Listening intently to the background noise, or rather the lack of it,
Nabiki put her book down and got up from where she had been sitting. It
almost puzzled her, she'd manipulated and practically begged or thrown out
everybody so she could read in peace... but now she just couldn't get into
the book. Walking over to the short table she grabbed a cookie Kasumi had
left there and bit into it. This wasn't good, she had to do or hear
something before she went completely mad from the silence.
Nabiki blinked as her eye caught the television in the corner. Well, it was worth a try... maybe the TV would be in a good mood and pick up the signal from the Army base. American television was always interesting, either in the true sense of the word or, as was more frequently the case, in what would possess someone to watch such a thing.
"What if you could travel to parallel worlds, the same year, the same earth, only different dimensions? A world where the Russians rule America? Or where your dreams of being a superstar came true? Or where San Francisco was a maximum security prison? My friends and I found the gateway. Now the problem is finding a way back..."
Nabiki changed the channel in mid-sentence to see what was on the other channel the TV could sometimes receive from the military bases, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"...ot attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits."
'Well, it looked like sci-fi was in the menu tonight.' Nabiki thought as she made herself comfortable. Little did she know how true that would turn out to be.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Ranma!!" Mousse yelled, simultaneously loosing several chains at the target of his anger.
"Mousse Cut it out, will ya! I wasn't doing nothing!" Ranma shouted back as the chains wrapped around him. This wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing at the moment, the distraction Moose was from his meal was inexcusable... his stomach rumbled in agreement.
Growling, Ranma freed himself from the chains and deciding to end this as quickly as possible, for his stomach's sake, he threw all of his chi into speed and rushed at Moose. Grinning at how he could almost taste the victory and the food, he blinked in surprise as Moose was not where he was supposed to be.
The chinese master of hidden weapons had sidestepped at the last possible moment, that in itself caused Ranma to blink in surprise. Ranma now had a strange device, looking like something that could equally be a bomb or some student's science fair project... Ranma wondered what the heck it could be, just before he remembered that we was, for all intents and purposes, a high- velocity projectile. Moose settled his glasses on his nose as he watched as Ranma collided with the wall that was at the end of the street, followed instantly by a blinding blue flash and a purple-and-black marbled sphere quickly shrinking in size at that exact point.
Mouse starred, he couldn't believe it, it had worked. It had worked!! Now that he had defeated Ranma nothing could stop him from being with Shampoo! "I'll have to thank Ryoga for that... bomb." Mousse mumbled to himself, he hadn't thought it would have been nearly that effective, considering the babbling the Hibiki boy had done, but SOMETHING had happened to him... Mouse thought back to the incident causing flashback ripples to form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mouse was watching the cat café while Shampoo was out on a delivery and her great-grandmother was taking a nap. He didn't mind it too much, yes, he knew he was being taken advantage of, but it was for his 'True Love'. .. Someday he wanted her to see that he was there, and that he'd always been there.
Movement caught his eye, he saw movement very well it was the focusing he had trouble with, the last of the lunch customers had just stood up. The old man started to hobble on his rickety cane, but Mouse intercepted him and escorted him to the door.
"Thank you son." the old man said, "You're quite kind to help an old man like myself..." trailing off, Mouse almost flinched as he feared the old man would backhand him with his cane. It was an unpleasant aftereffect of his training. His old master would smack him upside the head when Mousse showed any sign of his attack. Not that his own grandfather would ever really hurt him, just cause enough pain to instill discipline. It worked, Mousse did not flinch a millimeter when the old man's hand appeared in front of his chest.
Looking down Mousse saw that the man was offering him some money in return for the kindness Mousse had shown him. "No, I... It was nothing, sir. Keep your money."
"Ah, honorable too! Well son, I hope you do well in life and accomplish your goals." the old man replied as he exited the café.
'My goals...' Mouse thought for a moment, 'what ARE my goals? I want Shampoo to love me and to marry her, but I can't do that until I defeat Ranma, thanks to those stupid old amazon laws...' Mouse continued to himself as he walked over to clear the old man's table. 'So I need to defeat Ranma... but how? HOW?!' Mousse desperately thought as he caused all the dirty dishes to disappear into his sleeves. 'My normal attacks won't work on him...' Mousse produced a sponge from a sleeve and washed the table as he thought.
It wasn't until he was depositing the dirty dishes in the sink that it hit him, he needed to truly change his tactics. He couldn't act on anger, he had to rely on cold calculations. So far he'd relied on semi-surprise attacks, trying to out-fight Ranma, and trying to overpower or overwhelm Ranma with multiple weapons. What he needed to do was out-think him, not the on-the-fly tactical improvisation that Ranma had proven so adapt in, but in such a way that Ranma would play into his hands... but what could he use or do that would be different than his normal attacks?
It was then that the small black pig struggling to pull a ridiculously oversized pack came out of the cupboard underneath the sink. 'How did Ryoga get in there!?' was all the surprised chinaman could think for a few moments.
"Here Ryoga," Mousse picked up a cup, filled it with hot water, and unceremoniously poured it on the black pig that suddenly wasn't a small piglet but a dark-haired young man. "Are you going to tell me what happened or just sit there?"
Ryoga looked up at Mousse and almost leapt into an embrace. Mouse was surprised and embarrassed at having a naked man grabbing on to him like that until he realized that it was simply sheer terror that was driving the poor guy. Even with that realization Mouse was incredibly uncomfortable.
Finally after ten minutes Ryoga had been calmed down and comforted enough that he was talking in comprehendible sentences, as he got dressed. "It was horrible, Mousse, horrible. There was this small pink-haired scientist..." Ryoga shuddered as he contemplated something, then continued. "She was using me as one of her lab animals. I had to have been in there a month, maybe two!"
Mousse's eyebrows lifted at that. Ryoga had been last seen five or six days ago, even if he was captured immediately he shouldn't have been giving such big estimates, even if the torture was like he was saying. "Go on." Mousse prompted when Ryoga stopped.
"She was crazy! She was developing strange devices and advanced weapons systems... all by herself like a bad movie villain, ONLY WORSE!" Ryoga threatened to break back down into hysterics. "If it wasn't for her interest in some small guy with a pony-tail I'd have been probed to death by now... Those injections still hurt!" Ryoga rubbed his rear continuing, "I was really lucky to escape, and even luckier that she didn't take my pack." Ryoga remembered his frantic, adrenaline filled rush to freedom... he'd nearly forgotten his pack, but when he saw it he grabbed the straps in his mouth and fled. He then ran, as fast as his pig body could, barreling through all sorts of machinery and equipment in his flight to escape. There had been one heart-stopping moment when his pack caught on something, but then it gave and he found himself in a dark, empty space and didn't quit running until now.
Mousse sighed, this was way outside his field of expertise. Mousse was about to tell Ryoga to go see a doctor when he remembered about Ryoga's terrible sense of direction, it would be better if he took him to Dr. Tofu's personally. "Come on Ryoga."
Ryoga nodded as Mousse led the way, stopping first to tell the ancient amazon Cologne and close the shop.
* * * * * * * * * *
At Dr Tofu's Ryoga was given something to calm him down, a lot of it. "There! You'll be fine in no time Ryoga!" Dr. Tofu reassured his patient as he took care of the equipment and supplies he'd used in treating the young man.
Something caught Mousses eye, it was sticking out from under the flap of the pack in such a way that it could have just as easily been caught on the pack as well as being hastily packed in. Mousse freed it and turned it over in his hands examining the strange device that looked like it could have worked equally well as a prop for one of those old "Mad Scientist"movies or some student's science fair project. "What is this?" Mousse asked to himself.
"Oh that's a 'Spacial Disruption Artillery Shell', or something like that..." Ryoga said almost happily, the boy looked almost drunk but didn't speak like it... yet. Under those heavy doses the doctor had given him it wouldn't be long before he wouldn't be conscious enough to do anything but drool. "You can set the timer with those blue buttons," Ryoga tried to gesture with a hand, but when it wouldn't move he gestured with his head and almost toppled from the bed. "And the red one forces a manual detonation, so you don't have to use the cannon assembly." Ryoga took a breath and continued, his speech making it obvious that the drugs were working. "Jus go BOOM! Boom-be-boooom! JamsssBond, nd alllll. La la bwa...." Ryoga continued for a few moments but nothing he said after that made sense.
Looking up at Ryoga ,Mousse noticed that all he was doing was laying on his side in an odd manner, drooling. "Yes. Well, I, uh, must be going." Mouse said as he left the helpless patient in the good doctor's hands, taking the device with him. Even if Ryoga was delirious it may be worth a try.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A reviewer, dogbertcarroll, brought up a good point which I have fixed to the best of my ability. This is an excellent example of constructive criticism, showing me where I'm wrong, and letting me correct it.
dogbertcarroll How did the device get in his
pack? He was in Washu's lab as a pig which means
small and naked. He couldn't carry his pack.
Thank you for pointing that out, he couldn't carry it but he could drag it behind him as we've seen in the series. I hope that this slight edit fixes the ambiguity.
Comments & Criticisms are welcome. efish@cs.nmsu.edu
Nabiki blinked as her eye caught the television in the corner. Well, it was worth a try... maybe the TV would be in a good mood and pick up the signal from the Army base. American television was always interesting, either in the true sense of the word or, as was more frequently the case, in what would possess someone to watch such a thing.
"What if you could travel to parallel worlds, the same year, the same earth, only different dimensions? A world where the Russians rule America? Or where your dreams of being a superstar came true? Or where San Francisco was a maximum security prison? My friends and I found the gateway. Now the problem is finding a way back..."
Nabiki changed the channel in mid-sentence to see what was on the other channel the TV could sometimes receive from the military bases, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"...ot attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits."
'Well, it looked like sci-fi was in the menu tonight.' Nabiki thought as she made herself comfortable. Little did she know how true that would turn out to be.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Ranma!!" Mousse yelled, simultaneously loosing several chains at the target of his anger.
"Mousse Cut it out, will ya! I wasn't doing nothing!" Ranma shouted back as the chains wrapped around him. This wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing at the moment, the distraction Moose was from his meal was inexcusable... his stomach rumbled in agreement.
Growling, Ranma freed himself from the chains and deciding to end this as quickly as possible, for his stomach's sake, he threw all of his chi into speed and rushed at Moose. Grinning at how he could almost taste the victory and the food, he blinked in surprise as Moose was not where he was supposed to be.
The chinese master of hidden weapons had sidestepped at the last possible moment, that in itself caused Ranma to blink in surprise. Ranma now had a strange device, looking like something that could equally be a bomb or some student's science fair project... Ranma wondered what the heck it could be, just before he remembered that we was, for all intents and purposes, a high- velocity projectile. Moose settled his glasses on his nose as he watched as Ranma collided with the wall that was at the end of the street, followed instantly by a blinding blue flash and a purple-and-black marbled sphere quickly shrinking in size at that exact point.
Mouse starred, he couldn't believe it, it had worked. It had worked!! Now that he had defeated Ranma nothing could stop him from being with Shampoo! "I'll have to thank Ryoga for that... bomb." Mousse mumbled to himself, he hadn't thought it would have been nearly that effective, considering the babbling the Hibiki boy had done, but SOMETHING had happened to him... Mouse thought back to the incident causing flashback ripples to form.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mouse was watching the cat café while Shampoo was out on a delivery and her great-grandmother was taking a nap. He didn't mind it too much, yes, he knew he was being taken advantage of, but it was for his 'True Love'. .. Someday he wanted her to see that he was there, and that he'd always been there.
Movement caught his eye, he saw movement very well it was the focusing he had trouble with, the last of the lunch customers had just stood up. The old man started to hobble on his rickety cane, but Mouse intercepted him and escorted him to the door.
"Thank you son." the old man said, "You're quite kind to help an old man like myself..." trailing off, Mouse almost flinched as he feared the old man would backhand him with his cane. It was an unpleasant aftereffect of his training. His old master would smack him upside the head when Mousse showed any sign of his attack. Not that his own grandfather would ever really hurt him, just cause enough pain to instill discipline. It worked, Mousse did not flinch a millimeter when the old man's hand appeared in front of his chest.
Looking down Mousse saw that the man was offering him some money in return for the kindness Mousse had shown him. "No, I... It was nothing, sir. Keep your money."
"Ah, honorable too! Well son, I hope you do well in life and accomplish your goals." the old man replied as he exited the café.
'My goals...' Mouse thought for a moment, 'what ARE my goals? I want Shampoo to love me and to marry her, but I can't do that until I defeat Ranma, thanks to those stupid old amazon laws...' Mouse continued to himself as he walked over to clear the old man's table. 'So I need to defeat Ranma... but how? HOW?!' Mousse desperately thought as he caused all the dirty dishes to disappear into his sleeves. 'My normal attacks won't work on him...' Mousse produced a sponge from a sleeve and washed the table as he thought.
It wasn't until he was depositing the dirty dishes in the sink that it hit him, he needed to truly change his tactics. He couldn't act on anger, he had to rely on cold calculations. So far he'd relied on semi-surprise attacks, trying to out-fight Ranma, and trying to overpower or overwhelm Ranma with multiple weapons. What he needed to do was out-think him, not the on-the-fly tactical improvisation that Ranma had proven so adapt in, but in such a way that Ranma would play into his hands... but what could he use or do that would be different than his normal attacks?
It was then that the small black pig struggling to pull a ridiculously oversized pack came out of the cupboard underneath the sink. 'How did Ryoga get in there!?' was all the surprised chinaman could think for a few moments.
"Here Ryoga," Mousse picked up a cup, filled it with hot water, and unceremoniously poured it on the black pig that suddenly wasn't a small piglet but a dark-haired young man. "Are you going to tell me what happened or just sit there?"
Ryoga looked up at Mousse and almost leapt into an embrace. Mouse was surprised and embarrassed at having a naked man grabbing on to him like that until he realized that it was simply sheer terror that was driving the poor guy. Even with that realization Mouse was incredibly uncomfortable.
Finally after ten minutes Ryoga had been calmed down and comforted enough that he was talking in comprehendible sentences, as he got dressed. "It was horrible, Mousse, horrible. There was this small pink-haired scientist..." Ryoga shuddered as he contemplated something, then continued. "She was using me as one of her lab animals. I had to have been in there a month, maybe two!"
Mousse's eyebrows lifted at that. Ryoga had been last seen five or six days ago, even if he was captured immediately he shouldn't have been giving such big estimates, even if the torture was like he was saying. "Go on." Mousse prompted when Ryoga stopped.
"She was crazy! She was developing strange devices and advanced weapons systems... all by herself like a bad movie villain, ONLY WORSE!" Ryoga threatened to break back down into hysterics. "If it wasn't for her interest in some small guy with a pony-tail I'd have been probed to death by now... Those injections still hurt!" Ryoga rubbed his rear continuing, "I was really lucky to escape, and even luckier that she didn't take my pack." Ryoga remembered his frantic, adrenaline filled rush to freedom... he'd nearly forgotten his pack, but when he saw it he grabbed the straps in his mouth and fled. He then ran, as fast as his pig body could, barreling through all sorts of machinery and equipment in his flight to escape. There had been one heart-stopping moment when his pack caught on something, but then it gave and he found himself in a dark, empty space and didn't quit running until now.
Mousse sighed, this was way outside his field of expertise. Mousse was about to tell Ryoga to go see a doctor when he remembered about Ryoga's terrible sense of direction, it would be better if he took him to Dr. Tofu's personally. "Come on Ryoga."
Ryoga nodded as Mousse led the way, stopping first to tell the ancient amazon Cologne and close the shop.
* * * * * * * * * *
At Dr Tofu's Ryoga was given something to calm him down, a lot of it. "There! You'll be fine in no time Ryoga!" Dr. Tofu reassured his patient as he took care of the equipment and supplies he'd used in treating the young man.
Something caught Mousses eye, it was sticking out from under the flap of the pack in such a way that it could have just as easily been caught on the pack as well as being hastily packed in. Mousse freed it and turned it over in his hands examining the strange device that looked like it could have worked equally well as a prop for one of those old "Mad Scientist"movies or some student's science fair project. "What is this?" Mousse asked to himself.
"Oh that's a 'Spacial Disruption Artillery Shell', or something like that..." Ryoga said almost happily, the boy looked almost drunk but didn't speak like it... yet. Under those heavy doses the doctor had given him it wouldn't be long before he wouldn't be conscious enough to do anything but drool. "You can set the timer with those blue buttons," Ryoga tried to gesture with a hand, but when it wouldn't move he gestured with his head and almost toppled from the bed. "And the red one forces a manual detonation, so you don't have to use the cannon assembly." Ryoga took a breath and continued, his speech making it obvious that the drugs were working. "Jus go BOOM! Boom-be-boooom! JamsssBond, nd alllll. La la bwa...." Ryoga continued for a few moments but nothing he said after that made sense.
Looking up at Ryoga ,Mousse noticed that all he was doing was laying on his side in an odd manner, drooling. "Yes. Well, I, uh, must be going." Mouse said as he left the helpless patient in the good doctor's hands, taking the device with him. Even if Ryoga was delirious it may be worth a try.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A reviewer, dogbertcarroll, brought up a good point which I have fixed to the best of my ability. This is an excellent example of constructive criticism, showing me where I'm wrong, and letting me correct it.
dogbertcarroll How did the device get in his
pack? He was in Washu's lab as a pig which means
small and naked. He couldn't carry his pack.
Thank you for pointing that out, he couldn't carry it but he could drag it behind him as we've seen in the series. I hope that this slight edit fixes the ambiguity.
Comments & Criticisms are welcome. efish@cs.nmsu.edu