Chapter 8
After a bite to eat (and a quick appology) at Uuchan's, Makoto and I
retired for the evening, forgoing the smaller futon for the giant bed
aboard the Jupiter's Thunder.

The next few days saw Makoto and I around Nerima, learning the lay of
the land and meeting the locals. Interestingly enough, I managed to
avoid the more violent-prone residents and visitors, and Makoto managed
to avoid Kuno and Happosai as well. If our luck held out, by the time we
encountered someone, we'd have a chance of getting away, instead of
having to take whatever our assailants decided to dish out.

The day before the expected re-writing of the universe, Makoto dropped
her Senshi Communicator off with the Science Officer aboard the Thunder,
and he was currently trying to power it so she could contact Ami and the
others.

"Hold, foul cretin," someone interrupted my thoughts. I rolled my eyes.
One more day! I was so close.

Turning around, I saw Kuno, dressed as usual, pointing at me with a new
bokken. Glancing around, I realized in my wandering, I'd found a resting
spot leaning against my car. Feeling the keys in my pocket, I decided to
act.

"Foul Sorceror, enslaver of those who should be free to express their
love for me, I would have your name, so that I might smite the in the
heaven's stead."

Walking nonchalantly to the front of my car, I leaned back against the
hood, and smirked, the remote hidden in the palm of my hand. In the
twilight, I hoped the growing shadows would hide my obvious plan, and
cedied to delay for a moment.

"Foul Sorceror? Heh. I prefer the term Magus, myself."

"So. You admit to using Dark Magic to subdue my loves."

"I dunno... I suppose. You can't subdue people with white magic, you
know."

"... how dare you practice such... such evil ways in my country!"

"Practice? Practice is something you do when you want to get better...
and I'm the best. Why do you think Ranma is learning from me?"

"So... the mystery is solved at last. His dark ways were no match for
me, but his tenacity gave me reason to believe he was being encouraged.
You and your tainted apprentice intend to deny my loves the freedom they
deserve! Have at you!"

"Umm... actually, if you strike me down, I will become more powerful
than you can imagine." Heh. I hated that line. Hopefully the
melodramatic-ness of it would awe Kuno.

"You speak wisely for one so uneducated, foreigner. Your words, however,
will not be enough to hold off my righeous blade!"

I pressed the lock button, and the dull thunk of my doors locking
themselves rang out behind me. Kuno paused, and peered into the now dark
alley behind me.

"My minions draw near, Kuno..." I pressed unlock, and the the louder
thunk crept out of the darkness, Kuno's bokken wavering slightly.

"I'll face whatever demonic hordes you care to summon, fiend!" His voice
cracked, however, ruining his bravado.

"Oh? I suppose then you're not afraid to face my... pet."

"Your pet?"

I nodded, and hit the trunk release, the dark shape of the trunk lid
rising above the car slowly.

"I... I fight on!" he said, his white-knuckled fingers twisting on the
bokken nervously. I shrugged, and placed my thumb over the panic button.

"Then face the horror of my banshee."

"Banshee?" Kuno echoed quietly. I pressed the button, and my car's
modified air-horm begain going off, the headlights shining in his eyes,
and the foglights flashing rapidly behind me.

Almost instantly, the blood drained from Kuno's face, before his eyes
rolled up in his head, and he collapsed.

Getting in my car, I shut off the alarm, before locking it up walking
over to the fallen Kuno. Looking at my car, I considered parking it on
him, but decided he might damage the tires, and decided to let him think
on his defeat. Grabbing the CAT-5 Cables I had leftover from MAGfest in
Virgina, I quickly tied Kuno up, before snapping his Bokken again over
my knee. After stringing him up like a Pinata from a nearby tree, I went
into the my apartment, grinning widely.

"What're you so eexcited about?" Nabiki asked, looking at me as I walked
in. Makoto was playing Mortal Kombat against... what looked like a com-
link attatched to the GameCube. On screen, I frowned when I realized
Makot's opponent looked like...

"SHODAN?" the figure on the screen turned, and sure enough, one of the
female fighters had been edited to look like the cybernetic visage that
ran the Jupiter's Thunder.

Shrugging, I turned back to Nabiki, who was in the middle of watching
The Phantom Menace. Watching for a moment, I glanced around, before
grabbing a Coke and sitting on the couch-ified futon beside Makoto.

"Well, guy.. err. girls. Tonights the night. Here's to hoping my wish
sets everything straight."

"I cant wait to sleep in my bed again," Nabiki said, not looking away
from the screen. The power cose that moment to flicker, and I looked at
my watch.

"Here goes." Makoto glanced worriedly at the clock, but we had discussed
the use of her magic to stop any changes that happened and decided not
to. The power died fully then, and a golden glow once again suffused the
darkened apartment.

"...just like last time" Makoto mumbled, while Nabiki and I stared at
the small pinpoints of light that traveled around the room.

Finally, the three of us started to grow, and I saw a white aura around
Nabiki and Makoto's head that I assumed was the wish preventing memory
changes.

"Oh." Makoto said suddenly, staring down at her arm. I was about to ask
her what happened, when I felt it too. Not just in my arms, but all
over, I could feel minute changes taking place inside my body. I was
about to worry, when I realized it was my wish that we were about equal
in skill to Ranma upon his arrival to Nerima.

"Well this is.. different..." I muttere, staring at my hands, which
looked about the same, but felt so much stronger. Makoto, I saw out of
the corner of my eye, nodded in silent agreement, then looked at me
worriedly.

"We don't know anything, though!" She said. I blinked, before cursing.
How thoughtless of me. Now my body knew how to do lots of cool stuff,
but my brain couldn't, because the memories had been blocked. Nabiki
chuckled, having reached the same conclusion I had.

"Looks like you'll still need some training fr... huh?" She stopped,
surprised.

"What's wrong" I asked, the glow now beginning to die down.

"Umm.. nothing. Nothing at all!" She said, quickly. I frowned, but
didn't have time to ask before she walked towards the door.

"I'm going... home." She said, the last word said with no small amount
of wonder. Watching her leave, I turned to makoto, who was staring at
the door.

"That was.. weird." she finally said, before climbing to her feet.
"Wanna spar?" she asked. I looked at her, then at the apartment, before
shrugging.

"Sure, I suppose. I can remember a little bit of my Tae-Kwon-Do... I
suppose I can modify it as my body sees fit. Lets go someplace a
little... bigger though, shall we?" I asked, pulling out my Com-link.
Makoto Nodded, and I called Archer to beam us up.

We arrived on the bridge, and I glanced around, before moving over
towards the officer in charge of Engineering.

"My lord, as requested, all sensors aboard were trained upon the
exterior of the ship-" I waved my hand to cut him off, nodding.

"Thanks for that. Really, though, I was wondering if you could have
SHODAN compile everything, and print it up in a report for me?"

"Ahh, Yes, Lord Kyle. At once." I nodded, then quirked a brow.

"Weren't you scheduled to be on shore leave now?"

"Ahh, your request, Lord, gave the impression you wanted me to oversee
the project personally." I winced slightly, then shrugged.

"Fair enough. Next rotation, place yourself in one of the open spaces at
the end of the list, then."

"Thank you, My Lord." He said, surprised. I nodded, then turend to
Captain Archer.

"Archer... I need one of the larger hangars cleared for Makoto and I to
spar in."

"SHODAN overheard and your pilots are currently vacating Hangar 1 for
you." nodding, I turned to the door, Makoto beside me. The walk wasn't
short, but before long, we arrived, the polished floors devoid of
everything from Shuttles to scuff-marks.

"Impressive," I muttered, turning to glance at Archer before turning to
Makoto.

"So... Go easy on me, eh?" I said, smiling. She returned the smile, then
bowed to me, which I echoed. Falling back into a ready stance, I
realized almost immediately the changed my body had taken. I was no
longer shakey, and my knees bent more than I'd done in the past. Makoto
looked as surprised as me, before she Leapt up...

and up...

And then I leapt up after her, The Deck falling away as if the
artificial gravity had been shut off.

"Hya!" Makoto cried, a blurred fist coming at me almost too fast to see.
I tried to move my arms to block it, and the next thing I knew, her fist
was held firmly in my hand. She looked surprised, then smiled, and I
grinned back at her, before letting go and landing in a crouch. Looking
at Makoto, I saw she'd landed similarly, and we stood.

At some silent signal, we charged each other, Her fists moving at
blinding speeds, only to be blocked most of the time with my forearms.
What few punches she got through stung, but didn't hurt too much, and I
gave as much as I got.

My legs moved quickly, kick after kick raining down upon Makoto. She'd
twist out of the way of the more obvius ones, but the ones she couldn't
dodge or block would make her grunt slightly as they connected. Makoto
didn't kick more than a dozen times each one powerful, but easly
avoided, and what few punches I threw failed to come anywhere close to
Makoto.

Finally, we leapt back from each other, both of us wearing goofy grins.

"You," she said, "Are a bit stronger than me." I nodded, then replied.

"Yeah, but you're faster." She grinned, and stretched, before looking at
her hands.

"I rely on my fists too much," she said with a sigh, "I've spent so much
time brawling I forgot my legs can be weapons, too."

I grinned. "And what sexy weapons they are," I said, Causing Makoto to
roll her eyes. I shrugged, then looked at the lights high above us.

"I suppose Tae Kwon Do is a kicking martial art... I can remember only
one real punch, and everything else was kicking and blocking." Makoto
nodded, watching as I rapidly punched the air around me. Following my
example, she began kicling at invisible opponents, both of us lost in
our movements.

I could feel that my body was used to this, and the wrongness of my
punches before I slowly changed my execution. After a minute or so of
punching at nothing, I realized how bad my form had been before. Taking
a couple more swipes at nothingness, I glanced at Makoto, who was
Leaping through the air, her kicks more sure than they had been before.
She landed then, and turned to look at me.

"Again?" she asked with a wry grin. I nodded, and we leapt to meet in
midair both of us exchanging kicks and punches as we fell together.
Bouncing away from eachother the moment we hit the ground, we circled
before running at each other and attaching again, each meeting growing
faster and more complex as we started following through with move after
move, and block after block.

A while later, sweat plastered Makoto's hair down, and my shirt clung to
my chest like a second skin. We bounced away from eachother, and bowed,
our sparring match completed.

"Whew." Makoto said, echoing my thoughts. I wasn't winded, but I felt
drained in a way that felt good.

"I wonder how you'd do as a Senshi, now?" Makoto stared at me, then
shrugged.

"We'll find out eventually. I'm sure of it." We made our way over to
Captain Archer, who seemed a bit out of it. Captain Bowen had joined
him, and while she looked alright, her eyes were wide with... something.
I shrugged it off, before turning to the door. Makoto following.

The walk to our Stateroom was punctuated with crewmembers who stared as
we passed. I frowned, wondering why they were acting like I'd just
killed someone for some imagined slight, and decided to ask SHODAN when
we reached our room.

"SHODAN?"

"I thought it would be... interesting, to show the crew just who,
exactly, they worked for. Your skills seem to have earned you both a new
level of respect among the crew."

"... ahh... everyone saw?" I asked, glancing at Makoto, who was about as
surprised as I was.

"Yes, to an extent. Even those who were sleeping got up to watch the
fight."

"They're going to think we're freaks or something..." Makoto muttered.
SHODAN, thought otherwise.

"Not necissarily. I placed a few hard-to-miss messages in there, to cull
any such thoughts. Congradulations, by the way, Makoto. You managed to
land three more hits on Kyle than he did on you."

I grumbled, before entering the shower, Makoto beaming behind me.

A half hour later, we emerged, squeaky clean, and feeling the fight now
that the adrenaline had died down. Crawling into our bed, I told SHODAN
to find out what time I needed to arrive at Furinkan and get me up in
time to prepare. Then Makoto and I went to sleep.

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Author's notes:

LOTS of fun coming up next chapter. Sorry for the delay.