Matrix Dragon Presents....

        Ocarina's Love 4b

***

        Over the next week, life followed this pattern. Ranma seemed
fine during the day, but at night was overcome by nightmares. Ukyou
ran her shop, staying away from the dojo. Shampoo came by several
times, with the standard result. Wartortle made sure not to splash
her. Kaji adapted to life in Nerima.

        Then the week came to a end, and it was time to relax. Or, in
the case of people at the Tendo Dojo, show off.

        Link moved through the kata, his lightsword leaving streaks of
power behind it. Kaji watched from the sidelines, amazed. He'd done a
bit of Karate over the years, and had a brown belt to his name, but
the skill that Link and Ranma had.... <I'd hate to be their enemy,>
He thought to himself.

        Link finished with style, executing an airborne spin attack
that tore through the wooden dummy from its left shoulder to its
right hip. Wiping the sweat from his face, he bowed to Ranma. "Your
turn."

        Ranma stepped up, and moved through a series of punches
and kicks at such a high speed Kaji thought he could hear the sound
barrier braking. Ranma then leapt forward, and hit another dummy with
enough speed and force that it shattered. "That's how you do it,"
Ranma smirked.

        "That's one way," Link said. "Or, you could do something like
this! VAS FLAM HUR!!" A ball of fire streaked from his fingers,
impacting with the latest dummy with a small explosion. When the
smoke cleared, there was nothing left but a burning stump.

        "How come you didn't use that against Ryouga?" Kaji asked.
Hitmonchan tapped at the stump, trying to figure out how that was
done.

        "I think it was either something in his aura, or his curse, but he 
seemed to be immune to the combat spells I know." Link looked
through his spell book, trying to decide if he should teach Ranma and
Kaji magic. They both seemed to have a talent for it. Mind you
though, he wasn't telling them until he was sure he could teach them
safely.

        "And why didn't you use your lightsword before Ryouga."

        "I learnt the hard way people fear what they don't understand.
It was a year ago in Jhelom...."

        [Flashback detected! Pattern Blue! All personal go to first
stage alert!]

        "Ah, this is the life my friends!" Dupre said as he finished
another mug. "MORE BEER!"

        Link put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Easy Dupre. I doubt
that any of us wouldst have the strength to carry thou upstairs." <Or
me,> he thought to himself. Maybe taking Iolo up on his drinking
challenge wasn't a good idea.

        A figure walked up to the table. "I know thou!" he yelled at
Dupre. "I owe you one!"

        "Hold it," the Avatar said. "What is thy quarrel?"

        "This fiend ran a sword through my brothers chest only two days 
ago."

        "I have been with him all that time," Link said, getting to his 
feet, "and the only man he wounded was a bandit!"

        "Shut up!" the man yelled, throwing a punch at Link. Link
already had his hand on his sword and used the flat of the blade to
knock the hand away.

        Wait a minute. It was his lightsword, not the normal one that
was in his room up on the second floor of this inn. Lightswords don't
have a flat part, they're pure energy. <SHIT!!>

        The man screamed and fell to the floor, clutching at the burnt
stump that was once his hand. Everyone in the room turned to look at
the man, then at Link. "Demon!" Someone shouted.

        Avatar leapt to his feet, pulling a dagger from under his
tunic. "Link, get out of here!" his ordered. "We'll meet thee in
Britain!" Link ran.

        [The Flashback has gone completely silent.]

        "...That's pretty bad," Kaji said.

        "After that, I didn't use my lightsword in town unless my other 
sword wouldn't be effective. Out in the wild though, that's a
different story."

        "I wonder how many people will call it a lightsaber?"

        "Why would they?"

        "You haven't seen Star Wars?" Kaji gasped. "Okay, I'll fix that 
problem." He bolted out of the dojo.

        "What's he doing?" Link asked.

        "Introducing you to Earth culture."

        Link spent the rest of the day watching all four Star Wars
movies. (I've managed to watch episodes 4-6, but seeing how the
nearest cinema with Star Wars is over 80 kilometres away, I haven't
managed to watch all four at once. But I'm sure it can be done!
Matrix Dragon)

***

        Ranma sat up on the roof, afraid to sleep. While a few days
ago he would never admitted it, he could admit it now. Link had said
that they would begin to come less often, but he was still afraid.

        So it was understandable that he didn't see Link casting a
sleep spell at him until it was too late.

***

        The next morning, while everyone was eating, The phone rang.
"Kaji, it's for you," Kasumi said. Kaji went over.

        "Hi Surge, what's up?"

        "It's about the Jusenkyo curses," the Gym leader said. "Oak
wanted to take a look at someone who's had the curse for longer, to
try and find out how it works."

        "So how come he isn't the one asking me?" Kaji asked.

        "Because he's got the mighty league champion somewhere in his
lab!" Surge laughed. "We're thinking of sending Sabrina in to try and
find them."

        "I'll talk to them and see what they say," Kaji said. "How do
we get to Indigo Plateau though? It's a long flight."

        "The locator in your Pokedex will let Bill's teleporter lock
onto you."

***

        "Professor Oak?" Ranma gasped. "THE professor Michael Oak?"

        "One and the same."

        "Who's professor Oak?" Link asked.

        "One of the best pokemon experts in the world. The only ones
better are Bill Richards and Raymond Files. But Oak does know things
about other areas as well," Kaji said.

        "Oak might be our best chance of finding a cure," Ranma said.
"I say we do it."

        Kaji nodded, and turned to the videophone. "We're ready here
Surge." A few seconds later, they teleported. It wasn't the flashy
type of teleporting you see on Star Trek and other tv shows. They
simply vanished, air rushing in with a thunderclap to fill the
vacuum.

***

        Ranma was beginning to regret ever agreeing to this. Professor
Oak had performed hundreds of tests on him in the past few hours, in
both forms, and it was really starting to annoy him. "How much longer
will this take doctor?"

        "I'm almost done Ranma," Oak said. "I just want to do a Psychic 
examination. Sabrina, if you will?"

        Sabrina knelt in front of Ranma. "Don't worry, I do this sort
of thing all the time," she said. Her eyes glowed for a minute or
two, and Ranma felt a strange tingle. Then Sabrina splashed him, and
repeated the process.

        A few minutes later, Oak sent Ranma out of the lab and turned
to Sabrina. "Well?"

        "His mind is... strange," the Saffron Gym leader said. "I think that 
as Ranma became used to his curse, the female half of his soul was closer to 
the surface whenever he is a she."

        "So, when he's in cursed form, he sees things from a female
perspective?" Oak asked.

        "Not completely. I can't really say for sure how it works. It
may be different for everyone, it may be the same. But I do know that
he doesn't realise the change is even happening." Sabrina shuddered.
"But there's something at the back of his mind, something that I
wouldn't like in my head."

***

        Link wandered into the training hall, watching the different
pokemon train. A Hitmonchan and what looked like a Hitmonlee (He'd
swiped Kaji's Pokedex a few days ago to look at all the different
Pokemon) were sparring in a boxing ring, neither one winning. Nearby,
a Blastoise was rather painfully explaining to a Psyduck that you do
_not_ take someone else's meal.

        He looked next to him, where what he thought was a... Gyarados? was 
watching the pair. "Are they always like that?" he asked.


        "Dratini."

        <Oh, a Dratini. Wrong Dragon.> "Forgot I don't speak pokemon.
Sorry."

        "Tini Dratini."

        "Don't worry, I can," a voice behind Link said. He turned to
see a young girl around his age standing behind him. Link noted that
she was wearing a Chinese shirt like Ranma's, only it was blue. She
had short blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and had dark blue eyes.
In short, very cute.

        "You can talk to pokemon?" Link asked.

        "Of course!" she replied. "It just comes naturally to me." She
scratched Dratini's head. "Dratini here was a survivor of Team
Rockets attack on their colony a few years ago. Since then, he's
lived here in Indigo Tower. He's never had a trainer."

        "That's horrible," Link said. "Why wouldn't anyone want him?"

        "Oh a lot of trainers wanted him. But Dratini didn't trust
them." At that moment, Dratini stretched up and licked Link's face.
"What the?"

        "Tini ni dra."

        The girl laughed. "Well this is a surprise. It seems Dratini
likes you."

        "Well, that's nice," Navi said, glaring at the Vulpix that kept on 
spitting fireballs at her, "but Link isn't a trainer."

        "Link? You're one of the group that came with Kaji, aren't
you?" Both of them nodded. "Kaji told us to get some stuff for you.
Follow me."

        Navi floated down next to his ear and whispered, "there's a
Jusenkyo curse on this girl. I'm not sure which form she's in at the
moment."

        The girl handed Link a Pokedex and some pokeballs. "Your
pokedex has a fake I.D on it, saying you are a citizen of Pokemon
Island. If you're a trainer, there's less chance they'll check up on
you."

        "Thanks... ah, what was your name again?"

        "Pikachu," the girl replied as she walked off.

        "Pikachu?" Link said. The Pokedex buzzed.

        "Pikachu. An electric pokemon. When several of these pokemon
gather, their electricity could build and cause lightning storms."

        "Damn. Guess that ruins any chance of a date then," Link said.
"Are you sure you want to come with me Dratini?"

        "Dra!" Dratini nodded. Link shrugged, and dropped a pokeball on the 
dragon's head, converting it to an energy form and storing it.

***

        "As near as I can tell, the curse changes to the genetic
level," Oak said to the group, which consisted of the Nerimans, Ash,
Sabrina, Brock and Misty. "For all intents and purposes, the cursed
form acts as a normal human female body would."

        "What about Pikachu?" Ash said. "She can still use her powers
even in human form."

        "Ah yes, that! I suspect that is because of the high amounts of 
electricity Pikachu has stored in her body. She can control it, due
to instincts from her uncursed form, but I don't think she could take
in any more while in human form."

        "So while I'm human, I can't recharge?" Pikachu asked.

        "Correct."

        "Hey, how come you can speak Japanese and English so well?"
Kaji asked. Pikachu pointed to Sabrina. "Oh."

        "Speaking of Psychics," Sabrina said, "Ranma, what the hell is
in your head?"

        "What do you mean?" Ranma asked, for the first time in his life 
thankful for those English classes.

        "When I did a mind probe, there was something in there."

        "There's only one thing it could be," Kaji said, "unless Genma
was hiding anything else."

        "Thou.. er, you think it's the Neko-ken?" Link said. Kaji
nodded. "Shit, not again."

        "The cat fist? What's that?" Ash asked. Kaji sighed, and went
into the story of the Neko-ken.

***

        Ranma lay on the bed. Looking at Sabrina, he asked, "are you
sure about this? I am not very eager about having someone in my
head."

        "If I can heal you of the Neko-ken, I'll try anything," she
replied.

        "It has got nothing to do with you."

        "Maybe so, but no-one deserves to suffer like that. Now just
relax." She placed a palm on Ranma's head, and he fell into a trance.
"Are you ready Akane?"

        Akane nodded as Sabrina dropped the invisibility trick.
"Although I wish you just told him."

        "Do you think he'd let you into his head? Dream on girl."
Sabrina concentrated, and Akane felt a strange tingling. For a brief
second she closed her eyes...

        ...And opened them to find herself in darkness. "Where are we?"

        "In Ranmas soul. This is... well, I guess the best way to
describe it would be to say it's the part of his soul that wants
peace."

        "This is his idea of peace?" Akane said. "Nothing but
darkness?"

        "Think about it Akane. Everyone Ranma knows has attacked him at some 
time or another. Here, no-one can."

        <Wrong,> a voice said. <I can.>

        "What the?" Sabrina turned to see darkness, somehow darker then the 
rest, moving towards them. "Crap!" She grabbed Akane and bolted.

        "What's wrong?" she asked.

        "That's the Neko-ken," the psychic replied. "I don't think it
likes anyone else in Ranma's head!"

        "Well why don't you fight it?"

        "Me! I planned to help Ranma fight it. He's the only one that
can destroy it. I think he's the only one that can even hurt it!"
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and everything changed.

***

        Mike McCleary sometimes wondered why he got this job. Sure,
working in Indigo Tower was a dream come true for a Pokemon Trainer,
but being in security meant he had to clear up any disputes. Sounds
easy enough, right?

        Wrong. The disputes often involved very powerful, or in some
cases, insanely powerful pokemon. Then there was Team Rocket. Ever
since he had escaped from prison, Giovanni had wanted revenge against
Ash. And he'd decided the best way to do that was by destroying the
League. Over the past few years there had been hundreds of reports of
attacks on Gyms, trainers and cities by Team Rocket. He knew that
they were true. Hell, he'd been involved in some of those battles
himself!

        The Pokemon League had only fought like this once before. The
Second World War, where they had been forced to kill, something that
all trainers hated. How much longer before the league was forced to
do that again?

        He was disturbed from his thoughts by a beeping sound at his
terminal. He pressed the receive button. "Yeah?"

        "Mike, we're getting high energy readings to the west of the
tower. ETA seven minutes."

        "What? Try and narrow it down. What kind of energy?"

        "The Pokemon Scanner is reading almost every type! Psychic,
Fire, Ice, Water, you name it they've got it!"

        "Shit!" <Team Rocket's bringing the fight to us. Just perfect!> "Go 
to first stage alert!"

***

End part 4b

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