A Very Scary Bet, rough, very rough, v.v.rough version
part 1d: A different spin and charge
various char owned by various other people, who may
or may not be able to recognize them by the time this
has finished spinning.
by greggsharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
--------------June 9, 106 PA-----------------------
 "There ya go, how's that?" Ranma
stepped back from the table.

 K-9 flexed his mechanical legs.
"Diagnostics indicate all systems within assigned
parameters. Correction: slight dysfunction in right
rear extensor."

 "A bit stiff, eh?" Ranma frowned and
reached for a tool. "Hang on, it may be a faulty
nerve connection. Hmmmm. How's it now?"

 "Fully operational, Master."

 "Oh, it was nothing really," Ranma
grinned. "Just putting together a major upgrade
using cyborg parts and keeping as much of the
original systems as possible."

 "This unit will be able to traverse
a much greater range of environments and be
of much greater use in a variety of situations."
K-9 clicked a few times as he looked over his
covering of fake fur and flesh, broken only by
the mechanical "vest" that was actually an
extension of his cyborg body and an odd gem
between the eyes.

 "Yup!" Ranma nodded happily. "Taser
device in the bite, stun ray unchanged, laser for
fine and distance work, but the real nice bit'll be
the sonic beam."

 "I was meaning to ask you about that,"
the Doctor said in a dry tone. "Really, don't you
think all those weapons are a bit much?"

 "Just wait'll the Daleks menace again,"
Ranma shrugged. "The sonic beam is meant for
them or Cybermen, it'll just stun pure organics.
Against those with refractory coating or really
thick armor..."

 "Yes, yes, I understand." The Doctor
waved it off. "I'm quite concerned with your
fascination with combat, though."

 "I understand your viewpoint, Doctor,
and share it to some extent." Ranma began putting
away his tools. "Experience says though, you can't
always solve things peacefully..."

 "Making use of that Teaching Machine
a lot, are we?" The Gallifreyan time traveller looked
over the tools that Ranma had. "Isn't that MY sonic
screwdriver?"

 "Yes, now that Kuno isn't around to
load me up with perverted datafiles. And no, I
picked one up out of storage. Handy little thing."

 The Doctor nodded, the device was
exceedingly handy to have around. "Well, this
was the last of the twelve Dalek Bombs. Are you
ready to return to your own space/time?"

 Ranma didn't look up for a moment,
when he did, his expression was sad. "I guess
so, Doctor. It's been fun, and we've done a LOT
of good. Hell, we've saved peoples lives! I've
even learned a lotta things...but I miss my
family. Ucchan, 'Sumi, 'Biki, 'Dachi, even the
tomboy and the amazon... I still gotta marry
one of 'em, but even with everything in that
machine or with all we've seen I still don't see
a solution to THAT tangle."

 "No, and you managed to get yourself
engaged on three other worlds and two alternate
timelines," the Doctor pointed out with a smirk.
"At least you've learned not to speak as freely as
you have in the past."

 Ranma shrugged. "Well, they ain't got
access to a TARDIS, so I don't know how any of
'em can track me down, anyways. 'Cept maybe for
Konran, but I don't think he could find me."
-------------------October 10, 1990-----------------
  "So..." Nodoka sipped her tea, her eyes
half-lidded as she thought.

 "Pardon me, Mrs Saotome," Kasumi
inquired politely, "but why do you require that
Ranma be a 'man among men' as you put it? I
remember him as a skilled fighter, a fair student,
and a pleasant brother, but..."

 "I think what my dear sister is trying
to ask," Nabiki started as Kasumi trailed off
uncertainly. "If you wanted your son to be a
'man among men' (whatever THAT means) why
did you entrust his care to your husband?"

 Nodoka considered the four girls
and pulled a sheet of paper out of the sleeve of her
kimono.

 Kasumi took it, read it, turned pale and
handed it to Nabiki. Akane snatched the paper away
from her sister and started puzzling out the kanji
scribbled on the document while the remaining two
girls read over her shoulders.

 "WHAT?!" Ukyou started reading again,
sure that she had misread something.

 "Pardon me?" Nabiki looked up at Nodoka
with a flat gaze. "And what, may one inquire, is the
standard for being a 'man among men'?"

 Akane looked up with a nauseous expression.
The handprint at the bottom...how young was Ranma
when he agreed to this?

 "Seppuku? For not being manly enough?"
Ukyou's eyes widened as she remembered. "Oh my
kami, the curse!" Ukyou oofed as Akane sent an elbow
driving into her midsection.

 "I already know about that." Nodoka
sighed. "Mister Hibiki explained to me that my
daughter was under a curse so that she turned into
a boy when splashed with hot water. More, that
this curse apparently caused my daughter to think
she was actually my son. It was one of the few things
that he and Mister Kuno were able to agree on."

 "Oh my."

 "No! The curses don't work like that. Not
at all!" Nabiki shook her head. She didn't want little
brother to die. There were bets still riding on which
girl would eventually win. Ukyou was a clear favorite
at 2:1 odds, with Shampoo and herself coming in
just a little later.

 "Oh, so he's manly despite being a girl
some of the time?"

 "Well..." Nabiki wasn't sure if this woman
was one of those who could detect lies or not. "He's...
quite...strong."

 "We were able to keep up with some of
the schoolwork while on the road," Kasumi volunteered.
Mostly that had been her doing. "We were able to
study at odd times during the training."

 "He's very polite," Ukyou put in, not adding
that this would be on the rare occasions when he wasn't
putting his foot in his mouth.

 "And when we were bathing he didn't even
look at us," Akane put in, neglecting to mention
that was because of the pounding he had gotten when
he did look.

 The four girls shrunk back a little as a tear
formed and trickled its way down Nodoka's cheek. "I...
see. So dearest has failed and my son is not manly."

 "Huh?" Four girls stared at the woman
across from them and wondered exactly what the
subtitles were running, since they quite obviously
weren't having the same conversation.

 "Well, thank you. We shall continue
this conversation later." Nodoka rose to go busy
herself in the kitchen.

 Ukyou blinked. "So, to be a 'man among
men' he can't be polite?"

 "Look at who she married," Nabiki managed
after a moment. "If that's her definition of manly..."

 "Oh my. Poor Ranma." Kasumi sighed,
she had been SO looking forward to seeing her
little brother again. "He ISN'T very much like his
father, is he?"

 "I wonder what Ken's doing now?" Akane
mused. She hoped that she didn't have to get Mrs
Saotome's approval to date Ken (providing he could
be persuaded to see her as something besides a
little girl.) It didn't sound like he would be 'manly'
enough for her.

 Nabiki mentally revised the odds of Akane
being Ranma's choice. It sounded like she already had
a boyfriend.
-------------------March 10, 1992----------------------
 The tournament continued. Shampoo
combined her Amazonian Wu Shu with Anything
Goes, because the latter went with everything.

 Her opponent, having just defeated the
giantess named Dowel, was a lithe young girl who
used the same combination of styles. Vanilla had
long trained for this battle, and the bets in the crowd
were flying as fast as the punches on the log.

 Shampoo fought with passion and energy.
Vanilla countered with efficiency and coolly thinking
out each step and motion. It was amazing how long
the fight was lasting.

 An Elder's voice raised up in a call for a
halt and silence fell upon the assembly. Shampoo
and Vanilla returned to their corners of the Challenge
Log.

 The noise was a mixture of a wheeze and
a grind, terminating in a thump. It repeated, slightly
louder with each repetition.

 Cologne grinned as a blue rectangular
shape began to form near the edge of the crowd.
She pogoed over to the door area, waiting.

 Two figures came out, and Cologne
raised an eyebrow. "So, Doctor, you've finally
been landed by some girl? Huang Xi would have
been SO disappointed after you didn't choose her."

 "But I never defeated her in combat..."

 "That game of chess, back in, oh my,
must have been 1859. Where does time fly?"

 Ranma grinned, enjoying the sight of
the Doctor being hit with this sort of thing. After
all, it happened to Ranma all the time.

 "This isn't my child, anyway. He mentioned
amazons, so I thought..."

 Cologne looked over the figure dressed in
such close approximation of the Doctor, including the
extraordinarily long scarf.

 "Airen!?" Shampoo yelped happily from
her position on the log. Could it be?

 Ranma waved at Shampoo but quickly found
his view blocked by a pale amazon with red-tinted eyes.
"<Stranger male, YOU I challenge!>"

 "Huh?!" Ranma dodged as the girl's foot was
now occupying the space his head had a moment ago.

 "<Show me what sort of techniques you've
picked up, travelling with the Time Lord!>" Vanilla spun
low into a footsweep.

 Ranma seemed to hang momentarily in the air.
"<Well...okay.>" He bounced lightly, went into a tumble
and landed on top of the TARDIS. "<Behold a technique
so baffling that even the Cybermen were confused by it!
Doctor-fu!>"

 "Not THAT again," said the Doctor.

 Vanilla found herself blinded as the end
of Ranma's scarf wrapped itself around her head.

 "<Feel the terror of the well-made English
crochet work as it keeps you pinned. And now for
the final attack of the Doctor-fu style!>"

 "You really shouldn't do this, you know."
The Doctor shook his head, looking at the ground.

 "<Special Attack:> K-9 Stun Her."

 A sonic beam rippled the air slightly from
within the TARDIS. Vanilla collapsed.

 There was scattered applause from the
assembled amazons. Ranma bowed.

 "<Airen, you speak Mandarin now?>"

 "<Yes, Shampoo, you pick up odd skills
travelling with the Doctor.>" Ranma shrugged and
sat down. He grinned at his childhood friend from
his seat on the TARDIS roof. "<Though the TARDIS
has a translation effect that makes it hard to tell
exactly what language I'm speaking at the moment.>"

 "<Mandarin,>" said Cologne. "<Otherwise
your lip-synch would be off like it is for the old meddler
here. So tell me, Doctor, what HAVE you been up to?>"

 Vanilla dusted herself off, gave an unreadable
look to Ranma, then approached the log in order to fight
Shampoo again.

 Shampoo won, but the fight had lasted longer
than anyone thought it would considering Vanilla's
problem with endurance.
-------------------
"Don't tell me that Looney Tunes was
serious?" Ukyou stopped and stared at the crowd
in front of Furinkan High School.

 "Was he trying to do some amazon
challenge, you suppose?" Nabiki smirked, eyeing
the crowd before her. Nope, no challenge.

 Akane covered her eyes and grumbled.
"Look. If we stop and try to reason our way through
this crap, we'll be late, right?"

 "Right," Ukyou looked at the clock.

 "Maybe," conceded Nabiki.

 "So, if we show 'em what we're really
capable of, maybe they'll NOT try this tomorrow."
Akane silently condemned herself as an optimist.

 "Worth a shot, I suppose." Ukyou
drew her big spatula.

 "I guess," Nabiki flicked her hands out,
now filled with playing cards.

 "Akane Tendo, I love you, this is for you!"

 "Ukyou Kuonji, I shall defeat all obstacles
to our love!"

 "Akane!" "Ukyou!"

 Nabiki blinked, still in her attack stance.
They were all ganging up on Ukyou and Akane? They
were all ganging up on Akane and Ukyou...They were
ALL ganging up on Ukyou and Akane!!!

 "How dare you!" Various card-shuriken
began to slam into boys. "What's the matter with you
wieners! What're you trying to say, that my sister and
the pizza chef are hot stuff and I'm NOT!!!"

 "Oh, what fair dawn brings these goddesses..."

 "HADOKEN!"

 "FLOUR BOMB!"

 "BLACKJACK!"

 Burned, covered in white flour, and with his
bokken cut in two places by flying cards, Kuno watched
the two goddesses (and some unnamed third girl) run into
the school. They merely played hard to get, he knew.

 Someday, though, he would be reunited with
his red-haired goddess, and then he could have all of his
goddesses together. For was he not Tatewaki Kuno, the
samurai who had saved an entire village and the life of a
minor noble! How could he deny any of them the
manliness that was Tatewaki Kuno!

 "Ah, pony-tailed goddess, how I miss you."
------------------------------------
 Ranma sneezed, then nodded in apology to
the watching girls. Amazons, they had trained all their
life in the arts of combat. They were used to weak and
stupid males. They were all relatively sure that they
weren't looking at someone who fit the first two categories.

 "So, son-in-law, do you think you can do it?"
Cologne sat back and watched the Doctor's protege at
work.

 "Just keep cold water away from me, and I'll
be fine." Ranma fiddled with the old tractor engine, humming
a little tune he'd picked up adventuring in that odd city with
the giant robots that ran on extension cords.

 "What does cold water have to do with your
talents?" Cologne looked to the Time Lord for an explanation.

 "Ranma...had an accident with a device that
directly stimulates memory, a Teaching Machine that was
experimental in 2796. They hadn't gotten all the bugs out,
but it GENERALLY works as they intended."

 "An 'accident'? I'm not sure I could call it that,"
Ranma grumbled as he began to replace parts on the old
tractor.

 "I don't honestly think that Tatewaki intended
to do that to you." The Doctor shrugged and turned back
to Cologne. "One of his friends put him through a closed
loop cycle and switched tapes during a learning session.
This had the effect of some behavior modification, as well
as causing him some...mental problems."

 "Meaning that I became obsessive about learning,
about machines, and that I've got some reflexive behavior
that can be pretty embarrassing." Ranma started to hook
the wiring back up. "It's especially bad when I'm a girl. I'm
still me, it's just..."

 "That he tends to act and dress the part," the
Doctor finished. "It can be quite bizarre watching him turn
into a girl and then start worrying about what she's
wearing and whether it's appropriate for the situation. He's
quite talented as a mechanic, electronics, robotics, and the
like. She's a gourmet cook who can barely change a light
bulb. I was still hoping we could find a cure."

 "That does sound like it could cause a few
problems," agreed Cologne.

 "If I ever catch that Kuno!" Ranma slapped
the hatch down. "It should work fine now, just be sure
to strain the alcohol before you fill the tank."

 "It's a gas engine," began one of the amazons.

 "Not anymore. Just use a high grade of alcohol,"
Ranma nodded. "Minor adjustment while I was doing it.
Figured you could get alcohol up here a lot easier than
gas. The problem with the engine was that one of your
rods had come apart. I just used a molecular coldweld
to fix it. Heck, anybody could'a done that!"

 "You see," the Doctor said to Cologne.

 She nodded. Ranma was a fair fighter, but
he offered something beyond simple strength to the
village. A strong fighter was always welcome. "So, how
good is he, actually?"

 "Actually?" The Doctor smirked and looked
over at where K-9 was inspecting some stairways, enjoying
the freedom of having four legs. "I've seen him cobble
together a missile defense system out of an old PC, a
flashlight, an old VW beetle, and a roll of duct tape."

 "It only worked for five minutes," said Ranma,
waving it off. "It only had to deal with four missiles." He
knew he should have had more duct tape.

 The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Cologne.
Cologne met his eyebrow and raised him another.

 "A missile defense system out of spare parts?"
Cologne grinned. Shampoo HAD to be the one to bring
this prize into the tribe. Strong fighters would ALWAYS
be welcome. Smart strong fighters, though, such fighters were
to be dragged kicking and screaming into the tribe if it
came down to such measures.

 Unnoticed by the Doctor, two amazons descended
from one Huang Xi were in the process of sneaking aboard the
TARDIS. They would honor their ancestor and succeed where
she had failed. Ling Ling and Lung Lung gave each other a high
five as they moved deeper into the odd craft.

 Completely ignoring the chill of some dire fate upon
him, the Doctor continued telling Cologne of the adventures he'd
had since last visiting the amazons.

 "Ranma, why you keep looking at sky?" Shampoo
tried to edge closer to her fiancee, remembering how skittish
he could get. Slowly, she cautioned herself, he was used to how
Akane and some of the others bullied him. Best to keep it light
and friendly for now.

 "Oh, me and the Doctor kinda visited Phoenix Mountain
a few years back. We were in a sorta hurry so we didn't stop here, though
we'd planned on it. Well, this girl..."

 Shampoo slapped one hand over her face. "You not going
to tell Shampoo you ended up engaged to one of Bird People?"

 "Well..."

 Shampoo sighed. "Who is? Is not boy is it?"

 "No. Her name is Kiima," Ranma reluctantly answered. "I'm
really hoping they forget that crap about my girl side marrying their
prince.
I REALLY hope they forget about that."

 Shampoo tried to look angry but couldn't hold it and her
piping laughter began to echo through the village.

 Vanilla merely looked vaguely puzzled.

 "Oh, there is one thing I need to mention to you
fiancees," the Doctor looked from Vanilla to Shampoo. The
two amazons exchanged a look, gestured for Nabiki to join
them, and moved away from the crowd. Cologne followed as
she was their Elder.

 "His male personality is very intellectually oriented,
he seems to have at least partly fixated on <ahem> me as a role
model following the accident. His female side, on the other
hand..."

 "Is good amazon," said Shampoo hopefully.

 "Short term memory is the same. Skills are different,
reactions are different," the Doctor shook his head as he
looked back towards where the boy was checking over a
small radio. "One more thing, we were on a Juraian space
station in the future, where Cybermen were taking over..."
--------------flashback---------------------------
 "We have a video feed!"

 The Doctor looked over at the monitor that the tech
had gotten working. "Oh dear. He must have gotten splashed."

 A female Ranma was shown backed against the
wall, almost in tears. "Please, don't! Can't we all live together
in peace?"

 "Shut up, human!" A Cyberman backhanded the girl.
"You can live as a slave, or die. But for now, stop your incessant
whining!"

 "That's odd," the tech glanced down at his instruments.
"I'm detecting odd power fluctuations from the control room."

 "Oh my," said the Doctor as he watched Ranma-chan
begin to sniffle and bawl. "He's going to be awfully embarrassed
about this when he changes back."

 "Power spike, but what's causing it?" The tech checked
another sensor. "Hyperspatial intrusions detected."

 "YOU'RE MEAN!" Ranma-chan yelled, crying. The monitor
flickered and went out.

 The Doctor blinked. He thought he'd seen...but how?

 The station shuddered. It shuddered again, fire alarms and
various klaxons wailing.

 "Hull breech in bulkhead 32, fires in 33 and 31, power losses
to 30 through 9. Did the Cybermen detonate a bomb?" The Tech stared
up at the now lifeless monitor.
---------------end flashback---------------------------------
 "The exterior hull looked like it had a bad case of acne,
pimples everywhere. The Cybermen have exceedingly thick armor,
and are almost invulnerable to normal weapons, yet there were pieces
of Cybermen strewn everywhere." The Doctor shuddered as he
remembered the carnage. It had been awful.

 Cologne looked thoughtful. "It might be. An Ultimate
Technique, thought lost to the ages."

 Shampoo and Nabiki looked curiously at Cologne. "Ultimate
Technique?"

 "One of the Ultimate Techniques of the Nichieju. A martial
arts technique more destructive and more feared than even the nekoken!"

 Even Vanilla blinked at that.

 Cologne looked towards the boy who was now cleaning his
tools. "Yes, if the female side's persona is actually that of a woman, it
could possibly be. The dreaded Scorned Woman Fury!"

 "Scorned Woman Fury technique?!" Nabiki and Shampoo glared
at each other for speaking in unison.

 "If this is as I suspect, it is a technique few could ever master.
It requires a certain discipline, combined with emotional instability. A
rare
combination..." Cologne eyed the son-in-law differently. Well, if he came
to live in the village, they'd have to "disarm" that "bomb" very quickly.

 "Scorned Woman Fury technique," murmurred Nabiki with
a certain speculative gleam.
---------------------------------------------------
 ======================================
more later, i suspect
trying to get back to Featherbrite's Tale.

ja ne,gregg
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