“I will be as soon as I get out from under here...” Theo groaned pitifully.
On the other side of the room, the two mothers were talking, as the three girls watched the Hakken push a busted up police cruiser off of Theo.
Jetta turned a VERY apologetic look Julia’s way. “... You’re not a murderous werewolf from my clan... Are you?”
Julia shook her head. “No, but if I may say, you certainly looked like a murderous werewolf when you got here,” The woman said in a rather irate tone of voice. “This is going to take some doing to clean up and repair.”
Jetta winced and nodded. “I’ll pay you every buck worth of damage.”
“No need,” Julia said, which surprised even herself. But as she thought about it, she added, “I probably would have done the same thing if someone kidnapped one of MY girls.”
The werewolf winced again and turned to see Ranma-chan giving her a pointed look. Yup. She was never going to live this one down. Jetta turned back to Julia. “Maybe it’s a little late but... I’m sorry.”
The tall redheaded woman sighed. “Apology accepted...” Julia smirked and answered, “I must admit though, you must have been raring to go if you’d go out of your way to pick up a UFC Fighter to help you.”
Jetta blinked and turned to Ranma. “Umm... That’s my husband.”
Ranma-chan took a moment to drop the car as to slap herself on the face. Why did Jetta have to say that when she was a woman?
*CRUNCH*!
“ARGH!”
“Dad!” Both Brenda and Gina shouted.
“Ranma!” Jetta shouted and jumped over to pick the car up.
“...Oops...” Ranma-chan chuckled nervously. “Sorry ‘bout that,” She said as she went to help her wife.
They picked the car up and Jetta looked under it. “You still alive?”
“...Yeah...” Theo’s eye twitched as he started to crawl out from where he had been stuck on the floor. “On the bright side, I finally figured out where the oil filter is on a car,” He mumbled.
Jetta blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry about all this.”
Standing up and dusting himself off, Theo let out a depressed sigh as he saw what was left of his coffee-table. “I’ll be okay," He said as his daughters ran up to him and hugged either leg. “I mean, my girls are all right, and I still have my garden.”
“Umm...” Jetta decided Theo could wait a little bit to hear about what happened to his garden.
“Yes, your girls are perfectly fine,” Ranma-chan reaffirmed, hoping to hell he wouldn’t go outside until after they left and had at least a two mile head-start.
Jetta turned to look at Britanny. “Young lady! You have a lot of explaining to do!”
Britanny blinked her eyes, not realizing what was wrong. “I do? ‘Bout what?” She asked, genuinely curious.
“Excuse me... It’s... It’s kinda my fault,” Brenda spoke up.
Jetta turned to regard Brenda, still holding the car up.
Brenda looked up, the woman was rather intimidating. “Well, uh... I kinda... Changed into a doggy today... And I couldn’t figure out how to change back.” She was looking very nervous. “And during lunch time, I was hungry and took someone’s lunch, and Britanny chased me. She helped me change back, and she followed me home.”
Britanny nodded. “Yeah, mommy! Brenda’s a werewolf too!”
Jetta looked at the girl for a moment before she dropped the car in shock. “You turned into a... You’re a...?” She didn’t notice the way the car landed on Ranma’s foot, though.
Ranma-chan’s eyes were wide open as her jaw dropped. She was in too much pain to scream. It was so heavy and sudden, like that time her POPS, (Pompous Overweight Panda Shithead) stepped on her foot.
Brenda nodded her head, feeling very small under the larger werewolf’s gaze. “Uh-huh... I’m a werewolf.”
Jetta knelt in front of Brenda and took the girl by the shoulders. “You’re a werewolf? But... How?” Jetta looked up at Julia and the redhead could tell just how lost the werewolf felt right now. “How is that possible?”
“Brenda is adopted,” Julia explained. “My husband was in Ireland a few years ago, investigating the reason behind the migration of the cheetahs to that area...”
Jetta turned to Theo. “You were there?”
“Yes,” Theo said, somehow looking MUCH better than he had before, as if he hadn’t been run over at speeds better than 160 mph. “I was caught in the middle of the war between the werewolves and the werecheetahs.”
Jetta nodded and was about to say something when Gina’s laughter stopped her. She turned to see Ranma-chan making funny face after funny face while she tried to keep the screams of pain in.
“Oh for the love of,” Julia groaned and walked over to Ranma-chan, and grabbed the bumper. She lifted the car with one hand. “Better?”
“...Much...” Ranma-chan squeaked out.
Jetta lifted an eyebrow. “You’re pretty strong.” She was impressed a human could perform a feat like that. She herself could probably lift the car with two fingers.
“Thank you,” Julia said. “It comes from the Giant Blood in me.”
Theo wrung his hands together. “Anyway, Jetta. I... I found Brenda. She was trying to hide, and scared stiffed. She was probably no more than a scant month or two over being a year-old. I couldn’t just leave her there, so I took her back with me.”
Jetta froze when she heard the name. “...Did you say... Brenda?”
“Yes,” Theo said. “It was the necklace she had around her neck; a pewter cursive-script of her name. ‘Brenda’.”
Jetta turned to the little werewolf once more and took a closer look of her features.
Gina frowned when she saw the woman take a hold of her little sister’s shoulders.
The girl had skin who’s shade was a tad darker than most Caucasian, as if she had a permanent light tan. Pushing aside the locks of brown hair, she could see the feral violet eyes the girl had...
...Eyes she knew her sister once had.
“Little Brenda...” Jetta whispered.
Brenda just looked at the werewolf in the eyes, a little fearfully. She could see and feel the violet irises surrounded by green sclera just piercing into her soul.
“Can I see your necklace?” Jetta asked softly.
“Oh... Okay...” Brenda answered. “Let me get it,” She said as she slowly broke away from the larger Lupine woman’s grasp and started running for the staircase.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in her foot, Ranma-chan wondered what the heck was going on. Moving over to her wife, the redhead asked in a whisper, "Jetta, what's going on?”
Jetta stood up, still looking up the stairs. “I think she’s my... Niece.”
The Diggers and Ranma just stared at Jetta. No. All three redefined stared.
Finally, the girl came back down the stairs, a ball-chain necklace in hand. She tentatively held the necklace out to Jetta. “Here...”
Jetta hesitantly took the necklace to look at it. She paled when she recognized the symbol of her clan on the back. Particularly that of her family.
“...Jetta?” Ranma-chan asked as her wife just stared at the back of the name.
Jetta smiled as a tear traveled down her cheek. “Here you go. Take good care of it, you hear?”
The girl blinked her eyes. “Lady, why are you crying?” She asked.
Jetta laughed a little. “You’re so beautiful. Just like my sister.”
“I am?” Brenda asked.
Ranma-chan looked at her wife, and wondered why she wasn’t just telling the girl the truth.
Jetta nodded tearfully. “You are.” She stood up and took a hold of Ranma’s hand. Right now she needed the support.
It was then that Gina’s eyes widened in realization. “You’re the Hakken’s wife!”
Ranma-chan held onto her wife’s hand tightly and wrapped her other arm around her waist to held support her. Turning to the little blonde-haired girl, she answered, “She is.” She smiled. “And Britanny’s my daughter.”
Brenda looked up at the older werewolf. Something about this seemed... ‘Wrong’ to the girl. It was like something was going on, and she couldn’t figure it out.
Jetta turned to Julia with pain-filled eyes. “Britanny is the last werecheetah.”
“No, she’s not.” Theo spoke up to get their attention.
“What!?” Jetta shouted in surprise.
Theo nodded his head. “Some of the werecheetahs made it to safety. They made it to the ‘promised land’, to the Retreat.”
Jetta sighed in relief and were it not for Ranma supporting her she would've fallen to her knees. “Oh thank God!”
Theo nodded his head. “Those were terrible times.” He said, as if understanding where Jetta was coming from with her feelings.
Jetta looked at Theo. “Thank you. Thank you for saving her.”
Theo nodded his head. “I wasn’t going to leave her there in that chaos.”
Jetta lowered her head. “I’m really sorry about what happened. If there’s anything I can do...”
“Well...” Theo walked over to the werewolf and smiled hesitantly. “Brenda could use a teacher, someone who understand being a lycanthrope.”
Jetta turned towards Julia. “If it’s alright with her mother.”
Julia managed to smile a little. “I don’t see what’s wrong with letting family help out.”
Brenda blinked her eyes, wondering what that meant.
Jetta nodded with a smile and... “Ranma-chan, are you crying?”
“...Am not...” Ranma-chan said barely above a whisper. “And if I am, it’s because my foot hurts like the dickens...” She added.
Jetta’s eyes widened when she saw the state of Ranma’s foot. “We have to take you to a hospital!”
“I’ll be fine,” Ranma-chan said. “Really.”
“I’m a doctor,” Theo said. “Perhaps I could help.”
“Please.” Jetta gave Ranma a sideways glance. “My husband here doesn’t know when to quit acting macho.”
Hearing that, the Amazing Hakken nodded her head. Ranma-chan leaned over to whisper in Jetta’s ear. “I’ll have blondie take a look at my foot. You just try to get to know your niece again, all right?”
Jetta smiled. “Thanks.”
Letting go of her wife, the pigtailed redhead limped over to the blonde-haired man. “Lead the way, please.”
Theo nodded and put the woman’s arm over his shoulder to help keep her weight off her foot as they walked out of the living room.
“Jetta watched the love of her life limp out of the room and sighed. She then turned to the wrecked police car. “Yup. I’m so getting fired for this.”
Jetta shook her head and turned to Britanny. “Brit, can you play a little longer while I talk to Julia outside?”
“Okay, mommy,” Britanny said happily.
Jetta nodded seriously and looked pointedly at Julia before walking out.
Julia followed the Werewolf outside, going through the hole in the living room.
Once outside Jetta turned to regard Julia seriously. “Okay. Get it over with.”
The redhead placed her hands on her hips and looked at the werewolf woman. “You know, as much as I’d like to yell... I can’t.”
Jetta rolled her eyes. “Don’t yell. Just hit me with your best punch and get it over with.”
Sighing, the redhead shook her head. “Just tell me. Brenda... My Brenda... She’s your niece?”
Jetta nodded slowly. “I’d say she is. Aside from having the necklace...” She reached into her tank-top and revealed a necklace similar to Brenda’s, only that hers said ‘Jetta’. “She’s also the spitting image of my sister.”
Julia frowned. “Then I don’t think I could bring myself to hurt you.” She smirked a little. “Never could bring myself to hurt family, no matter how annoying they get.”
Jetta rolled her eyes in annoyance this time. “Just hit me already. It’ll make both you and me feel better.”
“If you say, so,” Julia said with a grin. Putting all her strength into a blow, she punched Jetta across the jaw, sending the werewolf flying a good distance, as she skidded across the lawn.
Jetta blinked away all the pretty stars, she hadn’t been hit that hard since her last all-out match with Ranma, and jumped to her feet. She smirked and walked over to Julia. “I have to give it to you. That’s one mean right you got there.”
Julia nodded. “I’ve been told it’s enough to make most werecats see stars.”
Jetta stopped next to Julia. “I wouldn’t know. We werewolves are made of sterner stuff.”
With that Jetta walked into the house again, her business with Julia after destroying her living-room done with.
Julia nodded her head, genuinely impressed.
“How Else do you think I survive meetings with my mother-in-law?”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Tue, 19 Oct 2004 03:14)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.