Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Avatar ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 10 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
By: HVulpes 
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.9K | Visits: 893 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover With Non-anime Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.9K | Visits: 893 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: This is a parody inspired by the work of Takahashi Rumiko and Nickelodeon. All characters (that I have not created or borrowed from other sources) belong to them . This is a fan fiction, and is not intended to violate the rights of those who hold control over the Ranma 1/2 and Avatar:The Last Airbender series. I have no money for legal problems and would very much appreciate it if no one tries to sue me. Thank you very much.
A thanks to AYH for their help in editing some of the content of this and the last chapter.
Wild Avatar
By HVulpes
Chapter Nine
Shampoo focused her determination on the task at hand as she practiced the skills that her great-grandmother had shown her, taken from the masters that she had been observing for this exact purpose. Rising her hands with effort as she could feel the earth on the other end like a weight on her hands and arms, like she was lifting something with her own limbs rather than with some kind of magical power that might be spiritual in nature. Slowly a wall of rock rose from the ground in front of her with a slow and study manner that surprised even her with the knowledge that she had the power to control the earth itself.
Soon the wall stood a little bit taller than she was made of the same brown stone that made up most of the city that they were in. Changing her hand's motion, she placed her hands together for a matter of seconds before they pulled them a part as if she was opening a door. A crack formed in the wall that split it open down the middle which was followed by two different pieces of wall moving away from each other giving a passage through the wall. The purple haired woman then moved her hands in reverse and caused the rock wall to move back together, fusing into a single block once again. Then with a final motion of her hands, she sunk them in a downwards motion that was followed by the block causing it to sink back into the ground.
"Very good great-granddaughter, you have perfected the skills needed to use the doors in this city using the skills of earthbending that I have managed to pass on to you. This should give us a great advantage if we have to go hunting for our friends in the palace. Hopefully Ranma will be back with a room for the night and enough food to make our supper before we move on to the mission to recover our allies." It was then that Shampoo felt someone coming towards the deserted area that they had found to practice the new skills of the younger Hero Woman. They had been trying to avoid the guards of the city as they might have to do battle with them in the future if necessary.
Using abilities that had been honed with years of practice in the wild and dangerous lands of rural China, they moved with great speed to hide in the shadows of the area using their chi to blend in with the darkest places of the landscape. A few minutes later a patrol headed into the spot that they had been practicing before hand, looking around for anything that was out of the ordinary from the normal behavior of the city. Occasionally they would thrust their spears into the shadows as a measure to flush out anyone that might be hiding in those areas that they could not see well enough. But the women of the Hero Women tribe guessed that this would happen and use their training to avoid the spear points while keeping hidden. The patrol passed peacefully from the area and moved on to the next part of their rounds for the city. Waiting a few more minutes before acting the two women left the shadows as they stood back into their relaxed attack stance.
"I see that your training with your other skills is still as sharp as ever, but we will still need to work with the new martial arts. Hung Gar should not be too much trouble in our training methods as some of our own martial arts have some of the same motions as that art, given that we share some of the same terrain as those that developed the art that earthbending seems to be based on. In fact some of the techniques that you use for your own martial arts seems to link up with the ideology of earth, much like Ranma's arts link up with the ideology of air which might explain his own abilities.' Cologne told Shampoo, with the young women bowing her head in respect for the older and wiser women.
"Yes great-grandmother, Shampoo has been trying Shampoo's best to understand the basics of the art." Shampoo then stomped her foot on the ground a few times as three small rocks lifted up in the air which were then caught by her hand and caused to levitate above it in a manner that resembled juggling but with only the one hand. She looked like she was having trouble keeping the balance of the three stones, looking like she was about to drop them a few times before she could get a hold of the items that she was tossing in their air with her powers. She caused the stones to meld into a single rock acting like the rocks had melted into one another as they came in contact with each other, which caused her to lose her control on the stone as it dropped for a few seconds before she caught it and pulled it up, regaining the balance of the earthen fragments. Then she dropped the stone onto the ground, after making an over adjustment with the rock she was controlling.
"You have learnt much during these sessions with the secrets that I have managed to dig up from this city. You might not have the knack that Ranma has for learning new things, but you have improved with your own learning abilities with the practice that you have put in." The old woman smiled at her blood relation as she saw the growth of the young woman, secretly wondering what it was that had cause this transformation. Shampoo stood in thought before her sensei, knowing the reasons for her improvement with the arts were many fold. She wanted to see if she could help Katara, one of the first real close friend that she had made in her life as she didn't make many close friends in her life in the village and within Nerima. She just didn't have much time to find close friends given her missions to become the village champion, hunt down the outsider women that had defeated her and then tried to gain the love of the man that she had fallen for. Though the girl was younger than her, Shampoo could feel the same kind of warrior spirit that was beating within her own soul when she looked at the Water Tribeswomen. It was something that had caused Shampoo to bond with her and would cause the Amazon to battle for Katara's safety.
Then there was the fact that she wanted to keep up with her Airen, a man that lived the martial arts so hard that he picked up any form of combat skills with ease and turned anything that he could think of into training to improve those same combat abilities. Shampoo knew that to be with Ranma would have to mean making the martial arts a part of her life, which they were in a minor way when they were in Nerima. But being this close to Ranma during their trip through the new world they found themselves in had convinced the colorfully haired girl that she had to step up the on her work effort to become better trained with the arts. She knew that to truly keep Ranma with her always once she had won his heart she would have to become a skilled sparring partner for her beloved.
"Shampoo is trying harder to become a master for her own arts so that she can become a better help for everyone," was all that the young woman would say.
It was then that Ranma came running up to the two women that were standing together looking like he was out of breath which was something rather unusual for the expert athlete. He spoke to them, "I got some news about Aang and the others. I overheard the cabbage guy that we saw trying to get inta the city complaining about three kids that sound like the others, who crushed a mail chute crate inta his cabbage cart. The guards took them ta the king ta be punished, but for some reason the king gave them a feast. Then I heard from another guy that a guard told him that the king found out the one of them was the Avatar and forced them ta stay in palace for the Avatar ta pass some deadly test of the king."
Cologne looked thoughtful for a moment as Shampoo tried to digest the news that Ranma had learned.
"These rumors might not be true as we have no way of judging the sources of the tales that you have heard. However the grains of truth that we do know about what have happened to our friends seems to match up with the information that these rumors provide. So if we were to make a plan of action it might be best to believe the rumors for now especially since they paint a bleak picture for the fates of our friends," Cologne said.
"So what should we do now?" Ranma asked, looking curious as to what the old woman was thinking.
Shampoo knew that Ranma thought of her great-grandmother as one of the most cunning women that he knew, especially since that cunning had been used against him to the aid of having him marry Shampoo and return to their homeland of China. She knew that Ranma would respect the choice that her elder would make.
"We still have some time so we should eat and rest for the night so we will be strong enough in the morning to aid our friends if it is needed. I do have a strange feeling that there is more to this situation than we are seeing, but best to prepare for the worst so one is never surprised by things getting bad," Cologne told then as she continued by asking Ranma, "So where is the room I sent you to find?"
Cologne had gotten up earlier than her two charges as she began to analyze the task at hand, the mission to rescue the Avatar and their new friends from this strange king. The fact that the kings behavior didn't make much sense to her as a leader of his people made her wonder what it was that was going on through the mind of this city's master. She went over the options in her head, 'On the one hand he could just be crazy with no rhyme or reason to his rules and it has been known to have rulers who have lost their minds to command powerful forces. But the people seemed to be too well off and peaceful for such destructive madness, as madness unchecked often leads to ruin.
‘I think that his madness might have much to do with the unpredictable nature of the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School, the cunning of a kitsune rather than the madness of a man. Happosai is one of the most powerful martial artists that I know, perhaps even surpassing me, however still acts the fool for the most part even when he is anything but that, ' Cologne thought.
Somewhere in the Avatar's world a pervert sneezed.
The idea that the King of Omashu could be anything like her perverted pain in the neck had her more worried than if the king was just plain mad. Cunning people had their own agendas that could be hidden behind the front of chaos making it harder to see the goals of those kinds of people. Cologne remembered what her sensei had told her, 'A genius is a person that can see the pattern in the whirlwind and harness that power for their own’. The king might be such a genius, but whether that genius is to aid the Avatar or harm him was not clear at the moment. As such it might have been best for them to try to avoid causing any harm to the servants of the leader of Omashu.
‘After all, they might be allies that we don't know yet, but one must also be prepared if they turn out to be enemies of the deadliest type. So prepare for the worst and hope for the best must be our motto for this task, ' she decided.
'It was a good thing that Ranma seemed to hold the traditions of a martial artist in avoiding taking a life unless one was at risk, or perhaps that was the way of Happosai that had been pasted down through his student Genma. Happi hated taking lives unless absolutely needed as it was something that could not be undone, plus there was his soft spot for children that kept him from killing adults and possibly leaving the children without parents. It was one of his good points among the multitude of bad points he had let grow. Shampoo is easier as she will listen to my lead as her elder and as matriarch of the tribe. So avoiding death is possible, especially given the training that the both of them have had in martial arts.' Cologne's then looked over the plan that she had cobbled together.
'We will have to find our way to the palace and then sneak into the building without being detected. That is where Shampoo's training with earthbending might come in handy since many of the doors of the city can only be opened with that art. Then we will have to track Aang by his chi signature, but that might bring another problem given his powerful aura and the time spent in that building. Finding the current chi trail from old ones will take time, time that we might not have if these deadly tasks are truly deadly and not just something to scare the king's foes.' Cologne then noticed from her spot at the window of the room that they had rented that her great granddaughter and her beloved were raising with the rays of the sun.
"Good morning, are you two ready to go help our friends? Breakfast should be ready by now and we should only need a few minutes to get prepared, then I will explain the plan that we will need to complete our task," Cologne told then as they rose from floor where they had slept. She then jumped and headed for the pot where she had been brewing the noodles that would be making up their breakfast.
Later that day...
Ranma was holding back the urge of his muscles to twitch as he waited for their next move. It had taken no time at all to find the palace as they just followed the path of chi that was flowing out of the Avatar as he stayed in the seat of power. But making it to the palace without alerting any of the guards that they were trying to break into the building was a little bit harder than they had thought, even with the aid of Shampoo's newest combat skills. It had taken several hours and required all the tricks that each had learned as trackers or as thieves to pass the patrols, then finally pass the inner wall so that they could enter the building. Now they were in one of the many hallways that made up the home of the king.
"So what do we do now?" Ranma asked the elder Amazon as they tried to not look out of place.
"Follow me; I have a plan so that we might not be so obvious in this unknown area." Cologne said as she pogo down the hall as he and Shampoo followed with measured speed. The elder slipped into a room that turned out to look like an empty laundry room that was holding fresh clean clothes all around them. The silver haired woman then moved to pick out clothing that had been folded for pick up.
"Great Grandmother is very clever. We will pass by the guards dressed as servants of the king, people that are almost invisible in the homes of powerful rulers." Shampoo said as she pulled out a servant's dress, looked thoughtful for a minute, then moved behind a hanging sheet to change. Ranma tried to avert his eyes as he looked at the shadow that she cast on the sheet.
"Here, son-in-law, I think that this will do for you to wear." Cologne said as she took out an outfit and tossed it to Ranma. She then picked up her own pile of clothes and moved behind the sheet with Shampoo.
"I am not your son-in-law." He told her in a firm voice, as he began to get dressed in the uniform of one of the serving classes of the city. As he was finishing up, he turned and saw that the two women were similarly dressed in the green and brown clothing of the Earth Kingdom. It even had a design on it that looked like a wheel with a square hole that was common for Chinese coins in times gone by. Ranma figured out that it must be a symbol of either the nation of the earthbenders or of the city. All three of them stashed their previous clothing in the subspace that they had learned during training and their experiences with Mousse's hidden weapon style.
They also pocketed a few rags as cover for their new identities.
"So we have disguises, we have an earthbender and we have the ability ta track Aang's chi, so is there any kind of troubles that we might have ta face?" Ranma asked at the three of them slipped out of room that they had just changed in. They tried to walk if they were of the lower class that they now looked like, with their heads lowered and their hands clasped in front of them. Ranma was keeping his own voice low while they spoke with each other.
"There is a chance that we could become confused by the power of the chi and the time that it has had to sink into the landscape. We might have false leads to places that he has already been, but we should be able to pick it up with enough time to study the patterns of chi," Cologne said as she walked in front of the two teens. She continued, "I think that it might be best if it was me that did the tracking as I have much more experience with the different interplay that chi can have with each other. I can also detect the variations of personal chi that overlaps itself as well as dealing with the overwhelming power of the Avatar making the trail more complex."
Ranma nodded as he let the older woman take the lead, hoping that her experience might be able to lead them to the place that held Aang and the gang. Cologne then signaled to them that a patrol was coming. Using the rags that they had bagged they began to dust the hallway as if they were keeping the passageway free of dirt and spider webs.
The soldiers passed them as they marched in formation with their only attention being to Shampoo. Of course Ranma knew why they were looking at the cute young woman, and it made him wonder if his other form might be of more use in distracting the guards. But he passed it by as he might be able discourage any attempts to pick up Shampoo or himself while they played their parts. He looked at Cologne for a hint at where to go next as they storied their rags. Cologne nodded and motioned them to follow her. They raced down the halls of the palace and began their search for the Avatar and the king that was placing him through the deadly tests they had heard about.
Author's Notes:
Well, it is finally out with no thanks to me. First it was a writer's block, then there was the fact that I sent a version of it to my betareader in a format that they couldn't read. So that delayed the coming of this chapter, but it is finally here and I hope that you enjoy it. I have also been thinking of a different way to write the story so that there is more story per chapter. From two of my other thread stories, "Phantom Blood" and "White Seduction", I have learnt that I can have a couple of short bursts of fics that combine to make a larger text. But this is dependant on time that might be running out for me at this time.
I am moving at the end of this month, that means that my Internet will have to be disconnected and hooked up. It could be anywhere from a week to a month of no fics, threads or contact at all. Hopefully, I will have my computer to write something, but with packing and unpacking that might not be the first thing on my list. Plus I am juggling at least four non-lemon stories and a couple of lemons, it might be chaotic for a while.
I am also thinking of skipping the next episode of the Avatar series, "Imprisoned", with only the results of that time being mentioned when it is. I am thinking of having it replaced with an original arc that deals more with the interaction of the sextet, perhaps even hints of a Shampoo/Ranma moment or two. It is tricky as people have different opinions of what Shampoo/Ranma relationship should be, but I am determined to make a romance between Ranma and Shampoo part of the undercurrent of the main plot. However, I am open to any suggestion of if I should skip that episode or include it. Give a good arguement either way, and I will listen. I might not go in that direction, but I would love the imput.
Thanks and let's hope that the next chapter comes more quickly to me then this one,
HVulpes
A thanks to AYH for their help in editing some of the content of this and the last chapter.
Wild Avatar
By HVulpes
Chapter Nine
Shampoo focused her determination on the task at hand as she practiced the skills that her great-grandmother had shown her, taken from the masters that she had been observing for this exact purpose. Rising her hands with effort as she could feel the earth on the other end like a weight on her hands and arms, like she was lifting something with her own limbs rather than with some kind of magical power that might be spiritual in nature. Slowly a wall of rock rose from the ground in front of her with a slow and study manner that surprised even her with the knowledge that she had the power to control the earth itself.
Soon the wall stood a little bit taller than she was made of the same brown stone that made up most of the city that they were in. Changing her hand's motion, she placed her hands together for a matter of seconds before they pulled them a part as if she was opening a door. A crack formed in the wall that split it open down the middle which was followed by two different pieces of wall moving away from each other giving a passage through the wall. The purple haired woman then moved her hands in reverse and caused the rock wall to move back together, fusing into a single block once again. Then with a final motion of her hands, she sunk them in a downwards motion that was followed by the block causing it to sink back into the ground.
"Very good great-granddaughter, you have perfected the skills needed to use the doors in this city using the skills of earthbending that I have managed to pass on to you. This should give us a great advantage if we have to go hunting for our friends in the palace. Hopefully Ranma will be back with a room for the night and enough food to make our supper before we move on to the mission to recover our allies." It was then that Shampoo felt someone coming towards the deserted area that they had found to practice the new skills of the younger Hero Woman. They had been trying to avoid the guards of the city as they might have to do battle with them in the future if necessary.
Using abilities that had been honed with years of practice in the wild and dangerous lands of rural China, they moved with great speed to hide in the shadows of the area using their chi to blend in with the darkest places of the landscape. A few minutes later a patrol headed into the spot that they had been practicing before hand, looking around for anything that was out of the ordinary from the normal behavior of the city. Occasionally they would thrust their spears into the shadows as a measure to flush out anyone that might be hiding in those areas that they could not see well enough. But the women of the Hero Women tribe guessed that this would happen and use their training to avoid the spear points while keeping hidden. The patrol passed peacefully from the area and moved on to the next part of their rounds for the city. Waiting a few more minutes before acting the two women left the shadows as they stood back into their relaxed attack stance.
"I see that your training with your other skills is still as sharp as ever, but we will still need to work with the new martial arts. Hung Gar should not be too much trouble in our training methods as some of our own martial arts have some of the same motions as that art, given that we share some of the same terrain as those that developed the art that earthbending seems to be based on. In fact some of the techniques that you use for your own martial arts seems to link up with the ideology of earth, much like Ranma's arts link up with the ideology of air which might explain his own abilities.' Cologne told Shampoo, with the young women bowing her head in respect for the older and wiser women.
"Yes great-grandmother, Shampoo has been trying Shampoo's best to understand the basics of the art." Shampoo then stomped her foot on the ground a few times as three small rocks lifted up in the air which were then caught by her hand and caused to levitate above it in a manner that resembled juggling but with only the one hand. She looked like she was having trouble keeping the balance of the three stones, looking like she was about to drop them a few times before she could get a hold of the items that she was tossing in their air with her powers. She caused the stones to meld into a single rock acting like the rocks had melted into one another as they came in contact with each other, which caused her to lose her control on the stone as it dropped for a few seconds before she caught it and pulled it up, regaining the balance of the earthen fragments. Then she dropped the stone onto the ground, after making an over adjustment with the rock she was controlling.
"You have learnt much during these sessions with the secrets that I have managed to dig up from this city. You might not have the knack that Ranma has for learning new things, but you have improved with your own learning abilities with the practice that you have put in." The old woman smiled at her blood relation as she saw the growth of the young woman, secretly wondering what it was that had cause this transformation. Shampoo stood in thought before her sensei, knowing the reasons for her improvement with the arts were many fold. She wanted to see if she could help Katara, one of the first real close friend that she had made in her life as she didn't make many close friends in her life in the village and within Nerima. She just didn't have much time to find close friends given her missions to become the village champion, hunt down the outsider women that had defeated her and then tried to gain the love of the man that she had fallen for. Though the girl was younger than her, Shampoo could feel the same kind of warrior spirit that was beating within her own soul when she looked at the Water Tribeswomen. It was something that had caused Shampoo to bond with her and would cause the Amazon to battle for Katara's safety.
Then there was the fact that she wanted to keep up with her Airen, a man that lived the martial arts so hard that he picked up any form of combat skills with ease and turned anything that he could think of into training to improve those same combat abilities. Shampoo knew that to be with Ranma would have to mean making the martial arts a part of her life, which they were in a minor way when they were in Nerima. But being this close to Ranma during their trip through the new world they found themselves in had convinced the colorfully haired girl that she had to step up the on her work effort to become better trained with the arts. She knew that to truly keep Ranma with her always once she had won his heart she would have to become a skilled sparring partner for her beloved.
"Shampoo is trying harder to become a master for her own arts so that she can become a better help for everyone," was all that the young woman would say.
It was then that Ranma came running up to the two women that were standing together looking like he was out of breath which was something rather unusual for the expert athlete. He spoke to them, "I got some news about Aang and the others. I overheard the cabbage guy that we saw trying to get inta the city complaining about three kids that sound like the others, who crushed a mail chute crate inta his cabbage cart. The guards took them ta the king ta be punished, but for some reason the king gave them a feast. Then I heard from another guy that a guard told him that the king found out the one of them was the Avatar and forced them ta stay in palace for the Avatar ta pass some deadly test of the king."
Cologne looked thoughtful for a moment as Shampoo tried to digest the news that Ranma had learned.
"These rumors might not be true as we have no way of judging the sources of the tales that you have heard. However the grains of truth that we do know about what have happened to our friends seems to match up with the information that these rumors provide. So if we were to make a plan of action it might be best to believe the rumors for now especially since they paint a bleak picture for the fates of our friends," Cologne said.
"So what should we do now?" Ranma asked, looking curious as to what the old woman was thinking.
Shampoo knew that Ranma thought of her great-grandmother as one of the most cunning women that he knew, especially since that cunning had been used against him to the aid of having him marry Shampoo and return to their homeland of China. She knew that Ranma would respect the choice that her elder would make.
"We still have some time so we should eat and rest for the night so we will be strong enough in the morning to aid our friends if it is needed. I do have a strange feeling that there is more to this situation than we are seeing, but best to prepare for the worst so one is never surprised by things getting bad," Cologne told then as she continued by asking Ranma, "So where is the room I sent you to find?"
Cologne had gotten up earlier than her two charges as she began to analyze the task at hand, the mission to rescue the Avatar and their new friends from this strange king. The fact that the kings behavior didn't make much sense to her as a leader of his people made her wonder what it was that was going on through the mind of this city's master. She went over the options in her head, 'On the one hand he could just be crazy with no rhyme or reason to his rules and it has been known to have rulers who have lost their minds to command powerful forces. But the people seemed to be too well off and peaceful for such destructive madness, as madness unchecked often leads to ruin.
‘I think that his madness might have much to do with the unpredictable nature of the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School, the cunning of a kitsune rather than the madness of a man. Happosai is one of the most powerful martial artists that I know, perhaps even surpassing me, however still acts the fool for the most part even when he is anything but that, ' Cologne thought.
Somewhere in the Avatar's world a pervert sneezed.
The idea that the King of Omashu could be anything like her perverted pain in the neck had her more worried than if the king was just plain mad. Cunning people had their own agendas that could be hidden behind the front of chaos making it harder to see the goals of those kinds of people. Cologne remembered what her sensei had told her, 'A genius is a person that can see the pattern in the whirlwind and harness that power for their own’. The king might be such a genius, but whether that genius is to aid the Avatar or harm him was not clear at the moment. As such it might have been best for them to try to avoid causing any harm to the servants of the leader of Omashu.
‘After all, they might be allies that we don't know yet, but one must also be prepared if they turn out to be enemies of the deadliest type. So prepare for the worst and hope for the best must be our motto for this task, ' she decided.
'It was a good thing that Ranma seemed to hold the traditions of a martial artist in avoiding taking a life unless one was at risk, or perhaps that was the way of Happosai that had been pasted down through his student Genma. Happi hated taking lives unless absolutely needed as it was something that could not be undone, plus there was his soft spot for children that kept him from killing adults and possibly leaving the children without parents. It was one of his good points among the multitude of bad points he had let grow. Shampoo is easier as she will listen to my lead as her elder and as matriarch of the tribe. So avoiding death is possible, especially given the training that the both of them have had in martial arts.' Cologne's then looked over the plan that she had cobbled together.
'We will have to find our way to the palace and then sneak into the building without being detected. That is where Shampoo's training with earthbending might come in handy since many of the doors of the city can only be opened with that art. Then we will have to track Aang by his chi signature, but that might bring another problem given his powerful aura and the time spent in that building. Finding the current chi trail from old ones will take time, time that we might not have if these deadly tasks are truly deadly and not just something to scare the king's foes.' Cologne then noticed from her spot at the window of the room that they had rented that her great granddaughter and her beloved were raising with the rays of the sun.
"Good morning, are you two ready to go help our friends? Breakfast should be ready by now and we should only need a few minutes to get prepared, then I will explain the plan that we will need to complete our task," Cologne told then as they rose from floor where they had slept. She then jumped and headed for the pot where she had been brewing the noodles that would be making up their breakfast.
Later that day...
Ranma was holding back the urge of his muscles to twitch as he waited for their next move. It had taken no time at all to find the palace as they just followed the path of chi that was flowing out of the Avatar as he stayed in the seat of power. But making it to the palace without alerting any of the guards that they were trying to break into the building was a little bit harder than they had thought, even with the aid of Shampoo's newest combat skills. It had taken several hours and required all the tricks that each had learned as trackers or as thieves to pass the patrols, then finally pass the inner wall so that they could enter the building. Now they were in one of the many hallways that made up the home of the king.
"So what do we do now?" Ranma asked the elder Amazon as they tried to not look out of place.
"Follow me; I have a plan so that we might not be so obvious in this unknown area." Cologne said as she pogo down the hall as he and Shampoo followed with measured speed. The elder slipped into a room that turned out to look like an empty laundry room that was holding fresh clean clothes all around them. The silver haired woman then moved to pick out clothing that had been folded for pick up.
"Great Grandmother is very clever. We will pass by the guards dressed as servants of the king, people that are almost invisible in the homes of powerful rulers." Shampoo said as she pulled out a servant's dress, looked thoughtful for a minute, then moved behind a hanging sheet to change. Ranma tried to avert his eyes as he looked at the shadow that she cast on the sheet.
"Here, son-in-law, I think that this will do for you to wear." Cologne said as she took out an outfit and tossed it to Ranma. She then picked up her own pile of clothes and moved behind the sheet with Shampoo.
"I am not your son-in-law." He told her in a firm voice, as he began to get dressed in the uniform of one of the serving classes of the city. As he was finishing up, he turned and saw that the two women were similarly dressed in the green and brown clothing of the Earth Kingdom. It even had a design on it that looked like a wheel with a square hole that was common for Chinese coins in times gone by. Ranma figured out that it must be a symbol of either the nation of the earthbenders or of the city. All three of them stashed their previous clothing in the subspace that they had learned during training and their experiences with Mousse's hidden weapon style.
They also pocketed a few rags as cover for their new identities.
"So we have disguises, we have an earthbender and we have the ability ta track Aang's chi, so is there any kind of troubles that we might have ta face?" Ranma asked at the three of them slipped out of room that they had just changed in. They tried to walk if they were of the lower class that they now looked like, with their heads lowered and their hands clasped in front of them. Ranma was keeping his own voice low while they spoke with each other.
"There is a chance that we could become confused by the power of the chi and the time that it has had to sink into the landscape. We might have false leads to places that he has already been, but we should be able to pick it up with enough time to study the patterns of chi," Cologne said as she walked in front of the two teens. She continued, "I think that it might be best if it was me that did the tracking as I have much more experience with the different interplay that chi can have with each other. I can also detect the variations of personal chi that overlaps itself as well as dealing with the overwhelming power of the Avatar making the trail more complex."
Ranma nodded as he let the older woman take the lead, hoping that her experience might be able to lead them to the place that held Aang and the gang. Cologne then signaled to them that a patrol was coming. Using the rags that they had bagged they began to dust the hallway as if they were keeping the passageway free of dirt and spider webs.
The soldiers passed them as they marched in formation with their only attention being to Shampoo. Of course Ranma knew why they were looking at the cute young woman, and it made him wonder if his other form might be of more use in distracting the guards. But he passed it by as he might be able discourage any attempts to pick up Shampoo or himself while they played their parts. He looked at Cologne for a hint at where to go next as they storied their rags. Cologne nodded and motioned them to follow her. They raced down the halls of the palace and began their search for the Avatar and the king that was placing him through the deadly tests they had heard about.
Author's Notes:
Well, it is finally out with no thanks to me. First it was a writer's block, then there was the fact that I sent a version of it to my betareader in a format that they couldn't read. So that delayed the coming of this chapter, but it is finally here and I hope that you enjoy it. I have also been thinking of a different way to write the story so that there is more story per chapter. From two of my other thread stories, "Phantom Blood" and "White Seduction", I have learnt that I can have a couple of short bursts of fics that combine to make a larger text. But this is dependant on time that might be running out for me at this time.
I am moving at the end of this month, that means that my Internet will have to be disconnected and hooked up. It could be anywhere from a week to a month of no fics, threads or contact at all. Hopefully, I will have my computer to write something, but with packing and unpacking that might not be the first thing on my list. Plus I am juggling at least four non-lemon stories and a couple of lemons, it might be chaotic for a while.
I am also thinking of skipping the next episode of the Avatar series, "Imprisoned", with only the results of that time being mentioned when it is. I am thinking of having it replaced with an original arc that deals more with the interaction of the sextet, perhaps even hints of a Shampoo/Ranma moment or two. It is tricky as people have different opinions of what Shampoo/Ranma relationship should be, but I am determined to make a romance between Ranma and Shampoo part of the undercurrent of the main plot. However, I am open to any suggestion of if I should skip that episode or include it. Give a good arguement either way, and I will listen. I might not go in that direction, but I would love the imput.
Thanks and let's hope that the next chapter comes more quickly to me then this one,
HVulpes