More Than Meets The Eye: Chapter 1

Ranma refrained from teleporting to his destination or simply flying,
either activity easily capable of raising suspiscion and garnering
undue attention.  He wanted to fly, to feel the wind as he defied
gravity, and his mind was already working out how to eliminate oh so
many weaknesses from his aerial combat style, but there would be a
time for that later.  Now he had to meet his contact, the experienced
zoanoid, proto-Zoalord actually, who would teach him what he needed to
know to fulfill his purpose.

The park bench Ranma seated himself upon groaned under the weight of
his compact, yet extremely massive body, the oak boards bending
noticeable.  He'd only been able to test out his battle form a few
times, just enough to work out a new sense of balance and control for
his nearly twelve foot tall body.  His old self would have thought of
it as cheating, being enhanced like he was, but that was his old self,
a naive boy with no idea of how the world around him worked.

Arms akimbo, Ranma allowed his head to lean forward in a semblance of
sleep.  No more than a minute passed before he felt, sensed on a dozen
different levels, the space directly in front of him bending, folding.
It tore into a great gash that bled light throughout the park, and
thunder resounded through the trees.  People nearby neither saw nor
heard this display, though, since they only existed within three
dimensions and could barely percieve those.

He was about to berate the proto-Zoalord for its carelessness when he
caught an eyefull of its battle form.  Female, ten feet tall and
generously endowed, the lightly furred feline zoaform goggled at him
for a few moments and shifted back to her human guise, cloths
returning to her from a higher dimension.  Ranma always kept his in
the eighth, but he'd heard that others preferred the seventh for some
reason.

Why the woman had goggled became obvious when Ranma saw just 'who' the
woman was.  Kasumi?!?!  By all that was holy, Kasumi!!!!!!!??????????
How could sweet, innocent, holier than thou Kasumi be in with Cronos?
Admittedly, they didn't seem like the type to care whether their
members volunteered or not, but Kasumi was always so nice and
compassionate, hardly the traits a zoanoid almost as powerful as a
Zoalord would be allowed to retain.

"Ranma, what a pleasant suprise," Kasumi purred.  She glided over to
him, not really floating but appearing to because of the sheer grace
of her motions.  The eldest Tendo daughter lowered herself onto the
bench beside Ranma and stretched out, placing one arm around Ranma's
shoulders and another over the back of the bench.  The position pushed
her breasts out quite appeallingly, Ranma noticed.  A leather tank top
and tight blue jeans looked very good on Kasumi, very good indeed.

"Yeah, same here, Kasumi, I guess," Ranma croaked, unable to
comprehend Kasumi as a member of Cronos.  There were only twenty four
proto-Zoalords in the organization, twenty four who were essentially
Zoalords without a main power crystals.  If the plans he retained in
his memory were still accurate, Kasumi commanded no less than half a
million bioengineered super warriors, or would eventually.

"You sound disappointed, Ranma.  I'll admit that I hardly expected to
see you again.  We all thought that you had died in the fight when the
zoanoid team sent to retrieve you arrived.  Who's body and blood was
it?" Kasumi was a little po'ed at her superiors.  She'd been the one
to tell Mirabilis of Ranma and his potential, the least he could have
done was tell her that Ranma had survived.

"My blood, Ryoga's body," he answered.  Leave it to the inept
officials in Nerima to not actually investigate his death, assuming
that the blood from his shoulder had been that of the dead body.

Kasumi nodded in understanding.  That made sense.  Ryoga hadn't been
seen lately and Akane was getting worried."Well, all that doesn't
matter now, I suppose.  I'll show you to your new residence and fill
you in on your new identity."

Ranma, unlike most Zoalords, didn't have to transform to access his
teleportation abilities, and with his rudimentary telepathy, he
plucked the location of his home from Kasumi's mind and transported
them there.

****

"Impressive, very impressive," Kasumi said approvingly.  They were in
a small apartment on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Ranma did a quick once over of the residence he didn't really plan on
using much and nodded to himself.  It would do, barely.  A little too
well appointed for a young man living on his own, but that could be
explained away as the results of a modest inheritance.  Ranma aquired
a solid steel stool from the kitchenette's bar and plopped down,
looking enquiringly at his underling."So, Kasumi, how did you join
Cronos?" He didn't specify whether she'd entered voluntarily or not,
she would tell him, she had too, nothing but another Zoalord could
deny him.

From the lack of concern or reticence on Kasumi's face, Ranma doubted
the young woman had been forcibly processed."Hmmm, it was about a
month before you and your father came to stay with us at the dojo.  An
old friend of mine from high school felt sorry for me and asked me to
come stay with her for a week, just as a vacation from playing mother.
One thing led to another and she asked me if I would like a chance to
make a difference in the world, have a place of power where before I'd
been an insignificant peon living with and taking care of other peons.
Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.  I didn't really know what I
was getting myself into, but I was desperate and Cronos was a way out.
Thinking back on it, I would have been happy to be a lower zoaform,
but my abnormally high energy levels and a latent psi-gene passed got
me a place as a PZ." The smiled at Ranma winningly and he couldn't
help but feel happy for her.  The rut she'd been in at the Tendos' had
been deep, and from his point of view, a form of torture.

"All this time," Ranma said,"all this time you've had so much power
and you've never interfered with any of the mess in Nerima, even when
Akane got kidnapped all those times." She was probably under orders to
keep herself hidden, but Ranma wanted to know for sure.

"Just between you and me," Kasumi whispered conspiratorily, leaning
down to Ranma,"I don't think very much of Akane.  All those times when
she was kidnapped, I always hoped you wouldn't be able to get her
back.  Despite that, I just couldn't reveal myself.  Orders.  I'm sure
you understand."

Ranma nodded.  Without the raging hormones and adolescent infatuation
of his past self, Ranma couldn't find any redeeming qualities in his
once favored fiance.  It was a suprise that Kasumi didn't like the
girl, though, especially since she had always been so nice to her.
Well, Kasumi was always nice to everyone.

"In fact," Kasumi continued, an evil grin plastered across her face,
"I've scheduled Akane for pick up at the earliest possible date.  The
list for processing is quite long, however, and she may remain human
for a couple more months."

Must be all those broken cinder blocks she'd had to sweep up after
Akane's practice sessions.  Ranma winced, thinking of Akane as a
zoanoid."Unless I'm mistaken, her anger control will be even less
pronounced after a successful zoaformation."

Kasumi's grin broadened and she nodded cheerfully."Yep, that's why
she's going to be part of a radical experiment to create a type of
zoa-tank/beast of burden.  The reprocessing will be so extensive that
a majority of her brain will revert to its most primitive form.  With
such a simple mind, she won't be able to do more than function in the
most basic ways without telepathic assistance from a Zoalord, proto-
Zoalord, or one of the few zoanoid breeds with the ability."

Ranma was having to constantly redefine his image of Kasumi.  She was
like a totally different person inside of the body that everyone knew
as Kasumi.  When the amount of power she now possessed was considered,
Ranma could see why she would be so heavily reprogrammed.  If the old
Kasumi had been anything like the one he'd thought he knew, she
wouldn't have used her powers to so much as scare away a mosquito.
"Anyway, why don't we finish our assignments for the day and catch a
movie or something?"

****

Mirabilis viewed the meeting through the smallest of telepathic
connections, lest Ranma or Kasumi detect the monitoring and act
unnatural.  Ranma's more than superhuman traits may be unclonable, but
there was always a chance that they could be passed on naturally
through his offspring.  Who better to be the mother for such an
undertaking that Kasumi?  He already knew her, in one aspect at least,
and her high zoaform level would make her much more compatible and
likely to pass along altered traits than any human woman.  Now, if
Ranma's programming held, all Mirabilis had to do was sit back, be
patient, and watch.

****

Makoto Kino was a prime find.  She had no parents and no relatives
that would miss her.  During the week of her absence for processing,
only some high school friends had raised any complaints.  A forged
letter complete with proper girl talk quieted them and when Makoto
returned, no one was the wiser about her change.  That she no longer
had anything to do with her old friends was more a necessity than a
choice.

Ranma found himself in her class for this reason.  During the girl's
processing, she had been slated to become an agile avian breed of
zoanoid, severe electrical fluctuations had destroyed an entire wing
of processing tanks, leaving only Makoto unharmed.  Investigation and
mind probing revealed that the subject possessed a power very much
like bio-energy but as different as it was similar.  No scientiffic
explanation was reached and the processing had been resumed, this time
focussing on supplementing the girl's electrical powers and in the
end, she'd become a hyper zoanoid, a lost number much like Ranma
himself, powerful and useful, as well as completely unique.

Friends that she now avoided as if they carried the plague also
harbored such anomolous powers, though of different natures.  It was
Ranma's mission to discern how best to assimilate them into the
organization without the cost in resources that Makoto's processing
had.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today.  His name's Ranma
Mirabilis and I'd appreciate it if you tried your best to make him
feel welcome." The teacher was a zoanoid also, specifically placed
after Makoto returned to active life.  Juuban was a hotbed of
paranormal activity, sometimes even sprouting a zoanoid-like creature.
This too Ranma was supposed to investigate.  He knew the job would be
better accomplished in the hands of more experienced and knowledgable
personnel, but he also knew that this was more of a hands on
introduction into Cronos affairs 101.

Throughout the day, Ranma perused the minds of zoanoids in the area
and the memories stored in his mind by the Zoalord leaders of Cronos.
Makoto was the most powerful zoaform in the area next to himself.  Her
form was vaguely based on the Elegen(1) class hyper zoanoid, but with
a more chitonous, less gelatonous outer body and a series of beam
emitters in her palms that concentrated electrical energy into more
coherent and accurate attacks.  If the need ever arose, he could count
on a dozen Gregole(2) type zoanoids and half as many Vamore(3).

Normally, in an area as large and populous as Juuban, there would be
ten times that many with a much more diverse stock.  The Sailor
Senshi, of whom Makoto had once been a member, were notoriously
prejudiced against non-humans, though, and it'd been thought safer to
keep them in the dark.  Not that the girls couldn't be overpowered
easily enough.  They were just too valuable as potential Cronos
members, and besides, they kept to themselves mostly and took care of
the occassional extraterrastrial threat.

****

"Hi, I'm Makoto," the girl said casually as she sat down beside Ranma.
She held two bento boxes in her right hand and he got the definite
impression that she planned on giving him one of them.

"Ranma," Ranma said, readjusting his position to better view his
subordinate.

"Are you really related to Him?" she asked almost reverently.  Ugh,
Ranma could tell just what had instilled 'that' into the girl's mind.


Ranma sighed and answered,"No, not really.  It's just that everyone
back home thinks I'm dead and I figured I'd steal the bosses name.
Not like he uses it much.  He accepted the offered lunch and
said,"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." The pair sat in silence, slowly eating their food.
Ranma wondered if Makoto was such a good cook naturally or if the
ability had been programmed like her obvious worship of Mirabilis.

Eventually, well really only about five minutes later, Makoto
asked,"Is it time to start bringing the other girls in?" With the
question she unconsciously broadcasted intense feelings of loneliness
and isolation.  Orders, actual imperatives had kept her from cherished
friends, and she would be happy to have them back, even if it meant
their becoming monsters.

Ranma shrugged."Maybe, maybe not.  It depends on what I report back to
Mirabilis and the other Zoalords.  I don't know what they're looking
for, exactly, but I believe a scientiffic reason for you and your
friends' powers is a major part of it." Makoto was obviousless
disappointed, but she was a tempered warrior, accustommed to hardship
and denial, she would manage.  Ranma knew that if she could survive
three encounters with Guyver units without taking fatal injuries, she
would manage to wait.

****

"Uh, Kasumi, won't they miss you back at your place?" Ranma asked
after walking into his apartment and seeing Kasumi cooking something
on the stove.  She wasn't wearing her standard housewife garb, but it
wasn't her sexy outfit of the day before either, just loose fitting
shorts and a sky blue t-shirt.

"Most likely," Kasumi replied."I was finally allowed to have a falling
out with the rest of my family and I made up for lost time.  Heh, once
Nabiki gets out of the hospital I'm sure she'll probably even forgive
me when Akane starts cooking."

"That's nice." It really was.  Ranma found himself drawn to Kasumi in
a way he'd never felt for any of his other fiances, and even though he
suspected this was more by design than a natural reaction, he didn't
mind.

"I've been ordered to report to you for duty and assignment.  My stuff
is in the other bedroom," she said, stirring a steaming pot of
something that smelled wonderful."I'd like to think that you would
allow me to stay with you without orders dictating it to be so."

"After all you've done for me over the last year, you know I wouldn't
mind." Ranma decided that playing clueless boy in the situation would
be best for as long as he could keep it up.  He didn't have the
ability to tamper with any programming introduced into his mind by the
other Zoalords, and the almost animal attraction he felt for Kasumi
wasn't a bad thing, but denying the urge would serve two purposes.
The exercise would slowly allow him to build his own telepathic powers
and resistances, as well as piss of Mirabilis who was no doubt waiting
for a free show.

Kasumi must have sensed Ranma's thought, because she said,"I don't
like it anymore more than you, but I don't have your strength of will
and resisting the compulsion will soon become painful for me." Her
small smile and kind eyes belied the serious of her statement.  Ranma
nodded and went to take a cold shower.

****

Author's Notes:  I'm still writing this for now, but only as something
to distract me for a while so that I can come back to my other fics
with a fresh mind.  It's not proofread and probably had lots of
mistakes, but like I've said, I don't plan on continuing it.  If at
any time someone wishes to pick up the story from me and continue it
themselves, e-mail me and if I decide to turn the story over to you,
I'll send you any info you need of the Guyver series(actually I'm to
lazy to do that, but I can give you some good links to Gyver info and
fanfic sites).  My e-mail is dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

1) Elegen- A hyper zoanoid that kinda resembles a mega powered
humanoid jellyfish.  They have whip/tentacles that they use to deliver
electric shocks and they can hover through some kind of electrical
field imbalance thing or something.  They pack some serious voltage.

2) Gregole- Big, green, and reptilian, these guys are the physically
strongest of the regular zoanoids.  Pretty much cannon fodder unless
dealing with humans and anything less than anti-tank weaponry.
Guyvers make them into nice little zoabitches.

3) Vamore- Only five to ten times stronger than an average
human(pretty weak by zoanoid standards) they use their shoulder
mounted bio-lasers as weapons.  Each shoulder pod can build up
significant charges of energy, and I think that they explode nicely if
destroyed, but I can't remember for sure.