Some Things Never Change

Ranma walked down the dark alley in the rain, grumbling to himself. "Dad uses the last of the fish, and makes me go get more," he muttered angrily. He swore under his breath. Ranma realized too late he was being surrounded. Being so angry at his father, he hadn't noticed that a gang of armed men had come out of the shadows and just now realized they all had their guns aimed at him. A man in a suit walked up to Ranma out of the circle, with another man holding an umbrella for him. "Well," he said with a small smile, "What's such a good looking girl like you doing in a such a bad neighborhood at this time of night, hm?" Ranma did his best to act innocent and helpless. "Oh, I'm lost!" he said. Walking over to the man in the suit, Ranma placed his arms around the man's neck. "Please don't hurt me! I didn't mean no harm! Won't you please just take me home? I just know there'll be a big reward..." he trailed off.

The man smirked. "What kind of reward?" he asked. "Oh, I don't know," said Ranma, and with one swift motion swung on the man's neck, kicked the umbrella man in the ribs and landed behind the suit man. With a practiced flick of his wrist, a knife landed in Ranma's hands and he pressed it against the man's throat as he backed up against the wall, using the man as a shield. "Maybe I'll let you live," Ranma said just as innocently. "Tell them to drop their weapons," Ranma snarled. He did, and the men dropped their guns. "All of them!" he ordered. The man hesitated, then nodded. The men then took out and dropped their concealed weapons. When Ranma was satisfied, he smiled, pushed the man into the thugs, leapt onto a rooftop and ran towards the store. "Be careful now!" he shouted back.

Ranma slammed the front door, dropped the fish on the table, and stomped up the stairs to his room. Johnny was already there. It had been some weeks since he arrived at the Tendo Dojo, but Soun and Genma agreed he could stay, at the very least until he could figure out how to get back home to his own time. He shared a room with Ranma, and had gotten used to Ranma's sex-changing. For some odd reason (wink, wink) he never seemed to mind him being a girl, although it stilled astounded him that such a thing could occur. On several occasions he tried to talk to Ranma about staying that way. "Ranma," he said, "You've been given a great gift! One I'm sure other men are dying to have." "They can go find 'Spring of Drowned Girl' if they like it so much!" shouted Ranma. "I just think that if you thought about it, you'd realize that turning into a girl is a power, not a curse," said Johnny. "I'll admit it's kinda cool and fun," said Ranma, "But inadvertently, or sometimes planned, changes can cause humiliation on my part, confusion on others, and many cases of groping hands." "Well, you got me there..." and so it would end.

"Hey Johnny," said Ranma as he closed his door and began taking off his soaked clothes, "Those lessons and tips came in handy tonight." "Oh really," said Johnny in a monotone as he looked at Ranma undressing. "Yeah, I got cornered by these thugs and I used your moves to capture their leader and make them drop their guns so I could escape. Hey, Johnny? My face is up here." Johnny continued to stare at Ranma's now naked body. "Oh really," he said again. Ranma went over to his sink and turned on the hot water, splashing himself all over. "I'm sorry," said Johnny, "You were saying?" As Ranma got dressed, he repeated what he had said. "Good!"
said Johnny. "What did I tell you? If you hadn't been a girl you couldn't have done that, and you'd probably be dead or something right now!" "Yeah, well, maybe, I guess..." Ranma trailed off, mumbling to himself. He climbed into bed, pulled up the sheets, and soon nodded off. Although it was only seven, Ranma was visibly very tired, so Johnny left the room, turning out the lights as he went. He went into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to Genma and Kasumi, who appeared to be watching some kind of pirate movie.

He turned his attention to a small piece of machinery in his hands; what was going to be a regulating computer for the Longsword fighter he planned to build. Using what he could salvage from the crashed one and parts he would have to obtain somehow, he was going to follow blueprints in his suit's survival information databanks for a Longsword (so you could repair anything on it) to construct a new one. The plans came with specs and regulations for the ship, and even tests to be sure anything you had repaired was functioning normally. Right now the last thing he could do with the materials he had was to finish wiring and basically putting back together the computer he held in his hands, which is exactly what he set to work on. As the music rose and got more intense, Johnny smiled and hummed along while he worked. "No survivors?" said the two Johnnys, onscreen and off. "Then where do the stories come from, I wonder?" Kasumi smiled. "So you like this movie?" she asked. "One of grandpa's best performances," he said. "Although the second Pirates of the Caribbean was great, too." Genma shook his head and laughed.

Just as the credits began rolling, Johnny held up his finished computer to the light and inspected it. He flicked the manual test switch and watched as the green lights switched on as the computer did a self-diagnostic. "All right, that's all for now, then," he said to himself. "Hey Johnny," said Kasumi. "Yes?" he replied. "Would you like to go into town tomorrow with me and my sisters?" Johnny thought for a moment. "I suppose so," he said at last. "I don't have anything else I can really do here right now, and I do need to look for some of the materials and parts for my ship. Alright, I'll go with you." "Good!" said Kasumi. "Then you'd better go to sleep now, because we're going to start early tomorrow so we can have more time to shop!" "Thank you," said Johnny. "Oh, is anyone else going?" "No," she said with a frown. "Ranma and his pop are going to spend the day training in the mountains, and Daddy's supposed to meet an old friend coming into town at the airport." Johnny nodded, and went up to Ranma's room.

He slipped inside and quietly closed the door, so as to not wake Ranma. Johnny frowned. Something was wrong. There was someone else here. Someone he didn't recognize. He tiptoed over to his rifle and quietly lifted it into his arm. He slowly bent down, drew a clip out of his belt on the floor, and slid it into the gun with the faintest of clicks. Then cocking the gun ever so softly, he trained it on the person standing over Ranma, and flipped on the light switch. "Freeze!" he said. The person whipped around and gave Johnny a good look at her. She had reddish brown hair and looked totally innocent in her casual dress. He didn't buy it. "Get up," he ordered. She did so. "Who are you?" he asked. "M-my name's-" she began. "Tsubasa?" said Ranma. "What are you doing here?"