AN: I Probably should have done this awhile ago , but I didn't think of it at the time. I am doing it now though. After writing this chapter I decided that this story really needed to be rewritten for plot reasons (You will see what I mean if you read this chapter). I am grateful to anyone that read this story and I hope you will enjoy the rewrite 'Curses Aren't the Only Change.' It can be found by going to my profile page.
Timeline 4536
Chapter 8
Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff, well except for Tomas
Doctor Jones walked up to a house in Iran that he knew quite well. He had been there many times visiting his friend, Bahir, who had always been a good source of information and surplices when Indy had needed them discreetly. Unfortunately he had died of old age last year, but hopefully his son Acned would be inclined to be helpful in the same way. It was hard to say sometimes.
Acmed saw Indy standing there and invited him in once they were inside he said, "It is good to see you, my friend, but I was hoping to you were not anywhere near here."
Indy's muscles went taunt at this, "Why?"
"For about the reason you are thinking of," He said noticing Indy's reaction, "Because some 'old friends' of yours from your homeland are in town looking for you."
"Ah hell, could you get together some supplies, transportation and proper papers for traveling in China for me."
Acmed didn't take offense at Indy's abruptness since it was warranted. "Yes that shouldn't be a problem for me." He looked in one of his ledgers. "So you are going to investigate those rumors I have head word of. Just be careful you don't get the Chinaesse government mad at you too."
Which rumors are you referring to?" Indy hadn't heard of any rumors until now. It was just that going though China would be the best way for them to get to Japan, since he couldn't risk getting on a plane. He didn't say this of course.
"The ones about the chinasse government having the services of warriors with special powers, who are said to be the desendents of an empire that spanned the solar system. This group surposally lives in an autonomous region inside China."
"That has got to be one of the crazier rumors I have heard. China doesn't have and autonomous region after all." Indy said and Acmed shrugged agreeing that it was pretty crazy. Neither of them knew how close to the truth this rumor was. "So how long will it take to get the surplices ready?" asked Indy.
"Only a few hours. We should be done by this evening."
Indy got up, "Good, bring them to the East Gate around eight. I have to go collect the rest of my group."
After they left Artemis, who had kept his mouth shut while inside so to not scare the man Indy had been talking to asked, "So who are those old friends of yours that you don't want to meet up with?"
"CIA, they seem to find the fact that I don't grow old very interesting."
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"Hell I hate being in charge of transportation during a snatch. It's so boring." the CIA agent turned to his companion, who was wolfing down a hamburger, but all he got was an inconcohairent mumble in reply. "Where did you find that anyway?"
The second agent took a chug of his drink "McDonalds are everywhere. actually I'm glad that we didn't get selected to make the snatch, and its not because I'm lazy either. If you had bothered to look over the information, then you would see those two girls we're surrposed to snatch wer fighting demons when they were in England."
Artemis and Indy overheard this and knew that they were talking about Makoto and Minako. "You take the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left" Artemis wispered as he changed into human form.
Indy got his gun out, "Right, wonder what is going on in there?" he said nodding at the building.
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"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Minako, " Doctor Jones said not to get into trouble."
"Don't worry about it, I just wanta see what the fighters here are like." said Makoto, "And it will do you some good to see some other fighting styles."
"But I wanted to go shopping." Minako knew that she was whining, but she didn't want to be anywhere near the toughs she saw around here. Nope, she would like to spend her hard earned cash on something beautiful.
"Shopping why? Doctor Jones is taking care of getting supplies." despite what some might think Makoto was being perfectly serious.
Before Minako could respond some of the aforementioned toughs came up, "Hey you little girls take a wrong turn? We'll be glad to set you right in exchange for some fun." The presumed leader of the toughs smiled lecherously for about two seconds before he was slammed into the wall courtesy of Makoto's kick.
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Hassan was keeping an eye on the crowd making sure no one did anything stupid that would bring the cops down on them and looking for a good fighter. The fights had been getting stale lately and people weren't betting as much. When he saw some young punks causing trouble for some girls he went to go break it up, bad for business after all having girls hurt on the permasis , but it turned out that he might have to defend the idiot punks instead. Those two girls knew their way around a fight, although one of them was vastly more experienced. And really fast too he saw as the lead punk went flying.
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"Maybe ya right and we ended up where the weak wanta be hang out, instead of where the good fighters are." Makoto cracked her kuncles, "Now I believe you said something about payment."
A man moved between Makoto and the toughs. "No fighting unless you're in the ring." The toughs take one look at him and leave in a hurry. Before Makoto can say anything the man said "You can get registered for fights in there," he points to a building to the right, "and you better not lose because I'm betting on you."
Don't worry, I'm one of the best." Replied Makoto.
"Ha so what is the name of the person who is going to win me a lot of money."
"Makoto Kino of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
"Well, Makoto when you get inside tell the old man that Hassan said you were good."
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"Alright got a new challenger. A girl name of Makoto Kino, is taking on the reigning champion, Bruce the Bruiser. The odds are 3 to 1 in favor of the Bruiser." There was a great deal of call for bets and comments of the odds, many thought the odds were awfully good for a newcomer and a girl at that.
John Smith didn't care about the odds. He did care about one of the fighters though, since the girl, Makoto was traveling with Doctor Jones. He might be able to get leverage over the good doctor of they had some of his companions in their possession. Since Makoto was a bit of a fighter they had decided to snatch her and her friend after the fight rather then before. It would be easy, after all they were only Japs and girls to boot. John Smith told this to his assistant in somewhat vaguer terms, of course, wouldn't want anyone to know what the plan was.
His assistant, on the other hand, had been thinking for a while that the old man was a hindrance to the mission, for the guy was an incompetent fool who was lost in the past. It wasn't the old man who had figured out where Doctor Jones would be, despite the past association with him, and it wasn't him who had found out who he was traveling with. It had been the old man's idea to kidnap the girls and from the look of the fight, it was a damn fool idea. Whatever else you could say about that girl, Makoto, she could fight. Anyone could see that just just by watching that Bruiser character try and hit her, anyone but this fool of an old man who was in command.
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Man the Sahara dessert sure is crowded this time of year thought Ryouga, then he looked up and saw Makoto just as she won her match. She was very beautiful and he walked over to her, making sure to keep his eyes on her the whole time so he wouldn't get lost again and congratulated her on her win. Since Ryouga was concentrating on Makoto he did not notice the CIA agents coming. Once they attacked though...
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The five CIA agents assigned to do the snatch split up into two groups as planned. It was thought that there would be less fuss and less chance of one of them getting away, if the two targets were not close together at the time. Three agents moved toward Makoto, since she was a bit of a fighter and therefore a larger threat. The remaining two agents went towards Minako. They did not anticipate any problems and were confident that if any appeared they would be able to deal with them quickly and efficiently.
Needless to say that is not what happened. The agents that tried to attack Makoto fell in a few seconds between Makoto's fists and Ryouga's umbrella. They weren't even able to interrupt the flow of Makoto and Ryouga's conversation. As for the two that went after Minako, well she showed how much she had learned from Ranma by throwing the first one though one of the wooden beams that were at the corners of the fighters ring. The other one found out that the bouncers at this place were faster to respond the expected when one of them hit him from behind, excuse me let me correct that, he didn't actually find that out until after he regained consciousness.
Makoto looked over at the broken beam, "Hope they don't try and make us pay for that."
"Don't worry about it." said Hassan, "I do find it odd that you seem to be more worried about that, then the men who attacked you."
"Cause they're wimps, you ain't."
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Minako could almost smell the traces leading to the rest of the people who had tried to kidnap her, but not well enough to follow it though, not in human form. She was wondering if she really wanted to follow that trace, when she overheard that Hassen guy, who was he really, say that the next time the CIA would send tougher people. "If we need to find their trail then I'll, um, go get a wolfhound to sniff it out." She ran around the corner and after a moment a wolf came out from around the wall she had disappeared around.
Seeing this Hassan thought 'Does she think I am an idiot.' He decided not to say anything until after they had tracked down the remaining agents, which they did easily enough. When they did they found out that someone had gotten there first. One guy had been thrown through a wall and the other one was on the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound. Indy was standing over him with a gun pointed at his head. Artemis was in a fighting stance nearby and when he heard someone coming he swiftly turned to see who it was. "Good, it's you Makoto."
"Of course, come on you didn't think they would be able to beat me."Makoto had on one of those triumphant smirks that any one who knows Ranma would reconize.
Seeing this Hassan turned to the, um, wolfhound. "Now that this is being taken care of I would like to hear how you became a werewolf, Miss. Minako."
"How did you know?" In most cases changing back to human form when someone calls you a werewolf is not the smartest thing to do, but in this case it was.
Hassan lifted an eyebrow. "You mean that you weren't born one. That was simple..."
"No I mean how did you know I was the wolf?"
"I may be many things, but a idiot is not one of them." said Hassan
"Gotta say that was one of the stupidest cover ups I've seen, Minako" Makoto said turning away from Artemis.
"But..." Minako was going to reply that it had always worked before, when she remembered that if it had worked then her parents and Soatome san would still be alive. "You're right sorry. I became a werewolf a few months ago wen we were traveling though Romania."
"Only a couple of months! How did you gain control of the transformation so quickly." Hassan had several contacts with the supernatural, so he knew that it useally took six months to a year for someone to gain as much control as Minako showed just now."
"Um, actually"
Doctor Jones interrupted, "We have to go find Ranma before anyone else does."
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"This is the last place I would have expected to see you Tomas. What are you doing here?"
Tomas turned around to see Ceran, who visited the court of Avalon about once a year in the course of his work. Tomas easily slipped into the formal wording used in court. "I am on my Journeyman travels. Might I make known to you Sir Ranma Soatome who has kindly consented to be one of my companions on my travels?"
Ranma just had to speak up at this point, "What's with the sir in front of my name?"
"All knights have sir before their names the same way you would add sensei to the end of a teachers name." said Tomas.
"But I'm not really a knight." exclaimed Ranma
To this Tomas replied, "Yes you are, you became one when Titania gave you your arms and armer. Anyway," he gestures to Ceran, "This is Ceran Vesck, he travels around the world dealing in magical artifacts."
Cean smiled at the two's interaction, it was good to see Tomas relaxing so much. "Actually I have growth tired of traveling so much, so I live around here now. I have a shop right over there." He pointed down the street. "You are welcome to come visit if you want."
Looking at a bunch of old artifacts sounded to much like work for Ranma, so he said he would catch up with Tomas later
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"Ah hello, now I know that my husband is around here somewhere. Where is he?" Ranma turned around hoping that the voice he heard was not who he thought it was. Unfortunately, it was Hera. She was standing there pointing that spear that had whacked Makoto in his general direction. Her grip was rather badly off and she would probably drop it if she tried to use it. "Look lady, ya just confused because of ta law of contamination. Makoto ain't your husband. She's the reincarnation of..." Ranma was going to finish with "the princess of Jupiter" when he was interrupted.
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After getting away from being bitten by any werewolves Koari realized that they had left Ranma behind. There had been any chance of her actually being bit, but she had thought that was because she suffering from the after effects of the fear spell she came in contact with not because she is an idiot though she didn't know that. Anyway her and her father hired a private investigate to find him again, thus they were able find out that Ranma was traveling though Iran with that group of his. They also had found out that the CIA was after Dr Henry Jones Jr. who was commonly called Indiana Jones. It was imperative that hey separate Ranma from the others before he got into trouble with them. It would be most inconvenient to have Koari's fiancé involved in an international incident.
So Koari was here following up on a tip that someone had seen an Asian boy with a pigtail along the street. Just as she was about to give up and go beat up the man who sent her on a wild goose chase, she heard "ain't your husband" from around the corner. It was most definatly her fiancé's voice saying it which means... well she couldn't let that happen. Koari ran around the corner shouting that Ranma was her fiance and she was the one who got to see if he lived up to his name in bed.
Hera resisted the urge to take notes on the graphic discribsion of how Koari was going to find this out. "I care not for your interruption. You will not be getting married anytime soon."
Now Hera knows since she was the goddess of marriage after all, but Koari took it to mean that this arrogant hussy was competition for her Ranma and probably the reason that her fiancé hadn't come to find her. "You're carrying his child aren't you, you brazen hussy."
Ranma hearing this proved that somethings are instinctive, not learned, by running away while those two were fighting. Of course both Hera and Koari started to chase after him without stopping their own fight, don't ask me how they managed that.
Ranma soon ran into the magic item dealer that Tomas had been talking to earlier. The man had one of his carpets with him and Ranma asked "This a magic carpet?" at the mans nod he grabbed it and unrolled it "I need ta barrow it thanks" Ranma took off on the carpet. About two seconds later, Hera and Koari came running around the corner.
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Ceran went back into his store. "I'm afraid your friend in some trouble. He is being chased by two woman," he said to Tomas, "And he just go on that defective magic carpet that I was getting rid of.
Tomas shoke his head "I don't want to know how that happened. Ranma seems to have the most usual luck I have ever seen."
"We'll you better go make sure he doesn't break his foolish head because of that carpet." As soon as Tomas ran out the door he saw the carpet gararating wildly with Ranma hanging on to it grimly. There was nothing for it down here, so Tomas unfurled his wings and flew up to try and catch the carpet and get Ranma off it.
When Tomas grabbed hold of the carpet it gave a large jerk to the right, pulling him on to it and incidentally ramming though a window. There were a lot of scantly clad girls in the room and one half-dressed man in the middle of them. The carpet barreled right into the man and scoped him and and one of his harem girls up, then it went out the window on the other side of the room before anyone had a chance to react.
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It was much easier then anyone had thought it would be. While the others were wondering how the hell this had happened or how they were going to get them down, Ryouga was trying to do this trick he had figured out how to do to heat water. He wasn't in his cursed form but he just needed a spark.
He got more then a spark and the carpet disappeared in a poof of smoke. Fortunately the fire disappeared fast enough that no one was burned. Unfortunately the blowback from the spell threw Ryouga into a nearby fountion, right in front of his girlfriend. Once he had changed back he had to explain about his Jusenkyo curse.
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By some weird chance that seems to happen around Ranma all the time Koari and Hera were right below. The harem girl landed on Hera and the man, well he fell on Koari and they both ended up crashing into a dis play case of love potions and falling in love with each other It really is to bad that Koari's father disapproved of them and it took two years before they were married, but oh well.
