The "trap door" to the attic creaked loudly as it swung open; a pretty girl with long brown hair soon clambered up the fold-down stairs and into the dark space.

"Geez..." Megumi muttered, sweeping cobwebs aside. "When was the last time the help dusted this place, anyway?"

Finally, she reached the window. It slid open with a little push, and Meg peered outside. What luck! Miki's cat, Kyoko, was only five or six feet to the left of the window!

Carefully crawling outside, Meg called the cat to her. "Here, kitty, kitty! Come here, Kyoko!"

"Meow!" The cat didn't look particularly interested. Crawling a little bit closer, Meg suddenly made a grab at it, but the pestilent feline hopped out of reach just in time to evade her!

"All right, you little furball," she gritted her teeth. "So that's how it is, eh? We'll see about this..."

-

Miki and Akane had joined the boys near the fountain, stopping the dirty jokes, but livening the conversation in other ways. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, but for some reason something Miki looked a tad worried.

Noticing that she looked a little preoccupied, Akane asked her "Hey, Miki! What's wrong? Is something bothering you?"

"Oh, nothing much," Miki assured her. "It's just that... Meg sure has been gone for a long time. She's pretty fast in the bathroom as far as girls go; do you think she might be sick?"

"I hope not," Akane frowned sympathetically. "That's never fun, especially on your birthday..."

Not wanting to get Miki worked up over nothing, Akane decided to change the subject.

"So," she asked, "does Meg really live here? It's a beautiful house."

"It sure is," Miki agreed, taking a fresh look at the house where she spent so much of her time. "Three stories tall, not including the attic and basement. Sometimes I wonder how they afford the electricity bill..."

Suddenly, Miki turned stark white and a look of horror came over her face.

"Miki!" Akane gasped, concerned. "What's wrong with you? You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

All of the jokes and conversation had stopped, and everyone's eyes were on Miki. Trembling, she pointed up toward the roof.

"It's Meg... She's running around on the roof..." she squeaked faintly. "With this gusty wind, she might..."

Suddenly, Megumi Amatsuka came into view, running around in circles and loops at reckless speed. Meg's Musketeers all looked as if they might have a heart attack!

"Meeeeeeeeeg! Why do you keep doing such dangerous things?" Genzo yelled to the heavens in frustration. Crying, he pleaded with her, "Meg! Pleeeeeeease come down from there!"

"He's right, Miss Megumi!" Ichiro shouted, trying to conceal his panic. "It's not safe up there!"

"It's no use, guys!" Akane told them. "The wind is drowning out your voices!"

Stretching a little, Ranma told them, "Aw, don't worry about it. I'll go get her."

"But by the time you reach the attic, it could be too late!" Yasuda cried.

"Who said anything about the attic?" Ranma asked, puzzled. He leaned down, and then hopped 30 feet straight up!

Miki, Genzo, Ichiro, Yasuda, and Ichimonji all stared after him open-mouthed, their eyes bugging out of their heads; only the Nerima crew was unfazed.

"D-d-did you all see that?" Ichimonji finally managed to choke out. "How did he DO that?"

"Do what?" Ryoga asked, very confused. "All he did was jump on top of the house..."

-

"Mew!"

"Kyoko, you stupid cat!" Megumi panted. "I'm tired of playing games with you! Either you stop running, or I'll rough you up so bad that you'd be better off in a violin factory!"

She was about to make another dash at Kyoko, when (to her shock) Ranma hopped onto the roof in front of her! Megumi stopped in her tracks, staring at the human grasshopper dumbfounded.

"R-Ranma!" she finally choked out. "What are you doing here, and how did you just do that?"

Megumi glanced quickly at the ground below. "Some kinda catapult, maybe...?"

"That ain't important right now," Ranma replied. "Question is: what are you doing up here? Everyone in the yard is about to have a nervous breakdown!"

"Oh, man! You mean they saw me?" Meg asked, a little annoyed. "I was hoping I could slip up here and back without anyone noticing. You see, I'm trying to catch Miki's cat."

Ranma turned pale and swallowed hard. "Um, I think I misheard you or somethin'. Would you mind repeating that?"

Puzzled at his anxiety, Meg repeated, "I said Miki's cat is running around on the roof; apparently, the little fuzzball is faster than she looks. So far, I haven't been able to catch her. Want to give me a hand?"

Ranma twiddled his thumbs in embarassment. "W-well, I would... but-"

Something apparently caught Meg's eye, because she smiled in surprise. "Hey! Maybe that won't be necessary! (giggle) It looks like she likes you!"

Ranma's heart stopped beating as he felt something warm and furry rub against his ankles.

"Please, please, no...!" he thought in panic. Fighting the instinct to crawl into a fetal position and pass out, Ranma forced his eyes downward.

"Meow!" Kyoko purred happily.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

Ranma lunged forward, screaming like a two-year-old and sending the cat flying with a "YOWL". Megumi blanched when she realized that Ranma was heading straight for her!

"Ranma, you idiot! We're on the third-OOF!" she screamed before having the wind knocked out of her. The two teens felt themselves leave the surface of the roof, and soon found nothing but thirty feet of empty space below them! Finally realizing what he had just done, Ranma said the only thing that came to his mind.

"Oh, crap..."

Luckily, his mind was working a bit faster than his mouth. "Man! I've really done it this time! I guess the only thing to do is make sure I hit the ground first... Damn, this is gonna hurt!"

(30 feet) Ranma began twisting around in midair, trying to make himself wind up on bottom.

(20 feet) Finally, he managed to accomplish the maneuver. "Brace yourself, Meg!" he yelled.

(10 feet) BAM!

"What the hell?" Ranma thought as his back collided with something very hard, and then passed straight through it. Through the blur of speed and pain, he realized that they had crashed through the roof of some sort of building...

(0 feet) BAM! (again)

-

On the ground floor, everyone had been going through about a million emotions:

1. shock (ICHIMONJI: "That jump... HOW?")

2. amazement (ICHIRO: "That's pretty neat...")

3. curiosity (AKANE: "What are they talking about up there, anyway?")

4. and when Ranma and Megumi plunged off the side of the roof, the ever-popular

"kill me now" made an appearance (ALL: "NOOOOOOOOOO!")

Their hearts all fell to their big toes when the two first fell off, but as they awaited the dreaded "SPLAT!", they were greeted instead by the afore-mentioned "BAM!".

"Hey!" Miki pointed in the direction of the crash, "They fell into the gardener's shack!"

The group sped toward the shed as fast as their legs could possibly carry them; Genzo reached the door first.

"MEEEEEEEEGGG! Hold on, angel! I'm coming!" he shouted as he grabbed the door handle. He gave it a twist, but to his (and everyone else's) mortification, the door wouldn't budge!

"Oh, no!" Miki cried. "It must be locked!"

"Then I'll break it down!" Genzo growled. "RRRRRRAAAAAGGGHHH!"

He kicked the door as hard as he possibly could; unfortunately, it barely made a dent.

"Huh? What's up?" Genzo asked Miki, confused. "They tore through the roof like it was paper!"

"Maybe," she replied, "but people don't normally try to break in through the roof; the door is probably the sturdiest part of this building. I'll go get a key"

As Miki ran off toward the house, the others could only hope and pray that Ranma and Meg were alright...

-

"Ooooooh... my aching noggin!" Meg mumbled as she woke up. "Where am I...?"

Despite the dust and general destruction of property, Meg recognized the little shed as her gardener's shack. "Where did Ranma disappear to?" she wondered. Just then, the ground beneath her moved!

"Wha?" Sitting up, Meg discovered that she had been lying on top of him!

"Yo... Meg," he smiled weakly. "You okay?"

SLAP!

"Yow!" Ranma shouted in pain. "Why'd you do that for?"

"Why do you think, you dumbass?" she snapped harshly. "You knocked me off the roof, and almost got us both killed!"

"Hey, sorry, but I took the brunt of the fall, didn't I? Show some gratitude!" he spat back.

"Look around this room, you blockhead!" Meg pointed at all of the sharp gardening tools on the wall and strewn about the floor. "If we'd fallen on one of those, it wouldn't have mattered who was on bottom; we both would've been impaled! Smashing into the ground would have been less risky than this !"

"I can't believe this!" Ranma growled. "Here I try to save you, and all you can do is gripe me out about where we land! You're acting just about as uncute as Akane! 'Sides, if you hadn't been running around on the roof, none of this would've happened in the first place!"

She grabbed him by the collar and leaned down close to him. "You listen here! I told you why I was up there; I was trying to save Miki's cat. You've no business criticizing me. (evil grin) Just imagine: a guy who's scared to death of cats!"

Ranma blushed a deep crimson. "Why you... If you EVER tell anyone about this, I'll-"

Before Ranma could finish his threat, the door suddenly swung open, bathing the two in light.

"Meg!" Genzo shouted in concern, "Are you-"

The pineapple-haired punk stopped in mid-sentence, his face frozen in shock.

"G-Genzo! What's wrong?" Meg asked, both worried and confused.

Everyone was silent; finally, Akane stepped forward, and she looked MAD.

"Rrrrrrraaaaaannnnmmmaaa!" she rumbled. "You'd better have one heckuva explanation..."

"What in the world are you people talking about?" Ranma exclaimed, thoroughly confused.

"What he said!" Meg echoed.

"Ummm... Meg?" Miki spoke nervously. "Take a look at what you're doing..."

Ranma and Meg looked toward each other. "Hmmm?"

Meg was sitting on top of Ranma (perhaps "straddling" would be more descriptive), her hips about even with his. Both were very dissheveled, and Meg was still holding onto his collar tightly; their faces were less than a foot apart. Even the oh-so-naive Ranma and Meg realized with a sinking feeling that this was a textbook example of a "compromising position"!

"ACK!" Meg hopped off of Ranma as fast as she possibly could, and Ranma simultaneously shot to his feet! Waving their hands wildly, Ranma and Meg tried their best to explain.

"I know what this looks like, but I would never-" Meg stammered.

Ranma was pleading like a man condemned. "It was the fall, I tell ya! She was up close 'cause we were arguing! Please, I promise-"

"Shut up."

Genzo's quiet but firm command did its job admirably.

He looked up with tears in his eyes. "Meg, don't worry. I know you're way too pure to go carousing with this creep."

(YASUDA: "Carousing? Where did he learn a word that big?")

"He obviously was holding you down, and pulled a clever switch when he heard me open the door. Nice trick."

Genzo wiped the tears away, and as he turned toward Ranma the look of sorrow on his face turned to a look of rage. "Listen up. Lying about wanting Meg was one thing; I could have forgiven you that. However, when you dared to try and defile my angel, you crossed the line. Better write a will, because you're about to die."

END OF CHAPTER 8

-

Nice cliffhanger, eh? Please review, and keep reading!