[Ranma][FanFic] The Bet: A Different Art chapter 7 "Aftermath of a race"

[Gregg Sharp]

A Different Art
Xover elements end early through this chapter.
Chapter 7: Aftermath of a Race.
Some scenes by Skysaber and Kevin (Keian) W. Patterson.
Some characters by other people. The writers do not take
responsibility for anyone who is a sufficient idiot that
they want to try out Amazon Boot Camp training techniques in
Real Life among other things.
Zen does not appear in this chapter, and who knew he had
that kind of endurance anyway?

"Acts of unwitting heroism during the period of adaptation
to the Rules will always be rewarded. Heroes need all the
help they can get."
Rules, volumn XXIV, page 1,204, chapter 9: the Adaptation
Of Relocating Planewalkers

"No good deed goes unpunished."
-Villains handbook, page 113, chapter 2: exploiting
your opponent's weaknesses for fun and profit

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

Emeraldis had gotten its name because the rock used
originally in the construction had a considerable amount of
copper oxide present. Hence the streets, buildings, etc had
had this greenish tint to it. The Emperor's reaction to
seeing his new capital city (after Kharonia's King had
retired to go into spell research and let someone *else*
worry about the administrative crap, and after returning
from the Godswar) would put this fic into an R rating just
from a fifteen minute rant about living in
multiple-deleted-expletives "Oz." He then altered the
building codes to suggest that variety would be good, got
buried in a lot of *other* fallout from the Godswar and
Sundering, then didn't see what the construction people were
doing until over a year had passed. When he had the Emperor
was properly horrified at what the construction people had
done.

There was still a lot of green, it was the common building
material and most of the inhabitants liked it. The Tourism
Board had already made up flyers about the Emerald City and
one entering the city saw green roads and buildings
everywhere one looked at least until one got off the main
drag.

The other factor in the bizarre constructs of Emeraldis was
the nature of its inhabitants. Things and people from
downtime could wash up on odd occasion in Aramar. Most of
the time this didn't leave a Zone behind, but buildings were
another thing altogether. Some of which could be
disassembled and moved into the city. There were also
mantis-people (thri-kreen), centaurs, elves, dwarves, five
races of halfling, Amazons of four Houses, nymphs, the
occasional pan-dimensional being, the blue jellylike bunjari
and other races. And their cultural influences were
everywhere.

Hence, on the main drag, not far from Piccolo's Place, was
the Emerald Tearoom. An odd place which combined martial
arts dojo, oriental teahouse, and community message board.
The exterior of which bore an odd resemblence to a Japanese
temple.

Keian walked over to the table in the corner where, for the
moment, the Pheonix Mage sat alone. The Mage sat with his
head in his hands, tapping his fingers, apparently lost in
thought.

"I wanted to find you and say thanks before you left,"
Keian began.

Jared looked up, and seemed a bit startled. He smiled,
seeming to brighten up with company. "No problem," he
replied cheerfully, and then paused. "Uhm, thanks for what?"

"For attempting to help me and the other guys out at the
race."

Jared looked pointedly at the three rings on one of Keian's
fingers. "I didn't do as much as I had planned on, and I
didn't seem to help anyone out, least of all myself."

Keian blushed a bit as he felt the three rings on his
finger, separate styles that fit together almost as a single
ring. "The outcome was not what I planned, but don't worry
about that. It may be for the best in the long run. Who
knows?

"And besides, it was the effort I wanted to the thank you
for. We hardly know each other, and you went well out of
your way to try and give me and the others guys a lot of
help."

Jared modestly shrugged his shoulders. "Don't mention it."

He seemed about to turn back, when Keian pulled out a chair
and sat down. "Do you have a minute?" he asked.

"Sure," the flamed-haired youth responded. "What's up?"

"I want to talk to you about some of the plans I have heard
about," Keian said quietly. "Or rather, I want to talk to
you about the plans you seem to have."

A dozen different things he was currently working flashed
through the Mage's mind, while he scratched behind his head.
"What plans would those be?"

Keian looked at him for a moment, and considered. "I've
heard that you were planning on trying to fix the ratio of
male-female children born to the Amazons."

"I seem to have mentioned something about that," Jared
replied, inwardly relieved this was not going to be about
some of his more delicate plans. Or his current situation.

Keian nodded slowly. He did not say anything for a moment,
and then signaled for service. A buxom woman with bright
green eyes and hair came up quickly. Keian blinked for a
moment, but it was difficult to say if it was the hair or
prompt service that surprised him. "Some peppermint tea,
please."

She grinned pleasantly. "Right away, sir."

He turned to gaze out across the room. "How much about the
Rules have you learned, Pheonix? Or do you prefer to be
called The Mage?"

"Actually, my friends call me Jared."

Keian looked back and smiled. "Okay, Jared. How much about
the Rules have you learned?"

Jared cocked his head at the apparent change of topic. "A
fair amount, I guess. I have not studied them too much here,
but I have come across similar things in the past."

Keian nodded in understanding. He turned back to look
across the room. "I have been thinking a lot about the
Rules, actually. The importance and impact they have on
everything here is almost beyond measure." He glanced back
at Jared, and held up the hand with three new rings on it.
"I now have some long term commitments here. And that means
I will be staying. And the longer I stay, the more the Rules
will act to change me.

"But perhaps the Rules are not changing me directly.
Perhaps the situation is more like this: The Rules are
channels and pathways to safely release a lot of excess
Magic energy. People from other dimensions enter this
Universe with a very large Potential Energy, but very little
of it realized. What they do, what they say, what they even
think begins to release that energy, and the Rules safely
channel that release into patterns that are not
destructive."

"You think what happened to original Scarlet wasn't
destructive?" Jared challenged.

"For her personally, and for many of the people she met,
sure. But not as far as the Universe was concerned," Keian
replied, getting more energetic as he spoke. "I have been
talking to Ranma about this. There is one school of thought
that gives a lot of support to this
interpretation, and I think it is the one Ranma himself
ascribes to, but it is by no means the only explanation."

"Okay. I can see how that would work. What's your point?"

"I'm getting there," he said, and would have continued.
However, the peppermint tea ordered earlier arrived, brought
by an equally beautiful woman, this time with matching blue
eyes and hair. "That is really going to take some getting
used to," Keian said, almost to himself.

"Nymphs." Jared chuckled a bit. "You get used to it. Go
on."

Keian sipped his tea, and quickly put it down. "Way too
hot, still." He cupped his hands around the steaming cup,
and continued. "The Rules seem to map out certain stable
points. Anything too far away from these stable points moves
into another point, sliding slowly at first, but gathering
speed as it moves, releasing the potential to a new
stability. People in a stable point can move to another
stable point mapped out by the Rules, but it takes effort,
energy.

"Sometimes it takes a change in profession, and years of
work, and then one only moves a little, from this Occupation
to that Occupation. Other times a great amount of energy is
used, be it transformation magic, or something else. In any
case, the Universe here seems to dislike certain states of
being."

"Nature abhors a vacuum?" Jared joked.

Keian nodded, and took another sip of his tea. He let out a
pleased sigh. "That's better.
"Yes, I think that might be a good way to say it. Nature
here abhors certain states of being, and moves things around
until it is more comfortable with them.

"Now, one of those things it is comfortable with seems to
be the Amazons. If a human woman from my world showed up,
said the right things, did the right things, she would
become one. Her mind would change in subtle ways. She would
gain certain abilities, perhaps losing some she had already
had. Her biology would change, to match those of the current
Amazons."

Keian turned to look Jared directly. "Her DNA would change
to match the stable pattern that this world recognizes as
'Amazon.'"

Jared's eyes were wide, blinking very slowly.

"So," Keian continued, "what do think will happen when 100
or more women are taken from this world to a civilization
with very advanced genetic manipulation techniques, the DNA
traits which generate the current male to female ratios are
changed, and these new beings, which are no longer really
Amazons as they are currently defined here, come back to
this Universe, talking like Amazons, acting like Amazons,
thinking like Amazons..."

"They would become Amazons," Jared finished for him.

"I think that is a very real possibility. I have not
studied enough to know, yet, though. When the local gods
stabilized reality the first time, there were twelve volumes
of Rules. Namerank mages over the ages have added, using
what was supposed to be a regulating mechanism, so that
there are now over *three hundred* volumes of Rules. I have
been asking Yusef some questions about how the Rules change
people, including their DNA, and I think that is what would
happen, but I don't know."

Jared looked at him sharply. "Yes, I know better than to
ask what the result in the future will be," Keian said.
"Trends he can handle without the penalty."

"So," Jared said slowly, "I can't fix them someplace else
and bring them back here."

"No," Keian said, "Not and still have them be the people
they are now."

"Okay, I will just have to stay here longer, and figure out
how to make the changes here." Jared's mind began to
generate and discard a variety of ideas. Bring some DNA
researchers here? Laboratories would be a real pain to bring
along...

"I think that has a better chance of success," Keian said
carefully.

Jared looked at him. "But you have doubts."

"Many. But I think you are talking more than just my
self-confidence." Keian sipped from his tea again, and
another waitress came up.

"Do you like your tea, sir?" This waitress had violet hair
that seemed to be getting in the way of her violet eyes.

"Yes, very much." As she turned to go, he called out. "I
could use another in a few minutes, if you do not mind." She
winked over her shoulder as she walked away.

Keian watched her walk away. "I swear, those three girls
looks similar enough to be sisters."

"Nymphs all look alike. Well, mainly," Jared said, although
he had never seen these particular ones before today. "Who
knows how the genetics of hair like that works?"

"Yes, who does? But that's only half my point. Look, social
structures are about as delicate a stability point as you
can find."

Jared was begin to look closely at Keian. The conversation
seemed to skitter about all over the place, but Jared felt
it was being drawn to a single point. Keian either did not
notice, or did not say anything about it, but continued
speaking.

"The current Shadar Empire, from what I can find out, has
been the most stable government to come around in the last
several hundred years. In fact, it has pulled into alliance
a lot of different factions that might otherwise have been
at war with one another. Meanwhile, it has stopped several
attacks and invasions from forces that would have been very
unpleasant should they have won. It has promoted the arts,
economic development, education. It hasn't been perfect, but
it really does seem to be a benevolent structure.

"In the not too distant future, the question of succession
is going to have to be handled, and there is not a good
tradition to draw on here. It might go smoothly, but it
could also be a crisis point, and a point where things fall
apart. But that is not what I getting
to."

Keian looked over at Jared careful. "Let's suppose you, do
bring a group of highly talented genetic engineers here,
into this world, and under their direction, create a new
magical virus which will spread through the Amazon's and
change their DNA so that male to
female births are near even. And let's say that you do so in
such a way as to be stable within the Rules, and everything
turns out the way you expect.

"What happens next?"

Jared seemed almost surprised by the question. "What do you
mean, what happens next?"

"Just that. What happens after that?"

The flame-haired mage shrugged. "First of all, the 'team of
engineers' was always going to be just me. Robotech labs are
almost all automated anyway. I'd just have to find a
qualified enough Thaumaturgist to teach me how to keep the
stuff running here. Secondly, it was never
part of my plan to make the births even. I like the idea of
men being valued, there was an astounding lack of that on
one of the worlds that I'm from. One male in seven sounds
about right."

"Thaumaturgist?" Keian whispered. "I'm not sure I know..."

Jared took a sip of his hot chocolate, noting that this
wasn't such a bad society. It had hot chocolate, it didn't
have some of the problems of 20th Century America. It *did*
have its own problems, but they were generally livable.
"It's what I call the brand of mage who makes science work
in a magical environment. I don't know what they call the
local ones, but on my world anything more complex than a
crossbow would spontantiously turn into a hunk of wood if it
didn't have magic holding it together. Thus, science worked,
but only by magic. I'm not sure of the local limits, but
spells in that vein ought to be useful."

"Ah," said Keian. "I ran across this in talking with some
of the Amazons about their own concerns. Apparently their
own birth creches are a mix of what we would consider high
tech genetic cloning vats and magic that stabilizes the
stuff as well as makes up for the parts that have broken
down."

"Ah. I knew there would be a local equivalent." Jared put
down his cup. "But okay, here's what happens next. The plan
so far is to obtain the unaltered genetic blueprint from
these
Amazons from before they got rewired. That could be as
simple as timetraveling in to an appropriate period and
snagging a lock of hair from an unattended brush, or it
might be much more complicated. Probably would be as I'm
told the last time someone tried something like this, they
had inadvertantly created House Southern Cross and the
Damarin Prophesies. Taking their mistakes into
consideration, I think it could be done. Then I apply the
change and I'm off."

"Oh good, you *did* hear about that. They went in with damn
near the exact same plan." Keian nodded. "In any case,
that's the start. More male children are born, so the total
number and strength of the warriors being born into the
Empire drops. Remember that the male of the species isn't as
physically powerful as the females. The social culture of
the Amazons are radically ripped apart in a single
generation, as they have how many years of tradition to over
come before they adept to an equalitarian society? There
also comes a population boom for the Amazons shortly
thereafter, as the social traditions will not change enough
in a single generation to prevent the imperative of
procreation from doing that. Now we have one of the biggest
supporting elements of the best government this world has
seen in a long time undergoing social turmoil combined with
population pressures.

"How ready is this world for that? Do they have the room to
grow? Yes, there's an awfully big surface area, but there
are various unfriendly forces or limiting factors in place
in all directions. The Boskone to the West, the Dead Lands
to the East, the Maelstrom to the North, and the allied
Kingdom of Nihon to the South. Can the Empire absorb these
changes within their current resources? Will this force an
expansionistic Imperial policy, encouraging the Empire to
grow via conquest? Perhaps the population boom would take
place just in time to allow for a
necessary labor pool for some other great change? Who knows?

"Wait, waitwaitwaitwait..." The Pheonix Mage protested,
holding up his hands to signal a time out. "You imagine my
hand to be less subtle than it is. I have already considered
those. What do you think I'm doing here? Surgery by
machinegun is out of the question. You never know what's
going to happen if you release a virus like that generally.
Viruses and bacteria alter each other and react in a natural
environment, teaching each other their tricks. There's no
WAY you could control something like that once you'd
released it, and the results are infinitely more likely to
be terrible than beneficial - look at what caused this mess
in the first place."

"Twenty fourth century genetic engineers trying to come up
with an ideal society based on their equivelant of a trade
paperback series? Or the war of ideologies in the Delphins
past? Or the Feryl-Delphins War that deprived both of their
homeworlds?" Keian grinned slightly.

"Ah, you've heard. No, widespread contagion is out of the
question. Secondly, I like the Amazons as they are. I have
no need nor want to turn them into humans. Ripped apart in a
single generation? I have no intention of ripping it apart
at all. The Amazons are admirable in many ways, even if
their cultures are a hodgepodge of whatever 'Ancient Wisdom'
they've garnered. Now let me tell you my means to do this."

The Mage inhaled deeply and dropped his gaze to a spot on
the table, playing idly with the spoon in his glass.
"Imagine this scenario. I take the time to divine a
solution, and apply it on an individual basis to about a
hundred Amazons, being *very* careful to do nothing more
than restore the originally planned birth rate of one male
in seven. Even if I had power to do more I'd not want to.
Now, say a hundred of these Amazons. We'd have to have some
of these Nameranks create a new sub-Rule for them, call them
True Delphins or whatever. Let them belong to whatever House
they may. But all that is doable. Now if we assume that
through creche or marriage each bears an average of three
and a half children, that is by pure average one male birth
per two mothers. This is, of course, if I can find a way
past the tricky little spins that previous genetic engineers
left in there.

"Naturally those who survive to maturity will pass the True
Delphins traits on, but I also rig it so that the female
children pass those traits on as well. In one generation's
time I've done no more than produce a bumper crop of males
no greater than the influx around this race. Not a big deal.
Assuming all the ones of that generation survive, which they
won't, and the men each marry ten wives, which seems
unlikely, then the next generation will have still short of
three thousand of these True Delphins just going by those
same numbers. It would take a dozen or more of these
generations before the population of Delphins all had a
chance to marry and their kids join the True Delphin line,
and it won't happen that fast."

The Mage raised his face and met his table-mate in the
eyes, tear tracks sliding down his face. "Right now there
are over a hundred willing females for every male, once you
count in all the dryads and others that add confusion to the
normal Delphins birth rate. One man with a hundred wives is
unstable, too small a return of time and affection. Once the
dozen, or sixty, generations that need to pass have passed
away and all this stands corrected to the original levels,
there will be something like one male in ten. THAT is a
scenario that stands reasonably secure. Those males will
still stay valuable, they always are in short supply and
will be even then. But the hopelessness is gone, don't you
see? Things happen at a gradual rate, with time for
acclimation for everyone. They likely won't even notice they
are doing what acclimating their generation calls for, it
will just flow naturally. And when all is said and done,
kingdoms expand or contract naturally anyway, neither the
Amazon culture - which I love dearly - or this empire are in
any danger. But so much pain and hopelessness has been done
away. Women may be cheerful in that their daughters will
live in a better, more hopeful world. Daughter may
find just a few more husbands to share, and know their
daughters will have it better - It's small comfort for those
alive now, but it *is* a source of some comfort. And
eventually they will still be Amazons, they just won't be so
crushingly alone."

The flame-haired mage pushed away from the table and stood
up, wiping one of his cheeks from its tears. "I stand
against evil in all its forms, in all times and in all
places. I will do what good I can in whatever place I may be
in. As for destroying any part of this good place? No. I am
a druid, and one must respect the balance of nature. See you
around."

Keian watched him go, and smiled a little at how stiffly
the Pheonix Mage walked.

Jared flipped a platinum coin to the barmaid. Inhaling, he
shouted. "Where can a man go to kill something evil around
here? I've got some stress to work off!"

There were some snickers from some of the Amazons and a few
comments about how those Scouts would help with that,
turning the Mage a deep scarlet color. Finally a dwarf took
pity on him. "Wouldst undead, goblinkin, or vile things from
beyond the borders suit thy fancy, milord?"

"Goblins and their kin sound ideal, lead on my good man,
er, dwarf."

Keian watched him leave the bar, and continued to sip on
his tea. "You are thinking of the long term now, Jared-san,
but were you before I asked?" he wondered. The answer was
irrelevant. Keian suspected that the Pheonix Mage's mind
worked faster than his. It was not his to oppose this, and
he agreed with Jared that it would, in the long run,
probably be a good thing. But worried still about how the
secondary ripples would change things. Besides, it would
take a few generations for the trend to be noticed. Time
enough to think it through, and if necessary, make
preparations. And to speculate on the morality of changing a
society to suit one's personal aesthetics. He finished his
tea, and stood up to leave.

And the Amazons commented on how stiffly Keian walked as
well. Not that they were correct in their conclusions, but
the truth was hardly as interesting as their speculation.

Besides, they just liked having guys blush.

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

Her name was Lita Storm, though that odd cyborg fellow
she'd run into in her home dimension kept calling her
'Makoto' or 'Kino-san' for some reason.

In her home Reality she had been a high school student who
had recently learned that she was the incarnation of some
sentai sort of hero named Sailor Jupiter (which she
personally found embarassing as sentai series had struck her
as silly even before the JSDF (Japanese Self Defense Force)
had launched that ill-fated attack on Jedite's Dark
Citadel). She'd developed an enormous crush on the Pheonix
Mage, made friends (and sparring partners) with a Chinese
Amazon, and stolen a magic warhammer from the weirdo gaijin
cyborg.

Well, not really stolen it, as she understood it he
couldn't give it to her because of some weird rules he had
to follow from his employers.

It had been an eventful two weeks.

Now she was looking at herself, a five year older, foot
taller, more developed version of herself, but there was an
unmistakable sense of looking at some odd mirror image here.

Koto looked at the younger version of herself and smirked.
"So you're telling me you're involved with that Pheonix Mage
guy, and involved in your basic Good Versus Evil Epic
Struggle?"

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Lita nodded and sipped
at this odd stuff. Kiishan fruit punch, which seemed to
change flavors slightly with every sip. There was an elusive
quality that couldn't decide if it was sweet or tart or
something else.

"Brings back memories," sighed Koto, getting a far-away
look to her eyes. "Fighting that rogue dragon Pyre, the evil
sorceress Dyannon, skirmishes with Red Rocket and the like.
Ah, *those* were the days."

"So why did you call this little meeting?" Lita looked up
at the taller version and tried to imagine what she was
talking about.

"What will you do *after* the fight is won?" Koto's gaze
was disconcertingly direct.

"You think we will? Things are looking up, but that Dark
Queen type has entrenched herself pretty well in our world.
She's apparently gotten a lot more power than in those
stories Jay-chan keeps referring to." Lita shrugged. After
the JSDF had been slaughtered, the police largely
exterminated, the economic collapse of Japan, and all the
other horrors occurring due to the youma presence on the
Home Islands, she'd gotten so caught up with day-to-day
survival that longrange plans had fallen by the wayside.

Koto pushed a leathern bag about the size of a five pound
bag of sugar across the table. "Take this, it might help
when the battle's done."

Lita opened the drawstring slightly and looked in at tiny
paper bags marked with little drawings. "What's this?"

"Seeds," Koto said with a wink. "I've never heard of a
major battle between the champions of Good and Evil that
didn't involve massive collatoral damage. You know how the
Delphins history has been rewritten by Ryune from the old
mechanisms?"

Lita shook her head. There had been so much new and
different that she was still running into things that threw
her for a loop.

"Okay, well one of our males, a human also, has the gift of
deciphering languages. Cuts through a lot of the legend and
myth to find out that your favorite legendary heroic warrior
wanted nothing more than to settle down with her husband and
raise their kids." Koto shook her head at learning that the
'fierce and fearless Kinasha Re' would have preferred
staying home and making love instead of going out and
becoming a legendary warrior. "Anyway, the records state
that the legendary First Race - that's you humans by the
way, unlocked the secrets of the codes of life."

"Okay, genetic engineering," Lita said with a nod.

"Anyway, that means that some of our plants would have
originated in such studies, right? Some of Ryune's stories
tell us that the First Race went out and colonized worlds
and used their tricks to make stuff that would grow where
nothing else would. THAT is a bag of such stuff, at least I
don't think any of the breeds are magical." Koto shrugged.
"Though the way that spregrass grows, I wouldn't be at all
surprised..."

"Seeds?" Lita blinked as she peeked within the bag again.
"Any flowers in there?"

Koto smiled openly and winked. "Hey, you're me, remember?
Of *course* there are flower seeds."

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

Ranma sat back in the chair, regarding the other human and
the genasi (though he said he was an elf, he looked like a
genasi, and according to Megumi he had ties to the Host) and
wondered at the odd events that had caused this mess. It had
been hours since Jared had gone goblin-hunting, only to come
back looking exhausted. (Which of course, sparked much
ribald speculation from certain Amazons.)

"Where're *your* wives?" Ranma asked with a smile and a sip
of his kiishan fruit punch. Ah, he'd missed this stuff.

Keian smiled a bit wistfully himself at his vanished
freedom. "Currently Alysse is checking out a ship.
Apparently I'll be working in the equivalent of the Merchant
Marine, a Seagull Class Barge if that means anything to you.
Ember and Cloudrunner are filling out paperwork."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, Seagull class. Ironstar built, fairly
quick and maneuverable. They're usually used for bulk
transport between here and Nihon. So they're getting you
involved in work so that they can try to guide how the Rules
affect you."

"Mage, Engineer." Keian shrugged. "These skyjammer engines,
with psionically or magically reactive crystals, sound
interesting. And engineering at least is something I can
do."

"They're out 'bonding'," said Jared with a wince. "Probably
shopping again."

Keian blinked. "How'd you bring them here, anyway? I mean,
Sjul..."

"We got here by a different method, same with Ranma," Jared
smirked and indicated the other mage by a jerk of a thumb.
"Sjul uses the 'Dimensional Fisher' which is less a method
of travel than summoning. And because those methods rely on
underlying Chaos and dimensional instability, it doesn't
matter how much tweaking with the equations she does, she'll
*always* have problems with the effects."

"It's one of those things about the Namerank mages, even
the Diamondranks to some extent, the magic they're used to
channeling has become so much a part of them that they're a
little nuts about some things. Like Sjul's obsession with
Greylle and attempts to find a suitable Analogue of his."

Jared shuddered. "Then it's a good thing I'm leaving as
soon as I can. By the Rules, I'd qualify as a Diamondrank."

Keian smiled, always willing to play Devil's Advocate. "And
how do you know you are not already being affected? After
all, I doubt Sjul thinks her actions are unreasonable."

"Not to mention that legally now, most of those 'Scouts'
are now Amazons. Wanna bet their genetic structure would
alter to conform?" Ranma shrugged. Having grown up here, he
didn't think anything special about Amazons or nymphs. It
was Japan that had struck him as bizarre.

Jared found an excuse to leave. Quickly. Sure, a Polymorph
Other to change them back to being human *might* work. But
why take chances?

"By the way, what happened to him? He looked like he'd just
run a marathon." Keian had noticed that the Mage had looked
even more tired than he had a few hours earlier.

"He got directions to the Goblin Reaches. Threw a few
fireballs and magic missiles when he found a war party.
Toasted most of the goblins, then discovered that some of
the goblins had magic or psionics or both. I think it's in
the Rules, something along the lines of 'Those who go
looking for trouble, will find it, in direct relation to
their own capacity.' One of the reasons that the higher rank
mages and the like tend to stay home."

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

Nabiki woke up and found herself in unfamiliar
surroundings. ~This is getting old really quick.~ An odd
cabin with wooden beams and fabric inner walls.

Garr said something incomprehensible, putting down a book.

"What was that? I didn't understand you." Nabiki wasn't
even sure the odd sing-song had even been a language.

More garbling, followed by Garr giving her a "wait here"
gesture and leaving the cabin. Nabiki of course, stepped out
of the cabin, and looked down over the railing.

There were at least three layers of clouds between her and
the ocean below.

"How's this? Can you understand me now?"

Nabiki turned and Garr was holding one of those translator
pendants. "Yeah, uhm, what happened?"

Garr regarded her for a moment. "You're Nabiki Tendo?"

Nabiki noted that the male Delphins looked tired and sad.
"Yeahhhh."

"You were poisoned. Lethe arrow. I got you to the nearest
cleric. Unfortunately, the nearest group of Healers I knew
of were at the Finish Line."

Nabiki gasped and checked her hands. There was a ring. On
THAT finger. Three bands of metal united as one by a thread
made of some reddish metal. A quick check revealed a similar
band on Garr's ring finger. She considered fainting.

"It isn't often that a guy drags a girl over the finish
line, though I kinda had to get help. Then there was that
weird cat."

Nabiki's attention was wrenched up from the ring by this.
"You implying I'm heavy."

Garr stared for a moment. "Nabiki. You *were* on the route
to becoming an *oriad*, an earth nymph. They *look* kind of
like human women, but they're like dwarves in that they're
heavier than they look. Things changed though. You
sacrificed yourself to save me."

Nabiki opened her mouth to protest that it hadn't been her
intention to sacrifice herself for any reason. She had just
acted and wasn't entirely sure why or why things had turned
out the way they had.

"Now, well, look at yourself."

Nabiki did, noting that she was dressed again, this time in
braies and tunic. A green that set off the copper of her
skin. The sort-of-gold had turned more coppery. The hand
looked different too. The fingers were longer and more
tapered. "What? What am I?"

Garr shook his head. "There were hakima present. How you
hit the Rules for *that* I'd like to know, but you're a
dragon."

"Oh, well that isn't so bad then," Nabiki sighed thankful
she wasn't going to turn into one of those overly pneumatic
teenagers. Wait a minute? "SAY WHAT?!"

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

Keian exited the tavern and saw something unexpected. It
was a tribute to his mental endurance and adaptibility that
after a mere week in Aramar that it phased him as little as
it did.

Twelve foot long crystalline ants were not high on the list
of things he had *expected* to see that day.

"Uhm, so you must be one of the Mu?"

*We are the Mu. You are the Keian.*

"Gag, it's the Borg."

*Reference unknown.*

"It was a joke," said Keian rubbing his forehead.

Ranma stepped up behind him. "The Mu don't understand
individuality, much less things like humor."

"Oh yeah, telepathic hive," Keian mumbled as he considered
the creature. Once you looked at it a number of differences
between an ant and a Mu (besides the size and glass
sculpture resemblence) became apparent. "I remember Alysse
mentioned them but no details."

*Keian unit observing. Wild talent at threshold.*

"Wild talent?" Keian scratched his head, wondering what
that was about.

"All humans in Aramar have a 'wild talent' - something
about coming from universes with low magic to ones where it
practically flows like water. Ya either sink or swim, if you
sink the magic's changed you to something other than human.
If you swim, you retain your humanity but you develop the
talent. The Emperor's got luck, for him whatever can go
right will. Ryune is a natural translator, if it's written
he can decipher it. Jose's got a sort of combat sense."

"And you?"

"Me?" Ranma grinned and spread his hands. "Hey, I'm the
best there is at the Art."

Keian allowed himself a smirk. "Of course. At least some
things are eternal. Hey, wait a minute, these Mu don't come
to witness *everyone* develop a wild talent, do they?"

"I don't think so."

*Answer: negative. Keian unit high potential. Universe of
origin particularly low in magical energies. Potential
equivelant of Emperor's luck factor. New arrivals worthy of
closer examination.*

"Huh?" Keian said as that penetrated. A concept occurred to
him, that each Mu was the equivelant of a server - each
having considerable processing power on its own, but all
were inextricably linked in an Internet connection. Each
unit contributing its own psionic potential and all part of
the same Hivemind. "No wonder the Emperor values the Mu so
much."

"Hmmmm?" Ranma gave his colleague a side-glance. "He values
them because they can stand against the Boskone and erect
Inertial Barriers hundreds of miles long. Among other
things. They can't do magic, but psionics are as natural to
them as hands are to us."

Creatures that couldn't understand human nature and were
that powerful, and they were interested in him. Keian wasn't
thrilled with this. "oh my."

Ranma snickered. "I'll trade you. I've still got to go
through my Ordeal for Sapphirerank."

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

"She's coming to," said a voice.

Shampoo groaned and wished people would lay off the double
entendres. Before opening her eyes she started categorizing
her awareness of the environment, as there had been enemies
present last time she had been conscious.

A cool breeze, fairly strong, with a definite sea tang to
it. The peculiar thrum she'd noticed in her brief experience
with skyjammers before. A feeling as if she'd been imbedded
into the ground by some colossal weight, only to be pried up
out of it later. She also appeared to be tied to some rough
surface.

"Geez, I thought humans recovered faster than this."

Shampoo let her eyes flutter open. She discovered that she
was tied to the prow of a ship that was barely twenty feet
above the surface of the water and going about 45mph.
"Aaaaaaaa!"

"I expected better from a human Amazon."

"What am I doing here?!" Shampoo noticed the ship was now
slowly approaching the water.

"You're going to Boot Camp, of course!" The Amazon who had
been speaking leaned over the railing enough for Shampoo to
see a glimpse of blonde hair and blue eyes. "Didn't want you
to drown so we waited for you to wake up before we start
skimming the waves at high speed."

"WHAT?!" Shampoo stared as the water came closer, with
droplets splashing her repeatedly. "Where are my clothes?
What kind of stupid training is this?! Why (glug) (gurgle)
(cough)"

"Endurance training, toughness, and higher pain threshold."
The Amazon disappeared back over the railing. "Okay, hold
her steady and start increasing the speed till we get to
max."

There were a few Amazons protesting the gentle treatment of
the Outsider. It was pointed out by others that just because
the Chinese girl had a husband, that was no reason to get
jealous. Besides, did any of *them* want to explain to her
betrothed how she'd been injured?

Shampoo blinked. A husband? She caught Ranma after all?
Another splash caught her.

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

NAME: Jared Saotome
OCCUPATION: Hero/Planewalker, currently involved in a Quest
(major) of Good Vs Evil on his homeplane.
CLASS/LEVEL: Mage (Generalist) 25; Cleric of Gaia (Druid)17;
Martial Artist (kensai) 19; Psionicist (Psychometabolist,
Telekinetic, Senpsi) 9, Veritech pilot 14
RACE: Demigod
KNOWN ABILITIES: Shapechanging, control of fire, immunity to
fire, Tongues, supernatural physical endurance and healing
factor, aura of command, spells and psionic use.
SUSPECTED BUT UNCONFIRMED: Child of Sif of the Norse
pantheon when Loki impersonated her husband one night as
part of a trick. The boy was smuggled off to the mortal
planes until such time as Sif could assure her illegitimate
child would be safe again in Valhalla.

Mina blinked and looked up at the Amazon who had handed her
the pamphlet. "No wonder there were so many girls after
Jay-chan!"

Myn nodded. "Heck, he was even considered a better catch
than Ranma. Of course, you read that bit on page two about
him being involved in a 'war of Good Versus Evil against
desperate odds'? Heroes of *all* ages wanted a piece of
that. Especially the Amazons, do you know why?"

Mina nodded. "It's a fight, and it's a good cause."

Myn grinned at her Analogue. "Exactly. You understand our
ways quite well."

Mina grinned back only to let out a startled noise as the
pamphlet was snatched from her hands.

"Psionicist?! When did I become an esper?! And Loki is my
BROTHER not my father! Gee, they..." Jared stopped as he
noticed that he had become the center of an old EF Hutton
commercial. Everyone was staring at him. "Errr. Would you
believe Loki was a nickname?"

Everyone present slowly shook their head from side to side
in an eerie synchronization.

"What's a 'senpsi' anyway?" Mina decided to break the
uncomfortable silence.

"A psionicist is a person who manipulates the powers of
their mind and body rather than a mage who manipulates
magical energies. A senpsi is a psionicist who uses the
martial arts to increase the flow of energies within their
body and use those arts to discipline mind and spirit and
body and forge all into a weapon." Myn smiled and regarded
the Pheonix Mage speculatively.

Jared frowned. In the AD&D terms he was familiar with, a
psionicist used 'psionic strength points' but it *sounded*
like the Amazon was talking about chi mastery. "Well, anyway
Mina, we really need to get going."

"Great, I'll get Tarre and the others!" Mina sparkled as
she went to get the other new allies.

"Tarre? Others? Oh boy..." Jared suppressed the desire to
flee back to his plane immediately. The fight against the
Dark Kingdom was beginning to look rather more attractive
than staying here any longer.

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

Genma stretched his considerable bulk up further, straining
as he did so.

Religion was a sop for the masses. A weakness. He was
strong. Nothing was sacred save the Art itself.

Big metal idols with a ruby eye, therefore, were fair game.

The gemstone wouldn't come out to his questing hand, and so
Genma used a prybar taken from the shipping docks in the
working section of the Temple. He smiled as the prybar found
enough purchase that the prize flipped out into his eager
hand. Now all he had to was sneak past those idiots who
would allow their idol to be unguarded.

*INFIDEL!*

Genma leapt and ran as the voice (sounding rather like
James Earl Jones growling with an odd echo effect) roared.

The doors that had parted so easily before, now showed
every sign of being welded shut. Genma tugged on them a
couple of times before motion behind him caused him to drop
the ruby and clutch the prybar a little tighter. (Which
showed how rattled he was as he'd meant to clutch the ruby
and drop the prybar.)

The one-eyed serpent of greenish stone was bleeding from
the eyesocket. That socket blinked and the ruby vanished
from the floor to reappear where it belonged. Changing
slightly to become a red-hued eye a moment later.

"AH! Have mercy on a harmless old man! I didn't mean
anything by it!"

*Silence, fool. You intended to rob this temple of scrolls
and anything else you could pry loose. The question is not
of your guilt, but how much to make you suffer.*

"But I'm a father and my family... I mean I've got a son
and daughter who depend upon me... I mean what about..."
Genma started babbling while looking for a way out. Genma
felt a sensation as if someone was rummaging around in his
head.

*You have not adapted to the Rules either. How interesting.
And you've already sold your son to the Amazons, and your
daughter to the dwarves. Oh, wait, that was your drinking
partner that sold his youngest daughter off. How...
interesting.*

Genma noted the window to the chapel was too narrow for his
bulk, the door was welded shut, and that the jade serpent
was well over three tons and quite capable of swallowing him
whole. Worse, those fangs looked like the kind that injected
venom. Time for the Saotome Special Manuever: Crouch Of The
Wild Tiger.

"Please, you've already taken your eye back. I didn't know
it actually belonged to anyone. I'm just an old man, and I'm
not in good shape. I'm sure I'd taste horrible..."

The serpent let Genma rattle on for another five minutes
before interrupting him. *ENOUGH! Having to spend time with
you is punishing me, and as a magical guardian that is an
intolerable state of affairs. And as you are truly ignorant
of the world and its ways, I shall let you go.*

"Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou." Bowing and scraping, it
worked all the time.

*But as you are not repentant, a punishment is still
necessary. Perhaps losing an arm or a leg? Your wagging
tongue? Perhaps turning you into a cockroach or similar
vermin?*

"Ah, well..." Genma thought quickly. It had thought the
selling part was interesting? Maybe... "I have a daughter!"

*Eh? Midori Saotome, yes, I saw the child in your memory.*

"I'll sell her to you, she'd be much tastier than I would
be." Genma smirked inwardly, after all he could always steal
her back.

*Raise your right hand. Swear the oath that appears in your
heart.*

Genma raised his right hand. He swore the oath, never
intending to honor the thing.

A flash of magic and rumble of thunder punctuated the end
of the oath.

*So it is done. You may go, but know that I or my servants
will come for the child soon.*

"Not a problem..." Genma's voice trailed off as the Temple
faded around him and he reappeared in town, hours away from
where he'd been. "Oh my."

"GENMA! HELP!" Soun came running up to grab Genma's gi
collar. "For the love of all we hold dear, Genma, HIDE ME!"

Genma tried to take a step back in alarm. Soun looked
nearly as frightened as if the Master had suddenly shown up.
"What's the problem, Soun? It couldn't be that bad."

"You have no idea, do you?" Soun shuddered. "I was trapped
inside a clay statue for hours, and then THEY caught me!"

"What do you mean 'they' caught you?" Genma wanted a good
idea of who they were running from before he decided on
which direction.

"Saotome, they *married* me!" Soun began shaking. "It was
all so confusing and it happened so fast, and the sake was
pouring like water."

"You've married again, Tendo? Congratulations." Genma's
smile faltered. "Waitaminute. 'They' as in plural?"

"THERE HE IS!"

Soun fled.

Genma watched as four women, err, females gave chase. One
had fur and a tail. The one riding some big bird had gills
and blue skin. One was four feet tall at most, with pointed
ears and a shock of red hair. She seemed to linger near
Genma for a moment before racing off after her partners. The
last one in the procession flew along on a *broomstick.*

Genma sweatdropped. Profusely. Then was grateful that
nothing bad had happened to him, yet.

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

"Are you OK, Midori?"

Midori shook her head before smiling at the Amazon. "Just
had a chill."

Senbei shrugged slightly and dove down through the clouds,
her telekinetic field causing a sort of splash effect when
she emerged on the other side.

"Aw, c'mon, it's just a chill," Midori protested from where
she was being carried.

"It might be nothing, or it might be a Seeming," declared
the senpsi. "This world can be dangerous, Little Flower, and
I would rather not see you risked."

Midori got a sly expression on her face. "Well, then, you
ought to teach me this chi stuff, shouldn't you? Just to put
me at *less* risk?"

"That is up to your mother." Senbei struggled over the
unfamiliar word briefly as she considered the eight year
old's words. "If she permits, then it *might* be possible."

Midori hid her grin. Being able to do that Project Force
thing and throw chi blasts, fly, harden your skin, and all
the other tricks the senpsi had. How could a true martial
artist (such as herself) *not* want to learn this stuff?
Besides, if she could teleport then she could get away from
her father whenever he was being a putz.

The youngest Tendo thought that she'd found her niche.

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

Nodoka watched from the square as her daughter flew about,
being carried by that nice young martial artist Amazon.

"So, Saotome-san, have you considered the possibility?"

Nodoka tore her eyes away in order to regard the Elder in
front of her. "I have. And I think you're quite correct.
Genma selling Ranma while bar hopping does not sound like
the sort of behavior I want my daughter learning."

Elder Hibari sipped on her tea briefly. "Fortunately we
were keeping an eye on the two. We *persuaded* the
demonologist and the necromancer to surrender their
contracts. Otherwise the Tendo baby and your young daughter
there..."

"Why are such people tolerated in your Empire?" asked
Nodoka, deciding to focus on something besides the antics of
her husband and his friend.

"Because, Saotome-san, this isn't a perfect society, but it
*is* stable and unifies a lot of different people. Thereby
putting risks down into acceptable parameters for the most
part." Hibari set the cup down to regard the human woman.
"Demonologists, black sorcerers, necromancers, even a few
beings thought of as monsters elsewhere, all live together
in a cooperative environment.

"Demonologists are clerics of Surtag, embodying one of the
nine major philosophies. Their contract for the youngest
Tendo was pre-empted by the one the dwarves had made anyway.
All it took was a word to the right dwarves and they are now
guarding the child. A sensible precaution, all things
considered, but the dwarves are generally a sensible people.
By taking Aka-chan to their warrens to raise her, they
assure the child of a stable home life and protection from
various forces that see her as a reborn Scarlet.

"Necromancers raising skeletons and zombies commonly use
contracts such as that. A few gold now, they get your body
later. Upon the death (sometimes premature) of the
contracted individual, the necromancer has a new servitor.
The necromancers frequently find use in the garbage heaps
and in sewer work. Anything simple that sensible folk aren't
happy doing. They are tolerated, if most people would rather
not associate with them.

"As for the monsters, the usual attitude is that if you
obey the laws and aren't offensive, you're tolerated here.
Hence the presence of the occasional vampire, hobgoblin,
vyort, or ravener. Some have even managed to become accepted
though they have a harder row to hoe than, say, an orahm or
an Amazon."

"I see..." Nodoka agreed, sweatdropping a bit as three
thri-kreen (mantis-like centauroids) walked by their table.
"And you say that you could provide a safe environment for
Midori."

The Elder looked flatly at Nodoka. "No. I did not say that
at all."

Nodoka waited until the waitress, or waiter, she wasn't
quite sure what the large mound of fur was much less its
gender, had refilled her cup before raising an eyebrow at
Hibari. "Exactly what then are you offering?"

"Relative safety. It isn't unheard of for someone of
another race to be adopted into a House. You gain many
things. Stability and a home, family and community, training
for your daughter and yourself if you like, protection from
that which we *can* protect against, guidance from some of
the worse dangers of this world. True safety? I will not
promise anything I cannot deliver."

Nodoka smiled and set her cup down. "That being an honest
answer, it is one that I will accept. House Rising Sun it
is."

"The only problem is that you'll probably never see your
husband again," Hibari offered.

"This is a problem?"

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

Jared finally stood before the menhir ring and watched as
those from his universe returned to that universe, ready to
once more take up the battle against Evil.

"Okay, kitty cat. Come out now."

A shadow detatched itself. It wasn't the one he had
expected.

"I'm not sure why you call me 'kitty cat' Mage, but my
compliments on seeing through my
'Shroud Of Stealth' spell. Not many could."

"Lijra Diamondrank, isn't it?" Jared stared at the ardrow.
Black skin, white hair, yellow eyes. Sensuous and attractive
if you could get over the coloration. Not that unlike any
number of drow women out of certain underground cities on
Toril. Dressed in a simple housedress and blouse, with a
parasol perched jauntily over one shoulder. "Ranma's
adoptive mother here, magic specialty is the enchantment of
seemingly ordinary household items."

She inclined her head towards the planewalker. "Pheonix
Mage, Jared Saotome. Twenty six hours, thirty seven minutes
remaining before coming under the Rules for Diamondrank
status. Specialty in flashy heroics and unintentionally
wooing young maidens."

Jared laughed nervously and briefly. "It's not my fault."
He idly noted the ardrow wasn't casting a shadow. "Projected
image?"

"Diamondranks and Nameranks tend to not move around much,"
she confided. "Adventures tend to come calling and one of
the Rules is that an adventure will always produce opponents
of sufficient strength to challenge the quester. At my
level, that could be a problem for the common folk around
me."

Jared's magical senses finished penetrating the shifting
cloak of spells to "read" the individual within. Kindness
and compassion were the primary traits of this darkskinned
elf, like some negative photo image of Belldandy. Love and
pride in her son. An echo of sadness deep below it all. "And
to what do I owe this visit?"

"Genma Saotome has just sold his son Ranma to House
Southern Cross of the Amazons. He has also sold his daughter
Midori to a guardian spirit of the Silver Temple."

Jared spent a few moments explaining, in great detail, a
multiple layered curse which would bind a night hag to Genma
Saotome to torment him for what would likely be a very short
life.

"His wife, on the other hand, has just been adopted into
House Rising Sun. His daughter too. As such, he no longer
has any claim to either." Lijra seemed to study something
out of the projection field. "Also, you needn't wait for the
one named Nabiki. She has come under the Rules for a copper
dragon and will be spending a considerable amount of time
exploring the new options before her as well as learning how
to use her new trueform."

"A dragon? How..." Jared blinked picturing a gleaming
dragon coiled around her hoard counting yen and being the
typical mischievous and greedy dragon of that type. "How
appropriate. That still doesn't tell me why you chose to
observe my leaving this world."

"Perhaps, it was not *you* that I was primarily concerned
with," was the quiet comment.

Jared blinked. "How did Scarlet intersect your life?"

The sadness showed itself plainly for a moment on the
archmage's face. "Almost two hundred years ago, fifty years
before Scarlet vanished from this world, a young member of
the City Watch attempted to stop a figure seen flitting
along the rooftops of Port Shadar. His name was Abrahim, a
human planewalker much like the Emperor. He died, slain by a
technique of the Black Rose assassins known as the Quivering
Palm."

"Your husband," said Jared. It was not a question.

"I was ready to cast a Seekerspell and link it to
Conflagration. To take the whole of my being and use the
force of the spell to turn her into less than ash." Lijra
looked off into the distance. "But that would have been
against the very law my Abrahim served and died for. Instead
I continued to monitor Scarlet, known to the goblinkin as
the Pale Lady, in case she ever returned to the Empire.
Fifty years later, the pattern changed. Scarlet was there,
and she was not. Eventually that pattern shifted too, and
Scarlet became just another legendary figure like the Broken
Man and Kiera Kinslayer."

"And then a human, like your long-dead husband arrived, a
child. One who spoke often of an Art that he would master,
and you adopted the child as your own."

"Ranma Saotome," agreed Lijra. "Do not worry about Genma
Saotome or those you leave behind, godling."

Jared winced at the title. "Not the godling. Just a guy
who's got a few extra classes under his belt."

"Superspy adventurer, mage, martial artist, monk, druid, do
you even know yourself? Nonetheless, man of many talents,
know that you are welcome here in the unlikely event that
you can find your way here again."

Jared shook his head. "I know the ways are difficult to
navigate save for a native, but that's my..." Jared paled.
Wild talents were something that native humans had. How
close was he to adapting to the Rules? Without another word
he ducked within the Worldgate and vanished.

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

Kasumi stood behind Megumi and held onto the Amazon's waist
tightly. Not that she was frightened, but she found this
method of travel to be both new and exciting.

The potential for falling, though, worried her a bit.

Megumi stood on the disc of amber energies and directed the
course and speed with gentle movement of her hands.

Kasumi estimated their current altitude as about 7,000 feet
and speed in excess of 90mph.

Behind them, on a ship as her own shakti was incapable of
those speeds, Princess Usagi was arguing with another
co-wife about who should accompany Ranma to learn what his
Ordeal would be like. Naturally, the paladin felt that *she*
should be the one.

A wave of displaced air pulled Kasumi's attention to her
"teacher" pulling alongside them. It had been *his*
suggestion that Kasumi take a break from her new studies.
Kasumi was having a little trouble with reconciling the
usual appearance of silver-haired elf with his trueform.

Some accounts placed Frostbite's age as 700 years or older.
Whatever the truth, he was classed a "mature adult" by the
standards of dragonkind. Kasumi thought he was pretty.

Eighty feet long, including the tail which had obviously
been bitten short sometime in the past. His gleaming skin
was covered with such fine scales that one had to look close
to dispel the image of a living sculpture of silver.

Kasumi had sliced her hand open examining those scales
earlier, and had been shocked and surprised when she found
herself muttering a few words of magic in response. It had
been her almost instinctive casting of the Cure Light Wounds
that had prompted the dragon-priest to declare a break in
the studies.

"Look," Megumi yelled over the wind, breaking Kasumi's
reverie. "Here comes the mail."

Kasumi looked in the indicated direction and made out a
form diving from far above their altitude to go swooping
towards the port area. "Is that another silver dragon?"

"That's Celsius, a mercury dragon. She was raised by a
member of the Imperial staff. Her hoard is one of those
guarded by the Emperor in a castle vault specifically
designed for that purpose." Megumi pointed at where Celsius
had just looped the field twice. "She mainly does courier
duty between Cross Isle and Shadar Hi, and..."

Kasumi began to tune Megumi out as she went on about the
dragon's rumored exploits hunting for some thrills in
aerobatics and an unrequited love with another dragon of the
same breed in the mountains of the other landmass.

She was worried about Ranma's Ordeal. The rumors concerning
THAT had been dark and fearsome. Also mainly contradictory.

Kasumi just held tight to Megumi's waist and let the other
girl pilot for now. There was much to worry about, including
whatever was going on with Akane right now.

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

Ranma shook his head as he looked over the engine and
started explaining the odd device in more detail to Keian.
It helped take his mind off the Ordeal looming up before
him.

"These pink crystals," Ranma indicated the outer slats
fixed in a cage around the central shaft, "have a sort of
charge to them. They convert movement of this outer cage to
movement of the ship, magnified by the amplifier crystal
there at the end of the shaft."

"That's the purple one?" Keian nodded. "And the central
shaft has a different charge that pushes against the slats.
This control changes the angle of the slots, this brakes the
outer wheel, and this changes the angle of the cage itself."

"And that is the basics of skyjammer control." Ranma nodded
at the less experienced mage. "It's enough for you to be
able to handle basic operation, though you need to pass a
proficiency test for dockings and takeoffs within major
traffic areas. There's also a modified spelljammer helm for
backups, but as that drains your spell ability and requires
an experienced mage, it's generally avoided."

"No version for psionics?"

"Of course there is, but as you've decided to study magic,
you'll eventually become a mage. Psionics and magic are a
rare combination." Ranma examined the pivots.

"If I can get ball bearings worked out..." Keian eyed the
worn copper joins and greased rings. He'd spotted a half
dozen uses just for something simple like ball bearings. The
big cities had a form of internal plumbing, but it could be
improved hundreds of ways.

Ranma listened to the other human for awhile, detailing
plans and ideas and innovations. He wondered idly if this
was Keian's wild talent.

"So how many girls did you end up marrying?"

Ranma winced. "Six.In three hours we have our first get
together. Sixteen hours after that I report to the Castle
where the Mage's High Council give me my Ordeal."

"Damn. I only got three wives, and I'm expecting that to be
an Ordeal all its own." Keian chuckled until he heard a
throat being cleared that did not sound like Ranma's. "Oops.
They're still on board, aren't they?"

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

Shampoo was cut from the prow of the ship, and the living
figurehead gradually peeled from her position to land with a
'splut' noise in the practiceyard.

The drill sergeant, a massive Amazon who had a touch of
dwarf ancestry, looked over the crumpled heap in the sand
and expressed her hopes that the purple haired girl hadn't
been discomforted by the beginning of training.

"WHAT?! Look at this! You expect me to turn *this* into a
warrior?! What a pathetic lump! I thought I was going to
have some sort of human Amazon to train! This?! This is
nothing, this isn't worth anything! This... is unconscious."
The drill sergeant threw the fainted Amazon over her
shoulder. "Damn, all that vitriol for nothing."

"Maybe we should have avoided the ice fields," suggested
Mika.

"Maybe we shouldn't have cut across the volcano,"
speculated Miya.

"Maybe we shouldn't have spent all that time in the water
fighting the giant squid?" Mita asked in a quiet voice.

There was a moment of quiet. "NAH!" All three Amazons
exclaimed at the concept.

"Can't show favoritism," said Mika with a nod.

"Ranma's always said that a human is the equal of an
Amazon," said Miya as she took a stance similar to Mika.
"Height and relative armor value notwithstanding."

"Hasn't he been proving himself wrong on that count before?
Errr, I mean, we can't let someone slide just because she's
acting like a member of the weaker sex, right?" Mita tried
to adopt the same pose as the other two Amazons.

Tiramisu walked by. "Oh, and who is going to explain to a
certain priestess of Etragar that her Amazon sister *failed*
Boot Camp because you expected her to be able to keep up
with a Delphins? Who is going to explain to a certain
DRAGON..."

Miya, Mika, and Mita considered this with little sweatdrops
forming.

"Okay, maybe," allowed Miya.

"maybe we could like..." Mika remembered hearing about the
*last* time a really powerful dragon had taken a human mate
(a temporary infatuation, the human only lived for sixty
years) and that mate had been put into danger. Mika winced,
heavily.

"...see if she's OK?" Mita said hopefully.

Three young Amazons ran for the infirmary.

"Kids," rumbled Tiramisu. Then shrugged. She had been young
once herself.

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

Kasumi considered her "co-wives" and wondered why she
wasn't more upset. Perhaps it was just that she was going
with the flow, or perhaps it was finding that she genuinely
liked these other girls.

Megumi was a Knight Arcane, one of the select holy warriors
of the Silver Temple. As it appeared that Kasumi was to
become a Healer, Megumi had appointed herself Kasumi's
Warder. Healers did not fight, generally, it was the duty of
the Warder to protect the Healer though often the reputation
of the Healers was enough. An Amazon, so she was taller by a
few inches than Kasumi, and much stronger. Samurai and a
warleader who had led troops into battle against inhuman
monsters prior to earning her shakti.

Megumi had apparently met and worked with Ranma aboard a
few ships over the years and had kept her eye on the mage.
Megumi had kept to the Emperor's hands off policy and hadn't
approached Ranma, though she had stuttered and blushed when
Kasumi had asked how closely the samurai had watched Ranma.

Usagi was a princess! A bit clumsy, a bit nieve, a bit
overenthusiastic about going out to find evil to vanquish,
but a nice girl. She was also a Knight Arcane, though Megumi
was more defense oriented and Usagi more into the smiting
kind of thing. She was at least half-Amazon, and was a
paladin (Kasumi still wasn't quite sure what that meant) of
the Steel Temple. Usagi wanted to be First Wife, but backed
off upon finding out that Kasumi was to be a Healer. Right
now there was an argument between Usagi and Megumi (going on
fairly loudly from the sound of it) about who was to be
Kasumi's Warder.

Usagi had known Ranma less than Megumi. She had only worked
with Ranma once, aboard the Amazon ship "Keshi No Hana" but
felt that she had staked her claim and that was it.
Apparently Ranma had rescued her once when she'd gotten in
over her head and the girl had fantasized about him ever
since.

Kasumi envied the two Amazons. They could be open in their
interest and affection towards Ranma, where Kasumi felt
constrained by the standards of her previous society.

Then there was... Kaera. Kasumi wasn't quite sure of what
to make of the kirrfolk, or how she was supposed to act
around her. Amazons looked human, or at least mostly. Other
than height and a few other details. Frostbite took a
near-human form and it was easy for Kasumi to think of him
as that form, even though the others had informed her that
the huge dragon was actually his real form. Thurin, that
dwarf, was kind of like a short human. She'd seen nymphs and
winged elves and they *mostly* looked human.

Kaera was... well... she was likable. But she wasn't human,
nor likely to be mistaken for one except at a distance. Even
a dozen yards away, Kasumi thought she could have thought of
the kirrfolk policegirl as a human in an alien costume. The
closer one got, though, the less chance that illusion would
last. The soft fur (white along the front, orange-gold
nearly everwhere else) covering the scantily clad catwoman
might be dismissed as a costume. The expressively moving
tail was another story. The slight muzzle grinned to show a
set of teeth that could have been human, but that fit that
muzzle too well for a mask. The nose, almost always
twitching, just below two odd green eyes that seemed to mix
human and feline features. The joints were also wrong, but
you had to see how fluidly she moved to see how different
she must be put together.

Kaera was a kirrfolk, which Frostbite had explained to her
as being of a race originally engineered from human,
cheetah, and leopard genes as a race of slaves. They had won
their freedom in the ogrii revolt. Kaera's view was that
this was all untrue, and the kirrfolk were a group of humans
who fought the Elven Empire's genocide by being tranformed
by great magic into a warrior race that could stand against
the elves.

She had fingers like a human, but the tips terminated in
retractile claws. Her ears stuck out slightly and moved like
a cat's to catch every sound. She was nice and kind and
playful. And she scared Kasumi simply by being what she was.
Alien.

Aura, frequently arguing with Usagi and/or Megumi, was also
quite alien but concealed it better. One could see her in
human form and forget that this wasn't some blue-eyed
California girl and could readily believe she was Usagi's
half-sister.

Then she'd change, her form flowing like water. And what
replaced the "California girl" was as alien as Kaera. As a
half-dragon, her dragonform was as real as her human form.
Instead of mixing, the two were both her real form and she
switched easily from one to the other though it was
apparently tiring in some manner. Her dragonform, Kasumi was
told in whispered aside, was a bit of a runt. Roughly half
the size of a true dragon her age, and only able to breathe
flame without using the dragonspell of Change Breath Weapon.

It was curious that her physical strength and grace were
abyssmal in human form, while her endurance and self-control
suffered as a dragon. The opposite was also true, and Kasumi
had watched the graceful and quick dragon turn into a human
who could trip over her own shadow.

Then there was the final member of the six. With two of the
wives being Princesses, it wasn't that difficult to believe
the sixth member of their group would be odd even by the
standards of the rest of the group.

Kasumi the Healer, Megumi the Samurai, Princess Aura the
Dragon, Princess Usagi the Holy Warrior, Kaera the catgirl
Ranger, and then there was Riverdance.

A nymph of water, what they called a naiad. A girl with
pale blue-green skin that felt slick and soft. She had been
eyeing the other wives rather hungrily, which tended to put
everyone else a bit off. Her appearance also tended to throw
people off. Some naiads grew hair on their scalp but like
all nymphs was hairless everywhere else. Riverdance had no
hair other than her eyelashes.

Hair wasn't the only thing Riverdance was missing.
Restraint was another thing clearly missing from the nymph
(not that many nymphs had much of this quality at all).
Megumi had reported that she had attempted to bathe and then
noticed the water moving on its own. Not the most auspicious
of omens.

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

Halflings: a term for the various races that are "half the
height of an elf" (actually they are four feet in height at
maximum, but the name has been in use for Ages) but bigger
than a pixie (1.5ft) found on Aramar. They are otherwise
unrelated. Most were genetically engineered hybrids from
human and animal stock in the First Age, but a few have come
from offplane during the Age Of Planar Exploration (Sixth
Age of Man).
Burrowers: halflings that look like pudgy badgerfolk,
usually just under three feet in height. They have heavy
foreclaws and bristly coats. Burrowers are fastidious
underground dwellers who prefer low light levels and are
notoriously shortsighted. It is not unusual to find them
dwelling near dwarven settlements, as the burrowers lack the
manual dexterity to be skilled craftsmen, while the dwarves
generally prefer not to be farmers. They eat mainly plants,
though they are also fond of various types of insects.
Orahm: averaging 2 1/2 feet in height to just over
three feet, these furred halflings are apelike in
appearance. Strong, with oversized arms in relation to their
body, as well as foot-hands which are prehensile if not as
dextrous as their other hands. Orahm pursue a single calling
in life, usually a trade such as forestry or engineering,
and become monomaniacally consumed with the pursuit of that
calling.
Talf: A group that looks like the typical halfling of other
worlds, except more in keeping with human/elven proportions.
One of the problems with talf is the odd gender role within
the species. If a male talf associates with an all male
group regularly, the male talf begins a shift towards
female. The reverse is also true. The shift takes two weeks
and is described as being quite uncomfortable, often with
extreme mood swings. Making it more complicated is that the
male talf tend to be more dominant-aggressive, while the
females tend to act more submissive. Forced into either a
dominant or submissive role has also been known to trigger
the shift. Female/male balances within the talf are normally
3:1. Other than this peculiar quirk, they tend to conform to
what outsiders normally think of halfling society.
Kenku: a falcon/human sort of hybrid halfling, normally
very reclusive. Kenku tend not to get along with each other
except for families, staking out territorial boundaries by
instinct. All members of the race possess some limited
telekinetic abilities, with some members possessing great
psionic abilities. There are a few mages, and
mage/psionicists, and clerics among their number as well.
Decori: These halflings are aquatic in nature, called the
"otterfolk" by some. Resembling sleek humanoid otters, they
are playful and mischievous in nature. On the negative side,
it is a rare decori who can keep attention on a single
subject for more than a few minutes. They are often
described as flighty or scatterbrained, though often
goodnatured. Their main settlement is an extended set of
partially-underwater caves and tunnels along the southern
coast of Cross Isle. Three to four feet in height.
Mouselings: Up until recently (Sixth Age) were known as the
orra. Emperor Mannin Shades referred to them constantly as
mouselings and the name came into wide usage. They look like
humanoid mice, averaging three to four feet in height, often
pudgy and mainly herbivores like the burrowers. They are
extremely clean and neat and take pains about their
appearance. Average close to four feet in height.

-----------------------------
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/
metro...@mindspring.com
""Tsk. You Americans, your women are encouraged
to live up to a standard, while your men are encouraged
to live down to another."
- Kasumi Tendo, "Supersoldier"

"The loudest voice is often the most
incorrect."
- Grey, "reluctant bet"