I'm STUCK. I cannot figure out how to finish up part 3 of my "No Good
Deed..." Ranma / AMS spoofy crossover. I wanted to write each of the 4
parts as a mostly stand-alone story with an overarching plot (Peorth,
basically).

** Disclaimer: Draft ** Previous 2 parts available at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mredding/fanfic/deed.html

The girl rose from her bed and crept down the hallway, camera in hand.
She moved with a stealth hard-won from many years of practice.

Slowly she slid the paper door to the bathing room open. Within was a
handsome, muscular youth in the process of drying himself. His eyes were
closed from rinsing the shampoo from his hair and his ears still had a
bit of water in them.

He never heard the quiet 'click' of the camera as photo after photo of
his majestic form was taken.

The next day, the girl stood behind Furinkan High School's athletic
equipment storage building, ready to meet her buyer. 

At precisely 2:59 PM her buyer approached. She smiled. This was going to
make her a LOT of money. She removed several pictures from the envelope
and wordlessly offered them to her buyer for examination.

"Oh my god, if he hadn't picked up his bokkan in this photo...!" she
exclaimed.

"I thought you would like that one, Tendo-san," purred Kodachi Kuno. "As
per our agreement, double the usual for *that* one," she said and
tittered. Nabiki's eyes were glazed. If it weren't for the steady supply
of photos to enrich her fantasy life, she'd never have been able to
maintain her cool fa�ade around the object of her lust: Tatewaki Kuno.
With a great effort of will, Nabiki ripped her eyes off the pictures and
reached into her schoolcase. She produced a similar package of her own
and offered it to Kodachi, who smiled indulgently.

"I am not so ruled by my hormones as you, Tendo-san," she said in a
voice that spoke of secrets. "But I will indulge you in this," she
finished. She removed the contents and gaped in shock.

They were not *just* of her beloved Ranma, but of him naked with ...
another man! The second one looked strong but stupid, yes, she
recognized him after a moment, the odd-acting Ryouga. She felt her
breath quicken.

"I think if you look at it the right way, there's some interesting
subtext," purred Nabiki. "Two men, two fine youths, washing each other's
backs, frolicking playfully in the bathtub..." she pointed to a picture
of the two of them starting to scuffle; Ryouga was smacking Ranma upside
the head with the rinse bucket. In all cases the pictures were only
above the waistline shots, but still...

"I... must... admit," Kodachi said, breathing heavily, "the second
physique does set off Ranma darling's own fine build..."

There was a long pause and the two exchanged a meaningful glance. Each
sighed and put the other's package of pictures away. "Even trade then,"
said Nabiki.

Kodachi nodded. "Same time next week," and turned and departed with a
wave over her shoulder.


Up on the roof, the goddess Urd sat filing her nails. She turned to the
camera. "What a relief. I don't know about you but I thought it was
getting a bit lime-scented in here, eh?" she grinned and pulled down the
title credits from the top of the frame.

���������-�����-��������������-�����������
      Ranma 1/2 Meets Ah! Megami-Sama       
                     in
                "Corruption"
 Act III of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"
��������-������-����������������-����������

[Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahasi, Oh! My Goddess by Kosuke 
Fujishima; no challenge to copyright is intended by this 
amateur work of fiction.]


The sound of a bell pealed out, signalling the end of another day of
school at Furinkan High. A crowd of students eager to escape stampeded
out the door and across the main lawn in seconds. Thanks to the
uniformity of their school attire, they did in fact bear some
resemblance to a stampede of wild animals.  A few stragglers crossed
afterwards. Akane Tendo was one of them. 

A bouquet of daffodils was flung at her feet.

"Verrily, a maiden such as thine self should tread the very hallowed
steps in a path strewn with the flowers of springtime," prounced
Tatewaki Kuno, or as he preferred it from most, Kuno-sempai.

Akane did not stop looking at the ground. She swallowed.

"Kuno-sempai," she said slowly.

"Yes my raven tressed goddess?" he said stepping forward eagerly.

"Would you like to come home with me for supper?" she asked, her gaze
averted; Kuno's face lit up like the sun. "I'm ... COOKING it myself,"
she finished.  There was no answer. She looked up. Kuno was nearly out
the front gate of the school yard.

"KUNO!!" she bellowed, enraged.

He turned and waved at her jauntily. "Oh my Akane Tendo! Look at the
time! I must be at home to pay the paper boy his � 200! Otherwise,
t'would be dishonarable! My love to you and the pig-tailled one...!" he
called out as he broke out into a mad dash, leaving Akane alone.

Glowering.

Glowing with a blue battle aura, actually.

Kind of a dark and icy one.

She clenched her fist. "I'll do whatever it takes," she said to herself.
"Whatever it takes to become as good a cook as Kasumi. Anything." She
set off purposely toward the shopping district of Nerima.

"Anything, eh?" chuckled a woman's voice, soft and throaty, and very
seductive, which came from the empty air.

* * * 

"No, not THAT way!" exclaimed Peorth as she grabbed Ryouga by the shirt.
"We can't go that way to the theater, that road is closed because of a
bridge under repair!"

"But it's THAT WAY!" protested Ryouga in a hurt tone. "I KNOW it is!"

Peorth rolled her eyes and sighed. Yes, she had in fact given Ryouga a
perfect direction sense. It had NOTHING to do with maps or obstacles in
his way but he knew which WAY to go anytime he wanted to get somewhere.
Of course, it was easy enough for him to pick her up, leap to the top of
a nearby building and go running down the street. Idly, she wondered if
he'd actually be able to make the jump across the broken bridge while
carrying her or not. Then again, since he wouldn't become a pig if he
got wet it was no big deal, though she didn't want to ... wash her ... 

Peorth blinked. She was moving through the air at an impressive clip;
roughly a horse-gallop she noted with one part of her mind. Ryouga WAS
carrying her and it seemed like it was no effort for the strapping young
lad. Still...

"Ryouga STOP!!" she yelled in a panic. He leapt, landed, and the end of
the bridge was almost upon them. She started thrashing in his arms.
"Stop you ... you fool! I can't swim!" Ryouga sailed through the air,
like a gazelle, the image of grace.

Right into the support shaft of the construction crane that was parked
in the shallow canal. He dented the steel, and began to slide down,
Peorth clinging desperately to his back.

"AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" she screamed into his ear.

"AAARRRRRRRGHHGGGGGGGGGG!!!" he screamed because she was screaming into
his ear. As they were about to hit the water, Peorth yelled, and Ryouga
chimed in,

"Ranma! This is all YOUR FAULT!"

* * * 

Akane hunted among the dusty shelves of the bookstore. The man at the
front desk had disturbed her. He reminded her of Happosai with glasses
and a Santa beard. But ... it couldn't be.  She'd spent quite a while in
here and all the cook books seemed so ordinary. She had her mother's
cook book to learn from but she'd only passed the chapter on boiling
water, and without Kasumi or Mrs. Saotome there constantly coaching her,
she couldn't get farther.

"What's this?" she wondered to herself. She'd put her hand on a slipcase
holding a pair of cookbooks. She took out the first. "Food of the Gods,
secrets to heavenly cooking for the ones you love," she read. Then she
checked the second volume. "Devil's Food Secrets, sinful prepartions to
ensnare anyone."  She thought about it for a moment and pictured Ranma,
Ryouga, and Kuno at her feet begging for more of her cooking, while she
haughtily held up a delicious-looking Devil's Food cake on a platter and
taunted them with it. A slow smile spread across her face and she put
the books back in their box, the Devil's Food one on top. "I'd like this
one please," she said to the storekeeper and paid him the � 2,000.

Akane went back to the school and slipped into the Home Economics room.
It wouldn't do to try practicing her cooking at home. Even if Kasumi was
hanging out with Ryouga's new fianc�e, she still paid too much attention
to the kitchen.

She began to make the "Chocolate Cake of Ultimate Temptation."

Twenty minutes later, the eggs she'd microwaved to save time on exploded
in the mixing bowl sending a geyser of unsweetened chocolate batter to
the ceiling with a sticky plop. "Somebody help me," she moaned
piteously.

There was an exasperated sigh as the Devil's Food cookbook levitated
over to her, flipped open to a certain page, and released a dark cloud.
Akane stepped back and braced against the counter behind her. From the
darkness materialized a tall woman with long hair so glossy and black it
had a slight bluish sheen to it. She was wearing a form-hugging outfit
in the softest looking midnight blue leather: sexy boots up above her
knees, miniskirt, ultra ch�c leather jacket with oversize rolled-up
cuffs, black silk blouse with a plunging neckline; she wore a string of
pearls that were actually carved as little skulls if you looked closely.
Her features were fine and sharp, her teeth a slightly translucent
gleaming white, so clean and sharp they almost seemed pointed. Her skin
was like the purest milk and her eyes were ... they were slitted like a
snake�s, utterly inhuman. Akane found herself drawn into them,
fascinated, captured like the sparrow and the cobra.

Until the woman slapped on a nice pair of Raybans, that is.

Akane shook her head to clear the muffled thoughts. The woman was SO
beautiful she'd been staring, imagine that! She must think she was rude!
Why--

"Akane Tendo," the woman said in a tone that was a flat statement and
not a question. Still, she paused, expectant.

"Uh, yes." The woman sighed, mildly annoyed.

"I am Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus. Your use of the Devil's Cookbook has
summoned me. Would you care to make a wish? One wish, one that will give
your life meaning and purpose," she said as she glided forward, almost
pinning Akane against the counter behind her.

"Glasya? I never heard ..."

Glasya�s left eyebrow twitched. "I suppose you thought I was _Lilith_
right?" Akane mutely nodded. "Well, the Mother of Night _would_ probably
have come here but she�s currently busy with contract renegotiations
over at Gainax." Akane facefaulted. "Regardless, I am here to grant your
most fervent desire." She paused and calmed her speech again, and closed
the distance to Akane. In her most low, enticing voice, she continued.
"Akane, you know you have a wish; make it."

"Is ... is there a price?" asked Akane, somewhere between terrified and
stupefied. The woman smiled, her lips like the deepest red of a rose.
"Yes, but I assure you, you won't feel the pain you are in now after you
make your wish."

Akane closed her eyes. "I wish ... I wish to be one of the world's
greatest cooks!"

"As you wish," Glasya purred.

She waved her hands and tendrils of dark energy settled into Akane,
imbuing her with their essence and with knowledge. She smiled. "Oh my
gosh! I can't believe how STUPID I was with my cooking before. This is
going to be great!"

Then the dark tendrils yanked back out, and took her soul with them. 
Akane stopped talking, her eyes glazed and her mouth opened. "This will
be great," she said in a dull voice. "I'll make them all pay for
laughing at me. All of them."

Glasya smiled indulgently. "Yes dear, you do that. Every woman should do
that."  She closed her hand around Akane�s soul, compressing it into a
little ball, which she then pressed onto her necklace. Glasya then
picked up the Devil's Cookbook and walked out the door. She murmurred as
she did so, "Now Peorth, the time has come to settle our score once and
for all."

* * * 

Peorth tried to ring out her sopping wet clothes without removing them
in front of Ryouga. Her fiance was sitting there laughing
near-hysterically with a stupid look on his face. Peorth rolled her
eyes. The boy simply did not deal well with stress. A little shiver of
cold went down her back; she chalked it up to a chill from the river. 

Unfortunately.

Just then a shadow fell across them and Ryouga stopped his laughing
abruptly and got a somewhat guilty look. The goddess looked up to see a
slender, long-haired woman in a dark blue outfit similar to her own
taste in clothes standing there frowning. The woman crossed her arms and
glared at them.

"Well, Sugar. Isn�t this cozy?" scowled Ukyo Kunonji.


 ...

And there it stops ... not really a wrap up to the part, would you say?

Act IV: Redemption is supposed to feature Peorth fighting Glasya to save
Akane's soul, naturally.

Nightman