Golden Opportunity

by CRose

Ranma Gold Digger This is the final chapter of the story, at least for now, I have more planned, but that will for the sequal when I get around to it. I've tied up a few things, hinted at some others, and plan lots more in the future.

3. Chapter 03

Notes - A new chapter alread? Yep, thought it is a bit shorter than the first two.


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Golden Opportunity
Chapter 03
By C. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c) 2002
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Shock was a thing that Ranma had only heard about in stories, he would have never considered himself to be someone that could be affected by it. There he was sitting on the ground in front of everyone, he hadn't said a word to anyone since he woke up and that had been to scream again. The guide had informed him of the curse again and demonstrated how it worked to everybody by switching him back and forth several times. Ranma didn't even blink, move, or acknowledge anything around him as this happened. On some level he noticed the change, but to consciously think about it brought him into nightmare territory. What would his father say, his mother, could he even live with this kind of thing?

Ranma had no idea, he didn't want to be a girl, to be weak and useless. Every insult his father had ever said to him came back to haunt Ranma every time he blinked. At the same time the was seeing Julia, Gina, Penny, and Brianna as they worked and lived. They could have fun and do things that Ranma had never pictured girls doing before. They built machines, weapons and were very confident in themselves. Julia, a girl, had beaten him in their sparing matches two or three times a day for weeks now. How did that make her weak and useless, Ranma didn't know but that was how he thought of her and all the other girls.

What kind of freak had he become? Did this mean that he had to start dating guys or was there something else he was missing? He knew that Gina and Brianna were trying to comfort him as he lay there in a ball of misery in front of the Guide's small hut. They didn't know what to do to help him, they had tried to take as many precautions as they could to make sure none of them were cursed, but Zelda and Daishi had attacked them before they were ready and led them into a trap that had only caught Ranma. Pee Wee hadn't considered they would get outside help and that had foiled most of the trap because Cheetah had been immune to the water. She had been the main target of the trap while everyone else was led away. Instead they had gotten Ranma because his environmental suit was cut up and burned in several places, he hadn't even had time to get his helmet on either. Just because they were hit five minutes before they were ready.

Gina felt horrible about it too, this had been her plan in the first place and it had failed. She didn't mess up to often, but when she did, things like this happened to her friends. Brianna had suggested using the same method that they had used to create her, but Gina had never been able to figure out what made that experiment go wrong in the first place. All of her tests had ended up with the creation of Brianna in one form or another, but with no clues about how it happened. Gina figured Ranma wouldn't want a female version of himself running around so she tossed that idea out as a last resort, she had caused him enough pain as it was. She thought about trying to talk to her dad, but he liked for his children to figure this stuff out on their own and would only help he thought it would do some good. She also suspected that he couldn't do much of anything about this, some memory of hers, that was just out of reach, was nagging at her too.

There had to be something there, but it just wasn't coming to her for some reason and that worried Gina. Ranma was in a very dangerous state right now, he would be unpredictable for the next few days and they had to make sure he didn't do something stupid or rash. They needed to find a way to calm him down and get explain the situation to him, what they could and could not do. She hugged the boy, but he was totally unresponsive to her actions, even Brianna had failed and she had spent more time with him than anyone else since he arrived except her mother.

"Damn it, how did this happen?" Gina asked everybody.

"Were not sure Gina, we think Daishi tricked him in some way, but we don't know."

"We took as many precautions as we could and Ranma still got a curse. Was he careless or did something else happen?"

"Gina calm down, we will figure out what happened, alright."

Gina forced herself to take a deep breath and calmed her mind, she knew that she thought better when her emotions were not out of control. "Alright, but we will get this sorted out, Ranma knew the dangers of this place and he still got cursed. We all did and yet he is the only one that ended up with a curse." Gina turned to the Guide. "What did you see?"

"Mr. Customer and other customer have savage fight, it obvious that older fighter was trying to hurt boy. Witness lethal blows being used and young sir barely avoiding as they bounced from pole to pole, other customer use Ki attack while young sir in the air between poles and sent him into spring. There no way to defend in time, young sir get cursed."

"Daishi did beat Ranma last time." Brianna said.

"But I thought he had improved enough to beat ninja boy?" Cheetah said.

"Apparently he hadn't done enough training yet, we shouldn't have brought him with us."

"I agree, but it is too late now. We have to help him through this until we can get him cured." Gina said sadly. "Guide, will a dip in the drowned man spring help him?"

"No, curses mix."

"Damn!"

"What happened to Daishi anyway? Can we talk to him?" Penny asked.

"No, he got away after Ranma tossed him into a spring. We don't know which one he landed in and he was gone by the time the Guide went over there to fish him out." Brianna said.

"What about Charlotte?"

"Those peanuts were drugged with something that put her to sleep, she's is still out of it." Penny said.

"They must have been waiting for us, to catch us off guard, but if they were why did they go down so easily?"

"I think Pee Wee was waiting for just you and Cheetah to show up, the rest of us ruined the plan. Zelda went right for Cheetah, the one person that is always beating her at everything. Every time they meet each other Cheetah usually embarrasses her in some way, no matter what kind of genetic tinkering Pee Wee has done to improve her."

"Zelda is a wimp, it's not my fault she is so easy to beat." Cheetah said with a shrug.

Gina ignored her sister and stood up, she had to find a way to help Ranma. He would not have been in this situation if he hadn't ever met them. "Cheetah, what happened to that soap?"

"Me and Charlotte used it all, it was just a small bar after all. That was why you wanted the rest of us to wear the environmental suits in the first place. There wasn't enough to go around."

"There was nothing left over that Ranma could have used?"

"I have no idea, Charlotte used the soap after me. I assume she used it all up or packed it away."

"Great, I can't even ask her what happened to the stuff since she's out cold. Unless you know something Penny?"

"Sorry Gina, Charlotte never said a thing."

"Alright. Cheetah, can you pick up Ranma, we need to get him back to the car and head home."

"What about Pee Wee, Zelda, and Ionis?"

"The Amazons are going to hold them until The Foundation can send out a security team to pick them up. We don't have the room in the car to take them out of here, I was hoping to use the Helicopter, but since we destroyed that..."

"How long will they be the Amazon's guests?"

Gina shrugged. "I have no idea, a week or so I guess."

"What about Ace, he could bring his Osprey in here, land, and take us all out with ease."

"Wouldn't work, they barely let us bring the car in here, the three Kingdoms all try to keep the modern world from intruding."

"So no plane ride, huh?"

"Nope, now pick up Ranma."

"Yeah, yeah." Cheetah said and reached down to pick up the still catatonic boy, she felt sorry for him. The curse had to play havoc with his self image and he liked to think of himself as being confident and very masculine.

"Guide, do you know of a cure for this?"

He shook his head. "Have never heard of one, but Amazons may know since they keep many, many records than me."

"We have to stop there on the way back anyway, I'll ask the elder when we get there. Thanks for your help."

The Guide nods and steps into his hut.

**********

On the drive back to the airport Gina uses the time to scan Ranma with her on board computer and becomes even more worried. The scans are coming back weird, they are like nothing she has ever seen before. It was bad enough the boy was still in shock and that they had been forced to sedate him, but her scans were telling her that something was wrong with him. She had spent a long time getting him back into decent health, this set back was not going to do anymore damage to Ranma. His life has had to much pain in it already, she would not give up on him. Gina sighed, she needed to get things ready at home.

Reaching out she tapped a button that would call home. She had spent some time building and installing a decent phone system into her car. Touch screen controls and all that had made her job so much easier. The phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Gina, what's up?"

"We ran into a problem."

"What happened?"

"It was a trap just like we thought it might be, but they sprung it sooner than we expected."

"Everyone is all alright?"

"All of us are fine, except Ranma."

"What happened to Ranma." Julia snapped.

"Daishi blasted him into a pool."

"So he got cursed?"

"Yes, the guide said it was Spring of Drowned Girl."

"...get him back here, we'll have Theo look at Ranma when you get here. Can I talk to Ranma?"

"No, he didn't take it very well and I had to sedate him."

"Damn, blame that on his father then."

"His father?"

"Remember what he's said to you about girls being weak and useless, his father was always insulting him by calling him a girl. Calling him weak and such, that kind of thinking is what is probably going through his mind right now."

"Can daddy help him?"

"I don't know, we'll see when you get here. How far away are you?"

"Baring problems it should be about four hours or so."

"I'll be waiting."

"Bye mom." Gina said and sighed when the screen went blank. She could tell that her mom was seriously pissed.

"She sounded pretty mad." Cheetah said from the passenger seat.

"No kidding, I'm hoping dad will be able to do something for Ranma, but you know he doesn't like to interfere unless has to. With mom nagging him he might do something though, we'll have to wait and see. I'm still angry about that soap, it would have kept him from getting that curse if we had remembered to have him use it. He was the most inexperienced of us all."

"Charlotte was the last one to use it and what she did with it is a complete mystery, I never thought to ask."

"Yeah I know. How about you Brianna?" Gina asked.

Brianna was in the back seat with Ranma. "I should have been there to help him, I feel horrible about this."

"What did you think of those readings I had earlier?"

"His curse is unstable or something like that, I'm not sure just what is going on though. The readings look familiar, but I can't place them since I don't have access to my systems at the house."

"What was familiar, I didn't see anything like that?"

"It was in the energy readings on the area dealing with the curse itself."

"I'm setting the computer to continue the scans on him while he is asleep, we can study them when we get back home."

"Sure. What about Penny and Charlotte?"

"She is going to stay here for a week and get things ready for the Generators we're going to install for the Amazons."

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that in all the excitement. Did they say anything about Ranma's curse?"

"Finding cures are very rare and usually dangerous, they only have a few instances of cures being found and they were all dependent on the one that wanted the cure in the first place. They wouldn't go into details, but I got the impression that they were hiding something from me, I asked Penny to look into it while she was there."

"How's Penny getting home anyway?"

"Hmm? Oh, she asked Ace to bring his helicopter in for her at the end of the week. All she has to do is meet him at the edge of the valley when she is ready to go. The Amazons said they would allow that since she was helping them out with the power plant were setting up."

"Cool."

**********

Gina pulled into the driveway and hit a button on the console to open the underground garage. A small section of the driveway lifted up and she drove in and down the ramp to the first level below the house. It only took her a second to make her way over to the post mission area where she could park the car and get it prepped for the next outing they used it for. Britanny and Brianna were out of the car in a shot and had things prepared by the time she came to a full stop. They spent the next five minutes unloading the car, including Ranma, while Brianna set up the hydraulic lift and had the car run itself through a series of diagnostics.

Once everything was ready they got Ranma down to second level where Gina had set up a small medical bay designed off of the technology used by Stripe's people at Elderado, she had adapted a good deal of it to her own levels though. The alien technology was probably better than anything the government could ever come up with anytime soon. It looked like something out of Star Trek as they lay Ranma out on a medical bed and it started to take readings on him almost immediately. Dr. Diggers and Julia came in a few minutes later to see what was going on. Gina motioned for them to head to another room while Genn monitored the equipment.

"Can you stay around for few minutes Genn? I need to talked to my parents."

"Sure, I'll call you if anything comes up. He's just sedated right?"

"Give us a call if he starts to come around or something weird happens.

"Sure thing."

Gina, Britanny, and Brianna stepped into the small room they used for conferences and such. Julia was sitting in one of the chairs and did not look pleased as she glared at them. "Well?"

"Like I told you, he got cursed by Daishi when they were fighting."

"Why weren't you being careful?"

"We were, but it was a trap and they were expecting us. The only reason that things didn't go worse was that Pee Wee was expecting just me and Cheetah. We overwhelmed him and his goons by having everyone with us, but not before Zelda drugged Charlotte and Daishi dragged Ranma into a fight."

"I had thought that by allowing Ranma to go with you he could learn some things about team work and such. As well as giving him some experience with your adventures Gina, I thought he would be safe enough."

"I'm sorry, we were caught off guard and at the worst possible moment."

"Well I don't..."

"Dear?" Dr. Diggers said.

"What is it Theo?" Julia snapped, her eyes flashing with anger.

"Jusenkyo is notorious for playing with chance encounters to curse it's victoms and from what Gina told us before she left, this Talon kid was using special suits to keep him and the others safe from the magic of Jusenkyo."

"Yeah, so what?" Brianna asked as she watched the rooms scanners.

"Well that place is almost alive and has taken steps to curse those that it wants to, why it does this is a mystery, but I'm willing to bet that Jusenkyo wanted to curse someone and it didn't care who."

"But why Ranma, of all of us he was probably the worst one that could have been chose." Brianna said.

"He was probably just in the wrong place at the right time to be affected. The rest of you were busy fighting each other while Ranma and Daishi were jumping from pole to pole above the springs. That's what Julia said when she explained this to me, Jusenkyo had time and opportunity."

"He is my student Theo and I failed to read this situation correctly, I thought he would be safe enough."

"I think that he would have been if it was anywhere else but there, Jusenkyo draws victims to it like bees to honey. The instant he was drawn over the springs it was to late to do anything but watch and pray he fell in something he could live with."

Julia just glowered and looked away.

"Can you cure Ranma, Daddy?" Gina asked.

"I don't think so, the last time I studied Jusenkyo I found that it was made up of a very powerful form of chaotic nature magic. My Aura Magic doesn't work all that well with Nature Magic because they are so different from each other."

"Then how about helping him? I thought about using the same process on him as me and Britanny used when we accidentally created Grave Digger, but the computers in my car told me that the process wouldn't work with this type of curse because it is a transformation type instead of the bad luck type that we encountered."

Brianna looked embarrassed to be reminded of that event in her life, but decided to keep her mouth shut, she couldn't help how she was created.

"Don't insult your sister Gina." Julia said as she hugged Brianna.

"Huh, oh sorry Brianna, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"Yeah sure, no problem."

"Theo, will you see if you can help the boy?" Julia asked.

"Sure, I was planning on it anyway, I don't like how he reacted to the curse at all, there could be mental problems, but it's too soon to see for sure."

"Neither do I."

Britanny, who hadn't had much to do and was bored, stayed in the room as the others filed out. She wasn't all that worried about Ranma, she had been watching him for the last couple of weeks and knew he was strong enough to pull thought this without much damage. Shape shifting was pretty normal as far as she was concerned and it would give him some pretty good advantages. She leaned back in her chair and it wasn't long before she fell asleep with her feet on the table and started to snore, she dreamt about Stripe and their honeymoon. She grinned in her sleep, lustfully.

**********

With a flare of light Dr. Theodore Diggers appeared a few inches above the ground and looked around as he landed. He was standing on a dark plain of some kind that stretched for as far as he could see behind him and to the sides. The other direction was another story entirely, he was standing at the edge of a cliff so high up that he was unable to see the bottom. Then he saw the boy he was here for and walked over to Ranma, who was sitting at the edge of the cliff and looking off into the distance. There was a look of immense pain on Ranma's face that Dr. Diggers knew would mean trouble, he steeled himself and walked forward.

"Hello Ranma."

"What do you want?"

"This place is not safe to be Ranma."

"I don't really care all that much Doc."

"Do you know where you are Ranma?"

"No."

"When you were cursed you retreated into your mind, just like you do when your suffering from the Neko-ken, this place is where you hide when you don't want to deal with things Ranma. Everything here is just portions of your mind given a physical form to represent something."

"Hmmm...so what?"

"I want you to come back and deal with this."

"So your here to force me back?"

"No, I can't do anything like that. This is your mind Ranma, you make the decisions so you must be the one to come back."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Your curse is something that can be lived with easily Ranma. What are you really running from?"

"I'm not running from nothin!"

"I don't believe you Ranma, your lying to yourself as well as me."

"Humph!"

Dr. Diggers sighed, he had a pretty good idea what Ranma was going through and thought he was over reacting quite a bit. Changing sex was pretty bad, but not as bad as taking on an animal form or something. He decided that telling the boy about a bit of his own past might help him get through to Ranma and drew on a bit of his magic. It was going to be more of an illusion than what it was the first time he did this, but Ranma didn't need to know that. "If your not running Ranma, then your scared of something."

"You have no idea..."

"What it's like to change sex Ranma? I'm a Wizard and on the Wizard's council on Jade, I have a pretty good idea what your going through. I know a lot about magic."

"Then cure me."

"I can't, the magic of your curse is elemental Magic. I specialize in Aura Magic and it can not effect your curse enough to cure you. It would be like using fog to get rid of water, I would only add to the problem instead of helping you. Elemental magic is one of the most powerful and uncontrollable magic's there is, it is almost completely random in the forms it takes."

"That doesn't help me all that much Doc."

"I know Ranma..."

"Doc look over there." Ranma pointed.

He turned and saw a female Ranma holding a Neko-Ranma, watching them from out of the shadows, about twenty or so feet away. "Those are parts of your soul Ranma."

"They are not me, I've tried to talk to them while I was here, but they just ignore me for some reason. They are like shadows of me that can not even come near me."

"That isn't true Ranma, you control everything that happens here Ranma, they are stuck there because you don't want to deal with them. Your own mind is holding them where they are, you don't want to even look at them. They are like this area we're in Ranma, dependent on what you think and do and act."

"I don't understand."

"Ranma your thinking of them as separate people, they are not, they are just parts of you that you're unconsciously trying to ignore. The more you do that, the more it will take for you to survive this and heal, accept the reality and move on."

"I DON'T WANT TO ACCEPT THIS!! I DON'T WANT TO BE A FREAK!"

"You're not a freak Ranma, here look at this." Dr. Diggers said.

"What?"

"When I was going for my second level of mastery I was forced to go through a trial of acceptance, quite a bit like what your going though right now. The only difference is that you had no choice in what happened to you, I did." Dr. Diggers held out his hand and it flared with power and Ranma watched as his body changed into a strikingly beautiful woman.

"Huh?!"

"I spent a year in this form Ranma, living a life of a woman, learning about how they thought, what they experienced, the good and the bad things of being the opposite gender. I went through everything they do in the course of a year and let me tell you, I hated every second of it. By the time the year was almost up I was not the nicest of people to be around and I was failing the test, but I eventually learned to live with it and move on with more important things. You have to do the same thing even if it goes against what you consider to be wrong, we can work this out."

Ranma sighed and watched as his red headed form walked forward slowly and smiled nervously at him. She didn't say anything, just got closer and sat down to watch him as he sat there on the edge of the cliff again. "How do I accept this, I'm not even a man anymore? I feel wrong every time I change, like something is out of place or missing."

"I went through that too Ranma, what your feeling is the difference between a man and a woman, very few men have experienced what me and you have. You can also change back and forth Ranma, that was an option that I didn't have at the time. You can deal with this change easily, your the one making it harder to do than what it really is."

"Hmph! What about Neko?"

"Like your girl form you need to accept him, I do know if you accept him it will take you one step closer to curing you of a the Neko Ken. Something that you have been wanting to do ever since I met you."

"How do I go about doing that if I can't touch them?"

"Neko over there is something your mind dreamed up to represent your fear, just like the girl represents your curse. All you need to do is accept them into your heart Ranma, this isn't something physical, it is emotional."

"Oh that helps, now I'm really confused." Ranma muttered.

Dr. Diggers thought about it for a second and scratched his beard. "Think of it this way Ranma, they are like your brother and sister, family, can you accept them like that?"

"As family?" Ranma said as a bit of comprehension lit in his eyes and he turned from the darkness to look at his newest family.

Neko Ranma and Female Ranma smiled as Ranma looked at them and blended into one being as he watched. Dr. Digger's eye brow shot up past his hair line in shock, he hadn't expected something like that. While Ranma was gaping at the cute cat girl that took Female Ranma's place, Dr. Diggers flared up his magic for a second and scanned Ranma more closely and found something that would either make or break this situation. He cursed silently and tried to control his anger. For all of Ranma's skill at fighting, his up bringing under that fool Genma had damaged Ranma in odd ways.

At Ranma's young age he would be considered on the verge of adult hood or one outright, but he had no life experience. He didn't know how to deal with odd situations other than to fight them or run from them. He made these decisions almost instinctively, it just depended on which way he was pushed. Ranma also suppressed his emotions and did everything in his power to be masculine, taking great pride in winning and nearly crumbling if he ever lost. The only reason he had probably accepted training from his wife was because she was as good as she was, light-years ahead of the boy if she was to ever use her full strength against him.

Dr. Diggers thought about what he had just seen and hoped Ranma was strong enough to survive physically, if not the boy was going to crumble into a thousand pieces. "Ranma?"

"What?"

"I can not cure your curse, but I may be able to modify it in a tiny way."

"Modi...what?"

"Change it."

"How?"

"The main Jusenkyo curse has you changing into a girl, if you want I may be able to make you like my daughter Brittany by joining you with the Neko-ken. Your mental forms have already joined up into that cat girl form, with a little tweek I could make you a were-cat of some kind. It would make you faster, stronger, and more powerful than you ever have been, but..."

"But what?"

"I can not override the curse itself, you would change into a female were-cat of some kind."

Ranma shuddered. "No, I don't think I want to be a were-cat of some kind, not after everything else I've been through."

"If it would help, think of it as a challenge of some kind. Your a man and strong enough to over come anything aren't you? This would be better than leavening things as they are right?"

Ranma sighed and shook himself, why did his life have to be so difficult? "I'm being stupid aren't I?"

"No Ranma, your trying to deal with a situation in the only way you know how. Your father never taught you how to deal with insane situations unless you were in mortal danger and the curse doesn't do that."

"So how do I get out of this, just accept it, become a girl or a were-cat of some kind and just forget about it?"

"No, you will not forget this, ever, but you can move on and just let it be another part of your life."

"I don't know where to begin to do that."

Dr. Diggers crossed his fingers and prayed this would work, Ranma could be told the truth later, when he would be ready for it and since he didn't want to be like his daughter he could at least do this to help him out. "Just go over to your cat girl aspect there and give her a hug and tell her your sorry and will accept her."

"A h-hug?" Ranma nervously looked over at his other self and blushed, she was quite pretty even as a cat girl.

"Yes, it is very important. That and the apology are required for your well being."

"If I've gotta." Ranma mumbled and stood up to make his way over to the cat girl, she was making him nervous, but he grit his teeth and focused on his meditations to control the fear. The cat girl looked up him and smiled as he got closer and opened her arms, Ranma hugged her nervously and apologized. Dr. Diggers raised his hand and cast a quick spell just as Ranma appologised. With a flare of energy Ranma was engulfed in light for several seconds and the dark landscape around them vanished in an instant and turned into a field of tall grass and flowers. By the time the light vanished Ranma was himself again, but Dr. Diggers could feel a difference in Ranma that spoke volumes about the change that he had just gone through.

"How do you feel Ranma?"

"Really weird, is this what you meant by tweaking the curse?" Ranma said as he noticed that he didn't mind being female anymore, well not exactly, it was almost like it didn't matter to him. He searched deep inside himself and found that the his senses had increased, that he had slightly different perspective and that a curse that changed his sex could be lived with. Just like Dr. Diggers had said, now he just hoped his feelings on the subject were true. For now he would wait and see how things went, all the feelings that had been driving him nuts a few minutes ago were gone.

"Yes in a way, for you to grow out of this and learn from it you have to accept yourself as you are and you can't do that by running away from the problem."

"This isn't something I can't just punch and defeat you know, it messes with how I see and feel, everything around me. It is totally alien to me."

"You will be fine Ranma, there are multiple girls in this house that can help you out, if you let them."

"I never thought of that."

"The biggest problem I had was dealing with the clothing."

"Clothing?"

"Yeah, wearing dresses and other things. They drove me batty because I was so used to wearing my Mage Suit."

"You mean that skin tight thing your wearing right now?"

"Yep, I've worn this for years. It's like a uniform in a way that lets everyone know what I am."

"Oh." Ranma said and walked around the open field a little, even if it was just an aspect of his mind, he wondered what he was going to do. He had just merged with his other selves and could feel the differences in his mind, it was like a light had been switched on and shown him things that had been right in front of him. His female aspect allowed him to understand girls a lot better because of the difference in view point. As always his male aspect was dominant, but he kind of understood how girls saw things too.

Once long ago he had spent a couple of weeks at a monastery deep in the mountains. He couldn't remember the exact reason he had been there, but he did remember the monks and what they had shown him. Most priests and monks that Ranma had encountered in his life preached that men were better than women and for the most part Ranma had silently agreed with them, but this place was different. They had allowed women into the place and given them equal rights, Ranma remembered his father complaining about it for hours on end.

They had told him about the yen and yang differences in men and women, how men were like women and vice versa. Ranma had been surprise to find that most of the difference were merely cosmetic. Women had the ability to create life as well and that made them better in the eyes of the monks and no matter how much they wanted to they could not do that. All they could do was feel what the women did when they created a life. At the time Ranma had been pretty small, but that place had shown him things that were so far over his head that he had barely paid attention to the classes he attended.

Those classes were now the most prominent in his mind, their lessons and information. Things he had set to the side and never bothered to remember until now. He was both male and female, something he did not want to be and just thinking about it made him angry enough to break something. On the other hand maybe there was something here he could put to use, something to make this thing worthwhile in the long run. They Guide had said there was no known cure and thousands of people had been cursed over the years.

"Dr. Diggers, I should be fine for now, I want some time to think while I'm here. I won't go back to where I was though, I'm stronger than that."

"I'll let you think things through then. Get some sleep after that, some real sleep so that you can have a fresh perspective on this in the morning."

"Alright." Ranma said and watched as Dr. Diggers vanished.

Ranma continued to walk through the grassy plane, he chose a random direction and moved through dozens of hills and valleys, each slightly different than the one before it. For the most part though he recalled the journey from the springs and what the girls had talked about while he was out of it, the strange spike in his energy that Brianna and Gina had mentioned. Their fears that he was going to snap and go crazy because of this change. Ranma was a little ashamed to admit that it had almost happened, but he didn't think he would have gone that rout. He had spent to many years trying to be strong and a curse was not going to stop him if he could help it.

He did know that because of this, Daishi was going to pay for this if it was the last thing Ranma ever did. According to his memories the girls had said that he fell in a spring after being blasted, but they didn't know which one the jerk had fallen in afterwards. Ranma didn't care, he was going to make the bastard pay for doing this to him. A tiny part of Ranma's mind told him to accept part of the blame for being so stupid as to let the fight head out over the springs in the first place, but he ignored that as best he could. It was Daishi's fault as far as Ranma was concerned, he would worry about his own part in it after that jerk was taken care of.

Opening his eyes and looking up, Ranma found himself at the top of a hill that lead down into a valley full of darkness. He wondered where he was for a second and recalled that Dr. Diggers had mentioned that this place was just parts of his mind given form. What was in his mind that would cause this darkness, he could see things moving below him, but it was impossible to make them out. He looked a little closer and found that the darkness was receding a little and he gasped in shock. It sent him tumbling back several steps before he landed on his butt and rolled down the other side of the hill.

He rolled to his feet just as they rounded the hill, hundreds of tiny one foot tall Neko-Ranma's meowing playfully. The tails and ears were the worst though and he curled into a ball, they reminded him all to much of the Pit and the Pain he had suffered while there. Then as they crawled all over him, touching him, clawing him, nibbling at his toes, something seemed to snap. Ranma's eyes snapped open and he sat up, not in shock or fear, but in wonder. All around him for hundreds of feet were little Neko-Ranma's, some female and some male, all of them staring at him with pure love and trust.

"Oh boy..." He mumbled as they all meowed at once and charged him.

Ranma wasn't six years old anymore and he had an idea what was going on too, he lashed out and at the first tiny Neko-Ranma and to his surprise it hissed and vanished in a puff of smoke. Then Ranma didn't have time to think as he spent the next couple of minutes moving at his fastest speed to keep the little monster from touching him. What he didn't notice was that the smoke from each little Neko-Ranma was flowing away and forming itself into a larger form.

Those Neko-Ranma's that didn't attack him from the front did so by using their Ki claws. The tiny arcs of energy would slam into him now and then and open up a cut here or a nasty scratch there, they weren't strong enough to so more than that, but as the little Neko-Ranma's were dwindled down they became stronger and stronger until one of them him him in the upper thigh from the side and Ranma screamed in pain. The thing had opened him up like a sword would have. Blood ran down his leg as he stared to blast the things with his Ki, this finally finished them off and gave him a few minutes peace.

Then he saw the smoke about fifty yards away as it formed into a rather large tiger striped tiger. It was larger than a three story house and it was glaring at him with eyes of glowing energy that Ranma could feel measuring him up in some way. It was quite possibly the most frightening thing Ranma had ever seen and he started to shake all over. The little Neko-Ranma's hadn't been true cats, just small him shaped humans with tails and ears. This was a completely different story, this was a giant man eating monster cat that was worse than every demon in hell.

It ROARED loud and long and it ECHOED across the valleys, bouncing back and forth until Ranma's shaking increased to pure terror. Then it pounced, it's three story bulk launching into the air and headed right for him. Ranma screamed and tried to run away, but his feet wouldn't move, a giant paw slapped him with enough force to send him flying across the valley. Ranma hit the side of a hill and had the air knocked out of his lungs, still he tried to scramble away to safety but the Cat ran over and batted him again, like it was playing with a mouse.

Fear warred in Ranma's mind, one part was screaming for him to run away, another wanted him to fight back for once, and yet another part wondered why he hadn't degenerated into the Neko-Ken yet. Ranma struggled as he flew through the air and was just able to get his air back just as he hit, but this time he had enough of a mind left to roll with the landing and came up on his feet. The Cat was right on top of him and he screamed as his body reacted instinctively to the attacking monster. He threw out a single attack, something unexpected, something small.

Ranma kicked the monster in the throat as it descended on him, it was charged with all his power and took every ounce of courage he had to do it. He used everything he had available for a split second attack, it took him by complete surprise when the Cat yowled in pain and exploded. The world went red around him and instead of pain, Ranma found himself feeling safe and content for some reason. Things he had rarely ever felt in all the years on the road with the old man. It remind him of the times when he was with his mom, before the trip. Then just before he lost consciousness Ranma heard a voice with a strange quality to it.

"It took you ten years to finish the training, but you did it little one, so I grant you what you have always wanted."

Ranma could feel a pair of arms holding him as he blacked out...

**********

Alarms were going off all over the infirmary as Ranma's aura flared up and nearly disintegrated the medical bed he was on. His body filled out and gained a bit of muscle mass, a couple of inches, and something those watching couldn't put their fingers on. It was just something that they could feel in the air and it put them all on edge. Julia could tell that it had to do with the boy's aura, but she wasn't worried about that since, if he could do this while being trapped in his own mind, he was in no danger of dieing.

She was worried about something else, Ranma couldn't do things like normal people, oh no, he had to do it in a way that affected everyone around him. His first burst of Ki had nearly blown the protective walls all around Ranma to splinters and shattered them so that it was hard enough to see what was going on. Walls of energy had formed around Ranma and contained the energy release, but it looked like they were really straining to do so. Gina was nearby on the computer, she had mentioned that the force fields around Ranma had nearly been overwhelmed by the blast. She was amazed at the amount of power it would take to something like that to one of her devices.

Julia wasn't surprised, she had been there when they were tested by Brianna and her thirty millimeter Vulcan Cannon and a barrage of Peebo's, all of which failed to get through the force field. It hadn't even come close to falling, but Ranma's blast had come close enough to make it ripple into the visible spectrum. The effect had reminded her of the force fields that Theo tossed up now and then to protect them. Julia winced as another burst of power filled the area and obliterated what was left of the protective walls, but sighed in relief when the field held once again.

"That blast was 20% stronger than the one before it!" Gina yelled to Brianna.

Brianna was at another terminal, helping Gina control the spread of damage around Ranma. She was a bit surprised that Ranma could get to the second level of protection. First came the five inch thick plexy glass walls that were designed to bend with the force of an attack with out breaking. Then came the force field that could withstand twenty times as much punishment as the walls and Ranma was pushing them to the limt. After that came the third and final form of protection and Brianna was kind of hopeful that Ranma would break through the force field, they had never had a chance to test out the thing.

"Keep an eye on the pressure wave, Ranma's energy is flaring out of control. Whatever is happening to him is right at the point of blowing his body to pieces. I don't know how much more of this he can handle." Brianna said.

It was a Techno Magic device, incorporating technology and magic to produce certain results. In this case Ranma would be placed in a suspended animation crystal strong enough to survive a multi ton nuclear warhead explosion. Brianna thought it would be more than enough to hold Ranma if it came down to that. Gina had mentioned on numerous occasions that the crystal worked great against outside forces, she just wondered if it worked as well from the inside. It was one of the few areas that they couldn't really test and with the way Ranma was going, she had a feeling that their theory would be tested soon.

Julia turned to her husband. "Just what the hell did you do while you were in his head?"

Theodore Diggers shrugged and looked at Ranma. "I talked to him and kept him from falling deeper into his depression. His personality was also fractured due to the Neko Ken training he's suffering from, the dip in that spring didn't help things very much and he has been spending his time trying to master those meditation techniques that affect his mind."

"The meditation techniques, are they responsible for this?" Julia asked, she couldn't think of a reason why.

"Only partly, they have been breaking down the barriers in Ranma's mind so that he could get over the Neko Ken. With those barriers weakened, and with his guard was relaxed, he wasn't as strong mentally as he had been before he started his training. When he landed in the spring and found out he was now female some of those barriers shattered. That's why he acted the way he did, it was like a blow to his soul.

"So what else did you do to him?"

"I cast a spell to bring his fractured personality under control, since it was his mind he controlled the whole thing, but I didn't tell him that. At least not out right, I hinted at it and walked him through some things and he reabsorbed the aspects of his personality that had broken off. Since he was still in the denial stage he weathered it pretty well, I left when he wanted some time to think some things through. It was only a few minutes after I left that these surges started, I can only assume that he did something he shouldn't have."

"No kidding." Julia said sarcastically, Ranma was a student and she did not want him to die because of something like this. She was responsible for him.

"Don't worry about it, lets just try and help him while we can. He has to pull through this on his own, I'll help out when I have a better idea of what is going on."

"Alright."

"Guys, Ranma's energy levels is dropping almost as fast as it went up. He should be back to normal in a few minutes, the force field held." Gina announced.

"Confirmed!" Brianna said happily.

They all watched as the glow around Ranma grew smaller and smaller until it flickered like fire and finally vanished. The force field stayed up for several seconds incase something happened, then vanished as well. Gina rushed into the room and hit the emergency override on her computer and booted up the backups that Ranma hadn't destroyed. They scanned Ranma and with more detailed and powerful equipment than what Gina had available. The infirmary was one of the areas of the house that Gina had her most powerful computers.

"How is he Gina?" Brianna asked.

Gina was typing away like mad as she finished her first scan of Ranma. "He's slipped into a deep sleep. Whatever happened drained him of almost all of his energy, his Ki levels are nearly nonexistent but slowly rising."

"Hey, what happened to Genn?" Britanny asked. She had been keeping an eye out on everything while Gina and Brianna worked. "Wasn't he supposed to be watching Ranma?"

"I sent him out to get us some food, he should be back in an hour or so." Brianna said.

"Oh, I was worried about him."

"Alright everyone, it looks like Ranma is asleep so lets let him get his rest and we'll deal with this mess when he wakes up." Gina said as the infirmary walls were automatically replacing themselves. She had designed her home to fix itself as quickly as it could through the use of transporter devices modeled after her Light Gate technology. By this time tomorrow she knew that everything would be back to normal.

**********

Ranma came awake with a start and lay there for several seconds trying to figure out what was wrong. There was a bit of light streaming in from his window and highlighting one wall and as far as he could tell everything looked to be fine. He sat up and put his feet on the floor, he had yet to get used to the western style beds the Digger's used. They were made for making people lazy and encouraged him to sleep all the time. He sat there for several minutes listening to the sounds from out side, kids playing and cars driving by.

Standing up he noticed that he was in his boxers and wondered how that had happened. The last thing he remembered clearly was being Gina's car as they came back from....Jusenkyo. His eyes went wide as he remembered the curse, he nearly panicked as images flowed through his mind. Had that been real?! If so did he really turn into a short and busy red headed girl? Ranma had to know, he dashed out of his room and past a surprised Genn and into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass of water and poured it over his head and nearly fainted.

He had TITS, they were huge and took up most of the space on his chest. He felt weaker, shorter, and less than a man when he found something else missing. Ranma shuddered and forced himself to relax, he could deal with this. He carefully pulled reached over and got some hot water and poured it over his head and watched the change a second time. His body shifted and he felt his strength and power return, watched as his muscles grew back and his balance went back to normal. He sighed in relief when he found that everything was back to normal.

"Um...Ranma..."

Ranma's head whipped around and he noticed Gina sitting at the table drinking some water and working on a laptop. She was flushed and looked a little red around the ears. "What?"

"I do appreciate the show and all, but could you please pull your boxers up?" She said mildly and pointed behind him. "Your flashing the neighborhood kids."

Ranma looked confused and glanced behind him, right out into the street where some kids were trying to play touch foot ball. Several of the mothers on the sidelines had fainted while the guys were looking for a reason to kill him. Ranma being Ranma had been trained by his father to act a certain way in all situations. "Boxers, what about them?"

Gina gave him a leer and stared right at his waist. "Their around your ankles Ranma."

"Oh..." Ranma squeaked. He had been trained, that is not to say the training had took. He blurred and vanished from the spot faster than Gina could blink, he reappeared a few seconds later fully dressed and blushing a solid red.

"Thanks for the show handsome, your quite a bit more developed for your age than I had thought. Its so hard to tell when your unconscious and all."

"S-sorry a-about that, It won't happen again." Ranma mumbled.

Gina smiled and her glasses fogged up. "Don't stop on my account, I always enjoy a good floor show."

If it would have been possible Ranma would have turned even more red, instead he started to rub his toe on the floor in little patterns. Gina just giggled and went back to her computer work, she liked Ranma, but he was much to young for her. He would be quite a man in the next few years, but for now she knew that she didn't want him. If Ryan or Seance had done something like that she would have been all over them before they left the room, but Ranma didn't inspire that side of her. He was fun to tease though and, as she tapped a button on the computer, she had gotten the whole thing down on tape to watch later. It would be a good addition to her 'special' collection though.

"I've been doing some research on your curse Ranma."

His head came up and looked relieved to have a way out of the awkward situations. "You have?"

"Yep, your quite lucky in my opinion."

Ranma frowned, what in the world could be worse than being a girl? "Why?"

"You stay human, there are only five springs like that at Jusenkyo according to the files I've accessed on the site. Girl, man, pervert, Amazon, and drunk, everything else is an animal or monster of some kind. You could have ended up as a dog or something worse. There are rabbits, insects, bears, all kinds of things that would have infinitely worse than just changing sex."

Ranma grunted. "I would have rather become a dog or bear than this."

"You have a weird idea of what it is to be a girl Ranma, I think your wrong too. I would rather change into a man than become something like a panda or worse."

"If it had been anything other than a girl Gina, I could live with it with ease, even an animal curse. I change into a girl with water, I lose all my strength, my balance is off, I'm shorter, I have TITS for gods sake! I'm a man, I have to be, or all my training and the pain has been for nothing!"

"I don't understand Ranma, what does being a man have to do with anything? Do you realize that you have the ability to understand something that no man has ever had the chance to experience? Men have been trying to understand women for centuries now, you have a chance to do just this. You can learn things about being a woman that no man could ever understand, hour monthly cycles, how we think, how that body works differently than your male one. The examples are endless Ranma."

"Monthly cycle?" Ranma gasped out and paled as he realized just what that was, those magazines had been pretty informative on a great deal of things.

"Yeah, but don't worry about those we can deal with that when the time comes." Gina said obliviously. "I wanted to talk to you about something else anyway."

"What was that?"

"You've been out of it for nearly three days now, during that time I've had time to do some pretty extensive scans on both of your forms. Something other than getting the curse happened to you when you were blasted into that pool Ranma."

"What, there's more bad news?" Ranma sighed, when it rained it poured.

"I don't know if this is good new or bad news Ranma, I guess that is for you to decide on. Scans have revealed that your body structure has changed since you were in the healing tank. It's now more durable than anything I have ever seen, your strength seems to have increased as well as your mass..."

"Huh?"

Gina sighed. "That means your heavier than you were, this is true for both forms. There is also some odd energy readings that I haven't been able to figure out just yet, but I think it has something to do with the curse magic itself."

"Don't forget to mention that his aura has changed as well." Julia said as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Hi mom. What do you mean, his aura?"

"All living things have auras Gina, Ranma's aura has changed from what it was a week ago."

"How much?" Ranma asked.

"It's tripped in sized and intensity if I'm any judge and I've worked with Ki for some time now. Your aura used to barely move around except when you were in combat or injured, then it would flare up until things calmed down. Now it looks like your standing in the middle of a bonfire and your not even fighting or anything, I may have to teach you some special techniques I know just so you don't accidentally spontaneously combust on me."

"Hey, I have more control than that!" Ranma yelled.

"Enough to not kill yourself you mean, you are no where near a Ki adept yet Ranma, but there are teachers out there that can teach you what you need to know."

"I doubt that, me and pop have traveled all over Japan and China looking for people to teach us things, we have never come across someone like that."

"They exist, but are usually pretty picky about just who they train. Plus I never said anything about Japan or China, I was thinking about sending you to Jade to learn under several of the teachers there."

"Jade? Where is this place?" Ranma said in surprise, one of his few talents outside of martial arts was geography since he had walked over most of the planet on foot. "I know you guys have mentioned this place before, but I have no idea what it is."

"You do remember when you were at Shangri-la don't you?"

"Of course."

"That place is located just a step outside of normal time, that is what makes it so hard to reach. Jade is an entire world like that, a completely different dimension."

Ranma looked confused as he tried to figure that out, then blinked. "By different dimension, do you mean like some of those parallel worlds and things I've seen in Anime films?"

This time Julia blinked, she had never encountered an Anime film on Jade and she always stayed in America to be with her family. "Anime films?"

"That's a good example Ranma, going to Jade would be like visiting the Slayers world." Gina said.

"So it's all sword and sorcery stuff?"

"Yeah, that is a perfect way to describe Jade." Gina said and patted Ranma on the shoulder. He was pretty smart, just woefully uneducated, she had plans to take care of that if she had the time.

"How could a world like that be of help to me?"

"What do you mean Ranma?" Julia asked.

Open mouth, insert foot to ankle and chew vigorously. "Who can learn anything from bad sword fighters and cheesy wizards?" Ranma said in a confused tone of voice.

"WHAT WAS THAT, BOY?" Said a voice from behind Ranma that sounded like a mix between ancient vocal cords and coffins slamming shut.

Ranma turned around and saw a demon with a flaming skull smoking a pipe glaring down at him. "AGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Ranma jumped to the ceiling and quickly made his way out of the room before anyone could say anything otherwise.

"THAT WAS UNEXPECTED." The demon said mildly enough to make Gina's hair stand on end, and she was used to things like this too.

"Cut it out Theo, you scared the poor boy half to death."

"SERVES HIM RIGHT FOR INSULTING MAGIC LIKE THAT, I SWEAR IN MY DAY..."

"Theodore!!" Julia yelled, grabbed the flaming skulls ear and dragged him out of the room.

"BUT HONEY, HE..."

Gina just blinked, finished off her water and remembered that she had to tell Ranma about his magical attraction to water now too. She had forgotten about it in all the confusion. A few seconds work and she had set up a program in her computer to remind her of it later. A quick look out the window also reminded her of the little show Ranma had pu on for her, the women were still laid out on the ground with their husbands fanning them. 'You would think that living across the street from us they would be used to the odd thing like this happening. After all her sisters were always sunbathing in the nude during the summer.' Gina thought.

**********

Ace's access to equipment was beyond anything Gina had ever seen, he could get his hands on anything that flew. He had helicopters, Osprey, even WW1 bi-planes at the small air strip made up his home when he wasn't flying. He would go anywhere in the world if the price was right and had a reputation for being the best there was when it came to things that could fly. His skills made him one of the best in the world and he knew it. That was why he was using a Chinook helicopter.

Where he got the thing is a complete mystery, he wouldn't say, but Gina had a feeling that he had 'appropriated' the thing from someone. Jet jockeys were always trying to out fly him or kill him every now and then, they had been caught in a few of the fights. Ace's skills were without peer, unfortunately flying seemed to be his only passion. Penny had been trying to land him for years and had only been able to keep him down on the ground for a few days at most before he was back in the air again. Luckily Penny was still with the Amazons, that was why Gina, Cheetah, Brianna, and Ranma were here, to take the needed equipment to her and get the hydroelectric plant going for the Amazons.

Gina had loaded all the parts and equipment onto a large rented truck and spent the last week getting things ready while Ranma recovered from the curse and other things. Keeping him in the house and away from training had been a complete headache, it was he ever did when he was bored. He ate breakfast and went to train until lunch, then back out train until dinner. Julia had forbidden this while he was recovering and it had made the last few days very stressful. Ranma was not a happy camper when he could not train and forcing him to stay in his room watching TV or reading books had taken some pretty serious threats and bribes.

"What in the hell is that thing?" Gina asked. She had seen the things before, but she couldn't remember what it was called.

"That is a Boeing CH47 Chinook, it is a multipurpose helicopter." Ace said as the prepped it for a long flight.
"It looks like a giant hot dog with rotors at each end." Cheetah commented with a smirk.
Ace frowned and glowered at the smirking werecheetah. "Humph!! I'll have you know that the CH-47 is a twin-engine, tandem rotor helicopter designed for transportation of cargo, troops, and weapons. The aircraft fuselage is approximately 50 feet long. With a 60-foot rotor span, on each rotor system, the effective length of a CH-47 (with blades turning) is approximately 100 feet from the most forward point of the forward rotor to the most rearward point on the aft rotor. Maximum airspeed is 170 knots with a normal cruise speed of 150 knots." It looked like Ace was about to continue the speech, he had stars in his eyes.
"Whoa there Ace, I believe you, there's no need to go overboard!" Gina said hurriedly, though Brianna looked like she might have been interested. At least she had been fromt he moment Ace mentioned weapons and was giving the odd looking thing a once over for future potential. For some reason that bothered Gina even more, the last time Brianna had gotten that look their lay-z-boy chair had vanished for a week. When it reappeared it was a very comfortable floating weapons platform that could blow up a whole platoon of tanks. The test firing had brought the fire department and police running from all over town.
"Fine Gina, don't dis the equipment. Do you have everything you need on the truck?"
"Yes, we can unload it and get the helicopter loaded..."
"It would be easier to just prep the whole truck than unload it here and then drop everything there."
"It's rented, I don't think the rental company would be very happy if I took the thing out of the country."
"Just use that Light Gate thingy of yours to send it back here when your done with it."
"I don't trust that thing anymore, it messes up more and more lately."
"Oh Gina it works fine for equipment, it's just that living mass confuses it right now. I'm still trying figure out where that glitch came from." Brianna said, she was sweating nervously.
"Fine, but how are we going to get there?"
"Ace can still take us, there is some equipment in the second truck that I don't trust to Light Gate so you can take us over with that stuff." Brianna said.
Ranma and Cheetah stood in the background looking bored as they leaned against the truck. "Did you follow any of that?" Ranma asked.
"Nope." Cheetah said. "I'm the muscle and protection, this kind of stuff bores me to death."
"I know what you mean, thought since were heading back to the valley where Jusenkyo maybe there is someone there that could help out with my curse."
"Don't get your hopes up, Gina said that Penny already asked and the Amazons said there was no way."
Ranma grunted just as Ryan Talbot drove up beside the other transport and hopped out of the truck. He looked around and spotted Gina and Brianna talking to Ace and sauntered over with a smirk on his face. Ranma wasn't sure why, but the instant he had met the guy he had taken an instant dislike to him. His effect on Gina had been pretty obvious though, the girl had him wrapped around her finger. At least that was what Ranma thought, he had read it in one of those nasty romance novels that he had been forced to read while recovering. If there was anything more evil in the world than those things, he shuddered at the thought. He remembered Genn handing one to him on the second day of his 'imprisonment'.
"Here Ranma broaden your horizons, there is more to life than martial arts and training you know."
The things were horrible and evil, once he started he had found himself drawn into the thing and hadn't been able to put it down until he finished it. It had given him a stomach ache just reading it, but he just had to know what was going to happen next and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't fight it. Ranma had never heard of soap operas, but if he had, he would have known what happened to him. He had sworn never to touch the things again, and yet there was this new craving deep inside him to go and get the next one in the series. He figured it must be demonic possession or something and tried to ignore the feeling, either that or it had given him gas.
"Hey Gina!" Ryan yelled and hugged the girl.
"Hi Ryan, how as the trip?"
"Slow, that equipment of yours must be pretty sensitive to force me to keep the truck under 35, hopefully nothing was damaged."
"I hope so too, it took two days to get that thing packed up right and it seems it was for nothing."
"For nothing?"
"Yeah, Ace here is going to just air lift the entire truck to where we need it. I packed everything up to keep it from breaking when we had to move it around several times."
Ryan looks over at the helicopter. "That's an 'air crane' right?"
"Chin hook, the air crane is the one that has the main body removed and big square hole in the middle."
"Oh yeah, I saw one of those the other day."
Gina rolled her eyes, boys and their toys were a minor irritant to her, but at least they were cute. "Brianna lets..."
"No, no, no!" Brianna yelled and waved her arms. "The perfect place to mount the chain guns would be along the under belly and inside the main body."
"What! No way, the guns would be perfect with them mounted right below the cockpit that way it would be easier to fire them where you wanted them to." Ace said.
"Oh please!" Brianna said.
"Hey now you two..." Ryan tried.
Gina just pinched the bridge of her nose and hook her head, it was going to a long day and it had just started. She walked over to the first truck and pulled a small briefcase out of the back and opened it to reveal a satellite phone. She tapped a button and the small screen in the corner lit up, a ringing sound was heard several times before the screen flickered and a close up of an eye was seen.
"Aghhhhhhhh!!" Gina cried and fell back on her butt.
"Charlotte! I've already told you several time that you don't need to be so close to the screen for everyone to see you." Penny was heard to say on the other end.
"But...it's so small, how can it do that?" Charlotte whined.
"It just does, okay, now let me talk to Gina. Thank you." Penny said.
"How are things going there Penny?"
"Pretty good, the locals are a bit weird, but we managed to get some ground rules sorted out."
"Will there be any problems with us flying the equipment right in?"
"There shouldn't be, but Charlotte has caused quite a stir here and the locals are a but nervous about her."
"Why?"
"She looks like the one of the local tribes, the Phoenix Mountain Kingdom tribe to be exact, right down to the wings."
"I've heard of them, but never seen them before. How close is the resemblance?"
"Almost perfect, about the biggest difference is that the Phoenix people are the most arrogant and short sighted people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."
"Oh joy, I hope we don't meet up with them then."
"I can't help you there. They got wind of what the Amazons were doing and came in for a look, nearly set off a small war."
"A small war? If the conditions are that bad we won't be able to set up the hydro plant for them."
"We might be able to work something else out, the Phoenix don't trust humans, they've nearly been hunted to extinction over the years. There are only about 2000 of them left and they have turned human hatred into a religion. On the other hand they need some things we can provide and might be willing to trade for it if things work out."
"Let's work on it and see what we can come up with, The Foundation would be happy to finally have some understanding of that region. They've been hounding me for days now trying to get me to submit my findings."
"Heh, even I've heard from them all the way out here. They can wait, we can get everything set up when we get back."
"Agreed, now I need the coordinates for where you are, I'm going to light gate you the big and bulky stuff and some other equipment to help you get started. Ace is going to fly in the more sensitive stuff and the rest of the equipment."
"Right." Penny said and sent them through the satellite phone's mini computer.
"Got them, let me get some stuff set up and I'll have the stuff to you in ten minutes."
"I gotcha." Penny said and cut the connection.
"Gina, are you ready to get things set up and ready?" Ace calls over.
"Sure, are those cables still in the same place as last time?"
"Yeah, I'll go and get them since were taking the whole truck with us."
"Your going to fly that truck over the ocean and into China?" Ryan gasped.
"Yep, that chopper is designed for such long range hauling. I had to sacrifice over half of the passenger compartment for added equipment and fuel tanks, but it was worth it. I can stay in the air ten times longer than a normal chopper, I also had to give up a bit of the max weight I can carry, but it was worth it."
"Man I still don't see how this thing can make a flight like that." Ryan said.
Ace just grinned. "Well, I also rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up and made hundreds of little changes to get what I wanted."
"That's so cool man."
"I know."
"Boys." Gina says and rolls her eyes.

**********

Ace followed along the edge of the river for several miles outside the Amazon village until he spotted the cleared away forest and several acres of land with a small building straddling a swift running water fall. There were a number of robots moving around on both ends of the stream setting up a divergence so that they could finish setting up the last of the structure and get ready to install the hydro electric plant. He called back to Gina and had her come up to the cockpit.

"Gina, are those your Hurt Bots working down there?"

"Yep, I programmed them to take care of a lot of the details we needed done to get the place set up. We are here a lot earlier than I expected, by about thirty six hours or so, they should have everything ready within about twenty hours. That should give us enough time to learn what is going on and get some rest, this has been a tiring flight."

"I agree with that girl, I'm going to set your stuff down next to that building right there that Penny is standing by."

"That'll be perfect, the bots can get things where they need to go."

"Gotcha." Ace said and swung the Chinhook around and maneuvered his cargo into place and set the truck down and waited for Penny to cut the cables that were connected to the chopper. Then moved over and landed in part of the out of way field so that they wouldn't cause to much trouble.

"Thanks Ace, this shouldn't take to much time." Gina said and went back to grab her pack and let everyone they could get off. She needn't have worried, they were all off by the time she got there and were helping Penny off load that equipment that was in the small storage section on the Chinhook itself.

"All of you take one of those packages and take them over to the building and put all of them down in a corner, we'll get to all of it eventually." Penny yelled.

After getting everything off loaded Ace lifted off and flew out of the valley, he needed to get the Chinhook refueled and take care of some jobs while he was in the area. Gina and Penny waved goodbye as he flew off and were met by one of the tribal Elders of the Amazons. Gina recognized her as the one she had met when they were here before, Elder Cologne. "Hello Elder, how is everything going?"

Cologne laughed. "I hadn't expected things to be done this fast."

"Under normal circumstances this would have taken months, but with my bots we should be done in under a week."

"That soon?"

"After that the only thing left will be the fine tuning and since most of the developing for this was done on a computer is should be pretty simple."

"Very good child, very good. I'll be back a little later to see how things are going, I also want to talk about those metal men of yours. I'm going to leave a number of the girls here to keep an eye on things while you work."

"Sure...hey, do we have to worry about those rules of yours?" Gina said as Cologne started to hop off.

She stopped and turned around. "No, as I told Miss. Penny here, while you are doing this for us we will make sure most of the rules do not apply. Just don't push your luck or cause trouble." Cologne said and continued on her way.

"Right, and thanks I was a bit worried." Gina said as she turned back to Penny. "So how are things really going?"

"Pretty good actually, I wasn't expecting the bots until you arrived. They got right to work and most of this area cleared away within hours. Since they don't need sleep I think we can start getting things set up by tomorrow morning."

"Jinkies, this place is ready made for this kind of thing isn't it? I'll bring in another twenty units and have things ready to go within a few days. That will give us enough time to fix any bugs that will show up and see if there is anything else that needs to be done."

"Gina, what are us non techies supposed to do while you are working on this stuff?" Cheetah asked as she ran up.

"Ranma is here to talk to some of the Amazons, you and Ryan can lend a hand and start getting things unpacked. This place is going to be up and running by the end of the week and the faster things are ready, the faster we will be done."

"Oh joy, unpacking equipment is so high on my list of things to do today." Cheetah says an wanders off.

"Come on Gina, I thought were going to get some quality time together on this trip." Ryan says as he grabs Gina in a hug from behind.

"Cut it out Ryan, we can play later, right now I have to get this project finished. The Amazons provided us with a lot of information when we needed it and I need to repay them."

"You can make few minutes can't you?" Ryan tried again and kissed Gina's neck and jaw.

Ryan didn't know what hit him as he was suddenly airborne and landed face first in the side of a rock by the river. He groaned and shook his head to clear it as he sat up and looked back at Gina, who was smirking at him. Then a shadow blocked the sunlight from his eyes and he looked up into the eyes of a Hurt Bot and Cheetah, both of them did not look pleased. "Um...hi?"

"The mistress does not want to be bothered right now, she says you can play later so back off or I'll snap your spin in half." Said the Hurt Bot.

"Sis is all business right now Ryan, so back off until she is ready to do something or you'll get more of this." Cheetah said. "You know getting in the way of her work is nearly impossible and this project way up on the list. Penny is the same way so back off until later tonight and Gina might be in a more receptive mood."

"Fine." Ryan said as he stood up to dust off his pants. "Since when can she flip someone like that?"

"She's a geek, she didn't flip you, she activated her force field in a burst and sent you flying off her. Right into this nice soft rock that broke your fall lover boy." Cheetah said with a snicker as she left.

The Hurt Bot glared for a second before moving off.

"Oh...great." Ryan muttered and wandered off looking for something to do. Then he saw something that he hadn't expected, a large group of girls over by the helicopter. He recognized them as some of the Amazon girls that had been left behind to guard the area while Gina and Penny worked.

He wandered over to see what all the fuss was about and noticed the kid going through some pretty complex kata routines. His special ability of reflexive memory make such things almost useless for him, but doing them occasionally did improve his reaction time when he really needed it. Ranma was going through one of the advanced kata of Karate mixed with something he didn't recognize, but Ryan was instantly able to figure out it's use. Just recently he had figured out how Daishi did his Ki blasts and Ranma was using his Ki to increase the power and speed of his kata.

This happened to be the one area that Ryan couldn't improve upon by just watching, he could memorize and copy any move, but sense Ki was internal there was nothing to see. He had to train in its use just like anyone else would, it also galled him that the kid was better at the stuff than he was. He watched Ranma some more, then gasped along with the women as he took to the air to practice his aerial maneuvers. To Ryan they were almost to fast to see and Ranma's skill at them made for a flawless execution, Ryan's mind cataloged and incorporated Anything Goes and in an instant had several of the most powerful moves to the style down. He liked to show off his skills too and with all these girls here he would have a good audience.

"Is that all you can do? Jump in the air and punch a few times?" Ryan said in a condescending voice." He grinned at the silence that swept through the girls and made Ranma stop. He flinched a little as he saw all the girls watching him before glaring at Ryan.

"That sounds like a challenge to me."

"It was, anything you can do, I can do better." Ryan said with a smirk.

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

"Then bring it on pretty boy." Ranma said with a matching smirk and the girls began to whisper among themselves.

Both boys ran at each other and exploded into a frenzied fight that had them bouncing all over the field. The girls cheered them on and attracted more people into the gathering crowd of on lookers. Ranma was instantly impressed with Ryan's skill as they fought, he recognized things about his style that hinted at dozens of different schools of martial arts. Like Anything Goes, his style had incorporated moves from hundreds of different sources, but there was something odd about it that Ranma couldn't put his finger on. There was something there that he felt he should have recognized almost instantly, something subtle. It wasn't anything he could put into words, just a feeling he had.

Ryan was in heaven, he loved taking on fighters that used a school he didn't know. He was adding new moves and actions into his own style with every jump and kick they pulled off. To his surprise he could see that Ranma was doing the same thing, adapting and adjusting to the fight to better defeat his opponent. Through out the fight they had only tagged each other a few times and it was getting more and more intense by the moment. Ryan had heard that Daishi had beaten Ranma on two different occasions now so he delved into the maneuvers that he had seen the ninja use.

The change in style didn't phase Ranma all that much, but he was surprised that this guy knew Daishi's fighting style. He didn't come off as being a ninja, he didn't walk right, unless he was a lot more skilled than what he let the world see. Ranma did that all the time since it made people underestimate him, but this was different. Ryan's skill hadn't increased in the least, he had just changed styles and picked up the pace. Then Ranma narrowed his eyes as the style began to change again, almost unconsciously. He threw out several experimental punches and suddenly smirked at Ryan.

"That's a mistake that is going to cost you this fight." Ranma taunted.

"Ha! You can't beat me no matter how much you try."

"Oh well, I did try to warn you." Ranma said and launched the fight into the air. Ryan followed him and they were soon going at it twenty feet above the crowd. They made noises of awe and surprise, several of the women started to cheer on their favorites.

Ranma put on his most annoying smirk and threw a punch at Ryan's face while leaving an opening for a blow to his chest. Ryan took it and launched a kick, but Ranma blurred out of the way. The mistake was instantly apparent, but he tried to recover and failed as Ranma kicked him several times in his exposed back and sent him flying into the ground with a back hand to the jaw that rattled his brains. Then Ranma landed with his knee in his stomach and buried his fist in the stone beside his head. The field went silent at the unexpected feat of strength.

"You have the ability to copy or instantly learn new techniques, but you kept making mistakes. I thought at first that you were doing them on purpose, but the few times I tested you nothing happened. I don't know who taught you how to fight, but even if you can perform the most difficult moves with ease, you have ignored the most basics of hand to had combat and that can be used against you. Your arrogance is also a weakness, it made you sloppy as we fought."

Ryan groaned in pain.

"The beating is for stealing my school without permission and trying to use it against me was your worst mistake. I've trained in Anything Goes for over ten years now and know every move inside and out." Ranma said as he stood up. "You really should have known better."

Ryan groaned again and passed out.

"The final technique was a shiatsu blow to your stomach that can knock you out if hit correctly." Ranma finished.

"That was great Ranma!" Brianna yelled from the crowd and clapped. The Amazons nodded and dispersed without a sound, Ranma was only a man after all. An impressive fighter, but they were better than any man.

"Thanks Brianna."

"Ryan is really hard to beat, he has this habit of pulling nearly impossible moves on people."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he learned a lot of his martial arts from movies and video games."

"That explains a lot of his style, I felt like I was fighting Jackie Chan for some reason, I'm lucky I've seen all his movies." Ranma said with a grin.

"Indeed, how long do you think he will be out like that?"

"About an hour unless he had more Ki control than what I could see."

Brianna grabbed Ranma's arm and smiled at him as she pulled out this huge weapon of some kind, from where he had no idea, just that it appeared in her hand and started to hum as she flipped the power on. "Then let's go and get some target practice in!"

Ranma groaned as she dragged him across the field.

**********

"Hey Penny, where is Charlotte?" Gina asked the next day as they watched the Bots finishing up the last of the buildings they would need for the power plant.

"I'm not sure, some winged girl came flying in earlier this morning and they flew off together. She called her self Kima or something like that, seemed quite surprised that Charlotte was even here. They should be back later."

"This Kima was from Phoenix Mountain?"

"Yeah, she was some type of big wig or something. She had quite the attitude about us 'lowly humans' and such. When we were talking she kept insulting me as if I couldn't hear her, I just ignored her though. Her insults were a bit juvenile really, I could tell that she hadn't been around much of us modern humans before. The worst thing she called me was a hairless monkey, I almost fell over laughing." Penny said with a grin.

"Hah, I guess we don't have to worry to much then."

"How is Brianna doing with that little project you sent her on?"

"That rock face? I don't know, it was about thirty minutes ago and I haven't heard any..."

BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...BOOOOMMM!!! Followed by the sound of crashing stone, several other explosions and what sounded like small arms fire.

"Explosions yet..." Gina sighed and looked down the river some distance and she could see her sister standing along the newly leveled bank with a smoking plasma rifle and a hundred watt smile lighting up the area.

"Gina that girl has explosives on the brain, you really should talk to her."

"Don't think I haven't tried, even mom has tried to get her to tone things down a bit, but she just loves big guns and large explosions."

"Hey, who is that at her feet?"

"That would be Ranma, I could recognize that color scheme anywhere."

"I think even Ranma knows better than to get in between Brianna and her weapons."

"The first decent sign of intelligence I've seen him use." Gina said knowingly and grinned.

Penny just giggled and nodded.

They were interrupted as a blast of wind washed over them and Charlotte came in for a landing and back winged to slow herself down. She landed beside Penny and hugged her happily. "Hi Penny!"

"Hi Charlotte, how did things go with your friend?"

"Kima is really nice, but she doesn't like humans very much. She kept trying to get me to come back to the mountain with her so that I could be with my own people."

"Why that little..."

"That confused me because I don't ever remember being there at her mountain and yet it is 'where I belong'?

"Your perfectly fine where you are Charlotte, you don't need to go with them."

"Thanks!" Charlotte said and hugged Penny again. "Kima said that you were just using me and that you didn't care about me in the least."

"I'll rip her head for saying such a thing!" Penny growled.

"You will do no such thing child." Said an elderly voice from behind them. They turned to see Elder Cologne hanging off her stick.

"...and why not, they tried to take my friend away from me!" Penny yelled, Charlotte was the first friend she'd made in years and wasn't about to give her up.

"The three tribes of this valley have been at an uneasy peace for about a hundred years now, ever since the last Musk War where that tribe was nearly wiped out of existence. Lord Kima's actions are perfectly normal from her point of view, she will continue to try and take Charlotte away from you. So the sooner you finish and leave the better, I doubt the Phoenix will follow you all the way back to America."

"Were still several days away from completion of this thing, isn't there something else you can do?"

"No, we will not anger the Phoenix."

"Oh." Penny said and frowned. "This a set back I hadn't considered before."

"I've got an idea." Gina said.

"What's that?"

"Let's send all non needed personnel home, or on a vacation of some kind."

"A vacation?" Penny asked, not comprehending what was being said.

"Yeah, I only brought all the other along to help out and their not really needed anymore. So let's send Ryan, Brit, Ranma, Bri, and Charlotte to some vacation spot. It would get them out of our hair while we finish this and protect Charlotte from the Phoenix, were only going to be here for a few more days anyway."

"Where would we send them?"

"I was thinking one of the places we have permanent light gate set up, Jade, The Retreat, or California."

Penny looked over at Ace as he lounged in the grass by his helicopter with several girls sighing over him. "That might be a good idea, it would cure a number of problems."

"What is this Retreat or Jade you speak of?" Cologne asked.

Gina started, she had forgotten the Elder was standing there. "The Retreat is exactly what it sounds like, over the centuries humans have tried to hunt into extinction things they just could not understand. Werecreatures are on of these, the Retreat is where they went to keep from being murdered because they were so different than the regular humans."

"I had noticed the werecheetah running around here, I've already gotten several requests for permission to kill it already. I was wondering about it."

Gina's eyes turn cold. "My sister is the last of her kind, when she dies there will be no more were-cheetah left, if anyone lays a hand on her..."

"Calm down child, she is obviously non violent and hasn't strayed into areas that we can't keep an eye on her. Right now she is in the helicopter over there sleeping, something she has been doing since yesterday. Besides, all of you are under being treated as untouchables to the tribe, we won't bother you if you don't bother us. That was the agreement and the few guards here are to keep the others away, though they seemed to have taken a liking to the males you brought with you." Cologne said and cackled.

"Right." Gina said and turned to Penny. "Can you get everyone rounded up, we'll let them decide where they want to go."

"Okay, I'll be right back."

"What about that other place you mentioned, Jade?"

"Jade is a parallel world much like except that magic is the main form or power there instead of technology like it is here. They still operate on a much smaller level than we do in the modern world. This area of China is a good example of that Jade is like, small villages and towns that keep to themselves except on rare occasions. Here and there are larger towns and in a few cases cities. The biggest difference is that the other races are there, elves, dwarves, giants, dragons, and anything else you can think of. I've been there several times now, it is a good place to relax so long as you don't mind putting up with the modern conveniences like plumbing and such."

"Sounds like and interesting place, how would one go about getting there?"

"There are several ways Elder, a dimensional teleport spell is the most common way. There are also several gates set up around the world where one can just walk through into Jade, but most of those are heavily guarded."

"Which way do you use?"

Gina grinned. "I use my father, he is a Arch mage in Aura Magic and on the Mage Council on Jade."

Cologne paled a bit and backed off the subject. "I-I see, well good luck to you and tell your friends to enjoy themselves while they are on their vacation."

"Of course Elder." Gina said mildly, she was only a little irritated that the old woman would try and get information out of her that she didn't want to give out.

"Hey Gina!"

Gina turned to see all of her friends heading for her and grinned, one vacation coming up and they would be out of her hair for a few days. She rubbed her hands together and beckoned them over for a little talk. "Guys, I had this idea and seeing as your all so bored an all..."

**********


To Be Continued...


Notes1 - That's enough for now and ties up a good number of loose ends and sets us up for the next chapter quite nicely. I've had several requests to shorten the chapters so that they can be put out faster so I'll see what I can do. Strider Richards gave me some help with this chapter and made a number of suggestions that helped to improve it quite a bit too.

Notes2 - On my other stories, I nearly have the next chapter to Princess of the moon done (75kb or so) and I should have it out soon, it's a turning point chapter and I have number of things I need to check over before I post it.

Uncles has a short chapter ready, I'll post it as soon as I find most of the mistakes just to finish up the cliffhanger I left with the last chapter.

The Replacement...I have about 30kb of work done on the next chapter and I hate it so much that I'm thinking of scrapping it completely and starting over...

The Strange Days revision is coming along fine, I'm working on chaper 07 right now and should have it done in a few days. Thanks

**********

Side note...

Found the information on the Chinhook at http://www.ch47.org/chinook.htm it was pretty interesting too. I figured I'd include this stuff just incase someone thought I was making it up, though the one Ace uses is a CH-47D experimental version. ^^

General Characteristics, CH-47 Chinook
Manufacturer:
Boeing Company

Power Plant:
Two Textron Lycoming T55-L712 engines

Length:
99 feet (30.18 meters), including rotor lengths

Height:
19 feet (5.79 meters)

Rotor Diameter:
60 feet (18.29 meters)

Empty Weight: 24,000 lbs

Maximum Gross Weight: 50,000 lbs

Useful load:26,000 lbs

Forward and aft cargo hooks: 17,000 each or 25,000 lbs tandem

Center cargo hook: 26,000 lbs

Cruise speed: 150 Knots

Max Speed: 170 Knots

Ceiling: 20,000 feet (6,080 meters)

Range: 385 nautical miles

Crew: Four

Sensors Available:
Raytheon AN/APQ-174A for terrain following flight, air-to-ground ranging and ground mapping

Raytheon AN/AAQ-16 forward looking infrared (FLIR)

Introduction Date: 1963