"Someone kidnapped Kasumi," Ranma told Percy. He looked over at Annabeth. "I figure it was your buddy Luke. He went missing at the same time."

"No way would Luke do that!" Annabeth exclaimed.

Ranma shrugged. Either he was right and he put the kid in traction or he was wrong and he put the guy who did it in traction. It was not a big deal to him, either way.

"My mom sent me a companion to help track her," he continued. "This is Tsukiko. From what she can tell, Kasumi's in Los Angeles."

"How could she send you a companion into the West?" Annabeth asked.

Ranma stared at her like she was stupid.

"What?" Annabeth said, offended. "It's a legitimate question!"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "The U.S. has more Japanese immigrants than Greek." He paused thoughtfully. "Although there might be more Italians, if there's anything to the notion that the Roman gods are the same as the Greek ones. Regardless, my mom has shrines all up and down the West Coast of the U.S. and even a few on the East Coast. The Shinto and other Eastern gods simply choose not to rock the boat most of the time."

"I'd like to help you, Ranma," Percy said, "but we're running out of time on our own quest. If you're still looking the day after tomorrow. . ."

"No problem," Ranma said. "Me and my buddy Ryouga can handle it."

The three demigods and the satyr exchanged greetings.

"What happened anyway?" Ranma asked. "You've only got one day left!"

"We actually made decent time," Percy said, "but we fell into the Lotus Eaters' trap. There's something funny about the way time passes inside. I swear we were only in there for a few hours, but you say we only have one day left?"

Ranma nodded. "It's late at night on the 20th."

Percy swore under his breath. "Any ideas on how we can get there before morning?"

"We were going to run," Ranma said. "Tsukiko thinks we can make it in about eight hours."

"It's almost 300 miles!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"How much in kilometers?" Ranma asked.

"I don't know—maybe 450?" Annabeth answered.

"Sounds about right," Ranma said.

Annabeth, Percy, and Grover gaped at them.

Finally, Percy said, "I don't think we can manage that."

"Maybe a taxi?" Annabeth said.

"That would cost a lot of money," Grover said.

"We have these," Percy held up a card. "Supposedly we can buy anything with them."

"We could fit three in a taxi, but five plus a very large fox?" Annabeth questioned.

"You can shrink down to normal size, can't you, Tsukiko?" Ranma asked.

The fox nodded her head. "I can, Lord Ranma."

The Greeks started upon hearing the fox talk.

"No problem then," Ranma said with a smirk.

"No way, Ranma," Ryouga protested angrily. "I refuse to be treated like the Old Ghoul treated Mousse."

"Relax, P-chan," Ranma said in Japanese. "I'll be doing it too."

"What?" Ryouga exclaimed in the same language. "Your girl form isn't that smaller and it's hardly the same!"

Ranma sighed. "I picked up another cursed form from a Greek goddess who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Luckily, thanks to what my mom did, I can control it."

"Oh?" Ryouga said. "What is it?"

"A white fox."

"Like Tsukiko?" Ryouga asked.

"No, normal-sized," Ranma said.

"Is it a girl fox?" Ryouga said with a smirk.

"I don't know," Ranma said, embarrassed.

"You promised you wouldn't tell, Ranma," Ryouga protested.

"You told me that you would help me rescue Kasumi," Ranma said. "These guys are honorable. They won't take advantage of you and we won't tell them how to trigger it."

Hesitantly Ryouga nodded.

"Anyway," Ranma said in English. "Ryouga and I have shapeshifting curses that we can take advantage of to be smaller."

"Curses?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, we have limited control over the activation," Ranma said. "I hope you don't mind, if we don't tell you how to trigger them. We'd also like you to keep them a secret. Ryouga is especially sensitive about his curse. You agree?"

"Sure," Percy said. Annabeth and Grover nodded agreement.

"Ryouga turns into a little black piglet and I turn into a white fox," Ranma said. "We'll be right back."

Ranma, Tsukiko, and Ryouga went around the corner and Ranma pulled a water bottle out of a ki pocket.

"You figured out how to do ki pockets for your gear, right?" Ranma asked Ryouga.

"Yeah," Ryouga responded as his pack disappeared. "I usually don't do it when human because it sacrifices too much ki to store all my stuff."

"Good," Ranma said. "None of the others could carry your pack unless we got Percy wet."

"He has a curse?" Ryouga asked.

"No, it's a demigod blessing," Ranma said. "He gets stronger when wet because he's the son of the Greek sea god."

"Huh."

"You ready?" Ranma asked.

"I guess," Ryouga replied, irritated.

Ranma poured water on him, and then put the water bottle back in his ki pocket and transformed into a fox. Tsukiko shrank down to the same size.

"Just so you know, Lady Ranma," Tsukiko said. "Your fox form is a female."

Ranma yelped in irritation. She hoped it counted toward her girl time.

Ryouga squealed in amusement.

The three of them trotted back to where the Greeks stood.

Annabeth squealed, "Cute!" when she saw them. Her hands started twitching and she kept looking from one to the other.

"What's wrong, Annabeth?" Percy asked.

"I can't decide which is the cutest!" she said. "The pig is so tiny with its cute little handkerchief, but the foxes are white and fluffy."

"And this is important, why?" Percy asked.

"I've never seen her like this before," Grover muttered.

Annabeth shot Percy a dirty look before seizing Ryouga and picking him up. Ranma shook her head. She personally thought that Ryouga's pig form was kind of ugly, but obviously there was something about it that made "real" girls act like idiots.

While she was musing about whether it was the fact that she often had testosterone going through her system that inoculated her from this dementia that many girls seemed to get, Annabeth set Ryouga down and pounced on her.

"So soft! So white!" Annabeth muttered while stroking her back and tail.

Ranma was frozen in panic. While she admitted that being stroked felt nice, her Nerima-born instincts urged her to flee before a fiancée found her. She forced herself to calm down as she was mostly out of that mess. She did not think that Kasumi would hit her for this, even if Akane might on her behalf. She reminded herself that there was a very large ocean separating her from Akane.

"I think you're making Ranma nervous, Annabeth," Percy drawled.

"Nonsense," Annabeth said.

"He's practically shivering and his eyes are wide," Grover corroborated.

"Lord Ranma has had some negative experiences with over-possessive females," Tsukiko said. Ranma was grateful that her companion decided not to give away her gender change.

"Wouldn't he say something if he was bothered?" she said.

"I actually use magic to speak," Tsukiko said. "My mouth, tongue, and throat aren't right for doing it. Lord Ranma and his friend have not learned how do it."

Annabeth backed off and started to pet Tsukiko. The other fox seemed to enjoy it as she seemed to almost purr.

While Annabeth was pampering Tsukiko, Grover managed to hail a cab.

"You want me to take you to Los Angeles?" the cab driver said doubtfully. "I'm going to need to see a lot of cash up front. That's going to cost about a thousand dollars."

"Do you take casino cards?" Percy asked.

"Some of them," the driver said. "I'd have to swipe it to make sure."

Percy handed him the card. When the driver swiped it, an infinity symbol appeared on the display.

"It looks like you're good to go kids," the driver said. "If you want to take the dogs and the pig, there's a $50 cleaning surcharge."

"That's fine," Percy said. "We want to go to the Santa Monica Pier."

Ranma glanced at Tsukiko in confusion.

"I have magic that makes me appear as a dog to the uninformed, Lady Ranma," she said quietly in Japanese. "I've extended it to you."

Ranma nodded.

Somehow, to Ranma's disgust, she ended up on Annabeth's lap during the trip. This initially made her quite nervous, but she relaxed into the girl's gentle petting eventually.


Ranma woke up as the car came to a stop. It was light out and it looked like the sun was about to come up.

"We're here, kids. Santa Monica Pier," the taxi driver said.

Everyone hopped out of the car and the driver handed an electronic signing pad to Percy.

After the driver pulled away, Grover asked, "How'd you sign it? I assume you didn't use your real name."

"Seymour Butts," Percy said with a grin.

"Ah, a classic," Grover murmured in appreciation.

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Ranma gave a foxy grin. Thirteen-year-old boys were pretty much the same all over the world.

Ranma trotted off to find a place to change back.

"We'll be right back," Tsukiko told the Greeks as she and Ryouga followed Ranma.

Ranma found a restroom that they could duck out of view behind and changed back to a male human and Tsukiko grew to her normal size. Ranma pulled a thermos out of his ki pocket that he had acquired once he had met up with Ryouga. Once Ryouga was dressed, they returned to where Annabeth and Grover were waiting on the beach.

"Percy already went into the ocean," Annabeth said.

"That's cool," Ranma said. "We're going to take off. Thanks for the ride and good luck!"

The rest of them all said their goodbyes.

"Lady Kasumi is close by," Tsukiko said. "Less than a kilometer, in fact."

"That's lucky," Ryouga said. "Los Angeles is a large city."

Tsukiko led them to a warehouse that was close to the beach. The front door was unlocked. The interior was mostly open. Kasumi was tied to a chair. Luke and five kids his age with normal demigod auras stood in front of her.

"So it was you," Ranma commented. "Why'd you take my wife, Luke?"

"It wasn't anything personal, Ranma," Luke said with a grin. "She's just a tool to get my revenge on the gods."

"So you don't like your pop," Ranma said. "Big whoop. Been there; done that; moved past it."

"You have no idea what my father has done to me!" snarled Luke. "Your pain can't compare to mine!"

Ranma snorted. "Did your pop ever cover you in fish products and throw you in a pit of starving cats? I didn't think so."

"What? No one would do that! You're lying!" Luke shouted at him.

"My pop did it to me at least half a dozen times," Ranma said. The only reason he could talk about it so casually right now is that the worst of the symptoms of the Cat Fist were gone. "Kasumi and Ryouga have seen the results of that 'brilliant training idea' of Pop's."

Luke looked at Kasumi and Ryouga who both nodded.

He snarled, "So your father was evil too. That doesn't mean I can't get my revenge."

Ranma smirked. "See, here's the thing. My pop isn't actually evil, he's just lazy and stupid. I've mostly forgiven him. I don't trust him, but I've forgiven him. I'm willing to be your pop isn't evil either."

"I don't care what you think!" Luke said. "You won't stop me from ushering in the New Order and your too innocent and too happy wife will be the host for the King of the Titans!"

"Not likely," Ranma said with his most infuriating grin.

"Who's going to stop me?" Luke shouted. "You! You already know I can beat you!"

Ranma started to laugh. He bent over from laughing.

"Is this guy for real, Ranma?" Ryouga said. "His aura says he's only at about Kunou's level."

Ranma finally stopped laughing. "He thinks because he can beat me with a weapon I've only picked up a handful of times he's better than me!" He started laughing again.

He finally stopped for real. "Thanks, Luke. I haven't laughed that hard since the Tomboy tried her own cooking."

"Ranma!" Kasumi said with a smile. "There's no need to be that rude to either my sister or this ruffian. It doesn't hurt to be polite even to disreputable people."

Ranma waved agreement to his wife. "I'll get you out of here and we'll go do something nice as an apology."

"Stop ignoring me!" Luke said, drawing his sword.

"What?" Ranma asked. "You're still here?"

With a wordless shout, Luke charged.

"You mind handling the mooks, Buddy?" Ranma asked Ryouga.

"I don't even know why you bothered dragging me along, Ranma," Ryouga said. "These guys aren't worth my time."

Ranma side-stepped Luke's charge and disarmed him with a strike to his wrist. He thought about toying with the younger teen, but figured a quick defeat would hurt his pride more. He jabbed Luke hard in the kidneys and then dislocated both shoulders.

Luke lay gasping in pain on the floor.

"You're lucky you didn't actually hurt my wife, Castellan," he said. "So I'll just leave you with a warning. Don't mess with her again."

"What's taking you so long, Ryouga?" he asked as Ryouga knocked his third opponent unconscious. The other two ran. Ryouga let them go.

Ryouga huffed in response. "These guys really weren't worth my time. Why did you drag me along again?"

"I thought they might have some monsters with them or something," Ranma said. "Sorry for wasting your time."

Ryouga shrugged it off. "You couldn't know. No sense taking chances with Kasumi."

Ranma nodded agreement as he walked over and untied Kasumi.

"Sorry it took so long, Kasumi," he said as he hugged her. "The United States is bigger than I thought."

"How'd you get here?" Kasumi asked.

"Mom sent Tsukiko here to help me find you, then we ran or hitched rides on trains or trucks. We picked up Ryouga on the way."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Kasumi," Tsukiko said.

"How'd they talk you into marrying this jerk, Kasumi," Ryouga asked as they exited the warehouse.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Tsukiko," Kasumi responded. She looked at Ryouga with a frown and said. "I know this is how you play two with each other, but you ought to consider being politer to each other."

Ranma and Ryouga both shrank into themselves a little, embarrassed at the scolding.

"Thanks for coming, Buddy," Ranma said to Ryouga.

Ryouga rubbed the back of his head. "No problem. It's not like I had anything better to do."

"I thank you too, Ryouga," Kasumi said.

"I'll head out, guys," Ryouaga said. "I don't want to be a third wheel."

"See you later!" Ranma said, as Ryouga walked off. Kasumi called farewell also.