Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shots in the Dark ❯ Shared 3 ( Chapter 11 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Jim Ohki 
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 505 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 505 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I make no claims at ownership of any copyrighted characters, places or events used herein. The only thing I make a claim to is this fic, which originated in my head and any original characters created by me herein. The following was made for public consumption at zero profit, and is not for sale except to the owning companies. Yes, I dream big.
Shared Trouble Part Three
By: Jim Ohki
“AH!” screamed Ranma as he entered his room for his nap, finding that the Panda had left a nasty surprise in his bed.
Those down below, minus the blown away Tenchi ran upstairs to find out what the problem was, only to be bowled over by the object of their search as he jumped from the upper landing.
The bodies hit the floor with a loud WHUMP, waking Tenchi to a pile of arms and legs that were starting to brawl as they tried to untangle themselves.
“Would you stop touching me? Why are you still touching me?” repeated the females, sounding like an old Bill Cosby comedy routine.
“ARGH! MY EYES!” shouted Ranma in the pile, his pigtail somehow visible and standing on end. “Oh well, if I shall die today I shall die a happy man.”
The mass of bodies stopped moving at his declaration, some confused by it and some afraid to move because of it. Those that were afraid, well . . .
“Are you looking up my dress?” demanded the five that had decided today was a good day to wear one. Not so much in the cases of Ayeka and Ryoko of course, as the only time they didn’t wear them was when they were in their combat forms. Kasumi, Shampoo and, oddly, Ukyo were attired in dresses as well.
“I’ll give you a hint,” he answered, his voice muffled by the number of bodies on and around him. Then the sound of him blowing on something could faintly be heard.
“ACK!” yelled the recipient, leaping out at his actions and scattering the pile about the already destroyed living room.
“What the hell is going on here?” demanded Seina, glad that with the exception of Neju or the times they ‘play’ dress up his wives had a thing for pants. Or at least lycra tights under their skirts.
“You don’t want to know,” answered Ranma, the last of the goofy grin fading from view. “Wow, that was nice.”
The girls all turned red, only one in embarrassment.
“Can we get this show on the road?” demanded Ukyo as she squirmed, uncomfortable with the situation as it was. Her words had the desired effect as Ranma got back onto his feet and returned upstairs.
“Sure,” he said as he went, “Just have to burn something first.” As the others watched, completely baffled, they could hear the window open before his tatami came sailing into view outside followed by his signature ki blast. The poor thing stood no chance as most of it was vaporized instantly, the rest of it catching fire. After closing and locking the window, he returned to the living room.
“Add that to Saotome’s bill,” he stated matter-of-factly to Nabiki, before leaning in and whispering in her ear. Her expression went from surprised to disgusted to outrage.
“That’s gross, even for him,” she said after a moment of calculations. “You know, I think the only way to get the madness to stop is to get out of Nerima, period.”
“Bah, we’ll worry about that when we get back,” responded Ranma, before turning to see Soun finally join the land of the living.
“While you’re gone, I’m going to be looking for a new place of residence,” he declared as soon as his eyes beheld who was awake. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and trust you, Ranma. You take care of my daughters, and for the love of all that ever opposed the Master take better care of them than I did.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he waved the elder man off. “For now, I think we had better get going.” Seeing the Tendo patriarch nod in agreement, he proceeded to load all of his friends’ luggage onto his pack then heft it with minimal effort.
“This should be fun,” deadpanned Tenchi, not knowing what would happen next.
THREE HOURS LATER; TOKYO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
As the train came to a stop at the artificial island that was the airport, those in car three came pouring out like there was a volcano forming within. In a sense it was true, being that the harbinger of chaos had just arrived to unleash his horrors on the public at large.
“Would you stop that?” Ranma asked a random stranger that had seen his alternate form when of all things, the train had passed through a rain storm and the only leak in the whole car was right above his head. Now the stranger kept poking her breasts, trying to understand what had happened on the way to the airport. Her words had the desired effect as the random faceless ran off, terrified beyond belief that Ranma Saotome was out of Nerima and apparently going somewhere like a normal human.
“Nabiki,” began Kasumi as she looked around, “you have yet to tell us where we’re going.” During the train ride, she had surprised the others by commandeering half of the luggage that Ranma was carrying and carried it herself. She just smiled serenely at the others, not offering any type of explanation to her actions.
“Head to the United Airlines ticket counter,” she said around the remains of her breakfast. They had gotten food on the run, thankfully since word of the overpriced airline food had reached them at the train station just outside Nerima.
As the group of twenty-one made their way through the main terminal in search of the UAL counter, the passing people paused in their tasks to gawk at them. Their math showed nineteen women and only two men. There were many single males in the terminal that made passes at one or the other of the group, thinking that there was no way that just these two males were bold enough to bag them all.
More than once Seina had to restrain himself from simply shooting the guys that kept hitting on his wives. He did manage to chase them off after a while, those that fled having the fear of God instilled into their being.
The glowing eyes trick worked every time!
Ranma didn’t have too much trouble, after all somebody that could lug that much luggage around and not break a sweat or complain once was a power house. More often than not those passing by would recognize her fiery mane of hair and back away, having seen her on the news battling some-such or other foe.
Tenchi simply let his power leak at a higher rate than normal, and nobody dared to bother him or his. Not that it mattered as Ryoko would literally shock anybody that came close to her with a jolt of her own power.
Reaching their destination, Nabiki turned at looked at Washu who caught her meaning quickly. The scientist produced a simple-looking credit card, common for any adult to have.
Her having the appearance of being twelve didn’t sit too well, so she ducked out of sight to morph into her adult body. That did the trick as the tickets were paid for and handed out to the others.
As one they headed to their gate after checking their bulk luggage, even though their flight wasn’t for another two hours. Nabiki had worked her voodoo, finding a flight that followed their desires to go somewhere.
“What the?” demanded Ranma as she read the destination. Sure, there was no problem with the US but to start near the middle of the country was not what she had in mind. Having had enough of the alternate form she dropped the carry-on luggage by their chairs at the gate then made tracks to the restroom.
“Hey, it was the only thing open for all of us at the same time,” Nabiki defended herself, sitting down to rest her tired legs. It had been a long time since she had stood up and/or walked around that much.
“Well, what are we getting ourselves into?” Tenchi asked Washu, who had produced a solid version of her HoloTop. Of course everything ‘under the hood’ was her own technology, meaning it was the most powerful machine on the planet.
“Let’s see,” she drawled as her fingers danced on the keyboard. “Okay, first of all we aren’t going to get there until around midnight their time due to the time zones and international dateline. This will be different, taking a small step backwards in time. Let’s see what they have in the way of places to see,” she paused as her fingers worked their magic on the keys, while the others had crowded around to see what information her computer would cough up.
“Bah, we’ll just play it by ear,” commented Ranma as he returned from changing his form. “It’ll be different going that high up though. Tenchi, just how high are the mountains around your place?”
The Juraian Prince paused to think, not really knowing the answer to that question. “I’d have to guess no more than five thousand feet above sea level. Why?”
“Altitude sickness,” chimed in Kasumi, having read about it in the medical books of Tofu. “I have no idea how people can live at that altitude year round, especially since the climate is so much more unstable than closer to sea level.”
“Well, we’ll certainly find out when we get there,” stated Ukyo, getting an idea of a few places she’d like to see.
The wait was tedious, the flight was boring (minus the unrestrained five year old running up and down the aisles, constantly waking people up) and the landing was a surprise.
“Snow, this time of year?” gawked Tenchi, looking out the window to see the airport plow-boys working their voodoo on the spring storm. It was a near white-out, snowing so hard that even at twelve fifteen in the morning the size and shape of the flakes was easily distinguishable.
“Fantastic,” groused Washu. “You know, this is why I had pushed for everybody to get their licenses. We’re going to have a hell of a time reaching the hotel at this rate.”
After landing and taxiing to the gate, they stepped out of the pressurized cabin and wobbled about. The eighteen hour flight was a killer for certain, and now that they found themselves at the beginning of their vacation in a blizzard of all things, they were understandably grumpy. At the exit of the jet way they came across a small LED message sign.
“Welcome to Colorado. Don’t like the weather wait five minutes,” it read in a cruel approximation of a joke. Heading for the baggage claim after riding the underground train to get from the concourse to the main terminal, they noticed that the storm had indeed blown out and the skies were beginning to clear.
“That is the oddest thing I have ever witnessed,” groused Nabiki, which when taking her background into account spoke volumes.
“I’ve heard about the weather here,” chimed in Kasumi. “One of my old friends had moved here after graduation and said that it could rain without a cloud in the sky. Or that the wind could come from three different directions at once.”
“Yeah, lots of fun!” deadpanned Ukyo while turning to look at Shampoo. The Amazon was extremely jumpy, every new sound to reach her ears causing her to have minor panic attacks. “You okay Sugar?”
“GAH!” shouted the object of her query, leaping sideways by four feet. She looked around wildly before calming down. “Sorry. Too-too much noise that Shampoo no know.”
Being the wee hours of the morning, they had been on one of the last flights in. There was nothing heading out until five so the terminal was pretty much deserted, which worked to their advantage as nobody had seen the display.
After collecting their luggage, they headed outside to see that the snow that had fallen was already melting. The ambient outdoor temperature was about forty degrees Fahrenheit, with a slight breeze that actually felt warm. Getting on the bus that would taken them to the rental company where their vans were waiting, the ones that were driving each pulled out a map.
“Okay,” started Washu, pulling the other two closer so she could demonstrate and point at what she was talking about. “According to Nabiki, our hotel is here on the north side of the city. We have two options to get there, one is we stick to the highways and the other is to cut through these back roads. Given what the weather just did, I vote for the highway.”
“I’ll give you that,” agreed Kiriko. “Although was it necessary to obtain maps this detailed? I really could have gone without knowing where this ‘BFI Landfill’ is.” She pointed to an intersection just to the west of the airport as she finished her statement.
“The highway sounds good to me,” chimed in Ukyo. “Although it looks like this highway here would cut a few minutes off of our trip, instead of going through this interchange here.” Just like Kiriko before her, she had utilized the map as a visual demonstration.
While the three were talking, the males were staring at them. This was something new and out of the ordinary for the status quo and thusly it got their attention.
The first two were easily explained. For Washu, operating by her standards a ‘very primitive’ Earth-built vehicle was nothing. Granted, it would be different as the rest of the galaxy at large had gotten away from ground based internal combustion engines roughly ten thousand years ago. Kiriko had experience operating the hover-car that was in the garage onboard the Kamidake, as well as a few of the smaller Japanese model cars.
Ukyo, on the other hand, was a complete mystery to Ranma. He had no idea that his oldest friend, let alone prospective fiancée, knew how to drive.
The bus lurched and slid for a moment on the turn into the rental car company, the driver muttering a “Whoops” before regaining control. The travelers looked at him like he had lost his mind, merely giving a slight reaction to the forty foot long vehicle going somewhere other than where he wanted it to.
Their vehicles were parked side-by-side, making it a one stop affair to get away from the insane driver. Even if they hadn’t understood his mutterings, or his parting words after helping them get the luggage off of the bus and into the vehicles.
“What is this?” demanded Nabiki, finding one white 2007 Ford E350 sixteen passenger van that was quickly commandeered by Seina and his wives, one red 2006 Ford Excursion that Tenchi had claimed as ‘perfect’ and one sliver 2007 Ford Windstar minivan. “We got one of the big vans out of three I asked for,” she explained to the others as they looked at her for clarification.
“Take a look around you Nabiki,” stated Amane as she made a wide sweeping gesture, “This lot is nearly empty. With the weather, I’d put money on the other two vans still being out until later today.”
“Bah, what we have will work,” groused Ukyo as she got comfortable behind the wheel of the Windstar. She had the eight-way adjustable chair where she wanted it, and was working on setting the power mirrors. “This thing is pretty comfortable, even though it is bigger than I’m used to.”
“I’m tired, can we please get going?” nearly whined Ranma, the surprise of the tone of his voice getting the others to move. He took the ‘shotgun’ seat before anybody else could even think about it, instantly dozing off.
“Sleep,” came from a zombie-esqe Kasumi, the novelty and excitement having worn off. Nabiki and herself climbed in from either side (got to love the dual sliding doors!) forcing Shampoo and a silent Tokimi into the third row bench seat.
Having arranged themselves into their own vehicles, the drivers looked at each other to see who would go first and lead the way. Washu sighed and with a shake of her head took off from the parking spot for the exit gate.
The trio of vehicles headed off of airport property towards the city of Denver. They took their time, seeing as there was still four inches of hard, slushy (the stuff that has the consistency of packed flour) snow on the roadways. At least with being on a highway, it was wide enough that with nobody else out they could literally take the middle of the road and be a little more relaxed.
Of course, this lasted all of five seconds before the only four wheel drive of the trio suddenly took off to the right, spinning around a few times before sliding into a snow drift.
“Oh come on!” Washu screamed at the machinery, now having a fairly good idea of why that bus driver hadn’t shown much reaction. This scared her as it was, being in an unknown situation of her own creation. Of course her words snapped the others awake, even Mihoshi. They piled out of the driver side door to see what the problem was.
Coming face to grill with the E350 was not on the agenda. Tenchi let out a scream very similar to Homer Simpson, before realizing that the van wasn’t moving.
“You guys all right?” questioned Seina after opening the sliding cargo door. He had seen the vehicle go out of control and as any good friend is wont to do was more worried about their well-fare than that of the vehicle.
“What happened?” demanded Ranma from the roof of the bigger van, tired of not being able to see what was happening. It had scared him silly when Ukyo screamed like a cockroach had found its’ way onto her thigh.
The rather large group, once they had piled out of their vehicles, turned to the sound of Washu doing her best to bury the SUV. For some odd reason, it completely escaped the scientist that spinning the tires like that wasn’t going to accomplish much.
Ranma sauntered over, taking note of the different looking pattern in the center of the front rims. Even Mousse could identify the locking hubs for the four wheel drive system without a second look.
“Hey!” he shouted over the noise of the engine and spinning tires, catching Washu’s attention. “Hold on a minute, would you?” Before she could protest, he disappeared for a moment, first on the left front hub then again at the right front. Peeking his head inside, he pointed down. “I think you pull that back one notch, if the top of the knob is any clue.”
She glared and hard. It was bad enough that he had lied to her already, but being shown up in the usage of an Earth-built vehicle was like icing on the cake. Flinging the door open, she got out of the Excursion and stomped off.
“Great,” muttered Tenchi as he climbed in, following his friends’ advice. Instead of jamming the throttle like the scientist, me barely pushed on it and the SUV came right out of the drift.
“If we could please get going?” pleaded Ukyo as she rolled up beside the much larger vehicle. “I see the plows coming and I don’t want to be buried out here in nowhere-ville.”
After everybody was situated again, minus the fact that Tenchi was now driving, the trio of vehicles were underway again.
They made it without further difficulty to their destination, the Graystone Radisson Hotel. For those that haven’t been there, this hotel was constructed in the mirror image of a late sixteenth century European castle.
“Wow,” swooned the girls/women, taking in the sights of the castle just after a snowstorm. The lights shining up the walls at the ‘towers’ added to the effect.
Shared Trouble Part Three
By: Jim Ohki
“AH!” screamed Ranma as he entered his room for his nap, finding that the Panda had left a nasty surprise in his bed.
Those down below, minus the blown away Tenchi ran upstairs to find out what the problem was, only to be bowled over by the object of their search as he jumped from the upper landing.
The bodies hit the floor with a loud WHUMP, waking Tenchi to a pile of arms and legs that were starting to brawl as they tried to untangle themselves.
“Would you stop touching me? Why are you still touching me?” repeated the females, sounding like an old Bill Cosby comedy routine.
“ARGH! MY EYES!” shouted Ranma in the pile, his pigtail somehow visible and standing on end. “Oh well, if I shall die today I shall die a happy man.”
The mass of bodies stopped moving at his declaration, some confused by it and some afraid to move because of it. Those that were afraid, well . . .
“Are you looking up my dress?” demanded the five that had decided today was a good day to wear one. Not so much in the cases of Ayeka and Ryoko of course, as the only time they didn’t wear them was when they were in their combat forms. Kasumi, Shampoo and, oddly, Ukyo were attired in dresses as well.
“I’ll give you a hint,” he answered, his voice muffled by the number of bodies on and around him. Then the sound of him blowing on something could faintly be heard.
“ACK!” yelled the recipient, leaping out at his actions and scattering the pile about the already destroyed living room.
“What the hell is going on here?” demanded Seina, glad that with the exception of Neju or the times they ‘play’ dress up his wives had a thing for pants. Or at least lycra tights under their skirts.
“You don’t want to know,” answered Ranma, the last of the goofy grin fading from view. “Wow, that was nice.”
The girls all turned red, only one in embarrassment.
“Can we get this show on the road?” demanded Ukyo as she squirmed, uncomfortable with the situation as it was. Her words had the desired effect as Ranma got back onto his feet and returned upstairs.
“Sure,” he said as he went, “Just have to burn something first.” As the others watched, completely baffled, they could hear the window open before his tatami came sailing into view outside followed by his signature ki blast. The poor thing stood no chance as most of it was vaporized instantly, the rest of it catching fire. After closing and locking the window, he returned to the living room.
“Add that to Saotome’s bill,” he stated matter-of-factly to Nabiki, before leaning in and whispering in her ear. Her expression went from surprised to disgusted to outrage.
“That’s gross, even for him,” she said after a moment of calculations. “You know, I think the only way to get the madness to stop is to get out of Nerima, period.”
“Bah, we’ll worry about that when we get back,” responded Ranma, before turning to see Soun finally join the land of the living.
“While you’re gone, I’m going to be looking for a new place of residence,” he declared as soon as his eyes beheld who was awake. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and trust you, Ranma. You take care of my daughters, and for the love of all that ever opposed the Master take better care of them than I did.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” he waved the elder man off. “For now, I think we had better get going.” Seeing the Tendo patriarch nod in agreement, he proceeded to load all of his friends’ luggage onto his pack then heft it with minimal effort.
“This should be fun,” deadpanned Tenchi, not knowing what would happen next.
THREE HOURS LATER; TOKYO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
As the train came to a stop at the artificial island that was the airport, those in car three came pouring out like there was a volcano forming within. In a sense it was true, being that the harbinger of chaos had just arrived to unleash his horrors on the public at large.
“Would you stop that?” Ranma asked a random stranger that had seen his alternate form when of all things, the train had passed through a rain storm and the only leak in the whole car was right above his head. Now the stranger kept poking her breasts, trying to understand what had happened on the way to the airport. Her words had the desired effect as the random faceless ran off, terrified beyond belief that Ranma Saotome was out of Nerima and apparently going somewhere like a normal human.
“Nabiki,” began Kasumi as she looked around, “you have yet to tell us where we’re going.” During the train ride, she had surprised the others by commandeering half of the luggage that Ranma was carrying and carried it herself. She just smiled serenely at the others, not offering any type of explanation to her actions.
“Head to the United Airlines ticket counter,” she said around the remains of her breakfast. They had gotten food on the run, thankfully since word of the overpriced airline food had reached them at the train station just outside Nerima.
As the group of twenty-one made their way through the main terminal in search of the UAL counter, the passing people paused in their tasks to gawk at them. Their math showed nineteen women and only two men. There were many single males in the terminal that made passes at one or the other of the group, thinking that there was no way that just these two males were bold enough to bag them all.
More than once Seina had to restrain himself from simply shooting the guys that kept hitting on his wives. He did manage to chase them off after a while, those that fled having the fear of God instilled into their being.
The glowing eyes trick worked every time!
Ranma didn’t have too much trouble, after all somebody that could lug that much luggage around and not break a sweat or complain once was a power house. More often than not those passing by would recognize her fiery mane of hair and back away, having seen her on the news battling some-such or other foe.
Tenchi simply let his power leak at a higher rate than normal, and nobody dared to bother him or his. Not that it mattered as Ryoko would literally shock anybody that came close to her with a jolt of her own power.
Reaching their destination, Nabiki turned at looked at Washu who caught her meaning quickly. The scientist produced a simple-looking credit card, common for any adult to have.
Her having the appearance of being twelve didn’t sit too well, so she ducked out of sight to morph into her adult body. That did the trick as the tickets were paid for and handed out to the others.
As one they headed to their gate after checking their bulk luggage, even though their flight wasn’t for another two hours. Nabiki had worked her voodoo, finding a flight that followed their desires to go somewhere.
“What the?” demanded Ranma as she read the destination. Sure, there was no problem with the US but to start near the middle of the country was not what she had in mind. Having had enough of the alternate form she dropped the carry-on luggage by their chairs at the gate then made tracks to the restroom.
“Hey, it was the only thing open for all of us at the same time,” Nabiki defended herself, sitting down to rest her tired legs. It had been a long time since she had stood up and/or walked around that much.
“Well, what are we getting ourselves into?” Tenchi asked Washu, who had produced a solid version of her HoloTop. Of course everything ‘under the hood’ was her own technology, meaning it was the most powerful machine on the planet.
“Let’s see,” she drawled as her fingers danced on the keyboard. “Okay, first of all we aren’t going to get there until around midnight their time due to the time zones and international dateline. This will be different, taking a small step backwards in time. Let’s see what they have in the way of places to see,” she paused as her fingers worked their magic on the keys, while the others had crowded around to see what information her computer would cough up.
“Bah, we’ll just play it by ear,” commented Ranma as he returned from changing his form. “It’ll be different going that high up though. Tenchi, just how high are the mountains around your place?”
The Juraian Prince paused to think, not really knowing the answer to that question. “I’d have to guess no more than five thousand feet above sea level. Why?”
“Altitude sickness,” chimed in Kasumi, having read about it in the medical books of Tofu. “I have no idea how people can live at that altitude year round, especially since the climate is so much more unstable than closer to sea level.”
“Well, we’ll certainly find out when we get there,” stated Ukyo, getting an idea of a few places she’d like to see.
The wait was tedious, the flight was boring (minus the unrestrained five year old running up and down the aisles, constantly waking people up) and the landing was a surprise.
“Snow, this time of year?” gawked Tenchi, looking out the window to see the airport plow-boys working their voodoo on the spring storm. It was a near white-out, snowing so hard that even at twelve fifteen in the morning the size and shape of the flakes was easily distinguishable.
“Fantastic,” groused Washu. “You know, this is why I had pushed for everybody to get their licenses. We’re going to have a hell of a time reaching the hotel at this rate.”
After landing and taxiing to the gate, they stepped out of the pressurized cabin and wobbled about. The eighteen hour flight was a killer for certain, and now that they found themselves at the beginning of their vacation in a blizzard of all things, they were understandably grumpy. At the exit of the jet way they came across a small LED message sign.
“Welcome to Colorado. Don’t like the weather wait five minutes,” it read in a cruel approximation of a joke. Heading for the baggage claim after riding the underground train to get from the concourse to the main terminal, they noticed that the storm had indeed blown out and the skies were beginning to clear.
“That is the oddest thing I have ever witnessed,” groused Nabiki, which when taking her background into account spoke volumes.
“I’ve heard about the weather here,” chimed in Kasumi. “One of my old friends had moved here after graduation and said that it could rain without a cloud in the sky. Or that the wind could come from three different directions at once.”
“Yeah, lots of fun!” deadpanned Ukyo while turning to look at Shampoo. The Amazon was extremely jumpy, every new sound to reach her ears causing her to have minor panic attacks. “You okay Sugar?”
“GAH!” shouted the object of her query, leaping sideways by four feet. She looked around wildly before calming down. “Sorry. Too-too much noise that Shampoo no know.”
Being the wee hours of the morning, they had been on one of the last flights in. There was nothing heading out until five so the terminal was pretty much deserted, which worked to their advantage as nobody had seen the display.
After collecting their luggage, they headed outside to see that the snow that had fallen was already melting. The ambient outdoor temperature was about forty degrees Fahrenheit, with a slight breeze that actually felt warm. Getting on the bus that would taken them to the rental company where their vans were waiting, the ones that were driving each pulled out a map.
“Okay,” started Washu, pulling the other two closer so she could demonstrate and point at what she was talking about. “According to Nabiki, our hotel is here on the north side of the city. We have two options to get there, one is we stick to the highways and the other is to cut through these back roads. Given what the weather just did, I vote for the highway.”
“I’ll give you that,” agreed Kiriko. “Although was it necessary to obtain maps this detailed? I really could have gone without knowing where this ‘BFI Landfill’ is.” She pointed to an intersection just to the west of the airport as she finished her statement.
“The highway sounds good to me,” chimed in Ukyo. “Although it looks like this highway here would cut a few minutes off of our trip, instead of going through this interchange here.” Just like Kiriko before her, she had utilized the map as a visual demonstration.
While the three were talking, the males were staring at them. This was something new and out of the ordinary for the status quo and thusly it got their attention.
The first two were easily explained. For Washu, operating by her standards a ‘very primitive’ Earth-built vehicle was nothing. Granted, it would be different as the rest of the galaxy at large had gotten away from ground based internal combustion engines roughly ten thousand years ago. Kiriko had experience operating the hover-car that was in the garage onboard the Kamidake, as well as a few of the smaller Japanese model cars.
Ukyo, on the other hand, was a complete mystery to Ranma. He had no idea that his oldest friend, let alone prospective fiancée, knew how to drive.
The bus lurched and slid for a moment on the turn into the rental car company, the driver muttering a “Whoops” before regaining control. The travelers looked at him like he had lost his mind, merely giving a slight reaction to the forty foot long vehicle going somewhere other than where he wanted it to.
Their vehicles were parked side-by-side, making it a one stop affair to get away from the insane driver. Even if they hadn’t understood his mutterings, or his parting words after helping them get the luggage off of the bus and into the vehicles.
“What is this?” demanded Nabiki, finding one white 2007 Ford E350 sixteen passenger van that was quickly commandeered by Seina and his wives, one red 2006 Ford Excursion that Tenchi had claimed as ‘perfect’ and one sliver 2007 Ford Windstar minivan. “We got one of the big vans out of three I asked for,” she explained to the others as they looked at her for clarification.
“Take a look around you Nabiki,” stated Amane as she made a wide sweeping gesture, “This lot is nearly empty. With the weather, I’d put money on the other two vans still being out until later today.”
“Bah, what we have will work,” groused Ukyo as she got comfortable behind the wheel of the Windstar. She had the eight-way adjustable chair where she wanted it, and was working on setting the power mirrors. “This thing is pretty comfortable, even though it is bigger than I’m used to.”
“I’m tired, can we please get going?” nearly whined Ranma, the surprise of the tone of his voice getting the others to move. He took the ‘shotgun’ seat before anybody else could even think about it, instantly dozing off.
“Sleep,” came from a zombie-esqe Kasumi, the novelty and excitement having worn off. Nabiki and herself climbed in from either side (got to love the dual sliding doors!) forcing Shampoo and a silent Tokimi into the third row bench seat.
Having arranged themselves into their own vehicles, the drivers looked at each other to see who would go first and lead the way. Washu sighed and with a shake of her head took off from the parking spot for the exit gate.
The trio of vehicles headed off of airport property towards the city of Denver. They took their time, seeing as there was still four inches of hard, slushy (the stuff that has the consistency of packed flour) snow on the roadways. At least with being on a highway, it was wide enough that with nobody else out they could literally take the middle of the road and be a little more relaxed.
Of course, this lasted all of five seconds before the only four wheel drive of the trio suddenly took off to the right, spinning around a few times before sliding into a snow drift.
“Oh come on!” Washu screamed at the machinery, now having a fairly good idea of why that bus driver hadn’t shown much reaction. This scared her as it was, being in an unknown situation of her own creation. Of course her words snapped the others awake, even Mihoshi. They piled out of the driver side door to see what the problem was.
Coming face to grill with the E350 was not on the agenda. Tenchi let out a scream very similar to Homer Simpson, before realizing that the van wasn’t moving.
“You guys all right?” questioned Seina after opening the sliding cargo door. He had seen the vehicle go out of control and as any good friend is wont to do was more worried about their well-fare than that of the vehicle.
“What happened?” demanded Ranma from the roof of the bigger van, tired of not being able to see what was happening. It had scared him silly when Ukyo screamed like a cockroach had found its’ way onto her thigh.
The rather large group, once they had piled out of their vehicles, turned to the sound of Washu doing her best to bury the SUV. For some odd reason, it completely escaped the scientist that spinning the tires like that wasn’t going to accomplish much.
Ranma sauntered over, taking note of the different looking pattern in the center of the front rims. Even Mousse could identify the locking hubs for the four wheel drive system without a second look.
“Hey!” he shouted over the noise of the engine and spinning tires, catching Washu’s attention. “Hold on a minute, would you?” Before she could protest, he disappeared for a moment, first on the left front hub then again at the right front. Peeking his head inside, he pointed down. “I think you pull that back one notch, if the top of the knob is any clue.”
She glared and hard. It was bad enough that he had lied to her already, but being shown up in the usage of an Earth-built vehicle was like icing on the cake. Flinging the door open, she got out of the Excursion and stomped off.
“Great,” muttered Tenchi as he climbed in, following his friends’ advice. Instead of jamming the throttle like the scientist, me barely pushed on it and the SUV came right out of the drift.
“If we could please get going?” pleaded Ukyo as she rolled up beside the much larger vehicle. “I see the plows coming and I don’t want to be buried out here in nowhere-ville.”
After everybody was situated again, minus the fact that Tenchi was now driving, the trio of vehicles were underway again.
They made it without further difficulty to their destination, the Graystone Radisson Hotel. For those that haven’t been there, this hotel was constructed in the mirror image of a late sixteenth century European castle.
“Wow,” swooned the girls/women, taking in the sights of the castle just after a snowstorm. The lights shining up the walls at the ‘towers’ added to the effect.