heretic@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (H. Torrance Griffin) \ / Ranma 1/2: X-Change Students / \ A FanFiction by H. Torrance Griffin Ranma 1/2 created by Takahashi Rumiko Generation X created by Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Chapter 1: Invitations ****** Late July: BRRRIIIIINNNGGGGGGG "'Lo." a gravely voice answered. "I take it ye've been told of the readings Charles started tracin' a few weeks back" a man with a thick Irish accent responded without preamble. "Yeah," the first man replied, "if I remember right, Charlie got a general fix on the signal an' talked some o' his contacts into investigatin'." "These bio-readings are unlike anything either of us have seen," a cultured female voice interjected, "definitely terran, but they aren't even close to anything in the database here, at Westchester, _or_ at Muir. "Th' fact that they did nae show themselves f'r more'n a nanosecond at a time did nae make it easy." said the second man, "it took us _this_ long t' track them." "There's more'n one of 'em," the first man noted, and they seem t' be concentrated 'round a local high school; that much we know." BREEP BREEP "Hold it for a moment," the woman interrupted, "someone's on the other line. It's her? Excellent, I'll connect her." CLICKT "*yawn* I just got your message," a younger, somewhat sleepy female voice said, "you said it was important." "Yes," the older woman said, "we need to determine exactly who or what we are detecting and to be honest we need both of you to help." "I'm still na' sure about this," the second man complained, "picking up children at random and takin' them halfway across the globe does na' sit well with me." "I have been in touch with our main contact in the area," the older woman countered, "and her research has narrowed the possible candidates for recruitment to little over a dozen, all of whom are at least in their mid-teens." "I agree with Irish," the gravely voiced man said, "for all we know Chuck's gear could've shorted out. Besides, we have other things to worry about." "Sorry, but I think you're wrong on this one," responded the young woman, "none of us are molecular bio-chemists,; and we have a responsibility to contact and warn these people before some madman gets their hands on them. If we are wrong, if they are simply normal kids, then they will just have a normal exchange program trip; _right_ Ms 'Head Administrator'." "Urm, correct;" the older woman responded somewhat nervously, "but that is where we need your help. Personal attention and instruction by one familiar with their language and culture is something I believe would be useful but nobody on staff is capable of providing." "So y' want me to babysit the new kids." the rough voiced man stated bluntly. "Actually I was thinking more along the lines of main instructor and administrative liaison," the older woman corrected, "and we will need a housemother/resident advisor without separate academic obligations as well." "Who, me?" the younger woman jested half-heartedly. "We've eight candidates f'r the 'exchange program'," 'Irish' stated, "an' it's t' begin in three weeks if any o' them accept the invitation." "I got business t' take care of," said the rough voice, "but I'll make it." "*sigh* I'll hop the next supply flight," the young woman promised, "_after_ I get some sleep." CLICK "Well," the remaining woman said, "all that remains to be done is to inform the children that they will have some new classmates for a few weeks." "I'm still na' sure about this idea." stated Irish. "They are eight Japanese high-school students," she countered, "what could go wrong?" "Famous last words, Frost." the rough voice observed. CLICK ****** A week later; Nerima district; Tokyo, Japan: The slender woman stood on the rooftop and briefly reveled in the night air as she balanced mere centimeters from the edge of the building. Then Yukio sighed quietly as she remembered what she had to do and cartwheeled away from death's edge toward the pile of equipment she had carried up the side of the building moments before. She whom men called 'the Wild One' glanced at the scanner she received from the Westchester and absently recalled how hard it had been to keep tabs on her target. It had been sheer luck that allowed her to get close enough to plant the tracking device on his pack that morning, and during the next six hours he had convinced her that he was better at eluding trackers than anyone she had even known (_including_ Logan-chan). Over the next three days she came to realize that he simply had nothing resembling a sense of direction. #Almost here,# the ronin thought as she put the scanner down, #only way to avoid this building is if he turned around... not that I'd put it past him.# She used her penlight to examine two objects as she reached for the binoculars; one was an old school ID of one Hibiki Ryoga, the other a computer aged image based on the twelve year old boy pictured on it. Then Yukio stepped to the edge of the building, peered down the darkened street, and nodded. ****** The young man, the boy really, wandered aimlessly through the streets clad in an old fashioned yellow shirt, dark brown trousers, and a yellow an black bandanna. The evening was quiet (for a change) and nobody was on the street to note the youth bent more under the weights on his mind than the mass of the large backpack surmounted by a bamboo umbrella. A smile curled his lips and his eyes sparkled as he thought of the mortal incarnation of kindness and beauty that was the only joy in the ruin that was his life, then his face darkened as the one person responsible for the current state of affairs in his existence came to mind. Son of a thief, coward, stealer of bread, three-timing bigamist, accursed magnet of misfortune, destroyer of lives, abuser of piglets; the crimes of this man could scarcely be counted for their number and variety; and to add injury to insult this person was a continual thorn in the side of the woman he adores above all else! Tears glimmered on his cheeks as he bared his large, near fanglike canine teeth and howled to the passionless stars: "*" (* <> = translated from the Japanese) ****** As Yukio saw the youth's actions in minute detail (due to the light-amplification systems in her binoculars), she could not help but hear his words and wonder to what extent this plan was thought out. She hesitated for a moment as she lowered the eyepiece, recalling the rumors of unusual occurrences in this area of the metropolis; then shrugged off her doubts (this could not be any worse than what the gaijin who asked this favor of her deal with on a regular basis), picked up the bow and one of the adamantium tipped arrows at her feet, nocked them, drew the string to her cheek, and released. ****** THUNK The musings of the yellow clad youth were rudely interrupted by the sight of an arrow embedding itself in the brick wall at his side mere centimeters from his face. Cursing himself for his inattention, he drew, opened, and crouched behind his umbrella in a single swift movement as he pivoted towards the source of the apparent attack, apparently expecting the parasol to shield him from whatever additional projectiles were aimed at him. There he waited in vain for any sign that would reveal his assailant's location for several moments, only to rise, bump his head against the arrow, notice the note impaled on same which read '', and remove the thick envelope attached to the arrowhead by a cord for closer examination. Within said envelope the wanderer found, among other things, several forms requesting general personal information and a letter written in neat kanji on fine stationary with a western letterhead. Stepping into the glow of a streetlight, the boy curiously opened the letter and began to read: Dear student: You have been invited to attend a special summer exchange program at the C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Here at the new Snow Valley campus in Massachusetts, U.S.A., you will receive high school credit in Social Studies and English while learning first hand about life in this nation among an elite student body from both the United States and other nations around the world.... Ryoga carefully read the glowing description of the American school and the special academic/exchange program that it had offered, taking careful note of the apparent signatories of this unsolicited invitation: Charles Francis Xavier: President & Founder, Xavier Institute of Higher Learning Sean Cassidy: Headmaster, C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters Emma Frost: Head Administrator, C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters N. A. Logan: Chairman, Department of Japanese Studies, Xavier Institute of Higher Learning "" Ryoga muttered to himself, "" ****** Late the next morning; Kuno Manor; Nerima district: "" the diminutive black-clad ninja informed the handsome young man as the latter finished a lavish breakfast (fortunately not prepared by his sister), "" "" the youth commanded as he absentmindedly opened the thick envelope. "" he began, rapidly becoming more animated, " "" Tatewaki continued after a moment's reflection, "" "SASUKE!!!" barked Kuno, "" "" the ninja responded as he dropped the stack of fine china and leapt to obey. ****** Evening that day; C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters; Snow Valley, MA U.S.A. "Why here Mr. Cassidy?" enquired the bespectacled young blonde, "Why not the mansion at Westchester?" "Fer their safety Paige," answered a fortyish red-haired man with a familiar Irish brogue, "these children may na' have _any_ powers at all. If the mansion is attacked they could be hurt, 'r even killed." "'Sides Hayseed," added the young Chinese girl with short, tousled hair and a pair of large mirror-shades pushed up on her forehead, "we're tryin' to be halfway subtle about this; like, as in not screamin' 'PROFESSOR X WANTS _YOU_' the second they hop off the plane. Even if none of them tries to get into the basement, havin' the Hand or a few Sentinels drop in for coffee an' property damage or the entire staff disappearing in a private spyplane might strike then as a wee bit suspicious, don'cha think?" "Point taken Jubilation," noted a very attractive brown skinned North African teen, "but the question of living arrangements has yet to be addressed Mr. Cassidy." "There are no other dorms available Monet," observed the young shaven-headed black man, "so they will probably be staying with us, right?" "*sigh* That was what I was going t' discuss with ye' next Everett," conceded Cassidy, "there will be eight students at th' most, an' with Kitty arriving at th' end o' th' week we will need room f'r four boys and five girls. I know 'tis an imposition, but how may o' ye' is willing t' have a roommate or two f'r a couple o' weeks?" With surprisingly little reluctance for the most part, all save three of the assembled students gave their assent, and soon all eyes were on were on Monet St.Croix, Angelo Espinosa, and Jonothon Edward Strasmore. "*sigh* Very well, I can make room for one more I suppose." Monet finally said with an air of surrender. Jonothon simply glared at the rest of the rooms inhabitants from beneath his mop of curly brown hair for a few moments. He said nothing due primarily to the gaping hole filled with crackling psionic energy that extended from his diaphragm to his hard palate. #I value... my privacy.# said a voice with a distinct cockney accent in the back of the minds of all present. Angelo did not speak either at first, instead grimly watching the loose grey skin and flesh on his arms ripple and flow at his will. "I thought you was plannin' to be subtle about the mutant bit," he finally said coldly, "why would you wan' to stick 'em with me" "Well mainly because of your infinitely charming personality Angelo," Paige responded with a touch of sarcasm, "but the prospect of fitting five people into Everett's room didn't hurt. "Besides," added Everett, "this may not be a training camp for mutants, but that doesn't mean that they are, how would Ms. Frost put it, 'persona non grata'." "Fine," Angelo finally said sharply, "just don't expect me to play 'big brother' or 'pet mutant' for 'em, got it?" ****** Fifteen minutes later; Headmasters office; X.S.G.Y. "Well _tha'_ was relatively painless," Sean Cassidy said to himself, "things'll be a touch crowded, but at least we won't have t' put people in the halls. I'll have t' remember t' contact Yukio t'night and make certain of some o' these names, I'd rather not be callin' these children bathroom products if it c'n be helped. *sigh* Sean, what were ye' _thinking_ when ye let Charles an' Emma talk ye' into this madness." He methodically lit his pipe, and began to look over the preliminary notes he made on probable room assignments: Angelo Espinosa Mousse* (17) Kuno Tatewaki (18) Paige Guthrie Kuonji Ukyo (17) Tendo Akane (17) Jubilation Lee Katherine Pryde (R.A.) (18) Tendo Nabiki (18) (Why did _I_ get stuck with all the old people!!!) Monet St.Croix Shampoo* (17) Everett Thomas Hibiki Ryoga (17) Saotome Ranma (17) * = Double-check name! Assuming all 9 students attend. Subject to change upon request (within reason). #I suppose I could count me'self lucky,# Cassidy thought, #at least I know the man I'll be roomin' with (why Emma has a room t'erself I do na' know)# ****** Early afternoon, Tendo Dojo, Nerima district: "Ranma," the young woman with apron and a long ponytail over one shoulder called as she entered the courtyard, "" She did not notice the fairly handsome young man in a tank top and shorts and sporting a very distinctive braid at the base of his skull lower himself by his legs from the tree next to her. "" he blurted when his head was directly behind hers. "" Kasumi said cheerfully as she turned around and handed him the thick envelope, profoundly unmindful of the boy's sudden appearance and bat imitation, "" As he opened the package and read the introductory letter (never bothering to shift position), Ranma scowled at the thought of spending any more time on academic pursuits than he did already (what use was this knowledge to a martial artist anyway?). After the initial annoyance however, he began to contemplate the relative boredom that had accompanied his vacation (it had been some time since he had gone on a training trip, apparently his father/sparring partner had grown fond of air conditioning). Then his thoughts turned to the numerous poisonings, assaults, beatings, attempts at mind control, and (usually unsuccessful) outright abductions which his suitors and fiancees subjected him to on a regular basis (not to mention what he had to deal with from his rivals for same), and that made up his mind. Presently, he flipped to the ground and walked into the main house where a long-haired older man in a brown gi was playing shogi (a chess-like game) with a large panda. "" Ranma announced, "" "" read the wooden sign the panda held up in one paw as it concentrated on the board. "" said the young woman with short brown hair, an identical envelope in her hand, and a bemused smirk on her face, "" "" the older man enquired as he turned towards her (giving the panda an opportunity to creatively rearrange a few pieces on the board). "" said a teenage girl with short blue-black hair as she absentmindedly dusted powdered cinderblock from her off-white gi with her free hand, "" "" pronounced Tendo Soun, "" "" read the now attentive panda's sign before he turned it around. "<... than your fiancee.>" Akane's face began to redden as she drew breath to protest mention of her not-so voluntary engagement, but before she could speak Ranma jumped to her defense. "" Ranma began, "" Akane began to smile. "" THWACK SPLASH "" Akane muttered as she dropped the table with which she swatted Ranma out the way he came in and stormed upstairs. "*sputter* KAWAIIKUNEE!!!" shouted a distinctly female and profoundly miffed voice from the carp pond in the courtyard. ****** The shriveled form which hid itself in the rafters quietly listened to the exchanges in the house below and began to drool at the thought of the scores of statuesque, large-breasted western women that would no doubt be within reach of any who went on the journey mentioned. ****** A pale lavender cat with purple ears and paws listened to the conversations within the house with an oddly human degree of interest from it's perch atop the stone wall surrounding the dojo. When the exchanges ended with the impact of heavy wood (table) on flesh (Ranma), the cat resisted the impulse to hurry to the point of impact and scampered away with a purposeful air. ****** Simultaneously; Athletic field, Furinkan High School: #This news is of considerable importance,# thought the black clad figure as he sprinted across the grassy field, #Master Kuno will be pleased to gain knowledge of Saotome's plans, unfortunately the Mistress may also wish to be informed of this...# The fly ball from the nearby little league game abruptly beaned Sasuke on the head and drove him to the earth in mid-stride. #... later.# he concluded as he lost consciousness. ****** Mid-Afternoon; Nekohanten (a small chinese restaurant); Nerima district: "[So where have _you_ been?]*" enquired the diminutive crone counting the earnings of the noon rush from her perch atop a gnarled wooden cane. (* [] = translated from an obscure Chinese variant) "[Just out for a walk Great-Grandmother,]" answered the beautiful teenage girl in classical chinese garb walking out of the kitchen, "[the lunch rush was over and Mousse was here to clean up, so I just went out to get some fresh air.]" "[I see.]" commented the crone in a tone that turned the response into 'yeah, right'. "[Anyway Shampoo,]" continued the old woman, hopping to the floor and towards the girl with a thick envelope in hand, "[a letter from some American school arrived for you today.]" Shampoo sat down and started to dry her luxurious purple hair as she opened the envelope with her free hand, only to drop the towel as she read the letter within. "" Shampoo exclaimed, lapsing into broken Japanese. "" the old woman asked flawlessly. "" Shampoo explained, "" "" the crone stated, handing Shampoo an arrow borne message with the arrow still attached. "[Cologne, is Shampoo going somewhere?]" a long-haired youth wearing ornate robes asked a potted plant as he scrubbed the floor. "" barked Cologne, "" Meanwhile, Shampoo closely read the brief not she was given: Just so you would know, I heard rumors that you guys might be illegal immigrants, so I did some checking and found out that none of you have ever applied for a passport and Immigration's been after you for months. I talked an associate of mine into hacking into their computer system to throw them off the scent; she did one better and processed applications for Japanese passports in your names. All you need to do is drop off some usable photos at the drop box on the back of this note and you will get the passports in a couple of days. Good luck. A Friend. "[An interesting combination of truth and falsehood, I must admit. I assure you child, I would have known if those bureaucrats tried to act against us and dealt with the problem long before any would-be benefactors learned anything.]" Cologne stated, noting the doubt in her descendant's eyes as she comprehended the note, "[I have already been in touch with my own... contacts at Immigration, this is no trap, someone has actually broken into the computer system from outside with the express purpose of solidifying our legal status in this country.]" "" Shampoo pronounced, "" "" concluded Cologne, "" "" howled Mousse as he miraculously located Shampoo and clung to her with all his might, "" "" Shampoo asked after silencing Mousse with a quick elbow to the head. Cologne hurled Mousse's limp form into the street, leapt onto the table, drew herself to her full height, and looked the seated Shampoo directly in the eye before she spoke again. "" she said, "" "" "" groaned Mousse as he dragged himself through the front door, "" "*sigh* [It would be more trouble than it is worth to keep him here.]" Cologne muttered to herself as she pulled a second envelope from her tunic and tossed it onto Mousse's semiconscious form over Shampoo's vocal objections. ****** Mid-afternoon; Tendo dojo He had been prowling the upper level of the Tendo home ever since he found his way out the bathroom late that morning , fearing to ascend or descend lest he never find his way back here, the area he felt certain his destination was located. As he searched for the chamber he desired, a shadow fell over him and he wheeled about to face a familiar figure towering over him, staring off into space with an annoyed scowl. "bwee?" The titaness turned her gaze downward at the utterance, and a broad smile spread across her face. "P-chan!" Akane half shouted as she picked up and hugged the tiny black piglet with the yellow and black bandanna around his neck, "" P-chan visibly shuddered at the memory of his time spent in the hands of the uber-kawaii half of the Golden Pair as Akane turned around and walked back into her room (they were directly in front of it) Akane walked back to her desk, set P-chan onto same, and began to re-read the invitation to Xavier's and the enclosed confirmation forms. "" Akane mused half to herself, "" "Bwee?" the pig responded, slightly confused. "" Akane answered, "" "Bwee!" "" P-chan listened to the recitation of the contents of the letter with an oddly human intensity, and my the time Akane read off the signatures at the bottom he was crying tears of joy. ****** Simultaneously; Ucchan's (a small restaurant); Nerima district: "" the young woman with a large bow on her head asked Ranma with a slightly worried look on her face.>" "" Ranma replied between bites of okonomiyaki (think cross between omelette and pancake), "" "" 'Ucchan' said softly as she idly fingered the bandolier of small spatulas she wore across her traditional chef's attire, "" "" Ranma explained to his childhood friend, "" KRAKOOM "SA-O-TO-ME!!!" a familiar voice bellowed from outside the doorway, "" "*sigh* " Ranma groaned. "" his companion commanded as she unslung the gigantic solid steel spatula from her back, "" "" "" "" Ranma said as he ducked around the chef and leapt out the door... into the sudden thunderstorm. The proprietor of Ucchan's sighed and placed a filled teapot on a convenient spot on the griddle as she noted the daily stack of mail she was busy reading when Ranma showed up. "" shouted Kuno from outside, "" POW "" Kuonji Ukyo ignored the commotion outside and reopened the thick envelope addressed to her from the C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. #You're not losing me that easily Ranchan.# she thought. ****** Evening; A street corner; Nerima district A shadowy figure carefully established the overseas phone connection at the public telephone and awaited the voice he expected with equal parts dread and apprehension. "Yes?" answered the coldly inhuman voice on the other end of the line. "W-well sir," the shadowy form stammered nervously, "the readings were accurate, the source of psionic power you have been tracking _is_ in this area of Tokyo." "I could have learned that much from here, what else." "Th-the bio-readings are more dispersed than w-we believed, sir. I-it is unlikely that there is any single source." "So instead of one with great power, there are many of lesser power here. These readings are new to me, completely unlike any mutant bio-signature I've had the pleasure of seeing; I intend to examine the sources of this power personally at close range before other 'concerned parties' become aware of them. Go and positively identify a few of the _multiple_ sources, then report back to me; do we understand each other?" "B-b-b-but sir," the figure in the booth said, fearful of the consequence of failure no matter what the cause, "that could take weeks; and the longer I'm here, the greater the chances of-" "Don't worry my good man," the inhuman voice on the other end interrupted, "just so long as they are not aware of the _sinister_ nature of your mission, _they_ will be no danger to you." "Y-yes s-sir." the figure said, extremely aware of the emphasis on the reference to those he was seeking as opposed to that which he obeyed. ****** Two weeks later; Logan International Airport; Boston, Mass., USA: "Ah guess mah timin' could've been better Paige" said the tall, slightly homely young man, "but things've been a bit quiet and Ah figured on dropping in on mah baby sister. 'Sides, Ah'm a little curious about these _ex_-change students Professor Xavier talked y'all inta takin' in." "Apology accepted Sam-oneechan," Paige Guthrie replied as she looked at her older brother from behind the thick Japanese textbook she insisted on bringing from the school, "no need for the bad puns." "'Kay, so where's the plane already?" Jubilation Lee grumbled impatiently, "I manage to talk the bookworm an' 'Her Royal Perfection' into tagging along and they're nearly an hour late!" "Relax Jubilee," Everett Thomas chuckled, "are you that eager to check out the imported beefcake?" "Yeah right." "Take it easy people," said the slightly plain young woman with curly brown hair as she walked towards them, "the plane's been delayed due to 'unexpected turbulence', it'll be on the ground in a few minutes." "By the way, 'Cat, where'd the other old people disappear to?" asked Jubilee. "Jubilation has a point Katherine," Monet St. Croix added while gazing though the large window she was leaning by, "one would think that the instructors who agreed to summon these children would be courteous enough to meet them personally." "If you must know _Mademoiselle_ St. Croix," Katherine replied, more than slightly annoyed at Monet's arrogant tone, "Frost is waiting downstairs, Sean is having lunch with his daughter, and Logan has been held up and will meet is at the school. And who are you calling old Jubilee?" "Don't take it personally Kitty," Sam said as he approached, "accordin' to Paige's E-Mail (yes, Ah finally got that thing t' work) Mony treats _everyone_ like-" "In any case," Monet interrupted, "our guests' flight is making it's final approach, you may want to prepare to greet them." ****** Something was wrong. After a long and fairly crowded cross-continental flight one would expect a degree of fatigue and/or eagerness on the part of the passengers as they deplane and pass through customs, but the hurried pace of the people leaving customs to meet their relatives or go about their business was bordering of the unnerving; and if one managed to make eye contact with one of them, one would look into the eyes of a person that has spent long periods in intimate company with utter terror. The contingent from Xavier's (with the exception of Monet, who was still staring out the window) looked around them as the passengers hurried around them without a second look. As they searched the crowd for someone who looked like a lost exchange student; Kitty noted the fortyish, strongly built, stone-faced Japanese man with a white handkerchief on his bald head, a small phrasebook in his hand, wire rimmed glasses on his face, and wearing a well-worn gi. "Excuse please," the man said haltingly, "you are from Xavier school, yes?" "" Kitty said in polite (and flawless) Japanese, "" "" responded the stranger in his native tongue, "" #And help myself to some fine western cuisine.# he declined to add. #Fiancee?# Kitty thought as she checked the list of incoming students, #probably an arranged thing, shouldn't complicate things _too_ much, I hope.# "" she said after finding the needed name, "" "RANMA NO BAKAAA!!!!!!" a female voice howled from the other side of customs, immediately followed by a hurtling podium headed straight for Kitty and Genma. Genma reflexively hurled himself aside as he unsuccessfully grabbed at the girl's arm. Unfortunately Monet was directly behind them. As Genma drew breath to warn the dark skinned girl of the apparent danger, said girl casually swatted the hurtling mass of plywood and plastic without even looking... and smashed it to splinters. "" Genma articulate eloquently as he picked himself off the ground. Kitty made a show of standing up and turned towards customs just in time to see a Japanese teenager in chinese style red satin shirt and black pants matching the podium's trajectory and closing in fast on her head. Instinctively she rendered herself intangible with a thought an instant before she would have been bowled over. Monet apparently remained profoundly disinterested in the proceedings (unlike Everett, Paige, Jubilee, and Sam); she just casually caught the boy with one arm and cradled his wheezing form like a baby. "" she enquired in slightly accented Japanese as she turned to face him. ****** A faint blue corona flared high around Akane as she charged through customs in pursuit of her betrothed with a cry of wordless rage. #I tried to be calm,# she thought as her fellow passengers scattered before her, #I hadn't said a word when that bimbo started pawing on him, I didn't do a thing when he started that stupid fight with Ryoga-kun on the plane, but to even _imply_ that he had P-Chan for _DINNER_....# Suddenly she burst into the terminal and found herself before a large sign reading 'Xavier's exchange program' in English and Japanese and several young westerners staring at her with undisguised surprise and curiosity from behind same. She stared back at them, then stared at the large wooden mallet in her hands, and finally blushed crimson as she tried to hide the latter behind her back. "Urr... um... h-hello." she stammered in her best English and bowed as Ukyo skid to a stop beside her. "RANMA!" Genma yelled as he punched his son in the head, "" "*wheeze*" protested Ranma, still sucking wind from his stomach-first encounter with Monet's arm. #Did he just say....# Paige thought as she hurriedly thumbed through the glossary in her textbook. "" she asked as she cautiously walked up to Akane, "" "Hai." said Akane and the ponytailed, androgynous youth in a boy's school uniform simultaneously as they glared at each other. "It is a long story." Nabiki told Paige as she walked up and noted her confusion while the Akane and Ukyo began a heated argument to fast for the gaijin to keep up. Monet calmly watched Paige and the brown haired youth edge away from the eminent brawl with Ranma still cradled in one arm and trying to catch enough breath to speak, honestly fasinated by what was before her. Suddenly, something exploded through the wall beside her. She dropped Ranma and spun only to be abruptly slammed in the gut with enough force to double her over, then sent sailing across the terminal by a blow to the face. As she slumped dazed against the wall below the sizable dent resulting from her impact, she saw an attractive purple-haired girl her age in a short tunic and chinese style trousers pick Ranma up in a near bone crushing embrace, bonbori (maces with large round heads) still in each hand. "" Shampoo murmured lovingly. "*aack* " Ranma responded. "Ai... ren?" Jubilee muttered, wracking her brain for the Chinese she picked up from listening to her late parents when she was supposed to be asleep, "geez louise, _sugar-muffin_?!?" "" Shampoo barked angrily as she wheeled towards Monet, "" Before she lost consciousness, Monet was treated to the sight of her assailant being jumped by two of the remaining students. ****** After the appropriate first-aid checks, prying apart of combatants, and hurried introductions; Kitty, Sam, Everett, and Jubilee finally organized things sufficiently for a head count to be performed. "OK, Kuonji Ukyo, *sigh* Saotome Genma, Saotome Ranma, Shampoo, Tendo Akane, and Tendo Nabiki are all accounted for." Kitty mused to herself, "Let's see, Kuno Tatewaki insisted on making his own flight arrangements, but he swore that he would be at this airport an hour ago. I'd better have him paged." "Ib is dobful de airbort 'as de rundrays incorberaded indo de sbeaker sysdem, Kaderine." Monet observed around the bloodied handkerchief she still held to her nose. "His plane's still on the runway?" Everett asked. Monet put away the handkerchief and gingerly fingered her slightly swollen nose before explaining; "I noticed a private jet aircraft with the Kuno family crest on the tarmac shortly before these students disembarked I believe it is still waiting for us." "Could you go out there and get him Monet?" Kitty asked, noticing the looks of annoyance on Ranma's and Akane's faces, "We should be at the baggage claim by the time you get back." "Very well." the Moor replied as she levitated towards Shampoo. "[We will have ample opportunity to _discuss_ proper forms of greetings,]" she calmly told Shampoo in mandarin as she looked down at her with the coldest of stares before flying off, "[later.]" #Note to self: talk to Sean and Frost about room assignments, FAST.# Kitty thought before addressing the new students, "" "" Shampoo interrupted. "" "" the warrior elaborated, smacking one of her maces into her empty palm. "" Ukyo explained, "" "I... see" Kitty said hesitantly, beginning to miss the normalcy of her encounters with the Technet, "" "" Ranma stated as he staggered to his feet. "" Akane corrected after glaring at Ranma briefly. "" Kitty asked, knowing that did not really want to hear the answer. "" Ranma corrected, "" "Lost... on a commercial airplane." Kitty muttered in disbelief before pitching her voice to carry, "" ****** Kuno Tatewaki was not in a good mood. Clad in his habitual samurai garb and with his bokken in his belt, he paced the tarmac beside his family's private Lear jet impatiently, ranting loudly all the while. "<... treatment such as this is an outrage and an insult to the noble house of Kuno, nay to all of Nihon! How _dare_ these heathen peasants allow such a delay in providing us with the escort deserved by those of our noble lineage. Their impudence approaches that of Saotome!>" "" noted an attractive adolescent girl with a long ponytail sitting atop the plane's wing, "" "" The woman sighed and tuned him out, she knew that it would take some time for their hosts to locate them if they remained out here, and she did not feel like dealing with whatever security the airport would send after them for blocking the runway (she'd take them apart with ease, but to be less than presentable for her beloved Ranma-sama....). As she rose to her feet and turned to seek out their hosts, she found herself face to face with a beautiful brown-skinned young woman. "I am Monet St. Croix," the woman said, "and I shall assume that you are not Kuno Tatewaki." "You are correct," she answered in excellent English with a disturbing glint in her eye, "I was born Kuno Kodachi, men call me... _Kurobara_." "" Monet noted mildly, "" "" Kodachi replied after a momentary pause of surprise at Monet's command of Japanese (coupled with the fact that she had not set foot on the wing during the entire conversation). "" Monet said, caught totally off guard for the second time in less than 20 minutes. "" Kodachi interrupted as she handed the mutant a fairly thick manila folder, "" Monet casually took the folder marked '' and began to glance over the enclosed records. #Course of Study: Botany/Biochemistry... Extracurricular Activities: Martial Gymnastics team captain (regional champions until last year, most opposition never made it to the match, lost to somebody from Furinkan oh my...)... Voted most likely to graduate at the top of her class Or Else... Teacher Comments: 'Kuno Kodachi has a talent for unorthodox, but effective, problem solving techniques.'....# "" Monet paused as her inhumanly keen senses alerted her to a profound change in the world around her. Her brilliant mind swiftly identified the disturbance and she turned to face it's cause as Kodachi gazed openmouthed in disbelief. Kuno Tatewaki had shut up. Completely. In mid run-on-sentence. Without any violence done to his person. The young man simply stood on the tarmac staring wide-eyed at Monet as she rotated away from the plane to look down upon him. "" Kuno Tatewaki proclaimed as he dropped to one knee before Monet before she drew breath to introduce herself, " "" Kuno cried out abruptly as he leapt upwards to embrace the young mutant tightly, "" After a moment of total underwhelment, Monet casually pried Kuno's arms from her body and dropped him to the runway. "*ahem* " Monet requested with a cold formality as she continued to hover overhead, "" "" "" replied a weak voice from under a two meter high pile of suitcases and trunks. "" Monet alighted beside the now shifting heap, lifted it above her head with one hand, and helped the black-clad ninja to his feet with the other. "" she advised the Kuno siblings, "" "" Tatewaki began to protest. "" interrupted Monet with as much congeniality as she could fake, "" After virtually (literally in the case of the males) tossing the trio into the cart who's driver she bribed, Monet turned to the piles of luggage and grimly calculated the percentage of her weekly personal spending budget that would be eaten up by the payoffs needed to convince the baggage handlers to mix it in with the JAL flight's cargo. ****** As Kitty Pryde carefully crept unnoticed around the baggage handlers beneath the plane, she recalled the last time she had snuck into a JAL airliner and tried to decide whether she was more nervous then or now. Offering a silent prayer for her sanity, she slipped her molecules between those of the airplane's hull and air-walked to the passenger compartment. What the young mutant saw in that cabin sent her into several seconds of stunned, disbelieving silence. All that she saw was the aftermath of a brawl that would have sent her mentor running for the hills. The walls, floor, and ceiling were peppered with throwing knives, sword marks, spatulas, scorched areas (presumably from energy blasts of some sort), and large dents of various (chair, mallet, mace, fist, foot, humanoid, etc.) shapes. Of the seats themselves few were untouched; some were deeply slashed or cut in two, others were noticeably charred, others merely broken from powerful blows, and not a few torn from the floor outright and hurled across the plane. How this craft even remained airborne and intact, Kitty could not comprehend. Kitty saw nobody in the section of the cabin she surfaced in, but she remained intangible and began to walk while searching for _any_ sign of movement or attack. Soon, the slight rattle of a flimsy door being held shut by a trembling hand gained her attention and, guessing the source of the disturbance, she turned toward the lavatory on the other side of the cabin. "Are you OK in there?" Kitty asked the occupant in her most un-threatening voice. The door opened just far enough for her to glimpse an asian woman's pale face and the tray she had appropriated as a weapon. "" stammered the stewardess in a small voice. "" Kitty reassured her, "" The stewardess slammed the door with a not-so-dignified squeak as Kitty was interrupted by a frustrated cry and the sound of a lavatory door being knocked off it's hinges. Kitty thought about coaxing her out for a moment, but decided to investigate the noise that came from first class and fetch the last of the junior demolition crew. As she picked her way through the wreckage that was once business class, she saw what looked for all the world like high magnification telescope lenses attached to wire eyeglass frames. "Kasumi?" an oddly accented voice asked her as she picked up the solar cutting torches, "" Kitty spun around only to see a long-haired chinese boy with a large lump on his head clad in ornate floor length white robes squinting at her. #That's probably Mousse.# mused Kitty, #Ow, he must be in worse shape then they thought if his sight is affected that....# The mutant glanced once at the spectacles in her hand, then at the apparently half-blind boy before her, and abruptly placed the former on the latter's face before he had a chance to protest. "" Mousse said after blinking a few times and getting a good look at the curly haired westerner before him, "" "Katherine Pryde," Kitty told him, "" "Excuse me," asked Ryoga in noticeably accented English, "can you show me the exit? I am, how do you say, little lost." "*sigh*" Kitty observed as she took both boys' hands, "" ****** Emma Frost had a headache. She had decided to wait (actually Katherine and Sean came to the decision and she found herself outvoted) in the baggage claim for while the Japanese students were greeted by people 'closer to their own age.' Then the fear came. Waves of emotion just this side of panic connected to the flight and associated relief concerning their survival surged from the departing passengers with such intensity that she could do little but clamp her psi-shields so tightly she could not even keep tabs on her students, let alone discern the cause of the travelers' distress. Needless to say, it also induced a serious migraine. #As much as I hate to admit it,# Emma thought glumly, #there are actually times when I _almost_ envy the headblind.# Effectively crippled by those around her, she sullenly observed the luggage coming in from the international flight for any luggage that could be identified as belonging to the incoming students. She had already noticed the chest labeled 'medicinal herbs by customs, the sturdy little delivery bicycle, the yatai with the neatly stenciled sign reading 'you break this, I break you' carefully taped to the side, and the backpack bearing the 'HEAVY' sticker when the fear around her redoubled in intensity and slammed into her mental defenses with sufficient force to send her staggering. The telepath reenforced her protections as she attempted to glean an image of the source of panic from the thoughts that managed to seep through them only to find... a knot of teenagers? As the ambient level of emotion (as well as the number of people) in the baggage claim dropped off, Emma unshielded her mind and sent her psychic probes toward the still unseen youths, sighing with relief at the presence of nothing save comparatively coherent and calm surface thoughts and pre-vocalizations. #Ah can't _believe_ those guys ate so much!# #Believe it, I'm surprised at their restraint and manners.# #She's just mad because she can't cook# #Lord, don't let them start again.# #I don't know, Akane probably _did_ knock him into her, but if this entire exchange program is legitimate I'll eat everything Akane cooks for my darling for a month.# #Let's see; latest exchange rates, English IOUs, extra film....# #If _any_ these kids're normal, Ah'll go home and start work back at th' coal mine.# #I hope P-chan's all right, haven't seen him all week.# #Were gonna be _banned_ from this airport at this rate....# #All this, _and_ Kuno's gonna be here; *sigh* look on the bright side Saotome, least it ain't raining.# #Raining?# Emma noted curiously, #I wonder what significance water has for this boy.# Unfortunately(?) before the telepath could probe for more information on that last thought, things started getting... hectic. "SAOTOME!!" #Not _again_!# #Oboy.# Ranma abruptly backflipped into the baggage claim as a few wildly thrown bandannas sliced apart several suitcases and several throwing knives embedded themselves in the far wall. When he reached the apogee of his 20 foot long bound, the weighted end of a chain wrapped itself around his ankles and jerked him to a stop. As Ranma slammed into the ground Ryoga leapt toward him with his fist drawn back to slam into his rival's head. A second before impact, Ranma abruptly jerked himself into a headstand and allowed the concrete floor to break Ryoga's impact; as the second martial artist got to his feet, the other end of the chain (or more precisely the white robed youth holding it) slammed into his back and sent them both tumbling to the now visibly damaged floor. By the time they disentangled themselves and got to their feet, Ranma had already freed himself from the slack chain and taken a combat stance as their companions charged in to either get a better view, pound one or more of the combatants, or prevent further property damage. Suddenly the sound of a woman clearing her throat pierced the minds of all present, whereupon everybody spun towards the perceived source of the interruption, and froze. It was an attractive ash blond western woman of about thirty or so that stood before them; clad in a vest, choker, bustier, skintight pants, and thigh-length boots, all composed of pristine white leather. Understandably, the young exchange students stared at her for a few seconds: the boys with various combinations of shock, embarrassment, and desire; the girls with surprise, contempt, and envy; as their hosts simply rolled their eyes. #Perhaps the riding crop is a _bit_ to much....# Emma thought as she absently tapped her thigh with said accessory. Emma chuckled to herself as she noticed the anger in the one of the young women as the latter slowly turned towards the boy beside her. She was, however, a little surprised by both the blue corona of unfocused psionic energy which accompanied said emotion and her rather sudden and extreme expression of same. "" Akane screamed at her fiancee as she grabbed him by his ponytail and slammed him into a convenient wall. As the Japanese girl swung a huge wooden mallet nobody noticed her bring in the room above her head, Emma brought her telepathic power to bear in order to prevent further depredation of the XIHL legal settlement fund. While her mind was focused on this task, however, she failed to notice the pattern of thought that was coming to full awareness within the recently arrived luggage. Suddenly, the telepath staggered back as a shadowy form burst forth from an explosion of women's undergarments and slammed into her chest. "What th- !?!?!" Paige exclaimed as she froze in mid-stride. "Happosai." Akane snarled as she turned to eye the scene warily. Emma quickly regained her balance and gazed down upon the thing that had struck her, finding a wizened two foot tall man nestled upon her chest, blissfully dreaming thoughts that nearly made _her_ blush. Needless to say, Ms. Frost was not overly amused. "LET - GO - OF - ME - YOU - REPULSIVE - LITTLE - _TOAD_!!!!!" Emma quietly hinted, punctuating each syllable with increasingly powerful telepathic assaults. Surprisingly, Happosai complied with this request, falling to the floor dazed from the onslaught. "" Happosai murmured, then his eyes opened wide as he noted the small crowd nearby. "<_More_ pretty ladies!>" he cried as he leaped toward the nearest object fitting that description (Akane) and was promptly sent hurtling across the room by mallet express. Undaunted, the old master rebounded off a few walls and landed on Jubilee's chest. She held her tongue (for a change) and multi-colored globs of energy formed around the young mutant's hands as she prepared to dissuade the pervert's attentions. Happosai felt around for all of two seconds and then hopped off with a disinterested shrug. "No good, must ripen." he casually told Jubilee before looking for more inviting targets. A slightly charred Happosai rebounded off the ceiling and wall before homing in on Kitty's backside. "Sam, on my mark, NOW!" Kitty said just as the pervert rocketed through her. Sam nodded understanding as he surrounded his fist with a glowing field of bio-kinetic energy and intercepted Happosai with it, slamming the old man headfirst into the ground. "*groan*" Happosai declared eloquently before passing out. "I assume I missed something diverting?" Monet casually asked as she rode onto the baggage carousel ahead of an inordinately large amount of expensive matched luggage. "_Who_ or _what_ in the world was THAT?" enquired a thoroughly shocked Paige. "Perversion and lust." said Frost in a disgusted tone. "Happosai." Ranma commented glumly, "He... um... teacher of my father and Tendo Soun. He have great strength, great... knowing, great... urr... um... what Frost say?" "" Kitty commented, "" "So where's this Kuno dude Monet?" Jubilee asked as Genma crawled out from hiding. "eh? oh. Tatewaki should be arriving right about-" said the oddly distracted young mutant. "" a familiar figure cried out from the side entrance, "" "... now." Monet concluded, exasperated. "MONET! AKANE!" Kuno bellowed as he ran towards the two, " "" he heartily declared as he firmly embraced both objects of his affection, "" "Ah _don't_ b'leive Ah'm seein' this." Paige muttered, forgetting to mind her accent for the moment. #And it's three for three,# Nabiki contemplated amusedly, #I thought it was a good idea to stock up on film before leaving, the return for that investment could prove considerable.# #I must admit though,# she mentally added as she thought about the deep brown eyes she saw gazing from the window while still on the plane, #I can't really blame him.# Monet's usually serene face began to twitch noticeably as she waged a fierce war against her impulse to remove this would-be samurai's spine with her bare hand or do some other violence to his person; Akane, on the other hand, did not even put up a token resistance. ***** #Ye just _had_ t' let her talk ye into havin' lunch wi' her didn't ye Sean Cassidy.# the Irishman silently berated himself as he forced himself to remain earthbound in his rush for the international terminal, #Th' plane was delayed, she was here t' pick up Sam, so ye simply could na' have sat in the baggage claim an' waited f'r the children t' arrive....# "Sorry about keepin' ye Da'," said the young woman running along side him as she hurdled a suitcase, "but I saw how much ye were embarrassed sittin' 'round Frost, and ye did say th' plane was runnin' late yeself." "Tis alright Teresa," Sean sighed as the two of them turned into the entrance of the JAL baggage claim, "I jus' hope Emma did na' scandalize the poor children too...." Sean Cassidy fell silent as he absorbed the extent of the damage before him; feeling nothing but shocked disbelief even as the young asian man with a fresh footprint in his face landed at his feet, murmured something in Japanese, and passed out. He walked numbly into the room, staring at the cracked concrete floor, the japanese girl looking around with an unsettling look in her eyes, the knives embedded in the walls, the short-haired woman slipping a small object from the charred clothing of an unconscious dwarf and placing it carefully in her purse, the bisected suitcases, the boy in the red shirt hiding behind the luggage carousel, and so forth. "What... happened?" he asked softly, more of himself than of anybody within the devastated room. "We didn't do a thing Cassidy," Jubilee babbled, "it was the new kids goin' at each oth-" "RANMA-SAMA!!!!" Sean pivoted towards the source of the cry just in time to a dark colored blouse and skirt flutter to the ground. He manage to catch glimpses of the strange girl he saw earlier clad in a gymnastics leotard and bearing a bouquet of midnight back roses in one hand and a wand tipped with a long ribbon in the other bound off the wall, the luggage carousel, the odd pushcart, his head, and so forth in apparent pursuit of the red-shirted boy he noticed earlier; laughing insanely all the while. As he pushed himself off the floor, Sean looked up at Emma Frost, then the mad gymnast pulling her now firmly bound quarry close to her as three of the other female exchange students advanced on them both with maces, mallet, and spatula in hand. "These r' th' new students, aren't they." Sean calmly noted. "Umhm." Emma murmured in affirmation. "We'll have t' deal with them f'r th' next two weeks, aye?" "That _is_ what we promised." The two looked deeply into each others eyes, and came to one of the few decisions they have ever unreservedly agreed upon. "Charles Xavier dies f'r this." "Painfully." ****** Simultaneously; Under an orphanage; Somewhere in North America: "So, it seems that Xavier has done the work of my servant for me." mused a shadowy figure in an inhuman voice, "the greatest concentration of the readings he has been tracking since I sent him to Tokyo was on a plane headed to Boston courtesy of a certain 'School for Gifted Youngsters'. It _is_ unfortunate that they have been moved to this locale, none of my current servants can retrieve them.... "Perhaps we could retrieve... no," the figure continued, "she is too skilled to take alive and no use to me dead, but who else would be... aha, the disciplinarian. Different from the others, but potentially the most powerful one yet. If I can obtain _this_ one she could serve me well in both the field and the laboratory... but it would be foolish to try to use one so new and untried without something already proven to fall back on." Suddenly, the figure strode toward a large computer terminal and began to access files containing labeled DNA representations. He swiftly scrolled though them until he had found a particular directory. It was labeled 'Marauders'. "Yeeessssss, 'something old, something new' now all I need is borrowed and blue." The cruel laughter echoed throughout the complex. ****** ___________________________________________________________________________ \ / Ranma 1/2: X-Change Students / \ A FanFiction by H. Torrance Griffin Ranma 1/2 created by Takahashi Rumiko Generation X created by Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby _____________________________________________________________________________ Note: <...> = Japanese Dialogue [...] = Chinese Dialogue #...# = Thoughts and Telepathic Dialogue ****** Chapter 2: Moving Day ****** Mid afternoon; Logan International Airport; Boston, Massachusetts; USA: Sean Cassidy had a bit of a problem. This could be said of anybody involved in making arrangements for the housing of 11 visitors to a tiny private school, _especially_ when only of them 8 were invited, all of them have already arrived, and none of them had any family or acquaintances in Massachusetts (or in anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere for that matter). But when the person was already a veteran of both Interpol and the N.Y.P.D. when he joined the team of mutant sometimes-outlaw adventurers known as the X-Men several years ago, one would think that said person had a slightly more extreme definition of problem than most individuals. Then again, if one observes the exchange students that had just arrived from Tokyo (or, more importantly, the property damage left in their wake), the importance of properly arranging these individuals to keep interpersonal friction at a minimum becomes rather magnified. "So what ye're saying Kitty is that we need t' reassign th' rooms," Sean said in his thick Irish accent as the luggage was being loaded into 1.5 of the two vans by both the visiting and regular students, "ye _know_ we'd be foolish t' do that until we know more about th' children." "I know, I know," responded the brown-haired young woman sitting in the passenger seat, "but that raises the question of how to how to ask which kids can be kept in the same dorm room for any length of time without setting somebody off. We are dealing with more love triangles and grudges than I can follow, and I saw what their idea of an argument can cause." "We need t' find someone that is nae involved in this madness, but knows the other children well enough t' tell us wh-" "Cassidy-sensei, Pryde-sempai," said Tendo Nabiki as she stepped into the van's side door, "I heard you mention that you want to know about us, to make sure that we would get along with our roommates." "Er, yes." Kitty said, well aware that one does not hear that much of a fairly hushed conversation by accident, "Could you help us with this? I'm afraid that things could-" "Come to... blows?" Nabiki responded with an enigmatic half-smile, "I would be happy to help." Nabiki paused and thought for a moment, as if she was performing a brief computation in her head, and then concluded, "For a small fee, of course. Let us say 50 dollars, american?" "...." ****** Emma Frost kept the rental car idling two rows away from the vans. She had firmly secured Happosai in the rear child seat with the complementary snow chains and padlocks, and now felt comfortable enough to focus her mental energies on something more enjoyable than keeping him under; namely, telepathic eavesdropping. She did not really have to try to 'hear' the exchange between Kitty, Sean, and Nabiki; so she casually debated probing deeper into the most apparently normal mind of the recent arrivals for the information in question. #They'll thank me for it.# she shrugged after about a millisecond of moral uncertainty as she reached into the young woman's mind, expecting to brush aside the gossamer veils that usually comprised the psychic defenses of an untrained human with her usual ease. She got as far as the girl's most superficial thoughts when she slammed into the titanium re-enforced ferro-concrete wall. It grew spikes. And electrified itself. ****** Nabiki started slightly and blinked, as if she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She then closed her eyes for a second, then glanced out the window and across the parking lot. #Thank you, Frost-sensei# she thought before turning back to the others and saying "Now, shall we discuss payment, or do you have a better offer?" ****** Emma paled as she sat back in her seat, the psychic backlash she felt was minimal (then again, after that run-in with Phoenix, she had not suffered telepathic harm _she_ would call severe), but the realization of _who's_ mental defenses she had been bounced off of was somewhat startling. #Impossible!# she thought, #Mutant or not, I would have sensed _any_ telepathic activity, even shutting out everybody else! I haven't encountered such strong psi-screens in years, she can't be....# #Get a hold of yourself Emma, she's probably who we are looking....# Her train of thought was interrupted by another presence nearby. Specifically on her lap with his head between her breasts. "You know quiet motel?" Happosai asked as he leered up at her. Let it never be said that Emma Frost lacked either composure or the ability to plan ahead. She remained perfectly calm while she concealed the actions of her right arm from his consciousness as she took the wrench in the passenger seat and brought it down on his skull, repeatedly. ****** Mid afternoon; Westbound I-90, between Boston and Snow Valley, Massachusetts: Everett Thomas sat wedged between Kuno and Mousse in the rather overstuffed van that Sean drove towards XSfGY and calmly observed those around him. Nothing that all of the recent arrivals were either snoring peacefully, staring at the scenery, watching the designated cargo van with an air of concern, or engrossed in small talk and/or staring matches with somebody else; Everett shook off the slight unease he felt after listening to Ryoga's rant about his relationship with Ranma (fortunately, the object of Hibiki-kun's frustrations was too busy arguing with Akane over something to pay attention) and focused his concentration. As the rainbow hued aura formed around his feet, he willed it to seek out any mutant physiology which it could emulate nearby. The tendrils of omni-colored energy snaked out along the ground to touch Sean, Paige, Monet, Jubilee, and in the van behind them, Kitty. Jubilee noticed the energy touching her foot and raised her eyebrows at him with curiosity. Everett just shook his head at her as he thought, #Nothing out of the ordinary about these guy's as far as my aura is concerned; but then again, I didn't notice the Phalanx either.# Turning away from Ranma with a frustrated 'humph', Akane looked at Jubilee and remembered a question she had been meaning to ask before Ranma had opened his big mouth. "Um- Jubilation?" she asked. "Oh, hi 'Kane," Jubilee responded, "an' bythway it's Jubilee" "Gomen- Sorry. Um, how did you... er... attack Happosai... boom?" Akane pantomimed, rather embarrassed at her lack of vocabulary. #Maybe tryin' to keep mum about this ain't such a good idea after all, I mean sooner or later their gonna wonder about our vast an' diverse student body of _six_!# Jubilee considered before answering Akane with a shrug and gesture, "I'm a mutant, sorta like Monet; been tossin' these 'fireworks' since I was about twelve." Several of the new arrivals (at least those that heard and understood a word she said) turned upon hearing the statement with a degree of surprise on their faces. "Mutant?" Ryoga asked with no small degree of awe, "Do you mean like Sunfire, or the X-Men?" "" Ranma snorted, unimpressed, "They no fight real, they hide behind power from luck and bright cloth. No skill, no training, no...." "NO FIGHT _REAL_!!" Jubilee yelled in outrage, "I've seen 'em take down things you'd _never_ wanna see!! And you want skill, I'll give ya what kinda train-*MMPH*...." "Jubilation! Calm ye'self!!" Sean barked from the driver's seat as he noted the light-show beginning to form in the rear view mirror, "I'm sure the lad meant no offense." As the youngest living X-Man (outside of arguably Bishop) stood down from Defcon-1, One of the others tried the diplomatic approach. "" Paige began haltingly, "" "" Monet chimed in just in time to deflate her classmate, "" "" Ranma responded smugly, "" "" Tatewaki began as he abruptly regained consciousness, just before his sibling pulled out a midnight black rose and waved it under his nose. ****** Late afternoon; Xavier Institute of Higher Learning; Westchester County, New York; USA: Emma forced away her fatigue as she stepped from the elevator into the gleaming metallic hallway with an unconscious Happosai still chained to the baby seat she dragged. She had broke several traffic laws and a few speed records getting to this mansion, all the while keeping the impossibly strong-willed pervert she held telepathically sedated and concealing her vehicle from the local law enforcement; then hauled her 'guest' into the mansion and activated the first 'private' elevator leading to the basement she could find. She dragged her burden down the hall and smiled to herself as she noted the discrete sign at the end labeled "Maximum Security". She had not even started to look for the access panel when a marginally familiar thought pattern approached her from behind. "Hello Bishop," Emma said tersely as she turned around to view the massive black man clad in his 2090's vintage standard issue X.S.E. uniform and ready to unholster his 2090's vintage plasma rifle as he narrowed his eyes at the visitor. "I trust there is a _reason_ you are bringing this... person into a restricted area without my being notified, Frost." Bishop said grimly as he looked down at them. "Ever the soldier, I see." Emma responded grimly as a particularly kinky fantasy went through Happosai's dreaming mind, "Now if you would kindly open this door, I will be about my business." His narrowed eyes and brief glance at the withered figure chained to the infant seat would have told Emma his response even if she could not read his mind. She sighed and answered his unspoken question. "Victor's new chew-toy," she remarked impatiently, "now would you please OPEN THE _DOOR_!" "Hello Bishop," said a low female voice with a distinct east african accent, "I trust there is a reason for your visit Emma; I had assumed you would be with the visiting students in Massachusetts." Emma turned and looked into the blue, cat-like eyes of the tall black woman that had just walked around the corner and sighed. There was still a little old distrust there (#Hijack someone's body just _once_....#), as well as a degree of annoyance at the current situation (admittedly, one usually does _not_ waltz into an abnormally secret base with anyone you pick up on the streets, but still....). "_This_," Emma finally said as she gestured at the baby seat, "stowed away in the visiting students' luggage, Ororo. I simply wanted to provide... accommodations for him." "Is there a reason why these 'accommodations' could not be somewhere _other_ than here?" Bishop's deep voice enquired with mild annoyance. Emma closed her eyes as she fought off her increasingly severe headache, and then smiled as she came upon an answer to Bishop's question. #By your leave?# she asked the two X-Men telepathically as she prepared to establish a psychic rapport with them. At their hesitant nods, she opened their minds and allowed themselves to be linked.... ... to Happosai's dreams. Almost immediately, Ororo Munroe strode over to the side of the thick sliding door and placed her hand on a camouflaged panel to it's right. %IDENTITY CONFIRMED: STORM (GOLD TEAM LEADER). ACCESS APPROVED% a computer synthesized voice not unlike her own announced as the thick barrier slid aside, revealing two not so well lit passages. "Separate cells, understood?" Storm said with some reluctance as she turned to Emma. Emma simply scowled as she picked up the child seat and strode through the door. "Out of curiosity Ororo," Bishop asked as he took note of Storm's attire (biker shorts, tank top, long white hair tied back in a ponytail), rather sweaty appearance, and few minor bruises "what have you been doing this afternoon?" "After seeing Kitten and Logan spar last week," she responded, leaning the six-foot wooden staff she carried against the wall, "I decided to brush up on my staffwork." "I see," Bishop said, "and how-" Bishop bit off his response as he and Ororo turned to see Remy LeBeau's rather battered form stagger down the hallway, dragging his quarterstaff behind him. "NoT bAd STorMy," he said weakly as he dragged himself along, "yOu Ain'T sOft As yoU LOok. GaMbiT aLmoS' iMpress...." Predictably, his red-on-black eyes rolled up into his head as he fell face first on the floor. Ororo smiled slightly as she walked over and heaved the tall cajun over her shoulder while Bishop fought down a chuckle. "I am a little rusty." Storm noted to her time-lost teammate as she carried her opponent to the infirmary. ****** Late afternoon; C. F. Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters; Snow Valley, Massachusetts: As the man called Logan leaned against a brick wall within the small private school, he could not help but think back to last time he had willingly taken the role of student. Decades ago, he had sought out a man on the other side of the world in order to hone skills he was not sure he had. He had learned much more than he ever really wanted to know, and it nearly cost him his immortal soul. Now he and his associates were assembling students from the other side of the world in order to give them a chance to hone skills nobody is sure they have while gambling that their presence here will not cost them their lives, or worse. SHLUNKT #So now things come full circle.# Logan thought as he contemplated the three blades of hardened bone and keratin that he willed to tear through the back of his hand. *snort* #Relax, canuklehead,# he mentally berated himself after a moment, #Charley moved th' kids out here to keep 'em _away_ from our problems; so far it's workin' out fine.# *heh* "If the rumors Yukio relayed to us got any truth to 'em (lookin' at th' local insurance premiums they probably are)," He smiled, "_they'll_ be what we gotta worry about." Suddenly, Logan cocked an ear at the distant sound of two slightly straining van engines. Nodding to himself upon recognizing them, he retracted his claws into his forearms and debated stubbing out his cigarette, but decided to finish it off as he settled in a comfortable position to wait. They'd be at least ten more minutes. ****** Kuno Tatewaki strode forward to gaze at the setting sun as he stepped from the van. The scholars mixed freely with his lower caste (ugh) companions, as the latter unloaded their meager belongings from the second vehicle. #Even my goddess, the lady Monet,# he thought, #doth freely stoop to assist mere merchants such as Tendo Nabiki in their tasks. *sigh* What barbarism.# Then Kuno noted the brutish gaijin that strode in their direction. He stood scarcely two centimeters higher than his true love Akane, but bore a large, burly frame that made him seem more than twice as wide; his t-shirt, jeans, and boots left exposed arms covered with hair so thick it seemed more like the pelt of a beast than anything else. "" Kuno told his oddly pale servant. Sasuke swallowed hard as he remembered how an old acquaintance from his dojo described the man which had maimed the entire squad he worked with while they were in the employ of House Yashida. Half a dozen ninja warriors, all of whom ten times more skilled than Sasuke ever hoped to become, and a man identical to the one before him tore them apart in seconds. "" his master's voice commanded, summoning him to the present. The ninja tried to force the images of gleaming metal blades sprouting from a man's hand to cut through perfectly crafted swords like particle beams through soft butter began to speak. "P-pardon me s-sir, m-my master wishes to know why you grace us with y-your presence." "I work here." was the gravel voiced reply Logan watched Kitty out of the corner of his eye as she approached Tatewaki with a mild scowl on her face; he looked her dead in the eye and smiled almost imperceptibly before focusing his gaze on the two before him. Sasuke for his part could not make up his mind whether the eyes that peered at him from under the battered cowboy hat reminded him more of that intimidating old woman from the Nekohanten or a vicious predatory beast. In either case, Kuno was oblivious. "" Kuno proclaimed upon understanding the response, "" "H-honored sir," Sasuke asked as politely as his (exemplary) knowledge of the english language would allow, "I humbly r-request that you assist us in unloading my master's luggage from the van." "Sure," Logan said after an apparent moment of consideration, "if _he_ asks nice." Swallowing hard, Sasuke whispered; "" "" Kuno nearly yelled in shock, "" "" Ranma noted from his perch atop the van as he helped lower Ukyo's yatai safely to the ground, "" Sasuke began sweating as he tried to come up with a translation of the young master's orders that would leave him whole and employed, but as he drew breath Logan silenced him with a raised hand. "" Logan noted in Japanese that carried the barest hint of an accent, "" ****** Shampoo scowled to herself as she shouldered her trunk and followed the small crowd to the largest building, brooding over what she had seen of this place so far. #I've heard of this word, 'Mutant', before,# she thought, #but at least two (one of whom is in desperate need of a lesson in manners arrogant little rich....) of the four students I've seen in this place so far admit to being one. This Kitty's a warrior, I can sense it... and this Logan, he is like Great-Grandmother. This is _not_ a normal school.# ****** Nabiki felt eyes on the back of her neck and spun to watch Monet hurriedly continue with unloading the equipment from the top of the van. ****** Logan frowned slightly as he discreetly took note of the new students' scents. #Funny,# he thought, #some sort o' undercurrent to their scents. Little like an aftertaste, but of.... Panda? ****** The eyes of the wizened, loincloth-clad, grey-haired Australian Aborigine widened in surprised recognition as he looked down at the slightly edgy looking purple-haired girl. Sitting cross-legged and unnoticed atop the main building, Gateway stroked his frizzled grey beard as he thought back to the last time he saw those hauntingly familiar eyes. ****** Early morning; Furinkan High School; Nerima District; Tokyo, Japan: The two remedial students squared off on the baseball field, each wielding a baseball bat and determined to prove to the other that _he_ was the baddest man on campus (at least until those martial arts masters came back). As a small crowd of fellow ne'er-do-wells formed around them, the two raised their improvised weapons and began to charge each other with improvised war cries. "" uttered a voice which might have sounded stern if it were not so high and squeaky. The two combatants froze in mid-step and looked down at the almost nauseatingly cute little moppet with huge brown eyes, hair hanging loose down to her ankles, and a little yellow tube dress that covered her from neck to knee that had forced her way through the spectators. "" the taller one stammered nervously as he began to sweat, "" "" chimed the second one as he nodded vigorously, "" They both fell silent and paled as Hinako looked up at them with an annoyed scowl, obviously not believing a word they said. "<*humph* Fighting _and_ lying to a teacher!>" she scolded as a five-yen coin gleamed from her fingers, "" "" the two toughs wailed as they prostrated themselves at her feet and proceeded to abase themselves before her. "" "" "" "" "" Hinako remained unaffected by the thugs' pleas as she held the small torus between her middle and index fingers and slowly aimed it at their heads, it was her duty as an employee of this fine institution to punish delinquents, was it not? Then a faint sound in the distance caught the apparently pre- teen disciplinarian's attention. DING-A-LING "" Hinako squealed joyously as she scampered over the forgotten delinquents and ran at a leg-blurring pace to intercept the ice-cream van that had rounded the corner at the other side of the campus. A few minutes later, a young looking korean man established a connection from the ultra-tech communications suite in the rear of the van as a large red-haired Inuit fastened a synaptic disrupter on the unconscious woman-child's brow too keep her helpless even if she awoke. "You have her, Scrambler?" said the shadowed figure on the other end of the line. "Yeah boss," Scrambler smirked, "the drugged ice cream worked like a charm." "Get her to the docks unharmed," 'boss' said coldly, "_then_ feel free to gloat." ****** Nekohanten; Nerima District: Cologne sat in silent meditation as she did every morning; apparently unmindful of the half-dozen identical trenchcoat clad snipers prepared to fill the small restaurant with an assortment of explosive, armor-piercing, fragmentation, heat-seeking, and incendiary ammunition from every angle at a single command. As a small ice-cream truck rolled unhurriedly down a nearby cross-street, her eyes snapped open. #We meet again, Nathaniel Essex.# she observed silently. ****** Late afternoon; A lab within a private residence; Arlington, Virginia; USA: "What's this?" noted the Cheyenne as he looked at the readouts from the scanners he had convinced Sean to let him install at XSfGY, #Residual hyperspace energies just skyrocketed, but there's no trace of off-world activity anywhere _near_ the place....# The man who called himself Forge idly toyed with his moustache with his living hand while adjusting the sensors from his control panel with his gloved cybernetic one. #Multiple sources,# he mused, #at least six... didn't Ororo say something about those Japanese kids arriving in Massachusetts today? If so then at least one of them's a walking stargate....# "Charles should be on his way back to Westchester from Muir by now," he said, nodding to himself, "and I do believe he'll be most interested in this." ****** Early evening; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: Kuno Tatewaki stood stock still not far from the place where they had unloaded their luggage, his eyes fixed upon the place in the horizon where the sun just disappeared. His mind was far too busy to pay attention to the outside world or the passage of time, for it was attempting to unravel a concept that even the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High had difficulty comprehending. "" said Sasuke, who had waited loyally by his master's side all this time, "" "...." "" "Logan... sensei?" ****** "O.K." Kitty began as she leafed through the rapidly typewritten copies of the room assignments, "" After glancing meaningfully at both Genma and Kodachi, she continued. "" "" Ranma asked curiously. "" #If nothing else, he should be able to keep them under control and away from Ranma.# she thought as she looked at the assignments for the girls. "" Kitty said with a sharp glare at her, "" Paige swore she saw Monet glance at Nabiki and sigh before the latter turned to leave. "" Kitty continued with an uncomfortable glance at what looked for all the world like a handsome young boy, "" #If worst comes to worst, she could keep them apart... I hope.# " she said to half the students still waiting in the common area as she indicated Jubilee and herself, "" "I see," the gymnast replied in english, "and what of my brother?" "Well...." ****** Evening; Basement, Boys' Dorm; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: Jonothon 'Jono' Strasmore had, as usual, sequestered himself within his cold, damp room for virtually the entire day and made good use of the school's satellite links to catch the late-night shows from his side of the 'pond'. It was during times like these that he felt the closest to normal that he could possibly get since the 'accident' and he could, if he let himself doze slightly, almost forget the gaping hole that was once his lower face and chest. #Eh?# he thought as he awoke with a start, the tight scarves that concealed the energies within him still in place. He looked at the door to his room, reaching out with his rudimentary mental powers in an attempt to identify the source of the commotion on the other side. Suddenly, a shinai tore through said door's hinges with phenomenal ease, allowing the door to fall aside and enable it's wielder to stride through as though he owned the place. "" Kuno Tatewaki proclaimed, "" As Kuno's eyes roamed over the ill kept room, they nearly passed over the set that glared at him with undisguised hostility. "" Not surprisingly, Jonothon did not comprehend Kuno Tatewaki's speech, but even with his incredibly limited telepathy the meaning was clear. "<... answer me hermit, can you not speak?>" #Assuming I even understood a word you were saying you rakking _dolt_,# Jonothon thought angrily at him, #have you even considered the possibility that I CAN'T _TALK_!!# "" Tatewaki commanded as he started at the voice within his head, "" A few minutes after the samurai strode out the doorway, Jonothon's curiosity finally got the better of him and he picked himself off of the couch and walked around the ruined door to peer into the smaller room down the hall. He saw a brilliantly painted, perfectly waterproofed and repaneled, tastefully decorated bedroom that looked like something out of a high priced rural japanese inn. And in the middle, a little man in the garb of a ninja, passed out from exhaustion. #Bloody 'ell.# Jonothon thought as he shook his head. ****** 2nd floor; Boy's Dorm: "<... ridiculous!>" Genma griped to his son as he still held the envelope he was handed downstairs, "" To his credit, Ranma kept something remotely resembling a straight face as his father waved about the location of the Remedial English tutorial they were both asked to attend; in truth he was so amused at the coup he had Nabiki arrange after the elder Saotome announced his intent to tag along with them that he had almost forgotten about his badly compromised credit balance. "" Ranma noted before reciting verbatim the speech his father gave when he balked at attending after finding out _who_ all would be joining him, "<'you must think of it as a challenge, a martial art of the mind; or are you willing to let yourself be... beaten.'>" "" Genma said as he slumped against the wall with a gesture of surrender, "" Ranma has been so busy gloating that he had ignored the person that had entered the room until his father stopped in mid syllable to gape a the youth that had walked in; feeling moderately curious himself, he turned around to take a look. The figure that had just come in from the showers was about Ranma's height but somewhat slimmer, his eyes and hair a fairly light brown. More strikingly; his skin was slate grey and seemed baggy and wrinkled like a very old man's where his robe revealed his back and arms, but drawn tight on his face as if to accentuate his long and pointed nose and chin. Ranma could never be accused of being a high level empath, but he almost immediately took note of the mutant's tight-lipped scowl and angry glare directed at the two and quickly determined the cause. After quickly elbowing the older man in the ribs (hard), he quickly strode forward with a pleasant look on his face. "You are Angelo Espinosa?" he noted in his best english as he extended his hand, "I am Saotome Ranma. He is my father, Genma." Angelo briefly considered the offered hand and the youth who was attached to it; he seemed courteous enough, and at least he tried not to stare _too_ blatantly; after a few seconds he took Ranma's hand and nodded in greeting. "You know what happen to Mousse an' Kuno?" Angelo asked bluntly, "Cassidy said they were roomin' with me." Ranma had no little difficulty understanding the swift and accented english, but he spotted the names immediately. "Kuno?!" he blurted, "They put Kuno here?" "They was plannin' to, why?" "Angelo," Ranma observed as he put his hand on the other boy's shoulder, "you very, very, lucky you not know Kuno...." ****** Girls Dorm; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: "" Monet asked as she and her roommates prepared to go to bed. "" responded Ukyo as she shrugged on her tank top and crawled into her futon. "" Monet noted, "" "" Akane snarled from her bedroll. "" Ukyo said as she turned towards Monet, she did not normally enjoy explaining her rather complex and embarrassing past to people, but this arrogant know-it-all had long since gotten on her nerves and she would relish setting her straight on the one thing she showed _any_ ignorance about, "" ****** "... I know of all others that are () pursuing my beloved Ranma-sama," Kodachi continued to rant, "that transvestite cook, the chinese barbarian, that _horrid_ Akane, even that little red-haired girl my brother wants (she takes his clothes, even his name, she _must_ be... be... otaku!). But we both know he loves me, and in little time we will be rid of those pests and be free to be wed and love and raise little children and have a pretty garden with a grand house overlooking the cemetery and... and... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!" As Kodachi laughed herself to sleep, neither Kitty or Jubilee made any move to turn off the night-light as they pulled the covers tight and stared at the ceiling long into the night. ****** Shampoo remained subdued and outwardly unemotional as she lugged Nabiki's suitcases into the room while Paige babbled something apologetically about the cluttered state of the room in japanese even worse than her own. As the blonde hurried to make room for the belongings of her two guests, she beckoned her rival's sibling to the far corner. "" Shampoo whispered, "" "" Nabiki replied with a slight air of humor. "" hissed Shampoo, "" "" Nabiki observed before switching to english, "Excuse me, Paige?" "Hai?" "We have heard that mutants are not very, how do you say, popular in America ()," Nabiki began while Shampoo grew ashen, "yet your friends Jubilee and Monet are quite open about their skills. This does not disturb you or the others?" "Uhh...." Paige responded intelligently as a drop of sweat beaded on the back of her head. ****** Headmaster's residence; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: "FLATSCANS!?!" Emma yelled at the screen in utter shock, "_All_ of them?" The intense eyes of Professor Charles Francis Xavier narrowed at Frost's use of the slur, but he simply responded; "Neither the students that entered the school, nor the person you locked in my basement had any indications of genetic alteration either by natural mutation or accident later in life. For lack of a better term _Ms._ _Frost_, they are all perfectly normal humans." "I'd have t' agree with Emma, Charles," Sean noted, "you did na' see how strong these some o' children are. How can ye explain teenage girls carryin' steamer trunks that weigh more'n they do like blessed _purses_?" "In all honesty Sean," Xavier began to reply, "I don't-" "Two words Irish," Logan said as he stepped silently from the shadows and lit a cigar, "Trainin' and discipline." #How could I have let my guard down like that?# Emma thought as she suppressed a jump, "Martial arts are one thing Wolverine, what I saw in the airport was another thing entirely." "Was it?" Logan responded, "My old sensei could usurp a man's soul and body an' make it his own as easy as you or me breathe. By rights, I should'a been his a long time ago. "He ain't the only one either," he continued after a long drag, "to this day there are scores o' stories and legends in th' east about folks who figured out how t' channel their own chi, their life force. Lot's of these masters had the strength o' 40-50 normal samurai in their prime; others out there could dodge bullets, walk on water, conjure weapons from thin air, summon lightning, or shatter stone walls ... with a touch. And as far as any o' your toys are concerned, those martial arts masters would'a been FoH Poster Kids." "Interesting," Professor X said half to himself on the other side of the screen, "Forge sent me some readings earlier today that appear to lend credence to Logan's claims." "So if anythin'," Sean Cassidy noted, "these children should be teachin' _us_ if ye'r right about them Logan." "Maybe, Irish," Logan replied, "I say wait a couple o' days before we pull any surprises." ****** BioSphere; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: #Well,# Hibiki Ryoga thought absently as he looked around the lush foliage, #this definitely _ain't_ Everett's room.# He had forced his mind and feet to remember every curve between where the van dropped them off and the room that he was to reside in and he _knew_ that he could retrace his steps on his own and find his way back from the showers. Now he stood in the middle of the oversized terrarium halfway across campus clad only in a towel around his waist and his customary bandanni on his brow. #How could I have missed it?!# he thought, #Just go out the window, get to the opposite side of the building, and walk in the front door! The hall on the right should have led right to it!# #Um, maybe it would have been easier if you had just asked Mousse or Everett lead you back to the room;# the voice of the calm and rationality suggested, #and are you sure it wasn't the hall on the left?# #_SHUT_ _UP_!!!# Ryoga responded as usual as he tried to remember from which way he came. As he approached a small clearing, he suddenly tensed as he felt the presence of someone (or some_thing_) watching him from the nearby trees. "Who is there?" he barked as he wheeled around and backed into the clearing, "Answer me!" Unfortunately, while quite focused on the unseen presence of the watcher in the trees before him; Ryoga failed to notice the exposed root behind him... or the brook behind that. "" was all he had time to say as he stumbled, slipped on the damp rocks, and fell backwards. SPLASH ****** President's office; Xavier Institute for Higher Learning: Charles Xavier shook his gleaming bald head sadly as he shut down his computer. The anti-mutant hysteria had grown, and the ease with which he found the 'Friends of Humanity' web page was not in the least bit comforting. Needless to say, his worries extended to those students that should be bedding down a few hours to the northeast. #Perhaps I should ask them to reconsider the field trips to Boston and New York they've planned.# Xavier thought as his golden hover-unit glided towards the elevator to his bedroom, #These students, from what Emma told me, have no shyness about displaying their 'skills' in public; in Japan they were probably recognized for what they were and left alone, but to display any traits that could be mistaken for mutation here....# Suddenly, the terminal to Cerebro flashed to life, the subroutine he wrote weeks ago to trace the "phantom" signals that had led them to the Nerima district of Tokyo alerting him to one that had flared to life far closer. As the Professor changed course and headed back to his desk, the demi-alien computer refined the location of the unique signal as much as possible in the fraction of a nanosecond before it vanished again. "Roughly northeast of here," he muttered as he examined the visual readout, "and less that 1500 miles away. If this is a coincidence, I'll go jogging in the morning." ****** Biosphere; Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters: P-Chan swore angrily in the tongue of pigs as he struggled free of the sodden cloth, the presence he noted in human form briefly forgotten in his anger both at himself for getting into this predicament, and at Ranma for subjecting him to this affliction. The sound of a soft footfall behind him snapped him back to the present as he made it to shore, and he spun to see five blades far sharper than razors and shaped from shadows and blood into a mockery of a human hand. All but the second one from the right curved back as it reached towards the tiny piglet. ****** ______________________________________________________________________________ \ / Ranma 1/2: X-Change Students / \ A FanFiction by H. Torrance Griffin Ranma 1/2 created by Takahashi Rumiko Generation X created by Scott Lobdell & Chris Bachalo X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ______________________________________________________________________________ Note: <...> = Japanese Dialogue [...] = Chinese Dialogue #...# = Thoughts and Telepathic Dialogue ****** Chapter 3: New Friends, New Enemies ****** Late Night/Early Morning; Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters: Shampoo never liked being subtle in the traditional meaning of the word. Her usual idea of a discreet entrance, for example, involved using a door in the manner for which it was designed. Never the less, true stealth was foremost in her mind as she looked in the window on the second floor of the Boys' Dorm in this school, gazing at her beloved sleeping on a mat in the darkened room. Reluctantly, she checked the small timer and leapt from the windowsill to the seat of her bicycle and pedaled for the front gate as though her life depended on it. She carefully braked at the front gate, taking care not to make more noise than absolutely necessary, and checked her watch. #45 seconds to the front of the Girls' Dorm,# Shampoo thought critically, #I could cut that at least in half if I don't bother with doors. Easier to keep the bike there or in the lobby to prevent anyone from getting suspicious (_if_ Nabiki's big mouth didn't do that already what is she _thinking_!?), 30 seconds at the most to rescue Ranma, and 15 to the gate.# She checked the powdered happiness spice to keep her husband from struggling and the thermos of ice water to shrink him down as much as possible (#He shouldn't slow me down much in any case,# she had considered when she assembled her escape gear while the others slept, #but I can't afford to take any chances#). She started to pull the road map she had bought at the airport from under her when an unearthly buzz/roar wafted over from the woods on the far side of the (unnervingly oversized) campus. She froze for a moment and waited for the hammer to drop; then, when the alarm was not accompanied with weapons or guards trying attack her, she rode in the direction of the sound to investigate. A minute later, she abandoned the bike and was creeping through the thick grove of trees toward the source of the odd sound when a light exploded out from a clearing ahead of her. Despite being all but blinded, over a decade of training held firm as she leapt for the branches overhead, there she allowed her eyes to adjust and crept toward the clearing. She arrived at the source of the sound a few seconds after it stopped, just in time to see the hole in the middle of the air snap shut. After wasting several seconds being totally astonished, she dropped down to investigate. It was obvious that there _was_ someone here, he (or she) made no attempt to hide his trail where he passed through the woods. "" Shampoo muttered as she stared at where the portal slammed shut. She received no clue to the answer even as she carefully crept around the inhabited sector of the campus in search of anyone else roused by noise, consciously avoiding the window to the room of the woman that only _just_ missed spotting her earlier. Satisfied that the only one's that were awake (both of them in the same room as Kodachi unfortunately for them), either missed her entirely or dismissed whatever they sensed as merely nerves; she carried her bike to the front gate, rechecked the map, and set off to scout a few escape routes. ****** Logan remained still and relaxed until Shampoo reached the gate, then opened his eyes and reached for the jeans, tank-top, and sandals he hung on the back of the couch Sean let him sleep on. He had been following the girl's movements from the time she stepped out of the dorm with his ears alone as he 'played possom' and silently wondered whether to wake the other adults. #Irish's too overprotective, he'd overreact and probably panic the kid if I'm readin' her right;# Logan decided as he quickly dressed and walked silently to the door, #and I figure Frost already know's more'n I do if I know her at all (hope Charley knows what he's doin', trustin the Hellfire Club's old White Queen like this).# Focusing his thoughts with a silent snort, Logan crept out the door and intercepted the young Joketsuzoku's scent trail with unerring accuracy. #Better keep slow an' quiet, she can't hide her scent and I don't want t' catch u-# Logan decided before he heard the soft squeak of the bicycle chain accelerating away with speed he'd expect from his motorcycle. #On th' other hand....# the mutant sighed as he settled into a fast jog. ****** I-90 off-ramp; not far from XSfGY: Logan peered at the small hair ornament hanging off the 'Exit' sign from the bottom of the off-ramp and nodded, his suspicions about the girl's plans confirmed. #She doubled back from here,# he thought with firm conviction, #and headed down that side road a mile back. Looks like she's headed all th' way t' Boston and from the smell of it, she ain't going t' slow down anytime soon. Looks like a survey/practice run, so she'll try t' get back b'fore she thinks anyone'll miss her; but I can't risk tryin' t' trail her on my bike or she'll spot me an' bolt for sure.# He suddenly smiled as he thought of a friend that just happened to be in Boston for some 'business' dealings. #I'm sure Tyger ain't gonna mind loanin' me th' use o' her ninjas 'til mornin',# Logan decided as he headed for a nearby pay phone, #an' Madripoor's chief crimelord owe's her conscience a enough favors t' forgive a call this time o' morning.# ****** Before Dawn; Near I-90; Snow Valley, Massachusetts: "" CLICK #Good,# Logan thought as he hung up the pay phone and started for the campus, #if I didn't get a report in by dawn, I'd have t' get a search goin'. #Better pull her aside an' tell her what's goin' on though; if she's paranoid enough t' check the train stations, bus terminals, docks, _and_ airports (good thing Tyger had watchers all over th' place already) she's wound up enough t' do someone real harm if she sees a threat. Can see where Charley an' Frost thought coming clean from the get-go was a bad idea, but looks to me like keepin' secrets from 'em gonna do more harm than good... to _us_.# ****** Before Dawn; Girls' Dorm (Kitchen); Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters: "You're up early kid," a deep, familiar voice noted almost casually as Jubilation Lee fought to keep from passing out face-first in the large bowl of sugar-laden cereal before her, "couldn't sleep?" Jubilee slowly turned towards the voice and paused for a few moments as she matched the short, hairy man with the question she heard; then scowled as she turned back to shovel another spoon of sucrose into her mouth. Logan could only smile as he shook his head. #Kid ain't changed,# he thought, #she wouldn't get up before noon if she could get away with it.# Logan's face grew puzzled and concerned as he examined the young former X-Man with his eyes and nose, quickly realizing that she had not slept two hours in the past eight but finding no trace of physical illness aside from the residual signs of near continual stress. As he began to ask what had disturbed her; he spotted a bleary-eyed Kitty walk into the room (not even pretending to bother with the door) and shamble through the table, Jubilee, and part of the stove to get the sink. As she began to feel around for the coffee pot and absently wondered why she couldn't turn on the faucet, she noticed someone snapping fingers in front of her face and looked down at the muscular, hairy arm poking through her chest. "O' 'i L'gan" she mumbled sleepily before shaking her head, stepping clear of any solid objects, and forcing herself back into solidity. "Don't _DO_ that!!" a now _wide_ awake Jubilee yelled from where she fell after tipping her chair over in panic, "Somebody could'a saw ya!" "Kid's right Pumpkin," Logan noted, "we got _guests_ here, remember?" "Sorry," Kitty said as she blushed and splashed cold water on her face, "Kodachi kept us up all night." "She don't snore _that_ loud." stated Logan with the assurance of one who slept in an adjacent room. "She don't snore Wolvie," Jubilee corrected, still sounding slightly traumatized, "she giggles. All night, really softly, _really_ creepily, and non-stop; she _giggles_!" "I'm beginning to see why Nabiki insisted that none of the others got along with her that well (while gouging us for 'consulting fees')," Kitty noted as she silently gave thanks for the foresight to set the timer on the coffee machine last night, "she had me jumping at shadows all night without even trying." Logan debated telling the teenage mutant ninja of the event that should have gotten her attention last night, but decided against it as Kitty headed for the Biosphere to do her morning katas. "Oh, I almost forgot." she said as she headed out the door, "I went to Boston the day before yesterday to get you a few clothes so don't disappear on me." "Already got cl-" Logan began. "Oh hush." Kitty said with an impish smile, "We're supposed to be a 'respectable' school and you _do_ want to make a good impression on your students, right Logan-sensei?" "I gotta _bad_ feeling about this" Logan muttered. ****** Dawn; Girls' dorm (2nd floor): The alarm clock sounded off precisely at 5:15 and managed to beep for a whole 10 seconds before it's owner turned it off and stretched out the kinks in her back. Paige Guthrie then hopped off the bed and started to step over to her dresser in order to begin her normal morning routine with an exercise tape. As she stumbled over the rumpled futon and nearly fell she suddenly remembered that she would have to alter that routine for the next two weeks. "" Tendo Nabiki grumbled from under her pillow."" "uh, Sumimasen" Paige said to the figure across the room as she started to get dressed for a workout, "" "She woke up before you did and left. Maybe you can find her if you hurry." Nabiki volunteered, desperate to get some more sleep and hoping her host would take the hint. #Girl's _quiet_!# Paige marveled as she dressed, #Up, dressed, and out the door while Ah may well be dead for all Ah notice.# She continued alternating between mentally praising Shampoo's stealth and berating herself for inattentiveness unbecoming an X-Man as she headed to the front of the dorm and began her usual calisthenics in preparation for her usual morning jog. A few minutes after she began she spotted a short-haired Japanese girl stretching in preparation for her own run beneath a tree not far from her. "" Paige cheerily greeted as she finished and walked toward her fellow early bird. "Hello... Paige, right?" Akane responded as she looked up at the blonde, "You run too, like me?" "Hai." she said while trying to figure out how to phrase her request. "Do you-" Akane began after a few seconds of silence. "<-want to->" Paige said simultaneously. "-run with-" "<-me?>" They both blinked in slight surprise, then smiled and chuckled their joke. "OK!" they said at once as they smiled at each other. ****** 2nd Floor; Boys' Dorm: Everett Thomas rolled over and sat up at the sun streamed the window. As he looked at the futons laid on his floor he sighed as he found one surmounted by a long-haired youth sitting up and fumbling about for his glasses while another lay as neatly arranged as it was before his second roommate left for a shower last night. #I couldn't believe it until I saw it myself.# he thought as he picked up the _thick_ glasses on his nightstand and thought back to Kitty's hushed warning to 'Keep an eye on Ryoga' the night before, #She said the guy had a bad sense of direction, but _how_ can a man get lost on his way back from the bathroom at the end of the hallway when I put all of our names on the door?!?# The search he and Mousse initiated after Ryoga was missing for a few hours had tuned up little aside from wet footprints that followed a random path until the feet dried. After nearly an hour of searching, Everett was at the point of asking Sean and Logan for help when Mousse suddenly grabbed him and literally dragged him back to the dorm room, whereupon he (with the aid of a Japanese Phrasebook Everett bought and considerable pantomimes on his part) explained that Ryoga usually found someplace warm to bed down whenever he found himself lost late at night (which was often). #He saw something.# Everett contemplated Mousse took the offered glasses and earnestly thanked the lamp beside him, #We were by the Biosphere, and he was checking something in the underbrush... I thought I saw blood and animal tracks, but the minute I tried following them he grabbed me and dragged me home to try to cover for Ryoga.# ****** Saotome Ranma glanced silently at the boy in the bed as he pulled on his blue shirt; shaking his head slightly at the sight of Angelo Espinosa's grey skin hanging in loose folds all over his face. #An' I thought _I_ had problems.# he thought as he reflected on his mixed amusement and disdain at the reports of the 'mutants' that some claimed would supplant humanity. As one who dedicated his life to martial arts mastery, the youth never took those who relied primarily on genetic gifts seriously, let alone thought of them as suffering; and as to those who called them threats, he had nothing but contempt (#Just get some training boneheads,# he thought at the time, #they can't be _that_ powerful... can they?#). ****** Morning; Wooded area of campus; Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters: "Akane," Paige wheezed as she tried to catch her breath while her companion jogged in place, " Akane remained silent for a moment to try and find the vocabulary to answer and decide whether the blonde girl was being rude. "Ranma's father and my father want us to... marry? So we inharu... inhen... get dojo." "" Paige pronounced, somewhat disturbed by the custom. "" " Akane began, forgetting her promise to practice her english as she unconsciously began a series of spin-kicks, "" Akane and Paige both halted and blinked in surprise as she realized that her last kick had slammed into a reasonably thick tree. Paige rushed forward expecting the shorter girl to cry out in pain when an ominous creaking filled the air as the trunk proceeded to split across it's girth. Paige simply stared dumbstruck as the tree leisurely tipped over and fell into the forest while Akane took a deep breath and calmed herself. "No Paige, I _don't_ like Ranma." Akane saidsomewhat coldly as she began jogging off in a huff with no sign of a limp. #Ah ain't seen _nobody_ get that angry at _anybody_ that didn't....# Paige thought as she stared after the girl, then she broke into a grin as she muttered, "'Methinks the lady doth protest too much.'" Then she took another look at the broken trunk of the tree the martial artist brought down with a single kick, swallowed hard, and started to run after her companion when a small sound halted both girls in their tracks. Akane looked around the underbrush instinctively at the familiar grunt, then cried out and ran towards the sight of a small snout poking through the bushes. "P-chan!!" she yelled as she picked up the bedraggled black piglet and noted the dried blood on his flank, "" "" Paige asked as she looked over the shoulder of the smaller girl. "Un" Akane nodded as she babbled, "He must got in my luggage, and get hurt after he leave." Paige tried to get a good look at the piglet's injury as Akane cuddled it while murmuring apologies and endearments, only to blink in surprise as she realized that the noticeable gash was more than halfway healed. #If the blood ain't in her clothes,# Paige thought, #li'l thing got hurt after she got here and ain't no way a cut like that heals up that quick... #An' where'd Ah see that bandanna before?# ****** Paige had an easier time of it as the two half-jogged, half-walked toward the dormitory. The two had simply been babbling about their lives and family, both trying to ignore the guilt caused by the omissions they were conciously making. "Is there... clinic here for P-chan?" Akane said as they approached the Girls' dorm. "" Paige asked as Akane carefully handed over the oddly dazed piglet she had been holding to her breasts, "" "" "Hai." Paige concluded with a grateful smile as she stopped in front of the dorm, "Good," Akane smiled as she started indoors, "we take him to shower and wash him with us." "Oh, shower, right." Paige said nervously as she realized that she had already began tearing open the skin behind her ear, "" "Will get them!" she called as she headed for Monet's room. "That gives me some time at least." Paige murmured before she remembered the presence of the piglet in her arms. "Hope you c'n keep a secret li'l fellah" she muttered under her breath as she headed for the showers. ****** Showers; Girls' Dorm: Paige chuckled to herself as she noticed the piglet's stance after she undressed and set aside the clothes she had in the shower room, it was a little unusual to see a pet turn his back on a naked woman and keep his eyes tightly shut. She then sighed and thought about the lies the had told. #Ah dunno,# She mused as she idly sliced through the skin along the side of her head and neck with a fingernail, #Ah _like_ the kid, and Ah hate lyin' t' her; but we ain't known these people for a day yet and if they freak out like 'Beth....# She scowled to herself as she realized that what she was doing would make any ethical questions about concealing her mutant nature moot if Akane walked in on her. She then picked up the pig, headed for a shower stall with a small, open window; and set gentlemanly little P-Chan near the open entrance facing outward. "And for effect...." Paige then said as she reached for the faucet. Maybe it was a shift in humidity, maybe it was the rumble of water through the pipes, maybe it was a form of precognition developed from living for weeks at a time a spilled mug of tea away from intensive care that caused the swine's eyes to snap open. What it certain was that P-Chan suddenly realized that Paige Guthrie liked her showers _hot_! With speed born of absolute panic, the demi-piglet scrambled across the slick tile in hope of outracing the scalding mist and spray. He almost succeeded. "Huh?" Paige muttered as she began to dig her nails into the side of her neck, "Akane? P-Chan?" She stepped out of the stall and looked at the main door and front dressing area, then extended her search to the floor when she realized the piglet left in her charge had disappeared. If she had stepped into the main chamber and looked towards the side of the stalls however, she may have noticed an utterly terrified 17 year old boy wearing nothing but a yellow and black bandanna eyeing the open window above the lockers and trying very hard not to breathe. "Paige?" called Akane's voice as the doorknob began to turn. The two occupants of the room bolted; Paige ducked back into her stall while Ryoga grabbed a towel and jumped through the window with all the speed he could muster. As he left part of Ryoga's mind registered a sound reminiscent of the skin being ripped off a fairly large animal, however he was too busy realizing that the shower was on the second floor to contemplate that information. #Well,# Ryoga contemplated moments later as he fingered the scar on his hip where he cut himself on... whatever it was in that oversized greenhouse, #at least this cut didn't reopen when I changed.# "" he muttered as he wrapped the towel around his waist and walked away from the building, unmindful of the near intact skin of Paige Guthrie that fluttered down behind the bushes beside him moments before. ****** Evening; Nekohanten; Nerima District, Tokyo: Cologne sighed as she nodded politely to the sniper down the block and locked up for the night. Business, already slow, had fallen to almost nothing after her great-granddaughter and the Idiot left the day before last. #I suppose that more customers came for the view than I thought.# she sighed, recalling how much attention the male diners paid attention to the waitress... and the female ones paid to the menial laborer. She was heading into the living quarters upstairs, using her gnarled wooden staff as a pogo stick, when she sensed a disturbance in her private storage area behind a locked door in the basement. As she bounced beneath the restaurant, the unearthly light shining from beneath the door was quite visible in the darkness. She calmly took the small skeleton key from her robes and flicked her wrist, hurling it spearlike and spinning like a slow rifle bullet until it entered the keyhole cleanly and made a final quarter turn to unlock it. As though the entire event was choreographed beforehand, the ancient woman turned to the light switch (while still balanced on top of her cane) and turned it on just as the light faded and the door was pushed open from within. Cologne hopped to the ground and calmly regarded the short (at least compared to most younger people, he still had nearly two feet on her), wizened, grey bearded Australian Aborigine that stood before her clad only in a loincloth and a coiled bullroarer hanging from his shoulder. "Hello old friend," the Joketsuzoku wise-woman said in vaguely British sounding english, "I see you are still persisting with this 'Gateway' nonsense." ****** Morning; Central courtyard; XSfGY: Kuonji Ukyo stood by her yatai and stared into the polished steel blade of her largest spatula, quietly contemplating the young man that looked back at her. For most of her life, that face was a reminder of her shame, her abandonment at age six by her intended husband and his father and their theft of her dowry. But last year she finally tracked down the cute little boy she had enough of a crush on to convince her father to speak to his about marriage; and found a handsome teenager possessed of both amazing fighting skills and a strong sense of honor... one who had no idea of either the planned marriage or his childhood friend's true gender. Now her path was different, she and Ranma were friends once more (of course if things went her way they would be _far_ more), and she could not help but wonder at times why her femininity has proven so easy to cast aside or embrace as desired of late. #Funny,# Ukyo thought, #I never did throw away my old clothes, never got in the habit of _woman's_ clothes much... and come to think of it, the only times I go out of my way _not_ to pass for a guy are at the beach or when I'm trying to get Ran-chan's 'attention'. Maybe I don't miss womanhood as much as I-# Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of her betrothed heading into the dorm opposite her's and spun to call him over then bent over and busied herself firing up the wheeled griddle. "" Ranma called as he approached. Ukyo immediately looked up and began staring over his shoulder at the grey skinned youth following him. "Forgive me." she said as she caught herself and bowed politely, "You... surprise me... ano...." Angelo sighed as he looked at the rather embarrassed looking boy before him and relaxed somewhat while Ranma gave him a 'sorry about this' look before introducing them. "", Ranma began, "Angelo, this Kuonji Ukyo." "Would you want Okonomiyaki?" asked Ukyo in an attempt to change the subject. Angelo simply shrugged as Ranma nodded eagerly, then gazed in surprise as Ukyo rolled up her sleeves and her arms faded into a strange haze that appeared over the griddle and ended at her elbows. With her usual flourish, she scooped the steaming okonomiyaki onto her largest spatula and, after a second of hesitation, presented it to Angelo with a smile. Angelo took a bite out of the apparent peace offering and grinned. "Good stuff." he remarked around a mouthful. "Thank you," she remarked, already cooking up another okonomiyaki for a slightly impatient Ranma, "is my job." As Ukyo explained her occupation as a restauranteur, Angelo thought back to the original room assignments and realized what was wrong with what he was seeing. "Waitaminute," Angelo interrupted, "ain't you supposed t' be a girl?" "Ano...." Ukyo responded as she blushed. "Is... long story." noted Ranma as he gulped down the last of his breakfast. "Ahh," noted Angelo as he raised an eyebrow at the cook and smirked, "you going _after_ the chicas, si?" Ranma and Ukyo initially looked blankly at him, confused by the 'spainglish' terminology; however, Ukyo's eyes soon glimmered with understanding, widened with surprise, and then narrowed in anger. CLANG "IS NOT LIKE THAT!!" Ukyo yelled at the mutant, his head firmly wedged between the flat of her spatula the remainder of his breakfast. ****** Main Building (Remedial English); XSfGY: Logan glanced at his faint reflection in the window and shook his head in mild disbelief. "Yukio'd prob'ly laugh her head off if she saw me like this," the old warrior muttered faintly, "on th' other hand Elf'd call it an improvement... and M'iko...." He cut that train of thought immediately, realizing that profound depression was not the state of mind he wanted to be in for his first day as an instructor at a 'reputable place of learning', and opened the door to his classroom. The view the mutant saw before him was very surprising considering the reports of what had happened at the airport yesterday and what he had heard on the way to the Main Building. The room was quiet, the shattered desk, mace embedded in an interior wall, and semi-conscious Tatewaki the only overt testament to the short tempers and considerable skills of those within. The student's were seated in a surprisingly orderly fashion: Ranma looking vaguely bored, Mousse alternated between worried glances at the door and sour looks at Ranma as he rubbed his sore jaw, Kuno looked moderately dazed (getting tagged on the head with a large iron ball tended to do that, even if you were not it's target), and Genma looked generally annoyed. For their part, the students saw a rather dapper looking man clad in dress-shoes, slacks, a beige shirt complete with matching tie, and a plaid sweater-vest. All in all, Logan seemed the perfect image of a 50-ish liberal arts college professor, even the micro-ponytail and massive sideburns did not look greatly out of place. Logan sighed slightly as he went over the list of students. _He_ knew where the missing student had gone, but to continue as if nothing were happening would not only insult the intelligence of those who knew there were five students assigned this class, but make even more of them suspect the absolute worst. "" he asked, consciously using less informal japanese than what he was accustomed to. "" Kuno stammered, now fully conscious and amazed by the transformation of the uncouth barbarian he met yesterday. Ranma and Genma simply shrugged and shook their heads. "" Mousse snarled, ignoring Logan as he pulled a huge scimitar out the sleeve of his robe and glared menacingly at the pig-tailed boy. "" Ranma said as he cracked his knuckles and prepared for Round 2. "" Logan barked, immediately getting everybody's attention. The students immediately shut up and stared at the teacher for a moment, expecting to be taken to task for the disruption. Logan for his part was apparently staring at nothing in particular, his head cocked at a slight angle. #Yup, that's her.# Logan thought as the sound of a bicycle chain moving at impossible speeds reached his ears, #Past th' gate... heading straight here... must've paced herself on th' way back... what th' hell sheAIN'TSTOPPIN-# CRASH RING-RING In all his years, in more that a lifetime of travels throughout this world and beyond, Logan had not seen anything quite like this. He could only blink in surprise as the purple haired girl, looking somewhat tired and disheveled, set her surprisingly intact bicycle by the side of rather large hole she just made in the brick outer wall. "" she said after she caught her breath and slammed Mousse into the floor when he tried to embrace her, "" "" Logan said once he regained his composure and Shampoo took a seat beside Ranma, " #What's with her?# Ranma wondered as he watched the wary figure next to him, #Shampoo's _never_ tried to get this close to me without tryin' to grab me or feed me or kill me....# ****** Main Building (Intermediate English): Kitty had a headache. This was supposed to be simple. She had only two students, both of whom had (comparatively) good academic and disciplinary records back at Furinkan, so she and Logan had decided that she would check their knowledge of spoken english with a simple personal interview. It had all gone quietly, until Ukyo (still the picture of a student at an all-boys private school outside of the bandolier of spatulas and the monstrous thing Kitty insisted be left in the corner of the room) had mentioned that she was engaged to Saotome Ranma. Of course Akane grumbled something in japanese, Ukyo responded, and it escalated into a shouting match that left her head ringing. "" "" "" Kitty finally yelled at the top of her lungs. "Am I to understand," she said carefully after she collected her thoughts and the students muttered embarrassed apologies, "that Saotome Genma has engaged his son to _both_ of you?" Ukyo remembered giggling to herself as she played with the pony-tailed boy in the small gi as their fathers spoke in hushed tones near the yatai that would be her's... and her husband's.... Akane recalled watching her father weep openly with joy as he explained the pact he and his best friend made to unite their families and schools by marrying his then-newborn son to one of the three Tendo daughters.... ... days later she ran screaming after the yatai promised as her dowry while Saotome Genma pulled it down the road and her clueless playmate waved cheerily from it's rear. ... after the insanity of the past day, she walked into the bathroom for a long relaxing soak, only to see a naked boy her age she had never seen before rise from the steaming water as she stepped in the door clad only in a towel "Yes, sempai." they finally nodded to Kitty. #Why is it,# Kitty wondered as she thought back to the madness that was the exchange students arrival and groaned, #that this fails to surprise me?# ****** Main Building (Advanced English): "Let me see if I understand this Ryoga," Everett said as he led the washed and fully clothed wanderer down the hall by the hand, "you tried to find your way back to the room, got lost outside _all_ _night_, and found yourself in the shower room in the wrong dormitory and jumped out the window before anybody came in and 'misunderstood'." "Yes." Ryoga said tersely, noticeably blushing and not meeting his eyes. "My entire family is like this, without a sense of direction." he quickly added. Everett contemplated the brooding figure he led down the hall. He had spotted him from the common kitchen as he wandered towards the woods that surrounded the much of the campus clad only in a towel and bandanna. Everett managed to get his attention and lead him back to the Dorm for a shower and breakfast, and then insisted on leading him to classes that morning. Ryoga had remained quiet and brooding all morning except when they bumped into Akane and Paige (whereupon he became a nervous, babbling wreck). #Yup, definite crush.# Everett decided as they approached Ryoga's classroom. Then he noticed what seemed like a faint yellow glow surrounding his companion. Before he could make up his mind whether or not it was a trick of the light, however, he was distracted by the bones in his hand shifting position. "Ryoga take it easy!" Everett nearly yelled as he tried to shake him with his free hand. "Nan- oh, forgive me." Ryoga said as he hurriedly released Everett's hand, "I was... thinking." "No harm done," Everett replied, wincing slightly as he made sure his hand was still functional, "just relax a little. And wait for me here after class, OK?" #Nobody would make up a lie that crazy# Everett concluded as Ryoga nodded in affirmation, #and nobody can fake that sense of direction all the time... looks like he's telling the truth.# ****** #... as far as it went.# Emma Frost noted as she sat in the classroom with her other two students for the morning. Both she and the others arrived before schedule and she had been telepathically monitoring the boys' conversation as they quietly awaited Ryoga. To tell the truth, Emma was still slightly uncomfortable with her current companions. She was used to knowing exactly what was on everybody's mind at all times, whether she used that knowledge or not. Unfortunately for her, Tendo Nabiki's psychic defenses proved as impervious as ever; and while Kuno Kodachi's thoughts were easily accessible, her brief visit into the girl's dreams the night before had her lying awake for hours and very, very, frightened of the young gymnast. The temptation presented by a nearby and unaware mind she was willing and able to probe trying to hide something proved too great to resist, and without a physical movement she plunged into his recent memories. ****** It's emaciated form was swathed in black bandages, it's fingers and toes elongated mockeries of human digits honed beyond razor sharpness, it's strangely inquisitive face surrounded by spikes, the coloring a deep blood red everywhere except for the solid blue orbs that served as it's (her?) eyes. She was staring down at him as she reached with her bladed hand. #I see he's met Penance.# Emma thought wryly as she 'saw' what the boy experienced last night, #Let us see... ran between her legs, cutting himself on her toe in the process... found his way out of the BioSphere... wandered around the forest until he found a spot to sleep.... #WAIT A MINUTE!# she almost said aloud as the reason for the nagging wrongness in the memories struck her, #He was no more than ankle high for most of the night!# The telepath probed deeper as Ryoga approached his seat, ferreting out whatever information that could explain a transformation that felt as routine (to Ryoga) as it was radical. #Valley of Cursed Springs?# she thought as she found some of his more significant memories, #Spring of Drowned Piglet... curse triggered by cold and hot water... oh my lord, P-Chan?!?# If it were not for the emotional self control that years ago earned her the title 'Ice Queen of Frost Enterprises', Emma would have fallen out of her chair and laughed herself sick. As it were, she did allow a faintly amused expression to reach her face as Ryoga took his seat. #Frost-sensei!# The thought rang in Emma's head despite the fact that it was not her's. Not precisely projected, the mental voice still sounded loud and clear against the psychic background noise. A strange chill went down her spine as she slowly turned towards the source of the call only to stare into the half-closed eyes of Tendo Nabiki. #Sensei,# Nabiki thought 'audibly', her face remaining utterly emotionless, #is it normal procedure for instructors to probe the minds of students without their permission?# Emma fought to keep her reaction from her face and body as she frantically (and unsuccessfully) probed for any weakening or chinks within the girl's psi-shields #I... err... no.# the telepath finally 'said', realizing _how_ much she had come to rely on subtle application of her telepathic powers to lie convincingly. Even the telepathic nature of Emma's response failed to conceal her nervousness and shock over being spotted so quickly, especially by someone who had no trace of psychic ability that she could detect. Not surprisingly, the implications were not lost on young Nabiki. #May we... discuss this policy sometime later then ma'am?# Nabiki asked politely, allowing Emma to sense her very real anticipation of future profit at that point. #Very well,# Emma all but snarled, humiliated at being manipulated so easily by a head-blind child. Then aloud to the oblivious class she said, "Now let's get started, shall we?" ****** Night; Nekohanten: "Calm yourself my friend." Cologne told Gateway as the latter stared at the basement's ceiling, "the spies outside see nothing out of the ordinary if I do not wish it." Gateway looked at her with a dubious expression, but settled to the ground and silently took the tea that was offered. "I suppose that you've finally run out of words, considering how excessively you talked in your youth." Cologne sighed, "I am to assume that you are here to reassure me that my great-granddaughter is in perfect safety and Charles Xavier has no connection with the watchers set upon me." it was not a question. "I suspected as much." she continued, reading the genuine astonishment on the old man's face with ease, "His involvement in the 'mutant rights' controversy sparked my suspicions, but I realize now that he is not one of Nathanel's lackeys. A comparatively benign rival perhaps, but no lackey. "In fact, Professor Xavier has more in common with the mutant 'super-heroes' called X-Men than a similar interest in the welfare of 'Homo superior', correct?" Gateway only nodded, stroking his beard as he tried to figure out how the old woman learned these secrets while spending the better part of the past half century in the remote Joketsuzoku village. "I shall speak to your great-granddaughter about this," Gateway finally said in an accented voice scratchy with disuse as he finally rose, "it seems she fears the worst and is willing to act on that assumption." "No." ordered Cologne, "It would be best if Shampoo put some work into discovering the truth for herself, I cannot be there to think for her all the time and such an exercise of the mind would be beneficial for the child." Gateway simply glared at her grimly as he began to unwind the bullroarer in preparation for his return to the 'States. "Not a word about my 'Machiavellian Scheming' _young_ _man_," Cologne responded, "if I were as 'ethical' as you liked, our bleached bones may still be under Uluru." "And what of Sinister?" Gateway asked, locking eyes with the older woman. "Xavier's minions have dealt with the whelp in the past, yes?" Cologne noted, holding up a hand to silence Gateway's retort, "I suspect that between the 'instructors' at this place, Shampoo, the Son-in-Law, and _his_ friends; young Essex may find his hands full. "Consider your silence payment of the debt you owe me Australian," she concluded with a note of command, "you have certainly done more over less." Gateway did not answer, but grimly nodded his head as he whirled the bullroarer over his head and opened a hole in the air from which blinding light issued forth. Cologne was forced to turn her eyes from the radiance and when she could look in that direction again, Gateway was gone. ****** Noon; Courtyard, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters: Saotome Ranma felt fortunate as he strolled out into the sunlight. His day had been quiet after class began (considering who his four classmates were, it was a miracle) and Logan-sensei had actually held his interest (#Unlike _some_ people.# he mused, recalling the squeaking bundle of hyperactivity that insisted on being called Hinako-sensei) as he drilled them in the rudiments of spoken English for almost 3 hours straight before sending _most_ of his class to lunch before anyone else. #At least Pop ain't gonna yell at me about sleepin' in class for a while.# The boy chuckled to himself, recalling how his father awoke to a harsh '' whispered into his ear before he even had a chance to start snoring. _He_ was still in class, probably being discreetly dressed-down and buried in homework. As for the others.... Ranma's smile faded as worry tugged at him. The fact that Kuno and Mousse tried to maim him and hug Shampoo respectively was normal enough (he was a _little_ surprised that they waited until they were all out the door), but his only companion at the moment was beginning to unnerve him. Shampoo had not made any move to shower him with her normal affection since their arrival at the airport; but had silently remained by his side with a wary expression all day, simply back-fisting Mousse into the wall without even looking as Ranma amused himself with Kuno before clocking the kendoist. Now she simply shadowed him silently as he walked outside and looked about for less eerie companionship. "'Oy! Angelo!" he called as he recognized the figure leaning against the wall. ****** Angelo Espinosa looked up at the sound of his name and shrugged as he stubbed out the cigarette and headed over to join his roommate. As he strode over, he could not help but wonder about the easygoing boy he met last night. #Weird,# he thought as he glanced down at the skin of his hand and made a mental effort to draw it somewhat tighter over his flesh and tweak the color in the direction of the olive tone he once bore naturally, #everybody that saw me while this was happinin' freaked and wouldn't come near me... _he_ just- eh?# He paused as he felt the intense gaze of the purple-haired woman standing slightly behind Ranma. Something about her posture tugged at him, and he instinctively made ready to either fight or run (depending on whether his opponent came at him with fists or a firearm) while Ranma blinked in confusion. Then Shampoo turned aside, dismissing him as an immediate threat as she maintained her vigil. "What's her problem?" Angelo asked Ranma. "I don't understand." Ranma enunciated, shrugging. "*sigh* What is wrong with her?" Angelo repeated as clearly and distinctly as he could. "I say I don't-" Ranma began before figuring out the confusion, "I understand Angelo, I no understand Shampoo!" "She ain't sa-" Angelo began "I thing he meant he doesn't know, Angelo." Paige helpfully noted as she, Ukyo, and Akane caught up with them. #She reminds me of... me,# Angelo thought as he took another look at the wary Joketsuzoku, #when I was running through the wrong turf wearin' the wrong colors and _waitin'_ to get jumped.# ****** Akane's thoughts also concerned Shampoo, but were a lot less analytical. "" she glowered as she gestured towards her fiance's shadow. Shampoo glanced at her rival and an expression of annoyance flashed briefly across her face before she turned aside. "" she answered tersely. #No insults?# something in the back of Akane's mind noted with surprise, #No threats or taunting? What's going on?# #GRRRRR.# the rest of the aforementioned mind thought, plainly annoyed at Shampoo's apparent dismissal. "" she finally snarled at Ranma. "" Ranma protested, "" "" "" "Are they _always_ like this?" Paige asked Ukyo as she and Angelo listened to the escalating insults. "Un." Ukyo mumbled as she watched the scene before her sadly. "Well, 'Least _you_ hide in your books too much to worry about not having boys to fight over Country Mouse." Angelo observed as he grinned at the blonde. "Right, like your charm's ever had girls fighting over you, Loser." Paige countered as she stuck her tongue out. As Ukyo glanced at her fellow spectators and started feeling even more depressed; Jonothon closed his brown eyes and sadly turned away from the window in the dorm, slowly making his way downstairs. Before the bickering outside could continue, a shadow fell across the walkway from nowhere, all but panicking the humans below. "" Monet said mildly as she hovered overhead. Shampoo glanced upward, her annoyed frown returning to stay. "Go away Dark Girl." she said in careful, accented english. "[Remember that you are a guest here _little_ _girl_,]" Monet replied in chinese as she looked contemptuously at the woman near her (designer) boot tips, "[and show more respect towards your hosts.]" "[Respect is given to those who earn it fellow student,]" Shampoo countered as her eyes narrowed, "[and at least _I_ can defend myself... or did you forget what happened to that perfect little nose yesterday?]" "[I do not have my back turned at the moment.]" Monet said icily as she drifted down to ground level and stared the shorter woman in the eyes, "[would you care to refresh my memory?]" "" Ranma inquired as he scratched his head. Nobody answered. "They... glowin'?" Angelo asked as he squinted at the two sinophones, trying to make out the blue auras that shimmered faintly in the midday sun. "Yes," Ukyo said in a worried tone, "is ki... energy from anger...." Shampoo tensed. Her first instinct was to throw down the gauntlet and beat some humility into this insufferably arrogant pest. Unfortunately not only would such recreation distract her from her primary purpose here, but by distracting her betrothed she could make him more vulnerable from an attack from behind. #Decisions, decisions....# she mused. "" yelled Ryoga from behind them as Everett groaned, berating himself for not remembering to _avoid_ the Lost Boy's eternal rival as he guided him to the kitchen/lounge. "" cried Kodachi as she bounded towards the little knot of students. Ranma rapidly thought through the situation. He actually enjoyed his usual bouts with Ryoga (weekly or whenever he was in the Tokyo area, whenever was more frequent), finding him the closest thing to decent competition he could find on a regular basis. Kodachi, on the other hand, scared the dickens out of him. "" Ranma shouted as he leapt off, "" "" Ryoga bellowed as he charged after him, Kodachi following with a gleeful laugh. Shampoo turned to give one final Glare of Death to Monet before running to see to her bridegroom's safety. Akane sighed and turned around, knowing that her sister had arrived and expecting her to be taking wagers from the local students already. They both froze. ****** "K-konichi... ano... g-g-good afternoon." Nabiki babbled nervously, trying to rally her thoughts into coherence. "urm... er... Hello, Nabiki." Monet said, lost within those chocolate brown eyes once more. They stood for several seconds, trying to think of something to say or even think straight period when they noticed the 6 pairs of eyes staring at them with a no little surprise and confusion. Nabiki came to her senses first, glancing around at her observers and striding off in a random direction as quickly as she could without looking like she was running. Monet blinked, assumed a reasonable approximation of her usual aloof expression, and took off in a vertical direction just as promptly. Nabiki happened to glance over her shoulder at that moment, just in time to see her rise into the sky like a goddess. Without even thinking, she followed the mutant's path upward as she brought her clenched hand up from her side. As Monet lazily arced towards the further reaches of campus, the sun glimmering off of her blouse and making her skin shine like bronze, Nabiki snapped a perfect photo with her most expensive camera. ****** Akane, Angelo, Everett, Paige, Shampoo, and Ukyo did little but stare at the spot where the two 'Junior Icewomen' met and try to figure out exactly what happened. Not surprisingly, something else demanded their attention before they could organize their thoughts. "" *CRASH* "BAKUSAI-TEN-KETSU!!!!" *BOOM* "OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!" The sounds of random property destruction wafting across campus brought them all out of their reverie, and all save two ran towards the source. Paige glanced at Akane as the latter turned away and snorted, then she ran off as well. #Idiot brought it on himself.# Akane thought, unconsciously recalling the daily battles between herself and 20+ lovesick jocks that sought to fulfill Kuno's requirement for even _thinking_ about asking her out. She believed she was skilled in the arts of combat then, and the boys she constantly beat up tended to agree with her. Then Ranma showed up. The memory of the compact figure dodging her blows with embarrassing ease was galling enough; but the realization that of the freaks that followed her fiance to Nerima, she could only _just_ hold her own against _one_ of them was utterly infuriating sometimes. Her hands faded from sight as she seethed, dwelling on the fact that she had wound up as a Captured Maiden to be Rescued several times over the past year or so. Defeated... helpless.... "AARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" she suddenly screamed, spinning around, yanking her hands back into reality with a massive wooden mallet clasped between them, and venting her anger on the walkway for lack of a better target. Seconds later, she slumped to the ground and sighed sadly, staring at the cracked concrete as the mallet faded from existence once more. Her rational mind constantly told her that superior skill could only be obtained through more training, perhaps something along the lines of Ryoga's constant wanderings. *sigh* #But if only I could begin to learn _ONE_ technique,# Akane thought, #just one single technique that RANMA hasn't mastered or improved on....# Suddenly she perked up and dug into her bookbag, recalling the one thing that she felt sure she could impress Ranma with. Something that occasionally cheered her up anyway. With a smile of triumph, she pulled the notes she made on the flight to the 'States. With a lighter step, she headed for the kitchen. ****** Basement, Boys' Dorm: Jonothan sulked sadly as he walked towards his room, lost in bitter thoughts of his own. #Get it through yer head Jono,# he sighed as he pictured Paige's smiling face and heard her cheerful laugh in his head as he felt the scarves/bandages over where his chest once was, #no normal gel'd ever love a freak like _this_! Be grateful she even talks t' you without flinching when she sees what's under-# *BONK* #Huh?# Jono exclaimed as he rubbed his head, noticing the new wall for the first time. He glanced around at the new construction (#So _that's_ what the noise was last night...#) and stepped through the door in the wall. The chamber was only big enough for one and rather dimly lit in the center, while three of the walls were starkly spotlighted with florescent tubes that lit up as soon as he entered. On the one to the left were numerous snapshots and mini-posters of Tendo Akane running, shattering bricks, performing katas, beating people up (usually Ranma), and so forth. The wall to the right was also adorned with pictures, but of a more risque nature. The strange girl in these images was asian, with fire-red hair and a naggingly familiar face; her image captured either sleeping sprawled out on a futon in a too-tight tank top and boxers, or hanging around a house and courtyard in various states of undress (and frequently soaking wet) with an almost mannish casualness. The wall directly in front of Jono was totally blank except for a single word in latin script at the bottom: Monet. The mutant called Chamber shook his head and backed out of the shrine, feeling genuine pity for the objects of worship therein. ****** Outside Garage, XSfGY: Sean Cassidy shook his head as he looked around. He had read (translated) reports of the alleged discipline problems and property damage figures associated with these students, but despite what he and his daughter saw when they were at the airport he did not... _could_ not completely believe them. Until now. He looked first at the rather large crater in the driveway, then at Ranma (who slouched and hung his head) and Ryoga (who was too busy glaring at Ranma to notice). "Would any of ye' kindly tell me how this happened?" he asked sternly, silently cursing his nonexistent japanese. "It was... that monster Hibiki," Kodachi gasped dramatically, demonstrating the immunity she had developed to her potions by shoving the bouquet out of her face and using the wall to push herself to her feet, "He has *cough* pledged to kill *gasp* my beloved... only wanted to defend...." "I guess Ranma and Ryoga have a bit of a rivalry going Mr. Cassidy." Everett noted with a sigh, "They claim to get into um... tussles like this quite a bit back home." Sean sighed and rubbed his temples as he contemplated the prospect of 'frequent tussles' that caused more property damage in one day than normally occurred in a month. "Maybe you need a more structured setting in which to work off your... frustrations." Emma Frost observed as she stepped around the corner, "There are a few clearings in the Biosphere where we routinely use for self defense training. Perhaps we should have regular sparring sessions in there as opposed to...." she gestured eloquently, pretending to ignore Ryoga's nervousness, "Beginning tonight, perhaps?" ****** #_Why_ did ye do that Emma?# Sean thought as the two administrators left the scene of battle. #Aren't _you_ the one who prefers the 'carrot' when dealing with the children in our care?# Emma responded smugly, #In any case, we now have a perfect opportunity to examine these 'advanced martial arts' firsthand. Not to mention avoiding further damage to most of the grounds by focusing most of the fighting in the Biosphere.# #One question then, Emma.# Sean asked, #What will we do about Penance?# #...# ****** Early Afternoon; Woodlands; XSfGY grounds: "" "" The shouting would have gained Logan's attention almost anywhere on campus. As it were, once he had browbeaten Genma into submission and set him to work on one of the more tedious extra credit assignments, he had retired to the forests toward the back of campus to contemplate how to tell Shampoo the truth about this school and it's purpose without having to cripple her if she got violent. As he considered how his current vulnerability complicated his chosen life, the approaching teens attracted his attention and the sound of a fall prompted him to investigate. As for Ranma, he had been avoiding another of Akane's 'treats' in the most expedient manner he knew. Unfortunately, he couldn't resist teasing her by staying only just ahead of her and tossing the occasional wisecrack over his shoulder instead of running flat out. One insult tossed behind him at the wrong time and an exposed root underfoot demonstrated the folly of this tactic, and before he could scramble to his feet Akane was upon him. Akane was straddling her betrothed's chest and trying to force a hamburger into his mouth when a shadow fell across them both, scaring her half to death as she jumped to her feet to find the canadian not a meter from them. "" he said after a moment of cool observation. "I... ano... cooked this for Ranma..." Akane answered as she blushed crimson and held out the slightly battered burger, "... but he... ran away." "She try poison me!" Ranma protested. Logan raised an eyebrow at the boy, than looked at Akane and discreetly sniffed the item in question. Taking this as a request, Akane politely handed it to him. #No toxins I recognize in here...# thought Logan as he looked at it with a dubious expression, #but this smells... wrong.# Then his saw Akane's worried and expectant expression out of the corner of his eye and sighed inwardly. Cursing his paternalistic weakness for teenage girls, he took a bite of the hamburger, chewed quickly, and swallowed. Then the cramps hit. The mutant clutched his belly as he staggered back, the 'food' crushed forgotten between his fingers and as he leaned heavily against the tree and began breathing deeply, waiting for his recuperative powers to break down the... substance he had swallowed. After one of the longest 20 seconds he had experienced lately, he opened his eyes to see Ranma's worried face inches from his own. "" Ranma asked. "Yea, fine." Logan responded in a hoarse voice as he levered himself away from the tree, picked bark from the back of his sweater with his clean hand, and wiped his brow with the back of his other one. Spotting Akane's dejected form behind Ranma, he debated being diplomatic for a moment, then sighed and leveled with her. "" the mutant said bluntly, "" "" Ranma piped in. Akane slugged the boy in the gut, then sighed sadly. "" she said to herself, "" Logan jerked his head up at that last statement, then stepped around Ranma to look her directly in the eye. "" he asked the startled girl, his voice tense and his eyes hard. "" Akane stammered fearfully, "" Logan broke into a sprint towards the center of campus. ****** Student Lounge, near Girls' Dorm, XSfGY "" Kuno Tatewaki groaned as he lay writhing on the ground. "Easy Ev," Jubilee said as the Everett sat beside her with his head between his knees, "you're gonna be OK... just breath deep." "Just got th' meat yesterday." Paige gasped out between heaves as she bent over the sink in the adjacent kitchen, "_How'd_ it go bad like... *ULLPP*" "Was not the meat," Ukyo corrected, trying not to look at the extensive greenish-grey folds of skin hanging off of Angelo as he slumped against the sink, "it was Akane." Logan muttered a curse under his breath as he burst into the room. He glanced at Jubilee and beckoned the self-appointed medic to a corner of the room as Ranma burst into the door. "Ranma-sama!" Kodachi said as she looked up from the chemistry equipment she was using to analyze the hamburger and leapt toward him, "" "Your girl tryin' t' kill us, Saotome?" Angelo asked his roommate wearily as Ukyo re-holstered her battle-spatula. "No!" Ranma replied defensively, "Was aku... asa... mistake!" "Akane-san meant no harm," Ryoga said darkly after guzzling another liter of soda in an attempt to wash the foul taste from his mouth, "she just tried to cook a... lunch that _someone_ would least _taste_!" "PAIGE!!" Akane yelled in dismay as she arrived on the scene, "I sorry! I no try to-" "Geez Louise 'Kane!" Jubilee exclaimed from over Logan's shoulder, "What'd ya _put_ in those things?!?" "Jubilation." Logan said evenly, silencing the girl before she could begin ranting. "" Logan told the other students, "" "Sensei please," Akane said shyly, "may I help in the i- i-?" "Iie." Logan said firmly, "" With that, he walked out the front door. Nobody noticed Shampoo follow him out a moment later. ****** Basement, Main Building, XSfGY: Shampoo crept silently down the hall, following the unconcerned steps that echoed from around the corner. #Why not take them to this 'infirmary' when they are so ill?# the Jokutsuzoku thought, #And why would he insist on going alone unless there was something to hide?# She had tracked Logan from the narrow shadows as best she could as he crossed the courtyard apparently lost in thought. In all honesty, she would have rather taken him from behind the moment the reached the apparently empty basement and beaten some much desired answers out of him, but she had the feeling that he was too skilled for her to take down unaided without rendering him unable to talk and/or making a _lot_ of noise. So she followed the inattentive instructor inside on hearing alone, hoping to corner him for interrogation. Suddenly the footsteps froze, and she did likewise. ****** #Not bad.# Logan mused, #Must've hunted a bit.# It was obvious to him that Shampoo was following him (even if she _had_ escaped his notice outside, her heartbeat was a beacon to his enhanced hearing at this range). Thus he had taken a longer route to the infirmary than he had first intended, intentionally bypassing the major concealed entrances to the mini-complex Frost built for training her 'special' students when this was the Massachusetts Academy. Instead heading for a back door hidden in the basement behind simple false paneling as the girl shadowed him. A direct confrontation in the open was out of the question and he knew it. Shampoo was in no mood to sit down and hear an explanation of her own volition; too confident in her abilities to be frightened into surrender by the sight of his claws; and too skilled, too fast, and (as her entrance that morning demonstrated) _way_ to strong for him to stop physically without using said claws. #Gonna have t' talk to her face to face,# the mutant thought as he stood before the palm-print activated entrance, #and lettin' her wear herself out on a pair o' titanium bulkheads while I get the medicine back to the others ain't a bad idea....# ****** Shampoo blinked in surprise at the silence of the door mechanism. A quiet hiss, and she heard Logan walk into a room. She sprinted around the corner just in time to see the panel shut. #Concealed door in the wall?# Shampoo mused, #Should be easy to break down... too easy.# _Nobody_ as skilled as she sensed Logan was would not have at least suspected that they were being followed; of this, the Joketsuzoku was certain. And to risk using a secret entrance to anywhere when there is a chance that it could be seen stank of stupidity... or cleverness. #It seems 'Sensei' wants me to go through _that_ door...# Shampoo decided as she focused her mind and reached out of this reality with her hand, absently recalling the two years she spent mastering what she saw Mousse do when they were nine... while the boy honed that same skill beyond what she could ever hope to accomplish. #... so I'll make my own.# she smiled as she drew back her bonbori. ****** Logan suppressed an oath as he heard and felt the sound of steel on steel, then reached for a nearby console and activated the intercom system Frost and Kitty insisted on briefing him about. "Should've remembered kid ain't a strong believer in walls." Logan muttered as he set the speaker near the basement entrance to 'Listen Only', "If I blew this one...." Even with the limitations of the small microphone, Logan could easily pick up the distinct breathing of a woman fighting back panic by willpower alone. After a few seconds, he let out the breath he had been holding he heard Shampoo control her breathing and begin walking away fairly calmly. #Nothing she saw spooked 'er enough to bolt." Logan concluded as he headed back to retrieve the broad spectrum anti-toxin stored in the medi-lab, #Still, I better keep an eye on her.# His frown then deepened as he remembered how his one-time sensei Ogun conjured shuriken or smoke bombs from thin air on occasion and began to realize exactly _how_ dangerous these kids might be. ****** Moments before Logan left Shampoo stepped away from the wall, her face pale and eyes wide in shock as the massive mace dropped from her fingers. The paneling and plaster was crushed beneath her blow as she expected, but beneath the false front was a barrier of some gleaming metal she had never seen. _It_ noticeably dented her bonbori. It was obvious to Shampoo that her hosts were hiding something out of the ordinary and potentially dangerous from her and her companions. Moreover, the wisest course of action at the moment struck her as something along the lines of 'Grab Bike, Grab Ranma, and Get Out Of Here _Now_!' #Hold it!# said something in the back of her mind before she took a single step, #You have no real idea what's going on here or who knows about it. If you panic now and let everybody realize that you suspect something, who knows what could be done to the ones you leave behind even _IF_ you got away in one piece. If you stay and pretend like nothing has happened, you could get to the bottom of this without anyone being the wiser until it's too late.# Shampoo nodded to herself and carefully slipped out of the basement after slowing her breathing putting the bonbori back where she got it from. ****** Head Administrator's Office; Main Building; XSfGY: #Cassidy must be rubbing off on me.# Emma Frost thought as she recalled her reluctance to rewrite the Joketsuzoku memories and be done with it. The mutant sighed and shook her head as she sat back in her chair. She had sensed Shampoo's suspicion and worry before the girl entered the building, and it was refreshingly easy to monitor her thoughts as she trailed Logan to the sub-basement. When it became clear that the barbarian would bolt and/or become dangerously violent, she had stepped in and performed a bit of psionic 'damage control'. With that task done, she reached out to another mind exiting the building. #Logan,# the telepath asked, #what exactly were you thinking?# #Figured it'd be safer t' try tellin' her everything now than to wait for her to guess wrong and panic.# Logan replied calmly, #Or do you want her to run off thinkin' we're th' enemy.# #If you had come to me about the girl's suspicions earlier,# Emma noted, #I could have given her whatever answers she needed without this subterfuge.# #She needs answers she can trust Frost,# he answered bluntly, #not somebody playin' with her head.# With that, Logan used the training Xavier gave him to shut Emma out of his head as he headed back to the student lounge. ****** Late Afternoon; Girls' Dorm, XSfGY: Nabiki sat quietly on the porch, lost in thought as quietly soaked in the sunlight. She had a brief chuckle moments ago as she recalled the history texbook she had read earlier and wondered what Kuno's reaction would be to the chapters on the Pacific War would be, then attempted to calculate odds on the inevitable fights what would occur both inside and outside this 'school's' BioSphere. Now she stared silently at the photograph of one of those destined to do battle and found herself dreaming of flight, of being carried into the clouds by gentle brown hands that could rend steel, of looking into those eyes and.... #What am I _thinking_!!!!# Nabiki mentally yelled, #I mean she's attractive and all but so's Ranma! Really what does she have except for that hair... that smooth skin... her voice... those eyes... I wonder what her laugh is like?# "" "" Nabiki dead-panned as she noticed Kuno Tatewaki standing before her with the familiar expression of warring pride and desperation on his face, "" "<'Tis true I was felled by the same strange plague that struck down all those the Dark Mage Saotome did not see fit to protect,>" Kuno proclaimed, "" *THUD* "" Nabiki said as her best customer picked himself up from where he fainted, "" "" Kuno announced (much to her surprise), "" Nabiki blinked in surprise and paled slightly as she remembered that the photograph she had been mooning over was still in her left hand. She moved to conceal it but martial arts trained and lust motivated reflexes proved more than her match. "" Kuno whispered as he stared at the picture, then he dug into his robes to pull out a bulging wallet. "" the kendoist proclaimed, "" Nabiki sat frozen as Kuno ranted; eagerness, even greed at the prospect of a single photo making her more money than two rolls of film containing her usual models would have warring with... something else. "Hey, what's going on down there?" Paige groaned loudly from within her room overhead. "...." "<15,000?>" Nabiki clenched her eyes shut as she snatched the wallet from Kuno's hand, wrenched out the final amount by feel, and unceremoniously dropped it as she half-ran towards the woods. The coldly rational side of her mind told her that it was simply a photo of an attractive woman, something she sold to the idiot on a regular basis. But then why did she feel so... dirty? ****** Evening; BioSphere, XSfGY: "OOOF!" *THUD* Saotome Genma picked himself up from where he landed after being knocked out of the air; embarrassment over being shown up by his own student warring with pride in his son and heir as he watched Ranma complete his leap by bouncing off a large oak and landing lightly on both feet before strolling to his side and bowing with him to their audience. "Awesome." Jubilee muttered from where she sat beneath a tree, her normal 'cool' shattered by awe at the sight of over ten minutes of midair combat between two nominally earth-bound opponents. Ranma _thought_ he noticed someone else watching them from behind her during his third (or was it fifth) mid-air pass, but could see nothing but deeper shadows whenever he got a chance to look. "" Ranma said to the older man with a cocky smirk. #Now if only the boy'd learn to respect his elders.# Genma thought sourly. Instead of yelling at him as usual, he decided to demonstrate his own mastery and dropped down to sweep the boy's feet out from under him. An eyeblink later he found himself flat on his back with his son standing on his chest with his hands in his pockets. "" Ranma muttered as he shook his head, "" Ranma then hopped off and turned toward the opposite end of the clearing as a familiar form in jeans and a tank top stepped from the shadows opposite Jubilee. "" Logan noted with genuine interest, "" "" Genma responded proudly before beginning a litany of the history and power of the Saotome-ryu. The sound of Kitty hitting the ground hard from the other side of the clearing promptly ended said litany. "Are you OK Pryde-sempai?" Akane asked slowly as she helped Kitty up. "I'll be (ow) fine," the older girl replied, "but 'three out of five' was _not_ a good idea. You're stronger than you look." "Thank you," Akane beamed, glancing meaningfully at an unusually contemplative Ranma, "you fight very well too." "" her fiance thought aloud, trying to understand how Akane could touch a woman capable of dodging too quickly for _him_ to see her move. Akane saw red. Were she not so winded by her sparring session she would have beaten him senseless for that crack. Instead, she made it a point to trod _heavily_ on his feet as she stormed into the woods. After a few minutes she leaned heavily against a large tree and thought back on the match and Ranma's comment. To be honest, she was surprised by the comparative ease with which she beat the Kitty. While she _did_ have a vast advantage over Pryde in brute strength and toughness; the gaijin not only outclassed her in agility and speed, but her refined fighting style held more than a hint of a ninja's killing arts. #She had trouble blocking....# Akane thought at she replayed the fight in her head. It was not as if Kitty did not know the principles of close quarters defense and evasion in theory, but the difference between intellectual knowledge and bone-deep reflex was painfully obvious in comparison to her skills outside of that. #She seemed so... distracted too,# Akane realized belatedly, #like she was concentrating on something else... or resisting her own reflexes.# ****** "" grumbled Ranma as he rubbed his foot in annoyance and stared off into the trees. "" Kitty said calmly, cutting off Genma before he started raving about the boy driving off his fiancee, "" Logan winked at the young woman, than looked Ranma over carefully for several moments. "" he finally stated. "" Ranma stated with an arrogant smile, "" Logan's eyes gleamed as he cracked his knuckles. "" ****** Ranma was past frustrated. He would never have willingly admitted it, but he was beginning to worry. Within seconds of the sparring session's beginning it was obvious that Logan could hardly to match his speed and agility, nor could he do more than match _Akane's_ physical strength. Half an hour later it was equally obvious that those limitations were the only reasons Ranma was still standing. Early on in the match, the older man tried aggressive frontal attacks only to be sent reeling back before he could get in more thanone solid blow. Then he narrowed his eyes and circled Ranma cautiously, prodding the boy just enough to force him to attack on his own terms. Whenever Ranma did so, he found himself stymied by a bewildering synthesis of counterstrikes, feints, and attacks from scores of styles he did not even recognize. On a few occasions the canadian settled into a pattern long enough for Ranma to attempt to exploit it, only to send him sprawling with some esoteric occidental technique from nowhere. On others he simply switched from one to another seamlessly, recognizing and ignoring Ranma's feints with a frightening accuracy he might have expected from Cologne. At times Ranma even pierced his defenses to land some good blows, only to receive at least twice what he dealt before he could get a chance to retract the limb. #What _is_ this guy?# Ranma wondered as he backed off panting and narrowed his eyes at the mountain man, #He's not even breathin' hard and... ain't got a mark on him!?!# Then he glanced from the corner of his eyes and realized that all the students aside from Ryoga was watching the fight raptly, even the kid's Akane poisoned had crawled out of bed to join the audience. Ranma gritted his teeth in anger at the prospect of losing so publicly. He had not even considered his 'advanced' techniques, nor had he brought more than a fraction of his full strength into play. #No.# he growled inwardly as he dismissed the ideas, #The old man's going down by skill alone.# Even so he redoubled his efforts on the next attack, absorbing Logan's blows long nought to nail him with body blows to his ribs and a jumping spin-kick toward his head. Then as he landed, Ranma went white as he saw Logan stumble back with a noticeable gash on the side of his face. #Masaka!# Ranma gasped as he stepped forward, #I-I _couldn't_ have hit him that hard!# Before he could draw breath to offer assistance or call for help, Logan locked eyes with him and a predatory smile spread across his creased features as he wiped the blood from his cheek. The cut was gone. Forcing his heart down from his throat, Ranma stepped brought his hands up in a semblance of a ready stance at Logan's unspoken command to continue. The boy did not last much longer. ****** Night; Student Lounge, XSfGY: Monet's eyes narrowed as she snatched the massive bouquet out of Sasuke's hands with one hand and lifted his master from where he kneeled before her by the back of his robes with the other. She had come to Paige's impromptu showing of "The 7 Samurai" in the hopes of finding Nabiki and possibly getting up enough courage to talk sensibly to her. While Paige, Akane, Everett, and Ryoga were watching with some interest; Jubilee was yawning, Angelo was sound asleep, Ranma looked like he was trying to solve a frustrating puzzle while That Purple Haired Maniac was standing guard over him, and Nabiki was sitting in the back of the room trying to avoid her gaze. Then Tatewaki's buck-toothed ninja/manservant showed up with not only the _sixth_ flower arrangement of the day, but with 'His Lordship' in tow as well. "" Monet began coldly, interrupting his poetry recital as she lifted the boy to head level and looked him in the eye while crumpling the roses in her free hand like tissue paper, " "" Monet concluded as she showed him the green pulp oozing from between her fingers. Kuno's brow furrowed in thought and confusion as he hung from the mutant's hand, as if his mind was trying to bend itself around a concept that defied the very laws of reality. "" Kuno said slowly at last, "" Monet just shut her eyes and breathed deeply as she went over the legal consequences of tearing people in half in a desperate attempt to keep herself from doing so. "" Ranma said as he stuck his head between Monet's and Tatewaki's. "" Kuno cried as he twisted toward the pig-tailed boy and pulled out his shinai, "" Then he launched a flurry of strokes faster than the untrained human eye could see. Grateful for the distraction, Ranma casually bobbed, weaved, ducked, and dodged as Monet sighed. "" Monet asked as a wall cracked and began to crumble from the air pressure of Kuno's strikes. "" Nabiki muttered half to herself from across the room. "I see...." Monet muttered as she turned and examined the pattern of Kuno's strikes. Ranma froze in mid-bend as Monet reached out and snatched Kuno's blade out of hands with considerable (to _him_) speed, and tossed said samurai over her shoulder (and into the furthest wall) with a casual flick of her wrist. Kitty poked her head through the doorway (making sure the door was open first) and looked on numbly as gravity pulled Kuno out of a fresh impression in the wall and onto the floor, then turned to glare at Monet. "Tatewaki was attacking Ranma, Katherine." the Moor explained calmly as she carefully examined the wooden blade, "I only disabled him in order to prevent further injury or property-." "" Kuno cried out as he sat up abruptly, "" "... damage" Monet muttered as she snapped the shinai between her fingers. Kitty sighed and shook her head as Tatewaki fell face first onto the card table Akane just bounced off his head. "Just hit him harder next time, please?" she asked, beginning to fully realize what she and the others had gotten themselves into. ****** Night; Forest, XSfGY Grounds. Logan had been performing katas for over 3 hours now while contemplating the sparring match earlier that evening. It was invigorating to engage in combat for no reason than to demonstrate skill; even moreso given that he had done so only infrequently in the past decade or so, and not at all in recent months. To fight, not as a berserk half animal, not as a warrior battling his enemies or avenging past wrongs, not as a teacher bringing youngsters to their full potential, not even as a hero defending the innocent; but as a man and artist battling a near-equal had brought him to a meditative state he had nearly forgotten. He recalled pushing himself, pulling out every non-crippling technique he knew and finding himself needing almost all of them to hold his own against the stronger and faster opponent. But still, the blows that injured him also disturbed him greatly. #Ain't surprised the kid over-estimated me.# he thought, realizing how a healing factor that healed minor bruises as quickly as they are made and granted near immunity to fatigue could give the illusion of invincibility, #He never lost control, never hit harder than he thought I could take, but those punches would've went _through_ a normal man's ribcage.# Three months ago, the greatest concern such a miscalculation would have caused Logan was whether Ranma's hands would heal correctly. After Magneto used his powers to leach the unbreakable adamantium from his skeleton and pull it out of him through his pores, however, he was but flesh and (regenerative abilities aside) nearly as vulnerable as any human. He twisted his torso, forcing himself to feel his muscles slide along his entire ribcage; even if a fracture along a single rib had healed cleanly, he would have noticed the callus for the next day if he looked for it. There was no sign they had even cracked. Smoothly bringing the kata to a stop, Logan dropped into a full lotus position and closed his eyes in preparation for a night of meditation. As an afterthought, he extended from the back of his hands the foot-long blades of living bone that he had discovered within his arms a week after the Avalon incident. With that done he sat still and reached within himself, searching for the place he had found in battle with Saotome Ranma. If his eyes were open, he might have noticed the faint red glow of chi, curling smoke-like from his claws. ****** To be continued ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here are a few teasers from the remaining chapters (total of 6): ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Chapter 4: A field trip to New York brings Ranma, Jubilee, Ryoga, Logan, and Ukyo to the heart of an already lively town. Meanwhile an accidental discovery, a slit throat, and a long simmering grudge brings Shampoo and Monet to _serious_ blows. Needless to say, a few revelations occur here. Chapter 5: As Tendo Akane begins her ascent to power, an english teacher brings down the X-Men and a few old fiends attack the kids in Massachusetts. Chapter 6: Two Words: Rescue Mission. The newest students at XSfGY release old enemies and older magics to raid the lair of an ancient enigma.