not sure how much of the rewrite has been posted.did an archive search
and it looked like i hadn't...but won't waste bandwidth on a repost just
yet.

A Very Scary Bet, RAAC version
part 2b: Here's....Ranko?!?!
by greggsharp, metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com
various people own the various char. no
trademark infringement is intended.
----------------October 13, 1992------------------
 Ranma glanced down at the beeping
display. "Oooh. Lookit that. Reading some really
odd power readings there."

 Vanilla looked up from where she'd
been going over an owner's manual, translating
it for Shampoo's benefit. "How is it odd?"

 "Biological in nature, I think." Ranma
tapped a few controls. "Hang on, I'm gonna get
closer and get a better look." It meant dropping the
stealth field, but it was interfering with the sensors
to leave it running...

 "Vanilla, what mean this?" Shampoo
pointed to the drawing then to the corresponding
part of the machine.

 "It means that the halberd draws enough
power that you can't use the Stealth function while it
is engaged." Vanilla tried to explain.

 Shampoo nodded. "Flying power armor, spears,
amazons. Some things just meant to be."

 Vanilla was glad that Shampoo was familiar with
this hightech stuff. Vanilla wondered how it was that she seemed
to be as well.
-----------------------------------------------
 "Thank you, spy, you have served me well."
Herb, prince of the Musk, stood. "Do you realize what this
means?"

 "That some redhaired girl is engaged to some
purple haired girl?"

 Herb slapped Mint, using a martial arts
manuever he saw on one of those 3 Stooges tapes he'd recently
gotten. "The Knucklehead nose slap," he thought it was called.

 "It means," continued Herb, "that Ranko once
again walks the same lands as I. Mint, get the Dipping Ladle!"

 "Yes, your eminence!"

 Herb smirked and furled his cape in true villain
showmanship. At least he hoped it was, that was the effect
he was trying for. "Soon, Ranko, I shall show that upstart
Saffron up by claiming you for myself!"

 The spy, forgotten for a moment, made a note of
this speech and proceeded immediately towards Phoenix
Mountain. Yuan would make Nabiki proud of her pupil.
-----------------------------------------------
 "This is Go Sakurai, Action Five News Traffic.
The traffic buildup along Gojira Road is even worse than
usual tonight, due to a rollover accident on..."

 Something Big and Fast shot by the Action Five
copter. Go blinked. It looked like a Winnebago. He'd seen
those covering baseball training camp in Yuma Arizona.
Winnebagos generally had wheels, this hadn't. Go blinked
again. Winnebagos also generally weren't found travelling
over a hundred feet above the road.

 "Ufo," Go breathed, saying it as if it were a single
word. "A ufo..."

 "Ufo..." breathed the pilot, who blinked a couple
of times himself.

 "AFTER IT!" The two newshounds shouted in
unison. This was it, their big break, a national feed at the
very least! No more going to Yuma to cover training camp!
Yippee! No more camping trips in Ryugenzawa!
------------------------------------------
 "She's back?!?" Saffron's eyes gleamed. "At
last, my beloved, now I may conquer your heart..."

 Kiima made a face. Ick. Well, if she married Ranma
first, then Saffron wouldn't pursue this any further. Which
would be best for all concerned...

 She briefly lost herself in memory of a few years
back. The plague spread by those cowardly creatures that
had teleported into Phoenix Mountain, hoping to tap into
Jusendo for their own purposes. How a young boy and
this man called the Doctor had come in and saved all of
them.

 She especially remembered how she had been
dying of the fever, and of waking to find the young boy
replacing the cool cloths covering her again. Again and
again she awoke, and if he hadn't been at her side, he had
been close.

 Kiima sighed. She'd still be unsteady on her
feet when they had left, but now she had a chance to show
her gratitude to the Doctor's apprentice.
-------------------------------------------
 "Oh my gosh, look at that!" Tenchi
stared at the television. This caused the fight between
Aeka and Ryoko to break up. What was Tenchi finding
so fascinating?

 "Hmmm. A hoverjet vehicle, fairly advanced
model, at least Galactic standard." Washu studied the
boxlike shape depicted on the television. "Doesn't look
like a familiar model, though. Might be a homebuilt."

 "Wow!" Mihoshi exclaimed. "Could it be an
Earth ship?"

 "Too advanced, but that does look like
English lettering on the side." Washu brought her
holographic keyboard up and began to make interrogative
noises as she typed. "Hmm. I think it just might be a
homebuilt."

 "Ohmygosh!" Tenchi repeated, even more
intrigued. "It's the Sailor Senshi!"

 "Hmmm?" Ryoko looked at the scantily clad
young girls fighting some large creature in a park setting.
"What's a Sailor Senshi?"

 "Earth's guardian warriors against ancient
recurrent evil, similar to the Warrior Blades of Taikei or
the Righteous Ronin of Tau Prime." Washu's fingers were
really flying now as she attempted to analyze the data
available to her. She made a note to launch a few sensor
probes in the Tokyo area for future studies.

 "Oh," said Ryoko, Aeka, Kiyone, Mihoshi,
and Sasami in an eerie unison.

 Ryoko noted the way that Tenchi was staring
at these "Senshi." So he liked these sailorsuited warrior
types, did he?

 Aeka smirked. So Lord Tenchi admired these
warriors of "love and justice" as was only natural of him.
Clearly the nobility of their cause was not lost on him, and
this gave her an idea.

 Kiyone frowned. If they were like the Warrior
Blades, then they were acting as vigilantes but were
upholding the laws and morals of their society. As a member
of the Galaxy Police, she was to assist the Blades if her path
crossed theirs. Wouldn't this hold true for these "Senshi?"

 Mihoshi grinned. Such pretty uniforms!

 Sasami smiled. It reminded her of that dream she
had. Maybe Tsunami could help her out with something.
This could be major cool!
-------------------------------------
 "Hmmm." Ranma strapped a harness around
himself, then fitted something like a leash between it and
an eyebolt near the vehicle's door.

 "What you do, Ranma?" Shampoo looked at
the external monitors then back to her airen.

 Vanilla looked a bit more closely at the monitor.
"Two of those girls are using Anything Goes martial arts
stances..."

 Shampoo blinked and looked closer herself.
"Aiya. You right. Tall girl in green and short girl in blue
use very basic defensive stance. Might not be Anything
Goes though, as style take in other styles as part of itself."

 "No, she's right." Ranma tested the leash
connections. "More to the point, I don't recognize the
two girls, but I DO recognize the way they're moving.
There's a couple of girls Nabiki sold 'fiancee cards' to
back when I thought it just meant I'd be training 'em
for free."

 "Shampoo remember. Airen a little slow
back then." Shampoo nodded with a slight frown.

 Ranma made a face. "Anyway, if they're
who I think they are, then I gotta help 'em out."

 "What you think you..." Shampoo
stopped. It had become rather obvious what Ranma
was going to do. "But that should be Shampoo's job."
----------------------------------------
 "Look out, Mars!"

 Sailor Mars barely avoided the thing's lunge.
"Fire soul!"

 "It seems to be immune to our special attacks,"
Ami noted. "Mars' fire and Jupiter's lightning don't seem to
have much effect."

 "It's too fast," complained Sailor Moon. "It
won't stay still long enough for any of my attacks."

 "I...WHAT THE HECK?!" Sailor Jupiter pointed
up.

 The Senshi and the youma all looked up to see
a rather large box hanging in midair in just the way boxes were
not supposed to.

 Ami frowned, a hover jet system? But it was so quiet
she could barely hear it when she was listening for it.

 A door opened in the side, and a figure leaned out.
"How dare you menace such valiant warriors? I send you back
to hell with the Anything Goes final attack!"

 "Anything Goes?!" Makoto's jaw dropped. It couldn't
be. No, it COULD be! She still had her membership card somewhere.

 Ami blinked and brought her visor to magnify. It WAS!
She'd have to see if she still had her membership card.

 Ranma pointed a dull black cylinder at the youma who
responded by snarling and preparing to uproot a tree to throw at
the vehicle.

 "Behold a final technique so feared that the Coalition
States has banned its use in their territories!" Ranma turned on
the cylinder, which activated the turret it was slaved to. "Saotome
special technique! 'Nuke it till it glows!'"

 A gatling particle beam spoke from the undercarriage
of the hovervehicle.
-----------------------------------
 "Saotome?!" The man rubbed his chin, which was
badly in need of a shave. He stared at the televised picture of
a futuristic vehicle, no doubt built by someone nearly as much
of a genius as he was himself... How he'd love to go over the
schematics!

 He grabbed a card from a pile of knick knacks
accumulated over the years, remembering a pledge at a frat party
years ago. His daughter would marry the son of a man  named
Saotome. Years later, he'd gotten the card with a note about how
it was too bad that he didn't have a daughter...

 But now he did.

 "Atsuko!" She didn't answer. "Nuku nuku!"

 "Yes, papa?"

 "We've got plans for this weekend after all."
---------------------------------
 Nodoka blinked among all the excitement.
The daughters Tendo were whooping, and young Miss
Kuonji was all but bouncing up and down in glee.

 Ranma? Could this figure who brought
thunder down from the heavens to fight alongside the
Sailor Senshi be HER son?!

 He was surrounded by young girls. But,
was he doing it in a manly fashion?
-----------------------------------
 Sailor Moon dropped her moon scepter.

 Tuxedo Mask, ready to intervene, let the
rose drop from his hand as he stared.

 Sailor Mercury clucked and began working out
the various readings relayed to her from her visor.

 Sailor Jupiter looked from the vehicle to what
remained of the target and wondered if she could get one
of those.

 Sailor Mars rubbed her ears and really wished
that she hadn't rushed forward when she saw that the youma
had been distracted. She filed this under "Things That You
Now Know Better Than To Do."

 The News 5 helicopter crew merely filmed the
smouldering crater with its evaporating bits of youma, and
noted aloud that the Senshi's new ally had a little problem
with overkill.
----------------------------
 Brianna Diggers blinked. She blinked again.
"Guns. Big guns. Oooo. That looks like a rocket launcher
on that side."

 "Sailor Senshi with rocket launchers?" Brittany
looked up. "That sounds just SO wrong."

 "Naw, it's a guy." Little hearts appeared in
Brianna's eyes. "A guy who comes with gatling particle
beam toting weapons platforms! My kinda guy!"

 "That does appear to be a fairly sophisticated
craft," Gina noted, the tablet in her hands temporarily forgotten.
"Interesting, the design of those jets...hmmmm."

 Brittany looked back and forth between her two
sisters. "Aw c'mon, that guy looks like he's still in high school!"

 "So maybe he's got an older brother," Brianna
cracked her knuckles. Yup, she just HAD to meet this guy.
They had so much in common. She'd show him her rocket
launchers if he'd show her that cannon.

 Gina smiled. That vehicle, she'd love to have
a go over its systems.
-----------------------------------------
 Washu stared at the television. So did Kiyone.

 "How did he get a particle beam cannon of that
intensity onto such a small ship?" Washu demanded to
know, not that she really expected an answer. She could do
it, obviously, but someone of this planet doing it was more
than a little surprising. They HAD to be of this planet, no
one else would have a bumpersticker in English that stated
"Daleks suck for spare change" or one in Japanese that
read "If you can read this, you're in firing range."

 "Discharging megawatt cannon in a restricted
zone," grumbled Kiyone. "I've gotta have a talk with that
boy."

 Nobody noticed that Aeka, Ryoko, and Sasami
had snuck off. This would be regretted later.
------------------------------------------
 Queen Beryl felt one of those large sweatdrops
move down the back of her head.

 "Milady, these life energy readings..." Zoicite
grinned. "There is enough life energy being radiated from
that ship to put our plans ahead by weeks!"

 "Zoicite, get me everything you can on
whatever a 'Saotome' is." She had a bad feeling about this,
a very scary feeling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
 "Stealth systems, active. Chameleon mode active.
ECM on." Ranma checked the telltales. "Now if I just knew
where the Tendo dojo was..."

 Vanilla held up a map. "Nabiki sell me this for three
pillowcases and a comforter."

 "Sound like Nabiki," Shampoo said with a nod.
"Shampoo show Vanilla her power armor. Is too too cool!"

 "Ah, next stop, the Tendo dojo." Ranma clicked
on a computer enhanced map.

 "Airen," Shampoo said. "Next time you let Shampoo
do shooting, yes?"

 "Sure, Shampoo, 'a woman's place is at the controls
of a weapons console.'" Ranma nodded, quoting something
Shampoo had said months ago.

 Shampoo grinned, not recognizing the quote. "Airen
say such sweet things!"

 Behind them, a news chopper began looking for
the odd ship which had abruptly shimmered and vanished.
--------------------------------
 "So, let's see what you've learned."

 Akane nodded. "For two lunches."

 "The bet was for one lunch." Kasumi sighed. The
winner got to make the lunch in question.

 "No holding back, you guys." Ukyou looked to
the two combatants. "Well, at least not much." She swung the
spatula down, signalling the beginning of the match.

 "Hurricane Kick," Akane began one of her
flashier moves, specifically because she didn't want her
older sister to hold back anything.

 Kasumi ducked under the kick and stabbed up
at Akane's leg with one finger as her younger sister passed
overhead.

 Akane landed and frowned as she turned back to
her sister. "C'mon Kasumi, fight me for real!"

 "If you insist, Akane," Kasumi said with some
reluctance.

 Ukyou partially turned to Nabiki. "Yup, guess
Kasumi's won this one."

 "She should _never_ have closed with her,"
Nabiki shook her head. "Akane remains impulsive."

 "Hey guys, I'm still fighting here!" Akane
looked somewhat angrily at her other sister and Ukyou.

 Kasumi tapped Akane on the back of the head,
then flipped back lazily.

 "Hey! That's not fair!" Akane frowned. Well,
she hadn't wanted to use a chi attack against her own sister,
but this would at least demonstrate her skills. "HADOKEN!"

 "No, Akane! Don't use that NOW!"

 Kasumi's panicked look was enough to clue
both Nabiki and Ukyou in. Nabiki started looking for
a bucket.

 Ukyou watched as Akane's hands went back
into the position for the chi-fireball attack, then locked in
place. "Akane, let go of the fireball. Let it go."

 Akane knew she was in trouble at this point,
and tried but wasn't able to simply dissipate the attack.
"Uhm, Kasumi, could you unlock me before this explodes?"

 Kasumi was already jabbing at a series of
pressure points. "Hang on, Akane."

 Akane aimed the hadoken straight up. Her
sister had won this round, but she'd not make that
mistake again in the NEXT match.

 <CLANG!>

 "Clang?" Ukyou looked up.

 "Clang?" Nabiki repeated, her eyes
widening as connections were made.

 "Akane, I think we ought to move," Kasumi
said, walking towards the patio.

 "I gotta bad feeling about this," said Akane.
She wondered if she should call Ken. Just to make sure
he'd gotten back to America all right. Or would that be too
much too soon? She didn't want to seem pushy or nothin'.

 A shape started shimmering into solidity as the
hoverjets shut down and another drive system went active.

 The shape filled the backyard, with a pair of jets
hanging down over the koi pond.

 "Well, that explains WHY he did it," Nabiki noting
this with a nod. "Not HOW, but certainly why."

 "Did what?" Akane sat down to watch this, accepting
a cup of tea from Mrs Saotome.

 "No rockets, no propellors, no jets," Ukyou noted.
"Antigravity?"

 Nabiki nodded, wondering just what kind of goodies
she could get her hands on here. Whoever ended up marrying
Ranma would have access to all that high tech and the sort of
profits one could bring in.

 Ukyou looked over the odd boxy ship. She wondered
if her Ranchan had been eating enough.

 Kasumi watched Mrs Saotome with some concern.
Would she require immediate satisfaction?

 The door on the vehicle hissed open just as Akane
was getting ready to comment on the English lettering on the
side. Whatever a "Winnebago" was...

 A bouncy Chinese Amazon...uhm...bounced out
of the ship. "Kasumi! Nabiki! Ukyou! Oh, yes, violent tomboy..."

 Akane pulled down her right lower eyelid and stuck
out her tongue, the Japanese "redeye." She was glad to see the
amazon too...

 The next one down the steps was unhurried and
nodded once to Nabiki.

 "Vanilla," said Nabiki for everyone else's benefit.
"Good to see you made it." She had some clothes that needed
mending after sparring with Ukyou.

 Ranma stood at the doorway, having put on his
floppy hat and extra long scarf, red kevlar duster-style coat
looking particularly nice with the souvenier patches on the
sleeves. "Dantooine" proclaimed one. "DS9" proclaimed
another. "Jurai Freeport" declared a third.  "San Diego Zoo"
read a fourth. He wanted to make a grand entry.

 "Airen!" Nabiki exclaimed happily, drawing strange
looks from Shampoo and Vanilla.

 "Oh, hey, Ranma," said Akane, still debating whether
she should call Ken or not. Maybe if she did but made it sound
like she had dialed the number by accident...

 "Ranchan!" Ukyou said in midleap.

 Kasumi noted the collision shortly to be taking
place and continued to watch Ranma's mother. She was uncertain
about the expression. How were they to tell if Ranma would pass
or not before she did?
==================================


ja ne,
gregg