Author's Note: Keep in mind that chunks of this story will now be coming
fast and furious for the next few hours.
===

*Get Ready*

    Halfway across the district, Mousse was sitting on the roof of the
Nekohanten, thinking. 
     <Saotome, always Saotome. If he were gone, Shampoo would be
mine! But he's here, and so I must find a way to prove my worth to my
goddess. But how...>
      His thought process was interrupted when he saw a section of the
district's lights go out near the shopping plaza.  Placing his glasses over
his eyes, he stood up and looked out at the area.
     <That's odd...> he thought. Then he heard a scraping sound coming
from behind him. Mousse made a quick motion with his hand and an iron
claw slid over his wrist. He made no other movement, waiting for the
sound to repeat itself.
     *scrape*
      Mousse whirled around, claw at the ready, only to find...
      Nothing.
      The master of hidden weaponry frowned. He was sure he heard
something up here. Was his mind playing tricks on him?
      Suddenly, he was slammed from behind by a large weight. Mousse
fell forward, smacking his chin on the tiled roof of the restaurant. He
mule kicked his attacker and rolled out of the way,onto his back. He
kippuped into a fighting stance and examined the newcomer.
       He was looking at a six foot tall skeleton dressed in the tattered
remnants of what looked like an American Civil War uniform. Long,
stringy gray hair fluttered in the evening breeze behind it's skull. It held
two antiquated pistols in it's hands and was pointing the barrels right at
Mousse. 
       The two faced each other for a moment, waiting for the other to
make the first move. Mousse took a step back, testing the reaction of the
skeleton. The skeleton responded by taking a step forward. 
        <It must not be very intelligent.> thought Mousse. <Okay, then, let's
try this...>
         Mousse leaped into the air and shot forth a number of chains from
the sleeves of his robes. The chains wrapped themselves around the
skeleton, making it drop its guns. Mousse, keeping a tight grip on the
chains, landed lightly on the opposite side of the roof. 
         "Gotcha!" he grinned. 
         His triumph was short lived, however, when the skeleton broke
one of its arms free from the chains holding it captive. It then grabbed the
group of chans in it's hand and pulled with all it's strength. 
        Mousse found himself yanked off his feet and flying through the air
towards his assailent. The last thing he remembered seeing was a bony
fist coming towards him.
        The ensuing shock caused the whole building to vibrate.

        Shampoo sat up in her bed with a start. She looked up at the ceiling.
        <What in hell does stupid duck boy think he doing?!> she thought
angrily. She stood up, threw on a robe and stormed up the stairs to the
roof access, intending to pound her unwanted worshipper into oblivion.
          "Mousse!" she yelled as she burst through the door. "Shampoo
make pate out of--" 
          She stopped short when she saw Mousse's kimono lying on the
roof, empty. She looked upward and saw the skeleton on the edge of the
roof, Mousse's body slung over it's shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
          Shampoo's eyes went wide, then frowned in anger. If anyone
was going to pummel that idiot, they weren't going to do it before SHE
did.
           "What you think you doing?" she called to the walking corpse. The
skeleton looked up, saw the Amazon, made what sounded like a sigh of
exasperation and, in a completely anticlimactic turn of events, raised it's
pistol and fired.
             Shampoo found herself in an envelope of green light and haze.
The light made her eyes hurt and there was a funny smell in the air, kind
of like rotting flowers. Shampoo's vision swam and finally went black as
she collapsed on the roof.
             The Soul Ranger sighed again, hoisted Shampoo onto its other
shoulder, and leaped off the roof down to the street, where its
motorcycle was waiting.

----

  Next: Ryoga vs. the Soul Rangers.


                                                           ---Erin 2.5