Just a plan
Author: Poly

Authors note:
This chapter will finally push this fic beyond the 40.000 words. That
means this fic now belongs to the currently 7% of Ranma fics on FF.net
that do. I'm kind of proud of that. Now for the last of the review response.
Materia-Blade, I'm still alive as you can see. Didn't think it was that
unusual for an author to not update for two months though.
Akuma-sama, why do I get the feeling more of my readers had the same
mental image when reading that scene.
Slade3, I noticed you reviewed my other stories as well. I hope you
enjoyed the read.
ZRO4825, Ranma / Sailor Moon crossovers are very common. The
uncommon thing about them is finding a complete Ranma / Sailor Moon
fic.

Disclaimer:
What do you mean they're not mine! Are you sure?

PART XX
End game part 2

The green florescent tentacles lashed out at amazing speeds. If the girls
weren't aware of the danger, it would have been over in seconds. As it
was, they barely dodged.

Unfortunately, Sailor Moon tripped and one of the tentacles grabbed her
around the ankle. "Aaaaah!" She yelped in panic.

With a quick knife chop from her hand, Sapphire severed the tentacle and
grabbed Moon, dragging her out of the tentacles reach. The four of them
regrouped in relative safety.

"We have to save Venus." Moon said worriedly.

"Can't we just hit it with our attacks?" Jupiter suggested.

"No." Sapphire replied. "There is a chance you might hit Venus instead."
The redhead looked thoughtful for a moment. "We have to get her out of
there first. I can probably dodge the tentacles fast enough to reach her,
but I won't have enough time to grab her." She snapped her fingers when
she thought of something. "Jupiter. Your element is thunder, isn't it?"

The brown-haired Senshi nodded.

"Here is what I suggest we do." They huddled together and the redhead
laid out her plan.

Mercury looked thoughtful. "That might actually work." She said.

They all nodded. The four of them went into position.

"Now!" Sapphire yelled. The four of them sprinted forward, dodging the
incoming tentacles at a frantic speed.

"Go Jupiter!" Sapphire signaled.

The Senshi of thunder nodded and called upon her powers. Lightning
crackled around her body. When she was standing directly under Venus,
she jumped. Green tentacles tried intercepting her, but they got a painful
encounter with Jupiter's improvised lightning shield.

When the tall brunette reached Venus, she grabbed the offending
tentacles that were holding the blonde and tore them free. The two of
them began their fall back to the ground. This was the cue for the others.
They let loose with their signature attacks in a combined effort to dispel
the green blob.

With a loud squishy noise and a silent roar, the green blob came crashing
down. It was with this that Sapphire's plan backfired. Both Venus and
Jupiter were directly under the blob when the attacks hit. With a yelp of
surprise, both girls were covered in large parts of the green, glue-like
substance.

While the two girls struggled to get free, the green substance began to
change and crystallize until the two Senshi were entirely immobile. Their
limbs were solidly held in place. The only thing they could still move were
their heads. A good thing too, or they might have suffocated.

The redheaded neo Senshi scratched the back of her head. "That was not
supposed to happen."

Mercury began scanning the trapped Senshi and the crystallized substance
holding them. Moon just looked on, worrying about her friends.

"Let me try something." Sapphire said. She walked forward and draw back
her fist.

"I don't think." Mercury began.

"Auch! That's smarts." The redhead yelped.

Mercury just shook her head. "According to my scans, that stuff is as hard
as diamond."

"You mean we're stuck here!?" Both Venus and Jupiter exclaimed. They
redoubled their effort to get free of their bonds.

"Waaaah!" Sailor Moon wailed. "Now we will never get them free."

Mercury tried to calm down the distraught blonde. "Don't worry Moon. We
will get them out. I'm sure that if we find the one behind this, we will find
a way."

Jupiter stopped struggling and looked at Moon directly. "Mercury is right.
Don't worry about us right now. You three go on and find the one
responsible."

Sailor Moon stopped crying and looked at her friends with new
determination. "I'll promise to punish the evil behind this. Be careful
Jupiter, Venus."

Sapphire was surprised by the actions of her friend. The blonde girl
seemed to have depths she didn't know before. "Good for her." She
thought.

* * *

Dust covered the floor in a thick layer. The air was stale and stuffy. No
sound could be heard from these abandoned halls. The old warehouse
hadn't been used in years. The company that owned it just kept it only for
tax purposes.

Halfway down the hall something strange could be seen. Apparently
coming from nowhere, a trail of footsteps could be seen. They were
leading to one of the storage rooms. If you listened carefully you could
hear faint muttering from a person that was apparently highly irritated.

"Where is that stupid thing? I know it's around here somewhere."

Loud crashing noises could be heard when a couple of crates hit the
ground spilling their contents.

"Not what I'm looking for. Those went out years ago."

Between the racks stuffed with old and bleached boxes, you could see the
shadow of a tall woman rummaging through their contents. She pulled
something from the heap of Styrofoam macaroni that protected the wares
inside the boxes.

Having examined the object, the woman now recognizable as Pluto, threw
it on a growing pile at her feet. Her uniform was coffered in smudges of
dirt and dust. She had been looking for some time now. With a growl, she
dumped the box and moved on to the next.

After pulling out a couple of items and discarding them, she stumbled
upon a simple wooden box that was only as large as her hand. It was
smooth to the touch and seemed slightly warm. Frowning, Pluto
summoned her time staff and touched the box with the garnet orb. Faint
patterns of light appeared on the cover of the box. The most noticeable
design was a crescent moon.

* * *

The three girls reached a worn-looking door at the back of the toy store.

"I think this leads to the basement." Mercury said. "I'm picking up strong
readings from down there."

"Let's go." Sapphire stated and opened the door, revealing a set of stairs
going down into the dark.

"Looks scary down there." Moon shivered a little.

Sapphire smiled encouraging to the blonde. "Don't worry. We'll make it."
The redhead stepped forward and started to descend the stairs. When it
became to dark to see, she raised a hand and summoned a small sphere
of Ki on top of her finger to light the way. The other two girls soon
followed.

When the three of them reached the end of the stairs, they could see faint
light seeping in from under a closed door. Progressing carefully, the three
of them approached the door. Carefully, Mercury pushed it open so they
could look inside. They blinked at the sight before them.

"Looks like a giant maze." Sapphire stated.

"We have to get through." Mercury said. "It's best that I lead. I can plot a
route through this with my computer."

Moon and Sapphire just nodded and followed the Senshi in the blue skirt.
Turning a couple of corners inside the maze,)they were already
disorientated. The brightly-colored walls of the maze made their eyes
hurt. The only thing keeping them on track was the Mercury computer.

"Auch!" Moon exclaimed. "I stubbed my toe."

Sapphire turned towards her friend to help her up. When she turned back,
Mercury was gone.

"I could have sworn that wall wasn't there a second ago." The redhead
said.

"Oh no!" Moon wailed. "Now Mercury is gone too!"

Sapphire was annoyed now. "Ok, that's it! Were getting out of this maze.
No more nice magical girl." With a loud "Kayaa!", she gave a powerful kick
at the nearby wall. With a loud protest, the wall crumbled.

They made progress for a couple of minutes with Sapphire creating
doorways when needed. Finally, they seemed to reach the end of the
maze. Sapphire wiped her eyebrow.

"Phew. I wonder how Ryoga and Shampoo keep doing that. That's tiring
work."

* * *

"WHERE ON EARTH AM I NOW?!"

Ryoga was lost again. All those high buildings were in the way and
obstructing his path. He knew a way to deal with that though.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

Wroooom!

"Achoo!" Ryoga sneezed. Must be from the dust cloud the collapsed wall
created.

* * *

Sapphire and Moon stood before a closed door that was behind the last
wall the redhead had kicked down.

"I think this is it. Get ready." With a quick motion, she pushed open the
door and the two of them went inside. It was pitch-black. Taking two
hesitant steps, a sudden wind seemed to arise. The door closed behind
them with a bang and you could hear locks turning.

Sapphire slipped into a ready stance, expecting the worst. Moon just kept
close, trying not to panic.

A wildly flickering light appeared in the center of the dark room. It
changed color and shape regularly, and it was getting bigger. The winds
increased and the two girls had to brace themselves to keep standing.

"MHAHAHA." A deep voice bellowed from the light. "We did not expect you
to get this far. It does not matter. Now you have to face me."

The light seemed to get brighter.

Sapphire and Moon prepared their attacks. They were both on high alert
waiting for the thing to make its move.

"Dead scream." A voice whispered from the side. Everything went silent
for a second before a purple sphere of energy plowed towards the light
entity, impacting with enough force to shake the room.

The entity was caught totally off guard. It seemed to shrink even further
back when a tall figure in a Senshi outfit stepped out of the shadows
carrying a wooden box.

Opening the wooden box, Pluto whispered a couple of words. Fine lines of
designs started to glow. Flickering wisps of light began to drift from the
enemy and were sucked into the box.

"NOOOOOoooooo.." The enemy struggled to contain its essence. It was to
no avail. The screams faded as the final whisp of light was sucked into the
box. With a loud clack, the lid closed and all was silent.

Pluto turned towards Sailor Moon. "I'm sorry, my princes. I should have
been here sooner."

Moon just waved it of while Sapphire raised an eyebrow at the princes
comment.

"Don't worry Pluto." The blonde said. "At least it's over now. What were
they anyway?"

Pluto grimaced. "A failed experiment." The Senshi of Time looked sour.
"They were originally created to function as a training program for the
Senshi. They failed at their task. Creating far too much mischief and
property damage until they were finally sealed in this box." She tapped
the wooden box in her hand carefully.

"Practice dummies." Sapphire said with stunned expression on her face.

Suddenly the blonde jerked. "The others! We have to see if they are
alright." And she promptly stormed off with Sapphire and Pluto following
her.

* * *

Five inner Senshi, a neo scout and a time guardian emerged from the
building, glad to be free again. Now that the danger was over, the Senshi
detransformed. Sapphire just ducked out of sight and returned as Ranma-
chan.

Usagi was happily chattering with her friends,)relieved that everybody was
alright. Finally the blonde girl formally introduced Ranma and Setsuna to
each other.

Although Pluto gave no outward sign of recognition, she knew who Ranma
was. After all, one wasn't the guardian of time without noticing certain
people that could influence the timeline greatly. She couldn't tell if the
Senshi meeting Ranma was a good thing or not. She had to study the
effects later.

Pluto wasn't too worried though. What she had seen of Ranma's life
assured her that he, or at the moment, she, was a good kid. Ranma had
taken care of Saffron after all. A being that could have been a major
threat to the Senshi if it had he had gone on untouched. His encounter
with Ranma would change him for the better.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when the Senshi began barrage her
with questions about what happened, so she turned her thoughts to the
present. Repeating the short explanation she had given the others, they
continued walking to the shrine.

"Yes." The Time Senshi thought. "Things should really start getting
interesting for the Senshi if they continue to be friends with Ranma." She
smiled her secret smile. "Things were getting predictable as it was
anyway."

"Setsuna?" Usagi said.

The tall, green-haired woman turned towards her future queen. The
blonde offered her something. She took it and blinked when she
recognized it as her credit card.

"How did you?" Setsuna was stunned speechless. That hadn't happened to
her in centuries. "Interesting indeed." She thought.

* * *

END PART XX

Additional authors note:
Read the epilogue!