RanPorn12 Porn World! By Jim Robert Bader (Based on the works of Kenchi Senoda and Others, and inspired by some additions to the series by Frederick Herriot, who saw the potential--- but does not necessarily share responsibility for this conception...) HENTAI ALERT---LEMONY MATERIAL AHEAD; SET UPON A WORLD WHERE ALL THE MEN WERE KILLED OFF DURING THE LATE 20TH CENTURY BY A PERVERSE VIRUS THAT ENHANCED THE QUALITY OF ALL WOMEN IN THE WORLD TO MAKE THEM ETERNALLY YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL, BUT WITH A DESIRE FOR SEXUAL INTIMACY THAT WENT TRULY OFF THE SCALE AND SURPASSES THE BOUNDARY LINES BETWEEN RACES, CREEDS AND GENDERS... IN ORTHER WORDS, THESE GIRLS ARE HORNY!!! Chapter Twelve. Bubblegum Crush (World Without Men) [SOMEWHERE IN THE TOKYO OF THE FUTURE...] The sleek motordroid pulled up alongside the alley of the Golden Oyster Bar and Grill with the faint whine of its powerful Shizuma engine grinding down to a halt. The synth-leather clad rider dismounted from her metal steed after locking down the security systems, then calmly removed her helmet to reveal a mane of reddish-brown hair that fell about her shoulders, framing a face that was porcelain fine and distinctively Amerasian in nature. She swept the alleyway with her crimson eyes like a wary predator alert for likely game, and upon finding none she headed instead for the establishment, her original objective. After all it was a slow night and she was feeling a bit randy, and what better way to work off a little steam than to find a quick pick-me-up, the kind that did not leave a hangover in the morning (not that she minded earning one since the whole point of patronizing a bar was, of course, to get well and thoroughly plastered). Pushing her way in through the ornamental French swing double-doors she swept her gaze over the interior and immediately placed each and every patron she found sitting or standing (in a few places just barely) within the main area. She even took in the odd shady customer lounging about in the shadows and far corners, giving each person there a good and careful study before sizing up the working staff, including the bartender and the barmaids. As expected there were outlaw types and rough-hewn customers with shady pasts and even shadier dispositions, some looking mean and downright dangerous, others simply average in their level of criminality or social outcast status. There were mobsters and posers, hard-cases and wannabes, misfits and mutant types with the odd cast loners who might be nurturing hidden noble aspirations. In other words nothing out of the usual with this lot, so she moved on ahead past the obligatory profiles and sought out the cute ones who might give her a good time, provided she could work up a good intro. Her course decided, Asagiri Priss strode over towards the bar itself, her moves calculated to convey the sort of mood she was in to those who were doubtlessly sizing her up for the same motives as her own cursory study. She made no attempt to dissuade their interest, electing to go the "Mysterious but Dangerous" route since the type who might be attracted to her on this level were exactly the sort she needed to warm up an otherwise slow evening. She made a point to lean against the bar with her chest outthrust, her low-cut cleavage presented like an open invitation, and then looked the bartender in the eyes (the ones above her chest) and calmly asked, "What've you got in the way of a stiff one?" The bartender only grunted a terse reply and reached under the bar to pull out a bottle of some questionable brew whose dubious nature could only vaguely be hinted at by the swirling black liquid that churned within the sealed bottle. A skull and crossbones label hinted that it was a fairly potent brew, the kind that normally gets affectionately called "Ye Olde Kidney Solvent," or "Liquid Death," but when poured into a glass only churned and bubbled toxically with an acrid aroma that would kill flies at fifteen paces. "Thousand yen a glass," the bartender grunted, "Up front, just in case." Priss did not bother to ask "In case of what?" as she plopped a coin down then took the glass and downed its contents in a single swallow, only spilling a few drops upon the bar (which promptly began to smoke and burn there in spite of the bartender's prompt attempts to put the fire out), at which point it seemed as if she had taken pure-form Napalm down her gullet, followed with a nitrate chaser that exploded on contact with her stomach acids and caused wells of smoke to escape from her nostrils, but Priss fought down the urge to cough since that might show weakness before her fellow patrons. Instead she paused and waited for her natural resilience to take over then set the glass down on the bar with a solid "thump" and said, "Another round...I'm feeling kinda game for some action." Her words and actions had the desired effects upon the rest of the bar patrons. Some were studying her now with an even greater intensity of interest while the rest simply turned back to what they were doing before she entered, either fooling around or working on getting seriously plowed...or both. These days there was no clear cut separation between vices, and both were tolerated within the same broad parameters of such an establishment where no one asked too many questions and by mutual consent tended to stay out of each others' business. Unless, of course, nosying around in other people's laps just happened to be your business. Nor did it hurt much that Priss shared the natural resiliency of most of the women on the planet. Thanks to the lingering effects of the so-called "Millennial Virus" she could drink most anything short of pure Cyanide or a Nerve agent and not be too unduly affected. At worst mere alcohol could create a mild buzz that would last a few minutes before being absorbed back into her system, so it took a stronger than average brew to have any serious effect on one's sobriety, not that this establishment was lacking in said potions since the stuff they tended to sell here would have laid out the average pre-Millennial Virus human, either killing them or putting them into a deep coma where brain activity would be barely minimal. The stuff that Priss was drinking now would have killed a good sized elephant or tranked a whale had it been administered into their bloodstream. Priss smiled inwardly as she set to work on her second mug of whatever wicked brew the bartender was selling, knowing full well how much it took for her to get seriously drunk while she fully intended to pull up just shy of rendering herself incapable of performing later. She wanted some stiff ones to help loosen her up and dull the sharp memory of recent problems with her rather complicated love life, her significant others (who were always disappointing her in one way or another) and any sense of obligation that she might have about caring what they did when she was away...especially with one another. Priss stared into her glass and saw an image reflected against the surface of the churning liquid, a face and form whose presence even now could stir the fires within her and cause her to burn with unfulfilled emotions. Of Stingray Silia, her nominal boss and employer of the past two years, who was also a sometime legal guardian for the orphaned Priss, but also a lover and a partner in a very real sense, if falling just shy of an actual marriage. Her "Silky Doll" of the velvet-smooth voice and sultry manner who knew how to push all the right buttons within Priss, yet whose personality quirks could often drive Priss to the depths of ultimate distraction. Not that it was Silia's actual fault since she suffered from the consequences of her late scientist Mother's meddling in areas of science where matters were best left alone. Her mother, Doctor Stingray Celicia, a genius in the field of robotics who had nonetheless shown a decided lack of parenting skills as it concerned her eldest daughter. Doctor Stingray had sought to fulfill the ideals of creating the perfect artificial lifeform, and in pursuit of this goal had experimented on using both her own DNA and that of her daughter, and by means of this transfusion of Biology and Cybernetics had created the first of the race now known as "Boomers" (actually a corruption of the words "Voodoo Robot," a ghoulish term for a Zombie-like duplication of near-organic human life systems using artificial ingredients to simulate those functions that nature had designed through evolution. At first it had seemed a brilliant next step along the chain of progress that led from a simple mechanical slave to a fully conscious artificial being, but over time problems were discovered with the underlying matrix system of these "Voomers," for so thoroughly did they copy the processes of life that they began to rebel against the constraints and limitations placed upon them by their own programmers. The resultant strain placed upon the labor class of Boomers drove many machines into a "Rogue" state where they might literally go mad and attack ordinary people. Unfortunately Celicia was no longer around to correct her own mistakes since she had fallen victim to a deliberate act of corporate sabotage that had resulted in her death shortly before the first commercial Boomer came on the market. Though it could never be proven, Silia believed that a former colleague of her mother's was at fault for her murder, and so she had founded the Knight Sabers in secret, using various patents left to her in trust in order to give herself and her chosen circle of agents the means of fighting back against the system. All well and good as far as it went, but even Heroes had a personal life, and for Silia this came in the form of great pain and discomfort inflicted upon her as a consequence of her mother's experimentation. To drown out this pain Silia often had to rely on a combination of special drugs and bio-feedback methods to diminish the level of her suffering...which also tended to cause her already heightened libido to shift wildly into overdrive at many inconvenient moments. Silia literally could not control herself when it came to giving into her urges (and so much for the notion that a full-fledged Lesbian was in greater possession of her lust than an average "Lay" girl), and with Silia this often took a very kinky direction, one that involved a lot of ropes and paddles and a vigorous reliance upon dildos and vibrators. Priss knew this intimately since she was often the nominal "victim" of Silia's horny mood swings, not that she had much cause to complain (other than a few bumps and bruises, plus the odd welts on her buttochs that made riding her motodroid problematic for a few subsequent hours) since she was a free participant in these affairs, and she certainly did not object to helping Silia ease her way through her little "problem." Especially since she sometimes got to return the favor. The problem was that Silia was often a little too much out of control, and she was incapable of any sort of fidelity when it came to her lovers, so despite her seeming public image of an aloof and proper ice queen the truth was that she was anything but icy, and had a ready eye for the ladies, eager to snatch up the latest "flavor of the month" whenever it suited her interests. But this did not suit Priss at all since she tended to be a less promiscuous sort, preferring to keep the same lovers happy day in and night out, and usually no more than two at a time (as in frequent threesomes that she had indulged in with her other girlfriend, Yamazaki Linna). With Linna Priss felt an even deeper bond that went beyond sisterly affection to outright romance of a highly charged emotional nature. With Linna it was almost a match between equals who shared the same basic needs for intimacy and communion, a bond that went well beyond the mere sex that they would exchange freely to something more along the lines of a deep and underlying trust. Whereas with Silia their relationship was hardly equal, Linna was much easier to deal with and far less demanding on her person. The problem, again, was that Linna was no more capable of fidelity than was Silia herself, driven by the same basic desires as afflicted most of the women on the planet. All Linna had to do was catch the eye of some sweet young thing and she would be all over her in a heartbeat, licking fur with total abandon and never mind the consequences since she was driven by the eternal need for the perfect orgasm. And so Priss found herself alone on a Tuesday night seeking to drown her problems with cheap booze and even cheaper sex with some passing stranger. Though she wanted more than anything to feel a sense of fidelity and commitment with a lover she was willing to settle on some meaningless fun for which there would be no guilt or sense of obligation, and hence her present quest to find someone in this place who might have to be a gifted---if only temporary---lover, one with the spirit and tenderness of Linna or the slinky sensuality of Silia, a tall order to fill at best but one that should take up the better part of an evening... Unfortunately so far the offerings were not so promising. Since every woman of the modern world was---in principle at least---young and beautiful (realizing their maximum bio-genetic potential) one had to go by more than just looks to determine suitability and compatibility, and from what Priss could see so far there were not that many she felt inclined to share a drink with, let alone do any serious muff diving. The bartender was friendly enough in a taciturn sense, and the waitresses were cute but rather harried and tired looking (obviously the effect of being even more in demand than the cocktail glasses they kept serving), but going that way meant eating from the same trough as everyone else in the bar was doing. Even Priss was not that desperate. "Whoah, would you look at that?" Priss turned at the voice of a patron indicating yet another new arrival to the bar and cast her gaze upon the figure that she had detected out of the corner of one eye, all the while lifting a glass of the acrid stuff to her lips...only to pour it without thought over herself as her attention was directed elsewhere, the vision before her eyes completely overwhelming all senses. The woman standing in the doorway scanning the interior was a leather-clad beauty unlike any other whom Priss had most recently set eyes upon, though it was more than just outward beauty that caught Priss's attention. She had the basic good looks and fine physique that most women of the era possessed, but there was something more about her that was less definable...a quality about her brownish-gold eyes that drew Priss like a magnet and made her aware of the beauty on levels quite apart from what she felt towards other women. The stranger had shoulder-length chestnut brown hair that was neatly trimmed around a face that was angelic and quite pleasing to the eye, and the jumpsuit that clung to her body as if painted there hinted at an athletic build that was long, lean and statuesque, and though she was of medium height she had a certain natural charisma that gave her even greater stature. Her top was partially zipped down as if to cool off from a hot night of motorcycle riding, thus affording Priss an excellent vantage for viewing the girl's cleavage and from there...to draw some mental estimations about her exact measurement and cup size, which definitely checked out to "more than a handful." Speaking of feeling hot and bothered, Priss found herself rather warm at the moment just sizing up the stranger from afar, but when the girl noticed how Priss was looking at her the stranger smiled a gentle, friendly smile, then approached at a casual swaying stride that left Priss feeling rooted to the spot like a deer caught in the light of the other girl's "headlights." "Hi," the stranger said by way of greeting, "Did you know that your top is smoking?" Priss had to blink, for as "come-on" lines went that was certainly unique, whereas her own stated reply was something of a less coherent, "Ahuh...uh...nani?" The stranger nodded towards Priss, glancing down at the level of her own breasts, "I mean the material is burning...didn't you feel it?" "Hah?" this prompted Priss to glance down at herself, whereupon she discovered---to her belated dismay---that her top most definitely WAS smoking...or rather the contents of the glass that she had been about to drink---and had mindlessly spilled onto her shirt---was preceding to burn right through the fabric, dissolving the whole area between her breasts right down to belt level while leaving the skin only mildly reddened in passage. "Ow," Priss belatedly remarked, a badly understated tone of dismay in her exoression. "Oh dear...are you on fire?" the stranger asked, then turned to the bartender and said, "Ma'am, could I get some water to put out my new friend?" "Water?" the barkeep asked as if she had never heard the word used before in her life...or rather, not in the present establishment anyway, but rather the barkeep reached under the bar and pulled out a box of baking soda, saying, "This'll do the job better, and without sending her to the hospital." Priss would have laughed if her mind were not already going in too many different directions at one and the same instant. Hospitals were almost abandoned these days, used more for research and for serious traumas rather than to treat "sick" people. Hardly anyone got sick these days, and only life-threatening injury was beyond the normal ability of a body to heal back in a matter of days, and even nerve or tissue damage was not that big a deal anymore. A person could suffer an amputated arm or leg and still expect to grow them back within a year...whereas a serious head trauma might be fatal, provided it involved a massive discorporation of the central nervous system. The second part was a belated sense of burning pain caused by the caustic liquid, but topping that by far was the realization of what her new acquaintance had just called her, to which Priss said the word, "Friend?" "Well," the other woman turned a dazzling smile her way, "Certainly more than an enemy, unless we've gotten off of the wrong footing." "Ah..." Priss honestly did not know what to say to that and just stared into the grey eyes of the stunning beauty, then hesitantly asked, "Are you...from around here?" "In a manner of speaking," the other girl replied as she dabbed the baking soda on and around Priss's upper body, "My name is Sylvie...and you are?" "Ah...Priss," she said in reply, "Asagiri Priss." "Priss...what a lovely name," Sylvie said with a lilt to her tone and a gleam in her eyes that set Priss's pulse to racing, "Nice to meet you, Priss...and very well met indeed." "Ah..." Priss said again, not normally so tongue-tied when it came to the ladies, but she was off her game this time and floundering badly, a condition in no way made better by the way Sylvie was glancing down at Priss's body and making silent commentary with her eyes about what she saw there, which again prompted Priss to pay more notice of the extent of bare flesh now open to view since her shirt was good and thoroughly ruined. The whole front part was gone, exposing both breasts down to their jutting nipples, and as she felt Sylvie taking appreciative appraisal of those swelling mounds Priss felt her blood race and her body turn quite flush until she was reddened all over. "Nice...very nice," Sylvie's eyes rose up just in time to meet Priss's gaze as the latter looked back at her with sheepish reluctance, "Would you like to go somewhere private where we can...talk? I would like to spend time with you...if you have no immediate plans or objections?" Normally it would have been Priss's role to be this forward, but---then again---most of the time what passed for conversation between Priss and another girl usually consisted of a quick hello followed by heavy petting and hot nookie. It usually only took Priss a casual introduction before she could talk some sweet thing into a private assignation, and most girls went willingly without having to be coached into casual fun with the charismatic biker. But for another girl to be this casual and seductive in one and the same breath was a whole new experience, and one Priss did not truthfully know how to handle. Of course right then and there was the moment when her Pocket Pager had to go off and spoil the moment, so with irritated fatalism Priss reached for her communicator, switched it on and barked out a rather harsh, "Yes?" "No need to take that tone with me, young lady." Priss blinked and straightened up, "Silia?" "Silia?" Sylvie softly repeated. "I was wondering where you went off in a huff after our little spat," her lover and leader replied, her image coming onto the tiny pocket screen, revealing Silia wearing a leather dominatrix outfit that made her look both stunning and quite intimidating, "I might have known you'd dive right into the muff to bury your grievances rather than coming to me as you used to do in the old days." "Is that your mother or your wife?" Sylvie asked with a slight hint of disappointment. "Ah...excuse me," Priss urged Silia, turning to Sylvie, "Don't go away, please...this will only take a minute." "As you wish," Sylvie sighed, adopting a casual (if seductive) pose as she watched Priss with open curiosity in her expression. "Who is that with you, Priss?" Silia asked sharply. Priss knew better than to lie about what she was doing in the bar, or what her intentions had been for being there, so she turned the camera eye of the communicator towards Sylvie, who smiled and waved back as though to make a friendly gesture. There was a slight pause on the other end before Silia asked, "You found this one...in a common bar?" "Never mind that," Priss turned the lens back towards herself and said, "What did you need me for, Silia? I thought we said our little piece this afternoon..." "Now, now...not need to get all huffy," Silia's tone became more conciliatory, "I called to warn you, Priss. There's been a rogue incident taking place in the Shinjuku district and the ADP have been called onto the scene, along with the Hyperpolice and Tank Force detail, so I'm mobilizing the team just in case we're needed as back-up." "The Hyperpolice?" Priss blinked, "And the ADP? What kind of Boomer incident are we dealing with here?" "I'm a little sketchy on the details at the moment, but I'll have a full report ready for you by the time we get there with the mobile unit," Silia assured her, "Just be ready and stay where you are, I'll track your signal and link up with you ASAP." "Just have my suit ready and..." Priss glanced towards Sylvie and added, "And your timing is lousy, like always. Look, are you sure you'll need me? Couldn't Linna and Nene handle this by themselves?" "Nene is busy doing a hack job into the police com-line systems," Silia answered, "And as for Linna...well, she's a little tied up at the moment..." A muffled sound came from off-screen and Silia turned to give a chiding look towards someone who was obviously in the same room with her, "Yes, I know...and I'll untie you soon enough, my sweet, just as soon as you absorb the lesson that I was just teaching..." "Spare me the details you two," Priss sniffed rather gruffly, "Priss out." "Let me guess," Sylvie said quietly, "You're a cop, right?" "A cop?" Priss blinked in surprise, "Ah...no, not exactly..." "Freelance detective?" Sylvie asked, hesitating a moment before adding, "Cowboy bounty hunter?" "Me?" Priss snorted, then hooked a thumb towards a group of other patrons at the bar, "That's the Cowboy section over there, can't you tell? And as for bounty hunters...you might want to check with the lady who looks like she's about to bust out of her yellow top over there. Her name's Faye, and the girl with the spiky green hair is her partner, Spice. Oh, and the girl in the corner getting the muff job from the cute-but-overly flexible redhead is Jet, the third party of their little troika. They're the real bounty hunters, I'm just a common mercenary." "Common?" Sylvie smiled and seemed to relax abruptly, giving Priss a look that did little to slow down the other woman's metabolism, "Nothing common from what I see. So...you take jobs for money? And what sort of jobs do you do?" "Uh...actually," Priss back-pedaled, "I'm really a singer...mercenary work is just my side-profession..." "What?" Sylvie's eyes went round and suddenly filled with recognition, "No...you're kidding! You're THAT Priss? The lead singer of the Replicants? Oh wow...I've downloaded all of your recordings! I'm like your next-to-biggest fan on the whole planet...!" "You mean you didn't know?" Priss was actually surprised (and a little deflated) that she had not been recognized immediately by the new girl. Usually young women came up to her on the streets and asked to have an autograph on some sensitive portion of their anatomy, and not a few later got them tattooed with more permanent ink-dyes. Being unrecognized was certainly a novelty, leading her to wonder why this Sylvie (who had yet to give a family name) had seemed so interested before when she thought Priss nothing more than a mercenary-for-hire. "I'm sorry...I've been somewhat cloistered until quite recently," Sylvie apologized, "What I meant to say was that...I need someone to help me out with a little problem I have...and I came here hoping to find someone who could be hired to assist me with a job that...well, are you sure you want to hear the details?" "All depends," Priss replied, "Is it illegal?" "Um...and if it is?" Sylvie pursed her lips and looked all the more like an errant schoolgirl. "Then it all depends," Priss replied, "I'm not that big a stickler for the law, and sometimes laws need to get bent for the sake of justice...but I'm not all that casual about doing dirty work for strangers." "Oh, it's nothing dirty, I assure you," Sylvie said with a complete absence of guile from her expression, which either meant that she was a complete amateur or a good enough actress to fake it (and Priss was prone to thinking it was more the former than the latter), "It's just that...I need something to help a friend who is in serious trouble...and to obtain what I need I'd have to...get it from a really bad person who keeps it under lock and key..." "Uhuh," Priss said skeptically, "And let me guess...it's a matter of life and death, and you just can't ask legitimately to have whatever it is from the lady who's got it, right?" Sylvie looked startled, "How did you know that?" Either a good actress or one heck of a lamb, either way Priss found herself becoming more intrigued by the second as she said a bit off-handedly, "Maybe you'd better describe this job to me, then maybe I'll see if it's worth all the bother." "Thank you," Sylvie leaned closer towards Priss (forcing the latter to glance down with irresistible compulsion as Priss found herself staring down the other girl's ample cleavage), "I hope that I'm right in believing that I can trust you...I really don't know who to trust anymore...but if you are willing to help, then I will be extremely grateful, and I'll do anything to make it up to you, I promise." "Ah..." Priss tried to force her eyes back up towards the face of the other woman, but to her growing dismay the woman named Sylvie moved even closer and reached out with both hands to extend her fingers to gently caress Priss's body, lightly touching the reddened areas of skin as a heady kind of perfume filled the air and further clouded Priss's thinking. "I know you're in some pain...and in a way it is my fault," Sylvie coed, her breath brushing against the hairs of Priss's bangs, "I can help to soothe away your worries until your skin completely heals...and I am quite accomplished at a thousand-and-one different techniques, some of which I would like to practice upon you if you don't mind surrendering your body to me for the next few moments." "Hah?" Priss asked stupidly, only to find her answer a moment later as fingers pinched her nipples and tugged upon them ever-so-slightly. "Oh my...these are so tense," Sylvie coed as she examined the bared breasts of the other woman, "Your nipples feel like acorns, and your boobs are swelling like ripened cantaloupes, making them firm enough to squeeze...like this..." "Ohhh?" Priss gasped at the easy manner in which the other girl fondled her, but she made no move to pull away as gentle hands played with her hardening breasts and squeezed them delicately. "Put your trust in me and I will soothe your aches and worries," Sylvie purred as she took evident delight in handling Priss like a standing patron of an open-sex clinic, "I'll have you forgetting about the cares of the world in next to no time..." "Hey you two," the bartender growled, "Take it into the back and rent a room if you're going to be doing that. If I want a live sex-show I'll hire one, but you're distracting the business." Priss was about to growl something rather acidly at the barkeep when---quite unexpectedly---one wall of the bar exploded inward, catching several patrons by surprise and scatting those nearest to the wall in all directions. Sylvie jumped where she stood and whirled about with a look of horror, unintentionally applying greater force to Priss's boobs than had been intended, but to Priss it felt as though sensitive portions of her anatomy had just be locked into a vice-press. It momentarily paralyzed the erstwhile Knight Saber and left her vulnerable for a few seconds as a lumbering shape moved in past the dust and debris, revealing himself in the halfway denuded presence of a masculine Sexaroid, a "B" class type of Boomer. The male seemed to scan the room with ruby eyes, ignoring the screams and whimpers of those either frightened or injured as a crimson beams swept the room before coming to focus upon Sylvie. For an instant there was a flash of recognition, and then the thing launched itself in her direction, moving with a speed and purpose that was inhuman. Sylvie's eyes were round and she formed an "O" of horror with her mouth and stood rooted to the spot like deer caught in the headlights, but before the thing could reach her in mid-lunge it was struck by a number of high-impact bullets that threw it off its stride and changed it direction, causing it to stumble into a table and miss the startled pair of Priss and Sylvie altogether. "Go for it's vital points, Faye!" the bounty huntress known as Spice called out while firing another two rounds towards the boomer. "I'm trying to!" the short-haired girl with the skimpy yellow halter top barked back, "But they're bouncing off...it must be shielded in those places!" "There's got to be an opening," the woman named Jet announced as she pulled out a massive rocket-launcher-like pistol from beneath her blouse, "Stand back and let's see if this'll do it!" The Boomer, meanwhile, was hardly idle as it got back to its feet, shrugging off the dozen bullet holes that marred its synthetic skin as it assessed the new threat and acted accordingly, kicking a table from the floor that intercepted the shot and sent large pieces of wood back towards the Cowboy's direction. The speed at which the thing moved caught all three bounty-hunters by surprise and caused them to either duck to the side or get creamed by the debris, which momentarily took the trio out of immediate action. Fortunately Sylvie had relaxed her grip upon Priss's tits, thus allowing the latter to react at last as she grabbed the other girl and rudely hauled her out of the way before the Boomer had time to turn its focus back in their direction. A good thing too because the next instant the Boomer whipped out a hand and projected some sort of cable-like line that flashed rapidly by their heads and struck a nearby stool, causing it to wrap itself around the metal part with a sharp "Thwack"-ing noise that sounded loud amid the tumult. "What...what was that?" Priss gasped as she clung tightly to her newfound companion. "It's an HK Terminator unit, model C-101 Infiltration Specialist," Sylvie cried by way of explanation, "And it's here to capture me and...and..." "Not if I have anything to say about it," Priss growled as she let go of Sylvie and came up in a crouch, having pulled out her conceal weapon, a heavily modified Rutgar .190, a specially designed three-shot penetration model. She moved with fluid ease and got her weapon in line even as the Boomer began to orient towards her, and her first shot nailed the sucker directly in the chest, knocking the thing flying backwards from the sheer force and velocity of the armor-piercing bullet. Of course the gun had quite a kick to it, and while Priss could normally handle the recoil, while in motion she had no means of bracing herself and so was sent flying backwards by the laws of Newtonian Physics to tumble into a set of tables and chairs that had been recently vacated, momentarily jarring her aim and thus preventing her from getting a second shot in to finish off the unit. As it was she was grateful for the physical conditioning that allowed her to roll with the impact even as her arms tingled at the shock of firing her weapon. A normal woman's arms would most likely have been broken under the kinetic force, but Priss was hardly that normal and would recover soon enough, provided that she could dig herself out from amid the debris of shattered wood that she unintentionally had created. The Boomer, meanwhile, was doing as best it could to cope with the shattering of a primary defensive plate beneath the sheath of its pseudo-organic skin and muscle exoskeleton. The bullet had done considerable internal damage but was not---unfortunately---a "kill shot," and as such the synthetic lifeform would be recovering itself in due order, ready and able to continue with its primary mission. As for Sylvie she lay rooted to the spot where Priss had lain atop her feeling her pulsebeat wildly thrumming in her own eardrums. The incredibly loud sound of Priss's handweapon had come close to deafening her and she was in shock on several other levels, yet knew beyond question that she would have to move if she were to survive in order to complete her own mission. But still her concern for her new friend overrode thoughts of self-preservation as she called out, "Priss? Are you all right? Did you get injured?" "I'll live," Priss groaned as she forced herself to move, to push aside bits of wood as she sought to pry herself out from underneath the mess she had created, but still she could feel a few ribs tenderly complaining of the movement, and her wrists tingled alarmingly in protest of the notion of firing off a second shot with her gun anytime within the next few moments. Sylvie rolled onto her hands and knees and crawled over to where Priss lay, concern evident upon her face as she tried to help as best she was able, tossing aside a chair and a few wooden legs in order to help clear Priss of such minor obstructions. Her gentle eyes caught Priss's attention as the latter read honest distress, which did much to help spur the mercenary to ignore her minor aches and complete the act of her own extraction. She reached out with a hand to clasp fingers with Sylvie then said, "Hey...I'm all right, really. You don't have to look like that, Sylvie..." "But Priss..." Sylvie began to say when all at once a shadow loomed over her, alarming Priss as she saw the gleam of the HK's eyes as it regarded them both with cold and dispassionate purpose. "Move!" Priss snapped as she tried to get her gun into play, but the Boomer was faster and had already aimed both wrists towards them, and all at once coils of metal shot out and ensnared both women in the web-like entrapment of projecting snake-like cables... "All units, all units, Boomer activity has shifted to Sector Thirteen of the Shinjuku district..." "Kuso," remarked Long De-Lay as she turned a glance towards her comely partner, "That thing's moving awfully fast for a typical rogue unit. You don't suppose it's actually following a trail of some kind, do you, Leona?" "You make it sound like it's some sort of predator chasing down a tasty mouse," Leona McNicole quipped back as she gunned the engine of their car, the trill of their police siren serving as inadequate warning to other drivers that they had best vacate the road since Leona tended to drive like a possessed madwoman on the best of occasions, "Only I wasn't aware that Genom produced such a particularly aggressive model." "That's assuming it is Genom this time and not one of their rivals," De-Lay cautioned, "It could just as easily be Mishima Heavy Industries that's at fault this time..." "Not likely," Leona dismissed, "Not enough collateral damage to be one of their monsters. I tell you, De-Lay, there oughta be a law against designing humanoid Boomers like ordinary Sexaroids when, in fact, they're combat models..." "There is," De-Lay reminded, "And that's why the ADP exists, to clean up the mess that some other girls with too much time on their hands like to cook up for a hobby." "Some hobby," Leona sniffed, "Well...maybe we'll luck out this time and get there before the Knight Sabers, then we'll have those tin-plated mercs eating up our bushes." "Speak for yourself," De-Lay snorted, "You're the one with the fetish for the Blue one, even if she won't have anything to do with you on account of the thing you got between your legs..." "Hey, I don't think she's got anything against Herms," Leona scowled thoughtfully, then asked in a cautious voice, "Do you?" "I wouldn't know," De-Lay replied, "You're the one who's been courting her in both civilian and combat modes, and what is it with this obsession you got with a Retro-Punk biker-chick singer? She's as Diesel Dyke as they get, my well-hung partner, only eats bush like a regular vegetarian, and sausage is definitely not on her menu." "I don't buy it," Leona said confidently, "I'm sure she'll come around in time, she just hasn't found the right Herm before to impress her..." "Yeah, right," De-Lay rolled her eyes at her partner's stubborn thick-headedness, thinking aloud as she did so, "Sometimes I swear you'd have been born a man if they hadn't all gone extinct before either of us was a gleam in the test-tubes picked out by our mommas..." "Heads up," Leona called out, "We're almost at the Kill Zone, and would you believe it? I think we actually got here before anyone else for a change. Now to locate our errant Boomer..." Leona began to adjust the controls on their console monitor when De-Lay heard a peculiar whine and glanced back over her shoulder, they cried out in alarm, "HEAD UP---I mean---make that...INCOMING!" "Eh?" Leona glanced up just in time to see a sleek side-car racer bike go sailing over their heads with a flowing mane of silver trailing behind, then all at once three wheels touched down in a rude two-point landing as the driver spun about in a controlled near-crash and brought her machine to a halt, much to the relief of her green-haired co-rider. "There, that wasn't so bad," a Kitsune Fox-woman smiled as she straightened out and glanced at her feline partner, "I told you I would get us here in one piece, and have I ever lied to you, Partner?" "Frequently," the cat-girl replied as she shakily got out of the side-car then stood up to her not-so-impressive-height and glanced back towards Leona and De-Lay, remarking, "Uh oh...don't look now, Honey, but I think we have company." "Eh?" the silver-haired Fox-woman lost her affectionate smile and suddenly went dagger-eyed as she glared towards Leona, "What are you two doing here, Detectives?" "Hey, this is our bust, Sakura!" Leona stood up in her seat as her top fully retracted to allow her and De-Lay a quick exit from their unmarked police car, "You and Natsume can pack it up and leave. This is ADP business, and the Hyperpolice have no jurisdiction!" "Au contraire," Sakura snorted prettily, "The bounty on this particular rogue has been legally posted with our agency, so if we get the kill first we might even get a special bonus from our employer." "That's if you get it first," Leona shot back, pulling out her weapon, "Just don't get in my way, wouldn't want to make your partner there into a widow..." "As if you could get the drop on me with that, Lieutenant," Sakura scoffed, "I doubt you could even afford silver bullets on your salary..." "At least I can afford to eat lunch," Leona scoffed, "So don't cross me or I'll be having tail for lunch, Silver-mane." "Hah!" Sakura twitched eight of her nine tails in unison, a sign of her level of vexation as she retorted, "As if I'd let you eat me out, but I might just prey on that fat little hydrant you're so proud of between your legs...I'm in need of a good plug to fill my needs..." "Bet you're the kind who'd take it in the rear," Leona quipped, "You must be used to that with all the rumors I hear about your bosses..." "Sheesh," De-Lay winced as she commiserated with an equally dismayed Natsume, "There they go at it again..." "I know," Natsume said in low-voiced wonder, "It's like they completely forget all about the assignment every time they get into it like this, almost like two cats in heat, sniffing each other's tails, and if I didn't know any better I'd really be jealous." "Uh...what now?" De-Lay asked as another odd sound filled the air, but when she turned to glance towards the source her eyes went round as an Anime character and she gasped aloud, "Uh...guys? I think we've got another one...or three..." Even amid their latest heated exchanges---which were becoming more and more graphic by the second---Leona and Sakura could not help but discern the sound of heavy tracks grinding near, and like that they paused in the middle of shouted tirades to turn in mutual dismay as a trio of heavy vehicles rumbled onto the scene, each one piloted by a familiar party. "What's the hold up here?" barked a petite redhead in a police uniform wearing lieutenant bars as she pulled up alongside the car and side-car bike, "What are you four doing standing around with your thumbs up your asses? There's a Boomer to put down, Dammit!" "Lieutenant Ozake," De-Lay winced slightly, "To what do we owe the pleasure?" "Save it, Detective," Lieutenant Leona Ozake snapped, "We have orders to subdue the rogue Boomer, so either get out of our ways or prepare to have your vehicles reduced to scrap metal." "Hey!" Leona McNicole shot back, "This is our case, it's not under TP jurisdiction!" "Is now, Sugar-plums," drawled a cute blonde with triangular ears who was piloting the tank to the left of the one piloted by Leona. "We've been given the assignment on account of this rogue being a very dangerous and resourceful type that we all have never encountered before," said a nearly identical blonde cat-girl to the right of Leona. "So if y'all don't mind, we have a job to do, right Lieutenant honey?" the first cat-girl smiled with a wink towards Lieutenant Leona. "Don't call me that while we're working," Ozake Leona muttered under her breath, turning back towards the other Leona, "So how about it, people? You gonna move now, cause I won't be asking you a third time..." "And how do you plan on doing that?" Sakura asked, "By flattening the whole neighborhood and turning Shinjuku into a parking lot?" "It's been known to happen," Natsume murmured aloud under her breath. "Now just a minute here!" Leona McNicole protested, "Who gave the orders to deploy you guys? And don't even think of firing those things off here in a populated lower district because there's about a half a million civilians who'd really rather not wind up in the obit column of the morning fax..." "Now y'all got no cause to be implying that we're trigger-happy, Sugar-lips," the cat-girl on the left insisted. "Besides," her twin angrily complained, "If we don't act to put down that Boomer it could wind up taking out a couple of city blocks, and is that any worse than a few stray shells might incur?" "I shudder to think so," De-Lay fatalistically responded, only to roll her eyes towards the heavens and say, "Oh great...I knew this was about to happen..." "What?" Natsume asked her. De-Lay pointed towards the sky and said, "Knight Sabers. Don't look now, gang, but we're about to be troused again by those hard-core mercenaries." "Like hell we are!" Leona cried, leaping forward and racing towards the building where a series of explosion could already be heard going off in succession, "No way am I letting Priss and her girls get the better of me this time..." "Baka," De-Lay murmured softly as she drew her own weapon and proceeded to follow after her partner. "Hurry Natsume," Sakura urged, grabbing the green-haired cat-girl by the belt as the both of them became suddenly airborne. "Hey!" one of the two blonde cat-girls protested. "No fair levitating like that!" her twin insisted as they watched the Kitsune carry her partner towards a shattered window on the third floor of a particular building. "Get your tanks revving girls," Leona barked, already putting her own words into play as she gunned the engine of her mini-tank, "We're going in and we're not stopping until we nail that Boomer...!" Several moments before this something else was being nailed, for as Priss and Sylvie dangled helplessly in the air with their limbs held spread by steely tentacles, other prehensile members were systematically denuding them of clothing even as the Boomer that held them prisoner seemed to regard them both with glowing eyes, legs spread wide to brace itself as it proceeded with its mission. "What the hell is it doing?" Priss asked as she writhed helplessly under the thrall of those tentacles, glaring at the ones that were currently stroking at her loins and firing her to unwitting arousal. "It's looking for access ports," Sylvie replied as she, too, stared in dismay at the tendrils that were running up and down her bared snatch as if trying to find the way into her vagina, "It wants to probe us and download information...it must have you confused with me since it's targeted strictly for capturing and examining Boomers." "What?" Priss asked in shock as she turned to stare at the other girl, "Are you saying that...?" "I'm...an A-class S-33 Executive Bioroid model, Priss," Sylvie reluctantly admitted, "A Boomer, specially designed for soft-penetration espionage missions, complete with a Level Three AI processor that makes me think and act like a human..." "You're choosing a time like this to tell me that?" Priss gasped before shouting at the Boomer, "HEY---CUT THAT OUT! I'm a human not a Boomer you stupid jerk!" The rogue Boomer paused to turn a glance her way, studying the human as its tendrils continued to ravish both women, but then the mad machine shrugged with indifference. After all, it was designed to do this with any humanoid woman-shape, and human or boomer, it hardly made any real difference... "HEY, ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!" Priss all but screamed, finding herself being ignored an even greater insult than the physical act of being raped by a tentacle-projecting monster. "I'm a pleasure model, Priss," Sylvie continued with great distress, "I double as an information relay and processing unit, and it's trying to obtain some encrypted files that I'm protecting with my central processor...but in another few minutes it's going to ravage me of all my secrets!" "And you wanted to hire me?" Priss asked in growing confusion, unable to believe that the incredibly attractive girl before her was something other than fully human. "Because I need to help a damaged sister-unit whom I'm protecting," Sylvie explained as the tentacles began to force their way up through her front-and-rear sexual openings, "It's complicated...but it really is important that they don't get possession of my sister..." "The heck with your---HEY! CUT THAT OUT!" Priss snarled as she felt her own vagina and sphincter being forcibly penetrated. "I'm so sorry about involving you in all this," Sylvie said with tears forming in her eyes, "I never wanted any harm to befall you or any other innocent...and now I have to trigger my internal self-destruct unit to prevent my data from falling into the hands of the enemy of my creator." "You're going to suicide?" Priss asked in dismay. "It's the only way," Sylvie assured her, "But don't worry...the blast won't affect you, it will simply take my head off and shatter my central matrix crystal and...oh my...!" her eyes went round in surprise. "What?" Priss jolted as she felt something cold sliding up into her body from two hind entry ports. "It...it deactivated my self-destruct device," Sylvie declared in amazement, "But how? The triggering mechanism was heavily encrypted..." "So you're not gonna die right now?" Priss asked as she tried to fight against the tentacles that held her fast while the other coils were traveling even deeper up her vulva and rectum. "No...but this is terrible!" Sylvie all but wept, "We're going to die anyway...when this thing gets through ravishing us...oh Priss, I'm so sorry...!" All at once three figures came crashing in through the roof and took the Boomer by surprise, attacking before it could react to defend itself as the one in salmon-pink armor shot coils that struck the Boomer in one side while the lead of the trio lunged forward with a vibrating stiletto, even as the one in greenish armor snapped her head forward and sent micro-filament coils out to slice through the tentacles presently supporting Priss and Sylvie. This three-pronged attack was well coordinated and timed, and even as the Boomer reacted in dismay to this intrusion the blade of the white armored Knight Saber took the HK's head off in a single slice while Priss and Sylvie fell to the floor, only to be caught up at the last second by an invisible netting that prevented them from too rude a landing. "Got you," said a familiar voice as a lumbering fourth member of the armored team made its presence known, using overlarge hands to lower the netting to the floor so as not to unduly jostle both semi-nude women. "Maki?" Priss gasped as she felt the coil writhing within her like the tail of a lizard that had just been cut off from the source. "Oh my..." Sylvie wiggled in dismay as she experienced a similar phenomenon, "Um...would it be too much trouble if someone were to pull these things out of us...like...right away?" "Coming to it," said the green-armored Knight Saber, even as the Pink one waved a hand and caused the tentacles to abruptly cease moving. "Sorry to be late, but traffic was a bother," the white-armored leader of the unit informed them, "I trust you both were not too uncomfortable...?" "Oh sure," Priss growled as she waited for the green-armored Knight Saber to gently pry the tentacles from her vagina and rectum, "Remind me to give you a live demonstration sometime...now will you help me out here? I need my hard-suit!" "It's back in the truck, Lover-girl," the green-armored Saber nearest to Priss said while offering a hand to help Priss to get back to her feet, then the helmeted woman turned towards Sylvie and said, "This is your new play thing?" "Don't even start with me, Linna," Priss growled as she knelt down and assisted Sylvie, using great delicacy to extract the tentacles from her as the other girl lay gratefully on the floor and looked up at Priss with sorrow and longing. "Thank you," she said, "You have no idea how close I was to losing my data...if for nothing else, I owe you that much." "We were monitoring things through Priss's communicator the whole time that we were on our way," the white armored leader noted, "So...you're a new type of executive-class Sexaroid, eh? I'd heard about your particular form of pleasure model...and I see the rumors were not exaggerated." "I don't know what you may have heard about me and my kind," Sylvie said as Priss helped her to regain her footing, "But we're no threat to you humans...if anything we are your secret allies." "Uhuh," the pink-armored woman said as she approached Sylvie with one hand raised as though seeking to feel her from a distance, "Quite a sophisticated model all right...almost entirely organic with internal organs and everything duplicating a human model right down to the synthetic cell level. Special protective security measures to insure your matrix doesn't go rogue...data storage capacity in the terrabytes, complete nervous system adaptation, pleasure capacity, even a functioning womb and reproductive system...good grief! She's a Third, Silia!" "A third what?" Priss asked in confusion. "I've heard of them," the white-armored woman replied, "Specially designed to incubate and carry to term a hybrid child combining human and synthetic DNA, specially created for the MARS project to help establish a viable population native to the red planet. You were intended for motherhood, provided you could secure a willing partner." "I know," Sylvie looked more than slightly embarrassed as she glanced down at her own denuded body, "And I always hoped someday...well, that's not immediately important to the moment. But Nam is, and unless I get her to a safe shelter..." "Who's Nam?" the green-armored woman asked. "My sister," Sylvie explained, "The one I was assigned to protect..." "Never mind that now," the white-armored woman cocked her head to one side then said, "We'll debrief you back at headquarters...but right now, I am afraid that company is about to come calling." "Leona again?" Priss groaned, "Doesn't she even know how to take 'no' for an answer?" "Who is Leona?" Sylvie asked with a raised eyebrow. "Never mind about the stud," the green-armored woman said as she took a firm grip around Sylvie's waist and said, "Just hold on tight with me and we'll make a hasty exit." "So much for my patronage of this dive," Priss ruefully glanced around at the empty tavern, already clinging to the side of the white-armored leader of the Knight Sabers as she and the other two prepared to fire off their rockets. At the last second, however, Priss managed to gasp out, "My Motoslave...!" "Already hit the recall," Silia replied, "It will follow us back to base on its own, never fear, Priss-chan." Whatever next might have been said was lost in the whine of three jump-jets as the trio of Knight Sabers---plus humanoid cargo---leaped into the night, leaving behind a belated group of cops and mercenaries who would find the battle ended before they could join in, and a hastily scrolled insignia of the Knight Sabers carved in the floor as a calling card by an impish Nene as a passing gesture... * * * Meanwhile, back in the present... "Nani?" Ranma gasped as she stared at the young girl in dismay, even as Ukyo voiced aloud for both their sakes, "'Scuse me, Rui-chan? Mind running that by us again? Did y'all say that Ryoko here is...?" "Your mutual fiancée?" Rui glanced at both the familiar and unfamiliar faces before her and said, "Is there something going on here? Since when did you guys ever hook up with this big a posse?" "Since yesterday," Nabiki answered first, "We're all Ranchan's iinazuke patrol...well, all except little sister here, eh Akane?" "Like I'd want to be any part of your group scene?" Akane retorted with a sniff, turning back towards the unconscious woman at their feet and saying, "Did you say her name is Ryoko?" "Yeah, my thick-headed but well-intentioned big sis," Rui shrugged, "She's been after you and Ukyo for quite a while, Ranma, ever since you left us a couple of years ago after skipping out on Ryoko-chan's challenge match." "What do you mean skipped out?" Ranma asked in outrage, "I never skipped out on her! I waited three days for her to show up but she never did, the baka!" "I can vouch for that, Sugar," Ukyo declared, "I was there and helped talk her into dropping the matter 'cause neither of us thought your oneechan was gonna show up at all, what with her rotten sense of directions." "I thought it was something like that," Rui nodded, "I tried telling her that, but Ryoko never listens, especially when she gets a thought in her head and refuses to lose it." "Must get lonely up there," Ranma replied, then sighed, "Guess we'd better take her somewhere until she recovers her wits and can be talked to reasonable-like. The last thing either Ucchan or me needs is to have an ex-girlfriend storming about the place causing trouble." "You said it, Ranchan," Ukyo agreed, "Things are getting a bit too crowded as it is...not that I mind the company as it presently stands, of course," she purred as she reached out to touch the arm of the purple haired Shampoo, who smiled back at Ukyo with a hungry smile of mutual appreciation. A faint grumble of semi-mumbled speech emanated from the still recumbent Ryoko, as though protesting in her sleep some aspect of what the other girls had been saying about her. "Oh my," Kasumi remarked, "Is your sister all right? If she needs help, I can recommend a very nice doctor..." "Naw, she'll be all right," Rui assured the taller girl, "Oneechan's head would put to shame a rock, and we both recover pretty quickly from injuries much worse than that love-tap you guys gave her..." "Just so she minds her manners when she gets back up, Sugar," Ukyo cautioned. "Aiyaa," Shampoo agreed, "No attack Ranma unless she want to taste Amazon justice." Akane gave Ranma a look that was almost sympathetic, "Looks to me like you've got a knack for picking up unwanted suitors..." "Tell me about it," Ranma sighed, only to hastily amend, "Ah...not that I've got any problem with you guys..." "You'd better not, Ranma-kun," Nabiki warned with a sly look upon her face that gave her features an almost predatory cast, "Not if you want to remain healthy...in both genders." "Oh my," Kasumi remarked as she stared at the unconscious Ryoko, "However did your sister and Ranma-kun become engaged? I would have thought Auntie Nodoka might draw the limit at me and my sisters..." "You got me," Rui shrugged, "You'd have to take that up with mom...in fact, I think I see her coming right now, and granny Ganglot is with her." "Huh?" Akane asked, only to go round-eyed as she took in the approach of two rather attractive strangers. "Rui-chan!" a beautiful woman with long-flowing brown hair called out as she rushed up to the party with much haste, followed at a more leisurely pace by a much taller and infinitely more stately presence whose unparalleled beauty caused Ranma and the others to gasp slightly, sensing more than just charisma in the aura that attended the nearly two-meter tall Ganglot. "Hey mom, Great-Granny," Rui cheerfully called back, "Seems oneechan ran into a little problem just now and..." "Ryo-chan?" the brown haired arrival was suddenly was even more distressed as she knelt down to examine the still-unconscious Ryoko, "Oh my baby, what happened to you? Are you all right?" At the sound of her mother's voice Ryoko began to stir slightly, "Uh...momma?" "Auntie Atsuko?" Ranma asked, "What are you doing in town? Last me and Ucchan saw you was back in the Juuban district..." "Ranma...Ukyo?" Atsuko glanced at them distractedly, then down at her recovering daughter and said, "Uh...oh..." "Oh bugger," Ganglot murmured under her breath, then sighed as she considered her granddaughter, "Well, this is certainly another fine mess you've left me to clean up, Child...but I'll do my best to untangle this rather admittedly awkward situation..." "Who are you, lady?" Nabiki asked, not liking to admit that there was something about this very tall and quite evidently ageless beauty that she found most intimidating, and which was making her more than a little bit uneasy. "Call me Aunt Ganglot for now," the taller woman said as she swept a gaze over the Tendo sisters, then fixed a look towards Shampoo that the latter found a bit disconcerting, "Ah...Cologne's heir, I have been rather looking forward to our meeting." "Aiyaa?" Shampoo asked, not at all comfortable as she stared up at the older woman and said faintly, "Ganglot...is name from tribal legends..." "Yes, I was rather notorious in my day," Ganglot replied, "But I've changed for the better, you'll see. Which reminds me...how is dear, sweet Cologne these days? I understand she finally married that old girlfriend of hers, Siren...a very nice catch if I do say so myself." "You know great-grandmother?" Shampoo asked in growing confusion. "Yes, but of course I do," Ganglot said sweetly, "And you can tell her I said hello the next time you see her. I'm sure my sister-in-law is doing well enough for herself in these days..." "Sister in law?" Ukyo asked, glancing at the purple haired beauty and noticing how Shampoo paled as though making a belated realization. "Ah, and the rest of you belong to one Tendo Kimiko," Ganglot remarked as she turned the focus of her attention towards the others, "Nabiki and Akane...and you can be none other than Kasumi, the fairest of the fair from where I'm appraising." "Oh my," Kasumi blushed a bit, more than mildly flattered at the compliment as she could not help but appreciate the unparalleled beauty of the woman who was giving her such attention. "And---of course---you must be Kuonji Ukyo," Ganglot continued, "Of whom I have heard so much of late. Well met indeed...and of course I know you quite well, Saotome Ranma." "Have we met before?" Ranma scratched behind her ears as she tried to make out what was so oddly different about this lady, whose aura glowed even brighter than that of the Amazon matriarch, Cologne. It was not just the sense of great age that was impressing itself upon her...these days who could tell by looks? A woman could be a hundred and not look a day over her late twenties... "Not personally, no," Ganglot replied, "But I have been following your activities with great interest, young...lady." "Great-grandma?" Ryoko hastily got back to her feet as she looked up at the intimidating presence, only to turn and glare towards the notorious redhead in their midst, to which she growled, "Ranma...!" "Easy there, Ryo-chan," her mother thrust out an arm to restrain her eldest daughter, "Let's not get off on the wrong track here. After all...you, Ranma and Ukyo used to be the best of friends before your little...misunderstanding." "Misunderstanding?" Ryoko spat, glaring daggers at the target of her wrath, "You ran out on me and humiliated me in front of my friends, family and peers, and you didn't even have the decency to leave a 'Dear Joan' letter to explain why you just up and dumped me!" "Dumped you?" Ranma blinked, "I thought you were the one who dumped me? Mom said..." "Your mother had what she thought were good reasons for taking the actions that she did, my very young...lady," Ganglot replied with even wording, "But things are not entirely as they might appear to you both at the moment...in fact, it is long since time that secrets were divulged that someone...rather inadvertently let spill while making pillow-talk with a certain young lady..." "What?" Atsuko glanced up at her grandmother, "Are you accusing me of talking in my sleep, Grandmother?" "Only to a certain bedmate when you let slip the facts concerning Ryoko's hidden nature, Child," Ganglot replied with a slight sigh, "It really is such a bother that the two of you had just gotten done agreeing to betroth your daughters when you said the one thing that would cause Nodoka to reconsider her proposal." "Why?" Atsuko puzzled as she held her daughter in one arm, "What could Nodoka possibly have had against Ryo-chan?" "Only the fact that young Ranma here is of a...somewhat similar nature," Ganglot rather cryptically revealed. "Hah?" both Ryoko and Ranma said in chorus. "I will explain further...but this is hardly the time and place for it," Ganglot sighed, "And you young people will be late to school if you dawdle around here any longer than you already have." "School?" Akane blinked, then hit her own forehead with the back of one hand, "Gah! The time! We're gonna be late!" "There goes my perfect attendance record," Nabiki sighed, "But I guess some sacrifices need to be made for the sake of romance..." "C'mon Sugar," Ukyo urged, "You Tendos know the way but the rest of us need a guide to find this place...what did you call it again?" "Furinkan High School," Kasumi helpfully replied, "I graduated from there just last semester." "Sigma Cum Laud," Nabiki quipped, giving an affectionate glance towards her older sister as she added, "Oneechan set an impressive score for most lays during a semester. I was kind of hoping to match her at that...before other things, like our current engagement, took precedence over going for the school record." "Yeah right," Akane snorted, "As if even you could blackmail or bribe enough girls to go out with you," which same earned a dirty look from her older-middle sister. "Well, I was extremely popular with my peers," Kasumi said with unfeigned modesty, "But I was only trying to be friendly..." "Heh, we both know how that goes, right Ucchan?" Ranma grinned. "You said it, Ranchan," Ukyo grinned, "Making new friends is something we're both good at...and we never leave them disappointed." Ryoko started to bridle once again when Atsuko glared her into silence, then turned to her younger daughter and said, "Rui-chan...you and your sister go with grandma back to the studio. I'll catch up in a bit...but first I've got to go look up my old, dear buddy, Nodoka." "And how do you plan to find the Tendo residence, Child?" Ganglot asked, which gave the younger Hibiki some pause as Atsuko furrowed her brow and tried to consider an appropriate answer. Her elder just smiled and handed her a pendant saying, "This will guild your way, just as long as you follow where it points. It's a specially made talisman that acts as a pendulum. All you have to do is state a destination and it will swing in that direction...so remember, no ad-libbing or short-cuts." "Thanks Gran," Atsuko grinned as she held the thing up then scowled before saying, "Tendo residence, help me find Saotome Nodoka." The pendulum began to move, the prism-shaped crystal swaying out to point in the direction opposite to the one which the teenagers had been taking. "What do you want with mom for?" Ranma wondered. "Oh nothing...girlfriend stuff," Atsuko winked, "I promise not to do too much property damage while I visit." "Oh," Ranma shrugged, long practice conditioning her not to want to inquire into her mother's personal life, especially where it concerned "old girlfriends." "I want to stay with Ranma," Ryoko stubbornly insisted, "She and I still haven't settled the matter of her running out on me yet..." "Hey, I'm in this too, Sugar," Ukyo scowled, "Remember?" "Be patient, Child, and wait until I have time to brief you on a few rather significant details," Ganglot urged, "There will be time enough to sort things out between you and your iinazuke..." "Iinazuke?" Ranma blinked, "Don't I have enough of those already?" "More than enough for me," Nabiki said as she made a rather significant point of taking Ranma by one arm and leaning towards her in a rather meaningful expression of possession. "Not that I mind sharing," Ukyo noted, taking Shampoo by one hand and Kasumi by the other, "Just as long as I remain at the center of the action, Sugar." "Heheh...ah...right," Ranma fairly wilted, "Lucky me..." "Come on you guys," Akane growled, "That's enough screwing around for one morning...save the rest of the mushy stuff for lunchtime. Right now we've gotta hurry..." Even as she said this, though, Akane's mind flashed briefly to her friends, Yuka and Sayuri, wondering just how she was going to explain things to the both of her lovers what with all the crazy stuff that had been happening that morning. Bad enough to have to recount yet another screw-session with the likes of Kodachi, but to explain why her older sisters were getting engaged to a pack of strangers in a group marriage was infinitely more challenging by far, and that not even taking into account the likely "Class Greeting" she was about to receive once she set foot past the front gate, her randy welcoming committee out in force as usual...and Kodachi no doubt hovering back waiting for her piece of the action. Life was so unfair, and here she was escorting her two nymphomaniac older sisters with a cute Amazon and a raunchy okonomiyaki chef in tow, and that sex-swapping Ranma at the center of it all, her prospective 'brother-in-law' who had in one night managed to turn the entire Tendo household upside down just by her very presence. In all truth Akane could not help but feel attracted to the redheaded side of this Ranma, who manifested many of the same qualities that Akane herself possessed by way of Tomboyish charms and a certain unconscious charisma, but that other aspect of the new arrival...his male side...that definitely was a turn-off! Akane had trouble enough just looking at a naked Herm without gagging, but it was disturbing how the sight of a dangling member between a pair of thighs could so utterly revolt her. The only time she EVER did it with a Herm, regardless of the fact that Ikari Shinji was also Genome Enterprises' prototype 33-S "Sexaroid" companion bio-synthetic android, hadn't changed that -- but it was disturbing how the sight of a dangling member between a pair of thighs could so utterly revolt her that she was not even the least bit tempted to agree to join her sisters in their "family honor union." If anything she wondered what the big attraction was for the both of her sisters. Her mind thus distracted by thoughts of domestic quandary, Akane took the lead in heading for the Furinkan school campus, unaware as she did so just what sort of greeting would be waiting for their party the moment they arrived there...which was more than a little bit of a pity... Continued. Comments/Criticisms/Kaleidoscopic Perversions: shadowmane@msn.com What new troubles await Akane and the others once they get to the Furinkan campus, and what does Atsuko mean when she says she wants to "look up" Nodoka? How do events of the past and the future relate to what is presently going on in the life of one confused young girl named Saotome Ranma, and what about Kodachi, who is setting her sights upon BOTH Akane and Ranma's male aspect? For these and other more ecchi persuits of a hentai nature, tune into our next big installment: "Ex-Girls Reunited," or, "Evolution, Revolution and Dilution!" Be there!