Chapter 4 isn't *complete* yet, but here's the first half of it, and 
a *special* Lurker teaser for something I've got brewing as a 
September project. Enjoy!

   Chapter 4: Running Interference

   Mousse sighed guiltily as he unrolled a futon on the roof of the 
Ucchan. "I can't believe I did that...but..."
   Mousse had been privy to the conversation between Cologne and 
Shampoo earlier at the Nekohanten, as he'd been in his cage at that 
time. When he got free, and got some hot water, he left. He didn't 
announce his departure, and he didn't think the wrinkled old bitch 
would care anymore anyway. He just had to get out of there.
   He'd barely left the restaurant when he found himself the victim 
of a drive-by splashing. The duck trudged out of the soaked robes, 
and staggered down the street.
   A short while later, he noticed Shampoo enter the Ucchan, and 
managed to hide himself well enough to listen in. As they finished 
making their plans, the duck trudged inside...
   
   "Mousse? What you do here?" Shampoo asked the bespectacled duck.
   "Quack."
   "I think he wants hot water, sugar," Ukyou said, producing a 
kettle and pouring some over the duck, who immediately rose to man 
height, and somehow produced a set of robes to cover himself.
   "Thank you, Kuonji Ukyou," Mousse said, turning to the okonomiyaki 
chef and bowing.
   As Mousse bowed, a haze began to issue from his sleeves.
   "Aiyah...Shampoo so sleepy all of sudden..."
   "Me too, hon," Ukyou said, yawning loudly. "Think...I'll take...a 
little nap..." 
   Within seconds, both girls were soundly snoring on the floor of 
the okonomiyaki-ya.
   Mousse bowed his head, and sighed. "Forgive me, ladies," he said, 
removing a very well concealed set of noseplugs and gasping slightly 
from holding his breath. "I don't want to see either of you harmed in 
a foolish quest to stop the old hag, and I for one don't care if 
Ranma does marry a man."
   Mousse turned, and walked out of the restaurant, then leapt to its 
roof and began setting up camp.
  
   Now, he lay atop the roof of Ukyou's shop, unobserved by all. His 
new mission in life, he decided, was to prevent Shampoo and Ukyou 
from intervening in Cologne's affairs at all costs.

   **********

   "Mmmm....Ryo-chan...."
   "Ranma, my love..."
   Ukyou gasped in horror at the spectacle before her. Ranma lay nude 
upon a satin bed, scarlet hair untied and flowing in a pool beneath 
her, as Ryouga slowly lowered himself onto her. Their lips met in a 
long and passionate kiss, as they began to...

   "NOOO!!!" Ukyou screamed as she bolted up from the floor. 
Immediately many joints in her body told her to go to hell.
   Stumbling over to a chair, rubbing at her throbbing temples, she 
noticed Shampoo, curled in a catlike position on the floor, fast 
asleep. "Th...hell?" she mumbled groggily. She glanced through the 
shop curtains. Somehow, someone had closed and locked up her store. 
Ignoring the protests of her joints, she made her way to the cash 
register, and looked inside. She heaved a sigh of relief--nothing was 
missing. Sitting down heavily on a stool, she wondered how her shop 
had gotten locked, and how she and Shampoo could have fallen asleep 
like that. She looked through the curtains...it was twilight out, 
with a few stars twinkling. She growled in frustration.
   "Dammit! Shampoo! Oi, Shampoo!" She trudged over and nudged the 
sleeping Chinese girl. Shampoo moaned quietly, and rolled over.
   Uttering noises of disgust and annoyance, Ukyou lifted the Amazon 
from the floor and plopped her in a chair. "Wake UP, you bouncy 
purple hairball!"
   Slowly, groggily, Shampoo blinked herself awake. "Aiyah...what 
Ukyou making many noise for? Shampoo head hung over."
   "You ditz, we've been asleep all day! It's night now! The old 
crone has a major head start on us!"
   "Aiyah..." Shampoo became slightly more sober at that, looking out 
the window. Then her eyes widened. "Aiyah...is Ryouga..."
   Ukyou whirled, and saw the lost boy. Immediately she dashed for 
the door and opened it.
   Ryouga looked blearier than usual, and a whole lot sadder. 
"Ryouga! Get your ass in here, buster!"
   Ryouga looked at the source of the voice. "Ukyou? You seen Ran...
"
   Ukyou grabbed Ryouga by the arm and dragged him into the 
restaurant, slamming the door.

   "What's going on?" Ryouga asked. He blinked in confusion. Ukyou 
and Shampoo looked awfully pissed off.
   "Ryouga no leave here. We keep under watch, make sure you no do 
stupid thing."
   "She's right, sugar. You might as well get used to us, cause we're 
not lettin' you go anywhere."
   Ryouga blinked. "No...no, I gotta...gotta find Ranma."
   Ukyou and Shampoo exchanged a glance, and then scowled. "You ain't 
goin' nowhere near Ranchan, lost boy," Ryouga informed him.
   "She right, pig. You stay away Ranma. Ranma no is yours."
   Ryouga blinked in confusion. He was very angry at hearing them say 
that...why? His head was so cloudy...
   All he knew was that he wanted to see Ranma. He wasn't going to 
let anything stop him.
   "I'm sorry," he said, standing. Ukyou clutched her spatula, and 
Shampoo armed herself with bonbori. Ryouga stared at their weapons, 
shrugged, and walked to the doorway.
   "Hey! You get back here, ya jackass!"
   Ryouga ignored the enraged chef, and with a cry of "Bakusai 
Tenketsu!", reduced the entrance of the Ucchan to splinters. Hoisting 
his backpack, he trudged out into the encroaching darkness.
   "Gotta...find Ranma...."

   Mousse heard all this from above, and grinned. "So, the old hag's 
got to him already. This could be fun to watch." And with that, he 
drifted off into peaceful slumber.

   "Aiyah...what we do now, Ukyou?"
   "Only one thing we can do, Shampoo," Ukyou said. "We gotta warn 
Ranchan." 
   "You no think great-grandmother get to Ranma already too?"
   Ukyou sighed. "I hope not." The two girls bolted out into the 
night, headed for the Tendou dojo.

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   This September...

	 "Ara...Ranma-kun? There's an American officer of some sort here to 
see you."
	Ranma looked up. In the doorway, stood a gaijin who appeared to be 
in his late twenties. He wore a crisply pressed, dark blue uniform, 
and his short black hair was cropped severely. He blinked. "Huh? 
Who're you?"
	In somewhat stilted Japanese, the gaijin said, "You are Saotome 
Ranma, correct?"
	Ranma nodded. "Yeah, that's right."
	The officer bowed stiffly, obviously unaccustomed to it. "I'd like 
to have a moment of your time, if I may..."

	Ranma sat in a black sedan, with two other gaijin. One was an older 
American, with intense eyes and a calm, confident demeanor. The other.
..
	The other one was...strange. He was dark-skinned, powerfully built, 
and bald. On his forehead was a strange golden symbol. Ranma blinked 
for a moment, before the first one spoke slowly. 
	"Saotome-san...my name is Colonel Jack O'Neill. This," he said, 
gesturing at the black man next to him, "Is Teal'c."
	"How do you do," Teal'c said, in unaccented, perfect Japanese.
	"I'll cut right to the point, Saotome-san," O'Neill continued. 
"There is a...project, that has been going on for a number of months 
now, which may have an impact on this entire planet. We've got a good 
group of people on it already, but we're running into some things 
that...well, they're a little bit beyond the usual military tactics.
"
	Teal'c picked up here. "You see, we've heard reports of some of the 
things which go on here in your city, and we know there are a number 
of you with skills that would be very useful to us."
	Ranma scowled. "You ain't tryin' to get me to fight in some war are 
you?"
	O'Neill and Teal'c looked at each other for a moment, before O'Neill 
replied slowly, "Not...as such." Clearing his throat, he continued, 
"We've been authorized to show you and a few of your friends 
something which must never be discussed outside our facility in 
America."
	Ranma shook his head. "Hey, hey! You're tellin' me you want me to go 
to America? What for?"
	Teal'c answered, "Please, Saotome-san...all we're asking is for you 
to come and see something, and to hear us out. You're not committing 
to anything except keeping quiet about what you see and hear. We're 
taking a great risk in even coming here, but it's one we're willing 
to take...this is a very urgent matter."
	Ranma thought for a moment, then sighed. "Alright, give me ten 
minutes to get ready to go."

	After being checked through several security stations, and scowled 
at by more Air Force officers than he'd ever thought he'd see in his 
life, Ranma was ushered into another elevator. "We're almost there," 
O'Neill said.
	The three of them stepped out of the elevator a moment later, and 
walked into a control room. O'Neill frowned at the activity level in 
the room.
	A bald American in a general's uniform walked up to them, and said, 
"O'Neill, I hope you haven't made a huge mistake here."
	"So do I," the colonel said, then nodded at the plate glass window 
on the other side of the room. "Someone going through?"
	"Probe," the general said, then gestured into the room. O'Neill 
indicated for Ranma to go with him.
	As they approached the window, Ranma gasped. Before them, in a large 
bay, was a metal grate ramp, which went through a huge stone ring. 
One part of the ring was spinning, and golden chevrons on its circle 
were locking down.
	"Chevron 7, locked," someone at a control console called. Then, the 
ring flared with brilliant blue light, and what looked like a stream 
of water erupted from it. The water pulled back through the ring, 
resolving into a shimmering blue portal. A robotic probe rolled up 
the ramp, and disappeared into the portal.
	Ranma blinked. "What--what the hell is that?"
	O'Neill grinned, and led Ranma into a small conference room. 
"Saotome-san, let me explain our operation to you..."

			STARG/\TE
			  SG-1/2
             coming in September

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   -----------Yellow Side---------------------------------------------
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____
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Ignorance is a disease best cured by maiming the patient.
"The Eternal Lost Lurker"
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