Larry nodded, a bit green after seeing that. "I know."
It was at this moment that Curly finally started waking up. "Uuuh." He glanced around, seeing that everyone was, more-or-less alright he started chuckling.
Moe blinked, "Uh, Curly? What's wrong?"
Curly just laughed, "I had the craziest dream."
Larry raised an eyebrow, "Oh, what?"
"Where we were about to take out an Edge Guard group when a black and gold Werecat came and beat us. Isn't that funny?!"
Moe grimaced, he didn't know how his brother was going to take this. "Um, that actually happened Bro."
Curly blinked, "Say what?"
Moe nodded, "Yeah it did. Joe's jewels got crushed by that Werecat and Shep had his staff shoved up his @$$."
Curly stared, thought about what had happened and started growling outloud. An interesting sound from a human. "Damn that Demonic Werecat!" He stood up, looked straight up and pointed a finger to the sky I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!!" Since the sun was setting right behind him it looked damn impressive.
Moe nodded, "Nice. But still, how are we going to get revenge?"
Larry frowned, "Yeah, no kidding. He was a lot better a fighter than those Edge Guard were." He neglected to remember that Curly had hit three of them with a magic attack and had caught them by surprise.
Curly sulked, pulled down his hand and started pacing back and forth for several minutes. He blinked a few times, "I've got it!"
"Huh?"
"What?" His two brothers asked at the same time.
"To get back at that Werecat we'll have to lay a trap for him and then catch him when his guard is down."
Larry and Moe blinked, "Lay a trap?" They asked in weird synchnorization.
Curly nodded, "Yeah, we follow him around a bit, find out where he goes all the time, then lay a trap for him to fall in and get caught in. It's brilliant! Nothing can go wrong!"
Famous last words Curly.
********
Back in Nerima. . .
The 'man' thanked Nabiki for the information about the fight and who had been fighting the Phoenix. He handed her a card. "You shall be paid in full for this information. The address where you can pick up the money is on the card."
Nabiki took the card, read it and blinked when she saw the address. "That's near the pumping station that's at the edge of the district."
The 'man' nodded and said his goodbyes and left. While he was walking away he kept going over what had been told to him. The person who fought the Phoenix had never shown himself to be a Werecat before, at least, that's what he had gathered anyways, and he was one of the, if not the, best fighter in the area. But what the kid had done had placed a healthy bit of respect in him for the fighter. The fighter was trying to lead the Phoenix away from the area before he caused serious damages and death, and in the end he had sacrificed himself to protect those he cared about. Self-sacrifice was something all Wererats could respect, regardless of who it was that did it.
********
Across town. . .
Nodoka, back in human form, nodded at Cologne. "I thank you for the information on my son Elder."
Cologne nodded back at her, "No problem. I figured you should've been the first to know about him." With that she bounded over the outer wall of the Saotome Home and away.
Nodoka sighed, "At least my son is all right." She then smiled, "I wonder if my manly son has met any good looking female Werecats yet?" She then sighed and clasped her hands together on the right side of her face, just below her chin, and tilted her head slightly and got a picture in her head about a lot of chibi-Ranma's running around with various Werecat features. "Oooh they'd be so kawaii." Anyone who knew Nodoka would not disturb her at this moment.
********
Back on Jade. . .
Ranma shook his head, "Damn, that's the fiftieth time I've sneezed, I swear someone is thinking about me."
Thropan shook his head, he had to admit that the kid was unique. "Well, we're almost to Seer's Hamlet. How are you two holding up? Gar? Sheila?"
Gar waved, "I'm fine, but don't expect me to be able to run or do any fighting for awhile." He started to remove his arm from around Ranma's shoulder, but the instant he put any pressure on his injured leg, he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Argh! Guess not!" He then placed his arm around Ranma's shoulder again.
Sheila shook her head, "My stomache still hurts. That fireball that hit us originally was pretty strong. And then I used up most of my energy trying to stop the next attack." She then frowned, "Stupid jerk."
Ranma looked over towards Tirga. "Hey, how come you're not hurt?"
Tirga frowned, "Actually I am. (Both physically and mentally.) It's just that I shouldn't have even gotten hurt from that fireball. Magical fire isn't suppost to harm me."
Thropan shook his head, "Not exactly. When your weapon is out, it absorbs magical fire and it makes you more resistant to fire damages as well as helps you heal from them. But if it's not out, then your as vunerable as any of the rest of us. Though you heal quite a bit faster."
Tirga looked at him, "You're kidding?! Why didn't you tell me?"
Thropan shrugged, "You never asked."
Ranma chuckled. That Tirga guy reminded him of some the Nerima crew. They'd use something, know it's strengths, but none of its weaknesses.
Sheila blinked at him, "What's so funny?"
Ranma shook his head, "Nothing really, that Tirga guy reminded me of some of the. .folks. .back. .home." He then sighed, 'How many of them died because of that jerk Saffron?'
Tirga winced, "Hey, sorry about that. Didn't mean to drag up bad memories." Sure he was a happy-go-lucky kinda guy that lived life for the moment, but he had his share of bad expirences in life, one of the more notable ones was when his mentor Gaja was killed by G'Nolga. That had been a sad day for everyone, and none of them liked to remember it. There were other instances as well, but Gaja's death stood out most prevalently.
Ranma just shook his head and buried his feelings, "It's alright. You didn't mean it."
Oloni frowned as he walked behind the group. That new kid was bottling up his emotions, not a good thing. And it seemed to be an ingraned response, considering how fast he had changed from being depressed to being almost normal again. 'This bears looking into.'
They reached Seer's Hamlet a few minutes of compatable silence later. Ranma blinked as he looked around, slowing his pace a bit to take in the sites. He had never seen so many magical creatures before or in the same place. 'And considering what I've gone through, that's saying something.' He wasn't naive enough to think that he had seen it all, but when living in Nerima, one tends to think that there isn't much more out there to see. He blinked when he saw people stopping to stare at the group, no, they were staring at him. "Um, why are they looking at me like that?"
Sheila smirked as she moved a bit to get the blood flowing in her arm again, it had fallen asleep while she was being carried. "Two reasons actually. One, they've never seen a Werecat like you before."
Ranma nodded while looking down at her, "Okay."
"The second thing is is that you're carrying a member of the Edge Guard in your arms and another Edge Guard member is using you to support himself." She didn't feel like telling him that Gar had been trained by the Armsmaster of Jade and was considered one of the best fighters that wasn't a Weaponsmaster, and the fact that this group was rather famous in Seer's Hamlet, so seeing them like this would cause people to stare.
Ranma didn't know what it meant to be a member of the Edge Guard, but he had the feeling that they were good fighters. He quickly glanced at Thropan and Oloni, them being the least injured and noticed what he hadn't been looking for before, that they were indeed fighters of some skill, better than most actually, with the way they handled themselves. He watched and blinked when he saw people start shrinking away from him. "I wonder what thier problem is?" He muttered to himself.
Gar looked at him, being a Jagwere meant that he could hear an ant marching from a mile away if he wanted to, combined with such close proximity allowed him to pick-up what had been said easily. "They're kinda nervous. You see, you're a Werecheetah, a rare species, but you're also as tall as a Werelion, just a bit slimmer, and then there's your teeth. Frankly, they don't know what to make of you."
Ranma nodded, he didn't like people being afraid of him. If he knew how to, he'd switch to either a pure Werecheetah hybrid or a pure Weresmilidon hybrid form and quit scaring everyone. Oloni then walked to the front of the group. "Here Ranma, I'll take Gar off of your shoulders so that you can get to Nali's Clinic."
Ranma shrugged, "Sure." Gar got let go of Ranma and Oloni caught him before he hit the ground.
Oloni nodded at Ranma and then placed Gar on his shoulders in a fireman's carry and started climbing the rope ladder up to Nali's Clinic. Tirga followed him, then Thropan went next and Ranma followed last. The only reason it took him so long was that he had to adjust his hold on Sheila a bit, without it looking perverted, so that he could climb the ladder. Ranma had one arm around Sheila's waist, while she had her arms around his neck, her head was looking over his shoulder as he ascended the ladder to the clinic.
Once they got to the top, Oloni motioned Ranma to take Sheila inside, "Um, are you sure it'll be alright?"
Oloni chuckled, "Don't worry Ranma. Nali is one of the best healers around."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Philip Weigel
(Posted Mon, 23 Jun 2003 05:04)
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