With some revision, and now knowing that there are people that read my
stuff (even if it's just adfics...thank you, thank you all!  [/Oscar
acceptance speech]), I think it's time to send out Chapter 5.  Remember, I
have all five up at http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/law/44/fanfic.html,
along with the Sam and Max teaser and one of the two adfics I sent out.
(I'll put the third on later tonight, probably.)  Also, seeing as these
chapters are looking well within any boundaries of size, I'm going to
start putting them together...but, just so the division isn't forgotten,
I'll slip in goodies between where Parts 1 and 2 _would_ have divided.
This time, I'll drop in a teaser for something I'm thinking up but need
to know more (or some) Bubblegum Crisis for.

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And here we are at Chapter 5. About time for the guests
to arrive (or rearrive, if your name is Washu). We have
the food, we have a few extra guests, and I foresee
more of both. (One will be necesary, the other's just
because I'm in charge. ^_^) Of course, we still have
Friday morning to get through, and Sakura's gonna hate
me for not forgetting about it.

Anyway, for those of you who'd rather not see what my
demented mind did in the last four chapters, we'll go
over it briefly:

Sakura's having a slumber party, and most fighting
game girls and quite a few anime characters are
scheduled to appear.
Washu arrived via spaceship, and Mihoshi stuck herself
there by crashing said spaceship.
Mihoshi ate all the food for the party while stuck at
Sakura's house, and tried to make up for it by cloning
some more in Washu's lab on the ship. Instead, she fired
up the still-running dimensional gateway, and hence
has brought most of the regular characters from Ranma
1/2 into the picture.
Furthermore, since no one who had an idea of how to
turn the thing off (or operate it at all, for that matter)
has tried to close the gateway, it's allowed for some
lab equipment to be stolen and Kasumi (the one from
Ranma 1/2, not the one Lilith's invited) to walk into The
Vision of Escaflowne.
And, while Kasumi went to Gaia, Merle decided to walk
through and see what was behind the gate and what
buttons she could push. And she's even left the thing on.

We won't specifically mention any new people in this
chapter, though we will have a few hop through the
gate for reasons of partycrashing or worse. So, having
one section of the opening we're able to skip over, we
can get straight to the fanfic...

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The cat-girl looked up and realized that she had a bit of
a task ahead of her. Washu had used a repulsorlift
when she wanted out; the others had used the same
thing to leave when they entered the dimension, as
Mihoshi had brought it back down when she opened the
dimensional gateway instead of cloning food. This time,
it was still stuck up at the top of the hole, and the
spaceship Merle was standing on was on the deep
bottom. The spaceship, on its landing, had in fact made
sure to redefine the word "deep", barely managing to
stay out of the magma layer on its landing. This
phenomenon also explained why it didn't seem all that
cold down in the hole, despite the fact that very little
light was currently reaching the place. (It also meant
that it might get a little too hot later on, but, eh, so
what?)

Anyway, Merle was stuck down in the hole, and she
didn't quite have anything to get out of it with. So, she
tried the only thing she could think of - screaming for
help at high octaves, which would have worked if
everyone wasn't currently deaf due to Mihoshi crying at
the same time. Of course, this meant that there was
virtually no way out. I say virtually, because the anime
world defies physics, and all it took for stimulus for
Merle to climb out faster than grease from a frying pan
was a stirring from the ship. We won't say what, just
because we're saving that for later chapters. But, with
her being part cat and all, the noise where there should
have been none was ample to make her tear out of the
hole rapidly.

After panting heavily, looking down at what she'd
climbed out of, and fainting, Merle woke up inside the
house and looked up at the faces hovering over her
resting place that had changed to the couch.

She decided to force me to use a thesaurus by having
another sudden loss of blood flow to the brain.

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And now for the teaser:

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

[Picture of Genom Headquarters]

Genom has been known for their evil creations.  Today, they partner up
with a company.

[Picture of lingerie shop]

At the same time, a lingerie store known to a select few as a front for an
elite, all-female boomer destruction unit enters into a partnership...with
the same company.

[Shot inside a non-descript, company, going past various cubicles]

Some would think this to be a conflict of interest for the company in
question.  The company's employees know otherwise.

[Stops moving for a second behind a cubicle where Quake is running, then
cuts to Sylia in bed, sleeping (yes, the covers are over her, hentai!)]

However, the partnership between the company and the Silky Doll will allow
for a contingency plan that must now be put into effect.

[Close-up on Sylia - notice red dots all over her face; cut to Sylia on
phone]

Sylia:  We all have chicken pox...great.  Who runs the mechs, then, while
we're in bed for the next week?  Huh?  [Pause.]  You think that would
work?  Yes, yes, I know they're engineers, and female, but I've met their
boss...okay, we'll try it...

[switch to sillouettes:  one has a ponytail, one has hair best described
as "Marge Simpson's, but shorter", one has a hairdo about
like Akane's, and one has a hairdo roughly resembling a triangle]

Meet the four temporary Knight Sabers.

Coming soon to the FFML.

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

And no, I'm not telling the name, or the crossover series for that matter
(but you might be able to guess).  Anyway, back to the fic...

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

Meanwhile, Mihoshi was trying to help Sakura out by
setting up all the decorations. In reality, she was
looking more and more like a cat that had been playing
with a ball of yarn just a bit too long, hence the crying.
Ranma was trying to untangle Mihoshi without messing
up the decorations terribly or putting himself in
Mihoshi's place. Akane was nearby, hammering Ranma
when he started stalling around the, er, midsection.
Ryoga was off trying to get some more food for the
party, also known as a Bad Thing (tm, The Jihad to Kill
Barney). Ukyo was cooking lunch with Shampoo, and
killing each other over whether the main course would
be ramen or okonomiyaki. Sakura was, of course, at
school attempting to stomach the combination
gruel/spinach juice concoction the cafeteria workers
tried to pass off as edible food.

Now, this is all fine, normal behavior for all parties
involved, but it lacks development of the plot. Hence,
something had to happen, and that came in the form of
a cat-girl from The Vision of Escaflowne climbing out of
a hole at a speed that suggested a slug creature that
happened to find such a species to be the equivalent of
a gourmet meal was not all that far behind. Of course,
slug creatures don't like heat - they prefer containment
tanks for genetic material filled with food. But that's
for later on. A few lapses of consciousness later, all of
the crew save Sakura was getting the brief explanation
of how she got here. A few Homer-like expressions of
alarm at their own stupidity after that, and the crew
realized they were obligated to go down to the ship and
shut the stupid thing off before things got worse.

Of course, if all it took was a simple trip down and a
lever flip to fix the situation, it'd get boring, and I
wouldn't have much to write about.

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

By the time they reached the spaceship, they could hear
the chaos. Swords, explosions, electricity and fire
travelling in unnatural directions, and other unpleasant
sounds indicating several types of pain that generally
isn't experienced without death coming along for the
ride. Hence, a very important and life-impacting
decision had to be made.

"Okay, who wants to go in there and hit that lever?"

Ironically, for all the noise and mayhem the group had
been known for so far, you could have dropped a pin
and heard it after that was said, if it weren't for the
ship's apparent residents handling the situation
themselves.

Finally, Ranma's brave voice spoke up. "I ain't goin' in
there."

This was followed by a series of dumb looks, prior
committments, vehement refusals, and enthusiastic
appointments of other parties. After the ensuing fight
above the ship subsided, the group going in was
narrowed down to three unhappy individuals - Ranma,
Akane, and Mihoshi. The first two were chosen for their
fighting ability, courage, and their aversion to being hit
with mallets, projectiles, or bonbori. The third was
chosen because she had the most knowledge of the
equipment involved. (Not that that was much, mind you,
but it was more than the rest of the crew had.)

Meanwhile, Sakura arrived to an empty and quiet
house, decorated somewhat for the slumber party to
begin later that night. She noted the lack of sound and
destruction, and grew understandably worried. Just
then, a pig walked in the door with a briefcase on his
back. Luckily, as noted earlier, Sakura had read up on
her manga, and heated some water for P-Chan while
noting the groceries the pig had carried with him. He'd
actually made good time, considering who it was and
that the groceries were from a town near Tokyo...near
the other side of Tokyo, to be precise.

Which scared her even further. The only way the pig got
lucky enough to make it back in time to do anything
was when the author was going to use him real soon,
whether the author be named Rumiko or Nick. Further
scaring her was the fact that the pig wandered right
into the hole while the water was heating up.

I'd foreshadow further, but it's getting ridiculous.

----------------------------------------------------
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With that chapter out of the way, let's see if anyone can guess who I'm
planning the Knight Sabers to be crossed over with...and let's hope I can
keep it to more of a crossover than the fusion it sounds like...

Now I'd best start on the next chapter...

Nicholas Eckert
vidstudent