[Ranma][FanFic] A Different Art chapter 6

[Gregg Sharp]

The Bet: A Different Art
Crossover sequences and author inserts appear by
permission, before anyone asks.
Main characters by various authors who actually own them.
The concept of the Sadie Hawkins Race is directly taken
from "Lil' Abner", but no i was not planning on using
Moonbeam McSwine or Granny Weatherwax.
some scenes written by Skysaber and are part of the
crossover with "Skysaber's Choice"

Chapter 6: The Sadie Hawkins Race or,
the pursuit of happiness, but whose happiness?

"Why must I be an Amazon in love?" - popular song title
among House Southern Cross

-----------------

The days preparing for the Race had been hectic.

Ranma had spent most of that time being questioned
regarding his use of the "Ruth" spell. So much so that he
still had a bit of a headache. Favored by the Emperor or
not, those spells were so illegal that even Ranma had to
have his adopted mother speak in his behalf.

Nodoka, unfortunately, tried to meet this elusive
darkskinned sorceress but only learned about her presence
after the other had teleported back to her own tower. The
rest of her time had been spent with Aka-chan. She did,
however, get a chance to meet herself. Contrary to what some
might expect she got along famously with herself.

The Pheonix Mage spent some time learning how to finetune a
Worldgate and contacted the Nodoka Saotome of his homeworld.
Who came and took all of fifteen minutes to find where his
cousin Serena had wandered off to. *She* was being
ruthlessly spoiled by a large gaggle of Southern Cross
Amazons. Nodoka also met her counterpart from another world,
and the two got along quite well, all things considered. He
was also rather surprised to find that his mother had
registered *him* in the Sadie Hawkins Race. Not *too*
surprised considering her views on manliness, but surprised
nonetheless.

Kasumi spent some time discovering that she rather liked
Megumi, and that the various Amazons could be quite nice if
not dealing with legendary figures of villainy. She also
proved to have considerable trouble dealing with the eternal
noon that most parts of Aramar possessed.

Aka-chan, over the period of the week, continued to grow
but at a progressively slower rate. Estimates were that
she'd "bottom out" at age eight after a year. Theories as to
why were prolific, but the prevailing one was that when
Frostbite cast a spell to make the body whole and then the
"Raise Dead", that the presence of the dimension storm
caused side effects. That Aka-chan was actually the younger
Akane made manifest.

Nabiki asked a few favors of people trying to get to know
Kasumi and/or Ranma and managed to get both some operating
capital and research done. Rather than face some of the
potential fates awaiting her, Nabiki made an effort to alter
her modus operandi. Besides, she thought the idea of
spellcasting herself - altering the local reality by force
of will and knowledge to be quite attractive.

Soun and Genma plotted to get the Houses together, getting
rather more drunk as they planned more and more grandiose
schemes to do this. Somewhere during all this, both fathers
had signed a number of legal documents that would later come
back to haunt them. Genma later vanished, having heard of a
great treasure that would make a warrior invincible.
Decisions made four days into a drinking contest were not
particularly wise.

Shampoo spent several days getting to know the local
Amazons. Unfortunately, during one of those periods she
discovered that she had a low tolerance for alcohol and also
found that hangovers were not very pleasant. Also that she
now had a tattoo, was officially a member of House Rising
Sun, and scheduled to go through Boot Camp at the end of the
week.

Scarlet discovered that there were benefits to this whole
"apprentice-master" deal. Due to the Mage and the others she
held responsible for her current predicament: three
death-challenges had been called off, four attempts to beat
her into the ground had become formal sparring matches where
she had managed to learn special skills, three people who
had started out wanting to kill or at least seriously maim
her had become friends, two others had become rivals instead
of outright enemies, and the dwarf had offered to give her
"proper training" in that hammer. Most people were now
treating her as a victim, and as she was learning, if
something hadn't been done, they wouldn't have been nearly
as kind. Now that she was not considered a Threat, people
were being nice to her - imagine that!

All in all, it was less chaotic than it could have been.

----------------

"Other humans?" Ranma looked speculatively at the two other
somewhat nervous individuals at the starting line. "What
happened, did Sjul try to summon one of Greylle's analogues
again?" Sjul had been rescued along with Lijra and Urge by
Greylle from Mezonobarren on the world of Toril over two
hundred years previously. Now that Sjul wasn't a little elf
girl anymore, she wanted to thank her rescuer more properly.
The problem was that Greylle had been dead for one-hundred
fifty of those years. Hence she sought the Greylle that had
been born in *another* world.

A problem with *that* was that she'd grab things that were
kind of like what she was after, but that her aim was pretty
bad.

The first one looked up. "Hey. So you got roped into this
too?"

The second one frowned. "I thought we had some others
showing up as well. If it's just us three..."

"I've been pretty busy, what's the course like this year?"
Ranma knew that previous Races had been airship "Hare &
Hounds" or a wild run through the city or even a small
sailboat pursued by damn near everything that could float.
He just hadn't expected to be participating himself this
year.

"Geez. You're unprepared?!" The first one shook his head
and crossed his fingers unobtrusively. "I found an elf girl
I thought I could tolerate, and we worked out a plan a WEEK
ago."

"Sky elf?" Ranma raised an eyebrow. The winged ones tended
to move quickly.

The second one cleared his throat. "Race starts here in
town. Standard rules, the guys get a half hour headstart,
you can't hide IN town but you can hide elsewhere. There's
even more participants than usual this year, from what I
hear."

"Well, with two more humans, *and* Garr, that's probably
it." Ranma shrugged. The Emperor had officially sanctioned
these events for just such situations and to cut down on the
friction between various wanna-guy groups.

"Oh, I didn't introduce myself, I'm..."

Ranma had held up a hand. "Unless you're protected, like I
am, you *do* know not to use your truename, right?"

The first one scowled a little, taking a yoyo out of a
trenchcoat pocket and fiddling with it. "Course we knew
that. We've both been here for about two weeks now. I'm
Keian and he's Jim."

Jim nodded and went back to stretching.

"Ranma Saotome," said Ranma, wondering why the two suddenly
collapsed and stared.

"Damn, is Ukyo here? Shampoo? Don't tell me Akane's here."
Both were talking at the same time and staring out over the
crowd.

Ranma blinked. "Who? Yes. And that depends on which Akane
you mean."

Ranma found himself being stared at briefly before the two
started in on a conversation he could barely follow. It
seemed to have to do with timelines, alternatives, and how
"he doesn't seem *nearly* the jerk" of something called the
"cannon."

Stormshadow appeared and took a place near one end of the
line, looking unconcerned. As he should, this was his ninth
Race and most present knew better than to target the
mage-ninja.

Garr took HIS place (among catcalls, shouted comments, and
cheering) along the line. He looked nervous, which did not
bode well for someone whose stock-in-trade was precognition
and telepathy.

Two others, an elf (who didn't *have* to participate-
therefore he had probably lost a bet or otherwise done
something to attract the attention of the powers that be)
and...

"Mister Tendo?! What are you doing here?" Ranma noted that
Keian and Jim had just facefaulted. Hmmm. He might have to
talk to them after the Race. Providing that all of them were
capable of meeting after the race. There were at least two
transformed dragons in the pack of female participants and
some stronger auras he couldn't place without more study.

"Just making sure that my little girl doesn't get cheated
and the two Houses are joined!" Soun was still wearing his
brown gi and sandals, which wasn't the most intelligent
choice of garb for the day.

Ranma batted away a passing bug and wondered if the Tendo
patriarch had any idea what he was getting into. "Which one?
Kasumi, Nabiki, or Aka-chan? Nabiki's been acting interested
in Garr, y'know."

"Yes, I had noticed..." Soun began, thoroughly distracted
by the possibility of getting TWO daughters married!

"BEGIN!" The starter used her Thunderclap spell and the
Race was on, at least for the males who had a half-hour's
lead before the women were given their signal.

Stormshadow, to no one's surprise, leapt into the shadow of
a tree and vanished.

Ranma made a gesture, summoning magic to himself.
"Confound the ear and eye,
To my presence by and by.
A cloak of light and sound,
That I not be found.
Improved Invisibility."

As two of their number were now apparently invisible, the
remainder groaned and began running. Except for two.

"Though I don't think I approve of any other suitors in
either case," continued Soun. "Still, if she can do it, I
have no doubt that my darling Nabiki could convince the boy
that it IS in his best interest. Hmmmm..."

The fiery-haired one turned confidently to face the
patiently waiting crowd, all the time shouting over his
shoulder. "Don't worry, boys. I'll hold them off! Get away
now, while you can."

~Hold them off?~ The audience was thinking. ~This wasn't a
BATTLE!~

But the Mage turned to face the several thousand female
participants, striking a pose, using his arms to shape lines
of force, building up to a spell. Many of the competitors
became nervous. He knew the rules, right? It wouldn't be
like that one guy, seventeen Races ago that had looked over
the crowd with their nets, bolas, capture arrows, and had
then started throwing FIREBALLS into the amassed crowds.

There was an odd feeling of deja vu as a large number of
people remembered the warrior male attacking the crowd *with
a live blade* after his wand of fireballs had "softened them
up." It had taken YEARS for the memory of that to fade in
the background, and the name of Sean of Gallahar was still
soundly cursed by many.

Many clutched weapons of subdual and wondered what they
would do if he actually attacked, a few got counterspells
intended to defeat escape attempts handy in case he really
DID do something. More prepared defensive spells, gathered
the energy for teleports, or activated protective functions
on various magical items.

The Mage spun in place, gathering an energy sphere, which
he brought above him, releasing it with anticlimactic
gentleness and a soft puff. Little streamers and sparkles
formed from the puffball and went cascading upward,
constructing a huge illusion well over a hundred feet high.

A huge image of a stage which contained a fifty foot
replica of the mage.

He'd done his homework, too. This was not how he usually
dressed, but was more flattering. He'd expended several
hundred Know Customs spells on the locals and on the males
they found especially attractive, then used his Art of
Disguise martial art stealth power to adopt the best of
those mannerisms exactly for this programmed illusion.

Hair: immaculate, except for those scenes when a somewhat
tussled look would be more attractive. Teeth, skin, nails: a
good sheen of health, clean, and perfect (except, again,
when an artfully applied smudge would look endearing, and
only when it was needed.) Eyes: dancing, alive and exciting.

Good makeup and presentation could make a homely person
attractive, and a plain one gorgeous. He was starting with a
good head start. The illusion brought its head up in a
wildly extravagant gesture of indicate imminent availability
and used in the past by many performers carving out roles in
the 'sexy' department.

The illusion lit up with an appropriate background for the
mood and raced unaccompanied into a song.

"Super Trouper, beams are gonna blind me
but I won't feel blue
like I always do
because somewhere in the crowd there's you!"

Cue music, a racing pulse beat. Tones were plucking out a
simple harmony that was upbeat and lovely.

"I was sick and tired of everything
when you called me last night from your home
All I do is fight and sleep and sing
But you're lounging there, why so poor, alone?"

The Mage grinned. These Amazons didn't have a chance!
Normal females were almost enthralled by a good, romantic
melody. These were *ALL* guy-starved and men weren't
naturally inclined as much to singing the mushy music that
women so adored, creating a need. Add to that they didn't
have any movies or mass entertainment, and this becomes a
fascinating, new thing. Doubly attractive.

And, in his lifetime as a Robotech pilot, he'd helped
program Sharon Apple.

If any of them could pull themselves away from watching,
this would be a race. Frankly, the mage doubted it. Well,
the high level ones most likely could, but the vast majority
of the girls present were young Amazons recently graduated
from Warrior Camp, training at their temples, or having had
their noses buried in study for long years. He took off
running. Then ran back, grabbed Soun (still muttering about
the possibilities of uniting the two houses), flung him over
an arm, and once again took off running.

Behind him the fifty foot replica of him went on singing in
an illusion that grew in scope and complexity as it went on,
hinting at waterfalls and deep forests, bringing in each
attractive element in a sequence that built up to be
devastating.

"So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming. Suddenly I
feel alright.
And its gonna be so different when I'm on the stage
tonight!"

Spotlight beams appeared and danced invitingly over the
rest of the illusion.

While the young Amazons stared at the illusion, older eyes
swept over the construct of magic, noting ways to defeat
some of the enchantments on it. Appreciation for complexity
of the thing turned more than one set of those eyes
thoughtful.

"Tonight the Super Trouper lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun!
Smiling, having fun!
Feeling like a number one!

"Tonight the Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue
like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you!"

A finger danced out, striking certain females in the
audience who experienced near heart-attacks even though
they'd been warned. The illusion began to dance attractively
in a manner designed to be pleasing to a female's eye,
adapted for local customs. Added to this the fact that it
was very good and it became downright provocative.

The illusion was tied in to an Empathy spell, and so it
would read the emotions of its audience and act accordingly,
working them like a consummate live performer... or Sharon
Apple. He'd had to maintain a link with his illusion self to
provide the skill and keep an eye on its
behavior, but the towering illusion was sending out such
strong magical radiance that it would hide a host of minor
spells and serve as incredible havoc on divination magic.

If anybody wanted to cast anything of the 'seek and find'
variety, they'd have to cancel the big show. Would they be
able to bring themselves to do it? He was counting on NOT!

The mage knew full well of the crystalline array that
projected images onto the large white sheet stretched out
about the plaza. It would follow various groups of
huntresses, switching between them at the urging of a
clairvoyant, as they followed the progress of the Race. With
some of the betting going on, he'd have been surprised if
they had NOT done so. His obfuscation spells wouldn't
interfere with THOSE, otherwise it wouldn't have mattered
how fascinating he'd made the contruct.

"Hosting twenty thousand of your friends
how can anyone be so lonely?
Hot on a success that never ends
still I'm thinking about you only.

"There are moments when I think I'm going crazy, but its
gonna be alright
Everything will be so different when I'm on the stage
tonight!"

Coming out of the town to a pool of grey muck, he threw
Soun in and coated the latter with a heavy layer. The
martial artist was still too preoccupied to notice, having
finally put together the concept of a "Jared Saotome" and
multiple Ranmas together. (The thought of merging the two
houses with *all three daughters* was overwhelming. But what
about Aka-chan? Or some of these other Kasumis and Nabikis
he was hearing about?) A quick Fabricate later and there was
a small Greek temple on the bank of a stream nearby,
complete with pillars and statuary.

One of the statues, sculpted muscles and all, was Soun,
whose 'Thinker' pose hid the fact that he was still mumbling
to himself. But the not-so-far distant music covered that
just fine.

He ran off to intercept some of the other guys and see if
they needed any help.

--------------

Keian ran outside of town, finally ducking behind an
ancient roadside shrine (for travellers) and grabbing the
backpack that Cloudrunner had left him. He hadn't lied,
completely at least, to Ranma.

He changed clothes quickly, thanking his own deity that
he'd found someone who had agreed with his basic viewpoint
that quickly. He wasn't *ready* for this sort of thing, not
after Michele, or Julie, or Stacey, or even Shelley. No, he
wasn't about to go through some relationship now, especially
with all the talk about Rules Of Magic and such a bizarre
world that he could spend years just exploring his options.

The costume came on easily enough. Typical workclothes for
an elf of non-noble heritage, non warrior qualification.
Translation: peasant garb. Made of a material called "coton"
which seemed to mix characteristics of cotton and silk.
Cloudrunner had guessed his sizes and managed a fair job, it
seemed.

The blue pants were drawstring tightened, patched knees,
and looked as if the previous owner had been in a fight. At
least that was how Keian interpreted the burned line along
the outer thigh. The peasant shirt was serviceable, almost
new, of a deep green with golden embroidery around the
seams. A vest and belt of some dark reddish leather
completed the outfit. The boots were a trifle big, but
serviceable.

The hooded cloak was clearly of elven make, the stitched
leaf designs and dark on light green color clearly speaking
its origins even with his lack of familiarity. The hint of
rain would ensure that nobody thought odd about him keeping
the hood up. He was a bit more solidly built than the
average elf, but thought it might not look *too* offbeat.

A potion supplied by Cloudrunner removed his facial hair as
soon as he rubbed it on. The burning sensation on his hands
and the areas it was applied to was endured stoically.
Elves, he had been told, did not possess body hair.
Fortunately, he didn't have to apply it to the areas covered
by the clothing. He used the applicator for the other
potion, turning his hair a metallic bronze and causing it to
lengthen nearly a foot.

His old clothes went into the backpack, which he shrugged
on. To his side he belted the sword, the dagger went into a
bracer-sheath. A walking stick completed the image of a
wandering elf peasant, out to see the world.

Reorienting himself, he headed around the city. The viewing
crystals wouldn't start up for another ten minutes when the
women got *their* starting signal. And by then, he should
have been able to find and entrench himself at the
appropriate tavern.

Hiding in plain sight, well, it had been done before but
not often.

------------------------------

Jim ran. Not that he was afraid of women. Not that he was
afraid of multiple women as sexual partners. Not that he was
opposed to some of the Amazon customs regarding sharing rare
and valuable resources (they counted men as one of these
things, which would have horrified any number of late 20th
Century American women with the thought of males having any
value at all.)

Nor was the large number of non-Amazons a great concern. He
had been here over two weeks now, and had met and spoken
with some of the not-that-near humans and found plenty of
common ground. Though the kirrfolk tended to have an
attention span measured in moments.

So, the problem was to get to where he'd hidden a small
boat, then could speed down the river to the cove. The cove
was something he'd heard of, and the driads there would not
turn him in. Then all he had to do was leave the grove, and
as these were driads and not wood nymphs, he would have
escaped *their* embrace.

The trick was to get caught by the group you *wanted* to be
caught by. While he appreciated the Lil' Abner reference,
(and noted a resemblance to certain members of the Lil'
Abner cast among some of the Amazons), he had no intention
of the one pursuing him NOW to catch him.

That worthy was cute, in a Junoesque sort of way. Though
she was also unusually pale and likely had a frost giant in
her immediate ancestry. Eleven feet in height was a bit
much! He liked long legs as much as the next guy, but
still...

Hmmm. Now if that dark elf had been this close to catching
him...

0-----------------------------

Jared skated around the corner, taking him more than
halfway up the ravine wall with a long trail of dust in a V
line leading to where he presently was.

A relatively small price to be going at 128 miles per hour.

At first his plan had seemed flawless, then a couple of
enterprising Nymphs and man-starved druidesses had used
Speak with Plants and Speak with Animals to hunt down
witnesses of where'd he'd went. In spite of all his care
hiding his trail, he'd never bothered to ask the plants to
*not* tell anyone where he'd gone. Plus, the druidesses
could be awfully sweet and wheedling, it'd never have
worked. They'd chased down enough of his hiding places that
they'd actually *found* him.

So, his perfect plan shot to ruins, he'd been chased out of
his foxhole and had to stop being a fox in order to gain the
edge in speed.

He leaped up briefly in the air, spinning, and cast his
Body Outside Body spell, creating five exact duplicates of
him. They all began running in separate directions.

A moment later the purpose of all this caution was realized
when over a hundred women raged around the corner, running,
flying, riding, being carried by spells or magic carpets and
all having one thing in mind... marrying HIM.

Meanwhile he was flowing downstream, having Shapechanged
into a Genie of Water, then used those abilities to turn
into water himself and insert himself into a convenient
brook. There was also an illusion of him running along his
former path and to throw off the tree-talkers he'd done all
this while invisible.

So far it wasn't working.

Whatever he did, there were at least three *bands* of
female pursuers who knew how to utterly foil it. Maybe he
could have deceived any one of them, but they were all
working together in surprisingly organized groups
considering all this was being made up on the fly.
Perhaps he'd been better off not tempting them so severely
at the starting line. He'd become the target of choice for
the day and, if all those who'd cooperated caught him and
shared, he'd have several hundred wives.

He had endurance, just not that much.

One of the big foils being used against him was the True
Seeing spells being cast by numbers of his pursuers. While
in his present form he was so realistically liquid he could
be used to wash a woman's clothes, or heated and used to
fill her bath... even if hit with a lucky
Dispel he was *still* disguised by Shapchange, all of that
mattered very little because True Seeing displayed what he
really was, regardless of layered disguises, revealed his
illusions, etc., etc.

Just as bad were the hakima. "Truthseers" who could
penetrate disguises with a glance. And then there were the
dragons, capable of shapechanging into human form, but using
their more powerful magic and special senses to track his
location by means he wasn't quite sure of.

Well, at least he was drawing off the lion's share of
pursuers, so he was accomplishing *one* of his objectives.

So he had to quick find some way of changing what he
actually was until they couldn't recognize him. Hmmm....

Well, it wasn't what he would've *picked* to use that stash
for. But he thought he had enough.

--------------------

There were nine major gods (or powers or philosophical
paths with avatars, the terminology depending on who you
talked to) in Aramar. (There were also a host of lesser ones
that were OF Aramar and generally dealing with lesser
concepts such as Arinne - patron of cheesemakers.) Borune
represented creativity and the concept of what some would
term Lawful Good. Etragar, the patron of healing, was more
concerned with the greatest good than law or personal
freedom. What some called Neutral Good. Most of these beings
managed some degree of dignity in their various
incarnations.

And then there was Toltiir, god of mischief. Who had, in
previous times, been known as Coyote, Jack Of Twilight,
Cheshire, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, and a thousand other
names. Dignity had *never* mattered as much as if it were
funny. He (sometimes she because the entire concept of a
physical existence was alien to the Elder's origins) was
mischief and chaos and well-meaning humor, even if the
hardly-omniscient being sometimes overplayed his hand. Or
paw as he also took the form of a black cat frequently.

So, upon discovering that someone *else* was playing a
grand and elaborate joke during the Amazon Race, well - he
was intrigued to say the least.

A vaguely Greek style temple wasn't that uncommon. The
Amazons of House Valkyr often used that motif themselves. A
vaguely Greek style temple-restaurant was rather more
unique. The only ones other than this in a similar vein were
the coffeehouses dedicated to Juan Valdez, patron of coffee.
(Another case where Toltiir had meddled, but meddling was in
his nature as much as breathing was to humans. Well, most
humans.)

A vaguely Greek-Japanese styled temple-restaurant
specializing in okonomiyaki, whose holy books included a
menu, with a statue of "the goddess of cute and okonomiyaki
Ukyo Kuonji" *was* pretty unique to his point of view. In
fact, though he didn't remember a LOT of his life, Toltiir
was relatively sure he hadn't seen this in over
250,000,000,000 years. At least.

Toltiir was delighted and immediately planned on how to
best accomplish a "one up" on this event. Something
completely NEW, well, that was rare. And, as it was a joke,
it deserved his undivided attention. The level of jokes and
ironies piled on, well.

That sitting there IN the temple, paralyzed by his disguise
as a statue, surrounded by husband-hungry Amazons and
Nymphs, was one of the males desperately being sought -
well..

Toltiir absentmindedly created a pair of large cartoon
hands in midair to applaud.

Senses took in the clever plan from all angles, penetrating
the various cloaks and misdirections with a degree of
subtlety that many would not expect from someone nicknamed
the Jester. After all, nobody took him seriously. Which, of
course, was exactly how he liked it. If someone took him
seriously, they would have missed the point.

Then, shifting from amorphous plaid mist to little black
kitty cat, Toltiir considered how best to deal with this. A
good natured joke that served a greater purpose, this should
be repaid in kind, should it not? The temple-restaurant was
serving as a refuge for many of those women chasing those
few available men. Toltiir, without thinking about it,
strengthened and made more subtle the Lure spell drawing a
certain sort of hunter to this place. Oh yes, and actually
causing the "oracle sauce" to be accurate.

A smile crossed his feline face. What if... oh yes. His
senses ranged afield as he backtracked the path the hero had
come from, and then he disappeared from one continuua to
another as he followed his probe.

"Peorth, I have a job for you."

The goddess leapt into the air, going from "I'm so bored, I
wish something would happen" to "OH NO, not HIM" in less
than a second. "I... I... I..."

"I'm already accessing Yggdrasil," the cat informed the
girl, "and it looks like kami-sama isn't forbidding it, so
you know what that means."

"Non, non, not again," the goddess Peorth groaned and
slumped forward. "This timeline is in enough turmoil and
danger, little cat."

"Exactly," Toltiir said with a nod. "So here's a joke to
play that serves a higher purpose, and see, Kami-sama
approves!"

Peorth glanced at the appropriate monitor and noted that
the Allfather had indeed given a tentative go-ahead to the
project. Peorth groaned again because she remembered the
rumor that the multiverse had been originally created to
give Toltiir someone ELSE to bother. (Denied as heretical,
untrue, and just useless pondering. Which was common for
gossip whatever the source.)

Peorth listened to the plan and considered the timeline to
alter. Well, as bad as things were, it couldn't make it much
worse. She hoped. In fact there was a fair chance that
things would improve. Peorth smiled at that. Toltiir
violated rules willy-nilly, but his dislike for bleak, dark,
timelines was well known.

Toltiir smiled as Peorth went about her duties. Good,
nearly perfect, in fact. But he had one final idea he wanted
to try out. It seemed a darn shame that the Mage and his
fiancees were seperated by the gulf of time and space,
especially when there was a Sadie Hawkins Race to run.

And if the data about the dangers of what *could* happen to
the Mage unless certain interested parties were to rescue
him appeared on that Mercury Computer... why that would just
be too perfect wouldn't it?

Grey? Still in the cyborg schtick? Hmmm. He might have to
remember this plane. He wasn't too fond of the dark
atmosphere, but that was just more of an excuse to lighten
things up wasn't it?

--------------------

"Tonight the Super Trouper lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun!
Smiling, having fun!
Feeling like a number one!

"Tonight the Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue
like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you!"

The image spun and began to stalk its own audience with a
feline passion.

"So I would live, and you were right
the sight of you would prove to me I'm still alive
And when you take me in your arms, and hold me tight
I know it's gonna mean so much tonight!"

It sung repeats of various lines as it concluded the first
song, dancing with passion and grace. But no sooner did the
music wind down and the illusion take a bow that it was up,
changed in costume, gentler, more demure and singing into a
prop microphone its second song.

Soft bell tones led the way.

"The night we met I knew I needed you so.
And if I had the chance I'd never let you go.

So won't you stay and love me?
I'll make you so proud of me.

We'll make em turn their heads every place we go.
So won't you be?"

A small chorus of background illusions began to support the
first one in singing a harmonized request or the audience to
"be his baby darling."

"I'll make you happy, baby. Just wait and see.
For every kiss you give me, I'll give you three.

Oh, since the day I saw you
I have been waiting for you.
You know I will look for you, til eternity.
So c'mon and be..."

Again that gentle chorus, singing sweetly in innocent
voices, weaving a gentle atmosphere of love in low tones.

The image was programmed with several hours worth of
performance, and could sing encores. This distraction wasn't
about to end any time before the race itself did. And while
it existed it was blanking certain magical signatures from
detection.

A new song began, as someone got slowly up onto the stage.

"Have I ever told you?
How good it feels to hold you?
It isn't easy to explain.

And though I really keep trying
I think I may start crying
my heart can't wait another day.
When you kiss me I just got to say.

Baby, I love you..."

Nabiki looked out over the crowd, vengeance in her heart.

-------------------------------

Frostbite settled into place and watched. It was her, but
it was not her. It set his heart to aching to see her again
after all this time, her mirror's image returned to him.

Aramar was a dimensional nexus, and it wasn't unusual for
things to wash up on their temporal shores. Much like faroff
RIFTS Earth, or the so-called City Of Doors, many realities
ended at their doorstep.

It was rare, but not unheard of, for someone to meet their
Analogue. Another version of themselves from a different
timeline. It was also dangerous, as it was possible for
Analogues to "cancel out" like two soap bubbles meeting in
air.

It was also quite rare, but certainly not impossible, for a
dragon to meet some traveller from a distant time, be
courted by them, marry them, watch them grow old and frail
and die. To watch the person you care for come into the
fullness of life, and rejoice with them. To watch the light
fade from their eyes and their body cool, and to feel such
pain and despair that one could barely live through it. And
then run into the still-young Analogue of that same person.

To try to rekindle that flame? Or to avoid it, knowing that
the same pain and loneliness would eventually erupt anew?

Maybe it was best *not* to let things happen.

-------------------------------

"So," the wizardess said of what she considered a
half-nymph, "you've gotten tagged with Compulsive Honesty
and now you're rooted in the soil."

Nabiki sighed and frowned. "Yeah. This Pheonix Mage guy, I
just meet him awhile back. *What* an ...." Nabiki frowned
further as something kept her from saying that word.
"Anyway, he casts this spell that had my *underwear*
propositioning the local wildlife and offering refunds. So
I, like, cut the underwear off, except I've now got these
little heart shaped patches. Now they're permanent and look
kinda like tattoos, y'know, but at least they quieted down.

"But, like, anyway - this Mage-guy threw in a special. If I
manage to, like, catch ahold of his clothing while he's
wearing it. Then I can get something..." Nabiki's voice
trailed off as she realized something was odd, then she
really wanted to curse the Mage. "I think he did something
to my head, too. I haven't been able to get that comment of
his about gold off my mind and that musta been two days ago
or so. I think."

Kinon shook her head. Another mage acting as a loose
ballista. Obviously he'd done something to screw this
half-nymph up. "Hang on, I know a way to cut through all the
enchantments. I'll get you loose."

"Really? That would be, like, totally cool." Nabiki
couldn't wait for someone to get all the cotton out of her
head.

"Yeah, it's already started actually," Kinon smiled
reassuringly. "Your magical nature started absorbing the
magic cast on you to restore you. It happens with polymorph
victims every so often. Since spells like that have a time
limit, if I speed time up on you with a Haste, they'll burn
out. Also there's a spell for strengthening the Rules on
you, so as to return you to what you are normally."

Nabiki blinked. "Okay. I guess."

First went the Haste spell, more than doubling the amount
of time passing for Nabiki than for the rest of the world.
Then Kinon took a deep breath and unleashed the Inner Nature
spell.

"Inner nature, outer form,
to the Rules you must conform,
return now status to the norm.
To true shape now be reborn."

Kinon watched the half-nymph go scampering off and smiled.
She deserved a drink for doing such a good deed.

-------------------------------

Once he'd heard the name, Keian had found "Piccolo's Place"
to be irresistable as the meet-up location. Named by the
Emperor after the Dragonball Z character, mainly because he
felt the attitude of the villain-turned-hero was similar to
his own image, it was a skyport bar. Where the city of
Emeraldis was divided into the five segments, the skyport
segment was the most commercially diverse and often
downright bizarre.

The streets were full of people not interested in the Race,
except for what seemed to be a thriving interest in betting.
Thri-kreen buzzed and rasped at each other, burrowers
grumbled and growfed, dwarves swore and played some game
with cards and tokens, elves hawked various fabrics and
jewelry, and other species even more bizarre were hustling
and bustling.

A lone elf wanderer, making his way through the streets,
was mainly overlooked. Just as Keian had hoped.

The interior of "Piccolo's" proved to be an odd fusion of
elements. From the coffeeurn and the rough-hewn solid
furniture, one could see Southern Cross influence. From the
teapots, rice, and wall scrolls could be inferred House
Rising Sun's influence as well. The vaulted ceiling,
intricate wood engravings, and presence of ferns could be
inferred an elven touch. The solid-looking fitted-stone of
the floor bespoke a dwarven hand.

Keeping his hood in place, Keian made his way to an
unoccupied booth. From there he could watch in silence. The
waitress was one of the catpeople, a kirrfolk he thought
they were called. He kept the order simple and in character.
Small beer, a barely fermented drink that was safer than
unfiltered and unboiled water, and had less alchohol than a
glass of wine. Nonetheless, he simply sipped at it while
studying the other patrons. Hmmm, maybe distilled water?

No sign of Cloudrunner, which probably meant that
everything was OK so far. The only others in the cafe were a
pair of mouseling businessmen (businessmice?), one of the
slender apelike orahm was wearing what looked like a
jeweler's loupe and engraving something with a penlike
scriber, there was an Amazon elder of House Rising Sun over
at the bar if he was reading the insignia correctly. In
other words, a typical crowd at this sort of place during a
time when business was at a lull. Perfect.

Emeraldis was originally planned as four communities within
a walled city. The really weird races were largely
restricted to the "Centaur Quarter" - more due to physical
necessity for very large or nonhumanoid beings than active
prejudice. The "Halfling Quarter" was similarly restricted,
as the buildings were all designed for inhabitants under
five feet in height. The "Elven Quarter" was the manors and
elite dwellings, the name a holdover from when elves held
the reins of power. Now one was just as likely to find
halflings or dwarves up there. The final planned section was
the "Royal Quarter" - where the castle and various dwellings
and businesses feeding the castle were. Then the "fifth
quarter" - the port area that had developed after everything
had been planned.

Keian was sipping at the small beer, when he noticed the
newspaper left at another table. Perfect. "Information is
the first principle of survival" or something like that.

-----------------

Nodoka Saotome flipped an order of tempura onto a plate and
lofted it along with two orders of noodles to Akane, well,
now her name was Scarlet.

Odd that her son had forbidden the girl from doing any help
with the cooking, but the help she gave as a waitress was
just as well. Scarlet caught the bowls via magic from a ring
she'd borrowed that morning for helping around the
restaurant and served them to their targets among the tables
of waiting women.

At her elbow, wearing a perfectly adorable little dress,
ruffles, and ribbons in her hair, five year old Serena (and
self proclaimed Priestess of Cute) was wielding two
miniature spatulas with childish determination that was just
darling.

"One order of okonomiyaki!" Little Serena chirped, flipping
the pancake daintily to reveal that it was poured in the
shape of a bunny.

With childish seriousness she squiggled sauce in a line to
draw a big happy face on it and put it on a plate which she
handed to an elf waiting at the counter. "There you go."

Several of the Amazons clapped.

Nodoka paused in the midst of pouring more battle for her
when a little tug came on her skirt. Looking back by her
heel revealed a small little boy wearing a stocking cap with
the tail falling around over his face (to be lifted back and
fall into place again and again) and a
'Buster Brown does Okonomiyaki Sellers Outfit' with
well-polished shoes, each with a bright little buckle.

The little boy tugged cheerfully at her skirt again. "Hi
mommy! I thought of a song. Can I sing it to you?"

Nodoka lifted the cherub up, blinking at him. She was about
to ask the boy who he was when he gave her a big hug around
the neck and chirped. "Please?"

And into her ear more quietly, he whispered. "And I
couldn't find any other way to hide, mommy. Will you hold my
katanas till I'm grown?"

Suddenly her smile went ear to ear.

Nodoka put him proudly up on the counter. "Certainly, my
son. Why don't you sing for our guests?"

Giving a pert little okay nod he clasped his little hands
behind his back and swayed about while he sang in a chirping
too-high childish voice that somehow managed to be almost
meltingly adorable.

"In the leafy treetops the birds sing Good Morning
They're first to see the sun
They must tell everyone
In the leafy treetops the birds sing Good Morning."

In his backpack, with one of the Sailors where he'd stashed
it, were some forty empty potion bottles which had once held
Elixirs of Youth. His supernatural attractiveness had
translated down to saccharine cuteness and he'd made use of
all of those Know Customs spells anyway, so he used the
knowledge to make himself one of the world's most charming
four year
old kids.

He'd fix it all later, after the Race.

Little Serena burned with five-year old rivalry. Here was a
challenger to her position as High Priestess of Cute! This
MUST be dealt with!!! She leapt giggling upon the boy and
oozed little-girl charm amidst curls and ruffles (her old
hair style had been too silly, it was
now a plethora of curls trailing ribbons down her back to go
with her fluffy pink dress) as she tickled her cousin with
gleeful smiles herself.

It was a war of cute, and the loser was the first who
failed to look darling.

-----------------

He'd had to relocate to the bar due to the crowds now
developing. So far, it was still various halflings, a few
dwarves, and some odd critters he wasn't sure WHAT they
were.

One of the Amazons entered, and Keian spent a moment
examining the badges on her armor. Her "beach bunny"
appearance was confirmed by the upper badge as House
Southern Cross. Tanned looking skin, blonde hair, blue eyes,
curvy even in chainmail. Also looking thoroughly depressed.

"Dwarvil," said the blonde woman, pulling her hair back as
she slumped into her seat at the bar.

"Sure you wouldn't rather have your usual, Captain?" The
fire-haired genasi behind the counter continued wiping a
glass as she regarded the Amazon. "Y'know that stuff's best
saved for pouring on zombies and the like."

"I need something a damn sight stronger than Firewine,
Kei."

Keian noted the woman had a thin scar across her face, and
would have been in her late-20s if she had been human.

Kei, the bartender, thunked a heavy decanter on the table.
"Try this stuff. Latest thing they've come up with based on
the Emperor's recollections. They call it 'whisukei' and
it's a variety of mash set in oak kegs for nine years."

"Strong?"

"The dwarves swear by it."

The Amazon poured herself a tankard full. "Good enough for
me."

Keian watched the Amazon slug it down and said a prayer for
her liver.

A drow elf entered, taking the seat in between Keian and
the Amazon. She rubbed her temples while ordering a
firewine.

Finally, Keian spotted Cloudrunner entering. The sky elf
gave a barely perceptible nod than moved to a table where
one of the mouselings from earlier was still seated.
Evidently she was expected as the two immediately went into
deep conversation.

The Elder looked over the Captain with a frown, then a
smile creased her craggy features. "Last chance, was it?"

"Yeah," agreed the Captain.

"You too, eh?" The drow grumbled aloud, she slumped
forward, causing the white braid of her hair to slide down
along her side.

"Well, you're young yet. Ember, isn't it? One of the Esper
Guild?"

The drow groaned. "Yeah. Damn there was a lot of psychic
interference today. Then I twisted my ankle, and all this
bright light is giving me a headache!"

"Tell me about it," Captain Alysse slammed a crystalline
pendant onto the bartop. The tinkling sound of it breaking
was barely audible over the muted noise of other
conversations. "120 gold for that damn tracker. Useless."

The Elder chuckled. "By the Seal, they're selling *those*
again?"

Keian tuned out most of the conversation as he watched
Cloudrunner angrily argue with the mouseling, who was giving
every mannerism indicative of a penny-pinching merchant
arguing over price. A thump brought his attention back to
the bar where the drow was apparently getting drunk.

"... I mean, I'm not *bad* looking, am I?" The drow
exclaimed to the Amazon. "I've got a regular job, I've been
rated Fourth Circle as a psychoporter, Seventh Circle as a
telekinetic! I mean... I'm not..." The drow looked sadly
into her drink.

"Same here. Oh, I admit the scar *might* throw 'em off,"
Captain Alysse said, "but I've captained skyjammers for
years now. I've fought pirates and those damn snakemen and
the undead, I *know* I'm not so bad..."

The Elder sighed. "Well, the odds are..."

"Odds, hell. You know the drill. Most of the guys each year
*arrange* who they're gonna be caught by. The Race is fixed,
and everyone *knows* its fixed, but the random elements give
you a chance." Alysse refilled her tankard. "You know darn
well the guys check out the girls as much as the girls check
out the guys. We... just don't make the cut."

"Why not?" Ember looked around the Amazon. "I'm competent,
I pay attention to my appearance, why aren't I attractive
enough?"

The Elder gave Alysse and Ember a blank look. "You're
asking *me*? How would I know? Ask the elf over there, he's
male!"

Keian froze as the two women turned to him.

---------------

Jared Saotome, druid, mage, kensai-monk of a devastating wu
shu style was currently the victim of a devastating attack
that bypassed most of his defenses.

Guilt.

(Maybe coming here was a bad idea,) thought the currently
five year old boy to himself.

"Reika Kokubo? Struck out again, huh?"

"Asly? Fa-fa? Geez, old home week isn't it? Did I spot
Fiesh and Tarnya earlier?"

"Yup," the oriental Amazon with the cheongsam-style outfit
indicated. "They're still out looking for that Pheonix Mage
guy. Face it, if we'd known the competition was *this*
fierce we wouldn't have wagered five years."

(Five *years*?!) Jared thought to himself, imagining all
sorts of horrible possibilities.

"You think that's bad? Until this Pheonix Mage guy showed,
and the profiles on his abilities were posted, it looked
like it would be bad. NOW there's over 24,000 hunters
competing with us. And that bit at the beginning? Did he
honestly think that would distract anyone?" Asly, an Amazon
in ring mail with peace-bonded weapons rolled her eyes at
the others.

"Well, it might have if that Nabiki person hadn't pointed
out that anyone who nabbed him would also get that sort of
talent to themselves." Reika was quick to take a seat and
exclaim. "What's an okonomiyaki, anyway?"

"Sort of a pancake. Pretty good actually, though I've never
heard of the goddess Ucchan before." Fa-fa shrugged, causing
the usual ripples of flesh. "I bet he never expected her to
actually *use* that Compulsive Honesty curse."

"Yeah, but insulting Wildleaf's outfit and her age," Asly
snickered. "So now she's rooted until the end of the race."

"We're gonna lose *again*, aren't we?" Chie, an Amazon
wearing a shinobi sort of outfit exclaimed, damn near in
tears.

This brought everyone else back down as if a bucket of
water had been poured on them.

"Yep," agreed Fa-fa.

"No doubt," sighed Asly, the food no longer tasting as
good.

"Well, there's still the birth creches!" Reika tried with
some false enthusiasm.

"It's just not the same," grumbled several others
simultaneously.

"What's a birth creche?" Jared clamped his mouth shut as he
realized he'd spoken.

"My, little boy, you're gonna be a heartbreaker when you
grow up," said Reika with no idea of the irony of her
statement. "Birth creches are... well. Hey, Wakana? Yuu?
Tsukasa? Take a seat. Helga, just the one I wanted to see.
You're House Valkyr, can you explain the birth creches to
this genasi boy?"

Jared's eyes bugged as he saw a group come in through the
door and take a table. The Scouts?! No, these were older -
mid 20s or so, and dressed with appropriate badges and
sigils to indicate they were Amazons. Probably Analogues-
the local "mirror reflections" of the same individuals.

"Well," began the young Nordic-looking girl as she
considered Jared for a moment before dismissing some odd
idea. "How much do you know about the Delphins, little boy?"

"That your ancestors were humans in the First Age Of Man,
that a popular series of holobooks called 'Amazon Pryde'
written in 2432 AD was seized upon by a group of genetic
engineers as a blueprint for a Utopian society, and that
your arcship was one of those 'lost' during the dimensional
crossover to escape a genetically engineered race of
soldiers that had embarked on a war of genocide against all
but their own species. That there was a war between East and
West on the planet Delphins shortly after the colony became
self-sufficient, and much of the technology was lost. As
Delphins men were engineered to be smaller and frailer than
the women, without the benefits of the turbocharged immune
system, a biological agent by the East wiped out over 99% of
the male population and produced a genetic change that
altered the male birth ratio from 6:1 to 20:1 or worse. That
the genetic damage continues and that Delphin males still
die before puberty which further skews the male-female
ratio."

Everyone stared at the little boy briefly.

"Well, yes," agreed Helga. "As far as that goes. The birth
creches were actually first made using that First Age
technology stuff. We've repaired them over the years,
they're the reason that House Valkyr is number one among the
Houses of the Amazons, but there's a problem with them."

"Copy failure?"

"My, what a bright little boy you are," Helga beamed,
noting that she'd have to see if she could introduce one of
the younger creche-children to this boy. He'd be an
invaluable asset for House Valkyr! "That and magic can only
go so far in repairing this technology stuff. If a human and
an Amazon have children, the children are Amazons but will
have some traits of the father as well."

"Which puts us in the same boat as the nymphs," pointed out
Reika. "They have *no* males of their own species. Any child
of a nymph is a nymph herself. The satyrs are supposedly
okay for a dalliance, but..."

The assembled Amazons made a face. "Goat-men," commented
Fa-fa.

Chie made a sobbing noise. "I don't wanna spend the rest of
my life alone. Work's nice, but... it doesn't love you
back."

"Why can't *we* get lucky?" The Amazon Analogue of Minako
Aino shouted from her table.

"Sorry, ma'am," Reika said to the hovering Nodoka. "The
food's fine, but it's just that it's really hard on most of
us to have come this far and trained this hard, made the
time bets, just to find out that the guys in question are
either unavailable or didn't choose us."

"Time bets? I thought you were pursuing them, not the other
way around."

Reika snorted. "Oh, the time bets. When you sign up as a
hunter in this Race, you bet a certain number of years. If
you lose, then you stop pursuing for that number of years,
absolutely no flirting or anything of the sort. Something
the Emperor added years ago. As for who's doing the
pursuing, hell, most of the guys 'arrange' to be caught by
those they think are most compatible. It's not really
against the rules, and it's done all the time. Except it
looks like this year, it got royally scr- fouled up."

Jared's eyes widened slightly as Kasumi, not a local
Analogue, but the Kasumi that had accompanied that sorcerer
version of Ranma stumbled in. Excusing himself from the
group, he went to show her to a table and get her a menu.
She looked as though she'd been *crying*?!

Behind him, Helga turned to Nodoka. "You're his mother,
right? Tell me, have you made any arrangements for when he
gets older?"

Nodoka bit her lower lip. She *sympathised* with these
women, as perhaps no one who'd not spent by far the greater
part of her married life forcibly apart from her husband
could. Watching other women with their husbands, never
knowing if her own would return, these had been
leaving deep scars his clearly dishonorable return did
nothing to erase.

Looking at their faces, she saw her own misery reflected
there.

Nodoka sat down at their table. With the present mood in
the Shrine it would only be a matter of time before calls
were made for booze and spirits, the grill wasn't likely to
see much more use today. Therefore, she had time.

"Son, come here, would you?"

----------------

Jared was bemused. It didn't work on *everyone* but most of
those who entered were "read" by the spells. He'd set it up
so that there had been a basic Lure spell on the shrine,
that would attract those with a certain frame of mind. Inns
and taverns apparently used similar things around here.
Hungry? You'd find an eatery as if your feet knew the way.
Needed a good hot chocolate (though it tasted a bit bitter
and off to him, honey didn't quite work in place of the
refined sugars he was used to), and you'd find your way
there providing the mages did their job of maintaining the
spells.

SOMEONE had modified and added to his spells, particularly
the sort that determined what and who would find her way
here. By accessing the threads of the spells he'd woven
earlier, he was able to get a basic impression of anyone who
had walked in the front door unless they had really strong
anti-divination going. Most here did not.

He interpreted the readings in terms of his RPG knowledge,
so the information on this older Kasumi Tendo came across as
(human f, LG(N), C1 Healer, wild talent: developing).

Asly was a fencer (Amazon, LN(G), F17 weapon master sabre).
Fa-fa was a martial artist (Amazon, LN(G), Monk 9,
specialist in dragon kung fu) while Chie was (no surprise) a
sort of ninja/courier/commando who worked for her House
Rising Sun (Amazon, LN(G), Ninja 7).

Reika Kukubo (obv named after the Sentimental Graffiti
character) turned out to be a mage specializing in elemental
water. (Amazon, CG, Mage (water) 4)

The Amazon "Scouts" were of three different Houses, but an
adventuring band of medium high level.

Kasumi settled for ordering a hot cup of tea and seemed
pensive.

"What's wrong, Ka... Lady?"

Kasumi smiled at the little boy as he struggled to pour the
tea. "Nothing. It's just that I... I was hoping to find
someone. But he wasn't where I had mentioned that I would
meet him later, just..."

"So you'd arranged with Ra... one of the guys to meet him
and then he had to move because too many huntresses were in
the area?"

"It was the crowd," Kasumi explained. "There was a stage
show going on and I couldn't get free. I missed meeting him
at the appointed place and time, and now..."

Jared winced. "Well... maybe he's waiting for you, he'd
have to move because of the patrols, but he'd still be out
there."

"Son, come here, would you?"

"I gotta go," Jared said to Kasumi. "Don't give up yet. I'm
sure if you want it enough, you can find him." He crossed
tiny fingers behind his back as he left and wondered how
he'd do this.

An elfin woman set an okonomiyaki in front of Kasumi.

"I'm sorry, I didn't order this." Kasumi blinked up at the
young lady, still finding the pointed ears and long eyes to
be strange.

"No charge, ma'am." The elf smiled cutely, though there was
something wrong with the grin. "On the House, one Oracle
Okonomiyaki special."

"Which House?" Kasumi caught the reference, knowing that
there were some Amazons who were supposedly supporting her.

"Ah, but that would be telling." The elf grinned, filled
two more orders, then ducked around a corner and
shapechanged. The little black cat grinned again, and
Toltiir vanished. These things were always fun!

Still at her table, Kasumi looked at the picture drawn in
the sauce and suddenly *knew* where Ranma was.

-----------------

Shampoo dodged the crossbow bolts, flipped behind a tree to
avoid the spear thrust, and slammed her bonbori out to
flatten some woman who used what looked like twin baling
hooks as weapons.

Her allies, like herself, were all buxom young armed women.
Well, except for the one who'd suddenly blurred and shifted
and now there was a dragon fighting on her side. Oh, and
there were the two girls who had fur.

Her enemies, like her allies, were all women. That was
about as far as Shampoo was willing to concede common
ground. Each of these girls had hair in a mannish cut if not
completely shaved. Most had scars that formed patterns or
swirls. Where her allies had either that soft leather armor
with the harder plates, or full plate armor in other cases,
the enemy all wore an oddly tinted leather armor that was
clearly a single type.

Her enemies were fighting with precision that spoke of long
association, and were *ruthless*. Two of her allies had been
taken out of the fight, then killed while they were
helpless. This was unfamiliar ground to Shampoo, she was in
a fight for her survival against opponents who used poison
and dishonorable tactics.

During the earlier battle, she'd only seen their ships, not
the Feryl themselves.

Another ally fell, and the Feryl twisted a barbed spear in
the fallen girl's entrails before spitting in her dying
victim's face. A moment later, and the dragon's claws had
used that pause to rip the spear carrier apart.

Shampoo's attention was mainly on surviving, but a thought
penetrated. She *had* to learn some of these other Amazon's
techniques!

------------------

"AAAAaaaa!" Keian ran out the door.

"Wait a minute, you!" Ember limped to the door. "There he
goes, damnit!"

"Who or what was he?" Alysse lifted the slender-limbed elf
easily and began jogging.

"Other than he's wearing a disguise, I don't know. Could be
a necromancer, could be one of the Boskone's little animated
corpses, could be an oni shapeshifter." Ember frowned at the
thought. "He took off the moment I mentioned using a See
Trueform pendant, so he's not an unwitting dupe."

"Didn't strike me as evil. A bit vacant, maybe." Alysse
started jogging, the elf in her arms not weighing enough to
slow her down much though she couldn't run.

"I'll check him out!" A sky elf leapt out of the cafe and
took to the air.

"Cleric of Relat?"

"Better'n a cleric of Toltiir," quipped the elf.

"True enough." Alysse shifted her burden slightly and
continued jogging.

-------------

Jared went over to their table and fitted himself into his
mother's lap.

Laps were surprisingly comfortable furniture, he'd found.

Nodoka beamed as she adjusted the little child more
comfortably within her embrace, then brought his attention
to the Amazons they shared their table with. "Son, do you
have a song you could sing regarding families?"

"Sure!" He chirped, ignoring the bad feeling of warning
this gave him.

"Could you please sing it for our guests?" She asked.

He nodded pertly and cutely, then sang.
"When my mother calls me, quickly I'll obey
For mother knows just what is best, each and every day."

It had the desired effect of being adorable. When Nodoka
asked him to sing again, and fearing his mother was working
on some scheme or other, he popped off her lap and went and
grabbed Serena. After whispering together in a sweet and
darling way for a moment or two in a
childish huddle, the two broke formation and held hands
while they moved in rhythm and sang together.

"It's always fun when grandpa comes, when grandpa comes.
Hurray!
He always says the kindest things and in the kindest way.
He has a wrinkly, twinkly smile. He's jolly all the day.
It's always fun for everyone when grandpa comes!"

Nodoka reclaimed her lap pet and sent Serena to fetch
water, then softly instructed her flame haired boy. "No
dear, I want you to sing another song about mothers and
fathers. Can you do that for me?"

He was being corralled, and he knew it. Trouble was he was
unsure of how far he was willing to go to get out of it. A
little more hesitantly, the boy sang another little ditty as
before, but it failed to get him off of the hook, and his
mother insisted he sing another. So he tried a dirty,
underhanded trick of trying to derail her by singing.

"I know a name, a glorious name, dearer than any other.
Listen, oh listen, that name to you. It is the name of
Mother.
Mother so tender and kind and true.
I love you, I love you.
Mother so tender and kind and true.
I love you."

As he finished the boy tried hopping out of his mother's
lap to run away and perhaps hide in a rain barrel. She was
planning something. But she was *also* holding on tightly,
so he was stuck unless he wanted to show some clearly
non-childlike abilities. It was difficult to keep his
expression innocent.

His mother was clearly leading him into a trap.

Nodoka adjusted the child and put her arms around him,
giving a secure little cuddle. Leaning forward, she
whispered softly in his ear. "Do you see?"

He shook his head.

"Then sing again, and not just about mothers, dear." Nodoka
softly instructed.

Giving a grave little nod, he inflated his lungs and went
on into the hornet's nest.
"I love mother, she loves me
We love daddy, yes siree.
He loves us and so you see,
we are a happy family!

I love sister, she loves me
We love brother, yes siree.
He loves us and so you see,
we are a happy family!"

Nodoka rocked the little boy and cooed. "Do you see it
now?"

He could. They were now surrounded by Amazons. Baby-hungry
Amazons nearly in tears (and in some cases they were).
Baby-hungry Amazons led directly to being husband-happy
Amazons who desperately wanted fathers for their children
and loving husbands to care for. It would take a heart of
flint to look on that and still work so hard to remain a
bachelor. All they wanted was the love of being married, and
they were already prepared to work hard, make tons of
sacrifices and... they'd pay and *risk their lives* for a
chance to have someone to love and cherish them back.

They were crushed with longing and nearly in despair over
their failure to find someone to marry.

He did not have a heart of flint. As Nodoka had planned,
once he'd seen it, her boy's last defenses failed.

~But wait a minute. If I were to sacrifice myself, no
matter how noble, I'd satisfy what? A dozen, in an extreme
case maybe a few hundred? of these ladies? That didn't work,
there were twenty thousand in this Race alone. One could
only spread himself so thin before the return of
affection was meaningless. By myself, I am not a sufficient
answer.~

~So what would be a more complete answer?~

The little boy leaned forward, cast an Anti-Magic Aura on
the table, then pulled out a laptop computer from stuffspace
and began to access holographic files. "Okay, mom. What
we've got here is a scenario where there are several
problems, the most *chief* of which is the almost total lack
of males. Now, I could try to address the situation short
term or I could go for a more lasting solution."

He brought up a hologram of a Zentraedi landing ship and
expanded it to fill the space over the table. "This is a
Quiltra Queleual, the third largest standard battle cruiser
within the Zentraedi fleet and it carries a handful short of
forty thousand men, awake and in stasis. They are *ALL* men,
and pretty nieve about women, but once introduced to the
concept they can be pretty nice. The magic fields around
here would neutralize their technology, so if I were to
summon one of these ships, and reduce the fifty-foot giants
down to human size, they could be
captured and after some acclimation would fit in pretty
well."

He canceled the active hologram and switched to another, an
overhead detail map of the terrain. "The only problem with
that is the political situation. There is a really amazingly
huge world here with a huge population of Amazons. This
kingdom is only a drop in the bucket. AND could you imagine
the turmoil it might cause if the neighboring powers became
aware these guys had a glut of men? There could well be war,
and worse than that, all of this would be only a
one-generation fix."

"The only neighboring kingdom that would care is Nihon,
House Rising Sun," put in a samurai, obviously from the
kingdom in question. "And we have long been allies of
Shadar. This is likely to cause friction, but outright
hostility is unlikely."

"Between Nihon, Shadar, and the few bases offplane, there
*are* no more Delphins that we know of," said Ame to Koto.

"That we *know* of," agreed Koto, beginning a long involved
argument about the effectiveness of divinations and esper
abilities.

The flame-haired child canceled that hologram and switched
to another, a spinning detail model of a human female - the
closest approximation in the memory banks for the Delphins
Amazons. Before he had a chance to speak, though, he was
siezed by Asly, who shook the boy and
shouted. "YOU! *You're*..."

The little boy smooched her lightly on the lips, then
pitched his voice and addressed the crowd while the
swordmaster was paralyzed. "I'm not going anywhere. Let's
just not SAY anything that a wandering spell could pick up,
okay? If someone would be nice enough to go fetch my Sailor
Scout friends, I will stay nicely and happily captured.
Otherwise I'll have to escape."

Shock and wonder fled through the crowd. They'd WON??!

And this was the Pheonix Mage, ***THE*** most sought-after
man of this century! (Well, the Emperor's son Guyin might
have beat him out, but not by much.) Out of twenty-four
thousand, THEY were the ones to get this lucky?!?!??

Six Amazons immediately took off running. They had Sailor
Scouts (look for something that looks like a nautical
ranger) to find and return with. (If he'd asked for Godzilla
they would have fetched it, that just would have taken more
of them). The boy wasn't about to be put down, and he
couldn't reach his computer, so he just settled himself more
comfortable against the more than ample bosom of the Amazon
clutching him like a woman who'd first discovered chocolate.
Again, he pitched his voice to carry.

"Ahem, as I was about to say, you're problem isn't *all*
that different from the Praxian Amazons. *They've* got a
genetic complication where they've got dominant genes that
overwrite ones with different traits, including the male
gender. So even when they can find a husband
all but one out of a thousand births are female."

Several of the women in his audience winced. They'd thought
THEY had it bad!

The child coughed into his hand. "Ahem, so anyway. What
we've got here is a core problem where the men first aren't
being born enough, and second, aren't as healthy, so there
are a ton who die at a young age. If we could fix THAT it
wouldn't help you very much, but your daughters a dozen or
so generations down the line would be happy. I don't have
any of the equipment here, so if I could get a few willing
volunteers to go back to my time with me, there I have a
full robotech medical setup with cloning capability. I
figure a few decades worth of research, but
anything that's done can be undone. I'm pretty sure I'll AT
LEAST be able to reverse the effects of that ancient
bio-weapon on you. I may need your original genetic
blueprint from when your race was engineered but I think I
can bring the birth rate back up to one male in seven. I may
only be able to do it with the ladies who come with me, but
their kids ought to spread the trait."

He was surrounded by feral grins.

Reika and one of the Sailor Scout analogs spoke the same
thought. "AFTER we marry you."

The child sagged. "Drat. I was hoping you'd forget that
part."

---------------------

Nabiki curled up on the rocks, feeling comfortable under
the eternal noon. Her clothes, which had become confining
and uncomfortable, were discarded for the moment.

The rocks themselves felt oddly comforting under her golden
skin. Nabiki stopped and blinked, staring at her hand.

The skin was just a few shades away from gold in hue (or
was that more of a copper?) and the nails matched the skin
exactly. Her fingers looked longer somehow, more tapered.
The nails themselves were longer but narrower and thicker.
The skin itself looked slightly unreal, as if it were
poreless.

Nabiki threw off the lassitude and started running back to
town, worrying about the idea that she might be turning into
a pikachu.

"Vael path nakkit chi cailu!"

If she'd realized that she had left her clothes behind she
would have been even more concerned. If she'd realized that
she was swearing in a completely different language, she
might have panicked even more.

---------------------

Ranma hid. Not his usual style, but he had pursued it with
his usual focus. First he'd cast an Improved Invisibility at
the starting line, then had used a Dimension Door to throw
off pursuit by scent or normal tracking. Then he'd cast a
spell that made it appear as if he were a tree, while a
Project Image of himself ran off from the clearing to lead
pursuers off on a goose chase.

He well remembered the Race four years ago, where a young
wizardess had waited at the starting line while her
familiar- a shire hound, had tracked every movement of her
prey. Other times when a druidess had used her abilities to
learn the lay of the land, and where her young wizard had
gone into hiding. Two years ago when a guy had gone to where
he'd buried some equipment for a quick escape, only to find
that a young ardrow had discovered it and had been lying in
wait. Or the occasion when that young man of Rising Sun had
put on the clothes from the night before, only to discover
that a magical tracking beacon had been sewn into the lining
by an industrious young Amazon of Red Sands.

He'd gotten new clothes that morning, fasted the night
before, and taken all the usual precautions of someone
trying to outwit hundreds of wily Amazons.

Hours went by, and he felt both thrilled and disappointed.
It was all well and good to be successful in one's hiding.
Another thing to find out that nobody was pursuing you.

Finally a group came down the trail, and he was a little
surprised to see the membership of the group. After all,
he'd thought he'd been stood up.

"Oh my. I was *sure* he would be here," said Kasumi,
sadness crossing her face.

Megumi drew her katana and seemed to concentrate as if
listening. "He's nearby, all right. He must be using some
sort of cloaking magic. Everyone spread out and search.
Tendo, if you'll stay here, we'll try to chase him this
way."

Kasumi sighed and leaned back against a tree. "Oh, Ranma."

Ranma winced as Kasumi leaned up against him. He wasn't
sure if Megumi's sword would continue to be fooled by his
cloaking spell. If he did a Dimension Door, he'd catch her
within the nimbus (and be putting off the inevitable as he'd
have to drop the tree-disguise.)

"Ranma, I'm sorry."

-------------------------

"Stop him!" Alysse ran along shifting Ember into a
fireman's carry position.

Ember winced at the return of her headache but kept
tracking. "Left at the corner."

The fencing master continued, though at a jog her long legs
were sufficient to keep her pace against the shapechanger.
"That's a dead end, we've got him now."

The two raced into the alley, only to see their winged ally
grab the shapechanger and begin lifting him up into the air.

"She can't maintain their combined weight for long,
whatever he is, he's too big for her to handle." Alysse
noted the direction the two were going in. "They're gonna
try and lose us in the crowds over near the Race."

"You're right, she's tiring." Ember kept the tracking link
up. "She's straining for altitude."

Alysse shifted the burden of the ardrow on her back.
"Right! We'll get to the bottom of this now! Any luck with
telepathy?"

"No. I don't have that much energy left, or I'd be able to
divert a flow and heal myself. It's about all I can do to
keep the tracking in place. That and the few surface
thoughts I've been getting are in some odd language. I've
heard it before, but I can't think of where."

"Yeah, well, your people tend to be light sensitive,"
observed Alysse. "We'll be getting a storm later, that might
help."

Ember grunted softly. She hated getting rained on.

----------------------------

Amy stared. Mina stared. Rae and Michelle likewise devoted
time to staring. Lita considered fainting.

Ame stared. Myn stared. Arae and Iris stared. There was
much staring going on. Koto looked like she was considering
fainting.

"Uhm, you wouldn't happen to be 'Sailor Scouts' would you?"
Ame said after a moment of mutual amazement.

Amy nodded. "You're... us?!"

"Analogues, I'd venture," Arae said, grounding her naginata
as she looked over her double. "We're warrior cheerleaders
in this other world?"

"No, we are the sailorsuited soldiers of Love & Justice,
the Sailor Scouts!" Mina put in. "Uhm, Analogues?"

"If you see the various universes or timelines as a set of
mirror images, each slightly different from the rest, than
an Analogue is one of those other 'you' reflected in that
other reality. A doppelganger if you like, though that term
is usually used for a local variety of shapeshifter." Ame
adjusted her glasses, noting that her Analogue was doing the
same. "Though we're Delphins, you're human, and we appear to
be five years older."

"A foot taller, and you've got bigger..." Lita's mouth
snapped shut.

"Your connection to the Phoenix Mage is?" Koto asked,
recovering slightly.

"Engaged?" Ame seemed to look off into nowhere. "Got it. If
we make our sisters here our sisters by Blood Bond..."

Arae smiled. "Their children are our children, by the
Rules. Not as satisfying perhaps as the real thing, but less
likely to cause problems in the long run."

"What are you talking about?" Rae asked.

The Amazons told her. There was much staring again.

-----------------------

Nabiki stopped at where the stream had broadened out to a
sluggish puddle and wondered at the odd lassitude that stole
over her. ~I must have gotten turned around in this wood.
It's too big to be a park, but it looks so well maintained.~

The water wasn't deep or very far, but she noted a feeling
of discomfort at the thought of crossing it. She shook her
head at the odd sensation. She wasn't Akane who tried to
swim by swallowing large amounts of water, Nabiki had been
swimming since she was a child. Wading in, she couldn't help
but notice how her skin was now a uniform golden hue.
Fortunately the odd buzz caused by the Haste spell had
faded, though the extra running speed had been appreciated
at the time.

As the water swirled up around her hips, Nabiki pushed off
to swim the rest of the way. Something went wrong, however,
and she sank like a stone. Panicked hands clawed for the
surface, only a few feet away as the odd weakness increased
and things faded to black.

------------------------

Ember flipped off Alysse as the sky elf began losing
altitude rapidly due to the extra weight of her passenger.

Alysse considered drawing her sword, a silver Kharonian
sabre, but thought the crowd too thick. She dashed forward.
"Shapechanger, you are *so* under arrest!" She leapt up,
catching the two and dragging them down as Ember continued
to limp forward.

An Elder smiled and blew a whistle. "Fair catch!"

"Huh?!" Alysse and Ember chorused.

"Sorry, Keian," said Cloudrunner sadly.

The Elder chuckled. "Children, you are destined to live in
interesting times, I think."

A short, bald, monk of some halfling race rubbed prayer
beads. "This is fate."

"You know," said one of the other Amazons to a creche-mate,
"this just throws the betting all to hell."

-----------------

Jim wasn't happy. He wasn't unhappy either. He was
distinctly of two minds about the whole thing. On the one
hand, he wasn't unhappy with the concept of girls pursuing
him. Girls pouncing on him, as a matter of fact, was a
rather pleasant concept.

Nymphs had their drawbacks, however. They all looked
largely the same, with the same extreme amount of physical
"talent" and were eternal teenagers. Only through violence
or accident could a nymph die. That didn't keep them from
going through a "little death" every so often where their
memories were washed away. They did this to themselves, in
fact, to keep the burden of years from growing too much to
bear.

The leonine girl, on the other hand, was a bit kinky. Even
(some people's ideas to the contrary) for him. Fur? A slight
muzzle full of fairly sharp teeth? The tail could be fun,
but those claws looked like they could do serious damage!

Well, it could have been worse. He could have ended up with
one of those halflings. He was *sure* he'd spotted a kender.

Jim shuddered at the thought.

------------------------

"So you see," Koto was explaining as the priest continued
to mumble in the background, "by sharing blood and an oath,
these 'Sailor Scouts' are now honorary Amazons. Their
children will be Amazons. All we'd need to do is get them
married to you, and *then* you don't have to worry about
getting dogpiled."

"Do you, the Pheonix Mage, object to marrying these young
Amazons?" Someone in white robes asked Jared.

"No, but I..." Jared felt like his head was whirling.
Especially when he saw a group of six Ukyo (Ukyos?) in their
early 20s walk in the door. Three samurai, two ninjas, and a
druid/mage if he was reading things right. This was *quite*
distracting.

"Do you, the Pheonix Mage, swear to cherish and hearken
unto these young Amazons known as the 'Sailor Scouts'?" The
white robed woman asked, kindly and barely audible over an
order for six okonomiyaki "Wedding Bell" specials.

Jared could barely spare any attention as one of the Ukyo
pointed out their resemblence to the deity and wondered
aloud if they could learn to make these okonomiyaki things.
"Uhm, yeah, I guess."

"Then do you, Sailor Scouts, take this mage as your Amazon
husband to cherish and protect, to serve him as he serves
you, and to raise Amazon children thereby?"

"HUH?!" Jared's attention snapped back to the white robed
girl with an audible click.

"HAI!" The chorus came from a small group of young Scouts,
a couple of elves, a transformed dragon, and a couple of
Amazons.

Nodoka pried Jared's jaw off the floor. "Congratulations,
son. Oh, you have made me so proud!" ~Now if only *my* Ranma
could do this. Ah, he would be so manly! And think of the
grandchildren!~ Nodoka beamed a smile at the assemblage.

Jared stared in horror. The Scouts had had a membership
drive. He even had an ardrow ninja giving a proud V for
victory sign. "Urk!" He considered fainting but...

oh dear. That felt like a Geas. His magical defenses could
handle it no problem. The Scouts, on the other hand.

Wedding vows with the force of a Geas. This could be bad.

-----------------

Nabiki groaned and stirred, feeling as if she'd just been
sleeping for a very long time. There was still the lingering
effects of that weakness. She stopped and sniffed the air.
~A male? Nearby. There's also danger. Not here but nearby.
The male smells cute. Huh?~

The realization was enough for Nabiki to open her eyes and
struggle up to a seated position. Hey, that was Garr over
there!

"What did you think you were doing, oriad?" The boy looked
vexed and was wearing clothes soaked through.

Nabiki realized that *she* had forgotten her clothes
somewhere along the way and went to a position that didn't
flash her assets quite to the same extent. "Excuse me?"

The boy looked a little startled, then relaxed slightly.
"Oh, let me guess, you recently did that memory purge thing,
didn't you? You're an oriad, remember? A nymph of the earth
element. Water weakens you. If I hadn't seen you go in, you
might have been stuck in that stream bed until the druids
found you."

Nabiki blinked. ~A nymph?~ "What do you mean, a nymph?
I'm..." ~He doesn't recognize me?~

"Anyway, you should be more careful. I know you never get
sick or old or any of that, but accidents or violence can
still hurt you." Garr relaxed slightly as the nymph just sat
there without making any moves towards him. This one looked
a bit different in the face, and the hairstyle was
different, but all nymphs tended to look alike. Maybe he'd
met her before, not that she would remember him if she'd
purged her memories. Enough did it at some point, their
memories weighing them down over centuries until they made a
decision and woke up with a nearly empty head.

~I'm a nymph?!~ Nabiki frowned, remembering Silvara and
some of the others she'd seen prior to the Race. Face and
figure almost cartoon exaggerated feminine. ~That dwarf said
something about them. 'Eternal Teenagers' - never getting
any older. Am I like that now? Seventeen forever?~

"Anyway, I gotta be going. This wood is pretty safe, at
least for an oriad."

"It's not. There's a fight..." Nabiki's voice trailed off
uncertainly. How did she know? She just felt as if there was
a fight. Over THERE.

"A fight? Are you sure?" Garr wasn't certain of this but he
had known a few nymphs over the years. Nymphs couldn't lie,
directly at least. If one of them said there was a fight,
then there was a fight. "They shouldn't be doing that,
they're not allowed to battle during the Race. That's what
the Challenge Rings are for, after all."

Nabiki listened to the little voice. The fight was getting
closer.

------------------

Jared mumbled as he looked at the crowd, composed of his
brides (?), well-wishers, hangers-on, and various and sundry
others. ~How in the Name did I get myself into this mess?~

"Wow, you gonna have that many girlfriends when you grow
up?" Serena said, impressed. The five year old wondered if
her cousin was a masochist or simply had a high opinion of
himself.

"Eeep," commented Jared in reply, though with all the
cheers and celebrations, along with mumbled condolences and
sad commentary from those who *hadn't* found husbands, it
was hard to overhear him.

"Ah, my son," Nodoka Saotome continued to wipe proud tears
from her eyes, "TRULY you are a man among men."

"A True Man Of Shadar," agreed a priestess with a nod.

"Eeeple," expanded Jared, his eyes caught the crowds of
women present and outside the cafe. Was that Luna over
there? Well, he had enough trouble with Artemis.

"What a pity that you couldn't accept a few more," said
Nodoka as she caught a glimpse of a small crowd of sad
girls.

Jared reacted as if stung. "I think I've got more than
enough on my plate. WAY more. Since those two other humans
here are fanfic writers, maybe Sjul will bring some more. I
kind of wish there were a lot more humans like that around
here..." Jared's eyes widened. ~Uh oh. Wait, I don't have
any wishing devices on me. Whew!~

Jared winced as the black cat (unnoticed by any save
himself) winked directly at him and vanished. ~Double uh-oh.
That wasn't who I thought it was...~

A beam of light slammed into the ground hard enough that
the vibration was felt throughout the cafe. Ukyo Kuonji, but
an Ukyo made glowing and 12ft tall, appeared within the
column of swirling brilliance.

"Patrons, I have heard the prayer of this male, and it
shall be GRANTED!" The goddess said this in a voice that
carried over the assemblage and vanished.

"IT WASN'T A PRAYER!" Jared shouted at the sky. "It was
just an idle comment!" He noted that he was now sixteen,
marriageable age within Shadarian law. ~Uh oh x3~

"It...it's a miracle!" one Amazon announced.

"I dunno, it just looked like a manifestation to me," a
second Amazon commented.

---------------------

Garr leapt to the side with a squeak as a barbed spear
slammed into the ground he had vacated.

Nabiki stood, a little uncertainly, as the fight the rocks
had told her of swept into their area.

Shampoo's clothes were torn, and her hair blacked by a burn
in a streak, but she was still fighting.

A golden dragon was being dogpiled by a group of women who
had apparently ritually scarred their faces.

There were other Amazons wearing blazes and badges of four
Delphins Houses (Greenfield, Southern Cross, Rising Sun, and
Northstar) apparently fighting on the same side as Shampoo
and the dragon.

The fight was a chaotic mess, the discipline of both sides
having degraded into a fierce set of personal grudges.

Nabiki saw one of the scarred women bring a crossbow up
towards Garr. She leapt.

As she saw her golden flesh pierced by the bolt, Nabiki
wondered why she had done this. Because Garr was potentially
lucrative to her? Because he had saved her life and she was
just repaying it? Because... Nabiki let the darkness claim
her. She was just so tired.

-------------------

Ranma felt himself grabbed by Kasumi, who had apparently
had a really bad day and was in desperate need of someone's
shoulder to cry on.

Ranma wasn't sure how to handle this, and so merely held
her close as a squad of Amazons surrounded them but held
their distance.

---------------------

Shampoo felt the bolt slam home in her back and everything
blurred into a red haze. Her exhaustion fell away to the
desire for warm red blood to flow.

She was vaguely aware of the enemy retreating but there
were others around her, others who were a threat. Well there
was one thing to do about that! She threw her weapons away,
it was not nearly as satisfying as using her hands directly.

Except that a clawed hand that was sufficiently large that
it covered her from chin to ankle slammed her into the
ground and held her there.

Shampoo struggled, needing to kill and maim and destroy. Or
at least seriously hurt. She would not be defeated, she
would not lose. She tried to bite but couldn't seem to get
much purchase with her teeth.

*~I really didn't want to go through this again. Heal.
Command: Sleep.~*

---------------------

Magic swept out from the Shrine. Passing a young mage being
held by a distraught cleric. Passing a young Delphins male
who had to get his rescuer to a cleric, and knew only one
place where he could find clerics who could remove the
magically active poison. (The problem was that this place
was the Finish Line.)

Swept past a group of young women trying to get to know
each other and the young man they had captured. Swept on
past similar scenes elsewhere. But in sweeping it left
something behind.

James Bateman hit the ground with an absolute lack of
grace. He spent a moment trying to categorize the
sensations.

Sudden pain, check.

Sensation of falling, check.

Brief period of blackness followed by bright light, check.

Analysis: you're dead, Jim.

He just hadn't expected it to still hurt after he was dead,
or for it to feel like he had a rock stuck about an inch
below the right shoulderblade. He lifted himself up to a
sitting position, and opened his eyes. His jaw dropped
immediately.

There were six maidens in front of him, looking at him with
surprise and concern. Identical except for clothing, that
some looked slightly younger or older, and that hairstyle
varied slightly. Three were dressed and armed as samurai.
Two were wearing ninja garb. One was dressed in blue robes
decorated with embroidered ivy.

They were all Ucchan.

Before he passed out, Zen said a thank you. Clearly, there
was a god. Also clearly, whatever he'd done in his life,
he'd made it to the Good Place.

The six Amazons noted that the male was human, had spoken
some odd language, and had stared at them in a way that
suggested that perhaps the Race had not ended on complete
loss after all. Lifting the fallen male to their shoulders,
they set out for the Finish Line.

------------------

Gaming Data:_______
Psionics are a matter of channelling one's inner strength
or psychic potential into a specific ability. The major
categories of psionics practiced in Aramar are:
Clairsentience: psychic perception abilities
Psychomet: aka Psychometabolism, the ability to alter one's
own body through psychic energy.
Psychoportation: sidestepping distance through talents like
teleportation.
Telekinesis: physical manifestation psionics such as moving
objects with one's mind.
Telepathy: mind-to-mind communication.
The major types of psionic individuals are:
Dragons, who have some sensory and communication abilities.
Mu, whose powers of the mind are amplified by the hive and
can literally move mountains.
The Trained, scholars and researchers such as can be found
in universities. Mainly have telepathic or clarsentient
abilities.
Senpsi, the rare ones who develop their psionic abilities
as part of their discipline in the martial arts. Usually
Psychomet or Telekinetic.
Wild Talents, otherwise normal individuals who have a
psychic gift- often a result of an ancestor who adventured a
few too many times.
Tuners, those who work with the crystals. May have any
number of odd talents.

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