A Very Scary Bet, Rough 
part 4b:  Limedrops keep fallin' on my head.
by greggsharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
   various people own the various char. no
trademark infringement is intended.
    much thanks for my pre-readers who have
helped enormously.
    this is written for enjoyment, distributed for
others to enjoy, and has accomplished its 
purpose if it has a few fun moments. 
------------------------------------
 The radio's squeal cut through
the pleasant conversation. 

  "Airen. Airen?! Shampoo really 
could use help now. Someone please to bring 
Shampoo ranged weapon?" This was followed
immediately by a neutral sounding voice stating
"Warning. Carrier dead."

 Akane stood. "That chi attack of hers
is roughly half the power of my Hadoken, but it
takes less power. If she's run into something that
she can't handle..."

 "I will be along a moment behind you,
Akane. I may be able to contact reinforcements."

 "Right," Akane ran for the doorway,
then looked for the smoke trail that marked Shampoo's
location.

 Vanilla's gaze swept over the two guests
and their cat. "I realize that you don't particularly
owe us anything. But would one of you be of 
assistance now?"

 "W-What do you mean?" Ami
stuttered as she met that emotionless unblinking
stare.

 Rei shrugged. "Someone who can
fight demonic entities in Juuban might well be
of assistance. Shampoo was just making a 
pleasure ride, after all, and did not take weapons."

 "I don't know what..."

 Makoto glanced from Ami to this
pale girl and thought about old stories dealing
with baby birds who made the mistake of looking
into a serpent's eyes.

 Rei frowned ever so slightly and
was gone out the door in a less than a heartbeat.

 Makoto quietly went to the door and
looked out to see the columns of smoke twisting
their way up from a few miles away. "They're gonna
run that far?"

 "Nope," said Ukyou flashing a set of 
keys as she ran past them. "Nabiki, keep an eye
on the food!"
------------------------------------------
 Ranma monitored the transmission,
noted that the energy signature corresponding to
the hovercycle engine had stopped, and considered
the possibilities.

 Another energy signature appeared.
Ukyou's little moped was no doubt quite useful
for making market runs and picking up the groceries
she used in keeping her lunchtime okonomiyaki 
stand going. Ranma doubted its capabilities if
it were carrying more than one person.

 "Shampoo can you read me?" Ranma
pressed a button. Shampoo didn't want it known,
but there had been some problems with restoring
her from that transport accident.

 Shampoo was an Amazon, and looked
natural, but some of her had needed to be rebuilt.
This was what had motivated Ranma to become a
cybersurgeon in the first place. Of course, once he
had access to cloning technology, he had run with
that! He didn't know how to do full scale clones,
but regenerating limbs and a few assorted body
parts was child's play with the right equipment.

 "Airen? I hurt, airen..." Shampoo's voice
was weak even with the subvocal transmitter. "No
think much be left for you to put together. Sorry."

 Ranma popped the hatch, and went
for the river access. He knew a way to get there.
------------------------------------
 A moped swept in, scooting around a
corner, and showing definite signs of strain. 

 "Arisa, mark that.Three more of them.
On a moped."

 "Where's the first one? We had her
dead to rights and she just vanished!"

 "Lady Atsuko wants a status report."

 One of the windshields blew in from
a chi-fireball.

 "More androids? RETURN FIRE!"

 "Missles launched. Got 'em, that building
fell on 'em. Now we can continue scanning for the
original target."
------------------------------------
 Hiroshi and Daisuke were doing something
they did quite often nowadays. They were praying. 
They were also fishing, sort of. After all the explosions
they had left their poles unattended and turned their
attention to that, but it was quickly becoming a nonevent.
Just as much as the fishing, actually.

 Though after hours in powerless power
armor, both of them wanted to feel the breeze and breathe
relatively fresh air for awhile.

 "Oh kami-sama. Send me a sign. If we are
not to pursue Akane or Ukyou anymore."

 Daisuke nodded, then noticed the line on
his fishing rod was playing out fast. "HEY! I got one!"

 Hiroshi looked over. "Wow. Maybe it's the
sign."

 "Nah," Daisuke chided as he held onto his rod.
"For such an important decision, it'd have to be a MUCH
more impressive sign."

 The pole shot from Daisuke's hands, nearly 
pulling him over the railing as it went.

 A moment later the river erupted and a serpentine
dragon roared in rage as it headed towards the fires.

 The sound of dripping water continued for
a few moments.

 "Daisuke."

 "Yes, Hiroshi."

 "I think we ought to resign from Kuno's
Strike Team."

 "You might be right."

 There was another pause broken only
by the dripping water and sloshing from the river.

 "Hiroshi?"

 "Yes, Daisuke?"

 "You think Ranma ever gives rides?"

 "Do YOU want to ask him?"

 "Good point."
-----------------------------
 A section of rubble shifted, then exploded
upward.

 "Hah! It'll take more than that to put Akane
Tendo down! Compared to Ryu's chained 37 hit combo,
a wood and plaster wall is as nothing!" Akane began
the circular arm motions of a Hadoken, then noticed
another geyser of building materials.

 Vanilla staggered a little bit, then noticed
that there was no sign of the okonomiyaki chef. She'd
known the chef was the weakest fighter of the house,
being overly reliant on her weapons and just not having
the dedication to fighting skills that the others had.

 Poison one began repositioning itself,
gun tracking to their position.

 Ranma arrived.

 Akane quickly helped Vanilla to find 
Ukyou, as it wouldn't be safe here with the control
problem Ranma's dragonform had.

 The serpentine form shredded the armor
plating of the chopper, popping out what was left of
the windshield and reaching with claws for the 
annoying insects within.

 The insects weren't cooperating, shrieking and
firing a handgun at the "Godzilla reject" that was coming
for them.

 Akane looked around and noted that Vanilla
had vanished. When she checked, she found the albino
kicking two women out of the helicopter and running them
down the road, keeping in between them and the dragon
which quite apparently wanted to swallow them whole.

 Vanilla returned shortly, motioning to the 
dragon to lower his head, then speaking earnestly to
him. After a few moments of this, Vanilla came jogging
up to Akane to let her in on the plan.
---------------------------------
 Makoto and Ami were catching up on
old times with Nabiki, listening to her tales of life in
a village of Amazons, when people started filing in.

 The albino girl and the short haired girl
from earlier were first, carrying the moped driver in
between them. They were followed by the boy from
the hovervehicle a moment later.

 "How's Shampoo?" Nabiki asked, stopping
Ranma before he could go further.

 "She's resting. When her life signs are more
stable, I'll be able to do more. I really wish I could get
my hands on some cloning equipment."

 Vanilla finished laying Ukyou down and
regarded Ranma with an unblinking stare. "Why?"

 "With the right equipment, I could set up
a healing chamber, encouraging tissue to regrow. I've
done it before. With Shampoo, to be precise. When
she was injured in that teleporter accident, well it 
wasn't smooth."

 Catching his look, Ami swallowed.
"What happened?"

 "Internal organs damaged, one of her
arms imploded, legs fused. Oh, and technically it
wasn't an accident. The Cybermen had left a
booby trap. I had to learn cybersurgery and 
FAST, that meant utilizing that teaching machine
again, and modifying it further.

 "I was able to access cloning technology
later and Shampoo was glad to lose her mechanical
parts and return to being 100% human when I put together
the first healing chamber. Of course, I was rather 
clumsy back then with bionics, I would have done a 
much better job with the right parts."

 "Oh dear."

 "You're a doctor?" Ami blinked. At his
age? An inventor, a martial artist, AND a doctor?

 "I don't have a license here. I applied
for one in the Barony of Hope, but couldn't stick
around long enough for the results of the test to
be posted." 
 
 "Here we go!" Nabiki brought in the 
first tray. "Sit down, Ranma. You're going to have
a busy night so you'll need to eat plenty."
------------------------------
 Ukyou stared at how thoroughly out
of character everyone was, and considered going
to bed. She had no idea what was going on, but
this hadn't been a very good night for her.

 Six times, Ranma had gotten up
to check on Shampoo, answer the phone, or
go switch on his scanners.

 Six times, dishes had been exchanged
at a frantic pace the moment he left.

 Makoto and Ami had remembered
the food stealing between Ranma and Genma 
during the "old days" and had assumed this
was their current tradition. So, after declaring
that they understood this, had gleefully joined
in on the food switching.

 Ranma had noticed this last time
back to the table that only Makoto and Ami
were eating, and had inquired if something 
were wrong. Naturally, everyone had assured
him that there was _nothing_ wrong and had
started eating.

 Sometime after that Ami had pulled 
her "hentai pen" out of thin air, called out some 
sort of command phrase "Magical Harem Princess
Make UP!" and was wearing an outfit that
was more than a little scandalous.

 Dancing on the table in a cloud of
swirling veils was a bit improper, too.

 Ranma was looking a little panicked.
Makoto was sitting in Ranma's lap, passed out
from where she'd kissed Ranma and those 
programmed reflexes had kicked in. Vanilla had
gotten this determined look, grabbed Ranma,
kissed him, and a very similar event had taken
place.

 Ukyou watched with a certain amount
of horror as Nabiki grabbed Ranma, took her own
kiss from him, and started singing!

     "Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I've found you!
       Ah, I know at last the secret of it all!
       All the longing, seeking, stressing, waiting, yearning,
       The burning hopes, the joy, the idle tears that fall!
       It's love (of money among other things) the world is seeking!
       And it's love and love alone that can repay.
       It's the answer, the end and all of living! 
       For 'tis love and money and love that rules for me..."

 As Vanilla decided this would be a good
time to show off her own skills, Ukyou got up to fix
Kasumi a plate for the morning. After running around
all night, Kasumi was usually quite tired and hungry
by the time she got in. Besides, she wanted to see how
much sake was missing...

      "Fly me to the moon, 
        And let me sail among the stars,
        Let me see what spring is like,
        on Jupiter and Mars!"

 Makoto stuck her head up, interrupting 
Vanilla's song. "Spring has arrived for Jupiter!" She
decided to snuggle where she was while Vanilla 
finished singing.

 This was a battle after all, and Vanilla
was an Amazon. Mere interruptions would not
allow her to admit defeat.

       "In other words, hold my hand,
         In other words, kiss me...

         Fill my heart with love,
         And let me sing forever more.
         You are all I long for,
         All I worship and adore.
         In other words, please be true,
         In other words, I love you..."

         Ranma had somehow vanished sometime
after Makoto's interruption and before Ami could
wrap another of those veils around him.

         Shampoo hobbled in a few minutes later,
stating that merely being shot a few times by 
a high calibre fully automatic weapon was not
enough to overcome 3000 years of Chinese 
Amazon tradition. Oh, and were those pork
okonomiyaki?!
-------------------------------------------
          Hours passed. Ranma was found by Ukyou
but he wasn't letting ANYONE in at that point,
and had sealed his vehicle against all environmental
conditions. He did give care instructions for 
Shampoo, and would someone please call him
when the nightmare was over?

          He ended up coming out anyway, when it
was obvious that everyone was busy doing 
karaoke. It was also discovered that Ami's
Magical Harem Princess form had some special
attacks that were... not the sort of thing you'd
expect from the quiet studious girl everyone
remembered her as being.

          Ranma dragged Shampoo (who'd fallen
unconscious) and Ukyou (who seemed as confused
and frightened as he was) back into his heavily
armored Recreational Vehicle and tried to patch
Shampoo back together again. She'd apparently
opened up her stitches during the third verse of
"Love is all you need."

         Just out of curiosity, Ukyou switched on
the speaker at the door to the elevator. It was 
worse. They were ALL singing now.

      "...Darling, just for me, can't I wait for you?
           In your heart, I wanna make you feel so brand new!
           When you beckon, love comes at your call,
           It's a love that's meant to be.
           It's in the stars above. . .
           Why don't we fall in love?

         "You give me nothing to hold on to,
           It's nothing but kindness,
           So painful, my heart,
           Love is always loneliness,
           But within your arms. . . AH!"

         Ukyou shook her head. "They sound better with
practice. Must have used a lot of the good sake." She
switched off the pickups, then on an impulse set them
to record.

          Nabiki might actually pay to have these erased.
============================
clip to AVSB 4c. no telling when that will be with the 
current computer problems.

next: Kasumi returns
         Rei & The Clones
         The shoop shoop song and other horrors
depending on how much survives this weekend...


gregg