Anime Addventure : Emperor Ranma of Mongo

by tutcat

as the title says (all stories up for adoption)

3. Outers play nice

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: So you're actually an alien prince raised on Earth?

by Kestral

Sailor Pluto sat back in the recliner. "So you see our concern?"

"I have absolutely no desire to go invading Earth," said Ranma quite honestly. "Heck. I didn't even know I was some kinda alien prince until a few days ago."

"An alien prince born and raised on Earth who discovers the Truth in his teenage years? It happens more often than you'd think," Pluto assured the boy.

"So we don't get to kill him?" Uranus sounded disappointed.

Sailor Pluto rolled her eyes, ending with a heavenward look and silent plea for endurance.

"And would you stop doing that?" Uranus complained.

Sailor Saturn glanced over briefly at Ranma and her "parents" before returning to her conversation with her newest friend. "Wow. So what do they call this game again?"

"They call it Emperor IV. Oooh! Good move. You convinced the Rastafarians that the Communists had stolen their Organic Resources and they're now at war. You'll be able to take them both over when they're weakened." The ghostly looking being nodded in appreciation. "How did you know to do that?"

"It's kind of like the clique politics in Middle School," explained Hotaru.

"Ah. By the way, if you keep looking at Emperor Ranma like that, he'll notice," said the hologram.

"Eeep!" Hotaru suddenly found the game even more fascinating.

"You know," said the hologram, "he's available. From what I understand you're a princess. Forming a link between your kingdom and his would potentially benefit both."

Hotaru considered fainting.

Setsuna overhears and gets ideas.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Horses And Fireflies

by Kender

Over where she had been talking with Ranma, Setsuna had overheard Hotaru's little conversation. And seen the slight blush that the Senshi of Saturn had when she had been caught looking at the young Emperor. Both of which spoke of the younger girl's interest in the boy. Which proceeded to begin to turn the cogs in her head.

If Hotaru were interested in Ranma, and he wound up interested in her, then they could set up some kind of relationship. In that way, several things could be dealt with all at once.

First off, it would give the young Senshi a chance to have a guy who wouldn't be frightened off by the weirdness in their lives, and the powers that she had. Hotaru could be treated as an attractive young girl who would be very nice to be with, which she was.

As an added bonus, it would set things up so that they would have relations with a foreign power that didn't want to invade. Each of the enemies that they had faced, from the Dark Kingdom on, had attacked them first. But with this Empire, they'd be able to get to have relations with and make sure that they were good ones from the beginning. And if they played their cards right, they'd have an ally if some other enemy came along.

A political marriage would do that, but it would best for all those around if the pair to be wed actually liked each other before hand. Though, she would never push Hotaru into a simply political arrangement. This just gave he more choices and allowed her to help the girl be happy at the same time.

None of this showed up on her face while she was thinking, and she made sure that none of those with her noticed her considerations. It would take quite a bit of meddling, but she thought that she might be able to get the two of them headed fairly far into being together. Just a little leading conversation here, and a bit of information dropping there, and things would start to fall right into place.

"So... what is the life like around here?" the Senshi of Time asked idly.

"Huh?"

"You know. Festivals... Foods... Weddings... That sort of thing."

"Well... I uh..."

"Take your time. We have plenty of it, after all," she soothed while:

Setsuna worked out her plans in her head.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Interview with a vampire... waitress?

by Kestral

Setsuna smirked as the four of them prepared to meet with the evil Emperor again at dinner.

"He has absolutely no idea what a seraglio is," said Haruka to herself. "How can a guy be that ignorant about things like that?"

"From what I understand, he's spent a lot of time being pulled from school to school - and more time out of school than in it," said Michiru demurely.

"He seems like a nice Emperor," observed Hotaru uncertainly, not knowing what a seraglio was either.

"Yes," agreed Setsuna. "However he should have an advisor around. Someone who isn't connected to the power cliques that are in place. Someone who can also keep an eye on him to see that he remains friendly to our kingdom."

Haruka scowled as she went through a selection of formal court gowns before deciding on a leather outfit that had bronze plates sewn on. Particularly with the reinforced knuckles. Now THIS she could wear. "I don't know when I'd have the time."

"Someone who understands subtlety," said Setsuna quietly.

Michiru frowned. Time away from her concert schedule?

A gentle rap on the door broke the mood of conspiracy. What entered had two of the Senshi reaching for transformation pens.

Mongo had developed a number of worlds and moons since Ming's days. They had also seen a few refugees from other wars held elsewhere in the galaxy and a few people who were just quite simply lost. The creature entering was tall, pale, red eyed, fanged, and a skimpily dressed very quite obviously female mammal.

"Good evening," said the woman in what sounded like a thick Bavarian accent. "Dinner vill be serveid... shortly."

"What or who is on the menu?" Haruka asked, the appearance of a vampire having awakened earlier concerns.

"Ve have four selections available... if you vill indicate vhich of these... vill be acceptable?" The vampiress held up a clipboard. "Ve has the Brazed Tetrasaur In Almond Sauce... the Roast Duck L'Ming... the Fvuit Savad... and ve has the Barbequed Beetle in Mint."

"You have asthma," noted Hotaru. "That's why you keep gasping for breath."

"Respiratory difficulties," corrected the woman, "I has a respirator."

"Oh," said Michiru. Somehow a vampiress with asthma didn't seem quite the threat. "What do you recommend?"

"My vace ist vegetarian, so the fvuit savad," suggested the woman.

Haruka put her pen away with a disappointed scowl. Asthmatic vegetarian vampires? What was the world coming to?

"Fruit salad," said Hotaru. Neither beetle nor "tetrasaur" sounded particularly appetizing.

"What will the Emperor be having?" Setsuna asked, curious.

"Ve Emperor has a... health appetite," said the waitress. "Probably all of above."

"Fruit salad?" Michiru said questioningly with an eye towards Haruka.

"Duck," said Haruka.

"Tetrasaur tastes like chicken if I recall," mused Setsuna. "It's been awhile."

"Very good," the waitress said with a curtsey. "Ve vill be ready in a half hour. If you need anything elve... please pull on rope."

Waiting for the waitress to leave, the discussion quickly turned to other ideas to use that half hour.

"I think we should mingle with the populace, that way we'll find out if this 'Ranma' is pulling a fast one," suggested Haruka.

"I propose that we see what kind of art they have on hand, it may tell much about Mongolian culture," was Michiru's suggestion.

"..." Hotaru was too embarrassed to suggest going shopping.

Setsuna thought for a moment, then

seconded Haruka's suggestion.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Taking A Walk

by Kender

"Actually, Haruka might have something there," commented Setsuna.

The Senshi of Uranus blinked. "I do?"

"Yes, even you can have a good idea once in awhile."

"Well, thanks... HEY!"

Setsuna just smiled while Michiru and Hotaru giggled.

"Oh great, just laugh it up."

"We will."

"But do you think that that would be a good idea?" asked Michiru as Haruka sulked.

"It could not hurt, and it'd give us a sense of how the general feeling of the population is."

"How does that do anything?" asked Hotaru.

"It's simple. No matter how nice the ruler is, unless the people at least respect him, he can never truly run his nation."

"Then we're going to go outside?"

"It seems that way. Let's just tell the maid before we go."

"Okay!"

"This is..," growled Haruka.

Michiru looked at her. "Yes?"

"Absurd! All these potential enemies, and not one of them available to fight!"

"Rather relaxing," observed Setsuna, "isn't it?"

"I'd just like to get the lowdown on this 'Ranma' character is all."

"Oh, are you talking about the Emperor?" asked a voice off to the side.

The Outers turned and saw a human looking couple standing nearby. He was barrel chested and rather tall, while she was shorter and slim.

Setsuna raised an eyebrow. "Can we help you?"

"Well, we couldn't help but overhear you talking. Are you from outside the empire?" asked the woman.

"You might say that," answered Michiru.

"That's wonderful!"

"It is?"

"Oh yes! It has been a while since we have been able to have tourists on Mongo."

"Tourists?"

"We haven't really had many of them, you know. After all, they haven't exactly come... willingly at times."

"Why don't you just call them 'prisoners of war' and be done with it?" grumbled the man.

"Because I was attempting to be diplomatic. My husband is a captain in the military, so things tend to be a bit more cut and dried with him."

"But not for you?" asked Setsuna.

"Of course. I am an architect, and when one has to deal with a customer's demands for perfection in their home, it helps to be able to work with them."

"You seem to be good at it."

"Why thank you. But it does help if one remembers some of our past."

"Oh?"

The man grunted. "A while back we had an Emperor by the name of Ming. VERY nasty man, with a habit of putting the various groups against each other."

"Ah... To keep them too busy fighting each other to become a threat to him."

"Exactly. And when someone decided to do something about him, that person didn't live for very much longer."

"So what happened to him?" asked Haruka.

"Deposed and supposedly by a group lead by some people from Earth."

"People from Earth?"

"Yes. Only they left after they did it, and things didn't stay regular for long."

The Senshi of Time nodded. "Once everything that had held them together had left, they fell to fighting amongst themselves."

"Exactly. Then it turned out that Ming hadn't died, and he came back to take things over again. Only to die a while back after choking on some food."

"Silly way to die," Haruka commented with a snort.

"That may be, but that left it clear for his son Wang to take over."

"Was he as bad?"

"Not at all. He prefered to do everything real peaceful like. Building and adding to the Empire by annexation through treaty."

"What happened to him?"

"Killed by some renegades. And replaced by that madman."

"What?"

"He was just plain vicious through and through."

"What my husband means," explained his wife, "is that the... replacement ruled with an iron fist. He like to be ruthless, and didn't care about what happened to those he ruled."

"He's not still around, is he?"

"Someone blew him up."

"Ah..."

"Aren't you going to get in trouble for talking like that about the former rulers?" inserted Michiru.

"Of course not. With the coming of this new Emperor, things haven't been better!"

"Eh?"

"He's freed political prisoners, visited with the people, and if what's been shown from the Arena of Death is true, he's a strong warrior as well."

"So... you like him."

"It is a bit early, but everything seems to be great. He has large public projects going, the farms are thriving, and he's managed to stay strong without being cruel."

"That's very... nice."

"For us it is. I mean, it has been a while since we have been able to walk freely without worrying about being overheard and reported for some imaginary crime."

"Wish we could say the same," groused Haruka, jerking her thumb behind her, "We have those guys trailing everywhere after us."

The couple looked beyond the foursome, and their eyes widened. "Forgive us, my Lady. We didn't realize your station."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Those are the Emperor's personal guards."

"So he was having us watched."

"Only for your protection. You must be someone of great importance to garner that sort of treatment."

"Uhh..."

"We're going to have dinner with the Emperor!" piped up Hotaru.

"What?! Many apologies, we did not mean any disrespect to such honored guests!"

"You don't have to do that..."

"But... we are only showing the respect that one of your station is due."

"Oh...kay..."

Setsuna hid a smile and decided to rescue the native couple. "We really must be going now. Important date and all."

"Of course..," the man said, and hustled his wife away.

"So everyone, I believe that we have a meal to attend."

The other three Outers nodded and headed back to the Palace, while:

Haruka attempted to reconcile her assumptions with what she had heard.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Stop and listen

by Kestral

"...races later today in honor of our foreign guests..."

You could practically see Haruka's ears twitch as she slowed her previous "frustrated stalking forward" to something more along the line of "did someone mention racing?"

Setsuna smirked and slowed her pace so as not to outpace the other Outers.

A small group of Mongolians, wearing fairly simple rugged-looking clothing were speaking among themselves. Loudly enough to carry through, and from the various flasks held in gesticulating hands - they were speaking fairly freely.

"...seen them?" A sandy haired youth wiped his nose with the back of his hand and blinked owlishly at his companions.

"Yer forgetting' who you're talking to. I've got a cousin who works with General Mille herself!" Another youth, this one with his back to the Outers, proudly proclaimed. "I hadda deliver a bubbly pie from Aunt Sludge to cousin Wedge, I did. Which was when I saws them!"

"So what they look like? I heard they be all graceful and elegant-like. Beautiful princesses from some of them there Earth Kingdoms and they just so attractive they take your breath away," a third youth exclaimed, this guy seeming to be mainly nose sticking out from under a truly ridiculous hat.

Hotaru blushed. Michiru automatically posed with Haruka. Setsuna raised an eyebrow.

"Yer daft," said a fourth, this one looking like some particularly unenlightened Buddha. "What I heard was that they be assassins come here to kill the new Emperor, they look okay - but they're nasty foul insect warriors from some Moon Queen Hive."

Hotaru winced. Michiru and Haruka frowned. Setsuna shook her head.

"Here's the straight up," said the bubbly pie deliverer. "They're led by some scowling pretty-boy type named Ur Asshole."

Haruka made a startled noise and didn't look happy.

"Funny name," said the sandy haired youth. "Though I suppose ours would probably sound odd to them."

"If'n I may continue," said the bubbly pie deliverer. "He's one of those uptight sorts. Probably will cancel the races, seems the sort to have no sense of humor at all. Real hardcase. He's got this gal with the green hair. Probably a secretary. Looks like a real S&M type. And no, Fil, I don't mean Spaghetti and Meatballs. How you got so big eatin' such weird food. Anyhow they got two others wit' em. They've got two soldiers. One looks to be a young cadet type - probably a scholar. You can tell she don't get out inna sun much. The others some real ice queen type. Probably freeze a man solid she would."

Setsuna's mouth quirked at teenage boys being teenage boys. Apparently even on other worlds. Haruka frowned and was all for going over and having a word with the youths for saying she had no sense of humor. Michiru looked thoughtful. Hotaru looked embarrassed.

Setsuna decided to defuse things by gesturing the others to remain back while she approached the knot of youths. Close up she could see (and smell) that her earlier observations were correct. Six youths of approximately Middle School age, with rough hewn but serviceable clothing - most with stains and other signs of wear. "Excuse me, did you say there were going to be races?"

One of the youths looked and seemed to freeze in place. The sandy haired youth just pulled out a book. "Aye. Someone thought'd be good to have a sky chariot race in honor of that foreign delegation visiting. They've still got two slots open, but with 'Crash' Herkimer competing it's a done deal. Best odds I can give ya are 40:1 for anyone else."

"I see," said Setsuna, glad that it wasn't going to be something barbaric.

"Are sky chariots fast?" Haruka asked from her position.

"Yeah they're..." the sandy youth and the others looked towards Haruka and froze. If they didn't recognize the group initially, the sight of the Imperial Guard was enough to indicate they'd overspoken. "Ahhhhh. Run away!"

Setsuna shook her head as the boys scattered. So much for any additional information.

"Dinner is ready, miladiessss," hissed a short reptile in a guard uniform.

"So are sky chariots fast?" Haruka asked the reptile.

Dinner with the Emperor. What could go wrong?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Dinner Date

by Kender

The Outers entered the lavish room in which they were to have dinner, and gazed around as they did so. Hangings in the royal colors hung on walls that arched up several stories into the air. A relatively small table sat at a balcony that gave a wondrous view of the city beyond. Upon that table sat shining bowls of definite expensiveness that overflowed with appetizers and treats.

Walking across the room with the echoing of their heels being the only sound, they took their seats and looked around. Before them sat a repast that spoke of wealth and importance.

And it seemed that their host was missing.

"Isn't your Emperor supposed to be here?" Michiru asked what seemed to be a majordomo.

"Ah yes," replied the rocky looking fellow in the tidy uniform, "His Majesty was slightly... detained by other matters."

"Like what?"

Just then the doors slid open and Ranma stepped through, hurrying over to the table. "Sorry 'bout that, but I was sparrin' and they know I like ta do it so they sorta forgot ta remind me."

"Oh, you were having fun?" asked Hotaru.

"Yeah, but it's also a good idea ta keep up my skills. So, I take a few practice rounds in the Arena of Death once in awhile."

"'Arena of Death'? That doesn't sound too nice..."

"It ain't like I really kill anyone. Someone else named it, so I got stuck with it. But it does give me someplace ta get some great bouts in."

"So it isn't to the death?"

"Not really. Creature I fought today's gonna get some extra food, special beddin', and plenty a care tonight."

"That's what took up your time, I suppose," commented Setsuna.

"Yeah. I always like a good bout, but it sorta gets easy ta forget now and then."

"But you did manage to show up only a bit later than we did."

"I did. That's good, but what's with her?" Ranma asked, gesturing towards where Haruka was slumped in her seat.

"Oh, her? She's a might put out that they won't allow her to join in on the sky chariot races."

"Huh? Why not?"

The majordomo cleared his throat. "She is to be one of those that the race is in honor of, Your Majesty. It would be most... unseemly if she were to compete as well."

"There ain't any way ta get her in?"

"Not at this moment, no. Unless Your Highness wishes to overrule the committee at this late date."

"It wouldn't be fair ta them either. Hey, I got it! How's about we get her a sky chariot of her own, and that way, we can have all the races that she wants ta compete in."

"Very good, Sire."

Michiru blinked as Haruka straightened out. "You would do that for her?"

"Yeah, why not?"

That rendered the two speechless for a moment, in which the meal was served. Plates with the foods that they had chosen were placed before them, and their goblets filled to the brim with liquid.

As such, the dinner began. During which:

Haruka began to wonder what was going on.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Haruka's new wheels

by Kestral

Dinner was interrupted.

"Miss Uranus' sky chariot has been prepared when she is ready to inspect it," said a tall insectile being.

"Oh, gee, uhm, I'm done!" Haruka announced.

Michiru rolled her eyes and muttered something about "tomboys and their toys" in such a soft breath that you'd need superhuman hearing or eavesdropping equipment to pick it up.

Of course, both were trained on her at the moment, so the comment was duly recorded.

The sky chariot turned out to have a certain vague resemblance to a Roman chariot. It had a "cockpit" that was open in the back and a pair of wheels that looked like they could have gone on such a vehicle. That was where the resemblance ended, however.

"It... has a lot of chrome," said Ranma, trying to find something to say.

"Yeah, doesn't it!" said a more enthusiastic Haruka.

"Big engine," was Michiru's tactful comment.

"Yeah, doesn't it!" said a more enthusiastic Haruka.

The Roman-esque "cockpit" comprised about 1/10 of the total space of the sky chariot. Everything else was engine as near as everyone could tell.

"Haruka. You're salivating. That is not... elegant." Michiru pointed out. She half expected Haruka to get some puppy-dog-eye look and ask her...

"Can we keep it?"

Michiru pinched the bridge of her nose. It was going to be a long trip back. And perhaps spend less time around the Inners.

Hotaru looked around, finding her gaze resting on Ranma at frequent intervals, and then jerking her eyes away and looking embarrassed.

Setsuna noticed. So did (in the eavesdropping room) the Imperial Mother - Nodoka.

Nodoka contacts Setsuna about Hotaru's potential "ambassador" status.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Grown Up Talk

by Kender

Having noticed that there were four rather attractive young ladies coming to visit her son, Nodoka had taken interest in what was happening. All through their visit with him, she had kept an eye on them. Not that she had thought that they were going to do anything really terrible, but because of her own personal reasons. Which had been fulfilled if what she had seen was true.

However, it would still be proper to contact the child's parents or guardians. So, she went looking for them as they were preparing for their trip back to the Earth. Haruka was still going on about her new toy, and Michiru was continuing to listen with her strained smile plastered on her face. But they didn't seem to be in charge, so she didn't think to speak with them. Talking about this particular matter with Hotaru was out of the question, which left only one choice left.

"Pardon me, but may I speak with you?" Nodoka asked the Senshi of Time.

Setsuna turned. "Yes, may I help you?"

"I understand that you were enjoying your time with my son."

"So, you are Ranma's mother."

"That is so."

"Interesting. And you wanted to speak with me because..."

"It seems that you wish to be... friendly with my son."

"That is our intention."

"More for some than others."

"And you mean..."

"That girl there," replied Nodoka with a gesture towards where the Senshi of Saturn was smiling.

"Ah yes, Hotaru. What about her?"

"It seems to me that she likes my son a lot."

"More than just that, as far as I can tell."

"What?"

"Hotaru... has been rather shy and while she does like boys, she hasn't really shown another boy the same... attention that she has for Ranma."

It took quite a bit of control for Nodoka not to start celebrating. That wouldn't be helpful at the moment. Besides, once she finished this discussion, then she could break out the victory fans. "There must be something about my son that she really likes then."

"He does treat her better than many of her contemporaries have. And the fact that he is rather attractive does have its benefits."

"Well then, it seems that she might not mind coming back here again."

"I would think so, but in what manner is the question."

"She could always stop off and visit if she wished."

"Or she could be our Ambassador to the Empire."

"I did think of that, and it wouldn't be a problem. Perhaps she might even wish to become his wife in time."

"She likely wouldn't mind that at all."

"That would be a good thing, don't you think?"

"Oh yes. It would in deed."

"With one of your members here, it would make for rather nice relations, don't you agree?"

"And that way, she would be happy with her role as 'Ambassador'."

"I will have to... investigate this further, you understand."

"Certainly. As will I. We can't just jump into this, you understand."

"Of course not."

"Then I will be in touch."

"As will I."

The two women nodded to each other and turned to go do what they each wanted to with one unintentionally shared thought.

'YES!'

But that was not vocalized while:

Ryouga was discovering places that he really should leave alone.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Ryoga at the gate

by Kestral

Ryouga wondered where he was. All the signs had pointed to something really big being down this way. He'd figured a new martial arts technique.

Maybe stowing away on that airplane had been a bad idea, but he'd needed to get away from Nerima for a while after Ranma had been kidnapped by aliens.

Now there was this thing.

A menhir arch, something like Stonehenge, but here in this huge cavern beneath the Earth.

Lightning crackling around it. Dim shapes moving beyond it.

Ryouga wasn't sure what it was but it felt wrong somehow.

Still, if the scroll he'd run across was right, there was almost limitless power beyond this gate. Power that would give him victory over Ranma once and for all!

Ryouga struck, shattering the large stone with the odd symbol on it.

On the other side, Somethings awoke.

Setsuna transformed to Sailor Pluto without a word and vanished.

Knowing this was not good, Haruka and Michiru transformed as well, followed by Hotaru a few moments later when she returned from the little girl's room aboard their shuttle.

"This is not good," said Pluto as she returned. "An ancient seal has been breached and evil walks the Earth again."

"I knew that Ranma guy was up to no good," exclaimed Uranus.

"It's not him," said Pluto. "How much do you know of the ancient Earth Kingdom?"

"Nothing other than Endymion was Mamoru's previous incarnation, there was distrust and unrest between the Moon Kingdom and the Earth Kingdom - that was why Beryl was able to capitalize on it and create a war, and the Earth Kingdom didn't fare well in that conflict." Neptune summed up.

"How about Zeus caging the Titans?" asked Pluto.

"Are the two connected?" Neptune asked in reply, suspecting she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Yes. Zeus was actually Endymion's grandfather. The Earth Kingdom spent a large amount of their power containing these powerful beings known as the Titans with one exception that was later recruited by Beryl and sent against Earth. It is because of that expenditure of power that Tuxedo Mask's power level is so low compared to the Senshi. That one they couldn't completely cage was the Invincible Shadow. Someone just let the Titans lose again."

Neptune said something inelegant.

Hotaru stared, surprised Michiru-mama knew language like that.

Pluto added a little more. "The Titans are:"

something like the Weapons in Final Fantasy VII. Elemental forces of great power that destroy everything in their path."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Abuses Of Science And Nature

by Kender

"Hold on a second," said Haruka in disbelief, "Are you telling us that we're supposed to fight something out of a videogame?!"

"No, I said that they were like the Weapons in Final Fantasy 7," answered Setsuna.

Hotaru blinked. "But you play video games?"

"Well..."

"'Cause if you don't, how do you know about them?"

"I... have my ways. And that is not important."

Michiru nodded. "We have to know about these 'Titans' before we have to face them."

"Exactly."

"So, what happened?"

"Back before things had become as your past selves knew them, there was a group of individuals who were experimenting with forces great and powerful."

"Which couldn't have gone well," commented Haruka.

"That is right, unfortunately. These people each had their own reasons, but they all strived to control what they were investigating. They worked long and hard to create ways of channeling that energy into processes that they felt that they control."

"That sounds like what Papa was doing," observed Hotaru.

"And they had run into problems, just as he had, but only their... experiences had resulted in more of a disaster than he had encountered," Setsuna told them.

"How much more?"

"They wanted to create weapons meant to protect them from all possible threats, but wound up slaves to that power. The energies... twisted them and their technologies into things that held little that was still recognizable as what they had been."

Scowling, Haruka crossed her arms over her chest. "Which is why the Earth Kingdom tried to seal them up."

"Precisely. But that would not be an easy task, since they had become superweapons with only mass destruction their only outlet."

"There was no hope of saving those people?" Michiru asked.

"None. There was no way to get close enough to try. Besides, they were so fused with the elemental forces that no one could figure out how to separate them."

"So they just sealed them up?"

"Yes."

"Which left us to deal with the fact that they have gotten out."

"I am afraid so."

"The only question now is how do we deal with this mess," growled Haruka.

The four of them looked at each other in silence. This was not going to be an easy matter. In fact, they knew that they would likely have to call in the Inners on this. But there were other possibilities, and they might have to use them to stop the Titans.

And the first choice that they made was to:

attempt to see what the Titans were like.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Looking over Hyperion

by Kestral

"Ahem," said Pluto into the intercom. "Do you have any way of monitoring Earth conditions?"

Wedge walked into the room with what looked like a 1960s television and began hooking it up.

While this was concerning to the four Senshi, the images shown bore out the Senshi of Time's earlier comments.

"They are like the Weapons from Final Fantasy VII," agreed Hotaru.

Michiru and Haruka wondered if maybe they should take a look at this game.

Fully 100 feet tall they stood. The one in the lead had a centauroid reptilian body, four legs with a vaguely humanoid torso atop it, and topped in turn by a vaguely humanoid head. All covered in a thick carapace that could apparently take incoming missiles in stride without flinching.

This was obvious because a hornet's nest worth of modern war machines, courtesy of the Greeks and Romanians were making attacks on the lumbering monsters with less effect than a spring rain might have had.

Armor plating morphed away from an oddly circular mouth.

"Uhm," Haruka said as she gestured towards where a beam of light was emitted from the thing's mouth and it swept through clouds of attack aircraft and left only smoke trails behind as it passed. "Question from the back of the room. That thing has an energy attack?"

"Good. It's only Hyperion, we have a chance," said Pluto.

"Excuse me?" Haruka pointed back at the television. "How much power does that thing have?"

"The beam is essentially a focussed laser, I think it would probably register in the hundred megawatt range. See, it can barely melt one side of a mountain." Pluto indicated the screen. "Good range though. Maybe two or three hundred miles."

"What part of this is good?" Michiru asked.

"It's Hyperion. As long as it goes dark he'll curl up in a little ball and go to sleep. One of the weakest of the Titans."

"That's weak?" Haruka asked.

"If one of them reaches their goal, they'll probably try to awaken Typhon. That would be bad," said Pluto.

"I take it Typhon is worse than Hyperion?" Haruka asked.

"In the Greek myths," mused Michiru, "Typhon was sufficiently terrible that he was contained separate from all the other titans and bound as tightly as he could by Zeus himself."

"Hyperion to Typhon is comparing an anemic puppy to Godzilla," Pluto informed Haruka. "Tuxedo Mask's most powerful, most ultimate level attack is the 'Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber' attack - which is roughly one quarter the power of a 'World Shaking' - yet Earth is a world with life and some of the most powerful mana lines in the solar system. The power that could have raised Tuxedo Mask to the most powerful Senshi in the system is what keeps Typhon slumbering."

Eyes flicked back to the screen. "So," Haruka said after a while. "When we arrive at nightfall with the other Senshi we can take out Hyperion and that will end it?"

"We can hope," said Pluto. "Otherwise as soon as one is dealt with, another will rise to complete the task until all have been dealt with."

time to visit the Inners!

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Inner Talks

by Kender

"So let me get this straight," Rei said as she leaned back where she sat with the four other Inners and the Moon Cats in her room at the Hikawa Shrine, "Haruka told you that they were going to be going out to deal with the ships?"

Ami nodded. "That's pretty much it."

"And we haven't heard from them since?"

"That is the situation."

"No, that really stinks. Just when we need them, they up and vanish."

Usagi looked concerned. "I hope nothing bad happened to them."

"That's the problem," growled Makoto, "We don't know if they're okay or not."

"And we still have to deal with that," mentioned Minako.

'That' was the giant creature being shown on a special report which was decimating an army that was being sent at it with a massive energy beam. Nothing was happening to it from the number of weapons being shot at it, but it was managing to inflict a great amount of damage just fine. All the attacking armies did was to provide whatever it was with more targets to vaporise.

"Unfortunately, we do not know where it is going, or why," observed Ami, "We do not even know what it is exactly, so fighting it would be... problematic at best."

"And life threatening at worst," muttered Rei. "Hey, could those ships have sent those things?"

"Possibly, but without knowing exactly how, I can't tell you for certain."

"Luna," asked Usagi, "Do you know anything about them?"

"Maybe... you have to remember that I'm not too clear on it, but back in the earliest times of the Moon Kingdom, some people were working on ways to control elemental forces."

"That's good... isn't it?"

"It can be, but for the most part, they tried to master those forces. What happened was some sort of... backlash that created things like them."

"So... has someone tried to recreate them?" asked Makoto.

"They wouldn't have to."

"Huh?"

"They were never destroyed."

"What?!"

"There was never enough power to manage that, only enough to subdue them. That chance was used to bind them and place them what was hoped to be an eternal sleep."

"How'd they do that?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"By my time, it had fallen into rumor and legend, but what was for certain was that it took most of the power of the Earth Kingdom to seal them up."

"And we're supposed to fight them?" asked Rei.

"That is very likely."

Minako groaned. "But can't you give us anything else?"

"Sorry, but the only one who might know would be Setsuna."

"Who's missing. What about you Artemis? ...Artemis? What are you doing?"

The rest of the Senshi in the room turned to look at what the white Moon Cat was doing. He was sitting on his hind paws, and had his front ones with the pads pressed together. Lowly, he was muttering something with great speed and deep insistence.

"... If you would just grant me this, I won't even think of looking at that cute Burmese with the shiny coat from down the street again. I'll give up flirting with the tabby near Minako's school and get down to work..."

While the girls sweatdropped, Luna walked up to him and unsheathed the claws in one of her front paws.

"...And I won't keep on sneaking the snacks... YOWTCH!"

Luna gave a little smile at her handiwork while:

the discussion continued.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Inner & Outer Workings

by Kestral

"What's that noise?" Rei asked as some roaring noise increased in volume.

"That's our ride, circling the area," said a familiar voice.

"EEEK! Wheredidyoucomefrom?Don'tdothat!" Usagi yelped as she attempted to become one with the ceiling.

"Follow me, we're going aboard a spaceship," said Setsuna simply.

"Ride? Like in those brick things?"

"Those were antigrav transports used by the Teknosians. The Empire itself has those, but prefers their spark-and-smoke trailing engines," said Setsuna. "If you'll come with me I can explain more along the way."

"So it was friendly aliens?" Minako asked.

"We're working on that. It turns out that the kidnapee was actually a prince of that empire being returned to rule over his people," said Setsuna.

"A prince?!" Minako's eyes glittered. "A handsome prince?"

"You might say that," agreed Setsuna.

"I'll bet he's just like my sempai," sighed Makoto predictably.

"No doubt," said Setsuna. "Now if we could be going?"

"A handsome prince?" Minako began frowning. "What's the catch, there's got to be a catch! Possessed by dark kingdom types, evil, married, gay, or he's the type to be a 'damsel in distress' right?"

"He's a martial artist who is in excellent shape, there are schisms and power politics going on but nothing major, he's not gay as far as I know, and he's apparently heir to a fairly powerful empire. NOW can we get started?"

Minako shot her hand up at the same time as Makoto. "DIBS!"

"If I went with speed of hand raising, Ami would have won," noticed Setsuna. "Now are you going to accompany me to the spaceship so that I can brief you on the Titans or are we going to continue to waste time talking about the Emperor?"

The Senshi reluctantly go along with the business thing first. THEN they want details on the Emperor.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Delaying The Inevitable

by Kender

"So, what you're telling us is that if we get on this ship, we have to deal with those... whatever-they-are?" asked Usagi.

"Essentially, yes," Setsuna told her.

"And we have to do it now?"

"Speed is the key. If we can time it right, we can get to Hyperion when he falls asleep after the sun goes down. Then it should be easier to deal with him then."

"And if we don't stop it now?"

"Hyperion will go unchecked and will be able to reawaken Typhon."

"That would be bad?"

"'Godzilla deciding that Luna was a bug that needed to be squashed' bad."

The reincarnated Moon Princess winced. "Eeep..."

"Then I suppose that we will have no choice but to go," observed Ami with a sigh.

"But we'll still have to know all about this prince!" pronounced Makoto.

"It's very important that we know all these things," agreed Minako.

"Right! Like what foods he likes and the types of movies he likes to go see."

"And blood type. Don't forget blood type!"

"I'll need to know something about him so I can do a fire reading..," murmured Rei.

"I wonder if he'll want to do a double date with me and Mamo-chan," commented Usagi idly.

"I'll see what I can do, but time is of the essence and we must get going," Setsuna told the group as she ushered them out.

"I will need information on this so I can use the Mercury Computer to find weak spots," Ami said.

"If I can, I will give it to you."

"Though..."

"What?"

"Does he play chess? It's very useful for a prince to play the game."

Repressing an uncharacteristic scream, the Time Senshi guided them to the pick up while:

the Inners were about to get their first view of the ship.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Preparing to meet Hyperion

by Kestral

The return trip had been in one of the more traditional "smoke and spark" spaceships favored by nearly everyone else other than the Teknosians. The "floating bricks" were seen by most as inelegant and lacking character, but were acknowledged as being much faster and a helluva lot sneakier.

Inside, the cabins were more like a Victorian drawing room than you might come to expect otherwise. The TV showing off more footage of the giant monster rampaging around in gathering gloom.

The usual excitement about a spot of old-fashioned luxury occurred as the Inners discovered the cabin. Though the disaster that was Usagi discovering a full crystal decanter of Mongolian Firewine was not immediately noticed.

The Senshi were, after all was said and done, teenaged girls.

Yes, they were reincarnated princesses of an ancient kingdom, charged with defending Earth in typical sentai fashion against evil supernatural alien beings and did so with luck, pluck, and pure hearts. Big pink ones in fact. Under that though - teenage girls. If they tended to be a bit manic, particularly with Makoto and Minako's attempts to win themselves a True Love (it not being the end of the manga where Minako had renounced the male gender and declared to the Sailor Starlights that she was joining Usagi's harem) - keep in mind that they regularly got their young butts kicked at least initially and they'd died at least once and come close several times. That tends to place a certain franticness or put a bit of "live life to its fullest because you might croak tomorrow and Usagi might not be able to hit Undo with the Ginzuishou" into one's personal affairs.

So when they heard they were facing an enemy that could possibly kill them all, and that there was a studly teenage Emperor running around, which did they want to hear more details on?

"So you've met him, is he handsome?" Minako practically bounced in her seat.

Hotaru colored and nodded.

"Nobody got pictures," lamented Makoto.

"Actually, I've made arrangements for Hotaru to have a suite of rooms at the palace and be the official ambassador to Mongo of the Senshi," said Setsuna, hoping to forestall this.

Minako grinned. Hotaru needed someone older to help her out right? And who better to play the Ambassador then the only Senshi who'd spent a lot of time in another culture besides the Japanese one? That's right - Minako Aino, ambassador!

Makoto frowned thoughtfully. Someone ought to go with Hotaru next time, right? Right! Except that would involve flying wouldn't it? Except this wasn't exactly a plane, was it?

Ami bit gently on her lower lip as she considered. A new world and new technology to study, plus there was a handsome prince there. Clearly Hotaru needed some help as she had no experience being an ambassador.

Rei wondered how she could get Hotaru to take her along on the next trip to Mongo.

"In any case the Titans are all beings of great power. If you're familiar with 'Final Fantasy VII' they are similar to the planetary Weapons in that game," Setsuna began explaining.

"You play video games?!" Minako asked, aghast.

"Actually I do some work for Squaresoft," said Setsuna. "Playtesting and costume design. I have a lot of time at the Gates of Time you know. Now if I may?"

Everyone was too much in shock to bring out any objections.

"Fine," continued Setsuna. "Each of the Giant Monsters is the result of elemental energies and mutation. Hyperion is solar, so his powers are light based and he is dependent on solar radiation for much of his power. He hibernates when it is dark. Typhon is another case altogether and not something you want to think about. If we have to fight Typhon we might end up destroying the planet in the struggle simply because of the amount of power required for a magical battle of that sort. It would take Usagi using the Crystal with all of our help."

"Oh dear," said Usagi, drinking some more of this tasty fruit drink even if it did leave a fiery trail down her throat.

"So where is Typhon imprisoned?" Ami asked, plotting out Hyperion's trail.

"Somewhere in the Mediterranean." Setsuna let out a breath. "When the Titans were imprisoned, Gibraltar was still blocking off the ocean and there was a Basin where there is a Sea now. The Minos Caldera had not yet exploded. The area has had numerous earthquakes. Things have changed quite a lot since then."

"On these other Titans, are they similar to the Greek myths?" Ami asked as she brought up files.

"Yes and no. Some are human sized, most are much larger. They are beings of Elemental force." Setsuna went into thought. "I'd have to see one at this point, it has been quite some time since the subject came up. Some embody forces like gravity or concepts like hindsight."

The intercom crackled to life. "Honored friends of our Emperor. We have arrived."

The Senshi wait until after nightfall. Usagi continues to sip at the "fruit juice."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Waiting For Night

by Kender

"We're here?" asked Minako nervously.

"That's what the man said," replied Rei.

"Which means that we're supposed to go fight that...thing," hesitantly observed Makoto.

"Yes, we do," agreed Setsuna.

"So we have to go to face them, right?"

"No, we don't."

"Huh?"

"It's not sundown yet."

"But we can attack it now," said Haruka.

"We could physically do that," said the Time Senshi with a shrug, "Though it would be a problem."

"Why is that?"

"It' d be difficult to fight him, and he does have what amounts to a giant laser cannon. We could wait until he's hibernating and strike then, but if you insist on it, you could try and avoid the blasts."

"On second thought, maybe waiting would be the better part of valor."

Makoto nodded. "It would be better wouldn't it?"

"That would be tactically sound," commented Ami.

"So we just wait here until the time is right," put in Minako, "Works for me."

"It'll give me time to have some more of the drinks they have here," commented Usagi.

Up in the pilot's compartment, Wedge turned to Biggs. "So we have to stick around here?"

"Seems that way," the major replied.

"Going to be boring."

"We're soldiers. We're supposed to wait for our commanders."

"Yeah, but it sounds like that one girl wants some more firewine."

"She drinks enough of it."

"Yeah, but what does that say about her?"

"It means that either she has a head for alcohol, or is the biggest lush that I've ever seen."

"But what would a person from this planet know about firewine?"

"If she doesn't know about it..."

"Yeah?"

"She's going to be in big trouble later."

"Oh..."

A little while later, the last rays of the sun were disappearing, and the night was coming on. Those in the ship knew it, since it was what they had been waiting for. Now that it had, they had a job to do.

"It's time to take care of Hyperion," Setsuna told them.

"Great..," muttered Rei.

"So, let's get going," said Haruka.

The Senshi of Pluto nodded, and they turned to go, heading out to do battle:

only to they stop once they realized what Usagi had been drinking.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Usagi's blood alcohol level

by Kestral

The Sailor Senshi prepared to do battle with their foe.

Who was currently curled up and asleep but as he was several hundred feet tall, armored, and with a laser breath weapon - that was perfectly fine with the Senshi.

"Mooooon Crystal Powder Puff Girl Making Out!"

With one exception.

Everyone stared at where Usagi Tsukino was staggering out of the hatchway and it looked like her legs were ready to go off in different directions altogether.

"Usagi?" Sailor Mars asked just before Sailor Moon used the convenient vertical surface (the one in the red skirt) to hold herself upright. "USAGI!"

"Rei-chan so meanie. Weanie. Eeenie miniie moe." Usagi kissed Rei on the lips and staggered off again. "Let's dust this monster! Anybody got a feather duster or something?"

"Gik!" Sailor Mars managed.

"She's drunk," realized Mercury as she scanned her princess. "Oh my goodness, she's got a blood alcohol level of 0.25%! I'm surprised she's not in a coma."

"Thish'll just take a minute," Usagi confided to the sleeping giant monster.

"Grkk," managed Sailor Mars.

"Moon Power Maid Up!" (Transform!)

Several eyes got very wide at the resulting uniform.

"How can she walk, that drunk, and in high heels like that?" Venus asked.

"You haven't told us we had transformations like that," Uranus said to Pluto, wondering how the guardian of time would look in that outfit.

"I didn't know we did," said Pluto, wondering how Usagi had managed it.

"Dustie dusti dusti dustie," said Moon Maid as she applied her feather duster in an unsteady manner to the tip of the giant monster's tail.

"So do you know of a way to sober her up really quickly?" Venus asked Mercury.

"Should we see how much coffee Biggs-san and Wedge-san can prepare?" Mercury asked without much hope.

After a couple of hours, and three pots of coffee, it looks like Sailor Moon is going to be in the ladies room for awhile. The other Senshi assault Hyperion!

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Moon Break

by Kender

"Okay," asked Mars with her elbow planted on a table and her chin held in her palm, "How many cups has that been?"

"Three pots," answered Jupiter.

"And how long has it been?"

"Three and a half hours," replied Venus.

"So... is it working?"

"Well, to be honest..," began Mercury.

"Oooohhh... I don't feel so good..," moaned Maid Moon.

"... We sort of have a problem."

Mars groaned. "Just what we don't need."

"But it's still going to be dark out for hours, right?" Saturn offered hopefully.

Pluto nodded. "Yes, but the plan had been to use all our powers to make certain that we destroyed Hyperion. But this..."

"My stomach hurts..," whimpered Moon.

"... Wasn't in the plan."

"What do we do now?" asked Uranus.

"There are several possibilities..."

"Which way to the ladies room?" asked the odango blonde with her hands in front of her and her knees pressed together.

"...Like this. First door to your left."

"Thanks!"

As she dashed off, Uranus covered her face with one hand. "I can't believe this..."

"We didn't realize either," observed Neptune.

"I know... How about this? We just go on without her and blast the monster ourselves."

The Time Senshi raised an eyebrow. "You want to take it on without Moon?"

"Yeah. She's... indisposed. And this is one of the weaker ones, right?"

"Yes..."

"So it's possible that we could beat this thing without her."

"That is possible..."

"Then let's get going!" declared the short haired blonde and then led the Senshi out.

"... but then it's also possible that giant flying frogs will discover the planet as well," Pluto said with a sigh and followed the others to where Hyperion was sleeping.

"Okay... Let's get him!"

The available Senshi lined up next to the slumbering giant, and as one, they called up their various powers. Calling out their attacks, they all sent them at one point. From that barrage, a massive explosion occurred, clouding the sights of whomever was there watching.

When the dust and debris cleared,

it was still there, but in a very damaged state.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Senshi power

by Kestral

Sun Tzu put it a lot more poetically, but if you attack when your forces are at your strongest and your opponent is at its weakest - your opponent is in serious kimchi.

They might not have had Sailor Moon to back them up, but attacking in the dead of night a sleeping Hyperion - they did some serious damage to the Titan.

"Okay, good enough, now let's see what we can do to bury him before the sun gets up." Sailor Pluto started handing out shovels.

"Excuse me?" Neptune looked at the shovel in her hands as if she'd never seen one before.

"Waitaminute, it isn't dead?" Jupiter pointed at where 95+% of the monster was currently missing.

"It will begin regenerating when the sun comes up. You can't kill them, that's why they were imprisoned." Pluto informed the stunned group as she began digging. "With Usagi using the ginzuishou there is a chance she'd have been able to disperse it. There were theories floating about how it might be able to sever the mana threads sufficiently for one to finally die. Otherwise even if you reduce one to the molecular level, they'll eventually come back."

The others stared for a moment before:

a platoon of Mongolian infantry arrives in the nick of time. Well, to handle the dirty details and transport Hyperion somewhere less habitable than Earth.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Clean Up Crew

by Kender

While the Senshi looked towards each other while trying to figure out what exactly to do, there was the sound of thrusters came roaring into their ears. Several vessels came over head and then landed a few yards from the one the Senshi had been travelling in.

"What's going on?" asked Mars.

As the doors to the ships clanged open, Jupiter frowned and told her, "Well, looks like we're about to find out."

They stood and waited, ready for anything, as the ships disgorged a lot of people in some sort of armor, and carrying weapons. One in the front marched up to Pluto and saluted.

"Captain Stiener of the Forty-First Platoon of the Mongolian Army, at your service Ma'am!" he barked out.

"At my service?" asked the Senshi of Time.

"Yes, Ma'am! We were sent by the Emperor when he found out that the planet was in danger. He had us to go to help fight off this menace to this planet."

"You're a little late for that..," muttered Uranus.

"Ma'am?"

The short haired blonde gestured to the mass that had once been a complete monster. "We already blasted it."

"I see... What would you have us do then Ma'am?"

"Me? I'd like to see that thing far away and on some dark planet where it wouldn't bother us any more."

"Understood Ma'am," he said and turned to his troops. "You heard the lady, you grunts! Move it! I want this mass of slime and guts ready for transport ASAP! Move it... move it... MOVE IT!"

While the Mongolian troops hurried to prep the regenerating remains of Hyperion, Pluto leaned over to Uranus and whispered. "Don't you just love how they hop to the orders of a lady?"

"Oh shut up," replied the blonde while:

Hyperion was taken someplace far away...

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: the Pluto Knights?!

by Kestral

The talk was all over Mongo.

The seraglio was the Emperor's personal guard as well. That was strange but what really got people talking was the foreign princess.

Oh yes, that had gotten around. There were different thoughts on it of course.

General Mille was of the decided opinion that the foreign princess should be added to the seraglio. No special treatment just because she was not a member of the Mongolian aristocracy. The General was researching the readings of the girl's magical aura and was working out ways of bypassing some sort of magical protection field.

The Teknosian forces found the whole thing intriguing, and so while they assisted Mille in her efforts they showed no favoritism and helped everyone with their preparations.

General Grimm, of the Volcanians, was pretty much 180o from Mille. A study of such things in pre-Ming history and Terrestrial history showed that the whole "marry into kingdoms" was a slow but effective way of uniting kingdoms. The planet of Saturn wasn't particularly habitable, but there were some nice resources on its moons and the whole thing had long-term consequences that had appeal to the long-lived race of rock-beings.

The seraglio themselves were divided. Some had been freshly brainwashed and thought the sun rose and set in Ranma's pants, figuratively speaking. Some were actually relieved that the seraglio was being used as a personal guard, as sitting around on silk cushions had absolutely no appeal to them.

Others had other ideas, other plans.

Of which, of course, the Emperor remained happily ignorant of.

"I could get used to this," confessed Venus, leaning back in a recliner as the remains of Hyperion were lashed to the largest of the transports and hauled off.

"Hmmmm," said Jupiter, laying on her side in her own recliner. She had found the Heat/Massage setting and had momentarily been concerned by mechanical hands on telescoping rods, but as they heated up and found knots of tension in her back. "ooooOOOOooooooh. That's nice."

"Are any of these Titans able to move underground?" Mercury asked, her eyes flitting between her Mercury Computer and the large spread of breakfast foods being prepared nearby.

"Yes, actually," admitted Pluto, nibbling on a cinnamon roll.

"I'm getting some readings indicating that something was tunnelling through the ground, and is now stopped 243.45 meters under those hills," said Mercury.

"Captain Stiener," called out Pluto. "There's something under those hills. Can you send a team to check it out?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The captain in the battered silvery armor saluted. "Blutzen! Kohel! Check it out! Laudo! Get those tents ready! These are Princesses, not roughnecks like you lot! Weimer! Stop flirting with that Princess!"

Sailor Mars, not used to tall, muscular, Space Marine types paying attention to her, shot a very dirty look at Captain Stiener.

"Haagen's doing the piloting. Ah! Mullenkedheim! Dojebon! Rig a couple of torpedoes as burrowing depth charges! Have them ready if the lady gives the word! Move it people! If I wanted statuary I'd have gotten Volcanians for this mission! Move it! Move it! Move it!" Stiener nodded in grim faced satisfaction as they got moving and some of the other troops went from gawking at princesses to at least look busy.

Venus took a momentary break from satisfaction, as having a bunch of guys ogle her from a distance had been a change of pace. She also glared at Captain Stiener.

Saturn took a deep breath and went up to one of the soldiers working on an obviously old and patched tent. "Excuse me?"

The soldier saw who it was and immediately leapt into a formal "attention" pose. "MA'AM, YES MA'AM!"

"Uhm, quieter please. I was just wondering, Mister..." Saturn began to get embarrassed and started fiddling with her glaive.

"Private First Class Firstenburg of the Pluto Knights, Ma'am!"

"Yes, Private, well. I was wondering. What can you tell me about the Emperor?" Saturn asked.

The Pluto Knights?! It looks like the Mongolian Army have started selecting favorites and are naming themselves after those whom they'd like to see as the Emperor's co-ruler. Oh dear.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Fan Clubs

by Kender

"I've been wondering about something," Michiru as she sipped delicately from her cup of tea.

"What is that Ma'am?" asked Steiner.

"You are from outside this solar system, aren't you?"

"We are Ma'am."

"Then why are you named after a planet in ours?"

"We aren't named after them Ma'am."

"But you are called the 'Pluto Knights'?"

"Yes we are Ma'am."

"Then why?"

"We are named after the individual that we would prefer to be the Emperor's co-ruler, Ma'am."

Pluto stopped where she was looking over a tray of food. "Do you mean to say that you want me to be..."

Steiner nodded resolutely."Yes Ma'am!"

"Why would you?"

"You are obviously an intelligent individual who knows all the tricks that are needed to do what must be done Ma'am. And as we think that would be best for the empire, we have chosen to name ourselves after you."

"Hmmm... that's... interesting."

The corner of Neptune's mouth quirked up. "At least now you have your own fan club."

"That's wonderful," Pluto said drolly, "Too bad you don't have one."

"But Ma'am, they do have units named after them," inserted Steiner.

"Excuse me?"

"There's the Neptune group who are more concerned with quiet and calm execution of plans. As for the Saturn group, they'd prefer someone to act as a counterpoint to the Emperor's rough nature. Then there is the Uranus one, and that's mainly made up of hotheads and hard cases who like the direct approach."

Her brow twitching, Uranus plaster on a patently false smile. "Just great... So why not the others?"

"Information about them hasn't gotten back yet, though there was some talk about uniting the two groups by marrying your ruler and ours. But I'm sure that plenty of knowledge will get back if... certain soldiers don't stop gawking at the Princesses and get back to work like they've been ordered to!" Steiner told them, barking the last at a pair of soldiers who'd stopped to appreciate the view.

Said soldiers jumped and dashed off, not wishing to risk their commander's wrath.

As Uranus pinched the bridge of her nose, Pluto kept herself composed and said, "That's good to know. Thank you."

"You're welcome Ma'am!" replied the man in the silver armor while:

the Senshi dealt with what they had just heard.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Fan clubs

by Kestral

"So we have fanclubs?" Saturn asked, ignoring the way that several lounge chairs had been scooted closer and closer to where Saturn was discussing things with Firstenburg (PFC, Pluto Knights).

"Well, you do, begging the Princess' pardon," replied the soldier. "They don't know anything about the others yet."

Makoto and Minako immediately began scribbling out "Bio" sheets. Main topic: why they would make a really spiffy Empress.

"And I have my own fanclub?" Saturn asked, wondering what anyone would see in her.

"Yes, Ma'am. The 321st Airborne or the 'Flying Axes' as they used to be called. A real elite group." Firstenburg finished tying off a rope to a stake.

"So, uhm, what can you tell me about the Emperor?" Saturn asked again nicely.

Makoto and Minako handed off their life stories (in 500 words) to Mongolian soldiers who promptly hid the information and took a few pictures.

Rei noticed this and started writing her own, then got a mischievous look and started writing one for Usagi as well.

Ami handed off a printout to one of the soldiers.

"Well, ma'am, he's quite a fighter. I'm told he's a real 'hand's on' and physically oriented fellow. Other than that I've never met him."

"I don't suppose you have any pictures of him?" Saturn asked with a cute blush.

"I don't but I think Private Aversteen does. Hey, Aversteen! Ya got any pictures of the Emperor the Princess could have?"

Aversteen proved to be a catlike woman in the usual Mongolian uniform. She handed a couple of 8x10 glossies to Saturn and was about to collect payment when -

"YOU LOUTS! MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT!"

Saturn didn't budge as the two soldiers went running off. She was busy staring at the photos in her hand.

Zip!

make that in Ami's hands. AMI?!

"Oh my. This is quite improper." Ami stared at the picture, barechested Ranma in the Arena of Death. She had this incredible impulse to play with that pigtail.

Zip!

Minako stared at the two pictures. One the full body barechested shot, the other taken closer and being a head and shoulders shot. "...mine..."

Zip! "Sempai!"

Hyperion is put somewhere else in the solar system that should be safe.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Drop Off

by Kender

Far out from the Earth, a single ship had flown bearing a cargo of the most dangerous sort. That which it carried had been the Titan known as Hyperion, which had been recently defeated by the Sailor Senshi. Though it had been blasted into an unrecognizable mess, the parts had been regenerating back to full health, which would have returned it back to full health, especially once the sun came up.

Which was why the ship was where it was. Quite a distance from any planet, it sat floating around an asteroid. Upon the rocky object's surface lay Hyperion, its remains pretty much inert from the near complete lack of it's power source.

And near it were a bunch of spacesuited Mongolian troops, drilling giant restraints into the asteroid's surface.

"Remind me just why we have to do this in the first place," asked one soldier.

"It's orders," replied a second.

"I know that!"

A third moved her helmet so the questioner could see her smirk. "What's wrong Spunkman? Worried that it might gobble you up?"

"No, but I'd just like to know what's going on here Vas."

"It's simple. Big guy here lives off of light. We leave it here and the sun's no brighter than the rest of the damned stars. So party boy here gets nothing to eat."

"And we're finished making sure that it won't get free?" asked a new voice.

"Sargent sir! Yes sir!" chorused the trio.

"Good. Then pack up your gear and your wagging tongues so that we can report back to base!"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Then let's go!" the sergeant yelled while:

the burrowing Titan was being identified.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: A titan of the earth

by Kestral

Images were produced and the Senshi quickly gathered.

"Ugly sucker," was Haruka's comment.

"..." Setsuna said on seeing the picture.

"It was difficult to get these," admitted a Pluto Knight as she sold pictures of Ranma at the Emperor's Bath to Minako.

"No actually all we did was bounce sound waves from three sources to get this," corrected a soldier. "It looks kind of like some sort of insect."

"..." Setsuna said as she stared at the picture.

"How big is it?" Makoto asked.

"Nearly a quarter mile," said Ami. "It can't be a true insect, as an insect has an open respiratory and circulatory system. So it merely looks like a quarter-mile long cockroach."

"..." Setsuna continued to stare in a certain fascinated but disgusted manner at the picture. "...hastur..."

"'Hastur'?" Ami repeated, putting the name into her database. "Looks like HP Lovecraft was incorrect in a few details."

"So how do you kill a roach that big?" Makoto asked. "I mean the big one inchers are hard enough."

"Maybe we should contact a company like Raid™ or BuzzBGone™ and get something to spray?" Rei asked, not thrilled with the idea of trying to toast a huge roach. When she zapped the little ones they really stunk.

"Maybe we should just drop those depth charges," suggested one of the Pluto Knights as she sold Ami a set of 8x10s of the Emperor.

Or Ranma for that matter?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Ruler Decisions

by Kender

Back on Mongo, Ranma was pacing. Normally he would be out doing things that he liked to do, like getting in a few rounds at the 'Arena of Death', or eating his fill, but at the moment, he was rather concerned. Not out of any duty as Emperor, but with something that had him very concerned indeed.

"So, you're sayin' that these giant monster things are called 'Titans'?"

The beautiful young woman in the Mongolian army uniform nodded. "Yes sir. We have confirmation from Earth."

"We gotta help them."

"Understood, and we did send some soldiers to help them, as you ordered. But the Senshi apparently managed to take out the monster without assistance."

"They didn't need help?"

"Not at the moment," she told him, "But according to the report that we received, there are other creatures, some more powerful than the defeated one."

"Terrific... So, how many of 'em are there?"

"Unknown at this time."

"Who let 'em loose?"

"Also unknown."

"Damn. Which means that we have to make sure they get all the help they need."

"What are your instructions?"

The pigtailed boy frowned for a moment. "We should find out what we can do ta help, and send it as soon as we can. Maybe some of those big robots or something. But we also gotta know what the heck's doin' this."

"Understood. Will that be all?"

"Yeah. Ya can go."

The woman saluted, and marched off, leaving Ranma still pacing while:

he tried to figure out what else to do.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: A measure of the Emperor's regard

by Kestral

Ranma was not a genius. Military or otherwise.

He was, however, the Emperor. On finding out that the Emperor was not going to order their heads removed from their bodies if they made suggestions to him, the various Generals agreed he was much better than some of the historical Emperors.

A well trained staff can cover for a lack of intelligence or talent. Each of the Generals was an expert at something, and Ranma could listen to suggestions and decide which sounded good to him.

When he looked at the Mongolian spaceships, weapons, and war machines - he had frowned. This wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all!

Ranma had grown up in Japan. While his father had tried to keep him focussed 24/7 on martial arts, little boys will do what little boys do and try to bend the rules. He hadn't gotten many but he had gotten his grubby little hands on a few manga over the years. He KNEW what giant robots were supposed to look like, he KNEW what spaceships should look like, and he KNEW that Mongolian Death Tanks looked pretty damn silly with all those spikes and stuff.

If the factories of Teknos couldn't produce what he wanted, well, the Great Will hadn't been removed yet and so those factories WOULD produce proper giant robots damnit!

On his first day as Emperor, he'd figured it was part of the Emperor of A Space Empire thing. There should be giant robots. Mobile suits. The whole enchilada. What did he get? What looked like WWII tanks that had spikes.

On learning that giant monsters threatened Earth, he had publicly been reluctant to do anything about it. Now that the lieutenant had brought up the problem, he had to come up with something.

Now that this Slipe guy was telling what had been produced in his factories, he was a little more enthusiastic about the matter.

"Should we make one for Hotaru? It would probably be a nice gesture as she is the Earthian ambassador," suggested Councilor Slipe, who (as near as Ranma could make out) was the Councilor In Charge Of Closet Space.

"Hotaru was the little girl?" Ranma thought he remembered her. There was the tomboy who liked race cars. The one who seemed kinda cold and stiff. The one that kept commenting on the artwork and junk. Then there was that little girl who seemed to stare at him a lot. "Yeah. Go ahead and give her a nice one."

Councilor Slipe, a weaselly looking fellow (literally) who looked more of a villain than he actually was, and supporter of the Saturn Knights, nodded.

A huge space ship landed shortly thereafter.

"What the hell is THAT?" Sailor Uranus demanded.

"Oh, Princess Uranus," said a weasel-man in formal robes, "we brought your racer."

Uranus smiled as the mostly-engine shape of her sky-chariot was revealed. Her hands clenched repeatedly at the thought of trying it out on the way home. "What kind of speed does it get again?"

"Roughly nine hundred kelekams per horta," said Councilor Slipe. "Oh, is Princess Saturn here?"

The rest of the Senshi gathered as Hotaru was found.

"Princess Saturn," said Slipe, bowing low. "His Imperial Majesty, Ranma the First, has heard of your predicament and has sent you a gift that he hopes you will find of some use in your current struggle against the Forces Of Darkness. He wishes you to consider this a small token of his regard for you."

"Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?" Neptune asked in a low voice.

"I attend an Imperial Court which in the past has had a number of unpleasantly tempered individuals in charge," said the Councilor in an equally low tone. "Consider it a survival skill."

Neptune nodded, acknowledging the point.

"What did he say?" Saturn asked Mercury.

"He said that the Emperor sent you a gift and he hopes you like it," translated Mercury from Toady to Japanese.

"Oh," said Saturn. "That's nice. Where is it?"

CRUNK! K-CHUNK! Chrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The Senshi watched as the cargo hauler opened up, followed by some massive form slowly raising in the pre-dawn light. It caused a few gasps from the Senshi as it stepped out of the cradle to stand before them.

"I recognize that," said Venus as she stepped back in shock. Saturn got a giant robot?! She HAD to meet this Emperor! "It's..."

Gundam, is it the original or DeathScythe Gundam?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Sky Surprise

by Kender

"It's a Gundam..," commented Venus needlessly.

"It is that," Jupiter agreed.

"Does it meet with your satisfaction?" the Counselor asked the recipient.

She looked to Mercury, who told her, "He wants to know if you like it."

Saturn nodded mutely.

"Then I'll bring your thanks to the Emperor."

"You do that," Pluto said, sounding amused.

Uranus sniffled.

Mars frowned. "Is there something wrong?"

"I... I..."

"Don't tell me that you have a problem with this?"

"It's not that..."

"What is it then?"

"I want one of those!" whined the short haired blonde.

Most of the Senshi just stared. Pluto raised an eyebrow while Neptune rubbed a temple.

"You... want one?" asked Jupiter.

"I've always wanted one!" Uranus told her.

"But what about your 'sky chariot' thing?"

"I want them both!"

"Eh?!"

The Senshi of Neptune sighed and closed her eyes in the manner of the long suffering. "She has just about every series, movie and OAV on video tapes. As well as models and the occasional toy still in its wrapping. When she is not running, or racing, she can be found watching an episode of the show."

"She's a Gundam otaku?!"

"Not an otaku, exactly. More of a fan." The sea-green haired Senshi looked to where her partner was nearly salivating over Saturn's Gundam and frowned. "Perhaps an ardent one at that."

"Maybe I could give it to her?" Saturn suggested.

Hope flared on Uranus' face, but was quickly extinguished. "It's yours..."

"I could always... let you take it for a ride..."

"Would you?! I'd like to have one of my own, but that would be real great too!"

"I guess..."

"You would like one of your own?" the Counselor asked.

Turning to him, Uranus nodded. "I'd really like that."

"Then I'll take your request back with me to the Emperor."

"You will?"

"Of course."

"Thank you!"

From where they were watching the Senshi of Uranus get all sparkly eyed, Jupiter commented to Mars, "I was scared before, but now I'm ready to jump out of my boots."

"Me too," agreed the Senshi of Fire while they watched Uranus look up happily at Saturn's:

Nobel Gundam.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Ai No Bishojo Senshi Robo, Noble Gundam Saturn!

by Greyman

"Wow!" Minako exclaimed. "It looks just like Noble Gundam! Kinda."

"Like what?" Rei enquired.

"It was a Gundam knock off of 'Sailor V' from way backwards," Minako explained. "Noble Gundam looked a lot like me. It even had the same hairstyle, though they got the fuku's colour wrong. This one looks a little more like Dark Nobel. Well, the colour kinda suits, Hotaru."

"Oh, great! You already have a movie and a video game based off of you," Rei complained. "Now you say you have a giant anime robot, too? Please don't tell Usagi about this."

"Merchandising is not all good," Minako defended. "At least you guys don't have perverts drooling over hentai doujinshi about you."

"Hmmm, yes," Haruka agreed and whistled innocently. "Terrible that..."

"What's hentai doujinshi?" Hotaru enquired naively.

"Never you mind," Michiru diverted, "let's try out your giant robot."

"Yah! How do I get in?"

"That's what the core lander is for," Haruka explained, pointing to the dark purple vehicle behind the giant robot. It's part simple transportation, part control module which plugs into the back!"

"That's right, Ma'am," Toady explained proudly. "We kept close to the original design specifications as possible, while customising it for Princess Saturn's colour scheme of course."

Uranus 'casually' pointed out that they were a sentai team.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Follow that sky chariot

by Kestral

Uranus looked at her sky chariot and then over at Hotaru's Gundam.

Somewhere, deep in the recesses of her brain, a teeny tiny switch was thrown. Ranma was a guy. He was an alien prince. Guys were bad. Aliens were bad. Ranma, however, was okay.

Hmmm. "Uhm, Steiner, was it?"

"Yes, milady," said Steiner, not noticing the wince the Princess' did on that title.

"Emperor Ranma does know that we're a team right? You know 'one for all, all for one' and that sort of... OUCH!"

Neptune withdrew her hand after pinching her lover. "Uranus? Don't be greedy."

"So tell me about these hentai dojinshi," suggested a curious Mars to Venus.

"You don't want to know," Venus assured her partner. "I've found at least three where Mercury does the Senshi."

Mercury nearly dropped her computer on hearing that. Oh dear. Maybe she ought to find a boyfriend soon and put those rumors to rest.

Sailor Moon looked over the sky chariot and took a seat at the controls. She wondered how it worked. There was a steering wheel, three floor petals, but what did this little green orb do?

shhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Sailor Moon jabbed repeatedly at the button in an effort to turn it off as Uranus came running towards her.

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

As the vehicle lifted slightly off the ground and began moving forward slowly, Sailor Uranus leapt towards her chariot and managed to grab a siderail.

zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Even as Sailor Moon tried one of the floor pedals, mashing it to the ground.

The attack of Hastur kind of puts the rescue plans on hold.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Bug Problems

by Kender

"Moon!" yelled Uranus, "Stop this thing!"

The odango haired girl pressed her hands together worryingly. "But I don't know how!"

"How did you get it to start?!"

"I don't know! Hey, maybe if I turn the wheel..!"

"NO! DON'T!" yelled the short haired blonde... just as the reincarnated princess was turning the steering wheel.

On the ground, the Senshi and the soldiers watched as the sky chariot went from a straight out run to circling over head.

"That girl..," muttered Mars.

"This can't be good," commented Mercury.

Venus shrugged. "At least they're still in the air..." The other Senshi just stared at her. "Well, they are..."

*rumble...*

"Did anyone else here that?" asked Jupiter.

Neptune looked at her. "Hear what?"

*Rumble!*

"That," replied the tall brunette.

"What is it?" asked Mars.

*RUMBLE! CRASH!*

As a giant cockroach burst from the ground, the raven haired girl stared at the sight. "Oh... that."

"Pluto!" yelled Mercury, "Hastur is here! How do we fight it?!"

The Senshi of Time stayed silent.

"Pluto! We need to know its weak spots!"

"..."

"This is no time to keep quiet! You need to help us fight it!"

"... but it's Hastur..."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"... it's Hastur..."

"Listen, we have to fight it no matter what its name is."

"Nope. No going near it. Don't like cockroaches. Never have. Like really big ones even less. Not going near it. Not me..."

The Senshi of Ice just stared at Pluto as she continued to babble, while:

the fight against the newest Titan got underway.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: The Pluto Knights Attack!

by Kestral

The Senshi were already largely in disarray as Hastur broke through the ground and stood revealed as a 1/2 mile long (with legs fully extended) cockroach.

Usagi was currently piloting Haruka's new racer while Haruka held on for dear life.

"aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

In fact they just went overhead, momentarily drawing the attention of both Hastur and most of the Senshi.

Flying cars, however, were not that uncommon a sight to the Mongolian forces.

Steiner pointed with a glowing blue sword. "All forces. Begin attack!"

The Senshi now had something new to stare at. Most of the Pluto Knights had rifles that spat beams of energy. Some had something akin to mortars. Some had bazooka-like gadgets that fired missiles.

The Mongolian military had been upgraded twice since Ming's days, and was in the process of getting a third upgrade from Ranma who might not be that familiar with high tech combat, but he knew what they were supposed to do and he had his own tastes. Beam-axes had proven very popular and there was currently a waiting list to get the rifle/axe combination from the factory(1). Steiner, as Captain of the Pluto Knights, had a special order on his Excalibur II sword and therefore already had it. His troops favored weapons that looked like Pluto's Time Key Staff but were actually particle beam weapons.

After being hit by repeated energy blasts, missiles, and having the Mongolian Transport (PFC Firstenburg coming up with the idea that as the beastie was as big as a ship - use ship based weapons on it) begin utilizing turret missile launchers on his underbelly, Hastur decided to go underground again.

The 321st Airborne (the Saturn Knights, the former Flying Axes) snapped their fingers in disappointment as they were still 20 AU out from Earth.

"All right you louts! Stop shooting! Stand down but remain alert, I'd expect bugboy to try attacking from below, prepare to board transports and hover at fifteen!" Captain Steiner saluted the gaping Senshi. "Ma'ams. If you would board the transports?"

The ground began fountaining up. SLASH! Hotaru's Gundam sliced off a leg. Hastur went back underground.

The Senshi

Venus wonders about the possibility of getting her own Gundam unit. Maybe Macross Destroid?

Someone stops her before she starts singing "Stage Fright" or other Lynn Minmei songs.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Kids And Toys

by Kender

The Senshi (that were still on the ground) looked at each other. It was obvious from the look they had in their eyes that they were all in agreement. They had all seen the same thing, so their shared conclusion wasn't completely unexpected.

"Um… Steiner?" asked Jupiter.

The captain of the Pluto Knights saluted. "Yes Ma'am?"

"We were thinking…"

"Yes?"

"Can you do that again?"

"That was the general idea, Ma'am. Why do you ask?"

"Because that seems to be the best course of action," replied Mercury.

Mars snorted and muttered under her breath, "Especially since Pluto couldn't give us a straight answer."

Pluto heard that but merely frowned.

"So what is your plan?"

Jupiter smirked. "Shoot it whenever it appears, shoot it some more, and don't stop until it's either beaten or runs away."

"We can work with that."

This was the way to travel in Ranma's opinion. If someone was going to have a spaceship, it had better be a cool one. And if it was a battleship, then it would be best to have a really tough one. Which was great since all he had to do was to ask for one and he got it.

"Uhh…... Your Highness?" asked an officer on the bridge.

Ranma glanced away from the view in front of him to the person who had spoken. "Yeah?"

"I can understand travelling to Earth in such a ship, but why are you dressed that way?"

"Can't be the captain of the ship without dressin' right."

"Well, it does seem to fit."

"Ya got that right," the pigtailed boy told him with a grin as he adjusted his jacket, which looked just like Captain Harlock's.

Venus paused and looked thoughtful as they walked back to the transports. "You know something…"

"What is it?" asked Saturn.

"You know your Gundam?"

"Yeah…"

"I was thinking of how cool it would be to have one of my own!"

"You want one?"

"Of course! Or maybe something from 'Macross'!" declared the Senshi of Love, "If I had one, then I could be like Lynn Minmei and sing while I pilot!"

"But Lynn Minmei wasn't a pilot," Mars pointed out.

"Details, details. But I can just see myself now!" the blonde said as she mimed speaking into a microphone, "Facing the enemy while belting my latest hit… I could start off with 'My Boyfriend Is A Pilot'…"

Reaching around her fellow Senshi as she prepared to sing, Jupiter covered her mouth. "Please, don't."

As Venus pouted, the other Senshi sighed while:

the Saturn Knights showed up.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Beatrix of the Saturn Knights

by Kestral

In Ming's days the rocket ships had been large finned cylinders with a little doohickey on top that was the main/only gun.

In Wang's days the ships had been upgraded and looked rather Jules Verne-ish. Wang's personal vessel had resembled a fanciful dragonfly. It still did a trail of smoke and sparks, but that drive system had been in place for awhile and was preferred by many of the Mongolian traditionalists.

Yan did away with the drive system for something more dependable and fancied the "every available surface has a weapons port" approach.

The Unnamed Emperor didn't do anything involving the ships.

The interim government had put smoke-and-spark generators on the ships not equipped with the old drive, that way they could have it both ways.

Captain Beatrix didn't like the smoke-and-spark thing, preferring approaches and takeoffs that were like her swordwork - clean and precise.

Her ship, the Savior, resembled some huge (60') hummingbird. and was nearly as maneuverable. She cut a screaming path through the Terran atmosphere and the wing guns sent pulses into the most likely tunnel for Hastur as she came around.

When it was obvious that Steiner had his ships in hover, her reaction was instant.

Hitting the button that sent a little hologram projection of her to the Vindicator. "Steiner. What's the sitrep?"

"What's the outfit?" Steiner asked, gaping at the red bodysuit, flowing cape and long boots.

"The Emperor is coming in an outfit like this, but a male variant. I had someone research and prepare a similar costume to show my solidarity with the new Emperor." Beatrix began to smile a little. "Like it?"

"Oh.. YES! Yes. It... suits you," said Steiner. "Oh ah. The sitrep! Yes. The enemy deemed 'Hastur' is underground. Per the request of our allies, the Senshi, we are following it and shooting whatever sticks out of its tunnel."

"Hello?! Oh, I got it working!"

Beatrix knelt, clenched fist over her heart. "My princess. I am here to deliver an additional war machine and pledge my assistance to you."

Saturn in her Gundam gulped. "What am I supposed to do? This kind of thing hasn't happened before!"

"Accepting would be a good thing," remarked Pluto. "Whose war machine?"

"For you, Princess Pluto," said Beatrix, waiting for Saturn to get over her fidgeting. "The one for Uranus will be next? Where is she?"

"Jaaaaannneeee! Stop this craazy thiiing!" Uranus shouted out as she whipped around in the wind, her hand barely clinging to the handrail as Usagi somehow managed a barrel roll.

"Where's the brakes?!" squealed Usagi.

Uranus had a sudden image of the vehicle coming to a dead stop and herself shooting past it into the distance. A glance down revealed that - gee were those dental floss things roads?! They were awfully high up. "NO! NO BRAKES!"

"So, the Pluto Knights were ready to go, as was the Saturn Gundam. The Pluto mecha was delayed, as were the Saturn Knights, so that's what happened there," said Pluto thoughtfully.

"Exactly," said Beatrix. "I wanted to present the Saturn war machine to her directly, but time was considered essential. No offense but I feel that the cute and nice young Princess of Saturn would bring qualities to the position of Empress that are needed."

Pluto waved it off. "I just don't think that I'm the giant robot pilot type."

Venus held a sign over her head that proclaimed: [Cute & Nice & Single! H] Rei held up her hand and waved it around, as this was the anime and not manga version. Ami raised a hand and blushed. Makoto made a muscle gesture and had this speculative gleam in her eye.

"I see. Would perhaps one of the other princesses deign to use this... minor gift of the Emperor?" Asked Beatrix, knowing how they played this sort of thing at court even if she preferred something more direct and to the point.

Hotaru looked up. There went Haruka-papa overhead again.

"Maybe I should try to stop them?" Hotaru asked aloud.

"I'm getting ready to stop them," said a voice as the second giant robot began snapping cables as it got up from where it had been strapped to Beatrix' ship.

Hotaru recognized the voice and realized that this was:

Makoto gets ready to go after Uranus in her Gunhead

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Girl And Her Mech

by Kender

"Makoto's in there?" asked Saturn asked from her Gundam.

Neptune nodded. "Yes, that's her."

"It looks like a walking tank," commented Mercury.

"It looks like a walking arsenal!" corrected Mars.

Venus pouted. "I wanted to pilot it."

"I'm sure that they'll make you something that is more in your… style," soothed Pluto.

"Really?"

"Certainly."

"Yay!"

Rolling her eyes, the Senshi of Ice turned her attention back to the giant robot. "Are you sure that you know how to drive that thing?" she asked Jupiter.

"Piece of cake!" replied the emerald eyed brunette, smirking as she targeted the chariot, "I'll just send a line out and catch them!"

"That's what worries me…"

"Don't be so worried! Nothing can go wrong!" she said as she went to pull the trigger and:

snagged the chariot on a line.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: If at first you don't succeed

by Kestral

Makoto looked over the banks of controls and took charge. This wasn't an airplane, so she could handle it, right?

Okay, she had the sky chariot bracketed, now all she had to do was push Circle, Square, Triangle, Left.

Pshhhh pshhh pshhhh went three contrails as they streaked away from her mecha.

Okay, maybe it was Square Circle, Triangle...

Brraaaaapppppp went the large machine gun.

Maybe this button over here?

Crunk went the hull plating as the giant robot leapt off into space.

"Princess Jupiter," radioed Beatrix, "if you look under the console there's an operator's manual."

"Now she tells me," grumbled Makoto.

"Slow down! Slow down!" yelled Uranus as soon as they got down to where they could breathe again. Oh look. They were going past a city. Uranus glanced behind her. Missiles? "GO FASTER! GO FASTER!"

Hastur was confused.

Each of the Titans had been formed in that long-off age by the weaving of powerful elemental magics as they sought to improve their hand in a sort of magical arms race.

Hastur had been born from Kefke Hastur, a scientist who hadn't really been that important or clever, just another mediocre weapons developer who had been full of patriotism and following the lead of other scientists. His experiment had been with a weave of Earth, Spirit, and Shadow magics. When everything had gone wrong and the chain reaction finished, his transformation had been to the 1/2 mile long cockroach that bore his name.

Hastur was a little better off than Dagon and Cthulhu. He didn't have much of a mind, but there was something there that could be confused.

It knew it had to go THAT way. It knew it had to feed, and that to feed it needed to destroy. It knew that prior to the last time it had been leashed, it had run amok and darn little in the way of bronze spear points or wood and stone weapons could hurt it.

Now however, it was facing a lot of things which could hurt it.

Hastur emerged several times from the ground only to find bits and pieces of his body getting shot away. Followed by a retreat to underground.

Knowing that it needed to remove the painful things, but denied the chance. It could fly, but as soon as it appeared it was stung.

Finally, Hastur realized what it needed to do. Opening a tunnel, it slunk back from the strange fires used against it and opened its ovipositors. The Spawn Of Hastur were quickened and readied before they finally were unleashed in a cloud.

"Urk!" Sailor Pluto said, looking somewhat perturbed.

"What is that?" Sailor Venus asked as the brown cloud began coming out of the tunnel.

Explosions began to put holes in the cloud.

"They're bugs, lots and lots of three foot long flying spiked cockroaches," reported Sailor Mercury who wasn't scared of cockroaches but looked somewhat nauseated all the same.

"Icky," said Sailor Venus, summing it up quite nicely.

"Burning Mandala, Burning Mandala, Burning Mandala!" responded Sailor Mars from where she was seeing the horde heading her way.

Captain Steiner punched a button. "LISTEN UP YOU LOUTS! Stop using beam weapons. Switch to timed missile fire and area effect weapons!"

Makoto waited carefully as the sky chariot came in range again. There!

The line shot out towards the approaching mecha, and then past it.

Twang! Only to get caught on a flange near the controls.

Whip! went the sky chariot past the Gunhead.

Zoom! went the sky chariot in smaller and smaller circles as it orbited the Gunhead at high speeds and the line was slowly wrapped around Makoto's mecha.

Clank! went the sky chariot at it became tangled up with the Gunhead.

"Uh oh," said Makoto, Usagi, and Haruka at the identical same time.

"AAAAAAAAAA!" said Makoto, Usagi, and Haruka at the exact same time as they went into freefall.

"Thumpf!" went the parachutes as automatic systems went to work.

As their "plunge to certain doom" became a "drift down to Bug Central", Haruka turned as best she could to Usagi's position. "My princess. I have sworn to serve you and do everything I can to keep you safe. If you ever do this again, I will spank you so hard that you shall not be able to sit down at cockpit without remembering this even if a thousand years passes."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I'll remember this," assured Usagi.

Ryoga is now an unstoppable juggernaut as the "reward" for freeing the Titans?!

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Returning A Favor

by Kender

In the time since he had met Ranma Saotome, one of the driving forces in Ryoga Hibiki's life had been to defeat the pigtailed boy. He had followed the other boy from Japan, to a remote region of China and back again. Once he had discovered where his rival was staying, he tried to defeat him once and for all. For that purpose, he had always been on the lookout for things that might give him an edge in a fight.

He had thought that the scroll that he had found would lead him to just such a thing. With the power that it had promised was there, he would put an end to their rivalry once and for all. He had assumed that it would be a power source, a weapon, a new technique or something like that.

What he got was transformation.

From the martial artist that he had been, he was changed into a new form as a 'reward' for freeing that which had been trapped for so long. His body was shifted along new lines until the point where he was no longer the person that he had once been.

In his stead was a:

massive pig-man beast.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Imperial March

by Kestral

Ryoga knew it was his fault.

From now on, if evil creatures with glowing eyes offered him vengeance on all who had wronged him, he'd say "no thank you."

It didn't help him now.

He'd seen the image somewhere and one of the Titans had plucked out the memory and used it to rebuild his body. No longer was he Ryoga Hibiki. No longer was he P-chan.

No, he was Pig Iron.

A fifteen foot tall armored pig-man who had tried to sneak his way into Athens and then to a ship. That hadn't gone very well.

Unless you call widespread panic, four demolished buildings, cars stacked up like cords of wood, and their military ricocheting shots off his body a positive development. There was only one thing he could do.

Get revenge on Ranma. Once Ranma was dead, his vengeance would have been completed and he would return to normal.

He hoped.

He also discovered that in addition to having a body of solid iron, if he came into contact with iron then he regenerated from the few things that could actually hurt him or could absorb the mass of the iron and increase his size and strength, he could fire heat beams from his eyes, and that even bombs and mortar fire were minor inconveniences.

He was pretty darn powerful, he had to admit.

How he was supposed to get to Japan like this - now that was something he was a lot less sure of.

Ranma pointed. He'd seen enough giant robot anime (when he could sneak it and nobody else would see) and Captain Harlock's adventures to know that as they were hitting atmosphere what was required. "Cue music!"

"Emperor," said a demure young blue-furred woman in a long black dress even as she hit the button that began playing appropriate music on the ship's sound system. "The Vindicator and Savior, as well as MT-104 and MT-105 are all firing into a set of tunnels in the ground."

Ranma had absolutely no experience with large weapons systems. "Figure out what they're shooting at and blast it into next Tuesday."

"Aye, captain! Emperor. Sir!" The Glacian Gunnery Officer, Kh'ei, on the other hand, knew a few things about her weapons even if she was unsure what to call the Emperor. "Turrets one and two. Sending coordinates. Fire when ready. Belly turret. Wait three seconds and fire. Aft turret. Wait six seconds and fire. Prepare missile tubes one through sixteen."

When the Mongolian factories had produced the Arcadia, they hadn't produced a 100% accurate replica. The galleon at the rear end was not made of wood and glass, for example, but composite armored materials. The choice of flag was a bit odd too - as nobody had understood the whole skull-and-crossbones reference except as a fashion statement.

Since they understood it as such, they'd managed to incorporate the skull and crossbones darn near everywhere on the ship. It decorated everything from the tips of missiles to the Emperor's underwear. It was on doorknobs to the head and on the ship's plates. It was embroidered on napkins and stenciled on dueling swords.

During the construction, someone had thought to ask the Emperor exactly what the meaning was. He had come back with the response of indicating that it was a symbol of tough outlaw patriots who had sailed the terrestrial seas. It therefore became even more popular with the Mongolian Navy who immediately dropped the pink lace garter belts that the Unnamed Emperor had stuck them with to embrace this new symbol.

The turret guns of the anime Arcadia weren't quite understood by the technicians, especially with the Emperor being quite vague, so the technicians went with an experimental weapon of their own.

They weren't quite ready to try unleashing the Atomic Vortex Cannon though they had one almost ready for installation. So they went with gauss weapons. The spheres were steel and roughly 350mm across. When they left the muzzle of the cannon they had attained a speed of roughly Mach 18. These were intended for ship-to-ship combat, and weren't ideal for exterminating large insects.

They made large booms though, so the engineers and technicians rated them a qualified success.

Steiner, for all his faults of being overly serious, of having all the sense of humor of a tuna sandwich, of getting overly excited due to taking things too seriously, had his good points. He was one of the best power-technique swordsmen in the entire Marines division. He understood other weapons and the tactics of using them and when not to use them.

"The Emperor wishes to make a grand entrance," he noted and was just glad that none of his ships were between the Arcadia and the target. "All ships retreat one fifty and prepare to bombard from that distance. Beatrix?"

Beatrix sighed as her Savior was of an old design and the new ship for her forces, the Queen Emeraldas, was still over two months from completion. "We don't have any weapons capable of firing down those tunnels or burrowing new ones to reach the target. What of the Princesses?"

"Not particularly thrilled with the idea of a tunnel hunt," stated Steiner. "One of my men came up with the idea of using missiles around the cloud timed to explode all at the same time so that the pressure waves would crush the swarm from all sides. Corporal Firstenburg."

"That name?" Beatrix thought briefly. "Oh yes. The one who puts his stripes on with velcro to save time between demotions and promotions."

"That's the one," admitted Steiner.

"Well, I'll get the Saturn Knights. We'll have to go into the tunnels and fight it there," said Beatrix regretfully. "Unless someone has a better idea?"

K'hei and Y'uri (Arcadia's gunnery officer and scan operator) suggest using weapons fire to dig a trench from that lake over there to Hastur's tunnels.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Bug Hunt

by Kender

What most people forgot in the face Setsuna's 'mysterious and secretive' persona, was that she was human being just like everyone else. She had to eat, drink and had her own preferences about things. The difference was that she was a whole lot longer lived than other people. So, she knew a whole lot more than she had let on.

Like the fact that on one of her first journeys through time, she had discovered a world in the far future where she was the only one left. Or rather, the only human being left. The only other form of animal life left on the planet in that time period was something she'd already disliked before: Cockroaches.

Just her and cockroaches. Lots and LOTS of cockroaches. And she'd looked at the eyes of her other self and been terrified of what she'd found there.

Now, she later found out that she had inadvertently stumbled upon an alternate future, but that did not change her opinion of the little vermin at all. In no way could she find any worth to the creatures, and shrank from even thinking about them.

So, she had been happy to hear a plan from the Arcadia.

*"K'hei and I have a plan!"* declared Y'uri, the Arcadia's sensor officer.

"What is it?" asked Mars.

*"We figure that the best way to defeat this thing is to flood the tunnels."*

"How do you plan on doing that?"

*"By using weapons fire to dig a trench from that lake over there to the creature's tunnels!"* commented K'hei.

"That seems to be a bit much..."

Mercury shrugged. "But it would likely be effective. Even if it didn't damage him, then it would drive Hastur out from underground."

Pluto nodded resolutely. "Then it should do just fine."

"Aren't you worried?"

"No, I'm not. Let us do it."

"I guess so..."

*"Yes! Let's start the bug hunt!"* commented K'hei. "Begging the Emperor's permission, of course."*

*"Why not?"* came Ranma's voice.

*"Yeah! Readying weapon systems!"*

Hastur did not have much of a mind of his own, but he could recognise stimuli. Being attacked and having its body whittled away had sent it into the underground tunnels.

The earth trembling had made it sense that something was wrong. A rumbling sound made it take special notice. And the streams of water meant that it had to get away very quickly.

Out of the tunnel came Hastur.

Right in front of the massed firepower that had been ranged against him.

If it would have been able to form words, they would be something in the vein or 'Oh shit.'

In that moment,:

Hastur got blown away.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Pluto remembers the Titans

by Kestral

The last time Hastur had run on a rampage, he'd been a nearly unstoppable force and only the combined magic of all the Earth mages had been able to fight him and his brothers and contain them.

Now there were missiles and particle beams and lasers and gauss weapons and beam ribbons being used against him, and he had to admit that these were a lot more effective than bronze spear points and copper swords.

Sailor Pluto had a certain look of satisfaction as the cockroach was being effectively and thoroughly stomped. "He's subdued, Emperor, please direct one of your ships to take him off planet."

*"Uhm, okay,"* said the Emperor's voice. *"How dja know that's a 'he'?"*

"Because Kafka Hastur was a male and once human, but due to the powers they tampered with - he became that thing out there." Sailor Pluto watched as the tow cables were shot into Hastur and two transports began taking their cargo off. "Where are they going, anyway?"

It was Steiner who answered, bringing up a chart of the solar system. "These giant monsters are being placed on a small moon here."

"One of the Kuiper Belt Objects then," said Pluto, "how big?"

Steiner answered by nodding to a subordinate who was more comfortable with such things.

"It's about 900 of your kilometers in diameter. Primarily composed of ice. Carbon dioxide, some water, average temperature is pretty much background, no atmosphere other than some traces of hydrogen and oxygen. It's a big iceball, essentially." The girl adjusted her glasses and continued. "Monster Planet is along the outer edge of this belt of cometary debris and its orbit is such that at its nearest approach to your sun, it will still be comfortably within the same belt at 40 Astronomical Units."

Sailor Pluto nodded. "Personally, I think 'Tartarus' would be a better name. I would suggest putting in navigational buoys nearby to ward off unwary ships."

"Emperor?" Captain Steiner asked.

*"Yeah, go ahead."* Emperor Ranma proclaimed.

*"So what other of these Titans do you know about?"* Beatrix asked over the commlink.

"There are a number of them. Dagon is of the water, resembling a huge armored squid. He's also referred to as Kraken in some sources. If Okeanos is free, he'll be moving towards deeper channels. He had enough of his mind left to try and isolate himself, otherwise his rages would pulverize those around him. Most of the others I only remember names, it has been quite some time." Pluto frowned. She'd been trying to remember but apparently the centuries had taken their toll. "Koios and Kreios. Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys - they're not as mindless as some. Cthulhu's mind was completely snapped during the transformation, I remember something about that. Iapetos was married to Clymene and his family was there at what was supposed to be his moment of triumph, instead they all were mixed up in his nightmare. I remember that. Atlas, Menoitios. Prometheus - who retained his mind and actually helped to contain the others. Epimetheus was also immune to the madness, but left permanently a moron. Latona and Tellus. Themis - who was also mainly human still but ended up bound with the others."

*"That's quite a few,"* noted Beatrix.

"The project involved some of the best and brightest minds from Earth," agreed Pluto. "Then there are the Hecantotheire brothers, Typhon, and technically the Seasons, the Fates, and the Furies. I don't expect any of the last three groups to come into play and Typhon I am hoping not. The Muses would be difficult to fight but hopefully they aren't involved."

"Muses? Patrons of the arts weren't they?" Mercury asked, breaking into the conversation.

"When the battle to contain Mnemosyne occurred, nine gems of power - shards of Mnemosyne and containing much of her power - were broken from the Titan of Memory. They were split up and guarded over by holy women, who apparently survived to the times of the ancient Greeks enough to send their astral forms at least. Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Urania, and Thalia. What happened to them after that, I do not know." Pluto frowned. "Their power isn't that great. A Senshi transformation allows for more personal power and control. Clio's gem was that of History - she could view the past of any object or location she visited with that gem, peeling away the layers of intervening time to see clearly what was. Terpsichore's gem allowed her to play any instrument as if a master and weave spells with songs. Of course, that meant that her spells were normally five minutes or longer to cast."

"If we could find these gems, we might be able to use them against our opponents then?" Mercury asked.

"The problem would be finding them," indicated Pluto. "Looking for nine scattered gemstones roughly the size of your thumb that are somewhere in the Mediterranean area? How much use would Euterpe's gem, which allows you to rhyme and speak with the grace of a poet, be in a fight with the Titans?"

"Oh. What about the Hecantotheire?" Mercury asked, continuing to take notes.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," explained Pluto. "Translation difficulty. They didn't have a hundred hands, they were a hundred hands tall. Roughly. There were two of them, brothers empowered by one of the Titans and turned into engines of destruction with great power. I doubt we'll see any of them."

Ryoga sneezed, sending an iron pebble to imbed in a girder.

It had taken him quite some time to sneak aboard a ship, his new form was definitely noticeable, but he'd finally done it.

Then he'd found a ship with an odd English name, but he'd seen the ship in Japan and known he could hitch a ride with them.

Japan, and his destiny, called.

Meanwhile, the Greenpeace ship continued towards their destination in the Azores.

Pluto discovers that the Titan's Gate is only big enough to allow one or two to escape at a time! Who's the next one?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Checking The Door

by Kender

"So there's only one question to ask," commented Jupiter.

Pluto arched an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

"Which one's coming next?"

"That's true. But you did forget the other one."

"I did?"

"Yes. How many of them would there be next time?"

Mars nodded. "That's true."

"But how would we find that out?" asked Mercury.

"Wait for the next time that one of them attacks?"

"That may happen, but I was hoping to find out before that occurred."

"Well, it's not like we can just waltz up to the seal and check it."

"Perhaps not," put in the Senshi of Time, "But we can check."

"You know where it is?"

"Not really."

"Then how do we check it out?"

"I may not know the exact spot of the seal, I was told of the general area."

"Why? It'd be easier to know so that you could keep an eye out."

"But they wanted to keep it secret so that no one would be visiting it enough to even accidentally release the Titans."

"Oh."

"I will go and check, before returning to inform you of what I find," Pluto told them before disappearing.

She reappeared on a cliff overlooking a large area of land. To the naked eye it would seem to be nothing more than a spectacular view. But to Pluto's senses, this was a place of great eldritch energies. She could detect the subtle, yet complex, weavings of power settled upon the area.

And there was one area that pulsed with the energy that she was looking for. It seemed to be a major source of power, but one that was slightly... 'off'. There was a similar feel to the Time Gate, but this one was more reinforced than the other. However, it was... darker than the one that she guarded.

Her question about the limits of the Gate was quickly answered as she detected a shift of energies that told her that something was coming through. By what she could tell, it seemed that it took a lot to go through, so that meant that one, maybe two could come out at time. She stayed only long enough to see which one it was, before leaving to tell the Senshi and the troops that they would have to deal with:

Okeanos.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Meanwhile, what of Nerima?

by Kestral

Ranma had been stolen away by aliens the last anyone had seen of him. Aliens that looked like sexy young women. (Mainly because they were, but that's another story.) He'd gone on to become Emperor of Mongo and was basically having a grand old time.

In the absence of Ranma, you might suppose (as Ranma did) that all the chaos and all the insanity would have left the lives of those he'd left behind. That Akane would be happily leading a life without the chaos of Ranma being involved.

Well, maybe. That also would be another story. Because what had happened was that all the chaos of Ranma's life had just stuck around and begun festering.

Soun snapped completely. Before the week was out, he'd managed to engage his daughters to new fiances. Repeatedly. Several each.

Kasumi had found herself not only engaged several times over, usually to men more than twice her age but in some cases she had to wonder if they were indeed of the same species. While she had been somewhat oblivious before, the staring off into space while twitching was a recent development.

Happosai was so happy that he was engaged to Soun's eldest. Though if it didn't work out, he could always have Soun switch it to dear sweet Akane.

Nabiki had found herself being engaged to Hiroshi AND Daisuke for three bottles of sake and a month's supply of groceries from Hiroshi's father's supermarket. She had protested. She had protested loudly! When the dust settled, Soun was bawling again because he'd somehow or other sold his middle daughter's to the Amazons. Cologne was still trying to figure out why Soun Tendo had drawn up that contract, but she was mostly satisfied with Nabiki as her backup waitress/accountant and Nabiki was interested in doing a good job so that she could start up a business management company. She liked the work but was very unhappy about her sale and the lack of negotiations her father had performed. Particularly as she was now engaged to Mousse as well as Hiroshi and Daisuke.

Akane was engaged to Tatewaki Kuno, Hikaru Gosunkugi, Hitoshi Sado, Tsubasa Kurenai, and someone named Mamoru Chiba. She was very very not happy about this development in her life. She was even less happy about her father's reactions to complaints being a threat to engage her to Happosai instead of Kasumi.

Nor had those not of the Tendo family escaped completely.

Shampoo found herself exiled from her tribe. Fortunately she could keep her room and the waitress job and was also attending some schooling to deal with her speech impediment. Having another waitress around helped.

Ukyo found herself running her business at all hours and Konatsu was apparently being scouted out as an idol singer. Ukyo had not discovered any spaceships she could hitch a ride with, and so had pretty much turned her attention fully to business until this changed.

Genma, deciding that he had to have a son otherwise he'd never be able to face his wife and her (gulp) katana, had wracked his brains for three days. Finally he'd decided that what he needed to do was find a substitute. If he'd ever met Shinnosuke, that might have worked, but as it was he had decided to go to Herb of the Musk. Surely they had a boy who was a good martial artist who could fill in for Ranma!

What no one realized was that Ryoga was almost back in town, though a little changed by his recent adventure.

Pluto watched as the form of Okeanos strode past her, easily 120 feet in height and formed entirely of seawater that was bound to a human shape.

Once in the water he'd be especially difficult to deal with. Until then he was far more vulnerable and easy to find.

Watching him go past, Pluto decided

to try talking to Okeanos. Did his human intellect remain over the imprisonment?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Talking It Out

by Kender

Pluto knew that she had to at least try. It was what she could do for the man who had become this being. There was still a possibility that he was still there, that there was some remnant of the person that he had been. If that was possible, then she could help him then. Perhaps they could come to some sort of agreement where he could be left to hide himself in the depths of the ocean again, or agree to be transported to some planet where he could live without the danger of hurting someone.

It would also allow them to conserve their energy for when they would need it. Being able to skip a fight would mean that they would have the chance to rest and recharge before getting involved in a battle.

Heck, if there was enough of him left, then maybe he could help them fight off the other Titans, and any enemies afterwards. Though she considered that possibility to be a pipe dream.

So sending energy through her Time Staff to get his attention, she called out, "Okeanos!"

The massive figure of water turned to her and:

asked what she wanted.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Okeanos' loyalty

by Kestral

Okeanos the Sea Titan looked down at the tiny figure crossing his path. Were he some relatively mortal creature, he might dismiss this as some insect, but he could feel the power burning within and knew. "You of Thy Moone Kingdomne. Y Dost Thou Trespass Upon Thy Lande f Thy Earthe Kingdomne?"

"Hold Okeanos, for I am Sailor Pluto," said Pluto, even as she realized she was probably all too wrong for this job. ENDYMION, aka Tuxedo Mask, should be the one approaching these Titans since at the time of their imprisonment - they were NOT allies of the Moon Kingdom that she represented.

"Thy Type Be Known To Me, Time Priestess. I Be Old And Old. Thy Transfiguration Ws Partly Successfulle As Thy Might See. By What Authority Dost Thou Seek To Parlay With Okeanos, He Who Hath Fathered The Oceanids? Beware Thou Try To Commande Me - For My Wrath Is That Of The Raging Storm."

"By the authority of the reborn Endymion, Prince Of The Earth Kingdom, who I count as an ally!" Sailor Pluto shouted up at the Titan.

Okeanos paused and looked closer at the tiny being.

"Ye Speake Th Truth, As Ye Knowe It. Very Well, Pluto Stafarer, Speake On."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Talking To Water

by Kender

"Ye Speake Thy Truth, As Ye Knowe It. Very Well, Pluto Stafarer, Speake On," intoned Okeanos.

Pluto let out the breath that she had been held and steadied herself as best she could. She knew that she would need all her skill to make certain that things didn't go badly. And if she could manage it, this could be a major coup for her side in dealing with the Titans. "I come to ask to discuss a proposal!"

Okeanos inclined his 'head'. "And What Would Thy Proposal Be?"

"It is a combination of an offer and and a question!"

"Speak Ye Mynd Now, For Mine Patience Dost Wear Thin."

"I apologise! We wish to know your intentions so that we might know what we have to do!"

"Mine Plans Were To Seek Thy Depths of the Sea. What Wouldst Thou Do Then?"

"If nothing else happens, then we will leave you be!" the Senshi of Time yelled up to him, "But if you wish, we can do something for you!"

"What Could Thou Do For Me?"

"We have an arrangement with a group that could take you to a planet where your anger would never harm any person again!"

"But I Sense That There Be Some Other Matter That Thou Wouldst Wish To Ask Me."

"Yes! If it would be at all possible, we would like your help!"

"Thou Wish To Contract Mine Assistance? For What Purpose?"

"There are other Titans that are not as... accommodating as you! We wish to deal with them properly, but if we do that, we might cause more damage than we prevent!"

"And Thou Wishest For Mine Help In Thy Matter?"

"If you would, we would be most appreciative!"

The Titan managed to give off the effect of a frown. "And What Wouldst Thou Give In Return For That?"

"Either to transport you someplace where you could stay in piece, or to let you be in the depths of the sea unmolested!"

For a moment, there was silence from the giant of water, but then Okeanos spoke.

"The Chance To Be Upon A World Without Danger Appeals Mighty."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Negotiations were going fine

by Kestral

Sailor Pluto looked up at the huge shape made of sea water. Okeanos was an unknown quality. His human part was mainly in control. Mainly being the key word there. One reason he'd isolated himself originally was because of that lack of control. Within the depths of the sea he would be calmed by the dark silence and remain in control. Out here in the open, nearly anything could happen.

"The Chance To Be Upon A World Without Danger Appeals Mighty," admitted the Titan of the Seas. "If Thou Speak True, Then -"

"Deep Submerge!" "World Shaking!"

Sailor Pluto twitched as two attacks struck Okeanos. One was absorbed, healing the damage of the World Shaking and adding slightly to his power.

More to the point, it had just convinced Okeanos that the whole thing was a trick.

"MOON WITCHES! YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR DECEPTION!" Okeanos transformed, losing the human shape to become a serpentine battering ram which arced towards Pluto.

Sailor Pluto sidestepped it, using her connection to the Gates Of Time to disappear there and reappear back at the camp.

"Pluto-san?"

"We'll have to go rescue Uranus and Neptune," said Pluto. "The negotiations... fell apart. It will be difficult to fight Okeanos with our current setup."

"Space Sword Blaster!" Uranus called out, cutting the snake in half.

The two forms flowed back together, showing no apparent damage.

"Submarine Reflection!" The mirror shone with its brilliance towards Okeanos.

"YOU DARE TO USE WATER BASED MAGIC AGAINST ME?!" Okeanos laughed as he grabbed the energies and pulled them.

"AAAH?!" Neptune suddenly found her Mirror being pulled towards the living river and her own energies being leached away. Her eyes widened as cracks began to form in her Aqua Mirror. "What?!"

"I AM WATER IN ITS PUREST FORM. SEEKEST MINE END WITH YOUR ATTACKS? TRY YOU THIS! 'CRUSHING DEPTHS!'"

Uranus jumped in front of Neptune, cutting the wave of water in half with her Space Sword.

"FOOLS," rumbled Okeanos. "I HAVE TIME NO MORE FOR THEE. SEE HOW DOST THOU ENJOY THIS! 'SEA CHANGE'!"

It turns out it was a transformative attack? What happened to Uranus and Neptune?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Water Manipulations

by Kender

Standing in front of Neptune, Uranus stood firm, certain that she would be able to block this latest strike. No monster was going to get the better of her, and she knew from Pluto's information that no Titan could be allowed to wake up Typhon. When they had seen Pluto facing that giant water creature, they had known that they had to act before she was attacked by the monster.

So they had headed into what they were sure would be a hard battle, and struck before it could know what was happening.

Unfortunately, they had terribly misjudged the situation, not only because they had attacked at a moment in which Pluto had been nearing success in her negotiations with Okeanos. What they hadn't realised was that each of the Titans had special abilities that were particular to each of them. Hyperion had an energy beam and the ability to make multiple images of himself and Hastur had an ease of tunneling that made him nearly as fast underground as he was above it.

In Okeanos' case, he was able to shift his form into various weapons and designs, along with having his 'Sea Change' skill. The first was a multifaceted attacking power, but the second...

The two Senshi discovered what it was when a stream of water swirled around them in the air and began glowing, lifting their bodies from the ground. They could feel something running through their forms, pushing and pulling them in all sorts of ways. By the time that they realised that something major was happening to them, they were totally enveloped by a ball of water, but did not drown.

When it burst, it sent them flying into a pool of water, splashing the cool liquid everywhere.

As they began to recover their senses, they looked at each other, and themselves, discovering that they had been transformed into:

a pair of mythological sea creatures.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Haruka Nymph and Michiru Mermaid

by Kestral

Okeanos had fathered the Oceanids. Among other things.

This had been well known.

When the Inners and a patrol ship had reached the area of the fight, Okeanos had moved on.

"What's wrong with them? Other than the obvious stuff?" Sailor Moon asked.

Mercury finished her scans. "They're drowning."

"But they're not in water," complained Moon.

"That's the problem, they're water breathers now. They can only exist a short time away from water," Mercury continued her analysis.

"Ma'am, we can get them to the coast," Captain Steiner told Pluto as the two seafarers were loaded into the transport. "What then?"

"Well," said Mercury, slightly annoyed that there were no Mercury Knights looking for her input. "According to my scans of their brainwave patterns -"

they're amnesiacs. We'll have to restrain them."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Senshi Memory

by Kender

"Well," said Mercury, slightly annoyed that there were no Mercury Knights looking for her input. "According to my scans of their brainwave patterns they're amnesiacs. We'll have to restrain them."

Pluto frowned. "That will mean great difficulties later, but for the moment we will have to make certain to keep them safe. Can it be reversed?"

"I don't know at the moment. It depends on what I find out. If it's a simple block or something like that, then it shouldn't be too difficult. But if he erased their personal memories completely... that would definitely be a problem."

"And their physical forms?"

"That will need more research too. I can't say for certain until I know how he did it. All it could take would be for Moon to use her Crystal, or it could need some great technical apparatus. There's no way to be sure until we get some solid information."

"Great..," grumbled Jupiter, "But how did this happen?"

"Okeanos did it," replied Pluto, "I was involved in a critical point in negotiating a peaceful settlement to his presence when they attacked. Possibly they thought that I was in danger, but I can't tell for certain."

"And they can't tell us," commented Mars, "But how do we deal with them now?"

"Put them in a tank," answered Mercury.

"What?"

"It's really simple. Either place them in some body of water with a barrier that will keep them in the area that we want them in, or construct a pool or tank of water in which we can keep them comfortably."

"Wonderful. From Senshi to members of an aquarium."

"Unfortunately, in their current state, we can't do much about that. All we can do is keep them from wandering off or hurting themselves in confusion."

"What about the one who did this?" asked Venus.

The Senshi of Pluto shook her head. "Likely already on his way to the ocean bottom, and he'll probably stay there unless provoked again. But if he does come back up, then all we can do is wait and prepare ourselves for another fight."

"And risk becoming a fish? But my name isn't going to be 'Wonder'."

"That's 'Wanda'," murmured Pluto, "In any case, we have to deal with this problem, and prepare changes in plans for when the next Titan comes out."

"Certainly Ma'am!" called out Steiner, who then turned to his troops. "Let's get going!"

"What's going to happen if Mercury can't fix them?" asked Moon.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," replied Pluto while:

an enclosure was prepared for Uranus and Neptune.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Haruka and Michiru's sitrep

by Kestral

Their memories had been locked away. They would return eventually. So would their original forms. That would be in the future.

Right now Haruka was an Oceanid - a sea nymph. Michiru was a mermaid.

Either could survive for a time out of the water. Haruka was the most human looking but could only spend fifteen minutes or so out of the water. Michiru could become more humanlike while out of the water, but would have to return to it and mermaid form within a half hour at most.

The two had been wiped clean as far as their memories were concerned. Nearly at the level of newborns as far as that was concerned.

Two tanks were quickly being rigged within the transport ship and a stop at the ocean allowed for a supply of salt water to be attained. Bubblers and other supplies were either constructed or brought out of storage. One of Mongo's races was not all that dissimilar from Uranus' current form, which meant that the engineers were familiar with the requirements of such.

What nobody realized, what nobody had figured out, what no one had really even guessed was that both Senshi had a considerable amount of guilt they had internalized. They were always going off on their own, talking about duty and angst, shooting first and asking questions later, etc. They rationalized such things even when it didn't work out. It was their role, their duty, they felt they had to act a certain way and do the dirty deeds that were deemed necessary that their princess would not.

The guilt, the pain, the angst, their worries and concerns - were all gone. Wiped clean.

Which had the effect on some level of their psyche of further suppressing their memories. Without the weight of duty forcing them on, they shied away from the pain that on that level they realized that remembering would bring them.

The Nymph smiled a delighted child's smile as she did a quick aquabatic flip in her tank and then came to rest her hands against the glass. She liked boys. She liked girls too. Such pretty girls and boys. What a pity they couldn't play with her. OH! That nice boy with the funny hair had just put a floaty round thingie in the water. A toy! She liked toys. A round... ball? Ball! She liked that. Funny hair boy must be a nice boy! Maybe if she got him in her tank they could play!

The Mermaid smiled at the people looking at her and making odd noises in the air. She stuck her head up so she could listen properly. The noises sounded familiar but it seemed to make her sad to try and figure the noises out so she wouldn't do that. Oh look one of them had brought her a thingie! It was a nice curved thingie with strings that looked kind of familiar. A... a... harp! That was it! It was a harp! Oh! Nice boy who had given that nymph a ball was putting the harp in her tank! Mermaid was tempted to pull the boy into her tank so she could hug him and thank him, but he didn't seem to want to touch the water. How strange!

The transmissions had been voice only so far, and so the transport ship had been the first chance the Senshi had seen the Emperor.

The Captain Harlock costume was a little odd and would have been ludicrous on Umino. It might have worked pretty well on Mamoru Chiba, especially in the eyes of one Usagi Tsukino. On Ranma, particularly after his recent set of workouts in variable gravity?

Minako choked on her own drool (which was better than choking on someone else's but still pretty embarrassing) and wondering if her friends would mind if she broke their legs just to keep them away. Not realizing YET that by being too forward she'd likely scare him away.

Makoto had been eyeing a number of Marines and soldiers, almost all of whom were fairly trim and fit. Upon seeing the Emperor she'd mainly forgotten about them. Cookies. She needed to make cookies.

Ami scanned the Emperor with her Mercury computer. Pictures hadn't done him justice. Gee. Maybe he could help her with her medical studies?

Hotaru somehow managed to get between the Inners and her Emperor. It wasn't that the look in several sets of eyes were concerning her. No, not at all. Never crossed her mind.

The looks on Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama's faces were kind of scary though.

Rei wondered about this Emperor. Could they trust him? Would he be a danger to the future? Maybe he could help her with her planned career as a seiyuu and singer?

The Emperor had discussed things with Pluto and made a couple of suggestions. When Akane had been hit with that memory blocking shampoo trick, something familiar had broken her out of it. So he'd ordered a nice ball made with race car designs and a harp (he understood that the blonde liked cars and the mermaid liked music) and so he'd figured that sort of thing would help 'em break through this blocked memory thing.

Now, of course, they had to figure out how to fight something made of seawater.

After some discussion (and Ranma wondering what he'd done wrong that had those girls staring at him) it was decided to try:

ice attacks such as Sailor Mercury's. They could try freezing Okeanos and then shipping him off planet.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Making Ice

by Kender

Rei frowned as the plan was finalized. "But is this the best way to deal with this?"

"What do you mean?" asked Pluto with an eyebrow raised in the Fire Senshi's direction.

"Well... all ice will do will stop it, not beat him."

"Which is precisely what we aim to do."

"How is that?"

The Time Senshi gave her a soft smile. "Despite what Uranus and Neptune might have thought, we do not have to destroy all of the Titans, not that we could in this case."

"Are you saying that we can't beat him?" asked Makoto.

"It would be a longshot at best. Most energy attacks, such as Venus' beams and my 'Dead Scream' would only put holes into him that he could regenerate. Fire would at best turn him to steam, which would send him into the air, who knows where. Lightning might hurt him, but that would be a last resort."

"So we use ice," commented Ami.

"Exactly. It will stop him in his tracks long enough so that we can transport him someplace where the highest form of life is in the sea. Or at the very least, just has no one living there."

Makoto frowned. "But he attacked Haruka and Michiru."

"Only when provoked, and to be honest, this would be the easiest way. Plus... he was nearly ready to allow us to do that anyway. If we could get him to another planet with the least bit of harm, then perhaps we could get him to trust us again."

"That's great n' all," put in Ranma, "but I got one question for ya."

"What is that?"

"How are we gonna find him in all that real water?"

For a moment, Setsuna opened her mouth, and then looked as if she had a sudden realization. "That will be a problem."

"The only way that I have at the moment," said Ami, "Is to:

check for the differences between his form and real water."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Sailing the Okeanos

by Kestral

Mongo had not upgraded their sensors too much since Ming's day. Wang had been the only one really interested in such matters, and he hadn't had the time between his recruitment of the Teknosians and his assassination to shift research into that area.

While ships flitted over the ocean, Sailor Mercury was looking for a pattern that might have indicated Okeanos was present when she realized what she was reading. "...Pluto-san? What do you remember of Okeanos' powers?"

"Water magic," answered the Senshi of Time. "Body composed itself of water. Okeanos embodied the power, the moods, and the might of the sea... He fathered the Oceanids, probably by using the attack he did on Uranus and Neptune."

Mercury glanced over to where the Emperor was laying his hand on the glass of one aquarium, causing the mermaid to do the same from the other side while grinning that childish grin she now had. "Hmmm. Good with children, possibly."

Pluto tried to remember but it had been an extremely long time ago. "They were looking for an ultimate water magic control. Okeanos Project."

"He controls water by merging with it, doesn't he?" said Mercury in a voice that indicated she was going from bemused to panic.

"Yes, I believe so..." Pluto's voice began trailing off and she looked out across the Mediterranean. "He's spread himself out?"

"I'd estimate he covers roughly five square nautical miles and is continuing to spread," indicated Mercury. "He's a bit too big for me to freeze."

"Freeze? No. I wouldn't think so. Due to his form, conventional weapons won't be effective, so I am unsure what we could use to even get him to notice," confessed Pluto. Their attacks weren't normally that area-effective.

"Well, if we attacked him, he would probably notice," said Pluto. "Maybe if Sailor Moon used the ginzuishou at full power?"

"Preferably, we'd have to find a way that was NOT confrontational," said Pluto. "If Sailor Moon used the full power of the ginzuishou - she'd be left without that power if one of the other Titans threaten."

The mermaid and the nymph liked the pretty girls in the bright colors and the boys in the dull colors and they liked funny hair boy and girl with stick especially.

Mermaid wondered about what she could do to play with funny hair boy when she remembered the harp.

It seemed natural to pluck a string and produce a sound, and one led to another, and then some more.

Mermaid found something else she liked. She liked making noises on the harp. It seemed to get easier as she went too.

Mongo had a long history of intrigue. Usually one of the Emperors would hear about it and the instigators of said intrigue died nasty and thoroughly messy deaths.

General Mille looked over the results of her henchwoman work. "This will do it?"

"We think so, ma'am."

"Not good enough," indicated General Mille.

"How would we test it?" Ensign Sleek asked. "It's designed to affect 'magical girls' by using their transformation and the very forces that would protect or restore them to mold them into proper seraglio members. We don't have any magical girls to test it on."

"This is not my problem," argued back Mille. "I'm the General in charge of Human Resources for the Palace staff. The Emperor wants a seraglio to double as guards. If one of these girls actually becomes a wife - the seraglio's days are numbered and I'm likely out of a job. So do you know whose problem it is if this gadget doesn't work?"

"Yours?" tried Ensign Sleek.

General Mille shook her head once. "Wrong answer. Because, Sleek, the moment that happens you and the other five women on your squad will end up leading the follow up expeditionary force to Tartarus. I think that the problem with the last four expeditions was that they had too much in the way of weapons and armor, thereby constituting a threat. So your group should go with loincloths and armed with salad forks just to indicate that you are not a credible threat. For the glory of Mongo, of course."

"Tartarus?!" Ensign Sleek sat down, missing the chair. "Didn't the last mission involve twenty Marines backed up by combat robots? Didn't they come back..."

"We had to use DNA analysis to determine that what had been heaped into the transport was actually the expeditionary force, yes," said General Mille. "Don't worry. I'm sure your squad will last twice as long as the last group. You might actually make it all the way down the ramp!"

"Erk!" Ensign Sleek said, proclaiming her own thought of what it would be like to end up on a world where kuei held sway. At least that's what they'd taken to calling the unseen natives. "I'll get right on the testing, General Mille! You can count on me!"

"I was hoping so," said the General.

Meanwhile:

the new Ryoga gets acquainted with Japan.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Pigzilla

by Kender

Walking along the boardwalk, Rena sighed. "I still don't understand why you like that stuff."

"Because it's fun!" Yoshi told his friend with a grin, "I mean, what beats a monster movie marathon?"

"Um... Do you want a list?"

"Oh come on... Didn't you have the least bit of fun?"

"I did find the wires to be a bit obvious."

"Which is part of it."

"Pardon?"

"Where else are you going to find something to laugh at while watching scenes of rampant destruction?"

"Oh, so that's why you like it."

"Some of the reason, but it's still a fun time," he told her, "Besides, there's never going to be some giant monster coming out of the sea to attack."

"ARRRRGH!" went a voice behind them.

The two turned and looked to find the source of the voice. Standing before them was a combination of a man and a pig that was fifteen feet tall and armored.

And it looked grumpy.

"AHHHH!" went Rena.

"YAAAA!" went Yoshi.

"Hold on!" went Ryouga (a.k.a. 'Pig Iron') as he watched the pair run for their lives. "Now how am I going to get directions to the Dojo?"

"Miyuki?" said a police woman as she turned to her partner and friend.

"Yes Natsume?" replied Miyuki.

"How are we supposed to stop that?" The other officer looked towards the scene where a giant monster was chasing civilians. "I... have no idea."

Ryouga was not a 'happy camper' by any sense of the phrase. All he had tried to do was to get to the Tendo Dojo, but for some reason he couldn't do that without problems. And he hadn't tried to cause any.

But no matter what he did, or where he went, people kept on running from him. For that, there was only one person to blame: Ranma.

However, when he beat the other boy, he'd finally get back to normal, and not have to worry about scaring the passer bys.

"AHHHH! A MONSTER!"

Like he had just done. Sighing, he continued on his way while:

Michiru's harp playing got Okeanos' attention in a pleasant way.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Music soothes the raging sea

by Kestral

Mercury sat before the computer and put in a search term. 'Typhon'.

Instead of the Greek myths she got something else. "What is that?"

Pluto and Beatrix both looked over her shoulders. Finally Pluto answered. "That is an old archive video of Typhon."

The living cloud walked on feet formed by tornadoes. Dimly seen was the core, and then only when it shot gouts of flame or lightning or pyroclastic material towards a target.

"It's how big?" Beatrix asked, wondering if ship-to-ship weaponry would be effective.

"About 2000 miles if you count the cloud of poisonous acidic vapors surrounding it. Enough of the poison leaks out that everything dies where it passes," observed Pluto. "Typhon is a pure engine of destruction that struck Earth in the Cambrian period and caused a massive die-off. The vortices that form its 'hundred serpent heads' are tornadoes, so are the ones that act similar to legs. It was briefly awakened by the event that created the other Titans."

Mercury stared at the beast for the brief time the clip showed. None of her attacks really seemed to be the sort something like that would even notice.

"It's beneath Mount Aetna," said Pluto. "I remember that now. Typhon's cage is beneath that volcano."

"If it has been there for that long, then Mars' fire attacks will be ineffective as well," speculated Mercury.

"The vast majority of attacks we could bring to bear would bother Typhon less a flea biting an elephant," said Pluto without much sarcasm. "There are only three exceptions to that. Sailor Moon using the ginzuishou at full power. Sailor Saturn's Death Reborn Revolution. And there is one other."

Beatrix turned her one eyed gaze towards Pluto. "The Nova Cannon?"

Actually, Pluto had been thinking of a Chronos Typhoon Nova - the attack that combined her power with Saturn's if they could convince Venus to input her own contribution. Granted it might not do much but it would likely be noticed. Not wanting to appear ignorant of something, she merely nodded.

"I see that our most secret councils need to upgrade their security," said Beatrix. "How distressing that an Outsider should learn of it so quickly."

"The 'Nova Cannon'?" Mercury asked.

"A secret, or formerly secret, weapon of Mongo," said Beatrix, who didn't see the point of keeping it secret when this mysterious girl smirked and indicated she knew the whole thing. No doubt using one of those magical powers. "Using a matter+antimatter collision and channelling the forces in a single direction. It is likely containment would fail thereafter but over 95% of the force could be directed into a beam form."

Pluto twitched slightly.

Mercury asked the obvious question. "How much antimatter?"

Beatrix shrugged. "All we've got. Three ounces."

Mercury turned to stare at the General. "Three ounces of antimatter converted instantly to energy?"

"It was one of the plans of what to do if you Senshi had actually killed the Emperor and what we could have done about it," explained Beatrix. "Fortunately that doesn't appear to be the case. 95% is our best estimate for the direction process. Most are lower at about 71%."

"You were going to assassinate the Emperor?" Mercury asked Pluto in a subdued tone of voice.

"If it turned out to be necessary," agreed Pluto, showing no indication of how her own stomach had just gone through free fall.

"I see..." said Mercury quietly. Obviously they needed good relations with the new Emperor. NOW. Counting on the diplomacy of the Outers was not a risk she felt they could take.

Ranma watched the two gals in the tank. He'd only met them briefly. The aqua haired girl who was now a mermaid had seemed kinda snooty to him. One of those artsy aristocrat types. Probably had an annoying laugh or something. The blonde gal had seemed kinda hostile, more at the beginning than the end - mainly confused at the end. Oh well.

"It's kinda nice being around girls that aren't constantly fighting me or over me," said Emperor Ranma as the mermaid swam back within her enclosure to her harp and started figuring out how to play it. He'd met a whole buncha girls now - some of whom were fairly nice and none of 'em were fiancees. Things were definitely looking up for him.

The misplaying became playing and slowly teased into an actual melody as the music simply flowed from within the mermaid's heart.

It echoed across the waters.

The waters stilled in response.

Anger faded and reason returned.

Okeanos calmed as the music played and memories returned. Slowly the ocean began to rise, drawn by the song being given by the mermaid.

The Senshi are able to get him to Europa without much trouble.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Calmed Waves

by Kender

The mermaid played as shouts and yells began to continue in the background. But she did not notice them as her playing had gotten to the point where she had gotten into the song. Melody became the point for its own sake and more than something to try. It was for her something that she enjoyed in and of itself.

Still, she was able to notice the giant water thing come out of the ocean and over to her tank. There was some distress on the part of those outside, but as she played, the giant came over and seemed to listen to her music.

Those around her looked happy that it had happened and she took it as being pleased for her music. They ran around, hurrying for some reason, but it looked to be an excited thing. That made her happy as she realised that they were happy.

The fact that they were building something and attaching it to one of those big things that flew did not matter to her. Nor did the odd words that the giant and the girl with the big key said. Her world was her music, and the pleasure that it brought others.

"Tell Me Why Should I Believe Thou?" Okeanos asked as he swayed to the mermaid's tune.

Pluto frowned as she remembered what had happened the last time. "I apologise for that, but apparently my... associates acted under the assumption that you were like Hyperion, and out for destruction."

"So Ye Seek to Trick Me Once More?"

"Never! I still wish to follow your wishes and have you taken far away, to a planet without any person to hurt."

"And Where Would Be The Proof Of Thy Goode Faith?" asked the currently mellow Titan.

The Senshi of Time gestured with her staff. "There. That is a device by which we can hold you for your travels to the other world. It is attached to a ship already, leaving only you to board it."

"And If I Were To Refuse Thy Offer And Simply Strike Thee Down?"

"Then we would surely fall, for we are not prepared for such a strike."

"As I Can See. Fine Then, I Shall Take Thee Upon Thy Word..."

"Thank you!"

"Thee Are Most Welcome."

Watching the fruits of her labor, Setsuna allowed herself a little smile. Okeanos was getting into the transport container, and soon he would be taking up residence on Europa. Which meant that the planet would be safe, and he would be able to live in peace.

So she leaned on her staff and enjoyed the respite while:

,,, getting on to deal with the next Titan.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Theia promises a warming trend

by Kestral

The Emperor and the Mongolian Generals and advisors were on one side. The Senshi sat on the other side.

"Okeanos of the ocean," said Mercury as she brought up an image. "With powers over magic dealing with water. Hastur of the insects. Hyperion the solar battery. Three of the Titans have been dealt with. We have temporarily lost Uranus and Neptune until their Senshi transformation overcomes the transformation laid upon them by Okeanos."

"Who's the next problem?" Mars asked bluntly.

"Judging from the way solar flares have just started erupting, Hyperion's partner - Theia is likely." Mercury frowned as she used her computer to bring up an image. "I hacked into a NASA geosurveyor satellite and got these pictures."

"What is it, other than a very bright dot?" Jupiter asked.

"Her. Using extreme methods of reconstructing a picture, this is what I came up with," said Mercury as she brought up a blurry dot.

"That's not much better," pointed out Jupiter.

"It's difficult to tell, but apparently Theia is something along the line of a living solar prominence which managed to bind itself into the semblance of the woman she used to be. You'll notice the trail of white hot rock behind her that NASA used to pinpoint her location?" Mercury pointed out. "The good news is that if you don't come into direct contact with her, those temperatures are largely contained. The problem is that her body temperature is considerably above the melting point of rock. She's apparently drawing power directly from the sun, so she may lose some of that power during the night."

"Uhm," Mars raised her hand, wondering if this meant what she thought it meant. "So using a Burning Mandala on this particular Titan?"

Pluto answered. "Comparable to throwing a snowball against a glacier wall."

"Gotcha," said Mars, lowering her hand.

"Akuryo Taisan, on the other hand, might have some effect," appended Pluto. "Oddly enough, it is Neptune who would be most effective against Theia. Unfortunately..."

"The good news is that Jupiter's Gunhed and Saturn's Deathscythe Gundam have sufficient thermal shielding and environmental support that they can survive Theia's presence better than an unprotected Senshi. We also have the Mongolian ships," pointed out Mercury.

"Temperatures like that, we'd have trouble with," pointed out Steiner. "Even with charging the armor, the best my ship - the Vindicator - can withstand a few minutes of that sort of temperature at best. Beatrix' ship the Savior is not even that well armored."

"The Savior is capable of speeds 180% better than the Vindicator," pointed out Beatrix. "We can make strafing runs that have a good chance of outrunning this Titan's attacks."

Jupiter gently nudged Venus. "You know how we've been complaining about how little support equipment we've got. That we don't have Talismans or a Mercury Computer or something?"

"I know. This could be our big chance," whispered back Venus, a gleam in her eye. "No waiting for Luna or Artemis to remember some odd detail at the last minute or cough up a power up so that Usagi has to bring us back from the dead."

Venus and Jupiter nodded, each deciding the easiest way to get there was the acquisition of a hunky boy Emperor.

Not-so-sinister plots from various Senshi trying to get an Emperor on their side

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Boy Plans

by Kender

The armed forces of Mongo were not used to officers or officials wanting to do menial tasks. It was odd to them that someone who was so high up in the structure of things would want to do such common tasks that they didn't want. Plus, it was normal to find some high person who wished to shove tasks that they couldn't be bothered with.

But they were also used to automatically following orders, or, in this case, requests. So even if it was odd, they allowed the Senshi to do as she wanted. She was favored by the Emperor after all.

Not that Makoto saw it that way, which was why she was in the ship's kitchens. After hearing about the Emperor's meal with the Outers, and seeing how he ate snacks, she knew that he was someone to appreciate good cooking. And as she was a cook, she thought that she might try seeing how he liked her food.

That decided, she had gone into the kitchen, and began to create some dishes to please his palate. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and he'd get a taste of what she could cook for him. Once he did, then he would want some more, and they could get to talking, which would lead to something more...

Picking up one of the baked treats she had just pulled from the oven, she blushed and giggled. She just couldn't wait to see him eat her muffin!

There were things that even Mongolian soldiers were not prepared to face and that included teenaged girls. That wasn't to say that they weren't ready to fight if some opponent fielded them, but that wasn't what they were facing. Instead of an armed opponent ready to kill them, they were dealing with something ever so much more... unpredictable.

For Minako Aino, a.k.a. Sailor Venus, had found Mongolian fashion. Plus she had discovered that the technology was there to give her any outfit that she might want. Oh it might take a little time, but she could dress up just like any of her favorite stars, real and fictional.

At the moment though, she was more interested in how the fashions of the hunk, er... Emperor's world looked on her. Which was pretty good actually. Still, she told herself that it was to help bridge the gap between worlds. If she wore some of their clothing, it would be easier for them to deal with her. And if they allowed the Emperor to admire her looks, then so much the better!

Having decided to see which would be the best on her, she went and set out to find the Mongolian dress that would be the best for her!

Rei sat in the secluded place where she was waiting until it was time to fight Theia. There wasn't much that she would bring to that sort of fight, but she wasn't about to abandon her friends and allies when they did face the Titan. So, she was just preparing to do what she could to help out.

That included making good luck charms. Some for her friends and some for the Emperor. After all, they could all use it when facing what they were about to. And if any sort of love charms sort of found their way to him... or if there happened to be some special and extra ones for him... well, that would just be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Looking up at her Gundam, Hotaru smiled to herself. It wasn't something that she had expected, but she liked it. The giant mecha was a gift just for her, and as such it was much appreciated.

Just receiving it told her that the person that had given it to her was a really nice guy. He had not had to that sort of thing, but had anyway. Making it a surprise was just icing on the cake.

She supposed that she should go and thank him for the nice gift. It was only polite, and she didn't want to be rude to her new friend. And she was supposed to be the ambassador to them.

Not that it would be a chore. None of the people had been mean to her or called her any names even knowing what she could do. It was a nice feeling, and she was enjoying the chance to have it.

Still, she had to talk to him, and thank him. Perhaps they could talk about other things, though the thought of being in private with him made her blush.

Washing her hands in the ship's head, Ami sighed. Yet another long planning session, and it seemed that they weren't much closer to figuring out how to beat Theia. It was hard going, but every possibility had to be considered as they came up. None seemed totally workable, so they were left with only plans that were going to be very difficult at best. Though she was going to be happy once they did go after the Titan, as it would mean that all of their work would finally go into action.

It wasn't the close quarters that she had a problem with though. Being in a closed room with a cute boy was not something that she was about to deny enjoying. In fact, she might like to spend some time with him doing a comparative study of the differences between Mongo and Earth. That would mean that they would have to spend long periods of time alone together, of course, but she thought that she could handle that.

They could even get to know each other, and become close over the time. She could find out what he liked, and he could discover her interests as well. And it was a documented fact that such close workings did result in the occasional romantic interlude...

The Senshi of Ice went into a happy little daydream and blushed... long enough to burn her hands in the hot water as she let them sit. While she tried to deal with the sudden pain,:

Pig-Iron was on a rampage.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Threads coming together

by Kestral

Pluto tried to just ignore all the hints being dropped, usually with the subtlety of carpet bombs, that she had many supporters here among the Mongolians.

Which was completely unlike Saturn.

Saturn didn't ignore it, but was a little overwhelming. So many supporters. Little SD pictures of her adorning fighter spacecraft. People smiling and saluting her and addressing her as the future Empress.

Okay, maybe a 'little' overwhelming wasn't the right term. For a girl who had been shunned and bullied most of her life? Whose only friend was a time traveller who only showed up occasionally and wouldn't even be born for another ten years at best? Whose adoptive parents had tried to kill her repeatedly and HAD killed her once? Who was of an age where she had begun to notice boys but knew she'd have all sorts of trouble once they learned her Terrible Secret?

A boy offering to be her friend would have been overwhelming. A boy who knew her Terrible Secret (that she was Sailor Saturn and capable of destroying a planet though that power would kill her as well) and just smiled and shrugged and accepted it? That due to her connection with this boy she now had people supporting her and wanted to see her get married and become their Queen?! People who weren't scared of her? People who genuinely liked her and were openly supportive?

She wasn't sure how to deal with it (other than blushing, fidgeting, and hiding a lot) and was having trouble dealing with some of the changes.

On the other hand, her future husband new friend was certainly handsome and she'd decided fairly early on that she really liked him. So if she lost herself in brief fantasies about weddings where there were violet flowers strewn around the borders, or in which she was a few years older and doing things that made her blush even harder - it was understandable.

The situation was not that different with others.

Ami Mizuno was used to running into typical Japanese sexism. Even if she became a doctor, there were many men who would insist she retire that dream to become a housewife. Same with her identity as Sailor Mercury, even more so. How would she be able to handle her duties as a Senshi along with her duties as a doctor or even studies in medical school?

Ranma Saotome was an option. Untraditional - someone who could potentially accept her without any of the expectations normally associated with Japanese boys. More - the technology and resources at his command could easily get her through medical school. That he was quite physically fit had also been well noted by Ami, who might be a genius and a Sailor Senshi - but she was also a teenage girl and quite able to appreciate his physiology in a manner that wasn't exactly clinical in nature.

Minako Aino was desperate for a guy and saw Ranma as prime grade beefcake, but also beefcake that could benefit her princess. If she caught HIM then she could make sure there was no friction between Mongo and Crystal Tokyo. Well, other than the fun kind. There was a great loneliness and sadness within her and if she could latch onto some happiness - by kami she WOULD!

Makoto Kino saw tall, and a boy who would not find either her martial arts or her height to make her unapproachable. His confidence, his strength, and his skill made him very very attractive to her.

Rei Hino saw someone better (in her opinion at least) than Yuuichiro.

No. Not all that different from Hotaru in some regards.

Beatrix watched her candidate for the throne, saw the way the young girl looked off in the distance, sighed and blushed and watched the Emperor.

"I don't understand, Commander, if she's interested, why doesn't she do anything about it?"

"Because, Dagger, she's royalty, they have to act in a certain manner and go through specific protocols."

"Frustrating," summed up Dagger.

"For us and them, Dagger. For us AND them."

Pluto was able to focus on the job at hand. Which was fortunate.

Oh, to be sure, it was kind of amusing and worth a few photos to see Ranma feeding Haruka and Michiru. And it was worth a few minutes of speculation as to whether either of the two would die from sheer embarrassment when they remembered their behavior later after their memories had returned.

Yet her main speculation was concerned with Hyperion's mate. Theia had released a burst of million degree heat apparently by accident. The rocks and such had weathered it unscathed as the wave of temperature had lasted a mere second. It has nonetheless done enough to the local environment that plants and animals in the immediate vicinity were dead.

Theia was far more dangerous than Hyperion or Hastur, more powerful than even Oceanus. She would be the first real full out test of the allied forces against her.

The best plan they had - it was likely that it wouldn't work.

First they'd distract her with a method similar to how they'd driven Hastur out. Water would get hotter as it came closer to her, eventually becoming superheated steam. Under cover of that steam, the ships would surround her and use their armor polarizers modified to set up a magnetic bottle. Contained within that bottle, they could take her off planet. Maybe Mars. Theia could thaw some other planet out until she destabilized. Resulting no doubt in a solar prominence being released wherever she was.

Pluto sniffed. Muffins?

The mermaid liked the boy. He came by and smiled at her and was all sorts of friendly. He had given her that harp and she felt so much happier as a result. When she'd played the harp he'd gone away briefly but when he'd come back she could tell he was really happy about her playing!

There was the nymph in the other tank who got some attention too. Still, the mermaid knew she could command the greater portion.

Still, why did it feel as if she knew the nymph? Why did it feel as if there was something she needed to remember?

Makoto brought by her muffins, wanting to see that the Emperor tasted them.

Hotaru had finally put her thoughts to paper and was trying to meet the Emperor, where she would try to summon the courage to give him a love letter.

Ami had in her hands a list of projects she'd want to look into, and well, maybe (blush fidget)...

Rei had a nice selection of wards and charms, and if she'd made a few extra for the Emperor... oh well.

Minako had found a Mongolian general's uniform that fit her and was going to ask the Emperor for his opinion.

General Mille's agent among the Mongolian military took careful aim with a blowpipe.

Ranma wondered if this Theia was hot, could they generate cold chi and end up with the mother of all Dragon Ascension Spirals?

Theia continued walking, melting things out of her way.

Ryoga continued to rampage through Tokyo, for once actually heading straight for where he wanted to go - the Tendo Dojo.

Akane and the various other Nerimans watched as "Pigzilla" rampaged through Tokyo. Buses and buildings were being wrecked, the JSSDF sent missiles and gunfire against him to no effect, train tracks were scattered, panic and disorder reigned!

Will the reunion of Pigzilla/Ryoga and the Tendo household be joyous or disastrous?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Recurring Visitors

by Kender

There were days that Chibi-Usa wondered about her old friend. Pluto had been around ever since before the little princess had been born, but she was not always easy to read. Most of the time she could know how she was going to react, but there were points at which she couldn't understand why the Senshi of Time was doing something.

Just like what was happening now. She did like the idea of going and seeing her parents, Hotaru and the others, but trying to get an explanation about why she was getting sent got her a long speech about 'paradoxes', 'path changes' and 'needed events'. It had gone on so long that her eyes had nearly crossed from the confusion.

In the end, she had just given up on finding out the 'why' and went, with the suspicion that had been Pluto's plan all along.

So she was a bit disgruntled as she dropped to the ground after her time travel. Pulling herself off of the ground, she dusted herself off, and set out to find her mother, who was supposed to be nearby. And as luck would have it, the Senshi were close.

She just hoped that nothing else unexpected would happen...

Akane Tendo liked pigs. She really did, though not as much as some. Her pet was one, and she thought that they could be cute. Hers was, and she loved to cuddle up with it when she went to sleep.

But she couldn't find something to enjoy with the one that she was watching on the television.

"I really think that we should be elsewhere..," commented Nabiki to the sound of crashes in the distance.

"But why?" Kasumi asked.

"Because sister dear, we're in the path of that thing, and I for one don't want to be here when it decided to take out the neighborhood."

"Just let it try!" Akane declared with a bokken left over from a bashing of Kuno gripped in her hands.

"Then you face the giant unstoppable monster. I'll be watching from my hotel room."

"You'd leave your family in its hour of need?" demanded Soun.

"No... I'd like to save it from itself. My plan is for all of us to find a nice room to rent before it comes."

*BOOM! CRASH!*

"And I would think that would be it now."

"Well then," the youngest Tendo daughter pronounced, "I'll have to go and stop it myself!"

Kasumi bit her lip. "Do you think that is wise?"

"It's the only thing to do!"

*WHAM!* *BASH!* *BOOM!*

"Well, I suppose that we can forget that whole 'inherit the dojo' thing..." Nabiki drawled.

"Why is that?" her older sister asked.

"Because there is no dojo any more..."

"MY DOJO!" screeched the family patriarch.

"Don't worry!" Akane declared, "I'll stop it!"

"Oh really?" the middle Tendo daughter drawled.

"Watch me!" came the reply. She ran out into the yard and at the monster. "Get ready to get beaten, you stupid monster freak!"

Ryouga heard the yell, but with the ringing in his ears from all the jerks attacking him, he couldn't tell what it was saying. But as he turned, he spotted his beloved Akane running towards him. He put out his arms for a welcoming hug.

She saw it, and determined that the monster was going to try to grab her. Deciding that she wasn't about to fall for that, she leapt up and over the creature, twisting in mid-air so that she could hit it as she came down. The strike hit where she aimed it perfectly.

Unfortunately, the bokken shattered on impact and left her with only a stump in her hands.

Landing lightly, she glanced at her ruined weapon and back to the monster while:

trying to come up with the next move in her fight.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Go into the light

by Kestral

Akane stared at the shattered bits of bokken.

Pigzilla tried to grab Akane, he could calm her down and explain this.

Akane felt the monster's hands close around her. The ungiving iron crushing her body despite her struggles.

Soun's sobs ended. His baby girl was about to become pulp friction?!

"HOW DARREEEEE YOUUUUU!" This was the Ultimate Attack Of The Tendo School. The Demon Head Of Outrage was the first step.

Now standing in samurai armor, Soun stood eye to eye with the horrific beast, brandishing his weapons and prepared to defend his home.

Ryoga, aka Pigzilla, involuntarily squeezed tighter around Akane as this new challenger rose.

Akane made a squeaking noise as blackness rose up all around her.

Soun tried to attack. Pigzilla swatted him, knowing that he had to get Akane to safety. Those tanks and aircraft would be coming!

BOOM!. Too late.

"Go into the light. There is peace and serenity in the light."

Akane looked around. Tunnel of light. Her mother's voice urging her forward. Uh oh. "No..."

"There is joy and comfort in the light."

There was the big monster. There was her father. There was Kasumi wringing her hands and saying something inane about the lawn needing more iron anyway.

There was Nabiki on a bicycle. My goodness, she was fast. Almost out of the district already.

There was Cologne and Shampoo and Ukyo coming to avenge her and fight the Big Pig. That was nice. Where was Ranma in all of this though? Was he waiting for her in the light?

Just as thinking about Nabiki had brought her gaze to Nabiki, Akane thought about Ranma and her gaze found Ranma.

Well, how about that? Ranma was alive after all. The aliens that had kidnapped him hadn't eaten his liver after all. He was...

he was hanging around with some new girls?! He'd been kidnapped by cheerleaders?! That... that... Casanova! He probably had caused this all himself!

The celestial choir wound down to nothing and the tunnel of light faded.

"THAT JERK! After I was all concerned about him being eaten by aliens, there he is flirting around with 'Bimbos From Outer Space'!" Akane fumed, the feelings of peace and contentment fading.

"I have some poultices and herbs that will ease her pain and allow her to heal faster," admitted Cologne. "I thought that we were too late but something got her fighting spirit going and that pulled her back to this world."

Kasumi made a comment but it was drowned out by the fighter jets hurling missiles at Pigzilla again.

Cologne nodded. "She'll be fine with some rest."

Kasumi made another comment but the machine guns from some combat helicopters drowned it out.

"Somehow a spatula feels rather inadequate," said Ukyo as she watched Pigzilla pull itself out of the wreckage of the former Tendo house.

Kasumi nodded and said something else but the tanks fired a volley at that moment, so nobody heard what she said.

"We have room you can stay at under the Cat Cafe. You wouldn't mind a little time waitressing would you?" Cologne asked.

Kasumi opened her mouth, hesitated a moment as if she expected something to happen, then shrugged as the Tesla dish equipment of the JSSDF began firing electrical attacks at Pigzilla.

"Shampoo find uniform that fit Nice-nice Girl, is no problem," Shampoo assured Kasumi. "That way you also keep eye on Violent Pervert Girl, yes?"

Kasumi began to say something but another jet flyby occurred and she finally just shrugged and nodded.

They watched as Pigzilla ran forward and absorbed the mass of two tanks as the crews frantically bailed out.

"Maybe we should get further away?" Cologne suggested, being the voice of reason and moderation in this situation.

Meanwhile, the various girls are flirting with Ranma...

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: One Way Chat

by Kender

For Ranma, he didn't know what to make of the situation he was in. Normally when he was in the middle of a group of girls, he would wind up with either declarations of love, wishes of declarations of love from him, some sort of violence, or a combination of all three. What he wasn't used to was having girls trying to talk to him, but not trying to force anything on him. Which was great, since they were nice girls, and weren't trying to get him to date them.

Not that he was familiar enough with the concept of the 'shy schoolgirl' to realise that they were trying to do that. Besides, he was too busy at the moment to notice even if he had.

"These are really good!" he declared as he took a bite out of a baked goodie that he'd just been given.

"Really?!" said Makoto happily as she watched him taste what she had so lovingly prepared. "You really like eating my muffin?"

A soldier nearby choked in the middle of taking a drink, and the young man frowned concernedly in his direction. When he saw that the private was fine, he turned back to the young woman who'd given him the food. "Yeah. This is some of the best stuff I've ever eaten."

Pleased with what he'd told her, she blushed heavily as she smiled. "Thank you!"

"What about my outfit?" Minako asked hopefully as she posed for his view.

"I'm not too sure about the outfit, but ya manage ta make it look good."

The Senshi of Love preened at his praise. "I'm glad that you like it."

Handing over a handful of wards, Rei nodded at the Emperor. "These are just for you."

"Hmm?" went the pigtailed boy as he took them, "What are they for?"

"Good luck, good fortune and repelling evil. That sort of thing."

"Hey, that's real good of ya, and I could use that sort of stuff. And from what I heard, they gotta work great. Thanks."

"Ummm..," went a supremely blushing Hotaru as she held out an envelope, "Here..."

"What's this?"

"A...a... note. For you."

"For me? Cool. I'll have ta keep it safe, cause I don't want ta lose it."

"I would like some... time with you to discuss some projects that I have in mind," Ami put in.

Ranma blinked at her. "'Projects'?"

"Yes. There are some things that I believe that we can do together... well."

"If ya say so, but it'll have ta be for a while, 'cause from what I can tell ya are a lot smarter than me. But that's can only be good, right?"

Pluto stood on the edge of the group and tried not to rub her temples.

General Mille's agent looked over the group and wondered when a clear shot would show itself.

Usagi watched and recognised that her friends were interested in this boy. Well that was a job for Matchmaker Usagi! She'd do whatever that she could to help her friends land the hunk!

She was even planning that, when she heard a familiar voice. "Hey! Hello!"

The Moon Princess turned towards the source of the sound, wondering why it sounded so familiar and saw something that took her a few moments to recognise. The red eyes were familiar, but it was the pink hair that she placed first. "Chibi-Usa?!"

"That's me!" said the time traveller.

Her future mother blinked and looked over at the:

little girl who while apparently the same age, was different in style.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Interrogating a Small Lady

by Kestral

The sight of Chibi-usa had caused the Senshi to retreat from the new boy.

Why? Because Chibi-usa had changed. Chibi-usa was from the future so if she had changed, the future had changed, right?

If the future had changed it was either because of Ranma or the Titans, right?

So they were off interrogating Chibi-usa while Ranma met with three of his military commanders who had come to suspect something.

Ranma stared at Beatrix and then at Steiner. His reaction to the revelation was simple, straightforward, and completely without artifice. "Ya gotta be shittin' me."

Beatrix shook her head. "No, Emperor, it is simply the truth. I had suspected that you didn't know the full story but everyone I knew simply believed you were playing it cool."

"So how can I get out of this? I don't want no seraglio. Hell, I had enough trouble just with three fiancees and a deranged lunatic." Ranma confirmed his displeasure with the concept.

"I thought as much, unfortunately, it is a tradition of Emperors," admitted Beatrix.

"Oh," said Ranma, reluctant to just fix things with the Great Will. It was his secret weapon right now, pulling it out all the time didn't seem right. "Any way to just send 'em home?"

"That would be - difficult," said Steiner.

"Since they are all representatives of their respective high families, that would be insulting their families - their moons - and their honor," Beatrix added. "That would not be well received."

Ranma worked at it and figured that meant they'd pull a Ryoga on him. Got it. "How about if I change the job description then?"

"The current story is that this emergency on your homeworld and settling into the new office has kept you from dealing with these responsibilities," provided Beatrix. "Add to this the idea that you might be selecting an Empress someday..."

"Which we might be able to use," grumbled General Grimm. The rocky Volcanian didn't understand this human need for mating. Once a decade was good enough for him, his father, his father's father and so on. Why screw up perfectly good working relationships with that sort of thing?

"Use his search for an Empress?" Steiner thought about it, beginning to smile. "Yes. I see."

Ranma sulked. It looked like he might be able to get out of his Earth based engagements but would end up with one anyway. "No way to get out of marryin' anyone altogether, huh?"

"Your subjects would see a marriage as a sign of stability, something we haven't had a lot of but have been looking for," admitted Grimm. "A formal engagement would work to stall off the duties to the seraglio - and perhaps due to the peculiar Earth customs of your bride, you could then make the seraglio into her personal guard instead."

"Good idea," said Beatrix.

"Indeed, most clever," agreed Steiner.

Ranma continued to sulk. "I'm not that thrilled with the idea of marrying someone I don't know."

"Ahem," said Steiner, coughing into his fist. "I believe I have the solution to that. We float the rumor that the Empress candidate has duties that she must discharge or find a replacement for before moving on with her life."

"OR," put in Beatrix, "that she is too young by the laws of your origin culture and must further graduate their educational system."

"Okay, Chibi-usa-chan," said Ami speaking in an extremely focussed manner. "You came from the future to tell us something. Right?"

"Uhm no," said Chibi-usa. "Mamo-chan just got back from a tour of some of our allied kingdoms and Usagi sent me here because she wanted some quality time. Meanie. I hadn't seen Mamo-chan in four whole weeks."

"'Allies'?" Minako picked up on this quickly. "Would Mongo be one of those allies, Chibi-usa-chan?!"

"Why is everyone staring at me like that?" Chibi-usa asked nervously.

"Small Lady, you know not to reveal too much of the future," began Setsuna, deliberately not mentioning that part of the staring was because her hairstyle and clothes were less cutesy and more practical than usual.

"Yeah, you made me pinky swear not to say who married Ranma and lots of stuff," complained Chibi-usa.

"Chibi-usa-chan," said Hotaru timidly. "We would really like to know..."

"But I can't!" Chibi-usa complained. "I even spoke to Granny."

"There's a 'Granny'?" Usagi asked in disbelief. "How did that happen?"

"I'm not even supposed to tell you about the mess happening back in Japan," whined Chibi-usa.

The Senshi watch Nerima getting ironed out.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Watching The News

by Kender

"Hold on a second," Rei said with a frown, "What 'mess happening back in Japan'?"

Chibi-Usa's eyes widened as she realised what she had blurted out. "Nuh-uh. There's no mess. Nothing at all to worry about."

Which told Ami and the others that the opposite was true. "Is there something that we should look at back home?" the juku student asked.

"Uhhh... no..."

"Chibi-Usa..."

"Oh come on... It's not like anything is happening in Nerima..."

Makoto shook her head and looked towards the ship that had brought them to Greece. "Hey! Wedge!"

The soldier stuck his head out of the ship at the call. "Yes?"

"Can you get us some news reports from back in Japan?"

"Sure. Just a moment to shift the receiver's frequencies."

"Good," she replied and went with the other Senshi to see what the reports would tell them.

"You don't have to do that..," the pink haired girl told them hopefully.

"Yes, we do," Minako told her just as they arrived in the cabin.

On the screen was an attractive woman holding a microphone and standing in front of what looked to be a military camp with soldiers running around in the background.

"You know, this might be a bad idea..."

"Oh really?" Setsuna asked archly.

Realising that she wasn't about to get them to stop, Chibi-Usa sat down to watch and hoped that she hadn't messed things up too badly...

"This is Kana Ishihara," the reporter said with an edge of intensity in her voice, "on site for what has been called one of the biggest disasters here in Japan, if not the world. I am standing at the Self Defense Forces field headquarters for the emergency. Located at the remains of what used to be Furinkan High School.

"Several hours ago, a creature of immense strength and toughness came out of the sea and began heading straight through the country, leaving a trail of destruction after it. But until now it had only been in the single line of where it was going. However, it seems to have centered on this ward, and looks to be intent on destroying it.

"We have a live feed of the monster in action."

The image changed to one of ruined buildings, cratered streets, and what looked to be a cross between a man and a pig on steroids.

It stood amongst the buildings, roaring incoherently and raising its fists at the passing jets as their missiles exploded harmlessly against its body. One massive hand swung at them, and as they swerved out of the way, it went through a building, taking out several floors with it.

"At this point," came the reporter's voice, "all efforts to stop or drive this giant away have met with nothing but failure. It seems that this behemoth is too powerful for the regular forces, but sources do say that the government is bringing out special forces to try and do something about the current situation.

"However, nearly half of the ward has been demolished, and there are reports of another creature spotted in combat with the monster, but they are unconfirmed as of this moment. Most residents are evacuating, and the government is asking that any who have not done so, to do the same."

"Okay..," went Rei, "that's a really large pig."

"You're right about that," Makoto said with a nod.

Ami frowned. "It does seem to be a major disaster caused by a creature, in both size and strength. Could it be a Titan?"

That got a head shake from Setsuna. "None of them were quite like that..."

"Then perhaps it is related?"

"It can't be said for certain, but it is likely that it is."

"So what do we do about it," Minako asked as she watched the giant pig-man step on some fancy mansion and a boy in a blue outfit come out to yell and wave a stick at it.

The Senshi looked at each other while:

they tried to figure out what they could do.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Chibi-usa slips up again

by Kestral

Ryoga had started absorbing iron, which healed him and made him bigger, mostly by accident.

After awhile though, it had become ridiculously easy as he'd accidentally smash buildings and thereby come into contact with support beams and the like - and more mass would be added.

Currently two hundred feet in height, Ryoga swatted at jets as they fired missiles at him and incidentally causing lots more damage to his immediate environment.

As for Tatewaki Kuno, well, upon the destruction of stately Kuno manor - he had attacked.

Ryoga stepped on him.

The end result of which had been that the Blue Thunder had been embedded in the pavement.

Sasuke was running around trying to find enough dynamite to free his master when Kodachi clawed her way out of the rubble and demanded someone pay for this insult.

"Why are they playing 'Godzilla' movie music in the background?" asked Ami.

"Oh, I don't know. Giant pig monster attacking the city, smashing things up, maybe it just seemed appropriate," suggested Minako. "Hey! Maybe if we sing to it we can calm it down and convince it not to menace anyone!"

"It's not Mothra or Gamera," pointed out Makoto.

"You think you could take it out?" Rei asked Makoto. "Judging from the effect of the napalm, I'm guessing that fire isn't that effective."

"No, they're using some kind of electrical generators too, and it's just grounding out as soon as it hits him," noted Makoto. "An Oak Evolution might work but that's an awful big monster... of course!"

"What?" Rei asked.

"Hey," Makoto said as she punched an intercom button. "How soon can we get everyone else's giant robots here?"

"That's a good i..." Hotaru blinked. Had that been Haruka-papa walking past the door, naked, dripping water? No. Of course not. It had just been too stressful today.

On the television, white parachutes could be seen drifting in the background as the giant pig crushed buildings (tried to get away from the missile firing planes) in an apparently random pattern (gotten lost again) up until he started derailing trains.

"We've got to stop him!" Makoto declared.

"How? Sailor Teleport? We're down Neptune and Uranus and we can't teleport the giant robots," pointed out Rei. "If we teleport we get there in time, but don't have the heavy artillery. We take the heavy artillery and we've got an hour's drive in which case Theia might be able to free what's his name."

"Typhon," supplied Setsuna, looking unhappy.

"Maybe I should have just waited at home," said Chibi-usa.

"True," said Setsuna, coming as close as she'd ever been to cross with her Small Lady.

"Well, it could be worse, I could have told them about Gran... Never mind!"

"That's right, you mentioned a 'Granny' before," said Usagi speculatively.

"Please don't start throwing out paradoxes," pleaded Setsuna to the heavens.

"Granny?" Ami asked. "Is that why your clothes and hairstyle are so..."

"Something wrong with my uniform?" Chibi-usa picked at her clothing. "Granny said it was nice."

It was nice. It was a jumper that looked like it had sewn in padding at elbows and knees. Combined with a hairstyle that had no odango showing, instead being braided back - it was obviously Chibi-usa but also not Chibi-usa.

"So... your 'Granny' helped you with that outfit?" Ami asked.

"She's not my real grandmother of course, she just likes it when I call her that," said Chibi-usa. "Oh waitaminute. I'm not supposed to tell..."

"Is it too much to ask for a little more focus - like on the problem of Theia?" asked Setsuna.

Be vewy vewy quiet. Naked nymph Haruka is hunting a pwaymate. hahahahaha.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Hunting Friends

by Kender

Ryoga stood amongst the wreckage and wondered what was going on. He'd been trying to get back to Akane to apologise for what he had done, but as he looked, all these attackers kept on getting in the way. Instead of being able to get to apologise to her, he'd been forced to fight all these tanks and jets.

But somehow and someway he'd get back to her and explain what had happened. They couldn't keep moving the Dojo on him, and he knew that sooner or later he would catch up to it. It wasn't something that he would let stop him, even if he was finding that the buildings were getting smaller. Which was odd, but they must have been getting to someplace that they were building them that way.

Feeling a pin prick against his back, he turned and looked, only to see yet another stolen tank shooting him. He wondered who it was that could have taken them, but he knew that he needed to keep himself free of them. If he couldn't, then Akane would be in grave danger when he found her again.

So he tried his hardest to get away from his attackers, so that he could find her before it was too late!

The sea nymph walked down the corridor and looked all around for her playmate. She had been seeking him out because she had seen him look so upset earlier, and so she wanted to make him happy. He had made her happy after all, and she needed to return the favor.

That was easier said than done, as she hadn't found him anywhere. There were simply so many places to look that she hadn't gone to yet. But she wasn't about to give up, and she really liked the nice boy who had been so nice to her. Besides, it was like having a game of 'Hide and Seek' going on. And when that was done and she found him, then she could play with the boy and let him play with her!

The thought just made her feel happier and but a bit of a bounce in her head as she looked around for him, while:

she was soon to find him.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Councilor Slipe's plans

by Kestral

The sea nymph walked along the corridors, sniffing at the corridors, then scampered when she finally caught the scent.

Unfortunately, by that time she needed to be reintroduced to her water tank.

Fortunately General Grimm was able to advise Emperor Ranma of that when the sea nymph bounced up to the Emperor and started gasping for breath.

Haruka's return trip to the tank was a lot faster and in her simple child's mind she knew that her friend had just saved her life.

What this would mean when Haruka the sea nymph became Haruka Tenou was anyone's guess.

Councilor Slipe, the equivalent of a sub-general and in charge of closet space for Sky City, was a five foot tall weasel. Literally. If you took a weasel, increased the size to five feet, shifted the hips so that it could spend more time walking bipedally, increased the dexterity of feet and hands, increased the brain-to-mass ratio, removed the scent glands, stuffed him into a uniform that kind of looked like something a WWI German field marshall would wear, and stuck a monocle in front of one eye - you'd have something pretty darn close to Councilor Slipe.

The reason for his job was, nobody else wanted it, and he'd generally schmoozed his way into the position years ago when it was obvious that the previous administration had NOT allowed sufficient space for closets and storage rooms. The project to add them had been a terribly long one but finished about the time that the Emperor Whose Name Is Not Mentioned died.

At which point everyone was used to him bringing baklava to the board meetings and mixing martinis in the supply closet, and nobody had realized yet that Councilor Slipe's project was over with except for three forms that he somehow never got around to filling out.

Councilor Slipe was by trade - an architectural engineer. What he was after living through Yan's rule and the Unnamed brief Emperorship - was a fixture of the palace. Many referred to him as a Toady Worm, but he remembered surviving under Yan. When you keep your head while those around you are losing theirs - literally - it was a survival skill.

Slipe observed things around him, and sought to make things better for the Empire. He was only five years away from retirement and if he retired in a strong empire where he could sit on a back porch and sample strong homemade alcoholic beverages (his race - the Veiser - were accomplished brewers and distillers) to his heart's content - that was ideal.

Slipe was wondering at these other princesses, but he remained a supporter of the young Princess Saturn. The current Emperor was kind and honorable, but a bit rough and lacking in social graces. Saturn, on the other hand, was kind and gentle, shy but cultured. Saturn was also apparently quite powerful as was the Emperor. With Saturn as Empress, the Empire of Mongo could enter an entirely new age.

Which led Slipe to wonder how he could get Saturn and the Emperor together. Tricky. Very tricky.

He, unlike two fathers, had as a goal a happy Empress and a happy Emperor. If he didn't know darn well Saturn-chan wanted something of this, and he didn't think the Emperor could be convinced by Saturn, he'd have given it up and backed someone else. Having a mate was a sign of stability, after all - and Mongo really needed some stability.

So Slipe finally decided how he'd try to get Princess and Emperor together would be through:

Just subtly suggest something to the Emperor about the possibility and watch for reactions.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Bouncing Suggestions

by Kender

Slipe knew that any of the Emperors could see anything that was in front of them, but how they interpreted that information was different for each one. There was a major difference between them, where one might have wanted to shoot the individual to suggest something, to another who might act on what his ministers told him. It was that difference that had reinforced the councilor's need to work methodically. Besides, trapping them together during a crisis could be dangerous. And he wanted to make certain to know how to proceed before going on to talking to Saturn.

So, he waited and made himself seem needed while he had looked for a moment to go for it, like when he had followed his Emperor back after returning the sea nymph to her tank.

"It seems that she really likes you, My Emperor," commented Slipe.

Ranma shrugged. "I guess, but she coulda really hurt herself doin' that."

"Perhaps she did not think that it would take that long."

"Maybe."

"But that is the way of women. Come to think of it, those that are with her seem to be getting along with you quite well."

"Well, yeah..," the Emperor replied, "They haven't done anything too bad so far."

"Save attacking that water giant."

"There's that, but those two got transformed for it."

"And you even take care of them afterwards."

"That's the only thing that I could do."

"I'm sure that they and their friends appreciate that. Like that Saturn girl."

"'Saturn'?"

Looking properly impressed, Slipe nodded. "Oh yes. After all, you gave her a magnificent gift and then helped her friends... She must be truly appreciative."

"Could be, but she ain't said anything."

"She does not seem the forward type, but that could be a good thing. Like if she were to say... become some sort of ruler, she could listen without needing to be heard, and think of others over herself."

"Yeah... That'd be great."

"Yes it would. And I'm sure that she would give you some sort of return on any attentions that you might give her."

"What are ya..," the pigtailed boy said, "Oh crap!"

"Is something the matter?"

"She gave me a note to read!"

"That is wonderful news, is it not?"

"Yup, but I've gotta read it at least. Wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"No, it wouldn't. So you are going to rush to read her note?"

"Definitely, but I gotta figure out how to deal with this."

"Perhaps flowers in return."

"Hey... that'd be a good idea."

"Why, thank you."

"You're welcome. I'd been thinking about how to answer her thank you note."

"'Thank you note'?" the Counselor asked.

Nodding, Ranma groaned. "I haven't read it yet, but that's gotta be what it is right? She's only tryin' ta be polite."

"I suppose so..."

"But I can't leave her note unread. So I gotta get goin'."

"If that is what you wish, My Emperor."

"Thanks. It'll only take a bit," came the reply.

Watching his ruler go, Slipe sighed while:

Ranma went to read the note.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Reading between lines

by Kestral

Ranma read the note. Ranma frowned.

Ranma read the note again. Ranma scowled.

Ranma read the note a third time. Ranma scratched his head.

"What the heck is this?" the Emperor of Mongo exclaimed.

"What the heck is what?! Oh EMPEROR!" The deckhand left off where he was swabbing and saluted. (CLANG!)

"You okay?" Ranma asked the humanoid rat in the pirate outfit.

"...remember to take off the control glove before I salute..." the rat stuck his head up. "I'll live, great and glorious Emperor whose grace outshines the misty marsh lights of-"

"Cut it out!" Ranma said loudly. Not yelling but not happy either. "Yeesh. I'm not Ming on Yan. I ain't gonna go around cutting tails off cause ya ain't singing my praises."

"I have heard that, your excellency, but old habits, they die hard."

Ranma thought about that and could see the point.

"Uhm, so, great Emperor. What was it that you could not identify?" The rat asked while bowing repeatedly.

"This. I got a letter from that Saturn gal."

"The one who watches you and has that sparkly soft lighting thing going?" The rat nodded. "Okay. I know which one."

Ranma blinked, then shrugged. Who could figure? Yeah, well it's her thank you letter, I can't make heads or tails out of it."

"Oh," said the rat. "I'm pretty good at that sort of thing."

Ranma handed it off to the rat, curious. "You're a janitor, right?"

"Yes. I have survived through three Emperors now. Even the one whose name we do not speak." The rat quickly scanned through. "Ah. This is written in one of the human languages. Japanese. Very interesting."

"Oh, you can't read it?" Ranma was a little disappointed. Of course an alien couldn't read Japanese.

"Is okay, I have translator," said the rat, putting a monocle over one eye. "Hmmmm. Yes. Ah hah. So. Very interrrresting."

"You know what she's going on about?" Ranma asked.

"Yes. I understand this. It's a fanmail."

"A what?" Ranma was understandably not familiar with the concept.

"A letter to state... how do I say. My species is not very like your own," said the rat, trying to think. "Okay. You are very heroic, very commanding figure now. So she say she admire you very much, yes? She want you to know she like you and is interested in your well being."

"Oh, that's strange. Nice but strange." Ranma nodded. "So I'll send her flowers as a nice gesture!"

"Glad to be of help," said the rat, turning back to his duty. No matter if it was a good Emperor or a bad Emperor, after all - they all wanted clean decks.

Ryouga roared in rage as another scattering of missiles exploded against his massive metal body.

Akane was around here somewhere though, and he was going to find her!

"That's bad," said Minako.

"We've got another ship incoming, it's moving slow and it's got the mecha for Uranus and Neptune," announced one of the female soldiers who'd been eyeing their uniforms and wondering if she should have one made. "Jupiter has the Gunhed and Saturn has the Gundam so it should assist you when you fight them."

"Except that neither Uranus or Neptune are in any condition to pilot a giant robot," pointed out Venus.

"There's this Theia and then there's Pigzilla. How can we fight both?" Mars asked.

General Mille had wanted a way to bypass the magical defenses of one of these Sailor Princesses and have them as seraglio members. In fact, they'd be happy seraglio members sure to recommend the lifestyle. General Mille's reasons for this were twofold. First, she was into tradition and the tradition of the Emperor's seraglio had been established through several rulers. Second, and the most important, was that if the seraglio tradition was dropped in favor of a single Empress - she'd be out of a job.

It was really a pity that the idea of holding off on the seraglio and shifting the duties to an honor guard hadn't reached her, as it allowed for job security and would have reduced the need for extreme measures.

General Mille's agent on the Savior had a blowgun and a dart that had been designed to infiltrate those defenses and then use them to enforce the required mindset. She was to target Sailor Saturn, who was deemed the most likely candidate to take that Empress position.

However, the conditions had changed more rapidly than General Mille could have known, and the agent had found another problem. Not only did every clear shot end up getting blocked, there were a whole slew of potential Empress candidates getting involved at this point!

Still, the agent knew that if she failed, she might well be part of the expedition to a world they'd named Tartarus. A world from which nothing had returned alive or intact beyond simple landing craft.

While the agent herself was a fairly attractive young lady who was considered a fairly knowledgeable member of the scientific staff, the idea of going off and exploring Tartarus gave her the curious desire to just open an airlock in deep space and be done with it rather than report such a failure.

What was worse was the conflict. Having met the young potential Empress, she'd been impressed with her polite refinement and had to admit that she would make a good Empress. She genuinely liked this girl named Saturn, which made the whole prospect of hitting her with a magical attack designed to make her an enthusiastic harem girl a bit of a moral dilemma.

The agent consoled herself with the idea that it might not work anyway. It might only have a partial effect. It might just make the attraction the young girl felt towards the Emperor stronger. As long as she hit the target, she would have at least given it her best effort. Which might be small comfort if she was ripped apart by kuei, but it was something she could use to plead her case.

Yet there they all were together. All nine of these princesses of the other kingdom, including some pink-haired young girl she'd never seen before. Looking over the mermaid's tank.

Taking careful aim at Saturn-ohime, the agent took her best aim and shot the projectile forward, only someone moved!

It bounces into the tank and the mermaid swallowed it? Now what?!

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Water Hazard

by Kender

The agent had a perfect shot aimed at Saturn as she stood there looking. Everything had been aimed perfectly so that the single shot would hit her and General Mille's plan would be so much closer to reality. It was something that she wasn't entirely happy about, but she had to do it.

And as she watched the projectile go, she felt almost certain that she had accomplished her mission.

"Ooooh... oops... Sorry Saturn-chan."

What she hadn't counted on was Moon loosing her footing for a bit and bumping into the target.

"It's okay," Saturn replied.

'No, it's not,' thought the agent as she watched the projectile struck a crate behind what had been where Saturn had been standing, and bounced off. It fell into the water with a plop, and the passing mermaid accidently swallowed it as she swam by.

The agent spent several moments imagining the possible things that General Mille would do to her, while:

Ranma sent Hotaru the gift of flowers.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Oh no, there goes To-ki-o.

by Kestral

The mermaid gagged momentarily on the odd bauble that had been tossed into the water. How very odd.

The "bauble" had been made to interact with a Sailor transformation. The problem was that Sailor Neptune had no memory of being anything other than a mermaid at the moment.

Reaction: none. No Sailor transformation meant the enchantment had nothing to hook onto, therefore the mermaid only had some slight stomach discomfort as she swum around.

Well, no reaction to the mermaid.

The agent of General Mille, on the other hand, was considering abandoning ship after faking an accident that had claimed her life. Going back to report failure was not a viable option.

Jason Fox watched the TV and boggled. "Giant iron pigs running around Japan, yelling 'Where's the Scarlet?' and crushing things underfoot? Why can't we get something like that?"

"It's just special effects," said his brother Peter. "It's like those giant monsters in Italy they were showing. Or did you hack into the CNN newsfeeds again?"

"If only I'd thought of it," protested Jason. "It's so beautifully metaphorical!"

"You're scary sometimes," said Peter, leaving it at that.

Now over 300 feet (100 meters) tall, Pigzilla roared his frustration at not being able to find Akane.

Behind him the hastily evacuated buildings crashed to the earth. Under him, minor earthquakes shifted rail lines and cut phone and power lines in his passage. Around him were the ruins of Shinjuku.

Against him was whatever forces the Japanese could throw at him. Helicopters and jet fighters pummelled at him with little result.

"WHERE IS AKANE?!" roared Ryoga with enough force to shatter windows. "WHO MOVED THE TENDO DOJO?!"

He didn't even notice as he stepped on a rail line and the steel was drawn into his body. It had gotten so the sensation was so familiar it was normal.

"General Takamoto, it is time."

"Do we dare use this weapon, even now?" The General demanded. "What of the effect on the environment? That's all we need is those Greenpeace subversives having yet another excuse to start messing with our fishing fleets and drumming up more stupid UN regulations designed mainly to cripple our economy."

"It is as you say, however the damage to Shinjuku alone will take more than our GNP for the next five years. This is also the fifth ward that the monster has gone through," said the scientist. "At some point you have to weigh the damages and decide which is worst."

"I know," said the General. "Fine. I'll do it. May history be merciful."

Jiro Azari was a low level flunkie. It was in his job description. He knew that he was supposed to go to level 5-D-34 and give these flowers to Princess Saturn.

However he also knew that the Emperor wasn't too understanding about women. He'd met the Emperor. It was probably the highpoint of his career.

If the Emperor sent one girl flowers and didn't send the rest of them flowers, it would royally zark off all the other Princesses. He knew darn well what had happened to his love life when he'd forgotten to get flowers for his girlfriend on her birthday. He hadn't even known it was her birthday! He was STILL persona non grata as far as she was concerned.

So Jiro Azari, PFC, bunkmate of Firstenburg, immediately delivered the glow flowers to Princess Saturn. Then got some nice vase of Blue Amarinthe flowers to Princess Mercury. Some crimson water blooms for Princess Mars. A few yellow moonbelle in a ribbon for Princess Venus. Green roses for Princess Jupiter. Sapphire styrra in a bouquet for that stiff looking Princess Pluto. Finally some pale sandaron for Princess Moon.

It took him awhile, but he finally got all of them (except the two in tanks) their flowers.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment now that disaster was averted, Jiro went on to finish his shift.

Air raid sirens began going off.

Ryoga was glad. Maybe that meant that everyone was finally done bothering him and he could go save Akane.

Oh wait a minute. They were sending some kind of flying tank at him? Were they kidding or something?

"AAHHHHH!" Minako said, pointing at the screen. "Look at what that thing did to Tokyo!"

"I'm not sure we can take it on with our giant robots," agreed Makoto.

Emperor Ranma reluctantly nodded. "We'll have to leave the Titans alone for now. General Steiner, General Beatrix, stay behind and try to find a way to stall the Titan. Everyone else, set course for Japan."

What kind of misconceptions do flowers bring?

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Racing Time

by Kender

The air crackled with an intensity in the bridge of the ship as they made the journey to Japan. Each of them knew that something dangerous was waiting for them, but for those born there it was with a special pain. They had been born and lived there, knew people there and had memories of that place. Now it was being ruined by a giant monster and they didn't know what was left.

Setsuna watched as they moved along and wondered exactly how this sort of thing happened. She had many theories, but no real facts. About the only good thing that this had brought for her was that it had kept her from having to figure out what to do about the flowers that she had been given.

Minako scowled at the viewscreen long after the image of the monster was gone. For the first time in a long time she had a chance to get a cute boy who wasn't possessed, to be used as a hostage, working for the bad guys or interested in someone else, and now this had to happen. He'd even sent her the most beautiful of blossoms. She was going to show this creature what happened when someone attacked innocents and got in the way of true love.

Leaning against the wall, Makoto looked deceptively at ease, but one look at her eyes and the way that her arms were crossed over her chest, and one would note her anger. She had finally found a boy who not only wasn't put off by her size and strength, but had sent her flowers! But then this had to happen and they were off to fight a major battle in the ruins of her home city. It just wasn't fair...

Keeping herself looking dignified was important for Hotaru, but inside she was trembling. Yet she knew that her sort of power might just be useful in this sort of fight. Not only did her friends have care about her, but as the latest gift from the Emperor showed, he did as well. So, while she was a scared girl, she was a scared girl who wasn't about to let them down.

Going over the battle data let Ami do something, but she still felt a bit impotent. She had little clue as to exactly how they would stop a creature who'd just leveled much of Tokyo. Still, she knew that there had to be something that they could do. And remembering that little gift that she had recently received gave her a little hope that she was being remembered in the crowd.

Rei wondered if the temple was alright, and if her grandfather... and his apprentice... were okay. Her only solace in the possibility of it being otherwise was that this Emperor was there if she needed him. He was nice enough to gift her with flowers, so perhaps he was good enough to help her if the worst was to happen...

Usagi sniffled and hoped that her Mamo-chan, family, friends and neighbors were all right. Ever since she had become Sailor Moon she had fought against just this sort of thing happening, and now that it did, she was terrified that everything would be gone. For once, she actually wanted the problem of having to deal with the obvious gift of affection that the Emperor had given him. He was cute, but she had her Mamo-chan. Still, it was nice to know that there was someone there for her... She only hoped that her idle thought of marrying her child to Ranma's could still happen.

Chibi-usa looked towards her mother, to the screen and back again before wondering where that chill had come from.

Ranma was too busy trying to will the ship faster to note his feeling of impending doom, while:

the weapon was used on Pigzilla/Ryouga.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Next arriving: Tokyo

by Kestral

The ships had to proceed at the speed of the slowest one.

Three transports followed the Arcadia (Ranma's ship), leaving the Vindicator and Savior to stall the Titan if at all possible.

If they had raced along the surface of the planet, it would have taken them a long time. Fortunately, the order of the Emperor had been "fast as you can" and the operators of the vehicles were a little more familiar with space vehicles.

From the Mediterranean, the four vehicles went up at a steep angle to space before beginning their drop. Due to various factors like air resistance, their arrival time was cut by almost three-quarters.

beep beep "GENERAL TAKAMOTO!"

"What is it this time?" The General almost whined at the intercom. Their nuclear powered air tank weapon had been casually swatted out of the sky.

"Four UFOs approaching from NNE!"

The General lifted his head, looking up and to the left to where the radar operators were. "Are they Americans? I hear that Aurora of theirs is pretty fast."

"Speed - MACH 10 and slowing?!"

General Takamoto blinked. "Oh crap. Just what we don't need."

"Aliens Sir! Backtracking the flight plan puts them into space!"

General Takamoto considered it but couldn't resist the obvious question. "Are they good aliens or bad aliens?"

"Sir?!"

"Scramble some planes as soon as their refueled, have them go back along the flight plan. Do NOT initiate combat. Repeat NO FIRING FIRST. At that speed they'll have a hard time turning around and engaging. I want a visual confirmation that they don't have a US flag painted on 'em or something before anyone shoots anything."

"Yes Sir!"

"Coming up on Japan. ETA 30 minutes."

Hotaru looked uncertainly at the Kid's Meal she'd been given. "uhm."

"Vhill there ve anyving evse," said the vampire waitress, beginning to show the strain of the past few days.

"Nope," squeaked Sailor Moon from her position on Tuxedo Kamen's lap. She had leapt there upon the waitress coming up and didn't feel her knees were up to supporting her just yet. Honest!

"Brazed tetrasaur? Tastes like chicken. With honey mustard glaze," mumbled Makoto.

"It's not bad, but thirty minutes to go?" Rei shrugged. "Might as well hit the bathroom and stretch out before the big fight."

"That's thirty minutes to Japan, but what is our plan to fight the iron pig?" Ami asked. "We still don't have any battle plans worked out."

"We'll try our Sailor attacks first," suggested Setsuna.

"Do we have something that will affect a 300ft tall cast iron musclebound pig?" Rei asked.

"Begging the Princess' pardon, ma'am?" said a Corporal refilling glasses of tea. "Long range scans reveal that the monster is actually composed of a variety of metals, apparently absorbed by direct contact with its skin."

Rei blinked, thinking the guy looked familiar. Oh yeah. Firsten-something.

"Princess Saturn, your Gundam is ready whenever you are."

"This is Scout One to Tokyo Base."

"Go ahead Scout One."

"Approaching rendezvous coordinates."

"Make sure you're not in the predicted path of the bogeys. They're still going Mach Six and the mass on all four means maneuverability is not expected to be high."

"Roger that. My momma didn't raise me to be bugsplat on some alien windshield."

"Scout Two. Cameras are rolling."

"There. That might be-"

VHOOSH! VHUUUUMMM! VHUUUUMM! VHUUUMM!

"-them now. I think that was. Scout One still here."

"Scout Two. Computer control of camera took over as planned. Replaying and sending. Looks like... What the fey?!"

"Scout One. Scout Two. Return to base. We... What the?! I've seen that somewhere before."

"Scout Two to Base. Leiji Matsumoto designed that ship forty years ago. If aliens wanted to appear friendly, maybe they'd copy something from our broadcasts?"

"Good working theory, Scout Two. Base out."

The four ships continued to slow as they approached Japan though those onboard remained blissfully unaware as these were starships and had artificial gravity. Since Wang's days, they'd been perfected. You only felt acceleration and deceleration and fast turns when someone in command wanted you to feel them.

The Arcadia swiveled its guns towards the giant monster thumping its chest.

The Senshi attack!

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Opening Salvo

by Kender

Those in the observation posts around the path of destruction watched as the Arcadia, or a ship damned close to it swiveled massive guns in the direction of the giant figure that had caused so much devastation. Each of the massive weapons seemed to gleam in the light, with a special shine on the tips as they gleamed in the light. Then they just sat there not doing much of anything.

And when they began to wonder what was going on, one of those in a helicopter noticed what appeared to be a little girl in a fuku standing in an opening.

"Silence Glaive Surprise!" she called out and sent an attack that exploded against the monster's chest, sending it stumbling back.

"I wanted to shoot it with the big boom..," lamented K'hei, the ship's gunnery officer.

Firstenburg shrugged. "Shooting more metal would be a bad idea, right?"

"Hmph. Stupid thing..."

"You can always use energy weapons on it, right?"

"Now you're talking!"

"Split up and keep your distance!" Pluto called out as their skimmer sped out from the ship.

"Yeah, yeah..," muttered Mars from the where she was standing. "We don't want to get squished you know."

"Just making sure. Venus, are you ready?"

The blonde girl nodded. "As much as I can be."

"Good," the Time Senshi replied, and took a deep breath. "...dead..."

"Love And Beauty..."

"...scream..."

"SHOCK!"

Not to be left out, the Fire Senshi added a "Mars Flame SNIPER!

Already shaking its head clear of the previous strike, the monster lurched forward from the hits in its back. Reacting with great annoyance, it tried to swat the chariot out of the sky, and nearly did so.

"Jupiter Oak EVOLUTION!"

But the attack from the emerald eyed Senshi standing at the edge of a launch bay managed to distract it enough to allow the three to get out of the way.

Spotting Jupiter during a flyby, Venus gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks for the help!"

"No problem!" called out the Thunder Senshi.

Ryouga-kaiju gave out a bellow of frustration while:

the Arcadia opened fire on the giant.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Spatial Delivery

by Kestral

Firstenburg knew what happened if you came up with a clever idea and implemented it during a fight without letting your superior officers know ahead of time.

He had been everything from PFC to sergeant, sometimes in the same day!

"Begging the Emperor's pardon," said Firstenburg as he linked to the comm officer on duty on the Arcadia. "That fella there is made of solid iron, right?"

"Iron, copper, steel, and a wealth of alloys," put in K'hei, a little curious as to what Firstenburg was going to pull out of his butt. Figuratively speaking that is.

"We use magnetic clamps to dock and connect shipping conduits, don't we?" Firstenburg, currently Corporal, asked with trepidation.

"Huh? There ain't enough power to affect something that big," said Specs, adjusting her glasses. "Unless... Maybe if we routed power through the main lines, but that'd blow those circuits, unless I-"

"So if we used all three ships to keep him from grabbing onto the metal in the ships?" asked Firstenburg.

K'hei considered it. "I've got the anti-aircraft ion batteries turned on the target. It wouldn't work though, even if we got the ship's engine channelling to the magnets. That sucker shifts around too much for us to balance him between us. Now if you can figure out a way to stun him long enough for us to haul him into the ocean?"

"Working on that," admitted Cpl. Firstenburg.

The three skimmers were clear. Small ports on the sides of the Arcadia opened.

Gunnery Officer K'hei got busy.

The anti-aircraft ion projectors were actually an anti-missile, anti-fighter defense. Each mini-turret could fire within a 45 degree arc and fired a lambent green "capsule" of energy that would impact shields or electronics and cause damage. They weren't that powerful but they'd been designed to fire rapidly at incoming nasties.

Ryoga-kaiju roared in pain as he got a lot of bee-sting impacts from the green ship.

As the Arcadia was a spaceship, flying out of reach of the giant monster while continuing a bombardment was fairly simple.

Ranma looked out at the giant monster and scratched his head. "I'm pretty sure I don't know any giant alien metal pig monsters, so why do I get the feeling I know this doofus?"

Cologne passed around the bowl of popcorn. "Nice of them to put on a show for us, isn't it?"

"Shampoo much much glad it happen here and not in Amazon village. Shampoo think this much mess to clean up."

Ukyo shook her head, then winced and held a hand to the bandages. She'd gotten hit by a good chunk of ceiling when the Ucchan's had been destroyed. "I just hope my insurance covers giant monsters. I know I insured for insanely powerful martial arts battles."

Akane just twitched. Somehow. Somewhere. She knew - Ranma was being a pervert.

On the screen, the big transports continued to prowl the sky overhead as the warship peppered the giant monster with green fire.

The camera suddenly panned up as another ship rocketed (literally) onto the scene.

"Mongolian Transport X73 arriving," said a rough voice. "We brought another of dese combat robots."

"Roger X73," said the Comm Officer. "Remain at 2,000 altitude. I thought production was lagging on those units."

"Dey kicke'd dem into high gear when dey heard de Emperor's birthworld was under de attack," replied the X73 pilot in a thick accent.

"Pluto to Arcadia. Whose giant robot is it?"

"X73 to Pluto. Per da most recent report, der Neptune an' de Uranus mecha be pending deir return to normal. Shipment is for da Princess -"

Venus."

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Machine Love

by Kender

"X73 to Pluto. Per da most recent report, der Neptune an' de Uranus mecha be pending deir return to normal. Shipment is for da Princess Venus," drawled the voice from the transport.

"It's for me?!" came the Senshi of Love's delighted near-scream.

"Dat's what the order form says."

"Oh man..," Mars muttered under her breath, "I hope that thing has a mute button."

"What?" Venus asked.

"Oh, nothing!"

"Okay... So you've got a mecha just for me?"

"Yes, Ma'am," the transport officer told her.

There was the sound of giggling from her. "That's great! Now... How do you drive this thing?"

"Uh... Ma'am," protested the skimmer pilot, "I can do it..."

"What? I'm a bit busy going to get the machine of my dreams!"

"Ummm..."

"Need more speed!"

Sounds of a bit of a scuffle came through, and Pluto's voice came over the line. "Let him pilot and maybe we'll arrive in one piece."

"Ohhh... At least let me know what it is..."

"X73 to Venus," said the transport officer, "Sending image now."

Peering at the screen, Venus looked at her new mecha and saw a:

Valkyrie. (Veritech) (Macross)

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Sailor V for Valkyrie?

by Kestral

"Dear lord, they gave her a Macross Valkyrie."

"Pluto-san?" Mercury had never heard that particular tone of dread before.

"Well, it kind of fits," said Pluto. "She is rapid-response and as Sailor V was able to respond to a wide variety of situations."

"Sailor Venus in her Sailor Valkyrie! It's even in my colors!" Sailor Venus gushed.

It sat on the back of the transport in Vehicle mode, glistening and ready for its pilot.

At which point Ryoga-kaiju started throwing pieces of building at the ship. He hadn't seen many giant robot flicks but he knew if they were about to unleash a new weapon he didn't want to see it happen.

Venus' reaction was predictable. "AHHH! NOOOO! NOT MY BABY! VENUS LOVE & BEAUTY SHOCK! VENUS METEOR STORM! VENUS LOVE ME CHAIN!"

"Uh oh," said more than one Senshi as the first two attacks staggered the giant pig-monster and the chain wrapped around it.

Ryoga-kaiju:

pulled the girl and her skimmer close enough to grab. Venus protests being grabbed by a giant pig.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Minako Wray

by Kender

There was just enough solidity to the Love Me Chain for it to hold creatures in place. It had done so before, and managed to wrap around the monster's arm in this case. But as it was made from a magical attack, it wasn't metal enough to be absorbed.

Unfortunately... it was real enough to yank the skimmer over to the giant creature that had done a Godzilla impression on Tokyo.

"AiiiIIIIEEEE!" screeched Sailor Venus as she tried to hold on for dear life, and found that her attempts to use her feet to keep her on the skimmer were actually bringing it along with her.

Pluto grabbed onto a railing as the skimmer suddenly shifted direction and she was nearly tossed to the deck. "Let it GO!"

"I'm trying!"

"Not the giant! The chain!"

"What? Oh..."

"Just great," Mars muttered from where she had fallen to the floor. "He's got us and now you realise what to do..."

"Hey! How was I supposed to know?"

"Before we got caught?"

"Do you think that I like being held by a giant pig?!"

Whatever the fire Senshi was going to say was lost in the bellow from Ryouga-kaiju. He'd taken offense to the giant' part, but the 'pig', and rather than hold onto the skimmer and all the metal that he could absorb from it, he decided to do something else.

Venus found herself being grabbed from the skimmer, and held in one massive fist so that her arms were trapped against her sides. No matter how hard she struggled, it just seemed that she was stuck being held that way. All she could do was move the part of her body that was free and have images of her being squished.

"HELP!" screamed the Senshi of Love, "I DON'T WANT TO BE THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS! Well, maybe I do... BUT NOT LIKE THIS!"

Ryouga-kaiju just held aloft and bellowed at the others while:

he decided to find a building, mountain or something to climb to get away from these jerks.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Kaiju battle intermission

by Kestral

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Venus as she was carried around by Ryoga-kaiju.

The Arcadia had stopped firing as soon as the iron pig had gotten close to the Senshi.

Ryoga noticed that while he'd grabbed this little person, he wasn't being attacked? So now he could find Akane and explain what was going on!

Ryoga spotted some mountains in the distance. Maybe he could spot her from there!

"So what do we do? We can't hit him without possibly injuring that Princess," exclaimed K'hei.

"Maybe the nice mermaid can play some music? It worked with Okeanos," suggested Yuhri.

"Might this admittedly nonmilitary person suggest something?" came the voice of the weaselly Councilor Slipe. As he was literally a humanoid weasel (though his race would likely prefer a comparison to ferrets) he couldn't help what his voice sounded like.

"What would the official in charge of closet space for Mongo know about fighting giant iron pigs in an alien city?" asked K'hei, more than a little curious.

"Admittedly little," soothed Slipe. "Though it would be better to continue the fight after it reached that mountain rather than continue to fight amidst the rubble of a potentially allied city."

"He's got a point," admitted Yuhri.

Captain Steiner frowned as his ship orbited the path of Theia. "Say again?"

"Just that the longer Theia continues her path, the greater damage done to their ecosystem. Look, we had to avoid going directly over her, right?" asked the science officer.

"Yes, the turbulence from her heat emanations was increasingly difficult," pointed out the helmsman, an Ensign Checkers.

Captain Steiner wondered why all the lupine wanted to work the swing shift but dismissed the errant thought. A large section of his crew had been sent with the Emperor's ship as the Emperor had set out with such a minimal force due to hurry. "So?"

The science officer, Commander Spot, elaborated. "As her heat aura continues to superheat the air directly in contact with her, it sends out those eddies. Heat rises. That's why there's now a steady wind blowing to her from the sides and a fierce updraft above her and a slightly smaller one along her trail. She's going to cause weather disruptions in this vicinity."

"If she reaches this 'Typhon', that will be the least of their worries," said Captain Steiner. "Still, the primitives of this planet lack weather control so we probably should do something."

"Well, cannon would be useless," said Mister Shih-tzu. "The shells would vaporize before they reached her. Likewise energy weapons against that power output."

"Mebbe we should drop rocks on her?" joked Mister Checkers.

There was brief silence on the bridge.

"Worth a try," said Captain Steiner. "Ready grapnels, find us some good sized rocks and we'll see if we can't slow her down at least."

Meanwhile,

Akane is still watching all this on TV when she recognizes Ranma in his Captain Harlock uniform, standing dramatically on the deck of the Arcadia.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Seeing Things

by Kender

Ryouga was pleased with his plan, as it meant that he had a chance to get out of all those annoyances and see if he could find Akane so that he could tell her the truth. Then he was certain that everything would be better than fine now, and he could prove that it had just been a big misunderstanding. She'd forgive him, and he'd have the chance to hopefully get a little closer to her.

All he had to do was to find her, and since he was holding his girl, he wasn't getting shot at. Which gave him a chance to go to the mountains that he'd kept in sight, and lucked out that no one had decided to move them on him. That would have been a problem, but this was working out perfectly.

He just hadn't realised that to get there, he had to hold a hostage, or that said hostage was a shapely teenaged girl in a skimpy outfit.

Because as soon as he did, he was likely to faint dead away.

"This sucks on so many levels," groused K'hei.

Yuhri shrugged. "Unfortunately we can't do much more than this."

"Which is the problem. I just wish that there was some way that we could beat this guy already."

"I do to, but it's not easy to take down a giant who can absorb the stuff you're shooting him with."

K'hei sighed and frowned darkly at the enemy. "It's too bad that we can't just blow him and everything around him to smithereens."

"That'd be a bad idea, or would you like to explain that to the Emperor and the princesses?"

"I wouldn't blow up their city. I just wish it was in the desert or something. And where's the Emperor anyway?"

"He said something about getting some air," Councilor Slipe informed her.

Ranma knew that there was a proper way of doing things like this. He'd started doing it by getting the ship and putting on the uniform. But in a situation with great devastation, and bad odds, the leader was supposed to do something before the battle swung his way, or so all those shows he'd watched as a kid had shown him.

Still, he really had wanted to get some air.

And this did give him a view of the action.

He just like the idea of posing like this, not that he'd admit it, even with the threat of a feline presence.

It was a rather odd situation if one had thought about it. Watching the devastation that was being broadcast over the television, one might think that they were merely viewing a movie. There was a sense of detachment that could set in, especially if one did not have something to remind them of the reality of the situation.

Some of those watching didn't have that luxury.

Particularly when the cameras picked up on something in particular and zoomed in on it.

Or rather, him.

"Well... that is different," Cologne murmured.

"That's an understatement," Ukyo drawled.

Akane just stared at the screen and saw something that had grabbed her attention. That wasn't something that she had expected, but for some reason, it didn't surprise her. So she had plenty of time to react to what she was seeing.

Which happened to be her fiance, wearing what looked to be a perfect copy of the uniform of 'Captain Harlock',standing dramatically on the deck of the ship that had been fighting the monster.

After a moment of absorbing that information, she considered what that could mean and came to the conclusion that he:

had been fighting alongside the Sailor Senshi, who were all girls in short skirts, which meant that he was definitely being a pervert.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Attractive ships

by Kestral

There were a vast number of things in the universe that could be considered a good idea.

However that would have nothing to do with the plans of Genma Saotome and his good friend Soun Tendo.

Genma popped up out of apparently nowhere. "We must drag my ungrateful son back!"

"We'll hold the wedding immediately," agreed Soun.

"You're fighting your way through an alien fleet in order to get him?" Cologne asked.

"Hmmm, she's got a point, Saotome," agreed Soun. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Me, Tendo?"

"The floor show to the side, it remains to be seen what to about Ranma's return," said Cologne. "As the last we had heard he had been kidnapped by space aliens."

"Shampoo think tight pants look very good on airen."

"It ain't often I agree with you, sugar, but I gotta say you're right on that."

"...pervert..." grumbled Akane.

"They're still involved in fighting that giant monster, so maybe we could rescue Ranma-honey while they're not looking?" suggested Ukyo.

"I don't think 'rescue' is the appropriate word," said Cologne drily. "He is not being held against his will that I can see."

Several girls in cheerleader costumes had just joined Ranma on deck. Including one with a polearm who was standing fairly close.

CRASH! BANG! STAMPEDE!

Looking at where several girls had knocked over the table, broke through the door, and charged off for another part of Tokyo, Cologne tsked over the senseless violence. Not that she was against it on general principles, just that it tended to leave a mess.

"You see, Tendo, my plan worked. Now the boy will be dragged back and we'll be able to have the wedding immediately. When Akane saves Ranma, they'll realize how much they love each other," said Genma.

"Very clever, Saotome," agreed Soun.

"You do realize that you two make an excellent argument for having the women in charge of a society don't you?" asked Cologne.

"Huh?" asked Genma.

"Never mind," said Cologne. "You remember what happened to the dojo? Crushed to splinters under the hooves of the iron pig?"

"Not a problem," Soun informed the elder. "Why - a couple of boards and a new coat of varnish and it'll be good as new."

"Hmmmm, well, are you two ordering anything?" Cologne asked pointedly.

"Well, I could use the chow mein dinner," suggested Genma.

"Just a reminder: No credit," said Cologne.

"Then no," replied Genma.

"Then why don't you leave so I can close up? We're not getting customers with the area evacuated." Cologne let a hint of menace into her voice.

"Right, we ought to go supervise anyway," said Soun, seeing a good reason to relocate.

"Readying attack," said Corporal Firstenburg. "Inertial dampeners are off line. Artificial gravity rerouted. All ships on the count of three. One."

The three ships moved equidistant to the large metal pig, forming a triangle with him at the center. Electrical arcs began playing over their hulls.

"Power to magnetic fields, 50%. Two."

"Bring up to 100% on my mark. Three."

Ryoga wondered what was going on as the three ships began lifting off in unison around him. What really shocked him was that he started lifting up in midair as well.

"Maintain current rate of ascent until reaching 200 kelekams," said Firstenburg.

"He's still got the Princess," said K'hei. "I guess that was too much to hope for."

"Once we're out of the city we can try other methods of separating the beauty from the beast," said Yuhri. "Sailor Mercury's on Comm Channel 5, she states that the Senshi transformation protects them from vacuum. So if we take big iron there, she won't be hurt."

The fiancees run into problems in their attempts to reclaim Ranma.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Problem Thoughts

by Kender

As she broke the surface of the water, Michiru only knew three things; that she was completely nude, she was in water, and that Ranma was nowhere to be seen. She treaded water for a bit as she got her breath back and began to look around to see what was going on. The last thing that she clearly remembered at the moment was facing that giant of water, and then being confused in the water.

It was the strangest thing, but by the look of it, she wasn't a prisoner or anything of that sort, so she was pretty happy with that outcome. But that still left whatever time she had been in there before clarity returned, so she knew that she was missing some parts of the puzzle. Since just sticking around didn't do anything about that, she swam to the edge of the tank with even and measured strokes.

Climbing out, she felt a pang of disappointment that Ranma wasn't there to see the way that the water slid off of her body, and glisten on her curves. However, she was certain that there would be plenty of time to show him, and that he had to be around there some place. So she simply brushed a damp lock of hair out of her eyes and started looking around to see which way she could go.

After all, there was a kind, nice, and oh so handsome Emperor somewhere nearby, and she had to thank him for what he had done for her.

"Maybe now we should attack?" asked one of the officers.

General Takamoto frowned at the speaker. "You think we should attack when a group more powerful than us is taking a monster that destroyed much of the capital, and bringing it up into space, far, far away from our soil?"

"Well... yeah."

The General wasn't the only one that stared dully at the man.

"What?"

Akane was fully prepared to bash her pervert of a fiance for playing with cute girls while the city got wrecked. Ukyo wanted to knock some sense into her fiance and make him finally understand that his Ucchan was there for him. Shampoo just wanted to get her Airen back from the outsider girls that were with him. And Kodachi had joined in to save her Ranma-darling from the girls that were keeping him from her.

They ran into a little snag though...

"How are we going to get over to there?" the chef complained, "The army's keeping everyone from getting into the area."

The Amazon snorted. "They no can stop Shampoo. Big problem is how Shampoo get to ship going higher in sky." "My poor Ranma-darling," the gymnast lamented, "To be held by such powerful beings!"

"Argh!" growled the youngest Tendo, "He did that on purpose! But he isn't going to get away."

On the last part they could agree, and the four girls continued on their attempt to get to Ranma while:

Michiru began to search the area that she was in.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Pigzilla's capture

by Kestral

Ryoga struggled. Ryoga fought. If he had had any leverage at all, he would quickly have broken free.

Suspended by magnetic fields, Ryoga didn't have that leverage.

Michiru paused as she looked out a window and saw the monster suspended between three ships as they rose majestically into the sky. Apparently they were still fighting these titans, but she didn't remember anything to do with a muscular giant pig made of iron. Not very elegant. She looked across, the shutters over the window being retracted so that she could get a good look.

Ryoga's twisting brought him to where he could look across the intervening distance, through a window, and see the still-damp girl standing there looking back at him. He stopped and stared.

Slowly, it began to penetrate the haze in Michiru's mind that she was naked. She frowned at the ogling titan and stomped off.

ping!

Pigzilla/Ryoga fainted with a fountain of iron particles shooting from his nose.

Michiru slowed after realizing that she was still naked. Well, she could address that problem simply enough then find her cabin. "Neptune Planet Power Make UP!"

Inside her, the dart exploded as its magic went to work, infiltrating and corrupting the Senshi transformation as it had been designed to. General Mille being in charge of the Emperor's seraglio and training, she had not wanted to lose her job and had ordered this development. The weapon was supposed to latch onto the magical signatures observed when the Outers had visited Mongo and convert the Senshi into a happy and enthusiastic harem member. Of course, it had never been tested.

When it was done, the result was:

something very odd happens and Sailor Neptune realizes that she's fallen in love with Ranma and isn't as attracted to Haruka as she once was. Unless of course, Haruka is along for the ride.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Shift In Affection

by Kender

The dart had been designed to turn the target into a willing member of the Emperor's seraglio. As such, she would do anything he wanted, no matter what it was, and would not only have no problem with him having as many girls as he wanted, but would want him to have him to have as many as he could. His well being and desires would be paramount to her, and she would never have any ambition to be more than he wanted her to be.

It didn't work out quite that way.

As a slight wave of disorientation spilled over Michiru, there were changes that were taking place... just not exactly the ones that were meant to happen.

Blinking away the odd feeling, she turned back to searching for the Emperor, only to realise that she had a need to see him again. Not just to thank him, and help him out, but to gaze upon him, and hopefully spend some time together. He had proven to her that he was a courageous young man who still had the time to be nice to people. She liked being around him, as it was comfortable and without artifice. This was a young man who was honest, willing and would always follow through. She could even see herself painting a portrait of that handsome visage, and knew that she could only allow herself to it with the best care that she could manage. Nothing else would do, and she hoped that he liked the way she painted...

And then she realised just why she was so afraid of disappointing him.

She was in love with him.

That made the Water Senshi stop in her tracks as she tried to figure out how that had happened. She knew that he had treated them well, and had taken care of her, but as far as she could tell, it just... came about. Feelings were tricky things, and she knew that she couldn't deny hers.

Thinking for a moment, she brought an image of Haruka into her mind. There was still a lot there, but it wasn't as much as it had been. But now she just had to think about the Emperor, and she could see herself finding ways to show him just how elegant she could be, including in the bedroom. It wasn't the same as before, and she knew that there would be a problem if she had to pick between them.

Unless Haruka joined them, in which case she wouldn't refuse. With just the blonde, it would be a good evening. Being with only Ranma would be great. Putting the two of them together would be just about the perfect way to spend the night, though she would be certain that they would be sleeping in the next morning...

Though, just spending time with the two of them, like at meals, events or simply snuggling, would be fun in and of itself.

Pondering her newly naughty thoughts, Michiru continued on walking.

"I swear that when I get to him, I'm going to show him not to be jerk!" Akane growled under her breath.

"Not to disappoint you sugar," Ukyo commented, "but just how are we going to do it. They could be in space already..."

"Argh... I can't believe this. There's got to be some way of getting there."

"Not unless Shampoo's got some sort of Amazon trick or magical artifact to do the job."

The named Amazon shook her head. "No can do. Amazon no have trick and no treasure that make user go like bird. Is not like something do in mountain village every day. Outsiders go up into sky, and would have to be very rich person to try..."

Three of the girls there looked to the fourth.

"What are you looking at?" Kodachi asked while:

Haruka was changing back.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Changed Haruka

by Kestral

Ryoga no longer needed to breathe as his hecantotheire form was sufficiently powerful at this point that he had become self-sufficient.

Which was good as he was still unconscious as the ships lifted him to outer space fairly quickly. Once there it was a matter of figuring out angles and a final tug with magnetic fields.

Ryoga Hibiki sailed unconcerned through the blackness of space, becoming an asteroid unto himself. Eventually he would end up hitting something, but that would be far from Earth. Of course, once he did - it would be Ranma's fault. Which wasn't completely fair as in this case it wasn't Ranma's idea at all.

Now it was time to turn their attention to Theia.

"I can't believe that pig grabbing me like that!" Venus huffed.

"Neptune-san!" Usagi exclaimed, glad for something to focus on besides the way the battle with Pigzilla had gone.

Sailor Neptune smiled at the Inners and Hotaru.

"I think we need to fill you in on what you missed," said Mars. "Here's what happened."

Haruka was playing with the ball when she changed, and spluttered as she tried to breathe in water briefly before she could gain the surface.

Though for some reason she didn't want to leave the ball behind. It had some kind of value to her that she didn't understand.

There was something going on. The last thing she remembered, she had been fighting that Oceanus guy and then she was waking up in some kind of big aquarium with this pool toy and...

To say the least she was disoriented.

Having hauled herself out of the water to find a nearby towel and dry herself off, Haruka tried to remember what had happened only to find vague images were all that she could bring up. The other tank there, she could picture a mermaid singing some wordless melody? The ball. The ball made her feel some remembered happiness. There had been something about the Emperor, wasn't there?

It was all very confusing.

Akane was still grumping as the "big metal pickle" (Shampoo's words) flew overhead at a distance of about 10,000 feet. "ARGGHHH! RANMA YOU GET DOWN HERE!"

"Somehow I don't think he heard you, sugar," commented Ukyo dryly.

"Shampoo wonder how to bring giant pickle down," said a certain Amazon. "If no find way go there, have to bring Ranma here."

Kodachi laughed her annoying laugh up to the point where Shampoo pulled a dumpling out of nowhere and crammed it into the open mouth.

Kodachi coughed it up and glared at the gaijin. "Fortunately for you, you have my own ability to handle tactics. I have a plan. The vessel is currently moving quite slowly due to the helicopters and pedestrian traffic surrounding it. We use that to get ahead of the vessel and then - "

Simply fly into the course of the vessel and then land upon it. Ranma will be delighted by my presence and welcome us aboard.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Playing Catch Up

by Kender

Kodachi coughed up the dumpling and glared at the gaijin. "Fortunately for you, you have my own ability to handle tactics. I have a plan. The vessel is currently moving quite slowly due to the helicopters and pedestrian traffic surrounding it. We use that to get ahead of the vessel and then Simply fly into the course of the vessel and then land upon it. Ranma will be delighted by my presence and welcome us aboard."

"What you mean, 'your presence'?" Shampoo asked in a growl as she glared right back at the rich girl, "Husband want see Shampoo more than crazy rose girl!"

"Hmph. As if he would want to be with such a barbarian when he could have the affections of a cultured and well bred woman."

"Bred like goat?"

"Why you?!" the gymnast screeched indignantly as she pulled out her ribbon.

"Excuse me, but we do have better things to do than this," Ukyo reminded them, obviously uncomfortable at playing peacemaker. "Right Akane?"

The youngest Tendo sniffed. "I don't care how we get on that thing, only that we do. That jerk's up there and I want to give him a piece of my mind!"

"Then we're agreed. We have to get a means of flying up there so we can land on that ship. Unless someone's got a better idea?"

"Well, we could always stip the Tendo girl nude and stake her out on the flight path," Kodachi commented idly, "Then when he saw the brute like that... OOF!"

"I don't think so!" Akane yelled, still holding up the fist that she'd used to knock the gymnast out.

"Umm... Akane?" the chef suggested, "You might want to stop."

"Why should I?!"

"Because she's the only one of us that can afford to get a helicopter or a small airplane so that we can get to Ranchan, especially on such short notice, even if we combine our money."

"Grr... Then I'll get her later."

"Fine by me. Let's go then?"

"Sure," Akane growled, and started to stomp away.

"Coming Shampoo?"

"Yes, and Shampoo bring crazy girl too," the Amazon agreed as she walked along with Ukyo, with one hand dragging Kodachi along by her ponytail.

And so the four of them went on, ready to catch up to Ranma while:

something else was happening.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Eclipse

by Kestral

The method Steiner came up with was deceptively simple.

Attach a line to a large rock in space. Accelerate through Earth's atmosphere with all available power channelled into forward heat shields. Release the line at a precisely calculated point. Change descent to a loop back up to orbit at a continued high rate of speed. Repeat as necessary.

Even with things disintegrating as they hit the target, enough kinetic energy was left that the Titan was getting terribly delayed in her march towards Mount Aetna.

Blasts of fiery plasma were sent after the ship, but Steiner kept his approach angles random and his timing erratic so as to throw off any attacks on the inbound part. The speed of the ship counted for something in avoiding the attacks on the outbound part.

Thea eventually ran across areas that were not so rocky and uninhabitable. Farms and such that Steiner was less prone to blowing up. With the halt in attacks, Thea's pace increased.

Of course the air directly in contact with her superheated, which caused a massive updraft, which caused a constant wind blowing towards Thea. Adding to that was the intense heat and wind absorbing water from the environment and then heading skyward with that updraft.

The result was a bubble of clear skies surrounded by a ring of ever darkening clouds. Steiner likened it to a targeting bracket.

All he had to do was wait for it to once again cross into uninhabited space.

Thea passed the road, taking little notice of the way crops burst into flame at her approach. She didn't notice irrigation streams erupt into geysers of steam nor did she deign to notice the figures of people running away from her in the distance.

She did notice the abandoned vehicle and approached the truck, something about it drawing her with curiosity.

The tires superheated and exploded, the radiator erupted into another geyser of steam, and she dispassionately noticed both. Something there though - something commanded her attention.

While circling the vehicle, a flash of light caught her attention and she looked closer.

The mirror was distorted already by the radiant heat from ten feet away, but the female figure of glowing white radiance stared at her reflection. She brought up a hand to observe her reflection doing the same.

Eyes of red flame widened and then narrowed as memories briefly surfaced.

Thea threw her head back and screamed soundlessly as she remembered her lost humanity.

"Signal from Steiner," said Beatrix, her good eye narrowing as she watched the video feed. "Has she gone insane and is now scorching the ground in random attacks?"

"No," said Sailor Pluto, watching the feed herself. "That's the ancient writing style of the Earth Kingdom. Something must have caused her to remember her past."

"Writing? What does it say?" asked Beatrix.

"She wants released from her existence," said Sailor Pluto, looking grim. "She wants to die."

"That's all very well and good," said Beatrix, "excepting that as you've said - they're immortal. How would you kill a living solar flare?"

"You don't, but we may be able to use a magnetic bottle to get her off the planet and into space. Maybe drop her off on Io. There isn't much she could do there that the planet isn't doing to itself," pointed out Ami over a communicator.

Make it so.

Emperor Ranma of Mongo: Starting Bottle

by Kender

"Let us see. We have two choices," Beatrix said easily, "We can either try this plan, or attempt to give this being what she wants. How hard would the latter be again?"

"Impossible," Pluto commented, "Unless you've come up with some magic wand that I don't know about."

"It wouldn't be a good idea to blast her when we can do something about it, would it?" asked one of the crewmen.

The ship's captain nodded sadly. "It wouldn't be we may have no other choice." "It doesn't matter," came Ranma's voice.

"Your Highness? You have orders for us?"

"Well, I don't know 'bout this 'bottle' stuff, but I do know that we might not get another chance at this. If we can take her ta where she won't be meltin' the city, it'll be a good idea."

"I agree. You want us to take her to Io?"

"If it's the place ta go, then sure," he said.

Ami's voice crackled over the communications array again. "It would be. The entire moon is covered by massive volcanoes, and there isn't any life that we know of nearby. At the very least, she can be where she can be alone."

"Understood. Begin preparations for the operation," Beatrix ordered her crew.

Pluto watched the screen and hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

Theia watched the unfamiliar ships come closer to her, obviously trying to look non threatening. She could that they also had a plan, and were about to try something. They took up positions, and started to bring about some sort of energy field that made her body feel held somehow.

It puzzled her for a few moments, and she stood still for a few moments while: