Ranma 1/2: The Grand Tour 1
	R.Takahashi owns the Nerima bunch. Aramar and
the Ninefold Worlds are my creation. No money made on
any of these though i may eventually try to do 
professional stories set in Aramar. My other works can
be found at the RAAC or on my website at 
http://members.aol.com/Metroanime/main.html
    if you are offended by dark stories, skip the first
few chapters. if you feel manga version=gospel &
can't deal with anything different, go on with
something else. Do not flame me unless you are
willing to come over here & get free dental extractions.
    for timeline purposes this occurs after the 1st 
wedding attempt has gone wrong.
     Grand Tour  1:  All Aboard____________
_/Nerima, Japan, Earth 1996 AD, Prime +214156\____

"Yeah, right Ranma." Akane snorted in a most unfeminine
gesture.

"I'm telling you, Akane, this place just creeps me out."
Ranma didn't like magic, didn't care for it at all. 
Everytime something magic came into his life it was
spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

"The least we can do is look around, Ranma. Or are you
too chicken?"

"Hey, now. Don't go doing that. Gee, you are SO uncute."
Ranma checked out one mirror. Six carved oriental 
dragons surrounded the mirror, except that when 
one tried to trace the length of any of the dragons,
you seemed to end up at the head of another dragon. 

"Oh REALLY Ranma. You are so childish!" Akane snarled,
her temper had been ready to unleash ever since that 
run in with Happosai and her father telling her to
check out this store WITH RANMA. As if she couldn't 
handle it by herself! 

"If you're not going to help, I wish you'd just GET
LOST!" She picked up a book (nearest blunt object)
and flung it at Ranma, who was still inspecting some 
dumb mirror as opposed to helping her look for some 
sign of whatever burglar had been in earlier. Her eyes 
widened, and the scene seemed to go into slow motion. 
The book struck the back of Ranma's head and he 
moved forward into contact with the glass surface.
 
The carved wooden dragons moved then, seeming to
writhe around the silvered glass which itself had turned
suddenly opaque, and Ranma suddenly was gone.

"Ranma?!" Akane touched the surface of the glass a 
moment later. As soon as he had vanished, it had 
returned to normal. There were no signs the dragons 
were anything other than plain wood, or that the glass 
was anything other than glass.

Akane blinked. "Ranma, you idiot, what have you done
now?"
------------------------0--------------------------------
Ukyou and Shampoo were at the gate in the morning.
Cologne nodded from where she sat atop one of the walls,
still smoking whatever pungent herb she had in that 
pipe. It wasn't a narcotic, whatever it was, and Nabiki
was itching to get her hands on it. No doubt some 
secret of the Chinese Amazons.

Nabiki stretched and looked around. No Ranma + Akane 
(looking guilty) + (Ukyou/Shampoo) here + Daddy (wailing
about how the schools will never be joined now) + 
Cologne looking like she'd had a rough night = "Well,
what did you do now, sis?"

"Me and Ranma went to the Cursed Antique s-store, the
owner thought Happosai had been trying to get in again."
Akane shook slightly. "Ranma looked into this mirror
and it SWALLOWED him."

Nabiki noted that Akane was lying. Nabiki had a knack
for knowing when someone wasn't telling the whole truth
and nothing but the truth and would have considered 
becoming a lawyer in order to fully use this ability,
but hey, she had SOME scruples.

Kasumi smiled sweetly. "Akane, last night you said
you knocked him INTO the mirror."

Ukyou and Shampoo glared at Akane. Nabiki was quite
glad that she'd gotten that life insurance for Ranma
and Akane. Of course, Nabiki was the beneficiary. She'd
hate to lose a sister, but if she was going to lose a
sister anyway she'd get richer. The sound of an old
fashioned cash register going off echoed in her mind.
Oh yeah, and Ranma was gone.

"So, Cologne," Nabiki addressed the amazon elder with
respect. The same way you handle rattlesnakes, large
venomous insects, and high explosives. "I assume that
you know more about this?"

"I sensed something last night, if that's what you mean.
A strange disturbance as of a door opening and closing
again." Cologne puffed again, and the strangely sweet
scent of her pipesmoke swept through the room. "It 
isn't an amazon treasure, that's for sure. It might
have been made by the same ancient people who made the
Nanban mirror, or Phoenix Mountain, or any number of
other people. We'll just have to see for ourselves, 
won't we?"
---------------------0-----------------------
	"I'm not saying I believe in it, mind you,"
the old man said, "but I MIGHT know something about
that particular item." He stopped as a razor sharp
spatula was suddenly touching his throat.

	"I'm not saying I believe you," said Ukyou
in a quiet voice, "but I MIGHT be inclined to think
as they were here at YOUR request, that using this
opportunity for extra income MIGHT not be a wise idea."

	The old man waited for the spatula to be 
removed before shrugging. "Well, wortha try."

	Cologne glanced up from her inspection of the
mirror. "This is very old work, I suspect from the 
look of the wood that it isn't even from our world."

	"What you mean, great grandma?"

	"I mean, child, that this came down from some
world along the Probability Road. This is a gateway,
of sorts, that leads to all manner of worlds. The other
end depends on many factors but will likely only open
under specific conditions."

	"Ranma," Shampoo said, running her hand against
the silvery surface.

	"What were you and he saying when he vanished,
Akane? It is vital that you remember what you said word
for word."

	Nabiki looked over the mirror. Magic was 
something that exploited loopholes in what were 
supposedly inviolable laws of physics. Loopholes were
a Nabiki specialty, but she was quite willing to 
concede that this might be beyond her.

	"He was inspecting that mirror, and called me
uncute. Then I said that if he wasn't going to help,
he should just get lost."

	"Ran-chan," Ukyou said as she leaned against
the mirror. "I wish I could see you again." A tear
began to track down her cheek.

	Nabiki watched Ukyou, surprised that the 
chef would give up on Ranma so easily. Then Nabiki
noticed the movement.

	The dragons began to move, and Ukyou fell into
the mirror's surface. As she did, her flailing hand 
reached for SOMETHING to hold on to as she felt the pull.

	Nabiki went into panic as Ukyou grabbed her.
The chef was already vanishing into the mirror and
the death-grip on her own arm was threatening to drag
a second person through the mirror. "HELP!"

	The others turned just in time to see a 
struggling Nabiki vanishing into the mirror's surface.

	Shampoo jumped, grabbing Nabiki's ankle just
as it vanished into the mirror. Shampoo's forward 
momentum carried her through the mirror and the
surface rippled and hardened immediately.

	"Nabiki?" Akane managed. Great, now she'd 
managed to lose both a fiancee and a sister. 
-----------------------
_/Hatchery, Dragonlands, Aramar, 7th Age, Prime Nexus 4\____
	Ranma landed in a rocky canyon with a cloudless
blue sky above and a dry wind fitfully stirring the air.
Ranma felt like he'd just stepped into an oven. Though
dry, the heat seemed to suck the life right out of his
body. He glanced up at the wall, but there were no
marks to indicate where on the surface he had come from.

	"Akane, you uncute tomboy, what have you done 
now?" He noted a tiny iguana scurrying across another
of the canyon walls and wondered exactly where he was.

	Tapping the striated rock of the canyon wall,
Ranma decided that staying here was out of the question.
There was no shelter, no water, and (unless you counted
that iguana) no food. There was little in the way
of shadows, so finding a place to at least get out of
the sun was his first priority.

	Walking down the canyon, Ranma couldn't help
but feel a little nervous. Who knew what kind of 
problem Akane had gotten him into this time?

	Six hours later, three figures slammed into 
nearly the exact same place Ranma had.

	"Ouch. Nabiki, you're heavy."

	"Moi? I thought you were in better shape, 
Kuonji."

	"Tracks. Ranma be here." Shampoo pointed. "He
go that way."

	"I am surrounded by brilliance," Nabiki put as
much sarcasm as she could into it. 

	There was silence for a time, broken only by
the crunch of gravel underneath three sets of shoes.

	"It very hot."

	"You notice we've been walking a good half hour,
and the sun's still at the noon position?"

	"Hmmmm." Nabiki HAD noticed. She had thought 
her imagination was working overtime.

	The uneasy silence returned.

	"....here..."

	The three stopped as one. It was merely an
errant word, caught by some acoustic trick, but it was
Ranma's voice.

	"Ranchan!" Ukyou was the first to start
sprinting.

	"Ai ren!" Shampoo was faster and quickly passed
Ukyou.

	"Yeah, yeah, right." Nabiki didn't stop her
bored trudge. How did she get involved in all this 
anyway?

	"Aiyaaaaaa!"

	Nabiki stopped. Shampoo had screamed? The big
bad oh-so-superior amazon had screamed?

	"Ranchan!"

	Nabiki eased forward. That had sounded like a
note of panic from Ukyou. She was close enough to see
that the canyon ended abruptly and a beach was vaguely
visible. There seemed to be something that was 
reflecting a lot of light near the exit.

	Nabiki reached the exit and stopped. Shampoo
and Ukyou had both drawn weapons, but looked fairly
daunted. Ranma merely looked puzzled.

	Gleaming scales the color of silver shifted
in the light, and a head the size of a typical Japanese
car regarded the three women. Nabiki idly noted that
the teeth displayed in that mouth were at least the
length of her forearm. She estimated the creature's
length in excess of twenty five feet.

	BIG, thought Nabiki. She wondered what the heck 
something that size ate, then immediately promptly filed
the concept of "Diet" under "Things you don't want to
consider when said creature is sitting in front of you."

	"Ranma, you okay?" Shampoo regained use of her
mouth first. She was still in a guard position but it
had registered that neither the big carnivore nor Ranma
were in anything approaching a battle stance.

	*Oh, DO put your weapons away. I realize that
you're a long way from home, but you needn't assume that
EVERYTHING here is going to devour you on the instant.*

	"Telepathy," Nabiki noted. "Makes sense, your
mouth isn't really constructed for Japanese." Now if she
could just stop shaking...

	*Oh-ho. Here we've got a clever one. You'll do
well, child.*

	"Uhm, Ranma-honey...."

	"It's okay, Ucchan. Frostbite here's a friend,
sorta." Ranma indicated the dragon with a thumb. "On the
other hand, there's something you should see." He 
pointed out to sea now instead of at the dragon.

	"There's nothing out there," Nabiki started. 
Then it began to register. At the farthest part of her
vision, the horizon seemed to curve up.

	"Aiyaaaa."

	"Ranchan?"

	"We're not in Nerima anymore, Toto."

	*Fascinating as all this is,* the dragon's
mental voice came. It uncoiled itself and thrust massive
wings out to either side. *We must be going.*

	"Going?" Ranma was puzzled. "What about the 
mirror?"

	*Travel to this realm is strictly one way through
methods such as you describe.  In the meantime, much 
as I enjoy conversation, we really must get you off the 
Hatchery. Some of my fellows are not NEARLY so 
understanding.*

	"You got this job because you are," Nabiki 
realized. Judging from the stone shelter, this was
some sort of guard post.

	*True. You ARE quite clever. There is a weak
point in the dimensional wall there within the cliffs.
I was appointed by the Emperor to keep watch on anything
that might come through.* The dragon moved closer,
ignoring the way two of the little folk edged back. After 
all, he WAS looking particularly splendid today 
having freshly cleaned his scales.

	"Uhm, so how are we supposed to leave your
Hatchery, then?" Ukyou tried to picture this creature
in front of her as a mom.

	*Excuse me, I am NOT of the female persuasion.
While I can't read minds, if you insist on projecting
such strong mental images at me, at least TRY to make
them a little less silly. As to how you are to leave,
I shall require your assistance in getting my harness
on, at which point I shall fly you off to one of the
islands where people similar to yourselves dwell.*

	"Other humans?"

	*No. I'm sorry to tell you this but what you
regard as human is considered a near-mythical race,
also known as the Founders. The only humans around are
those like yourself who have come from the ancient past.
Delphins, elves, dwarves, ogrii, goblinkin, canin, caivehi,
burrowers, kinnari, and a number of other 
races, yes. Native humans, no.*

	"Ancient past?" Nabiki looked over at the 
harness the dragon was dragging out of the shelter.
"Then this is a Dyson sphere, but those are supposed
to be inherently unstable."

	"Dyson sphere?" Ukyou looked puzzled. "I must
have missed class that day."

	"A theoretical structure type named after the
theorist who came up with it. You build a planet that
has a sun at its exact center, with a helluva lot of
surface volume. Don't remember the exact figure but 
it is somewhere on the order of 100,000 Earth masses,
I think. I read about it in a manga once but it's been
a long time."

	"Oh." Shampoo was glad Ukyou had spoken up,
as she hadn't had a clue either.

	*You want the answer to that, ask a Mu. They
LOVE things like that. Just be ready to pay the price.*

	"Mew?" Shampoo asked.

	Frostbite didn't reply with his usual telepathic
voice. Instead an image came to them of a crystalline
ant nearly three meters long, standing on the edge of
some oddly organic looking structure. In the background
could be seen others that looked exactly the same,
scurrying back and forth.

	*They are collectors of information. Telepaths
of a hive intelligence. They most often seek payment by
collecting memories, as long as it is new to their
collective. As offworlders, be careful of any deal you
make with them. They are not evil, but can be greedy.*

	"You said 'ancient past' earlier," Ukyou
stretched the harness out on the ground and wondered
exactly how she was supposed to get this on the dragon.
Said problem vanished when the dragon in question 
grabbed a strap with his teeth and flipped the harness
over his back. "So we're in some sort of future where
there's dragons."

	*Yes. You have not only travelled in space 
but in time.* Frostbite finished adjusting the harness
and waited for the little ones to start buckling it
into place. He could have done it himself, but it was
important to give the newly arrived something to do.

	"So, if we're stuck here for at least some time,
we need to know where and when we are, ne?" Nabiki 
was a little nervous as she saw the huge teeth and claws
from this close. Again the thought came that she really
didn't want to figure out what this creature ate until
AFTER she was back home or at least out of range.

	*I'm not a cannibal, you know.*

	Nabiki nearly jumped out of her shoes. She knew
somehow that only she had heard that last comment. She
turned from the buckle she was working on to stare into
an eye as large as her head. Blue. She wondered why
she hadn't noticed that the monster had blue eyes.

	*Yes, Ukyou. That's where that strap goes.
Don't worry about it. As long as you don't get sand
trapped there it won't hurt. No, Xian Pu. Excuse me,
then, Shampoo, you won't have to cling to a strap for
hours of flight time. I've had to ferry Amazons, who
are very similar to you in appearance. Different kind
of Amazon, I'm thinking, but yes, you probably will
get along with them.*

	Nabiki realized that the soft murmurring from
each of her companions was actually simultaneous 
conversations with the dragon. One apparently only had
to strongly project an image or vocalize for the dragon
to be able to pick it up. Natural translators, then.
The UN would love these guys.

	The blue eye blinked and the extra voices were
gone. Nabiki shivered. Control was everything to her,
money the most obvious way of keeping score in that
regard. This situation had never been under her control,
and was slipping further away from that desired
condition every moment.

	"So, Frosty..." Ranma looked over his section
of the harness, ignoring the pained rumble from the
dragon, "how the heck are we gonna fly in this thing?"

	*There are saddles in the shelter which buckle
directly onto the harness. As long as we don't run into
deveagles, chimerae, bostone, skimmers, evil mages, or
some cruising teenagers you should be fine.*

	Shampoo gave the dragon a weird look. 
"Teenagers?"

	Ukyou paused. "Mages?"

	Nabiki smiled, raised an eyebrow, and said
sweetly "excuse me, 'should be' does not exactly fill
me with confidence."

	Ranma shrugged and went to look for the saddles.
Sounded like good training if nothing else.
========================================
end part one. now for some notes: there are currently
  five outlined worlds that this group visits.
FIRST: Ranma died in nekoken training. Shampoo died
  when the Musk Dynasty and Phoenix Mountain 
  plotlines came to a head and her village was decimated.
  Nabiki as an alcoholic OL, trapped by Japanese business
 practices and a Yakuza promise if she cut into established
 territories again. Kasumi joins the group as her relationship
 with Doctor Tofu has...complications. (ie he still has no
 self control around her)
SECOND: Ranma 1/1. Ranma is the only son of Soun Tendo?
 Akane is the daughter of...Genma? Akane went to Jusenkyo
 instead of Ranma, and turns into a boy.
THIRD: OMG world. where it is revealed that Ranma is
 Keichi (with mechanical skills instead of martial arts), and
 Kasumi is Belldandy, Akane=Skuld, Ukyou=Megumi,
 Shampoo=Urd, Nabiki=Sayoko.
FOURTH: Shampoo is the princess kidnapped by the
 "master of dark magic" Mousse, Ranma is the captain
 of the guard, Ukyou the buxom tavern girl, Kasumi the
 cleric/healer, Nabiki the merchant prince?
FIFTH: the one year anniversery of when Akane cut 
 down Ukyou and Ranma in the "Bitter End"
worlds are subject to change. Sixth time is the charm,
and they end up jumping into the right universe, but
are at the beginning of the series.
each "jump" (quantum leap meets sliders) is set one
year, two months, three days of their time from the last.
with the worlds _not_ detailed, over eight years passes
for the characters.
now what do _you_ see as their reactions when they
finally arrive back home?