[XOver][FanFic] Retake, chapters 15-16 + omake

[Gregg Sharp]

Chapter 15: "Batting Clean Up"

Retake.

DISCLAIMER: Some of these characters originated from professional authors.
They'll be returned as soon as I've finished here.

----------

The second one's name was Son Grey. His name had once been Gregg but due to
the events at the Xanadu convention center, he'd physically transformed to
Son Goku. His *mental* state was more a fusion of Son Goku, the original
individual, and another being known as Grey. He could out-eat Ranma Saotome,
was able to output enough chi to destroy Tokyo and only begin breaking a
sweat, and enjoyed fighting far more than the original being. (Who had
actually avoided conflict when he could most of his life.) Though *this*
level of battle was beginning to take its toll on him and he found himself
wishing that Vegita/Robert had come along.

The third one was still trying to come up with a spiffy variant name. He was
still going by Gregg otherwise. Due to events on yet another world,
including a program that could alter reality known as the MasterPC, he was a
"Justy Cosmo Police"/"Locke the Superman" level psychic who was capable of
teleporting between star systems, telekinetically lifting star cruisers, and
many other nifty things as well. Adding a Darkover matrix crystal
(augmenting telepathy and force projection as well as Will scores) and an
Arisian "Lensman" Lens (making esper abilities more efficient, particularly
telepathy) hadn't been enough for the fight he'd anticipated though. He
hadn't expected either of those "toys" or the Green Lantern power ring to
last this long, not that he was complaining as he hadn't expected to last
this long even with them.

The raging fifty two foot long silver dragon shooting off the occasional
"Mega Flare" with the assistance of the ginzuishou was Greylle. As soon as
the dragonrage passed, he'd be sufficiently exhausted that he'd likely pass
out.

Ahead of them somewhere was a version of Setsuna Meiou who had been turned
into a drooling idiot by several evil persons, but in this Imperial Japan
timeline the question wasn't who *was* evil but instead who was *not.* The
answer of which was: "not many." Here in the heart of the Empire, with the
Secret Police/Security forces everywhere, not being a vicious person with
few or no redeeming qualities was not tolerated so even those holdouts were
few and far between. Here schoolgirls would brag to their schoolchums about
seducing tentacle demons and what bargains they had gotten for their
worthless virginity or souls.

In other words, if you wanted to slay evil without worrying about killing
innocent bystanders, this world was darn near perfect. Innocence was
something to be mocked here, morality of any kind in short supply, betrayal
of others to further one's self - normal game.

In this world, Ami Mizuno worked for Security where she studied and trained
to be an Inquisitor and use torture to gain confessions from those who were
out of favor. Haruka Tenou had found out that her lover Michiru secretly
practiced European artforms and had turned her in for the crime for the
equivelant of a week's wages. Soun Tendo was a high ranking member of
Security who would sacrifice one or two of his daughters if he thought it
would gain him further favor.

Beryl's Dark Kingdom could only be envious of this place.

---------

The ginzuishou, in this reality at least, was not truly sentient in a human
manner. Giving the Eternal Silver Millenium Crystal an intelligence would
have been to possibly undermine the authority of the Royal Family. Instead,
it had slowly developed a rudimentary almost animal intelligence because it
had been used by Serenity's line and they had channelled their thoughts and
dreams for the thousand years of the Moon Kingdom. It was a very powerful
battery that could draw on the lifeforce of the wielder when depleted, but
could potentially destroy a solar system on doing so.

The Binding *was* sentient, though in the manner of an AI program that
hadn't quite gotten the knack of the whole thing. It had been designed as
the outcome of a wish granted by a Being several orders of magnitude more
powerful than the ginzuishou.

The ginzuishou had a number of directives impressed upon it as a side effect
of the various wills that had been impressed upon it at that time. The
Binding was there to keep its host from permanently dying or becoming
incapacitated.

The Binding fed power into the ginzuishou with a request.

The ginzuishou analyzed the request within its own parameters. Its current
host was well suited to it - having a mana reservoir greater than Sailor
Moon though less than Serenity. Said host was fighting for love and justice
against a host of evil - pretty much the sort of thing Serenity's line had
done. Said host was actively trying to rescue a member of Serenity's court
who was suffering and injured. Everything checked out. Allies were needed. A
connection was found and exploited and two of the host's extradimensional
selves were added.

In its own way the ginzuishou marvelled at this. If it had not been fed the
manner of doing so by the Binding, it would never have thought to graft
itself to the dragon as a means of freeing the Senshi. Much less this
summoning of other selves of the wielder or summoning allies by the same
method. It filed the method away for later use.

Both the ginzuishou and the Binding (the crystal not thinking of itself much
at all while the Binding was aware of itself) marked the arrival of an
inadequate calvary. Some were Silver Millenium in origin. Others were not.
Still, for all their forces, they were simply not up to the task.

The ginzuishou, gaining more independent existence due to interfacing with
the Binding, queried this other force. Serenity or Sailor Moon, both could
"evolve" somewhat to a more powerful form. The crystal wondered if dragons
could do the same. The Binding responded and the two worked together.

Greylle roared and abruptly lengthened to ancient wyrm status, one hundred
and fifty feet long not counting an additional sixty feet of tail. More
importantly, his magical reserves and capabilities increased dramatically.

The ginzuishou wondered if anything more was possible. The Binding found
possibilities.

With another roar, Greylle "evolved" to Bahamut Zero.

The two conferred. Current allies in danger of being overwhelmed. This would
not do. More allies were summoned using the capabilities of the new host.

------

The Japanese Empire had conquered all of Asia and had ruled it with an iron
thumb. The North American West Coast was also under their domain, as were
large sections of what would have been Russia in another world. The other
Empires in this world: Germany with most of Europe, Britain with its
colonies, New Rome with parts of the Mediteranean, and the so-called Free
Kingdoms (tiny little cities in impoverished areas that nobody had bothered
conquering because there was nothing to be gained and it was someplace to
send your political exiles) were all smaller and only survived by uniting
resources against Japan.

Japan had survived countless attempts at insurrection and attempts by
territories to break away by utter ruthlessness and the technological and
magical resources it could throw against any rebels. Summoning demons was
only part of their bag of tricks, the vampire lord known as Ieyasu was still
Emperor and quite powerful in his own right.

The mages and necromancers and espers were all those who had flourished in
this empire where ruthlessness and backstabbing were at least as important
as raw power and innovation. Only the nation-state and the Empire itself
were to have the unflagging loyalty of the populace, though one's personal
line/family was often just as important. Breeding programs had been in place
for the higher caste members for over two hundred years to produce more
powerful warriors and mages and psychics. Genetic experimentation and
programs had been around almost forty years. Their technology might have
been slightly retarded due to competition from mages and psychics, and there
was no space program, but machine guns and assault rifles *had* been around
for quite some time.

That the scientists experimenting with dimensional transport had already
been gathered up and shot for screwing up *this* badly, and that this line
of investigation would now be banned by the Emperor himself, wasn't known to
any of the invading forces. That their line of attack was heading towards
one of the outlying research buildings and not towards any of the truly
important buildings was noted.

Still, an attack on the Imperial Capital even by a dragon-angel and its
allies was intolerable. Forces were dispatched to strike at the weaker
targets first so that all resources could then chip away at the big three.

---------

The various Senshi-turned-guys were picking themselves up from yet another
attack where they'd been scattered like chaff.

The marionettes, both Senshi versions and others, were blasting away with
better success. Using one of Fess' brighter ideas, adding a phase-variance
to their attacks, they were able to affect magical beings such as yoma and
demons.

Then came an assault of imps to mix among the troops, followed by heavy
hitters once these lesser threats were disorganized. As most of the
once-and-future-Senshi fell to the assault, they faded as recall devices
transported them back to the base. Those remaining were briefly joined by
the Lensman long enough to rally briefly before a large explosion caused
those recall devices to operate en masse.

Hotaru was *grinning* even through exhaustion. Snoopy had had to return
already, the yellow submarine not built for long sustained combat. On seeing
her falling, a six winged dragon had manuevered beneath her. Now she was
riding on a dragon and picking off the occasional enemy that tried to attack
from above and behind. Her fiance was *so* neat! And obviously Fess was
correct. He trusted her implicitly. That had touched the girl ostracized by
her peers for years in a very special way.

"gIGA fLARE" said the very same dragon being ridden by the Senshi Of
Destruction, energy arcing along all six wings and coalescing into a beam
that could have wiped out an Imperial Star Destroyer. It was a really a pity
that he wasn't aware of what he was doing, as it would have done his
self-confidence enormous good just to know he was capable of such things
even if most of it was being done by the ginzuishou and the Binding.

--------

He wasn't sure *how* he'd ended up here. He wasn't sure how he was still
operating the power ring or Lens considering how he'd estimated they'd have
turned nonfunctional about a half hour ago. Landing on a rooftop, he flashed
the guys fighting off demons a quick grin. The lantern was pulled out of the
beltpak. Time to recharge the ring. It was tempting to blast the spy-eye
cameras out of existence, but first things first.

"In brightest day, in darkest night,
No evil shall escape my sight!
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power - Green Lantern's light!"

Corny, perhaps. Effective and he actually felt a little hyped up now that
he'd renewed the pledge and recharged the ring. Putting the lantern back in
the pak and zipping it shut, Greylle checked his psychic abilities. About a
quarter tank.

Then a quick burst of glowing green buzzsaws cutting through demonic hordes
to give the good guys a break, and off flew the Green Lensman. (Current
operating name, he felt it had a certain ring to it. Pun intended.)

He noted the recall mechanisms pulling many of the invaders back. Good. Even
with his current abilities and equipment this was not exactly an easy
battle.

Green Lensman floated briefly, realized where he was from reading a fanfic
about it, and used his esper abilities. Teleport. Bounce off the barrier.

High grade barrier against teleports determined to exist, Green Lensman
focussed his power ring to conserve his esper talents. Fly to a window,
shatter it with normal human strength, and he was in. Now all he had to do
was rescue the fair damsel through a few dozen heavily trained and armed
guards.

Piece of cake.

-------

Fess had *wanted* to do this, but until the ban was lifted - had decided
that it would be risking it too much to try it.

Magical girls often had comic cute animal companions. Sailor Moon was a
magical girl series. Frankly, Fess didn't really care for the mooncats but
was willing to make exceptions for Artemis who had established a rapport
with either Greylle or Basalt in previous lifetimes.

However, Sailor Moon was *also* a sentai series. Color coded superheroes
(like the senshi) who were prone to making silly speeches (like the senshi)
and weird poses (again like the senshi) while fighting menaces from beyond
(chorus:like the senshi).

It was perfectly in keeping for the sentai genre to have giant robots. They
did sometimes share a factor with magical girls series in that cute animal
mascots (or cute female mascots or cute female anthropomorphic mascots) were
featured.

Magical girls often did *not* have giant robots. Frankly Fess did not equate
the value of Artemis OR Luna with a fully loaded and armed giant
transforming sentai robot. As a cybernetic intelligence though, he would
admit to some natural bias.

Greylle, as a student of Hephaestus, had a lab. Until Fess had been summoned
to that world where his Master was trapped as Akane Tendo, he had been
installed in a sort of factory. Not too unlike his current whereabouts in a
way, though it had just been odd ideas that Fess had worked out on his
Master's instigation. Usually because Greylle rarely finished a project
before he'd been summoned off. Fess had been created specifically to carry
out projects while his own creator was off on missions or punishment duty.

One of those things that Greylle had worked on periodically was a basic
idea. He'd come up with the basic designs just before he'd gone off on a
long mission to Gehenna.

Maybe it was time to send the signal?

No. The Senshi had been rescued. The dragonrage lifted and the exile orders
in place bounced a certain dragon back to a windswept isle in the Baltic.
The recall orders were given for those remaining. Looked like the Guardians
wouldn't be needed after all.

Just in case, Fess decided that both the Guardians and Greylle's collection
of giant robot vehicles would be placed on standby so they could be quickly
accessed.

----------

Artemis and Luna did their best to sneak into the base. Sixth time's the
charm, or something like that.

"I don't know about this," said Artemis nervously, "look at how long it took
us to get back from London."

"Quiet!" Luna hissed at his fellow former mooncat. "I have a plan."

Artemis tactfully bit back the observation that each of these spy missions
had been a plan by Luna. Going in the front door with the usual "I'm a cat
and I go where I want to" act had seen them picked up and deposited outside
by someone who looked like the Terminator.

Sneaking in an air duct had ended up with them trapped by some kind of
superglue floor, followed by them being picked up and eventually deposited
at a humane-care animal shelter known as "Animal Kingdom".

Third had come their attempt to use the same air duct ("they'll never expect
this") with avoiding that particular section of floor by leaping over it.
There was a trapdoor just beyond the sticky section, as the two had found
out.

Fourth attempt - sneaking into one of the supply carts as it was wheeled
down into the base. Apparently the hissing noise had been gas. They'd woken
up at home.

Then the attempt to learn about this new "dark god" enemy had gone rather
sour with them turned into gender reversed humans.

Artemis as a girl had a figure she'd have admired a lot more if it wasn't
her own. This really long hair was a pain to take care of, and those high
heels had *had* to go.

When Luna had gotten amorous it had both been terribly wrong and terribly
right. Artemis had never been able to refuse Luna anything for very long.
Making love with Luna had been something the white-haired former mooncat had
dreamed of, it was just the manner of it had been all wrong.

Luna had finished quickly and left a disappointed Artemis to plan the next
attempt onto the base.

Which was here, with Luna posing as a health inspector. Artemis had to admit
that with the suit and tie - Luna was very handsome. That Luna had gotten
this shortskirted nurse outfit for Artemis was something that concerned
Artemis on several levels.

Which brought them to this side enterance. What was that hissing noise? Oh.
Oh dear.

Waking up in a cheap motel room in Osaka, Artemis wondered if she could just
convince Luna to wait at least until they were in their proper bodies again.

--------

"Oooooo," said Greylle, wondering who'd beaten the snot out of him.

"Looks like he's coming to."

Greylle tentatively identified the voice as belonging to the transformed
Makoto. They had gone into Warnas' realm, come out with a case of
gender-reversal, and then... Everything was kind of blurry after that. He'd
been in a fight?

"Let's get in there and get this over with then," came another voice. This
was vaguely familiar. Uranus?

Details began filtering in. He was upright, held between two bodies. One was
short but felt lean muscled. The other was taller and had a...

A feeling of disorientation and the two bodies *changed*. Enough of a shock
that Greylle was able to look around.

Sailor Mercury was the short one. Sailor Jupiter the taller one. "Huhhhhh?!"

"Oh my," said Kasumi.

"You said it, sis," Nabiki acknowledged, eyeing the European style drawing
room.

Akane looked around, then went back to talking with Yuka and Sayuri.

"What's going on?" Greylle finally got his feet under him, noting that they
were all back in Warnas' realm and there were more of them this time around.

"Shampoo get bad feeling about this."

"Yeah. C'mon, Ranchan, let's leave these Senshi-types to their thing."

"At last! I'm a girl again!" Rei hefted her small breasts and flipped her
hair back. "It's GREAT to be a girl! Never gunna be a guy again, never gunna
be a guy again!"

The presence of Warnas slowly coalesced in the hallway.

Finding themselves abruptly seated at a long dining table, several of those
present wondered if maybe they should have found a different way of getting
their transformations reversed.

--------

Mars was not the only planet slated for terraforming, nor was it the only
place in the solar system that robots had been sent by Fess.

A comet was redirected slightly so that it would strike Venus. This would
not only introduce a rapid cooling trend on that planet but it would also
add a great deal of water.

Nitrogen mining on Titan continued to develop, with the first load well on
its way to Mars. A second load headed towards the asteroid belt.

The Nemesian Penal Colony, formed by bringing two large asteroids together
and taking a handful of highly trained saboteurs and assassins and stranding
them on that base, was developing nicely. Soon the asteroid's interior would
be habitable, at which point the prisoners could be transferred and the ship
cannibalized. A little nitrogen, some water, a few plants, and it could
become a self-supporting colony.

Little "workbee" robot ships darted through the big empty of space on their
errands. In the asteroid belt these gathered information on the chunks of
rock and ice for later use. Some raised solar sails and prepared for the
long journey out to the Oort cloud. Others shifted to Jovian moons with
special packages to set up mining operations and launching mass drivers.
Still others prepared to metamorphosize themselves into solar energy
satellites.

On Mars, however, the dead red planet was building towards a massive change.

---------

"So you have returned," said the man at the head of the table. "Does this
mean that you are willing to submit to the terms that the dragon Greylle
Shard negotiated for you? We are, after all, both aligned with Order."

There was a shimmer and the table in front of each of the guests was
suddenly filled with a large feast as might occupy a Thanksgiving feast in
America. Thickly laden plates with glasses of chilled wine appeared before
each of the guests.

Ami nodded. "It became obvious to me that you were making a demonstration
here since all of us who were Senshi were able to remember our pasts more
than Sakura-chan could remember she was Greylle-kun."

Greylle looked extremely embarrassed and tried not to look at anyone.
Remembering what had gone on while he had been Sakura was quite... strange.
Even for his life. The emotional ties would take some time to fade and
Sakura had been very attracted to a certain blue-haired medical student.

Usagi merely looked at the platter in front of her, eyes large and slightly
drooling before she began to dig in at a rate that would have earned her a
"well done" from Genma Saotome.

Ranma looked at that, briefly wondered if Usagi was a relative, then began
tearing into his own plate because Ranma Saotome doesn't lose to some girl
in an eating contest.

Warnas Redsword, god of conquest, actually didn't have that much trouble
with Crystal Tokyo. It was a land of absolute rule by a goddess-empress and
so was mainly acceptable by his standards. In Crystal Tokyo, everyone knew
their place and was content - their minds frozen to acceptance and
contentment with the current arrangement. The strong ruled the weak, or
exiled them off to cold dark planets to die.

"I object," said Haruka, eyeing the food distrustfully and their host
moreso. "What exactly is this agreement?"

"One mile square is my desmense, you do not bother me. I do not bother you,"
Warnas patted his mouth with a cloth napkin. "My plans do not intersect your
own, nor oppose it. The dragon here made an arrangement and listed you as
allies that he would seek to assist as long as you didn't oppose me
directly."

"It's a good deal, Usagi. Though i can't make any deals for the Moon Kingdom
only for myself and those forces i have input with. You might want to make a
similar arrangement yourself." Greylle suggested strongly. "'Let sleeping
elder gods lie' as it were."

"Precisely. There are certain attentions I'd prefer to avoid, Toltiir the
Jester being one of them," Warnas didn't sneer exactly, but his voice
carried that sort of tone.

Usagi realized several people were looking at her as she reached for another
helping of mashed potatoes. "Huh?"

"I disagree," Haruka said as she stood. There were groans from the rest of
the Senshi. "You took me by surprise the last time, but NOW." She
transformed to Sailor Uranus.

Even Michiru merely stared for a moment. "You're not serious, are you?"

"World Shaking!"

The blast vanished before reaching the elder god of war.

Greylle finished running around the table (having started at the
transformation) and made a running leap towards Sailor Uranus, intent on
stopping this before it became an even more FUBAR than it currently was.

Greylle vanished in midleap. Warnas stood. "While the dragon fully intends
to honor his agreement, apparently not everyone believes that I am capable
of defeating all of you singly or together. Very well. Just so that everyone
is clear on this matter, all those who intend to reject my logical offer,
please stand."

Usagi was the last to stand, clearly very reluctant. Ranma just wanted to
wipe that smirk off this guy's face.

"A demonstration of power is in order then. Give it your best shot," smiled
Warnas.

The Sailor Senshi unleashed their attacks. Ranma tried to hit the portly
guy. Akane tried to unleash a rolling tackle.

"Enough," said Warnas after two minutes of this. "That was what each of you
considered power. Now behold *real* power."

(flick)

"Baaaa?!" "mooo!" "buqiii!"

"Reincarnation in the traditional faiths of this land allows for
reincarnating as animals," Warnas said to the startled barnyard menagerie.
"Simple enough to alter it so that all of you were born animals. I could
keep you as a petting zoo here. I could return you to the outside world
where you would quickly revert mentally to the animals you now are. The only
reason I don't do something like this is the agreement I made with the
dragon, who would seek to return you to normal as soon as his memories
returned."

Usagi's long ears twitched and she wondered what life as a bunny would be
like. Not all that much fun, she imagined.

Ami retreated into her shell, feeling very much out of her depth as a sea
turtle on a tiled floor. Though she was tempted to go over and bite the tail
of that goat that was standing where Sailor Uranus had been a moment ago.

Rei mooed in irritation. She needed to be milked. This was not a good
situation. She could *feel* the evil power that this 'Warnas' had, and also
his sincerity. If they left him alone, he'd leave them alone. Why stir up a
threat where none existed? Uranus was just being an asshole.

"Since the dragon *has* every intention of honoring our agreement, I could
easily place you under his control," Warnas said, raising an eyebrow.

(flick)

Haruka sank to her knees alongside Michiru, her armor clanking as she did
so. Why she was here was a question for someone else. She was slave-soldier
and guard of the harem. As a janissary, she would not question her presence
here. Her only thought was to serve the Master. Her only disappointment was
that she had never been called to serve the Master personally.

Michiru glanced about, while keeping her head deferentially lowered as a
member of much lower caste in the presence of a Lord. Master was not
present, and as one of his guard-concubines like Haruka, she kept one hand
near her blast-sword where she could draw if any harm threatened the Inner
Circle of his favored.

Nabiki kept her eyes on the tiled floor before her, wondering where the
Master was. She knew her place and station in the universe and was content
with it - as lowly as she had been born, raised to the level of concubine
was far better than it had been. Kneeling next to the guard-concubine Ranma
and her sister-wife Kasumi, she could only hope that Master would come for
them soon. This tile was cold, after all.

"Hmmm. Too bad the dragon doesn't approve of the whole slave angle," said
Warnas as he looked over the crowd. "This would definitely keep you out of
my desmense and you'd actually all be happier in the long run. Knowing what
a stick-in-the-mud he is, he'd probably object to having the boys as girls
too. Maybe I'll just keep this around as a curse. If any of you enter my
desmense again this will automatically hit the trespasser. Hmmm. May have to
work on that, see if something amusing develops. Your dragon does have that
affinity for so-called 'catgirls'."

(flick)

Akane stood, tail flicking nervously. Ranma was her Alpha Male, and she
would protect him as best she could, but it was occurring to her that as a
couple of martial artists they were *way* out of their league here. Even as
the "Fierce Tigress Of Furinkan High" - she had her limits!

Kasumi hadn't attacked with the others, she'd only stood to be polite, but
understood she'd been linked to the opposition group. Being a member of
someone's harem had felt so... deliciously naughty. Now she was back to
being the plain old housecatgirl that she'd always been. Being one of
Ranma's pride wasn't so bad, but...

Mamoru blinked. Just a moment ago he'd been a slavegirl guard who'd
wanted... ugh. Much better to be restored to manhood and as an Alpha Male to
his pride. He'd had to trade off with Shard-san, wanting more time with
Usagi and Rei and ending up with Haruka and Michiru as well. Still the
others seemed perfectly okay with their new arrangement. Judging by how much
purring Ami was doing lately the term 'okay' might be an understatement.

"Perhaps you might consider this enough of a lesson?" Warnas relaxed against
a wall, somewhat amused by the number of teeth and claws bared when everyone
considered the tomcattish Haruka.

(flick)

Haruka shook her head, trying to clear it of the longing she had for the
feeling of belonging she had as a catgirl or the precise focus and
contentment she'd had as a harem guard. "Your tricks are not going to break
us! We'll fight you no matter what! Somehow, someway, we'll win!"

"Who's this 'we'?" Nabiki asked, backing away quickly. "You got a mouse in
that seifuku of yours? I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm *not*
getting involved. Count me out of any battleplans."

Ami cleared her throat. "Usagi, we Inners will back your decision, but
perhaps a split with the Outers would be a good idea?"

Michiru sidled closer to her lover. "Haruka. Tell me this is part of some
clever plan on your part and not merely some outraged pride."

Hotaru looked up at the elder god. A Death Reborn Revolution *might* work,
but if all this guy really wanted was to be left alone, she could sympathize
with that to some degree. "Actually, I never intended to fight. I just
wanted you to bring back my sempai or send me to him."

"The rules were simple, stand if you wanted to oppose me. You stood,
therefore you opposed me. If you have changed your mind, that's fine."
Warnas indicated the table. "It appears that your Sailor Uranus has some
issues left to resolve. Anyone not wanting to share her fate, stand back."

Hotaru and the three Tendo daughters stood back.

"Very well, I will..." Uranus continued to move her mouth though no sounds
were issued.

"Yes, yes," indicated Warnas. "Very clever for someone with intelligence
level of a turnip. Promise that you'll go along with my agreement, get into
position to attack me later when my guard is down. Two things, Haruka
Ten'ou. The first is that I don't need to guard against your feeble attacks.
Even in Eternal form with your Talisman, you would have no chance against
me. The second is that I am an Elder god. The dragon, as predictable as he
is, has a better chance of surprising me."

Usagi found herself being jerked back by Minako and Makoto and realized most
of the Senshi were backing away from the portly figure confronting the two
Outers. "Wait a minute! We can talk this out! We're all Sailor Senshi! We're
all reincarnated Moon Kingdom Princesses. The soldiers of love! We shouldn't
operate like this!"

Nabiki blinked. She was still a reincarnated princess? She was pretty sure
that had been removed when things were turned back to normal.

Haruka found her voice. "Quickly, Sailor Moon, when his concentration is on
us - strike then."

Usagi stepped forward, shrugging off Minako and Makoto's grip (the two were
kind of shocked to hear this plan). "Uranus-san! Neptune-san!" As Usagi
stepped forward, so did several others, either intending to stop Usagi or
follow her lead.

"'Soldiers of love'?" Warnas repeated. He was not a god of love. He didn't
understand the concept very well. He *was* however trying to learn a few
things himself while he was in this "penalty box" of his exile. Lust he
understood. Geas and magical compulsions he understood. Enslavement and
conquering and control he understood. Love? "Well, maybe I can do something
along that line." He'd already set the rules - to move forward was to be
counted against him, it wouldn't do to change those rules just because many
of those didn't actually intend to oppose him.

Rei felt the malevolent power flare up and could think of only one thing to
say. "Usagi no baka!"

-------

Greylle shook his head as he realized he'd been thrown from the pocket
dimension and ended up in dragonform and knocking over a few trees in some
wooded area. "Oh crud. What are they doing?!"

"Getting in over their collective heads, I'd say."

The silver dragon looked about briefly before zeroing in on the speaker.
"You are... i don't know you, do I?"

"Morgana Le Fey, late of Avalon, Sorceress of the First Circle. You are
Greylle Shard, among other names, Aramarian silver dragon. Priest of
Hephaestus, Bast, and a few others." Morgana sat back and watched the
clouds, letting the dragon's primitive "Know Alignment" spell go off without
commenting on how impolite it was. With her name and reputation, one grew
accustomed to such cautions.

"You know what's going on?" Greylle tried to force himself to relax. Her
posture didn't indicate any clear and present threat, if she were collecting
dragon body parts she'd have likely struck while he was stunned from the
impact.

"Aye. The Silver Millenium is being rewritten," said Morgana.

"Oh great. Well, we're outside his mile so it won't affect us. What did
Warnas do?" The dragon slumped down and arched his neck so that his head was
on a level with the tree branch Morgana was sitting on.

"The Elder god Warnas is what some would call Lawful Evil. A god of Order
who does not concern himself with morality or similar concepts. His
portfolio is the drive for control over others. As his name hints he is a
god of war - not of defense as Borune or skill as Hoshime, but still a god
of war. Soldiers and armies, whether they wear sailor suits or not, are
within his baliwick." Morgana looked over at the dragon. "You *do* realize
that four of those currently being affected view you with considerable
affection, don't you?"

"Huh?" The dragon pondered this. "That's a little hard to believe. Who?"

Morgana snorted in a thoroughly unfeminine gesture, but at her age who cared
about such trivialities? She wouldn't give away the game at this early
stage. That Hotaru had latched onto him and was debating methods of
convincing him that she was not a child? That Akane had not gone psychotic
due to his intervention and the usual problems involving Ranma, and now was
more at peace and happier with her life than ever before. More - that she
knew the dragon was responsible and (though she'd deny it most vehemently)
was really quite fond of him? That the shy Ami saw him as a good match and
potential boyfriend? (Not to mention a possible method of getting out of the
house despite her mother's restrictions since Mrs Mizuno wanted very much to
gain access to medical technology and techniques at that base.) Or the "Ice
Queen" Nabiki, who had real feelings blossoming that she excused and
deliberately misinterpreted rather than admit to.

There were others of course. Yuka had an interest in the boy, he
representing so much in life she craved. Usagi felt her own connection to
the ginzuishou, and thence to the dragon. Makoto and Minako who saw him as a
cute boy. Shampoo who viewed him as a potential airen. Ranma was trying to
get Ukyo to go after Greylle, feeling that if he accomplished this task then
he could still have Ukyo as a friend but he wouldn't have *that* fiancee
arrangement hanging over his head.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, it was obvious that the sorceress
was not planning on answering that particular question. "So what's going on?
He isn't going to hurt any of them, is he?"

"Oh no. He just rewrote it so that Queen Serenity had two children. The
oldest was a boy who took after his father - a dragon of an allied star
kingdom. His half-sister who became the Senshi of the Moon. Oh, and the
various fiancees that older boy - heir to the Moon Kingdom accumulated.
Well, it should be of some interest to you."

Greylle took a moment for that to sink in. "WHAT?!"

Morgana held her ears for a moment after that outburst. "Not so loud,
they're going to hear you in Tokyo at that level. Yes, it's a terrible
tragic story. Oh, and Ranma is now Mamoru Chiba's reincarnated little
sister."

"Hah?!" Greylle shook his head. "Wait a minute. *i* am a prince of the moon
kingdom?!"

"Heir, actually. There's a geas in place of the Senshi to protect you.
Unfortunately, as Tsukino made the statement that they were 'soldiers of
love', Warnas included that in the geas for most of them. Not that it was
needed in all those cases, and it only affects Ranma in Senshi mode, but
having her play blushing love-smitten schoolgirl is liable to be
interesting."

"But... but..."

"Ten'ou and Kaioh are *really* going to have trouble with this," said
Morgana with amusement. "They've gone from exclusively lesbian to bi, at
least as far as you're concerned. Though if they could get their hands of
some of that 'Spring Of Drowned Girl' water..."

"...ewww..." Greylle shuddered his entire fifty-two foot length.

"I wonder how long it will take for the idea to occur to them," mused
Morgana.

---------

Haruka paused as the group went home. With *those* conditions waiting to
slap them in the face should they return, it was obvious that they'd have to
forego attacks on the exiled god. For now. "Say, Michiru?"

"Haruka?" Michiru wondered at the thoughtful expression on Haruka's face.
Well, it *had* been somewhat educational. Still, there was this naughty
little impulse - a fragment of temptation. Just try crossing the border
again and she'd never have to dirty her hands again. More power too. Of
course she'd either be Bishojo Bunnygirl or Magical Maid or something like
that, but it was surprising how little that prospect worried her.

Haruka was thinking something naughty herself. "Saotome there was born a
guy, and didn't regain a female form until some place in China, right?"

"Jusenkyo in Qinghai province, Bayankala mountain range," said Michiru.
"Yes, I remember."

Haruka looked thoughtful, though a smile was playing at the corner of her
mouth. There were ways to make sure certain individuals listened to her, and
ways to remove a threat besides extermination. Perhaps. "So if we got some
of that spring water, and splashed our Prince..."

Michiru blinked and turned thoughtful herself, eyeing Ranma-chan
speculatively.

"What do you suppose our *princess* would look like?" Haruka and Michiru
asked absently.

Haruka smiled at her partner. "Bet she'd be a screamer."

"We'd have to check that out," replied Michiru with a matching smile.

-------

"Brrrrr, I just got a serious case of the creepies," said Greylle.

Morgana just smirked. This was just *so* entertaining. She wondered what
would have happened if Lancelot had gotten hit with something like that. If
she'd only known about Jusenkyo back then, or if Merlin had heard of it,
then things could have gotten quite interesting in Camelot.

"So, i'm now a Prince of the Moon Kingdom?" Greylle wondered if it might
make things go any easier. Usagi probably appreciated the lowering of
pressure on her. Now she could relax more without worrying about the whole
responsibility of her Destiny. "Well, that *could* be a good thing."

"You've just found out that a large number of fairly attractive and mainly
good hearted teenage girls are going to regard you as their Prince and are
going to have strong emotional bonds to you, and you're reacting as if I'd
announced the weekend weather forecast." Morgana was slightly intrigued.
"How atypical for a teenage male. Even a dragon."

"Nah, it's not a big deal." Greylle chuckled. "It won't last. Love potions
*always* screw up where i'm concerned. Urd, Freja, Aphrodite, Eros, or any
and all of the love deities in existence couldn't give *me* a romantic
subplot. Watch, it'll all fall through."

Morgana read the dragon's absolute certainty on this, but wasn't so sure.

"Well, i know what *i* need to do," said the dragon. "i need to eat. What
about you?"

Having decided her role in this adventure, Morgana stood and winked.
"That... is a secret!" The words seemed to hang in midair as the sorceress
vanished.

Greylle winced. He'd always found that irritating when Setsuna pulled it.

-------

Cologne sat back and waited. She'd sent the message some time ago by the
fastest method available. Having a dragon in the village wasn't a good idea,
at the size she'd seen - he could roll over in his sleep and flatten a good
portion of village. He had a temper problem, and there were those who would
go out of their way to aggravate a male.

Having a dragon *allied* to the village was much better in Cologne's view.

The whole "Kiss Of Marriage" thing was to get strong bloodlines originally.
Well, that and treaties signed ages ago. The child of a dragon, in Chinese
mythology, had a portion of the power of that dragon. So getting a dragon
into the village's genepool would be a good thing.

Strong male fighters were very much desired by the women of the village, not
just because they could produce strong babies of course. That was just the
law. There were other benefits to having a strong healthy husband that had
absolutely nothing to do with working fields or fighting off bandits and
additionally most Amazons had a sort of strength-fetish.

As Lilac and Douglas had proven quite a few years back, *smart* males were
also valuable. Not as popular as the strong male, hormones and such being
what they were, but there were those Amazons who really found intelligence
and/or wisdom in a male quite attractive. Smart males were also brought into
the tribe to benefit it. Though smart males were harder to keep in the
village and were more often just occasional guests while they lived and
worked elsewhere with Amazon wives.

Males who had resources that could benefit the tribe were also sought on
rare occasions. Again, keeping them in the village was not necessarily an
option but to Cologne and most of the Elders that which benefitted the tribe
and village was a good thing. So most of the Elders would hold their tongue
about uppity males not knowing their place if the male in question
benefitted the tribe while being apart from it.

Smart strong males with resources that could benefit the Amazons? Drag them
kicking and screaming into the tribe if necessary and make sure that they
had good reason to view the whole village with fondness. There were ways to
accomplish this with unmarried males that did not directly involve pressure
points, martial arts, or rare Chinese herbs. Though all of the above *could*
be used as well, it more often was not necessary.

Shampoo was the greatest warrior of the village on a good day. Most of the
others had a life beyond fighting and therefore lacked the focus that
Shampoo had. Good match for Ranma Saotome as they had much in common and
would produce strong warrior children. If Shampoo wasn't so prone to
jealousy, having a couple of wives fussing over him would likely melt down
whatever resistance the transgendering martial artist had.

Shampoo and the dragon? Poor match. Someone not quite so focussed on the
martial arts was needed.

The dragon had been amusing and obviously had a kind heart. This last was
always a good thing when dealing with magical creatures capable of
destroying entire villages before lunch. His fascination for gadgets had
been amusing and dismissed as of little consequence by Cologne earlier.

The trip to Mars had changed her opinion on this aspect of the dragon. It
was one thing to create the self-willed golems to go about their tasks in
some hidden lair. To transport them all to that sort of distance and back?
If China ever threatened again, the village could quietly melt away to some
distant world. Instead of a tiny village relying on myth and seclusion to
protect them, they could become a nation onto themselves - with the sort of
wealth of knowledge and resources that would ensure their continuing
survival for centuries!

Ahem.

Not that Cologne wanted to get the dragon into the tribe. Oh heavens no.
Her? Completely innocent of such artifice. She wasn't interested in such
things as this technology, ask anyone who knew her. She never could abide
all this newfangled stuff.

The spellcasting? No, didn't interest her at all. Healing and rejuvenation
magic. Hardly useful at all. Nope. Though maybe she knew an Amazon or two
who *would* be interested. A bit. Maybe.

So if she sent to her village a little letter that detailed something that
might interest someone out there, it was just a little mistaken wording that
indicated that certain young Amazon girls ought to get over here where their
Matriarch could point them towards a husband candidate and see who won.

Or a coincidence. Yes, that might work. Coincidence.

Salt and Pepper? Not very likely. The two were inseperable. Salt was usually
fairly abrasive while Pepper was entirely too fond of extremes of passion.
Of course, if they did something nasty to the dragon he'd likely just pound
them severely and that might change their attitude towards him. Stranger
things had happened.

Sugar and Spice were *much* more likely to make a good and lasting
impression. The swordmistress and the staff-master. Like Salt and Pepper, a
odd couple that did *everything* together. Sharing a husband certainly
wasn't that unlikely for the two. Sugar could be entirely too sweet, whereas
Spice tended to be a bit ditzy. Getting them a husband that could look after
the two would certainly benefit the tribe and in more than one way.

Having seen the girl named Usagi Tsukino, not the marionette but the
original one, Cologne had been reluctant to ask about Sash. The two blonde
ponytailed disaster areas together? Well, best they meet as far from the
village as could be arranged.

Cayenne might have seemed an odd choice. She was older than the rest of the
girls, scarred from old battles, and had survived a husband that had run
into one of the many cursed mountains and not returned alive. What had been
really bad was that he had returned undead. Something in the old redhead had
died that night, but it might return if this dragon could use some form of
purifying magic on the thirty-five year old.

Azure was, well, less clumsy than Sash. Decent with tonfa. Possessed a
strength level that was as great as her hand-eye coordination was lousy. A
boyfriend she couldn't accidently squish would be a great draw for Azure.

Tigar was too young, but the closest thing Cologne had ever seen to Akane
Tendo the tigergirl prior to Nerima. Maybe she and the dragon would draw
closer as time went on. If not, Tigar could spend time with her sister
Sugar.

Frost had a bit of a temper, but the largely self-taught mage would be more
than eager to find a teacher for at least a discipline of her Art. The pale
albino was likely to take to the dragon quite easily, and perhaps
student-teacher relations could lead to something else.

The shamrock girl Clover was clever and sneaky. Mention the possibilities of
enriching both herself and the tribe and she'd be figuring out angles before
Cologne could finish the sentence. Cool, calm, dignified. Clover would have
a plan before the first day was out.

Then there were the twins, Lin Lin and Ran Ran. On second thought they were
likely to be annoyances and they wouldn't take well to big sister Shampoo
failing in her attempt to woo Ranma. Well, too late to actually stop them.
They ought to be here by now.

There were the quadruplets, and bouncy cute identical quads ought to be able
to reduce almost any man to fumbling stupor. That they'd end up sharing a
man was apparent as all four suffered from some curse that whatever happened
to one - all four felt. That the man would practically have to be able to
bend steel in his bare hands in order to defeat all four or simply last the
wedding night was also apparent. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme would
regard a shapeshifting dragon as a goddess-send.

Yes, Cologne thought, this ought to work at least partially. If nothing else
she could potentially start a second village if she could talk that
disembodied voice in the base into the idea. She thought this likely, all
things considered.

Not that she wanted anything more than sharing tea with someone as
long-lived as herself a century or two from now. Her, the matriarch of a
primitive tribe, have an ulterior motive? Heavens no.

Of course not.

------

The Martian city was lifeless, if you used the narrow definition of organic
life.

Sabashii was now a set of smaller domes all connected to a large dome. Each
connecting tube was set up with airlocks and emergency bulkheads that could
close off each section upon an emergency. Each dome sparkled in the dim sun
like glass. Appropriate as that was what the bulk of each dome was
constructed of.

The city plans had been altered a bit to take into account for roofhopping
martial artists and magical princesses. Sections had been made which could
be easily replaced when damaged. The original plan had been to make things
durable, and several sections favored this approach over the later concept.

The city was a little like a submarine. Buildings could be easily closed off
as completely environmentally independent.

As for the big dome in the center, that was the most important part. The
park. Right now it was soil and water. Later would come grass and selected
trees and varieties of crops. These would provide not only food and air, but
the necessary human psychological effects of an area of green.

The lichen released to the outside environment was necessary for the long
term terraforming, but without using magic it would remain long term.

Like the meteors currently targetting the Martian landscape, or the comet on
its way to Venus, some of the changes planned were huge and sweeping. Others
quiet and easy to overlook.

Sabashii itself was sizable and fairly obvious. More so when the plants
finally took hold in the mix of martian and terran soils.

It was barely noticeable when it happened, but at that point Mars was no
longer truly a dead world.

-------

Another world entirely:

When "dragon-him" and "dragonball-him" had vanished, Green Lensman had known
that he was in deep kimchi.

Oh sure, he had enough raw power to turn the average Tatewaki Kuno into
puree of dog chow. He could easily beat the average Hikaru Gosunkugi and
would not feel challenged in the slightest by an attack from Megane and the
rest of Lum's self-appointed bodyguards.

The problem was that *this* reality was *not* average. Here Tatewaki Kuno
was a samurai, and the samurai were reknowned swordsmen *and* foul
sorcerers. Here Hikaru Gosunkugi was a powerful necromancer capable of
literally raising the dead. Here there was no Lum, but there was a group of
street thugs under the command of Megane who trafficked in illicit drugs.
Here was a world where evil ruled and corrupted nearly everything it
touched. There could be no kind hearted Keiichi to call out in more than one
meaning of the phrase to Belldandy's heart. There would be no Crystal Tokyo
where peace and love would at least have a chance to grow.

Instead you had a Tokugawa Ieyasu who had literally made a deal with the
devil. Nobunaga Oda hadn't even been half as nasty. Ieyasu had broken his
opponent's neck, drinking deep of his lifesblood and becoming a vampire that
*still* ruled the Japanese Empire.

Knowing that he had some time before all hell literally broke loose again,
the dimensional wanderer encased himself and his rescued princess in a
bubble of green energy and then moved with all the speed he could muster.
Straight up.

He might have considered himself to be ridiculously overpowered, but the
Lensman knew darn well that he was *not* ridiculously overpowered enough to
last for long here.

*shift*

The Green Lanterns were essentially cosmic policemen. In order to do their
job, they had to be able to protect themselves from the hazardous conditions
of space and move really darn fast.

He'd made himself into Justy Cosmo Police, who also could move pretty darn
quick and travel without regard to such things as vaccuums and hard
radiation.

Looking about the star system briefly, and deciding to use the name Justy
Locke for now, he determined that there were no habitable planets present.

*shift*

Almost.

*shift*

Not quite. Something with a little more atmosphere.

*shift*

Something with a little less hazard in the biosystem.

*shift*

Hmmmm. Not perfect, but it would have to do. That moon over there.

*shift*

Setting his burden down, Green Lensman Justy looked over the fallen Setsuna
Meiou and tried not to wince. Bedridden for years, thin as a stick,
emaciated and drawn, with her mind broken and her psychic gifts overloaded
by the medical experiments performed on her when she was barely twelve years
old. Now at the age of twenty-four, it required special equipment just to
keep her going. The lack of care was apparent anywhere you looked.

In this reality, this timeline, that twelve year old girl had been one of
the few innocents left. Someone who still believed that love and goodness
were more of value than how entertainingly you could kill your first gaijin.
They'd done this to her because her ability of precognition had been
detected and they'd enhanced it, but at cost of her Self.

After another scan determined that this planet's few predators were not
inclined to approach such strange smelling creatures, Justy sat down near
Setsuna's head and began using matrix stone and Arisian lens to mend a
broken mind.

-------

Shampoo had heard it. Whoever went past that little hedge into that area
again would be after dragon boy. Her Great Grandmother would not let her
keep Ranma-airen *and* Greylle-airen (which Shampoo thought was really
unfair) and so Shampoo had settled on Ranma-airen (who was a lot easier to
understand and cuter). Unfortunately there was a lot of competition after
Ranma-airen.

Shampoo had also heard Ranma trying to get Spatula Girl interested in
Greylle-airen.

Get rid of obstacle + make points with Ranma-airen + prove she was a better
fighter than the uppity girl with the spatula fetish?

>From there it hadn't taken Shampoo long to realize that if she could get rid
of *one* rival in such a manner, then more would be better! She'd start with
*one* though.

"Spatula Girl, we spar?" Shampoo asked cutely. "Shampoo too worked up to
sleep."

"Well, I guess..." Ukyo had to admit she'd had this *wonderful* idea. Brain
the Amazon over the head, tie her up, then zoom over to that manor house
with a little package. Shampoo would be a lot happier chasing after
Greylle-san and that would leave Ranma-honey available! The two of them
would be a good couple, and she and Ranma would make a great couple!

Shampoo and Ukyo smirked at each other, absolutely convinced they'd be doing
the other a great favor.

-------

Warnas was known by many names in the Aramarian pantheon. Redsword was his
most common symbol and naming: though the words spliced together could come
from any of seven languages and sounded quite different in Hobgoblin
compared to (for example) Tarakir. He was also one of the three major gods
of evil: Warnas Redsword the god of war and conquering; Genmak the devouring
void; and Surtagg the Destroyer. Where Genmak embodied entropy and Surtagg
the destructive forces of chaos, Warnas was more civilized - for he was also
one of the three Lords Of Order.

Borune, the Worldsmith, embodied Order and Good. Hevrig, the Lawkeeper,
embodied Order in its most pure state. Warnas was the god of evolution: the
strong made the laws, slew or enslaved the weak, and their strength inspired
or was passed on to others.

The Godswar was something developed millenia ago. Each Age in Aramar had a
divine guide, someone who would set the tone of things to come during that
Age. An Age ended when a conflict saw a shift of that guide. The gods chose
mortal avatars and retreated to let those forces do battle without the
possibility of accidently wiping out that section of universe. As the Sixth
Age became the Seventh, and Toltiir retired (many said he threw the battle
because responsibilities were something he preferred not to pay attention
to) Warnas the Conquerer found his position and a good fragment of his power
usurped. Partly this was due to the machinations of Genmak and Surtagg.
Partly this was due to a foolish mortal hero ignoring the prophesy and
trying to cheat his way to glory. Partly this was due to the cleverness and
power of the usurper himself.

Because he *was* a Lord Of Order, Warnas abided by the terms. Sooner or
later another Age would begin and his avatar would reclaim his place. In the
meantime, he was observing things and planning while in a sort of "penalty
box".

At first he had dismissed the dragon's golems as just that. Or perhaps like
the windup soldiers used in the Third Age. Now, however, he saw them as
something else altogether.

Admirable.

The machines were alive in their own way. They could reproduce, come up with
original ideas and approaches, move and emulate many things that strictly
human life could. They could be as strong as their individual design
allowed, and they could update their own parameters. In fact, they were
*designed* to upgrade themselves within specific channels.

These androids and robots personified order. Each knew their limitations,
their assigned tasks, and did them. If one needed to become stronger or
adapt to different situations, it did so. Of course, they had some peculiar
ideas that seemed more in keeping with Borune's philosophies or perhaps
those of Etragar's wife Hoshime. Still, even if you looked deeper into
them - they remained very much Order-oriented with every bit and piece and
programming thread combining to form the totality. Then every unit worked
towards goals set for their common benefit.

Quite admirable.

Having observed from a distance, Warnas knew that Usagi Tsukino acted
chaotic but was actually a force of Order in her own way. So were her
cheerleaders.

The god of conquest actually liked the android versions more than the
originals, there was less chaos and more usefulness. A true Epic Villain
would make quick work of the Senshi, and each of the "sailorsuited warriors
of love and justice" would likely be dead. Whereas the same villain would
likely only be able to incapacitate a few of the androids before they had
upgraded to take advantage of any weaknesses, and then they'd rebuild or
replace their fallen comrades.

Usagi Tsukino was a crybaby who would likely fall apart if they ever faced
half the sort of enemies they could in Aramar. Usagi II was calm, collected,
and capable of doing great bodily harm to opponents who could kill Senshi.
Usagi Tsukino turned into Sailor Moon who turned into Princess Neo-Serenity
who could manage a respectable energy burst of White Magic. Usagi II now had
an armor upgrade that granted her the ability to generate forcefields
capable of deflecting Sailor Moon's blasts at up to 90% of her full power.
No doubt there would be upgrades eventually.

The Sailor Senshi, even with the enchantment he'd placed on them earlier,
didn't work that well as a team. They had two groups with different agendas
and priorities, and while their elemental powers all flowed from a single
source - they were limited to a set of attacks with that power and some
minor side effects. Sailor Pluto's haphazard viewing of time, Sailor
Saturn's ability to heal minor wounds, Sailor Moon could use her attack to
form a weak barrier, and so on.

The Sabre Senshi had two things that their originals lacked: discipline and
commitment to the team. Warnas would be inclined to add competency as a
third thing, but some of the Sailors were learning. Their powers couldn't be
combined as easily as the mana-based sentai team, but the androids could
link up by physical proximity to share capabilities. Sabre Mercury could
relay precise targetting information to Sabre Mars' plasma cannon.

Warnas stopped his contemplation. Several of those he'd given warning to
were back. Interesting.

-------

Fess noted the alarm he'd placed on a semi-autonomous drone near the
"Penalty Box" and quickly determined a few things. First was to find where
the marionettes were, their most recent upgrades had changed a few things
about their performance parameters.

Ami Mizuno II, Sailor Marionette Mercury
Strength Rating: 150 pounds
Specialty: Sensors and analysis
Serial Number: AMI01
Status: OK
Running speed: 45mph
Flight speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Sensors and Countermeasures
Current Location: Penthouse, Cloudy Arms Apartments, Juuban
Reported Activity: Study of interpersonal human relations in Mizuno
penthouse. Source: "Whirlwind of Love" - television program.

Usagi Tsukino II, Sailor Marionette Moon
Strength Rating: 1.6 tons
Specialty: Communication
Serial number: USA01
Status: OK
Running Speed: 75mph
Flight Speed: 150mph
Armor Upgrade: Forcefield generation
Current Location: Crown Arcade, Juuban
Reported Activity: Analysis of exercises in hand-eye coordination and battle
strategies. Source: Macross Valkyrie Simulator

Makoto Kino II, Sailor Marionette Jupiter
Strength Rating: 25 tons
Specialty: HTH Fighting
Serial number MAK01
Status:OK
Running Speed:45mph
Flight Speed: 75mph
Armor Upgrade: MegaVolt Knuckles
Current Location: Shiido Dojo, Juuban
Reported Activity: Acquiring martial arts techniques.

Minako Aino II, Sailor Marionette Venus
Strength Rating: 1.6 tons
Specialty: Generalist
Serial Number: MIN01
Status:OK
Running Speed: 75mph
Flight speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Ribbon blades
Current Location: Animate store, Kobe
Reported Activity: Shopping

Rei Hino II, Sailor Marionette Mars
Strength Rating: 1.6 tons
Specialty: Plasma Generation & Manipulation
Serial Number: HIN01
Status: OK
Running Speed: 75mph
Flying Speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Plasma Emitters
Current Location: Amaterasu Shrine, Nerima
Reported Activity: Selling shrine charms

Michiru Kaioh II, Sailor Marionette Neptune, aka "Polaris"
Strength Rating: 150 pounds
Specialty: Magnetic field generation/control
Serial Number: MIC01
Status: OK
Running Speed: 85mph
Flying Speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Magnetic Amplifiers
Current Location: Nekomi Technical Institute
Reported Activity: Research of suspected paranormal activity

Haruka Ten'ou II, Sailor Marionette Uranus
Strength Rating: 1.6 tons
Specialty: Piloting
Serial Number: HAR01
Status: OK
Running Speed: 75mph
Flying Speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Motoslave
Current Location: Nekomi Technical Institute
Reported Activity: Research of suspected paranormal activity

Setsuna Meioh II, Sailor Marionette Pluto
Strength Rating: 3.2 tons
Specialty: Cloaking
Serial Number: SET01
Status: OK
Running Speed: 75mph
Flying Speed: 90mph
Armor Upgrade: Shock Cannon
Current Location: Misawa AFB
Reported Activity: observation of military activity.

This meant that it was the *human* Sailor Mercury, Sailor Saturn, and Sailor
Pluto showing on the transmission.

Oh dear.

----------

Hotaru quickly shifted to Sailor Saturn.

Sailor Mercury blinked. "How come you don't have a nude transformation
sequence?"

Sailor Saturn shrugged. "I did earlier, but then I asked Amaterasu-sama to
alter it. Now I can specify flashy or fast."

The unspoken request was plainly visible on Sailor Mercury's face, though
she forcibly shelved that conversation for later.

"Activate your visor," advised Pluto. "We need to carefully monitor this so
we know what it is we're dealing with."

"Saturn-san, are you sure about this?" Mercury touched an earring and let
the visor form. She was a little concerned about this though.

Sailor Saturn nodded, her mouth a firm line. She walked forward down the
dirt road.

"Interesting," said Morgana, startling the heck out of both Mercury and
Pluto.

Having her hair sticking straight up and leaping into the air, to end up
teetering on her tiptoes as her arms windmilled and she tried very very hard
*not* to fall across that innocent looking border, Sailor Pluto was entirely
too panicked to think dirty things about sorceresses showing up uninvited.

Morgana kindly grabbed the two by their back bows and pulled them back.
"Sorry about that. Morgana, a powerful sorceress here to advise the Prince
in matters of magic."

Sailor Mercury tried to look calm and not as if her heartrate was still
pushing the edge of cardiac arrest. "Uhm, I'm reading powerful magic buildup
around her. I'm having trouble interpreting it."

The ancient sorceress kindly reached over and tapped a couple of buttons on
the Mercury Computer. "There you go dearie. Quaint little thing isn't it? A
little too cutesy for my tastes, but to each their own."

"Oh," said Mercury, swallowing her immediate reaction to someone using *her*
computer as the data started making a lot more sense. "A power up?!"

Shooting a very unhappy look at the sorceress (yet *another* non Silver
Millenium being showing up and messing around with their destiny), Sailor
Pluto bit down her own reaction. For now.

"Hotaru is going through this for a very simple reason, you see." The
sorceress sighed. "Ah, to be that young again. Well, actually, once was
enough. She despairs of convincing her boyfriend-candidate that she is
anything other than a young girl. She has been well and truly coached that
her main problem with becoming Shard-san's koibito is that he will have
difficulty viewing her as something other than a child. She also has trouble
with her status as the 'Senshi Of Destruction' as you have declared her to
be, Pluto-san. As you can see the magic is reacting with her desires to form
alternate templates to the Sailor Saturn identity."

"I don't detect the other parts we were led to believe would occur," Sailor
Mercury was specifically looking for the enchantment that would turn Sailor
Saturn into a mindless loveslave or turn her to evil or something. "I still
don't understand why she's doing this."

Morgana rolled her eyes. "Okay. See if this makes sense to you. A not
un-handsome young man has come to her rescue. She's been engaged to him and
in the course of this engagement has been freed of demonic possession among
other things. A girl who has never had friends and never been accepted by
anyone has found a gentle, kind, and affectionate fiance who can accept her.
As a result of that engagement, she also has begun developing friends and
allies, skills and a role where her strangenesses can be accepted by the
society around her. She's also dealing with her new age - and the hormones
of a sixteen year old girl when she'd been quite a bit younger until very
recently. There were three people she met recently, potential allies, who
were ready to kill her until a certain fiance interfered."

Sailor Mercury was mainly paying attention to the readings. "Oh?"

"Frankly," said Morgana with a certain earthy tone to her voice, "if said
fiance wouldn't be likely to panic and hide, and if she knew what to do with
those raging hormones, I'd have expected her to jump his bones, drag him
off, and make out like a crazed rabbit. It's certainly one way to establish
a claim over a boy that others ought to consider."

Shampoo and Ukyo froze as the wind seemed to whisper some really odd idea to
them. Of course, then they went back to trying to beat the stuffings out of
each other. Akane looked up as the wind passed by her and her sisters, ears
going flat as she considered. The idea had been spread, but some ground was
more fertile than others.

Sailor Mercury continued half-listening as she went over the readings and
recorded everything for more analysis later.

Sailor Pluto just held ready to let loose a "Dead Scream" if the girl turned
into something Dark Kingdom-ish. It was odd how a kingdom of love and
justice didn't really concern themselves with either concept as much as
reference them.

Morgana smirked. "Dai-con bunnygirl? Magical Maid Hotaru? Tsk. Not much
imagination, or is she just fairly traditional?"

"Spatula girl get lost!"

Sailor Mercury and Pluto blinked as they realized that voice had come from
elsewhere and was not either of them, Saturn, or the now-transparent
sorceress.

Shampoo had finally gotten the advantage of her opponent, removed the
spatula, and used a rolling throw manuever to give an okonomiyaki chef some
air time.

Ukyo twisted in midair, reaching for some throwing spatulas. "Get over
there, you hussy!"

Ukyo bounced off Pluto to land where she could renew her battle with
Shampoo.

Pluto landed hard on her butt, wondering if her dignity this night would
*ever* recover, and realized something very important as her position became
obvious. She was inside the boundary.

There was a moment of shock while she tried to decide whether to scream,
madly scramble for the boundary, or just "Dead Scream" the two idiots who
had caused this mess.

Ever helpful, Morgana called across that certain dragons seemed to have an
affinity for catgirls.

--------

Cologne was glad to see the Amazons who had arrived.

Azure fretted briefly. Frost looked bored. Sugar and Spice looked like they
were quite unhappy about something. Sash had passed out and had a large lump
on her head. Tigar yawned and inquired if it was too much to ask that they
get the briefing done tomorrow and get some sleep NOW.

"Well, that actually might be best, I'm not sure how much of what's going on
here you would believe otherwise," admitted Cologne, not bonking Tigar on
the head for once. The Amazon nonconformist was the child of an Amazon and a
father who had been a mountain cat prior to a plunge into Jusenkyo. Perhaps
it was just her feline nature to be contrary but Tigar had been getting into
scrapes with the Elders since she could crawl. (Before the end of the first
week actually.)

"Oh come on, what does this country have that could be *that* strange?"
Frost rolled her eyes.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"That was Shampoo," observed Azure as a purple blur raced by.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

"That was Ukyo Kuonji, if I'm not mistaken," explained Cologne, taking two
steps backward.

"Who?" Frost asked, looking after the two running figures.

"Come back here you two!" A tall girl with very long green hair and reddish
eyes, wearing a maid's uniform, was clearly chasing Shampoo and the other
girl.

"Nyowrrrrr, wait a minute!" A purple eyed catgirl bounded off Frost's head,
made an impressive acrobatic flip in mid air, and gave chase after the tall
girl.

Tigar looked after them. "Tigar got Japanese relatives? Tigar not know
that."

Frost blinked for a moment. "Okay, I stand corrected."

-----

"What?" Sailor Mercury stared despite the two being way out of sight at this
point.

"So we have Bunnygirl and Maid and Catgirl powerups for Tomoe-san and
Meiou-san." Morgana shook her head. "Did you notice how Sailor Pluto lost a
certain something?"

"Huh?" Sailor Mercury said, hoping someone could make sense out of it.

"Off hand I'd say that Pluto there likes to maintain a cold dignified image
and is probably a control freak." Morgana shrugged. Maybe it was the pot
calling the kettle black in this instance, but that simply meant she knew a
bit about the other's situation, right?

It penetrated Sailor Mercury's current daze that this was a fairly accurate
summation.

"Most likely something happened in her past that she feels a lot of guilt
about, also has low people skills. Bet she spends a lot of time alone. So
some deep scars that she uses the 'icemaiden' image to protect herself
against further emotional involvement." Morgana couldn't help analyzing
people, it came naturally after the first few centuries. "Don't worry, once
she gets the hang of her new emotional equilibrium, she'll be fine."

"Uhm, right. I... guess I better go analyze these readings," Sailor Mercury
started getting very nervous. If she were to cross that boundary, then *she*
would... oh dear. With fur and tail and claws. Or lace and a tight black
uniform. Or bunny ears and high heels. Oh dear!

Morgana watched the girl go running off and wondered if she'd faint from the
force of that blush. Girls these days were so shy!

With a gesture, Morgana formed a set of signs just outside the boundary. It
wasn't quite true, of course, but some degree of warning seemed necessary.

[No Trespassing. Persecuters Will Be Violated.]

============

Oh dear. oh my. whatever will happen to our hapless heroines?

Well, in the meantime:

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Rafael looked uncomfortable. "Actually, what I *intended* to do was have
Ranma end up being raised by Kuan Yin."

"Already been done," said Toltiir, idly waving a paw. "Observe."

Rafael blinked. "The goddess of compassion and pacifism? Saddled with the
wild horse?"

-----

WHAT IF KWANNON HAD RAISED RANMA?
a "worse father than Genma" omake by Gregg Sharp

-----

Kuan Yin, aka Kwannon, alias a few similar names and identities, breathed a
sigh of relief as her rebellious "son" was ready at long last to leave the
nest.

Years ago she had taken a tortured child under her protection. Not too long
after that she had begun regretting it. At several points she had been ready
to pull out her own hair as a result of a *very* rebellious boy whose
natural inclinations had not included pacifism by any stretch of the
imagination.

After an event where even *her* patience had been exhausted, Kwannon had
finally come up with an idea on how to impress on her young charge the basic
philosophies of her nature. It hadn't quite worked, though Ranma had been a
bit more subdued since his moment of Awareness. Even more so after his
Ascension.

The event in question had been the time Ranma had fallen into the Spring Of
Tiresias after sneaking away in order to try and pick up some martial arts
training from one of the other gods rather than study boring stuff like
medicine. Having managed to change himself from an eight year old mortal boy
into an eight year old girl had driven Ranma nearly into frothing at the
mouth displays of temper until the gentle goddess Kwannon had found a way to
change Ranma back. Though it only worked if Ranma was completely calm. If
startled, angered, or otherwise moved out of his "icy calm" - boy-type Ranma
became a girl.

Thereafter, Ranma had learned to be less emotional. Quieter. More
controlled. He still lapsed occasionally after that, but disliked becoming a
girl enough that those occasions were rare.

He'd become quite a good healer, familiar with a number of Chinese medical
techiques. So much so that he'd become a god (second class, limited) of
medicine.

Now if only he'd get some of that show-off nature out of his system.

-----

This was boring, Cologne thought to herself, and THAT was why she usually
did not attend the annual Tournament. It was the same thing every year. If
only something *different* would happen.

*BOOM!*

As a bolt of lightning slammed down from a blue sky next to the first prize,
Cologne raised an eyebrow.

Coughing slightly, a boy walked out of the resulting cloud of smoke. "Yeesh.
Maybe I should have chosen a different method of transport."

Cologne's other eyebrow went up as she sensed the power radiating from this
boy.

"Hey you! What the heck are you doing?!" Ignoring the way the boy had formed
out of a bolt of lightning, Shampoo pointed to where the edge of the feast
was now on fire. "Look what you did to my prize!"

"Oh?" The boy turned, saw the fire, and nodded. He couldn't leave things as
they were, could he? "Don't worry, I can fix it!"

Shampoo was ready to beat on this Outsider when it finally occurred to her
that this boy was beginning to glow.

"Dance and spin,
O threads of life,
Repair thy damaged ends,
Grow strong again,
And quickly mend,
And free yourselves of strife!"

Ranma nodded. He'd gotten stuck with the wording again but he thought he'd
muddled through.

The ears of corn becoming stalks of corn which took root and began spreading
disabused him of that notion.

Grass sprouted from dirt in a sudden flood of green that spread through the
village. Tree seeds which had blown in from nearby orchards erupted into
full growth in seconds before startled Amazon eyes. More plants likewise
went from seeds or fruits to fully grown specimens of their breed within
moments.

Shampoo, enveloped by vines that had rushed over her in a wave, thought that
all the flowers would look quite nice if they weren't tying her up like
this. She had to fight against the strange calm and desire to dance that was
already affecting a lot of the others around her. "STUPID OUTSIDER! LET ME
GO!"

As vines and plants continued to spread through the village and tie up or
otherwise defeat various Amazons, Ranma said eight words that sent a chill
through everyone who heard them. "Don't worry, I know how to fix this."

-------

When the Outsider had finally left, Cologne sat on a tree branch and smoked
her pipe. Being over three hundred years old, she needed a break every so
often. She also made a mental note not to complain about being bored again.
Someone had obviously been listening.

A form pushing its way through the thick field of corn revealed itself as a
very disheveled looking Shampoo. She was joined quickly by Lotion, Perfume,
Potion, Satin, Clover, Sugar, Spice, Tigar, Frost, Sash, and Weird Mao.

Cologne let them wait below her for a few minutes. "And what do you want now
with so much work to be done? We have to get all these trees out of the
village, we have to harvest and store all these fruits and vegetables, we
have to rebuild several homes still."

"Excuse me, Elder," politely said Frost, the albino looking up at her
briefly. "It occurred to me that this boy managed to defeat us in combat."

Perfume and Lotion looked at each other and nodded. As they did everything
together, sharing a husband wasn't so strange an idea. "The Outsider *was* a
male, and *was* rather handsome."

Cologne cleared her throat. "Are you suggesting that after all the trouble
we had getting him to leave the village that one of you should give him the
kiss of marriage and bring him back here?"

"Well..." Sugar looked slightly embarassed.

"Are you sure you're not trying to shirk your current workload?" Cologne
looked at the guilty expressions over more than one face. "Get back to work.
I'll consider your petition later as long as his entering our valley again
is *not* something we have to deal with on a regular basis."

There were some disappointed mutters but two of them looked hopeful.

"And *after* we've cleaned up *this* mess," finished Cologne.

-------

The crowd of hentai was ready to attack.

Their target, a young girl, prepared to throw herself into the group and
beat them senseless. Err, make that 'beat them into severe pain' - if they
had any sense to begin with they wouldn't be in this situation.

*BOOM!*

(cough hack) "Yup, I've *got* to come up with a better way of teleporting."
Ranma waved some of the smoke away, then pulled out and began consulting a
"Ningauble's Guide To Tokyo" as he tried to determine where he was.

After a few minutes he realized that he wasn't being stared at so much as
something at his feet. Glancing down he realized that he was standing *on*
someone?! "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, miss!"

"...I don't want to play Romeo..." Akane mumbled, her eyes swirling.

Ranma considered. He knew pressure points and Chinese medicine. All he had
to do was tap here and there and voila!

Akane realized some strange boy was touching her back and that she'd been
pounded into the ground. "WHAT THE?! You did NOT defeat me!" She twisted
away as this boy prepared to do something weird.

"Yeah, I know. You were just lying in this crater by some amazing
coincidence. Hey! Hold still! Uh oh." Ranma looked horrified as his
precisely targetted pressure point strike which *should* have healed her
sprained ankle hit an entirely different pressure point.

Akane grabbed the young hunk in front of her, pulling him close into a
passionate kiss. All of her inhibitions and inner passions came rushing to
the forefront and she ground her body against the sexy stud. Yes, this was
why she hadn't rebuked the whole defeating her thing. She *wanted* some guy
to take control, to be able to force her into submission, and now that she
had found someone, she was not going to let go.

Ranma froze as he found someone else's tongue in his mouth and her hands
roaming where public decorum indicated nice girls not do that even in
privacy. When he could finally move again, Ranma did the natural thing.
Which was to hit a temporary paralysis point, undo the effects of the
earlier shiatsu strike, and teleport again. Boy, had *he* found the wrong
place to be!

Akane slowly got control of herself again, though if she ever found that boy
again she'd... Well she wasn't quite sure if she'd finish what she started
or she'd kill him.

Idly flattening Tatewaki Kuno, Akane wondered which she really wanted to do.

--------

After causing so much mess on the mortal plane, it was quite natural for
Ranma to be punished. Community service was not Ranma's favorite thing. The
Goddess Relief Office even more so.

Especially as that meant he had to be a she during this period. Bleah.

Ranma brightened slightly. A call! "Goddess Relief Office. I'll be right
there for a consultation!"

-------

Minako Aino sighed dejectedly. Her parents were out of town, she'd tried to
order pizza, and instead she'd gotten some whacked out psychic hotline.

*shoom!* "Not as impressive, but it'll have to do."

*poof!* This the sound of a little white mooncat who now resembled a
puffball with legs and poofy tail.

The redheaded girl smiled at the startled blonde. "Hello. I am Ranma
Saotome, god second class on probation, limited license, temporarily working
for the goddess relief office. I am here to grant you a wish!"

Minako blinked. "You're a goddess?"

"Actually, this is just temporary. I'm really a guy." Ranma forced himself
to calm and morphed back to male. "See? It's just a transformation because I
work for the Goddess Relief Office, and they've got these rules, y'know?"

Minako blinked repeatedly. A guy. A handsome guy. A handsome guy who was
here to... "You're going to grant me a wish?!"

Ranma nodded. "Oh yeah. I gotta go through the whole procedure. Minako Aino,
alias Sailor V, aka Sailor Venus. You have been found worthy of being
granted a wish. You only get *one* wish, however."

"A wish?!" Minako repeated, looking over the girl that had turned into a
real hunk.

"Yes!" Ranma nodded. He wouldn't screw this one up! "It can be for nearly
anything, however. You want great wealth, you can have it. You want to be a
famous idol singer, you can do that too. You want a 'Venus Lovely Gatling
Orbital X-Ray Laser Cannon' you can have that as well. Just remember - it's
only one wish and once given you can't change it."

Artemis began to recover. "Don't do it! It's a trick. Wish he'd just go away
or something if you've got to!"

"You could even wish that Artemis here had all his memories back or
something," pointed out Ranma. "Whatever you like!"

Minako tried not to get her hopes up even as Artemis began ranting about
duties and responsibilities and not letting her guard down. "I could even
get a boyfriend if I wanted?"

"MINAKO!!" Artemis really began to get alarmed.

Ranma looked at the girl and could see her uncertainties, her insecurity in
her own appearance and appeal - fueled by her inability to get a boyfriend.
After a moment he nodded. "Yeah. Though it's hard to believe a girl as cute
as you couldn't get a boyfriend."

Artemis cringed. The moment this boy called her cute, Minako got *that* look
in her eyes. He had to stop her from doing something foolish. This *had* to
be a trick of the Dark Kingdom.

Minako grinned. The inevitable occurred. "I wish I had a cute boyfriend like
you to be with me forever!"

"Noooooooooooo!" Artemis didn't like this development at all.

Strangely enough, neither would Luna.

Minako on the other hand, after some initial misgivings, decided that she'd
made the right wish after all.

===========

i'd actually planned this ending as one of the alternative beginnings to
Retake, it was just that Retake took off before i could get this out.

==============

Chapter 16 Retake:

Back to the ball game

DISCLAIMER: Many characters originated elsewhere.

------

Greylle just *knew* something had happened. He wasn't sure what. He wasn't
sure how. It wasn't just that he'd gotten ahold of the base and arranged for
a practice team of marionettes to help him perfect his baseball skills.

It also wasn't the fact that Shampoo and Ukyo both looked as if they had
been in a fight and lost.

What it was that was different was a little hard to pin down.

Yuka - arguing quietly with Sayuri about something.

Sayuri - giving that "I can't believe you're suggesting this" look to her
friend.

Akane - idly munching on a fish cookie while flipping through some notes.

Ranma - with wet hair and a sullen expression that indicated why she was in
girl form right now and that she was not happy about it.

Hotaru - staring at him, then blushing and studying her book the moment he
turned completely in her direction. Strange, but she'd been doing that a lot
anyway.

Hikaru Gosunkugi - not there. Strange but hardly alarming.

Hiroshi and Daisuke - pouring over some hentai magazine if their expressions
were any indication.

Rei Ayanami II - the marionette was quietly observing everyone and no doubt
relaying it to her sister-units. Nothing unusual there.

Nabiki - seen earlier - had come flying (literally) in to the schoolyard.
She had recently become *very* fond of flying. Greylle supposed that in some
way it represented personal freedom and control which would definitely
appeal to Nabiki.

Temporary Instructor Obe - just entered the room and taking roll call. They
seemed to go through a lot of instructors here for some reason. The really
weird ones were the only ones who stuck around.

Shampoo - looked like she had been thrown in a blender set for "frappe". No
body parts missing that could be seen, but it looked like some of her hair
was missing and she had some nasty bruises.

Ukyo - one of her eyes was blackened to the point where it had yellow
highlights. Looked like a busted lip, and she'd been walking *very*
carefully.

Normal people - hmmm looked like the last ones that qualified as "normal"
were Daru and Edu (the military otaku), Kiyoshi (the girl with the big...
attitude), Kimiko (Daru's girlfriend and captain of the girl's martial arts
soccer team), and Matsuhiro (captain of the kendo team following the
unlamented removal of Tatewaki Kuno from the school.)

It was frustrating but he couldn't tell *what* was going on that seemed so
wrong.

"We have some new students from China," announced the teacher, adjusting his
glasses yet again. "So let's give a big 'ni hao' welcome to, uhm..."

The door exploded inward. "We give own introductions!"

Greylle had, in one lifetime, been in the Amazon village briefly. On seeing
those entering, he almost considered fleeing. This was major not good.

"Frost," said a calm voice from the pale girl studying the class briefly.
She had much the same figure as Shampoo, but was thinner of limb - lacking
the lean muscle of the martial artists.

(Trip, thud, crash!) The girl tripped on nothing that anyone else could see
and managed not only to fall down but legsweep Frost as she did so. "Azure."

A pair of taller girls moved in. One was pale and light brown, the other a
redhead. "Sugar. Spice."

A girl who looked an awful lot like Sailor Moon stuck her head in the
doorway before waving at them. "HiiiI! I'm Sash!" (slip crash thud) "oops"

The transformed dragon watched carefully. Sugar and Spice weren't so bad.
Frost certainly could be - she took the Icemaiden image seriously. Azure and
Sash together were a disaster wrapped in a catastrophe.

Well, at least he'd be able to get away from them later. They were already
looking over Ranma. While Greylle had some sympathy for the poor boy, this
was definitely a case where it was better to be watching the problem than an
active participant.

------

Fess considered the odd requests and processed them. That was one task.
There were others that needed consideration, but then he *was* an advanced
AI and could do quite a lot at the same time.

The American government was in tatters right now. Twenty four hours of
undiluted truth from not only the politicians but the news media in the
affected area was still having ripples through various strata of that
society. The amount of threat they could produce right now was minor.

The various other large governments were unsure of what had triggered it,
but the effect was known - and it scared the living daylights out of them.
Many would respond to a traditional military threat in kind, something like
this that threatened the very roots of their power was another matter
altogether. This was causing forces that might have been inclined to take
advantage of the chaos in Washington to back away in case it was contagious.

There were the odd requests from several of the Sailor Senshi to consider.

Ami Mizuno had phoned in a request for a simulation of a potential
situation. Not that she was seriously considering doing anything like that!

Setsuna Meiou and Hotaru Tomoe had shown up late last night and used the
beautifier. According to Meiou it was actually better than a day spa. Fess
had been pleased to hear such a thing, as that *had* been a design
consideration. The two had also come up with some other requests that Fess
was considering whether or not to grant. Like Hotaru wanting a Krynn-style
dragon saddle.

The nanobath to restore Akane Tendo and Nabiki Tendo was almost ready. Some
developments had put them ahead of schedule and as soon as school ended they
could be turned back to normal human girls.

Kumori Mizuno, pediatrician, had some interesting ideas that she had
e-mailed Fess. That she now was attempting to fix her daughter up with a
dragon was noted. Considering her stated desire to access Fess' technology,
this was quite understandable. As were the doctor's ambivilent feelings on
the relationship should she succeed.

The Japanese government was apparently quite happy with the android dogs,
and the dogs themselves were satisfied with their current positions. Hardly
anyone knew any of the details outside a very few in strategic positions. So
far the only complaint was from K-9-8 "Scotty" who complained that his
current partner was a complete idiot.

There was a problem in one of the factories orbitting Jupiter, apparently an
especially high flare from Io had caused the robots building it to have a
memory fault error. In compensating several sections had been built and the
entire thing resembled a giant temple bell. Which wasn't too bad, except for
the fabricating robot deciding to call itself Quasimodo and make a lot of
jokes based on the bell theme. As long as Disney didn't find out, Fess
wasn't going to tell them.

Fifty Sakura Kinomoto/Avalon units, marionettes of sufficient complexity
that they could actually stand up to an autopsy (unpleasant thought) unless
it was a particularly technologically advanced city, were settling into
various cities worldwide. There they could report back and carefully nudge
things. Nothing overt, but sometimes having an understanding friend and a
cheerful goodnatured girl around could brighten the lives of those around
her. Fess currently planned to add another two thousand when the resources
were available. The world could use all the bright and cheerful he could
manage.

Other androids and marionettes were developed and released, though these
were single-unit releases. If one was particularly useful or successful he
could make more. Some developed odd traits as a result of their
programming - because each had a simulated personality and memory set
depending on what her source was. Tifa Lockheart, for example, tended to
daydream and liked sparring with other units - annoying the heck out of some
of those units. The Aerith and Aeris units seemed to enjoy working in
greenhouses and the like. Most of these were units in finishing stages
because they had now become a low priority to some of the other tasks before
Fess.

--------

The problem with non-terrestrial habitats meant to be used by humans for
long periods of time was that humans as a rule were only able to survive in
very carefully maintained conditions. Air, food, water - all needed to be
within a narrow range of tolerances.

Sewage wasn't a problem. It was all organic material anyway and could easily
be used to produce arable soil when treated and added to the native
materials.

Power was supplied by microwave stations, rechargable batteries, and solar
panel arrays. This met the major requirement of robots - which made them
much more suitable to carving out a colony in environments that would kill
humans within minutes.

So robots paving the way for humans was logical.

Most of the robots operating off of Earth were very nonhuman looking. Treads
or wheels were more common than legs, and bipedal was even rarer a design
feature.

Some robots were of human appearance for all that they went outside in
conditions that would have been very unpleasant for a human.

Because Fess had originated them, and because most of Fess' knowledge of
android manufacture came from downloaded details from Greylle, there were
marionettes in space and on Mars and in a few other "interesting" locations.
Which meant that there were cute female simulacra doing any number of odd
tasks in odder places.

Which caused some alarm when a Russian probe clicked on and sent a picture
to the Russian Space Agency showing a number of young ladies constructing a
tubeway that went right by one of their cameras. Followed by certain members
of that agency ripping apart their datafeeds while they tried to find the
hackers.

That wasn't the only Martian project coming under scrutiny. Not by a long
shot.

Though the casino/spa built into the rim of Olympus Mons was far more gaudy,
it was the picture of nubile girls in skintight costumes that got the
attention of the various Russians and caused them to publicly declaim the
obviously Swedish computer hackers. Well, that and nobody had a camera to
see the construction on Olympus.

Giant robots had been built, not to wage war against alien invaders, but to
do really large construction projects.

Vast ampitheatres and farm domes had been built, large rectenna farms to
capture the microwave power beamed down from solar converters, caverns and
lavatubes converted to habitats. The linking tubes were one of the last
stages before everything could be made ready for a human influx.

The wind continued to blow, the speed picking up, and one of the infrequent
global sandstorms loomed.

--------

"Oh we can be cured now? That's nice." Akane tried to look cool and calm and
collected.

That her tail was lashing about and her ears had gone flat against her head
indicated that she was not nearly so tranquil.

Nabiki was a little more successful. "Oh. Well. I suppose I should go
first." That she had no real enthusiasm was apparent to anyone who listened.

"Is something wrong?" Rei Ayanami (number 12 in the marionette series not
that anyone could tell from looking at her) asked of the two. Their behavior
was not logical.

A Sakura Kinomoto unit skated by the three, wondering if she should ask why
the catlady was so upset.

Nabiki let out a deep breath. Once she was restored to fully human she could
start using that magic stuff she'd learned from the ghost of Lina Inverse.
Raywing would take the place of antigrav generators. She could handle this.
"Okay, I'm ready."

Akane smiled but wondered at the sense of release. She didn't want to be a
halfhuman catgirl did she? Of course not. But why be in a hurry to change
back when she could do that any old time, right? Right!

Noting that the tigergirl had relaxed suddenly, Rei #12 figured it was one
of those human things. When she was exchanging data with the other Ayanami
that evening maybe they could make sense of it. "This way then."

The medical suite was familiar to both of them. Both had awakened here after
very traumatic circumstances after all. Neither was going to be able to
forget very easily and neither was exactly comfortable in a hospital
setting.

Nabiki looked over the displays and the keypad next to the nanotank. "What's
this? I thought you'd just rebuild my body and I'd be gone."<p>

"You'll still have to stay overnight as you are rebuilt," corrected Rei
softly. "However, the keypad would be if you wanted to make additional
changes to your genetic matrix or corrections as you went along. The unit is
also able to respond to voice commands. The system is currently ready to go,
just strip and get into the tank. Air will be supplied to you automatically
and you'll be in a deep dreamless sleep until the process is complete."

Nabiki got a glint in her eye. "I can make alterations?"

Rei nodded once. "Yes, though it is suggested you not at this stage. I have
to get to practice now."

"'Practice'?" Akane asked, one ear twitching.

"Yes," responded Ayanami. "There is baseball practice commencing in fifteen
minutes at the Furinkan field. Greylle-sama needs a full team to practice
against to improve his skills."

Akane's ears went briefly flush against her hair, but then she relaxed
again. "Hmmm. May have to check that out."

Nabiki watched the two leave, then turned her attention to the keypad.
"Change anything I want about my body, eh? Hmmmm."

--------

Akane blinked. There was Greylle Shard, practitioner of baseball style
martial arts - stretching and doing warmups before practice.

There was also a full field of Rei Ayanami units wearing identical baseball
uniforms. The effect was slightly creepy. "How do you keep them seperate?"

"Oh, that's fairly easy," responded the polymorphed dragon. He wasn't paying
much attention to Akane. Some of the recent reports from Fess had been quite
troubling. He hadn't been an American for over 70 years - roughly. Or at
least one of him had. "They've all just given themselves nicknames so that
it's easier for people to figure it out - though it's just for when they're
playing baseball. Don't know where they got that idea from."

Akane watched the baseball going at nearly transsonic velocities as it
whipped from one identical member of the team to another. Could he really
keep them seperate? "Okay, then who's on First?"

"Yes, she is," agreed Greylle. He had a feeling he was forgetting something,
but what?

Akane blinked. "Who is?"

"Yes," repeated Greylle.

"Can't you tell me the name of your first baseman?"

"Who."

"THAT'S WHAT I'M ASKING!" Akane took a deep breath to steady herself. "What
is the name of your first baseman?"

"No, What is on Second. Who is on First."

(Blink blink, slow burn.) "Look who is that you've got out there on First
base."

"Exactly." Greylle wondered what Akane was getting angry at *now*.

"'Exactly'?" Akane closed her eyes and took another deep breath. "Okay.
Forget First. Who is on Second Base?"

"No. Who is on First Base. What is on Second."

"ARRRGGHHHHHH! I said *forget* about First Base for now!" Akane wanted to
pull hair out at this point. "What about your Third Baseman? What's HER
name?"

"Idunnaknow."

Akane glared at the unusually obtuse American. "I thought you said you knew
their names!"

"i do. It's very easy to keep track of them." Greylle thought maybe Akane
was getting frustrated trying to find differences. "See, Who is wearing her
sleeves down a little and is chewing gum."

"Who is?" Akane looked around. "Your First Baseman is. So what's her name?"

"Like i said before, What is on second, Who is on first."

Akane began to glow blue. "Okay. One last try at being reasonable. Imagine
your pitcher throws a ball, you hit it to first. Who catches the ball."

"Well, i'd hope so. She's pretty good from what i can see."

"Who is?"

"Yes," said Greylle, ready to point out that she had quite an arm on her.

"ARRGGGHHHHHH!"

-------

Nabiki looked in on her body, seeing the cyborg parts removed one by one.
"Ewwwww."

"I've seen worse," said the astral form of Lina Inverse. "You ready?"

"Yeah, teach me what you can of magic." Nabiki concentrated fully on the
sorceress. It was less of a problem to deal with the lack of enhancements
that her cyborg body had possessed if she could gain something in the doing
of it. Becoming a powerful sorceress would help.

Besides, she *really* didn't want to watch her body being reconstructed.

------

Only the corrections built into her catgirl body were keeping Akane from
going completely ballistic. "WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE
FIRST BASEMAN?"

"I did! Who!" Greylle was beginning to get a little frustrated himself.
Unfortunately neither considered the translator might be having a little
trouble with the current situation. Or that the Ayanami units had been
watching an old Abbott & Costello flick.

"THAT'S WHAT I'M ASKING!!!"

"Ten, nine, eight," began Akane, finishing with "two, one. Okay. Suppose you
go to the plate. Tomoe-san and Meiou-sensei are on First and Second."

"Okay," said Greylle, picturing it. "Anyone on Third?"

"Don't. Even. Start." Composing herself again, though her tail was making
sharp jerking motions, Akane continued. "You hit the ball to Third. I don't
know catches it, throws it to what, what to who, Triple Play."

"Okay... Yeah, i could see it."

Akane twitched. "You could see it."

"Yeah, entirely possible. Your point is?"

Akane twitched and blinked. Why was he making fun of her? "I don't know and
I don't care!"

"Pardon me?"

"I said 'I don't care!'"

Greylle thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, she's the Shortstop."

"AAAARRGGGGGHHHHH!"

-------

Yuka had been a reformed otaku. Sayuri had never been such. Yuka had gotten
back into it when she'd been presented the chance to realize childhood
dreams. Sayuri had been dragged along for the ride. At the moment,
literally.

"Waaaaaaaaghhhh!" Sayuri was a lot more conformist than Yuka. OK, she'd
bought some "hunk shots" from Nabiki of Ranma's guy form - but that wasn't
that abnormal just not talked about.

"Wahoooo!" Yuka liked certain elements of being a costumed defender of
Tokyo. For one thing you got such neat toys! Like this jetbike, or rapid
deployment vehicle if you preferred. Just look at how fast you could go, and
how quickly you could take corners! "Isn't this neat, Sayuri?!"

"AAAAAAAAAAA!" Feeling her cheeks pulling back from the g-forces they were
going through, Sayuri couldn't hear her friend's comments. Currently running
through her head was only the idea that they would end up smeared across the
landscape.

The jetbike, being fairly intelligent if not sentient, determined the
direction that the operator wanted to go and speed and was making minor
course adjustments all the time. It didn't particularly care but safety of
operator and passenger were priorities. Especially as neither were wearing
their hardsuits. So full speed and manueverability were cut down to what an
unprotected human body could handle.

"Yeeehaaaaa!"

"AAAAAAAAAA!"

People on the street looked up briefly as the little red streak shot
overhead. Almost universally the attitude was "More weirdness in Nerima. How
boring."

-------

At the top of the clock tower of Furinkan High School, Hiroshi sighed as he
saw a jetbike pass overhead at high speed. "Hey, Dai. You remember when the
weirdest thing to happen around here was Tatewaki Kuno?"

Daisuke smacked his idiot friend upside the head. "Don't say his name,
moron! You want to summon him?"

"Sorry," said Hiroshi, rubbing his head.

"Yeah. On the other hand, look at all the eye candy," exclaimed Daisuke.
"The albino chicks are a bit cold, but I think I could warm one or two of
'em up. Then there's those new ones."

"You don't mean those *little* girls, do you?" Hiroshi made a waist high
gesture. "Them Sakura girls?"

"Well, give em another six or ten and they'll be cute," agreed Daisuke.
"Nah, what I mean are those over there."

Hiroshi put his binoculars over his eyes and focussed in the suggested
direction. "WHOA! Hubba hubba!"

"That, my friend, is the promised land," said Daisuke.

"Hey," said Hiroshi as a thought occurred to him. "Those're artificial
people right? They're supposed to be experiencing human life, right? So we
should take 'em to a love hotel and make sure they get the whole human
experience!"

Daisuke looked in wonder at his friend. "You know. Sometimes I wonder why I
stick around with you, and then there's moments like now. Shall we?"

-------

Fess checked Nabiki and found unusual brain activity, but nothing life
threatening.

Hotaru and Setsuna calmly sitting with Kasumi and Cologne and having
afternoon tea was less concerning.

Akane storming into the complex and demanding she be turned back to human
was more unusual, but he could certainly accomodate her. Before she changed
her mind again, of course.

Things were certainly progressing well and the riots in Washington DC were
drawing to a close. The Mars developments were progressing well, and some of
the other projects were likewise doing at least as positively as could be
expected.

Though it looked like something was going on with the IS Project.

-------

After the two boys had spoken their piece, the androids looked at each
other.

Tyra snapped her fingers. "I've got it. This is an attempted seduction!"

"Oh?" "Yeah, you're right." "Wow." "That would explain a lot." The other
androids all nodded, this making sense now.

Hiroshi and Daisuke beamed at each other. Man this was going to be easy.

The IS (Idol-Supermodel) series had been built to a less high standard than
the Sakura series, though they could bleed and stand up to medical exams to
some extent. In their case, Fess had done scans on the internet and of major
broadcast media and built nearly exact duplicates - figuring that if these
units were deemed attractive they would be more acceptable. Oh, they had
*some* changes from the originals. They had a letter-number designate
instead of a last name. They had full skill packages of useful roles like
Registered Nurse, Construction Engineer, Gourmet Chef, and Android
Maintenence. They also could, even in the frailest seeming unit, dead-lift
over 800 pounds, run at speeds in excess of 35mph, had a suite a very
sensitive sensors, and would retain their current appearance with regular
maintenence for another 200 years before they required a major overhaul.
There were also minor cosmetic changes, enhancements designed to increase
their attractiveness based on various polls and trends as well as not
duplicate too closely living humans who could be awfully funny about such
things.

Their purpose however, was to act as go-betweens. While radio or telephone
or computer-to-computer was more efficient, humans tended to require
face-to-face meetings. Hence this experiment.

"So what would be an appropriate response in this situation?" Tyra BAN100
asked her sisters.

"In roughly 52% of the references culled from shojo manga, we should be
offended by such a blatant come-on. Followed by us ganging up on them and
thrashing them severely - usually with large blunt trauma instruments," a
member of the Swedish Bikini Team declared. "As this is the majority of that
media, this is what we should do."

Hiroshi and Daisuke's smiles fell and they slowly began inching away.

"In the shonen database," indicated Megumi HAYA102, "the spread is
different. The use of mallets and other blunt instruments is overshadowed by
the Angry Huff."

"That is not the conclusion I have come to," disagreed Kotono MITSU104. "I
also show blunt trauma instruments, however this is for blantant and
*undesired* approaches."

Hiroshi and Daisuke were now ready to flee at high speeds. There was a
difference between being crazy and stupid.

Michie TOMI109 twirled a baseball bad in her hands. "What would be
considered a suitable application of force?"

Hiroshi and Daisuke broke and ran.

Linda CAR125 held her hand up. "What about *desired* approaches?"

Somehow the mallet looked at home in the tiny hands of Aya HISA110. "Are we
sure we'd want to put this experience in our databases? They look kind of
unsavory to me."

"Interesting thought. We should interface to determine what parameters are
deemed acceptable for such activities as well as assemble a database of
acceptable behavior and responses." Sandra BUL151 thought Aya might be on to
something.

Heather LOCK199 disagreed. "I think we should spend more time observing our
originals."

"You just want to watch that cop show," responded Kirsten DUN203. "Maybe we
should just get back to working on the Arcadia. I wanted to finish the South
Outer Ring Environmental Monitors today."

"You *always* want to get back to the construction of the Arcadia," Yvonne
CRA212 criticized. That she looked like her original had back in the 1960s,
including a Batgirl suit, might have stood out elsewhere. In this crowd,
however, most of those looking would have been reduced to mute staring by
the time she shouldered her way forward. "Who's going to help me out with
the Guardian Force mobile suits? I've been promised assistance for three
days now!"

Denise RIC111 pondered. "Well, I was considering hunting down those two and
seeing if they actually had data worth sharing. Since they aren't here, I
think I'll help you out instead."

"Do you think they actually meant to proposition us as a group?" Tyra BAN100
asked the crowd.

"Two guys, three hundred girls?" Kikuko INO113 shook her head. "They didn't
look *that* dumb."

-------

Akane sat down in the nutrient bath, knowing that she was surrounded by itsy
bitsy machines that would turn her back into a human. After Greylle had
teased and humiliated her, she was ready for things to get back to normal.
At least she was alone now.

Sort of.

"Why is he like that, anyway?"

"Why is who like what, Miss Tendo?"

Akane jumped, heart racing, before she realized it was just Fess. "That
gaijin Greylle!"

"What happened, Miss Tendo?"

"He was being a JERK!" Akane responded.

"Oh? I suppose he is that sometimes," agreed Fess.

"What the hell was he thinking with that stupid joke?!" Akane gritted her
teeth as she tried not to smash anything.

"Which joke was that?"

Akane mumbled something about baseball naming conventions.

"I was wondering about that sort of thing myself."

"Eeek," eeked Akane who was wearing very little in the slowly filling tank.

Cologne grinned briefly. "I was wondering, what other lives he's referenced
that make him so reluctant to risk emotional closeness."

"Some of you might want to leave the room," suggested Fess. "This sample is
pretty dark."

None of them, even Hotaru, made a move for the door as the lights dimmed and
the a holographic projection began.

"Who's the young man with the odd tattoos on his forehead?" Cologne asked,
though suspecting the answer.

"This is Greylle, fairly early on. He has just been assigned to a world..."

------

Grey held out the tricorder and began scanning. "Hey, Central. What's the
mission? Looks like pretty typical Azabu Juuban in Tokyo circa 1992."

A communication device flickered lights in response. "Unknown. This timeline
was affected by the Knights Of The True Continuua using a dimensional tunnel
to shift something into this universe 32 minutes ago their time. It's March
15, 1993."

"The ides of March, eh? Any other details you can give me?" Grey looked
about with the scanner continuing to bleep at him.

"Sailor Moon universe. In this particular one, the pre-intervention
difference is that Tuxedo Mask starts gravitating to Sailor Mars and the two
date for a much longer period."

Ignoring the tricorder, Grey straightened. "I feel it. Something's about to
happen. I..."

The wind rose, a sudden gust that passed by him and caused his defenses to
flare bright momentarily in response.

The effects on the surroundings were rather more intense. Crashes and
screams and howls followed in the wake of the wind.

"Oh... those..." Grey began looking around him, his face a mask of horror.

"What is it?" The communicator sounded desperate. "Readings aren't making
any sense."

"They created a crossover element, they brought in the aliens. DAMN THEM!
This is now a 'Wind Called Amnesia' crossover timeline." Grey winced and
held his head. "Damn! Being an empath is really not good at times."

"What was that? 'Amnesia'?"

Grey tried to focus under the psychic barrage caused by all the pain, fear,
and death. "Short form. Aliens decide humans are too dangerous. They unleash
a quantum phase weapon - the Amnesia Wind. It spreads across the planet and
wipes out memories in its path - not just personal memories but
*everything*. No language skills, no civilization, just a bunch of hairless
apes. Ah! That must have been a jetliner! I'm heading towards the site."

"No, don't bother," the commlink said. "We'll arrange for your pickup. You
can't do anything anyway."

Grey tossed the commlink aside and started running.

-------

Even Cologne, who had seen a lot of pain and suffering in her lifetime,
stared in horror as the images continued. Setsuna Meiou, no stranger to
carnage and bloodshed, winced and looked away.

The astral body of Nabiki watched and would have turned pale if she weren't
as pale (and transparent) as it was possible to get already.

"This is one of his more painful memories," said Fess, "however it is also
pivotal to how he develops later on."

Kasumi couldn't watch anymore and covered her eyes. That didn't help much as
some of the images had seared themselves into her imagination. Akane fell
asleep in her nanotank.

Uncharacteristically perhaps, Hotaru was actually snarling. "Tell me these
aliens got their comeuppance."

"At this point Greylle lacked the ability to find, much less fight, these
aliens. Instead he concentrated on saving what lives he could. This didn't
work out as well as he could have hoped."

The flames spread out from several impact points. Not only the jetliner but
from cars whose operators suddenly didn't even know what a car was much less
how to operate them. Fess sped things up in the playback, and soon they
could see most of Tokyo engulfed as gas mains erupted and fire overwhelmed
what few automated systems existed. The firemen, of course, were fighting
over those few bits of food that could be found without somehow puzzling out
the opening of cabinets or other food storage areas.

Not able to save everyone, they saw the figure of Greylle hunt down and find
a few specific individuals who fought like animals but were eventually tied
up and carried off for their own safety.

"How many died?" Cologne asked when she could.

"Worldwide within the first day - over one billion. By the end of the first
week over four billion dead. Automated systems do not receive required
passcodes and missiles are launched which further reduce the population."
Fess hesitated. "Based on these results the aliens decide humanity is too
inherently uncivilized and are preparing to completely destroy the planet
seven months after their initial attack."

"They call US uncivilized?! After THAT?!" Cologne looked again to see the
image was of a small villa overlooking a burned out city. "How did this
affect the boy?"

Fess slowed the replay to a more normal replay level. "He was still fairly
new to the whole hero-role, and prior to this had lacked assertiveness and
much drive. During this he learned reliance and several skills such as
childrearing. This takes place six months and a week later."

------

"Pa pa?"

"Good girl, Ami," Greylle said, patting the girl on the head and trying to
avoid getting latched onto when she squealed happily and tried to grab.

"What the blazes is going on here?!"

Ami hissed and drew back.

"I take it you're from the Office?" Greylle asked someone.

------

"How come we can't see this other person? He's all mosaiced out!" Setsuna
inquired.

"He bears several powerful spells to defeat attempts to scry him." Fess
hesitated to say more, then decided it wasn't necessary anyway.

------

Greylle apparently saw something to confirm that. "Okay. You're familiar
with the basic setup. Everyone's memories were wiped clean. Not suppressed -
erased. i've got the Sailor Senshi here where i've been teaching them the
basics, just as if they were babies in teenage bodies."

"Yeah. Okay, I get it. You're going to eventually get them to the point
where they can say their activation phrases and see if the transformation
will either revert them or at least give them their Silver Millenium
identities back." The mosaic moved, and the nearly feral Ami drew back away
from him. In this world, strangers were usually hostile and prone to attack
anything that moves. The savage had survived where others could not. "Only
one at a time, huh? The rest are caged?"

"Yeah, i cleaned out some kennels for large dogs. Dogs, cats, other animals
weren't affected. The dogs now wander the outer area. Feed 'em for a few
weeks and they get used to you. The girls are there because they're prone to
attack each other over food or toys and stuff." Greylle began brushing Ami's
hair, causing her to calm some.

"Well, you're off the case. Your office wants you back, now. Besides, the
aliens are getting ready to nuke the place - you've run out of time."

Greylle sighed and leaned back. "You'll take care of them? i really don't
feel right abandoning them."

"No problem!" The blur made a sweeping gesture with his arm and Ami blinked
and straightened.

"Oh. I... remember?!" Ami staggered, clutching her head.

"They weren't erased?!" Greylle was obviously shocked at the sudden change.

"No, they were erased, I just have access to powerful spells and am familiar
with some of the basics. Giving them language skills and basic memories from
the series was easy. There's still gaps but at least they'll be able to
fight back. As for the aliens, I've got something to do about *them*!"

*SLAP!*

Greylle blinked, especially as Ami had just slapped him. Six months getting
her to the point where she could feed herself, say a few simple words, and
developing a simple parent-child bond. Obviously she'd just remembered being
bathed and having her diapers changed regularly. He never had been able to
get them potty trained. Ah, the joys of raising children. Not.

"It would seem that i'm not needed after all." Greylle shook himself, the
good of his "children" was really all that mattered. "Do i know you? i think
i owe you one."

"Not yet. Time travel's involved. You get around a lot you know."

Greylle winced. "So my future, your past, we meet. Got you. Time travel
always did give me headaches."

---------

Setsuna nodded. Definitely a sensible sentiment.

"So, he came out of this encounter changed?" Cologne could see it. He'd
definitely cared deeply for those girls, had clearly doted on them like a
proud parent, then been rejected. Ah well, Japanese girls were like that.
Always holding out for a better deal, leaving their husband/boyfriend when
things got rough, etc. (Of course, Cologne being Chinese couldn't be
slightly prejudiced, could she? No, of course not.)

"Oh yes. Prior to this visiting other worlds had been a sort of game. He'd
allowed himself to be pushed by circumstance and hadn't spent nearly so much
time studying. More like coping and just handling day-to-day existence.
After this he studied with Hephaestus the arts of magic and technology."

Cologne blinked, thinking of Greek gods. "Hephaestus?"

"Yes," agreed Fess.

Setsuna smiled, thinking of an artificier in the Silver Millenium of the
same name. Ah, a Silver Millenium connection - which made associating with
the dragon far more acceptable.

Hotaru dabbed at her eyes. "Why did she slap him?"

"Because he'd been changing her diapers and giving her baths for six
months," Fess responded. "Taking a lot of cold showers himself during that
time period. According to the notes it wasn't always easy to convince one or
more of them that he was not trying to initiate a mating and there *are*
apparently some instinctual behavior patterns hard wired into the brain."

"He's crossed paths with them all before, and since." Setsuna said, fitting
pieces together.

"Yes," agreed Fess. "Sometimes he's been the mascot, sometimes the
boyfriend, twice a husband, and more often a parental role. Mainly depending
on what he remembers and how old he is when your paths have crossed."

Setsuna nodded. This bore looking into.

Hotaru was less pleased herself but then she'd known part of this before.
How to get her sempai to take her seriously?

Cologne wondered how to explain this to those other Amazons. And where the
heck were they anyway?

--------

Ranma moved back into position. Yeah, he was the best. At least as far as
human opponents went. Scratch another loudmouth challenger.

Sash slowly picked herself up. "You're very good."

Ranma nodded. Yup.

Sash smiled and kissed the boy who had just defeated her.

Ranma froze, then slowly pulled away. "Uhm, you're not from some Amazon
Village, are you?"

"Yes. You know of the Joketsuzoku?" Sash blinked at her new husband.

"Gee, look at the time, gotta run!" Ranma turned and began a high speed
retreat. *WHAM!*

Sash had been wearing tight jeans and a "Totoro" t-shirt. This girl was
actually dressed like a Chinese Amazon. "oooo."

"Hey, Azure. That's *my* boyfriend."

Azure looked up, saw the boy who'd knocked her over. "Hey! Cute! You new in
town." (Azure's skill with Japanese was fairly pathetic.)

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" There was a dust trail leading off in the distance.

"First come, first wife," suggested Azure.

"I'm not gonna lose," said Sash, who had learned Japanese from reading large
numbers of manga.

"Three, two... GO!" Azure started running.

Sash growled and gave pursuit.

------

Frost stood atop a spire. "You will not win."

Sugar and Spice posed to either side. "Against us you cannot hope to
succeed."

Ryouga wondered why these girls had interrupted his martial arts practice
and how was he going to get out of this mess.

Frost made an arcane gesture, her long nails tracing a pattern that
glimmered in the air. "I don't recall asking for assistance here."

Sugar and Spice glared at Frost. "We here first!"

As the three began a two-way battle, Ryouga was rarely so glad to
immediately get lost.

------

Greylle wiped sweat away as he pondered the choice of which pitch to pitch.

The various Rei Ayanami had stated the desire to go to Karaoke Palace later
if they won.

With nine Rei Ayanami on one side, he'd had to request assistance himself.
He might be a dragon, but you needed nine players at least to play baseball.

The game had drawn a crowd. Which was to be expected one would suppose. Nine
identical fairly cute albino girls on one side, the other side being
composed of the gaijin baseball martial artist and a likewise strange team.

Ukyo and Shampoo had begged off. Hiroshi and Daisuke would be more of a
liability than a help. Yuka and Sayuri testing the new Motoslave/jetbike.
Most people he thought of were either nowhere to be found or busy or
unsuitable. Hardly anyone else was available who was human. Quite a few
people who were not human were also busy.

So the team he had assembled was composed of odds and ends and people who
were not precisely human.

Greylle was the pitcher, of course. That was one thing he'd needed to
practice after all.

Sakura Kinomoto, Left Outfield. Who had a lot of enthusiasm but no talent.
Even if she *was* a synthoid replica, her pitching and catching skills were
horrible. Cute and perky could only go so far. This particular one was
wearing the pink dress, cat ears, and cat tail outfit.

Tigar was a *lot* better and working third base. Tigar was Sugar's younger
half-sister. Tigar's father had been a mountain lion who had fallen in
Spring Of Drowned Man. She was the resident catgirl of the Nichieju, a
twelve year old nonconformist who had immediately formed friendships with
practically everyone she'd met so far. There was just something about a
mischievous cute rascal of a catgirl that may not have endeared her to the
Amazon Elders but practically had her developing a fanclub already.

Playing catcher was one of the Terminator units. Who was sick and tired of
people calling him "Arnold" and asking him for an autograph.

The Shortstop position had been filled by one of the Catgirl units -
Cheetah. That she resembled (other than fur, ears, tail, coloration) Makoto
Kino was entirely coincidental. Right?

Second Base was being played by someone with an uncanny resemblence to
Doctor Lorelei from Sabre Marionette J. This was actually Lorelei, aka
Siryn, a marionette that Greylle had built back when he was Ginseng. She
didn't know anything about the game but was willing to try.

First Base was the current responsibility of another Catgirl unit - who
resembled Nuku Nuku except that this one had cat ears and a tail. She *was*
quite skilled at this and quite obviously enjoying herself from the way she
was bouncing around.

The Centerfield position was "manned" by someone who looked a lot like
Madoka Ayukawa from "Orange Road" but was actually another marionette. She
had just experimented with bubble gum and was still trying to find a way of
getting the sticky substance off her face without removing the glove on her
left hand.

Last was Right Outfield. The Tomoyo unit was about the same size as one of
the Kinomoto units, but then her construction had come out of a conversation
wherein he'd said that if they had a Card Captor Sakura Kinnomoto around,
why didn't they have the rest? Of course that was what had started Fess on
this theme park concept.

The game itself was going... strangely?

Rei would always adapt strategies and play to win in a logical
straightforward manner. As Doctor Lorelei, Sakura, and Tomoyo were all
pretty horrible at this game - whenever Rei got a hit she was aiming to one
of those players.

Everyone else (including Madoka when she finally got the bubblegum off her
face and then off her hands) was at least passable.

If they'd been available, Greylle would have recruited the Senshi. Nine
planets, nine players, it *could* have worked. Maybe he ought to have that
Catgirl Senshi Team developed.

------

While Greylle attempted to play ball against a team of Rei Ayanami, and a
few girls were watching a tale of horror, Fess was busy with something else.

Namely: Anime-land.

Getting permission from various studios and artists had been relatively
easy. Cut them in on profits, give them a "studio store" they didn't have to
pay rent on, and free admittance passes. Some still refused. Some did not.

So there was a floating island under construction. Not only did it draw
power from a variety of sources, it was a completely self-contained
cityscape if need arose. With theme hotels, amusement rides, monorails, and
a variety of other features.

All the marionettes who resembled various anime characters could walk around
and do their business and act "in character" for the most part, and amuse
the heck out of visitors.

You could see Inspector Zenigata chasing Arsene Lupin III over the rooftops
over here. Discuss Tao and duty with Kenshiro from "Hokuto No Ken" or Himura
Kenshin from "Ruroni Kenshin." Get caught up in a "Urusei Yatsura" chase
scene or see what was going on with Doraemon. Gegege No Kitaro's cast could
be found at one of the virtual haunted houses, and Team Gatchaman could work
security with the Dirty Pair.

Between marionettes, robots, and virtual reality rides there was actually
quite a lot that could be done. The theme park could generate revenue which
would be real within the currency standards and tracking of this world. It
could also provide manufacturing and distribution areas to replace Fess'
already overwhelmed space limitations.

Oh, and there were catgirls, of course. Tour guides and repairers and
operators and drivers. Who happened to be catgirls of various breeds and
colors and stripes. A linked theme and something exotic but largely
nonthreatening.

Squaresoft was quite interested in the plans for a Chocobo Farm and Chocobo
rides through the park. Uhm, interested might be an understatement actually.
Same with those folk over at Gainax. Some serious "otaku" though polite
robots would never suggest that in public.

Of course, some of those series that already had been built were either
years away from being written or didn't exist in this universe at all. As
there were three non-public access layers, they could "lay low" until later.

A floating city that never slept. A theme park where any anime fan could
interact with his or her favorite characters. A place where material goods
of incredibly high manufacturing standards could be produced. Not simple
tourist knockout items, it was a matter of pride from the simplest
ashcan-bot to the manufacturing systems themeselves to put out Quality with
a capital Q and maybe even a couple of exclamation points besides!

The only problem so far was that group of industrial Chinese spies disguised
as fishermen whose boat had "suddenly and mysteriously" lost power and
landed. Then attempted to EM pulse the marionettes on duty and steal them on
their "suddenly and mysteriously" repaired vessel. The Chinese were stating
that they were just a fishing vessel and were making all sorts of
threatening statements.

The question to Fess had been what to do about it.

Fess thought long and hard about it (1 minute 48 seconds) and finally
decided on a course of action that would cause the minimum longterm problems
out of all of those considered.

--------

Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977: "There is
no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

In 1878 a noted Oxford professor named Erasmus Wilson wrote: "When the Paris
Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be
heard of it."

Charlie Chaplin in 1918 explained that "The cinema is little more than a
fad. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage."

The Decca Recording Company in 1962 rejected a band because "we don't like
their sound and guitar music is on the way out." The Beatles eventually
signed with another company.

A respected movie critic in 1938 wrote about this new film: "That the
character Snow White is a failure in every way is indisputable. Another Snow
White will sound the Disney death-knell."

All of which are simply proof that people can be quite clever, industrious,
rational, beings. Just not all the people, and certainly not all the time.

Such as was occurring in the United States as events played out in Japan.

Twenty fours of absolute compulsory truthful disclosure was having
repercussions beyond the area of effect: Washington DC.

The fires and rioting had died down, not only in that city but in capitol
cities where those affected had offices. Impeachment proceedings were going
on without hint of slowing down even if the calls for public execution or
lynching were gradually tapering off.

All of which was perfectly understandable.

However, this was the United States of America. Where the news media lived
for the sound byte. Where a lawyer in Peoria AZ threatened to dig up a
teacher's past and/or manufacture scandals and/or sue the school if a girl
who blew off a test wasn't allowed to retake it. (Yes, this really
happened.) Where someone could get million dollar settlements because she
spilled coffee on herself and the coffee was hot.

Those lawyers not directly affected were becoming extremely wealthy because
many statements had been made publicly and on the record. Hence a dearth of
lawsuits directed towards those who had made those statements.

There was also a windfall for those lawyers working for those who had been
affected. Trying to get their clients protection from the "sudden mass
temporary insanity" lined their pockets. So did attempts at destroying or
suppressing all those records.

These were normal too relatively. The unwise part was that a large number of
these lawyers were attempting to find and sue the person or entity
responsible for these events. As this had all the hallmarks of some sort of
spell, the lawyers had revived the old tradition of the "witch hunt" and
were serving subpeonas to every group who might have had some minor part in
all this.

Which was at the very least annoying to those groups. Most countered by the
same means: lawsuits. A few pointed out how ridiculous the entire concept
was and that the prosecution would have to prove that not only was magic
possible, but that its use could be regulated by the Federal government, or
even that laws against bespelling people weren't on the books.

All of which might have qualified as stupid. There was however one
individual about to transcend stupid. Which was unusual because normally a
deep agent had to be quite clever.

This individual decided to connect the dots, figuring out from little
details that the alien technology mentioned in one series of reports might
well be real. If it were real it might somehow be responsible for the
disaster. All fairly clever so far. The first act of blatant stupidity was
reporting this to her superiors. The immediate result of which was that
their agent was engaging in elicit narcotics and had become a liability.

Not having a calm rational explanation for what had happened to the
Americans, most everyone else was ignoring it. Like you could trust the US
press anyway.

Which was when the agent decided to leap from stupid move to even worse. She
decided to go investigate this alien site herself and bring it back for her
own country. While this meant she wouldn't be at her apartment when the
assassin showed up, it carried its own problems.

-------

Probe AT-1 had exited hyperspace and sped through the system at a pretty
good clip before digesting its findings and preparing for the Earthbound
journey to report.

The star system was of a solitary yellow dwarf sun. Seven planets, one
asteroid belt. The planets were composed of three gas giants, two rocks, one
large planet with a weak atmosphere, and one terrestrial planet.

The terrestrial finding caused the probe's curiosity to be aroused and it
altered course for a closer look.

A world of water. Two large continents which looked to have just (in
geological terms of time) seperated. Between them a shallow freshwater
ocean. Around them was saltwater.

Now excited in an electronic fashion, AT-1 slipped into an orbit.

No sentient life, and the development of this world was roughly equivelant
to Earth's Mesozoic era. Flowering plants had begun to develop? Only in one
tiny area, but still quite interesting.

AT-1 sped from orbit towards home. It was not equipped to further explore
this world, but it *was* intrigued. Another probe, one with lander
capabilities and shorter range scanners, would have to be sent.

It was an exciting time to be a robot.

--------

He had studied, he knew the spell by heart, and had studied his target. As
she came by, he leapt out.

Unconcerned blue eyes blinked at him. "You want something?"

Higari (Gari) Katsumatsu cast the spell, everything he had going into the
transformation that would turn this young girl into his panting brainless
loveslave. It was the most powerful enslavement spell he could find,
guaranteed to blow *her* mind. A cram school student had no chance. Seeing
the sparkle surrounding the target, he grinned and dropped his pants. "You
know what to do."

The girl seemed momentarily confused, then shrugged and kicked. Hard.

Gari dropped, screaming and clutching his privates.

Sabre Marionette Usagi stepped over the guy and wondered why all the
weirdoes came after her.

---------

Greylle sweated heavily from the effort of keeping up all the pitching at
the pace he'd developed.

The Rei Ayanami clones were *good*. They initially were unpracticed but they
adapted well.

Watching Doctor Lorelei attempting to play had been painful at best.

Sakura was cute and enthusiastic and absolutely pathetic.

Tomoyo/Madison was even worse.

Madoka had experienced problems with her extensor myomers in the shoulder
area and had been told to return for servicing. Her replacement, an Elfgirl
unit (because the idea of pointy eared Science Officers had been voted a
necessary function) named Lute, spent a lot of time trying to talk to the
grass and trees and missing out on the game.

Tigar had started out strong but had begun losing attention on the whole
thing after the first inning and had gone off to chase a butterfly by the
third. Third Base was now being handled by an android replica of Honey
Kisaragi. Who did *not* have a Baseball Honey she could turn into.

One of the things about baseball that endeared it to the Japanese was that
it was a team sport. A single player, no matter how good, could not win a
game on his own.

What he needed was a strategy. Something to overcome the advantage of the
other team's learning curve and ability to synchronize as a unit.
Unfortunately, he still hadn't come up with anything.

His "Double Curve" pitch was ineffective against any of the Rei. The "Dragon
Ascension Pitch" would get by them, but the entire idea of him practicing
was to practice *all* his moves - not just one. Likewise, he could hit the
majority of pitches they sent his way.

The other members of his team were...

*WHAM!*

The ball that had deftly missed Sakura's outstretched hands to fall between
them and impact directly on the munchkin's face slowly rolled off and hit
the ground. Sakura continued to stand like that until she teetered over.

The Tomoyo/Madison unit reacted in a predictable manner, rushing up and
carrying off her friend while calling for a medical bot.

Sighing deeply, Greylle signalled for a time out while he tried to replace
the latest two dropouts.

"Beep boop brreep bleep!"

"R2, who's available to replace Tomoyo and Sakura?"

"Voop voop breet bleep!"

"And exactly how would you play baseball without any hands."

"veeeeeeeeee. Boop boop bleep breee."

Greylle sighed. Why some of these marionettes were even built was beyond
him. There were literally hundreds of robots and androids built though, so
you'd think that *some* wouldn't be busy and could stop by. "Does she have
any baseball database loaded?"

"vreep. whoop whoop buzzz bing."

"Okay. Tifa is a Fighting marionette. Aerith is a Nurse. Let's go with Tifa
for Left Outfield, Aerith for Right."

"Yuffie just stole third base," yelled a voice across the field.

Greylle sighed and watched as the kunoichi ran off with the bag. "Maybe we
should just quit while we're ahead?"

"Boop beep vreet buzz?"

"Figure of speech, R2."

--------

Alarm bells or sirens would have disturbed the quiet needed for many
patients. Therefore flashing red lights at various stations came on instead.

"Patient 241812 has escaped," said the LCD readout under the light.

Happy Valley Sanitarium was a quiet place where tangled nerves could be
soothed. Alarm bells and rushing guards were where the patients couldn't see
or hear them.

"Wasn't he sedated, handcuffed, and in a cell?" One of the guards asked.

"Being given a sponge bath, and was up for psych eval later in the day,"
explained one of the other guards.

The first guard flipped through the chart. "Oh great. Another martial artist
gone bad. 'Unarmed and Dangerous' - patient suffers from delusional
obsessive disorder. Samurai complex."

"Got the extrastrength darts in the trank gun," said the second guard.
"Maybe we should use the dogs."

"Let's see, Fluffy has the colic, that leaves Demon, Akira, and Wulfgard,"
said Guard #1.

"Let's go then. I read this guy's profile, and his elevator not only doesn't
reach the top floors - he's missing a few buttons."

--------

Cologne waited until evening, gathered the information, then pondered what
to do about it.

Frost, Sugar and Spice - all pursuing Ryouga Hibiki.

Sash and Azure were after Ranma. As were Shampoo and Ukyo Kuonji and Akane
Tendo. Though this last was debatable - especially by Akane Tendo. It was a
pity, but all of the Amazons she'd requested come to pair off with the
dragon had reverted to type and were now chasing after martial artists.

Akane Tendo and Nabiki Tendo were in the process of being returned to human.
Nabiki Tendo wasn't pursuing anyone as near as Cologne could tell.

Nobody was physically chasing after the dragon prince Greylle. Cologne
thought that a few of those androids seemed to linger a little longer than
necessary around him. The only one that Cologne *knew* with absolute
certainty that was interested was that young girl - Hotaru.

Cologne thought that Akane Tendo had been after the dragon-boy, but
apparently they had had a "falling out."

The Amazon Elder noted some unusual behavior from some crows that was
sufficient to distract her from the love tangles (triangles was not a
sufficiently descriptive term). Two crows collided in midair, and fell to
the ground. "This doesn't bode well at all."

--------

A rock covered with Shinto wards was shattered by lightning.

A storage shed was broken into, and a single bokken removed.

Greylle's team lost, 14 to 20. The Ayanami Angels main strategy was to throw
pitches outside the strike zone to Greylle, causing him to Walk. There he
could languish at First Base while the rest of his team fell apart.

A deep cover operative of the Mexican government under the guise of being an
American agent fell asleep on her flight to Japan.

Several Chinese agents scoffed at the obvious lies from the monitors and
windows, forced the door open, and discovered that the obvious lie that
their prison cell was on Amalthea - a small moon of Jupiter - was actually
not a lie at all. Fortunately, emergency bulkheads closed to keep the farm
from losing too much atmosphere and a small repair-bot was dispatched to fix
the door.

Mikado Sanzennin spotted a *very* pretty girl who acted as if she couldn't
be bothered with him and decided that the very next pair of lips he would
claim would be that of this Hotaru Tomoe.

The hentai sorcery club decided the challenge had been given. They carefully
chose their next target to be someone who perfectly fit their target
criteria. She was popular. She was cute. No guy had ever been able to get
very far with her. Sure, she had some bad habits, and it might be that she
had a reputation, but she was cute and popular and would soon be fluffing
their pillows! (insert evil if a bit nerdy and clueless laughter.)

A pair of new foreign exchange students registered at Juuban Junior High
named Alan and Ann heard about this alien prince of a planet of dragons over
in Furinkan and wondered if maybe they should choose a planet that didn't
get this sort of traffic.

A student named Keitaro Urashima found out his grandmother had gone off to
motorcycle across America and he had just been put in charge of a female
dorm known as Hinata House. Unfortunately, other than one of the tenants
being a marionette ninja named Paiway, this had nothing to do with the rest
of the story and therefore is only worth a casual mention. "Pai-check!"

Akane's eyes snapped open in her nanobath. A connection was made. Could
Greylle's puzzlement while making fun of her have been due to a translation
error? Did that mean... Akane slipped off to sleep again, wondering if she
perhaps (just perhaps - it wasn't like it was *her* fault or anything) acted
too quickly and jumped to a conclusion. Of course not. That would have been
shamelessly out of character. Right?

A very special synthoid completed construction. Almost indistinguishable
from human, Fess considered most of the synthoids created prior to this to
be practice. Her eyes opened and she stood, dignified and proud. Then the
moment was spoiled by her sneezing and falling on her butt.

Kasumi took advantage of the experimental "Synaptic Teacher" and downloaded
the equivelant of an Registered Nursing Degree.

In a certain other universe, despite their Emperor's command, research went
into tracking that dragon and finding a way to avenge their losses.

============

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Rafael looked uncomfortable. "Actually, what I *intended* to do was have
Ranma end up being raised by Kuan Yin."

"Already been done," said Toltiir, idly waving a paw. "Observe."

Rafael blinked. "The goddess of compassion and pacifism? Saddled with the
wild horse?"

-----

WHAT IF KWANNON HAD RAISED RANMA?
a "worse father than Genma" omake by Gregg Sharp

-----

Kuan Yin, aka Kwannon, alias a few similar names and identities, breathed a
sigh of relief as her rebellious "son" was ready at long last to leave the
nest.

Years ago she had taken a tortured child under her protection. Not too long
after that she had begun regretting it. At several points she had been ready
to pull out her own hair as a result of a *very* rebellious boy whose
natural inclinations had not included pacifism by any stretch of the
imagination.

After an event where even *her* patience had been exhausted, Kwannon had
finally come up with an idea on how to impress on her young charge the basic
philosophies of her nature. It hadn't quite worked, though Ranma had been a
bit more subdued since his moment of Awareness. Even more so after his
Ascension.

The event in question had been the time Ranma had fallen into the Spring Of
Tiresias after sneaking away in order to try and pick up some martial arts
training from one of the other gods rather than study boring stuff like
medicine. Having managed to change himself from an eight year old mortal boy
into an eight year old girl had driven Ranma nearly into frothing at the
mouth displays of temper until the gentle goddess Kwannon had found a way to
change Ranma back. Though it only worked if Ranma was completely calm. If
startled, angered, or otherwise moved out of his "icy calm" - boy-type Ranma
became a girl.

Thereafter, Ranma had learned to be less emotional. Quieter. More
controlled. He still lapsed occasionally after that, but disliked becoming a
girl enough that those occasions were rare.

He'd become quite a good healer, familiar with a number of Chinese medical
techiques. So much so that he'd become a god (second class, limited) of
medicine.

Now if only he'd get some of that show-off nature out of his system.

-----

This was boring, Cologne thought to herself, and THAT was why she usually
did not attend the annual Tournament. It was the same thing every year. If
only something *different* would happen.

*BOOM!*

As a bolt of lightning slammed down from a blue sky next to the first prize,
Cologne raised an eyebrow.

Coughing slightly, a boy walked out of the resulting cloud of smoke. "Yeesh.
Maybe I should have chosen a different method of transport."

Cologne's other eyebrow went up as she sensed the power radiating from this
boy.

"Hey you! What the heck are you doing?!" Ignoring the way the boy had formed
out of a bolt of lightning, Shampoo pointed to where the edge of the feast
was now on fire. "Look what you did to my prize!"

"Oh?" The boy turned, saw the fire, and nodded. He couldn't leave things as
they were, could he? "Don't worry, I can fix it!"

Shampoo was ready to beat on this Outsider when it finally occurred to her
that this boy was beginning to glow.

"Dance and spin,
O threads of life,
Repair thy damaged ends,
Grow strong again,
And quickly mend,
And free yourselves of strife!"

Ranma nodded. He'd gotten stuck with the wording again but he thought he'd
muddled through.

The ears of corn becoming stalks of corn which took root and began spreading
disabused him of that notion.

Grass sprouted from dirt in a sudden flood of green that spread through the
village. Tree seeds which had blown in from nearby orchards erupted into
full growth in seconds before startled Amazon eyes. More plants likewise
went from seeds or fruits to fully grown specimens of their breed within
moments.

Shampoo, enveloped by vines that had rushed over her in a wave, thought that
all the flowers would look quite nice if they weren't tying her up like
this. She had to fight against the strange calm and desire to dance that was
already affecting a lot of the others around her. "STUPID OUTSIDER! LET ME
GO!"

As vines and plants continued to spread through the village and tie up or
otherwise defeat various Amazons, Ranma said eight words that sent a chill
through everyone who heard them. "Don't worry, I know how to fix this."

-------

When the Outsider had finally left, Cologne sat on a tree branch and smoked
her pipe. Being over three hundred years old, she needed a break every so
often. She also made a mental note not to complain about being bored again.
Someone had obviously been listening.

A form pushing its way through the thick field of corn revealed itself as a
very disheveled looking Shampoo. She was joined quickly by Lotion, Perfume,
Potion, Satin, Clover, Sugar, Spice, Tigar, Frost, Sash, and Weird Mao.

Cologne let them wait below her for a few minutes. "And what do you want now
with so much work to be done? We have to get all these trees out of the
village, we have to harvest and store all these fruits and vegetables, we
have to rebuild several homes still."

"Excuse me, Elder," politely said Frost, the albino looking up at her
briefly. "It occurred to me that this boy managed to defeat us in combat."

Perfume and Lotion looked at each other and nodded. As they did everything
together, sharing a husband wasn't so strange an idea. "The Outsider *was* a
male, and *was* rather handsome."

Cologne cleared her throat. "Are you suggesting that after all the trouble
we had getting him to leave the village that one of you should give him the
kiss of marriage and bring him back here?"

"Well..." Sugar looked slightly embarassed.

"Are you sure you're not trying to shirk your current workload?" Cologne
looked at the guilty expressions over more than one face. "Get back to work.
I'll consider your petition later as long as his entering our valley again
is *not* something we have to deal with on a regular basis."

There were some disappointed mutters but two of them looked hopeful.

"And *after* we've cleaned up *this* mess," finished Cologne.

-------

The crowd of hentai was ready to attack.

Their target, a young girl, prepared to throw herself into the group and
beat them senseless. Err, make that 'beat them into severe pain' - if they
had any sense to begin with they wouldn't be in this situation.

*BOOM!*

(cough hack) "Yup, I've *got* to come up with a better way of teleporting."
Ranma waved some of the smoke away, then pulled out and began consulting a
"Ningauble's Guide To Tokyo" as he tried to determine where he was.

After a few minutes he realized that he wasn't being stared at so much as
something at his feet. Glancing down he realized that he was standing *on*
someone?! "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, miss!"

"...I don't want to play Romeo..." Akane mumbled, her eyes swirling.

Ranma considered. He knew pressure points and Chinese medicine. All he had
to do was tap here and there and voila!

Akane realized some strange boy was touching her back and that she'd been
pounded into the ground. "WHAT THE?! You did NOT defeat me!" She twisted
away as this boy prepared to do something weird.

"Yeah, I know. You were just lying in this crater by some amazing
coincidence. Hey! Hold still! Uh oh." Ranma looked horrified as his
precisely targetted pressure point strike which *should* have healed her
sprained ankle hit an entirely different pressure point.

Akane grabbed the young hunk in front of her, pulling him close into a
passionate kiss. All of her inhibitions and inner passions came rushing to
the forefront and she ground her body against the sexy stud. Yes, this was
why she hadn't rebuked the whole defeating her thing. She *wanted* some guy
to take control, to be able to force her into submission, and now that she
had found someone, she was not going to let go.

Ranma froze as he found someone else's tongue in his mouth and her hands
roaming where public decorum indicated nice girls not do that even in
privacy. When he could finally move again, Ranma did the natural thing.
Which was to hit a temporary paralysis point, undo the effects of the
earlier shiatsu strike, and teleport again. Boy, had *he* found the wrong
place to be!

Akane slowly got control of herself again, though if she ever found that boy
again she'd... Well she wasn't quite sure if she'd finish what she started
or she'd kill him.

Idly flattening Tatewaki Kuno, Akane wondered which she really wanted to do.

--------

After causing so much mess on the mortal plane, it was quite natural for
Ranma to be punished. Community service was not Ranma's favorite thing. The
Goddess Relief Office even more so.

Especially as that meant he had to be a she during this period. Bleah.

Ranma brightened slightly. A call! "Goddess Relief Office. I'll be right
there for a consultation!"

-------

Minako Aino sighed dejectedly. Her parents were out of town, she'd tried to
order pizza, and instead she'd gotten some whacked out psychic hotline.

*shoom!* "Not as impressive, but it'll have to do."

*poof!* This the sound of a little white mooncat who now resembled a
puffball with legs and poofy tail.

The redheaded girl smiled at the startled blonde. "Hello. I am Ranma
Saotome, god second class on probation, limited license, temporarily working
for the goddess relief office. I am here to grant you a wish!"

Minako blinked. "You're a goddess?"

"Actually, this is just temporary. I'm really a guy." Ranma forced himself
to calm and morphed back to male. "See? It's just a transformation because I
work for the Goddess Relief Office, and they've got these rules, y'know?"

Minako blinked repeatedly. A guy. A handsome guy. A handsome guy who was
here to... "You're going to grant me a wish?!"

Ranma nodded. "Oh yeah. I gotta go through the whole procedure. Minako Aino,
alias Sailor V, aka Sailor Venus. You have been found worthy of being
granted a wish. You only get *one* wish, however."

"A wish?!" Minako repeated, looking over the girl that had turned into a
real hunk.

"Yes!" Ranma nodded. He wouldn't screw this one up! "It can be for nearly
anything, however. You want great wealth, you can have it. You want to be a
famous idol singer, you can do that too. You want a 'Venus Lovely Gatling
Orbital X-Ray Laser Cannon' you can have that as well. Just remember - it's
only one wish and once given you can't change it."

Artemis began to recover. "Don't do it! It's a trick. Wish he'd just go away
or something if you've got to!"

"You could even wish that Artemis here had all his memories back or
something," pointed out Ranma. "Whatever you like!"

Minako tried not to get her hopes up even as Artemis began ranting about
duties and responsibilities and not letting her guard down. "I could even
get a boyfriend if I wanted?"

"MINAKO!!" Artemis really began to get alarmed.

Ranma looked at the girl and could see her uncertainties, her insecurity in
her own appearance and appeal - fueled by her inability to get a boyfriend.
After a moment he nodded. "Yeah. Though it's hard to believe a girl as cute
as you couldn't get a boyfriend."

Artemis cringed. The moment this boy called her cute, Minako got *that* look
in her eyes. He had to stop her from doing something foolish. This *had* to
be a trick of the Dark Kingdom.

Minako grinned. The inevitable occurred. "I wish I had a cute boyfriend like
you to be with me forever!"

"Noooooooooooo!" Artemis didn't like this development at all.

Strangely enough, neither would Luna.

Minako on the other hand, after some initial misgivings, decided that she'd
made the right wish after all.

===========