Ranma groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Akane stood over him, nothing but sky above her. He wondered when the sun had come up, but then all he could think about was that he and Akane had ruined their escape.

The next thing he knew, all the pain in his chest just dripped away. He blinked and sat up,
feeling ribs that had been shattered moments ago. He looked at Akane, who was biting her lip, tears in her eyes.

"You okay Akane?"

She nodded, "Are you?"

He shrugged, "Sure. Where are we?"

"This is Kami's lookout."

Ranma turned to see Gohan and Krillin staring at them. They all appeared to be standing on a round disk suspended somewhere very high. Krillin continued, "We brought you here to get you a senzu bean."

Ranma raised an eyebrow and stood, pulling Akane with him. "A what?"

Gohan grinned, "A senzu bean! It heals any physical damage done to you."

Ranma opened his mouth for another question, but Akane gasped behind him.

"R—Ranma? How long have you had a—a tail?"

Ranma turned and gave her an odd look. "Are you going crazy on me too? Geez Akane."

She shook her head, "No! Look Ranma!" She reached behind him and pulled something in front of his face. Just as the brown fuzzy thing appeared in his line of sight, Ranma felt a tug of pain at the base of his spine. No denying it, the thing was attached.

"What the heck is that?"

Gohan flinched. "Oops. The Senzu must have re- grown your tail too."

Ranma flinched and screeched at the smaller boy, "Tail? Tail! I've never had a tail for it to be re-grown!"

Krillin waved a hand dismissively, "Sure you did. All Saiyans are born with tails. Yours must have been removed when you were a baby."

Ranma snatched the short man's orange shirt. "I never had a tail!"

Gohan pulled Ranma off of Krillin and glared at him. "Look, we were trying to be nice, okay?
There's nothing wrong with having a tail! I had one until recently. Actually, it will probably help your balance."

Ranma frowned and started to comment that he had perfectly fine balance when he noticed a newcomer.
A portly black man in a turban was staring at Ranma, giving him chills.

"Who are you?"

The man bowed. "I am Mr. Popo."

Ranma blinked and Akane pressed against his side. "Right."

Gohan grinned at Mr. Popo. "Thanks, but we gotta get going. Mom will kill us if we miss breakfast."

"I understand, Gohan."

Krillin and Gohan waved at the genie-like man before picking Ranma and Akane up. Ranma didn't like the idea of being carried, but he finally gave in and let Krillin fly him to China.
"As if I ever wanted to see that place again."

Gohan gave him a curious look. "I figured you would like China. Your clothes are Chinese."

"That's 'cause me and Pop trained there until recently. I bought some clothes there when mine all got torn up training. I, uh, didn't see the sense in buying more when these were fine"
No sense revealing the tight finances of the Soatomes.

Krillin shot a worried glance at Ranma before turning to Gohan and asking, "Uh, when is Vegeta gonna come after them again?"

Gohan shrugged and studied the horizon before them as the sun rose. "He didn't say. He'll probably be by later today. Vegeta's not the type to mess around."

Krillin nodded with a small frown. After a moment he added, "I kind of pity you, Ranma. I mean, you'll be lucky to survive his training, even if you are Saiyan."

Ranma shrugged, "I'll be fine. It can't be worse than some of the strange stuff I've had to do before."

Krillin snorted and gave a confident smirk as he gave a glance to the teenager. "You don't know Vegeta. He'll probably expect you to go straight to a few hundred G's."

Akane stared at the vertically challenged fighter. "What do you mean? That's not even possible."

Gohan kept his face blank as he watched the ground. "It isn't humanly possible, but for Saiyans it's a different story. That's how my dad got so strong on his way to Namek." He suddenly gave a slight course correction and began to descend.

Ranma noticed the dome beneath them and frowned even as Gohan continued. "Nobody beats my Dad. He knew he needed to get a lot stronger, so he had Dr. Briefs make a machine in the space ship that would make a field up to a hundred times Earth's gravity."

Ranma jumped the last few feet to the ground as everybody else landed. "So this Goku can stand in gravity that strong? I don't believe it."

"Believe it."

Everyone turned as Vegeta pushed himself away from the wall he'd been leaning on. "Saiyans are stronger by far than the pathetic humans you've been raised with. You will one day be able to withstand such pressure as well, but we must start small."

Akane pulled slightly back. This guy made her very nervous, and she felt much safer standing a little behind Ranma and Gohan. Ranma glanced at her before giving Vegeta a shrug. "Whatever you say;
but Akane should be sent home. There's no real reason for the tomboy to be here"
Akane blinked at him, but chose not to take offense this one time. Vegeta looked like he was going to comment, but they all heard the sound of Bulma's aircar landing.

She jumped out and stormed up to Vegeta. She stood directly in front of him, hands on hips and feet wide spread, glaring directly into his stony eyes. "Look mister, you have no right to treat me like this!"

He snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, not at all phased by her tirade. "I can treat you any way I wish, woman. I have bigger problems than a female's problems."

She leaned back and crossed her own arms over the T-shirt with her name in bold black letters.

"Oh really, prince of rubble? Well, I have news for you. You're living in my home by my good graces and you're stretching those graces pretty thin! You're in and out of the complex constantly without a word to either me of my father; and you expect all these favors to be handed to you because you were once a prince of a planet that no longer exists! There are going to be some changes, mister"
He'd been looking at Ranma, preparing to comment when Bulma finished berating him. Now he paused and turned to study her with a blank expression. His face was so emotionless that nobody quite knew what was going through his head. After a moment he smirked and cocked his head, visibly deciding upon something.

"Oh yes, there will be some changes." He reached forward and threw her over his shoulder. He shot a glare at Ranma that everyone knew what it meant. Vegeta would come back from Ranma, and probably soon. Everyone stared in shock as Bulma screamed alternately for Vegeta to put her down and everyone else to help. With a surge of energy they shot off to the horizon.

Ranma's eyes rolled sideways to a resigned Chi-chi. "Uh, shouldn't somebody have stopped him?"

Krillin whipped around to face him, "Are you crazy? Do you want somebody to be killed?"

Gohan nodded sadly, "Yeah. We try not to make Vegeta too mad."

Chi-chi smirked, "Oh, I don't know, I think Bulma will be just fine." Everyone blinked at her silently for several long moments before she went inside to putter about doing Chi-chi sorts of things.

Somewhat predictably in an odd way, Ranma was awoken the next morning by being dragged out of bed by Vegeta. A stunned but quite awake Gohan waved numbly as Vegeta stormed up to another door, loudly banging on it once before pulling a still struggling Ranma into Akane's room. Akane was sitting up stiffly in her bed, confused and wary at her rude and sudden awakening. She blinked rapidly at Vegeta as the man glared at her.

"Hurry up, girl, and get out of bed. I'm taking the two of you to Capsule Corp. to start your training."

Vegeta finally released Ranma's arm and turned to study the boy. "Where are your clothes?"

Ranma, clad only in his boxer shorts, glared down at the spiky man. "They're back in Gohan's bedroom! If you don't mind, I'll go get them." Ranma stormed out of the room, ignoring the blue-faced Akane as she tried valiantly to keep from laughing.

Ranma and Akane were quickly dressed and standing outside the house. A miffed Chi-chi glared at Vegeta through the kitchen window, and Gohan was standing outside and smiling at the teens.

"Come visit as soon as you learn how to fly, okay Ranma?"

Ranma started to open his mouth, but Vegeta snorted. "What do you think we're going to do? I'm not going to carry both of them back to Capsule Corp. if I don't have to."

Ranma blinked at the overly annoying man, wondering if that's how he came across when he was at his most arrogant. "You mean you're gonna teach Akane and me how to fly?"

Vegeta smirked again and looked Akane up and down, causing the girl to blush. "She doesn't have the control yet to fly. I'll have to carry her for now. You, however, have some limited ability to manipulate ki. Now, power up."

Ranma blinked and Akane tried to decide if she'd been insulted. "What do you mean 'power up'?"

Vegeta growled in impatient frustration. "Power up, gather your ki!"

Ranma nodded once and closed his eyes for a heartbeat as he began to glow. When he looked up at Vegeta, the man had an odd and unidentifiable glint in his eyes.

"Now, draw all of that power into your center." The glow disappeared, seemingly being drawn somewhere back inside Ranma. "Slowly push the ki down and out, gradually increasing the amount of ki until you can feel yourself rising."

Vegeta casually demonstrated, instantly rising two feet off of the ground so that he was noticeably taller than Ranma. Ranma smirked and seemed to concentrate on Vegeta for a moment before closing his eyes. Akane gasped as he slowly rose until he was hovering at the same 'altitude' as his new teacher. Ranma opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow.

Vegeta smirked. "Good. Now, come here girl."

Akane was so stunned to see Ranma floating that she stumbled over to the two men. Vegeta reached out and grabbed her; if not roughly, not altogether gently either. Ranma frowned.

"Hey, why are you taking her?"

Vegeta smirked mockingly at the boy and adjusted his grip on Akane. "Don't worry, when you've mastered flying you can paw your girlfriend. Until then, I'm carrying her. Now come on, boy"
Vegeta took off toward Japan. He was going slower than Ranma'd seen anyone in this mottled group fly so far, and Ranma grew even angrier knowing that he was being mocked. Feeling his energy soaring, Ranma shot after Vegeta. He saw the briefest look of surprise as he pulled even with Vegeta. Ranma pushed himself and put himself in front of Vegeta and his startled passenger.

Ranma smirked and cocked his head. "Don't be surprised, Vegeta. I've seen several people flying now, so it was easy to figure out."

Vegeta regained his cocky smirk, "Ah, but can you last all the way to Capsule Corp. at this rate?" Vegeta took off at a shot and Ranma snarled briefly before following.

Completely exhausted, Ranma more fell to the ground than landed outside the huge dome with 'Capsule Corp.' written across it. He panted as Vegeta set Akane calmly on the ground.

"Not bad, kid. Now, since you've exhausted yourself, you can rest until after dinner. That blasted woman was supposed to have gotten rooms for you already, but you'll have to find out where they are from her."

He shot into the air again and flew up to a balcony on the second floor. Ranma and Akane shared glances before Ranma shrugged.

"I guess we'd better head on in." They walked up to the door and knocked.

There was a long pause followed by, "Hold on a minute, I'm coming!"

They waited for a few moments before the door was opened by the Bulma girl they'd met at the Son house. Bulma was wearing blue overalls with her name written across them over a white t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back from her face with a headband and a streak of grease marred one cheek. She smiled brightly at them until confusion spread across her features.

"Hi you two, where's Vegeta? Didn't he bring you guys over?"

Akane nodded, still a little wide-eyed, "Yeah, but he flew up to that balcony after he told us to ask you where we were staying."

Bulma soaked this up before nodding, "Well, leave it to the blockhead. Oh, well, follow me I guess. I've got rooms already made up for you two. Are you two really engaged? That's so sweet!"

"Yes."

"No!"

Bulma turned and blinked at them. "I didn't realize it was a trick question."

Akane frowned, "Our parents arranged it before we were born. It's not like we chose this or anything."

"Oh. Are you going to get married then?"

The two teens turned away from each other and shrugged. Ranma was the one that answered briefly, "I guess."

Bulma grinned happily at this and pushed a door open. "Good, then I won't have to have a different suite made up. I went ahead and put you two together since you're engaged and everything. There's the communication console on the wall there, call me if you need anything."

Akane held up a hesitant finger as Bulma started to leave, "Um, Miss Briefs?"

Bulma visibly flinched, "Please, just call me Bulma, okay?"

Akane nodded, "Alright. Well, anyway, I was wondering if there was anyway we could have some of our clothes sent over from the dojo?"

Bulma smiled and slapped her head, "Oh, that's right, I forgot! I flew over to your place last night and had your oldest sister (What was her name? Oh, yes, it's Kasumi!) get some of your stuff together. It's already in the closet waiting for you."

With a quick wiggle of her fingers, Bulma was trotting down the hall. Ranma shrugged and turned to Akane.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to take a nice, long nap."

Akane nodded numbly, "Yeah, I think I'll take a relaxing soak."

They turned to study the room they were standing in for the first time. It was a spacious living room with a rather large television against one wall, and another wall that had a long window running its entire length. Ranma's quick examination of the first door to their left revealed the bedroom, and he promptly threw himself onto the bed and fell immediately asleep.

Akane shook her head and opened the second door, finding a beautiful and elaborate bathroom decorated in a very modern and practical manner. She studied it for a few minutes before checking opening the door to her left. She found a closet that appeared to be connected to the bedroom. With a shrug at the closed door (through which she could hear Ranma's snores), she gathered some of her clothes and returned to the bathroom.

In no time at all she was up to her neck in steaming water. Her freshly washed hair was loose, floating around her in the water. She sighed as she thought of all the strange and unusual circumstances that had most recently landed at Ranma's feet. She'd have to explain the whole multiple fiancée deal that Ranma was tormented by to their hostess. Surely by dinner time they would have separate bedrooms.

With a blush, Akane wondered what the other fiancées would think of if they knew that she and Ranma had been placed in a single bedroom. She giggled and took a deep breath before submerging in the enveloping comfort of the water. She came up a minute or two later with a gasp and splashes of water that she knew she'd have to clean up from the floor.

"Gah!"

Akane sank back down to her neck and turned to glare at Ranma. "Ranma, don't you ever knock?"

He had his whole body turned away from her and his hands over his eyes as he edged his way blindly to the door. "I'm sorry Akane, I just wanted to see where that door led. Besides, you've been in here for a long time and I guess I thought you'd be out by now!"

Before she could get another angry retort out, he'd felt the doorway with his foot and made a hasty retreat. Her anger quickly boiled down to resigned and weary pity for Ranma. He'd taken being a full-blooded alien a lot better than she would have. The poor boy couldn't help all this weird stuff happening to him after all, could he? She got out of the tub and dried herself off, changing into the skirt and blouse that had been sent to her from home.

She peeked out into the living room and found a blushing Ranma sitting stiffly on the couch, body tilted slightly away from her in readiness for the violence he felt sure was coming. Akane frowned softly at him. With all the tumult in his life, the last thing he needed was her yelling and screaming at him for an accident.

"Is there anything good on tv?"

She calmly walked over and sat down next to, but not touching, Ranma as she flipped the tv on with the remote. He blinked at her in astonishment before shaking his head mutely. After a moment of aimless channel surfing, she found a horror movie marathon.

What luck, the movie just coming on was one that she'd never seen before. Turning the volume up, she set the remote on the coffee table and nestled herself comfortably into the couch.

Halfway into the movie, Ranma was casting confused glanced down at the girl clutching fearfully onto his arm. She flinched as the music hit a crescendo and the monster jumped out at the hero and the helpless damsel. He hated these cheesy little movies, but Akane loved them. Besides, he wasn't going to ruin her apparently bright mood by suggesting that they turn the channel.

Bored with the very non-combative plot, he glanced once more at the clock. It was hours yet until dinner, and he was starving. He was preparing to give a long and resigned sigh when Akane let out a shriek and yanked Ranma closer.

"Jeez Akane, the movie can't be that scary."

"No, Ranma, look out the window!"

Ranma did and saw Vegeta and Krillin floating outside, some distance from the building, apparently having a conversation. Vegeta snarled after Krillin had been speaking for some time, and swatted at the smaller man before plummeting to the ground. Ranma jumped to his feet and went to the window to see Vegeta storming off into the house.

Krillin, still mid-air, sighed and flew down to the ground at a slower speed before following the Saiyan prince into the Capsule Corp. building.