Situation: I made some guesses as to where this fic
was going, and the author said to run with it.  Rather
surprising, usually I send guesses as a way to urge
other people on, not get a chance to continue
something...but I needed a fic to do while taking a
break from angsty stuff...there's a lot further I
could go with this...but really I don't want to get
into another series...just imagine for yourself what
happens next...

AUTHOR: The Man in the Shadows

Kasumi as she played with a young cheetah cub. Nabiki
was asleep on the couch. Kimiko and Nodoka watched on
with smiles. 

Young Akane sat on the floor and watched her sister
and the cub. Suddenly it looked over at her and slowly
moved over. 

It leaned foreword and sniffed her a bit. Akane was
scared. She picked up a toy mallet and hit it on the
head. "Baka!" 

Akane's mother picked her up and started scolding her.
Meanwhile Nodoka picked up the crying cub and simply
said, "It's all right. She was just scared. She didn't
mean it. It's okay Ranma." 

*******

AUTHOR: Thrythlind

Ranma looked across the clearing at his mother,
curious as to what kind of training she had planned
for him. She hadn't even brought the sword with her,
which was a relief, Saotome-Ryu taught staff and
nunchaku, and Ranma had never felt it necessary to
learn anything else. He hadn't ever seen his mother
fight either, so he wasn't really sure on what she had
to teach him.

"So what kinda technique is this yer gonna show me?"
Ranma asked.

"It is more of a heritage than a technique," she said.
She was looking through her pack for something.

"Heritage?" Ranma asked, curiously.

"Yes," Nodoka said. "You see, we are among the last
survivors of a clan. And the enemies of that clan are
still in the world. So, rather than risk them
discovering us, I took steps to hide what we are from
the world. Until you were old enough to protect
yourself at least."

Ranma scratched his head in confusion, and thought
about what she had just said.

"Hide what we are?" Ranma said. "What do you mean by
that?"

"Ranma, you have heard the stories about men and women
who can become animals?" she asked, and then stopped
Ranma as he was opening his mouth. "And I do not mean
Jusenkyo curses, I mean willing, natural
shapechanging." Ranma crinkled his eyes closed for a
moment and considered that.

"Akane was watchin' some American horror flick," Ranma
said finally. "Called the Howlin'. Werewolves and junk
like that. That what you are talking about?"

"Yes," Nodoka said, distastefully. "I know the movie.
And that is sort of what I mean, without the
cannibalism. Then again, it was wereWOLVES, so
maybe..."

"Are you saying I'm a werewolf or something?" Ranma
asked, feeling moderately insulted at the idea of
being a werewolf.

"No," Nodoka said firmly. "Werewolves would not like
to have anything to do with us. Except, perhaps, kill
us." She finally pulled a thermos from her pack and
nodded before going to her story.

"Huh?" Ranma said. "Why?"

"A few decades ago, Ranma," Nodoka started. "The last
major clan of werewolves on Earth invited the last
clan of werecheetahs to come live with them as a form
of mutual defense and benefit. Then, for some reason,
the werewolves slaughtered every werecheetah they
could find." Ranma winced.

"We are of that werecheetah clan," she said. She
paused and looked at her feet, sighing. "I was not
there, my parents, husband and first child were." 

Ranma felt a sudden wave of sadness and loss at that
statement. To think that he had an older brother or
sister that he never got the chance to know. And
obviously his mother was very distraught, and that
hurt him enough as it was. He moved over to hesitantly
hug and comfort her, feeling awkward as he did so.

~Don't know about that stuff though, seemed kinda
silly,~ he thought.

"Thank you, dear," Nodoka said calmly. She took a deep
breath to continue. "After that I was drunk, and I
remained drunk for years. Until I got pregnant again
and stayed sober long enough to see who...or WHAT I
had married."

"I was wonderin'," Ranma said with a smirk. Nodoka
returned the smirk with an amused smile.

"I swore off drinking from that point," she said.
"Aside from one relapse that resulted in those
contracts."

"Contracts?" Ranma said, back arching nervously.
"Plural?"

"Don't worry, Ranma," Nodoka said. "Both were
fulfilled, and I'm sorry for scaring you with the
seppuku curse, I was trying to torment your father and
just didn't consider what it would do to you."

"Uh that's okay, Mom," Ranma said, nervously. "What
was the other contract?"

"There is no need to tell you Ranma," she said,
seriously. "That contract was my idea to protect you
from your father's idiocy. The consequences would have
all come down on him if it were broken. And it
obviously was fulfilled or else you would be terrified
right about now."

"Uhhh..." Ranma said nervously. "Okay."

"Now," Nodoka said, in a moderately more pleasant
voice. Burying down the old hurts again. "There is a
lock on your form at the moment to keep you from
accidentally changing and revealing yourself." She
started opening the thermos she had taken from the
bag. "This potion will remove that lock so you can
change."

"Uh, okay," Ranma took the thermos and looked at it
doubtfully.

"Trust me," she said. "If you can survive Akane's
cooking, there is nothing in this that will hurt you,
or even make you sick."

"Oh," Ranma said with a smirk.

"Do not tell her I said that, or you will be sorry,"
Nodoka warned teasingly.

"No way I'm gonna get Akane mad at you," Ranma said.
He took a deep breath and drank the potion. "So what's
a cheetah anyway?"

Nodoka blinked at the comment. That she had not
foreseen. She suddenly worried that there was a chance
that the second contract had been broken after all.
Still, it was to early to know for certain.

"It'll be better to show you," Nodoka said,
hesitantly. "Think about strength and speed and power,
but mostly about speed."

"Yeah, I can do that," Ranma shrugged. It sounded just
like channelling chi from sounds of it.

"Before you do," Nodoka said. "You might want to
change into that gi, you'll get quite a bit larger."
Ranma blinked and looked over at the clothing and
shrugged. A minute or two later, after changing in
privacy he started listening and following his
mother's directions.

With his eyes closed he could feel the fur and tail
growing and his ears changing. He felt stronger,
tougher, faster, and his senses were more acute. He
heard his mother's voice change. He could
smell...Ranma froze and hesitantly cracked open his
eyes.

Nodoka felt a spike of pain stab through her heart as
Ranma's tail and fur bristled in obvious terror. She
saw him cracking open an eye and look towards her.
Nodoka had taken hybrid form herself while she was
instructing Ranma. The slowly cracking open eyes
flared wide as they caught sight of her.

"C..c.c.cc..CATTTTT!!!!!!" Ranma shouted and
immediately turned to run blindly into a tree. Nodoka
winced as her son/daughter hit the ground unconscious
and turned to human form as she started crying freely.

"Genma," she whispered. "How could you...you bastard.
How could you do that!?! GENMAAA!!!"

*******

Ranma snapped awake from a terror filled dream about
cats. Cats were everywhere and everyone. Anybody could
be a cat...ee..e.e.e..even himself. He glanced at his
mother and relaxed seeing that she was human. It had
all been some kind of...he caught sight of his clawed,
furry hands.

"Calm down, Ranma," Nodoka said as she noticed him
shaking and fur visibly shedding over the ground.
"It's you, you wouldn't hurt yourself, would you? She
reached forward to touch him. And he flinched back
away from her. Nodoka winced and growled as she
silently cursed Genma again.

"Y..y..you're a c.c.c..ccat," Ranma stuttered.
"I...I..I'm a c...c..c...cat."

"Sssshhhh," Nodoka whispered soothingly. "Calm down,
remember your human form." Ranma stared blankly but
mechanically nodded. "Remember your human form," she
said again, hoping she was getting through. Slowly,
Ranma returned to his human form, only with blonde
spotted hair.

"He taught you the Nekoken," Nodoka said sadly. Ranma
nodded, still dazed.

"C..c...cat," he whispered.

"We should return home, Ranma," Nodoka said sadly.
"But first," she started to hand over a container of
black hair dye and grimaced again as Ranma flinched as
she came close. "You should die your hair." ~Genma you
sadistic idiot. You'll pay for this.~

*******

AUTHOR: The Man in the Shadows

In the Tendo's front yard stood a collection of some
of Nermia's most powerful martial artists. They all
knew it would come to this. As soon as Ranma's mother
had taken him on a training trip, and made it clear
that no one was to follow, it was just a matter of
time. After a simple weekend tensions had risen. And
without Ranma there to act as a release valve, They
would do the next best thing. 

Ukyou had come over to simply deliver some dinner. It
was Akane's night to cook. Shampoo had come with the
same idea. Mousse followed her. And of course Cologne
wasn't far behind, for damage control. Ryouga was lost
as always and found himself in that yard. 

The ones who sparked the standoff were Kuno and
Kodachi. Kuno came in declaring love for Akane and
managed to insult Ryouga in the process. Kadochi of
course easily insulted Akane, Ukyou, and Shampoo.
Shampoo was already ticked off with Mousse. Akane was
pissed that someone ordered takeout on her night. And
to top it all off, Ryouga was depressed (Big surprise
there). 

They stood there, glaring at each other with all the
power of their pent frustrations. Not a sound was
heard. The crickets had even gone quiet. Not one of
the impressive martial artists has a non-violent way
of releasing anger. Now they were at their limit, and
a release was needed. 

Suddenly a black and red blur ran by. All heads turned
to see Ranma. He was running straight for the house.
He didn't even spare them a glance. In their books,
this simple act of not paying attention was all the
excuse they needed. They prepared to lunge. 

"GENMA! FRONT AND CENTER NOW!" And like that their
anger gave way to surprise and perhaps a bit of fear.
As they looked to the gate, they saw Nodoka standing
there in a loose Gi. The aura she was putting out put
theirs to shame. 

Genma meekly groveled through the doorway.
"Y-y-y-y-yes d-d-d-d-dear..." 

Nodoka strided towards him with hate in her eyes. "I
demand you forfill your pledge to me, now." 

"B-b-but the boy already prov-" 

"NOT THE SEPPUKU PLEDGE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" At
Nodoka's breach of etiquette, Kasumi fainted dead
away. "I MEAN THE ONE WHERE YOU PROMISSED TO NEVER
TEACH RANMA THE NEKOKEN!" 

Genma slowly got to his feet. "Uhhhhh.... I don't
exactly remember that one-" Genma was cut off as
Nokoda threw a tanto. It thudded into a wall, in inch
away from Genma's head. 

"It's the one where you said that if you broke it,
you'd commit self-castration." The males present
collectively winced. Also about this time Kasumi had
started coming too.

"B-b-but I was drunk when I signed that," complained
Genma, quickly. 

"So what," said Nodoka, never taking her glare off
Genma. "I was drunk when I married you. And when a
judge hears about the Nekoken, you'll probably get
crucified." 

"I wondered why you staggered down the isle," said
Soun in a moment of contemplation. 

"I-I-I-I-I-I w-wo-won't do it," said Genma with as
much courage as he could muster. 

Nodoka grabbed Genma by the throat and slammed him
against the wall. "If you don't, I'll do it without a
blade." Anyone could hear her knuckles cracking. All
the males present started moving away from Genma and
Nodoka. 

"Soun, hel- ACK! Dear please..." Then Genma blinked as
Kasumi walked over. 

"Can I please lay down some plastic sheeting first,
Auntie?" 

A soft smile came to Nodoka's face. "Yes. I'm sorry. I
almost stained your floor." 

Genma started mumbling the words, "This can't be
happening," over and over. 

Nodoka gave Genma a serious look. "Husband, there is a
clause in the contract you signed where you can come
out of it with 'IT' intact." Ganma gave her the look
of a drowning man who is desprate for help. He started
nodding as best he could without choking. "Cologne,
Soun, I'm going to need some witnesses. Let's go
inside." 

The martial artists of Nermia, who were still in the
Tendo's front yard, looked at each other with varied
reactions. 

*********************************************************

 In his room, Ranma was shaking like a leaf. He sat on
his futon, huddled in a ball. In all his life, Ranma
had never been this frightened. There wasn't even the
release of the Nekoken to stop it. Ranma had always
been his own fear, and never knew it. 

And things were worse. Now, he couldn't even be near
his own mother without having severe and noticeable
reactions. 

Slowly Ranma got to his feet and started to pack his
things. He feared his mother now, but he knew she
still loved him. And Genma had only seen him as a meal
ticket. He would rather be damned then have to stay
with the bastard another minute. And he knew what was
transpiring downstairs. 

With his pack readied and his futon rolled, Ranma
looked about the room. It had been home for a while.
The only one he had ever known. Now it was time to
leave, and quick. 

Ranma exited the room and headed down the stairs.
There his mother waited. He did his best to repress
his shivering and walked to his mother. She smiled
softly and said, "Genma agreed to the terms of
separation and signed the contract. Let's go home." 

Soun was quickly there and crying his eyes out. "You
can't leave! You can't leave your fianc�e behind!" 

Ranma bowed to Soun and calmly said, "I-I t-t-thank
you for your hospitality, Mr. Tendo, and I wish I
c-can repay your hospitality some day, but now, I
can't stay here anymore. I-I-I'm sorry."  Ranma had
taken a while to rehearse those lines exactly. He
didn't want to offend Sopun after the man had put up
with him and his father. Yet the fear inside of him,
the fear of himself and his mother, still made it hard
for him to remember the lines. 

On his way out he kept his eyes on the ground and
ignored the piling questions. Not much could break
through his mounting tension. Then Kuno said, "So,
foul being, thou finally cower behind the skirt of a
woman, like thy were originally meant to. How fitting!
Now the fair Akane shall be mine with no one to
contest me in my righteous quest. Go on thou mewling
kitten." 

No one was able to keep up with the blur that moved
towards Kuno. The kendoist brought up his boken, but
the force behind Ranma's fist shattered it to pieces.
The punch then landed on Kuno's cheek. There was an
audible crack. The force of the blow flung the idiot
into a tree, knocking himself out. 

All that Ranma said was, "Shut up and leave my friends
alone." On that note he quietly left, uncontested. 

*********************************************************


Akane arrived to school the next day, to find Kuno out
cold with several bruises. This in it's self was a
nice surprise and a change of pace. It was not unusual
for Kuno to get knocked out. What was unusual was what
Ukyou had to say when Akane asked what happened.

"Ranma seemed shaky when he came though the gates.
Then Kuno went into his usual routine." There was
concern in Ukyou's voice. 

"Shaky," inquired Akane. 

"Yeah, like he was scared badly." 

This surprised Akane. Anything that scares Ranma that
badly, must mean ether trubble or he ran into a-
"Cat?" 

"Probably," said Ukyou. 

*********************************************************


In class Ranma was quiet, and seemed a bit passive. He
rarely fell asleep. He didn't argue. And he didn't
even complain when Miss. Hinako drained off his chi'.
Yet in gym, he was more intense then ever. During
lunch he hardly spoke a word. And at the end of the
day he just ran home, without a word. 

This continued for the rest of the week. During lunch
on Friday, Akane pulled Ukyou aside to talk. 

"Ranma has been acting too weird." 

"This is Ranchan we're talking about," Ukyou
countered. 

"Ukyou, I'm really getting worried. Something is
wrong. Ranma isn't acting as his usual self and he's
scared every day." 

"Maybe he has to walk by a house with some cats,"
offered Ukyou. 

"Yeah, right! Ranma would walk a mile to avoid them.
And he's scared all day." 

Ukyou took a few moments to think about it. "What do
you think could be wrong?" She feared what Akane might
say next. 

Akane looked at her feet and gathered her courage.
"What if he's scared of going home?" 

The chef started to back up. "No way. If this is going
where I think it is, Nodoka isn't like that." 

"How can we be sure," said Akane in a meek voice,
"Unless we go there to find out." 

*********************************************************


Ranma walked into the kitchen where his mother sat at
the table, sipping tea. She was dressed in a baggy Gi.
"I'm home." 

"Good dear. Now go upstairs and change. We need to get
you used to your new forms." 

With a bit of nervousness, Ranma simply said, "Yes
mom." 

Out side, Ukyou and Akane were peeking over the
windowsill. "What do you think she meant by that,"
asked Akane. 

Ukyou simply shrugged. Then Ranma came downstairs
dressed in his usual attire, but those clothes were
baggy, like Nodoka's. 

Then Nodoka said something. Ukyou looked to Akane and
simply asked, "What does she mean by Hybrid form?"
When she turned back they got the surprise of their
lives. 

Ranma's form began to get larger and he started
growing orange fur with black spots. His ears became
more pointed and shifted in position. Behind him a
tail started growing. On his face grew white fur. A
stripe of black fur ran over each eye. 

Akane and Ukyou simultaneously gasped at this sight.
This caused Nodoka to look their way. 

"Run for it," cried out Ukyou and both girls made a
mad dash for the gate. Their hearts pounded in their
chests. They almost made it off the property when some
moving really fast scooped them up and started moving
at the house at speeds that ether girl thought as
impossible. 

Once inside the figure slammed the door behind them
and deposited the girls on the couch. Both girls
looked at Nodoka's hybrid form with fear. 

Nodoka let out a sigh. "This is going to make things
difficult." 

"C-c-c-c-ca-ca-ca-c-c-c-c-c-c-ca-ca-caaaaa-" 

She looked up at the owner of the voice to see Ranma
clinging to the ceiling. She then sighed and shifted
back to her human form. "Ranma, please come down from
there." She sat in a chair while keeping an eye on the
unexpected guests. After a few minutes Ranma did come
down and sat in a chair. "Dear, please don't shed on
the furniture." 

"Sorry," Ranma apologized as he got up. He still
seemed nervous and his tail was all bristled. 

Nodoka turned to Akane and Ukyou. "You should have
knocked first. Well, the damage is done. I better
explain before you incite a lynch mob. As you see, me
and Ranma are not human." Both girls just nodded.
"What we are is Werecheetahs. And aside for two
others, we're the last of our kind." 

"How..." It was all Ukyou could get out but Nodoka
seemed to understand the question. 

"Ukyou, we were born this way. I've spent a lot of
time hiding it from Genma. You see, over two decades
ago there was a tribe of Werecheetahs and a tribe of
werewolves. One day the Werewolves invited the
Werecheetahs to come and live with them, in peace."
Nodoka's look turned to one of sadness. "The
Werewolves slaughtered the Werecheetahs. I was never
there, but my family was. Including my first husband,
and my first child." 

The horror that Akane and Ukyou felt was summoned up
by the looks on their faces. Ranma only seemed
saddedned as he had heard the story over the previous
weekend. Akane just asked, "Why did they do it?" 

"Dear, Werecheetahs and Werewolves had a hard time
getting along. But I never found out why they
slaughtered my kind. I became a bit of a drunk after
that," said Nodoka as a bit of shame crossed her face.
"A few years after the massacre I met Genma. He
married me and got me pregnant, all while I was drunk,
and that was enough to make me swear off drinking. I
kept Ranma and my true nature from Genma." Nodoka gave
Akane a slight smile. "You mother and Kasumi were
among the only people to know the truth." 

"Kasumi knew," asked both Akane and Ranma.Akane was
surprised that Kasumi had kept such a secret. And this
was the first time that Nodoka had mentioned any
others knowing, to Ranma. 

"Yes. Both were sworn to keep the secret. I went as
far as to pay a mage to lock Ranma in human form to
keep our secret. I feared that if we were found out,
the Werewolves would find us and..." Nodoka quickly
shook off that thought. "When Genma took him on that
damned training trip, I used the time to gather
information. I found out about another survivor named
Brittany and recently I found a rather odd surprise
when a male Werecheetah showed up out of nowhere and
moved in with Brittany's family. 

"I only recently gave Ranma a potion to allow him to
assume his cheetah and hybrid form. I was hoping to
let Ranma get used to his other forms before we went
public, but now, thanks to that bastard," Nodoka said
as she started growling, "It's going to be set back
because I have to now break Ranma of the Nekoken." 

Ukyou then took that moment to dare to ask, "Are you
going to kill us?" 

Nodoka broke down laughing. 

It was Sunday morning and Genma stood in the lot,
waiting for the person who had left a note on his bed
the night before. Who ever it was had left hair all
over the way he had come in. It was hardly the work of
a master of the art. Besides that, Genma was expecting
to resume a bit of his son's training that afternoon. 

[At least No-Chan didn't deny how effective a trainer
I am.] With that thought Genma puffed up with pride.
Even with a few slight pitfalls, he had managed to
raise a fine martial artist. [So what if he's got a
few minor social problems. He can still beat anyone
around.] 

Someone tapped his shoulder and Genma turned around.
"About damned tim..." Genma found himself eye level
with the man's chest. [Uh-oh...] He slowly looked up
to a face that had a mix of feline and human features.


"Hi Pop." 

[Neko-ken.] On this thought, the eyes rolled back into
Genma's head and he passed out. 

*** 

Genma slowly opened his eyes.  "Hey pop, are you
okay?" 

Quickly the old man bolted right up and grabbed
Ranma's shoulders. "You're not going to kill me now?
Please, I'm not ready to die!" Genma broke out into
Soun style crying. 

"Pop, I'm not here to kill you. I just have to get
used to my new form, and I needed to spar with you."

"Why with me? You going to make this look like an
accident," asked Genma. 

"Of course not! Pop, if I was here to kill you, I
would have done it by now!" 

Genma thought about that bit of logic. Then he
relaxed. Then something hit him. "You did it, boy! You
mastered the Neko-ken! I'm so proud of you. Now we can
unite the schools!" 

Ranma shook his head and groaned. "I didn't master it,
pop. This is why mom didn't want you teaching me the
Nekoken." 

"Huh?" 

The Werecheetah let out a sigh. "Look at me, pop. I'm
not human. I'm a Werecheetah. Mom is one too." 

"So this has nothing to do with the Nekoken?" 

Ranma let out a sigh. "No, Pop." 

"Why are you shedding?" 

"Because of the Nekoken," replied a rather annoyed
Ranma. 

"Oh," said Genma, looking a bit disappointed. [I
wonder if this will help or hurt the uniting of the
schools? Naaaaaaaaaaa... He's still my boy and I
trained him.] 

"Just don't tell anyone about this secret." 

"I'm not suicidal boy. I have a fair idea of what your
mother would do if I told the town." 

"So pops, we goina spar?" 

Genma smiled. "You're still no match for me, boy." 

Ranma smirked and assumed a loose cat stance. Sadly,
he was still shivering. Genma meant to capitalize on
that. But Genma didn't notice his own shaking. Ranma
may have seemed nervous, but Genma had no doubt, Ranma
could rip him apart. 

*** 

Shampoo had been making a delivery when she spotted
it. It was clearly a werebeast. [It's beating on
Ranma's father! But he did engage my husband to those
other girls. He probably deserves what he's getting.
Still according to the village law, all werecreatures
must be killed on sight.] 

She watched for a few more moments before drawing a
silver tai chi' sword. "YOU SHAMPOO KILL," she shouted
and she raised her sword and raced foreword on her
bike. 

*** 

On hearing Shampoo's shout, Ranma glanced in her
direction, and took off in the other direction, at 60
MPH. He knew he saw a silver sword and knew that
silver and werecreatures mixed badly. Shampoo would
probably take some convincing that it was him, but
things would probably be moot at the wrong end of the
sword. Besides, his mother wanted to keep this a
secret. 

Ranma started taking stock of his options. [Fighting
is out. Roof hopping is out of the question. I can't
change into a human before her...] "Awww... Damn it!
This isn't my day!" 

He looked back and skidded to a halt. Shampoo wasn't
there. Ranma stood there and thought about it a few
moments before realizing the obvious. He outran her
easily using his hybrid form. A smirk came to Ranma's
face. 

"Kitty!" 

"WHERE," shouted Ranma in fear as he leapt up onto a
lamppost. His tail has become very bristled and he was
shedding pounds of fur. Then he looked to the ground
and saw a little child standing next to her shocked
still mother. 

The little girl pointed up at Ranma and simply said,
"Kittycat." Ranma put a hand to his forehead and
groaned. 

Then a man came out of an ally between Ranma and the
other two. He had his back to Ranma. Quickly he pulled
off his headphones, which happened to be blasting
Heavy Metal, and he whipped out a knife. "Okay lady,
come over here and you won't get hurt." This being a
bit too much for her system, the mother simply
fainted. The man smirked and moved foreword to grab
onto the unconscious woman and the child. 

Not bothering to think how stupid this guy was for
attacking someone in Nermia, Ranma leapt behind the
man in one graceful movement. His mere presence simply
got the man to pause. The Werecheetah issued a growl
and the man became tense with fear. The child,
obviously not knowing that Ranma or the man was
dangerous, simply giggled, pointed at Ranma and said,
"Kitty!" 

The man slowly turned about to see the sight of a very
unhappy Werecheetah. Too scared to scream, the man
stabbed at Ranma's chest with the knife. Ranma simply
grabbed the man's wrist and twisted. This time the man
did scream out as he let go of the knife. Ranma leaned
foreword, putting his face to the man's, while letting
off a menacing growl. Then he did his best to roar in
the man's face. 

The mother was just coming to when Ranma let out the
roar. She sat straight up as Ranma was lifting the
mugger off the street with one hand. Then she heard
the werecreature say, "Never... ever... EVER...
THREATEN PEOPLE LIKE THAT AGAIN!" The man soiled
himself as he just passed out. 

Ranma then hung the man on the lamppost, by the belt
the guy was wearing. He then turned to the girl and
her mother. "Are you two okay," he asked as he knelt
down.

"Kitty," the girl simply said, sending a shiver
through Ranma's body. Then the girl reached out and
scratched Ranma's neck. Ranma couldn't help himself
from closing his eyes and purring. 

"YOU SHAMPOO KILL!" 

Ranma quickly ducked, taking the kid with him, as the
sword passed where his head would have been. Ranma
moved foreword, handing off the child to her mother as
he started moving away from the Amazon. [Doesn't she
ever give up?] Ranma mentally slapped himself for that
thought. 

Once again Ranma found himself running at top speed.
This time when he lost sight of Shampoo he ducked into
an alley, in hopes of being able to change. 

At that same time, an old woman was tossing water,
from a bucket, out her window. The result wasn't the
change Were-Ranma-Chan was hoping for. 

Ranma started adjusting her belt while she shook the
water off her fur. "Just figures... Did have to keep
the curse with the transformation." Ranma looked over
her new body. The frame was a bit smaller. Her pigtail
was black. She had to dye her hair now, since the
normal hair color would now be blond with spots. Her
breasts were a bit more ample thus setting off a bit
more of balance difference. "Great... Now I got to
train to get used to this body too." 

Then Ranma heard the war cry of, "YOU SHAMPOO KILL!" 

Yet again, Ranma took off at cruising speed. 

*********************************************************


P-chan was in Heaven, A.K.A Akane's room, when Akane
walked in. She looked a bit like she was a bit
bothered by something. P-Chan swore to take it out of
Ranma's hide. 

"Hi P-Chan," she said as she sat down. 

"Bweee." [It's Ranma's fault again. I'll kill him.] 

Akane picked up her pet. "I've got a problem with
Ranma." 

P-chan blinked. He had jumped the gun and got it
right. 

She sighed. "I can't even say it's his fault."

"Bwee!" [Of course you can!] 

"I can't believe Kasumi never told me about this." 

P-chan's eyes went wide. [Kasumi is involved? You're
going to pay for this Ranma.] 

"Why didn't she even tell me..." 

Rage filled P-Chan as he hit a conclusion. [He slept
with Kasumi! I'll kill him and stomp on the ashes!] 

Akane sighed. "Even that stupid baka didn't know..." 

"Bwee?" [Know what?] 

"I wonder how Ranma feels. To have the Nekoken and to
find out..." 

P-chan was on the edge of his seat. [Find out what?] 

Akane gained a introspective look that P-chan had
never seen. "I wonder how it's like to be a
werecheetah like Ranma." 

P-chan's blood ran cold. [Ranma's a werecheetah? Then
I really gotta' kill him.] 

*********************************************************


Ranmachan walked into her house, wet tired, and in
human form. The television could be heard. She had
only just been able to give Shampoo the slip. And now
all she wanted was a nice hot bath. 

"Ranma, why are you not in your hybrid form?"

She shivered at her mother's voice. "Shampoo saw me
sparring with pop today. She tried to kill me." 

Nodoka let out a long sigh. "Does she know your
secret?" 

"Not yet. And I'm not sure if I want to know what
she'll do when she finds out." 

#This just in! A werecheetah has been sighted in
Nermia!# Both Ranma and Nodoka turned their heads to
the television. #The werecheetah was seen earlier
today when he stopped a man, who was wanted for theft
and rape, before the man claimed another two victims.#
Then the anchor was replaced by footage of the woman
and her child being helped into a police station. #The
victim stated that she was scared when she first saw
the werecheetah,# the anchor said as the screen
switched back to him. #The mugger didn't see the
werecheetah when he came out of the alley. The
werecheetah used intimidation tactics to render the
mugger unconscious. While the victims were thanking
their hero, a woman on a bike rode by and used a sword
to chase off the werecheetah. More on this story as it
unfolds.# 

As the commercials came on, both Nodoka and Ranma hung
their heads and groaned. "Ranma," Nodoka said while
rubbing the temples of her forehead. "Next time, use
more discretion when helping others." 

"Yes mother." 

*********************************************************


In the Nekohatten, Cologne got the news and took it
with a grain of salt. She knew of the power that
Werecheetahs used, so she knew to plan her future
steps with caution. 

Shampoo had her heart set on a werecheetah skin rug as
she sharpened the edge of her silver sword. 

Mousse just thought of protecting Shampoo from this
menace. So he started getting out a glittering
assortment of nasty pointed silver weapons. 

*** 

In the Kuno household, Kuno himself was shining up a
silver katana. He planned to gain himself some further
glory and all that jazz. 

Kadochi found herself intrigued by the accounts of the
werecheetah and wondered if he was good looking. 

*** 

At the Ucchan, Ukyou simply smiled with pride when she
read of what Ranma had done in the paper. 

*** 

At the Tendo home, varied reactions were given when
the people there saw the newspaper. 

Nabiki looked at the article with fascination. She had
heard of news of other werecheetahs, as well as how
much their adventures usually brought in. This brought
a smile to her face. 

P-chan slipped into a deeper depression. The
description of the events proved there was a
werecheetah in Nermia. And Ryouga knew his name. 

Genma secretly puffed up with pride in what his son
had done. He had a huge grin on his face that
screamed, "I've got a secret, and I want everyone to
know what it is!" 

Akane groaned about the article and went to her room
to mumble about the baka. In her mind, she was
scolding herself for... impure thoughts. She finally
resolved to blame it on Ramna and deck him later for
it. 

Kasumi blinked and simply stated, "Oh my!" 

Soun looked at the article and sipped his tea. [This
is Nermia. Events like this are bound to happen. And
it's likely Ranma is going to get a whole load of
challenges due to this.] He had no idea how right he
was. [I better get better insurance coverage.] 

*** 

In Atlanta, Georga, a few people did spit takes and
face faults when they saw the news about the existence
of another werecheetah. 

*** 

Back in Nermia, Ranma was lounging in a furo, as a
sense of impending doom fell over him. 

*********************************************************


Kuno watched as Ranma came over. It was their usual
fight before school. In the boken wielder's mind, a
plan had been hatched, and it had been waiting for
months, for the time to use it. Now was time to
strike. 

"Daemon most foul, how dare thy show thou cowardly
hide in these hollowed grounds after cowering for so
long." 

Ranma set down his bookbag. "What the hell are you
talking about?" 

"Where I hath been preparing for encountering the
Demonic Werecreature, thou hath not been seen. Dost
thy quake within thine own shoes." 

"Shut up, Kuno. I was sparring when he was seen.
Besides he saved two people. He's a good guy." About
the place, students of Furinkan High saw the wisdom in
this. And others wondered what the hell the two were
talking about. 

"Of course thou wouldst say such things. Thou must be
in league with the fiend. Well, have at thee," Kuno
shouted as he took a stance. Ranma, being too
frustrated, moved foreword to deliver a quick blow,
when the ground below his feet flipped. The last thing
the students saw was Kuno tossing fish sausages at
Ranma before the hole sealed itself. 

"Ranma," cried out Akane and Ukyou. 

"And now, it doth end," simply said Kuno. 

*** 

Ranma sat up and groaned. "Now what..." There were
furry things crawling onto him, to eat the fish
sausages. 

"mew..." 

*** 

Kuno advanced towards Akane. "Now the sorcerer hath
been vanquished. Come to me my love." 

Ukyou and Akane threw Kuno aside as they ran to the
pit.  Suddenly, the revolving trap door was slashed in
half, and both girls took a step back. The side of the
trap door fell into the pit, making a slight ramp. 

Suddenly a cheetah came out of the pit, with a kitten
hanging from it's mouth. It set it on the ground, and
went back in for another. 

The student body collectively let out an,
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww," as the cheetah
brought out the cats and kittens that were in the pit.
Still there was no sign of Ranma.

Ukyou looked in and saw Ranma's shredded clothes on
the floor of the pit. Ukyou quickly started damage
control. "Kuno, you sent Ranma into a deeper NekoKen!"
The gasp from the students was audible. "Do you want
him to go nuts or something?" 

"It would serve the cur, justly," retorted Kuno. 

Ukyou turned to see Ranma and Akane sitting by a small
group of kittens that weren't moving. "What's wrong
with them," she asked in a timid voice."

 Akane looked up with a few tears in her eyes.
"They're starving!" 

"The foul cur! I'll smi-" Kuno was cut off by a
viscous blow to his gut, by Akane, causing him to fall
to his knees. 

"They could have starved to death, you bastard!"
Students started to back her up. 

Kuno slowly looked up to see the slowly forming mob
behind the two women and the cheetah. Then Ranma threw
in his two cents, as he lunged at Kuno.

Kuno found himself under assault from a vicious beast.
It clawed and bit at him. Things were looking pretty
bleak, 
when suddenly Kuno was saved when several students
threw Ranma off of Kuno. 

"I thank you my-" Kuno was cut off as the mob
proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him. 

*********************************************************


Miss Hinako was running late. This didn't make her
happy. It meant that she couldn't be able to punish
those students who were late. It also meant she's look
for the reason like a hungry wolf.

She rounded the corner and ran into the room to see
only Akane and Ukyou at their seats, with a large
group of cats and kittens. Also there was a rather
large Cheetah. Hinako's eyes went wide at the sight.
"OH! CUTE!" She lunged foreword and hugged the first
kitten she could find. 

Akane and Ukyou looked up from where they were feeding
starved kittens with baby bottles. Ranma simply
stretched out where he lay, looking very lazy. At this
point, snapping Ranma out of the Neko-Ken would be
pointless. 

Then Hinako looked up from the very cute kitten.
"Pet's aren't allowed in school." 

"Kuno was starving them," countered Akane, while
Hinako searched for a coin. 

"We couldn't just let them starve," added Ukyou. 

Hinako looked horrified. "He starved kitties?" 

"Just so he could make Ranma insane." 

Akane bit back her comment about Ranma already being
crazy and pointed at Ranma. "Now Ranma's in a deeper
Neko-Ken." 

Hinako couldn't help but scratch Ranma's head. Ranma
purred to Akane and Ukyou's jealousy. "Where is Kuno
now?" 

"Everyone else formed a lynch mob," Akane said, "But
Kuno got away." 

The kitten in Hikano's arms started to cuddle up to
her and the teacher giggled. Both Ukyou and Akane
relaxed. It wasn't likely that they'd get zapped that
day. 

*********************************************************


At the end of the day, Akane was starting to get sick
of how Ranma was following her around. Ukyou was also
getting sick of how Ranma followed Akane around.
However Ukyou had to head off to her restaurant and
open up. But she did it reluctantly! 

As Ranma and Akane made their way to Ranma's house,
Ryouga watched from the shadows of an alley. He drew
his umbrella and twisted the handle a bit. A long and
sharp blade slid out. It's silver edge gleamed as he
left the safety of the shadows and started moving
towards Ranma. As he ran foreword, he shouted,
"PREPARE TO DIE, RANMA!" 

Ranma, whom had heard this shout way too often, shot
foreword like a bullet. Unfortunately this course took
him right between Akane's legs. As she fell foreword,
she instinctively grabbed onto Ranma's neck. 

Ranma seemed to have unnatural strength as he kept on
running like mad. The wind rushed by as the three
passed Ranma's house and kept on going. 

***

 Nodoka watched from the window as Ryouga attacked
Ranma and Ranma made his rapid escape. Nodoka let out
a groan as Ryouga shouted, "PREPARE TO DIE, RANMA!" 

[Great... Ranma wasn't ready for his feline form yet.
And how did Ryouga find out that Ranma was a
werecheetah?] Another groan escaped Nodoka's lips.
[Where there is one werehunter, there's more right
behind the idiot.] *** 

*** 

Ranma came to a stop 2 minutes later. Akane had a
death grip on the large cat. It took her a few moments
to relax and let go. As she looked about she
recognized the place as a park that was 15 miles away
from Ranma's home. She plopped down on the grass and
tried to catch her breath

Meanwhile Ranma's mind had returned to what passes for
normal and he took a look at himself. [OH CRAP!] After
a full minute of shedding, Ranma calmed down. [Okay...
I'm a c-c-ca-cat with spots... a Cheetah... I knew I
could do this... But why am I in this form. Last thing
I remember was falling into a pit of...] Ranma put a
paw over his face and groaned. 

"Great," mumbled Akane. "Now how do I get home." Ranma
looked at Akane, who had her back turned to him. A
smile passed his feline features. [Fun time.] He
slapped her shoulder with a paw and ran 10 feet away. 

"HEY!" Akane turned and glared at Ranma. "Baka!" 

Ranma ran foreword, slapped her shoulder and ran back.


"That a challenge or something?" Ranma did it again,
but this time he bopped her on the head. "That's it!"
Akane lunged at Ranma. 

Ranma took off at an slow jog. At least it was slow
for him. For Akane, it was hell to try and keep up. 

*** 

"Are we there yet?"

 Gina sighed as she drove past a nice park. 

"No, not yet." 

"I'm bored," complained Brinnia. 

Gina sighed. "We'll be there soon." She looked into
the rear view mirror. Brittany was staring at her side
of the road with anticipation. Stripe did the same on
his side. "You two holding up okay?" 

"Yeah," replied Brit. "Think there's really another
werecheetah out there?" 

"If there is, we'll find em'," assured Gina. The whole
group failed to notice a girl chasing a Cheetah, right
behind them. 

*** 

Ranma suddenly stopped at a corner just as Akane was
running out of breath. She stopped and sat down,
trying to recover said breath. Ranma gave her an odd
look. Then he looked at him self and made a big show
of seeming like it was the first time he saw himself. 

"You okay Ranma?" He nodded numbly in reply. "Good.
Now how do we get home?" Ranma turned his back to her
and sat down. After a minute he looked back
impatiently. "You want me to ride on you?" He nodded
again. Akane sighed and got on his back. "Okay." 

Ranma took off at high speed. [This isn't half-bad...
Mom said something about a technique allowing me to
change forms at will. I better learn it because I like
this!] As Ranma ran, he grinned. 

"Slow down you baka!" 

AUTHOR: Thrythlind

As he was running along, Ranma caught the smell of
tuna fish and shivered.  He ate fish, but it certainly
wasn't his favorite meal for the last few years, since
the cat-fist.  And after Kuno's little ploy�well�let's
just say that he had good reason to avoid tuna for the
day.

*********************************************************

"Damn that, Ranma," Ryouga growled.  He had obviously
carried Akane off to have his evil way with her. 
Ryouga paused and thought about that comment.  "I've
been hanging around Kuno too much.  No wait, Ranma is
an evil perverted..." Ryouga's rant was cut off by the
clanging sound of a sheet of strong metal connecting
with someone's skull.

"Watch what you say about my Ranchan, jerk," Ukyou
snapped angrily.

"But Ukyou!" Ryouga started.

"Don't 'but Ukyou' me!" Ukyou said.  "Ranchan has
enough problems without you on his back."

~She would never believe me,~ Ryouga sighed
dejectedly.   It was up to him alone, to vanquish
Ranma now that the martial artist had obviously made a
deal with the dark powers.  Ryouga shook his head, and
to think he had actually been starting to think Ranma
wasn't all that bad a guy.  ~Still, of all the things
he could have been why a wereCAT?~

"Are you going to stand in my shop's door all day?"
Ukyou asked irritably.  "You're scaring away all the
customers."

"Gomen, Ukyou-san," Ryouga said and started running
off in the direction he thought Ranma had gone.  He
had to save Akane from what the fiend had planned.

"What an idiot," Ukyou thought as she watched Ryouga
run back the way he had come.

*********************************************************

First Brittany and then Brianna snapped to attention
in their seats.  Both sniffed at the air, a slowly
building ecstatic expression over taking their faces.

~Oh no,~ Stripe and Gina thought almost at the same
time.

"TUUUUUUNNNAAA!!!" both girls shouted.  "Stop the car,
Gina!!"

"Think about it you guys," Gina said desperately. 
"There was some sort of girl with a silver sword
chasing that other werecheetah."

"You think this might be a trap?" Brittany asked.

"It is a distinct possibility," Stripe said.  

"Someone is putting out a load of tuna just to attract
any werecheetah that happens by?" Brittany frowned but
appeared to think about it.   Brianna, on the other
hand.

"Even better!!" 

"Oh come on," Brittany said.  "It's probably just a
sushi joint, that would have to be the stupidest trap
that I've ever heard of.  Who could come up with such
a stupid idea."

*********************************************************

"No doubt this will bring the evil fiend running
straight into my trap," Mousse cackled wildly.  As he
stared at the piles of opened tuna cans in the middle
of the table in the abandoned storefront.  The sound
of the car pulling up outside alerted him to
newcomers.

He faded back against the wall as two voices started
chanting "Tuna" in cutesy voices.  As he watched as
two blurs dashed into the store front.  Well one
dashed, the other stopped at the door and glanced
around.

"Brianna, wait!" one blur shouted.  "Gina's right,
it's a..." 

Brittany squinted her eyes closed as Brianna snapped
through a veritable net of tripwires.  Enough so that
Brittany KNEW that Brianna should have seen them.  The
next she heard was a series of loud explosions
circling around where Brianna had run off towards.

"BRIANNA!!!" Gina shouted as her sister was obscured
by the explosions and smoke.

"Huh?" Mousse said.  "That's not supposed to happen." 
He scratched his head and stepped out.  

It was a mistake.

"YOU KILLED MY SISTER!!!" Brittany shouted angrily,
picking up and slamming him against the wall.  "I'M
GOING TO TEAR YOUR SPINE OUT!!!"  Mousse wasn't
certain what the tall, hairy girl was saying, but it
sounded bad.

"Don't do it," Stripe said moving to try and pull his
wife off the boy.

"Yeah!" Gina said.  Everybody glanced at her in
surprise.  "Because I want to experiment on him BEFORE
you rip him to pieces!"

"Mmmmm, tuna!" a satisfied voice said from behind
them.  Everybody turned to see the smoke drifting away
to reveal Brianna sitting on the table, suddenly
wearing a set of high tech shoulder pads with small
rotating turrets.

Brittany dropped Mousse and rushed at Brianna.  The
rotating turrets locked on the movement and swiveled
toward her.

"SHUT DOWN!" Brianna shouted before they fired.  Then
she was in a crushing bear hug.

"Brianna!  You're alive!!"

"gaahhhsp!"

"Cheetah, dear," Stripe said.  "You're crushing her."

"Oh, um," Brittany set down her sister and looked
embarrassed.  "How the hell did you live through
that?"

"Point-defense anti-projectile system," Brianna said,
indicating the now deactivated turrets.  "Called it up
just before going through the trip wires."

"Brianna, why not just use a force field generator?"
Gina asked.  "It's smaller, proven, easier to use and
doesn't produce a stream of loud disturbing explo..."
Gina's face turned deadpan as Brianna grinned widely. 
"Oh."  The silence was broken by the sound of an empty
tin can hitting the floor.

"You ate...ALL the tuna?" Brittany said in shock. 
Brianna nodded.  "I'm about to avenge your brutal and
messy death, and you didn't save me ANY?!"  Gina
stared as her youngest sister shook her head and
licked her lips.

"D�j� vu," she said quietly.   

Then Brittany lunged again. 

At Brianna.

"I'm gonna kill her!!" "Brittany stop!" "HOLD HER!!
HOLD HER!!" "IT WAS A JOKE!! Come on Cheetah!! It was
a joke!!" "I'll show you a joke!!"

Mousse took the moment to slip out of the store.

*********************************************************

Ranma paused at the sound of fighting and he and Akane
watched as Mousse snuck out of an abandoned store
front that seemed to be producing a lot of smoke and
noise.  When the martial artist turned toward them,
Ranma got ready to run.

"Unryu Akari-san," Mousse said suddenly.  It was a
girl riding a giant animal, so who else could it be. 
At least with her, he was never wrong.

"Uhh�yeah," Akane said, not wanting to call attention
to the fact that she was on a cheetah while a
werecheetah was hanging around.  "What's going on?"

"Crazy American blew up my werecheetah trap and now
they're fighting over the tuna, gotta go before they
realize I'm not there."  With that the blind martial
artist skittered off leaving a nervous looking Akane
and Ranma in his wake.

"I think we should talk to your mother," Akane said. 
The cheetah under her nodded and then surged forward.

The scents and sights in the area were somewhat
clouded by smoke and dirt, so neither group noticed
each other, other than Ranma and Akane listening to
shouts of: "I'll buy you some more, all right?!" 
Ranma smelled something like a cat nearby and
shivered, hurrying a little further along before he
analyzed the smell further.

A few minutes later a cross Brittany came out with
Stripe followed by Brianna rubbing her head and
mumbling to Gina.

"Sheesh," Brianna muttered.  She looked around and
sniffed at the air.

"You both realize that we let that creep get away,"
Gina asked.

"That was a little immature," Stripe said discreetly
next to Brittany.

"I just got scared all right," Brittany said.  She
stopped and sniffed the air.  "Brianna, do you smell
that?"

"Yeah," Brianna said grimly after a moment.

"Smell what, you guys?" Gina asked.  Brittany and
Brianna sighed and traded a look.

"A werecheetah walked by while we were in there!!!"
They shouted.  Gina blinked and looked down at the
ground, she leaned down and came up with a few hairs.

"Looks like they're shedding," Stripe said.

"Follow the hair balls!" Gina declared.

*********************************************************

"Hello Akane," Nodoka said as the Tendo girl opened
the gate to let in Ranma.  The cheetah formed boy
approached hesitantly.  "Ranma, how did you end up
like this?"

"Somebody at school," Akane said.  "Tricked him into a
pit of cats.."  Nodoka sighed and winced at that.  She
looked and saw Ranma shedding

"Is this the neko-ken now?" Nodoka asked sadly.

"I don't think so," Akane said.  She turned a glare on
the cheetah next to her.  "He's been his baka self
since about half an hour ago or so."  The cheetah
stuck its tongue out at her.

"Please be more polite," Nodoka said.  Akane started
to smirk.  "Both of you."  She reached out to scratch
Ranma's head.  The cheetah visibly tensed and the
shedding got worse, though it was obvious that Ranma
was trying to ignore the fear.

"Sorry, Auntie," Akane said watching Ranma's reaction
as his mother tried to gently show him she meant know
harm.  At least, show that part of him that was
infested with the memory of hundreds of yowling cats. 
She was fairly certain that Ranma did not consciously
believe she'd hurt him.

"It is not your fault," Nodoka said.  Show hoped that
petting Ranma like this would calm him down.  As the
shedding started getting worse she relented and backed
away from Ranma reluctantly.  "So how did Ryouga learn
about Ranma?"

"I have no idea," Akane said.  "I haven't talked to
anyone."  She paused.  "Except my pet pig."  Ranma let
out a feline, frustrated groan.  Nodoka noticed that
and resolved to speak to Ranma about it later.  "I
doubt Ukyou would, but Ryouga's always getting lost in
funny places, maybe he saw you guys change once."

"I suppose that could be it," Nodoka said.  "Come with
me, Ranma, we need to see about getting you back to
your human form.  Akane, will you be all right getting
yourself home?"

"Oh, sure, Auntie," Akane said, shrugging.  "I'll see
you tomorrow Ranma.  And next time don't go so fast!" 
She could almost see a shaky smirk on the cheetah's
face.  Nodoka waited for Ranma to get into the house
before turning to Akane.

"You know, Akane," Nodoka said with her own smirk. 
"When Ranma learns how to pick out scents better,
you're going to have more trouble in making those
deceptions work."  Akane blushed and laughed
nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Akane said.

"Of course not," Nodoka said and started for the
house.  Akane grumbled to herself, definitely not
thinking about what it felt like to have her legs
around Ranma.  Akane walked out of the gate and noted
the trail of fur where Ranma had started shedding
again as they approached the Saotome house.

~Hmm, better do something about that,~ Akane thought. 
She grabbed a broom from near the gate and started
sweeping it away.  She finished quickly, sweeping just
enough away to hide the trail, and then headed home,
not noticing the group coming up the street.

It was about two blocks later that she realized that
she had forgotten to put up the broom and headed back.

*********************************************************

"Gee, the shedding starts again," Gina said.  "There
must be something wrong here.  I don't remember the
last time you shed this much."

"I do!" Brianna said.  "It was when Genn, Her and me
were looking for..." Brianna glanced at Brittany's
warning face and stopped.  "Damn, I forgot about it."

"Uh huh," Gina deadpanned..  A couple minutes later
they came to the end of the trail of shed fur, as a
girl with blue-black hair was walking away from the
area.

"Did he stop shedding?" Stripe asked.  Then he noticed
where the fur had been swept to the side.  "I guess
not."

"It can't be much further," Gina said.  ~Unless some
random person just swept the fur away from their
walk.~   After a few more yards Brianna and Brittany
stopped in front of a modest gate.

"He's in here," Brittany said.  ~Another werecheetah. 
He could be even be family.~  She glanced over at
Brianna, who was just as anxious about this as she
was.

"Ready for this?" Gina asked.

"Don't worry, honey," Stripe said next to Brittany,
massaging her shoulders.  "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Thank you, Muffin," Brittany said smiling back at
him.

"What do you think he's like?" Brianna asked.

"Instead of asking," Gina said.  "Why don't we go
see?"

*********************************************************

Nodoka looked up from preparing dinner at the sound of
someone knocking on the door.  She started to call
out.

"I'll get it," Ranma called out.  

In the kitchen Nodoka felt nervous for a moment, but
relaxed and breathed out a sigh of relief that Ranma
had managed to change back to human and that he felt
okay enough to greet company.

~With my luck it'll probably be another of the local
loonies with some sort of silver weapon,~ Ranma
thought grimly.  ~And if they see mom first...~

Ranma cautiously gripped the handle of the door and
got ready for a fight.  Through his mind was running a
veritable catalog of moves that could be performed
from a position that was no different from the one
most people used in opening the door.  Ranma was
prepared for anything.

Anything except the two cat people on the other side
of the door.

"Hello...I hope this doesn't sound too strange," the
blonde in front of the two started.

"C...c...c...c...c...CAAAAAAAATTTTTSSS!!!"  Ranma
slammed the door shut, shattering it in the process,
ran back into the house and vanished, somewhere.

Gina blinked and looked back at her sisters and
brother in law.

"Uh�?  What was that?"

"That was WAY faster than a human form should be able
to move," Brittany said.  Brianna cleared her throat. 
"Unless you're Brianna anyway.  And he wasn't as fast
you."  Brianna nodded firmly, but she was still
impressed.

Nodoka stepped into the hallway looking after where
Ranma had vanished and then back at the door.  She
sighed as she saw the visitors, she calmly walked to
the door and moved it out of the way.

"Brittany Elin Diggers, I presume?" She said wearily.

"Yeah," Brittany said.  She stepped a little forward
of Gina, holding Stripe's hand.  "This is my husband,
Stripe, and my sisters.  Gina and Brianna."

"What was with that kid?" Brianna asked.

"I'll explain in a moment," Nodoka said.  She turned
to Brianna and Stripe.  "Can I ask you to take your
human forms while you're here?"

"I don't actually have any other form," Stripe said. 
Nodoka blinked, then nodded.

"Oh yes, I forgot you weren't a werecreature," she
said.  Then she sighed.  "I don't suppose it matters
then."  She thought for a little longer.  "If he can
handle his full feline form, then this might be a good
next step."

"Next step for what?" Gina asked.  Nodoka frowned and
sighed in resignation.

"The next step of curing my son of his fear of cats,"
Nodoka said simply, a little sadly.  The four visitors
found themselves with their faces planted into the
ground.

*********************************************************

"Ranma, dear," Nodoka called softly as she walked up
to his room.  She heard someone shivering in the
closet and quietly sat down outside of it.  "Ranma, is
that you in there?"

"Th...th...th...they're coming to get me," Ranma
whispered.  "The cats are coming to get me."

"No they aren't," Nodoka said, firmly.  "Ranma,
remember I told you that there was one other survivor
to the werecheetah slaughter?"

"Y...y...yeah?" Ranma asked shakily.

"That's her downstairs," Nodoka explained.  "She came
to see us."

"S...s...she doesn't wanna marry me..." Ranma started.
 "Does she?"

"She's here with her husband, Ranma," Nodoka assured
him.

"Th...the...oth...other c...c...cat?" Ranma asked.

"He's not a cat, Ranma," Nodoka said.  "He's an alien
that looks like a cat.  There probably were no cats on
his planet"

"Oh," Ranma said.  ~That's a little better.  Maybe.~

"I've already told them about your problem," Nodoka
said.  "I'm going to go down and tell them why after I
finish dinner.  If you don't want to come down, I'll
understand, but I think it would do you some good to
talk to another werecat.  She may even be family."

"I'll try, okay?" Ranma said hesitantly.

"That's all I can ask," Nodoka said.  "She'll probably
be in her hybrid form, just so you are prepared."

"Okay, thanks," Ranma said.  He still hadn't left the
closet.

*********************************************************

Akane became concerned when she saw the door leaning
against a wall on the inside of the building.  She
frowned and moved to the building to investigate.

"Auntie?" Akane called out cautiously, walking in
through the doorway.  "Nodoka, is everything all..." 
She froze on seeing the four people in the living
room.  One of them was tinkering with something that
looked like a toy pikachu.  Then there was the
cat-person couple, and the normal-seeming blonde that
looked vaguely bored and impatient.

"She's upstairs with your boyfriend," the girl
tinkering said after recognizing Akane's scent. 
Akane's suspicions were derailed by the statement.

"Why would I want to marry that..." 

"I didn't say anything about marriage," the girl said,
smiling and looking up.  Akane realized that she had
just blundered into the wrong statement.  Now all eyes
were on her.

"It's an arranged marriage."  She muttered finally. 
"Since before we were born."

"People actually do that?" the normal girl asked.

"Who are you people?" Akane asked, remembering that
they shouldn't have been there.

"Oh, Akane-chan, what are you doing back?" Nodoka
asked, coming down the stairs.  Akane started to
answer, but Nodoka cut her off.  "Never mind, it is a
lucky occurrence.  Could you go up and help Ranma? 
He's a little...nervous."  Akane turned a narrow-eyed
glance at the cat people.

"I wonder why," Akane muttered.  The couple had the
decency to look embarrassed.  "Sure, I'll go see about
calming down the baka."

"Thank you, Akane-chan," Nodoka said.  She turned to
her guests.  "I was about to finish dinner for myself
and my son, just let me check everything and I'll be
right out."

"Uh, sure," Brittany said.  Nodoka smiled and walked
into the kitchen.

"Just how does a werecat become afraid of cats?"
Brianna asked, doing something that would probably
turn out to be disturbing to one of her peebos.

"I think we're about to find out," Gina said, glancing
to the kitchen.

*********************************************************

"Hey, Ranma," Akane said as she walked into his room. 
She looked around cautiously and was surprised to see
the closet door edge open.

"Akane?" Ranma asked.

"What are you doing in the closet?" Akane asked,
putting a little challenge in her voice.

"What do ya think?!" Ranma demanded.  "Hiding from the
c...cats."

"These are your people, Ranma," Akane said.  "I'm sure
they just want to meet you, and get to know you.  I
can't imagine what it would be like to be one of the
last of a race."

"I know," Ranma said.  "It's just...they're
c...c�cats, you know?"

"And for that you're just going to give up meeting new
people?" Akane asked.  She shook her head.  "I can
understand avoiding domestic pets and such, but these
are people!"

"C�c.c.at people," Ranma corrected irritably.

"Well so are you, baka!" Akane shouted.  Ranma winced.
 "Come on Ranma, You don't act like it very often, but
you should know better than this."

"Know better than what?" Ranma asked.

"Than to think that people will attack you for no
reason," Akane said.  Ranma gave her a look.  "People
don't attack you for no reason."  The look continued. 
"Name one time that someone has attacked you without
reason."

"Kuno," Ranma said.

"Okay, somebody else," Akane said.

"Herb, Pantyhose, Ryouga, Shampoo, Ukyou, Kodachi,
Hinako, Happosai," Ranma paused.  "You."

"I only hit you when you're being a jerk!" Akane
protested.  "And you pick on Ryouga all the time,
and..." Ranma continued giving her the look.  "Okay,
so that happens a lot, but still these AREN'T people
here to fight you," ~I hope.~ "So this should be
easier right?"

*********************************************************

Nodoka appeared and slipped a small folder off of a
bookshelf.  She sat down across from Brittany and
Stripe and held the folder.

"While Ranma was a child I paid a mage to lock him in
human form," Nodoka started.  "I was afraid of the
werewolves finding us and...finishing the job."  She
frowned and took a deep breath before continuing.  "By
chance, I found this among my husband's training
manuals."  She brandished the folder in her hands.

"What is that?" Brittany asked.

"It is a dangerous, and banned, martial art
technique," Nodoka said.  "I made my husband sign a
contract promising never to teach it to Ranma.  Got
him drunk to get him to sign it.  Unfortunately I did
the job too well.  He apparently forgot the pledge,
and I let myself get a plastered as well and woke up
to find my husband and son had left on a training
journey that would last ten years."

Nodoka gravely handed the folder over to Brittany and
gestured for her to read it.

"Neko-ken training manual," she read.  She looked up. 
"The cat-fist?"  She turned back to read and started
to look green, somewhat impressive considering the
fur.

"That sounds like it would be useful to a werecat,"
Gina said.  "How do you do it?"  Stripe, reading over
Cheetah's shoulder answered.

"Wrap the trainee up in fish sausage and dump them in
a pit of starving cats," Stripe said.  Gina and
Brianna stared at him blankly.

"His father actually did that?" Gina asked.

"Several times," Nodoka said quietly.  "You've seen
the results.  I can't imagine what its like for him,
becoming the worst monster out of his nightmares.  To
be something that you believe is a violent,
treacherous beast ready to pounce somebody at random. 
Can you imagine that?"

"Ummm, sort of," Brianna said.  Nodoka looked at her
and blinked.

"How do you mean?" Nodoka asked.

"It was a curse," Gina said.  "but our Dad took care
of it."  Nodoka turned interested.

"You're father got rid of a curse?" Nodoka asked,
hopefully.

"Yeah, he's part of the conclave," Brittany said. 
"Why?"  Nodoka recognized the name of the organization
and hope began to rise.

"Excuse me," Nodoka said.  "I'll be right back."  She
stood up, made a brief detour to the kitchen to
double-check her dinner, and then went to Ranma's
room.

"What, does she think Dad can get rid of a phobia?"
Brittany asked.

"Maybe," Gina shrugged.  "He might be able to, who
knows."  Gina noticed Brianna turning renewed and
enforced attention to her tinkering.  "Are you okay,
Bri?"

"Yeah," she said.  "Just don't like thinking about
Grave Digger."

"Well, it's not like you've had any problems since
then," Brittany said.

"Uh huh," Brianna said, and went back to tinkering.

*********************************************************

Ranma hesitantly came out of the room behind a
frustrated Akane, and they saw an anxious looking
Nodoka approaching the room.

"Ranma, I have some news," Nodoka said.  "Their father
might be able to get rid of the curse for you."

"What's that?!" Ranma and Akane said.

"Their father is a member of the conclave of wizards,"
she explained.  "Some of the most powerful magicians
in two worlds.  He may be able to get rid of your
curse."

"That sounds like a reason to talk to them," Akane
said.  "Doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, nodding.  "If it doesn't turn out
to be a wash like all the other cures."

"There can't be any harm in trying," Nodoka asked. 
"Can there?"  She knew otherwise, but in addition to
getting rid of the curse, as Akane had said, this
might help convince Ranma to talk to Brittany.

"I guess not," Ranma said.  Also aware that there were
plenty of things that could go wrong in seeking a
cure.

"Okay then," Nodoka said.  "I am going to go finish
dinner, and you and Akane can talk to them while I'm
setting the table."

*********************************************************

Ranma came hesitantly into the room glanced at the two
cat-people and then turned to look away from them as
he sat down.  He focused, instead, on the floor and
the two normal looking blondes.  There was something
vaguely cat-like about the larger of those two girls
as well, but it wasn't so obvious as the cheetah and
her, he glanced over long enough to see a pair of
rings, husband.

"Your guys' father can get rid of curses?" Ranma
asked.  Akane rolled her eyes and bapped him upside
the head as she sat down.

"You can be a little more polite," Akane said.  "I'm
Tendo Akane, I didn't bother to introduce myself
earlier."

"We've been told about..." Cheetah shifted
uncomfortably.  "What's wrong."

"I'm Gina," Gina said and then pointed toward the
werecheetah.  "That's Brittany and her husband Stripe,
and that's Brianna."

"Hey, that's a cute looking toy," Akane said suddenly.
 "What's it do?"  The Diggers' family suddenly looked
decidedly nervous, aside from Brianna.

"Well, I'm trying to get the explosion a little more
focused," Brianna said.  "There's still a lot of
wasted energy going in the wrong directions. 
Hopefully it'll take less of them to destroy the
targets, and then I can blow up that many more
targets!!"

"Uhhhh," Akane said, staring at Brianna.

"Oh, and I'm trying to program it to find the guy that
tried to kill me earlier," she added offhand.

"Would he happen to be a nearly blind guy with long
hair?" Ranma asked, still trying to avoid looking at
Brittany and Stripe.

"He had long hair and thick glasses," Brittany said,
nearly growling.  She stopped as she saw Ranma twitch.

"Sounds like Mousse," Ranma said, glancing at her and
back at Brianna.

"You know that lunatic?" Gina asked, edging forward.

"Yeah," Ranma said.  "He's one of the Chinese Amazons
around here."

"You know where we can find him?" Brianna asked.

"At the Nekohanten," Akane said.

"Shampoo was after me too," Ranma said.  "I wonder if
the Amazons have some sort of law for werecreatures or
something."

"This is a way to get out of that engagement then,"
Akane said suddenly.  Everybody looked at her, except
Ranma who was shaking his head.

"Can't do that," Ranma said.

"Why not?!" Akane demanded angrily, standing up and
towering over Ranma.  Then she looked around and
deflated.  "Not that I care."

"What do you think would happen if they found out I
was a werecheetah?" Ranma asked.

"They're already trying to kill you, Ranma," Akane
said.  "How much worse can it get?"

"What about my mom?" Ranma asked.

"Ohh," Akane said.

"Excuse me," Stripe said, Ranma's head slowly,
deliberately turned to face him.  "Aren't you engaged
to this Miss Tendo?"  Ranma nodded.  "And you're
engaged to someone else?"

"Actually, Shampoo thinks we're already married,"
Ranma said.

"How'd that happen?" Gina asked.

"I beat her in a fight," Ranma said simply. 
"Accidentally.  Sort of."

"How do you accidentally beat someone in a fight?"
Brittany asked.  "And how does that get you married?"

"Amazon laws."  Ranma and Akane said together.

"If an outsider male beats an outsider female, they're
married," Ranma explained.

"That sounds like something Grandma would come up
with," Gina said.

"Don't tell me you come from a tribe of warrior
women," Ranma said pleadingly.

"Oh, our mother is greatest warrior on the world of
Jade," Brittany said proudly.

"Hear that, Ranma," Akane asked, smirking.  "A female
martial artist the best on her world."  Ranma noticed
the werecheetah narrowing her eyes and cricked his
neck.

"Kiima would have driven that message home," Ranma
said darkly.  "If Cologne hadn't already."

"Maybe you could try to take me on seriously, then,"
Akane suggested.  Ranma shook his head.

"How about me then?" Brittany asked.  Ranma and Akane
turned to stare at her, with wide eyes.  Ranma
immediately looked away.

"Bad idea!" Akane said.  "You'd trigger the neko-ken. 
You have no idea the kind of damage that would do."

"Oh, yeah," Brittany said.  "Sorry about that."  She
deflated and leaned back.

"You said trigger the neko-ken," Gina said, curiously.
 "You mean there's something more than being afraid of
cats?"

"I get ta thinking I'm a cat," Ranma said.

"That doesn't sound so bad," Gina said.

"During which time I'm practically invincible and will
try my best to tear into shreds anything that bothers
me," Ranma added.  Akane nodded.

"There was the time he used that fifteen foot shark as
a chew toy," Akane said sagely.

"I take it you want our father to fix the Neko-ken
then," Gina asked.  Ranma glanced at her.

"Could he do that, too?" he asked.

"Too?  What other problem is there that you got?"
Brittany asked.

"Might as well get this over with," Ranma sighed.  He
stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"He has another curse?" Stripe asked.  "And two
fiancees?"

"Actually," Akane said irritably as Ranma vanished
into the kitchen.  "He has three fiancees, maybe more.
 His father's fault mostly."  She admitted the last
reluctantly.  Brianna stared at her a moment and
produced another peebo.

"What's he look like?" Brianna asked.

"Where'd the other of the things go?" Akane asked. 
Brianna shrugged. 

*********************************************************

"Hello, Ranma," Nodoka said.  Ranma hesitated as he
entered the kitchen.  He took a breath and moved into
the room with his mother.  The martial artist noted
that Nodoka was about to bring the last few dishes to
the dining table.  "How are you?"

"Uh fine," Ranma said.  "I'm just about to show them
the curse, you need help?"

"No, that's fine," she said.  "I can handle setting
the table, and this might be a way to cure you of your
curse, so that is more important."

"Yeah," Ranma said.  "Don't get your hopes up though,
none of these ever seem to work."

"Can't just give up, Ranma," Nodoka said.

"Naw, I don't ever do that," Ranma said, drawing a
glass of water.  "Umm, this means I'm gonna be a girl
for dinner don't it?"

"Ranma, I keep telling you that I have running hot
water," Nodoka reminded him.  "Just turn on the hot
water tap.  In fact you might want to pull a glass
right now."  Ranma flushed in embarrassment and poured
a second glass of water.

*********************************************************

"So what else has this...person done?" Stripe asked. 
Akane had explained both the Daikoku and Kuonji
engagements, as well as Genma's attempt to sell
himself and Ranma to a circus, and she had just barely
explained the fiasco with the "sickly" boy who wanted
the panda.

"You'd have to ask Ranma," Akane said.  "Or wait a
couple of weeks.  At least one of his mistakes will
turn up by then."  Ranma came back in and sat down
next to Akane with two glasses of water.

"Okay, I'm gonna do this the short way, because mom's
almost done with dinner," Ranma said.  "This is what I
want gotten rid of."  He checked the water temperature
and then poured the cool water over his head.  The
Atlanta gang blinked as Ranma shrunk into a girl,
Akane noted that Ranma's hair didn't change color
anymore.  Looking closely, however, she noticed that
his roots were blonde.

"Your father isn't a Rakshasha is he?" Brianna asked. 
Ranma blinked.

"No, it�s a curse," Ranma said.  She poured the second
glass over her head and changed back to normal.  "It's
triggered by cold water, and hot water changes me
back."  Gina and Brianna huddled together and started
whispering in English.

"Should we be worried?" Akane asked.  Brittany smiled
nervously while Stripe merely nodded.

*********************************************************

Shampoo watched the cute little robot roll into the
Nekohanten and blinked.

"What is that?" Cologne asked seeing the small item.

"Is cute," Shampoo said.  "Lost toy you think?"

"There seems to be something dangerous about it,"
Cologne said.  Mousse walked in and saw a small, cute
little blur on the floor.

"Oh my lovely, Shampoo!" Mousse shouted, scooping up
the robot.  "I'll get you some hot water right away!"

"This'll teach you to try and kill Brianna Diggers,"
the robot said in a synthesized voice.  Then it
exploded in an almost completely focused explosion
that sent Mousse out the doors, across the street and
through the fence, and then two walls after that.

Cologne and Shampoo watched the falling debris where
the explosion had occurred.  There was hardly any
damage done.  Apparently almost the entire force of
the explosion had directed straight at Mousse. 
Brianna would have been happy if she had seen it.

"Shampoo think Mousse mistake girl for Ranma again,"
Shampoo said.

"That seems most likely," Cologne said, shaking her
head.

Across the street, under a pile of rubble.

"Shaammmmpoooo�.."

*********************************************************

"Guys, let's just talk to dad," Brittany said, in
English.  "Nothing fancy, okay?  Please...guys?"

"Have there ever been any behavioral changes?" Gina
asked Akane and Ranma.

"Like what?" Akane asked.

"Well," Brianna looked distinctly nervous.  "Has he
ever like, tried to...umm...kill everybody?"

"There was the mirror clone," Ranma said hesitantly.

"But that was a magical clone," Akane said.  "Not you.
 Same with the separating incense.  No, Ranma's never
tried to kill everybody, but there was that one time."

"Oh, you're not going to tell that story are you?"
Ranma pleaded.

"This is important," Gina said.  "What happened?"

"Ranma once hit his head and thought that he was a
girl," Akane said.  "And he was a GIRLY girl."

"It never happened!" Ranma protested.  "You're all
lying!"

"Okay, thanks," Gina said and went back into the
huddle with Brianna.

"Ohh�I know what they're going to do," Brittany said
in English.  "This could be bad."

"How bad?" Stripe asked.

"TO THE GINA-LAB!!!" The two inventors shouted
together, sending a chill down the spines of everyone
there.

"Dinner's ready," Nodoka called out.  

"After dinner," Brianna said.  Gina nodded
reluctantly.

*********************************************************

Brianna and Brittany stared at the dishes in a total
lack of comprehension.  They really had no place to
complain, since they were rather unexpected guests,
but it was still very surprising.

"Are we certain this is the right place?" Brianna
asked Brittany, speaking in English.

"They're both werecheetahs," Brittany said.  "But..."

"Where's the tuna?!" both girls asked as they sat down
at the table.  Gina gave them a frustrated look.

"Is something wrong?" Nodoka asked.

"Umm, no," Brianna said reluctantly.  "What is this
stuff anyway?"

"Well there's chicken, rabbit, some venison," Nodoka
said.

"Venison isn't Japanese," Gina noted.

"No, but it's a good replacement for zebra," Nodoka
said.  "Wouldn't want my claws to turn brittle."

"Uhh, heh," Brittany said nervously, scratching the
back of her head.  "Where's the tuna?"

"My son showed you his problem?" Nodoka asked
hopefully.

"Yes," Gina said.  "And we think we can solve it!" 
Nodoka blinked.

"Are you magicians as well?" she asked.

"Well, no," Gina said.  "I'm one of the greatest
geniuses on this planet, I got rid of a curse on me
and Brittany once."  Brittany and Brianna cleared
their throats.  "Well, I did.  And Bri and I fixed
Mom's curse.  Between the two of us this should be
cake."

Akane and Nodoka glanced at Brittany's nervous
expression and began to worry.  Maybe some backup was
called for, just in case.

*********************************************************

"Ucchans'," Ukyou said, answering the phone.  "What
can I do you for?  Oh, Ranchan!  You're going where? 
Isn't Atlantis a myth?  Oh, somewhere in America,
okay...you mean Atlanta...where your mom said that
other werecheetah was?"  

Ukyou felt a little nervous, if Ranma met another,
female werecheetah, it could be more competition. 
Then Ranma told her she was already there, and she got
even more nervous.  Then mentioned sisters trying to
cure him, and she got even more nervous.  When he
finally said that Akane had suggested bringing along
some friends for support she was near to panicking. 
That meant either Akane was really worried, or else
Akane no longer viewed her as a threat.  Well, she'd
show that girl.

"Yeah, we'll be right over," Ukyou said.  "Oh, by the
way, Ryouga was looking for you earlier.  Oh, should
have known that.  We'll meet you there."  She hung up
the phone and turned to Konatsu.  "Konatsu, we're
shutting down for a couple of days.  Get your gear,
and get in gear."

"What's wrong Ukyou-sama," Konatsu asked.

"Somebody thinks they can cure Ranma," Ukyou said. 
"And he wants some friends at his back in case it
turns out to be a trick or something."

"Oh, and where are we going?" Konatsu asked.

"Atlanta, Georgia," Ukyou said.  "And keep a close eye
on Akane and Ranma for me, okay?"

"Standard operating procedures then," Konatsu said,
sighing.

*********************************************************

"Oh, hello Akane," Kasumi said answering the phone. 
"I see.  Okay.  And when will you be back?  I see.  Is
anyone else going with you.  Just in case?  Oh that's
good."

"Was that Akane on the phone?" Soun asked, rushing to
Kasumi's side and looking anxious.  ~My baby's all
right!  She's not torn to pieces by some rampaging
monster in the streets!!~

"Yes, she, Ranma and Ukyou are going to America for a
couple of days," Kasumi said calmly.

"WHAT!?!" Soun and Genma shouted.  Nabiki merely
watched, with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes, they may have found someone in Atlanta that can
cure the curse," Kasumi said.  Nabiki heard Atlanta,
thought of what she remembered about the adventures of
a certain werecheetah, and the current situation.  She
put two and two together and smiled, maybe she could
talk to Kuno-chan.

"And they haven't invited me!?" Genma shouted.  And
the bald martial artist was quickly out the door.

"Oh my," Kasumi said.  "Perhaps I should have said
they were already at the airport."  She smiled
serenely and walked into the kitchen.

*********************************************************

"Who'ya callin' sugar?" Ukyou asked as she walked up
to the pay phone.  Akane turned and seemed to relax a
little as she saw Ukyou and Konatsu.

"My family," Akane said.  "We figured it would be a
good idea to wait to call them.  Thanks for coming
Ukyou."

"You think I'm going to let you go off alone with
Ranchan?" Ukyou asked, smirking.  Akane's face
darkened a little.

"Why would I want to be alone with him?" she asked,
rolling her eyes and walking towards a hangar.

"Is this normal for an airport?" Ukyou asked, walking
across the tarmac.  She had gotten the feeling from
various movies that terminals were usually inside.

"Not that I know of," Akane said.  "I think this is a
private company or something."

"Is that the girl?" Ukyou asked.  Akane nodded and
Ukyou started walking directly toward Brittany.

"Ukyou, wait!" Akane called out as Ukyou pulled away
from her and Konatsu to confront the werecheetah.

"You're this Brittany person, right?" Ukyou asked
point blank.  Brittany blinked from where she had been
lounging and looked at Ukyou.

"That's right," she said.

"Well, let's just get one thing clear here," Ukyou
said.  "Ranchan's my fiancee, so don't you be getting
any ideas just because you two are like the last of
your races or anything."  

Brittany acquired a rather curious expression on her
face and crossed her arms.  Noticing the
confrontation, Stripe came away from where he was
helping Ace with something and headed for Brittany.  
Behind her, Akane had her face in her hand.  Konatsu
just looked embarrassed.

"So don't try to get in my way, sugar," Ukyou said. 
"Got it?"  Then Stripe was standing next to Brittany,
who took a breath and gestured towards him.

"Allow me to introduce Stripe," she said in an amused,
and half-offended, tone.  "My husband."  Ukyou blushed
bright red and started fidgeting.

"Oh," Ukyou said.  "Excuse me, I'm going to go now." 
She walked away, burning in embarrassment.

"I tried to warn you," Akane said as Ukyou passed her.

"Oh shut up," Ukyou muttered.

*********************************************************

"Kuno-chan," Nabiki said over the phone.  "I've got
some news about my sister, Ranma and the pig-tailed
girl."  Not even Nabiki noticed the small, furred
easedropper.

*********************************************************

Shampoo walked into the back of the Nekohanten and
sought out hot water.  A few moments later she was
running up to Cologne.

"Hibachan!" Shampoo shouted desperately.  "Airen going
to America with Kitchen Destroyer and Spatula Girl!!"

"Did you hear why?" Cologne asked after a moment's
thought.

"Shampoo think he go for cure of curse," Shampoo said.

"The werecheetah will have to wait for now then,"
Cologne said.  "Get your things ready."

"But how will we get there?" Shampoo asked.  "They're
probably already gone!"

"Let me worry about that," Cologne said, smirking.

~Why you, Saotome!!~ Mousse thought.  ~Go get a cure
on your own and leave us behind, will you?~

*********************************************************

"You know, this place seems familiar," Ryouga said. 
Walk through one glowing doorway and suddenly he was
completely off track.  He had been on the road to
Nerima, well actually he had been heading for
Yokohama, but he didn't know that.  Now he could be in
Shangri-la for all he knew.

There were a lot of books though, and glancing at them
showed them to mostly be of esoteric knowledge. 
Ryouga thought about it for a moment.  Maybe there was
something about werecheetahs here...or
even...Jusenkyo!

"Oh, hello again," a voice said.  "Did you find what
you were looking for last time?"  Ryouga turned around
to see a man walking among the books.

"Last time?" Ryouga asked blankly.

"You were looking for books on Jusenkyo," the man
reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Ryouga said, not really remembering it, but
playing along anyway.  "I must have gotten lost, could
you lead me to them."

"Sure anything else you need?" the man asked.

"Do you know anything about werecheetahs?" Ryouga
asked.

"Why yes," the man said.  "One of my ex-girlfriends
has a sister who is a werecheetah."

"What?!"

*********************************************************

Ranma sat forward in the plane, with Ukyou, Akane and
Konatsu.  Brittany turned from looking to them to
looking at Nodoka sitting close to her son, but
obviously wishing to be closer than she was.  Then she
looked to Stripe and her sisters.

"I need to talk to her alone for a moment," Brittany
said.  Stripe nodded.  "She might not want to talk
about...things."

"I understand," he said.  "If you need anything just
call us."  Brittany nodded and started to work her way
across the plane.  Brianna shifted a moment and looked
over at Ranma.

"Where are you going?" Gina asked.

"To talk to the kid," Brianna said.

Akane and Ukyou looked up suspiciously as she
approached.

"Can I speak to your boyfriend for a moment?" Brianna
asked.  "Don't worry, I'm not joining anyone's harem."
 She smirked.  "He's too young for me anyway."

"So what do you want to talk to me about?" Ranma
asked.  Brianna looked at the other three and frowned.

"Why don't you three go get to know my sister and
brother-in-law?" Brianna asked.  "This is private."

"Excuse us if we don't trust you," Akane said. 
"There's a lot of history with Ranma and women." 
Ranma groaned and tried to ignore Akane and Ukyou.

"Well, go over there and watch," Brianna said
pointing.  "If I do something you don't like you'll
see it."  They stared at her, uncertain.

"You better not try anything, sugar," Ukyou said,
standing up reluctantly.

"Ranma?" Akane asked, turning to face him.  Ranma
glanced at Brianna's face and saw the half-pleading
expression in the back of her eyes.

"Go ahead, I'll talk to her," Ranma said shrugging.

"And don't YOU try anything," Akane said irritably
standing up to join Ukyou and Konatsu.

"Sheesh, you never trust me," Ranma muttered.  Then he
looked to Brianna.  "So what did you want to talk
about?"  Brianna glanced at her sisters and started
whispering.

"Don't tell my sisters about this okay?" Brianna
asked.

"About what?" Ranma asked.

"About...the Neko-ken," Brianna said quietly.  Ranma
looked confused, why shouldn't he talk to her sisters
about his problem.  Though something was telling him
that she really wanted to talk about something else. 
Ranma saw a spark of something familiar in her eyes. 
A certain fear of snapping to awareness to something
act.  A fear of herself.

"Whatta ya wanna know?" 

*********************************************************

"So how did you survive," Brittany asked.  "My dad
said I was the only one."

"I wasn't there," Nodoka said simply.  "I needed to
think about some things.  So I had left for a short
trip before the attack happened."

"Oh," Brittany said, not sure what else to say.  "What
did you need to think about?  If that's not too much
to ask."

"It hardly matters now," Nodoka said sadly.  "But I
was wondering if I should tell my family who I was." 
Brittany looked confused.  "You see, there was this
time-traveling dog talking about preventing someone
from being born..."

"Dr. Peachbody?" Brittany asked.

"Oh, you've had the...pleasure," Nodoka said.

"Unfortunately," Brittany said.  "You escaped him
though."

"And ended up a few decades ahead in the future,"
Nodoka said.  "By the time I found my family again, I
already had a granddaughter.  I assume Xerxes' child
died along with everyone else."  Nodoka took a look at
Brittany and blinked.  "Is there something wrong,
Brittany-san?"

"Did you say you had a son named Xerxes?" Brittany
asked.

"Yes," Nodoka said, looking at her in anticipation.

"Who married Cyan?" Brittany added.

"Correct," Nodoka said, on the edge of her seat. 
Brittany looked her up and down.

"Ummm," Brittany said.  She hesitated before
continuing.  "Your granddaughter didn't die."  Nodoka
took her turn to investigate Brittany, then she
glanced over at Stripe.

"And she has such a manly husband," Nodoka said.

~Oh no,~ Brittany thought as she remember the words of
her mother's spirit at her wedding.  ~It's
hereditary.~

*********************************************************

"What did she want to talk about?" Akane asked as she
took her seat next to Ranma again, from the sounds of
it the flight would be ending soon.

"Yeah," Ukyou added.  "She looked pretty serious." 
Ranma thought about his answer before shrugging.

"She wanted to talk about the Neko-ken," Ranma said.

"Why?" Akane asked.  Ranma shrugged again.

"I didn't ask about that," Ranma said.  "Maybe it's
something to do with how they wanna get rid of the
curse."

"Oh yeah, they were asking about behavioral changes,"
Akane said.  "I wonder why."

Ranma remembered the question Brianna had asked.  ~Has
he ever like, tried to...umm...kill everybody?~  Then
he shrugged.

*********************************************************

"What did you talk to him about? Gina asked.  Brianna
hesitated and then shrugged.

"The Neko-Ken," Brianna said honestly.  "I was worried
about a repeat of...you know."  It was the truth, even
if how it was said would lead Gina to thinking about
other things.

"Oh I think we can stop that," Gina said confidently. 
Then she gave Brianna a concerned look.  "You're
worrying a lot about that today."

"This Neko-ken thing strikes close to home," Brianna
said.

*********************************************************

"How you get stupid stick boy to let us on plane?"
Shampoo asked.

"I simply informed him that you had business with
Ranma involving a battle you had lost," Cologne said. 
"I'm afraid he took that to mean that Ranma had forced
himself upon you."

"Stick boy get more stupid every day," Shampoo said. 
Then she turned and glared at Mousse.  "What he doing
here?"

"Why I invited him of course," Kodachi said.  ~And if
I help him obtain you, there will be fewer obstacles
between me and my Ranma-sama.~ 
"OHHH-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"

"Would you kindly not laugh, Koda-chan," Nabiki said. 
"Or do you not want me to tell you were Ranma is?"

"Enough of this banter!" Kuno shouted.  "Pilot take us
to Atlanta, now!!"

"All right already," the pilot said.  "Sit down!"

*********************************************************

"Is there a reason that we're sneaking into your
home?" Konatsu asked.

"We...uh...don't want to wake up our parents," Gina
said.

"That's a way to put it," Brittany said.  She glanced
at Ranma curiously.  "You two are going to watch while
Ranma's...cured, right?"

"You better believe it, sugar," Ukyou said.

"Uh yeah," Akane said.

"Well why don't the rest of us go somewhere nice and
safe...I mean quiet," Brittany said.  "And get better
acquainted."  She grabbed Stripe and Nodoka and
started walking off.  "Muffin, meat your
grandmother-in-law."

"Excuse me?" Stripe said, somewhat surprised.  Gina
and Brianna turned back at that English statement,
wondering if they had misheard.

"What did she mean by somewhere safe?" Ranma asked.

"Oh don't worry about her," Brianna said.  "Nothing
really dangerous has happened down here for a while." 
It was not a reassuring sound.

*********************************************************

"The kids are back," Theo said.

"So what," Julia retorted.  "It's a very big house,
now about those new...ahem...manuevers."

*********************************************************

"Why is Ranma way out over there?" Akane asked. 
"While we're over here?"

"Because last time we tried this," Gina said.  "There
was this energy discharge that knocked everybody out."

"You're sure this is safe, right?" Ukyou asked.

"Oh yeah," Brianna said.  "And we got lots of stuff
ready just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Akane asked.

"Nothing," Gina said.

"You know," Brianna said.  "I was just thinking that
we should have done some tests on his abilities before
we started."

"Can we get on with this?" Ranma's voice came out over
the intercom.

"Going now!" Gina said, typing in a bunch of buttons
and ignoring Brianna.  "This is going to hurt." Gina
said at last before starting the sequence.

"What do you mean it's gonna...AAAAHHH!!" 

*********************************************************

"What in the world did you do?" Akane demanded as they
rushed up to the tubes and saw a pair of cheetahs
lying unconscious.

"Well, do you think it worked?" Gina asked.

"I ain't checking their gender," Brianna replied
firmly.

"Did what work!" Ukyou demanded.  "You said you were
curing the curse!"  She grabbed at her spatula and got
ready to fight.

"Well the same thing happened when I took the curse
off me and Brittany," Gina said.  "It sort of brought
the decoy I set up to life.  I was sort of wondering
if a shape changing spell like this one would have
enough power for that."

"Well you were wrong!" Akane shouted.  "What happened
to the last 'decoy' that came to life?"  Brianna
waved.

"Hello," she said.

"Akane-san, Ukyou-sama," Konatsu said.  "They're
waking up."  Everybody turned to look at the cheetahs
as they sat up and stretched, cat-like.

"Uh-oh," Akane said, whispering.  "The Neko-ken." 
Both cheetahs noted her and happily started towards
her direction, until they noticed each other.


*********************************************************

"It is pleasant to be able to take hybrid from again,"
Nodoka said stretching out.  

"I've never had to hide myself," Brittany said.  "I
guess I've been lucky."

"The werewolves never tried to kill you?" Nodoka
asked.

"Yes they did," Brit said.  "One of them.  The one who
ordered the attack.  He was a traitor to his own kind
too, did you know that?  Killed a lot of werewolves."

"So it was the responsibility of one madman then,"
Nodoka said, somewhat relieved that the whole nation
of the wolves had not been behind it.  On the other
hand it was chilling that one man could do such
damage.  "What has become of this monster?"

"He was disintegrated," Brittany said with a feral
grin.

"What exactly did you mean by somewhere safe?"

"Oh nothing," Brittany said.

"Then can you tell me how exactly do your sisters plan
to cure Ranma?" Nodoka asked.

"Oh, probably the same way she cured us," Brittany
said.  "Make a decoy for the curse." 

"Isn't that how Brianna was born?" Stripe asked. 
Brittany gave a nervous smile.

"Pardon me?" Nodoka asked.

"Well she said she could do it without the
side-effect," Brittany said nervously.  "Of course,
knowing Bri and Gina..."

"What is this side effect you're talking about?"
Nodoka asked.

"Ahem, could...um...somebody come down here," Gina's
voice came over the intercom.  In the background was
the sound of growling and crashes and people yelling. 
"We seem to have hit a little bit of a snag." 
Brittany sweatdropped.

"Ranma!  Stop attacking Ranma!" Akane's voice added,
sounding confused and angry.

"What in the world is going on down there?" Nodoka
demanded hurriedly.

"I'd say Gina and Brianna accidentally cloned your
son," Stripe said.  Brittany groaned and slammed her
face into her hand.


*********************************************************

"Oh no," Julia moaned.

"I guess we should see what's happening," Theo said
equally resigned.


*********************************************************

"Don't worry!" Brianna yelled.  She had left the lab
as the cheetahs started going after each other, and
now she was back.   "It's not silver!!"

She had, of course, a gun.

"What does she mean by it's not silver?" Ukyou asked
turning toward the voice.  "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

It was a big gun.

"Umm, nothing," Brianna said, pulling up even with
everybody.  "Nothing that'll kill a werecheetah
anyway."  She trained the gun on the fighting
werecheetahs, and smiled as the powering up sounds
echoed through the room.  It didn't really have to
make that noise, but she liked it that way.

"Are you crazy?!" Akane shouted smacking the gun as
Brianna started firing.  The arc of fire went wide,
into the ceiling, only one explosion catching the
cheetahs on the edge.

"Watch what you're doing!" Brianna shouted.  "You
could have killed us."

"And you could have killed the Ranmas!" Ukyou snapped
back.

"Only silver, magic or other werefolk can do that,"
Gina said.  "But, we can try to incapacitate them with
stuff that SHOULD kill them.  And then separate them."

"They're getting away!" Konatsu shouted as the
cheetahs chased each other up the wall and out the
hole Brianna had made in the ceiling.

"How'd they do that?" Bri asked.

"How'd who do what?" a voice asked.  Brianna and Gina
turned around to see their parents.

"Uh, we had a little problem removing a curse," Gina
said.

*********************************************************

"Tell me, how did you come to decide that this was
where Ranma would be heading?" Cologne asked.

"Tell me Cologne," Nabiki said.  "In the year or so
you've been in the modern world, have you heard of the
Diggers?"

"The name sounds familiar," Cologne admitted.  Nabiki
rung the door bell.

"Let's just say that recent events in Nerima and the
fact that Ranma was going to Atlanta with some
Americans point to the Diggers family," Nabiki said.

"I should hope so," Kuno declared.  "If you have, for
no reason, brought us to this land of barbarians who
have utterly no respect for those of true greatness,
then you shall have something to answer for."  Nabiki
rung the door bell again.

"Indeed," Kodachi said.  "I for once must agree with
my delusional brother in this regard."

"It certainly does seem quiet for any place in which
Saotome has resided for any length of time," Mousse
noted.

"Mercenary girl helping sister hide Airen?" Shampoo
threatened dangerously.

"I wouldn't have come with you if I were," Nabiki
said.  Nabiki knocked on the door.

"So where is everybody then?" Mousse asked.  At this
point Nabiki was considering having one of the martial
artists knock.

"This has to be where..." 

Nabiki was interrupted as two large furry shapes
exploded out of the door, knocking both Nabiki and
Kuno to the side.  The shapes bowled through the group
and then stopped for long enough for the Nerimans to
identify a pair of cheetahs, one slightly smaller. 
They were circling each other and hissing.

"Cheetahs?" Cologne said, a little surprised.  Both
cats seemed a little worn, but both displayed a few
gashes here and there, and it seemed more would be
coming.

"They went this way!!" a voice shouted in English. 
Then a blonde girl with the stereotypical big gun came
charging out of the house.  She pointed at the two
cheetahs and then blinked on seeing Mousse.  Then the
gun was trained to point at him.  "Didn't I blow you
up already?"

"Ah no doubt it is the daemonic werecheetah that has
been plaguing Nerima, obviously it came here with its
evil master to escape my righteous wrath," Kuno drew a
silver blade and charged at the dueling cheetahs. 
Both turned away from their fight long enough to
charge at Kuno, and shred his silver sword without
touching it.  After the samurai was tossed aside the
cheetahs turned their attention to each other.

Cologne narrowed her eyes as she recognized the
neko-ken attacks and turned to Nabiki.

"The werecheetah is Ranma, isn't it," Cologne asked. 
At the word werecheetah, Shampoo drew her sword,
looking fairly reluctant to do so.

"That was my guess," Nabiki said.

"Stop shooting at my Ranchan!" Ukyou shouted as she
came through the door and slammed her spatula into
Brianna.  The gun shoved down, almost crushing
Mousse's nervous face.  Then it fired, while stuck in
the ground.  The gun and much of the ground
underneath, exploded upwards sending Mousse, Ukyou and
Brianna flying into the air.

"Brianna!" Gina shouted as she came on the scene with
Akane and her parents.

"Ukyou!" Akane shouted.

"Mousse!" Shampoo shouted.  "FALL ON HEAD!"  

Both werecheetahs were again distracted from their
fight to attend to the falling girls.  Ukyou and
Brianna both felt something grab at the back of their
shirts and interrupt their fall.  Next thing both knew
they were being set down gently.

Mousse obediently fell on his head.  Into Kodachi's,
who had been wondering if the cheetahs would make good
pets.  Both lay senseless on the ground sprawled over
each other.

Shampoo reluctantly moved forward until she was
stopped by Cologne.

"I could not beat Ranma in human form under the
effects of the neko-ken," Cologne said.  "It would
take someone of great power to even challenge him
now."

Both cheetahs slowly started circling after each other
again.

"RANMA STOP NOW!!" Two voices shouted at once, as
Nodoka, Brittany and Stripe joined the scene.  Akane
and Nodoka didn't bother to ask why the cheetahs
hesitated at the shout, they just each moved to hold
back one of the cats.

Shampoo caught sight of another werecheetah and
apparently a weretiger, out of the corner of her eye
and shifted stance to confront them.

"You make airen into monster!" Shampoo shouted,
charging forward with her silver sword.  She was
easily intercepted and tossed across the sizeable yard
by an extremely angry redhead.

"Don't touch my daughter!" Julia snapped.

"You claim that creature as your child?" Cologne
asked.  Brittany growled at the comment.

"What did you call my sister?" someone asked behind
Cologne.  She turned to see Brianna, recovered from
her surprise, and suddenly dressed in futuristic armor
with at least a dozen pokemon like things floating
around her.  Cologne remembered the explosive robot
and frowned.

"Try not to insult my wife," Stripe added grimly.

"Amazon, right?" Theodore Diggers asked.  

Cologne nodded, thinking of what move to make first. 
The two cheetahs, while mostly unwilling to endanger
the people holding them, growled in her direction. 
Nodoka and Akane also glared at Cologne, but kept a
firm hold of the cheetahs, worried they might start
fighting again otherwise.

"You're still following those archaic rules," Dr.
Diggers added, shaking his head.  "For goodness sake,
the Realm of the Undead is more lenient and reasonable
than you people."

"They work," Cologne protested.

"Not really," the mage responded.  Shampoo stood up
and started to stalk towards Julia.  "I wouldn't do
that.  My wife is the Armsmaster of Jade.  Arguably
the best warrior in two worlds."  Cologne blinked,
shocked at the revelation.

"Of course if you want to try to take me on," Julia
said, smirking.  Shampoo growled and looked ready to
rush her.

"Don't child," Cologne insisted.  "The Armsmaster, and
who would you be?"

"Theodore Diggers," he answered.  "A member of the
Conclave of Wizards.  I believe that the Amazons
haven't had anyone in the Conclave for around five
hundred years."

"Before we leave," Cologne said.  "I have to ask how
Ranma contracted his condition."

"He was born that way," Nodoka called out, angrily. 
"How else would it happen?"

"It is a race," Dr. Diggers said.  "Not a disease as
you and yours seem to think."

"I see," Cologne said darkly.  "Shampoo we are
leaving."

"But�!" Shampoo protested, stopping as Cologne gave
her a look.  They didn't bother to take Mousse along
with them.

"Well, that was exciting," Ukyou said, dryly, feeling
jealous as she watched the cheetahs, one of which was
comfortably resting in Akane's arms.  Well it was
straining to attack the other cheetah, but jealousy
colors things funny.

"Okay," Julia said.  "Someone explain to us what's
going on."

*********************************************************

"Congratulations," a male voice said dryly.  "You've
actually managed to cure a Jusenkyo curse.  Sort of."

"It worked didn't it?" Gina's voice said hesitantly. 
Apparently they were speaking Japanese for their
guests' benefit.

"How were we supposed to know that would happen?"
Brianna asked.  The listener could almost feel all the
faces turn to look at Bri.

~Cure a...I'm cured!~ the listener thought.  They sat
up and looked around.   "Am I really cured?"  Then
they noticed a familiar sight and blinked in surprise.
 "Oh my, isn't that my cursed form?"

"Hey," the boy said angrily and nervously.  "You�re my
cursed form!"

"Be quiet, baka!" Akane snapped, elbowing him.  "We
just talked about this."

"Ran...ko," Nodoka said soothingly.  She turned to
look at her mother and shivered.  She loved her
mother, but since finding about this werecheetah thing
it was hard to approach her.  "The procedure to
cure..." her independent boy form rolled his eyes. 
"...resulted in a clone.  You now have a brother,
Ranma."

"Having a telepath on hand is useful," Gina said in
English.  "Isn't it Dad?"

"We wouldn't have so much need if some people weren't
so reckless," Julia said with an amused smirk as the
Saotome siblings cautiously became acquainted.  "I
suppose the next step is meditation techniques to
control the neko-ken?"  Her husband nodded.

"We should probably try Jade for that," Theo said. 
"More mages to control them, just in case."

*********************************************************

"I need to stop walking through glowing doorways,"
Ryouga said wearily as he sat in a tavern sipping a
mug of some alcoholic beverage and watching a
collection of catpeople drinking at a table across the
room.  At the moment Ryouga was fervently hoping that
they wouldn't find the silver blade in his umbrella.


=====
"Caffeinated Kender?  What's that, a berserk spell?" - 
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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