Hello and good evening yet again. This
is the second chapter (third if you count the
prologue) and they still haven't met yet. But
not to fear! They meet in this very chapter!
Woo-Hoo!
Before muddling through this and trying to
figure out what I'm on, you might want to read
the previous chapters. You can find them at:
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/Slacker
I don't really need to put in a
disclaimer, do I? Everybody knows Ranma and
Co. belong to the Goddess Takahashi and
Sailor Moon and Co. belong to the Goddess
Takeuchi. If I even tried to claim them
as my own, hordes of totally insane otaku
would lay some hurting down on me. (And I
don't like pain.)
Ready? Let's do it!
***************************************
All The Small Things-Chapter 2
A Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 fanfiction
By: Slacker(r_heins@yahoo.com)
***************************************
Previously on our program:
While at a meeting, Setsuna revealed that
she lied about whether they'd face another
threat, and was about to reveal all when the
chapter ended (this is known as a "hook").
Meanwhile, at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma had
woken Nabiki up at 3 a.m. to ask her help to
"run away from home." (This is also known as
a "hook".)
Now on with our fic!
***************************************
Tendo Dojo, 3 am, Nabiki's room.
Nabiki thought she was pretty much
Unable to be shocked. She was wrong. The fact
that she was sitting there staring at Ranma
without saying a word kinda proved the point.
"You need to 'run away from home'?" she
asked, a bit incredulously.
"Yeah, basically," Ranma replied in a
nonchalant voice.
"Why?"
"I got my reasons."
"Such as?"
"Such as they're my reasons, and I don't
wanna share."
Nabiki got a bit pissed at _that_
response. So pissed she used what one of her
associates termed "The Voice." It was so cold
you had to check for icicles after she was
done talking to you, and anyone who knew her
was terrified of it. "Ranma, you woke me
up at 3 in the morning, let me stand there
butt-naked in the window, asked me to help
you 'run away from home', and you won't tell
me your reasons for it? I don't think so. No
reasons, no help. Now get out and let me
sleep."
Ranma just sat there with an unusual look
on his face.
"What? Didn't hear me? Don't get what I'm
saying? I said get out!"
"What I say isn't to go beyond you, in
any way, shape, or form. You will not tell
anyone, you will not let anyone find out.
Agreed? Otherwise I figure out a way to do it
on my own. Take it or leave it." Ranma
stated.
Nabiki was going to try to bargain, until
she looked into his eyes. <He's serious.
He'd really just get up and leave. He's
thought this out. When the hell did he get
that smart?>
"I agree." she said. <And I hope I don't
regret this.>
"I'm blacking out."
Dead silence. Utterly and completely
quiet.
"Excuse me, did you say, `I'm blacking
out'?" Disbelief wasn't an adequate word for
what she was feeling.
"Yes."
"'I'm blacking out.' And for this you
woke me up at 3 am? Get out. I need my
sleep." Nabiki was feeling quite disgusted.
"I'm serious. I'm blacking out at weird
times. You remember last week? The finals?
How I had to stay after the Math test?" His
voice was earnest, almost pleading.
"Yeah, I was running pools on just how
badly you flunked it."
"I aced it. Hell! I corrected the test in
three places!"
"You what?!"
"Got the second highest score in Japan.
The highest was some girl in Juban. They made
me retake it, to make sure I didn't cheat."
Some pride was evident in his voice about his
scores and some anger about them thinking he
had cheated.
"You didn't?" Nabiki asked. <There's no
way he got that without cheating. Hell, he
couldn't have done it with cheating. I
couldn't have done it without cheating! And
besides, he's always been too honorable to
cheat. Well, in school anyways. His fights are a
different story.>
"NO!" Ranma yelled.
"Quiet! You want to wake everybody up?"
"That won't happen. A bomb could go off
and no one would wake up. Trust me." Ranma
was still steamed about her question.
"How do you know?"
"I added a few herbs to dinner." Ranma
said with a shrug. "I doubt anybody but
Kasumi even noticed them."
"Then why aren't I asleep?"
"I hit a few pressure points that would
counter-act the effects."
"Where did you learn how to do that?"
"Dr. Tofu showed me some stuff before he
went to study in Shinjuku. And Cologne has so
many scrolls, she never notices when some are
missing."
"You stole scrolls from Cologne? That's
nuts! She can kick your butt! <Hey, wait a
second...> When did you learn to read Chinese?"
"I didn't steal them, Shampoo gave them to
me. I asked her nicely, and she was `too, too
happy to help Airen.' As for the Chinese, I can
learn very quickly when I'm motivated, you know
that. And being chased across China by a
homicidal Amazon is a great motivator. Besides,
as long as Cologne doesn't find out, I'm fine."
Ranma said as he crouched down by the window,
which was still open.
"Great. Why don't you shut that window?
I'm getting cold."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"What do you mean `I noticed'?" Then the
necessary math went through her head. Cold
air + silk pajama top - bra = the appearance
of smuggling Tic-Tacs in your shirt. She
quickly crossed her arms over her chest.
<I really don't like the way he's acting. I
can't second-guess him.> Ranma got up and
closed the window. Nabiki tried to get back
to the subject.
"So what about the test?" she asked.
"I remember walking in, sitting down,
picking up my pencil, getting the test, and
handing it in. I don't remember actually
taking it, and I don't know how I managed to
do so well."
"So you panic-blocked it." She said
diffidently. "It's been known to happen. When
someone panics too badly, their brain just
goes `PFFFT'."
"Yeah, right. I'm a martial artist. I
don't `panic-block' anything. Besides, it
happened again. In that fight with Ryoga the
next day. Remember that?" He asked
sarcastically.
"Yeah, I got a lot from the betting
pool. No one expected you to win in one hit.
How'd you do that?" she asked, then said,
"Oh. Another blackout." It wasn't a question.
"Another blackout." He confirmed. "I
remember Ryoga screaming his usual `Prepare
to die, Saotome!' spiel, him running at me,
and then standing over him with him out cold. I
don't know what I did or how I did it." Ranma
was looking, not scared, (Ranma would rather
have open-heart surgery without anesthesia than
admit he was scared) but worried. "I need to get
out of here until I figure out what's going on."
"So, why don't you just go on a
'training trip' if you want to get away?" She
asked.
"Remember the last time? Everybody
followed. It was worse than here. I didn't
get anything out of it but a broken rib,
courtesy of Ryoga. Besides, I need to get rid
of my pop, too."
"Why don't you just up and leave?"
"Because if I did that, they'd try to
find me and probably would. Especially if they
got you to help."
"So, let's talk about what we're going to
do."
"Does this mean you'll help?"
"That depends on what you're willing to
do for me. Some pictures, perhaps?" <I need
to do something to cover my costs. And this
way I can adjust to the new attitude.>
"No nudity."
<He agreed? Just like that? I don't
believe it. He REALLY wants my help.>
"Well, that cuts down on my selling
price, but if you cooperate I can still make
it worth my while. How soon do you want to
leave?"
"Yesterday." Ranma said with complete
seriousness.
"How about in two days?"
<Time to get working. I hope I'm not
making a big mistake. But if I don't help him,
he'll just do it on his own. He won't manage it,
but he'll still try. This way, I'll be able to
keep some kind of tag on him, just in case.>
"That'll do."
***************************************
Hikawa Shrine, earlier that day.
Setsuna began her story. "Let me tell
you a story about a planet named Nemesis..."
She was, predictably, interrupted.
Makoto did the interrupting this time.
"Nemesis! You mean the Black Moon
Family's Nemesis? The 'Hey, we don't like the
way you're doing things, so we're going to
blow you up.' Nemesis? THAT Nemesis?"
"No, I mean Nemesis. As in the fifth
planet in the Solar System. The Nemesis the
Black Moon Family named themselves after. The
Nemesis that is currently an asteroid belt.
Now please be quiet. Thank you."
"As I was saying, Nemesis was a harsh
planet. It had frequent storms caused by it's
massive overabundance of chaos magic. After
six colonies, two regular Army legions, and
one of the Lunar Guard legions all failed to
survive more than two weeks on the surface,
Queen Serenity declared all colonization
efforts of Nemesis banned. She was not going
to lose any more people to a planet that had
no detectable resources.
"It would have stayed that way except
for one thing. One very BAD thing. A
scientist, and chaos mage, named Arik became
bored."
"Wait, how could some scientist becoming
bored be considered a "very bad thing?" Usagi
interrupted, confused.
"Arik was the primary designer of the
Senshi's armor, powers, and weapons. The last
time he got bored, he forged the Silence
Glaive. The time before that, he altered
Saturn's powers so she could take out a
planet without breaking a sweat. She was
already the most powerful of the Senshi, but he
decided that wasn't good enough. The time before
that, he stole the Ginzuishou, and used it to
rip a hole in the Space/Time continuum and
harness it, creating the Time Gate. All because
he was bored! Does that answer your question?"
Setsuna asked with a bit of heat in her voice.
"Um, yeah." Usagi answered in a quiet
voice.
"Good, now don't interrupt me again, or
I'll stop telling you this story.
Arik decided to see if he could tame
Nemesis. You see, Arik was a rabid
perfectionist, and having every planet but
Nemesis with a Senshi was driving him mad.
So he decided to fix the problem. He went to
Serenity and told her he was going to go to
Nemesis and see why none of the colonies had
survived, and, more importantly, find out why
there was no Senshi for Nemesis. Serenity
forbade him to go, of course. Arik just
laughed and asked if she really thought she
could stop him. Two days later, he went to
Nemesis. We know he landed safely, but all
contact was lost less than 15 minutes after
he landed. Due to the chaotic nature of
Nemesis, all our scrying attempts failed.
This was also the reason we were unable to
discover what had happened to the previous
colonies.
After two weeks with no word, Arik was
presumed dead. After two years, no one but his
friends remembered him, and he didn't have
many friends. After five years, no one
remembered him. The only person who never
forgot him was Serenity. She always felt she
should have stopped him from going and blamed
herself for his death. It was ten years
before we found out what had happened to
Arik.
Almost one year to the day after
Princess Serenity was born, a craft was
detected leaving Nemesis. Since Nemesis was
under interdiction, no one should have been
on it to leave. The Navy naturally went to
investigate. They found an older style ship
on a direct course to the Moon. The ship was
battered, bent, and bruised to the point that
no registration was able to be made out. All
attempts to hail it failed. The Navy shot the
engines and boarded. They found a ship that
shouldn't even been able to move in the
atmosphere, much less planetary distances. It
had almost no life support, heating, or
electrical systems. The boarding party
assumed it was remote piloted, since no human
could survive in those conditions. They made
their way to the bridge and got the shock of
their life. A young child, no older than
8 or 9, was sitting in the captain's seat.
They assumed the child was dead from the
condition of the ship. The child must have
somehow launched the ship and died when life
support failed. As the leader went
to cover the body, it looked up, smiled, and
said `Ahh. There's the Ginzuishou. I can feel
it now. Nice seeing you. Good-bye.' And then
teleported. Directly to the Moon. Into
the Palace. To five feet in front of
Serenity's throne. Through over a hundred
alarms, wards, and spells meant to keep
ANYONE from teleporting ANYWHERE in the
palace and didn't make any of them react.
When the child arrived in front of Serenity,
it bowed, dropped to a knee, and did
something that I will always remember: `Your
Majesty? I'm Sailor Nemesis. My life is
your's. I am yours' to command.' Apparently,
Arik succeeded in his goal of making a Senshi."
************************
Tendo Dojo, one day after Nabiki and Ranma's
little "talk."
"Ok, Nabiki, I'm here. What did you want
to talk to me about?" Ranma asked
diffidently.
"I just thought you might want to know
where I'm going to send you after we get you
out of here. Or would you prefer to just
wander around and hope you find it?" Nabiki
responded sarcastically
"Um, Nabiki? I don't think we're
running on the same wavelength here. I don't
need you to help me to get out of here. I
just need you to run cover for me."
"Excuse me? `Run cover'?"
"Yeah. I've already got plans set up to
get me out of here. I've covered the
necessary paperwork and everything. I just
need you to make sure that they get bad
information from you."
"YOU'VE got plans? How the hell long
have you been planning this?"
His reply was brief and concise, "Since
Saffron. I've had dreams and those damn
blackouts since I killed him."
"Oh." There really wasn't much she could
add to that. "Are you sure you don't need any
help?"
"Positive."
"Ok. If you're sure. Where are you
going?"
"I'm not going to tell you. What you
don't know, you can't tell."
"Damn it, Ranma! I told you I wouldn't
tell anyone! Are you saying I lied?!"
"No. You never lie. You may tell partial
truths, you may distort the truth until it's
unrecognizable, you may deliberately give
people the wrong impression, but you never
flat-out lie and you never break your word
once it's given in true faith. I know that,
and I trust you in that. The reason I'm not
going to tell you is because Cologne knows
pressure points that could make you babble
out your entire life story. THAT'S why I'm
not going to tell you."
"Oh." Was the only comment she could
make. <How the hell did he nail me that well?
I never thought he was that good of a judge
of character.> "So, how are you handling the
paperwork and stuff?"
"I called up some people who I did
favors for. They're handling it." Then Ranma
uttered the most frightening phrase ever
invented, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
************************
Hikawa Shrine, still during Pluto's little
talk (so the time flow ain't even. Call it
artistic license. Or call it crappy
writing, I don't care.)
Once again, there was stunned silence.
It was beginning to get repetitive. Pluto
seemed to be enjoying it, though. This time,
Usagi broke it, with her usual `just let it
all come out at once' style.
"Sailor Nemesis? So what did she look
like? What was she like? What were her
powers? Why didn't we hear about her before
this?" That last was asked with a pointed
glance at Luna.
"Don't glare at me. You know my memory
was Swiss-cheesed from being in suspended
animation for several millenia." Luna
responded indignantly.
"It wasn't her fault. Nemesis tended to
be hard to remember." Setsuna commented. At
this everyone else broke out of their trances
and began to assault Pluto with questions.
"Where is Nemesis?"
"What are her powers?"
"Where is she?"
"Are there more Senshi besides Nemesis?"
"What's her fashion sense like?"
Everyone stopped to stare at Minako. She
blinked.
"What? It's a valid question!"
Before anyone could ask any more
questions, a beeping was heard. As everyone
watched, Ami went pale and scrambled for her
purse. She pulled out the Mercury Computer and
began to frantically type on it. Her face
turned even paler.
"Ami? What's wrong?" Usagi asked,
worriedly.
"There's been eight dimensional
disruptions in downtown Juban."
"Which means, what? We've got enemies to
fight?" Minako asked.
"Precisely."
"YES! ALRIGHT! Let's go kick some youma
ass!" Makoto yelled as she jumped to her feet
and pulled out her henshin stick. Everyone else
just sat there and blinked, staring at her.
"What? WHAT!? Why are you looking at me
like that?"
"Sometimes, Mako-chan, you freak me out
worse than Minako." Haruka said in a flat tone.
"Hey, wait a minute..." Minako began to
protest, but was cut off when Haruka continued.
"Now let's go take care the youma. I've got a
race tomorrow, and I don't want to have to miss
it."
Eight nifty-keen light shows later, the
Senshi were gone. Except for Setsuna, who just
sat there. She finished her tea, looked at her
watch, smiled, and said, "Right on time."
*********************
Downtown Juban, about three hours later.
// ZZZAKKTTT // A bolt of tamed lightning
slammed into something that looked like a six-
foot cockroach, turning it into so much ash.
"And another one bites the dust." Makoto
said, wiping sweat off her brow. "Any more?"
"No, that's the last of them." Ami answered
after scanning with the Mercury Computer.
"That's good. I'm tired."
"We all are. Those things were faster than
hell." Minako commented. "At least they weren't
that tough."
"Yeah, that's a good thing." Makoto
replied. "So, Mercury, any idea where those
things were from?"
"No. But I'm worried."
That got everybody's attention.
"What do you mean?" Makoto asked.
"Let's go back to the temple. I don't want
to have to do this more than once."
******************
Hikawa Shrine. (As if by magic, we're there!
Cool!)
Everyone was sitting around the table
staring at Ami, waiting for her to speak. She
was going over some of the data in the
Computer. She looked up and announced,
"We've got problems."
"Well, DUH! Of course we've got problems!
We just had to kill 8 giant cockroaches. I hate
roaches! And I really hate bugs that are taller
than I am!" Minako stated, sarcastically.
Ami either missed the sarcasm or ignored
it. (Every one who thinks she ignored it?
That's what I thought.-Slacker) she just looked
at Minako and said, "More than that. I ran the
structure of those bugs through the database in
the Computer and I came up with a conglomerate
result."
Stares and blank looks met her statement.
She sighed and explained, "Those bugs had
almost all of the good points and almost none of
the bad points of several of our old foes.
Youma, daimon, cardian, etc. The only reason we
won as easily as we did is because these were
apparently prototypes. I was able to detect
several obvious weak points in all of them. They
were flawed. They're going to get tougher. As I
said before, we've got problems."
Haruka smiled and turned to Michiru. It
wasn't a nice smile. She asked, "You know what
this means, don't you?"
"24-7." Michiru said in a resigned tone.
"Right."
Everyone just stared at them, wondering
what they were talking about.
"Excuse me, what are you talking about?"
Ami inquired.
"Don't worry about it." Haruka replied, "We
just need to make some plans if we've got some
new enemies."
"Yes, we do." Rei said, "But first, Where
the hell is Pluto!?" The last was asked in a
fairly pissed-off tone of voice.
At that point, everyone realized that Rei
was right. Pluto was gone. It was quickly
determined that no one had seen her since they
took of to take care of the youma (or whatever
the hell they were called THIS time).
"Great! Just when a new enemy shows up, she
disappears! Typical! When I find her I'm gonna
take that staff of her's and..." What followed
was anatomically impossible, and physically
improbable. When Rei finally stopped swearing,
she noticed that everyone was staring at her.
"What?"
"For a shrine maiden, you swear better than
anyone I've ever met." Minako commented.
"You swear better than my mechanics, and I
didn't think THAT could be done." Haruka added.
"So I'm angry that Setsuna disappeared
right
when we needed her. AGAIN! Doesn't anyone else
feel a bit angry?" Rei asked.
"Yeah, it is pretty damn annoying." Makoto
agreed.
"I have more things to do than sit around
and give you help when you don't need it."
Setsuna said, again from the corner behind
Usagi. Suprisingly, Usagi didn't scream, jump,
or even react to the words. (She was too tired.)
She just stood there. She turned and said, "You
know, that gets really annoying after a while."
Setsuna just grinned in a fairly evil way.
She turned to the rest of the Senshi and
announced, "I'm going to get this out of the
way right now. I can't tell you any more about
Nemesis. Not WON'T, but CAN'T! I've been
ordered by my future self not to. I don't
disobey my own orders. Ever. All I can do is to
warn you to be aware of Nemesis. I'm going to
be busy at the Time Gate for a while, so don't
bother looking for me. As for your enemies? I
can see that they'll be following the same
patterns they usually do, so say goodbye to
sleeping all night. I'll tell you more when I
can."
Setsuna turned, opened a portal, and
walked through. After the portal closed, she
said, "This ought to be...interesting. Oh,
well. Time to get to work."
****************
A train station in Nerima, two days after the
Senshi's meeting.
Nabiki stood and watched Ranma as he
picked up his ticket for his train. Getting
here was suprisingly easy. Ranma had insulted
Akane's cooking and gotten a free trip to the
station via "Akane Air." Nabiki was still
wondering how he had managed to control where
he landed so well. He had come down right in
front of the ticket window. As Ranma walked
over, her curiosity got the better of her and
she asked, "Hey, Saotome. How'd you manage to
get Akane to hit you right to the train
station?"
He turned, looked at her, and said, "I've
got lot's of practice flying `Akane Air.' And
the Saotome School of Anything Goes is an
aerial style, after all."
Nabiki nodded in understanding. "Oh, Ok. I
get it."
"Sooooo, where'd you get a ticket for any
way?" She asked, casually.
"Tomob---" Ranma started to answer, then
stopped suddenly as her question filtered
through his brain. "Nice try." He said dryly.
"Hey, I had to give it a shot." Nabiki said
shrugging her shoulders. <I'll just get it from
the ticket man anyway. You may be acting
smarter than I'm used to, but you're still
Ranma. And that means you're too damn
trusting.>
Ranma looked up as his train was
announced.
"You'll make sure to keep them off my back,
right?" He asked, just to make sure.
"Hey, with the amount I'll get for some of
those pictures, I'll make sure the CIA wouldn't
be able to find you." Nabiki said with a smirk.
Ranma shuddered. The picture session was
something he hoped to be able to soon forget.
He hadn't had to do any nudity, but some of the
swimsuits Nabiki made him wear had about 3
square inches of fabric in them, and 1 and a
half of that was the strings. And the lingerie?
He didn't ever want to remember THAT. Of
course, the fact that she made his pose in both
forms had been an...unpleasant...surprise. If
he hadn't needed her help so badly, he would
have found where she kept her film and burnt
it.
Ranma was shaken from his musings when the
train pulled in to the station. As he got on he
waved to Nabiki and moved to a seat. He stowed
his single bag (which held almost everything he
owned. Wandering for ten years studying the Art
didn't give much chance for getting possesions)
and sat down.
Nabiki smiled to herself as the train
pulled away from the station. She went over to
the schedule board and began to read.
<Bingo! Tomobiki. Sigh. Sometimes it's so
easy, I'm ashamed of myself. At least he picked
a place where he'll fit in with the general
craziness. He'd better watch out for Ataru,
though. Lum won't like it if Ataru finds him in
cursed form. Ouch.> She went over to the ticket
booth and confirmed that Ranma had bought
tickets for Tomobiki.
On the train, Ranma smiled to himself and
pulled the tickets for Tomobiki out of his
pocket. He looked at them, chuckled, and slowly
tore them into pieces. "Gotcha, Nabiki." He
whispered to himself.
*************
Juban Train Station, same day.
The Inner Senshi waited on the platform
after tagging along with Usagi to pick up her
brother after a stay with relatives. Usagi was
currently about to fall asleep against Makoto's
shoulder. (She hadn't taken the "no sleep at
night" thing very well) In the last two days,
they had averaged two attacks a night, and
everyone was running ragged. The youma were
beginning to get tougher to kill, and Ami said
they were beginning to move into the
"production models," which meant that they
would probably start to get tougher. The only
good thing was that all the attacks were
happening at night, so they didn't have to come
up with excuses to miss school. "Teacher, may I
be excused to save the world?" only works on
The Powerpuff Girls, after all.
Usagi's nap was interrupted by the squeal
of the train's brakes. The girls started to
scan the crowds of people getting off in hope
of seeing their target. When they finally saw
him they rushed over to him. They were about to
leave when they heard a roar.
<Typical.> Was the only thought that the
Senshi had just before the youma attacked.
**********************
Juban Train Station.
Ranma got off the train just in time to hear
a roar. He stopped, turned to where the roar
came from, and sighed. A large, black, spike-
covered monster was making the noise. <Great.
Why can't I ever have a normal day?> Of course,
he was in Juban because it had almost as high
of a weirdness rating as Nerima or Tomobiki.
Not as high, but close. He'd fit right in.
<Can't fight it like this, people might
recognize me later.> He started to look for a
place to change. He heard someone shout, "LOOK
OUT!!" He had just enough time to see a ball of
energy before it slammed him through a wall and
into unconsciousness.
The Senshi had no time to check up on the
man who was just hit. They were barely able to
hold their own. The youma didn't seem to be
hurt by anything they threw at it, and they
were running out of steam. Most of their fights
tended to be over within 5 minutes, and this
one was at 6 times that. They simply didn't
have the stamina they needed. They were having
to fall back on their weaker attacks. Finally,
one of them made the inevitable mistake. Venus'
Cresent Beam hit the youma at an angle and
glanced off towards Mars, who jumped towards
Mercury to get out of the way. The youma acted
on the opening with startling speed. It grabbed
Jupiter, threw her into Mercury and Mars,
backhanded Venus into a wall, and was on Sailor
Moon like a cheap suit. It shoulder-slammed her
into another wall. As Sailor Moon lay there,
stunned and barely conscious, it walked over
and raised it's clawed hand to strike. The rest
of the Senshi were barely fighting off the
blackness as well. They could only watch.
At the Gate of Time, Pluto whispered, "It
is time." Then she smiled. <Good. I've been
waiting long enough.>
Back in the train station, Sailor Moon was
waiting for the youma to strike. She closed her
eyes as the claws began to come down.Then she
felt a hand on her ankle. A hand that pulled
her out away from the wall the youma had
knocked her into, and threw her into a
fountain.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" // SPLASH //
"PTOOUIE!"
She sat in the fountain trying to figure out
what had just happened. She glanced over to the
other Inner Senshi to see if one of them had
been the one to throw her. They weren't even
looking in her direction. They were staring at
someone over by the youma. (Venus and Jupiter
had hearts in their eyes.) She turned to where
they were staring and saw a man dressed all in
black. Black shirt, pants, shoes, and a black
symbol on his forehead.
From where she was, she couldn't get a good
look at the symbol, but she could tell it had a
black crescent moon in it. <Crap. Is the Black
Moon Family back?>
The man turned and looked at the youma.
It prepared to spring at him, and he
began to laugh. Not just a little chuckle,
either. A full-blown, tears in the eyes laugh.
This seemed to annoy the youma, and it sprang
at him. The stranger seemed to blur, and the
youma went flying into a wall away from the
Senshi. As the youma began to get up, the
stranger held out his hand, palm up. Black
energy began to gather in his palm. When he had
a ball about the size of a softball, he tossed
it at the youma with a casual snap of his
wrist. It caught the youma in mid-leap. Black
lightning raced over the youma's skin. The
youma hit the floor and seemed to
just...evaporate. All of this happened in
complete silence. No focusing mantra for the
attack from the stranger, no scream of
pain from the youma.
He snorted, and walked over to the
fountain that Sailor Moon was sitting in.
He held out a hand to her, and she reached for
it. She couldn't seem to look away from his
eyes. They were the deepest blue she had ever
seen. She could faintly hear him saying, "You
must be Sailor Moon. It is good to meet you. I
am..." Whatever he was about to say was cut off
by Uranus deciding to introduce herself.
"World Shaking!" He looked up just in time
to catch the blast straight in the chest. He
flew backwards through a shop wall. Neptune ran
over to Moon to see if she was all right, while
Uranus and Saturn made sure the `enemy' was
finished.
When Neptune got to the fountain, she was
unprepared for Moon's reaction.
"What did you do that for? You might have
killed him!" Moon demanded indignantly.
"He was threatening you." She replied
calmly.
"No, he wasn't. He was helping me out of
the fountain. He's on our side. Or at least he
was before you guys blew him through a wall!"
Of course, the Outers had no idea of what
had happened after the Inners got Usagi's
brother out of the line of fire, transformed,
and hit the emergency button on the
communicator. All they knew was that someone
had attacked the Princess. They got to the
station just in time to see most of the Inners
scattered, and some guy dressed all in black
leaning over the Princess. They reacted as the
situation warranted: Take out the threat.
Meanwhile, by the hole in the wall made by
a flying body, Saturn and Uranus were getting
ready to make sure the target was so much dead
meat. Uranus pulled out the Space Sword and
Saturn got out the Silence Glaive. (Better safe
than sorry, after all.) Uranus stepped through
the hole with the Space Sword held in a ready
position. Saturn was about to follow when she
heard a shout and Uranus came flying back out
of the hole, minus her sword. Uranus slammed
into the wall across from the hole and just
barely managed to get to her feet. As she stood
there, a blur flew out of the hole and imbedded
itself about a quarter-inch from her right ear.
It was the Space Sword. Saturn turned back to
the hole just in time to see the stranger climb
out.
"You know, that wasn't very nice." He said
in a rather pleasant tone. He looked around,
noticed the new additions and the fact that the
Inners were looking ready to finish what the
Outers had started, and reached a decision.
<Time to go.> "Well, it's been fun, but I have
to say `Good-bye.' See ya." He calmly
announced, and disappeared into the shadows.
The Senshi heard sirens beginning to come
closer to their location and decided that
leaving would be a good idea. Uranus reached up
to pull out her weapon and had an unpleasant
surprise. She couldn't move it. She
pulled harder. No luck. She braced herself
against the wall and pulled. NSL (No Such
Luck). Mercury noticed her efforts and came
over.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I can't get my sword out of this stupid
wall!" Uranus muttered between gritted teeth.
"Let me scan it." Mercury worked on her
computer for a few seconds. Her eyes widened.
"Well, why can't I get it out?" Uranus
demanded.
Mercury's voice was hesitant as she
answered, "Because it is stuck through a main
support beam."
That made Uranus do a double take. "What?"
"Your sword is stuck in one of the main
support beams for this part of the station. It
was thrown with enough force to drive it in to
the hilt. You're going to have to pull HARD to
get it out."
Rather than answer, Uranus just grabbed
the hilt of the Space Sword and pulled. She put
one foot on the wall, then the other. The other
Senshi all stopped what they were doing to
watch as Uranus obtained a 90 degree angle to
the floor. Her face was turning a lovely shade
of purple when she finally managed to get the
sword out.
"Yes! Oh, Shit!" Unfortunately, she forgot
she was on the wall, and hit the ground on her
head. As she got up, she growled, "Not one
word. NOT...A...SINGLE...ONE!" Seeing the look
in her eyes, no one wanted to risk it. They
rapidly made plans to meet at Rei's temple that
night, and scattered. The Inners went to get
Usagi's brother and the Outers went to patrol
the city to see if they could find that guy in
black.
The guy in black was gone. They never did
find him.
Meanwhile, Ranma woke up in the train
station's bathroom. Water was flowing from a
broken faucet and had soaked him (now a her),
waking her up.
"Oh, man." She groaned, "What hit me?" Then
she remembered. The youma. An energy blast. Some
one screaming a warning. <Hold on. The girl who
screamed the warning. She was dressed in a blue
fuku, along with four others.> "The Sailor
Senshi? I'll be. I thought they were just an
urban legend."
She got up, and groaned as an assortment
of aches and pains made themselves known. <Man,
this shirt is shot.> As she made her way through
the ruin that used to be a waiting platform, she
could hear police and ambulances arriving.
<Man, I'm sorry I missed this fight. It looks
like it was a good one. Maybe I can catch the
next one. Wouldn't want to get out of shape.>
Since she didn't want to have to explain why she
was standing in a former battle zone with
shredded clothes (especially since he was in
his cursed form), Ranma quickly made her way
out of the station without being seen. <Heh,
Umisen-ken strikes again. That technique comes
in handy. Still was a SOB to learn, though.>
Once she was outside, Ranma took to the rooftops
and quickly made his way to her destination: a
fairly nice house on the outskirts of Juban.
She jumped down and went in the gate. She
went up to the door and checked it. <Locked.
Let's see...> She reached around and pulled a
letter from her pack. <Says here if it's
locked, I should use the key hidden in the
flowerpot. Huh. Not a very original place.>
Ranma opened the door and went in. <Letter
says first door on the right up the stairs is
mine.> She went up the stairs, went into the
room, and looked around. <Not bad. Pretty nice,
as a matter of fact. This should be a nice
place to stay, if I can pull my plan off.>
Ranma changed shirts (and sexes) and
put away the rest of his gear. Then he decided
to explore the rest of the house. That took him
all of ten minutes. One room had several lamps
in it, and looked like it belonged to a young
girl. Another had several musical instruments on
the wall, was tastefully decorated, and
spotlessly clean. A third had a huge amount of
racing trophies in a case. The last one looked
like no one had been there in a good long while.
The basement had the usual basementy stuff in
it, and he couldn't find an attic access.
<Well, that was fun. Now what do I do? I have to
talk to the person who sent me the
letter before I know what to do around here.>
Ranma was about to sit on the living room floor
and start meditating when his stomach announced
that it wanted some attention. <Bingo. I'll
make some food.>
He went into the kitchen and started to
make something to eat. It was almost done when
someone pulled into the garage. <Oh, good.
Someone's home. I hope it's the person I need
to talk to.> Ranma stepped away from the stove
and started to wipe off his hands when he
remembered something important. <Crap! I'm
male!> He dashed over to the sink and splashed
himself with cold water just as the door
opened. She turned to look at the people.
There was a blonde (dressed in guys
clothes), a girl with green hair (dressed in
some rather tasteful clothes), and a young girl
with black hair (dressed in a skirt and
turtleneck). They just stared at each other for
a while. Then the blond jumped at Ranma.
******************
Haruka opened the door to the house and
smelled someone cooking. <Setsuna. Good. I can
ask her some of the questions that came up
during the meeting.> It wasn't Setsuna. It was
a short, blue-eyed redhead wearing black pants
and a red Chinese style shirt (which, although
baggy, did nothing to hide her `assets').
Haruka had one simple thought: <Burglar. Get
her.> She jumped at the stranger.
To be Continued. (Big surprise there, huh?)
*************************
Author's piece:
Well, here it is. I seem to be developing a
habit of ending chapters with a cliffhanger,
don't I?
What happened in the meeting? Why is Ranma
in Setsuna's house? What's in nougat? How long
will it be until Strike Fiss writes his next
series? Will I ever shut up? The answers to
some of these questions will be in the next
chapter! (I'm not telling which ones, though.)
Big thanks to all my pre-readers! You know I
love `em!
Aaron Blomenkamp, The Beast of Chaos
Anchan
Battlezone
(http://www.angelfire.com/bc/Battlezone)
CCMax
E_Nebedum
I'm Apathetic
Lord Anthrax
Mr.P (http://www.geocities.com/p_chan05)
`tsuki-chan
William Dix
Xaldaran
The most recent revisions of all the chapters
can be found on my homepage at
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/Slacker
Send me C&C! I love it! Send me flames! I need
something to keep me warm during the cold winter
months! Send me death threats! I need new
ideas! Send me letter bombs! I need something
to break the monotony! (You can send the letter
bombs to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington,
D.C. It's a big white house. You can't miss
it.)
My email: r_heins@yahoo.com
Ja Ne!
Slacker
4/3/00
=====
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you
what can't be done, and why. Then do it.
--Lazarus Long
I am...(Drumroll, please)...Slacker!
KSC, Knight of Discordia, Lord of Discord
Member of the Church of Ami & Makoto
"All Hail Eris! Eris All Hail! Hail, Hail! Hail, Yes!"
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