Hello folks. :)

	WHAT'S UP WITH THIS FIC:
	I like The Matrix, I like Ranma, they can play nice together... why
not? ;)

	Actually, I've been thinking about this one for a while.  No, it's
not a retelling of The Matrix movie with a new cast (although some scenes
will be remarkably similar :P ).  I'm not sure if this is a crossover,
actually... I think it's more of a fusion.

	I'm not going to go into the plot.  There is one (I've learned my
lesson about writing teasers w/o the plot written BEFOREHAND), but I'm not
going to give it away here.  I'm hoping it will throw some new twists into
things, though. :)

	Anyway, C&C is very much welcome, so fire away!  Thanks!

	Brian Payne
	sofaspud@ior.com
	brianp@nhspokane.com
	
	(this space intentionally left blank)
	http://www.ior.com/~sofaspud
	
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Chapter One
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    Hikaru Gosunkugi winced as his moped crashed through a 
particularly large pothole, rattling the expensive camera tucked
into his pack.  He didn't slack off on the throttle, though,
and the little machines insistent buzz echoed off the quiet 
buildings along the narrow street.  The radio scanner clipped
to his belt chirped noisily into his ear from time to time as he
negotiated the narrow concrete canyon.
    The police call had sounded innocent- a routine pickup and
hold of a suspect- but something bugged him about it.  The 
dispatchers voice seemed too tense, maybe... or the sheer number
of units directed to respond, perhaps....
    He shook his head.  No sense worrying about it until he got
there.
    Besides, they always needed more pictures.



    The door crashed open, slamming against the wall and 
rebounding almost into the face of the police officer that had
kicked it in.  He ignored it as he leapt into the room, gun 
drawn, to land in a semi-crouch.  Five of his buddies crashed
through the door behind him.  All of them leveled their weapons
at the back of the young girl seated before a desk with a laptop
computer open on it, providing the only light in the otherwise
bare room.
    "Hands up!  Don't move!"
    Aren't those orders self-defeating? thought Shampoo wryly
as she slowly raised her hands above her head.
    "Stand up!"
    She stood.
    "Don't move," the police officer warned again as he 
holstered his weapon and, after receiving a nod from his 
partners, approached the girl.  The other officers spread out a 
bit more to keep a clear line of fire.
    Shampoo waited, calmly.  She could almost taste the 
nervousness emanating from the officer approaching her from 
behind.  She heard the ring of metal on leather - handcuffs,
she surmised - followed by a hand grabbing her wrist.
    Time to go to work, she thought, and sprang into action.
    The officer behind her was the first to die, the cartilage
in his nose shoved knifelike into his brain.  Shampoo grabbed
his shirt before he could fall and used him as a shield as the
other officers opened fire.  The chair she'd been sitting in 
flew through the air in response to her kick, disarming another
officer, and she drew the gun of the one who she'd killed first.
The world slowed to a crawl around her as she shifted into high
gear.  It was as if she had all the time in the world to jump,
drawing her legs up under her in perfect form, and lash out with
a flying snap kick that sent another officer out the door and 
through the boarded-up window directly across the hall.



    "I'm telling you, my men can handle it.  What can one little
girl do, anyway?"
    The agent sighed.  It was a purely human mannerism,
to be sure, but it seemed to help on those occasions when he 
couldn't simply dismember the human annoying him.  Like now.  
Stupid *human*, he thought disgustedly, twisting the word into
an insult in his mind.
    "Your men are already dead, captain.  We told you to wait
until we arrived."
    "What do you mean, my men are already--"
    The crash of a body tumbling through a window far above 
broke off his sentence.  The captain stared in shock as the body
twisted in midair, then slammed to a brutal stop on top of a 
squad car.  The scream that had barely started to register
in his ears choked off.
    The agent turned to the captain once more, his face a mask
of innocence.  "We'll take it from here, captain."
    All three of the agents looked at each other for a moment,
then turned and walked into the condemned hotel.  Captain Thorpe
glared after them, then looked at the body of his man again.
    "Goddamn that girl," he growled, then turned to his second.
"I don't care what those feds say.  Take a squad and nail that
bitch.  I'll take a couple men around to the back just so she 
can't get out that way.  Move."
    "You got it."



    Shampoo ducked under a wild swing, then planted her fist 
forearm-deep in the cops belly.  He whuffed and fell back, 
gasping.  She blacked his lights with a swift kick, then 
straightened up and looked around.
    Bullet holes lined the walls.  Three of the original six 
officers were dead, two were lying unconscious on the floor,
and the last was - oh, the window was broken out.  He was 
probably dead too, then.
    Shampoo sighed and relaxed from her fighting stance.  She 
hated killing, but the simple fact was she was more important
than they were, at least for now.  She discarded the gun she 
still held, eyeing the weapon with faint disgust.  She hated
guns, but sometimes they were necessary.
    Time to go, she thought, and ducked out the door.  As she 
turned to face the stairs, she froze.
    A man in a black suit and tie, wearing sunglasses and with
a small earplug in one ear, had appeared at the top of the 
stairs.  He looked at her, and there was nothing human in his 
expression.
    "Aiya..." Shampoo breathed, then turned and ran the other
way.  I did NOT need this, she thought desperately as the agent
lumbered into a run behind her.  Fast as she was, she could 
still tell from the echoes that her pursuer was gaining 
steadily.



    Gosunkugi hated being afraid of heights.  They were often
the only way to get the best pictures, though, and so he braved
them.  But it still didn't make him like it when the only way to
get the shot he wanted required him to peer over the edge of a 
building.
    Like now.
    Gosunkugi desperately clung to the fragment of railing
with one hand as his upper torso projected past the edge.  Blue
lights flashed incessantly, illuminating his pale face every
few seconds.  He had no worries about being seen; even if the 
cops below were to look up at his position, the gunshots he'd
heard indicated, to him at least, that they had much better
things to do than worry about a nosy photographer.
    His shoes scrabbled uselessly against the roof, and he tried
to ignore the wind that seemed to want to pick him up and toss
him to his death.  He almost had the shot... just a few seconds
more....
    A loud crash from behind almost made him lose his grip, and
with it, his life.  He pushed himself back onto the roof, rising
to his knees and panting with reaction to the sudden terror.
Footsteps running made him glance up.
    "Shampoo?" he murmured, watching the Amazon fly across the
roof like the devil himself was after her.  A moment later,
a man in black appeared, pounding after the fleeing girl.  
Gosunkugi started to say something, then thought better of it.
That guy looked mean!
    So he waited... and watched.



    Shampoo didn't notice the pale boy as she ran by him, not 
more than ten feet away.  Even if she had, she wouldn't have 
cared.  As her foot touched the edge of the roof, she shifted
her weight, reached deep inside like she'd been taught since
she was a child, flicked her ankle, and flew.
    She landed on the roof of the building across the street,
some hundred feet or so away.
    Without a pause, the agent followed.  Shampoo rolled to her
feet and resumed running as the man in black landed, one knee
coming down to crack the roof as he did so.  He rose and drew
a large gun from a shoulder holster inside his jacket, then 
strode purposefully off after the girl, who had disappeared
from sight amongst the turbine ventilators, blacked-over
skylights, and air conditioners that dotted the asphalt roof.



    Gosunkugi desperately slid down the fire escape.  His normal
fear of heights was on hold, held back by the thrill of the 
chase.  He hated not being able to jump like those two had, but
he couldn't, and so he followed as best he could on the ground.
He wasn't too impressed with Shampoo's jump - after all, he'd
seen Ranma and that weird boy with the bandannas do the same 
thing.  But he'd never seen someone as large as the guy in the
suit do that.  And he couldn't understand why Shampoo was 
running instead of beating the tar out of him.
    And if something happened to Shampoo....
    Gosunkugi counted the rivals for Ranma's hand as allies.
After all, if they hadn't been around, Ranma and Akane would
have been married.  If one of those rivals were lost, then he'd
stand a much worse chance with the goddess than he did now!  He
couldn't let that happen.
    He tried to ignore the fact that he didn't have the 
slightest clue what he could do to help.



    Shampoo ducked around the corner, panting.  She had to rest
for a moment.  She couldn't hear the agent following her 
anymore, but she knew he couldn't be THAT far behind.  She 
needed an exit.
    It was at times like these that she thanked that blind idiot
Mousse.  He was always hitting on her and proclaiming his love
- which got annoying - but even she had to admit that no one was
better than Mousse at carrying things without seeming to.  While
being taught the secrets of Hidden Weapons by him had required
a lot of patience, the result was well worth it.
    A quick flick of the wrist, a bit of concentration,
and a cellphone dropped into her hand, apparently from a sleeve
far too small to have concealed it.
    In actuality, the sleeve *was* too small, but she had 
learned long ago that it was best not to worry about things
like that.
    She dialed quickly, then waited.
    "Operator," came the somewhat tinny voice from the phone.
    "Shampoo need exit.   Fast."  She winced.  She hated the way
she sounded when she spoke this language.
    "Right.  Hold on."  Short pause.  "Two blocks north, under
the bridge.  Better hurry."
    "Going," she said, and closed the phone.  Sighing, she made
it disappear, then took several deep breaths and began to run 
again.



    He was crossing the street towards where he'd stashed his 
moped when he nearly lost his life.
    Gosunkugi barely dodged the mammoth garbage truck as it 
slewed sideways around the corner.  He left his shoe behind,
and from where he lay in the gutter watched it get crushed
under multiple tons of machine.  The driver didn't seem to 
notice him, and the truck skidded to a halt with the headlights
illuminating a dilapidated phone booth.  From his prone position
Gosunkugi had a perfect view of a curious standoff.
    Shampoo eyed the big machine warily, then glanced at the 
booth.  I don't think I can make it, she thought in despair.
    Come on, you pitiful human, thought the agent driving the 
rig.  He revved the engine.
    The phone began to ring.  Gosunkugi eyed it nervously.
He wasn't sure what was going on here, but this was the 
strangest night of his life so far.
    Shampoo straightened her spine.  I am an Amazon; I do not 
give up, she thought.  Without sparing another glance at the 
truck, she began running, pushing herself harder than she'd ever
run before.
    "About time, worm!" said the agent, and gunned it.
    Gosunkugi remained where he was.  He wasn't about to get 
himself crushed by that truck.  Almost of it's own volition,
his hand wrenched his camera upwards, his finger stabbing
desperately at the button.  The camera began clicking and 
whirring rhythmically, snapping picture after picture of the 
scene in front of him.  As Shampoo approached the booth, and the
truck approached her, Gosunkugi closed his eyes.  He didn't
want to see the carnage as her body was smashed by the 
monolithic vehicle, not in person, not like this.
    An earsplitting crash and the scream of tortured metal and
glass rocked his hearing.  When the noise had abated, Gosunkugi
wearily rose to his feet and limped away, into the night.

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End Chapter One
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