Version 2 notes: No major changes to this chapter... just tidied things up a bit.

Ranmatech½

Episode 3 Version 2

A Trip to Remember Part 3: Fold Out

They say the human spirit cannot be crushed.

the successful restoration of Macross City and

the eventual return to a normal life by it's citizens

proves that.

-Mayor Tommy Luan

The High Office.

Ranma drifted back to consciousness, but he was still unable to open his eyes. He heard a high pitch whistling all around him. Then he felt a splash of cold water against his face. 'His', that pronoun no longer applied, for the water had triggered the curse of the "Spring of Drowned Girl". The curse turns him into a female every time he is splashed with cold water. So Ranma was now female.

Ranma was now fully awake and she sprung to her feet; she looked around her, and saw that Macross City was in a terrible state of disrepair. Whole buildings where simply gone, while others where still half intact. So we have suffered a terrorist attack after all. Ranma concluded. But who has enough fire- power, and enough stupidity to challenge the… Ranma did not finish that thought, as her eye spotted a figure on the roof of one of the surviving buildings. The new comer was holding a bucket, obviously he caused Ranma's transformation, "Ryouga, what are you doing here?"

The other man smirked, "You should know the answer to that Ranma. Akane is back in that shelter worried sick about you, heaven only knows why. While you run after that Minmei girl. You shouldn't cause Akane grief like that; I'M GONNA TEACH YOU A LESSON!" Ryouga jumped from the roof. He undid his Bandana, and the clothing article snapped tight, to become a blade; Ryouga threw the cloth weapon at his opponent.

Ranma easily evaded the projectile, "Ryouga haven't you learned anything by now? You can't beat me. I guess it's me who has to teach you a lesson," She informed her rival. She leapt up meeting Ryouga in mid air and kneeing him in the gut. Ryouga fell down to the ground with a crash. "What's the matter Ryouga? It usually takes more than that to stop you. Or are you just getting soft?"

"I'll show you who's getting soft," Ryouga yelled at her, rising to his feet. Once again he took to the air. "Lets see how you like this Ranma! BREAKING POINT," Ryouga yelled as he came down driving his finger into the ground. The ground where he landed exploded spraying his opponent with debris.

Ranma leapt back out of the shower of rocks. "Come on Ryouga," She coaxed. "Can't you ever try something different?"

"Shut up Ranma," was all the response she could get from her opponent. Well this has been fun, but I think it is time I ended this. Ranma thought.

This time I have him for sure. Ryouga was so focused on defeating Ranma. He did not notice a change in his opponent's tactics. Ranma had stopped fighting Ryouga. Instead she was leading him in a circular path. Ryouga finally realized this just as they reached the center of the spiral. Oh crap. Thought Ryouga.

"Hiryu Shouten Ha," Ranma yelled, as she made an uppercut. Ryouga, then found himself caught up in a tornado, which blew him to the other side of the island. "Well that's that. I wonder where Minmei went? Probably back to the shelter, I should head back their myself."

Before heading back Ranma, decided to take a quick look, to see if she could spot the battle. She had not managed to see the enemies the army was fighting, but she could see the explosions from the battle a mile away. Just as Ranma was about to enter the shelter she saw the SDF-1 taking off. Good. He thought. With the fortress in the battle, it'll be over in no time.

Captain Gloval looked over the battle reports. The way this is going, the battle will be lost in no time. Why can't the idiots at command see that? And now they are making me take an untested ship with an inexperienced crew into battle.

Claudia Grant interrupted his train of thought. "Captain, come take a look at this."

The Captain ran to the front of the bridge. A look of utter horror came across his face. He was greeted with the sight of the gravity control thrusters lifting up into the sky, problem was, they were leaving the ship behind. As the ship began to descend Gloval muttered to himself "Someone please tell me I'm dreaming."

"Excuse me Captain?" Claudia inquired of her commander.

"It's a Nightmare," Gloval said this time so Claudia could hear it. The SDF-1 crashed back down to Macross Island. Unfortunately it had moved on the X-axis as well as the Y-axis, so when it fell it ended up crushing many of the military supply vehicles that where on the base. To Blazes with Senator Russo! This ship is not moving until I say so.

Ranma poured some hot water on herself, and changed back into a boy then entered the shelter. Off to one side Ranma saw the Tendos and the Lynns sticking together. When they saw Ranma approach Minmei's aunt Lena and Akane leapt up at the same time. At the exact same moment Akane said "Ranma you idiot. Why did you make me worry?" and Lena asked, "Where's Minmei? I thought you where going to look after her,"

Ranma chose to ignore Akane for the moment and addressed Mrs. Lynn's questions; "I don't know where Minmei is. I was following her, when I was knocked out. I thought she would have come back here," he lowered his head. He'd lost fights before but this was different; when he lost a fight to one of his opponents he just had to train harder and have a rematch. If he failed this time, the damage caused would be irreparable. No matter how much he practiced, no matter how much he tried; he would not be able to bring back a life. "Maybe she just went to another shelter," he said hopefully, but somehow he doubted it.

Lena dropped to her knees sobbing. "First Kyle disappears and now Minmei too. My little babies," of course Minmei was not her child, like Kyle was. But she loved them both equally.

Akane took a step back. How could I have been so selfish? I can't believe I was jealous of Minmei. Of course he was right to go after her. What kind of person am I to try to make him feel guilty for it?

Back on the Bridge of the SDF-1 Gloval had come to a decision; "We'll take off again. This time we'll use the Reflex furnace."

"Are you sure it will work Captain?" Claudia should not have questioned the command; but after the fiasco with the gravity control thrusters…

"Don't worry they where made on Earth; they'll work," The Captain reassured her. At least I hope the will.

"Aye, aye Captain," Claudia replied, and within a few seconds the Alien Ship was airborne again. There was a moment of tension, and then the crew realized the SDF-1 would remain in the sky this time. The Super Dimensional Fortress was going off to battle.

Ryouga shook his head. Damn that Ranma. He thought. Then he realized where he was. He was just outside of town. I should probably find my way to a shelter. Problem is Ryouga, had no idea which way to go to find a shelter. So he set of in a random direction. Uncharacteristically for Ryouga he managed to find a shelter in about two hours.

Not long after Ryouga entered the shelter, he felt a turning sensation in his stomach. Every living being on the Island experienced that same feeling, and in another moment they found themselves weightless. "What the hell is going on here?" Ryouga yelled.

A few hours later Ranma heard a knock on the shelter door. He floated over to it. And then said "Hello?"

A voice came from the other side, "Stand back we're going to blow down the door," Ranma complied with the request and then the Door blasted back. Two men came in dressed in a sort of white armor with the letters 'EVA' on them. "We are going to restore gravity, brace yourselves." Everyone in the shelter fell on their backs, except for the martial artist members of the Lynn's, Saotome's, and Tendo's, who landed feet first.

Ranma noticed the flying kite of the RDF on their armor, "So your from the military? What the hell is going on? What happened?"

One of the two officers removed his helmet and said, "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that; Captain Gloval will make a formal announcement in about two hours. Until then stay here it's a big ship and you could get lost."

"What do you mean, 'it's a big ship'? Are we in the fortress? Inside the SDF-1?" Akane rushed up asking.

"Yes," replied the second officer.

"How?" She continued.

"I'm sorry we really can't tell you any more. You'll have to wait for the official announcement," The first soldier told them, and with that they left. The same scene was repeated again and again at different shelters. The civilians had been left to wonder exactly how and why they had been transplanted from Macross Island to the space fortress.

Two hours had passed and as promised Gloval made his announcement, "Citizens of Macross Island," The Russian-accented voice began, "I know this will come as a shock to all of you. But as of 19 hundred hours today I made the decisions to execute what is known as a hyperspace fold manoeuvre. This manoeuvre was an attempted to instantaneously transport the SDF-1 to just beyond the reach of the moon, to draw the enemy away from the Earth. Now I'm not going to lie to you, but I need your cooperation; please do not panic. The truth is the Fold Manoeuvre failed and not only was the Fortress transported to the orbit of Pluto but it dragged the island along with it," Gloval paused for a moment to let the significance of what he just said sink in. From the bridge he could just imagine the general mummer that would have set in among the citizens of the city, "The only reason you managed to survive is because the shelters on the Island are air tight, with their own back up supplies of oxygen. I know how you must be feeling, but please bear with me a moment I still have some more bad news to tell you and you need to hear it," The Captain paused once more, "As you may have noticed, when we folded away from the island we where engaged in battle. But our attackers where not part of an Anti-unification army or any Earthly force. Rather these enemies are alien to our planet, and they are a mystery to us. Please rest assured the SDF-1 and her crew will stand in your defence from these invaders and all other threats until you can be safely returned to Earth," with that Gloval's voice disappeared and he left the people with their thoughts. Gloval fell back down on his chair and adjusted his cap. I hope I've done the right thing in telling them this. I know many other commanders would have kept it a secret. But I had to tell them. The phone beside Gloval's chair rang, and he raised the receiver to his ear, "Go ahead. Ah Dr. Lang, what is the possibility of executing a refold back to Earth?" Claudia looked at the Captain's expression hopefully. If they could fold back to Earth right away, this story could still have a happy ending, "What?! I'll be there right away," Gloval slammed the receiver back on it's stand and stormed out of the bridge. Claudia was regretting she looked at the man's face, the expression didn't carry the hope she was looking for, and rather it had been lined with utter horror.

Back in the shelters there where mixed reactions. Some were panicked thinking they would never see Earth again, but most just accepted the situation. Ranma found it incredibly frustrating, "Oh this is just great, I didn't even want to come here in the first place. I swear principle Kunou probably did this on purpose. Just to get back at me," Ranma of course knew that was not the case but he needed someone the blame it on.

The next week was really busy. The technicians aboard the SDF-1 managed to save virtually everything from the island. And they rebuilt the City inside the main hold of the SDF-1. The Lynns had talked to Roy Fokker who had told them that he had left his friend Rick and Minmei aboard the SDF and they had probably got lost. So the Lynns and the Lieutenant continued to look for them. Roy soon had to abandon the quest to look after his other duties, but the Lynns never stopped searching.

It was 14 days into the reconstruction of Macross City when Akane had been walking down a street; overhead she saw a whole building hoisted above her. She would have been frightened, but things like this had become common sights in the last two weeks. But then she heard something that did scare her the ground underneath her feet was beginning to crack. She jumped back reflexively. And as she landed a huge chasm formed where she just was. She ran back to the edge to get a look. Staring down she saw the drop wouldn't have even hurt her much, even though she never fell down the hole that was a great comfort to her. Then her eyes spotted something, two somethings, two human somethings. And one of those somethings had a name she knew, "Minmei, Lynn Minmei is that you?"

Minmei held her face over her eyes, filtering out the bright lights that where streaming in from the hole. "Akane? Is that you?"

"Yes it's me Minmei. Where have you been? Everyone was worried about you," Akane tried to sound mad but was too happy to find her friend alive after all this time. A huge crowd gathered around Akane, and helped Minmei and her friend out of the chasm.

"Minmei who is this?" Akane asked.

"Oh. This is Rick Hunter he saved me," Minmei gestured to the man proudly.

"Pleased to meet you, my name is Akane," the first girl said to Rick.

"Believe me the pleasure is mine since you found us," Rick replied.

"Oh not at all. If the deck hadn't of collapsed when it did I would have walked right by without suspecting a thing," Akane said, blushing somewhat.

"Well thank-you anyway."

The three rushed back to the White Dragon, and found Minmei's Uncle and Aunt eating dinner with Genma and Soun; Nabiki was there as well. When Lena saw Minmei enter she rushed up and embraced the girl, Rick introduced himself to everyone; Lena thanked him and insisted he stay for dinner and rushed into the back to prepare another serving for their new guest.

Soun looked around at the newly united family and Minmei's tired savior, " Well, all's well that end's well. That's what I always say."

Nabiki looked at her Father strangely for a second and then said, "Where a billion miles form the Earth, How exactly did this end well?"

Soun was about to reply when an official messenger entered the restaurant. "I am looking for Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome, I was told I could find them here.

Soun and Genma stood up, "I am Soun Tendo."

"And I am Genma Saotome."

The messenger smiled. "The Captain wants to talk to you."

Preview for next episode:

Captain Gloval in-lists the help of Soun and Genma while Akane and Ranma must get used to life in their new school. Things start to heat up when the Minmei/Shampoo rivalry is renewed. Don't miss "Beginnings" The next chapter in the continuing saga of Ranmatech.