The FFML Refugee List

--------------------------- ListBot Sponsor --------------------------
Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds!
     1.  Fill in the brief application
     2.  Receive approval decision within 30 seconds
     3.  Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no
annual fee!
Apply NOW!
http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer:
    Megaman X character designs belong to Capcom.  I'm just borrowing 'em, 
guys.  I'll have 'em power washed before I bring 'em back.  Yeah, yeah, I'll 
even hot wax 'em.  Ranma characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  I'm just 
borrowing 'em, Rumiko-san.  I'll have 'em power washed before I return 'em.  
Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em.

Flashfyre5 Presents
A Flaming Amarant production
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota

The Opening Bet
Chapter One: Here's Ranma!


" " = speech
[ ] = panda board
< > = thought
/ / = written
 
*   *   *   *   *   *

    Ranma-chan trudged disconsolately beside her father.  As some might 
think, this was not a result of her current form.  No, quite the opposite 
there- she preferred being human to... her other form any day of the week, 
even if that meant that 'he' had to be a 'she'.  Nor was it the fact that it 
was raining; she'd gotten used to that by her eighth birthday.  No, it was 
the fact that her stupid father had decided that she needed to be engaged to 
one of the daughters of his friend.  Despite the problems both his forms 
would cause in such an arrangement, the stupid old man refused to nullify the 
engagement without his friend's agreement.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    /Tendo- Bringing Ranma from China.  Problem with engagement.  We'll talk 
when I get there.  -Saotome/
    Soun held the postcard, shaking in excitement.  His eyes tearing, he 
could just barely make out the first line.  Shoving it in his gi, he dashed 
towards the kitchen.
    "Kasumi," he shouted.  The girl glanced up from the watermelon that she 
was slicing.
    "Yes, father?" she asked quietly.
    "Family meeting, right now," Sound said, then ran off upstairs.
    "Nabiki!" he called.
    "What's up, Dad?" she called back, from her room, where she was reading a 
manga on her bed.  Soun stuck his head inside.
    "Family meeting, downstairs," he told her.
    "Should I get Akane?" Nabiki asked, rising from her bed.
    "Err... no, this doesn't concern her," Sound answered.
    "I thought that you said that this was a family meeting," Nabiki 
returned.  "You've really got to stop doing this to her, Daddy.  Ever since 
the Apocalypse you've been avoiding her like the plague.  Why?"
    "Err..." Soun stammered.  Nabiki tapped her foot, waiting impatiently.  
"Well... it's just that she looks so much like my dear Kimiko did just after 
they found the cancer."  Realization dawning, Nabiki's face fell.
    "I'm sorry, Daddy," she apologized.  "I didn't know.  I'll go get Akane." 
 Saying nothing more, she rose and exited the room, leaving her father to 
ponder the consequences of what he'd just said.  Arriving at Akane's room, 
Nabiki knocked on the door softly.  There was no response, by Nabiki was sure 
that she'd heard the creaking of bedsprings.  "Akane, I know that you can 
hear me," she called through the door.  "We've got a family meeting.  You 
coming?"  Akane said nothing, but Nabiki again heard the creaking of 
bedsprings.  Silently, she cracked open the door and peered in.  Akane was 
lying on the bed, asleep, her changed form making the bed creak despite the 
fact that both mattresses were box springs.  Nabiki wondered again at the 
effects of the Apocalypse.  It had changed so much in the world.  Entire 
nations had been toppled, people had been changed, and people had been killed.
    Her sister had been a victim of the changes wrought by the apocalypse.  
During school, right in the middle of a speech that she'd been giving, she'd 
suddenly fallen to the ground in agony.  The entire audience had been forced 
to watch as her body had twisted and grown into what it was today.  She'd 
heard that several of the students had lost their lunches on the spot.  
Remembering her sister as she'd been before the Apocalypse, Nabiki smiled a 
brief, sweet smile.  She'd changed so much since then, and not only in body.
    Her body, though, was truly something to marvel at.  Made of some 
superstrong metal, and painted a beautiful shade of scarlet for the most 
part, her body was incredibly sleek.  Akane's lower legs and ankles had been 
inflated to be as big and wide as her feet, which were about three times the 
proportions that they had been.  They were trimmed with what Nabiki suspected 
was pure gold, but didn't test.  She cared a little more about her family 
than that.  Moving upwards, Nabiki trailed her finger after her gaze.  Her 
sister's upper legs and upper arms were a solid black, as nondescript as if 
they were just normal legs covered in black tights.  Her pelvic area was 
covered by a white guard with a small vent in the front.  Her lower torso was 
covered in bands of silvery metal, while her chest area was armored in solid 
red.    The only aberration was a white vent that jutted out at the juncture 
of her bust and chest.  The bust itself was covered by a heavy, red 
breastplate, giving the appearance of a shirt, with two emerald orbs adorning 
the peaks.  Akane's shoulders were covered by angular white shoulderguards, 
trimmed with red.  Her lower arms and hands were changed in a similar fashion 
as her legs; from her elbows, her arms widened to about twice their previous 
size, and lined themselves in silver.  Her hands were white, and it would've 
looked like she was wearing gloves, had it not been for the fact that her 
hands themselves were twice the size of any pair that Nabiki'd ever seen.  
Akane's hair was still long, but had been pulled back into a long ponytail 
that fell like an ebony river to her ankles.  Nabiki smoothed her sister's 
hair, allowing herself a single rare moment of tenderness.
    Reaching over to the bedside stand, Nabiki picked up her sister's helmet. 
 It was an angular work of art that, when Akane chose to wear it, made her 
look both incredibly dangerous and quite alluring.  The helmet covered her 
cheeks and forehead, but arced away from both areas to give her eyes plenty 
of room and excellent prehipheral vision.  Starting at the peak in her brow, 
the red part of the helm arced away and up, coming to a pair of points on 
each side before arcing gracefully back together and down the back of her 
head.  The middle of the helm was white, and held a great, triangular 
sapphire over her brow.  Akane was truly stunning when she wore it.
    Unfortunately, the change set her apart from the crowd.  Her classmates, 
scared by her transformation, were repelled by the sight of Akane.  Many of 
her former friends had grown distant from her as a result, and now the only 
people that would even talk to her were Yuka and Saryu, her best friends.
    Sighing, Nabiki put the helmet down and reached over to grab Akane by the 
shoulders.  Gently, she shook her sister.  Slowly, Akane opened her eyes and 
looked at her elder sister, hovering above her.
    "What is it, Nabiki?" she asked, rubbing the last of her sleep from her 
eyes.  She didn't really need to, but it was a habit that she'd never been 
able to give up.
    "Family meeting, downstairs.  Daddy says that you don't have to be there 
if you don't want to, but I think that you should come," Nabiki told her.  
Internally, Akane marveled at the way her sister had changed since the 
Apocalypse.  Nabiki had become, at least to her family, a warm, kind, caring 
person who would go to any lengths to help out her little sister.  On the 
other hand, she was still the Ice Queen of Furinkan High.  Akane nodded, and 
Nabiki smiled one of her all-to-rare smiles and left.
    Left alone, Akane sighed, thinking of what this meeting would bring.  As 
she rose, she wondered if whatever it was could possibly make things worse.  
Internally, she knew that she was no longer the person that she had been 
before the Apocalypse.  She was no longer the center of attention- people 
avoided her, and whispered behind her back.  Almost all her friends had 
deserted her.  Too bad that Kuno hadn't followed suit.  Within the space of a 
few days, Akane's entire world had fallen apart.
    Not even her martial arts, which she'd prided herself upon so much, were 
of any interest anymore.  The Change, as she referred to it, had made her so 
fast, strong, and tough that nobody could even think of challenging her.  She 
could break whole towers of cinderblocks and hardly notice it.  She could 
beat, even kill, anyone that was dumb enough to challenge her, but she got no 
pleasure from it.  Thus, she had withdrawn from her normal life.  Usually, 
she stayed in her room, thinking, sleeping, or whatever she happened to 
choose at the moment.
    Akane arrived at the top of the stairs and glared down the wooden 
structure with thinly disguised loathing.  She'd come to hate stairs.  Taking 
in a breath, she put one foot forward and began her descent.

*Thump*
*Thump*
    Akane hated the thumping noise that her legs made on the stairs, but it 
couldn't be helped.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump
    After the Change, she found that she weighed over 140 kilos, nearly twice 
what she had been.  Add to that that she was made entirely of metal, and 
there was nothing that she could do to stop the noise.  
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
    It marked her, set her apart.  People stared when she came down stairs, 
or went up them.  She tried to smooth things over, but nobody cared.  She had 
been touched during the Apocalypse; nobody trusted her.
*Thump*
*Thud*
    Akane breathed a sigh of relief as she finally stepped down onto the 
ground floor.  Much more quietly now, she walked to the kitchen table, where 
everyone was already waiting.  Without a word, she took a seat at the table, 
one which she hadn't used since the Apocalypse.
    "What did you call us here for, Father?" Kasumi asked once her sister had 
seated herself.
    "Well, a good friend of mine, whom I trained with, is finally returning 
from a ten-year training trip," Soun began.  "He has a son, and they both 
will be coming here sometime today."
    "So?" Nabiki asked.  "What does this have to do with us?"
    "I must remember to prepare the guest room," Kasumi noted aloud.  Akane 
stayed silent.  She was sure that her father didn't want to hear her opinion 
anyway.  He'd barely spoken to her since she Changed.
    "Well," Soun said, sweating.  "our families had an agreement to join our 
schools of martial arts.  Thus, one of you two will be marrying him."  A 
silence followed, as the three girls stared at their father in shock.
    "A fiancee?" Nabiki deadpanned.
    "Oh, my," Kasumi added.  Akane just sat there, a thoughtful look on her 
face.
    "Yes, they should be here any moment!" Soun said triumphantly.  They'd 
taken things much better than he'd expected.
    "Well, what's he like?" Nabiki asked.
    "Umm... I don't know," Soun answered.
    "You don't know?" Nabiki asked, incredulous.
    "I've never met him," Soun explained.
    "You said 'One of you two,'" Akane said quietly.
    "What?" Soun asked, confused.
    "You said that it was an agreement between the families, and then said 
that 'One of you two will be marrying him,'" Akane told her father.  "You 
were referring to Nabiki and Kasumi.  Does that mean that I'm not a part of 
the family?"
    "Huh?  Umm... err..." Soun stammered, dumbfounded.
    "Of course you are, Akane," Kasumi reassured her.
    "Right," Nabiki agreed.  "Say it, Daddy," she commanded.  Silence ensued. 
 "Daddy," she said, a menacing tone in her voice.
    "Wait, Nabiki.  I want to hear what he has to say," Akane said.  "Well, 
Dad, am I?"
    "Well... after all that you've been through, I don't think that you 
should be burdened with such a commitment, but the agreement was between the 
two families...," Soun hedged.  Akane looked down, into her lap.
    "I see," she said quietly, then rose.
    "Akane, where are you going?" Nabiki asked, worried.
    "Just out to the dojo.  I wouldn't want to intrude on the Tendo family's 
home," Akane answered, stepping out the shoji and onto the paved rock path 
the lead to the dojo.
    "Akane...," Kasumi said, reaching out to her sister.  Without a word or a 
glance backward, Akane shut the shoji and walked to the dojo, wincing at 
every sound her feet made as they struck upon the stones of the pathway.
    "Real smooth, Daddy," Nabiki deadpanned.  Soun looked appropriately 
ashamed.  Suddenly, a sharp knock sounded from the front door, and Soun 
jumped up, excited.
    "That must be them!" he shouted, running to the door.  "Saotome, my 
friend, I'm coming!"
    "I'll keep an eye on him," Nabiki told her sister, then got up and 
followed her father.  Arriving at the door, Soun threw it open, expecting his 
best friend.  That was not what he saw.  Dominating the doorway was a giant 
panda and a short redheaded youth.  Soun promptly turned and made what he 
would later claim was a 'strategic retreat.'  In essence, he turned and ran.  
Nabiki, watching from the hallway, was unnerved but held her ground.  She 
wasn't one to retreat lightly.  <Just so long as that panda stays where it 
is,> she thought.
    "Great, Dad," said the youth in a distinctly feminine voice.  "I might as 
well have just shown up in my other form too."  The panda held up a sign 
reading, [It's not my fault!]  The youth just shook his/her head.  Nabiki 
wasn't sure yet, as he/she wore rather baggy clothing.
    "And you are?" Nabiki prompted the youth.
    "Oh!" he/she said, looking back down the hallway, seeing Nabiki for the 
first time.  "I'm Ranma Saotome.  Sorry 'bout this."  Once again, Nabiki 
noted the rather feminine lilt of his/her voice, despite the male speech 
patterns.
    "You're a girl, aren't you?" Nabiki asked, placing her bet.
    "Umm... yeah, I guess so," Ranma said, looking down at herself.
    "Daddy sure knows how to pick 'em," Nabiki muttered.  More loudly, she 
called, "Well, why don't you come in.  I'm sure that Daddy'll straighten 
things right out."  She looked backwards in the hall severely, to where Soun 
was cowering.  "Won't you?" she said menacingly.  Soun, overwhelmed on all 
sides, fainted.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Soun opened his eyes slowly, taking in the crisp afternoon air.  His two 
eldest daughters hovered over him, and there was a damp cloth on his forehead.
    "Ahh, Nabiki, Kasumi," he said, sitting up.  "I just had the oddest 
dream."  At this point, Ranma walked out of the kitchen, carrying a steaming 
washbowl.  Soun froze, staring at her.  "It wasn't a dream, was it?" he asked.
    "Nope," Ranma said, setting the bowl down carefully.  She was very 
careful not to slosh any of the hot liquid over the sides of the large bowl, 
even though it was only half full.
    "So, Daddy," Nabiki stated, a feral glean in her eye.  Not the 'hunting' 
kind either, the 'I'm gonna kill you for this one' gleam.  You know, the one 
you mom makes at you whenever you get bad grades.  "We can't exactly be 
engaged to a girl, now can we?" she asked, her voice matching her glare.
    "Umm... no?" Soun replied, seeming to shrink in on himself.
    "And Ranma's definitely a girl, isn't she?" Nabiki asked, grabbing Ranma 
by the breast to demonstrate her point.
    "Hey!" Ranma exclaimed.  "Stop it!"  Hearing this, Nabiki released the 
girl, who backed away from the confrontation.  Kasumi, sensing that this was 
one of those fights that shouldn't be broken up, joined her.
    "Err... yes," Soun agreed.
    "Then the engagement's off, isn't it, Daddy?" Nabiki asked, her eyes 
boring holes into her father.
    "I suppose so," he answered meekly, trying to find a path of escape.  
Apparently, that answer had been it, because Nabiki immediately backed away.
    "Good.  I'm glad that that's settled," Nabiki said, calm once again.  
"Ranma," she said, looking around the room.  It was decidedly devoid of 
redheads.  "Umm, Kasumi, where's Ranma?" she asked her sister, who was 
standing nest to the shoji.
    "Oh, she asked to see the dojo," Kasumi answered brightly.
    "Umm... Kasumi, Akane's in there," Nabiki said.
    "Oh, my," Kasumi replied.  "Oh... my..." she said after a second, 
remembering how people tended to react to Akane these days.
    "That's an understatement," Nabiki deadpanned, and prepared to deal with 
one scared, confused redhead who would probably be coming through that door 
any second now.  Any second...

*   *   *   *   *   *


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to FFMLRefuge-unsubscribe@listbot.com
-
.---              Patch Monkey's FFML                ---.
| Administrators - owner-ffml@patchmonkey.net  |
| Unsubscribing - majordomo@patchmonkey.net  |
| Put 'unsubscribe ffml' in the body of your e-mail. |
-------- http://www.patchmonkey.net ----------