Disclaimer: *to the tune of london bridge is falling down* Niether one belongs to me,belongs to me, belongs to me, Niether one belongs to me, so don't sue me!
~~~~Chapter 1: The Things You Can Find On The Net......~~~
Shampoo smiled brightly as she carefully removed a stone tablet from a box she had just recieved in the mail. Her great-grandmother had told her that nothing like this exisited, but you would be surprised at the things you could find on the internet. The tablet was genuine and she had traded Mousse's rare sword collection for it. He really shouldn't leave his laundry lying around.
Hiding the tablet as best she could, she scampered down stairs to the kitchen. "Shampoo go out now!" she waved happily to Cologne as she pushed open the swinging door, slamming it right into Mousse's face. Cologne watched her curiously as she frowned down at the crumpled boy, then shrugged and skipped on out the door.
"Mousse! Are you alright boy?" Cologne asked, peering through the doorway.
"No...." Mousse groaned as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Good, now get up and get back to work."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Meanwhile, in a completely different universe, two men were having their own problems with an unrulely redhead. "Come on! It's not THAT bad. This is the only way we're gonna be able to see if you're cure's here Zel. These amazons are really wierd about males." said redhead said happily as she led the four...err...'girls' down the path. Lina glanced back at her companions to gauge their reactions.
"Why me..." the tall blonde in a cute pink dress cried. His hair was down and a red bow fastened neatly in the back. "Well, at least I don't have to wear that stupid hair do." Gourry grumbled.
The shortest, but not by much, of the group could only keep glancing back at the man who walked behind her. "Are you sure this is such a good idea Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, continueing to shoot worried glances over her shoulder.
"Lina, if this wasn't a possible lead to my cure, I SWEAR I'd be killing you now.......well, trying to at least." Zelgadis growled in his white dress. "Stupid all female villages....."
"Trust me Zel! I know what I'm doing!" Lina cried cheerfully from the front.
"I dunno. I just think you like dressing us up." Gourry grumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Shampoo watched carefully from the rooftops as she followed Ranma and Akane. They were arguing over something again, Shampoo really couldn't hear. She crept closer like the cat she turned into to hear their argument.
"It wasn't that bad this time Ranma!" Akane growled.
"It nearly killed me! And I swear I saw it move!" Ranma growled back.
Akane pushed open the door to the supermarket. "That's just you're imagination! It did NOT move!"
"No Akane. I'm serious. It moved." Ranma replied, following her into the store.
Shampoo frowned in puzzlement. Akane's cooking was so bad that it started to come alive?!?! She shrugged as she sat to wait for them to come out. She'd catch the two by surprise when they left and THEN use the stone. She chuckled evily as she rested her back against a chiminy and prepared to wait.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Back at that other universe....
"Well, here we are! The Dragon Burial Cave." Lina said, looking around at all the scatered dragon bones lying around. She looked down at a drawn map in her hands. "Those amazons sure can draw good maps."
Gourry sighed with relief since he and Zelgadis had changed back into their normal clothes. "It's good to be a man again."
Zel nodded his agreement. "You've got that right."
Amelia stepped a little closer to Zel and shivered. "Let's hurry this up. This place gives me the creeps!"
Lina frowned. "Yeah, you do have a point. All these bones reminds me of the Ancient Dragon Temple. Let's get going guys!" Lina said as she cast her lighting spell and proceeded on through the cave followed shortly by the other three.
~~**~~**~~**~~~
Shampoo was startled awake by a small drop of water dropping on her nose. She looked up at the sky to see it would start raining real soon, so she needed to activate the tablet before the rain. She looked down from the roof and realized that Ranma and Akane had already left the supermarket and was probably already home. She quickly hopped up and started running on rooftops to get to the dojo.
She made it to the dojo in no time and discovered Ranma and Akane sparring in the dojo, or more like Ranma was dodging and Akane was trying to beat the shit out of him. Deciding this was a perfect place to use the tablet, Shampoo flipped down from the roof of the dojo and stepped inside before the rain really started up. The two didn't notice Shampoo at first.
"Come on Ranma! Attack me! I can't get better if you don't attack me!"
"Akane! I....I just can't!" Ranma pleaded as he ducked another punch. Both froze suddenly when they heard some strange chanting and a chill went up their spine. They slowly turned to see Shampoo reading a stone tablet. An unnatural wind surrounded her, lifting her hair up in a wild way.
"S-S-Shampoo!?!?! W-w-what are you doing!?!" Ranma stuttered.
Shampoo smiled as she looked up from her tablet for a moment, but didn't say anything. She was too afraid that she would mess the spell up. She returned her gaze back to the tablet and her chanting rose in volume. With the rise in her voice, she glowed a white light and the wind picked her up into the air. She pointed her finger at Akane and a circle with a star in the middle of it with strange writing all around it appeared under her.
"R-Ranma? I'm really not liking this." Akane squeaked as she felt energy crackling around her.
Ranma growled and purposely stepped into the magic circle and grabbed Akane. Shampoo stopped in her chanting and gasped. "Airen no!" She then realized she had just enterrupted her own spell. Shampoo gritted her teeth. Well, there was nothing to be done about it. "Airen, get out of glowing circle now!" Ranma simply looked at the chinese amazon and picked Akane up. He stepped out of the circle.
"Shampoo!Turn that damn thing off or something!" Ranma shouted over the winds as they started to get wilder. He held Akane close to his chest to protect her as much as he could.
"Shampoo no know how to!" Shampoo said in a panic as the winds started to get much worse. "S-Shampoo finish spell. Maybe fix problem!" Shampoo looked down at the tablet again when a small piece of the tablet broke off. It obliterated only one word, so Shampoo didn't think much of it as she continued the spell. After she read past the broken off part, the magic circle suddenly changed and had a barely noticeable gold tint to it. The strange words in the circle changed a little as well, but other than that, there were no changes. Shampoo didn't look up from the tablet as she read the words, so she didn't see that a shape was beginning to form in the middle of the circle. Ranma and Akane, however, saw it and stared with amazement as the form began to split and take shape.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Lina growled in frustration as she stayed close to Gourry and shattered another skeleton warrior. The sword that he had gotten from those freaky old justice lovers was actually rather good at splitting bone, as was Zel's when his enchantment was in place. Unfortunately, there were just too many of the undead warriors and magic didn't seem to do much but give the guys time because it simply scattered the bones around and they just simply came back together after a few moments. Five of the bone warriors were encased in ice, but Lina wasn't sure if that would hold them.
Amelia was fairing rather well against the skeletons, dodging thier swords and then breaking their bones with a mighty punch with her enhanced fists. The princess also seemed to be able to channel the spell into her feet as well, because Lina was amazed when the younger girl's round house kick shattered the skulls of a few skeletons in one blow. Lina decided it was about time for her to learn that spell from the younger girl.
"Man these guys move fast for dead guys!" Gourry commented as he swiped at a skeleton that was about to skewer Lina from behind. "We can't keep this up much longer Lina!"
"Yeah, I know. But at least they aren't bone dragons!" A sudden roar errupted throughout the cavern and the ground shook as three bone dragons stepped into view. "I just HAD to open my big mouth." Lina groaned
"How the hell are we supposed to fight those!?!" Zelgadis exclaimed before he sliced another skeleton that was about to behead his princess compaion while she smashed the jaw of one that was trying to pierce his stoney hide.
"Dammit!" Lina shouted, looking around. "Sorry Zel, but I'm gonna have to blow the whole place up if we want out of here alive." She said, giving the chimera an apologetic look.
Zel smiled. "It probably wasn't in here anyways. Go ahead and save our asses."
"Alright! Amelia! Get ready to raywing outta here! Stay close Gourry and give me cover." Lina said, raising her hands above her head. Gourry simply nodded as he hacked at more skeletons. Amelia and Zelgadis wordlessly started freezing skeletons to help Gourry out. "Darkness beyond twilight. Crimson beyond blood that flows." Lina began as the energy formed in her hands.
The magic circle appeared out of nowhere, surrounding the adventurers and then they suddenly vanished from the cavern, leaving their enemies confused.
Lina had her eyes closed the whole time, so only felt a slight shift in power, but the others were completely aware of what happened as the winds die down and they found themselves inside a building with three other people. A dark haired boy with a pigtail and strange clothes holding a blue haired girl in even stranger clothes, and a busty purple haired girl with bells tied in her hair and wearing clothes that actually were slightly familiar. As the three stared around in a daze, they were snapped to reality when they heard Lina's vioce raised as she tried to cast her spell. "I pledge myself to conqure, all the foes who stand. Before the mighty gift bestoed in my unworthy hands!"
"Wait Lina! You don't need to cast the Dragon Slave now!!" Gourry shouted and quickly seperated Lina's hands.
"Gourry! What are....you.......huh?" Lina blinked as she opened her eyes to see that they were safely in some kind of building with no bone dragons or creepy skeletons trying to kill them. "Umm, Gourry? This might be a stupid thing to ask you, but, what the hell just happened?"
"Well. We were fighting the skeleton thingies, and you were castin the Dragon Slave, when one of those magic circle things appeared under us. The next thing I know, we're here!" Gourry said as he released Lina.
"Wow. Guess it wasn't such a stupid idea to ask you." Lina said as she looked around the room.
"Aiyah! What strange clothes new wierd people have!" Shampoo exclaimed and the four strangers immdiately focused on her.
"Shampoo! What the hell did you just do!?!" Ranma and Akane shouted in unison as Ranma stood Akane up. The four then turned glanced at Akane and Ranma, then turned back to Shampoo.
"Shampoo no know!" the amazon girl cried.
Amelia blinked in confusion, then turned to Akane and Ranma. "Wait a minute....." the couple blinked as the young princess got their attention. " Her name's Shampoo!?!?!" She asked, pointing at the amazon. Uncertainly, the two nodded. "Oh. Ok." Amelia said calmly, then the four burst out laughing.
Shampoo turned red in the face. "What wrong with Shampoo's name!? Is honorable Amazon name! Not Shampoo's fault Japanese prononce wrong!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Shampoo should kill for insult."
Lina and the others gradually calmed down and Lina waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. Now. Can we get a little serious about this? You three are obviously from around here, so why don't you tell us where we are."
Ranma frowned. He was being told what to do by a little redheaded girl. The girl was obviously cocky because of her reaction to Shampoo's death threat, but Ranma doubted by her looks that she could back that up. The big guy behind her, on the other hand, looked like he could arm wrestle Ryouga and might win. He didn't know what to make of the stone guy or the dark haired girl.
Before anyone could say anything else, Kasumi and Nabiki walked in. "Akane! Ranma! Dinner will be ready........Oh my. Who are these people?" Kasumi asked.
Nabiki frowned at the clothing of the four travelers. "These had better not be any freeloading drifters. What's up with those outfits anyways?"
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with our outfits!" Amelia huffed, crossing her arms. "They are perfect for traveling!"
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that. "Capes? Isn't that a little tacky? And what's with you're friend's halloween costume?" she asked, pointing at Zelgadis.
Lina, Gourry, and Amelia flinched while Zelgadis shook with rage. "Calm down Zel. The girl didn't mean anything by it."
Both of Nabiki's eyebrows shot up. "Girl?? Like you've got room to talk."
"Listen." Lina growled dangerously. Amelia and Zel immidiately stepped away and Gourry got prepared to grab her if she decided to cast a spell. "If you just tell us where in the nine hells we are, we'll be gone, ok?"
"And why should we tell you anything?" Nabiki asked.
Lina had nearly had it. "BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ASSHOLES WHO BROUGHT US HERE!!!!"
"Calm down Lina! They also saved us from those dead guys."
"Dead guys!??!?!?" Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, and Nabiki exclaimed.
"As well as those bone dragons." Amelia said with a shudder.
"Bone dragons!?!?!?!?!" the three said again.
"Oh my."
"Come off it! You KNOW I woulda had us outta there if I could finish my spell."
Kasumi decided that it was time to clear up some of the confusion. She walked up to Amelia and Zelgadis and bowed. "Hello! I'm Kasumi Tendo. Who might you all be?"
Zelgadis and Amelia looked at each other, then over to where Lina was arguing with the girl with short brown hair. Then over to the three they first saw when they arrived, then back to Kasumi. They looked back at each other, and shrugged. "I'm Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun. A pleasure to meet you." Amelia said, repeating Kasumi's bow.
Zel coughed. "And I'm Zelgadis Greywords." he said and did a short and awkward version of Amelia's bow. "Could you please tell us our location? Our friend has a rather, rude and forceful way of finding things out so we'd like to prevent the distruction of your whole town."
"Oh my. That little redhead could do that?" Kasumi asked as she looked over at Lina who was still arguing with Nabiki. Gourry was still ready to grab her at a moments notice.
"Unfortunately, yes." Amelia sighed.
"Well, you are all at our home in Nerima. By the look of your clothes, you're not from around here. Why don't we sit everyone down and we can try to figure out just what happened." Kasumi said brightly and walked over to where Nabiki and Lina were arguing. The eldest Tendo frowned when she noticed the raw power radiating off of the short redhead. She stepped inbetween Lina and Nabiki and gave the shorter girl a bow. "Hello. I'm Kasumi Tendo!" She nodded towards Nabiki. "That's my sister, Nabiki Tendo." She turned to face towards Ranma and Akane who were still standing with confused looks. "That's my youngest sister Akane Tendo and her fiance Ranma Saotome. And that's Shampoo. She works over at the Cat Cafe."
Lina blinked in surprise to see the taller girl suddenly stand infront of her. She didn't feel threatened by this girl like she did the one she was arguing with, so she relaxed, causing Gourry to sigh with relief. "Umm...I'm Lina. Lina Inverse."
"And I'm her protector, Gourry Gabriev."
"And I'm guessing you've already met our friends." Lina said nodding towards Zel and Amelia as they walked over to join them again.
Kasumi nodded. "So what brings you to our home?"
"That's what we'd like to know. One minute, we're fighting for our lives and I was about to blow the whole cave up, the next, we're standing in the middle of this building and those three were looking at us funny." Lina replied with a shrug.
Kasumi turned to the three mentioned and Ranma and Akane pointed at Shampoo. "Shampoo. What happened."
Shampoo was very nervous now. She coughed and shuffled her feet. "Shampoo try to make stupid violent girl go away with magic tablet, but Airen get in way an Shampoo no know how stop spell."
"Let me get this straight. You were going to send that girl over there 'away', which considering who it picked up, would mean you would have dropped her right in the middle of a pretty fierce battle." Shampoo blanched at the glares she recieved from Ranma and Akane, but nodded. Lina continued. "But instead, something got screwed up and we ended up here instead of her ending up with us, am I right?" Shampoo nodded again. "Zel, Amelia. I was preoccupied at the moment and didn't see the spell. Could you two make anything from it?"
Amelia cocked her head to the side in thought while Zelgadis scratched his chin, causing a scraping sound. Nabiki went over and poked him in the cheek which earned her glares from both the chimera and the princess. "Do you mind? And yes, it is real."
"From what I could tell, I think it was a white magic spell. Maybe a dragon summoning spell or something." Amelia said, still glaring at Nabiki who simply smirked at her.
"Umm..Shampoo was it? Could you let me see where you got the spell?" Zelgadis asked.
Shampoo looked the chimera over critically, then shook her head. "Shampoo can't show. Broke." she said as she produced a pile of rocks.
"You BROKE our only possible clue to get HOME!?!?!" Lina growled. "FIREBALL!" Lina yelled, producing the flaming ball in her hands. Gourry quickly tackled her and she ended up throwing it through the roof of the dojo. The ones that had never seen a magic fireball gaped at the hole in the roof, then down at Lina who was smacking around Gourry.
"Freeze Arrow!" Amelia shouted. The fire was quickly put out.
"How the hell did you do that!?!?!" Ranma shouted, pointing to the ceiling. Amelia and Lina looked up at it, then back at Ranma.
"It's magic. I've been able to throw fireballs around for a long time." Lina commented, slightly confused.
"They may not know about magic here," Zel whispered to Lina, who simply shrugged.
"Anyways, back to the matter at hand." Lina said, glaring at Shampoo. "It's your damn fault we're here, so how in the nine hells are you gonna send us back!?!" Lina yelled, stepping closer to the amazon.
Shampoo shook with fear as she glanced up at the hole in the ceiling, then back to the short redhead. Shampoo had never been afraid of anyone in all her life, but this little girl was the scariest thing she had ever seen. The only one who seemed to have some control over the redhead was the handsome blonde man, and she wasn't even sure he would stop the girl if she decided she wanted to kill Shampoo. "S-Shampoo, go ask great-grandmother for help! She know much! Can help find way to send all back!" She then took off like the demons of hell were nipping at her heels.
"She'd better." Lina growled, then took a deep breath. "Well, since we're stuck here, we're gonna need to find us somewhere to stay. Do you know where a good inn and restaurant are? I'm starved here!" Gourry nodded his head in agreement.
"And how, are you going to pay for it? Since I KNOW you can't be from this world, I'm sure your money is a lot differrent than ours." Akane said.
Lina blinked. "You have a point. So, how do you pay for stuff around here?"
"Yen. If you don't have the yen, you don't get anywhere." Nabiki said, showing the group some of her money.
"Why don't you stay here with us!" Kasumi said happily.
"Oh dear sister? Did you forget the bottomless pits we already have living here?And besides, we don't have room for them." Nabiki explained.
"Well, they could sleep in the dojo. It's got plenty of room." Akane said as she looked around. Ranma nodded.
"As long as the girls don't want to marry me, I have no problem with it." Ranma said.
Amelia and Lina both looked at him with raised eyebrows. "And just WHY would we want to marry you?" Lina asked.
Akane chuckled at Ranma's outraged look. "It's just that usually when a girl shows up out of the blue, they want to marry him!"
"But you're engaged! Why would they want to break up you're engagement!?" Amelia cried, outraged.
They simply groaned. "That's a looooong story."
"Well, back to the, 'hey where we stayin at?' problem."Lina said as she took Gourry's money pouch. He protested a little, but that was about it. She rifled through the contents and pulled out two silver coins and three gold coins. "I dunno if this'll work, but this is all of our currency that we have on us." She said, showing Nabiki the coins. When the others were about to say something, she glared at them and they immidiately shut their mouths.
Akane, Ranma and Nabiki stared at the coins in wide eyed amazement. Nabiki carefully picked up one of the coins and studied it closely. She bit it. Sure enough, it was real. "How the hell did you get real gold and silver coins!?!"
Lina smiled. "Like I said. That's how WE pay for stuff back home." She handed Gourry back his pouch, motioning for him to say nothing, then turned back to Nabiki. "So, what do ya say?"
"You can stay." Nabiki said as she happily pocketed the coins.
"Can we go eat dinner now?" Ranma asked Kasumi.
"Of course! Will you four join us? I'm afraid I don't have much extra, but you're welcome to share what we have."
"Oh, that's alright. We'll pass on dinner for tonight." Lina said with a wave. Her three companions just stared at her in complete shock. "You go on ahead without us! We'll be just fine!" she said happily, ignoring her companions.
"If you insist." Kasumi sighed as she was about to follow the other three out. "Oh! We'll have to introduce you to father and Uncle Saotome when dinner's through if you don't mind."
"Sure no problem at all!" Lina said, still cheerful. Kasumi smiled, then left the four alone.
"That's the first time I've ever seen you pass up a free meal Lina!" Gourry exclaimed which earned him a bonk on the head.
"Shut up Jellyfish. There's a REASON I passed it up. We've still got our rations so we'll be fine."
"So why did you say that was all the money we had?" Amelia asked as she sat on the floor. Zel, Gourry and Lina followed suit.
"It's simple. That girl, Nabiki wasn't it? Well, anyways, I noticed how her eyes lit up when she talked about money. Then she showed me those coins, which were made out of some pretty base metals. I figured, if our coins were worth something here, then I'd better not tell her how much we really had or she'd rip us off. If they weren't worth much, then no big deal. From the way her eyes lit up when I showed those coins, our money is worth a LOT more than it would be back home."
"But how much more?" Zel asked.
"I'm not sure. I'll have to watch these people to see who I can trust enough to not want to rip me off. So far, I just think it's only that Nabiki girl who wants to rip us off, but you never know."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Shampoo entered the cat cafe nervously. She knew her great-grandmother would not be too happy with her about what she had done. The amazon elder noticed her granddaughter before Shampoo noticed her. "Where have you been Shampoo? The dinner rush just hit and we're in need of your help!" Cologne said as she tossed two ramen bowels out to Mousse who caught them deftly and served them to the wrong customers. The customers, used to this, simply switched and watched the show of acrobats that was usually put on as the two younger amazons seated and cleaned tables while catching and serving ramen that was thrown out into the dinning area by the elder amazon.
It was wrong of Shampoo to hold off what she had to tell her great-grandmother, but Shampoo needed the extra time to carefully word what she had done, hopefully without angering her great-grandmother too much. The dinner rush ended too quickly for Shampoo's liking, she only had how she'd start the exlpaination out, and it wasn't long before the three amazons were alone cleaning up.
"So Shampoo, what were you doing that caused you to nearly miss the dinner rush?" Cologne asked, a sly look crossing her face.
Shampoo didn't look at her great-grandmother and Mousse only half listened. "Shampoo go see Airen...."
Cologne nodded as she started adding up what was in the cash register. "Son-in-law finally coming around?"
Shampoo shifted nervously. "Not really."
Cologne snorted. "Stubborn male. So you tried all day to catch him eh? What was your plan? Maybe I can help you fix it."
This is where Shampoo got really nervous. Mousse noticed and frowned, adjusting his glasses to get a better look. "Um, well, Shampoo's plan start out fine, but Airen mess up, then Shampoo not know how stop spell-" she cut off and winced. That wasn't what she wanted to say.
Cologne and Mousse's eyes widened. "Spell? What spell did you try to cast? I gave you no spell." Cologne said, her eyes narrowing.
"Y-you say no transportation spells, but, Shampoo find one on internet shopping site. Trade Mousse's rare sword collection for it an-"
"WHAT!?!?!?!!?" Mousse shouted before rushing up the stairs to find the robe his collection was in. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The blind boy howled from upstairs.
"Continue great-granddaughter." Cologne simply said, ignoring the poor boy.
"Well, spell simple. Read words on tablet, and cast spell. Shampoo start out great, but Airen get in way of spell and Shampoo told Airen to move. He move, but with stupid violent girl, then spell get out of hand. Shampoo thought, if finish spell, then no more problem. Shampoo no know what go wrong, but transport strange peoples from somewhere to Tendo dojo."
Cologne took a deep, calming breath before glaring at Shampoo. The young amazon flinched under the gaze. "I'm very dissappointed in you great-granddaughter. I thought I taught you better than to use spells you don't understand. There's no telling what that spell could have done. Tomorrow, we go to the Tendo's and see these people you summoned. Now finish cleaning up, then get to bed." Cologne started to hop off, but then stopped and turned around. "Oh, and one more thing. No chasing after Ranma for a week."
Shampoo sighed, crest fallen. Cologne was simply going easy on her for now, but after she met the people Shampoo had acciddently brought over, the punishment would increase. Shampoo then realized she forgot to tell Cologne anything about the strangers and winced again. Once Cologne found out what those people were capable of, the punishment might be worse than she'd like.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Welp, there's the first chapter of this story that's been floatin around in my head for some time. Even drew little comics to it.......just don't remember where I put them.Thanks Kchan(Nekochan) for readin over it for me! Hope it didn't suck TOO much!
~~Ukchan (Lunarwolf)~~
~~~~Chapter 1: The Things You Can Find On The Net......~~~
Shampoo smiled brightly as she carefully removed a stone tablet from a box she had just recieved in the mail. Her great-grandmother had told her that nothing like this exisited, but you would be surprised at the things you could find on the internet. The tablet was genuine and she had traded Mousse's rare sword collection for it. He really shouldn't leave his laundry lying around.
Hiding the tablet as best she could, she scampered down stairs to the kitchen. "Shampoo go out now!" she waved happily to Cologne as she pushed open the swinging door, slamming it right into Mousse's face. Cologne watched her curiously as she frowned down at the crumpled boy, then shrugged and skipped on out the door.
"Mousse! Are you alright boy?" Cologne asked, peering through the doorway.
"No...." Mousse groaned as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Good, now get up and get back to work."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Meanwhile, in a completely different universe, two men were having their own problems with an unrulely redhead. "Come on! It's not THAT bad. This is the only way we're gonna be able to see if you're cure's here Zel. These amazons are really wierd about males." said redhead said happily as she led the four...err...'girls' down the path. Lina glanced back at her companions to gauge their reactions.
"Why me..." the tall blonde in a cute pink dress cried. His hair was down and a red bow fastened neatly in the back. "Well, at least I don't have to wear that stupid hair do." Gourry grumbled.
The shortest, but not by much, of the group could only keep glancing back at the man who walked behind her. "Are you sure this is such a good idea Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, continueing to shoot worried glances over her shoulder.
"Lina, if this wasn't a possible lead to my cure, I SWEAR I'd be killing you now.......well, trying to at least." Zelgadis growled in his white dress. "Stupid all female villages....."
"Trust me Zel! I know what I'm doing!" Lina cried cheerfully from the front.
"I dunno. I just think you like dressing us up." Gourry grumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Shampoo watched carefully from the rooftops as she followed Ranma and Akane. They were arguing over something again, Shampoo really couldn't hear. She crept closer like the cat she turned into to hear their argument.
"It wasn't that bad this time Ranma!" Akane growled.
"It nearly killed me! And I swear I saw it move!" Ranma growled back.
Akane pushed open the door to the supermarket. "That's just you're imagination! It did NOT move!"
"No Akane. I'm serious. It moved." Ranma replied, following her into the store.
Shampoo frowned in puzzlement. Akane's cooking was so bad that it started to come alive?!?! She shrugged as she sat to wait for them to come out. She'd catch the two by surprise when they left and THEN use the stone. She chuckled evily as she rested her back against a chiminy and prepared to wait.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Back at that other universe....
"Well, here we are! The Dragon Burial Cave." Lina said, looking around at all the scatered dragon bones lying around. She looked down at a drawn map in her hands. "Those amazons sure can draw good maps."
Gourry sighed with relief since he and Zelgadis had changed back into their normal clothes. "It's good to be a man again."
Zel nodded his agreement. "You've got that right."
Amelia stepped a little closer to Zel and shivered. "Let's hurry this up. This place gives me the creeps!"
Lina frowned. "Yeah, you do have a point. All these bones reminds me of the Ancient Dragon Temple. Let's get going guys!" Lina said as she cast her lighting spell and proceeded on through the cave followed shortly by the other three.
~~**~~**~~**~~~
Shampoo was startled awake by a small drop of water dropping on her nose. She looked up at the sky to see it would start raining real soon, so she needed to activate the tablet before the rain. She looked down from the roof and realized that Ranma and Akane had already left the supermarket and was probably already home. She quickly hopped up and started running on rooftops to get to the dojo.
She made it to the dojo in no time and discovered Ranma and Akane sparring in the dojo, or more like Ranma was dodging and Akane was trying to beat the shit out of him. Deciding this was a perfect place to use the tablet, Shampoo flipped down from the roof of the dojo and stepped inside before the rain really started up. The two didn't notice Shampoo at first.
"Come on Ranma! Attack me! I can't get better if you don't attack me!"
"Akane! I....I just can't!" Ranma pleaded as he ducked another punch. Both froze suddenly when they heard some strange chanting and a chill went up their spine. They slowly turned to see Shampoo reading a stone tablet. An unnatural wind surrounded her, lifting her hair up in a wild way.
"S-S-Shampoo!?!?! W-w-what are you doing!?!" Ranma stuttered.
Shampoo smiled as she looked up from her tablet for a moment, but didn't say anything. She was too afraid that she would mess the spell up. She returned her gaze back to the tablet and her chanting rose in volume. With the rise in her voice, she glowed a white light and the wind picked her up into the air. She pointed her finger at Akane and a circle with a star in the middle of it with strange writing all around it appeared under her.
"R-Ranma? I'm really not liking this." Akane squeaked as she felt energy crackling around her.
Ranma growled and purposely stepped into the magic circle and grabbed Akane. Shampoo stopped in her chanting and gasped. "Airen no!" She then realized she had just enterrupted her own spell. Shampoo gritted her teeth. Well, there was nothing to be done about it. "Airen, get out of glowing circle now!" Ranma simply looked at the chinese amazon and picked Akane up. He stepped out of the circle.
"Shampoo!Turn that damn thing off or something!" Ranma shouted over the winds as they started to get wilder. He held Akane close to his chest to protect her as much as he could.
"Shampoo no know how to!" Shampoo said in a panic as the winds started to get much worse. "S-Shampoo finish spell. Maybe fix problem!" Shampoo looked down at the tablet again when a small piece of the tablet broke off. It obliterated only one word, so Shampoo didn't think much of it as she continued the spell. After she read past the broken off part, the magic circle suddenly changed and had a barely noticeable gold tint to it. The strange words in the circle changed a little as well, but other than that, there were no changes. Shampoo didn't look up from the tablet as she read the words, so she didn't see that a shape was beginning to form in the middle of the circle. Ranma and Akane, however, saw it and stared with amazement as the form began to split and take shape.
~~**~~**~~**~~
Lina growled in frustration as she stayed close to Gourry and shattered another skeleton warrior. The sword that he had gotten from those freaky old justice lovers was actually rather good at splitting bone, as was Zel's when his enchantment was in place. Unfortunately, there were just too many of the undead warriors and magic didn't seem to do much but give the guys time because it simply scattered the bones around and they just simply came back together after a few moments. Five of the bone warriors were encased in ice, but Lina wasn't sure if that would hold them.
Amelia was fairing rather well against the skeletons, dodging thier swords and then breaking their bones with a mighty punch with her enhanced fists. The princess also seemed to be able to channel the spell into her feet as well, because Lina was amazed when the younger girl's round house kick shattered the skulls of a few skeletons in one blow. Lina decided it was about time for her to learn that spell from the younger girl.
"Man these guys move fast for dead guys!" Gourry commented as he swiped at a skeleton that was about to skewer Lina from behind. "We can't keep this up much longer Lina!"
"Yeah, I know. But at least they aren't bone dragons!" A sudden roar errupted throughout the cavern and the ground shook as three bone dragons stepped into view. "I just HAD to open my big mouth." Lina groaned
"How the hell are we supposed to fight those!?!" Zelgadis exclaimed before he sliced another skeleton that was about to behead his princess compaion while she smashed the jaw of one that was trying to pierce his stoney hide.
"Dammit!" Lina shouted, looking around. "Sorry Zel, but I'm gonna have to blow the whole place up if we want out of here alive." She said, giving the chimera an apologetic look.
Zel smiled. "It probably wasn't in here anyways. Go ahead and save our asses."
"Alright! Amelia! Get ready to raywing outta here! Stay close Gourry and give me cover." Lina said, raising her hands above her head. Gourry simply nodded as he hacked at more skeletons. Amelia and Zelgadis wordlessly started freezing skeletons to help Gourry out. "Darkness beyond twilight. Crimson beyond blood that flows." Lina began as the energy formed in her hands.
The magic circle appeared out of nowhere, surrounding the adventurers and then they suddenly vanished from the cavern, leaving their enemies confused.
Lina had her eyes closed the whole time, so only felt a slight shift in power, but the others were completely aware of what happened as the winds die down and they found themselves inside a building with three other people. A dark haired boy with a pigtail and strange clothes holding a blue haired girl in even stranger clothes, and a busty purple haired girl with bells tied in her hair and wearing clothes that actually were slightly familiar. As the three stared around in a daze, they were snapped to reality when they heard Lina's vioce raised as she tried to cast her spell. "I pledge myself to conqure, all the foes who stand. Before the mighty gift bestoed in my unworthy hands!"
"Wait Lina! You don't need to cast the Dragon Slave now!!" Gourry shouted and quickly seperated Lina's hands.
"Gourry! What are....you.......huh?" Lina blinked as she opened her eyes to see that they were safely in some kind of building with no bone dragons or creepy skeletons trying to kill them. "Umm, Gourry? This might be a stupid thing to ask you, but, what the hell just happened?"
"Well. We were fighting the skeleton thingies, and you were castin the Dragon Slave, when one of those magic circle things appeared under us. The next thing I know, we're here!" Gourry said as he released Lina.
"Wow. Guess it wasn't such a stupid idea to ask you." Lina said as she looked around the room.
"Aiyah! What strange clothes new wierd people have!" Shampoo exclaimed and the four strangers immdiately focused on her.
"Shampoo! What the hell did you just do!?!" Ranma and Akane shouted in unison as Ranma stood Akane up. The four then turned glanced at Akane and Ranma, then turned back to Shampoo.
"Shampoo no know!" the amazon girl cried.
Amelia blinked in confusion, then turned to Akane and Ranma. "Wait a minute....." the couple blinked as the young princess got their attention. " Her name's Shampoo!?!?!" She asked, pointing at the amazon. Uncertainly, the two nodded. "Oh. Ok." Amelia said calmly, then the four burst out laughing.
Shampoo turned red in the face. "What wrong with Shampoo's name!? Is honorable Amazon name! Not Shampoo's fault Japanese prononce wrong!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Shampoo should kill for insult."
Lina and the others gradually calmed down and Lina waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. Now. Can we get a little serious about this? You three are obviously from around here, so why don't you tell us where we are."
Ranma frowned. He was being told what to do by a little redheaded girl. The girl was obviously cocky because of her reaction to Shampoo's death threat, but Ranma doubted by her looks that she could back that up. The big guy behind her, on the other hand, looked like he could arm wrestle Ryouga and might win. He didn't know what to make of the stone guy or the dark haired girl.
Before anyone could say anything else, Kasumi and Nabiki walked in. "Akane! Ranma! Dinner will be ready........Oh my. Who are these people?" Kasumi asked.
Nabiki frowned at the clothing of the four travelers. "These had better not be any freeloading drifters. What's up with those outfits anyways?"
"Hey! There is nothing wrong with our outfits!" Amelia huffed, crossing her arms. "They are perfect for traveling!"
Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that. "Capes? Isn't that a little tacky? And what's with you're friend's halloween costume?" she asked, pointing at Zelgadis.
Lina, Gourry, and Amelia flinched while Zelgadis shook with rage. "Calm down Zel. The girl didn't mean anything by it."
Both of Nabiki's eyebrows shot up. "Girl?? Like you've got room to talk."
"Listen." Lina growled dangerously. Amelia and Zel immidiately stepped away and Gourry got prepared to grab her if she decided to cast a spell. "If you just tell us where in the nine hells we are, we'll be gone, ok?"
"And why should we tell you anything?" Nabiki asked.
Lina had nearly had it. "BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ASSHOLES WHO BROUGHT US HERE!!!!"
"Calm down Lina! They also saved us from those dead guys."
"Dead guys!??!?!?" Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, and Nabiki exclaimed.
"As well as those bone dragons." Amelia said with a shudder.
"Bone dragons!?!?!?!?!" the three said again.
"Oh my."
"Come off it! You KNOW I woulda had us outta there if I could finish my spell."
Kasumi decided that it was time to clear up some of the confusion. She walked up to Amelia and Zelgadis and bowed. "Hello! I'm Kasumi Tendo. Who might you all be?"
Zelgadis and Amelia looked at each other, then over to where Lina was arguing with the girl with short brown hair. Then over to the three they first saw when they arrived, then back to Kasumi. They looked back at each other, and shrugged. "I'm Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun. A pleasure to meet you." Amelia said, repeating Kasumi's bow.
Zel coughed. "And I'm Zelgadis Greywords." he said and did a short and awkward version of Amelia's bow. "Could you please tell us our location? Our friend has a rather, rude and forceful way of finding things out so we'd like to prevent the distruction of your whole town."
"Oh my. That little redhead could do that?" Kasumi asked as she looked over at Lina who was still arguing with Nabiki. Gourry was still ready to grab her at a moments notice.
"Unfortunately, yes." Amelia sighed.
"Well, you are all at our home in Nerima. By the look of your clothes, you're not from around here. Why don't we sit everyone down and we can try to figure out just what happened." Kasumi said brightly and walked over to where Nabiki and Lina were arguing. The eldest Tendo frowned when she noticed the raw power radiating off of the short redhead. She stepped inbetween Lina and Nabiki and gave the shorter girl a bow. "Hello. I'm Kasumi Tendo!" She nodded towards Nabiki. "That's my sister, Nabiki Tendo." She turned to face towards Ranma and Akane who were still standing with confused looks. "That's my youngest sister Akane Tendo and her fiance Ranma Saotome. And that's Shampoo. She works over at the Cat Cafe."
Lina blinked in surprise to see the taller girl suddenly stand infront of her. She didn't feel threatened by this girl like she did the one she was arguing with, so she relaxed, causing Gourry to sigh with relief. "Umm...I'm Lina. Lina Inverse."
"And I'm her protector, Gourry Gabriev."
"And I'm guessing you've already met our friends." Lina said nodding towards Zel and Amelia as they walked over to join them again.
Kasumi nodded. "So what brings you to our home?"
"That's what we'd like to know. One minute, we're fighting for our lives and I was about to blow the whole cave up, the next, we're standing in the middle of this building and those three were looking at us funny." Lina replied with a shrug.
Kasumi turned to the three mentioned and Ranma and Akane pointed at Shampoo. "Shampoo. What happened."
Shampoo was very nervous now. She coughed and shuffled her feet. "Shampoo try to make stupid violent girl go away with magic tablet, but Airen get in way an Shampoo no know how stop spell."
"Let me get this straight. You were going to send that girl over there 'away', which considering who it picked up, would mean you would have dropped her right in the middle of a pretty fierce battle." Shampoo blanched at the glares she recieved from Ranma and Akane, but nodded. Lina continued. "But instead, something got screwed up and we ended up here instead of her ending up with us, am I right?" Shampoo nodded again. "Zel, Amelia. I was preoccupied at the moment and didn't see the spell. Could you two make anything from it?"
Amelia cocked her head to the side in thought while Zelgadis scratched his chin, causing a scraping sound. Nabiki went over and poked him in the cheek which earned her glares from both the chimera and the princess. "Do you mind? And yes, it is real."
"From what I could tell, I think it was a white magic spell. Maybe a dragon summoning spell or something." Amelia said, still glaring at Nabiki who simply smirked at her.
"Umm..Shampoo was it? Could you let me see where you got the spell?" Zelgadis asked.
Shampoo looked the chimera over critically, then shook her head. "Shampoo can't show. Broke." she said as she produced a pile of rocks.
"You BROKE our only possible clue to get HOME!?!?!" Lina growled. "FIREBALL!" Lina yelled, producing the flaming ball in her hands. Gourry quickly tackled her and she ended up throwing it through the roof of the dojo. The ones that had never seen a magic fireball gaped at the hole in the roof, then down at Lina who was smacking around Gourry.
"Freeze Arrow!" Amelia shouted. The fire was quickly put out.
"How the hell did you do that!?!?!" Ranma shouted, pointing to the ceiling. Amelia and Lina looked up at it, then back at Ranma.
"It's magic. I've been able to throw fireballs around for a long time." Lina commented, slightly confused.
"They may not know about magic here," Zel whispered to Lina, who simply shrugged.
"Anyways, back to the matter at hand." Lina said, glaring at Shampoo. "It's your damn fault we're here, so how in the nine hells are you gonna send us back!?!" Lina yelled, stepping closer to the amazon.
Shampoo shook with fear as she glanced up at the hole in the ceiling, then back to the short redhead. Shampoo had never been afraid of anyone in all her life, but this little girl was the scariest thing she had ever seen. The only one who seemed to have some control over the redhead was the handsome blonde man, and she wasn't even sure he would stop the girl if she decided she wanted to kill Shampoo. "S-Shampoo, go ask great-grandmother for help! She know much! Can help find way to send all back!" She then took off like the demons of hell were nipping at her heels.
"She'd better." Lina growled, then took a deep breath. "Well, since we're stuck here, we're gonna need to find us somewhere to stay. Do you know where a good inn and restaurant are? I'm starved here!" Gourry nodded his head in agreement.
"And how, are you going to pay for it? Since I KNOW you can't be from this world, I'm sure your money is a lot differrent than ours." Akane said.
Lina blinked. "You have a point. So, how do you pay for stuff around here?"
"Yen. If you don't have the yen, you don't get anywhere." Nabiki said, showing the group some of her money.
"Why don't you stay here with us!" Kasumi said happily.
"Oh dear sister? Did you forget the bottomless pits we already have living here?And besides, we don't have room for them." Nabiki explained.
"Well, they could sleep in the dojo. It's got plenty of room." Akane said as she looked around. Ranma nodded.
"As long as the girls don't want to marry me, I have no problem with it." Ranma said.
Amelia and Lina both looked at him with raised eyebrows. "And just WHY would we want to marry you?" Lina asked.
Akane chuckled at Ranma's outraged look. "It's just that usually when a girl shows up out of the blue, they want to marry him!"
"But you're engaged! Why would they want to break up you're engagement!?" Amelia cried, outraged.
They simply groaned. "That's a looooong story."
"Well, back to the, 'hey where we stayin at?' problem."Lina said as she took Gourry's money pouch. He protested a little, but that was about it. She rifled through the contents and pulled out two silver coins and three gold coins. "I dunno if this'll work, but this is all of our currency that we have on us." She said, showing Nabiki the coins. When the others were about to say something, she glared at them and they immidiately shut their mouths.
Akane, Ranma and Nabiki stared at the coins in wide eyed amazement. Nabiki carefully picked up one of the coins and studied it closely. She bit it. Sure enough, it was real. "How the hell did you get real gold and silver coins!?!"
Lina smiled. "Like I said. That's how WE pay for stuff back home." She handed Gourry back his pouch, motioning for him to say nothing, then turned back to Nabiki. "So, what do ya say?"
"You can stay." Nabiki said as she happily pocketed the coins.
"Can we go eat dinner now?" Ranma asked Kasumi.
"Of course! Will you four join us? I'm afraid I don't have much extra, but you're welcome to share what we have."
"Oh, that's alright. We'll pass on dinner for tonight." Lina said with a wave. Her three companions just stared at her in complete shock. "You go on ahead without us! We'll be just fine!" she said happily, ignoring her companions.
"If you insist." Kasumi sighed as she was about to follow the other three out. "Oh! We'll have to introduce you to father and Uncle Saotome when dinner's through if you don't mind."
"Sure no problem at all!" Lina said, still cheerful. Kasumi smiled, then left the four alone.
"That's the first time I've ever seen you pass up a free meal Lina!" Gourry exclaimed which earned him a bonk on the head.
"Shut up Jellyfish. There's a REASON I passed it up. We've still got our rations so we'll be fine."
"So why did you say that was all the money we had?" Amelia asked as she sat on the floor. Zel, Gourry and Lina followed suit.
"It's simple. That girl, Nabiki wasn't it? Well, anyways, I noticed how her eyes lit up when she talked about money. Then she showed me those coins, which were made out of some pretty base metals. I figured, if our coins were worth something here, then I'd better not tell her how much we really had or she'd rip us off. If they weren't worth much, then no big deal. From the way her eyes lit up when I showed those coins, our money is worth a LOT more than it would be back home."
"But how much more?" Zel asked.
"I'm not sure. I'll have to watch these people to see who I can trust enough to not want to rip me off. So far, I just think it's only that Nabiki girl who wants to rip us off, but you never know."
~~**~~**~~**~~
Shampoo entered the cat cafe nervously. She knew her great-grandmother would not be too happy with her about what she had done. The amazon elder noticed her granddaughter before Shampoo noticed her. "Where have you been Shampoo? The dinner rush just hit and we're in need of your help!" Cologne said as she tossed two ramen bowels out to Mousse who caught them deftly and served them to the wrong customers. The customers, used to this, simply switched and watched the show of acrobats that was usually put on as the two younger amazons seated and cleaned tables while catching and serving ramen that was thrown out into the dinning area by the elder amazon.
It was wrong of Shampoo to hold off what she had to tell her great-grandmother, but Shampoo needed the extra time to carefully word what she had done, hopefully without angering her great-grandmother too much. The dinner rush ended too quickly for Shampoo's liking, she only had how she'd start the exlpaination out, and it wasn't long before the three amazons were alone cleaning up.
"So Shampoo, what were you doing that caused you to nearly miss the dinner rush?" Cologne asked, a sly look crossing her face.
Shampoo didn't look at her great-grandmother and Mousse only half listened. "Shampoo go see Airen...."
Cologne nodded as she started adding up what was in the cash register. "Son-in-law finally coming around?"
Shampoo shifted nervously. "Not really."
Cologne snorted. "Stubborn male. So you tried all day to catch him eh? What was your plan? Maybe I can help you fix it."
This is where Shampoo got really nervous. Mousse noticed and frowned, adjusting his glasses to get a better look. "Um, well, Shampoo's plan start out fine, but Airen mess up, then Shampoo not know how stop spell-" she cut off and winced. That wasn't what she wanted to say.
Cologne and Mousse's eyes widened. "Spell? What spell did you try to cast? I gave you no spell." Cologne said, her eyes narrowing.
"Y-you say no transportation spells, but, Shampoo find one on internet shopping site. Trade Mousse's rare sword collection for it an-"
"WHAT!?!?!?!!?" Mousse shouted before rushing up the stairs to find the robe his collection was in. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The blind boy howled from upstairs.
"Continue great-granddaughter." Cologne simply said, ignoring the poor boy.
"Well, spell simple. Read words on tablet, and cast spell. Shampoo start out great, but Airen get in way of spell and Shampoo told Airen to move. He move, but with stupid violent girl, then spell get out of hand. Shampoo thought, if finish spell, then no more problem. Shampoo no know what go wrong, but transport strange peoples from somewhere to Tendo dojo."
Cologne took a deep, calming breath before glaring at Shampoo. The young amazon flinched under the gaze. "I'm very dissappointed in you great-granddaughter. I thought I taught you better than to use spells you don't understand. There's no telling what that spell could have done. Tomorrow, we go to the Tendo's and see these people you summoned. Now finish cleaning up, then get to bed." Cologne started to hop off, but then stopped and turned around. "Oh, and one more thing. No chasing after Ranma for a week."
Shampoo sighed, crest fallen. Cologne was simply going easy on her for now, but after she met the people Shampoo had acciddently brought over, the punishment would increase. Shampoo then realized she forgot to tell Cologne anything about the strangers and winced again. Once Cologne found out what those people were capable of, the punishment might be worse than she'd like.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
Welp, there's the first chapter of this story that's been floatin around in my head for some time. Even drew little comics to it.......just don't remember where I put them.Thanks Kchan(Nekochan) for readin over it for me! Hope it didn't suck TOO much!
~~Ukchan (Lunarwolf)~~