Chapter 12: "Dragon Ascending Pitch"
DISCLAIMER: Most characters owned by other people, which is the nature of fanfiction after all.
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Of all his favorite places to be, high school wasn't.
College was better for actually learning something, less formal settings were better for socializing, and despite the usual anime series - a high school really wasn't the ideal place to defend the Earth from alien invaders.
Furinkan was hardly a typical High School, but it was likewise not especially worthy as either a place of learning or a place of social interaction.
Returning to the "hallowed halls" after a month's absence, Greylle had found the entire thing an enormously bad situation. On a most basic level, he needed to feel useful and keep busy. Preferably without being overwhelmed.
The first day back had seen a lot of questions as to why he was back and when could they get tours of the complex.
Nabiki had sold the official story: that he was entirely cut off from those resources as part of a deal with the Japanese government. Now he had to go back to being the baseball star.
Shampoo had gotten into a big fight with Ukyo over Ranma. The two had started out rivals, become friendlier, and were now back into bitter rivalry. Most of the time.
Genma had discovered that his transformation into a little black piglet was an override on his Jusenkyo curse. Now whenever splashed with cold water, he turned into a pig instead of the huge bear-creature that he had been. Soun was delighted as Pig-chan didn't shed as much and certainly ate less.
Soun was pretty much inside the house alternatively sulking because he'd thrown his three daughters out, and delighting in how this gave the girls a chance to "bond" with Ranma and/or the gaijin as part of his plan. Especially as the story was that the gaijin had moved back to a tiny cramped one-room apartment. One of his girls would be alone with the boy of her choice, nature would take its course, and there would be a wedding!
Hotaru had transferred in and spent a lot of time being ignored by most of the boys present. She *did* vow to try again on the tea ceremony, or maybe she should use a Western approach. Her boss Amaterasu just seemed to laugh a lot whenever the subject came up.
Ami and the rest of the ersatz Senshi transferred to Juuban for some reason.
Yuka waxed eloquent about her power armor. Sayuri grumbled about her own power armor.
Akane grumbled about how Ranma couldn't seem to look her in the eye anymore. Also that the boys seemed to stare at her chest a lot. But then so were a lot of the girls for some reason. Oh and then there was that weird boy in the back who kept trying to tie something to her tail and plucking hairs. Hikaru something.
There *had* been some changes but some things had remained the same in the month gone from Furinkan.
He was still assigned to 1-F, which for some reason only known to the Japanese was on the third floor. (The seniors, class numbers like 3-D, were on the first floor.)
Okay, there was now five floors (not counting the two basements) which could be reached by escalator or elevator or stairs. There was the heated outdoor pool (which actually helped to maintain temperature in the underground base by pumping excess heat out into the piping), there was the baseball field and the track area unchanged from previous (at least as far as the eye could see), there was the astronomy section with its telescope dome and planetarium level, there was the metal shop and mechanics bays for those inclined to learn such things, the home economics area had apparently been upgraded from comments though he hadn't seen it yet, and there was the library.
The technology had been aimed at late 20th Century, which meant in this case that while the rest of Tokyo was in 1992, Furinkan Senior High School was currently using brand new equipment that ranged from c.1962 (the kitchens and cafeteria) to 1999 (the computer lab and library) to one area which was closer to 2011 in tech level (the astronomy department used fiberoptic and computer assisted visual range enhancement components that were a bit much for 1992 - especially with a link to a lunar orbit space telescope that nobody had bothered to tell him about).
The word, it seemed, had gotten out. Some administrators had been bragging about how Furinkan (one of the worst schools in academic performance in Greater Metropolitan Tokyo) had recently gotten some major overhauls courtesy of a mysterious sponsor/benefactor.
So Greylle was at least a little amused, despite his funk over being cut off from what he considered the important stuff, at hearing about eminent researchers or respected professors who were practically lined up to come teach at Furinkan.
Of course there were the old teachers, who might have stood a little more proud and straight, but were the same droning bores that they had been prior to the makeover. Which meant that Ranma was still falling asleep in class, of course.
Some of the new instructors were as bizarre as anything that could reasonably be found in a nation as conformist as Japan. Tekiko Tokusei (aka T2) was the new astronomy professor, newly arrived from Osaka, and someone who was frequently trying to find away into the base below the school. A space otaku who would rant for hours about the lack of hard science in science fiction movies and series, but wax eloquent about Oort Clouds and Dark Matter, though she frequently had to be pried away from "her" precious telescope.
Astronomy had become very popular at Furinkan. Some cynics would say it was because Tokusei was a bouncy little girl deemed cute by many. Others because of the high tech equipment. Greylle had come to the conclusion within five minutes of meeting the woman that it was because she was genuinely enthusiastic about her subject, and both qualities were quite apparent.
It was *Senior* High School in Japan, and therefore not mandatory. "Middle School" - what was called Junior High in America, was the last grade required of the students. Many kids who had family businesses to attend to never went into the last three years. Which was Ranma's usual attitude: he was attending under duress and saw little use for high school. In his experience: Ranma + School = Trouble. Also pointless, especially since Jusenkyo and being dragged to the Tendo house. A brief conversation with Ranma had given Greylle an insight there: Ranma felt that since his life had been mapped out with no room for him to manuever - why make any more effort than was absolutely necessary?
So Ranma was one of the few students who did not find the new classes on astronomy, the computer lab, the library with its computers and huge database on nearly every subject imaginable, or even the bays where automotive mechanics could be taught to be of interest. His father had ingrained into every fiber of his being that only martial arts mattered. Only the actual fighting part of martial arts mattered - and that itself was for any and all challenges *must* be accepted and anything that could be done to win *must* be done.
Greylle wondered, upon being confronted with this, if it were possible for his opinion of Genma Saotome to get any lower. At least the current P-chan was keeping himself well away from the school.
Of course, since he'd forgotten to bring a pocket translator, he was stuck with his fractured Japanese trying to understand a lot of things and only partially succeeding.
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Evening had arrived at the complex, and several things had occurred. The one with the most far reaching consequences had seen everyone normally allowed access to the complex gathered in one room. There was also someone not normally allowed access, but Fess hadn't been able to find a way to resolve the desire to remove that person without revealing the sensor upgrades.
Ranma was bored. School was boring. Ryouga hadn't been by lately. There wasn't anyone to fight, and he was getting tired of being ignored. He was hoping this would be *something* interesting.
Yuka was wearing her power armor, looking a lot like Linna from "Bubblegum Crisis." Not because anyone was expecting problems, but because she thought it looked cool.
Hotaru was present by Fess specifically requesting that she dedicate a building, so she had practiced the appropriate ceremonies and had brought the requisite materials.
Kasumi was present because she was still trying to find a way to request a powerup. She was in many ways a traditional Japanese housewife, but there had lately come a spark deep down within her of desire for more. To learn to be a healer using the advanced techniques available. To fly like Nabiki did - without a care in the world. To have the overwhelming levels of cute and cuddly that Akane's tigergirl body seemed to put out continuously.
Cologne was present because Kasumi made a nice cup of tea and even if this complex was awfully technologically dependent, she found herself in the role of wise elder/instructor with a number of respectful young pupils listening to her. Okay, maybe those pupils *were* machines or catgirls or strange albino types. That didn't mean she didn't enjoy having conversations with them. And she thought it likely that two of the catgirls and one of the albinos would accompany her back to the village at the appropriate time. Just the thought of what a twist in the shorts that would give some of her rivals was worth a grin.
Shampoo was present because Ranma was present. Besides, Ukyo was here and there was no *way* that she would allow Ukyo any quality time alone with Ranma.
Ukyo was present because Ranma was present. Besides, Shampoo was here and there was no *way* that she would allow Shampoo any quality time alone with Ranma.
Akane was confidently crouched atop one of the crates and sniffing every so often. She smelled pork and something else. Something that raised the fur on her back if she could just figure out what it was.
Genma had unsealed a special technique to hide in his P-chan form in one of the crates and get into the complex. Now he just had to grab some of this equipment, change back, escape the complex, and he'd be *rich!* Any moment now. Any moment.
Nabiki seemed to have some clue as to what was going on and kept fiddling with a camera in her possession. She'd also watched a series called "Slayers" recently and now would respond to questions with an odd wink and the comment: "THAT... is a secret!"
The lights flickered and then went off, this accompanied by an odd lurching sensation.
"Transfer complete," said Kiyuri, one of the Maid series who had just been standing and observing until now.
Cologne pogosticked to one of the previously dark porthole style windows so quickly that she left an afterimage. The others were more sedate, excepting Ranma who continued to look bored.
Genma saw the abandoned tea and saw his chance. With a triumphant "buqii" he knocked over the teapot, changed back to human, grabbed one of the smaller boxes, and dashed out the door, closing it behind him. There was a short corridor and another door, which came open quickly. Visions of riches filling his head, he dashed out across the desert. About fifteen meters from the doorway he was aware that something was *very* wrong.
"Stupid Oyaji!" Ranma tried to open the door but it seemed locked. Kiyuri was immediately there to block him from trying a second time.
Kiyuri shook her head. "Please, Saotome-san, do not endanger your friends' lives by forcing the door."
"Son in law," said Cologne drily, "you try to force that door open I'll show you a few shiatsu manuevers you won't like to be that acquainted with. Look out the window."
"Stupid Oyaji," repeated Ranma, wondering what the old ghoul was going on about. It wasn't like... Ranma stared as he could get a decent look out the window.
Reddish sands blew in sheets and Ranma could feel the deep cold penetrating through both sets of windows. The sun looked awfully small in the sky and the whole thing had an odd quality about it. "Uhm..."
Nabiki was rushing from one window to another, snapping pictures.
"Cargo transfer initiating," said Kiyuri, activating a conveyor to take the packages into a holding area outside the transfer room. "Oh, welcome to Mars."
"Mars? Like in: Mars? Like in the planet?" Ranma repeated.
Cologne stared out at where robots were chasing Genma who was still trying to get away from the station and apparently hadn't quite realized why he was having trouble breathing. "Ranma, normally I might feel that your father had gotten what he deserved. However in this instance I think some additional pain might be required."
"Huh?"
"Weather conditions outside the dome are typical for this time of year and location," Kiyuri informed them as Ranma's father was finally caught and brought back to the airlock. "Genma Saotome is still alive but is suffering from: frostbite, pressure bruising over his entire body, carbon dioxide poisoning, and..."
Anything that made an android pause struck the others as being of severe interest.
Cologne was the first to ask. "What is it, child?" After all, the girl was only sixteen in appearance but as she understood it had only been built a week ago.
"...traces of human protein in his digestive system," Kiyuri said, blinking rapidly. "Well, at least we know where Akane's original body went now."
Several people wanted to be ill at that revelation. Akane among them. Vows of vengeance would come later.
"It is now official though, Genma Saotome is now registered as the first man to walk the surface of Mars," finished Kiyuri. "Too bad, Ranma-san, you were originally going to get that honor."
"O-YA-JIIII!"
*BONK!* Cologne withdrew her staff after lightly rapping Ranma on the head. "Get in line, son-in-law."
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Greylle had no intention of using the crystal imbedded in his chest. The crystal sometimes seemed to have other ideas.
Flashes of heat or tickles of energy came from it on occasion. Most of these times he had no idea what the dang thing was trying to notify him of. Changing to his natural dragon shape would have let him know if there were spirits in the area, however changing to dragon anywhere inside metropolitan Tokyo was likely to produce some results he wouldn't care for.
Besides, there were things he was more concerned with.
Finding a junkyard had been difficult, but once he had, Greylle was able to finally gauge his strength a bit better. His human form could press a little over 6 tons as near as he could tell from the way the hydraulic gauge shot into the red. He could also haul six blocks of compacted cars atop each other and heft it over his head, though keeping them balanced made the whole thing difficult. Having one fall on his foot hurt, but didn't seem to do much in the way of permanent damage.
Clearly - getting a decent workout and trying to build up his strength would be difficult without access to the technology of the base. Otherwise he'd just rig up some extremely high gravity area and be able to get a workout that way.
Setting the cubes to the side he let out a deep breath. Greylle also figured he'd have to work on toughness, speed, and baseball skills. Again: with the base he'd be able to do something. Otherwise this was going to be a real problem. As an age category 5 (or was he 6 now?) dragon, he'd be difficult to injure and bleed huge amounts when something *was* able to injure him. As a human, he was simply about as tough as your average ridiculously powerful martial artist.
"RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!"
Greylle blinked. He was over six feet tall, blond, blue-eyed, and more thickly muscled than Ranma. Heck, he didn't even have a pigtail! How could *anyone* mistake him for Ranma Saotome?!
Throwing knives crashed into a variety of objects with a lot of pinging noises.
Greylle groaned. Well, now that he saw who it was, the mistake was understandable. "Mousse, put your damn glasses over your eyes!"
"Your tricks won't avail you, and I'll free Shampoo from whatever hold you've got her under," said Mousse while throwing seven throwing knives, two hatchets, fourteen shuriken and a stale looking cheese pizza.
Greylle blinked at that last. "i have *got* to learn that Hidden Weapons style."
"You acknowledge that it is a superior martial art?" Mousse stopped in mid-leap, astonished that the foe he'd been tracking had that much humility. Unfortunately he landed in a stack of radiators while he was distracted.
"Uhm, depends on what you use it for," Greylle admitted. "i don't think i would want to *master* it, but it seems that it would have a lot of uses outside of combat."
"Umf," said Mousse as he tried to untangle himself from where his robes had gotten stuck by some protruding metal edges. The result being that he had radiators dangling.
"Just the possibilities of being able to carry extra backpacks or another load of camping gear. Or when i'm practicing Martial Arts Housekeeping away from the house." Greylle could see *lots* of possibilities. In a world like Rifts Earth, for example, being able to produce a spare rifle and handful of e-clip ammo out of nowhere would be incredibly useful.
"Martial Arts *Housekeeping*?!" Mousse blinked. That sounded incredibly lame. "I'll pay you for mocking me!"
"i wasn't going to charge you for it. Not that i was mocking you." Flicking his wrist, he summoned his baseball bat. Though that was magic and not martial arts. "After all, if i knew how to combine Hidden Weapons and MA:Housekeeping, i'd be able to use Special Attack: Do You Want Fries With That? Ya-TA!... huh?!"
Mousse had had his mouth open as he charged forward. Suddenly the myopic martial artist went down with his mouth stuffed to the bursting point with crinkle-cut crispy-brown french fries.
"How the heck did i do that?" Greylle wondered as Mousse started choking. "Oh. Hang on Mousse, i'll do the Heimlich Manuever. i think it's like *so*." *CRUNCH!* "oops."
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A set of oil barrels shot into the atmosphere of a cloudy planet, though their speed at that point had been reduced to about the speed of a fast car.
Internal mechanisms popped tops and contents were scattered as gravity caused the battered metal to speed up and begin the re-entry burn.
The powder from within the cannisters began raining down. Some burned up on their own entry, their own speed still too great for the ultrafine particles to last. Others drifted within clouds of carbon dioxide and sulfuric compounds and their cargo was at last delivered.
Bacteria that could thrive in volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean or in rocks found themselves once again in an environment that they could thrive in.
A single surviving barrel lowered itself slowly into the crushing pressures of the rocky surface. A mechanism dug deep, and then began sending out tendrils into the volcanic rock around it. From these tendrils it would seek out and leech metals and minerals to expand itself and eventually reproduce.
Other tendrils slowly extended as the machine found and began working those native materials into its being. These extended out into the terrible heat and poisonous atmosphere, in order to pull that atmosphere into filters. Carbon was useful and could be put to use within the machine itself. Sulfer could also be made of use, eventually, but for now it would simply be concentrated and ejected.
As the lower tendrils continued to feed and distribute raw materials, flat surfaces were extended from the upper tendrils to increase surface area for both absorbtion and release purposes.
Eventually it could reproduce itself and begin spreading its influence, but right now the machine was having enough of a time in the harsh environment.
On Venus, the first tree drank of its environment and began to thrive.
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Greylle sighed deeply as he got back to his teeny tiny apartment. Mousse would survive, of course, but there had been a problem he hadn't foreseen.
When the Master Of Hidden Weapons had been brought to an emergency room, they had taken off his robe. That turned out to be a bit of a problem.
Mainly removing Mousse's robes had been a problem because of them removing from his person some items concealed there, and removing the robes had also caused the Hidden Weapons style to go inactive. Which made a certain degree of sense, Greylle supposed, he just hadn't realized what all the myopic martial artist had on him.
The swords, daggers, shuriken, maces, blowguns, nunchakus, ton fa, chainsaws, explosive eggs, and spears were all considered deadly weapons for some odd reason. The various small appliances had ID numbers which were being checked against lists of stolen items. The training potties, umbrellas, children's toys, and a complete set of Tiffany 8 track tapes were being considered as mere curiosities.
The explosives, on the other hand, were generating a bit of interest. As Mousse was a Chinese national, he had to have smuggled all this into the country. As soon as his ribcage was rebuilt and he came out from under the anesthetic, Mousse would likely have to answer a whole lot of questions.
Greylle guessed that taking Mousse to the Emergency Room had been somewhat of a tactical blunder on his part.
Stretching out in the small area of a studio apartment, he idly wondered what it was he was forgetting. There was something he should be doing, but what was it?
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Ranma sulked. There had been the chance to be the First Man To Walk The Surface Of Mars. The first human being to walk on an entirely different world, not just the moon, but another world! Not that it mattered that much to him, but he could see where when he was old and gray he could've sat down with his kids and told them about that. Respect. Something that he'd rarely gotten in his life, *could* have been his. "Stupid oyaji," he muttered.
Cologne frowned slightly as the shifting sensation occurred again and the familiar weight of Earth's gravity took hold. Pity about that. Once she'd heard their was an entire section of Mars named Amazonis Planitia, she'd wanted to go see it. Apparently a large flat plain that had the biggest mountain on the planet on one end. Intriguing name, even if the place itself sounded positively dismal. No pressure suits her size, and not enough time, and the robots had insisted there really wasn't much to look at.
Kasumi breathed a sigh of relief. Relative safety. She'd been quite aware that if you went through the foot thick wall of the enclosure, you'd be in a poisonous atmosphere. As Mister Saotome had knocked over her kettle, Kasumi found herself really wanting a nice cup of tea to get over this ordeal.
Nabiki pondered this latest development. Life on Mars struck her as being a hardship, difficult and uncomfortable. This sort of thing was not for her. Though she *could* see herself opening a casino that overlooked some of that landscape. Exoticness was a big draw. No, Mars was not for her. Instead she wanted to focus on the revelation that Genma Saotome had done something horrible. Scanning revealed the chemical tags, and so she had to think of some measure of revenge. That could have been *her* after all.
Akane wasn't aware of her own continual flicking in and out of her fingers, a figurative baring of claws. Her old body was *gone* and now she knew what that odd scent was. It was her own original body having been digested. To say that she was displeased by her father's favorite houseguest would be to almost criminally understate the case. Her tail was making sharp twitching motions and there was a line of fur all along her back that was ruffled. If Genma had been conscious he would have been quite nervous.
Genma was unconscious. He also had frostbite, pressure bruising, bleeding from various openings, and was having some trouble breathing despite the oxygen mask placed on his face. When he woke up he'd be in severe pain. Walking unprotected on Mars was not particularly healthful.
Hotaru wondered if her sempai was okay. She was hoping to make friends with some of these girls, but wasn't sure how to open a conversation with any of them. The shrine miko considered that the difference between associating with twelve year olds and sixteen year olds hadn't seemed that great prior to making that leap, but now she was running into problems. Though mainly she was ignored. She didn't have Akane's exoticness, and the other girls were mainly off in their own groups discussing things that didn't seem that interesting. Why was shopping such a big deal?
Yuka within her hardsuit happily hummed a song from an early '70s anime that she only vaguely remembered. Hidden bases, Martian colonies, powerarmor, and magical princesses? This was cool!
Sayuri tried to pretend that her friend of several years was not experiencing some second childhood. Hidden bases, Martian colonies, powerarmor, and magical princesses? What kami had she offended?
Ukyo had something else to hold against Genma Saotome. If they hadn't had to return quickly she could have fixed everyone some okonomiyaki. Nabiki could have gotten pictures. The advertising potential was enormous. Add to that depriving Ranma of the opportunity to be the first Man On Mars? Oh yes, pork okonomiyaki was looking more and more like a plan nowadays.
Shampoo didn't understand a lot of these events. She did know that Great-Grandmother was upset with Ranma's father, and Ranma was upset with his father, and Tigergirl was understandably *beyond* upset at Ranma's father, and Spatula Girl, and well practically everyone else. Spooky Girl wasn't upset, but Shampoo thought that maybe she was out of the loop too. It would be nice to get back to the complex where everyone spoke Mandarin and their lip-synch went to hell, but Shampoo was having trouble figuring out how she could use this situation to get Ranma to realize he was her husband.
Kiyuri was a Maid unit equipped with an Ishii Kairo. She merely observed all the interactions and tried to interpret them as best she could.
It took less than five seconds for the Slideway to pull them back, but in another way it was a very long trip back to Earth.
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Harry of Pungo, wizard at large, pondered this current mess.
The dragon was altering things, which would have brought all sorts of magical retribution and the world would have been returned to normal after a conclave of wizards had been brought together over the dead body of the dragon if the dragon had been acting like your typical rogue wizard.
Except that these things were *not* being accomplished through draconic ability or magical energies. This area was getting stranger and stranger, but mostly magic was not being used.
The dragon now had a Class One Magical Artifact grafted to his chest, and apparently no control over said artifact.
There was a Shinto shrine which had a mirror which was an interface device for a Goddess First Class with Unlimited License.
There had been some healing and resurrection spells, but nothing major and there had been no consequences from those actions.
Harry's spells had allowed him to spy on one of the resurrected girls, and he'd learned from her that the dragon was actually a timetravelling alien magical prince from the future. He wasn't sure he believed it but it was clear that Nabiki Tendo believed it.
That this alien had technology capable of duplicating some really high level magic had become apparent and was frankly causing Harry some hesitation at this whole mess. Androids with souls? Teleportation tunnels? A spaceship seen in one girl's memory?
So Harry had done what intelligent people have done since antiquity when faced with a problem that puzzles the heck out of them. He handed the problem off to someone else and went off to have a beer.
Which brought someone considerably more powerful and experienced to the Land Of The Rising Sun.
Morgana Le Fey had been around quite some time and was considerably mellower than she had been when Arthur and his folk had been around. She felt that she'd gotten a bit of bad press there, but then she *had* been pretty nasty during a period where nasty and brutish were pretty much requirements of the era.
Within the past century, the most violent and hurtful thing she'd done was give a curse of chronic flatulance to a clerk at Blockbuster Video who had given her some late fees that she'd not earned. She had instead used the woman as an experimental subject and been amused by the woman's performance on several occasions thereafter.
Instead Morgana had been engaged in the magical equivelant of high energy particle physics. There were several questions in the universe that both physics and magic had trouble answering and she'd gotten curious about finding those answers.
The nature of Dark Matter, for example. Scientists and mages could only detect 4% of the universe. Look at the galaxies and how they move and you could calculate the mass. So where was the other 96%? Morgana suspected that Avalon had survived and likely accounted for a tiny little fragment of the mass, but was now out of synch with Earth.
(There was actually some crossover with some physicists and astronomers studying each others works and a few dabbling in magic. Naturally there were some wizards running around studying physics and astronomy.)
There were also questions like Dark Energy, which could be postulated in a similar manner from the Dark Matter as long as one didn't confuse it with necromantic or similar magic. There were quantum black holes and their larger cousins. The nature of gravity: was it a force as Newton theorized or a warp in the fabric of space-time as Einstein suggested. And if the latter, why did mass have that peculiar effect anyway?
After decades of trying to work out a spell which would stop and collect enough neutrinos to actually determine what they were and how they'd look, Morgana was hoping that this little interlude would help inspire her.
Yeah, yeah, another alien prince time traveller with magical powers and a bunch of girls after him. Boring! The elf prince sort of thing had been around for some time.
Okay, the Mars colony was different. Tigergirls were also not done too much. The girl with the polearm *was* intriguing in a way. Snappy dresser too. Hmmmm.
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Greylle opened the door and blinked for a moment before motioning the girl in. "I not late you expecting is. What you up?"
Hotaru nodded, her homework level was nearly overwhelming and she'd just been to Mars and back, but Fess had asked her to deliver this package. Unfortunately her English wasn't even as good as his Japanese. "-Fess deliver speak.-"
Taking the package, Greylle determined it was three of the silver ingots he was supposed to be taking internally every so often as a dietary supplement for dragons of his breed. He'd have to switch to his larger form to swallow, much less digest them. "Thank you. Japanese you speak please."
Hotaru wanted to say many things, ask many questions. Unfortunately, with the language barrier how could she even phrase them? "Sempai..."
"Hotaru-chan?" Greylle looked her over. She was nervous about something. She also looked *very* different at 16. Something a little like Mistress 9, but without the ridiculously long hair and a far gentler manner.
The young woman fidgeted as she considered what to do or say. Inside she was still twelve, or younger considering the amount of time she'd been influenced by Mistress 9. She wanted a friend very desperately, and a fiancee (if done properly) could be a friend you had a longterm agreement with. She was completely uncertain of how to proceed.
Greylle took the girl's hand and led her into the tiny room, noting that she'd probably visited that makeover machine. Otherwise Hotaru wouldn't be wearing makeup normally. Not having any idea what to say to her, he simply went for the most obvious thing.
Hotaru got even more nervous. Was this it? Would she be able to prove that she was *not* some kid sister? Would this hurt? She had some idea of what was required, even if she hadn't taken those classes and was a little vague on a lot of details.
The dragon knew how to set Hotaru at ease. Though why she was blushing was a puzzle, there were things that he knew how to do. A nice hot cup of chamomile tea. There was an old Japanese proverb: "If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty." While he knew a few Westerners who might disagree, this *was* Japan. "In Tokyo wear a square hat," or however that other proverb went. The sharing of tea was a terribly important part of a number of Japanese social conventions.
Hotaru found herself presented with a hot cup of some sort of tea, that her host had used a microwave to warm up. How terribly Western. No sense of ceremony at all. The idea that it might have been alcoholic and the disappointment that it was *not* were brief concerns that nonetheless managed to further confuse her.
"It late, Hotaru. Time is..." Greylle went suddenly very still, his eyes wide.
The sometimes Sailor Saturn blinked. The tea tasted okay to her. Greylle lapsed into English abruptly. Hotaru could only get a few words out of the babble.
Greylle was suddenly excited as the whole thing clicked together. "-That's it! TIME is the answer! Sailor Moon was trying to manipulate time one way, Pluto was there and not where she could help out, there were distractions all over the darn place. Maybe an attack by a Dark General. They ended up stuck in time - suspended between moments as opposed to having their pasts rewritten as 'normal girls'. Stuck there they wouldn't be able to get free! If they're in zero time Pluto could have gotten them out, but she could only do it if she was *outside* the cage! Otherwise no time passing means they aren't even aware they're trapped!-"
"I think I'm going to have to take Fess up on the offer of English lessons," said Hotaru. School was difficult enough having skipped four years. Now this. She tried a tentative smile back at her beaming fiance.
"-What i'll need is some way of breaking through the timeslip, maybe if i cast a Dispel Magic and can get it amplified by the Silver Crystal...-" Greylle was working out angles enthusiastically while scribbling out a note. "Hotaru, take you note to base. Show there. Greylle get to base of Beryl on own but need transport for Senshi if we succeed. Understand?"
Hotaru caught that, though Greylle's Japanese was getting difficult to understand. "You know where the Senshi are?" On seeing a tentative nod, Hotaru clapped her hands together in delight. She'd be getting more friends soon! "So we'll go on that camping trip next Sunday?"
Greylle nodded, then wondered why Hotaru was blushing. Waitaminute. Wasn't "kyanpu" camping? Oh. Hotaru wanted to see him in dragonform. Well, that was understandable. Dragons were pretty cool.
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Mister and Mrs Tsukino had been a little put off by the meeting they'd arranged with their vanished daughter. Okay, more than "a little" put off.
Shingo had tried teasing his big sister. She had raised an eyebrow and commented about how illogical that process was.
Usagi had passed every test they could think of. This *was* their daughter. However the past year had changed her incredibly. This was only the third day that they had been together, and she was beginning to act a little more like the Usagi they knew.
Except for her grades being nearly perfect. And excepting that she was extraordinarily calm. And an excellent cook, even if she tended to favor Thai dishes over Japanese. Or that she was graceful and agile in ways that their clumsy daughter could only have hoped to have been.
That and while she admitted to being their daughter, she insisted that she was not the same daughter that they had known.
It had taken a day and the help of one of Usagi's friends to convince her to come home with them. Three days after *that* and she was still surprising them.
Shingo was frightened of her at first. This couldn't really be *his* big sister. As she slowly opened up, and became more openly affectionate, he gradually started warming to this big sister who knew so much more than he remembered.
When she cut her finger, there had been no bawling, just a quick act to put a bandage over the wound and then clean the blood from the knife she'd been using.
When Usagi ate it was a calm and dignified manner, chewing each piece of food precisely.
However all three of the other Tsukino family members agreed that however weird it was, this was definitely a quieter Usagi in their midst.
------
Greylle had just let Hotaru out of his apartment and was wishing her goodbye when a rose slammed into the concrete and actually imbedded itself there. "-Hey! Watch it! You could hurt someone with that!-"
Hotaru frowned. She didn't like people attacking her sempai.
"That is my purpose!" The guy in top hat and tuxedo declared, cape blowing dramatically behind him. "How dare you add this innocent girl to your conquests! Enemy of women! Enslaver of innocents! You have gone on far enough!"
Greylle blinked. "-I didn't catch that, but it sounded like Tatewaki Kuno's speeches being recycled.-"
Tuxedo Kamen blinked. "Somehow I think I've just been insulted."
Looking over the guy, Greylle had to admit that Tuxedo Kamen didn't look quite as ridiculous as he could have. Though wearing formal dinner attire to a fight didn't strike him as being terribly practical, Endymion had never been a front-line fighter. "-So what's your gripe with me anyway, Endymion?-"
"-For enslaving the Senshi, perish monster!-" A rose was thrown.
Greylle blocked it, then winced and pulled the stem out of his arm. Of course, as he was a dragon, there was a lot of blood.
"Saturn Power, Make Up!" Hotaru thought it fairly silly that in this day and age she should get her superpowers through makeup, but she'd complain about it some other time.
"She's a Senshi?!" Tuxedo Kamen stared for a moment. Then returned his attention to the evil monster who had done whatever he had done.
"Sailor Saturn," Greylle held up a hand. "This fight mine is. Excuse me."
Tuxedo Kamen was waiting for some energy attack, it was a typical youma ploy after all. Instead what he got was the boy conjuring up a baseball bat and racing forward. Kamen pulled his cane out of subspace. "Have at thee."
-------
Ranma froze as a concept that he had resisted for a long time finally forced itself into conscious consideration. Watching Akane the tigergirl had caused him to consider what his cursed form looked like.
A catgirl?! For an ailurophobe, this was not a pleasant idea.
This whole situation was decidedly weird to Ranma. Not that things hadn't turned weird before getting to Nerima, it had been Jusenkyo that had seen the weirdness escalate to insane levels.
"Oh dear!" Kasumi tripped. Naturally she was carrying a glass of cold water.
Ranma-kun vanished. Ranma-chan appeared. A trembling hand checked her ears. Yes, soft and mobile triangular ears. The other hand checked the tail while freeing it from the confines of his pants. Yup. Therefore...
The catgirl screamed as if a lost soul. Cat = panic = got to get away. However *she* was the cat and therefore she couldn't get away. Therefore...
Ranma had never gone into the catfist this quickly before. Lost and alone, the kitty looked around for someone trusted or at least liked. Since there was no one really present, it was time to leave.
-------
Hotaru watched as two skilled people briefly fenced. One using a baseball bat, the other using a cane. Hotaru watched as the superior strength of the bat-wielder launched the cane-wielder nearly the length of the floor.
"-i don't want to fight you,-" Greylle told the boy.
Tuxedo Kamen struggled to his feet. "I will do whatever I need to do to free Usagi."
"-Fine, be at Beryl's cavern as soon as you can. i'm heading there myself immediately.-" Greylle turned to Hotaru. "Hotaru. Need Fess send transport base of Beryl to go."
Hotaru silently added some kind of translation device to what needed to accompany them but nodded.
With that, her fiance leapt over the railing and shifted, having remembered that silver dragons could polymorph to something other than a human form. Unfortunately he wasn't very good at it and the eagle was roughly the same mass as Hotaru.
Hotaru quickly took the stairs, glancing back once at this attacker as he complained about not having a way to get to Beryl's island on his current budget.
-------
The evening had turned to night before he judged it safe to return to dragon. The dragon flew much faster, but could also use the leylines to "jump" along them.
It was just beginning to lighten again when he caught sight of the island and was buzzed by a series of vehicles.
One jet switched to gerwalk mode, revealing that Snoopy had probably been watching Macross. The yellow submarine landed in the snow and then tilted at a twenty degree angle. The jetcycles revealed that the Outer Senshi (minus Hotaru) had chosen something a bit faster than their internal flight mechanisms.
Considering their relative speeds, the vehicles had already landed and their passengers disembarked before he could land.
When he *did* land there was a sudden shooting pain in his side.
Sailor Saturn threatened to use her Silence Glaive if the tuxedo wearer did that again.
*i have to do this as a dragon,* Greylle sent to the group, noting that he still had his armband and the glowing stone embedded in his chest. He also had an armor piercing rose imbedded between two scales and was beginning to get quite upset with Mamoru Chiba.
Akane sniffed all around his legs briefly before seeming to go off into deep thought.
Greylle looked over the crowd and wondered exactly why everyone and their Great-Grandmother had come along.
Cologne looked over the dragon and wondered exactly what she could do to add his genes to the village. The only people missing were most of the Sailor Marionettes and it looked like Sabre Mercury had brought Dr. Mizuno.
Ukyo announced that unless something was going to happen *now* she was going back to sleep in the nice warm submarine.
*Yes, well,* sent the dragon, *what i'm going to do is tricky and will require me to use the Eternal Silver Millenial Crystal (aka the Ginzuishou) to try to breach the time bubble.*
"Return that Crystal to Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Kamen tried to run forward and snatch it. It didn't come popping out to his hand, and shortly after that was obvious there began the most curious chase scene.
Said chase scene consisted of Sailor Saturn chasing Tuxedo Kamen around, doing her level best to brain him with the business end of her Silence Glaive. Cologne watched for a moment before reaching out with the end of her stick and hitting a paralysis shiatsu point on both of them.
"It's cold and it's early and I'm getting too old for this," Cologne informed everyone.
*You Cologne? Getting old? Hah!* The dragon grinned down at the ancient Elder. *Just as well you're here though. Most likely this was just after a very nasty battle or it occurred at the very tail end of a long battle. So they'll either need medical attention or may come out of it still thinking they're in a fight. Everyone who can't dodge a mana bolt stay up here. i have to go into the cavern where the fight occurred to cast this at zero range for the maximum potential effect.*
Cologne nodded, another glint in her eye. Yes, Sash would be a good choice for this dragon. Or perhaps Sugar. Salt and Pepper? She might be a three hundred plus year old traditionalist within the Chinese Amazons, but she found herself warming to this ice dragon. Having him marry into the tribe sounded like a good way to increase the strength of the tribe immensely. Besides, then she'd have someone to talk to who could live as long as she could.
Greylle took a quick look around, then ducked into the cavern.
=============
OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE
"I am *not* Genma Saotome, nor will I portray him even in a simulation."
"...but..." The black cat looked inquiringly up at the old man.
"NO. Do you have *any* idea how dangerous my life is?"
"...but..."
"I've raised kids before you know. Can't you get Drizzt to do it?"
"Why are you bringing *me* into this conversation, old man?"
"How about I give both of you a major magic item and a promise of no interference for a hundred years?" Toltiir asked the two.
The drow ranger looked tempted by the possibility of an Elder god of mischief being out of his hair for a century. Not that he had many funny slapstick adventures, but it didn't help his image to have to deal with "wackiness" or the like. "Joint custody? How about some of those Arrows Of Sunlight. Those *could* come in handy. No. Probably not."
"*Absolutely* not. Do you know how many heroes I've sponsored since Myth Drannor?" Elminster frowned. "There is no way I'm taking on an apprentice at my age."
"Well, neither of *them* could do nearly the job I could anyway," added another.
Elminster and Drizzt glared at the newcomer. Neither really wanted to try and raise Ranma from the pit of cats and try to overcome Genma's influence. There was a little pride involved, however. "Prove it!"
---------
Yet Another Worse Father Than Genma? A continuing omake by gregg sharp.
DISCLAIMER: Characters are by other people. Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi. Elminster, Drizzt Do'Urden and the Forgotten Realms are by Ed Greenwood and TSR. Toltiir is by Toltiir.
---------
Ranma screamed. He screamed in pain. He screamed in fear. He screamed in just plain old desire not to be thrown back in the pit.
The Catfist training was a turning point for Ranma Saotome in a number of ways.
Prior to the Catfist he had doubts about blindly following his father's dictums. Prior to the Catfist he remembered that he had a mother. Prior to the Catfist he was still able to function as a multi-layered human being. Prior to the Catfist Ranma Saotome was not exclusively devoted to the martial arts.
After the Catfist Ranma would go on to excel in pride and arrogance, eschewing all other activities than martial arts. After the Catfist Ranma would forget his mother and other people would come to touch his heart less and less. He would close his ability to care for others, it was a tough world and unforgiving - full of cruelty designed to make one stronger. Pain was there to make one stronger.
So, as Genma got ready to throw his son into a pit of hungry cats for the second time, it was an excellent time for an interruption.
Genma threw the screaming child into the pit and turned to where he had put the bottle of sake. He was hoping the stupid boy would hurry up and learn the unbeatable manuever and...
Genma stopped. He couldn't actually have seen what he *thought* he saw, could he?
The obese Saotome patriarch turned around and cautiously peered into the bottom of the pit.
Except the bottom of the pit didn't seem to actually be there.
Genma even more cautiously went to the edge of pit and stared for a few moments more before he finally summed it up. "My god, it's full of stars..."
----------
Genma began wandering after that. While he had watched the floor had reappeared. No cats. No Ranma.
His reason for wandering was quite simple.
He couldn't face a regular job. He was firmly convinced that anything approaching real work was demeaning to a man of his nature. Genma was also quite uncertain of what to do now as his plans had been developed and set for years.
First he would dump his wife and responsibilities to train Ranma to be a superior martial artist. Then he would go off to his old buddy Soun, marry Ranma off to one of those daughters, the son and daughter would then operate the dojo and lead to Genma's long and comfortable retirement.
No son. Therefore no ten years of training, therefore no marriage, therefore no comfortable retirement. Therefore Genma had to go back to his wife and get a job. Providing she didn't kill him or require seppuku.
This was clearly not acceptable.
So Genma had eventually found a nice bar where he was on his fourth bottle of sake, trying to come up with a way of compensating for a son who had vanished.
The best ideas he'd come up with so far had been: a) just going off and forgetting about this and starting over again with a new wife and child; b) a replacement Ranma; c) going to visit his old buddy Soun and divorce Nodoka and marry one of Soun's daughters. So far "C" was beginning to look quite appealing and it would unite the two families.
"Ah, Mister Saotome," said a woman sliding into the barstool next to Genma.
Genma blinked. This wasn't a bill collector was she? She certainly wasn't dressed for a seedy bar in downtown Kobe.
"I was wondering if a deal could be made between you and I regarding your son," the woman said to him, then spoke to barkeep. "Tea, green, hot."
Genma considered as he reached for bottle #5. He didn't *have* Ranma, Ranma was *gone*. The entire pit have been filled with a deep darkness and lots of stars. When the strange image had passed there had been no Ranma so it wasn't like he was doing anything *wrong* by selling Ranma. He'd sold Ranma off before anyway so it wasn't a big deal. "Well, my son is very valuable."
"For the next ten years I'm interested in training your son to be a sort of bodyguard to a very important individual," the woman said quietly but somehow over the noise of the bar.
"Ah, well he can't neglect his studies in the martial arts," said Genma. "Very important."
"I'm willing to pay a considerable sum," said the woman, regarding him briefly with the most unnerving reddish eyes.
"How much?"
The woman reached into her purse and withdrew a small stack of papers. "You'll find the pertinent figures there on the first page."
"Well, I don't know my boy is... SOLD!" Genma quickly looked for the line to sign on. He didn't have the boy anyway and he could at least get this woman to pay his bar tab.
The woman seemed amused as Genma signed and pressed his hanko into the appropriate places. "Fine. Fine. Here's the payment in full."
Genma's eyes popped as the woman lifted an attache case and set it in front of Genma. He couldn't believe his luck! By the time this idiot woman realized he didn't have Ranma he'd be long gone. "Uhm, so. I guess I'll bring Ranma by here tomorrow."
The woman had already drank her tea and gotten up, looking back over her shoulder at the portly man. "Oh, I've already taken possession of the merchandise."
"Fine, fine," said Genma, not really paying attention as he popped the case open.
"Well, we witnessed it," said one of the young men nearby, getting up to leave with the woman.
"First time I've seen an engagement arrangement work so smoothly," said another.
"Huh?" Genma said, suddenly beginning to realize that something was wrong as photographers snapped photos and he realized someone had videotaped the whole proceeding. Well, let them. He'd outsmarted all of them.
"Genma Saotome?"
Genma shut the case slowly having recognized that voice. Slowly he turned.
This crowd of people he did recognize. He'd stolen from most of them. Oh dear.
------
10 years later:
Soun snipped the envelope, wondering why someone would send him a videotape.
He put it in and immediately wept with joy to see his old friend Genma on there. His old friend... wait a minute. Soun turned the sound up.
Almost sleepwalking, he went back to the package and pulled out the photos and laid them aside. The thirty page legal document drew his attention.
"GENMAAAAAAAAA!"
----------
Nodoka wondered why someone would send her a videotape.
She watched it, rewound it, played it again. There was really only one thing she could say about this.
"Where's my sharpening stone?"
--------
Genma, currently breaking rocks in a Japanese prison for repeated petty theft and assault on a police officer, felt a chill go down his back and thanked the kami he was in a nice safe prison under an assumed name.
--------
Setsuna Meiou merely smiled as she looked over her own copy of the document. Which stated, among other things, that the contract superceded all previous negotiations and rendered them null and void. That basically, if the contract was broken by Genma, she would have ended up owning the Saotome family assets down to the last nickel and putting them into debt beyond their ability to pay.
Ranma continued to flow through a complicated kata from where he was, not concerned.
He'd read the contract years ago and seen the tape. His father had sold him off. Ranma had come to terms with those events.
In the meantime he'd trained long and hard for what he knew to be an important job.
Yojimbo. Bodyguard. An old and noble profession, one that many ronin had undertaken over many years. He had a new clan and had been trained by some of the best of the best.
He still had to meet the Tendos, apparently Meiou-oneechan felt that it was important to personally apologize for the oversight of his father. He was tempted to bring his iinazuke along, but that might cause problems.
Finishing by drawing ki in from his surroundings to replenish the energy he'd expended, Ranma readied himself for the coming confrontation.
-------
Nabiki held the door open as she looked over this stranger come calling. Tall, with a lithe muscular look that bespoke of a career in gymnastics or martial arts. This guy wasn't cute, he instead had the sort of lean roguish good looks that could have made a fortune in the modeling business. "Uhm, hello."
"Good evening, Miss. I am here to speak with Soun Tendo," said the youth, bowing formally and politely.
Nabiki looked over the guy some more, enjoying what she was seeing. Not only was he built quite attractively, but he was dressed pretty nicely too. "Daddy is..." How to say that her father was a blubbering wreck?
"I understand," said the youth. "It is regarding that matter I wished to speak with him."
"Oh my," said Kasumi as she arrived. "A guest. I'm sorry but Father isn't really up to visitors right now."
"Ah, you're the eldest daughter?" On seeing her nod, the youth bowed again. "In that case, I tender my deepest apologies to you as representitive of your father. My name is Ranma Saotome."
There was a brief moment of silence, broken a moment later by the trampling of feet as the Tendo patriarch lunged for the door.
Unfortunately, Kasumi and Nabiki were still occupying the door.
*CRASH* *TRAMPLE!*
"Oops." "Ouch." "Owie."
Ranma looked down at the tangle. "Uhm, should I get a doctor?"
--------
"This is Kasumi, she's 20. This is Nabiki, she's 18. This is Akane, she's 17."
"This is Ranma," said Ranma, "who is already engaged. You've got a copy of the contract."
"The Tendo arrangement predates that one," began Soun again.
"While this one specifically states it takes precedence over all pre-existing ones," said Ranma in a perfectly reasonable tone. "Besides, me and Mako-chan get along really well."
"B-b-b-but?!" Soun privately cursed Genma for not being here.
Akane was mollified somewhat. This boy wasn't trying to get engaged and was sincerely not interested. She had enough trouble with Tatewaki Kuno, who had finally gone all out and beaten her and was now insisting that they were engaged. The thing was, as soon as Kuno had offered money to her father, the engagement had been formalized pending only one thing. This boy was her last chance to avoid the engagement to Tatewaki Kuno.
Nabiki had slowly lost interest. She'd love the chance to get out of Nerima but she'd be going off to a college in Juuban soon anyway.
Kasumi looked over the boy with a certain interest. Doctor Tofu had moved away halfway through the year, still unable to bring himself to any sort of coherency in her presence. He wasn't interested in gaining a fiancee, which was a pity, but certainly nothing she could affect. Still it was worth a moment of pleasant fantasy. Nabiki would be off to college soon, and then Akane possibly. Then she'd be free. Free to do what was a good question.
Ranma shrugged helplessly. "I'm just here to apologize on behalf of my birth-father. I've got quite a full day ahead of me so I'll just be going."
"B-b-b-but..." Soun desperately sought for something to say that would keep the boy here.
--------
"So you see, I make a better father than Genma," declared Sailor Pluto as the on-screen Ranma fled. "Ranma is a trained martial artist and bodyguard of the Princess - so he's got a career."
"Akane ends up being kidnapped by Kodachi for 'bridal training' for her brother," noted Bast. "Looks uncomfortable."
"Makoto Kino gets a sempai and a fiance she can keep, Ranma gets a girl who can understand him and who enjoys cooking." Toltiir nodded. "It's a good match: they have enough in common for common ground but not so much that they're competing in everything. With overlapping duties, they mesh well professionally and personally even with his occasional lapses into foot in mouth disease."
"Soun doesn't give up on the Tendo marriage concept," pointed out Bast. "Akane may be out of the running, and Nabiki is off at college, that leaves one daughter he can push towards Ranma. Looks like she doesn't do too well as a seductress - gets too embarassed too easily."
"I have trouble with this image of you as a matchmaker, Pluto." Toltiir looked towards the Senshi of Time. "You don't seem quite the sort. Venus I could see."
Sailor Pluto shrugged slightly. "Why do I always have to be the mysterious no-fun by-the-book manipulative sort? Can't I engage in something where people are happier at the end of the game?"
"It's just... odd," admitted Bast.
"AH!" Toltiir pounced as he selected a scene. "Oh HO."
Bast repeatedly blinked, then grinned. "Ah HAH."
Pluto colored slightly and tried to look dignified.
"Gave yourself a lemon scene, did you?" Toltiir smirked. "Romantic subplot and kids and the whole nine yards, eh?"
Pluto shrugged again. "Hey. Nobody said I couldn't have fun, did they?"
DISCLAIMER: Most characters owned by other people, which is the nature of fanfiction after all.
---------
Of all his favorite places to be, high school wasn't.
College was better for actually learning something, less formal settings were better for socializing, and despite the usual anime series - a high school really wasn't the ideal place to defend the Earth from alien invaders.
Furinkan was hardly a typical High School, but it was likewise not especially worthy as either a place of learning or a place of social interaction.
Returning to the "hallowed halls" after a month's absence, Greylle had found the entire thing an enormously bad situation. On a most basic level, he needed to feel useful and keep busy. Preferably without being overwhelmed.
The first day back had seen a lot of questions as to why he was back and when could they get tours of the complex.
Nabiki had sold the official story: that he was entirely cut off from those resources as part of a deal with the Japanese government. Now he had to go back to being the baseball star.
Shampoo had gotten into a big fight with Ukyo over Ranma. The two had started out rivals, become friendlier, and were now back into bitter rivalry. Most of the time.
Genma had discovered that his transformation into a little black piglet was an override on his Jusenkyo curse. Now whenever splashed with cold water, he turned into a pig instead of the huge bear-creature that he had been. Soun was delighted as Pig-chan didn't shed as much and certainly ate less.
Soun was pretty much inside the house alternatively sulking because he'd thrown his three daughters out, and delighting in how this gave the girls a chance to "bond" with Ranma and/or the gaijin as part of his plan. Especially as the story was that the gaijin had moved back to a tiny cramped one-room apartment. One of his girls would be alone with the boy of her choice, nature would take its course, and there would be a wedding!
Hotaru had transferred in and spent a lot of time being ignored by most of the boys present. She *did* vow to try again on the tea ceremony, or maybe she should use a Western approach. Her boss Amaterasu just seemed to laugh a lot whenever the subject came up.
Ami and the rest of the ersatz Senshi transferred to Juuban for some reason.
Yuka waxed eloquent about her power armor. Sayuri grumbled about her own power armor.
Akane grumbled about how Ranma couldn't seem to look her in the eye anymore. Also that the boys seemed to stare at her chest a lot. But then so were a lot of the girls for some reason. Oh and then there was that weird boy in the back who kept trying to tie something to her tail and plucking hairs. Hikaru something.
There *had* been some changes but some things had remained the same in the month gone from Furinkan.
He was still assigned to 1-F, which for some reason only known to the Japanese was on the third floor. (The seniors, class numbers like 3-D, were on the first floor.)
Okay, there was now five floors (not counting the two basements) which could be reached by escalator or elevator or stairs. There was the heated outdoor pool (which actually helped to maintain temperature in the underground base by pumping excess heat out into the piping), there was the baseball field and the track area unchanged from previous (at least as far as the eye could see), there was the astronomy section with its telescope dome and planetarium level, there was the metal shop and mechanics bays for those inclined to learn such things, the home economics area had apparently been upgraded from comments though he hadn't seen it yet, and there was the library.
The technology had been aimed at late 20th Century, which meant in this case that while the rest of Tokyo was in 1992, Furinkan Senior High School was currently using brand new equipment that ranged from c.1962 (the kitchens and cafeteria) to 1999 (the computer lab and library) to one area which was closer to 2011 in tech level (the astronomy department used fiberoptic and computer assisted visual range enhancement components that were a bit much for 1992 - especially with a link to a lunar orbit space telescope that nobody had bothered to tell him about).
The word, it seemed, had gotten out. Some administrators had been bragging about how Furinkan (one of the worst schools in academic performance in Greater Metropolitan Tokyo) had recently gotten some major overhauls courtesy of a mysterious sponsor/benefactor.
So Greylle was at least a little amused, despite his funk over being cut off from what he considered the important stuff, at hearing about eminent researchers or respected professors who were practically lined up to come teach at Furinkan.
Of course there were the old teachers, who might have stood a little more proud and straight, but were the same droning bores that they had been prior to the makeover. Which meant that Ranma was still falling asleep in class, of course.
Some of the new instructors were as bizarre as anything that could reasonably be found in a nation as conformist as Japan. Tekiko Tokusei (aka T2) was the new astronomy professor, newly arrived from Osaka, and someone who was frequently trying to find away into the base below the school. A space otaku who would rant for hours about the lack of hard science in science fiction movies and series, but wax eloquent about Oort Clouds and Dark Matter, though she frequently had to be pried away from "her" precious telescope.
Astronomy had become very popular at Furinkan. Some cynics would say it was because Tokusei was a bouncy little girl deemed cute by many. Others because of the high tech equipment. Greylle had come to the conclusion within five minutes of meeting the woman that it was because she was genuinely enthusiastic about her subject, and both qualities were quite apparent.
It was *Senior* High School in Japan, and therefore not mandatory. "Middle School" - what was called Junior High in America, was the last grade required of the students. Many kids who had family businesses to attend to never went into the last three years. Which was Ranma's usual attitude: he was attending under duress and saw little use for high school. In his experience: Ranma + School = Trouble. Also pointless, especially since Jusenkyo and being dragged to the Tendo house. A brief conversation with Ranma had given Greylle an insight there: Ranma felt that since his life had been mapped out with no room for him to manuever - why make any more effort than was absolutely necessary?
So Ranma was one of the few students who did not find the new classes on astronomy, the computer lab, the library with its computers and huge database on nearly every subject imaginable, or even the bays where automotive mechanics could be taught to be of interest. His father had ingrained into every fiber of his being that only martial arts mattered. Only the actual fighting part of martial arts mattered - and that itself was for any and all challenges *must* be accepted and anything that could be done to win *must* be done.
Greylle wondered, upon being confronted with this, if it were possible for his opinion of Genma Saotome to get any lower. At least the current P-chan was keeping himself well away from the school.
Of course, since he'd forgotten to bring a pocket translator, he was stuck with his fractured Japanese trying to understand a lot of things and only partially succeeding.
--------
Evening had arrived at the complex, and several things had occurred. The one with the most far reaching consequences had seen everyone normally allowed access to the complex gathered in one room. There was also someone not normally allowed access, but Fess hadn't been able to find a way to resolve the desire to remove that person without revealing the sensor upgrades.
Ranma was bored. School was boring. Ryouga hadn't been by lately. There wasn't anyone to fight, and he was getting tired of being ignored. He was hoping this would be *something* interesting.
Yuka was wearing her power armor, looking a lot like Linna from "Bubblegum Crisis." Not because anyone was expecting problems, but because she thought it looked cool.
Hotaru was present by Fess specifically requesting that she dedicate a building, so she had practiced the appropriate ceremonies and had brought the requisite materials.
Kasumi was present because she was still trying to find a way to request a powerup. She was in many ways a traditional Japanese housewife, but there had lately come a spark deep down within her of desire for more. To learn to be a healer using the advanced techniques available. To fly like Nabiki did - without a care in the world. To have the overwhelming levels of cute and cuddly that Akane's tigergirl body seemed to put out continuously.
Cologne was present because Kasumi made a nice cup of tea and even if this complex was awfully technologically dependent, she found herself in the role of wise elder/instructor with a number of respectful young pupils listening to her. Okay, maybe those pupils *were* machines or catgirls or strange albino types. That didn't mean she didn't enjoy having conversations with them. And she thought it likely that two of the catgirls and one of the albinos would accompany her back to the village at the appropriate time. Just the thought of what a twist in the shorts that would give some of her rivals was worth a grin.
Shampoo was present because Ranma was present. Besides, Ukyo was here and there was no *way* that she would allow Ukyo any quality time alone with Ranma.
Ukyo was present because Ranma was present. Besides, Shampoo was here and there was no *way* that she would allow Shampoo any quality time alone with Ranma.
Akane was confidently crouched atop one of the crates and sniffing every so often. She smelled pork and something else. Something that raised the fur on her back if she could just figure out what it was.
Genma had unsealed a special technique to hide in his P-chan form in one of the crates and get into the complex. Now he just had to grab some of this equipment, change back, escape the complex, and he'd be *rich!* Any moment now. Any moment.
Nabiki seemed to have some clue as to what was going on and kept fiddling with a camera in her possession. She'd also watched a series called "Slayers" recently and now would respond to questions with an odd wink and the comment: "THAT... is a secret!"
The lights flickered and then went off, this accompanied by an odd lurching sensation.
"Transfer complete," said Kiyuri, one of the Maid series who had just been standing and observing until now.
Cologne pogosticked to one of the previously dark porthole style windows so quickly that she left an afterimage. The others were more sedate, excepting Ranma who continued to look bored.
Genma saw the abandoned tea and saw his chance. With a triumphant "buqii" he knocked over the teapot, changed back to human, grabbed one of the smaller boxes, and dashed out the door, closing it behind him. There was a short corridor and another door, which came open quickly. Visions of riches filling his head, he dashed out across the desert. About fifteen meters from the doorway he was aware that something was *very* wrong.
"Stupid Oyaji!" Ranma tried to open the door but it seemed locked. Kiyuri was immediately there to block him from trying a second time.
Kiyuri shook her head. "Please, Saotome-san, do not endanger your friends' lives by forcing the door."
"Son in law," said Cologne drily, "you try to force that door open I'll show you a few shiatsu manuevers you won't like to be that acquainted with. Look out the window."
"Stupid Oyaji," repeated Ranma, wondering what the old ghoul was going on about. It wasn't like... Ranma stared as he could get a decent look out the window.
Reddish sands blew in sheets and Ranma could feel the deep cold penetrating through both sets of windows. The sun looked awfully small in the sky and the whole thing had an odd quality about it. "Uhm..."
Nabiki was rushing from one window to another, snapping pictures.
"Cargo transfer initiating," said Kiyuri, activating a conveyor to take the packages into a holding area outside the transfer room. "Oh, welcome to Mars."
"Mars? Like in: Mars? Like in the planet?" Ranma repeated.
Cologne stared out at where robots were chasing Genma who was still trying to get away from the station and apparently hadn't quite realized why he was having trouble breathing. "Ranma, normally I might feel that your father had gotten what he deserved. However in this instance I think some additional pain might be required."
"Huh?"
"Weather conditions outside the dome are typical for this time of year and location," Kiyuri informed them as Ranma's father was finally caught and brought back to the airlock. "Genma Saotome is still alive but is suffering from: frostbite, pressure bruising over his entire body, carbon dioxide poisoning, and..."
Anything that made an android pause struck the others as being of severe interest.
Cologne was the first to ask. "What is it, child?" After all, the girl was only sixteen in appearance but as she understood it had only been built a week ago.
"...traces of human protein in his digestive system," Kiyuri said, blinking rapidly. "Well, at least we know where Akane's original body went now."
Several people wanted to be ill at that revelation. Akane among them. Vows of vengeance would come later.
"It is now official though, Genma Saotome is now registered as the first man to walk the surface of Mars," finished Kiyuri. "Too bad, Ranma-san, you were originally going to get that honor."
"O-YA-JIIII!"
*BONK!* Cologne withdrew her staff after lightly rapping Ranma on the head. "Get in line, son-in-law."
---------
Greylle had no intention of using the crystal imbedded in his chest. The crystal sometimes seemed to have other ideas.
Flashes of heat or tickles of energy came from it on occasion. Most of these times he had no idea what the dang thing was trying to notify him of. Changing to his natural dragon shape would have let him know if there were spirits in the area, however changing to dragon anywhere inside metropolitan Tokyo was likely to produce some results he wouldn't care for.
Besides, there were things he was more concerned with.
Finding a junkyard had been difficult, but once he had, Greylle was able to finally gauge his strength a bit better. His human form could press a little over 6 tons as near as he could tell from the way the hydraulic gauge shot into the red. He could also haul six blocks of compacted cars atop each other and heft it over his head, though keeping them balanced made the whole thing difficult. Having one fall on his foot hurt, but didn't seem to do much in the way of permanent damage.
Clearly - getting a decent workout and trying to build up his strength would be difficult without access to the technology of the base. Otherwise he'd just rig up some extremely high gravity area and be able to get a workout that way.
Setting the cubes to the side he let out a deep breath. Greylle also figured he'd have to work on toughness, speed, and baseball skills. Again: with the base he'd be able to do something. Otherwise this was going to be a real problem. As an age category 5 (or was he 6 now?) dragon, he'd be difficult to injure and bleed huge amounts when something *was* able to injure him. As a human, he was simply about as tough as your average ridiculously powerful martial artist.
"RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!"
Greylle blinked. He was over six feet tall, blond, blue-eyed, and more thickly muscled than Ranma. Heck, he didn't even have a pigtail! How could *anyone* mistake him for Ranma Saotome?!
Throwing knives crashed into a variety of objects with a lot of pinging noises.
Greylle groaned. Well, now that he saw who it was, the mistake was understandable. "Mousse, put your damn glasses over your eyes!"
"Your tricks won't avail you, and I'll free Shampoo from whatever hold you've got her under," said Mousse while throwing seven throwing knives, two hatchets, fourteen shuriken and a stale looking cheese pizza.
Greylle blinked at that last. "i have *got* to learn that Hidden Weapons style."
"You acknowledge that it is a superior martial art?" Mousse stopped in mid-leap, astonished that the foe he'd been tracking had that much humility. Unfortunately he landed in a stack of radiators while he was distracted.
"Uhm, depends on what you use it for," Greylle admitted. "i don't think i would want to *master* it, but it seems that it would have a lot of uses outside of combat."
"Umf," said Mousse as he tried to untangle himself from where his robes had gotten stuck by some protruding metal edges. The result being that he had radiators dangling.
"Just the possibilities of being able to carry extra backpacks or another load of camping gear. Or when i'm practicing Martial Arts Housekeeping away from the house." Greylle could see *lots* of possibilities. In a world like Rifts Earth, for example, being able to produce a spare rifle and handful of e-clip ammo out of nowhere would be incredibly useful.
"Martial Arts *Housekeeping*?!" Mousse blinked. That sounded incredibly lame. "I'll pay you for mocking me!"
"i wasn't going to charge you for it. Not that i was mocking you." Flicking his wrist, he summoned his baseball bat. Though that was magic and not martial arts. "After all, if i knew how to combine Hidden Weapons and MA:Housekeeping, i'd be able to use Special Attack: Do You Want Fries With That? Ya-TA!... huh?!"
Mousse had had his mouth open as he charged forward. Suddenly the myopic martial artist went down with his mouth stuffed to the bursting point with crinkle-cut crispy-brown french fries.
"How the heck did i do that?" Greylle wondered as Mousse started choking. "Oh. Hang on Mousse, i'll do the Heimlich Manuever. i think it's like *so*." *CRUNCH!* "oops."
-------
A set of oil barrels shot into the atmosphere of a cloudy planet, though their speed at that point had been reduced to about the speed of a fast car.
Internal mechanisms popped tops and contents were scattered as gravity caused the battered metal to speed up and begin the re-entry burn.
The powder from within the cannisters began raining down. Some burned up on their own entry, their own speed still too great for the ultrafine particles to last. Others drifted within clouds of carbon dioxide and sulfuric compounds and their cargo was at last delivered.
Bacteria that could thrive in volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean or in rocks found themselves once again in an environment that they could thrive in.
A single surviving barrel lowered itself slowly into the crushing pressures of the rocky surface. A mechanism dug deep, and then began sending out tendrils into the volcanic rock around it. From these tendrils it would seek out and leech metals and minerals to expand itself and eventually reproduce.
Other tendrils slowly extended as the machine found and began working those native materials into its being. These extended out into the terrible heat and poisonous atmosphere, in order to pull that atmosphere into filters. Carbon was useful and could be put to use within the machine itself. Sulfer could also be made of use, eventually, but for now it would simply be concentrated and ejected.
As the lower tendrils continued to feed and distribute raw materials, flat surfaces were extended from the upper tendrils to increase surface area for both absorbtion and release purposes.
Eventually it could reproduce itself and begin spreading its influence, but right now the machine was having enough of a time in the harsh environment.
On Venus, the first tree drank of its environment and began to thrive.
---------
Greylle sighed deeply as he got back to his teeny tiny apartment. Mousse would survive, of course, but there had been a problem he hadn't foreseen.
When the Master Of Hidden Weapons had been brought to an emergency room, they had taken off his robe. That turned out to be a bit of a problem.
Mainly removing Mousse's robes had been a problem because of them removing from his person some items concealed there, and removing the robes had also caused the Hidden Weapons style to go inactive. Which made a certain degree of sense, Greylle supposed, he just hadn't realized what all the myopic martial artist had on him.
The swords, daggers, shuriken, maces, blowguns, nunchakus, ton fa, chainsaws, explosive eggs, and spears were all considered deadly weapons for some odd reason. The various small appliances had ID numbers which were being checked against lists of stolen items. The training potties, umbrellas, children's toys, and a complete set of Tiffany 8 track tapes were being considered as mere curiosities.
The explosives, on the other hand, were generating a bit of interest. As Mousse was a Chinese national, he had to have smuggled all this into the country. As soon as his ribcage was rebuilt and he came out from under the anesthetic, Mousse would likely have to answer a whole lot of questions.
Greylle guessed that taking Mousse to the Emergency Room had been somewhat of a tactical blunder on his part.
Stretching out in the small area of a studio apartment, he idly wondered what it was he was forgetting. There was something he should be doing, but what was it?
--------
Ranma sulked. There had been the chance to be the First Man To Walk The Surface Of Mars. The first human being to walk on an entirely different world, not just the moon, but another world! Not that it mattered that much to him, but he could see where when he was old and gray he could've sat down with his kids and told them about that. Respect. Something that he'd rarely gotten in his life, *could* have been his. "Stupid oyaji," he muttered.
Cologne frowned slightly as the shifting sensation occurred again and the familiar weight of Earth's gravity took hold. Pity about that. Once she'd heard their was an entire section of Mars named Amazonis Planitia, she'd wanted to go see it. Apparently a large flat plain that had the biggest mountain on the planet on one end. Intriguing name, even if the place itself sounded positively dismal. No pressure suits her size, and not enough time, and the robots had insisted there really wasn't much to look at.
Kasumi breathed a sigh of relief. Relative safety. She'd been quite aware that if you went through the foot thick wall of the enclosure, you'd be in a poisonous atmosphere. As Mister Saotome had knocked over her kettle, Kasumi found herself really wanting a nice cup of tea to get over this ordeal.
Nabiki pondered this latest development. Life on Mars struck her as being a hardship, difficult and uncomfortable. This sort of thing was not for her. Though she *could* see herself opening a casino that overlooked some of that landscape. Exoticness was a big draw. No, Mars was not for her. Instead she wanted to focus on the revelation that Genma Saotome had done something horrible. Scanning revealed the chemical tags, and so she had to think of some measure of revenge. That could have been *her* after all.
Akane wasn't aware of her own continual flicking in and out of her fingers, a figurative baring of claws. Her old body was *gone* and now she knew what that odd scent was. It was her own original body having been digested. To say that she was displeased by her father's favorite houseguest would be to almost criminally understate the case. Her tail was making sharp twitching motions and there was a line of fur all along her back that was ruffled. If Genma had been conscious he would have been quite nervous.
Genma was unconscious. He also had frostbite, pressure bruising, bleeding from various openings, and was having some trouble breathing despite the oxygen mask placed on his face. When he woke up he'd be in severe pain. Walking unprotected on Mars was not particularly healthful.
Hotaru wondered if her sempai was okay. She was hoping to make friends with some of these girls, but wasn't sure how to open a conversation with any of them. The shrine miko considered that the difference between associating with twelve year olds and sixteen year olds hadn't seemed that great prior to making that leap, but now she was running into problems. Though mainly she was ignored. She didn't have Akane's exoticness, and the other girls were mainly off in their own groups discussing things that didn't seem that interesting. Why was shopping such a big deal?
Yuka within her hardsuit happily hummed a song from an early '70s anime that she only vaguely remembered. Hidden bases, Martian colonies, powerarmor, and magical princesses? This was cool!
Sayuri tried to pretend that her friend of several years was not experiencing some second childhood. Hidden bases, Martian colonies, powerarmor, and magical princesses? What kami had she offended?
Ukyo had something else to hold against Genma Saotome. If they hadn't had to return quickly she could have fixed everyone some okonomiyaki. Nabiki could have gotten pictures. The advertising potential was enormous. Add to that depriving Ranma of the opportunity to be the first Man On Mars? Oh yes, pork okonomiyaki was looking more and more like a plan nowadays.
Shampoo didn't understand a lot of these events. She did know that Great-Grandmother was upset with Ranma's father, and Ranma was upset with his father, and Tigergirl was understandably *beyond* upset at Ranma's father, and Spatula Girl, and well practically everyone else. Spooky Girl wasn't upset, but Shampoo thought that maybe she was out of the loop too. It would be nice to get back to the complex where everyone spoke Mandarin and their lip-synch went to hell, but Shampoo was having trouble figuring out how she could use this situation to get Ranma to realize he was her husband.
Kiyuri was a Maid unit equipped with an Ishii Kairo. She merely observed all the interactions and tried to interpret them as best she could.
It took less than five seconds for the Slideway to pull them back, but in another way it was a very long trip back to Earth.
------
Harry of Pungo, wizard at large, pondered this current mess.
The dragon was altering things, which would have brought all sorts of magical retribution and the world would have been returned to normal after a conclave of wizards had been brought together over the dead body of the dragon if the dragon had been acting like your typical rogue wizard.
Except that these things were *not* being accomplished through draconic ability or magical energies. This area was getting stranger and stranger, but mostly magic was not being used.
The dragon now had a Class One Magical Artifact grafted to his chest, and apparently no control over said artifact.
There was a Shinto shrine which had a mirror which was an interface device for a Goddess First Class with Unlimited License.
There had been some healing and resurrection spells, but nothing major and there had been no consequences from those actions.
Harry's spells had allowed him to spy on one of the resurrected girls, and he'd learned from her that the dragon was actually a timetravelling alien magical prince from the future. He wasn't sure he believed it but it was clear that Nabiki Tendo believed it.
That this alien had technology capable of duplicating some really high level magic had become apparent and was frankly causing Harry some hesitation at this whole mess. Androids with souls? Teleportation tunnels? A spaceship seen in one girl's memory?
So Harry had done what intelligent people have done since antiquity when faced with a problem that puzzles the heck out of them. He handed the problem off to someone else and went off to have a beer.
Which brought someone considerably more powerful and experienced to the Land Of The Rising Sun.
Morgana Le Fey had been around quite some time and was considerably mellower than she had been when Arthur and his folk had been around. She felt that she'd gotten a bit of bad press there, but then she *had* been pretty nasty during a period where nasty and brutish were pretty much requirements of the era.
Within the past century, the most violent and hurtful thing she'd done was give a curse of chronic flatulance to a clerk at Blockbuster Video who had given her some late fees that she'd not earned. She had instead used the woman as an experimental subject and been amused by the woman's performance on several occasions thereafter.
Instead Morgana had been engaged in the magical equivelant of high energy particle physics. There were several questions in the universe that both physics and magic had trouble answering and she'd gotten curious about finding those answers.
The nature of Dark Matter, for example. Scientists and mages could only detect 4% of the universe. Look at the galaxies and how they move and you could calculate the mass. So where was the other 96%? Morgana suspected that Avalon had survived and likely accounted for a tiny little fragment of the mass, but was now out of synch with Earth.
(There was actually some crossover with some physicists and astronomers studying each others works and a few dabbling in magic. Naturally there were some wizards running around studying physics and astronomy.)
There were also questions like Dark Energy, which could be postulated in a similar manner from the Dark Matter as long as one didn't confuse it with necromantic or similar magic. There were quantum black holes and their larger cousins. The nature of gravity: was it a force as Newton theorized or a warp in the fabric of space-time as Einstein suggested. And if the latter, why did mass have that peculiar effect anyway?
After decades of trying to work out a spell which would stop and collect enough neutrinos to actually determine what they were and how they'd look, Morgana was hoping that this little interlude would help inspire her.
Yeah, yeah, another alien prince time traveller with magical powers and a bunch of girls after him. Boring! The elf prince sort of thing had been around for some time.
Okay, the Mars colony was different. Tigergirls were also not done too much. The girl with the polearm *was* intriguing in a way. Snappy dresser too. Hmmmm.
--------
Greylle opened the door and blinked for a moment before motioning the girl in. "I not late you expecting is. What you up?"
Hotaru nodded, her homework level was nearly overwhelming and she'd just been to Mars and back, but Fess had asked her to deliver this package. Unfortunately her English wasn't even as good as his Japanese. "-Fess deliver speak.-"
Taking the package, Greylle determined it was three of the silver ingots he was supposed to be taking internally every so often as a dietary supplement for dragons of his breed. He'd have to switch to his larger form to swallow, much less digest them. "Thank you. Japanese you speak please."
Hotaru wanted to say many things, ask many questions. Unfortunately, with the language barrier how could she even phrase them? "Sempai..."
"Hotaru-chan?" Greylle looked her over. She was nervous about something. She also looked *very* different at 16. Something a little like Mistress 9, but without the ridiculously long hair and a far gentler manner.
The young woman fidgeted as she considered what to do or say. Inside she was still twelve, or younger considering the amount of time she'd been influenced by Mistress 9. She wanted a friend very desperately, and a fiancee (if done properly) could be a friend you had a longterm agreement with. She was completely uncertain of how to proceed.
Greylle took the girl's hand and led her into the tiny room, noting that she'd probably visited that makeover machine. Otherwise Hotaru wouldn't be wearing makeup normally. Not having any idea what to say to her, he simply went for the most obvious thing.
Hotaru got even more nervous. Was this it? Would she be able to prove that she was *not* some kid sister? Would this hurt? She had some idea of what was required, even if she hadn't taken those classes and was a little vague on a lot of details.
The dragon knew how to set Hotaru at ease. Though why she was blushing was a puzzle, there were things that he knew how to do. A nice hot cup of chamomile tea. There was an old Japanese proverb: "If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty." While he knew a few Westerners who might disagree, this *was* Japan. "In Tokyo wear a square hat," or however that other proverb went. The sharing of tea was a terribly important part of a number of Japanese social conventions.
Hotaru found herself presented with a hot cup of some sort of tea, that her host had used a microwave to warm up. How terribly Western. No sense of ceremony at all. The idea that it might have been alcoholic and the disappointment that it was *not* were brief concerns that nonetheless managed to further confuse her.
"It late, Hotaru. Time is..." Greylle went suddenly very still, his eyes wide.
The sometimes Sailor Saturn blinked. The tea tasted okay to her. Greylle lapsed into English abruptly. Hotaru could only get a few words out of the babble.
Greylle was suddenly excited as the whole thing clicked together. "-That's it! TIME is the answer! Sailor Moon was trying to manipulate time one way, Pluto was there and not where she could help out, there were distractions all over the darn place. Maybe an attack by a Dark General. They ended up stuck in time - suspended between moments as opposed to having their pasts rewritten as 'normal girls'. Stuck there they wouldn't be able to get free! If they're in zero time Pluto could have gotten them out, but she could only do it if she was *outside* the cage! Otherwise no time passing means they aren't even aware they're trapped!-"
"I think I'm going to have to take Fess up on the offer of English lessons," said Hotaru. School was difficult enough having skipped four years. Now this. She tried a tentative smile back at her beaming fiance.
"-What i'll need is some way of breaking through the timeslip, maybe if i cast a Dispel Magic and can get it amplified by the Silver Crystal...-" Greylle was working out angles enthusiastically while scribbling out a note. "Hotaru, take you note to base. Show there. Greylle get to base of Beryl on own but need transport for Senshi if we succeed. Understand?"
Hotaru caught that, though Greylle's Japanese was getting difficult to understand. "You know where the Senshi are?" On seeing a tentative nod, Hotaru clapped her hands together in delight. She'd be getting more friends soon! "So we'll go on that camping trip next Sunday?"
Greylle nodded, then wondered why Hotaru was blushing. Waitaminute. Wasn't "kyanpu" camping? Oh. Hotaru wanted to see him in dragonform. Well, that was understandable. Dragons were pretty cool.
-------
Mister and Mrs Tsukino had been a little put off by the meeting they'd arranged with their vanished daughter. Okay, more than "a little" put off.
Shingo had tried teasing his big sister. She had raised an eyebrow and commented about how illogical that process was.
Usagi had passed every test they could think of. This *was* their daughter. However the past year had changed her incredibly. This was only the third day that they had been together, and she was beginning to act a little more like the Usagi they knew.
Except for her grades being nearly perfect. And excepting that she was extraordinarily calm. And an excellent cook, even if she tended to favor Thai dishes over Japanese. Or that she was graceful and agile in ways that their clumsy daughter could only have hoped to have been.
That and while she admitted to being their daughter, she insisted that she was not the same daughter that they had known.
It had taken a day and the help of one of Usagi's friends to convince her to come home with them. Three days after *that* and she was still surprising them.
Shingo was frightened of her at first. This couldn't really be *his* big sister. As she slowly opened up, and became more openly affectionate, he gradually started warming to this big sister who knew so much more than he remembered.
When she cut her finger, there had been no bawling, just a quick act to put a bandage over the wound and then clean the blood from the knife she'd been using.
When Usagi ate it was a calm and dignified manner, chewing each piece of food precisely.
However all three of the other Tsukino family members agreed that however weird it was, this was definitely a quieter Usagi in their midst.
------
Greylle had just let Hotaru out of his apartment and was wishing her goodbye when a rose slammed into the concrete and actually imbedded itself there. "-Hey! Watch it! You could hurt someone with that!-"
Hotaru frowned. She didn't like people attacking her sempai.
"That is my purpose!" The guy in top hat and tuxedo declared, cape blowing dramatically behind him. "How dare you add this innocent girl to your conquests! Enemy of women! Enslaver of innocents! You have gone on far enough!"
Greylle blinked. "-I didn't catch that, but it sounded like Tatewaki Kuno's speeches being recycled.-"
Tuxedo Kamen blinked. "Somehow I think I've just been insulted."
Looking over the guy, Greylle had to admit that Tuxedo Kamen didn't look quite as ridiculous as he could have. Though wearing formal dinner attire to a fight didn't strike him as being terribly practical, Endymion had never been a front-line fighter. "-So what's your gripe with me anyway, Endymion?-"
"-For enslaving the Senshi, perish monster!-" A rose was thrown.
Greylle blocked it, then winced and pulled the stem out of his arm. Of course, as he was a dragon, there was a lot of blood.
"Saturn Power, Make Up!" Hotaru thought it fairly silly that in this day and age she should get her superpowers through makeup, but she'd complain about it some other time.
"She's a Senshi?!" Tuxedo Kamen stared for a moment. Then returned his attention to the evil monster who had done whatever he had done.
"Sailor Saturn," Greylle held up a hand. "This fight mine is. Excuse me."
Tuxedo Kamen was waiting for some energy attack, it was a typical youma ploy after all. Instead what he got was the boy conjuring up a baseball bat and racing forward. Kamen pulled his cane out of subspace. "Have at thee."
-------
Ranma froze as a concept that he had resisted for a long time finally forced itself into conscious consideration. Watching Akane the tigergirl had caused him to consider what his cursed form looked like.
A catgirl?! For an ailurophobe, this was not a pleasant idea.
This whole situation was decidedly weird to Ranma. Not that things hadn't turned weird before getting to Nerima, it had been Jusenkyo that had seen the weirdness escalate to insane levels.
"Oh dear!" Kasumi tripped. Naturally she was carrying a glass of cold water.
Ranma-kun vanished. Ranma-chan appeared. A trembling hand checked her ears. Yes, soft and mobile triangular ears. The other hand checked the tail while freeing it from the confines of his pants. Yup. Therefore...
The catgirl screamed as if a lost soul. Cat = panic = got to get away. However *she* was the cat and therefore she couldn't get away. Therefore...
Ranma had never gone into the catfist this quickly before. Lost and alone, the kitty looked around for someone trusted or at least liked. Since there was no one really present, it was time to leave.
-------
Hotaru watched as two skilled people briefly fenced. One using a baseball bat, the other using a cane. Hotaru watched as the superior strength of the bat-wielder launched the cane-wielder nearly the length of the floor.
"-i don't want to fight you,-" Greylle told the boy.
Tuxedo Kamen struggled to his feet. "I will do whatever I need to do to free Usagi."
"-Fine, be at Beryl's cavern as soon as you can. i'm heading there myself immediately.-" Greylle turned to Hotaru. "Hotaru. Need Fess send transport base of Beryl to go."
Hotaru silently added some kind of translation device to what needed to accompany them but nodded.
With that, her fiance leapt over the railing and shifted, having remembered that silver dragons could polymorph to something other than a human form. Unfortunately he wasn't very good at it and the eagle was roughly the same mass as Hotaru.
Hotaru quickly took the stairs, glancing back once at this attacker as he complained about not having a way to get to Beryl's island on his current budget.
-------
The evening had turned to night before he judged it safe to return to dragon. The dragon flew much faster, but could also use the leylines to "jump" along them.
It was just beginning to lighten again when he caught sight of the island and was buzzed by a series of vehicles.
One jet switched to gerwalk mode, revealing that Snoopy had probably been watching Macross. The yellow submarine landed in the snow and then tilted at a twenty degree angle. The jetcycles revealed that the Outer Senshi (minus Hotaru) had chosen something a bit faster than their internal flight mechanisms.
Considering their relative speeds, the vehicles had already landed and their passengers disembarked before he could land.
When he *did* land there was a sudden shooting pain in his side.
Sailor Saturn threatened to use her Silence Glaive if the tuxedo wearer did that again.
*i have to do this as a dragon,* Greylle sent to the group, noting that he still had his armband and the glowing stone embedded in his chest. He also had an armor piercing rose imbedded between two scales and was beginning to get quite upset with Mamoru Chiba.
Akane sniffed all around his legs briefly before seeming to go off into deep thought.
Greylle looked over the crowd and wondered exactly why everyone and their Great-Grandmother had come along.
Cologne looked over the dragon and wondered exactly what she could do to add his genes to the village. The only people missing were most of the Sailor Marionettes and it looked like Sabre Mercury had brought Dr. Mizuno.
Ukyo announced that unless something was going to happen *now* she was going back to sleep in the nice warm submarine.
*Yes, well,* sent the dragon, *what i'm going to do is tricky and will require me to use the Eternal Silver Millenial Crystal (aka the Ginzuishou) to try to breach the time bubble.*
"Return that Crystal to Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Kamen tried to run forward and snatch it. It didn't come popping out to his hand, and shortly after that was obvious there began the most curious chase scene.
Said chase scene consisted of Sailor Saturn chasing Tuxedo Kamen around, doing her level best to brain him with the business end of her Silence Glaive. Cologne watched for a moment before reaching out with the end of her stick and hitting a paralysis shiatsu point on both of them.
"It's cold and it's early and I'm getting too old for this," Cologne informed everyone.
*You Cologne? Getting old? Hah!* The dragon grinned down at the ancient Elder. *Just as well you're here though. Most likely this was just after a very nasty battle or it occurred at the very tail end of a long battle. So they'll either need medical attention or may come out of it still thinking they're in a fight. Everyone who can't dodge a mana bolt stay up here. i have to go into the cavern where the fight occurred to cast this at zero range for the maximum potential effect.*
Cologne nodded, another glint in her eye. Yes, Sash would be a good choice for this dragon. Or perhaps Sugar. Salt and Pepper? She might be a three hundred plus year old traditionalist within the Chinese Amazons, but she found herself warming to this ice dragon. Having him marry into the tribe sounded like a good way to increase the strength of the tribe immensely. Besides, then she'd have someone to talk to who could live as long as she could.
Greylle took a quick look around, then ducked into the cavern.
=============
OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE
"I am *not* Genma Saotome, nor will I portray him even in a simulation."
"...but..." The black cat looked inquiringly up at the old man.
"NO. Do you have *any* idea how dangerous my life is?"
"...but..."
"I've raised kids before you know. Can't you get Drizzt to do it?"
"Why are you bringing *me* into this conversation, old man?"
"How about I give both of you a major magic item and a promise of no interference for a hundred years?" Toltiir asked the two.
The drow ranger looked tempted by the possibility of an Elder god of mischief being out of his hair for a century. Not that he had many funny slapstick adventures, but it didn't help his image to have to deal with "wackiness" or the like. "Joint custody? How about some of those Arrows Of Sunlight. Those *could* come in handy. No. Probably not."
"*Absolutely* not. Do you know how many heroes I've sponsored since Myth Drannor?" Elminster frowned. "There is no way I'm taking on an apprentice at my age."
"Well, neither of *them* could do nearly the job I could anyway," added another.
Elminster and Drizzt glared at the newcomer. Neither really wanted to try and raise Ranma from the pit of cats and try to overcome Genma's influence. There was a little pride involved, however. "Prove it!"
---------
Yet Another Worse Father Than Genma? A continuing omake by gregg sharp.
DISCLAIMER: Characters are by other people. Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi. Elminster, Drizzt Do'Urden and the Forgotten Realms are by Ed Greenwood and TSR. Toltiir is by Toltiir.
---------
Ranma screamed. He screamed in pain. He screamed in fear. He screamed in just plain old desire not to be thrown back in the pit.
The Catfist training was a turning point for Ranma Saotome in a number of ways.
Prior to the Catfist he had doubts about blindly following his father's dictums. Prior to the Catfist he remembered that he had a mother. Prior to the Catfist he was still able to function as a multi-layered human being. Prior to the Catfist Ranma Saotome was not exclusively devoted to the martial arts.
After the Catfist Ranma would go on to excel in pride and arrogance, eschewing all other activities than martial arts. After the Catfist Ranma would forget his mother and other people would come to touch his heart less and less. He would close his ability to care for others, it was a tough world and unforgiving - full of cruelty designed to make one stronger. Pain was there to make one stronger.
So, as Genma got ready to throw his son into a pit of hungry cats for the second time, it was an excellent time for an interruption.
Genma threw the screaming child into the pit and turned to where he had put the bottle of sake. He was hoping the stupid boy would hurry up and learn the unbeatable manuever and...
Genma stopped. He couldn't actually have seen what he *thought* he saw, could he?
The obese Saotome patriarch turned around and cautiously peered into the bottom of the pit.
Except the bottom of the pit didn't seem to actually be there.
Genma even more cautiously went to the edge of pit and stared for a few moments more before he finally summed it up. "My god, it's full of stars..."
----------
Genma began wandering after that. While he had watched the floor had reappeared. No cats. No Ranma.
His reason for wandering was quite simple.
He couldn't face a regular job. He was firmly convinced that anything approaching real work was demeaning to a man of his nature. Genma was also quite uncertain of what to do now as his plans had been developed and set for years.
First he would dump his wife and responsibilities to train Ranma to be a superior martial artist. Then he would go off to his old buddy Soun, marry Ranma off to one of those daughters, the son and daughter would then operate the dojo and lead to Genma's long and comfortable retirement.
No son. Therefore no ten years of training, therefore no marriage, therefore no comfortable retirement. Therefore Genma had to go back to his wife and get a job. Providing she didn't kill him or require seppuku.
This was clearly not acceptable.
So Genma had eventually found a nice bar where he was on his fourth bottle of sake, trying to come up with a way of compensating for a son who had vanished.
The best ideas he'd come up with so far had been: a) just going off and forgetting about this and starting over again with a new wife and child; b) a replacement Ranma; c) going to visit his old buddy Soun and divorce Nodoka and marry one of Soun's daughters. So far "C" was beginning to look quite appealing and it would unite the two families.
"Ah, Mister Saotome," said a woman sliding into the barstool next to Genma.
Genma blinked. This wasn't a bill collector was she? She certainly wasn't dressed for a seedy bar in downtown Kobe.
"I was wondering if a deal could be made between you and I regarding your son," the woman said to him, then spoke to barkeep. "Tea, green, hot."
Genma considered as he reached for bottle #5. He didn't *have* Ranma, Ranma was *gone*. The entire pit have been filled with a deep darkness and lots of stars. When the strange image had passed there had been no Ranma so it wasn't like he was doing anything *wrong* by selling Ranma. He'd sold Ranma off before anyway so it wasn't a big deal. "Well, my son is very valuable."
"For the next ten years I'm interested in training your son to be a sort of bodyguard to a very important individual," the woman said quietly but somehow over the noise of the bar.
"Ah, well he can't neglect his studies in the martial arts," said Genma. "Very important."
"I'm willing to pay a considerable sum," said the woman, regarding him briefly with the most unnerving reddish eyes.
"How much?"
The woman reached into her purse and withdrew a small stack of papers. "You'll find the pertinent figures there on the first page."
"Well, I don't know my boy is... SOLD!" Genma quickly looked for the line to sign on. He didn't have the boy anyway and he could at least get this woman to pay his bar tab.
The woman seemed amused as Genma signed and pressed his hanko into the appropriate places. "Fine. Fine. Here's the payment in full."
Genma's eyes popped as the woman lifted an attache case and set it in front of Genma. He couldn't believe his luck! By the time this idiot woman realized he didn't have Ranma he'd be long gone. "Uhm, so. I guess I'll bring Ranma by here tomorrow."
The woman had already drank her tea and gotten up, looking back over her shoulder at the portly man. "Oh, I've already taken possession of the merchandise."
"Fine, fine," said Genma, not really paying attention as he popped the case open.
"Well, we witnessed it," said one of the young men nearby, getting up to leave with the woman.
"First time I've seen an engagement arrangement work so smoothly," said another.
"Huh?" Genma said, suddenly beginning to realize that something was wrong as photographers snapped photos and he realized someone had videotaped the whole proceeding. Well, let them. He'd outsmarted all of them.
"Genma Saotome?"
Genma shut the case slowly having recognized that voice. Slowly he turned.
This crowd of people he did recognize. He'd stolen from most of them. Oh dear.
------
10 years later:
Soun snipped the envelope, wondering why someone would send him a videotape.
He put it in and immediately wept with joy to see his old friend Genma on there. His old friend... wait a minute. Soun turned the sound up.
Almost sleepwalking, he went back to the package and pulled out the photos and laid them aside. The thirty page legal document drew his attention.
"GENMAAAAAAAAA!"
----------
Nodoka wondered why someone would send her a videotape.
She watched it, rewound it, played it again. There was really only one thing she could say about this.
"Where's my sharpening stone?"
--------
Genma, currently breaking rocks in a Japanese prison for repeated petty theft and assault on a police officer, felt a chill go down his back and thanked the kami he was in a nice safe prison under an assumed name.
--------
Setsuna Meiou merely smiled as she looked over her own copy of the document. Which stated, among other things, that the contract superceded all previous negotiations and rendered them null and void. That basically, if the contract was broken by Genma, she would have ended up owning the Saotome family assets down to the last nickel and putting them into debt beyond their ability to pay.
Ranma continued to flow through a complicated kata from where he was, not concerned.
He'd read the contract years ago and seen the tape. His father had sold him off. Ranma had come to terms with those events.
In the meantime he'd trained long and hard for what he knew to be an important job.
Yojimbo. Bodyguard. An old and noble profession, one that many ronin had undertaken over many years. He had a new clan and had been trained by some of the best of the best.
He still had to meet the Tendos, apparently Meiou-oneechan felt that it was important to personally apologize for the oversight of his father. He was tempted to bring his iinazuke along, but that might cause problems.
Finishing by drawing ki in from his surroundings to replenish the energy he'd expended, Ranma readied himself for the coming confrontation.
-------
Nabiki held the door open as she looked over this stranger come calling. Tall, with a lithe muscular look that bespoke of a career in gymnastics or martial arts. This guy wasn't cute, he instead had the sort of lean roguish good looks that could have made a fortune in the modeling business. "Uhm, hello."
"Good evening, Miss. I am here to speak with Soun Tendo," said the youth, bowing formally and politely.
Nabiki looked over the guy some more, enjoying what she was seeing. Not only was he built quite attractively, but he was dressed pretty nicely too. "Daddy is..." How to say that her father was a blubbering wreck?
"I understand," said the youth. "It is regarding that matter I wished to speak with him."
"Oh my," said Kasumi as she arrived. "A guest. I'm sorry but Father isn't really up to visitors right now."
"Ah, you're the eldest daughter?" On seeing her nod, the youth bowed again. "In that case, I tender my deepest apologies to you as representitive of your father. My name is Ranma Saotome."
There was a brief moment of silence, broken a moment later by the trampling of feet as the Tendo patriarch lunged for the door.
Unfortunately, Kasumi and Nabiki were still occupying the door.
*CRASH* *TRAMPLE!*
"Oops." "Ouch." "Owie."
Ranma looked down at the tangle. "Uhm, should I get a doctor?"
--------
"This is Kasumi, she's 20. This is Nabiki, she's 18. This is Akane, she's 17."
"This is Ranma," said Ranma, "who is already engaged. You've got a copy of the contract."
"The Tendo arrangement predates that one," began Soun again.
"While this one specifically states it takes precedence over all pre-existing ones," said Ranma in a perfectly reasonable tone. "Besides, me and Mako-chan get along really well."
"B-b-b-but?!" Soun privately cursed Genma for not being here.
Akane was mollified somewhat. This boy wasn't trying to get engaged and was sincerely not interested. She had enough trouble with Tatewaki Kuno, who had finally gone all out and beaten her and was now insisting that they were engaged. The thing was, as soon as Kuno had offered money to her father, the engagement had been formalized pending only one thing. This boy was her last chance to avoid the engagement to Tatewaki Kuno.
Nabiki had slowly lost interest. She'd love the chance to get out of Nerima but she'd be going off to a college in Juuban soon anyway.
Kasumi looked over the boy with a certain interest. Doctor Tofu had moved away halfway through the year, still unable to bring himself to any sort of coherency in her presence. He wasn't interested in gaining a fiancee, which was a pity, but certainly nothing she could affect. Still it was worth a moment of pleasant fantasy. Nabiki would be off to college soon, and then Akane possibly. Then she'd be free. Free to do what was a good question.
Ranma shrugged helplessly. "I'm just here to apologize on behalf of my birth-father. I've got quite a full day ahead of me so I'll just be going."
"B-b-b-but..." Soun desperately sought for something to say that would keep the boy here.
--------
"So you see, I make a better father than Genma," declared Sailor Pluto as the on-screen Ranma fled. "Ranma is a trained martial artist and bodyguard of the Princess - so he's got a career."
"Akane ends up being kidnapped by Kodachi for 'bridal training' for her brother," noted Bast. "Looks uncomfortable."
"Makoto Kino gets a sempai and a fiance she can keep, Ranma gets a girl who can understand him and who enjoys cooking." Toltiir nodded. "It's a good match: they have enough in common for common ground but not so much that they're competing in everything. With overlapping duties, they mesh well professionally and personally even with his occasional lapses into foot in mouth disease."
"Soun doesn't give up on the Tendo marriage concept," pointed out Bast. "Akane may be out of the running, and Nabiki is off at college, that leaves one daughter he can push towards Ranma. Looks like she doesn't do too well as a seductress - gets too embarassed too easily."
"I have trouble with this image of you as a matchmaker, Pluto." Toltiir looked towards the Senshi of Time. "You don't seem quite the sort. Venus I could see."
Sailor Pluto shrugged slightly. "Why do I always have to be the mysterious no-fun by-the-book manipulative sort? Can't I engage in something where people are happier at the end of the game?"
"It's just... odd," admitted Bast.
"AH!" Toltiir pounced as he selected a scene. "Oh HO."
Bast repeatedly blinked, then grinned. "Ah HAH."
Pluto colored slightly and tried to look dignified.
"Gave yourself a lemon scene, did you?" Toltiir smirked. "Romantic subplot and kids and the whole nine yards, eh?"
Pluto shrugged again. "Hey. Nobody said I couldn't have fun, did they?"