Hello and good evening yet again. This 
is the second chapter (third if you count the 
prologue) and they still haven't met yet. But 
not to fear! They meet in this very chapter! 
Woo-Hoo! 

     Before muddling through this and trying to 
figure out what I'm on, you might want to read 
the previous chapters. You can find them at: 
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/Slacker
     
     I don't really need to put in a 
disclaimer, do I? Everybody knows Ranma and 
Co. belong to the Goddess Takahashi and 
Sailor Moon and Co. belong to the Goddess 
Takeuchi. If I even tried to claim them 
as my own, hordes of totally insane otaku 
would lay some hurting down on me. (And I 
don't like pain.)

Ready? Let's do it!
***************************************
All The Small Things-Chapter 2

A Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 fanfiction

By: Slacker(r_heins@yahoo.com)

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

Previously on our program:
  
   While at a meeting, Setsuna revealed that 
she lied about whether they'd face another 
threat, and was about to reveal all when the  
chapter ended (this is known as a "hook").

   Meanwhile, at the Tendo Dojo, Ranma had 
woken Nabiki up at 3 a.m. to ask her help to 
"run away from home." (This is also known as 
a "hook".)

   Now on with our fic!

***************************************
Tendo Dojo, 3 am, Nabiki's room.

    Nabiki thought she was pretty much 
Unable to be shocked. She was wrong. The fact 
that she was sitting there staring at Ranma 
without saying a word kinda proved the point.

    "You need to 'run away from home'?" she 
asked, a bit incredulously. 
 
   "Yeah, basically," Ranma replied in a 
nonchalant voice.
 
    "Why?"

    "I got my reasons."

    "Such as?"

    "Such as they're my reasons, and I don't 
wanna share."

    Nabiki got a bit pissed at _that_ 
response. So pissed she used what one of her 
associates termed "The Voice." It was so cold 
you had to check for icicles after she was 
done talking to you, and anyone who knew her 
was terrified of it. "Ranma, you woke me 
up at three in the morning, let me stand there 
butt-naked in the window, asked me to help 
you 'run away from home', and you won't tell 
me your reasons for it? I don't think so. No 
reasons, no help. Now get out and let me 
sleep."

    Ranma just sat there with an unusual look 
on his face.

    "What? Didn't hear me? Don't get what I'm 
saying? I said get out!"

    "What I say isn't to go beyond you, in 
any way, shape, or form. You will not tell 
anyone, you will not let anyone find out. 
Agreed? Otherwise I figure out a way to do it 
on my own. Take it or leave it." Ranma 
stated.

    Nabiki was going to try to bargain, until 
she looked into his eyes. <He's serious. 
He'd really just get up and leave. He's 
thought this out. When the hell did he get 
that smart?>

    "I agree." she said. <And I hope I don't 
regret this.>

    "I'm blacking out."

    Dead silence. Utterly and completely 
quiet.

    "Excuse me, did you say, `I'm blacking 
out'?" Disbelief wasn't an adequate word for 
what she was feeling.

    "Yes."

    "'I'm blacking out.' And for this you 
woke me up at 3 am? Get out. I need my 
sleep." Nabiki was feeling quite disgusted.

    "I'm serious. I'm blacking out at weird 
times. You remember last week? The finals? 
How I had to stay after the Science test?" His 
voice was earnest, almost pleading.

    "Yeah, I was running pools on just how 
badly you flunked it."

    "I aced it. Hell! I corrected the test in 
three places!"

    "You what?!"

    "Got the second highest score in Japan. 
The highest was some girl in Juban. They made 
me retake it, to make sure I didn't cheat." 
Some pride was evident in his voice about his 
scores and some anger about them thinking he 
had cheated.

    "You didn't?" Nabiki asked. <There's no 
way he got that without cheating. Hell, he 
couldn't have done it WITH cheating. I 
couldn't have done it without cheating! And 
besides, he's always been too honorable to 
cheat. Well, in school anyways. His fights are a 
different story.>

    "NO!" Ranma yelled. 

    "Quiet! You want to wake everybody up?"

    "That won't happen. A bomb could go off 
and no one would wake up. Trust me." Ranma 
was still steamed about her question.

    "How do you know?"

    "I added a few herbs to dinner." Ranma 
said with a shrug. "I doubt anybody but 
Kasumi even noticed them."

    "Then why aren't I asleep?"

    "I hit a few pressure points that would 
counter-act the effects."

    "Where did you learn how to do that?"

    "Dr. Tofu showed me some stuff before he 
went to study in Shinjuku. And Cologne has so 
many scrolls, she never notices when some are 
missing."

    "You stole scrolls from Cologne? That's 
nuts! She can kick your butt!" <Hey, wait a 
second...> "When did you learn to read Chinese?"

    "I didn't steal them, Shampoo gave them to 
me. I asked her nicely, and she was `too, too 
happy to help Airen.' As for the Chinese, I can 
learn very quickly when I'm motivated, you know 
that. And being chased across China by a 
homicidal Amazon is a great motivator. Besides, 
as long as Cologne doesn't find out, I'm fine." 
Ranma said as he crouched down by the window, 
which was still open.

    "Great. Why don't you shut that window? 
I'm getting cold."

    "Yeah, I noticed."

    "What do you mean `I noticed'?" Then she 
realized something: Cold air + silk pajama top - 
bra. She glanced down, "Eeeped!", and quickly 
crossed her arms over her chest. <I really don't 
like the way he's acting. I can't second-guess 
him.> Ranma got up and closed the window. Nabiki 
tried to get back to the subject.

     "So what about the test?" she asked.

     "I remember walking in, sitting down, 
picking up my pencil, getting the test, and 
handing it in. I don't remember actually 
taking it, and I don't know how I managed to 
do so well."

     "So you panic-blocked it." She said 
diffidently. "It's been known to happen. When 
someone panics too badly, their brain just 
goes `PFFFT'."

     "Yeah, right. I'm a martial artist. I 
don't `panic-block' anything. Besides, it 
happened again. In that fight with Ryoga the 
next day. Remember that?" He asked 
sarcastically.

     "Yeah, I got a lot from the betting 
pool. No one expected you to win in one hit. 
How'd you do that?" she asked, then said, 
"Oh. Another blackout." It wasn't a question.

     "Another blackout." He confirmed. "I 
remember Ryoga screaming his usual `Prepare 
to die, Saotome!' spiel, him running at me, 
and then standing over him with him out cold. I 
don't know what I did or how I did it." Ranma 
was looking, not scared, (Ranma would rather 
have open-heart surgery without anesthesia than 
admit he was scared) but worried. "I need to get 
out of here until I figure out what's going on."

     "So, why don't you just go on a 
'training trip' if you want to get away?" She 
asked.

    "Remember the last time? Everybody 
followed. It was worse than here. I didn't 
get anything out of it but a broken rib, 
courtesy of Ryoga. Besides, I need to get rid 
of my pop, too."

    "Why don't you just up and leave?"

    "Because if I did that, they'd try to 
find me and probably would. Especially if they 
got you to help."

    "So, let's talk about what we're going to 
do."

    "Does this mean you'll help?"

    "That depends on what you're willing to 
do for me. Some pictures, perhaps?" <I need 
to do something to cover my costs. And this 
way I can adjust to the new attitude.>

    "No nudity."

    <He agreed? Just like that? I don't 
believe it. He REALLY wants my help.>

    "Well, that cuts down on my selling 
price, but if you cooperate I can still make 
it worth my while. How soon do you want to 
leave?"

    "Yesterday." Ranma said with complete 
seriousness.

    "How about in two days?"

    <Time to get working. I hope I'm not 
making a big mistake. But if I don't help him, 
he'll just do it on his own. He won't manage it, 
but he'll still try. This way, I'll be able to 
keep some kind of tag on him, just in case.>

    "That'll do."

***************************************
Hikawa Shrine, earlier that day.

     Setsuna began her story. "Let me tell 
you a story about a planet named Nemesis..."

     She was, predictably, interrupted. 
Makoto did the interrupting this time.

     "Nemesis! You mean the Black Moon 
Family's Nemesis? The 'Hey, we don't like the 
way you're doing things, so we're going to 
blow you up.' Nemesis? THAT Nemesis?"

     "No, I mean Nemesis. As in the fifth 
planet in the Solar System. The Nemesis the 
Black Moon Family named themselves after. The 
Nemesis that is currently an asteroid belt. 
Now please be quiet. Thank you."

     "As I was saying, Nemesis was a harsh 
planet. It had frequent storms caused by it's 
massive overabundance of chaos magic. After 
several colonies, two regular Army legions, and 
one of the Lunar Guard legions all failed to 
survive more than two weeks on the surface, 
Queen Serenity declared all colonization 
efforts of Nemesis banned. She was not going 
to lose any more people to a planet that had 
no detectable resources.

     "It would have stayed that way except 
for one thing. One very BAD thing. A 
scientist, and chaos mage, named Arik became 
bored."

     "Wait, how could some scientist becoming 
bored be considered a "very bad thing?" Usagi 
interrupted, confused.

     "Arik was the primary designer of the 
Senshi's armor, powers, and weapons. The last 
time he got bored, he forged the Silence 
Glaive. The time before that, he altered 
Saturn's powers so she could take out a 
planet without breaking a sweat. She was 
already the most powerful of the Senshi, but he 
decided that wasn't good enough. The time before 
THAT, he stole the Ginzuisho, and used it to 
rip a hole in the Space/Time continuum and 
harness it, creating the Time Gate. All because 
he was bored! Does that answer your question?" 
Setsuna asked with a bit of heat in her voice.

    "Um, yeah." Usagi answered in a quiet 
voice.

    "Good, now don't interrupt me again, or 
I'll stop telling you this story. 

    "Arik decided to see if he could tame 
Nemesis. You see, Arik was a rabid 
perfectionist, and having every planet but 
Nemesis with a Senshi was driving him mad. 
So he decided to fix the problem. He went to 
Serenity and told her he was going to go to 
Nemesis and see why none of the colonies had 
survived, and, more importantly, find out why 
there was no Senshi for Nemesis. 

    Serenity forbade him to go, of course. 

    Arik just laughed and asked if she really 
thought she could stop him. 

    Two days later, he went to Nemesis. We know 
he landed safely, but all contact was lost less 
than 15 minutes after he landed. Due to the 
chaotic nature of Nemesis, all our scrying 
attempts failed. This was also the reason we 
were unable to discover what had happened to the 
previous colonies.

    After two weeks with no word, Arik was 
presumed dead. After two years, no one but his 
friends remembered him, and he didn't have 
many friends. After five years, no one 
remembered him. The only person who never 
forgot him was Serenity. She always felt she 
should have stopped him from going and blamed 
herself for his death. It was ten years 
before we found out what had happened to 
Arik.

     Almost one year to the day after 
Princess Serenity was born, a craft was 
detected leaving Nemesis. Since Nemesis was 
under interdiction, no one should have been 
on it to leave. 

    The Navy naturally went to investigate. They 
found an older style ship on a direct course to 
the Moon. The ship was battered, bent, and 
bruised to the point that no registration was 
able to be made out. All attempts to hail it 
failed. The Navy shot the engines and boarded.       

    They found a ship that shouldn't even been 
able to move in the atmosphere, much less 
planetary distances. It had almost no life 
support, heating, or electrical systems. The 
boarding party assumed it was remote piloted, 
since no human could survive in those 
conditions. They made their way to the bridge 
and got the shock of their life. 

    A young child, no older than 8 or 9, was 
sitting in the captain's seat. They assumed the 
child was dead from the condition of the ship. 

    The child must have somehow launched the 
ship and died when life support failed. As the 
leader went to cover the body, it looked up, 
smiled, and said `Ahh. There's the Ginzuisho. I 
can feel it now. Nice seeing you. Good-bye.' And 
then teleported. Directly to the Moon. Into 
the Palace. To five feet in front of 
Serenity's throne. Through over a hundred 
alarms, wards, and spells meant to keep 
ANYONE from teleporting ANYWHERE in the 
palace and didn't make any of them react. 

    When the child arrived in front of Serenity, 
it bowed, dropped to a knee, and did 
something that I will always remember: `Your 
Majesty? I'm Sailor Nemesis. My life is 
yours. I am yours to command.' 

    Apparently, Arik succeeded in his goal of 
making a Senshi." 

************************
Tendo Dojo, one day after Nabiki and Ranma's 
little "talk."

     "Ok, Nabiki, I'm here. What did you want 
to talk to me about?" Ranma asked diffidently.

     "I just thought you might want to know 
where I'm going to send you after we get you 
out of here. Or would you prefer to just 
wander around and hope you find it?" Nabiki 
responded sarcastically 

      "Um, Nabiki? I don't think we're 
running on the same wavelength here. I don't 
need you to help me to get out of here. I 
just need you to run cover for me."

     "Excuse me? `Run cover'?"

     "Yeah. I've already got plans set up to 
get me out of here. I've covered the 
everything. I just need you too make sure that 
they get bad information."

     "YOU'VE got plans? How the hell long 
have you been planning this?"

     His reply was brief and concise, "Since 
Saffron. I've had dreams and those damned 
blackouts since I killed him."

     "Oh." There really wasn't much she could 
add to that. "Are you sure you don't need any 
help?"

     "Positive."

     "Ok. If you're sure. Where are you 
going to go?"

     "I'm not going to tell you. What you 
don't know, you can't tell."

     "Damn it, Ranma! I told you I wouldn't 
tell anyone! Are you saying I lied?!"

     "No. You never lie. You may tell partial 
truths, you may distort the truth until it's 
unrecognizable, you may deliberately give 
people the wrong impression, but you never 
flat-out lie and you never break your word 
once it's given in true faith. I know that, 
and I trust you in that. The reason I'm not 
going to tell you is because Cologne knows 
pressure points that could make you babble 
out your entire life story. THAT'S why I'm 
not going to tell you."

     "Oh." Was the only comment she could 
make. <How the hell did he nail me that well? 
I never thought he was that good of a judge 
of character.> "So, how are you handling the 
paperwork and stuff?"

     "I called up some people who I did 
favors for. They're handling it." Then Ranma
uttered the most frightening phrase ever 
invented, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

************************
Hikawa Shrine, still during Pluto's little 
talk (so the time flow ain't even. Call it 
artistic license. Or call it crappy 
writing, I don't care.)

     Once again, there was stunned silence. 
It was beginning to get repetitive. Pluto 
seemed to be enjoying it, though. This time, 
Usagi broke it, with her usual `just let it 
all come out at once' style.

     "Sailor Nemesis? So what did she look 
like? What was she like? What were her 
powers? Why didn't we hear about her before 
this?" That last was asked with a pointed 
glance at Luna.

     "Don't glare at me. You know my memory 
was Swiss-cheesed from being in suspended 
animation for several millennia." Luna 
responded indignantly. 

     "It wasn't her fault. Nemesis tended to 
be hard to remember." Setsuna commented. At 
this everyone else broke out of their trances 
and began to assault Pluto with questions.

     "Where is Nemesis?"

     "What are her powers?"

     "Where is she?"

     "Are there more Senshi besides Nemesis?"

     "What's her fashion sense like?"

     Everyone stopped to stare at Minako. She 
blinked.

     "What? It's a valid question!"

     Before anyone could ask any more 
questions, a beeping was heard. As everyone 
watched, Ami went pale and scrambled for her 
purse. She pulled out the Mercury Computer and 
began to frantically type on it. Her face 
turned even paler.

     "Ami? What's wrong?" Usagi asked, 
worriedly.

     "There's been eight dimensional 
disruptions in downtown Juban."

    "Which means, what? We've got enemies to 
fight?" Minako asked.

    "Precisely."

    "YES! ALRIGHT! Let's go kick some youma 
ass!" Makoto yelled as she jumped to her feet 
and pulled out her henshin stick. Everyone else 
just sat there and blinked, staring at her.

    "What? WHAT!? Why are you looking at me 
like that?"

     "Sometimes, Mako-chan, you freak me out 
worse than Minako." Haruka said in a flat tone. 

     "Hey, wait a minute..." Minako began to 
protest, but was cut off when Haruka continued.

    "Now let's go take care the youma. I've got 
a race tomorrow, and I don't want to have to 
miss it."

     Eight nifty-keen light shows later, the 
Senshi were gone. Except for Setsuna, who just 
sat there. She finished her tea, looked at her 
watch, and smiled. "Right on time."

*********************
Downtown Juban, about three hours later.


    *ZZZAKKTTT* A bolt of tamed lightning 
slammed into something that looked like a six-
foot cockroach, turning it into so much ash.

    "And another one bites the dust." Jupiter 
said, wiping sweat off her brow. "Any more?"

   "No, that's the last of them." Mercury 
answered after scanning with her Computer.

    "That's good. I'm tired."

    "We all are. Those things were faster than 
hell." Venus commented. "At least they weren't 
that tough."

    "Yeah, that's a good thing." Jupiter 
replied. "So, Mercury, any idea where those 
things were from?"

     "No. But I'm worried."

     That got everybody's attention.

     "What do you mean?" Jupiter asked.

     "Let's go back to the temple. I don't want 
to have to do this more than once."
 
******************
Hikawa Shrine. 


     Everyone was sitting around the table 
staring at Ami, waiting for her to speak. She 
was going over some of the data in the 
Computer. She looked up and announced,

    "We've got problems."

    "Well, DUH! Of course we've got problems! 
We just had to kill eight giant cockroaches. I 
hate roaches! And I really hate bugs that are 
taller than I am!" Minako stated, sarcastically.

     Ami either missed the sarcasm or ignored 
it. (Every one who thinks she ignored it? 
That's what I thought.-Slacker) she just looked 
at Minako and said, "More than that. I ran the 
structure of those bugs through the database in 
the Computer and I came up with a composite 
result."

     Stares and blank looks met her statement. 
She sighed and explained, "Those bugs had 
almost all of the good points and almost none of 
the bad points of several of our old foes. 
Youma, daimon, cardian, etc. The only reason we 
won as easily as we did is because these were 
apparently prototypes. I was able to detect 
several obvious weak points in all of them. They 
were flawed. They're going to get tougher. As I 
said before, we've got problems."

    Haruka smiled and turned to Michiru. It 
wasn't a nice smile. She asked, "You know what 
this means, don't you?"

    "Yes, unfortunately." Michiru sighed.     

    "What are you talking about?" Makoto asked.

    "We just need to make some plans if we've 
got some new enemies. That's all." Haruka 
replied.

    "Yes, we do." Rei said, "But first, Where 
the hell is Pluto!?" The last was asked in a 
fairly pissed-off tone of voice.

    At that point, everyone realized that Rei 
was right. Pluto was gone. It was quickly 
determined that no one had seen her since they 
took off to take care of the youma (or whatever 
the hell they were called THIS time).

    "Great! Just when a new enemy shows up, she 
disappears! Typical! When I find her I'm gonna 
take that staff of hers and..." What followed 
was anatomically impossible, and physically 
improbable. When Rei finally stopped swearing, 
she noticed that everyone was staring at her.

   "What?"

   "For a shrine maiden, you swear better than 
anyone I've ever met." Minako commented.

   "You swear better than my mechanics, and I 
didn't think THAT could be done." Haruka added.

    "So I'm angry that Setsuna disappeared 
right when we needed her. AGAIN! Doesn't anyone 
else feel a bit angry?" Rei asked.

    "Yeah, it is pretty damn annoying." Makoto 
agreed.

    "I have more things to do than sit around 
and give you help when you don't need it." 
Setsuna said, again from the corner behind 
Usagi. Surprisingly, Usagi didn't scream, jump, 
or even react to the words. (She was too tired.) 
She just stood there. She turned and said, "You 
know, that gets really annoying after a while."

    Setsuna just grinned in a fairly evil way. 
She turned to the rest of the Senshi and 
announced, "I'm going to get this out of the 
way right now. I can't tell you any more about 
Nemesis. Not WON'T, but CAN'T! I've been 
ordered by my future self not to. I don't 
disobey my own orders. Ever. All I can do is to 
warn you to be aware of Nemesis. I'm going to 
be busy at the Time Gate for a while, so don't 
bother looking for me. As for your enemies? I 
can see that they'll be following the same 
patterns they usually do, so say goodbye to 
sleeping all night. I'll tell you more when I 
can."

     Setsuna turned, opened a portal, and 
walked through. After the portal closed, she 
said, "This ought to be...interesting. Oh, 
well. Time to get to work."

****************
A train station in Nerima, two days after the 
Senshi's meeting.

     Nabiki stood and watched Ranma as he 
picked up his ticket for his train. Getting 
here was surprisingly easy. Ranma had insulted 
Akane's cooking and gotten a free trip to the 
station via "Akane Air." Nabiki was still 
wondering how he had managed to control where 
he landed so well. He had come down right in 
front of the ticket window. 

    As Ranma walked over, her curiosity got the 
better of her and she asked, "Hey, Saotome. 
How'd you manage to get Akane to hit you right 
to the train station?"

     He turned, looked at her, and said, "I've 
got lot's of practice flying `Akane Air.' And 
the Saotome School of Anything Goes is an 
aerial style, after all."

     Nabiki nodded in understanding. "Oh, okay. 
I get it." 

    "Sooooo, where'd you get a ticket for?" She 
asked, casually.

    "Tomob---" Ranma started to answer, then 
stopped suddenly as her question filtered 
through his brain. "Nice try." He said dryly.

    "Hey, I had to give it a shot." Nabiki said 
shrugging her shoulders. <I'll just get it from 
the ticket man anyway. You may be acting smarter 
than I'm used to, but you're still Ranma. And 
that means you're too damn trusting.>

     Ranma looked up as his train was 
announced. 

    "You'll make sure to keep them off my back, 
right?" He asked, just to make sure.

     "Hey, with the amount I'll get for some of 
those pictures, I'll make sure the CIA wouldn't 
be able to find you." Nabiki said with a smirk.

    Ranma shuddered. The picture session was 
something he hoped to be able to soon forget. 
He hadn't had to do any nudity, but some of the 
swimsuits Nabiki made him wear had about enough 
fabric in them to cover just his navel, and most 
of that was the strings. And the lingerie? He 
didn't ever want to remember THAT. Of course, 
the fact that she made his pose in both forms 
had been an...unpleasant...surprise. If he 
hadn't needed her help so badly, he would have 
found where she kept her film and burnt it.

     Ranma was shaken from his musings when his 
train pulled in to the station. As he got on, he 
waved to Nabiki and moved to a seat. He stowed 
his single bag (which held almost everything he 
owned. Wandering for ten years studying the Art 
didn't give much chance for getting possessions) 
and sat down.

     Nabiki smiled to herself as the train 
pulled away from the station. She went over to 
the schedule board and began to read. 

    <Bingo! Tomobiki. Sigh. Sometimes it's so 
easy, I'm ashamed of myself. At least he picked 
a place where he'll fit in with the general 
craziness. He'd better watch out for Ataru, 
though. Lum won't like it if Ataru finds him in 
cursed form. Ouch.> She went over to the ticket 
booth and confirmed that Ranma had bought 
tickets for Tomobiki.

    On the train, Ranma smiled to himself and 
pulled the ticket for Tomobiki out of his 
pocket. He looked at it, chuckled, and slowly 
tore it into pieces. "Gotcha, Nabiki." He 
whispered to himself.

*************
Juban Train Station, same day.

     The Inner Senshi waited on the platform 
after tagging along with Usagi to pick up her 
brother after a stay with relatives. Usagi was 
currently about to fall asleep against Makoto's 
shoulder. (She hadn't taken the "no sleep at 
night" thing very well) In the last two days, 
they had averaged two attacks a night, and 
everyone was running ragged. 

    The youma were beginning to get tougher to 
kill, and Ami said they were beginning to move 
into the "production models," which meant that 
they would probably start to get tougher. The 
only good thing was that all the attacks were 
happening at night, so they didn't have to come 
up with excuses to miss school. "Teacher, may I 
be excused to save the world?" only works on 
The Powerpuff Girls, after all. 

    Usagi's nap was interrupted by the squeal 
of the train's brakes. The girls started to 
scan the crowds of people getting off in hope 
of seeing their target. When they finally saw 
him they rushed over to him. They were about to 
leave when they heard a roar. 
    
    <Typical.> Was the only thought that the 
Senshi had time for before the youma attacked.

**********************
Juban Train Station.
 
   Ranma got off the train just in time to hear 
a roar. He stopped, turned to where the roar 
emanated from, and sighed. 

    A large, black, spike-covered monster was  
the source of the noise. <Great. Why can't I 
ever have a normal day?> 

    Of course, he was in Juban because it had 
almost as high of a weirdness rating as Nerima 
or Tomobiki. Not as high, but close. He'd fit 
right in. <Can't fight it like this, people 
might recognize me later.> 

    He started to look for a place to change. He 
heard someone shout, "LOOK OUT!!" 

    He had just enough time to notice a ball of 
energy before it slammed him through a wall and 
into unconsciousness. 

    The Senshi had no time to check up on the 
man who was just hit. They were barely able to 
hold their own. The youma didn't seem to be hurt 
by anything they threw at it, and they were 
running out of steam. Most of their fights 
tended to be over within 5 minutes, and this one 
was at 6 times that. They simply didn't have the 
stamina they needed. They were having to fall 
back on their weaker attacks. Finally, one of 
them made the inevitable mistake. Venus' 
Crescent Beam hit the youma at an angle and 
glanced off towards Mars, who jumped towards 
Mercury to get out of the way. 

    The youma acted on the opening with 
startling speed. It grabbed Jupiter, threw her 
into Mercury and Mars, backhanded Venus into a 
wall, and was on Sailor Moon like a cheap suit. 
It shoulder-slammed her into another wall. 


    As Sailor Moon lay there, stunned and barely 
conscious, it walked over and raised it's clawed 
hand to strike. The rest of the Senshi were 
barely fighting off the blackness as well. They 
could only watch. 

    At the Gate of Time, Pluto whispered, "It is 
time." Then she smiled. <Good. I've been waiting 
long enough.> 

    Back in the train station, Sailor Moon was 
waiting for the youma to strike. She closed her 
eyes as the claws began to come down. Then she 
felt a hand on her ankle. A hand that pulled her 
out away from the wall the youma had knocked her 
into, and threw her into a fountain. 

    "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" *SPLASH* "PTOOUIE!" 

    She sat in the fountain trying to figure out 
what had just happened. She glanced over to the 
other Inner Senshi to see if one of them had 
been the one to throw her. 

    They weren't even looking in her direction. 
They were staring at someone over by the youma. 
(Venus and Jupiter had hearts in their eyes.) 
She turned to where they were staring and saw a 
man dressed all in black. Black shirt, pants, 
boots, and a black symbol on his forehead. From 
where she was, she couldn't get a good look at 
the symbol, but she could tell it had a black 
crescent moon in it. <Crap. Is the Black Moon 
Family back?> 


   The man turned and looked at the youma. It 
prepared to spring at him, and he began to 
laugh. Not just a little chuckle, either. A 
full-blown, tears in the eyes laugh. This seemed 
to annoy the youma, and it sprang at him. The 
stranger seemed to blur, and the youma went 
flying into a wall away from the Senshi. 

    As the youma began to get up, the stranger 
held out his hand, palm up. Black energy began 
to gather in his palm. When he had a ball about 
the size of a softball, he tossed it at the 
youma with a casual snap of his wrist. It caught 
the youma in mid-leap. Black lightning raced 
over the youma's skin. The youma hit the floor 
and seemed to just...evaporate. All of this 
happened in complete silence. No focusing mantra 
for the attack from the stranger and no scream 
of pain from the youma. 

    He snorted, and walked over to the fountain 
that Sailor Moon was sitting in. He held out a 
hand to her, and she reached for it. She 
couldn't seem to look away from his eyes. They 
were the deepest blue she had ever seen. 

    She could faintly hear him saying, "You must 
be Sailor Moon. It is good to meet you. I am..." 


    Whatever he was about to say was cut off by 
Uranus deciding to introduce herself. 

    "World Shaking!" 

    He looked up just in time to catch the 
blast straight in the chest. He flew backwards 
through a shop wall. Neptune ran over to Moon to 
see if she was all right, while Uranus and 
Saturn made sure the `enemy' was finished. When 
Neptune got to the fountain, she was unprepared 
for Moon's reaction. 

    "What did you do that for? You might have 
killed him!" Moon demanded indignantly. 

"He was threatening you." She replied calmly. 

    "No, he wasn't. He was helping me out of the 
fountain. He's on our side. Or at least he was 
before you guys blew him through a wall!" 

    Of course, the Outers had no idea of what 
had happened after the Inners got Usagi's 
brother out of the line of fire, transformed, 
and hit the emergency button on the 
communicator. All they knew was that someone had 
attacked the Princess. They got to the station 
just in time to see most of the Inners 
scattered, and some guy dressed all in black 
leaning over the Princess. 

    They reacted as the situation warranted: 
Take out the threat. 

    Meanwhile, by the hole in the wall made by a 
flying body, Saturn and Uranus were getting 
ready to make sure the target was so much dead 
meat. Uranus pulled out the Space Sword and 
Saturn got out the Silence Glaive. (Better safe 
than sorry, after all.) 

    Uranus stepped through the hole with the 
Space Sword held in a ready position. Saturn was 
about to follow when she heard a shout and 
Uranus came flying back out of the hole, minus 
her sword. Uranus slammed into the wall across 
from the hole and just barely managed to get to 
her feet. 

    As she stood there, a blur flew out of the 
hole and imbedded itself about a quarter-inch 
from her right ear. It was the Space Sword. 
Saturn turned back to the hole just in time to 
see the stranger climb out. 

    "You know, that wasn't very nice." He said 
in a rather pleasant tone. He looked around, 
noticed the new additions and the fact that the 
Inners were looking ready to finish what the 
Outers had started, and reached a decision. 
<Time to go.> 

    "Well, it's been fun, but I have to say 
`Good-bye.' See ya." He calmly announced, and 
disappeared into the shadows. 

    The Senshi heard sirens beginning to come 
closer to their location and decided that 
leaving would be a good idea. Uranus reached up 
to pull out her weapon and had an unpleasant 
surprise. She couldn't move it. She pulled 
harder. No luck. She braced herself against the 
wall and pulled. Still wouldn't move. 

    Mercury noticed her efforts and came over. 
"What's wrong?" She asked. 

    "I can't get my sword out of this stupid 
wall!" Uranus muttered between gritted teeth. 

    "Let me scan it." Mercury worked on her 
computer for a few seconds. Her eyes widened. 

    "Well, why can't I get it out?" Uranus 
demanded. 

    Mercury's voice was hesitant as she 
answered, "Because it is stuck through a main 
support beam." 

    That made Uranus do a double take. "What?" 

    "Your sword is stuck in one of the main 
support beams for this part of the station. It 
was thrown with enough force to drive it in to 
the hilt. You're going to have to pull HARD to 
get it out." 

    Rather than answer, Uranus just grabbed the 
hilt of the Space Sword and pulled. She put one 
foot on the wall, then the other. The other 
Senshi all stopped what they were doing to watch 
as Uranus obtained a 90 degree angle to the 
wall. Her face was turning a lovely shade of 
purple when she finally managed to get the sword 
out. 

    "Yes! Oh, shit!" Unfortunately, she forgot 
she was on the wall, and hit the ground on her 
head. As she got up, she growled, "Not one word. 
NOT...A...SINGLE...ONE!" 

    Seeing the look in her eyes, no one wanted 
to risk it. They rapidly made plans to meet at 
Rei's temple that night, and scattered. The 
Inners went to get Usagi's brother and the 
Outers went to patrol the city to see if they 
could find that guy in black. 

    The guy in black was gone. They couldn't
find him. 

    Meanwhile, Ranma woke up in the train 
station's bathroom. Water was flowing from a 
broken faucet and had soaked him (now a her), 
waking her up. 

    "Oh, man." She groaned, "What hit me?" Then 
she remembered. The youma. An energy blast. Some 
one screaming a warning. <Hold on. The girl who 
screamed the warning. She was dressed in a blue 
fuku, along with four others.> 

    "The Sailor Senshi? I'll be. I thought they 
were just an urban legend." She got up, and 
groaned as an assortment of aches and pains made 
themselves known. <Man, this shirt is shot.> 

    As she made her way through the ruin that 
used to be a waiting platform, she could hear 
police and ambulances arriving. <Man, I'm sorry 
I missed this fight. It looks like it was a good 
one. Maybe I can catch the next one. Wouldn't 
want to get out of shape.> 

    Since she didn't want to have to explain why 
she was standing in a former battle zone with 
shredded clothes (especially since he was in his 
cursed form), Ranma quickly made her way out of 
the station without being seen. <Heh, Umisen-ken 
strikes again. That technique comes in handy. 
Still was a royal pain to learn, though.> 

    Once she was outside, Ranma took to the 
rooftops and quickly made his way to her 
destination: a fairly nice house on the 
outskirts of Juban. She jumped down and went in 
the gate. She went up to the door and checked 
it. <Locked. Let's see...> 

    She reached around and pulled a letter from 
her pack. <Says here if it's locked, I should 
use the key hidden in the flowerpot. Huh. Not a 
very original place.> 

    Ranma opened the door and went in. <Letter 
says first door on the right up the stairs is 
mine.> 

    She went up the stairs, went into the room, 
and looked around. <Not bad. Pretty nice, as a 
matter of fact. This should be a nice place to 
stay, if I can pull my plan off.> 

    Ranma changed shirts (and sexes) and put 
away the rest of his gear. Then he decided to 
explore the rest of the house. That took him all 
of ten minutes. One room had several lamps in 
it, and looked like it belonged to a young girl. 
Another had several musical instruments on the 
wall, was tastefully decorated, and spotlessly 
clean. A third had a huge amount of racing 
trophies in a case. The last one looked like no 
one had been there in a good long while. The 
downstairs had a kitchen, dining room, living 
room, and a large, empty room with mirrors and 
railings along one wall.  The basement had the 
usual basementy stuff in it, and he couldn't 
find an attic access. <Well, that was fun. Now 
what do I do? I have to talk to the person who 
sent me the letter before I know what to do 
around here.> 

    Ranma was about to sit on the living room 
floor and start meditating when his stomach 
announced that it wanted some attention. <Bingo. 
I'll make some food.> 

    He went into the kitchen and started to make 
something to eat. It was almost done when 
someone pulled into the garage. <Oh, good. 
Someone's home. I hope it's the person I need to 
talk to.> 

    Ranma stepped away from the stove and 
started to wipe off his hands when he remembered 
something important. <Crap! I'm male!> 

    He dashed over to the sink and splashed 
himself with cold water just as the door opened. 
She turned to look at the people. There was a 
blonde (dressed in guys clothes), a girl with 
green hair (dressed in some rather tasteful 
clothes), and a young girl with black hair 
(dressed in a skirt and turtleneck). They just 
stared at each other for a while. Then the blond 
jumped at Ranma. 

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

    Haruka opened the door to the house and 
smelled someone cooking. <Setsuna. Good. I can 
ask her some of the questions that came up 
during the meeting.> 

    It wasn't Setsuna. It was a short, blue-eyed 
redhead wearing black pants and a red Chinese 
style shirt (which, although baggy, did nothing 
to hide her `assets'). 

    Haruka had one simple thought: <Burglar. Get 
her.> She jumped at the stranger. 

To be Continued. (Big surprise there, huh?) 
************************* 
Author's piece: 

    Well, here it is. I seem to be developing a 
habit of ending chapters with a cliffhanger, 
don't I? 

    What happened in the meeting? Why is Ranma 
in Setsuna's house? What's in nougat? How long 
will it be until Strike Fiss writes his next 
series? Will I ever shut up? 

    The answers to some of these questions will 
be in the next chapter! (I'm not telling which 
ones, though.) 

Big thanks to all my pre-readers! You know I 
love `em! 
Aaron Blomenkamp, The Beast of Chaos 
Anchan 
Battlezone
(http://www.angelfire.com/bc/Battlezone) 
CCMax 
E_Nebedum 
I'm Apathetic 
Lord Anthrax 
Mr.P (http://www.geocities.com/p_chan05) 
`tsuki-chan 
William Dix 
Xaldaran 

    The most recent revisions of all the 
chapters can be found on my homepage at 
http://www.angelfire.com/anime/Slacker 

    Send me C&C! I love it! Send me flames! I 
need something to keep me warm during the cold 
winter months! Send me death threats! I need new 
ideas! Send me letter bombs! I need something to 
break the monotony! 

My email: r_heins@yahoo.com 

Ja Ne! 
Slacker 
4/3/00