This is the followup to 'At The Movies' but it is a prequel to that
story. Both are part of an alternate timeline and do not strictly
adhere to either Manga or Anime canon. C-C and MST-ies 
are welcomed and appreciated either publicly or privately.

Disclaimer: All characters mentioned herein are the property of
Takahashi Rumiko and are used without permission on a solely
non-profit basis. All rights reserved to her and her authorized
licensees.

Note: '...Cats and Dogs' takes place within the first two months
of Ranma's stay at the Tendou Dojo and one day after the story,
'Things To Do:'

Part 3

	Running towards Saotome, Kunou swung wildly. The bokken
was a blur as he closed in on his opponent, but Ranma was prepared.
Seeing the obsessed Captain of the Kendo Team coming, he
sidestepped and let him run past. Before Kunou could turn back to
his foe, Ranma dropped down into a crouch and swept his legs out
from under him.
	As the swordsman fell, he turned and lashed out with his
weapon, forcing his foe to back away, dodging. This bought Kunou
time to jump to his feet and get back into a defensive stance, his
bokken pointing at Saotome.
	Kunou was quite disheveled, his clothes muddied and one
side of his face streaked with dirt from where it had hit the ground.
His vanity aside, he was unhurt, and breathed with no visible
strain; save for the dirt and the sneer on his face, it would not
have been obvious that the last exchange had occurred.
	Ranma stood fifteen feet away, running his right hand
through his hair while looking at the palm of his left. He was
also breathing easily. With a calm, almost bored expression on
his face he said, "What happened? Did the samurai fall and get
his widdle little outfit dirty?"  He chuckled and grinned at
Kunou.
	Kunou glared at Saotome and countered, "Laugh all you
want, Demon, but the battle is far from over. We will see how
amusing you find matters in a few short moments." Kunou
laughed without mirth and shifted into an attack position.
	"Why? Another minute or so and the fight'll be over,
Kunou. I'll be leaving with Uc-chan and you'll be face down
taking a nap, as usual," Ranma declared with boredom.
	"Not this time, Saotome. Soon it will be you, on the
ground, groveling and begging me for mercy. A mercy you will
not receive, not after all of the injuries I have suffered at your
hands. No, I will return all of the indignities you have heaped
upon me a thousandfold. Then the world shall know you as
you truly are: a weak, pathetic coward," Kunou proclaimed in a
proud, booming voice, as he charged Ranma again.
	"Not gonna happen, Kunou!" shouted Ranma. Seeing the
advance, Ranma ran to meet it.

****

	From the deserted lunch room, Gosunkugi was preparing
to start the rain spell for the field . The lights were off and the only
thing that kept the room from total darkness was the meager
sunlight shining in through the open windows. He stood in a corner
of the room, opposite the doors, wearing the heavy white magicians
robes he'd saved for this special occasion. The robes gave him the
warmth he needed in a cafeteria cold enough to make his breath
visible.
	To the left, along the wall, was a newly cleaned window
facing out onto the field. Under that window stood a large, brown,
antiquated table, covered with what seemed like an endless array
of clutter. In front of the table, just to the right, was a huge black
pot seemingly large enough to use to boil a soup for an army.
Today, it was filled with ordinary water slowly being heated by the
angry reddish-blue flame which came from a make-shift burner.
	On the floor next to the pot, Gosunkugi had drawn a focus
circle outlined in white chalk. Inside that circle was a triangle,
connected to the circle at its three vertices. Each of those three
points were marked by foot-long, unlit candles perched on holders
which came up to Gosunkugi's waist.
	Gosunkugi stood just outside the circle as he searched
through the supplies on the table, with a checklist in his
hand. He performed one last inventory before starting the
spell.
	"O.K., cauldron?" He looked toward the pot. "Check.
Then the water in the pot, it has to be boiling." He saw the
water was bubbling and reached for a cooking mitt on the
table. Grabbing it, he rolled up his sleeve, put the mitt over
his hands and grabbed the thermometer floating in the water.
"Check, the water's just right..."
	"Next we have the ice. The spell calls for one stones'
worth." Gosunkugi put the checklist down at one end of the
table and walked over to the portable cooler he had brought
with him. He opened it and reaching in, pulled out two large
blue trays of ice cubes.
	He took the trays to the table, testing their weight
in his hands. "Should be more than enough", he muttered.
He emptied the trays and placed the cubes in a large wooden
bowl on the table. "Cubes are ready, check."
	"Next, three Water Lillies." Gosunkugi searched on the
table until he came to a sealed plastic bag, containing the
stems. He opened the bag and checked them, counting out the
three. He had brought nine of the flowers with him, leaving the
extra six in separate bags in the cooler, in case of a problem.
	"Check. Sure paid enough for them too. Nabiki's
commission certainly didn't help things. I can't believe that
heartless mercenary is Akane's sister," he sighed.
	Going back to the list, he went on. "One spoon of
ground Nightshade," Gosunkugi reached to a small spice rack
and found the container. He grabbed a spoon from the other end
of the table, opened the box, and scooped out one spoonful of the
potent plant. "which almost got me killed for breaking into
Kodachi's greenhouse," he grumbled absently, "Check...stupid
alligator. Oh, she's got Nightshade AND an alligator but a few
Waterlillies, no!"
	Realizing that a tirade on the subject of Kunou's sister
and her unusual tastes in pets and botany would be unbecoming
a Warlock in the midst of his first weather control spell,
Gosunkugi regained his composure and continued. "Four strips
of heavy wool," he went back to the table. Across from the spice
rack was a small shopping bag. He opened the bag and reached
for the wool. The robed carefully it down next to the ice, both far
away from the pot and the flame. "Check." Gosunkugi was
pleased to see he had not forgotten anything and cackled.
	He had no way of knowing his loud noise would not go
unnoticed.


****

	At ten feet apart, each man leapt towards the other.
Ranma was the faster of the two, landing a hard palm strike
across Kunou's jaw. Kunou took the blow, grunted, and swung
his bokken. Ranma dodged, but the force of the air displaced
by Kunou's swing hit Ranma like a fist. It was hard enough to
throw off the timing of his landing. He ended up overbalanced
and fell down hard, his left shoulder taking the impact.
	The pig-tailed Martial Artist quickly rolled away and
stopped in front of an old tree. Not wasting any time, he jumped
to his feet and took a few steps back towards Kunou. Ranma
rubbed his shoulder and flexed it gingerly for a moment, testing
his range of motion.  He was no longer smiling. Instead, he had
an angry, determined look.
	At the same time, Kunou landed, wincing. He held the
bokken in his right hand, in front of his body. Angling out, the point
of the wooden sword followed Ranma's movements like a third eye.
His left hand was at his face gently touching his jaw, checking it
for damage. He could feel the swelling already.
	Ranma suddenly turned and, letting loose a horrible
battle cry, jumped headfirst towards the tree. He appeared to be
throwing himself into the old oak tree as if to headbutt it. At the
last moment before impact he flipped head over feet, bent his
knees and hit the tree feet first. Immediately after that, he
springboarded and leapt towards Kunou in a blur.
	Believing that Ranma would collide with the tree, Kunou
was shocked to see his enemy now coming right at him. His
face, the picture of amazement, Kunou was completely surprised
when Ranma struck out with a vicious chop to his bokken-bearing
right hand. Smiling, Ranma wrenched the prized weapon out of
Kunou's numbed hand.
	As he flew past the Blue Thunder, Ranma caught the
disarmed Kunou with a kick to the head, knocking the Kendoist
to the ground. Ranma landed twenty feet away holding the bokken
in his hands.
	The crowd was quiet, stunned. Once they'd realized what
they'd seen they began to cheer for Ranma. He bowed to them,
then, holding the bokken at eyelevel, brought it down over his knee,
breaking it in two.
	While Ranma mocked him by playing to the crowd, Kunou
was lying on the ground in pain. Putting his left hand down Kunou
started to sit up. A weak moan escaped his lips as the movement
shook the injured hand. Ironically, he managed to sit up in time to
see Ranma destroy his beloved Bokken. Kunou was outraged.
	Using that rage as fuel, he made his way to his feet
swearing from the pain of having to use his crippled hand to support
his body weight. Standing, his hand-crafted robes were a total loss,
torn and stained from the dirt. A line of blood running down his chin
from a cut on his lip, Kunou spat out a bloody tooth.
	At that moment, the battered Upperclassman was sure he
had the overconfident fool in the palm of his hand.

****	
	
	In the lunch room, Gosunkugi stood at the window. With
binoculoculars, he had watched the field and the fight. Worried
as he surveyed the carnage, the would-be sorceror realized that
he had to start the spell now or else Kunou would lose. If the
fight ended there, Ranma would leave, taking with him
Gosunkugi's chance to get rid of the chief rival for Akane.
	Gosunkugi hurried back to the table and put down his
binoculars. He then lit the candles on each of the points of the
triangle, having to stop more than once to settle his shaking
hands. That done, he picked up the sheet of paper holding the
spell translation and entered the focus circle. Taking a deep
breath, Gosunkugi tried to forget his fears. He began the required
chanting and started to pour the ingredients into the pot.
	"The ice into the boiling water to symbolize the clouds I
call forth over the field." He took the plate of ice and dropped it
into the boiling water. The steam quickly rose, floating in the air.
It collected over Gosunkugi in the focus circle.
	Satisfied, Gosunkugi reached for the beaker containing
the Nightshade. "I give the Nightshade to the water to invoke the
darkness spawned from the clouds as they hover above the field,
blocking the sun's rays," he incanted, pouring the beaker's
contents into the pot. The room became darker as the clouds
gathered over the school, shading the sunlight. Soon the only
light visible was coming from the three candles.
	Gosunkugi's confidence rose as the darkness fell over
the room and he threw the beaker away carelessly. Gosunkugi
grabbed the four strips of wool. Feeling its rough texture in his
hand, he said, "I sacrifice the coat of the sheep to serve the place
of the cold, born from the darkness without the sun's blessed
light." The wool splashed as it hit the water.
	The room temperature fell further, the vapor in the air
became clearer, more distinct. Like a thin, weightless milk,
the grayish vapor contrasted sharply to the predatory darkness
encircling Gosunkugi and the room.
	A breeze suddenly blew through the room, and he heard
a rattling in the background. It hit Gosunkugi in the back and he
shook slightly. The gust of wind chilled him despite the heat given
off by the flame boiling the water. It seemed to carry Gosunkugi's
courage away as it flew through the room.
	The breeze had also blown out one of the candles in the
focus circle but Gosunkugi was too caught up in both his own
anxieties and the casting of the spell to notice.
	Sweating, from either the heat coming from the pot or his
own nerves, Gosunkugi wiped his forehead and took another breath.
Forcing his fears down, he turned, looked behind him, then back
to the table. Seeing nothing alarming, Gosunkugi gazed towards
the window where he was pleased to see the darkening sky.
Reassurance at how well the spell was going took the edge off of
Gosunkugi's nerves. He cleared his throat, grabbed the plate
containing the waterlillies and brought the plate over the pot, ready
to drop the flowers in. "The waterlillies cast into the spell will be
the life-giving water and -- AHHH!!!"
	Frightened, he jumped out of the focus circle and landed
on what was left of the beaker. His feet slipped out from under
him and he fell, hitting his head on the floor. Gosunkugi was
out cold; defeated by Taka, the black Calico cat belonging to
the school janitor.
	Leaping from the darkness, she shot over the pot, heading
towards the table. Unfortunately, the cat started her jump too far
away from the table and landed at top of the pot, on the rim,
burning her paws. The tip of her tail also burned as it drooped into
the boiling water. Releasing an ear-piercing yowl, Taka jumped
to the floor and ran off, disappearing back into shadows.
	The damage, though, had already been done. The cat had
broken Gosunkugi's incantation and its tail touching the water
had changed the spell completely. The breaching of the focus
circle with the blown out candle and the now unconscious
"Warlock" let the energies called forward by the invocation of
the spell build unchecked, cascading until it leaked through the
cafeteria windows and diffused into the outside air.
	Instead of a simple rain spell over a school field, the people
of Nerima were in for something else. Something strange and
unusual even for a place used to the strange and unusual.

End Part Three

In Part Four: The fight's over but the trouble is just beginning
for Ranma and Ukyou as Gosunkugi's spell runs out of control.