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Chapter Eight:  To Shatter a Rock


  Akane ran down the beach minutes later, dodging people in her dash back
to the hotel.  Just what was going on here?  It made no sense whatsoever.
First, Ranma dropped to his knees after her announcement, holding his head
like he had a migraine headache or after she decked him.  He then sobbed
his something about his sister.  The minute she dropped beside him, he
screamed out Ranko's name and took off like a shot.
  So she raced back to the hotel.  She wasn't sure where he went, but she
had a feeling that he'd be there.  Inadvertently knocking over other
vacationers, she bolted onto the  grounds of the Sol Primavera Hotel
complex, past the open air reception and up to their room.  The door was
wide open; he was there.  
  He was also on the phone speaking to somebody in English, his voice a
dirge of pain and anger:  "....Yes!  That's fine!  We'll be there in an
hour to pick up the tickets. Thanks!"  Without looking at her, he started
to throw their clothing into the suitcases, continuing to mutter in
English, "Akane, let the hotel know we're checking out in ten minutes."
  This was not like him, not at all like the man she loved and spent six
years married to.  "Ranma!  What's going on?" she said in Japanese, every
word she spoke a tome of complete confusion.
  He looked at her, and she noticed tears beginning to well in his eyes.
"Ranko...." he sobbed.
  "What about her?  Tell me!"
  "I felt it, saw it in my mind,  Akane," he cried, tears beginning to
stream down his cheeks.  "Someone just murdered my sister."

*   *   *

  Alcatraz Island stood in the bay of San Francisco, as it had for many a
year.  The prison itself was old, built in the beginning of the century to
hold the nation's most notorious criminals.  Once it had been superseded by
other facilities, it had become a tourist attraction, a museum of the weird
and arcane.  That was until the structure was pronounced no longer safe for
people.  So it sat in the middle of the bay, condemned, visible from the
Golden Gate, an opaque object in an already dark nighttime bay,
occasionally lit by a light from a source that would pass away just as easily.
  It stood, "The Rock", the unassailable, impregnable prison.  The place
where no one could escape their fates.
  Tonight, four people were going there to wage war.


  Kuno stood by the sailboat he'd just bought at a ridiculous
price--{Nobody rents at this time of evening, so my only option was to buy
it.}  It was a nice little thing, not as wonderful as the 60-footer that he
and Nabiki owned, but it would serve its current need adequately.  Also,
the previous owner, surprisingly enough, didn't charge him as much as he
thought he would.  {Hmmm. Maybe I can leave this thing up here, and just
have Pigtail watch it for me.  She always liked sai--"}  He stopped.
  He thought about the young woman who had been his sister-in-law for five
years now.  She really didn't change much since he'd been married to
Nabiki, certainly not much more from how he remembered her at Furinkan
High.  Shampoo said that she looked entirely different now, that she was
truly becoming her own person and moving out of Ranma's shadow.  It'd be a
shame in a sense; he still loved Ranko in his own way, for who she was.
Oh, not that he didn't love Nabiki; he loved his wife more than anything
and was truly happy and blessed to be married to her.  But the best way to
describe his memories of Ranko was most likely the same thing Shampoo would
say about Ranma.
  Kuno's heart froze. {God, I hope that letter wasn't correct; I hope it
was a bluff, a sick joke.  I would tear apart heaven and earth to get at
Ranko's killer.  Ranma would blow up both of those for a start and then get
down to business.  I remember in High School that I would constantly attack
him for his absconding of 'the pigtailed girl.'  If I wasn't such an
arrogant prig, I would've seen that he was just a very overprotective
brother.}  
  He hopped into the boat, and hit the ignition.  The boat engine thrummed
roared to life, as if in anticipation of the action it would see tonight.
He checked a couple of items, to see that the Pride of the Bay was ready to
run.  He undid most of the mooring lines, and waited for the girls.
  They didn't take long.  Racing down the pier were the three ladies who
would risk their lives for their friends.  Shampoo wore Ran-Chan's indigo
long sleeve tang and black pants, her bonbori strapped to her back.  Ronnie
wore a smoke-gray T-shirt, black spandex, and black sneakers.  Maria, the
oddest dressed of all, was dressed in military camouflage pants, boots, and
a black tanktop.  Kuno would have made a joke, but decided to save the
humor for later.  
  So instead, he untied the last lines and reeled them in, gunned the
engine, and raced on towards the dark monolith in the bay, the source of a
growing evil that had to be destroyed at any cost.

    
  Shampoo leapt to the bow of the sailboat, as if ready to hop ahead of the
fight, to spiritually propel herself before the boat and into combat.  She
had a somber look on her face, saying something silent in Chinese.  She
then began to warm up, doing the Tai Chi Chuan short form as the sailboat
raced towards its goal.  She was so involved in it, that she didn't totally
hear Maria say something.
  "Shampoo, did you hear me?"
  Not slowing her actions or taking her mind off her warm up, Shampoo said,
"No, not really."  Then a second later, amended, "I'm sorry, Maria.  I
didn't mean that to sound the way it did."
  "I understand.  You've been under a lot of stress in the last few hours."
  "Believe me, Maria, you've no idea how long I've been under stress--and
it was long before today's events.  I just don't want to talk about it now.
 The man I love is in there, and in danger.  My best friend--the closest
person I have to being my sister--may be dead.  I don't want to break down
now.  If I fight, I can concentrate all my efforts into the battle."
  "Okay,  I won't bother you about it until later, then."  She turned to
walk away from Shampoo, then stopped.  "Just don't succumb to the dark side
of the Force."
  Shampoo was about to snap back at her for her usual stupidity, until she
realized that the other woman was serious.  "You're not kidding, are you."
  "No, I'm not. I believe that you're at a crossroads right now, a woman in
desperate straits."  This was definitely an odd night; Maria was never this
profound.  "What I'm saying is that tonight may be the night you find
you've lost it all, your lover, your friends, those truly dear to you.
You'll be possessed by a rage so deep it will gnaw at your soul, screaming
for revenge.  You may find that all you'll want to do is destroy everything
for the sake of getting even."
  "And?"  Shampoo had stopped her movements, actually listening to Maria's
words.
  "I don't want you to give in to those negative thoughts of revenge and
death.  Fight because you have to, not because it's the only thing left in
your life.  Fight to save their lives, or to bring who-or-whatever is in
there to justice, not because you want them to pay.  Just don't give in,
okay?"
  Shampoo was moved.  Maria tended to be the mother of the group at times,
but this was quite a difference.  "I...I don't know what to say."
  Maria walked back to the passenger compartment, turning her head just
enough to say  "Just don't give in to hatred.  Be a martial artist, not a
killer."
  Shampoo sat, alone on the bow.  She repeated her earlier Chinese
statement, a wish, and a prayer.  "Ancestors of old, Grandmother, one way
or the other, take care of my loved ones."  She stared at the moon, and
sent her love to her friends.  Hang on.  I'm coming.

*   *   *

  Mousse swam back to consciousness.  It was completely dark, his head hurt
like hell and he couldn't see.  Reaching under his shirt sleeve, he pulled
out a spare pair of glasses, and fumbled around.  The first thing he felt
was a bandage around his head, a bit tacky from something sticky.  He knew
that he had been bleeding, and that somebody'd applied first aid.  He took
the time to pull out a bottle of water and quickly downed it, hoping that
the quick fix would do the trick until he sought better medical attention.
  Putting on his glasses, he could tell that he was somewhere that wasn't
Pier 39.  All he remembered was that he and Libby wandered back into the
shop and ran into some...*thing*...that looked like Ran-Chan but couldn't
possibly have been.  Then somebody attacked him and Libby from behind,
slamming him through the door window--he didn't know about Libby.  What had
happened to Ranko?  He didn't see her knocked out in the room, and he knew
there was absolutely no way that...creature...was Ranko.  Something must've
happened to her.  And to Libby.  Not to mention him.  In short, he had to
find out what was going on, and fast.
  Ignoring the dizziness, he moved slowly around the room, feeling his way
around.  He briefly thought about the possibility of some type of
flashlight or lamp, but there was a chance that it might just make things
worse.  So he stumbled around, and a minute later, he bumped into Libby,
slumped against the wall.
  Using the small, dim light from his watch, he checked to see if she was
okay.  She was still breathing, her pulse somewhat steady, but her pupils
were dilated.  He pulled out a blanket and set her down gently on it.  In
doing so, he felt her right arm, and noticed something boxy strapped to it.
 He flashed the small light on it and saw a small machine--a micro IV unit,
the type used by paramedics, developed by Kunotech Medical Industries Corp.
 Gently, he removed it from her arm, then tore a strip of his shirt and
bandaged the entry puncture.  He then double-checked to see if she was
alive.  She turned out to be under some industrial-strength sedative, but
she would be fine in a few hours.  He turned his head, whispering words of
relief in Chinese, giving thanks to the ancestors that she'd be okay.
That's when he saw the ghost.
  In the dark, it seemed to be just a head and a pair of arms, but it was
so white that even in this darkness it appeared to glow with a heavenly
night.  He took a chance and decided to check it out.  Crawling over to it,
he noticed that it wasn't a ghost, but a body.  Then he noticed it wasn't a
body, but an albino woman.  A Japanese albino woman.  A Japanese woman
wearing a black sweatshirt with a blue dolphin picture on it, and blue
jeans.  She was breathing regularly, but there seemed to be no life in the
woman, a Sleeping Beauty covered by a fine patina of rime.  That's when he
realized that whatever had been done to Libby and himself, it was nothing
compared to what had been done to this woman.
  {Oh, Ran-Chan, what have they done to you?}
  He spent what seemed like eons untying the wires that strapped her to the
rack.  He completely tore his shirt apart, creating bandages to wrap around
her wrists--she must have put up one Hell of a fight to try to get free; a
little more and she would have cut some serious body parts, possibly bled
to death.
  He then searched the sizable pile he created when he shredded his shirt,
looking for another blanket:  "Pup tent, no...beach towel, not big
enough...oh, that's where I put that bottle of wine...don't think my cooler
will help...where did I put the Earthquake kit?...have to give this CD back
to Gil...."  He finally had to settle for a blanket he bought from another
dealer at Pier 39; he had planned to use it as a tapestry for his
apartment, but that wasn't important, now.  He laid Ran-Chan on it, checked
her vitals again, and was completely perplexed.  
  She looked like she was in hypothermia or worse, but her pulse was
normal, her vitals stable, her temperature the 98.6 standard.  Other than
the fact that she looked like someone had poured flour over her, she was by
all means normal.  He briefly thought back to his Sleeping Beauty--Snow
White, more likely--analogy, but that would never work, and he could never
kiss any woman but his love...unless it was his only way to save her.
However, he wouldn't enjoy it.  Much.
  Then a thought dawned on him: once again, people he cared for were in
jeopardy.  If there was one thing he remembered anything about similar
situations he'd been in before, it usually ended with him in traction.  He
erased those thoughts from his mind, and steeled himself to his task.  All
those previous times, the person in need--Shampoo three times, Kasumi once,
Yuan Xi a long time ago, and now Libby and Ranko--would've died or worse if
it wasn't for his intervention, and he was only glad to do what he had to do.
  Now he just had to figure out what it was he had to do.

*   *   *

  Kaguro was troubled.  His troops informed him that there was no sign of
his love rising to the task.  He would hope that his beloved Shan Fu would
show up for the combat; she was a master of her arts, a panther who moved
and fought with silky grace and power.  He had to see her again, to defeat
her and take her as his, as it was right to do so.
  On the other hand, he hoped that she wouldn't come.  That gem that Jade
had taken from the Saotome woman had changed her, from a woman with a
slight grudge against his love to a truly demonic killer.  Unholy fire
blazed in her eyes, and her voice had changed from its sultry tones to that
of a damned soul.  Kaguro was a ninja, and thus never believed in religion
much, but he believed in the supernatural--and that gem, the one that Jade
called the true Heart of the Demon, was as close to Evil (with a capital
"E") as nature was ever going to get.
  He slowly ascended the stairs to the rooftops, the soft breeze making his
scarf twist and  wave in the wind.  He'd need a break after tonight, just a
few days to get away.  Maybe if Shan Fu arrived, he could defeat her
rapidly and he would take her to this secluded little place he knew of by
the Oregon border.  That's what he would do, were she to come.
  He walked up to one of his lieutenants and asked for a status report, the
man tensed and primed for battle.
  "It is all clear, Master Yujiiro," he replied, bowing slightly.
  "Thank you, Isamu," he replied, then decided it was time to reward his
loyal man.  "By the way, your English is excellent.  Have you been
practicing?"
  "Yes, my lord."  He bowed again.  "I wish to pursue a career as a radio
personality.  The more I practice, the better chance I have of getting my
own radio show.  I would like to be like Howard Stern."  He altered his
voice slightly, making it sound more professional and rehearsed:
"'Tonight's forecast calls for clear skies and a mild temper--'"
  {Why did my father send me to America with as many fruitcake ninjas as he
could find?  Beauticians, stand-up comedians, radio talk show hosts, ballet
dancers, potential game-show hosts, and me--the interior designer.  You'd
think he'd send his best, not the bottom of the barrel.  Thank the heavens
that idiot Sasuke is retired, or I would've probably ended up with him as
well.  I suppose it could be worse, though; at least they can fight.}  Not
wanting to hurt his associate's feelings (or continue to listen to his
drivel), Kaguro cut him off with praise.  "An unusual goal, admittedly, but
a nobl--"
  He was cut off by a woman on the other side of the building who shouted
,"Lord Yujiiro!"
  Kaguro and Isamu sprinted to the other side, where the sentry pointed at
a sailboat under power in the direction of the island.  The moonlight
glistened on the wavelets, and you could see the small sailboat's dark
shape fairly clear.  The red and green lights of the boat sparkled like
precious gemstones set on a velvet pillow.
  Isamu said nothing more than, "It has to be a pleasure sail, my lord.
People around here do it all the time."
  Kaguro disagreed.  He pulled out a small pair of binoculars--Kunotech
Sports Corp. engineering--and looked into them, saying, "The chances of
that are minimal.  Sailboats usually sail around the island, not toward it.
 It's more likely a bunch of kids and their dog coming to see about the
mysteries of Alcatraz."  He peered into the glasses, flicked a switch on
the side, and the lens began to glow a soft green, set to night optics
mode.  "Hmmm.  Let's see.  Japanese man driving the boat--he looks familiar
for some reason; woman in aerobics attire; what appears to be a soldier,
and one other person sitting on the bow of the ship."  He blinked.
  The verdant-tinged sight in the binoculars, trained on the sailboat's
bow, showed a woman dressed in black, her long hair waving in the wind.
Two Chinese-style maces were strapped to her back.  She had an anxious look
in her face, and stood like a great cat ready to pounce on her prey and rip
them to shreds.
  {Shan Fu, my love.  I'm not entirely displeased to see you, but I wished
you'd stayed away.}
  He put the binoculars gently on the floor. Turning to his forces, he
smoothly said, "Have Ash, Red, and Brown teams standing by on the landing
pier to take out that craft.  It seems our guests have arrived."

*   *   *
    
  The boat began its approach to the landing pier.  So far, so good,
Shampoo noted; they didn't see anybody.  Was that a sign that she was
wrong?  Hopefully not, because lives depended on this.  Possibly more, if
the demon had been awakened from its slumber in the ruby.  What had started
out as a simple birthday gift from a great-grandmother to her one and only
great-grandchild, the only item that the child had to remember of her
mother, had become an ancient terror unleashed on a major US city.  {And
here I thought I was going to have a dull summer.}
  From her position at the bow, she called out to Kuno, "Slow down, we're
almost there!"  He nodded, giving her the "thumb's-up" sign.  
  Ronnie called out, "Looks like we got the drop on them, huh?"
  *That* idea was blown when a hailstorm of red and gold beams and
blackish-red balls of ki came flying at them, a horizontal rain of
destruction.  Multiple splashes erupted around the small craft.  The mast
was snapped in two, falling into the bay.  The boat began to take on water
from the multiple holes; Ronnie picked up a bucket and tried to bail out
the water, as Kuno searched frantically for the button to turn on the bilge
pumps.  Shampoo began to move at an amazing speed, trying to block each
blast with her bonbori lest someone get hurt.
  "Maria!"  she shouted.  "You're the ki thrower here!  Take 'em out!"
  Maria hopped to the bow, stood up, and began chanting mathematical
equations, posed like a Shinto priest in prayer.  The ki blasts continued
to rail around them, Shampoo blocking each one coming Maria's way.  Still,
she chanted and chanted, the gospel according to Einstein: "E by the cosine
of X over Y, determined by the square root of N to the seventh power over
the factor of A...."
  "Do you mind?!?!?!" Shampoo seethed.  "This is a fight, not Advanced Trig
class!"
  "Hey, leave me alone; I'm almost done.  Besides, who said anything about
Trigonometry?  This is my recipe for Korean-style glazed beef."
  "Oh."  Shampoo was nonplused, but continued to counter the projectiles.
  Finally, in a swan-like move, Maria swept her arms back as far as she
could do so, a silvery-white aura enveloping her.  At the farthest point of
the arcs, her hands became twin stars.  She swung them forward, as she
announced her attack:  "Cannon Blades!"  Before her hands connected, her
hands motioned, releasing the twin pulses of light.
  The balls of white energy rocketed towards the pier, connecting with a
jolt that shook it. The aging concrete object glowed with energy bleed for
a second before it vaporized in a huge explosion, sending chucks of cement,
slivers of steel and ninjas everywhere.  Meanwhile, the ki attack
continued, but at a drastically reduced rate; the bulk of the snipers must
have been on the pier.
  Still pouring buckets of water from the slowly sinking craft, she gasped,
"Maria!  Groovy!  Great job!  I'm totally impressed!"
  Kuno agreed but added, "One problem, though; where are we going to moor
this thing?"  He then mumbled to himself, "If it stays afloat long enough...."
  Maria scratched her head in thought. "Oopsie.  I hadn't thought of that."
  Shampoo mentally smiled.  {Same old Maria.}
  Ronnie shouted out, "Okay, we're close enough for my tricks.  Meet you on
the land!"  She dropped the bucket, hopped on the gunwale, and raced
towards the bow.  At the end, she went into a knee kick, bellowed out,
"Flaming Knee!" and became an orange comet that streaked across the
remaining ten yards, slamming into the horde of ninjas.  Once on land, she
went into her kickboxing routine, mowing down her opponents.  One woman
leapt at Ronnie from the rooftop, only to get caught in Ronnie's variation
of the Chestnut Kick, the Firestorm.  The opponent was tossed back after
some 763 kicks had turned her into a virtual ki-flaming sack of bones.
Someone from behind swung a sai at her, but she turned and applied her
Flaming Kick at him, launching him far above the dark waters of the
Pacific, sending him probably towards Fiji.
   Shampoo ran back to Ronnie's starting point long enough to get the same
running head start.  Just before the end of the bow, she did a flip, sprung
off the deck  with her hands and propelled herself several feet into the
sky.  She tucked into a roll and remained so as gravity took over,
cannon-balling into a couple more ninjas attempting to get the drop on
Ronnie.  She then went into a tightly controlled dance, a tango consisting
of swinging bonbori connecting with various opponents' body parts.  She
broke one over one man's head, pausing long enough to grab his bo staff and
throw her other bonbori at another, knocking him into the waters of the
bay. She then resumed her attack, swinging the bo around with a fatal grace.
   Maria was next.  The boat was close enough that she leapt from the bow,
and threw two more Cannon Blades, aimed towards the roof.  The blasts
connected, picking off two more "shooters".  An opponent punched towards
her, but she sidestepped, grabbing his arm, swung him around, and holding
him, did one of her Tsunami flip kicks, the energy disruption from the
ki-charged kick shredding the man's uniform, not to mention his torso.  On
her landing, she dropped, swept another off his feet, rolled, and slice
kicked that opponent into--and through--the wall.
  Kuno tossed the anchor over the side, hoping that their ride home would
stay afloat long enough.  He then leapt onto the shore, and the Blue
Thunder entered the fray, with a vengeance.  His bokken was a blur of brown
and blue energy, cutting down Kaguro ninjas left and right.  One person
came at him with a katana, thinking he had the advantage over the kendo
master.  Kuno smiled and hit a small trigger on the side of his bokken,
swinging it to meet the other swordsman's blade.
  Steel rang out against steel, to the surprise of the ninja.  The true
nature of the Kuno family Murimasa bokken--a katana sheathed within a
wooden practice sword--caught the opponent completely off guard.  Kuno used
this to his advantage to elbow the other fighter back then performed a
rising slash with the blade.  As he leapt, the blue lightning smacked his
opponent, launching him towards the direction of Montana.  As he landed
again, slashing opponent, Kuno thought about his airborne victim:
{Bastard's lucky I used the flat of the blade.}  He bent down briefly to
pick up the sheath, and then the "bokken" was intact once more.
  The quartet rushed off towards the opening doors of the building, to
encounter a second army of Kaguro ninjas.
  Shampoo, Kuno, Maria, and Ronnie dived in.
  The battle had begun.

*   *   *

  In the chamber where she was, Jade completed the Tai Chi Chuan.  She felt
the presence of the Chinese Amazon racing towards her, a kitty racing to
the jaws of the wolf. At least, that's how it seemed to her.  She could
swear that she could sense something feline about Lao, a small cat with a
fierce temper and definite claws, but a small animal that could be stepped
on, like a tank driving over a snail.
  She continued to practice her long form, giving it no more thought.  The
Lao woman would be here soon enough, and then could be squashed like the
insect she was.  Better yet, maybe Jade would strip the skin away from
Lao's body while she still lived, and freeze her into a state of eternal
torment.  The voice in her head was her friend, giving her more and more
ideas on how to accomplish this and other tasks; once she would've thought
that this was a sign that she was becoming insane or worse, but now she
realized that this was just the natural way of things, and all others were
wrong.  The voice told her that it was good that she had taken it from
Ranko Saotome, who was too innocent a soul to ever know how to use the
power in its true manner, as it was meant to be used.  Yes, the Heart of
the Demon was not for the likes of the Saotome woman, and the redhead had
paid for it with her life.
  Jade slowly moved into another stance, careful to not disturb the lines
of the pentacle that she had created to charge her power.  The voice within
told her that this would give her more power and more ability, would make
her stronger and greater than any on earth.  Soon thereafter, she could
have anything she wanted, anyone she desired, could rule the earth and the
heavens; nothing would stop her.  She moved with grace, and as she did a
trio of chi balls moved around her, a deadly body with its lethal
satellites in motion.  She thought, and one launched away to hit the far
wall.  On impact the wall disintegrated with no explosion; it just simply
vanished.  She felt a sexual rush at the discharge, a release at the
destruction of materials.  This was her om, her all; a hellsung choir of
the future screams of the damned serenading her ears.  Once ago she would
have thought it verging on dementia; now she saw it as a dark, beautiful
variation of a Buddhist chant.
  She turned again, careful to avoid disturbing the circle again, this time
with her huge leathery wings that had formed within the last hours.  Those,
as well as her new yellow, cat-like eyes would take a bit of getting used
to.  But like her father had taught her, the past was the past....

*   *   *

  The demon laughed.  It had begun to subsume its form on the Chiang woman
faster than it had ever believed.  Normally the process was a matter of
months, but its new host was a vain, hateful little snippet.  At the rate
it was going, the change would be complete within a matter of hours.  
  There were changes it would have to adjust to.  Like being female for
example; its previous existence was in its own body, and that had been
sexless.  It,...no, *she* would have to have to adjust to that.  There
would be all sorts of new pleasures and sensations that she would get to
experience, in addition to the old ones of being alive.
  Better yet was the great irony.  The Lao woman--not Chiang's enemy, but
the Chinese warrior the demoness had faced--was gone, dead for many a
century.  The woman referred to as Saotome, she who looked similar to Lao
Jiukiu Tsesao (possibly an attempt at reincarnation?), turned out to be the
sweet, pure, innocent soul that the demoness needed as a sacrifice.  Even
better still, the demoness would never have been freed if it hadn't been
for Chiang's enemy--the descendant of the original Lao--giving Saotome the
Heart of the Demon in the first place!  And the greatest joke of all was
that the Heart of the Demon was thought to be the Phoenix Eyes!  How
deliciously satisfying.
  The Demoness smiled within her prison.  Soon she would be free and there
would be no chance of imprisoning her ever again.

*   *   *

  {I can't carry them anymore,} Mousse thought, dropping to his knees.  He
was completely, utterly worn out.  He would have asked Libby for help, but
she was still halfway gone; at least she'd begun to recover.  He would've
asked Ran-Chan for help, but she was still...whatever state she was in.
Still, he had to find the way out of wherever they were, and with it pitch
black darkness, he could not do a damn thing about it, unless he left a
girl behind and carried one to safety.  That he would not do--if there
would be someone to be sacrificed today, it would be him, not these two.
  So far he was faring pretty well.  He'd managed to cut the bars open with
the hacksaw that he carried around in his supplies--{knew that would come
in handy someday}--and grab the girls, pulling them free of the cage
(cell?) they had shared.  That's about when his luck ran out.  Since then,
and he wasn't sure how long, he had been blindly stumbling around in the
darkness hoping to find a safe passage to freedom.  Fighting his way out
was out of the question, as he was already injured and combat would only
make it worse; no telling what it would do to him.  There was also the
chance that it would also injure the girls. Same thing with a light; it
could possibly attract unwanted attention.  So he wandered, girl over each
shoulder, walking against each wall until he'd stumble upon a door or
something, a blind man trying to feel his way free of the fire pit, his
most precious belongings on either shoulder.  Earlier on, he was confident
that he could do it.
  No longer.  He was on his last bits of strength, and could feel the
increased head pounding, his strength giving away again.  He had to keep
going, damn it, he had to.  {These girls were there for me when I needed a
hand; now they need me and I won't fail them.  I'd rather be damned to hell
than do that!}  He didn't know how close he truly was to that comment.  Now
it was too late, his exhaustion tapping him on the shoulder.  He tried in
vain to crawl on his knees, to push onward until they were free, but his
last bit of strength ebbed away.
  He fell, his charges unintentionally dropped where they lay.  He pitched
forward, landing on the cold hard cement, and darkness enveloped him again.

*   *   *
    
  Shampoo swept away a few more people with her Cat Scratch Fever attack.
Things weren't going as well as she had planned; they'd probably taken out
about 200 men so far, but the enemy was still sending its hordes out from
every direction; every crack and crevice seemed to contain 20 more of the
deadly opposition.  There was a bright side, though:  they had been lucky
that most of the shinobi were taken out in the first attack; the number of
ki trained ninjas they'd come up against was becoming less and less.   
  {They must've planned ahead for this, and brought every fighter they had
available,} she thought as she spun and caught another opponent with a
thrust kick.  On landing, however, she was smashed to the ground by someone
who clubbed her from behind.  She rolled on the ground to defend, but a
blue-brown blur flicked past her, and the ninja's club was chopped into
shreds. Five or six rapid punches followed, then two kicks, and with a
final slash of a bokken, the ninja dropped with a bone-crunching *thud*.
  Breathing heavily, Kuno pulled her up.  "Hope you enjoyed your nap," he
joked without humor, then turned and decked a woman attacking with sais.
  She wiped the sweat from her brow, saying, "Yeah.  Figured I had a minute
or two to rest.   How you doing?"
  "Let's just say you owe me dinner for this." He slashed at another
sword-carrying ninja, startling him long enough to fell him with the
Lightning Sword maneuver.
  "Done.  Name the restaurant, and you've got a date." the woman with the
sais got up again, slashed at Shampoo.  The Chinese Amazon moved, but not
in time; the back of her tang was shredded, and sliced the skin.  The woman
swung again, but Shampoo back-flipped, and while hand-standing, grabbed her
head with her slender legs, twisted, then slammed her, face-first, into the
pavement.  Shampoo stood back up, whipped off the tang (she wore a white
T-shirt beneath) into someone's face, grabbed him, then elbowed him in the
gut, smashed him in the face with the back of her hand, and completed it
with an uppercut.
  "How's that Mexican place across the street from the K-tech building?
I've never had the opportunity to go there, and Libby says it's a must go."
 Someone attacked him with a pike, but Kuno deftly twisted, then grabbed
the gentleman in question and did a flawless repetition of Shampoo's
three-hit combo.  He put away his sword and began to slash away with the
pike's longer range.
  "You mean La Pistola Y El Corazon?  Yeah, they have excellent food; my
personal favorite is the chicken fajitas.  The decor is great, and the
mariachi band is a nice touch.  The owner comes and dines at the Cali Cat
every so often, but he and I try to avoid shop talk, if you know what I
mean."  Some unlucky soul rushed at her; she just grabbed his arm and swung
him into a nearby wall.
  "That I do.  Okay, after this is done, how does this and a play sound?
Nabiki and I haven't had the chance to go see that new Andrew Lloyd Webber
play yet."  He swatted at a mountain of a ninja, who grabbed the pike out
of his hands, and tried to use it against him.  Moving out of the way, he
continued talking.  "It seems like we don't do much anymore.  She lives for
her work, a complete workaholic.  I just wish I could get her to relax
every once in a while."  The ninja rushed him, and he sidestepped, letting
Shampoo have him.  "That's what I love the most about her.  When she's just
Nabiki, not the money- happy, intrigue-attracting, scandal-tracking,
over-working woman she seems to be, she's such a sweetheart."  He stopped,
and looked around.  All clear.
  Shampoo simply did the splits and threw her strongest punch at the
weakest point of the man's body.  He doubled over in pain and fell down
like a freshly cut tree.  "Guess that'll hurt a tiny bit," she said,
sarcasm dripping in her voice.  Getting up, she also checked around.  No
one standing, so she relaxed, crossed her arms, and looked at Kuno.
"Y'know, I have an idea.  Mousse and I are going to Carmel for the Fourth
of July weekend.  Why don't you two join us?  It's a nice little place to
get away from it all."
  "That's a great idea.  Maybe we can take a couple weeks to drive back
down to LA.  Kinda like a second honeymoon."
He bent over to grab the pike again, and she grabbed the sais.  "Well,
let's finish what we came here to do, then we'll talk about this little trip."
  The pair raced off again, leaving the pile of nearly 80 victims where
they lay.

*   *   *

  Maria and Ronnie stood back to back.  They hadn't had as easy a time as
Shampoo and Kuno had when the four split up, and although they had also
managed to create a sizable amount of defeated ninjas beneath them, they
hadn't the skill that the other two had.  Apparently, it also seemed that
since they used more ki charges than Shampoo or Kuno, they were higher on
the hit list.  As it stood thought, it was the two women against another 20
ninjas...and the Kaguro forces were still outnumbered.
  A man with a manriki-gusari attacked Ronnie with violent fervor.  She
caught the end of the chain, pulled him forward, and brought him into a
flurry of rapid punches, slipped to the ground, swept him, and as he fell,
Flaming Kneed him.  She held the chain mace now.  "Maria, you know how to
use this thing?"
  Maria spun, and did her ki-charged uppercut on a guy using tonfas.  "Not
a clue," she replied, as she narrowly dodged a punch from the guy behind him.
  Ronnie improvised.  She swung it like a whip, and as it wrapped around a
woman's torso, she yanked.  Unfortunately, the woman managed to loose a
flight of shurikens her way.  Ronnie managed to block most of them with the
Firestorm, but to no avail, as three embedded in her right leg.  She
screamed in agony and momentarily dropped.  A man with bear claws swung
down for the kill...
....only to be slice kicked by Maria.  "Hang on!" she cried, as she
channeled her ki, and as her silver glow charged up to maximum intensity,
she bellowed, "*Tactical Attack!  Tomahawk Strike!*"  Maria slammed her
fist into the ground, which flickered for a second before erupting in a
huge spray of cement and rocks, detonating the ground and all its environs.
 Thick shafts of silvery light cascaded upwards, along with everything in a
fifty-foot radius, except for Maria and Ronnie, protected by the glow of
Maria's battle aura.  The variant of the Batsutai Tenketsu demolished all
the opponents in the area, leaving a pile of broken and ragged bodies
everywhere.
  Maria helped Ronnie back to her feet.  "You're hurt!"
  Ronnie winced as she ripped the throwing stars out of her leg, increasing
the blood flowing from the cuts.  "I-I'll be okay, Maria," she grimaced.
She undid her hand wrappings and bandaged her leg.  "That was amazing," she
said as she gingerly tested her leg; it hurt like hell but would still
support her--running would be a painful but feasible option.  "Where did
you learn your martial arts?  Never seen any style like yours before."
  "Thanks.  Daddy taught me,"  she smiled sweetly.  "You sure you can make
it on your leg?"
  She bounced momentarily on her leg to test it again.  Slivers of heat
lanced throughout the limb, but she held.  "Good as it gets," she muttered
through clenched teeth.  Taking her mind off her injury, she continued her
conversation.  "So your dad is a martial artist, huh?"
  "Naah," Maria answered, slowly moving herself and Ronnie from the scene
of the conflict.  "Daddy's a Navy SEAL.  Taught me everything he knows.  I
think he wanted to teach my brother instead, but he never went in for that
type of stuff."
  {Amazing.  She's a complete idiot with military skills, and cooks by
mathematical equations.  Wonder what else she has up her sleeve,} Ronnie
thought, a small smile coming to her lips.  "Wonder where the other two are."
  "Tate and Shampoo?  Probably laughing and making jokes while shredding
their opponents.  And we should find them, get the others, and get the hell
out of Dodge," Maria added as she and Ronnie sprinted away from their
location, leaving the 50 or so wounded on the remnants of the walkway.
Racing around the corner, another team of ninjas got the drop on them, but
the pair leapt back to avoid the spray of darts and shuriken.
  "Doesn't get any easier, does it," Maria said rhetorically.
  "Well, not for them, anyway,"  Ronnie grunted.
  The pair leapt into battle again.

*   *   *

  American Airlines, Flight 3294, non-stop supersonic service from
Despansar, Bali to San Francisco, California.  Akane Saotome was on the
jet's satellite phone, dialing every phone number she had memorized.  On
the other end, the phone rang for a tortuous two minutes before an answer.
  "This is the Ono residence," the electronic recording of Kasumi said over
the phone.  "I'm terribly sorry, but we're not home at the moment.  If you
would kindly leave your name and nu--"
   Akane punched the RESET key on the airphone in frustration.  She
would've punched the phone, but she had to remain calm.  If she didn't,
then all sorts of annoying things were most likely to happen, like her
ripping the whole airphone unit out of the wall, kicking the airplane's
hatch open, and tossing the offending electronic hardware into the Pacific,
some 50000 feet below.  More importantly, she had to keep her calm, in case
Ranma snapped.  
   Right now, he was still in a state of shock and grief--not that she was
doing any better, either.  She didn't want to think what would happen once
his anger set in, because he'd probably completely lose it like Ryoga did
whenever he got enraged.  More likely worse--*much* worse.  Akane knew that
he would destroy just about everything in the world--himself included--to
save his sister.  Despite being with his father most of his life (possibly
to his detriment), and lost time made up with his mother, the only blood
relative he was really close to was Ran-Chan; that was plainly obvious.
  However, sometimes it seemed that the curse of Ranma's transformation had
been replaced by the curse of an unstable  cloned sister.  At times, Ranko
was a worse baka than he had ever been, a complete troublemaker; others,
her personality embodied her complete kawaii act.  It seemed after the
split, she had become a copy of the younger Ranma--the thoughtless,
insensitive jerk--while Ranma's true side and true feelings came out.
  In the past eight years, if there was something to go wrong, Ran-Chan was
usually the cause of it all.  They thought she'd outdone herself when she
admitted--{Right in front of Kodachi, Azusa, and me, no less!}--that she
was sleeping with Mikado during the rescue of her mother.  To top it off,
Ran-Chan had a smile on her face, as if she did the whole thing just to
spite Kodachi, and saved it for Azusa, who had flown all the way from
London to visit her cousin Mikado.  {Azusa and Kodachi would've killed her
on the spot, if I hadn't intervened.}  Mikado had escaped relatively
unscathed; he gave his wife some excuse about being seduced, but Akane
didn't believe it.  Mikado Sanzenin was a womanizing, chauvinist idiot, and
Kodachi just as bad for believing him.  
  {Maybe I should've let them put her in the hospital.  It would've saved
my sister in the long run.}  Akane nearly tore Ran-Chan to bits the night
the redhead had almost killed Natsume, and if it wasn't for Kurume and
Ranma holding her back, she would have.  She was glad that her father and
Hinako were still on their vacation together, because she didn't know how
he would've reacted to the near-fatality of his adopted daughter by the
troublesome redhead.  After the incident, Ranma took her away from the
dojo, and he didn't come home for two days.  The only reason he came home
was because Tofu called to let her know that he was staying with them
("completely depressed", he'd said), and needed her--although he would
never admit it.  She brought him back to their apartment, whereupon they
talked, made up, and everything was right again.  A couple of days later,
he revealed that she had went to live with Shampoo, who promised to help.
He also surprised her with this little impromptu vacation.  He wanted some
time alone with her, to show that he loved her, to prove that he was there
for her.
  Now here they were, flying to his sister's rescue once again.  Except now
she was dead, he cried, and knew it in his mind.  The psychic bond that
they had forced him to feel her death blow.  Worse, he was on the verge of
losing it. Fast.  
  So, instead of him taking it out on the phone, she'd make the calls.  She
then found out the hard way that no one was home.  She knew that Kurume was
in northern Japan working on Natsume's recovery; and that her father and
Hinako were still on their vacation, unaware of all this; she didn't expect
to be able to get a hold of any of them immediately.  Oddly, though, the
Saotomes weren't home in Osaka.  Ukyou was in Sapporo negotiating plans for
another restaurant, her business secretary said.  Now, Kasumi and Tofu were
added to the list of people who were amongst the missing.  She had even
tried to call Nabiki and Tatewaki at their business and home numbers, but
they weren't answering, for some reason.  She didn't have Shampoo's number,
otherwise she would have called there;  Ranma knew it, but asking him for
the number might only make matters worse.
  She was about to begin the round-robin of re-dialing the numbers, when a
flight attendant tapped her on the shoulder.  "Excuse me,  but is that your
husband in seat 23A?"
  "Yes.  Is there a problem?"  {Oh, Ranma....}
  The woman had a look on her face like a caged rabbit.  "We usually don't
have our passengers crushing the armrests with their bare hands.  Is there
a problem?  Something we can help with?"
  "No,"  Akane said uneasily.  "Crisis in the family.  I'll try to calm him
down."
  "I'm terribly sorry to hear that.  If there's anything we can do, just
press the button."  The woman, relieved to have passed the problem on to
someone else, wandered off to continue her duties.
  Akane placed the phone back in its slot and retrieved her credit card.
Her husband's anger had apparently begun to kick in, and she hoped she
could calm him down before he did something drastic--like detonating the
plane, for example.


  By the time she'd gotten back to her seat, two cups of water in her
hands, she could easily see why the attendant--as well as some other
passengers--were concerned.  He sat there, hands firmly gripping the
armrests, unconsciously cracking them as easily as he would a walnut.  His
eyes contained that distant look she'd come to associate with times when
the Saotome siblings were "talking" to one another.  Except she knew he was
searching, not talking.  But there was no one on the other end.
  "Ranma, here.  Take this."  She handed him one of the plastic cups.
"There was nobody home at any place I called.  We can try again later, and
according to the flight attendant, we'll be landing in about four hours."
  "Nobody home...."  he repeated, dreamily, sotto voce, his words an
entirely different meaning than hers.  He turned to face her, and a feeling
of loss washed over her.  He looked weary, haggard.  His normally soft blue
eyes, a lighter shade than Ranko's, became two pools of despair, the
emotional Springs of Jusenkyo.  She knew what he was going through--it had
taken years for her to get over her mother's death, something her father
never entirely got over himself.  That was something else she hadn't
considered:  the full extent of their psychic bond.  What if it turned him
into an emotional wreck as the experience had turned her father?
  "Ranma...." she breathed, her voice breaking.
  He spoke, every word a strike of self-directed anger.  "Akane...I can't
find her.  I...I can't feel her in my mind.  She's gone, gone, gone...." he
dropped his cup, the plastic hitting the floor and spilling its liquid
contents, wetting the carpeting.  He buried his face in his hands.
"Ranko...my sister...why?"
  Akane said nothing.  She simply put her arms around him, whispering, "I
don't know what to say, dear heart.  I loved her, too."  {I did.  As much
of a nuisance as she was, there were times when she seemed too sweet and
innocent to be the same little minx she was normally.  She needed help, and
we didn't know what to do.  Now it's too late to correct it.}  She
whispered a wish, to her mother in heaven, to let Ranko know how much they
loved her.  {Ranko, I'm sorry I let you down.  If there was some other way,
I could've, I would've....}  Akane then turned the pain and anger inward,
mentally cursing herself.  {You should have, stupid.  She was crying for
help, and you treated her like an idiot sister.  Maybe she needed therapy,
or counseling.  But did you think of that?  No....}
  "Akane, I feel so empty.  Other than you, she was the only person in this
world that made life worth living.  I don't know how to handle this.  the
worst part is, I can't be angry at whoever killed her.  Because it's my
fault, not hers."
  Akane was shocked.  "Ranma, you know who the killer was?!?!?!"
  He continued on, ignoring her.  "I'm entirely to blame.  I told her that
she wasn't welcome back until she grew up.  She said she wouldn't come back
until she met my expectations.  She's dead because of me, and the woman who
killed her was the force of nature acting out the result of my own
stupidity."  He said nothing more, burying his face in her breast.  She
could feel the wetness of his tears, hear the half-voiced sobs of the one
person she never thought could break down this way.
  She continued to hold her husband, becoming his strength today, as he had
always been for her.   Steeling herself, knowing that she couldn't afford
to cry, even though she now wanted to as well.  It was a blow to the very
center of her being that Ranma, the one who never seemed to be fazed by
anything, could react like this.  At that point, Akane fervently wished
that Ranma would get over this stage and become enraged over Ranko's death.
 Enraged, vengeful, anything other than the empty, tortured man she was
holding.  Because if he became a hollow husk without his sister, Akane
Saotome would kill that woman with her bare hands for destroying her family.
  {I may do it anyway, if it will let Ranko's spirit rest,} she thought
grimly.

*****************************************************************