Photocopy

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101

Date: 060109

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 never belonged to me and never will. *sighs*

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101

Part Eight:

It was painstaking slow work but Real Kasumi was patient. She had been busy moving about at night for over three months now, collecting parts and components to assemble them into a working sacrophagus. She would do so at night when Normal Kasumi had gone to sleep. In the day, she rested and Normal Kasumi would take over. Not faraway, multiple pair of eyes watched her movements carefully, unnoticed, from the side of the building.

"So what is she doing, Ranma?" Nabiki asked.

"Building a sacrophagus," the harceasis surmised.

"Why ... Mother," Nabiki concluded.

"There is no other explanation. She wants to bring your mother back now that she possesses the means to do so," the harceasis agreed.

"To have such a noble goal and to live under the constant sway of the Goa'uld's memories without succumbing, her willpower must be incredible," Nabiki pointed out.

"Don't get your hopes up. You started out that way too. Noble goals and intentions. To protect Earth from the Goa'uld. Besides, there is still another year to go," the jusenkyo-cursed harceasis warned.

"Isn't it dangerous for Kasumi to go around all by herself at night, Ranma?" the middle Tendo sister asked, her voice tinged with worry.

"Just to alleviate your concerns, I did assign a few of my creations to keep an eye on her, just in case," came the reply.

"And ..." Nabiki was about to continue speaking when they heard the loud-screeching sound of vehicle tyres.

It was a large blue van swerving wildly around the corner. Nabiki only had a brief instant to gasp in horror as the vehicle bore down upon her sister. There was a sudden blast of energy and the van was thrown to side hitting the street lamp. It went up in a powerful explosion throwing shrapnel around the place. A man crawled out from the vehicle and got to is feet shakily.

A second vehicle came to a stop in front of the burning wreck. Three men in guard uniforms stepped out of the vehicle.

"This is the end of the road, Number Two Hundred and Sixteen," the man spoke.

"The end for you," the man replied before throwing a bag at them and pushing a button on a device he held in his hand.

A powerful roar tore through the place as an explosion throwing shrapnel in all directions.

"There is a problem, Nabiki. All four of them aren't human," the jusenkyo-cursed harceasis muttered under his breath.

"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked.

"Their bio-energy signatures are different. They're not Goa'uld either. They're something else entirely. You had better leave now. Things are about to get ugly," the ponytailed girl warned.

The three men engulfed in the explosion emerged ... alive slightly burned and covered with cuts from the explosion that had seemingly destroyed them.

"That was not very nice Number Two Hundred and Sixteen. Now give us the Guyver units! Or else ..." a voice that was more like a growl came from one of the men.

Their human appearance shifted to assume the form of three monstrous-looking creatures.

Ranma's eyes widened slightly at the revelation.

"Go ... Now! Nabiki!" the Jusenkyo-cursed harceasis insisted.

The middle Tendo sister was about to argue but one look at Ranma's facial expression told her that the harceasis was deadly serious.

"Fine! But I want to know what's going on!" the middle Tendo sister argued.

She made to run away from the place but instead moved in a circle around the area. ... when she came across a strange-looking object on the ground. It was the size of a football and appeared to be made out of metal overlaid with crystal latices. Curiosity took hold of her and she moved to picked it up.

What in the world was this thing?

Not faraway, in a dark alley, her older sister was asking the same question ... in her mind.

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101

Real Kasumi picked the strange object up from the ground, turning it with her fingers.

What was this thing? Even with the combined knowledge of her Goa'uld memories given by Ranma, her mind drew a blank at the object. It looked like a mishmash of metal and some unknown substance put together. It seemed almost alive. A hum came from the object as fingers brushed one of the crystals. There was the sound of something moving within and the eldest Tendo sister dropped it to the ground in fear. To her surprise, the crystals began to glow.

Suddenly, without warning, tendrils lashed out at her from the strange object, snagging the Tendo sister and drawing her straight at the spherical object lying on the ground. Real Kasumi gave a scream of horror as the tendrils grew rapidly and continued to wrap themselves around her body at blinding speed. Within a few seconds it had completely encased her in what seemed like a cocoon. The object opened itself towards the wrapped up Tendo sister and drew her towards it.

There was another cry of pain from the eldest Tendo sister when she felt something burrowing into her neck to wrap itself around her spine all the way to the brain. Eventually, the pain became too great and she slipped into unconsiousness soon after.

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101

Ranma upon hearing the scream, quickly made her way towards it. By the time, she got there, however, it was too late. The eldest Tendo sister was wrapped from head to toe, in somekind of solid organic-looking substance like a cocoon. Instinctively, she probed the cocoon with her advanced senses to check on the eldest Tendo sister. Her life signs were stable but something was altering the structure of her body on the cellular level. She was changing ... that was for sure ... into what ... the harceasis could not determine.

The three creatures stepped into view.

"The Key the Director spoke off ..." one of the creatures whispered.

"She shouldn't be here ..." said the second quietly.

"This complicates everything ..." said the third.

"The Director will not be pleased to learn that the Key has seen the Guyver unit," the first creature agreed.

Ranma turned in their direction.

"Who is the Director?" she asked.

The creatures did not answer. Instead, they quickly turned around and fled into the darkness.

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101

'You're not getting away,' Ranma thought.

She quickly contacted her drones to intercept the three creatures who had split up and were now bounding off the road in three different directions. They responded in record time. All along the path of the three fugitives, powerful barriers of bio-energy sprung into being, blocking their paths. The creatures tried to break free but they were not successful for Ranma's creations had refined and strengthened those energy barriers many times over to the extent that it was near impregnable.

The creatures struggled in vain to free themselves from their bio-energy prison utilising all the means at their disposal. They tried hammering at it with their armoured limbs first and when that failed, they opened fire on it with their built-in bio-energy weapons. Ranma smirked inwardly at the ineffectiveness of their attempts for she knew that those energy barriers were powerful, able to contain even the explosive power from a naquadah bomb which had saved her life not so long ago.

Meanwhile ... in the flames of the destroyed vehicle, the figure of a man slowly emerged. He crawled slowly across the ground, moving forwards on all fours. He turned around slowly, studying his surroundings carefully. His pursuers were gone. There was no sign of them but he was not yet out of trouble. His wounds were grievious and he was near death. The situation looked hopeless to him until his eyes fell on a very familiar object.

The Guyver unit!

One of them was still there!

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, his hands and legs inched forward bit by bit towards it. He was near death, having been injured by shrapnel from the explosion that he had set off. But he could still live ... if he could reach the object that he stole from those compatriots of his.

Almost there ... his strength gave out and his right hand came down on top of the Guyver unit. There was a flash of light of light from it and the Guyver unit was once again active.

10101011101101110101101010111011011101011010101110110111010110101011101101110101