Mihrna, who was standing on a chair and looking up at the two meter high
mass of papers and files that was stacked precariously inside of the well
worn in-box on her desk, carefully tried to remove a single sheet of paper
from the top. *Careful...caaareful....*

<SLAM!>
"EEp!!"
<Whoosh!>
<Clatter.>
<Whump!>

After a scene of airborne triplicates and falling bodies that's best left
to the imagination, anyone who had been standing on a branch outside of
the window with a video recorder would be pleased to see a rather messy
dorm room, now somewhat more presentable for the sea of paper covering
everything, and a noisy, tangled mass of limbs struggling violently
under the unanswered complaint forms coverin the floor somewhere near the
open door.

"Ow! Quit pokin' me!"
"Then get your knee out of my armpit! Hey, what was that?"
"What? Where? Oof! Alright i'm moving, i'm moving; no need to get
violent."
"Something else just moved under- Hey, when i said to move your knee, i
didn't mean to put it _there_!"
"Eheh... sorry. Just a second..."

For a couple moments, there could be heard some hurried, and rather
embarrased-sounding chanting. Then, a cloud of sulfurous smoke erupted
from the pile of papers, sending them scatteing all about the room, and
into the hallway.

"Eew, yuck! Didn't i tell you never to do that in the room?!" Mihrna
choked out as she hastily disentangled herself from Eimii and ducked out
into the hall, gagging from the noxious fumes. Eimii followed at a more
leisurely pace, exiting the room several moments later. Then again,
perhaps leisurely is the wrong word to use, as her delay was caused mostly
by the fact that she had to claw her way up the door to pull herself
upright, and she collapsed foreward onto the wall in the hallway sortly
after staggering out the door. 

"I'm sooo sorry." she groaned sarcasticly, her cheek pressed firmly to the
wall.

"Geez, what happened to you this time?" Mihrna inquired quizically,
fingering one of the half-dozen small arrows protruding from Eimii's back.

"OW! Stop that! I was on my way to polisci when- OW! QUIT IT! when those
natives from SHOTR decided to ask me why they didn't get a cameo in this-
AARGH! THAT HURTS! GET AWAY FROM THERE!!!" Eimii growled menacingly as she
tried vainly to slap Mirhna's hands away from her back.

Mirhna, for the most part, ignored Eimii's pitiful struggle, focusing her
attention on the arrow that she had just pulled from her roommate's back.
"Hmm... barbed head. They were really gunning for you today, huh?" She
replied nonchalantly, poking Eimii's flailing arm with the tip of the
arrow. Eimii squeaked and pulled her arm back, now shifting her efforts to
once again becoming upright. "So, when you say 'this', you mean that
you've started another fic? Hmmm?" Mihrna tapped the arrow in her hand,
peering at Eimii expectantly. 

Though her friend's tone had contained not a hint of menace, Eimii still
hastily pushed herself up and turned around, holding her hands defensively
in front of her body. "Er... Umm... I know this looks bad, but I really am
working on Shattered Hearts on the Road! I fully intend to have it done
some time after finals, though it's hard to say when" 

"Mmm Hmm? Is that so...?" Mihrna bagan pacing back an forth in front of a
profusely sweating Eimii. "About that. You still haven't told me _who_
you're pairing me up with yet. And when exactly are you going to get back
to the AMG characters, Hmm?" She stopped in front of Eimii. "Well?" she
asked, poking Eimii's chest for emphasis.

"Soon! Next chapter, in fact! Really!" Eimii backed up hesitantly.
Unfortunately, as she wasn't watching where she was going, she didn't see
the stray scrap of paper that she set her trailing foot on. "I-" as she
set her weight down upon it, it became suddenly apparent that the
custodial staff has waxed the floors recently. "Whoa!" <SMACK!>"Glk.."

Mihrna winced as her friend slid down the wall, the bussiness ends of
half-a-dozen-minus-one arrows now protruding rather wetly from her chest.
"Ouch...that had o hurt..." Mihrna knelt down so she could examine Eimii.
"Ick, i had no idea that your lungs were _that_ color..."

<hack><cough>"comes from sulfur inhalation. Baal's big on sulfur..." Eimii
ground out from her position on the floor. Then, looking up at the red
streak on the wall,"You're cleaning that up. 'S your fault."

"Only if you clean up the paper."

"What?! Why should i clean up the paper??!"

"It wouldn't have fallen over if you hadn't slammed the door." Mihrna said
matter-of-factly.

Eimii looked at her companion for a moment, then smiled. "Fine, i'll start
here." She said, picking up a complaint form and handing it to Mihrna.

Mirhna backed away from the bloodied sheet of paper and gave Eimii a foul
look. "Grr... go get cleaned up. I'll get the paper." She growled.
"Probably should take care of these first though." with that, she
proceeded to pluck the arrows out of Eimii's chest, much to the latter's
rather vocal protestations. 

"Now then," she said, as she stood up, "As long as you're here, i'll send
out whatever it is that you've written, so that you don't get that all
over the computer." she held out her hand.

After much grumbling to the effect of 'gentle goddesses, my ass' and the
like, Eimii surrendered a completely clean and untouched computer
diskette. "Here you go." *heh, now when the flames come, she'll be in the
room while I'm in the shower...*

Accepting the diskette, Mihrna carefully picked her way back into the
room, avoiding by memory the piles of pizza boxes and dirty clothing that
were presently clovered in a fine layer of beauracracy. As Eimii proceeded
to drag herself down the hall, Mirhna sat down at Eimii's desk and began
typing.

[This is a Ranma 1/2 - Indiana Jones - Gold Digger - and possibly
something else that Eimii forgot to label - Crossover/Juxtaposition. Not
necessairily in that order or arrangement.]

[All characters, except for the glaringly obvious exceptions, are the
property of their creators, and were used without permission. Please don't
file a suit, as Eimii can be kicked out of college for plagarism, and then
i'd have to find somewhere else to stay.]

[I expect she'd probably love to hear any comments or criticism that you
may have for her reguarding this story, though it's somewhat disturbing
how happy she becomes over recieving death threats or small, well
disguised incendiary devices.]

She sat back in the chair, thinking for a moment, then added,

[Have a nice day.]









Hibiki Ryouga, Wandering(read: Lost) Martial Artist, Adventurer, Delver
into the Unknown (tm), and Archeologist PhD. (it's amazing what you can
learn through correspondence courses) surveyed his current situation. 

He was standing in a roughly oblong shaped room with cut-stone walls,
somewhere within an ancient temple that was, presumably, somewhere in
South America. In the middle of the room, a set of stone steps slanted
steeply skyward. To either side of the stairway were deep, water filled
basins. The basins were constantly being fed by twin cascades of fresh
water that seemed to be originating from either side of the dais that waited
at the top of the staircase before him.

*Well, I'm relatively certain that I've already been the other way,* he
thought, looking back through the large, circular, tunnel-like hallway behind
him, *so I suppose the only way to go is up...*

Stepping carefully, both to avoid any traps that might be on the steps and to
keep well away from the edges of the staircase and the cold, damp fate that
awaited him there, Ryouga proceeded to follow thought with deed. He
reached the dais without incident, and stood for a moment on the last step. 

In the middle of the dais was a stone pedestal. Set into the wall behind the
pedestal was a huge stone wheel, it's diameter just less than the distance
between the dias and the ceiling, about fifteen feet above. Curiously, the
stone wheel's diameter was almost exactly the same as the diameter of all
the passage-ways in the temple. 

"I'm willing to bet that some museum would pay top dollar for that little
trinket." he mused, addressing not the ominous stone wheel, which he
presumed to be some type of ancient memorex; but instead the small golden
idol that glinted sinisterly atop the rough-hewn and almost certainly booby-
trapped stone pedestal. "Then I could get Akane some nice souvenirs."

Ryouga briefly slipped into an elated sort of trance state, mentally savoring
the image of Akane's smiling face. He snapped out of it quickly though, as
Akane wasn't here right now and he had yet to deal with the business at
hand.

He pushed his fedora back on his head and began to scrutinize the pedestal
_very_ carefully. He wasn't really used to wearing a hat, but he hadn't really
had much choice in the matter. The only clothes that had been readily
available the last time he changed back from a pig were the ones that he was
wearing now. 

Self-consciously dusting off the worn and faded leather jacket and re-securing 
the bull whip at his side, Ryouga thought back to how he had
acquired these clothes. The previous owner had apparently been exploring
this very same temple quite some time ago, but had unfortunately run into a
bit of bad luck earlier on in the maze of tunnels that led to this room, and
hadn't really had any need of them since. 

Fingering a small hole in the jacket just above his heart, Ryouga decided
that a more delicate approach would be advisable. *If they have poison
spike traps on the way to the bathroom, who knows what they've got rigged
up here...*

Taking out a leather pouch full of sand, which the donor of his clothes had
been so kind as to provide, Ryouga appraised the small gold idol. Licking
his lips, he reached into the bag and took out some of the sand, pouring it
on the ground at the foot of the pedestal. Then, weighing the bag of sand in
his right palm and peering at the idol, he promptly sneezed, dropping the
entire bag at the foot of the pedestal. "Oops..."

Ryouga looked sheepishly at the pile of sand at his feet, which was quickly
seeping into the cracks between the stones of the dais. *No way there's
enough now. Hmm...* 

Ryouga peered carefully over the left edge of the dais to see that the water
filling the left basin was pouring out of the mouth of a stone panther's head
that was mounted about a foot below the top of the column that supported
the platform. *That might work.*

Ryouga removed the nearly empty canteen that was hanging around his
neck and lay down on his stomach near the edge of the platform. Then,
being careful not to let any water touch him, he filled the canteen from the
fountain and closed the top. 

Standing up again, Ryouga weighed the full canteen in his hand. Looking at
the idol, he decided that it was probably about right. He leaned over the
pedestal, his right hand holding the canteen just above the surface of the
pedestal and his left hand curling around, but not touching, the idol. *On
the count of three. One... Two....*

"Three!" with speed that belied his usual approach to things, Ryouga
exchanged the canteen for the idol. Then, not quite sure what to do next, he
stared at the pedestal waiting for something to happen. Fate normally
doesn't oblige people in this manner, preferring to just spring things on
them, which is why nothing happened for the entire 157.5 seconds that
Ryouga stood staring at the pedestal, patiently waiting for some horrid death
trap to rear it's spiteful head. It wasn't until Ryouga turned around and
began to wipe his brow in relief that the middle of the pedestal began to
descend and the stone wheel started moving into the wall. Alerted by the
grinding noise of stone moving on stone, Ryouga turned back around just in
time to see the entire pedestal drop down until it was flush with the floor of
the dais. At the same time the stone wheel, which had by now receded
about a foot into the wall, split vertically down the center, the two halves
sliding smoothly apart with a faint <whoosh>ing noise. 

A gigantic round boulder rolled out of the tunnel that had opened up where
the wheel had been, mere moments from smashing Ryouga as flat a
pancake. Ryouga, who was still contemplating how the people who had
built this temple had gotten hold of Star Trek sound effects, barely
noticed the twelve ton marble barreling towards him. He simply stuck his
arm out, his index finger pointing towards the offending monolith, and
shouted "BAKUSAI-TENKETSU!"

The boulder exploded in an impressive shower of dust and rubble, which
was completely lost on Ryouga as he bent down to pick up his canteen.
"Feh. Some 'death trap'..."

It is sometimes said that Ryouga is unperceptive. This isn't entirely true.
There are some things that Ryouga notices immediately. Among them,
water is one of the most well noted. And right now Ryouga was noticing
that the water had stopped flowing from the fountains on the sides of the
column. This could mean many things. Many of them were good things,
but Ryouga didn't trust his luck that much.

His attention was then drawn to a rather disturbing grinding noise that was
coming from the vicinity of the pedestal, which had risen about halfway out
of the floor again and then had stopped. "Wait. What if that sand got into
the gears or something, keeping it from resetting." He paced back and forth
on the dais, the grinding noise intensifying. "Now then, if this trap were
powered by the flow of the water, and now it's stuck because the sand is
gumming up the gears, then that would explain why the water isn't flowing
anymore." Ryouga smiled to himself, impressed by his reasoning abilities.
Then, an unpleasant train of thought entered his head. *Wait a minute. If
the trap mechanism is blocking the flow of the water, then what's happening
to all the water pressure building up behind the mechanism?* Suddenly, the
temple began to rumble and shake; mildly at first, but increasing rapidly.
"Oh hell..."

*****

Among the Neriman martial artists that are truly considered 'contenders,'
Hibiki Ryouga would generally be accorded as one of the slowest, in both
thought and action, a student of the pure and straight-forward schools of
the 'single devastating blow' and the 'nigh limitless endurance.' One would
therefore assume that, if an ancient temple were collapsing about his ears,
Hibiki Ryouga probably wait until the dust had settled, then dig himself out
of the ruins.

This is generally true, which is why anyone who had the unusual misfortune
to be within one particular lost temple somewhere in the jungles of Peru
would have attested that the screaming blur that was presently rocketing
through the treacherously booby-trapped tunnels of said temple was almost
certainly _not_ Hibiki Ryouga.

To these unenlightened people, one might point out that Hibiki Ryouga may
well very know why the temple is presently shaking violently. He may very
well _be_ why the temple is presently shaking violently. It could then be
assumed that he may be aware of some anomalous situation that would
make a rapid retreat a far more attractive course of action.

For instance, say that Ryouga were cursed, hypothetically, and that his
curse changed him into a small pig whenever he was struck with cold water.
Then, hypothetically, what if the reason for the temple's immanent collapse
was the fact that an ancient and sophisticated system of hydraulics nestled
deep within the temple's bowels had, after countless centuries of flawless
operation, suddenly developed a rather fatal dysfunction. Now assume that,
while under the effects of earlier stated hypothetical curse, Ryouga loses a
large bit of his damage resistance, and that if said hypothetical hydraulic
system were to malfunction badly, he would almost certainly be placed
under the affects of said curse. Now, if most people were faced with the
options of either running away or being turned into a pig and being buried
under several tons of temple, it can usually be said that most would
probably tend to shy away from the latter. 

Therefore, under such hypothetical circumstances, it is quite plausible
that Ryouga might demonstrate a rather uncharacteristic turn of speed when
extricating himself from the situation. All of which is a moot point, as Hibiki
Ryouga was the only person in the temple at the time, so justifying why he
was running as though the devil's hunt were baying at his heels becomes
superfluous. 

It should be noted, however, that said celerity was one of the primary
reasons why Hibiki Ryouga, after barreling out of the temple entrance like a
bat out of hell, failed to notice the thinly concealed tiger pit that he was
barreling towards. And, as gravity is a difficult habit to break, it was that
Hibiki Ryouga suddenly found himself looking up towards the edge of the
pit, breathing heavily and wondering whether he had gotten far enough
away. 

This turned out the be the least of his concerns, as Ryouga  sensed some
motion up around the edge of the pit. Ryouga received the second in a long
list of shocks that he was to rack up today, when a ring of Nokosha pig-eating 
pygmies, all of them incongruously armed with water balloons,
gathered around the pit. But his attention was immediately drawn to one
figure in particular, a young asian man decked out in full safari gear and
sneering down contemptuously at him. "So we meet again, pig-boy."

"Taro." growled Ryouga menacingly, holding himself in check only for the
fact that he was dangerously close to demonstrating Taro's insult to the
pygmies. 

"Pig-boy, you chose the wrong jungle. This time, it will cost you." Taro
held out his hand as though he wanted something from Ryouga. Ryouga
looked dumbfounded at the hand for several moments before realizing that
he was still clutching the little golden idol. After glancing back at the
ring of pygmies apprehensively, Ryouga reluctantly tossed the idol up to
Taro.

Catching the idol easily, Taro examined it for a moment before turning his
attention back to Ryouga. "And you thought that I'd given up." He uttered
smugly.

Ryouga blinked once or twice and thought about that statement for a
second before replying. "What on earth are you talking about?! I didn't even
know that you were _following_ me!"

It was Taro's turn to look confused now, as he put his hand to his chin for a
second before simply shrugging and looking back at Ryouga. "Oh. Well, it
seemed somehow appropriate at the time."

A large sweat drop rolled down the back of Ryouga's head as he glanced
uncertainly between Taro and the pygmies. "Too bad they don't know you
like I do, Taro."

"Yes, too bad." Taro replied, "You could warn them... If only you spoke
Esperanto."

With that, Taro raised the Idol above his head and shouted something to the
pygmies, while Ryouga got a funny look on his face and mumbled
"esperanto?"

Then, noticing that the pygmies had lowered their water balloons and had
begun prostrating themselves before the idol, Ryouga made his move. 

"BAKUSAI-TENKETSU" With that cry, Ryouga began tunneling rapidly
through the ground, a noisy geyser of stone and dirt exploding from the pit.
After a few moments of confusion among the pygmies, another geyser of
stone erupted from the earth some fifteen yards from them.

Pointing at in the direction of the geyser, Taro began yelling rapidly in
Esperanto. "<Advance the flaming wombat division!>" 
It should be noted that this phrase, when spoken in Esperanto, sounds
remarkably like the phrase <Pork chops for dinner!> in Nokosha.

The pygmies, spurred on by the prospect of a hunt, dashed off into the
jungle in pursuit of the fleeing lost boy, leaving Taro standing alone at the
edge of the pit. Smiling secretively to himself, Taro picked up a discarded
water balloon and broke it over his head. Then, barking out what would
probably be a maniacal laugh were it not for it's rather bovine nature, Taro-
minotaur took off to the east. 

*****

Ryouga ducked down behind a tree, peering cautiously around at the jungle
that surrounded him on all sides. *Maybe I've lost them. After all, it's been
at least a day since I last had something thrown at me.* Ryouga began to
relax slightly, sliding down the tree trunk, but then stopped and stiffened.
*Hmm... better safe than sorry.* Peering around himself for a few
moments, Ryouga then selected a particularly long fallen branch off of the
ground. Then, placing his hat on the narrow end of the branch,
he proceeded to crouch down on the ground and maneuver the end of
branch around the left side of the tree, making sure that only the top of the
hat showed above the level of the ground foliage. After moving it back and
forth for a few moments, Ryouga was rewarded by a water balloon
splashing into the hat. *Damn!* Quickly retrieving the hat, Ryouga took off
again into the undergrowth.

*****

The sun rose majestically in the east, it's life giving rays valiantly prying
through the thick canopy of the high jungle to alight upon the harried brow
of Hibiki Ryouga. He was less than grateful. "Damn jungle... damn
natives... damn Taro... " Ryouga grumbled to himself as he carefully picked
his way through the underbrush, being especially silent lest the ever-present
contingent of Nokosha pygmies take notice of him. The pygmies were an
infuriatingly persistent lot, shadowing him relentlessly for the last three 
days. Near the beginning of the third day they had started throwing spears
in addition to water balloons, much to Ryouga's relief, as he could deal
with spears. *Must be running low on water balloons. Humph, I wonder what
that jerk Taro wanted the idol for anyway.*

Filing that thought away for later, Ryouga concentrated again on the ground
before him, deftly avoiding any dry branches or other threats to his silent
travel. So intent was he on not giving away his position, that Ryouga
unfortunately failed to notice the small, brightly colored bird perched above
him in the canopy until it decided to warn Ryouga that he was invading it's
territory. The stuttering call of his diminutive crier startled Ryouga into
action. "Damn it! I _hate_ this jungle!" Ryouga burst into motion just as a
clutch of spears began to hail down upon his former position.

*****

Kevin Koss, who was sitting under the wing of an TBM-3 Avenger holding
a pot of water over a small gas burner, looked up warily as some unusual
sounds began to emit from the nearby jungle. Then, some two hundred
yards away at the other end of the beaten earth air field, Ryouga burst out
of the jungle and began running towards him. 

"<ACE!! START THE PLANE!!!>" Ryouga yelled as he barreled towards the
plane. "<GET IT GOING!! HURRY!!!!>"

Kevin, though he didn't know much japanese, could just make out the
spears and... water balloons? that were falling at Ryouga's heels, and
they spoke to him in a universal language, saying "Time to get the thumb
out and shift ass boy o."
                                                                               
Knowing better than to argue with that sort of logic, Kevin leapt up into the
plane and started the prop spinning. The Avenger began to pull down the
runway just as Ryouga was approaching the midpoint of the strip, bobbing
and weaving to avoid various projectiles hurled by the steadily increasing
number of pygmies that had crowded onto the airfield after him. Ryouga
met the plane just as it was picking up speed, and clambered up onto the
wing and into the bomber's seat, narrowly avoiding the spray from a water
balloon that was thrown into the prop.

The pygmies finally began to scatter as the Avenger roared down the
runway towards them, lifting off and pulling up just in time to clear the tree
line. Inside the cockpit, Ryouga tried to get comfortable as Ace corrected
their bearings.

"So, did'ja find what you were looking for?" Ace called back in a good
natured yell over the whine of the engine.

Pausing to adjust the whip handle so that it wouldn't be poking him in the
side all the way back to Lima, Ryouga shouted up to his friend. "Nae, na a'
sich. Din'a catch a glim aboot tha Dragon Tap. Ah di' snag some kin'a idol
frae yon temp'l, thae micht 'ave ben warth som'n na, if'n tha bluddie bampot
Taro ha'n a shown oop."

"Hey, tough break buddy." Consoled Ace, after taking a moment to figure
out what exactly his friend had said. *Gonna have to find out where he got
that accent one of these days...*

"Aye," grumbled Ryouga, "Ah'm wond'rin tha, Ah doan kenna wot e'd wan
wi' it anyhae..." As he settled in to contemplate it along the ride, Ryouga's
leg brushed against something. Immediately that something started to move.
Looking down, Ryouga was struck by the sight of a _very_ large snake
looking quizzically back at him.

"WHAT THA..BLOODY HELL!! ACE!!! THERE BE SOM BRAW GREAT BEASTIE CRAWL'N
'BOUT IN 'ERE!!" Ryouga screamed as he tried to crawl completely up into
the glass canopy covering the cockpit.

Startled by the distress evident in his friend's voice, Ace turned around and
looked down to see what was the matter. The snake favored him with
something that might be a puzzled look. "Eh? Oh, yeah. Chill, gee? That's
Nagako; She's cursed like you."

"HUH?" Ryouga replied, demonstrating his amazing grasp of the English
language. "Ye kin'nae be sarious na. Odds 'o tha, meet'n som'ot who's ben
te Jusenkyou, they be nex'te nil out'n about 'ere..." he mused, perched atop
the back of his seat.

"She said that she was on her way to Nerima when she got wet and was
captured by animal rights activists, who decided to return her to her 'natural
habitat.'" Ace explained. "Hey, scoot down will ya? I don't want the seats in
this thing scuffed up right after I got it re-upholstered. Show a little back
bone."

"Ah _hate_ snakes Ace! Hate 'em!" At this the snake seemed to take
offense, prompting Ryouga to addend his statement. "Ah, mah 'pologies to
ya. T'ain noth'n parsonal lass." The snake seemed to accept this, and
crawled back down until it was a sufficient distance away from Ryouga's
seat that he could feel somewhat comfortable coming back down. Doing so,
Ryouga suddenly had a thought.

"Nerima eh? Feh, Ah bet that she's be'in one 'o Saotome's betrothed annat."
Ryouga smiled distastefully at that. 

"Hmm... Is that canteen full? Hand it up here, will ya?" As Ace accepted
Ryouga's canteen, he continued. "Now that I think about it, she did say
something like that-"

"Ow'd she manage tha? Say it, bein. Consid'rn tha she be a snake 'n all..."

"She wrote it in the dirt with her tail. We didn't get a chance to change her
into a girl before you arrived, considering how long it took to explain
everything by writing it out." Ace replied, "Now then, as I was saying, she
explained that, apparently, she's _your_ fiance."

Ryouga nearly shot through the roof upon receiving this, his second large
shock of the flight. "SAY WHAT!!?? MINE?! WHY? HOW?!"

Ace waved his hands before Ryouga, trying to placate the near-frantic man.
"Hey, don't look at me. I didn't get a chance to ask." He began to unscrew
the lid of the canteen. "But anyway, as she _is_ coming with us, at least
until we get this mess sorted out, and we _did_ waste a lot of fuel on the
way down here, dodging those patrol jets and all, we're going to need to cut
down on any unnecessarily weight." With that, he splashed Ryouga with
some water from the canteen.

"<HEY!! GIVE A GUY A LITTLE MORE WARNING BEFORE YOU'RE GONNA DO THAT!!!>"
Ryouga shouted in rather crude Japanese. Ace and the snake simply stared
at him for a few seconds, both of their jaws hanging slack.

"What? Ain'cha ne'er seen a man change in'ta a pig 'fore?" Ryouga inquired
in irritation, remembering to switch to english.

"Um, Ryouga? You ain't a pig..."

"De'ye be daft man? Ye know tha..." Ryouga trailed off as he heard himself
speaking in words instead of pig noises. He held his hands out for
inspection, to find that he did indeed have hands. He put this fact to good
use, by hugging himself tightly and bouncing up and down in his seat. "<I'm
_not_ a pig! I'm not a pig!! I'M NOT A PIG!!!>"

Then, as the elation was escalating to near-terminal levels, Ryouga noticed
that several things were rather odd. His voice seemed quite a bit off, for
one. And his clothes were suddenly fitting in a rather different manner.
Mostly, though, he noticed that what he was hugging seemed much softer
than it should have been, and the sensations that the embrace elicited were
quite unusual. Cold dread suddenly coursing through his veins, Ryouga
looked down. 

"<WAAUGH!!! I'M A GIRL!! ACE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!>"

Ace, though understanding even less of what his friend said than usual,
recognized his name when he heard it. "Hey! Chill down Ryouga. I didn't
do nothin' to ya. What'dja have in that canteen anyway, gee?"

"Nothin'." Ryouga replied. "Jus some water frae tha tem..ple..." Ryouga
trailed off, her expression portraying sudden shocked realization as she,
Ace, and the snake slowly swiveled their heads back to face in the direction
of the temple. For a moment, their eyes searched in vain for the temple, as
even Ryouga had no definite idea as to exactly where it was. Actually,
Ryouga was looking in the complete opposite direction from where the
temple should have been, though Ace and the snake wisely didn't follow
suit. Then, demonstrating that fate, while not obliged to do what someone
might expect, did have a rather perverse sense of humor, the temple
exploded. 

A mile high geyser of stone and spring water rose into the sky to mark the
location of what was, up until recently, a temple to one of the amazon
goddesses of fertility, home to what was apparently the _late_ spring of
drowned amazon. For several seconds the three of them stayed like that,
their jaws hanging open in an expression of utter incomprehension. For
several reasons though, the snake was the first to recover. It promptly bit
Ryouga on the shoulder and began wrapping it's impressive length around
her body. 

Ryouga, who was freaking out rather badly at this point, completely forgot
that the snake had little if any chance of squeezing her to death..
"<AAAAAAAAGH!!GIDDOFFAMEE!!!! GETOFFGETOFFGET OFF!!!!>" Ryouga began
squirming around in her seat, trying to dislodge the irate reptile. 

"YO!! Better check y'selves back there, or you're _both_ walking back to
Nerima!!" Ace yelled as be turned his attention back to flying the plane.
Sounds of struggle continued back in the bomber's placement. *Man, this is
gonna be a loong flight...*

*****




             -=HIBIKI RYOUGA AND THE RAIDERS OF JUSENKYOU=-


      COMING SOON, BUT PROBABLY NOT _TOO_ SOON, TO AN FFML NEAR YOU!




Having sent the message, Mihrna was about to shut off the computer when
the power suddenly went out. An ear-piercing scream and a loud sizzling
noise later, Mihrna stood up and began walking down the halls, following
the trail of blood to the bathroom. *Third time this week... they really
need to rewire this building...*