Author's note: Seems that a lot of people missed 
the first two parts of this fic. So here it is again, 
this time with spellcheck on.

-Shade

Private Bet #10
by Shade

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and affiliates are the 
property of Rumiko Takahashi, Rifts and 
Phase World are owned by Palladium. Other 
references belong to their respective owners.

~~~~~~~~~~
part 1a: Where do we go from here?

Zora was her name, a woman of few words and quick action.
 Despite her seemingly delicate appearance, with silky white 
blonde hair, an angel�s face and a petite figure that a supermodel
would kill for, nobody in their right mind would treat her with 
anything less then the utmost respect befitting a lady. Partially 
this was due to the fact that she was a CosmoKnight, one 
of the chosen heroes of the Cosmic Forge and embued with 
enough power to go toe to toe with an Imperial Dreadnought 
and kick it six ways from Sunday. The other reason was her 
weapon of choice, the Cosmic Shotgun.    

Several times in the past people had laughed at the seemingly 
ridiculous name of her weapon. At least until they got a good look at the 
business end of it. Staring into the silver barrels of a muzzle that 
is almost as big as your entire head at point blank range can do
wonders for your manners. (1)

�Change here.� She pointed to a spot and kicked in a stray rock.

 Not many things could shock the Guardian aside from lemons, 
female nudity, or sex, but this was one of those golden moments.

�You want to do WHAT????!!!!�

�Don�t overreact.� She looked remarkably composed
 for someone who just dropped the verbal equivalent of an 
N2 mine.

�Do you have any idea of what the consequences
of opening a Rift are??!!!�

Silence was her response.

�What could you possibly want him for....�

Comprehension dawned slowly on his face.

�...you�re not serious.....you�ve got to be kidding..
....nuh uh...no way...not happening...forget it lady...
absolutely NOT!!!�

Zora just smiled.(2)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Within the heart of the valley of Jusenkyo a 
system of chaotic magical energy lay dormant.
 Invisible to the naked eye, dozens of minor ley lines 
connected the various cursed pools. Several of
the more well known pools were sites where 
anywhere from two to half a dozen ley lines 
intersected. But one pool at the very center of
Jusenkyo was very different from its brethren. 
This pool was a Super Nexus point,
 three major ley lines met as one there, 
seven minor nexus points intersected at it
and seven times seven minor ley lines all 
joined to form the most magically rich 
3x3 square feet of water outside of the Bermuda Triangle. 

For centuries the magic had slumbered; 
though even at its lowest point the residual 
emanations from the ley lines was more then 
enough to keep the cursed pools active.
A side effect of all this background magic 
was an environment that attracted two ancient 
beings of power to the area, an ancient Dragon and a Phoenixi.

For the most part the area remained stable throughout
the turbulent and often violent times that history is known for.
Hundreds of animals and beings with latent psionic or magical
talent were drawn to the valley by the siren call of the various 
springs only to drown or receive the curse Fate had decided for them.. 
The Dragon sired offspring and eventually passed away into the 
antiquity of legend. The Phoenixi lived and died, only to be reborn
generation after generation. Each time it revived it lost a piece of itself, 
weakening as the energy provided by the ley lines deteriorated. As 
the decades passed eventually only the valley itself retained 
any sizable amount of power at all. 

For over a thousand years Jusenkyo was silent.

Then one day....

....It woke up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

�Here sir. We come to famous legendary 
Training Ground of Cursed Springs, Jusenkyo.�

It started as the smallest ripple along the ley lines. 

�Are you ready Ranma?� Genma was an idiot. Nothing new there.(3)

Harmonics on a level beyond human comprehension 
started to tremble in discord as a change entered 
the scene. Those both blessed and cursed by Destiny 
and Chaos also tended to affect the area around them,
Jusenkyo was no exception. 

�I don�t know...something feels weird here.�
Ranma couldn�t put his finger on it but whatever he 
sensed was setting his hair on end, it was almost as 
bad as having a cccca....cca......ca..cacacacaca...cat around.

For once he showed some uncommon sense by not immediately 
joining his father on top of one of the many bamboo poles 
sticking out of the springs.

�Hurry up and follow me boy!�

The subtle feeling of an increasing wrongness to surrounding 
area completely passed over Genma�s less then stellar powers
of observation. The occasional sparkle of unnatural blue light that
started appearing at the very edges of his vision was easily ignored, 
he�d had many years of practice at denying the truth to himself and others.

Ranma finally jumped to one of the poles as his father started 
making cracks about his �obvious lack of manhood� at being
 afraid of getting wet from some old springs. His ego took 
charge over prudence; nobody implied Ranma Saotome was 
less then a man among men and got away with it, especially 
not his idiot father. Still, he hesitated for a second before assuming 
a ready stance. Something was happening here, something big.

At the every bottom of one of the pools a 
single point of azure light appeared. 

An eerie silence seemed to descend, as if the spirits 
of the valley were holding their breaths in anticipation 
of what was to come.

The two opponents faced each other, one just reaching the 
beginning of his peak. The other already on the long slope
down toward mediocrity. No quarter was asked for and none would be
 given. 

The tension of those crucial moments seemed to stretch into an eternity.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as father and son prepared 
to beat each other to a black and blue pulp.

The guide�s warnings went unspoken, the living drama playing 
out before him holding his attention completely. In his time the guide 
had seen many martial artists come and go, but this he had to admit
was something out of the ordinary. 

As if in agreement to a silent signal the two took to the air as one.
They met at the arch of their jump, hands and feet blurring into individual strikes and parries that crossed the no man�s land between them. For several seconds they seemed to hang there in midair, seemingly defying gravity as they tried to gain an advantage over the other. Disengaging they landed effortlessly on another set of poles. 
Only to take to the air once again. 
And again.
And again.

A missed block ended the stalemate. Genma�s arm was a fraction
of a second too slow coming up to stop his son�s flying kick from 
connecting. Down he went to splash into the spring below.

That event finally managed to snap the guide out of his passive observation..

�Oh sir, very bad you fall in spring!�

�Huh?� Ranma wondered what was taking Pop so long to come up.

He hadn�t hit him that hard had he?

�Pop? We done already?�

A dark shape broke the surface of the pool.

�Wha? Wha? Wha?� Ranma started babbling in shock as he 
beheld the giant creature that had emerged from the pool.

�Honored sir fall into Spring of Drowned Grizzly Bear! 
Very tragic story of Grizzly who drown in spring one 
thousand nine hundred and ninety nine years ago. Now 
who ever fall into spring take body of Grizzly Bear.
Is very cursed spring.�

�You never said anything about this!!!�

Ranma picked the wrong moment to stop and talk. 

The Bear had not yet realized that something was wrong, 
seeing an opening in Ranma�s defenses it attacked. Unfortunately
 its new paws packed quite a wallop, this new form was much stronger.
 Ranma went flying through the air past the spring of drowned girl, soaring
 over the spring of drowned cat, beyond the spring of the drowned 
demented tentacle demon fiend from another dimension, straight towards
the only uncursed spring which coincidentally lay at the exact center of the valley.
~~~~~~~~~~~

�Okay.....someone please explain to me HOW THE HECK 
DID A GRIZZLY BEAR GET TO CHINA??!!!�

�Calm down. Stress leads to Heartattack.� 

�She�s right.�

�Shut up Rowan! If I wanted that advice I�d have asked for it!�

Needless to say, the Guardian was having a bad day and it showed.

�Could�ve been worse, he could�ve fallen into that last spring.�

�He did fall into that spring Bard, remember that Imp�s bet(4)?�

*Shudder* �You had to remind me.�

�What�d you do with him anyway Shadow?�

�Booted him out.�

�Before or after you beat the crap out of him?�
~~~~~~~

Ranma was falling......falling.......he could see 
the crystal clear waters of his landing point. 
What horrible curse awaited him? Would he 
ever get a chance to express his thanks to 
his father for getting him into this mess? 
And why was the spring glowing blue all of a sudden? 

At the moment right before Ranma impacted into the 
water all hell broke loose.

Power beyond anything seen in a millennium exploded 
into existence as the entire ley line network went from 
practically nonexistent to hyperactive with a vengeance.  

The sun vanished behind a storm of black clouds and ominous thunder.

Jusenkyo seemed to explode as the released energies played havoc 
with reality. To Genma and the guide it was as if the world
had gone mad. They were hearing colors and tasting sounds, side 
effects of the warping of local space-time. 

These were mere trifles compared to the main event.

A Rift opened.

It blazed into brief existence within the waters of the pool
Ranma was falling towards. Within a distant corner of his mind 
he admired the impossible beauty of it, a swirling vortex of colors 
that went beyond anything replicable by human hands. The other 99% 
of him was panicking.

There was absolutely no doubt in his mind.

He was going to die.

Ranma almost had time for one complete scream before he fell through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It ended as quickly as it had started. One moment it was as 
if the Second Coming was taking place, the next instant 
everything was back to normal. 

No trace of the flaring blue lines of magical energy remained.
The sun was shining and some birds that had apparently 
taken a wrong turn burst out into song. It was as if the 
entire nightmarish experience had been just that, a bad dream.
Except for one thing......

Ranma Saotome had vanished from the face of the Earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

�Ur.....ugghhh.....� He hurt. He hurt all over.

Explosions in the background drew a protest from
his cracked lips. Hadn�t he been tortured enough?
He knew he wasn�t dead, he was in too much pain
at the moment to be dead.

Opening one eye finally gave him some badly needed visual data.
He was in the remains of what had once probably been a nice city.
Right now it was an war zone. The shattered remains of once proud 
buildings surrounded him, laser burns and plasma scarring was everywhere.
In the distance he could see faintly the telltale flashes of red and blue 
indicating energy weapon fire. Another explosion shook the area as a 
hovering blip over the firefight burst into a rich orange ball of basic particles.

�Where the hell am I?�

Slowly he pulled himself to his feet, his back complained every inch of the way.

As soon as he looked down he found out why.

There was a corpse under him. From the looks of it he�d 
killed it when he crashed here. Judging from the size of the 
crater they were in it had been one heck of a drop. He was lucky
 to still be breathing, let alone moving.

He peered down at his unlucky landing pad.

It was an ugly bastard, all armor and claws with a face 
only its mother could love. The only thing that marred 
its fierceness was the almost comical look of surprise on 
its face and the way its head was twisted the wrong way, 
indicating a broken neck.

�Damn....boy you�re lucky to still be alive. Especially after wasting
one of the Kreeghor elite like that.�

He turned in surprise, he must be hurt worse then 
he thought if he couldn�t sense someone sneaking up on him!

�What?�

�Come on, we�ve gotta get out of here. Their Imperial Guard 
has been called in, if you get caught like that they�ll execute you
on the spot.�

The stranger grabbed what appeared to be some kind of 
fancy weapon from the corpse�s belt before indicating a side 
alley for him to go to.

�It was an accident!�

�Heh, wish we all could have accidents like that. Let�s go.�

He didn�t have much of a choice, anything was better then just sitting here.

�By the way what�s your name kid?�

�Ranma....Ranma Saotome. And don�t call me kid!!�

�Well Ranma, I�m Dennis Skythe. Welcome to the Revolution.�

To be continued......
~~~~~~~~~

(1) Zora Crystellia, 12th level CosmoKnight that I once played. She�s beautiful,
intelligent and has the best poker face west of the Kreeghor Empire.
 Her Cosmic Weapon is a personal howitzer that is given the laughable tag of a mere
shotgun. The mere look of this weapon has cowed more then one potential troublemaker.

(2)It�s a secret!

(3)Sold Ranma a couple dozen times, taught him the Nekoken.
 Hasn�t learned a thing from either experience. Same old, same old.

(4) Do you really wanna know?




~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
1b: Some things never change 

1 Galactic Standard Year later.......

�Good of you to come on such quick notice Commodore,
 I�ve been meaning to talk to you about that officer of yours.�

�You mean Commander Saotome?� 

�That�s the one. Bit of a loose cannon so I�ve heard.�

�He gets the job done sir, that maverick streak of his has 
saved our bacon on more then one occasion.�

�I take it you�re talking about that incident with that alien intelligence 
infiltrator. Messy business that.�

�We�d never have found it without him, he�s got to be the most damn
 lucky person I have ever met.�

�Luck is all well and good but it seems he�s fighting with our 
troops almost as much as he does with the Kreeghor. There�s also 
the matter of the complaints from our provision department.
 Saotome eats enough supplies to feed two whole divisions and
that�s just breakfast! I�d swear that he was a transformed dragon 
if the tests hadn�t come back negative.�

�Well he does work hard, if I had a hundred like him we�d whip the Empire in no time.�

�If we had a hundred more like him we�d all starve to death.�

�....Sir, exactly what is the real problem?�

�....*Sigh*......Sit down.�

�General?� 

�I won�t argue that Saotome hasn�t proven himself a fine and loyal officer,
because he has. However his continued presence here is becoming 
detrimental to both morale and property values.�

�I�m aware of the Commander�s tendency to put his foot in his mouth, 
but isn�t that going a bit far?�

�Commodore, half of the troops love him, the other half would love to kill him.�

�So what are you suggesting I do about it? I wish I 
knew what it was that attracted women to Commander Ranma. 
It�s unnatural how they just seem to fall for him, almost as 
mysterious  as how the heck he manages to get on the bad 
side of every male soldier he meets within five seconds of running into 
them.�

�We�ve recently acquired a new experimental corvette from some 
friends on Phase World. The Free Worlds could use another privateer, 
don�t you agree Commodore?� 

�Ah, I see. But what about the crew?�

�Entirely female of course. It simply wouldn�t do for the captain of the ship 
to be lynched by his own people.�

�Somehow I doubt Saotome will be grateful for that. 
I suspect a lynching would have been kinder.�

~~~~~~~

Ranma relaxed in his quarters, one of the few remaining 
places he could find any privacy anymore. 
He didn�t understand women at all.
Ranma doubted that he ever would.

It had been bad enough back home when it was just human girls. 
Even though he hadn�t had much contact with them he had still 
wondered about the looks they would give him more and more 
often as he�d gotten older. 

Here he had to deal with Dragons, Elves, Nymphs, and females 
from half a dozen other races that all wanted one thing.......

Ranma blushed bright red. Even after a crash course in reproduction
 six months ago he still got embarrassed thinking about IT. 

{Me and my big mouth. I should never have accepted 
that challenge. But I thought she was talking about Martial 
Arts, not Marital Arts!}

On the bright side after a month of intense studying and training he 
had won the match. Of course that victory had brought him a whole
new set of problems. Not the least of which had been the discovery 
that the match had been recorded and broadcast on a minor 
interstellar network. His women troubles had increased tenfold after that incident.

Right now he was off duty, which was good since it 
would give the bruises he'd gotten from this morning's 
brawl some time to heal. Just why had that chef attacked him anyway?
All Ranma had been doing was asking for his 273rd helping of breakfast.
It wasn�t his fault that the portions were so small.

He sighed, life had been so much simpler when he was just a martial artist back home.
No legions of amourous women after him, no bounties on his head and various other
choice portions of his anatomy, no bizarre advanced technology, a place where a giant
interstellar battle between the Rebellion and the Empire was just a movie and psychotic
tentacled aliens from another dimension were just the product of quickly forgotten
nightmares.

Absently Ranma checked the date as he relaxed in his bed. This precious 
freedom from the �command bunnies� was worth its weight in credits. He
fully intended to take advantage of it to the fullest.

Had it really only been a year since he had arrived in this strange dimension?

Even as his eyes closed Ranma�s mind wandered back to 
those hectic weeks and months earlier. 

Ranma Saotome had found himself stranded on a strange and 
very hostile alien world in the middle of a very brutal and bloody war.
The Rebellion forces were outnumbered, outgunned and outclassed on 
almost every military level. The Kreeghor Empire had been playing for keeps,
even now Ranma could only wonder how he had survived through those 
first two months of sheer hell.

A daring strike had cut off the ground forces from the fleet, 
stranding thousands of Rebel troops on the surface of the 
planet as the Kreeghor blockade bombarded the planet 
on an hourly basis.

Left with no other alternative he�d hooked up with the 
remnents of the Rebel army. It had been two months of 
running and guerrilla combat along with endless lessons 
that crammed the basics of survival in this universe into his thick head.

He hadn�t wanted to learn at first. Always the confident martial artist, 
contemptous of the �crutches� of advanced weaponry. Getting most 
of his shoulder vaporized by an enemy plasma bolt made him
change his mind very fast. 

Ranma flexed his right hand again, the reassuring feel telling 
him that his arm was still there.

Thank the Gods that Livia had been nearby and that she 
possessed the psionic ability of Super Bioregeneration. 

After that nearly fatal battle he�d lost a lot of his cockiness and soaked up 
everything he was taught eagerly, there�s nothing quite like confronting your 
own mortality to get you motivated. Ranma had quickly become the 
proud inventer of Anything Goes Speed Reading, Anything Goes 
Computer Hacking, Anything Goes Power Armor Combat and 
dozens of other new sidebranches to the Anything Goes School 
of Martial Arts. Nor did Ranma ignore his original training either, 
his style of martial arts was unknown in this universe and it gave him a 
crucial advantage over most of his opponents who tended to underestimate a
�mere human�.

By the time the Rebel fleet broke the blockade Ranma had already 
reached the rank of master sergeant via battlefield promotions. 
And he�d earned each and every one of them.

After escaping from the planet(who�s name he had learned later was Ristmoth) Ranma had intended to just leave and look for a way back home. As luck would have it things didn�t turn out that way. 

  Instead Ranma found himself in the middle of a conspiracy
 to assassinate the leader of the Free Worlds. Along the way 
he had also literally stumbled across an undercover Kreeghor 
agent, one that turned to be part of an unknown alien intelligence.
For his role in thwarting the assassins they had promoted him to
officer status and he�d known at that moment that for better 
or worse he was stuck here.

There were worse fates he figured.

His last promotion had been only four months ago to his current rank of commander.He had been ashamed to receive it, in his opinion he didn�t deserve it.It had been a fluke and an embarrassing one at that. 

Ranma and a small group of fellow Rebellion officers had been betrayed
and captured at Phaseworld by the Imperial Fleet. They were taken onboard 
the Dreadnought that served as the Flagship to serve as �examples� to worlds that resisted the might of the Empire. Somehow a cat had got on board the ship during docking and when their captors had discovered that Ranma was scared to death of it they decided to have a little fun before they killed him.

 The last coherent image he could remember had been the
tawny furball clutching to his face in feline aggravation. 

When he woke up later he was being congradulated for singlehandly 
capturing the Dreadnought virtually intact, a major coup for the Rebellion.

It wasn�t until he reviewed the records that Ranma learned of what he
had done. The cat triggered the Neko-ken, Neko-Ranma found himself 
in an enclosed space full of many enemies and few friends. 

The feral beast cut loose. By the time the alarms sounded every Imperial troop 
within 100 feet had been shredded into unrecognizable kitty litter. 
The Kreeghor found out the hard way that Neko-Ranma could SWIPE 
their blasts aside with absolutely no difficulty.

A surprise attack by local Rebellion forces increased the confusion, 
by the time the Kreeghor finally figured out what had happened their 
forces were crippled and every one of their personnel on the Dreadnought 
was dead.

Things had rather quiet since then. Besides the normal battles going 
on in contested territory there was no new fighting between the Rebellion 
and the Kreeghor. It was almost......boring.

Well, besides the legion of WARS (Women After Ranma Saotome).

Sleep descended on the weary officer.

But this time his dreams were different. 

[Greetings Ranma Saotome]

{Who are you?}

[Transcendence, Connection, Life, Light, Hope.]

{Which one?}

[All and none....I am the Cosmic Forge.]

{What do you want with me?}

[I will show you.]

And so a hero was born........

(To be continued)

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