Subject: [FFML] [Ranma/xover][sortafic]Reluctant Bet 17
From: "Gregg Sharp" <metroanime@mindspring.com>
Date: 4/9/2000, 8:05 PM
To: "fanfic list FFML" <ffml@fanfic.com>

received two e-mails saying this never hit. here goes.

Reluctant Bet, segment 17 "Reluctant Camper"

remialcsid: ihsahakaT okimuR snwo 2/1 amnaR. rehtO srahc mt
rehto elpoep.

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

Asgard:

 "He's an even worse 'Ranma' than Grey was!" Apollo shook
his head. "This is a thorough mess. What are the predictions
indicating if we let things settle out as they are?"

 "Most likely scenario, dimensional merger with the Pheonix
Mage's home universe. Worst case scenario: Red Army tries to
conquer the Amazons in 1999, and they use the Tireisian and
Adolescent water in normal explosive warheads. Most of
Beijing becomes effeminate teenagers. The Amazons no longer
are a 'secret society' but engage their own 'Cultural
Revolution' through good PR and control of their potent
magic." Mambo Jack lit a cigar, which Amaterasu abruptly
incinerated.

 "No smoking in the GRO."

 "Worst scenario, but also unlikely," Apollo said. "Where's
Celeste, anyway?"

 "In contact with the new 'Ranma' - she's getting him a
Rulebook on proper Ranma behavior."

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

Target Timeline:

 "Which is why you can't beat up Akane even if she begs you
to," Celeste's hologram pointed out to the walking crowd.

 A little stuffed panda being carried by Ranko was not
currently capable of realizing WHY he had been turned into a
plush toy, or he'd have realized that nobody trusted Genma
further than they throw him. Or that trying to sell Ranko to
Mousse had NOT been a good idea within sight of Urd. That
there were patches of fur missing and traces of tar on the
stuffed panda further indicated that Urd's adopted adorable
little sister was NOT to be considered fair game.
"Well, darn. Hey, waitaminute. The Rule is 'Ranma does not
HIT Akane.' So I could cast a spell turning her into, say, a
cute little tribble. Or hit a shiatsu point that gives her
spastic colitis, so that every time she got angry she'd get
explosive diarrhea, or..."

 There were a lot of winces.

"Big brother, that wouldn't be very nice." Ranko frowned
slightly.

 "Besides, the Tendo household only has one bathroom." Urd
took a more practical approach.

 "I could BUILD a second one." He stated emphatically. "And
'Rubberpants' would be Akane's perfect nickname - she's
always losing control anyway, we might as well make it
literal."

 Belldandy shook her head, guessing who'd have to clean up
the messes.

 "No? Okay, but 'Physical Mirror' would be interesting.
Causes all damage attempts against the defended party to be
reflected back at the attacker, she could beat herself up
for our amusement." He pondered. "Only trouble is I couldn't
hit anyone else. NOT in character for Ranma, I know. The
best I ever came at overcoming that disadvantage was to
enchant
the... Ahem, well, a certain part of my clothing to visit
'below the belt' attacks back on the attacker at the same
degree they were intended to effect me."

 Shan's eyes widened.

 Makoto scratched a certain set of maneuvers off her
inventory. Not that she'd want to use them against THIS
target anyway...

 "Well, whatever. That Rulebook has all you need to know to
portray Ranma." Celeste looked over at the fourteen year
old. "You do know that this Labor is not going at ALL the
way things were predicted."

 "We KNOW," chorused Jared, Urd, Belldandy, Makoto, and
Shan.

 Ranko merely looked puzzled.

 Jared sighed. "Alright, no hitting Akane no matter how much
she deserves it. Insulting her, however, is in the rulebook
as a *required* activity. Makes me wish I had a copy of the
Exalted Book of Ethnic Humor."

 ~Humor?~ Ranko perked up. "Wow! Is it funny? Can I read it,
too?"

 Jared sobered, stopped smiling, and patted her head. "No,
I'm sorry. It's not for little girls. It is a magical study
on insulting words and gestures to be used against all known
intelligent races and creatures. But I'm sorry I even asked
because it always makes the people it is used on ashamed and
angry. So it isn't a very nice thing to do. I should never
have suggested it."

 ~However, I'm going to have to plan something else. Akane
practically *defines* not nice, and is my personal idea of
all that is or ever has been evil behavior in women. I exist
to defeat evil.~

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

 Nabiki sighed contentedly as she sat down with a hot cup of
tea, adding a touch of lemon and honey to the genmai blend
for a further bit of elegance.

 "So how're sales doing, Nabiki?" Kasumi busied herself at
the counter.

 "Pretty well. I put the list up on the fridge for tomorrow.
Six more orders of your 'Ultimate' bento, four orders 'Extra
Spicy', three orders 'Healthy Athlete', and twelve 'Regular'
bentos." Nabiki smiled, an air of satisfaction around her.
"How about the 'bagel cart' stuff?"

 Kasumi didn't turn from her work, but you could hear the
smile in her voice. "The new office building is really doing
well. Many of the employees are typical unmarried sarariman,
and either don't have the time or talent to fix their own
lunch or snacks. I use that 'arranged marriage fiancee'
story to fend off the more bold approaches. It seems to
work."

 "Good, good." Nabiki blew gently on the tea and sipped at
it. "It's nice to see the household finances in the black."

 "Yes, well, I also want to see if we can locate a naginata
instructor to help me rediscover Mother's school." Kasumi
broached the subject delicately. Money was tight, but they
both understood that the Tendo 'Silvered Lightning' Ryuu of
naginata was a part of their mother's heritage and therefore
something that both elder sisters wanted revived. Akane was
the Heir to their father's school.

 "Like we can find someone to do that at what we can
afford." Nabiki shook her head. "We have enough expense
keeping Akane in bricks and practice dummies."

 Kasumi made a little sound of affirmation, then came to a
stop in mid-chop. "Nabiki, do you have any idea where Akane
got that mallet?"

 "That big wooden thing with the spirit wards? No..."
Nabiki's voice trailed off. "Something spooky about the
thing, isn't there?"

 "It feels 'wrong' somehow." Kasumi said, beginning to chop
again. "But she says it's her 'precious' and won't tolerate
questions about it."

 "Maybe it's just a phase she's going through," Nabiki
shrugged. She was busy enough that her youngest sister's
peculiarities were of little interest.

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

 Jared stood with his back to the camp, firelight dancing
across his shoulders from where Belldandy taught Ranko some
of the finer points of preparing a meal.

 Tears inched down both his cheeks as he gazed off into the
sunset, remembering what was.

 He ducked his head and pulled in a ragged breath. ~C'mon,
pull yourself together. That universe is gone. Try and make
the best with what you have.~

 Two Amazons crouching in the bushes wondered what their
airen was crying about? Perhaps he needed comforting? Hmm,
they should start with kisses...

 Jared leapt as if taking an electric shock, causing the two
Amazons to go still. Had he detected them?

 "SHAN!" Jared called out, counting on her bionic hearing
being able to pick up his shout from where she was.

 The purple haired copy of Shampoo arrived in a blazing
aura, her Powerkey Staff at the ready, energy discharges in
the megawatts ready to be unleashed at a moment's
provocation. "Airen?!" She sounded puzzled when all a radar
pulse caught were two Amazons concealed in the bushes.
Danger level: minimal?

 "Guard me, I've got to do some Astral traveling." Without
further explanation Jared settled to the ground to sit
tailor-fashion. With Shan and Belldandy watching and ready,
he knew anything short of the Four Horsemen Of The
Apocalypse (not to be confused with the Five Horsemen Of The
Byzarre) would be unable to disturb his physical body. And
as Belldandy and Ranko had been in earshot, even the Four
Horsemen would be delayed.

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

 Mousse stalked the delicate blossom, a hastily scrawled
note tucked securely up his sleeve (along with most of the
catalog of Montgomery Wards) where he could take it out and
try to reread it every so often.

"Bill of Sale:
One (1) engagement to my daughter, Ranko Saotome.
The bearer is fully entitled to court Ranko by whatever
means necessary.
Offer subject to first come, first serve basis, not valid in
all areas, dealer retains the rights for rebates and special
exclusions.
Genma Saotome."

 Mousse was *so* pleased with himself, he had made sure to
get it in writing, knowing how tricky these Japanese could
be.

 And 'whatever means necessary' could cover quite a bit of
ground when the Nichieju master of Hidden Weapons style
strode forth!

 He had no idea what he had ever seen in Shampoo. When
compared to Ranko...

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

 "Something wrong, Ranko-chan?"

 "Yeah, Bell-chan. I kinda felt this ominous sensation with
a twinge of nausea. How strange..."

 "You're just trying to get out of... Makeover Time!"

 "Uhm, you were serious, Urd? i was REALLY hoping you were
joking." Ranko backed away from the former goddess. "Heh
heh. Don't you think this would be better put off until MUCH
later. (Like when certain infernal regions freeze over?)"

 Urd sighed, disappointed. "If you insist. (Just wait till
we get to Japan where I can do it properly!)"

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

 Jared's Astral form came slowly to a halt near the
village/city of Nichieju. SOMETHING had been messing with
the magic he'd laid about this place.

 He reviewed the obvious and came up with a blank as to
identity.

1) Raw Power Level: Extreme. Evidence of elemental energies
summoned and fixed, where underground channels had been
altered. Dimensional barriers had been pierced repeatedly,
and then rewoven almost like new. Sloppy, but with a great
deal of power. Jared wasn't sure how much power, but doing
things like this placed the power level uncomfortably close
to his own.

2) Types of magical weaving: no single school of enchantment
as HE had learned them. Which meant a generalist mage.
However there was a signature in the weave that he hadn't
expected.
Jared had visited a few worlds where a spell was essentially
a program written without a computer. The benefit of such
spell weavings was that they got stronger as time went on.
That had been done in a few places. There was also something
VERY familiar about the hue and shaping of the glowing
lines, but Jared couldn't immediately place it.

 His ghostly form swooped past wardings which would have
stopped anyone else. There were several new bright weavings
of magic, and one was...

 Jared Saotome, the Pheonix Mage, was reminded that he had
NOT seen everything.

 It was an articulated statue of Shampoo, made entirely of
enchanted plastic. From the look of it, the plastic was of
the sort of thing he had once run into on a world known as
Rifts Earth. It was colored all in silver, and this Shampoo
was vaguely reminiscent of the Iczer robo. Still, that was
Shampoo's face on the 60' tall golem. There was also a pair
of wings on the back that could snap out.

 To his magical sight, the thing was an oddly balanced mix
of enchantments and technology. Further examination altered
his original opinion of it. It wasn't a golem. It WAS a
giant robot, capable of psychically bonding with a pilot and
becoming an extension of that pilot's will. Some
independence, but as long as the chosen pilot was in place
it would remain tamed to that will.

 Jared flitted to the next point, a sinking feeling, but was
pleasantly surprised.
He'd never seen one up close before, but the underground
hanger held what could only be a Full Metal Siren. Two
generations up from the Veritech he was used to piloting.

 If he weren't in Astral form, he'd have drooled.

 Jared shook it off, more puzzled than ever. WHO could and
would have done this? He'd have to puzzle it out in the
morning.

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

Asgard:

 Celeste yawned as she considered the current file. Ho hum,
another one of those near-mainline universes. This one was
doomed to merge with yet another of the 'Ranma gets killed
due to excessive pride and a desire to protect Akane'
timelines. There were a lot of reasons for Ranma to die
under such circumstances, but after his death their
differences rotated down to such low numbers that the
timelines merged together.

 There were a few files, carefully hoarded and backed up,
that Celeste kept AFTER their spin down or the normal
termination of that timeline. One of these was the cartridge
marked 'William Shatner Sings Sinatra' a sufficiently
horrible title that nobody ever checked it out.
HAD someone checked it out, they would have found that
someone had copied bits and pieces of other timelines, the
crucial data of something IN a timeline - the pattern stored
much as it would be if some Star Fleet teleporter had been
used to capture it.

 Celeste sent a glance to where, even now, a vastly improved
village of Nichieju was being copied to backup.

 You could never tell where something like that would come
in handy.

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

Dead Millennium:

 "I. Am. Going. Completely. NUTS!" As this was being stated
by a shivering wild-eyed woman who hadn't bathed in three
weeks, this was taken at face value.

 "Phew, Rei, can you at least stand downwind?" Lita waved
her nose in front of her face. "You know that there's a
stream over there. It's a bit cold but it at least it
works."

 "WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR THREE WEEKS!" Rei shuddered. "Getting
by on protein bars and water, burning whatever wood we could
find for heat, and that's not a stream that's a *drainage
ditch* we've been using for water..."

 "Look, you heard them. They turned us back from being
pokemon, but as we renounced the marriage and broke a vow,
we were moved back to our home reality." Mina showed a
moment of tact by not pointing out that it had been REI who
had suggested having the bloodbond removed as they had never
had any intention of honoring it in the first place.

 "Amy, any luck on contacting the Powers That Be with the
Mercury computer?" Lita scuffed the dirt with a boot that
was in the process of disintegrating like the rest of their
clothes. Like the rest of their civilization.

 "The only address I got was off this business card for the
'Heart Of Darkest Chocolate' ice cream parlor," Amy pointed
out. "So far, all I've gotten is the e-mail telling us about
where we could find the protein bars. None of my other
demands or questions have been answered."

 Rei shrieked something nearly unintelligible about the fire
telling her the world needed to be purified.

 "So... you've tried demanding. You've tried logic. You've
tried legal precedents and accessing what's left of the
religious texts. What's next?" Mina winced as Rei screamed
something that sounded like a plea for the sun to burn this
world clean. "Other than locking Rei up somewhere
soundproof?"

 There was a few minutes of silence before Amy tapped out a
quick query on her computer and sent another e-mail. "I've
just sent another e-mail."

 "It'll be ignored. We blew it. By not stopping the Dark
Kingdom. By not protecting Serena. By not approving the
AIVAN project. By removing all the 'evil' from the populace,
leaving them essentially drones..." Mina sighed. "Well, that
guy with the flame hair assured us it would only take a
couple of months to process a refugee application."

 "Loki. The Norse Trickster. You honestly think he was
telling the truth?" Lita twitched, caught herself and
suppressed it. "What makes you think that this e-mail will
work any better?"

 "I don't. This time I tried honest pleading."

 Mina caught Lita's shuddering and wondered how long it
would be before she and Lita were screaming epithets at
broken piles of stones the way Rei was doing right now. It
was funny, Mina had thought that SHE would have broken first
under these conditions.

 Amy's computer bleeped. "I've got mail?!"

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

Target Timeline:

 "Pops, you *can't* engage Belldandy to anyone. She's *MY*
fiancee, and the only hold you have over her vanishes the
moment you revoke that! Since you can't engage to anyone
else without first revoking... huh?"
 Jared looks up at Urd, who is pointing out the little
'Error' light. He swiftly checked the code, then whipped out
the instruction manual.

 "Okay, Rule Four. Logic and Ranma are strangers. Exception
three: Major life change - not yet invoked in this
timeline." He closed the book sourly and took Belldandy's
arm, beginning to stalk away. "Well, we can still abandon
him to his own mess... what?"

 Belldandy had dug in her heels, and nervously pointed out
the returned error light.

 "Let's see, page thirty three... Ah! No matter how stupid,
Ranma always does as his father says. Unless Clause Nine is
invoked..."

 Flipping pages.

 "Ah! Clause Nine. In the event of Ranma becoming *aware* of
Genma's terminal stupidity through gross acts of it, he is
allowed to attempt to lead a separate life. No guarantee
exists of such attempts being successful, but can lead to an
Exception Three: Major life change."

 Jared folded up the book. "Well, that solves *that!*" He
loads Genma in a catapult and fires him over the horizon,
shouting after the bear. "Get outta my LIFE, you freak!"

 The little error light came on again, but Jared waved it
off. "No, Rule Two. 'Anything required to protect the
favored fiancee may be performed.' This includes destroying
chances for cures and swallowing pride, so kicking Genma out
of our adventuring party is within the parameters."

 The light winked out.

 Belldandy blinked up at him, stunned. "Am *I* the favored
fiancee?" She asked in some wonderment.

 He shrugged a little. "Um, yeah, I guess you are."
~Feelings of anyone so precious and wonderful are not to be
endangered. Therefore, she is, even if it only started as of
this moment.~

 Belldandy smiled and took his arm. Leaning into it, she
made a happy sound.

 Urd made a noise into her hand, then went all false
glittery-eyed and spoke with an Amazon accent as she flung
herself onto the pair of them. "But good sister always
share! No?"

 "Aaaahhh!" The required yell came from Jared's throat.

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

Dead Millennium:

 Amy's eyes went wide as she read the e-mail. Lita and Mina
crowded close to read over her shoulder. Rei was having what
sounded like a fascinating conversation with her own shadow.

"Looks like pleading worked better than demanding," Amy
remarked.

Dear Miss Anderson,
Tyr takes a dim view of oathbreakers, nor is he the
only one. Even Loki, who plays fast and loose with oaths
and dislikes Grey, has decided to stick by the rules. In
which case you are stuck pretty much where you are."

 Mina whimpered.

There is something that I can do, though I count
myself as one of Grey's friends and I'm not at ALL
pleased by your treatment of him. I have no problem
at all with you using a man, but using him and then
casually discarding him... Yes, I am fully aware of
that love potion. If you had not planned *from the
start* to abandon him, it would not have worked.

 "B-but we had to." Lita looked to the sky. "WE DIDN'T MEAN
ANYTHING BY IT!"

On the other hand, everyone pulls "brain farts" as
Mister Jack puts it. Therefore a second chance will
be given you by ME. I am a powerful drow elf mage, one
who works in Heaven but is not associated with any
agency and therefore must thereby play by their rules.

 "A second chance," murmured Amy, still feeling a bit guilty
herself.

Note that if you make this choice, you will then be
not given the opportunity to change your mind later.
Some will consider this cruel and evil and mean, but
everything is relative and it is nothing compared to
what you'd have seen in my homeland. In a process
much like the "drawing of evil" that your Crystal
Tokyo performed, your own will would be bent to a
new role. You will keep your forms and personalities,
your likes and dislikes, but will still emerge
changed.

 "This doesn't sound pleasant," Lita remarked. Still there
was hope.

Those who choose this option, come dressed as
comfortably you can to the central plaza of
Crystal Tokyo at noon exactly two weeks from
the date of this mail.

 "Two weeks?! We'll... almost be out of those protein bars
then..." Mina considered the heap of bars they'd last seen.

 "If you didn't keep scarfing them," remarked Lita, "they'd
last longer."

Those who choose to remain needn't wait much longer.
A solar flare will erupt in four weeks, a result of
continued instability left from the New Moon Kingdom.
This will be sufficient to end the last traces of the
Crystal Millennium.

 Everyone's eyes tracked to where Rei was still chatting
with her shadow about the sun purifying the land.

Edema, drow mage
PS: In case it makes a difference, if you choose to
come, you'll be reunited with a Serena.

 Three sets of eyes blinked. "Serena, but she's..." Mina's
voice broke off in a sob, proving that she still had some
feelings beneath the depression.

 "She says 'a Serena' so one of those dimensional other
Serena." Amy paused. "I don't know about any of you others
but I'm going."

 "Are you sure? I mean she could do ANYTHING to us if we
agree to this."

 "I'm going too," Mina said by way of reply to Lita's
question. "We know what's here. Maybe this gal has her own
agenda and rescue is already on the way. Maybe not. We can
only find out for sure what is going on by going along with
it."

 Lita allowed this was so but had another question. "So how
do we explain this to Rei?"
Nobody had a ready answer to that one.

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

Terratwo:

 "Lorelei-sama?"

 Lorelei didn't look up from her scanning equipment.
"Gennai-san?"

 "Two hairs is going to help all that much?"

 "They match the hair of that woman with the dark skin. She
seemed the most normal of the group who actually came in the
castle. Still, you're right. We've only got partial
sequences from the hair sample. We can do a little bit, add
that skin and hair color to the gene pool, but nothing
else."

 "So why do it? If that rude person with the fire hair comes
back..."

 Lorelei very slowly reached out and toggled a button. There
was a brief flash inside the containment vessel as two hairs
were dissolved. "Excellent point. He MAY be able to
determine that we had them."

 Gennai nodded. "A pity, as all his talk of world-destroyers
convinced me that eventually we will NEED to advance much
further than we were, but the possibility of his return is
much too high. Particularly if he discovers..."

 Lorelei gave an involuntary glance to a very special vault
containing a very special "virgin circuit". "If he discovers
that we used engram technology such as Faust used to copy
his memories? That we had a partially completed backup of
that 'Grey' person's memories? That's our 'ace in the
hole' - tomorrow Cherry will come by with Otaru-sa... Otaru
and the others and we'll see what happens when it is
installed in Panther. Remember Gennai, this is a most
precious secret. Otaru is even leaving Lime and Bloodberry
outside the castle for this meeting. If others learn of the
potential knowledge..."

 "At the very least, Sakyo will be less cooperative. At the
worst, we'll all be dead." Gennai shrugged. "I've lived a
full life. If that Mage fellow shows up, maybe I can buy you
a few minutes to get away."

 Lorelei kissed him on top of his bald head, which had the
effect of causing Gennai to faint from a nosebleed - a very
rare occurrence in Terratwo.

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

Target timeline:

 Ranko bounced back from the stream and slipped inside the
door of the Women's Tent, coming into first the large open
area that served as an entry and stables where the two
cathians were currently resting on hay they didn't have
horses to eat, then flying through into the back section
where the bedrooms were.

 Her big brother had pulled the tent out of his pocket and
commanded it to set itself. In addition to the stables it
had a common area with food and twelve modest bedrooms, all
with their own beds and toiletries and things.

 Jared had instantly declared it off limits to men and slept
last night across their doorstep, a sword in one hand and a
rose in his other.

 Ranko had asked him and he'd said. "It's the sort of thing
heroes do." But admitted to cheating a bit because his cloak
was like theirs in that sleeping wrapped in it was the equal
of any bed. The sword was a reasonable enough warning of
"I'm on guard, please no snuggling." That he'd hoped it'd
keep the Amazons away. She still wasn't sure about the rose.

 All he'd said was "Dramatic emphasis."

 The buxom butterfly whipped into her room, grabbed her
pack, removed her towel and things, then was flitting back
out and off to the stream when she caught a glimpse of her
big brother taking down the tower he'd locked their daddy in
last night "to keep him safe."

 She flitted over. "Oniichan! The rest of us are bathing by
the river. You want to come?"

 His ears pinked a little. "No, hime-chan, there are limits
past which male endurance was not meant to go, and that's
one of them. I'd blow a gasket resisting hentai impulses at
that sight, and one of the secrets of keeping the Law of
Chastity is not to go putting yourself at
risk for breaking it. You go have fun, I'll go see what pops
is doing over by that village."

 Ranko blinked at the distant huts. "How do you know he's
over there?"

 Jared smirked. "A little bird told me." He shooed her. "Go
on, have fun. We'll reach Japan today and you want to be
clean so everyone will know what a good girl you are."

 "Hai!!" The little demoness buzzed off.

 The Mage started off, but one of the Sparrow Squadron flew
up and informed him that Genma was getting drunk off of the
money he'd made, selling them to the Amazons. That, while
reprehensible, was about as harmless as the old man got. So
he didn't need any direct attention.

 Jared elected that he might as well take a bath.

****0****

Sailorjin Timeline:

 Usagi pouted. "It doesn't work?"

 Ami threw up her hands. Sometimes being the Scientist among
all these warriors was a difficult task. "That's what I
said. I've got the phase particles, I've got the frequency,
I've got the right power level. EVERYTHING checks out OK."

 "Except it doesn't work," noted Minako.

 "It worked for the group that left here, it worked for that
Shan person, but I can't get it to work for US!" Ami didn't
know what else to try at this point.

 "Makoto is out there somewhere, so WE are not specifically
blocked." Setsuna seemed to inspect the device for a moment.

 "Maybe it's because Makoto is such a wimp," speculated
Haruka. Michiru nodded as if in deep thought.

 Minako and Rei glared at Haruka, however this was done so
frequently it had little effect.

 Ami merely looked at the machine as if willing it to work
this time.

***00***

 It was a mountain stream direct from the meltwater, about
as cold as they got. Which was cool, one didn't stay in
martial arts shape by treating oneself comfortably *every*
night.
Jared banished his stuff back into stuffspace, jumped,
transformed into a silvery finned salmon, and hit the
water....

 Only to haul herself immediately out, shivering and
freezing. Okay, apparently girls felt the cold more than
guys did. Certainly her breasts hurt. She tried to will
herself into the form of an otter. Nothing. A quick chi
heating of a flask of water and he was back to male again.

 He changed into an otter and dipped one furry toe into the
stream again, instantly transforming once more into a girl.

 Jared frowned. The Jusenkyo curse was overriding even her
own shapeshifting powers! It read 'girl' it meant *human*
girl! A touch to the ears disproved that. Apparently elven
girl was close enough. Though she *could* use another
ability to change to a human appearance.

 Well, one didn't get training by flinching at the hard
stuff. She jumped in for a quick scrub. Afterwards she built
a fire and stood in it to dry off and warm up, grateful that
at least the heat resistance remained.

***000***

 Sakyo was grateful for Edema's assistance, though she
suspected the drow had ulterior motives. The dark elf *was*
listed in Grey's log entries as a trusted friend, though the
degree of trust was at times strained by cultural and
personal differences.

 Apparently the dark elf was into certain activities which
SHE thought of as exciting or romantic, and which Grey
thought of as barbarous or just plain intimidating.

 And the dark elf had allowed Sakyo to make a backup of her,
but something curious had happened.

 With every other flip-transformation into a stored persona,
Sakyo was still active. It was *her* will and memories that
dominated, she simply had access to the skills, memory, and
form of the person she was duplicating. If she "Cutey
Flash"ed into Nabiki she could calculate gambling odds and
had fairly good photography skills. If Sakyo shifted into
Shampoo, she knew all the Amazon martial arts techniques of
the original and could speak Shampoo's dialect fluently. If
Sakyo became Edema... she didn't know what happened because
she'd black out until shifting back.

 This scared the heck out of her.

 It also meant that she had no idea of how Edema operated.
What her agenda or motives were, or even how to fix that
Cherry Chocolate Peanut Butter Blitz sundae.

 So Sakyo Kuonji was engaging in research while another
portion of her mind was engaged with the design and
redistribution of equipment. It was clearly not possible to
go to various timelines and scan the individuals she thought
most likely candidates for her project.

 Therefore she grabbed another videocassette and fed it into
the appropriate slot. There was more than one way to gain
data, after all.

---------------
Target Timeline:

 "Ranma! You stay here while I go hire us a boat! Belldandy,
would you like to come along?" Genma managed to hide the
gleam in his eye as he contemplated selling the unwanted
fiancee in order to pay for the trip.

"I don't think so, old man." Jared pulled out a sheet of
paper, folded an origami boat, and blew on it. The paper
wafted over to the ocean and became a small yet sturdy
sailing vessel of the type he'd folded.

 "Wow!" Ranko gleamed with eyes wide, flying a quick circle
around the vessel.

 Jared handed her another sheet when she landed. "Magical
origami paper. You'll *like* it. I don't use much as I've so
many other ways to do things, so knock yourself out. Have
Shan show you how to fold a crane or something."

 The group started out for the boat. Jared moved to follow
them when Genma suddenly exploded into his face. "Ranma! I
can see you've become weak!" He instantly sobbed. "I've been
too lax in your training! For the honor of the Saotome name
you HAVE to uphold the honor of the school!!"

 "And this means?" Jared asked dryly, trying to ignore the
liquor reek.

 And that was how he ended up swimming the sea of Japan,
towing their boat behind while burdened down with lead
weights. It was *also* how he became convinced that Genma
wasn't any hotshot as a martial arts instructor. It had to
be Ranma's ability as a student.

But he *did* pick up the Oceanborn technique.

****0*0*0****

 "Nabiki Tendo, fair patron of the culinary arts, today the
stars favor you for you have caught the eye of the Shooting
Star of Furinken High!"

 "Big deal, it still costs you the same as everyone else,
Kuno-baby." Nabiki frowned. Her spiritual senses were
reading more than a simple idiot. Something was about to
happen. Some major shift in their lives. She had to get to
the temple later and see if her fortune indicated any
particulars.

 "The heavens weep at such a price!"

 "Would you rather eat your sister's food?"

 "That was 550 yen, wasn't it?" Kuno managed to find the
requisite funds.

 Nabiki wondered if she should go on a fasting and pray for
enlightenment. Or maybe she was just nervous about the
possible deal with Yamamotoyama.

**********

 In some ways, the dock areas of Toyama Bay represented the
very sort of things that most offended Jared's druidic bent.
While a bit cleaner than the harbor at Hong Kong, it was
still a harbor and still a dumping ground caused by the tide
of humanity meeting a more natural tide.

 Of course, his magical senses had picked up a few things,
no doubt thrown off the pier ages ago for one reason or the
other.

 Worse, both he and Ranko had noticed a spit of land that
had REALLY impinged on their spiritual senses. (He'd been a
little surprised at the seriousness that the perky redhead
had called forth.) He'd felt some desire to protect the
innocent child, but now Ranko and Belldandy were attempting
to purify the area, cleaning the psychic taint of what had
been a slaughter of innocents during Tokugawa's reign.

 "Ranma! Prepare to DIE!... urk!!!!"

 Before the call had been fully completed Ranma had flung
himself away from the intended attack and had pulled out
some sort of rifle and began firing even as he'd tucked to
roll. The martial artist kept both his aim and a steady
stream of his velocity fire as Ryoga reacted with
panic at the stone literally being chewed apart around him
by a high velocity stream of exploding bullets.

 Jared then smoothly changed clips as one came up empty,
covering the motion with a shotgun pumped grenade without
breaking rhythm. Then he saw who he'd been pulverizing rock
around and lifted the barrel of his pulse rifle. "Oh,
terribly sorry Ryoga. For a moment there I thought you were
an enemy. You might say that a trifle sensitized to death
threats shouted
during a charge. You didn't really mean that of course. Good
thing I'd aimed to miss, wasn't it?"

 The stone wall that had been behind Lost Boy collapsed, all
but for a distinctly Ryoga-shaped silhouette that was
untouched. The bandanna clad youth was standing unhurt, but
with his jaw hanging open wide enough to catch flies.

 Ranma stowed the weapon cheerily, then waved a small card
to passers-by. "Oh, don't worry. I've got a permit." Indeed,

he was waving one of the rarely issued and almost never seen
permits to carry (and discharge) firearms in Japan.

 He pressed a small card on one of the frozen onlookers,
containing information on a branch of a Japanese government
agency. "Send the damage estimates to these fellows, won't
you? They'll make good."

 The youth stuck his hands in his pockets and began to
wander away, smiling. "Ah, what a *beautiful* day." ~Hmmmm.
That's odd. Sounded like an explosion. Better check it out.~
Behind him, Ryoga twitched slightly, still in frozen
position. A tiny sweatdrop beaded on the back of his head.

 Ranko came flying up, checked on Ryoga briefly, then flew
off again. She would have done this for anyone, but Ryoga
was quite capable of misinterpreting honest concern for a
stranger's welfare.

*****^_^*****

 Genma smirked as he extolled the virtues of these girls.
The three Yakuza thugs seemed impassive, but Genma knew they
were interested. If he did this, not only would he get
money, but he could unload some of these unwanted fiancees
at long last!

 "What about that one," said the leader with a jerk of his
thumb at the one currently talking with a pretzel vendor.

 "Her name is Belldandy, a fine choice." Genma nodded. "She
is quite attractive, and..."

 There was a preceding rumble immediately followed by
SOMETHING slamming into the ground, causing the sidewalk at
the point of impact to erupt as a fine powder.

 Genma covered his eyes briefly to shield himself from the
force of the explosion. When he opened them again, three
Yakuza thugs had become one with the scenery. One was
imbedded in a wall, one pair of shoes was sticking out of a
mailbox, and that looked like the leader hanging from a
streetlamp.

 There was also a rather large, muscular, individual with
red hair and a beard, glowering down at Genma with a scowl.

 "I'm just conducting business?" Genma offered.

 His gi was grasped and Genma found his considerable bulk
lifted in one hand.

 "Look, boy-o. I'm not that keen on visiting the mortal
plane anymore, and I SURE as Bragi's balls don't get any
kick on interfering with a Labor, but if you try to sell MY
COUSIN one more time, I. WILL. HURT. YOU."

 Thinking back to the maw of teeth that had appeared at
Jusenkyo, Genma came to an incorrect but understandable
conclusion. "Ranma, these childish illusions cannot fool
me!"

 Genma was shook as if a rag doll in the jaws of a frisky
pup. The tang of ozone reached his nostrils.

 "Illusion?" (WHAM!) "YOU" (WHAM!) "WILL" (WHAM!) "CEASE"
(WHAM!) "AND" (WHAM!) "DESIST" (WHAM!) "NOW!" (WHAM!)
"UNDERSTAND?" (WHAM!) "DO YOU?" (WHAM!) "IDIOT!" (WHAM!)

 Jared wandered by thirty seconds later and wondered who had
driven Genma into the pavement like some tent peg. And was
this an enemy or a friend?

 Genma wasn't able to comment at the moment.

***********

 Soun found the postcard and began a fresh round of weeping.
"Oh joyous day, caloo, calay!"

"Tendo,
 Arriving Nerima. Bringing Ranma.
                           Genma"

 Soun quickly went to gather his daughters. Kasumi was, as
expected, in the kitchen, fixing dinner and making sure
everything was ready for her early start on the bentos and
baking the next day. "Kasumi, family meeting."

 "Okay, father, I'll be there as soon as I get to a stopping
point."

 Nabiki was found in her room, also as expected, wearing her
leotard and doing aerobics while listening to her Walkman.
Soun to wave a hand in front of her face to finally catch
her attention.

 Akane was also where she was expected to be. In the dojo,
ready to shatter a few bricks and occasionally talking to
her mallet.

 It didn't take long him to gather his daughters together
and explain the burden of honor and how important this
arranged marriage was.

 "If it's so bloody important, why didn't you mention it
before NOW?!" Akane glared at her father. "No matter what
you're saying NOW, you said earlier that *I* was the Heir to
the Tendo School of Anything Goes! Anyone trying to take
that away is gonna get some serious hurt!"

 Kasumi briefly considered. "Is he cute? Does he mind his
wife having a job?"

 Nabiki looked thoughtful. "Hmmm. Might be good for my
image. What are his religious convictions? Is he thoughtful?
Cute? Capable of being nonconfrontational? Able to deal with
the concept of a wife who's able to pull in more money than
he does?"

 "I don't know, I've never met him." Soun smiled. All three
of his daughters were so beautiful, any one of them would be
an excellent choice for a young man!

 The doorbell rang on cue.

 "That must be them!" Soun got up, joy suffusing his
features.

 "I'm going to finish my workout," Akane announced and
proceeded to the dojo.

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

weird ideas section:

That there are Rules, and complex ones, governing the
portraying of Ranma.

 The idea of Nabiki initially looking for means of revenue
and coming up with the "bento trade" among other things. So,
a version of Nabiki that never got into extortion or has
nearly the gambling presence. As an entirely different
professional image is required for this line of work, she'd
appear different and act differently. More like Nanami from
"El Hazard" and less the junior-Yakuza sort. Nabiki's
success inspiring Kasumi, Kasumi doing the 'bagel cart'
route. Kasumi AND Nabiki then operating a small business
that is actually bringing money into the Tendo household.

 The technology level in "Sabre Marionette J" seems a bit
haphazard. Capable of making mongrel clones, but not able to
genetically engineer enough to create a female child from a
male's DNA. Still, how much genetic diversity could you get
from six guys? Hence Lorelei's reference (and motivation)
for adding material to the genepool.

 Limits to Sakyo's duplication abilities. She can't
duplicate innate powers, she can't duplicate males, and now
this problem with Edema. Oh my.


-------------------------------
"Of course i pray daily. i drive to work in
the Metro Phoenix area..."
      -Gregg
metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/




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