The
Great Crossover Adventure
by
Xanthix
Chapter
3: Getting Aquainted
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Back
in the Great Fox, everyone was recovering from the jolt of the attack. No one
was hurt, but everyone was shaken. They dusted themselves off; Ranma kindly
helped Ameria up from where she had fallen. Ryoko seemed to be in shock that
Ryo'ohki had fired upon a ship she was in, and that she didn't seem to be able
to communicate with the cabbit.
The
ship lurched to a slow stop as the maneuvering thrusters kicked in. After
taking another look at the damage reports on his viewscreen, Fox turned and
looked at Washu. "I hope your plan doesn't involve us going anywhere for a
week or two," he said dryly. "Because until I can fix the port
engine, we're all stuck here." Everyone could hear the bitterness in his
voice -- he clearly still resented having his ship 'borrowed.'
Washu's
reply was unexpectedly cheerful. "Nonsense, Fox!" Her happiness
seemed out of place. "There's still the Arwings! You can teach Zelgadiss
how to fly one and scout for the enemy, while we repair the ship." She
said this almost as if it had been the plan all along. Maybe it was, as far as
the rest knew.
Fox
was unbelieving at this point. "What!? None of you know the first thing
about the Great Fox's design or piloting an Arwing!"
Ameria
spoke up. "Mr. Fox does have a point, Miss Washu."
"That's
okay, Ameria," Washu replied kindly. "I have all the know-how we'll
need. You guys can help me out. And we'll need someone who can fly a
starfighter later. Trust me."
No
one was sure how to reply to this, except Ryoko. She was obviously still
frustrated. "Then let me go! I can fly circles around anyone else here,
with or without a ship!"
Washu
knew that Ryoko really just wanted to pursue Ryo'ohki and find Tenchi. A good
goal, but Ryoko went about things the wrong way sometimes. She sternly said,
"No, I need you here for the next part of the plan."
This
time Fox was quick to speak up -- he was none too anxious to have Ryoko as a
wingman. "There's only two Arwings in the shuttle bay," he informed,
"and if you're already a good pilot then we should train someone else as a
backup." He knew that didn't quite make sense, but fortunately Ryoko was
too upset at Washu to catch it.
"So
it's settled!" Washu exclaimed, even though it wasn't. "Fox, you and
Zelgadiss scout out the area. Everyone else, follow me to the engine
room." With that, she turned and walked purposely down the hallway.
The
rest followed, some less willing than others. Ryoko knew Washu could restrain
her if it came to that, and so floated down the hall like an angry
thundercloud, ready to blast someone with a lightning bolt. Ameria passed her
carefully, going to ask Washu about the 'plan.' Ranma ran after Ameria,
figuring it was unwise to be left between Ryoko and Fox. Zelgadiss awaited Fox
to show him where and what these 'r-wings' were; he had no where else to go,
and maybe he could see more of this new world. Fox was the last to leave. As he
left the cockpit, he quietly ordered Rob64 to keep an eye on the strange guests
while he was away, and locked the door.
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"Are
you ready, Zelgadiss?" Fox asked over the intercom.
Zelgadiss
looked through the narrow viewport of his darkened cockpit. He saw Fox in an
identical Arwing cockpit next to him in the hanger bay. He checked all the
displays in the starfighter's tight cockpit as Fox had shown him, and then
looked towards the opening shuttle bay doors in front of him. The depth of the
starfield momentarily startled him. He wondered if a levitation spell would
work in outer space.
"Ready,"
he calmly replied.
"Prepare
for launch in three, two, one," Fox counted down. As he reached zero,
Zelgadiss felt a powerful shove behind him and both ships blasted out into
space. He was almost afraid, but was glad that his vessel was on automatic
control for now.
"Is
it okay if I call you 'Zel,' by the way?" Fox's voice cracked over the
intercom. "It makes ship-to-ship communication simpler."
Zelgadiss
spoke his approval to Fox. Fox then began the task of teaching someone who had
never piloted any mechanized vehicle how to fly a high-tech
multi-million-dollar planetary defense and interception starfighter. It wasn't
too different from trying to get his team to fly correctly, he later decided.
Ameria
and Ranma listened to their transmissions from a monitor in the engine room.
Since they really didn't know much about starship repair, Washu had turned on a
viewscreen to give them something to do. As they watched, they saw the two
Arwings deftly weaving around each other.
"Zelgadiss
seems to be a quick learner," Ranma offered.
"Yes,
he's very patient too. It helps in our world," Ameria replied. After
thinking for a moment, she asked Ranma, "What is your world like?"
"Pretty
plain compared to all this," he said, gesturing to the viewscreen, and to
Washu and Ryoko working on an engine the size of a house behind them. "My
group of friends keeps it interesting, but there are no spaceships or sorceries
or anything like that. Well, there is one weird thing..." he began, but
suddenly caught himself. Probably best NOT to share that right away. "But
otherwise it's pretty normal," he quickly finished.
"You
must care for your friends a lot, especially being willing to do all this for
your kidnapped friend."
"Well,
Ryoga has a... special place as a friend," he replied, not sure how to
characterize his friendship with Ryoga.
Ameria
smiled at him and turned back to watch the screen. She noted that it was just a
friend, and not a female friend, that Ranma had mentioned. Not that it was any
of her business. Ranma was kind of good-looking in his strange formal outfit,
though. She thought about the situation, to the background noise of Zelgadiss
training in the Arwing. She didn't ask Ranma if he was attached in his world;
little did she know that she had avoided a half-hour explanation by doing so.
Ranma
smiled back, relieved that she hadn't come any closer to finding about his or
Ryoga's "condition." The less people that knew about that, the
simpler it'd be for him. He wandered over to Washu, to see if there was
anything he could to. As long as it didn't involve cold water.
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Meanwhile,
Fox had decided that Zelgadiss was ready for something a little more
challenging than loop-the-loops and barrel rolls. While teaching the basics of
starfighter maneuvering, he had remotely ordered Rob64 to perform sensor sweeps
of the area around the Great Fox. He had found a few interesting things and
wanted to check them out. So he opened up a communication channel to the Great
Fox to let the others know where he and Zelgadiss would be.
"Attention
everyone," his voice echoed throughout the ship. "Fox here. Zelgadiss
and I are going to scout out up ahead. Back before the repairs are
finished!" Before anyone could object, he cut the channel.
"Are
you sure this is wise?" Zelgadiss asked.
The
reply was very confident. "Of course -- you're a natural. We're just going
to fly by a few planetoids and see if we can find the trail of that other ship.
We'll come back immediately if there's any danger. What could happen? Now hang
on while we switch to..."
Fox's
voice faded for a moment while he adjusted the navigational controls. Then,
with a sudden roar of the engine behind him and a cry of "Turbo!!"
through the intercom, Zelgadiss felt what he was missing with levitation
spells. He could get used to this.
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"Okay
everyone," Washu said out loud as she wiped her hands off after finishing
the engine's repairs. "Time to fill you in on the plan."
At
this, everyone gathered together. Ranma looked up from where he was trying to
figure out how the engine did whatever it did. Ameria walked over from the wall
viewscreen. Ryoko drifted down to the floor from where she had been perched on
a roof support.
"Here's
the deal. You may have noticed that the enemy has spaceships. According to my
readings on this dimension, there are more than the one we saw." No one
doubted her about that. "We, however, have to make do without spacecraft,
except for Fox and Zelgadiss in the Arwings." Ryoko still looked resentful
about that whole exchange.
"So
I have prepared a way for you to combat the enemy in space." This didn't
strike Ryoko as odd, but Ranma and Ameria, who had never been in outer space
before, were a little fazed by it. Ranma was about to bring up the fact that
there is no oxygen in space, but Washu cut him off.
"There
is a way to draw energy from one's home planet and use that power to do many
things, even travel through space. It's not a natural occurrence in most
dimensions, but I borrowed the way to do it from another dimension so we could
use it here. The people who normally use it there were busy at the moment, but
you can probably figure out the details yourself."
All
this time Ameria was remembering the fact there's no air in space, and trying
to figure out what life would be like without air. It didn't look good, she
decided. At this natural pause in Washu's speech, she tried to bring this up,
but was cut off also.
"Now,
these powers alone are sufficient for space travel and space combat,"
Washu resumed. "So with all your natural abilities, you should be able to
do some impressive moves."
"Oh
yes, and the powers will let you breathe in space," she quickly added.
With
this, Ranma and Ameria both sighed in relief. They looked at each other
sheepishly. Ryoko snickered.
"So
how do we access these powers?" Ranma asked after a moment.
Washu
replied knowingly, "Normally each 'senshi,' or warrior, who uses these
powers, is linked to some planet. Since we're all from different dimensions,
you can draw on the powers from your planets in your home dimensions. I'll stay
here and keep the links operational. So once everything's all set up and Fox
and Zelgadiss find our opponents, you all can fight the enemy."
"Excellent!"
Ameria shouted, startling the others. "Justice will strike a strong blow
against evil this day!"
Washu
smiled with the rest, in part because of Ameria's enthusiasm and in part
because of what was next. She loved doing this...
"Well,"
she began, "there's one more detail." Everyone looked at her,
wondering what it could be. "When you're using senshi powers, you have to
wear special uniforms that reflect how the planetary energy is augmenting your
own energy. How the outfits look will be a reflection on your personality and
abilities... but their basic form is fixed from the dimension I'm borrowing
this technology from."
Ryoko
was used to battle armor, but was curious when she asked, "Exactly what
kind of 'uniforms' do you mean?"
"Oh,
nothing too fancy," Washu replied innocently. "They're standard
sailor senshi outfits, but they're kind of like school uniforms."
Everyone
thought about this. At Furikan High School, Ranma as used to wearing whatever
he wanted -- the dress code wasn't bad at all. No problem. And whenever Ameria
had been on ships, the sailors had never worn anything too odd. No problem. And
in Ryoko's experience, space pirate armor or Galaxy Police uniforms were
nothing to worry about. No problem.
Washu
looked at everyone for a moment. They all bought it. No problem! She quickly
turned to a computer console and said, "Okay then, it's settled. Let's see
what the others are up to."
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Continued
in Chapter 4: Preparing for Battle
"Slayers" is copyright H. Kanzaka / R. Araizumi. Original ideas, artwork, and text present on this page are copyright Esther Nairn, unless otherwise noted. No reproduction is allowed without express written or emailed permission. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.