TRIO:
			THE SEARCH FOR EXCALIBER

	The work was going well, Blade Bot observed.  It had taken a great 
deal of time and an even greater amount of resources, but they were 
ready to reactivate.  "Now all I have to do," the strange robot in 
front of him said as he conversed with both Blade Bot and the other 
members of the Inner Four by talking to Cambots lens, "is reattach 
this wire and..."

	The robot, who looked to have been built out of scraps and spare 
parts and had his right hand replaced with a blowtorch like device 
while his left hand was made out of a liquid metal, suited action to 
words.  A hum radiated from the generator behind him and the lighting 
for the top thirty floors of Eclipse Tower snapped back on.

	"Good work Welder," Blade Bot said before he turned to Cambot and 
announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are back in business."

	"Good," Lujane replied from the throne room, over the com link that 
Cambot carried, "The master will return in two days.  He will be glad 
that we are ahead of schedual."

	"Yeah," Blade Bot groused, "Now I can get Welder to repair the 
Juggernaught suit."

	Samaron said nothing as he heard Welder reply, "But sir, I'm CERTAIN 
it wasn't broken when we made the initial check of the damage done to 
our base.  I can't see HOW it needs to be repaired."

	Lujane terminated the communication and turned to both Seer and her 
husband as Seer said, "If you will excuse me.  Now that the 
interference that was disturbing my powers is gone, I shall meditate 
and fully recharge."

	"Very well," Lujane replied as she dismissed him.

	The purple haired leader of the Inner Four turned to her husband and 
said, "I suggest that we get some rest as well."

	Samaron sighed as he replied, "I am sorry my love.  I can not just 
yet.  I have one final business to attend to and then I shall retire 
for the night."

	Lujane sighed, she knew what he was doing.  Whenever Eclipse Lord 
was away on business, Samaron would ocasionaly disappear to the 
storehouses where the ancient archives, which were old legends that 
had a possibility of having a basis in reality or maps to hidden 
treasures that the Eclipse Syndicate had obtained, both legally and 
illegally, over the years, and search through them.  "Don't stay up 
too late," Lujane said in a slightly worried tone, "searching for... 
whatever it is you hope to find.  You need your sleep."

	Samaron nodded as he looked deeply into his wife's' stunning green 
eyes.  The two Inner Four members kissed, briefly and tenderly, 
before heading their separate ways.

	The next day....

	Gohan threw his used tissue into the trash bucket, where it landed 
with a gooey splat.  He reached into the tissue box for another one 
but found it to be empty.  Sighing, he walked into the hall and went 
looking for more.  He saw Usagi sitting on the couch, watching 
television.  She turned when she heard Gohans loud sniffle and she 
said, "Hi Gohan.  How're you feeling?"

	Gohan managed a weak smile and replied, "Better.  My fever is gone 
but now it feels like someone poured pudding into my lungs."

	Gohan coughed a phlegm filled cough and continued, "How about you?  
Is your head feeling better?"

	"Yeah," Usagi replied as she adjusted the ice pack on her head, "It 
doesn't ache as much but it's still pretty bad."

	At that point, the back door opened and Ranma, fresh from his 
morning katas and feeling like a new man after having his confidence 
restored, practically skipped into the house and called out 
cheerfully, "Good morning."

	The looks that the others gave him made Ranma take a step back.

	At that point, the phone rang and Ranma, glad for the chance to 
escape the glares, headed for the kitchen and answered it.  He 
listened to the voice on the other end for several seconds before 
holding the phone out and saying, "Hey Gohan.  Take a wild guess 
who's calling."

	Gohan nodded, took the phone and asked, "Hello?"

	"Hello Gohan," the voice on the other end said, "We know you're 
still sick but we need to set up a meeting.  It's urgent."

	Gohan muttered to himself, "EVERYTHING to these guys is urgent."

	Aloud, he asked, "What for?"

	"Have you ever heard of the legendary sword Excaliber?"

	Meanwhile....

	Contrary to what many of the Eclipse Syndicate's soldiers thought, 
there were certain rooms that allowed natural light to enter.  In one 
of those rooms, the suns golden beams, sweeping away the last of the 
previous night, spilled in through the window, highlighting the woman 
asleep in her bed.

	By her side, watching her from a chair next to the bed, sat the 
dragon samurai who was her husband.  He loved watching her like this, 
the way the light seemed to accent her purple hair and thick full 
lips.  The way that the blanket would always fall off her shoulders, 
letting the black straps of her nightgown be seen openly.  With an 
almost silent yawn, Lujane opened her forest green eyes and looked 
directly up into the dark black ones of Samaron.

	She smiled as she whispered softly, "You didn't come to bed."

	"I apologize," Samaron replied, "but when I finished my business and 
came here, I saw how peacfuly you were sleeping and did not wish to 
disturb you."

	"How long were you sitting there?" Lujane asked as she sat up, her 
voice indicating that a fib could lead to many long nights on the 
couch.

	Samaron could not lie to that tone and replied, "Four minutes."

	Lujane growled under her breath and asked, "And did you find what 
you were looking for?"

	Samaron suddenly bolted to his feet as he said, "Yes.  After all 
these years of searching, the legendary sword Excaliber is almost in 
my grasp!"

	The dragon samurai stumbled slightly and Lujane got out of bed and 
wrapped her arms around her husbands shoulders from behind.  "Why do 
you push yourself so?"

	"I must.  It was because of the master that I was able to learn the 
ways of Bushido.  It was because of him that I found you.  With the 
power of Excaliber by my side, I could serve him far better then I do 
now.  You, my love, are the highest of us, you must know that 
attaining such a high rank demands sacrifice."

	Yes," Lujane admitted, "but I also know when to rest.  Now, is 
Excaliber going anywhere soon?"

	"No... but the time I must acquire it by is coming soon."

	"When is that?"

	"Not for several days.  But..."

	"Then come to bed.  We have no business to attend to today and the 
master will not be returning until the end of the week."

	"I should not..."

	"I can make a tempting offer."

	Lujane kissed him... and the offer was accepted.

	That afternoon....

	"Excaliber?  Wasn't that the sword used by that King Arthur guy?" 
Ranma asked when Gohan had finished explaining what the meeting had 
been about.

	Gohan nodded and replied, "Yes.  You know the story?"

	"Kinda.  I think it was supposed to be some kind of mystical weapon 
but when King Arthur was seriously injured in a battle, he gave to 
some lady in a lake."

	Usagi asked, "What's it got to do with us?"

	Gohan said, "There's another story that says that, The Lady In The 
Lake was actually a concubine and when he gave her the sword, she 
kept it in her family, where it was passed down from generation to 
generation.

	"After a time, it then ended up in the hands of collectors, where it 
was traded many times over.  Now..."

	"It's in the hands of a collector in New York and your superiors are 
afraid the Eclipse Syndicate may make a try for it," Ranma deduced.

	"Yes," Gohan confirmed, "plus, the aniversery of the day that 
Excaliber was said to have been forged is approaching.  According to 
legend, whoever wields the sword on that day will become a warrior of 
unparalleled power.  If the Eclipse Syndicate gets their hands on it 
on that day..."

	Gohan let himself trail off intentionally and the only sound was the 
gulp that came from Usagi.  "So who has it?" she asked when she 
regained her voice.

	"I don't know."

	Ranma and Usagi fell out of their chairs.

	"Although we do have a few leads," Gohan quickly threw in as his 
friends pulled themselves up to their feet.

	The next day....

	Usagi was cleaning an old, Victorian era, wall length mirror, when 
an idea hit her.  She turned to Troy and Susan and asked, "Do we have 
any antique swords?"

	Susan lowered her newspaper slightly as she leveled her gaze at the 
younger girl and then shifted her eyes to Troy as he said, "Afraid 
not.  Why?"

	Usagi sweated slightly as she replied, "Uh... you see... a friend of 
mine likes to collect them and I thought I might get one for his 
birthday or something."

	"I think they buy that," Usagi thought, "It's not like I could have 
said, 'I'm really Sailor Moon and I need to see if one of the swords 
we sell is the legendary sword Excaliber, even though the others and 
I don't know what it even looks like.'"

	Troy threw a glance as Susan and saw her lip from behind the paper, 
"Excaliber."

	Troy aka Trunks thought, "At last, something to do besides sit on 
our hands."

	Elsewhere....

	Brunt gave a small grunt of frustration as Samaron rejected yet 
another one of the swords she had found.  If her leader had heard it, 
he gave no indication.  "Keep looking," she snapped at the Scarab 
Demon who was standing next to her.

	The creature shrank back slightly before running off to go searching 
through the many display cases of the mini museum that was the 
property of one Uwara Cuntlover.

	Samaron had, from reading many files during his long night, 
discovered that Uwara was a "sword freak" and the possibility that he 
had Excaliber was very high.  True, he had no idea what it would look 
like but he trusted his finely honed battle senses would let him know.


	"Wow!  Look at all the cute girls down there!"

	Samaron sighed as he looked at one of the things that was starting 
to make him think his quest was a fools one.  It was a Hybrid; a 
mixture of two Departments uniting their efforts to make one creature.
  In this case, the Robotics and Genetiks has combined to create 
Snoopjob.

	The monster had camera eyes, a long wolfish nose, the black circle 
and white outlined mark of the Syndicate on its left forearm and 
silvery fur with several wires sticking out of his chest.  It was 
SUPPOSED to be using its special talents to be searching for likely 
candidates to be Excaliber.  Instead, it was leaning over the railing 
and looking down on the street below.   More specifically, it was 
using its telescopic vision to get close ups of women and certain 
parts of their anatomy.

	"WOW!" Snoopjob exclaimed again as air shot out of a grating on the 
street below and caught a young red head in a short skirt by surprise,
 "I saw her PANTIES!!!!"

	Samaron groaned low in his throat as he put his right hand to his 
forehead, rubbing the part where his own mark was and thought, 
"Lujane and Blade Bot WARNED me this was the best they could come up 
with on such short notice."

	Aloud, he roared, "SNOOPJOB!!!  I gave you an order and I expect it 
to be followed!  Is that UNDERSTOOD?!"

	Snoopjob whirled around and edged closer to the railing in fear of 
Samarons outburst.  Snoopjob knew full well that Samaron could cut 
him to pieces easily if he wanted to.  "I'm sorry sir," the Hybrid 
replied lamely, "I'll get back to work.  You want Excaliber?  It'll 
be in your hands before nightfall.  No problemo, yes sir re bob."

	"GET TO WORK!!!!!"

	"Yes sir."

	Under his breath, Snoopjob muttered, "She wasn't a REAL red head 
anyway."

	Brunt clobbered him in the face as Bombard laughed.

	Somewhere else....

	Great Sayaman floated outside the window of a penthouse apartment, 
his cape snapping and rolling like a living thing as he struggled 
with his morals.

	On one hand, breaking into the home of someone who was just a simple 
collector, was a violation of everything he stood for.  On the other 
hand, the Eclipse Syndicate would have no such reservations and 
Sayaman HAD to get Excaliber before they did.

	Then again, there were certain lines he wouldn't cross.

	And then again, if he had really believed he was on such high moral 
ground, he would have told Section Six to take a hike when they had 
threatened to hurt the others if he didn't become their lackey and 
fought them with all he had.

	And yet again, the others looked up to him as the leader.  He didn't 
like the burden that it put on his shoulders and he wondered how 
Usagi had handled it when she had been leader of the Sailor Senshi.  
If they ever regained their memories, he'd have to ask her.

	Of course, thoughts of the Sailor Senshi brought back memories of a 
certain blue haired girl and....

	Sayaman shook out his head and quickly stopped blushing.  There was 
no time for thoughts like that.

	Like lightning, inspiration struck.  "I've been able to sense 
enemies before they attack and somehow, I'm able to gauge how 
powerful they are.  Maybe, if I concentrate hard enough, I'll be able 
to scan the swords from here and see if any of them are Excaliber."

	Sayaman closed his eyes, bowed his head and focused his mind on 
searching for energy sources.  He stumbled a bit in mid air when the 
pure number of... auras, for lack of a better term, generated by the 
people below assaulted his senses.  He redouble his efforts, 
attempting to focus only on the room with the swords, trying to 
filter out the static of the population of New Yorks collective auras.


	After several more seconds of effort, he succeeded and ran his 
senses over the weapons in the penthouse.  While one or two of them 
held powers of some kind, none of them had the right FEEL that made 
Sayaman believe that they could be Excaliber.

	After making one more mental sweep to be sure, Sayaman flew off, 
hoping that his next lead would be more successful.

	Later.  At the Museum of History....

	Ranma was engrosed in the Medieval History area.  He had never known 
that museums could have so many swords.  "Aw man," he thought, "and 
here I thought I'd lucked out 'cause the restaurant was closed today 
for the annual fumigating.  What ever that's supposed to be.  I was 
certain that it'd be here, if anywhere.  'Course how the hell am I 
supposed to know which one is it?"

	specifically, he was staring at a large display case that read, 
<Weapons of the Knights>.  There were broadswords, long swords, short 
swords, double edged swords, the Sword of Damiclies, broken swords, 
there was even a little Easter Island-ish statue with the title of 
<Ganmajin> but Ranma, for the life of him, couldn't figure out which, 
if any, could be the sword they were looking for.

	That was when the far wall exploded inward.

	Samaron was first to enter, flanked by both Brunt and Bombard, who 
were followed by Snoopjob.  Bringing up the rear were a division of 
Scarab Demons.  Samaron frowned as he saw both Ranma, who was looking 
for a place to change into his costume and a group of school children 
on a field trip, their teachers standing shock still with their 
mouths locked in surprised O shapes.

	Snoopjob began sniffing around, while Bombard aimed his right arm at 
the children and stated to Ranma, "Try anything hero and there are 
gonna be a LOT of tater tots."

	"NO!" Samaron roared as he grabbed Bombards hand and pulled it, 
along with the surprised robot, towards him.

	The dragon samurai's voice was low and dangerous as he growled, "Let 
the children leave or you will pay the consequences."

	Bombard nodded in fear.  As soon as everyone, except those in the 
Eclipse Syndicate and Ranma, left, the martial artist said, "Let me 
guess, you think the sword is here too."

	Samaron nodded once as Ranma hit his ring and became Yin Yang.  
Samaron turned his head to look at the Scarab Demons and nodded again.
  The beetle creatures charged the hero and the fight got underway.

	While the battle raged between Yin Yang and the Scarabs, Snoopjob 
was busy ripping the sword display case apart and showing each of the 
weapons to Samaron one at a time.

	Each time, Samaron would hold it, give a grunt of dissatisfaction 
and throw it away.  Brunt leaned towards her robotic partner and 
asked, "What do you think it will look like?"

	Bombard snorted and replied, "If I know my magic swords, it'll 
probably be some rusty piece of junk that no one would ever suspe...
"

	"AT LAST!"

	The cry from Samaron brought the attention of the two liutenents and 
both of them gasped as they saw the sword that Snoopjob held up for 
the member of the Inner Four to judge.  It was a beautiful and 
elegant weapon, with a gold handle, which was encrusted with rubies 
and diamonds.  The blade was a gleaming silver, reflecting the sun 
light coming in the hole in the wall and looking as if it had been 
forged only days ago.

	As soon as she had her voice back, Brunt asked, "Are you sure that's 
it?"

	"Yes," Samaron replied, "I can feel its sleeping power."

	Samaron then held up the mystic weapon to Brunts face and continued, 
"Besides, look."

	Indented onto the base of the blade, in small letters, were the 
words, <Property of King Arthur.>

	Yin Yang finished off the last of the Scarabs with a sweeping 
roundhouse kick and turned to face the more powerful of his opponents.
  He gathered his ki and confidence, cupped his hands and aimed them 
at his opponents and cried, "MOKO TAKABISHIA!"

	Snoopjob howled as the blast hit him and he fell to the ground, 
where the flesh parts of him dissolved into green goo, which quickly 
evaporated while the mechanical parts caught on fire and burned to 
ash.

	Yin Yang saw the sword in Samarons hands and said, "You know I'm not 
gonna let you leave with that sword."

	"You can not stop me," Samaron replied, "besides, the day of our 
great battle is not upon us.  Bombard."

	"Yes sir," the missile covered robot said as he aimed his arms up at 
the ceiling and fired a single missile from each wrist port.  The 
projectiles exploded against the ceiling and brought it down on Yin 
Yang as he dove for cover.  He managed to dive out of the room, but 
when the collapsing stopped and he went back in, the Eclipse 
Syndicate warriors were gone.  Yin Yang slammed his right fist 
against the door frame and cursed as he thought, "It's times like 
this I wish we weren't the only team on earth who don't have 
communicators!"

TO BE CONTINUED....