and Mousse, Ukyou  
seems to have defied the years, retaining the looks she had in her late  
teens.  The place is packed.  We see at one table, a bearded gray haired  
man and a woman whose brown curly hair is graying.  She is wearing glasses  
and has her hair up in a bun.  They are both dressed in nice suits,  
although the woman has a rather odd earring---it looks like a spatula.)

Gray haired man:  I can't believe she still looks so young.

Gray haired woman:  She is that young.  I don't think they will ever age.

Gray haired man:  What happened to them?  I never knew...Why didn't you  
tell me about this?

Gray haired woman:  I didn't know, Tsubasa, until I saw them in the news.   
I tried to get away from them.  We all did.  Damm Happosai...

Gray haired man:  He did this?

Gray haired woman:  Maybe it was Jhuysenko, maybe it was that weird  
rainstorm, maybe it was Gosunkugi's crazy rituals that gave them youth but  
let us age.  But they wouldn't be around if it wasn't for Happosai.  One  
of everyone just wasn't enough...Let's get out of here before she spots  
us.  I think they've forgotten we ever existed...if they ever knew.  None  
of us ever went back. 

(The two of them leave.  They do not realize that Ukyou is watching them  
as they go.  She signals their waiter to come over to her.)

Ukyou:  Did they say who they were?  They looked familiar, but I couldn't  
quite place them.

Waiter:  Mr. and Mrs. Kurenai Tsubasa

Ukyou:  TSUBASA!  (She springs over the counter and runs across the  
restaurant.  She runs across the yard as Tsubasa and his wife are getting  
into their car.)  Wait!  I haven't seen you in years!

(Tsubasa and his wife wait in the car as Ukyou sprints up.  She runs over  
to the car, and Tsubasa rolls down the window.)

Ukyou:  I haven't seen you since we got out of college.  Why didn't you  
say hi?

Tsubasa:  Is that..really you Ukyou?

Ukyou:  (startled)  Of course it is.  Surely you've seen my TV ads.

Tsubasa:  I don't watch TV much.

Ukyou:  I heard you got an award for your costume designs for Star Trek:   
Unto the Tenth Generation.  

Tsubasa:  (smiles for the first time since we've seen him)  You heard  
about that.

Ukyou:  Well, I've tried to keep track of everybody from school, although  
I haven't made it to many of the reunions...

(We see Mousse come out of the Restaurant.  He has his glasses up on his  
head and is wandering around the yard.  Tsubasa stares at him while his  
wife tries to avoid looking at Ukyou.)

Ukyou:  So who is your lovely wife?

Tsubasa:  She..well...

Wife:  You may call me Mariko.

(Ukyou blinks)

Ukyou:  You look familiar...Were you that cheerleader who was...

Wife:  (wistful smile)  She married Kunou.  They even have two sons.  And  
a daughter.  They'll have grand-children soon.

Ukyou:  Wow, she really was persistent.  She chased Kunou throughout our  
high school and college years, but he was always after Akane and R...the  
pony-tailed girl.

Mousse:  (talking to a bush)  Ucchan, Nabiki wants you.  We have a meeting  
about our new...

Mariko:  (looking at Mousse) He hasn't changed a bit.

Ukyou:  Well, maybe a little.  (Raises her voice)  Over here darling!  (to  
Tsubasa and Mariko)  He just won't go get corrective eye surgery.  It  
would be cheap, but he clings to his bad sight.  I just don't understand  
why...

Tsubasa:  Darling?

Ukyou:  Oh, you wouldn't know.  We're married.

Tsubasa:  No.  He actually gave up on Shampoo?

Ukyou:  It took a long time, but after Ranma and Akane finally admitted  
they were in love with each other...things just started falling into  
place.

(Mousse has come over to the car and Ukyou.  He stares in, glasses still  
up on his head.)

Mousse:  Ranma?  Ukyou?  Where are you two going?  Nabiki needs to talk to  
us about  (Ukyou flips his glasses down.  Mousse blinks and flushes a  
little)  I'm sorry.  I mistook you two for Ranma and Ukyou.

(Tsubasa looks a little confused.  Mariko blanches a little.)

Mariko:  We really must be going.  It was so nice to meet you.

Tsubasa:  One last question.  How do you two look so young?

Ukyou:  (looks a little sad)  I...don't know.  Ranma, Mr. and Mrs.  
Saotome, Mr. Tendo, myself, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane, Kasumi, Dr. Tofu,  
Nabiki and Ryouga don't seem to have aged a bit since the mid nineties.   
It must have something to do with all the magic we kept using on each  
other...I guess.  Dr. Tofu can't figure it out either.  And the last time  
we saw Happosai and Cologne, they looked the same.  That was about eight  
years ago.

Tsubasa:  Well, I wish you happiness.

Ukyou:  And the same to you.  I'm glad we both found someone to love who  
loved us in return.  (She kisses him on the cheek.  He looks surprised.   
His wife looks a bit grumpy.  They drive off.  Tsubasa turns to his wife.)

Tsubasa:  You lied about your name.

Mariko:  Well, I could hardly tell her who I really am!  Sometimes old  
wounds are best left closed.  

(We cut to the Dojo.  Nabiki has a screen and projector set up.  Ranma,  
Akane, Ukyou, Genma, Mousse, Shampoo, and Ryouga are lounging about on  
beanbags.  Soun isn't here.  Nabiki has a pointer in one hand and a remote  
control in the other)

(Click.  A picture of the Knight Sabers (in hardsuits) standing on the  
roof of a building.  )

Nabiki:  The Knight Sabers.  A mysterious four woman team of mercenaries.   
They have acted both for hire and independently against Genom.  It is  
known that they have some grudge against the company and against the  
boomers it employs.

Ranma:  And then they carve their names in the concrete...Ooohhh, aren't  
they mysterious...

Nabiki:  You should take them more seriously.

Ranma:  They kinda remind me of pro wrestlers...(Mimic announcer's voice)   
The Masked Marvel has returned to the ring...

Ukyou:  They mean business.  I've seen them beat some pretty tough  
boomers.

Mousse:  Hmph.  Boomers are rather pathetic really.

Shampoo:  And we need no battle armor to fight against our foes.  Only a  
weakling hides behind armor.

Nabiki:  Sometimes I wonder what century you guys are living in...Anyway.   
We may be facing these Knight Sabers, whoever they are, because we have  
been hired by the Mendo-Mizonokouji Conglomorate.  Yamaguchi-Microsoft  
Corporation stole some data and a new program from them, which was then  
stolen from Yamaguchi-Microsoft by Souchiro Enterprises.  M-N wants us to  
recover the data and destroy any copies of it that Souchiro Enterprises  
might have that we can find.

Ukyou:  Do any of these companies have a Genom connection?

Nabiki:  Not as far as I can tell, but there is one thing I am worried  
about.

Ranma:  What?

Nabiki:  The primary stockholder in Souchiro Enterprises is Kunou  
Enterprises.

Ranma:  No...Not Kunou again...

Akane:  I hope they aren't behind this.

Nabiki:  Kunou has been even more erratic since the quake...

Ukyou:  It would be hard for Kunou to be more erratic.

Ranma:  I haven't seen him face to face since the wedding...

Akane:  This month's assassins haven't shown up yet.  Ranma's been having  
trouble sleeping because of worrying about them.

Ranma:  (a little annoyed)  I have not been losing sleep.  Those assassins  
are as incompetent as he is.

Akane:  Perhaps if I hadn't found you asleep when the last one showed up,  
standing over you with a sword, I'd believe you...


**************************

(Scene cuts to a conference room at some unspecified corporation.  Three  
women and a man are looking at pictures on a viewscreen.  They are  
pictures of the "Magnificent Seven".)

Dr.  Hanou:  (The only male)  My end analysis is that the prevailing data  
suggests most of these seven were actually born in 1971.  After endless  
searching, I was able to find birth certificates on paper that survived  
the quake for Saotome Ranma, Tendo Akane, Kuonji Ukyou, and Hibiki Ryouga.   
The Chinese government does not acknowledge that "Shampoo" and "Mousse"  
legally exist, and I can find no birth certificate for Saotome Genma.  

Ms.  Hall: (A Blond caucasian woman in a suit, British accent)  But they  
do not look over the age of 20, except for this Genma character.

Dr. Hanou:  I believe they must have been part of some sort of youth  
preservation experiment, or they are boomers made to resemble the people  
they replaced.  In either case, I recommend their collection for further  
study.  In either case, we could use the technology involved.

Ms. Ichiwara(A short haired pale Japanese woman in a suit):  I will  
recommend the dispatch of a team to bring them in for study...

Dr. Hanou:  Be careful.  We already know they can handle boomers...
******************************
(Scene cuts..We see Leon and Daley driving through the streets of  
Mega-Tokyo.  Leon looks a bit grumpy, Daley looks amused.)

Leon:  Well, we've managed to establish that the bicyclist appears to be a  
delivery girl for some restaurant called the Nekohanten.  Her name is  
supposedly Shampoo.  So why is a restaurant employing a boomer as a  
delivery girl?

Daley:  This has to be the most utterly ridiculous case I've ever been  
involved in.

Leon:I'll get to the bottom of this if it's the last thing I do.

Daley:  Relax.  We don't have any proof that the girl, boomer or not, has  
done anything worse than violating traffic laws, just like everyone else  
in this city.

Leon:  Hmph.
******************
(We see an office.  Someone in a suit with gray hair is sitting at their  
desk (we are behind them) looking at a picture.  It is of Kunou, Kodachi,  
and their father, clad in his usual hawaiian garb with palm tree on his  
head.  He looks a bit older than his age in the Ranma manga/anime, and  
Kunou and Kodachi look to be in their mid-twenties.  They are standing in  
front of Furinkan High.  All three are smiling)

(The man turns where we can see him.  It is Kunou, but he looks to be in  
his sixties.  His hair is gray, he is getting wrinkles, and he looks sad.)

Kunou:  I lost you both in a single day.  This is all I have left of you  
both...that and the corporation.  I hope you are proud of me.  It has been  
so lonely without you.  Damn that quake!  You took my father from me...and  
my sister.  Now I am alone. 

(He gets up and starts walking around.)

Kunou:  And since that day, Genom has risen to dominate this city.  At  
first I thought they were just lucky.  Them and their boomers.  Until my  
ninjas found that file...

(He stares at his desk for a moment...and drifts back in memory to that  
day.)

(We see a slightly younger Kunou in the same office, staring at that same  
photo.  There is a knock on the door.  )

Kunou:  Come in.

(The Ninja comes in, leaves a file folder on Kunou's desk, and leaves.   
Kunou begins to read it.  He looks horrified.)

Kunou:  This can't be true...killing the creator of their major  
project...engineering an earthquake to create a vaccuum for their  
products...poor Dr. Wu...I knew about the Yakuza connections...my  
corporation is targeted for absorption into Genom...Los Angeles is next...

(Kunou stands up.  He shakes his fist at the ceiling)

Kunou:  I swear that the death of my family will be avenged!  You will not  
have my corporation!  You will be destroyed, Genom!  This, I, Kunou  
Tatewaki, the Blue Thunder, do swear!   The wrath of Heaven is slow but  
sure!(Lightning crackles around him.  The  office catches on fire.)  Damn.

(Back to the present.)

Kunou:  Those programs have served their purpose.  The evidence I want the  
Knight Sabers to find is in place.  My revenge on Saotome and Genom will  
now commence.  My only regret is that I may never know how he preserved  
his youth...

Kunou:  (turns to the picture)  Your spirit may rest easy father.  All of  
your enemies will soon be destroyed.  Then I will finally be able to rest.   
I do this all for you and our family honor.  I hope my son will do as much  
for me one day.

(Suddenly the camera moves back and we realize we have been viewing Kunou  
on a monitor screen.  We now see the person who has been watching  
him---two people actually.  But we can only see them from behind.  One is  
a grey haired man, the other a grey haired woman.  Both have pony tails,  
although the man's is braided and the woman's is free-flowing.  They are  
wearing suits.  We only see from behind them.)

Woman: Cut it off.  I can't stand to see him in pain any longer.

Man: (from his voice, we can recognize that this is the director) Me  
neither, although we never got along.  If only we didn't have to use him  
like this.

Woman:  There was no other way.  He's the only person outside Genom with  
that information besides us, and we couldn't afford a direct leak.  They  
may not like Kunou...but they'll believe what they find.  He isn't clever  
enough to lie like that.

Director:  And it's all true.

Woman:   For once.  

(A buzzer goes off.  The man takes a remote control and clicks it at the  
monitor.  The picture changes to Ms. Ichiwara (the japanese woman from the  
corporate meeting seen earlier).  

Ms. Ichiwara:  They're going to go for it, sir.  

Director:  Good.  We were hoping Genom would come to the party.  Nice job.

Woman:  How many guests?

Ms. Ichiwara:  Nine combat boomers.

Director:  Not enough.  There needs to be at least twelve to make it  
credible.  Remind them of the lack of luck boomers have had with the  
magnificent seven.

Ms. Ichiwara:  Yes sir.

(Transmission ends.)

Director:  Getting her into that position at Genom was not easy.

Woman:  But it was fruitful.

Director:  Yes.  Now all we need is a diversion for the ADPolice.

Woman:  Things were simpler in the old days.

Director:  I was running for my life from you in the old days.

Woman:  You didn't run fast enough.

Director:  We were both different then. I just wish...we could have had a  
normal life together.

Woman:  (laughs)  You'd be bored.

Director:  I just don't like having all this responsibility.  It's like a  
lead weight on me.

Woman:  When Dr. Stingray died, you were the natural choice to head the  
Cabal.  

Director:  I can't believe he used his own daughter like that.  We gave  
our children the choice to enter our shadow world or be free to live their  
own lives once they came of age.

Woman:  He gave her the knowledge to defend herself.  Her interpretation  
of his legacy was her choice.

Director:  Was it? She was only twelve.  If only we could have staved off  
the assassination for a few more years...She has the gift, though she does  
not know it.

Woman:  I think he knew he was doomed long before it happened.  We knew  
trying to get influence over one of the enemy's tools in that way would be  
dangerous.

Director:  If they really understood how boomers work...

Woman:  "Science advanced to a high enough level is indistinguishable from  
Magic."  Clark's law.

Director:  ...and vice versa.

Woman:  Exactly.  That is how we can hide in plain sight from the enemy.

****************
(Scene cuts to Celia's house.  Nene is hard at work at the computer while  
Celia is reading through several file-folders at the same time.)

Celia:  Any progress?

Nene:  Souchiro Enterprises has really good defenses for such a small  
company, but they're no match for me.  Give me five minutes and I should  
have what we need.  

(Cut to the garage.  Mackie is showing off some new modifications to the  
hard-suits to Linna and Priss.)

Mackie:  I've installed some new software so that your suits will be able  
to pick up the signal that the stolen disks give off and give you a  
directional fix.

Linna:  The stolen disks give off a signal?

Mackie:  Apparently Yamaguchi-Microsoft installed a tracer in them.   
Hopefully, Souchiro Ent. doesn't know about it, or you may end up tracking  
down a dumpster...

Priss:  Does Mendo-Mizonokouji know about the tracer?

Mackie:  We don't know.  They might...

(Scene cuts back to Nene and Celia again)

Nene:  Got it.  I've got a complete layout of their facility, list of  
employees, security devices, the works.  Now I just have to go through it  
all and find the information we need...

Celia:  Was there anything unusual about those spatulas?

Nene:  (looks up)  What?  Spatulas?

Celia:  The ones stuck in the boomer you mentioned earlier...

Nene:  Oh, those spatulas.  Well, they were ordinary plastic spatulas that  
had been sharpened a little.  

Celia:  And the umbrella?

Nene:  Ordinary bamboo.

Celia:  Did anyone actually witness the fight?

Nene:  Hikaru and Shinobu called in the report of a rampaging boomer  
attacking a restaurant.  They saw three of the customers attack it.  One  
was a male wearing a black and yellow bandana who fought using the  
umbrella.  One was a male with long hair and glasses who fought with a set  
of long artificial claws on his right arm, a lot of throwing weapons, and  
a lot of weapons on chains.  The third was a woman with long hair, and a  
bandolier of spatulas.  She had a 6 foot spatula on her back.  Before  
Hikaru's backup showed up, the three of them successfully defeated the  
boomer.  In fact, at the end, the bandana wearing man supposedly lifted  
the boomer and smashed it against the ground, causing it to lose the arm.   
I would guess from the pictures you showed us earlier that it was Hibiki  
Ryouga, Mousse, and Kuonji Ukyou, but I don't know.  They evaded Hikaru  
and Shinobu and took off.

Celia:  Can you get me one of those spatulas?  I want to test them.

Nene:  I can try...Hey, there's another hacker in this system!

*******************
(We see Kasumi hard at work on a computer.  She has temp trodes on her  
forehead and a glazed look on her face.  Nabiki is sitting nearby  
watching.)

Kasumi:  Hmm...There's another hacker on this system.

Nabiki:  You can handle them, sis.

Kasumi:  Nine out of ten says that the hacker at the other end of this  
line is also planning an intrusion.

Nabiki:  Why do you say that?

Kasumi:  He/She is busy downloading a layout, descriptions of security,  
passwords, etc.

Nabiki:  Hmm.  Kick her out.

Kasumi:  I'm working on it.  (She types furiously.)

Nabiki:  Find out where she is interfacing from, and I'll send some of my  
goons to deal with her.

Kasumi:  It could be a guy.

Nabiki:  Maybe, but either way, I'd like to see this hacker stand up to  
the Magnificent Seven.

(Kasumi giggles)

Nabiki:  Stop laughing.  We couldn't think of a better name!

(Kasumi breaks out laughing, bangs head on chair.)

Kasumi:  Oops.

*********************

(In the heart of cyberspace...
We see Nene's Icon.  It resembles a female gunslinger (but not her facial  
features).  It is standing in the glowing tangle of energy paths that make  
up the CPU of Souchiro Enterprises.  She is facing a black clad female  
ninja icon.  Various security programs that resemble shaggy white dogs lie  
dead with bullet holes and sword strokes around them.  The Ninja speaks.)

Ninja:  (She quietly drops a 100 yen coin with a string tied to it on the  
"floor" as she speaks.  It rolls towards the gunslinger.)  Greetings,  
stranger.  I am Shinobi.  And you?

Gunslinger:  I am....the Marshal.  (A five pointed star appears on the  
vest of her outfit.  (Meanwhile, she crooks a finger and a translucent  
hounddog appears off to one side and tries to slip around the ninja)

(Simultaneously, the gunslinger shoots the coin, while the ninja tosses a  
star at the dog.  Both tracking programs crash and collapse in a virtual  
spray of particles.)

Gunslinger:  Are you Souchiro security?

Ninja:  Do I look like a shaggy dog?

Gunslinger:  Good point.

Ninja:  Just planning to steal some data and get out.

Gunslinger:  Hmmm....

Ninja:  You the same?

Gunslinger:  (pause)  Yep.

(Unseen by the gunslinger, the thread from the coin begins slowly snaking  
back along the path she entered by.)

Ninja:  Then we can go back to our plundering in peace I guess.

Gunslinger:  Yep.  (Her tracking dog's nose starts surreptitiously gliding  
down the path the Ninja entered by.)

****************

Kasumi:  Heh.  Fool.  I'll find her.

****************

Nene:  Soon I'll know where she is.
****************
Kasumi:  Got her.

Nabiki:  So where is this hacker?

Kasumi:  At...I've been located!  
*****************
Nene:  I've found her.

Celia:  Good.  Where is the other hacker?

Nene:  She's at...She's tracing me too, dammit!  Gotta get out and cover  
my tracks.
******************
(We see the gunslinger and ninja icons glare at each other for a moment.   
The Ninja tosses a bomb at the gunslinger, who throws a stick of dynamite  
at the ninja.  Both turn and run as the bomb and dynamite chase them.  We  
see Nene and Kasumi jacking out right as the explosives are about to go  
off.  For a moment, we cut back to the CPU, where we see a third figure  
suddenly appear.  It looks like a gymnast.  We can't see its "face".)

Gymnast:  He he he.  They took the bait.  Just like we planned.

*******************
Nabiki:  So, where is she?

Kasumi:  Some apartment.  In a nice district of town.

Nabiki:  Hmm.  Perhaps we'll pay them a visit.  Who rents the apartment?

Kasumi:  Arcadia Watson.

Nabiki:  Perhaps we've located the competition.

*******************

Celia:  So where is our little friend?

Nene:  In a basement in a tenement owned by HAL Housing Corp.

Celia:  ...

Nene:  HAL is a subsidiary of Genom corporation.

Celia:  So we may be dealing with Genom here...They always seem to get  
into everything.  Was it in an apartment or a utility room?

Nene:  Basement apartment.  Rented by one Ichiwara Ranko.

Celia:  Find out what you can on her.  Probably, she just lives there and  
Genom isn't involved, but we'd better be prepared.  I wonder if the  
Magnificent seven hired her?  Did she manage to trace you?

Nene:  I don't think so.

Celia:  It would be quite bad if you are wrong.

(Celia picks up a phone, punches button three on the autodialer)

*******************************
(We see Nabiki and Kasumi loading a box into a very nice sportscar's  
trunk.  )

Nabiki:  We'd better not have lost too much time getting this computer out  
of there.

Kasumi:  She traced me.  Someone may show up.  I left the hidden cameras  
running.  Maybe we'll get to see a Knight Saber.

Nabiki:  Probably we'll just have hours of empty room to scan through...

Kasumi:  But this way they can't find where I really live.  Ranko takes  
the fall again.

(They both laugh.  Meanwhile, a woman wearing a helmet goes by on a  
motorcycle.  She glances over at them and the box as they finish loading  
it and drive off.  She follows them.)

Cyclist:  I recognize one of those two.  I wonder who the other one is?   
Maybe a hacker for hire.

(A few minutes later, they are still driving and being followed.  )

Nabiki:  We're being followed.

Kasumi:  I'll call for help.  

Nabiki:  Good idea.

(They try to lose the motorcyclist without being obvious.  It doesn't  
work.  The cyclist casually keeps up her pursuit.  Then she looks in her  
rearview mirror.  We see Shampoo peddling her bicycle.  She is gaining on  
the motorcycle.  Ryouga is standing in the basket in the back.)

Cyclist:  Shit.  More of them.  How the hell can she peddle that fast?   
Even a boomer would have a hard time making a bike gain ground on a  
motorcycle.  

(Nabiki makes a sharp right.  The cyclist goes left, followed by Shampoo  
and Ryouga, who are slowly gaining on her.  She heads into a network of  
alleys, hoping to lose them.  Every minute, they creep closer.  Finally,  
she reaches a major road, and zips into traffic.  The two vehicles play  
tag amidst the stream of traffic.  Finally, they come to a highway entry  
ramp.  The Cyclist zips up the ramp.  So does Shampoo and Ryouga.  They  
are only about fifty feet behind the cyclist now.)

Cyclist:  Hmm.  They don't seem to be armed.  Maybe I should let them  
catch me and just thrash them...but they are supposed to be martial  
artists.  Can I take them both?

(They are on the highway now.  She spots an ADPolice cruiser.)

Cyclist:  Hmm...They may come in useful for once.

(She pulls up along side it and starts making roll down your window hand  
signs.)

(The window comes down.  Officer Chatya of the ADPolice leans his head  
out.  )

Chatya:  Yeah, what?

(The cyclist raises the face plate on her helmet.  It is Priss.  She  
points back at Shampoo and Ryouga, now only forty feet away)  

Priss:  Officer, these two nuts have been chasing me for miles for no  
reason.  I think they're following me.  

Chatya:  (looks back)  What the fuck?  How's she pedalling that fast...

Priss:  Can you get them to stop following me?  I think they might be  
boomers...what else could pedal that fast.

Chatya:  Goddamn boomers....We'll see if she has a driver's license...

(His vehicle slows a little so it ends up parallel to Shampoo.  He leans  
out while his partner drives.  They are now on an elevated highway.)

Chatya:  Pull over!

Shampoo:  No.

Chatya:  We're the ADPolice, you idiot!  When we say pull over, you pull  
over.

Shampoo:  I'm busy. 

Chatya:  How the hell can you pedal that fast?

Shampoo:  Hell is not involved.

Chatya:  Pull over and answer my fucking questions or I'll have to use  
force!

Shampoo:  Shampoo not interested in fu...

Chatya: Pull over!

Ryouga:  Like she said, we don't have time.

(They start to pull ahead of Chatya's car.  He gets out a gun.)

Chatya:  Pull over! PULL OVER! 

(Ryouga pulls out a bandana and throws it.  It cuts the gun of the frantic  
officer in half.  The officer stares at his gun.)

Chatya:  My..gun...

Ryouga:  Have a nice day, officer.  (While they have been distracted,  
Priss has exited and they missed the exit.  )

Shampoo:  Blast.  Have to do this the hard way.  (She turns and jumps the  
bike off the bridge.)

(The officer just stares as she goes.)

Chatya:  I think I want to lie down now.

(Priss is on another road, laughing.)

Priss:  Well, that officer earned his paycheck today.  Those Magnificent  
Seven may be tougher than I thought.  (She turns and zooms off onto a side  
street.)

******************
(We see Leon and Daley enter the Nekohanten.  It looks like a larger  
version of the old Nekohanten.  Several waitresses in the traditional garb  
of Shampoo's village are serving the customers.  A old chinese woman who  
bears some resemblance to Shampoo is at the cash register.  Leon and Daley  
approach the matron.)

Leon:  Excuse me, Ma'am.  Does a woman named Shampoo work here?

Matron:  Yes.

Leon:  Is she here right now?

Matron:  No.

Leon:  May I speak to the manager?

Matron:  I'm her mother.  Why don't you tell me?

Daley:  Well, that shoots that theory to shit.

Matron: What?

Daley:  Nothing Ma'am.  We have some traffic citations for her.

Matron:  Just leave them with me.  I'll give them to her.  She has got to  
learn not to speed.

Leon:  How does she pedal so quickly, Ma'am?

Matron:  Exercise and practice.  Anyone can do it.

Leon:  (blinks)  Um, yes.  Where is she from?

Matron:  China.

Leon:  Where in China?

Matron:  The village of the Amazons.

Daley:  Amazons?

Matron:  The chinese Amazons.

Daley:  Oh, well that clears it right up then.  (sarcastic tone)

Matron:  Good.

****************************

(Scene cuts to the base of the Knight Sabers, who are suiting up.)

Celia:  Looks like that hacker was working for the Magnificent Seven.   
Well, we'd best get moving before they do.  Hopefully, they'll waste time  
trying to find out if we're going to raid the location they hacked into  
Souchiro from.  

Priss:  That Shampoo has to be a boomer.  No human could peddle like that.   
No way.

Linna:  You saw her?

Priss:  She chased me half way across Mega-Tokyo.  I had to sic the  
ADPolice on her.  (glances over at Nene and smirks a bit).  At least they  
were good for something for once.

Nene:  Hmph.  After correlating the strength of the disk signal and the  
maps I got from their system, I suspect that the disk is in the restricted  
access area--however, there was no data available on several of those  
rooms besides the physical layout...but the company just laid out a lot of  
money for plants and glass...

Linna:  That's strange.

Nene:  I guess they just wanted to make the place more pleasant...but they  
also bought a lot of cattle.

Celia:  Cattle?

Priss:  I guess someone likes fresh meat.

Nene:  Why do I have this nagging feeling I am forgetting something.  (We  
see Nene's purse hanging from a coat rack.  We see the disk copier she  
stuck the Genom disk in earlier inside it, sitting on a pile of  
miscellaneous junk.)

******************
(We see Nabiki, Kasumi, Nadoka, Dr. Tofu, Mr. Tendo and the Magnificent  
Seven (Now clad in their gaily colored gis--Ranma in Red, Akane in Blue,  
Genma in Orange, Ukyou in Green, Ryouga in Yellow, Shampoo in Purple, and  
Mousse in White.)  in the dojo.  Nabiki has a 40" screen TV set up, with  
Kasumi's computer plugged into it.  A map of the Souchiro Enterprises  
Complex is set up on it.)

Nabiki:  We'll be splitting into two teams.  Team one will be going after  
the disks.  Team 2 will act as backup, watch for trouble, and deal with  
the Knight Sabers if they show up in time.  

Ryouga:  How do we recognize the disks?

Nabiki (Holds up what looks like a garage door opener with a tiny circular  
screen at one end.)  This has a tracer which picks up signals given off by  
tiny radio circuits the makers of the disks put in them.  

Ryouga:  But what do they look like?

Nabiki:  Small black standard Mendo-Mizonokouji data disks.  This tracer  
is the only way to specifically id them, other than reading the data on  
them.  If the tracer gets destroyed, take every small black disk you can  
find.

Ranma:  What about small black pigs?  (smirks)

(Ryouga glares at him)

Akane:  Have you done something to P-chan VIII again, Ranma?

Ranma:  Well, I had bacon this morning...

(Akane hits Ranma with a nearby table)

Ranma:  It...was...a joke...I think he went for a ...walk.

Akane:  All my little pigs get lost all the time...I just have the worst  
luck.

Nabiki:  Mr. Tendo will drive you to the site, Nadoka and I will be  
running communications and command from here.  Dr. Tofu will be ready to  
treat you when you return.  Kasumi will be hacking into the system again  
to deal with their security when you enter.  

(She pauses, drinks from a nearby glass then continues.)

Team one will be Mousse, Ukyou, and Mr. Saotome.  You'll be entering and  
stealing the disks.  Team two will be Ranma, Akane, Shampoo and Ryouga.   
You'll be watching for trouble and dealing with the Knight Sabers when  
they show up.

Akane:  Can the four of us handle people in battlesuits?

Ranma:  Eh, no problem.  We'll show those masked posers how real warriors  
fight.  They can't be any worse than those combat boomers we fought last  
month.  

Akane:  They broke your leg.

Ranma:  The hot water heater that fell on me and pulled the roof down with  
it broke my leg.

Akane:  The boomers knocked it down on you!

Ranma:  They were shooting at you!

Akane:  I didn't get hit, now did I?

Ranma:  They didn't hit me, the building did!

(They are both getting angrier and angrier.  Ukyou puts a hand on Ranma's  
shoulder, Ryouga puts one on Akane's shoulder)


Ukyou and Ryouga:  Hey, calm down.

Akane and Ranma:  No!  I'm right!  (They glare at each other)

Nabiki:  Look, we don't have time for another marital spat.  If we don't  
hurry, the knight sabers will get the disks while we're prying you two  
apart.  Then won't we all look silly trying to explain to  
Mendo-Mizonokouji that we couldn't get this disks because we decided to  
fight each other first!

Akane:  Hmph.  All right...(glares at Ranma)

Ranma:  We'll settle this argument later.

Nabiki:  Good.  Now let's go show the Knight Sabers what real  
professionals can do!

(Mr. Tendo gets up and gets out some keys from his pocket, leading the  
troupe off into the backyard towards the garage.  The last thing we see is  
Shampoo slipping a loaded mousetrap into one of Mousse's pockets as they  
leave.  )

(Nodoka turns to Kasumi)

Nodoka:  Sometimes I wonder if they'll ever grow up.

Kasumi:  They've always been like that.

Nodoka:  I just wonder sometimes why...

Kasumi:  We aren't aging?  None of us have been able to conceive children?   
Why it is just us?

Nodoka:  Yes.  I'm glad that Genma and I have had all these extra years,  
but...why us?  And what did it?

Dr. Tofu:  I thought at first it was a side effect of the Jyusenkyo curse  
until I realized that it wasn't limited to those who have been to  
Jyusenkyo.  I think that ritual that Happosai tried had something to do  
with it.

Nabiki:  Which ritual?  

Dr. Tofu:  The one that was supposed to summon a Jyusenkyo rain to  
transform everyone into his willing concubine.

Nabiki:  It was supposed to do that?  We got some weird rain that did  
strange things, but no one became his willing or unwilling concubine.

Dr. Tofu:  It was supposed to multiply some Jyusenkyo water he had  
purchased from some salesman and make it rain on the town.  It did, but  
most people stayed indoors...and it wasn't the kind of rain that he  
thought it was.

Nodoka:  What was it?

Dr. Tofu:  I'm not sure, but I know that all of us went out in it at some  
point...while people like the Kunous, Gosunkugi, the teachers at Furinkan  
High, most of my patients, and others stayed dry for the five minutes that  
it lasted.  

Nodoka:  Yes, I was on my way to my son's graduation from college party  
when that purple rain ruined my dress.  It was quite irritating.  I really  
felt odd afterward too.

Dr. Tofu:  Hmm.  I remember that too.  And none of us have seen Happosai  
since that day.  Perhaps we should write Cologne and see what she knows  
about his whereabouts.

Nabiki:  Maybe we should just be glad he is gone.

Kasumi:  I hope he is happy, whereever he is.

Nodoka:  I'm sure he is...

**************************

(The scene cuts to what resembles a detention facility of some sort.  In a  
room whose door has no handle on the inside is Happosai, looking bored and  
idly fingering a lacy bra.  There is a lone camera monitoring him, which  
he ocassionally looks up pleadingly at.  We cut first outside his cell  
where we see the door is festooned with magic buddhist scripture papers  
and then to a control room where the gray haired pony-tailed gentleman we  
saw earlier is watching the monitor.  This time, he is with a pair of  
twins.  Both are male, with pony tails like his.  They have brown hair and  
look to be about thirty.  They bear some resemblance to Kunou, but have  
braided pony tails like the one Ranma has.  We are behind the director,  
who is talking with the twins.)

Director:  So, any change in his behavior?

Twin 1:  I can't believe anyone could derive so much entertainment from a  
bra.

(Director sighs)

Director:  I wish there was some way to cure him of that obsession.  But  
as long as he is like that, we can't afford to free him.  It was too hard  
for us to escape him all those years ago;  I certainly don't want to face  
him again...What a waste of a great martial artist.

Twin 2:  did he really hold you and Mom captive?

Director:  Yes, Hasukawa.  And all your aunts and uncles too.  

Twin 1:  Well, they're not really our aunts and uncles exactly.

Director:  Now, Youta, we all regard each other as family now. Most of our  
real blood relatives are dead or as old as us now...

Youta:  So why is he still alive?

Director:  Part of that infernal spell was to keep him alive forever and  
those he called into his harem.  But I think he totally botched the spell.   
He may live forever, but those of us he called in won't...but maybe it was  
all for the better.

Youta:  Why?

Director:  I learned many things from that captivity.  It changed me; all  
of us.  I think it made better people of us.  But I won't risk him trying  
that again.  The only thing I wonder about is...

Hasukawa:  What?

Director:  Am I the original or the one the spell left behind?  

************************
End of Act I
************************

************************
Start of Act II
************************
(We see the inside of a truck.  It has two long benches with seatbelts, a  
refrigerator, a hot plate, with a tea kettle steaming away on it (The  
kettle is secured in place by a complicated frame), a radio, a TV, and a  
small computer terminal.  There is also an intercom button.  The  
Magnificent Seven are riding back here.  Genma is playing Shogi with Ranma  
on a small magnetic board.  Akane is chatting with Ukyou while Mousse is  
cleaning his weapons on the other bench.  Shampoo and Ryouga are cuddling  
on the other end of that bench.  )

Shampoo:  We're going to have to straighten out the finances tomorrow  
again.

Ryouga:  Why?

Shampoo:  Because you got conned by that vendor you bought those noodles  
from.

Ryouga:  I opened a box to check it!

Shampoo:  They all had cardboard instead of noodles in the bottom half,  
darling.

Ryouga:  I...how could they do something like that?  That's dishonest.

Shampoo:  Shampoo loves her husband, but he is really easy to trick.

Ryouga:  I am not!

Ranma:  She's right.

Ryouga:  When have you ever tricked me?

Ranma:  Like the time I passed myself off as your fiancee...when you  
didn't even have one.  (While he is not looking, Genma turns the Shogi  
board around)

Ryouga:  Hmph.  (pouts.)  

(Shampoo cuddles up to him and kisses him on the neck.  He starts to  
relent.)

Shampoo:  Don't worry.  Shampoo will make it all better when we finish  
this and go home.  We may not even be able to open the shop on time  
tomorrow.

(Ryouga blushes.)

Ryouga:  Don't..talk like that in public.

Shampoo:  What if Shampoo said...(Whispers in Ryouga's ear.  He gets red  
as a beet) 

Ryouga:  Don't you dare!

Shampoo:  Ryouga doesn't want me to say...(Ryouga clamps a hand over her  
mouth.  They start wrestling around, fall off the benches, and onto the  
floor.)

Akane:  I can't believe they do that in public.

Ukyou:  I'm not surprised at all...some of the stories Mousse has told  
me...(shakes her head)  Shampoo has always been...energetic.


(The scene cuts to the outside of a large office building.  It sprawls at  
a height of five stories over an entire block, with a tower in one corner  
that climbs to a height of 25 stories.  It is surrounded by similar  
buildings, many of which have bridges connecting them at the five story  
and 20 story height.  Perhaps a hundred buildings are connected in this  
way.  The entire area is surrounded by a seven story wall with security  
patrols.  A massive parking lot is just inside the gate, next to the  
largest building, which is about four blocks across and has a fifty foot  
tower.  The whole area is labeled Yamaguchi Office Park.  Smog blows  
thickly across the park from the industrial sites to the north and west of  
it, but is unable to enter through the airlocks on the building entrances.  
Further south and east is a sprawling slum.  The building we are focusing  
on has a sign that reads "Souchiro Enterprises".  There are several  
security guards in armor on the roof.  The office park is largely dark and  
quiet, as it is night.  The stars and moon cannot be seen.  Only the glow  
of the rotating searchlights on the roofs of the office buildings  
illuminate the area, and some light from the slums. )

(Two bored guards are sitting in a security station watching a monitor  
showing the road to the entrance.  A truck labeled Souchiro Enterprises  
pulls up.  One of the security men punches an intercom button.)

Guard 1:  Hello.  Please Identify Yourself.  (He sounds vaguely robotic,  
or maybe just reeling off a rote phrase said one too many boring times.)

(A man in a Souchiro Enterprises outfit, with a cap pulled down low hiding  
his eyes and a black moustache, leans out of the car.)

Guy:  Souchiro Enterprises.  Delivering some goods.  We're late.  We were  
supposed to be here at 5.

Guard 2:  Considering it is now 11, they are really late.  (Checks the  
log)  Yep.  The license plate is correct.  

Guard 1:  Please give today's password.

Guy:  Hold on.  I've got it in here, somewhere.  (Pulls back out of sight  
into the car.  There is a brief pause.)  "Blue Thunder."

Guard 1:  (punches some keys on a keyboard, checks a screen) Authorized.  

(The gates slide open.  The Souchiro Enterprises truck enters, goes  
through the parking lot, and starts wending its way towards the SE  
building.)

(We cut to another truck simply driving through the streets of Mega-Tokyo.   
It is labeled Mason Deliveries Inc.  The driver looks somewhat annoyed.   
He is listening to some extremely staticyy radio channel.  In fact, it is  
nothing but static.)

Driver:  I hate this job.  Nothing but static or stupid instructions all  
the time...baah.  

(A voice now crackles in on the channel.)

Voice:  Freemason, this is Watcher.  Are you there?

Freemason (Driver):  Yes.  Now where am I supposed to drag these stupid  
things?

Watcher:  Show more respect for our metallic associates.

Freemason:  Yeah, right.  Where to now?

Watcher:  Our targets have entered the Yamaguchi Office Park.  Head there  
at top speed.  You can park at the Tsunami INC. building and release them.   
The password is "Seven-UP".

Freemason:  Ha ha.  (flatly)  Boy aren't we funny.  Off we go.

(The truck turns at the corner, running a red light.  Offended drivers  
swerve and honk)

(Scene cuts to slum.  Four armored figures are standing on a rooftop  
watching the searchlights cycle.  One is wearing blue and red  
armor(Priss), one blue and white (Celia), one green and yellow with two  
ribbons mounted in back, (Linna), and one purple and pink (Nene).  They  
seem to be waiting for something.)

Celia:  Everyone getting the signal from the disks?

Priss:  Yep.

Linna:  Check.

Nene:  Eh, what?(sounds distracted)

Celia:  Are you getting the signal from the disks?

Nene:  Is that the buzzing or the humming noise?

Celia:  It's supposed to be a visual, not an auditory signal.  We don't  
want to play hot/cold with it.

Nene:  Oh, that.  Yes.  I guess my audio must need adjusting.  

Celia:  It had better not break down while we're in the middle of this.

Nene:  I'll be fine.  We should be able to get in in about thirty seconds,  
assuming I reprogrammed the spot light patterns correctly.

(The Knight Sabers all turn to face the office park and start jetting  
towards it.  As they do so, the rotations of the lights synchronize to the  
point that the entire south wall of the park goes dark for about fifteen  
seconds.  The Knights zip in over the wall and down to ground level. They  
then head for the SE building.  The service entrance and loading ramp is  
on the side they are heading for.  Four people with SE uniforms are  
unloading a truck and hauling up goods to the loading airlock.  They are  
wearing gas masks.)

Linna:  Is the air really that bad here?

Celia:  It won't kill you most of the time, but you don't want to breathe  
it.  Just about every gaseous pollutant known to man flows through here at  
some point in time.

Nene:  Yuck.  Those security guards on the roof are in constant electronic  
contact with someone in the building.  I'm patching it through to you on  
channel 2 and initiating jamming.

Channel 2:  Searchlights have been tampered with. Intruder teams one or  
two may be in area.  Be on the adfkjad afjadjfkj a dfjaksfkajd.  (decays  
into static.  Then kicks back in.)  

Different voice on channel 2:  We're getting static.  You didn't spill  
coffee on the controls again, did you, Central?

Original Channel 2 voice:  Damm.  Hello, we can't read you.

Celia:  Priss, Linna, neutralize the guards.  Nene, watch for the  
Magnificent Seven.  I'm going to secure our entrance.

(Priss and Linna zoom for the roof.  One of the armored guards is busily  
hitting himself on the side of the head, apparently in the belief this  
will fix the static in his headset.  His eyes open with fear as Linna  
suddenly pops up, grabs his gun, and breaks it in half.  Meanwhile Priss  
is in the face of a second surprised guard and grabs his gun, but he holds  
on.  She swings the gun around and the momentum sends him off the roof,  
still holding his gun.)

Priss:  You want it?  Keep it.  

(The other two guards turn and start blasting away with automatic rifles.   
Priss and Linna dive and roll out of the way and off the roof.  The two  
guards start running towards where they fell, and don't notice when Priss  
and Linna rise up behind them on the other side of the roof.  They reach  
the edge and stare down.)

Guard one:  I thought they fell off.

Guard two:  Hey, wait.  These gals can...

(They get the boot from behind.  Two guards plummet five stories.)

Priss:  I think killing these idiots would have been more humane than  
letting them live with their stupidity.

Linna:  They certainly weren't too bright.  (Trap doors are opening across  
the rooftop.  Dozens of Ninjas are pouring out.  Priss and Linna turn  
around and see them.)

Priss:  Either this is the most boomers I've ever seen in one place, or  
these guys are really foolish.  (Voice amplifier--distorted voice to  
Ninjas)  Go home or we'll blow you all to kingdom come!

Ninja:  No one can defeat the Kunou family ninjas.

Priss:  Guess that makes me nobody!  (She blazes away, while Linna calmly  
begins punching a swathe through the ninjas, secure in the knowledge that  
their primitive weaponry can't get through hardsuit armor.)

(Meanwhile Nene is hovering near the building watching the area, while  
Celia flies down to the airlock.  The four workers stop and watch her.   
She checks the airlock codes Nene stole.  They work.  The workers come a  
little closer.)

Female worker 1:  (has shoulder length green hair with glasses)  You a  
Knight Saber?  I've seen you on the news.

Celia:  (outside speaker--electronically distorted)  Maybe.  Stay back and  
you won't get hurt.  I'm just here to fetch something, not hurt people.

Female worker 2:(has shoulder length red hair)  Sh...I think you're funny.

Celia:  Eh?

Male 1:  The others have got to be around here somewhere.  

Male 2:  They're fighting on the roof.  Shampoo, you take care of her.   
Ryouga and I will go play with the people on the roof.  

Celia:  (radio channel)  I think I've found the competition.

(The green haired girl pulls out a long ornately carved sword.  From  
somewhere. She then leaps at Celia, who tries to simply swat her aside.   
She parries the blow with her sword, which leaves deep scratches in the  
armor.  Celia stares at the scratches for a moment.)

Shampoo:  Shampoo has never killed someone in a hardsuit before.  You will  
be the first.

Celia:  Get back or I will shoot you.

Shampoo:  Shampoo does not fear silly guns.  

(She attacks again. we can see now that she seems to be wearing a wig as a  
little of her natural purple hair shows through.   Celia dodges most of  
the blows, but Shampoo never stays still long enough for her to return  
fire.  Meanwhile, Ranma and Ryouga leap up to the roof. The red head (now  
clearly Akane) keeps watch for trouble.)

(By the time Ranma and Ryouga are on the roof, most of the ninjas are  
dead, unconscious, or popping back down their holes.  Priss sees Ranma and  
Ryouga land.)

Priss:  (to Linna)  How'd they get up here?

Linna:  Get back or...hey, those two are on that Magnum Seven...or  
whatever they call themselves.

Ryouga:  Magnificent Seven!  It took us days to come up with that name!

Priss:  Piss off, little martial arts boys, or we'll fill you full of  
lead.

Ranma:  Guns.  OOOh.  Scare me more.  If guns could solve problems, I'd  
have shot Happosai.

Linna:  We warned you.

(They open fire.  Warning shots at first, then aiming for Ranma and  
Ryouga, who simply charge, dodging the gunfire.  When they get within  
about fifty feet, they both leap into the air.  Ryouga begins throwing  
bandanas, but Linna shoots them all to bits.  Ranma lands to one side of  
Priss and jumps behind her.  She spins, he rolls between her legs, and  
kicks her in the back.  She goes flying, but remains unhurt.)

Priss:  I feel like I'm living a bad ninja Movie.  

(Meanwhile, Linna turns to face Ryouga as he lands.  Ryouga grins.)

Ryouga:  Bakusai-ten-ketsu!  (<Blasting point technique> He pokes the roof  
with his finger.  The roof explodes open in a spreading wave from his  
finger.  Linna falls through the hole.  Ryouga whips out his umbrella and  
leaps in after her.)

Priss:  How the hell...

(Ranma leaps at her while she is distracted and kicks her in the head with  
a flying leap.  She staggers back, then tries to punch him.  A steady  
round of blocks and punches follows.  She can't really hit him, but  
blocking her armored form hurts just a bit.  She slowly pushes him to the  
edge of the roof.  Finally, she goes for a mighty blow and he jumps to one  
side.  She topples over the edge.  He laughs.)

Ranma:  Well, that was easy.  I wonder how Ryouga is doing.  (He doesn't  
notice Priss rising back up over the edge and leveling her gun at him.)

(Meanwhile, below:  Celia finally gets enough room to shoot at Shampoo.   
Shampoo whirls her sword in front of her.  When the smoke clears, she is  
unhurt but holding only a hilt.  She tosses it and pulls out two bonbori  
(Maces with spherical heads).)

Celia:  How on earth did she do that?  Priss, Linna, how are you doing?

(Following is just the voice transmission Celia hears)

Priss:  Got the idiot right where I want him.

Linna:  I'm beginning to believe that briefing you gave us.  I can't find  
him.  He dodged behind an aquarium as I shot at him.  It broke, water went  
everywhere, and now I can't find him.  I...hey, somebody left their pet  
pig in the office.  

Celia:  Nene, have you spotted the rest of them?  There are three  
unaccounted for.

Nene:  I...eh, what?

Celia:  PAY ATTENTION!

Nene:  Ow.  No.  I haven't seen them.  Those noises are getting worse.  

Celia:  They must already be inside (dodges one of Shampoo's blows.)   
Linna, go for the disks.  Nene, keep watch.  Priss, I need some help when  
you get done.

Priss:  (we cut to her on the roof)  No problem.  (She fires at Ranma who  
leaps almost straight up without even looking.  She follows him up with  
her shots.  He then arcs down right on top of her.  He seems to have a  
corona of red fire.  She fires away, but the corona seems to stop most of  
her ammo.  He is bleeding and cut somewhat before he crashes into her.)   
Shit.

(They crash into the ground together.  Priss looks mangled.  So does  
Ranma.  They both lie there wrapped around each other for a few seconds,  
then stagger to their feet.)

Priss:  Are you a boomer?

Ranma:  No.

Priss:  How the fuck can you do that?

Ranma:  Decades of training.

Priss:  How old are you?

Ranma:  Older than you, I bet.  (He stands battle ready, but does not  
immediately strike)

Priss:  You don't look much older than me.  

Ranma:  I guess I just aged well.  I was born in 1971.

Priss:  That's impossible.

Ranma:  So why do you hide behind guns and armor?

Priss:  I'm not an idiot.  You're not going to talk me into fighting you  
without this thing.

Ranma:  Had to try.  You're probably ugly under it anyway.

Priss:  I am not!

Ranma:  Just another kawakune girl hiding from the world behind a mask.

Priss:  Fuck off!  (She opens fire.  Ranma dodges everything she fires at  
him.  After about fifteen seconds, he suddenly leaps up and snap-kicks her  
face.  As she falls, he kicks her torso, sending her further.  She gets  
back up and blasts him.  He collapses spurting a whole lot of blood.  It  
covers the front of his red gi.)  Got you, you big mouthed "master of the  
martial arts"!

(She walks over to him, then suddenly spots something.)

Priss:  He's still breathing!  

(In fact we can now see that what happened was some sort of fake bloodpack  
on Ranma's gi has ruptured...spilling the blood.  At close range we can  
see there are more scattered around it.  Ranma doesn't look too good,  
though.  He kicks Priss's legs out from under her, then leaps to his feet.   
As she gets up, he hits her again and again and again---the hundred fist  
strike.  Finally, she collapses with big dents in her armor.  He sits down  
next to her.)

Ranma:  Oh, I don't feel so good.  If this outfit wasn't armored, I'd be  
dead. I wonder where Nabiki got gis that could stop this kind of fire  
power. As it is, even Dr. Tofu's going to have a hard time with this.   
Lucky she didn't shoot my head.

(Scene cuts to inside.  We see Genma, Ukyou, and Mousse slipping through  
the building.  They are following a hand scanner with a radar display that  
Ukyou is holding.  It leads them to a door labeled, "Biolab # 3")

Mousse:  More flowers, I guess.

Ukyou:  We're pretty close to the disks, according to this.  (punches a  
button)
There's a computer lab on the other side.  This is the only access route.   
What a weird place to put the disks, though...

Genma:  I smell a trap.

Ukyou:  Well if we had Ryouga or Shampoo, we could circle and go through a  
wall, but I think they're busy, right now.

(The lab door requires a key code.  Ukyou consults the scanner and punches  
the code in.  The doors open.  Inside is a massive jungle.  All sorts of  
plants, normal and weird are growing here, including one that has  
watermelons hanging from its branches.  Unseen by the trio, Linna slips in  
as the doors close.  They head across the lab, glancing at labels as they  
go.  In the middle is a large tree that resembles a banyan tree.  It has  
hundreds of branches, which arch up, then sag to the ground.  It is in a  
giant hydroponic tank.  Mousse and Genma shy away from it a little.  Ukyou  
reads the label.)

Ukyou:  "Special project A7--Magnificent Seven eating tree".  What?

(The branches begin to move.  A large mouth opens in the trunk of the  
thirty foot tall tree.  The branches reach out for Mousse, Ukyou, and  
Genma, who start fighting back.  Linna quietly circles the fight heading  
for the lab.)

Mousse:  Whirling blade attack! (Throws dozens of shuriken, cutting many  
branches, which begin growing back, but forking where he cut them.)

(Meanwhile Ukyou is swatting away branches with her spatula and Genma is  
tying branches into knots together as they come at him.)

Genma: Braiding Attack!  (He rapidly jumps into the midst of the branches,  
and braids a bunch of them together so that they can no longer move.  He  
then starts climbing up the braid, swatting away other branches.  

(Linna enters the lab, and searches for the disks.  She soon finds a  
locked safe, which the signal indicates they are in.  It is a mechanical  
safe with no electronic parts.)

Linna:  I wonder if I can lift this.  (She tries, but no luck)

Linna:  This is really annoying.  Hey, Nene?  did you find any safe combos  
in their system.  This stupid thing is too heavy for me to move.

Nene:  Uh oh.

Linna:  What do you mean, Uh oh?

Nene: Twelve boomers worth of uh oh.  I don't recognize this model,  
either.  And we haven't heard Priss say anything in the last five minutes.

Linna:  Crap.

(Linna hears yells and breaking noises from back in the lab.  She pokes  
her head out and sees the tree has tipped over some.  Water is everywhere.   
The tree is trying to get a struggling duck, trapped in a thicket of  
branches into its mouth.  Dozens of spatulas are stuck in it.  A panda is  
now jumping up and down on it, further tipping it over.  Water is running  
everywhere, damaging electronics.  Ukyou is swatting away branches and  
chopping them off with giant spatula strokes.)

Linna:  There's their trained panda.  But where did that duck come from?   
Surely they wouldn't bring a duck on a mission.  And there was that pig  
earlier.  Maybe some of the company's livestock has escaped.  And where  
are those other two hiding?  I wonder if there's something I can break a  
safe with around here.  

(Linna starts to go back into the computer lab, then realizes something.)

Linna:  The tree is attacking them?

(She looks again.  Yep.  It is a killer tree.)

Linna:  I've never seen a boomer that looked like a tree.  Well, I hope it  
is a boomer.

(Linna has an idea.)

Linna:  (goes back in safe room).  I shouldn't have forgotten about my  
whips.  (She turns, and proceeds to slice at the safe with the two  
monofilament ribbons hanging from the back of her suit.  They chop up the  
safe.  Inside is a small box, which she opens to find five disks.  A quick  
triangulation check convinces her they are the ones she needs.)

(The scene cuts to Kunou watching the battle on a monitor.  He is also  
watching Linna get the disks, and the fight outside where Celia, Nene,  
Shampoo, Akane are fighting twelve boomers.  He frowns.)

Kunou:  This is not going according to plan.  What are those boomers doing  
here?  Has Genom learned of my plan?  Someone has betrayed me. If the  
boomers destroy the Knight Sabers, I will not be able to use them for my  
vengeance against Genom. And where is Saotome!  My revenge could never be  
complete without his death. The tree was handcrafted to kill him. Maybe I  
should have used a giant cat.  I may have to personally intervene.  

(Scene cuts again to the Director, who is watching Kunou, the  
boomer/Saber/MS battle, Ranma and Priss lying exhausted on another side of  
the building, Chairman Quincy of Genom, a space station, Linna, the fight  
twixt tree, Ukyou, panda, and duck, two people eating dinner, Happosai,  
ADPolice CommCentral, and an empty room on a set of monitors. The  
pony-tailed woman we saw earlier is with him again, also watching. )

Director:  For once, I find myself agreeing with Kunou.  Things are going  
badly.  

(On the monitor, we see the bumas spewing some gas that KOs Shampoo and  
Akane.  They then mob Celia.  She blasts away, wasting several, but they  
look likely to overpower her.  Nene is firing away from above, but without  
much luck.  Two of them have circled the building and gas Ranma and carry  
him and Priss off.)

The pony-tail woman:  This is getting bleaker by the second.  

Director:  Some of them are still free.  But we are going to have to make  
sure those boomers don't get the Sabers into Genom's clutches...at least  
not long enough to find out who they are.  (He reaches for a cellular  
phone.)  You'd better go shadow them. Just don't let them know it is you.

The pony-tail woman:  As if they would recognize me anymore.

Director:  One flower in the wrong place...

Pony-tail:  You worry too much, dear.

Director:  That's my job.

Pony-tail:  Don't worry.  I won't poison too many of them...

(They both laugh.  We cut to Linna and the fight in the lab.  )

Nene:  (on Linna's radio)  Where are you, Linna?  The boomers are carrying  
off everybody but me!  I'm hiding behind one of the buildings.

Linna:  Everyone?

Nene:  They got Priss, Celia, and a couple of those martial artists.  And  
that buzzing in my radio is getting worse.  I keep getting wonky signals.

Linna:  Wonky?

Nene:  African radio stations, people's cellular phones, buma  
communications that I'm not tapping...

Linna:  Maybe we're getting a weird ionosphere phenomenon.  Don't radio  
waves bounce off that or something?

Nene:  Could be.  We've got to do something!

Linna:  Let's see if we can negotiate a truce with the rest of the  
Magnificent Seven.  Neither of our groups want Genom to get ahold of us.

Nene:  Well, the remainder are all in there with you...

Linna:  Let's see what I can do...

(The tree is pretty much down for the count.  The duck is free.  Ukyou is  
looking for hot water for Mousse.  The panda is heading over to the lab  
and starts when Linna comes out.)

Linna:  I think we have a mutual problem.

Ukyou:  Like what?

Linna:  Genom just carried off the rest of both of our teams.

Ukyou:  Got any proof of that?

Linna:  Well.  I really...er.  Do any of you have a radio?

Ukyou:  In the car.

Linna:  Great.  I'll...(thinks).  I guess you'll just have to try to catch  
me then.  (She sprints across the lab and out the door.  They turn and  
start chasing her.  however, her hardsuit can run pretty fast.  Once she  
gets to the hole Ryouga made earlier, she zips up and out.  Panda, duck,  
and Ukyou give chase.  They get up on the roof and see the boomers flying  
off with Ranma, Priss, Celia, Shampoo, and Akane.  Nene zips up to where  
Linna and co. are)

Nene:  We'd better get going.

Linna:  What happened to the other two I saw you with?

Ukyou:  Uh, well...(turns to duck and panda...)Go fetch your trainers.   
(whispers.)  There's a coffee pot near where we jumped up here.  And I saw  
Ryouga, too.

(Duck and Panda descend.)

Ukyou:  So what do you want me to call you two?

Linna:  You can call me Dancer and her Nerd.

Nene:  I'm a NERD?  AT LEAST I don't just work teaching idiots to...

Linna:  SHHH!!!

Nene:  Oops.  Call me Hacking Beauty.

Linna:  Beauty.  Haah.

Nene:  Hmph.

(Ryouga, Genma, and Mousse come up.)  

Nene:  Off we go.  If only this infernal humming would stop...

**********************

(We see the Sabers and the remainder of the Mag. Seven in their truck  
chasing the fleeing boomers.  Nene is busily jamming their communications  
to make sure that Genom does not know they have succeeded yet.  )

Nene:  Mackie!

Mackie:  (by radio)  Yes.

Nene:  We're going to need the Motoroid.

Mackie:  Right. 

Nene:  Follow this course I'm sending you.  

(We see Mackie fiddle with the truck radio.  It is pumping static.   
Loudly, except for Nene's voice.)

Mackie:  Every station is fuzzing up.  That stinks.

**********************

(We see a gray haired man dressed in a suit, carrying a briefcase, walking  
down the street.  He looks slightly confused.  He walks past a TV shop  
with 20 staticy TVs in the front.  He stops a passerby)  

Man:  Excuse me.  Can you tell me if this is the Shinjuku district?

Passerby:  Man, you are lost.  It's about fifteen kilometers that way.   
(points back the way the man came.)

Man:  Oh.  Perhaps I should go that way, then.

(A black hardsuit whizzes by overhead....It is labeled, "Blue Thunder".   
It leaves a loud boom in its wake.  The older man stares after it.)

Man:  I didn't think he could build such a thing.

Passerby:  You know who that is?

Man:  Who could forget a self-given nickname like that?

Passerby:  Eh?

Man:  Just reminiscing.  I think I may be getting a phone-call soon.Can  
you direct me to a phone-booth?

Passerby:  How will they know to call you there?

Man:  They'll know.

(Passerby points across the street to a phone booth.  The man bows to him  
and turns to go into an alleyway nearby, stops, stares around, then heads  
for the phone, staring at it intently.  It rings.  The passerby stares for  
a moment, then goes on.)

****************************

(We see ADPolice CommCentral.  The operators are working furiously.)

Radio:  We've got a...(lots of static)  in the Shinjuku district. (static)

Radio 2:  Out of control...(static)  Yokohama...(Static)  MacMillan-Youko  
Enterprises...(static)  20 dead

Radio 3:  Go where?  (static)  Can't  (static)  you

Controller:  Dammit!  Someone's jamming all frequencies!

Controller 2:  And every boomer in the city is on a rampage.

Controller:  Where the hell is Nene?  She's supposed to be on this shift.

Controller 2:  She got sick.

Controller:  Dammit!  She's always sick when this happens.  Call her at  
home.

Controller 2:  The phone lines are jammed too.

Controller:  AAARGH!  I hate this job!

******************************

(We see Leon and Daley cruising around.  They both look aggravated.)

Their radio:  Boomer's at  (static)  Repeat (static static) and (static)

Leon:  Some punk's jamming the Police frequencies.

Daley:  And commercial radio too.

Leon:  Four boomer outbreaks at the same time and...

(They see two of the Knight Sabers zoom by overhead.)

Daley:  It figures they'd join the party.

Leon:  I wonder if...

Daley:  What?

Leon:  Maybe they're jamming all the radio frequencies.

Daley:  Why?

Leon:  Let's find out.

(He turns the car to follow them.)

************************************

(we are in a Communications room with the Genom logo on the wall.  A bunch  
of confused techs and operators are in here.  They are looking at a map of  
the city and environs being created by a computer.  It shows a fifty mile  
across circle of jammed communications.)

Tech 1:  Whatever is doing this appears to be mobile.

Tech 2:  Even E-mail is being affected.

Tech 1:  Any electronic communications is largely dysfunctional in this  
zone.

Operator:  What is causing this?

Tech 2:  No idea.  We theorize something mobile, however.  It is located,  
approximately here:

(pushes a button.  A dot lights up on the screen, then we zoom in on a  
map, which has all the buildings on it.  A smaller circle is moving across  
the map.)

Tech 1:  The source is in that circle.  It is currently heading towards  
these buildings.

(Twenty buildings, mostly warehouses light up about a half mile from the  
moving circle.)

Tech 2:  Our corporation owns these buildings...but we have no way to warn  
them or even ask them to look and see if they spot anything.  

Tech 1:  For all we know, some crazed techies are driving around in a  
truck...

Operator 2:  So what do we do?

Tech 1:  Wait.

****************************************

(We see Mackie drive his truck up a street and park between warehouses.   
Linna and Nene drop out of the sky into the alley and quickly get the  
motoslave out of the back.  Then Mackie casually drives on out.  )

Mackie:  (on radio)  Are you jamming everything in sight, Nene?

Nene:  No, just boomer communications.

Mackie:  Just about every channel is messed up on my radio...even local  
ones.  

Nene:  There must be some kind of weird electromagnetic effect...I'm  
getting these awful humming and buzzing noises...they're really getting  
bad...We'd better get to Priss and Celia before it's too late.

Mackie:  Happy hunting.

Linna:  Yeah, right.  

******************************************

(We see the inside of a warehouse.  The remaining retrieval boomers have  
moved to defensive positions.  Dr. Hanou and Ms. Ichiwara are here.   
Ranma, Akane, and Shampoo are lying on various tables.  Priss and Celia  
are still in their hardsuits, lying on another table.)

Dr. Hanou:  This was an unexpected bonus.

Ms. Ichiwara:  Too bad the phones have gone out so we can't call for a  
truck to take them to HQ.

Dr. Hanou:  Why bring them here?

Ms. Ichiwara:  This way, if something goes wrong, the kidnappings could  
not be directly linked to Genom.  

Dr. Hanou:  We shall finally learn who these Knight Sabers really are.

Ms.  Ichiwara:  Two of them anyway.

Dr. Hanou:  They'll talk.  Everyone can be broken.

Ms. Ichiwara:  Yes.

(Dr. Hanou starts fiddling with Priss' armor.)

Ms. Ichiwara:  That might be dangerous.

Dr. Hanou:  I just have to find out.  I can't start experimenting with the  
others without my lab equipment.  Are you sure it was better to bring them  
here than straight to my lab...and the boomers only got three of them.

Ms. Ichiwara:  Trust me.  I knew exactly what I was doing when I planned  
this.

Dr. Hanou:  (still tinkering)  I feel like a mechanic.

Ms. Ichiwara:  So what do you plan to do with these three?

(About six more boomers arrive.  They take up defensive positions.)

Dr. Hanou:  Where'd they come from?

Ms. Ichiwara:  I called you and them at the same time, when the boomers  
reported losing five of their unit, and capturing five.  I wanted you here  
when they got here---this project was for your department's benefit.  And  
I wanted more boomers here to put up a creditable defense when the rest of  
them showed up.

Dr. Hanou:  Creditable defense?

Ms.  Ichiwara:  When the truck gets here, we leave with the captives.  The  
boomers stay and put up a defense to delay any pursuit.

Dr. Hanou:  Aah.  to answer your earlier question, (still tinkering with  
armor)  we plan to run a full set of tests and experiments to determine  
how they have preserved their youth.  I thought for a while they might be  
boomers, but once I discovered they had been around continuously since at  
least 2004, I gave up that theory.

Ms.  Ichiwara:  What happened in 2004?

Dr. Hanou:  They attended a ten year reunion.  In 2024, they made it to  
the thirty year reunion---no physical change inbetween.

Ms.  Ichiwara:  What kind of tests will you need?

Dr. Hanou:  whatever it takes.  I wonder if they are replicants...they  
have no children...except for the elder Saotome and his wife.  And none  
since the early seventies.

(Brief pause as Hanou tinkers more.  Finally, he pries open the faceplate  
with a crowbar.)

Dr. Hanou:  And this one is...hmm.  She looks vaguely familiar.  Didn't I  
see her in the news once...or something...a singer.  

(He pries the other faceplate open.  He starts.)

Dr. Hanou:  She looks like...I know I've seen her before...she was a lot  
younger then.  I really feel old.  She was someone at the company's  
daughter...won't they be surprised.  Her name was...

(Dr. Hanou looks stunned.)

Dr. Hanou:  Celia!  Celia Stingray, Dr. Stingray's daughter.  The inventor  
of...The bosses are going to die when they see this.

Ms. Ichiwara:  They aren't going to see this.

Dr. Hanou:  What?

Ms. Ichiwara:  Sadly, I had left to get more backup and you were killed  
when the rest of the Knight Sabers arrived.  You were still trying to get  
the armor off when I left.  (She is holding a gun on Dr. Hanou)

Dr. Hanou:  What are you doing?

Ms. Ichiwara:  Covering my ass and theirs. 

Dr. Hanou:  (yells to boomers)  Help!  Save me!

(Boomers don't move)

Ms. Ichiwara:  Too late.  Everyone already knows their part in this little  
drama but you.  Time for you to make your big death scene (We see her  
fire.  We see Dr. Hanou take a head shot and die.  He drops.)  Maybe  
they'll let you finish your research project in hell.

(The boomers have all been facing where they could not see what just  
happened.  Ms. Ichiwara turns to them)

Ms. Ichiwara:  (pulls out a small device that looks like a small metal box  
with antennae.  She pushes a button on it and says into a grill on one  
side.)  Initiate memory overlay 1.

The box:  (After a few seconds the box beeps. All of the boomers twitch a  
bit. Then the box says (flawlessly human voice)) Memories altered as per  
plan.

Ms. Ichiwara:  Good.  Time to get out before the action starts.

***********************

(We see a Souchiro Enterprises Truck pull into an alleyway in a area full  
of warehouses.  It is the same one we saw at the Office Park. A female  
clad in black slips off the roof into the shadows of the alley.  Ryouga,  
Genma, Ukyou, and Mousse pile out of the back of the truck.  A few seconds  
later, Nene and Linna drop down into the alleyway.)

Nene:  They're in the Wareteru Enterprises warehouse near here.

Genma:  How can you tell?

Linna:  We have ways of finding each other.

(Mr. Tendo leans out of the front of the truck)

Soun:  I've been trying to contact Nabiki, but something is jamming all  
the radio frequencies.

Ukyou:  She must be tearing her hair out.

Nene:  Do you guys have anyway to break down the doors?

Ryouga:  Blasting Point Hole! (Ryouga punches through a wall of the  
warehouse he is next to)

Linna:  How do you do that?

Ryouga:  It's all a matter of focusing your chi.  You can learn a lot of  
interesting things from martial arts.

Linna:  My master never taught us anything like that.

Ryouga:  I'm sure your master wasn't as weird as some of mine have been.

(He briefly remembers how Cologne taught him that technique during a  
training trip in the mountains.  He wanted to learn it to defeat Ranma,  
who had recently mastered a new technique.  He remembers the lesson he  
learned then...)

Ryouga:  I just have to remember it doesn't work on people.

Linna:  What about Bumas?

Ryouga:  Rock and stone are what it is best at....I used it to break the  
roof under you, for example.

Linna:  Where'd you go after that anyway?

Ryouga:  Uh, well, I knocked myself out in the rubble for a while..yeah.

Linna:  Oh.

*********************************
(We see the boomers in defensive positions inside the warehouse.  The  
front door suddenly blows open.  The boomers open fire, blanketing that  
area with tear and knockout gas and gel rounds.  Too bad the only people  
standing there are in hardsuits...Linna and Nene (who is controlling the  
Motoslave) open fire.  Then the roof blows open, and Ukyou, Genma, Mousse,  
and Ryouga drop down.  They grab the captives and run.  Several boomers  
turn to fire.  Ukyou and Ryouga fill the air with spatulas and bandanas.   
Several boomers lose limbs and weapons.  Ryouga blows open the back  
door...and finds himself staring in the face of six assault boomers.)

Ryouga:  Uh oh.

(They turn and run for cover as the assault boomers charge in.  Rockets go  
flying everywhere, turning the place into a burning nightmare land.  The  
sprinklers kick in.  Ranma, Ryouga, Mousse, Shampoo and Genma change.   
Akane wakes up from the water. Ranma, Priss, and Celia are still out of  
it.  Shampoo wakes up---as a cat.  ) 

Ukyou:  Aaargh!  I hate this!  (They are all taking cover behind some  
burning crates as the assault boomers try to nail the Sabers.  The boomers  
who were here first are all getting wasted in the crossfire between the  
Sabers and the Assault boomers.  )

(Nene, the Motoslave, and Linna have taken cover behind some burning  
crates.)

Linna:  What's in these crates, anyway?

Nene:  I have no idea.

(We notice one of the burning crates is stamped in English--"Weather  
Balloon", recovered Roswell, New Mexico, 1949)

Linna:  Keep them distracted.  I'm going to creep out the front and circle  
the building.  

Nene:  I hope that works.

(Linna crawls out of the building.  Meanwhile the panda is throwing  
flaming crates at one of the boomers and desperately dodging bullets and  
rockets.  It finally gives up and simply charges him.  The panda grabs  
hold and rolls back, flipping it through the wall.)

Ukyou:  (to Mousse-duck)  I'll make a distraction.  Fly out the top and  
head for the truck.  Mr. Tendo has a tea pot ready for this sort of  
problem.  Good luck, dear.  (kisses the duck on the forehead)

(She puts P-chan on Mousse's back, while Shampoo-cat clings to one of  
Mousse-duck's legs.  Then she creeps over to behind another stack and  
springs out from behind it, tossing spatulas.  One of the Assault boomers  
spins and fires, but she lands behind a third flaming pile without getting  
hit.  Mousse-duck makes it out the top of the building.) 

(The boomer the panda tossed gets back up and charges again.  He sidesteps  
and trips it.  It goes flying into the others, knocking them down.  Nene  
pops out and blasts away at them.  Two of them finally give out.  The  
other 4 get back up.  We hear sounds of a big fight outside.)

Nene:  What's going on out there, Linna?

Linna:  I'm almost in position...I don't believe it.

Nene:  What?

Linna:  More boomers, but...

Nene:  But what?

Linna:  Some old woman in a gymnastics outfit and a old guy with a  
briefcase are kicking their ass.

Nene:  I don't think this day could get any weirder.

(A siren cuts the air)

Linna:  Looks like Leon and Daley just showed up.

Nene:  How'd they find this with the radios all jammed?

Linna:  Guess they heard the fight, or something.  well, here I come.

(Linna bursts in the back and leaps into the midst of the four boomers.   
She spins, and her ribbons cut one of the boomers into thirds.  She  
gracefully grabs a second and smacks him into a third, then turns and  
pulls the charging fourth boomer past her, using his momentum to send him  
flying into a pile of flaming cartons.    Then the panda jumps the two  
downed boomers, and Ukyou emerges from behind a pile, tossing spatulas  
into the now flaming fourth boomer.  It charges out and is cut down by  
Nene and the Motoslave.  The panda picks up the two boomers and tosses  
them into the air.  As they come down, Ukyou smacks one with a spatula and  
linna slices the other to bits.  Everyone pants for a few seconds as they  
realize the fight is over.  More of the warehouse is going up in flames.   
They grab their friends and get out.  There are boomers strewn in the  
street, with Leon and Daley just standing at the edge of the destruction  
staring.  )

Leon:  (to the Sabers)  What the hell is going on here?

Nene:  No time for questions.  Gotta run.  (She merges her suit with the  
Motoslave and takes off carrying Priss.  Linna follows carrying Celia.   
Meanwhile the Magnificent Seven takes off back to their truck.)

Daley:  Somehow we just never quite know what is going on.

Leon:  I wonder if we could convince the guys at the station that we  
defeated all these boomers ourselves.

Daley: It's more believable than what really happened.

Leon:  Where did those two go, anyway?

Daley:  Back to fairyland, I guess.

(Up on a rooftop, we see a black hardsuit nearby, watching.)

Kunou:  Hmm.  The Sabers have the disks---good.  But Saotome eluded my  
grasp again.  Well, I shall let him go--this time.  Now we shall see what  
the Sabers do with what I have given them...

****************************
End Act II
****************************

************************************
Begin Act III    
************************************
(The scene opens on a board room.  There are four asians, four caucasians,  
and four blacks dispersed around the table--with two of each group being  
male, and two female.  They are all wearing identical navy blue suits.  A  
caucasian male and an asian female sit at the head of the table with the  
other ten dispersed equally along the table down from them.  Each has a  
small speaker, a keyboard and an inset number from 1 to 12 in the table in  
front of them.  The people at the head of the table are numbers 1 and 2.)

#1:  Has the source of the communications disturbance been located in  
Mega-Tokyo?

#7(Caucasian female):  Satellite photography was not affected by the  
disturbance.  However, they were unable to transmit to any location in the  
disturbance.  It seems likely that one of the armored figures in transit  
over the city at the time was responsible.  Unfortunately, we were unable  
to take any action in the area due to communications loss.

#2:  Do you estimate it is likely the Cabal is behind this?

#6(black male):  It seems unlikely that they would act so blatantly and  
messily.  I suspect some tech fan has created a new toy and is a little  
overenthusiastic.

#7:  What about the armored figures?

#9:  Who were the armored figures?

#7:  The Knight Sabers.  We have determined they are 80% likely to be the  
creation or in the employ of Celia Stingray, heir to the creator of Boomer  
technology.

#9:  Why has their been no report to the board about this?

#2:  We dealt with them before your elevation to the board in this past  
year, # 9.  It was decided not to take any direct action.  They are only  
an annoyance to our pawns.

#9:  What was the point of aiding the rise of the GENOM corporation if we  
were going to leave these vigilantes free to wreck its operations?

#1:  If everything went smoothly, too many people would become suspicious.   
The Knight Sabers help to allay public outrage against GENOM by attacking  
it.  The public can feel that "something is being done" without having to  
take action themselves.  And it keeps Genom on its toes.

#2:  You do remember the sixth law of group behavior, don't you, #9?

#9:  Competition between groups prevents the corruption of either as long  
as collusion between members of each can be prevented.

#2:  Exactly.  By refraining from crushing the Sabers, we keep GENOM on  
its toes.  And that makes them more useful for other more important  
purposes.  Besides, what can four women in battlesuits do to really stop a  
corporation the size of Genom?

***************************
(The Sabers are in the command center in the back of their truck on their  
way somewhere.  We see Nene glued to the computer screen.  She is reading  
rapidly whizzing lines of program text.  Celia and Priss are lying down,  
possibly asleep, possibly unconscious.  Linna is sitting and fretting.)

Linna:  How are we going to keep them from tracing the same signal we did  
to find those disks?

Nene:  I built a micro-jammer to block the signal once we found them.   
(mutters) At least that stupid buzzing has mostly stopped.

Linna:  What are you reading anyway?

Nene:  I had an encounter with some Genom agents who had been mugged.   
They had an interesting disk...

Linna:  What is it?

Nene:  Some very sophisticated codebreaking and intrusion programs.  

Linna:  Any idea why they had it?

Nene: Well, the disk seems to have belonged to Yamaguchi-Microsoft  
originally.  Or at least their name is mentioned in some of the  
explanation files.  I suppose they stole it.  

Linna:  Got any use for it?

Nene:  Well, I can add these to my hacking kit...whoever wrote them was  
ingenious.  

Linna:  Do you think Genom is likely to try to steal the programs again?

Nene:  They won't need to.  This is just a copy.  They still have the  
original.

Linna:  Those Magnificent Seven were...I just can't believe any of that  
really happened.

Nene:  I have no idea how they could do any of that stuff...I'd think they  
were boomers...but...

Linna:  Boomers just don't act like that...And I'd almost think  
that...naah.  That's impossible.

Nene:  What?

Linna:  Is anyone even close to developing teleportation technology?

Nene:  What, like in Star Trek:  Unto the Tenth Generation?

Linna:  Yeah, but no flashy lights or anything.

Nene:  Not even close as far as I know.  Why, did one of them seem to  
teleport?

Linna:  When that aquarium broke, I lost track of that Ryouga guy for a  
second or two.  When I managed to get turned the right way, he was gone.   
And there was a little black pig wearing a bandana like his trying to pick  
its way out of the glass without getting cut.

Nene:  Was there a poof of smoke too?

Linna:  No.

Nene:  I saw a magic show earlier this week with a trick like that, except  
there was smoke and water and the guy became a duck--with glasses.  I  
still don't know how he did it.

Linna:  Something odd is going on.

Nene:  Do you know anything about the Tarot?

Linna:  What, those card things?  Not really.  Why?  Planning on a career  
change?  Do you want to be a gypsy?

Nene:  Hmm.

**********************

(We see the Magnificent Seven in the back of their truck. The floor is  
covered by water puddles, but they are slowly draining out the drain in  
the center of the floor.  Mousse, Genma, Ryouga, and Shampoo are wet.  
Ranma is lying with his head in Akane's lap.  He is battered, but awake.   
Only Akane and Ukyou look normal.  Nabiki is chewing them out via  
videophone.)

Nabiki:  They got away?

Ukyou:  Most of our team was out of commission.  Cats and pandas and  
..well, the farm crew can't do much against hardsuits.

Genma:  I can fight perfectly well as a panda.

Nabiki:  And the signal is being jammed now?

Ukyou:  Either that or the toy broke.

Nabiki:  That is not a toy!

Ukyou:  If we could find them, I think we could take them...but I don't  
know where to look.  Two of them were beat to pieces.

Nabiki:  They must have top notch communications and ECM equipment.  Every  
comm device in a fifty mile radius crashed shortly after you went into the  
compound.

Akane:  All of them?

Nabiki:  I guess the Sabers really didn't want to be found...unless some  
Megacorp did it.  No one else has the resources for that kind of thing.

Akane:  A bunch of boomers interfered.  They tried to kidnap us....

Nabiki:  Genom must have caught on to our "natural youthfulness"....maybe  
we should start telling people we use Oil of Olay.

Ranma:  Nabiki...(moans a bit)

Nabiki:  Don't strain yourself, brother-in-law.  Dr. Tofu and Kasumi will  
fix you right up, but you'd better rest for now.

Ranma:  One of the people there...betrayed the other...

Nabiki:  What?

Ranma:  I was starting to wake up....one of them found out who two of the  
Sabers were...and the other one shot him and left.

Nabiki:  Strange.

Ranma:  One of them is a singer...and the other one is the daughter of  
some guy who worked for Genom...

Nabiki:  We're going to have to work fast if we are to get the  
disks...We've only got one lead.

Mousse:  What?

Nabiki:  An apartment rented by someone named Arcadia Watson.  Kasumi  
encountered a hacker who had hacked into Souchiro from there.  I'm going  
to give Dad the address...Come by here and drop off Ranma...then go there  
and see what you can find.  If that comes up blank, we're going to  
probably have to write this one off...

******************************
(Morisako Apartments is a fairly typical twelve story apartment complex on  
the north side of Mega-Tokyo.  It has a high tenant turn over because it  
caters to those who only need an apartment for a relatively short period  
of time.  Thus the neighbors pay little attention when a truck labeled  
MIF--Move It Fast pulls up in front of the apartment building.  Five  
movers in generic dingy tan uniforms get out, two men, two women, and an  
older man who is obviously the head of the crew.  They head up the stairs  
into the building.  They are carrying empty crates.)

Crew head:  Let's get a move on!  This client wants this done fast.

(While they are in the building, a second truck pulls up, similar in size  
and shape to the first, but labeled GENOM TRANSPORT COMPANY, INC.  Five  
people in generic dingy tan uniforms pile out--two men, two women, and an  
older man who takes the lead.  They head into the building.  We hear a few  
shouts.  The first crew comes out carrying a few loaded crates and being  
chased by the second crew...who we can now see are Mousse, Shampoo, Ukyou,  
Ryouga, and Genma.  )

Genma:  Just tell us where you are taking the stuff, and we won't hurt  
you!

Random Crew member:  AAAHHH!!! Thieves!  They don't pay me enough for  
this!

(They pile into their truck.  The driver tries to start it.  Mousse whips  
out a lot of knives and throws them....in seconds, the tires are all going  
flat.  The truck starts to move with the moving crew still piling in...but  
not very fast.  Shampoo leaps and kicks one of the crew, who falls to the  
ground as the truck bumps and grinds away.  Ryouga starts to run after it,  
but Genma intervenes.)

Genma:  They're just movers...we have one.  That is enough.

Shampoo:  (Idly playing with her sword)  Mover wants to help Shampoo,  
doesn't she?

Mover(female):  Uh, yes.  I'll be glad to shampoo you if you just don't  
kill me.

(Shampoo looks slightly confused)

Genma:  Where were you taking the stuff from the apartment to?

Mover:  Some lady called and wanted a rush job---had to go to an apartment  
or shop or something over on the Southwest side of the city.  Today.  1  
hour and we would get triple the usual pay.

Genma:  And her name was?

Mover:  Dunno.  Building was Lady633, though...I think that's mostly  
shops...It might have been a Lingerie shop, maybe?

Genma:  Ryouga, Shampoo.  See if there is a computer in the apartment.   
Then we'd better get out of here.  Madam mover, you are taking a little  
ride with us.  

(Mover looks over at their truck)

Mover:  You guys don't look like Genom.

Genma:  (smirks)  We're undercover boomers.

Mover:  I never would have guessed.

Genma:  Exactly.

********************************
(We see Linna and Nene at the Knight Saber base.  Nene is busily staring  
at a computer screen, while Linna is eating ice cream and fretting.)

Linna:  Blast it!  Until Celia wakes up, we've got to sit on those damn  
disks.  I wish I'd never seen them.  

Nene:  They're really interesting

Linna:  You're reading them?

Nene:  Don't worry.  This place is being blanket jammed.  No one will find  
them.

Linna:  Is that ethical?

Nene:  After having two of my closest friends nearly die, I want to know  
why.

Linna:  (comes over to the screen)  So what is on these disks?  Or would  
only a computer geek understand?

Nene:  Computer goddess, thank you.

Linna:  Okay, goddess.  Please o great and powerful one, Illuminate me  
with your wisdom.

Nene:  There are three disks.  Disk one is labeled Reap the Whirlwind.   
Disk Two is labeled Power Behind the Throne.  Disk three is labeled  
Project E-2025-G.  They're all heavily encoded, but that decryption  
program I got off the disk those Genom guys had goes right through it.   
Probably because the same company did the encryption...and the decryption  
program I am using.  I'm not surprised Mendo-Mizonokouji wants this stuff  
too.

Linna:  So what is on the disks?

Nene:  Disk one is a super-virus.  It copies itself into your system, then  
goes dormant for three months...its only action being to attach itself to  
any program that sends things out of your system so it can mail itself  
there to wait for three months...until it does its dirty work.  And the  
disk has the virus-killer for it too...to keep it out of your system.

Linna:  What does it do?

Nene:  When three months are up, it downloads a program from some  
anonymous ftp site called kenshiro.halo.NIT.edu.jp.  And then it runs the  
program.

Linna:  What program?

Nene:  That's on the second disk...and I checked.  
(kenshiro.halo.NIT.edu.jp)  It's there too....

Linna:  And?

Nene:  Power Behind the Throne relies on both the original virus and  
itself...It rewrites the operating system and makes someone at  
yamaguchi.com the super-super user in the system it is running in.

Linna:  Which means?

Nene:  Together, these two programs would let people at yamaguchi.com  
rifle through any system hooked up to the net and do anything they wanted  
to it...and it hides their status so that no one knows they can do it.   
Within a year or so, they could probably break into any system hooked up  
into the net unless someone caught on the virus was spreading...

Linna:  Shit!

Nene:  I've already got the virus-killer running on this system and the  
ADPolice system.

Linna:  Nice of you to take care of your job.  

Nene:  I'm the power behind the throne there, not some stupid geek at  
Yamaguchi-Microsoft.

Linna:  What about Disk 3?

Nene:  I'm still working on that...the decrypter is running in the  
background while I finish checking out disks 1 and 2.  It should be ready  
soon.

****************

(We see Ranma and Akane at Dr. Tofu's clinic.  Ranma looks a little less  
hurt, but he is swathed in bandages.  Akane is spoonfeeding him some soup.  
Kasumi is here too.)

Ranma:  Mmm.  This is good, but I really shouldn't be lying around here.

Dr. Tofu:  If you hadn't been wearing that armored gi, you'd be dead.  It  
amazes me how well they stop gunfire.

Ranma:  (tries to sit up, collapses)  I feel...fine.  Really.

Kasumi:  As your doctor and your sister-in-law, you are under strict  
orders not to move until we give approval.  

Ranma:  May I please breathe, at least...

Kasumi:  (smiles)  I suppose that could be allowed.

Dr. Tofu:  You should be fine in a day or two.

Ranma:  Can't wait that long...

Akane:  You are definitely not ready to go back into battle.  

Ranma:  Can't let them go into danger without me...

Akane:  They need us in reserve in case they get in trouble...so we can  
rescue them.

Ranma:  As usual.

*************************

(Nene is sitting and reading from the screen again.  Linna is shoveling  
away more ice cream, fidgeting, and listening to the jambox. )

Jambox:  Man of two bodies...
         Woman of two hearts...
	 They can't live together...
	 but can't live apart.
	 
Linna:  What are you listening to Nene?

Nene:  Dunno.  Some tape Priss left lying around.

Linna:  That isn't her voice.

Nene:  Maybe she just likes them.  Check it.

Jambox:  Growing towards love...
         with a long way to go.
	 
(Linna pulls out the tape.  It is labeled  "Bad Hair Day--Live at Club  
Dead" )

Linna:  Bad Hair Day? 

Nene:  Well, the name is silly, but put it...oh.  Here comes the contents  
of the mystery disk.

(Linna hurries over to the screen.  It is filled with a directory full of  
names and files.)

Linna:  Well?

Nene:  This thing is full of sound and picture files and video excerpts.  
And they're all dated as if the files were made in 2024 to 2028. Let's see  
what we've got.

(She punches in a few commands, and the monitor becomes a movie screen of  
sorts: 

We see a meeting room with five men and women in suits.  There is nothing  
in particular to identify where they are...until they speak, except...)

Nene:  Hey, that's Quincy of Genom!

Quincy:  How is operation Babel going?

Anonymous suit # 1:  All that remains is to trigger the device.  Dr. Wu's  
research has paid off...better than he might ever have expected.

Anonymous suit # 2:  Genom is in the perfect position to benefit from the  
quake when it happens.  Our boomers will be able to fill the need of the  
city for emergency labor to rebuild.  We estimate that fires alone should  
devastate 60% or more of the city's infrastructure.

Anonymous suit # 1:  With Dr. Stingray out of the picture, Genom will reap  
all of the profits from the expansion of Buma manufacture and sales.  

Anonymous suit # 2:  There will be a short term net loss due to  
quake-induced damage to pre-existant Genom facilities, but that will be  
made up by the end of the quarter.

Quincy:  If we emerged unscathed, it would look a little too odd anyway.   
And we have only a few possessions in Mega-Tokyo anyway.  There remains  
only to deal with another inventor...

(The segment ends.)

Linna:  What the hell is that doing on there?

Nene:  Yamaguchi must have somehow copied a security tape, or something...

Linna:  What else is on there...Celia is going to love this disk, I think.

(They watch more video  and sound clips.  A board meeting approves  
operation Babel.  The government approves Genom mass importation of  
Boomers into Mega-Tokyo.  Lists of politicians on the take and payments  
made.  Lists of Genom investments in the first twelve months after the  
quake.  Purchase of Station 12 TV and 99.3 FM radio by Genom subsidiaries.   
Creation of the Special Resources Advisory Board---apparently some sort of  
board of "augmented" humans altered using boomer technology.  Planned  
takeover bids against the major Mega-Tokyo corporations.  Orders for eight  
different assassinations.  The ordering of the research that lead to the  
creation of Largo. A hit list of troublesome ADPolice officers...)

Linna:  Someone really piled up a lot of dirt.

Nene:  No wonder those boomers showed up.  They must have learned of this  
disk.  If we could prove any of this...

Linna:  Who needs proof?  If we could get this on the air, Genom would be  
playing clean-up for years.  

(Mackie enters.  He looks a little haggard.)

Mackie:  I think they're going to wake up soon.  I...hey, what's this?

Nene:  SHhh...

(The final clip plays.  It is a 2028 evaluation report on the success of  
Operation Babel.)

MIB#1:  The movement into Mega-Tokyo has been a total success.  This city  
is ours.  What is the feasibility of a duplication of this operation?

Scientist #1(Blond Caucasian):  We would have to recommend waiting until  
we perfect the technique more thoroughly.  Also, any future site should be  
in an earthquake prone area so as to reduce the likelihood of the quake's  
artificial nature being detected.

MIB#2:  Any recommendations?

Scientist #1:  Well, an area with multiple fault lines, such as southern  
California would be ideal.  I can work on a list of suitable areas.

MIB#1:  That would be good.  Andrew, can you give us a listing of our  
approximate profit from this venture?

(The clip drags on into a complex financial report.  The Sabers cut it  
off.)

Mackie:  Shit.

Linna:  They haven't...

Nene:...done it yet?  I don't think so.  But it has been five years.   
Yamaguchi-Microsoft has been sitting on this information for five years.

Mackie:  What could they do?  They can't prove any of this.  I could fake  
the whole disk easily if it is all like this.

Nene:  Me too.  But it would certainly hurt their reputation if this disk  
leaked out...We've got to stop them.

Linna:  How?  We don't know what city...

Nene:  If something like this was broadcast....widespread...they wouldn't  
dare do it again...people would point the finger at Genom, blaming them  
for any quake they benefited from.

Mackie:  Suddenly, I feel the need to turn on the news, just to be sure...

Linna:  Good idea.  (She goes over to the TV, and turns it on.  Channel 23  
News is on--with Edison Carter.)

Edison:  This is special investigative reporter, Edison Carter, here  
outside the Genom Tower with a special report on the recent city  
communications blackout.

(The Genom tower stretches up into the sky, with stormy rain clouds  
gathered around its peak.  As Edison speaks, a bolt of lightning arcs down  
and strikes one of the tower's many lightning rods and is safely drained  
away.)

(Nene stares at the screen.  Her eyes reflect a sudden realization.)

Nene:  The Tower....

Linna:  What?

Nene:  I've got to be jumping to conclusions...

Mackie: What?  What?

Nene:  There's a tower in the babel story...

Linna: And?

Nene: And in the Tarot deck...

Mackie:  Tarot deck?

Nene:  And on the TV...

Linna:  And?

Nene:  Oh, my ears are buzzing again...must not have been the comm  
system...(she looks to be in a little pain)

Linna:  Are you okay?

Mackie:  The stress must be getting to her.

Nene:  And the swords cards?  What do they mean...King, queen, knight, and  
page?  She mentioned four swords cards...

Mackie:  Maybe you'd better lie down...

Nene:  I...A sabre is a sword!

Linna:  What?

Nene:  That stage magician knows who we are!  And the tower is Genom!  or  
something they did or will do or are doing...oh, that damn buzzing.

Mackie:  Stage magician?

Linna:  She mentioned she went to a magic show earlier this week  
and...hey, there's a panda in the window!

Mackie:  A what?

Linna:  Oh, shit!

(Genma-panda comes crashing through the window, followed by the sound of a  
door opening elsewhere in the house and the sound of running feet.  Mousse  
and Ukyou come in the window after the Panda.)

Nene:  Don't move or I'll shoot!  (She has her ADPolice issue pistol  
out...although she is still in her jumpsuit she wears inside the  
hardsuit.)

(The panda keeps coming.  She fires.  Genma-panda claps his hands together  
in front of him, then holds up the bullet on an open palm.  Nene faints.)

Linna:  Mackie!  Get the others out of here!

(Mackie runs back the way he came in.)

Linna:  C'mon you big bamboo eating bastard.  (Moves into a fighting  
stance)

(The panda charges.  She sidesteps, and uses his motion to toss him past  
her into the hallway.  Then she grabs a lamp and tosses it at Mousse, who  
rips it to bits in the air with knives and other bladed weapons.   
Meanwhile, Ukyou fills the air with a hail of spatulas.  Linna deflects  
most of them, but a few hit her, making bruises.  One even draws blood.)

Linna:  Shit.

(The panda charges again, and she easily grabs it, rolls, and throws it  
over her into Mousse.  They topple into the wall.  Then she grabs a small  
standing lamp and closes on Ukyou, who gets out her giant spatula. )

Ukyou:  At least one of you knows how to fight.

Linna:  This would be fairer if I had a real weapon.

Mousse:  Life is not fair.

(He throws several chains ending in hooks at her.  She deflects them with  
the lamp, but he pulls it away from her.  She flips back away from Ukyou,  
then kicks the panda into Mousse again.)

(Ryouga and Shampoo enter the room with a struggling Mackie over their  
shoulder.)

Ryouga:  You are brave, but you lack skill.

Mackie:  Put me down!

(Linna sees she is in big trouble.  Nene wakes up again.)

Nene:  How did you find us?

Ukyou:  We intercepted the moving company you sent to empty "Arcadia  
Watson"'s apartment.  

Nene:  We didn't send a moving company.

Mackie:  No way.  We'd do it ourselves.  There's nothing there to  
incriminate any of us, anyway.

Mousse:  Are you sure of that?  They were taking the stuff to a Lingerie  
business...owned by the owner of this apartment--Celia Stingray.

Nene:  I smell a rat...You guys are after the disks, right?

Shampoo:  Yes.

Nene:  I just finished looking at the disks before you got here.  Let me  
show you what I found.  

********************************

(We now see a large conference room.  It looks like some sort of corporate  
meeting room, but there are no corporate logos visible.  There are a lot  
of people in here:  the Sabers, the Magnificent Seven, and their support  
staff.  The "meeting" is really broken up into a bunch of simultaneous  
conversations.  Celia and Nabiki are sitting at opposite ends of the long  
table.  Kasumi and Nene are not actually at the table, but are over at a  
side table banging away at two computers and trading comments and  
information.  The rest are busily yammering away at each other up and down  
the table. )

Genma:  I'm hungry.

Nodoka:  We can eat later.

Nene:  Somebody say something about food?

Ukyou:  We can all get something from my shop after we finish the meeting.

Shampoo:  Shampoo would be happy to feed everyone afterward.  Why would  
anyone want to eat Okonomiyaki in the middle of the night, anyway?

Ukyou:  Okonomiyaki is good anytime!

Shampoo:  Hah!  Noodles are better!  

Ukyou:  (In Shampoo's face)  I'll show you what's better!  

Shampoo:  Oh Yeah?!  (Sword comes out.  Ryouga tries to drag her away from  
Ukyou, while Mousse tries to restrain Ukyou)

Mousse:  Why don't you two settle this some other way?

Linna:  Hey, calm down, people.  Yeesh.  And I thought Priss was cranky.

(Ryouga and Mousse drag Shampoo and Ukyou away from each other.)

Celia:  Does this happen often?

Nabiki:  All the time...(sighs)  ORDER!  (She bangs a mallet on the table.   
Everyone falls silent)  So.  We have evidence that Genom may be behind the  
Kanto earthquake, that Yamaguchi-Microsoft apparently knew of this and  
hasn't done anything about it, that Genom may be planning to do this  
again, and that Yamaguchi-Microsoft has been working on a virus that could  
conceivably give them total access to any system on the net.  
 
Celia:  We also know that Mendo-Mizonokouji is interested in these  
disks---interested enough to claim they were their disks and send you  
after them.  We also know that three GENOM couriers seem to have been  
physically transporting a disk carrying a security cracking program a few  
days ago to some destination unknown to us.

Nabiki:  Thirdly, we know that Genom somehow got wind of this operation  
and sent boomers, either after us, the disks, the Sabers, or some  
combination of the above.

Ranma:  And someone in Genom seems to be a traitor working against them.  

Nabiki:  What?

Ranma:  I began waking up before you arrived, and I overheard some woman  
telling some guy that "Sadly, I had left to get more backup and you were  
killed when the rest of the Knight Sabers arrived.  You were still trying  
to get the armor off when I left. "  (He mimics the woman's voice)

Celia:  Hmm.  It could have just been some sort of power play inside  
Genom.

Ranma:  Maybe.  But I think she really despised that guy.

Nene:  Was her name Ichiwara Nyoko?

Ranma:  I have no idea.  Who is she?

Nene:  She's the female security consultant for Mission 862 for Genom's  
Extractions department.

Ukyou:  Extractions department?

Nene:  It has two branches.  One does mining.  The other does black  
operations, especially "Extraction"---kidnapping.  They have really tight  
security on their records, but with these new intrusion programs, Kasumi  
and I cut their security to ribbons and stole all the data we could find.

Kasumi:  Mission 862 was the mission to grab the magnificent seven for  
bio-research purposes.  They seem to have discovered our longevity and  
want to know how we are doing it.  A Dr. Hanou Ito seemed to have  
discovered this secret and applied for a mission to be sent to grab us.   
Ichiwara was in charge of directing the operation.  According to their  
records, we killed Hanou during the warehouse fight.

Nene:  We've been probing for more evidence as to whether they have any  
plans to try to cause another earthquake, but we have been unable to find  
anything concrete.  So far.

Kasumi:  Genom is also trying to find out what caused that massive  
communications failure last night.

Nene:  We're lucky that it happened.  It kept them too distracted to send  
reinforcements during our fight with the boomers.

Linna:  Except for those ones that were trashed outside.  We still don't  
know who the old woman and the old man were...but they demolished at least  
six boomers by themselves...with a briefcase and bowling pins.  Or  
whatever those things she was throwing were.

Ranma:  An old man?  He wasn't extremely short and wrinkled, mostly bald  
and drooling was he?

Linna:  Not at all.  He was about as tall as him (points at Ryouga) and  
had graying hair, a nice suit and a briefcase.  It must have been made out  
of reinforced steel, though....

Mousse:  Why?

Linna:  He cracked a boomer's skull with it.  And the old lady was dancing  
around in some gymnastic outfit throwing stuff everywhere.

Celia:  Hmm.  More super-martial artists.  How many of you people are  
there?

Dr. Tofu:  Hmm.  I would have thought it might be Happosai and Cologne,  
but they never got along and don't look or act like that.  They are the  
only two people I know of besides us who could get away with fighting  
boomers like that.
But Cologne went back to China, and Happy is missing....thank goodness.

Linna:  Maybe one of them trained these two?

Ranma:  That woman almost sounds like Kodachi, but she's dead.  

Celia:  Are you sure?  People have faked their own death.

Ranma:  She was involved in trying to rescue people from the collapse of  
Furinkan High School during the quake.  She and her father both died when  
the building collapsed, along with a lot of other government agents.  She  
had been part of some agency for decades.  Her brother was crushed.  At  
least her death was more honorable than her life.  But I haven't actually  
seen her since college.  I don't know if I would recognize her anymore if  
she was alive.

Priss:  Decades?

Ranma:  Well, I graduated in 1998, so it has been about 34 years.

Priss:  No way!  You can't be past thirty.

Ranma:  Believe it or not.

Priss:  (to Mousse)  What about...

Mousse:  We are all older than we look.

Priss:  I feel like I'm trapped in a Twilight Zone episode.

Nene:  Maybe we are.  I met a stage magician who I think may know who the  
Knight Sabers are.  And I think she knows a few other things too.  Her  
name is Roberta Tome.  She tours with a man named Michael Meese.  They  
have a trademark act where she turns him into a duck.  Then he flies  
around with little glasses and a bow tie on, then turns back.  

Mousse:  A duck?  Does the act involve water?

Nene:  Yes.

Mousse, Ryouga, Ranma, Genma, Shampoo:  Jyusenkyo!

Celia:  Jyusenkyo?

Ranma:  There's a place in China with a thousand cursed pools.  A person  
or an animal drowned in each of them.  Now, if you fall in the pool, you  
turn into whatever drowned there whenever cold water is splashed on you.  

Priss:  You've got to be kidding.

Ranma:  I suppose you'd have to see it to believe it?

Linna:  (Eyes open wide.  She looks over at Ryouga.  almost whispers...)   
The pig...I..no.  It couldn't be.

Priss:  Hell yes.  I'm not going to buy some silly story about magic pools  
and transformations!

Ranma:  Right.  Akane, bring me a bucket, please.

(Akane runs out, comes back soon with a bucket of water.  Ranma turns and  
splashes some on his dad, who transforms into a panda.  Priss stares  
wide-eyed.)

Linna:  (almost whispered again)  The aquarium must have done it to...

Priss:  Shit!

Panda:  (on a sign)  And him too...(Grabs the bucket, splashes Ranma.   
Ranma becomes a woman.)

Ranma-chan:  We know from all too personal experience.

(Nene stares at Ranma-chan)

Nene:  Do you have any older relatives with this problem?

Ranma-chan:  Not besides Pop.

Nene:  It's just that...well...Roberta Tome looked a lot like an older  
version of how you look right now.

Dr. Tofu:  Hmm.  Did this Michael Meese bear any resemblance to Mousse?

Nene:  (stares)  Some.  But he was dressed differently, was a lot older,  
had his hair cut differently, so I'm not sure.

Dr. Tofu:  What about the old man with the briefcase, Linna?  Does he  
resemble any of the people here?

Linna:  (scratches her head)  Hmm.  Maybe him (points to Ranma-chan) in  
his male form, or him (points to Ryouga).  I didn't get a good look.

Dr. Tofu:  Darling, can you punch up our computer picture album?

Kasumi:  Certainly.

(She hits a few keys, types in a few commands and waits.  The screen comes  
up with a video image of a photo collection book.  She starts paging  
through it using its icon command system and the computer mouse.)

Kasumi:  Who am I looking for?

Dr. Tofu:  Find the oldest picture you can of Kodachi.

Akane:  But she's dead!

Dr. Tofu:  Maybe.  And maybe not.

(Kasumi finds the picture.  It shows Ranma, Akane, Ukyou, Ryouga, Kodachi,  
Tsubasa, Gosunkugi in graduation robes.  Shampoo and Mousse are in it too,  
but not in graduation robes.  They are posing in front of some university  
building.  Kasumi clicks on Kodachi and expands and enhances the image.   
Linna comes over and looks at it.)

Linna:  That could be her.

(Kasumi clicks up some other photos--Kodachi and Ranma's martial  
gymnastics duel, Kodachi at a big Christmas party at the Tendo dojo,  
Kodachi leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Ranma and Akane uneasily posing  
for a photo with Kodachi sneaking up behind them.)

Linna:  Well, that's the kind of outfit she was wearing, and I can see  
those bowling pins in this photo.  (points to the duel photo)

Ryouga:  Those are gymnastics pins.

Linna:  Whatever.  Got any programs for predicting what people will look  
like as they age?

Kasumi:  Good idea.  (She calls up Mousse, Ranma-chan, Ranma, Ryouga, and  
Kodachi photos and ages them.  Linna and Nene look at them.)

Nene:  Yep.  That's them.

Linna:  Same here.  The guy with the briefcase looked like an old Ryouga,  
and the woman even had the same pony-tail as this Kodachi character.  

Nodoka:  So where did these duplicates come from?

Dr. Tofu:  And what is their role in all of this?

*********************************************
(Scene cuts to a room jam packed with electronic equipment, computers,  
speakers, tape recorders, monitors, and other hi-tech devices.  Thirteen  
technicians are busily monitoring conversations and watching screens.   
Each is wearing an identical grey dress shirt and blue slacks.  They have  
a small pin over the left pocket that has Observer #(fill in a number from  
14 to 26) on it.)

Speaker 22:  "And what is their role in all of this?"

Observer 22:  Hmm.  An interesting chain of deduction.  Coordinator 2 will  
want to hear of this.  Perhaps these other individuals merit being placed  
under observation, especially if they also have anomalous abilities.  This  
could explain some of the unusual incidents that have been disrupting the  
Probability department's calculations.

**********************************************
(We see the Director in bed with his wife.  It is dark, and they are only  
shadowy outlines.  A buzzing noise fills the air.  The Director moans, and  
sits up.  He reaches out and punches a button on the wall.)

Director:  What?  (yawns.  He seems to be talking to the air.)

Voice:  (from somewhere)  Sir, they seem to have deduced that there are  
duplicates of at least some of themselves running around.  

Director:  Which means that the Board also knows by now if they have been  
bothering to monitor them.

Voice:  We could have disrupted their bugs, but that would let them know  
we have an interest in this case.

Director:  Well, I knew they would learn the truth by the end of this  
anyway.  We can only hope that the Board acts as slowly as usual.  We  
can't let them get to these people before we do.  Are Michael and Janet  
already in California?

Voice:  Yes sir.

Director:  Good.  Has the proper evidence been planted in Roberta's house?

Voice:  Yes, sir.  Why are you using the third person?

Director:  I suppose I've been hanging around Janet too much. She always  
talks in the third person.  

(His wife stirs)

Wife:  Who are you talking to, darling?

Director:  Ishi is telling me that they have figured out that you may not  
be dead.

Wife(giggles)  That's good to know that I may not be dead.  So what  
happens next?

Director:  We get some sleep, and in the morning we go to California.  The  
crisis is upon us.  

Wife:  One of the "malleable moments" as Dr. Arslan likes to refer to  
them...

Ishi:  Malleable moments?

Wife:  I always forget about that speakerphone...Dr. Arslan has a theory  
that certain moments in history are more easily changed than others...That  
by intervening at the right moments you could change the course of history  
in major ways through relatively minor actions.  A seemingly trivial or  
minor event could have major long term repercussions.  A big event at  
these moments could have world-shaping repercussions.  

Director:  He related this also to the shifts between magical, religious,  
and scientific paradigms through human history.  

Ishi:  Yes, we all know about that part.  I just hadn't heard it called  
"malleable moments" before.

Director:  If all our divinations are correct, the upcoming crisis in  
California is the ideal time to shift the paradigm away from pure  
technology in this next century.  Otherwise, they may break us  
permanently, and the Board will be able to finally stomp out the last  
wonders of the world. 

Wife:  Do you really think they'll be able to do what has to be done?

Director:  They have to.  If they fail, and the last vestiges of magic are  
crushed...they will die.  The scientific paradigm doesn't like people who  
cheat the ravages of aging with magic...whether they chose it or not.

Wife:  What about you, and Michael, and Janet, and ...

Director:  We might just vanish.  Or maybe they will.  We still don't know  
who the originals are.  It won't happen overnight.  But if we fail here,  
the Board should be able to finally tighten up their paradigm and crush  
out the last magicians and magical creatures in about ten years or so.  If  
we succeed, it will start unraveling around the edges and Genom, their  
most powerful tool, will be broken.  After Andreas rampages through the  
streets, and it is clearly Genom's fault, plus the knowledge that they  
caused the quake...It should provide the push needed to crack both Genom  
and the Board's power.

Ishi:  There's going to be a lot of destruction.

Director:  I just wish I could find another way...but I haven't been able  
to.  If we cannot restore the power of magic, our world will slowly die.  
But long before it dies, it will have become not worth living in.  We  
cannot return to the world of magic that once was.  We need science and  
its powers to survive.  But science by itself chokes the spirit.  This  
city has become a giant groveling, quarrelling mass of stone and steel,  
inhabited by corporate zombies, faceless executives, and broken men and  
women.  It is a place without imagination or hope, building towards an  
explosion of hate. We have to turn it to another path, or the future will  
be as bleak as the present. 

Wife:  Do you think the apprentice you found is up to her part?

Director:  She blanked out the city's communications in a fifty mile  
radius with no training and no conscious knowledge that she was doing it.   
She is the future---a melding of magic and technology.  Humanity will need  
both to survive.  We've been trying to bring ourselves around to that  
state, but most of us just aren't technologically oriented.  She is  
becoming the future we want to create.

******************************

(We cut briefly to a desk where someone in a blue suit is reading a  
report.)  

Report:  Probability Analysis:

Probability of physical manifestation of Andreas if fault is stimulated:  
Without outside intervention:1%
With proper precautions taken:  .0001%
If CABAL interferes:  25%

Recommend Heavy Security if operation is to proceed.

Probability of Andreas recieving heavy publicity if it manifests:
Without outside intervention:95%
If CABAL interferes:  100%
With extensive media-coverup: 
If CABAL does not interfere:  2%, not counting Tabloids
If CABAL does interfere:  50% 

Recommend keeping a tight lid on the media--find a distraction for them.  

Probability of Paradigm damage if Andreas manifests:
With media coverage:  65%
Without media coverage:  3%
If GENOM is discredited as a result:  add +20% to other conditions.
If CABAL is able to take advantage of the manifestation:  add +30%
If GENOM forces are responsible for supressing Andreas:  subtract 20%

recommend dispatching additional security to area.

Estimated additional damage to area if Andreas manifests:
Approximately 1 trillion yen.

Estimated paradigm damage:
1.  Belief in magical monsters will be further stimulated.
2.  If CABAL forces are involved in suppressing it, belief in other forms  
of magic will be strengthened.
3.  The discrediting of GENOM would weaken one of our major tools for  
strengthening the scientific paradigm.
4.  Massive population death might trigger an increase in spectral  
manifestations.
5.  Released energies might trigger spontaneous magical manifestations.

(The man takes the page, stamps FORWARD TO INTERVENTION DEPARTMENT on it,  
and feeds it into an optical scanner on his desk.  Then he goes on to the  
next report.)

*********************************
(We see the Sabers, the Magnificent Seven, and their friends/support staff  
in Ukyou's restaurant. It is still dark outside.  Ukyou and Mousse are  
running around trying to get everyone fed adequately.  Celia and Nabiki  
are sitting at one table talking.)

Celia:  So we're going to go inside the house, while your team makes sure  
she doesn't slip out and keeps the police and/or GENOM busy if they decide  
to join the party.

Nabiki:  Right.  We have to find out if this Tome person knows as much as  
Nene thinks she does.  But we all need to get some rest and do a little  
research on her before we go after her.  Also, I'm going to send someone  
to find out if she actually lives at the address we have and if she will  
be around when we need to find her.

Celia:  And we still need to find out what caused that communication  
blackout.

Nabiki:  And why they did it.  I also hope Nene and Kasumi can find out  
where and if GENOM is planning another quake.

Celia:  This could be our big chance to finally break GENOM.  (She is a  
bit more animated than usual.  Her eyes almost glow.)

Nabiki:  You really don't like them, do you.

Celia:  They have abused the technology my father gave them, and killed  
him for questioning their use of it.  They made machines of peace into  
machines of war.  GENOM has to be brought down before it does any more  
damage.  A mad dog has to be put down.

(We hear Priss and Linna arguing about something far across the room.   
Celia and Nabiki turn and look at them.  Celia shakes her head.)  

Celia Stingray:  Your team can't possibly be as much a pain as mine are  
sometimes.

Nabiki:  Obviously, you've never tried to convince Akane it's not her turn  
to cook dinner.

*********************************

(Cut to Kunou's office.  He looks a bit agitated.)

Kunou:  Hmm.  Still no word from my agents in Mendo-Mizonokouji or  
Yamaguchi-Microsoft as to which team has the disks.  It looked like the  
Sabers were quite battered by that battle with those boomers.  I wonder if  
GENOM has found out what I put on those disks?  I hope Yamaguchi doesn't  
need what was on the third disk, because I wrote over the entire thing.  

(Kunou sits back and smiles)  

Kunou:  But if they load those disks into their system, they're going to  
be infected by a rewritten version of their own virus.  Nothing could be  
more just than to strike someone with their own illicit weapon.

(There is a buzzing noise from his phone.  He lifts it.)

Voice:  Your wife is here.

Kunou:  Send Mariko on up.

(He puts the voice down.)

Kunou:  I suppose I shall have to wait and see what develops.  (brief  
pause)  I wonder where Mariko wants to eat lunch.  I am quite hungry.

************************************************************************** 
*****
(We see Ranma-chan talking to an old lady who is gardening in her front  
yard.  They are in a fairly well-off suburban neighborhood with large  
houses and actual lawns.  Ranma-chan is in a nice green sundress with a  
green hat.)

Old lady:  Yes, Roberta and Michael have lived next door to me for years.   
That's their house all right.  I'm just keeping an eye on it for them  
while they go to California.

Ranma-chan:  I missed them again...That really wasn't too bright of me to  
just show up, I guess.

Old Lady:  You should call in advance when you come to visit relatives.   
Otherwise this sort of thing happens.  They're doing a show in Los Angeles  
on the 22nd.  

Ranma-chan:  Thanks for helping me.

Old Lady:  You really look a lot like your great aunt.

Ranma-chan:  That's what they tell me.

Old Lady:  You've seen them do the duck trick, haven't you?

Ranma-chan:  A few times...

Old Lady:  It always amazes me.  Well, I hope you have better luck next  
time.

Ranma-chan:  Thank you very much for helping me.

Old Lady:  I'm always glad to help people.

(As Ranma-chan turns to leave, the old lady's husband comes out.  He is  
mostly bald, and a little fat. )

Old Husband:  (stares at Ranma-chan as she leaves)  She looks like someone  
I knew in high school.

Old Lady:  (laughs)  These days, all young people seem to remind you of  
someone you knew in high school.

Old Husband:  You're right.  She'd be as old as me by now...

(Ranma-chan overhears this and shivers just a bit as she walks over to her  
car and drives off.)

Ranma-chan:  Well, we won't be able to ask Tome any questions, but now we  
know where she has gone.

****************************************
(Cut to scene of the Sabers (in armor) inside a fairly typical 2033  
wealthy home.  Nene is in the kitchen, and finds something taped to the  
refrigerator door.)

Note:  Dear Sabers, 
          If you see this, I guessed right and you came looking for me.   
Well, I have gone to California.  Please don't wreck my house--repairs are  
too expensive these days, especially if you try to avoid GENOM controlled  
companies.  I will be staying at the Ramada, room 861 if you want to drop  
by and chat.  The phone number is (333) 555-4266.  Let me know if you are  
coming.  See you in sunny California!
	  
	    Have a nice day,
                     Roberta Tome.
		     
P.S.--Don't forget to tell the Magnificent Seven about this also.


(The bottom of the note had three tarot cards taped to it:  The  
fool--standing on the edge of a cliff about to walk off, the  
Magician--holding a cup and a wand, with a sword and a pentacle on the  
table before him, and the Tower--struck by lightning.)

(Nene stares for a moment, then activates her radio.)
      
Nene:  Saber 1.

Celia:  Copy.  What is it, Saber 4?

Nene:  She left us a note.

Celia:  What?

Nene:  She wants us to meet her in California and asked that we not wreck  
the house.

Celia:  This sounds like we are being led by the nose.

Linna:  What do you mean "sounds like?"

*****************************

(We see Celia, Nabiki, Kasumi, and Nene conferring around a small table  
with a computer on it.  The three tarot cards are sitting near it.)

Celia:  So, we found basically nothing that Tome didn't want us to find.

Nene:  She has a big collection of occult books, a ton of magician's  
props, a computer with badly written short stories saved on the hard  
drive, a net connection, lots of clothing, and a nice car in the garage.   
No financial records, no diaries, no observation equipment, no real clues  
besides the note.  But somehow she knew we were coming.  And some  
enigmatic clues.  (gestures at the cards)

Kasumi:  Perhaps a foolish magician is going to cause a disaster?

Nabiki:  Since when was GENOM magicians?

Kasumi:  Well, the tarot doesn't have a card for scientists.  And aren't  
scientists similar to magicians in some ways?  They both seek for  
knowledge to gain power over the physical universe.  Magicians and  
scientists both claim knowledge that no one else has, and that often goes  
against "common sense".  And they learned how to do things no one else  
could do without years of training.

Celia:  Why not just write it down?

Kasumi:  Well, she seems to think of herself as a magician, and they're  
always enigmatic.

Nene: I...those...that turning into animals and women and whatnot...that's  
magic, isn't it?  I can't think of a scientific explanation.

Nabiki:  It's magic all right.  My family has seen enough magic for twenty  
lifetimes since Ranma showed up at our house.

Nene:  You've experienced a lot of magic?

Nabiki:  It sometimes seems we can't get up in the morning without someone  
in the house getting enchanted, or kidnapped by gods, or worse.

Nene:  I'd never seen magic...real magic before meeting you people.

Nabiki:  Get used to it.  Once magic comes into your life, you can't get  
it out.  We've been trying to break those curses for over forty years.   
Not to mention Shampoo making magical food, all those salesmen who always  
came around with magical gizmos, Gosunkugi trying to enchant Akane,  
Cologne and her tricks...We've seen a lot of magic.  Some of it was good  
and some was bad.  But at least we're never bored.

Celia:  If I hadn't seen them transform before my very eyes...I still  
can't quite bring myself to really believe that magic is real.  

Nabiki:   I've had no choice but to believe it.  I guess this Tome must  
know it is real also, because I can't think of any way but magic for her  
to know everything she seems to know.

Nene:  So are we going to California?

Celia:  Do we really have a choice?  We have to find out what she knows  
and how she knows it.  This could be a GENOM trap, although this doesn't  
seem their style.  I think some of us should go in, and the rest should  
stay back from the hotel to watch for trouble and act as a rescue force if  
necessary.

Nabiki:  Agreed.  I can get us there with one of my corporate jets.  We  
have a few holdings in LA that we can set up base at.  Time to dance close  
to the fire...

*********************************************

(We see a hotel balcony.  An old man in a tuxedo with short greying black  
hair stands at the edge of the balcony with an old woman with grey hair up  
in buns on the side of her head, and cascading down to the middle of her  
back.  She is wearing a long red dress.  She has retained the looks of a  
woman in her mid forties, not the mid sixties (her true age). Both are  
asian in appearance. They are looking out across the city towards the far  
away mountains.  Car horns honk in the background. They speak to each  
other in accented english)

Woman:  In days, this could all be rubble.

Man:  Yes.  If Andreas wakes...

Woman:  It will.  It cannot help but waken when GENOM stimulates the fault  
line.  This city has lived in fear of "the next big one" for far too long.   
Not that Andreas is its real name.

Man:  Well, we lack a better one.  For over a hundred years, they have  
waited for it to strike again...and now it is being brought upon them by  
GENOM.

Woman:  At least the city is better prepared this time.

Man:  That's what Mega-Tokyo thought before Kanto in 2025.

Woman:  Was there a spirit there too?

Man:  Not as powerful as this one.  When GENOM wakes it...there will be  
destruction beyond their comprehension.  Especially if it slips through  
from the Other Side, like we fear it will, Janet.  

Janet:  I wish we could use our real names...I feel silly with a western  
name.  And Michael just doesn't suit you...

Michael:  I like it.  Besides, someone else is walking around with our  
real names, you know. 

(Clouds are gathering on the horizon.)

Janet:  (sigh)  Looks like rain.

Michael:  We'll have to go in soon.

Janet:  This is going to be a lot harder if it is going to rain this week.

Michael:  What, you don't think you can take out boomers with paws?  
(smiles)

Janet:  And a bill is better than my paws?  (sigh)  I wish I could have  
stayed in the restaurant business.

Michael:  (smiles again)  you did.

Janet:  You know what I mean!

Michael:  (more serious)  We didn't choose to lose our lives, our  
pasts....If only Happosai could have left well enough alone.  At least the  
CABAL has given us some purpose to our lives.  Even if we ended up with  
"silly western names".

Janet:  After three years in a cave with Happosai, anything sounded good.

Michael:  Those years changed us all...And  I never would have guessed  
that Robert would...

Janet:  I know.  But Akemi ended up happier with Roger than she ever  
seemed to be with Robert anyway.  But I think I had the hardest time  
letting go of Robert of anyone....

Michael:  ...and then the dream of my lifetime came true.  (He comes over  
to her, and puts an arm around her shoulder.)

Janet:  So many years we wasted....but you proved to be more bullheaded  
than me...(puts an arm around him).  Janet is happy with you now...

Michael:  Careful, your past is showing...

Janet:  (in chinese) <Janet doesn't care anymore....Come on, Michael.  I  
feel perky.>  (She drags Michael back into the hotel suite, just as the  
clouds reach the hotel and rain is about to fall.)

*******************************************************
End of Act III
*******************************************************

Start of ACT IV
*******************************************************
(We see a dry plain stretching off north and south under a dark starless  
sky which glows dimly, as if the only light was shrouded by fog.  Off to  
the left is a massive pile of webs, lit by sparks moving within the webs.   
The pile of webs stretches north and south to the horizon.  Thin strands  
of webbing run away from it across the plains in all directions.  Sounds  
of the sea emanate from somewhere beyond the pile of webs.  The webs are  
piled highest in the center.  Great roads run out of the pile of webs  
across the plains.  A mountain range rises into the sky far to the east.   
Parallel to the webs runs a great crack in the earth, and in that crack is  
a giant.  He looks like a spanish man dressed in sixteenth century garb.   
He is somehow bound into the crack, and is straining to be free.  The  
ground twitches a bit when he pulls.  He is covered with old scars.  There  
are six machines over the crack poking him with blades.  Each also binds  
him with a chain to the earth.  Every time he is poked, he strains harder  
to be free.  It is poking him in a rhythm, and his efforts to escape are  
becoming more intense, but falling into the rhythm.  The air shimmers  
around him as he struggles.  Faint sparkly lines gleam in the darkness  
above and below him. )

*************************
(Scene cuts to a hotel room in Los Angeles.  We see the Director, his  
wife, the old man with the briefcase (last seen waiting for a phone call  
in part 2), Janet, and Michael sitting around a table playing a card game  
and talking.)

Director:  I bid five.  How soon are they getting here, Roger?

The old man with the briefcase(Roger):  According to our intelligence, the  
TN corporate jet left about an hour ago.  I bid two.  How about you,  
Karen?

Karen:(The director's wife):  I bid six.

Janet:  You've got to be crazy.  That makes thirteen bid already.  Who's  
going to meet them?

Karen:  Maybe I am crazy...that's what you all thought all those years.   
(pauses)  You two will be going to make sure we are right about where the  
vibration generators are.  I'll be keeping watch, along with Roger.   
Roberta will be meeting with them.

Janet:  I bid three, but I fear I may be set...or else Karen will.  Hmph.   
Send us out in rainy weather...

(The overhead lamp starts swinging gently.  The table rattles a little)

Director:  The warning shocks have begun....I hope the Sabers get here  
soon.  Sorry about the weather, but you two are used to working as a team,  
and most of our people have to keep things going back in Japan.

Michael:  Time to test my new raincoat.  I bid five.

Janet:  Sigh.  Someone is bidding incorrectly.  That makes 21 bid out of  
13 tricks.  We may all die.

Roger:  Do you think Kunou will come?

Director:  I hope not.  We can't afford him blundering around causing  
trouble.  With luck, he'll never even know to come.  

*********************************
(We see Kunou's office.  He is sitting at his desk, reading some report  
and looking utterly bored.  There is a knock on the door.)

Kunou:  Come in.

(A young ninja bounds in, holding a file folder.)

Ninja:  Hail, Blue Thunder!  (He salutes)

Kunou:  Hail.  (still bored)

Ninja:  I come bearing news!  (hands folder to Kunou who reads and becomes  
more animated.)

Kunou:  So, the CEO of TN is going to Los Angeles....Prepare my plane.  If  
they are there, I must go and find out what they are up to!

Ninja:  HAI!  (salutes, throws a grenade at the floor, and vanishes in the  
smoke)

Kunou:  (coughs)  I've got to get them not to do that in my office.

*************************************

(We see the Magnificent Seven, Nabiki, and their support staff carrying  
armloads of luggage as they get out of a limo in front of the Hilton.  It  
starts raining, which creates a problem...instant panda, cat, woman, duck.   
Ryouga sees it raining and doesn't get out until he puts on his  
raincoat---a clear plastic bag that provides total body coverage.  Nabiki  
looks at him.)

Nabiki:  Good thinking.  We should have brought some of those for the  
Jyusenkyo four here...(to Limo driver)  Go park.  We'll come back for the  
luggage.

Nodoka:  Come on, everyone.  (they head inside.  Shampoo starts shaking  
off water in the lobby.  The desk clerk stares at the panda, duck, and  
cat.)

Clerk:  No pets, ma'am.  Hotel policy.

Nabiki:  Those aren't pets.  They are trained performing animals.   
(Flashes her Mega-Tokyo Express Platinum card and a thousand yen bill)    

(The clerk drools)

Clerk:  But since I don't see any pets around here, it doesn't matter.   
(He pockets the bill)

(They get their keys and head for the elevators.)

Nabiki:  Yet another clerk who doesn't know much about rates of  
exchange...

*******************************

(We see the Sabers in a hotel room.  They are all dressed in very nice  
formal clothing.  Priss looks rather uncomfortable.)

Priss:  I feel silly in this outfit.

Nene:  You look good, Priss.

Celia:  Not today, she isn't.  Remember, while we are in LA, I am Angela,  
she is Diana (points to Priss), you are Susan (points to Nene), and she is  
Lisa (points to Linna).  

Nene:  Yes, Angela.

Priss:  So when do we get to do something?

Celia:  Lisa and Susan will be going in this evening with whoever Nabiki  
picks to go in from her team.  Diana and I will be with the rest of her  
team, monitoring the group that goes in and watching for trouble.  We'll  
be using a TN truck to do the surveillance from.  If this is a trap, we  
want to be ready.

Nene:  I wonder who Roberta works for.

Celia:  If it is GENOM, it is under another name.  You and Kasumi found no  
trace of her or Meese on their payrolls.

Nene:  I wonder what's on TV.

(The TV suddenly turns on.  It is on channel 23, which is showing STAR  
TREK:  UNTO THE TENTH GENERATION.  It is interrupted by a news special.)


Reporter Vladmir Polaski:  City government has announced that the minor  
shocks earlier today are no cause for alarm.  Maverick scientist Bruce  
Willoughby has been proclaiming for the last two months that this month  
would see a quake to rival the San Francisco quake of 1903.  The  
government has announced that these minor quakes are no different from the  
others that the city periodically experiences.

Linna:  Maybe we should check out this Willoughby character.

Celia:  If he studies earthquakes, he might be able to help us figure out  
where the center of the quake will be, which should help us figure out  
where GENOM has planted the devices.

Nene:  I wish we knew more about how GENOM is going to cause the quake.   
The data we have is vague.

Celia:  Well, we know they have vibration generators planted somewhere.   
Assuming they haven't altered the technique, these shocks probably mean  
that we have only a day or two before it is too late to stop the quake.

******************************
(We see the inside of a large van.  There is a variety of communications  
equipment, both audio and visual set up here.  Nodoka, Nabiki, and Celia  
are monitoring it while Priss, Genma, Akane, and Ranma sit around bored.   
Genma and Ranma are playing Shogi while Akane and Priss watch.  The four  
hardsuits and the motoslave are in one corner.)

Nodoka:  Duck, do you copy?

Voice of Mousse:  I copy.  We're in the elevator right now.

Nabiki:  We're not picking up any transmissions from the building besides  
you.  Chef, do you copy?

Voice of Ukyou:  Right here.

Nodoka:  Rain man, do you copy?

Voice of Ryouga:  Yes.  

Celia:  Saber 3, do you copy?

Voice of Nene:  Loud and Clear.

Celia:  Saber 4, do you copy?

Voice of Linna:  Yes.

Nabiki:  Amazon, do you copy?

Voice of Shampoo:  Copy what?

Nabiki:  (sighs)  Don't worry about it.

Nodoka:  We're picking up a coded transmission from the roof to somewhere  
in the building.  Descrambling.  (She punches some buttons.)

Voice:  dsjsasd....It's a good thing I don't have to worry about  
rain..adskfjasdk....It's going to pour soon...sadfjsdf

Nodoka:  Hmm.  Voice sounds familiar.  (punches some more buttons.)  Hmm.   
A counter reply.

Voice 2:  adskfjkd.....They should be here soon.  J and M reported finding  
two of the generators...but we were wrong about one of the  
locations....sfjlsd ...hmm.  Come down off the roof....sdfksjd

Nodoka:  Are you guys getting this?

Voice of Ukyou:  I know I've heard that voice before.  

Celia:  Which one?

Voice of Nene:  The second one was Roberta Tome.  I'm sure of it.  

******************************************
(Cut to the hotel room where we saw the CABAL members playing cards  
earlier.  Roberta Tome is here in her stage outfit.  We see Roger's  
briefcase is leaning against the large double bed.  Roberta is sitting at  
a table busily shuffling a Tarot deck.  A fan is slowly rotating above the  
bed.  There is a radio playing classical music on the table Roberta is at.   
There is a knock at the door.)

Roberta:  Come in, Lisa, Susan, Ukyou, Ryouga, Mousse, and Shampoo.

(There is a brief pause and the door opens.  Nene, Linna, Ukyou, Ryouga,  
Mousse, and Shampoo come in, looking a little confused.  Roberta stands  
up.)

Roberta:Welcome to my humble abode.

Nene:  That's her all right.

Roberta:  Yes, I am indeed myself.  Welcome to Los Angeles. 

(Mousse looks over at the bed.)

Mousse:  Who's your friend hiding under the bed?

(Roberta stares for a moment)

Roberta:  How did you know he...

Mousse:  Nothing can be hidden from the master of hidden weapons. 

Roberta:  Come out, Roger.  

(We hear movement, then a thudding noise.)
  
Roberta:  Roger?

Roger:  Oww.  I banged my head.  It's pretty crowded under here.  And I  
can't seem to get out the way I crawled in.  Why'd you guys turn out the  
lights out there anyway?

(Linna kneels and looks under the bed.  Roger is trying to get out through  
the side of the bed that is up against the wall.  She laughs and tugs his  
leg and waves.)

(Roger crawls out the right way.  Linna stares at him.)

Linna:  Did I really see you and that woman outside the warehouse a few  
days ago?

Roger:  Yes.  Luckily for you, we had found out about the reinforcement  
boomers in time so they didn't catch you by surprise.

Ukyou:  We want some explanations, like what your stake in all this is and  
what you know about GENOM's plan to cause another quake...and why you went  
to all the effort to bring us here instead of just giving us the  
information back in Mega-Tokyo.

Roberta:  Time for me to lay out my master plan for world domination?   
(smirks)

Roger:  Something like that.  

Roberta:  Why don't we all sit down?  Roger, get us something to eat.  On  
second thought, I'll get it.  I don't want to wait forever for it.  (She  
steps into the next room and talks through the door.  Roger fumes.)

Roberta:  (through doorway) You all can get your bugs adjusted so your  
friends listening in on this don't have to strain their ears.

Mousse:  You know about...

Roberta:  (through doorway)  I know that Ms. Stingray would think of it,  
if no one else.  

(Everyone sits down--on chairs, the bed, the floor, the table...)

Roberta:(comes back in with with snackfoods and some bottles of Coke,  
wine, and sake)  I have been many things in my lifetime...a martial  
artist, a fiancee, a spy, an actor, a stage magician, and now a spymaster  
of sorts.  I've been hiding behind a series of masks ever since 1998.  

Ukyou:  Are you really Ra...

Roberta:  (Interrupting)  Are you really Kuonji Ukyou?  In the year 2004,  
one Kuonji Ukyou married one Tsubasa Kurenai.  Since then, she has worked  
in the entertainment industry as a caterer, while he has been a costume  
designer.  Through them and other agents, we have been able to monitor  
Japanese and American entertainment and influence it to our benefit.  Her  
husband and children certainly think she is the real Kuonji Ukyou.  She  
looks to be her proper age, unlike you.  She is able to bear children,  
unlike you.  And she certainly feels she is just as much Kuonji Ukyou as  
you are.

Ukyou:  (eyes widen)  That's who that was...

Roberta:  Am I Ranma Saotome?  What makes a person who they are?  If I  
duplicate you in such a way that the duplicate is like you in every way,  
is the duplicate any less real or deserving of your name than you are?   
Maybe I am the real Ranma, maybe only a copy.  All I know is that we have  
the same memories before May 20, 1998, the same curse, and the same  
appearance.  But I've been Robert and Roberta for decades now, so either  
will do for a name.  

Nene:  You're a clone?  I didn't think anyone could do that yet...not with  
humans.  

(Everyone starts munching on the food.)

Roberta:  Magick rushes in where science fears to tread.  As usual,  
Happosai played around with powers he didn't understand.  He wanted an  
immortal harem.  He got us instead.  

Ryouga:  The magic rain?

Roberta:  Exactly.  It was supposed to bring him "a celestial harem".   
Unfortunately, it had been damaged by rain, and some of the characters  
were destroyed.  So he made some up.

Shampoo:  That was stupid.

Roberta: You know he's no genius.  Well, we ended up with me, Akane,  
Ryouga, Shampoo, Mousse, mom, dad, Ukyou, Nabiki, Mr. Tendo, Dr. Tofu, and  
Kasumi stuck in a cave with him for three years.  It was a nightmare.  

Ukyou:  Three years of Happosai every day...brrr.

Roberta:  Quite.  We were all going stir crazy.  We couldn't get out  
because of some kind of spell Happosai had found to seal the caves off.   
We had magically provided food and water, so at least we didn't starve,  
though.  And Happosai kept trying experiments with other magical scrolls  
to try to liven things up.  At one point, we all ended up utterly hating  
each other due to magic....then he tried to fix that and we all ended up  
with amnesia.  Really bad amnesia.  Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane didn't even  
remember they were sisters.  

Linna:  That really is bad.

Roger:  We didn't even know our own names...so Happosai made up name for  
us...but we didn't believe him.  Everything was gone.  Even love...

Ukyou:  Even love?

Roberta:  It was some sort of blank-slate spell.  We still remembered how  
to do things, but not how we learned them.  We even forgot about all the  
engagements...Still, love soon reasserted itself, but it came out  
differently this time.

Roger:  Soon after we lost our memories, there was a surprise visitor.   
After three years, someone had figured out what happened and came to save  
us.

(Flash back sequence)

*****************************
(We see a complex of caves.  The various Ranma characters are wandering  
around bored and squabbling.  Genma and Mr. Tendo are playing shogi.   
Happosai is harassing Ukyou.  Then the wall suddenly bursts open. )

Voice:  Ranma-sama!

(A bright light floods the cave.  Everyone covers their eyes.  There is a  
large breach in the wall.  Four humans are standing in the hole, but the  
bright sun from behind them casts their faces in shadow.  One carries a  
sword, one has a pistol, a third is carrying a staff, and the fourth is  
carrying a long ribbon and a bouquet of roses.  They all charge into the  
room at Happosai.)

Happosai:  Yeep!

Person 1:  We've finally found you, thief!

Person 2:  What kind of an idiot uses damaged magical scrolls.

(The third stands just inside the doorway and gestures with her staff,  
which has an ornately carved head.  A beam shines from her forehead  
freezing Happosai in place.)

Person 3:  We're going to have to lock you away for good.  If the BOARD  
had gotten wind of this...

(The fourth person bounds over to a confused Ranma and leaps into his  
arms.  It is Kodachi)

Kodachi:  Ranma-sama?  How is my beloved fiancee?  Kiss me!  (She goes to  
kiss him.  A befuddled Ranma does not resist)

(The swordsman and the pistol wielding man cautiously approach Happosai.)

Staffwoman:  Don't worry.  As long as I keep him transfixed, he's no  
danger to anyone.  

Swordsman:  Hi, everyone.  We're here to help you.

Kodachi:  Are you okay, Ranma-sama?

Ranma:  My name is Ranma?

Kodachi:  You don't remember?

Mr. Tendo:  None of us can remember anything from before we were in these  
caves.

Kodachi:  Not even?  (looks over at Akane.  Akane glares back)

Akane:  What are you staring at me for?

Kodachi:  I'm your fiancee, Kunou Kodachi.  Now we can get married!

Ranma:  Ma..marriage?  (looks nervous)

******************* 

(back to the present.)

Roberta:  We later discovered we had been rescued by people working for a  
group called the Cabal.  We ended up staying at one of their bases while  
they tried to restore our memories.  We soon learned that their were  
duplicates of us running around that had been living normal lives while we  
were stuck in the cave.  We couldn't go home...those lives were already  
taken.

Roger:  The Cabal offered to help restore our memories and give us a job  
working for them if we wanted it.  Or they were willing to help us try to  
create new lives for ourselves elsewhere if we weren't.  Mr. and Mrs.  
Saotome and Mr. Tendo decided to take their offer and start a new life,  
running a dojo on Hokkaido.  Kasumi and Dr. Tofu also decided to try to  
resume a normal life.  Kasumi went to medical school, and she and Dr. Tofu  
are still living in Osaka running a medical practice, although they're  
getting close to retirement, now.  The rest of us decided to try working  
for the Cabal.  

Mousse:  Kodachi was working for this Cabal group?

Roberta:  The Cabal has been around for a long time.  They tend to recruit  
entire lines of families.  The children enter the group when they are  
ready.  Those children who are suitable, anyway.  The Kunou family was one  
of the older families of the CABAL.  Kunou was apparently too stupid, but  
they recruited Kodachi at an early age.  She claims her acting crazy all  
those years was just a pose.

Ukyou: It was a rather good piece of acting, if it was all a pose.

Roberta:  Acting insane was how the Kunou family traditionally kept its  
cover...but some of them internalized it a bit too much.  She's much  
calmer now.

Nene:  What is this CABAL?

Roberta:  We are an alliance of the magicians of the world.  For  
centuries, magic has been in decline.  There are a variety of reasons for  
this.  The magicians of the past often abused their powers, thus turning  
many people against magic.  And the development of science offered the  
world more benefits than magic did.  Finally, there is a group which has  
worked for many years to further the advance of science and rationality,  
and the decline of magic and all the accompanying forms of irrationality.   
Currently, they are known as the BOARD.

Linna:  What's wrong with science and rationality?

Roberta:  Nothing, in itself.  The problem is that humans are irrational  
beings, as well as rational ones.  If we try to suppress one side or the  
other, we get into trouble.  The world is the same way.  If we suppress  
irrationality, we also suppress love, compassion, and creativity, for all  
of those things are irrational.  What good is a perfect summer day through  
weather control if I can not feel its beauty also?  The BOARD wants to  
eradicate magic and magicians, for they are an anomaly in a world that is  
to be made perfectly rational and systematic.  They have destroyed many  
magical sites, killed many magicians, and altered the way in which tales  
of the past are told, to destroy our memory of magic. The more magic  
disappears, the fewer believe in magic, and the easier it becomes to  
forget it ever existed.  And magic must be believed if it is to have any  
positive influence on our lives.  

Nene:  Why do you care about GENOM?

Roberta:  The BOARD largely acts through other groups, for it must remain  
small to remain unnoticed by the world.  GENOM has been one of its pawns  
for many years.  The BOARD plans to use this earthquake to destroy several  
magical sites in this area and enable them to rebuild it in the way they  
want it to be.  We have predicted that this quake may give us one of our  
crucial opportunities to turn back the BOARD and open the door for  
strengthening the magic of this world before it is too late.

Linna:  This is really crazy sounding.  How could you people be fighting  
this shadow war for so long without anyone noticing?

Roberta:  Does the average citizen notice the covert wars between  
governmental intelligence agencies?  or megacorporate espionage?   
Governments suspect our existence, but they have no proof.  And both we  
and the BOARD have capabilities that dwarf theirs.  Magic and mega-science  
are more than they can reckon with.  And those who learn too much seem to  
die or "conclude they were imagining things."

Nene:  Why are you telling us all of this?

Roberta:  We are always in search of those with magical potential.  Many  
of us are getting old.  We need new strength in this critical time period.   
If any or all of you would like to join us, we always welcome new  
recruits.

Nene:  We're not magicians.

Roberta:  (smiles)  You have all been touched by magic in one way or  
another.  Once it enters your life, you will never be free of it.  That  
can be both good and bad.  Have you ever heard of Clarke's law?

Nene:  Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Roberta:  And vice versa.  How many people really understand how a phone,  
or a boomer, or a computer work?  Doesn't it seem like magic to them?

Ukyou:  Are you saying that they are all magical?  

Roberta:  Can most people tell the difference?  We have been able to  
operate for years without the BOARD being able to find us once we learned  
to disguise magical devices as technological ones.  Similarly, most people  
cannot tell the difference between chemistry and alchemy, for example.   
Both use techno-jargon that hides what they are doing from the outside  
world.  Both can achieve seemingly miraculous effects in the hands of a  
skilled practitioner.  Some of you have been enchanted.  Some of you have  
used magical devices.  And three of you have the gift.

Shampoo:  The gift?

Roberta:  The mark of the true magician...or scientist, depending on what  
you want to call him or her.  The gift of the true magician is the ability  
to create new magic, be it manifested in devices, potions, hardsuits,  
wands, boomers, magic pools, computers, or cancer cures.  Some wiggle  
their fingers and say the magic words.  Others work with Computer Assisted  
Design or Electronic Counter Measures.

Linna:  You're saying a hardsuit is magical?

Roberta:  In the sense that any sufficiently advanced science is  
indistinguishable from magic, and vice versa, yes.  Haven't you ever  
wondered where boomers hide all that extra mass before they burst out of  
their skins?  Or how a boomer could rapidly rebuild a building into a  
giant extension of itself?  

Ukyou:  Yes.

Roberta:  Magic and science are only incompatible if you decide that one  
or the other is the only thing there is. In the great days of magic,  
technology was disdained as the work of lower-class artisans and slaves.   
In the great days of technology, those who do magic are regarded as crazy.   
We want to create a world where both can be respected.  Stopping GENOM's  
plan is only one step on that road, but I hope it is a step you are  
willing to take with us.

Nene:  I..uh...we've got to discuss this...this is so unexpected.  I  
just...

Roberta:  You said you would take a chance to experience magic if it was  
real...you're living that now.  Well, I'm sure you'll want to go talk to  
your friends.  I've got to go change.  My wife will be here in a little  
bit.

Linna:  Wife?

Ukyou: Who...did you marry...

Roberta:  You'll see.  (heads to the bathroom.)  If you could just wait a  
few minutes.

(The group starts discussing all of this in little knots.  Ryouga goes  
over to Roger with Shampoo hanging on his arm.)

Roger:  I never would have guessed before I heard about it.  

Shampoo:  Shampoo is happy with her decision.

Roger:  That's good.

Ryouga:  Are you really...I mean...you look like...

Roger:  Bwee.

Ryouga:  Did you ever...I mean did she...who...marry..find out...(looks  
flustered)

Roger:  She found out after we got amnesia, but before it was reversed.   
By the time they managed to cure our amnesia, we had already been married  
for a year.  It took them about five years to find an amnesia cure that  
worked the right way.

Shampoo:  Right way?

Roger: The first couple of times they cured us, all the memories were  
wrong.

Ryouga:  Wrong?

Roger: All sorts of weird memories, like remembering some alien invasion  
that never happened.  Eventually, they got it right.  Akane took the cover  
identity of Akemi and I got stuck being called Roger Habayashi.  But when  
Akane did find out, we went through a really rough patch, but we  
straightened it out.  That was before we had the children.

Ryouga:  Wow.  Shampoo and I haven't been able to have any children.

Roger:  Unfortunately, Akemi died in the 2025 quake. (sighs)  But I have  
my memories and our children and grandchildren.

Shampoo:  Shampoo is sorry for you.

Roger:  Akemi died trying to help save others from the quake.

Ryouga:  Like Kodachi?  or is Kodachi really alive, like we suspect?

Roger:  Why don't you ask her?

(The Director, aka Robert Tome aka Roberta Tome aka Saotome Ranma, emerges  
from the bathroom in the "classic" red satin shirt and black pants with  
the wooden ties that we have seen Ranma wear so many times.  His greying  
black hair is still tied back in the classic pony-tail, but a few wrinkles  
run across his face now.  He is accompanied by a woman with a pony-tail  
and greying black hair in a black dress.  She is remarkably fit for her  
age.   She is idly twirling a ribbon in one hand.  It is indeed, an older  
Kunou Kodachi.)

Director:  Tell your leaders to come on up if they want to deal.  Or I can  
come down to them.  The time for action is coming rapidly upon us.

*************************
(Cut to Kunou' LA office.  He looks tired from jet lag.  He has just  
arrived from Japan.  He is busily typing something on a computer screen.   
His videophone rings.)

Kunou:  (picking up the phone)  What is it?

Kunou Employee:  Sir.  Our agents have a photo you might want to see.

Kunou:  Of what?

Kunou Employee:  You'll have to see it to believe it.  (Holds up the  
photo.  Kunou leans close to look at it.  It is Kodachi standing on the  
balcony of the Director's hotel room, about to enter the room.)

Kunou:  It can't be....

Kunou Employee:  We have determined that someone named Roberta Tome is  
staying in this room.  Several of the Magnificent Seven went there a few  
hours ago.

Kunou:  She's alive...but why hasn't she contacted me?  How did she  
survive?  I must know!  If she is around that blasted Ranma, she could be  
in terrible danger!  Prepare my hardsuit at once!

Kunou Employee:  HAI!  (Salutes.  Vidphone off)

Kunou:  This is probably a GENOM trap for me...but I have to know if she  
is alive...I should have known she wouldn't die that easily...(lifts the  
photo of himself, his father, and his sister that is always on his desk)   
I only hope it is true.

**************************

(The scene cuts to the great crack with the giant bound in it.  It is  
starting to slowly pull free from its chains.  The ground is beginning to  
slowly shake as it pulls on the chains.  The long sparkling lines of light  
in the sky around it are getting thicker and longer, and they vibrate in  
time with the giant's motions.  Glowing lights, strange clouds of mist,  
crystalline spiders, and other strange entities are flocking towards the  
lights.  )

**************************
(Cut to the hotel room of the Director.  While the Sabers and the  
Magnificent Seven mill around, the Director, Celia, and Nabiki sit at the  
table and talk over a map of the city.)

Nabiki:  This rain is going to severely weaken my team.  The cat and the  
duck can't fight very well, although I sometimes think Mr. Saotome prefers  
being a panda...

Director:  Well, these devices are concealed inside buildings or  
underground for the most part.  There are six of them.  Two for each  
group.

Celia:  What defenses should we expect?

Director:  Motion trackers, heat sensors, alarms, and lots of combat  
boomers.  These two (points to two within the city limits) will be least  
heavily guarded.  These two (points to two locations far outside the city)  
will be the most heavily guarded.  I recommend that the Sabers deal with  
those two--they can move faster than the rest of us, and have the most  
protection.  We will take these two (points to the two southernmost.), and  
the Magnificent Seven will take these two (points to the two remaining.)

Nabiki: That should work.

Celia:  What kind of mobile reinforcements does GENOM have available to  
reinforce these bases?

Director:  Not much.  They've got most of their west coast resources  
already committed guarding these six points.  

Celia:  What about communications between our three groups?

Director:  We all have radio setups of one kind or another.  We need to  
pick a channel and use it for communication.  

Nabiki:  Are the local police likely to respond?

Director:  Not likely.  They shouldn't find out until it is too late...and  
the local equivalent of the ADPolice doesn't have much funding or  
experience.  

Celia:  Now we set a timetable.

(The room gently shakes, sending the overhead hanging lamp to swinging.)


(Across the room, we see Ukyou sitting on the bed and staring out the  
window.  She has a bleak look on her face. Everyone else is busily  
socializing. Mousse comes over to her and sits down next to her.)

Mousse:  What is wrong, dear Ukyou?

Ukyou:  Nothing could be more frightening than looking in a mirror and not  
recognizing yourself.

Mousse:  It happens to me all the time.

Ukyou:  Don't make fun of me!

Mousse:  I don't quite understand what you are talking about.

Ukyou:  I didn't recognize her.  I was looking at me and couldn't tell.

Mousse:  What?

Ukyou:  When Tsubasa came to our shop with his wife.  She was me!  Me!   
That's what I would look like if I had aged...and I didn't even recognize  
her!  Not even her voice.  I should have known.

Mousse:  I couldn't tell either.

Ukyou:  Do you think you would recognize that Michael Meese fellow as  
yourself?

Mousse:  I don't know.

Ukyou:  I guess what the director said really got to me.  I don't know if  
we're just the aftereffects of Happy's spell or if they are.

Mousse:  Don't worry about it.  We are here and now.  If we vanish, then  
we'll never know.  Focus on our love and forget everything else.  You  
redeemed me from my obsession with Shampoo.  I am a different and better  
man now for it.  I don't regret one moment we have spent together, whether  
it was "meant to be or not."  Look at it this way...both you and Tsubasa  
were able to be happy because there are two of you.  If there are two of  
me, so be it.  I hope he was able to win Shampoo's love, or find another  
if that is where fate took him.  But he is not me.  You don't regret the  
life you've lived since that magical day, do you?

Ukyou:  No, I just...

Mousse:  We'll never know what we would have done if things had been  
different.

Ukyou:  I guess not.  I'd like to be able to have children, though.

Mousse:  One day, we'll find a way.  After all, if we never age, we'll  
have forever to look for a solution!

Ukyou:  I just hope Ranchan and Akane don't fight forever.
***************************
(We see a warehouse in an area full of warehouses.  This one is labeled  
"Colson Enterprises Warehouse 42".  Inside one room of the warehouse,  
three women in security uniforms are watching monitors.  They are silent  
and rarely move. The monitors show a machine being checked by technicians,  
the alleyways and streets around the warehouse, and several points inside  
it.  Suddenly, the screens fill up with static.)

Guard 1:  Hmm.  Trouble.

(Guard 2 punches a button, then picks up a phone.  She dials a number, but  
the phone only spits static at her.)

Guard 2:  The phone line is down.

Guard 3:  Intruders must be coming

(Meanwhile, in the main room...)

Technician:  Hmm.  We seem to be getting a little feedback.  Strange.

Technician 2:  A car probably drove by.  Any large scale motion, or heavy  
objects moving creates a little feedback like that.  It could even be  
pigeons landing on the roof.

Technician 1:  Nothing to worry about, then.

(At this point, the roof explodes downward, blasting rubble everywhere.  A  
piece of the roof hits Technician 1, knocking her out.  Seven figures drop  
down from the ceiling.  The Magnificent Seven have arrived.)

Ryouga:  (facing the floor under the machine)  Blasting Point Technique!   
(the floor explodes under the machine, revealing more of it buried under  
ground.  Ryouga sticks his umbrella in it.  It begins vibrating to  
pieces.)

Technician 2:  Shit!  (He runs for the exit.)

Ranma:  Well, that was easy.

Akane:  Don't look now, then...(She sees the three security guards stride  
in.  Four more come out of various doors or come into view from around the  
stacks. They pause and begin bursting out of their skin...)

Ranma:  Why do they always do that?  Why not just make them without skin  
if they always rip out of it to fight?

Mousse:  Aesthetics? 

Shampoo:  Shampoo think this is no time for discussion.  Die!  (She leaps  
maces in hand at a boomer still ripping out of its skin.  She begins  
pounding on it while it transforms.  It prepares to use its mouth particle  
cannon, when she hits it so hard, the head spins around and it blows off  
the head of another boomer, which collapses.  The fight begins in  
earnest.)

(Ranma leaps onto a row of crates and begins running along it as boomers  
fire at him.  Finally, he runs in front of another boomer which is busily  
trying to fire at Ukyou.  The first boomer blows up the second one, then  
Ukyou bombards the first one with spatulas.  It falls down, then gets back  
up, shedding spatulas.)

Ukyou:  A tough customer, eh?  

(A boomer fires at Akane, who picks up part of the machine and uses it as  
a shield as she zig-zags at the boomer.  By the time the machine is  
wrecked, she is next to the boomer, which she picks up and throws at  
another boomer fighting Genma.  The two boomers fly across the room and  
out the front door.

Akane:  Something smells odd in here....

(Mousse is dueling with another boomer.  It keeps trying to shoot him, but  
he dodges every shot.  He leads it into the maze of crates that surrounds  
the machine.  He always darts out of sight just before it can shoot.   
Finally, it passes him when he ducks around two corners in a row, and he  
attacks it from behind, tangling it in hooked chains, and pulling out a  
sword to sever its limbs, and head.)

Mousse:  No match for a true master of hidden weapons.  

(The head opens an eye and lasers him.  He staggers back bleeding a  
little.)

Mousse:  Overconfidence may be the death of me yet.  (He chops the head to  
bits, then chops up the torso.)

(Ryouga turns to deal with the boomers once he has finished off the  
machine.  One fires at him.  He deflects the shots with hurled bandanas,  
then tosses his now somewhat battered umbrella at it.  It is impaled to a  
crate, but easily pulls out the umbrella.  While it is busy, Ryouga leaps  
at it, and flying kicks it, knocking it down.  He then twists its head so  
its particle cannon can't shoot him, and pulls until the head comes off,  
pinning its arms with his legs by standing on them.  He then flings it  
down the hole where the wrecked machine lies.)

Ryouga:  That was easy.

(Crates around them shatter as more combat boomers burst out.)

Ukyou:  (seeing the machine is wrecked)  Let's get out of here.  Our  
mission is accomplished.

(Admidst a hail of boomer gunfire, our heroes bolt for the door...)

*******************************

(We see a veritable miniature fortress in the desert.  An armored bunker  
sits in the middle of a half-mile diameter electric fence.  Small cannon  
are mounted on the bunker.  There is a single gate in and out.  The whole  
area is one big kill zone.)

Nene:  Scary place.  Well, their communications are jammed.  Radar too.   
They should be identifying twelve incoming planes right now...

(The cannon all turn and fire off to the Northeast.)

Nene:  He he he.  

Celia:  Knight Sabers...GO!

(The Sabers rush down towards the bunker.  Priss, in the Motoroid, is  
carrying a rocket launcher. Linna is also carrying one.  As they get  
closer, they fire the rockets at the bunker and drops the launchers.  The  
rockets blast a hole in the side of the bunker, and the Sabers zoom in. In  
the room they enter, a confused pair of security guards are staggering  
about, stunned by the blast.  They zip past them and into the hallway.)

Celia:  Smooth so far.

(The Sabers rip open a door and enter the machine room.  There is a bank  
of computers here and a machine similar to the one we saw in the  
warehouse.)

Nene:  Time to do my duty...(She quickly approaches the computers,  
shooting a jack into a jack access port.  Meanwhile, the rest of the  
Sabers chase out the technicians and wait for the boomers to arrive.)

Nene:  Nine of ten says this thing has a self-destruct to get rid of  
evidence...Yep.  Now to activate it.

(The boomer hordes pour in.  Celia, Priss, and Linna attack them while  
Nene finishes hacking.  In these crowded quarters, the boomers shoot each  
other as much as they manage to even come close to injuring a Knight  
saber.)

Nene:  One minute to detonation...We need to hold them thirty more  
seconds.  Then it will be irreversible.

Priss:  No problem.  (She tosses one boomer into another, dodges a third's  
shots, then blasts the arm off a fourth.)

(Celia calmly stabs one in the back with her suit's blade, then runs the  
knife up and down its' back, following up by putting a gun into the cut  
and firing.  The boomer goes limp.

Linna tosses boomers around the room, gracefully flowing through the  
crowd.  Many of the boomers can't fire because of all the other boomers in  
the way.  

Nene checks her internal timer.)

Nene:  B-29 and counting...Let's go!

(The Sabers fight their way to the door and run, then fly once they get  
outside.  Behind them, an explosion can be heard and smoke pours out of  
the building.  The cannons are still trying to shoot imaginary planes.)

Nene: I was hoping those boomers would be that stupid.  

Celia:  Good job, Saber 4.

Nene:  Thanks, Saber 1.

**************************

(We see the Director, Kodachi, Roger, Michael, and Janet fighting by one  
of the machines in a warehouse.  They are surrounded by boomers.  Kodachi  
ribbons one of them and tosses it into the machine, breaking part of it.   
Janet is dueling hand to hand, mace and sword versus boomer fists.   
Michael binds one up with chains and throws it into the machine.  Then he  
pulls out a set of claws and duels with another boomer.  The machine  
starts throwing out sparks.  The Director is destroying boomer after  
boomer with his now glowing fists.  One blow and they simply lock up and  
collapse.)

Director: The machine needs to be damaged some more.

(He turns around, does a handstand in front of a boomer, and grabs its  
head with his legs as they come up.  Then he flips it backwards over  
himself and rolls to his feet as it crashes into the machine.)

Director: That should do it.  (The machine is crumpled to pieces.)

Roger:  You boomers are pathetic!  (bashes one in the head with his  
briefcase, then pulls out some bandanas from it and sends them flying  
severing boomer limbs.)

Janet:  Janet thought you quit using those.

Roger:  I still keep a few handy.  They're a tried and true technique for  
me.

Kodachi:  Same here with my ribbons.  (She tangles a boomer and tosses it  
out the door while dodging needler fire.)

Director:  Time for us to go.  This place is out of commission.

********************************

(Once more we see the giant in the crack.  Three of the chains on it are  
broken, as are three of the machines. The light rays are spreading and  
growing.  The air around the giant looks like shattered glass as the rays  
grow together.  The strange lights and clouds battle the spiders, who are  
climbing onto the glowing light rays and attempting to destroy them.  They  
spin webs to smother the light, but the lights and clouds eat the webs and  
attack the spiders. Other spiders are trying to cover the giant with webs,  
but it is too strong for them, or perhaps too angry. It strains and a  
fourth chain breaks. It smiles and pulls on the others.  With its free  
arm, it swats some of the spiders, then reaches up and begins to slowly  
pull itself out of the crack.)

**********************************

(We see a bar.  It is mostly empty, but a few people are here.  The TV  
screen is covered with static and the audio is static also.)

Bartender:  Damn thing's been static on all channels for an hour now.

Patron: My TV is out at home, too.

Bartender:  And the radio is dead, along with the phone.

Patron 2:  Didn't something like this happen in Mega-Tokyo recently?

Patron 3:  It's the Illuminati, I tell you!  They're testing out their EMP  
bombs!

Bartender:  Maybe you'd better not have any more, Angela.

Angela:  I'm wearing tinfoil in my hat so the mind control rays can't get  
me!  Dr. Kasuga recommended it to me.

Bartender:  How useful.

*************************

(We see three technicians in a large metal room examining one of the  
"earthquake machines".  One of them is examing a screen which is showing  
several simulated gauges.  A spider runs across one of the control panels,  
then scampers out of sight.)  

Technician 2:  Ugh. I hate spiders.  This place seems to be overrun with  
them.

Technician 3:  I've heard that a lot of our LA facilities have been having  
this problem.

Technician 1:  Hmm.  We're not picking up the vibrations from three of the  
other machines.

Technician 2:  They couldn't have all broken, could they?

Technician 1:  This could mean someone is sabotaging them.

Technician 3:  We might be next.

Technician 1:  We're getting some strange vibrations, though.

Technician 3:  (looks at gauges.)  Hmm.  That should be feedback from the  
start of the quake...Hmm.  Perhaps the other machines shutting down is  
causing this.

(The floor starts to shake).

Technician 2:  I think that losing the other machines may be causing some  
unfortunate side effects.

(floor shakes harder.)

Technician 1:  Like that?  (Machine is vibrating heavily.)

Technician 2:  If that much vibration is getting through the shock  
absorbers...

Technician 3:  I think it is time to get out of here.  Looks like we got  
the quake eight hours early.

(Machine starts to smoke)

Technician 3:  That's impossible.  There's nothing flammable in  
there...Well, not that much.  (Ground starts to crack under the machine.)

Tech. 1:  SHIT!  (They run as the building shakes more and the ground  
opens wide.)

******************************

(We see the giant in the crack.  The spiders that were on it have mostly  
died or fled.  It has pulled itself half-way out of the crack with one  
arm, and with  the other, it has dug into the ground under one of the  
machines it is chained to, and is pulling the machine down into the ground  
and crushing it.  The air around it is almost full of the glimmering rays  
of light, which now are starting to form large glowing circles, which are  
slowly merging together.  At their centers, brighter rays of light are  
shining through into this murky world.  The giant now turns its attention  
to the fifth machine...)

*******************************

(We see the city shaking gently.  People are screaming and running.   
Traffic is snarling as bridges shake.  The city is in a state of  
increasing panic.  Downtown, the buildings slowly shake like trees in a  
breeze.  The city fears that the Big One is coming.  The city is right.)

(We see someone in a burning building.  They are desperately dialing the  
phone.  A spider is idly building a web around the phone connection.)

Phone: (buzz with static)

Person:  DAMN! DAMN!  The phone lines aren't working. I need to get  
through!

(suddenly the phone clicks in.)

Phone: This is emergency services.  Can I help you?

Person:  Yes!

**********************

(We see the Director, Janet, Michael, Roger, and Kodachi on a rooftop  
watching a small factory shake.  The building they are on is shaking too.)

Roger:  Shouldn't we get off this building?

Director:  Damn.  We must have been too late.  We need to...

(Ground cracks open, swallows half of building.)

Janet:  Janet is impressed.

Director:  We can only hope that the quake will be less severe than we  
feared since we destroyed the other machines.

Michael:  Now what do we do?

Director:  Now we see if Andreas has awoken.  Time to visit the fault.  

***********************
(We see Kunou flying over the city in his black hardsuit.  He is looking  
at a map of the city and surroundings on his heads up display.  Several  
locations are lit up on his display.)

Kunou:  Hmm.  Four Genom subsidiary facilities have been destroyed.  They  
form an arc.  Now what is at the center of the arc, I wonder?  The fault  
runs right through the middle of this...This must be where Genom has its  
earthquake machines.  The Sabers and the Magnificent Seven must have  
successfully interpreted the information I let them find.  Now I just have  
to go deal with Ranma once and for all!  And find out what he has done  
with my sister!

(He turns and zooms off east towards the fault.)



*************************
(We see the Knight Sabers in the back of some kind of vehicle...could be a  
plane or a van.  Nene is watching a TV station.)

Nene:  Hmm.  They're getting a mild quake in the city.  But the  
authorities think it will die down.

Celia:  Probably the vibrations already built up high enough to trigger a  
minor quake.  But the city should be safe.  

(The radio crackles, then a voice comes out.)

Director:  I think we've stopped the quake from being a major one.  But I  
think we may want to check out the faultline.

Celia:  Why?

Director:  A little bird tells me there may be trouble coming there.  Head  
for the fault around 6 miles southwest of what would have been your second  
target.

Celia:  That's around the center of where the machines were.

Director:  And that's where we can expect the trouble, if we have any...

Celia:  Could you be more...

Director:  Director out.

Celia: ...precise?

Priss:  He knows something he isn't telling.

Celia:  Well, he has been right so far.  But I think he may be playing  
some game of his own.  

Linna:  I just hope we are not expendable pieces...

******************

(We see a monitoring chamber.  Thirteen technicians are monitoring tv  
screens, radios, computers, and radar screens.  They are wearing identical  
bland tan uniforms.  One of them is watching a blank computer screen.   
Words now form on it.)

Screen:  Warning.  Dimensional barrier in sector 454-51-5682 is being  
damaged.  

(The technician punches some buttons.)

Technician #11:  Damage control?  (speaking into a speaker.)

Speaker:  This is #34 at Damage control.

Technician #11:  We have a potential breach in sector 454-51-5682.  A  
damage control squad needs to be dispatched.

Speaker:  Potential danger already planned for.  Damage Control is already  
on the way.  

*******************

(We see a GENOM office.  Some executive is busily reading a report.  His  
phone beeps.)

Executive:  Yes, Mrs. Hayashi?

Hayashi:  Phone call for you from someone in special projects.

Executive:  Patch him through.

Speakerphone:  Mr. Anderson?

Exec: Yes?

Speakerphone:  We've identified the problem sir.  

Exec:  Yes?

Speakerphone:  Hostile forces knocked out five of the six generators,  
leading to a premature quake.  Even with the temporary jamming of all  
electronic transmissions the damage was minimal.  More a matter of panic,  
than of real damage, it seems.

Exec:  Jamming of all electronic transmissions?

Speakerphone:  We think whatever caused this phenomena in Mega-Tokyo has  
now struck here.

Exec:  Blast!  This is not going to look good on my record.  Commit our  
forces to protecting and dismantling the sixth machine.  We'll have to  
save it for another day and time.  Get people out to find out who is  
behind this.  Hmm.  I wonder if the European mech companies are trying to  
turn up the heat on us...

***********************************

(We see a dry valley, somewhere east of Los Angeles.  A small stream  
normally runs through the valley, keeping alive some yellowing grass and a  
few scrub trees.  They sway as the ground shakes.  A great crack has  
opened across the valley, swallowing the stream.  The air shimmers here as  
if there was a very large column of hot air rising over the crack. There  
are a few tiny black spheres floating in the air here. If anyone was here,  
they would hear a loud buzzing noise.)

(Point of view switches to high above the site.  We can see a plane  
approaching from the east, a van coming from the southwest, and a truck  
coming from the northwest.  We can see the site.  The shimmering is  
spreading and the black spheres are getting bigger and merging together.   
The shimmering now spreads across a quarter mile radius, engulfing a  
nearby house.)

(Inside the truck, we see the Director and his associates watching a TV  
screen.  It shows the shimmering area, and the growing spheres.)

Director:  Well, unless the BOARD intervenes very quickly, something is  
going to crossover.  

Kodachi:  Something?

Director:  I assume Andreas...but the disturbance may attract other things  
too.

Roger:  Like what?

(On the screen, we see glowing spheres start to erupt out of the black  
spheres.  They start to scatter from the area, trailing shimmering zones  
in their wake.  Where they pass, grass turns blue, birds become scaly, and  
water leaps into the sky, turns into ice, and rains back down...and other  
strange effects.)

Michael:  Like that, I suppose.

Kodachi:  Why didn't this happen in Mega-Tokyo in 2025?

Director:  Because no one interfered.  Stopping a massive ritual always  
causes unfortunate side-effects.  

Roger:  What are they going to do to the city?

Director:  What faeries do best...wreck havoc...but a petty kind of havoc.   
They mean no harm, they just like practical jokes and random creativity.  

Janet:  Janet does not think they look like faeries.

Director:  (punches some buttons on the TV remote control.  It zooms in on  
a glowing sphere.  We now see it has a tiny (2 inch) man dressed in  
Renaissance garb with delicate butterfly wings zipping along in the middle  
of it.)  They are glowing because they are using their magic....they'll  
run out of power in a few hours or days at most and have to go home.  But  
it will now be easier for faeries to cross over at this place...which  
means they'll be back.

Michael:  Are those faeries? (points at a gloomy black cloud that can be  
seen in the background of the faerie closeup.  The director zooms in on  
that.  It looks like a 2' cube of smog.)

Director:  I don't think so...we're going to have to stop those...those  
are evil spirits.  The last thing we need is them running around.  The  
real question is whether the gates will get big enough for Andreas to get  
out.

(The black spheres have merged to cover about an eighth of a mile  
hemisphere, inside a larger shimmering area.  Far off on the horizon, jet  
planes can be seen approaching.)

(Cut to the Saber's plane.)

Celia:  Hmm.  Looks like the United States Air Force is taking an interest  
in that weird black area over there.

Nene:  It's emitting radio signals across all the frequencies I can find,  
but it is just intense static..  And those little glowing spheres seem to  
be emitting some energy too.  (shakes her head, raps the earphones)   
Blasted buzzing is following me everywhere.

Linna:  What the hell is going on here?

Celia:  Don't get too close to it.  It might be radioactive or otherwise  
dangerous.

Priss:  Wonder what the Air Force boys think of it?

Nene:  Let's listen in.  (fiddles with equipment)

Speaker:  Hound dog, this is Green leader.  We've got a civilian plane in  
the area, two ground vehicles, and some strange light patterns.  Someone  
appears to have built some sort of giant black hemisphere here, right on  
the fault.  It should be collapsing, but it isn't.  Over

Speaker: (crackle of static) adfjasda....signal being.a.dfjlsdf...are  
youasfasl.fd...wqeriwue....report.

Speaker:  Damn.  He can't hear us.  What about you two, Green 2 and Green  
3?

Speaker:  We copy, Green leader.

Speaker: owfjij...copy, Green...dfjdssf

Linna:  Why are we getting some of them clearly, and others not?

Nene:  Green leader may have slightly better equipment.  Or the  
interference may have started getting stronger after we heard the Green  
leader speak.  The area does seem to be growing.

Priss:  (looking out window)  The ground has stopped shaking.

Celia:  Good.  The city is safe.  Now we just have to figure out what this  
thing is.

(The hemisphere is now about a half-mile in diameter.  The three jets  
circle it at about a ten mile distance.  The Sabers' plane hangs back  
about fifteen miles away.)

Radio:  aadf;kjwwer....Please ID yourself, civilian.  Over.

Nene:  This is TN enterprises plane # 34.  Call Sign ADP2033RP94.  We're  
conducting mobile business negotiations.  Over.

Radio:  What...asfjqwerwr,mcv....you. isdf

Nene:  This is TN enterprises plane # 34.  Call Sign ADP2033RP94.  We're  
conducting mobile business negotiations.  Over.

Radio:  This area is restsdkflkdj.  adfasd  asfjawqwme  qper.

Nene:  Could you try that again, please.  The static is blocking you.

(We now see several of the black clouds heading for the planes. The planes  
ignore them, until the strike the cockpit areas.  The planes turn and fly  
off.)

Celia:  What?

Priss:  Where the hell are they going?  What were those cloud things?

Linna:  (groans)  More magic.

Nene:  Eh?

Linna:  I think our little sex-changing friend forgot to tell us a few  
things about what would happen when this earthquake was prevented.

Celia:  (a little bit of ice in her voice) Yes.  Macky.

Mackie:  Yes?

Celia:  We're going to suit up.  We're going to have to take a closer  
look.  Try to get on the radio and see what if any information you can  
drag out of the Director.  And let them know we're going in.

Mackie:  No problem.

*******************************

(We see the giant standing admidst a stream of glowing lights and dark  
clouds.  It laughs, and the ground shakes slightly.  

Giant:  I am free!

It rises up out of the crack and steps forward into the black hemisphere  
that surrounds it. It does not see the tiny threads that still bind it to  
the crack.  They are loose for now. Tiny spiders are slowly thickening  
them...)

*************************************

(The hemisphere has stabilized at half a mile across.  As the Sabers, the  
Magnificent Seven, and the Cabal agents watch, a man nearly a half-mile in  
height steps out of the darkness.  The Sabers are about a mile and half  
out from the sphere in their hardsuits.)

Celia:  I...don't believe it.

Mr. Tendo(driving the van)  He can't really be that tall.

Director:  The only question now is whether he will make it far enough to  
be seen before Science reasserts itself and he collapses under his own  
weight.

Roger:  What?

Director:  He is too big to be able to support himself under the  
scientific paradigm.  But he is a magical creature...and until he uses up  
too much of his magic, he will be able to support himself...but then he  
will die and his spirit will be banished back to the spirit world to wait  
for another earthquake unless he finds another source of magical energy.   
This gate could keep him alive indefinitely, but the Board will certainly  
try to close it as soon as they can.   

 
Kodachi:  We have to let him die?

Director:  He can't die here...just be banished back to the chasm that  
created him...It isn't healthy for him to leave the place that spawned  
him, but he craves freedom...truly he has a miserable existence.  

Michael:  So we freed him just so he could go on a rampage, die, and be  
stuck in his crack again?

Director:  Genom and the Board chose to awaken and anger him.  There was  
no way to put him back to sleep.  We can only try to stop him from  
destroying too much of LA before he can destroy no more.  He is the  
incarnation of all of the power of the San Andreas fault and of the fears  
of mankind that it will strike again.  That fear made him what he is....a  
force for destruction....but a force that cannot strike forever...for no  
earthquake is eternal.  There is always an end.
But his rage may spell the beginning of a new era, for mankind will not  
forget this day.  (points off towards the city, where we can see a  
helicopter approaching.  It says News 7 on the side.)

Janet:  The news is filming this?

Director:  Once they convince their directors it is not a joke...every  
news crew in the city will be on this story.  Let's see the Board explain  
this one away.

Roger:  How can we stop something that big?  It's huge!  I've fought some  
big people, but we're like gnats to it!

Director:  I didn't realize he'd be this big...

Roger:  Brilliant planning as usual...

Director:  Guess we'll just have to do the best we can.

***********************

Celia:  That thing's completely impossible.  It should collapse under its  
own weight.

Nene:  I think magic doesn't care about impossible, and if he isn't magic,  
I don't know what is.  And this buzzing...this buzzing...Hmmm.

Celia:  What?

Nene:  I seem to be getting this buzzing whenever anything magical is  
around...

Celia:  Yes.  That does seem to be right.

Nene:  Maybe magic gives off some sort of high frequency sound...that  
would explain why I hear it.

Priss:  Maybe it's the air in your head escaping.

Nene:  NYAAAH!!!  If I can hear magic, that might be helpful in the  
future.

Linna:  I think I've had enough magic to last me for the rest of my life,  
thank you.

Priss:  What is it?  He's dressed in really old-fashioned crap.

Celia:  He looks like a late Renaissance Spaniard.

(We see the giant running towards the city.  As it runs, the earth shakes  
under its feet.)

Nene:  What is he doing?  What does he want?

Priss:  Maybe he's some kind of giant boomer...

Celia:  He's much too big.

Priss:  How could you feed something that huge?

Celia:  Follow him.

Mackie:  I finally got through to the Director.

Celia:  And what tidbits has he seen fit to share with us now?

Mackie:  That thing is the spirit of the San Andreas Fault, or something  
like that.

Nene:  No wonder it is so huge!

Mackie:  If we can keep it away from the city and that black hemisphere,  
it will use up all its magic and be banished from "this side of reality"  
before it can do much damage.

Celia:  How long must we hold it off?

Mackie:  It depends on when the gate closes.  

Celia:  Did he give you an estimate?

Mackie:  Anywhere between one and six hours...but the Army and other  
forces should show up pretty quickly.  We only really need to hold it off  
for about thirty minutes if it looks like the military can handle it.

(Suddenly, a beam of brilliant yellow light shoots down from the heavens,  
striking the figure, charring its clothing to ash.  The giant's skin turns  
a little reddish.  It stares at the sky and howls.  A second bolt comes,  
reddening it a bit more.  It bends over, digs its hands into the dirt and  
pulls loose a huge chunk of dirt and rock.)

Nene:  The orbital laser satellites!

Celia:  We should have remembered those.  Surveillance satellites must  
have already picked this thing up.

(It hurls the huge chunk of stone into the sky and out of sight. For a  
moment there is a spark of light in the sky.  No more blasts come.)

Priss:  Shit.

Linna:  This giant could pick up entire buildings....

Nene:  How can we fight something this big?

Celia:  How could it possibly throw so accurately?

Nene:  Well, the laser was a straight line, and it shot twice which showed  
its movement...or maybe it used magic.  I wonder how perceptive it is.

Celia:  Your line of thought?

Nene:  Well, it might not notice us if we got close.

Priss: And?

Nene:  Well, its ears and mouth must be big enough for us to fly into.  We  
could try putting explosives in its ears or tossing a bomb down its  
throat...that might hurt it enough to make it stop for a while.

Celia:  It's worth a try...but we don't have enough...ah.  Time to call on  
our other allies.  Saber communications, patch me through to the  
Magnificent Seven's leader.  Time to take out a loan.

********************

(Cut to the city.  We see the horde of faeries scattering through the  
streets--turning cats into dogs, growing trees inside buildings, creating  
illusory discarded thousand dollar bills and getting people to chase them,  
playing with children, and chasing birds.  We cut to one of the local news  
studios.)

News 7 Newsdirector:  (on the phone) You've got to be kidding me...this is  
a joke, right?

Technician:  Footage on screen 4 from the team at City Hall.

(We see Screen 4 flicker into life.  It shows three gremlins chasing the  
city council round and round the city council chambers.)

Lisa Stephens:  This is Lisa Stephens at the city council chamber.  Three  
unidentified creatures have invaded the chambers during the special  
rezoning session.  (We see other news crews of other stations in the  
background of her report.)  Perhaps they believe it is unfair to  
gremlins...(laughs nervously.  She doesn't see another one sneaking up on  
her with scissors to cut her hair.)

News Director at News 7:  Giants, gremlins, faeries in the street.  What's  
next, dragons?

(We see cars streaming out of the city as the giant, now visible on the  
horizon, approaches.)

**********************

(We see the giant is moving towards the city again.  Planes are bombing  
it, but it mostly ignores the explosions and keeps going.  We see the  
Magnificent Seven's van following it.)

Ranma:  Keep it busy while the Sabers plant bombs in its head.  How are we  
supposed to do that?

Shampoo:  Why do they get to plant the bombs?  Shampoo likes explosives. 

Ukyou:  They can fly.  Do you want to try to climb it?

Ryouga:  If we get close enough, I could try a Roaring Lion Bullet.  That  
might catch its attention.

Mousse:  What we really need is a hole for it to step in.  If it tripped  
and fell, that would slow it down.

Akane:  If it falls, the impact is going to shake the city to pieces.  It  
must weigh thousands of metric tons.  

Genma:  If we could just get it to turn...

Akane:  We don't know what it wants.  If we knew that we could try to lure  
it away from the city.  

Soun:  Nabiki says Kasumi's computer model estimates it will reach the  
city in about ten minutes.

Ranma:  How long do we have to delay it?

Soun:  At least half an hour.

Ranma:  Well, I...Wait.  It will die if the gate closes...right?

Akane:  Yes, that's what the Director said.

Ranma:  Then let's close the gate!

Ukyou:  How?

Ranma:  Uh, well...I haven't figured that one out yet.

***********************

(We see the Sabers climbing in its ear, as the giant begins to crash  
through the outskirts of the city.  Suburbs vanish beneath its feet.  It  
stops and begins methodically leveling the edge of town.)

Priss:  This is the most disgusting hole I've ever looked down.  (The ears  
need cleaning--badly.)

Celia:  That's his problem, not ours.  (They start tossing packages with  
timers on them into the ear.)

Linna:  It's a good thing he can't detect us.  I guess we're too small to  
notice.

Nene:  Well, if he's going to destroy everything he sees, he'll be slowed  
down a little just by being thorough...I wish we didn't have to do this.

Celia:  We don't have much choice.  Whatever this thing really is, he  
wants to level LA as much as that quake did.
(They finish tossing bombs and fly off.  About thirty seconds later, smoke  
pours out of the giant's ear.  A muffled explosion can be heard.  It  
staggers in pain. )

Priss:  Got it.

(The giant starts looking around for whatever hurt it.  Off in the  
distance, newscopters and news crews are busily filming the creature.  A  
second wave of planes arrives.  Off in the distance, tanks are coming.   
The giant seems to conclude the planes are responsible.  It stops  
destroying and starts trying to hit them.  Neither it nor the planes are  
good at hurting the other.)

Celia: Well, it looks like our efforts have gotten it to cease destroying  
the city, at least for now.

Linna:  And now it is the army's problem.  

Celia:  Saber communications.

Mackie:  Yes?

Celia:  Let our associates know we've stopped the rampage for now.  And  
get the Director on a line.  I want to talk to him.  Immediately.

Mackie:  Will do.

**********************************
(We see the black hemisphere.  There are two planes circling it from about  
fifteen miles out. They are unmarked. It is slowly shrinking. As it  
shrinks, the plane moves closer.  We can see men in plain blue uniforms  
off in the distance starting to cordon off roads into the area.  However,  
the MS van has already entered the area.)

Ranma:  What are those planes doing?

Genma:  Probably taking readings of some kind before the Army bombs it.

Ukyou:  Got any ideas on how to close this thing?

Ranma:  We could try blasting it with some of our ki abilities.  That  
might damage it.

Mousse:  Too bad Ms. Hinako isn't here.  I bet she could suck all the  
energy out of it.

Ranma:  I wish I knew how to do that, but I never managed to get the  
secret of it from her.

Mr. Tendo:  Happosai and her are the only one who know how to do it.  

Ukyou:  I wonder what those planes are doing?

(They park the van near the slowly shrinking hemisphere.  A black spot  
appears on the western horizon.)

Shampoo:  Shampoo feels strange.

Genma:  Yes.  This place reminds me of Jyusenkyo somehow.

Ranma:  Must be all the magic.

Mr. Tendo:  I'm going to try calling the director to see if he has any  
idea how to close one of these gates.  (He goes to the van and goes  
inside.  The black spot on the horizon has now grown to become a flying  
black hardsuit.)

Booming Kunou Voice:  There you are, Ranma!  What have you done with my  
sister?

Ranma:  I...eh what?

Kunou:  So Akane and the Pony-tail girl were not enough for you!  I have  
learned you have been hiding my sister from me for the last seven years!

Ranma:  Who told you that?

Kunou:  Hand her back over to me now and I will give you a merciful death!

Ranma:  You've got to be kidding!

Kunou:  Then die!  (He opens fire on Ranma and Company.  Bullets,  
mini-missiles, and particle beam fire spray across the area.  Genma and  
Shampoo are too slow, and they collapse after near hits by mini-missiles.   
Akane remains untouched only because Kunou does not fire on her.  Ukyou  
manages to barely dodge, but half her clothing is blown off and she takes  
some burns. Ryouga blocks all the fire at him with thrown bandanas, except  
a few needler slivers that hit him.  He staggers as the paralytic toxin  
runs through his veins.  Only Mousse and Ranma evade the barrage unhurt.)

Akane:  Stop, Kunou!  We've got to close the rift to stop the giant!

Kunou:  Giant?

Ranma:  You didn't see him?

Kunou:  I guess I was preoccupied.

(Everyone still conscious face-faults except Mr. Tendo.)

Ranma:  Baka!  Roaring Lion Bullet!  (Blasts Kunou, who is unscathed.  The  
suit simply ignores the blast.)  Wow.

Kunou:  Hah!  I had this suit designed with defeating you explicitly in  
mind!  (Delivers a hail of fire at Ranma's position.  Ranma barely dodges  
it all.)

Ukyou:  But can you deal with this?  (She and Ryouga barrage Kunou with  
Spatulas and Bandanas.  They dent the suit a bit, but mostly bounce off.)

Kunou:  This is the greatest hardsuit of all time!  You'll never defeat me  
with your puny weaponry!  

Ryouga:  The toxin...too much for me.  (collapses.)

(We suddenly see Mousse clinging to Kunou's back.  He covers Kunou's  
faceplate with the sleeves of his outfit.)

Mousse:  You cannot hit what you cannot see.  (Kunou tries to buck him  
off, but can't.  And the hardsuit arms can't reach behind him very well.)

Kunou:  Get off me!

Mousse:  You didn't plan quite as well as you thought.  (Ranma leaps up to  
kick Kunou, and gets blasted.  He falls back to the ground.)  

Ranma:  How'd you know to...

Kunou:  Radar!  (Starts firing again, but not as accurately as when he  
could see.)

Mousse:  Throw me one of Ryouga's bandanas!  Akane, get a rock!

(Ukyou tosses one of Ryouga's bandanas to Mousse.  Akane picks up a huge  
rock.  Mousse covers Kunou's faceplate with the bandana.  After sticking a  
pair of blades into Kunou's jet pack, he then jumps off.  Kunou manages to  
nail him a bit with some needler shots.)

Mousse:  Hit him with the rock, Akane!  (As Kunou reaches up to pull off  
the bandana, he gets hit by the boulder and gets knocked out of sight, his  
hardsuit fairly well mangled by the boulder and his jets out of control.)

(Mr. Tendo comes out of the van.) 

Akane:  What'd the Director say?

Mr. Tendo:  There is a ritual.  Someone is going to radio it to us pretty  
soon.  I'll be in the van writing it down.  Keep an eye out for trouble.

(Trouble is indeed coming.  About twenty men in soldier uniforms wearing  
radiation suits are coming.  One of them yells to the group.)

Soldier:  There's been a leak!  You need to leave the area!

Ranma:  What?

Soldier:  Dangerous radioactivity is in this area.  (Points to glow)

Mousse:  That's not radioactivity.  That's a magical gateway.

Soldier:  What?

Mousse:  It is a gateway to the spirit world, or something like that.

Soldier:  You've got to leave.

Akane:  We have to wait for someone to radio us the ritual to close the  
gate!  It's powering the giant.

(Soldiers confer briefly.  One talks into a walkie-talkie.)

Soldier: Sorry.  You must leave.  This area is restricted.  We'll have to  
use force if you don't cooperate.

Ranma:  No one's making us leave until we are ready!

Soldier:  Last warning!

Akane:  Maybe we'd better...

Ranma:  Hah!  I'm not afraid of your guns.

(Soldiers level their guns and fire a warning shot.)

Ukyou:  Come on.  We'd better...

(Too late.  Ranma leaps into the midst of the soldiers.  Punching and  
kicking, he soon disarms about half of them, then starts striking them.)

Ranma:  These guys are tough!  They should be going down.  Maybe I'd  
better stop pulling my punches.

(It is soon clear that even at full force, Ranma can't fight them all.   
His friends sigh and dive in to rescue him.  The soldiers are soon lying  
scattered about on the ground.)

Ranma:  See, now we don't have to leave.

(Mousse suddenly looks about, then up)

Mousse:  Everybody, Run!

(They scatter, just before a missile from one of the planes hits them.  A  
big explosion scatters dust, but does little damage.  They can now see  
more vehicles approaching.)

Ryouga:  Mr. Tendo had better hurry up!

Shampoo:  Shampoo wish Great-Grandmother was here.

Akane:  You shouldn't have attacked those soldiers, Ranma!  Now we're  
going to have tanks and things after us!

Ranma:  We had to stay! 

(More dodging, second missile lands, but misses them.)

Ukyou:  So we could be blown up?

Ranma:  We're not quite dead yet!

(Mr. Tendo comes out with several pieces of paper.)

Soun:  He hoped this would work...but it is hard to close a gate this  
fast, he said.

Ranma:  So what do we do?  (Vehicles get closer.  More missiles to dodge.)

Mousse:  Curious.  That style of plane normally carries no missiles.  And  
I see none on the outside of it.  Strange.

Soun:  Circle it seven times chanting this song I wrote down, then blow a  
horn.  That should create harmonic vibrations to break it up.  Or  
something like that.

Akane:  Okay.

Soun:  Anyone got a horn?

Mousse:  The master of hidden weapons is always prepared.  (Pulls out deer  
antlers.)  I'm not sure how to play them, though.

(Everyone facefaults.)

(A quick hollowing out of one of the horns later.)

Mousse:  I hope this will do.

Soun:  Ukyou, go get the van started.  We'll need to leave fast when we  
finish this.

Soun:  Let's go chant!  

(We see them running around the circle, dodging missiles and now incoming  
gunfire. They chant away.  )

Ukyou:  I wonder why the incoming soldiers are shooting so poorly.  You'd  
think they were aiming to miss, or something...

 (They finish the chant, and Mousse blows the horn at the end of the  
seventh circuit.)
 
 (The hemisphere collapses in on itself to a tiny pinpoint, then emits an  
enormous flash of bright white light and vanishes...Everyone in a mile or  
so radius is temporarily blinded....)
 
******************************
(We see the five o'clock news on News 7 on a TV screen somewhere.  The  
screen shows footage of planes battling the giant.)

Anchor:  U.S. Air Force planes engaged the creature, whose existence is  
currently unexplained, in Eastern Los Angeles.  The state legislature has  
already approved emergency relief for the destroyed area.  In addition, a  
variety of strange phenomena have plagued our city and show no sign of  
stopping anytime soon.

(We cut to the anchor, who looks down and sees he is wearing medieval  
royal robes.  A tiny woman with butterfly wings is sitting on the weather  
woman's head nearby, giggling.)

Anchor:  Case in point.

******************************

(In a clinic room, we see the Magnificent Seven and Mr. Tendo wake up.   
Dr. Tofu, Kasumi, Nodoka, the Knight Sabers, and Nabiki are here.)

Ranma:  What happened?

Celia:  We heard a big explosion east of the city and then the sky turned  
chromatic as some sort of massive burst of light flooded the area.  As it  
struck the giant, he just slowly crumpled to the ground and crumbled away  
into dirt.  All that was left was a long cord of a silk like substance  
where he had been walking and a huge giant shaped hill where he died.  

Akane:  Well, we saved most of the city.

Dr. Tofu:  We found all of you on the roof of the TN building here in LA.

(Door opens.  The Director, Roger, Janet, and Michael walk in.)

Director:  Good.  The addition to the ritual worked.  We wanted it to send  
you somewhere safe afterward so the Board's damage control men couldn't  
catch you.

Celia:  How did you find us here?

Director:  I have my ways.

Priss:  (grabs the director)  Why the fuck didn't you tell us what the  
hell was going to happen when we wrecked those machines?  What was that  
thing?  (shakes him)  What kind of game are you playing?

Director:  A shadow war for the heart of mankind.  This was the result of  
years of planning and waiting....but I'll admit I made mistakes.  I never  
realized the giant would be so big.  

Celia:  Years of planning and you didn't know?  How could you let that  
thing be turned loose?

Director:  It was that or let GENOM level the city!  In case you forgot,  
they were going to wreck the city with an earthquake?  Millions were  
likely to die or be hurt?  It was the earthquake or the giant...and we  
couldn't even be sure he would break free.(shouting)  Do you think this  
was easy for me? The fate of millions was in my hand and this was the best  
I could do!  (gestures about the room)  Maybe I should have been more  
open.  I've been hiding and lying for so long that it just comes naturally  
to me.  Maybe I've become too much like my wife...I did the best I could.   
Can anyone do more?

Priss:  I want to know the truth, dammit!  

Director:  We succeeded better than we ever expected.  A new age of magic  
has begun.  This city has been touched by the other side, and thanks to  
television, so has the world.  What has begun here shall spread.  The city  
is safe from destruction.  Genom and the Board have been thwarted for now.   
We have earned a little rest before we must return to our struggles.

Celia:  What is going to stop GENOM from doing this again somewhere?

Director:  The Board won't want to risk another disaster like this for a  
long time.  They'll keep GENOM from doing it again.

Ukyou: Are they really that powerful?  Can they stop GENOM?

Director:  We did, and they have more power than us.  

Nabiki:  I expect payment for services rendered, Director.  You can pay in  
information or money, your choice.  I've had enough of being led by the  
nose.

Celia:  I also have many questions.

Director:  Come, let us deal and leave the tired warriors to their rest.   
(Stares at Ranma and then Akane.  An impish smile creeps across his face  
and for a moment, he looks many years younger than he is.)So did you ever  
learn how to cook, or are you still as bad as when we met?

Akane:  (her eyes get bigger and fill with rage.  She hefts a bedside  
table)  BAKA!  WHY DOES EVERYONE INSULT MY COOKING!!!!  YOU...

Director:  You're really cute when you're angry. (smiles)

Akane:  (She deflates like a flat tire.  All the anger just flows out and  
she is stunned.)  You...I...

Director:  It's always nice to know there are constants in life. I don't  
think you two will ever change.  I wish...I wish I could have stayed the  
way you are...but I didn't have that option. (sighs) Take good care of  
him, Akane.  He loves you more than he'll ever be able to express.  (turns  
to Nene)  Do you believe in magic, Nene Romanova?

Nene: Yes, I do now.  I...Am I really hearing magic?  I keep getting this  
buzzing noise, like right now.  I can hear a low level buzz.

Director:  I was right.  You do have the gift.  It will show itself in  
what you do and what you are.  You are a magician now.

Nene:  But I don't know any spells.  I just...

Director:  Magic is more than spells and powders and magic wands.  It is a  
way of life and seeing the world.  Your magic manifests in ways that are  
attuned to you.  How do you think you jammed an entire city?

Nene:  That was me?

Director:  To make technology do the seemingly impossible is as magical as  
a unicorn if you can see the wonder in it all.  Never forget that.  (Turns  
to Celia and Nabiki, takes their shoulders, and leads them out.)  The time  
has come for us to talk of many things...(They exit)

Nene:  I think our future is going to be a lot stranger than we expected.

Ryouga:  Hai!

**************************************

(We see Kunou marching down a hallway surrounded by corporate types who  
are trying to get various kinds of information and decisions out of him.  
He is getting fed up.)

Corporate goon 3:  Should we raise the price on cherry blossoms by 3 or  
4%?

Kunou:  I don't care!  I want that intelligence report and I want it now!  

Corp. goon 4:  We haven't been able to find any of them, boss.  It's as if  
they disappeared.

Kunou:  That's not good enough.  (He turns to enter a bathroom)  Find  
them!  Any of them!  Or heads will roll!  (enters the bathroom, slamming  
door in their face.  They hear "Urk!" and rush in.  Kunou is gone.)

(We see Kunou cramped up in the darkness above the ceiling.  Something is  
choking him...)

Kunou:  I may die, but not alone...(strikes with his sword through the  
cramped space to his left.  Something blocks his blow, but the chokehold  
is lost.)

Kunou:  Show yourself!

(A flashlight flickers in, showing a woman throwing herself at him.  It is  
his sister, Kodachi.  She hugs him.)

Kunou:  You...I...is it really you?

Kodachi:  You didn't recognize the poison in your food this morning?

Kunou:  It really is you, sister.  Welcome home.  Where have you been?  I  
thought you were dead.

Kodachi:  I got better...and I suppose it is finally time for you to meet  
my husband.

Kunou:  Husband?

Kodachi:  There's a few things I never told you....I hope you enjoy  
surprises.

**********************
(We see Nabiki staring at a phone as if daring herself to pick it up.)

Nabiki:  I have to know what she is like.  I should have recognized her  
when I saw her in Fortune.  Ichiwara Hitomi, the richest stockbroker in  
Japan.  At least I did well for myself.  (smiles)

(She punches in a number.  A face appears on the videophone.  It is an  
older version of Nabiki, although her hair is dyed red.)

Hitomi:  Hello, Nabiki.  I've been wondering when you'd find me.

Nabiki:  I should have figured this out long ago from all the stories I've  
heard about you.

Hitomi:  We have a lot to talk about.  My daughter would like to meet you,  
but she is in a rather delicate position at the moment.

Nabiki:  Really?

Hitomi:  Deep, deep undercover.  

Nabiki:  Indeed.  Well, I suggest dumping all your investments in  
Yamaguchi-Microsoft.  I believe they are about to have a massive security  
breach.  

(They both laugh.)

*********************

(We see Nene pecking away at a computer terminal in the KS base. 

In one window we see:

>telnet master.tower.GENOM.com
>login: Superuser
>password: 

)

Nene:  Magic is in what I do...hmmm...  (She punches up the other window.)

(Window 2:

>powerthrone master.tower.GENOM.com report

SuperUser password for Genom is MP34rty.


Nene switches back to window one.

>password:  MP34rty

Password Acknowledged. 

Greetings, Superuser. 
 

Nene throws her head back and laughs.)

Nene:  I am the wicked witch of the Internet!  Ha HA HA HA HA!  (Slips and  
falls out of her chair.  Priss, nearby, looks at her and laughs.)

Priss:  Well, I'm certainly quaking at your power...

**************************

(We see Linna at the Tendo dojo with Soun, Ranma, and Akane.   She is  
sparring with Ranma.  He leaps at her with a flying kick and she simply  
guides his feet past her and he soars into the wall.)

Soun:  Very nice move.

Linna:  Thank you.

(Ranma gets out of the wall.  He comes back and carefully approaches her.   
They move about studying each other.  This goes on for quite some time...)

Akane:  Aren't one of you going to do something?

Ranma:  Roaring Lion Bullet!  (Linna gets ki-blasted.  She collapses.)

Linna:  How do you do that?

Soun:  It is hard to learn...

Linna:  My master never taught me anything like this...but if it can be  
done I would like to learn it.  There is more to martial arts than I ever  
knew.

Soun:  I would be honored to teach you.

*********************

(We see a man busily stamping a piece of paper and putting it in a fax  
machine.  We see only the words "Project Failure" on the bottom as it  
slides in.  He picks up a second which says "Damage Control Project  
498--Suppression of Andreas.  )

Opening of report:  Manipulation of US Army Forces as primary units of  
Damage Control Project 498 was only a partial success.  While they avoided  
exposing our involvement, they were unable to deal with the intervention  
of paranormal agents.  However, these agents did our work for us, by  
closing the gate, so we avoided actively eradicating them while they did  
so.

Future such events should feature a larger presence by actual Damage  
Control Agents in an active rather than a manipulative role...




************************

(We see a Genom meeting.  It is the same group that met in act I, but  
minus the now dead scientist.)

Ms. Hall:  Well, this project was a complete disaster.  We lost a  
scientist and a large number of boomers for nothing.  This will look bad  
on our records.  At least we didn't lose our security consultant also.

Ms. Ichiwara:  I'm certainly glad of that.  (everyone laughs).  I intend  
to conduct further surveillance of these individuals and plan for a future  
operation....which will hopefully be more successful.  (She turns and  
looks out the window, smiling as she sees the city spread out below her.)   
Our enemies will pay for this.  

Mr. Johnson:  Indeed, they will.

Ms. Ichiwara:  (thought)  If you only knew...If you only knew...

*********************

(We see Ranma and Akane on the Dojo roof.)

Ranma:  That was a strange adventure.

Akane:  That director...he..

Ranma:  Married to Kodachi, brrr.

Akane:  And I..the other me...

Ranma:  Dead.  Do you think he was right?  Do we never change?

Akane:  We've changed some...but not as much as them.  But is that bad?

Ranma:  I don't know, but I like you just the way you are.  

Akane:  (blinks)  Really?

Ranma:  Yeah, well...actually there is one thing...

Akane:  What?

Ranma:  You still don't know how to cook!

Akane:  Baka!  (She runs after him and he runs laughing.)

Ranma:  But you're still cute when you're angry.  (At the edge of the  
roof, he stops and lets her run into him, embracing her as they fall off  
the roof....into the pond.  Splash! )

*****************
Finis.
*****************
closing song:

               ASU E TOUCHDOWN  (TOUCHDOWN TO TOMORROW)

          You're not the only one who's lonely.
          Try sitting on the crescent moon.
          The dreams we had as children
          Are still bright, like shining stars.

          Ride on, and never give up,
          No matter how sad or difficult things become.

          Kiss me, Wind, Kiss me...
          Hold me, Sky, hold me tight...
          And protect us, always,
          Until we overcome and break down the walls,
          Until we touch down and seize our dreams,
          Because we were born to be happy.

          You're not the only one who's lonely.
          Try sitting on the windowsill.
          The hometown of the faces passing by
          Is a misty blue.

          Ride on, without stopping,
          Even though you stumble or get hurt.

          Kiss me, Wind, Kiss me...
          Hold me, Sky, hold me tight...
          And protect us, always,
          Until we overcome and break down the walls,
          Until we touch down and seize our dreams,
          Because we were born to be happy.

          "Romantic...Dramatic..."
          If we lie together, it'll be a misty night.
          "Romantic...Dramatic..."
          I can't get what I want with longing alone.

          Kiss me, Wind, Kiss me...
          Hold me, Sky, hold me tight...
          And protect us, always,
          Until we overcome and break down the walls,
          Until we touch down and seize our dreams,
          Because we were born to be happy.


*********************
Author's notes:

     Well, I've come to the end of another epic.  This proved to be yet  
another story that ended up larger than I expected....
     
     The original inspiration for this was an image of Shampoo on her  
bicycle passing Leon and Daley on a Mega-Tokyo highway.  I read Jyusenkyo  
Crisis and Bubblegum Splash, but I wanted to do a meeting of the two  
worlds, rather than one world's characters taking on the roles of another.   
To mix a light romantic comedy with dark cyberpunk adventure seems a  
strange thing, but I would like to hope I have successfully pulled it  
off....
     
     The themes of this story are identity, deception, manipulation, and  
the relationship between magic and technology. 
     
     What is identity?  If two people share the same memories up to a  
point, would they be the same person?  If two of me existed, would they  
make the same decisions?  How much of what we are derives from our  
memories.  If I forgot all that I had done, would my personality change or  
stay the same?  Why?  I tried to explore all these questions in this  
story.  In the process, it let me explore some unusual combinations of  
characters (Like Director/Robert/Ranma and Kodachi) and helped me clarify  
my own beliefs as to the answers to those questions.  I hope this story  
may help you formulate your own answers to these questions, whether you  
agree with me or not.
     
     A very important theme of this story is deception and manipulation.   
This story features multi-leveled conflict from personal combats up to the  
overriding conflict of the ideas of science and magic.  I hope it hasn't  
been too confusing cutting through who has been lying to who, when, and  
why.  Almost all the major players in this story are either manipulating  
others, being manipulated by others, or both (such as Kunou).  People are  
manipulable because we tend to trust what we see and hear unless we have  
pretty good reason to believe otherwise.  But in an age of increasing  
information and video technology, the truth is increasingly manipulable by  
those with the correct technical know-how.  How much of that collection of  
video sequences on the third disk was real, and how many were faked by  
whoever made the disk?  I'll never tell...but it would be easy to fake  
such a thing given the advances in technology postulated in BGC.  Or then  
there was the affair with those "Genom couriers" that Nene "happened" to  
stumble on in the first scene...The theft of the disks in the first  
place...Wheels within wheels within wheels. If you have any unanswered  
questions about the story, write me and let me know.  I'll send you an  
honest answer.  (No, really...:)  ).  (The first person to write in and  
let me know who arranged all of the "coincidences" in this story gets a  
free prize...)
     
     
     
      Gaming oriented readers will recognize a heavy influence from White  
Wolf's Storyteller system on this story, especially their game Mage.  Mage  
and the series THE PRISONER heavily influenced my presentation of the  
Board.  If I ever do a sequel, I will give more information on the history  
of the conflict of the Board and the Cabal.  The philosophy of magic in  
this story is also heavily influenced both by Mage and by my own personal  
philosophy.  I feel that we are trying far too hard to grind all of the  
sense of wonder out of the world.  We have worked ourselves into a corner  
in which we need further advances in technology to survive, but the more  
technology we develop, the more we seem to be cutting ourselves off from  
each other and all the things that make life worth living. We have  
forgotten the power of myths and symbols, seeking to reduce everything to  
quantifiable terms.  Does this make science and technology evil?  No.  The  
problem is what we do with it, and why we develop it. We can use it to  
mechanize our lives to the point where we are interchangeable cogs, or we  
can use it to remove needless work, freeing us to develop ourselves and  
interact with each other. We have to find new ways to connect with one  
another and to go beyond the mechanization of so much of our lives, or we  
shall just end up as Accountant #456-78-9012 or Fanfic writer  
#234-56-7890.  
   
   So what is magic?  To do magic is to see the wonder of all the aspects  
of our world and to create new wonders.  It is not what you do, but how.   
A story can be magical, or just another cranked out assignment.  The same  
applies to science, art, or accounting.  It is to acknowledge both that  
there are mysteries beyond our ken, and that we have to strive to master  
them....not because it will bring us material benefit, but because we are  
not fully human if we are content with a mundane routine.  If our only  
reason for learning chemistry is to make money, we have taken magic and  
turned it into lead.  The world is what we make of it.  We can make it a  
magical and wondrous place, or we can make it a lonely hunk of rock  
floating in a vaccuum with a thin layer of air held to it by gravity.   
This is not to say that the latter is not true, but what meaning or hope  
can we find in clinging to a lonely hunk of rock?  We cannot ignore  
science, but we cannot trust in it to give our lives purpose by itself.  I  
hope that you may find the magic in your life.
   
              
     I may one day in the very distant future do a sequel to this, but I  
tried to achieve a sense of closure so that this story could stand on its  
own.  My next project will be the first Furinkan Summer episodes, some  
more episodes of my Ranma/UY crossover series, and my Ranma Elseworlds  
story "For Want of a Nail"(In which Ukyou gets her deepest wish...but it  
doesn't quite work out the way she expected it to....).
     
     If you would like to read any of my other work, comment on this one,  
or want to join the list of brave people who take a look at my stuff  
before it hits the Internet at large, you can contact me at  
Johnbil@wam.umd.edu.  Please let me know if you liked this story, hated  
it, or have suggestions for improving it or its grammar.  Thanks for  
reading this whole monster!
     
      In conclusion, I would like to thank:
      
      David Kelk and David Tai for helping edit this monster and providing  
lots of useful feedback.  Thanks!
      
      Princess Kahm and Shan-Pu for their comments, feedback and support  
on this and all my other projects.  
      
      Takahashi Rumiko and Keichi Sonada for creating the worlds of Ranma  
1/2 and Bubblegum Crisis....I hope they don't kill me if they ever see  
this.
      
      All the people who have read parts of this story and commented on it  
for helping me to bring it to a greater state of perfection.  Thanks!   
That's the support that keeps me going!
      
   
   John Biles
   Historian and Fanfic writer at large
   Johnbil@wam.umd.edu