AT LAST!  Woohoo! ;)

Finally I've managed to tunnel through the Gibraltar-sized
writers block I had and get some stuff DONE.

While it may not show, I finally sat down and wrote out
much of the plot to this whole fic.  This should let me get
chapters done on a faster basis, since I now have a firm,
solid idea of where I'm going and how to get there.

Then again, RL may intrude once more.  Sigh.

Anyway, comments, criticism, marriage proposals, and the
like are all accepted.  Hell, you can even send flames if ya
want - it's been kinda cold up here recently! ;)

I hope you enjoy it.


Oh, and BTW - I'd like to give some credit where credit is due,
and it completely slipped my mind the first time 'round. ;)

Thanks to:

Andy Searls - for his observation/suggestion about Ranma's
   quick recovery whenever the Jusenkyo curse is triggered.

Lolu Adeyanju, Nathan Baxter, Jed Bidwell, and B. Na - for
   prereading this for me and providing VERY helpful C&C.  You
   guys have been great! ;)


NOTE: This takes place sometime early in the _Anything Goes 
Martial Arts_ video series, before Ranma starts becoming a bit
more comfortable with his 'feminine side'.  Also note that the
characters used in this are the property of Rumiko Takahashi
and various others and that I'm using them without permission.
Sorry.

Brian Payne
sofaspud@ior.com

This and my other fics maintained on my website at:
http://www.ior.com/~sofaspud

"We came, we saw, we KICKED IT'S ASS!"
  -- Dr. Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters



--------------------------------------
-=sofaspud=-
in cahoots with
The Noisy Roommate from Hell
brings you

RANMA 1/2
American Vacation


Chapter Two
It must be a Monday


   Nabiki groaned to herself in disgust.  She'd lost track of 
Ranma after the ambulance had taken off, and had gone back to 
the hotel to meet Kasumi and Soun.  Of course, neither of them
had listened to her and stayed at the hotel; she'd no idea where
they were now.  And to top things off, the cab driver that took
her back to the hotel had first tried to overcharge her for the
trip, and then splashed her with muddy water from a puddle by 
the curb when he took off.
   <Americans,> Nabiki thought with disgust.  <Why on earth I 
ever wanted to come visit your country is beyond me.>  Her weary
gaze focused on a 'Wall Street Journal' laying half-open
on the bed.  <Of course, there are *some* compensations,>
she mused to herself, smiling at her memory of the immense
Wall Street trading floor.  <Someday....>
   Nabiki stood for a moment in the doorway reminiscing,
before shaking her head and sighing.  <First things first,>
she thought, closing the door behind her and making her way 
towards the bathroom.  <And the first thing is to get out of 
these wet clothes!>

   A short while later Nabiki emerged from the bathroom,
wrapped in one towel and idly rubbing at her hair with another.
She plopped down on the bed and leaned back against the 
headboard, closing her eyes in relaxation.
   <A hot shower may not be as good as a long soak in the furo,
but it has its place,> she mused.  She sighed once, then opened
her eyes and reached for the television remote.  After turning
the set on, she swung her legs off the bed and started going
through her luggage.  Ignored, the TV murmured quietly to itself
in the corner as she got dressed.
   Nabiki had almost finished getting dressed when a news flash
from the TV caught her attention.  She grabbed the remote and 
dialed up the volume, tension knotting her gut as she saw a 
helicopters-eye view of Central Park... and the panda loping
across the helicopters field of vision.  It disappeared
into a clump of brush as men broke out onto the clearing behind
it, obviously in pursuit.
   "Oh no," she breathed, transfixed by the images on the 
screen.


   Genma had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.
It was the same feeling that the prey gets as the hunter closes
in.
   He'd been running for what seemed like hours now.  Above,
helicopters circled, like carrion birds in the desert.  A 
near-miss from one of the police officers back at the park gates
had taken off the tip of one ear, his heart was pounding in his
chest like a runaway jackhammer, and he could feel exhaustion
creeping along his limbs like some dread disease.  Soon he would
be unable to run.
   Not for the first time, Genma cursed his panda form.  Were
he able to communicate effectively, he might not be in his 
current predicament.  As things stood though, his signs were 
either ignored or completely misunderstood.
   And were he human, he wouldn't have such a problem running!
   "Yo, Pop!  This way - and speed it up!"  Ranma hurdled a low
stretch of bushes and vanished from sight.  Knowing that his 
greater bulk precluded the aerobatics that his son employed,
Genma-panda set his head and charged, powering through the 
bushes in an impressive display of raw strength.
   Only to crash through a park bench immediately behind the 
bushes.  Stars exploded behind his eyes as the wood bench 
splintered and his head broke through the slats.
   On the other side of the bench, stretched facedown on the 
grass, lay Ranma - woozily shaking her head.
   "Oi... who put that there?"  Ranma slowly got to her feet.
<Aw, man, what is it with these benches?> she thought to 
herself, examining the torn leg on her pants.  A quick glance
confirmed her suspicion - one of the bolts on top of the bench
still had a few wisps of fabric clinging to it.
   A pained growl interrupted her.  Ranma looked more carefully,
and groaned.  "Oh, man...."
   Stuck painfully between splintered slats, Genma-panda
could only growl and whimper pitifully.  Blood trickled down the
slats around his neck, matting his fur and proving just how 
dangerous his predicament was.  Shouts from beyond the bushes
caused Ranma to look up worriedly for a moment, before dropping
back down to examine the panda.  It didn't look as though the 
police were close enough to be a threat yet.
   <Hurry up, boy!>  Genma-panda flashed his sign desperately
as Ranma experimentally tugged at the slats holding the panda
in place.  A pained yelp caused Ranma to rethink her strategy.
   "That didn't work...  Hang on, Pop.  I'll get you out."  
Ranma eyed the bench critically.  <Lesse... wood construction,
metal bars for supports...  Break it?  Worth a try I guess.>
   "Hold REAL still, Pop.  I don't wanna hurt you if I can help
it."  Ranma wound up and delivered a kick to the top of one of 
the side support bars.  A sharp WHANG and a whistling sound past
her ear as the bolt snapped free caused her to duck momentarily.
Two more kicks in rapid succession released two more slats,
and Ranma carefully pivoted them out of the way.  Genma-panda
lifted his head clear of the splintered wood and sat back on his
haunches, rubbing his neck with one paw and holding a sign with
the other: <Good job, boy.>
   "Yeah, whatever old man.  C'mon."  With that, Ranma took off
again.
   <That boy should have more respect for his father,> Genma
thought to himself as he slowly got to his feet.  A sudden 
series of clicks behind him caused him to freeze, then slowly
turn.
   At least a dozen men in uniforms were aiming guns at him over
the bushes.  Two of them had rifles of some strange design.
Genma-panda tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out as a 
feral grin on his panda face.
   "It's about to attack!  Shoot it!"  A sharp crack, and 
Genma-panda felt a sharp stinging in his chest.  He looked down
and saw a small metal dart with a orange tassel hanging in his
fur.  He could feel the drug racing through his system, and the
weariness he had felt before was as nothing compared to this 
drug-induced lethargy.
   Genma-panda held up one last sign as his vision turned black
and the world slipped away: <I'm just an innocent panda!>

   "Well, Dr. Evans?  What's the verdict?"  The burly police
officer chomped uneasily on an unlit cigar as he watched the zoo
official work on the huge panda on the table.  The back of the
zoo van was cramped and warm, and he wearily eased the collar
of his uniform.
   "Just a moment, just a moment.  We must be careful here, eh?"
Dr. Evans smiled at the cop over the unconscious panda, then 
returned his painstaking attention to the stitches he was 
inserting along the beasts neck.  His assistant, a thin, 
dour-faced young man, was holding the animal's head and 
studiously ignoring the doctors half-heard mumblings.
   "Can ya hurry it up a bit there, Doc?  We got the press on 
us, the chief on us, and the damn animal rights wierdos on us 
out there."
   "Almost done, almost done."  The doctor bent a bit closer,
peering into the bloody tear, then swooped in with a pair of 
surgical forceps and snatched a small, red something from the 
depths.  "Ah!  There 'tis.  And now," he said, swiftly suturing
the last of the wounds, "we're done!"  He turned to his 
assistant.  "You can put the cage over him now, Donny my boy."
   "So it's going to be ok, Doc?" the officer asked again as the
young man set the cage in place over the table and fastened
the catches.
   "Eh?  Oh yes, quite fine.  He should be fully recovered
in just a week or two.  As long as he doesn't reopen the wounds,
that is."
   "Well, then.  You folks gonna handle him?  They don't exactly
have facilities for this fella down at Animal Control, you 
know."
   "I should think the zoo would be more than happy to acquire
this fine specimen.  We'll have to ask the director, of course,
but I happen to know that not another zoo in the country has a 
panda this large.  He should be quite the attraction."
   "I'll leave him with you then, Doc.  When we find out who he
belongs to, though... well, I dunno."
   "Yes, there is that, hmm?  Well, even if we only have him for
a short time it could still be a great opportunity."
Dr. Evans glanced at his watch.  "It's almost time for supper.
I don't suppose you'd care to join me for a drink beforehand,
officer?"
   The cop removed his well-chewed cigar and smiled.  "I'd be 
delighted, Doctor.  Delighted.  Lead the way."
   "Well then.  Oh, Donny - call the director and the transport
crew, hmm?  He should be fine in the cage for now, but we'll
want to get him into an enclosure before he wakes up."
   "Yes, Doctor."  As the other men left, Donny ran his hand 
over the sleeping pandas head.  "There's something odd about
you..." he murmured to himself.  He shook his head, then reached
into his pocket and produced a cell phone.
   "Whatever it is, I can figure it out at the zoo."

   Ranma cursed softly to himself as he watched the zoo truck
bounce away over the grass.  He'd continued on to the restrooms
and turned himself back into a guy, only to realize that Genma
wasn't behind him.  Backtracking, he'd located the zoo truck
and the snoring panda inside fairly easily, but with all those
cops around there was no way he could get in to rescue his old
man.
   "Stupid old man can't even duck right," he mumbled, then 
wearily rose and started back to the hotel.  <Maybe Nabiki will
know what to do.>

   <bzzz... bzzz... bzzz>
   Still no answer.  Akane's knuckles whitened on the handset.
   <bzzz... bzzz... bzzz>
   "Please answer.  Kasumi, Daddy, Ranma - somebody please
answer!"
   The phone continued to ring, coldly ignoring her plea.
Akane shook her head in sorrow as the matron reminded her of
the time limit, then hung up and returned to the holding cell.
   "Where is everybody?" she wondered, tears brimming in her
eyes and threatening to overflow.
   <You've always saved me before, Ranma,> she thought.
<Where are you now?>


----------------

Chapter Three on it's way soon. ;)