Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Arcee: Welcome back to another chapter of the Ranma Rangers! Before we start things off, I'm going to answer a question asked to usby Silverscale. (checks her notes) In regards to Usagi's father... (stops as a shadow looms over her from behind)
R-Kives: ...Ranma Rangers?
Arcee: Ah ha ha ha...morning R-kun! I didn't think you'dwakeup againso soon.
R-Kives: Exactly since when has this story been known as the Ranma Rangers?
Arcee: Aw c'mon! It's a cool name! And it'sless of a mouthfulto say than Mighty Morphin' Sailor Senshi!
R-Kives: (looks pointedly at Arcee) I'm not going to hear the end of this am I? You're just going to keep bugging me about it aren't you?
Arcee: Why don't we just ask the readers which name they prefer? Make it a poll or something?
R-Kives: (frowning) Oh very well, we'll let the readers decide. In the meantime, start the chapter, we've wasted enough time on the intro as it is.
Arcee: But I haven't answered Silverscale's question yet!
R-Kives: You can answer it at the end of the chapter, it's time for the show to begin! (snaps their fingers)
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Juuban Portal
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The Silver Moon survivors weren't the only ones watching the fight. A small shadow atop a nearby roof watched as Ranma slammed Boreal through another street light and stopped to catch his breath. The observer noted that Ranma was having a better time of fighting Boreal now that he knew how to fight her. The both of them looked like they had been standing next to an explosion. They had cuts and bruises on their bodies and were noticeably tired out. The street they were fighting on was even worse; it actually did look like bombs had been set off in it. The street was filled with small craters, walls had collapsed and anything else that had been standing such as postboxes and street signs had been demolished. The shadow focused its attention on the portal when it noticed someone walk out of it. Ranma was so caught up in his fight; he hadn't noticed the new arrival.
'Looks like the boy's in for some serious trouble now…that looks like Goldar's armor if my memory serves me right…', the shadow thought to itself as it fingered the hilt of the sword it held in its grasp. The pommel of the sword was in the form of a tigers head, facing forward. Its eyes glowed bright red as it seemed to be observing the fight below. The shadow looked down at the sword before looking at where its attention was directed. 'Dealing with the both of them alone might be enough to get it through his thick skull that he'll need some help to beat them. The boys much too vulnerable to magic, if it weren't for that weakness, he might not even need this…not that I'll ever tell him that. His ego is bad enough as it is!'
Despite their more even standing, Ranma still felt like he was on the losing end of this fight. He'd lost a lot of energy early on and Boreal seemed to still have more in reserve. He needed to finish this fight quickly before Boreal finished him! He barely registered the whistling sound of sharp metal rushing at him from behind a split second before his danger sense prompted him to roll to his left. He turned around as he sprang up from his roll, making sure to keep Boreal in sight while looking at his new assailant. Ranma narrowed his eyes at the sight of the man who had just attacked him from behind. 'This just keeps getting better and better.' Ranma thought to himself sourly as the man smirked at him.
Taro rested his sword over his shoulder while he looked at Ranma with amusement plainly seen on his face. He was dressed in form fitting golden armor similar to ones that Ranma had seen before during his training trip. Those suits of armor had been in glass cases in museums he and Genma had come across in the west. In the east techniques and scrolls were commonly found in temples and shrines but in the west, it was easier to search for them in museums. The only reason that Genma would actually go to a museum was to rob it of course. The suits of armor that Ranma had seen then had looked to be quite heavy as did Taro's suit. Ranma noted that it wasn't heavy enough to slow down Taro nor did it make any noise when Taro had attacked him. If Ranma hadn't noticed the sound of the sword about to chop him in two, Taro would have already killed him. Ranma glanced over at Boreal who had now recovered her breath. She seemed eager to continue the fight now that she had reinforcements. Boreal twirled her cruel looking battleaxe as she waited for Ranma to make the next move.
Taro's merger with Goldar had been as much of a success as Boreal's had been difficult. The two of them had been quite similar in terms of personality. This had resulted in a smooth and quick merger that had changed virtually nothing about the two warriors. The only change had been the ability to transform into either Taro's human form or Goldar's monster form. The new being had both their memories and skills. It had quickly decided on being called Goldar instead of Pantyhose Taro which had been approved of by Beryl. The reason he had been late getting to the fight was because he had been responsible for securing their former prison. It had taken him a while to ensure that no one would be able to break into their new base without warning them about it first. This had been done simply because Beryl had wanted a secure base of operations and not that they thought anyone would actually attack them. After all, it wasn't as if there were any survivors of the Silver Moon Kingdom now were there?
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Juuban Juice Bar
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The scene inside the juice bar was surprisingly peaceful. Everyone that Ranma had rescued from the putties had either gone home to their families or retreated to the safety of the restaurant. The knowledge that a number of former Nerimans worked there seemed to make people think that the employees there would know how to deal with weirdness like the current situation they faced. Juuban had always been a quiet place with a relatively low crime rate. The crime rate had dropped even lower once Ranma and Konatsu had moved to Juuban. It was mostly filled with teenagers although there were some young children present with their parents as well. Fortunately the atmosphere was relatively calm and many people were chatting together as if nothing were wrong. Business was doing well as a lot of people felt like eating something to take their minds off what they had recently been through.
Kasumi was so busy trying to keep up with the orders that Konatsu was forced to help her in the kitchen. The almost constant sound of the ringing register kept a smile on Nabiki's face. In the corner of the restaurant, away from most of the crowd, a girl sat with her friends with a worried frown on her face as she looked at Nabiki. The group around her consisted of two blonde girls who could have passed as sisters, one with her hair flowing freely behind her, the other had her hair done up in two ponytails, a girl with short blue-black hair, a well-endowed brown haired girl and a young man who was currently doubling as a seat to the twin pony-tailed blonde.
"How can she possibly be smiling at a time like this?!" Rei said in a somewhat hurt and worried tone, "Ranma is out there somewhere and we don't know if he's okay or not!"
Ami, who was sitting next to her, placed a hand on Rei's shoulder. "Nabiki has faith that Ranma will be fine, just like the rest of us do.", she said to Rei, trying to ease her friends worry, "You know as well as I do how good a martial artist he is, he'll be fine Rei."
"Yeah, Ami's right you know", Minako said as she turned away from her scan of the current selection of men in the restaurant, "Ranma's a regular hunk of steel buns; he can clean the flowers with those guys."
"That's 'man of steel' and 'wipe the floor', Minako", Makoto corrected her friend, "But I gotta say that buns of steel is right on the money!"
"After all those times you groped him, you should know!" Rei said to her, a scowl now directed at Makoto, "Honestly, can't you keep your hands off him? You already have a boyfriend now!"
"Rei's right, Makoto." Usagi spoke up from her cuddle with Mamoru, "You should be more faithful to Keitaro, like me and Mamo-chan."
"See even Usagi agrees with me." Rei said as Makoto made placating gestures at Rei who looked like she was about to vent her stress on her. "So keep your hands off him!"
"Yes, the only who should be groping him should be Rei, she is the one who wants him to be her boyfriend after all." Usagi continued in a matter of fact voice.
"That's right; I should be the only one to…" Rei started before realizing what Usagi had just said, "What?! I do want to grope him!" she almost shouted out before remembering where they were, "That is, I meant, no one should be groping him but me! I mean uh…grrr…shut up meatball head!"
Everyone at the table laughed loudly at Rei's madly blushing face though Mamoru had the sense to do so discreetly. He didn't want to wind up a target for Rei after all. They were all so preoccupied that none of them noticed a brief surge of light engulf them and neither did anyone else in the restaurant. The light vanished and with it the group of friends that had been sitting there.
Arcee: Hey boss, can I ask you something?
R-Kives: Sure, why not? Go ahead, what is it you want to know?
Arcee: How come you're almost always ending the chapterson cliffhangers?
R-Kives: Easy, one, that's usually as much as I can write before I run out of ideas and two, it's kind of a trademark.
Arcee: Oh, okay. Right, on to Silverscale's question! Ranma is not, I repeat, not Usagi's father in any shape or form.
R-Kives: Not that the idea hadn't occurred to me mind you but it gave me too many headaches trying to work out how that would affect all his other relationships.
Arcee: Which means Ranma-sama is still available! (starts daydreaming)
R-Kives: Here we go again...sigh...like we decided earlier, we've decided to let all of you readers decide. What title do you think would be better? Mighty Morphin' Sailor Senshi...or The Ranma Rangers? All votes may be submitted with your reviews so please, your feedback is eagerly anticipated. If you have a better idea for a title, you can put it up for voting as well.
Arcee: So until next time! (Does a reeediculas looking pose)
R-Kives: (head shaking) Oh brother... (snaps fingers and dissapears)
