Well, here it is, the first chapter of my first fanfic.  I'm submitting
it for C&C hoping to get a lot of feedback.  I want to say thanks to
everyone who answered my question about posting regulations.  At first
I was just going to cut and paste into my mailer and send it off, but I
wasn't sure about column widths, that's why I asked.  

Anyhow, I'm truly a hardcore Ranma fan, but I did Patlabor since I've
really only seen one Patlabor fic on the ML (and this way there's less
chance of comparison with all of the great writers on the FFML :P ).  I
know much more about the Ranmaverse than I do about the Patlabor
universe, but I think I got the characters down and I'm hoping that the
atmosphere or mood (is tone the correct literary term?) resembles that
of the anime.

You'll notice a brief reference to Bokuto Precinct towards the end of
the chapter.  I really don't intend this be a crossover and I'm pretty
sure it won't be.  I'd like to keep the tone kind of serious and I
don't think that's possible with Miyuki, Natsumi, or Ken around
(especially Natsumi or Ken !).  I might let them in briefly, but if I
do, they won't be major characters at all.

I'm submitting the first chapter because it's all I have done so far (=
and I'd really like to get some feedback from you guys out there in
FFMLland.  So please take a long hard look at this chapter and let me
know what's good, bad, or ugly.  

I don't know anything about Japanese geography so place names are made
up.

If you want to email privately, please do so at
daniel_boegen@bubbs.biola.edu.

Enjoy !!!! *I hope*


Oh yeah... um...
First fic, no permission, don't sue, etc.



			MISGIVINGS
			A fanfic set in the Patlabor universe.


Chapter 1

	"I've really got to get this clutch fixed," thought Noa as she shifted
up into fourth gear.  She could feel the motorcycle pull at her as she
twisted the throttle to give it more gas.  She squinted and lowered her
head to block out the bright morning sun.  The cool air was penetrating
her thin jacket as she sped along, but she managed.
	"I can't believe I traded in my moped for this deathtrap," she said
out loud.  She giggled when she heard herself.  Her words were muffled
and rang in her head.  No wonder since she was wearing a helmet meaning
her ears were covered and pinned to the sides of her head.  Then, she
giggled again when she thought how silly she sounded talking to
herself.  This in turn led to another thought of how the previous two
thoughts always came to mind whenever she made an audible comment while
riding.  This, of course, sparked a long string of disjointed thoughts
that, when finally concluded, always left her thinking, "Sheesh, how
the heck did I end up thinking about this?"
	"I think I'm gonna try to get my scooter back," she said out loud and
grinned yet again as she set off another long string of disjointed
thoughts.
	Noa let off on the gas and began to slow down as she approached the
gate to the SV2 compound.  She pulled over and stopped to watch as the
First Unit rolled past her.  All three of their Labors were being
dispatched so she assumed it must have been a pretty serious call.
	Noa could feel the fingers on her left hand begin to ache.  She
realized that she was holding in the clutch on her motorcycle. It was
way too stiff, so she shifted into neutral and let the clutch out. 
This way she could idle in comfort as the massive Labor transport
trailers rumbled past her.  Noa never let an opportunity slip by that
had to do with watching Labors, even if they were flat on their back
loaded on a trailer.  She waved to the crew of the First Unit and
silently wished them luck.  Each driver took a turn to wave at Noa as
they passed before fixing their eyes firmly on the road before them. 
The friendly rivalry between the First and Second Units basically
passed over Officer Noa Izumi.
	Everybody loved Noa.  Her childlike infatuation for the giant robots
was almost infectious.  The fact that she named her Labor "Alphonse"
and was overly protective of "him" spoke volumes about her heart. 
Everyone at the SV2, First and Second Unit alike, knew that she
genuinely loved her work and would always do her best in any given
situation.
	Noa watched as the huge trailers exited the compound.  The command
cars that the Backups drove seemed like toy cars next to the large
transports.
	"I can't believe Asuma rides around in one of those little things when
we're on a dispatch, " she thought, "I feel much safer in Alphonse." 
She warmed at the thought of her own Labor resting in the hangar.
	Noa continued to wave until the convoy was out of sight.
	She could feel the rumble of the motorcycle beneath her.  It was much
less violent than the tremors caused by the Labor transports.  She
gripped the clutch, wincing as she squeezed it, and shifted into first.
 Her sore fingers couldn't hold the clutch and she popped into first
gear, lifting the front tire off the ground as she sped toward the
hangar.
	"AAAAHHHH!!!!!!," she shrieked as she started to panic.  The front
tire finally touched down and she skidded to halt exactly where she
normally parked her bike.  Her legs felt like jelly, but she put the
kickstand down, turned off the motor and hung her head in relief.  Her
heart was pounding and she could feel a cold sweat break out under her
shirt and helmet.
	"I really gotta try and get my scooter back," she thought.

					**********

	Asuma hands took in the heat from the coffee mug he was holding.  It
felt good on a chilly morning to have a portable heat dispenser.  He
took a drink and let his insides warm as well.
	Asuma was standing on the balcony outside the Captain's office.  He
looked down from his second floor perch and watched as Noa parked her
motorcycle in the usual spot, clueless as to why she was just sitting
there with her head sunk between her shoulders.  Finally, she removed
her helmet and slid off the bike.
	She leaned against it, felt the warm motor through her pants, and let
out a deep breath.
	"Baka!," yelled out Asuma, "Hurry and get up here, Captain Gotoh's
called a special meeting!"  Asuma turned around and walked into the
Captain's office joining the rest of the Second Unit.
	Noa jumped at the sudden sound.  She was too lost in her thoughts to
notice Asuma standing up there.  Her surprise quickly turned to anger. 
Being startled and insulted at the same time was a little too much in
the morning, especially since she had almost just crashed her
motorcycle.  She was about to yell back at him, but he spun on his heel
and was out of sight before she could think of anything to say.  She
let her blood boil for a second before registering what Asuma had said.
	"Ack!," she spouted, "A special meeting?  For what?"  She ran up the
stairs toting her helmet and keys, her backpack bouncing against her
back in time to her hurried steps.

					**********

	Captain Gotoh was as expressionless as ever as Noa sat down in the one
remaining empty chair.  He cleared his throat, signalling the beginning
of the meeting.  At the sound, everybody's head simultaneously turned
toward Gotoh.
	Otah, however, beat Gotoh to the punch.
	"What's this meeting about, Captain?" grumbled Otah.  Consequently,
everybody's head simultaneously turned toward Otah.  Otah's tone wasn't
menacing.  It was just the way that Otah talked and everybody knew it. 
They were all quite accustomed to his gruff ways and rough speech.
	"I was just getting to that," said Gotoh as everybody's heads
simultaneously returned to the Captain.
	"The First Unit has just been dispatched to a construction site near
Tsukima Bay," explained Gotoh, "It seems that someone got hold of a
startup disk and used a Labor to, well... "dismantle" the building
under construction.  The project's development has been severely
hampered by this event and the higher-ups at Hitoshida Enterprises
aren't very happy."
	Gotoh continued, "The Labor's only a Half-Stack (author's creation - a
smaller, general-purpose construction labor).  Shinobu took her squad
down and so we're on standby should they need backup or in case any
other calls come in while they're gone."
	Noa kicked Asuma under the table.
	"Ouch!" cried Asuma, shooting a look at Noa and then the others in the
room.  They all paused and looked at Asuma, not really expecting an
answer.  They noticed his facial expression resembled pain mixed with
nervousness and embarrassment and concluded that it wasn't worth asking
about.
	Noa thought, "I can't believe Asuma scared me for this!  Big Deal!
This ain't no Special Meeting!"
	Hiromi was thinking the same thing and asked, "Uh.. Captain?  Why did
you call this meeting just to tell us this?  This kind of stuff happens
all the time.  And why did the First Unit take all three of their
Labors just for a Half-Stack?"
	Noa leered at Asuma as she mentally agreed with Hiromi, "I almost had
a heart attack for this?!?"
	"Good question, Hiromi, " answered Gotoh, "What makes this time
different is that the person inside the Labor claims to belong to Beach
House."
	At this, Otah let out an audible screech.  "What?!?!  Those bums
again?!?  Why didn't you let us take this call?!?  We could've captured
him for interrogation!  We could've..."
	"That's exactly why I let Shinobu take this call, " cut in Gotoh, "If,
in fact, this person is a member of Beach House, we want to take him by
the book.  The last thing we need is him getting off on a technicality."
	"What's that supposed to mean?!!, " Otah said defensively.
	Everyone shuddered as they imagined Otah's usual "delicate" police
technique.
	Gotoh continued, "I also called this meeting because if this guy is
Beach House, then it's possible that there may be more instances like
this one.  We all know Beach House has an agenda so a single attack
isn't really their style.  I just want you guys to be alert, that's
all."

					**********

	Noa followed Asuma out of the office and smiled inwardly at the fact
that he was now limping.  
	"Hmpf," she thought, "Serves him right!"
	Everyone finally retired to the staff room where they were enjoying
the snacks that Shinshi's wife had sent along.
	"You sure are tied to your wife's apron strings, Shinshi!" said Otah
lifting a large pastry to his mouth.  He felt his teeth clamp down on,
well... his own teeth.  Opening his eyes, he saw Shinshi's face about 2
centimeters from his own.  Shinshi was holding the pastry that Otah was
about to enjoy.
	"You probably won't be wanting to eat this, right, Otah?" sneered
Shinshi.  Otah saw all hopes of eating fade quickly away as he realized
it was not wise to insult the bearer of breakfast.
	Asuma addressed no one in particular, "So, do you really think that
this attack is Beach House related?"
	"Of course, those idiots don't know when to quit!" piped Otah.
	"Captain Gotoh seems to think so," said Noa.
	"Yeah, I guess all we can do is keep an eye out," added Hiromi.
	Just then, Shige popped into the office and called Noa over, "Noa,
come here."
	"What is it, Shige?" asked Noa walking over to where Shige was
standing.
	"Well, I need your help with something," replied Shige, "I was going
over the specs on the factory operating system for the Ingram and
noticed that the default servo parameters were kind of low.  I
recalibrated the output envelopes and entered the new specs into
Alphonse's OS."
	"Oh really? Thank you!" said Noa, not really understanding too much of
what she just heard.  She didn't like people toying with her Alphonse,
but Shige was a pretty trustworthy soul and usually had Alphonse's best
interests in mind.
	"If the new parameters work, then we can reset all the Ingrams and
probably get more power and better response time all around," explained
Shige, "Could you come down and help me test new settings? It shouldn't
take more than an hour."
	"OK!!" chirped Noa.  Any chance to get into Alphonse was a welcome
one.  She was out the door and flying down the steps before Shige could
say anything more.
	"Uh...," said Shige.  He blinked at the empty space in which Noa was
standing only two seconds ago.
	"Wait for me!" called out Shige as he turned to leave the office and
head down the stairs himself.

					**********

	Noa stood in front of Alphonse with her hands on her hips.  She was
smiling warmly, her head tilted back looking up at Alphonse's gleaming
metal body.  She took pride in the fact that he was the best maintained
Labor in the hangar.  She cleaned him on a routine basis and kept him
in excellent condition.  The only drawback was that she didn't really
know how to work on anything besides his exterior.  When it came to
electronics and mechanical stuff, she was at a loss.  It was because of
this that there was a kind of silent agreement between her and the
Maintenance Squad.  She would keep Alphonse in the best looking
condition possible if the Maintenance Squad would keep him in the best
working condition possible.
	"Are you ready, Noa?" asked Shige.  He was breathing heavy from
running down the stairs after her.
	"Anytime you are, " replied Noa, grinning wide.
	"OK, Go ahead and climb in, but don't start him up until I give you
the signal," said Shige, "I need to get the diagnostic computer linked
before we do anything."
	"Oh, and don't worry about getting suited up," continued Shige, "This
won't be complicated or dangerous and we won't be leaving the hangar so
I'll just yell out what I need you to do or type the commands directly
into Alphonse's HUD (Head's - Up Display)"
	"OK," said Noa as she climbed into Alphonse's open cockpit.  Noa
settled into the seat and smiled.  Getting into Alphonse was like
climbing into bed.  She felt totally comfortable and secure. 
Everything was familiar and it felt like home.  She grabbed the
controls and started to pretend she was piloting the Ingram.  Her
actions were overly dramatic much like a small child pretending to be
driving the family car.
	Shige was busy setting the encryption code to match Alphonse' on board
transmitter.  He was happy he talked Sakaki into purchasing the new
testing equipment.  He knew it would be tough since the Old Man was
pretty leery about "all that computerized stuff."  With the new setup,
Shige could uplink the diagnostic computer with any of the SV2's Labors
via an encrypted digital wireless comline.  Information could be passed
from the Labor to the computer and vice versa without any cumbersome
external attachments.  He was dumbfounded at how anybody could do it
the old way; just guessing by visuals or physically plugging in
connections to the Labor's on board computer.
	"Sheesh," he thought, "How could anybody work like that!?!"
	The diagnostic computer beeped to confirm a successful match with
Alphonse's unique encryption code.
	"OK," he yelled at Noa, "Go ahead and start him up!"
	Noa was engrossed in her mock piloting and jumped at Shige's command.
	"Uh, O.K.," Noa said.
	She blushed slightly in embarrassment while sliding the startup disk
into place.  Several monitors began to light up and various motors and
servos began to hum.  She scanned the cockpit and mentally ran through
the all too familiar start up checklist.  The center monitor flashed
the Shinohara Heavy Industries logo while booting.  Seconds later,
Alphonse was ready to go.
	"...A..R..E...Y..O..U......R..E..A..D..Y....?" Noa read Shige's
question as he typed it into Alphonse's HUD.  Noa grinned as she struck
a dramatic pose with Alphonse' right hand on his hip and his left arm
extended with the thumbs up signal.
	"Sheesh," thought Shige, "She could have just said 'yes'."

					**********


	"Thanks, Noa," said Shige as he finished saving the data he had just
collected onto a disk, "Sorry it took so long.  I really didn't think
it would take two and a half hours."
	"No problem," answered Noa smiling.  Asking her if she was SURE she
wanted to continue piloting Alphonse was like asking her if she was
SURE she didn't mind free ice cream or pizza or a million dollars.
	"Besides, there's not much else to do around here today," said Noa.
	Noa maneuvered Alphonse back into his stall and shut him down.  Both
Shige and Noa mentally acknowledged the newfound silence in the hangar.
 It was easy to block out the mechanical noise of an AV-98 Ingram, but
as soon as you shut one down, you realized how loud they really were.  
	"Good night, Alphonse," Noa cooed, "Sleep well."  Noa opened the
cockpit and ejected the startup disk.  She clambered back down to
ground level and rubbed Alphonse's leg affectionately.  She walked over
to Shige and handed him the disk.
	"Did you get everything you needed?" she asked watching him pound away
on the portable computer's keyboard.
	"Oh, definitely," answered Shige, "Didn't Alphonse feel different?"
	"Yeah, I almost lost my balance right off the bat, I didn't expect his
reaction time to be so quick," supplied Noa.
	"That's exactly what I expected," said Shige looking up and towards
the open hangar door, "He should also have more speed and power all
around, but we can check those another time... it looks like the First
Unit's back from their call."
	Noa turned to watch as the First Unit rolled into the hangar.  She
felt the familiar rumble of the transport trailers as they made their
way back into the hangar.  Shige was scurrying about getting ready
since the First Unit's Labors would need immediate inspections and
possibly maintenance.  The hangar started to come to life as the
Maintenance crew began to help unload the Labors and prepare them for
servicing.  Noa watched the methodical madness for a few seconds and
then made her way back up to the staff office.  

					************

	Asuma was in Gotoh's office when Captain Nagumo entered.  He stopped
speaking and he and Gotoh turned as she walked through the door.
	"Don't stop on my account," she said.  She began unloading an attache
case full of clipboards and papers and started sorting them out on her
desk.
	"No, no... it was nothing important," said Gotoh throwing a quick
glance at Asuma, "So how did the dispatch go?"
	"It was really uneventful," said Nagumo, "as soon as the perp saw us
coming, he powered down his Labor and waited for us to come and arrest
him."  She focused in on a yellow legal pad and flipped back and forth
between the first and second pages.
	"You're kidding," said Asuma.
	Shinobu looked dryly at Asuma and said, "Why ask me a question if
you're not going to believe the answer?"
	"Umm...," was all Asuma could manage to come up with.
	Gotoh came to the rescue with, "So, he didn't put up a fight or
anything?"
	"Nope," answered Shinobu.  She tore off the first page of the legal
pad, crumpled it up and threw it in the trashcan.
	"Hmmm, well, was he Beach House?" continued Gotoh.
	"Yeah, said he was sick of Hitoshida Enterprises' blatant disregard
for the environment, etc. etc.," said Shinobu.
	"So where is he now?" asked Gotoh.  He watched as Shinobu stacked the
clipboards on top of one another, laid the loose papers next the newly
formed pile, and put the legal pad into the top drawer of her desk.
	"We turned him over to Bokuto Precinct since it was their
jurisdiction," answered Shinobu, "They're questioning him right now."
	"I see, well I'm glad for you that he didn't put up a fight," said
Gotoh smiling slyly at Shinobu.
	Unfazed, she replied, "Yeah, the only reason it took us so long to
wrap things up was the paperwork.  I spent more time filling out forms
for the Bokuto guys than I did cuffing the criminal."
	Gotoh's brow furrowed.  Shinobu unbuckled her shoulder holster, took
it off and laid it on the desk.
	"Really?  I thought you were trying to fight off the reporters at the
scene," asked Gotoh.  His interest becoming more sincere.
	"Not at all, I didn't see one cameraman or anything," answered
Shinobu.  Her voice trailed off as she rounded the corner in the
office, "I never realized how tiny those Half-Stacks were....."
	Gotoh leveled a serious gaze at Asuma who had remained silent for the
entire interchange.  Being humbled by Captain Nagumo had a quieting
effect on people.
	"Beach House was involved?  And no reporters at the scene?"  mused
Gotoh out loud.
	Asuma shrugged his shoulders and looked inquisitively at Gotoh, there
wasn't much else he could think of to do.

End Chapter 1



Wow, I'm amazed out how easily this came out.  It really flowed nicely
and I struggled mostly with sentence structure, not development. 
That's a real surprise because I only have a vague notion of where this
fic is going.  It is only now solidifying in my mind, but I started
this chapter just writing trying to set the tone.  I hope that this
doesn't mean that it basically sucks and I've been blabbing for pages.

So....what did you think?  I know that it probably is starting out a
little slow... sorry.  I really wanted to try and blend the mood of the
movies, which are very dramatic and serious and the series, which is
more lighthearted.  My vision for the plot is something intricate with
lots of, well... you know... and twists and stuff.  I don't want to
give too much away.  This chapter was really just setup, as if you
couldn't tell.  Chapters 2 and on will get right into the plot and
character development.

As mentioned above, this is my first fic and I'd really appreciate any
and all C&C.

I hope you liked it...

danielsan


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"I am insane, and you are my insanity."  James Cole (Bruce Willis)  
...12 Monkeys (the only non-dubbed/subbed movie I own in a video
collection of over 110 tapes.
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