From:   [email protected]
Date: Fri Nov 10, 2000 2:18pm
Subject: Back to Gaea Chapter 4!


Chapter 4
(Here starts the mess. Please, be mercyful!)


17 years before (aka a month after Hitomi returned from Gaea).

Saotome Ranma looked around himself. What a mess! The city was 
crumbling right before his eyes, thousands were death and others were 
still at risk. A loud humming sound could be heard. On instinct, he 
turned his eyesight to the sky. Just in time to see a plane dropping 
a couple of bombs near what was left of the american embassy.
-"Yee, now the americans are gonna get pissed, aren't they?"
-"If they do, I don't think it'll matter. We've got enough problems 
already."
He turned to look at Nabiki. She was standing right next to a sobbing 
Akane. Ranma's herat went out to her. He knew what she was suffering. 
He was still blaming himself about Kasumi's and Mister Tendo's 
deaths. At least, he hoped, it had been a quick death and they hadn't 
even felt pain. The memory of Kasumi's wide, shocked, frozen eyes was 
too much. He tried to focuss on the matter at hand. Namely: war.
he skanned their surroundings once more, trying to find a way out of 
that place. Not an easy task, he tols himself. There were fires and 
snippers all over the place, and the bombing hadn't stopped. he was 
practically as lost as Ryoga would have been. Ryoga. He hoped that 
all their friends had made it out before the attack was delivered to 
Nerima. 
He had seen what was left of the Kuno estate and he hadn't been able 
to believe it. Only the front gates an a piece of the wall remained 
standing, the rest had become a hug crater. That had been the prelude 
for what they had found at the Tendo dojo.

*Flashback*
Akane stormed through what was left of the streets near her childhood 
home. There were tons of debris, most of the houses had been 
completly destroyed. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Ranma was 
running by her side, carrying a badly injured Nabiki. 
Her sister let out a gasp. She followed her gaze and found the dojo, 
or what was left from it. The once beautiful garden, nice house and 
badly battered dojo were almost gone. All that was left were a few 
walls and pieces from the roof, one or two ripped out trees and 
another huge mountain of debris. Where thw neighbors' house used to 
be, there was a hole big enough to de a small stadium.
She tried to run towards her now lost home, she wanted to find her 
father and sister, but she was stopped midstep by a hand on her 
shoulder.
-"Stay her with Nabiki. I'll go take a look."
He hadn't even waited for her answer, so she returned to her sister's 
side and tried to stop her ankle from bleeding. Nabiki had been 
lucky: that snipper could have killed her. A broken ankle wasn't that 
bad.
Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion. It seemed to come from what 
had once been the backyard. Akane helped Nabiki to her feet and half  
dragged, half carried her towards the source of the noise.
What she saw devastated her. Ranma was standing near the destroyed 
pond. In his hands he had a shovel, and in front of him, just 
finished, stood two graves. The look in Ranma's face had told her 
everything. And the world had gone mercifully black.
*End of Flashback*

Nabiki was feeling numb, probably from the shock. To believe that 
they owed their lives to the fact that they had been at school! But 
still, even as she felt heartbroken and like if part of her had died 
with her sister and father, still, she coulnd't cry. Was her heart 
that cold? Or was it only shock? She couldn't tell, and it hurt her 
even more than her ankle.
Her mussings were broken for the explossion of a bomb, right on what 
had once been the National Library. It was not as if she loved books, 
but seeing her family, her home, her city, her whole country 
shattered, that was too much. How many had died today? And for what? 
Nothing was beeing achieved.
She turned to confort her baby sister and noticed some movement 
throught the corner of her eye.
-"Ranma, there's somebody there! They seem to be in trouble!"
The young martial artist followed her gaze and notices four kids, 
younger than they were, running top speed. Behind them, on a wild 
chase, were six snippers. Guns at hand, it was pretty obvious that 
they were tired, but still kept up with the pace of their hunts. 
These were two boys and two girls, their clothes blcka with smoke. 
They seemed to ber really frightened and they had already endured a 
couple of shoots at them, if Ranma could tell by their numerous, but 
minor, wounds.
Suddenly, one of the girls changed direction and ran towards their 
followers, much to her companions' surprise. Just as she was getting 
in shooting range, she changed direction again, this time to the 
right. The trick seemed to work. The snippers, seeing an easier 
catch, cahnged their direction and followed her, instead of her 
companions.

Hitomi stared at her brother. He was so young, just 14, and still he 
seemed to be taking their new situation rather well. 
Yukari was another story. Since the moment they had been evacuated 
from school, she had been whimpering like if she were a beaten dog. 
She knew she was affraid, but a little self-control would had been 
gratefully recieved. Worst of all, nothing Amano or she could say 
seemed to calm her, everything made her cry even harder.
As she was trying to decide wether or not to slap some sense into her 
best friend when she heard machine-gun shooting really close. As she 
noticed a bunch of snippers killing a group of people, she pulled her 
friends and her brother and ran for it.
Coming to Central Tokyo to check on her dad was hte worts idea she 
had ever had. Not only did the find out that both her parents were 
death, now they had a bunch of guys with guns hot on their heals. It 
was at times like these that she missed her foretelling and other 
psichic abilities. She just wished she could get them back. And if 
Van was in the package, nobody would hear her complaining. She 
mentaly slapped herself. This wasn't the time for that trail of 
thoughts.
They had been running for a few minutes when thw snippers decided to 
open fire. It was for pure luck that none of them got any serious 
injuries. A couple of scratches and minor wounds, probably the worst 
was the one on her shoulder.
Just ahead she saw some people. A guy and a couple of girls, these 
ones were wearing school uniforms, so it was a little hard for them 
to be thought as enemies. This was her chance. To her right she had 
seen a fairly big piece of what had once been a building... If she 
could only distract the snippers long enough...
She pointed the people to her brother. He seemed to notice her 
intention 'cause he started running towards them, with Yukari and 
Amano in tow.
Hitomi the turned around and started runnign towards their followers. 
Just as dhe got in shooting range she turned and ran towards the 
building piece she had seen earlier. 
The bomb's impact seemed to have cut it in half, the top part had 
come to rest on a near by crater.
She rushed wildly towards that part, reached it and started climbing. 
The snippers reached the bottom a few seconds later and started 
following her up. Just as she got to the highest part she saw, out of 
the corner of her eye, that her brother and friends were staring at 
her with frightened expressions, the strangers seemed to be in shock. 
She refocussed on more pressing matters and scanned the other side of 
her "idea". Right next to the craters edge was a small window, barely 
fit for her to get in, but ther was no way down. She had forgotten to 
think before acting. It was either the bullets or a broken neck. She 
decided quickly. if she had to die, if htat was her destiny, she 
would die fighting. 
With that thought in mind, she took a step forward...


Nice place to cut, huh? Chapter four was really long, and I believe 
that the other will have to be the same way, soooo much inspiration 
at had. Is you're doubt any clearer Link? If not, just tell me and 
I'll try to explain myself better. Please people, R&R!
See ya!