Okay, here's chapter 4 of this. And remember, as one of my reviewers forgot last time, the only major changes in this document are to formatting, and stuff that was so blatant that I couldn't stand to let it stay.
This chapter definitely shows my fanfictual naivety. Gah... Fortunately, I believe its next chapter where I first learned to separate people's speech into different paragraphs, which will make this re-editing MUCH easier. Yes, that means that, originally, this fanfic's first 10 chapters, (This chapter was originally chapters 9-10,) were all massive blocks of text, divided only at scene changes.
Isn't that fun?
Enough with the annoying notes, read on!
Chapter 4, Career Paths.
Ranma lay in her bed and groaned. Emil Lang was going to die when she could get up again. She was pretty sure the having skipped it so many times had made this particular experience worse when it finally came, as Akane didn't end up barely able to move and with violent mood swings...well she did have the mood swings but they were standard procedure. Ranma reiterated her desire to kill Lang and buried her face under her pillow.
Roy walked into her room after she hadn't reported for duty for 10 minutes and shook her shoulder. "Hey, kid. It's time to get up."
The pilot in question raised her eyes to Roy and gave him a look that she almost NEVER used. It was almost as intense as the one she'd given Saffron. It was the "Glare of death." Roy stumbled back. "Whoa, what's wrong with you kid?"
Ranma just dropped her head back to the pillow and Roy heard one of her death threats against lang. His mind clicked as he realized how long Ranma had been in girl form and he backed out of her room, VERY quickly.
Rick hunter raised a questioning eyebrow in the hallway. "For today we're a flight of two...and DO NOT go in there." Roy said, unconsciously echoing a famous movie actor of about 30 years earlier.
HR.
After a few hours of laying in her room, grumbling about Lang, Ranma felt like she could move around again. She sat up and, realizing that she had missed her duty shift, she decided to finally unpack the large backpack which she had been ignoring ever since she had gotten to Macross City. Opening it up, she found a thermos full of what she assumed used to be hot water but wasn't anymore, several of her sets of Chinese clothes, a few odds and ends from her room and a picture of Akane. Smiling fondly, she set the photo on the stand next to her bed.
She wondered what the Nerima crew was doing, not for the first time. Mousse was probably STILL pursuing shampoo and without her claim of Marriage to Ranma, which Cologne had dissolved after the wedding incident, He just may have a chance at getting her. Ryoga was probably still blaming Ranma for all of his problems, and ever since Akane had found out about P-chan, avoiding the Tendo Dojo like the plague. Kuno...Ranma didn't want to THINK about Kuno...and Akane, she was probably still trying to cook. Ranma's fond smile faded for a moment as she thought of that.
HR.
Somewhere back on earth, in Tokyo, three people sneezed violently.
In a Random hall onboard the SDF-1, Ryoga came to the conclusion that the cold he was getting just HAD to be Ranma's fault... and for once was right.
HR.
Looking away from the picture and back into the pack, Ranma saw a few small packets of powder lying on the bottom. Picking one up, her face split into an evil grin. "This'll fix lang."
HR.
Emil Lang stopped studying a science journal as he saw Lt. Saotome entering the medlab. "Hello Lt. Is there something I can do for you?"
Lt. Saotome smirked slightly. "I was wonderin' when I can change back to normal. It's been about a month and that's how long you said."
Lang snapped his fingers. "Ah, I forgot to tell you. You can change back tomorrow if you'd like. That's when all of the internal sutures should have dissolved."
Ranma nodded, beginning to pull something from behind her back. "Oh Commander Lang? I noticed you were pretty interested in my curse when you were examining me." She whipped the hand from behind her back, revealing a small water pistol. "Well, this is only temporary but..." She fired and Lang felt a rather disquieting sensation. It was like all of his internal organs had rearranged slightly. Realizing what Ranma had done, SHE looked down at herself and blinked. "See ya later Commander. Don't worry, that's one use powder. It'll ware off when you find some hot water." Ranma then walked out, laughing.
HR.
By noon that day, the story of Ranma's little prank had circulated throughout the ship. When Captain Gloval heard it, all he did was shake his head and chuckle slightly. It had been funny and it didn't hinder Lang's job performance. The girls on the bridge, having heard of Lang's impression of an alien Autopsy when Ranma had come in after the "Really big beam thing," Were applauding. Roy was just muttering about not getting on the kid's bad side and Rick was wondering what kind of psychotic outfit he had joined.
Ranma had FINALLY been allowed to shift back to normal form the next day. His next patrol was filled with him flipping his Veritech around in loops in excitement until Roy had finally gotten fed up and yelled at him to get back into formation. Ranma didn't particularly hate his girl form anymore, but being in it for a month straight was very aggravating.
As he brought his Veritech down to the deck at the end of his patrol, Ranma's Chi sense spiked. There was a Chi manipulating Martial artist projecting a battle aura nearby. When his Veritech came to a stop, he hopped out and heard a sound that he hadn't heard in a while. "Ranma! Prepare to die!" he instinctively dodged to the left as a Bamboo umbrella slammed into the deck where his feet used to be.
"Ryoga? How the hell did YOU get here?" He asked, puzzled.
"That doesn't matter. Ranma, For all that you've done to me, PREPARE TO DIE!"
Ryoga charged at Ranma and began punching furiously. Roy and Rick looked on, bemused. "What the hell is going on here kid?" Roy finally asked.
Ranma answered while dodging Ryoga's blows. "This is Ryoga. He used to be my friend but he seems to blame me for almost everything that's happened to him. I'm sorry 'bout this fight. Could take a while."
Ryoga pointed one finger and yelled, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" Smashing it into the metal of the decking.
A massive cloud of debris expanded from the strike point, hitting Ranma and almost hitting Roy and Rick. "Hey, Ryoga. Be careful not to hit non-combatants." Ranma's angry statement seemed to anger Ryoga further. His attacks accelerated until one finally hit Ranma. "That's it, no more defense." Ranma said as he went on the attack. "Catchuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma's fists blurred into an indistinct form and Ryoga keeled doubled over for a moment.
Getting back up, Ryoga said, "You thought that would stop me? Shi Shi Hokodan!" Ranma dodged the ball of depression chi, realizing too late that it was about to hit a parked Veritech. Wincing at the sound of wrending mettle in the background, he exclaimed, "Alright Ryoga, that's enough Property Damage. Here they actually bill you for that kind of thing. Moko-Takabisha!" The chi ball slammed into Ryoga, propelling him out of sight. Ranma ran after him, but stopped when he realized that Ryoga had disappeared AGAIN.
Roy stalked up to him. "What the hell was THAT about. And you do know that Veritech is coming out of your pay." The last coming with a slight laugh.
"Sorry sir, that was Ryoga. Good fighter but He's got a lousy sense of direction. Last time I saw him, he was back in Nerima." Ranma explained.
Roy blinked and shook his head. He wasn't going to ask.
HR.
Ryoga fumed. Ranma wasn't going to get away that easily. He may have gotten away this time but next time he was dead. Truthfully, Ryoga was just bored. Being in Nerima without Ranma was just... boring. He had given up on Akane shortly after the first time he saw Ranma and her walking down the street holding hands, and it was now hazardous to his health to be seen at the dojo after the P-chan incident so he didn't even have that to occupy his mind. The panda or Mousse just weren't any fun in a spar anymore and there hadn't been a new challenger since that strange kid with that deck of cards.
Ryoga walked down a hallway, looking for Ranma or anything else to do. Finding himself in a large office, he looked at the sign over a desk nearby. "RDF Recruiting." He shrugged. It would be good to occupy him for a while, seeing what the "RDF" was.
HR.
On his way back to the Barracks, Ranma felt a small shiver go down his spine. Dismissing it as a nerve twitch, he continued on his way.
HR.
Ryoga sat in a hard backed chair, filling out forms. Apparently this "RDF" thing was some sort of military organization. So long as he could train here, Ryoga didn't much care. Filling out the last page, he came across a list of things that he could do. Not understanding most of the terms, he put down "Combat Engineer," thinking that it was some sort of martial arts style. After all, his Shi Shi Hokodan was originally supposed to be used for mining. Carrying the paper up to the main desk, he handed it to the man behind it. He was then directed to a room for a "Physical Evaluation."
3 hours later, he exited the "Physical Evaluation." with a new form in his hand which he handed to the man at the front desk.
HR.
Roy Fokker sat at a desk, filling out combat efficiency reports. He hated this part of his job as a Squadron leader. The paperwork in the RDF was almost as bad as in the old JSDF. Seeing a form in the pile that looked slightly different, he picked it up and began to read. A small smile spreading onto his face, he called Ranma into his office.
Ranma walked in about 5 minutes later, wearing an off duty uniform. "Hi Roy, What'd you want?"
Roy grinned and threw the form at Ranma. "Congratulations Kid, you've been assigned a squadron and promoted to Captain. Apparently, Gloval liked your performance over the last two weeks and rewarded you."
Ranma's mouth opened and closed, repeatedly. He began to read the orders. "CO of Vermillion? Isn't that squadron half destroyed?"
Roy's smile faded just a bit when he responded. "You've been given Vermillion because it needs to be rebuilt and they're transferring people out of other squadrons to fill it. You'll be getting some newer recruits as well."
Ranma nodded. "Thank you sir. Oh, about that Veritech me n' Ryoga accidentally blew up..."
Fokker chuckled. "You've been reprimanded for that but the captain realizes that he'll never see any money for it. Don't worry." Ranma's sigh of relief caused Roy to chuckle more.
HR.
Ranma walked down a street in Macross city, whistling happily and holding up an orders sheet. His own squadron. You usually had to be in for several years to get command of a squadron, and that was in peace time. To celebrate his current good fortune, Ranma walked into the white dragon for a meal. "Hey, Minmei."
Lin Minmei looked up to see Ranma walking through the door. "Hello Ranma. What can I get you?"
"Can I get a double of my usual order?" Ranma requested.
Minmei blinked. She had long gotten used to Ranma's... extreme eating habits but a double seemed to be pushing it. "Alright Ranma, what's the occasion?"
Ranma grinned triumphantly and held up his orders, "I got a squadron today."
Unseen by Ranma, two men at the back of the restaurant perked up their ears. Looking from their order sheets to the man, who seemed young for even a trainee. "You think that's our new CO?" Max Sterling, newly enlisted member of the RDF, asked.
"No idea." Ben Dixon responded. "He doesn't look like a CO to me but his rank badge says Captain."
Back at Ranma and Minmei, Minmei was noticing the same thing. "So you're a Captain now eh? That's great Ranma."
Ranma scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I gotta be doin somethin right I guess." Looking for a place to eat his huge meal, Ranma noticed the two men at the back who were giving him speculative looks. Shrugging, he decided to sit with them. "Hey, is this seat taken?" He asked, gesturing to a chair at they're table.
The two both shrugged, so Ranma sat down and began to eat.
Max finally spoke up. "You're a squadron commander?" He asked, bluntly.
Ranma stopped filling his face to answer. "Yeah, Captain Fokker told me earlier today. I'm commanding Vermillion."
Max exchanged glances with Ben. "Strange. We're assigned to vermillion. We just got out of flight training."
Ranma blinked. "That's a really weird coincidence isn't it? Oh well. I've seen weirder."
Max shrugged. "So how long have you been in the RDF sir?"
Ranma scratched the back of his head. "About two months." Max and Ben face faulted. This guy was they're CO? "Well, the original squadrons took a hard hit when we left earth and the leads had to be replaced. I'm a decent pilot, don't worry." Ranma said, trying to reassure the two men in front of him.
Suddenly, Ben's mind clicked back to something he'd heard a while ago. "Hey, you're Ranma Saotome, that weird pilot from Skull...right?"
Ranma frowned slightly. "Weird, he says..."
Ben seemed to realize what he'd said a few seconds later and shook his hands in front of his face frantically. "No! I didn't mean that how it sounded..."
Ranma smiled a little. "Don't worry, I'll just pretend you didn't say that."
Max looked puzzled. "Weird pilot from skull?" He asked.
"Y'know the guy who turns into a girl." Ben reminded.
Max raised a questioning eyebrow. "Turns into a... never mind. Something tells me I don't want to know. Anyways, it'll be nice serving with you, sir. I gotta go pack my stuff to move into the military complex." He said, getting up and walking out the door.
Ranma decided that he'd better get home and to bed. It was getting late. "See you later erm... What's your name?"
"I'm Ben, Ben Dixon. My friend is Max Sterling. He's a really good pilot and I'm not far behind."
"Well then, see you in the briefing room tomorrow Ben." Ranma said, walking out of the restaurant to head back to his quarters.
HR.
Ranma tossed and turned in his sleep, a scared look on his face. This was not his usual nightmare of the neko-ken however, but a new one.
/Dream Sequence/
Ranma stood, staring in horror as Hiroshi's Veritech was overwhelmed with Missile fire. The last section disintegrated and the explosions faded. Suddenly, the scene repeated but something was wrong. The IFF identifier on the radar said "Max Sterling." Ranma watched as another Veritech, similar to Hiroshi's but slightly different, was consumed by the barrage. The scene Reset again but this time the display read, "Ben Dixon." And again, this time it read..."Akane Tendo."
/End Dream Sequence/
Ranma woke up, breathing hard and in a cold sweat. He panted and started shivering. "What the hell was that?" He muttered, as he rolled back over and went back to bed. He tossed and turned for the next hour but finally managed to get to sleep.
HR.
The next morning, Ranma stood, fidgeting nervously with his new Captain's Rank badge. Sighing in resignation, he walked into the Vermillion Ready room.
He looked over the group of pilots in front of him, glancing at the white board at the front of the room to make sure that everyone was there. "Hello, I'm Captain Saotome, I've been assigned to head up this squadron." Seeing that no one was going to comment, Ranma continued, "Well, Dixon, Sterling and I will be flight one. Hendricks, O'Hara, and Smith, you take support. The captain has put us up on patrol duty, alternating with skull. We will rotate one flight every 4 hours and take shifts with Skull. It'll probably be a four hours on eight hours off kind of thing."
He laughed slightly as he saw the squadron full of new recruits just nod. "You've got quite a shock coming when you pull 4/8 shifts people. Just remember, I torture you on orders. It isn't my fault." He remembered Roy saying a similar thing to him when he had first joined...and he now knew how true it was.
"Ok people, let's get down to the flight deck." The 6 pilots walked out of the briefing room and headed to the main launch bay. Climbing into his VF-1R, Ranma cranked the engines. He drew curious glances from his new wingmen at the strange attachments on his aircraft, and one speculative one from Max Sterling. "Ok, let's get this patrol off the ground. Flight 1, we're up." Ranma yelled from his cockpit. Max and Ben climbed into they're stock VF-1A aircraft and taxied to the catapults.
HR.
Vermillion squadron was causing the bridge quite a bit of annoyance. Deciding that patrol was a perfect time to break in his new wingmen, Ranma had his flight flying in close formation, hugging the surface of the ship and triggering EVERY proximity alarm. Gloval's eye twitched and he wondered if giving captain Saotome a squadron was REALLY a good idea. He was asking for trouble when he gave the man who did martial arts katas in a Veritech command of a squadron.
HR.
Ranma was pleased with his new wingmen. Ben was not exactly a good flyer, but he was only a bit worse than Hiroshi had been at that point in his training. Max on the other hand... He was better than Ranma himself had been at that point in training. His reflexes seemed to be almost completely merged with the Machine. He would eventually become a force to be reckoned with, Ranma knew it.
"Alright guys, now's the time for some fun." Ranma said, sending on the squadron frequency. "You're going to try and ping me on your Missile lock radars. The first guy to do it gets a free meal at the dragon, my treat." Max and Ben grinned inside they're machines. They wanted that food.
Ranma infused his chi into his Veritech's engines, causing them to flare brightly. His machine almost became a blur as he began dodging the ping signals of Ben and Max's Missile lock systems. About 15 minutes later, he stopped and Max pinged him right on the cockpit. "Ah! Good, you can hit a stationary target I see." he said, the smirk almost audible. "Well, you did hit me so I guess you get the food." He could hear Ben groaning over the radio.
HR.
Ranma, Max and Ben walked into the White dragon, where Roy's skull flight 1 was preparing to leave. Ranma saw the Rookie who had been slated to replace him, a pretty competent looking guy from what he could tell, eating with Rick and Roy. Telling Minmei to give Max anything he wanted and charge it to his tab, Ranma walked over. "Hi, Roy, how's it goin."
Roy looked up. "Hi kid! It's pretty good. We got a pretty good flyer for skull 3, and he listens to orders.'
Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Heh...I only did that once Roy. Oh I got a question. Why do you still call me kid? I'm the same rank as you."
Roy grinned slightly and then responded, in a perfectly neutral voice, "Because it annoys you."
Ranma face faulted.
Max walked up as Ranma picked himself up off of the floor. "Hiya Captain. Are these guys your old squadron?"
"Yeah, Roy here's the guy who got me to join the RDF. He's pretty nice when he ain't annoying."
Roy swatted Ranma on the back of the head. "Shut up kid." "
Well sir, not that I'm getting tired of free food but I gotta go. See ya later." Ranma grinned and waved as Max walked out, Taking Ben with him.
"So how's your squadron performing, kid?" Roy asked.
"They're pretty good. That Sterling is shaping up to be as good as me. I can't tell from just one flight but we just may beat out skull."
Roy mock glared at Ranma. "No one beats out skull. We're the best."
Ranma laughed. "Careful Roy, every time I said that, I was immediately beaten."
Roy shrugged. "That's you, Not us. Well, I'm gone. See you later." Roy got up, quickly followed by his wingmen.
Ranma finally realized that he hadn't gotten anything to eat yet. Walking over to Minmei, he saw her staring with a familiar look in her eyes at the departing Rick hunter.
"Hey, Minmei" Ranma snapped his fingers in front of her face...and didn't get a response. "Hey! What's wrong Minmei."
Minmei finally looked up. "Oh, nothing Ranma...nothing I could tell one of you pilot guys anyways."
Minmei realized that that was the wrong thing to say as Ranma immediately ran back behind the counter and came back, toweling her hair with her uniform sleeve. "Ok, how bout a pilot girl?"
Minmei couldn't help but chuckle at this and broke down. Ranma being in girl form for this would make telling her less embarrassing, and she had this unnerving habit of never giving up when she got her teeth into a problem. "It's Lt. Hunter."
Ranma raised an eyebrow. "What about him?" She already knew of course but she wanted Minmei to say it.
"Well...Ikindalikehim." Her cheeks were bright red at this admission.
Ranma shrugged. "So? Tell him; ask him on a date or something. What's the problem in that?"
Minmei blinked. Ranma's blunt statement of what she should do finally jostled her into actually trying it. "Thanks Ranma, I just might do that." Ranma shrugged. "No problem. When someone's been in as many relationship disasters as I have they get good at offering ways out of them."
Out of the blue, Ranma started, "Now how bout some food?"
Minmei almost fell out of her chair. "Same old Ranma." She took her order and brought it out 5 minutes later.
HR.
Ranma walked home, happily stuffed. She had had her usual full meal and was now ready to sleep it off. The next little while was going to be hard, training her squadron. After all, hadn't Roy challenged her in the restaurant? Walking through her door, she hung her uniform top on a hook and walked into the bathroom. Turning the hot water on, she splashed it onto her face, shifting back to his normal form. "Ah, tomorrow's training is goin to be fun!" He said as he slipped his uniform pants off and slipped into bed. He just hoped that tonight was going to be a lot more peaceful than last night.
12 Hours Earlier.
Ryoga Hibiki scowled as he red yet ANOTHER technical manual. He didn't know what this had to do with Martial arts, but he'd find out and he'd beat Ranma with it if it was the last thing he did. He had quickly found that "Combat Engineering" seemed to have nothing to do with fighting, but so did "Martial Arts Figure skating" on the face of it so he'd keep trying.
Foreman Fujiyama looked on in astonishment. That was the fourth manual this kid had read so far and he seemed to understand everything he read. He just had to get this kid on one of his flight deck crews.
HR.
Ryoga studied the scorched section of plating in front of him. He didn't know what this test was for but he would do it. He picked up a spot welder and a fresh piece of metal and began to patch. Getting frustrated with the slowness of the welder, Ryoga concentrated his anger against Ranma and his depression at Akane's discovery of his curse into a point and projected it from his hand. The Chi heated up the metal just like the welder, only faster, and he put the patch on in about 30 seconds.
The foreman was now just ecstatic. This kid didn't even need tools? Yeah, he was going to join the deck crews.
Only minutes later, Ryoga was called into the office of Foreman Fujiyama. "Yes sir?" He asked, deciding to be polite.
"Look kid, you're an exceptional engineer, almost unbelievable in fact. I want you on one of my flight line repair crews."
"Repair? But all I'm here for is to learn how to defeat Ranma." Royga objected.
The foreman blinked. "Defeat Ranma? That wouldn't be Ranma Saotome would it?"
"You know him?" Ryoga asked, suspiciously.
Suddenly, Foreman Fujiyama had an idea. "Look, how bout this? Ranma's a Veritech pilot. If you join my repair team, you can watch Ranma all the time and think of ways to beat him."
Now, Ryoga was naturally gullible, as Ranma's many successful pranks against him showed, and he thought this was a GREAT idea. "Thank you sir! Sign me up."
During his patrol/Training session, Ranma Sneezed Violently, jerking his Veritech slightly.
TO BE CONTINUED.