Subject: [FFML] [Fanfic][Ranma] The Journey - 2
From: Angus MacSpon
Date: 8/10/1998, 5:50 AM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com

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"The Journey"
by Angus MacSpon

Chapter Two

Based on characters and situations created by Rumiko Takahashi.  Also
based (rather, er, loosely) on situations created by Jules Verne.
Comments and criticism welcome!
Email:  macspon@ihug.co.nz
Web:    http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/

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"It's cold," complained Akane, shivering as she marched up the
mountainside.

"I wouldn't worry," said Ranma dolefully.  "It's gonna be pretty hot
soon enough."

She considered bopping him one on general principle, but it didn't seem
worth the effort.  "You really think this is going to be a disaster?"
she asked.

He pointed up ahead, to where Soun and Genma strode along in front.
"With those two in charge?  Count on it."  He glanced back behind them.
"And if you want further proof ..."

It was quite a procession, she had to admit.  Ukyo was walking along
not far behind.  She had declined to dress up warmly, and seemed to be
enjoying the cool weather; though, oddly, she had wrapped her giant
spatula up in a heavy wool wrapping with fur trimming.  Shampoo, Cologne
and Mousse were just behind her.  Mousse had insisted on replacing his
thick glasses with snow goggles, and as a result was so much blinder
than usual that Shampoo was having to lead him around on a leash.
(She did seem to be tugging on the leash rather harder than was strictly
necessary, but Mousse did not appear to mind much.)

Next, in a cluster, came the Kuno siblings, Yuka, Sayuri, Hiroshi,
Daisuke, and Miss Hinako.  Akane was at a loss to explain why most of
them were there.  The Kunos, yes, but the others?  Well, it was just one
of those things, she supposed.  Sayuri, Yuka, Hiroshi and Daisuke looked
to be enjoying the trip, chattering amongst themselves and pointing out
the sights.  Miss Hinako -- currently in her little-girl form -- was
walking along at Kodachi Kuno's side, a happy smile on her face.  The
gymnast seemed to find her curiously fascinating, and was occasionally
feeding her sweets (well, Akane hoped they were sweets) and taking notes
of the results in a little notebook.  Tatewaki was waving his arms and
declaiming about something or other.  The rest of them, of course, were
ignoring him.  He did not appear to notice.

And far behind, she could just make out the form of Happosai, struggling
along under an enormous sack that weighed several times more than he
did.  He hadn't gotten a grope in for hours now and was falling further
behind every minute.  With a bit of luck they'd be able to lose him
completely by nightfall.

At least they'd been able to ditch Gosunkugi at the Tokyo airport.

Yes, quite a procession.  Akane remembered the expression on the customs
officials' faces when they landed in Reykjavik.  There'd been a bit of a
fuss when Mousse tried to walk through the x-ray machine and they'd
insisted on searching him.  And then, when they tried to go through
Happosai's luggage ... no, best _not_ to remember that, really.

As a matter of fact, she thought with some surprise, just about everyone
she knew was here.  All except for --

Then, as they walked around a bend in the trail, she heard a voice she
recognised.  "Excuse me, but do you know the way to Furinkan -- whaaaa?"

"Hi there, P-Chan," said Ranma cheerfully.  "I was wondering when you'd
show up."

"Ranma!" exclaimed the bandanna'd one.  "What are you doing here in
Iceland?"  He stopped suddenly, and rubbed his eyes.  "No, wait a
moment.  That's ridiculous.  All right, where am I really?  Mount Fuji,
or something?"

"Um, no, this really is Iceland," said Akane.

"Oh, I see.  This is 'let's-play-games-with-Ryoga's-head' day, right?"

"No, really.  It's like this ..."  She explained briefly.  Ryoga's face
got longer and longer as she spoke.

"So that's it?" he said when she finished.  "You're on your way on a
journey to the centre of the earth, and it's your fathers' idea?"

"Well, yes.  They found this old manuscript inside a book after I got
mad because Ranma was being so rude --"

"I KNEW IT!" Ryoga exclaimed triumphantly.  "Somehow, somewhere, I just
_knew_ that had to be it!  RANMA, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

The sound of multiple face-faults could be heard for miles around.

			---===***===---

That night, Genma, Soun, Ranma and Akane squeezed into a tent to discuss
what they would find at the top of the mountain.  "The document said we
have to go descend into the crater over which the shadow of Scartaris
falls at the end of June," said Genma pompously.

"Yeah, but what's that supposed to mean?" demanded Ranma.

"Foolish boy!  Your ignorance shames me!" Genma roared, hastily
pocketing his copy of 'The Official Guide to Volcanos of Iceland'. "Many
volcanos have more than one vent," he explained.  "We obviously need to
pick the right one to go through.  The document means that we take the
vent that the shadow of Scartaris, which is the name of one of the peaks
of this mountain, touches at midday toward the end of June."

"Ahh, so that's what it means," said Soun, enlightened.  Akane biffed
him one.

"But wait a moment," protested Ranma.  "It's the middle of October.  Are
we gonna have to sit around here till next year, old man?"

"Oh, I'm sure that won't be necessary," Genma told him airily.  "After
all, there won't be more than two or three vents.  And we know that the
sun rises in the west and sets in the -- no, I mean ... well, I'm sure
it won't be too difficult to pick the right one."  He laughed hollowly.
"You just wait, boy.  You'll see!"

			---===***===---

The party reached the crest of Sneffels at mid-morning the next day.
They stared down into the crater.

"We're doomed, aren't we?" said Akane.

"Yep," replied Ranma dolefully.

There were hundreds of vents, dotting the floor of the crater.  They
ranged in size from small crevices little more than a foot wide, to
yawning chasms that could have taken half a dozen elephants at a gulp.
Steam rose from a few.

"Well, pops, what now?" demanded Ranma.

"Quiet, boy, let me think."  Genma leaned over to Soun and murmured in
his ear, just loudly enough for Ranma to overhear, "You know, Tendo, I
think we might have a problem."

"Stupid old man!"  Ranma hooked his foot around Genma's knee and yanked,
sending the man rolling to the ground.  Genma leaped up in a flash,
launching a lightning-quick hand strike back at Ranma, who dodged and
returned the favour.  In a moment they were leaping back and forth from
rock to boulder, launching strikes and counterstrikes.

Akane sat down and watched, fuming.  Hiroshi, Daisuke, Sayuri and Yuka
sat down and watched, munching popcorn.  Miss Hinako sat down and
munched some more of Kodachi's sweets, beaming at the sight of all the
pretty colours in the sky.  The others just sat and watched, or got
bored and played pinochle.

Before long, though, one of the combatants -- each of them later claimed
it was the other -- misstepped, or slipped on some volcanic ash, or was
distracted by a UFO (again, depending on whose story you accept).  The
result was inevitable: both of them went sliding down the slope, into
the crater. They came to a stop just short of one of the vents.

Ranma opened his eyes, half-dazed.  He heard footsteps.  A man stepped
into view, staring down at him.

"Welcome, visitors to famous crater of Mount Sneffels!" the stranger
exclaimed.  He was short and stocky, clad all in brown, wearing a cloth
cap.  "Here on Mount Sneffels we have famous 'Crater of Mysterious
Vents,'" he continued.  "You come see ..."

Ranma sat up, rubbing his head.  The rest of the party were hurrying
down the slope to join him and his father.  They all followed after the
strange man.

"Here you see many many vents in volcano," the man continued.  "Each
vent have own mysterious legend ..."

"You know," said Ranma, "there's something very familiar about this
guy."

"This vent," the guide lectured, pointing to a nearby chasm, "ancient
legend say lead to caves of Ulgo.  This vent here, old story say lead to
some place called Moria.  This other vent, legend say, lead to Aladdin's
cave, but, a-ha, I try it and there nothing there, honest.  I not tell
you which vent lead to caverns of wild Amazon nymphomaniacs.  And this
vent here lead to --"

Genma cleared his throat.  "Actually, we're looking for the vent that
leads to the centre of the earth."

"Oh, you not want to try that one, sir.  Old Frenchman, he come here
year and year ago, and then he go make up wild story about man in
submarine --"

"Wait a moment," put in Soun.  "What was that about the vent that leads
to the cavern of wild Amazon nymphomaniacs?"  Cologne biffed him one.

"See here," the Guide was saying, waving a sheet of paper.  "I have only
map of all vents.  You want, I show you vent lead to Fraggle Rock --"

"Good Lord!" shouted Genma suddenly, pointing.  "Look, the Goodyear
Blimp!"

"What?  Again?" said the guide, looking around.  "It just here two days
ago --"  As he looked in vain, Genma hastily snatched the map, replacing
it with a sheet that read, "IOU One Map, signed Ranma Saotome".

"Now!" Genma shouted, scanning the map quickly.  "This way!"  He pointed
to a large vent not far off.  The party rapidly tied a rope to a
convenient nearby boulder and started downward into the pit.

"Oh!  Sirs!" exclaimed the guide, finally catching sight of what they
were doing.  "Where you go -- oh!  You choose that one?  Very strange
choice, I thinking ..."

			---===***===---

A hundred yards down into the pit. Genma paused to check the map again.
"Yes, yes," he said, chuckling.  "This is the one all right ..."

"Let's see," Ranma said, peering over his shoulder.  "What -- hey, you
stupid old man, you're holding it upside-down --"

At that moment, by dramatic necessity, the rope broke.  They fell ...

			---===***===---

Happosai came panting up to the summit of Sneffels, cursing under his
breath and gasping under the weight of his panty-cache.  "Ungrateful
brats," he muttered.  "Leaving me in the lurch like that -- but just
wait, I'll show them --"

His foot slipped in some volcanic ash.  He windmilled his arms
frantically to keep his balance, and his sack of panties dropped to the
ground and bounced slowly down into the crater.  "NOOOO!!  MY PRECIOUS
DARLINGS!!!" he wailed, sprinting recklessly after it.  He caught it
just on the lip of an ominous-looking vent -- the very one, oddly
enough, that had been indicated by Saknussemm's mysterious document --
and held it up triumphantly.

"Precious, precious, precious!" he cried.  "My Precious!  O my
Precious!"  And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on
his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the
brink, and then with a shriek he fell.  Out of the depths came his last
wail _Precious_, and he was gone.

The guide scratched his head.  "These visitors, they get stranger all
the time," he muttered.

			---===***===---

"Stupid old man!" Ranma shouted, throttling his father.

"Ow!  Let me go ... boy ..."

"Oh, stop that, Ranma," exclaimed Akane, rubbing her back.  "Let's just
climb back out of here, and find the right vent."

"Better yet, let's go home," muttered Daisuke.

"Sounds like a good idea for once, sugar," agreed Ukyo.

Cologne cleared her throat.  "Have you taken a look at this shaft?" she
inquired, pointing upward with her cane.  They all craned their necks
up.  The pit they were in was very deep, and the walls were sheer.

"Well, there's this tunnel, leading further down," suggested Ryoga.  "We
could go that way."

"Oh, right," grumbled Ranma.  "I just knew someone was going to say
that.  We'll end up wandering around at random, following our noses."

Ryoga looked at him in surprise.  "Isn't that what everyone does?"

With a collective sigh, the group started downward.

They walked for what seemed like hours, and probably was.  It was very
dark, of course, but after a while they found they could see their way
by the light shining from Miss Hinako's eyes after one too many of
Kodachi's sweets.

The path twisted and turned, tracing its way down through the depths of
prehistoric stone, passing through layers of oolite, graphite, kunzite
and malachite, through strata composed of devonian, mesozoic, silurian
and diplodocusian granite.  They saw clusters of fossilised bones,
trilobites and tamagotchi.  It was a geologist's heaven.

"Geez, this is boring," said Ranma.

At that moment a voice rang out.  "Stop!" it shouted.

They looked around wildly, and saw a man coming toward them.  He was
strangely dressed, and holding a wicked-looking knife.  His skin was
blue.

"You trespass in the domain of the Phantom Tribe," he said sternly.
"Return now to the surface of El-Hazard, or face the penalty ..."


To be continued ... quite possibly.


Author's Notes:
---------------
Ahem.  Well, I seem to have gotten a little distracted from the Jules
Verne, but never mind.  I'm sure something will crop up.  As you may
have gathered, this is not shaping up to be one of my more serious
fanfics.

A few other acknowledgments are in order: to David Eddings, J R R
Tolkien, Hiroki Hayashi and Ryoe Tsukimura.

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Angus MacSpon                                                Allen Gainsford
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/          http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/