Anime Addventure : Prejudice and Fear

by tutcat

Ranma has a nice change (other options start when he gets to Jade chap 5 and 6)(all stories up for adaption)

1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any other crossover characters. They are owned by their respective owners. Not out to make any money or fame on others work.

Prejudice and Fear

by Deus_Ex_Machine

Many have speculated on whether or not Genma is actually Ranma's father. The truth is that, in some universes he is, and in some he is not. In those that he is not, sometimes he even knows it, but in a vast majority he does not as he is too stupid to figure it out. In the timeline you are about to witness, he is not Ranma's father, and though he does not know it, he does have his suspicions. His suspicions were about to be unknowingly confirmed (but whether he takes the hint or not is up to anyone who continues this thread).

Nodoka Saotome, one of the last of the were-cheetah clan, had an affair, with another were shortly before she was married. That were was killed shortly after the affair do to the internal politics of that clan of were-creatures. That were was one of the most rare were-creatures known to exist, so rare that only a few speculate about its existence, and even fewer know that it is not a myth. That were creature was a _.

When Nodoka conceived its child, there were some odd effects. Ranma (who had been locked by magic into his human form for his protection) would be able to change into any combination of the two were-creatures (i.e. able to change into the 3 forms of a were-cheetah, the 3 forms of the other were, a combination of the hybrid forms, and a combination of the fully animal forms) after the lock was removed or broken, if that ever happened.

After the wedding disaster, Ranma was depressed because everyone thought of him as a prize to be won, but using an acting ability no one would have thought him capable of, he hid that depression.

One year after the bombed wedding, nothing had gotten better, in fact it had gotten worse. Akane would mallet him rather than look at him, Shampoo was getting desperate, and therefore so was Mousse. Ryoga was trying harder than ever to kill him for hurting sweet 'Akane-san.' Ukyou kept alternating between wanting to kill him and marry because he told her that he thought of her as a sister. The Kuno's had become worse than ever, and to top it all off, he had just received word that Saffron was up and about again, more powerful than before, and wanting revenge.

Due to all the stress he was going through, it was no wonder he exploded when Saffron arrived and attacked. Depressed as he was, he just wanted to die, but something kept him from just letting himself die. It probably had something to do with the fact that Saffron said something about killing off all the landings after he got his revenge.

As Ranma fought, he was nearing the end of his limit, wanting to end it all, but also wanting to save the innocents, so it was no wonder that all the strain finally broke the lock keeping him from accessing his heritage, and he shifted forms.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Ranma weaved through and about all the wreckage. The Eastern half of Nerima had more or less been turned into a scene ripped right from a nightmare, or at least a disaster movie. Wreckage everywhere, the sound of ambulances, police sirens, and fire-trucks in the background, and there was the crimson fire. That god-awful fire everywhere, leaving the sky a complete black from all the smoke!

But still, no one noticed him, thank God. No one was willing to get close to all this fire just yet, no fireman have gotten to this area. And by sneaking on through destroyed homes, and other areas, Ranma was able to make some good distance. He couldn't face them. Not now. Not like this.

"Not as a monster..."

Ranma stopped in the house. This was one home not on fire, but the whole top floor was gone, leaving the house as just four walls. He saw a mirror and took a good look at himself and what he had become. He didn't know what he was now, but one thing was certainly clear. He was definitely no longer human.

Black and gold fur all about, with mostly black fur all over his body; his backside was covered with golden fur, spotted with black. The only thing breaking the monotony of gold and black were two white stripes of fur over his eyes as eye-stripes.

He sighed. He was definitely a cat-like creature of some sort. Though he didn't know of any that were just black and gold furred. Nor of any that had a HUGE set of incisors like he did now.

Roaring, Ranma punched the mirror, smashing it, and causing his hand to bleed... And like he had seen earlier, simple cuts and bruises like this healed rapidly on him. "It was what had saved me..."

Ranma didn't know what to make of his current situation. Earlier he had been fighting Saffron tooth and nail, and Saffron wasn't falling for any of his tricks. Saffron was just flinging fireball, after fireball at him, and creating waves of fire that engulfed building... And people...

As thoughts of those that died went through his mind, Ranma finally retracted his fist from the mirror, and consequently the wall. All those people, innocents that just had the bad luck of living in Nerima, died because Saffron was after him, and didn't care about who was in the way. Even now the scent of burnt flesh was heavy in the air.

Ranma had tried to lead Saffron away, he really did. But Saffron wasn't one to just budge. He was content blasting at Ranma while the pig-tailed fighter just ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. "I was careless..." Ranma growled.

And then things got worse. There were television and camera crews that were attracted to the scene of destruction like flies to honey, reporting on his fight, the destruction, and death tolls. "And I'm sure they're still here too..." He sighed in frustration. At least it was safer for them to be here now.

Ranma left the building. It wouldn't be safe for him soon. The fire-fighters would work their way down to this area eventually, and then he would be discovered. "And I don't want them to know I live... Then I'll be the one hunted."

Moving out of the place, Ranma kicked down the front door and looked around. Yup. Same hell on earth. Good. It'll give him some cover so he can move around still.

And so, Ranma stuck to alleyways that he could get through, and taking short-cuts through evacuated houses when he had to. The thoughts of families that have lost their homes cuts deep into Ranma's conscience, making him feel like the biggest heel. He had not meant to get Saffron to literally destroy half the district. He was trying to take care of the angry god of Phoenix Mountain. "For all the good that that did..."

Ranma shook his head as he continued to weave about the ruined half of the city. He wasn't sure how it happened when it did. One moment, Ranma himself was burning, and then... This transformation. Ranma still wasn't sure what he was. For all he knew, he was some sort of cat-like monster... "And it was that thought that sent me over the edge... For a bit..."

When he had changed, Ranma knew it was over. He literally felt his mind 'snap'. He could feel as he slide into Neko-Ken, then animal instincts taking over. The only difference this time, was that his 'human' mind was still awake while the feral instincts had taken over. Like a wild-cat, he leapt at Saffron, shrugging off blow after blow of fire.

Ranma had to stop and compose himself. He felt like retching. He still had that horrible, irony taste in his mouth. He didn't know why, but he lunged at Saffron's throat, literally tearing out the Phoenix God's jugular with his powerful jaws. The blood that sprayed about was blazing with Phoenix fire. Ranma still wasn't sure how he survived that one. Probably had to do with him falling in the canal.

"But now what to do?" Ranma wondered. He obviously couldn't go back. He was sure the Japanese reporters would show him to be some sort of evil monster. "Not that I can blame them when I look like this..."

Ranma entertained the thought of finding his mother, but shrugged it off. There was no way she would accept him like this. "There's just no way I can go back to my old life. Period."

He didn't know where to go, or what to do, but Ranma knew one thing. He had to hide. But where could he go. "Hopefully, Nerima will be closed off to the public for awhile. I'll be able to hide in the ruins for at least a little while.

by Bolt Crank

As Ranma stayed hidden in the former home to an unknown family. He did not know what to do next. He was too caught up in the fact that he was some sort of freaky beast to actually think of a course of action. He was so caught up in his problem, in fact, that he didn't notice the arrival of another.

"Not easy to decide what to do when you don't even know where you can go, right, Ranma?"

"So come to kill me, Old Ghoul?"

Surprisingly, Cologne did not even whack him with her stick this time. "Not at all. I witnessed your fight with Saffron. Well, most of it. I was rather busy helping people evacuate."

"What?"

"I had a feeling this would happen, so I got as many people out as I could. Far fewer people have died than you think, Ranma."

Ranma relaxed slightly. "That's a relief. Wait a minute. Did you just call me by name? What happened to son-in-law?"

"All things considered I don't think it's a good idea for the son-in-law to return to Nerima. However, I know of a place you can go where you will not be judged for what you are."

THAT caught Ranma's attention. "Where?"

Cologne produced a scroll. "Speak the words on this scroll and you will be taken to a world known as Jade. In Jade, you will not be judged for being what you are."

Ranma snatched up the scroll and opened it. Reading over it, he paused before beginning, "Cologne, could you-"

"Do not worry. I shall talk to your mother. She will be the only one besides me the two of us that know."

"Thank you." And with that, he spoke the words and vanished.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Ranma wasn't sure what to make of the sensation. It hurt a little, like his body was being broken down, and reconfigured. He had a stray thought that maybe Cologne was purposely trying to kill him. Wouldn't surprise him if she were, he was too much of a danger to anyone now.

And then it happened. He felt himself start to 'appear'. The area around him took form, and he could see his surroundings. A highly forested area that was overrun with vegetation. The land was so cluttered with trees, and the ground was completely covered in healty green grass and flowers. "Is this Jade?" Ranma asked no one in particular.

Concentrating, Ranma could hear the sounds of nature all around him. The sound of birds were hanging in the air, and there were smells, sights, and other incredible feelings from such enhanced/heightened senses that Ranma had to sit down, feeling slightly overwhelmed from trying to take in everything at once. "It's incredible..."

After a few moments of just sitting down on the ground with his back to a tree, Ranma shook his head a bit and tried to stand. Back on his feet, Ranma realized that he was going to have trouble. He was going to have to retrain himself. He wasn't used to having such acute senses, and he was pretty damn sure that with his new body, his fighting skills would be 'off' for some time to come.

"Well, better find out where I am exactly." Ranma muttered out, to no one in particular. Blinking his eyes at that statement, he shrugged. "Wait. Why should I care? I'm in no hurry to go anywhere right now."

And he meant it. Ranma had a feeling he was in Jade, but, so what? He had no clue where he should go, or what there was to accomplish here. "Hopefully, people won't notice me..." Ranma thought.

Looking around, Ranma decided to pull a 'Ryoga'. Choosing a random direction, Ranma just began walking.

However, as he walked, Ranma did admire the scenery. He wasn't used to such an abundant amount of nature. Even back home, when he was growing up on the road with his father, the woods they had always stopped in were nothing like this. The forest was very healthy, vibrant, and filled with life of all sorts. "A small paradise..."

Ranma stopped at that thought. Paradise. What he had seen of the forest was beautiful. but was this place really a paradise, though? He had not seen anyone else, and that set him on edge. "I'll save judgement until after I meet someone..."

And so, Ranma continued walking, his tail swaying back and forth behind him.

by Matdeception

Sheila pouted, looking miserable in her pink frilly dress. She hated this, and oh so hoped those ruthless bandits they had been assigned to take down would hurry up and get on with it.

Looking over to her 'Father', Sheila growled out in annoyance. This was just too deeming.

"Father, why do I have to be the... 'child'.."

Gar, in reality Sheila's brother but currently playing the part of her 'Father', answered, "Because you're the only one out of us that looks so..." when Sheila glared at him, a subtle threat that if he said the word 'child' he was going to get a KAPOWIE were the sun don't shine, "... cute..."

Sheila lessoned on her glare some. At least it wasn't a total loss, even if she was reduced to playing the part of a 'child'. Looking over to her 'Mother' she repressed the insane desire to collapse in a fit of giggles. "Mother dear, you look so beautiful in that dress. You should wear those high heels more often!"

'Mother' took one look at Sheila, and smacked her upside the head. "Don't talk to me like that, young lady! Why, I might have to send you to bed without dinner if you keep this up missy!"

Sheila suppressed an overwhelming desire to kill her 'Mother', and swore inwardly that once this mission was over 'Mother' was going to get the biggest meanest Kapowie she had ever given 'her'.

Sheila's 'Mother' grumbled to herself as the trio walked along, shadowed silently by Onoli and Thorpan. Looking over at 'her husband', 'Mother' forced 'herself' to ask in the girliest voice 'she' could make, "Gar, dear, tell me why I'm the wife again?"

Gar rolled his eyes before slapping his 'wife' on the rump. He wouldn't tell anyone, but this mission had him cracking him up inside. "Because my delectable jelly bean, you're the only one who can grow their hair out like a woman." the he grinned insanely, "And you have the best 'assets' out of all of us."

If you couldn't guess the identity of the 'Wife' by now, let me tell you.

Tigra growled and glared balefully at 'her husband'. There was going to be hell to pay for this shit.

Sheila and Tigra kept quiet from that point out, brooding on how to better inflict pain on these bandits once they showed themselves. No one makes them dress up like a child/woman and expects to get away with it unharmed.

Gar had to force himself not to collapse in a fit of giggles. True this was a serious mission, but seeing Tigra in a dress was beyond anything he had come to expect from his best friend, eer... 'wife'

It was a whole thirty minutes later of their endless march through the wilds until the bandits showed up. Sheila and Tigra's joy at being able to 'vent' their frustrations were cut short, however, when a huge fireball ripped through the air singing and knocking the three Police officers to the ground.

Gar groaned, struggling to his feet as the fire danced about the area. He didn't need to be a precognant to realize they were in serious trouble. Who would have guessed this bandit group would have a mage?

"I don't see them Moe."

"Shhh Larry. I gots mah sources. There's gonna be a trap set for wittle old us, some edge guard fools actin all high and mighty disguise as simple travelers."

"Dude, this is the Edge Guard were talking about here. Not some common city folk with no fightin mindsets. Why don't we grab our loot and move huntin grounds? It'll be betta than stayin here and fightin these guys."

"Dude, we aren't runnin. Think about it man, we've gotten a name for ourselves, else they wouldn't be sendin out these top dogs to deal wit our little rabble. Think of the cool points we'll get if we bring em down! Dude, we aren't missin this chance!"

Larry gazed with half lidded eyes at his compatriot, "And how do ya expect our ragtag bunch to beat these guys? Most of em don't really know how ta use a weapon right, don't see how yah expect them to beat those veterans."

Moe grinned smugly, "Bro, neva fear. Guess who showed up last night? Heheh. Can ya guess? huh? Huh? Huh?!"

Larry looked thoughtful for a moment, his mind focused on the question. "Hmmmm..." a few more moments passed, "Hmmmm..." yet another few more moments passed, "Hmmmmm..."

Moe smacked Larry on the back of the head, finally becoming to impatient with the moron, "Dumb ass. Curly dude!"

Larry blinked, not recognizing the name. "Eh? My horse?"

Moe ignored Larry, "Our long lost balding brother Curly! Remember when momma tried to drown him for being 'Ugly as hell'? Well, seems Curly was found by a traveling mage who took the idiot and taught him some of that magic crap. He'll be what we need to kick those Edge Guard members asses."

Larry had long since tuned Moe out, instead opting to play with a yoyo as his brother continued his inane lecture.

Moe growled, noticing Larry not paying attention to him.

Insert a lot of slapping, eye poking, head thumping, and punching fun here.

Curly frowned, coming upon his two long lost brothers in the middle of a... bonding ritual... yeah, why else would they be kicking the shit out of each other.

Having long since positioned the troops into the best place to lay in wait for the ambush, he had come up here to join his brothers to better direct the ragtag band of bandits below. It was here he realized his brothers were too stupid to be allowed command of this situation, so instead of stopping their fight he turned around and let them be.

Finding a perch to better watch the path, Curly laid in wait for the fools.

It was 10 minutes later he spotted them.

Focusing on the Ethereal Stream, Curly grinned happily as he was once again immersed in with awesome power it had to offer. Taking the power it freely gave him, he focused his mind's eye in preparation for his attack.

"Lets try and end this in one fell swoop... heh... Fireball."

And the battle to decide whether or not the Edge Guard would live the day had begun.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Ranma jumped to his feet, where he had been drinking from a stream. The sound of an explosion nearby had brought his senses to bear - throwing them in overdrive.

Being what he was, a Lycanthrope cross type between Cheetah and Sabertooth Tiger so unused to his new form and its inherent abilities, he was momentarily stunned by the onslaught of sensations he was receiving. Since he wasn't the target of whatever that explosion was, compiled with that fact he was relatively safe and didn't have to worry about being hunted down - yet - on this new and strange world, he could actually take the time to notice such things rather than acting totally by instinct.

The explosion wasn't exactly close, but it sure as hell wasn't that far away either. Less than a mile - and thanks to the black smoke marring the clear blue skies Ranma knew exactly where he had to go.

He only hoped it wasn't anything serious, or people that would try and kill him.

Sheila gasped, jumping back as a bandit slashed at her stomach, the red ichor of her life beginning to seep out slowly. She had been to slow to dodge, and the sad fact of the matter was she knew they were going to lose this battle.

Sheila summoned her will and focused it in ice. Her scimitar radiated a aura of blue ice as it complied with the will of its user. With a shout of "ICE KAPOWIE" a fist of ice flew from the very tip of her scimitar flying straight for a group of gathered bandits who looked about ready to zerg rush her.

"Flame."

The fist of ice melted immediately, a conflagration of raging fire appearing out of nowhere to do this grisly work. Sheila eeped, following the voice to its owner.

A human male from appearances, draped in robes the color of midnight black. She couldn't see much more beyond that, his head concealed behind the hood of his robe. She could, however, see the pearly white teeth of the Mage as he smiled a sinister smile, sending a shiver up her spine. She watched in morbid fascination as the mage raised his hand, a sphere of shimmering motes of angry lights coalescing in his hand with streamers of flames raging across its surface.

"Fireball."

Sheila gasped, planting her feet in the ground and bringing her scimitar to bear as she summoned every last bit of will to form a shield of ice to protect her from the blast.

Like a banshee screaming its sorrowful cry the ball of deadly energy left its master's hand, traveling thru its deadly arc. As the ball of energy gained ground Sheila could only watch in fear, her mind freezing up. It was as if she was looking death in the face, the sound of the fireball drowning out all others - Even the sound of her brother who was screaming hysterically for her to dodge.

Gar could do nothing to intercept the blast heading for his sister, being hard pressed just to keep himself alive. It was clear they had underestimated these bandits. Already he was tiring, having expending so much energy with little to no results against their mage.

Contact.

The ball of raging flame struck the shield of chilling ice, both battling to destroy the other. Their battle continued for an eternal moment, and much to Gar's relief it ended in a tie.

Sheila's ice shield may have absorbed most of the force that fireball held, but combined with her waning strength and blood loss from the various wounds she had yet to regenerate caused her to buckle at the very end - the Fireballs inertia blasted her back, and much to Sheila's dismay her grip on her scimitar was lost.

She flew back and crashed to the ground. She was a trooper though, and would refused to admit defeat, no matter the unbeatable odds they seemed to be up against.

Curly smiled smugly. His plan was working. Granted he hadn't been expecting those two additions, that .. what were their names? Thats right, Onoli and.. eh.. Thor something.. to show up. Luckily Moe and Larry had come to an understanding, both being the only actual members aside from himself with any actual skill. Those two were managing those two very well.

The woman were-tiger had taken the brunt of his initial fireball, and wasn't looking to be getting up soon. Curly chuckled inwardly - She wouldn't be getting up ever again if he had his say in the matter.

The male jagwere was proving to be the most difficult out of the lot, but even Curly could see he was tiring way to fast trying to defend himself from their numerous cronies and his own magic.

Now, the child was at his mercy. The girl had been a slight challenge, mainly because of her wicked magic sword - which Curly had every intention of stealing once this fight was over. A few blasts put her in her place, and now here he was. Watching the petite Jagwere push herself up off the ground, looking ready to die from exhaustion and all the damage she had sustained in this fight.

Taking slow, methodical steps Curly approached the girl. At about 7ish or so yards Curly stopped and watched the soon to be dead girl.

Sheila struggled, oh how hard she struggled to get to her feet. She was too damn tired! She hurt all over. Raising her eyes she nearly cried at seeing the mage in black standing there, that sinister smile back in full force. She watched once again in morbid fascination as another ball of menacing energy formed in his upraised hand.

"Any last words, tool of the oppressor?" Curly snarled. Not that he was really oppressed, he had just always wanted to say that.

Sheila snarled and tried to spit on him, but being 20 - 21 feet away it didn't quite make it. "Go to hell.." she managed to sound off defiantly, thought it was a little on the weak side.

Curly grinned. This was perfect! He'd got to say a snazzy little 'Last Words' statement, and she just gave him the perfect chance to end this with a dramatically cool evil statement! Oh happy day!

"You first." And then Curly launched his fireball.

The sounds of combat had reached his ears early into his run. It took him all of 3 milliseconds to realize that whatever was happening, it wasn't a training exercise or anything of the short. The scent of blood was strong in the air. Thankfully, Ranma noted with some relief, the tell tale scent of death had yet to be detected. Not that he knew what that smell was per say, but some instinct told him this was true.

Sooner than he would have expected he arrived at the scene of a gruesome melee raging across the wooded area.

Ranma's eyes narrowed, his eyes darting to and fro as his mind fell into focus. Twenty, thirty men attacking a band of four to five. Three men, and two women. The men looked hard pressed and had many many wounds. One of the woman laid motionless, and from his quick inspection it looked as if she had been knocked down during one of those strange explosions he had heard earlier.

The last woman, child actually from appearances, was on her hands and knees and looking extremely tired and wounded. A man that just screamed 'Dangerous' to his senses stood a little bit away from her, a ball of strange energy dancing in his grasp.

Ranma frowned greatly as he took all this in quickly. A group of men, a woman, and a CHILD getting attacked? That was something he wouldn't stand for.

"You first." and then Curly threw the fireball.

Ranma heard those words and was already in motion. As he neared the child he realized grimly he wouldn't be able to save her and somehow get himself out of the way before whatever attack that guy had thrown actually hit. Taking a moment to think on this, he decided to summon his Aura.

Sheila closed her eyes as the ball of flame left the Mage's hand. She was too tired to move, and knew deep down there would be no escape from this attack. It was rather sad, now that she took the time to consider it. She had lived her life, never knowing many of the joys it had to offer. She had always assumed she'd have the time, but now... did she have any regrets?

Sheila flinched, the screeching sound of the fireball all she could hear. She waited for the flames to hit, to spread and engulf her form and end her life. Curious... why was she only feeling intense cold?

Ranma had made it just in time, his aura spread out to the maximum as his mind and very being was encased in ice. The blast of strange energy connected with his Aura, an immediate power struggle between his cold iron will and whatever source of energy this attack derived its power from.

Curly frowned, spotting the strange looking were-creature intercept his fireball attack while glowing brighter than the annual armsmaster celebrations. Needless to say he wasn't.. pleased... by his appearance, nor was he exactly calm about it either. He was pumping out so much energy Curly could whoever this guy was, he just had to be dead. No one could focus THAT much energy without burning themselves out... or.. unless they were of the highest order of Mages - Either possibility left a bad taste in Curly's mouth.

Ranma grinned, the energy from that strange attack dissipating. He was surprised he hadn't actually needed to put that much effort into forming a protective shield. Which was strange in and of itself. He estimated that blast had been at least equivalent to the power of one of Saffrons fire blasts.

Ranma shook his head at those thoughts, shelving them away for later. Now was not the time to ponder such stupid things! There was a child in danger. Focusing his mind, Ranma cupped his hands and summoned his Ki. He was pleasantly surprised when his Moko Takabisha formed extremely easy, considering it generally took a helluva lot more effort than this did.

Little did he know, now that his powers were awakened he was inadvertently accessing the hereditary energy and strength granted to his kind. Add in the fact he was a mixture of the fastest and strongest of were-creatures, this made for some serious power.

Curly gasps, unconsciously taking a step back as the ball of unknown energy formed in the unknowns hand. Despite the fact that ball of energy screamed 'HELL COME HITHER' in terms of power, it was the fact he got a good look at WHAT he was facing. Never before had he seen such a creature.

"Wwhat THE HELL ARE YOU!" Curly screamed.

Ranma grinned, unknowing how that infuriating grin was causing great feat in the mage before him. All those sharp teeth glinting in the pale luminance of his aura made for a VERY intimidating sight.

"You're nightmare." Ranma growled.

The bandits morale were all general high. While Moe and Larry were decent leaders, this new guy Curly raised the bar up a few notches. Why, they felt like they could take on the world at the rate they were going. Hell, these Edge Guard members were suppose to be some of the most fearsome fighters in the world - Barring of course the various weapon masters, Archmages, and of course the Armsmaster herself.

Thus it came as quite a surprise when Curly, the mage who practically assured them their victory, came running past them all gibbering in absolute terror. His clothes were burnt off, as was his remaining hair. Small cuts outlined his entire body.

Gar was very thankful for the break in fighting. He had been close to collapse, and feared if he had fallen his death would be immediate. When that mage ran by crying and screaming for them to retreat, he wondered why on Jade he would do such a thing. Sheila, as far as he knew, was down and unconscious - as was Tirga. That left three versus thirty or so, and that wasn't good odds at all. He knew there weren't any reinforcements coming, none were close enough to get here in the amount of time that had passed since the beginning of this fight.

"Hey Bob.."

"Yeah Joe?"

"What the... HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING GOD! NINE HELLS WHAT IS THAT!"

Gar whipped his head in the direction that nameless cronie had screamed at, and fell to his knees at the sight before him.

Ranma wasted no time. While the bandits were stunned at his appearance, he lept into the fray, savagely beating them down as quickly as he could.

"IT'S A DEMON!"

"MY BALLS! HE STEP ON MY BALLS!"

"HELP HELP! SOMEONE PULL THIS STAFF OUT OF MY ASS!"

Gar looked very very green.

Watching the last of the bandits run off, at least the ones still able to stand, Ranma finally let his battle aura seep back into his body. While the fight had been pretty one sided - since he showed up anyway - he was quite tired. He had noticed halfway through the battle he had been burning through his energy reserves faster than Akane blowing through her 'anger restraints'. It was a good thing she had been getting much much better lately, but still...

Shaking his head out of his memories, he reminded himself he had left their world. At the moment he had no way of going back, and at the moment he didn't think going back was really a good idea.

Turning back to the people he had saved, he offered a friendly smile and waved jovially - which made him look intimidating considering the teeth and all.

"My names Ranma Saotome... sorry about this."

by Matdeception

".. Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." it finished speaking.

Gar stared at the creature, at the thing for a moment as he struggled to stand. Unbidden came memories of his childhood, of a monster that would prowl the world seeking children and weak willed soul's to feed upon.

The Were-smilodon, or Sabertooth weretiger. A creature of fierce cunning and insidious life, whose sole purpose was to prey upon the others of its world, to cleave at their very souls as he himself feasted upon their still warm innards. Gar remembered a brief explanation on the creatures taste, that he preferred the fresh souls of children to feed its dark ravaging hunger.

"G..Gar.." Sheila, lying face down in a small pool of her own blood muttered weakly as consciousness restored itself, her slim hands digging into the hard earth as she tried to get enough purchase and strength to stand up on her own.

Gar shuddered, a overwhelming feeling of fear coming over him as he noticed His attention divert from himself, to his sister. He moved towards her.

Gar, realizing that if he did nothing his sister would be good as dead, finished pushing himself to his feet while snarling out heatedly, "Get away from her, you monster!"

The creature seemed to flinch at his words, hesitating for a moment before coming to a stop and returning his gaze back to Gar.

"Look.." it began to speak, but Gar refused to listen to it's voice anymore. It was a creature from every child's nightmare, it had to be forced away else he claim his weakened sister, and who knows what else.

Gar launched towards his foe, finding new strength born by desperation at facing something from his childhood nightmares. True, there were differences, but at the moment he wasn't about to risk his sister, or the other members of the Edge guard against something that could very well rip their souls out and torment them for eternity. No thank you. "DIE YOU BASTARD!"

The creature seemed confused, and surprised by Gar's sudden attack. Thus he was unable to defend himself from the vicious kick to the chest he received. He staggered back from the blow, quickly coming to grasp the situation as he dodged, and blocked the slow choppy incoming attacks, "Hey! I don't want to hurt you!" the creature shouted, but Gar refused to give it a chance.

Ranma grumbled as he fled the family he had just saved. "Land of tolerance my ass." he whispered as he moved deeper and deeper into the forest, the shouts of that strange catman fading as he put distance between the two.

He realized after about a minute of trying to talk the guy down that he wasn't about to stop, not until he either left or got his ass handed to him. Not that he could blame him, Ranma guessed. It's not everyday someone got attacked and nearly lost his wife and child, but still... he thought he should have at least been more grateful for the help he had received.

Putting that bad experienced behind him, he continued moving deeper into the forest.

by Sect

"Pff. Some paradise THIS is," Ranma muttered as he sat on a large stone in the middle of an expansive forest. He had figured that this was a large enough distance away from the gang that he had just wailed upon and the angry father.

He sighed as the the large, black and gold furred martial artist looked up, staring at the green and brown canopy that blanketed his resting spot. "Not even a day here, and already people are attackin' me." His expression brightened considerably. "Well, at least I ain't afraid of cats no more," he said with a slightly upbeat tone, glad that at least one major roadblock in his life was gone.

He then frowned again. "But how? And at what cost?" he asked himself, remembering how he had descended into the dreaded Neko-ken, and still he could taste the burning acidic taste of the once Pheonix King. "I would've asked the old-" the words halted out of his mouth. "... Cologne... but it didn't really come to me, then. Does she know...?"

The were-smilodon growled as he leaned backwards, glad that the rock he decided to rest on was a large one. Ranma closed his eyes, allowing a solid white strip to stretch across his black/gold fur. "What am I? I mean, that guy had every right to be afraid of me, but he's a cat too! He should have at least seen another guy like me," he muttered. A moment later, his eyes shot open. "Maybe It was because I tossed around those guys that he and the two others were having hell with... I intimidated him too much, and he got scared." A thoughtful look passed across his face. "Next time, I'll hold back. That way, they won't get caught off guard." He thought about that for a few moments, then nodded.

He looked back to the canopy, where the sun's golden rays shined through. He sighed as he closed his eyes. "Any way I look at it, I have another changin' curse," he muttered as he basked in the partially covered sun; he rathered liked the feel of the heat on his fur. "I wonder if I still have that Jusenkyo curse..." he mumbled idly.

by Matdeception

He spared a glance towards the bodies of the fallen and unconscious, the cold rage swelling within his heart only growing more and more with each and every attack he sustained.

A man, one of his attackers he noted bitterly, was making a vain attempt to crawl away from the rest of his fallen attacks. He honestly didn't know which was more pathetic, the fact this scum thought he could beat him, or now that he had handed their asses too them they tried to get away as if nothing had ever happened.

"And where do you think you're going, asshole!" Ranma growled out through fanged teeth, one mighty claw grasping the man's shirt and lifting him roughly into the air.

"Ppplease! Don't kill me! I have a family!" the sorry excuse for a man cried out against the paw that held him a foot off the ground as he tried feebly to force the hand open, or at least to gain some purchase so as not to choke in his grip.

"Pfeh." Ranma snorted in disdain, shaking the man like a rag doll until he stopped crying like a ten-year-old girl. "Boy.." he spat, much venom in his snarl, "We all got's family, and if you don't want me deprivin yer family of their father, yer gonna answer my questions. Got it?" receiving no immediate reply, he shook the man roughly again before snarling loud enough to cause a slight ringing in the unfortunate man's ear, "GOT IT?!"

The man nodded feebly, the scent of urine abruptly made itself known, almost overpowering in its stench on his sensitive senses. "GG Got it!

The six months since Ranma's arrival in this land had not been kind, not one bit. He should have realized something like this would happen, but the idiot child he had been held on to the slim hope that some place, some where in this strange fucked up world someone like him could be accepted. Hope died a slow, and painful death.

Oh, to be sure it hadn't started off as bad as it was now. At first he had merely traveled, despite that upset with the family and bandits, he had been in relative high hopes all things considered. The world he had found himself in echo within his heart, a piece of his childhood that seemed would never be touched by the dirty taint of invention and greed.

Growing up in the forests of Japan and China, Ranma had a healthy respect for nature, and while he didn't outright loathe technology, he had always felt on some level that the entire concept was wrong. Still, even if he wanted to do something about the diminishing beauty of Nature on Earth, he doubted he would have made any difference. People were stubborn creatures, perhaps this was their greatest common interest, and no one would ever give up the easy life to rough it like he had to do growing up as a child. Ah well, the point was moot in any case.

The first annoyance he faced was, of course, his freakin curse. Yes, his Jusenkyo curse still existed, damn stubborn gender bending magic. Well, Ranma didn't see it as all bad. Whatever the hell changed him into what he was now had given him some reprieve from the curse. No more was he reliant on cold/hot water to initiate the change (though if he wasn't careful with his self control they would still affect him), after months of travel he had discovered the change was based completely on his will power. If he willed himself a woman, he became a woman, and vice versa.

And the mother fucking gods damn well knew he was a man, especially after all the shit he had gone through.

Still, he had to be conscious to control the change, many times he had awoken during the night after a brief shower or two to find that yes, even as a female, he was a cat person thru and thru. This one gift from the gods, however, seemed to come at a high price.

People, farmers, adventurers, bounty hunters, and even monsters regarded him with fear and no small dose of malice. The fact Dragons would quake in their boots at the mere sight of him had stroked his ego a bit, but it pissed him off nonetheless.

Three months after his arrival to this land, Ranma came upon his first 'Death Squad'.

A Death Squad, Ranma later discovered after kicking the crap out of some female ninja wannabe, was a government (or whatever passed as the bosses in this place) sanctioned brute squad with one purpose in mind, kill their target. Well gee, who do you think that turned out to be?

Fun fun fun.

Still, he would be the first to admit the leaps and bounds his fighting skills had gone through because of the constant life or death struggles. Often times Ranma would look back on his time in Nerima with fondness, realizing he had been such a wimp when it came to the real fights. Heh, he'd take life in Nerima over this hellhole any day, why, he'd even eat Akane's cooking! Why, he might even let Happosai grope his... no.. never mind, he'd rather die.

So here he was, some freak of nature that everyone and their gigantic mothers wanted to kill, currently wondering what the hell he had done to piss off the gods, and praying all this shit would end. He was getting really ticked off.

Shaking his head to dispel those sudden thoughts, Ranma turned his attention solely on the man whimpering on his arm, "What's yer name?"

"Ke-Keith!" the man answered pathetically.

"Well, Keith. I'm gonna give yah one chance to walk away from this alive." he grunted, dropping the man to the ground, "How much is tha bounty on my head now? Still 10,000 gold pieces?" he asked while kicking backwards, the form of one of the Death Squad's trolls rocketing across the clearing to smash THROUGH a boulder to crash haphazardly to the ground, unmoving.

Keith shook his head, any pretense of lying to the beast driven out of his mind at the sight of THAT feat of strength and brutality, "20,000."

Ranma nodded, his ego once again swelling at the almost ludicrous amount of cash being offered for little ole him. "Any weapon masters involved yet?" he was highly curious about these proclaimed 'Weapon Masters', maybe if he killed enough of them people would leave him the hell alone? Hmm, something to think about.

Keith shook his head, mumbling, "Don't know, no clue. Haven't heard nothin about it."

Ranma nodded again, "Why do you guys hunt me anyway, I've seen plenty of cats wanderin around, be just as easy to kill them y'know. Brings up another question too, how come none of them other cat's ever join a death squad?" He had been meaning to kick their ass, then question them about being a were. Hell, never know, maybe he could figure out a way to change or somethin.

Keith, for the first time in along time, was able to cast a blank unbelieving look at the child killin soul eating monster he and his doom Squad had tracked for nearly a week, "Eh... where's don't want to hunt you, because it's said you eat their souls. And.. you're the Were-Smilodon, the child devourer."

Ranma blinked. Eat their souls? Consume children? "BWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" he almost got floored by that answer, "You *snort* think I eat *GUAHAH* souls?" he clutched his sides, finding it difficult to breath, "You *buahaha* think I, hold on a sec *deep breath, GUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH* devour children?"

Keith was rather put off by the laughing monster of the abyss, but he was still too terrified to actually let him know that.

Ranma chortled, his laughter dying down into something more manageable. Wiping a tear from his eye, he asked "Wha.. What's a *snicker* Were-smilodon?"

"Saber-Tooth Weretiger." Keith answered calmly.

"Eh? Is that what I am? What's the big deal?" He asked, curious.

"Eer.." how the hell does one explain to a monster that he is perhaps the most feared creature ever to walk Jade? "Ahh.. I dunno.. I guess.. eh.. you're not suppose to exist?" he supplied lamely.

Ranma hmmed for a second, then shrugged. "One last question. Eva since you goons started comin after me, I've been noticing a steady stream of silver weapons. I'm kinda curious what that's all about. I mean, the weapons are pretty weak, and prolly cost a ton to maintain." he eyed the little man for a moment, before adding, "And I know you got enough steel around here ta build a mecha-godzilla, so what gives?"

Now, Keith wasn't an idiot. Considering the general education one finds when they live on Jade, he'd probably be considered an Einstein among the populace. While he wondered what the hell a mecha-godzilla was, he knew beyond a doubt they were in some serious fucking trouble. "Wait a minute! Are you saying you can handle silver, no problems at all?" he looked frantic, desperately hoping it WASN'T so.

Scratching his head, Ranma shrugged before reaching down to pick up one of the discarded Silver broadswords, "That answer yer question?"

Keith, being questioned by a creature from everyone's nightmare, being presented with irrefutable proof that their target was IMMUNE to the soul scarring effects of SILVER, did the only thing he could think of in this particular situation.

He fainted.

Ranma blinked, idly scratching a troublesome spot behind his head while using the Silver sword to chip out some rotten food that had gotten stuck between his teeth, shrugged to himself as he looted the downed merc's, taking their food, water, money (not that he ever got to spend any of it, but he figured one day he might actually need the worthless stuff) and the Troll's clothing (remarkably clean, and on most occasions perfect for his oversized frame.) before taking off for his home.

Well, the cave he called home. He was just lucky none of these idiots had found him while he was resting there; it was always so hard to get a little privacy now days.

by Sect

Onoli frowned as he looked at the reports in his hands, then glanced down at the many many more reports on the oaken table that served as his desk. "The situation... does not look good," the werelion said at last.

"You're telling me," Thropan groaned, leaning his chair back so that his back rested on the wall of the Edge Guard's headquarters. "Eighty-seven confrontations between the were-smilodon," he barely managed to choke out the word, "and the 'death squads', about ten this month..."

"And all squads got the living shit beaten out of them," Tigra finished as he entered, standing next to the table, holding a bundle of papers. "By the way, this one makes eleven squads this month," he mentioned, handing his leader the papers that constituted of a report, medical bills, and official letters announcing several of the member's' "retirement".

Onoli shook his head slowly, clearly awed by contents of the report. "Fourteen fighters, all armed with silver weapons and the like, beaten within twenty minutes of contact..." Onoli looked up at his two subordinates/friends. "And not a person was killed, nor the target was seriously hurt."

Thropan whistled a low, awed tone. "Man, the guy has to be as strong as a Weapon Master," he said. Both he and Tigra shared a look, and both hoped that they did not have to go against the were-smilodon anytime soon.

A sudden choking noise made both cats turn to Onoli, who was looking at the report with a rapidly paling face, amazing for a creature covered in fur. "What? What's wrong?" the weretiger asked concernedly.

His hand slightly trembling, the werelion traced a line on the report with a shaking forefinger. "'After the battle,'" he recited, "'Keith was interrogated by the were-smilodon, who was obviously interested in the increasing rate of his bounty and the involvement of the Weapon Masters. He also asked about our weapons made of silver, and upon further inquiring by Keith, proved that the weapons were ineffective by lifting a silver sword in his bare hand by the blade.'"

Onoli finished the line and looked up to see the weretiger and the werepanther staring at him with wide, disbelieving stares. Several moments passed in silence, allowing the awful truth to soak in and settle.

Finally, after a full five minutes of silence, Tigra broke it.

The moon of Jade reflected light that casted a shadow under the feet of the dark-clothed figures that rushed quietly through the sparse foliage. The lead one stopped abruptly, causing the ones who followed to halt. "Psst! What is it?" one of the shadows asked.

The person in the lead removed the hood of its cowl to reveal an orange werecat, with black stripes crisscrossing the female's body. "I picked up a scent," she replied, her eyes searching the darkened landscape. "It's similar to that of the battle site that the smi, smili, smilodon," she stuttered, "was fought."

One of the hunters rolled his eyes. "Jeez, what's with you cats and this 'boogeyman' of yours?" he chuckled, prompted several others to laugh quietly but nervously as well. The tigress pierced the hunter with her eyes that glowed in the night.

"Quiet!" she hissed. "The were..." she gulped anxiously, "the were-smilodon is a fearsome creature! Devourer of werecat souls!" she hurriedly explained, her head jerking around as she tried to trace the scent; the search was made even more difficult with the fear running through her veins.

"Then why hasn't it killed anybody?" another hunter asked skeptically, absentmindedly flicking off water droplets off of her cloak. Earlier there had been a quick rainstorm.

"... Maybe it's a vegetarian boody-cat?"

All heads of the hunting party whipped around to stare incredulously at the elven mage, who suddenly looked down and shifted her feet.

"I got it," the werecat tracker announced suddenly, then bounded stealthily towards a rocky area. Quickly, the rest of the hunting party followed.

Around ten minutes later, the party of eight halted at a small opening that rested under a large tree. The cave entrance was framed by the tree's roots, and each member could see that something had crawled inside recently. One of the hunters peeked his head inside.

"Hey, I think I see something!" he said as he slid in easily; the entrance was about four feet wide, so it wasn't that hard. The others followed cautiously, the tigress even more so.

"Wow," the elf mage muttered. "It's pretty big in here." It was easy to see why she said that; the cave was one large, circular room, about thirty feet in diameter, with a ceiling of nine feet. In the back of the room, about three feet away from the back wall, a natural sunroof existed, shining moonlight onto a currently sleeping figure and a partially filled backpack.

However, the figure took all completely by surprise.

Firstly, it was most obviously a werecat female, as evidenced by her shirt, which clung to her fur like a second shirt. It tremendously assist in showing off her large assets. As three of the more reckless hunters approached, they could also tell three more things: she had incredible teeth, her fur was a deep red with black markings, with a white stripe across her closed eyes, and she looked very athletic, as her position of sleeping showed off her well developed muscles. And as one of the three bravely moved within a foot of the creature, he could see that she seemed to be rather smaller than the stories that they had heard proclaimed, and that she was rather good looking.

The man blinked. "Hey, this definitely ain't the guy we're looking for," he called back to his comrades. They looked back at him, all confused.

The tigress slowly walked forward, keeping her eyes on the were. "But... if there's a male, AND a female... does that mean...?" she asked to herself, looking even more worried.

"... That there might be more of them?" another of the hunters finished. With that, the tracker looked very very sick, and nearly collapsed.

The man rolled his eyes. "Well, when we drag her on over to Edge Guard, they can find out," he said, bringing out a pair of dwarven steel chains, intending to immobilize her...

And a synchronized sweatdrop occurred when the girl rolled out of the man's way, still asleep. THe man blinked, then reached for her again, only to stumble as she rolled the other way. A growl erupted from the man, and he lashed out with the cuffs, intending to get her. This time, he was pitched onto his face as the were-smilodon rolled again.

One of the hunters looked to his companion. "Come on, now. She's doing this in her SLEEP?" he asked rhetorically, receiving a shrug in response.

Another hunter walked over to the frustrated man. "Jeez, get a grip," she said. "Look, I'll hold onto her, and you cuff her." She looked at the panting man, who nodded as he regained his composure. "Now," she continued, positioning herself above the werecat, "All you need to do is working on timING?!" She squeaked as the girl rolled again, which made her stumble and collapse, flailing out her arms. She fell to the ground partially on the girl that they were trying to capture.

"Oh my," the mage muttered. "This IS embarrassing." Nods and remarks of agreement followed her statement.

The woman, who was revealed to be a human, growled and clenched her fists. Then she frowned as she realized that in one of her hands was a soft item, like a...

Her head slowly turned, hoping that she wasn't grabbing onto what she thought she was holding to...

*WHAM*

She worried no more about the situation, for the were-smilodon's fist impacted with her face, sending her sailing into a rather embarrassed hunter who hefted the steel chains, knocking them both into a wall.

The other six sweatdropped as they realized that blow was done on instinct rather than conscious effort, for the sabertooth weretigress was now beginning to wake up.

The first thing that Ranma noticed was that he was a she. The second was that her breast was a bit sore, kinda like when Kuno or Happosai groped her.

That got her up. "What the hell?" she asked to herself, looking about quickly. She realized that she was not alone; there was two people, male and female, sitting against a wall, one dazed and one unconscious, and six others standing in front of the cave entrance, by her sense of smell they were a female human, two male humans, an elven male, an elven female, and a female... cat?

She grinned as she realized that the final person was a werecreature. Finally, she would have some answers.

Unfortunately, the grin on the female were-smilodon's face spooked the weretigress, and she yelped as she drew a pair of short swords. Similar frightened, though to a lesser degree, her comrades followed suit.

by Matdeception

Ranma realized quite quickly that she had found herself in a rather precarious position.

She was currently trapped within an enclosed space, with no other exits available to her aside from the single entrance currently being held by six of her would be assassins, and to make matters worse one of them was an obvious magic user, a class of villain (and since she viewed these goody goodies as the bad guys, the term villain fit in his point of view) he had learned to at least marginally respect since her arrival nearly seven months ago. This of course wasn't to mention the were-cat-stripey-thingamabob. She'd need to ask just what kind of creature she was after she kicked their ass, and who knew what other tricks she had up her sleeves.

And, to make matters worse, she was currently a girl, something she had been trying her hardest to keep hidden from all the nutjobs that always seemed to hunt her down.

"So... don't suppose we can talk this out peacefully, eh?" she asked, hopping to her feet but making no more sudden gestures.

"No." came the general consensus, not that she was expecting anything different.

*POW* *CRUNCH* *SLAM* "Mommy!" *SWISH* "Yer slower than a tomboy!" *SALM* *CRUNCH* *SQUEEZE* "Whoa!" ... "YOU PERVERT!" *POWPOW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW* "Help.. I can't feel my willy.." *SLAM* "Serves yah right, yah letch!" *BOOOOOOOM* "Shit." ...

"I don't like hittin girls ya know..." Ranma breathed out, looking quite singed and more than a little annoyed. At least she looked better than the rest of her attackers, but then again.. a fireball like spell going off in an enclosed area tends to be rather damaging, and not very discriminatory on just who it hits.

Sylvia, the elven mage giggled nervously as she found herself the only remaining conscious member of her group, and no less than three feet from what was quickly becoming the bane of any Death Squad's existence. "Eh.. heh... I sense a but in there.." She always hated when she was right.

Ranma smiled jovially, nodding all the same, "Yep, but since you were kind enough to fry my home and down yer own comrades, I think I'll just knock you out instead of beating you brutally to within an inch of your life. Cool?"

Sylvia blinked. Well, this soul-eating monster was being rather courteous with her, "Sure.. cool.."

"Great!" was the last thing she heard before darkness claimed her.

"Sylvia? Sylvia! Wake up!"

"Five more minutes mother, five more minutes.." she grumbled, burying her head in-between her two fluffy pillows. Ah, they were so warm and furry! She giggled suddenly, the fur of her pillows tickling her cheeks.

"Please.. stop that." a familiar voice pleaded.

Certain facts began to make themselves known to the relatively young elven sorceress. One, her memories of encountering a female version of the were-smilodon clearly pointed out that the odds of being in a bed, much less her own bed at home, was nil. To further construe the facts, she was pretty damn sure she lacked pillows that were 'furry'... or 'warm' ... or this soft... Experimentally, she reached up and took a firm hold of her pillows, squeezing them.

A sharp intake of breath, and an uncomfortable shiver clued her into the truth. She was not grasping pillows. She was not in her home, and she highly doubted her mother was anywhere near her at the moment. She gulped, "Please.. tell me these aren't what I've deduced them to be..."

Trisha, the were-tigress unlucky enough to be the first were-cat caught by the soul eating were-smilodon, shuddered again at the young elf's touch, "Nine hells, this is embarrassing."

Sylvia eye'd their prison, only paying Trish an iota of attention as she examined her surroundings.

They were still in the cave where she, and her ill-fated group had engaged the creature, and at first glance she could find neither hide nor hare of her group or of their tormentor. In fact, everything looked absolutely normal, except for a few scorch marks here and there.

Well, normal, except for their cage constructed almost entirely out of silver swords, daggers, staffs, and other various implements of disaster all held together by some seemingly weak rope.

It was hardly an impenetrable prison, but it did hold some harrowing problems with it came to escaping. The roof itself consisted of numerous silver swords and daggers, all quite sharp looking and pointed down toward herself and her friend. Sylvia didn't understand the mechanics of it, but she had the distinct impression that if she tried to break through the bars, or some how upset the way their strange prison was held together, those implements of lycanthropic death would come screaming down on them.

"Sylvia.. please.." Trish began, her voice full of desperation, "Tell me you can get us out of this.."

"I can get us out of this." She lied. Unlike herself, Trisha firmly believed in the soul eating monster that had captured them, and despite the very freaky atmosphere, and abundance of silver, Trisha was scared their tormentor would return to make a quick snack out of their souls.

"Trisha, have you any clue as to our comrades fate?"

Trish shook her head quickly, "That beast has been coming and going, carrying them out two at a time. I don't know where she's taking them."

Sylvia opened her mouth to say something, but snapped it shut when Trisha began trembling with renewed fear. Glancing back, she blanched as their captor entered the cave.

"Oh, good. You're awake!" Ranma smiled jovially. She had thought long and hard about returning in male form, but shrugged that notion off. This group had obviously already realized he was a she, and didn't see the purpose in confusing them more than she already had. "Now I think it's time..." she grinned, leering at Trisha with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes, "We eat."

Trisha fainted.

"Alright, you crazy chicks." Ranma grumbled, "I'm gonna give you one chance to get out of this alive, all yah gotta do is answer some questions for me. Cool?"

Sylvia wanted to cry! Where the hell did this beast get a Magic Nullification Bracelet! Nine hells only Sanctuary was suppose to have those! It just wasn't fair! "I.. cool." she replied miserably, openly trying to get the bracer off. She knew though, no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't be coming off. Well, not until she contacted Sanctuary.

Eyeing their tormentor's unconcerned look, she realized she probably knew that too.

Trisha nodded, putting on a brave front despite the abject horror coursing through her veins.

Ranma nodded, "Puttin aside yer attempt to kill me in my sleep..." he glared at Sylvia. It was quite obvious she wasn't talking about that first time in her sleep, "... I got no intention of killin, raping, maulin, torturin, disfigurin, or in some way harmin yer pretty little heads. Cool?" eyeing Trisha, he added, "And despite the bull shit you've heard, I don't eat souls none either."

"Now, I want yah, " he pointed at Trisha, "To tell me everythin yah know about bein a were-creature. Why I'm hated, and just whose ass I need to kick to get some peace and quiet around here."

Glaring at Sylvia once again, she continued, "And you..." she growled dangerously. Sylvia gulped, unable to stop her trembling, Ranma continued to glare, until a distinct sparkle shined in her eyes, and like a little child who had just found something shining and interesting with which to poke their eyes out, "Teach me some magic!"

Sylvia and Trisha sweat dropped as their evil, sadistic, and cruel.. okay.. not really all that cruel, she was actually turning out rather socially inclined considering. Still, they sweat dropped at the appearance of her child like innocence, "Weird..." ... "Verily."

by Sect

Sylvia and Trish stared at their captor with disbelief in their eyes. After all, it wasn't every day that a monster out of werecat lore asked for training in magic as a child would ask for a ride on a pony, or a chainsaw, depending on what kind of child it was.

In fact, they were so surprised that they forgot to be afraid of the dark red-furred were-smilodon.

"Er..." Sylvia responded intelligently. Suddenly, she blinked, snapping herself out of her stupor. "Wait! Miss..." she stumbled to a halt, not sure how to refer to the were.

Their captor dropped the gleeful appearance. "Eh, call me Ran..." she stopped for a millisecond, "...Ko. Ranko is my name," she finished, hoping that they didn't catch the pause.

Fortunately for her, Sylvia didn't notice, and Trish was still stunned. "Miss Ranko," she started, wondering at the strange name, "what happened to our friends?" She noticed, with growing dread, that their captor had began to adopt a smile that she really did not feel comfortable with. Kinda like a mix of mirth with sadistic, along with a strong supply of cuteness, and a sprig of boyish humour, whatever the hell that was.

Trish stared stupidly at her elven partner before coming back to her fear riddled senses. She stared at the bane of all werecats, who began to adopt a quite feral grin. "Y-y-you didn't!" she cried in shock.

"What, eat them?" Ranko asked innocently, noting that the were-whatchamacallit was trembling visibly. Then she began laughing. "HAHAHA! Of course not! And they ain't dead, too," she added, to prevent anymore questions about their state of living. Then she grinned slyly. "Of course, they prolly wish they were," she remarked.

Sylvia started. "They... wish?" She jumped a bit when Ranko suddenly collapsed in giggles, tears coming out of her eyes. The magicless mage wondered what had happened that made her react like this. Then she prayed that whatever it was, it didn't happen to her.

The forest was filled with an uncomfortable silence.

The reason why the silence was uncomfortable instead of some other adjective is this: the silence would depend on the moods and situation of the inhabitants.

Usually, the normal inhabitants are stuff like trees, rocks, birds, squirrels, and the occasional predator. Since they exist in a stable ecosystem where the trees grow nuts and the like, the birds and others harvest the fruits of the trees, the predators would then masticate the birds, then they would choke on a small bone and die, decomposing and becoming the nutrients needed by the tree, it was rather relaxing. Mostly because all of the animals and whatever knew what their place was and had no real intention of changing it. Therefore, the silence was a sedate, or relaxing, silence it that case.

In the case of a logging camp, the lumberjacks would work hard chopping down trees and thus destroying the fragile ecosystem, then go out onto the town dressed in women's clothing like their dear papas, the silence of the logging camp after a long day's job would be a satisfied silence, though somewhat tinted with a silence of pain and agony of the trees and squirrels and predators. Of course, no one really pays attention to them, so it's a rather moot point.

In the case of a wasteland, where either a plague had wiped out the inhabitants, a nuclear warhead impacted causing radioactive fallout, or a certain purple dinosaur, that should all means be dead, decided to have a live concert, the silence would be desolate, and agonizing.

However, this particular silence was uncomfortable. Suitable, for the inhabitants of a certain tree were quite uncomfortable.

"... Any luck?" one of the hunters, human and male, asked his comrade, who was struggling beside him.

The male elf sighed in annoyance. "For the fortieth time, NO! This knot is tied too well," he replied, trying, unsuccessfully, to untie the rope that had all six of the hunters hanging ten feet in the air in one bundle.

One of the female humans sighed. "Ugh, this is embarrassing," she remarked, looking down at her feet.

The other human girl frowned. "It is, but there's no reason to GET EXCITED ABOUT IT!" she screamed in the guy's ear next to her.

"Ow! Sorry, but... well, you know!" he tried in vain to console her, but was interrupted by the last human.

"Well, it's the only way that you'll get to touch one of those, girl," he joked. He began trying to wiggle away as the said woman tried to bite him. "Hey, hey! Cut that out!" Of course, their antics began to get everyone riled up

"Would you just shut up?" the elf asked, still trying to get the knot untied.

All obeyed his request, and the uncomfortable silence rolled back in. Then it rolled back out when one of the women looked down at the ground.

"... Do you think that Sylvia and Trisha are still alive?" she asked.

The elf sighed. "Can't say for sure. The male were-smilodon hasn't killed anybody, yet, but this is the first encounter with a female. We also know that the male didn't like magic users much, so if they're in contact, then perhaps both of them are doomed..."

The uncomfortable silence waded back in, but didn't dive in because a new silence of mourning, along with a faint sniffling from one of the girls, also inhabited the area.

"I just wish that she didn't leave us in our skivvies," one of the girls finally remarked. Another human shrugged his shoulders as well as he could.

"Hey, it's better than being naked. Besides, she left our clothes at the base of the tree."

"Actually, I would mind being naked like this..."

A instantaneous cry of "PERVERT!" from the rest of the group, along with a chomping sound and a faint whimper of pain spiked through the forest, then was covered once again by an uncomfortable silence.

by Philip Weigel

In a darkened room, there were two figures sitting at a table. One was a bit taller than the other one. Other than that, the taller one was male while the shorter one was female. One couldn't tell much about them other than that.

The male looked at the female. "I'm bored."

"So what? I am too. Don't you usually have something to do?"

"Not right now. Which is why it's so boring."

The female sighed. "I know the feeling. Anyway, why don't you try and take over Jade if you're bored?"

"Are you insane? You know as well as I that do-gooders will ALWAYS try and stop you."

"Hmm... True. Say... How about we break all the criminals on Jade out of prison?"

"That could work... Just that I don't want to deal with the Edge Guard, normal guards, ETC that usually guard the place."

The woman sweatdropped, how this was seen in a darkened room was unknown. "Um, I hate to burst your bubble, but you can handle most anything on your own, even more so with my help."

"True, but I'd rather not deal with it... So... How about we get a mercenary group to do our work for us?"

The female raised an eyebrow, if she had one that is. "So, let's get a mercenary group to break some criminals free from prison and cause general chaos?"

"Yep!"

The woman nodded. "I see..." She then got a devilish idea. "How about we get some 'outcasts' to help us out?"

"Outcasts?"

"You know, the people of Jade that normal people fear and hate."

"Ah, like that boogey man right?"

"Yes. The evil boogeyman Werecat."

"That makes some sense."

Suddenly the door of the room burst open and a nameless menon walked in. "Sorry master..."

by Matdeception

"Sorry master.." groaned a short abomination of mismatched body parts and organs. The diminutive creature looked at its master, its long misshapen tongue hanging out it's mouth and dragging across the floor, leaving gouts of sticky stinky saliva across the otherwise clean floor.

Hanza shuddered, eyeing the creature with no small amount of disgust. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to look away from the pathetic creature. Most of Rook's army, if you can call it that, consisted of Undead Zombies, Ghasts, the occasional Apparition, and of course his infamous Ghost Knight legion. Creatures like the one in the room were left overs from one of the many necromancers who had sought to claim Rook's power for their own. While the art of necromancy intrigued Rook greatly, being the Undead Knight that he is - or Death Knight if you prefer - the art of strewing together a servant made from spare parts - Elf/Golem/Troll/Barbarian/Giant Frog/ etc. ect. ect. - never endeared him. At least, that's what he would tell her when she asked.

Rook spared a glance to his servant, one of his many useless messengers. Not that he ever needed them per say, since any messages he needed delivered would generally fall to his lackey Hanza, such situations being few and far in-between, but at least the majority were good at keeping his home relatively clean. "What?"

"Maaaaster.." the thing groaned again, pushing one of its eyeballs back into place ".. shaaaadeee retuurrrrned." it hobbled up to the table, placing a clear Amethyst gem that glowed softly before Rook. "Maaassterrr, isss Iggoorr gooodd?" it bellowed pathetically, licking at its master's plated boots.

Rook kicked the thing irritably, causing it to lose its balance and roll onto it's back. "Roll that damn tongue of yours up! And clean up this god awful mess!"

"I think he likes you." smirked Hanza smugly, crossing her arms just under her breasts, "Heh, think he's the only thing that likes you."

"Bitch." Rook retorted simply, taking an appreciative glance at her rack before turning to the jewel curiously. "I wonder what this is..." Picking it up, he focused his cold undead eyes on the gem. "Ah, well.. this is interesting." he sounded surprised. "Well.. well well." he sounded thoroughly pleased.

"What's got you so happy?" Hanza questioned coolly, eyeing the abomination as it righted itself up and started trudging out of the room looking the picture of dejection. "That thing must really love Rook, geesh." she thought evilly, unable to keep a smirk off her face. It was prime teasing material!

"Looks like the 'Boogey-Man' finally claimed some lives." Rook chuckled, finding it amusing, "An Elven witch, and some Were-tigress. They have been missing for weeks, all hunting parties sent to either rescue them, or at least confirm their deaths have returned with not a whisper of their fates." he tossed the gem back to the table irritably, "Old news." he grumbled.

"Old news?"

Rook nodded with a snort, "Yeah. My spy network must be in the shit-hole now. That particular event is over a month old, the two would-be victims were already found." he shrugged then, "They said they escaped while the Smilodon was off hunting or something. At least, that's their public statement."

"Ah.. any clue where the Smilodon is now?" asked Hanza, lifting the gem up to review the report held within.

"They sent a few more Death Squads, hoping that all their numbers would be enough to kill or subdue the creature. Couldn't find hide nor hare of him this time." Rook chuckled after that, as if he could see something amusing with the disappearance of the Smilodon.

"Want me to go track him down? Make a deal?" Hanza offered sincerely. "Anything to get away from your perverted stares." Hanza thought, well aware of her bosses.. perversions. How an Undead Knight could get turned on like Rook did was beyond her, and hopefully she would never have to find out.

Rook leaned up against his chair, crossing his plated arms over his chest; the sound of metal scraping against metal is ignored by both of them. "Don't see why not. Just be care.. HEY!" Rook glared at her as she ran out the door. "YOU BITCH! I WASN'T FINISHED!"

"FUCK YOU ASSHOLE! I'LL DO THIS MY WAY!" Hanza screamed back, twisting in her forward run to flip Rook the bird. She didn't notice the little abomination making it's way slowly down the hall until she tripped over it and fell to the ground on her back, hard. The force she hit the little thing caused it to stumble forward, only to crash on top of her, it's tongue escaping it's grotesque mouth and slobber all over her hair, face, and chest.

"HAHAHAHAHA" Rook fell to the ground in hysterics

"GET OFF ME!" Hanza screeched, her reaction at first being far too girly. She seemed to freeze and tremble like a little child, until her rage came back to the fore and she decked the little creature.

A loud crunch sound echoed down the hall as Hanza's fist broke the creature's jaw, shattering it into many pieces. Blood erupted from its wound, or at least what would be considered blood to these creatures. A yellowish caucus substance oozed out of its wounds, pooling around it's head and splattering over Hanza's leather tunic.

While Rook laughs, the abomination regains consciousness, and Hanza goes on her search for the Smilodon,

The hamlet of Trill, a fishing village located along the Northern shores of the East Continent, just a few miles north of the Seer's desert. The small village was a regular stop over point for weary travelers looking for a hot meal and a cozy bed to snuggle up in during the bitter rain season that plagued the far north from time to time.

It was also the first town that Ranma Saotome entered, testing his luck that the general populace wouldn't discover him.

Nearly three weeks had passed since he released Trisha and Sylvia from captivity, and those three weeks were spent traveling this new harsh land. Ranma didn't disillusion himself in the belief that now he could take human form his troubles would for the most part simply disappear. It was never that easy.

Still, he had skirted along the edges of Seer's Hamlet, one of the few major cities to be found in this world. He briefly considered entering the city, but thoughts of powerful mages seeing through his form deterred that idea. Better to err on the side of caution and all that.

"Best to take this one tiny step at a time." Ranma thought bitterly.

Leaving Seer's Hamlet, he traveled to the North, stopping only sparingly to hunt and refill his water supply when he had too. He would every now and then stumble on fellow travelers, but they tended to ignore him in favor of being on their way. Not that he blamed them one bit, since the entire continent seemed fearful of the Boogie Man that inhabited it, even if their prejudice and fear were unwarranted.

Back to Trill. After nearly a month of wandering, he decided it was time to 'test' the waters, so to speak. He didn't want to risk entering a big city, such as Seer's Hamlet, least he be discovered. No matter how strong he thought he was, he didn't give himself a snowball's chance in hell of beating down a whole city long enough to escape.

Trill on the other hand consisted of little more than five families or so, not counting the wanderers that pass through to resupply and rest their tired feet. He still had to be careful however, extremely so, for while the numbers remained low, occasionally he would hear snippets of 'Police Activity' in the area from the more.. shady characters who had tried quite often to rob him of his wealth.

"Enough of that." Ranma snorted, banishing his thoughts. He took a brief moment to check his inventory. Short Sword. Check. Back pack. Check. Neato Pouch that can hold more than it size suggests. Double Check. He really needed to think of a way to thank all those mercenaries that had come after him this last year. They had some real neat toys, liberated of course after he kicked their ass.

"Let's do this."

Grendel wasn't human. Not that this mattered in the common day to day affairs of his Tavern, but to those who had never seen a Forest Troll owning and operating a Tavern and Inn the sight would be pretty intimidating, if not completely surreal.

"Come on Gren.. one more? Please?" cried the pathetic drunk, shaking his glass in the air. "I promise I'll leave.. just.. give me one more.."

Grendel sighed, grabbing the small human by the back of his tunic, "Nay, Bob! I said nay, and I mean nay!" Bob struggled in vain against the troll's strength, try as he might he couldn't get the big oaf to just let go. "HEY! At least let me leave with my dignity! Come on! Put me down!"

Grendel shrugged, dropping the man at the door. "Go on then, get on outta here till you sober up!"

Bob grumbled something before exiting the bar.

"Ahhh Grendel!" Grendel winced, "Why are you so meeeean to that man!" his overly cheery waitress replied, pouting cutely at the troll that happened to be nearly double her five foot four inches in height.

"Tabitha! He was drunk, I can't be havin drunk people starting things around..." Grendel stuttered at first, his words dying off at the crocodile tears streaming down Tabitha's cheeks. "Ah.. eh.. I'll.. eh.." he stammered. Damn that girl! Can't she ever leave me alone!? AAARRGGGGH

"Ano.. hello." Tabitha stopped crying immediately, her dazzling smile returning in full force as she stepped around the troll. Grendel breathed a sigh of relief; glad her attention had been taken elsewhere.

"HeeeeeLLLLLLLLO!" chirruped Tabitha, snagging the young man's arm before cheerfully giving him a look over. Young, not even in his second decade yet. He had long black as night hair with a few streaks of gray. No wait. Tabitha took a closer look, her expressive purple eyes seeming to eat up all that he was. Silver, it was strands of silver. The rest of him seemed pleasing as well for the poor waitress. Dusky tanned skin, ocean blue eyes and strong able looking body. His clothes on the other hand left much to be desired, their quality poor in both monetary value and fashion sense. He was dirty too.

Conclusion! A poor traveling farmer boy, his only saving grace being that he was remarkably handsome for such.

"Welcome to the Rusty Swallow Tavern!" cheerfully greeted Tabitha, idly pushing some of her blond hair back as she dragged the poor boy inside. "I'll be your hostess for the evening! What can I get a devilishly charming boy like yourself?" she batted her eyelashes, squeezing his arm tightly to her abundant chest, enjoying the feel of his toned muscles.

"Ah.." the boy stuttered, blushing somewhat from the contact, "Ah.. miss.. heh.. ah.."

"Your a cutie!" she suddenly said, zooming up to his face. A nose width apart, she seemed to gaze into his eyes deeply before smiling brightly, "Let's get you seated."

Ranma gulped, suppressing a shudder as the overly cheerful girl left him in his seat, "Jesus... what the hell was that about?" he thought, slightly irritated by her cheerful demeanor.

Banishing thoughts about his waitress, Ranma took the peaceful moment to examine the Tavern. A rather large room by his standards, constructed of wood, hay, rope and some kind of plaster. The room itself was filled numerous tables and chairs, as well as a long bar on the opposite side of the room. He eyed the huge troll for a moment, before ignoring him out right. The building itself was pretty empty, but it was still the early afternoon and he guessed they wouldn't start filling up until later.

"What can I get for ya cutie?" Ranma startled at the annoying waitresses reappearance. Tabitha was all smiles, leaning towards him in order to inspire rather.. lewd.. thoughts in him. Ranma didn't notice, "Ah.. yeah.. what kind of food you servin?"

"Well.." Tabitha commented, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "It's too early for the main course to be prepared." she hmmed, some more before giggling, "If you don't mind cold soup, I can rustle up some of last nights dinner."

"That's fine. Gimme five servings then." replied Ranma with a shrug, "Oh, and something refreshing to drink."

"Righty-o!" she chirruped walking away.

Ranma watched her leave for a moment, and then snorted. "Cheery obliviousness.. how.. depressing." he grumbled, thoughts of Kasumi bubbling to the forefront.

"What the HELL!" Thought Ranma with a snarl on his face as he stared at a bulletin board. It was a simple thing, only a five by five foot board with numerous pictures tacked across it surface. Lets rephrase that; Numerous WANTED posters tacked across its surface.

When he had first noticed the board he had simply gone to examine it out of curiosity. Boy, now he wish he hadn't.

The Board held the Ten most wanted fugitives in all of Jade. Aside from various pirates, bandit leaders and the like, Ranma had only found his attention drawn to four posters in particular.

The first two pictures were actually a pair of thieves wanted for numerous thefts, robberies, and in some cases assault as they made their escape. The picture themselves weren't very defined, just a shadowy picture of a monstrous man and some dark skinned elf.

Ranma shook his head, wondering what it was about the two that had grabbed his attention in the first place.

The top two most wanted were... of him. More importantly, they had managed to draw a very credible likeness to his male Hybrid form "Shit." he thought irritably. He shouldn't have expected anything less, but it still pissed him off for being hunted simply because he was born.

Ranma growled at the last picture. It held a very credible likeness to his female human form, and he had no doubt this was Trisha and Sylvia's fault. He really shouldn't have transformed to his human female form in front of them, he had just been so damn excited though.

"It figures." he grumbled irritably before returning to his table.

by Sect

Sylvia waved goodbye to the people leaving their table at a pub in Seer's Hamlet, with a smile painted onto her face. She kept smiling until she saw the people exit the pub, chatting amiably amongst themselves, then dropped it. She groaned as she leaned back in the booth. "Man, just how many people are going to drop by?"

Trisha shrugged in her booth across from Sylvia. "Hopefully, that's the last. It's nearly nighttime, anyways," she replied, rotating her shoulders, which responded with a staccato of weary pops, much to her delight.

"Yeah," the mage replied, rubbing her wrist unconsciously, where once existed a magic dampener. "And they're gonna tell their friends, but bungle up the story in the process..." she muttered.

The weretigress snorted. "Tell me about it. I heard a version that put us as 'hanging from a oak tree, tied together with our own entrails'." She then grinned. "I nearly showed that jackass his OWN entrails."

Sylvia moaned as she slid down in her seat. "I feel bad for Miss Ranko, though. She was actually kind of nice, AND YOU KNOW IT!" she half shouted at her companion, who was shuddering.

She smiled weakly. "Sorry. It's just not everyday where you teach your bane on how to turn human," she apologized. Trisha looked down at the table, where her ale was beginning to turn stale. "You're right though; those Edge Guard guys REALLY overstated our story."

Trisha wondered briefly at why she suddenly felt like she was black and white, then shrugged. This went unnoticed by the werelion and jagwere, who were alternating between staring at them and frantically writing down notes. Quite frankly, she would be impressed if anyone could actually read the hastily scribbled messages.

"And what happened then?" Gar asked, staring at the two previously captive women.

The elf could not prevent a sweatdrop from rolling down the back of her head; the sight of these two "professional" warriors acting panicky at the mention of a saber toothed werecat was strangely humorous. "Er... and then after Miss Ranko learned how to shift, and figured out that she could learn magic..."

"...Beast... forces weretiger... to reveal secrets..." Onoli muttered as he jotted down the notes. He then grabbed a blank sheet of paper, putting the now covered sheet on top of a steadily growing pile.

Sylvia and Trisha sighed at hearing the werelion; not much they could do about it, as, for some reason, the werecats heard a slightly altered version of their tale. "... She then let us go, after giving us a knife each so that we could protect ourselves..." the weretigress continued, shaking her head at the sight of the two.

"... the two escape... steals weapons to protect themselves... in case of pursuit..." the jagwere mumbled, accidentally poking a hole through the parchment.

The mage groaned; she could tell immediately that this was trouble.

Sylvia watched confusedly as her drinking partner sat up straight, looking around as if puzzled. "What?"

"Er... nothing..." Trisha admitted. "It's just I had a very strange feeling just now. As though I was suddenly filled with color..." She blushed at the wide eyed look her friend was giving her.

"Okay... I think you should just lay off of the alcohol right now..." Sylvia started, then blinked as the sight of a tall, gorgeous weretiger suddenly appeared next to their booth; she also noted a sudden annoyed and furious look come across Trisha's face.

The weretiger studied the mage. "I see. So you are the ones captured by that monster," he intoned, scanning her from head to toe, which made the elf blush scarlet. "Well," he said, after a long pause, then turned slowly to look at her friend, "maybe the two of you should be checked over by... oh shit," he finished, in a surprisingly calm manner.

Surprisingly calm, in the face of a foot rocketing towards one's head.

The weretigress stood up after sending the other were into a nearby table. "C'mon Sylvia, we're leaving," she ordered darkly, slamming several coins on the table. She then turned stiffly, and stomped out of the pub.

Sylvia stared at her back stupidly for several moments, then rushed out of the booth, glancing back over her shoulder at the rather cute, and rather unconscious, weretiger. She struggled to catch up with the other's quick march. "Hey, what was that about?" she questioned, which caused Trisha to halt.

She took several deep breaths, before turning towards her much shorter friend. "That... asshole..." she struggled to contain her fury, "you saw me deck, is Tigra. Do not go anywhere near him." Sylvia cupped her chin in a pale skinned hand.

"Tigra..." she mused, then linked. "Oh yeah! He's that Guard who's known as the biggest playboy in Seer's Hamlet!" she exclaimed. SHe then remembered the look on the girl's face in the pub. "Let me guess," she said, looking at the furious were's face, "he seduced you, then ran off with another girl after a few days?" she asked.

Trisha growled, with clenched teeth, "Try a few hours." Sylvia winced.

"Ouch. That's tough..."

Hanza search paths for the evil, sadistic, Were Boogeyman.

Somehow, in some strange way, Ranma gets into BIG trouble.

...Actually, it's probably not all that surprising...

by Matdeception

"What the hell?" Sylvia screeched in surprise as Trisha suddenly collapsed to the ground, victim of a rather brutal strike to the head.

Sylvia quickly summoned energy from the Ethereal stream in preparation to defend herself from their attacker. It figured something like this would happen. They had just wanted to get away from a while, from all the crowds and the annoying questions everyone kept asking about their imprisonment under the Were-smilodon. Trisha had said she knew of a quiet, out of the way place where the two of them could go and relax.

She had agreed, glad to be away from the hustle and bustle of busy Seers Hamlet. Of course, in retrospect, she wished she hadn't. Some one seemed to be waiting for them.

"Pathetic." she heard a definite female voice nearly whisper from behind her before a she felt a searing pain at the base of her skull, and then nothing more as darkness overtook her.

Two weeks later.

Seance sighed as the temporal vortex closed behind him. While he was glad to be returning home, or at least the place he has called home for the last few years, the reason for his abrupt return isn't as nice as he had hoped it would be. Sure, he could spend a fear hours with his girl friend Genn, and he always enjoyed his time with the Digger Family in general, but the reason for his quick return from Jade was anything but for enjoyment.

The appearance of the were-smilodon hadn't set well with him, more so than the rest of Jade. At first he didn't understand why, and as the months rolled by he had all but forgotten about his initial misgivings about the creature.

Now though, now he knew why he was so uncomfortable with the situation.

"Seance?" Julia blinked; wondering why the apprentice of her husband literally appeared out of nowhere, grabbed her hand, and started dragging her to the house. She was so shocked by the action she didn't put up any kind of resistance.

"I'll be right there." Gina frowned as the person on the other end suddenly hung up. "Weird." she thought as she grabbed the videotape as was requested of her.

"What's gotten into you?!" Theo shouted at his apprentice the moment he stormed into his private study, pulling an equally shell shocked Julia behind him. Letting go of his wife, Seance slammed the door shut before turning to face the two.

"We need to talk." Seance said simply, his emotions highly guarded.

Gina frowned when she entered her father's study. It had taken her a bit of time to get from her house to here; during that time she had contemplated what the hell was up with Seance. Her only hint had been the videotape she had recorded nearly a year previous, so she assumed it has something to do with that. Still, what could it be? The Phoenix on the tape was dead; at least no one could find a body. Ditto for the were-cheetah that had been slain protecting the people of the district.

"Gina." Seance motioned for the woman to come over. He was standing beside a TV/VCR set, motioning for her to hand him the tap.

Handing the tape over, Gina asked, "What's got you so excited Seance?" turning to look at her parents, she recognized the confused look of both. They didn't know anymore than she did.

"Master Diggers." Seance began, shoving the tape into the machine but not starting it yet. "I assume both of you know about the current threat of a Were-Smilodon?"

Theo and Julia grew pensive, but nodded the affirmative.

"Were-smilodon?" Gina interjected curiously. This was the first she had heard of it.

Seance spared the sensual genius a glance, "A detailed explanation would take too much time, time I'm afraid I don't have." he stood back up, grabbing the VCR remote before facing the young woman fully, "The were-smilodon is to Jade as the Boogeyman is to Earth. I'll explain more later."

Gina spared her mother and father a glance, but they didn't seem receptive to answering the girls question at the moment. "Fine." she said slowly, "What's happened?"

"Do either of you remember the incident in Japan a little over nine months ago? Were that Phoenix attacked a district in Tokyo, and was defeated by what we assumed was a were-cheetah?"

Theo frowned, "Are you implying that situation has something to deal with this threat?"

Seance nodded, "Take what we know of the creature. He first appeared in Jade nearly nine months ago. I'm sure if someone actually went back and compared the dates you would find them within at least two, to three days time since its first appearance." he stopped for a moment, waiting for that piece of information to sink in for everyone. "Now.." he turned and hit the play button. "Watch the screen."

The screen played out it's grisly fate. Everyone there had watched it before, so none were surprised when the young man suddenly changed and literally ripped the throat of the Phoenix out with its teeth. Seance paused the tape right there and simply stared at the creature.

"Seance?" asked Julia, looking on in concern at the young mage who seemed to freeze up as he watched the screen.

Gina poked him on the arm, which served to bring him out of his stupor. Seance shook his head, chuckling bitterly as he threw a rolled up scroll on the floor before Julia and Theo. "The Death Squads sent to end the threat of the Were-smilodon have all failed, Master. However, we were able to retrieve this image with the help of a Psionicist Mage from one of the minds of the survivors."

Picking up the picture, Theo and Julia looked at it curiously, before blinking their eyes rapidly. Quickly they looked between the screen, then back to the scroll, then back to the screen. "Are you saying.. that.."

Gina frowned, moving up behind her parents to get a better look at the picture.

It was a near picture perfect likeness. The eyes, the pelt, and the snarling image of an angry beast hovering over whomever the hell the Psionicist Mage had taken the picture from.

Seance nodded. "I had suspected.."

"Did something happen, Seance?" Julia demanded of the young mage. If he had just realized who the smilodon really was, Julia doubted the boy would be this forward in revealing the truth. Something had to happen to get him so worked up.

"I'm to deliver a message to you, Julia, from the Were-smilodon." he sighed, "A few weeks ago the were-smilodon captured two members of a death squad and forced them to answer his questions. They didn't want to die, obviously, so they told him all they could. In the end he released them... with a message."

"And?" Theo strained his question, slightly stressed considering the recent revelation.

"Twinkle, twinkle, eleven in all. One by one they all will fall. Fight or flee, it matters not to me. I fight to be free, you fight to defeat me." Seance finished.

Gina blinked, "What does that mean?"

"It means.." Julia sighed, ".. he's going to come after me. Me, and the other Weapon masters."

Seance nodded, "Yes. The two who were captured by the were-smilodon told him that the ten Weapon masters and the Armsmaster herself are responsible for his being hunted."

Julia blinked, then growled. Now that was a bullshit lie! She had never sanctioned ANYONE to hunt the creature down like a criminal. "Who put that in there heads?"

Seance shrugged nervously, then sighed, "We.. don't know." he immediately waved his arms quickly, to placate the woman as he continued, "The two survivors have vanished. We don't know what happened to them, or were they went. All we know is that they were in Seers Hamlet one night, and gone the next."

Theo frowned dangerously. "It's too convenient. The disappearances, the fault being placed on the Weapon Masters and Julia."

Seance nodded gravely, "Yes, Master. It is."

"And?"

"And we believe someone is purposely manipulating events to draw the Were-smilodon on the weapon masters. If this is the same person who supposedly died killing the Phoenix, then we can assume he is capable of causing harm if not out right killing the ones he seek." he sighed miserably, "Since we have made his entire stay on Jade a living hell, constant fights with the Death Squads for no other reason than being alive, I don't doubt the possibility he will strike with deadly force against the ones he believes are the cause of his constant harassment." Seance finished.

"What does the council suspect?" Theo asked.

"The same as me. That someone they don't have eyes on is manipulating the were-smilodon, it certainly points to that. With the prejudice and fear attributed to the creature, it's proving to be extremely easy to manipulate the masses into believing the Weapon Masters and Julia will deal with the creature to keep them safe."

Julia nodded, slowly. It wasn't unbelievable. "Do we know where the were-smilodon is located?"

Seance replied in the negative, "He's completely disappeared since he released his two captives. No one has seen hide no hair of him since then."

Gina, silent for a long time, asked, "What are you going to do mom?"

"Research." Julia said simply, "I'm going to travel to Japan and see what I can discover about the boy, hopefully determine how he got to Jade in the first place and find out just what kind of person he is." she turned to Seance, "I assume you are going to warn the other Weapon Masters of this immediately, correct?" Seance nodded. "Fine. Let me know the instant the were-smilodon reappears, and keep your ears open in case this unknown manipulator starts up again."

by S.A.M.

Ranma frowned as he spotted the first of these so-called Weapons Masters that supposedly placed the price on his head. 'So, you're one huh?' Amazingly, this one was rather easy to get information on as it was...

by Matdeception

The Hamlet of Trill wasn't a bad short of place, Ranma decided after spending three very relaxing and soul soothing days with these simple folk. He had made many friends of the locals, as well as learned much about the outlying regions from the various travelers who would often frequent the area before moving on to the bigger better city, Seer's Hamlet.

Tabitha, after getting through her unbreakable cheerful demeanor and absolute desire to make sure her customers are satisfied no matter the cost, she was down right the best girl he had ever talked too that hadn't tried in some way to date, marry, kill, or have sex with him (well she tried, but he was too damn oblivious to pick up on her not so subtle hints). Her dreams of one day moving to a big city and becoming the absolute best waitress reminded him of his own dream, to become the best martial artist in the world. It was perhaps this one common interest, to be the best that made her such a good friend.

Grendel was the owner and operator of this Tavern Inn. A rather rough guy on the outside, always quick to doll out punishment to any would be irate customer who threatened to start a fight in his establishment, or even touch his employees against their will. That was a trait Ranma found similar to himself. He was a Forest Troll as well, a race of trolls who commonly razed through the countryside robbing weary travelers of their hard earned money and goods. Mostly a barbarian type of tribe who lived primarily in the Dorgan woods to the east of Trill; Grendel was perhaps the only exception to the race. He had risen above people's expectations on how trolls always acted, and proved many times that race, color, so on and so forth, didn't matter one bit. It was the person inside who truly mattered. Of course, when he brought the conversation of the were-smilodon to the troll, Grendel had been quick to prove he was nothing more than a hypocrite.

Bastard.

Minni was the chef of the establishment. She was a halfling, a distant cousin to the dwarven miners. Were dwarfs usually stood anyone from four feet to five feet in height with bulky muscular frames and a whole lot of hair, halflings tended to come to a height of three to four feet with slender nimble frames and a whole lot less hair, except for their feet. Minni herself was a rather shy introverted creature despite her cute looks. Come to a height of about three foot eight inches, she had a slender figure with pert breasts and long hair often times bundled up under the hair net she always wore whether she was cooking or not. Her dark brown eyes were traps however, this Ranma could attest too. Just looking in that endless void of dark swirls had captivated more than one man's heart, despite her rather small height. Ranma secretly believed Grendel and her are an item, but the sheer mechanics of it gave him a headache.

She too, seemed to be a hypocrite however. While she didn't have any problems agreeing with Grendel on his stand point about the inner spirit of a person, she was quick to trash Ranma's respect for her when she out right stated if she ever caught the were-smilodon she was going to cook him up and serve him to the personage of the Bar.

Bitch.

These three were the figurative landmarks for the small hamlet of Trill, the rest of its residents not being nearly as interesting as these three, and despite their hypocrisy Ranma almost believed he could fit in here indefinitely. He didn't though; he had a mission to complete. The weapon masters had to fall before that bitch Armsmaster joined them. Once they were dealt with, Ranma firmly believed he would finally be on the road to acceptance in this strange place.

Ranma had thought about going after the Armsmaster in exclusion to all else, but whenever he asked where she lived no one he talked to knew or were willing to divulge the information.

Fine.

He had gathered enough information about a nearby Weapon Master that he was confident he could find him. Apparently, a Ninja by the name of Tsunami was reported to be in the area, training secretly. If the rumors were to be believed, then the man was training to do battle with the Were-smilodon. Well... if that was true, Ranma had every intention of showing the man why he was considered the best of his damn generation. Besides, Trisha and Sylvia had to have delivered his message by now!

He was lost within his mind. Focused, one with the stream and his sword. Nothing mattered to the aging Ninja at this moment, nothing existed but him and his weapon. All sense of self had been bled away as he focused more and more on the sword. At this moment he had no name, he had no body, he simply was one with the sword.

He was at peace.

Flowing with practiced ease, Tsunami brought his sword to bare. Thrusting, slicing, evading, and countering unseen attacks as he moved with a fluid grace few in the world could possibly attain in their entire lives. He was one with the Art, and the Art was one with him. Nothing could possibly break his moment of Zen.

Something did.

"So. You are one of the Weapon Masters." a voice broke through the haze of tranquility he had brought himself in. "Not what I expected." the gruff male voice seemed at both respectful and demeaning at the same time.

Startled, Tsunami brought his sword forward as he turned to face the unknown presence. "How the hell did he sneak up on me?" he thought in slight panic, before he once again brought his iron will to the fore. "The man must be extremely skilled to perform such a feat."

Before he stood a man in a black as night cloak that seemed to shroud his entire body. he stood at a height of about five feet eight inches, but other than a few stray wisps of hair peeking out from under the hood Tsunami could make out no distinguishing features. The man's fists were held open at his side in a non-threatening gesture.

~"Greetings traveler.."~ Tsunami began cautiously, lowering his sword ever so slightly when the man made no movement to attack. ~"What can I do for you?"~

The man made no move as he answered Tsunami's question, "Nothing. Nothing yet, anyway. Tell me stranger, are you perhaps the one known as Tsunami? Weapon Master of the noble Ninja Clan?" the mans tone spoke of respect.

~"I am. I'm impressed you were able to find me, much less sneak up on me the way you did."~ Tsunami replied with a respectful nod. He didn't lower his weapon however, something just seemed.. wrong. ~"You seem to have me at a disadvantage Mr..?"~

Tsunami could swear the man was smiling at him now, even though he couldn't see it. "Twinkle twinkle, eleven in all. One by one, you all shall fall. Fight or flee, it matters not to me. I fight to be free, you fight to defeat me." the man then clenched his hands tightly, and in a slightly strained voice the man finished, "The test is now! Will you fail?"

~"What..?"~ Tsunami began. He hadn't been warned about the Were-smilodon coming after the Weapon Masters, so he slightly curious about what the man was blabbering about. He had been about to ask for an explanation in more detail, until his breath caught in his throat at the sight before him.

The man's form seemed to nearly double, stretching and growing to a height of just over nine feet tall, the cloak hiding the majority of his figure was pushed away as the transformation went underway. The sickening sound of bones breaking and reforming reached his senses, before a distinct ripping sound rent the air. The man's eyes were glowing bright blue; it's light reflecting on the angry painful snarl on his lips and the long growing canines emerging from his mouth.

It came to him suddenly. He was facing the Were-smilodon. He was facing the soul eater; he was facing someone skilled enough to sneak up on him without letting a single hint that he had been there. Now that he wasn't hiding his presence, Tsunami trembled inwardly at the sheer amount of power and presence the creature exuded. And as he watched his fists uncurl, its claws beginning to glow dangerously, Tsunami realized one thing.

~"I'm in deep shit."~

by Philip Weigel

Heh heh, it is so easy to manipulate these weak minded fools into attacking Saotome. It's even easier for someone like myself, and doubly so as all these fools seem to be so afraid of him and what he is.

If only they knew who it was they should REALLY be afraid of.

That blasted Saotome, he thinks that he's so hot, but he knows NOTHING yet. No one does, nor shall anyone suspect until it is too late. Heh heh, manipulating the populace of this planet to attacking him and saying that the strongest fighters, the Armsmaster and the Weapons Master's put them up to it will definitely change Saotome into what I need him to become.

I smirk, however, it does not reach the face of who I am wearing. I really need to get rid of this shell before it is too late. Oh well, I suppose it does not matter. Until I have broken Saotome's spirit, I cannot regain my true self.

But, all I have to do is wait, and being who and what I am, I can wait for a VERY long time before my patience expires. People think of me as a fool. Well, I'll show them, I'll show them all. As of right now, my spirit is bound to two forms. Saotome is the key for my revival. When his spirit breaks and he becomes more like me, then, then I shall be reborn and NOTHING will stand in my way.

by Matdeception

"RAAAAARRGHHH" The creature screamed in rage, its voice echoing across the wide expanse. Tiny pebbles rattled on the ground, a testament to the rage that savage battle cry held.

Tsunami was left with no more time to think as the creature lunged towards him, arms extended out to maul him as if his opponent was a wild beast pouncing its prey. Tsunami shifted his stance, backstepping as the creature rushed in, and raising his sword in defense.

Tsunami blocked a savage swipe of the creature's claw with his blade, side stepping quickly to avoid it tackling him with its forward rush. Bringing his sword to bare, he thrust forward quickly to stab the creature.

The creature blocked the magical sword with his glimmering claws, an act that surprised Tsunami. He cursed himself a fool when his surprise got the better of him, the were-smilodon snaking in his defenses and punching him brutally in the ribs and chest numerous times before he could bring his sword down in a swipe, warding the creature off as he back stepped from the creature to regain the advantage of distance.

The creature seemed to stall a moment, circling him carefully as if he was searching for any holes in his defense. Tsunami winced, pain flaring in his abused ribs as he thought about his opponent. "He.. is strong. Monstrously so." His ribs felt as if they were cracked, and his chest felt as if a flare fire had seared him across the front where he had been struck. "He's fast.. really fast." Tsunami groaned again mentally at that. Fast. Strong. Skilled. It just wasn't his day.

Ranma eyed the man warily. While he had been the victor thus far in their brief melee scrimmage, a few of those sword slashes and thrusts had come close to hitting him. It was obvious though, the man wasn't an up and front fighter, and he shouldn't have expected anything less from the Ninja. They tended to work in shadows, the path of a Shinobi and all that.

Pushing forward, Ranma tested the man's defenses with numerous near amaguriken punches. He was relieved the man was able to either dodge, or deflect the blows as he backed up to gain distance. Still, he had yet to see the man on the attack, and was kind of curious how good this weapon master really was.

"Amaguriken!" He shouted, the shimmering field surrounding his claws winked out, only to reappear brightly around his fists as flaming Ki energy. His fists became a blur as they broke the sound barrier, leaving sonic booms in his wake as he lunged forward into the man's defenses.

Tsunami grunted, blocking as many of the attacks as he could while dodging what he couldn't. He couldn't contend against the speed of the attack, and not for the first time he realized the prowess of the were-smilodon had been toned down from the truth of the matter. "Shit." he groaned mentally as the force of the creature's blow blasted his katana from his hands to a good fifty or so feet behind him. As he began moving to escape the creature's attack, Tsunami felt numerous blows slam into his body. The sound of bone breaking under the assault alerted Tsunami he was really in deep shit at the moment. Pain flared up from his side, a sticky warm wetness ushering forth from his mouth with the blows. He knew it was blood.

Back flipping to escape the immediate area of destruction being inflicted by the creature, Tsunami tried to put enough space in between him and the creature while ignoring the flaring wounds of his injuries. The creature seemed to be following him though, and only now he was just outside the creatures effective attack range by the barest of margins.

Back flipping high, Tsunami pulled three specially prepared daggers from his suit. "Kanzou!" he shouted, flinging the projectiles at the creature as he tapped into the ethereal stream to speed their flight. The daggers sped true, but were knocked away with little effort as the creature jumped up into the air with Tsunami, moving faster than even someone as trained as Tsunami could see.

Ranma smirked as he took to the air after the Ninja. His daggers had been sneaky, but whatever the ninja seemed to draw power from was clearly visible to his eyes. He had to wonder why he would even do such a thing, since it wasn't very stealthy compared to a warrior of his capability.

Kicking the man brutally in the chest, Ranma was surprised to hear a distinct crack as his chest began to cave in from the force of his blows, followed by the most sickening grunt of pain he had ever heard in his short life. The man crashed into the ground roughly, slowly struggling to his feet despite the pain of numerous broken bones and internal bleeding.

Following the man back to the ground, Ranma pounced on the down man ready to end this fight. He was surprised when the man turned on his back and threw a dagger at him, this time with out whatever energy source he had used previous. Surprised by the sudden action, Ranma could do nothing as the dagger ripped into his shoulder painfully.

"~I win.."~ Tsunami communicated with a smug expression, despite the absolute mind numbing pain he felt. ~"Silver is your great..est.. what?" Tsunami's expression dropped in shock as the creature reached up and yanked the silver dagger out of his shoulder, blood falling to the ground for a few moments until the wound itself let up like a living flame of blue ki fire, only to disappear and leave no trace that he had ever been wounded in the first place.

The creature snorted, casually tossing the dagger to the side. "Don't know why everyone thinks silver is suppose to hurt me.." the thing said cruelly as he grabbed Tsunami with one of his massive hands, lifting him up from the ground. He brought the ninja up to his face before continuing, "Your not half bad, for a weapon user. Whatever Ki you're using you need to stop, I could see your attacks comin a mile away." Tsunami would grunt, if he could. The pain from his broken ribs and extremely damaged rib cage making such an action impossible. He was amazed he was still conscious considering all the damage and internal bleeding.

The creature then slammed Tsunami head first into the ground, before picking him back up and repeating many, many times until Tsunami finally lost consciousness.

Ranma grunted, pulling on the rope one last time before tying it around a tree. He spared the fallen weapon master a glance, before wrapping his cloak around himself again and running off to the south. "One down, ten to go." he thought as he ran. "Gotta hurry with the weapon masters in Seers Hamlet. They are going to be up in arms once someone finds Tsunami."

Tsunami was hanging upside down, his arms tied behind his back, while his feet were tied together to a rope that had been swing over a tree's limp, then pulled down and tied to a tree to keep Tsunami suspended five feet above the ground. His bloody clothes had been peeled away and left at the base of the tree he was tied up too, except for his face/throat scarf and a pair of underwear. His body was bruised, broken, and bloody. He was still alive, though.

"Gar?"

"Hmm? What is it Sheila?"

"Have you seen Icefang? I can't find it anywhere." Sheila said with obvious duress.

"Eh? Your scimitar?" Gar blinked. Sheila never left that weapon lying around, how the hell could it be missing. "When was the last time you saw it?"

"I.. I.." Sheila blushed with a snarl on her face, "I was practicing in the gym, you know, just in case that smilodon decided to show back up. I put it down for only a moment! Honestly! I just turned my back for a second, and it's gone!"

"Well, it couldn't have gotten far. Come on." Gar waved his hand as he moved down the hall. "I'll help you look for it." he offered amicably.

Earlier.

Trisha groaned as consciousness returned to her pained senses, once again she found herself chained to the wall of a damp cave, unable to escape. Her silver dwarven made shackles were seeing to that, the pain of having them clamped to her skin was always unbearable. This was true torture.

Eyes fluttering open, she suppressed a pained groan as she turned her head to face her constant partner in captivity. Sylvia didn't look too bad, some slight bruises was pretty much the only visible damage to her person that the were-tigress could see. "Sylvia?"

Sylvia was not a happy camper. Nope, not one bit. She and her friend had been imprisoned here for hours, if not days. No sunlight ever managed to creep into their cave, so guessing the time of day that way was simply an impossibility. All she knew for sure was she was starving, thirsty, and it seemed they were all going to die here!

"Trisha? How are you holding up?" Sylvia asked, her voice hoarse and dry. God her arms hurt! Couldn't their captors at least chain her in a way where her arms were constantly held up overhead? She didn't think she had an ounce of blood left in her limbs!

"Not.." Trisha breathed harshly, making it clear to Sylvia the girl was having trouble to breath, "Not so good. Has.. has anyone been down here?"

"No.. not since that first time."

Trisha shuddered, remembering their tormentors first visit. He, at least they supposed it was a he, had been cruel and especially callous. He had been rather.. touchy feely. Grabbing her in lewd ways that really really hurt! When she told him to go to hell, he responded by casting some kind of fire spell to burn most of her clothes off and slightly scar the skin beneath.

"I'd rather die than see him again!" Trisha spat as she banished the memories of their tormentors first visit.

"Oh, tut tut my darling." Trisha and Sylvia both felt a cold chill race up their spine as they heard that same muffled voice of their captors.

"I think it's time I teach you. My touch is to be cherished, relished for the splendor that it is." the voice cackled as his shadow seemed to loom over Trisha's chained figure.

Trisha whimpered as the figure approached.

"YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" Sylvia screamed at their tormentor, her plea seeming to fall on deaf ears until the indescribable figure cloaked in darkness stopped suddenly, gazing it's cold glare at the elf before seeming to smile evilly, it's teeth shining like a blinding light in the darkness. "Very well.. you first."

Sylvia's eyes widened as the figure literally pounced on her, claws ripping away her dirty clothing to get at the undisturbed flesh beneath. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Gar grumbled irritated. They two had looked all over the Gym and couldn't find hide nor hare of that damn Scimitar Ice Fang. Sheila was getting more distressed every second that went by with her weapon missing. Not that he blamed her, she was in for some serious trouble from Onoli and HQ if she didn't find the blasted then.

"Any luck, Gar?"

"None. I can't see.. Tirga?" Gar blinked as a trap door in the far side of the Gym popped open, the Were-tiger climbing out with an annoyed frown.

Tirga blinked, startled by the presence of the jagweres. "Oh, uh. Hi Gar!" he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Something wrong?"

Gar raised an eyebrow in suspicion, before banishing such thoughts. Tirga was his friend, after all. "What were you doing in the cellar?"

Tirga frowned, before snorting, "Onoli wanted me to catalogue our emergency supplies. Damnit. Ever sense that were-smilodon showed up Onoli's been up in arms about being prepared for a war or something!" he explained as he kicked the cellar door shut.

Sheila shrugged, a little uncomfortable with the conversation, "Well, I guess I can't really blame him." she snorted, "You had to have seen the beast to know what would scare him so. Of course, being unconscious..." she let the barb hang, but Tirga didn't seem to recognize it as one.

"Whatever. What's got you two here? Practicing?" Tirga changed the subject.

"Actually... Sheila can't find Icefang. Have you seen it?" Gar asked

"Icefang? Wha.. you lost icefang!?" Tirga blinked, before sighing, "Nope, and don't even bother asking. You know I'll help look for it."

Gar chuckled. "Thanks, man."

"Mom? Why didn't we tell Brittany about this?" Gina asked curiously as she and her mother walked down the streets of Japan, their destination still a little ways off.

Julia sighed, "Because she would want to get involved."

"Well, yeah." Gina nodded, "What's wrong with that?"

"Gina dear. Do you know why Seance was so.. unwilling to describe the situation in full detail? Why he refused to go into any more than a brief explanation?" Julia questioned her daughter when the two stopped at an intersection.

Gina frowned as she thought about it. Seance had been unusually tight lipped about the overall specifics, which just begged the question of what he was hiding. Still, she wasn't a Jade native and lack the general knowledge to understand the overall threat a were-smilodon stood for. "Nope. Can't say that I do."

Julia nodded as the duo began walking again, crossing the street. "Well, dear. What would you do if you suddenly found yourself scorned, hunted, feared, and hated by everyone and anyone? What would you feel if you were being tracked down like a wounded animal simply because you're alive?"

"You mean?"

"Yes, daughter. Whoever that boy is, he's been fighting for his life since he arrived on Jade." Julia waved her hand, to forestall any questioning, "How he got there, I don't know. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is the boy seemed to have reached his breaking point, and someone we don't know of is manipulating things behind the scene just for this purpose."

"And you didn't want Brit to know, because if he IS really related to the were-cheetahs, then she would be hurt and reasonably upset that he was being hunted down because he was considered a monster." Gina surmised.

"It's more than that." Julia said as they turned a corner, and kept on walking.

Gina nodded with a sigh, "You're afraid she will blame you for not finding out and stopping it sooner?"

Julia nodded, though said nothing more as they walked on.

The Prefecture of Nerima had always been a hot spot for chaotic and, at least on occasion, Alien activity. It was a center of weirdness that rivaled nearly all other centers in the known world. It was in Nerima were the populous first glanced at the power of curses, the existence of Ghosts, the horror of a mummy like panty thief and letch.

It was also the place the Phoenix god Saffron had attacked in his mad quest to destroy Saotome Ranma, destroy him and everything he ever held dear. It was here where that final Battle had been fought, and it was here where Saffron and Ranma both met their ultimate end. One dying in his mad pursuit for vengeance, the other dying to defend those who simply couldn't defend themselves.

When Ranma had died, the spirit of Nerima went with him. He was mourned as a hero by the people, celebrated as someone who was simply filled with nothing but goodness and purity. Whether it was true or not didn't matter, the memory of his sacrifice would always hold a place in the hearts of those who survived the conflagration of Saffron's madness.

The reconstruction of Nerima hadn't taken very long, the prefecture was well known for its quick and efficient construction companies, but.. they simply weren't into their job as usual. Oh, the jobs got done, and everything was as sturdy as they would normally be if they had worked at their best, but it lacked.. emotion.. vitality..

There was a palpable sense of loss in the district, this was the first thing Julia and Gina a like noticed when they arrived. People moved about the streets, just doing day-to-day chores. To the unobservant, nothing would seem wrong at all with this picture. However, to some one of Julia's experience, and Gina's quizzical nature, everyone just screamed 'Sadness. Despair. Uncaring.'

"Jinkies." Gina whispered in disgusted awe as she and Julia walked on. "Everyone is so sad."

"I know." her mother replied. "Let's see if we can learn anything."

"His name was Ranma Saotome." the boy whispered reverently, head lowered in honor for the dutiful departed.

"I see." Julia nodded, impressed with the respect the boy seemed to hold for this Ranma Saotome. "Tell me.. what was he like?"

The boy chuckled, not in amusement, but the laugh of someone who had yet to bury the distinct pain of loss, a sorrowful agonizing sound. "He.. he was Ranma.. best martial artist ever!" the kid crowded, many passersby who heard him nodded in agreement, before moving on. "About the nicest guy you can ever meet. Strong, confident, smart. Guy was a saint I tell yah!"

Julia nodded thoughtfully, listening intently. Gina remained silent as the guy spoke.

"He didn't deserve what he got. Not after saving all those lives so many times. Not after putting up with the shit he had too around here. It's amazing he was still sane after all the hell people gave him for simply being alive."

Julia stiffened when the boy said that. Narrowing her eyes at the boy, "Could you explain that bit? About him still being sane after the hell he went through for being alive."

The boy shrugged, not seeming to detect the sudden agitation Julia exuded, "Well. People were always coming around trying to kill him. Most of the time it was because of jealousy and stuff, y'know? None of em liked the fact Ranma had so much, and were pissed off about it. If you ask me, they just didn't want to work as hard as he did to get what he got."

"What did he have?" Gina asked curiously. What could the boy possibly have that would cause the type of animosity the boy was describing.

"Talent, looks, the fact he seemed to attract an army of girls." the guy chuckled, before continuing, "Not that Ranma ever understood the bit about girls. His pops raised him out in the wilderness most of his life, the guy wouldn't know what to do with a girl even if she asked. Still, because he seemed to attract the girls without trying, bunch of idiots starting blaming him for their own failures."

"Like?" Julia prompted.

"Eh, well. This one guy blamed Ranma because he kept getting lost. Heck, he'd blame Ranma if there were a cloud in the sky. Mind you, I don't know that for sure, but the few times I seen him attack Ranma out of the blue for stupid reasons I got to say it is possible." the guy coughed, before continuing, "Another guy was mad because the girl he loved didn't want him, but wanted Ranma. It wasn't like Ranma tried or anything to get the her, the girl just didn't like the guy because he was always so pushy and demanding of her when he had no right to be."

"I.. see." Gina suddenly wished she didn't ask. "Is that all?"

The guy snorted, looking at Gina as if she was the biggest idiot in the world. "Pfeh, that's the tip of the iceberg. You think those guys are bad, you should hear about his father."

"His father?"

"Two words. Neko Ken. That's all I gotta say. Genma was a real dumb ass, but even I didn't think he was stupid enough to wrap his six year old son up and fish sausage before throwing him into a pit of starving cats." the guy shuddered, "Torture, it's amazing Ranma hadn't snapped. The guy must have thrown the kid in at least a dozen times. All it did in the end was give the poor guy a uncompromising fear of cats... Oh, and he would go bezerk anytime he couldn't get away from a cat. Scary stuff, let me tell you."

Julia paled when the boy first said the words 'Neko-Ken'. She was a martial artist, perhaps one of the best, so thus it's only logical to assume she had heard of that screwed up technique before. She didn't try to learn it, oh hell no. She didn't want to suffer through that torment for a technique that, as far as she was concerned, wasn't worth it.

"I think I get it." Gina waved the boy off, feeling slightly green as she imaged Ranma as a little boy getting thrown into a pit by some demon. "Do you know where Ranma's parents live?"

The boy nodded, "Mrs. Saotome lives about 3 kilometers that way.." he pointed down the street, "Big house, can't miss it. Genma's been living in the local jailhouse since the incident. Police did research on the boy; it was only a matter of time until they found out about Genma child abusing ass.

"Thanks.."

by Philip Weigel

Ranma went back into Trill to get some supplies, he figured that it would be better this way, so that when he went over to Seer's Hamlet to get the other two Weapons Masters, he could be on the run for a bit and not have to stop for supplies along the way.

While he was buying food, he started to listen to the conversations that were buzzing around. "I heard that the boogeyman's in the area."

"Really? We better stock up on silver if that's the case then."

Ranma frowned, narrowing his eyes at the two who were talking. 'Why does EVERYONE think that silver can hurt me?'

"Hey, you know what I heard?"

"What?"

"Dishonored Weapons Master G'Nolga's being transferred to Sanctuary."

This perked Ranma's interest. He went over to the two who were talking. "Excuse me."

The two, an Elf and a halfling looked at him. The Elf spoke up. "Yeah? What do you want?"

"Oh sorry, didn't mean to scare you there. But, what's this about a Weapons Master to Sanctuary?"

The Halfling shrugged. "Well, you see, about a good day's worth of boating from here there's an island chain called Niek. On that island is a place called Sanctuary."

Ranma nodded slowly. "Okay. Sorry, I'm not from around here."

The Elf snorted. "Obviously. Anyway, that's a place where people go to get better. Weapons Master G'Nolga's being transferred there soon."

Ranma nodded. "Okay, just what does this G'Nolga look like?"

The Elf shrugged and gave a general description of G'Nolga. "She's a Dwarf, and a dang good fighter too. Too bad she messed up."

Ranma nodded and started to walk away. "Thanks!"

The two nodded and waved at him then went back to their own conversations.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Looking up at the lanky human with pale skin, Ranma's eye twitched considerably. "Why won't you let me have this boat!?"

"Cuz I don't give boats to people," the man said snottily.

Ranma just stared at the man. "Then explain to he, why you're hanging out at the pier with all the boats, standing next to a sign that says 'boat rentals', and are wearing a #$%ING SAILOR'S OUTFIT!?"

"Because I just does," the tall, skinny bastard said. "Besides, you ain't got nothin' good on you as to compensate me fer lettin' ya rent these durn boats, kid."

Ranma's eye twitched considerably. Oh, this guy was just asking for an ass kicking.

But still... The human form was the only thing Ranma had left to hide in from the law. He couldn't just beat the crap out of this bastard and steal the boat outright. Nope. He'd have to find some other way to convince the guy to let him have one. "Listen, it's not like I'm going to keep it. I just really need to go out to the ocean."

"Sorry, small-fry. Ain't nothin' doin'," the man said as he spat a bit of chewing tobacco into Ranma's face. "Now get yer butt outta my boat, before I call them there Edge Guards upon yer sorry ass."

Growling in the back of his throat, Ranma wiped his face with the back of his head. "Okay, listen, I'll get out, but who the hell do you think you are?"

The man stood tall and proud for a second. "The names one-leg Pete. Best durn boat-man, fisherman, and river-dancer this side of the Dim Crag Mountains."

"One-leg Pete, eh?" Ranma asked as he wiped his face off some more. "Why's that?"

"Cause a durn mammoth shark bit me leg off, I tell you what."

Scratching the side of his head, Ranma asked, "So, why do you have two legs?"

"I gots better," Pete said proudly. He then narrowed his eyes. "Now get yer ass outta my boat, lazy-ass good-fer-nothin' polecat!"

Frowning, Ranma stood up on the boat, to try to climb out of it, and back onto the pier...

...Only to have Pete use the fishing rod in his hand to tip the boat, causing Ranma to splash down in it.

Smiling, Pete said, "There. Yer outta my boat now, ain't ye? And look! Now you can swim out to the ocean if you want."

Ranma ignored the man's laughter as he climbed back onto the pier, drenched. He may not have wanted to bring any unnecessary attention to himself, but as far as he was concerned... This bastard Pete was getting a new asshole.

(-)

Pete yawned as he took a swig of his ale jug. "Ah... It sure is a *hiccup* a purty night fer fishin'... Full moon... Calm waters... Jes perfect."

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Came a booming male voice from the side.

Blinking his eyes, Pete turned to see just who was talking so damn loud, when he got an eyeful of two LARGE fangs. "Damn salespeople! *Hiccup*! I told ye, I's already gots a set o' steak-knives."

Blinking his eyes, Pete took a step-back... And saw that this was one BIG werecat. "Aw, nine hells..."

Smiling a little evilly, Ranma cracked his knuckles. Oh, this was going to be sweet.

"ROOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRR!"

*Crash*!

*Maim*!

*Mangle*! "EEEEEEEEEK!" *Hiccup*!

*Pow*!

*Crack*!

*Ker-snack*!

*101-Hit Combo*!

Smiling widely, Ranma stood over the broken form of one-legged Pete. Man did it feel good to just break out from time-to-time and raise a little hell. "Now then, good bye," Ranma said as he hopped in the boat. Grabbing either oar, Ranma began rowing out into sea, hopefully, into the destination of the Niek Isles and Sanctuary.

by Matdeception

Life was never easy for Nodoka Saotome.

She had grown up as any werecheetah did, with loving parents and the insatiable happiness of a child cared for. She had grown, she had learned, she had been happy. Happy, until the werewolves brought utter destruction to her species. She hadn't been present during the assault, belonging to the only family who had decided to abandon the clan itself to remain on Earth, while the rest of them traveled to the Retreat with the werewolves.

She herself had wanted to go with her friends, with Cyan and Xerses and their beautiful baby. Honor, however, demanded she stay with her already dying parents. Besides, she was convinced Cyan would send someone back after her parents had died to bring her to the retreat.

Traveling to Japan, she and her parents had simply assumed everything had gone according to plan. After all, there was never any news about a string of murders where the exodus was taking place, so how on earth were they suppose to know any different?

Nodoka had been relatively young then, growing up in Japan with her dying parents. At the age of nineteen her wonderful parents made a horrible, at least that's what she thoroughly believed at the time, choice concerning their daughter's future. They engaged her to marry a man, a man by the name of Saotome Genma.

She was, understandably, furious with her parents for daring to dictate her life for her. Who wouldn't be? A week later she had been married to the lout, on their wedding night he had been pulled away, thankfully, before he could even consummate the ritual for some martial arts training.

Thankful for at least this small reprieve, Nodoka decided she needed to just get out. Get out of the house that was now her home; get out of the honorable and dutiful daughter routine she had played a part in since she was born. She, put simply, needed to go wild for a few days to calm her frazzled nerves.

That was where she met him. Dominic De'Marc, a traveling British man staying in Japan for a few days due to certain complications on the home front. It was lust at first sight as far as Nodoka was concerned. So, after three days full of orgasmic bliss, she discovered why she had lusted after him in the first place.

He was a species of were known as a smilodon, or better known as a Saber tooth weretiger. He had told her about his race, not because he loved the girl or any such silly notion, but simply because he somehow discovered she herself was a werecheetah.

He never did explain how he knew she was one, only that he did. The reason she had found herself attracted to the man was quite simple. The boon, or curse depending on how you viewed it, of the were-smilodon breed was unconscious control of pheromones. It wasn't over powering to the point of forcing someone into submission to his desires, but it was just enough to garner a lot of unwanted attention.

With normal, every day humans the effect was hardly noticeable. If the smilodon was male, and other males picked up on the pheromones, the most that would occur would be a notion of anger or jealously, unless they were gay of course. That brought a whole different set of problems. On human females the effect was mildly greater than on males, while most women would find the man attractive and.. alluring, they never tended to do much more then try to get to know the man better.

Dominic had explained about one extreme case in his family history, about a female smilodon who had overactive pheromones. She had lived a very interesting life. Females in droves hated her, often times making her life a living hell. While males expressed interest in her by the dozens. In the end, she simply chose one man and escaped to a tropical island, where she spent the rest of her life in the throes of passion and pumping out babies with the man she loved.

She never wanted to return to that life again, and was happy for the exclusion. At least, that's what Dominic said.

The pheromones, however, affected werecreatures differently. It basically took the base effect of a normal human who had been affected by the pheromones, and often times multiplied them. The catch, however, was it only worked on werecats of the opposite sex. So, if a male were-smilodon met a trio of traveling male were creatures, they wouldn't be affected. If it were a trio of female werecreatures, then the male could find himself being mauled by suddenly horny females.

That was the main reason Smilodons had stayed on Earth during the time of the great Migration to Jade. Most werecats left the Earth, meaning the smilodons could live their lives in at least relative peace, well.. when one considered the absolute hell of hiding from other werecats as opposed to just having to be careful around normal humans. Anyway, that's besides the point.

After their brief meeting, Dominic had returned to Britain, his time in Japan over.

Nodoka had returned back to her life, back to her home, back to her cold honor and for the most part put Dominic behind her. She didn't discover until after Ranma's birth, when she had tried to at least let the real father know, that Dominic had been killed. Murdered in his sleep when a group of feminists decided to deal with the 'womanizing pervert'. Oh well.

Since her parents had died three months before Ranma's birth, Dominic joining them as well, Nodoka did the only thing she could think of concerning Ranma's heritage. The Japanese would not like a 'nail' like Ranma to stick up in their conformity; such a presence would only invite discord and chaos. Or so she had reasoned at the time.

So she had his heritage locked away, sealed by the power of a local mystic. It shouldn't have resurfaced until the mystic, or Nodoka herself unlocked his powers. They had though, during that titanic struggle with Saffron over the remains of eastern Nerima. Where her son had fought with everything he had to save those he loved, where he died just as he came into his heritage.

Well, that's what everyone else thought. Nodoka had a conversation with Cologne not long after the battle; she was relieved to know her son had been sent to Jade. As far as Nodoka knew, Jade was a place of magic and intrigue, where creatures such as herself and her son would be accepted with not even a blink of the eye. She was also giddy at the prospect of Ranma meeting some attractive were-cats, maybe even Cyan's daughter? Oh! That would be so nice.

Grandbabies!

If only she knew..

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Ranma's eyes narrowed as he walked slowly towards the outer-walls of what he assumed could only be Sanctuary.

After all, he had landed on the trio of islands late last night, an hour or so before daybreak. He had a semi-night-vision thanks to his were-smilodon heritage, but there wasn't much to see. These were, in all respect, deserted islands.

However, Ranma did see ONE structure in the distance. What could only have been described as a mountain with a series of detailed structures on it. It just had to be Sanctuary. He knew it was where he would find Weapons Master G'nolga.

Ranma didn't bother getting back into his boat to cross the distance between two of the islands. He just set out on foot and low and behold, here he was! "And here I'll find that Weapons Master!" Ranma thought with an almost-evil sense of glee.

However, Ranma knew they just weren't going to let him waltz on in there. Some stupid guards would probably throw a hissy fit and get in his damned way! "Which means I'm going to have to sneak my way in," Ranma thought in all seriousness

However, Ranma knew that he shouldn't take an unnecessary risk. Somehow, he just knew deep down that even with HIS level of skill, something could go wrong to alert his presence to the authorities of Sanctuary, and that was just going to be more trouble than it was worth. And even if by the off-chance they subdued him, they would more than likely throw him into a prison cell as well.

And Ranma had done enough jail-time for his damned old man back when he was a kid.

Ranma knew that there was only one thing that could help him now. But it was a 'sealed' technique, he promised himself and Ryuu Kumon that he would never again use such dreaded techniques...

...

Wait a minute! Since when did Ranma still play by the rules!? He had gotten used to picking on the weak, he had gotten used to stealing again? Hell, what's it to someone in another frickin' realm that Ranma never like anyway, if he were to use techniques that were his damned BIRTHRIGHT and he really needed right now!

And so, the son of Genma, (whose morals were really starting to mimic his old man's) concentrated more of his internal energies into his aura than normal. The revised Shooting Star Cloth technique soon came into play as Ranma slowly slipped from view, his own aura acting as an invisible shield to reflect and redirect light. He smirked as he looked down at his hand. Not even he could see it now. "Worked like a charm," Ranma thought to himself.

And so, without a word, Ranma walked up the large staircase, which would lead him up the mountain.

(-)

Ranma frowned as he made it to the top of the staircase. He was at the entry area to Sanctuary now, and it set him on edge. He looked over at the beautifully carved fountain which had constant flowing water, and the other architecture of raised stone pillars, which reminded him of those baby-mobile that are usually attached to cribs.

"No bars... No guards... No gates... What gives with this place?" Ranma thought seriously. Besides the outer wall at the base of the mountain, (which was not sealed off by any means) there was nothing here to indicate that Ranma was in a prison.

"Maybe I've got the wrong place?" Ranma thought to himself, more than a little annoyed. He had been rowing a boat all last night AND walking around all freakin' day. He did not want to have it turn out that he had been on some wild goose chase.

Still, wouldn't hurt to look around, to get a layout of the area. There had to be SOMETHING that could indicate to where the hell he was!

And so, staying to walls, and out of the areas with lots of room to move, Ranma made his way through the Sanctuary. After all, he didn't want to bump into anyone or maybe even set off an alarm, (if there were any).

"Sneaky feet... Creaky feet... Ninja feet..." Ranma thought to himself with a chuckle.

(-)

Ranma groaned as he sat back at the foot of a statue. It was afternoon already, and the place was almost absolutely dead! He had found where the prisoners were staying, signifying that this WAS Sanctuary at least... And he found out just how it was that Sanctuary was run due to overhearing a few 'doctors' and some 'inmates' talking.

It's true that there were no bars, hoards, or gates in the sense Ranma was used to, but he found out that the inmates were kept in line because of the Sanctuary Bracelets that they wore. And there were wards set up at certain places that the bracelets could not go back. "Like a dog and one of those invisible fences," Ranma mumbled to himself. It was rather ingenious in a way, but as far as Ranma was concerned, it was too easy to try and screw with the system if one didn't have a bracelet on them.

"They probably never thought of anyone breaking into Sanctuary before," Ranma thought as he scratched his chin and chuckled. "Well there's always a first time for everything."

But still, that wasn't the BIG problem, oh no. Ranma still had no clue as to where G'nolga was being held, even with overhearing doctors, nurses, and 'psychiatrists' talk and converse amongst each other. Damn it! Why couldn't these people be more like Tofu? That guy was only useful doctor Ranma had ever known; even when he was screwing with his legs or acting like a total jackass around Kasumi.

"Damn it, it can't be too hard to find a damned Dwarven woman with a chestnut brown mane of hair in a ponytail, can it?" Ranma mentally whined. Ah well. At least when he was in his hybrid form, his ki reserves were up higher than ever before. He could hold this damned technique all day if he had to, which seemed more than likely was the case.

Getting up from his sitting position, Ranma stretched a little. He cursed his luck when his back make a cracking noise and caused two doctors to look in his direction. Still, they didn't see him, or anything in that direction, and just went back to what they were doing.

"Idiots," Ranma thought irritably as he walked off to find something of use.

(-)

Stifling a yawn, Ranma laid back on top of a wall. So far, this day had been boring. Boring, boring, oh ye gods-awful boring. Ranma was genuinely thinking of kicking himself in the ass for not just going to Seer's Hamlet and finding Lily and Karia. He might have had a whole village tracking him, but he'd have at least gotten something important done!

His eyes moved about the courtyard as he saw something different than the norm off how today's events went. Two doctors were gathered outside in the center by that large fountain, and they form a circle with five inmates. "I wonder what they're doing?" Ranma thought as he looked down.

The inmates ranged in species. One was a Drow with blue skin and pale white hair. Another was a green-skinned troll with blue hair. A third was a white-haired human with tattoos all over her body. Another was dark-skinned woman and with one blue right eye and one green left eye. The fifth inmate was a cat-woman, a werecat probably, with black and white fur.

However, it was the two doctors that caught his attention. While the first was a dark-skinned woman in violet robes with the hood drawn forward to hide her face the other was a dwarf in green robes, "With a long mane of chestnut hair tied in a ponytail."

Ranma smiled and watched. This would have explained a lot of things if it seemed G'nolga was a doctor instead. Information could have gotten mangled and G'nolga could have just been moved to Sanctuary as a doctor, not a prisoner/patient.

Marigold sighed as she looked over her trouble group. "Okay, group, we're here for our weekly group session. So please, let's start off with a small case of dream analysis. So tell me ladies, what have you seen in your dreams."

"I dreamt I was in the bathroom, eating ice-cream with a sack of horse manure, and that I was using some of my fellow inmates here as toilet paper since there wasn't any left on the roll, and then snapped their necks because they weren't cleaning right, " said the troll woman. The two inmates sitting to either side of her scooted away a little bit.

The dark skinned woman with the two eye colors said, "You know me. I don't sleep. She frowned at the dark elf. SOMEONE KEEPS WAKING ME UP WITH HER GODDAMNED LESBIAN GIRLFRIEND!"

The Drow wrapped her arm around the tattooed woman while the tattoo girl gave the dark-skinned woman the finger. "Damn girl, why don't you just shut the fuck up or something? You're just jealous, you know that?"

"Fuck you, bitch!"

"Don't you go calling my girl a bitch, you bitch!"

Marigold groaned and slapped a hand on her face. She hated this group of trouble makers and just wished she could send them off to a real prison. This couldn't get any worse...

Wait, it could. Tanya hadn't gone yet...

"Sigh, Tanya?" Marigold asked as she looked at the Kryn.

Looking Marigold dead in the eye, Tanya answered, "Oh, not much... Just dreamt I was strangling the Armsmaster with the tail of her own daughter, after I had brutally stabbed her husband to death with the other daughter's glasses," Tanya said sarcastically.

Ranma's ears perked up at that. Someone hated the Armsmaster? Hello!

(-)

Tanya sighed as she was lead back to her cell and the magical wall turned on behind her. Yes, she was resisting the help. Yes, she was purposely being stubborn. Yes, she knew she was being a bitch. Why did she do it? Simple. She didn't want to give these people the satisfaction of helping her. She didn't need to be under observation, she needed to be under her prince, dammit! That bitch had stolen the man who should have been her husband, and all she wanted was a little payback!

Still she had to admit, with the way she's been acting, she wouldn't be getting out. "Maybe I should hold back on the Armsmaster comments?" Tanya asked herself seriously. "It just seems to piss them off more than my other comments about her family. I just want to get back at Cheetah soon, and I can't do that while stuck in here."

Sighing, Tanya walked over to her bed to lay down. This day just totally sucked. Hell, her lifetime totally sucked. "What I wouldn't give to get the hell out of here," Tanya mumbled.

"Really?" A male voice boomed from inside her room. "THAT could be arranged."

by Philip Weigel

Tanya narrowed her eyes as she turned around. "Who the hell are you! What do you want?"

The male voice chuckled. "You don't need to be so defensive woman. I've just come to make a little deal with you."

"What deal?"

"You want to get back at the Armsmaster for some reason, I want to get at her too for what she and the Weapons Masters did to me. How about it?" Ranma was never one for long and flowery speeches, he left that kind of stuff for Kuno.

Tanya blinked, and thought about it. "Hmm, just who are you? And, show yourself dammit! I don't want to think I really am going crazy here!"

The male voice chuckled, suddenly the air in front of Tanya shimmered and warped and there was a HUGE Werecat in front of her with mean ass teeth. "Well?" The Werecat growled. "What's your decision?"

Tanya was about to say something, when someone walked into her cell behind the Smilodon.

Merigold sighed and decided to try and talk to Tanya one-on-one. Not for help or anything like that like she did in the group sessions, but rather to find out what was really troubling the poor girl. 'She's acting more and more like my sister.' And that thought scared Merigold quite a bit.

Walking over to Tanya's "cell" she dropped the magic that kept the door closed and walked inside. She opened her mouth to speak and froze when she saw the HUGE Werecat in front of her. "Wh-what the?"

Ranma turned and growled. 'Dammit! I don't need this!'

Merigold paled and backed up a bit. 'The, the, the Were Smilodon!' Seeing the Werecat growl at her, she started to try and placate him. "Now, now Mr. evil Werecat, I'm sure we can, HELP! HE'S GOING TO EAT ME!, just calm down and talk about this rationally, GOOD LORD'S I'M GOING TO DIE!, and we don't need to do anything rash, HE'S GOING TO RIP MY ARMS OFF AND FEAST ON MY BONES!, if we can all sit down, I'm sure that everything, GOOD LORD'S ABOVE, I'M GOING TO DIE!, will be alright."

Ranma and Tanya were both sweat dropping at this. Ranma shook his head and turned to Tanya. "Well?"

"You can get me out of here?" Ranma nodded. "And keep me out?" He nodded again. "And help me get revenge?" Ranma shrugged. "I'M IN! But this bracelet..." She pointed pathetically to her arm.

*Click-clack*

"What the?" Tanya blinked and looked at her arm, and the bracelet on the ground.

Ranma shrugged and pocketed the "key" to the bracelet. "Stole it from some guy a while ago, he had this on him and it opened up a similar bracelet so I kept it on me."

Merigold stepped in front of Ranma. "Y-You can't take her, HELP! HELP! I'M GOING TO DIE!, I won't let you."

Ranma looked at her. "You Granola or whatever her name is?"

"Um, you must mean my sister, HELP!, G'Nolga."

Ranma growled. "Damn!" He then grabbed Tanya and took off, but not before backhanding Merigold into the wall and knocking her out. As soon as he stepped outside the cell, Ranma slipped back into his Umisenken and started running. "Don't make a sound and they won't find us." He whispered to his captive.

Tanya just nodded.

by Matdeception

"Is this the place?"

Julia took a moment to glance around the area. Wreaths of flowers littered the front of this particular house, many with pictures of the boy at its center, all arrange with great care and respect for what it represented.

She turned to her daughter, and sarcastically bit out, "You think?"

Gina chuckled nervously, "Yeah, I guess it was kind of obvious."

Julia smiled good naturedly, before steeling herself. Reaching out and knocking on the door, she stepped back beside her daughter and waited for someone to answer.

Sooner than expected, a rather beautiful woman with red hair answered the door. She was dressed in a kimono that meshed well with her slightly tanned complexion and dim blue eyes. "Yes? Can I help you?" For a woman who lost her son heroically, she didn't seem all that sad. Julia noted this as she bowed politely.

"Greetings Saotome-san. My name is Julia Diggers and this.." she motioned towards her daughter, who was awkwardly bowing as well, "Is my daughter Gina Diggers."

"Nice to meet you." the woman returned the boy politely, before continuing as any traditional Japanese housewife would. "Would you like to come in?"

Julia nodded, grateful for the invitation. "If it wouldn't be an incontinence to you, Saotome-san. My daughter and I have some.. questions we will like to ask you concerning the whereabouts of your son."

Nodoka frowned thoughtfully. It was no secret her son was believed dead, despite the truth she knew, which just begged the question of what the woman meant by 'Whereabouts' of her son. "I see.."

Julia noticed a few things right off about their hostess. One, she didn't look anything like a werecheetah in human form. That could be for numerous reasons; maybe she just dyed her hair? Maybe her genetics allowed for an easier time in hiding the truth of her lineage? Or maybe, and she hoped it wasn't so; she was actually a were-smilodon in human form. She really didn't want to deal with a pissed off smilodon who might just find out her son is being hunting like a ravenous animal on jade.

"What blend is this, if I may ask Saotome-san?" Gina asked, sipping her tea curiously. She wasn't a big tea drinker, but every now and then she would indulge herself.

Kneeling by the table, Nodoka waved the question off, "Typical store-bought brand." Effectively ruining Gina's misconceptions that all tea served by the Japanese were of 'Special blends'

"I see.."

"Mrs. Diggers? You said you had some questions about the whereabouts of my son? Correct?"

"Ah, yes Saotome-san. First... we want you to know we saw your son go into his Hybrid form." Julia started, watching Nodoka for any signs of recognition.

Nodoka wasn't some stupid third-rate idiot. She knew how to keep her emotions in check, and well hidden. After all, being married to a bastard like Genma all theses years gave her a lot of time to practice feigning indifference. "Hybrid form? Are you referring to his curse?"

Julia and Gina blinked. Did the woman refer to the fact he was a were-creature as a curse? It would make sense, somewhat, considering their understanding of the Japanese social order. Still... "What curse is that?" Julia asked curiously.

"His Jusenkyo curse. The one that causes him to turn into a girl." Nodoka explained. She knew full well they weren't talking about that curse, but by feigning ignorance she hoped to turn the advantage over to her side in this conversation.

"Ah.." Julia began, perplexed. The boy had a curse that turned him into a girl? Unbelievable. "No, that's not what we meant."

Nodoka adopted an extreme confused expression, "Then what do you mean by Hybrid form?"

Julia groaned when Gina opened her mouth and said, "His werecreature Hybrid form, Saotome-san."

Nodoka grinned inwardly. Ah, youth. So trusting, so impatient, so stupid. "I see you know more about Ranma's kind then you let on at first."

Julia spared Gina a glare, said girl just chuckled nervously. "Yes, obviously."

Nodoka nodded, taking a sip of her tea before responding, "Well then, before I answer anymore of your questions, I'd like to know how either of you two are related to my son and his whereabouts. How do you know what he is?"

Gina opened her big mouth again; Julia was seriously contemplating getting a muzzle for the girl. "My mom's the Armsmaster of Jade! That's how."

"Armsmaster? What's that?" Nodoka asked curiously.

Pinching her daughter's leg before she could once again open her mouth and give away more information, Julia turned to answer the woman's question with a smirk. "It's a title reserved for the best of the best on Jade. Martial arts, weapon styles. Ect. Ect." she was happy the woman made no pretense to being oblivious about Jade's existence.

"I see." Nodoka nodded, "Very well. How is my manly son?"

"He's.. about as expected." Julia replied, cryptically.

"Then he?" Nodoka bit on her lower lip tersely, seemingly excited about something.

"Ah.. possibly."

"WAI! MY SON IS SO MANLY! GRANDBABIES! WAI!" Nodoka started dancing around with streamers in her hands, confetti appearing out of nowhere in the air as the aging Saotome Matriarch danced around.

Gina and Julia sweat dropped, the same thought echoing in their heads as they watched the woman dance. "Where did this come from?"

"So.. you are a werecheetah?" Gina repeated the statement.

"Hmmhmm. Yes dear."

"How did you survive the massacre!?" Gina screeched.

Nodoka blinked, "Massacre? What are you talking about, dear?"

Julia sighed. Well, this wasn't what she was expecting. She spared Gina a glare before answering Nodoka's question, "A little over twenty years ago the majority of the werecheetah clan were killed, they were betrayed by the leader of the werewolves and slain before they could make the trip to Jade. Many werewolves and cheetahs lost their lives that night, and both species suffered under the insane werewolf leader's betrayal."

"What.. that.. that's absurd!" Nodoka nearly lost her cool at that. "What proof do you have? No! Cyan! Xerses! Your saying they are all dead?!"

Julia shook her head sadly, "Not all dead. There was only one survivor of the massacre, the baby of the were-cheetah leaders."

"Cyan and Xerses baby..." Nodoka whispered in near shock... "Then all that's left is Cyan's child, me, and my son?"

Julia winced at the way Nodoka said that. If she took the shock of the near eradication of her clan this bad, how would she feel when she found out her son is all but dead on Jade? She didn't think he would survive much longer, not if he went after the weapon masters and herself like her son had planned.

BZZZZZZZZT

Gina sighed, whipping out her cell phone before giving Nodoka and Julia an apologetic look. "Gina here, what's up?"

"Ah, Saotome-san.. I know this isn't the best time, but.. your son is in danger."

Nodoka snapped right to attention, glaring at the woman, "What? My son is on Jade, Digger-san, what would he have to fear there?!"

"Ah.. your son is a smilodon as well, right?"

"Yes..."

"Well, on Jade, a smilodon is considered a boogey-man. An unholy creature that consumes the souls of the innocent, children supposedly being it's favorite. Your son.. has.." Julia cursed inwardly; this was really going to suck. "Your son has been hunted since the day he arrived there, set upon by angry mobs of people who want to see the threat of a smilodon ended. He.."

Nodoka scowled openly, "WHAT! YOU MEAN MY BABY BOY IS BEING HUNTED DOWN LIKE SOME DERANGED KILLER?! YOU TELL ME THEY'RE GOING TO KILL HIM?!"

"We don't know he's going to die. At the moment no one can get near him before he attacks." Julia sighed, wondering idly what the hell was taking Gina so long to finish her damn call. "Look, someone is using your son to get at the Weapon Masters of Jade, which includes me as the leader of the group. I want, no I need your help to stop your son before it's too late."

"You.. you want ME to help you KILL MY OWN SON?"

"No!" Julia swore, this wasn't the way she had planned things to go. "No! We want you to calm him down! Make him see reason! He hasn't done anything but defend..."

"Mom!" Gina interrupted loudly. "Mom! Grandpa's been hurt!"

Julia blinked, "What?"

"It was Saotome-san's son! He confronted Grandpa and hurt him really bad!" Gina blabbered out, lacking a lot of tack considering Nodoka wasn't five feet from the girl. "Dad said he's not going to die, he was just hurt really bad and left tied up in a public place for someone to find."

"Well... he HAD just defended himself until now, that is." Julia drawled. "Still, we don't want him killed. We don't think your son is behind everything that's happening, but while your son is out causing trouble there isn't anything I can do to help him."

Nodoka tried to make sense of it all. She had always been told Jade was a place of mystical beauty, a land of tolerance and indifference. This woman however admitted her own son was being hunted down like some common criminal. Hell, he's been fighting for his life for over nine whole months! Added to the fact she had just learned that she, a girl she had never met since she was a baby, and her own son were the last of the werecheetah bloodline? Oh, today just couldn't get any worse.

"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck." Nodoka ranted, Gina blushed at the sight of the older woman cursing, temporarily forgetting this woman's son had kicked her grandfather's ass, while Julia just raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"Ah.. Saotome.. I don't mean to be rude.." Nodoka glared, Julia ignored her and continued, "Will you help us save your son before.. before permanent harm befalls him?"

Nodoka once again grew silent for a long time. She stiffened slightly, before nodding, "Yes, I'll do what I can to see my son safely home."

"Good."

by Philip Weigel

Shortly after getting out of Sanctuary, Ranma took off at full speed to where his boat was. Placing Tanya in the boat, he jumped over her, landed inside, which was preferable to landing in the water, took the oars and started rowing the boat out.

As soon as she was sat down in the boat, Tanya placed a hand on her chest to try and control her breathing, moving at that speed was exhilarating, but a bit scary.

After a few moments of calming down, Tanya looked at Ranma. "So why the hell was that Dwarf afraid of you?"

Ranma blinked and shrugged, it felt kind of nice that someone didn't fear him just on sight. "To be honest..."

"Yes?"

"This whole world is fucked up!"

Tanya nodded. "I know. But then again, you could scare people pretty easily."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "You have NO idea. I've been in this fucking place for nine months, and from day ONE I was labeled a monster and hunted."

Tanya nodded, thinking about how the people in Sanctuary had been treating her for the last three months because of what she did to the Arms Master's family. She then sighed sadly as she remembered just WHY she was in there.

Hearing that sigh, Ranma raised an eyebrow and looked at the girl in front of him. "Not that it's any of my business but what the hell did they put you there for? You speak out against the Armsmaster or something?"

Tanya's visage darkened. "Nothing like that. I tried to kill her daughter three months ago."

Now, before Ranma had gone through what he did while on Jade, he might've kicked her out of the boat, but after being here for nine months, he could see her side more easily than before. But he did look at her curiously. "Yeesh. You hated the Armsmaster so much you tried to kill her daughter?"

Tanya shook her head. "Not the Armsmaster, just her daughter! I used to be the High Priestess of El Dorado, I was going to marry the Prince, Strype, the man I've loved before I knew what love was, and then SHE..." Tanya started to get angrier and angrier at the thought of what happened.

Ranma raised an eyebrow while rowing. "She?"

"BRITANNY DIGGERS!"

Ranma blinked. "Britanny Diggers... Is she the Arms Master's daughter?"

"YES! That, that ALLEY CAT, stole my beloved from me, right from underneath my eyes!"

Ranma frowned, for some reason, he could relate to that. "What? Did she pretend to be your friend, only to sleep with him behind your back?"

Tanya shook her head. "She, she just stole him from me, with her looks and everything! I tried to win Strype back, but I couldn't. I had to do something, so I kept trying to get her out of the picture."

Ranma grunted at that. For some reason, that struck a chord close to home with him. 'No, I know why, she's acting just like Shampoo and Ukyou did when they tried to get rid of Akane.'

'Still, she doesn't seem evil. Let's see here... Hmm, got it!' "Hey, um, I don't think I got your name."

"Tanya'Rey."

"Ranma Saotome. Now that we know each other better here, did you try and match this Britanny person up with someone else?"

Tanya sighed, and placed her head in the palms of her hands. "I tried. I so tried. But it is SO hard to do so since she's the last Werecheetah."

Ranma nodded and sighed. "Okay. Not much I can say. But man, that Armsmaster and her family seem to screw people over without giving a shit."

Tanya nodded. "No kidding."

"I mean, I didn't even DO anything to her and she and her Weapons Master friends label me public enemy number one."

Tanya blinked. "You're kidding! You're NOT kidding are you?"

Ranma sighed. "Wish I was."

Tanya shook her head. "That's rough. But what can you do about it?"

"I get here. I save a family from a group of bandits. Next day, I'm up to my fucking neck in DEATH SQUADS!" Tanya winced at that. "Land of peace, beauty, and tolerance my ebony-furred ass!"

Tanya sighed. "Sorry. People here are pretty nice, if you don't piss them off. But I suppose that they hate you though. And people don't really need a reason to hate, just being different is enough I suppose."

Ranma blinked. "I guess."

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Before another would could be said Tanya noticed something was off. "Hey, Ranma?"

"Yeah?" Ranma asked.

"Is it just me, or is there violin music playing in the background?"

"What?" Ranma asked. He strained his ears to listen and frowned. "Oh, great! Here comes another one!"

Blinking her eyes, Tanya asked, "Another one?"

Suddenly, Tanya's question was answered when a thirty foot, black skinned, four red-eyed Demon Shark suddenly appeared from beneath the waves, its jaws opened wide attacks the boat, going for Tanya. The Krun ex-High Priestess was so scared at the sight that she forgot that she could use magic to defend herself! She raised her hands up to cover her face as she screamed in terror.

*WHAM*! *THUNK*! *SPLURT*!

"Stupid shark," Tanya heard Ranma call out. "That's the third time already!"

At that, Tanya lowered her hands to see what happened. There was Ranma, holding the thing up with his hand inside its neck. He had killed it with his claws. Tanya was about to ask how he did then, when she blanched at what he did next. Biting onto the nose, Ranma was starting to eat shark in front of her!

Ranma sighed in relief. He was actually thankful that this damn shark through to attack him. He hadn't eaten all day since he entered Sanctuary, and that invisibility technique left him feeling VERY hungry.

After a few more satisfying bites, Ranma noticed that Tanya was staring at him. Holding up the Demon Shark's body a bit, Ranma asked, "Want a bite?"

Seeing Tanya just gawk at him, Ranma shrugged his shoulder. "Trust me. The fin's the best part, though I prefer the eyes. Something about the texture is so good." So saying, Ranma stuck his tongue into the Demon Shark's eye socket, prying out the eye. He then started chewing vigorously, a look of enjoyment on his face.

Having watched all this, Tanya was starting to turn a bit green, which showed up from underneath her fur. "Eww..." Tanya grumbled as he stomach grumbled, threatening to let loose what little contents it had in a violent display.

Noticing Tanya looked a little unsettled, Ranma thought that maybe she wasn't the type to dig into organs. "Oh, wait!" Ranma said as a thought hit him. "You might want the meatier parts."

"Meatier parts?" Tanya repeated. She watched as Ranma snapped off the Demon Shark's head.

Using his hand, Ranma tore off a good chunk form inside and offered her the bit of bloody meat. He didn't mind that it was still dripping. "Here." He said as his hand was extended, holding the large chunk of shark meat.

Staring at the trail of blood dripping onto the boat, Tanya was now becoming VERY green at the sight. "Um, well, um..." Tanya mumbled, feeling a little unbalanced and disturbed by the sight. However, she did notice, to her horror, that her stomach was hungry... And it was a more pleasant sight than watching the shark's eye torn out, (if not by much.)

At Tanya's reluctance, Ranma said, "Oh, don't worry about it, Tanya. It's like sushi, only with a texture of raw beef."

Nodding her head slowly, Tanya took hold of the hunk of meat. She felt her hands most from the blood. Closing her eyes, Tanya lifted it to her lips to take a small bite. Chewing, Tanya blinked her eyes wide in surprise. "Hey! It IS good!" She shouted in utter surprise.

Smirking, Ranma said, "Told you! Here, try one of the eye." And with that, Ranma used a claw to pry out one of the three remaining eyes.

Tanya looked at Ranma as he offered her the eye. Meat was okay, but an eyeball?

Seeing Tanya reluctant again, Ranma rolled his eyes. "Trust me. It's VERY tasty," he said as he held out his extended claw, the red eye on it.

Wincing, Tanya had to admit Ranma hadn't steered her wrong yet. Daintily pulling the eyeball off of his claw with two fingers, she popped it into her mouth. Surprisingly, it WAS good!

Ranma smiled as he watched Tanya now eating into her large bit of shark meat with gusto. Deciding to let her have the rest of the shark, Ranma took the oars in hand and continued rowing once more. "I take it you haven't eaten in awhile?"

Looking up at Ranma, Tanya nodded her head and answered after she swallowed. "Yes, We're given weekly rations. Some of the other inmates tend to take my things."

At hearing that, Ranma frowned. "Yeesh! What about the cafeteria? Don't they give you anything there?

Shrugging her shoulder, Tanya answered, "Just a small serving of soup at lunchtime; that's it." Tanya then sighed. "And I haven't been allowed out of my cell much these past few months."

Wincing, Ranma mumbled, "Harsh." Then, his eyes looked right at Tanya. "And why not? I don't think they'd want you to starve."

Sighing, Tanya admitted, "It's because of how I view the Armsmaster. Weapons Master G'Nolga, from what I hear, doesn't like her either."

Ranma's rowing slowed a little at hearing that. "Oh?"

Nodding her head, Tanya answered, "From what I heard, G'Nolga lost her honor to Julia over something and that's why she's in prison now. She's also Julia's, the Armsmaster, biggest rival," Looking at Ranma, she said, "She's the best fighter short of Julia from what I hear."

"Really?" Ranma said slowly. "So she's been arrested for speaking out against the Armsmaster?"

"Not sure," Tanya admitted. "I don't know the whole story here."

"Hmm..." Ranma mumbled, his face took on a serious look.

Tanya looked at Ranma, noticing the sudden change in demeanor. "What's wrong?"

"Well, Tanya..." Ranma started at length. "Looks like I might have been wrong."

"Oh?" Tanya asked, wondering what Ranma meant.

"Perhaps," Ranma started, speaking more to himself than Tanya. "I shouldn't be going out of my way to fight this one..." At noticing Tanya looking at him, Ranma explained, "She might be in the same boat as me."

At seeing Tanya blink her eyes, Ranma smirked and said, "No pun intended."

Tanya had a feeling where Ranma was going with this. "Um, are you going to..."

"Maybe..." Was all Ranma said on that.

"Hoo boy..." Tanya mumbled as she rolled her eyes. This was going to be something.

"But first," Ranma said to change the subject, "I'm getting you back to the city I'm using as a base; Trill." Ranma smiled a little and said, "We'll get you a nice meal and warm bed."

Tanya nodded her head gratefully at hearing that, but she looked a little down. "Someone might recognize me though, if word got out about my escape." She did manage to smile slightly and say, "And thank you."

"No problem," was all Ranma said on that as he reached into a pants' pocket. One that happened to be a pocket of holding.

Tanya blinked her eyes at the sight. Ranma was sticking his arm farther into his pocket than he should have been able to do. "What're you doing?" Tanya asked curiously.

The answer Tanya got was Ranma pulling out a nice violet silk cloak from his pocket. "Something I pulled off some snobby hunter that was after me."

"Pretty," Tanya mumbled as she stared at the garment.

"Here," was all Ranma said as he tossed it to Tanya.

Holding up her hands, Tanya managed to catch the cloak on reflex, hoping it wouldn't smell like fish due to the meal she had on her lap. "T-thank you," she said.

"You can hide yourself a bit with that," Ranma said. "I mean, no one would expect a 'poor prisoner' to have such expensive clothing."

"Heh, you're right," Tanya said. She gave Ranma a smile. "Thank you so much."

Seeing the smile on Tanya's face, Ranma couldn't help but smile back. That was probably the first genuine smile he received since coming to this damned world. "Look, I'm going to have to be in human form when we get back. But we're going to arrive after dark, okay?"