[Ranma][FanFic] Featherbrite's Tale 9 & 10

[Gregg Sharp]

Featherbrite's Tale CHAPTER NINE:
Dark Kingdom Follies, OR
Nabiki Come Home?

Ranma 1/2 owned by Viz Video & Takahashi Rumiko. Various
other characters owned by various other authors. No
copyright infringement is intended.

"Magic is simply being able to do something the other guy
doesn't know how to do." - Ambrosius Merlin, Court Wizard

"If it's not nailed down, it's mine. If it can be pried
loose, it's not nailed down." Tandel The Lynx, high level
thief

"Our own heart, and not others' opinions of us, forms our
true honor." -Friedrich von Schiller

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

Oberon's gaze swept the Court as he pondered the latest
materials that Ravenhart had smuggled in and he also
considered his options.

"Ravenhart, Lord Of Crows, I appoint you to scout out the
situation and find suitable allies. Remember that possessing
a mortal shell will allow you some protection against cold
iron and the inevitable anti-faerie wards."

The three eyed raven nodded, his mind already racing ahead
to deal with plots and possibilities. He'd stolen the items
and scanned these histories easily enough.

"Sigmund, you shall ready your orcs. Smedley," Oberon
pronounced the name with some distaste, "your goblins shall
also need to be prepared for work on the Mortal Plane."

The two figures nodded, shocktroops were always handy for
crowd control. Not to mention kidnappings, sword fodder, and
for dramatically giving the impression of hopeless odds. Not
to mention fetching and carrying.

Oberon's eyes widened less than the width of a 10yen coin.
Nobody but Ravenhart noticed. Ravenhart was sufficiently
interested that he searched about to find what had surprised
his lord. Zed was pouring fascinated over one of the stolen
magazines. Zed?!

"Zed, you will be the first one in. You will test the
waters for the others."

This brought a few startled exclamations from the UnSeelie
gathered together.

Everyone knew what a useless member of the UnSeelie Court
Zed was. In a group such as the UnSeelie, the scum rose to
the top. Raw power could circumvent it, but it tended to be
the more ruthless and focussed individuals in the higher
ranks. There were exceptions, of course. Ravenhart was a
skilled information gatherer, Krekke had his legions,
Lurking Horror was everything you'd expect from someone who
lurked at the bottom of swamps, and then there was Zed.

Even Greaket had possessed more drive and ambition than
Zed. Zed hadn't been enthusiastic about much of *anything*
since the UnSeelie Wars (around the time of the Pleistocene)
and when he was moved to action, glacial was the usual
speed.

Those seeing Zed now were seeing a Zed that hadn't been
seen since the formation of the UnSeelie Court. Slowly
energy was leaking back into his lanky frame and he pondered
the situation with an intensity that was surprising to most.

Zed understood Oberon more than most of the UnSeelie.
Boredom was a slow acting and bitter poison. It couldn't
kill a faerie, but it could make that faerie's life
thoroughly unpleasant. One reason that so many faerie of
*both* courts tended to be heavy drinkers. Zed knew Oberon
had had his flings with lovers from Makai and Faerie, but
mortal women had never appealed to Oberon for very long for
a simple reason. With a mortal's lifespan, you could turn
your back for a moment and your mortal lover had gotten old
and decrepit.

Zed's inclusion among the members of the UnSeelie Court to
take part of this latest diversion surprised some,
particularly the younger attendees.

Ravenhart was Lord Of Crows, and was one of Oberon's
greatest minions when secrets needed to be ferretted out.
Sigmund, the Orc Emperor, was a clever fellow who had a few
major faults such as a tendency to plan actions on too
little data. Smedley, the Master Of Goblins, had his own
dark powers and would have advanced far within the Court if
he hadn't had such a drinking problem. Zed was the Artist Of
Inconvenience, and counted fairly low among the rankings.

Some, particularly Ravenhart, remembered the Zed of old.
When Zed had gotten enthusiastic about the *last* project,
and had decided that the weather on that Mortal Plane was
too humid and sultry and wouldn't a nice cool breeze be
good?

A number of scientists on that Mortal Plane would have been
fascinated to learn that the reason all those mammoths and
other animals kept turning up in ice sheets was because a
Faerie Lord had gotten enthusiastic about getting a little
ice at the end of the Pleistocene.

-----Azabu Juuban, Tokyo--------

"Come on, little girl," the man with the dark shades wore a
polyster brown suit that had seen better days. Sometime in
the '70s most likely. "Don't give us any trouble and you'll
do fine."

"The oyabun will *not* like this," cautioned the larger
looking man with a frown. "He specifically said not to
bother Takeuchi-san when you brought the idea up."

"Hey, the boss likes results. We get good results, and
this'll allow us to get rid of that outsider. Besides, the
nice young lady wouldn't mind a little fun with me and my
friends, would she?"

"Oops! This is a bad time for an interview, isn't it?"

The four Yakuza thugs exchanged a look, then turned to the
mouth of the alley. On seeing two more young pretty women,
they fought between a smile and a frown.

"Well, ladies, you're all invited to a little party. I'm
afraid that camcorder, though, is going to have to go," the
Yakuza chunin slid the toothpick around in his mouth without
using his hands. A skill all slimy thugs had to learn early
in their training.

"Megumi Noguchi, here to interview Naoko Takeuchi on her
opinion of these new Sailor Starriors. We seem to have come
at a bad time?" The wannabe reporter glanced at her
camerawoman to see if she was recording all this.

The large one groaned and leaned against a wall. "Now we've
got the *press* getting involved?!"

"Shut up, Tiny!" The apparent leader snapped at his
subordinate. "We can handle three little girls, we can
handle them quite nicely, heh heh. Besides, what else could
go wrong?"

Tiny stiffened, knowing with a cold certainty that
statements like that were throwing a gauntlet down in front
in the Fates.

"Lowbred Worms that dare to threaten a chronicler of my
battles! Vile miscreants who dare to threaten Art!
Ill-dressed harbingers of poor hygiene!"

"I KNEW IT!" Tiny started beating his head against the
wall, doing more damage to the wall than his head. This had
been EXACTLY the sort of thing that had happened during the
"snatch the winged girl" plan.

"Unlucky Targets who interrupt my search for the Dark
Kingdom and provide me something to vent my Righteous Wrath
upon!"

"Are you getting this?" Megumi grinned at the sight before
her eyes. Kyoko nodded with her own grin as she filmed.

Leaping down from the rooftops was a girl in a seifuku,
ribbons trailing behind her shoulders like some imitation
wings. "I, Sailor Rose, shall punish you!"

Tiny winced, anticipating what his immediate superior would
say. Pleading with the heavens that he wouldn't actually say
*that*!

"What's a little girl like you gonna do, anyway? C'mon
guys, let's show her what happens to a frail little girlie
who decides to mess with US!"

Tiny vowed then and there that he'd find a different line
of work. He was big, he was strong, he could do construction
labor. There were branches of the Yakuza controlling the
construction industry down in Kansai. ANYTHING to get him
out of Enforcement.

"Battle of the cliche kings," muttered Naoko as she
watched. She'd have to get photos later of this 'Sailor
Rose' to include in her sketches.

Sailor Rose drew a gymnastics ribbon from out of nowhere.
"Know that you face the Outrider of the Star Kingdom
warriors! LIGHTNING RIBBON!"

<Zzzzzzzzappppppp!>

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

Akane sighed deeply, looking at the newspaper article
depicting Sailor Rose's rescue of that manga artist who was
doing the "Sailor Moon 2: Kingdoms Of Moon & Stars" from
some criminal types.

"Something wrong, Akane?" Yoshinori Kitase looked across
the dinner table and tried to read the offending article
upside down. Vanilla, invited inside to get out of the rain,
merely looked faintly puzzled. "Your Dad and Mister Saotome
are out trying to track down Ranma again, so you can speak
openly."

"It's just..." Akane scooped a dumb-bell off the floor and
bent it in her hands a moment later. "Somehow I got this
incredible strength, and here Sailor Rose is doing the sort
of thing *I* always wanted to. To be the dashing martial
arts hero who uses her skills for good."

Vanilla nodded, following that much at least with her
rudimentry Japanese.

"Ah," Yoshi said after a moment. "You know that's kind of
dangerous, even with your considerable skill and that
strength of yours. Even with the extra training Vanilla-san
is giving you in her Amazon wu shu."

"Yeah, but I'd just want to..." Akane's voice trailed off
as she briefly imagined *Akane* as the dashing young
heroine, defending the weak, rescuing people (why did that
look like Yoshi-kun in her arms?) and vanishing mysteriously
in the night (with a dramatic flourish.)

Yoshi smiled a little sadly. "You know, Akane, I'll support
you in whatever decision you make."

Akane nodded. She knew she could count on Yoshi. He
wouldn't do anything she asked him to, but if she wanted
help on something - he'd bend his schedule to accomodate her
as much as he could.

Vanilla studied the surveillance device she'd crushed
earlier. She wished she could find some use for the things,
they were beginning to pile up. "Would be good training."

"Hmmm?" Akane blinked. "You're not actually suggesting I do
it, are you?"

"Vanilla suggest so. Why not? Is not just you, is Vanilla
too. We go, we fight, we train. Is path of martial artist to
seek always to improve skills. Akane very strong. Vanilla
have many skills. We go and try this, at least, yes?"

Akane shut her mouth. Well, if it were TRAINING, then she
could justify the time to herself. Her father, THAT was
something else altogether."O-Okay."

Yoshinori frowned slightly but banished it. "Akane, it's
dangerous, but if you're determined to do this, I'll try
making you a Sailor costume."

"You can sew too?" Akane blinked, amazed that here was
another skill Yoshi was pulling out of his hat.

"Vanilla good seamstress too. If act part, must look part,
yes?"

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

scene by Hitomi Ichinohei:
14/09/99 6:53:06

Isao sighed as he looked over the various reports that he
had received from the `investigators' connected with his
particular operation. Technically, there was nothing to go
after Genma for. He was trying to find the girl…boy, but
right at the moment, he couldn't see how any of them could
find them. Sightings of Sailor Angel & Sailor Amazon in
Osaka, another unnamed winged warrior had also been sighted
there. Now this 'Sailor Rose' came into the madness.

There had to be a connection somewhere.

Given that Sailor Amazon had apparently seen the
kidnapping, and that Sailor Rose had obviously been left in
the Tokyo, and specifically, the Nerima area, the child had
to still be in the area. The real question was, was she
there to protect the boy? If so, why?

As hard as it was to stomach, the `Sailor Moon' series had
become part of the Yakuza's information sources. They
could, of course, `persuade' the author of the series to
reveal her secrets, but it was unlikely that she knew much
more than them. Besides, attacking the chronicller of these
`Magical Girls' could very well lead to an all out attack on
them. Something the Oyabun was definitely against.

They already had enough trouble with the damn Amazons that
they had stupidly attacked.

The setup had been almost perfect. A new species to study
and learn about, making various reports to the scientific
literature, the Yakuza gaining a new form of smuggling, and
control over this resource. It had almost been too good to
be true that the father was enough of an idiot to sign over
his parental rights for mere money.

Obviously, it was too good to be true.

He himself, now had his neck on the line.

The Oyabun was being extremely cautious, ordering that
these Senshi were not to be interfered with if at all
possible. When the other families had heard about his
operation, and what it had done, they had become very vocal
about it. None of them, despite the advantages, wanted a
war of this nature, especially since it would reveal some of
the sources that the Yakuza had at it's disposal.

After all, a show of force was hardly what they really
wanted since quiet infiltration was much more profitable.

Surveillance was called for, especially on the Tendo home,
but three of the four girls had now disappeared, and the
cost of the audio was getting very expensive for what they
were getting. Either they kept getting found and destroyed,
or there was more to that dojo that was apparent on the
surface. There were no real clues to be had there anyways.

No, quiet observation was called for, and the either the
identities of these Senshi, or of their contacts was the
priority. Not to challenge them. Dead heroes tended to
have people to avenge them.

However, Saotome was now safe, no matter how much it grated
at him. The Oyabun had decided that the money was an
acceptable loss in order to not deal with these Senshi.
Because of those damned heroes…

He had to get revenge somehow, and perhaps there was a way.
If that pool in China had changed the Saotome child into a
Sylph, then perhaps it would do the same to another. Perhaps
THAT was the connection between these "Starriors" and the
Saotome boy, those pools of sorrow had likewise empowered
these psuedo-Senshi. If it could do *them* maybe it could do
others, and this would be tested shortly. A minor thug would
take a bath, and in case there was some sort of mindset
required for the change to Sylph - others (including a few
unwilling victims) would be given the plunge.

Even so, Saotome still didn't know about his release, and
so he may be able to use that to his advantage.

"I like the way you think."

Isao spun around, looking towards the voice, and saw a
raven perched on the back of his chair. A raven with three
reddish eyes."Who, or what are you?"

Ravenhart chuckled, "I am a messenger from the Dark King.
He is offering to assist you, however, Saotome Ranma is not
to be harmed. She is much in the Dread Lords thoughts and
heart. If you want to become an Oyabun of a very powerful
family, one with powers and assistance from us, we will help
to an extent. The Lady of Milord's heart is the price,
however."

Isao's eyebrow raised. He indicated a pile off to his
left. "You're acting like if Saotome is really a girl, and
some sort of Princess in one of these manga."

Ravenhart laughed heartily. "Yes. A Princess of the Fay,
and an important one to the Dark King. Do not concern
yourself with the Dread Lords wishes, just say if you will
accept the offer."

Isao frowned a little. Either he accepted this unknown,
which could allow him to live and possibly to succeed beyond
his wildest dreams, or take his chances with the justice of
the Oyabun. No choice really. "I will accept."

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

Nabiki watched with a certain horror from her vantage
point, slung over an ogre's shoulder like a sack of flour.
Said ogre was strong and tireless, and the two were just
barely keeping ahead of...

Nabiki wasn't quite sure *what* to call it, other than it
was apparently an UnSeelie.

"How can that thing MOVE that quickly!" Nabiki didn't
really expect an answer, Harold was not exactly a sparkling
conversationalist. "It doesn't even have any legs!"

"Magic," grunted Harold, shouldering aside a few boulders
at his best speed. "Oh crud."

"What?!" Nabiki yelped, only being able to see behind them
from her current position.

"Is slope, clear land, it move faster when get there."
Harold seemed to get thoughtful.

"It's catching up with us as it is!" Nabiki watched the
glob of jelly behind them, the way eyes and mouths seemed to
form and shift within its substance, the way the grass
looked to be stained yellow within it, and the nearly
mummified body of some bird that occasionally roiled to the
top. Even if these signs hadn't been present, it was obvious
that Harold was scared.

"Why is it after us?!" Nabiki didn't like to admit it, but
*she* was scared. She'd observed Harold's strength earlier
when he'd lobbed a few boulders at it. If it scared Harold,
then she definitely didn't want to make its acquaintance.

"Not after *us* - is after *you* Nabiki Tendo. If Harold
was alone, it would not bother with him."

Nabiki blinked as she realized that Harold was the only one
of the faerie she'd met to get her name right so far. "Why?"

"Mortal flesh, mortal soul, Harold has already explained
this." Harold reached the crest of the hill. "Nabiki Tendo
trust Harold?"

"Uhm, yeah, I guess..." Nabiki granted that she trusted the
ogre about as well as she trusted anyone outside her family,
which wasn't much.

"Then Nabiki Tendo ask driad for help." Harold lifted
Nabiki and threw her towards a group of trees, then stopped
and turned.

Nabiki, sailing backwards, got a good look as the ogre
fought the jelly. Only to get swept off his feet and pulled
under just before the trees obscured her vision.

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

Shampoo struggled but it felt as if her body weight had
increased a hundred times. Even when she was able to make
the effort and could open her eyes, everything seemed so
bright and out of focus.

"<She will not steal your husband now, Rink!>"

"<I don't know about this, Pink.>"

"<Obstacles are for killing among the Amazons, remember
that. We're just dealing with her in terms of her own
culture.>"

Shampoo tried to frown but realized all she could manage
was a drool. Rink & Pink? Two girls from the Herbal Village
who'd always conspired to play pranks on her. Well, if she
could move, she'd show them not to mess with her.

Her sense of touch seemed heightened. She could feel the
jelly smeared over her dry lips, and smell the heady
fragrance from it.

"<Black lotus extract?>"

"<When you boil the leaves down a certain way, it can
produce a number of effects. This particular gel is a muscle
relaxant when rubbed in, but if ingested...>"

"<I saw how she went down. Seeing the vaunted Shampoo
collapse like a rag doll, what bliss!>"

"<This should keep her out of commission for awhile. So
what do we do now? I don't want to *kill* her, but I don't
want her stealing my promised husband.>"

"<Got an idea, Rink. Why don't you go check that hut over
there. We'll just take her down to one of the villages, pay
an innkeep to keep her sedated, then invite her to your
wedding when it is too late for her to do anything about
it!>"

"<Not perfect, but I suppose it could work.>"

Shampoo involuntarily licked her lips, then realized what a
bad mistake that was as numbess started spreading out from
her tongue. She felt herself lifted up as the footsteps
retreated and the numbness seemed to spread.

"<What a pity that while I was away, you happened to roll
into one of these springs and drown, eh Shampoo?>"

Shampoo felt the waters claim her.

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

Kasumi startled, feeling a chill that momentarily caused
her to lose track of the current lecture topic. Guiltily,
she suppressed the feeling of dread and tried to concentrate
anew on the role of amino acids.

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

Ranma had quite a bit on his mind and couldn't spare any
concentration for events going on in China,, even if he had
been able to notice.

The thing attacking him looked like a fanged skeleton with
glowing red eyes, cloaked in a tattered fabric that seemed
to actually be part of the creature.

The other students had scattered. One guy even going so far
to disguise himself as a mailbox.

Ukyo stood nearby, her spatula at the ready, disguised as a
boy.

The creature said something, but it was so incredibly
garbled that nobody quite caught it.

"Excuse me, what did you say?" Ranma wanted to know what
was going on besides the obvious "here's yet another monster
that's tracked me down."

The skeleton paused and garbled something again.

"I didn't understand that at all. Ukyo?"

"Not a clue."

The skeleton straightened to its full twelve feet in height
and and scratched its head. More incomprehensible garbling
followed.

Ranma called out to the crowd of hiding students. "Anybody
here understand this guy?"

There was a chorus of "no" from various parts of the
campus.

The skeleton howled in what was quite obviously
frustration.

Some boy with thick glasses came forward. "Maybe he just
wants to be friends! Hi, I'm Ken Narita, we come in
peace..."

The skeleton stomped on the boy AND the flower he had been
holding out, and began to seriously consider turning the kid
into a purple dinosaur. THAT would teach him to
underestimate the power of an Unseelie! No, some things were
too horrible for even a Skeletal Servitor to contemplate.
Instead he just sucked the offending noncombatant's
energies.

This was quite visible and produced a response.

"IT'S A YOUMA!" Cameras were brandished. This was, after
all, Japan.

The Servitor seemed to consider all the flashes to be some
bizarre attack. It responded by drawing all the energy out
of the nearby crowd, causing a massive fainting spell.
Abilities like this were why it had been chosen by one of
the Dark Lords, after all. Bypass all these "Dark Kingdom"
plots and go straight after the objective, then reap the
accolades of Oberon himself.

Ukyo felt Ranma grab her and leap out of the immediate
environs. A moment later the school's perimeter wall
exploded outward and the now-glowing skeleton gave chase.

"Pity that Pop can't show that thing his technique for
pulling signs out of nowhere."

Ukyo felt her bookbag growing warm and glanced into it
while Ranma continued to sprint. There was that "dragon's
pearl" glowing like someone'd slapped a spotlight on it.

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

Megumi Noguchi was cute and had an unusual trait in that
she was both slightly ditzy and fairly intelligent. She
habitually wore tight or revealing clothing, which furthered
the "ditz" image more often than not. When it came to a few
areas of endeavor, she was quite intelligent. As far as
anything else went, she was a complete klutz.

Kyoko Hiro was her counterpart in many ways. Slightly
dumpy, plain, and tending to wear loose clothing. In a few
areas, such as cosmetology, she was a complete and total
loss. Where Megumi preferred elegant food, Kyoko preferred
cheap and with a high nutritional base. Megumi was
responsible for keeping their battered old VW beetle
working. She was also as introverted as Megumi was an
extrovert. She was also a definite jack-of-all-trades who
was incredibly bad at a handful of skills such as what would
normally be considered traditionally feminine.

An odd couple, to be sure, but they had hit it off right
away. Then it became noticeable that together they seemed to
be slightly luckier. Then they got a LOT luckier.

Now one big break later, they were being courted by MAJOR
networks! With the new film of Sailor Rose coming to the
rescue of the Sailor Moon author, they had a reputation! Now
they were heading back to an Osaka TV station to apply, they
might even get past the usual intern crap and straight into
the high paying stuff!

"Thai food!"

"Aw c'mon, Megumi, that stuff gives me the cobbywobbles,
how about a nice salad."

"Who's the ace reporter and who's her sidekick?"

"..."

"I thought you'd see it my way." Megumi patted the
dashboard of the "bug" affectionately, as the horrible thing
would soon be part of her to-be-forgotten humble roots.
"Soon we can get a *real* car that doesn't require you
constantly scrounging parts. Something appropriate for a
rising media star!"

"...but I *like* my Blue Bomb..."

"Give it a rest, Kyoko, we..." Megumi was cut off as two
people went shooting past the hood of their car. Kyoko, of
course, slammed on the brakes. Followed a moment later by
the trunk being crushed under the foot of a really big
glowing skeleton. Both front wheels popped off and the
engine died.

"A youma?! ANOTHER youma!" Megumi was running down the
street as soon as the thought registered.

Kyoko spent a few moment mourning the "Blue Bomb" before
grabbing her camera with one hand, and her "anti-terrorist
kit" with the other. She'd spent years devoted to keeping
that car running.

Sailor Senshi or no Sailor Senshi. SOMEONE was gonna pay!

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

Lightning flared out in an explosion, flowing into Ukyo.

Unfortunately, Ranma was grounded at the time, as he was
passing through a stream of water caused by a lawn
sprinkler.

"This is Megumi Noguchi... DAMN IT Kyoko, can't you keep
up with me?" Megumi pointed down the street at a winged
figure. "One of the Starriors is down, I think it's Sailor
Amazon."

"Her hair is not the right color," said Kyoko as she
started filming.

Lightning crackled again, and a figure rode the bolt down
to the ground.

"Do I really need to make some stupid speech here? With
great power comes great responsibility, not to mention
fringe benefits." Ukyo posed dramatically in her blue
seifuku, oddly enough this was just the sort of "sailor
suit" she'd pictured herself wearing in her dream last
night.

"Good enough," groaned Ranma from her position on the
ground.

"Thanks sugar."

There was more incomprehensible garbling from the youma.

"Sailor... Sailor..." Megumi was trying to find an
appropriate name. They could always dub over it with the
real one later.

"Lightning? Storm? Valkyrie? Crackle?" Kyoko supplied
helpfully. "No, wait a minute, 'Storm' would get confused
with that girl in the American comics..."

"GO Sailor Valkyrie!" Megumi shouted out to the two facing
the youma. "Whip that youma!"

"The one that's smouldering a bit has pixie wings, so maybe
'Sailor Pixie' or 'Sailor Ponytail' or 'Sailor Dragonfly' or
something like that. Even though SHE isn't wearing a
seifuku."

"She's obviously an allied magical girl, it's close enough.
GO SAILOR PIXIE, YOU CAN DO IT!"

Ranma groaned. "'Sailor Pixie'?! Pixie?! Why, why me?
What'd I ever do?" Ranma thought for a moment, then lowered
herself back down to the ground. "Ucchan, if I get up that
camera crew will be able to see my face."

The UnSeelie garbled some more, what would have been a
really spiffy "maniacal villain" speech if he'd remembered
to pack a translation spell. This trip had been one bad
event after another, but now he could redeem the mission by
capturing the Princess directly!

"Okay, Lich, you're going down!" Ukyo gestured, her hand
coming up above her. Blue-white mist formed into a spear.
"HEART OF ICE SPEAR!"

The UnSeelie responded by raising a ward against Faerie
Magic.

As Sailor Valkyrie was empowered by Dragon Magic, this
proved rather less effective than was intended. The spear
solidified as a javelin of bluish ice, slammed through the
ward, then proceeded through the UnSeelie, a mailbox (which
disgorged a startled Tsubasa almost immediately), and three
machines in a pachinko parlor before it stopped. Leaving a
trail of ice, a frozen-in-mid-leap Tsubasa Kurenai, and a
disintegrating UnSeelie behind it.

Also an awful lot of pachinko balls which were scattered
all over the place. These, at least, were rapidly cleaned
up.

"Ranchan," said Sailor Valkyrie in a low voice as she
scooped up Ranma and leapt into the air, AWAY from the
unblinking stare of the camera.

"Yeah, 'Sailor Valkyrie'?"

"I *LIKED* that!" The new Sailor was grinning like a
maniac. Her battle-spatula had been transformed into some
halberd-looking polearm, but Ukyo was relatively sure that
once she transformed back, it would too. This was *cool*!

"I was afraid of that..." Ranma groaned and tried to keep
her face away from the camera. How embarassing...

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

"You turned her into a cat?!" Rink could hardly believe her
sister was that cruel.

"Hey, how was *I* to know what these springs did." Pink
shrugged. If she had, Pink silently added, she would have
chosen Spring Of Drowned Piglet or Spring Of Drowned Snake
or Spring Of Drowned Pustulent Swamp Creature or even just
Spring Of Drowned Toad. It was a pity about the army of
Japanese who had descended upon Jusenkyo, otherwise she
could have gone back and tried mixing the various waters and
seeing what Shampoo turned into! "It beats just flat out
killing her, doesn't it?"

Rink looked at the angrily hissing animal in the "pet
carrier" and felt a flash of pity. "So *now* what are we
supposed to do with her?"

Pink entertained herself briefly with the idea of using a
grill to properly dispose of the hated figure of Shampoo.
Cat, properly prepared, could be quite a delicacy. "She's
only stuck as a cat when she's been hit with cold water, and
can switch back with hot, so she's still a danger..."

Shampoo paused in biting the bars of her cage to consider
this.

"How about some of that Formula 110 memory-erasing shampoo?
We can make her *forget* she was ever human!" Pink smirked
at the thought of Shampoo living off of a steady diet of
rats and roaches in some slum.

Thinking of the pink furred cat being taken in as a pet by
some farming family, Rink nodded. "Yeah, it'll take some
work, but I can go get the appropriate materials. Formula
110 isn't strong enough, but 140 might do the trick."

Shampoo resumed trying to find a way OUT of this mess. She
knew of Formula 140, and was not anxious to have her mind
completely erased (subject to a trigger). She yowled,
wishing that Kasumi or Ranma or SOMEBODY were nearby!

If only she could transform to Sailor Amazon! Shampoo
stopped. Maybe there was enough of that faerie magic stuff
left over that she could transform again. After all, she'd
transformed once in Tokyo, twice in the Faerie Realm, and
once at that shrine!

Shampoo was still straining as Pink opened the door and
reached into her cage.

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

Smedley, Master Of Goblins, looked over the uniforms Zed
had produced, and couldn't help but wonder about the
coloration. "Why red shirts?"

"Tradition," said Zed. "Besides, your goblins and Sigmund's
orcs won't be used for sneakery in this endeavor. Being
*more* visible is a plus when we're going for intimidating
for the faceless minions in this sort of thing."

"I suppose," allowed Smedley. Actually most of his troops
would look better if they *were* faceless. Goblins were not
reknowned for physical beauty, or hygiene, or pleasant
manners...

"Besides, you can always customize with the shoulder pads
and helmets and whatnot. You can always outfit the *real*
goblins with slightly better stuff. The conjured ones should
all have these uniforms though."

"I suppose..." Smedley had actually been hoping for
something spiffy like that Coalition "Dead Boy" armor, but
supposed that all the Faerie Magic (and especially the
gremlins) would play hob with their systems. But there was
something about the nearly form-fitting red shirts that
disturbed him.

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

The ring hissed as the hot metal hit the quenching waters.
F'nor had followed the instructions carefully, and Piroette
had been quite handy in providing some of the more difficult
to acquire materials.

F'nor considered the enchanted ring and spoke a Word that
echoed in his workshop like thunder. He nodded, pleased,
though no smile creased his craggy face. The dwarf valued
his dignity.

Master, what..."

"Apprentice! What is the 'Law Of Contagion'?"

"That's one of the basic Laws Of Magic, isn't it? 'Once
together always together'?" The apprentice, a much younger
dwarf looked at the ring with a puzzled expression.
"But...?"

"And what is the 'Law Of Similarity'?"

"Another one of the basic Laws Of Magic. 'Like begets
like.' But Master, I don't understand."

"So how does this deal with a ring made of human hairs,
knotted three times, essence-enhanced seven times, and
folded within a silver ring?" The craggy dwarf nodded and
examined the runes covering the thin band. "The hair of
black and of red, that's the changeling that that wind faery
adopted. A hair of both forms, merged together into one and
forming the master knot. The remainder of the hairs are of
various others associated with him."

"Not that, Master, why did you add those last three hairs?"

"Oh," F'nor shrugged. "Because a pretty girl asked me,
that's why. You get older you'll understand things like
that. They've got this second line of defense of the mortal
realms planned using these 'Starriors' (hmmph, still think
they should call 'em Faerkin! grumble mutter) so they've got
power flowing through the group with their 'Princess' as the
cap."

"And the hairs are invoked to be like the Threads of Fate,"
the young dwarf nodded, understanding this much. "All linked
through the Princess so that they can share each other's
powers. But what happens if something happens to the
Princess?"

"I think the appropriate phrase amongst the mortals is
'Game Over', pup. Now start with the chalk, I want a Circle
Of Third Mastery in the viewing room before lunch!"

F'nor chuckled as he looked over the ring. Seven was the
optimum number for an adventuring company, as any fool who'd
ever gone a-questing could tell you. And here was a questing
company in the making. It certainly brought back memories.

F'nor's chuckle died and he glared as SOMETHING started
messing with the perfection of his enchantment. No, his work
held, but one of the players had just been altered
significantly. This would bear looking into.

F'nor frowned as he further examined the ring. Red/black
binding unchanged. Green hair, blonde, black, brown and dark
brown, all unchanged. He frowned even further when he noted
the lavender hair was the altered one, and had become pink.
He'd strengthened the essence there enough that something
befalling the one represented by that thread affected the
thread itself. Well, whatever it was, it would *not* be
allowed to mar the perfection of his design.

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

Ukyo smirked as the television set up in her little
okonomiyaki shop showed the newest footage of "Sailor
Valkyrie" and "Sailor Pixie" in battle against a youma.
There were too many customers for her to go to open
gloating.

"Who is Sailor Valkyrie? And what of this Sailor Pixie?"
The commentator looked gravely into the camera. "How long
have they been hidden among us, waiting for these vile
creatures known as 'youma' to appear? What is the connection
between the Tokyo based Sailor Rose and these other Senshi
based in our own Osaka? Where is Sailor Amazon? And what of
these other two mysterious seifuku-clad figures glimpsed
this afternoon patrolling the Nerima ward? Tonight on 'In
Depth Charges' we'll have our newest correspondent at
Channel 10 News, Megumi Noguchi, as she interviews Naoko
Takeuchi, creator of the Sailor Moon series and the new
Sailor Wars series."

The now-familiar-to-millions image of Takeuchi appeared in
a clip from the interview, as she explained that she had
been contacted by a spokesperson for the group and was
currently working out the series based on information she'd
been provided by that Sailor Agent.

The screen went to a "manga expert" who worked for a new
studio named "Gainax" that had come up with some wonderful
ideas for the next DaiCon SF convention. "We see here the
typical sentai series elements- each of the seifuku having a
different color, and embodying a different basic element.
Valkyrie wears dark blue and used ice, Amazon wore purple
and used wind, Angel wore white and used Holy or White
Magic, Rose's seifuku is black (which fits her stated
position as the Outrider of these real-life Senshi) and she
used lightning which could be air or earth, and we haven't
seen any of these others attacks though one is wearing a
white seifuku with red trim and the other is wearing a red
seifuku with white trim. The one called Sailor Pixie was
obviously caught unawares as she isn't wearing her seifuku
in this shot."

Kasumi winced as a video sequence showing Sailor Angel was
again shown.

Ranma doubly winced as another shot of him being carried to
safety by Sailor Valkyrie was shown.

Ukyo merely smirked some more at Ranma's expense. It wasn't
the revenge she'd planned, but it had a satisfaction all its
own.

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

Nabiki shook slightly, seeing scoured bones where a
vengeful UnSeelie had taken the escape of his prey out on
someone who might otherwise have survived.

Piroette, Princess of the Fey, looked about while warrior
elves held themselves ready. If *anything* remotely UnSeelie
approached, it wouldn't get very close.

"Why?" Nabiki stared at the remains, knowing that Harold
might well have lived thousands of years due to his fey
blood. Someone close enough to immortal for her standards
had just thrown his life away for her. She didn't
understand. She felt relieved, guilty, sad, and something
else she wasn't quite sure of.

"It was his choice," said Piroette simply. A quick hand
signal from one of the Wood Elves communicated that there
was no trace of the enemy nearby. "He could save himself or
you. He chose to save you."

"But WHY?" Nabiki couldn't believe how calmly everyone else
was taking it. Faerie didn't have an afterlife. Once dead,
they were dead.

Piroette, for her part, was having trouble understanding
this mortal's reaction. "Harold is no more. Why dwell on
it?"

Nabiki shook her head, several unpleasant things she'd read
about the faerie being driven home by the lack of reactions.
An alien morality, faeries tended to live in the Now, the
future was something to plan for, but the past was a memory
that faded quickly.

Most of the creatures around her now wore vaguely human
forms. They could never completely understand humans, nor
could a human ever completely understand one of the Folk.
The similarities were superficial, the differences vast.
They were the High Elves and Spirit Folk. The pixies were
stuck at a child's mental development level, the leprechauns
only slightly more developed, and the Wood Elves somewhat
like teenagers.

Even those that associated with humans for years, or those
closest to human such as the nymphs and dwarves and selkie
had that odd alien-ness that made the difference between
East and West seem piddling by comparison.

Straightening slightly, Nabiki gave an answer in terms that
she was sure they'd understand. "It's a human thing."

"Ah," Piroette accepted this, for humans were fascinating
bundles of contradiction.

Clapping her hands three times as she'd remembered doing in
a shrine, Nabiki gave thanks for the Stone Ogre. "I think
I'd better get going before any more UnSeelie come calling."

"True," Piroette could see that Harold's death upset the
human for some reason. Perhaps it would be better not to
broach the subject of a faerie helper now. There would be
opportunities later. "I can have a Gate opened whenever you
are ready."

-------Nerima------------
"Another muffin, Akane?"

"I'm stuffed, Yoshi. Where did you learn to cook like
that?"

"Well, when Mom took her 'walk', I had to take over all her
duties and keep my GPA up. I ended up taking Home Ec since
that'd kill two birds, y'know." Yoshi looked a little
embarrassed but his eyes shone when he looked at Akane.

"Well, I..." Akane leaned forward, wanting to thank this
juku student for all his help.

Yoshi drifted closer, trembling slightly and seemingly
hypnotized by the look in her eyes. "I..."

"Uhm," Akane noticed they were almost touching. Just a
little closer and...

"Oh dear, look at the time," Soun rushed in. "Gee,
Kitase-san, you'd better get going. Thanks for dinner!"

Akane sighed, another moment ruined. And it was only 6pm...
AND on a Sunday.

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

Light flickered, and Nabiki tried to ignore the half dozen
multi-hued faerie that had "tagged along" for the ride. She
regarded the restaurant, crowded on a Sunday evening, the
smells of cooking okonomiyaki beckoning her within.

Squaring her shoulders and settling her pack, Nabiki
squelched the butterflies in her stomach and stepped within
the Osaka restaurant.

Featherbrite's Tale CHAPTER TEN:
Ukyo's Terrible Vengeance, OR
Hello Kitty
gregg sharp, metro...@mindspring.com

Ranma 1/2 owned by Viz Video & Takahashi Rumiko. Various
other characters owned by various other authors. No
copyright infringement is intended. The following is a
non-professional work for the purpose of entertainment only.
Anyone thinking otherwise has obviously been hitting the
faerie dust. If you still feel the need to flame or get
critical on me, be sure to send those to the Akane Mailing
List. Venting is good for the soul sometimes. Lord knows i
need to on occasion...

"If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little bit above
it." -H.W. Longfellow

"Anybody who has read of Quantum Physics, and not been
confused by it, has clearly not understood the material in
question." -S.Hawking

"Go not to the elves for answer, for they will say both no
and yes." -JRR Tolkein

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

Nabiki entered the restaurant. The scene before her was
pretty much what she had expected, except that she didn't
see Shampoo anywhere.

Ranma-chan, wearing a waitress outfit, was weaving in
between the crowded tables with an occasional dark
muttering. She was carrying two large trays loaded with
okonomiyaki.

Kasumi, dressed in a demure blue kimono, was acting as "tea
lady" and the scent of a rich blend followed her as she
likewise wove among the tables.

There was some boy that Nabiki didn't recognize behind the
counter, speedily cranking out the little "Japanese pizzas"
with obvious skill.

The place was packed. Mainly students of various ages from
what Nabiki could see. A fair number of girls, but well over
half were boys.

Nabiki also noted a fair number of girls had dreamy
expressions and were looking at the okonomiyaki chef.
Similar dreamy expressions from boys were directed towards
her sister Kasumi (who seemed completely oblivious to this,
and knowing her sister- Nabiki KNEW that appearances were
not deceiving in this instance) while the looks towards the
cute redhaired waitress tended to focus more in on various
parts of her anatomy.

"I'll be with you in a... oh crud," Ranma managed, her eyes
tracking three pixies as the faerie started checking the
place out. She quite obviously had been distracted enough
that she hadn't recognized the individual walking in.

Nabiki smirked, confident that her "somebody else's
problem" spell was working. Now she could quietly observe
and determine what the situation was like before they knew
she was here. With one finger touching the Book, she quickly
did a Clairaudience spell.

"Damn, I wish Shampoo was here," muttered Ranma to Kasumi
as the two crossed paths. "We could really use a hand,
*especially* with *those* here."

"What are they?"

"They're pixies. One's a frost pixie, one's a earth sprite,
and the third's a spark or flame pixie. Not much on power by
themselves. Double crud."

"Ranma-chan, your language."

"Sorry, Kasumi. Check over there. There's a fourth one. A
spell group with four elements represented. AND that girl
that just came in has some sort of Illusion wrapped around
her. Looks like one of the local mages got curious."

"Oh, that's just Nabiki. She enjoys being sneaky. Let her
have her fun."

Nabiki's face fell as she mentally scrambled for the
threads of the spell surrounding her. They were intact! How
did Kasumi know?!

"Oh," Ranma caught three thrown okonomiyaki and spun the
plates into place before the appropriate customers, "that's
troubling. Does she do this a lot?"

"Why yes, in fact, remind me to tell you about the time she
was at Tokyo Disneyland and..."

Nabiki betrayed her identity with a startled squawk. Kasumi
was going to tell RANMA about the time she had snuck off on
a trip to Disneyland, only to find that warm and fuzzy did
*not* describe the lawyers or security forces employed by
Disney. ESPECIALLY after some youths had apparently gone off
and beaten the snot out of Mickey. She'd been eight years
old and quite terrified by the incident. (And when Daddy had
come attacking the people threatening his little girl,
(actually at that point they were trying to calm her down
since she obviously *wasn't* one of the thugs) the sight of
her Daddy the bigshot martial artist being beaten into the
floor by Goofy and Cinderella had pretty much caused her to
abandon the martial arts herself.) (2)

Nabiki winced a little as the two moved away from each
other and her Clairaudience spell instead picked up two
customers discussing whether the chef behind the counter was
*doing* both waitresses. This wasn't as much cause for the
wince as the detail the two customers were working out for
the mechanics of such an arrangement. That at least one
person would likely suffocate in such an arrangement seemed
likely. Even worse was that there was a pixie hanging over
the two's table taking notes.

The jukebox started playing one of those songs that had
been translated over from English into Japanese. Nabiki
blinked and wondered why the place had *two* jukeboxes
anyway...

Well, Tokyo girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And Kansai girls, with the way they talk
They knock me out when I'm down there

The Toyama farmer's daughters
Really make you feel all right
And those Hokkaido girls, with the way they kiss
They keep their boyfriends warm at night

{Refrain}
I wish you all could be Kawa-ii girls
Wish you all could be Kawa-ii
I wish you all could be Kawa-ii girls

Nabiki looked over the place. Obviously a rental property
with little or no room for tweaking. No indication of
permanence or individual personality except for the second
jukebox. Hmmm. There were three of those pixies hanging
around the one that wasn't playing, as if they had found
something *interesting* there. Nabiki shifted her
Clairaudience towards them but wasn't able to get anything
through the music.

Japan has the rising sunshine
And the girls all get so sweet
I dig a seifuku on the shy island girls
They're the kind I like to meet.

I been all around this great big world
And I seen all kind of girls
Yeah, but I couldn't wait to get back to here
Back to the cutest girls in the world.

Nabiki grimaced at this version of the Beach Boys'
"California Girls" and wondered how long it would be before
it found its way into a commercial. If "Daydream Believer"
could be used to sell Ramen, why not this?

"Tea, Nabiki?"

Nabiki blinked and realized that Kasumi was smiling down at
her with tea tray in hand. "Uhm, sure, Kasumi."

The music ended and Nabiki realized that the faerie were
talking about doing a quick enchantment on the jukebox.
Maybe there was something wrong with the Clairaudience
spell, though. It sounded like they were saying the second
jukebox was a guy disguised as a girl disguised as a
jukebox? What the faerie were arguing about was whether they
should turn the guy into a girl or into a jukebox, thereby
making him happy.

Nabiki shrugged it off but Kasumi had already gone on to
the next table.

"Would you like to order, Miss?" Ranma blinked at Nabiki,
unable to keep a slight smile off her face.

Nabiki found herself smiling back before she forcibly
resumed the Ice Queen role. "Yes, I think a shrimp
okonomiyaki with the spicy sauce will do."

"Right away, ma'am."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that. So Ranma was willing to
go along with the deception, even though Kasumi had just
told her that this new customer was an Alter Self illusion
over his iinazuke? Just because Kasumi had told Ranma that
Nabiki enjoyed it?

Nabiki smirked as Ranma dropped off the order and went to
the next table. Well, this might be some entertainment at
that.

----------

To say that Oberon and Titania did not get along would be
rather like saying that Belldandy tends to be polite or that
space is big. The two would infrequently reconcile, but then
things tended to blow up before very long. Hera and Zeus,
for example, were the very example of domestic bliss when
compared to Oberon and Titania.

Oberon *did* tend to keep tabs on things, and was therefore
interested when all the dimensional comings-and-goings
failed to rouse his estranged wife from her Citadel. With
Ravenshart out of the action, he had to use other spies, but
that was something he had in number.

The report from Shadoweye was something that Oberon found
*very* intriguing. His wife, the Queen of the Seelie Court,
had found a new game.

(It has been said before that with lifespans of even mere
hundreds of years, boredom becomes a torture as foul as
anything found within the Twisted Palace. Oberon had existed
for several hundred thousand years. He wasn't the "oldest of
all old things" but it was still a fairly respectable
lifespan for an adolescent. This last, and a record of
trysts that would have made the aforementioned Zeus jealous,
had pretty much formed Oberon's current cure for his ennui.)

The faerie had been around for a very long time, but there
were things far older than them. One was a fellow named Puck
who had briefly been within Oberon's service for the chance
to sow mischief. This brief service had lasted about seven
hundred mortal years, and had ended when Puck had decided
that Oberon was more interested in chaos than mischief. To
Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow, there was a considerable amount
of difference between mischief and chaos.(1)

Titania had spent some time with Puck recently, and
apparently had learned of Alternate Universes from that
mischievous being.

Up until this revelation, Oberon and Titania had played
only with Three Worlds, though they knew of others. The
Faerie Realm was their home, the Mortal Realm a lower energy
world where inherent faerie abilities were great powers, and
finally the lands of Makai- a land of demons and dark beings
(though they'd gotten rather civilized of late and weren't
nearly as much fun as they'd used to be).

Other mortal planes got Oberon to thinking, and he started
looking at the possibilities therein. Magical energies got
his attention, and he noted that his Princess existed on one
of those other planes. He cast his mind's eye on these other
realities and found amusement.

Here, the one known as Ranma was a powerful mage, and
married to the Aesir goddess of love!

Here, another version of Ranma walked worlds with ease and
had powerful allies.

Here, in a universe with a faster time rate, yet another
Ranma had married a girl named Akane Tendo and fathered a
child named Ranko. Now it was the *daughter* who adventured
(mainly because her home life was such a *hell* that just
about any excuse to get away was welcomed) and crossed
planar boundaries.

Oberon's gaze was stopped as a black cat crossed his path.
"Puck."

"Nowadays it's Toltiir," acknowledged the currently feline
Elder. "Don't go any further, old friend. Some of these
realities have guardians, and many would not hesitate to
strike you down."

Oberon considered as the image of the Elder faded. He had
forces aplenty. He would concentrate on *this* Realm, for
now, but sending a highly placed UnSeelie Lord in to stir
things up (and possibly net him one of these *other* Ranmas)
seemed well within his current abilities.

Oberon smirked. Why, he might even start a collection.

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

F'nor grumbled about leaving his forge for any length of
time and handed the locator to Holly. The driad Holly was
rather (ahem) busy with a certain samurai lad from Nerima,
and contacted a selkie named Wavefire. Wavefire being not
particularly interested in going after a girl when she was
hoping to spot an unattached guy in these proceedings,
handed off the task to her bridge partner -a frequently
tipsy fruit bat named Bartholomouse (often shortened to Bat
for obvious reasons.) Bartholomouse having a power level
barely sufficient to cast a "Detect Alcoholic Beverages,
Type & Quality 120' radius" spell quickly found that he
couldn't possibly handle a quest by himself. So Bat tried to
pass it off to a korred (who was busy trying to get a Copy
Text spell scroll and couldn't be bothered), an oriad (who
would have *loved* to help but as oriads were weakened by
water couldn't go near that Jusenkyo place), and finally
(with some trepidation) a satyr whose name cannot be
mentioned in polite company.

Fortunately for many, this satyr usually was referred to by
the nickname of H.Bopp. Also fortunately, while he had the
usual satyr limitation of an attention span that couldn't
cover a large puddle, Bopp was "into" his Art. In his case,
he was a rare sort of spellcaster among the Faerie. A
SpellSinger. One whose words and music shaped the raw power
of Faerie Magic into effects that could go beyond normal
spellcraft. If it could be controlled, that is.

Which was one of the major reasons that Bat had been
reluctant to bother the satyr, but the remainder of
individuals he could contact either didn't have the power,
or were busy with other repercussions of this mortal Quest.

Bat approached the place with some anxiety but bravely put
off imbibing his usual fermented fruit mash in order to try
to deal with this bizarre individual. Into the perpetually
darkened lair of the satyr, Bat trembled.

Satyrs, you see, were quite different in many respects from
nymphs. Nymphs came in many varieties: driads of the wood,
oriads of the earth, naiads of the waters, and sylphs of the
air being the most common. Satyrs, on the other hand, came
in one variety. Nymphs were female. Satyrs were male. Nymphs
tended to be a bit flighty and bumbling, perpetually stuck
in what a human would consider a "scatterbrained adolescent"
mode. If they ever discovered shopping malls, well, it
wouldn't be pretty. Satyrs tend to be wild party animals who
hung around in the woods. A satyr typically didn't think
much beyond food, frolic, music (usually as part of the
frolic category), and planning on more frolicking.

In both cases there were exceptions. Then there were even
more who were, quite frankly, odd even by the standards of
Faerie.

"Misster Bopp?" Bat asked into the darkened lair.

The sound of bongos could be heard from within the cave.
"Ah, the bat creeps in, lurking in shadow, a question to
ask, without or within?"

"Actually I need transsssport to the Mortal Realm." When
there was no further reply, Bat cleared his throat and tried
again. "So, uhm, if posssible, could you send me to the
location on this tracker?"

"Yo, daddy-o, I can feel the groove, you've got to move.
Might I inquire, this circumstance dire?"

Bat worked it out and wished he could deal with *someone* a
little less freaky. He made an effort to stop hissing his
's's. "Uhm yes, well one of the Sailor Starriors is in some
sort of trouble, we think it was an UnSeelie transformation
magic..."

H.Bopp moved out of the shadows taking a drag on some
cigarette and sending a plume of chartreuse smoke out a
moment later. "Ah, these questing mortals all amuck, you
suppose any would like to ..."

"NO!" Bat cut off the satyr. "I don't think so. Don't go
*there*."

Another plume of smoke, plaid this time. "Don't get your
nerves all a'jangling, man, H. Bopp has got ya, it's part of
the plan. You're setting before me an awesome hard task, and
it don't hurt if'n I should ask."

"Depends on *who* you ask, I suppose. Can you do it?"

H.Bopp shifted his beret forward and tapped thoughtfully on
his bongos. "To open some Gate to a maiden fair, sure- I'll
do the task, if you show me where."

Bat looked over the getup. Beret, dark eye-covering of some
odd material, skintight black shirt, loose fitting black
shorts. "What's with the odd clothing, I thought satyrs
typically ran around 'in natural fashion.'"

H. Bopp let out another cloud, this one forming a pink
Moebius loop. "Can I help that my funky forest brethren,
haven't scoped to Ma Nature's plan? Colors are part of the
courtship rites, and frankly I look good in tights."

Bat worked it out, the clothing was to intice females. THAT
was certainly keeping in satyr nature, at least. "Well, that
explains the shirt. Why bongos?"

"It's tres cool, little bat, I can tell from where you're
at. Years ago I a sang a tune, an ancient song of drum and
rune. And to these eyes there came a vision, from Mortal
Plane with great precision. A smoky den appeared to me,
dimly lit by candles three. Where poets with drums just like
these, weaved their rhymes, ate wine and cheese. Inspiration
had come calling, and now I found undress appalling. And so
I moved to emulate, these philosophers of notions great."

Bat translated this to mean that the satyr had gotten a
spell wrong, gotten a vision of something on the mortal
plane, and "imprinted" on it. It happened with a lot of the
lesser faerie, they ran into a concept or idea and it
consumed them for a few centuries. Fortunately there wasn't
much traffic with the mortal plane or who *knew* what kind
of nonsense the pixies would get involved in.

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

Ranma awoke from a horrible nightmare in which someone had
thrown Shampoo into "Spring Of Drowned Sanrio Character" and
emerged as "Hello Kitty." Shuddering, and wondering what
*that* meant (other than he should *not* eat squid
okonomiyaki just before bedtime), Ranma slowly made his way
downstairs.

He was careful not to wake Nabiki, as through a vagary of
Fate, she had ended up bunking in his room. Ranma's father
would have been delighted that "Operation Shacking Up" was
more or less proceeding even with the distance between the
instigators and the participants. And so the current
arrangement was that Ukyo and Kasumi shared one room, while
Ranma and Nabiki shared the other.

Ranma passed several passed out pixies, as apparently the
various faerie had gone about a sort-of slumber party after
the restaurant had been closed.

The sometimes-sylph didn't need a rumble of thunder to know
that this was ominous.

Pixies weren't that bad, intentionally. Featherbrite
herself had been hanging around humankind for years, and so
could *mainly* act within human limitations/guidelines.

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

Shampoo continued to run, her mind stepping down from
Fullblown Panic as she realized the two girls from the
Herbal Village were somewhere far behind her. As the
adrenalin left her, so did consciousness, and the little
pink kitty-cat hit the ground.

"Well, that's her."

"Sorry, little dude, don't mean to be crude. But I thought
I saw a putty-kat, and I's afraid my tastes don't run to
that."

Bat grumbled. Now that they were *away* from Jusenkyo, the
oriad Nicki could have intervened. Normal streams didn't
give her as much problem as magical waters, though they were
still inconvenient. "She's been transformed into a cat by
Jusenkyo, normally she's Sailor Amazon."

"Righteous," said H. Bopp with a grin. "But afraid my juice
ain't enough to reverse, some ancient feline 'Jusenkyo'
curse. It might if I knew the proper song, but for now she's
just gonna have to get along."

"Got anything for endurance? Maybe I can fly her back
home." Bat thought it likely. He was four feet tall and a
good flyer. (Lousy at landings but he had the flying part
down pretty well.) He could easily carry a housecat for
hours at a time.

"Sorry little man, but I gotta plan. The trick is to get
her back with her guy, and I gotta way that I jus' gotta
try." H. Bopp started playing his bongos softly, building up
magic.

Bat, being relatively sensible for a human serf enchanted
to his current form 700 years previously, ducked and
covered. SpellSinging was a form of magic where control was
often conspicuous by abscence.

Still, this largely seemed to be working. An ancient song,
in High Elvish no less, of one who was far from her lover
and longed to return.

Then Bat looked at the subject of the spell and decided to
find some fermented cider a bit later. *THIS* would require
a few extra shots of the high grade stuff.

At this point, Rink & Pink investigated the odd lighting
and were reunited with their lost cat.

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

Tsubasa Kurenai woke, feeling an odd taste in his mouth. He
was aware that *something* had happened, but wasn't sure of
all the details. He'd been spying on his beloved Ukyo in the
clever guise of a jukebox, trying to make sure that those
evil women weren't there to tempt his dearest.

Actually it was odd, he couldn't remember coming home. He
couldn't remember putting on this powder blue nightie. He
couldn't remember anything after the *real* jukebox had
started playing that "California Girls" song.

Tsubasa stumbled down the narrow stairs and entered the
bathroom.

Twenty five seconds later, he screamed in the manner of a
lost soul.

Whimpering, he leaned against the bathroom wall and slid
down to a seated position. He continued to whimper as the
evidence remained (or didn't) of the Something Terrible that
had occurred.

He didn't have the nerve to find out what the coin slot
did.

-----------

Shampoo shot out of the gateway, landing on her feet, and
racing her little feline body as fast as it could go! That
holes don't normally open in midair was ignored, so long as
it was AWAY from the two girls.

Rink came through a second later, holding a large bottle of
Formula 140 shampoo in one hand. Pink joined her a second
later, still trying to hold off the two monsters.

Finally a bongo playing satyr and an overlarge fruit bat
stepped onto the roof and took in the sight of the fleeing
cat and two pursuing girls.

"Bad karma, don'cha know. Follows everywhere you go." H.
Bopp tapped his bongos one last time, and the gateway
closed.

"I thought that mortals couldn't see faerie within their
world," Bat commented. "Those two saw us without any
apparent problem."

"The magic of my song, that's where it all went wrong. In
the glow of mystic light, shown we are in mortal sight." H.
Bopp shook his head. "Later dude, I must confess, this
surely is one horrid mess. From Faerie Realm, I'll check
this out, it's interesting without a doubt."

"Hmmmph. I don't think," said Bat after a minute, "that *I*
want to stay here either. No woods, no orchards, not much of
anything. Maybe I can get Nicki to check further, she's
human-looking enough that she'll fit in around here.(3)"

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

Zed was in his element. He was grooving. He was rocking.
Zed was, in fact, happier than he'd been in almost 100,000
years.

"But why?" Smedley asked, proving that he had no clue.

"Patterns, O Master Of Goblins. Patterns are *always*
important. One simply *must* observe the proper forms."

"That's why you look like a High Elf in some sort of
silvery jumpsuit with shoulder pads and a black cape? I
don't get it. I just don't get it." Smedley thought that he
needed a drink or two and this *still* wouldn't make any
sense.

"THIS is an official Dark Kingdom General Uniform. Modified
slightly, of course." Zed indicated the bodysuit he was
wearing with a gesture. "You know that there was some
problem with the ones depicted in those magazines."

"Yeah, they were all tight in the crotch." Smedley
considered the possibility of the first "Dark Kingdom"
invasion occurring in the Suntory Brewery facilities. Hmmm.
How to engineer such a mistake...

"No, they lacked suitable *style* for the UnSeelie Court."
Zed shook his head, believing that Smedley just couldn't get
it.

"Oh, so when do we go capture His Majesty's new concubine,
anyway?" Go in, grab the girl, grab whatever alcoholic
beverages they could, and zip back.

"Patience, Smedley. Patience. First we must set the mood.
Ravenhart is even now securing mortal shells to use in our
campaign. THEN we shall make a few appearances, to terrify
the populace- cutting off the support these pawns of the
Seelie might get from them. I'll let you choose the first
such target, keep in mind that it must be high profile
enough to be widely publicized!"

Smedley grinned, having an entirely new liking for Zed.
Especially as he'd just run across an ad for a place with
the wonderfully seductive name of a "beergarden" in one of
these Lupin III magazines. Sounded like a good first target
to him!

Zed didn't notice as he was picturing the details of his
plan falling into place. "With such instances we'll then
appear within their area and THEY will come to us! We'll hit
this Tokyo Tower thing, it's some sort of villain tradition
to menace it. Maybe I'll turn it into Cheese Whiz or
something to be different."

Smedley nodded. Most faerie had a problem with metal and
cold iron specifically. Zed was one of a handful whose
weaknesses were entirely different.

"THEN we allow them to think we're being beaten when
WHAMMO! We strike suddenly, capture the Princess, and we're
back here toasting our success!" Zed smirked at the vision
before him.

Smedley allowed that it *might* work. He didn't
particularly care, as long as he got to sample whatever
improvements those mortals had developed in their brewing
skills.

He remembered that mortals could be *quite* clever under
the right circumstances.

-----------
"There are two centers for these heroes," Ravenhart said to
his new subordinates through his puppet. "One in Osaka. The
other here in Tokyo. Reports indicate that the ones in Tokyo
are Sailors White, Red, and Rose. The Sailors in Osaka are
Pixie, Angel, and Valkyrie. We aren't sure what happened to
Sailor Amazon. She may have been injured in your attack on
that restaurant.

"None of them are as important as the Princess. The capture
of the Princess is the overriding priority here." Isao's
unblinking stare swept the group of Yakuza thugs. "We aren't
sure *which* of the various Sailors is actually the
Princess, only that it is not Sailor Amazon.

"We are going to try for a series of quick strikes in order
to draw out the Princess. If possible *capture* any of the
Sailors that show and we can then determine which is
actually the one we seek.

"Those who wish to gain power to better combat the Sailors
and later use them to further your own ambitions form a line
behind the white rope. By joining that line, you are
signifying your acceptance of the... stop pushing, there's
room for all of you. Thank you, you will be signifying your
acceptance of any inconsequential side effects that may
occur. Yes, yes, go right ahead. Certainly you can change
your mind later, but I doubt any of you will."

-----------
"What was that girl yelling about, anyway, Ukyo?"

"That was Tsubasa. I'm not sure, probably just trying to
fondle me again."

"Oh. And first that skeleton-thingie, then the flying
snake, then that water elemental. I never knew Osaka was
so... lively." Ranma looked at the group and sighed as he
*finally* got to turn back into a guy after a hard evening
as a waitress.

"They were looking for someone, sugar, and we all think we
know it's you that they're after. Why, I don't know."

"Whoever this 'Dark Kingdom' is - they've adopted the same
modus operandi as the villains of the manga Takeuchi-san
used. Various youma attacking people. Differences are that
they aren't going after 'life energy' so much as just
creating havoc." Nabiki tapped her pencil against the
countertop, wondering at the similarities.

"And stealing 96 cases of beer," pointed out Ukyo.

Then again, realized Nabiki, there *were* some significant
divergences. "Nonetheless, in the various manga I've read,
the central character is the one that serves to shake the
others out of their normal lives."

Ranma sweatdropped as everyone's gaze locked onto him. He
lowered the teakettle with a wince. "Uhm... sorry?"

"In *all* of the manga," Nabiki exaggerated, "the central
character is the one that the various bad guys are after."

"Uhm..." Ranma repeated.

"In any case, they have other objectives, but one of their
priorities is *always* finding and going after the central
character." Nabiki smirked, more than happy not to be the
primary target. She wasn't even a Sailor Starrior so she
wasn't a *secondary* target. And with the ley lines nearby,
she could draw additional power for spells. "As you are
likely a primary target, that *does* bring another matter to
consideration."

"You still need to consider a disguise, Ranma." Kasumi
indicated what she had been sewing, which was her *own* idea
of what Ranma's costume should be.

"I am *not* wearing a seifuku. No. No way. No how. Uh uh."

Kasumi held up a leotard with a short skirt. "But it would
look so cute on you!"

"No. Not a chance!"

"An 'Instant Change' spell doesn't take much effort,
actually," said Featherbrite with a thoughtful expression.
"Mages use them all the time so they can go from their labs
to a formal Court appearance with as little fuss as
possible."

"Not me. No teeny tiny short skirt. No tight little spandex
bathing suit. No."

"Technically," said Nabiki from where she was filling out
school application forms, "it isn't spandex. It's lycra."

"Not this Ranma. Uh uh. No seifuku, no sailor suit, not
even on a dare!"

"Oh dear," Kasumi said with a sigh. And she'd thought the
two toned green and gold would have *so* accentuated
Ranma-chan's hair. Well, at least she hadn't gotten around
to making the tiara.

<SPLASH!>

"WHAT YA DO THAT FOR!"

Crystalynn just giggled and the earth sprite set the bucket
down.

"She wanted to get your measurements," advised Ember. The
spark pixie was sitting on the hot grill near a cooking
okonomiyaki and enjoying the radiant heat enormously.

Ranma shook water out of her hair. "NO WAY!! UH UH! It
*ain't* happening! There's NO WAY you are gunna get *ME*
into some STUPID SHORT SKIRTED FUKU!!!"

Ukyo realized that revenge could have many forms. "But
Ranma, we are doing this to *hide* our identities! No one
would know it was you."

Kasumi looked up from her medical texts again to regard the
redhaired girl. "But Ranma, if you don't wear one how are
you going to fight? Those criminals would find you if you
were in the news without a disguise."

"Still ain't NO way I'm wearing one of those stupid things!
Think of something else!"

Ukyo had learned enough about faerie that she turned her
next comments to Featherbrite and the other four pixies.
"He's got to have *some* disguise, or we'll all get exposed
as Scouts through association!"

Kasumi tried to be reasonable. "Please, Ranma. Won't you
reconsider? After all, if what the faerie are saying about
this 'pattern' is true - most of the fighting will center
around you. It would help if you were able to participate."

"I ain't never said I don't want ta fight. I only said you
ain't NEVER getting *ME* inside of a fuku!"

Kasumi and Ukyo both looked helplessly to Featherbrite.
Featherbrite made sure that Ranma couldn't see her grin but
the other pixies *could.* She was Ranma's friend, but that
didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun here.

"So you don't want a fuku?" Featherbrite mostly managed to
keep the mischief from her voice.

"That's what I keep SAYING!!" Ranma was so vexed about
being 'Sailor Pixie' that he didn't notice the slight give
in Featherbrite's voice.

"Okay, there's *still* a way that we can fit you in, get
you in diguise, let you fight, and not disrupt the pattern."
Featherbrite winked. Nabiki hid her smirk and decided that
this would be a *lot* more interesting than filling out some
forms.

"Really?" Ranma had a sudden image of himself in some kind
of formal wear combined with a martial arts outfit. Heh.
That could be cool.

"Yup! It takes alot of power, so I couldn't reverse it. But
you'd be able to fight and never have to fear about your
identity *or* wear a fuku." Featherbrite was serious. The
change of clothing wasn't that bad, but keying in the extra
protection and identity scrambling spells and linking it to
the transformed state was difficult. Took a lot more power
than *she* had, especially to fool cameras and the like. And
maybe they could link in some powers too.

"Well what are ya *waiting* for!? Let's do it! I can't wait
ta get ta stop the bad guys with the rest of you! All this
sidelines crap was getting annoying."

"Okay, I'll need energy from the two of you to help me."

Kasumi nodded and held her hands out, the ghostly image of
a tree appeared, then vast feathered wings slowly faded into
being. When they had unfurled completely, they shrank and
Sailor Angel now stood where Kasumi had been.

Ukyo spun her large spatula around in her hands, lightning
flaring around her. When the lightning had finished, Sailor
Valkyrie took her place next to Sailor Angel.

"You four. I'll need your assistance as well." Featherbrite
knew the others would be eager to be in on this.

Kasumi and Ukyo both started concentrating, as four pixies
added their own spells to the mix.

Featherbrite started glowing like a miniature star. "Okay
Ranma! Transform!"

Ranma eagerly thrust her fist in the air, an image of the
dashing and heroic martial arts hero that she could
become."Star Kingdom Power!!!" She blinked. Wait a minute,
shouldn't she turn back into a guy first?

Ranma spun around in midair, eyes closed, which was a good
thing as she missed all the pink hearts and and glowing
lights that would *really* have caused Ranma's male
self-image some problems.

Coming down to rest, Ranma looked down at herself and
summed the situation up quite well. "AACKKKKK!!!!"

"Not bad, Ranma," said Nabiki, snapping a quick series of
pictures to sell to Takeuchi-san later.

"Oh my, Ranma. You look so *cute* in that!"

"Ack!"

"Shows off your legs pretty well, Ranchan. Accentuates your
waist and bustline too."

"Eep! Ack!" <THUD!>

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of wearing high heels.
Though the train on that outfit's a bit long, don't you
think?" Nabiki was being supportive. Well, mainly.

"WHAT KIND OF GET-UP IS THIS?!"

"Beautiful Faerie Princess Ranma," said Ember with a nod.
"Perfect."

"ACK!" Sailor Pixie didn't sound nearly so bad at that
moment.

(1) Another, of course, is Nathan Brazil. There are also a
few other Beings who could have been around roughly 13
billion years ago to watch the current Universe being born.
Any rumors that Kami-sama created the Universe just so that
Toltiir could go bother someone *else* remain
unsubstantiated. It would explain a few things, though.

(2) The actor wearing the Mickey Mouse suit recovered by the
end of the week. The boy wearing the Goofy suit was a 4th
dan black belt equivelant in the Cotton Fist, while the
Cinderella costume was worn by a lovely young girl named
Seira Tsuyuzaki who just happened to be 2nd dan in cosplay m
artial arts. And yes, watching Cinderella beating up your
father would probably be a traumatizing event.

(3) A six foot tall silver-skinned supermodel is going to go
unnoticed in Osaka. Bat's wrong. Again. What, you thought
only Akane was wrong in this story?! Bwahahahahaha! <thunk>
Itai... heehee. (Yes, this accusation was actually leveled
at me.) Ahem, well, in this fic at least nearly every
character is wrong at least once, and most are wrong a great
deal more. It's realistic.

--
-----------------------------
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"Still searching, still hoping, still alone."
-N.Brazil