A clap of thunder shook the room. Usagi sat up in bed, her eyes wide with fright. No matter how she changed or what she had gone through, that sound still scared her to death. She sat there for a few moments, forcing herself to calm down, when she felt a small, warm body against her. She looked down, startled at first, then smiling when she saw the piglet’s eyes look at her in what almost seemed like worry.

"It’s alright. I’m just a bit afraid of the storm." She laid back down, scratching the piglet behind his ears. The small black body curled up next to her head and nestled in with her, reassuring her.

********************

"Ranma?" Ranma turned over, hearing his name. His eyes tried to squint shut to keep out the light from the hallway.

"What is it, Akane?"

"Could you go look for P-chan?" She sounded worried, her voice soft as she asked him. Ranma turned back over, away from the opened door.

"Akane, it’s the middle of the night. Wherever he is, P-chan is perfectly fine." The light from the hallway still made shadows on the far wall and the door remained open. "That pig has been lost before, Akane. He’ll show up sooner or later." There was no response but the soft swoosh of the closing door. Ranma turned over in his bed and watched his fiancée’s shadow through the paper wall as she walked slowly back to her room. For several seconds, he wanted to jump up and say he’d go looking for the damn pig, only to shake his head and drift back to sleep.

********************

"Usagi?" Shampoo’s whispered voice woke up the former heroine. She opened her eyes to see her false sister leaning over her. "Usagi, get up. Something going on outside!" Usagi sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. A flash of lightening lit up the room, startling Usa, but no thunder followed. She frowned, and looked towards the window.

"Yoma!" she shouted, jumping from bed. A small black piglet fell to the floor, protesting with soft grunts for the sudden movement, until he too looked out the window. A tall woman with a short, tight green dress, purple skin, and glowing yellow eyes stood outside in the middle of the street. Emerald green hair fell down to her thigh and was interlaced with leaves and twigs. All around her, the pavement was destroyed, roots pushing through and grabbing hold of anything near. As they watched, a car was thrown through the window of the ramen shop below by one of the roots, which then went on to do damage elsewhere.

"This what Japan afraid of?!" Shampoo asked, surprise showing clearly on her face. "Woman in tight dress??" Usagi looked over at her and, seeing the confusion Shampoo felt, laughed quietly and nodded.

"Her and others like her are dangerous though."

"Then Shampoo and Usagi fight!" She pushed open the window and, grabbing Usagi’s arm, jumped down to the ground below.

The black piglet sat on the floor, looking out the window in horror. His tenshi was going to go fight, and he couldn’t do a thing to help! He was so consumed in worry, he didn’t notice for several seconds the sudden splash of warm water over him, and he only noticed then when a shirt fell over his eyes.

"I thought as much. Get dressed and go help them, or I’ll make sure Usagi finds out exactly what she was sleeping with." The now human Ryoga turned to see Shampoo’s great-grandmother laughing, with a kettle in one hand. Realizing he was naked, he quickly grabbed the clothes as Cologne turned and left the room, still chuckling.

********************

An alarm woke Ami from her sleep. Her computer was on, a light blinking on the map of Japan. Eyes still squinted, she leaned over and zoomed in on the light. Sighing, she picked up her communicator.

"Right on time, guys," she mumbled once she saw the faces of the other four. "Park, two minutes."

********************

Shampoo winced as she was thrown against a wall, but stood back up quickly and raced at the woman. Usagi was trying to figure out how to get close enough to her, but the yoma had taken a position up in the air once she realized the power behind the amazon girls’ moves.

"We can’t get close enough to her," Usagi muttered as Shampoo rejoined her.

"Well, princess, you decided to ignore our warning." Usagi looked up at the woman in shock. She was about to respond when a yellow and black boomerang cut across the yoma’s cheek. "Arghh!" The yoma turned to see where the boomerang returned just in time to see the bottom of a bare foot slam into her cheek.

Ryoga finished pulling on the pants and looked outside to see the woman that was attacking begin to levitate. Usagi and Shampoo were on the ground though, and the woman was so high up already that even he would have a hard time attacking from the ground. But he wasn’t on the ground, he was in a second story window.

He ripped his bandana off his head, only for it to be replaced with another identical bandana, and threw the first at the unsuspecting yoma. He was already out the window, his foot moments from making contact with her cheek when she screamed out, and the scream was cut short when he knocked into her. She fell to the ground with the sound of bones breaking. A green liquid that he assumed had to be blood trickled from her nose.

"Hmmph. To think I fought these guys for years using magic, and a simple blow to the head killed one." Ryoga looked up when he heard Usagi mutter to herself, probably thinking no one could hear her. She was standing over the yoma, kicking it to make sure it was dead. He turned, wondering where the other was.

"Why you come from Usagi and Shampoo’s room?" a suspicious voice asked. Ryoga turned, startled, to find Shampoo standing directly behind him. Her arms were crossed in front of her and her eyes were narrowed as she tried to think if she knew him.

"Um, guys, I don’t think it’s quite dead." Ryoga and Shampoo turned to see Usagi trying to stamp a root down that had come through the pavement. They moved forward to help her, but the root moved more quickly. It wrapped around her ankle, lifting her into the air.

"Usagi!" Shampoo shouted, running forward. Ryoga turned to the fallen woman, but there was no sign of life coming from her. The root was still growing though, and Ryoga couldn’t think of what to do, short of cutting the root down. Quickly deciding, he lift his foot off the ground and, closing his eyes, stomped onto her head. He expected something that resembled a brain to ooze out, not the green tinted liquid that was even more like water then the green blood. And among the liquid and skull fragments, a small black orb, almost like a marble, was found. But that did not seem to stop the root.

********************

The senshi met in the park, still seeming sleepy as they gathered in a circle.

"We’ve got to find a way to stop this," Makoto said, yawning as she finished.

"We need to find Usagi, but there is no time when we have to constantly stop these attacks." Ami grabbed hands with Rei and Minako as they began to concentrate. "But Nerima now. We’ll talk after school tomorrow." The four vanished from the park, reappearing on a street in Nerima.

"I don’t see why all of us have to go. We already know they’ll leave if just one of us show up," Rei said, taking in the situation.

"Because it takes all four of us to do a sailor telaport," Ami replied. "Now common. The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can go back to bed."

"Alright. Lets go." Mina jumped onto the top of one of the few cars still in one piece. "Stop right there! For disturbing the sleep of innocents and abusing the powers of nature, we will punish you! I am Sailor Venus!"

"Sailor Mars!"

"Sailor Mercury!"

"Sailor Jupiter!"

"We’ll send you back to where you came from, yoma!" Mina finished. It was only then they noticed that the only one around that looked at all like a yoma was the destroyed body on the ground. "Weird."

"Usagi!" The four girls suddenly woke up completely.

"Usagi? Did that girl just say Usagi?!" Makoto asked, surprised.

A root about the thickness of a car had grown up out of the street and was holding someone with white blond hair in a braid so far above the ground that it was difficult for any of them to identify who it could be. The other two people, a girl and a boy about their age, paid them no attention at all.

********************

"Why did she fail?" an angry voice asked over the tiny computer.

"She came up against some unknown difficulties. It seems the rumors of this town are true. It possesses some of the strongest mortal fighters in the world. One of them appears to have been living with the princess. Another must have been nearby."

"Do you have any GOOD news for me, Rayak?"

"Yes. When our yoma died, I took over what she had left behind. The princess is now in our possession."

"Excellent."

"I thought you would approve, Winnowill."

********************

*LOL* Okay, for all of you out there who know who Rayak and Winnowill are, sorry! I just thought they would be good bad guys. *chuckle* I just figured it out as I was writing it too. I know, I know, Rayak isn’t completely bad, but I decided to make him completely bad for this. They aren’t elves though! And Rayak is normal human height, and I think his skin is a bit lighter. If I bring any other ElfQuest characters into this, it will be Two-Edge, and that’s it. I’ll stop there, if I bring him in at ALL. For all of you who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, don’t worry. You won’t miss anything in the story.

Chapter 4 of Son Usagi is next! For you at The Portal (I’ve gotten one or two e-mails asking what on earth I am talking about when I mention Son Usagi) look me up at www.fanfiction.net (same author name).

Guys, I still love to get reviews and e-mails. It keeps me happy, and a happy Jade Nova will produce chapters more quickly.

~Jade Nova

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