Zero Saotome
Chapter 1

By Nuvares

Flying; it was his favorite dream to be amongst the clouds free with the wind in his face no one and nothing could hold him down. Recently it was also his most abhorred nightmare, well only in so much as it was a prelude to.

Weightlessness.

It was a familiar feeling, one that he felt every morning, a most effective alarm clock considering if he didn't wake up he would end up hurting himself by landing wrong. Instead at the peak of the arc he sprang into action twisting to face the fat bald man who had initiated the impromptu flight; that same man was moving towards him at a rather fast speed, this angular velocity was then redirected as he spun and used the larger man as a stepping stone. This would have been a successful first attack had it not been anticipated and countered in the form of a hand grabbing his ankle throwing him towards the ground and giving the fat one a few milliseconds more time in the air.

"Nice try Ranma, but you've done that before!" Genma Saotome yelled dropping towards the teen in a powerful looking knee drop. This was of course dodged as Ranma landed gracefully and moved a hairs breadth out of the way. "Predictability is a weakness!" His three punch combo was dodged with ease while the kick they had hidden was felt full force by the younger Saotome. Following the successful strike was a series of powerful jabs aimed at many of his vital locations.

"So is being a fat lazy slob but you're still clinging to that one aren't you old man!" The scathing retort flew from Ranma's mouth like a jab the insults a carefully calculated attack on the psyche of the opponent, a standard tactic of the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling. If your opponent was angry or shocked they were sloppy; corollary being that if they were sloppy the fight was easier to win. Some may have called it an underhanded move but they could none-the-less appreciate the results. Ranma being Ranma could not help adding insult to injury.

"Pillsbury called; they want you to audition as the next Dough Boy." Genma on the other hand ignored the comment and focused on the battle at hand as they traded blows both on the land and in the air each vying for a solid hit that would put the other out of commission. It was a deadly dace they performed, each masters at the intricate details of the flowing form the battle had taken.

"Ha, you call that a punch? What a weak little girl you are! A real man would throw a proper punch boy!" Genma countered spinning with a high kick that dropped into a sweep at the last minute, which Ranma promptly jumped over kicking Genma in the face for his trouble; only to be tagged in the knee by Genma's elbow pushing his aerial acrobatics off kilter enough for force him to regroup. The two stared into each other's eyes for only a moment before they rushed each other, jumping to meet in the air. "What kind of kick is that boy? I'm going to have to retrain you entirely if this fight is any indication!" He yelled smacking Ranma into the ground with a particularly dirty trick.

In all honesty Genma was very proud of his son's commitment and skill at such an early age; Almost sixteen and already he had mastered not only the Saotome school but over a dozen standard martial styles and was nearly a master of two dozen more. Truly his son was the pinnacle of a true martial artist; he lived breathed and worshiped the art. Even as he was slowly loosing the ability to defeat his son in their many daily sparring matches he felt no loss in pride or stature. Now of course all that was left was go to Jusenkyou, go to Soun's and get Ranma hitched. Only then would he give Ranma the certificate of mastery as a wedding gift; his retirement was all set. Of course that didn't mean he didn't have a cheap trick or two up his sleeve to continue winning the fights; one he was planning on using right about.

"Hey a 500 yen coin!" now, while normally it would involve him pointing at a fake object this time he simply stopped point blank and bent over totally catching Ranma off guard and causing him to fall over the new obstacle to his forward momentum. After that it was a simple task to roll over and pin the boy under the girth that Ranma had just pointed out as a weakness.

"You're still too young to beat me boy! Now let's get some food." With that he rolled off the youth and helped him up, "Ah! What a good workout wouldn't you say?" The answer to his query was a mumbled groan about unfair old tubs of lard.

Breakfast was very simple fare mainly being some broth for soup, campfire rice and some dried jerky for the meat. Not the most nourishing meal but it worked well for the road. Breakfast, like most of the two men's life, was a battle of speed, precision and cunning; all the food was placed out on the one large dish they had they gathered chopsticks and bowed in a ceremonious fashion and the battle begun. This fight consisted of eating mouthfuls of the food as fast as possible while at the same time preventing the other combatant from getting food into their mouth. Any food spilled was a fault, breaking of chopsticks was expressly forbidden, no body part other then the eating hand may enter the arena and the battle continued till all food was finished. Staring into each other's eyes they waited for the first movement like the samurais of old preparing for the duel ahead.

With the barest flicker of movement Ranma scored the first mouthful of rice while Genma reached for a piece of jerky which disappeared from his chopsticks halfway out of the airspace above the plate. Narrowing his eyes he noticed his meat headed towards Ranma's mouth; the first skirmish of the war. Striking out lightning fast he stole back his prize only to watch as it was deftly removed from his grasp. This continued for a few seconds before Genma let go of the meat and scooped up three big scoops of rice and some more jerky.

"Y'know Ranma," The old man spoke through another mouthful of food, "Today we're going to visit Jusenkyou." He watched Ranma stuff his face before starting another duel with his son.

"What's so special about this place?" He growled around his meal. "It better be more worth wile then the last 'Great Chinese Training Ground', we can go anywhere for a flat plain with large gravel."

"Foolish boy this is the most feared training ground in China!" Genma's indignant shout allowed Ranma to steal more food from the plate leaving only a few bites left. "Ungrateful brat." he muttered to himself noticing the lack of food on the battlefield. Now was when the battle would heat up with less being able to be stolen around the click-clack of dueling chopsticks.

"You're a moron Pops... That's what you said about the last three!" Ranma glared at his father noticing that the last of the food had disappeared down the large oaf's gullet during his outburst. Grabbing roughly at the deep bowl that held his broth he finished that in one gulp and continued to glare at the fat excuse for a father before him.

"Well this time it actually is!" He said confidence filling his voice, "not like those disappointments I got the directions to Jusenkyou from this!" Genma reached into his pocket and produced a small two fold pamphlet written in Mandarin. The small amounts of the language Ranma could make out said something about danger and training ground.

"You still can't read Mandarin can you?" Ranma deadpanned at the large amount of sweat that began to wet Genma's forehead. Shortly after Genma went flying into a tree as Ranma's kick landed square in his torso.

Ranma took up a defensive stance as he waited for the retaliation of the elder Saotome; he didn't have to wait long as Genma bounced back with a flying kick to Ranma's crossed arms. The attacks continued into a combo of seemingly random flailing that anyone well versed in martial arts would recognize as a flowing shift of styles from kempo to tae kwon do to karate. Blocking each attack Genma overextended by a fraction of a centimeter, more than enough for a martial artist of Ranma's caliber to take advantage of.

For the second time in as many minutes Genma found himself flying through the air, not exactly a bad position considering his style's affinity with aerial combat. Twisting impossibly in the air he righted himself and prepared for Ranma's return assault; his son did not disappoint as he met Genma in the air with a five kick combo nearly reaching Genma's vital points. Countering with a knee aimed at Ranma's exposed gut he ended cursing himself for falling into the obvious trap that ended with Ranma's knee smashing into the meat between his clavicle and shoulder.

As they landed Genma noted the style shift from Ranma as he started swaying back and forth in a combination of tai chi and wushu. It was a combination designed to allow for easy and quick evasion of attacks.

"Careful Boy, You're getting predictable again!" Genma yelled feinting with a two punch combo and committing to a strong snap kick to the knees forcing Ranma to buckle and fall to the ground. Ranma was back up in a second, flowing forward like water around the minimal defenses Genma put up in his offensive stance to land a fast series of punches along his exposed flank.

"Come on old man, your age catching up to you? Or are you just too fat to move fast?" Ranma taunted finally succeeding in arousing the anger of his father; who retaliated by bringing his knee and elbow together trapping Ranma's foot between them eliciting a devastatingly loud cracking sound and a cry of pain from the boy.

"What's wrong Ranma? Are you going to cry like a little girl?" Genma's heated scolding only produced growls from Ranma as he quickly devised a strategy around the bruised ankle he now had to deal with. Gritting his teeth he leapt forward in a suicide lunge rolling under the elbow Genma swiped at him with to tag the bear of a man hard in the side of the knee with his own elbow. Genma's cry of pain was followed shortly by his knee buckling.

"That was a pretty girly scream pops, or should I say womanly to someone of your age?" Ranma now stood in a highly defensive stance favoring his damaged leg waiting for a move from his sensei and personal punching bag. Genma followed suit returning to the heavily offensive form he favored.

"Hope you're ready boy. No more holding back!"

Little did the two know their little sparing match was being observed from afar.

"Japanese Scum!" Removing the binoculars from his eyes the grizzled old man frowned at his companion, "move squads one and three along that ridge, two and four along the other we'll pincer and catch them in the crossfire. Keep the tank still we don't need them noticing us till it's too late. Capture is primary, I want to know what they think they're doing on Chinese soil!" marching down the incline he looked onto the platoon before him, all good men loyal to him and communist china. The interloper though was some foreigner freak of a doctor.

"Dr. Wiley, we'll be delayed in this search of yours while we remove these obstacles. The secrecy of this mission means we can't leave witnesses, you understand of course?" The condescending tone he used was completely ignored by the strange short man in the lab coat.

"Hmmm? Oh yes whatever, go shoot your guns General I don't care." Wiley was busy looking over the documentation on his chosen target. "These 'Musk' will be very interesting; they may hold the key to my research." Holding his rage in check the general waved forward his troops to ambush the two he spied.

The soldiers moved silently through the brush towards the two battling figures splitting off to take up firing positions on both sides of the clearing. Each squad had a different target; one and two had the boy; three and four the man. Taking aim they waited for the two to stop moving.

The man was first to stop saying something unintelligible to the soldiers while affectionately clasping the boy on the shoulder and laughing. Everybody was ready, this would take but a second, and soon they would dispose of these two and continue on their mission.

Genma was happy with Ranma's performance during their recent sparing; he had been pushing the fight to new levels and forcing Genma to use the last few tricks he had stored away. Engrossed in their private fight neither father nor son noticed the approaching squad of Chinese Special Forces. Attacks were blocked efficiently on both sides each attempting to prolong the rigorous activity; and win of course, neither was ready to lose to the other. One of the boy's counterattacks nearly pushed him to the edge of the dirt roadway they spared on, impressing the father further and forcing the soldiers to cover as bits of sand and dirt rustled the foliage ahead of them. Smirking Genma planted himself and challenged the boy with a look to try and push him over the brink and into the trees.

"Come on boy, Hit Me!" he yelled at the human imitation of a pinball as Ranma bounced back and forth trying to get past his defenses. Smirking Genma opened a hole in his defenses hoping to trap the younger fighter; a trap that caught him his prey. For Ranma the sensation of flying through the air uncontrolled to land harshly on the ground only a few meters from the camp site. "Still have to watch for those false holes Ranma. Always suspect a trap whenever you think you have an opening," Genma said in his solemn sensei tone while crossing his arm over his head and nodding. Ranma for his part listened only enough to grumble at Genma's smug look.

"Yeah yeah, quit with the lecture old man. You got a lucky shot in." Ranma griped packing his things for the trip. "How much longer are we gonna be in China anyway? So far all these temples are pretty boring. Like remember the 'Cursed Temple of Ho fan Cho' which turned out to be a dilapidated hole in the side of the mountain; or the 'Legendary Training Ground of Guan-Di' which, while a group of very good spear users, was a freaking bean curd factory! And don't even get me started on some of these 'Legendary Techniques' either, remember the splitting hairs technique supposedly supposed to make one fast enough and skilled enough to split a strand of human hair at 300 paces?"

"Well that... err..." Genma flushed with embarrassment as all his China fumbles were brought to light. "That was a powerful technique."

"For cutting hair... seriously Martial Arts Hair Styling? Are you kidding Pop? who wants to learn a martial art designed to cut crimp and style women's hair while simultaneously disrupting your opponents attempt to do the same! It's ludicrous!" Ranma was getting warmed up into the insults his bag now resting on his shoulders.

"Just because the Art itself is superfluous doesn't mean the techniques inside the art are not powerful with a different application. Oh where did I go wrong with my ungrateful son, who doesn't even understand about adaptation?" the crocodile tears were flowing freely down his round cheeks as Ranma just snorted at his antics.

"Yeah right, stupid old man."

"What was that?"

"I said you're stupid Pop; what are you losing your hearing in your old age?" Ranma dodged Genma's punch laughing and taunting his father.

"WHY YOU..." Genma's angry outcry was interrupted by the loud bark of gunfire from the forest around them narrowly missing the two as Genma pushed Ranma flat to the ground.

"What the hell dad? Who's shooting at us?" Ranma shouted amidst the roar of the gunfire too scared to do much else.

"Ranma come this way, we have to get over the ridge," Genma tugged on his son's shoulder as he started crawling towards the safety of the dip in the road.

"Follow them, don't let them escape. Disabling shots only! The General wants them alive!" The Captain yelled as his two squads surged to their feet in pursuit of the two travelers. Both groups moved cautiously in scattered rows towards the crest of the hill only to find the other side devoid of their quarry, a quick glance provided where they went as the roughly trampled foliage made for an easy to follow path.

"Snipers; give me a shoulder and a leg a piece." he ordered as the three marksmen of the teams setup to fire upon the fleeing duo.

"Come on Ranma Don't fall behind we have to get away from those crazy Chinese." Genma's cowardly streak had finally proven its worth as he led his son down the deer path.

"Why are they shooting at us pop?" Ranma asked fear easily noticed in his eyes, he would stand up against almost anything the world could through against him and not bat an eye; but guns leveled the playing field and all his skill meant nothing compared to a bullet.

Coming upon a cliff they stopped for a second to look upon the beautiful vista of hundreds of small pools, each with their own bamboo pole, disappearing into the morning mist; had they not been running for their lives they might have commented on finding their goal of Jusenkyou the supposedly cursed training ground of the 'Springs of Sorrow'. However, the shouts from the group of soldiers behind them interrupted their viewing pleasure forcing them to look for an alternate route. Their hesitation ultimately proved to be their downfall.

"POP!" Ranma yelled as the spray of blood lanced out and over the valley tainting the view with the harsh contrasting color, stumbling forward in shock as the pain of the gunshot finally registered. Reaching to his shoulder he looked upon the blood smeared on his hands as he fell over the cliff edge towards the pools below.

"RANMA!" The large man shouted watching his progeny fall lifeless over the precipice and float motionless in the waters below. Turning back towards the soldiers Genma felt his heart turn into a solid ice cold stone of detachment as the fury burned brightly in his eyes.

"Saidaikyu Kijin Raishū Dan!" He screamed sending multitudes of Ki blades towards the Chinese murderers. Dodging more shots he soon turned and started making his way from the scene, no point in getting killed for revenge. On the way he noticed a Japanese boy who looked somewhat familiar, stopping to grab the youth he carried him away from the psycho soldiers.

"Plum Run for the Nǚjiézú, tell them that PRC Soldiers are coming. Hurry now!" The Jusenkyou guide frantically sent his daughter away while he pulled out his PRC uniform hoping that it would appease whatever soldiers came that way. The gunshots he heard echoing off the cliff faces of the valley scared him more than anything he could remember, even the last time the Phoenix decided to approach for their regular dunking in the springs of drowned man and woman to provide a wingless camouflage for the purposes of trade.

A loud splash alerted him to the cursing of an individual who apparently wandered into the cursed training grounds. sighing he let out a small prayer and went to go inform the lucky customer of his newly gained form, the sight that awaited him almost caused the guide to faint as he quickly started to fish the bleeding girl out of the spring she had landed in.

"Oh this is very bad; you've landed in spring of drowned girl. I must get you patched up, the curse will do you no good if you're dead," The guide carefully carried the cursed individual back to his hut not noticing the soldiers above him.

The loud banging on his door interrupted the guide's musing as he looked over the bandaged girl in front of him. Standing he walked over to the door only to find the barrel of a rife in his face and a second set of hands pulling him forward.

"On your knees, don't speak," the soldier ordered him while others went to search the simple abode of the guide. Soon the girl was dragged out still unconscious though the rough treatment seemed to be waking her; it also had the side effect of soaking the bandage in her blood. Holding his hands on his head all he could do was frown at the treatment of the girl.

"Report!" a new person on the scene this one was dressed similarly to the others but his bearing as well as decorations told the guide that he was most likely the leader. One of the masked soldiers saluted and started speaking to the man in a low voice.

"Where are the two Japanese men?" The guide looked at the General fear evident in his face.

"I've not seen any Japanese men around here; there is only the girl and myself. She was hit by some bullets and I wrapped the wound, though its bleeding again." he looked at the boy-turned girl who had almost passed out from blood loss being held up by one of the soldiers. The general also looked upon the dying child and frowned at his team.

"Take that girl to the medics; we do not treat injured civilians like that. Regardless if they are country yokels." he barked at the ones watching her as a few medics came up with a stretcher.

"I apologize about your daughter; we were tracking two Japanese criminals. My men, it seems, need to be re-educated on aim and bystanders." Turning he signaled for the guide to be released. The bindings were cut efficiently and the soldiers started making their way out of Jusenkyou.

"Your daughter will be returned once she has been properly attended to." with that the General left the guide to see to his mission.

"General! Can you explain to me why it is that three of my assistants did not show up for work after the last stop?" The balding scientist was not a person one would call intimidating, and the war veteran felt no fear of the man, but he had a most grating voice and arrogance that irked the General to no end.

"There was some collateral damage and they have been ordered to the medical tent to assist with the injured." Standing eye to eye the two men glared at each other waiting for the other to back down first.

"Sir, there is something that you must see in the medical tent." A private appeared breaking the tension between the two.

"What is it private?"

"One of the orderlies was giving the injured girl a bath to prevent infection when... The doctor does not know how to describe it. He sent me to bring you for instructions on how to deal with 'it'," more mandarin was rattled off a bit faster than Wiley could interpret and he was forced to settle for wondering what this 'it' was.

Entering the tent the men looked upon the barely clothed body of the young girl they had brought in for medical attention. Then before their eyes there lay the younger of the former targets, only a glass of barely steaming water added. Water from another cup returned the thing in front of them to its female form.

"Report," the bark of the General's voice spurring the short doctor into motion.

"Yes well we had finished dressing the wound from the patient retrieved and were preparing her for return to the family when the water being used to bathe the young woman was spilt; normally not a concern but she, well changed into this young man. I haven't been able to determine how or why but it's safe to say from examinations the change is complete though a DNA level test would have to be done to be sure." The doctor took a clipboard from one of the nurses present and flipped through the papers, "other than this phenomenon 'it' is remarkably healthy in both states, the bullet went clean through leaving no fragments and minimal damage. I'd say 'it' is pretty lucky in that respect."

"Have you seen this before?" The general queried the American scientist gesturing to the now, due to a cooler dose of water, female patient.

"Spontaneous Gender based Aquatic Transformation?" Wiley raised an eyebrow at the General and roughly pulled the clipboard from the doctor looking through it himself.

"Well?" The General deadpanned waiting for him to continue.

"Well it's hardly that spectacular; I've built things more impressive than that. Though it does present an interesting opportunity for an experiment; take 'it' to my tent General, we might not need to find these 'Musk' barbarians after all." Turning away everyone in the room felt sorry for the young whatever in their care at being labeled the latest test subject for the crazy foreign scientist.

The sterile smell of antiseptic permeated the air of the rapidly constructed clean room that served as the mobile base for Dr. Wiley's experiments. The subject had been moved and was currently in a chemically induced coma as the surgeons were marking incision lines in various locations of the, currently male, body.

"Sir Phase One is complete, and technicians say the generators are operating properly and we'll be able to perform Phase Two within ten minutes." The young woman reported staring at the futuristic devices Dr. Wiley was currently working on in preparation for their first human test.

"Very well begin removal of skeletal samples for nanite integration." With a nod she walked off to inform the rest of the team of his orders. In the clean room multiple holes were punched to allow access to the different bones within minutes a series of bores were created and a line of test tubes were quickly filled with marrow and labeled with a location marker. Over the next hour Wiley introduced small vials of a liquid metal into the boring tubes injecting it straight into the hollow core to begin modifying the skeletal structure of subject Zero.

"Now please begin organ replacement," He ordered turning towards the power conversion system that was to be implanted as a replacement to the digestive tract.

"You two prepare the scalp for insertion of Lithium String power supply." With those the soldier would be able to replenish energy through solar power or the conversion of any caloric material he could fit in its mouth. With a decidedly evil smirk Wiley set out to complete his latest masterpiece.

Three days later Wiley and his assistants sat beside the General and across from a video projection system showing the PLA Special Operations Force Commander in Beijing.

"Thank you for the briefing General, Dr. Wiley, What is the status of Project Steel Dragon?" he pulled a manila folder forward waiting on the Doctor's report. Wiley turned to a projector and typed a few things showing an outline of a young male along with a series of biometric information along side.

"Phases one through twelve have been successful and have even exceeded early projections. Subject's skeletal structure has been heavily modified through use of nano-technology, giving the outer structure a composite layer of a titanium aluminum alloy for increased durability of its structural resilience. The marrow similarly has been modified to react to the Trimethal-dibromox solution to stimulate rapid mitosis, only slight modification to the organic converter was needed to allow for self sustaining production of Trimethal-dibromox from standard caloric intake." He was highlighting the report with a laser pointer on the screen.

"Excellent, what else?" The Commander asked as his staff were now excitedly conversing behind him.

"Muscle augmentation has taken with minimal difficulty, these electro-sensitive microfiber lines can increase the subject's strength and agility by a factor of five to eight with minimal power reduction and strain. Finally the hands have been outfit with energy accumulating array allowing for it to convert internal energy into a charged particle attack that can be fired at varying levels of power depending on the time spent charging the system." Wiley's oily smile did nothing to diminish the exuberance being displayed by the heads of the Chinese equivalent to the USA's DARPA.

"That is good to hear. We are eagerly awaiting the trial results and the integration of the R2C-554 Series Tactical Control System. Keep this up Wiley and you'll have unlimited resources to make us an army of these."

"I thank you for your support," disconnecting Wiley quickly left to continue his work.

Meanwhile a few hundred kilometers away a large panda was being chased by a dark haired teenager being chased by a purple haired teenager.

"Airen come home to Shampoo now! No follow stupid panda-man!" Xian Pu's shouts only spurred the two ahead of her to move faster.

"GENMA THIS IS ALL YOU'RE FAULT!" Ryoga's exclamation was punctuated by a few bandannas flying towards the beast.

'Quit with the attacks until we lose the bimbo' A few hastily scribbled signs was the panda's only response to the situation, luckily for it Xian Pu could not yet read kanji or he would have had to deal with more than just a few iron cloth projectiles.

Alone in a dark room Dr. Wiley cackled as he operated the console in front of him. On the screen was playing the Life and Times of Ranma Saotome straight from the boy's perspective; of course most of it had to go otherwise Zero wouldn't make a proper puppet. Memories of his mother? Gone. Playing with little Ukyo? Never happened. Ryoga the sparring partner? Just a figment of the imagination.

It was a long and tiresome project picking and choosing what to keep and what to get rid of, basic education stayed but all of his teachers were blanked out leaving an unrecognizable blur in place of a teacher. By this time Wiley had ruled that the boy's father was probably the stupidest person in existence.

"What kind of moron would teach the cat fist to anyone?" Wiley groused to himself as he carefully made sure no trace of that memory remained. Not that he cared for the wellbeing of anyone; he just thought that the flaw of the fear and cat personality made it a useless Endeavour. Carefully he carved into the boy's life sorting out useful bits and discarding the leftover debris.

"Dr. Wiley? The R2C-554 system is here like you asked. Is there anything else you need?" The nervous private placed the small module on the desk.

"Hmmm? Nothing, leave." He smiled a very evil smile as the young soldier left. Looking the device he quickly got to work removing the case and pulling out the complicated bits of circuitry that powered the computer aided strategy systems China had been developing, some silly thing about helping commanders command troops. Tossing the remains in a burning barrel he lit it up while replacing the little computer's brain with something of better design. Once done he plugged a USB cable into it and went to work uploading the latest data pack for the operation of the Zero unit as well as the modifications needed to fully utilize the weapon systems . The hidden Maverick virus completed the upload and laid the groundwork for the evil doctor's long term plans.

"X Activate System." Wiley smirked as the system he had stolen from his nemesis Dr. Light flashed into being on the screen proceeding to perform it's diagnostics using the modified schematics he'd implanted before turning into a thick horizontal line on the screen.

"System activation complete. Error, four hundred twelve systems not responding to diagnostic." The line broke into an oscilloscope as it vocalized the output; in the background an image of subject Zero appeared with the majority of the image glowing red.

"Ignore errors, perform stand alone core diagnostic."

"Diagnostic complete, core system operating within tolerable conditions. Temperature forty-three degrees, power consumption at nine hundred fourteen watts, twelve cores detected, core clock is at seven thousand two hundred twenty megahertz, bus is operating at two thousand four hundred megahertz, memory capacity sixty-four gigabytes, firewall is active, zero ports open, zero incursions-" Wiley smiled as the computer finished it's lengthy list of data.

"Install and execute Maverick program command line sleeper. Shutdown when complete." With the last command he left the tent missing the last output from the system.

"Warning, viral code detected. Activating virus removal program."

Author's Notes:

Ok Here's the first chapter of the ZS rewrite. I've decided to remove the DBZ aspects of the story to keep it closer the mega man roots as well as stop Ranma from being as powerful and as such unreachable to the rest of the Ranma cast. This also hasn't been pre-read so it probably contains errors and all I've run it through was Microsoft's spell checker and grammar check.

As with the rest of my fics, Constructive criticism is appreciated and Flames are ignored.

Nuvares