Hi folks!  In celebration of my birthday, another first chapter 
of a story!  (and my chapter of The Week Love Came to Town should also be 
out tonight....)
	In Legion continuity, this story takes place during (and replaces 
parts of) _Legion of Super-Heroes_ #94 (current series).  In Ranma 
continuity, it's after Vol. 38.  If you're unfamiliar with either series, 
everything you need to know should be explained as we go along.

				THEIR NAME IS LEGION
				by Scott K. Jamison
			(Rumiko Takahashi/DC Comics disclaimer)
     Chapter One:  This I Needed Like a Hole in the Head! New Girl in Nerima

	"JO NO BAKA!" screamed Tinya at the top of her lungs.  This as it 
happened was Interlac for "my boyfriend is an idiot."  Not that there was 
anyone around to comment on the cosmic coincidence.  The Legionnaire 
known as Apparition was presently an indeterminate number of miles 
beneath the Earth's surface, inside solid bedrock.  She'd fled there 
after blowing up at her lover over what she could now admit was really a 
trivial incident.
	After all, Jo Nah, Ultra Boy, was a very physical person.  
Naturally he appreciated having someone to "get his hands dirty" with.  
It wasn't as though he were actually coming on to Shvaugn or anything.  
But Tinya had gotten jealous anyways.  She'd wanted to bash him over the 
head with a mallet or something, anything to turn his attention back to 
her. 
	But that was the problem, wasn't it?  Tinya couldn't interact 
physically with Jo at all.  Being soulmates was all very well and good, 
but she wanted to be able to touch him again...
	Well, it wasn't going to do any good sitting here and sulking.  
It wouldn't do much good to go anywhere else, mind you, but perhaps 
there'd be a mission to distract her from her worries.
	Tinya looked around.  Utter blackness.  And without visual clues 
to orient by, and gravity no longer having much effect on her, she 
couldn't tell which way was "up."
	"I'm lost.  Well, no need to panic.  Earth is only so big.  All I 
have to do is fly straight until I come out.  It's not like I'm going to 
die of starvation or anything..."  She spun in place a couple of times 
for effect, then veered to her left.
	A long time passed.  How much, Tinya couldn't tell.  She missed 
having a heartbeat.
	Finally, she phased through the wall of a dimly-lit sewer.  She 
didn't really regret not being able to smell it.  Oriented now, Tinya 
rose to the surface.
	Wherever she was, it was late afternoon by the sun.  It was 
definitely not Happy Harbor, or any part of Metropolis she recognized.  
Mostly houses and a few apartment buildings, plus some small stores, so 
probably a suburb somewhere.  The signs had odd writing on 
them...Oriental, she decided.  Perhaps she was in China?  Best not to 
assume too much.  Tinya chuckled as she remembered how embarrassed Gates 
had become when he found out he'd misidentified a viaduct as the Great 
Wall. 
	No one seemed to have noticed her yet, so Tinya moved into the 
shadow of a wall where she could observe without being seen.  Or at least 
that was the theory.
	There was a strange little man running towards her, carrying a 
large sack on his back like a warped Santa Claus, being chased by a 
pigtailed girl.
	"Come back here ya old freak, so I can give you the pounding you 
deserve!"  Her voice was quite rough, and the language seemed 
somehow...masculine?  The telepathic earplug that gave Tinya instant 
language translation (and translated her words to her listeners) had 
apparently come with her into her current state, but it didn't always 
get subtleties right if the speaker wasn't thinking about what they were 
saying.
	"Why do you torment a helpless old man?" snapped back the smaller 
target.  Despite his size and apparent age, he hardly seemed helpless to 
Tinya.
	"Not only are you a perv, but you scotched my last chance at a 
cure for maybe years!  Happosai, you are dead meat!"  The girl was 
closing the distance.  She was wearing an oversized red shirt with wooden 
ties and baggy black trousers.  The old man, Happosai? was wearing a 
maroon bodysuit that looked something like the "ninja" in old tridee 
films Tinya had seen.
	"Now, now, Ranma-chan, you look good th--"  The man screeched to 
a halt as he spotted Tinya.  "New cutie!  Sweeto!"  He leapt at her 
chest, arms outstretched...
	...and passed right through Tinya as if she wasn't there and into 
the wall.
	"Nice dodge!" said Ranma-chan.  "I didn't even see you move!"  
	"I wouldn't call it a dodge, exactly," said Happosai as he 
attempted to fondle Tinya's rear end, seemingly no worse the wear for his 
recent impact.
	"Excuse me..." began the white-cloaked girl, "what are you 
doing?" 
	"Oh, his usual.  Well, you letch, looks like you finally found a 
girl you can't molest!"  Ranma-chan grinned and cracked her knuckles. 
	"So it would seem.  Well, I'll just have to have a good cry in 
your bosom!"  Happosai launched himself at the pig-tailed girl.  He was 
met by an elbow in the face.
	"Stuff it, creep!"
	"I know when I'm not wanted!  But to show you there's no hard 
feelings, here's a present!"  The old man produced a sphere from nowhere 
and shoved it at Ranma-chan while hopping away.  It looked for all the 
world like a cartoon bomb, complete with hissing fuse.
	"Heeheehee!" cackled Happosai as he hopped away with leaps Tinya 
was pretty sure were impossible for a non-superhuman.
	"Hey lady, you'd better get out of here before this thing 
blows!"  Ranma-chan appeared to be trying to shake the sphere off but it 
was coated in something sticky.
	"Maybe I can disrupt--" As Apparition approached, the fuse 
vanished, and the bomb exploded.  Much to her surprise, she was actually 
thrown backwards by the blast.
	As she regained her "feet" and floated out of the wall (which was 
somewhat less structurally sound than before), she saw Ranma-chan 
standing up as well.  She had scorch marks on her face and clothing, and 
her pigtail was frayed, but otherwise seemed unharmed.
	"I...I actually felt that!"
	"Happosai's Happodaikarin are ki-based, sorta."
	"Ki?"
	"Uh, human life energy, sorta.  Ki blasts affect ghosts.  You're 
a ghost, right?"
	"Sort of.  It's a long story."
	"Aren't they all?  By the way, welcome to Nerima.  I'm Saotome 
Ranma." 
	"Not Ranma-chan?"
	The girl made a face.  "Don't *ever* call me that.  Especially 
not in front of Akane."
	"Okay."  Whoever Akane was...  "My name's Tinya Wazzo, also known 
as Apparition."
	"Tinya.  Pleased to meetcha."  She bowed, and Tinya returned the 
favor.  It was a lot more sensible than a handshake, she decided, 
especially in her condition.
	"So, where exactly is Nerima?  I'm a little lost..."
	"You any kin of the Hibiki clan?"
	Tinya shook her head.
	"Good.  Nerima's a suburb of Tokyo.  In Japan."  Ah.  Now Tinya 
had some idea of where she was.  Almost halfway around the globe from 
Metropolis.  It would take an awfully long time to fly back...  In fact, 
it had probably taken an awfully long time to get here in the first 
place.  Jo must have been frantic!
	"I need to let some friends of mine know where I am.  Could you 
help me make a call?"
	"I s'pose.  C'mon back with me to the dojo."
	Tinya followed Ranma down the street.  She seemed like a very 
unusual girl, especially in her absolute confidence in dealing with a 
ghost, something most humans in this era either denied or were scared 
stiff by.
		^			^			^
	At STAR Labs Yokohama, Dr. Mizugawa frantically pushed buttons on 
a control console.  Shattered pieces of what appeared to be wood, but 
were something almost entirely different, littered the room.  Notes were 
nearly as scattered, though one with the single katakana word "Mentachem" 
was in a clear place.
	The mad scientist peered at the synthesization chamber through 
his thick-lensed glasses.  The device he'd worked on so long was finally 
taking shape.  At last his dreams would come true.
	"They laughed at me at university!  They mocked my theories!  But 
I was right!  Right, do you hear me?"  There was no reply, which Dr. 
Mizugawa accepted as normal.  After all, he never allowed anyone else 
into the lab.
	"Even though my employers only gave me fragments to work with, I 
have been successful in ferreting out the secrets I needed from the 
weapons of the so-called Weather Wizard and Matter Master!  Soon, I, 
Mizugawa Umito, will have the world on its knees!"  He cackled in the 
patented mad scientist manner.  "I shall be known as...as..."
	"How about `Really Easy to Sneak Up On Man'?" suggested a smooth 
voice from behind him.
	"Wh--gkk!" choked out Dr. Mizugawa as a silken-feeling garrote 
fastened around his throat.
	"Naw, too long.  I know, I'll call you `Four-Eyes'."  The 
intruder lowered the mad scientist to the floor and checked his pulse.  
Still alive.  Good.  He might be needed later if there were problems with 
the device.
	The timer chimed on the control console, and the intruder pushed 
the "open" button.  The cover to the synthesization chamber opened, and 
the intruder grabbed the device.
	He then slung the scientist over a shoulder.  "You're coming with 
me, Four-Eyes."
	Unfortunately for the intruder, while his source had been able to 
tell him how to evade all the security systems while breaking into the 
lab, that person hadn't known one small detail.  STAR Labs had rather 
expected Dr. Mizugawa to flip out, and arranged for an alarm to sound if 
certain materials (which the device contained) left the lab.  
	So as the intruder left with his prizes, said alarm sounded.  
"Kuso!" He did *not* want to be caught, and he could already hear guards 
coming.  
	Then the intruder saw the water cooler in the hallway and 
smiled.  If Dr. Mizugawa had been awake to see that smile, he would have 
been very afraid.

			TO BE CONTINUED...

Comments, everyone?

SKJAM!
"Women find leather sexier than oozing scabs."