Series:    La Femme Ranma
Chapter:   #6 "The Way I Feel About You"
Author:    Akraen (S. Metcalf)
Email:     akraen@hotmail.com
Website:   http://www.akraen.com
Category:  Ranma x-over with La Femme Nikita (+ cameos)

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"Saotome."

"Nabiki."

And with that short emotionless exchange, the two newest
recruits continued on in their paths without any further
notice being given to one another.

"I've never seen him act like this before," Nikita commented
to Walter and Birkoff as the three witnessed yet another
meeting between the teens. The two former Nerimians had been
acting decidedly cold to one another since Nabiki's arrival,
and it was slowly bleeding off into how they reacted to
others as well.

Ranma's behavior had turned emotionless to the extreme,
even giving Michael an uneasy feeling. But if Ranma's
personality had changed enough to scare people, it was
nothing when compared to the behavioral pattern that was
starting to show from the Tendo girl.

"I know what you mean, darling. This is like watching a
second generation of Michael and Madeline," said section's
resident technical genius.

Nikita allowed her worried gaze to switch from the departing
teens to that of her father figure and silently nodded.

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

Nabiki jerked, startled by the feel of someone leaning upon
her shoulder to overlook her work. "Yes, Nikita? Did you
need something..?" she asked coldly. She was still annoyed
at how the blond op had managed to fool her into thinking
her nothing more than a teacher for a whole month.

Nikita seemed to ignore her in favor of perusing what was
on the terminal screen. "The Fairchild Kidnapping? What were
they thinking when they assigned that to you.. such a waste
of talent."

Nabiki stared back at her in silence. Even though she agreed
she did not say it aloud. Such comments were dangerous here.

"Tell you what.. look over these pre-mission briefs and see
if you can spot the discrepancy in one of them. You have my
authorization to use whatever resources necessary to show
why the mission was changed." Nikita handed over a group of
the mission briefs and then said, "I'll go find you
something more suitable to your skills, but I do expect that
assignment done before my return."

Nabiki stared down at the huge pile with grim determination.

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

Nabiki stared at the holographic display of Operations
briefing the team. It was the last of the briefs she had
been handed, (Naturally!), and to call it a discrepancy was
giving it an extreme understatement.

She was currently staring at a briefing in which Section was
supposed to capture a target for interrogation. She had been
in Section long enough to know what the standard procedure
was for treatment of prisoners afterwards.

Which made the fact that the target was not only alive and
well, an agent of Section no less, quite a large breach of
protocol indeed.

What made the whole situation even more intriguing was the
identity of the mission target. Staring at her was an exact
duplicate image of herself.

'What is going on here..' she thought to herself in shock as
she numbly witnessed what should have been the eventual end
of her life after a horrific torture period of interrogation
by the 'twin sadists' as the pair were called by the agents.

Nabiki pulled herself out of her shock and back to the task
at hand. 'Nikita did say that I could use any resource..'
she thought with a calculating smirk. Nabiki's fingers sped
as she began trying to pull up the security footage from the
day of that briefing.

Finally, she witnessed the briefing taking place. Nothing
unusual occured during the brief itself. Her attention was
alerted at the end, however, when she watched Ranma being
called into Operations' office.

Nabiki stopped cold at this. Nikita had said all resources
were to be used.. but this was Operations' private area. If
she broke into that and was caught at it...

It was a tough decision to make.. but she decided that this
was worth the risk. 'Besides.. I do have authority..' she
smirked slightly before she began frantically typing away.
She may be daring.. but there was no way she was going to
tap into that feed without having first making it impossible
to trace back.

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

After a lot of hard work preparing for her invasion into the
security camera records, and the final risk of actually
tapping into the records, she was finally rewarded with the
video/audio log of the meeting between Ranma and Operations.

She waited anxiously as she saw the two walk in and seat
themselves on opposite sides of Operations' desk.

-=-
"Did something about the briefing bother you?" Operations
asked grimly.

Ranma stiffly replied, "I can't follow mission guidelines on
this one, sir."

Operations paused to stare at Ranma, who began to shift
about in his seat. Finally Operations stated, "Ranma, we
cannot have our agents dictating what they will or will not
do. Regardless of your feelings on betraying this girl it
has to be done. I will accept no refusal on this matter."

Ranma seemed to shake for a moment. "I'm not trying to
dictate to you and I know my duty, sir. I might not like it
but I'll do it.. but this goes beyond that.." Ranma's fists
clenched together as he broke off.

Finally he resumed speaking, ".. The girl that you want me
to get close to.. I already am.. sort of.. She almost became
my sister-in-law."

The room was silent for a few minutes. Finally, Operations
replied, "Well.. this could indeed complicate matters.."

Operations looked at Ranma for a few long moments. He sighed
once then ordered, "Alright. You're off the mission. I'll
tell the team to terminate her due to the security risk.
Thank you for alerting me to this matter, Ranma. You may
return to your duties now."

Ranma seemed to hesitate for a moment before he stiffly
nodded in return and walked to the door. Just before
openning it he called out, "Sir..?"

"Yes? What is it now?" Operations queried.

"Nabiki.. she's all of those things you mentioned in your
briefing.. but she's not evil.. her family needed the money.
Sir, I'll vouch for her.. she did not know whose money she
was taking.." Ranma seemed at a loss of further words for
the moment.

"Yes, well I'll be sure to take that under advisement." was
all Operations said in return before returning to his work
as if dismissing both the matter and Ranma.

About a minute later Operations looked up again with a hard
look in his eyes. "Let me make something clear to you,
Ranma. We are not in the business of making friends. This
girl is a mission parameter that cannot be overlooked just
because she may have been helping her family."

Operations continued to hold his cold stare as he bit out,
"Now.. I suggest you return to your duties and forget that
we have had this conversation. You are dismissed, Ranma."

Ranma nodded and turned back around toward the door. Rather
than leaving the office, however, he spoke to the door as
if in observation, "The account she hacked into was setup by
Birkoff and Danvers.. I used to think all of those security
layers either created was impossible to get into separately.
I wonder how many people could have gotten into a system
created by both of them. I'd imagine that anyone who could
do it without even any professional backing would be a great
asset to whichever organization procurred their services.."

Operations' glare became full of steel as he used his
communicator, "Madeline? Is there still space in the ladies
sexpionage class? .. Thank you. I don't think it will prove
necessary but please keep it that way." Finally he replied
to Ranma, "I have so far handled you very gently since your
results speak for themselves. Do not make me rescind my
kindness. You are here to take orders and nothing more.
Tread very carefully, Ranma or your next order will be
something you find very.. distasteful... Goodbye, Ranma."
-=-

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

Nikita was talking with Walter and was suddenly startled as
something landed in her lap. She turned around and saw
Nabiki standing there with an angry scowl marking her face.

"It didn't work. Even if he did save my life it doesn't
excuse what that asshole did. He used me.. he was a friend
and friends don't pretend to love someone and use their love
to destroy them. I don't care what you say or what you show
me.. nothing is going to change things. I still want to kill
that jerk!"

Walter stared after the girl as she stormed off. "And what
was that all about?" he asked in shock.

"I had her find the original mission briefing regarding her
capture." Nikita replied as she stared at the report Nabiki
had given as to why she was still alive.

Walter whistled in shock as he read over her shoulder. "That
was an incredibly dangerous thing to do, sugar."

Nikita continued to read through the report as she nodded in
return. "My god.. Ranma really pushed this.." she stated in
awe as she read verbatim what he had done.

Walter's face looked much older than it usually did as he
too understood the risk that had been taken. "This is almost
unbelievable.. why did he push Operations so hard.. if it
had been anyone else they would have been cancelled for
this.. Jesus.. Nikita, how did you know Ranma had done this
for her?!"

"I didn't."

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"The next fourty-eight hours will be critical, ladies and
gentlemen. Red Cell has reared its ugly head again..."
Operations paused his oration as the holographic projection
of five faces appeared. "These five men are rumorred to have
created a chemical action bomb set to release its gasses in
a major city. Projected death rates if this device should go
off are listed in the millions."

A hush settled over the room as the information registerred
in their minds. "Intelligence sources have verified the
authenticity of the original report, unfortunately that
information was not received until after each of these men
had split up and sequestered themselves within their own
personal strongholds. This leads us to our current action."

The five faces are coverred over by a zoom-in of the first
face. "Michael Winston, an expert in chemical agents. He is
rumored to have laced his compound with deadly toxin traps.
Tony, you and your team are assigned the task of taking him
out."

A look of sympathy could be seen upon the face of Nikita as
she heard the order being given to Tony. He'd been in danger
of being cancelled ever since his failure to capture Ranma a
few months past. From the sounds of his orders, his team's
time had finally came barring a miracle in the evolution.

Nikita listened in as the second and third targets were
assigned to other small teams. "The final two men are the
most important. One or both of these men knows the location
of the device, and they both must therefore be taken alive.
Michael, Nikita, you two will each lead a team of abeyance
operatives to storm their main compound where this man,
Nikolai Gastev, has taken refuge. We want that compound
taken down but your primary target is Gastev. He is to be
brought to base alive."

"The final Red Cell agent is also perhaps the most dangerous
in his own right. Whereas Gastev has taken refuge within a
heavily guarded central compound, Dmitry Kachenovskii has
hidden himself in a corporate office of a bodyguard agency.
To the best of our knowledge no one other than Dmitry has
any connection to Red Cell. However, almost all of the
personnel are highly trained former mercenaries and
intelligence operatives. The extraction of this man from
this building by a team of agents has been declared humanly
impossible by the recon teams."

Operations' gaze fixated upon Ranma at this point. "Which is
where you come in, Ranma. It is too difficult for a team to
insert, capture, and withdraw but a single agent has a slim
percentage of success according to the sims. After factoring
in your unique abilities, the percentage increased by thirty
point two, making this mission a go."

"Due to the difficulties inherrent to these missions, a
single comm operative cannot oversee every team. Therefore I
am assigning Simon, Tony's team. Gail, you will be handling
both Danvers' team and Kronley's as their missions are
expected to be relatively light. Birkoff, I am putting you
in charge of the teams led by Michael and Nikita. The action
is expected to become very intense which is why you were
pulled in during your monthly."

Nikita watched as Operations locked his attention upon
Nabiki. "Congratulations, Nabiki. You've been promoted to
comm. Being a comm is a great responsibility. You will be
the deciding factor of whether operatives fail or suceed. I
am giving you a chance to prove yourself.. you've got the
final mission comm."

Nikita stared on in shock as her mind replayed Nabiki's last
words to her.. '-=I still want to kill that jerk!=- My god..
Operations just put in charge of Ranma's survival the one
person most likely to want to end it!'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

"Oops.. sorry, Saotome. I meant right not left."

Ranma could swear that he almost 'heard' a smirk in her
voice when she said that too.

This mission had gone anything but smoothly. First there was
the air conditioning shaft that had taken him to a boardroom
full of highly trained personnel rather than the storage closet Nabiki was 
supposed to have been leading him towards.
That was quickly followed up by the two guards who had
'somehow come out of nowhere'. And now this.. 'Enough is
enough!'

"Damn it, Nabiki, that's it. I'm through listening to you. I
hope your will is prepared, because if I get it in here how
long do you think you'll be kept around after having set me
up to be killed?!"

"As if, Saotome. You know as well as I do that you're too
good to be taken down by these guys." Nabiki replied through
his comm-link.

The sound of a handgun being cocked had Ranma once again
cursing the fate that was his life.

"Well, well.. the Chameleon. I've heard a lot about you from
my friend. John swears you are some kind of top-secret black
ops creation that can change forms at will. I'd be inclined
to think he was insane if I wasn't already aware of projects
Quicksilver and Water Nymph. I suppose we'll find out for
sure which you are when you're dead.."

Dmitry began to fire at him as he dove and rolled for cover.
A bullet zinged past as he rapidly moved behind a nearby
vehicle.

The bullet ricocheted once, then a second time.. then all
was silent.

"Trevors forgot to mention that you could fight too.." the
target began to cough up blood. "Ironic.. my own bullets are
going to kill me it seems.."

"Just put the gun down. I will have a doctor take care of
you. You don't have to die here, Dmitry."

Dmitry dropped his gun to the ground. Ranma finally relaxed,
but it was too soon for such an action.

Dmitry laughed through his blood, "You've got me, I'll admit
it. But I'm not going down alone!" He pulled his shirt out
from his pants and slowly lifted it. Beneath it lay some
sort of an explosive device. "You see.. all I have to do is
press a simple button and I'll take you out with me!" he
shouted out as he revealed his trigger device. "Now.. don't
move a muscle or you will find out first-hand what it feels
like to be a dead-man walking.."

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

'Well, well, well, Saotome. Looks like you're in trouble yet
again. You really should stop making so many enemies.'

Nabiki stopped for a moment to think about the situation
occurring inside the garage beneath the office building. 'If
I let this guy kill him I'm not going to last alive for much
longer in Section. Then again.. is my life now really worth
living..?'

Finally having made her choice, Nabiki turned away from her
comm station. 'Well I did say that I wanted to kill him..'

-=- -=- -=-  - * -  -=- -=- -=-

Ranma stared coolly at the sweating man who held the control
for the explosives. He doubted that the man would follow
through on his threat to blow them both up if moved, but he
was under orders that the man was to be taken alive at all
costs. He knew in his heart that he would be able to disable
the man before any reaction could be taken.. but the orders
were specific, which meant he couldn't take such a chance.

Dmitry let off a ragged laugh, causing more blood to escape
from his lips. He knew his fate.. he'd either die now or in
a few hours. But if he was going to die it was going to be
his choice and he'd take this bastard down in the process.

"Are you ready to die, chameleon?" he snarled out through
his blood frothed lips. Even as the words left his mouth he
began to clench his finger on the explosives trigger.

Ranma stared emotionlessly at the man's body as it fell
limply to the cold ground. He looked over at the pillar and
spoke to the shadows there. "They wanted him alive, you
know."

A second shadow detached itself from the mass there. "He
was determined to die now. At least this way we will not
suffer a downtime trying to replace you."

He smirked slightly before he replied, "I suppose I should
thank you then for saving my life. It would have been a
shame on my record if someone that pathetic suceeded in
killing me."

"Don't worry, Saotome. You have no need to worry about
anyone killing you while I'm around."

Ranma raised an eyebrow as he stared speculatively back.
"I'm touched. Didn't know you cared."

A snort was the only reply before the shadow again swallowed
his rescuer up. "I'm the one you have to worry about."

- Akraen (S. Metcalf)


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