On the website, this will probably show up as part six.
We're keeping the numbering simple on the site since
we've already overdone the chapter part stuff with NETTG.
Besides, it'll make the site look bigger this way. ^_-

    Moving right along, then, we shall have more of the
rather long-awaited third part of this series. This series
was the result of a conversation with Jason Hanks while
we were working obsessively-compulsively on Nuke 'Em
'Till They Glow!! Chapter 9 in 1997-98. It took months to
get some of the details worked out, but for including so
many already-used-to-death ideas, it came out fairly
original.

    The thing was, I'd already seen waaaaaaaaaaaaay
too many fanfics that just repeated what happened in
the original series verbatim, albeit usually with a new
character here or there, typically an Otakufic SI. So,
I figured I'd just end up adding mine to the mix to see
if I can surprise anyone along the way. There are
conservative kinds of comedy and there are fearless
kinds of comedy. We're trying for the latter here, but
we're not quite there yet. We'll work on it, though. We're
always working on it.

    So, a quick "what's gone before." Well, ya see, Um...
It's still in the works, but basically, Ranma's met up
with Ryouga and Genma's gone to school in the guise
of Chibiusa. Read all about it at:

http://rakhal.com/florestica/ben-oliver/index.html

    Any and all suggestions for improvement are quite welcome.
So, moving right along, then...

Continued from (3/?)

^_^

    *Bam-whack-pow...*

    The horrific sounds of violence in the Teacher's Lounge could
barely be heard all the way over in Rei and Ranma's classroom.

    Ranma was STILL fighting to keep from dozing off. Somehow,
even being reunited with a long lost friend and experiencing the dark
powers of an evil alien from another dimension dispose of the afore-
mentioned long lost friend wasn't enough to keep his attention for
very long. Rei glanced at him and sighed, rolling her eyes. She had
sneaking suspicions that he had been losing a lot of sleep over his
recent inability to defend himself against people who had ki-based
attacks.

    It was almost enough, Rei mused, to feel sorry for the poor
guy. He's had some bad experiences, like the training fiasco with the
cats and the gender and clothes-changing curse. She'd almost be
horrified if the whole thing wasn't so gosh darn hilarious.

    Hilarious, one part of her mind considered, like how it was
just so gut-burstingly funny how while she'd been spending her time
thinking about how to tease Ranma about everything, she'd forgotten
to do the mound of homework that was due in a couple of hours.

    Rei took a sudden, sharp breath and scrambled for her bookbag.

    While the part-time shrine maiden slash martial artist thought
of ways to deal with her dilemma, Ranma opened one eye a crack and
peeked at the lesson being taught, just in case they had gotten to
the interesting part yet.

    Hotaru-sensei had left a few minutes ago and the teacher of the
current class definitely had a touch of... something in his manner.
It might have been the way he stood straight as a pole, or perhaps it
could have been the very prominent scar that crossed his face. Or it
might have been the way he kept staring out of the window, his
expression full of melancholy and woe.

    Then again, perhaps it was the eyepatch and the skull and
crossbones that covered the front of his black outfit, or the way his
red-lined cape flapped in the breeze, even though the windows were
closed and the air conditioning hadn't been used in months. Whatever
the reason, it appeared as though he carried a huge load on his
shoulders; a load only he could ever possibly hope to bear.

    Bored by the long and monotonous explanation, another student,
Hiroshi, slipped out a Kenshin manga from underneath his desk, and
started reading. He hunched over it so that no one could see exactly
what he was doing, holding a pencil in his right hand to make it look
like he was taking notes.

    The redheaded man in black finished his lecture, then turned to
grab a wineglass off of his desk. He chugged down what remained of the
red liquid and, with his long cape flapping dramatically behind him,
faced the student body and speared them all with his sharp glare.
Spying the sleeping boy beside Rei, he smiled slightly. "Saotome-san?
Could you summarize my explanation?"

    "Hmm? Wha?" The pigtailed martial artist bolted upright and
stared blankly at his teacher. "Uhhh, could you repeat that, Harlock-
sensei?"

    Harlock let out a long sigh and looked out of the window again
for a few seconds, shaking his head. "Oh, my friends," he whispered
to himself, "what a hard life this truly is..." With a sharp turn of
his head, the man focused his attention back on Ranma. "Saotome-san,
what are the merits of a True Man?"

    "Oh," Ranma said. He folded his arms. "Well, being myself a
Real, True Man among Men..."

    Distracted from her efforts to do some homework in class, Rei
tilted her head back and groaned, her mind reflexively shifing back
into Must Tease Ranma(tm) mode.

    "I know," the pigtailed youth contined, "that a True Man is
a great martial artist, the best in the world. I... HE won't back
down from ANY challenge," he cracked his knuckles, "he'll learn
every technique, every way to beat his enemies, and when he has a
son of his own," the boy's voice took on a serious, angry tone, "he
WON'T TOSS HIM HALF A BILLION TIMES INTO A PIT OF STARVING CATS!!!"

    Suddenly, Rei burst into laughter. "Oh," she said, "yes, I
think he would!"

    Ranma glared at her. "NO, HE WOULDN'T!"

    The girl nodded and tried to calm down. She wasn't doing too
good of a job. "Hahahah! If a true Man's Man can't handle a little
thing like a pit of cats, what makes you think he's be able to handle
anything else?"

    "Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiii," Ranma growled at her
with his eyes narrowed.

    *KA-BATZM!!!* The class, suddenly jarred into full alertness
by the loud concussive noise, directed their full attention to
Harlock.

    Hiroshi looked at the now-charred manga he held. His eyes
went from the ashes of the paper, to the smoking hole in his desk,
then the one in his in his chair and in the floor. Sweating, the boy
looked at Harlock-sensei.

    The brooding, dignified man held a large handgun to Hiroshi's
forehead. Harlock looked sternly at the delinquent ex-manga-reader,
his eye gleaming with an unyielding cold light. "You will pay
attention while I teach."

    "HAI! HAI!" Hiroshi cried in mortal terror.

    "As long as you know that," Harlock whispered in a voice that
could punch through steel and devastate entire fleets. He put away
his weapon and turned to look at Ranma. "Saotome. Your ideas of the
true nature of Man are badly skewed. Pay more attention in the
future."

    "Errrrrr," Ranma began, "yeah!" He nodded. "Right!" He leaned
over to Rei and asked, "Sheesh, are _all_ of the teachers here like
this?"

    "Like what?" Rei whispered to him out of the side of her mouth.

    "Like psychotic killers with guns and magic?"

    "You mean they weren't where you went, before coming to
Furinkan?"

    "Umm, well, sort of," Ranma admitted, cringing at the memory
of more than one Junior High instructor. "But aren't there any
_normal_ people around here?!"

    The raven-haired girl thought for a second. "Well, one of the
P.E. teachers isn't so bad. Son-sensei's pretty laid-back." She
paused. "Though he does like dying his hair blond a lot when his
friends drop by..."

    Harlock let out an agonized sigh and stared out the window
for another few seconds before finally clearing his throat and
placing a fist at his waist. "Tendo-san, could you please explain
family values and the proper role of the father in a household?"

    Mildly startled, Rei stuttered, "Um--er, the father!" She
paused to think of what her father did. "He... mostly lounges around
while all of the daughters take care of household responsibilities.
He'll work when absolutely necessary, but he avoids it. He also
does strange things like enga--er, handles things with other fathers,
so I suppose he's more of the diplomat of the family." She smiled
hopefully at her teacher.

    The guest family values lecturer slowly nodded his approval.
"Close--very close."

    Rei breathed a sigh of relief. Getting called on in class
was such a traumatic thing. Of course, what they did when you didn't
turn in homework on time was worse.

^_^

    The cute little pink-haired girl smiled broadly and raised her
hand enthusiastically. "Me! Me! Pick me!"

    Terada smiled. His newly transferred student was turning out to
be a terrific addition to the class. "Does anyone besides Genma want
to give an answer this time?"

    Everyone shook their heads in disbelief, shocked by Genma's
dazzling performance thus far.

    The teacher chuckled softly. "All right, Genko-chan, take it
away!"

    Li Meiling gasped and her hand suddenly shot up when she
recalled the answer, but it was too late: Genma had already half-
finished her explanation.

    "It was Nobunga!" the rabbit-eared girl exclaimed with her eyes
glistening and bright. "He conquered just about all of Japan! He did
it!"

    Terada nodded pleasantly. "That's right! And that's--what,
eleven questions in a row? Yes, so let's have someone else answer
the next one."

    Meiling forced a smile--one of those annoyed, marginally angry
smiles typically worn by those that had just been bested by a rival.

    "Wow, this girl's SMART!" Tomoyo whispered in awe.

    Similar surprised murmuring reverberated throughout the entire
room. In fact, the only ones not acting impressed were Sakura and
Meiling. Sakura had her eyes firmly centered on the cat-faced balloon
floating over the pink-haired girl's left shoulder. "It turned into a
pencil and now it's back to being a balloon. I'm DEFINITELY going to
have to ask Kero-chan about this..."

    Meiling's expression became slightly more tainted with jealousy
when she noticed how Shaoran kept occasionally glancing back at
Genma. "Have to keep an eye on her," she muttered quietly to herself.

    Genma sat down and folded her little arms smugly. The test had
been a breeze--she'd finished it early, and the history review had
been pretty simple, too. In fact, she felt completely refreshed and
ready to take on whatever else the teacher had to throw at her.

    "All right," Terada-sensei continued, clapping his hands
together. "We got the test out of the way, we did the review, and
now we can get on with Show and Tell." He had the cheerful and
enthusiastic sort of voice that somehow managed to keep all of his
students awake and on the edge of their seats in anticipation of his
next word. Somehow, this even started to affect Genma. "Who wants
to go first?"

    Genma's hand instantly shot up, followed by several others
scattered throughout the class.

    "Hmmm... How about you, Rika-san?"

    A demure girl in the front row nodded shyly and started to
fish through her bookbag. Something squirmed around inside. In a
moment, she produced a blue ferret-like creature with a long bushy
tail. "Terada-sensei," Rika began, standing and cradling the animal
in her arms, "I want to present to the class my new pet. It's a--"
She trailed off and looked down at it, trying to determine what
species it belonged to. "Well, it's my new pet."

    Rika smiled and held it up for all to see.

    Genma hadn't looked up, doodling on a spare sheet of paper in
front of her. "Whatever it is, it couldn't outdo Luna-P," she
whispered confidently to herself. On a whim, she lifted her gaze
toward Rika and her pet.

    Rika's animal climbed onto her shoulders, looking around and
curiously blinking at everyone. It crawled on top of her head and
peered down the rows. Genma's hand went taut and she dropped her
pencil. Luna-P puffed back into its balloon form.

    Feeling a tingling all over her body, Sakura bolted upright
in her chair.

    Tomoyo noticed. "Something wrong, Sakura-chan?"

    "I'm sensing," the brunette whispered, visibly awed, "Clow
Reed's magic!"

    Shaoran bristled as well. Meiling kept one eye on him.

    Genma's eyes went wide in an expression of sheer terror. Her
lips trembled and she pointed a finger at Rika's pet. "Sah-sah-sah,"
she stuttered, "S-S-S-S-S--"

    Tomoyo glanced at Genma and gasped. "Sakura, look at the new
girl!"

    "Wha?" Sakura asked, as if being pulled out of a daze. Then she
noticed how the pink-haired girl was acting. "Uh oh..."

    "S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-
SSSSSSSSSSSSQUIRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEELLLL!!!" Genma screamed in a
shrill, high-pitched voice that had everyone covering their ears
and yelling in pain.

    Rika gasped and stared at her, agape and likely traumatized
for life by the outburst. She stumbled backward, nearly falling
backward on the front desk.

    Its attention attracted by the noise, the four-legged animal
tilted its head at Genma then, with a loud sqeak, leapt over and
latched onto her face.

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" the adorable little Pink Spore
screamed long and loudly, flailing around and knocking over desks
and students left and right, not daring to touch the horrible thing
clinging to her ears and eyebrows. "GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF OF
MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

    "Ah, Saotome-san!" Terada-sensei's mouth dropped open and his
eyes went wide. He began to move closer in an attempt to remove
the animal from the girl's face. Instead, Genma accidentally ran
into him, knocking him and Rika to the floor.

    "Waaah!" Rika cried. "My squirrel!"

    "Do you see how fast she's running, Tomoyo?!" Sakura whispered
urgently, standing up and moving away from her desk. "There HAS to
be a Clow Card nearby!"

    "Genko-chan!" the teacher called out as he struggled onto his
knees. "It's harmless! Slow down! STOP--OOOF!"

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Genma inadvertantly kicked Terada in
the ribs on her third screaming lap around the classroom. Still badly
startled, the small, furry blue thing gripped tighter to the girl's
face, absolutely refusing to let go. "SQUIRREL! SQUIRREL! SQUIRREL!
SQUIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEELLLLL!!!"

    "What the--?!" Shaoran coughed in disbelief when Genma
continued running, barely managing to keep an eye on her as she
crashed past him, landing on Meiling.

    "Ow--hey, watch it!" Meiling cried, shoving Genma away.

    "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Genma continued to wail, prying in vain at the blue quadruped's
unyielding grip. With the trained feet of one who had spent years
practicing and the enthusiasm of a rodent on anti-depressants, she
leapt about the room, toppling desks and students, spilling papers,
and generally defying gravity by sprinting across the walls and
upside-down on the ceiling.

    Finally, the pink-haired child desperately flung herself face-
first at the window, attempting to dislodge the offending object.

    *KERRASH!!!*

    Everyone collectively gasped in deep concern, and several, like
Shaoran and Sakura, rushed toward the window. What they saw was
almost as shocking as Genma's earlier performance...

    The little girl in question had landed in the boughs of a
large, leafy tree, right next to the blue creature. She chittered to
herself, looking around with a jerky motion, her eyes wide.

    After a moment of sitting up on the branch, holding her hands
up to her mouth, she squeaked in glee and started bouncing happily
from branch to branch to gather nuts and berries.

^_^

    Usagi glanced anxiously at the clock, waiting in anticipation
for the ever-so-rapturously sacred and religious moment when the bell
would ring and her safe departure outside for lunch would be ensured.

    Unfortunately, that fated time remained approximately an hour
away. So, until then, she was stuck in her home economics class,
learning how to make a dart on the front of a blouse. Usagi's eyes
felt heavy, as did the rest of her skull. After about a minute of
listening to the teacher, her face collided with the flat, cold
surface of the desk in front of her.

    Oh, Akiyama-sensei taught well enough, and had several years'
experience in a wide variety of subjects. However, this bespectacled
blue-haired lady, who could not have been a day over thirty-four,
lately had the tendancy to explain the subject matter with dewy eyes
and a thick blush in her cheeks.

    Usagi had barely managed to stay awake in the previous days of
the class, when Akiyama Higure taught sewing with a fire-bred passion
seldom seen even in deranged bipolar schizophrenic spider monkeys.

    Rumor had it that the teacher had just gotten engaged. Usagi
didn't know what the big deal was; from what everyone said, the guy
was probably about three and a half feet tall, soft-spoken, and
stricken with an advanced case of male pattern baldness.

    Nothing particularly special about that, Usagi thought in a
cynical stupor of thought. Now, getting engaged to a handsome,
assertive, muscular six-foot-tall studmuffin with a full head of hair
and the habit of wearing a black tuxedo with a cape and rescuing her
all the time--THAT was something to get excited about. In fact, her
personal goal was to get married well before her twenty-fifth
birthday, and she had complete confidence in her ability to
accomplish such a feat.

    Sitting next to the blonde was Naru, who, keeping a low
profile, slowly shook her friend awake. "Usagi-chan," she whispered
urgently, "it's only been two minutes since class started! How could
you have fallen asleep already?!"

    "Ummgh?" Usagi replied thoughtfully. Her face was the site of a
desperate Civil War reenactment, with the Federal forces of gravity
and exhaustion firmly pressing down on the side of the South. One
eyelid, caught in the battle between the Union and Confederate forces,
struggled to hold its position like a good Confederate soldier. Then
the Union made a brilliant counterattack at a critical moment, boldly
pushing south and winning the war. Slavery to the chains of
consciousness were severed all across the girl's brain and unity
was restored. "G'night. Usagi sleep now..." She slumped back down
onto her arms.

    In a different universe, it would be more or less at this time
that someone green and seal-like would jump out of the woodwork, hold
up a sign, and protest the usage of such a metaphor. Fortunately,
for those present, this was not the case in the current dimension.

    Naru breathed out a long sigh and focused her attention back
toward the teacher, who didn't seem to mind the fact that roughly
half the class wasn't heeding her words of wisdom.

    It was roughly when Akiyama-sensei opened her mouth to give a
discourse on the importance of thimbles when a pillar of flame
blasted past her, completely filling the space between the front desk
and the faces of the students in the first row.

    Too caught up in her own prenuptual bliss to care, the blushing
teacher continued to explain the marvels of thimbles--how they prevent
finger damage and such. She failed to notice that her voice was being
drowned out by the roar of the fire and the noise of the explosions
that currently rocked the building.

    When that racket calmed down and the fire dissipated, many
shocked and surprised cries of Junior High students could finally be
heard from throughout the entire building. In total, the noise had
been so loud, that it had almost awoken Usagi. Almost.

    Naru stoot up and shook her friend as the rest of their
classmates ran out the door, completely throwing their fire-drill
training to the wind in their rush to escape. "USAGI! WAKE UP! THE
SCHOOL'S ON FIRE! AND IT'S GONNA BLOW UP!!!"

    Usagi cracked open an eye and looked at the brunette. "Hmm?
Wha, Naru? Schuulfire?" She took a deep breath and didn't take
notice of all the sulfur and brimstone in the air. Finally she
laughed and sat back down. "Oh, don't be such a worry-wart, Naru-
chan!" she said, waving a hand as if to dismiss the topic. "If the
school was on fire, then the fire alarm would go off, and THEN we
could worry about what happens next. Thank you, g'night."

    Naru clenched her teeth, slapped her forehead, and grabbed
Usagi and the teacher, who was still staring dreamily off into space,
and dragged them out of the room.

    Dodging fireballs and sidestepping explosions, the only fully
conscious female in the group bravely assisted the two semi-coherents
in their quest to find their way down the steps and outside.

    Halfway there, though, the trio ran face-first into a tall,
spiky-haired eighth-grader. Usagi drowsily recalled that his name was
Andrew--she remembered it because it was such a strange set of
syllables. Ryu or Motoki, now THOSE were good boys' names. Anyway,
some stray neuron fired in the back of her head and enabled her to
bring to mind the fact that he had been acting rather strange and
more obsessive than normal, plus he actually spoke good Japanese for
the first time in his life earlier that morning.

    Of course, Usagi didn't make the connection until she saw
that he carried a pair of bubbling flasks of opposite colors and
glowed with a thick, red aura. Actually, she might have missed
those clues if it weren't for what happened next.

    "YES!!!" shouted Andrew in triumph, holding up his strange and
unknown chemicals. "I have found the way to create POWER, and now I
will use it to destroy all of you MINDLESS simpletons! MWA-HA-HA-
HAAAAA!!!" A strange, glowing symbol appeared on one of the glass
containers.

    "He's been taken over by giant cockroaches from outer space!"
Usagi hypothesized incorrectly. Suddenly realizing that she had
no idea what the word 'hypothesized' meant, she shook her head, which
rattled in reply, then righted herself, "Err, I mean, the Dark
Kingdom!" She started fumbling around for the Moon Transformation
Brooch(tm). "Now, what were the words to turn this thing on...?"

    "Waaah!" Naru fell backwards when the aura around the conceited
caucasian flared up and expanded. The two females behind her also
collapsed due to the lack of her support.

    Andrew's laugh quickly turned into a frightened yell, and a
black shape appeared in the air above him, sucking all of the energy
from his charged body. 

    A malevolent female laugh filled the air. The shadow quickly
resolved itself into a pointy-eared, fanged woman with green skin and
a labcoat, who had a pair of large beakers strapped to the sides of
her arms. The monster cried out something that could only be her
name. "CATALYSTOR!!!"

    Andrew fell to the ground, his expression blank. A few feet
away, the flasks smashed open and spilled out their unknown contents
onto the floor.

    "Oh no, not again," Naru muttered, rolling her eyes. "Okay,
everyone, what do you say we RUN FOR IT!?!?" She snatched Akiyama's
wrist, pulled her up, and continued running. "Come on, Usagi!"

    Usagi looked up in fright at the monster and desperately
searched her body for the brooch. Somewhat chagrined with herself,
she located the artifact in question firmly situated tied into the
bow on the front of her uniform. "Oh! Good, now, if I could only
remember... Ah, right!" With a dramatic flair in her voice, she
cried, "MUUN PUHRISHUHM POWAH, MAYYY-KUP!"

    Youma Catalystor had her back turned when Usagi went through
her transformation sequence, which was really too bad, since it would
have given her something of an opportunity to strike first and
possibly have a shot at winning the battle she didn't know she was
about to become involved in.

    "Stop right there! You're using a foreign exchange chemistry
student's energy to further your evil plans, you enemy of all Junior
High students! You won't get away with it!"

    In fact, Catalystor had barely gotten done finishing up her
triumphant laughter by the time she heard the fateful call that was
to become the last thing many of her kind would ever hear...

    Dramatic music played and a high-pitched voice said, "For Love
and Justice, I am the Beautiful Sailor-Suited Soldier Sailor Moon!"
The short-skirted blonde struck several poses. "In the name of the
Moon, I'll punish you!"

    "Hah!" Catalystor laughed, and aimed her beakered arms at
Sailor Moon. "I've heard about you, little girl. Tell me, do you know
what happens when you mix a strong acid with a base?"

    Caught off guard, Sailor Moon's jaw hung open as she tried to
think of a proper response. "Uhhh, no, what happens?"

    The youma grinned. "This." Dual streams of noxious chemicals
flowed out from her arms, coating every available surface on the
walls and the floor.

    Sailor Moon panicked and started trying to dodge.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Somehow, she avoided nearly
all contact with the fluids.

    Literally everything started to foam and froth around the girl.
Worried, she gingerly stepped around and put a hand to her mouth,
quoting an ancient poet, "Uhhhhhhh?!" That poet had been a caveman
and was being chased by a rather large tiger when he composed those
words.

    Catalystor never lost her malevolent smile as she waved
goodbye. "Been nice knowing ya!"

    *BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!*

    "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Sailor Moon flew forward, her
clothes, face, and hair marginally blackened by the blast. She rolled
to a halt with her back against a concrete support pillar.

    Catalystor put her hands on her hips and looked down at the
toasted blonde. "Eh? Still alive?" She aimed one bubbling beaker at
Sailor Moon. "Not for long. ACID FRENZY!!!"

    "WAAAAAH!!!" Sailor Moon screamed, diving out of the way. Just
behind her, the spray of ultra-concentrated acid burned halfway
through the support. Combined with the collateral damage done by the
previous explosions, the ceiling started to crack.

    Nevertheless, the youma pressed her attack, pointing the other
beaker at her target. "Now I'm gonna getcha!"

    *Whoosh-CHING-shnick!* There was a sudden red flash and a long-
stemmed rose scraped the edge of Catalystor's full beaker before
finally imbedding itself into the floor. The glass cracked in a
spiderweb pattern and stayed for a moment before the entire container
shattered, spilling its contents all over her.

    "AAAAAH!" Youma Catalystor cried in slow, burning agony as
particularly nerve-filled bits of herself melted into a white fizz.
"Ow! Ow! Owwww!"

    Down the hall, a tall figure wearing a black tuxedo tipped his
top hat at the young girl. "You need to learn to act quicker, Sailor
Moon," Tuxedo Kamen said with a pleasant smile. "Attack her now!"

    Sailor Moon nodded. "Right!" She stood up, brushed herself off,
and grabbed her tiara. She pulled it off and held it in her hand,
where it turned into a yellow disc of energy. "Muun Tiaraaa...
Action!" She flung the charged piece of headgear at the youma.

    There were probably less embarrassing ways to die, Catalystor
silently mused as the shot hit dead center on her chest, but for the
short life of her, she couldn't think of any.

    The monster let out a pained yell as she crumbled into dust and
vanished as a sudden breeze blew it away.

    On the floor, Andrew moaned as his energy slowly returned to
his body.

    Sailor Moon breathed a sigh of relief when she caught her tiara
on its returning arc. She turned to see that Tuxedo Kamen had
departed, then gasped when she saw the roof just above her and Andrew
start to collapse.

    The rather scrawny Warrior for Love and Justice snagged Andrew
by the arms and started to run, dragging him out as fast as she
could.

    A minute later, Usagi had deposited Andrew near the other
students who were gathered at safe locations by the fence outside,
then she quickly hid and transformed back.

    Soon, the principal announced that class would be cancelled for
the rest of the day, due to the terrible structural damage to Juuban
Junior High. He went on to mention that they should check the news
broadcasts later on for updates on what would happen next.

    Some students cheered when the possibility was announced that
school would be cancelled for a while, then the same ones moaned
sadly when the prospect of sending students to other schools on a
temporary basis was discussed.

    Thus it was that Usagi marched cheerfully toward the arcade,
her eyes closed due to her smile being too big, and very neatly and
with her typical grace, tripped over Luna on her way.

    "Waaah!" Usagi cried, absolutely certain that she had just
skinned her knees.

    "Ouch," Luna muttered as she stood back up and made sure she
had no other injuries. "Usagi, what are you doing out of school? You
said you'd have classes until much later."

    Usagi explained what had happened.

    "Ah, good," Luna beamed, "then we can start to search for our
Moon Princess without any further delay!"

    "But she's all the way over in Nerima!" Usagi whined, sitting
up on her shins. "Can't we do it tomorrow?"

    Luna shook her head. "Look, saving our only hope to win against
the Dark Kingdom is _at least_ worth another little trip!"

    "But I wanted to go to the arcade and play some games and talk
with Motoki!"

    "You can waste time with your crushes later. This is serious!"

    "Awwww, but can't I at least-"

    "No!"

    It took a while for Luna to convince the girl to go, but in the
end, she succeeded. Usagi was so flustered that when the conversation
was done, she failed to notice the storm clouds gathering in the sky
above.

^_^

To Be Continued...

Okay, who wants to see Usagi show up at Furinkan and
find 'er "princess," eh? ^_^

Think we've got enough rabbits in this story yet?

Hopin' to hear from y'all!

Until later...

-------------------------------
Benjamin A. Oliver
boredcollective@aol.com

    "We are the Bored. Lower your shields and surrender your fics.
     We will add your standup and slapstick comedy to our own.
     Your humor will adapt to entertain us.
     Resistance is and always has been: Futile."

Collective works available at:
http://rakhal.com/florestica/ben-oliver/index.html

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