Disclaimer: Chapter 1 Says it all, folks!

A/N: I'm just gonna roll with this, k?

Chapter 2: The Plot Thickens

Ryoga and Mousse walked through the gates to the Tendo household and went immediately to the house itself (rather than to the dojo, where they would most likely find Akane training on the day off from school). Ranma was there helping Kasumi clear the table.

"Ranma Saotome," Ryoga said, catching Ranma off guard. He didn't say it in his usual menacing way, but in a way that suggested urgency.

"Uh, yeah Ryoga?" Ranma replied, he thought about the last time he saw Mousse and Ryoga together, when they ambushed him and strapped a giant bomb to his ankle. I barely won that fight.. Ranma thought to himself.

"I have some bad news that I think you should know about...This guy ambushed me in the streets the other day...he had a zodiac sign tattooed on him...I think he's a zodiac brave." Ryoga looked at Kasumi and smiled, "How's Akane, Kasumi?"

"Just fine, Ryoga, she's in the dojo if you'd like to see her." Kasumi replied cheerfully.Man, it'd probably take a nuclear explosion to wipe that grin off'a her face. Ryoga and Mousse thought in unison with disgust.

Ryoga's smile broadened and he began laughing maniacally. "Wow, I get to see Akane working out!"

Ranma's foot planted itself in the boy's face. "First off, YOU would try something." Ranma removed his foot and continued, "Why do you think I should know about that attack, anyway?"

"Oh, guess I forgot to tell you that part." Ryoga replied, grief in his voice for not seeing his beloved Akane. "He wanted information on the Tendos."

"What does he know? What did you tell him?" Ranma was at Ryoga's throat now, gripping his shirt and lifting him off the ground.

"I didn't tell him anything besides the fact that he can't get close to 'em as long as you're here!" Ryoga yelled, gripping Ranma's wrist to try and loosen it.

Ranma dropped Ryoga and went into the house in silence. Kasumi was the only one to follow.

Ryoga and Mousse went to the dojo, one of them was eager to see Akane, the other was just following orders and being the guide.

Ranma was fuming and it wasn't helping that Ryoga and Mousse went to Akane's side. Ah, who cares? He thought, We shouldn't be engaged anyway. Kasumi would make a WAY better wife, in my eyes..I shouldn't think like that.If it's truly a Zodiac Brave, then we're all in DEEP trouble...then again, maybe it's just Ryoga getting beaten by someone who has a crush. Could happen.

Ranma then noticed two hands massaging his shoulders, he turned his head slightly to see Kasumi.

"Is everything alright, Ranma?" She asked.

"Not if the Zodiac Braves are really back...they're the most dangerous creatures I've ever heard of Kasumi…they're not even human...they're demons that take over human hosts."

"How do they do that?"

"According to legend, it's through the Zodiac Brave stones...there's twelve of them, one for each zodiac sign."

"What would they want with us?"

"If it's really a zodiac Brave? It'll be looking for the "Blood Angel"..it's their sole purpose in life to find it...but legend doesn't say much about it."

"What is the blood angel?"

"Best not to worry about it, it's probably nothing anyhow."

Ranma rubbed his temples for a few moments before Kasumi brushed his hands away and began doing it herself.

"They'll want to take her to the city of the dead to revive St. Ajora…a greater devil...possibly THE devil."

"..her?"

"Oh, St. Ajora's a female, so the blood angel's gotta be a girl."

"How do you know so much about it?"

"I have friends in high places, and I was fed this stuff since I was little."

"By who?"

RIIIIIIING

"Phone," Ranma said, as he got up to answer it. As he picked it up, he said "Hello?" A few moments passed. "I see, I'm on it. It'd help me greatly if I knew who the blood angel is, though." Another moment passed before Ranma looked at Kasumi and hung up the phone.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm sorry...I'm not allowed to say right now….but we need to leave town…all of us…."

Cologne found what Ryoga was looking for, the information on the Zodiac Braves...and everything he said matched up..except for the fact that he didn't specify which Tendo it was after. If I call everyone in..I may be able to figure it out with a spell...yes, and maybe recruit some help, as well..

At the meeting, everyone attended. All the Tendos and Saotomes (save Genma and Soun, who were on another training mission), Xian Pu, Ryoga (who only found his way since cologne had assigned Mousse as his seeing eye dog), Mousse, Kodachi & Tatewaki Kuno,

Ukyou, Happosai, and, of course, cologne.

"Why in the hells did you call us here, old ghoul?"

Cologne pointed to Ryoga, "Ryoga's brought some disturbing news to my aged ears..he's discovered the first of the zodiac braves."

Tatewaki Kuno dropped his hand on the table, making an audible thump. "And what is a "Zodiac Brave"?"

Ranma looked up, "A greater demon with only the thought of finding the blood angel on its mind..a creature that none of us stand a chance against alone..one of twelve demons that are meant to bring the world to an end...any of this getting through?"

From Ranma's words, everyone in the room let their jaws hit the floor...especially cologne. How does he know all that?

"Ranma-honey, where did you hear that?" Ukyou said.

"uh..old book?" Ranma replied. Oops, they're not supposed to know about that! He thought.

"Bull, someone's told you that, boy!" Happosai yelled, finally tearing his gaze from Xian Pu's perky breasts.

"Yes, I have to agree with Happy, someone had to have told you that." Cologne added.

"I did." An unknown voice in the back of the store said. Everyone turned to see the tall, dark figure of a large, muscular man standing in the doorway. He was around 6 feet tall, with red eyes and orange hair that spiked every which way but favored up. He had a light scar across his right eye and a small tattoo on the center of his forehead.

"And who are you?" cologne asked bluntly.

"Name's--"

Before he could finish, Ranma was on his feet and at point blank of the man. "Ifrit!!" He yelled.

"Uh, yeah, that's...uh..he he." the man, Ifrit, composed himself and walked into the room, where everyone saw him.

Ryoga was a bit shocked at the sight of the man. That's the guy that attacked me! Well, maybe it's just luck..I'll wait to see what he wants before alerting the others.

Ifrit took a look around the room and said, "None of these people are strong enough to fight a zodiac brave and live...nobody except Ranma. Glad I'M the one who trained him, though...his sentiments would get in the way of him hurting me." Everyone was a bit confused about this, until the man, Ifrit, Pointed to the table that the tendo sisters sat at. "I've come for the three of you, and I'm not leaving here empty-handed."

When nothing but astonished stares and felled jaws greeted him Ryoga yelled "This is the man that attacked me earlier! He's the Zodiac Brave!"

Ranma had turned his head to regard Ryoga, then turned back to face Ifrit once again, who had gotten considerably closer and was now towering over Ranma.

"Yeah, I'm one of the enemies, actually," Ifrit said bluntly, "and unfortunately for you, I'm already in mid-transformation. In less than a minute, I'll be invincible against all of you."

Ryoga was the first to leap to his feet and attack Ifrit, followed closely by Akane, Xian Pu, Ukyou, Happosai, Ranma, Mousse, and the Kunos.

Ryoga landed a spinning round-house kick into Ifrit's chest, granting him a bruised leg. Xian Pu and Ukyou both hit the same spot with their fists, Xian Pu sprained hers, and Ukyou heard a pop as it dislocated. Happosai used his classic "Happo-Fire-Burn" technique, which didn't hurt Ifrit at all. Tatewaki Kuno's wooden blade splintered against Ifrit's head and Kodachi's tumbling kick earned nothing. Ranma's punch to the face got a thin trail of blood squirting from Ifrit's nose, and a cry of pain, but it hurt Ranma as much as it hurt Ifrit. Akane didn't do a damn thing to faze him. She had TRIED to sweep kick his feet from under him, but failed miserably. Ifrit grabbed Tatewaki Kuno's broken bokken, and hit Xian Pu and Ucchan in one swing, sending them flying across the room and hitting the wall with a loud thud, Xian Pu got right back up, but Ukyou was out cold.Xian Pu charged back in, while everyone else had the same effects, she and Ranma had different results. The momentum from running across the room aided her in sweeping the feet out from under him, but while in mid- air, she got up and punched him in the face, forcing his decent to focus on the back of his head. His head landed first, but he seemed unaffected by all of this. Ranma tried hitting him in the face, but Xian Pu's attack made Ifrit spin upside down, so Ranma simply managed to score a shot to Ifrit's thigh, but his fist glanced down and hit his balls, and scarred his pride. Ifrit got back up, fuming from pain, and hit Xian Pu again, sending her across the room, then he kicked Akane, sending her spinning to the same position as Xian Pu, neither one got up. He focused his attention on Ranma, then, and punched him in the ribs. Ranma felt his guts churn at the impact, and felt his ribs reach their limit and almost break, but he didn't get sent across the room.

Ryoga got pissed at seeing Akane get hit, and focused all his energy into one hit: Ifrit's left shoulder blade, which made Ifrit step forward a step to regain his balance, and dislocated the arm that Ryoga had hit. Tatewaki Kuno turned his attention back to Ifrit's nuts, seeing as how it worked for Ranma. He dropped to one knee and leaned backwards, forcing his other knee up and across Ifrits balls. Ifrit doubled over from the pain, and stumbled even further forward, towards Akane, Xian Pu, and Ukyou's unconscious bodies. Mousse finally got close enough for an attack, and replaced the broken bokken piece with a rubber ducky. He then pulled out some handcuffs and put one link around his wrist, but before he could get the other link onto one of Ifrit's limbs, Ifrit got up and scored a punch to Mousse's stomach. Mousse felt as though his guts were getting ripped out his asshole, and let out a cry of pain as he fell to the ground, clutching his guts.

Ifrit looked up to see Ranma's attack launched at his face, more specifically his eye. Ifrit fell backwards, but before his body touched the ground, he vanished into thin air.

"Damn, we almost had him." Ranma groaned.

"We need to get the Maidens out of here, now!" Tatewaki Kuno yelled.

Every warrior in the room seemed out of breath, sweaty, and/or unconscious.

Ryoga ran over to Akane's unconscious body and shook her awake. One by one, the unconscious people were awakened and a plan was thought out by the people who were there.

"What are we gonna do, Ranma? We're not gonna stay here and wait for that guy to come back, are we?" Akane asked, fear shaking her voice as much as pain.

"No, we're gonna get right the fuck outta here. We all meet up at the Tendo dojo in 30 minutes, we're gonna skip town, so anybody who's coming with better pack what they can carry and meet there."

Ifrit appeared in a lush forest about three miles to the southeast of Nerima.

Quacklain yelled in the back of his mind, a roar of power surging like a whirlwind in the crevices between Ifrit's ears.

"You weakling, you could have killed ALL of those useless brats right then and there!" Screeched the voice of the Zodiac Brave. "You're so pathetic! This is what I get for possessing the body of a Firefiend!"

Ifrit's psyche cringed in the corner of his mind, unable to do anything. "I can't kill Ranma, you fool, he's my--"

"Shut up, you worthless piece off kitty-litter!" Quacklain Shrieked, sending a piercing pain through Ifrit's temples. His body made no movements to rub the harmed body part, however.

"I'm not your peon, Quacklain!" Ifrit shouted in his head, "I'm the strongest Firefiend there ever has been!"

"Of course you're my peon, that's why I chose to send you there. You're a zodiac brave now, you should forget your sentiments about some BRAT you've only just met!"

"I helped RAISE that kid, you know, I'm not a fool. He's the reincarnation of the man who killed you a thousand years ago!"

"He's...Ramza Beoulve…?"

"Yes, and thanks to me, he's VERY angry at you Braves."