Site - http://shi_hanna.tripod.com
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Strange Days
Chapter 15
By: Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(C)2003
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It had been years since the Tendo dojo had trained up a master of the arts. This didn't exactly qualify in most people's opinions since gaining mastery is supposed to be the final act between a Master and a Student. Still, it was a good excuse to throw a party and work off some of the tension that had developed because of the day's events.
After defeating his father and making sure the old fool wasn't being affected by his darker emotions anymore, Ranma had been escorted back to the house to get cleaned up and the old men had made sure that the sake was flowing freely ever since. Genma hadn't wanted to have anything to with it, but after a while he had come around and decided that the sake and food would help lesson the sting of his defeat at his son's hands.
There was also a bit of dancing, singing, and even a little yelling as Akane tried to mallet Ranma for ignoring her and not answering her questions about Ryoga. She had been untied earlier and been in a bad mood ever since, Amy had made sure things didn't get to out of hand since Ranma was injured in the fight.
She had been drinking at the time so Amy had been forced to hit her sleeper point again to put her out just to keep her from hurting herself or any of the others. Kasumi and Nodoka had stayed sober to help out with the celebration and make snacks and finger foods for Ranma's victory.
As usual Kasumi showed as much skill here as with normal foods and quickly had the lots of things set out for them to eat. No one asked where in the world she had acquired another table for them to use after Akane destroyed the other one during Ranma's fight.
Eventually Soun and Genma passed out over his shogi board, muttering about how long it had been since they last had anything to celebrate. Kasumi helped him up to bed and motioned for Nodoka to grab the snoring Akane and help get her to her room as well. A few minutes later they grabbed Genma and dragged him off as well, though this time it was out to the Dojo.
His actions had gotten him into a lot of trouble with his wife and she wanted to collect. This left Ranma and Amy at the table sitting at the table, they looked at each other and smiled shyly, Ranma realized that this was the first time they had been in the house alone like this.
"Are you okay Amy?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah, just drank a little too much that's all."
"Me too, I'm not sure I should even try standing r-right now."
"Really? I was going to suggest a little walk to clear our heads." Amy said and threw out a hint that passed clear over Ranma's head.
"I don't know, it's a little late."
"Please, we could go down to park and see the lake in the moonlight or something."
"Well..."
"Ranma?" Amy asked, turning on her super cute attack. Complete with large eyes, sparkles, and tears when necessary. Though this time Ranma broke before she had to go that far.
Ranma blinked and shrugged. "Sure, let's go for a walk in the park at 2am in the morning."
"Thanks."
They helped each other up, grabbed their shoes, and staggered out the front gate. Several seconds later Nodoka peaked around the corner and grinned, she motioned the all clear for Kasumi as they sat down at the table. They had some tea and relaxed before turning to talk to each other, it would have been sake, but the two old fools had finished off all of it just before passing out.
"Do you suppose this will work?"
"Father and Mr. Saotome have tried everything else to get Ranma hooked up with my sister, it usually fails." Kasumi said.
"Oh." Nodoka says sadly.
"Still, we weren't as obvious about it as they usually are and we were trying for Amy and not Akane, since she did choose Ryoga. God only knows why."
"That's true, I hope it works, I want some grandchildren before I'm too old to do anything with them."
"Who knows what will happen Auntie." Kasumi says quietly, still sipping her tea.
"What about his shoulder? Do you think that will cause them any problems?"
"Auntie, Ranma can shrug off damage like that in a day or two. He wasn't even paying attention to his wound tonight."
"I noticed, he was watching his new girlfriend."
Kasumi giggled and nodded.
Ranma and Amy soon make it to the park with out troubles and make their way over to the lake. Amy points out something he had noticed before, but never really thought about before, how the moon light reflected off the lake. It was one of the neatest things he had ever seen, but gets really distracted when Amy takes his arm and leans on him with a sigh.
He was surprised at how it made him feel, wanted, and it was a feeling he hadn't felt in a very long time. None of his fiancée's had ever made him feel this way, not even Akane when he had cared about her the most. They just used him for what ever they wanted and then tossed him to the side when they were done. Just like the trophy they saw him as. He started to sweat as indecent thoughts went through his head and he hoped his blush was hidden in the shadows as they passed under some of the trees.
His brain was mush, for several days now he had noticed that whenever Amy was around he couldn't think straight, everything she did made him watch her as closely as he could. His eyes were always locked to some part her body, her legs, arms, ass, chest, even her eyes. A shudder went down his spine as he recalled what he had been trying to suppress for the last ten minutes, nor did he see that Amy had noticed.
He may have been young, but he had admitted his feeling to her that morning and he had been feeling a little giddy ever since then. He found that when Amy tried to talk to him he would have to force himself to answer because he hadn't really been paying attention, her voice had held him enthralled, but her words tended to go right over his head. Then there was his unspoken dream, something he had been wishing for a long time now, she accepted him in either form without restraint. Even Ukyo had professed a desire for his male side only.
"What are you thinking about?" Amy asked.
"Um...a number of things." Ranma said carefully.
"Like?"
"Um...comparisons and such."
"The differences between how you treat me compared to...say...Ukyo or Shampoo." Ranma tensed, suddenly expecting to get hit.
"And what was the verdict Ranma?" Amy asked.
Ranma was amazed, she wasn't even mad or anything. "Y-you treat me the same no matter what form I'm in and I l-like that. Ukyo has always preferred me in my male form, always offered me hot water the instant she saw me."
"Hmmm, well that was probably because of your habit of always saying you hate your curse Ranma, she just fell into as pattern. Then you never tell anyone what your actually feelings are and cause even more problems, that doesn't help you or them all that much. How were they to know when you changed your mind about something and didn't tell anybody?"
"I guess, I never thought of it that way."
Amy smiled. "Ranma, you almost never think."
"HEY!!"
Amy giggled and snuggled closer to Ranma, she smirks to herself as he tenses up again and decides to see if he is ready for the next step. "Ranma you know I'm very open about certain things right?"
"Yeah."
"I want you."
Ranma's brain melted and he turned a solid red and said the most intelligent thing he could in that situation. "Huh?!"
"I want you Ranma. Right now I want to make love to you tonight because I love you."
"But...but...but..."
"You have a great ass Ranma, it is perfect in every way, and I want to feel it with my hands, I want to kiss it, I want to feel you..." Amy said seductively, leaning up to kiss Ranma.
His eyes went wide, his pig tail stood on end and he nearly passed out from the intensity of his body's reaction. Then things got even more intense, his knees went to rubber and he fell to the ground with Amy on top of him. This was what Amy wanted and giggled as she landed on top of him, a dirty glint in her eyes as she smiled down at him.
They kissed again and Amy was pleased to see him finally start to respond to her as she started to undo the buttons on her coat and push it off her shoulders. She took a seductive pose and smiled down at him as she looked in his eyes
"A-Amy I've n-n-n-never done this before..."
"Ah, but you learn so quickly Ranma."
"Um..."
Amy just gigged and kissed him again, she nearly lost it when he froze in shock. He had no idea what he was doing and she planned to show him all the tricks before she was done, then it would be on to something even more fun. Being by a lake in the middle of the night was fraught full of possibilities. She sighed as he started to relax and `play' around with what she was offering him...
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Ranma and Amy didn't get much sleep that night, but they did discover just how much they liked each other, it took all her control not to ravaged him on the spot and take her time. Amy even spent half an hour showing Ranma what it was like to be a girl, in such a way to leave a female Ranma slack jawed and drooling in the grass with a dazed expression.
They spent the rest of the night there in the park cuddling with each other and talking softly, just basking in each other's presence and occasionally going at it a few more times. Amy wasn't disappointed either, Ranma may have been a total novice but she took the time to explain how everything worked and he picked up the skills easily. At around dawn they woke up in each others arms and got up just as the sun was washing over the city.
It had been a long time since Amy had been with a man and it was everything she had remembered, she had proven it to Ranma several times the night before and he didn't seem to care that she knew what she was doing. He had enjoyed it just as much and felt a million times better about himself this morning.
Once they were awake they spent a couple hours fighting and sparring with each other before heading back to the dojo for a quick bath and breakfast. Amy was a bit surprise to be as alert as she was since she had been up early the previous morning, fought all day, and stayed up all night with Ranma.
Amy was also patting herself on the back for making sure they weren't interrupted by any of the other girls by spending a few seconds to mask their presence from anyone that might have stumbled across them. No one seemed to have noticed they had been gone all night as they walked back into the Tendo's house, so they pretended things were normal for now. Though if either had been paying attention they would have noticed the giant grin Nodoka was trying, and failing to hide.
"Do you have any plans today Amy?" Kasumi asked as they were cleaning up breakfast.
"Actually I've got a challenge match coming up this weekend and I was going to put in some practice, why?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping with me?"
"Shopping?"
"Yes, there are some dresses that I want to look at."
"I'm not much into dresses Kasumi."
"I had noticed that you don't own any, why not?"
"I was raised to be a tomboy I suppose. My up bringing was all about fighting and nothing else. Every girl I ever met either wore pants or some kind of armor and neither of those had anything resembling a skirt."
"Would you consider giving it a try? Please?"
Amy shrugged, it didn't sound all that bad. "Sure, I guess, I have worn them before."
"Can I come along too?" Ranma asked from behind them.
Amy and Kasumi turn and give him an odd look that has him squirming uncomfortably. They look at each other grin and shrug. "Sure Ranma, though if you do I want you to get a dress too." Amy said with a grin.
"What? I just wanted to come along, not play dress up..." Ranma said suddenly.
"That's the deal buster. I want you to pick out a female outfit that you would like to wear. I won't force one on you, but I want it to be a dress or a skirt of some kind. Got it?" Amy said as she glared at the boy.
"But I'm a guy Amy..."
"What did I tell you before Ranma? I don't mind your female form and since you can switch back and forth I want you to look good in either form."
Kasumi's eyebrows shot up over her hairline at that.
"But...Amy..." Ranma whined.
"Ranma."
"Alright Amy." Ranma conceded and left the kitchen.
"What was that about Amy?" Kasumi asked carefully. She had hoped that Ranma and Amy might hook up, but she hadn't been holding out all that much hope for it. Ranma was very hard to catch, no matter what she had told his mother..."Oh My!"
"What?" Amy asked, looking a little nervous.
"You did what all the others had failed to do?"
"What do you mean Kasumi?"
"You caught Ranma and he is agreeable to the idea?"
Amy tried to not blush, she failed miserably. "Um..."
"Oh my! Give me all the details." Kasumi gushed. She was a little sad for Akane, but her little sister had made her choice with Ryoga.
Amy gave Kasumi a little smile. "I got him to kiss me last night."
Kasumi gasped. "No one has ever been able to do that and only Akane has ever come close to getting one out of him before."
"Really? I would have thought he had a little experience, he certainly seemed to know what he was doing." Amy said with a sigh.
Both girls giggled just as Ranma, now female, walked back into the kitchen and flopped down. "Now what?"
"I think we need to get you some bras and panties..."
"No! I won't wear them!" Ranma growled out.
"Why is that?" Amy asked calmly. She didn't know it but this actually brought Ranma up in shock. He was so used to Akane's instant mallet that he had expected to be hit again for being so up front.
"I may look l-like a girl, but I am not one..."
"I disagree."
"Huh?"
"You are very much a girl, those breasts are a very good reminder and since you refuse to wear a bra they bounce so deliciously when you run or jump. It would draw the eye of every man in sight as they jiggle and sway to your movements." Amy said in a seductive tone that made Ranma blush and Kasumi had to bite her hand to keep from laughing.
"I am a guy no matter what I look like." Ranma mumbled. He thought back to his previous life and shuddered, he just couldn't accept that used to be him. I was just to weird, he liked the new abilities, but everything else sucked about it.
"Well I was planning to just get you some sports bras and plain panties. I guess I will have to get more lace and satin now." Amy mused.
"Huh?"
"What do you think Kasumi, lots of lace and trim?"
"Naw it's just on Ranma, I was thinking something along the lines of spandex or leather."
"Yeah, I can live with that!" Ranma said quickly.
"...but I wanted to see her in a baby doll nighty, light blue and slightly see through..." Amy blushed as she thought about it.
Ranma pictured that, gaped and turned bright red.
"Maybe some thigh high stockings or..." Amy continued, drooling slightly.
Ranma fell off the chair and fainted.
Amy giggled and winked at Kasumi who was blushing as well, a very bright red color that covered her entire face. "I don't know about you Kasumi, but that reaction is just so cute."
"AMY!!" Kasumi gasped.
"Heh."
They finished up the morning chores before Ranma woke up and waited for Kasumi to grab her purse. It took a little doing, but they managed to drag Ranma with them to the mall by threatening him with a various types of female clothing and accessories.
Just like the last time they had been there, Ranma loosened up and managed to try on several dresses as the morning passed, once he got used to the idea that Kasumi was there and no one was going to make fun of him he got into it a little and started to have fun with it. Ranma told Amy at one point when Kasumi was in the dressing room that he had decided to see if he could actually do something normal for a change.
"Normal?"
"Yeah, not to get hit for doing this or attacked by Ryoga, Kuno, Mouse, or Taro for some weird reason that would only make sense to them. Anyway I had a lot of fun the last time we did this and I wanted to try it again."
"Huh? Then what was with all that complaining this morning?"
"I had to put on a good show for Kasumi and whoever else was listening."
"Who was listening?"
"Nabiki, she has the house wired so that she wouldn't miss any news that may pop up out of the blue. She uses those girls that owe her money to spy on others to reduce their debt."
"How do you know that?"
"She had me doing little odd jobs for her at one point with several threats to make sure the family didn't find out about it. One of them was running packages to people's houses, playing bodyguard, etc. It was a pain in the ass, but eventually the crew caught up with me and caused a big fight. Can you believe she fired me for causing so much trouble?"
Amy giggled. "Yeah I can, she's been trying to blackmail me for several days now."
Ranma just nodded, he knew how that went. She looked over at some of the dresses and saw a large sale sign and pointed it out to Amy. "I'm going to go and see what they have over there."
"Sure." Amy said. "I'll wait for Kasumi to get out."
"Okay."
Several minutes later Amy and Kasumi make their way over to the area Ranma had pointed out. I was a section for new types of clothes, odd styles and types from all over the world. They looked around for Ranma, but the are looked deserted. Then they saw her and gasped, Ranma had found the martial arts section of clothing. She was dressed in this outfit that even a normal girl would be hesitant to wear; it was so...so...out there.
Ranma was standing in front of a mirror wearing this black stretch outfit. The first thing they noticed was the miniskirt, it stretched around her hips like a second skin. When Ranma moved around a little they could see all the muscles in her ass shift and move in some exotic way, it made Amy weak in the knees just to see it. The next was the thigh high black wet leather boots, and then came the matching arm bracers and leather halter top. It all glistened in the store lighting, showing off even more of Ranma's curves and had Amy panting a little.
"Ranma, that thing is indecent!" Kasumi said, blushing clear to her toes and wondered what Tofu would think of her in that.
"I decided that if was going to dress as a girl and Amy wanted me in a skirt and normal female clothing, I would dress the way I wanted to and I like this outfit."
"Ranma that outfit is going to drive every man in sight wild, you might have to beat them off." Amy said, her eyes glued the cleavage of Ranma's chest.
"I was thinking that this would be a great outfit to wear the next time I'm stuck as a girl full time and have to go into a battle."
A thought occurred to Amy and she barely managed to keep from blushing and had to bite her tongue to keep the question from popping out of her mouth. Ranma hated female clothing, especially underwear, instead preferring to wear boxers if at all possible. That stretch skirt was gripping her waist and thighs so tightly that she couldn't be wearing any kind of underwear under there, she couldn't see any panty lines either. "Um...Ranma?"
"What?"
"Um..."
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"You don't like to do anything halfway do you Ranma?" Amy asked.
They had finished shopping about an hour earlier and were headed back to the dojo on foot to enjoy the rest of the day. Kasumi had decided to go an see if she could borrow a book from Dr. Tofu and left them to walk the rest of the way together. She was moving kind of fast and had taken all her packages with her so Amy was almost positive that she had been planning something for the good Doctor.
"I figured that it would be better to get over everything at once."
"I'll say, even I would be hesitant to wear that leather outfit you bought. Still, you were absolutely gorgeous in it, I couldn't take my eyes off of you."
Ranma grinned. "I noticed, it's one of the reasons I bought it."
"Huh?"
"After what we did last night I figured..."
"That's so sweet of you Ranma. I suppose I could get a place of my own so we could do that all the time." Amy said as she blushed.
Ranma gasped in shock and bushed even redder. "Um..."
"Heh."
Everything has a limit and Amy wasn't all that surprised to have her fun brought to an end as they suddenly felt a chill goes down their backs, it was so strong that they had to stop and look around. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was a feeling in the air that just didn't seem right, there was also something about it that was very familiar too. The sounds of traffic in the distance seemed to be the same and so were the birds and people around them, so they were the only ones to notice the change in the feel of the world around them. The chill hit again and in the distance they noticed a column of smoke rising into the sky.
"I thought we had a few days left before he showed up?" Ranma said.
"There are at least three of them left as far as I know."
"Then what is it?"
"Probably Siefried, he never was very patient to begin with."
"What about our stuff?" Ranma asked as she held up the bags.
"Transform and put them in subspace, which should take care of that while we look into this little wrinkle."
"Right."
They looked around to make sure no one would see them as they jumped to a nearby rooftop and transformed on the run. A few seconds later all their packages vanished from sight as they were placed in subspace. After that they started to pick up speed and seemed to almost fly over the roofs of the buildings below them, only this time they were in their Guardian Knight outfits as they raced across town. Ranma in her white and Amy in red with the edges etched in back flame.
It only took a few minutes of roof hopping to reach the where the smoke was coming from and they landed on a nearby roof to observe the scene below them. It was an open construction lot with what looked to be the shattered remains a half built house, it was on fire. On the far side of the ruined building they both saw Sailor Pluto firing off blasts to finish destroying the rest of the house. There were signs of the place being evacuated in hurry and Amy wondered if there were any casualties buried under the downed building.
"This house wasn't done being built yet, why is she blowing it up?" Ranma asked.
"I'm not sure. She has been acting really weird lately. Look over there, this place was being worked on, whoever was here was forced to drop everything and run for it."
"She tries to kill you and you call it weird?" Ranma asked in surprise, which was something even she would have been careful about.
"Sure, like you I have lots of people out for my blood, who cares if someone else is added to the list. Anyway Pluto has always been a bit unstable when it came to completing her mission I thought she was just being a little excessive."
"Lets deal with her and be done with it, she is alone and this will give us a chance to finally deal with her."
Amy blinked and shook her head. Those added memories had improved the way he thought in a lot of areas. "Right, that sounds good to me."
"Let's go."
They jump down to the ground on the other side of the burning building and head over to where Pluto was just finishing off the house. She turns and smiles evilly at them the instant they make there presence known, her eyes are enough to make even Amy think she may have misjudged Pluto's actions the last time they fought. Her eyes hadn't looked like this and she had seemed to be doing her job in the usual misguided way.
She is in even worse shape than the last time Amy had saw her. The girl's fuku is incredibly dirty, its skirt was ripped up the sides to show off her perfect thighs. And her long green hair was a mess of matted knots and snarls that would take forever to get out. She actually smelled even worse than she had the day before! Even worse though were her eyes, those haunted eyes that seemed to know what has happening and couldn't do a thing about it, Amy tried not to look about them too much because they looked a little maniacal.
"It's about time." Pluto snaps and powers down her staff to look up at them.
"What are you doing Pluto?" Amy asks as she jumps off the building and lands nearby, being this close was even worse and she had to clamp down on her senses to make sure they weren't overwhelmed..
"Just blowing things up let people know I'm here and waiting for some of you peons to show up so I can kill you." She grins in a happy way.
"Cut this out Pluto, we don't have to fight, let's just talk this out."
"We are trying to help you know." Ranma says. She has vague memories of Pluto from long ago, but they are odd and not very comforting.
"Crystal Tokyo is gone because of you, I will not let you live, not after everything I went through has been destroyed."
"It's gone?" Amy gasped.
Pluto didn't even bother to try an listen to any arguments as she shot forward and attacked, her staff whirling around in a deadly arc that Amy barely avoided. This was a side of Pluto she had never thought to see, but now that she had time to look her over without having to defend for her life, Amy was finally able to figure out some of what happened to the green haired Scout.
It seemed that she was operating on pure emotion alone with no conscious thought from her mind in regards to her actions. The Scout was out of control and on the verge of losing complete control. What ever had happened to her was somehow making the decisions now. Pluto had spent centuries guiding the time line so that Crystal Tokyo would be created to rule over the planet and bring about a kind of flawed world peace.
Now according to Pluto it was gone and she seemed to have lost what little sense she had left, even the other day when they had fought she hadn't been like this and that meant that it was getting worse.
Amy saw an opening and her leg lashed out to slam into Pluto's stomach and sent her flying back several yards, she was right on Pluto's tail. The red head wasn't about to let it end there and hopped forward to lash out with a multiple punch attack the instant Pluto showed any sign of recovering from the attacks. She kept it just slow enough to see how Pluto reacted to the assault on her person, this was their second fight and Amy wanted to see what the woman had in the way of skills.
Ranma had decided to let Amy take care of this for now, she kept back to watch how things went and would interfere only if Amy needed it. She didn't want to admit it, but she was also still wounded from what her father had done to her the day before in that stupid fight, the wound was only about half healed and quite painful. That kind of damage wasn't healed overnight, it would be a couple of days before she was at peak condition again, until then she would have to be careful. Ranma watched silently as Pluto's staff spun around and lashed out, only to be blocked and redirected by Amy, she kicked out and slammed Pluto in the stomach again, but this time Pluto used the hit to spring back and bring her staff around.
"DEAD SCREAM!!"
The staff flared and fired off a large blast of pink and black lightning, much different than what Amy remembered as her signature attack. Amy gaped in surprise and was barely to dodge out of the way as the blast vaporized a large section of the wall that had been behind her. Amy cursed her inattention and proceeded to flare up her aura, this made a cloud of dust spring up and flow away from her and made her eyes light up like miniature suns.
She launched forward for a second attack at a much more powerful level, but Pluto just laughed and held her staff high. It flared and a beam of power shot into the sky to hit the low hanging clouds and almost instantly turned them a deadly black and pink color then filled with deadly power. Amy didn't have time to stop her attack though so she decided to continue through with it and see what Pluto had in mind.
The staff came back down and blurred as Pluto defended herself from Amy's attack, Amy was barely able to block. It was like Pluto had been holding back on her, but that didn't feel right either, something had changed about the green haired girl's attacks.
Then she found out what the clouds were for as she used her left arm to block a quick lunge from Pluto. Just as it connected Pluto grinned evilly and whispered "Death Bolt!" Amy blinked as the mother of all lightning bolts shot out of the clouds and used her as a lightning rod. The pain was incredible as it seemed to melt her spine and she could only stand there and scream in pain just as she began to fall.
Pluto spun the staff and hit her across the face at point blank range and sent Amy into flying across the street and through the front wall of a building. Pluto spun her staff around with a wicked laugh and she fired another DEAD SCREAM right into the building to set off a huge explosion.
"KNIGHT SLATHER HERALD!!"
Ranma's attack fired off and flew across the construction site to smash into Pluto's staff and blew it out of her hands in a flare of energy. The white cloaked Guardian Knight launched off the roof as she flared up with power and destroyed a good portion of the roof in the process. She brought her arm forward and fired off a blast of energy, right into the ground at Pluto's feet. Pluto had all of a second to react before the ground at her feet seemed to lift up and exploded in a powerful blast that sent her flying back with a scream.
Guardian Knight flipped to the ground and blurred from sight, only to reappear behind Pluto and lash out with the Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken, striking pressure points all along her back to freeze her in place and cause her some pain for her troubles. She wasn't able to use the full speed of the attack because of her shoulder, but enough of it to do what she wanted to.
The effect this had was far different than what Ranma's rage filled mind had expected, which was for Pluto to be frozen, in pain, and eventually make her unconscious. Instead she froze and screamed as pain filled her world all along her back. Ranma blinked and watched in horrified fascination as this liquid like thing pulled itself off of Pluto's back and dropped to the ground like a large bucket of water and splashed all over the place. Pluto collapsed and convulsed for several seconds before passing out.
It was kind of what she wanted, but a little more extreme than what should have happened. The liquid, which Ranma noticed could move on it's own was flowing across the ground and heading for Pluto again. It was slowly pulling itself back together and forming itself into a vaguely female shaped thing. Ranma's memories told her that this was probably a water elemental or something like one and had to be handled carefully.
They were vulnerable to fire if her knowledge was in any way reliable, so she quickly flared up and fired off a burst of pure destructive energy. The thing was still recovering from being forcibly removed from Pluto to react and noticed the attack far to late for it to do much of anything.
The blast was pretty impressive and the water Youma was vaporized into a large cloud of gas that slowly dissipated. Ranma then sighed and ran across the street just in time to see Amy pulling herself out of the ruble of the store where she had landed. She wasn't in the best of shape, her clothing had been all but destroyed and only her healing abilities seemed to have kept her from being killed by Pluto's attack.
"Amy!" Ranma yelled.
"Hi cute stuff..." Amy mumbled and grinned weakly. "You get the plate of that bus that hit me?"
"Are you alright?"
"You know something strange, in my own world I am nearly unstoppable, but in this one I am constantly being knocked out or nearly killed by things that I can usually just brush off, it's kind of irritating."
"You'll be fine Amy, you can't die remember?" Ranma said, a couple of tears running down her face.
"Of course I'll survive; this is nothing to even worry about. I'll be up and about in a few hours."
Ranma could only nod happily.
Ranma helped Amy to her feet and they hobbled back across the street as when the two of them saw some movement in the lot, off to the side of the destroyed building. They got there just in time to see Sailor Pluto slowly starting to stand and holding her head in pain. She looked different to both of them, less threatening or something. She shook her head a couple of times and turned to look at them in confusion before she paled just as she fell to her knees.
"It's all true?" she whispered.
"What is Pluto?" Amy asked.
"I tried to kill both of you, didn't I?"
"Yep." Ranma muttered and shrugged.
"Oh god! Of all times for this to happen. Why right now?"
"Are you back to normal Pluto, I don't want to fight you anymore." Ranma said, though her eyes said otherwise.
"That thing tried to possess me, I resisted as best that I could, but there was only so much I could do as it invaded my body and mind." Pluto's body wavered and her uniform shifted down into her normal clothes to reveal a very pretty older woman. Ranma shrugged it off as Setsuna looked down at herself in horror. Ranma didn't really care who she was, so long as they were done fighting with each other.
"I don't care who you are Pluto, you've just come out of a prolonged ordeal and you need rest. Is there someone you can call for help?"
Setsuna, formally Pluto, shook her head. "No, the Outers were my friends, but if my memory is working right they are dead now."
"They are, Usagi wasn't very happy with them, but she didn't want them to die like they did."
"What of Saturn?"
"Which one is that?"
"The young girl, short dark hair, about twelve years old, has this large glaive?"
"I last saw her just before Siefried showed up and killed the Outers." Amy said.
"Was she dead?"
"No, just unconscious."
Setsuna nodded and staggered to her feet. "What happened to that thing that was using me?"
"I killed it." Ranma said quietly.
"How?"
"Turned it into a cloud of gas? Why?"
"That thing was very strong, it may still be alive, just floating off to lick its wounds." Setsuna said as she pulled out her communicator. "Usagi?"
"Setsuna!!?" Usagi's voice yelled out of the communicator.
"Hi Princess, Nova and Guardian Knight just managed to free me from this thing that was trying to possess me."
"Are you alright?"
"For now. I'm just a little weak at the moment. Do you know where Saturn is?"
"No, we haven't seen her since the fight in the warehouse district. We thought she might have went to join Haruka and Michiru." Usagi said sadly.
"I don't think so. If she had died I would know about it though the link I have with all the Outers."
"Oh. Where are you now, do you need some help?"
"Yes, I need a place to stay for the night."
The communicator beeped and Rei popped into the conversation. "You can stay at the temple Setsuna, we've always got plenty of room."
"Thanks Rei, I didn't want to ask, but..."
"No problem."
"I'll be there in an hour or so."
"Of course."
"I'll meet you there." Usagi said as she hung up.
Setsuna sighed as she put the little device away and turned to look at Ranma and Amy again. "I'm heading to the Temple, do either of you need help?"
"No thanks, just a little rest and we can make it on our own." Ranma said. "What do you say?"
"I could stay here all day." Amy said and smirked at Ranma. She was being held in her arms, her head on Ranma's shoulder. Setsuna decided that this would be a good time to leave and soon disappeared, Neither Ranma or Amy really noticed since they were a little occupied with each other. Amy didn't want to admit it, but she knew if there were anymore fighting today she was going to be in a fair amount of trouble. She had nothing left and had to get some rest, now all she had to do was make it home.
**********
To Be Continued...
Ending notes - the next chapter should be the last one so keep an eye out, I hope to have it done soon...
*********
Strange Days
Chapter 15
By: Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(C)2003
*********
It had been years since the Tendo dojo had trained up a master of the arts. This didn't exactly qualify in most people's opinions since gaining mastery is supposed to be the final act between a Master and a Student. Still, it was a good excuse to throw a party and work off some of the tension that had developed because of the day's events.
After defeating his father and making sure the old fool wasn't being affected by his darker emotions anymore, Ranma had been escorted back to the house to get cleaned up and the old men had made sure that the sake was flowing freely ever since. Genma hadn't wanted to have anything to with it, but after a while he had come around and decided that the sake and food would help lesson the sting of his defeat at his son's hands.
There was also a bit of dancing, singing, and even a little yelling as Akane tried to mallet Ranma for ignoring her and not answering her questions about Ryoga. She had been untied earlier and been in a bad mood ever since, Amy had made sure things didn't get to out of hand since Ranma was injured in the fight.
She had been drinking at the time so Amy had been forced to hit her sleeper point again to put her out just to keep her from hurting herself or any of the others. Kasumi and Nodoka had stayed sober to help out with the celebration and make snacks and finger foods for Ranma's victory.
As usual Kasumi showed as much skill here as with normal foods and quickly had the lots of things set out for them to eat. No one asked where in the world she had acquired another table for them to use after Akane destroyed the other one during Ranma's fight.
Eventually Soun and Genma passed out over his shogi board, muttering about how long it had been since they last had anything to celebrate. Kasumi helped him up to bed and motioned for Nodoka to grab the snoring Akane and help get her to her room as well. A few minutes later they grabbed Genma and dragged him off as well, though this time it was out to the Dojo.
His actions had gotten him into a lot of trouble with his wife and she wanted to collect. This left Ranma and Amy at the table sitting at the table, they looked at each other and smiled shyly, Ranma realized that this was the first time they had been in the house alone like this.
"Are you okay Amy?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah, just drank a little too much that's all."
"Me too, I'm not sure I should even try standing r-right now."
"Really? I was going to suggest a little walk to clear our heads." Amy said and threw out a hint that passed clear over Ranma's head.
"I don't know, it's a little late."
"Please, we could go down to park and see the lake in the moonlight or something."
"Well..."
"Ranma?" Amy asked, turning on her super cute attack. Complete with large eyes, sparkles, and tears when necessary. Though this time Ranma broke before she had to go that far.
Ranma blinked and shrugged. "Sure, let's go for a walk in the park at 2am in the morning."
"Thanks."
They helped each other up, grabbed their shoes, and staggered out the front gate. Several seconds later Nodoka peaked around the corner and grinned, she motioned the all clear for Kasumi as they sat down at the table. They had some tea and relaxed before turning to talk to each other, it would have been sake, but the two old fools had finished off all of it just before passing out.
"Do you suppose this will work?"
"Father and Mr. Saotome have tried everything else to get Ranma hooked up with my sister, it usually fails." Kasumi said.
"Oh." Nodoka says sadly.
"Still, we weren't as obvious about it as they usually are and we were trying for Amy and not Akane, since she did choose Ryoga. God only knows why."
"That's true, I hope it works, I want some grandchildren before I'm too old to do anything with them."
"Who knows what will happen Auntie." Kasumi says quietly, still sipping her tea.
"What about his shoulder? Do you think that will cause them any problems?"
"Auntie, Ranma can shrug off damage like that in a day or two. He wasn't even paying attention to his wound tonight."
"I noticed, he was watching his new girlfriend."
Kasumi giggled and nodded.
Ranma and Amy soon make it to the park with out troubles and make their way over to the lake. Amy points out something he had noticed before, but never really thought about before, how the moon light reflected off the lake. It was one of the neatest things he had ever seen, but gets really distracted when Amy takes his arm and leans on him with a sigh.
He was surprised at how it made him feel, wanted, and it was a feeling he hadn't felt in a very long time. None of his fiancée's had ever made him feel this way, not even Akane when he had cared about her the most. They just used him for what ever they wanted and then tossed him to the side when they were done. Just like the trophy they saw him as. He started to sweat as indecent thoughts went through his head and he hoped his blush was hidden in the shadows as they passed under some of the trees.
His brain was mush, for several days now he had noticed that whenever Amy was around he couldn't think straight, everything she did made him watch her as closely as he could. His eyes were always locked to some part her body, her legs, arms, ass, chest, even her eyes. A shudder went down his spine as he recalled what he had been trying to suppress for the last ten minutes, nor did he see that Amy had noticed.
He may have been young, but he had admitted his feeling to her that morning and he had been feeling a little giddy ever since then. He found that when Amy tried to talk to him he would have to force himself to answer because he hadn't really been paying attention, her voice had held him enthralled, but her words tended to go right over his head. Then there was his unspoken dream, something he had been wishing for a long time now, she accepted him in either form without restraint. Even Ukyo had professed a desire for his male side only.
"What are you thinking about?" Amy asked.
"Um...a number of things." Ranma said carefully.
"Like?"
"Um...comparisons and such."
"The differences between how you treat me compared to...say...Ukyo or Shampoo." Ranma tensed, suddenly expecting to get hit.
"And what was the verdict Ranma?" Amy asked.
Ranma was amazed, she wasn't even mad or anything. "Y-you treat me the same no matter what form I'm in and I l-like that. Ukyo has always preferred me in my male form, always offered me hot water the instant she saw me."
"Hmmm, well that was probably because of your habit of always saying you hate your curse Ranma, she just fell into as pattern. Then you never tell anyone what your actually feelings are and cause even more problems, that doesn't help you or them all that much. How were they to know when you changed your mind about something and didn't tell anybody?"
"I guess, I never thought of it that way."
Amy smiled. "Ranma, you almost never think."
"HEY!!"
Amy giggled and snuggled closer to Ranma, she smirks to herself as he tenses up again and decides to see if he is ready for the next step. "Ranma you know I'm very open about certain things right?"
"Yeah."
"I want you."
Ranma's brain melted and he turned a solid red and said the most intelligent thing he could in that situation. "Huh?!"
"I want you Ranma. Right now I want to make love to you tonight because I love you."
"But...but...but..."
"You have a great ass Ranma, it is perfect in every way, and I want to feel it with my hands, I want to kiss it, I want to feel you..." Amy said seductively, leaning up to kiss Ranma.
His eyes went wide, his pig tail stood on end and he nearly passed out from the intensity of his body's reaction. Then things got even more intense, his knees went to rubber and he fell to the ground with Amy on top of him. This was what Amy wanted and giggled as she landed on top of him, a dirty glint in her eyes as she smiled down at him.
They kissed again and Amy was pleased to see him finally start to respond to her as she started to undo the buttons on her coat and push it off her shoulders. She took a seductive pose and smiled down at him as she looked in his eyes
"A-Amy I've n-n-n-never done this before..."
"Ah, but you learn so quickly Ranma."
"Um..."
Amy just gigged and kissed him again, she nearly lost it when he froze in shock. He had no idea what he was doing and she planned to show him all the tricks before she was done, then it would be on to something even more fun. Being by a lake in the middle of the night was fraught full of possibilities. She sighed as he started to relax and `play' around with what she was offering him...
**********
Ranma and Amy didn't get much sleep that night, but they did discover just how much they liked each other, it took all her control not to ravaged him on the spot and take her time. Amy even spent half an hour showing Ranma what it was like to be a girl, in such a way to leave a female Ranma slack jawed and drooling in the grass with a dazed expression.
They spent the rest of the night there in the park cuddling with each other and talking softly, just basking in each other's presence and occasionally going at it a few more times. Amy wasn't disappointed either, Ranma may have been a total novice but she took the time to explain how everything worked and he picked up the skills easily. At around dawn they woke up in each others arms and got up just as the sun was washing over the city.
It had been a long time since Amy had been with a man and it was everything she had remembered, she had proven it to Ranma several times the night before and he didn't seem to care that she knew what she was doing. He had enjoyed it just as much and felt a million times better about himself this morning.
Once they were awake they spent a couple hours fighting and sparring with each other before heading back to the dojo for a quick bath and breakfast. Amy was a bit surprise to be as alert as she was since she had been up early the previous morning, fought all day, and stayed up all night with Ranma.
Amy was also patting herself on the back for making sure they weren't interrupted by any of the other girls by spending a few seconds to mask their presence from anyone that might have stumbled across them. No one seemed to have noticed they had been gone all night as they walked back into the Tendo's house, so they pretended things were normal for now. Though if either had been paying attention they would have noticed the giant grin Nodoka was trying, and failing to hide.
"Do you have any plans today Amy?" Kasumi asked as they were cleaning up breakfast.
"Actually I've got a challenge match coming up this weekend and I was going to put in some practice, why?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping with me?"
"Shopping?"
"Yes, there are some dresses that I want to look at."
"I'm not much into dresses Kasumi."
"I had noticed that you don't own any, why not?"
"I was raised to be a tomboy I suppose. My up bringing was all about fighting and nothing else. Every girl I ever met either wore pants or some kind of armor and neither of those had anything resembling a skirt."
"Would you consider giving it a try? Please?"
Amy shrugged, it didn't sound all that bad. "Sure, I guess, I have worn them before."
"Can I come along too?" Ranma asked from behind them.
Amy and Kasumi turn and give him an odd look that has him squirming uncomfortably. They look at each other grin and shrug. "Sure Ranma, though if you do I want you to get a dress too." Amy said with a grin.
"What? I just wanted to come along, not play dress up..." Ranma said suddenly.
"That's the deal buster. I want you to pick out a female outfit that you would like to wear. I won't force one on you, but I want it to be a dress or a skirt of some kind. Got it?" Amy said as she glared at the boy.
"But I'm a guy Amy..."
"What did I tell you before Ranma? I don't mind your female form and since you can switch back and forth I want you to look good in either form."
Kasumi's eyebrows shot up over her hairline at that.
"But...Amy..." Ranma whined.
"Ranma."
"Alright Amy." Ranma conceded and left the kitchen.
"What was that about Amy?" Kasumi asked carefully. She had hoped that Ranma and Amy might hook up, but she hadn't been holding out all that much hope for it. Ranma was very hard to catch, no matter what she had told his mother..."Oh My!"
"What?" Amy asked, looking a little nervous.
"You did what all the others had failed to do?"
"What do you mean Kasumi?"
"You caught Ranma and he is agreeable to the idea?"
Amy tried to not blush, she failed miserably. "Um..."
"Oh my! Give me all the details." Kasumi gushed. She was a little sad for Akane, but her little sister had made her choice with Ryoga.
Amy gave Kasumi a little smile. "I got him to kiss me last night."
Kasumi gasped. "No one has ever been able to do that and only Akane has ever come close to getting one out of him before."
"Really? I would have thought he had a little experience, he certainly seemed to know what he was doing." Amy said with a sigh.
Both girls giggled just as Ranma, now female, walked back into the kitchen and flopped down. "Now what?"
"I think we need to get you some bras and panties..."
"No! I won't wear them!" Ranma growled out.
"Why is that?" Amy asked calmly. She didn't know it but this actually brought Ranma up in shock. He was so used to Akane's instant mallet that he had expected to be hit again for being so up front.
"I may look l-like a girl, but I am not one..."
"I disagree."
"Huh?"
"You are very much a girl, those breasts are a very good reminder and since you refuse to wear a bra they bounce so deliciously when you run or jump. It would draw the eye of every man in sight as they jiggle and sway to your movements." Amy said in a seductive tone that made Ranma blush and Kasumi had to bite her hand to keep from laughing.
"I am a guy no matter what I look like." Ranma mumbled. He thought back to his previous life and shuddered, he just couldn't accept that used to be him. I was just to weird, he liked the new abilities, but everything else sucked about it.
"Well I was planning to just get you some sports bras and plain panties. I guess I will have to get more lace and satin now." Amy mused.
"Huh?"
"What do you think Kasumi, lots of lace and trim?"
"Naw it's just on Ranma, I was thinking something along the lines of spandex or leather."
"Yeah, I can live with that!" Ranma said quickly.
"...but I wanted to see her in a baby doll nighty, light blue and slightly see through..." Amy blushed as she thought about it.
Ranma pictured that, gaped and turned bright red.
"Maybe some thigh high stockings or..." Amy continued, drooling slightly.
Ranma fell off the chair and fainted.
Amy giggled and winked at Kasumi who was blushing as well, a very bright red color that covered her entire face. "I don't know about you Kasumi, but that reaction is just so cute."
"AMY!!" Kasumi gasped.
"Heh."
They finished up the morning chores before Ranma woke up and waited for Kasumi to grab her purse. It took a little doing, but they managed to drag Ranma with them to the mall by threatening him with a various types of female clothing and accessories.
Just like the last time they had been there, Ranma loosened up and managed to try on several dresses as the morning passed, once he got used to the idea that Kasumi was there and no one was going to make fun of him he got into it a little and started to have fun with it. Ranma told Amy at one point when Kasumi was in the dressing room that he had decided to see if he could actually do something normal for a change.
"Normal?"
"Yeah, not to get hit for doing this or attacked by Ryoga, Kuno, Mouse, or Taro for some weird reason that would only make sense to them. Anyway I had a lot of fun the last time we did this and I wanted to try it again."
"Huh? Then what was with all that complaining this morning?"
"I had to put on a good show for Kasumi and whoever else was listening."
"Who was listening?"
"Nabiki, she has the house wired so that she wouldn't miss any news that may pop up out of the blue. She uses those girls that owe her money to spy on others to reduce their debt."
"How do you know that?"
"She had me doing little odd jobs for her at one point with several threats to make sure the family didn't find out about it. One of them was running packages to people's houses, playing bodyguard, etc. It was a pain in the ass, but eventually the crew caught up with me and caused a big fight. Can you believe she fired me for causing so much trouble?"
Amy giggled. "Yeah I can, she's been trying to blackmail me for several days now."
Ranma just nodded, he knew how that went. She looked over at some of the dresses and saw a large sale sign and pointed it out to Amy. "I'm going to go and see what they have over there."
"Sure." Amy said. "I'll wait for Kasumi to get out."
"Okay."
Several minutes later Amy and Kasumi make their way over to the area Ranma had pointed out. I was a section for new types of clothes, odd styles and types from all over the world. They looked around for Ranma, but the are looked deserted. Then they saw her and gasped, Ranma had found the martial arts section of clothing. She was dressed in this outfit that even a normal girl would be hesitant to wear; it was so...so...out there.
Ranma was standing in front of a mirror wearing this black stretch outfit. The first thing they noticed was the miniskirt, it stretched around her hips like a second skin. When Ranma moved around a little they could see all the muscles in her ass shift and move in some exotic way, it made Amy weak in the knees just to see it. The next was the thigh high black wet leather boots, and then came the matching arm bracers and leather halter top. It all glistened in the store lighting, showing off even more of Ranma's curves and had Amy panting a little.
"Ranma, that thing is indecent!" Kasumi said, blushing clear to her toes and wondered what Tofu would think of her in that.
"I decided that if was going to dress as a girl and Amy wanted me in a skirt and normal female clothing, I would dress the way I wanted to and I like this outfit."
"Ranma that outfit is going to drive every man in sight wild, you might have to beat them off." Amy said, her eyes glued the cleavage of Ranma's chest.
"I was thinking that this would be a great outfit to wear the next time I'm stuck as a girl full time and have to go into a battle."
A thought occurred to Amy and she barely managed to keep from blushing and had to bite her tongue to keep the question from popping out of her mouth. Ranma hated female clothing, especially underwear, instead preferring to wear boxers if at all possible. That stretch skirt was gripping her waist and thighs so tightly that she couldn't be wearing any kind of underwear under there, she couldn't see any panty lines either. "Um...Ranma?"
"What?"
"Um..."
**********
"You don't like to do anything halfway do you Ranma?" Amy asked.
They had finished shopping about an hour earlier and were headed back to the dojo on foot to enjoy the rest of the day. Kasumi had decided to go an see if she could borrow a book from Dr. Tofu and left them to walk the rest of the way together. She was moving kind of fast and had taken all her packages with her so Amy was almost positive that she had been planning something for the good Doctor.
"I figured that it would be better to get over everything at once."
"I'll say, even I would be hesitant to wear that leather outfit you bought. Still, you were absolutely gorgeous in it, I couldn't take my eyes off of you."
Ranma grinned. "I noticed, it's one of the reasons I bought it."
"Huh?"
"After what we did last night I figured..."
"That's so sweet of you Ranma. I suppose I could get a place of my own so we could do that all the time." Amy said as she blushed.
Ranma gasped in shock and bushed even redder. "Um..."
"Heh."
Everything has a limit and Amy wasn't all that surprised to have her fun brought to an end as they suddenly felt a chill goes down their backs, it was so strong that they had to stop and look around. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was a feeling in the air that just didn't seem right, there was also something about it that was very familiar too. The sounds of traffic in the distance seemed to be the same and so were the birds and people around them, so they were the only ones to notice the change in the feel of the world around them. The chill hit again and in the distance they noticed a column of smoke rising into the sky.
"I thought we had a few days left before he showed up?" Ranma said.
"There are at least three of them left as far as I know."
"Then what is it?"
"Probably Siefried, he never was very patient to begin with."
"What about our stuff?" Ranma asked as she held up the bags.
"Transform and put them in subspace, which should take care of that while we look into this little wrinkle."
"Right."
They looked around to make sure no one would see them as they jumped to a nearby rooftop and transformed on the run. A few seconds later all their packages vanished from sight as they were placed in subspace. After that they started to pick up speed and seemed to almost fly over the roofs of the buildings below them, only this time they were in their Guardian Knight outfits as they raced across town. Ranma in her white and Amy in red with the edges etched in back flame.
It only took a few minutes of roof hopping to reach the where the smoke was coming from and they landed on a nearby roof to observe the scene below them. It was an open construction lot with what looked to be the shattered remains a half built house, it was on fire. On the far side of the ruined building they both saw Sailor Pluto firing off blasts to finish destroying the rest of the house. There were signs of the place being evacuated in hurry and Amy wondered if there were any casualties buried under the downed building.
"This house wasn't done being built yet, why is she blowing it up?" Ranma asked.
"I'm not sure. She has been acting really weird lately. Look over there, this place was being worked on, whoever was here was forced to drop everything and run for it."
"She tries to kill you and you call it weird?" Ranma asked in surprise, which was something even she would have been careful about.
"Sure, like you I have lots of people out for my blood, who cares if someone else is added to the list. Anyway Pluto has always been a bit unstable when it came to completing her mission I thought she was just being a little excessive."
"Lets deal with her and be done with it, she is alone and this will give us a chance to finally deal with her."
Amy blinked and shook her head. Those added memories had improved the way he thought in a lot of areas. "Right, that sounds good to me."
"Let's go."
They jump down to the ground on the other side of the burning building and head over to where Pluto was just finishing off the house. She turns and smiles evilly at them the instant they make there presence known, her eyes are enough to make even Amy think she may have misjudged Pluto's actions the last time they fought. Her eyes hadn't looked like this and she had seemed to be doing her job in the usual misguided way.
She is in even worse shape than the last time Amy had saw her. The girl's fuku is incredibly dirty, its skirt was ripped up the sides to show off her perfect thighs. And her long green hair was a mess of matted knots and snarls that would take forever to get out. She actually smelled even worse than she had the day before! Even worse though were her eyes, those haunted eyes that seemed to know what has happening and couldn't do a thing about it, Amy tried not to look about them too much because they looked a little maniacal.
"It's about time." Pluto snaps and powers down her staff to look up at them.
"What are you doing Pluto?" Amy asks as she jumps off the building and lands nearby, being this close was even worse and she had to clamp down on her senses to make sure they weren't overwhelmed..
"Just blowing things up let people know I'm here and waiting for some of you peons to show up so I can kill you." She grins in a happy way.
"Cut this out Pluto, we don't have to fight, let's just talk this out."
"We are trying to help you know." Ranma says. She has vague memories of Pluto from long ago, but they are odd and not very comforting.
"Crystal Tokyo is gone because of you, I will not let you live, not after everything I went through has been destroyed."
"It's gone?" Amy gasped.
Pluto didn't even bother to try an listen to any arguments as she shot forward and attacked, her staff whirling around in a deadly arc that Amy barely avoided. This was a side of Pluto she had never thought to see, but now that she had time to look her over without having to defend for her life, Amy was finally able to figure out some of what happened to the green haired Scout.
It seemed that she was operating on pure emotion alone with no conscious thought from her mind in regards to her actions. The Scout was out of control and on the verge of losing complete control. What ever had happened to her was somehow making the decisions now. Pluto had spent centuries guiding the time line so that Crystal Tokyo would be created to rule over the planet and bring about a kind of flawed world peace.
Now according to Pluto it was gone and she seemed to have lost what little sense she had left, even the other day when they had fought she hadn't been like this and that meant that it was getting worse.
Amy saw an opening and her leg lashed out to slam into Pluto's stomach and sent her flying back several yards, she was right on Pluto's tail. The red head wasn't about to let it end there and hopped forward to lash out with a multiple punch attack the instant Pluto showed any sign of recovering from the attacks. She kept it just slow enough to see how Pluto reacted to the assault on her person, this was their second fight and Amy wanted to see what the woman had in the way of skills.
Ranma had decided to let Amy take care of this for now, she kept back to watch how things went and would interfere only if Amy needed it. She didn't want to admit it, but she was also still wounded from what her father had done to her the day before in that stupid fight, the wound was only about half healed and quite painful. That kind of damage wasn't healed overnight, it would be a couple of days before she was at peak condition again, until then she would have to be careful. Ranma watched silently as Pluto's staff spun around and lashed out, only to be blocked and redirected by Amy, she kicked out and slammed Pluto in the stomach again, but this time Pluto used the hit to spring back and bring her staff around.
"DEAD SCREAM!!"
The staff flared and fired off a large blast of pink and black lightning, much different than what Amy remembered as her signature attack. Amy gaped in surprise and was barely to dodge out of the way as the blast vaporized a large section of the wall that had been behind her. Amy cursed her inattention and proceeded to flare up her aura, this made a cloud of dust spring up and flow away from her and made her eyes light up like miniature suns.
She launched forward for a second attack at a much more powerful level, but Pluto just laughed and held her staff high. It flared and a beam of power shot into the sky to hit the low hanging clouds and almost instantly turned them a deadly black and pink color then filled with deadly power. Amy didn't have time to stop her attack though so she decided to continue through with it and see what Pluto had in mind.
The staff came back down and blurred as Pluto defended herself from Amy's attack, Amy was barely able to block. It was like Pluto had been holding back on her, but that didn't feel right either, something had changed about the green haired girl's attacks.
Then she found out what the clouds were for as she used her left arm to block a quick lunge from Pluto. Just as it connected Pluto grinned evilly and whispered "Death Bolt!" Amy blinked as the mother of all lightning bolts shot out of the clouds and used her as a lightning rod. The pain was incredible as it seemed to melt her spine and she could only stand there and scream in pain just as she began to fall.
Pluto spun the staff and hit her across the face at point blank range and sent Amy into flying across the street and through the front wall of a building. Pluto spun her staff around with a wicked laugh and she fired another DEAD SCREAM right into the building to set off a huge explosion.
"KNIGHT SLATHER HERALD!!"
Ranma's attack fired off and flew across the construction site to smash into Pluto's staff and blew it out of her hands in a flare of energy. The white cloaked Guardian Knight launched off the roof as she flared up with power and destroyed a good portion of the roof in the process. She brought her arm forward and fired off a blast of energy, right into the ground at Pluto's feet. Pluto had all of a second to react before the ground at her feet seemed to lift up and exploded in a powerful blast that sent her flying back with a scream.
Guardian Knight flipped to the ground and blurred from sight, only to reappear behind Pluto and lash out with the Kachü Tenshin Amaguriken, striking pressure points all along her back to freeze her in place and cause her some pain for her troubles. She wasn't able to use the full speed of the attack because of her shoulder, but enough of it to do what she wanted to.
The effect this had was far different than what Ranma's rage filled mind had expected, which was for Pluto to be frozen, in pain, and eventually make her unconscious. Instead she froze and screamed as pain filled her world all along her back. Ranma blinked and watched in horrified fascination as this liquid like thing pulled itself off of Pluto's back and dropped to the ground like a large bucket of water and splashed all over the place. Pluto collapsed and convulsed for several seconds before passing out.
It was kind of what she wanted, but a little more extreme than what should have happened. The liquid, which Ranma noticed could move on it's own was flowing across the ground and heading for Pluto again. It was slowly pulling itself back together and forming itself into a vaguely female shaped thing. Ranma's memories told her that this was probably a water elemental or something like one and had to be handled carefully.
They were vulnerable to fire if her knowledge was in any way reliable, so she quickly flared up and fired off a burst of pure destructive energy. The thing was still recovering from being forcibly removed from Pluto to react and noticed the attack far to late for it to do much of anything.
The blast was pretty impressive and the water Youma was vaporized into a large cloud of gas that slowly dissipated. Ranma then sighed and ran across the street just in time to see Amy pulling herself out of the ruble of the store where she had landed. She wasn't in the best of shape, her clothing had been all but destroyed and only her healing abilities seemed to have kept her from being killed by Pluto's attack.
"Amy!" Ranma yelled.
"Hi cute stuff..." Amy mumbled and grinned weakly. "You get the plate of that bus that hit me?"
"Are you alright?"
"You know something strange, in my own world I am nearly unstoppable, but in this one I am constantly being knocked out or nearly killed by things that I can usually just brush off, it's kind of irritating."
"You'll be fine Amy, you can't die remember?" Ranma said, a couple of tears running down her face.
"Of course I'll survive; this is nothing to even worry about. I'll be up and about in a few hours."
Ranma could only nod happily.
Ranma helped Amy to her feet and they hobbled back across the street as when the two of them saw some movement in the lot, off to the side of the destroyed building. They got there just in time to see Sailor Pluto slowly starting to stand and holding her head in pain. She looked different to both of them, less threatening or something. She shook her head a couple of times and turned to look at them in confusion before she paled just as she fell to her knees.
"It's all true?" she whispered.
"What is Pluto?" Amy asked.
"I tried to kill both of you, didn't I?"
"Yep." Ranma muttered and shrugged.
"Oh god! Of all times for this to happen. Why right now?"
"Are you back to normal Pluto, I don't want to fight you anymore." Ranma said, though her eyes said otherwise.
"That thing tried to possess me, I resisted as best that I could, but there was only so much I could do as it invaded my body and mind." Pluto's body wavered and her uniform shifted down into her normal clothes to reveal a very pretty older woman. Ranma shrugged it off as Setsuna looked down at herself in horror. Ranma didn't really care who she was, so long as they were done fighting with each other.
"I don't care who you are Pluto, you've just come out of a prolonged ordeal and you need rest. Is there someone you can call for help?"
Setsuna, formally Pluto, shook her head. "No, the Outers were my friends, but if my memory is working right they are dead now."
"They are, Usagi wasn't very happy with them, but she didn't want them to die like they did."
"What of Saturn?"
"Which one is that?"
"The young girl, short dark hair, about twelve years old, has this large glaive?"
"I last saw her just before Siefried showed up and killed the Outers." Amy said.
"Was she dead?"
"No, just unconscious."
Setsuna nodded and staggered to her feet. "What happened to that thing that was using me?"
"I killed it." Ranma said quietly.
"How?"
"Turned it into a cloud of gas? Why?"
"That thing was very strong, it may still be alive, just floating off to lick its wounds." Setsuna said as she pulled out her communicator. "Usagi?"
"Setsuna!!?" Usagi's voice yelled out of the communicator.
"Hi Princess, Nova and Guardian Knight just managed to free me from this thing that was trying to possess me."
"Are you alright?"
"For now. I'm just a little weak at the moment. Do you know where Saturn is?"
"No, we haven't seen her since the fight in the warehouse district. We thought she might have went to join Haruka and Michiru." Usagi said sadly.
"I don't think so. If she had died I would know about it though the link I have with all the Outers."
"Oh. Where are you now, do you need some help?"
"Yes, I need a place to stay for the night."
The communicator beeped and Rei popped into the conversation. "You can stay at the temple Setsuna, we've always got plenty of room."
"Thanks Rei, I didn't want to ask, but..."
"No problem."
"I'll be there in an hour or so."
"Of course."
"I'll meet you there." Usagi said as she hung up.
Setsuna sighed as she put the little device away and turned to look at Ranma and Amy again. "I'm heading to the Temple, do either of you need help?"
"No thanks, just a little rest and we can make it on our own." Ranma said. "What do you say?"
"I could stay here all day." Amy said and smirked at Ranma. She was being held in her arms, her head on Ranma's shoulder. Setsuna decided that this would be a good time to leave and soon disappeared, Neither Ranma or Amy really noticed since they were a little occupied with each other. Amy didn't want to admit it, but she knew if there were anymore fighting today she was going to be in a fair amount of trouble. She had nothing left and had to get some rest, now all she had to do was make it home.
**********
To Be Continued...
Ending notes - the next chapter should be the last one so keep an eye out, I hope to have it done soon...