Born for Trouble Chapter 1[Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
Chapter 1:
"Jupiter, Nova Bomb!!! cried Sailor Jupiter. The massive sphere of
lightning that gathered in her raised hand illuminated the night,
casting an eerie blue-white light. She hurled the sphere like a
baseball towards the slow moving yet powerful demon.

It never knew what hit it. One minute the demon was lumbering towards
a group of frigthened pedestrians who had taken coverin an alleyway
and in the next he was reduced to a smoldering pile of ash.

Jupiter gave herself a pat on the back. That was the third demon she'd
destroyed in less than a week. Neither Mars or Mercury had even had
time to arrive and offer their assistance. She ducked into an
abandoned coffee shop and transformed, exchanging the black and green
bodysuit and its armor with her new Furinkan High School uniform. Well
from now on they would have to handle demons in Juuban. This time
she'd gotten lucky, running accross the attacking monstrosity after
picking up the deposit for her old apartment. If she rushed she could
still make it to her first day at a new school on time. ****

Ranma nearly screamed. It was his last year at Furinkan and his last
in Tokyo if he could manage it. But, even though he'd graduated last
year, at the front gates stood Kuno. New students nervously slipped
past the arrogant kendoist in his traditional robes.

"I see that my appearance doth strike fear into your heart, Vile
Saotome!" he called out in triumph."Now free my beloveds from your
unholy grasp or I shall smite the like the lowly worm that you are!!"
From his right sleeve, Kuno pulled a short metal cylinder with strange
symbols carved all along its surface. Holding it before him, he
twisted the bottom and a three foot blade of yellow light sprang from
the end. A low hum could be heard in the air, as if they were standing
under high voltage power lines.

A light saber! The idiot had a Kami forsaken light saber!"Geeze Kuno,
where'd ya get your new toy?" Ranma taunted.

"Silence! How dare you mock this most righteous blade, a gift from the
gods! With its touch you will finally be scoured from the earth." With
a wordless cry he launched himslef at Ranma. ****

All the students, new and old, had put considerable distance between
themselves and the soon to be combatants. One of them, though, rocked
back and forth on the balls of her feet.

Makoto fought the desire to jump in and stop the fight. The
Shakesperean reject with the magic sword couldn't be too skilled, but
the other boy, who was remarkably cute, could really get hurt by his
attacker's blade. If she got in a fight now, for whatever reason, her
poor record could get her expelled before attending a single class and
by the time she could get away and transform into Jupiter the fight
would be over. With no other option, Makoto stood with her classmates,
readying herself to give first aid if necessary.

Her opinion of the swordsman and his opponents quickly changed. The
boy moved faster than anything she had ever seen, becoming an
unrecognizable blur as he avoided the sword. Even when the speed of
his attacker increased the boy continued to weave himself around the
killing blows. By now the fight had moved across the street and was
interfering with traffic. ****

Growing tired of the old game, Ranma finally went on the offensive.
Darting forward, he punched Kuno solidly in the gut, doubling him over
adn causing him to drop his light saber. Ranma bent down and retrieved
the now inactive metal cyclinder."Can't let you get ahold of this
again," he told the wretching Kuno. With a technique stolen from one
of his many rivals, he slipped the cylinder up his sleeve where it
disappeared.

Ranma left Kuno on the sidewalk and jumped across the street then
bounded across the courtyard in another, alighting himself on the
windowseal of his classroom. Akane was already there, scowling at him.
She must've came in during the fight."What's your problem?" he asked
hatefully. Akane wasn't his favorite person. In fact, she'd been near
the bottom for over a year. Ryoga had attacked him in his sleep with a
spiked mace, sending him to the hospital for naerly a week. It had
taken that long for his broken leg to heal, not to mention the
punctured lung and broken ribs. Then when the damned pig had shown up
again and Ranma was about to kill him, Akane had jumped in and told
him to 'Leave poor Ryoga alone. It was your fault, anyway!'. Their
relationship had been in the gutters majorly after that. The fathers
had only turned up the pressure a couple dozen notches after that on
the whole marriage thing. And the other girls were still on their
campaign to win him by any means necessary.

"Hmph!" Akane snorted in response, not daining to look at him any
longer.

Ranma found a seat on the back row next to the window. Looking out and
down into the courtyard, he watched as the last students hurried into
the building. He caught a glimpse of a purple haired girl in a school
uniform. Oh Kami no!

"Ranchan!" cheered Ukyou. She rushed accross the class room and down
the aisle, claiming a seat next to her beloved.

Ranma hadn't even finished groaning when he heard,"Ranma, Shampoo here
learn with you!" The bundle of Amazonian energy settled herself in the
seat in front of Ranma.

Life sucked. At least it did for Ranma. He was intelligent(sorta),
attractive, and could wield a few godlike powers that most people
couldn't dream of, but when it came to women, he had the worst luck in
the history of mankind. At least Kodachi had been dealt with. He had
to think Nabiki for that. The price was absorbently high, but
kinda...nice. He still couldn't figure out why she had wanted to do
'that' before going off to college.

Just before the late bell rang a tall brown haired girl walked into
the classroom and took a seat in the front, next to Akane. Noticing
Ranma looking at the new arrival, both Shampoo and Ukyou shot the back
of her head such powerful glares that Ranma was suprised when she
didn't drop dead. A few minutes later and after Hiroshi and Daisuke
were sent into the hallway with buckets for being late, the teacher
announced to the students,"Class, we have two new students this year.
Makoto Kino and an exchange student from China, Xian Pu. If you two
would please stand and introduce yourselves to the class..."

"High, I'm Makoto and I look forward to getting to know you all."

"Hello, Shampoo glad to be in same class as Airen. Nobody better
forget," Shampoo warned.

"Today I'll be going over what we'll be learning in the coming
months..." ****

Makoto had walked slowly to her class after witnessing the fight. He
couldn't be human. It was impossible. She couldn't even move that fast
or jump that far and she was the most physically powerful of the
Senshi, next to Haruka, but even she couldn't have matched this
'Ranma' that everyone was talking about. From all the conversations
she heard in the hallway, he must be a legend.

The classes went by in a blur, the teachers' droning tone of voice
becoming an unrecognizable buzz as she fought to stay awake. Finally
the class was dismissed for lunch. Bento in hand, she set out to find
a nice tree to eat her meal under. Maybe she could meet a few people,
possibly even make some new friends. ****

"Ranma Saotome, Prepare To Die!!!"

Ranma rolled from his spot under the tree, sandwhich still in his
mouth, and kickuped to his feet. Ryoga was still carrying the mace
around. A long shock of white hair and the missing top to his right
ear was the only evidence of how close the lost boy had come to being
labotomized by the vacuum blade that Ranma had intended to kill him
nearly a year before."P-chan, it's so nice to see you."

Tearing his mace from the tree, which was now uprooted, it had become
imbedded in Ryoga screamed,"Don't call me that!" From a large pouch at
his side he pulled a number of hand sized metal disks."Die!" Heedless
of the students behind Ranma, Ryoga threw the handful of razor sharp
disks at his hated foe.

"You damned idiot," Ranma cursed while catching the projectiles within
his reach and reducing the ones that he couldn't to lumps of slag with
bursts of super heated chi. Ranma returned the weapons to Ryoga at
amaguriken speed, slicing two parallel lines in both sides of his
face.

Ryoga ignored the minor damage and closed the distance between himself
and Ranma. He swung the heavy mace, now glowing yellow and green with
chi, with a rabid ferocity, uprooting another tree, halving two and
creating no less than three new gates in the school's outer wall.

Ranma continued to dodge the deadly weapon until he was sure that no
one would be injured by his next attack. When the opportunity
presented itself he called,"Kijin Raishu Dan," and launched two vacuum
blades, one after the other. The first impacted against the chi aura
that surrounded the mace causing it to disperse. The second sliced
through the unprotected steel at the handle, leaving Ryoga with only a
handle.

Without pause, Ryoga threw the useless handle to the ground and
unholstered his umbrella. The renewed assault once again had Ranma
dodging the blows that would have liquified a normal man.

Ranma soon grew bored and began to let his guard down. The dagger that
nearly imbedded itself in his throat brought him back to full
diligence. It seemed that Ryoga was even more determined than usual to
kill him. He heard a scream from behind him and saw that Ryoga's
dagger was sticking in a girl's thigh to the hilt. His momentary
inattention was all that Ryoga needed, allowing him to slam his
umbrella into Ranma's shoulder. Ranma flew like a ragdoll into one of
the few remaining trees. He got to his feet a few seconds later and
just managed to avoid another volley of metal disks. Unsteadily, he
leapt into the air, alighting on one of the gates.

Ryoga sneered at Ranma, thinking that he was on the retreat. With all
of his anger and depression to draw from, Ryoga formed a sickly green
sphere of chi in his cupped hands. Thrusting his arms forward, he
cried out,"Shi shi hokodan!" The sphere powered towards Ranma, driven
by a beam of chi.

Ranma couldn't keep the smirk from his face, Ryoga was just too
predictable. Another leap carried him over the attack and high into
the air. When Ranma was directly above Ryoga he used his battle aura
and some clever movement to stop his arc. Now falling straight towards
Ryoga, he poured chi into his extended foot."Meteor kick!" Ranma's
attack drove Ryoga into the ground and created a thirty foot crater.
Another succesful victory without endangering noncambatants. ****

Makoto couldn't bring herself to close her mouth. It just wouldn't
shut. She had been in fights before. Mostly with demons and other
assorted monsters, but a few humans too. Most of the students treated
the fight like any other school yard fight, ignoring the ridiculous
amounts of damage being done to the area, the inhuman speed and
strength of the fighters, and the casual use of energy attacks. What
were they anyway? They certainly weren't magic, she would've known.
Two girls in particular had caught her attention.

"Wow, Ryoga's really trying hard this time," the girl with the giant
spatula accross her back had said.

"Pig Boy too stupid to know he no can win against Airen," added the
purple-haired Chinese girl.

"Do you think we should help Ranchan? I wouldn't want him to get
hurt." She unsheathed her spatula and held it as if it were
weightless.

The Chinese girl, Shampoo, that was her name, pulled two heavy looking
wooden handled mace things from nowhere."Pig Boy better no hurt Airen
or Shampoo kill."

When Ranma plowed Ryoga into the ground, Makoto had had to shield her
eyes from the dust and debris that was thrown into the air. She really
wished that Ami was around, she could've figured out what was going on
easily. ****

Ranma rushed the crying and bleeding girl to the infirmary. Someone
had already run off to call the perimedics. When he barged into the
small room the nurse on duty turned white as a sheet and fainted.
Leave it to Furinkan to hire a nurse that was scared of blood.

"It hurts," sobbed the girl.

"Um, don't worry. I'll take care of you until the ambulance gets
here." Ranma hit several pressure points along her hip and upper
thigh, restricting blood flowed to a trickle of its normal pace. The
wound stopped bleeding almost immediately. With that done, Ranma
pulled the blade free so fast that his patient didn't even know what
was happening until he threw the dagger into the trash can.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," she said wonderingly. She did wince when
Ranma taped a wad of gauze onto the wound.

"I used some pressure points to cut off the blood to your leg. It'll
wear off in a few minutes so make sure to tell the doctors."

"Are you really Ranma?" the girl asked breaking the silence that had
enveloped the room.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"I can't believe that 'the' Ranma just saved my life," she said with
little hearts in her eyes, ignoring Ranma's question.

Ranma nervously backed away from the dumbstruck girl. He knew that
look and it wasn't good. Right after backing out the open door a pair
of men with large bags rushed into the room. ****

Ranma walked into his classroom ready to tell the teacher why he was
late, but he found that the room was empty. He heard a commotion from
outside and went to the window only to see a number of police officers
digging Ryoga from his pit. Ranma opened the window and jumped from
the seal to the crater edge.

"Back away from the crime scene, young man," ordered one of the
policemen.

"Crime scene? This is where he," he pointed to Ryoga,"tried to kill
me."

"Were you invloved in the fight?"

"Yeah. He tried to kill me. I defended myself," he explained as if
talking to a child.

The policeman regarded Ranma flatly, then said,"We'll need to take a
statement. We would also appreciate it if you could tell us where all
his explosives are, if there's any left that is."

"Sure, but there aren't any explosives." It took nearly half an hour
to answer all the questions they asked him. Waling into class a second
time, Ranma was met with a round of applause.

He had to endure the trip accross the room while being congratulated
by the entire class. The trend changed when he actually reached his
seat.

"What were you doing with that girl?" demanded Ukyou. She idly twirled
a spatula shuriken.

"Bad bad thing happen to unfaithful Amazon husband," She mimicked
Ukyou's handwork, but with a small knife that she slipped into a
hidden sheath in her sleeve.

Ranma gawked at them. How could they be so oblivious? She had been
badly injured and bleeding. What did they expect of him? Probably to
let her die rather than touching her."I'm gonna pretend you two didn't
even say anything."

They shared a look and turned a much fiercer one on Ranma."Ranchan,
don't make us tell you ag-"

"Shut up!" he whispered."Just shut up and leave me alone!"

Ukyou jerked back as if he had slapped her, looking hurt. Shampoo had
a smug grin plastered accross her face."Spatula girl leave Ranma
alone. Shampoo take care of him."

He turned to Shampoo."You too. Be quiet and leave me alone." Ranma was
pleased to see that the Amazon sported the same hurt look. They needed
some sense knocked into them. ****

"I can't believe that jerk picking on Ryoga-kun that way! Who does he
think he is?" Akane said. Her battle aura wasn't quite visible to the
naked eye, but it was close.

"Who are you talking about?" Makoto asked the girl next to her. Surely
she wasn't talking about Ranma.

Akane answered,"Ranma, of course. He's always picking fights with
Ryoga."

"The same Ryoga that almost killed that freshman with the knife?" she
returned defensively.

"If Ranma wasn't so mean to him he wouldn't have done that. Besides,
he shouldn't have dodged it," answered the short-haired girl matter of
factly.

Makoto was beginning to seriously consider finding a new place to sit,
a place far from the delusional girl."How do you know Ranma?"

"He's my fiance."

Makoto's head made a resounding thump on her desk. How in the world
could she be engaged to somebody she so obviously hates.

"It's an arranged marriage. I would never be like one of his other
fiances, always fawning over him. Damned baka hentai."

Other fiances? What kind of rabbit hole had she fallen through."Other
fiances? He's got more than one?"

Akane laughed bitterly."There's Ukyou. She's the one with the spatula.
Shampoo is the Chinese bimbo. And Kodachi who isn't here, but you
probably saw her brother trying to kill Ranma with the sword this
morning."

Maybe he was a hentai. She had said that her marriage was arranged,
though, maybe the others were as well."Are they arranged marriages
also?"

Another laugh."Ukyou is, he has to marry Shampoo because he beat her
in a fight, and Kodachi has an arrangement with his father that makes
her one too."

Makoto refrained from saying that Ranma may not be a pervert, that he
just had bad luck, but she doubted the girl would care what she said.
She nodded agrement and began paying attention to the teacher who was
ignoring the fact that no one was paying attention. ****

Makoto was in her new apartment after school when her wrist
communicator began beeping. Turning it on revealed Ami."Ami-chan, I
miss you already."

Ami grinned and asked,"Do you miss us enough to let us come over and
see your new place?"

"Sure, come on over!" she enthused."I'll have some brownies baked.
Tell Artemis and Luna I'll have them a bowl of cream and some tuna."

"That's great Mako-chan. We'll be there in an hour." The tiny screen
went blank.

It was closer to an hour and fifteen minutes, but Makoto didn't care.
Rei and Ami were the only other senshi, besides herself still alive,
something that they never talked about and her only friends. Rei still
had her long black hair in a tight braid and Ami's bluish black still
brushed against her shoulders. She laughed at herself. Of course they
hadn't changed. It had only been two days since she last saw them.

"Wow, this place is a lot bigger than your other one," Rei said."She
gently sat a duffel bag on a nearby couch. A very pregnant Luna ambled
out, complaining about the ride. Artemis jumped up to her and began
teasing her about being fat. He earned a catty slap for his trouble.

"I was joking, honest," he whined, holding his nose with a paw.

The girls ignored the cats as they began arguing with each other.

"You guys won't believe what I saw today." Makoto waited until the two
girls demanded playfully to be told."As soon as I got to school this
guy with a light saber like in that movie attacked this other guy.
They moved so fast, especially the other Ranma. That's the guy whou
got attacked. Then Ranma took Kuno, that's the guy with the sword,
down with one hit. Then at lunch this guy named Ryoga attacked Ranma.
Ryoga was knocking over trees and stuff trying to crush Ranma with a
huge mace. Ranma used some kinda energy blade to desroy it..."she
continued telling them of her entire day,"...and he has four fiances."

When it was over Ami leaned forward and laid the back of her hand
against Makoto's head."Are you feeling all right, Mako-chan?"

"You don't believe me?" she returned in shock.

"No we believe you. It's just that we've never heard you talk about a
boy so much without being in love with him. Does he look like your old
sempai, too," answered Rei.

"That is wierd isn't it? I guess I just sensed that he was taken or
something, but you're right, he does look like my old sempai."

"Are you sure that he isn't evil?" Luna asked. Artemis was dealt with
now she wanted to get back into the role she was meant for.

"Pretty much. Everybody I talked to seemed to know about Ranma. He's a
legend. I'm not even going to tell you all the stuff I heard about
him, you'd laugh for the rest of the night. From what they told me
though, today was pretty much a standard day at Furinkan except with
less fighting."

"Goodness, out of the fire and into the frying pan." Ami shook her
head in mock disapproval. ****

"I did not tell them to sit with me!" bellowed Ranma. Akane was
currently trying to tenderize him with her mallet.

"Don't lie to me! I saw it all. And I still haven't punished you for
picking on Ryoga. Get back here!" She followed him around a corner
only to find him gone.

Ranma had used the umisenken to sneak out of the house and was now at
the Nekohaten for his daily lessons. Suprisingly, it was these times
that were the most peaceful for Ranma. Cologne had forbidden Shampoo
and Mousse from bothering him during the seesions where she taught him
how to better control his chi. She had extended that rule to all his
suitors and rivals after the third visit from Kodachi.

"Be cautious Son-in-law. There is powerful magic in Nerima," Cologne
warned him almost as soon as he stepped into the lot behind the
restaurant.

Ranma shrugged it off."Why don't you show me how to sense magic? That
way I could avoid it."

She shook her shrivelled head."Not until you master the elemental chi
abilities."

"Okay, so what is it today? I don't have to make a yard gnome dance
again do I?" The elemental chi abilities as she called them were
extraordinary and very powerful, but the training was the most
unorthodox of any he'd ever undertaken.

"Not today." She waved her staff at a large tub of water."You've got
to turn that into an ice sculpture of me using only your feet."

When he finally stopped laughing, thinks to a considerable number of
hits to the head, Ranma managed to ask how he was supposed to carry
out his task.

"This is one of the harder abilities to master. You'll have to use
cold chi to freeze the water while using heavy chi to hold the water
in the proper shape. Holding the shape is the hard part."

"No crap," he said sarcastically."Ow!" Rubbing his head, he took off
his slippers and dived head first into his work. Not literally. ****

"No no no," she chided impatiently. Over an hour of indiscriminate
lumps of ice had given Ranma plenty of practice manipulating hot chi,
but that wasn't the point of the exercise."Hold it in place and freeze
it slowly."

"Well could I at least put my feet in the water? It's hard controlling
the chi through the metal." Not to mention that he was beginning to
cramp up from not moving in so much time.

"No you may not. Now I've got to go help Shampoo get ready for the
dinner rush. When I get back I want a passable likeness of me or
you'll have to make it twice as big." Cologne hopped off leaving Ranma
alone.

He could forge a sword from a lump of metal without touching it. Make
the earth open up under someone and swallow them and any number of
other things. Even float in mid-air. Cologne insisted that it would go
no further than that, but he was determined to learn to fly. But
control of water eluded him, his skill being only rudimentary. She had
told him when he began the training that if he learned to control
water well enough that he would be able to heal people of minor wounds
like he automatically had been doing to himself for years. ****

"Can Shampoo take Airen something to drink great-grandmother?" Shampoo
asked sweetly. That the water was spiked she forgot to mention.

"For the last time, no. As repayment for you destroying his wedding I
promised him that I would no longer interfere with his life. Since
then Son-in-law has become an almost respectful student and is
learning at a rate that will leave me with nothing to teach him in
only a matter of months. I won't let you ruin the trust he has in me."

"But great-grandmother," she whined", you no be interfering. Shampoo
just being nice to Airen."

"And where will he think the love potion mixed in with the water came
from?"

How had she found out?"Okay great-grandmother. Shampoo sorry."

Hearing the bell ring, Cologne went to greet the early customers and
very nearly blasted them from existance. From the three harmless
looking girls, two had had some martial training, radiated huge
magical auras. Fire around the long black-haired girl, water from her
shorter companion, and lightning around the tall brown-haired
girl."Welcome to the Nekohaten. My waitress is currently indisposed,
but she'll be out in a minute." Only the fact that none of them
carried any malevolent intent in their hearts saved them. ****

Makoto nearly reached for her henshin rod when the withered old woman
hopped in front of them thinking that she was a demon or youma, maybe
even a troll. When she welcomed them to her restaurant she calmed
considerably.

"I heard that this place is really great," she told her two friends.

"They don't really serve cats here do they?" Artemis asked from his
and Luna's carry bag.

"No silly, that's just a name." Ami giggled, reaching down and
scratching the cat's head.

"Yeah dummy, have a little common sense," berated Luna.

Ami leaned accross the table and whipered to the other two girls,"Poor
Artemis. Luna sure is being mean to him."

"I think its because she's pregnant and he's not," commented Rei.

They were interrupted by a,"Welcome to Nekohaten, Shampoo take your
order."

"Hey Shampoo," greeted Makoto.

"Mako-chan, who you're friends?"

"She's Ami and this is Rei. Girls, this is Shampoo, one of Ranma's
fiances."

Shampoo squealed in delight. She loved talking about her Airen and
since Makoto hadn't shown any interest in him earlier she could really
cut loose."Ranma so strong fighter. Don't you think so Mako-chan?"

"The best I've ever seen."

"Airen too too handsome too," she added.

Makoto nodded."Shampoo, you saw the fight today and know Ranma. Can
you tell us how him and Ryoga did all that stuff?"

"Airen and stupid Pig-boy train very very hard in martial arts. They
learn to control their chi years ago, much better than Shampoo."

It couldn't really all be martail arts, but she still asked,"Can you
do anything like they did?"

"Great-grandmother teach Shampoo many simple things, but Shampoo learn
this one on her own." Shampoo held her hands a few inches apart and
concentrated. A few seconds later a pinkish purple light began to form
between them, eventually forming into a fist sized ball.

"Shampoo!"

"Aiyahh," she jumped in suprise and lost her focus causing the ball to
disappear.

"Why didn't you tell me you had begun mastering your chi?" Cologne
asked her after hopping across the room.

"Shampoo wanted to suprise great-grandmother." She smiled.

Cologne smiled widely."I'm very proud of you, but that doesn't excuse
you from your duties."

"Shampoo talking to new friend Mako-chan and forgot, sorry."

"Don't worry child, I'm not upset. Just take their orders and you can
talk while they eat." She hopped back into the kitchen.

Makoto and the other girls ordered their ramen and waited for Shampoo
to return.

"That was unusual," Rei said when they were alone.

"She's nice," Ami added.

"Yeah she is, but did you see what she did? How did she do it Ami?"
Makoto asked.

"I can answer that," said Rei."Sorta. When I do my fire readings I use
a small amount of chi. I can't imagine how much a person would need or
how well they would need to control it, but that was chi, I felt it."

"That old woman, Shampoo's great-grandmother, do you think she could
teach us how to use our chi?"

"I don't think so, Ami. It took years for me to manipulate a small
amount. Shampoo and Ranma must've devoted their whole lives to
mastering their chi. Grandfather couldn't even come close to what I
saw her do and he's older than dirt."

Shampoo arrived with a bowl of steaming Ramen in each hand and one
balanced on her head. With a flurry of motion she had each bowl
sitting in front of its porper customer. Then Shampoo hurried back
into the kitchen to return a few secomds later with their tea. Once
they were served she sat in the empty place beside Ami.

"Sorry Shampoo took so long. Shampoo watching Ranma practice behind
Nekohaten."

"That's okay," Makoto said between mouthfuls of noodles.

The girls spent the rest of the time before the dinner crowd came in
talking about Ranma and other wierd stuff that happens in Nerima. ****

Cologne didn't know what to think about Shampoo befriending one of the
strange girls, but set that problem aside in favor of planning out how
to better train her great-granddaughter. She hopped into the back
expecting to see a more presentable, but still unpassable lump of ice.
Cologne was suprised, however, to see that not only had Ranma made a
near perfect copy of her right down to the wrinkles, he had also made
a copy of Happosai. The really bad part was that the two ice figurines
were locked together in a passionate kiss. Ranma was nowhere to be
seen. Well, she'd find out just how much he liked the advanced bakusai
tenketsu training tomorrow. ****

Author's Note: Tell me what ya thought!

dark_phoneix@hotmail.com


Born for Trouble Chapter 2[Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
Already a week of the new school term had gone by and Ranma found
himself more miserable than any time in recent memory. Ukyou and
Shampoo spent all their time at school pestering him and all their
free time out of school pestering him. Akane still wouldn't forget his
fight with Ryoga and seemed even more upset when she found out that
the directionally challenged boy was being detained at a local
psychiatric hospital. Akane made life at the Tendo home a living hell
of attempted abuse-thankfully the training Cologne had subjected him
to made him mostly impervious to her attacks-and constant verbal
warfare. Only the time he spent at the Nekohaten-which also drew flak
from Akane-provided any relief. And that was not in the least bit
pleasant. Not after the ice sculpture joke. He still shuddered at the
memory of the following days training. Who knew that steel plating and
cannon balls could be so painful? Now there were reports of an armored
chick prowling the city at night.
On the ground Akane bristled at being ignored. For the third time she
said,"I'm coming with you to the Nekohaten today. I don't trust you
and the bimbo to be alone together!"

Ranma snapped out of his reverie."Don't even go there Akane. It's none
of your business and you know it," he replied to Akane's demand.

"It's none of my business that my fiance is screwing around behind my
back?!" Allowing him no time to respond, Akane pulled her mallet and
and drew it back to belt him across town. Her white-knuckled grip went
slack, turning into a clenched fist as the wooden handle
disintergrated into a fine powder.

"Didn't even have to touch you," taunted Ranma."That's what Cologne
has been teaching me."

Akane disregarded the pile of dust that was once her mallet and asked
coldly,"And what is the bag of bones getting out of the agreement?"

Ignoring the question, Ranma ran the last few feet of fence and with a
prodigious leap alighted himself upon front steps of Furinkan. He
turned around to wave spitefully at Akane who was running to catch,
but had barely entered the school grounds. ****

Makoto was sitting under a tree with Shampoo eating lunch like the
pair had been doing for three days. The bubbly Chinese girl had asked
to sit with her when Ranma had made it plain to all his fiances that
he was to be left alone during lunch.

"For stealing my Shampoo, Die!" the cry was the only warning that
Makoto had as a glowing yellow disk whizzed over her head by the
scantest margin and passed cleanly through the tree she was leaning
against.

Shampoo was up in an instant, her bonbori as Makoto had learned they
were called, in hand and a look of absolute fury on her face."Stupid
Mousse," she called out to the unseen attacker."Shampoo no yours!
Mousse almost kill Shampoo's friend Mako-chan."

Makoto eyes caught sight of the weapon that had nearly beheaded moving
in a wide arc towards the school roof. A moment after she pointed it
out she was stunned to see her friend launch herself to the top of the
school from with a single flat-footed leap. ****

Ranma saw the attack to late to interfere with it, but he did manage
to see its origin. He found Mousse gazing expectantly over the edge of
the roof, no doubt waiting to see his hated rival for Shampoo's heart
killed. He cleared his throat loudly and announced himself,"Over here
Quackers."

Mousse spun around and without hesitation threw a quarter ten yen coin
sized disk at Ranma from each sleeve of his robes. Each one erupted
into two foot blades of energy a moment later. Even as he dodged them,
Ranma noted that the metal they were composed of had the same dull
sheen of the sword he had taken from Kuno and that the energy they
produced was the same bright yellow. His danger sense barely saved
him, though, when as the two deadly disks passed him they doubled in
size, forcing Ranma to throw himself back onto the roof.

"Stop being a coward, Saotome, and fight me like a man."

"A coward!" roared Ranma in the process of standing."Who's the one
throwing around magic frisbees?" Ranma saw the first of the disks that
Mousse had curving around and decided to himself that he wouldn't warn
Mousse if the boy happened to be in its path. The hope of avoiding a
fight was dashed when it stopped above his attacker's head, reverted
to its inert state, and began floating just above his shoulder.

"Mousse!" Shampoo stood on the roof's edge, glaring at Mousse with a
look that promised so much pain that Ranma nearly felt sorry for him.

"Sh-Shampoo, what are you doing here?" Mousse stammered. The other two
disks took a position similar to the first over his shoulder while his
back was turned.

"Mousse almost kill Mako-chan. Better have good explanation!" She
raised her bonbori menacingly.

"I was just trying to free you, my love, from Saotome's evil
clutches," he pleaded.

Shampoo began advancing on him. A pleased smile bloomed on her face
when she noticed that Mousse had started to tremble.

Ranma took the opportunity to come behind the blind boy, smack him in
the back of the head, and grab the disks. He slipped them into storage
along with Kuno's mysterious new sword.

Shampoo tried to run up and glomp him, but she saw him shake his head
and stop. She could respect his personal space like he had told her
too. It was just really hard.

He offered her a slight smile and glared at Mousse's unconsious back
before jogging to the edge of the roof and jumping down. ****

Makoto had recovered from her earlier brush with death, it happened
often enough, and was about to part ways with Shampoo to meet with her
friends from Juuban when a red-headed girl wearing the same chinese
clothes that Ranma usually wore, darted past them. Akane, Ranma's only
mean, nonaffectionate fiance, followed closely behind the girl, waving
a now familiar mallet. Maybe she was a new fiance."Hey Shampoo, who's
Akane chasing after?"

Shampoo scowled at Akane's departing back."Violent girl should be nice
to Ranma."

"I agree, but who's the girl that she's chasing?"

"Oh you don't know about Ranma's curse," Shampoo laughed."Shampoo
suprised you not find out by now."

"What curse?"

"Jusenkyou curse. Shampoo, Ryoga, Mousse, and Ranma each have one.
Shampoo turn into a cat when hit with cold water, Ryoga turn into pig,
Mousse turn into duck, and Ranma turn into girl."

Makoto was tempted to believe the girl. After seeing what she had in
her short life, she'd leard to have an open mind about supernatural
stuff. It was this philosophy that that kept her sane."Quit pulling my
leg, Shampoo. There's no such thing as curses."

What did pulling her leg have to do with anything? Shampoo shrugged it
off as a Japanese thing and said,"Come to Nekohaten with Shampoo.
Shampoo show her curse. Mousse still in full body cast so you just see
Shampoo."

She didn't think they would care if she was a few minutes late so
Makoto agreed. The Nekohaten was empty of customers as it usually was
at that time of day and they had no trouble getting into the kitchen.
Cologne, Shampoo's great-grandmother, was stirring a large pot of
steaming broth.

"What are you girls up to?" Cologne asked as they passed.

"Mako-chan no believe in Jusenkyou curse. Shampoo prove to her."

Cologne smiled."So you finally found out about those. May I ask from
who?"

"I saw Akane chasing this girl wearing Ranma's clothes. I asked
Shampoo who the girl is and she told me. It is hard to believe."
Makoto felt uncomfortable in Cologne's prescence. She felt like the
woman was constantly scrutinizing her. Not to mention that there was
an almost tangible aura of power around the woman.

"Ah, Son-in-law. It suprises me that you haven't found out sooner."
****

Shampoo had handed her two glasses. One was full of hot water and the
other cold. Her instructions were simple enough: Pour the cold water
on Shampoo, then pour the hot water on Shampoo-neko. Simple really.
But when she finally brought herself to pour the water over the girl's
head she was unprepared for the transformation that took place.
Shampoo disappearred into pile pile of clothes. A moment later the
clothes began to move around until a small, white and purple cat
popped its head from under the skirt of Shampoo's school uniform.

"S-Shampoo." Makoto jumped back causing some of the hot water to slosh
out over the rim of the glass. It splashed the cat which in a flash
was a naked Shampoo.

Shampoo scrambled to get into her wet clothes. She said to
Makoto,"Shampoo tell you so." She smiled at her friends slack jawed
appearance. ****

Waiting for Cologne to arrive, Ranma rolled one of the disk weapons
that he took from Mousse over the back of his knuckles. He held
another in his left hand, examining the tiny symbols etched on its to
faces. He heard the 'tap tap' of Cologne's staff as she approached and
was about to stow the devices away when he felt a tap on his shoulder
made him jump.

"What have you got there?" Cologne asked curiously.

Damn, she'd used that trick again. It couldn't really hurt to show her
the things. it wasn't like he knew what they were. Ranma held the two
small disks out for Cologne to see and was rewarded with a look of
such utter astonishment on the woman's face that it would have been
comical if he wasn't so worried about what could actually suprise her
so much. She'd barely raised an eyebrow when he had told her about the
fight at Jusendo.

"Where did you get those?" she demanded in a fierce whisper.

"Mousse tried to kill me with them today."

Cologne looked really really angry. Come to think of it, he'd only
seen her make a battle aura twice."Do you have anymore of them?"

Ranma pulled the other one and after thinking about it, Kuno's sword,
from subspace. Now she knew that he'd mastered Hidded Weapons, but
there was really no helping it. Really big battle aura.

"What exactly do they do?" Her voice sounded strained.

"This," he waved the light saber,"made an energy sword when Kuno
twisted the bottom part and the disks made really big energy disks
that came back to Mousse like boomerangs."

Cologne began mumbling to herself.

Ranma could only catch small pieces of what she said like,"They'll be
pissed," and Ranma will be enducted."

Finally, Ranma lost patience and asked,"What are you going on about?"

"Follow me inside, Ranma." ****

Ranma followed Cologne up the stairs that led to the sleeping quarters
above the Nekohaten. They stopped in front of a door that had symbols
carved on its edges that resembled those from the weapons Cologne had
confiscated. She opened the door with a tap of her staff, revealing a
room that easily rivalled the size of the entire building.

"How?" he gaped. It was impossible. Okay, maybe not impossible, but
damned close.

"Get in here and I'll explain it to you later."

Once again Ranma followed the Amazon. She led him down a haphazard
path, between stacks of books, tables piled high with unusual devices,
and around roped off areas where cauldrons full of foul smelling
substances bubbled. On the far side of the room they stopped in front
of a large silver ring that was partially imbedded in the stone floor.

"Are you going to explain all this to me now?" he asked exasperatedly.
What was going on?

"Be patient." She placed her and on the ring and glowed for a brief
moment.

Ranma felt Cologne channel her chi into the ring, but couldn't figure
out what she was doing.

When the ring started to emit a slight humming sound Cologne drew her
hand away."Now Ranma, follow me."

Ranma was getting tired of being told to follow her around like a
puppy. It was kinda nice being referred to by name, though. With a
sigh he walked through the ring expecting to run headfirst into the
wall. ****

He dropped into a low combat stance and hardened the air directly in
front of himself to dampen any physical blows while lacing it with chi
to protect himself from any minor attacks.

The room that they had appeared in was close enough in size to the one
they had left so that Ranma couldn't see a difference. There were also
a dozen men and women, all armed with staves, swords, and other
assorted weapons, each with a bright battle aura surrounding them. He
looked to where Cologne should be and was confronted by a woman in her
early thirties with jet black hair who bore a striking resemblance to
Shampoo.

"What in the hell is going on?!" Ranma abandoned his earlier defenses
and brought his battle aura to bare. It flowed around him like golden
fire, turning to mist along its blurred edges. He moved so fast that
the only sign of his passage was a golden trail of chi and dived
through the ring that had brought him to wherever it was. Nothing
happened. Ranma was forced to flip around and kick off the wall to
avoid an embarrassing collision.

"Calm down Ranma," the woman said after he settled down on top of the
ring.

"Cologne, if you really are Cologne, you have about ten seconds before
I start hurting people." Much to Ranma's chagrin the other people in
the room began to laugh."You think this is a joke," he demanded. White
fire engulfed his arms and coalesced into a pulsing globe of white
light in each hand. They shut up.

"This place is where those weapons came from. We came to find out who
supplied them to Mousse and Ryoga."

"And why are you young? Where are we? Who are all these people? I
don't like being kept in the dark."

"Show some respect boy!" demanded one of the men. He levelled his
plain wooden staff at Ranma and a bolt of lightning erupted from it
towards him.

Ranma reacted only by raising his right hand and the white energy
sphere over his head. The lightning changed directions and was
absorbed by the sphere when it made contact."Cologne. I thought we had
some mutual trust."

"Indeed we do. If you still trust me please come down her and I'll
explain what I can."

The two spheres tranfered themselves from Ranma's hand's to a place
above each shoulder, he then flipped forward to land next to
Cologne."Call off the goons," he told her. The sound of multiple sets
of teeth grinding together reached Ranma easily.

"The 'goons' are actually an escort of honor for you and I. They are
here to lead us to the Council Hall." She started walking towards the
only exit in the smooth gray walls of the room.

This time Ranma walked at her side, determined not to be led
around."That's one question answered." They were walking down a dimly
lit hallway now. Ranma could still see that the walls were made of
gold veined marble, even in the low light.

"We're currently several hundred miles east of the Bermuda Triangle in
the underwater city of Atlantis. Not the original Atlantis mind you,
but that's what we called it when we found it two thousand years ago,"
she replied evenly.

Ranma didn't know who was crazier; Cologne for expecting him to
believe the story or himself for actually believing it."And your age?"

She smiled at him for no reason that he could fathom."Oh, I'm about
three hundred and seventeen." Their little party reached a cavernous
room. The six men who were in front of them veered to the right and
the six women behind them turned to the left, but Cologne made no move
to change her course, and she and Ranma continued walking straight.

"Is the pervert like you? I meen does he look old, but is really
young?" Ranma asked while at the same time gaping at the room they
were in. The ceiling, he realized, was transparent allowing him to see
a multitude of fish and even a shark swim by. The room was illuminated
by hundreds of glowing glass balls that floated randomly a dozen feet
above the floor. The walls were the same gold streaked marble.

Cologne laughed heartily."Oh no, not by a long shot. In fact I modeled
my aged appearrance after his."

Ranma didn't ask anymore questions as they walked to the huge gold
doors on the other side of the room. Instead, he sorted through all
the sights he had seen and things that Cologne had been hinting at for
almost a year. An idea, not a good one, but an idea nonetheless, came
to him."It's magic," he said when they were halfway to the door.

"What is?" she asked in response.

"What you've been teaching me. You've been teaching me magic all along
and I didn't even know." It really was a bad idea.

Cologne arched an eyebrow."What is magic?"

"I don't know for certain. I know that what you've taught me is magic,
but I know that it can't effect my curse, which is also magic. Maybe
it's a lot of different things." He shrugged helplessly.

"Very good. I wasn't expecting you to figure that out for a few more
months. Magic comes in as many forms as you can imagine, but few
people believe in it."

"So your a sorceress or witch or something?"

"Those of us who practice our particular brand of magic prefer to be
called mages. You and I are warrior mages."

"Brand of magic? What does that meen?" A good idea afterall.

"As I said, magic comes in many forms. Those who can control magic
control different forms. Mages for example, use their internal energy,
their chi as you and I recognize it, to attack and defend in an
infinite variety of ways, but are limited by how much energy they have
within themselves. Channellers draw from external energy sources. They
tend to be linked to a specific location, drawing a particular form of
mana from that place and can being able to channel it until they
exhaust themselves. A man linked to a volcano would have a number of
heat and fire based spells or abilities. Witches and Warlocks use the
psychic energy of their minds to cast and create spells. Most Witches
and Warlocks are very gentle and peaceful because they need a perfect
mental balance to cast their spells or they risk destroying their own
minds. Some people form a powerful psychic bond with an animal. From
this bond they are able to draw energy and form it into an elemental
form of attack and its equivalent defense. They are called sorcerers
or sorceresses and are only limited by the strength of their
familiars. Anyone with inborn magic is called a magi. They tend to be
confused with mythilogical gods. Saffron was magi. The most powerful
in history. Artificers have no magic of their own, but for some reason
anything that they craft with their hands gains random magical
properties. They range from being able to turn the user invisible to
making the user double in size, but the one constant among them all is
that they act as a lens for all forms of magic. My staff is such a
lens. It's my staff's ability to create small illusions that has kept
my agelessness hidden."

Ranma's head was nearly spinning. He'd never suspected there to be so
much to magic. Before it had been curses, potions, and some
miscellaneous junk. Now there was a whole world of it."You said that
there were a lot of different kinds of magic, but that's not that many
different kinds of magic-users."

"Most magic can't be controlled." The doors which now loomed over them
began to swing open."Now be on your best behavior. You may be more
than a match for any one of them, but they out number you a thousand
to one."

"What's happening now?"

"You are being presented to the Council as a new mage. Once you gain
membership in the Order you'll be gifted with a weapon and I'll be
able to petition the Council to take action against the Attendent who
gave Mousse and Ryoga their weapons."

"What's an Attendent?" Ranma could through the partially open doors,
see a room easily as big as the one he was currnetly in. This one was
filled with people sitting in stadium seating, though.

"Attendents are people who have enough Atlantean blood in them to
operate the technology left here when the city was abandoned. Much of
the remaining machinery is in disrepair and we have no notion of how
to fix it. Most of what still functions generates power and maintains
an atmosphere of fresh air for the city. A few things do, however,
still operate. It's one of those that made the weapons."

The doors were fully open now and Ranma could see that he was
outnumbered more than a thousand to one. It was closer to two
thousand."Do all these people stay down here?" he asked.

"No. While we were in transit they arrived. I purposely slowed us so
they would."

"Just how much time has passed?" Even though he asked the question,
Ranma feared the answer.

"Two days."

The only thing that kept Ranma from screaming in dismay was that he
didn't want to embarass himself in front of so many people. The last
time he'd disappeared from Nerima, an unlucky case of falling asleep
on the train, troops had been called in to stop the rioting. No one
was even looking at him, Ranma noticed. They were all chatting among
themselves."Do you know what kind of hell Nerima is going to be when
we return?"

"I have some idea. I was there last time afterall."

Fighting the urge to cry, Ranma continued on.

Born for Trouble Chapter 3[Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
Chapter 3:
Ranma and Cologne finally stopped at the far end of the glass-domed
room. There on a raised platform was a massive oak table. Six people
sat in plain, high backed chairs. A seventh chair stood empty. It was
quickly filled, though, as Cologne leapt onto the platform and took
the a seat. The hum of numerous conversations suddenly disappeared and
an awkward silence swept through the room.

"Who comes before us today?" a white-bearded gaijin man in his middle
years asked. He occupied the center chair.

"Ranma Saotome," Cologne answered for him and for the first time since
arriving in the underwater city, Ranma realized that he hadn't heard
Japanese spoken once. Even his conversation with Cologne had been in
another language. It was probably just more magic.

"And who was his teacher?" an extremely dark-skinned man with a shaved
head asked.

"I was," Cologne once again answered.

"Is he worthy to be a member of the Order?" the only other woman
asked. Her hair was as red as his girl form's and was, Ranma decided,
the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"He is." Cologne again. Ranma dismissed the ritual for what it was, a
waste of time.

"Can he be trusted with our secret?" the giant of a man beside Cologne
asked.

"His honor is unquestionable."

"Is he warrior, scholar, or guardian?" asked a dumpy little man with
three chins.

"Warrior."

"How has he distinguished himself?"

"Ranma is a warrior of legendary skill and an unrecognized master of
fifteen martial arts disciplines. Saffron, the greatest of Magi, fell
to him in battle when his knowledge of our craft was limited to a
simple emotion based chi attack and the hiryu shoten ha." The
previously quiet gathering of people seemed to erupt with questions
and comments. It only lasted a few seconds before the white-haired man
clapped his hands above his hands once, producing a resounding bang.

The only man yet to ask a question, rose and walked down the
platform's steps. He stopped and offered his hand to Ranma,"Be welcome
young Ranma to the Order of Mages." This time no one stopped the
thunderous applause. They lasted for several minutes before dying
down.

Ranma thanked the man and was about to ask Cologne what was next when
she asked,"Would someone please escort Ranma to the armory? The
Council has much to discuss."

From the streams of people leaving through various exits a girl not
much older than Ranma wearing a pair of jeans and a Hello Kitty tank
top broke away. She took Ranma's arm and began leading him towards an
unopened doorway. Ranma decided that she must be the red-head's
daughter. Her hair was brown, but her face was virtually
identical."Hi, I'm Margaret."

"I guess you already know my name." Ranma was glad that so many
beautiful girls had thrown themselves at him or being in such close
proximity to Margaret would have been difficult/

She laughed. It sounded like tinkling bells."Everybody knows your
name. I even have a picture of you hanging on the wall in my room at
home."

Ranma blushed and asked,"What are you talking about?"

"I live in Tomoboki. There's a little shop at the end of the street
mother and I live on that sells posters and greeting cards. It's
called Nabiki Inc. You're on most of the posters and some of the
greeting cards.

"Nabiki," Ranma growled."She's gone to far this time."

"You know her?" Margaret asked curiously.

"She's the sister of one of my fiances," he answered offhandedly.

"'One' of your fiances?" she screeched, jerking her arm away."What are
you, a pervert?"

"Hey, it's not like I had a choice. The only one that wasn't arranged
by my stupid father is the one to Cologne's great-granddaughter. I'm
engaged to her because I beat her in a fight. Stupid Amazon laws," he
grumbled.

Margaret scrunched her face cutely and grabbed his arm back up."I'm
sorry. Sounds like your in a pretty bad situation."

"Yeah. Akane, Nabiki's sister, is really violent and she hates me.
Kodachi is insane and Shampoo and Ukyou are head ober heels in love
with me. I'm obligated by honor to marry all of them."

"That's horrible!" She sounded genuinely sorry for him.

"Don't worry about it. How about telling me what just happened back
there?"

"The ceremony?" Ranma nodded."Its been around for a really long time.
I had to go through the same thing last year. Of course I didn't have
the famous Cologne speaking for me."

"But isn't your mom on the Council?"

Margaret laughed again."That's my grandma silly. She was too busy to
teach me."

"You're not a warrior are you?" Ranma asked. He already knew that she
wasn't, but he was trying to keep the pleasant conversation going.

"Oh no! No fighting for me. The sight of blood makes me sick to my
stomach. I'm a scholar, just like my mom. My dad is a warrior,
though."

"What do scholars and guardians do, anyway?"

"Scholars do all kinds of things. Mostly, though, we observe and
record human history. Guardians are assigned areas to keep safe from
supernatural interference and take turns watching over Atlantis." They
came to a plain wooden door with an armored guard on either side.

Without speaking, one of the guards opened the door for them and
returned to his original position. Ranma and Margaret walked into
another one of the rooms like the one at the Nekohaten. The walls were
lined with swords, staffs, knives, and any type of imaginable weapon.
There were also racks off armor and cases off jewelry.

"I don't use weapons," Ranma said.

"You're a warrior and you don't use weapons?" she asked in disbelief.

"I fight unarmed," he answered adamantly.

"Well you don't have to get a weapon. My ring," she held up her hand
so that he could see the simple gold band that adorned her left ring
finger,"focuses my power as good as any weapon and lets me see through
walls."

Ranma didn't really want a ring. Maybe he could find a set of bracers
or something. He saw in the center of the room a glass case with
several miscellaneous items. There were several swords, two small
ornate rods, and various bits and pieces of armor."Why are those
closed up?" he asked Margaret.

"Grandma told me that they're the only remnants of a kingdom that
vanished thousands of years before Atlantis was ever constructed. No
one has ever been able to bond to one, so they were put in the
display."

Ranma walked over to the case and lifted the lid. It wasn't even
locked. He reached down and touched a large translucent band of
crystal. At his touch it flared with sapphire light and like water,
flowed up his hand, wrapping itself around his wrist. Once settled, it
glowed brightly and steadily sapphire blue. All this occurred in the
span of a second. In another second a second crystal band flew up to
the hand holding the case open. The process was repeated and Ranma was
left with a very conspicuous set of glowing wristbands.

"Ranma," Margaret whispered reverently,"how did you do that? Why did
you even try?"

Ranma didn't know how or why. He did somehow know, though, that his
new whatever they weres granted him the ability to teleport. There was
also a lot more knowledge in his head than had been there before. Most
of it was about a long dead kingdom, but with it came knowledge of how
to do a few interesting things with his chi. To check the accuracy of
his information, Ranma picked up a sword made completely of obsidian.
He released a precise amount of chi into it and was not suprised when
it became a silvery liquid that crawled slimily across his skin,
moving from one hand to the other, then returned to its original
state. Ranma didn't even have to look under his shirt to know that a
black and silver dragon was now coiled around his chest."Cool."

"'Cool'? Ranma that was amazing!" she squealed.

Ranma reached into the case and pulled out a plain gold ring much like
Margaret's,"Here. It won't focus your power anymore, but you'll be
able to move really fast."

"It won't work. We can only bond to one focus. We're only supposed to
be able to bond to one," she said in confusion.

"This isn't a focus. It's just a ring that lets you move faster than
you should be able to. The more chi you put into it the faster you
go." He handed the ring to her.

"How do you know, Ranma?"

"These things," he tapped his wristbands together,"put some info in my
head. Watch." Ranma made the glow coming from the crystals dim until
they only seemed to be blue crystal."They told me how to do that."

Margaret slipped the ring onto her other ring finger and said,"Thanks
Ranma."

He scratched the back of his head a bit nervously and told her,"Don't
worry about it. We're friends right?"

"Sure."

They walked out of the room and found Cologne and who Ranma assumed
was Margaret's mom, waiting impatiently for them. Resembalance was
really passed through her family. It was like seeing an older
Margaret.

"What took so long? You weren't fooling around with our newest Mage,
were you?" asked her mom.

Ranma and Margaret blushed badly and Margaret said,"Ranma discovered
the most extraordinary thing..." and so she explained to them what had
happened in the armory.

Cologne shook her head and smiled wryly."Ranma Ranma Ranma, whatever
am I going to do with you?" she asked.

"Maybe we could get back to Nerima before there's a national
emergency. We should probably bring a few Mages to help settle things
down," he joked.

"I'm sorry, but we can't leave for another few days. The other
Councils have to meet and then the High Council will convene to
determine your rank among the other Mages and within the Society as a
whole."

Ranma's hope of coming back to a reasonably intact Nerima fell. Then
he remembered just how unhappy he was in the Tendo home. A little time
away from the fiances would be nice. He fianlly shrugged and said,"Oh
well. They'll just have to make do without me."

"Where will you be staying Cologne-san?" Margaret asked.

"My quarters have been readied by now, I believe. Ranma can sleep on
the couch."

"My brother's on his honeymoon and couldn't join us. I'm sure mother
wouldn't mind if Ranma stayed in his room." She clasped her hands
together and smiled innocently at her mother.

"Don't you think Ranma should have some say in where he'll be
staying?" her mother asked.

Margaret blushed slightly. Ranma said,"I don't mind staying with you
and Margaret."

"Okay, it's settled. Margaret will show you to our quarters while
Cologne and I finish talking."

Ranma followed Margaret into a nearby corridor. It soon forked into
three separate passages. Margaret pulled him down the left one for
another hundred feet and past a few doors. She stopped at a non-
descript door where she placed her hand on a small panel on the wall.
The door slid open quietly and lights automatically lit the interior.

"Wow, nice place," Ranma commented. The room they were in was
furnished with expensive looking antiques. The gold veined walls
gleamed and the crystal fixtures gave off a soft yello light.

"It's a little old for my tastes. Mom likes it, though. When I'm
assigned my own quarters I'm going decorate them to be more modern.
You hungry?"

"Starved."

"Let's see what we've got in the pantry."

The kitchen was as modern as any Ranma had seen. It also had one of
those rooms like Cologne's in the Nekohaten-for a pantry. It looked
like what Ranma imagined the stock room of a large grocery store to
be."It's huge!" he exclaimed.

Margaret giggled at his reaction."You should see one of the main
storage rooms. They're really huge."

"What could you need so much food for?"

"The High Council has been buying food for years and preserving it
with magic. Grandma told me that a whole bunch of the Psychics had a
vision that one day there would be another world war. When that
happens, we're all going to come live in Atlantis."

That made sense in a bleak kinda way."Psychics? Aren't those the
Witches and Warlocks?"

"No. Witches and Warlocks use their psychic energy to do magic.
Psychis use their's to do stuff like magic. Didn't Cologne tell you
all this?"

"I didn't even know that I was learning magic from her until less than
an hour ago." Ranma tucked a bag of potato chips under his arm.

"Do you know about the different kinds of magic-users that make up the
Society?" Ranma nodded."The Psychics?" He shook his head."Okay.
Psychics are different from us because they don't specialize in any
particular field. There are different abilities they can have.
Pyrokinesis is the ability to create and control fire. Telekinesis is
the ability to move matter without touching it. Psychokinesis is like
telekinesis, but it lets a person control machinery and electronic
stuff from a distance. Let's see, what else is there." For a few
seconds Margaret thought about other psychic abilities."Telepaths can
read people's minds and Precognizants can see the future. There are
other abilities that I can't remember."

"How have they kept it all this a secret?" Ranma finally asked the
quaestion that had been playing itself through his mind.

"I haven't been a Mage long enough to know how everything works, but I
do know that there are politicians all over the world who are members
of the Society. The High Council spends a lot of money to bribe people
also." She grabbed a handful of candy bars and a couple bottles of
water. ****

"We really shouldn't leave them alone together for so long," Cynthia
told Cologne."Their personalities are to compatible."

"Don't worry about Ranma, he's used to pretty girls throwing
themselves at him. My great-granddaughter does it on a regular basis.
He's very honorable."

"My Margaret isn't throwing herself at him!"

"Hey, don't take it the wrong way. I was just trying to reassure you."
soothed Cologne.

"Sorry about that. We're just really protective of her, that's all,"
she apologized.

"How is Kenji by the way?"

"As infuriating as ever. I still love him, though." They continued
towards Cologne's quarters."Have you told Ranma about his
engagements?"

"Not yet. It really doesn't matter. From what I've gathered from
conversations with him over the past several months, he all but hates
Akane and the other girls, including Shampoo, have alienated him
beyond repair with there behavior. If he knew that he was no longer
honor bound to marry any of them..." she let the thought trail off.

"It'll also keep him in check around Margaret."

Cologne shook her head at her friend's stubbornness. ****

Jupiter barely had time to bring up a dome of crackling energy before
the hail of gunfire from the gang of looters hit her and the group of
students she was escorting from the school to the relative safety of
the park where her fellow Senshi and some of the insanely powerful
martial artists from Nerima were making a stand. How the entire ward
could become a warzone just because Ranma disappeared was beyond her
mind to comprehend. Mercury was still trying to figure it out and
she's a super genius."Chain lighting!" she called. From her
outstretched hands ropes of lightning shot into the gang, jumping from
one person to the other until they were all dead or unconscious.

"You killed them!" a gril in the back accused.

"Not all of them are dead. If they had there way, we would 'all' be
dead," an older boy explained.

Jupiter dropped the shield and said,"Come on, we've got to get to the
park."

When the group finally arrived, the students were escorted to a small
camp near the center of the park by a police officer. Jupiter found
Mercury and Mars talking with Ukyou.

"This is a lot worse than the last time," Ukyou was telling them.

"I hope the rioting doesn't spread any further. If it does, other
wards may be affected," Mercury replied.

"This is ridiculous. How could one boy cause all this trouble?"

Shampoo who had just walked over to them answered,"Great-grandmother
say that airen have very powerful life force. It bend other life
forces around it. When airen go away all other people's life forces
confused, make them do crazy things." She wiped the sweat from her
brow then wiped some blood from one of her bonbori with a piece of
cloth.

"I wish she was here," Mercury said."Maybe she could do something to
help us."

"I'm telling you," Ukyou said angrily,"that old bag of bones is
responsible for my Ranchan's disappearance!"

"No accuse great-grandmother, stupid Spatual-girl!" Shampoo exclaimed.

Jupiter and Mars pulled the girls apart before they could get in
another fight. ****

-And in further news, the Nerima ward of Tokyo is experiencing its
second day of almost nonstop rioting. The arrival of the Sailor Senshi
has brought a lull in the violence, but the trend is showing evidence
of reverting to its previous state-

Margaret turned the channel before Ranma could become anymore
depressed. He was really taking it hard. It wasn't his fault that
Nerima was full of psychos.

"I didn't imagine it could get so bad," he sighed.

Attempting to change the subject, Margaret asked,"Do you think the
Sailor Senshi are members of the Society?"

"Nah. If I remember correctly, they're leftover princesses from the
Silver Millenium," he answered without thinking.

"What was the Silver Millenium?"

"That's what people used to call the time during reign of the House of
Serenity. The line of Serenity bore powerful Channellers every
generation. From the Royal Palace on the moon they ruled the entire
solar system for a thousand years. The Senshi were the princesses of
their respective planets. They're still linked to their planets, I
guess."

"What happened to the kingdom?" Margaret asked.

"I don't know. These things," he tapped the crystal wristbands
together,"cut off right after the birth of Queen Serenity's daughter,
Serenity."

"That's where all the stuff in the armory that only works for you came
from isn't it?"

"It would work for a few other people too. Probably for the Senshi.
That is where it's from though."

Margaret quickly flipped through several adult channels. A few moments
later the door slid open and Cologne and Margaret's mother, who he now
knew was called Cynthia, walked in.

"Cologne, I really think we should go back to Nerima. People are
dying." Ranma was tempted to teleport back using the wristbands, but
he wasn't sure he could control them properly yet and materializing in
a wall wasn't on his list of things to do.

"As bad as this is going to sound, I'm going to say it anyway. There
is someone out there with access to Atlantean technology trying to
kill you. You're safe here, but if you went back to Nerima you may get
a knife in the back for your trouble." Cologne paused."What I'm saying
is that your life is more important than those in Nerima who are
dying."

Ranma was on his feet in an instant."You can't be serious! Your own
great-granddaughter is probably fighting for her life right now! What
if she gets killed?"

"Shampoo can take care of herself," Cologne said calmly.

Ranmastomped out of the room and into the one Margaret had told him
was his.

"That went well," Cynthia said after he was gone.

"It couldn't be helped. Ranma is too young to see beyond his heart."

Margaret shook her head in dismay. What was it with adults that made
them think they were always right? ****

Ranma was twirling a rainbow of multicolored chi ribbons through the
air when Margaret entered his room. She dropped to the floor as one of
the ribbons passed through the space where her head had been."Sorry,
Margaret. I wasn't paying attention."

Margaret accepted the apology and stared in awe of the feat Ranma was
currently performing."How are you doing that?"

"The chi? It's just something that Cologne taught me." The ribbons
fizzled out of existance. He sat up in the bed and asked,"Do you want
to learn."

"Sure," she answered, eager to change Ranma's attitude."Is it hard?"

"At first it was. It gets easier the more you do it, though." Ranma
motioned to a place in front of him. Once she had taken her place, he
asked,"How many different temeratures of chi can you maintain at the
same time?" **** The room was a virtual kaleidoscope of light as their
chi swirled through the air. Ranma's ribbons were sharper and better
formed, but hers were just as numerous and she was quickly improving.
The ribbons began to form a knot in the air above the bed. The more
that joined the forming sphere the lighter and brighter it became. As
the last ribbon was drawn into the sphere it became perfectly white
and the air filled with the same hum Ranma had heard when Cologne used
the ring to take them to Atlantis.

"I think we just created some kind of new spell," Margaret said.

"But all we did was make a big chi ball," Ranma replied nervously.

"It's not just the chi. It must be how we tied it together. I can't
say for sure since I've never made one before."

"What does it do?"

"I haven't the slightest clue. You?"

"Nu uh. Maybe we should go get Cologne and your mom." Ranma was afraid
to move too much. Kami-sama only knew what would happen if it
triggered.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Margaret eased herself off the bed. She
was followed by a reluctant Ranma. Before they had taken two steps
towards the door, however, the sphere began to pulse irregularly. Soon
its edges began to blur and minute wisps of chi began to detach from
it."Ranma, what's happening?"

"I don't know." Neither of them moved for fear of aggravating its
integrity. It was too late. The sphere's cohesion was rapidly
decreasing and before long the air was full of threads of white chi.
As the pulsing grew to a fever pitch and the threads were practically
a fog, they both dived in opposite directions for cover.

For both Ranma and Margaret the world seemed to go completely white.
They could feel the chi throbbing against their skin and hear the hum
as it grew deafening. Then, somehow, the whiteness fractured and fell
away in shards.

Ranma watched as the last remnants of white chi were absorbed into
Margaret.

Margaret watched the last bits of chi being drawn into Ranma.

"Are you all right?" Ranma asked her. Before she answered he already
knew that she was. He could feel all of her emotions and the
sensations that she was experiencing. It was comforting.

Even as she was nodding Margaret could feel Ranma's concern for her
and the relief that flared in his mind when he knew she was unharmed.

The door slid open and Cologne and Cynthia rushed in."We felt a
disturbance. What happened?" Cynthia asked worriedly.

Ranma never took his eyes from Margaret as he answered,"We were
playing with chi ribbons and..."Ranma explained in as much detail as
he could what had happened. When he was finished, he asked the
astonished adults,"What was it and why can I feel her in my head?"

A look passed between Cologne and Cynthia."You've both somehow bonded
to each other. The process has been lost for thousands of years,"
Cologne answered.

"You know what this meens?" Cynthia asked Cologe. She nodded."You two
are pretty much married." Watching Ranma faint wasn't nearly as
satifying as she thought it would be. Poor kid. He'd better be as good
as Cologne claimed or Kenji was going to kill him.

"Mom," croaked Margaret, her green eyes wide."Please tell me you're
joking, please," she pleaded."Daddy'll kill him."

"Don't worry," Cynthia said soothingly."Ranma can take care of
himself."

"I can't be married! I don't even know him! What will the girls at
school say? What about his fiances? He says they're crazy. What if
they try to kill me? Did you know that he's cursed. He changes into a
girl. A girl!"

Cynthia, using a shiatsu point, put the panicking girl to sleep. She
collapsed in her mother's arms."Cologne, isn't there anything we can
do?" she asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. Take comfort in the knowledge that to bond in
the first place people have to be soul mates."

Cynthia gasped and looked from her sleeping daughter to the
unconscious Ranma."They are 'soul' mates?" Her whole demeanor changed.
She smiled broadly at everybody in the room then mischeviously carried
her daughter over to Ranma's bed. By the time she had positioned the
girl, Cologne had caught on and was holding Ranma. She placed him next
to Margaret and pulled the covers over them.

Together they snuck out of the room. ****

Ranma was the first to wake up. His shriek the woke Margaret up.
Before Margaret's eyes could fully focus, Ranma was pacing the length
and breadth of the room repeating to himself,"This isn't happening."

"I'm afraid it is."

Ranma turned to Margaret and said,"We really screwed up." ****

Author's Note: Remember, it's dark_phoneix@hotmail.com, where you
should be sending all your comments about this.

Later


Bron for Trouble Chapter 4 [Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
Chapter 4:
"We really screwed up," Ranma said glumly. He hadn't stopped pacing
the room yet and that was at least the tenth time that he had reminded
himself of the 'screw up'.

Margaret couldn't quite hear Ranma's thoughts, but his emotions were
another matter entirely. Ranma was scared, obviously, but he was also
worried about her well-being, which was sweet, but most suprising was
relief. It was only a ripple in the ocean compared to raging tidal
wave of the other emotions, but it was there. Relief. He was, in some
small part of his mind, relieved that he and Margaret had bonded. How
come no one had told her about it? Well, in everyone else's defense,
it wasn't all that common for peole to go around tangling their life
energies like she and Ranma had done, but still...It was awfully
inconvenient.

"Ranma, snap out of it!" Margaret eventually demanded."You're giving
me a headache!"

Ranma halted and, with a sigh, allowed himself to fall back onto the
bed, landing right beside Margaret. He jumped back up before the girl
had a chance to respond and began apologizing,"Sorry, I'm really
sorry. I'm not a hentai. I promise, it's just that I'm suprised
and..."

Margaret heaved a sigh of her own and tried her best to tune Ranma
out. His rambling apology eventually degraded into another session of
'pace and mutter'. Shaking her head in dismay, Margaret collapsed
further into her feather stuffed matress. How could things have gone
so impossibly awry that she was now, sorta, married to Ranma Saotome?
It just didn't make sense. She'd known him for less that the time it
took her to fix her most mornings, so how was she supposed to know if
she could spend the rest of her life with him. Sure he was well on his
way to becoming famous, his exploits in the outside world were nothing
short of legendary, and Nabiki, his fiance's sister already had
planted the seed that would likely lead to idolhood among young girls
the world over, but(there were lots of 'buts') he was also the love
interest of a squad of trained psycho bitches. Why couldn't she have
gotten stuck with a nice, boring guy, is she had to get stuck with
anyone at all?

There was no use crying over spilt milk."Ranma, if you don't stop that
I may accidentally electrocute you. We wouldn't want that to happen
would we?"

Apparently Ranma either sensed her irritation or just got bored with
pacing, because his eyes brightened, burning away the glaze that had
shrouded them. He found a chair in the corner and sat down. ****

His mom would probably approve, on basis of manliness alone. Akane
probably wouldn't even make much of fuss about the whole deal. There's
wasn't one of those happy relationships. It was the father's and the
other girls that would be trouble. Maybe Cologne could handle Shampoo.
Okay, best case scenario he would only have to deal with Ukyou and
Kodachi. Of those two, Kodachi would probably be the most difficult to
fend off, especially with all her resources. Hell, she could just hire
some goon with a gun to take out Margaret. Ukyou would almost
certainly go for a straight physical attack, which she would
undoubtedly lose. Margaret was a mage, whether warrior or scholar, and
they could all bring the big guns to bare when necessary.

"So what are we going to do?" Ranma finally asked when he noticed
Margaret looking at him intently.

Margaret shrugged,"This isn't really something that they teach in
school, you know? I can tell you this though, daddy probably will try
to kill you. He is 'really' protective."

Ranma nodded."I mean...about the other stuff."

"The bond?" Ranma nodded."I guess we should try to find out all that
we can about it. Make sure that there's no harmful side effects of it,
that sort of thing."

"It's a start," Ranma said while standing up."Let's go find Cologne
and your mom and see what they can tell us about it." He waited for
Margaret to join him by the door before stepping into the hallway.
From there it was a short trek to the living room.

They didn't have far to look, since Cologne and Cynthia were sitting
on the sofa having an animated discussion on some topic that Ranma
couldn't discern since they were speaking in another language that
sounded more like whistling than talking. Not to far to the left, sat
a man who appeared to be in his late thirties. His hair was blond, and
he had green eyes, traits picked up from the european side of his
parentage, the only obvious explanation for his semi-oriental
appearance. And he was scowling, scowling very intensely at Ranma.

Margaret 'eeped' and jumped behind Ranma. Oh how could this day get
any better? Cologne and Cynthia's conversation cut off as Kenji, Ranma
remembered that to be Margaret's father's name, stood abruptly and
walked calmly over to the pair of teenagers in a smooth measured pace.
Kenji stopped a couple of feet in front of Ranma and looked him up and
down, surveying him like a piece of meet. Suddenly, his grim face
disappeared to be split by a broad grin. He reached out and grabbed
Ranma's hand, squeezing it firmly, very firmly, and shaking it
familiarly.

It didn't stop there. No, not at all. Kenji drew Ranma closer and
threw an arm around his shoulders, leading Ranma towards the
door."Welcome to the family, son," he said to Ranma before walking
through the door. ****

In the hallway, Ranma felt Kenji's friendly demeanor fall away. He
returned to scowling, but only a little."Okay, let's get one thing
straight. Margaret is very special to me, and if you ever hurt her
I'll kill you. Simple as that. And I know of a dozen others who would
help, so don't get your hopes up thinking that you might win if it
ever comes down to a confrontation."

Gulp."Um, hehehe...I really wouldn't do anything to hurt Margaret, I'm
not like that. I didn't mean for this to happen, I really didn't,"
Ranma almost pleaded.

"Are you rejecting my daughter?" Kenji growled."That may qualify as
hurting her."

Ranma waved his hands around frantically."No, no, no, not that. I just
don't think you understand the whole situation, that's all."

"Maybe you should help me understand?"

"To begin with I have three other fiances, and-" Ranma was cut off by
Kenji.

"Maybe you'd better elaborate on that one a bit," Kenji snapped.

So Ranma elaborated. By the time he finished, Kenji had actually
laughed once and smiled a handful of times. Kenji shrugged the matter
away."They don't matter anymore. You have Margaret."

"But my honor demands-" Once again he was cut off.

"Your honor demands nothing. Prior arrangements, such as these
arranged marriages that you manage to collect, all become void when
someone becomes a citizen of Atlantis. It also applies to gambling
debts, blood feuds, and a few other things."

Ranma stared at the slightly taller man in astonishment, his mouth
gaping open comically."Serious?"

"As a heartattack."

Ranma actually began bouncing off the walls, leaving Kenji to catch up
behind him. ****

"Mom, something's wrong with Daddy!" Margaret exclaimed. All she was
getting from Ranma was a general sense of shock.

Cynthia looked no less shocked than her daughter. She turned to
Cologne."Were you expecting that?"

Cologne shook her head and said,"I thought he was going to hit him at
least a few times."

Cynthia threw her arms in the air and exasperatedly exclaimed,"Men!
They make no sense at all!"

"What if he fell and hit his head? Mom, we have to get Daddy to a
doctor."

Cologne smiled reassuringly at Margaret."I wouldn't be to worried. I
believe that we simply underestimated your father. They're probably
doing a little bonding of there, the male variety."

Margaret decided to push the matter aside. She could always make her
father go get a check-up, so she decided she shouldn't worry too
much."Ranma and I were coming out to ask what you knew about the
bond," remembered Margaret.

"Not very much, I'm afraid," answered Cologne."Off all the ancient
texts I've read, only one mentioned any part of the procedure and it
only vaguely resembles what you and Ranma did, so there haven't been
any recent cases from which information could be gained. What we do
know is that the bond was once used to more closely bind soul-mates
during marriage ceremonies. It only works with soul-mates, by the way.
The only effect we know of is a general sharing of emotion between the
pair."

Margaret was busy turning the word soul-mate over in her mind, and
blushing at the implications, when she felt a wild surge of elation
from Ranma. At least her father wasn't killing him."Soul-mates?"

Her mother agreed,"Isn't it great?! You found the man meant for you
and you didn't even have to try!" enthused Cynthia.

Margaret blushed crimson right to the roots of her hair. ****

Makoto, as Sailor Jupiter, was staring down at the middle-aged field
commander of the JDF forces sent in to restore order to Nerima, and
seriously considering whether or not she could get away with turning
him into a bug-zapper. The man was infuriating! He actually had the
nerve to tell her she should be at home playing with dolls instead
interfering with responsible men. Instead, she simply infused her
right hand with a glowing sphere of compressed lightning.

"Listen here baldy, if it weren't for me and my friends, this whole
ward would be up in flames by now, so you had better lay off and quit
trying to tell me what to do before you have an accident of the
electrical variety!"

The man, now white-faced, nodded shakily and slowly leaned back in his
chair as Jupiter held her fist closer and closer to him. Then,
extended too far, his considerable weight pulled him backward, tipping
him over onto the canvas tent floor.

Jupiter exited the tent, laughing uproarously, and made her way
through stacks of equipment and parked vehicles, idle soldiers and
refugees, to the tent set up for her fellow senshi and the amazingly
gifted Nerimian martial artists.

"This is really incredible," Mercury was saying as Jupiter entered the
tent. Mars and Mercury were sitting at a fold-out table, along with
Shampoo, Ukyou, Konatsu, Akane, Ryoga, and Mousse. She still couldn't
see how those last three could function in society, but it appeared
that without Ranma around they were almost nice people.

"What is?" Jupiter asked, taking the only empty seat.

Mercury pointed to her left gauntlet and pressed a small silver button
near her elbow. The top of it slid away to reveal her computer.
Mercury then reached up to her topaz circlet/visor and pulled a long
wire from it which she jacked into a receptacle in the computer.
Immediately the air above the table was filled with a holographic map
of Nerima, comlete with troop movements, scurrying looters, and
burning buildings.

"Cool," was all Jupiter said.

A short command later, and the map became slightly reddish in tint,
but with the change came visible waves of something rippling along the
city's surface."That is what's so incredible. It's some kind of
chaotic energy matrix. I suspect that, using Cologne's theory of
Ranma's life force interferring eith everyone elses, this has always
been an unseen natural occurence in this area, but when Ranma came to
live here he inadvertently began to fuel it. Now with him gone, the
matrix is in a state of flux and is beginning to return to it's normal
non-agitated state. Unfortunately the waves of chaos that the matrix
create will continue to increase in strength for several more days
before they begin to weaken."

"So we know that this really is all Ranma's fault, unintentional as it
is, and we know that everything's going to get worse before it gets
better, but what happens when Ranma comes back? Won't it just start
all over when he leaves again?" asked Mars.

Mercury released the hologram and shrugged,"Barring further analysis,
the chaos matrix is a permanent phenomena, and will return to an
active state in Ranma's prescence, so the only solution to prevent a
reoccurence is for Ranma to not return to Nerima. Actually, if he
never returned to Tokyo, Nerima would be much safer."

Ukyou and Shampoo gasped, each for different reasons, but Ryoga
growled,"It's always that bastard's fault! I swear that I'll end his
life when he returns to Nerima. How dare he put Akane in danger!"

"Easy big fella," Mars said, patting him on the back. The last thing
they needed was for Ryoga to go berserk.

"Oooo, when he gets back I am going to give him a piece of my mind,"
Akane said, popping her knuckles at the same time.

Jupiter ignored the comment and tried to change the subject."I
'convinced' the guy in charge to leave us alone, so we're still on
general trouble shooting and rescue duties."

"How did you manage that," Ukyou asked. She was alternating between
glaring at Ryoga and Akane, unable to decide which to focus the
entirety of her anger upon.

"Oh, I just told him that the next time he tried to boss around that I
may accidentally light him up like a christmas tree, or something
along those lines."

Shampoo giggled."Bald fat man look like he should be in circus."

Shouts from outside drew everyone's attention. They all piled through
the opening in the tent to see a large silver ring floating a dozen
feet above the ground in the center of the park. It had been cleared
of trees in preparation to erect a temporary triage, but now...

The ring glowed for a couple seconds then deposited a half dozen armed
and armored men and women, then it disappeared. The sounds of
automatic weapons being readied rang through out the park and soldiers
formed a large ring around the small group.

"Wait," Shampoo called,"Great-grandmother have ring like that in her
room, say it's magic. They must be sent by Great-grandmother!" She
leapt over the soldiers in order to further confuse or at least slow
them from firing.

The newcomers' ranged in nationality from Japanese to Eskimo. One of
them, a man with a katana strapped across his back, stepped forward
and in a loud voice, announced,"We're here to help!"

"Let them through," Mars ordered the soldiers irritably.

The man nodded to her and with a gesture had his fellows follow him
towards the gap formed in the ranks by Mars.

"Thank you," he said to her when they had crossed the distance.

"Don't think me, we need all the help we can get."

Before some officer or another could get their hooks into the
newcomers, Jupiter said,"Follow us, we can talk in the tent." ****

After more chairs and another table were brought in, the entire group
managed to seat itself, in the now crowded tent.

"What was that thing that brought you here?" Mercury asked almost
immediately, curiosity glinting in her aquamarine eyes.

"We just call them rings," a tall blond woman with a dagger sheathed
to each forearm. The only armor she wore was a pair of gauntlets,
matching grieves, and a breastplate that hinted at a large amount
of...healthiness.

Mercury could ask questions about the rings things later, they needed
to know who these people were and who had sent them."Like Mars said,
we could use all the help we can get, but we also need to know who you
are and why you're helping us. Please understand that I'm just being
cautious," Jupiter said.

"Ah, someone with her head on straight, I apprecitae that in a fellow
warrior. My name is Kenji and we came here at the request of my son-
in-law."

"Who would that be?" Ukyou asked curiously. Whoever it was obviously
had connections.

Kenji smiled. It wasn't quite evil, but it was close."I believe you
all know him, his name's Ranma."

The top of the tent was suddenly melted away by three very large
battle auras, courtesy of Ukyou, Shampoo, and Akane. ****

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief as he reentered Margaret and her
parents' quarters. Kenji had actually agreed to go down to Nerima and
help keep the place intact. It didn't hurt that he hadn't tried to
kill him either. The threats didn't really count for much, he got
threatened all the time. He could feel Margaret still, but it was the
sensation's were muted somehow. Maybe she was asleep.

"How did your little talk go?" Cologne asked mildly. She was eating
from a plate of sliced carrots and celery.

"Oh, not to bad. Kenji'll kill me if I hurt Margaret though. Not that
I intended to in the first place. Speaking of Margaret, where is she?"

Cologne smiled...sorta, the carrot she was taking a bite out of could
have just distorted one of those smirks people get when they think
somethings, he couldn't tell."She has school tomorrow and Cynthia has
to go to work, so they went home. I stayed here so I could show you to
my quarters."

That explained the dampened sensation. Good, now he would have some
more time to contemplate how much further down the drain his life
could manage to sink."So what did the High Council say about the
weapons and stuff?" Ranma asked as they walked down the hall.

"They are taking the threat of a rogue Attendant very seriously. Right
now they've got the best psychics going over the weapons you took from
Kuno, Mousse, and Ryoga, but psychometry is an inexact talent and it
could take a while to get any answers. Until then, you are still
confined to Atlantis."

"That's okay, I guess."

Cologne seems suprised by Ranma's dismissal of his confinement, so she
asked,"You don't mind being stuck down here while Nerima is in
turmoil?"

"Nah, not to bad. I asked Kenji to go help them out. He got some of
his friends together and they used one of those ring things to go to
where the army is camped."

Cologne's eyes got really, really big."You are joking, right Ranma?"
she asked him seriously.

"Why would I joke about that?" Ranma was starting to think that he may
have made a mistake by asking for Kenji's help. The man had told him
that they could make it where no one would recognize them, something
he called a glamor, so Cologne didn't need to worry about anyone
finding out about Atlantis. If that wasn't the problem, then what was
it?

"Ranma, Kenji is what you would call a pyromaniac. He likes to set
fires just for fun. We'll be lucky to find anything left in Nerima
besides a lot of ashes."

Oops. Oh well, there was no way to stop him, since he'd already
left."I guess we should just hope that he can control himself, heh?"

Cologne shook her head doubtfully."And I was just starting to like my
nice little restaurant." ****

"What?!?" came a roar that made Jupiter check to see if her ears were
bleeding.

Another of the men who had come with Kenji, a short black man with a
shaved head and a huge mustache, slapped their leader in the man of
the head."Man, you weren't supposed to tell them that Ranma and
Margaret had tied the knot! Cynthia is gonna skin ya alive, Man."

The tall blond woman shook her head and said,"Poor guy."

Anything else that was said for the next minute was drowned out by the
promises of bodily harm that were going to be done to Ranma by
fiance's and enemies alike. The soldiers had wisely stayed away, not
wanting to get involved in an argument with glowing people. It was
when the threats started to shift towards Margaret that Kenji held up
his hands and shouted,"That's enough!" The peal of thunder that his
hands emitted as he clapped them also served to quite the tent's
occupants.

"You all can try to kill Ranma later, but you'll have to leave my
daughter out of it or I would have to take steps to neutralize you as
threats, but for now, we have business to attend to." ****

Author's Notes: How'd ya like it? Let me know!

dark_phoneix@hotmail.com

Born for Trouble Chapter 5 [Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
Born for Trouble Chapter 5:
Ranma and Cologne were sitting in another of the giant rooms that
should be smaller than they were. This one was furnished with modern
exercise equipment as well as what appeared to be a large shooting
range on one end.

"What did we come here for?" Ranma asked.

Cologne answered,"There are still many things that you need to learn,
but my quarters are too small and have too much stuff I care about in
them to allow you to play with magic around them."

Ranma could understand that. HE did sometimes lose control of the
spells she taught when he first tried them out. Of course he hadn't
known that they were spell at the time, but still..."Where's everyone
at?"

"We're still not sure who wants you dead so badly. Plus you seem to
have amassed something of a fanclub among the young women currently
staying here," finished Cologne with a grin.

Figured."Well, let's get started then."

"I've taught you every defensive and offensive spell that I know, as
well as simple chi manipulations, but there were spells that I
couldn't pass off as more chi techniques. The one that operates the
rings for example." Ranma didn't remind Cologne that he could just use
the crystal bands to teleport.

As the day passed, Ranma eagerly absorbed all the information that
Cologne passed on to him like a sponge. When she finally called a halt
to the day's study, Ranma was well versed enough to travel by ring,
separate oxygen from water to extend periods of submersion, and pass
through most solid matter. ****

Nervously, Ranma walked through the ornate, gold framed door. Instead
of the expected cavernous room full of people, it led Ranma into a
small office. The walls were lined with shelf upon shelf of books.
Near the back of the room was a large intricately carved wooden desk.
The same white haired man Ranma had first seen when he had been
introduced to the other mages by Cologne sat behind it.

"Ranma, come in, come in," he said pleasantly."Have a seat." He
pointed to a chair in front of his desk that had not previously been
there.

Ranma took sat down and asked,"You wanted to see me?" Was this guy in
charge? How was he supposed to treat him?

"Please, call me Lerris. As the Head of Council, it's my duty to
formally recognize all new Mages."

"I thought that I had already been accepted, Lerris." If the guy
wanted to be informal, Ranma wasn't going to stop him.

"I guess I didn't word that right, sorry." Lerris grinned sheepishly.
"What I should have said is that I'm the man who assigns you a rank
and quarters."

Wow, he was getting his own place!

"Everyone is very impressed with you young man. No one has shown a
potential as high as yours since I became a Mage over four centuries
ago." He sighed."I'm afraid that I never achieved that potential. The
life of a scholar doesn't lend itself to the kind of exertion that is
needed to build chi force. Anyway, I degress." Lerris reached into a
drawer in his desk and retrieved a small black box. He opened it and
passed it to Ranma.

Inside, Ranma saw, was an small egg shaped crystal amulet with a thick
gold chain attached to it. Within the transparent amulet a miniature
battle of power raged. A miniscule fire swirled around an equally
small bolt of lightning that appeared to be little more than a spark,
and a wisp of darkness darted around the crystal interior in a vain
attempt to escape both the fire and the lightning."What is it?" Ranma
gasped.

"That signifies your place as the strongest Mage within the Order.
Each Order of magic users and psychics has one. I'm passing mine on to
you. That's why you are getting quarters at such a young age. Well
that and the fact that Madelinn, Margaret's grandmother, insisted that
her granddaughter have her own home if she was going to be married."
Lerris winked at Ranma.

Ranma groaned."Does everybody know about that?" Ranma asked pitifully.

Lerris grinned at him."Hehe, I'm quite sure that the entire population
knew of it within an hour of the event."

"Why is everyone taking this bonding thing so seriously? All it does
is let me get a fuzzy idea of Margaret's emotions when we're close
together. Right now with her back in Japan I can barely feel anything
at all."

Lerris for once looked mildly serious."Ranma, every documented, though
I can't figure out why they were documented in the first place, case
of soul-mates meeting has led to both parties falling in love. Every
single time. Three such times both the man and the woman were happily
married to other people, but once they had met their soul-mate...let's
just say that the pull one soul-mate feels for another is
irresistable. The bond is just an extension of the more primitive
connection oyu already share."

Ranma wondered how Lerris knew so much more about the subject than
Cologne did, but the man had said he was over four hundred years old,
plenty of time to pick up lots of stray information. It also dawned on
him just what Lerris was saying. Him and Margaret were literally meant
to be together. But it was still strange. Very, very strange.

Seeing that Ranma had grasped his meaning, Lerris continued,"Cologne
asked me, as a favor, to find you a job that you could still carry out
around a school schedule. Would teaching a martial arts class be all
right? Many of our Guardians and Warriors are very poor fighters
physically, so your services would be greatly appreciated. The job
pays well too."

Ranma nodded absentmindely, still thinking about the revelation about
himself and Margaret.

"Would you like me to show you to your quarters?" Lerris asked. His
grin had returned, helped along by the look on Ranma's face. He
remembered having that look himself a few hundred years earlier. It
was right before he had gotten married.

"Yeah," Ranma answered. ****

Ranma should have expected it. It was probably Cologne and Cynthia's
idea. There was no way that his quarter's being three down from
Margaret's parents' was a coincidence. Not with the number of
available room in a place as big as Atlantis. Oh well, at least it was
his.

"Place your hand on this panel," Lerris pointed out a small panel
identical to the one on the outside of the door.

When he followed the instructions another panel revealed hitself a
foot to the left of the original.

"If you want to give someone access to your quarters you must place
your hand on the panel while they place their's on that panel."

Ranma nodded in understanding. He turned to survey his place. It
appeared to be the same size as Margaret's, but with much plainer
furniture. A couple of sofas, a few chairs, and a coffee table made up
the entirety of the furnishings. The kitchen was full of new
appliances, and the three bedrooms each had a queen sized bed, a large
closet and a small bedside table. All together it was plain, and
empty, but it was a much nicer place than Ranma would have been able
to afford otherwise. With a job and no need to buy his own food thanks
to the giant, fully stocked pantry, he knew that it wouldn't be hard
to get a few luxury items such as a TV.

Lerris left Ranma in his quarters to finish his administrative duties
for the day. ****

The next day passed much as the last had for Ranma. Cologne spent half
the day teaching him miscellanious spells that wouldn't really help in
a fight, but were convenient to know. He was growing tired of not
seeing anyone else though. It was like the halls were being cleared
before he could walk down them. Ranma decided to find Cologne and ask
her about it when he saw her again. ****

Cologne and the other Council members were currently listening to a
report of the situation in Tokyo by Kenji. The Warrior Mage was
covered in soot and his armor had several fresh scratches and dents,

"Some of those kids down in Nerima have potential to be Mages if they
can learn basic enough control to actually begin training in magic.
The Sailor Senshi are all exceptionally powerful Channellers. They
somehow apply their magic to enhance their speed, strength, and
endurance, something Channellers aren't supposed to be able to do."

"What of the actual conflict?" asked one of the councilors.

Kenji said,"I've never heard of general civil order breaking down as
fast as it is in Tokyo. The fighting spilt over into Juuban the night
before last and now nearly every ward is in turmoil. We have managed
to set up safe zones in some of the city's larger parks. With my
Mages, the Senshi, and the Hibiki kid stationed in strategic places we
are keeping the safe zones safe while letting the JDF deal with the
rioting. They are better equipped to subdue large numbers of people
than we are."

"Would you recommend more Mages be sent in? Or perhaps some members of
the other Orders?" Cologne asked. She personally wouldn't do it, but
Kenji had assumed command and he was doing a good job, so it was his
decision.

He shook his head no."It was hard enough convincing the officers that
we were just gifted concerned citizens, and my son-in-law's little
harem didn't react all that well when they found out that I was his
father-in-law, they could become hostile towards more of us. Besides,
too much of a display of force and someone higher up in the government
is going to get ideas."

He had told the fiances! Cologne couldn't believe it. Ranma wasn't
going to be happy. Margaret probably wouldn't either for that matter.
But the fiances. Akane most of all, must have pretty much exploded. It
was a wonder that Kenji had survived. ****

Just as the soldiers were about to be trampled underfoot of the latest
wave of rioters, Ukyou leapt from the roof of a moderate size office
building and landed in the midst of the mob. The flat of her spatula
and murderous rage served much better than the tear gas and rubber
bullets that the soldiers had been using, and within a minute over
seventy-five men and women had been placed in one state of
unconsciousness or another. The soldiers, all twelve of them, looked
at her like she were the angel of death. They ran away without so much
as a thank you.

Right then Ukyou felt like the angel of death. Well maybe just the
angel of Ranma's death. For days, that had been all she could think
about. Ranma had run off and gotten married to some girl that no one
had ever heard of. Margaret was her name. What kind of name was
Margaret? It wasn't even Japanese. Ukyou had seen Kenji in action,
tossing around balls of Napalm and lightning bolts, so taking her
revenge out on the girl was out of the question, at least as long as
her father was on the same continent. ****

"Shi Shi Hokodan!!!" cried Ryoga. The beam of chi that sprouted from
between his cupped hands was enormous, and as it angled down towards
the ground, dozens of windows in the surrounding buildings shattered
from the force of its passing. The beam struck the asphault in front
of the stolen Jeep full of crazed Tokyo citizens, causing an explosion
that threw the vehicle and its occupants into the air only to land on
another stolen jeep.

Ryoga kept pouring heavy chi into the beam and swept it through the
small convoy of five jeeps and two light urban assault vehicles that
had been commandeered after the soldiers using them had been over ran.
When there was finally no sign of movement, Ryoga cut the flow of
energy off and slumped back into a folding chair he had found in the
stairwell. He knew that if he moved any farther then he would become
lost.

Everything had, for at least a couple of seconds, seemed perfect. That
really powerful guy claimed that Ranma had married his daughter,
leaving Akane to him. When Ryoga had heard that he thought that he'd
never again be able to do a depression fueled chi blast. Sadly,
nothing 'ever' worked out for Ryoga. Instead of being deliriously
happy like she should have been, Akane had been pissed. Pissed with a
capital PISSED. She sure had managed to get a nice sized battle aura
going for a while, but eventually her anger had died off.

After that, Akane had found an empty supply tent and cried for hours.
Ryoga knew because he had succeeded in following her. But why had
Akane cared at all? He had seen her relationship with Ranma declining
for months. Everytime he showed up at the Tenod dojo, whether in
crused or human form, they seemed a bit angrier at each other, a
little less patient. Hell, Akane should have been celebrating a
permanent solution to her obligation to marry the bastard. But she
wasn't, and Ryoga also knew why. She still, somehow, loved the
bastard. His little porcine ears had heard her say it herself as she
cried.

That thought alone had given Ryoga the almost endless depression
needed to become the high powered energy cannon/sniper that he was
currently serving as. Akane loved Ranma even after his betrayal. He
had no hope of winning Akane's affection as long as the bastard lived.

The depression building again, Ryoga stood and picked out an over
turned car as a target. ****

"Kiiyaa!" Shampoo shouted as a pink and purple ball of energy erupted
from her right hand and blew the arm off a pipe-wielding man who had
been in the process of beating an elderly woman to death. In her left
hand she held her favorite sword, just encase someone got within close
reach. She had felt the need to relieve some stress, so this little
excursion into the urban jungle had turned into a sort of therapy
session.

Her increasing chi manipulation abilities, fueled mainly by anger were
an extremely good way of funnelling off the useless emotion. She found
that as long as she kept them small enough not to drain her energy,
she could fight better with the clouding influence her anger normally
exerted gone.

Far off in the distance she caught sight of the yellowish green light
given off by Ryoga's monstrous chi blasts. Now that she herself could
project her energies, Shampoo appreciated just how powerful people
like Ryoga, her great-grandmother, and her airen...no ex-airen were.

That was the source of her anger. If Ranma had married then the
marriage laws no longer applied and she had no claim on the man she
loved. How could he go behind her back like that? Just for the hell of
it, Shampoo used another surge of anger to destroy the TV a man had
been struggling to carry across the street. What was worse was the
disappearance of her great-grandmother. It could only mean two things.
She had cought wind of Ranma's plan to marry another, unlikely since
she would have left a note or message of some kind, or she had somehow
helped Ranma. But why would she do that? Didn't she care about her own
great-granddaughter's feelings? ****

At almost the same time that Jupiter saw the flash of Ryoga's
devastating energy beam from across the city, she unleashed a
devastating attack of her own. The bolt of lightning that she threw
towards another horde of rioters split into hundreds of smaller bolts
forming a kid of web that fell over the people, delivering enough high
voltage to incapacitate then but not enough amperage to kill.

"How are things in you area?" Jupiter asked Mars over her
communicator.

"Everything is under control. Mercury had a little trouble earlier
because she didn't want to hurt anyone, but she's gotten over that.
Seems that someone attacked her mother."

"Oh no! Is she all right?" Ms. Mizuno was so nice, she hoped for Ami's
sake that she wasn't hurt.

"A few bruises, but she is a doctor and she said that she was all
right."

Jupiter breathed a sigh of relief.

"Unfortunately, her mom also figured out her real identity," Mars said
in a whisper.

Oh shit!"Oh shit! How?"

"Mercury called her mom as she was carrying her to her zone. The magic
wasn't strong enough to hide her idenity from someone so close as her
mother. That's what Mercury thinks anyway."

"What is she going to do?" What if she felt it was her responsibility
to reveal their idenities?

"Nothing. She thinks that her daughter being a famous hero is 'neat'.
Mercury sais that she wants our autographs."

Jupiter was still chuckling when they broke contact. ****

"Hey Cologne, why don't I ever see anyone else in this place? If the
whole bunch of us was here, I should have run into at least a few
other Mages," Ranma said as he followed Cologne into her quarters.

The gold-veined walls were hung with delicate ink sketches and
numerous Jade figurines sat on shelves around the room.

"Ranma, just because we're Mages doesn't mean that we don't have to
maintain a life outside. Just like Margaret and Cynthia having to
return for school and work, the other also had to leave. With the
trouble in Tokyo I suspect that Margaret and Cynthia, along with a few
others may be returning. At least you'll get a chance to meet some
people from the other Orders."

Ranma felt a little stupid. He hadn't even thought of that rather
simle answer. Then he remembered the other reason he had come looking
for the Amazon."Thanks for talking to Lerris and getting me that job
as a teacher."

Cologne waved the matter off and in grave tones said,"Ranma, we got a
report from Kenji a short while ago. All of Tokyo is now caught up in
the chaos. Your parents are safe, as are the Tendos, so there is no
need to worry about them."

It was all his fault that Tokyo had gone to war with itself. If he had
just not told Cologne about those weird ass weapons then none of it
would have happened and Margaret wouldn't be stuck with him like she
was.

Cologne saw Ranma's mood shifting towards depression and made an
attempt to cheer him up some before telling him the really bad
news."Ranma, this really isn't your fault. A very smart young woman,
one of the Sailor Senshi I believe, has discovered that your prescense
merely aggrivated a pre-existing condition in Tokyo. It would have
eventually happened anyway, almost as soon as you left, but the longer
you stayed the worse it would have been when you did leave. It's
better to get the whole mess over with."

Ranma was indeed heartened by Cologne's news. By looking at it in her
perspective, Ranma could see how his leaving like he had, had lessesed
the suffering of the people of Tokyo. At least that's what it sounded
like.

Now for the bad news."Ranma, Kenji also brought us another piece of
information." Ranma looked at her expectantly."He thought it would be
funny to see how your other fiances would react to discovering your
involvement with his daughter, so he told them that he was your
father-in-law. They didn't take it well." Cologne had expected Ranma
to do something, anything, but...

Ranma just stood, stiff as a board, staring at her with his mouth
agape in horror.

Author's Notes: Damn, I just keep churnin these things out. I hope you
enjoy it. Sens C&C to dark_phoneix@hotmail.com
Born for Trouble Chapter 6 [Ranma][Smoon][x-over]
"Ranma?" Cologne asked while waving her hand inches from his face.
Growing tired of the boy's lack of response, Cologne reared back and
slapped Ranma hard across the face.
Slow at first, but with gaining speed, Ranma's body untensed, his
muscles shifting under the skin almost like fluid. His dialated pupils
were the last to return to normal, following behind his mouth that had
snapped itself shut.

"Ranma, are you all right?" Cologne hadn't thought it possible for
Ranma to react to 'anything' in the manner that he had just displayed.
Just to make sure that he hadn't had an aneurism, she gently probed
his brain with wispy fingers of gauzy chi. Nothing was wrong, but the
technique only worked on physical ailments.

"Is he insane?" Ranma whispered quietly."The other girls have probably
figured out fifty new ways to kill Margaret that no one ever even
imagined. And me? They just skin me alive. No big deal, been expecting
it for quite some time."

"Maybe you should lie down, take a nap?" suggested Cologne. Ranma was
acting weird, weird even by his standards. He sounded almost hopeless,
maybe closer wallowing in despair. Oh, that was a nice thought; Ranma,
a young man with way to much chi than he knew what to do with,
releasing the mother of all shi shi hokadans in an underwater city.

Ranma shrugged and said,"Don't worry about it Cologne, I'm not going
crazy and I don't really need to take a nap, I slept pretty well last
night. What I am going to do is go back to Tokyo and clear this whole
mess up."

Cologne was no longer worried for Ranma, she was frightened for the
general populace of Tokyo. She couldn't let Ranma put his own life in
danger by exposing himself out in the open, and to his fiances and
enemies, but how could she stop him? He was still inexperienced with
subtle magic and she had a few hundred years of overall combat
training so there was a slim chance that she could take him in a
fight, but once again the fact that they were in an underwater city
flashed through her mind. Her quarters defiantely weren't reinforced
like the workout rooms, who knew what could happen?

"Maybe I'll get a chance to kick Kenji's ass. Margaret'll probably be
pissed, but if what Lerris said is true, she'll probably forgive me."

"Ranma, you can't go back right now. We still don't know who here is
trying to kill you or why, and we know that your prescense in Tokyo
will only exacerbate the problem the next time you leave." Maybe she
could get a sneak attack in while he had his back turned to leave. The
best solution would be to simply reroute him through the ring system
when he tried to leave. A few days in Hawaii might do him some good.

"Look Cologne, I know that you're thinking about all the bad stuff
that I'm going to cause, but I have to do something. And I'm not
scared of the Attendant that wants to kill me. There are at least two
dozen other people that want to kill me basides him or her, and
they've never managed to get the job done, so why should this one
succeed?" Ranma had come to a decision. Margaret really was in danger
from his fiances, Mage or not, and Ryoga would probably try to waste
her just for hurting Akane's feelings, and strangely enough, the
thought of losing Margaret made his heart hurt and nausea threatened
to knock him over. Lerris was really on the money with his
predictions.

"The army can just evacuate Tokyo before I leave again. That way no
one will go crazy or get hurt when I come to stay here."

"Ranma-"

Ranma cut her off."And maybe we can figure out who's trying to kill me
while I'm in Tokyo. You know, they may come out in the open or
something obvious."

Hawaii it was. He would thank her one day. Now all that she had to do
was convince him that she wouldn't stop him."Let's stop by the armory
then. At least we can get you a little more protection."

"I already got the crystal bands. Not that a library of stupid books
is gonna do me much good, but it was my choice." Ranma still hadn't
told Cologne about the ability to teleport. It was sorta funny.
Teleportation was a lost art according to Margaret, but a pair of
wrist cuffs designed for an old librarian too old to take care of the
Royal Library properly had given him a major advantage over
practically everybody.

"Ranma, that was your choice as a focus. There are other enchanted
weapons that you could use, but I was thinking more along the lines
some light weight armor for you to wear. Not enough to slow you down,
but maybe some protection for your vital areas."

"I don't know, armor isn't really my style." It would be good to have
encase someone somehow managed to get a gun in Japan. He was confident
that he could dodge a bullets or shield himself from them, but if he
was fighting and an unseen gunman shot him in the back while his
concentration was focused elsewhere..."On second thought, maybe I
should get a little something."

Cologne smiled and nodded. Just keep him comfortable. She would get
one of the pyschics remaining in Atlantis to take a break from
investigating Ranma's attempted murder and have him send the account
number of one of her bank accounts. Ranma did deserve a vacation. Hmm,
maybe, just maybe, Cynthia could be convinced to send Margaret too.

It took them a quarter of an hour to get to the armory. Colgone led
Ranma in through a door that he had walked past at least a dozen times
wihtout ever seeing.

Cologne saw his puzzled look and said,"It's a kind of pyschic block we
keep up to stop small children from wandering in and hurting
themselves."

Ranma filed that little tidbit of information away for later. Psychics
could hide in a manner that he couldn't detect. The armory suprised
Ranma. It was not the one he had first visited."How many armories are
there?"

"A few dozen," Cologne answered."The one you and Margaret first
visited is used to store non-bonded focus objects and unknown magical
artifacts. This one holds mainly armor and some high powered kinetic
force-based weapons similar to those used by your newest enemy, but of
a magical nature."

The walls were lined with every type of armor Ranma had ever seen and
many he hadn't. There were suits of full plate armor like that worn by
ancient knights, as well as full samurai gear. Ranma was looking for
something a little more understated, so his eye barely stopped over
them. The farther into the corridor-like room that Cologne led him the
closer they got to what Ranma was looking for. Now there were wooden
dummies with partial armor plate/mail combinations. He didn't want
shoulder pads or hip guards, ruling out the latest batch. By the time
they reached the far end of the room the armor no longer hung on
dummies. They were simply laid out on small racks.

"Ranma, we can go to another of the armories, but the selection will
be similar to this one," Cologne said exasperatedly. By the time Ranma
actually made his mind up Tokyo would be back to normal.

Ranma finally spotted something he could work with. It was simply
designed, but very impressive looking black metal inlaid with gold.
There were a pair of arm bracers, grieves to protect his shins, and an
intricately linked set of small metal plates that formed a shirt that
looked like the scales of a reptile, a really big black and gold
reptile. There was also a crown thing, but he just left that on the
rack.

"Very nice. I'm glad that you found something you liked." Took him
long enough.

"It is what I was looking for, but doesn't it seem a little thin to
you?" Ranma asked while he strapped the grieves on over his clothes.
He was pleased to see that the inside of the armor was padded leather.

"This isn't normal, everyday combat armor Ranma. Everything in this
room is enchanted to withstand practically any form of mundane
assault. They are more vulnerable to magic, but there is nothing
immune to magic."

Ranma's cuffs fit easily under the bracers and the scale shirt of
armor fit as comfortably as his normal silk shirts did."Okay, that
should do it. I don't look goofy or stupid do I?" Ranma asked, turning
in a little circle so that Cologne could get a better view of him.

Cologne smirked and picked up the circlet. She fit it on his head and
said,"There, you look very dashing."

Ranma had no idea what 'dashing' meant, but he did know that he wasn't
going to where the crown.

Before Ranma could take it off, Cologne said."If you want the armor to
be anything more than simple metal, you have to wear it too, to
complete the enchantment." Cologne looked at a small plate anchored to
the rack that Ranma had taken the armor from."Are you going to want
any weapons?"

Ranma shook his head."Nah, if it's anything like that sword Kuno had I
could accidentally kill someone."

Sound reasoning."I'll accompany you to a ring room." ****

"Waaaaahhhhh, my daughter hates me!!! Waaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!" wailed Soun
as Genma led him out of the tent.

"Calm down Tendo, we'll get this all straightened out. We've just got
to get hold of my sorry excuse for a son and this whore he's shacked
up with and lay down the law. As soon as I start questioning Ranma's
honor and calling him a girl he'll give in."

"Waaaaahhhhhhh!!! You're so much smarter than me, waaaaahhhhhh!!!"

Genma began the mental exercises necassary to tune out his friends
wailing, but a loud clearing of the throat, the kind used to get
someone's attention, drew Genma's attention just like it was meant to.

"Why hello there, my name's Kenji and I couldn't help but hear you
talking about my daughter."

Seeing as how the man had been polite and hadn't demanded vengeance
for stealling from him like so many strangers did, Genma responded in
kind,"No sir, I'm afraid that you're mistaken."

"Oh no, I'm afraid that I'm not mistaken. You see, my daughter just
happens to be married to your 'sorry excuse for a son', so that would
make her 'the whore', right?" Small arcs of electricity were running
up and down Kenji's arms by now, and his eyes were shining just a
little more than could be explained by the light of the setting sun
striking them.

Genam gulped. This was one of those times where defending one's honor
came second with survival winning first. He let the still wailing Soun
fall unsupported to the ground and was halfway turned around before
the first whip of electricity fell across his
back."Oooooooooowwwwwwww!" he screamed. ****

From his rooftop perch, Ryoga shuddered in sympathy for whatever
animal was being tortured. He would have helped it if he could, but
the chances of getting off the roof and across the city were slim.
He'd likely end up in Tibet again like yesterday. Thankfully it had
only taken an hour to find his way back. ****

Ms. Mizuno had taken up working in one of the hospital tents as a way
to pass the time. Juuban General had been overrun by people from the
neighboring Paramormal Containment wing. She had just finished
bandaging a small boys arm after stitching up the gash he had recieved
when he had tripped into a pile of broken glass."There you go. Your
mother is waiting outside so run along." She gave the brave little boy
a lollipop before he left.

She had not taken another breathe before a trio of soldiers carried in
what appeared to be a twitching mass of undercooked meat. The tattered
and burnt clothes hinted that it may have been human, but all the
smoke was to obscuring to make any guesses concrete.

"Get a fan in here. I need to be able to see what I'm doing." She also
didn't particularly care for the scent of roasted human. ****

Cologne said,"Since you haven't got much experience with the rings,
I'll take care of designating your arrival destination. Where exactly
do you want to appear?"

"Just drop me off at Furinkan," Ranma said. He was going over what he
was going to say to everyone when he showed up after disappearing and
getting a wife.

Cologne didn't have to worry about Ranma seeing her key him in to
Hawaii since there was no read out display on the rings. She added a
day to his travel time so that she could check with Cynthia about
sending Margaret. It could be like a little honeymoon.

When Cologne was finished, Ranma stepped through the ring after
saying,"Thanks a lot Cologne."

That made her feel a little guilty, but she reminded herself that it
was for Ranma's own good. ****

Satisfied that his relationship with his fellow father-in-law had been
firmly established, Kenji went to wash the smell of burnt hair and
skin off. Kami knew that Cynthia had blasted him through the roof the
last time he had come home with that particular fragrance floating
about him.

This time he thought that she might have understood, seeing as how he
had been defending his daughter's honor, but it wasn't worth the risk.
****

Author's Notes: I know that this is a really short chapter, but it
felt like a good place to stop and I wanted Ranma's return to Tokyo to
be the beginning of the next chapter. Now, a piece of friendly advice
for everyone. Go to Napster and download Iron Man by Ozzy Osbourne. It
doesn't matter if you don't like rock, just do it. Then turn the song
up really loud and play it over and over again. Once you hear it a few
times you can hear the story to it. Once you hear the story, just keep
listening to it. When the song works its way into your brain you can
stop listening to it, but by then you probably won't want to stop.
Okay, run along now and download the song.

Oh yeah, another thing. I released a lot of other fics that I never
finished or hadn't worked on in a while, but there were 'too' many
counting the ones I'm working on now, to continue them all, so could
you, my loyal readers, tell me your favorite of them. Whichever gets
the most responses will be the one I try to ass to my current
worklist. They are New Beginnings, A Better Life, Mind Over Matter, or
the trio of WoT ideas(in the case of the WoT ideas, tell me which one,
1, 2, or 3)

dark_phoneix@hotmail.com