Hi, I've been working on this story off and on for several months now and
I've hit a bit of a writers block.  I'm lookin for C&C, of course, but also
of some story ideas of where I could take the story.

Thanks for the support! :)

Gargoyles are owned by Disney, Ranma by Rumiko Takahashi.

<> = Chinese
[] = thoughts

Chapter 4:

     With a shriek of terror, Patricia began to fall towards the earth.
     Patricia flailed about, desperately trying to slow her descent.
[OhmyGod!  OhmyGod!  OhmyGod!  What do I do?!]  Looking down, the wet
pavement of the street appeard very hard and unyielding.  [Focus, have to
focus!]  Running through a quick meditation, she concentrated, trying to
direct the magical energies around her.

                         Wind and water, hear my call.
                         Prevent you master's fall.

     The air swirled underneath her, gathering both rain and groundwater
into its' grip.  In moments, there was a waterspout fifty meters high
directly below her.  Patricia gave a quick prayer as she entered the funnel.
     Patricia was immediately disoriented once inside.  She also found that
because of the amount of water was so high, that she could not breathe.  She
tried to dismiss the spell, but found it completely out of her control.
She tried to swim out, but the force of the winds kept her inside.  Her
lungs burned with the need for air.  She clawed frantically at her watery
prison, trying desperately to break free.  Unable to hold her breath any
longer, it wooshed out of her lungs and was swept away by the fierce
maelstrom.  Her body instinctively inhaled, taking in a lungful of water.
Her vision grew dim as she drowned.  The roar of the water and wind around
her faded to a dull hum.  Her consciousness slowly faded away into the dark
void.
     [Breath!  I have to breathe!] she thought.
     [...have to...breathe...]
     [...Breathe...]
     [..breathe..]
     [...]
     [..]
     [.]

     Ryoga, like so many times before, wandered the streets of Nerima,
cursing Ranma as the cause of all his problems.  When the fight between
Apollo and the others began, Ryoga changed back into a human and tried
to go to Akane's aid.  Unfortunately, he got lost looking for the fight.
     So here he was, once again trying to find the Tendo dojo.  At least he
had managed to stay within Nerima.
     Ryoga glared distastefully at the rain.  He had always hated rain, even
before his curse.  It made travelling very uncomfortable, and Ryoga travelled
a lot.  He turned a corner and cursed again.  Where did they move that dojo
to?
     Suddenly, a few blocks away, a tornado formed with no warning.  Ryoga
smiled triumphantly.  No one but Ranma and Cologne could do the Hiryu Shoten
Ha.  He had a fifty-fifty chance of it being Ranma.
     "Ranma, here I come!" bellowed Ryoga.  He took off, sprinting towards
the waterspout.  When he was within half a block, the waterspout seemed to
heave once.  A body was flung out of the cone of the tornado, and then the
tornado dissapated as fast as it had appeared.  Ryoga watched the body fly
over him and into someone's yard.  He jumped up on the fence and saw that
the person had landed in a pool and was sinking fast.  Ryoga ran and grabbed
a hook on a pole.  He managed to snag the body and pull it out of the pool.
Dragging her over to a covered porch, he flipped her over on to her stomach,
straddled her torso, and began pushing on her back, trying to force the water
out of her lungs.  When no more water came, he turned her over and checked
her pulse.  There was no pulse, and Ryoga knew almost nothing about CPR.
     "All my strength, all my endurance, all my training, and I can't save
a helpless girl."  Depression overwelmed him.  He could feel his ki building
up.  Normally, he would utilize the Shi Shi Hokodan to deal with the
depression, but he had no opponent to use it against.  He could feel her
life force leaking away, an a fresh surge of anger and sorrow washed
through him.  Focusing his emotions, he created a ball of purple energy
between he hands.  He looked at it dully.  His emotions, his being, his
life, was in this tiny ball.
     Wait a sec...
     He held a portion of his life force in his hands.  What if he could
give a bit to her?  He leaned forward slowly and touched her with his ki.

     Patricia floated in darkness.  A part of her mind knew she was dying,
but she did not care.  That part welcomed the darkness, eager to feel it's
cool embrace.  It was a bit strange though.  There was no tunnel of light,
no singing angels, no fiery devils.  Just darkness.  Silence.  Emptyness.
     Oblivion.
     PAIN!  Anger, dispair and hatred rushed through her.  Visions appeared
before her mind's eye and were quickly swept away.
     Getting knocked into the Spring of Drowned Pig...
     Zoltan dying before her eyes...
     Losing to Ranma even with the help of the Buksai Tenketsu...
     Nabiki collapsing from Apollo's attack...
     Loving Akane with all his heart, yet knowing that he'd never be able to
be with her...

     With a scream of horror, Patricia sat up.  Ryoga jerked away, the ball
of ki vanishing.  She sat on the porch, looking around her blankly.  She
looked at herself, at her human body.  A wave of dispair overwelmed her and
she collapsed into a fetal ball, crying huge wracking sobs.
     Ryoga, not sure what to do next, gingerly approached her.  "Look, it's
okay now.  Uh..."  Then he noticed one thing.  A clinical, detached part of
his mind managed to put it together fairly quickly, but it took a moment
for his emotional side to catch up.  The analysis went sort of like this:

      1 set of white fabric
     +1 white skinned female wearing said fabic
     +1 part water applied to said fabric
     --
      1 set of see through clothes.

     Or in Ryoga's case, one hell of a nosebleed.  With a strangled cry,
Ryoga collapsed, unconscious, blood spraying out of his nose at high
pressure.
     Patricia, totally unaware of the rest of the world, continued to cry
until she feel asleep, exhausted.

     Ryoga groaned and sat up.  He felt lightheaded from blood loss, and
swayed slightly.  Suddenly, something hit him in the head.  Hard.
     "You juvenile deliquents!  Creeps!  Tresspassers!  Police!"  The owner
of the house, an old woman, was trying to beat Ryoga with a broom.
     "Hey...no...wait!  Ouch!  You don't understand!" exclaimed Ryoga.
     "I know what I see, and I see a couple of sex-crazed tramps making out
under my roof!  Now get out!  Police!  Poliiiiiice!!"
     "WHAT?!"  He then remembered Patricia's state of dress.  Or, lack
thereof might have been more accurate.  [She'll never believe me!]  Grabbing
his backpack and Patricia, he jumped up and over the fence and on to the
street.
     "Now what do I do?" wondered Ryoga.  Patricia moaned.  He set her down
on the road.  Checking to see if she was all right, he discovered she was
delirious with a fever.
     "Zoltan...Ophilia...Diana..." moaned Patricia.  Her face was twisted
into a mask of suffering, and she struggled slightly against unseen demons.
"No...please...so sorry..." she wimpered.
     "I guess I can try to get her to that doctor guy, what's-his-name."
He picked up Patricia, slung her over his shoulders, and walked into the
sunrise.

     Akane looked up at the main gate, her brow furrowed with worry.
Patricia was not back yet.  "Ranma, Patricia didn't come back last night.
I'm getting worried."
     Ranma slipped on his shoes and adjusted his backpack.  "Don't worry,
Akane, she probably got lost last night and had to find someplace to...um
...sleep?  Anyway, everyone'll think she's a statue, so she'll be okay.
I'll bet she'll be back by tonight."  He stood, and headed for school.
     "But what if she's not?" asked Akane.
     Ranma sighed.  "If she's not we'll go looking for her.  Now will you
come on?  Hinako-sensei was waiting at the gate for me on Friday.  If I'm
even a second late, she'll try to blast me."

     "Dammit!  I can't find anything!" complained Ryoga.  He had spent the
last six hours looking for either the Tendo dojo or Dr. Tofu's clinic, and
had failed miserably.  "Did I save her from drowing only to have her die by
disease?  Why is this happening to me!" he shouted up to the bright blue sky.
     The sound of a ringing bicycle bell reached his ears.  He turned, and
ate one of Shampoo's tires.  He collapsed with a startled gurgle, dropping
Patricia to the ground.
     Shampoo looked at Ryoga in confusion.  "How Lost Boy get under Shampoo's
bike?" she asked.  Since Ryoga was unconscious, no answer was forthcoming.
Therefore, Shampoo turned her attention to Ryoga's delirious passenger.  It
was a young european girl, scantily dressed.  She was also abnormally pale,
and moaning quietly.
     "Shampoo!" called Mousse.  Shampoo groaned as Mousse caught up with
her.  "Shampoo!  You've decided to wait for me!  I knew you always cared
about me and enjoyed my pres-"
     Shampoo hit Mousse over the head with her empty ramen deliver box.
"<Don't be stupid, Mu Tzu.  I was looking at the strange girl.>"  She
pointed at Patricia.
     Mousse adjusted his glasses and looked at Patricia.  "<She looks
sick.>"
     "<That doesn't surprise me, being around the Eternal Lost Boy.  He
probably took her to some strange place where she contracted a disease.
Men!>"  Shampoo shook her head angrily.  "<Well, Great-Grandmother will know
what to do.>"
     "<You mean you're taking her with us?  Why?>"
     Shampoo hit him again.  "<I can't just leave her here!  What would
Great-Grandmother say?  We have to help women that have been victimized by
men who don't know their place.  Now pick her up and let's go back to the
restaurant.>"
     "<What about Ryoga?>"
     "<Leave him.  He's just a male.>"
     Mousse gritted his teeth at Shampoo's comment.  Like many Amazon males,
he riled against his destiny as a second class citizen in Amazon society.
But as long as the matriarchs existed, no male, or even group of males, would
be powerful enough to gain their freedom.  He meekly complied with Shampoo's
orders.

     "Great-Grandmother, we home!" called Shampoo as they entered the
Nekohanten.
     "<Why do you have to talk in that disgusting tongue?>" asked Cologne.
"<You sound like a bimbo.>"
     "Shampoo trying to get better at Japanese.  Besides, enemies
underestimate Shampoo if think Shampoo is stupid."  She turned to Mousse,
who was just entering. "Look what Shampoo find."
     Cologne bounced over to Mousse.  She hmmmed as she peered closely at
the unconscious Patricia.  "This looks bad.  Bring her upstairs, Mousse.
Shampoo, begin preparing some medicine for her.  Something for her lungs,
sinuses, and fever, as well as just a general cold remedy."  Mousse followed
Cologne upstairs.
     When Shampoo finished the herbal remidies, she went upstairs.  Cologne
was using several pressure points trying to lower Patricia's tempurature and
moderate the effects of the sickness.
     "She be okay?" asked Shampoo.
     "We'll see in a day or so.  Give me those medicines."  When Cologne
finished dosing Patricia with them, she turned to Shampoo.  "I want you to
give her a bath.  We have to clean her up and get her warm.  I'll set up
some clothes and take care of the restaurant."
     Shampoo nodded.  She carried the unconscious girl to the bath.
Stripping her, Shampoo poured a bucket of cold water over her and began
sponging off dried sweat and grime.  When she was done, she rinsed Patricia
off with a couple more buckets of cold water, then filled the tub with
hot water.  She put Patricia in the tub and turned away to get a cloth.

     Patricia looked around her in confusion.  The last think she remembered
was drowning in her own spell-created water spout.  Now she was flying
over...Avalon?!  She recognized the large volcano several miles to the north,
and she could see the castle situated on the eastern cliffs.  She was home!
She was filled with a surge of elation, and cried out with joy.  Then
fear filled her.  What would Oberon do to her?  Surely not kill her.  She
had not come back willingly.
     She spied movements near the edge of the volcano crater, tiny dots
against the red-orange lava.  Patricia banked, and flew towards the
mountain.
     When she recognized the people at the lip of the crater, she cried
out in amazement.  Standing there, waving at her, were Zoltan, Ophilia, and
Diana.  She flew down and, sobbing, ran into their collective embrace.
     "You're alive!" Patricia cried.  "You're really alive!" she sobbed as
they comforted her.
     "Don't you have something to show us, Patricia?" asked Diana.
     Patricia looked at her in confusion.  "Show you something?  No!  I'm
just so glad to see you all alive-"
     "You wanted to show us something," said Zoltan.
     Patricia shook her head.  "What are you talking about?"
     Ophilia nodded towards the lava lake.  "Ye know..."
     Patricia's eye widened with horror.  "No, you can't be serious.  I
couldn't-"
     "Patricia," said Diana, "show us."
     "No!  I won't!  I won't do it!"
     "Patricia," demanded Zoltan. "Show us!"
     Ophilia gripped Patricia's shoulder painfully.  "Show us!"
     "No!  Please, I don't want you to die again.  Please don't make me do
it!"
     "Show us!" they cried in unison.  Patricia backed away from them,
terror etched upon her face.  The three continued to yell "Show us!" as she
fell back.  She was stopped by the edge of the crater.  The three surrounded
her.
     "Show us!" they cried.
     "No!"
     "Show us!"
     "No!  Please-"
     "Show us!"
     "No..." Patricia wimpered.
     "Show us!"
     Patricia gave a strangled groan and turned to the lake, raising her
hands, she chanted the spell.

                         Earth and Fire do combine,
                         Defy the laws of space and time.
                         Coalesce, thy soul enshrined
                         By magic power, and strength of mind.

     Once again, the lava elemental rose from the lake and walked towards
them.  This time instead of Diana flying away, she merely stood back and
watched.  The elemental stopped before Patricia.  With a neglegent flip
of an arm, it engulfed Zoltan, Ophilia, and then finally Diana.  Patrica
screamed in dispair as she watched them burn.  Their bodies boiled and
charred, flesh melting and eyes popping under the intense heat.  When
the lava had finally run it's course, there was nothing left but three
black skeletons.  They leered at Patricia.
     "So this is what you wanted," croaked Ophilia.
     "No!  I never wanted this!  It was an accident!"
     "Really?" asked Zoltan.  He raised on hand and scratched at a cheek.  It
broke off and fell to the ground.  "A rather dangerous mistake, don't you
think?"
     Diana nodded, the last remaining lank of blonde hair falling off her
scalp.  "We should teach her not to play with fire."  The three horrors
advanced.
     "No!  Stay away!" cried Patricia.
     "Or what?" asked Zoltan scathingly.  "You'll kill us?"
     They grabbed her and spun her around to face the elemental.  She
struggled, but the held her immobile.  The elemental drew back one fist.
     "No!  No!  Don't do it!  Please, I'll do anything, just don't kill me!"
     The three began to laugh.  Her heart thudded with terror.  Then the
elemental struck.
     Pain suffused her entire body.  Her skin charred and burnt.  Her bones
shattered with the heat.  She could feel her flesh melt off her bones.  She
tried to scream, but no sound came out of her throat.  She could feel
something lapping against her body.  She must have fallen into the lava
pool!  She thrashed desparately, trying to escape.
     Just as she thought she could not take the pain any longer, a bright
flash of white light filled her vision, then everything went dark.

     Shampoo jumped back in surprise when Patricia screamed in agony.  She
watched with horror as Patricia underwent her transformation.  Patricia
gripped the edge of the furo, and cracks appeared as her gargoyle strength
returned.  Her skin turned dark blue, and her bones and muscles cracked and
tore, reconfiguring themselves to her gargoyle form.  With a final screech
of pain, she collapsed, unconscious.  Her body completed the change, then
she turned to stone.
     Shampoo stared at the spectacle before her.  Before she could react,
the door flew open and Cologne bounced into the room.
     "<What is going on here?" she demanded.
     "<I-I-I->" stammered Shampoo.  She took a deep breath and tried again.
"<I cleaned her up like you asked me to and put her in the bath and she
turned into that...thing!>"  She pointed at Patricia.
     Cologne looked where Shampoo was pointing and saw Patricia.  She paled,
and hopped back a step.  "<A Protector!>" she whispered.
     Shampoo gasped.  Protectors were nothing but old stories used to
frighten children to all but the oldest Matriarchs.  Almost three hundred
years ago, the Amazons and a clan of creatures that the Amazons had
scornfully named 'Protectors', went to war over many of the Amazon treasures
that the Protectors had stolen.  The Protectors claimed that the Amazons
had stolen the items from an ancient burial sight that they watched over.
The Amazons responded that the items were created by Amazons and that the
Protectors had stolen them for their own use.
     The hit-and-fade tactics of the Protectors caused the war to drag on for
several decades, and serious casualties on both sides, the Amazons taking
the lion's share.  It finally ended when Amazon scouts found the Protector's
lair during the day.  The Protector's mage had cast a spell that made their
stone forms nearly invulnerable, so three Matriarchs were sent to use
the Bakusai Tenktsu.  Many of the Protectors were killed, but many were still
alive when the sun set.  Trapped on the ground, outnumbered and overpowered,
only three managed to escape.  They and their kind were never seen again.
     Until now.
     "<We have to destroy her!>" declared Shampoo.  Hefting a bonbori, she
strode purposefully towards the helpless gargoyle.  She was brought up short
when Cologne hooked her arm with her staff.
     "<No.  We need her alive.  She's probably a scout for her people.  We
must interrogate her and force her to tell us her and her clan's plans.
Get Mousse up here.  We'll use his chains to bind her.  At sunrise, she'll
be our prisoner.>"

end (for now) ch4

Nighthawke

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