Okay, AOL says that I am 600 characters over my limit for a single e-mail, so 
the Author's Notes will be in a seperate message.  :)

     I do not own Starcraft, nor Ranma 1/2.  I am writing this 
because I have great affection for both.  I am making no money from 
this, nor make any sort of pretensions to ownership of either.
     Warning, possible spoilers for the game Starcraft lie herein.  
I have changed the plot of the game's storyline somewhere near the 
end of the first Act, but enough suggestions are, and will be, made 
such that you will know how the game went along originally.  
     ALSO, the story can get kinda violent. 
     You have been warned!

     Please send me C&C.  I throughly enjoy notes that say 'I love it!', and 
I do my best to listen to constructive negative comments.  No flames please!  
They help nobody.
     And away we go....slowly immersing myself back into the writing 
community....

Second Star 
by: Michael D. Rever

Chapter 6    Friend Makings, Blood Lettings, and Vengence Takings

     Sarah Kerrigan was somewhat at a loss.  While she had stayed in 
the safe haven of the cave with Ranma, she had known that she would 
one day have to go out and continue the fight against the Confeds.  
The problem had been, however, that she had no idea how she could go 
back into a Zerg infested world and survive, let alone how she was 
going to get off planet.  And now the safe haven was gone, and she was 
thrust right into the center of those two very questions.  The dilemma was 
clear.  Answer those two questions, or die.
     And then, of course, there was Ranma.  The cause of the current 
situation.  But she couldn't be angry with him.  After all, if it had 
not been for him, she would have died a while ago with a Hydralisk's 
blade through her body.  She had no way of figuring him out though.  
In the few days she has spent with him, she has seen him perform feats 
of strength and agility that she would still swear were impossible for 
a human being.  Perhaps due to the fact that she could still not read 
even the surface thoughts of his mind, his strange mixture of 
experience and innocence constantly kept her off guard, and that was a 
feeling she truly did not like.  She hated surprises.  Surprises, in 
her experience, always turned out for the worse.  *Well,* she thought, 
*almost always.*  A brief image of a rugged face flitted through her 
mind.
     She and Ranma were currently walking through a ravine, having 
just exited the mountain range on the opposite side from where she had 
entered it.  A deep forest lie within two day's walking distance, and 
they were hoping that food and water could be found there.  In the 
meantime, they passed the miles talking.  About fighting mostly.
     "So, while some fighting styles focus on one philosophy, my 
family's style doesn't focus on any.  Or maybe on them all.  You take 
the best parts from all other styles, but you don't let yourself get 
tied up with any one way of doing things."
     Sarah nodded.  "That seems simple enough.  Learn what works and 
use it.  Why doesn't everybody do it that way then?"
     Ranma shrugged.  "Well, some people like the purity of their 
style, and don't want ta distract from that.  Some people pick a style 
that fits their personality, ya know?  Hard, soft, attack, defense; 
whatever suits them and the way the see the world.  For some its 
tradition.  There is nothing wrong with the other styles, I just use 
one that suits me better."
     "Plus, not everybody has the skill to learn all those types at 
once."  He grinned.
     "Why haven't I heard of these types of fighting arts before?  
I've been around.  And I've been trained to fight and kill since I was 
a young girl.  And I've never seen moves like yours."
     Ranma scowled, not liking what he was hearing.  *Are Martial Arts 
lost here? *  The thought that the philosophies of the Martial Arts 
were forgotten on this world upset him greatly.  "I don't know.  Most 
of the more powerful styles were kept secret and stayed within one 
family or clan, but all the other styles were well known and available 
for learning.  Back home they were all over the place."
     Sarah narrowed her eyes and glanced at him quickly.  While she 
liked and trusted Ranma to an extent, she still wanted more 
information on his background.
     Ranma was musing.  "Maybe I should open up a few dojos.  Start 
teaching some of the styles, so that they aren't forgotten."
     Sarah jumped at the chance.  "Do you think you can train me?"
     Ranma glanced at her from the sides of his eyes.  "Welllll, I 
don't know.  Besides the rifle, what kinda weapon do you use?"
     She thought about it for a few seconds, "Well, I know how to use 
just about every kind of weapon there is.  But because of the nature 
of my...job...with the Confeds, I've mostly used knives and pistols."
     "Well, that's kinda limiting.  But I know a few styles that you 
can learn to match what you know.  I'll start out teaching you some 
simple street-fighting.  After that maybe we can go for something more 
refined."
     Sarah's eyebrows lowered a bit and, with her eyes still straight 
ahead, asked, "What about your style?"
     Ranma stared straight ahead as well, and replied in an even 
voice.  "First you learn street-fighting, and then something more 
refined."
     Outwardly Sarah's face remained unchanged, but inside her natural 
curiosity was churning over Ranma response and seeming refusal to 
teach her his particular school of fighting.
     A few hours later they made camp and took turns sleeping.

     Ranma was somewhat at a loss.  He liked Kerrigan.  She seemed to 
have an easy going nature, but never seemed to lose focus on the 
situation.  He had worked with professionals before, and was usually 
disappointed.  Most of the so-called 'professionals' took themselves 
way too seriously sometimes.  They didn't know how to have fun.  
What's the point of knowing fifty way to disarm a mugger if you 
couldn't, or wouldn't, do it with a little panache?  But Sarah was 
different.  Serious when she needed to be, willing to joke when she 
didn't.  Her greatest asset was that she never let go of her emotions.  
Never let herself become a simple tool; a killing machine.
     It was ironic that her greatest asset could very well be her 
greatest weakness as well.
     He would have to see if she can get past all the terrible things 
she has seen.  See if she can walk the thin line of controlling her 
emotions, and letting them control her.
     There was one thing he knew.  He was never going to allow her to 
learn the higher forms of the Art until he knew she could get past all 
the ugliness in her past.
     He glanced over at the sleeping Kerrigan and sadly noted the 
snarl she had taken on while dreaming.

     The next day found Ranma beginning Sarah's lessons.  She actually 
had some problems in the beginning with the less refined and more 
unrestricted forms of basic street-fighting, but she was a quick 
learner and was showing progress.  As she and Ranma resumed their trek 
across the land and towards the far off forest that was their 
destination, he had her throwing punches, performing kicks, and other 
such moves.  If there was a boulder in their way, she had to go over 
it.  If there was a crevasse or dip, she had to jump it.  If they were 
walking next to a hill, she had to travel while halfway up the side.
     In return, she showed him a bit of what she knew.  She showed him 
how her rifle worked, though they did not actually shoot it.  
Explained a bit of the styles of fighting her previous masters had 
taught her.  Described a bit about the various types of Zerg and their 
weaknesses.  Finally, she demonstrated her HES's cloaking ability.  He 
thought it was pretty damn neat at first, but when she explained to 
him that the suit had a very limited supply of energy, and she could 
only be cloaked for short periods of time, he became less so.
     The next day, they were getting quite close to the forest, and 
Sarah's hopes were slightly increasing.  There was no sign of the 
purple ooze that the Zerg required to survive.  If there was a Zerg 
hive anywhere nearby, that disgusting membrane would have spread and 
covered the entire forest for quite some distance.  The fact that 
there was none suggested that the Overmind had not yet begun 
colonizing this particular stretch of land.
     *Of course,* she mused, "that doesn't help us figure a way off 
this rock."
     Suddenly Ranma stopped.  "What's that sound?"
     Listening carefully, Sarah heard a soft bellowing sound, followed 
closely by a hissing sound that she knew very well.  Looking around 
trying to pinpoint the direction the sounds were coming from she 
spoke, "Vespene gas.  There must be a geyser nearby."  Sniffing the 
air she continued, "Smell that?"
     Ranma jumped back a little, making warding gestures with his 
hands. "Don't look at me!  I didn't do nothing!"
     Quirking an eyebrow, Sarah grabbed his arm and started dragging 
Ranma off to the right. "Come on.  If there's Gas in the area, there 
might be a gas farm or refinery.  If there is a gas farm or refinery, 
there might be a speeder or communications array we can use to get out 
of here."
     As they moved through the woods, the slight smell became more and 
more noticeable.  It was not an unpleasant smelling odor, but a 
cloying one that caused a person to want to leave the area.  Sarah 
took the opportunity to clue Ranma in on the more recent events in the 
Rebellion's history.  Now that they might be meeting other people, 
having him understand what's been going on might help avoid awkward 
situations.
     "So for a long time nothing much happened.  We hit the Confeds.  
They tried to hit us.  They couldn't really hurt us since we were so 
mobile, but we couldn't really hurt them either.  It was almost to the 
point that we were just going through the motions."  She stopped for a 
second, thinking to herself.  "But then the Zerg showed up."
     "The Confederacy started capturing the Zerg and experimenting on 
them long before most people knew they existed.  They wanted to see if 
they could be turned into weapons.  There were some....atrocities during 
those experiments.  Entire towns were wiped out on some of the 
backwater planets."
     "On one of these planets was a Marshal named Jim Raynor.  He 
uncovered what was happening on his planet, and decided that the only 
way to save his people was to rebel against the Confederacy.  So he 
joined the Sons.  He was brave, skilled, and had a strong sense of 
justice.  Just the kind of man the Sons needed.  His name was not 
unknown to the more remote planets, and the fact that he had joined 
with us spoke louder than words to some of the people in power on 
those planets.  Also, he did not come alone.  With him came the 
Commander."  Again she paused, lost in her memories of when she met 
the two people she actually respected.  There had been a third person 
in that group, but he had lost that respect when he left her to rot 
here on Tarsonis.
     Ranma glanced over at her.  "The Commander?"
     Sarah shook herself a bit.  "Yes.  The Commander was green.  A 
newbie.  But possessing a brilliant mind and a definite charisma that 
drew followers like nobody's business.  The Commander personally led 
Raynor and various sized groups in victory after victory against the 
Confeds and the Zerg."
     She looked straight ahead, lost in her thoughts.  She knew, deep 
down inside, that her two friends, if nobody else, were doing their 
best to make Mengsk pay for abandoning her.  Ranma sensed her mood 
and, for once, kept his mouth shut and just walked on.
  After fifteen or twenty minutes of walking, they noticed something 
else.  Rings, clanks, and the sound of hydraulics could occasionally 
be heard from ahead of them.
     Sarah smiled.  "Sounds like somebody is mining the gas.  They 
probably don't know anything about the Zerg being here.  Vespene 
miners are solitary and only deal with other people when its time to 
sell their load."  She started to continue, but noticed that Ranma had 
stopped walking and was glancing around as if spooked.
     "What's that?"
     "What's what?" she returned, scanning the area both with her eyes 
and her mind.  She found nothing, but did not relax her guard, which 
was now up.
     Ranma just looked more perplexed, and seemed to be staring at 
something in the distance.  "It was.....movement.  A breeze when there 
shouldn't have been one.  A -whoah!-"  He suddenly bent over 
backwards.  Throwing himself to the side, he crouched with his hands 
out and spread.  "Yikes!"  Another jump, followed by a rolling on the 
ground, and then a diving leap off to the right.  Upon landing his 
eyes immediately got wide and he made another impressive roll 
forwards.
     To Sarah's eyes, it looked very much like one of the boy's katas 
mixed in with a whole lot of clowning around.  Obviously this was no 
training exercise though.  At least, she hoped it wasn't.  If it was, 
she was going to kill him, plain and simple.
     Ranma now stood quite some distance away and was looking around 
wildly.  A pause.  A dead silence.  And then another jump similar to 
the others he had been performing.  However, the tree that he had been 
standing in front of exploding was new.
     Sarah needed no more prompting.  Slapping her hand down on her 
wrist, she disappeared from sight.
     Ranma now stood in the middle of the clearing, ready to move 
quickly in any direction.  The sound of the burning remains of the 
tree that had been destroyed crackled and popped somewhere behind him.  
Sarah was gone, but she was a smart girl, and he knew she would be out 
there trying to help in some way.  *Not that I need any help.* he 
thought.  *But still, she didn't say anything about Zerg that could 
make themselves invisible!*  Still looking around, he fervently wished 
that the ground was something other than grass, dead leaves, and 
rocks.  *Sand or dirt would be nice.* he groused.   So far he had been 
running on instinct.  A feeling of 'it would be a good idea to move in 
-this- direction right now' that would run through his mind.  But he 
would like something a little more concrete to go on.  *Yeah, like 
whatever's attacking me is just going to appear in front of me and 
show itself.*
     At that moment, several humanoid figures in black full-body 
outfits phased into being, surrounding him at a distance.  All of the 
figures except one were wearing dark helmets so that he could not see 
their faces.
     Ranma shook his head to fling off the sweatdrop which had 
suddenly appeared there.
     One of the figures, the one that was not wearing a helmet, spoke 
up. "Tell your friend to show herself."  The voice was heavy with an 
accent that tugged at the back on Ranma's mind.
     Ranma looked him right in the eyes and replied, 'What friend?'
     The man snarled.  "Yer Ghost friend.  Tell her to show herself, 
or the last thing she gonna see is you gettin yer body shot fulla 
holes."  Now Ranma recognized the accent.  It was the stereotypical 
drawl people from the Southern United States were often attributed on 
TV and movies.
     Ranma crossed his arms and looked down and to the side, a perfect 
picture of unconcern and insolence.  "Feh.  You weren't able ta hit me 
when you were invisible.  What makes you think you can do it now that 
I can see you?"
     The rather large man then looked a bit closer at Ranma.  "Listen 
here slant eyes, I admit you're pretty good at jumpin outa da way.  
But somethin tells me that you'll be getten tired long before we run 
outa ammo."
     Ranma was about to reply when a whisper flowed into his ear.  
"Ranma,"  it was Sarah's voice, "I went around looking to see how many 
of them there are.  They've got hostages.  Back at the gas farm.  A 
gas miner and his wife."  There was the briefest of hesitations.  
"They don't look that good."
     The man who was confronting Ranma narrowed his eyes upon seeing 
Ranma slightly twist his head, as if listening for, or to, something.  
When Ranma's eyes quickly glanced in the direction of the Gas farm, a 
smile came to his lips.  With a glance and a jerk of his head, two of 
his masked Ghosts disappeared from view.
     Ranma focused back on the man just a little too late to catch the 
motion.
     "Well, Slanty?  Tell your friend to come back ta us.  She looked 
like a real pretty girl.  She shouldn't be hiden."
     Ranma shook his head a bit, "You know what freaks me out?  I come 
all this way, just to run into more redneck bigots."
     "Redneck?  What the hell is that supposed ta mean?  Sounds like 
you tryin ta insult me boy.  You need ta learn respect."
     "Ha!  Like I'll ever respect a Redneck like you!"
     "My name is Carpenter.  Not Redneck."  Unseen and standing next 
to Ranma, Sarah stiffened upon hearing the name.
     The newly named Carpenter heard the sound of trudging feet coming 
up from behind him.  "And I got something you might like ta see."
     Moving to the side, Carpenter made room for the two Ghosts which 
had disappeared.  They were forcing a man and a woman ahead of them.  
The man looked defeated, with his head down and hands shackled.  His 
clothes were soaked with blood down the front, and his pants were 
ripped to show large burns.  The woman was in slightly better shape 
physically, but she had a lost expression on her face.  Her clothes 
were ripped to expose those parts of her body they were intended to 
conceal, and it was fairly obvious that her captors has used her 
pretty roughly.  Upon seeing them, especially upon seeing the woman 
and what she had obviously gone through, Ranma felt a rage bloom 
within his chest.  But he could not do anything while those two men 
had they weapons trained on the poor couple.
     Carpenter was looking fairly closely at Ranma all the while.  He 
smiled.  "Well, lookee here boys, we got ourselves a goddamn Hero."  
There was muted laughter from the men surrounding Ranma and Sarah.  
"Oh and don't bother tellin yer friend to show herself.  The way I 
figure it, her power pack will be drained right......about......now."  Ranma 
was slightly surprised when Sarah did indeed appear next to him, 
looking down at a panel on her wrist which could now be heard chirping 
a quiet alarm.
     "Weeeelll now, that's a whole lot better."  Carpenter leered at 
Sarah.  "What's your name, sweetheart?"
     Sarah didn't take her eyes off of the man, and refused to answer.
     "Oh come on now.  That's not very hospitable.  Here me and my men 
are tryin ta save you from this Zerg infested forest, and ya don't 
even give us a name."  He sighed dramatically.  "What's the world 
comin ta if ya can't even trust a stranger."  The other men in the 
clearing shuffled a bit and chuckled.
     Ranma kept glancing between the two.  Ever since Sarah had 
appeared, everybody seemed to be ignoring him.
     After a few more seconds of silence, Carpenter seemed to lose 
whatever patience he had.  "Giles, if the lady don't give us her name 
in, say, ten seconds, shoot Slut's knee off."  One of the two Ghosts 
which had brought the unfortunate miner and his wife lowered the 
muzzle of his large rife until it nudged the back of the right knee of 
the woman.  The woman staggered a little and gasped, hopeless horror 
flashing across her eyes.  Her husband raised his head to glare at 
Carpenter with one eye.  Where his other eye should have been was an 
angry red socket stained with blood.  The Ghost's face couldn't be 
seen through the helmet, but all there could sense that he was 
smiling.
     "Sarah."  Her voice was even and she still hadn't taken her eyes 
off of Carpenter.  To tell the truth she was a little relieved at what 
she was sensing from the hostage couple.  If they could still feel 
things like fear and hate, than they were not completely defeated yet.
     Carpenter smiled widely.  "Sarah.  Well, Sarah, where did ya find 
this one?"  While jerking his thumb at Ranma, his eyes traveled the 
length of Sarah's body.  But he came no closer, and he still seemed to 
be on his guard.  "You his guard at a Confederate gene-lab?  Got 
chased out by the Zerg?"
     Sarah frowned a bit, but said nothing.
     "Oh come on, we ain't gonna play this game again, are we?  Look, 
anybody looks like that and moves like that has ta be some sorta gene-
freak."  He waited a few more second and then continued, "Yah know, 
yer gonna have ta be a bit more friendly if ya want ta get outa this 
here situation."  He actually licked his lips.
     This whole time the now ignored Ranma was studying these new 
opponents.  The first thing that amazed him was that other than 
dialogue from Carpenter, the caution these bastards were treating 
Sarah with was considerable.  Apparently Ghosts have a fearsome 
reputation, even to other Ghosts.  
     Other than that, he got the impression that, despite who, or 
rather what, they were, that the men surrounding them were nothing 
more than thugs.  The seriousness and caution that Sarah was treating 
them with suggested that they were dangerous, but he figured that it 
wouldn't be all that hard to get away from them.  If only they didn't 
have those hostages.  Oh he would figure a way out of this, in some 
horribly humiliating and painful way for their captors, but it was 
just going to take a bit longer than usual.
     Carpenter was speaking while rubbing his chin.  "Come on, lets 
get on back to camp.  Maybe we can all be a bit more...friendly...after we 
get somthin ta eat."  His leer towards Sara left no doubt as to what 
he meant.  Gesturing Ranma and Sarah to take the lead, Carpenter 
started to move back towards where the camp obviously was.  Behind 
Carpenter came the hostages, prodded by the gun barrels of the Ghosts 
that made up his gang.  He stopped only long enough to say "While 
we're thinking about it, why donchu toss me the wrist pad for yer 
suit?  After all, we don't want ya to go disappearin on us, now do 
we?"

     After traveling a short distance through the sparse trees, Ranma 
and Sarah entered into what was obviously the gas miner's homestead.  
Mostly made up of sheds and small outlying buildings, with one larger 
building probably used as a house, it reminded Ranma of nothing more 
than the small homesteads and ranches television coyboys always lived 
in.  Very small, but homey.  At one end was a strange piece of 
machinery with many large pistons in constant motion.  Every few 
seconds a small puff of greenish gas would escape from the piston's 
shafts.  Obviously the small Vespene gas mine the farmer ran.
     Pausing for just a second, Ranma and Sarah glanced towards each 
other and moved slowly forward.  Worry was plainly evident in their 
gaze.  But there was not much either of them could do while their 
captors held the hostages.  Slowly they made their way past the small 
sheds and moved towards the large house.  As they got closer, 
Carpenter began speaking again.
     "Y'know, I'm not such a bad guy.  I mean, sure I do some bad 
things every once ina while, but once ya start working *with* me, and 
not *agenst* me, ya just might find out how kind n generous I can be.  
Speaking of which..."  He stopped walking and turned back to the two 
miners, and spoke to the Ghost that still held a rifle against the 
poor woman's back.  "Giles.  Ifin I'm not mistaken, its yer turn again 
with Slut.  Why donchu go on and take her over to the field and 
relax."  The Ghost he was talking to shuffled his feet a little bit 
and gripped his rifle tightly, obviously pleased with what he had been 
told.  The woman before him got a horrified expression and stumbled, 
sobbing and shaking her head wildly.  Giles started pushing her off to 
the side, using his rife barrel.  Ranma was just about to move when a 
hoarse bellow stopped him.
     "NOOOOOOO!" It came from the miner.  Ranma turned towards him 
just in time to see the poor tortured man dive over to a close-by 
shed.  Landing next to some old barrels, he reached behind them and 
pulled out what was obviously an old rifle of some sort.  Quickly, but 
with obvious effort, he swung the barrel of the weapon towards the man 
prodding his wife.
     Only to drop the weapon from nerveless fingers as a good portion 
of his head exploded in a spray of gore.  Carpenter chuckled a bit as 
he lowed his small hand weapon.
     Now it was the woman's turn to scream.  Breaking away from her 
captor, she ran towards her husband's lifeless body.  Carpenter raised 
his weapon again, and shot her as she neared her goal.  Seeing her 
still struggling on the ground, he walked over and shot her execution 
style.  She moved no more.
     "Well, now.  That was...huh?"  He was interrupted from whatever he 
was saying by the sound of loud popping.  Turning, he saw Ranma.
     Ranma stood perfectly still, with his head down so that his bangs 
covered his eyes.  The popping sound was of the tendons and joints in 
his hands and arms straining as he clenched his fists tightly.  Slowly 
he raised his head until they all could see his eyes.
     They promised death.
     "Shit!"  Was all that Carpenter was able to say before Ranma was 
on the move.
     Sarah immediately jumped forward, lunging for Carpenter in an 
attempt to wrangle his hand weapon from him before he got off a lucky 
shot.  But she quickly halted herself when Ranma got there first!  
Suddenly appearing before the surprised man, Ranma rocked the thug's 
head back and then forth with two quick and direct punches into the 
face.  Then a powerful kick blasted into the large man's gut and flung 
him back  a good ten feet or more.  Without even waiting for the man 
to land from his airborne punishment, Ranma was rushing towards two 
more of the Ghosts, weaving this way and that at impossible speeds and 
eating up ground like a Zergling high on a stim-pack.  Carpenter did 
not move after landing.
     She didn't simply stand and gawk however, she quickly turned 
towards one of the other Ghosts and started to run towards him.  The 
thug just stood there unmoving, watching whatever Ranma was doing to 
his teammates.  She got to him and opened up with a double handed 
strike to the bottom of his helmet that flung the object from his head 
with a screech of protesting circuitry.  Knocking his rifle from his 
stunned hands, she began to lay into him with the new moves Ranma had 
been teaching her.  For some reason, the powerful and direct attacks 
of the street fighting style seemed very appropriate.  From the very 
beginning the man did not put up much of a fight, to her disgust.  
After a few more hits, the bastard was totally open and she pulled her 
hand back for a crushing blow to his throat.  But before she could 
deliver the attack, the body of another of the Ghosts came flying 
through the air and smashed into her opponent.
     Cursing slightly at her bad luck, she turned to look for another 
opponent that was still standing, but saw none.  Ranma was unmoving, 
but in a stance that suggested that he had just completed a throw.  
She couldn't see who he had performed the move against until a heavy 
slam against a distant wall caused her to look that way.  Halfway up 
the wall a Ghost materialized from his cloaked state with his entire 
suit sparking and buzzing.  The surely unconscious Ghost slid slowly 
down the wall to land in a heap at the bottom.
     Knowing that there was at least one more Ghost out there in 
cloaked state, Sarah began to move towards where Carpenter was lying.  
Her thought was to find her control pad and cloak herself and to 
retrieve her rifle which Carpenter had slung over his back.  With 
these two objects, she might be able to level the playing field a bit.  
Though, she had to admit, the playing field already seemed to be more 
weighted towards her side if the truth be told.
     However, before she could move more than a few feet, the cold 
muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of her head.  There was no 
sound from the Ghost, as the cloaking field would prevent any such 
noise from being heard, but to her surprise she caught a flash of 
thought coming from the scum.   A brief impression of fury and the 
words 'Goodbye bitch'.  So surprised was she at this, after all, the 
Cloaking field should shield the man's mind, that she stood frozen 
instead of using her skills to escape the situation.
     Suddenly her world lurched to the side, and she was flung roughly 
to the ground while a painful burning scorched the side of her face. 
     Ranma rolled with Sarah on the ground quite some distance from 
where he had tackled her.  When he had seen her tense up and stand 
still, it wasn't all that hard to figure out what was wrong.  Not 
knowing exactly where the Ghost was standing, he ran and hurled 
himself at her, hoping to get her past the situation and give him 
enough space to figure out where the killer was.
     Well, he got his wish.  Following through with the roll, he left 
Sarah on the ground and stood in a loose stance.  He wasn't sure how 
he was able to fight these invisible assholes, but he was so used to 
running on instinct and feeling that he decided to just trust in his skills.  
A 
prickling feeling bloomed along the back of his neck, and his eyes 
narrowed at the feeling.  In a move reminiscent of the one he had done 
before, he suddenly jumped to the side and the ground far behind him 
exploded in a burst of dirt and rock.  Ranma ignored this however, and 
quickly figured out where the shot had to originate from.  Taking a 
step forward, he kicked a loose rock as hard as he could to where he 
thought the cloaked Ghost was standing.  Not far from where he had 
tackled Sarah, the rock disappeared for half of a second.  Then 
suddenly there was a wavering in the air and the Ghost came into view, 
bent over and clutching his chest where the rock had slammed into him 
as hard as a gun shell.  Still coughing and staggering, the Ghost 
slapped ineffectually at the control panel at his wrist, though he had 
to be aware that to be visible the suit had to be either damaged, or 
it ran out of power at the worst possible moment.  Whatever the 
reason, he was uncloaked and therefore vulnerable.  This became 
abundantly clear when Ranma reached him.
     Landing on the Ghost's head from a high jump, Ranma drove the 
Ghost into the ground.  Hopping backward and landing in front of the 
injured killer, Ranma waited for the bastard to raise himself a bit 
off of the ground in an attempt to stand.  When the thug rose to his 
hands and knees, Ranma kicked him in the head like a place-kicker 
kicking a football.  The man was flung backwards head first, to land 
on his back quite some distance away, his facemask shattered and his 
face a ruin of cuts and abrasions.  There had been a subtle crack as 
he landed, but it was unheard by both Ranma and Sarah.  The man lapsed 
into unconsciousness.
     Ranma stared at the motionless body for a second, before relaxing 
his stance and turning back towards where Sarah had been tackled to 
the ground.  She was standing now, and looking around, one side of her 
face an angry red from the flashburn the last Ghost's gun.  Seeing 
Ranma's concern and him walking towards her, she shook her head and 
waved a hand in a motion that conveyed that she was all right.





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