Note: Okay, all of us who read Fred Perry's comic know
that the wererats are now incarcerated in the
leprauchaun prison, a result of failing to
successfully rob the wee-people...so obviously this
fic diverges...also note...I'm still rooting for the
rats to join the good guys...Also...most of this has
been through pre-readers, but sections haven't

The Tokyo International Airport was often the sight of
some interesting parties moving to and from other
countries. Today was no different as a collection of
two college-aged young ladies and one man stepped off
the plane in a variety of not happy moods. 

"I tell you she's around here somewhere," Romeo said
nervously. "I can barely smell her through the
picante. She's going to pounce as soon as we step out
of the plane and tear our livers out by the skin of
her teeth!" The girls looked at him, Moisha still
scratching.

"Like...what?" the pink-haired wererat asked. "Listen,
I just want to like get a bath to get this gunk off of
me!"

"Quit being such a pair of whiny babies!" Lydia
snapped angrily. "Honestly, are you warriors or not!?"

"Which of us had to change after that werecheetah
grabbed us a couple of days ago?" Romeo asked. He was
rewarded with a steady glare from the blonde that
almost cleared his bowels.

"Agh!" Moisha whined. "It's getting into the silver
burns!! Can't we go get a bath?"

"If you didn't scratch," Lydia muttered angrily as she
stalked ahead. "You wouldn't have so much trouble. I'm
heading for the rental place, why don't you two get
the luggage, if you can manage it." 

She stalked away and then quickly ducked around a
corner. After checking around the corner to make sure
that Romeo and Moisha were indeed heading for luggage
claim, she began scratching frantically.

"Oh yeah," Lydia sighed. "Mmm, that's better, yeah.
There to! Ahhhh. Much better."

"Excuse me, Miss?" someone said, instantly attracting
Lydia's attention. "What are you doing?" Lydia looked
down, took stock of where her hands were, and paled.

"In public of all places," somebody whispered. 

"I hope she's not American, can you imagine how bad
that would make us look?"

"It's not like that," Lydia protested. "I'm just..."
and then she saw Romeo and Moisha already coming down
the hallway. "...needed a little...relief." Her voice
trailed off in defeat.

"Hey, Lydia," Romeo said. "There are some security
guards coming this way...would you know why?"

"Grrr..." Lydia rolled her eyes upward and would have
cried if it didn't go against her warrior image.

********

"Now more than ever must I defeat the evil cur Saotome
and free my loves from his darkness," Kuno muttered as
he stalked down the runaway from the Kuno private jet.
Kodachi sauntered along behind him, considering
things.

"Hmmm," she said. "That gaijin woman mentioned 'blood
transfusions' certainly my Ranma-sama would not
begrudge me a sample of his...essence." She smirked
for a brief moment before continuing her thoughts.
"Still, I have no idea how to reach this Jade place.
Of course, this new werecheetah has not been made
'safe' yet. Still, is that a chance I should take.
Hmmm." She frowned, remembering the bit about mind
control and wondering whether it would be better to
wait for Ranma to make an appearance.

And of course that shapechanger was with him. Hmm,
wait for a week, or try to take power immediately.
Kodachi considered the question for all of two
seconds.

********

"Listen," Brittany said. "I told you. It's not her I'm
smelling!" She sighed in exasperation.

"I think you just have rats on the brain," Gina said,
shaking her head.

"I keep telling you they're there!" Brit insisted.

"Any clue what they're talking about," Ukyou asked.
"I'm not doing so well in English."

"They're talking about smelling rats still," Nabiki
said irritably. She couldn't tell how Brittany could
make sense of all the mixed smells in the airport.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache. She turned
to the arguing sisters and cleared her throat. "Any
chance of teaching us how to change before we get back
to my home?" Brit looked at her and blinked.

"Sorry, girl," Brit said. "You'll have to wait another
day or so. You need to build up some lunar energies
first."

"Lunar energies," Nabiki said. "Right."

"Oh damn!" Ukyou said suddenly smacking a furred fist
into an open hand.

"What is it?" Nabiki asked, she was busy noting how
people seemed to be avoiding her.

"I forgot about Konatsu," she said. "He's still stuck
back there."

********

"Hello?" Konatsu called out as he wandered the nearly
endless halls of Gina's lab. "Is anybody home?"

"Excuse me," a voice said. Konatsu turned about to see
that foreign werecheetah's husband. "Aren't you one of
the Japanese visitors?"

"Oh hello, sir," he said, bowing demurely. "I seem to
have gotten myself lost. Could you please direct me to
the rest of my party?"

"They, uh, went back to Japan," Stripe said
hesitantly.

"Oh dear," Konatsu sighed. "Hmmm, I suppose I should
call her as soon as possible. She may have a task for
me to accomplish here. In the meantime is there
anything I can do for you sir?" Konatsu blink-blinked.

"Um, no," Stripe said. "Ukyou-sama, you say? Ukyou is
that girl that sort of dresses like a guy?"

"Mmhmm," Konatsu nodded. Stripe looked Konatsu over
for a moment and cocked an eyebrow.

"You know, she doesn't seem to bend that way," Stripe
said to the "girl" in front of him.

"Bend what way sir?" Konatsu asked, cocking his head
to the side.

"Never mind," he said.

********

"So this is the place, huh?" Gina said as they
approached the dojo. "Looks calm enough." She tried to
ignore Nabiki's quiet snicker.

"I suppose with Ranma out of town that the center of
chaos has moved off a bit," Nabiki said, smirking.

"Okay," Gina said, setting down her luggage. "You guys
go get settled in and I'll go see this Minister of
Health idiot." By the time any of the three had turned
around, Gina was in the rental car and down the
street. Well, half-way down the street. Damn Ace for
having a date with Penny anyway. She could have
brought the Gina-Mobile over, but noooo.

"Did she just leave the three of us alone to explain
to my sister what's going on," Nabiki wondered.

"Nope," Ukyou said. "Just the two of you." She tried
to leave for her own place, but found herself stalled
at the end of the other werecheetah's arm.

"No you don't," Brittany said. "You stay where I can
see you until you've gotten some training." She
glanced toward Nabiki and saw the wererat putting on
what seemed to be rain slickers. "That isn't going to
hide you very well, you know." Nabiki gave her a
sidelong look.

"You have never met my father," she said simply.

********

"WAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Soun Tendo's cry could be heard up
and down the street. "My babies are Nezumi!!" Nabiki's
mouth twitched irritably as she sipped at the tea
Kasumi had made for them.

"Oh my," Kasumi said, of course. "If Nodoka knows
about Akane, what will this mean for the marriage. Is
she fine with a cat marrying a rat?"

~'If Nodoka knows?'~ Nabiki thought to herself. ~Not
'if Akane is?'~

"WAAAAHHHHHH!!!" A new cry was established. "The
schools will never be joined!!! Ranma you better not
eat my baby!!!"

"I don't think you have to worry about that, Daddy,"
Nabiki said. "They're both a little too clueless for
that yet."

"WAAAAAHHHH!!! My baby's virtue is going to be
lost!!!"

"I know the human body is mostly water," Brittany
said. "But shouldn't he be getting dehydrated soon?"

"By the way," Ukyou said. "Where's the panda man?"

"Oh," Kasumi said. "Uncle Saotome is still trying to
get to America. He sent us a postcard from Tibet just
this day. Funny it has a Tokyo postmark though."

"WAAAHHHH!!! How dare you abandon me in my time of
need Saotome!!"

"You don't seem very upset by all this Kasumi," Nabiki
noted nervously. Kasumi's opinion was the one that
mattered here.

"Remember two weeks ago when the toaster oven tried to
eat the family?" Kasumi asked.

"Yes," Nabiki said. "What was Akane thinking of trying
to cook out of one of Happosai's books? It seems like
she tries anything that looks like a recipe since she
figured out curry. I guess sometimes a little success
is a bad thing. What happened to it anyway?" Brittany
listened on skeptically while Ukyou had this horrified
expression on her face.

"I'm not sure," Kasumi said. "I thought we put it
outside with the trash."

"So what you're saying is that compared to some of
what happens here," Nabiki said. "Us being wererats is
normal."

"Exactly," Kasumi said cheerfully. "Oh also, remember
when I left to help our cousins around the house? " In
the background was the sound of someone beating a
toaster oven to death.

"We were avoiding eating at home for a week," Nabiki
said. "Of course I remember."

"Oh, I thought Ranma would be able to handle the
cooking," Kasumi said. "He said he would."

"Akane wouldn't let him," Nabiki said dryly. "It was
just after the oni incident, right?"

"Oh yes," Kasumi said. "Ah, that explains it."

"Explains what?" Nabiki asked. "What about that week?"

"Well, you see..." Kasumi started.

"WAAAAHHH!!!" Nabiki sighed as their father ran back
through the room complaining about something new
entirely.

"I thought she said the chaos was mostly gone,"
Brittany said nervously. "Is it always like this?"

"Pretty much," Ukyou said.

********

"This is the 'welcoming party' you have set up to meet
this kid?!!?" Gina declared as she looked over the
unfriendly collection of black-suited men in
mirrorshades. She just bet they had silver bullets
too. "Of course she hasn't shown herself! She's
probably scarred out of her mind!"

"We must protect the well being of the people," the
Minister protested.

"Wouldn't that include the well being of this missing
girl that you've set out to turn into a fur rug?!!"
Gina demanded.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," he said. "Of
course, werecreatures are a cowardly, superstitious
lot..."

"That's criminals, Mr. Wayne," Gina interrupted, voice
dripping sarcasm.

"I'm sorry," the man said. "What?"

"Nevermind," Gina said. "Look, you trigger-happy
dunce. Werecreatures are just like any other person,
got it? My sister is a werecheetah, she's never hurt
anyone." She considered that for a moment. "Well,
she's never hurt anyone that didn't deserve it...not
on purpose anyway."

"So you're not going to hunt them down and make sure
they cease preying on innocent people?" the man
sounded dismayed.

"What?!" Gina gasped. "No! I'm going to find her, and
then put her and anybody else that changed into an
extradimensional containment field until my Dad gets
back from Jade so he can cure them."

"There's a cure?"

"Didn't I say that on the phone?" Gina asked wearily.
She wondered if her parents were having this much
trouble with the Saotomes.

********

"I think I may have found something we can agree on,"
Akane said suddenly. Breaking the silence that had
been three people carefully not fighting for the last
fifteen minutes.

"Oh?" Ranko said suspiciously.

"What's that?" Ranma asked.

"This is all Gina's fault," Akane said. The three
glanced around the room for a moment, Ranma and Ranko
confused at the sound of someone blaming somebody
other than them, Happosai, or Genma.

"Well," Ranko said, hesitantly. "Yeah. Hmm..." Her
eyes narrowed.

"You know she looks like she could use some
self-defense training," Ranma noted.

"I wonder if her mother will let you give her a little
bit of a crash course?" Akane said to Ranko. The
female Saotome blinked and suddenly produced a wide
grin that somehow managed to be cat-like even in human
form.

********

"Brrrr," Gina said as she shivered.

"Is something wrong Diggers-san?" the Minister asked.

"I feel like someone just walked over my grave," Gina
said shakily. She shook off the feeling and went back
to talking to Minister Edeota. 

"Your...grave?" the minister said nervously, wondering
where he could find two candle sticks to make into a
cross.

"It's a figure of speech," Gina said, not bothering to
pay attention to the sudden appearance of garlic. "So
can I talk to the girl's family and friends? Maybe
they'll know where to find her. And for goodness
sakes, get rid of the heavy artillery. You're making
my baby sister look stable!"

Meanwhile, the men in mirror shades were chatting
amongst themselves.

"Are we done yet?" one of them asked. "My shift starts
in like an hour."

"Hey," another said. "I'm not complaining. We may look
stupid, but at least cousin Baka is paying us well for
looking stupid."

"You know," said a third. "This is a very realistic
looking water gun."

********

Yuka glanced about cautiously. She really didn't want
to come out, but she was getting hungry. Fortunately
it was fairly late at night so there probably wouldn't
be very many people around. As for those that were
around, if she stuck to the shadows maybe they
wouldn't notice her.

That left the problem of where to get the food. She'd
been lucky to snatch the clothes she was wearing now.
There were people at her house that she wasn't certain
she wanted to see. She guessed that they'd be around
Sayuri's place and maybe even the Tendo dojo too. She
would have imposed on Ranma and his mother, if they
were home.

And she'd needed to snatch some clothes too. It was
amazing how hard it was to find a kimono, or anything
for that matter, for someone almost seven feet tall.
Then again, her cup size could have competed with
Shampoo now. And that was damn cool.

She wanted to give Ranma a good talking to anyway. Or
maybe a throttling. Then again she might be able to
get Akane to lend her a mallet. She was beginning to
learn why so many people felt obliged to blame
everything on Ranma. It was very cathartic.

Yuka sighed quietly and disappeared back into her
hiding place.

~It would probably be a good idea to figure out where
to try first rather than just wandering about
aimlessly,~ she decided. She took a deep breath and
clutched at her dad's amulet. ~Well, I could always
stand a diet for a couple of days.~

Then she heard the little mewing sound behind her. She
turned around cautiously and relaxed upon seeing a
white cat staring at her curiously. More important was
the fish at its feet. Yuka stared for a few moments
before quickly snatching the fish away, not even
wondering why she hadn't smelled it approaching. It
had been almost two full days since she'd last eaten,
and raw fish was far from anathema to her to begin
with.

The cat merely blinked and cocked its head the other
way as Yuka ate, and then faded back into the woods
away from her.

********

"BACK!! BACK!! BACK!!" The door opened and slammed
shut, revealing a breathless Gina leaning against the
wall.

"Hey, Sis," Brit said, noticing. "This isn't our
house, you could have knocked."

"I was planning too," Gina said. "Until some animal in
the trash heap attacked me."

"Did it look like a toaster oven?" a tall Japanese
girl asked, appearing out of nowhere.

"Well," Gina said hesitantly. "Sort of."

"Oh dear," Kasumi said, sighing before turning to the
phone. "I suppose we shall have to call the
exterminator after all. Now what was Skuld-chan's
number?"

"Eh?" Gina said, blinking. She looked to her sister,
noticed the "don't ask" signal and just resumed
catching her breath. "Anyway, it's not as bad as I was
afraid of."

"Huh, oh the 'outbreak,'" Brittany said, shrugging.
"So what's the total population of werecheetahs now?"

"About six," Gina said. "Plus one girl that's gone
missing who was probably the original one Ranma
scratched. Anyway, I got some ideas of where to look,
but maybe we should get your two new students to help
since they know the area better."

"Why both of them?" Brittany asked. "It only takes one
to show us around."

"Yeah," Gina agreed. "But we'll cover more ground if
we split up. I'll go with that Ukyou girl and you go
with Nabiki. Just try to avoid scaring her to death."

"Well it isn't my fault she smells yummy," Brittany
protested. "Charlie smells yummy too, and I don't go
around eating her."

"Right," Gina said. "Well, let's go. Maybe we can get
this done with tonight."

********

"How dare those peasants keep me from what is my power
by noble rights?!" Kodachi demanded angrily pacing her
room in the Kuno command. Then suddenly she stopped.
"Wait, there is yet one werecheetah remaining
uncaptured. Now if I were a silly little peasant girl
trying to hide in Nerima, where would I go?"

********

"Nerima is a small town according to this," Lydia
snapped. "It shouldn't be that hard to find where
they're keeping the cats. We do this systematically
and cover all the ground until we smell something. And
it'll take us right to them."

"And then what?" Romeo asked.

"What do you think?" Lydia answered irritably.

"Haven't you, like, seen those cartoons with the cat
trying to get in a dog pound?" Moisha asked nervously.

"Yess," Lydia said. "Great, ain't they?"

********

"This girl will stick as close to the city as she can
and still remain hidden," Daishi determined. "We
should begin with her home and circle outward."

"It shouldn't take me long to find her," Ionis boasted
calmly. "Then all that needs to be done is capture
her. After all, it's just one untrained, frightened
little girl. What could go wrong?"

********

"No doubt the remaining werecheetah is none other but
the virtuous pi...spotty...blonde...errr�." Kuno gave
up crafting a new nickname for the moment. "No doubt
it is the vile Saotome's virtuous and energetic sister
who is enslaved most foully by her own lascivious
sibling! I must seek her out and rescue her before the
foul Ranma can abuse her loveliness further!! Now
where would the fair maiden go in this time of fear?
Oh yes! Of course!"

********

"I suddenly have an urge to find Kuno and tear his
throat out," Ranko muttered.

"I get that all the time," Akane said. Off to the side
Ranma nodded sagely.

********

"Hey," Gina said. "Where're you going? I thought you
said it was this way?"

"Oh," Ukyou looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I suddenly had
an urge to find Kuno and tear his throat out. Funny,
it just came out of nowhere. Anyway, I told you we
should have checked here first."

********

"I smell them over this way," Romeo said somewhat
hesitantly.

"Cha," Moisha said, frustrated. "They're like over
here."

"You're both right," Lydia said. "And they're coming
this way."

********

"So why are we in this place?" Brittany asked, she
glanced about cautiously. There was that familiar
smell again. Actually, several familiar smells, but
everything in this vacant lot was so jumbled up that
she couldn't make heads or tails of them yet.

"One thing you gotta learn about Nerima," Nabiki said.
"Whenever someone runs away from home, they always end
up in the same place."

Suddenly the lot was flooded with light revealing
something...not good.

"This is the Ministry of Health," the voice came from
the light above. "All werecreatures stand down and
prepare to be quarantined." Across the vacant lot Gina
was smacking her hand into her head.

In the middle of the whole mess sat a rather shocked
looking Yuka.

"Where is she?! Where is my true love that I might
save her from this horrible curse!"

"You there! Peasant-girl! Bite me this instant."

"I thought you said you were keeping an eye out!"

"For werecheetahs, not all this, Zelda!!"

"ACK!!! Shouldn't we have like...have scattered before
now?"

"Oh my..." Nabiki whimpered, for once at a loss for
words. There was little more movement for perhaps ten
seconds before somebody attacked somebody.

Then the explosions began as Daishi took down the
chopper with a chi blast.

"AHHHHH!!!" Yuka screamed as the battle was engaged.

********

"Back off, baldy!" Ukyou snapped as she swiped her
spatula at the woman in the green jumpsuit. 

Ukyou had to switch off that target quickly as Kodachi
leaped into the fray. She didn't waste any
consideration on this opponent, slicing out with the
sharp edge of her spatula. The gymnast was forced to
flip over the strike, interrupting her move toward the
terrified Yuka.

"Stay out of my way, waitress!" Kodachi snapped as
Zelda shouted something in English and attacked again.
A couple feet away, Brittany had intercepted Daishi's
move toward the young werecheetah and was battling the
ninja.

"I'm not supposed to be out here," Nabiki muttered
irritably hiding behind an old refrigerator.

"HA! Gotcha!" Gina shouted triumphantly as Ionis
struggled with the glob of goo that had spilled out of
the ball Gina had tossed at him. Then she had to move
quickly as the roving sword battle that was Kuno and
the rats started to move back toward the rest of the
near free-for-all.

Lydia pulled off from Kuno and sliced at Yuka, who was
now running out of the center of the fight. The
wererat's strike was blocked by a dagger tossed by
Daishi, who had to duck a flying gymnast's club. Then
Kodachi was sent flying by the bald woman's kick as
Brittany broke off from the ninja and grabbed Yuka,
dodging the wererats' as she leaped for a more
defensible position.

"NOT OVER HERE!!" Nabiki shouted as the center of the
fight shifted towards her.

"It's, like, another wererat!" Moisha shouted to her
fellows, speaking English.

"Damn," Lydia snapped. "Get to her before they do!"

"A little late for that," Romeo snapped, parrying
Kuno's thrusts frantically.

"Have at thee, foul servant of the darkest forces!!"
Kuno shouted. 

"Ukyou nearly lost her head to Daishi's sword, and she
backed off to join Brittany in front of the two girls.
The rats reached the position about the same time she
did and suddenly realized one major fact. There were
three werecheetahs there. Then the Kunos and Peewee's
playmates joined the mix, and they had other targets
to choose from.

A flour bomb was tossed into the air, mixing with a
burst of paralysis gas diluting the effectiveness the
gas greatly. In fact the only person that really got
hit with it was Zelda, who suddenly seemed to be
fighting like a twitchy stick figure. Or maybe she had
just seen Zoolander one too many times and was trying
to break dance.

Somebody clapped a hand on Nabiki's shoulder and the
girl remembered some old training in a fit of panic.
So Gina found her hand grabbed and her arm being
twisted painfully.

"Ack! It's me! It's me!" Gina snapped. Nabiki released
the girl's arm with a look of relief.

"Thanks for the warning," Nabiki said dryly.

"Yeah, yeah," Gina muttered. "Get the other girl and
let's get out of here while they fight it out." Nabiki
nodded and turned to Yuka scaring the poor girl out of
her wits, until she figured out who it was.

"What happened to you?" Yuka gasped after Nabiki
identified herself.

"Ranma," Nabiki said simply. Yuka was about to ask
more when Lydia jumped downward, leaping past the two
busy fighters. 

"Leave her alone you carnivorous monster!!" she
shouted angrily, sword leading on the way toward a
petrified Yuka. Nabiki and Gina pulled Yuka out of the
way. 

And then.

Then a chill and hideous cry rang through the
battlefield. A cry which momentarily galvanized all
the Nerimans.

"SWEETO!!!" 

"Get off of me!" Zelda shouted. The next cry came from
a certain buxom wererat as the lower half off her jump
suit was torn away.

"Hmm, didn't mean to do that," the little troll said,
snickering. "Pink's your natural hair color then?"
Moisha almost lunged at him, but then she'd have to
move her arms.

"It is the legendary demon," Daishi said, momentarily
impressed.

"Oh don't you dare come near me!" Ukyou shouted,
tossing spatulas and flour bombs at the new threat.
She found herself momentarily on the same side as
Kodachi as the gymnast unleashed her own chemical
arsenal on the pervert.

"You commoner fool!" Kodachi snapped. "Your flour
bombs are rendering my gasses ineffective!"

"Who threw these things at me!!" Happosai demanded
angrily. "Ranma!! I know you're here somewhere!! Only
you would ruin my fun this way."

"What could possibly be so bad about a little
perverted old man?" Brittany asked. Then the ground
was suddenly littered with little round objects. With
fuses. 

Brittany momentarily wondered just when Brianna had
gotten back from Jade, but that question was plowed
over by the realization of just what was about to
happen.

"TAKE COVER!!" Nabiki shouted just before the battle
was whited out by the Happo-Fire-Bursts. As the smoke
cleared Happosai looked around the battlefield for the
expected Ranma.

"Oh no!" Happosai shouted suddenly. "What have I done?
I've harmed all of these sweet, innocent young
ladies." He grieved piteously for all of twenty
seconds. "Hmmm, I thought there were more people here,
oh well."

********

"Oh man," Romeo said when he finally got back to the
hotel room. "I thought we were done for that time. Did
you see if Moisha got out?" He took a deep breath and
turned to look at the girl he had grabbed from the
conflagration and run with. "Hey, are you okay?" 

As he turned around completely he noticed for the
first time that he had not been dragging Lydia along.
Nope, instead he had that other wererat they had seen
in the battle. 

"I guess this means no party tonight," Romeo said
nervously as he looked at the unconscious Nabiki. 

********

"Ya know," Ranko said. "Much as I'd like ta sit here
and keep sayin' and doin' nothin', I'm tired." She
stretched out and stood up, heading for the door.

"Good night I guess," Akane said. Ranko stopped and
glanced back over her shoulder.

"You're not coming?" she asked.

"I was...uh, going to ask Ranma how to change again,"
Akane said, having the decency to look bashful. Ranma
nervously scratched the back of his head and looked
away as Ranko glanced at him.

"Fine," she snapped, stalking out of the room.

"Great, she's mad again," Akane said. She turned to
Ranma. "You don't mind if I stay here, do you?"

"Uh, no," Ranma said. "I mean after last night why
not?"

"Yeah, last night was nice," Akane said. "Even if I
was acting a little...umm...Amazon-like."

"That was kinda frightening," Ranma said. They stayed
silent for a couple of seconds. "I kinda thought
there'd be something more to sex though."

"Uh, Ranma," Akane said, recovering from the face
plant. "That wasn't sex."

"What?" Ranma asked. "Okay, so what did we do then?"

"We just slept together," Akane explained, wanting to
hit herself for the poor explanation.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Ranma asked. Akane looked
Ranma over in near disbelief and then hid her face in
her hand. "Akane, are you okay?"

********

"You're Ranko right?" somebody asked. Ranko grumbled
and turned to look towards the voice, and found
herself facing a huge looking human.

"Uhhh..." Ranko said, blinking. The lady had to be at
least a foot taller than her, in c..c..ca..cheetah
form. "Yeah."

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked. "Its
about that friend of yours."

"Ryouga?" she asked, neck still craned. "What about
'em?"

"Why don't we talk about this over some food?" the
woman suggested.

"Really?" Ranko asked. She started to debate herself
between sleep and eating.

"I'll pay," the woman said.

"All right," Ranko said, smirking in a manner that
seemed to make the tall woman nervous. "Lead the way!"

********

Sheila stared in outright shock at the pile of dishes
that Ranko had already devoured, and then at her
rapidly shrinking purse. This was going to be a very
expensive questioning.

"So, what kind of mage is your friend anyway?" Sheila
asked.

"Mage?" Ranko repeated between bites. "You mean like
Diggers-san?" Sheila nodded. "Ryouga ain't any more of
a mage than Ranma or me."

"Okay, if he's not a mage then what was that attack
spell he cast to get away from us, then?" Sheila
asked.

"Oh, you mean the Shi Shi Hokodan," Ranko said,
working on another leg of lamb.

"Excuse me, what?" Sheila asked. Ranko shrugged.

"The Shi Shi Hokodan," Ranko repeated. "Ryouga's chi
blast. He channels his depression into a huge blast of
energy."

"When he gets depressed he goes boom?" Sheila asked,
feeling somewhat nervous suddenly. "And it's not
magic?"

"Not that I know of," Ranko said. "Doesn't matter
though, my...Ranma's Moko Takabisha is better than his
attack. He has to be really depressed and do a Perfect
Shi Shi Hokodan ta beat that."

"Perfect-?" Sheila paused and took a breath. "Huge
ball of energy goes up and them comes down?"

"Oh, you've seen it!" Ranko said. "Yeah, nasty attack.
Hard to beat except just getting' outta the way.
Ryouga's always moody about somethin' and he's always
blamin' m...Ranma for something too. Kinda cute
though." Ranko stopped and blushed furiously. ~I did
not just say that.~

"The last time I saw Ryouga," Nodoka's voice said
behind them. "He was chasing Ranma down the street
with a silver weapon. That is not what I would call
cute." Ranko winced and turned around to see her
mother looking somewhat cross, something that almost
sent her running in panic.

"Hi mom," she said weakly.

"Young lady," Nodoka said firmly. "You had better not
associate with this werewolf, for your own sake."

"Ryouga's harmless," Ranko protested. "He's an idiot,
but he's a harmless idiot..."

"He's a werewolf," Nodoka insisted. "And would call
him harmless about as much as I would call him cute."
Sheila frowned but didn't say anything.

"Whatever," Ranko said. "He'll be after Ranma anyway,
just like everybody else." Nodoka's face softened a
moment.

"Just by careful, dear," Nodoka said. "Most of the
werewolves I've known are murdering beasts."

"Probably won't see him," Ranko said. "Ain't like
he'll be able to find us again."

"Why not?" Sheila asked curiously.

"Ryouga's got a sense of direction like a compass inna
steel cup," Ranko said. She stood up and stretched. "I
guess I'll go ta bed now."

"We're going to be waiting for the rest of the Edge
Guard here," Sheila said. "Maybe you and Bri would
like to go shopping around town?"

"Well," Ranko glanced to her mother who nodded
encouragingly. "I guess so. Wait a minute, you're one
of those Edge Guard werec..c...cats?"

"Errr..." Sheila shuffled nervously. "Yeah." 

Ranko looked at the huge woman and unwillingly
imagined her cat form. She took a step away from the
woman, swallowing, preparing to run. And then Sheila
shrank down into her hybrid form and stretched out. 

"I just didn't want to scare you," she explained. It
was one of the few times that Ranko's confusion
completely and totally overwhelmed her.

"But, you were so...big! And now you're..." Ranko spat
out. "How?"

"Oh, that," Sheila said, waving her hand. "Small birth
defect."

"I think I may have heard of such a case before,"
Nodoka said, equally shocked. "A long time ago."

"Yeah," Sheila said. "Well the bad part is being
offered a lollipop by idiots that don't see the Edge
Guard gear." Ranko felt oddly comforted by Sheila's
oddity, though for once she managed to avoid voicing
the "I'm not the only freak" feeling.

********

"I know that inn was around here somewhere," Ryouga
muttered.

He pushed through the undergrowth heading in what he
was certain was the correct direction. And now thanks
to Ranma he was a common thief. Then again how could
they expect him to run around naked.

And of course, the both of them had left him to drown.
Ranma and Ranko. When did Ranma get a sister? He
didn't know, he didn't care. Now, of course Ranko had
some cause to leave him in the water like that. He HAD
peeped on her, even if it was unintentional. Besides
she was a girl, and well, he was pretty certain it
wouldn't be a good thing to go beating on a girl.

But Ranma he could still destroy. Obviously Ranma had
done something to curse him with being a shapechanging
beast. And maybe his sister too, the evil twisted
fiend. Ryouga stopped walking and considered this for
a moment.

"Okay," he said. "I'm starting to sound too much like
Kuno. Which means there has to be something wrong with
what I'm thinking. But all I'm thinking is that this
is all Ranma's fault, so that has to be right...so
what am I doing wrong?"

Ryouga sighed deeply.

"My head hurts."

********

Somebody nudged at Moisha as she lay on the ground in
the smoking ruin of the vacant lot, which was a state
of being that it often held. She shifted about
slightly, and smirked.

"Oh come on," Moisha muttered in half-conscious
amusement. "You two can, like do better than this."

"Eh?" Brittany said, standing over the wererat with a
confused expression. She was already in a bad mood
upon waking up to find a certain item of clothing
missing.

"Romeo," Moisha said, and the confusion cleared.
"Lydia. You're not tired yet are you?"

"GAHH!" Gina shouted, covering her ears. "Too much
information!"

"Hey!" Brittany shouted. "Ditz! Wake-up!!"

"HA!!! Fireball for twenty damage!!" Moisha shouted
sitting up sharply. "I, like, finally beat the...both
of..." she looked around her at the people surrounding
her. "Like, uh-oh."

"So is she going to tell us where they took Nabiki and
Yuka?" Ukyou asked in Japanese. "Or are we going to
have convince her?"

"Yes!" Kuno shouted. "What has been done with the
beautiful...girl?"

"Ranko isn't here Kuno," Ukyou said irritably.

"Of course she is not here!" Kuno declared. "For she
has obviously been taken by this..." Kuno trailed off
as he looked over Moisha.

"Uhhh..." Moisha said, then continued uncertainly in
Japanese herself. "I don't, know what you're talking
about?"

"The two girls you little rat!" Brittany snapped
lifting Moisha up by the remains of her suit. "Where'd
your two little friends take them!?"

"Brother-dear," Kodachi said as she shook out her head
clear after finally waking up. "What are you looking
at?" Kuno didn't seemed to respond, and seemed to be
fixated on some low point. Everybody else turned to
look at the only male among them, virtually drooling
over Moisha's altered outfit.

"Pervert!" Ukyou shouted before smashing him into the
dirt.

"Hey, he was like cute and stuff," Moisha protested.

"Oh, don't worry about him," Gina said. "Because we
still have some questions to ask." Moisha swallowed
nervously.

********

~This is not funny,~ Nabiki thought, rubbing her head.
She looked around the cheap hotel room and frowned
noticing her captor talking on the phone to someone.
The other rat was in human form now, a trick that
still escaped Nabiki's knowledge. Now was not the time
to ask though. Get away first then worry about other
things.

As she edged toward the door, behind the other rat's
back she listened intently for a sign that he might
turn around to look at her. Apparently his two
girlfriends had been captured in the fracas, but he'd
been able to recover a hostage from the cats. At least
that's what she got from her command of English. 

Of course she couldn't be certain, the man's voice was
rather slurred. Something to do with the thick smell
of alcohol permeating the room, she decided. Either
that or the fact that he sounded like he was expecting
to die at any moment. At least it made it easy to get
to the door with out him noticing.

She winced as the door clicked closed behind her and
then ran full tilt down the hall. She almost went down
the stairs, but caught sight of a collection of
suspicious looking men in black suits coming up.
Frowning, Nabiki backtracked and spied a maintenance
closet at the head of the stairs.

She slipped in, closing the door again moments before
the men turned onto the last flight of stairs. She
waited nervously before leaving the room and padding
silently down the stairs. 

Nabiki had always been surprisingly good at stealth,
her and Kasumi both, constantly surprising the martial
artists that otherwise seemed to know where everybody
was at any given time. She just hoped that carried her
through right now, whatever the good intentions of her
"rescuer" it didn't seem like the people on the other
side of that phone call were very nice at all.

She almost walked out into the lobby, but found a side
exit that didn't require going past so many people.
Once outside she was home free. She could get to a
phone, call Kasumi and then a cab. Everything would be
fine.

********

"Tendo dojo," Kasumi said as she answered the phone.
"May I help you? Nabiki? Is something wrong? Wait,
wait, what is happening?" She looked up briefly to see
Ukyou walk into the dojo looking nervous, her tail
twitching behind her.

"Kasumi, we have some bad news," Ukyou said. "We lost
Nabiki and Yuka."

"Nabiki's on the phone right now," Kasumi said, and
quickly turned back to the phone. "Is Yuka with you?
How many people? No, no, keep moving I suppose. Get a
few...hello? Nabiki? Hello?" She looked up to see the
rest of the search party coming in through the door.
"We were cut off." 

Ukyou noticed the worried expression on Kasumi's face
and that alone made her depressed. Why couldn't this
stuff have happened while Ranma was still in town?

********

"Now, now," the old man behind her said in perfect
Japanese. "We can't let you risk getting caught by
them again." Nabiki was turned around to face him by
the big man holding her.

"You know, my sister's the one that does the damsel in
distress thing," Nabiki snapped.

"But you've already been rescued," the old man said.
"Or did you want that pack of cats to tear you to
pieces and eat you up?"

"They're cheetahs," Nabiki said. "It's called a pride.
Wolves have packs." Well, she wasn't entirely certain
of that, but correcting the old man felt good anyway.

"Well," the old man said. "You have spirit, that's
good. You could be useful to us, with the proper
training." He smiled viciously.

~Training,~ Nabiki thought bitterly. ~Right.~

********

"Where is she?" Ukyou asked. "What did she say?"

"She was at a hotel," Kasumi said. "Something about
being rescued by some other wererat."

"We got one of them," Ukyou said. "They took Yuka with
them too. Happosai showed up and everything went to
hell. Or deeper to hell."

"Don't worry, Kasumi," Gina said soothingly. "That
girl will tell us where they're hiding and we'll get
them back."

"Yuka wasn't there," Kasumi said. "Just her and some
young man that had apparently lost two of his own
friends."

"Two," Gina repeated. "Well, we'll find out what they
did with her after we rescue your sister. Everything
is going to be fine." ~If the rats don't have the
other cheetah, then...oh damn.~ She took one of her
communicators out of her pocket and activated it.

"Gina," Penny said as the link connected. "This had
better be good."

"We have a problem over here," Gina said. "We need two
rescue parties and only have enough people for one."

"Rescue for who?" Penny asked.

********

Lydia was woken up by a violent shaking and someone
shouting in rapid-fire panicky Japanese. This didn't
help the left over headache she had from whatever had
hit her in the back of the head in all the confusion. 

~Why couldn't they wait until I healed completely,~
she wondered, not certain who was shouting. ~A
concussion wouldn't have taken THAT long.~

When her eyes opened and began to focus she found
herself facing one of the werecheetahs.

"EEEEEEE!!!" Lydia shrieked. "DON'T EAT ME!!!"

The werecheetah released her as soon as she shouted
and started grinding her hands together worriedly
instead. She sniffled for a couple seconds and then
started wailing loudly and crying. 

Lydia snapped to standing and plastered herself
against a wall. Looking around it was easy to realize
that she and the werecheetah were in some kind of
cell. Whoever had captured her had locked her in a
room with a werecheetah.

Wonderful.

It was several minutes before the werecheetah quieted
to sniffling. Which caused Lydia to calm down.

"What...say...you?" the werecheetah asked finally.

"Uhhh..." Lydia looked back at her blankly for a
moment, sweating. The girl was paying attention to
her.

NOT GOOD!

"Don't eat me?" Lydia tried. The girl looked puzzled
for a moment then disgusted.

"EWWWWWWW!!" The sound was followed by more rapid fire
Japanese which Lydia guessed was sort of panicked
ranting. 

The girl turned silent for about a minute. Allowing
Lydia to calm down in time for the girl to lunge at
her and grab the collar of her combat suit.

"NOT FIGHT!! JUST GIRL!!! HELP!!! WHAT DO I DO!?? WHAT
MEANS...vi...vi...viviseshen??!!"

"Vivisection?" Lydia repeated, mostly to stave off the
oncoming heart attack. Until she realized what that
meant. "Ahhhh...shit."

********

"She's woken up, Lord Talon," Daishi said.

"Hmmm," Pee Wee said, a gleeful expression on his
face. "Now what to test first? Maybe the classic?"

********

Back in the cell, Lydia was surprised to see one of
the walls open up to a corridor, but didn't question
it. Following her instincts she rushed out of the
room, or, more precisely, away from the werecheetah.

~Never gonna make it, never gonna make it~ she
thought, and the sound of rushing air behind her
seemed to agree with that. Then something smashed her
to the side and there was a loud metallic clang
followed by a high pitched, pained shriek that was
definitely not coming from her.

Glancing back, Lydia saw the werecheetah flat against
the wall of the corridor, wailing and frantically
pulling at her leg. The leg was caught between the
wall and a large spiked, metal plate that had
apparently swung through the wall in an attempt to
catch Lydia. The cheetah had been fast enough to get
Lydia out of the way, but had been caught herself.

~They're not silver spikes,~ Lydia grumbled as she
considered heading on down through the corridor and
leaving the girl behind. ~I would have lived, so will
she.~ 

The girl looked at her and whimpered something in
Japanese as she shifted about. The trap responding by
trying to crush her leg further and she screamed
again. Lydia cursed and shook her head.

"Help?" the girl whimpered uncertainly.

"Grr," was Lydia's only reaction for a moment. "No way
I'm giving this prick the satisfaction of having a
guinea pig to play with. Even if it is a cat." 

Having rationalized her decision, she walked forward
and examined the trap for a moment. She tried to pull
the plate off the girl, trying to ignore the look of
gratitude and hope she was getting from the girl as
she did so. That wasn't going to work though, she
could, of course cut girl's leg off. But the only way
she could do that was with her own claws, and then the
girl wouldn't grow a new one. She ignored the question
of why that would bother her.

Lydia walked around the plate and looked for its
hinges grumbling and cursing under her breath. Their
captor had set up a little maze for them, probably
amused to do that to a rat. The hinges proved easy to
find, but that still didn't help her problem much.

"I need something to pry these fucking screws out,"
she grumbled irritably. She paced for a moment before
walking back to where the girl was trapped. She took a
look at one of the spikes and smirked victoriously.
She pointed to the spike, glancing at the girl.

"Nani?" the girl asked still crying piteously and
trying not to move her leg.

"Pull it out," Lydia said. The girl still didn't seem
to get the message. Lydia gave an exasperated sigh and
yanked on the spike before pointing at it again. "Pull
it out! Do you want to stay here?"

The girl shook her head and tried to pull herself to
standing on her other leg, screaming as the plate
tried to crush her again. Lydia slapped the girl,
causing her to quiet down immediately, and pointed at
the spike again, mumbling a variety of curses under
her breath. 

The girl stared at her in shock for a moment before
grabbing the spike and pulling on it. Lydia braced her
as the spike ripped off, easily falling to the
werecheetah's strength. The wererat shook her head
irritably as she collected the spike from the girl's
hands, apparently the werecheetah was surprised that
it had been as easy as it had been.

Once she had another tool to supplement her claws,
prying the screws out of the trap hinges was easy.
Lydia had them out after about five minutes of work,
trying to ignore the pained crying from the girl. Then
it was a simple task to push the plate over and free
the girl's leg.

The werecheetah fell over and dragged herself away
from the plate and rubbed at her ruined leg. Lydia
hesitantly looked over the injuries, making sure they
were closing as they should, and shrugged.

"You'll heal," she said, coolly. She stood up and
glanced around the first corner of this little maze
she was looking forward too. In doing so she noticed a
small hole in the wall that the spike trap had made.
She smirked and glanced around some more, looking for
the inevitable camera.

********

"Well, she almost fell for the first trap," Pee Wee
said. "And now I have some werecheetah DNA to
experiment with." He chuckled evilly just before the
image on the screen tossed something at the camera,
and suddenly there was static.

"She found the camera, Lord Talon," Zelda said.

"So what, she can only go one direction," the boy
scientist said. "What's she going to do, go back in
the cell?" He waved at the screen showing the empty
cell in time to highlight the image of Lydia walking
into it.

Through the original door. 

>From the outside hallway.

"How'd she get there!!" Lord Talon demanded as the
screen Lydia walked off the screen and then back on,
Yuka's arm draped on her shoulder so that the rat
could support her walking until the leg healed enough
that the girl could walk on her own.

********

Kasumi turned into the tea room to see a pink haired
wererat being interrogated by Brittany.

"So where are they?" Brittany demanded.

"I...I don't know?" Moisha protested weakly. "I don't
know the hotel or anything, its not like I, you know,
pay attention. Lydia does all the, like preparing, you
know?"

"Oh you know something," Brittany growled. She leaned
in close, growling. Moisha whimpered pitifully waiting
for the cheetah to kill her. Brittany was about to
demand answers again when she felt a hand on her
shoulder. Looking up, she was surprised to see Kasumi
standing there, seemingly calm but with a worried look
in her eyes.

"Please, Brittany-san," she said. "Let me speak to
her." Brittany hesitated. "She is my sister."

"All right," Brittany said. "But I'm staying in case
she tries something." This time it was Kasumi's turn
to hesitate.

"I suppose it is past the need to keep a secret, if
Nodoka knows about Akane, then she knows about all of
us," she sighed. She waited for Brittany to move and
then sat down across from the wererat. "Do you speak
Japanese?"

"Some," Moisha said hesitantly. "Not the best, you
know?"

"I suppose you speak it well enough," Kasumi said. She
pointed to her neck stiffly, trying to stay calm and
not just breakdown. "You're outfit has a high
neckline."

"Well, it's a fashion statement," Moisha said weakly.
Kasumi's normally sunny smile was barely present in
response to the joke.

"Two people I know always wear high necklines, or
scarfs," Kasumi said. 

"Okay...so?" Moisha asked.

"You see, their work was dangerous in ways and they
used to be burned a lot," Kasumi explained.
"Eventually the skin would no longer heal and the
burning left scars."

"I don't see what this..." Moisha started.

"I don't want my sister in Gothwrain's power," Kasumi
said bluntly. Moisha stared at her in shock, as did
the Diggers sisters.

"You know Lord Gothwrain?" Moisha gasped.

"I have heard of Lord Gothwrain," Kasumi corrected in
a disapproving tone.

"Like okay, probably some sort of lies and such from
all you people out to..." Moisha stopped talking as
the girl she was talking to brushed back her hair to
reveal slightly pointed ears. Then shape-changed into
a hybrid rat form with snow white fur, though her hair
was still brown. Ukyou planted her face into the floor
at the change while Moisha looked for the roots of
Kasumi's brown hair. Brittany just blinked, trying to
remember if Kasumi had been scratched at anytime.

Kasumi reached out to the stunned Moisha and pulled
the zipper down from her collar to reveal her neck.
She regarded the still burnt flesh under the collar
and shook her head.

"Where is my sister?" she pleaded.

********

"You had to tear up your leg," Lydia muttered. "It
couldn't have been an arm? Now I'll have to drag you
around for at least an hour, and you still won't be
able to run for who knows how long."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the girl was saying
in her heavily accented English.

"I'm not doing this for you, kid," Lydia said. "This
is just to get the crap heap that stuck me here with a
fucking predator." 

Lydia looked up and down the corridor and saw a door
at the corner of a turn. Hoping she wasn't about to
walk into the sadists' control room, she dragged the
girl in that direction and stepped into the door.
Looking around she smirked broadly.

"Maintenance room," she said happily. She took the
werecheetah's arm off her shoulder and sat her down.
She looked around and quickly found what she wanted.
Grabbing the gallon of bleach she quickly zipped out
of the room, hoping they weren't close enough to the
cell to get there quickly. "Stay here, be quiet."

One of the primary rules she had been taught was
leaving no trace. That certainly meant blood evidence,
and she wasn't certain that extended to other
lycanthropes, but no way was she going to leave
anything for this sadist. She was splashing bleach
over the girl's blood when she heard the door open and
quickly shifted form and zipped out of the hole in the
wall.

"I don't get it," Zelda was saying. "How did they get
out? These walls are half a foot thick solid..."

"Gravel," Daishi muttered. "With about an inch of
concrete covering. If the cheetah had tried, they
could have left the cell at anytime. I'm surprised the
trap did not do more damage."

"This is what happens when you go with the lowest
bid," Ionis said. "And look, they splashed bleach all
over the blood. Lord Talon isn't going to like this."

"Wait they came back?" Zelda said. "We must have just
missed them."

"Yes, someone was here," Daishi said eerily. "Just
before we entered. The presence is, indistinct, but
there is something."

"I still don't get it," Zelda said. "I mean, that hole
there is puny."

"The little one is a wererat, Zelda," Ionis said. "She
can get very small. But they can't escape."

"Cease this chatter and cast the spell," Daishi said.
Ionis grumbled, but concentrated his power, seeking
through the compound for their quarry.

********

The door opened and Yuka tensed until she saw that
strange gaijin slip into the room. The woman was
rather scary in a way, mollified by the fact that she
seemed to be more afraid of Yuka. She was also Yuka's
only chance of getting out of here, unless somebody
figured out where ever it was she was.

The woman looked around the small room for a moment
then bent down to check Yuka's leg, keeping a close
eye on Yuka as she did so. Yuka almost cried out as
the woman touched her leg, but cut it off as she got a
nervous and angry glare from the woman. The woman
continued feeling her leg, not being particularly
gentle about it.

Then she muttered something like "fucking glass" and
grumbled angrily. She sat up and started to grab
things off the shelves. While she was doing that, Yuka
felt a soft warmth and glanced down to see a light
emanating from the amulet she was still wearing. The
light fell away quickly though.

********

"All the nearby rooms are empty," Ionis said. "I don't
see how they could have gotten far with the cheetah
injured."

"Something is not right," Daishi said under his
breath.

"Yeah," Zelda said. "Our prisoners escaped. Of course
something is not right."

********

Stripe stood up at the sound of the door bell and
walked to the door. He was surprised to find Penny and
Charlotte on the other side. He didn't think Gina had
anything planned that she had forgotten about.
Hopefully this didn't mean there was a new problem
already.

"Hey Stripe," Penny said irritably. You'd think
someone interrupted a date or something. "I'm here for
Gina."

"Gina's not here, Penny," Stripe said. "Is there
something I can help you with?"

"Oh actually," Charlotte said. "Gina asked us to form
a rescue team to go save some people from Pee Wee's
Playhouse! Though why'd you want to escape from a
house with a princess and a cowboy and a talking
chair..."

"Charlie," Penny moaned irritably. She turned to
Stripe. "She means Pee Wee Talon. Gina needs to rescue
someone else, so she asked me and Ace to rescue these
two. And I don't know about you, but invading Pee
Wee's stronghold with just me, Charlie and Ace didn't
sound too smart."

"Erwin Talon?" Konatsu said, appearing seemingly out
of nowhere. "Daishi is serving him, perhaps I should
come with you."

"Ummm, you know Daishi?" Penny asked what she thought
was a little girl.

"Oh yes, of course," Konatsu said politely. "My
stepmother was always complaining about that clan,
they apparently think they're better than us."

"You're a ninja?" Penny said doubtfully. "How old are
you? Thirteen?"

"Sixteen," Konatsu answered seriously.

********

"Well, this should make things a little more fair,"
Lydia said to herself. She smirked as she inspected
her makeshift collection of weapons. "C'mon kid, let's
go." She reached down to help the girl up, grumbling
irritably. 

They moved to the door and peeked it open, seeing Pee
Wee's goons exiting the cell. The cheetah's arm
tightened around her at the sight, eliciting a pained
curse from Lydia. Not to mention setting a few of the
rat's hairs on end. Lydia was going to make a rather
firm request when she noticed the glow coming from the
girl's chest.

Lydia almost panicked and ran away screaming from the
cat, but forced herself to point at the light shakily.

"What the hell is that?!" she whispered sharply.

"Father's amulet?" the girl said after a moment as if
uncertain, whether about the answer or words, Lydia
wasn't sure. 

Lydia was distracted from further questions as she
noticed the ninja glancing in their direction. She
held her breath waiting for the end to come, she
wasn't ready to fight yet. Then the ninja looked away
from the door, despite the fact it was cracked open.
Glancing back at the light on the girl's chest, she
saw it fade away as the three left the area to search
the halls.

"Whatever works," she grumbled. ~I'll have to get that
amulet from her when I get out of here.~ "Now let's
see here." She sniffed at the air for a moment.

"What you smell?" the girl asked. Lydia glanced at her
and then started taking them down a hall.

"Fresh air," she said, not really caring if the girl
understood her or not. "I hope so anyway."

********

Something was bothering Daishi and he couldn't quite
figure out what it was. It was something about the
hall outside the cell. There was something he should
have seen there, something wrong with the blank walls
in those halls.

~Blank walls?~ Daishi thought to himself. ~There
should have been a door there.~

"So why didn't Pee Wee install cameras outside of the
maze?" Zelda asked irritably. "It would make things
much easier."

"Hey," Ionis said. "Where did Daishi go?"

"I don't know, I don't care," Zelda said, smirking as
she spotted something further than the hall. She
strode forward cracking her knuckles. "I think I find
the little runt, and there's no feline speedball to
save her this time."

"Huh," Ionis said, turning to look in the direction of
the door standing ajar. "Wait!! Zelda don't!"

********

Yuka watched as the woman she was with set perhaps the
tenth booby trap back along their path. At least she
assumed they were booby traps. They seemed more like
pranks to her. She really didn't see what they would
do beyond get their captors angry.

"Buckets of water?" Yuka finally ventured to ask.

There was a loud pained scream from further down the
halls. The woman smiled viciously before they
continued down the hall.

"Bleach," she said simply.

********

Daishi glanced back towards the sound of Zelda
screaming and shook his head. He was saddled with
complete amateurs. And their opponent's seemed to have
unforeseen abilities. He turned a corner and saw a
shimmer upon the floor.

"Wet floor," he sighed, shaking his head. Considering
their resources, these two were quite good. Or at
least the nezumi.

It was about time that a ninja could face against a
nezumi. It was time to prove who the real masters of
the shadow were. Time to put an end to this ridiculous
notion that anyone was superior to a ninja.

********

"I warned you," Ionis said, smirking.

"Quit reminding me and give me another healing spell,"
Zelda snapped back.

"I healed the bleach burns already," Ionis said. "The
only problem you have is you keeping rubbing
your�.eyeeeeeeeeeee!!!" Ionis went flying down the
soapy hallway waving his arms frantically until he hit
the tripwire at the end of the hall and flattened into
the floor.

"BWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Zelda stepped doubled
over, still laughing her lungs out. 

Then she took a hard solid step forward, slapping her
knee. Her laughter cut off as she took an inadvertent
slide down the hall on her stomach. She ended up
tangled in the tripwire on top of Ionis and having
trouble breathing. A rope around your neck will do
that.

********

"Smell that?" Lydia said, sniffing the air. "El Ninja,
by Menen. We got company coming soon. But then again,
you can't understand a lot of what I'm saying so why
am I telling you?"

"Ni...ninja?" the girl asked, frightened. She winced
as her leg was jarred.

"Don't worry about it," Lydia said. "Ninjas are a
fucking bunch of retards and amateurs." She gritted
her teeth nervously ~Great, I'm stuck in some maniac's
fun house being chased by thugs and carrying around a
teenaged ESL predator that is probably going to tear
me to pieces as soon as she can.~

She sniffed at the air again and turned a corner,
wondering if she was going to be following this fresh
air smell in circles for the rest of her life. The
only good thing about that was that at least it would
be a short time. Because whatever she said about
Daishi, she knew the ninja could tear her apart.

"What I need is a little bit of a drop on this guy,"
Lydia muttered. "A weapon would be nice too." She had
wanted to grab a broom or mop, but didn't have enough
hands to drag both the girl and carry the makeshift
weapon.

She turned another corner and saw something like mana
from heaven. A bright glowing sign that read "exit."
She paused and set down the werecheetah so she could
check the girl's leg again.

"Can you walk yet?" Lydia asked sharply.

"Need to leave," the girl protested. Lydia ignored her
and prodded the leg a little more, she frowned as she
decided that the girl's leg was probably still broken
in three or four places. She couldn't do what she
planned.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Lydia snapped. She took a deep
breath, helped the girl to her feet, and made for the
exit. At the other end of the hallway two battered
figures turned the corner and found their target. ~I'm
going to die! I'm going to die! Damn!~

"GET HER!!!" Zelda shouted, charging forward as Ionis
started casting a spell. Lydia turned to try to run
back the other way only to see Daishi turn the corner
from that direction.

"FUUUCCKK!!!" Lydia shouted as the werecheetah girl
was screaming. Daishi moved forward confidently and
smoothly. ~What do I do?!! What do I do?! What do I!?
Wait�that might work!~ 

Lydia reached into clothes and grabbed a handful of
the makeshift gas bombs she had made. Zelda was almost
to her as Lydia tossed the balls to the ground and
pushed the werecheetah to the side. Zelda charged
heedlessly into the smoke cloud, certain that her
target was in there somewhere. There was a loud a
squeak and the next thing she saw was Daishi waiting
cautiously on the other side of the cloud.

"You fool!" Daishi shouted as he dodged out of Zelda's
way. The genetically enhanced woman smashed into the
wall in order to stop. "That is exactly what she
wanted you to..." The rest of his lecture was cut off
as Ionis' fireball came out of the cloud and exploded
between him and Zelda.

"We got her!" Ionis shouted as he turned to look at
the sit of the explosion. As soon as the smoke and
debris cleared he turned to see Daishi and Zelda lying
dazed in the hallway, alone. "Or maybe not."

********

"That hurt," Lydia muttered. "That hurt, that fucking
hurt!" One of the wererat's arms was hanging limply at
her side, and both of the fugitives had flash burns
from the edge of the fireball. They were moving
terribly slow now, the werecheetah still couldn't
support herself, and now Lydia could barely support
the both of them. "I can't believe she fucking stepped
on me!!"

At least they were outside that building now, but the
way things were going she was going to pass out before
they got out of the parking lot. From the feel, she
had a collapsed lung as well as her shattered arm,
shoulder and shattered ribs. The only reason she was
still up is that she was used to operating with worse
damage in training with Zero. The werecheetah didn't
sound much better off. She was sobbing quietly and
Lydia thought she may have rebroken a few of her bones
in that shove.

She heard the motion behind them even before the ninja
landed in front of them. Glancing back she saw the
bald woman stalking up to her and cracking her
knuckles. Behind the thug was the mage and that little
pipsqueak calling himself Lord Talon. She remembered
him from Japan, too.

~Can I get to him?~ Lydia asked herself, glaring at
the smirking brat. She coughed and grimaced. ~Nope.~

"You gave us a good run," the little brat said. "But's
it's over now. Still it is a good thing that they were
instructed to capture you. If that had been a full
powered fireball Ionis had thrown I'd have lost two
very expensive bodyguards. Now, let's get you two back
to your cell, where you can heal up for the next
test."

~Test,~ Lydia smirked. "Don't act like I didn't just
fuck all your plans up you little snot!'

"Such a mouth," Erwin said. "I think you just
volunteered to be studied first." Lydia spit at him,
or tried to anyway.

"Time to go, bitch," Zelda smirked. Lydia set down the
cheetah and gasped as she tried to shakily prepare for
the two fighters. The upcoming fight was cut short as
a helicopter appeared almost out of nowhere, flying
low just over the compound. "What the hell, where'd
that come from?!"

"Zelda, Daishi!" Erwin shouted as the helicopter
landed. "Guard me! Don't worry about them, they're not
going anywhere."

"Yes, Lord Talon," Daishi said tightly moving to stand
between Erwin and the helicopter.

"Later girl," Zelda snapped to Lydia threateningly.
The helicopter door opened up, revealing a dark young
woman smiling in vicious and victorious manner.

"Pee Wee, Pee Wee, Pee Wee," the woman said, holding a
crossbow. "I should have known it was one of your
fronts that leased this place."

"Excuse me?" Talon said. "What are you talking about,
Penny Pincher? Wait, you mean that YOU own this
land?!" Lydia almost groaned, she recognized the name
from her files, she'd just fallen into the hands of
the werecheetah's people. She was more doomed than
ever now.

"Got it in one little boy!" Penny said, growling at
the nickname. "And you're late on your rent, but that
isn't why I'm here."

"Then I have you to thank for the shoddy
construction!" Talon snapped angrily. "Forget rent
until this place is built to my specifications. Wait,
why are you here?"

"Well, I'm taking your guests back to Japan," said.
"And don't even think about trying to stop me, I
was...busy when Gina called me, and really want to get
back to being busy as soon as possible."

"I don't see how you intend to get away with them,"
Zelda said. "There is no way that you can beat all
three of us by yourself."

"Ace, Charlie, everybody else," Penny called back over
her shoulder. A small turret on the helicopter rotated
to face Pee Wee and his playmates as Charlotte and
Stripe stepped out to stand next to Penny. "You were
saying?"

Daishi tensed to move and was surprised to find
himself dropped to the ground by something. As he
flipped back to his feet, he caught a glimpse of a
kunoichi moving to join Penny's group.

Erwin, Ionis and Zelda gulped nervously as Daishi
growled irritably, glaring at the apparent girl that
had taken him off guard.

"I am so dead," Lydia muttered before blacking out.

********

"Yeah, Gina," Penny said into the communicator. "We
got your lycanthropes."

"Already?" Gina sounded surprised. "That's a relief."

"Yes," Penny said. "Well, when you're a genius of my
caliber..."

"Penny," Ace said from the pilot's seat. She rolled
her eyes and looked back at the fuming Gina.

"Anyway, Pee Wee blew the scene as soon as I started
talking cops," Penny said. "I swear, when I learn how
to track a magical transit, those jerks are toast."

"Oh, a genius of your caliber can't do that?" Gina
asked. Penny frowned fractionally. "But thanks a lot
for the help. I hope the rat didn't give you any
trouble, she's something of an enemy of Brit's."

"Actually," Penny said hesitantly looking back into
the copter. "She's in bad shape. Both of them are."

"What happened?" Brittany asked, getting in the
screen.

"It looks like someone dropped a bulldozer on the
rat," Penny said. "She has one whole side almost
crushed. The cheetah has a broken leg, but it's almost
healed already."

"Not magic, silver or another werecreature though,"
Brittany asked.

"Don't think so," Penny said, shaking her head. "No."

"Then she'll heal," Brittany said, smirking with a
"serves her right" expression. Then her expression lit
up. "OOOO!! HI Muffin!! Are you coming to Japan
again?" Penny rolled her eyes and handed the
communicator to Stripe.

"If you're going to talk to Stripe," Gina's muffled
voice said. "Why not just take the communicator and
stay out of my face." As the communicator was given to
the young married couple and the conversation appeared
to degenerate to sweet talk, Penny worked her way back
in the copter to check on the wererat.

"Is she going to be okay?" the young cheetah asked
worriedly in Japanese.

"I think so," Penny said back in Japanese. "She's hurt
bad, but you people heal fast. Look at your leg, it
was trash when we picked you up. I'll bet you can walk
now."

"Well maybe it just wasn't hurt that bad," the girl
protested weakly.

"Trust me," Penny said. "I've seen Brittany take some
nasty hits, and she's up and around the next day. This
girl'll be fine."

"Who's Brittany?" the cheetah asked.

"A friend of mine, a werecheetah like you," Penny
said. "You'll be meeting her."

"Oh," the girl said. She remembered the fight that had
gotten her in this mess. "I think I might have
already."

"For a moment, I'm told," Penny said. "By the way,
stop smacking your lips at Charlotte." She pointed to
where Charlotte was scrunched against a corner of the
copter.

"Sorry," the girl said, embarrassed.

"Hey, girl," Penny said. "Is that you glowing?" The
girl looked down at the amulet around her neck and
swallowed nervously.

********

Lydia, blinked awake, or at least she thought she did,
to the sight of endless and impenetrable darkness. She
sat up quickly arm set to lean on a ground that was
not there. She straightened her body into a standing
position and glanced around for a sign of anything.

The darkness vanished all very suddenly, replaced by a
serene, moonlit forest clearing. In the middle of the
clearing a werecheetah stood over the torn and
bleeding bodies of a wererat, and...himself?

"What the fuck?" Lydia gasped, then covered her mouth.
Great, just great. Now she'd gone and gotten herself
killed anyway. And why wasn't she running already?
Probably because it wouldn't do any good.

The werecheetah turned and shrank into what Lydia
assumed was going to be its human form. Which is why
she was momentarily confused when the tail didn't go
away. She took a closer look at the "cheetah" and saw.

"Gothwrain?!" she gasped. He was much younger, but it
was definitely him. She looked down at the bodies, and
found herself recognizing the dying, for she was still
breathing, rat. Then it was the darkness again. "Lord
Gothwrain killed the seer? No, that's not possible. It
was the cheetahs!" 

That's what she'd learned as a child, the cheetah
assassin killed Cassandra to keep her from warning the
rats about their plans. All the clan knew that. And
they knew that Gothwrain had killed the assassin
somehow and brought Cassandra's warning anyway. That
was the history of this age. 

Whatever this dream had been. It was just that, a
dream, a lie.

It had to be.

********

Gina looked away from Brittany and her cutesy talk and
turned to Moisha. The wererat was sitting very
nervously in the room, watching everybody else. She
kept a very close eye on the werecheetah with the very
big, sharp, fighting instrument, and an even closer
one on Brittany. In most experienced warriors this
meant they were prepared to fight at any given time.
In Moisha's case, she looked petrified and prepared to
run at any given moment. Which made Gina sort of doubt
that the girl was telling them the truth.

At least they had managed to find some clothes for
her.

"This is the hotel?" Gina asked.

"Chwa," Moisha said. "Yeah, I like told you already,
now can I go?" She sounded like she still thought they
were going to kill her when they were finished.

"So you don't have anyway to contact your friends if
you get separated?" Gina asked doubtfully.

"Lydia said something," Moisha answered nervously.
"But I never, like, thought about it, you know?" Gina
smacked her head with her hand, she could almost
believe it with this ditz.

"So your friend Lydia should know something right?"
Gina asked.

"For sure, if you can like find her, you know?" Moisha
said. Gina smiled.

"We found her," Gina said. Moisha, already somewhat
nervous, choked at that news.

"You caught LYDIA?!" Moisha gasped.

"Hey, considering who had her first," Gina said dryly.
"I'd call it a rescue. Are you sure you don't know
where they might take that girl?"

"Uhhh...no," Moisha said nervously. ~Well, Lydia will,
like, know what to do about that Kasumi person and
getting away. But what if that girl's right about Lord
Gothwrain?~

********

Nabiki looked around her cell. She insisted on
thinking of it in that way, despite appearances to the
contrary. Most people would look around the room and
see a decent hotel room, or spartan quarters. They
wouldn't notice the lack of windows, or the fact that
the processed air was coming through the cracks of the
door rather than an air grate somewhere.

~Well, I messed up when they picked me up,~ Nabiki
thought. ~Let's see if you can remember your own
rules, Nabiki. Rule one, don't let them know you're in
control until you're in control.~ Well she'd never
really numbered them before, but might as well. She
had nothing better to do.

That was no problem, all she had to do was shuffle
nervously, fidget and look around without really
looking for anything. Basically act like a normal
teenaged girl trying to be brave in a scary situation.
Make sure not to overplay it though. She had shown
some ice earlier, so best to keep some ice in the act.

The door opened to admit the withered old man and his
bodyguards. Gothwrain, she thought that was the name.
He gave her a comforting smile, somewhat
grandfatherly. It didn't fool her, but she let her
body language relax fractionally.

"How do you like your room?" the old man asked.

"It is fine," Nabiki said, just a hint of a quiver. 

"I think it's time we got to know each other," he
said, sitting down in a chair across from her. "I am
Lord Gothwrain."

"Kaoru." The old man smiled and produced Nabiki's
wallet, Nabiki swore angrily at the site of the item
and tensed up again.

So far so good. 

"A nickname, Miss Tendo?" the old man asked.

"You don't expect me to be cooperative," Nabiki said.

"Oh, but I do," Gothwrain said, he smiled again.
"Eventually. Helping me, helps yourself, after all."

"Then you'll let me go home," Nabiki asked,
doubtfully.

"Not until we know it's safe for you," he said. "You
were taken from the grasp of three werecats, and two
of my elite warriors were lost in the operation."

~You were there for Yuka,~ Nabiki thought. ~Just like
everybody else.~ "You mean those girls?"

"Yes," Gothwrain said. "You should be more
appreciative of their loss."

"Look, I just want to get through school and get a job
somewhere," Nabiki said. "I don't know anything about
warriors, or cats or whatever."

"Oh, really," Gothwrain said, he gestured to one of
his guards. Nabiki nearly panicked as the large man
drew a gun.

"Now wai..." Nabiki started to protest frantically
before the shot rang out. 

She felt something hit her chest and pass through like
a heavy punch. She felt her heart shredded by the
bullet and her back torn out as the bullet passed
through her. She tried to take a breath as everything
faded to dark around her.

********

"Well," Gothwrain smiled, looking at Nabiki's slumped
body. "She panicked." He stood up and started for the
door.

"What does that mean, Lord?" one of the bodyguards
asked.

"Why that she either still expects any gunshot to kill
her," Gothwrain explained. "Or else she expected those
to be silver bullets."

"So is she a stray..." the bodyguard's lip curled. "Or
deserter?"

"Stray is more likely," Gothwrain said. "See to it
that she is trained. In either case I can make use of
her."

********

Nabiki woke up alone in her room with a great, heaving
breath. For just a moment she thought that maybe the
whole thing was a dream. But the smell of blood and
fire was strong in the air, and all it took was
looking down at the hole in her dress to see that the
gunshot had been real.

Nabiki shivered almost uncontrollably for a few
moments before virtually leaping out of the chair. She
glanced back to see the hole blasted on by the bullet
going through the chair, and the blood that had
stained the room behind her.

"Oh kami, I can't do this," Nabiki muttered quietly to
herself. She took a few moments to calm herself down
and start thinking again, not wanting to determine if
she had been dead or merely unconscious just now.
~Patience, patience, he doesn't want to kill you yet.
An opportunity will come, just wait for it.~

********

"We already went shopping yesterday," Ranko said, not
certain what more they could get, that she hadn't
already.

"Well, now we can shop some more," Brianna said, as if
it was the most simple thing in the world.

"With what money?" Ranko asked. "Because I've noticed
they don't take Earth money around here."

"And that's why we're taking a little side trip
first," Sheila said, entering the lobby and sitting at
their table. Ranko turned to look at her and nearly
jumped. Sheila was in her hybrid form, apparently
geared up for battle rather than shopping. "Sorry,
can't stay human for what we're going to do."

"What are we going to do?" Ranko asked nervously. "Rob
the bank?"

"Nope, can't do that," Sheila said. "We're the good
guys around here. No, there's an old tower I passed on
my way here. Shouldn't take us more than a half-day or
so to root around in it and get back here with
something to go crazy with."

"So, we're going to go adventuring then?" Brianna
asked eagerly, a nearly bloodthirsty look in her eyes.
"Hmm, I should get Genn to come with us so he can
translate for Ranma."

"Well," Sheila hesitated a moment. "I was kind of
thinking she could stay here, I mean this is going to
be dangerous for a kid." She seemed to be forgetting
Ranko's casual discussion of Ryouga's skills
yesterday.

"I defeated a god once," Ranko said. Brianna and
Sheila both stared at her in shock. "Well, sort of."

"Go get Genn," Sheila said.

********

"Hey, sensai, you seen my sister?" Ranma asked as he
joined the elder Diggers a little outside the town.

"She, Genn and Brianna went to explore some old tower
with one of Brianna's friends," Julia said with a hint
of nostalgia. Ranma face planted at the statement.

"She actually went LOOKING for trouble?" Ranma asked.

"As if you don't?" Akane asked, rolling her eyes.

"I go lookin' for a cure, ta save you, or trouble
comes looking for me," Ranma protested.

"You know," Julia said, turning to smirk at Theo. "If
it weren't for Ryan I'd start to think that all you
Earth men were a bunch of over-cautious worry warts."
The mage sighed and rolled his eyes at the teasing.

"They plan to be back soon," Theo assured Ranma.

"Yeah," Ranma said. "With all of hell on her heels."

"Let's get to the exercise for now," Julia said. "If
they don't get back by nightfall then we'll descend on
the place in full wrath." She almost sounded as if
she'd enjoy that. Then again, Ranma was sort of hoping
the Ryouga would wander back so that he could get a
good spar in. So maybe he could understand that.

"So how is a fighting technique going help me with the
Nekoken?" Ranma asked.

"A fighting technique won't," Julia said. "Meditation
techniques will." Ranma's enthusiasm dwindled
noticeably.

"Meditation techniques?" Ranma repeated doubtfully.

"Hey," Julia said. "Don't knock it until you've tried
it."

"Don't worry," Theo said. "We won't start with the
serious stuff until we have your sister here too."

"Why should I be worried about sitting around and
starin' at nothing?" Ranma asked.

"What do you mean serious stuff?" Akane asked.

"Where's mom?" Ranma asked.

"I am here," Nodoka said. "I apologize for being late,
but I had to...inform that Tirga fellow that I was
already married." Ranma glanced at his mother in her
hybrid form and shuffled nervously, he was almost to
the point where she didn't freak him out.

"If we're all here then?" Julia asked. "Let's get
started."

********

"Souloficesouloficesoulofice," Ranko muttered as she
walked through the crumbling archway with Brianna and
Sheila.

"Sheesh," Sheila turned around slowly to look at
Ranko. "It was a cub. A lousy little cub." The
werejaguar seemed rather irritated about the incident.

"Trust me on this one Sheila," Brianna said. "A cat
person getting in her face is exactly what we don't
need right now."

"Why, what'll happen?" Sheila asked.

"She turns into a cat," Genn said. "Mentally." The
rakshasha turned to Ranko. "I can help you with that
you know."

"That's fine, thank you," Ranko muttered. "I can
handle it. Souloficesouloficesoulofice."

"Shhhh," Sheila said. "I think I hear something."

"MORTAL FOOLS!! I SHALL TEAR YOUR ETERNAL SOULS FROM
YOUR FLESHY HUSKS AND-OUCH!! Ouch! Ouch!" The shouting
creature was reptilian, somewhat dragon or demonic in
appearance. And it was currently being pelted by
blasts from Brianna's gun at extremely low power.
"That's it lady, you're going first!!"

It started to charge for Brianna, for about two feet.
Its headlong charge as Brianna upped the power of her
gun by a few settings. Its motion reversed and the
large creature slammed into a wall before slumping
down to the ground.

"That was easy," Brianna said cheerfully. She returned
the gun to low setting and continued pelting the
creature's senseless form with low energy blasts.

"Uh, Brianna," Genn said nervously. "It's not done
yet."

"Oh goody," Brianna said with a wide grin.

"Is she always like this?" Ranko asked Sheila and Genn
nervously. They nodded, rolling their eyes. The
demon-dragon thing stood up and roared loudly.

"YOU THINK SUCH PALTRY POWER CAN--huh?!!" 

The creature blinked as he looked forward. Sheila and
Ranko were charging forward to enter melee while
Brianna was powering up her gun again. Then there was
the big minotaur that had somehow replaced the scrawny
wimp with the horns. 

"Oh bloody hell," the creature moaned.

********

"Now, I know you can do this," Julia said, sounding
somewhat frustrated. "When we were sparring you kept
your cool very well. So you'd think that you could do
this now."

"He's probably too bored," Akane said, tapping her
fingers.

"Well, you try sittin' and doin' nothing for an hour,"
Ranma protested.

"You're doing nothing," Julia said. "I'm focusing."

"Ranma," Nodoka said. "Haven't you had some experience
in the past with meditation techniques?"

"Well, sort of," Ranma shrugged. "But that's all for
fighting techniques."

"Like what techniques," Julia asked.

"Umm, Zanshin, Soul of Ice, chi summonin'," he
shrugged and looked around. He thought about
mentioning the umisen. It might technically be a
meditation technique, erasing your presence like that,
but it was a sealed art.

"Describe them," Julia instructed.

"Well, Zanshin is being aware and on guard all the
time," Ranma said. "Soul of Ice is keepin' your cool
even while fighting or being embarrassed. And chi
summoning is sorta just for forming your emotions and
chi inta somethin' useful."

"That middle one sounds promising," Julia said,
nodding. "Let's see it."

The chi summoning one was obvious, and Zanshin sounded
exactly like the warrior's sense. His description of
Soul of Ice was too general for her to place it among
the list of techniques one could learn in Jade, there
were several techniques that could do the same thing.

"Well, all right," Ranma said. "Not much to see on its
own though." The change came without any visible mark.
One moment Ranma was standing there, the next moment
Ranma was standing there some more. 

"It's part of the Hiryu Shoten Ha," Akane said. "He's
never used it for much anything else."

"Yes, well we can see that some other time," Julia
said. ~Stay on task, Julia.~ She glanced to her
husband and walked over towards him. "Well?" She spoke
quietly and in English. Theo had enchanted her to be
able to speak and understand Japanese. He had not
enchanted the Saotomes or Akane to understand English.

"The technique is not focused on calming him," Theo
answered. His eyes glowed slightly as he probed
Ranma's mind lightly. "Just letting him keep control.
I'm guessing it's to keep him from getting distracted
in a fight."

"Yeah, and the temperature dropped when he started,"
Julia said. "But at least he's not a total stranger to
this. Now, how to make meditating seem interesting to
him."

"And how did you manage it?" Theo asked.

"Master Leep," Julia said dryly, almost growling.

"Ah, that makes sense," Theo said. Julia's old master
would require some sort of calming technique to deal
with.

********

"This isn't good," Sheila said, frowning as she kicked
the body of the creature they had just beaten.

"Did you...kill it?" Ranko asked hesitantly. Sheila
glanced at her and blinked.

"No," she said sharply. "Just tore apart its body."

"Eh?" Ranko blinked. "But that's killing it!" She
sounded aghast at the possibility.

"It wanted to suck out our souls and tear us limb from
limb," Brianna said. "What would you expect us to do?"

"Hey, we're the ones invading the thing's home here!"
Ranko protested.

"Nope," Sheila said. "It's invading ours. It's a
drakyn, look the body is already changing back to ash
and smoke." She pointed at the dead drakyn and sure
enough the creature's features were seemingly burning
away into a black ash and a smelly grey smoke that was
slowly filling the room.

"Wow, that's a quick decay," Brianna said, giving an
impressed whistle. Then she blinked. "What do you
mean, it's invading here?"

"I don't care if it is a dragon!" Ranko said. "We
should have just knocked it out." Sheila sighed,
exasperated.

"We didn't kill it," Genn said suddenly, shrinking to
his normal form. "I felt it leaving the body. I think
what Sheila's trying to say is that this thing is like
a puppet for some sort of spirit." Sheila nodded. "And
it is completely evil, all it hopes to do is cause
pain and suffering."

"You mean it's like a ghost?" Ranko asked uncertainly.

"Nope, like a demon," Sheila said. "There'll be a
couple of fires somewhere in here. One big one for
materials, and one small magical one as a gateway.
There'll probably be an idiotic mage standing around
to tend the fires and summon more of them too. We find
the fires, shut down the gateway and arrest the
idiots. Or else we'll have a full scale invasion on
our hands."

Ranko still seemed uncertain and frowned, shuffling
irritably.

"These things like to take people's souls and torture
them throughout eternity," Sheila explained. "If we
CAN kill it, all the souls it's taken go free.
Personally, I don't think we can kill it with what we
got, but we can send it back to its own realm."

Ranma fidgeted a moment, but finally nodded.

"Good," Sheila said. "Now about that fire. It can't be
upstairs, we'd have seen it in the windows."

"Down we go then," Brianna smirked, leading the way
for the four of them toward the basement door. She
opened the door cautiously and stepped lightly down
the corridor. "I should have my battle armor for
this."

The stairs came down to a fair-sized cellar, but there
was no fire sight. In fact the whole thing looked
quite damp and moldy. Not at all the type of place a
fire creature would dwell.

"Well, maybe the fire is upstairs afterall," Brianna
said.

"I'm telling you we would have seen it," Sheila said.
"We're talking a huge fire here."

"Ummm," Ranko said. "This wall's kinda hot." Something
prickled in the back of her mind, that prickle she
always got just before..."Oh shit." She whispered as
she stepped back from the wall.

"Ranko! LOOK OUT!" Genn shouted as the wall exploded
outward and a black, clawed hand reached out and
grabbed hold of the werecheetah. A black smoke
enveloping her.

"YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!!!"

********

Ranko didn't know what happened. One moment some
monster was grabbing her, and the next moment she was
in this dark...room. She thought it was room anyway.
She couldn't see any walls or ceiling.

Then suddenly there was a blinding light and stifling
heat. Ranko covered her eyes until they adjusted, and
she could discern what was standing there. A humanoid
figure of pure flame and corrupt light.

"You didn't seriously think that you could defeat me,"
the flame creature said in a roaring voice. "Child?"

~It's after my soul!~ Ranko gasped. ~Like what the
c..c..ca�jaguar lady said.~

"I have your soul," the being laughed hideously. "And
what a powerful soul it is, you should bring me power
beyond..." Ranko was making ready to fight the
creature as it approached her, but both of them froze
at a new sound.

"Rrrrowwr!!" It echoed around the room, in the
darkness the drakyn's flame could not reach.

"What is this?!" the drakyn demanded. Ranko shivered
nervously.

"C...c..." she shivered nervously. Then a cat from
Ranko's nightmares charged the drakyn out of the
darkness. An alley cat the size of a polar bear, lean,
thin, with a vicious fang-filled mouth, huge talons
dripping venom. "CCAAAAAAAAATTT!!!"

********

"Ranko!" Sheila gasped in despair, seeing the hand
grab the young were-cheetah. This was her fault! She
should have made the girl stay in town, and now it was
too late.

"You bastard!!" Brianna shouted. She brought her gun
up to her shoulder and nearly pulled the trigger as
Sheila and Genn began to move as well.

"AAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!" The creature screamed as
it exploded in burst of silvery grey light that
blanked out all else.

"-AAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!" The second scream was
undoubtedly Ranko's.

"C...c...cat?" Ranko whimpered, as she fought down the
shivering in the fading light.

"Hey, she's all right," Brianna shouted, relieved.
Ranko knees gave out underneath her and both Brianna
and Genn moved to her side.

Sheila blinked in surprise, uncertain of what she had
just seen. Had that girl just killed the drakyn? She
hesitated a moment, moving toward the hole in the wall
to ascertain no more surprises would be coming before
anything else.

"There's no cat," Genn said soothingly. He wasn't
certain just how safe it would be to go into Ranko's
mind at the moment.

"No cat," Ranko repeated, calming down a little.
"Okay."

"Yeah," Brianna said. "Well, except for us."

"The cat killed it," Ranko said. "And then it picked
me up."

"Well they're both gone now," Brianna said.
"Everything's going to be fine."

"Uh, no it's not," Sheila said. "We have a problem."

"What?" Brianna asked. "Didn't the bad guy just go
boom?"

"I just found a fire," Sheila said faintly.

"So, put it out with that ice thing of yours then,"
Brianna said, coming to look through the hole with
Sheila. Genn and Ranko, the werecheetah much calmer
now that she could see no signs of a cat, stepped up
next to her to also see what was up.

"I don't think I can quite do that," Sheila said.

"Oh...poop!" Brianna agreed wholeheartedly.

"We just have to put out the small fire," Ranko
suggested hopefully. "Right?"

"And how do we find it?" Genn asked. "Before whoever
started this summons another demon?"

The hole that had been smashed through the cellar wall
opened into a huge cavern. And at the bottom of the
cavern, hundreds of feet down, sat a huge lake of
molten lava.

********

A shimmering ring of silver light flashed across the
skies of Jade. The ring slowly faded to nothing as it
expanded, it's light diluted and invisible.

"What the hell was that?" Ranma demanded loudly. "Does
that happen often?"

"Those were souls," Theo said. "Something powerful and
evil just died."

"Well, I guess that's good," Akane said.

"Unless there's more of them," Julia said. "And that's
in the direction Brianna went. Come on Theo!" Theo was
already starting to gather power for a transport
spell.

"Hey!" Ranma shouted. "You aren't going anywhere
without me."

"Us!" Akane corrected. "I'm not letting you go off
alone. I'm worried about Ranko too."

"I am not willing to leave my children in danger,"
Nodoka ascertained. 

"I wouldn't ask you to," Julia said. "Okay, Theo let's
go." 

And then the five of them vanished from the scene. In
the air behind them a faint complaint of "I told you
she'd bring hell down on us," wafted through the air.



=====
"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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