Subject: [FFML] [FFML][Ranma][fanfic]A Different Art chapter 5 (partial)
From: "Gregg Sharp" <metroanime@mindspring.com>
Date: 1/30/2000, 3:22 PM
To: "fanfic list FFML" <ffml@fanfic.com>

since the Archives are still down, and i haven't heard
anything lately, i thought i'd send this partial on Chapter
5 just to see if the FFML was still around.

 A Different Art 5: Travel

 many char originally by R.Takahashi. Current treatment by
G.Sharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
 Chapters 5 & 6 have a large number of crossover elements
with another fanfic series: "Skysaber's Choice" by Skysaber.
There are also Other Author Inserts in chapter 6. Aftermath
takes us back to primarily dealing with the Ranma cast,
those who dislike OAI & Xovers should skip from about
halfway through this chapter through the first few scenes in
7.

 "There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart." - Jane
Austen

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

 It has been said that time is like a river, not without
some accuracy. For the main it flows in one direction,
inexorable and relentless. It also has eddies and backflows,
odd loops and sargasso-like dead regions, places where it
speeds up and others where it slows down. Time has even been
known to flood, jump its banks, or even get dammed up in a
few areas.

 It can also, like a river, be bypassed or traversed as long
as one finds a way to move other than drifting with the
current.

 Time is also just a function of Reality where the fabric of
space is stressed by mass. It all depends on your point of
view, mainly. Quantum physics, if it doesn't confuse you,
you haven't really thought about it.

 So, if one goes by the river analogy, time flows from a
source to a destination, only to end up cycling over again.
There may be tributaries of various types. And several
rivers may empty out into the same lake or ocean.

 One of these oceans would be located roughly 14.5 billion
years in Earth's future/past. A world very different from
1992 Nerima Japan and Earth of that era. And in that world
were those who might be considered gods by some.

 These were beings who were born AFTER Earth had become a
cinder, but who had also watched Earth being born. Time and
space and matter were all concepts that they barely
understood, or if they did, chose to ignore most of the
time. They had enormous power, but also enormous
limitations - being constrained by their nature in a manner
that mortals were not. To some they would be known as Elder
Gods and spoken of in hushed whispers. Other referred to
them only by the color of the Temple that preached the
philosophical bent of their patron, and did their will upon
the Multiverse.

 In Aramar of the Seventh Age, there were nine of these
beings, with six others of slightly lesser power but greater
freedom.

 And in the world of Aramar, in the Seventh Age Of Man, in a
world where there were currently less than four humans but
millions of sentient inhabitants, in an empire named Shadar,
there was a temple to one of these Beings. That particular
being a White Temple, whose priests and followers were
Healers. Sworn to lives of chastity, charity, and to
nonviolence.

 Healer priests could not use weapons or wear armor. This
did not equate with helplessness as even the vilest of orcs
knew better. And, of course, just because the Healers were
loathe to cause injury didn't mean that some of them were
more than adequately equipped by nature or training to do
so.

 And in a White Temple in the city of Emeraldis on Cross
Island in Shadar, a priest knelt in prayer vigil. And, as
this was a world where magical spells and otherworldly
beings could be found, the priest found a message.

 The priest looked up, surprised, at the white cross that
symbolized his order. "My lord?"

 An onlooker would have heard nothing else, though the
priest listened quite attentively.

 "Yes, milord. How will I know her?"

 Again the priest listened, though the only sound was the
chirping of birds in the distance and the rustle of leaves
in the chill air.

 "Your will, milord," said the priest, who literally would
not *think* of disobeying. Questioning, that was completely
different, but going directly against a request - never.
"Though wouldn't Sister Akieris or Sister Beren be better
for the job?"

 The priest listened again. "As you will. It shall be done.
What of the others?" More listening. "I see... Politics
again. In that case, I go."

 The priest left the temple, brushing silver hair back from
his face to rest behind ears more tapered and long than
those of elves. Eyes the same color as the hair reoriented
as to what direction he was standing, and the slender form
of the priest blurred and expanded.

 The silver dragon Frostbite snapped his wings out and
headed back to the Imperial Base. He had his mission.

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

 The Emperor had several information resources open to him.
Ninjas, espers, diviners, and even the Al-Qadim halfling
barber known as Yusef The Short ("short of stature, long of
wind, deep and wide in knowledge") on occasion. He wasn't
the only one to know that Ranma Emeraldrank would be
returning to Aramar soon.

 Yusef ("humble Yusef, you seek, I find; you pay, I tell")
made a few discreet comments about the matter of a returning
mage to known interested parties.

 Lijra, drow archmage, made plans for welcoming her adopted
son home.

 The Amazons of House Southern Cross made plans for catching
Ranma during the Sadie Hawkins Race. Strategies and
psychological profiles were discussed. Potential matchups
were bantered about. Tower floorplans were reprinted and
redecorating ideas mentioned. The same identical thing was
occurring among the Amazons of House Rising Sun, House
Northstar, House Valkyr, and House Red Sands.

 The Amazons of House Ironhill were planning on cheating in
the Race, but as usual would arrive "fashionably late" -
which was never a good idea when the event in question was a
race.

 House Greenfield, House Seawave, House Dusk, House Cathay,
and House Silvermoon were less involved, as they figured the
odds were unfavorable. Besides, they were minor Houses of
the Delphins, and they had work to do with the current
border skirmish and hunt for those pesky bandits.

 The Amazons of House Southern Cross were also making
entirely different plans involving one of those who some
omens suggested would arrive with Ranma. And if Scarlet DID
show up, all it would take was one indication that this was
the same sort as the Scarlet who had arrived over two
hundred years ago, and she'd have so many crossbow bolts in
her she'd resemble a porcupine. Or maybe they'd just turn
her into a common dryad and have her bound to a tree, that
way she'd never be any trouble...

 A small group of Amazons from several Houses united in a
common purpose had grabbed the refitted Hammership owned by
one of their number and now continued to shadow the ISS
"Wildhorse" just to be sure that someone was safe and cared
for. Human was (after all) largely similar to Delphins in
appearance.

 The Silver Temple at CrestHill was prepared for visitors to
minimize the amount of culture shock and effects of the
Rules upon any new guests. Bad enough to face physical
alteration based on one's own mental baggage, but if one had
to face it based on *other's* perceptions...

 A recently arrived human named Keian The Wanderer ended up
in a bar named Jester's Rest where he met a young sky elf
named Cloudrunner. He was fascinated by her wings, her
beauty, and the fact that here was a sympathetic listener.
She was fascinated by a mythical human in a poor disguise
(dressed like a wood elf? with that much metal?) who was
facing up to the changes in his environment quite well all
things considered. After the first hour, he was fascinated
by her stories of adventuring on "skyjammers" and
mage-engineers and that this elf girl was an accomplished
cleric. She, in turn, was fascinated by his tales of a
*very* different civilization on a world called Dirt or Soil
(she wondered if the translation pendant was screwing up
again). Three hours later, the two had a sort of Plan...

 The ISS "Wildhorse" left Cross Island, skirted the Zone
near Northpoint, and prepared to pass through the Worldgate
at Shiprock. That *someone* would be following them was not
unexpected. That the pilot of that other ship was
sufficiently skilled that it took two hours to visually
confirm it was not. Nor were the various anti-detection
spells layered about the other ship. Only by reading the
"dimple" in the flow of magical energies could it be
determined that the ship was there by the most. That they
were there to guard Garr was quite understandable
considering that the Race had just been moved up to a mere
week away.

 Two other recently arrived humans, all having been
accidently summoned through the timestreams by the same
Mage, were having very different experiences than their
colleague. One had insisted on being sent back immediately
to his home plane. Unfortunately, the wizardess was just as
bad in her aim returning things as she was at summoning
them. THAT human found himself on a slightly different
Earth, the year 232 AD, and in the Chinese Imperial Court.
The other human found a ship going in the right direction
and sailed off to beseech ANOTHER mage for a trip home.

 Sjul, the mage had who accidently plucked three humans from
something called "20th Century Earth" and brought them
forward, checked her equations a third time while trying to
find out where she had gone wrong. Sjul, a lovely young
ardrow who was Lijra's little sister, eventually decided to
try again with an extra Ring Of Mastery and a hastily
enchanted Temporal Beacon. Prudent persons took cover in the
immediate vicinity.

 And in the region known as Nymia, where nymphs and faeries
dwelled, a date was noted. The Race was soon to arrive. Many
of those present had plans on attending this year, as it
sounded like it would really be a wild event. There was even
supposed to be a few of those HUMAN males participating this
year, and you KNOW what they said about them... (nudge nudge
wink wink)

 One normally associates dragons with being sixty feet+
long, winged and reptillian in appearance, and generally
being sufficiently tough that common creatures flee in
terror at the mere sight of one. It is lesser known that
*some* dragons can and often do take a more humanoid form
that they could walk unnoticed among the throngs and eat
something besides raw fish or overcooked meat once in a
while. It is much lesser known that some dragons identify
more with the thronging masses than with their own species.
And then there was Tarre and Aura.

 Tarre was, most of the time, a particularly slinky
half-ardrow with black hair in a thigh length braid, dusky
skin, and a shy air about her. Hakima and others who could
see through her guise would see a black dragon adolescent
with scarred scales in several areas. The shy and
underconfident air remained no matter what form she wore,
because this was real. Tarre had just been freshly hatched,
you see, when she ran into a band of goblins. They had spent
quite some time beating and torturing the creature.
Eventually the little dragon had woken from a particularly
savage mauling to find someone had defeated her tormentors
and was looking inside her cage. Tarre had been recruited as
a "moat monster" and had been well treated for many years by
the humans within, but had learned that her "Master" had not
been happy about a normally evil creature serving under him.
Tarre had suffered some heartbreak from that, and that her
Master had eventually died before she could earn his trust.
Tarre listened to the tale of the Race and a gleam entered
her eyes that had been missing the past week. A chance to
get a new "Master" - and she could *prove* she was
trustworthy! She would catch him, marry him (whatever that
meant, she wasn't entirely clear on it other than it
involved some lifetime commitment), and she would guard his
castle and protect him! A perfect plan!

 Aura, on the other hand, was proof that humans and dragons
could intermarry, though spells had been required for the
union to bear fruit even with the transformation abilities.
Aura was a young golden dragon who chased rainbows and
played around the city of Emeraldis. She was also a playful
young teenage girl who dreamed of marrying some hero (or
being the hero that rescued her True Love), fencing with the
Kharonian sabre, and was quite unable to master any number
of ladylike skills despite frequent effort in those regards.
She was also a natural flirt. Aura was also the third
Princess of the Imperial Shadarian throne, descended from
the Emperor's Second Wife, and fairly handy at the Imperial
Brewery. Like Tarre, she noted the Race with anticipation,
and that she was finally ready to run it! And there was at
least one (more were unconfirmed) HUMAN (just like Dad) men
participating in it! If she could just shuck the chaperone,
she was sure that she could nab one.

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

 Ranma stopped his research as a small gemstone, carefully
enchanted and set above the mantle, exploded.

 As he had before, Ranma used Hobgoblin swearwords as the
harsh language was particularly well suited for such things.
He added a choice promise, that if it turned out to be
Tatewaki Kuno again, that the samurai would be the recipient
of a Stone To Flesh and a garden hose in very short order.

 Tatewaki was spared becoming a fountain, to the
disappointment of many no doubt.

 Kyor had gone back into stasis, Akane had given up on
trying to kill P-chan, and Nabiki and Kasumi had finally
convinced his mother to give this "manly" concept a rethink.

 "Screw this, I might as well just go home. I ain't ever
going to get serious work done in this madhouse..." Ranma
grumbled and pulled out a scrying mirror. "This *better* be
good.
"Magic mirror, hear my plea,
 Seek ye out the menace to me,
 Project it forth that I may see."

 Ranma sighed and put back the mirror. "Damn thing hasn't
worked right since that lich threw a Disjunction at me."

 A crystalline disc was removed from his bag next. "Crystal
spellbook, let see...
"Divinations, Omens, & Portents. Alahandra's Questing Call,
Amazing Guess, Analyze Device, Analyze Magic, Artifactual
Discourse. Maybe a little further on?"

 "Divination Obscurum, Diviner's Malady...no. Further on?"
This *was* a problem of the crystal spellbooks. A long time
ago, an adventuring wizard named Selman the Scribe had come
up with the idea of enchanting a mirror so that one could
scry one's own spellbooks while they stayed safe and dry in
one's own tower. That a decently complete spellbook could
weigh in excess of thirty pounds, and a high level mage
could need access to five or six of the damn things no doubt
contributed to this concept. (Another mage developed
channelling as an alternative form of magical energy
access.) After centuries of refinement, a disc of enchanted
crystal actually became the spellbook. Special spells were
needed to scribe spells into this "virtual spellbook" but
the crystals didn't warp when wet or get singed when your
opponent constructed an invisible wall right after you've
cast a Fireball. Other spells and refinements were added.
Unfortunately, most of these spellbooks contained roughly
the equivelant of a magical library after a few generations.
Spells were duplicated, odd variations catalogued, less
efficient versions copied, and thousands of spells who
served little or no useful purpose cluttered it all up.

 "NEXT time, I'm putting up the extra gold and getting a
damn INDEXING function!" Ranma declared emphatically. "Ah,
here it is. Improved Clairvoyance, aka Nimodes' Useful
Vision. Letsee."

 Ranma was a generalist mage. While he typically used
channelling, and a set of spells he could cast almost by
reflex, he could muddle through the spellbook. The Corps,
the Imperial Mage Corps, was a good teacher. Even if it was
a paramilitary organization sponsored and run by the Emperor
and what had to be some thoroughly sadistic wizardesses.
Particularly the ones in boot camp.

 Another interruption came as someone knocked on the door.
Kasumi and Nabiki came in, followed by Nodoka and Shampoo.

 "Son," began Nodoka, holding up a small radio, "do you have
any friends you're expecting?"

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

 The streets were deserted. It was enough to spook even a
war correspondent. No sign of life, even the animals were
quiet. The first car in had taken fifteen minutes to figure
out something was wrong, then find a phone.

 THAT call had abruptly gone dead.

 Everyone, of course, thought nerve gas. The Self Defense
Force was considered briefly, but the Police felt they could
handle it. A massive mobilization took place, and SWAT and
Hazmat teams swarmed into Toyama shortly thereafter.

 The communications went dead, one after another after
another. As the elite forces sent in HAD and knew how to use
gasmasks and other environmental protection, the situation
was upgraded. Planes flew overhead and got pictures of those
deserted streets, abandoned vehicles, car wrecks and turned
over food stalls, all of which painted a nasty little
picture.

 Over 17,000 people. Gone, but not without a trace. They had
left their clothes sitting out in the street.

 The situation had gone from Curious to Alarm to Full Scale
Panic. Then the press had gotten involved and Full Scale
Panic was vying for position with Embarassed and Annoyed.

 Then reports began coming in from Uozu, then Kurobe, then
Nagano.

 Then someone got into Toyama and reported that there were
no people or animals he could find, but someone had left a
lot of dolls in their places.

 Uozu was the site of a major battle with the SDF now
fighting an animated train that kept trying to eat the
surrounding buildings and people.

 In Kurobe was a menagerie. Wildebeests, rhinoceros,
elephants, tigers, antelope, monkeys, and dozens of other
species, charging panicked through the streets.

 Nagano, as Toyama, was largely deserted. Except that a
large number of children seemed to be wandering the streets.

 The devastation had stopped, but then restarted again in
Kofu where there was a report of fires being started. By a
dragon. The SDF was scrambling fighters.

 That these sites were getting closer and closer to Tokyo
did not go unnoticed.

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

 "Think it's someone you know, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, quite
concerned.

 "Could be transformation spells or summonings, but they
sound pretty powerful." Ranma went to musing. "I've got some
pretty powerful enemies but I didn't think any of 'em knew
where I was going or how to get here."

 "You have enemies?" Shampoo checked her weapons.

 "Oh yeah," Ranma said with a dismissing gesture. "Schroda
is Diamondrank and is a Feryl, but it doesn't fit her modus
operandi. She'd be having wives murder their husbands and
children to join her as an army or turning all the males in
her vicinity to pigs or something like that. Infernalle
*could* be that dragon, but I'd expect her to fly
crosscountry, not use the roads. Drotek the Dweomereater
*could* do this, but I'd have expected him to use golems
again. The Dorona pirates *might* have a high enough level
mage, but they usually act a bit more subtle until their
actually ready to move. Those Red Rocket bandits are flashy
enough to advertise their presence like this, but they'd be
looting everything in sight even if they had an artifact of
sufficient power to do this.

 "That leaves few. VERY few. But who..." Ranma tried to
picture the acts and place a name with it. "Ratsfahr's
dissipated for the next thousand years, *and* it ain't his
style. Hentai - this so ain't his style it ain't funny.
Wyndlace? Lacks the power. Krolis would be raising undead.
The Broken Man's minions ain't likely at all. None of my
*rivals* would do it, they'd just show up and start trying
to show me up..."

 "You have rivals?" Shampoo looked up from sharpening her
sword briefly.

 "Well, yeah. Ame Furu, she's an Amazon esper of House
Rising Sun. Specializes in divination. Then there's
Delacourt, he's an elf wizard out of the capital, *really*
has a major attitude." Ranma thought about it. "Closest
rival I have who *could* conceivably do this is Sjul. Her
magic tends to go wrong anyway, so if she came here the
higher Chaos factor *could* cause her spells to run wild.

 "I doubt it's her though." Ranma thought a little longer
than shook his head. "I don't know who yet, but maybe if I
can cast this spell, I can get a clue."

 "Well, son, I would suggest that you get to it." Nodoka
found that her son taking this all in stride was a little
alarming.

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

 Thurin growled. As a dwarf, this was slightly less
effective than if, for example, one of the lionlike caiveh
had done so. "Do you have a make on the ship?" ~Please, by
the Seal, let it *not* be the Yo'mama.~

 "Yeah," came Garr's voice over the speaking tube. "It's a
hammership. Registry I haven't got. They've got a level four
cloak. All I can tell is they're nonhostile and
predominantly Southern Cross."

 There was a sigh of relief from the entire crew. Today was
a good day to do something other than dying. The Yo'mama was
a battleship, and it had a reputation. It survived, and it
completed each mission successfully, but serving as a
crewman was viewed as a death sentence. Being a nearby ally
wasn't exactly safe either.

 "Send message," the dwarf instructed the esper. "'Wildhorse
to unnamed ship. We are on the Emperor's business, request
you break off pursuit.' Use standard psi & semaphore."

 There was a brief silence. "No response, other than they
dropped back a few hundred ship lengths."

 "Silvara?"

 "I was going to call you," said the nymph's voice from the
speaking tube. "Indications are that this segment of the
Deep Ethereal's got some turbulance and a polarity shift."

 Thurin's scowl deepened. "A group of lusty teenagers
following ain't enough. With those omens and portents about
bringing Ranma back now, THIS fits all too well. How long do
we have before the dimension storm cuts off contact between
this set of planes and home?"

 Silvara's voice was interrupted by the sound of a ratchet.
"For this ship, less than twelve hours. It's that hammership
I'd be worryin' about. They're not constructed for heavy
ether turbulance, and it's likely a green crew."

 "I know. Garr, signal a warning to 'em as soon as they're
on a direct line. We'll just pop in and..."

 Thurin was interrupted by Stormshadow's voice showing a
touch of irritation. "Feryl signature detected. Looks like a
group of warwitches surfing the turbulence."

 "Send THAT to our shadow, but tell 'em to stay away."
Thurin grumbled. "Feryl. Just great."

 Stormshadow's voice through the speaking tubes was
punctuated by a few shudders in the ship as the ether
rippled around the Wildhorse. "This does seem to bear out
the rumors that the Feryl survivors are attempting to set a
base out in the boondocks. Unable to get more detail, but
that could be anything from a small group of scouts to a
full invasion armada."

 "They don't *have* an armada," said Garr with racial pride
showing. "My Amazon sisters have taken care of those
baby-killers."

 Thurin didn't dispute that. He didn't agree with it
entirely, as the Delphins homeworld had been among those
obliterated and made uninhabitable, but there are some
arguments that you can't win even if you're right. He was
also old enough to remember the last large-scale battle
between the Delphins and the Feryl. "Silvara, you hear?"

 "Yeah. Hang on, I gotta adjust this. Look, we just got the
one mage cannon. Signal the hammership to close with us.
Tell 'em we could use the escort. That'll keep 'em from
going off to fight the Feryl on their own, plus they'll be
close by if the storm starts pullin' their ship apart. Since
that design has a higher number of weapons than us, they'll
believe it."

 Thurin smiled. "Silvara, that was quite well reasoned. Make
it so."

 "Sugar, I'm over six hundred years old and an engineer.
Don't confuse me with some elf."

 There was a snort of derision that could only have
originated from Stormshadow.

 "Do it, Garr. How long till we intersect the insertion
point?"

 "Four hours," came Frostbite's voice from the chartroom.
There was a pause but the transformed dragon didn't speak
further.

 "Hammership 'Little GTO' is responding, sending back an
acknowledgement and hope that you're not going to report
them to their commanders," said Garr with a tone of humor.

 Thurin smirked in a manner similar to Stormshadow, which
would have mortified the dwarf if there had been a mirror
handy. "We'll take it under advisement."

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

 "Delphins," said Parici in the tone usually for speaking of
beasts.

 "Where?" The captain toyed with her eyepatch, as if
contemplating unleashing the Beast contained in the gemstone
that had replaced her left eye.

 "Trying to trace now. The storm makes it difficult for us
to scan them as well as for them to scan us." Parici scowled
at her crystal as if to intimidate it into revealing the
beast-lovers to her.

 "Get one of the spare beasts to the altar. Read its
entrails. Use one of the breeders, we might have use of the
workers later."

 "Captain, there are plenty of beasts on these other worlds,
shamefully cohabitating with women of those worlds."

 "Good point, we can always restock." The captain nodded.
"Do it."

 "Yes, Bural." Kle left her post and drew her Maiden's Kiss.
Sharp enough to cut, dull enough to hurt, the wavy curved
seven inch blade was a symbol of the Feryl. When a Feryl
male had served his duty and was to be converted from
breeder to worker, it was usually the Feryl mother-to-be who
used the blade. Kle had a fondness for the duty.

 "Locate the ship but do *not* attack. Monitor and track
their course. We'll attack after determining where these
degenerates are going."

 "And if we find they've beasts aboard?"

 Bural fixed Parici with a cold glare from her remaining
eye. Impertinent wench. "Standard procedure. We'll pass them
around, blind and hamstring the breeders, geld the ones
we'll keep as workers, and then use 'em in the cookpot when
we've tired of them. Satisfied, First?"

 Parici grinned as she turned back to her instruments. "No,
Captain, but I hope to be very soon."

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

 Genma was beginning to cheer up. Yes, he transformed into a
panda. Yes, this was another thing that his
often-unreasonable wife would look to as a major failure.

 Yet, there was something wonderful about this. His eight
year old martial artist daughter Midori was (with a suitable
application of cold water) his eight year old son! The old
agreement with Soun could still be accomplished! All he had
to do was take Midori there, introduce them, and the
engagement could take place immediately. Then, all he had to
do was wait for Midori to reach minimum marriageable age at
sixteen, and one of Soun's daughters would make his daughter
a wonderful wife.

 A perfect plan!

 Midori had absolutely no idea what his father was thinking
about, or the violence would have been brutal and immediate.
Midori was, uncharacteristically, sulking. He had to wear
unisex or male clothing, he couldn't wear makeup, he had to
settle for a simple ponytail, he couldn't flirt with cute
guys. This was yet another case of his father putting him
through HELL. Being a boy was just *no* fun. ~Just wait till
Mom sees this.~

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

 Tatewaki Kuno fled. He ran, ducked, dodged, and hid behind
objects whenever possible. He cursed the spell that Akane
had been placed under but realized that he could not break
it until after he had been transformed back from being a
pig.

 Akane pursued. Normally she could be a nice girl, if prone
to sudden fits of overwhelming violence and some serious
issues about her own feminity within the existing Japanese
paradigm. She had currently been pushed past the point where
a brief burst of violence would sate her inner demons. The
target of this need was her pet P-chan, now revealed as
being Tatewaki Kuno. The innocent nibbling of her breasts
and rubbing against her most private parts by P-chan had
turned out to be not so innocent at all.

 And everytime that Kuno transformed back, he would grope
Akane under the assumption that he had already done so as a
pig and now couldn't be denied his reward.

 Akane was at the point where pounding once on the pervert
was not sufficient. It had never worked in the past anyway.
Serious dislocation of joints was called for.

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

 "TAROT CARDS?!" Nabiki was aghast.

 "The spell requires a focus, it could just as easily be
I-Ching sticks, tea leaves, or the entrails of a dead pig."
Ranma shrugged. Why ask why? The spell worked and divination
wasn't normally his strong suite anyway.

 "But..." Nabiki just didn't like the idea of something so
mundane. Ranma had said that this was a difficult and
powerful spell, but fairly efficient for the amount of
power.

 Kasumi flipped one up to inspect the face and froze.

 Seeing her sister staring at the card, Nabiki took a quick
peek herself. "The Lovers?" Nabiki smirked at seeing how
Kasumi's eyes were wide and she was turning quite red. "It's
in the cards, eh, Kasumi? I..." Nabiki glanced back at the
card. ~That's MY face?! Who's that guy?~

 "You don't want to do that, Kasumi." Ranma covered the
card. "These are magical. If you aren't careful you could
doom yourself. Once revealed like that you pretty much limit
your choices in the future."

 Nabiki waited for Ranma's back to be turned before she
flipped a card up, checking to see if her face was on more
than just one. A coppery scaled dragon was curled around
some treasure hoard on this card, when the head raised
itself from position of rest to regard Nabiki briefly and
wink. Nabiki very hurriedly put the card back and decided
this wasn't as mundane as it had originally appeared.

 "In any case, all of you should wait outside the outer
ring. This is mainly because I need your influences filtered
out before I try to read the situation." Ranma indicated the
outer circle he'd just drawn around the table.

 "Gotcha, sort of a magical 'clean room' huh?" Nabiki could
understand it, sort of. Noting that Kasumi was still staring
as if paralyzed, though now wearing what would be a
silly-looking grin on anyone else's face, Nabiki helped her
sister out to a safe position.

 Ranma looked at the cards, shuffled them, lit the two
candles, and cast the spell.
"Spirits of eternal light,
 Grant a glimpse of your sight,
 Reveal to me within time's flow,
 What I must do, where I must go.
 Powers of truth eternal I ask,
 Aid me in this simple task."

 The cards started dealing themselves. Six cards formed a
cross shape before the candles abruptly went out.

 Nabiki looked around, there had been a feeling as if a
presence looming from the time that Ranma had started
speaking until the candles had extinguished themselves.

 "Aw, crud." Ranma slumped. "More trouble."

 "What is it?" Kasumi crossed to innermost circle though she
couldn't seem to look directly at Ranma without blushing for
some inexplicable reason.

 "Interference. Can't get much detail other than there are
three major problems heading my way." Ranma tapped the
"Devil" card. "This one indicates a darkness or evil
approaching. It isn't always the meaning, but that's the
impression I'm getting. It's modified by the 'Fool' and
'Seven Of Amazons' cards to indicate that this isn't a
particularly competent evil and there is a warrior
associated with it."

 Ranma tapped the left branch of the cross. "The card here
is 'The Grail' - in this case it is modified by the cards of
'Force' and 'Chariot' which makes me think we'll be getting
visitors real soon - allies."

 Ranma tapped the right branch of the cross. "The
'Excalibur' is modified by the 'Hermit' and 'Moon' cards. In
this case, it seems to evoke an image of some crazy but
powerful figure- no doubt the one that's making a mess in
those cities. It's also the source of the most powerful
interference, which means an Anti-Scrying Amulet of at least
Level Four."

 The lowest branch of the cross was indicated finally. "And
the final set. 'Chaos' modified by the 'Gathering Storm' and
the 'Halfling'. An indication that I need to return home
sooner than I had planned."

 "How soon?" Kasumi looked on in concern. Seeing herself and
Ranma on the face of the "Lovers" card had caused her
equilibrium to go all to heck.

 Nodoka frowned, wondering why the drawing on the "Lovers"
card resembled herself and Genma when they were younger.

 Shampoo smiled to herself, having seen herself on the
Lovers card, riding some fearsome dragon. Clearly this meant
she should go with Ranma to this fantasy world. And just
imagine Hiba-chan's expression when she showed up at the
village with THAT.

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

 There is a law in several universes regarding coincidences.
They happen.

 Genma and Midori became aware that something was wrong. No
special martial arts skill was necessary however.

 Anyone walking down the street three feet above the surface
was sufficient indication that there was something decidedly
odd going on. Said person laughing maniacally and being
preceded by swarms of bats was a further clue to the
observant. Even Genma was able to pick up on the concept
that this guy with the pointed ears was bad news when
several uniformed police officers attempted to apprehend
him, and were promptly turned into... well Genma wasn't
quite sure what those spiky critters were.

 "Porcupines," Midori managed to somehow gasp as she dragged
her father (even more impressive as he was in panda form at
the time) along behind her at a high speed run. "He turned
seven cops into porcupines!"

 [So that's what those were!] Genma's sign wasn't read by
his daughter due to his position behind Midori. [Funny
looking things, kinda like sea urchins.]

 Wyndlace, powerhungry villain if a bit effete, decided to
have a bit more fun. Especially as those two appeared to be
going in just the right direction.

 Besides, both of them bore the Jusenkyo power signature,
and Wyndlace could recharge himself with that. Then he could
use the power focus in his hands to expand his power even
further. Ranma would pay, and pay dearly, for losing him his
standing among the mages.

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

 Kle wiped the satisfied smile from her face before entering
the bridge. Each slice had been a delight to inflict.
Carefully done, one could keep the victim not only conscious
but screaming through the entire process. It was an artform,
and many of the Feryl were just too squeamish to do the job
properly. Still, the prevailing attitude was that only Feryl
counted as people. Only human, only female, as was right and
proper.

 "Report, Kle." Bural's eyes sought out her subordinate.

 "There's a male of the Delphins aboard one of the two
ships, and they are currently going to retrieve a male who
is important to their future." Kle wet her lips in
anticipation. Everyone knew that male Delphins produced
strong babies, though the males didn't seem to last long in
captivity.

 "Excellent," hissed Bural. Promotion, power, forgiveness
for that little blunder involving dumping the washwater out
over SubPrefect Metallica's head. All within her grasp.
"Pirici, follow the ship but keep us hidden. Robyn, signal
the 'Hand Of Mercy' and 'Divine Justice' and have them
follow discreetely."

 "Like *those two* will learn 'discrete' all of a sudden,"
Robyn griped from the signal dome.

 There were some comments from those remaining about the
divvying up of the spoils once the Delphins ship had been
cracked. Bural let them. And a few of those Delphins could
become zombies under her command with the new spell she'd
picked up.

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

 "Mark that. Eighty seven ships of under three tons, sixteen
in the fifty ton variety, and four hundred-tonners. Three
have broken off to ride the currents closer."

 Thurin blanched. "Three of the hundred-ton Baseships?!"

 "Errr, no sir," Garr's voice was apologetic. "One of the
fifty ton ships, two of the under three ton variety."

 There was more than one sigh of relief. "Can you make out
the class on any of the three?" Thurin asked with a gleam in
his eye.

 "Too much interference, and if I use a strong enough
psychic probe that fleet's sure to have someone capable of
detecting it." Garr used a tightbeam transmission to the
"Little GTO" to inform them of the odds. The hammership
signalled back an old Amazon saying: "Today is a good day to
die, but it's a better day to get some cuddling done after
the fight." Which had replaced the old saying of "Make love,
make war, make cookies. Just not at the same time."

 "Okay, people, they'll probably wait for us to re-enter
Etherspace before they attack." Thurin growled as he
considered the odds. "We're faster than most of those ships
out there, so we can outrun 'em. The Baseships especially,
some of the smaller ships might be as quick. We're not here
for a fight so let's just get our objective done, then relay
to the Houses that we found the Sixth Fleet."

 "So the whole thing depends on how fast we can find Ranma
and crossover again," Silvara summed up.

 "I have a tracer on his position," volunteered Frostbite.
"When we get to the appropriate spot, I'll let you know the
proper angle and velocity to use to ensure that we appear
within ten dragonlengths of him."

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

-----------------------------------------
web: http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
mail: metroanime@mindspring.com
"I was rather hoping for a break from all the
 gratuitous sex & violence."
- Major Boothrow, aka "Q" of Her Majesty's
Secret Service,  "A Very Scary Bet"



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