This is ch 2B, I had to break chapter 2 up into two parts because of 
Hotmail's file limit.  Well now its time for me to start reading those 
Voodoo books I got (hehehe).

As always thanks go out to my prereaders Jerry and Jay La Valley.

Enjoy:)

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

Inside Ranma's body a war is being faught for total control.  These new 
invader's had pushed back the body's natural defenses with theyre numbers 
and speed.  The red/white blood cells would not give up so easily as they 
changed their form again.  But now they were drawing upon ancient DNA that 
had slumbered away for years.

Now their plan of action changes.  In order to defend the body they must 
also change the body to meet this new threat.  Wasting less then a 
nanosecond finalizing plans all the blood cells in Ranma-chan's body went 
into action.

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

As Ukyou walked into the school yard she noticed all of the students gawking 
at the pool.  She tried to suppress's a laugh as she thought of Akane trying 
to swim again.  She then noticed Akane with her head out of the second story 
window, she was looking right at the pool.  This thought was quickly 
dispelled however as she heard her Ranchan call out in inhuman pain.

She ran to the pool as fast as she could push away the students who were 
blocking her path.  When she got there she noticed Nabiki trying to fish 
Ranma's unmoving body out of the pool with some of the cleaning gear.  
Seeing how this was taking too long she was about to jump into the pool 
until Nabiki stopped her.

"Dont jump in there.  The pools electrified."  Ukyou is about to retort when 
she notices some students giving CPR to the wet coach.   Nabiki then turns 
her head and Ukyou can see the worry etched into Nabiki's face.  "Dont just 
stand there, help me!"

Several minutes later Ranma-chan is out of the pool.  She looks extremely 
pale and her breathing is erratic.  No one attempts to remove the glove lest 
it try to attach to them.  Nabiki and Ukyou try to get some sort of response 
from Ranma-chan.  She only shudders.

Ukyou then places her hand on Ranma's forehead.  "He's burning up, we need 
to get him to Dr. Tofou's."  No body makes a move as Ukyou and Nabiki pick 
Ranma-chan up and carry her beyond the school gate's.

Minutes later Ryouga show's up and tries to get directions from some of the 
students, but none of them answer.  He looks to see what they are staring at 
and see's the school gate's.  Ryouga just scratches his head in confusion 
before leaving the school grounds.

Later at Dr. Tofou's clinic.  Nabiki and Ukyou wait in the reception area.  
While Dr. Tofou examines Ranma-chan while avoiding the glove.

The glove itself has changed.  Before their was a thick plastic glove 
covered with wire.  Now the glove seems to have shrunk.  The thick plastic 
is gone and the wires look like they are etched right into the skin.  The 
skin around the wires looks all red and puffy, in some area's like the 
knuckles it is bleeding.  The other parts of the glove are now smoother and 
smaller, almost like they were absorbed into the skin.  The wires which 
originally buried themselves into Ranma's flesh now look to be a natural 
part of it.

Dr. Tofou then proceeds to examine Ranma-chan's eyes and recoils in horror.  
After taking a few quick breath's to calm his nerves he calls for Nabiki and 
Ukyou.

They take a quick look at Ranma-chan's eyes before having the same reaction 
as Dr. Tofou.  Ukyou begins to cry.  Then Shampoo burst's into the clinic.

"Aiyah!  What happened to airen?"  She looks first to Dr. Tofou then Nabiki 
and Ukyou for an answer before taking a closer look at Ranma-chan.  Her 
reaction is quite different.  She pick's Ranma-chan up and slings her over 
her shoulder.

"Hold it right there sugar."  Says Ukyou as she levels her battle spatula 
across Shampoo's exit.  "Where are you taking Ranchan."

"No time. Great-Grandmother knows what to do.  Follow Shampoo if want but 
get out of Shampoo's way."  The irate amazon passed by Ukyou and was out the 
door before Ukyou and Nabiki caught up to her.

In the nekohenton Cologne was preparing some ramen for a few of the lunch 
rush customer's when all of a sudden Shampoo barges into the restaurant.

Cologne then noticed Ranma-chan draped over Shampoo's right shoulder.  "What 
happened to son-in-law?"  Cologne asked as she followed Shampoo into her 
room.

"Shampoo dont know Great Grandmother, but look's like grey plague."  Said 
Shampoo as she gently placed Ranma-chan's pale form on her bed.  She was 
then pushed away by Cologne who began to examine Ranma-chan.

She turned pale as she examined Ranma-chan further.  Then she pushed all 
three girls out of the room and slammed the door shut.

Ukyou turned to Sampoo.  "Okay sugar now explain what the 'grey plague' is." 
  Her tone of voice indicated that she would not be moved from this topic.

Shampoo relented and guided the other two to a vacant table.  Then she 
politely shoved the other customer's out the door before putting up the 
closed sign.  "It is very tragic story.  No women of Amazon village know all 
of what happened."  She said as she turned back to them.  Her face looked 
like it had aged a few decades.  The twin track's of tears served to 
reinforce this image.  "No one who experience tragic live to tell."

The two girls sit idly, waiting for this tragic story.

"15 year ago shooting star fall to lands of Amazon wemon.  At first small 
group of tracker's go out to see what fell.  When they come back they bring 
the grey plague.  Their skin turned grey and their voices didnt sound right. 
  As they stood at the entrance to village a elder started to examine them.  
They grab elder and stab her with spikes that come out of hand's.  When 
elder start to look like other's all of the other worriors attack, sick 
one's die quickly.  Sick elder is taken to healer, healer try many many 
herbs but no work.  Then send a party of 30 warriors and tracker's to 
destroy whatever make Amazon's sick.  The one's that come back speak of 
living dead and moving darkness.  After they tell story they beg for death, 
but were no killed.  Next day five bodie's found.  They killed themselves."  
Shampoo stares at the table, trying to suppress her shuddering.

"So Ranma looks like those Amazon's that had the grey plague."  Nabiki is 
then rewarded with a weak nod from Shampoo.  She must feel awful, but so do 
I.

Ukyou then thinks of something.  "Hey Shampoo, did those infected Amazon's 
have eyes like Ranchan's?"

Shampoo looks up with a hopeful expression on her face.  "No.  Shampoo hope 
this means airen not have grey plague.  But if so then what make airen 
sick?"

All the girls are deep in thought when Cologne comes out of Shampoo's room 
with a confused expression on her face.

"Shampoo could you please get me a kettle of hot water, I need to test 
something."  She then turns to the other girls who are looking at her 
hopefully.  "Come with me, you might as well bear witness to this."

They all enter Shampoo's room.  Ranma-chan looks a bit healthier or at least 
not as pale.  Cologne then turns theyre attention to Ranma-chan's left hand. 
  They stare at where a black plastic glove had been now there is Ranma's 
left hand covered with some protrusions and silvery marking's on the skin.

"Now look here girls, this is what I wanted to test out."  Cologne motions 
for Shampoo to open Ranma-chan's eyes.  Then making sure that all of the 
girls were watching she pours the kettle of hot water over Ranma-chan now 
Ranma's head.

The change causes a few gasps of surprise from the girls.  For Cologne this 
is what she hoped for.

Cologne starts to smile.  "Just as I hoped.  Somehow son-in-law is building 
up a resistance to the grey plague.  Unfortunately this immunity will change 
son-in-law's appearance.  As you can see his eyes are now oval shaped with a 
slit iris, rather like a cat.  But when son-in-law was famale the eyes were 
round and the iris had three extensions from the center.  Like the three 
points of a triangle."

"What can we do to help."  Nabiki replied as she looked at Ranma's pale 
form.

"There is nothing we can do now child, we can only wait.  You should move 
him to the guest room of your house.  Here before you leave, I want you to 
add these herbs to his tea.  These herbs slowed the progress of the gry 
plague, hopefully they will help son-in-law overcome the grey plague 
quicker."

"What about that strange glove thing covering Ranchan's hand."  Ukyou 
start's to fiddle with a throwing spatula, trying to thnk of the least 
painful way to cut the glove off.

Cologne sighed, she could tell exactly what Ukyou was talking about.  "I 
wouldnt suggest it, in fact any action against that glove might not only 
harm son-in-law but you as well.  We should wait to see if the glove has any 
other adverse effect's upon son-in-law."

All of the girls nod their heads.  They didnt like the answer but since none 
of them knew anything about surgery they wouldnt try anything.  Ukyou and 
Shampoo carried Ranma out of the room while Nabiki asked a few more 
questions about the grey plague.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

In fluidic space the starship Voyager and it's organic escort emerged from 
the transwarp conduit.

Right in the middle of a graveyard.  All around the ships were the remains 
of countless BORG cubes and organic fighter craft.  Mixed in with these 
derelict's were hundred's of complete organic craft, some of them were 
obviously fighter's though some of the larger one's looked like they might 
be troop transports.

The bridge crew stood speechless as they gazed at all the destruction.  Then 
a voice suddenly cut through their shocked minds.

"Welcome to the frontline Captain Janeway."  Tamat might have meant that as 
a joke but it was nard to tell since his voice seemed to have lost all 
emotion.  "If you'll send the search algorithm's to me I'll have my ship's 
start searching for a match."

Capt. Janeway nods as she stares at one of the larger organic ships.  It 
wasnt a troop transport.  She could clearly see it was eating the remains of 
BORG cubes.  She shuddered and tried not to think of anything else except 
finding the test subject.

Several hours later.  The combined effort's of the Voyager and Tamat's 
forces uncover the trail, albeit weak, of the escaped BORG cube.

"Are you sure about his Seven."  Janway ask's as she tries to hide her 
exhaustion from the rest of the bridge crew.

"Positive."  Seven of Nine on the other hand is trying to keep the hostility 
she feels for her captain out of her voice.  "The probability of this 
dimension being the escape dimension is 98.5%.  That is the highest match in 
this sector."

"Then prepare to create another singularity.  Open a channel to Tamat's 
ship."

"Quit wasting time and get over theyre!"  Comes the angry reply from Tamat 
before all communication is severed.

Capt. Janeway looks as surprised as the rest of the bridge crew.  "Tamat's 
right, we better make this quick.  There is no telling how long it will be 
until the next BORG assault arrives.  Seven open the singularity.  We've got 
to make this fast in case this is the wrong dimension."

Again the deflector array is charged up and soon the starship Voyager 
disappears in a ring of light.  Not a moment too soon as several dozen BORG 
cubes and scout cubes emerge from the transwarp conduits of BORG sphere's 
and engage species 8472's forces.  Tractor beams, powerful phaser's and 
nanoprobe filled photon torpedos were used against the organic ship's.  This 
was met with beams of coherent organic energy while the photon torpedos and 
tractor beams were shrugged off by adaptive armor.

They didnt stand a chance against the might of species 8472.  But that didnt 
matter, they only had to buy some time for four of the BORG scout cubes to 
reach their designated areas and use there spatial drives.

Fifteen down, five to go.

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

Again Ranma was at the living room table trying to puzzle out his most 
recent dream, or was it nightmare?  All he could remember accurately was 
some blond gaijen woman who seemed so familiar.  Or so he thought.  Then 
that long corridor filled with those humanoid thing's.

Vaguely he could hear the TV set.

"Astronomers from around the globe are still debating the cause of the 
strange flash of light from the dark side of the moon.  Some amateur 
astronomer's have also reported a strange craft that briefly flew past the 
moon shortly after the flash of light.  At this time there is no com.."  
Nabiki turns off the TV since it was disturbing Ranma.

Nabiki turns back to Ranma.  Ever since yesterday he seemed more distant.  
She couldnt blame him, at least there was no school today.  He looked like a 
wreck.  Strange thing's happened all the time but this was way beyond the 
usual.  What really terrified her was the look of horror in his expression 
yesterday as that glove attached to his hand, it looked like he expected to 
die right there.

He didnt look any better today, except for skin color.  He seemed to be 
making it a habit not to look at his left hand at all, but when he did he 
would just stare in morbid fascination.  Like he was expecting it to start 
moving on it's own again.

Then he looked up and caught her staring at him.

"Is something wrong?"

Nabiki just blushed and turned her attention back to breakfast.

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

Voyager had taken up a tight orbit over the north pole.  This would minimize 
detection.  Or at least further detection.

"Mr. Kim report."  Janeway ordered as she stepped off the turbolift.

"Pre-warp civilization.  Population, less then 3 billion.  Technology is 
consistant with 20th century Earth, without using active sensors."

"Well that should help us avoid avoid unwanted detection, what about the 
satelites?"

The display switches from a picture of the North Pole to a sensor chart 
showing all of the satelites orbits.  "Less than half of them are 
functioning.  Less than 1/16 of those working satelites have any sort of 
optical instruments and those are either pointed at the planet or at some 
star."

"Keep your eye's on them, just in case.  We dont want any nasty surprises."  
Capt. Janeway rises from her command chair and proceeds to Seven of Nine's 
station.

"Yes Mam."  Harry Kim acknowledges with a nod of his head as he starts to 
refine the new sensor data coming from the passive sensors.  So far he hasnt 
found any weapons platforms.  Or at least none he recognizes

"Have you found anything?"

Seven of Nine looks up from her duty station as if just noticing Capt. 
Janeway's presence.  "I have found two sources of BORG energy.  They are 
both located on the island of Japan.  Their signatures are unfamiliar, nor 
can I tell which one is the test subject."

"Then lets go have a look shall we?"  Capt. Janeway doesnt wait for an 
answer as she heads for the turbolift.

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

The satilites orbited Earth.  Their official function was to broadcast GPS 
signal's to military and civilian subscribers.  And this is just what they 
have been doing for the past five years.

A few short, encrypted commands from area 57 ended that function and at the 
same time began other concealed functions.  Control computers began 
computing for best firing position, then coordinated their efforts with the 
other satilites.

The satilites subtly realigned their orbits to have maximum coverage of the 
alien vehicle orbiting above the North Pole.  While small fission reactors 
began to warm up.  Passive sensors locked onto the alien vehicle, then aimed 
the particle cannons that had been concealed for all this time.  Finally a 
reply was sent to Area 57.

Target locked.  Awaiting firing commands.<

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

It was a quiet Saturday morning in Nerima.  The new's of Ranma's run in with 
a possessed glove was still fresh in peoples minds.  Some of the more 
militant people started to watch any sci-fi shows relating to body 
snatcher's, while most of the martial artist's in the area kept a look out 
for any other inanimate object's that started moving on it's own.

This is why no one was at Furikahn High to witness the sudden 
materialization of several people.

"Tuvok report."  Capt. Janeway asked as she tried to get used to the 
business suite she was wearing.  The collar was annoying the hell out of 
her.  The only plus of this style of clothing would be the reaction from 
some of these people.

Tuvok probably would have also complained if he werent a Vulcan.  As it was 
he showed no signs of discomfort as he checked his tricorder.  "There are 
two main sources of BORG energy emmissions.  The closest one is located in 
the residential sector, I have an exact lock.  The second source is located 
somewhere in what appears to be a abondoned factory, it's on again off again 
energy pattern is making it harder to get an exact fix."  The Vulcan seemed 
to frown as he tried to get a better fix on the second source.

Capt. Janeway tried to pull herself away from gazing at the sky.  Being 
confined in a starship was depressing at times.  Chances to walk on a honest 
planet instead of a hologram, should be taken advantage of.  But not now.  
"We'll split into two groups, Tuvok you come with me.  We will check out the 
first source.  Seven, you and the Doctor will check out the second source."

They went theyre seperate ways, while the small spy robot recorded their 
course and heading.

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

"Did you hear what happened to Ranma?"  One of the children in a crowd ask's 
everyone else.

Tuvok listened to the conversations of other people as he and his captain 
passed them.  It was luck on his part that he heard about the glove and 
stopped his captain.

"Excuse me, but I couldnt help overhearing your conversation.  What's this 
about a cursed glove?"  Tuvok inquired from behind the student.

The student turned around to look at who had snuck up on him.  But seeing 
that it was only a strangely dressed gaijen he answered the mans question.  
"Yesterday Ranma was attacked by some sort of cursed glove.  He didnt move 
fast enough, in fact he looked like he was going to soil his pants.  The 
glove crawled over to his left hand and just merged with it.  When it grew 
spikes into Ranma's arm he ran into the pool."

"What happened to Ranma."

"Last I saw she was being carried out by some other girls."  The student 
waits for a few moments before turning back to his freinds.

Tuvok mulled over the information while a part of his mind kept wondering 
why the student had used he then she when refering to Ranma, eventually it 
came to the conclusion that the student had merely said the wrong word.  
"Could you tell me where Ranma lives?"

"Go down that street and take the third right, then look for a sign saying 
Tendo Dojo."

"Thank you."  Tuvok rejoins Capt. Janeway.  After walking out of earshot 
Tuvok begins to speak.  "Apparently some child was attacked by a 'cursed 
glove'."  Tuvok waits a few seconds before continuing.  "The glove grew 
spikes into the students arm, thuscausing him to faint."

"The test subject."

"It would appear so.  And from the directions that student gave me I am sure 
he is the first source of BORG energy.  This information leads to the 
conclusion that he is already assimalated."

"No Tuvok, if the test subject was assimalated then the BORG would already 
be here.  Id like to meet him first before I decide his fate."

Tuvok could hear the heavy undercurrents in his captains voice.  Deciding 
the fate of another living being is never easy.  "Very well.  I will contact 
Seven of Nine and the Doctor and tell them our position.  While you talk 
with Ranma I will look around the area and see if I can find any hidden BORG 
devices."  Tuvok looked up into the sky.  Was that thunder?

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

"Hello, can I help you."  Kasumi asked the two strangers.  She took note of 
how they were dressed, which on them looked a bit strange.  The blond woman 
was wearing a light blue kimono that set her eyes off well but the 
expression on her face told Kasumi that she was unaccustomed to this sort of 
dress.  And the red haired woman looked stranger in the business suite, 
though the smirk on her face told Kasumi that she was enjoying her reaction.

"Yes, Im kathrine Janeway and this is Seven of Nine, were here to see 
Ranma."

"Oh my, your not here to challenge him are you?"  Kasumi was releived to see 
a confused glance pass between the two wemon.

"No, we heard about what happened yesterday.  My freind here has some 
experience with cursed gloves, she might be able to help."

"In that case please come in."  Kasumi motioned them into the house.  After 
they removed their shoes Kasumi guided them to the family room.

The one introduced as Seven of Nine stopped before entering the family room. 
  She was staring at Ranma who was also staring at her.  Both had a look of 
surprise on their faces.

Kasumi looked from Ranma to Seven of Nine with a look of worry.  She turned 
her head as she heard the word 'son' from Seven of Nine.

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

Author's Raving's: So what did you think?  I wanted to end this chapter with 
Seven of Nine meeting her son, in the next chapter she'll get to know him a 
little bit.  Ch3 should be the climax but not the ending, I hope to drag 
this story out for as long as possible, what can I say Im enjoying this:)

C&C Q&C and even $ are appreciated.  Flames will be sent to someone else. 
And
tactical nukes will be disarmed. ja ne

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