Reluctant Bet, segment 9
"Hell to pay"
----------------
Still not on the Target Timeline:
"AAaaaaah"
GRAB! GRAB!
Kiyone looked up to where the guy had grabbed her belt and
Sasami's belt. "Uhm, thanks..."
Grey looked to where the D-hopper was still falling. "Hang
on, i'll have to land and get that. Good thing this is my
cyborg form, if i'd turned into Ranma we'd be stuck trying
to transport before we hit bottom."
Sasami finally unclenched her eyes to look. Deserts,
volcanoes, and a single unpleasant looking black river. "I
don't think I like this place."
Grey continued a slow descent to the ground. "I think
you're right. I extended my forcefield automatically, and
the environment outside the bubble is reading downright
toxic."
Kiyone tried not to shift, also not to think about how
undignified this looked. "Any idea where we are?"
"Can't be exact without accessing my Planewalker's Guide.
Offhand, i'd say we're in one of the Earth timelines where
some ecological disaster like a meteor strike scoured the
planet of life. That would also account for the volcanoes."
"THAT'S Earth?!"
"Altitude 1000 feet. Yeah, Pretty sure, this is one of the
Dead Earths. i was on one where the Ice Age that started in
the Middle Ages continued to get worse. It was a Ranma
timeline, but because of the diminishing resources and
advancing ice sheets, the setting was a bit different." Grey
shuddered
"What happened there?" Sasami asked but wasn't sure she
wanted to hear. Still, it wasn't like they could do much
else at the moment.
Grey paused for awhile, deciding how to tell them. "800
feet. Well, cannibalism was pretty widespread, and the
Tendos had control of these hot springs. Made them pretty
wealthy by the standards of that world. Kasumi was a good
cook, i'm sure, but watching Akane butcher Ranma for the
cookpot..."
Sasami turned a bit green. "Oh dear."
"And what were you doing on THAT world?" Kiyone was feeling
a bit queasy herself.
"Actually i was there for the Yamani family. They were
hunters who worked in the area under Lord Tendo. They had a
wish registered that someone would find something better for
them to hunt than rats and deer."
Kiyone blinked. "Okay... so what did you do?"
"Brought in a variety of conifer, planted some groves. Also
a variety of grass that can survive in very little soil. For
the short term, i put in a form of wild ox but in a
different area. 700 feet."
"So the grass and the trees could spread and provide forage
for later," Kiyone nodded to show she understood. "Not bad."
"Yeah, didn't do the Yamani much good though. Neighboring
tribe wiped 'em out during a seasonal conflict with the
Tendos..." Grey turned eyes heavenward. "And people wonder
why i tend to get depressed."
"Hey, I think I see that rod thing."
"Yeah, that's it. Hang on..."
Kiyone waited briefly as the ground slowly approached.
"Can't you go any faster?"
"Nope. Not without lowering power to the forcefield. 400
feet. The air just beyond the forcefield has got a lot of
particulates, dang little oxygen, and registers as one
hundred fifty on the Celsius scale. Some of the trace gases
are also coming up as poisonous."
"Oh my." Sasami looked up at the figure carrying them.
"You're not getting tired, are you?"
"Nah. Internal fusion microplant. Limbs are bionic. i don't
tire that easy, except for mental fatigue." Grey went quiet
as the bubble around them shuddered under a sudden wind
change. "Hmmmmm. Looks like... The ground is coming back as
mainly being volcanic ash. Old enough that it's compacted
some."
"Well, the Rod didn't sink into it, so that's a good sign."
Kiyone looked around at the hellish landscape as they got
closer. "Definitely not the sort of place I'd want to stay."
All three remained silent until they contacted the ground.
Grey, weighing the most, sunk past his ankles into the ash.
"Look, there's someone over there!" Sasami pointed off past
a dune.
Marller stepped out of a swirling gate, middle finger
upraised as she shouted something at the threesome. Then got
a very startled expression as the gate closed behind her and
she tried to breathe.
"Bad guy?" Kiyone asked as Marller went to her knees,
holding her throat and baring slight fangs as she gasped for
breath.
"Yup," Grey agreed. "Tangled with her before. That's
Marller, a Demon First Class."
"Wow! A Demon! Really?" Sasami had only seen Ryoko before.
"Yup. Vicious, mean, and nasty." Grey watched Marller
struggle a bit more. "Well, i guess i better go rescue her.
No telling what'll happen if the Doublet System activates."
------------------
Wander Inn:
"AAAAAHHHH!" Mina felt herself wake as if from a long
dream. Then she realized what she was doing, and who she was
doing it with. Amy had a nearly identical reaction.
So did the pair of Rei and Lita.
"What happened?!"
"I- I- I-" Amy managed, blushing furiously and trying to
hide herself.
"Other than the obvious?" Rei checked, found a small shower
and immersed herself without hesitation. One didn't need
psychic powers to see a rush for it a little later. "Okay,
we left robot-boy back at the table. I got this sudden crush
on Lita that went beyond the usual affection I have for all
of you. SOMETHING cut through that bloodbond spell and..."
"But I? We?"
"It's a good thing Chad didn't see that, he'd have had a
heart attack." Rei chuckled and finished rinsing herself
off, then left so that the patiently waiting Lita could
enter the shower stall. There simply wasn't room for more
than one.
"So what do we do?" Amy said, covering herself with a sheet
while she waited for her turn in the shower.
Rei opened the door and left the room, suddenly famished
again.
"We'll just go back and excuse ourselves to Grey. He
strikes me as the understanding type. Then we can part
company when we get to a world where we can fit in." Lita
said as she relinquished the shower to Mina.
Rei re-entered the room, waving a note. "Guys, we need to
hitch a ride out of here. Dig this:
"Dear Amy, Lita, Mina, Rei,
As you have apparently decided on some 'quality time' and
have no further use for me, i am leaving this nexus point
and continuing my journey. The bloodbond is still active,
but i know some people who should be able to cut through it,
especially as it was done without the assent of one of the
parties. Have fun and i wish you all the best. Ask the
waitress for directions to exit into one of the timelines
you're bordering. Grey aka Ranma"
"He's dumped us here?!" Mina called from the shower.
Lita dried her hair as best she could with a towel. "Sounds
to me like he thinks we were dumping him."
"We did," said Amy with a wince.
"Well, I can't see where that bloodbond is doing ANY of
that stuff he was talking about."
--------------------
Morisato Residence:
"Well, you're the original, so YOU should have Keiichi,"
Belldandy said deferentially to Belldandy.
"I still think we could all share him," said Belldandy
hopefully.
Keiichi, watching three of four Belldandy discuss sharing
him, excused himself to go get a cold shower.
"How sweet," said Belldandy, "but don't you think it would
intimidate Kei-chan. He seems a bit intimidated by just one
of us."
"How could he be intimidated by me?" Belldandy blinked and
tried to consider such a thing.
"I just spoke with Astrild on the phone," Belldandy said as
she entered the room. "She came up with an explanation.
There were some merging timelines over on spoke 327. The
spell Urd was casting misfired and summoned some of those
others at the moment of re-merger. Apparently that's why we
all detect as real and stable."
"And so when we attempted to discharge the energies of the
spell-cloud, we formed a 'ground' but were caught in the
effect. I see..." Belldandy finished, her face troubled.
"And with those Kei-chan being merged, I suppose that he's
still with a Belldandy himself?"
"Yes," Belldandy said to herself with a saddened look.
"So, did Father say anything?" Belldandy asked herself,
handing herself a cup of tea. That was something Belldandy
and Kasumi had in common. No matter how bad the situation,
it could be made a little better with a nice hot cup of tea.
"No comment from him directly. Astrild and Keefer both were
checking Yggdrasil for proper protocols. Obviously having
four goddesses of the present is too many. Not to mention
two Megumi's and two Urds."
"Three," said Urd, coming in from the hall. "One of us was
passed out under the bed."
"So, three of us and two Urd have to leave this timeline?
Oh dear," Belldandy said with a slight pout. She'd thought
the idea of surrounding Keiichi with herself was amusing.
Which would have shocked at least one of the other Belldandy
if she'd known.
"Hey, Urd," said an Urd now standing in the doorway. "I
figured out what to do about Grey!"
"Grey?" Belldandy asked in an odd chorus.
"Yeah," Urd said, turning her attention to the Belldandy
convention. "We were trying to slip him a love potion so as
to get him involved with this really nice nature spirit."
"But someone fed ME a love potion and I got this enormous
crush on Edema." Urd frowned slightly.
"Yeah," repeated Urd. "Anyway it was a simple matter to go
to the Dead Millenium universe, get the stuff they used to
cast that bloodbond. Now all we have to do is cast a love
spell strong enough to snare all of 'em THROUGH the
bloodbond."
"Urd!" Belldandy frowned disapprovingly. "Compelled love
doesn't last!"
"It does if one of the parties doesn't abuse the other. And
out of that group at least ONE should remain after the
others are done. The tricky part will be having them love
him and not each other considering that last effort. I think
I've got it though, and I'm working on it right now."
"Oh dear," chorused Belldandy.
"I better see what happened to Kei-chan. The rest of you?"
Belldandy got up, suiting actions to words and left to check
on poor Keiichi.
"I'll check their spell," volunteered a second Belldandy.
"It's really not right to do this."
"Even if everyone is happier WITH such an arrangement?"
queried the third Belldandy.
"Come on, Bell," said the fourth to the third. "Let's check
in with Heaven and see what's going on."
"You go ahead," said the third Belldandy to the fourth.
"One of the Megumi is out in the yard and looks like she
could use someone to talk to."
-------------------
Rival Relief Office, Asgard:
Grey finished typing. "Okay, Kiyone, you can get off the
scanner. Sasami, are you sure about this?"
"Yup!" Sasami nodded her head and gave a thumb's up.
"Okay, get up on the scanning platform. Kiyone, there's
your entry."
Kiyone looked over the screen, commenting that their
computer system looked like it had been cobbled together
from several different obsolete computers. Which was
accurate.
Name: Mambo Jack
Designation: God Of Male Potency, Second Class, Limited
Area Of Expertise: Drinking, Partying, Sexual Performance
Special Notes: Thirty Seven Conduct Violations pending
review
Assignment: Currently working in MK211341, expansion of
Kama
Sutra involving Limbic Kai techniques.
Name: Kiyone
Designation: Mortal Agent Trainee, Galaxy Police Officer
Area Of Expertise: Marksman, Investigation, Police work
Special Notes: Gamma level martial artist, comes from
near-Earth
human stock- world of origin has artificially enhanced by
primitive
genetic engineering template.
Assignment: Currently unassigned. Suggest equipping as soon
as is
possible.
WARNING: Traces of High Level Enchantment.
"What do you mean 'primitive'?" Kiyone scowled at the
screen.
"It's just a computer, it's not even an artificial
intelligence. That's just its evaluation from the scan. Now
i input your data and Sasami's so her own entry ought to be
coming up about now..."
Name: Sasami Jurai
Designation: Mortal Agent, Schoolgirl
Area Of Expertise: Cooking, Domestic Chores, Jurai based
technology
Special Notes: Tsunami entry pending special conditions.
Assignment: Currently unassigned. Suggest equipping as soon
as is
possible.
WARNING: High level Enchantment noted.
Grey raised an eyebrow (thankful that his cyborg body had
been upgraded to allow him such gestures) at the Special
Notes entry. Then the entry above Mambo Jack caught his eye.
"Hey, is this a joke? Oh, you can get down now, Sasami."
Name: Ranma Saotome
Designation: Agent, Temporary License.
Area of Expertise: World Class Martial Artist, Mage,
Veritech Pilot,
Surgeon, more
Special Notes: Currently on mission in RN287143.
Assignment: Current mission: Divine Intervention, attempt
to steer
corrupted individual back into a more positive role
Grey blinked as this was a fairly typical mission. "Uhm,
let me see if I can find out what that Enchantment is." He
walked over to a set of cheap aluminum shelves and began
going through odd gadgets.
Kiyone and Sasami watched with some amusement as Grey
produced a small hand drum adorned with feathers, an odd
three-sided mirror, a Faberge style egg, and what looked
like a ping-pong ball gun.
"Here we go," Grey finally said as he pulled out something
like a jeweler's loupe attatched by a set of mechanical arms
to a massive book. "Thane's Codex Of Enchantments, Charms,
and Curses."
Kiyone watched as Grey fit the loupe over one eye and
stared at her. The mechanical arms flipped through the book
until they finally pointed at one page. Grey then removed
the loupe to examine the passage framed by the hands.
Kiyone was curious enough to read over the cyborg's
shoulder. "A LOVE SPELL?!"
Grey's face was flat as he briefly regarded Kiyone. "Okay.
Let's see about Sasami." Again using the loupe, Grey
regarded Sasami. The arms merely moved slightly this time.
"Oh my," said Sasami, blushing. "So that's why..."
Grey sighed, obviously saddened by something. "Don't worry.
i won't take advantage of you. These things are usually just
temporary in nature anyway. Besides, if the alarm there is
any indication, the rescue party to bring both of you back
is already getting close."
"Eeep. Mihoshi?" Kiyone could see it now, she'd be dragged
back. Back to Mihoshi. Back to no chance for promotion. Back
away from what she saw as an opportunity. "Can we leave?
NOW?!"
"They'll just come for you again..." Grey sighed. He had
hoped that the interest he'd been sensing from Kiyone had
been someone actually attracted to him, and he could see
where her career might have been furthered. Obviously, it
had been too good to be true.
"But..." Kiyone's eye caught the screen. "We're members of
the Rival Relief Office now. You HAVE to help us."
"i suppose." Grey grabbed a satchel, a small box, a number
of unidentifiable objects, and a cute little backpack off
shelves. "Here, you'll need these. Hang on while we cross
planes again."
When the door was knocked off its hinges (Ryoko didn't
check or she would have found it was unlocked) the room was
empty.
Naturally, Mihoshi had no idea how dangerous the little
drum she was playing with was.
Just as naturally, Washu said a few disparaging things
about the computer, but read the contents and clicked on the
various menus. Then noticed the book that had been left
open.
---------------
Target Timeline:
In a place that still had plastic over a number of
fixtures, a room was lit by a television.
"It was terrifying, Tendo..." Genma's voice stopped as his
eyes caught up with what they were seeing. He wasn't
thinking about stealing, he wasn't thinking about eating, he
wasn't thinking about the Art.
"What?" Soun's eyes tracked to the TV. "REWIND IT!"
Shampoo smirked (it was only natural for womans of Amazon
tribe to have control over remote) and hit the rewind,
followed by the play button.
Black screen, a sparkle resolves quickly into a mirror.
"One, two, three, four"
With each number, a different Ranma Saotome appeared in the
mirror. The first was the one they had met, the second would
be recognized by Ukyo as Parn from "Record Of Lodoss Wars",
the third wore the armor of a samurai, the fourth a blonde
gaijin that most of the girls recognized from the
"Supersoldier" series they'd seen earlier.
"Can I have a little more? Five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten..."
Ranmas continued to appear, wearing some sort of pilot's
outfit, wearing fantasy swashbuckler clothing, a Ranko in a
nurse's outfit, as Sailor Earth, in an Evangelion plugsuit,
and in surgical scrubs.
"I love you."
Kasumi stared and considered fainting as she watched a
brief image of herself resting her head on Ranma's shoulder
and obviously relaxing.
"A, B, C, D Can I bring my friend to tea?"
Ukyo giggled in glee as the scene came up again where she
and her Ranchan were obviously sharing a happy moment IN
THAT VERY RESTAURANT over tea.
"E, F, G, H, I, J, K I love you."
Nabiki wondered who the girl in the red fuku was. Some sort
of cheerleader?
"Sail the ship, jump the tree, skip the rope,"
Image of a veritech fighter slides to the right showing
Ranma leaping up over a tree. This image shifts to the left
and the new image is of Ranma walking a rope over a chasm.
"Look at meeeeee! All together now...."
As the chorus goes on, dozens of different Ranmas pass by
the screen, all singing. Several are carrying a sign with
the series title "Mirrors Multiplied"
"Black, white, blue, red,"
Nabiki had been waiting for this, the standard "villain
cast" frame shot. She didn't recognize most of those
present, but then she hadn't expected to. Tatewaki Kuno,
though obviously enhanced with cyborg parts, being one of
the villains DID surprise her.
"Can I take my friend to bed?"
Kasumi DID faint as the image showed her all but dragging
Ranma into her bedroom.
"Pink, brown, yellow orange blue, I love you..."
Several of the viewers stared at the number of women
filling the screen. No two alike.
"All togetheeeer nooooowww...."
"That... that was Ranma..." Genma said in a disbelieving
voice.
"In last weeks episode, Ranma's father Genma had pulled yet
another bonehead manuever and..."
Genma gulped as the screen-Genma went up to the front gate
of the mansion and demanded that Ranma come home with him
and marry Akane as honor demanded.
"MARS FIRE SOUL!"
"MANNA BOLT!"
"Blue Iczelion GRAVITON BEAM!"
"Razor Hoop!"
"Oh my!"
"Veritechs Seven and Eight target that man with dummy
warheads."
"Dummy warheads, ma'am?"
"Sweets for the sweet, lieutenant."
Genma winced as his on-screen likeness started dodging
attacks but was getting pummelled anyway.
"And now episode XXI: Ask not for whom the Wedding Bell
Tolls... or Ranma No Kekkon?"
"Kasumi, you look like you were born to wear that..."
"Thank you, Nabiki. Oh, how's father doing?"
"Dehydrated actually."
"Ah, Rae-chan! Is that a Mars Wedding Dress?"
The wise and benevolent patriarch of clan Saotome stared at
the screen. He focussed in on the relevant details. That
was... Ranma preparing for a wedding with some girl who was
NOT one of Soun's daughters. "RANMA! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!
You break your father's heart!"
"Saotome, what kind of loose morals did you instill upon
your son!"
Nabiki decided all the fuss was interfering with her
watching the program. "Did you notice that Kasumi is ALSO
wearing a wedding dress, Uncle?"
"Ah, and so our plan to unite the Houses WILL prove
successful!" Soun's emotions proved capable of doing a high
speed "U" turn.
Kasumi moaned softly in her sleep.
"Proving our wisdom in making that agreement, Tendo!" Genma
wasn't a slouch in the "take any chance to prove how great
you are" department either.
"It's decided then. Ranma will marry Kasumi!" Soun wiped
tears from his face. "Oh happy day!"
"I still think Akane would be a better choice," hemmed
Genma, "after all, Akane IS a martial artist."
"Look at who's getting married..." Nabiki pointed at the
screen.
"Oh my."
-------------------------------
A knock at the door brought Nodoka to politely bow as she
answered it. Then she saw the woman's face, her eyes, and
KNEW who this was. She didn't know how she knew. She simply
knew. That the late evening of the rest of Tokyo had been
replaced in her doorway by noon was just further
confirmation.
Nodoka was a traditional woman in many ways. When one of
your kami shows up on your doorstep, there are only a few
reactions which are really appropriate. Fainting was one of
them, but might be considered impolite.
"Saotome-san, may one speak to you regarding the individual
you know as your son?"
--------------------------------
Elsewhere:
Grey sneezed. He wasn't Japanese, but he was associating
with anime characters and that made it close enough.
"So where's our client?" Sasami asked, blinking as she
looked over the seated cyborg's shoulder at the computer he
was working with.
"Scanning. Looks like one of the pokemon worlds. Kiyone,
could you go to my bag? There should be six red-and-white
spheres in there." Grey continued to set up the search
routine.
"These?" Kiyone held one of the devices up.
"That's them. There's also a device that looks kind of like
a Game Boy with an outer lid. Get that out and give two
spheres to Sasami, take two spheres yourself, and leave two
behind for me."
"What do they do?" Kiyone looked over the bi-color cueball
curiously.
"Pokeballs, sort of. These aren't GENUINE pokeballs.
They're something Rafe worked out that do basically the same
thing. These use modified transporter and extradimensional
storage technology. One of these days i'll have to get him a
REAL pokeball so he can take it apart."
"'Rafe'?"
"Raphael, one of the archangels. Likes to slum with the
Rival Relief Office because we tend to be scavengers. The
other agencies have raw power to do things, WE have to rely
on whatever we can find and add to our own personal
equipment. Which is what we're doing here." Seeing that
Kiyone hadn't found it yet, Grey went over to his sack and
pulled out a box that he handed to Sasami, then gathered a
set of objects which he slapped together into a "gun" shape.
"What's that?" Kiyone was interested. Guns she could
handle.
"Something i haven't perfected yet. i HOPE it works..."
"Let me repeat myself. What is that?"
"An element gun. IF it works."
Sasami blinked. Kiyone blinked.
Something moved through the underbrush.
"Okay, Kiyone. When i yell 'now' throw the pokeball at
whatever it is and say 'pokeball go' - it's an activation
phrase." Grey readied his odd carbine-looking gun.
"Mag?" A creature that looked kind of like an aardvark with
a flaming mohawk moved out of the brush, causing a small
fire as it moved. "Ash?"
"Open the pokedex, Sasami."
Sasami did, noting that a picture of the creature appeared
in the display.
"MAGMARASHI. The final stage of Hinoarashi. This flame
pokemon is considered dangerous. No further data."
Grey clicked a switch and pulled the trigger on his device.
Thousands of gallons of water swept over the flaming
creature. "MAG?! MAGMAAAAAAA!"
"Stop, you're hurting it!" Sasami couldn't believe that
Grey could be that mean.
Grey stopped. "Now, Kiyone!"
"Yeah, right. Pokeball go!" Kiyone bounced the sphere off
the creature. The sphere opened up and the creature seemed
to get stuck inside.
"You-you killed it!" Sasami stepped back, looking properly
horrified.
"No, it's in an extradimensional pocket. See the blinking
light? If it stops struggling, the light will go out and the
creature is essentially yours. Treat it well and it will do
well for you. If it breaks free, then that's it - it's
free." Grey watched the blinking light briefly. Then it
faded. "Okay, Kiyone, pick it up and the pokeball will
register you as its owner. You now have a pet magmarashi."
"What if I pick it up?" Sasami was still concerned about
the creature.
"Then it will be YOUR Magmarashi."
Sasami didn't wait any longer but went and got the sphere.
"Is it okay?"
"Push the stud on the side or throw it and say something to
indicate your desire to let the Magmarashi out."
"Magmarashi! Come out!" Sasami threw the pokeball and
Magmarashi appeared.
"MAG!"
"Oh, poor thing!" Sasami hugged the beastie, not noticing
that she wasn't being burned.
"What can it do?" Kiyone eyed the creature uncertainly.
"Flame attacks, more than that i don't know." Grey checked
the Planewalkers Guide then his RRO laptop. "Sasami, one of
the things you'll learn in this line of work is you can't
always judge based on the terms of your own culture and you
can't right every wrong. It's something i still have trouble
with myself. In some ways it's like cockfighting or Arena
pit fighting, and the morality of the whole thing bothers
me. But in these worlds there's usually a reason the system
developed and continues to work."
"But why?" Sasami's pink eyes stared at Grey.
Quite aware that both Kiyone and Sasami were hanging on
every word, Grey frowned as he tried to find a way to put it
in reasonable terms. "OK. In one of the pokemon type worlds
i visited, the whole Trainer thing was because of an ancient
pact between the native species (the pokemon) and the
colonists (the humans). The wild pokemon weren't as well
cared for as the ones with a trainer, and the trained ones
also tended to be stronger. It also turned out that the
pokemon who didn't want a Trainer knew how to avoid them.
The initial capture then became a matter of determining if
the Trainer was good enough for the pokemon's standards."
"So the relationship is symbiotic in those worlds," Kiyone
caught on quickly. "If the ones under a Trainer prospered
more than the wild ones, and the Trainer benefitted from
having strong pokemon, then the arrangement was mutually
beneficial."
Grey nodded. "For the most part. i *still* don't care for
it, but if the pokemon doesn't like the arrangement they've
been known to go rogue or choose another trainer so it isn't
QUITE as bad as i had originally thought."
"Oh..." Sasami looked at the fiery creature in her arms.
"Do you want to be my pokemon?"
"MAG!" The aardvark grinned and nodded his head.
"What about this one?" Kiyone held up a blinking pokeball
of a different design than the others.
"Oh, i just stuffed Marller in there while she recovered.
She'll be fine." Grey dismissed the topic. "Besides, she's a
Demon, so i used an experimental ball on her. We'll just
release her when we're in the process of leaving some world,
that way she can't attack us that easily."
"Oh," Kiyone stuffed the ball back in the sack. No point in
borrowing trouble.
---------------------
Target Timeline:
A knock on the door caused the group to go silent from
their discussion of the big wedding scene. Kasumi had just
groggily awoken to find that somehow she'd been dressed in a
wedding kimono. Fortunately for her peace of mind, she found
she was still wearing her normal clothes underneath or her
quick shucking of the heavy garb would have been
embarrassing.
"The doors downstairs are locked," said Ukyo in an
apprehensive tone as the knock repeated.
"Maybe it Ranma!" Shan exclaimed, bouncing up. She opened
the door but was disappointed.
"Good evening," the woman swept in, briefly looking over
the group before fixing on Genma. "YOU!"
"Heh..." said Genma, looking wildly about for an avenue of
escape.
"...and you." The woman's eyes swiveled to Soun.
"Uhm, do I know you?" Soun looked over the woman. Formal
kimono, tied with an obi, the two swords of the samurai
thrust through the sash. Very old and well-used looking
swords, Soun noted. Then his eyes went up to the woman's
face, the odd red circles on forehead and both cheeks were
curious. It was when he saw her eyes that Soun began to
sweat.
"Oh my kami." Kasumi breathed upon seeing the fiery orbs
that looked over everyone in the room.
"So nice to be recognized," said the woman with a slight
smile.
============================
Ideas from this one:
Why would pokemon WANT an arrangement like this when it has
been demonstrated that they can go rogue? (Marowak did this
in an episode i recently saw, then decided to return.)
That not all Alternate Earths are the sort of place you'd
want to vacation in.
The Mirrors Multiplied season one opening animation.
(Whatta ya think, Skysaber-san?)
A bit of a look into the RRO and how it operates while
being overshadowed by the big guns like the Goddess Relief
Office and Earth Assistance Hotline. Sort of like a small
mom-and-pop convenience store two blocks from a K-mart and a
Wal-mart, ie: forever on the verge of bankruptcy.
Magmarashi is one of the new pokemon, it hasn't made it to
the anime series that i'm aware of.
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"Shampoo learn many things. Shampoo seek
out new life, and new civilizations, kicking
major butt where no Amazon ever go before!"
-Shampoo, A Very Scary Bet
metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/