Ranma Gundam 2008
By Tekkaman Xero
Chapter 4: The Return of Ryoga! The Eternally Lost Mobile Suit Pilot!
"Don't let us down, now, Grey Phantom."
Joe was worried. When the initial sighting had occurred he hadn't thought it anything their forces couldn't handle. The appearance of another MS team and several Musais had drastically altered that opinion. Backup was virtually nonexistent, the nearest Salamis was 6 hours away. The two Stars(A/N: A Star is not impressive at all. The term "Star" refers to a five-pointed representation of said object. A "Star" of Mobile Suits accordingly contains only five MS) of GMs the facility had wouldn't be enough unless the Grey Phantom's pilots could pull something out of their asses.
Who knows? They were always surprising the Alliance, maybe they could surprise him.
Unfortunately, they had two rookies and a pilot still adjusting to a new MS out there. The situation seemed grim. Especially since that giant red suit could be carrying six mini-nukes for all he knew.
"Xero to all Mobile Suits. I'm reorganizing our deployment pattern. Ranma, you, Akane and Blair will head off the force coming in from the north. Nikita and Ukyo will take the force coming in from the south. Shampoo, you support them from your sniper position. I'm going to lead both Stars of GMs against the Musais. Understand?!"
"Yes, sir!" Came the instantaneous response. Xero had estimated the large Mobile Suit to easily be the most dangerous(and most likely to be the leader) and singled it out for a quick kill, thus disorienting the other suits accompanying it and allowing for a quick takedown. Then they could split up and send forces against the other group and the Musais.
However once they had regrouped in accordance with their orders, the red suit had taken notice of them, and went straight for them. More specifically, right at Ranma's Shining Gundam. The other MS backing it up opened fire on the rest of Xero's group.
"Return fire!! Focus on those Gelgoogs!" Blair had noticed that the other suit was too close to Ranma and moving too much to risk a shot, so he changed the tactic Xero had clearly planned. Instead of taking out the large suit, first, take out it's backup first. THEN worry about how to handle it.
However, the Gelgoog pilots were no slackers, and subduing them proved to be difficult. While Akane and Blair dealt with them, Ranma was having even more trouble with the large red suit, which was nearly twice the size of his Shining Gundam. The fact that he was still adjusting to the new piloting system didn't help, either. Strangely, the large suit was not using it's weapons, instead throwing punches and kicks that would make Ryoga proud. "Wait a minute. I know this.. This style of combat." Ranma was unaware that he'd left his comm. System on and the entire battle group could hear him.
Ranma's suspicions were confirmed when the suit shoved it's index finger at him, causing a building to explode on contact when Ranma dodged the attack. "NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!! RYOGA'S IN THAT SUIT!!"
"WHAT?!" Akane shouted.
"Can't fool you, can I?" Ryoga's smirking face appeared on the comm systems in all of the Mobile Suits. "All units, cease your attack. I'll take them all myself!"
Xero was first to comment, "This guy's ego is bigger than Ranma's!"
"Ranma, I shall defeat you and then all of your friends single handedly!!" He was clearly unaware that Akane was in one of those Suits. On that note, Ryoga attacked once again. Ranma blocked the punch with ease, getting adjusted with his link to his Gundam.
"Ryoga, are you out of your mind?! Why have you joined LONO?!" Ranma threw a strong right punch at the head of Ryoga's MS, intending to take out the main camera. However, Ryoga blocked this move.
"Don't misunderstand me, Ranma. I could care less about LONO's objectives! I'm here solely to defeat you! This Sazabi Mobile Suit, the pride of LONO's research, will be my tool to defeat you!!"
"It certainly suits your personality."
As the battle raged on between the two, Xero noticed the other MS towards the Musais and activated a tight-beam transmission to Shampoo. "Shampoo, can you get a shot at the Musais?"
"Hold on." Shampoo checked her equipment, "Yes, I can."
"As soon as all those Gelgoogs board the Musais, target them and fire. If I read the specs for the sniper rifle right, a full-power shot SHOULD be able to destroy a Musai."
"Understood!" She began powering up the rifle and lining up her shot.
No one noticed a blue Mobile Suit, slightly smaller than the Sazabi, drop from one of the Musais.
Meanwhile, Ranma was slowly gaining the upper hand, as his Gundam had something Ryoga's Sazabi lacked: Higher mobility.
"Ryoga, I can't believe you'd go this far, just to get revenge for things that aren't my fault!"
"It's all your fault, Ranma! Everything is! You ran out on our fight!"
"I waited three days!!"
"You knocked me in that damn Jusenkyo Spring!!!"
Akane, whom Ryoga did not know was in the area, wondered just when THAT happened.
"No one made you follow me!"
"And time and time again you abandoned Akane so you could flirt with those other girls!!!"
On that note, something snapped in Ranma's head. "Ryoga. I am sick and tired of this. You attack me for no reason every chance you get, blame things on me that I had no way of influencing, and dare to say I abandoned Akane after ALL THE THINGS I'VE DONE FOR HER?!"
Akane was immediately reminded of the encounter with Prince Toma, where he threw away a cure to his curse, for HER sake.
"I'm drawing the line HERE, Ryoga!! This is the final fight! We end it once and for all!!" The generators in the Shining Gundam's arms charged to full power, "MOUKO TAKABISHA!!!"
Focusing the beam energy from the generators, Ranma replicated his ki attack through the Gundam and sent a ball of blue beam energy hurtling at Ryoga's Sazabi. Ryoga tried to dodge it, but the impact still melted off the shield on the left arm, and rendered the arm itself useless. Heat damage had also lowered the suit's performance. "Damn you, Ranma!! We'll finish this another time! All units, withdraw!" Upon that note, a large bolt of beam energy shot out and tore through one of the Musais, obliterating it. Ryoga saw this and knew they had to get out of there. Two Musais could handle Grey Phantom, but with a weapon THAT powerful in the area.
He fired his thrusters rising his suit into the air, "Ranma, I make one last action in this fight to express my will against you!" Taking out the beam rifle, he aimed at the nearest GM: Akane's. "You, DIE!!" As soon as the computer targeted, he fired.
"NO! AKANE!!"
It was only then that Ryoga realized Akane was there. "No.What have I done.?"
Fortunately, Akane was no longer the slouch she used to be, and much more nimble, even in the GM, However, the shot still caught her suit's engine. The resulting explosion did not destroy the suit, but it did massive damage.
Ryoga, seeing what he had done, and positive Akane was dead, retreated, not wanting to face it. However, his direction didn't send him anywhere the two remaining Musais, one of which was heavily damaged from when Grey Phantom took action while the LONO forces followed the orders they had been given.
Being nearer to the suit, Xero was there before Ranma. By the time Ranma arrived at the scene, Xero was opening the GM's cockpit to check on Akane. After checking her condition, he called out, "Ranma! She's still alive! Get Grey Phantom to send a medical team!!"
A short while later, the medical team was bringing Akane to the base infirmary. Salvage teams recovered the remains of her Mobile Suit. While every MS pilot on Grey Phantom (plus Joe) waited for word on her condition.
It was about three hours before the doctor came out.
"How is she?" Ranma asked, practically before the doctor had passed through the door.
"She'll make a full recovery, but she'll be out of action for at least a month. She has flash burns on most of her body, but not much else aside from a few lacerations and a concussion. The only other notable thing is the large gash in her back. It's going to take at least two weeks for that to heal, and she'll need to stay in bed for all of it. It's going to leave a pretty nasty scar."
"At least she'll be okay."
"Maybe she shouldn't pilot anymore." Xero commented.
"Why do you say that?" Ukyo asked.
"She's been a great pilot up until now, but I worry that such an easy defeat, by a former friend, no less, might affect her psychologically. If she still WANTS to pilot we'll give her a chance, but if she's unsure or doesn't want to, we won't force her."
"It's true." Joe said, "Losing a battle and surviving tends to leave psychological scars. Which can be several times worse than any physical scar. Some soldiers have nightmares until the very day they die."
The alarms then went off. "Unidentified Mobile Suit approaching! Model unknown, appears to be based on the Gelgoog!"
"I'll take care of it." Ranma said. He wanted to get away from the current situation, and this offered a good distraction. Plus an outlet for his anger.
The blue Mobile suit was similar to the Gelgoog, however the legs were slimmer and it was more rounded out, and it was slightly smaller. Unfortunately, the two large bazookas on it's back, handheld shotgun, and various other nasty-looking weapons did nothing to ease Ranma's nerves. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Saotome." A familiar voice came over the comm, "I see Ryoga has failed. No matter, I'll take care of his failure."
"Mousse! Not you, too?!"
"Of course. What better way to defeat you and win my darling Shampoo back!"
"You fool! How is joining LONO going to help you win back Shampoo?! Especially when Shampoo is fighting AGAINST them?!"
"You lie! My dear Shampoo would not have joined the Alliance!"
"It's no lie, Mousse. And lastly, how many times to I have to tell you I'M NOT INTERESTED IN HER?!"
"Hold your tongue, Saotome! It doesn't matter! Today I WILL defeat you, with the help of this Mobile Suit!!" And with that, Mousse let loose with several shotgun blasts.
. All of which Ranma dodged. Pulling out the longer of his two beam sabers, he leapt into action. First slicing Mousse's shotgun in half, but the myopic Hidden Weapons master simply pulled out another one from a hardpoint on the back and resumed his attack.
Ranma found himself learning the hard way that the beam energy in the Shining Gundam could create an energy shield, which easily blocked all of Mousse's shotgun blasts. After running out of ammo, Mousse discarded the spent shotgun, removed his suit's beam saber, and charged at Ranma.
Ranma, however, saw right through Mousse's move and blocked it. Removing his other, shorter beam saber, he began a duel of beam sabers with Ryoga. Before long it looked like a Jedi Fight Scene out of a Star Wars movie.
But this ended when Ranma decided to experiment. Let's see. Right now I can't fire off a Mouko Takabisha, but if I can charge one and send the energy to the beam sabers.
And he did just that. The focus of beam energy increased the intensity and strength of the beam sabers. But Ranma was sure they couldn't stand the extra energy for long, so he had to finish it quick! "Mouko Takabisha revised: Flying Slasher!!!"
On that note, he jumped back and brought both sabers down in a slashing arc, each one unleashing two airborne blades of beam energy and Mousse's Mobile Suit. Mousse tried to dodge, but only succeeded in dodging ONE of the slashes. The other caught his Mobile Suit on the right elbow, slicing it clean off.
"Dammit.They said this thing could withstand ANYTHING they threw at it. I'll have to retreat, for now."
And so he did. Ranma was about to give chase when he was contacted by Xero.
"Ranma, Akane just woke up. She wants to talk to you."
End chapter 4.
Author's Notes: I don't know why I decided to put Ryoga and Mousse in LONO, but it does present the best opportunity to include them in this fic. I know I'll get hate-mail from Ryoga and Mousse fans, but I really couldn't think of a better way to get them in and include their little qualms. Both of them are too mentally unstable for the Alliance, after all. Some people might argue that Akane is, as well, but I feel Akane would be more likely to change her attitude in these situations. Ranma's feud with Ryoga is often set aside in the series for some reason, but from my experience it seems to be the most important aspect of Ryoga's character. No, Ryoga is NOT a crazy, violent maniac, but he does tend to blame almost everything on Ranma. I don't think most people can deny that and honestly believe what they're saying. Mousse, on the other hand, simply fights Ranma for Shampoo. In this fic he's clearly made a fatal error in his attempts to do so. I don't want to portray Mousse in a bad light, either, but he DOES fight solely for Shampoo and I DOUBT he'd be above joining LONO to get at Ranma if he truly believed Shampoo wouldn't join the Alliance.
On another note, I have been getting complaints by e-mail concerning the Gundam aspects of this story. Mostly the fact that I borrow mostly UC Gundam concepts, and there's a lack of a UC feel. What is the biggest complaint about UC Gundam things that I'm lacking? Death. Almost every UC production has a VERY important character die in it. The complaint is that I haven't killed off an important character, yet. Well, Akane's severe injury is to hold off people making this complaint for a while. Ever since I started this, I FULLY planned to kill off at least TWO Ranma cast members, as well as another major character of my own creation. (note on this, it will not be Xero. Though I am toying with the idea of making something terrible happen to him in place of death) Not all will be happy with whom I choose, obviously, but I feel it's best this way. I have a large portion of the final battle already planned out and I KNOW who is going to die FOR SURE, and HOW they're going to die. Obviously, I may add in others. I'm adding and modifying my "Final Battle" plans as I make changes to how the fic is going to be done. Obviously I take fan suggestions into account, but I try not to deviate much from my original plan. Most changes I make suggested by fans have concerned Mobile Suits. Like who should get what Gundam. (it was actually a fans suggestion that Ranma be put into a Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I realized how much better it would be for him if he had that kind of control system immediately after reading the e-mail!!) Very few changes suggested by fans have NOT concerned Mobile Suits(one of those few, though, was Nabiki helping to root out the traitor. Though that wasn't specifically said, I was just told I should find a way to get Nabiki more fic time than that bit in chapter 1). I had just been starting to think of how I could insert Ryoga and Mousse when I got a fan e-mail asking when Ryoga and Mousse were going to join the Grey Phantom's forces. That got the gears turning and I thought of a good way to insert them.
Well, I'm getting a little off, here. I decided to post this chapter before starting my alternating update plan since Kagome's Heritage is so much further along than this one. (can't blame me, can you? It's gotten more overall response than this! Don't let the reviews fool you, between reviews and fan-e-mail Kagome's Heritage has gotten a LOT more attention. Please go read it! BASIC knowledge of Inu-Yasha and Gold Digger RECOMMENDED, but not REQUIRED)
Chapter 4: The Return of Ryoga! The Eternally Lost Mobile Suit Pilot!
"Don't let us down, now, Grey Phantom."
Joe was worried. When the initial sighting had occurred he hadn't thought it anything their forces couldn't handle. The appearance of another MS team and several Musais had drastically altered that opinion. Backup was virtually nonexistent, the nearest Salamis was 6 hours away. The two Stars(A/N: A Star is not impressive at all. The term "Star" refers to a five-pointed representation of said object. A "Star" of Mobile Suits accordingly contains only five MS) of GMs the facility had wouldn't be enough unless the Grey Phantom's pilots could pull something out of their asses.
Who knows? They were always surprising the Alliance, maybe they could surprise him.
Unfortunately, they had two rookies and a pilot still adjusting to a new MS out there. The situation seemed grim. Especially since that giant red suit could be carrying six mini-nukes for all he knew.
"Xero to all Mobile Suits. I'm reorganizing our deployment pattern. Ranma, you, Akane and Blair will head off the force coming in from the north. Nikita and Ukyo will take the force coming in from the south. Shampoo, you support them from your sniper position. I'm going to lead both Stars of GMs against the Musais. Understand?!"
"Yes, sir!" Came the instantaneous response. Xero had estimated the large Mobile Suit to easily be the most dangerous(and most likely to be the leader) and singled it out for a quick kill, thus disorienting the other suits accompanying it and allowing for a quick takedown. Then they could split up and send forces against the other group and the Musais.
However once they had regrouped in accordance with their orders, the red suit had taken notice of them, and went straight for them. More specifically, right at Ranma's Shining Gundam. The other MS backing it up opened fire on the rest of Xero's group.
"Return fire!! Focus on those Gelgoogs!" Blair had noticed that the other suit was too close to Ranma and moving too much to risk a shot, so he changed the tactic Xero had clearly planned. Instead of taking out the large suit, first, take out it's backup first. THEN worry about how to handle it.
However, the Gelgoog pilots were no slackers, and subduing them proved to be difficult. While Akane and Blair dealt with them, Ranma was having even more trouble with the large red suit, which was nearly twice the size of his Shining Gundam. The fact that he was still adjusting to the new piloting system didn't help, either. Strangely, the large suit was not using it's weapons, instead throwing punches and kicks that would make Ryoga proud. "Wait a minute. I know this.. This style of combat." Ranma was unaware that he'd left his comm. System on and the entire battle group could hear him.
Ranma's suspicions were confirmed when the suit shoved it's index finger at him, causing a building to explode on contact when Ranma dodged the attack. "NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!! RYOGA'S IN THAT SUIT!!"
"WHAT?!" Akane shouted.
"Can't fool you, can I?" Ryoga's smirking face appeared on the comm systems in all of the Mobile Suits. "All units, cease your attack. I'll take them all myself!"
Xero was first to comment, "This guy's ego is bigger than Ranma's!"
"Ranma, I shall defeat you and then all of your friends single handedly!!" He was clearly unaware that Akane was in one of those Suits. On that note, Ryoga attacked once again. Ranma blocked the punch with ease, getting adjusted with his link to his Gundam.
"Ryoga, are you out of your mind?! Why have you joined LONO?!" Ranma threw a strong right punch at the head of Ryoga's MS, intending to take out the main camera. However, Ryoga blocked this move.
"Don't misunderstand me, Ranma. I could care less about LONO's objectives! I'm here solely to defeat you! This Sazabi Mobile Suit, the pride of LONO's research, will be my tool to defeat you!!"
"It certainly suits your personality."
As the battle raged on between the two, Xero noticed the other MS towards the Musais and activated a tight-beam transmission to Shampoo. "Shampoo, can you get a shot at the Musais?"
"Hold on." Shampoo checked her equipment, "Yes, I can."
"As soon as all those Gelgoogs board the Musais, target them and fire. If I read the specs for the sniper rifle right, a full-power shot SHOULD be able to destroy a Musai."
"Understood!" She began powering up the rifle and lining up her shot.
No one noticed a blue Mobile Suit, slightly smaller than the Sazabi, drop from one of the Musais.
Meanwhile, Ranma was slowly gaining the upper hand, as his Gundam had something Ryoga's Sazabi lacked: Higher mobility.
"Ryoga, I can't believe you'd go this far, just to get revenge for things that aren't my fault!"
"It's all your fault, Ranma! Everything is! You ran out on our fight!"
"I waited three days!!"
"You knocked me in that damn Jusenkyo Spring!!!"
Akane, whom Ryoga did not know was in the area, wondered just when THAT happened.
"No one made you follow me!"
"And time and time again you abandoned Akane so you could flirt with those other girls!!!"
On that note, something snapped in Ranma's head. "Ryoga. I am sick and tired of this. You attack me for no reason every chance you get, blame things on me that I had no way of influencing, and dare to say I abandoned Akane after ALL THE THINGS I'VE DONE FOR HER?!"
Akane was immediately reminded of the encounter with Prince Toma, where he threw away a cure to his curse, for HER sake.
"I'm drawing the line HERE, Ryoga!! This is the final fight! We end it once and for all!!" The generators in the Shining Gundam's arms charged to full power, "MOUKO TAKABISHA!!!"
Focusing the beam energy from the generators, Ranma replicated his ki attack through the Gundam and sent a ball of blue beam energy hurtling at Ryoga's Sazabi. Ryoga tried to dodge it, but the impact still melted off the shield on the left arm, and rendered the arm itself useless. Heat damage had also lowered the suit's performance. "Damn you, Ranma!! We'll finish this another time! All units, withdraw!" Upon that note, a large bolt of beam energy shot out and tore through one of the Musais, obliterating it. Ryoga saw this and knew they had to get out of there. Two Musais could handle Grey Phantom, but with a weapon THAT powerful in the area.
He fired his thrusters rising his suit into the air, "Ranma, I make one last action in this fight to express my will against you!" Taking out the beam rifle, he aimed at the nearest GM: Akane's. "You, DIE!!" As soon as the computer targeted, he fired.
"NO! AKANE!!"
It was only then that Ryoga realized Akane was there. "No.What have I done.?"
Fortunately, Akane was no longer the slouch she used to be, and much more nimble, even in the GM, However, the shot still caught her suit's engine. The resulting explosion did not destroy the suit, but it did massive damage.
Ryoga, seeing what he had done, and positive Akane was dead, retreated, not wanting to face it. However, his direction didn't send him anywhere the two remaining Musais, one of which was heavily damaged from when Grey Phantom took action while the LONO forces followed the orders they had been given.
Being nearer to the suit, Xero was there before Ranma. By the time Ranma arrived at the scene, Xero was opening the GM's cockpit to check on Akane. After checking her condition, he called out, "Ranma! She's still alive! Get Grey Phantom to send a medical team!!"
A short while later, the medical team was bringing Akane to the base infirmary. Salvage teams recovered the remains of her Mobile Suit. While every MS pilot on Grey Phantom (plus Joe) waited for word on her condition.
It was about three hours before the doctor came out.
"How is she?" Ranma asked, practically before the doctor had passed through the door.
"She'll make a full recovery, but she'll be out of action for at least a month. She has flash burns on most of her body, but not much else aside from a few lacerations and a concussion. The only other notable thing is the large gash in her back. It's going to take at least two weeks for that to heal, and she'll need to stay in bed for all of it. It's going to leave a pretty nasty scar."
"At least she'll be okay."
"Maybe she shouldn't pilot anymore." Xero commented.
"Why do you say that?" Ukyo asked.
"She's been a great pilot up until now, but I worry that such an easy defeat, by a former friend, no less, might affect her psychologically. If she still WANTS to pilot we'll give her a chance, but if she's unsure or doesn't want to, we won't force her."
"It's true." Joe said, "Losing a battle and surviving tends to leave psychological scars. Which can be several times worse than any physical scar. Some soldiers have nightmares until the very day they die."
The alarms then went off. "Unidentified Mobile Suit approaching! Model unknown, appears to be based on the Gelgoog!"
"I'll take care of it." Ranma said. He wanted to get away from the current situation, and this offered a good distraction. Plus an outlet for his anger.
The blue Mobile suit was similar to the Gelgoog, however the legs were slimmer and it was more rounded out, and it was slightly smaller. Unfortunately, the two large bazookas on it's back, handheld shotgun, and various other nasty-looking weapons did nothing to ease Ranma's nerves. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Saotome." A familiar voice came over the comm, "I see Ryoga has failed. No matter, I'll take care of his failure."
"Mousse! Not you, too?!"
"Of course. What better way to defeat you and win my darling Shampoo back!"
"You fool! How is joining LONO going to help you win back Shampoo?! Especially when Shampoo is fighting AGAINST them?!"
"You lie! My dear Shampoo would not have joined the Alliance!"
"It's no lie, Mousse. And lastly, how many times to I have to tell you I'M NOT INTERESTED IN HER?!"
"Hold your tongue, Saotome! It doesn't matter! Today I WILL defeat you, with the help of this Mobile Suit!!" And with that, Mousse let loose with several shotgun blasts.
. All of which Ranma dodged. Pulling out the longer of his two beam sabers, he leapt into action. First slicing Mousse's shotgun in half, but the myopic Hidden Weapons master simply pulled out another one from a hardpoint on the back and resumed his attack.
Ranma found himself learning the hard way that the beam energy in the Shining Gundam could create an energy shield, which easily blocked all of Mousse's shotgun blasts. After running out of ammo, Mousse discarded the spent shotgun, removed his suit's beam saber, and charged at Ranma.
Ranma, however, saw right through Mousse's move and blocked it. Removing his other, shorter beam saber, he began a duel of beam sabers with Ryoga. Before long it looked like a Jedi Fight Scene out of a Star Wars movie.
But this ended when Ranma decided to experiment. Let's see. Right now I can't fire off a Mouko Takabisha, but if I can charge one and send the energy to the beam sabers.
And he did just that. The focus of beam energy increased the intensity and strength of the beam sabers. But Ranma was sure they couldn't stand the extra energy for long, so he had to finish it quick! "Mouko Takabisha revised: Flying Slasher!!!"
On that note, he jumped back and brought both sabers down in a slashing arc, each one unleashing two airborne blades of beam energy and Mousse's Mobile Suit. Mousse tried to dodge, but only succeeded in dodging ONE of the slashes. The other caught his Mobile Suit on the right elbow, slicing it clean off.
"Dammit.They said this thing could withstand ANYTHING they threw at it. I'll have to retreat, for now."
And so he did. Ranma was about to give chase when he was contacted by Xero.
"Ranma, Akane just woke up. She wants to talk to you."
End chapter 4.
Author's Notes: I don't know why I decided to put Ryoga and Mousse in LONO, but it does present the best opportunity to include them in this fic. I know I'll get hate-mail from Ryoga and Mousse fans, but I really couldn't think of a better way to get them in and include their little qualms. Both of them are too mentally unstable for the Alliance, after all. Some people might argue that Akane is, as well, but I feel Akane would be more likely to change her attitude in these situations. Ranma's feud with Ryoga is often set aside in the series for some reason, but from my experience it seems to be the most important aspect of Ryoga's character. No, Ryoga is NOT a crazy, violent maniac, but he does tend to blame almost everything on Ranma. I don't think most people can deny that and honestly believe what they're saying. Mousse, on the other hand, simply fights Ranma for Shampoo. In this fic he's clearly made a fatal error in his attempts to do so. I don't want to portray Mousse in a bad light, either, but he DOES fight solely for Shampoo and I DOUBT he'd be above joining LONO to get at Ranma if he truly believed Shampoo wouldn't join the Alliance.
On another note, I have been getting complaints by e-mail concerning the Gundam aspects of this story. Mostly the fact that I borrow mostly UC Gundam concepts, and there's a lack of a UC feel. What is the biggest complaint about UC Gundam things that I'm lacking? Death. Almost every UC production has a VERY important character die in it. The complaint is that I haven't killed off an important character, yet. Well, Akane's severe injury is to hold off people making this complaint for a while. Ever since I started this, I FULLY planned to kill off at least TWO Ranma cast members, as well as another major character of my own creation. (note on this, it will not be Xero. Though I am toying with the idea of making something terrible happen to him in place of death) Not all will be happy with whom I choose, obviously, but I feel it's best this way. I have a large portion of the final battle already planned out and I KNOW who is going to die FOR SURE, and HOW they're going to die. Obviously, I may add in others. I'm adding and modifying my "Final Battle" plans as I make changes to how the fic is going to be done. Obviously I take fan suggestions into account, but I try not to deviate much from my original plan. Most changes I make suggested by fans have concerned Mobile Suits. Like who should get what Gundam. (it was actually a fans suggestion that Ranma be put into a Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. I realized how much better it would be for him if he had that kind of control system immediately after reading the e-mail!!) Very few changes suggested by fans have NOT concerned Mobile Suits(one of those few, though, was Nabiki helping to root out the traitor. Though that wasn't specifically said, I was just told I should find a way to get Nabiki more fic time than that bit in chapter 1). I had just been starting to think of how I could insert Ryoga and Mousse when I got a fan e-mail asking when Ryoga and Mousse were going to join the Grey Phantom's forces. That got the gears turning and I thought of a good way to insert them.
Well, I'm getting a little off, here. I decided to post this chapter before starting my alternating update plan since Kagome's Heritage is so much further along than this one. (can't blame me, can you? It's gotten more overall response than this! Don't let the reviews fool you, between reviews and fan-e-mail Kagome's Heritage has gotten a LOT more attention. Please go read it! BASIC knowledge of Inu-Yasha and Gold Digger RECOMMENDED, but not REQUIRED)