Hell Hath No Fury
A Ranma/Sailormoon Crossover
By: Bob Lobster

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailormoon. Don't you have
someone with money to bug?

Chapter 1: Hate At First Site

    The night was dark. The night was dark and cold. The night was
downright uncomfortably dark and cold and Genma Saotome really didn't
appreciate it. Although in his present position, the dark part was
probably a blessing, as it did manage to hinder anyone who may have
seen him. Yes, perhaps the dark part was a rather good thing if he
wished to stay in London much longer, perched as he was on the church
window sill, money already in his pocket from a good night's
thief........er, borrowing. That was all he was doing after all,
borrowing the money for now to keep him and the boy in food for a
while. As soon as the boy was happily married to a Tendo, any would
do, and making lots of money from teaching in the dojo, he could go
around and pay back all these little......donations to the cause. If
they knew that their little bit of money would help to make the best
martial artist in the world, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to donate a
bit of money after all. Who wouldn't?

    *The cold still sucks though* Genma thought to himself as he sat
on the sill, looking around for anyone who may spot him. Slowly,
soundlessly lowering himself to the ground, Genma looked around once
more before breathing a sigh of relief.

    *Another job well done, Genma old boy.* He thought to himself, as
he relaxed and began heading away from the church. *Who would have
thought that the.....shudder....Master's training would have paid off
so well.*

    Suddenly, a tingling went down his spine, the type he only got
when he was in danger, and he turned around quickly to see if the
police had arrived at the scene. Spotting no one, Genma began to
wonder if perhaps he was getting a bit jumpy before shrugging it off
and turning back in the direction of the park he'd left the boy
practicing in. When he looked in front of him however, his heart
nearly stopped in startlement, as someone was standing there. Once his
heart slowed down to a reasonable pace again, he took a good look at
the person blocking his path and almost snickered out loud.

    *This is what set off my danger sense. * He thought in amusement.
*Maybe I better have it tuned up a bit.*

    At that point, the person before him began to speak, and he was
forced to put his hand over his mouth in order to stop himself from
laughing out loud.

    "How dare you steal from a church, that's wrong and I won't allow
it. I'm Sailor V, and in the name of Love and Justice, I'll punish
you." The young girl, no more than 12 or 13, then poses in what is no
doubt supposed to be a heroic pose, making all Genma's attempts not to
laugh in vain as he bursts into loud guffaws. The girl stares at him
for a moment wondering why her heroic entrance didn't manage to
receive the reaction she was looking for, before scowling at the man's
inability to stop laughing.

    As Genma finally manages to get his mirth under control he stands
to full height again, wiping a quick tear from his eye and looks upon
the would-be hero once more. Sailor V stands quite a bit shorter than
him, maybe five feet even at the most, and is dressed in an
abbreviated sailor outfit like they seem to be wearing in all the
Japanese schools these days (making Genma glad he didn't have a
daughter, as he'd be damned if he let her wear one of those things).
Her outfit was mostly made up of a white cut off top with red strips
at the bottom and half-red, half-white sleeves. It had a blue collar,
blue cuffs and a bright red bow on the chest. She was also wearing a
way-too-short blue skirt (if she'd been older, it would have been
rather attractive, but young as she was Genma's fathering instincts,
little as they were, couldn't help but disapprove) and long white
gloves. She had long, upper-thigh length blond hair done up in a
rather cute bow on the back and had her face covered by a red mask.
Although the mask couldn't quite cover the angry glare she was now
sending towards Genma, the look tended to make her a little cuter in
Genma's opinion. All in all, she looked more like someone attempting
to appeal to pedophiles than the defender of Justice she claimed to be
and Genma had to stop himself from scolding her on how she chose to
dress. Instead he merely shook his head and turned around to head in
the other direction. Not that he couldn't have taken her out with a
great deal of ease, in his opinion, but Genma had a thing against
hitting girls, even if they were under-dressed crime fighters.

    By then, Sailor V was absolutely seething in anger. First he
laughed at her entrance, then he had the gull to turn his back at her
and just walk away. No one had ever insulted her so much and she was
furious. So, without any preamble or hesitation, she angrily threw up
her arms and called forth her attack.

    "Venus Crescent Beam!" V shouted, firing a beam of orange light at
the tub of lard who not only dared to steal from a church, but also
turned his back on her when she tried to stop him. The powerful attack
shot forth from her hands, hitting Genma directly in the small of his
back and sending him flying forward to land face first on the ground.
He lay there for a few moments, exposed back smoking slightly where
the beam struck him, and pondering the strangely powerful attack that
the young girl had thrown at him. It couldn't have been chi, he knew
that much, not only because he didn't feel it the way he would have a
chi blast, but also because he knew that no woman could ever be good
enough at the art to be able to use chi. He had to assume it was magic
of some sort then, something granted to her by some force that took
pity on powerless woman and gave them something to use so they could
be on the level of men. All these deductions running through Genma's
head led him to the conclusion that, although he still wouldn't fight
a thirteen year old girl, he should probably leave in more of a hurry
than he had previously attempted. Especially should whoever gave the
girl her power show up.

    As Genma lay there, Sailor V was surveying her latest catch
proudly. Maybe he did look old and fat, and maybe using the Venus
Crescent Beam had been a bit of overkill, but damn it, he insulted
her. Besides, it felt really good to fry the bastard. She chuckled to
herself as she walked up to the man, preparing to tie him up somewhere
where the police could find him so that she could finally call it a
night, when she heard a voice behind her that caught her attention
away from her pray.

    "Stay away from my pop!" Yelled a young male voice before Sailor V
felt a strong kick land to her back sending her flying to the ground
and filling her vision with sparkling lights and dancing black spots.
She lay on her hands and knees for a few moments, breathing deeply and
trying to restore her vision to normal before pushing herself quickly
to her feet and surveying her newest opponent. Once she got her first
look at the boy before her, all she could do was stare. He was
absolutely gorgeous. He was about her age, and stood slightly taller
than her, maybe an inch or two. He was Japanese, just like her, but
also like her, he had a pair of deep blue eyes making her briefly
wonder at the odds of meeting another blue-eyed Japanese person. His
hair was long and black, pulled back into a short but think ponytail
that made him even cuter, and really brought out the blue of his eyes
better. He was wearing a dirty white martial arts dogi, which showed
off his well-muscled chest nicely and would have had V blushing and
drooling under other circumstances. Sighing to herself at the
unfairness of being up against such a gorgeous boy, Sailor V got into
a quick stance and faced off against the hunk......er, enemy before
her.

    Genma turned over to see his son facing off against the young lady
who had assaulted him, momentarily unsure whether to be proud of the
boy for helping him out or to berate him for attacking a girl. Unsure
that is until he heard what the boy said next.

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

    Ranma was skulking down the quite street at far too late an hour
in his opinion. His father had disappeared while he had been
practicing his katas and that could only mean that he was getting
himself into trouble somewhere. Ranma had to be the only thirteen year
old in existence that had to keep an eye on his own father and he
hated it, but someone had to keep the useless bugger from ending up in
some foreign jail and fate seemed to have chosen him. Sighing to
himself, Ranma walked quickly in the direction of the buildings they
had passed earlier where his father had seemed to linger the longest.
He only tended to do that when he planned to raid them for food or
money so Ranma had had a good idea at the time what the old man had
planned; he just hadn't expected him to try so early. Usually Genma
waited until they had been in town for a few days before beginning to
raid the local businesses for him own uses.

    As he passes by a local church Ranma heard a commotion down one of
the allies and silently prayed that it wasn't his pop. Bad as his
father's thieving usually was, Ranma really hated it when he targeted
churches and temples. Not that Ranma was catholic or anything, it was
just that people tended to get a lot more upset when a religious place
has stolen from as opposed to a place of business. This in turn got
the two of the chased out of town a lot sooner and that was something
Ranma definitely didn't appreciate, especially now that he knew the
reason for their quick exodus. It's not that he didn't appreciate that
the old man kept the both of them fed, Ranma just really wished he
could find a more......legal way to do it. So, with a feeling of dread
at what he was going to find, Ranma turned towards the church and
started heading towards the alley.

    When he reached the mouth of the alley between the church and the
building next to it, the first thing Ranma saw was the back an enraged
girl as she raised her arms and, with a quick shout of "Venus Crescent
Beam", fired a blast of yellow energy at his father's back, knocking
Genma on his face and forming a smoking hole in the back of his dogi.
Now normally Ranma would be all for a little Genma bashing and would
leave his father to his fate, however on their way into town Ranma had
seen several newspapers featuring pictures of a certain crimefighter
that was prominent in London. He knew that the person now walking
towards his father was the rather infamous Sailor V and also knew that
she intended to hand his father into the police, something that Ranma
couldn't allow if he ever planned on getting home. Besides, saving
Genma from a young teenage girl would give Ranma something to hold
over his father for years to come.

    *Heh, I'd like to see pop talk his way out of this humiliation*
Ranma thought with a grin as he began walking quickly towards the
costumed crime fighter. He thought about the best way to approach the
fight that was sure to happen and decided that he had better strike
quickly and decisively if he wanted to avoid being on the receiving
end of a blast that could floor even his father. Although he was sure
he was fast enough to dodge the attack should it come to that, he
wasn't prepared to take the chance. Seeing Sailor V getting close
enough to attack his father again and his father still not moving
Ranma decided he should get the fight started. *Better get this over
with.*

    "Stay away from my pop!" He yelled, affixing a suitably upset-
looking frown to his face, before throwing himself forward in a quick
sidekick he was sure would end the fight there and then. His kick
struck the girl in the back (he hated attacking someone from the back,
but he decided he would hate taking a Venus Crescent Beam a lot more,
so he put up with the guilt) and she went down quickly, striking the
concrete on hands and knees, something that was sure to cause some
nasty scraps and bruises, but Ranma couldn't worry about not hurting
her if he was to finish this quickly. She stayed on the ground for a
few moments, seemingly getting her equilibrium settled and Ranma was
tempted to strike again and end the battle at that but his honour,
already badly stretched by the sneak attack, wouldn't let him strike
an already downed opponent. Instead he glanced over at his father,
noticing that he had turned over and sat up to watch the fight, before
turning back towards V and waiting for her to rise.

    When, after a few moments of regaining her balance, the costumed
heroine did rise up and turn to face him Ranma was stunned for a
moment by the vision before him. She was beautiful. More than
beautiful, she was breathtaking standing before him with her long,
golden hair blowing in the gentle breeze and her chest heaving
slightly from the exertion. She had bright blue eyes, peaking out from
behind a red mask which couldn't hide her beauty from him, and for a
moment Ranma wondered at the odds of finding another Japanese person
with eyes the same colour as his, let alone finding one in England of
all places. She had long, shapely legs, which headed up towards a
skirt so short it would have given Ranma a nosebleed had it not been
for the combative circumstances. She also had the cutest look of
surprise on her face, and for a moment Ranma cursed his father for
getting into trouble with such a cute girl. Lots of people who had met
Ranma came under the impression that he was completely unnoticing of
the fairer sex, a fact that was completely untrue. It was true that he
tended to ignore girls in favour of his training and that, given the
chance, he wouldn't really know what to do with a girl anyway, but he
certainly noticed them. In fact, at his age, he was having more and
more trouble ignoring them, even though his father insisted that they
were merely unnecessary distractions from the art. It was thus very
easy to understand that he was slightly flustered for a moment after
seeing the girl he was facing, but it was only a moment before his
training kicked in and he quickly pasted a smirk on his face and began
the job of taunting his opponent as his father had taught him.

    "He may be a fat, useless bastard, but I still can't let some two-
bit crimefighter in a stupid looking costume bring him in." He smirked
a bit as he saw her face darken in outrage at his insult and prepared
to face off against her, dropping in a loose battle stance similar to
the one she had taken. He took a quick glance at his father to see him
glaring at the insult, before turning his full attention to the girl
who was now absolutely seething at the way he'd described her.

    "Tu-two-bit cr-crimefighter?" Sailor V stuttered out in outrage as
she stared at Ranma, clenching and unclenching her fist as if
preparing to throttle him barehanded. (Which Ranma wouldn't put past
her in her present disposition) "St-stupid looking costume? How dare
you?!?"

    She then threw her hands up and, without even calling the name of
her attack, fired the most powerful Crescent Beam she had ever
managed, sending the beam of yellow energy lancing towards the
smirking martial artist who just leaned to the side, allowing the
energy to pass by him. Even as the beam passed harmlessly beside him,
Ranma felt really lucky to have realized she was attacking. From the
amount of heat he felt even without being hit by the beam, he wasn't
entirely sure he would have survived getting stuck by it. This fact
struck home the importance of not taking this particular opponent,
girl or no girl, for granted. So, he reaffixed his cocky grin, the one
he knew drove opponents crazy, to his face and ran towards the now
heavily breathing Sailor V.

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

    "He may be a fat, useless bastard, but I still can't let some two-
bit crimefighter in a stupid looking costume bring him in." The boy in
front of her said, a confident smirk on his face which would have had
her swooning had her mind not been stuck on the insults he had just
thrown towards him.

    *He didn't just call me what I think he called me.* Reviewing
what he had said quickly in her mind Sailor V quickly came to the
conclusion that the hideous bastard in front of her had indeed just
insulted not only her crimefighting skills but also her fashion sense,
something no man had ever dared do before now. Shaking in rage, she
managed to stutter out a few words before her anger completely over-
powered her and she fired off what had to be the most powerful attack
she had ever used, one that for once didn't require her to call out
the name first. Watching the Crescent Beam fly towards its target, V
smirked at what she believed to be another easy victory over a good-
looking but obviously evil-hearted boy. Time seemed to slow to a crawl
however, as she watched him easily lean to one side, almost further
than should be possible, allowing her attack to harmlessly pass him
by. Heaving for breath from the energy-toll of the powerful blast she
had just fired, she could only watch, jaw-hanging and eyes wide, as
her target straightened out and looked at her with an even cockier
grin on his face, a grin that made her want to scream in rage at his
impertinence. She was Sailor V, feared by criminals and monsters alike
throughout London, and here was this boy her own age treating her like
a rank amateur.

    Her face formed into a snarl and a low growl  escaped her lips as
she watched the boy run towards her and prepared to meet his attack.
He led off with a straight punch, which traveled at an amazing speed
towards her face. Luckily her Sailor form provided her with incredible
speed of her own and she was able to throw up a quick block before
returning a few punches of her own, a jab at his head followed by a
reverse punch towards his stomach. He moved his head to the side
slightly, avoiding the jab but had to block the punch with an open
hand before returning with a snap kick that had her jumping backwards
to avoid. Both opponents then sized each other up for another moment
before jumping at each other again.

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

    Ranma stood back a moment after Sailor V had avoided his snap kick
and reevaluated her as a fighter. She seemed to have some amount of
training, nowhere near as much as he did but the training was
definitely there, and what seemed to be battle-ingrained reflexes but
it was her speed and strength that put her as the real threat. Both
her speed and strength seemed almost inhuman as she fought him at
levels that he hadn't seen outside of himself and his father and Ranma
was sure that if not for his superior skills he would be on the losing
end of this battle. As it was however, he had the slightly higher
speed and although her strength was a bit more than his he was certain
that with his skill he could easily finish this battle in his favour.
Smirking cockily once more he decided to see if he could get her any
more riled up with a quick appraisal of her fighting skills.

    "Not bad," Ranma began, before really pouring on the Saotome
'charm', "Not bad for an amateur that is. Your speed is pretty good
and that strength isn't bad either, but your form really needs work.
I'd suggest lowering you centre of gravity a bit. You might want to
straighten your punches a bit more too. Oh and your telegraphing
really badly too, you may want to work on that."

    His "advise" had the desired effect and he watched, pleased with
himself, as V began practically shaking in rage once more before
screaming inarticulately and throwing herself once more into the
attack. Although Sailor V was quite obviously angry, Ranma was rather
impressed by her control over her rage. She was still fighting using
good technique and not lowering her defenses as he had seen many
people do when they were enraged. This both impressed him and
disappointed him, as the only reason he was taunting her in the first
place was to get her to stop fighting intelligently, it made the fight
that much more fun if he could get her that angry.

    Unfortunately it didn't happen though and her first attack was a
nice side thrust kick, followed by a spinback kick leading  into a
backfist and a straight punch. All the moves were beautifully executed
and against a lesser opponent would have easily finished him off,
Ranma however was no lesser opponent. He easily sidestepped the
sidekick before leaning backward to avoid both the spinback kick and
the following backfist. The straight punch however was intercepted and
redirected towards Ranma's left, allowing him to place his right
shoulder under hers and push his hips backwards and up, throwing her
over his shoulder and onto the ground in front of him. Sailor V
immediately rolled forward and back to her feet before turning to once
again face her opponent. That was when Ranma decided to give taunting
her another try.

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

    Sailor V marveled at the boy's skill as he avoided the combo of
kicks and punches she threw at him, even managing to use her last
punch to send her flying over his head and onto the ground in front of
him. Letting her experience guide her, V quickly rolled to her feet
and put a bit of space between her and her allusive enemy. She was
getting more and more impressed by him with every exchange and she was
starting to wonder if perhaps this time she may have met her match.
Not that she would stop fighting of course, justice had to be served
and she couldn't let the fat bastard he was protecting get away with
robbing a church. Plus she still had to get the boy back for his
earlier comments, she just wasn't sure at this point whether either of
those goals were even possible this time around. That was when he
began speaking again and all thoughts of losing went out the window.

    "Hey, those were pretty good kicks," he began, grinning at her,
"especially for someone as dumpy-legged as you are. Sorry about the
flip by the way, but someone with your excess weight should have
plenty of padding, so I doubt it hurt too much." At that point, Sailor
V saw red.

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

    As Sailor V once more screamed loudly in feminine outrage and
charged forward, Ranma grinned happily at having finally achieved his
goal. She was now fighting blindly, her rage having completely taken
control of her better instincts and was swinging wildly in a mad
attempt to take his head off. Not that Ranma didn't believe in his
ability to beat her easily without resorting to taunting of course,
but he also firmly believed in his ability to drive anyone into a
blind rage through only taunting and in bugged him slightly that she
had kept her cool so well throughout his earlier remarks. Now that he
had happily reaffirmed his ability, he was ready to finish the fight
in his own fashion, preferably without hurting her too much.

    He dodged her first few wild swings with practiced ease as he
waited to get her into a good position. Just as she got into the
position he wanted he made his move. Ducking under a particularly
powerful, but sloppily thrown punch, Ranma stepped forward allowing
his right leg to land directly in front of hers and placing his right
hand against her back. Pushing gently he sent her flying forward into
a set of garbage bags lying on the side of the alley. Turning around
as she struggled to her feet amidst the waste, he waited until she
turned towards him and then lunged forward, hitting her on the temple
with a quick knife hand to disorient her, and then sending a hook kick
towards her, hitting her with his heel on a spot on the back of her
thigh. The nerve bundle he struck in the middle of her hamstring
caused her leg to immediately give out from under her, sending her
crashing to the ground clutching her numb thigh. He then struck out
quickly a spot just below the shoulder on each arm, causing them to go
numb as well.

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

    Sailor V just sat there, unable to stand or properly move her arms
and watched as the boy stood back slightly to survey his handy-work.
Tears of outrage and a small amount of fear formed in her eyes as she
watched the boy who had so efficiently defeated her turn and begin to
walk towards his father, who was now standing at the end of the alley
waiting for him. Just as he was about to reach the entrance she called
out to him.

    "Wait!" She called. Once he had stopped and turned towards her she
continued, in as dark a tone as she could manage in her condition.
"This isn't over between us. I will bring you both to justice for what
you've done today. I will beat you next time."

    The boy stared at her for a moment before grinning roguishly and
answering in an insufferably cheery tone, "We'll see V-chan, we'll
see. Until next time."

    He then waved at her and ran down the street after his father,
leaving Sailor V on her knees in a pile of rotting garbage, tears
rolling down her face in silent rage as she swore to herself that she
wouldn't rest until she had avenged herself for tonight.

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

    Minako Aino shot upwards to a sitting position on her bed,
knocking the comforter her parents had bought her for her sixteenth
birthday on the floor along with a certain white cat that had been
upon it. Said cat yowled in surprise before working to free himself
from the tangled mess that was formerly an orange and blue comforter.
Upon freeing himself completely he looked up towards his young ward
and found her staring forward, a cold sweat on her forehead and her
hands clenching and unclenching in seeming rage. He quickly hopped
back up on the bed and tried to get Minako's attention to find out
what had caused such a reaction.

    "Uhh, Minako? You okay there?" He began, slightly worried about
the girl. It was rare these days that she had nightmares of any sort
and the ones she did have usually left her more afraid than angry. In
fact the last time he had seen her react this way was about two years
ago when she finally stopped having dreams about Him. "Minako-chan?
What's the matter?"

    Minako finally brought her heavy breathing under control and
looked over to the concerned eyes of her cat and advisor, Artemis. She
took another moment to compose herself a bit better before answering
his questions. Shaking her head briefly to remove the last vestiges of
her dream, she sighed a bit before looking towards him once more.

    "I'm okay Artemis, it was just a dream." She laid her head back
down on her pillow and stared up at the ceiling of her room for a few
moments before she felt Artemis pad his way across the bed towards her
head. He jumped up on to her chest and stared at her face for a moment
before laying down and continuing to interrogate her on what woke her
up.

    "What was the dream about? From the way you woke up, it looked
like a pretty bad nightmare. I haven't seen you react to a dream like
that since you stopped dreaming about..." He let the sentence trail
off as she looked at him with an angry scowl. She kept the scowl for a
brief moment before allowing it to drop, unable to remain upset at the
feline who was obviously worried about her.

    "Well, it seems I've started again." Minako said with a heartfelt
sigh. The last thing she needed was to begin dreaming about Him again
and reliving the constant humiliation He filled her life with for the
time she knew Him. She draped her arm over her head in a futile effort
to ward off the headache she always got after dealing with Him,
whether in real life or just in her nightmares. "It's been so long
since the last time I thought of Him. I'd thought, after the
nightmares stopped, I'd never have to think about Him again. Damn."

    Artemis looked at his ward as she hide her face under her arm and
knew how close to tears she was coming. It was the same every time she
dreamed of those times two and a half years ago: she would wake up in
a state of near rage before breaking down in tears and crying herself
back to sleep. It looked like time had blunted her reaction quite a
bit, but the emotions were still there, just muted down significantly
from disuse.

    "Which dream was it anyway?" He asked, knowing that he got her
talking it would help bring her raging emotions back in check. She
only had a few real dreams about those times anyway, some of which hit
her harder than others, so hopefully this was one of the lesser ones.

    "The first one." Minako answered, her voice catching slightly, but
holding up much better than it would have when she was still having
these dreams on a regular basis. It helped of course that she was
happy right now, with a regular group of friends that cared about her
deeply. It also helped that she had seen and experienced things a
hundred times worse over the last two years than anything she had
experienced before, putting the time spent with Him in better
perspective. It didn't help much, but it did help. "The one where I
first met Him, and that rat bastard of a father of His."

    "Ahhh." Was all Artemis could say in reply. Normally he would
admonish her for cursing but under the circumstances he let it pass.
She was always a bit more vocal when talking about Him. That was also
not one of the better dreams she could have had, seeing as it was one
of the more humiliating moments in her young life. Being thrown around
like a rag doll and ending up paralyzed, however temporarily, amongst
a pile of rotting garbage tends to leave some nasty scars on a
thirteen-year old girl's mind. All in all, it was one of the dreams
that, two years ago, would have left her a sobbing ball of rage and
humiliation, so she was definitely doing a great deal better now.
Still, Artemis did wonder why she was dreaming about Him now, after so
long. Minako apparently had the same thoughts, as she asked the same
question out loud a moment later.

    "I doubt it's anything to worry about." Artemis gently reassured
his now significantly calmer ward. "You're probably just worried about
your exams coming up and it's coming out in your dreams. You have been
under a bit of stress lately, especially with all the recent attacks.
Perhaps you should talk to one of the girls about it, it always helps
to get things like this off your chest. I'm sure talking to one of
them will make you feel much better."

    *That's assuming it doesn't just reaffirm the memories in your
mind.* He thought to himself with a grimace. *Hopefully the dream will
be forgotten in the morning though and we won't have to worry about it
at all.*

    "Yes, that might be a good idea. We'll see in the morning though,
maybe this'll be the only one." Minako replied, unconsciously
mirroring Artemis' last thought. She then closed her eyes and
attempted to shut off her thoughts so that she could return to a more
blissfully uninterrupted slumber. "Goodnight Artemis."

    "Goodnight Minako-chan, and don't worry too much, I'm sure it'll
be forgotten by morning." With that Artemis curled up on Minako's
chest and fell back asleep quickly. Quickly enough that he didn't
notice Minako laying awake and staring at the ceiling for a long time
before joining him in slumber.

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

    Ranma Saotome woke up to a very familiar set of sensations; overly
familiar in his less than humble opinion. The first feeling to assault
his senses was that of a rather large pail of extremely cold water
striking his sleeping form, this feeling in particular being the one
to draw him from his sleep. This was followed by the tingling
sensation, similar to the feeling of a limb falling asleep, of having
his body switched from that of a teenaged boy to one that was
decidedly female in gender. The final sensation to assault his, now
her, senses this morning, bringing the completion of this particular
ritual was the sound of a certain reluctant fiancee yelling at her to
get up before she was late. This last was probably the part of the
morning routine that bothered Ranma most of all. The feeling of
awakening wet, while an inconvenience, was one she had gotten used to
over ten years of sneak attacks first thing in the morning by her
father. The switch in gender had become such a normal thing for her
that it, as well, became something that she barely noticed anymore. In
fact, at times she had been known to not even notice the change occur,
having occasionally to look at her chest or speak a few words to know
whether she was male or female. The yelling, however, the loud
exclamations of things she knew not to be true was something she did
not need assaulting her first thing in the morning.

    The fact of the matter was she had not been late to a meal without
dire circumstances for more years than she could recall. Life on the
road with her glutton of a father had seen to that as had she been
late, she wouldn't have been eating. The moment the aroma of breakfast
reached her nose, her body would react accordingly, waking her for
some needed nourishment. Of course bringing this matter up would only
lead to Akane getting angry with her for Ranma's inability to
appreciate her effort in making sure she was on time. This in turn
would lead to an argument that would end with Akane either ignoring
her for the rest of the morning or returning her to slumberland with
that thrice-damned mallet of hers. Secretly Ranma was of the opinion
that Akane actually got some perverted pleasure out of confrontations
with her, but she kept those thoughts to herself as they would
definitely lead to a trip via Akane Airlines.

    So it was that she kept most of the insults she wanted to throw at
Akane bottled up, merely grumbled a quick "uncute tomboy", more for
appearance than any real satisfaction, and rose up to reluctantly
begin her morning. At that point a new sensation struck her, one that
always brought a smile to her face: the smell of breakfast. Giving a
silent prayer of thanks that the smell seemed to be of Kasumi's
cooking and not another so-called meal Akane had deigned to bless them
with, Ranma quickly dressed in her favorite cloths, the loose black
pants and red Chinese shirt, and headed, bath supplies in hand,
towards the bathroom.

    Upon seeing that the occupied sign was indeed absent from the
door, Ranma took a moment to knock several times to make certain that
no one was using the furo. One could never be too certain of these
things after-all, especially living with someone who would brain you
if you accidentally walked in on her. Receiving no answer from her
knocks, Ranma entered and went about her morning cleaning, starting
with a quick cold water rinse, a lather and another rinse to remove
the soap, finally finishing with a short soak in the furo itself to
warm him up and return proper gender. He then dried off before
dressing once again and following the enticing smells to the living
room table, where he knew the meal would soon follow.

    Ranma's father was already at the table next to his mother and
looked up when he entered the room. Genma gave him a look, which
indicated his desire for a morning spar but then quickly glanced at
Nodoka who was quietly sipping the tea in her hands. Nodoka had
recently banned him from attacking Ranma for the purposes of sparring
and only allowed them to spar if Ranma wanted to. Genma had complained
but respect for his wife and a deep-seated fear for life and limb
should she become upset quickly made him see the wisdom in her words.
So, he sat and waited for Ranma give his say so that they could go
about their morning sparring session. Unfortunately for Genma, Ranma
was in a rather good mood this morning after having a nice dream about
an old friend and he didn't feel like spoiling it by duking it out
with his old man. As it was, the pleasant feelings that his memories
of his "V-chan" always brought him were already somewhat strained by
his unexpected bath earlier, courtesy of Akane, and he wanted to keep
what remained of his good mood intact. So with a quick shake of his
head to his father, ignoring the look of disappointment on Genma's
face, Ranma sat down to await one of his three favorite times of the
day, the other two being lunch and dinner.

    Looking over to where his fiancee sat Ranma saw her watching the
some news report on the television. Apparently the Sailor Senshi beat
another monster last night and Akane, being a huge Senshi fan, was
practically glued to the screen. Ranma snorted and shook his head in
mild disgust at her actions, something that brought a quirked eyebrow
from one of the rooms two other occupants.

    "Something wrong, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked amusedly at his obvious
contempt for her little sister's fandom. It was something she found a
bit odd about him actually, the way he always seemed to dismiss the
Sailor Senshi as jokes or something. This in itself wasn't all that
unusual considering his own personal skill and power, it was the fact
that while he seemed to consider the Sailors pathetic, she had seen,
without his knowledge of course, several issues of the Sailor V comics
in his possession. If he was so against the Sailor Senshi, why buy the
comics? That was a question she was still trying to figure out, and
hoped she could goad him into answering now that an opportunity had
arisen.

    Of course, her words also had the added bonus of attracting
everyone's attention in the room, including her over-reactive little
sister, something that was sure to bring about some major amusement
factors.

    "Nothing Nabiki, just checking out the so-called "Sailor Scouts".
Bunch of pathetic wannabe's if you ask me." Ranma said with obvious
disgust. This remark had two effects: one was to anger Akane who, as a
die-hard Senshi fan felt the instant need to defend her idols, while
the other was to bring a previously unconsidered idea to Nabiki's
mind. *Maybe he doesn't know that Sailor V is supposed to be one of
the Senshi now. Could that be why he likes her, but not them?*

    "Hey! They are not wannabe's." Akane shouted, already fuming at
the insult to the group she considered the pinnacle of what she wanted
to become. Strong, heroic and kind, the Senshi were everything Akane
worked towards being and it pissed her off that Ranma could so
casually disregard them as worthy of respect. "I'll have you know
they've saves tons of people. They're real heroes, not like some
arrogant bakas I know."

    "Sure, heroes." Ranma sarcastically commented, choosing to ignore
the obvious insult Akane had thrown at him, before continuing and
affirming Nabiki's previous idea. "They're all just cheap Sailor V
knock-offs. None of them could hold a candle to my V-chan."

    Silence was the only thing that met him after that. The kind of
deep silence that only came proceeding Ranma saying something
excessively stupid that would shortly come back to haunt him. The
silence lasted until Ranma made one more quick comment.

    "I really shouldn't have said that." And then, all hell broke
loose.

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

    Ami Mizuno loved school. This was a bit of fairly common knowledge
amongst her friends and classmates, but not many really knew all the
reasons behind this feeling. The obvious reason, that she merely loved
to learn and school gave her more than ample opportunities to increase
her already substantial knowledge, was the generally well known and
accepted reason behind what most students considered to be rather odd
behaviour. The reason that most people didn't realize was that with
her mother never around due to work, Ami found her home life to be
extremely lonely and she therefore craved the social interaction that
school provided. Even when she was more or less friendless, before she
met Usagi and the others, she still found it refreshing to be around
all the people in her class. This inherent loneliness also led her to
appreciate her friends a good deal more than most people did. She
knew, of course, that her mother loved her, but having people around
who treated her with caring and respect served to feed her desire for
companionship a great deal more than the occasional meal she spent
with her overworked parent.

    So it was that this level of love she felt for her friends,
combined with her already very perceptive mind, allowed her to easily
notice the moods her friends were in long before most other people
did. Seeing Minako enter the classroom, early for a change, and with a
level of cheerfulness that was a shade darker than normal led her to
worry about what could cause her friend to be as distressed as she
obviously(well, obvious to Ami, and probably Usagi as well when she
got here) was. Putting down her book and standing, Ami walked over to
where Minako was emptying her bookbag in a search for the homework
that was due at the start of class. As she noticed Ami approaching,
Minako put on a big smile, which, to Ami's eyes, seemed a lot more
strained than normal and spoke up in greeting.

    "Good morning Ami-chan. How are you this morning?" Ami smiled at
her in return as she stopped in front of Minako's desk and returned
the greeting, though her smile dropped a bit in worry for her friend.

    "Good morning Mina-chan. I'm doing quite well, thank you." She
answered Minako's question before moving on with one of her own. "How
about you? Are you feeling alright this morning?"

    Minako gave her a bit of a funny look before smiling again and
continuing as if nothing were wrong. "I'm feeling fine Ami-chan, why
do you ask?"

    "You just seem a bit upset. Are you sure nothing is wrong?" Ami
looked at Minako a little more carefully, noticing for the first time
the slight bags under her eyes, which she had skillfully covered up
with a touch of makeup, and the somewhat distant look in her eyes, as
if her mind were somewhere else entirely. In the meantime, Minako
studied Ami for a moment as well, as if looking to see just how much
she noticed before sighing slightly and letting her smile drop a bit.

    "I'm just a little tired, Ami-chan. I had a bit of a bad dream
last night and couldn't get much sleep afterwards." Minako confided,
deciding that trying to lie to Ami would be more or less useless, as
observant as she was. Seeing Ami's eyes cloud with worry at the
statement, she quickly amended it a bit. "I'm fine though, really.
Just tired is all. Maybe I'll take a nap through history."

    Her joke had the desired effect as Ami giggled a bit, attempting
to hide it behind her hand. Minako smiled a bit more sincerely at this
and at her friend's obvious worry on her behalf. She too had never had
a lot of friends in her life and she appreciated having someone who
cared that much about her. When Ami's mirth had died down, she looked
at Minako again with a soft smile, before inquiring further on the
subject of a dream that would cause her such problems.

    "Just old memories, Ami-chan." Minako replied with a bit of a sad
smile, and a small amount of anger, which Ami hoped wasn't at her
attempt to pry. "I'd rather not talk about it right now, alright Ami-
chan? Maybe if you ask me later, when it's a little less fresh in my
mind, I'll tell you about it, k?"

    "Alright Mina-chan. I don't want to pry." Ami replied, relieved to
see the anger leave Minako's eyes and at the same time slightly
worried about something that could cause any kind of lasting anger in
her usually quick to forgive friend. "But if you want to talk about
anything, I'll be here."

    "Thanks Ami-chan, I appreciate it." Minako replied, smiling softly
once more at her friend and fellow Senshi, before Ami headed back
towards her own desk at seeing the teacher entering the room. *Maybe
Artemis was right, maybe I should talk to someone.* Minako thought to
herself as she sat back and waited for class to start.

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

    Unsurprisingly Nabiki was the first to recover enough wits to
comment. "Wow Saotome, I knew you were a fan but I never realized you
were a fanboy." The comment was given with the cocky grin of someone
who knows they caught you saying or doing something you shouldn't. It
was a grin Ranma had seen far too many times on Nabiki's face for his
liking.

    "What do you mean 'my' V-chan, you pervert?" Big surprise that the
pervert comment was directed at him from Akane, despite the fact that
she really didn't know why he had said what he had. Ranma had come to
expect that from her though, she always seemed to assume the worst of
him in situations involving the opposite gender in any way.

    "Oh, my son is dating one of the Sailor Senshi. How manly of him."
Nodoka was the next to remark, with a slightly dreamy look on her
face. *She's probably thinking of all the grandchildren she's gonna
have* Ranma thought, seeing the smile she was wearing while giving her
an odd look. How anyone thought cheating on his fiancee was "manly"
was beyond him, but then so was most of what his mother thought.

    "Ranma, how dare you cheat on your fiancee!!" Soun's response was
definitely predictable as he fell into his standard "you will not even
think of anyone but my little girl" frame of mind. It amazed Ranma
that they all seemed to instantly think he was cheating on Akane or
something just because he mentioned another woman's name in a slightly
familiar manner. He would have thought that with all the women who
threw themselves at him, the fact that he hadn't cheated on her with
Shampoo or Ukyo would give them a hint that he was honourable enough
to be faithful, whether he wanted Akane as a fiancee or not. The only
ones in the room who didn't automatically jump to conclusions were
Nabiki, who was watching the carnage with an amused grin and, for
once, his father, who knew the truth of the matter so couldn't jump to
conclusions. It was actually his father who managed to break the
tension that was forming by saying something that caught everyone's
attention.

    "I thought I told you not to mention that woman in front of me
again, boy." Genma ground out angrily. This had the effect of stopping
everyone dead in their tracks and turning their attention towards him,
which in turn had Genma wanting desperately to find a hole to hide in
somewhere. Ranma quickly turned this to his advantage though, and
shifted the attention firmly onto his father.

    "You're just upset she beat you up so often, pop." Ranma laughed,
making Genma's face go a bit red from embarrassment. Unfortunately
this plan backfired as everyone's eyes quickly shot back towards
Ranma. Despite their accusations, they had all thought Ranma was
merely a fan for Sailor V or something, none had seriously considered
the idea that he actually knew the famous superhero.

    Ranma was saved having to answer any further questions, however,
when Kasumi entered the room baring the breakfast dishes. Seeking an
escape from everyone's attention, Ranma quickly jumped up to help her
bring everything in, earning a smile of thank you from Kasumi and a
growled "Quit flirting with my sister." from Akane. After breakfast
was served, Ranma quickly began to dig in, avoiding looking at anyone
directly, as he knew they were all looking at him.

    Breakfast was finished with all due haste, and Ranma was instantly
on his feet, helping Kasumi bring the dishes into the kitchen and
heading for the door. All the while he dodged his fiancee's glaring
questions and Nabiki's attempted interrogations, earning a glare from
her as well. He quickly threw on his shoes and with a call of "I'm
off" was out the door and on his way to class.

    Akane immediately ran after him, yelling for him to get back here
and answer her questions and throwing insults at him for avoiding
telling her the truth. Nabiki just stood at the door watching the two
of them disappear towards the school and swore to herself she'd get to
the bottom of things.

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

    Lunchtime was far too long in coming in Minako's opinion. The
morning, which went slowly enough for her on a good day, just seemed
to drag on forever since she was so tired. To make matters worse, she
had nodded off part way into second period and was forced to spend
twenty minutes in the hall wearing a stupid looking sigh that said "I
slept in class". All around, Minako really wasn't having a good day.
When the lunch bell finally did ring, however, Minako was ecstatic.
Grabbing her lunch, she made a quick beeline straight to the door and
headed as quickly as she could outside to a nicely shaded tree she
knew of. By the time her friends joined her she was already finished
her lunch and on her way to a much needed nap so she barely noticed
them sit down around her giving her worried looks.

    Just as she was beginning to doze of into a blissful rest, an
annoying beeping sound came from just beside her. Luckily this cut off
quickly and she resumed her attempt to sleep, ignoring the sounds
coming from around her. At least until someone shook her awake.

    Opening up her eyes, she saw Ami kneeling to her side with Usagi
and Makoto standing behind her and looking ready to run somewhere. A
sudden dread filled her and she knew that her rest was not to happen
anytime soon. Sighing slightly, she sat up and rubbed her eyes before
standing and giving Ami and hand to her feet.

    "Daemon Ami?" She asked in a tired sounding voice.

    "It looks that way. I'm getting a reading of strong dark energy
coming from a few blocks away." Ami replied seriously before getting
an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry, I know how much you were
looking forward to that nap."

    "Don't worry about it Ami-chan." Minako replied, stifling a yawn
before turning in the direction of a small copse of trees they could
use to transform. "This is more important. We'll just have to finish
it off quickly so I can get a bit of sleep in before class starts
again."

    Ami smiled at this before they all headed into the trees and
pulled out their transformation wands. Four shouted phrases and some
very flashy transformations later, four of the Sailor Senshi ran out
of the trees and towards the disturbance.

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

    "Are you sure this is the right way, Tendo-kun?" Genma asked his
best friend as they walked down the busy street in Juuban-ku. They
were looking for a bar that an aquantince of Soun had recommended to
him at the last town counsel meeting and getting quite lost in the
process. They had been wondering around for over an hour now, and
Genma was starting to wonder if it was worth the effort as they could
get just as drunk at the local bars. Soun had wanted to try the new
place out however, as they always went to the same bar to drink, and
he had agreed that a change in pace would be nice. Besides, after
investing this much time into looking for the damned place, he wasn't
about to give up until they found it.

    "I'm sure it's this way Saotome-kun. We got a bit off course, but
we're on the right track now." Tendo answered cheerfully. Genma just
muttered under his breath about him being related to a certain
bandana-wearing martial artist and continued to trudge after him,
sorely in need of a drink.

    Just as they were turning another corner, a loud commotion caught
their attention and they saw a large group of people headed straight
towards them. Ducking to the side, they allowed the panicked people to
pass them by before looking in the direction said people had come from
in confusion.

    "What do you think that was about, Saotome?" Soun asked curiously.
Genma stared off in the distance for a moment before turning back to
him and answering.

    "Whatever it is, Tendo, it's probably none of our concern." Genma
replied before heading back in the direction they were originally
going. Soun however started heading towards the area the crowd had
come from, inciting a sigh from Genma. "Where are you going, Tendo-
kun?"

    "Well, there could be people hurt there. As martial artists, it's
our duty to help." Soun answered, still heading in the direction of
the disturbance, whatever it was. Genma sighed again and replied in a
voice that implied long suffering.

    "Alright Tendo, you win. Let's see if there's anything we can do
to help." And then he too turned around and followed his friend down
the street towards the park that seemed to be the crowd's origin. As
they got to the park, the caught the tail end of a fight, as a girl in
a short skirt with the most ridiculous hairstyle either had ever seen
fired a giant heart at a monster, destroying it utterly. They of
course both recognized the girl as the infamous Sailor moon, and
immediately saw four other girls behind her who they assumed were the
rest of the Sailor Scouts. When his eyes reached the one in the orange
skirt, however, Genma's eyes widened and he froze up, his face going
pale in fear. It was Her.

    He quickly began to back out of the park, his eyes never leaving
the orange-skirted Senshi and prayed that he made it out before she
noticed him. His prayers went unanswered, however, as she turned
briefly in his direction before staring at him, eyes wide and mouth
hanging open slightly. Her face then fell into a deep scowl of hatred
and he could only think of one word to sum up the situation.

    "Shit."

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

    Minako stood back as her princess finished off the latest enemy,
this one a ridiculous looking half woman, half vending machine that
called itself "vendor" of all things. She sometimes wondered why it
was that all their enemies had to be such stupid looking things before
reminding herself that regardless of how dumb they looked,  it was how
strong they were that mattered; and these particular ones were strong.
As the broken vending machine fell to the ground, releasing its daemon
egg, she took a moment to survey the damage. *Not bad as far as our
fights go. Not too much damage at all.*

    Her eyes were sweeping over the park when they fell across a
disturbingly familiar figure. She shook her head and looked again, but
the large bald man in the dirty dogi was still standing there,
watching her intently and edging towards the entrance to the park.
Their eyes met briefly and she saw him freeze up before she fully
accepts whom she is seeing.

    "Genma" She whispers, her eyes widening appreciatively. Her face
then falls into a deep scowl of hatred and she screams out loud enough
to catch everyone's attention.

    "GENMA!!"

To Be Continued....


Author's Notes: My God. Two separate stories. Wow, one would almost
think I'm being productive. This is my first attempt at a Sailormoon
crossover, so if I'm doing anything horribly wrong, just pretend it
didn't happe..........er, point it out so I can fix it. That's what I
meant, honest.^_^
Continuity: this is somewhere in the middle of S, and near or at the
end of Ranma(hasn't been completely decided yet, but it's not really
relevant yet.).
Send all C&C to ranikkoku@hotmail.com
Bob Lobster