Ranma 1/2

Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, Rumiko Takahashi does. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

Shades of Home

Chapter 42

Ranma and Sunny went back to their room and changed clothes While Ranma took the opportunity to sponge the sweat off his torso, Sunny called a meeting of the Eldest Ones.

“Ranma, you ok? “

“Yeah, I’ll survive. It was pretty bad but I’m ok now.”

“I’m sorry, but you know we had to do it. If you want them to respect you, you have to cater to tradition. Things are changeing, slowly but surely. Only we don’t have time for you to earn their respect the easy way.”

“When is anything in my life the easy way. Did you get the meeting we need.”

“Yes. We’ll be meeting with the Eldest of the Eldest in about ten minutes.”

“Good. I hope she’ll cooperate with us”

“Mom is always cooperative when it’s necessary.”

“Huh?”

“The Ancient dosn’t deal with outsiders, so Mom, as Second in line to the throne, does it”

“If she’s second, who’s first.”

“Bo An.”

“Oh. . . un . . . Sunny? Whos third?”

Ranma cringed internally at Sunny’s soft ‘me’

'Well, I’ll be damed.'

Sunny just started out the door. They could deal with this later, right now they had to convince the Councel that they were justified in declairing what amounted to martial law in Shoushow.

In the council chamber, the Elders were already shouting at each other as Yao Ma sat in the throne at the head of the table, waiting for them to run down. But it wasn’t happening

Sunny went strainght to her and leaned over her shoulder to whisper in her ear.

"How’s it going? Are they still shouting, or did they just start?”

"The older Elders are against letting a man do this. The rest of them are just glad that someone has finally found out what that bunch of idiots is hiding. I’m about ready to shut them down.. . if I could get their attention, that is.”

Ranma hesitantly leaned over the other shoulder, ready to back off at the slightest signal.

"How bad you need their attention?"

"Not that bad. Let them run down on their own. While they’re doing that–get readyfor your presentationl."

Ranma and Sunny turned to the front of the room but the equipment was already set up and ready. All they had to do was start the notebook and boot the slide show. It was all conjecture and suposition, except for the picture of the dragon that Steven had managed to get. It was flying and only a sliouette but it got the point aross.

"Enough! Silence! I SAID, QUIET!”

Even though Ma shouted as loud as she could the Council members were still shouting so loud that no one heard her.

Ranma stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled so shrilly that the door guards came rushing in to see what the noise was.

"SHADDAP! The lady wants your attention."

The noise stopped like a switch had been thrown. Every eye in the room turned to Ranma, he just pointed to Ma and grinned like a shark, all teeth, no joy.

When Sunny started her presentation, every woman in the room got still and very quiet. Ranma made no bones about the fact that they were sure of their information. Eye witness accounts from Northern Japan and Steven’s testimony left little doubt in anyone’s mind about what was going on. Ranma just didn’t understand why.

Several of the women asked for a short recess while they called relatives in the village and tried to get information. Ma allowed them an hour to make their calls.

When they readjorned, Ma called on each woman in turn and the information they had gathered was all bad or worse. The Elders had been hiding the fact that they couldn’t handle their business for a year. Everything pointed to a, by now, rather large dragon in the mountains above Shoushow village.

Sunny snarled. "Ranma we have to get to that village now. They have been hiding things for more than a year."

"Damn, and we’re just finding out now because?"

"Save face, lose life."

"Shit. Find out everything you can."

"Ranma, never mind finding out stuff from here. We go, we kick ass, and take over. Martial law it is, and you’ll get everything you need to crush this problem."

"Sure I will. You don’t know how stubborn . . ."

"Ranma, you are the First Husband of a Royal Princess of the Original Blood."

"Yeah, lots of capital letters there. And so?"

"Ranma in light of the fact that the Ainchent One’s First Husband died over sixty years ago and she never remarried. Daddy. . . isn’t around. That make’s you the nearest thing to a king the amazons have had in . . . well, a long time."

"Who? . . . Me?” Ranma pointed to his own nose. “I’m . . . oh. How much authority does that give me?”

"You want someone dead, you point and say so."

Sunny looked grim, Ranma was still not that sure of himself. In combat, he was as selfassured as anyone could be, but between his Pop and everything else that had happened to him, he still didn’t understand his own worth.

"Ran-chan, you have to get a grip. There is a big difference between being arrogant and knowing what you can do and letting people know it. It’s all attitude, correct yours.”

"Ok, ok, I just . . . well, I’ll have to make sure I don’t make the wrong gesture, won’t I . I’ll shoot my own dog, thank you."

Yao Ma interuped them, “Sunny, you need to get going and soon, I’ve called for the . . . battle group. How many men are you taking in.”

Ranma turned to her shrugging, “I called for a batalion, full metal panic. Choppers, ground to air, and anything else I thought might help. How are we going to get the Elders to. . .not accept, but at least not interfere?”

Ma told him and watched as he got the most evil grin anyone hand ever seen on his face.

"Oh, I’m so gonna enjoy this. They deserve this. They can’t manage a settin' hen and a clutch of eggs. Left this mess to fester for a year because they were too proud to ask gaijin for help. Now they have to . . . “ Ranma started snickering. “Wife, permission to get the hell going.”

Sunny made a lead on jesture.

~ * ~

Back in the chopper, Sunny finally gave in to her emotions and broke down, wrapping her arms around Ranma, she sobbed as if her heart was broken.

Ranma just scooped her up and plunked her down in his lap. He stoked her back in gentle, comforting motions until she cried herself out and stopped sniffling softly.

"Want to talk about it, Koi. Or are you just tryin’ to scare me outta a years growth."

"Oh, Ranma, I’m sorry the only wy we could do this was get married. I’ . ."

"Why? Uh ...was I . . . not good? You disapointed in some way? If you were, just tell me and I’ll fix it."

"That’s not it. You know it’s not. I love you more than anything. But I wanted to . . . well, it’s not. . . oh shit! Why did we have to do it like this.”

Ranma was perfectly aware of what Sunny was trying to say, so he just nestled her head against his chest and stroked her braided hair gently. His soft chuckle rumbled against her cheek.

"You don’t like the way we did it. I’ll buy us a copy of the Kama Sutra, how’s that? Plenty of ways in there and some really romantic stuff too. You might like “Butterfly kisses”

“Yao Saotome Ranma! You know that’s not what I meant. Baka, and when did you read the Kama Sutra. Did you read all of it?”

"You really think Pop ever let me read that book? I just heard about it here and there and Kasumi said somethig one time about the kisses.. But we could get a copy. Ya know?"

"Hentai."

"Well, you married me. {Holy crap! I’m married! How the hell did that happen?}"

~ * ~

When the chopper landed, Ranma and Sunny were met by Steven and Ranma’s Secondary team, all grinning like maniacs.

Ranma looked around and found that Sunny was actually hiding behind him, peeking around his shoulder as if she was afraid someone would get on her for something.

Steven grinned at Sunny and handed her a package.

"What is it. What’s that?"

Sunny was examining the object with a disgusted look on her face. It was just a small oval of steel. Ranma reached out and took it from her, tucking it into his pocket he turned to Steven.

"If you ever give my wife something like that again, I’ll break you in half.. . I know you thought it was funny but she’s an Amazonian Princess and you just don’t give her a . .. One of those And you especially don’t embarase her."

Steven turned to Conroy with a snarl, "I thought you said it was a wedding ring. I don’t like jokes like that. Not funny."

Conroy had the grace to look ashamed. "Well, all the guys thought it was funny. They gave Ludovic the same thing and he thought it was hilarious.”

"Yeah? Well, he’s thirty-six. And Sherry is thirty. They’re seventeen, ass hole.”

"Damn, sorry."

Ranma dismissed the whole thing with a wave of his hand.

"Now that you’re all done acting like your age is your IQ. We need to get into the village. This is how it works. I’ll go in with Sunny and take on the Council of Elders, get the information we need and we’ll go take care of things. It might take a day, so just set up operations right here. There’s plenty of room to set up everything we need right here. Oh, and no shiveree tonight. They’ll take it the wrong way and won’t appreciate a bunch of forigen men invading the village."

Steven just nodded and started to issue orders. When he finished, he turned back to Ranma and appoligized for the ‘present’

"That’s ok. I suppose I should have expected something like that. But Sunny’s, well, not innocent, but she hasn’t been exposed to the crudities you and I have. Just don’t put me on the spot like that again. Ok?"

"Sure, but . .. Never mind. I don’t think I want to know."

"One word, . . Happosai".

"Oh shit, that pervert panty thief."

Sunny butted in just then. “He’s not here right now. He’s with the Ancient. And I hope she chains him up in the dungeons forever he’s just nasty. It’s a wonder he didn’t corrupt Ranma completely."

Then Steven realized exactly what Ranma was wearing. He turned a funny shade of green and made a soft noise in his throat, like he didn’t know whether to whimper or choke.

"You. . . I . . . She. . . Ranma. . .”

"Well shit. I thought you knew Japanese. Steven, spit it out before you choke on it."

"That robe is only for the consort of the . . .Sunny! Just exactly where in line are you?"

"Third, Steven. I know, I told you all at some time or other. You just don’t listen to me like you ought."

"But if you’re third, isn’t your father intitled, not Ranma?"

"Daddy isn’t around and the Ancient is widdowed. So that makes Ranma First Consort. Isn’t it delicious?”

Steven shook his head and just walked off muttering about shit magnets and obscenely weird luck.

"Ranma we go village now?”

"Idiot."

"Last time I get to enjoy fun for a while. Now I have to be pricness, it’s boring."

"Sunny?” Sunny made a soft noise of inquery. “Why are you in the compound instead of at Pearl of Great Price."

"Well, as a healer, it’s my duty to be where I’m needed most and I guess.. . well. Mom was getting conserned because I really wasn't amounting to much. I’m one of only four women of the royal line. And, before I got to the Compound, I was preaty spoiled. “ At Ranmas snort, she shook her head. “No really. I only cared about clothes and hair dos and silly stuff. Mom clobbered it out of me by taking me to the Compound and exposing me to real life. I hope I’m a better person than I was when we first met."

"Sunny, if it hadn’t been for you, I don’ think I’d have made I past the first week. You and all the others let me see what life was supposed to be like. I never thought you were spoiled."

"I was, but I wanted you to like me so much that I just . . . got over it."

"Kiss me and lets go tackle the Council. Literaly, I’m afraid."

Sunny and Ranma took the time to be very through, afraid that they wouldn’t have time for much more for a while.

~ * ~

Instead of alloweing Sunny to walk, Ranma lifted Sunny into his arms and took off running. Sunny didn’t bother to struggle, she liked it fine just where she was. Ranma smelled of the soap and shampoo that Bo An had compounded especially for him, the combination of cinnamon, cardamom, lemon balm, and myrh; combined with Ranma’s own masculine scent made her slightly dizzy and very glad she could claim him as her husband.

The run down the path to the village was the last pleasant thing to happen to either of them for many days.

Sunny let Ranma put her down at the bend just before the gates of the village. She straightened her robes and Ranma’s making sure that they exuded the dignified air needed. Then she watched as the Ranma she knew and loved disapeared as Ranma called his battle aura, not much of it just enough that it was obvious and he got an arrogant sneer on his face. {If that’s what he looked like before, no wonder he was always in a fight.}

The two guards tried to stop them but Sunny just glaired them out of the way and it didn’t hurt that the women recognized not only Ranma but the robes they were wearing.

"You areYao Sun?”

"Yes and this is my First Husband, Yao Saotome Ranma. We wish to speak with the Council of Elders. Please tell them we require their presence in the chambers at once.”

Ranma glaired at the woman as she started to protest, she wilted quickly and ran off to do what she could.

"Ranma? . . . Don’t put yourself out too much, it’s been a while but I think I can handle them. As long as they don’t challagne me. I’m ok. If they challange me . . . “

"That’s why we’re married, as your First Husband I’m your champion and proxy. “ Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and looked . . . fierce, proud and just a touch smug.

Sunny suddenly relaxed so much she nearly went limp. “Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried that I might have to take on the Eldest and I’m not up to her level by a long shot."

"I’m up to her skill level and beyond. Don’t you think?"

"Ranma, you’ll flatten her. I hope. I really don’t like her much, she’s so old that she . . . well. Just thank your luck stars that it isn’t Ku Lon. She’s the oldest member of this tribe and. . ."

"Scared shitless of that boy. He’s got a holding aura bigger than his old full battle aura. “ Ku Lon turned to Ranma.” What the hell have you been doing boy?”

"You want the whole story, I’ll tell you, if I survive this. What the hell were you thinking to let this go so far?”

"I was in Japan, trynig to get that foolish Great-grand-daughter of my married off to some bratt with an attitude.”

Ranma shook his head, “Not my fault that you didn’t know when to let go. If you’d been here, where you were supposed to be, . . . well, beating a dead horse does no good.”

"True, true. And you’re right. If I hadn’t stepped down as head of the council of elders, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I just came back from up the mountain. Boy, you have to force the issue. You’re not going to get anywhere with them. That dragon is huge. “

"Ok, Old Goule, what do I do?“

"What are your plans?"

"I need to know how I can make them cooperate, so we don’t have them in the way, and the centeral government lodging a protest for interference in internal affairs or somthing."

"Aaa. All you have to do is defeat the head of the council, since you’re already married to a member of the royal family, you won’t have to worry about getting into the same situation we had before."

"What if I just beat the whole council?"

"Then you. . . boy. You can’t do that.. . . can you?"

"Yeah, but wht if I do?"

"Then you rule the village. Or your wife does. And Sunny isn’t competent to."

"Yes, she is, but I’ll abdcate in your favor. You rule, get us what we need and call it even, for all the crap you put me though."

"You’re harsh."

"Life’s a bitch, and bad tempered at that. Take a pill."

"Well, let’s get going."

Sunny had gotten wide eyed at the thought of actually haveing to rule a village on her own and was glad that Ranma had it all planned out. He was amazing, he adjusted plans and compensated so fast it was down right scary. He said he didn’t have plans, but it seemed to her that he had but that he could change them on the fly, without getting stressed.

"Sunny? You know that I’m gonna challange the whole council? Don’t worry about it. I won’t hurt anyone too much. Just enough to get the point across."

"Ok."

Twenty minutes later they were standing at the front of the council chamber listening to another group of amazon elders squacking like chickens with a fox in the hen house. Sunny let them go for about another two minutes. Then she suggested to the eldest one that she was a fool and couldn’t control her meeting.

Ranma gave up, he knew they wern’t going to get anywhere with them. He’d given them a chance and they’d wasted it. Now he was going to get things on the right track to begin with. He usually let things take their own course and coped with the results, but there was too much riding on this and more than his agravation.

"Lady Wife, this is enough. Challange her and get it over with."

"No, Husband, she must challange me. Or I can’t use a proxy."

Ranma clenched his teeth and wondered how he could ge the old bat to challange Sunny. But Sunny was on the same page he was on and already had things planned out.

"I’m sorry. . .” Sunny smirked at the old woman and hesitated just that one beat too long “Elder. I hate to press the point but we must do something about your. . . incom . . . er. . . misguided . . . un. . . “ By now, the Elder was about the have apoplexy and she made the mistake that Ranma and Sunny were waiting for.

"I challange you to combat majure."

"You’re fucking insane. To the death?"

"Yes and stay out of this, boy."

"Don’t think so, old bat. I’m her husband and her champion. Not that she really needs one but why should she have to dirty her hands with idiots like you, when she has me."

The old woman attacked Ranma so suddenly that she actually got in the first blow, not that it made much difference, as Ranma only allowd the force of her blow to turn his head. When he turned back, she stepped back in fear. he looked like something out of an old nightmare. He smiled so gently that at first no one noticed the blankness behind his eyes. He had a frozen quality to his gaze that was terrifying.

He took up his well known agressave stance and croocked his wrist, giving her a come on that invited her to her own funeral. She didn’t have the sense to back down and attacked him with a kei that shook the rafters, which she hit a split second later. The rafter cracked and the old lady hit the floor, unconcious.

Ranma motioned Sunny to see to her and turned to the rest of the coucil . "I know that none of you will be satisfied with out beating someone, so come on, lets get this over with before I get bored. 'K?"

They attacked him in consorte, coming from all sides and attcking, not only with bare hands, but with every weapon available to them, with no idea of what they’d unleashed among themselves. The fox in the hen house analogy held very well as Ranma waded throught them like the fox through, not hens but baby chicks. Bodies flew every which way as he indulged himself in a full use of the chestnut fist and some hard assults that would have splintered every bone in the body of less than an Amazon.

That wasn’t the end of the fight, you don’t get the entire council of Elders down in one short match. They attacked from every side agan and Ranma started picking his targets. He started with the three most agressave of the Elders and knocked them out with a series of punches carefully calculated to leave no marks but keep them out for at least a full minute. {I hope they are strong enought to deal woth the concussion}

After taking care of the first three, the rest were, not easier, but a little quicker. He let them gang up on him and stuned as many as he could with a chestunut fist attack that left some of them backing away and looking for exits. The rest attacked again and Ranma turned into a ball of fury, his kicks and punches left no doubt in the minds of any of them that the Wild Horse was well and truely pissed.

The end came as an anticlamax, Ranma simply ran out of opponents and stopped.

He looked around and saw that all the amazons were down, and some of them out, encluding the first three. He waited until they were all at least semi-concious and then turned to Sunny, at her nod, he turned back

"You all have seats, get in them!"

There was a rather undignified scramble for chairs as the council got themselves sorted out and seated

Ranma stalked to Sunny’s side and knelt. A less submissive kneal couldn’t be imagined, his shoulders were pulled back and while his hands rested on his thighs, they were plainly ready. His head was bowed, but only a fool wouldn’t have noticed that his constantly roving eyes didn’t miss a twitch.

Sunny started explaining to the women what she wanted and the uproar started again.

"Damnit, Ranma, they won’t listen. What am I going to do?"

"Nothing, I’ve got it."

Ranma stood, walked to the table, and brought his clenched fist down on it hard enough to make the ebony boom like a drum.

"Enough! I am taking over. You should have listened to the Princess, now you listen to me.. “ He looked from face to face, grimly smashing any resistance with a glare that left ice cicles behind “This council is . . . desolved. Permanently.” Ranma didn’t bother to shout, nor even raise his voice, his words dropped into the silence like crystal shards. “I’m sure that Lady Kuo Lon will appreciate your returning to your homes in an orderly manner and keeping curfew. Go. . . now. . .before I take you. I guarantee you won’t like it if I do.”

The council filed past Ranma and, after he grabbed th first one and forced her, bowed to Sunny on their way past. A few mumbles of 'Stupid girl' were met with blank faced disbelief on Sunny’s part and snarls from Ranma. The mumbling stopped when Sunny greated Kuo Lon and she bowed to Sunny and addressed her as Heir Terciary Yao.

Kuo Lon shrugged her shoulders and watched the rest of the council file out of the room and head for their homes. They had no idea of exactly what had happened but the village was about to find out that the elderly lady wasn’t going to support the statice quo, she was going to make some radical changes, and this invasion of forigeners was a blessing in disguise for many of the younger ones.

"Princess Sun, Prince Ranma, quarters have been prepared for you. You should go to them and rest until the banquet."

"No banquet, you’re under martial law until this dragon foolishness is taken care of. I don’t want the amazons and my troopers getting near each other. The village is off limits to them and the camp is off limits to the amazons. Make sure that they understand that. I want to talk to every witness to the dragons first apperance and anyone who has actually fought it. Get to it!”

Kou Lon didn’t even bother to try to argue. She’d never seen Ranma quite like this, his usual arrogance was tempered with something else. Could it be true confidence?

"I’ll get everyone I can find and bring them to your quarters as soon as I can. You do understand that there are damn few of them. That beast. . . it’s big and aggressive. By the time I realized what was happening and came back again. . . .it was too late. I’m not on the council anymore, so I did what I could for those who would listen to me. Xian Po and Mu Tsu are providing support for those who left.” The old lady shook her head sorrowfully, “It’s the best I can do”

Ranma patted her on the shoulder. “You do good. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of this. We’ve got a full battalion and two more fighters right outside the village.”

"Who did you bring with you?"

"Ryouga and Kuno. Steven Campbell and a full battalion of Grunts. We’ll get it."

"I’ll line them up and send them in to you. Get all the rest you can, you’re going to need it."

.

And she kept her word. There were few people left in the village who’d seen or fought the beast, but she got them all to come and be interviewed. The results were less than reasuring. The dragon had literaly fallen from the sky and immediately holed up in a large cave in the far reaches of a valley high in the mountains. When it had first appeared, it was about the size of an elephant. Every one had thought it was cute and let it live in peace.

After three months, in which it had eaten every wild animal in the area larger than a rabbit, it was five times its original size and becoming more than just a nuisance. So they’d sent out four warriors to kill it. They never came back, so next, they’d sent out a larger group and one had come back to tell the story. The dragon had learned to fly and it was hunting out an even larger area. That had gotten the Provincial government involved. They had sent in an attack force of regular soldiers who had immediatly gotten eaten. Then the central government had sent in a force, which had also gotten eaten, and then they’d decided to just ignore it and hope it went away.

It didn’t. It didn’t get much larger, because by now, it was flying. It seemed not to want to leave the mountanious areas and it didn’t seem to be eating quite as much but it still ate a lot. It was eating about ten cows a week, plus whatever it found in the mountains. It expanded its hunting area as it hunted out everything big enough to make more that a crumb. All the governments were now in full denial and refused to take any messages about the ‘mythological beast scare,’ leaving the amazons of Shoushow village to cope with it on their own and they’d done the only thing they reasonably could. They’d called on the Elders to do something, which they’d done, or rather not done. They’d stuck their head firmly up their asses and denied everything.

“So here we are, a year later, with a giant mess on our hands, a huge fucking dragon eating China out of house and home and . . .aaarrgg!” Ranma picked up the table and threw it through the wall. “I fuckin’ don’t fuckin’ believe it. It’s just too fuckin’ like that bunch of fuckin’ bitches. . .”

Suny reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “Calm down. You’ve reached your fuckin’ limit.”

Ranma stopped dead in his tracks. "Huh? Excuse me?”

Sunny laughed softly. “I mean you’ve used the word fuckin’ four times in that sentence, that’s got to be some kind of record and I’ve never heard you so upset before. Do you think their foolishness is worth so much upset?"

"It's not their foolishness, but the loss of life, that has me pissed. You do realize that we are going to loose men, no matter how careful I am, or how good you are, don’t you?"

"Yes, I do, and I don’t like it one bit. But what are we supposed to do, just let it eat everything in it’s path?"

"No, but it would have been nice to have been told while it was still smaller than a Cessna."

.

Ranma rubbed his neck and looked around the house they’d been given. It was small, but nice; clean, warm and comfortable. He wondered vaguely who they’d put out and then decided it didn’t matter much. They’d only be here one night.but he did feel bad about the wall.

The next morning was greated with groans from both of them. Sunny didn’t want to leave the warmth of Ranma’s arms, it was cold here this close to the high mountains. And Ranma didn’t want to get up to face the mess he had to clean up. He wished the amazonian village council had been more responsible. Damn, he wished everyone involved had gotten their heads out of their collecitve asses and done what they should have.

Ranma leaned over and gave Sunny something besides the cold to groan about and Sunny reciprocated. After a few breathless moments ranma threw the covers back and jumped out of bed dragging Sunny with him.

"Come on. We gotta get up. Get dressed, here take this and put it on. Those robes’ll let in every speck of cold around."

Ranma got his radio out and contacted Operations. He told the operator to get his uniform ready for him and gave him some other instructions that made the man ask for conformation.

"Yes, keep the choppers in the air over the dragon. That’ll keep it from flying. I don’t want a repeat of the wyvern. Just tell the damn pilots to be careful. I don’t want one of them getting a rotor damaged. . . . oh, and tell them that if they got a .50, go ahead and shoot it all they want. I don’t think it’ll do much good but it can’t hurt to keep it confused. Maybe, if it get’s mad enough, it’ll screw up somehow."

Ranma turned to see Steven coming toward him with his uniform in his hands. Ranma stripped down and changed right there. At Stevens odd look, Ramna remarked. “I got time to be shy? If they haven’t seen it yet, it's time they did.”

Steven laughed and started filling Ranma in on the plans. They’d already tryed small arms and a bazooka. The dragon had barely noticed them. It hadn’t tried to fly on them but Steven was of the opinion that it was full and not wanting to exert itself.

"Well, isn’t that just peachy. While we were fooling around with councils and marriages, that flying stomach ate some more people."

"Marriages? Who. . . un. . . Bricker told me. . . Ranma, you didn’t. Did you?”

"I did and Sunny’s a Princess, so I’m fucking King of the Amazons or something. Don’t even ask. It worked. How did you get the Central Government to agree to all this?”

"They sent a memo to the Provincial government which sent one to the Village. We’re not here. They’re still ignoring the whole thing, left it in the hands of the Village Elders with instructions to Fix it. How are we going to get around the council?"

"There isn’t one. I’m it. Or rather Sunny is and she put Kuo Lon in charge as her proxy and she told me. . . well, really, I told her. Anyway, we’re large and in charge. So let’s get to it and do this.”

Ranma finished dressing by yanking on the laces of his vest, clipping the pickup around his throat, and screwing the ear piece in firmly. “Test. . . test. . . Saotome. Ok, guys, suit up and meet me down hill.”

Ranma met the Conroy-gumi at the bottom of the hill right by the helo pad and slapped hands and punched shoulders with them. Then he got down to business. He got them lined up and had each one of them assigned a heavy arm. He got everything from hand grenade launchers to ground to air missels.

"Shit, Saotome, you’d think the thing was indestructible, the way you’re going at it."

"It just might be. We’ve never faced anything this big, or this tough. The Chinese fucked it up good. It’s been growing for a year and eaten two command groups. Plus a few assorted amazons. It’s really big. That wyvern is a sparrow, compared to this dragon. And don’t you forget it. I don’t want you guys getting yourselves eaten because you got cocky.”

"Eaten?” Conroy looked puzzled, then just a little scared. “How big is this thing?”

"Not sure, big enough to scare Steven. So it’s got to be fairly big.”

"Oh, . . . well, shit. I guess we better go swat it then.”

They hiked in. The valley was almost inaccessable. You couldn’t land a chopper, the walls were almost vertical and any other route put you way too close to the dragon.

"Well, let's get this dog and pony show on the road."

Ranma watched as the men unloaded everything and started shooting at thedragon. He did’t think that it was going to do any good but it was worth the try. Anything to save a life. His men were precious to him and he would rather loose his own life than risk theirs. They tried everything they had. And all they did was annoy the dragon.

Kuno walked up becide Ranma and snarled. "Well, we’re in deep shit. I’m crazy, but I’m not a fool. What the hell are we going to do? It’s so big, I don’t think I can get a good cut at it. Necks too thick."

Ryouga, standing on the other side of Ranma, grunted. He didn’t see any way, either. But they all relied on Ramna. More than they should. But there you were. They did.

Ranma studied the dragon and thought. He thought they were in over their heads and he needed to do something quick, before they lost a lot of lives.

"Damnit. Nothing touches it. Not a thing. Ranma, you’re up, I guess.” Rio wiped the sweat off his forehead and grimmaced, they all hated it when they couldn’t get the job done. They didn’t want to have to turn the job over to the ‘big gun’

"Ok, you guys keep up some cover fire. Keep it off balance maybe. That’ll help a lot. If we can get it confused enough, maybe it’ll fuck itself up somehow. Burn off it’s own tail."

"Well, it ran out of gas a while ago. Hasn’t flamed for at least ten minutes."

"Thanks Rio, that’s good news. If it ran out of gas, I wonder how long it will take it to recharge? Anyone have any idea? No? Didn’t think so. Oh well."

Ranma eyed the dragon and thought. He had stuck his hand in his pocket and was idly toying with the wedding present that the guys had given him.

"Um . . Ranma, is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, the guys thought it was a nice wedding present to give to me and Sunny."

Kuno nearly fell over and Rryouge choked . "M m m married. How, . . . when . . . who . . . I mean."

Between Kuno just staring and Ryouga stammering, Ranma couldn’t help laughing softly.

"How do you think I got the Council to do want I wanted them to. I married Sunny and that gave me the juice to dismiss them and set up the old Goule in their place. She’s got it together, she’ll do what has to be done.”Rranma suddenly got an arrested expression o his face. “As I will. Let’s go. I got an idea.”

Ranma led Kuno and Ryouge to the head of the valley and gave them their instructions.

They flanked the beast and Kuno teased it while Ryouga shot it with Shi Shi Hokodan and Ranma alternated with him using Mouko Takabisha. It didn’t do much good, it just scorched his scales a bit.

"Fuck, we’re so dead. This isn’t doing much good at all. We’re going to have to get up close and personal. Ryouga can you tease it some, see if you can’t get it to streach out it’s neck. Kuno, I know you said its neck was too thick, but see what you can do. Maybe we’ll luck out and we can cut it’s head off. I’ll get my sword and we can take turns. If we get in enough cuts in the same place, maybe we can get the job done. I hope."

So Rouga teased the dragon until it stretched its neck out, roaring all the while. Ranma jumped up and, as he fell, he brought his sword down in a controlled falling cut. Kuno followed immedietly after and cut in exactly the same place. They managed a shallow cut that encouraged them. They tried again and the same thing happened. But they couldn’t get in more than two cuts in the same place. The dragon seemed to know what they were up to and guarded it’s wounds.

Ryouga groaned when he landed the last time. It was the last time because he twisted the same ankle he’d twisted the time before .

"Ryu what’s wrong? Did it get you? Where are you hurt?”

"‘S nothing. I just twisted my ankle it’ll be ok. I just need to walk it off."

"Yeah, sur,e I . . .” Ranma leaned down and felt Ryouga’s ankle. It was hot and already swolen. “Yeah. I really think so. You get to the back and get off that. You’re gonna get yourself eaten.”

Ryouga started to object, but when Ranma squeezed his ankle, he nearly fell, it hurt so bad.

"You take off wrong on that and you’ll break it. But you won’t be alive long enough for it to hurt. Don’t argue with me, get to the back. I don’t have time to baby sit you, and fight that dragon too. Go on, scat."

Ryouga went. Ranma was right, they didn’t need to waste time trying to protect him as well as fight.

Ranma snarled, that left him with only Kuno and Steven to help him and Steven was so busy organizing the grunts that he hadn’t been in the combat yet and probably wouldn’t see any action at all.

They all watched as someone scored a lucky hit with some sort of ground to air missle. It hit the dragon directly in the mouth and it screamed like a steem whistle. They could see the blood on its tongue as it flicked it out to lick its thin lizard like lips.

'Well shit that helped--not.' Ranma got on his radio Shuba. "How we doing?"

"Not good."

"Anything? Anything at all. We need something. We’re goin' down hard if we can’t figure out something."

"Ranma, I’m doing the best I can. There’s just nothing."

"I know. I’m sorry. It’s just, we gotta get this thing down somehow. We’re gonna loose a bunch of men and then it’ll go after civilians. Find me something."

"Looking. Just keep it occupied a while longer, I’m sure I’ll figure out something. Just don’t get eaten in the mean time."

"If I’d. . ." Ranma stopped short. "Well, hell."

Ranma thought hard. His only option was. . . well . . . it was worse than bad. He didn’t like his chances of coming back from this. But the chances of him killing the dragon were better than good. If he could pull it off.

"Steven, I need to find a guy. . . don’t know his name but he’s a SEAL. I need to see if he has some equipent."

"There’s only two SEAL’s on this crew, just have Shuba call them."

“K. Steven? You’re . . . my real Dad. Ya know?"

"Thanks, kid. Go find those SEAL’s."

Ranma had Shuba call the SEAL’s and only one answered, the other was wounded and headed back for base. But the one Ranma did talk to knew exactly what he wanted and he actually had two SCAT’s with him. Ranma just told him that he needed them.

"Ok, kid, you need them . . . and I’m supposed to turn some fairly expensive equipment over to a, what, fifteen year old, because . . ."

Ranma smilled without mirth. “Because I’m a George and a Major and I need them. If they’re your personal property, I’ll see that you get reimbursed. How does it work exactly."

"You just put the mouth piece in your mouth, the clip on your nose, and breathe through your mouth. It’s got about twenty minutes worth of air, depending on what you’re doing."

"I’m goinna be fightin’ for all I’m worth."

"Chop that down to ten, if you’re lucky."

"Here, I’ll clip them to my vest."

"Not with an ALICE, you won’t. They don’t work. The clips aren’t deep enough."

Ranma pulled his wedding present from his pocket and used it to clip the SCAT packs to his belt.

"Umm ... that’s a . ."

"Don’t say it. It works. That’s all that counts. Right? My buddies gave it to me for a wedding present."

"Oh. Umm. Well good luck."

"Thanks, I’m gonna need it."

Ranma headed back for the combat zone. Half way there he leaned against a tree, “I do’ wanna do this. I don’t.....fuck!” Ranma slugged the tree so hard it cracked and toppled like it had been chopped down with an axe.

Ranma approached Steven, who was watching Kuno try to cut the dragons head off. It wasn’t working but he kept trying.

"Steven, see if you can’t distract it for a second. I need to get Kuno out of there, he's worn out and he's going to get in trouble soon."

"Ok, I told him to give up. You got an idea?”

"Yeah, you’re not gonna like it." Ranma shivered. He didn’t like it either but he didn’t see anyother way.

"What is it?"

"Tell ya later. Lust let’s go get Kuno out of there."

Ranma and Steven set about annoying the dragon enough to get Kuno away from it. Steven jumped into it’s face and Ranma followed from the other direction. That got the dragon confused, it snapped indescriminately at every moving thing near it.

Kuno stagered out of the zone and into the arms of a medic..

"I’m ok. Just really tierd. I’ll sit down for a while and then I’l be back in."

The medic just gave him a bottle of water and a pat on the back.

Ranma made sure that Steven was taking care of Kuno before he headed back into the battle.

As he headed back to the fight, he put one of the SCAT’s in his mouth, then he called the Neko-kun.

Steven shivered as he realized that Ranma intended to go all out on this.

Ranma loped towards the dragon in full Neko mode. He teased the dragon by leaping at it’s nose, swiping at it with his claws.

Then the dragon streatched out its neck and snapped, Ranma was in the middle of a leap. He practically jumped right into the dragons mouth.

The dragon gulped once.

Everything in the world seemed to freeze for a second as the men and women saw the unbelievable

The dragon had swallowed Ranma whole.