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*   *   *   *   *   *

    Akane sat at the breakfast table the next morning, poking halfheartedly 
at her rice.  She'd gotten little sleep last night, thanks to Ranma, and was, 
for the first time in two weeks, feeling sleepy.  She hadn't needed to sleep 
when she was a robot full time.  She had slept, but she didn't have to.  
Hearing soft footsteps on the floor mats, Akane looked up at the dining room 
door.  Sure enough, Ranma walked through, clutching her side.
    "Mornin', Akane," Ranma greeted her.  "Doc Tofu said something about 
anesthetic...," she trailed off as Akane held up a small packet of the rub-in 
painkiller that Dr. Tofu had left them with after Ranma had left on her 
'walk.'  Ranma took the packet, grinning wryly, and walked off to the 
bathroom to apply the cream.  Satisfied that her friend was all right, Akane 
began to eat her breakfast with gusto, savoring the intricate tastes of 
Kasumi's cooking.   she thought to herself.  
    Soon, Ranma re-entered the room, looking much better.  Obviously hungry, 
the redhead practically dove into her first bowl of rice, pausing only long 
enough to put an egg into the bowl and mix it in.  The two finished their 
first bowls of rice at about the same time.  Akane, scooping the last few 
grains into her mouth, looked at Ranma over the rim of her bowl.  Ranma did 
the same, and the two broke out grinning.  Akane grabbed the handle of the 
rice ladle and quickly refilled her bowl.  Ranma did the same, and an 
impromptu eating contest began.  Though Akane had to stop halfway through her 
second bowl, Ranma continued on through four, packing away enough food for 
three normal people.
    "How can you do that?" Akane asked, rising from the table and grabbing 
her bento.
    "Do what?" Ranma asked, grabbing her own bento and bookbag.  
Unconsciously, she was rubbing the silk of her shirt above where her wound 
was.
    "Eat that much.  If I ate like that, I'd have no figure at all," Akane 
explained.  Then she stopped for a second at the front door, a small smile 
spreading across her face.
    "Well, I do work out a lot and... Why you stopping?" Ranma asked, stalled 
behind Akane.
    "I just realized that I have to watch my figure again," Akane said, 
looking backwards.  "Thank you, Ranma."
    "Umm... it's okay," Ranma replied, blushing.  "C'mon, let's get to school 
before we're late."  Akane nodded and continued out the door, with Ranma 
following her.  Suddenly, Nabiki ran past them both.
    "Arrgh!!  How could I be late?!" she cried as she passed the two.  Akane 
giggled a bit, while Ranma only smiled.  Once they reached the sidewalk, 
Ranma hopped up atop the fence and kept pace with Akane.
    "Ranma?" Akane started, uncertain.
    "Yeah?" Ranma returned.
    "About last night...," Akane probed, looking for answers.  Ranma's face 
immediately went hard, and she stared straight ahead.
    "I don't wanna talk about it," Ranma said softly.  "Cuz if I don't talk 
about it, I can forget about it, and if I can forget about it, I can get on 
with my life."
    "Well, what am I supposed to think, Ranma?  You come home in tears last 
night, and now you won't talk about it.  What am I supposed to think, huh?" 
Akane asked, her worry growing anew.
    "All you have to think is that I'm a normal girl who turns into a robot 
when she gets splashed with warm water," Ranma said softly.  Even as good as 
Ranma was at hiding pain, a little seeped into her voice.
    "Ranma...," Akane breathed.  Hearing this, and knowing what would come 
next, Ranma shook her head and leapt onto a nearby rooftop, taking the direct 
route the rest of the way to school.  "Let me be your friend," Akane finished 
to the still air, her voice soft.  "It'll kill you if you keep it in."  
Silently, she continued her way to school, more worried than ever for her 
friend.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Kuno was not in school that day.  This came as no surprise to anyone, 
because everyone had seen what the 'Blue Bomber' had done to the transformed 
kendoist.  What nobody expected, however, was a notice that Kuno had 
transferred out of the school as a result of the fight.  No forwarding 
address was given.  The only person who actually cared was Nabiki, who simply 
sighed and marked off one of her sources of income.  She didn't miss him too 
much, because the betting pool was running large on weather or not the 'Blue 
Bomber' would make a reappearance.
    All in all, nobody missed the slightly insane noble.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    A cloaked figure, standing tall and proud, marched down the metal-walled 
halls of his fortress with purpose.  Built two hundred feet into the base of 
a Chinese mountain that he'd cleared of inhabitants, it was invisible to 
anybody who might have cared.  As of yet, nobody did.  Their problem, as far 
as he was concerned.
    He turned a corner, entering the former throne room of the great mountain 
palace.  He'd left most of this room unchanged, having a keen eye for beauty. 
 The monolithic statues of the phoenix people who had lived in the mountain 
stared down at him.  He grinned, knowing that their stony glares were 
ineffective and worthless.  He'd turned this room into a great workroom for 
an ally he'd gained in the taking of the mountain.
    "How's the angel faring?" he asked in a grating, metallic voice.  It was 
supremely uncomfortable to listen to, and had scared many of the phoenix 
people into running.  Well, that and his appearance.  His 'grim reaper' look 
had terrified those who hadn't heard his voice.  Scared one way, scared the 
other, he didn't care.  He'd slaughtered them all.  The happiest two days of 
work in his recent memory were the two he spent hauling the bodies out of the 
various people into their incinerator in the heart of their mountain.
    "Well, as far as repairs are concerned, he'll be fine.  There's enough of 
his original superstructure intact for the drones to figure out what needs to 
go where.  If it weren't for the upgrades you want on him, I'd just leave it 
to them," the beautifully built reploid that was the mysterious figure's 
assistant replied.  He stood at five feet seven inches, and was plumed from 
head to toe in metallic feathers.  They varied in color from red to yellow to 
blue.  His head was a beautiful, streamlined bird's head, with his master's 
symbol painted upon it.  His shoulders were thin, as were his arms.  Jutting 
from his back was what seemed to be a pair of skeletal wings, fashioned in 
metal.  They were currently folded against his back tightly.  His torso 
emulated a bird's, with a great deal of bulk at the top, compared to very 
little at the bottom.  His legs were long, and at the end of his swollen 
lower legs were sharp metal claws, designed to rip through the hardest metal. 
 He looked regal, more than anything else.
    "Will you be able to upgrade him?" the mysterious figure asked.
    "Sure," the red reploid replied.  "It'll just take a few days, that's 
all."
    "Good," the mysterious figure praised.  The hood of his cloak fell back 
just a hair, and a bit of Caucasian skin became visible.  His hand, a large 
gauntlet of blue and white metal, came up and pulled the hood back into 
place.  The action revealed that the gauntlet was attached to a blue painted 
metal arm, which disappeared into the folds of the cloak.  "Also, I have a 
new ally," he continued, turning so that he could call through the door.  
"Typhoon!  Get in here!" he shouted.
    Through the great double doorway lumbered a huge Reploid.  From the tip 
of it's nose to the point of his tail, he was almost twenty feet long.  
Standing on two big, sturdy legs, with his neck bent to seem somewhat 
humanoid, he stood at almost eight and a half feet.  His head was a dark 
green, and built in the image of a feral reptile's, with metal scales 
allowing an incredible range of movement.  Set in his forehead was a 
brilliant, diamond-shaped sapphire.  His neck was long, and ridged.  The 
ridges were a combination of dark blue and purple, while the neck itself was 
segmented, with each segment a little farther from the green of his head and 
a little more towards the dark blue of his ridges.  His big, barrel-like 
chest was dark blue, trimmed with silver.  His arms were big affairs, with 
each hand being easily a foot from palm to claw-tipped finger.  On the back 
of each was a great throwing star, measuring a foot and a half from tip to 
tip.  They were blue near his chest, but blended to silver through his 
scales.  Coming from the base of his upper chest, a long, segmented tail 
began.  Sprouting large, sturdy legs in it's first segment, it flowed in 
twelve segments of decreasing size and changing color.  The top was the dark 
blue of Typhoon's torso, while the tip of his tail was brilliant violet.  His 
legs, each as big as a tree trunk, were short and functional.  They were 
blue, fading to silver, like his arms.  Growing from his back were two 
gargantuan wings.  The wingspan of the great things, when unfolded, was no 
less than thirty-five feet.  They were blue at the base, but faded to a dark 
green towards the tips.  He walked in great steps, his wings folded against 
his back, and his facial scales moving to allow a half-mouthed smirk.
    "Inferno Phoenix, meet Typhoon Dragon," their master said simply, 
gesturing to the two Reploids.  "You two are the most powerful Reploids that 
I've been able to find so far, and I suspect that you will remain that way.  
You will work together as best you can until our goals are accomplished.  
Afterwards, I couldn't care less," the cloaked Reploid instructed the two.  
"I'm returning to Japan.  I've noticed more power signals from there then 
anywhere else."  With that, he turned and walked from the room, leaving the 
two mythically-themed Reploids alone.
    "Inferno Phoenix," Typhoon rumbled, his voice full and deep.  It echoed 
as he spoke, as if it was bounced off of the walls of a cavern a number of 
times before reaching clear air.  "You look delicate."
    "Compared to you?  Probably.  I can dodge most of what gives me trouble," 
Inferno returned sharply.  "You look like brawn's the only thing that holds 
you up in a fight," he observed.
    "I was built to fly, not to walk.  You should see me in the air," Typhoon 
stated simply.  Inferno, noting his wings, folded in great bundles on his 
back, nodded in agreement.  The two stood there silently for a minute, 
observing each other.  Finally, Inferno Phoenix returned to his work on the 
silver-themed angel Reploid on his workbench.  Typhoon just went off, found a 
corner, and went into a sleep mode.

*   *   *   *   *   *

    Ranma sat silently in school, gazing out the window near her desk.  The 
teacher had already admonished her several times for not paying attention, 
but had eventually given up on the girl.  Ranma, meanwhile, was thinking 
about Akane.  <What am I supposed to tell her?> she wondered to herself.  
    Suddenly, the school shuddered, and a plume of smoke issued out from the 
downstairs chemistry lab.  The fire alarm went off, and everyone leapt to 
their feet.  Akane dashed over to Ranma's desk.
    "Someone might get trapped inside," Akane said, trying to forget about 
Ranma's behavior.  "I'm going to go get some hot water.  You get outside; 
you're injured."  Ranma opened her mouth to object, but then closed it and 
nodded to Akane.  The long-haired girl ran off to the bathrooms, in search of 
hot water.  Idly, she hoped that there wouldn't be too many uncomfortable 
questions once this was all over.  Arriving, she twisted the hot water spigot 
and held her hand under the water, waiting for it to be warm enough to change 
her.  After about half a minute, her transformation triggered.  With a 
*riiiip* of tearing dress, Akane was a robot again.
    "Oops," she muttered to herself, pulling the rags of her dress from her 
body.  "Forgot about that."  Shaking her head, she raced outside the smoking 
building.  Just as she exited the front door, another explosion shook the 
school, and a gout of incendiary flame burst from a few adjacent third floor 
rooms.  A loud *thud* was audible over the panicked shouting of the student 
body, which was milling about outside the school.  Then, another great blast 
burst from three second floor rooms, directly below those that had been 
blasted from the first explosion.  Finally, another explosion wracked the 
school, this one coming from the ground floor.  With four explosions having 
rocked it's structural integrity, the left wing of the school could no longer 
remain standing, and collapsed with a great rumble of falling concrete.  Very 
few students spoke, as they were torn between the desire to celebrate, the 
destruction of the school being an old fantasy for all, and the knowledge 
that this was a Bad Thing.  Akane, being made of metal, had remained closer 
to the school than anybody else, and saw the figure moving in the rubble of 
the school first.
    "Oh my God, someone's alive in there!" she cried, running towards the 
figure, which was obscured by the great clouds of dust that surrounded the 
ruins of the school.  She soon slowed, then stopped when she realized that 
the figure was much too large to be human.  Her fears were confirmed when the 
thing stepped through one last cloud of dust.
    He was big, she noted- almost eight feet tall, though he might be more; 
the rubble allowed for poor footing, and he might be compensating for the 
lack of balance.  He had the head of a wild boar, and the body of a robot, 
built for war.  Akane began to get uneasy.  Once he saw her, the big 
boar-robot stopped, and looked at her for a minute.
    "I am looking for someone," he said, his voice deep and full.  On one 
hand, it comforted Akane, but on the other, it reminded her just how big this 
guy was.  "Can you help be find him?"
    "Depends of who," Akane stalled, easing her hand towards her sword.  She 
suspected that this robot had destroyed the school, and wanted to be ready to 
fight if she had to.
    "Ranma Saotome," the boar-thing told her, oblivious to her actions.  "He 
has made my life Hell.  I wish to repay him for his kindness," it sneered.  
Akane gave up all pretense of hiding her movement, and grabbed her sword.
    "Who wants to know?" she asked.
    "I'm Ryoga Hibiki," the boar declared.  Akane heard a muffled curse from 
behind her, and the sound of footsteps approaching.
    "Aww, man, Ryoga.  You get stuck with a body you didn't want too?" Ranma 
asked, arriving next to Akane.
    "Who is this guy?" Akane whispered in an aside to Ranma.
    "Some guy I pissed off in junior high.  Last I knew, he was really 
strong, but pretty slow.  Looks the same way in his new body, but I can't be 
sure," Ranma whispered back.
    "Who are you?" Ryoga asked simply, looking at Ranma.
    "I'm-" Ranma began.
    "Ranko!  Ranko Saotome!" Akane cut in, sensing disaster if Ranma's 
identity was revealed.
    "Uhh... yeah!" Ranma picked up.  "I'm Ranma's sister.  What do you want 
with him?"
    "I'll kill him.  Thanks to him, I've been cursed with this body.  I'm 
reviled and hated wherever I go.  I can no longer enjoy even the simple 
things in life.  Food, what few friends I once had, everything I had is gone. 
 I've even lost my inability to find my way.  For that offense, my family 
disowned me," Ryoga listed, his voice growing more menacing with each word.  
"He will pay.  Dearly."
    "Well, you're wrong about the body, but I'm not going to let you hurt my 
friend," Akane declared, activating her beam saber in a burst of green 
energy.  To Ranma, she added, "Ranko, you'd better get out of here.  It's 
about to get messy, and you don't have any hot water."  Ranma nodded once, 
her face strained, then turned and ran from the ruins.
    "Normally, I would forgive you for befriending Ranma," Ryoga said, his 
eyes beginning to glow a fiery red.  "But you choose to harbor him, to hide 
the coward.  This offense cannot be tolerated.  Prepare to die!"  With that, 
he screamed a deep, feral cry, and charged towards Akane, his head lowered.  
Not knowing what kind of damage a charge like that could do to her, and not 
wanting to, Akane rolled the side, slashing upwards with her saber as Ryoga 
passed.  The energy blade cut a shallow nick in Ryoga's heavy armor.
    "That's it?" Ryoga snorted, looking at the tiny scratch.  "That's all you 
can do?  This will be easier than I thought."
    "We'll see," Akane returned with a smirk.  Finally, for the first time in 
what seemed like ages, she felt truly at home, as if she were doing what she 
was truly called to do.  Ryoga charged at her, but she rolled to the left 
again, not even bothering to slash at him.  Instead, she got a good look at 
his backside, searching for any weak spots.  Unfortunately, she couldn't see 
any obvious ones.  She had no time to look for more well-guarded chinks in 
the big Reploid's armor, as he turned around to face her again.
    "You're quick," he said, "but let's see you avoid this!"  That said, he 
raised his right arm and pointed it at her.  There was a large, metal 
cylinder attached to the top of it, which was hollowed out and attached to a 
metal hose.  Instinctively, Akane dodged backwards.  A mere second later, 
Ryoga fired a sphere about a half foot in diameter at the place where Akane'd 
stood a minute earlier.  It struck the ground, and immediately exploded.  The 
fire itself wasn't very impressive, engulfing only about a six foot radius, 
but the shockwave that the little bomb generated lifted Akane from her feet 
and sent her tumbling backwards.  Her armor absorbed most of the blast, but 
her internal repair systems were still scrambling to repair the internal 
damage the shockwave had caused in her systems.  Knowing that she was in 
danger, Akane rolled to her feet as soon as she regained her bearings.
    "RRRRRAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!" Ryoga bellowed as he charged towards her, his 
head lowered.  Instead of dodging, Akane leapt upwards, and landed heavily on 
his back, knocking the overbalanced robot to the ground.  Seeing that the 
tube attached to the cylinder on his right arm ran to the backpack that she 
was standing on, Akane slashed downward, hard, with her sword.  With a 
thousand pounds of force behind it, even Ryoga's armor couldn't stand up to 
the mighty blow.  The hose, severed cleanly in the middle, whipped about like 
a snake, the systems on both ends short circuiting.  The electrical surges 
caused Ryoga's already squirming body to go into convulsions, which threw 
Akane from his form like a rag doll.  She landed heavily a foot or so away, 
and watched Ryoga, praying that the fight was over.  Slowly, the convulsions 
stopped, and he lay still.
    "Whew," Akane breathed, rising.  "I'm glad that's over."  Dusting her 
hands, she walked over to Ryoga's prone form.  Bending over, she pushed it 
hard, rolling it over so that he was facing upwards.  His animalistic face 
was twisted in agony, frozen in place by massive feedback loops, Akane 
surmised.  "Poor guy," she murmured.  "If only he'd stayed away."
    Suddenly, Akane felt a strong tug on her left boot.  She looked downward, 
and saw that Ryoga's hand had grabbed her boot in a viselike grip, the tips 
of his hand digging into the metal of her armor.  She looked back up to see 
that the expression on his face had gone from one of pain to one of glee.  He 
quickly rose to his feet, pulling Akane from hers as if she were little more 
than a child's toy.  Grinning savagely, he dangled her by her leg, the rest 
of her flailing about in vain.  In her surprise, Akane had dropped her beam 
saber.  Otherwise helpless, Akane hammered on Ryoga's kneecap with her fists. 
 She might as well have been trying to stop a freight train with a five yen 
coin- each were about as likely to succeed in their tasks.
    "You maimed me," Ryoga growled, his grin turning to a sneer.  "You'll pay 
for that."  Lifting her high, Akane came even to his face.  In spite, she 
slapped him, knowing that her carelessness had lost her the fight.  Ryoga 
just laughed, and laughed even harder when her hand popped a rivet.  Shaking 
his head, he brought his arm down hard and fast, causing Akane's body to 
follow it on it's course.  Just as it reached the lowest point that it could 
go to, Ryoga reversed his swing back upwards, sending Akane snapping along 
the length of her body.  The intense G forces wreaked havoc with her internal 
systems, and she could hear the rattle in her chest as she heard something 
break loose.  Once again, Ryoga hoisted her, but Akane didn't struggle this 
time.  Even if she'd wanted to, she was too badly damaged to do anything in 
this position.  Thus far, her internal damage wasn't anything that her 
auto-repair systems couldn't handle, but they took time, time that she didn't 
have.  Snorting, Ryoga dropped her to the ground.
    "You're not worth my time.  Ranma's here somewhere.  I'm going to find 
him," he declared, marching slowly away.  Something in Akane snapped, and she 
found herself shaking in anger.  Her entire body shaking, she struggled to 
her feet.
    "You... leave... her... alone!" she demanded, glaring daggers at Ryoga.
    "Oh, you're still alive?" he asked, honestly surprised.  The beating he'd 
given her would've crushed any lesser creation.  However, his last choice of 
words was more than poor; they were disastrous.  Shuddering, Akane let loose 
with a feral battle cry and charged forward, her right arm cocked for a great 
punch.  Ryoga, knowing that his armor could take anything that she could dish 
out, just stood and waited.  When Akane's arm began to glow, though, he began 
to worry, if only a little.  Her entire weight behind the punch, Akane 
slammed her fist home to Ryoga's left shoulder, the glow around her arm being 
pulled into it.  Upon contact with the armor, hatches in Akane's hand snapped 
open, and blasted forward in an incredibly powerful, point blank range 
attack.  The explosion of energy caught Ryoga completely off guard, and it 
sheared most of the way through his arm.  Teetering, he staggered backwards, 
crashing upon the ground as the remnants of her attack washed through the 
local systems housed in the area.
    Ryoga glared at Akane, who glared right back.  He clutched his arm to his 
body, trying desperately to keep it attached, while Akane just struggled 
desperately to remain standing.  Finally, Ryoga turned to retreat, knowing 
that, even as damaged as Akane was, she could still fight.  With his 
shattered arm and damaged subsystems, he could not.  However, as a final 
spite, he dropped a shockwave bomb out of his backpack, the fuse set on a 
timer.  He ran from the rubble of Furinkan High, while Akane stared at the 
bomb as the fuse counted down, unable to move.
    Finally, the bomb exploded, the shockwave sending her straight up into 
the air.  Akane tumbled about, airborne, for almost ten full seconds, before 
her systems shut her central consciousness down, in a desperate effort to 
conserve her waning energy.  Her body fell hard, with a resounding metallic 
*clang* to the ground.  Below her, something that had lain dormant since it's 
creation hummed to life.  Slowly, raised on hydraulic lifts, a cylinder made 
of blue painted metal rose from the ground.  It had a tube large enough for a 
person to stand inside of it, the capsule part of it being rimmed with green 
glass.  Tubes ran along it's top and bottom, connecting red transistors and 
small, micro fusion generators.  Elevated, Akane's body soon fall to the 
ground, and lay there, all but dead.  Unbeknownst to her, the glass of the 
capsule slid down, and the AI of the capsule hummed to life.
    "Oh, my," said the holographic human the stood upon the main pad of the 
pod.

***Author's Notes***

    Hey all!  This is the third installment of "The Opening Bet", and my 
favorite chapter so far.  First of all, I'd like to apologize to those who 
think that the characters are a little too extreme in their actions.  
Remember, Ranma's lost everything that he ever had, and he lost it because, 
as he sees it, his father made a stupid decision, even knowing the 
consequences.  Yeah, and Ranma does know about the whole deal his Dad made 
with his Mom.  That's what his reference to his 'real home' means earlier.  
If Genma figured the he'd never go home anyways (as is the case after Ranma's 
transformation), what's to keep him from telling Ranma?  Ryoga blames 
everything on Ranma, including being thrown out of his family.  One day, I 
just thought, "What if the Hibiki direction sense is a badge of honor among 
them, not a mark of shame?"  It'd certainly make for cheap vacations, that's 
for sure.  Also, I know that Akane might seem a bit odd in the battle scene, 
but you've got to remember that she was fused with Zero, who only truly lived 
during his most dangerous fights.  I tried to write her as somewhat of a 
blend between the two.  In any case, if you liked it, didn't like it, loved 
it, hated it, tell me so!  My e-mail is Flashfyre5@aol.com.  Let me tell you, 
your feedback REALLY helps me get through the nest chapter faster, and your 
input really matters to me.  If you point out something that I really messed 
up on, I'll fix it in any way I can.  Thanks for reading!

P.S.: For those of you that are MMX series followers, yes, Akane did use the 
Rakuhouha at the end to beat Ryoga there.


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