"Come on," Jacob said, or squeaked rather, as he was in rat form at the moment. "We're going to be late for the rendesvous."
"I don't like this," Millie said. "There's something not quite right in all this."
"Yeah, well you thought that sewer rat was trying to hypnotise you to join an army of rats from another dimension," Jacob said.
"He was!" Millie protested.
A small sound broke the still of the night then and Millie stopped cold.
"Did you hear that?" she asked.
"What?" Jacob asked. "Come on, we have to go on. You heard the report, werehunters are in the area."
"It didn't sound like anything dangerous," Millie said, skittering off towards the sound.
"Millie!" Jacob called back, exasperated. The sound became clearer as they approached, the cry of an infant, and even Jacob increased speed as he heard it. "Ahhh...#$%#."
Which was how they found the rather smallish werewolf, about human size actually, lying on the ground and cradling an infant. The smell of soul char was thick in the air.
The two wererats looked to each other for a moment and then decided. Enemy clan or not, they couldn't just leave this woman and her baby alone. The shifted into human form and kneeled beside her.
"Hey, hey," Millie said. "What happened, lady?" She looked to her husband where he was investigating the woman's wounds and saw him slowly shaking his head.
"Werehunters," the woman gasped. "Don't know how they found me..."
****
Several months before:
"Yes, that's right," Genma said. "Sounds just like my wife. She went over to Russia somewhere, said not to tell anybody about it. She'd going to do some sort of ritual to insure that our child is son! Oh happy day!"
****
"...be coming soon, couldn't run far," the woman gasped. She weakly lifted up her child. "Take her...take my Ranma, see that she's taken care of."
"Listen, lady, you're going to be fine," Millie was saying as she took the sobbing infant in her hands. "We'll just get you..." And then the woman's hand fell limply to the ground and the warmth of her body began to bleed away without refueling.
Jacob hissed as he heard some voices approaching.
"Come on!" he snapped in a hushed whisper. "Take her and let's go, before they find us!"
****
The hotel room door opened and the lights flooded on.
"Do you realize how $#%$ late we're going to be?" Jacob asked. "Lord Gothwrain is going to &#@$! kill us."
"Well, we couldn't very well take her with us," Millie said leaning over to check on her slumbering daughter as she set down the werewolf infant into the bed. "And watch your language, you're going to give the children bad habits."
"We can't keep her, Millie," Jacob said. "We'll leave her with the werewolf pack and that's that. And I don't really curse that ^*@#in' mu...ch..." his voice trailed off as he checked the news.
"And the night was rocked tonight when a terrorist bomb exploded in a church today, killing an unknown number of individuals..."
"Gothwrain is going to kill us all right," Millie said quietly. "So I wonder what we do now."
"Actually," a voice said from the open door. "I can help here." They turned to see a dark-haired man in a suit and pair of glasses, smiling broadly.
****
"Mommy! Mommy! There's a $#@%in cat next door!" three-year old Lydia declared, racing in from the yard of their new home.
"Cat, cat, mommy," Ranma added plaintively.
They stopped cold when they saw said cat in the room with their (admittedly nervous) parents along with two human adults and one human child.
"Lydia, language," Millie said, leveling a cold stare at her husband. "We have guests. These are the neighbors, the Diggers. I apologize for this, Sir, Madam."
"We understand completely," Julia said. "When I was growing up it was all, 'behold the evil magus come to lord over us with his unfair magics.' And look who I married."
"Thank you, dear," Theo said, smiling and looking over the two other were girls carefully, noting Ranma's aura.
"Mrs. Diggers has to be leaving soon, but her husband and daughters are staying for dinner," Jacob said, not swearing at the moment (for fear of his wife). "Be nice."
"Uh, hi," Lydia said. Her baby sister hid behind her, peeking out carefully at the cat.
****
Meanwhile:
"Of course I have a son," Genma declared. "Would I lie to you about something like that? He's with my wife." Though he was wondering when he'd be brought in to handle their child's training in the martial arts.
Though this has little to do with this Ranma as it would be virtually impossible to track her down to try and fulfill a contract.
****
"Okay, now repeat after me," Dr. Diggers said to his young student. Ranma took a deep breath, nodding and preparing to follow along with her teacher's words when...
"BOO!!"
A large, sort of, cheetah appeared out of almost nowhere and...
"CATTTTTT!!!!!"
...Ranma vanished in a cloud of dust. A few moments later a metallic crash was heard as the cheetah snickered and Dr. Diggers sighed expressively.
"Brit!!!" Gina's voice called out from the area of the crash.
"Britanny," the werecheetah's father said. "Can't find a different way to amuse yourself." Britanny shifted into hybrid form, still laughing.
"Aww, Dad," Britanny said. "I'm not DOING anything to her, really."
Theo crossed his arms and leaned down toward his ten year old daughter...the flaming skull head helped.
"I'll go apologize," Britanny said nervously.
****
"Listen, Diggers," Lydia said crossing her arms. "Either I go with you on this, or I'm &%$#in' tellin' your father."
"The little rat would do it too," Britanny said irritably.
"Listen kid," Dani said. "You're what, twelve years old? You could get hurt, this is going to be dangerous."
"Hmph," Lydia said. "I'm a @&$%in' were too! Ain't like they're gonna know how to hurt me."
"So what are you going to call yourself?" Brit asked. "'The Amazing Potty Mouth?'"
"Phbt!" Lydia replied. "No! I'm going to be the NIMH!!"
Dani and Brit looked to each other.
"How about the Great Rat Detective?" Lydia tried.
"How about 'I should stop watching Disney movies now?'" Dani said.
****
"So how was school?" Millie asked.
"There was new girl today," Ranma said, kicking her legs back and forth. "She asked me why my ears are strange."
"Oh," Millie said. "Don't worry about that, now...where did your father put that cheese whiz...how are your lessons with Dr. Diggers going?"
"I love them," Ranma said. "I'm going to be the greatest mage ever...but Britanny keeps scaring me."
"Yes," Millie said. "Well, we've talked to her father about that. Do you know where your sister is?"
"She's playing superhero with Britanny and her friend," Ranma said, drinking her juice.
"Oh, really?" Millie said, arching an eyebrow.
That seemed unusual, aside from the occasional cat ambush Britanny wasn't bad with her daughters, but she tended to adopt an older kid view of them. Babysitting them was okay, but hanging around with them, not.
"Anyway, your father will be back from his business trip soon," Millie said. "So be prepared for a bit of party when he comes, okay?"
"OKAY!" Ranma said excitedly.
That's when the doorbell rang.
"Errr...it's always something," Millie said. She walked to the door and opened it to reveal the familiar if mysterious face of Agent M. "Eh, Boss, what's...wrong...?" her voice trailed off at the look in her employer's eyes. "Oh no."
****
And a few years later Ranma was walking out of a shop not realizing that this history had just been created retroactively and smiled as she took a deep breath.
Today was the day...
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(Posted Sun, 13 Apr 2003 16:19)
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