Moon Cats: Walkabout

Chapter One

Luna grumbled quietly to herself. Normally she took any work handed to her and set about it without any real complaints, but today she was just edgy.

Artemis had left yesterday, and Usagi had proven adamant on her insistence on her working at CAPPA more, and had been joined in the efforts by all the other Senshi. She'd broken down, and that morning had told Captain Hibuki that she was willing to accept that promotion to "Administrative director" he'd been asking her to take forever.

Before she'd know what was happening she'd found herself in an office on the third floor of CAPPA headquarters that she hadn't even known they'd cleaned out, marveling at how the furniture and decorations were very much to her liking. She knew Usagi had to be in on it, and planned to deal with her accordingly.

She'd also found a pile of paperwork on her desk, as well as a lieutenants badge and a fruit basket from Hibuki.

"Officer Tanuki, I understand you didn't intend to annoy the Kitsune." She repeated for the third time. "However, I do think that you apologizing to the girl would work far better then us arresting her!"

"But she turned me into a raccoon!" The four foot tall, talking raccoon in a police uniform insisted, for the fourth time.

"And I don't care!" Luna stated, finally loosing her already ragged temper. "The comment 'Nice Tails' was inappropriate, and you should have known that. Frankly if it'd been directed at me, you'd have been bleeding from someplace rather important to you. Do I make myself clear?"

The raccoon gulped, realizing instinctively that angry cats could seriously ruin a raccoons day. "I… I guess you're right. I'll apologize to her right now."

"Good, she's in the waiting room. Just be glad she just wants an apology, as opposed to filing a complaint against you. Now get out."

She watched him scurry away, and then slumped down into her padded seat. The captain slipped in a moment later, and considered her carefully. "Okay, I admit it, letting you deal with the bulk of the junior officers disciplinary stuff was dirty pool for your first day. I just figured it'd let you get your anger out on people who deserve it."

"I have a gun, my reflexes are faster then yours. I will shoot you." Luna muttered, glaring at her alleged boss. He just grinned.

"Now you sound like a cop! So how's it going, really?"

"Honestly, not that badly." Luna grudgingly admitted. "It actually reminds me of my old job."

"How does this place relate to a palace, exactly?"

"Whiny people who think shiny things on their clothing mean they are important."

"Ah." Hibuki chuckled. "So, you want to come with me and do some real law man… excuse me, law person… stuff for a change?"

Luna lifted an eyebrow, then stood and pulled a long coat on over her pants suit, a affectation she refused to admit she adopted from Artemis. "Sure, but what are you talking about. I'm not really qualified for the hard investigative stuff the rest of you do."

"Oh, it's nothing like that though I suspect you're underestimating yourself." Hibuki reassured her. "This one's a bit of a he said, she said sort of thing. I'm thinking it's going to require a bit of diplomacy, and you're the master at that."

"Mistress, actually." Luna smiled, and followed the human out of her office. "SO what exactly is the matter?"

"Oh, just something about a practical joke involving some cursed water or something like that."

"Right… practical joke."

AAA

The ride to the Nerima Ward was quiet enough, Hibuki leaving his police radio tuned only to the CAPPA frequency for a change. The unit was not the most overloaded in the city, luckily for it's small staff, but when it got busy, things tended to be ugly. Less then two weeks ago they'd engaged a troop of mecha designed to destroy the city with nothing but some hand weapons and their wits, and CAPPA managed to come out on top, with minimal casualties. Things like that bought them their more relaxed daily workload.

Strangely the officers and detectives working CAPPA had noticed that they saw the unusual more frequently then even the most endangered of Juban residents. They worked with Sailor Senshi and Moon Cats (That secret having been outed to most at the same time as a mecha attack), had a small golem who delivered peoples mail on specially made cat walks, and had regular seafood delivery from a Kappa who lived in the park near the HQ. This all was now normal to them.

Even Officer Tanuki, who with his name was kind of asking to get transformed in to a raccoon, wasn't all that odd for the squad any more. Last week Luna had listened to one of the officers complain about a "domestic" call involving two werewolves like it was normal!

"So, what's it this time. Water make them young, make them old, make them irressitable to the opposite sex."

"Made them a swan, actually." Hibuki replied. "The Nerima coppers have been trying to get us to come out and check into some shape shifting curses in the area, but frankly we didn't think it was important. The problem is that, apparently, a non-combatant got involved with the local martial arts lunatics and the ensuing ruckus involved the police actually getting called for more then cleanup for a change. Do you know anything about Jusenkyo, by the way?"

Luna had been taking a sip from a cup of tea at that moment, and expelled it in the least elegant way available, by spraying Hibuki's windshield. "WHAT! Where?"

"Jusenkyo. It's supposedly somewhere in China."

"Oh, I see." Luna laughed. "You're messing with the new girl, right?"

"Um… what are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, Hibuki, that's straight out of a Manga."

The captain blinked, surprised. "You read Manga?"

"Usagi does." Luna answered, by way of explination.

"Oh… well… Unless the Nerima guys are pulling my leg, then it's not a joke as far as I know."

"Right, next your going to tell me we're going to the Tendo Dojo." Luna laughed.

"Um… no." Hibuki pointed out the windshield, at the sign on the building's wall next to them. "We're already there."

Luna spit out her tea again.

AN: Okay, I'm going with Ranma ½ first off, cause I know it the best. However, I'm curious what people would like to see as crossovers. I'm not shy, and if I know the setting I'll do anything. It doesn't have to be anime in fact, but I won't promise to do everything requested. Someone's already asked me to do Lupin the third, and honestly I'm just not that interested in that series, so I won't be doing that (Sorry Lupin fans).

Artemis will be returning, and the chapters will generally be longer… but I wanted to get this rolling again, so folks didn't think I'd forgotten.