trying this again as i'm told it didn't quite work last time. i've also
been told the FFML don't accept attachments which is why it's going
out in these little chunks, folks. sorry. thanks for letting me know about
the problem.

A Very Scary Bet, RAAC version (rewrite)
part 1c: A different spin and charge
various char owned by various other people, who may
or may not be able to recognize them by the time this
has finished spinning.
by greggsharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
----------------December 24,1985--------------------
 "What wrong with you, Nabiki Tendo?" Yuan
came running up beside the Japanese girl. "You look like you
just lost money."

 "Uhm, Yuan. I...really don't want to talk about
this now." Nabiki thought a cold shower, and some time alone,
THAT was what she really needed right now.

 "What? You forget? Tonight big night!" The 
young male kept up with his sempai, grateful of a chance
to be of use to one of the few females of the village who
wasn't openly contemptuous of him.

 "What, Gilligan's Island marathon on satellite?"

 "You do forget. Tonight very important event.
Nabiki must be there."

 "Not tonight, Yuan," Nabiki moaned. "What
is so important that you have to have me there?"

 "Is visitor who expert on Jusenkyo curses. Is
visitor YOU request, remember? Is Ancient Traveler."

 "Oh yeah," Nabiki shook her head. "Kinda
slipped my mind after Cologne's little pep talk. I'll be
there, don't sweat it..."

 Yuan stopped, puzzled. "<I don't understand
that girl at all sometimes.>" He shrugged a moment later,
Nabiki was teaching him this "finance" stuff, but he planned
on challenging her to combat eventually. And then as
husband and wife he would have years to try and understand
her.
--------------December 25, 1985--------------------------
 He was ancient by the standards of many races,
and he was known to quite a few of them as well. Some
called him a meddler, others called him a friend, more 
referred to him by the name he usually gave.

 He was the Doctor.

 Opening the door to a police call box, he was
greeted by the whine of servo-motors. "Any problems
while I was gone, K-9?"

 "Negative, Master." The robot answered from
the vast depths within. "Were there any problems with
the retrieval?"

 "No, and that's strange. Not that I'm questioning
my good fortune." He grinned as the little robot scooted past
him into the clearing. "Large village, the Dalek Space/Time 
Oscillation Bomb obviously in a place of honor in a central hut, 
but there were no guards to be seen anywhere."

 "Master," the roughly dog shaped robot interrupted.
"I am registering several lifeforms approaching this area at high
speed."

 "What?" The Doctor looked up and held the door to
the TARDIS open. "They must have discovered their idol 
missing. Quickly, K-9."

 "Aaaaaaaaaaa," said a nine year old girl as she
shot past the Doctor, pulling a similarly aged boy behind
her. The Doctor idly noted that the boy's feet weren't anywhere
near the ground from the speed the girl was managing.

 Another girl shot past. "RANMA! Shampoo right
here! You change to dragon we fly into battle, yes?"

 "Massive number of lifeforms approaching at high
speed, Master," K-9 said as he trundled back into the TARDIS.
"Shall I use a wide beam STUN setting?"

 "PONY TAILED GIRL!" A ten year old boy in what
appeared to be a kendo outfit shot through the still open door
of the TARDIS, managing to trip over K-9 and send both
tumbling inside.

 With a sigh, the Doctor entered, closed the door
in the face of a large crowd of enraged tribesmen, and looked
at where his K-9 unit had one of his ear-antennae bent again.
"No, I think that won't be necessary at the moment. I..."

 A sound that was a combination of a wheeze and
a grind, terminating in a thump began to sound.

 "Oh dear," said the Doctor. It was going to be one
of THOSE days. "Pardon me, get away from those controls."

 The assembled tribesmen blinked as the little 
phone booth sort of contraption vanished into thin air. After a few
minutes debate, they decided to get back to the village.

 They'd at least chased those evil foreign developers off.
----------------July 4, 1987-------------------
 Akane inhaled, centering her "wa" and
clearing her mind. She swept her arms through the
circular motions she had been taught.

 It had taken her years. She was confident
now that she was finally ready.

 "HADOKEN!" The eleven year old thrust
her hands forward, every move being flawless.

 Nothing. The target sat, untouched.

 Ken sighed and clapped a hand to the
younger girl's shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it. 
You've got the hurricane kick down, you've got the 
basics down, you've almost got the shoryuken. You'll 
master the hadoken eventually."

 Akane nodded. She would get it eventually.
She wanted it NOW, though. She wanted to keep up
with Ken, not be some wimp...

 She didn't realize how much she resembled
Ryu in her singleminded pursuit of a technique.
-------------November 14, 1754---------------
 "Know that I, Tatewaki Kuno, known as
the Blue Thunder, shall ever carry thy wondrous
beauty in mine heart."

 "C'mon, Kuno, the Doctor is leaving."
Ranma bowed to the few who had shown up, gratified
that with the rebuilding and harvest that ANYONE
had shown up. She couldn't wait to get out of these
clothes and into something that didn't scratch so
much.

 Shampoo grinned, waved bye-bye,
shouldered the really really nice pair of swords
she'd stolen from and killed the evil warlord with,
and whistled a jaunty little tune as she went inside
the TARDIS.

 "Ah, but how can I bear to part from
my adoring public?" Never mind that the adoring
public were largely a group of kids and a cat. His 
skills with a sword were well appreciated in this era 
and THAT was a powerful inducement to linger.

 "You really want to stay here and end
up dying before you were born?" Ranma shrugged.
"Suit yourself."

 "Thou speaketh the truth, fair maiden" Kuno 
bowed to the villagers, then entered the booth a little behind
Ranma. Maybe they would meet Musashi next!

 "Kuno," said Ranma as she stopped at one of
the doors in the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions
In Space) to look at the laggard samurai.

 "Yes, my love?"

 "Not fair. Not a maiden. Not your love. Keep
it up and I'll kick you outside the TARDIS doors while we're
in transit."

 "Ah, but my goddess..."

 "I'm not kidding, Kuno!"

 The Doctor looked on as Ranma threw her extra 
floppy hat on, adjusted her scarf, and went off to check the
library to see if there were any more martial arts books that
she hadn't read yet.

 "K-9?" The Doctor tugged unconciously at his
own scarf. Ranma, especially in girl form,  was picking up 
entirely too many of his own mannerisms.

 "Yes, Master?"

 "Keep an eye on her. Oh, and have you found Ryouga?"

 "Systems indicate that Ryouga is still on Deck 354, currently
subsection D, Room 12."

 "Lost in the botany section again?"

 "Affirmative."

 The Doctor thought a moment. "The TARDIS incorporates 
many biological systems into its circuits."

 "Affirmative, Master." The mechanical dog extended a sensor
probe which chatted briefly with the TARDIS itself.

 "I was just wondering if the navigational computer could 
have been built with his DNA as a component. Hmmm. Just a thought."

 K-9 trundled off to the library. Young Master/Mistress needed 
him. The translation effect of the TARDIS could only go so far, after all.
Likewise, after Ranma had discovered the Teaching Machine, someone
had to be there to coax her out of it.

 Data relayed from one of the nodes to K-9's sensor units.
Ryouga was still lost in the botany bay. Tatewaki was following the
young Master/Mistress. Shampoo was currently located on Deck 15.
Simple course extrapolation indicated that she was going to the pool.

 The Doctor inspected the readings at the main control
pillar. It looked like the next of the Dalek Space/Time Bombs would 
have ended up...
--------------------------
 Tatewaki Kuno was bored. Books and machines, 
that was all that was here in this vast Library within the TARDIS.
Nothing to hold the attention of the samurai, particularly now
that he had experienced firsthand an adventure in the era of the
samurai.

 He was still carrying the daisho he'd picked up there,
taken from a samurai who'd fallen in service to his Lord, whose
last whispered plea had been for someone to save his Master.

 Kuno had. Well, the ponytailed girl and that Doctor
person had assisted him. As a result, Kuno proudly wore a 
true samurai's swords. All this at the bare age of ten!

 The samurai's gaze found itself lingering on the 
odd device that his pony-tailed goddess had entered. Much
like a coffin, it had accepted her slight form and enclosed it.
Now, supposedly, the device gently nudged her mind and
imparted to her great secrets of times long gone and times
yet to come.

 "K-9," came the Doctor's voice over the intercom.
"Come to the control room, please, I could use your help with
these coordinates."

 "A-ffirmative. Master." The dog-shaped device
trundled off again.

 Kuno repressed a shudder. The dog-thing was
so unnatural that he was rapidly developing an aversion to
coming anywhere near it. On the other hand, Kuno smiled
as he realized that he was alone with the girl who haunted
his dreams. For all her claims of being a guy, Kuno knew
better.

 How horrifying, to be a girl that not only changed
into a guy when splashed with hot water, but to have a curse
that confused her mind so much that she regarded her male
cursed form as normal and the female as the curse. What a
shame. Kuno had sworn that he would free his pony-tailed
goddess of this delusion.

 The foreign woman wasn't helping, but she had
been cured of her own curse by that odd malfunctioning 
"transmat" device, and this no doubt confused her.

 The device used cartridges the size of a hardback
book, which fit into slots in the lid of the device. Kuno read
the one that was in the device now, which was simply "Martial
Arts Special Techniques: Volumn II (Bootleg Copy)."

 Kuno approved, sort of. It was that fire in the soul
of young Ranma-chan that attracted him to her. Kuno's eye
fell upon the racks of other cartridges then over to the other
three empty slots in the machine.

 It would be dishonorable for a samurai to take
advantage of a maiden's inattention. Yet, would it not also
be part of bushido to assist another warrior with the...
shortcomings of her training?

 Kuno looked over the various cartridges. Ah,
just the thing. Clearly his fiery temptress did not know how
to dress or act in proper feminine fashion. And here was 
another. Did not the pony-tailed girl often complain about
her not understanding the various machines that they had
encountered? Why, and here was one dealing with various
traditional feminine skills such as cooking!

 Not, Kuno thought, that such was needed. His
Ranma had proven herself to be exceptional at all manner 
of traditional feminine pursuits!

 Noting that all four slots were now filled, Kuno
stepped back and nodded. She would thank him for his 
insight and understanding. No doubt her own pride kept
her from using the machine to rectify her own shortcomings
in these areas.
-----------------
 A click and a light flashing off indicated that the
first cartridge had finished. Kuno looked up from where he
had been dusting his sword. Already? Hours had passed
while he had been silently contemplating the happiness he
would share with the pony-tailed girl.

 Kuno pulled out the first cartridge and thought
for a moment. Looking over the cartridges, he noted that
some were flagged in red, others with yellow borders, and
two were still wrapped in some flimsy clear packing material.

 Kuno replaced the first cartridge with one of the
yellow ones. Certainly the pony-tailed girl seemed to enjoy
martial arts training. There was a typo on the label though,
as it read "Marital Arts Training Vol III:Advanced Techniques."

 Kuno shrugged. There had to be something else
to do around here. He thought he'd reset the device so it would
start at the beginning again, though the labels were quite 
confusing. Obviously not made in Japan.

 K-9 returned, eight hours later (bringing Ryouga
had taken much longer than it normally would have taken
the little robot to manuever through the corridors.)

 The robot immediately noticed the odd choices,
but a moment of processing indicated that the Master/Mistress
was now of an age where curiosity of such things would be
expected. 
------------------October 9, 1990--------------
 A fourteen year old girl swept her hands through
a set of motions.

 "Draw strength from the earth," advised Ryu.

 "Let it flow THROUGH you," added Ken. "Don't
try to control it so much as gently direct it."

 "HADOKEN!" Akane thrust her hands forward.
The fireball slammed into the target.

 Akane held the pose for a moment before she
started shaking her hands. "Ouch ow owie, hot hot hot."

 "You tried to force it," accused Ken.

 "Overconfident," judged Ryu.

 "Oh YEAH, you can talk!" Akane yelled
at her fellow Japanese student, still wincing at the
burns. "Mister 'It Only Took Me A Week To Learn
The Hurricane Kick' thinks _I_ am overconfident?"

 "You mastered the manuever yourself,"
said Ryu with a shrug. "It just took you a little longer
to avoid the dizzy spells immediately afterwards."

 "You've got the hadoken," said Ken
gently to the little girl. "Now all you have to do is
master it the way you do any other manuever."

 "It's odd, though," Ryu said thoughtfully.
"When me or Ken do the manuever, it's just a ki
blast. We don't usually set the target on fire." 
 
 Ken and Akane looked at each other,
then looked towards the target which was still
smouldering.

 Akane blinked, then began to grin.
"So I learned a new manuever BEFORE you two!
Hah! Eat my dust!"

 Ryu nudged Ken as his sparring
partner walked closer. "Gracious winner, isn't
she?"

 "Ah, she's just used to being in our
shadow. Give her a chance at the spotlight for
once." Ken looked up to where Akane was now
laughing maniacally. "Just in case though, let's
cook her dinner to celebrate."

 "I don't wanna cook," Ryu glanced
up at his friend. "Oh, right. Better us than her."

 "Just in time, too. Tomorrow she's
supposed to go back and live in some place 
called Nerima..."
---------------October 10, 1987----------
 A phone booth-sized blue box
briefly appeared in the street. A door opened,
and a moment later a figure flew out of the
doorway to impact upon one of the walls.

 A young girl stood in the doorway, 
dusting her hands off. "Kuno! You do this to
Ranma, you get hurt very very bad. Next time
I give you enema with own bokken!"

 "Kuno!" Ryouga came running
out of the booth to stand in front of the
kendoist. "How dare you take advantage of
a helpless sweet girl like Ranma!"  
 
 Ranma stared at the two, then quietly
closed the door. It would not be proper to slam
it. Shampoo paused for a moment, then shrugged.
No need to concern herself with those two.

 "Pony-tailed girl," mumbled Kuno.

 "How dare you..." Ryouga's head
snapped up. That odd wheeze-thump noise
sounded awfully familiar. He turned around to
see the booth fading away. "No... but I..."

 Realizing he was alone on the street
with a dazed kendoist, Ryouga tried to figure
out his next move. He brightened. All he had
to do was find the Tendo Dojo! He could meet
Ranma's mother, and eventually Ranma would
show up and he'd apologize to her!

 Nodoka Saotome came out of the
house a few minutes later and wondered why
there was an impact crater on the compound
wall.
---------------October 10, 1990----------------
 or...three years later.

 Nodoka invited the latest arrival
inside, half-bowing and directing her to the
low table. Four girls had shown up so far,
having served their apprenticeships.

 She inspected the girls over the
tea cup, giving all of them a chance to recover
from the chill.

 They'd come in slowly, each unsure
of what to expect. One had immediately started
appraising everything. The only bad point had
come when they were deciding who got what room.

 The girls were all somewhat nervous
about each other. Nodoka decided they'd fidgeted
enough.

 "So, would you please introduce 
yourselves?"

 The eldest, a seventeen year old girl
who radiated a calm confidance, stood up first
and bowed. "I am Kasumi Tendo, practitioner of
the Ju-ken style of Hokuto Shin Ken."

 The second oldest got up, a little bit
less confidently, and eyed the group before bowing
to Mrs Saotome. "I am Nabiki Tendo, huntress and
artisan of the Nichieju." She tugged on her braid in
an unconcious gesture.

 The other two looked at each other and
then one stood up. "Akane Tendo, uhm, Fierce Dragon
School and, er,  Anything Goes Martial Arts."

 The last girl waited for Akane to sit before
she stood. "Ukyou Kuonji's the name, okonomiyaki's
the game. I'm the best there is at the art of okonomiyaki,
with the exception of my dad. Spring of Drowned Bird
People's my curse, but it cuts down on the bus fare."

 Nodoka nodded. "Now, perhaps you can 
explain something to me? Two years ago someone came
by to tell me that HE was Ranma's boyfriend and that
they'd had a lover's tiff. Then ANOTHER boy came up
and said essentially the same thing, but denied that the
first boy was a boyfriend. Oh, and that he
hadn't had a chance to talk to my DAUGHTER about 
their relationship."

 Nodoka's smile looked strained. It had been
strained for a long time now. "Tell me, girls, exactly what
do you know about the person who left my care as my
son?"
---------An observatory on a foreign world------
 "AAH!" The Doctor started falling from
the metal latticework, where he would land in nice soft
grass but after a fall of about 900ft. The grass wouldn't
be nearly soft enough.

 The Master's grin faltered as the Doctor only
fell about ten feet before landing on the back of an enraged
dragon.

 "Ranma, NO! Don't kill him!" The Doctor managed
to grunt out. Even though he was evil, the Master was still a
Time Lord and killing him would be wrong.

 The energy discharge built up in the dragon's
mouth and destroyed nearly twelve feet of the metal structure
that the Master had been standing on a moment ago.

 "Well, Doctor, it looks like you've won this
round, but there'll be another time...<urk>" The Master
turned to retreat but found something in his way.

 "Shampoo no think so." Shampoo withdrew her
sword and watched the Master go to his knees. He fumbled
with a small device from his pocket. Her sword moved again,
a razor sharp katana forged by a master swordsmith of Old
Japan. When it met flesh the sword didn't slow.

 "Does stupid Master know what he has done?
Remember last time we meet? Remember how you use mind
control device on Shampoo? Remember how you had me beat
and humiliate airen? Airen who save Shampoo's life THREE 
TIMES now?"

 The Master looked down to where his weapon
and one of his hands were still falling. "I..."

 "Airen try to get over it, but Shampoo see his eyes.
Shampoo under mind control do very thorough job. AIREN
FEAR SHAMPOO! He never be comfortable around Shampoo
again, always see image of me hurting him and enjoying it!
You use Shampoo because she 'barbarian', because she capable of 
killing unlike airen and Doctor." Shampoo held her sword
ready. "Give one reason why Shampoo not remove you
from food chain!"

 "You're one of the heroes, you could never..."

 Shampoo kicked out. "Airen and Doctor go behind
building now. Shampoo not stupid and wait for you to come back
and attack again and again until you kill us."

 Shampoo sighed as she watched the figure spiral down
into the meeting with the ground. Her airen and the Doctor were
no dummies. They would figure out what she had done. On the
other hand, picking a thermal grenade out of her pocket and 
dropping it, it never hurt to be sure.

 She would have to endure a stern lecture from both
the Doctor and her airen. (Unless airen was in Kasumi mode, in
which case she would just give her The Look.) Shampoo shivered
a little bit. Maybe she ought to get some hot water, just in case.

 She could act meek and repetant and airen would
wind down after awhile. The Doctor would too. Against The Look,
Shampoo shuddered at the memory of the last time that had been
used against her. The Look that said oh so clearly how disappointed
and sad her airen was at her. The Look that asked such things as "how 
can I ever trust you again" and "do you know how hurt I am that you
would do such a thing" was a devastating weapon to Shampoo.

 It had only taken a few moments of The Look the last time
to get Shampoo to swear off any attempt to use magic/potions to 
influence her airen's thinking.

	Shampoo REALLY hoped that airen wasn't in Kasumi 
mode when they started.