Hi all,

This is the next installment Hero behind the scene. This is the part that 
will probably either make of break this story.

The previous parts can be found at: http://www.sbm.org/stories/

============================================================================

                       Hero behind the scene: Cologne

                           By: Andrew M. Petalik

This day was not working out for Ryouga. Within seconds of arriving, some
maniac wielding a hose had sprayed him. Now he was being carried God knows
where by an old crone. The scary thing was that she was not only carrying
him... but his backpack and umbrella as well. He stopped squirming for a
moment to take a good look at his captor. 'Cologne.' This was not a good
sign. In this time, she doesn't know that I'm P-chan. He started to squirm
more desperately than ever. He had a very good idea where this was going to
lead.

                   --------------------------------------

Ryouga was seriously pissed and was trying to relieve his frustration by
punching holes in the wall in front of him.
That old bat had tried to cook him.

{Flashback}

>From inside a restaurant called Cat Cafe came the voice of Cologne; "we are
lucky today! I found a delicious looking pig!"
Shampoo replied with a smile, "very lucky today great-grandmother!"

Cologne carried the agitated pig into the back room where a cauldron of
water was already boiling.

"Just wait. You're about to become a scrumptious boiled pig. Someday you'll
thank me for this." Then she dropped him into the water just as Shampoo
came through the door saying, "wait great-grandmother. Not cook this pig."

Almost instantly, a very naked Ryouga leaped out screaming, "EEE-YAAAA! HOT
HOT HOT HOT!"
In mid-air, he struck at Cologne. "Old woman, how dare you?"

She easily deflected his attack and Ryouga went sprawling to the floor. At
this point, a wide-eyed Shampoo quietly left the room.

{End Flashback}

                   --------------------------------------

He had been so mad at the time that when Cologne had offered to train him;
he had laughed in her face... just to piss her off.

On his way out, he realized that he knew very little about the old woman.
Reigning in his temper, he fell into his lost boy act and wandered around
the place in the hopes that he could find/hear something interesting. About
a half an hour later, Cologne's soap finished and she walked out of the TV
room to find Ryouga standing in the hallway.

"What, you're still here?" she asked.
Ryouga got that embarrassed look that he had perfected and asked, "Uh...
where's the front door?"
>From the other room, Shampoo chipped in, "He have very bad sense of
direction."

Cologne calmly pointed to the door, which he used to leave. 'Damn! Didn't
find anything out about her.' He was getting absolutely nowhere today.

                   --------------------------------------

Still feeling frustrated about the whole thing, he decided to use his best
form of stress relief. Heading towards the Tendou's,  he went looking for
Ranma.

Boy had that been a mistake.

Ranma had just gotten his speed training in his pursuit of the Phoenix
pill. To say that Ryouga got trashed was a gross understatement. The worst
part: Akane got to watch the whole thing.

So here he was, punching holes in the wall when a voice behind him said not
unkindly, "So. It looks as though you've been made to play the fool."

Turning around, he found Cologne standing on the nearby guardrail. "I was
thinking how I'd like to talk to you again."

After a moment's hesitation, Ryouga replied, "Funny... I was just thinking
the same thing."

         ---------------------------------------------------------

Cologne put him up for the night. Next morning, she packed her stuff, told
Shampoo that she would be away for a few days and left. She kept him in
sight the whole time having been warned about his terrible sense of
direction. To maintain the illusion, he had made the occasional wrong turn.
After the fifth time, she smacked him on the head with that staff of hers.
He followed her more carefully after that.

She brought him to a wooded area about an hour away from Nerima.

"Ryouga, stay here and do your warm-up. There's something I have to attend
to. I'll be back shortly" she said then bounded off.

After a few minutes, he pulled out the Omni. 'Green light. Everything's on
course. I guess I can sit back and enjoy the ride.' After putting away the
device, he threw himself into his training with verve.

About a half an hour later, she came back cackling evilly. Before he could
say anything, she walked up to nearby boulder and said, "before we begin...
I want too see you shatter this boulder."
Ryouga sized up the boulder and. "Is that all?"

Arrogantly, he walked up to it while cracking his knuckles. "Heh heh. And
here I was wondering what arduous training you would put me through."
Cologne looked at him and replied in a bland voice, "mighty confident,
aren't we?"

"Yes!" he screamed while thrusting his fist into the boulder, which split
neatly in two. Turning back to the old woman, he said, "how's that?"
"Fine," she said. "Except I didn't say split it. I said I wanted to see you
shatter it."

"Like this." Cologne poked the right side of the boulder Ryouga had split.

The chunk obliterated itself, leaving nothing but rubble. Ryouga stared at
the remains dumbly. 'What an awesome technique. She barely used any effort
doing it too.'

"Care to learn that trick," the old crone asked.
Ryouga was still too caught up in his thoughts. "And I thought nothing
could shock me more than your face."

Ryouga earned himself a smack on the head for that one.

         ---------------------------------------------------------

That evening, Ryouga decided to go out for a walk. After wandering around
for a bit, he heard her voice, "That's still no reason to run out on me.
Didn't I do my best for him?"

Ryouga sat quietly and spied on Akane who was sitting at the edge of the
creek. Although he wanted to go and comfort her since she was obviously
upset, she had this way of messing with his mind that he was wary of. His
recent actions were more than enough proof. He had bad-mouthed Ranma to his
teacher, Ms. Hinako. That had been really dishonorable and he hated himself
for it. He was content to just stare at Akane's beautiful face and lovely
figure before sneaking back to his camp with the Amazon master.

Unfortunately, fate was still not smiling down on Ryouga.

Akane suddenly got up and hefted a fair sized stone while saying, "Ranma,
you are such a... JERK!" With the final word, she launched her payload
right at him. 'She must've heard me,' were his last thoughts.

                   --------------------------------------

When he came to, he was in a strange camp with Akane cooking something. 'Uh
oh...'

Ryouga looked into her eyes and forgot everything else. He accepted the
plate of food she offered him and happily took a bite. The food was
horrible. He had no idea how anyone could make something taste that bad.

As he sat there twitching, Akane asked, "I guess it isn't so good?"

A Ranma-esque rose reply to his lips, but one look at her pleading eye
pushed him over the edge once again. "N-n-never in my life have I tested...
anything s-s-s-so exquisite!" he exclaimed as sincerely as possible.

It took everything he had not to spew it up right then and there.

Ranma showed up about then and started insulting her again.

'He may be right about the cooking... but there are better ways of saying
it.' He bounced his spoon of Ranma's head and things went downhill from
there. Ranma called him weak and Ryouga lost it and charged. Suddenly,
something smashed into the back of his head and everything went dark.

         ---------------------------------------------------------

When Ryouga came to the next day, he found himself thoroughly tied up and
hanging several feet above the ground. Cologne was sitting on this massive
bolder before him. 'I don't even want to think about how she got that thing
up there.'

Cologne told him that the training consisted of him trying to hit the
breaking point as the boulder was swung at him. A sweat-drop appeared on
his head as he realized that this was going to hurt quite a bit. She jumped
to the ground and started the show.

After splattering into the side of the boulder several times, Cologne got
annoyed and said, "not again."

Jumping on top of the boulder, she addressed the semi-dazed Ryouga crossly,
"How many times must I tell you? You have to hit the breaking point!"
Stabbing her finger into the boulder, it blew itself apart, peppering
Ryouga with a blast of shrapnel. After letting out a startled, "Yow!" he
passed out.

                            -------------------

When he came to, it was to hear Cologne suggesting that Akane abandon Ranma
and switch to Ryouga. He went cold. Although that would be bliss, he knew
that it was never meant to be. To even entertain the thought would lead to
madness.
"Enough with the matchmaking old woman! Listen to me; the only thing on my
mind is defeating Ranma." He declared vehemently. 'That should get her mind
of the relationship, for a bit... I hope.'

                            -------------------

Night had fallen.

He was getting better. It didn't hurt as much when he smashed into the side
of the boulder. Having Akane around wasn't helping matters though.

As the boulder came at him, he poked it several times... but the damned
thing wouldn't break. As they flew apart, Cologne said angrily, "not good
enough. You cannot find the breaking point with other things on your mind."
Ryouga retorted, "I don't have anything else on my mind."

Cologne stopped the boulder and swung it around while favoring Ryouga with
a scowl. Printed neatly on the side of the boulder was the name Akane where
he had hit it. "One more time," she said and pushed the boulder off into
another swing.

Ryouga started poking the boulder like the last time. Cologne completely
lost her patience before he even got anywhere near finishing the attempt
and hit the breaking point herself. "I said the breaking point."

The blast flipped Ryouga upside down. A lucky shard hit his sweater,
dislodging the Omni from it hiding place. It fell to the ground below, the
impact causing the lid to open. The green light lit up with a satisfied
"ding." The two of them look towards the source of the noise.

As soon as Cologne noticed the strange device, the green light went out and
the red one starts blinking. Out of curiosity, she let go of her rope and
dropped to the ground below. Picking up the device, she inspected it
carefully.

Ryouga's eyes widened in horror as he realized just what she had in her
hands. "NO!" he screamed in pure desperation as he shattered his bonds. A
single finger touched her shoulder just before she pushed the button.


Hope you liked it.

  ___________
 / Here lies:\  "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"
|   Andrew    | http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~ttant/SouthPark/
|             | 
|   I think   |         Andrew Petalik {ICQ UIN: 160869}
| he's hungry | Want to cook a yummy cabbit? Go here:
|             | http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6808/cookcabbits.html