At 02:28 AM 4/24/98 -0700, Pat Olsen wrote:

"Preying on teenage girls!  Not while I'm around!"  The masked man
declared before launching another rose at him.

  Of course.  Mamoru wants to maintain his monopoly.

   Johnathon noticed what she was doing just in time.  "What the... Oh
damn!"  He dived of the roof as the swirling blast scoured the rooftop
behind him.  He rolled to his feet just in time to dodge a blast of fire

>from the side.  "No!  Stop!  Yikes!  Hey!"  He leaped and dodged as

Sailor Senshi Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury each threw their
signature attacks.  <I'm dead meat!>  "I surrender!  Stop that!  Ach!"
Johnathon staggered from a near miss by a ball of lightning.  He spun
desperately, just barely dodging a ball of fire.  Off balance he leapt
away from an ice blast from Mercury an instant too late.

   Johnathon landed on his side.  His legs were trapped in an ice block

>from the ankles down.  Sailor Moon arrived above him and wound up for

her final attack.  He ripped into the ice block with his claws and
desperately tried to get his feet free in time to get away.  He didn't
make it and was driven to the ground by the force of the attack.
Johnathon was surprised to be alive afterward.  He had felt like he was
being scoured throughout his entire body, but was unharmed.  Not being
actually a Youma or demon he was unaffected by the blast.

  The Sailor Senshi aren't fast on the uptake, are they?  A "monster" says
that it doesn't want to fight, that it wants to surrender, and they still
keep attacking? 

   Johnathon looked blithely at him.  "I was picking up my torrid
affair with Luna, right honey?"

   There was a sound of a cat choking in astonishment.

  Hee-hee.  Best lines in the fic.

   Tuxedo Kamen nodded.  "It did, I apologize for my attack on you.
You tried to explain but I didn't listen."

  At least Mamoru apologized.  Apparently, none of the Sailor Senshi are
bothered by their attacks on an innocent person.   

   Johnathon nodded.  "That's correct.  Ranma thinks and acts like a
cat.  The only things that have been able to bring him back to himself
are his fiancee and getting splashed with cold water."

  There was an old woman who could bring him back, although Johnathan may
not be aware of that.  And why just cold water?  IIRC, Ranma can go into
the Nekoken in either form and be brought out by changing to the other form. 

   Makoto interrupted.  "His fiancee?  He's engaged, at seventeen?"

   Johnathon nodded again.  "Yes, an arraigned marriage.  They do seem
to care about each other though."  <I'm glad they didn't ask me about
why cold water works on him.>

  Ranma's curse is hardly a secret.  Why shouldn't he tell them about it? 

   Johnathon looked at Artimis and Luna.  "That would go for you two as
well.  Where a normal cat might set Ranma off, you two could act as I
did and let Ranma get used to you a little at a time.  As long as he
thinks you are normal cats, he will be able to directly confront his
fear.  Ranma will be able to desensitize himself till he will no longer
go into his cat personality when he's surprised by a stray cat."

  It takes more than one stray cat to put Ranma into the Nekoken.  He would
just run from a single cat.  

   Johnathon shrugged.  "Ranma already knows about her curse.  He would
just end up tricking his subconscious again..."  He walked for awhile as
an idea started to come to him.  "That gives me an idea.  It might not
work, but..."  He looked thoughtfully at Artimis.  "Maybe, just
maybe..."

  So why does Ranma always freak out when he sees Shampoo-neko?  

  Nothing in the Ranmaverse goes as planned.  Whatever treatment they plan
should end up creating its own complications.


                                                  dml