Author's Note:

Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment all right. I just had this idea pop into my mind, and I only thought about it because one reviewer commented on the lack of pairings that solely rested with the Diggers sisters (I've only seen harem relationships in stories like these).

A little warning, though. This is very short. As in half the size of my other prologues, but to me, they count as the first chapter. This is a true prologue, at least in my opinion (Or at least of the ones I wrote). It leaves just enough so that you can question what's going to happen, and what happened, but also enough that you don't know what happened or will happen.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and Gold Digger belongs to Fred Perry. I don't own anything, so please don't sue me. I don't have the money for that kind of thing.

Gone. They were all gone. His friends, his allies, his loved ones, torn asunder by the eternal flame, and he didn't do anything. He did too little far too late, and he paid the consequences. This wasn't just any other battle. This was the fight for life! And he had failed! Why couldn't he have realized it? What would it take for him to understand?

"Damn it…" weak and sorrowful, like that of a child. "Damn it." Strangled, but louder. "God damn it…Saffron!" He bellowed to the heavens in a rage of endless pain.

Fire and Ice collided and formed a vertex, a constant cyclone, a torrent, and neither relinquished, but the flame would eventually extinguish. All flames, given time, must blow out in the dawn of a new age, but this one marked the end of a people.

Ice raged against the inferno one final time, and time itself froze.

"Come on Cheets. We've only got a little bit more to go." The speaker was, of course, Gina Diggers archaeologist and explorer extraordinaire. Clad in only a tight form fitting one-piece suit reminiscent of Indiana Jones, which more or less resembled a one-piece swimsuit, she wandered the dark and dusty halls of what was once a prosperous civilization, or at least they were told it was a prosperous civilization. It was hidden in the Byankala mountain range in the Qinghai province of China, and for all they knew it belonged to some strange humanoid species that were wiped out from a freak occurrence years ago. The flashlight she held lit the entire corridor for at least a hundred meters, which was unsurprising given that she was a technological genius and could create many devices that exceeded anyone's expectations.

Gina Diggers acquired multiple degrees in the field of science, as well as in archaeology at the age of eighteen. She never sat idle after she received her degrees either, and went on to invent technology that would send most modern scientists reeling. One of her most commonly used devices was her own personal shield, which emitted an energy field around her body. It was safe to say that she never left home without it.

Cheetah, or Cheets, was the nickname of Brittany Diggers, Gina's little sister. Though, if one looked at her, there really wasn't anything little about her. She stood at an exotic seven feet, and one could only describe her as muscular, but not overly so. She also wore tight fitting clothes that only covered vital areas of her body.

The only other aspect of Brittany Diggers that would cause anyone to look twice was her appearance. Outside of her height and considerable assets, she looked like a very large humanoid cat, which was understandable considering that she was a were-cheetah. Some notable features were her ears, her tail, and her fur; they all sported black spots that were often associated with cheetahs, and her ears flicked about picking up every little sound. Her tail swished back and forth as she walked beside her sister.

"You don't sound too happy about that, sis." And Gina didn't. It was probably because her latest expeditions all turned out to be busts, or that her competitor turned friend, Penny Pincer, had beaten her to the treasure. It was bound to depress her. Especially now that, if they didn't find anything valuable, their funds would be reaching an all time low. This was a scary thought when considering Brittany's ability to shop en masse. It was indeed a legendary sight.

"I'm not, but we've got to try someplace, right?" She didn't sound completely convinced. "Besides, those Amazons we passed said this was some kind of sacred land, so we might actually find something worthwhile." She really didn't believe that. There were too few holy lands left that weren't discovered already, and she was sure that such a place would have already be discovered, especially when it was in plain sight.

Their excursion to this mountain civilization was slightly outside of the norm for the Digger's sisters. For one, it lacked the usual traps that would try and kill them before they found anything important. That could only mean two things; (One) the people who lived here were extremely arrogant, or (Two) there was nothing here worth protecting. The second difference was that nobody disturbed them thus far.

To say Gina was disheartened would have been an understatement. If there was one thing she could count on, it was the fact that everywhere she went trouble brewed, and since there was none she believed that the trip was another bust.

So it was to their surprise that they actually found something. They only knew this because there was a drastic change in climate when they approached the top of the mountain, which was mostly out of place in the jungles of China. Altitude alone couldn't have chilled the air this much, and, as far as Gina knew, no natural phenomenon occurred in this area.

It was strange to see the caverns that were so humid only a few hundred feet back turn into the ice-encrusted caverns they traversed now. A heavy mist wafted through the breezy tunnels, and the darkness ebbed away in favor of a gentle blue glow that danced along the ice-covered surfaces. It was eerie, a feeling very much like walking into a giant freezer.

The trek, in Brittany's opinion, just got worse from that point onward. Since the weather didn't exactly call for snowshoes or ice climbing gear, the two were just a mite unprepared. If anyone else were to see them at that moment, they would have gladly documented it. It was the moment in archaeological history. In other words, it was the day in which the Digger's spent an entire hour of falling over themselves on the ice-covered floors. The only other moment that came close to this was when Brianna (Brianna is Gina and Brittany's sister who, as a cure for their 'curse', came to creation through the fusion of the elder Diggers sister's DNA) had fiddled with Gina's control configuration for her light-gate, and teleported all of them to El Dorado while Cheetah was still changing.

Gina didn't find it all that funny, but she was the one doing all the falling down, and it was all her fault to begin with.

"Are we almost there yet?" Brittany was almost pleading, hoping that they were at the top. They had slid down the entire slope several times already, and it made the trek feel like a damned excursion. It was just a little bit too much, even for her extraordinary endurance.

Gina didn't say a word, instead opting to struggle the next few feat closer to the peak. She was using a knife to pick her way into the ice and drag her further up. It was a decent practice, but overall very tiring.

Upon reaching flat ground, Gina cried in relief, which was soon followed by Brittany, who Gina had to pull the rest of the way. They weren't disappointed in the least when they found the cause for all the ice.

It was big, it was round, and it was God damned cold. It was…

"Jinkies…"

"It's a giant ball of ice…" Brittany was awed by the sight of a giant snow globe. It was ethereal in nature, a phenomenon, and an anomaly. It wasn't everyday she got to see a giant ball of floating ice in the warm climate that is the Chinese rainforest.

The giant ball of ice was, indeed, just that. The globe stood, or rather floated, just a few feet off the ground and was constantly engaged in a slow spin. It was approximately fifty feet in diameter, and the underside could hardly be seen due to the amount of misty fog covering the ground.

Gina, as scientists are wont to do, theorized its existence. Surely a giant ball of ice couldn't have appeared out of thin air. Maybe it was magic in nature. If it was, then her father (Dr. Theodore Diggers was an Arch Mage of high caliber, and a brilliant man to boot. But he was, obviously, not here, and therefore did not serve any purpose yet) might be able to help put together a few of the missing puzzle pieces. If it wasn't, then where the hell did it come from? Why was it floating? She was barely aware of her actions as she thought.

Gina had set up several pieces of equipment in the blink of an eye, a practiced motion built up by years of exploring. It wasn't as much as she would usually bring, but it was still a sizeable amount of equipment, and it would do for now. She was currently calibrating several thermal scanners when Brittany interrupted her.

"Gina, come over here." 'Over here' was on the opposite side of the sphere, which was about forty feet from where Gina had all of her equipment.

"What is it Cheets?"

Brittany was staring into the globe of ice, a peculiar expression written across her features. "Look over there near the center. Do you see anything?" She pointed in the general direction of what she was talking about.

Now that Brittany had mentioned it, there was something there, but it was indiscernible with all of the ice in the way. Gina traversed the circumference of the sphere, and found that where Cheetah stood was the only place she could see the figure.

"I don't know Brit. Maybe if we thawed this huge chunk of ice we'll find some answers." It was at that point Gina's scanners had picked up something. "Well, this doesn't look good."

Indeed it wasn't. The thermal scanners had discovered the origin of the ice, and also the reason why it had not melted over time. The ice globe was being fueled by a foreign energy source, and it resided directly in the middle of the sphere. There was also a heat source that resided near the bottom of the sphere, which was most curious. But did that deter Gina? Hell no! Give Gina Diggers a mystery and she'll jump on it faster than Brittany would tuna, which was a considerable feat, and no less frightening of a concept.

In truth, the look in Gina's eye when something caught her interest would send a person with the strongest of wills running for their life. If the ball of ice had sentience, it would have done the same thing, but since it didn't it was a moot point.

"You wouldn't happen to be packing lasers, would ya sis?" Brittany's question had the unintentional effect of putting a damper on Gina's mood. No, she didn't have lasers; she really didn't have anything that she wouldn't carry on a normal dig, which would mean she had to call in backup on this one, and that was something she was not looking forward to in the least.

"Looks like we'll need to call Brianna in for this." And she so wished to keep this site intact, too. With a resigned sigh, Gina made the call.

"So sis," Brianna began, just stepping out the light gate Gina had set up to get her here. "What didja need me for?" It wasn't everyday that Gina would ask her sister for help, as well as promote her youngest sister's desperate need to cause destruction. Brianna had received Gina's call no more than five minutes ago, and was quite surprised that she asked her to bring several sets of high-powered lasers. Gina didn't explain what she needed them for, but Brianna didn't really care at the moment; she got to use her lasers!

"We need," Gina waved towards the monstrous ice ball behind her, "To crack that open."

"Whoa…" Brianna, much like Brittany, was awed at the sight. "I can see why you needed the high-powered ones." She took her eyes off of the ice ball and looked at her sister. "You haven't told me why you need to go digging around in it, though."

"The phenomenon that caused this is in the middle of that thing."

"I see. Have you set up the video equipment so we could analyze what we're going to do?"

Gina smirked. "It's been up the moment we saw it."

"Alright!" Now Brianna smirked, and it was not a pretty sight. "Can I start on it?" Her voice left no question as to how truly excited she was, which didn't reassure Gina at all.

"One sec," Gina sighed. She turned to look at the side of the monstrosity. "Yo, Cheets! Get over here! Brianna's gonna start crackin' it open!" She really didn't have to yell since Brittany, being a were-cheetah and all, had extremely sensitive ears, and could practically hear a mouse skittering across the floor three hundred feet away without any problems.

Brittany didn't need any more prompting. Her sister's ability to cause things to go boom was quite familiar to her, and she didn't want to be at ground zero when the shit hit the fan.

Brianna also didn't need any more prompting and immediately set to work, powering up the hulking arm mounted lasers of her power suit (Brianna, if nobody could tell, was a tech geek. Much like her sister's in their respective fields, Brianna excelled in creating new technology that empowered the body, as well as creating weapons of mass destruction. If she took the total of all explosives in her lab, she probably could have taken over the world with minor struggles). The lasers emitted a bright orange glow that shimmered brilliantly along the iced caver walls. It was like watching a light show, but without the screaming fans, loud music, and mosh pits (Mosh pits are, of course, the reason certain concerts exist. It just isn't a concert if you're not being constantly shoved during the entire performance. Anyone that says other wise is obviously lying, or smoking something they shouldn't).

It took a total of two hours of delicate work, (Brianna and 'delicate' don't usually go together, but in this case, it was more than appropriate. Especially seeing that the mountain wasn't leveled) and they were almost completely through. Several chinks of ice, roughly the size of a person, littered the ground. Gina took special care to move the chunk that housed the 'heat source' near her equipment so she could analyze it without destroying it. That meant that she had Brittany lift the thing. It was already melting when Brittany put it down. Just like Gina had theorized, the ice constantly regenerated and caused their work to slow considerably. If it weren't for Gina creating several force fields in strategic areas on the globe, which now resembled a poorly chopped up ice figurine, then they wouldn't have gotten anywhere. As it was they only had a half hour of real work to go before they reached the center, or at least that's what they thought.

Brittany was the first to notice; the ice had begun to crack and everything was glowing brighter with each passing second. Brianna and Gina couldn't exactly see the brightness coming from within the sphere due to their light dampening shades (Lasers are bright, you know) but they did notice the multiple fractures appearing along the ice. The only reason Brittany could tell that it was getting brighter was because she didn't wear the eye protection. Instead she was busying herself by digging a small canal that allowed the water to flow down the caverns from which they came. Her shadow, since she was facing away from the sphere, kept on stretching and becoming darker.

It was thanks to Brittany's quick reflexes that all three of them had managed to make it to safety behind a conveniently placed boulder, because, in that instant, the sphere exploded. It wasn't really a normal explosion in which things went boom (Brianna was very disappointed by this). The explosion sounded like shattering glass, and, despite being behind cover, the Diggers sisters were showered with fractured ice. The explosion also lacked the 'explosive' feeling that one usually associates with explosions.

That wouldn't keep Gina down for long, however, and she sprung from up behind the boulder and walked steadily towards ground zero. What she found absolutely floored her.

Brittany and Brianna were heading her way when Gina suddenly turned to them, a wild gleam in her eyes. She smirked mischievously and said, "Dibs."

By the time Brianna figured out what had happened, it was far too late. "Damn it!"

For lying on the ground was a young man wearing blue and black Chinese silks, and a braided pigtail of raven hair…

Author's Note:

Yes! A second author's note! Aren't you excited? Of course you aren't.

Anyway, this is my present to those who enjoyed my other stories; so Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or Happy Winter (for those politically correct people who can't take a statement at face value).

Yes, I will be updating my other stories, and it will probably happen sometime in January. I'm trying to write longer chapters, and that's something I'm not really proficient in, so please be patient with me.

Also, I was wondering if anyone would like to be a beta reader for me. All that I require is that you are proficient in the English language, and have average powers of observation. If you're interested, please send me a private message.

Well, until next time!