There were the chain link fences, with coils of barbed wire stretched out along the top. Sure the fence could be cut through or blown up, but it was relatively cheap and easy to replace. Even with 50,000 volts running through it there would be students like Tatewaki Kuno who could cut through it without physically coming into contact with it.
There were guard towers, not normally seen in a high school, even in Virginia.
There was the school itself, which had some parts that were easily broken and cheaply replaced, but internal structures which were designed to stand up to Godzilla level of forces applied against them.
Cameras, many hidden, were scattered about and made ready to feed their observations to a special hardened area which contained the recording equipment. The battles would be analyzed and critiqued and eventually sold.
The "K-Fight" system would allow for challenges and an insane amount of fighting. Or at least insane if it happened anywhere else. Here it was normal.
Relatively normal (ie: non-superpowered non-martial artist) types would come to rue the day their grades hit such a nadir that they ended up here, though it would likely not take long before they learned to wear armbands proclaiming their "non target" status.
A sometimes-woman named Hinako was recruited as an English teacher.
A powerful archmage named Ranma got a "temporary" assignment as a science teacher.
Other potential teachers were located and recruited.
Just as well, several students were reacting with dismay to the letter and following brochure about Saint Bishamon. School uniform information, pictures of the school, notes about the guard towers and other details given.
Of course there were other considerations.
Among the Chosen Of Mystra there was a certain camaraderie. Not all of the Chosen were like the Seven Sisters though, and not all the Chosen got along particularly well with other Chosen.
Ranma was a Chosen, so was Beckett Thorne.
"You did WHAT?!" Ranma asked, idly wondering why every time he spoke to Thorne that was usually the first thing he said.
Beckett, not for the first time, wondered if Ranma was hard of hearing. The stocky half-elf wizard/cleric shook his head at the boy. "Just what I said. When I was delivering that package two months ago they contacted me about this. Naturally I was fascinated by the experimental possibilities."
Ranma stared at the image in the mirror (which was for communication, the ball was for scrying) as various horrible imaginings went through his head. Giant golems kaiju lumbering through the city. Undead beholder mages. Spaceships yanked from orbit to slam into martial artists. All that and worse. Beckett Thorne was into experimentation, but he often lost track of what the end result would be in the process of his experiments. "What exactly did you do?"
"Supplied a few golems, a couple of magical nets, and a few experiments that didn't pan out. I was just calling to give you the command words to activate and deactivate the golems." Beckett seemed to wonder what the problem was about and why did everyone from Elminster on down seem to regard his work as a disaster waiting to happen?
Ranma would have answered 'experience' to that last question. "What kind of experiments?"
"Oh yes, that. Well, I was experimenting with ways to make some of the more perilous monsters of our Realms less perilous. I'd heard of some experiments on your world of trying to get rid of some sort of dangerous swarming ant by introducing qualities of other ants and turning them loose you see."
"Beckett? What did you do?" asked Ranma.
"Oh just a little of this and a little of that. Didn't quite work out," admitted Beckett. "For example, there's the grape jello monster I made from a green slime. It worked out that it does convert green slime to grape jello, but for some reason it never lasts long when introduced to a dungeon environment."
"Imagine that," muttered Ranma, picturing the poor innocent creature being ripped apart by hungry goblins.
"There's also a canary/basilisk hybrid I put together for adventurers delving into dungeons," said Beckett. "Didn't work too well, as I understand it."
"Can't imagine why," said Ranma, picturing someone opening the cage to feed the little birdie and turning to stone.
"There was the element golems, and they should work out at least."
"Element golems?" asked Ranma, thinking that at least sounded less like one of Beckett's normal ideas.
"Yes, an idea come up with by Qilue some time ago. I used her notes to begin with, then got her a few. She sent back some further notes with which I refined the process," said Beckett proudly.
Ranma paused. If Qilue was involved, then the odds of this not being a complete disaster went up. "What are these golems?"
"Oh an golem made of elemental materials from that plane, which have special attacks and abilities based on their structure." Beckett began using the 'Air Writing' spell to sketch out mathemagical symbols on the air behind him.
"So an ice golem would be able to freeze opponents?" asked Ranma, seeing why Qilue would have been interested. A few of those on the approaches to her Promenade would be enormously useful in dealing with a number of potential problems.
"Yes, yes," said Beckett, waving it off. "The simple ones like Ice, Water, Earth, and Ooze are like that. The ones I think are really spiffy are the various metal ones."
"Ah, 'spiffy'?"
"Yes, one of the phrases of your world," agreed Beckett. "I'll have these Metal Men ready in about two weeks."
Ranma nodded. "About those control words for the golems?"
"Oh yes," said Beckett. "You'll want the on and off words. Here goes-"
"How can this be?!" asked Tatewaki Kuno of the heavens.
"I would like to know that as well, brother dear," asked Kodachi, not at all happy that she was going to be attending the same school as her brother.
"A special school where one such as myself would be at home? Yet I cannot leave my poor Akane defenseless, can I?" asked Tatewaki.
"Actually, Master Kuno, she will be attending the same school," said Sasuke in the middle of pouring tea for the mistress.
"Hmmm. No doubt she received word of this transfer, and in her love for me did seek to attend the same school. Ah, I must needs reward her for such loyalty." Tatewaki settled down now that the conflict had resolved itself.
"Or maybe the 'heavens themselves' sought to keep you together, it is simply my consternation to be caught up in this mess," said Kodachi drily. "Honestly, just because I believe in fighting fairly before the match."
"Indeed, it is my hope that you will take young Akane under your wing in the martial arts rhythmic gymnastic competition," said Tatewaki, an image of Akane wearing a leotard dancing through his head briefly.
"I see," said Kodachi, imagining the girl of her brother's obsession tied up and receiving proper discipline. Maybe if she arranged for the two to get together, he'd be less annoying? Well, one could hope. "I'll see if it can be arranged."
Ranma closed the connection with Beckett and considered what precautions he could take with problems like that around. This job looked to be fairly complicated and long term. Maybe he should:
(Posted Fri, 21 May 2004 09:46)
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