Deep in the Caribbean...

  "Well," said Mousse, the storekeeper, "I guess I could hike all the way
over to the Weaponmaster's and ask her if I can show you the way.  ONCE."
  Ranma smiled in success.  The fool was going to lead him right to her.  And
after all the practice he had gotten with the denizens of Mˆl‚e Island, he
felt sure he could take on this Weaponmaster.
  Mousse moved from behind the counter, pausing to put a small sign on it
telling customers to ring the bell if they wanted service.  He glared at
Ranma as he did this; Ranma had rung the bell earlier, which had not put
Mousse in a good disposition.
  "You wait here, while I go ask her.  And don't touch anything!"  With that
warning, Mousse walked out the door.
  Ranma counted slowly to ten, then followed him.

  --**************--

  Halfway down the road, Ranma stealthily caught up with the storekeeper, and
planned to stay behind him until Mousse unwittingly showed him the way to the
mysterious Weaponmaster.  Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on the Men of Low
Moral Fibre.
  "Hey, going to see the Weaponmaster are you?" shouted Daisuke as he caught
the two of them together.
  "Yeah," they replied simultaneously.  Ranma bit his tongue as Mousse
started looking around for whomever was behind him.
  "Who was that?" asked Mousse as he searched suspiciously for the source of
the unknown voice.  Ranma was just about ready to kick himself, and was
silently wishing for a ceiling he could jump and cling to.
  Hiroshi and Daisuke, seeing Ranma's problem, looked at each other, smiled
in silent agreement, and turned back to Mousse.
  "It was Ranma."  "It was the rat."
  They started, looked at each other in confusion, nodded again in silent
agreement, and turned back once more to Mousse.
  "It was the rat."  "It was Ranma."
  They both blinked as again they simultaneously gave different answers.
Hiroshi waved Daisuke to keep quiet as he tried to mend things.
  "Um," he said, "it was our rat, Ranma.  We're training him for the circus
we're making.  I mean, parrots can talk, so why not rats, we thought."
  Mousse looked at them (or more specifically, three feet to the left of
them,) skeptically.  Then he shrugged.  "Yeah, well, good luck to you.  Like
you're gonna get anywhere," he added grumpily.  With that, he turned and
continued following the only path he knew better than the back of his hand:
the one that led to the Weaponmaster.
  Before following him, Ranma turned to the Men of Low Moral Fibre.  "The
rat, _Ranma_?" he asked questioningly.
  "Hey, don't knock it," Hiroshi replied.  "We've been trying to think of a
name for the rat for ages now."
  "Then again," chipped in Daisuke, "you're probably right.  Ranma is a
pretty stupid name, isn't it.  We'll think of something else."
  Ranma stuttered as he tried to think how to reply to that.
  "Um, how about Mihoshi?" offered Hiroshi, now completely involved in this
new topic.
  "Nah, no good.  What about Charlotte?"
  Hiroshi looked at Daisuke like he'd grown horns and a tail.  Or at least as
if he'd suddenly morphed into an airhead in a dress.  "No," he said
carefully, "I don't think that one's very suitable.  Um, what about...
Splinter?"
  "For a rat!  That's too stupid for words, Hiroshi.  How about..."
  Growing bored of this conversation, Ranma belatedly realised he was close
to losing Mousse.  With a pained glance back to the two former pirates, he
set off on the trail.  With luck, one of the three trials would be out of the
way soon.  Leaving just two more to go.


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Coming soon....
     "The Curse of Monkey Island"
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Right, another teaser done.  This is the first one that begins to deviate from 
the Monkey Island script, but the next one will even more so.

I've got half term next week, so if I don't send the teaser out by Friday, 
expect it the week after next.

Hope you enjoyed it.  Ciao,
                                        Terence Fergusson
                                     -- Stranded in an Anime-free College

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"This from a man who's had less sex than a lettuce."
"Oh, har har."
"Rimmer, people who go `har har' have no sense of humour.  They just can't
think of a witty retort."
"  ...   Oh, har har."

                          -- Lister and Rimmer, Ouroboros (Series VII)
-----------------------------------------------------------