~Chapter 4~

"Poor Ranma..."

	Ranma in male form sits atop his usual telephone pole. He's been there in 
deep thought for several hours. Two crows have taken up residence on his 
shoulders. He ignores the crows and continues to watch the sunset. He 
shivers thinking of the nightmares that he's recently been having. The 
lights, sounds, horrible images waking up feeling tired as if he never 
slept. Yet for the past few mornings he put on his game face and went 
through the motions.
	"I've got to talk to someone about this", he thought. Looking down from the 
pole, "Where to land?", asking himself.
	"Before you go!", one crow caws out, "...fear the fours!", the other 
completes. They then fly off. The startling incident causes poor Ranma to 
lose his balance. He plummets to Earth landing in a bush. 
	In a daze he staggered up. Dusting the brush off he looks up in 
bewilderment at the two crows flying off. "I really didn't need that," he 
moans. "Why does all this weird stuff have to happen to me. What in the hell 
did I do to deserve this!" he yells at the heavens. "Its getting late,  good 
thing there's no school tomorrow, I don't think I can handle much more 
stress." he thinks to himself as he sets off for home.
	Something is not right. Nerima is not usually dark, creepy, and dead.
	"Someone or something is following me," Ranma thinks as he looks to see a 
shadow scoot back behind his peripheral vision. Quickening his pace with 
anime leaps to adjacent rooftops he hurries home. Arguing with himself, "I'm 
not scared... I am just too tired to deal with this, that's all." 
	"R...a...n....m....a....a....a...a...," groans out in a deep eerie voice.
	"OK... OK.... so I AM scared...where the heck are all the people anyway? " 
Ranma observes as his normally fairy active neighborhood is strangely quiet."

"Meanwhile..."

	"(Chinese) Mousse what? You were supposed to keep an eye on him," Cologne 
said with concern. "What of the sidekick?" Cologne queried.
	"(C) He escaped with Mousse," Shampoo wearily replies.
	"(C) We'd better speed things up before the plan gets out of hand," Cologne 
says as she turns her attention to the Tick.
	"(English) Tick perhaps now would be a good time to execute the plan," 
Cologne suggests.
	The Tick who has been until now sampling most of the food in the kitchen 
looks over to Cologne as he responds," What... now?" he replies while 
cleaning his hands on his Piyu-Piyu apron." Its dark out. Only Evil attacks 
under the cover of night. At night Good sleeps, unless it is attacked by 
Evil. I will gladly gather up your demon-boy in the morning under the 
blazing sun... which is good." After Tick finishes pontificating he heads to 
the room that Cologne pointed out to him.
	Further attempts by Cologne to get the Tick to act now are met by, "Now, 
now Shampoo will be safe so long as I am here. My superhero senses will 
detect any signs of trouble." He pats the flustered Cologne on the head and 
closes his door.
	As the Tick surveys the water- soaked ransacked room, "Hmmm.....something 
is amiss here? Something's missing, something I came with that is very 
important... ARTHUR?!! "
	"Where's Arthur?" Tick screams as he opens the door.
	"The Demon-Boy must have him. He fears your presence Tick. You must act 
quickly!" Cologne grabs at the opportunity.
	With great enthusiasm Tick bounds out the door of Neko-Hanten. Into the 
night the Tick ventures forth. He ventures into an unfamiliar city leaping 
quickly and landing heavily. The tell-tale craters of the Tick dot the 
trail. So involved is he in avoiding the sparse night time pedestrians 
(Which by the way are screaming and running from the bounding blue object.) 
his quick heroic reflexes put him in mid air as an unsuspecting figure turns 
a street corner... BAM!! Quickly looking back he bounds back to the pile of  
spatulas and a K.O. 'd unconscious girl.
	"Good gravy! what have I done?" The Tick exclaims in shock. "Hmm... no time 
to wait. Still breathing that's good," Tick sighs in relief. "I'll just have 
to take her with me," Tick says to himself as he scoops her up bounds off.

"Something's brewing at the Tendo's..."

	Genma entering the Dojo from the yard entrance gives a slow bow. Soun 
entering the Dojo from the house entrance gives a quick bow and runs over to 
meet Genma.
	Soun cries out, "Saotome, you've got to help me!" 
	Genma, braces his emotional friend, "What's going on here?"
	Soun speaking with great concern," Kasumi fled the kitchen about an hour 
ago! She's been trying to help Akane from the doorway. Kasumi told me that 
she's pretty concerned about Akane. "
	Genma gives a confused look and replies," So what's exactly going on?"
	"Akane's been working on something in the kitchen like a women possessed. 
The kitchen's a mess! Food's everywhere! She says the food's talking to her!"
	Genma thinks for a second and replies," Sounds like she's finally 
snapped... she IS an anti-culinary genius."
	"That's not funny Saotome! Now... now you help me!" Soun stutters a plea.
	"What am I supposed to do?" Genma asks as he is suddenly lurched forward 
and dragged toward the house.
	Upon entering the living room Genma surveys the scene. Kasumi with a scared 
look in her eye stares into the kitchen. A vague rapidly moving form can be 
scene in the kitchen. A low hum of one-sided cooking conversation resonates 
from the kitchen. Suddenly Kasumi ducks a some green mass flies from the 
kitchen and hits a living room wall and sticks there.
	Genma stares at the slowly dripping gob. "Anyone for takeout?"

~Chapter 5~

"Floating out in the ether..."

	"I hate to hurry you Washu but we must move quickly," Belldandy urges.
	"I knew this would happen... as soon as I decide to take a little time off 
... there's a damn cosmic catastrophe," says Washu as she steps out of bed. 
"Well, can I at least change?" she asks as she throws her red crab-shaped 
pillow back on the bed. Her body shimmers for a second and then her pajamas 
change into her science academy leisure wear.
	As Washu 'changes clothes' Belldandy walks over to a bedroom wall which 
conveniently materializes into the door. "Shall we go?" Belldandy offers.
	"I guess I don't have much of a choice," Washu says as she follows Belldandy.
	As the two walk through the door their figures glow blue-white and 
disappear with a 'pop'. They rematerialize in a plane of pure foggy white, 
an ornate room of ivory surrounds them. Both women look as if there bodies 
were turned into liquid crystal. Belldandy radiates a bright blue - white 
aura. From inside Washu,  a dull red resonates with a stronger red beam of 
light projecting from her into the floor.
	"Woah, talk about deja vu! " Washu dizzily says holding here head. 
	Belldandy surpresses a knowing smirk. "I can not tell you what is happening 
in the alternate reality which I must send you to. The Ultimate Force 
strictly forbids the passage of knowledge into the lower planes. Neither 
will I be able to help you. You will know however that there is a great 
disturbance occurring and it must be stopped."
	"No! That's not true at all, " Washu snaps. "It would ruin the storyline if 
everything were to be revealed now. The Ultimate Force just brought us here 
because he had this cool scene in his head," Washu chirps as she points her 
finger around the room.
	"Right!" Belldandy agrees. She then snaps her fingers and Washu disappears.

"Outside Ucchan's..."

	Ranma warily avoiding the feeling of dread that seemed to be following him 
stopped in his tracks. Something across the street near Ucchan's caught his 
eye; glints of steel. He turned around to no one but he still couldn't shake 
the sense of danger. There was still no activity in the city. Its as if 
everyone decided to visit relatives out of town. He wished he were visiting 
relatives out of town. 
	Just as he was about to dash across the street that's when he saw the 
craters. "Something big made its way around here," he thought. As he 
approached the glints he saw more craters. Then he saw one big crater by the 
glints. "Spatulas? ... Ukyo? ... could something have happened to Ucchan," 
he thought. The restaurant was locked and dark. She wasn't there.
	Suddenly a chill ran down his spine. He quickly jumped to the roof of 
Ucchan's as he felt something cold touch his shoulder. He quickly looked to 
down to see nothing.
	"R...a...n...m...a..." the cold dead voice croaked.
	"Show yourself, you damn thing! I'm tired of running!" Ranma angrily retorted.
	"In due time.... you still must help me more...." the voice said as it 
echoed off into morbid laughter.
	
"Flying high above the scene..."

	MuMu-Chan long since perched on Arthur's back finally spotted what he 
needed. Holding his magnifying glass with one wing he directed Arthur in 
another direction. They then descended into the parking lot of the Tokyo 
MacDonalds.  
	"I really hope that you found what you needed. I've really got to go find 
the Tick. He may get himself in over his head. Which could lead to citywide 
destruction!" Arthur pleads.
	Mu Mu-Chan standing on top of a trash can looked expectantly at Arthur. A 
crowd of patrons began to circle the two. Arthur could feel the stares of 
curiosity, nervousness and utter hilarity beading down on him. Mutterings of 
words he's glad he didn't understand fluttered about. Mu Mu-Chan getting 
annoyed at the delay began to quack and pointed animatedly at the door.
	"You want me to bring you in there? I really don't think they allow ducks 
in there at all," Arthur replies earnestly.
	Mousse debated the possibility of just leaving the stranger here and 
walking to find some hot water (knowing full well that it would be 
impossible to fly while holding the magnifying glass, nor could he return 
home, Cologne would surely look there.) . "Wait a minute!" he thought. Even 
if he did manage to make into the bathroom to get to the hot water he still 
didn't have any clothes to wear. 
	Mu Mu-Chan defeatedly stuck his head in his wings at let out a decided and 
loud "QUACK!" . In duck terms a most profound swear.

"Ukyo wakes..."

	"Ah yes, Justice is on the move! **CRASH** " the Tick triumphantly says he 
lands on a building top, bricks and mortar fall harmlessly to the ground. 
"Traveling by buildingtop! **CRASH** Mighty strides! And powerful leaps! 
**CRASH** I only wish I knew where Arthur is **CRASH** Or the secret 
location of the Saotome hideout **CRASH** It looked so easy on the map." 
	For some time know all was dark and groggy for Ukyo. The strange sensation 
of motion and agitation throttled Ukyo's mind. It was so uncanny ... up ... 
down ... crash ... over and over again. Ukyo, starting to regain 
consciousness surveyed her surroundings.....

	"EEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" was the only 
sound heard for miles.
	
	"This isn't happening.... I'm not being held by a strange blue costumed man 
... leaping buildingtops, " Ukyo's mind raced as she denied reality. 
	Tick noticing his passenger had regained consciousness greeted her arrival, 
"Welcome back Spatula Girl..."
	Ukyo without a firm grasp on English (due to all the years training by the 
sea) had no idea what in the hell he was saying. She recognized 'spatula' as 
the English word for her cooking utensil. So she did the only thing that a 
sane girl in her position would do smile emphatically in the affirmative... 
and scream for help.
	The Tick, not knowing what she was saying, continued on with his 
explanation. "this is what brings me to these vantage points **CRASH** . I 
search for the demon - possessed Ranma Saotome - except, I'm lost..."
	"Saotome Ranma !?? ... Ran-Chan ??! ... He must be searching for Ran-Chan, 
but why?" Ukyo's brain finally adapting to her present situation. "I should 
point him toward the Dojo , before he does any more damage!" Ukyo thought as 
she began to point off towards the suburbs.
	"Spatula Girl ... you know of the hideout? ... great! " The Tick replied 
with renewed enthusiasm. "Of course , a local hero would know. She obviously 
must have been on his trail too!" he thought as he proceeded towards the 
suburbs. The full moon overhead lit the way. 
	
[END OF PART I , CHAPTER 5]
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JUSTICAR, Eric M Baker in Real Life
^^^^^^-- The ArchBishop of the Church of Nabiki - Join Us!
            -- Defender of the 4th Dungeon Gate (Washu-Chan's Little Lab) 
            -- Nabiki no Iinazuke 
            -- Member of #WASHU#
            -- Visit my hompage at-- http://pages.map.com/~ebaker 

         Factoid - 160 tons of sunlight falls on the Earth every day.
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