Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Gold Digger Fan Fiction ❯ Golden Oportunity ❯ Chapter 09a ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Notes - Hey all, just to let you know, this chapter is part one of two chapters. I'm releasing it early so that everyone can get a look at it. The second part is about a fourth of the way done and should be out in a few weeks. I was going to wait until they were both finished, but most everyone I talked to wanted to see this so they didn't have to wait any longer =]

Enjoy, and remember to send me a comment or two to let me know what you think about it.

New Web Site: http://shi_hanna.tripod.com/

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Golden Opportunity
Chapter 09a
Cory D. Rose
ertle2@msn.com
(c) 2002
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[On Jade, in some random village]

There existed a small village hidden deep within the mountains, snuggled between a couple of tall cliffs that seemed to loom over the village like a pair of giants thinking about stepping on it like a bug. The villagers had lived there for generations, slowly changing from the miners that had originally built the town while to dig rare crystals out of the ground, and into the people they were today. Over the years it had grown in size and shrank back down when the land no longer had what they wanted and the people had moved on to other more profitable things. The items they had taken out of the ground during that time were some of the rarest items in the world. No one knew this of course, because if they had the town would have become the center of a war that had been plaguing the land of Jade for centuries. Of course that was exactly what happened this bright and sunny day when their worst nightmares were finally realized in a most painful and deadly manner. Though they really should have known that this threat wasn't the one they should have been afraid of in the long run, this was just the beginning of their problems.

Old men hobbled down the street on their canes and acted like typical crusty old farts that had worked all their lives for little or nothing to show for it. Complaining about life, lost youth, and other things old men liked to talk about to pass the time. So when the light of the sun suddenly vanished they were slow to respond as they turned around and looked up into the sky and saw something that would have scared even the most experienced soldier into wetting themselves in fear. Their jaws dropped and drinks were dropped as they gazed up at the beast in fear. A dragon, a giant red dragon was diving down at the village using the sun to attack them from above and wouldn't notice him until it was to late to do anything. Those that spotted it were so shocked at the sudden attack that they didn't have time too respond to it and were the first to be roasted alive as it strafed the village with a long line of fire that vaporized everything in it's path. Then the dragon rose into the sky again, flipped a wings a few times and came back around for another pass, this time roaring at them with a sound that would have deafened anything within fifty feet of it.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

It was a sound that very few people could ignore and the heads of every person in the village who didn't understand what was going on turned almost as one to look up into the sky in horror, some gasped, some screamed, and some wet their pants in fear. Then it opened it's mouth, picked out a couple of the larger buildings and blasted them with a full strength burst of hells fire that took out the house and several of those around it in an instant. A small mushroom cloud of fire and smoke rose up above the destruction, debrie rained down on the village as the full force of the blast was felt.

"AGGGGGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

With a flap of it's wings it rose up above the fire and came back down moving in another direction with a gentle flap of it's wings and evil glint in it's eyes, its teeth glistening with salacious intent as it smirked on the hapless village below. *It wasn't often that it got a chance to go out and frighten a local village anymore, not since all those wizards had put a stop to their rise to power all those years ago and forced them to act within a certain code of conduct or die. Now a days they had to work in secret to accomplish anything at all and even that was in the dead of night to keep from being killed on sight. There were just too many people in the world that wanted to become a hero for slaying him and his kind these days, evil dragons were just a dieing breed it seemed. Right now he had a bit of leeway to work with and had decided to pay back a favor to an old ally and enjoying every minute of it as he dove out of the sky once more and used his eyes to track the fleeing worms below him. As he neared the ground he back winged and hovered above a house for a few seconds and obliterated it with a stream of controlled fire, which blew it to splinters, and melting the ground that it was sitting on in the process.

Laughing at the weak and pathetic humans below him he flapped his wings a couple of times and pounced on one of the slower moving ones as they fled like ants from an anthill, grabbed him with his teeth and tossed the body into the air, and ate it on one gulp, cutting off it's screaming at the same time. Chewing him up, smoke came out of his nose and dripped blood off his chin as he enjoyed his small snack. It had been a long time since he last had a chance to eat a human and decided that he would have to take his time with the next one just to enjoy his meal a bit more, they had those gooey centers that just had to be savored like a rare wine. Swallowing, he turned to look around for the next tid-bit when several arrows bounce off his neck and jaw, turn his head he saw his next snack standing beside an undamaged house lowering a bow and shaking like a leaf. He was hiding behind the edge of a house for a bit of cover, with a sharp inhale of air, a stream of fire leveled the house and fried the guy where he was standing. It was easy enough to control the flame so that he cooked in his own juices and stayed as intact as possible, easier to digest too.

He ate this one a little slower, biting the extremities off one at a time and licking his claws when he was done. Blowing a large puff of steam out he raised his neck up and looked around for his next meal, then blinked as he suddenly remembered why he had come here in the first place. With a shrug of his reptilian shoulders he takes to the sky to rain more fire down upon some of the still intact areas of the village and takes out a few more houses. He wanted them to remember him fondly for this, grinning to himself as the humans continued to flee the village and into the hills, he circled around and sent a wave of fire at them to make sure they didn't get away unscathed. With them gone he would have a better chance of finding the item he could sense, it's magic was very noticeable, but something was blocking it's exact location from him and would take a little while to track down. Scanning the remaining houses he focused in on a large wooden building snuggled within some trees at the middle of a small park in the center of the village, it was giving off a faint glow that even his eyes had trouble seeing. Even from here he could feel the powerful magic surrounding the area as he flew towards it and tried to find a way to get through the shield that surrounded the whole park. It was strong enough to keep even him from entering the area and looting the place for new items to add to his horde. Now how was he going to get through it and get that item and all the other little goodies?

Well placed shots with his breath weapon leveled the houses around the small park and revealed more of the magical force field as it shrugged off the damage with little effort to show for it. Inhaling once more he coated the whole area in a stream of fire hot enough to melt even metal and held it for several seconds, but knew it hadn't worked as he relaxed and saw the magical shield waver for several seconds before setting down again. It's hum of power was just loud enough for him to hear with his sensitive ears. From the look of things his information had been right about the power of this object. He wasn't sure what kind of shield this thing was, but it had been placed by a very powerful master mage of some kind. That meant he was going to have to use a different kind of way to get through than brute force.

Raising his head high he sniffed the air to see if there were any humans in the area that might not have run from his onslaught, but they were long gone except for some injured in the nearby burning buildings and wouldn't bother him any time soon. This gave him a little time to work on this problem without being molested by the local food supply. Smirking, he concentrated on casting a spell, his body shimmered for a couple of seconds as it shrank in on itself, making his skin ripple and shift as he took on a humanoid form. Long ago he had been forced to adopt a human form and name to master parts of his draconic magic, luckily a Polymorph spell was strong enough to allow him to make some changes to the form to suit his needs. He was close to seven foot tall, had reddish black skin, long black hair in a pony tail and enough muscles to make anyone pause to look at him in awe. Since he had once again forgotten to include clothes in the spell he was completely naked as well, enough to make a woman faint at the sight of his scaled back and glowing red eyes.

Ignoring his nakedness, he made a gesture he produced a small yellow stone with a red ruby set in the center and held it against the shield for a couple of seconds, the stone glowed and exploded in a shower of dust that rained all around him. He frowned as he looked at his bleeding fingers, that hadn't been what he was trying for at all. That little stone had gotten him through several powerful magic force fields, creating the perfect door for him to get through. With a shrug he gestured again and pulled a small dagger from nowhere, an emerald set into the hilt started to glow instantly as he stabbed it into the shield, the glade went through completely and started to glow as well. It spread to the shield and lit it up like a spot light, sending light high into the sky for several seconds before the shield gave out completely and collapsed in on itself.

Chuckling to himself as he put the dagger away he moved through the small park, pushed down a couple of trees, and stood in front of the building holding his prize. He was still amazed that such a prize would just be sitting there in plane sight for anyone to take if they wanted to. That shield had been strong, but not strong enough to stop him or his magical abilities. Slamming his fist into the door, he shattered it into several pieces and took a few extra seconds to rip the rest of the wall away to get inside the building. He was just to damned tall to go in the normal way and a dragon just wasn't used to using doors. Surprisingly there weren't any traps inside, or any that he might have set off anyway. The room was cluttered with various items from the village's history, rusty swords, armor, spears of various types, and other odds and ends stacked up against the wall while there were glass cases holding various items set in the center of the room. It was pretty obvious that no one had been in here for some time from all the dust he was stirring up. He walked through the room, his senses scanning everything within sight as he searched. It was in here, he knew that, but it would have been a little easier if he knew what it looked like instead of just sensing it's powerful presence.

A few minutes later he found it near the back of the room in a wall cabinet case with a cracked glass front, looking down on it was a bit of a disappointment as well. It was an Amulet of some kind, to his senses it glowed as bright as a torch now that he was focused on it. Raising his clawed hand he brought it down on the case and shattered most of the door easily enough and reached in to pull it out for a better look. It was about the size of a large coin with a number of little symbols etched into the sides of it with a small sunburst picture in the center. For some reason he had really been expecting something more, but this was what he'd been sent to get so who was he to complain? Turning around he nearly ran into a guy in full plate armor, but that was okay, the long evil looking sword that had just been shoved through his stomach and popped out his back in a shower of reddish black blood had stopped him.

"Idiot dragon, in your normal form you are completely impervious to most damage. Then you transform into a humanoid form and loose all of that protection you still walk around and act as if you had nothing to worry about. Yet here you are, impaled on my sword as easily as cutting through pudding, your a pathetic distraction."

"R-Rook?"

Rook twisted the sword and yanked it out with a snarl, the transformed dragon fell to his knees clutching his stomach and looked up at the armored knight as he resheathed his bloody sword. "There is a super powerful poison on the blade that should be enough to keep even your magic working over time to make sure you can still breath in an hour."

"But...b-but..."

Grabbing the amulet, Rook quickly threaded a metal chain through it and hung it about his neck, just under the edge of his armor. Kicking the dragon in the side, Rook laughed as he turned and walked away from the body. He had plans to set in motion, after months of planning he was just about ready. All he had to do was keep certain people busy while he snuck in the back way and took over this whole area and recent events had left him with quite a large undead army. He looked around as he exited the half demolished building and made sure the two zombies he'd left outside were still there. They were good for guard duty like this and could take quite a bit of punishment before they went down permanently, but he had better uses for them than this. Skeletons were the only things that worked better, but they were a pain in the ass to work with.

Set them in front of a door and they can stay there for hundreds of years guarding it perfectly. This was short notice though, so the zombies from the local graveyard would do for now. There was a large undead bird kneeling on the ground nearby, it was wearing a saddle and looked like it had been dead for some time. Most of it's feathers were gone and replaced with a kind of ghostly looking after image and an aura of power that kept even the Zombies at bay while it rested. It was one of Rook's favorite undead, a Litch Werven, and it had followed him faithfully since the day he raised it from the dead all those years ago. The thing was almost like a pet to him, he patted it's head as he mounted and they launched into the air with a loud screech from the Werven.

Below him the zombies turned as one and headed into the building to finish off the dragon and fill the bags they had with them with the rest of the odd items the building held. There was a roar of anger just as they vanished in side and the building exploded in a giant fireball of destruction. The fire rose up high and took on a winged shape for several seconds before it died back down, raining fire all over the village and burning it to the ground. By this time Rook was to far away to notice, but even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered to him. He had other things on his mind and this was but the first step in his plan. On another plane of existence an old werecat wearing black robes sensed something upon the winds around him and moved to see what it was.

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[On Earth]

Ranma sipped at his pop while he watched some boring movie and really wished he hadn't told the girls that he was bored. So he had to go to Gina and ask her if there was anything he could do that would be more interesting than his normal routine, that had been his first mistake. The second had been agreeing to watch this movie with her as they prepared a giant barrel full of popcorn and sent out for chips, pop, and a bit of dip. His eyes drooped and he nearly fell out of his chair asleep as the girls around him were glued to the screen with large awe filled eyes that seemed to reflect the movie in front of them. A ship was sinking, people were drowning as they babbled at each other about the injustice of it all, oh yeah, that was interesting. The sex scene had been a good change of pace, but fogged windows and a hand print in the glass had been so lame, they hadn't even shown anything as far as he could tell. Though he had nearly slept through the scene in his bordom, but the girls wanted him awake to torture him it seemed.

Titanic, worlds biggest bore fest. What was even worse was that Gina, Brianna, Britanny, Penny, and Charlotte were all weeping openly at the movie as they ate popcorn and blew their noses. One of them had even been 'kind' enough to toss a glass of water on him and turn him into a girl earlier, saying something about how he had to experience the movie in the proper form. That hadn't gone over very well, twenty minutes later she had been asleep and had the girls glaring at her for snoring through the best part of the movie, according to them. So one quick change later, an attempt to leave, and several threats about finishing the movie and he was sitting there sipping at his pop and wondering why one on of the antenna on the ship looked like someone had gone a little overboard with a big glob of glue.

He couldn't even remember the names of the main characters and made a note to himself that asking girls for something interesting to do seemed to lead to even more boredom than what he had started out with. Ranma yawned and had the girls throw kernels of popcorn hat him for disturbing the movie, at least it was buttered and of decent quality. Leaning back in his chair he started to meditate by looking at the TV, the one that covered the whole wall, and not seeing anything. Instead he was focusing his internal energies and hoping to find something out of place, but over the last several days he'd slowly balanced out as his power grew and evened out into a manageable level. All that training had worn him down though, even Dr. Diggers had told him to take a day or two off.

Sniffle!

"Can I leave? Please?" Ranma asked as he was startled out of his trance, it must not have been a long as it seemed because the dumb ship was still sinking.

The girls just glared at him. "Don't you have a heart? This is the most beautiful movie ever created!" Britanny yelled at him without moving her eyes from the screen.

"This movie is boring." Ranma snapped. "Where's the action? Where's the bad guys and guns?"

"Oh shut up, this is a great movie." Charlotte snapped as she blew her nose, her large innocent eyes glued to the screen as she clutched a pillow.

"What about the guy with the gun they showed ealier, that should have caught your attention."

"He shot himself, oh yeah, that was good action scene." Ranma muttered as the girls threw more popcorn at him.

Ranma sighed as the credits rolled some twenty minutes later, the girls were all weeping over the guy drowning. He hadn't been all that impressed with it, he'd seen people drown before and it's wasn't as calm and clean as the thing had just shown. Rising to his feet he back flipped over the couch and headed for the kitchen for another pop as the girls all glared at him for ruining their movie. He saw that one of the lights on the little panel by the kitchen door was flashing, Gina had told him that it was like and answering machine, but that they rarely used it. Noting it, he made his way over to the large fridge, grabbed another pop, and headed back into the living room.

"I want to watch it again!" Charlotte yelled at Penny.

"It's three bloody hours long! I don't want to sit through that again unless I'm at home in bed. Preferable with Ace somewhere close by." Penny countered, then grinned. "Hey, Gina can I have a copy of this?"

"Sure! I have several copies already made up, I figured everyone would want one to take with them." Gina said as she passed out several DVD's.

Rolling his eyes, Ranma shuddered a little. "Hey, Gina, that panel on the kitchen wall is blinking. The one you said was for messages or something."

"Why didn't I hear the phone?" Gina blinked and looked over at the phone where Britanny had unplugged it earlier. "Oh yeah! Who was it from?"

"I have no idea how to work the thing, you never showed me how."

"Well then, let's find out." Gina said as she headed for the kitchen and checked the panel, the rest of the girls followed after her, except Penny and Charlotte, but they were to busy fighting over the DVD Gina had just handed them. Gina tapped a button on the panel and it's tiny screen lit up with a bit of information. "It's on the Holophone that Brianna gave to Sheila the last time she went to Jade."

"Sheila called?" Brianna asked.

"Seems like it, let's see what she had to say." Gina said as she tapped another button and a section of the wall pulled back and to the side to reveal a small three inch holo projector lens. It lit up and formed a life size version of Sheila in front of everybody, she was wearing her Edge Guard uniform. They could see Gar fighting Tirga in the background, pounding the living crap out of him.

"Hey, I hope I got this thing to work right. Anyway, this is for Ranma, I was wondering if you wanted to go on a hunt with me this weekend. If so just meet me at the Compound early Saturday morning at around sun up, bring weapons, armor, and whatever else you want. Thanks!" Sheila said with a wave and a smile as she vanished, but not before everyone got to see Tirga take a shot to the nads and fly out off the screen with a look of dismay on his face.

"You sly dog! She wants to go out with you!" Brianna yelled and slapped Ranma on the back.

Ranma twitched, that wasn't how he had heard the message at all.

"Hey, good going Ranma, from the way you two parted the last time you were together I thought she didn't want to talk to you ever again." Gina said, Britanny had told her all about Ranma's last trip to Jade.

"Well...um...that is..." He stuttered out.

"Don't worry, we'll give you a hand getting ready for the trip. I've been on a hunt myself and I know just what you need." Brianna said with a smirk that made Ranma start sweating nervously, it was the same one that she had given him during the VR game she invented.

"Oh, um, thanks I think. I'm not sure what I should take with me, but I have been meaning to apologize to her."

Theme music to Titanic is heard in the living room again, all the girls blinked and turned toward the room with glazed eyes and little smiles on their faces. Ranma just backed away, there was something seriously wrong with a movie that did this to a girls mind and he was happy as he was immune to whatever it was. He would have to go through the living room to get to his bedroom though, so after the girls were gone he slowly opened the door and facefaulted. In the resulting ten seconds after the girls had left, they had tore the living room up and turned it into a giant sleepover party. They were all in their bras and panties hugging pillows and glued to the TV, including Ranko, who looked confused, but willing to play along.

A pillow hit him in the head as he stood up.

"NO BOYS ALLOWED!" They all yelled at him and he ran out of the room as other things came flying at him.

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[Jade]

The cart's wheels shook and wobbled as it slowly made it's way down the road being pulled by a couple of huge plodding oxen. The cart was full of boxes and crates of various sizes, even some bags scattered here and there in the back of the cart. The driver was an old man with a long white beard that fell down to his feet as he sat there holding the reigns to the oxen and smoking a cigar. His was all skin and bones and wearing a thin cloth sack for a robe, his arms stuck out the sides where he had cut out arm holes and his head came out the top where he had used a knife to remove some of the stitching. He had a large brimmed hat on his head that hid most of his face along with a cloud of cigar smoke that seemed to hover around him and hide his features. Every now and then he would flick the guide rope and Oxen would continue to plod on, over ruts in the road, sticks, small animals, and any bandits that might have gotten in their way. All were left in the oxen tracks, and in return they would lift their tails and leave these little surprises for anyone that wanted them.

For the old man it was a pretty typical day and he seemed to have a good grasp of things as he steered the cart and plodded on around a hill, through a valley, over a little dog, and into the man made pass that led up to the castle high above on the cliffs. It belonged to the local evil overlord that had owned the place for the last few generations, neighbors were nonexistent, but that was because of all the undead that had populated the castle over the years. It would take another two hours to get there, but while on this mountain he took a few extra precautions as the cart started to head up. Pulling an evil looking crossbow from the box below his seat and loading two of his special bolts into the odd mechanism he smirked behind a cloud of smoke and made sure the thing would fire when he wanted it to. It had little animal skulls attached to main stock to give it just right feel when holding it. He pulled his hat down a little further and leaned forward as the first gate came into sight from between the trees. This place gave him the creeps sometimes, but they paid good money and that was what he liked about them. He had another reason for being here as well, but that was just a secondary pleasure he would take up with his children. There were several zombies wandering around in front of the gate as the Oxen decided to stop for once. One of the Zombies wandered over and looked up at him with gimlet like eyes and smell that only the newly dead could wear, that was one of the reasons he smoked the cigars.

"What's your business here old fart." The teen zombie asked.

"Call me Ol'Jeb."

"&%$# you old fart!"

It looked like the master of the castle was raising younger than normal zombies of late, he almost grabbed the cross bow and put a bolt through the thing's head just to show it what he thought of that comment, but he didn't want to end up a part of this army if he could help it. So he held his tongue and tried to talk to the rude little jerk, then shrugged, he would show this little punk just who he was. "Shut up you little pecker, you know who I am and I come through here every six months or so to sell my stuff to Master Rook and the others up at the castle. Now let me through or there is going to be trouble, a lot of trouble."

"Man, I could breath in your general direction and you would fly off that decrepit crate you old geezer. I don't know who you are, but unless you want to join this army as a foot stool, turn this crate around and go somewhere else."

Teenage Zombies, all the skill, smell, and attitude wrapped up into one little package that resented the whole world, Ol'Jeb hated them with a passion. "I'd like to talk to your commanding officer sonny, he knows me and the castle always allows me to make this trip worth while."

"Listen pops..."

Twang! Thump! Reload...

The teenage Zombie blinked and felt the bolt sticking out of his head with a show of surprise. "Hey, there was no call for that! Do you know what kind of time I have to put in just to keep looking relatively human? Hours and hours of upkeep ruined because you shot me in the head and pulling it out will cause even more damage! I oughta kick your ass for this you worthless waste of skin!"

Twang! Thump! Thump!

"Hey! Cut that out, those were my eyes! That's it, orders or no orders you are one dead geezer!" He yelled and reached for his sword.

Pulling the cigar out the old man reached out and casually lit the little wick that stuck out the back end of the bolts and lit all three of them. "I normally light these before I fire, but I wanted to give you a warning you little whippersnapper and now you get to pay."

The teen zombie froze in mid pull as his ears picked up a hissing sound around the front of his face. "Huh?"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Little bits of zombie rained down around the cart for the next few seconds and the old man used his hat to keep it away from his face. One of the oxen snagged a partially intact foot and chewed on it for a few seconds before spitting it out. An older zombie, this one was well on it's way into a decomposed state and barely recognizable, stumbled forward and shook his head as the saw the stain that the explosion had left. He looked up at the old man and smiled, something most people wouldn't have been able to stomach even under the best of circumstances. "Hey pops, back already?"

"Hey, didn't recognize you there youngster, got a promotion lately have you? You may be dead and all but your mother would still like to hear from you every now and then. You haven't written in over a year now, she was crying about it just the other day and wondering if she should send you some sewing thread or something to help you maintain yourself."

"I died thirty years ago and got inducted into the army, it isn't like I have the free time to just sit down and write a letter you know."

The old man snorted. "I was in the army, it's all waiting and waiting and waiting, with bits of excitement here and there. So don't lie to me, I know how lazy you are after all. It's what got you killed in the first place."

"Humph! I've been constantly on the move for the last few months, going here, there, scaring some girls in a field, jumping out of some random alley and scaring a vender or a random thief. I just haven't time, plus you know we don't get paid for this job."

"I still say you could get a better job and send money home to your mother."

The zombie sighed, how is any bodies guess, and nearly lost it's tongue in the process. "We are not allowed to disobey the Master pops, you know that, and you doing this to any zombie that you don't like, especially young Ralphie here isn't going to go over very well with them up at the castle either. He was only raised last week and was still learning the ropes."

"Punk kid should have known better than to disrespect me like that, I'm old, I've earned a bit of respect."

"Bah, you doddering old fool! You may by my father, but you sure as hell haven't earned any kind of respect! You sit in a cart all day long and watch the oxen shit all over the ground, it's all you ever do!"

Thunk!

"Yo-You just SHOT me! Your own son!"

"Teach you to call me names and insult me to my face!"

"Look at this! It goes right through my chest and out the back! This will take forever to fix!"

"Hah! At least I didn't light it the stupid thing!"

"AGHAAAAAA!!! DIE OLD MAN!"

The old man stood up and jumped off the cart like a twenty year old and started to kick the crap out of his son, show him a bit of discipline. His undead son retaliated with a haymaker and sent him sprawling, but he rolled to his feet and came back with a hard elbow to the chin that threw his son back into the oxen's hind quarters. It raised it's head and back kicked him, sending the zombie flying into the trees several yards away. The old man grinned as he heard bones and branches breaking as the zombie fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Sighing, the old man removed his hat and held it over his heart and bowed his head for a few seconds, then remounted the cart and clicked the reigns. Along with the constant plodding, his oxen didn't like to be touched and tended to kick out and buck every now and then, so he had built the stocks that held them out a little further to keep them from kicking him in the face.

The gates to the next part of the road opened up as he mounted the cart and he headed forward, he smirked to himself though. He hadn't wanted to do that, but the little backstabber had it coming for ignoring his mother. Puffing on his cigar he wondered what the rest of the day would bring, this was only the first of four gates he had to travel through. Him and the wife had quite a large extended family and several of them were now working here at the castle as zombies or ghosts. Sometimes they needed a bit of discipline to make them work a little harder, so he was here to do just that. Oh, and make some money too, couldn't forget the real reason he had come here for in the first place. An evil smile graced his face as the next gate came into sight and he spotted a new face, a cousin of his if he remembered right. The guy still owed him some money too, luckily he had just reloaded the crossbow.

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[Earth]

"Um?" Ranma said as Brianna and Gina shouldered their way into his room with a bunch of stuff in their arms tossed it all on his bed with a grunt. Curious, Ranma walked over to see what they had tossed on the bed, it was a pretty good sized pile. There was a fanny pack with tools, a couple dozen guns of varying levels of destructive ability. Lots of clothing, two pairs of boots, gloves, a fedora hat with a red stripe around it, hand mirror, a pair of bracers, and a box of condoms. "What do I need all this for? It's just a hunt, running around in the woods and shooting a deer or a rabbit for lunch."

"Ha!" Brianna yelled and poked him with a finger. "A hunt in Jade is way different than the one's we have here. Over there a hunt is used to keep certain animals down to a minimum so that they don't become a danger to the local farmers and such. Normally one goes into the woods to hunt down dangerous animals, they could be anything from an imp to some kind of swamp monster. You need the artillery to take down those kinds of threats, you could get killed if you aren't prepared! Here, I think I tossed a rocket launcher in here somewhere, let me show you how it works!"

"Alright, that explains the guns, but what about this extra large box of condoms?" Ranma asked and blushed as he picked it up, there were thirty of the things in there according to the printing on the box. What the heck would he do with thirty condoms?

Brianna sighed and nudged him with her elbow a little and winked at him.. "Just you and Sheila out there in that forest, alone, sharing a tent, who knows where thing will go?"

"Oh right, like she would want to do anything like that." Ranma muttered as he tossed the box back on the pile on the bed.

"You never know, so just take them along to be prepared." Gina said as she sat a couple bottles of wine on top of the pile and whistled innocently.

"I really doubt she wants to go through all this just to have sex, you two. Anyway, where am I going to hold all this?" Ranma muttered as flashbacks of Brianna's sex education classes came back to him, he shuddered a little.

"You get to have access to some of our special adventuring equipment, that's what, but you will have to conceal it since certain types of technology, most kinds, are illegal on Jade and have to be kept out of sight if you have them." Gina said.

"A little is fine if the situation demands it and you have it available, we usually get given a little leeway because we are from the Earth Realm as they like to call this place." Brianna explained with a grin as she picked up a hand gun and played with it a little, putting a little red dot on the wall from it's under the barrel mounted laser sight and made bang noises.

Ranma had learned a lot in Brianna's little VR game since weapons were as much a part of the story line she created as martial arts. He had spent several hours 'game time' learning how to shoot them, but had never really been able to understand what she saw in the things. He shrugged, he would take some of this stuff with him and use it if he really needed it, but otherwise he planned to stick with his martial arts and limited magic training, it would give him a chance to perfect a couple of things he was working on. He was almost all the way through the book that Dr. Diggers had given him and knew ten of the fifteen spells now. He could even adapt them if he needed to, but the pattern that he imagined in his head was the main catalyst for the magic and kept it from doing something really bad like killing people. More magic users had been killed by picturing a bad pattern than people wanted to talk about, only those with the mental discipline to keep it perfect ever made it past the apprentice level as a magic user and with some people that took years, even decades. A rare one percent of these people had the strength of will to rise to the top level of magic users and a spot on the Mage Council.

"Alright Ranma, the main piece of equipment you will have to carry around with you at all times are these bracers I made for you last night after we got Sheila's message. They are going to be the main thing you carry with you, I designed them to look like this because I noticed you are always wearing a cloth pair." Gina explained.

Ranma picked them up and examined the half inch thick bracers and wondered if they would impede his martial arts in anyway. "Why are they so thick? That will cause me some problems, but nothing major."

"They are one of my latest designs and I was rushed for time, anyway remove those cloth bracers you are wearing and toss them on the bed. Then set the bracer against your arm and hold it there for a few seconds."

With a shrug Ranma followed the instructions, the dull metal sat there for a second before it seemed to phase around his arm and lock in place. He almost fell over in shock, but after all this time with these girls, it was really hard to surprise him with stuff like this. They liked to walk around the house in their underwear, something like this wouldn't surprise him as much as walking into the living room and seeing three girl sitting around in panties. Picking up the other bracer he did the same and was soon looking down at the two dull metal devices on his forearms. "Now what? Their not as heavy as I would have thought."

"Say 'computer'." Gina said.

"Computer?"

With a little his, the top part of his left hand bracer swung open to reveal a small computer with a series of buttons with little pictures on them. Gina beamed in pride, happy that her invention hadn't blown up and taken Ranma with it, but he didn't need to know that. "Now to make this easy to use I used pictures for the buttons, though you can say the name out loud while the computer is open and they will activate as well. The first button is the Hyperspace pocket that we adapted from the Light gate technology a few months ago, though this is an experimental version I've been working with using things you couldn't even possibly begin to understand."

"Um...yeah?" Ranma said as he bit his tongue and fiddles with it little.

"Anyway, the first button is the one with a circle, press that while you are holding something and it will be transported into a Hyperspace. Test it out, I want to see if everything is working right now that they are on your arms."

Shrugging, he picked up the mirror and pressed the button. It vanished in a flash of light and the word mirror appeared on the little screen to tell him what it was. "Cool! How much can this thing hold?"

Gina sighed with relief when Ranma wasn't paying attention and grinned at him, she would be adding this to her normal equipment as soon as she could. "It should be able to hold about four times as much as your back pack easily. Each normal item like food, clothing and money should be used with that button. The rest of the buttons are specialty buttons, you'll notice that they have little pictures of a hat, gun, boots, bow, rifle, a little mech warrior, and a sword. That is a special space for that type of item and can hold three of each kind, by holding it or touching it and saying it name after pressing the button it will be stored away. After that you will be able to just say something like, gun #1, and it will appear in your hand with a flash of light."

"What will I do about my pack? It carries a ton of stuff in it as well, plus it's weight is part of my training."

"You shouldn't need it anymore, but you can take it with you if you want, though it will be next to useless."

"What about if the bracers break?"

"They are armored and should be able to take quite a bit of damage, I used a bit of my Beta Technology in them to miniaturize everything and it keeps them just a tiny bit out of phase with the things around you. It would take being dropped into lava for several hours to damage them and while you're wearing them they can't be taken from you unless you take them off."

"Geeze Gina, you didn't install a Beta Weapon in those things did you?!" Brianna yelled, that stuff was dangerous.

Gina giggled nervously. "Well, um, I did come up with a little thing."

"This Beta Technology is...bad?" Ranma asked as he stopped fiddling and gave Brianna a look out of the corner of his eye.

"What did you do Gina?" Brianna asked.

"It's just a little thing, a kind of side effect really, I didn't even know it was there until I finished my tests this morning."

"Gina!"

"Jinkies, look at the time. Star Trek is one in a few minutes." Gina said, looked at her bare wrist where a watch should have been and began edging out of the room as she giggled nervously.

Brianna blocked off her path, using the speed she had inherited from Britanny. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"Now come on, it's nothing to worry about." Gina tried as Brianna grabbed her shirt.

"Just like it wasn't anything to worry about that time when you gave Britanny that Beta Circle, that if she didn't manage to hit a Beta Phantom with it the thing would have blown up with even more force than a nuclear bomb? Or the..."

"Alright, alright! It's not that bad, the bracers have the ability to create mini-circles!"

"Mini-circles? Oh great, it wasn't like you didn't give Britanny that circle that attached a few tons of weight to her wrist that she couldn't even feel." Brianna said, glaring at her sister. "Remember what the did to the lab door just by touching it with her finger? What do these do?"

"It was a side effect of the miniaturization process, so long as he doesn't activate them he will be fine."

"How big an explosion?"

"Um...I calculated something about the size of a four city blocks." Gina squeaked out.

"Gina I'm gonna..." Brianna muttered, blinked, and patted her on the back with a huge grin. "That's great! I never new my sister had it in her to create such a weapon! I want one too!"

"Ah..." Ranma muttered, to frozen in fear from having bombs on his arms that he couldn't move. He didn't want to set them off.

Gina patted him on the back and nearly made him wet his pants. "Don't worry about it Ranma, I told you those things are nearly indestructible. Just don't push the button that activates them." She ginned at him cutely and blinked a couple of times.

"What button activates them?" He got out.

"This little red one over here." Said and pointed it out. "Even then it will just create a circle of beta energy that can be used to as a weapon, you will just have to worry about it destabilizing and blowing up on you. This is a much improved version from the one I had my sister test last year."

"Which version are these?" Brianna asked.

"The second version of course, there was no one around to test them so I had to wait for someone that was willing to. This is the perfect chance." Gina said and cackled a little as she walked out of the room. "Don't forget about the other uses the bracers have."

Um...yeah." Ranma muttered, sweating nervously. He was thinking that these girls were going to be the death of him, first they drag him here, then they bore him to tears, and now he had bombs strapped to his arms. This was turning out to be a really weird week for him and he didn't want to think about what tomorrow would bring. For a few seconds there he wanted to go back to the old man and just be tortured every day of his life, it was so much easier to handle than this kind of punishment. Though he had to admit that the view was better as Brianna bent over to pick something up off the bed, much better.

"Oh cheer up Ranma! Don't forget to add those condoms to the storage space, okay?" Brianna said as she stood up, pinched his cheek and whispered in his ear before she left.

Ranma sighed as they left, getting used this kind of danger was taking more than he had at the moment. Moving over to the closet he pulled his pack out to transfer supplies, got an idea, and touched the pack as he pressed the button. The whole thing lit up with a flash of light and vanished from sight, he smirked, he liked this part of the deal. He could take it all with him and use it if there was an emergency. The next step was all the weapons on his bed, he really didn't want to take them. He planned on using this as a training trip and a chance to learn a few new things. As he headed out of the room he had a feeling that the next few days were going to be interesting, more so than normal, but first he was going to have a little talk with Gina before she got away.

**********

[Jade]

The bed was covered in discarded dresses as Sheila tried to find just the perfect outfit for this hunt, she wanted to impress Ranma when he arrived. It had taken a while, but she had finally forgiven him for that little comment he made the last time they were together and he had been trying to complement her. She had never been so mad in her life and still couldn't believe that he had said something like that to her face. Still, now that he was coming for a visit she would have a chance to really impress him with her skills. Fighting side by side against the monsters of the forest swamp they were going to be traveling through would be the perfect time to try and patch things up between them. That was why she was standing in front of a fill sized mirror in a her skimpiest outfit and trying to look sexy.

Her thrice damned birth defect that kept her werejaguar form looking about the size of a human made her look like a teenager playing dress up, it annoyed the hell out of her and would have given just about anything to be a normal werejaguar instead of this defective version. It had it's uses, but in a relationship she needed a bit more ammunition than the ability to look cute. She shifted to her human form, shot up almost ten inches and developed a body that any female body builder would have sold their soul for. Looking in the mirror proved just how good looking it was and she smiled at herself, she had more skin showing than she knew what to do with and blushed a solid red. Shifting back quickly, she sighed and took off the miniskirt and half shirt she was wearing and went back to her closet. If this kept up she was going to have to go and buy a new outfit for her meeting tomorrow and she really didn't have the money at this time.

Then she came across something she had forgotten about, Britanny's shiny black skin tight body suit. She had left the Lookout without giving it back the day Ranma had called her a sex crazed deviant, it would do nicely with a few added enhancements from other parts of her collection and would allow her to shift forms and still look good. Britanny always did have good tastes in fashion, heck when she went to the mall the store employees called her by name when they said hello. It was perfect except for one little problem that Britanny had once mentioned, she had to have special underwear so that they weren't visible through the spandex. That would mean a trip to her special box, the one that even Gar didn't know about and was hidden from everybody who knew her. Dashing across the room she locked the door, looked around like a thief on the prowl, closed the window, curtains, and made sure that there was no way to get into the room without her knowing. She even closed the chimney flue to make doubly certain that she was safe before she shifted to her human form and stepped into the closet.

There is the sound of things being moved, a grunt, and wood being scrapped against wood just before the door opens up to reveal her standing there with a small box in her hands. Britanny had gotten her this for Christmas a few years back and she had kept it stashed away where no one would ever be able to find it unless they knew about the special hide away that she'd paid a dwarf to build into her in the closet on the sly. Opening the box and setting the lid to the side she carefully pulled the color paper to the side to reveal about a dozen pairs of naughty underwear and blushed. She had no clue where Britanny had found underwear like this, but every time she put them on she felt dirty, in a good way. Tirga had this kind of radar that made him appear every time she decided to wear a pair of these under her normal clothes, paying more attention to her and other things. Though she had once thought about making him wear a pair of them just to see make him play fair, she had been wearing a belly dancers costume at the time and had gotten just little ticked at him for commenting on it while they were performing an infiltration job during the last Tournament of Arms.

How he knew or at least suspected when she was wearing the things was a mystery, but she would have to keep him from bothering her when Ranma showed up. Maybe she could beat him off with a stick this time since she didn't want him groping her like he did last time. This outfit was an attention grabber and she wanted Ranma to notice her, not Tirga. Grabbing the light blue pair she changed into them and understood why Britanny had called them bunn floss panties, they barely covered her other bits either, but that didn't matter as she pulled on the black spandex body suit and stepped over to the mirror and smirked at herself as she examined herself from all directions. She looked good and since Britanny had given her the clothes she knew that shifting forms in this was safe, the panties would stretch out too. They even had that tail hole in the back so that she could shift to any form she wanted with no trouble at all. It was common theme for any kind of clothing a werecreature had to have if they wanted to be comfortable in any outfit.

Shifting to her human form she flexed her arms a couple of times and noticed that it looked like she had on a new kind of mage suit, except this one gleamed like it was wet and molded to her every curve. If this didn't catch Ranma's eye she would have to throw him on the ground and have her way with him to make him understand. Shifting back she grabbed a leather coat off the bed, a pair of thin black silk gloves, and her boots before stepping back to the mirror. She really liked what she was seeing, but there was something missing, the outfit needed a belt of some kind to draw the eye or everybody would be looking at her crotch or her breasts when she talked to them. The only belt she had was the adventuring belt she wore when she was on a mission for the Edge Guard though, so it would have to do.

Brianna had once said that the thing looked like a pair of crossed gun belts that used to be used in the old west on Earth. They hung around her waist and had several magical pockets to hold her gear, Brianna had modified one to have a holster at the side that tied around the wearers thigh when she was here the last time. Hers didn't have that, but the pockets were full of little things that might come in handy and she had been planning on taking it with her when she went out on the hunt. Nodding to herself she quickly put the box away and set the outfit to the side as she got dressed in her normal clothes again. The next couple of days were going to be fun, she could feel it, all she had to do was get Ranma in just the right place and she could finally release a bit of built up stress. Smirking to herself she slinked out the door and headed down the street for a bit of supper, it was little late, but she had to get some real food in her before everyone showed up.

A few minutes later she entered The Burning Drum and headed over to the owner. "Hi Phil."

"Hi Sheila, what can I get for you tonight." He lisped.

"Got any of that special left over?"

"Sure, I'll be right back. The usual size helping?"

"Yeah, that would be great Phil." Sheila said as she eased into a nearby both and relaxed a bit. The place was mostly empty except for a traveling swordsman over in one corner, he looked mostly harmless though, so she ignored him and waited for Phil to come back with her soup. She took a closer look at the swordsman and wondered why he looked kind of familiar, he was tall, wearing hardened leather body armor with rather large shoulder pads, had long dark hair with the hint of spots here and there, and a monstrous sword across his back. He was slowly making his was through his meal with dogged determination like that used by people that didn't get to eat very often, something about him made her think that he was more than he seemed. She was not in the mood to kick some criminal's ass tonight, there were much better things to do with her time so she decided to just ignore him and hope he was a nobody. Over the years as a member of the Edge Guard she had developed a kind of sixth sense that let her get a feel for people.

She was thankful that he wasn't doing anything at the moment that would have forced her to arrest him. Phil came back with her food and sat a large bowl of soup, a plate of bread, and some fruit down in front of her before heading back into the kitchen. Grabbing a spoon she dug into the thick soup and concentrated on eating for a little while, imagining Ranma as she did so and wondering if they would ever get a chance to play like they had done while he was undergoing the Neko-ken training. It wasn't very often that she got a chance to run around in her full cat mode with a guy who was playing just as hard. Gar had disapproved, but that seemed to be kind of normal with him lately and she couldn't figure how why. He had never disapproved of humans before and had lots of them as friends, hell he even had a girlfriend that was human, so she figured that he was being over protective of her. He had been like that for years, still there had to be some way to make him stop harassing everyone that got near her.

The only one he approved of was Tirga and she just couldn't really see herself with him anymore. She had gotten over her crush on the guy after all this time and would have thought that he would be happy about it. Instead he was complaining about her tastes in men and constantly tried to make sure she never had a chance to see anyone while he was around. His action were beginning to worry her, but she had no clue how to deal with him when he was like this, it just didn't make any sense to her. Though he had kept his thoughts to himself for the most part, he still tended to over react every time she even looked at a guy unless it was Tirga, tracking them down and silently threatening them until they went away. Could there have been something about Tirga that he was trying to teach her? Something that she hadn't seen along with his hedonistic and womanizing ways? She wasn't sure, but she did know that a crush could only last so long without the other party giving something in return and she was tired of finding about how Tirga had taken this girl to bed or seduced some cute married woman while the husband was drunk at the bar.

She sighed and sat back to look around again and blinked as some guy in a cloak came through the door. It was instantly apparent that he was a werecat of some kind from the tail peaking out from underneath the cloak. He was wearing a large pack and carried himself with the skill of a beginning level fighter, concentrating on his steps and cautiously scanning the room way later than he should have to avoid a fight. Then the hood stopped and looked in her direction, with a little hop he headed in her direction and raised his arm as he moved, waving at her. "Hi Sheila!"

"Raphiel?!" She gasped as she heard the voice. "What in the world are you wearing that outfit for?"

"Me and Onoli just got back from a patrol, he asked me to step in here and get us some food while he checked in at the compound." Raphiel said as he happily flipped his hood off to reveal his werecheetah features.

Sheila jumped up and hugged him for a second, she hadn't seen Raphiel Ray in some time. After the last Tournament of Arms he had gone to a special school that the Council of the Edge Guard used to make sure all their agents knew the same information and could work together. He had just returned a few days ago and she had forgotten all about it after she decided to invite Ranma here. She looked him over and nodded to herself, before he had gone to the Edge Guard school he had been kind of thin and scrawny, but over the last few months he had filled out with a bit of muscle. Though not enough to really make a difference, it still gave him a different, meaner look. He looked like all the werecheetah pictures she had seen in books and heard about in stories, thin and lanky to better access their incredible speed. The school he had been sent to tended to be more about information than actual training though, sure they taught how to use a certain weapon, but they usually left it up to the various Edge Guard group that sponsored them to finish their physical training so that the teams could mesh better over time.

From the looks of things he had been quite busy so far and now that he was back with them he was going on simple missions with Onoli and Gar whenever they had a chance to take him. They would slowly bring him into the group over the next few months as they learned to work with him and make sure he knew how to protect himself in a fight. He had one of the oddest histories she'd heard in a while, supposedly he wasn't exactly a werecheetah, but a kind of super complex golem that a girl named Tanya had created to get her revenge on Britanny for stealing Stripe from her. Ruining her chances of rising to the position of Queen and gaining even stronger powers as a priestess of their people. Brianna had managed to get him reconstructed the last time she was here and they had been looking after him ever since.

"How was the patrol?"

"It was a lot of fun, we ran through the forests at the edge of the grassy plane just outside the city and stopped several of those bandits from harassing people. They weren't very nice though and we had to fight them, a few didn't like that and had to be put down." Raphiel said and waved for Phil to come over and take his order.

"You came in with Onoli? He's been pretty busy lately and hasn't been around to much." Sheila said.

"I know, he's been trying to master this new power of his that he gained from that thing he caries around to prove he's the Edge Guard leader."

"Master a new power? That wouldn't happen to be 'Rain' would it?" Sheila asked, she had seen that power used once and didn't want to see it again if she could help it. It had taken Onoli weeks to recover from using that one time and they had wondered if he had pushed himself to far even then.

"Yeah, that's the one, he has me guard him while he meditates on it and tries to control the awesome power it creates. I've never seen anything like it in my life, how he can wield something that powerful and not lose control is a total mystery. He said he's taking in steps, only using a tiny bit of power each time he does. The Mage Council advised him to take his time since he didn't need to know it right away." Raphiel said as Phil came back up.

"Hello Raph, it's been a long time since I last saw you. I thought you moved on to another city to help out or something." Phil said as he came up. "What can I get you?"

"I need two bowls of soup to go, Onoli wanted me to pick him up supper for him. I'll bring the bowls back in the morning."

"Sure, let me go and get them made up. That will be two gold pieces, I'll give you back one of them in the morning when you bring back the bowls. If you weren't Edge Guard I wouldn't let you do it at all, but in this case I'm willing to compromise."

"Thanks!" Raphiel said, handing the money over without a second thought.

Sheila rolled her eyes, Raphiel was still a total moron when it came to money it seemed, she would have to do something about that. "Thanks for the 'favor' Phil, I'll make sure he has them back here tonight so you don't have to take his money like that." She said as she snatched one of the coins back and handed it to Raphiel.

"Can't blame me for trying." Phil said as he headed for the kitchen and his never ending quest for more soup.

"So what else have you been doing with your time Raphiel?"

"Oh lots of things, I've been training how to fight with a couple of small hand held sticks. They are about two foot long and have a handle sticking out the side about three quarters of the way along the side for me to hold onto, for better control. Onoli called them War Sticks when we were training, they can do the most amazing things."

"War Sticks? How about an elemental attack like the rest of use?"

"We haven't gotten that far just yet, but right now the Council doesn't know if I can use elemental or magical attacks because of what I am." Raphiel said with a shrug.

"Well you were constructed under special circumstances, so I think you might be able to and if not now, we can always go to another golem maker and have them give you the ability." Sheila said.

"I wanted to try on my own first, that's why I've been doing all this training, to see if I really was alive and able to even learn new things."

"You'll get there." Sheila said as Phil came back with couple of covered bowls of soup.

"Here you go Raph, anything else?"

"Nope, I got it." He said and took the food as he stood up. "I'm heading back to the to the training barracks, would you like to come with me?" Raphiel asked.

"No thanks, Raphiel, I'll be back there here in a little while though. I want to finish eating first" Sheila said, he nodded and waved good by as he left.

"That boy is still totally clueless about most everything." Phil said.

"It doesn't help that you just tried to rip him off Phil."

"Ah, I wasn't going to take the money like most everyone else would have, but I wouldn't have refused it either."

"I'm going to have to talk to him about that."

"Don't take to long, he isn't to far away from going into is first rut." Phil said mildly and Sheila blushed a solid red.

"How can you say that out loud!" She yelled and tried to swat at him, but he ducked with a laugh and headed back to the kitchen before she could get him. Raphiel didn't keep the fact that he was a golem a secret, but he didn't tell just anybody about it either so there were only a few people that knew about him. The leading clan of the Retreat had been more than a little disappointed when they were informed, but since the fake werecheetah was capable of producing children under the right circumstances, they were thinking of trying to find a way to make Britanny have a couple of children with him.

So far she had no clue about what those plans might be, but she did know that they were hoping that any offspring produced from her relationship with that outsider would be more werecheetah than alien. So far they had kept quiet on the subject because he was basically a werecat anyway, with a few other little differences that didn't matter. That, and Dr. Diggers wouldn't have approved of their actions if they forced anything. Sheila had thought of telling Britanny about them, but decided that so long as they didn't actually try to kidnap her out of her bed and force her to do the deed with Raphiel she wouldn't have to worry about it. Doing such a thing might actually restart the wars all over again and they wanted to keep that from happening at all costs, even the extinction of a whole clan. Anyone that lived in the Retreat had to live in peace and never fight with any of the other clans that lived there.

There was a gate to the Retreat here at Seer's Hamlet and it was their job as Edge Guard to see that no one ever got a chance to invade the place or harm any of the people that lived there. She was just happy that the place didn't really have anything of value except lots of farm land and a couple of mountain towns where some of the more reclusive tribes had isolated themselves. If it had been possible to find gold or magic anywhere within the Retreat there would have been some evil minded moron trying to invade the place on a weekly basis with some kind of get rich scheme and driving her mad with the constant battle. One could find any kind of were animal there, but three of the main ones had never had a chance to go there. There were even rumored to be Werehounds deep in the mountains, hiding from the rest of the clans that resided there. The Werehounds were the first Werecreatures ever created, and the biggest failure as well. The things had been like dog shaped humans in comparison to strength and power. The werewolves had been next, using a currently extinct form of wolf to make them into a breed that was a hundred times better than the Hounds.

The Werewolves, as the most aggressive, had been at war with the werecheetahs for centuries as well. Eventually both sides had gotten tired of all the fighting and tried one last time to live in peace before they annihilated each other. Surprisingly enough both sides had wanted this for the most part, they had been the last two clans left that hadn't gone to the Retreat. It was the only way to get permission from the other clans to enter the Retreat, but on the day both tribes were to meet up and go to the Retreat they had been betrayed and slaughtered almost totally. One of the werewolves had made a deal with an evil power in exchange for total loyalty and death of the werecheetahs and his own people, to this day that werewolf's name was more of a curse than anything else. All but one of the werecheetahs had been killed and the only survivor, Britanny Diggers, only did so because she was rescued bye Dr. Diggers.

A few of the werewolves survived and they went into hiding to rebuild their race, but only a couple of females had survived so it was a very slow process. Even worse was the fact that those very same actions had condemned werewolves in the eyes of clans and nearly ruined their chances of ever entering the Retreat again. It had only been recently that the full truth of the final battle of the two clans had been discovered and the werewolves cleared of the bad reputation they had earned because of that maniac. Now that the werewolves were coming back from near extinction the leaders of the tribal clans had been turning their eye towards the Earth Realm and Britanny.

They had also noticed something when they did so, the third missing clan, one that had earned itself a reputation as assassins and murders, they had been more than a little surprised that they survived and prospered in the Earth Real where magic was so hard to come by and they didn't know what to think of it. The wererats were led by some of the most corrupt and evil minds they had ever seen, using torture to enforce their rules and to put each of their members through training that would have killed all but the strongest fighters. They didn't even breed for love or family, they bred for cunning and strength and arranged matters to suit their needs. Tracking them was very hard to do, but a rare few had managed to make themselves noticeable enough to the right people. Lydia McKraken, Moisha Rich, and Romeo Ellis were now listed as three confirmed wererats, their very existence had taken the wererats off the extinction list.

They all lived in the Earth realm so she had never had a chance meet any of them either, in battle or in person, and didn't know if they even knew how to get to Jade. As a member of the Edge Guard she had been informed of all this, but the wererat's survival had to be kept a closely guarded secret from certain people or certain clans would have found a way to Earth and slaughter them from existence. At the moment even Raphiel didn't know of them and it would be some time before he ever was, the guy couldn't lie to save his fur. Sitting back in her chair she sighed and started to finish off her fruit and tried to think about what the next couple of days would be like, she didn't want to think about all the secret crap she knew about. So she focused on her new favorite subject, Ranma, he would be there in the morning and she wanted to make a good first impression, but at the moment she was too excited to go to sleep and it was still a few hours yet before she even had to.

Getting up from the table she picked up her dishes and stacked them up neatly so that Phil could pick up and take back to the kitchen, left a few coppers for him, and headed out the door. She walked out into the torch lit night without really paying attention to what was around her, moving from one area of light to a thick blanket of darkness that existed between torches. She needed to get back to her room and see what time she was on the fire watch, they all took turns guarding the compound during the night, giving each of them two hours of guard duty. She had asked for the last one so she would have a couple of hours to get ready for Ranma, after doing a quick run around the place, but Onoli hadn't know if he could do that or not before he left this morning. When Raphiel had arrived back a few days ago he hadn't really been expected back for a couple more weeks, but with him here to cover more of the night she might just get what she wanted after all.

She was just entering the final street that led to the large estate that made up most of the Edge Guard's compound when she heard a clink of metal in the darkness around her and stopped in her tracks. Her danger sense was telling her that something was wrong, but whoever it was they were very well concealed and nearly impossible to detect. As a member of the Edge Guard she had certain enemies, mostly bandits, but there were a few big league characters she had to worry about and being in Seer's Hamlet didn't mean she was instantly protected from them either. It was easy enough to get around the spells the Mage Council had set up to keep certain kinds of people out and if one knew enough magic and had the power the could go anywhere they wanted too. She looked into the shadows and sniffed the air, whoever was out there had an odd smell that she couldn't place, but it was really familiar. Then the shadows moved and she backed up a couple of steps in surprise as six undead knights moved out of the dark shadows in an attempt to capture her by surprise.

"Damn it, these things are a pain in the ass and there isn't even anyone around to help me out." She hissed to herself and held out her hand to call her elemental scimitar to her hand.

Swinging the sword in a sweeping cut she sent a wave of ice cold energy right into the center of the group and got one of them, but by that time all of them were on her. Swinging swords with the same skill that they had possessed when they were alive, following familiar patterns and slowly surrounding her as she tried to block them as best she could. She didn't even have time to think who might have sent them, all she could do was slowly move back and try to break them up with a well placed shot here and there. With a duck and roll she gained herself a couple of seconds and lashed out with her elemental attack once more.

"Ice Fang!"

Her sword swung out and down, sending a wave of Ice at her target and encasing him in a large block of ice and stopping him cold. The swing of her sword was just like she had practiced and allowed her to get her guard back up fast enough to block an attack from one of the four remaining undead Knights, with a ring of steel that staggered her back a couple of steps they came at her from different directions and started to get past her guard. This didn't look good, she wasn't used to working alone in a fight, there was usually someone there to help her out when she was going against odds like this, but it wouldn't be the first this had happened either and she could take care of herself. Her brother Gar would have been able to over power them and shatter them with his Partisan Spear, but she didn't have is overpowering strength. It was getting to the point that she would be forced to fight as a human, it had all her extra physical strength and dexterity, but none of the healing ability and wounds taken while she was like that took twice as long to heal as they should have when she changed back. If they had been alive in anyway her ice attacks might have had more effect too, but they were undead and one didn't really get any colder than that.

"Damn it!" She yelled as one of the sliced open the side of her arm and forced her to jump back several feet.

As the wound slowly knitted back together she breathed a sigh of relief for a second and prepared to encase a third one in ice. Then she saw the shadow moving on the roof behind the Undead Knights, it was obviously a living being from the way it moved, but she didn't have time to think about who it might have been as the attacks resumed and took all she had to keep them at bay. Whoever had sent these things certainly knew hot to raise the dead better than most, they were a lot stronger than the regular run of the mill undead things she had encountered in the past. They worked as team, something she had never seen before. Screaming her attack phrase she sent another wave of ice at the group and managed to snare a fourth one right as the others ones managed to catch her across the leg and send her to the ground with a cry of shock.

The three remaining knights turned on her and as one raised their swords, she prepared to do a quick roll out of the way and transform into her human form as a last resort. Then a shadow descended from a nearby roof and she remembered the guy she had seen up there a few seconds before. She only had a glimpse of a large man with wavy black hair and a sword attacking them from behind and shattering two of them into their component pieces before the third even knew what hit him and joined them a half second later. Clutching her leg, Sheila dragged herself to her feet and waited for the wound to close up enough for her to stand on it a little before turning to the guy.

"Well hello again, are you alright?" He asked.

"Um...hello, you're that that guy who was eating at the same place I was at little while ago, right?"

"I'm Ashaton Chaos, I'm just traveling through searching for something. I stopped by the bar to grab a bite to eat and left a little while after you did, then I heard the battle going on a little ways away from where I was and decided to see what was going on. Didn't expect to see Undead Knights though, these things can be nasty if you're not prepared for them."

"They ambushed me and caught me mostly by surprise, didn't have time to do much more than defend myself."

Ashaton nodded. "If you hit them just right from the back they will just fall apart and loose the magic that keeps them going. It has something to do with the fact that the armor is empty except for the undead spiritual energy."

"I'll remember that." Sheila said with a grin. "I'm Sheila."

"Hello Sheila, so where are you going from here? I'll escort you if you want."

"Just down the block here, I have to report these things to Onoli so we can get prepared for them if they come back."

"Alright." Ashaton said. "Lead the way."

A couple of minutes later they approached the Edge Guard compound, a large building set at the edge of the town where they could all live and practice in relative peace. The outer grounds allowed them a bit of space to practice outside in any of their werecat forms along with a dojo set off to the side where they could practice weapons and hand to hand combat when it was needed. It had a set of stairs that led up to a walk way that went clear around the inside of the building and allowed anyone to watch a fight from the second level and help out with training. The main building was just off to the side and connected to the Dojo, this was where they all had a room of their own to sleep in, though it was called a barracks, it was more like a home with all the bells and whistles. They had close connections to the Mage Council and the Retreat so they were able to set things up that few other places had access to.

"It's impressive." Ashaton said as he looked the place over.

"It's been used by the Edge Guard for the last couple of Generations, some lady left it to the City Council when she died and they gave it to the original Edge Guard that inhabited the place. It's got everything you could think of. Though we have improved upon it over the last few years, making it more user friendly and all that."

"Well, you should be safe from here Sheila, I'll take my leave, but I think we will meet again." Ashaton said. "I need to continue my search for a magical item I'm looking for."

"No problem and thanks again for helping me out, see you around." Sheila said and waved as he walked off.

She headed inside smiling happily and went off to look for Onoli, but she didn't pay as much attention to her surroundings as should have or she might have spotted the figure hiding in the dark shadows of the building. He watched her for a second before turning to watch Ashaton walk off and frowned. Turning, he walked back into the shadows and vanished from sight completely. He reappeared a few seconds later running across the property at high speed, shifting into full cat form in mid step and heading into the woods outside of Seer's Hamlet. There was a barely visible aura of red energy around him that made all the animals in his path get out of his was as fast as they could, but he ignored them as he ran, he had other things to think about.

**********

Dwarves were a funny race of beings, they loved to live underground and dig through the rock like moles to find rare metals, gems, and other rare and hard to find items. They have been doing this for centuries and rarely came to the surface for anything except some supplies or plants that they might need. This is how things have always been, but a rare few would look to the surface and wonder what was out there, instead of chipping away at rock they would day dream about adventure and far off places that they barely knew existed. These rare few, one out of every hundred dwarves were the ones that people would see wandering through towns, hacking down a deer by taking its knees out with a large battle axe and a feral glint in their eye. There have been many wanderers through out the centuries, most have never been heard from again and their mothers would morn their deaths in private.

A rare few though went on to be famous, having names that any race with even a spark of intelligence had heard of. These were the fighters that could use any weapon, take on any foe, and win at any cost. One such fighter had been born in these modern times, a woman of all things, and a very powerful fighter. She was the perfect balance of speed, power, and skill that could match all but one fighter in a fair fight and win. Near a dwarven mine, deep in the mountains half a continent away from Seer's Hamlet there was a flash of light from a teleportation spell. A human female appeared at the base of a mountain wearing a thick white cloak and a large black and green spear like weapon on her back.

She couldn't get any closer to the mountain than this due to the fact that unless it was a magical weapon of some kind, most magic didn't work within a dwarven hall. There was a trail in front of her that she would have to climb just to reach the first dwarven check point and enter the midway point of the mine. She would have given up her very expensive armor if she could have been anywhere else, but this was where the G'nolga was being kept after her actions at the last Tournament of Arms. One of the most dangerous female weapon masters on the planet and the one that she had been ordered to free from her imprisonment at all costs. They weren't friends by a long shot, G'nolga hated everybody but other dwarves, but they weren't exactly enemies either. Getting her free from within the mine was going to be very tricky and something a dwarf should have been sent to do, no her.

Teeth chattering, Hanza started up the mountain, twisting her ring of invisibility as she passed under a tree so that the guards that were observing her would lose track of her. Luckily there wasn't much snow on the ground yet or using the ring would have been completely useless. There was nothing more dangerous than sneaking into a dwarven strong hold while leaving foot prints in the snow that could be followed right to you. Clutching her cloak around her, she was able to make the first check point within a few minutes and sneak up on them from behind a set of rocks. Peaking around edge of the boulders she saw the arched entrance that the dwarves had carved out to make all visitors go through before they entered the mines. She spotted three dwarves talking among themselves, two males and a girl. From the looks of things they hadn't noticed her come up the mountain before she activated the ring and smirked, they were supposed to be more observant than this. They were talking in dwarvish though so she didn't know what they were saying. Hopefully it wasn't anything along the lines of 'does that idiot human think were this stupid?' or 'Hey, do you smell perfume?'

When they seemed to be focused more on each other than on guarding the door, she snuck by them and headed through the first check point. She was amazed that she had gotten through at all, but that only proved that the dwarves weren't really expecting someone to break out their special prisoner. Then again, why would they even need to? After G'nolga dishonored herself in the way she did and brought shame to all the dwarves that had looked up to her skill and power nobody had been exactly pleased with the way she has treated Julia Brigand Diggers. Hanza really didn't want her around either, but Rook was paying quite a lot of money, so who was she to complain about what he wanted? Still, this had better come with a bonus or there was going to be hell to pay. G'nolga's arrogance had cost her more than one fight as well, but her skill would be needed if Rook's plan was to succeed. Continuing forward she activated her dwarven made armor just as she was entering the first room of this level. It was the meeting hall about half full of Dwarves, some wandering around, some eating, and even more drinking and singing about gold. This was her first main challenge to pass, once past this getting to where she wanted to go would be easy.

Getting through all that with her invisibility ring would be easy enough, but she wondered if there might be some kind of alarm she wasn't aware of. The Dwarves were more than likely going to rough her up and toss her out in the snow naked if they did catch her so she had to be very careful until she made her way to G'nolga. Slowly stepping out on the floor she tried to keep at least fifteen feet from any dwarf even if meant she had to stop and wait for a few seconds. It was slow nerve wracking work that took her over half an hour to reach the other end of the hall with no one looking in her direction or making a comment about perfume. She was really going to have to do something about the weird way she had been acting lately, wearing lip stick and perfume really wasn't what she thought about the potion that had turned her into this. She just got these weird urges and didn't seem to be able to resist them when she was half asleep.

This hall was what most people saw when they visited this place, rarely did anyone ever get to go beyond this point. Hanza was amazed at how lax security was, it was making her nervous and just little bit edgy as she made her way across the long hall. Sure she was invisible, but one of them must have noticed something by now. Carefully moving around a table where three dwarves were drinking from large mugs of beer, she could smell the stuff even from a few feet away. He mouth watered, it had been over a year now since last had a chance to drink anything like beer. He new body didn't handle the stuff all that well and when she was drunk she tended to do really stupid things. When she had been a man it hadn't mattered, but that potion had messed up the way his mind worked and given her the alcohol tolerance of a squirrel. Sure it was a subtle difference, but it was the major difference between men and women.

A few minutes later she passed through the large door that led down into the mine itself and no one seemed to have seen her yet. Smirking, she moved slowly down the hall and tried to remember the way that the scrying spell had indicated. This mine was pretty deep, but she knew where she wanted to go, basically, so about an hour later she reached the isolated level where dwarves that had committed a criminal act were held until they were either killed or exiled. Rumors above ground had said that a good number of people were calling for G'nolga to be executed for what she had done to Julia Brigand Diggers, the current Armsmaster of Jade. A position that G'nolga had been trying to achieve for over two hundred years now, the two had been enemies from the moment they met and things had degraded from there. They had fought several times over the years, but G'nolga had never stooped so low as to cheat during their fights. It hadn't been until this last Tournament of Arms that, after shaming Julia in public before hundreds of people, they had fought a second battle that had left both of them in bandages by the time they were done.

This time G'nolga didn't have the means to make Julia back down and take a beating like she had before. They had met in the final match at the Tournament at Arms and battled for over three hours before Julia managed to use a special sleeper hold on G'nolga and nearly win the match. Julia would have won right then and there, but G'nolga had managed to come across special magical help that was able, within the magic nullifying stadium, to increase her strength by a factor of three. By sacrificing her honor for the win, she was able to get the upper hand on Julia and spent several minutes kicking the crap out of her in front of over ten thousand screaming people. No matter how much punishment Julia took from the super powered G'nolga, she had refused to stay down no matter how much pain she was in and this had pissed off G'nolga even more.

The plan had eventually been disrupted, G'nolga lost her strength, and she was caught cheating by Julia when she realized what was going on and the officials who ran the Tournament of Arms. She was instantly disqualified and taken into dwarven custody and brought here until her trial could be taken care of. Personal dishonor is one thing, but G'nolga's plan had dishonored the dwarven nation itself with such a public defeat. She had even gone so far as to try and attack Julia from behind after the match had been officially awarded to Julia. Rook was hoping that she would be bitter enough to join with him once more for a chance to gain her honor back. Hanza really doubted that was the full story, but Rook had turned sneaky after this last defeat at the hands Sheila, the embarrassment must have driven him over the deep end in her opinion. She wasn't quite sure what the Ghost Knight had in mind, but whatever it was things should be quite interesting for a while.

Slipping into the prison was child's play, most of the guards were asleep this late at night and made her job a whole lot easier to do. Most dwarves were pretty law abiding, they had better things to do than steal things from other people. They kept this prison for those dwarves that refused to work, those who got into a fight that got out of hand, and those like G'nolga who had darkened the dwarven reputation. She was kind of like a political prisoner instead of a criminal one, but Hanza didn't really care about that either, all she wanted to do was find her and give her Rook's message. Checking the cells, she found that they were large enough to hold several prisoners, there were four prisoners in this first room, chained to the walls and looked like someone had beat them to within an inch of their lives. It kind of explained why dwarves rarely committed a crime while within the mine, but there was always someone willing to try it seemed.

The door to the cell was locked of course, but she was able to look inside and see the chained up form of G'nolga. She was in even worse shape than the ones hanging on the wall in the other cell. She was barely recognizable, but that didn't matter, a little time at a clinic or with a potion of healing and she would be healed up enough to walk at least. Most of her clothing was in shreds and hanging off her body, welts along her arms and legs were enough to prove that she had been whipped in some way. She would have to see her back to have a better idea of the damage. Moving carefully, she picked the lock and slipped through, closing the door behind her as she walked over to G'nolga. Dropping the invisibility spell, she examined G'nolga's wounds and winced a little. Someone had made a mess of her back alright, she wasn't surprised that even she was unconscious.

The pain must have been indescribable, but she stepped back as G'nolga groaned and for the first time Hanza realized that someone had shaved the dwarven female completely bald. G'nolga's long ground length ponytail had been almost as recognizable as her name and now it was completely gone. She looked so different without her hair, but that would always grow back with a bit of time or magic. G'nolga raised her head slowly and looked up a Hanza with a bit of surprise, but that was all the energy she had left and she slumped back down a few seconds later. Staying in an upright position only because she was chained to the wall, a couple of her wounds reopened and started to bleed as she hung there.

"Hanza, what are you doing here? Haven't I been shamed enough?" G'nolga muttered.

"Rook sent me to get you out of here." Hanza whispered.

"Why?"

"He needs your skills, his plan will not work as effectively as they should unless you're there to help out."

"Hanza, this is my punishment. I can survive this, but if I leave, I will be exiled from my home for the rest of my life with orders to kill me on sight if I ever enter dwarven land again."

"Rook will give you a chance to get your revenge on Julia, G'nolga, but you can't do that from within here."

"Humph! I have had enough of Rook and his plans for quite some time. My defeat at the Tournament has taught me some very painful lessons Hanza, but I will overcome them and gain my people's trust back. Why do you think I have endured this kind of punishment for as long as I have?"

"What will it accomplish you in the end G'nolga? Don't you want to fight again? From the looks of these wounds you will be lucky to fight any time soon, you can't even stand. Let me take you back to Rook and we can get you healed up."

G'nolga raised up her head and looked Hanza in the eye with a bit of her old fire. "No! I will endure this and come out of it all the stronger! Now go before someone catches you."

"Rook won't like that answer G'nolga." Hanza said in a hiss.

"#$%& Rook! This is more important than revenge on someone that I have wronged so badly! I will not go with you!"

"I'm sorry to hear you say that G'nolga, but Rook said you were to come weather you wanted to or not and being chained to a wall like that makes this so much easier for me." Hanza said as she reached into her cloak and pulled out the small amulet that Rook had acquired the day before. She placed the amulet over G'nolga's head, said a magic word, and smirked as it started to glow, slowly spreading out over the girl's body as she struggled weakly.

"FREEZE RIGHT THERE GIRL! If'n I understand your conversation right, you are going to force G'nolga to come with you against her will?" Said a male dwarf as he stepped out of the shadows off to the right, he was holding a crossbow with a multi shot magazine of arrows. They were a rare improvement on the crossbow design that only dwarves used.

"Now where did you come from?" Hanza asked mildly as she swung the green spear off her back.

"That be none of your concern human, you are under arrest for invading the hall and speaking with a forbidden prisoner. Now take that thing of G'nolga now before I'm forced to hole you through the eyes."

"You're not that good dwarf, I can tell just from the way your legs are positioned and the heft of that crossbow."

Once the glow covered all of G'nolga's body she started to convulse and twitch, but Hanza ignored it as she concentrated on the male dwarf in front of her. "Who are you, so I know who I'm beating up."

"Tavis Stoneslicer." The dwarf spit out, raised his crossbow and fired.

Laughing, Hanza stepped out of the way and knocked the bolt out of the air with her staff with a smirk. Clenching her fist, she activated the haste spell and blurred, catching the dwarf off guard with her speed. They always reacted badly to magic, so a couple of blows later she tossed the battered body against the far wall and watched as it slid down and collapsed on the floor. Turning back to G'nolga, she saw that the amulet had done it's job perfectly, the dwarven fighter was staring around her with a blank look on her face and slumped over and gasping for air. Hanza nodded to herself as she pulled a gem out of her gauntlet and held it in her hand as she grasped G'nolga's arm. They vanished in a flash of light that could be seen several room away. The empty chains clanged against the wall as they suddenly had nothing to support.

They reappeared in Rook's throne room, he was sitting there reading a scroll by torch light as a couple of Ghost Knights spotted her, stepped forward, and began to pull their swords to dispose of the sudden intruder. Hanza turned to Rook as she sat the battered G'nolga on the floor and snarled. "I got her for you Rook, but I had to use the amulet like you said."

"Knights, stand down." Rook barked to stop the Ghost Knights from killing Hanza and G'nolga.

"Did anyone see you?"

"No." Hanza lied, that one guard must have been out cold when they left so he couldn't have seen much.

"Excellent, then we can use poor G'nolga anyway we want so long as the amulet stays around her neck." Rook said as he stood up and wandered over to look at the catatonic G'nolga. "I have a feeling that the next few days should be filled with lots of fighting and blood. This is going to be a lot of fun and getting my revenge will make it all worth while, those Edge Guard have pushed me to far this time"

"Um, whatever you say." Hanza muttered, Rook had been acting strange lately, but she couldn't put it down to any one thing.

**********

[Earth]

Hefting his back pack, Ranma made sure he had everything he would need and headed downstairs. He would be leaving for Jade here in a few minutes, with Dr. Diggers and Master Julia out of the house he would be taking Gina's gate to Jade. The last few hours had been a little hectic, but after a bit of thought he had returned Gina's bracers to her and asked to have them fixed up a bit to make them safer. He hadn't liked it, but he didn't want his arms blown off if he got into a fight and had to use them to block an attack of some kind and accidentally set them off. At first she had been irritated in him, but this was one area where he would not budge and she had finally decided to do as he asked. She was supposed to be returning them before he left, so maybe he would get away with just the bracers with no weird technology he didn't understand.

Entering the lower level of the lab complex, he made his way over to the room Gina had told him about and entered the door. The room was smaller than she usually built, but there was still enough for a work desk, some equipment, and a small alcove off to the side that had some kind of silver plate built into the floor and ceiling. Gina and Brianna were tinkering with the electronics of the bracers with a pair of tiny tools. There was a red and black Peebo sitting on the desk watching them carefully. It turned to look at him for a second, arched a mechanical eyebrow for a second before turning back to finish watching the girls. They looked up as he stopped in front of the table and sat his pack down.

"So how is it working now?" He asked.

"Sorry about yesterday, I got a little overzealous and gave you something dangerous without thinking about the consequences. I did this with Brit once and she took weeks to forgive me and even to this day has a little distrust of my inventions. I'll be more careful next time I give you something." Gina said. "I'm glad you insisted I work on this a little more, it was really unstable and probably wouldn't have lasted too many battles. I forgot to take into account your skills and how far you can go beyond normal human limits."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I have removed the mini Beta Generator I installed as a power source and replaced it with one of my normal ones. Though this will reduced the amount of items you can carry with you."

"That's okay, I'm used to lugging my pack around everywhere I go so this won't be any different."

Gina nodded as she indicated the Peebo and looked over at Brianna.

"This is BBS 0001, I've been building the model for the last couple of months and would like you to take him along with you on your trip as a kind of test run." Brianna said.

"What does he do?" Ranma asked as he looked the little bomb over.

"There is a relay chip in your bracer that will work as it's brain while on Jade, and will follow any order you give it. I installed several weapons to give you a hand, the normal explosive mode that should be strong enough to knock out anything up to a rock troll and seriously hurt, but not kill a human. It also has laser beams that can fire out of its eyes and cut through metal given enough time, a memory card full of information on Jade and it's history in case you need it. This also includes most of what we know about Jade right now, town layouts, maps, and other little things that might come in handy once you're over there. He should fit right into your pack with no problem."

"What do I do with it?" Ranma asked as he looked the thing over, knowing Brianna like he did, he wondered just how safe this thing was. It seemed she could be as bad as Gina at times.

"What do I look like? A pet? I'm a Bit Bomb Special 0001 the only one of my kind and I can kick your ass faster than you can blink." BBS 0001 snapped as it rolled forward on the table and glared at him, its eyes glowing red.

Brianna giggled. "I tried to give it a personality to make you two more compatible."

"I see." He said dryly.

"&%$# you!" BBS 0001 said with a huff and fired a small laser shot into Ranma's hand just to make his point.

"Ow! Why you little..." Ranma growled down at the little pest.

Gina picked up a device off the table and finished closing up the access ports to the bracers as the last down load of information was finishing. She ran a quick check to make sure they were working right before handing to Ranma. "There we go, all done, that weapon was taken out and now all they can do is store small items like books, food, money, and weapons. The money will be stored in a slightly bigger space than the others though, for some reason it is hard not to get your hands on gold over on Jade and the Edge Guard will pay you for this hunt by giving you a bit of gold for each monster you kill."

"Kill? Oh yeah, you mentioned something about that yesterday. Still..."

"You idiot! Jade is a lot more primitive than this world, they still run from things in the night and use outhouses!" BBS 0001 snapped. "A hunt it something they organized every six months or so to clear out forests and valleys of rampaging monsters, you know those things that kill you while you are asleep?"

"If you don't start acting a little better I'm going to smash you." Ranma said as he put the bracers back on and gave them a little shake, they felt different this time. He hadn't noticed it when he first put them on, but there had been a kind of power surge from the first design. That surge just wasn't present with these and it made them feel weird. He shrugged it off and turned to Gina when he thought of another question. "Hey, will these mess with my spell casting practice, Dr. Diggers said that metal tends to disrupt most spells."

"No, these are more of an organic metal than a forged metal, think of the stuff the T-1000 was made out of in the second Terminator movie."

"What the heck is a Terminator?"

BBS 0001 Facefaulted off the table. "Master Brianna, I must protest, this human is an idiot, I can not work with him!"

"If you don't I'll make you my next target for weapons practice with the other Peebos." Brianna said and pointed at one of the Peebo-TIE's hovering around the ceiling of the room. It zoomed down and hovered over Brianna's head, looking cute and mean at the same time, quite a feat for a flying piece of metal.

BBS 0001 moved to hide behind Ranma's legs and peaked out from behind a foot. "HEHEHEHE no need to go quite that far."

"Just enjoy yourself on the trip and follow your orders." Brianna snapped, even she was beginning to think it was time to give her random personality coding program a little tweak, this was the first bad mouthed Peebo she had ever created.

"Brianna I appreciate this thing, but what the heck am I supposed to with it?" Ranma said and felt a little guilty as the robot gave him a kind of puppy dog look.

"He has several things he can do Ranma, you won't even have to worry about him all that much. BBS 0001 here will follow along behind you to make sure everything is working out, he won't get in the way and if you want you can carry him in your back pack. He has a mind of his own and will do certain things like protect you if you happen to need it, help guard your camp while you sleep and can even spy on other people if you want him to."

With a sigh Ranma gave in, this was better than having a bomb strapped to his arms that could take out most of a city at least. "Alright, but really don't see what use I have for this thing. I can run almost as fast as a moving car if I want to, how will this thing keep up with me when I do that?"

"You take me with you that's what!" BBS 0001 snapped. "Do you think I want to drive over miles and miles of grassland, forests, and swamps just to get to you? Think again! I'll be just fine in your back pack."

"Yeah, yeah, I had a feeling you were going to say that." Ranma said as he placed the thing in his pack. He was a bit surprised to see that it was heavier than expected, but it was about half the size of a soccer ball so it must have been full of some interesting bits at least. With that he shouldered his pack and looked over at Gina. "Now what?"

She picked up a remote and walked over. "I'll open a portal Jade so you can get on our way. I installed a dimensional hook up into your bracer, but it's only good for a few minutes every day so try not to over use it. I'll have a better one designed by the time you come back in a week or so."

"Alright."

Gina tapped a button on the control and they vanished in a flare of light and reappeared in the same spot that they had the last time they were here. Ranma looked around and stepped out of the circle before turning back to Gina. "Thanks, give me a couple of weeks before you start to worry."

"Okay Ranma, have fun and if things get real bad give me a call or try to find my mom and dad, they are around visiting some old friends in the area so they should be around there somewhere."

"No problem, thanks for the ride."

Grinning, Gina tapped the control again and vanished in another flare of light and for the first time in almost three months Ranma was on his own. He could recall the basic layout of the town from his previous visit, but as he looked around he realized that had no clue where the Edge Guard compound was located. It was so early in the morning that there weren't any people out to ask for directions either, that meant that he was going to have to wander around and see if he might find it randomly. Shrugging, he picked a random direction and started walking along the torch lit streets. He hadn't noticed on his last visit, but the torches were the type that never stopped burning or ran out of fuel, then he realized that they were illusions of fire and not the real thing at all. Even sticking his hand in one didn't burn him in anyway, he thought it was amazing the way they still gave off light though. It was cool.

"Hey! Idiot! Let me out of this bag now, it stinks!" BBS 0001 yelled.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about you." Ranma muttered, he'd spaced out his bad tempered company the instant he set foot here. Shrugging off his pack he dug the thing out and sat it down. It tested out its wheels by spinning in circles a few times before stopping to look at him with the evil eye.

"What the hell are you doing!"

"Looking for the Edge Guard compound of course."

"What, are you and idiot? You don't even know where the place is? Sigh, alright, but you better make up for this or I'll ditch you in the middle of nowhere." BSS 0001 growled as he looked around to get his bearings, sped over to a sign spun in circle a couple of times. "Follow me and I'll take you to the place before you're to late." BBS 0001 snapped as it started to lead him down the street.

"How do you know where it is?"

"I've got all kinds of information in my databanks that you might find helpful."

"Alright, lead the way Spark."

BSS 0001 rolled to a stop and turned, very slowly to look up at Ranma. "That was an insult, I knows and insult when I hears one."

Ranma blinked.

Two little ports in the thing's back opened up and two toy missiles rose up and swung around to aim at Ranma. "Take that back or I'll take you down a notch or two."

"Um...listen Sparky, you either pick a name for me to call you or I'll keep making one up until you don't complain anymore and calling you BSS 0001 all the time is out of the question."

"Hah!"

"Take it on faith then Rolly Polly Olly."

"AGHAAAAAAAA!!" A mini-missile fired, moving a lot faster than Ranma had expected, but his increased reflexes kicked in and he swatted it into the ground where it exploded out in a wave of force that nearly blew him off his feet.

Ranma cursed himself as he dodged as best he could and skidded to a stop a few feet away. He had to stop thinking that all this technology was so useless and weak, Brianna had shown him several things that were more dangerous than he would have ever though possible. Her Peebos looked harmless enough on the surface, but when they really got going or were in packs they could damage or take out some pretty strong opponents. She had designed this one to follow him around for some reason, he had been around her long enough to know that wasn't the whole reason, but couldn't see what she had in mind for the little thing.

"Well, are you going to stop it or do I have to get tough?" BSS 0001 snapped.

"Pick a name." Ranma growled.

"Fine, if it will make you shut up for a little while. Call me B!"

"Bee? Sure."

Another missile fired and blew up at Ranma's feet, two more popped up out of it's back and aimed a little higher up. "I said call me, B!"

"B it is, B it is." Ranma yelled as he jumped up and down on one foot and tried to put his flaming shoe out.

"That'll teach you mess with me." B said as it started to move again, this time at high speed.

Ranma had to jog to keep up with it as it zig zagged it's way across town in an attempt to lose him, but didn't mind, he was having fun. On another level entirely, Ranma was beginning to like the little loud mouth machine and wondered what it would come up with next. He liked people that stood up for themselves and this thing was more than willing to dish out a little pain to do it, his kind of friend. Though there was no way he was going to tell it that, he would just keep pestering it until it wanted to fight some more. Then he blinked as he realized that they had just passed the same torch for the third time, the little loud mouth was leading him in circles instead of taking him toward the compound like he said he would. Then he smirked to himself and shrugged, it would have to lead him there eventually, so this little run wouldn't be all that hard even if his pack was heavier than hell. He would just have to find a way to motivate the thing into going where he wanted it to go.

Pouring on the speed he caught up to the little loud mouthed thing as it raced along. "Alright B, I'll race you to the Edge Guard house."

"Ha! Ten minutes ago you didn't even know where it was."

"Well I figure we've run through every alley and side street in this town during that time, and have a pretty good idea where it is. I know where it is now and there isn't a thing you can do to prevent me from going there now except beat me there and you're to slow to do that!" Ranma taunted and raced ahead.

"Wanna bet?!" B yelled, did quick right turn and headed for the edge of town at high speed and leaving Ranma in the dust, going the wrong directions.

Ranma just grinned, bounced off a wall and followed after him at high speed.

After a couple of minutes of running they passed through a grove of trees and Ranma followed the little robot into a rather large estate of some kind. It had several buildings spread out over property, a large house, a stable, what he though might be a dojo, and a two or three smaller buildings that seemed to have no purpose. There was a guard standing in front of the entrance to the house, he was dressed in what Ranma had come to recognize as the typical leathers of the city guard. He was glaring down at B, who was stopped by his foot, glaring up at the guy and giving him the evil eye. They turned to look at him when he walked up, though B just glared at him and opened the missile ports again, as if daring him to say something stupid. The guard stepped back from B and nodded at him. "Good morning sir, welcome the Edge Guard compound."

"Good morning, I'm Ranma Saotome, I think I'm expected by Sheila."

"Ranma?"

"That's right." Ranma confirmed.

"You're the only person I have on the list for this morning, just head on into the house, everyone should be getting up by now. Breakfast will be ready in about an hour or so."

Nodding his thanks, Ranma moved past the guy and picked up B on his way in, it looked smug and arrogant though so he put it back in his pack closed the flap on it. "Bastard!"

"Yeah, yeah."

The room he entered was larger than he expected, it was big enough to hold a couple hundred people easily with a small portion set aside for the kitchen. There were several cooks moving about getting breakfast ready as a couple of the edge guard sat on couches near the fireplace on the far side of the room. He recognized them from when he had been a at Brod's Lookout during all that training, they had come and gone several times over that month. They had been allowing Sheila to stay with him during the stay by doing her patrols every now and then to give her a bit more free time. The black furred one saw him come in and waved him over when they noticed him looking around. He waved back and walked on over, setting his pack down at the end of the couch, it was heavy enough to make the floorboards groan a little as the weight settled. B said something, but he ignored it since the little loud mouth was muffled by the bag.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

"We just got up a little while ago, are you here for that hunt that Sheila is leading later on?" Thropan asked as he sipped at some fruit juice.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, though she didn't tell me what that was exactly. What will we be hunting down anyway?"

"Just some monsters for the most part, some of the creatures in the forest swamp have been getting a little full of themselves lately and there are some farms near there that will be in danger if we let them get any bigger."

"Monsters? What kind are we talking about here?"

"Mostly Bog Threshers, trolls, some shadows demons, and the usual wolves, snakes, and other regular nasties. You should be quite busy for the next few days, but the job pays well so long as you save something of the creature to prove that you killed it."

"What kind of pay?" Ranma asked and instantly called himself a couple of choice names for letting a bit of greed enter into his voice. Some of the habits his father had taught him would die hard and agonizing deaths it seemed.

"The bigger the monster the better the pay, some people get greedy though and try to make a quick fortune by taking on more than they should and end up dying because of it. Almost every year we hear about some guy that bit off more than he could chew and became some monster's Saturday night meal" Onoli said. "You just need to stick with your partner and things should be fine."

"How many are going with us?"

"Right now it's just you and Sheila, but whenever a hunt is organized others tend to sneak off and help out anyway, you know, to be 'good' citizens and all that. It is easy gold if you have any skills in magic or weapons, most of the Edge Guard would go with you, but we have something else we need to look into later on this morning. If Sheila hadn't organized this a few days ago, I wouldn't have let her go, but it was already scheduled and since it needs to be done I decided to let it proceed."

"Sounds easy enough." Ranma muttered, though he wasn't looking forward to killing anything. This wouldn't be the first time he had to do something like this, though that had been a pack of wolves, a couch, and running through the swamp at high speed. The wolves had been hunting him, this was the same thing from the other direction so he figured it wouldn't be all that hard.

Thropan nodded. "Sheila organized this one a few days ago so there aren't many people that know about it, but after you leave a bunch of locals might follow after you to make a quick buck so you might want to watch out what you fire at while wandering around in the swamp." Thropan said with a smirk and laughed a little

"Oh, no problem there." Ranma said.

"Ranma! You came!" Sheila yelled as she came down the stairs wearing her new outfit.

It was with a bit of relief that Ranma noticed out of the corners of his eyes that he wasn't the only one gaping at Sheila in her form fitting black spandex and leather jacket outfit as she swayed down the stairs and smiled at him. He gulped a little and reminded himself that Brianna had shown him clothing that was a lot more revealing in that game so he was a bit more prepared for it, still, it was a bit hard not to react to an outfit like this since it drew his eyes to her toned body. Still, from the looks on the other's faces they had never seen her like this before, it must have been a real big divergence from what she normally wore. Shacking his head to clear it a little he smiled and nodded at her. "No problem, it sounds like fun and will be some great training in as well."

"Oh I think Sheila has something a bit more high impact in mind." Thropan said with a laugh and winked at Sheila.

"Huh?" Ranma said and turned to look back at the werepanther..

"You jerk, do you want to be Kapowied this morning Thropan?!" Sheila yelled as she blushed and played with her tail nervously.

"Why Sheila, I have no clue what you are talking about." Thropan said with another laugh as he stood up and winked at her. "You're just going out on a hunt to 'enjoy' yourself, I have nothing against that at all."

"Hey babe, how about taking me instead?" Tirga said as he sidled up to Sheila and enveloped her in a hug that lifted her off the floor. "That outfit is driving me wild with dirty thoughts girl, skip the hunt and let me show you what so many other girls dream about at night."

"Tirga! They wake up screaming in fear!"

"Hey!" Tirga said just as he was about to kiss her.

A pair of glowing red eyes turned on Tirga an instant later as Thropan and Onoli pulled Ranma out of the way of the glowing Sheila. "TTTIIIRRRGGGAAAAAA!!!"

Ranma was about to get this guy off Sheila when she turned an death glare on him and brought her knee up to kick him in the nads as hard as she could. Whimpering, Tirga staggered back holding his privates and muttering something about how this was kind of normal and that he had taken worse before hobbling out of the room. Snarling mad, Sheila stomped her foot and resisted the urge to go and beat the living crap out of Tirga for doing that in front of Ranma. Then Onoli quietly made his way out of the room in the direction that Tirga had just gone, he gave Sheila pat on the shoulder as he passed and whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said was enough to make her perk up a little so Ranma decided that he didn't have to do anything after all, still, he had to say something.

"So, are you alright? I can go and beat that guy up for you. If you want me to anyway?"

"That's alright, he just caught me by surprise." Sheila said with a shy smile as she posed to let him get an even better look at her outfit. "So what do you think of my new outfit?"

"It looks great." Ranma said, physically restraining his mouth from saying that it made her look like a walrus that had just crawled out of an oil slick.

"Thanks!" Sheila said with a giant grin and grabbed his arm to lean in a little closer. "Let me grab my equipment and we can go, it'll take us about half a day to get there on foot."

"Sure, I've got my pack here to we can leave just as soon as you are ready."

She smirked to herself as she walked back up the stairs and let Ranma get another eyeful of her from the backside. Then stuck her tongue out at her shocked brother as she swayed by him in the upstairs hallway, she was looking forward to showing Ranma what this outfit looked like in her human form too. If he thought it was impressive now, he would be knocked stupid the instant he saw that transformation and that would be the time to strike. She had set everything she would need the night before, so it was a simple matter to put on her crossed belts and grab her pack with some rations. It was a bag of holding and had enough food in it for a month before they would have to start eating off the land so she wouldn't have to worry about food any time soon. Living in a town built and maintained by some of the most powerful wizards on Jade made for some interesting ways to spend her money.

Once everything was ready she dashed down the hall, smiled evily at her brother who was still frozen in shock, and hopped down the stairs. Ranma was ready to go and had his pack on when Sheila came down stairs at high speed, as only a werecat can do, grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the house, the gate, and down the road before anyone could say anything to either of them. In the kitchen, Thropan was waving a fan in Tirga's face and smirking for all he was worth. He got a kick out of Sheila's antics, she was old enough to have a boyfriend and had been trying to get Tirga to notice her as more than a one night stand for the last couple of years and failing miserably. Then she had tried to make the guy jealous by setting up situations and playing with other guys instead of him, and for the most part it had worked when she had done this with Raphiel Ray a few months back. Instead of listening to anybody, Tirga had ignored them all and taken a different girl to bed every few days for the last three months or so to get over the fit of jealously.

He had stood back and watched at Tirga killed any chances he might have had with Sheila during that and hadn't said a word. Even then she might have forgiven him if came to his senses and dedicated himself to her, but he continued on blissfully unaware of the problem. Then Ranma had come into the picture and everything had changed, where Sheila used to flirt with Tirga in the baths every now and then, she now spent that time thinking about Ranma and what he was doing. This had driven her brother a bit batty as well, but that was something that they were all looking into discretely, he hadn't been acting like he usually did and it had certain people worried. Even now Gar was stuck at the top of the stairs in his pajama bottoms with a shell shocked look on his face and Tirga had that spandex outfit etched permanently into his brain as a kind of going away gift from Sheila. Their reactions when they came to were going to be well worth the wait, even Onoli looked like he was anticipating that and he was usually quite calm and leader like.

"How long you think?" He asked.

"Ten minutes." Onoli said.

"I'll say fifteen." Thropan said with a bigger smirk.

"It's a bet." They shook on it.

"Usual amount?" Thropan said holding up a gold piece.

"Why not, this is going to be fun." Onoli said as he pulled a gold piece out of his shirt and sat it on the table beside Thropan's gold coin.

**********

Standing at the small wall that made up the edge of the parapet on his castle, Rook thought about what he was going to be doing over the next few days and wondered if he had though of all the possible steps he would have to accomplish. The lynch pin in that plan was G'nolga the Dwarf, of everything, she was needed to gain entry into Seer's Hamlet and lead a force into the Magi Council's chambers. He had gone to a lot of trouble to find that amulet and taught Hanza how to use it properly. It was but one of a set of objects that he had collected over the years to bring him to this point, the others would allow him to make her into the perfect tool for his plans. He had even gone to the trouble of raising an undead wizard that had recently died, costing him a bit more of his horded power than he had wanted to give up at the time, but was worth it to get the man's knowledge. He had been evil to the core, kidnapping and using women for years, twisting them with his magic and totally subjugating their will to escape while he used them for anything and everything.

He had been more than bit impressed with him the one time the guy had hired him for a job several years back. Those girls had worshiped the guy like a human god, doing anything for him. That was exactly what he wanted for G'nolga and to make sure he didn't use this as an opportunity to escape or betray him he had neglected to give him free will like he did most other zombies that he used. Eventually he would rot away into a kind of specter and he could convert the thing into a Ghost Knight mage like he had so many others in his army, but until then he had a lot of uses for the guy. He was reprogramming G'nolga and putting all his knowledge into a series of spell books that would be put to use for centuries to come. Those books could be copied out and sold to several people for a lot of gold, one of the few things he needed the most.

There was only one problem with his plan as he saw it, he was moving to fast and that would mean mistakes, but he had no choice. There was a spell he had to cast in few days, if he didn't do it in time, from the floor of the Wizard Council chambers, he wouldn't get a chance like this for another ten thousand years. Sure he could wait that long, but he was already bored with being undead, in ten thousand years he would be lucky to even have the energy to get out of the castle in the mornings and walk around. He had to do this now, there were very few other options available to him except working as a kind of studge for someone else and that was like working with morons and idiots unless they paid very well.

Over the last few days he had also added a few things to his armor to make him look more important, though he would have been a little put off knowing that he was infringing on the Star Wars copyright material. This was Jade though so he could get away with it even if he had seen the movie before, so he didn't have a clue what midnight black armor and a floor length cape meant. He just knew he liked the new look and it inspired him to act like a bad guy, deepen his voice, and sweep around a room and glare at people through his helmet. The sun was just coming up as he stood there, so he headed inside to start the next phase of his plan. G'nolga would be finished by the end of the day because of the amulet and another device and be ready to go out in the morning. Most people had all heard about the weapon master that had turned to evil and were using her as a threat to keep their kids in line. If everything worked out the way he was thinking even that little detail would be used to his advantage.

He had gotten a kick out of the fact that she had been going through some kind of trial to regain her honor when Hanza kidnapped her from that cell. They would think she ran off on her own, giving up her honor, her clan, get exiled, and placed on the list of dwarves that had prices on their heads if they ever entered the area again. He loved it, because of her the last plan she had been involved in had gone down in a flaming wreck when she refused to kill those two werecats. Her insistence on honor had cost him that plan even though he had just been hired muscle at the time, it was because of her that Tyrant had failed to achieve his goal as well. No, that was unfair, the first was true, but second one just didn't fit. She was in this position now because even after sacrificing her honor to defeat Julia she had taken too long and allowed Gina to get into a position too reveal G'nolga's cheating and allowed her to disrupt Tyrants plan as well.

G'nolga would pay for her failures either by his hand or by giving her back to the dwarves when it was profitable enough for him, until then, if she survived. For a tidy sum of course, couldn't forget the gold of course and if he played his cards right he might even secure the services of Array. That girl had talents that she hadn't even explored yet and wanted her to put them to use for him, maybe if he found a way to get her out of prison and away from Tyrant she might return the favor. Still, that would have to wait until later. For now he had more important things to do as he entered his throne room, looking for all the world like Darth Vader with a different helmet on and glared at them. The Ghost Knights arrayed around the room came to attention as he made his way over to the throne and sat down with a flourish of his cape. A couple of large crystals sitting on either side of the throne rose up from the pedestals on either side and started go glow with energy.

"It's time." He said; to bad he couldn't do the Darth Vader voice as well. That would have confused the hell out of everyone that knew him. "Bring me the old man, it's time we dealt with that little problem."

A few seconds later an old man was dragged into the throne room and placed about ten feet in front of the throne. He shook the armored hands of the Ghost Knights off and glared around him as he pulled himself to his feet. "That's a new look for you Ol'Rook."

"Jeb, I hear you took down several of my zombies yesterday."

"They were just me sons, you raised them a few years ago, I just gave them a bit of discipline to remember me by."

"You killed two of them and sent six others to be fixed up by the Zombie master, that cost me quite a bit Jeb. I don't have time to be dealing with things like this, two months ago I wouldn't have cared, but right now I need every undead creature I can get my hands on and you just cost me eight of them."

Jeb felt a tingle of dread crawl down his spine as Rook's glowing eye slits focused on him as if looking at his soul. "But sir..."

"You are going to be punished for setting my plans back Jeb, there is no other option, you brought this on yourself." Rook said.

"NO YOU AIN'T! I'VE BEEN AS LOYAL TO YOU AS ANY GOOD CUSTOMER DESERVES. YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO..." Jeb yelled as he tried to run, but the Ghost Knights grabbed his arms and yanked him back like a rag doll.

"You should have thought about that when you were killing 'my' people Jeb." Rook said and gestured at him.

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Jeb screamed as his body flared with white fire, sending red light shooting out of his eyes and mouth, his scream echoing over the castle as the power built up.

By the time it died down he was being held up by the Ghost Knights and convulsing. Rook glared at the body, zombies were next to useless until all the skin fell off them and they had time to learn how to use their undead abilities properly, but they did make good guards when they were around and now that he was low on a few of them this fool had pulled his usual kind of crap. The spell he had just cast was enough to make the jerk into something a bit more useful than usual though, cost him intelligence, but it was worth it. The body drained of all its color and convulsed a few more times before it slowly started to move on it's own again. Rook brought his power to bare and sent it into the body, weaving his way through Jeb's mind and taking everything of use and erasing everything else that might make him a danger. No need to waste it and Ol'Jeb did have some skills that might have come in handy. The body jerked under the onslaught, but eventually it slumped forward and stared at him with a bit of drool hanging off his chin.

"Take him down the pit before he begins to leak out all the liquid bits, when he finishes with that give him a crossbow and a bit of armor and put him on the wall overlooking the valley with orders to shoot anything that moves." Rook said. "We can always use him to cut down on all the rats that are living around here."

The two Knights nodded silently and dragged the thing that had been Ol'Jeb off with no protest. Now that the easy bit was done he had other things he had to set in motion, so he sat back down and used the magic crystals to form an illusionary map in front of him to study. The attack would have to be timed just right, but with G'nolga at it's head Seer's Hamlet would fall like a tree. All he had to do was keep the Edge Guard busy while he quickly moved in and took over for a few hours and that was all he needed. The idea was simple, but he had learned enough in his life to know that there wasn't a plan in the history of the world that had gone off just as planned. So he would have to make a number of contingency plans, but that was what people like Hanzo were for. Pay them enough and they would do anything, that and the fact that he was the only reason she wasn't rotting away in prison right now.

"HANZO!" Rook yelled, he only had to do it once. She was always close by unless she was practicing in one of the unused ballrooms scattered around this castle and in the lower levels.

A couple of minutes later the door to the throne room opened and she came in wearing her normal outfit, at least when she was out of that armor she had bought. A brown and tan leather skin tight body suit, something she had picked up from her training with a number of other girls. He couldn't recall the teacher's name, started with a Kara, Kira, something like that, but she had suggested the outfit and Hanza took to it like a duck to water. He still got a chuckle out of the fact that Hanza used to be a man named Hanzo, that potion he had stolen and drank for all the right reasons had changed him completely and even now almost a year after it happened she was still changing on different levels. Occasionally wearing lipstick, perfume, even lingerie from time to time and being embarrassed about it. She had a towel wrapped around her neck and an annoyed look in her eyes as she glared at him.

"H. A. N. Z. A! HANZA, not Hanzo! Get it right you undead prick!" Hanza yelled in his face. "You bellowed?"

"Yes, I have a new mission for you to take care of this morning." Rook said, ignoring her outburst for the moment.

"What would that be?"

"I want you to kill one of the Edge Guard."

Hanza perked up a bit. "Sure, who and where?"

"Let's start with the easiest one first, their newest member and work our way up this time instead of taking on the whole team at once."

"Raphiel Ray."

"Exactly." Rook said with a laugh. "Now HanzO, I want you to do this today and this is how I want you to do it."

"I'll do it my way." Hanza growled.

"You are in my employee HanzO, therefore you will do it my way or I will make you stop wearing that perfume you seem to have gotten so attached to." Rook said as he leaned in close and made some sniffing sounds.

Hanza just blushed and growled a little.

**********

To Be Continued...


End Notes - There it its, part one of chapter 09, most of this was set up and an introduction to the characters, both new and old as Rook puts his plan in motion. The next chapter will be a lot more action packed. As always I've tried to give a bit of a history lesson on the Gold Digger comic and used it for all the history. There are sections of the comic that I haven't mentioned yet, but I will be getting around to those in future chapters, they just didn't fit in with what I was doing at the moment.

* The dragon is thinking from it's own warped point of view and not even thinking about how all the good dragons had been more than willing to work with humans for centuries.

The Edge Guard: http://www.monmouth.com/~roxikat/edgeguard.htm

Sheila is Gar's sister. She has a rare werecat birth defect where her human form has her strength and speed instead of her hybrid form. She's an adult in a teenager's hybrid form. She chooses her hybrid form in combat usually because her human form lacks the healing and jagwere dexterity. Also, she's accepted more as 'one of the guys' when she's small, not as a gorgeous damsel to be put on a pedestal to court. Despite her insisted maturity, she uses words like pow and kapowie. Most of her elemental attacks are based around them.

Race: Jagwere
Class: swashbuckler/ fighter
Weapon: Ice Fang, scimitar
Special Ability: The fastest healer in hybrid form.
Gar is second in command of the Northern Edge Guard. A dark and brooding warrior since Brittany Diggers spurned his affections after he tried to defeat her lover Stripe in hand-to-hand combat. Since he was trained by the famous armsmaster, Julia Diggers, the fight was nearly his. Gar refuses to let go for reasons of his own. But Julia taught him first and foremost to have patience without hesitance.

Race: Jagwere
Class: Martial artist/ fighter
Weapon: Thunder Edge, partisan (spear)
Special Ability: During a solar eclipse, Gar can focus his power to perform the Lunar Rave, increasing his strength, speed, and size.

Tirga is a hedonistic, vain womanizer, who relies on his charm to get out of most scrapes. But behind his fun-loving demeanor, Tirga is a cautious, secretive person. Often uses disguises to blend into his surroundings when tracking his quarry.

Race: Were-tiger
Class: Rogue/Tracker/Tactician
Weapon: Fire Claw, morning star mace
Special Ability: His powers of vanity allow him to grow his hair to any length or style to aid in his disguises.
Onoli is the leader of the Northern Edge Guard, and their strongest and wisest member. Raised in bushido schools of thought, Onoli lets little disturb his tranquility. Well-versed in the laws of the Retreat, he makes an eloquent public speaker at the Council.

Race: Were-lion
Class: samurai
Weapons: Seraphim and Necro, swords of Light and Dark soul energy. The Jasper - Rain
Thropan is a mechanical artifact expert as well as a mechanical and magical engineer. He rebuilt and modified the standard issue Edge Guard elemental weapons and gear with his own experimental designs including the device that lets them gate around. With science and technology outlawed on Jade, Thropan toes the line with all his technological experiments using magic for power.

Race: Were-panther
Class: Magical engineer/ martial artist
Weapon: Earth Flail, dragon's claw (bladed nun-chaku)
Special Ability: Master of the School of Xiao Pai Long