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Sailor Ranko: Tunnel Vision: Chapter 26, The Invasion Of Japan.
by
Rebecca Ann Heineman
Ranma 1/2 and the characters therein are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Based on "Sailor Ranko" by Duncan Zillman and "Twice in a Millennium" by Kevin D. Hammel.
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or make me upload chapters to FanFiction.net without checking them.
Sailor Sun sat in a corner on a small steel stool in the power room. The cats had been staying in there since they got to the station to avoid putting Sun in a coma or having her go berserk and destroy the place. When Sun entered and claimed her spot, Artemis and Luna ran for cover. Sun was in a really bad mood and they didn't want to compound it by being in her presence.
She had been sitting there ever since she and Io came back from Earth. She was in deep meditation. The other Senshi wouldn't have been concerned except for the fact that a hot flaming aura of fire had been surrounding her and started to ignite anything flammable near her. They were concerned she might blow up the power regulator by accident.
Io told everyone to just leave Sun alone. She turned down the temperature setting of the thermostat to compensate for the excess heat coming from Sailor Sun. Io had never seen Sun in this way and hoped that she would never see her like this again.
Io went back to the dining area where Sailor Moon and Pluto were leading a meeting with all the other Senshi discussing possible locations for Skynet's base. Io sat down and joined the meeting. Sailor Moon took a deep breath and asked, "So Io, what happened down there?"
Io's face sagged. "We went to rescue a friend. We failed."
The collective faces around the table fell. Moon continued, "Who was it?"
Io explained, "Her name was Shampoo. We've known her for a while. A robot was looking for Ranma and somehow thought she knew where she was."
Sailor Venus was puzzled, "Shampoo? Wasn't that the girl who wanted to marry Ranma because of some Amazon law?"
"Yes, that's her. She's not really a bad person. She's just taking her traditions a little too seriously." Io sighed. She had hoped all this time that Shampoo would just take a hint and run off with Mousse. She never deserved anything like this. Even when Shampoo was trying to kill Io, it was all to win over Ranma. Io felt sorry for Shampoo.
Moon got back to business, "Why was it after Ranma?"
"I have no idea. It kept demanding to know where she was."
Pluto came forward, "What kind of robot was it? Was it the same as the one who came after Mercury?"
"Yes, it was identical in every way. It was also very tough. It took several attacks to bring it down."
The girls looked at each other and became concerned. The victory in Los Angeles was too easy and they got overconfident. The machine at the hospital and the one that Io and Sun met were much tougher. Mars tapped her fingers on the table, "So I take it. These robots are as tough if not tougher than a youma?"
Io thought about how the battle compared to fighting a youma. "I think these things are tougher, much tougher." Io sank in her chair. "I made a mistake and thought that it was dead. I cut it in half. It didn't die. It... It killed Shampoo." Io started to sniff. "I... I..." She placed her arms on the table and laid her face down on them.
Sailor Moon sat down in her chair. "You didn't know."
"I should have known that that wasn't enough. I should have hit it again." Io buried her head in her arms. She felt guilty.
Pluto sat in contemplation, "First Ami, then Ranma..." A revelation took over her and she stood up, "Wait, you said it wanted Ranma?"
"Yes, it wanted Ranma."
"It didn't want Sailor Sun?"
"It was only asking for Ranma." She shook her head in thought. "It did come after us. It shot at Sun with a machine gun instead of Shampoo."
Pluto sank back into her chair. "It knows our names."
Sailor Neptune was upset, "How can that be?"
Mars gasped, "Grandfather!"
Venus's eyes glazed over. Uranus stared at the ceiling, "Now we can't ever go back."
Sailor Moon thought of her family. She hadn't seen them in over a week and they were probably worried sick. Now, they might be in danger. She held out a little hope, "We don't know that."
Io sat up. "Yes we do." She remembered the motorcycle; it was Uranus's bike. She turned to Uranus, "It was riding your bike."
Uranus turned pale. "No. That means it was at my house!"
Io apologized, "Sorry, I had to blow it up."
Uranus was not happy thinking that a machine had been to her home and took her bike. Visions of her home being violated danced in her head. She didn't even want to think about what would have happened had they been home when it stopped by. Uranus massaged her temple in thought.
Jupiter put it together, "Dr. Mizuno. That's why it came to the hospital. It knew Ami's mother worked there and came to see if we were there."
Venus tried to disprove it, "Everyone knew we were at the hospital."
Mars heart sunk, she reclined in her chair, "So my grandfather truly is in danger."
Sailor Moon slammed her fist on the table, "In case you hadn't noticed, everyone is in danger." Outwardly, Moon was showing a face of a stern commander, inwardly she was crying like a baby. She so badly wanted to go home and forget the whole thing.
Pluto brought everyone back to the original subject, "We can save everyone if we just find where Skynet is hidden. We destroy it and we can then deal with rest. As long as that computer still exists, people are going to keep dying." Pluto started to turn red with frustration, "Each passing day, we get weaker and it gets stronger. We can't waste time. We have to figure out where it's hidden."
Io needed to catch up on the meeting. She composed herself and sat up holding her hands together. "So, where do you think it is?"
Pluto was happy to hear that someone was focused on the job at hand. "The two most likely places are Taiwan or Southern California."
"Why there?" Asked Io.
Pluto explained, "Shortly after the initial attack, all communication with Taiwan was cut off. Mercury..." Pluto turned her eyes downward towards the table and took a breath. Everyone else also quietly took a moment of silence. "Mercury intercepted some ham radio signals saying they were being attacked by white skinned men. Yesterday, I looked at Taiwan and it's totally overrun with those machines. It's like every factory is now making robots like crazy there."
Jupiter stood up, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go to Taiwan and kick its butt!"
Pluto glared at Jupiter, "Oh, you want to take on an army of a million machines?"
"A... A million?" Jupiter lost her determination to go to Taiwan.
Pluto touched her chin with her gloved fingers, "Make that about ten million, last count."
Jupiter sat down, "Ten... Ten million."
Pluto spun in her chair and faced a white board with a crudely drawn map of Taiwan and Southern California. "I don't think it's in Taiwan. I think it's in California."
"And why is that?" Asked Moon.
"Women's intuition." Pluto stood up and marked some locations on the map. "First, the last location of CyberDyne Systems I could find was in Palo Alto. Then there was the station in San Francisco. The giveaway was what happened in Los Angeles. I ask you. Why did Los Angeles get gassed? I can understand Buenos Aries and Rio de Janeiro. Those cities would not have been nuked under normal circumstances. Los Angeles however, had a big fat bulls eye on it. Why didn't that city get hit?"
The Senshi looked at each other and had no clue.
Pluto plopped in her chair, "I'll tell you why. It's hiding somewhere there and didn't want to risk shooting itself. Taiwan was plastered with bombs." Pluto leaned forward, "The sad part is. Los Angeles is a huge city. There is a robot factory to the north of it in Valencia. I don't think it's near the factory."
Mars looked around for the notes from Mercury, "Pluto, where is the list of places you had?"
Pluto put the list on the table and slid it to Mars. Mars started to leaf through it. "Let's see. Factories, shopping malls, landfills, cement factories, computer companies, and car dealerships. What are the ones crossed out for?"
Pluto answered, "Those are ones that I had Sun look at for me. They checked out."
"What about the landfill?" Mars asked.
"What about it? It's a garbage dump."
Mars looked at the entry for the landfill. It was a huge facility. "Well, if you were going to hide something. Isn't a garbage heap a place you wouldn't look?"
Jupiter slid over and took a look at the list, "How about the cement factory? If I was going to dig something underground, I'd need to get rid of the dirt."
Pluto sat there wondering why didn't she think of this. She scratched her head and agreed. "Well then, I think that's where we'll search next." Pluto peeked down the hall and saw Sailor Sun walking towards the meeting. She had a look of determination on her. "Well, well, well."
Sailor Sun got to the end of the table and placed her hands down and leaned toward the group. "Japan is in big trouble."
Moon rolled her head up in her chair. She had had enough bad news. Jupiter asked, "How so?"
"I've been searching all around Tokyo for those machines." Sun lifted herself off the table and walked to the white board. She drew a very bad rendition of Tokyo Bay and drew a dot offshore. "There they are."
"What is that?" Neptune was curious about what could have been in the ocean.
"A really big cargo ship." Sun turned to face the group. "I was searching Japan for those robots and I found them. The top of the ship is filled with those silver flying things we fought in California. The ship is about fifty kilometers from Tokyo."
Jupiter was excited, "I say we go and kick their butts!"
Moon was more level headed, which for Moon was not normal, "We need to think this out."
Sun looked at Moon, "We don't have much time. They might be able to fly those things right now. For all we know they are attacking right now."
Moon was not thrilled about going onto a cargo ship. Sun's did present a good reason to at least check it out. "Ok. We'll Sailor Teleport. Pluto, stay here and look at California and find that computer."
Sailor Moon made a circle with the Inners with Io taking the place of Mercury. They took Uranus as their passenger. Sun grabbed Neptune. They left Saturn behind in case there was a problem and they needed a healer.
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Sun and Neptune appeared on the bow of a gigantic cargo ship. There were cargo containers stacked five high and fifteen wide on the deck of the ship. They took a quick look around and got on the communicator and called in the rest who were standing in a field at Juuban High School.
Jupiter looked at the red cargo containers. "I wonder what's in these things. Anyone got X-Ray vision?"
The Senshi shrugged. Mars walked to the nearest container and examined the lock. "Looks like we will have to blast the door to see what's inside."
Sun sighed, "I can see inside."
The Senshi turned to her in amazement. Moon asked, "You have X-Ray vision?"
Sun took a step back, "No, no! You can do it too. Try to teleport, focus on your destination but just don't teleport. You can see where you are focusing on."
Moon made a tiny grin. "Cool!"
Sun stood up straight. She focused on the container in front of her and started her teleportation magic. She saw the destination and saw the container was filled with rubber-skinned robots. Sun got angry. She focused on the adjacent container; it was filled with robots too. Sun got angrier. She concentrated on the container above. It was filled with ammunition. Sun lost it.
Sailor Sun created an aura of flame and jumped to the top of the containers and ran off.
Sailor Moon cried out, "Sun! Where are you going?"
Sailor Io sensed danger, "We've got bigger problems." She darted to the port side of the ship in time to see a T-600 come around the corner with an AK-74 rifle in its hand. She shot out "Lava Blast" shattering the chest of the machine and knocked it overboard.
Jupiter went to the starboard side and hit the T-600 coming around that corner with "Supreme Thunder Dragon"; it was electrocuted and completely shut down.
Jupiter ran to the T-600 to make sure it was destroyed. It was a more primitive model than the T-800 at the hospital. It was not nearly as tough. Its whitish flesh toned rubber skin looked pretty stupid up close. It looked just like a misshapen store mannequin. Only in the dark under heavy clothing could this thing pass for a human.
Mars came up with a plan. "I say we teleport out to sea. Blast the ship from afar and sink it."
All the other Senshi agreed it was a great idea. Venus asked, "Uh... Where is Sun?"
In response, machine gun fire could be heard coming from the other side of the ship. It was muffled, but there was no mistaking who they were shooting at. Moon was furious, "SUN!" She pulled out her communicator and dialed Sun's number. "Sun get back here! We are leaving."
Sun heard the message and she ignored it. She was not leaving until she sent these things back to hell. She dodged the gunfire from the two pasty faced machines and found what she was looking for. It was the exact center of the ship. She took aim and cast, "Searing Plasma Blast!" One of the machines was blown to tiny bits. Sun ducked and rolled to avoid the incoming fire from the other machine.
Moon called into her communicator again, "Sun get here NOW!" Behind her she heard the cargo container at deck level being smashed open. "Oh oh... Everyone, we're leaving." Moon reached out her hands to form the circle when the container burst open and ten robots immediately came streaming out.
Venus jumped overboard while the others jumped onto the cargo containers. Io and Jupiter were too busy blasting the robots coming from the sides to notice.
Venus realized what a stupid idea it was to jump off of a moving cargo ship in the middle of the ocean as she was falling. She cast, "Venus Love Me Chain!" She chained herself to the railing and swung like Tarzan onto the starboard side of the ship. Once she almost reached the highest part of her swing, she pretended to be Spiderman and cast her chain again and hooked another railing and swung again.
Io heard the commotion behind her and saw the horde of machines coming after her. Some of them were busy opening a cargo container that was stocked with weapons. She leapt into the air and cast Lava Blast on them as she flew up to the containers above. Several machines were destroyed.
Jupiter saw Venus's chain on the side railing and started following it. She ran alongside the ship blasting the single remaining T-600 in her way. She made it to halfway across the ship when she saw that Venus had stopped swinging. Jupiter looked down at Venus, "Hey there! Need a lift?"
Venus smiled and Jupiter started pulling her up.
Sailor Sun took aim again and blasted the final robot pinning her down with another Searing Plasma Blast. She took a stance and aimed directly down to the bottom of the ship. "This is for my friends! SOLAR BEAM!"
She sent a beam of light into the container she was standing on and started to drill a hole. She was going to sink this vessel and send these hunks of junk to the bottom of the sea.
Sailors Moon and Neptune finally ran in sight of Sailor Sun. They were aghast at what she was doing. Neptune cried out, "Sun! STOP!"
Sun heard her but didn't listen. She was so focused in lasering the ship in half that it didn't dawn on her that one of the containers she was going to drill through was loaded with munitions.
Neptune turned to Moon, "JUMP!" Neptune ran as fast as she could port side and leapt off the ship into the sea. Moon ran after her hitting her communicator, "Everyone, get off the ship!" Sailor Moon did a poorly executed dive off the vessel behind Neptune. Neptune hit the water with a precise splash. Moon hit the water with a huge belly flop. Neptune had to tow Sailor Moon away from the ship.
Io heard the call but saw Sun in the center of the ship, she ran to her to give Moon's warning. Uranus and Mars jumped off the starboard side into the water below. Io was almost to Sun when the pyromaniac struck gold. The explosion was nothing short of spectacular. The cargo container Sun was standing on went skyward and dozens of containers and folded HK flyers went streaming in all directions.
Io was knocked to the ground and held on for dear life. Jupiter fell overboard from the violent shaking landing on Venus on the way down. They both hit the water with a big splash. Moon and Neptune saw Sun go flying into the air. Moon was livid, "Just what was she thinking?"
Io tried to stand up. The container she was laying on was losing stability and she knew she had better get off before it collapsed. She took a step towards the starboard side when the secondary and even more powerful explosion occurred. The explosion lit up most of the munitions stored deep in the vessel and lifted the midsection of the ship six meters in the air. The ship was completely sliced in half. Numerous tiny explosions popped like firecrackers inside the vessel and Io's container went flying. Io held onto her container for a moment and then lost her grip.
Jupiter and Venus were knocked out cold from the concussion wave from the explosion that ripped the ship in half. They both floated in the water and a cargo container landed next to them sparing death by only a few meters. Mars and Uranus cried out for their friends and swam towards them ignoring the falling debris.
Io was finally getting her bearings while she was in mid air and pushed herself away from the cargo container she was flying with. She took a look down to prepare a ki blast to soften her landing when she realized one important fact. She can't swim.
The vessel started to sink from the center outward. Sailor Moon and Neptune breathed a sigh of relief from a fact they discovered while watching the ship go down. Terminators can't swim.
Sun regained consciousness just before she became fish food. Below her was the ocean, directly above her was a fifty-ton cargo container. She teleported out.
The ship took five minutes to completely sink underwater. The Sailor Senshi had to swim rapidly to avoid being pulled under with the current. Sailor Neptune heard the cries of Sailor Io and managed to grab her before she sank under the waves.
The Senshi slowly swam together and formed a circle to teleport. Sun was nowhere to be found. Uranus volunteered to stay behind while they took Neptune back to the space station. It took a few minutes before Sailor Sun came by and picked up Uranus.
The Senshi were all standing in the lobby completely soaked with seawater and some stank of fuel oil. All of them transformed into their human forms and back to the mini-skirts to get themselves cleaned up.
Io had one thing to say to Sailor Sun. She pulled out a mallet and smacked her flat. "How DARE you leave me in the ocean!"
Sailor Moon was furious. She pinched Sun's ear and dragged her to the power room. Moon slammed the door shut. She grabbed Sailor Sun by the collar of her dress and shoved her against the wall. "If I EVER see you put anyone in danger like that again, birthright or not, I'm throwing your henshin stick into a volcano! YOU GOT THAT!"
Sun didn't know what to say. She totally blew it. She slowly nodded to Sailor Moon who gently released her grip. Moon wasn't finished yet, "We are a team understand? When we tell each other things or give each other commands, they are not to be ignored! Some of us could have been killed right now because of your stupidity!"
Sailor Moon turned on her heels and walked away in a huff. Sun kept sliding down to the floor and curled up into a ball. She had become the enemy. She fought without honor and it almost cost her the lives of her friends. She wept quietly to herself. Io stood at the doorway watching her beloved and gave a deep sigh. Io left the room so Sun could be alone and contemplate her mistake.
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Pluto saw the whole thing from the computer console. She knew that Sun overstepped her bounds when she saw her blow up the ship with the Scouts still on it. Pluto did an analysis of the ship's contents. Had that ship made port. Tokyo would have been taken in less than twelve hours. Right or wrong, Sun saved millions of lives.
The scouts were back at the dining room table. Saturn was nursing Venus and Jupiter since they were still woozy from being so close to that massive ship splitting explosion. Pluto took Moon aside. "I know what Sun did was wrong. Before you rush to judgment, destroying that ship bought Japan some time."
Moon got wide eyed. "She was reckless! She nearly killed Io, Jupiter and Venus!"
Pluto shot back, "And that's why we need to let her stew for a while. We are going to need everyone."
Moon took a step back, "And why is that?"
"We are going to a garbage dump at daybreak."
Author's Notes: Please review my story. It makes me feel oh so happy and keeps me from making that bump in the night sound you hear at midnight.
Last edited on October 14, 2002