Step  One  -  Stalking  Game
 
    The night sky of Nerima was a clear one.  The deep blue, almost a black but
well illuminated by the bright full moon, glistened with a pattern of twinkling
stars.  The background light from Tokyo was almost nonexistent, a pleasant
change of atmosphere that was rarely appreciated by most.  Except Akane.  She
loved the clear sky, the faint presence of the Milky Way as it wrapped itself
across the near-endless plane that was the sky. She stood out on the balcony,
staring into the deep azure and trying to discern the different colors of the
shining stars.  Was there life out there? she wondered.  The universe is so
huge, why not?  Besides, with all the absurd monsters that Ranma had
encountered in his travels and exploits you'd think that there might as well be
aliens to make the group whole.
    A streak of light suddenly pierced the night's sky and left a dazzling
trail of cosmic dust behind it.  Akane gasped in awe.  A falling star!
Brighter than most she had seen!  She quickly closed her eyes and made a wish,
knowing that a wish from a falling star had excellent chances of coming to
pass.  But the wish had to be strongly formed in one's mind, or else it would
dissipate with all the other bits of wishful thinking that took place in the
night.  Try to form an image, try to form an image.  She almost had it.  She
slowly opened her eyes and visualized...
    Ranma.  Hanging upside down from the rafters of the ceiling and looking at
her with an air of mild curiosity.
    "What in the world are you doing?"
    Akane yelped and nearly fell backwards.  He was no vision!  That idiot was
once again eavesdropping on her!
    "I WAS making a wish, you jerk!" she blurted out, "You've just ruined it,
though!"
    "Making wishes?"  Ranma let go of the ceiling and flipped over to his feet
before lightly touching the wooden ground. "Don't bother.  No amount of wishing
will make you a better cook. I think that's more of a miracle-type-thing..."
    "You insensitive JERK!"  Akane ran from the second-floor's porch and
quickly emerged from the entryway with a large wooden bokken.  She proceeded to
take swipes at Ranma, who easily dodged every attempt while looking amusedly at
her bluster.
    "Sticks and stones, tomboy."  Akane, fueled by even more anger, attempted
to wipe the huge grin from his face permanently with a charge and swung
furiously at her 'fiance'.  Ranma, backflipping off the balcony, stuck his
tongue out her while laughing all the way.
    Akane, out of range for any more stabbing, threw the bokken at Ranma, who
was able to twist his body a bit to the left and dodge the speedy projectile.
"Hah!  You need more practice, slowpoke!"  Unfortunately Ranma was forced to
literally eat his words when they were knocked back at his face with a frying
pan.
    "WHO are you calling 'slowpoke'?" Akane called out with a smirk as she saw
her second projectile hit target.  Ranma fell over in midair and landed
headfirst into the bushes below, a stunned look on his face as he tried to peel
off the black metal cookery.  Akane chuckled to herself and went back inside,
closing the glass door behind her and sealing the striped drapery.  Knocking
Ranma into the bushes with a frying pan : an excellent way to end the day.
Well, almost excellent... The fool had ruined her wish.  And it would have been
a GOOD wish, too, judging from how bright the shooting star had been.  No, at
best the evening had resulted in her breaking even.  Oh well, nothing could be
done about it now.
    Akane stepped into her room and shut the doors, stretched a bit and slipped
into bed, shutting off the small ornamental nightlite sitting on her bedstand
and happily snuggling in the blankets.  It's a shame P-Chan was nowhere around;
she wouldn't have minded the company, but for some reason her little piglet
seemed to have an agenda of his own.  He showed up whenever he did, and she
accepted that as part of his nature.  Kind of like Ryouga.  She smiled to
herself that she could have two good friends that were so much alike.  She
would really have to introduce the two some day...
    About five miles away, in the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo one (or more
appropriately both) of Akane's good friends was walking around the busy night
streets completely and utterly lost.  He was carrying a large fold-out map and
desperately trying to figure out where the Tendo residence was, but judging
from the fact that he was holding the map upside-down many onlookers didn't
think he was ever going to be ending up where he wanted.  Ryouga looked about,
but none of the terrain looked familiar.  Hell, terrain NEVER looked familiar
to him, but he could at least recall that this many people didn't actually live
in the dojo, so he was still not on the right track.  When he had seen that
bright falling star an hour back he was certain that it was a sign from the
heavens, an arrow to point him in the right direction, but all it did was aim
him here, wherever here was.  Growing somewhat tired Ryouga folded up the map
and sat down on a bus bench.  Once again he was hopelessly lost, with no chance
in the universe of finding his beloved Akane.  Perhaps he would never again see
anyone familiar to him... Ryouga sighed in sadness.  He would be destined to
live the rest of his life as a recluse, never again to spot a recognizable
face.
    "Ryouga?  What are you doing here?"
    Ryouga quickly turned about and saw the source of the question.  Ukyou was
standing behind him, holding a bag of newly purchased clothing and looking at
him in surprise.  Ryouga was overcome with joy.
    "Aaagh!  I never thought I'd see anyone familiar again!!" Weeping, Ryouga
hugged Ukyou's legs in desperation, an act she didn't seem too fond of.
    "Yeek!  Let go of me, you moron!  People are watching!"  Indeed, crowds
were staring at the two.  Ukyou, not wanting to ruin her image with Ranma as a
trustworthy fiance, pulled the large metal spatula from the strap on her back
and let Ryouga have it square on the forehead.  His grasp was effectively
released.
    "OW!"  Ryouga rubbed the large bruise that formed on his head and looked at
Ukyou with some annoyance.  "I WAS going to let go!"  "And so you did," was her
reply, "I simply gave you some prodding.  So, what was it you wanted?  I'm in
kind of a rush to get home."
    "Home?"  Ryouga scratched the back of his head, as though his often-made
request was still going to sound absurd.  "Could you please take me home with
you?"  Yep, it sounded absurd, all right.
    "Oh for crying out loud...  Okay, come on, we'll take the train back
together.  But YOU'RE paying for your own ticket!"  She took his hand and
dragged him along behind her, feeling as though she had just found a stray
child who couldn't find his mother.  From Ryouga's sheepish expression at being
led around it looked even more so.  But at least he would be back in Nerima,
and as long as he could keep himself from getting lost once more he would be
able to find his lovely Akane-san.
 
    Upon the windy steeples of the tall buildings of Tokyo loomed a new
presence, one whose kind hadn't visited the Land of the Rising Sun in many
decades.  Cold gusts of wind blew back and forth across its bare skin, but it
casually shrugged it off; the weather was an unpleasant change from the strong
heat it was so accustomed to, but sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of
Prey. The astounding height was no concern, however; on the contrary, stalking
Prey from the upper echelons of the city gave it more freedom of movement, a
higher point of attack, and an easier chance to move about totally undetected.
Intently it watched the throngs of people moving to and fro amongst the noise
and lights of the city, trying to find a bearing on its first Prey.  This would
be the preliminary procedure, grabbing the attention of the main Target by
eliminating its familiars.  Unfortunately the incredible number of people below
were warping the heat signatures, blending them into a single mass of red,
orange and yellow.  No problem, a true Hunter always had other means of
detection at hand.  Sound, for instance.  Its hearing was extremely acute, the
sensors in its helmet amplifying desired signals and processing them into a
visual code which it could use to plot trajectory and vector angles.  And there
it was, as clear as glass, two vocal patterns it had preprogrammed its helmet
to recognize and seek out.  One human male, the other a human female,
originating 0.41 kilometers northeast from its current position.
    The Hunter made sure all its gear was in place and immediately leapt from
its vantage point on the building's ledge to another shorter building
fifty-feet away.  Its bare feet easily gripped the surface as it continued to
run, from rooftop to rooftop until the audio signal was able to be properly
locked on and a visual track could be attained.  Six stories below, a platform
of some sort with a series of long metal tracks running both ways off into the
distance.  On the tracks was a small elongated vehicle of some sort, also made
of metal, and people were filing into it.  Including the two Targets.  With a
tap on its wrist-mounted control pad the Hunter was able to magnify their
visual images : a male and female pair, both a half-meter below its own height,
both in apparently excellent physical condition.  The male didn't seem to wield
any weapons, although the female had a large metal object attached to her back,
perhaps a blade weapon of some kind.  They followed the crowds into the
mass-transit machine and behind them the doors shut with a quiet "whish".  The
Hunt begins.
 
    Ukyou and Ryouga slipped and slided through the tight crowds until a couple
of seats became available.  The train clattered down its tracks as the city
outside disappeared and was replaced by the speedily passing view of the
smaller suburbs.  Ukyou sighed and stared out the window at the night sky as it
twinkled back at her; having to play nursemaid to a man who would get lost
trying to leave a bathroom, how embarrassing.  Ukyou took a quick glance over
at Ryouga, who was absently looking at the other passengers of the train.  From
all the dirt that was covering his face and the awful stench he must have been
hopelessly wandering the countryside for days.  Didn't he carry any soap in
that huge backpack of his?
    Ukyou's concentration was quickly shaken as a loud "thump" shook the roof
of the train.  She looked out the window once again, this time trying to get a
glimpse upward.  She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary... Ukyou
shuddered, hoping that the train hadn't hit a bird or another such animal.
    "Did you hear something?" asked Ryouga.  Apparently he had noticed it, as
well.
    "Yes, what do you think it was?"
    "Beats me.  Probably a rock--"
    Thump!  There it was again.  Ukyou and Ryouga looked upward trying to
figure out exactly what part of the car was producing the sound.  Thump, once
more.  It was closer this time.
    "That's funny, it's coming this way..." Ukyou nodded in agreement with
Ryouga's comment.  Mumbling began to emanate from the other passengers; the
noise was now loud enough so that everyone could hear it.  Another thump, and a
few people begin to get scared.  Another thump.  And another.  And each time it
moved closer to Ukyou and Ryouga's position.
    Ryouga grabbed a hold of his satchel.  "I think we should move."
    "Good idea."
    The twosome got up and slowly began to maneuver through the throngs of
people, heading forward through the moving train.  The thumping continued, and
each time it reverberated through the car it got louder.  Upon reaching the end
of the passenger compartment Ryouga slid open the door and was beginning to
head into the next car when the sharp sound of tearing metal came from behind
them.  Ukyou and Ryouga quickly looked back to see a small hole rip open
through the roof and the seat beneath it tear apart, as though a large
invisible spear had been plunged into it.  It was the seat that Ryouga had been
sitting in.
    "Oh shit," was his response.
    The seat slowly rose upward on its unseen hook, tearing loose of its hinges
and rising for a few feet before falling back down to the hard metallic floor
panels with a loud clang.  Immediately the crowd dispersed, running and
screaming from the point of impact.  Ryouga and Ukyou decided to follow suit.
    Ryouga burst through the next car's rear door with Ukyou right behind him,
running through the masses of people as fast as possible.  The thumping
continued to follow them, moving faster in an attempt to catch up.
    "What the hell's going on?!" yelled out Ukyou.
    "I don't know, but I don't think we should stick around to find out!"
Ryouga moved through the next set of doors they lay before him. "How long until
this thing stops?"
    "I don't know, probably ten more minutes."  Ukyou looked back as the
pounding on the ceiling began to close its gap between them.  In that short
interval she failed to see the grocery bag in front of her and landed on her
chin as she tripped.
    Ryouga quickly noticed he was alone and turned around to see where Ukyou
had vanished to.  She was a few yards back, trying to scramble to her feet, but
was dizzy from the impact her head had received on the floor.  Ryouga promptly
stopped and ran back to her.
    And the ceiling just behind the two suddenly caved in, ripped open by an
invisible force just like before above the chair, but this time the hole was
much bigger.  Whatever came through the hole produced the same ominous thump
that had followed Ryouga and Ukyou throughout the train, along with the
creaking of the metal floor as it bent slightly at the point of impact.  Ukyou
leapt back and quickly regained her senses.  Or perhaps she hadn't : although
the sound of an impact with the floor took place, there didn't seem to be
anything there except some kind of near-invisible distortion.  A distortion
that was over two-and-a-half meters tall.  A distortion that seemed to look
right at her with a pair of glowing green eyes.  The sight just froze her; she
had completely forgotten about the sharp pain in her chin from which a small
trickle of blood was now free-flowing.  The invisible mass let out of quiet
growl and slowly walked towards her, and slowly she began to back away.  With
each step it took she would take another one back.  The crowds of people were
all running away for their lives, like mice locked in a cage with a hungry cat,
but Ukyou and the distortion ignored them.  Ryouga couldn't believe his eyes at
the sight either, but unlike Ukyou he had had more experience dealing with
various types of monstrosities and knew that acting was an immediate and
necessary option.
    In the distortion's hand a long thin impression that may have been what
tore apart Ryouga's seat was held in its grasp.  Ukyou quickly realized the
danger imminent and did the only thing should could think to do; carefully she
moved her hand back until her fingers coiled around the grip of her spatula.
As soon as her hand came into contact with her weapon the invisible creature
quickly raised its own hand above its head, a long metallic spear with
wicked-looking barbs on its ends appearing out of nowhere, and was preparing to
dispatch her with a swift motion of the arm. Ukyou felt as though her heart had
stopped beating -- there was no way she would be able to deflect a blow from
such a large weapon in time.
    Suddenly the entire train came to a harsh and sudden stop, throwing
everyone and everything off their feet.  Passengers slid back and crashed into
one another, and Ukyou was tossed backwards along with the cloaked creature.
Lights went out all over the train and with a final loud screeching of metal
against metal the entire train completely ceased to move.
    Ukyou had taken a nasty hit to the head from the rear wall, but that was
far preferable to whatever the anomaly had been planning on doing.  The pain
above and around her neck was  strong, but she knew that she would have to
ignore it and find some kind of defensive position.  Without warning a hand
grasped her wrist, startling her and prompting her to involuntarily cry out.
Another hand quickly slapped across her mouth.
    "Ssh!!  Be quiet and come on!"
    Ryouga quickly led Ukyou across the groaning masses of passengers and found
an exit.  Fortunately the emergency break switch he had pulled also released
all the door locks, and the two slipped out of the train without drawing any
extra attention to themselves.
    Before them lay a few miles of open grass, and just beyond that the lights
of Nerima's outskirts.  Ryouga, checking to see if Ukyou was okay, promptly set
her in front of him and had her lead the way to someplace safe.  As the twosome
ran through the tall grass Ryouga handed Ukyou one of his bandanas so that she
could wipe away the clotting blood on her chin and the fresh cut she got along
her arm from the sudden stop of the train.
    "Do you hear anything following us?" she asked.
    "I can't tell," said Ryouga, "the wind's blowing the grass around too much.
I don't see anything behind us, though."  To make sure Ryouga was right Ukyou
looked back; all that was visible were the faint lights coming back on in the
train.
    "What the hell WAS that thing?  Have you and Ran-chan fought it before?"
    "I've never seen anything like that before in my life!  Whatever it was it
sure wants one of us badly."
    "ONE of us?  It looked like it wanted to gut BOTH of us!"
    The chilly night air blew about them as they ran under the bright glow of
the moon, two sprinting silhouettes against a deep navy blue backdrop sprinkled
with stars.  Eventually the two completed their journey through the grass and
made it into the dark, empty streets of Nerima's outermost limits.  Ukyou and
Ryouga quickly looked about, but nothing threatening seemed to be in sight.  It
appeared that they had eluded whatever it was that had tried to kill them on
the train.
    Ukyou pointed to the southwest.  "Ran-chan's house is about seven or eight
blocks thataway.  We can go there, maybe he knows something about that...
whatever-it-is."
    Ryouga nodded in agreement while clenching his fist in anger. That fool
Ranma!  This was all probably HIS fault.  Somehow he had unleashed yet another
incarnation of evil upon the earth and now it was left to everyone else to pick
up the pieces.  He was getting pretty fed up with all these silly monsters...
    After a couple of seconds Ryouga discovered that Ukyou had already begun to
run ahead of him and quickly sprinted to catch up.  The two ran down the
streets and around a few corners, when Ryouga suddenly got the strange feeling
that something just didn't feel... right.
    "Hold it!" he called out as he stopped running.
    Ukyou stopped in her tracks and looked back at him with some annoyance.
"What is it?  We're almost there."  Her annoyance dissipated quickly when she
saw the look of caution on his face; obviously he had noticed something that
she had not.
    "Something's following us..."
    Ukyou carefully scanned up and down the street -- other than a few scraps
of paper drifting in the wind there was nothing on the dark moonlit asphalt.  A
few cars could be heard in the distance, but that was the sole extent of the
noise as well. "Are you sure you saw something?"
    "I didn't 'see' ANYTHING.  I just know something's out there."
    Ukyou began to get nervous.  Ryouga was a more experienced fighter than she
was, his sense of danger was probably far more acute than hers.  She took a
hold of his arm and tugged him along with her.  "Let's get moving.  Ran-chan
lives right down this street."
    Ukyou turned about and the second her foot touched ground she also knew
something was not right.  A high-pitched whine, much like the sound of a camera
flash recharging itself, drifted through the chilled air.  Ukyou pursed her
lips and looked about the empty Nerima streets but couldn't locate the source
of the sound.
    Three red dots.  Ukyou suddenly saw three brightly lit red dots shaped into
a triangular pattern on Ryouga's yellow shirt.  And she didn't think that the
fact they were placed right above his heart was a simple coincidence.
    With as much strength as she could muster Ukyou jerked Ryouga to the side
just as a burst of fire flew forward, passing right through the spot where
Ryouga's chest had been a moment before and striking the ground behind them
with explosive force.  The power of the blast combined with the momentum from
Ukyou's swing sent the two flying into the alley next to them, Ryouga crashing
into a garbage can and Ukyou rolling through a pile of cardboard boxes lining a
wall.
    Ryouga, shaking the trash off his head, leapt to his feet and looked at
their surroundings -- a dismal alleyway lined on both sides by buildings and
closed off at the far end by a brick wall. Ukyou was quickly digging herself
out of the boxes and looked at Ryouga when she finally unearthed herself.
    "I guess we didn't lose that thing after all..."  With one swift motion she
reached back and unsheathed her large spatula, holding it in a defensive stance
before her body.  Ryouga had left his umbrella along with his backpack on the
train, so he was forced to rely on defense without a weapon.  The two moved
back- to-back and vigilantly began to walk out of the alley, slowly and
watching every angle for any chance of a surprise attack.  Around them was the
ever-present silence of the street, still giving no indication of life but no
longer providing any sort of comfort.
    A small crack.  Ryouga and Ukyou both looked upward at the source of the
sound, but nothing was there.  Just the brick building, bits of the stone
border lining the roof crumbling from old age.  Something moved.  Ryouga
squinted carefully, but nothing was there.  Just the wall.
    "No," he thought to himself, "Something's there..."
    Whatever it was it was looking right back at him.
 
    It hung from the wall with the ease of a spider.  Its strong fingers
accompanied by the training of a lifetime enabled it to scale most surfaces
with absolutely no difficulty.  Below it stood the two targets, back-to-back,
one wielding her large metal weapon, the other holding nothing but its own
fists.  They knew it was here, but it didn't care : the sport is so much more
satisfying if your Prey knows you're out there.  They were agitated, afraid,
all evident by their heightened body temperatures, their strong breathing,
their rapid heart beats.  They were fast : most other humans would have been
torn in half by the blast of a pulse cannon, wouldn't have been able to dodge
with such skill.  They were strong : even after repeated blows to the head the
female continued to stand, even run full speed alongside the male without
stopping for the entire distance to this city.  Now it was time to test their
skill.
    It dropped from the wall above the humans, who leapt in opposite directions
to avoid being hit.  One human must be corralled in the alley.  This way at
least one would be unable to escape, and if they were both mates the other
would refuse to leave without the first.  The male was trapped between it and
the dead-end of the passageway, no place to run or hide.  With a quick flick of
the arm twin blades snapped from the holsters on its wrists.
 
    Ryouga looked at the creature before him with bristling defiance.  It
appeared even larger this close up when compared with its presence on the
train, at least seven feet tall.  It scared him to death, surprising
considering how many dangers he had faced in his life, but he would be damned
if he let it see fear.  Ryouga had to keep squinting to see it clearly; it was
nearly invisible, except for the distortion of the terrain behind it which
appeared warped and twisted.  The darkness of night was not helping his view,
either, but at least the two sets of gleaming metal blades that had just
appeared from its wrists weren't hidden along with the rest of the creature.
The monster took a step towards Ryouga, and Ryouga refused to let it take
another. Quickly he punched forward at where he hoped would be the stomach.
 
    The human threw a punch at it.  The Hunter blocked his fist with its own
and was surprised to discover how strong the human was.  For his size he
carried considerable power; the force of the punch alone was probably enough to
shatter a cinderblock wall.  But not enough to overpower it.  No human can ever
overcome one of its kind with mere physical strength.
 
    In the blink of an eye the monster grabbed Ryouga's moving fist and was
pushed back, the ground beneath its feet tearing up slightly upon contact.
Unfortunately that was the extent of damage inflicted.  The creature responded
by closing its fist around Ryouga's and applying pressure; Ryouga winced as a
sharp pain ran up his arm and through his shoulder.  With the back of its hand
raised high the creature belted him across the face sending him flying into the
brick dead-end wall.  A loud crash and the wall caved in slightly, Ryouga
sliding five-feet down its side and slumping dazedly to the ground.  The
monster slowly walked up to the prone fighter, invisible fingers gripping
tightly around his neck.  Through the swollen left side of his face Ryouga
could see the glistening metal of long serrated blades on its arm.  The arm
raised up, preparing to cleave him in half.
    With a CLANG the monster was slammed to one side as a large flat sheet of
metal struck it upside the head.  It lost its grip on Ryouga, dropping him back
to the ground with a dull thud.  The monster rolled across the ground and
promptly righted itself, looking at its attacker.  Ukyou stood sternly between
it and Ryouga, spatula gripped and ready for anything.
    "Now you've got me to deal with, you... THING!"  Ukyou moved back a little
bit, trying to catch a glimpse of Ryouga from the corner of her eye. "Are you
alright?  Ryouga?!"  Ryouga was trying to get to his feet, his neck red from
being held so tight and seemingly unable to speak at the moment, but he nodded
his head weakly in confirmation that he was still in one piece.  Ukyou fully
redirected her attention back to the camouflaged monstrosity.  The dim light
from the streetlight beyond the alley provided an eerie glow to the narrow back
street, drowning most of the byway with shadow.  Ukyou could barely see the
monster, having to refocus on its image with every blink of her eyes.  Could it
see her with the same clarity? she wondered...
    Ukyou made her move, charging at the huge creature with spatula in hand.
With a twirl of the arm she took a swipe at it, a blow which it rapidly
deflected with the serrated claws on its left wrist.  Amidst a rain of sparks
it retaliated with a long slash with the sharp blades on its right wrist.
Ukyou leapt upward and dodged the strike, flipping over it and struck it in the
head with her weapon.  The monster staggered forward, but the blow had had less
effect on it than Ukyou had anticipated; before she could touch ground the
monster had spun around and delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to her back.
Ukyou's landing was less than perfect as she hit the ground hard with her
chest, knocking the wind out of her.  The monster had fully whirled about now
and was standing over her when Ryouga took the opportunity to take a hold of
both its arms and initiate a lock behind its back.
    "RUN!!" he cried out to her. "Get out of here!"
    Even if she had wanted to leave him to fight this thing alone Ukyou found
standing to be very difficult.  The blow to her back had done something to her
legs, left her weak.  Quickly she propped her spatula up under her and pulled
herself up, trying to get a foothold on the ground.  In the meantime Ryouga was
using every ounce of strength he had to keep the creature's arms held behind
it.  This monstrosity was incredibly strong and if it continued to thrash about
it would break his grip any second.  Ukyou, finally able to get to her feet,
reared back with her spatula and prepared to smash the creature in the head.
    With no warning at all Ryouga's grip was broken and the spatula was
violently sliced in half by the monster's arm blades. The cutting force knocked
Ukyou off her feet and she was thrown back into the building's wall before the
clattering of metal came from the ground of the alley.  A triad of red dots
appeared on her shirt.  The monster prepared to fire.
    Ryouga rammed into it with all his might.  The monster lost its tracking
and misfired, sending a burst of white flame into the upper echelons of the
western-most building.  The sounds of piping being sheared by the discharge
rang out.
    There was no way he could avoid the next attack; the monster was
unbelievably fast for its size.  It swung its fist back, too far away for skin
to strike skin, but close enough for the blades to meet instead.  Ryouga
grimaced as two lacerations formed across his face, not deep enough to do any
real harm but just enough to force him away and cause intense pain.
    As he stumbled back the invisible creature snagged Ryouga by his hair and
lifted him from the ground.
    Piping exploded.  A haze of water began to fall throughout the alley.
    Before Ryouga could even put his arms up to block the distortion drove its
clawed arm forward.
    Water drenched the two.
 
    The Hunter's blades struck the wall before it and nearly plowed all the way
through the brick.  Something had happened.  It wasn't sure how, but its Prey
had vanished from its hand just before striking.  It looked around quickly.
The female was still lain against the wall, breathing erratically, but the male
had disappeared from the alley.  It carefully listened.  A heartbeat. Yes,
there was another heartbeat.  But something was wrong; it moved much faster
than a human heart, like that of a small animal.  But there were no heat
signatures in the alleyway -- no, wait.  There, at its feet.  The Hunter looked
down and was surprised to see a small animal, a mammal of some sort.  The
Hunter bent down and scrutinized the creature carefully.  It was injured
somehow, bearing two scars across its face and a number of bruise injuries,
much like the Target's.
    A strange coincidence.  The pig looked back at it with a mixture of fear
and anger, also strange since the Hunter had done nothing to it.  After all, it
would never have harmed something so small and defenseless in the first place.
    The female, however, was another story.  It looked back at her pattern of
reds and yellows and oranges, placed upon the blue hue of the background.  Her
heartbeat was faster, her body temperature higher; she was truly afraid.  It
looked down at the damp ground; her halved weapon lay before its feet.  Back at
the human woman.  She had not moved, probably due to the blow to her spinal
area.  She would be no more trouble.  Instead, she would be its first Trophy of
the Hunt.
 
    Ukyou tried to grip the wall behind her, tried to pull herself back up.  It
was getting harder and harder to stand.  The distortion had missed Ryouga the
second he transformed into P-Chan, and seemed confused by the sudden absence of
its prey.  Ryouga was safe, for the moment at least, but its attention was now
directed solely at her.  Slowly it walked towards Ukyou, and slowly she was
able to make it back up, although the walls slick from water were not helping
her move at all.
    A spark flashed before her.  And another.  They were coming from the
monster.  The monster seemed surprised by this as well.  As the water from the
pipes drenched them both more and more sparks flew from the creature's body.
    Suddenly a solid image appeared before her.  It vanished for a second, then
reappeared.  With each electrical surge across the body more and more of it
became visible, yet the flickering between visibility and invisibility was more
difficult to watch than its completely distorted state.  The monster seemed to
have had enough of its inability to remain unseen and tapped a switch on its
wrist.  A beep acknowledged the command and the once- invisible monster became
completely discernible.
    Ukyou couldn't hold back a gasp at the sight of it.  It was just as tall as
she thought, towering over two feet above her, its body a mess of tight,
powerful muscles.  The skin was a pale brownish-yellow, small dark spots lacing
various parts of its body.  The silvery blades on its wrists revealed their
invisible holsters, brown gauntlets of metal on both arms.  Its shoulders,
shins, knees and groin were protected by black armor, kind of weird looking
since the most vulnerable part of its body, the chest cavity, was left
completely bare except for a thin netting and adorned only by a necklace of
teeth strung tightly together.  The only visible parts of its head were thick
black strands, what Ukyou assumed was hair, the rest of the head sealed in a
brown metal helmet; buried within the helmet were two dark slits that formed
the eyepieces.
    "My God... What ARE you?"
    The eyeslits simply looked at her in silent response.  Ukyou's fingers
desperately dug into the wall.  She HAD to do something quick.  Ryouga was in
no condition to help her, and her weapon of choice was lying on the ground in
two useless pieces.  She thoroughly regretted not bringing her small throwing
spatulas, but looking at the monster before her they probably wouldn't have
done more than annoy it anyway.
    Annoy it.  That was the only option left.  She had no more means of attack,
and she wasn't just going to let it cut her to ribbons.  She reached into her
shirt and grabbed a small bag of flour, then hefted it at the monster's face.
 
    Everything went black.  The female threw something at it just as the Hunter
was closing in for the kill, silencing all the heat sources in its field of
vision and effectively blinding it.  Why hadn't it detected the packed weapon
before she used it?  No matter, it had to get the substance off its visor or
the Prey would escape.  It thrashed about quickly, hoping to randomly strike
the target before she could disappear like her mate.  It felt something clip
the end of its blade but wasn't certain how much damage had been inflicted, if
any at all; for all it knew it had merely struck the wall once more.  The
still-falling water from the sky was cleansing its visor of the substance,
slowly the heat signatures began to return to it.  It looked about.
Nothing.  No life signs.  No human female.  No Trophy.  Not even the little pig
remained in the alley.  It listened carefully, hoping to catch noise in the
air.  Still nothing.  They were either staying completely still or had traveled
out of range.
    The Prey had escaped.
    The Hunter clenched its hand into a tight fist and punched at the wall in
anger, pulverizing the bricks into small particles of crumbling dust.  It
raised its head high and let out a cry of fury, bellowing to the night sky in a
ferocious howl.
 
    Akane was startled into waking.  What was THAT?  She was certain she had
heard something, like the roar of a lion.  But it was so full of raw anger.
    Lifting her covers back she slid out of bed and looked through the drapes
of her window.  There was no telling where the cry came from, it echoed all
over the district.  A few lights from neighboring houses had gone on; evidently
others had heard the noise as well.  Akane stepped away from the window and
exited her room.  If anyone in the house was awake they hadn't turned their
lights on, yet.
    Some clanking came from downstairs, accompanied by the sound of running
water.  Someone had been woken up after all... Akane descended the staircase
and headed for the source of the clatter, the kitchen.  A cold breeze whipped
across her shoulder and bare face.  Akane looked to her left and noticed that
the front door was slightly open, blowing back and forth in the gentle wind.
    Burglars!  Akane quickly looked around the dark living room but couldn't
see anything usable as an offensive weapon.  No problem, regardless of the
constant insults hurtled from Ranma belittling her fighting abilities she
considered herself perfectly capable of ousting some petty thieves.  Carefully
she tip-toed to the kitchen entrance and looked inside.  The lights were still
out, but the outlines of two figures could plainly be seen in the pale
moonlight piercing the window.  Whoever they were they certainly weren't very
good burglars -- the noise they were making would probably wake the dead.  Any
minute now her father and the others would be down here wondering what was
causing all the commotion.  All the more reason to dispatch the prowlers
herself : this way Ranma would have to eat his nasty words regarding her
prowess in kenpo.  Akane readied herself, slowly reaching in to turn on the
lights and then take them by surprise...
    The lights went on.
    Ryouga looked back at her.  "Akane-san!"
    Akane was shocked to see a battered Ryouga and Ukyou in her kitchen and ran
up to the two, looking them over carefully.  Ryouga was wearing nothing but a
towel around his waist and his trademark yellow and black bandana across his
forehead.  His body was covered in bruises, especially a large one around his
neck in the shape of a huge hand.  Across his face were a couple of long scars,
still fresh judging from the blood.  He was kneeling over a seated Ukyou,
cleaning off her injuries with warm sink water.  Ukyou was in apparently much
worse condition : her chin was slightly split and there was a long cut across
her arm, although these injuries seemed to have closed up at the moment.  The
most noticeable cut was the one along her side, where the appendix was supposed
to be.  The towels Ryouga had used to absorb the blood were almost saturated,
but even hidden beneath the cloth the wound was obviously a mess and would need
treatment immediately.
    "UKYOU!  RYOUGA-KUN!  What happened?!!"  She began to look over Ukyou : she
was practically unconscious, mumbling a little bit to herself in delirium, eyes
staring blankly to the ceiling.  Ranma, Genma and the rest of the Tendos
suddenly entered the room and caught sight of the injured pair.
    "HOLY SHIT!!  _UK-CHAN_!!!"  Ranma ran up to his friend and, shoving Ryouga
out of the way, checked her for all signs of injury.  "Someone call a doctor!!"
    Kasumi was already on the phone before Ranma had finished his sentence.
After a couple of minutes of talking she hung up the phone and returned to the
family.  "An ambulance will be here soon," she announced, "And Doctor Tofu will
be here in a minute as well."
    Kasumi and Nabiki quickly left for the bathroom and returned with some more
towels, a wooden water bucket and a bathrobe for Ryouga.  Soun and Akane
checked Ryouga's injuries while Genma and Ranma were making sure Ukyou's blood
loss stayed at minimal levels.  Shortly afterward the sounds of a car's
screeching tires was heard outside, accompanied by the opening of the front
gate and the swish of the front door.  Doctor Tofu ran into the kitchen, a
small medical kit in hand, and without even acknowledging the Tendos he moved
in next to Ukyou.
    "What happened to her?" he asked without taking an eye off his patient.
    Ranma looked at Ukyou with intense concern, then at Ryouga.  "What DID
happen?" he asked, anger practically spilling through his voice.
    Ryouga shook his head.  "We were attacked by... something.  A ghost, some
kind of demon, I don't know.  It sliced her across the chest when we tried to
escape.  Whatever the hell it was it nearly killed both of us."
    Tofu opened his medical kit and pulled out a pair of scissors. "It may
still have succeeded with her.  I'll need all of you to leave.  Except you
Kasumi, I'll need your help to keep her stable.  Mr. Tendo, when the ambulance
arrives send them in here quick, tell them she may need an immediate
appendectomy."  Tofu began to cut off Ukyou's shirt around the area of injury,
making sure not to remove any of the towels sealing her wound.  Kasumi calmly
stood by him, ready to help him with whatever he needed.  Amidst this tragedy
Akane couldn't help but feel surprised that Doctor Tofu was not suffering from
his usual affliction of lightheadedness in the presence of her eldest sister;
apparently he was quite capable of staying totally professional when dire needs
arose.  She felt a light tug on her arm and quickly noticed that her father was
trying to get her to leave the room as ordered.  Ranma needed a little more
prodding, but some reassuring words from Kasumi were enough to convince him to
leave them to their work.
    The Tendos watched Tofu from down the hallway while Ranma maneuvered Ryouga
into the unlit corner of the living room. "Alright Ryouga, what did that to
her?"  His voice was deadly serious.
    "I was hoping you'd know..."  Ryouga laid out the entire story to Ranma,
hoping that a description of the monster's abilities and tactics might jog his
memory, but Ranma drew nothing except a blank.
    "So whatever this thing is neither of us has ever had any contact with it
before this."  Ranma turned and scratched his chin in thought.  An invisible
monster stronger than Ryouga and powerful enough to defeat him and Ukyou at the
same time.  Ranma wasn't about to miss the fact that it had singled them both
out, either, following them all the way from the train into Nerima.  "And it
became visible after it became wet?"
    "Right, but I don't think it had anything to do with Jhusenkyou.  If the
attack was related to our being cursed it would have probably recognized me
when I turned into P-Chan."  Ryouga lightly scratched at the itching bandages
on his face, wincing as his fingers ran across the covered lacerations.  They
would eventually heal without any real scars if he could get some stitches, but
the injury would sting for quite some time regardless.  It would have to wait;
this creature took first priority over his own problems.  Especially after what
it did to Ukyou.
    Ranma turned back to Ryouga, his brow knit together in assertion.  "We'll
have to head out and try to locate that thing tonight.  If it IS after you two
it might find you in the hospital and then Uk-chan would really be in some
danger."
    Akane walked up to the two of them.  The dim lights from outside the room
gave her an almost-golden silhouette in the near-black room.  She looked at
Ryouga with some concern, noting the still-swollen state of the side of his
face.  "How are you feeling, Ryouga-kun?  Any better?"
    Ryouga quickly dropped his stern demeanor and gave Akane a strong look of
confidence, as though he didn't have a care in the world. "No sweat, Akane-san.
This'll heal over in no time."
    Akane smiled at Ryouga (who blushed as red as a beet in response), then
turned her attention to Ranma.  "What are we going to do about this monster?"
she asked.
    "I'M going with Pop, Mr. Tendo and Ryouga to go find it and take it down.
YOU'RE going to stay here with your sisters."
    Akane frowned in protest.  "Why shouldn't I go along with you?  _I_ can
fight, too!"
    "You?  Fight?!"  Ranma scoffed at this comment. "You'd just end up getting
yourself hurt."
    "What?!  But--!"
    "You're not going!"
    Akane threw a scowl Ranma's way and was about to continue her protest when
a thought hit her.  "Wait a second.  Are you actually _worried_ about me?"
    Ranma nearly fell backward at this comment, out of embarrassment or out of
exasperation she couldn't tell.  Akane smiled in amusement.  "Ah-HAH!  I knew
it!"
    Ranma turned the same shade Ryouga had before, trying to quickly come up
with some form of retort.  He chided himself on the inside; he had blindly
walked right into that one.  "What?!!" he finally blurted out, "N-no, I--"
    Ryouga interrupted Ranma by walking up to Akane and looking at her with
intense concern.  "Akane-san, as much an idiot as Ranma is..."
    "HEY!"
    Ryouga continued as though Ranma hadn't made a sound.  "...he's also right
not to want you to come with us.  This thing is EXTREMELY dangerous, and it's
going to take the four of us to fight it.  Instead, I want you to go to the
hospital and stay with Ukyou.  Make sure she's got somebody there watching
her."
    "Ryouga-kun..."
    Akane was cut off as the sounds of sirens rang throughout the block.  A
team of doctors were in the house within a matter of seconds and were checking
out Ukyou's condition while talking to Tofu.  In a short time they had her on a
stretcher and were wheeling her out the door.  Akane looked at the doctors,
then back at Ryouga and Ranma apprehensively.  Ranma, to her surprise, smiled
at her in a way that somehow told her not to worry.  Slowly she stepped out of
the living room and, looking back at the twosome one more time, ran upstairs to
grab a change of clothing, telling Doctor Tofu to wait for her before driving
back to the hospital.  Less than a minute later they were gone slightly behind
the emergency team.
    Ranma and Ryouga exchanged glances, warriors preparing to face a difficult
enemy, a common foe.  As much tragedy as the monster had caused already the
couldn't help but grin a little in the face of such a challenge.  Soun and
Genma also entered the room, the bleak shadows blanketing them as well.
"Alright," exclaimed Ranma, "Let's get this thing."
 
-------------------------End  -  Step  One-----------------------
 

                     Step  Two  -  Alternative  Targets
 
    After driving its fist furiously into the wall a couple more times the
Hunter calmed down.  Yes, the Prey was gone.  But there were others that would
still suffice, that could be used to bait the master Target.  The records on
its intended Quarry indicated others that it held under its wing, as well as
where to find them.  Coming across the first two so quickly was simply a matter
of incredible luck; originally it had intended to locate their dwellings and
dispense with them there.  Exactly which one of these dwellings the main Target
resided at was unknown, but the Hunter was certain that one of them was the
right place.  Stepping out of the shadowed sidestreet and onto the dry road,
dimly illuminated by the single streetlight, it tapped its wrist- mounted
controls a couple of times and with a silent hum the alien blended back into
the darkness of the night and climbed to the housetops above, leaping from
roof-to-roof to its next selection of Game.
 
    Mousse looked out the door into the chill of the evening, trying to figure
out what had produced the bellowing noise that had slightly rattled the
Nekohanten windows a few minutes before. It sounded like it had come from four
or five blocks across town, but it hadn't been loud enough to alert anyone
nearby.  Mousse shrugged to himself and shivered a little bit as the cold wind
blew across his bare chest, brushing his black Chinese pants against his legs.
Quickly he stepped back into the Nekohanten and shut and locked the door behind
him, then shut off the lights and began to head to his room upstairs while
pocketing his glasses.  Damn that old woman, making him stay up to scrub the
entire kitchen with a toothbrush!  His darling Shampoo was already fast asleep,
had been for a couple of hours now, so he couldn't go and chat with her as he
had planned earlier in the night.  He saw the little ghoul's twisted reasoning
behind the over-abundance of chorework, he supposed : she had left for the
evening to visit some neighbors and didn't want him to be around the lovely
Shampoo without her presence to keep the two apart.  Mousse shivered even more,
this time out of disgust;  when he would finally win Shampoo's heart and have
her as his wife that would mean that Cologne would become his...
grandmother-in-law.  Yech!  He hoped she wouldn't be so unnerving after they
were related.
    As he climbed the stairs a noise, some kind of a heavy thud, caught his
ear.  Mousse looked upward to the ceiling, the source of the sound.  Curious,
he passed his room and continued up the staircase to the entrance leading onto
the roof.  Cautiously he looked out, but all he could see was a single dark
blur matted together with alternating patterns of light and dark.  Mousse
pursed his lips in annoyance and extracted his glasses, resting the metal
framework on his nose.  The world before him zoomed into focus and he took
another look about.  No, nothing was out there. Mousse stepped out onto the
roof and looked behind the radiator and mini-shed, but there still wasn't a
sign of life. Dismissively, Mousse scratched his head and turned about.
    And nearly suffered a mild heart attack when Shampoo hollered out "BOO!!"
as loud as she could into his ear.
    "Aaaaagh!!"  Mousse tripped back and clutched at his chest,  his glasses
slipping off his nose as he stumbled and clattering to the ground.  Getting
down on his knees Mousse desperately fumbled about trying to find them; they
were too thick to be damaged from such a short fall, but he preferred to have
them safe in hand, just in case.  "Don't do that!" he said as he groped about.
    Shampoo, wearing a legless set of pink Chinese pajamas, picked up the
glasses with her toes and took them in hand, looking at Mousse with utter
contempt.  What a hapless idiot, on his hands and knees like some ridiculous
animal.  "What the hell are you doing out here?" she asked him in an irritated
Cantonese.
    Mousse looked up at her (or more accurately in her general direction).  "I
thought I heard something," he said, "Somewhere out here."  He gave up looking
for his glasses at the moment and looked about once again.  He could at least
discern the differences in light, the brightness of the moonlight casting a
luminescent glow across the rooftops.
    Shampoo looked about as well, a mark of vigilance lightly crossing her
face.  She had heard the noise, too, and at first she thought that it had
solely been Mousse goofing around up on the roof doing who-knew-what.  But he
had noticed something as well, and as big a fool as he was he had an
exceptional battle- sense.  There didn't seem to be anything out on the
rooftop, but Shampoo decided to give Mousse the benefit of the doubt and
checked around for signs of life.  No, after a couple of minutes she found
absolutely nothing.  The Chinese warrior-woman frowned sourly at Mousse, who
had gone back to searching for his glasses. Her pajamas weren't made to keep
out the cold of the open air, and thanks to him goosebumps were now covering
her arms and legs.
    Shampoo decided that an adequate punishment to the blind moron would be to
lock him out on the roof without his glasses.  Mousse looked up in confusion as
the sound of a closing door accompanied by the click of a lock snagged his ear.
"Shampoo?  Shampoo, my sweet, where are you?"
    Ah, a distinct improvement over the chill of the outside.  Shampoo
descended the wooden staircase while examining the thick pair of glasses held
in her hand, a small ray from the streetlight outside shining in through the
window in Mousse's room providing a thin beam of yellow to the empty
second-floor hallway.  Stopping a bit short of her door she decided to satisfy
a mild curiosity that had been lingering in her mind for quite some time and
put the glasses on, trying to get an idea of what it must be like to look
through his eyes.  As soon as the glasses touched her nose Shampoo nearly
toppled over at the incredible haziness enveloping her.  She held her hand up
before her face; it was almost completely unrecognizable.  The entire hallway
was totally unfamiliar to her, nothing but a mashed blur of color and light.
    Except one thing.
    One thing that startled Shampoo so much she nearly cried out in surprise.
Resisting the temptation she firmly held her mouth shut as she fully absorbed
the image of the humongous monstrosity standing before her, at least seven feet
in height, wearing bits of armor across its muscular body and sporting what may
have either been its head or possibly even a helmet of some sort upon its broad
shoulders.  The creature was less than a foot away from her and looked at her
curiously, as though something had surprised it equally in turn.  One thing
shot through her mind immediately : she had to get some space between herself
and the thing, make enough room to fight.  Slowly she reached back for the
doorknob leading to her room.
    The second her hand flexed the creature moved at her, swiftly grabbing her
opposite wrist and lifting her off the ground as though she were a rag doll.
Shampoo desperately tried to pry the fingers loose but the grip was like iron;
_already_ her hand had began to grow numb.  The monster just looked her over
curiously, like an entomologist studying an interesting butterfly, ignoring her
attempts to remove its hand.  Shampoo quickly decided to forget the vise-like
grip and instead tried to redirect its attention to something else.  Twisting
her body a bit to the side she pulled in her leg and delivered a strong kick to
its sternum. With a loud growl the monster staggered back, the breath knocked
out of its lungs, and slightly loosened its hold on her wrist.  As fast as she
could Shampoo slipped out her hand and dove between its legs, running down the
hall and leaping down all the stairs at once.  Unfortunately she was still
wearing Mousse's glasses and misjudged the distance down, landing improperly on
her ankle and twisting it on impact.
    As she fell forward to the floor she felt something whip across the tip of
her hair accompanied by the strong sound of tearing and splintering wood.
Quickly she rolled to her feet, ignoring the sharp pain in her leg and saw the
monstrosity right behind her, removing a set of claws on its wrist from a blur
that must have been the wall.  The thing looked at her once more and advanced
on her slowly, forcing her to slowly step back, arms poised ready to defend or
attack.  Shampoo was beginning to get dizzy from the intense haziness around
her; aside from the huge crystal-clear monster walking towards her the entire
Nekohanten was nothing but a blurry mess.  Shampoo quickly pulled the glasses
off her face.
    The entire cafe came back into focus, although it was still a bit foggy as
her eyes tried to adjust to the return of her normal vision.  Something was
missing.  Shampoo looked about confused... Where had the demon gone?  It was
standing right in front of her the second before.  Shampoo frowned pensively --
"Did I imagine the entire thing?" she asked herself out loud.  As she scanned
the restaurant she was answered with a quick no.  The support to the open wall
that separated the kitchen from the dining area was cleaved in half, just where
the monster had struck it.  Shampoo shook her head quickly, trying to get her
vision to adjust properly once more.  The rest of the cafe had come into focus,
but the spot right before seemed awfully distorted...
    Shampoo caught a glimmer of silver reflecting in the streetlight coming
through the front window, something shaped like a serrated claw.  She caught on
immediately.  The monster was invisible.
    As fast as she could Shampoo leaped back over the tables into the far
corner of the Nekohanten.  The tables that were between her and where the
monster had been last began to tear apart one- by-one as the unseen force
plowed through them to get to her.  Shampoo grimaced a little as she landed,
the pain in her leg stabbing at her again.  She ignored it; her years of
fighting had made her very pain-tolerant, something as minor as a sprained
ankle would hurt but wouldn't slow her down in the slightest.  The metal claws
were quite clear to her vision now as the distortion that had blocked her
vision before moved at her, only a couple of tables away now, only visible by
the distortion it created and the long claws sticking out of empty space.
Shampoo quickly put the glasses back on; it would restrict her movement about
the shop a bit but at least she'd be able to see her opponent.  Sure enough,
the Nekohanten practically vanished and the yellow-brown creature was before
her once more.
    It had a new weapon in its hand this time, some small disk-shaped device
with a series of small flashing lights along the finger holes the monster
gripped with.  The outer edge of the disk was lined with a rather sharp-looking
blade.  Shampoo waited until the creature was within a few feet of her,
preparing to make her strike.
    She took her shot as the creature swung at her with the rounded
razor-blade.  It was fast, but she had always prided herself on being faster.
She quickly dropped to the ground as the blade flew past where her head had
been and propping herself on one hand she threw all her weight upward in a
handstand and slammed her heel into what she hoped would be the solarplexus.
The thing toppled back with a howl and was barely able to regain its footing
when Shampoo flipped upward and delivered a roundhouse to the kidney area
before she landed on the ground.  Unfortunately the creature's arm was in the
way and provided adequate cushioning to the blow.  Before she could try for a
foot sweep a backhanded fist struck her across the forehead and slammed her
across the dining area through the open serving area into the kitchen beyond,
where she crashed into a series of cabinets and finally dropped to the ground,
pieces of the cabinet sprinkling her backside as she landed hard on the tiled
floor.
    Shampoo coughed and wheezed a bit, her lungs completely relieved of their
air supply.  She quickly discovered that the glasses were no longer on her
face, instead strewn about on the ground before her in shattered pieces.  The
creature would be undetectable once more.  Checking herself for injuries and
finding little more than a number of bruises and a minor laceration across her
forehead she quickly forced herself to her feet and slipped as quietly as she
could into the back storeroom.
    The storeroom was incredibly dark, not a beam of light coming in from
anywhere except the faint glow shed from the open door. Actually the storeroom
was simply the neighboring building attached to the back of the Nekohanten from
the opposite street, and since no one had made claim to it since Shampoo and
her grandmother had moved into the store property Cologne and a number of other
people in the neighborhood had decided to take advantage of the two-story open
space and store all their crates and other items of luggage in it.  A thin
layer of dust covered the floor and large boxes filling the room, a stale smell
hanging in the air.  Shampoo grabbed a flashlight from out of one of the
kitchen drawers, then silently stepped into the storeroom and shut and locked
the door behind her.  The entire room went totally black but was quickly relit
with a thin beam of white as Shampoo flicked on the flashlight.
    A doorway was positioned on the far wall, boarded up and probably locked
from the outside.  "No problem," Shampoo thought to herself, "I'll just smash
it open and slip out of here in no time."  If she could get out of the building
she would be able to reach higher ground, prepare some kind of trap and weaken
the monster enough to overpower it.  Shampoo weaved through the towers of boxes
towards the door.
    The dust on the floor suddenly shook beneath her feet, a loud cracking
sound bouncing off of the cold stone walls of the storeroom.  Without looking
back Shampoo dropped to ground and backed up to a box, shutting off her
flashlight and drawing from her pajamas a quartet of small sharp throwing
blades.  A second cracking sound rang out, this time much louder, and the faint
glow of a streetlight changed the room from solid black to a dark gray, vague
outlines of crates and the glow of floating dust taking their place before her
eyes.  It was in the storeroom with her.
    The weak light wasn't much of an improvement, but as long as she had
difficulty seeing so would her opponent.  Shampoo kept her head low and
silently crept among the boxes to the exit, trying to follow the path she set
in her memory.  As she slipped through the translucent screen of dust she was
surprised at not hearing any form of sound, especially considering how well
honed her senses were.  Had the monster gone in after her?  Slowly she decided
to take a peek at the surroundings and stuck her head out from behind one of
the boxes.
    Nothing was there.  Only the door to the Nekohanten, ripped open and barely
hanging on its hinges, was in view.  Nothing appeared to be walking among the
boxes, and something so large couldn't possibly be capable of skulking about
without making any noise : the boxes were stacked too close together for it to
maneuver between without pushing them aside.  Shampoo looked at the visible box
lids.  Not one of them showed sign of footprints or looked as though some
invisible weight were standing upon them.  Apparently nothing had entered the
storeroom.  Shampoo decided not to take any chances; for all she knew it was
standing in the doorway and she simply couldn't see it.  She ducked back down
and began to continue her trek to the door leading outside.
    "...gut BOTH of us..."
    Shampoo froze in place.  Her heart nearly shot out of her chest in fright
at hearing the words.  Quickly backing up to a crate, forgetting for a second
to be silent, she looked about rapidly from left to right, knives in hand.  A
pain, duller than the one in her ankle but strong nonetheless, shot across her
back.  The impact with the cabinets earlier was beginning to make itself felt;
in the morning she would have a bruise the size of a watermelon across her
shoulders.
    "...gut BOTH of us..."
    As vigilant as possible she looked at her surroundings again. Where was the
sound coming from?!
    "What ARE you?" reverberated off the walls.
    Shampoo began to notice something about the words as they echoed throughout
the large room.  No, it couldn't be... Why would SHE be here?
    The voice appeared once more.  "My GOD... What ARE you?"
    Shampoo knit her brow together and called out in a whisper. "Ukyou?  That
YOU?"
    "...wanted to gut BOTH of us..." was the response.
    It was Ukyou's voice.  Shampoo couldn't mistake it, she was sure.  But
something was wrong with it; it had a raspy, almost unnatural tone to it.
    Shampoo shivered as he realized it wasn't Ukyou.
    It terrified her.
    Suddenly what sounded like the activation of a vacuum cleaner hit her ears.
Instinct took a hold of Shampoo and she dropped to the ground as low as
possible.
    It had been a wise move.  The box she had used to shield her back tore
apart violently with a light spark as the image of a rounded blade cleaved
right through it.  As is flew through another couple of boxes the disk
mysteriously froze in mid-air, the vacuum-like hum still flowing from it, and
turned a complete 180 degrees, returning to its point of origin like a
futuristic boomerang.  Shampoo rolled onto her back and kippuped, watching the
circular blade intently as it flew to the ceiling and vanished amidst the metal
piping that lined the roof.
    "Aiya..."  The words escaped her mouth without her even realizing it.
    It was hanging from the pipes.
    Shampoo swallowed hard.  She couldn't see it but she knew it had to be
there.  Instantly taking blind aim the four small blades sailed through the air
with a hard flick of her wrist towards the spot the monster's weapon had
vanished.  Three were deflected with a light clang, either hitting the
creature's armor or being blocked she couldn't be sure.  She could be sure that
her fourth blade hit target, however; after the familiar "thut" of metal
piercing skin the dagger was floating in space, as though lodged in the air
itself. Something dripped from the point of impact, some kind of viscous,
glowing green liquid.  Not much, just a few drops.  But at least it was blood
of SOME sort.
    The knife suddenly dropped from the rafters to the crates below, but didn't
clatter on the wooden boxes as Shampoo had expected.  The crate below it caved
in, and the blade continued to hover in place.  Bits of wood were pushed aside
by a distorted, transparent hand, and a huge set of footprints threw up the
dust on the ground as they emerged from the wrecked crate. Shampoo slowly
backed away.  The distortion made no move to stop her.  A couple of low beeps
were heard.
    It stood before her, a monstrosity brought to life from out of thin air
against the dark background of the storeroom.  It looked at Shampoo; she could
swear it was almost with an air of amusement to it.  She looked at the blade
still embedded in its chest, right above where the human heart would have been.
With a large hand the creature wrapped its fingers about the thin metal blade's
hilt and drew it out sharply, a thin dribble of neon- green blood emerging from
the hole.  The monster didn't even flinch.
    As fast as she could Shampoo spun about and made a break for the blockaded
storeroom door.  Her eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness enough to make out
the silhouette of the sealed doorway clearly, but door or not she'd have to get
out of there.  If necessary she'd have to smash through the wall, although
without her large maces she would have to hope the walls didn't contain any
steel girders for the sake of her knuckles.
    Suddenly a sharp pain ran through her entire left leg, much stronger than
the bruises or twisted ankle she had already received, accompanied by the
sensation of a light blow, as though something had struck her.  The quick
sensation of pain forced her to lose her footing and she fell.
    Shampoo's shoulder received a hard blow as she smashed through the rear
door on her way down.  The small metal lock on the outside easily caved in when
overwhelmed by the force of her body and the whole door was immediately
relieved of its hinges.  Shampoo rolled out onto the cold night street, wood
and glass flying everywhere, trying to get to her feet but unable to get her
left leg to straighten out.  Shampoo quickly felt around under the rear of her
thigh and with a wince detected the source of the malaise.  Mustering a good
deal of her endurance she tried to yank her small throwing blade out of the
meat of her limb, a difficult task considering that it must have been jammed
all the way into the bone.  As much pain as she was in she couldn't help but
feel somewhat incompetent : the monster's aim was probably better than her own,
and on top of that it had actually taken her down with her own weapon.  If her
grandmother were here she would have received a nasty scolding, indeed.
    Shampoo continued to try and remove the blade, fairly certain that the
creature would emerge from the doorway before she was done and finish her off
while she was helpless.  After half-a- minute, however, nothing came.  As she
was able to finally get a solid grip on the blade handle she nearly laughed at
herself -- was she actually becoming impatient for it to show itself and kill
her?
    The sound of breaking wood came from inside the storeroom.  "What in the
world?" she wondered.  She was quickly answered as a battle cry resounded
through the open doorway, accompanied by the clammor of smashing crates.
    "MOUSSE!" Shampoo called out in excitement.  He must have picked the lock
and come back in, finding the Nekohanten in a shambles and discovering that she
was missing.  And now he was fighting that monstrosity in the building.
Shampoo put fingers from both hands to the handle and pulled as hard as she
could.  Mousse was strong in his own right, loathe as Shampoo was to admit it,
but even he wouldn't last long against that creature by himself.  And as long
as the blade was stuck in her leg she wouldn't be much help.  Gritting her
teeth she gave one more hard yank on the blade.  The dagger unlodged itself
from her leg and slid through the meat, neatly clattering to the ground stained
crimson.  The pain was blisteringly sharp for a few seconds, her eyes watering
as she withheld the burning impulse to cry out, then receded almost instantly.
Shampoo quickly retrieved the blade and sliced off a long strip of her pajama,
wrapping the cloth around her leg to keep the wound from growing, then ran back
inside the storeroom.
    The fight was no longer taking place in the storage building but was now
emanating from the Nekohanten.  Shampoo sped through the room and reemerged
into the kitchen.  Through the serving area she could see the two in the dining
room, Mousse attempting to entangle the monster in a mess of chains and ropes.
He had a minor cut across his chest but it was nothing that would bother him at
all. The monstrosity, on the other hand, had its hands full with him : it was
using most of its resources just to keep itself free of any type of bondage,
and to Shampoo's amazement was actually restricted to defensive maneuvers.
    "What have you done to my lovely Shampoo, you FIEND?!!" he called out
enraged, "Tell me or I'll slice you to ribbons!!"  As if to prove his point
Mousse flicked his wrist and out of nowhere a quintet of throwing blades like
the ones Shampoo carried appeared in his hand.  The seven-foot-tall creature
swatted at the blades with claws of its own as they flew; a diagonal and
vertical sweep of the claws destroyed the daggers, but had simultaneously
placed its body in the perfect position for attack.  Mousse reached behind his
back and revealed a long, thick chain, a heavy weight dangling from its end;
spinning the chain about he quickly released the weight and let it snap itself
around the creature's body, pinning its arms to its chest.  To complete the
maneuver Mousse snapped the length of the chain with his wrist, creating strong
coils that wrapped around and ensnared the monster from shoulder to ankle.  The
creature violently tried to break the chain-link trap but was totally
unsuccessful, causing itself instead to lose footing and fall to the ground
helpless.
    As soon as the ground rolled with a loud thud Mousse was at the monster's
throat brandishing a scimitar and looking extremely angry.  The monster itself
didn't seem too pleased at being tied up, bellowing a furious storm of growls
and other fowl-sounding noises while continuing to thrash about.  "For the LAST
time, where is my dear SHAMPOO?!!"
    "I'm right here, Mousse."
    Mousse spun about and saw Shampoo standing casually in the kitchen
entrance.  "Shampoo-chan, you're alright!!" he cried out as he ran for her with
open arms.  She quickly set him back in his place as she punched him in the
face, sending him to the hard tiled floor.  As Mousse slowly got up he heaved a
long sigh... Even after defeating such a dangerous beast she didn't respect
him.  What would it _take_?! he wondered.  On his nose sat a spare set of
glasses, and with a quick glance he discerned the many injuries riddling her
body.  His face twisted into a horrendous scowl, one so enraged that Shampoo
actually considered backing away from him.  Her mind was quickly put to rest as
she realized where that rage was being directed; Mousse turned back to the
still-struggling, still-screaming creature, sword brandished once more, ready
to cut its lousy head off for what it had done to her beautiful body.
    While Shampoo had no problems with Mousse's anger towards it she felt that
dispatching the creature was at the moment not a good idea, at least not until
they found out where it came from and what it was doing in the Nekohanten.
        Shampoo suddenly realized that the cafe had become much quieter.  The
monster had stopped thrashing about.  It was about to try something.  She
opened her mouth to warn him.
    "Mousse--"
    With a blinding flash of white fire Mousse howled out painfully, the smell
of ozone and cooking flesh filling the room. He clutched at his shoulder
tightly as he was blasted to the ground, a black charred burn marring him,
easily visible beneath his hand.  Blood spilled to the floor in huge amounts
and smeared his chest and arm as he vainly tried to hold the wound together.
"MOUSSE!!" Shampoo found herself crying out unexpectedly as the Chinese man
collapsed unconscious on the floor, vital fluid still running across the
Nekohanten tiles.  The area of impact had been cauterized along the edges, but
the open wound was cleanly visible inside.  If whatever the monster had just
shot at him had been three inches higher it would have severed his arm clean
off; as it was the wound had burnt through some muscle and may have even gone
through his back, she couldn't tell just yet.
    The hum of the razor-sharp discus came from behind her, and Shampoo turned
around to see the monster get up as the round cutter in its hand snapped
through the chains like a hot knife through butter.  With a clatter they sank
to the ground in a pile and the thing loomed over her once more.  On its
shoulder a small mounted weapon, a gun of some sort, automatically settled back
into its resting position with a light click.
    Shampoo reacted quickly.  As fast as she could she threw a slew of
high-powered kicks at its gut, hoping to catch it off guard once more and make
a break upstairs where her weapons cache was.  The monster had learned its
lesson, though; it took the blows and decided to make a counterattack of its
own, grabbing almost all of Shampoo's upper-left chest with its large hand and
tightly squeezing the rib cage together.  Shampoo lost all her ability to fight
as an incredible wave of pain shot through her chest cavity, her own ribs and
organs slowly crushing against her heart.  She tried to call out but no sound
came from her mouth except for a high-pitched wheeze.  The thing easily lifted
her up in the air above its head and she was quickly blinded by a series of red
lights shining in her eyes, emanating from the creature's helmet. The small
shoulder-mounted cannon raised its turret and took aim where the light shone.
The fire in her chest grew stronger, tighter, sharper.  Nothing in her body
wanted to work anymore; she was still awake yet her eyes stared blankly at
nothing, her mouth hung agape, her arms and legs dangled loosely around her.  A
high-pitched whine like the sound of a camera flash recharging filled the room.
    She didn't want to die this way!
    Shampoo was about to lose consciousness from the lightning running through
her body; at least she wouldn't be awake when death claimed her.  "Goodbye,
Ranma," she thought to herself sadly, "I love you..."
    The world around her faded to black.
    The world around her came back to life.
    With the hard thump of her rear hitting the ground.
    Shampoo rolled over onto her stomach and gasped violently for air, pain
still coursing through her system although now it was from her organs
rebounding back to their original positions.  Resisting the immediate urge to
vomit she crawled onto her arms and legs and scrambled away, where to didn't
matter, just _away_ from the beast.  She found the corner of the room and dug
herself into it, desperately hoping that somehow the monster wouldn't see her
if she forced herself deep enough inside it.
    The room shuddered.  Growling.  Shampoo didn't want to look and buried her
head as deeply into her arms as possible.  Yelling, more growling, the sounds
of breaking glass were heard.  Shampoo couldn't force herself any farther into
the corner, much as she tried.
    Voices rang through her head, a mumbling barrage of meaningless words.
Something touched her shoulder.  Shampoo tried to scream out as loud as she
could but her throat was raspy and parched.  She wanted to thrash about, fight
back, but that would mean she'd have to leave her safe little corner.  So all
she did was try to scream from a throat that refused to oblige her.
    Something tried to talk to her.  It was Cantonese.  Big deal, the monster
could speak.  It was just trying to lure her out of her precious corner using
words she was familiar with.  She wasn't going to fall for it, no WAY.
Suddenly, unwillingly, she was whirled about and a swift sting made itself felt
on her cheek.  Amazing, with all the physical anguish she was still in a slap
on the cheek could still be felt.
    A slap on the cheek?
    Shampoo slowly raised her hand to her face and felt it.  Yes, something had
indeed slapped her.  Shampoo quickly noticed that the Nekohanten lights were
on.  The meaningless Cantonese babbling began to take the shape of real
words... "Granddaughter, get a hold of yourself!!"
    Shampoo looked at the form next to her.  A two-foot-tall wrinkled woman
with long white hair and a gnarled wooden cane.  "Grandmother?" she asked, just
to be sure.
    The words changed to Japanese, although they still held the same voice.
"Thank the heavens, she's starting to come out of it."  Shampoo slowly raised
her head and looked about the cafe.  It was still a horrendous mess, blood and
shattered tables everywhere, but this time there were people with her, familiar
people -- her grandmother, Ryouga, Mr. Tendo, Mr. Saotome, and...
    "RANMA!!"  Shampoo cried out upon seeing the face of the man she loved.
She tried to get up and run to him, to be safe in his arms, but as before
nothing in her body wanted to work.  On top of that Cologne didn't appear to
want her moving either.
    "Ssh, stay put dear, everything is fine.  We drove the creature away."
    Shampoo no longer needed the safety of the corner, she had friends with her
to protect her against the thing.  Slowly she was able to get her limbs to move
and loosened her grip on the wall, slumping her back against it exhausted.  She
checked herself over.  Her entire body was wracked with splitting pain, her
eyes burned and the wound in her leg was warm.  Shampoo looked at it and saw
that it was bleeding quite a bit.  As she tried to reach for a nearby dishrag
to clot it she noticed how violently her hands were trembling.  "What
happened?" she was able to mutter out, forgetting the wound in her leg.
    Cologne took the dry dishrag and placed it under the thigh.  "I heard the
sounds of fighting coming from down the street and came to investigate.  When I
walked in the store and saw your opponent I was truly... worried."  Shampoo was
surprised a bit at this statement; her grandmother was such a stickler for
improvement in fighting prowess, such feelings of sentiment after so utter a
defeat were strange indeed.  Under other circumstances Cologne would have
griped out Shampoo for being defeated and made her do all of Mousse's chores
along with her own for the remainder of the week.  Shampoo looked at Ranma once
more; he looked back at her with intense concern.  Not that she was complaining
or anything, but why had HE come?  Surely he couldn't have heard her all the
way at the Tendo residence--
    It began to come back to her.  Why her throat was so burnt out, why her
eyes stung... She must have been screaming and crying with all of her might
without even realizing it until her grandmother had slapped some sense into
her.  Shampoo felt utterly disgusted with herself, more so than she had ever
felt before.  She had been cowering in the corner of the Nekohanten wailing
like a little girl, trembling with fear instead of fighting with all her
strength like she had been taught all her life, like the most skilled warrior
of the Joketsuzoku Amazon tribe that she was supposed to be.
    And Ranma had seen her.
    She felt like crying once more, out of sorrow instead of terror, but she
would be damned if she'd ever let anyone see her like that again; besides, her
eyes were completely flushed out, not a drop left in them.  Ignoring the
incredible shock that blasted through her body she stood up sharply and took
the rag from her grandmother, cleaning off the bloody injury herself without
flinching.  Her face had instantly changed to a mask of utter defiance and
resilience.
    "What happen to Mousse?" she calmly asked, not seeing him laying about.
    "An ambulance took him to the hospital," the old woman answered, "He
suffered a nasty injury to his arm and had lost a lot of blood but should pull
through."
    That explained the voices that she had heard, the hand that she felt touch
her.  Shampoo's shame increased; she was so completely in shock that she hadn't
even noticed the presence of an ambulence or its medical team trying to get her
to leave her corner.
    Ranma decided to get down to the business at hand.  "We were coming down
the street when we heard the racket and saw the thing jump out the window, but
that was all we caught before it vanished into thin air.  How did YOU beat it,
old woman?"
    Cologne shook her head.  "I didn't defeat it at all.  It simply refused to
harm me.  As would all of its kind."
    Ryouga spoke out.  "You know what that monster is?!"
    "Why won't it attack you?" asked Soun.
    "Why did it attack Shampoo and Ryouga?" asked Genma.
    Shampoo turned to Genma at the last question.  "It attack Ryouga, too?" she
asked in her imperfect Japanese.  She HAD wondered why he had a set of bandages
taped across his face.  "What going on?"
    Cologne sat down on what was left of the kitchen counter and picked at the
top of her cane.  "Yes, I do know what it is.  'It' is no more a monster than
most of mankind, however, just a little more advanced in its ways."  Cologne
looked at the group of five as they intently watched her.  "It is a hunter of
sorts, a trophy seeker from beyond the heavens that considers humans to be
rather entertaining game."
    "Beyond the stars?" mouthed Ryouga, "As in FROM SPACE?!!"
    "Trophies?"
    "Yes, son-in-law, trophies.  Just as a poacher in Africa will mount the
head of a rhinoceros on his wall, so do these creatures take the same pleasure
with the human skull."  Cologne smiled amusedly as the group's eyes widened at
the plural reference of 'creatures'.  "Oh, there are quite a few of them," she
answered their silent question, "They have been using this world as their
personal hunting grounds for many, many years."
    "And you have met these beasts before?" asked Soun.
    "Heh, I have."  Cologne pulled up her sleeve to reveal her little wrinkly
arm.  The group looked closely but didn't see anything upon first glance.
    "Grandmother, what that?"  Shampoo pointed to a long, almost invisible
white marking running the entire length of her great- grandmother's arm.  The
four men noticed it as well when it had been pointed out.
    "A cut?  You've FOUGHT these demons?!!" asked Genma excitedly.
    Cologne chuckled as she slid her sleeve back down to its full length.  "It
was a very long time ago.  The wound is almost undetectable to the naked eye
because it has had a long time to heal."  The old woman leapt off the table and
ran back into the storeroom.  A few annoyed mutterings regarding the mess and
the sound of a box lid being pried open and Cologne appeared from the dark room
back into the Nekohanten once more, holding a large wrapped package of some
sort under her arm.  With a thunk she dropped the wrapped mess of bright purple
cloth on the counter and motioned to the group to open it.
    Ranma went to the counter and unwrapped the cloth bandaging; there was
something large and made of metal buried inside.
    Ryouga and Shampoo both drew in deep breaths.
    It was a helmet.
    A large, somewhat damaged helmet, similar in design to the one worn by the
creature but bearing some minor cosmetic differences; still there was enough
likeness to indicate exactly what it was.  Ranma keenly studied it, turning it
about and looking at it from all angles; if had any mechanical functions before
they had been rendered useless by the damage or perhaps by the passage of time.
Ryouga looked at the thing unpleasantly.  Shampoo had to struggle to repress a
shudder and the desire to back away; she felt even more sickened at how scared
she was of a simple helmet.  "Where did you get this?" asked Ranma, still
examining the alien headpiece.
    "As I said, I have fought its kind before, when I was about Shampoo's age."
    Ranma nearly dropped the mess of metal.  Wasn't Cologne supposed to be over
three-hundred years old?!
    "It was extremely difficult but through some cunning and a lot of luck I
was able to drive it over the edge of a cliff.  When I climbed down to insure
the demise of my opponent I was... 'greeted' by others of its kind, waiting for
me to finish my descent.  I was expecting another fight but they simply carried
off the body, trying to offer me some rusty old blade the creature had claimed
in some previous victory as a 'prize' for my kill.  I refused the weapon,
believing I deserved more for my efforts and instead insisted on claiming its
helmet as my trophy, which they readily provided."
    Ryouga raised a skeptical eyebrow.  "And the only injury you got was a cut
on your arm?"  Cologne smiled back slyly.  "I have evidence on other parts of
my body if you wish to examine me..." Every man promptly covered his mouth to
suppress gagging and shook their heads, readily declining the offer.
    Soun tried to keep the conversation from careening off track. "So it is a
hunter in search of sport..."  Cologne waved her finger to indicate that he was
incorrect.  "Not _A_ hunter, foolish man.  _THE_ Hunter."
    "So why did it leave when you got here?" asked Genma.  "Why didn't it just
attack?"
    "I am considered 'untouchable' by them now.  I have killed one of their
kind in a fair Hunt -- they will never try to seek me out again."
    Ranma's eyes lit up.  "Fantastic!  You can come and help us fight it!"  The
old woman looked at the ground dourly.  "I'm afraid it won't be that easy,
son-in-law.  If it detects me it will immediately run and wait for a time when
I am not around to protect you."
    "So why did it attack Shampoo, Mousse, myself _and_ Ukyou?" asked Ryouga.
    Shampoo looked at him in surprise.  "It attack Ukyou, too?"
    "I am not certain why it chose the lot of you.  Were you fighting anyone
before it struck?"  Ryouga shook his head 'no'; Cologne frowned deeply.  "Then
you are ALL truly in danger."
    "What you mean, Grandmother?"
    "Normally the beast is drawn by conflict, killing whatever in its eyes
looks strong at the time.  In YOUR case, however, it is stalking a single Prey,
using the others to weed it out."
    Everyone looked at her intently.  Soun asked the impending question. "Who?"
    The old woman looked sadly back at the ground for a moment, then looked
back at the group.  "You must ask such a question?  Which one of us is
connected to all the others so strongly?"
    Silence.  Then an answer.  "Me."
    "Yes, son-in-law, _you_."
    Shampoo felt her heart freeze.  "NO!"
    Ranma, remaining rather unconcerned at the sudden revelation that he was
the subject of a potentially fatal Hunt, handed the helmet back to Cologne,
which she wrapped back up in its cloth.  "How strong is this so-called Hunter?"
   "Physically they are considerably beyond the normal bounds of human kind.
Even for those as powerful as yourselves its endurance and raw physical prowess
is quite high.  Mentally it is equally as competent, possessing a great deal of
cunning and intelligence."
    "Well, it IS from outer space."  Ryouga quickly noticed that he had
interrupted and shut up.
    "As I was saying, its arsenal is unmatched by anything we have on this
world.  It is, after all," Cologne threw Ryouga an amused glance, "from outer
space.  However, I cannot give you specifics on its weapons; technology
develops and improves all the time, and I would be surprised if they haven't
grown more advanced since my last encounter.  Just one thing to note..."
Cologne looked at everyone with a fierce eye, making sure that they were fully
attentive on this point.  "When you confront it, DO NOT trust your eyes and
ears.  They mimic human sound, like a duck call would draw birds, and as you
all know by now they can become nearly unseeable by the eye.  Trust your
_instincts_!  Trust your _skills_!  They will lead you in the right direction.
But when you DO confront it, beware.  To these creatures Hunting anything for
sport is a way of life, their lifeblood, just as fighting is yours.  As you,
son-in-law, deem yourself the ultimate warrior, these aliens deem THEMSELVES as
the ultimate Predators."
    After a moment of silence Ryouga scratched his chin in thought.  "It's
after Ranma.  So why didn't it go straight for him?  Why were we used as bait?"
    Cologne shrugged.  "It apparently does not know where he resides.  That is
why it sought out the Nekohanten, hoping that Ranma would be living here.  I
suppose that it will try Ukyou's restaurant sometime soon."
    A blast of cold air brushed against the group inside, and a bit of broken
glass dropped from the vacated window frame, shattering as it struck the wooden
border of the frame's opposite end.  Not a one of the men made a sound, for
they had all realized something terrible at the same instant, an unthinkable
yet utterly logical conclusion.  There were three places that Ranma frequented
on a regular basis, three places that he could use to reside at, three places
with potential mates.
    The Nekohanten.
    Uk-Chan's.
    The Tendo Dojo.
    Akane would be its next target.
 
------------------------End  -  Step  Two------------------------
 

                 Step  Three  -  Invading the Nest
 
    "MY _DAUGHTERS_!!"  Soun wheeled about and prepared to bolt through the
Nekohanten door when Genma caught him by the shoulder.
    "Wait, Tendo-kun, we have nothing to worry about!  Akane went to the
hospital with Doctor Tofu, remember?"
    Ranma began to head out of the cafe.  "Yeah, but Kasumi and Nabiki are
still at the dojo.  They won't stand a CHANCE against i--"  Cologne interrupted
him, waving her arm about dissmisively. "Do not fear, son-in-law, the Hunter is
dangerous but it won't harm them.  It doubt it would consider them 'sporting
enough'."
    "I don't care what you THINK it may or may not do, you little ghoul!  Those
are my girls!!"
    Soun tried to pry himself loose of Genma's hand but Ranma and Ryouga were
able to keep him from leaving the store, taking him by his arms.  "Mr. Tendo,"
Ryouga called out, "If we go to the dojo it might decide that they ARE worth
hurting!  We'd just be putting them in danger!"  Soun looked like he wanted to
struggle some more, but a sag of his shoulders and the loss of tension in his
arms announced his reluctant acknowledgement of Ryouga's statement.  "Then the
least I can do is call them and let them know that this monster is still on the
loose."  Cologne nodded her agreement to the idea and pointed him towards the
phone, which he made for in a flash.
    "So if we can't go to the Tendo house what are we going to do?" asked
Ranma.
    "Well, as far as I know no one is at Ukyou's place now, and Shampoo's
grandmother said there's a chance that the creature would go there."
    "Good thinking, Pop.  Uk-chan's restaurant is closer to the Nekohanten than
the dojo is anyway, so the monster would probably try to go there first.  If we
can catch it off guard there the five of us can beat it together."
    Cologne didn't seem to like Ranma's plan, an unpleasant expression crossing
her face.  "Son-in-law, this isn't some idiot monster that will blindly fight
you.  It is extremely intelligent and aims to take your head home as a trophy!
You cannot just walk into a building, overpower it with brute force or sheer
numbers and then expect to walk out with it in chains!"
    Soun walked back in the room, his hands fiddling with each other nervously.
"It was busy," he said, a minor tremble in the back of his throat.  "I tried
three times but it was just busy."
    Genma went up to his life-long friend and patted him comfortingly on the
shoulder.  "Don't worry, Tendo-kun, it's probably just Akane calling the girls
from the hospital telling them that everything's alright."
    "I hope you're right, Saotome-kun."
    Ranma scrutinized the bundles of cloth that concealed the alien helmet,
then turned for the exit once more.  "We'll call them again from Uk-Chan's,
just to be on the safe side, Mr.Tendo."
    Cologne looked at Ranma disapprovingly but said nothing.  He had had his
chance to listen to her advice.
    "And what if we find the alien there?" Ryouga asked dubiously.
    "Simple.  We'll know that it wasn't at the dojo."
 
    A telephone receiver was casually placed back on its stand, Akane
unwrapping her fingers from the black plastic as she sighed to herself.  "It
was busy."
    "Really?"
    "I tried to call them three times but all I got were busy signals.  Are you
sure that they told you they were going to the Nekohanten before they left?"
    Kasumi placed her finger to her chin and looked at the ceiling in thought.
"I'm pretty certain that was the place.  They said they were going to try and
get Mousse's and Shampoo's help to find that monster."
    Akane drew in a breath and sat down next to her sister at the dining room
table.  Great, the line was busy.  Now they wouldn't know that she was still
home, still ready to help them fight that awful creature.
    "God, I feel useless..."
    Nabiki emerged from the kitchen with a half-eaten apple in her hand.  Upon
seeing Akane she was mildly surprised.  "What are you doing here?" she asked,
"I thought you went to the hospital with Doctor Tofu."
    "He remembered some lame hospital rule saying that only the next-of-kin or
their doctors can stay with patients in the emergency room.  Now I've got to
sit here on my butt and wait for Ranma and everyone else to give us a phone
call before I can go out and help them."  Akane propped her elbows on the table
and drooped her head in her cupped hands, staring unhappily at the far wall.
    "They'll probably just tell you to stay here, you know."
    "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that jerk Ranma will just tell me I'd be getting in
the way," Akane scowled.  "Still, it's better than just sitting here and
waiting.
    Kasumi sipped on a cup of tea.  "I agree with Ranma-kun's decision not to
have you tag along.  That beast is obviously very dangerous, and he just
doesn't want you getting hurt."
    "Yeah, I know that, too..."  Akane felt a little good knowing that Ranma
was looking out for her well-being, but she would certainly have appreciated it
more if Ranma was more polite about it, instead of just insulting her the way
he did so often -- he could be such a jerk at times!  A pang of worry hit her
chest as she thought about him; right now he was out there hunting some
strange, terrible monster with all the other expert fighters and here she was,
stuck in the house, totally unable to help, miles away from it all.
 
    A recognized voice pattern.  There were two others that didn't register on
its helmet's audio recognition program as potential Targets, but one did, the
smallest thermal signature in the structure.  Undetectable to the human eye
once more, it casually leapt over the fence surrounding the house and walked
across the dry grass towards the building.
    It almost HAD the last two Targets!  The male was practically dead, the
female would have been dead less than a second afterward.  And then an
Untouchable entered the room.  An UNTOUCHABLE!  _Here_, of all places!  The
Predator could barely stand it, deprived of so many wonderful, deserving
trophies in such a short period of time.  One vanishing into thin air before
its eyes, another escaping by use of a secret weapon, and now those two, saved
by the rarest of breeds, one that must never be Hunted again by virtue of its
own skill.
    THIS one, however, would not be so fortunate.  The Hunter would take her
head, then lure the primary Game out into the open using her as bait.  It
stopped in place and looked around just to be certain... Good, no other heat
signatures within the structure's boundaries that it hadn't already seen.
Nothing would come to rescue this one, and escape would be impossible as she
was trapped within her own borders.
 
    Akane paced about nervously as her sisters sat leisurely at the table.
Nabiki just watched her move from one side of the room to the next, back and
forth like a tennis match.  Eventually she got tired of the repeating
spectacle.  "Look Akane, why don't you go drain some of that excess energy
you've got in the dojo?"
    The youngest Tendo sister looked at her elder sibling flabbergasted.  "Are
you kidding?!  If I practice in the dojo now I won't have any energy to help
fight the monster!"
    "Then go take read a book or take a bath or something.  Your pacing is
beginning to make me NAUSEOUS."
    Akane stopped walking and looked back at her with a sigh.  "I suppose I am
a little worked up... Just make sure to yell if they call, okay?"
    Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Of course, of course."
    Akane's stomach growled a bit.  She hadn't had anything to eat for a while,
perhaps a quick bite would do her good.  Akane speedily made off for the
kitchen.
    Kasumi stood up and lightly rubbed her eyes.  The pressure of the night was
beginning to take its toll on her, more so than on the others; she hadn't
anticipated that nursing Ukyou for that short time alongside Doctor Tofu would
be so draining.  After all, most of the injury treatment she had performed was
on Akane after the small scraps she would get herself into when she was
younger, or just the basic nursing that most mother-figures would perform on
their families.  Still, she was happy that she had been there to help in the
first place.
    "Where're you headed off to?" asked Nabiki as Kasumi began to head for the
stairs.
    "I suppose I'm beginning to feel much like Akane about now," she responded.
"I'll just go upstairs and check on the laundry, try to keep my mind occupied
on something."
    Kasumi ascended the staircase and walked over to the small laundry room at
the end of the hall.  Inside the small enclosure was a washing machine huddled
amongst the other household cleaning utilities such as ironing boards,
detergents, vacuum cleaners and the like.  It was a shame there wasn't enough
room for the drier, but that was what they had allocated the small closet in
the first-floor entry hall for.  Kasumi gave a quick check on the machine and
decided that another half-hour would be needed before anything could be
removed.
    The faint crack of glass came from outside the little room.  Kasumi looked
out the doors to the hallway but saw nothing except the dark shadows of the
second floor, broken ever-so-often by the soft lights of the bedrooms shining
from under their closed doors and the faint glow of the first story lights
creeping up the stairs.  She was surprised to have heard anything at all, what
with all the noise the washer was making, but decided to investigate
nonetheless.
    Kasumi opened the door to Ranma's room and saw nothing out of the ordinary,
just the usual mess he and his father left on their floor.  Before she closed
the door behind her she pursed her lips in mild annoyance : these people were
so wasteful, leaving their lights on even after they had left.  With a flick of
the switch on the wall Kasumi shut off the lights to the room and closed the
door.
    She was pleased that her father and Nabiki were somewhat more frugal with
the electric bill : no lights were visible in their rooms, and after a fleeting
scan of the premises there was nothing to indicate the breaking glass came from
their rooms, either.
    Kasumi scratched her head and felt kind of silly investigating each room
for a noise that may have just as easily been the muffled sounds of Akane
breaking things as per usual downstairs in the kitchen.  Still, it gave her
something to do, and in the end it was always better to be safe than sorry.
Kasumi quickly checked her room for any broken bits of glass and was pleased to
see nothing fragile had fallen from its place.
    Kasumi went to Akane's room and opened the door.  Just as usual her room
was clean and there was nothing out of the ordinary on the floor or anywhere
else on the premises.  She would have to have a talk with her little sister
regarding the waste of electricity, however; like her fiance Akane had left her
lights on when there was no need.  Kasumi shook her head amusedly at the
wastefulness of some young people as she went to the nightlight on the bedstand
and reached for the switch.
    A thin, cold breeze nabbed her hand as she touched the small lamp.  Kasumi
curiously looked at the source of the cool air and noticed the drapes lightly
billowing.  She was certainly surprised by her younger sister, now -- surely
Akane hadn't left her window open to the chilly night air when the heater was
running throughout the house.  Kasumi pulled back the spotted drapes to shut
the window, contemplating what she would say to her sister about such an absurd
waste of precious heat.
    The window was already closed.  Kasumi looked at it curiously; she still
felt some kind of cold breeze coming from the window but where was it--?
Kasumi's eyes caught the source, a small, half-circle of glass cut out of the
window, right behind the metal latch that kept the window from being opened on
the outside.  "Now what in the world caused that?" she asked herself, carefully
fingering the vacated portion of the window pane.
    Something caught the corner of her eye.  Kasumi abruptly turned to her left
with a start.  Nothing was there, just Akane's empty room.  After a second
Kasumi shrugged and dug through Akane's desk, hoping to find some tape or a
piece of cloth she could seal over the aperture until a new pane could be fit.
    Something moved.  Kasumi nearly yelped and turned to look the room over
carefully once more.  As was before, nothing was in the room with her.
Sighing, she put her hand to her head.  "I must be more worn out than I
thought..." she said to no one in particular.
 
    The Hunter stayed as motionless as possible.  The human female still had
not seen it standing on the side of the room opposite from her own, at least
not enough to warrant any real suspicion beyond a possible trick of the eyes.
IT'S eyes, however, were quite able to see her in return, her pattern of reds,
yellows, oranges, the varying shades of blues, blacks and whites that drew the
shapes of the terrain she stood on.  She had found it's means of entry, but at
the moment it didn't appear as though she had truly suspected any form of
intrusion.
    Still, it may be necessary to silence her so as not to alert its Prey.
Nothing fatal, just a swift blow to the head would suffice...
 
    Ring-ring-ring.
    Kasumi's attention was quickly redirected from the glass to the telephone
ringing from downstairs; perhaps it was a word from the hospital, or even from
her father.  Shutting off the lights and deciding to worry about the window
later she jogged out the door and head down the stairs.  Nabiki was reaching
for the phone when she saw Kasumi descending the staircase and relinquished
lifting the receiver to her older sister.
    "Tendo residence."
    "Kasumi, you're ALRIGHT!"
    "Father?"  His voice sounded strained and panicky.  Kasumi began to worry
that something had gone terribly wrong.  Nabiki could also hear the tension in
her father's voice from the receiver and put her head next to Kasumi's.  "Is
something the matter, Father?" asked Kasumi.
    Nabiki spoke up. "Did someone get hurt or something, Dad?  Where are you?"
    "We're all here at Ukyou's restaurant..."
    "Ukyou's?  I thought you were going to the Nekohanten."
    "The monster had already BEEN there!  We're worried that it's coming to the
dojo now!"  Kasumi and Nabiki looked at each other with fear.  "WHAT?!" came
from both their mouths.
    Soun quickly tried to calm them down, not a very easy task considering that
he was pretty tightly wound himself at this point.  "Listen to me carefully --
it WON'T hurt you.  Just stay calm, don't act like you know anything, don't
make any sudden moves..."
    "'Don't make any sudden moves'?!!  Are you telling us it's already HERE, in
the _HOUSE_ with us?!!"
    "For God's sake, Nabiki, I hope not... Hold on..."  A bit of mumbling came
from the background, as though their father was talking to someone, and a short
while later he was once again on the line.  "Okay, I want you girls to slowly,
_very carefully_ leave the house.  Just walk out like you don't know a thing
and you two will stay safe."
    "What about Akane?" asked Kasumi.
    For a while there was a short pause, then with a very heavy tremble to his
voice Soun asked "What ABOUT Akane?"
    "She came back from the hospital.  She's in the kitchen right now."
    Soun's voice vanished from the line and was replaced with the clattering of
a telephone as it was dropped to the ground from the other end.  Kasumi and
Nabiki listened carefully as yelling accompanied by the sound of running and
the slamming of a door could be heard.  After that there was just silence.
    The Tendo sisters hesitantly hung up the phone and slowly, as casually as
possible, looked at the dining room.  Nothing out of the ordinary could be
seen, and the room had grown almost deafeningly silent.  Only the sounds of
clanking and the curses from Akane's mouth coming from the kitchen could be
heard. Without even looking at each other the girls began to walk to their
youngest sister.
 
    It's Prey stood there before it, involved in whatever activities normally
took place in such a room, foodstuffs of some sort and a number of metal and
wooden instruments strewn before her in a motley configuration as she angrily
mixed and matched the condiments together in a seeming frenzy.  Her back was
turned so that she would never see the attack, never have a chance to respond.
While this specific Quarry wasn't as dangerous as the others it had tracked in
the evening it was still supposed to be somewhat powerful in its own right and
therefore was acceptable hunting material.
    But then again the Predator was of a higher order than the Prey it stalked.
It had the right to choose what to deem what was acceptable or not.  Higher
orders ALWAYS had the right to justify their acts of violence beyond the need
of mere survival.  It was... it is... a way of life.
    Metal claws were unsheathed.
    The Prey heard.  It didn't matter.  It would be too late.
    Its arm drew back.  The cut would be clean, straight through the spinal
column.  The Prey wouldn't feel a thing.
    "_AKANE_!!!"
    The Predator turned its head in surprise at the noise.
 
    Akane whirled around at the terrified shout of Nabiki.  At least she though
it was Nabiki; the figure at the doorway was so distorted and bent out of shape
that it looked as though it was being seen through a carnival mirror.  "DUCK!!"
The distortion before her flickered.  Akane quickly discovered that something
was standing between her and her sister.  So this is what the invisible monster
'looked' like...
 
    One of the humans had discovered its presence.
    Quick, the Prey, before it could retaliate or escape!
    The Hunter, striking as rapidly as possible, drove its clawed arm forward,
only to smash into the wall beyond with a loud crash.
    Suddenly the room was awash with water.
 
    Akane scrambled across the slick tiled floor of the kitchen, water
drenching her body and clothing.  Her hair was matted across her head and the
wool sweater she was wearing clung tightly to her arms as the downpour from the
broken sink pipe sprayed in all directions from where the monster had struck
it.  If her sister hadn't called out like she had it would have been her neck
instead of that wall, she contemplated as she tried to get to the exit of the
kitchen.  Nabiki held out her hand and pulled Akane through the doorway.
    Without looking back Akane, Kasumi and Nabiki bolted through the dining
room in a mad scramble to get out of the house.  Behind them they could hear
the sounds of crackling electricity accompanied by the rapid clicking/growling
produced by the creature.
 
    The Prey was not going to escape this time : the Hunter vowed that it would
not allow another Quarry slip through its fingers as had the others.  The
stream of water had disrupted its cloaking ability, the second time this
evening that such an annoyance took place, but that would not stop it.
    How could it have been so stupid?!  To be momentarily distracted by the
shouting of that human female, it was an almost unforgivable mistake.  Still,
that mistake would only add fuel to the fire, make catching the Prey more
satisfying.
    A couple of taps to the wrist-mounted computer on its arm and the Hunter
became wholly visible.  The three females ran away from it, hoping to distance
themselves from the alien, but that was a pipe-dream at best -- nothing outruns
the ultimate Predator.
    In a matter of great steps it overtook the tallest.  This one appeared to
have no offensive or defensive capabilities at all, harming her was certainly
no option.  So it ignored her and in another step the Predator reached the
middle one.  This one was similarly without any means of attack, so she was not
a concern.  However, she had warned the Prey, given her time to dodge the claws
of the Hunter... The Predator briskly contemplated the Trophy potential of her,
then shrugged it off just as fast.  After all, the Predator was a higher being.
Higher beings are capable of anger, and likewise capable of resisting the
temptation to act on that anger.  The _true_ Prey was important, nothing else.
 
    Nabiki and Kasumi both stumbled slightly and fell to the ground as the
seven-foot-tall monstrosity sprinted right past them and made for Akane.  Akane
turned her head and immediately noticed that her sisters were no longer behind
her, but instead a massive creature, identical to the one Ryouga had described
only half-an-hour before, was hot on her trail.
    It would overtake her in two steps.
    Akane didn't want to leave her sisters behind, but if she stopped the thing
would have her instantly.
    One step.
    Did it matter?  The monster would have her in less than a second, anyway.
And sisters never abandon sisters.
    The monster reached for her.
    She would prove to Ranma just what kind of a fighter she was. She would
defeat this monster all by herself!
    She took the monster's hand with her own and tried to perform an
over-the-shoulder toss.
    If it had worked the creature's own momentum accompanied by the force of
her throw would have driven it through the house wall and probably into the
carp pool beyond.
    IF it had worked.
    The creature must have weighed two-hundred kilograms, at least.  That was
fifty-kilograms more than Akane had anticipated. Instead of tossing it over her
shoulder she brought it down right on top of her and the two quickly tripped
down at the ground.
    A four-hundred and forty-pound weight falling on her at that speed would
probably crush every bone in her body upon impact with the ground, she casually
thought.
    Akane felt an incredible fire go through her chest as she hit the floor
with the monstrosity on top of her.  Suddenly the floorboards shattered beneath
her and Akane went through with the beast on her back.
    Dirt and gravel engulfed her face.  Any moment now the monster that she had
been certain she would defeat all by herself a second before would flatten her
like a pancake, all after she tried one single attack.  How embarrassing,
especially after all Ranma had said to her about getting in the way...
    Any moment now.
    Well, where WAS it?
    Akane opened an eye and slowly lifted her head out of the dirt and damp
muck that covered the ground beneath the house.  It was incredibly dark under
the dining room, although a small speck of light was trying to shine through
the floorboards above her.  What happened?
    "Akane?!"  Kasumi and Nabiki were both calling her name.
    Akane coughed a bit and tried to get up but discovered that she couldn't;
something was pinning her to the ground.  Her sisters called her name again,
even more fear to their voices.
    "I'm fine!" she called out in response, "I'm okay, just... stuck."  Akane
tried to lift herself up but whatever was holding her down was awfully heavy;
fortunately the weight tapered off the farther up it went.  She tried to look
upward but her head hit something tough as it moved.  "Could someone give me a
hand?  Something's got me trapped down here!"
    "Uh, Akane...?"  Nabiki sounded somewhat disturbed.
    "Hurry!" Akane didn't appreciate any delays at the moment.  After all,
there was a monster of some sort following them.
    Monster?  Akane felt around with her hand.  A tough, leathery material
could be felt over her, along with bits of metal and some strapwork lacing them
together.
    Akane quickly panicked.  "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!!" She vainly
tried to struggle beneath the heavy weight of the beast but it had her pinned
down nicely.  Akane turned her head as far as she could, trying to get a hasty
glimpse of the thing, see if she could keep it from doing anything.
    Its shoulders were a propped half-a-foot over her body, remaining
completely still.  The arms just drooped placidly to the ground, also staying
totally stationary.  Akane reluctantly looked at the head that loomed a bit
forward of her position, fearing that perhaps the thing was just waiting to
make eye contact with her before it struck.
    Its head just hung there.  Akane quickly realized why the creature hadn't
followed through to attack her, or even why its weight simply hadn't crushed
her as the two had fallen.  While Akane had smashed through the wooden
floorboards that made up the base of the Tendo house, the monster had landed on
the thick wooden beams that propped those floorboards up.  One such beam was
heavily cracked and almost split in two.
    The beast was propped up on it by its thick neck, its head  hanging limp
over the edge of the beam.  The rest of its body was laying on Akane but hadn't
had the necessary force to inflict any real damage.  Or so she hoped.
    Akane tried her best to wiggle her way out from under the creature.  Kasumi
and Nabiki were trying to pull up on its body but were having little success in
shifting its weight at all.  Still, Akane pushed as best she could and with a
little bit of gravel-burn against her chest and legs she was able to yank
herself out.  A short while later she emerged from under the house and came
back in through the entrance she had originally intended to toss the monster
through.
    "Akane!"  Both the older Tendo sisters ran up to their little sibling and
looked her over carefully, hugging her as they did.  Akane was happy to see
them as well but her attention was torn between them, the chest pain she was
getting and the prone monstrosity that was halfway laying through their dining
room floor.  A warm sensation began to make itself noticed on her lower face
and with a brush of her hand across her chin Akane discovered that a nosebleed
was in progress. "Oh well, at least it's not broken," she said as she felt the
solid bridge of her nose.  She felt herself for injury and was truly surprised
that nothing else had been broken either. Of course, bruises of the highest
caliber would blanket her body by sunrise...
    The snapping of the support beam was heard and the three spun around as the
entire creature fell through the floor and collapsed upon where Akane had been
a short time before.  "Is it dead?" asked Kasumi.  Despite all that the monster
had almost accomplished her voice actually had a pang of sympathy to it.
    Akane shook her head.  "I don't know.  It wasn't moving, and from the way
that beam was cracked I'd be surprised if it didn't break its neck in the
fall."  Akane dusted the soil and gray slop from her face and clothing,
flinching as her hands ran across her battered chest, still wet from the water
that continued to run out from the kitchen entryway.  Kasumi pulled a
handkerchief from her dress pocket and wiped away the blood from Akane's dirty
face as best she could, then gave another to her and told her to keep her head
tilted back until a clot could form.
    "So do we leave," asked Nabiki, "Or do we wait until Dad and the others
'come to our rescue'?"
    A light growl, staccatoed by intermident clicking sounds, weakly emanated
from the hole in the floorboards.  The three Tendo sisters nervously looked to
the dining room as the noise slowly grew stronger and the sound of shifting
gravel could be heard.
    "I think we'd better leave."  The elder Tendo sisters didn't contest the
idea.
    The threesome slowly backed up towards the door.  The growling became
weaker, although if this was because they were farther away or if it was just
losing strength they couldn't say. Then as quickly as they started the growls
and noise stopped.  For a moment Akane hoped that the creature had lapsed back
into unconciousness.
    The girls were suddenly thrown off their feet as the ground beneath them
shattered outward and the seven-foot-tall form of the beast, armed with a long,
barbed spear in hand, angrily swatted away the wooden planks.  Nabiki's fall
was broken by the coat-rack near the exit; Kasumi's fall, however, was broken
by Akane.  While the weight of her sister landing on her back wasn't
exceptionally painful, being knocked to the floor and landing full force on her
already-injured chest was.
    "Akane, are you alright?!" Kasumi asked frantically as she clambered off
her sister's back and quickly helped her up.  Akane nodded a yes, but her face
was twisted in an unpleasant expression denoting how she truly felt.  Nabiki
pulled herself out of the pile of jackets she had buried herself under, aching
slightly from hitting the wooden frame of the coat-rack but otherwise perfectly
fine.
    The monster whirled about the room, desperate to keep a lock on Akane and
immediately finding her propped up by Kasumi.  From beneath the black rubbery
brace covering its neck a neon-green viscous of some sort had begun to leak,
the liquid slowly streaming down across its chest and pattering on the
floorboards. The creature didn't seem to care too much about the injury,
however; it simply eyed Akane menacingly as it stepped up from the open ground
below onto the floorboards of the house.
    Something was wrong.  Akane could immediately tell from the beast's
movements that the blow to its neck had functionally harmed it after all.  As
the thing stepped towards her and her sister it staggered a little to the left,
then over compensated and fell a bit to its right, barely bracing itself on the
wall.
    Kasumi carefully edged back with her sister in tow.  The monster quickly
saw this and tried to swipe at them with its spear, missing by a few feet and
tearing the thin wall to shreds. As Kasumi and Akane continued to move away the
thing tried to strike them again and again, drunkenly batting at them and
missing with an exceptional distance each time.  After its fifth attempt to hit
them it stumbled and fell to its knees, dropping the spear to the ground and
being forced to halfway prop itself upward by its elbows.
    "Now's... our chance t-to escape," muttered Akane.  Her chest hurt so bad
to her surprise she had to actually force the words out; her sister falling on
her must have been the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak.  Akane
tried to turn around for the door and immediately slipped out of her sister's
grasp and dropped to the ground.  A worried Kasumi and Nabiki took her by both
arms and lifted her back up.  "Where does it hurt?" Kasumi asked anxiously;
Akane was able to cough out that her entire upper-chest was a mess, but most of
the pain was located right at the base of the sternum.  Kasumi caught Nabiki's
pensive stare.  "She'll be alright," she explained, "It was just like being
punched in the gut really hard.  She needs a moment to regain her composure."
    Kasumi and Nabiki wasted no more time, supporting Akane by her shoulders
and lugging her out of the house as fast as they could.  The weather outside
had grown much cooler, and a sharp breeze across her face was enough to snap
Akane to attention.  Shrugging off the slowly-disappearing pain in her chest
and shaking her head she was able to get her feet planted stably on the ground.
"I... I'm alright," Akane weakly said to her sisters reassuringly, "I can make
it."  As if to prove her point she released her hold on her sisters' shoulders
and took a few steps ahead of them.
    Behind them came the sound of shattering glass and the thud of a large
body.  The monster had smashed through the partially- open porch door and,
still dizzy, had tripped and fallen to the ground.  It was still quite
functional, however, and pushed itself back up with a little effort.  Once
again its eye caught Akane, and once again its spear was in hand.  With a
surprising burst of speed the creature aimed and flung its staff in her
direction.  Akane clumsily leapt to one side as the spear whiffed by her and
smashed into the small tree next to her.
    With the loud rustling of leaves and the creaking and snapping of wood the
tree's trunk lost a hold of its upper body and the severed half fell to the
ground, separating Akane from her older siblings; the eight-foot-long spear had
come to a full stop embedded in the wall behind the tree, sticking out of the
stone fence like a humongous nail.  Akane quickly noted that the monster's aim
was improving; like her it had begun to get its second wind.
    The creature stepped towards her.  "AKANE, _RUN_!!"
    Akane looked at Nabiki across the blanket of branches and leaves between
them with a mixture of fear and annoyance.  "Are you NUTS?!  I'm not leaving
you two!!"
    "It's not after us, you idiot, it's chasing YOU!!"
    To Akane's surprise that was a point hadn't crossed her mind until now.
The beast made another step towards her, still wobbly but considerably less-so
than before.  She backed away, and loathe as she was to do it the next step the
monster took towards her proved that she had no choice in the matter : she
would have to leave her sisters behind and make a break on her own.
    Akane turned and prepared to leap over the stone wall, hoping that she
would be able to outrun the creature in the streets.
    She got a foot off the ground.  A large hand grabbed her leg and sharply
jerked her back down.  Akane received yet another unnecessary blow to her chest
area as she was thrown into the ground, although this time she had the added
bonus of having her head slam into the wall as her body arced forward on the
way down.  The world instantly went black around her.
    Nabiki and Kasumi gasped as the creature had easily leapt across the lawn
and snatched Akane before she had a chance to escape.  Her body laid on the
ground motionless after she had struck the wall, and if the monster had its way
she would stay motionless forever in a very short while.  Desperately the two
began to yell at it, hoping to draw its attention away from her and get it to
focus on a new set of targets.  After a number of unanswered yells and
cat-calls it was evident that the thing wasn't going to allow itself to be
distracted yet another time.  Although it had over-exerted itself with that
last leap and was still trying to get its bearings, it was able to stagger over
Akane's prone form, yanking its metal spear from the wall as it went, and
prepared to finish her off.
    The Tendo sisters screamed out their sister's name as loud as they could.
She didn't move.  In a second the thing's spearhead would end her life, and
they were powerless to stop it.
    "AKANEEEE!!!"
 
    That yell was different from the others.  The Hunter looked up with a start
and was surprised to discover the new source of noise.  Before it could block
or react in any way a new thermal signature had leapt over the fence, an older
human male with facial hair, and with a thrust from his foot the Hunter was
violently knocked off its Prey and into the ground beyond.
    The world went topsy-turvy for it once more, the blow to its neck still
leaving it with a tremendous headache and loss of orientation, and before it
could tell if it was standing or laying down a number of blows struck it in the
chest.  The Predator tried to swing at its target with its claws but with its
lack of equilibrium it may as well been trying to punch the sun.  More blows to
the chest, this time including a full-body blow from the male as he screamed at
it in fury.
    "MY DAUGHTER!!!"  The Hunter and the human crashed to the ground, a mild
pain running through the Predator's back as it hit the solid surface beneath
it.  The human's weight hadn't been enough to inflict any incapacitating damage
in such an assault, much to the Predator's relief, and grabbing forward at the
first heat signal in sight the Hunter was able to pull away the attacker and
finally get its vision to stabilize.
    It stabilized enough to register four more heat signatures leaping over the
stone wall and barreling towards it.  A familiar male and female, both wielding
weapons this time, a large human male wearing some form of thin metal framework
on his face, and...
    The Prey.
    A worse time to encounter him could not have been possible.
 
    With a ferocious blow from his depleted-uranium umbrella Ryouga slammed the
alien across the head, forcing it to release its grip on Soun's gi and sending
it careening through the house wall, splinters and debris scattering to the
four winds.  A look of utter fury was pictured across his face, and in the
space of a blink he was over the prone creature.  It was obvious that the beast
was having trouble getting to its feet, blindly grasping out for something to
stabilize itself with and coming up empty.
    "You evil MONSTER!!!" he cried out, "YOU _HURT_ AKANE!!!"  Like a golf ball
Ryouga batted the creature down the hallway where it slammed full-force against
a wall and fell dazedly to the ground.  It hadn't even attempted to move when
Shampoo took her turn, venting her anger and frustration at the previous
battle's outcome with a series of intermident blows from her balloon maces.
"You make Shampoo look like coward in front of husband!!  You I KILL!!"  The
alien didn't stand a chance as the two warriors took turns bludgeoning it with
their respective weapons, keeping it pinned to the ground all the way.
    Outside in the stinging cold of night, Ranma, Genma and Soun were at
Akane's side, Kasumi and Nabiki quickly following; a nasty abrasion accompanied
by the lump of a huge welt could be felt underneath her hair, at the point of
impact her head had made with the hard wall.  Ranma hoisted her up and gently
patted her on the cheek.  "Akane?" he whispered, "Yo, Akane, wake up."  No
response.  She just lay there in his arms, still breathing somewhat normally
but not a sign of conciousness crossing her face.  "Come on, you stupid girl,"
Ranma began with more fervor, "Open your EYES."  Still no response.
    This was becoming too much for him.  Ranma began to shake her about more
violently.  "Akane, you IDIOT!  Stop sleeping and wake up!  WAKE UP!!"  No
sound except the noise of a one-sided fight coming from within the house could
be heard.  Ranma looked utterly dumbfounded; how could this have come to
happen?!  "Come... come on.  Please..."  The look of surprise faded and was
replaced by emotional anguish as nothing happened : his worried gaze was met
with nothing but silent, unmoving eyelids.  Ranma gnashed his teeth and
clenched at the dirt beneath his fingernails in anger.  If she died he would
personally rip that thing's head clean off its shoulders--
    "Who..."  Everyone suddenly looked at the source of the weak sound.  To
their immeasurable relief Akane's eyes weakly fluttered open and focused on
Ranma in mild annoyance.  "Who are you calling an _idiot_, you JERK?"
    Before the group could voice any joy at Akane's waking or initiate any
other possible actions a loud yell made itself present in the post-midnight
air.
    About two seconds later a good-sized chunk of the Tendo house exploded in a
blaze of yellow fire.
    For a moment the group was speechless with awe, then Ranma quickly realized
something and spoke up.  "Holy shit!!" he yelled as he protected his eyes from
the bits of house sprinkling from the sky like rain, "Ryouga and Shampoo were
in there!!"  The Tendos and Saotomes were about to leap up and try to dig their
companions out of the smoldering wreckage when a couple of black silhouettes
emerged from the doorway at the uninjured portion of the house, not a scratch
on them.
    "Shampoo!  Ryouga-kun!  You're okay!!"
    Ryouga, a bit charred but otherwise fine, gawked at the girl of his dreams
as though he had just seen a ghost.  "Akane-san...  You're _alive_..."
    "Thank the heavens to that!" responded Soun as he dutifully inspected his
youngest daughter's condition.
    Genma looked at the blazing wreck of a house, fidgeting with his glasses as
he did.  "Er, what HAPPENED in there?"
    Ryouga opened his mouth and was speedily interrupted by the somewhat
unhappy China-girl standing at his side.  "Ryouga went little overboard and
vaporize monster.  Left nothing for Shampoo!"
    Soun looked up from his daughter and eyed Ryouga apprehensively.  "Did you
HAVE to blow up my house in the process?!"
    Ryouga clapped the dirt from his hands, a look of satisfaction crossing his
face regardless of the complaints being hurtled at him.  "Sorry about your
house, Mr. Tendo," he said as he glanced back at the weakening blaze
encompassing part of the structure, "but it was necessary to get the job done.
At least we won't be seeing that thing again."
 
    The room was pitch black, not a beam of light entering it.  That wasn't to
say that the Hunter couldn't see; far from it, the Hunter could see every
outline of the room in exquisite detail.  The darkness came from the abscence
of living heat sources, only the faint glow of the heat still radiating from
above it.  The Predator tried to get to its feet and found that the world was
slowly beginning to spin violently around it once more -- the blow to its neck
was very little when compared to the successive attacks brought on by the two
humans.  Fortunately, with all their strength, they still weren't able to break
any of its limbs or cause any non-reperable damage, but without any immediate
medical attention it wasn't going to stand a chance against the combined group
waiting for it outside.
    A quick sweep of its own body showed the neon-green palor of its blood
quickly dribbling from a series of wounds and bruises, a small puddle of it
coagulating on the floor; nothing it hadn't recieved in the past.  And with all
the powerful blows laid upon it from the combined assault of the two its weapon
systems were still pretty much intact -- bits of its armor were cracked, its
spear had lost its sharp tip and its pulse cannon's auto- targeting systems had
become misaligned, but it main arsenal was still quite functional.
    How had it come to end up here, wherever 'here' was? it wondered as it
retracted the long shaft of the spear into a two-foot rod and replaced it in
its holster.  It tried to retrace the steps of the battle : the two humans it
had fought earlier in the evening had decided to repay to Hunter in kind and
due to its lack of orientation it couldn't effectively fight back.  It had been
forced to take the blows as it tried to move away, but the twosome refused to
let it space itself very far and continued to batter it like a pinata.  Had
they continued unimpeded they may have very well killed it, but the Hunter was
not without its escape mechanisms and a quick placed flash-bomb enabled it to
slip out of their grasp.
    Then something strange took place.  The Predator had originally intended to
use the impending confusion to roll away, reorganize itself and retaliate.  It
had just pulled itself to its feet using the railing on the staircase, when
from behind it came the bellowing of the male.
    "SHISHI HOKOUDAN!!"  The Hunter replayed the phrase over and over in its
helmet, a small black bar displaying a series of oscillating red lines on its
viewscreen to show tone and voice pattern.  Whatever meaning laid behind the
words the Predator couldn't say, but with the completion of the call came a
dazzling flash of yellow and the force of a dozen freight trains. The terrain
beneath it, over it, around it shattered and the Predator was violently blasted
forward into the rapidly disintegrating staircase.
    The sensation of falling.  And then it ended up here.
    The sound of metal sliding along metal came from the light armor flanking
the Hunter's left thigh, and a small kit of some sort slid to attention,
revealing an array of medical-style items within, although they appeared to be
fashioned more like survival gear than the tools of a doctor, bearing
viscious-looking hooks and other quick-fix attachments that no being would ever
use unless in extreme cases of emergency.  Running its strong, meaty hand
across the kit the fingers gripped around a large silver syringe and pulled it
from its case, a two-inch needle automatically jutting from the front end; a
thin stream of clear liquid sprayed from the hypodermic, indicating the nozzle
was clean and ready to be used for whatever purposes intended.  This would be
rather painful, but if it remained in its current state it would either pass
out and die from prolonged blood-loss or the Prey would simply come down and
rip it to bits.
    No more time for thinking.  Action was required.
    Holding the long syringe above its heart, fingers coiled around the silvery
grips, thumb poised to inject the fluid, the Predator readied itself.  This
would be _extremely_ painful...
 
    "AAAHH, my beautiful HOUSE!"
    Kasumi patted her weeping father on the back comfortingly.  "Don't worry,
Father, the insurance will pay for it like usual."
    "Good thing Ryouga blew up the part without a second floor above it," Genma
said as he sifted through the wreckage, "As it is we'll simply have to replace
the staircase."
    "AND the roof," commented Nabiki as she looked up at the open sky,
crutching her younger sister along.
    Ryouga, Ranma and Shampoo searched the debris along with Genma, prepared to
defend themselves in case of a sneak attack; to their surprise none had come as
of yet.  "Jeeze, Ryouga," noted Ranma, "You must have totally _atomized_ that
thing.  I'm surprised we haven't found a body yet."
    Ryouga nodded in agreement.  "I was pissed off, but I didn't think I put
THAT much power into it."
    The group continued to search the mess but nothing turned up. Ranma
chortled a little to himself : Cologne's 'ultimate Predator' certainly hadn't
lived up to its name.  Granted, it HAD done a lot of damage, but all the group
had to do was gang up on it and it hadn't stood a chance.  Just another
monster.  It was a _strong_ one, but in the end it was just another monster.
    "I don't get it."  Genma scratched his head and examined the wreckage with
a raised eyebrow.  "There SHOULD at least be SOMETHING around here."
    "You don't suppose it was able to escape, do you?"
    Ryouga stopped his digging and looked at Ranma exhasperated. "Escape??  No
chance of it, I caught it right in the middle of my chi-blast!  If it went
ANYWHERE it would be right through the dirt under the staircase and straight to
hell."  He pointed to the ground beneath him to emphasize his point.
    Soun looked up from his weeping and looked at Ryouga with immediate worry.
"Under the staircase?" he asked, "But that's where the basement is--"
 
------------------------End  -  Step  Three----------------------
 

                Step  Four  -  Bagging  the  Prey
 
    The pain was immeasurable, searing through its chest like a branding iron
applied to the heart and setting all its senses on fire.  The clouds lifted
from its mind, the aches left its wounds, and the Predator was whole once more,
although even with its stalwart resilience it could not repress the urge to cry
out at the intensity of the pain.
    The Prey would hear.  If there had been any question as to its livelihood
they would be answered in the scope of a second.  Then it could not give them a
second to respond, it would have to act immediately.
    Utilizing its newfound strength the Hunter leapt upward at the entrance and
smashed through the wooden planks hiding the entrance to its temporary
sanctuary into the cold air of the open night.  Its attack was well applied :
it had caught someone unawares, the young male it had stalked earlier in the
night.  The force of its impact was enough to knock him into the air and bring
him to a hard landing on his shoulder, the sound of crunching bone resonating
louder than the snapping of the wooden floor panels he had impacted upon.
    But there was no time to inspect the human's condition, for there were more
at hand.  The Predator quickly looked for its next Target and found him, the
one closest to it, caught totally by surprise by the sudden appearance of the
Hunter.
    An excellent situation to take advantage of.
 
    "POP!!"
    "Saotome-kun!"
    Genma's attention was split sharply between Ryouga's crashing into the
ground and the seven-foot-tall extraterrestrial that was two-feet away from him
and currently closing the gap with unbelievable speed.  Genma was surprised
that he was able to bring his arms down fast enough to divert the fist that was
being driven at his gut.  Unfortunately he had no more hands left to stop the
other fist that swung simultaneously at his face.  Stars flew before his eyes
as Genma took a powerful blow to the head and went sliding across the house's
splintered deck and onto the grass of the yard.
    The next target in line was Shampoo, who had been standing right next to
Genma before he was ejected from the premises.  The monster was turned away
from her, she had the chance to deliver a blow to its backside.  But fueled by
a power it hadn't had before its speed surpassed her own and it quickly
delivered a reverse kick, striking her in the chest and throwing her off her
feet.
    In the passing of only three seconds most of the party was already brought
down.  This thing was pretty strong after all, Ranma thought, but those three
seconds had been enough for him to make his move.  Ranma dove at the monster
with a leg extended and caught it across its helmet, forcing it to stagger to
the side.  The creature recovered quickly, though, and swatted Ranma aside with
its arm.  The blow was powerful, but nothing that Ranma couldn't resist, and as
soon as his feet touched ground he swung out his right leg and swept the
monster's feet out from under it; the thing immediately toppled over and Ranma
was on it in a flash.
    "Let's see how tough you REALLY are, you bastard!!  TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!!"
A hundred blows smashed into the alien's gut in the span of a single second,
the picture of Ranma's hand appearing more like the alien's invisibility field
than a solid fist.  The blinding succession punches pushed the creature into
the floorboards, wood cracking around them and splinters flying everywhere.
    To Ranma's utter surprise the monster looked as though the blows hadn't
even been delivered.  It hadn't flinched, grunted, or responded in any way to
the impossibly-quick attack, other than swatting its hands together and cuffing
him on both sides of the head.  Ranma's impending lapse of disorientation was
enough for the alien to punch upward, landing Ranma squarely on the jaw and
driving him head-over-heels into the Tendo living room.
    "Ugh..." Ranma pulled himself up out of the furniture that he had slid
through on his way to a complete stop, spitting out some blood and, to his
chagrin, a tooth.  "Dammit, you're a strong one..."  Intermident clicking
bathed over a low growl was the only response he got, the alien climbing to its
feet and flashing the cruel claws mounted on its wrists.
    The sound of trudging footsteps came from behind it.  The monster turned to
discover it had been surrounded by the combined force of Ryouga, Soun, Shampoo,
Genma and Ranma.  Of the group only Mr. Tendo was without injury, but the
others looked as though they were ready for a fight regardless of their
respective physical conditions.
 
    It was exhilarating.  That was the only way to describe the sensations it
felt now, the combination of physical pain, the fire still burning throughout
its body from the hypertrichordrazine compound it had injected into itself
earlier, the taste of its own blood as it sifted through its mouth, the
impending anticipation of battle -- this was what the Predator's life was all
about.
    And the prize : the head of the intended Prey, accompanied by the bonus
heads of his companions.  What a fantastic Hunt this was turning out to be.
 
    "Get it!!"
    Ranma and the team of four simultaneously charged the alien from all sides.
All they had to do was gang up on it; there was absolutely no chance of it
winning now.
    The creature's hand quickly moved to its side and removed a two-foot-long
metal rod, holding the seemingly-functionless stick out before it.  With a
sharp CHINK long beams of metal sprung from the handle and an eight-foot-long
shaft had been created.
    As they came within a four-foot radius of the beast the five attackers were
punched back at the same time, the alien kneeling to the ground and spinning
the large staff above its head as they approached.  Had the blade still been
attached it would have skewered them all at once; as it was each member of the
group was slammed backwards and went tumbling in separate directions.
    Ryouga was the closest to the thing as he fell.  He had been able to adjust
himself to roll to his feet from the blow, but as soon as he had planted
himself firmly on the ground it was immediately pulled out from under him with
a strong kick to the head.
    "HYAAAA!!"  Genma leapt from out of the sky and dove feet- first into the
alien's helmet, trying to get it to lose its footing so that the team could
once-again group up on it.  The alien was not shaken by the attack, however,
and before Ryouga's toppling form could drop too far to the ground the monster
took him by the hair and swung him into Genma.  The two went crashing together
and flew into the kitchen, the smashing of cooking equipment and utensils
coming from within.
    "Saotome-kun!!"  Soun bristled with anger at the monstrosity that had
injured his friend and made a flying kick at the alien's position.
    The creature retrieved a short tube-shaped weapon from its arsenal and had
it aimed at Soun before he had completed half his distance.  With a pull of the
trigger Soun was snapped back sharply as a wide, tightly-strung net enveloped
him and thrust him back towards the far wall.  He was slammed against the
surface with great force, a series of hooks along the net's edge latching onto
the wall and tightening their grip on him, digging into his skin.
    "Father!!"  Kasumi and Nabiki ran to Soun with Akane in tow and the trio
tried to pry away the constricting grip of the net, but the cords refused to
budge from their spot. Soun was unable to help : slamming into the wall with as
much strength as he had had knocked him out.  "I'll go get a knife!" yelled
Kasumi as she turned for the kitchen, water still pouring from the liberated
piping system within.
    Akane quickly glanced at the monster's position.  It had maneuvered itself
into a confrontation between the two remaining fighters, Shampoo and Ranma.
That meant that neither of them were available to help release her father.
    "Let go of me, Nabiki, I've got an idea."  Nabiki loosened her support of
Akane's weight, giving her younger sister some standing room.  Akane clenched
her fist tightly; she wasn't as powerful as the other fighters in the group,
but she wasn't any pushover, either.  Throwing forward as much force as she
could Akane punched the concrete wall along where the net had attached itself,
and in a blast of powdered cinderblock the wall shattered and the net lost its
anchor, reflexively snapping together and caving in on itself.  Soun fell
backwards through the hole in the wall unconscious, the crisscross pattern of
the net cut into his features.  Akane dropped to her knees and clutched her
hand in agony, a light stream of blood trailing across the surface of her fist.
    As this was taking place, Ranma and Shampoo had their hands full with the
alien, attacking in conjunction and accomplishing little.  It was amazingly
powerful, receiving their punches and kicks as though they were light gusts of
wind, and even with their honed parrying and dodging skills they were hard
pressed to avoid injury from any of its attacks.  The most difficult boundary
to cross, however, was the fact that whatever was giving this monster its
incredible strength was also granting it unlimited physical endurance, allowing
it to press attack after attack after attack without stopping once.
    The beast lunged at Ranma with its huge staff, hoping to strike him in the
sternum and crush his ribcage.  Ranma slapped his palms over the speeding end
of the polearm and resisted the pushing force as best he could, the floorboards
beneath him tearing apart as he was forced back.  Deciding he wouldn't be able
to hold back the staff indefinitely Ranma quickly released his grip and dropped
to the ground, letting the monster stumble forward from the sudden loss of
resistance until it had accidentally maneuvered itself right above him.
    "SHICHYU RAKU CHISEI!!"  Ranma splashed his arms outward and caught the
ankles of the beast, forcing its legs apart and toppling it towards the ground.
Before it had completed half of its journey down Ranma was at its back, ready
to perform the follow-up to the 'Support Failure Ground Strike'.
    "HAKUDATO SHINSHYOU!!"  The 'Spitting Whitesnake Palm' flew across the
alien's back with blinding speed, neon-green welts forming from out of nowhere
as Ranma delivered a rapid succession of straight-handed spear thrusts to its
backside.  Slightly relieved when he noticed that the monster had actually felt
the attack, growling openly at the pain that had been inflicted to its person,
Ranma kept himself latched to its back and decided to press the attack again.
    A high-pitched whine came from the creature's shoulder, prompting Ranma to
change his mind and leap from its back.  As he jumped away his eye caught the
sight of a small shoulder-mounted gun whirl about on its turret and aim in his
direction.  A blast of white fire spat out of the shaft and barely missed him,
zipping past his left ear and smashing through the ceiling above. Debris fell
everywhere, a thick cloud of dust obscuring everyone's vision as it dropped
from the rafters.  Ranma leapt back from the dirt cloud and primed himself,
ready to strike at the creature as soon as the cloud of dust had dispersed.
    In a matter of seconds the obscurement had vanished.
    So had the alien.
    All that was present in the area was the debris from the roof, not enough
to completely conceal the creature had it wanted to hide underneath.  Shampoo,
who had been on the other side of the mess when it had fallen, looked at Ranma
and shook her head; she had not seen anything leave from her side, either.  And
there was nowhere else it could have escaped to, the exits to the room had been
blocked.
    Ranma grit his teeth and looked around carefully, checking out the terrain
to see if the monster had hidden anywhere.  The living room was a complete
shambles -- furniture destroyed or turned over on all sides, floorboards ripped
apart, a gaping hole covering part of the ceiling, another hole in the wall
where Akane was seated with her father and Nabiki.  The exit into the hallway
was being covered by Shampoo, the exit to the dining room covered by Ranma. It
couldn't have left through the hole in the roof since the monster would have
had to push through the falling debris to use it as an exit, and Ranma would
have immediately noticed that.  There was a chance that it may have become
invisible and was standing somewhere in the room with them, but the
invisibility was always accompanied by a strange distortion field, and in such
an open space there was no way it wouldn't have stood out, translucent or not.
    "Dammit!" Ranma muttered to himself, "Where did it go?!"
 
    The Prey was worried.  Heightened intensity of body temperature was
evident, the way they looked about nervously trying to see it...  None of them
knew where it had gone, and that scared them.
    The primary Target was without a doubt a fabulous Trophy to be won.  Even
with the pain-dulling effects of the injected compound still running through
its body the power of his blows had still inflicted sharp stabbing pains along
its back.  The compound would last less than half-an-hour longer, at best, but
by then this fight would be over.
    So what to do now?  The Predator surveyed the battle field carefully --
four potential Targets, one male injured beyond battle-usefulness, two females
that had sustained light damage, and the intended Quarry that had not yet
sustained any debilitating injuries.  It could not use the pulse cannon on
them, for they were too fast and would instantly scatter if they heard the
weapon charge up; the targeting system was not working properly, anyway, it
wouldn't have been worth chancing it.  It had already used its one net on the
injured human male below, and its spear was no longer effective for skewering
the Prey without its head.
    A plan of action was quickly decided upon.  Its arsenal of weapons was not
yet exhausted, its strength would be at its peak for some time to come, and to
top it all off it had the element of surprise on its side.  Perfect.
    Now it was just a matter of deciding which of the Prey it would attack
first...
 
    Akane looked at the living room nervously : Ranma and Shampoo were both
standing their ground, looking about carefully trying to see where the monster
had run off to and detecting nothing.  The sound of the cold air wafting
through the open sections of the walls and across the drapes within could be
heard, bits of debris from the wrecked portions of the house still chattering
to the ground in small chunks, the creak of the floorboards as the wooden beams
slowly warped back to their original spots after being so brutally pounded upon
by the fighting that had taken place on them.  Each of these sounds could not
go unheeded, however, for they could just as easily have been the beast
slipping behind the curtains, scraping parts of the wall as it tried to move
about, walking upon the floorboards as it moved in to attack.
    She couldn't recall a more fearsome creature that Ranma had fought.
Certainly, there were larger and possibly even stronger ones -- the dojo
stealer, Herb, Pantyhose Tarou, the seven-headed dragon Yamatano Orochi -- all
were powerful, none were so malign.
    And it was in her house.  She could barely contain her anger at such a
deplorable creature, invading her own home, hurting her father and friends.
    "Someone please give me a hand in here!"
    Everyone swiftly looked towards the kitchen, eyes wide.  Kasumi had just
stepped out, wet from the still-ruptured pipeline above the sink.  In her hand
she held a small butcher knife originally intended to cut Soun free of his
bonds; whatever had kept her in the kitchen all this time had caused her to
forget that she was carrying it.
 
    Movement.  The Hunter looked at the source.  The tall female human.
 
    "Kasumi, don't come out here!!"
 
    She was armed with a small bladed weapon.  So she had decided to join the
battle; very well, she would count as Prey.  Attack her.
 
    Kasumi looked confused at Akane's request.  As fast as she could Akane got
up and ran for her sister, hoping to pull her back into the kitchen before she
would be in any danger.
 
    The Predator had another projectile weapon handy that would not give any
forewarning sounds, a sharp double-bladed bolt that was mounted in an ejector
upon its wrist.  And the Hunter had had plenty of experience firing it without
a tracking system.  Quickly it raised its arm at the new threat.
 
    Something touched Ranma.  Nothing physical, more like a sixth-sense,
warning him that something was about to happen. Akane was in danger.
    As fast as he could Ranma ran to her.
 
    The Predator fired.
 
    Akane was knocked forward into her sister, the two of them crashing into
the ground.  Akane's back screamed out again as yet another weight had been
thrown on it, while Kasumi had the wind knocked out of her from hitting the
ground with such force; the small knife clattered from her hand and slid across
the ground, falling through one of the holes in the floorboards.
    "Kasumi!" Akane called out with worry as she tried her best to ignore the
throbbing in her back.  Kasumi looked back with an expression of intense
concern on her face, although it didn't seem to be associated with any physical
unpleasantness she may have been feeling.  Akane looked back and saw the cause
of her worry -- Ranma was laying on her back gripping his right shoulder
tightly, his face wrenched in agony as a small blade protruded from his arm.
    Shampoo heard a click, like the pulling of a trigger, and saw the blade as
it sped through the air from its source right towards Kasumi.  She saw Akane
run towards her sister, not realizing she had placed herself right between the
two.  She saw Ranma bolt towards Akane.  She saw the threesome crash into each
other as the force of the metal bolt slammed into Ranma's shoulder instead of
Akane's back.
    How DARE it!!  How dare the beast hurt her Ranma!!  Her injuries and the
insult brought upon her were one thing, but to harm her husband...
    Shampoo wanted to cry out Ranma's name, to see if he was alright, to tend
his wound.  But she couldn't.  As long as the demon was there Ranma would
remain in danger.  And she was the only one that knew the monster's
position.
    It was embarrassing.  The creature had used this tactic on her before and
she hadn't thought that it may have tried to utilize it a second time.  Right
above the ceiling lamp, where the light was least amplified, was a barely-
discernable field of distorted air.  Once again it was grappling onto
the ceiling.
 
    The primary Target had blocked its shot.  No matter, his injury would
simply make him easier to catch--
    An incredibly powerful blow forced its hands loose of the ceiling.  The
blow was strong enough to be felt, to create pain, and the following force of
smashing into the floor was likewise felt.  More strikes, all across its body.
The sound of rending metal -- its armor was compromised, the cloaking field
rendering it invisible was disabled.  A thick crunch from its side -- ribs were
broken.  It tried to get up and was forced back down again.  Quickly it tried
to take a random shot with its pulse cannon.  The sound of firing was heard,
along with the blast of an explosion above it and the light sensation of
falling debris.
    The blows continued, although reduced in intensity now, but still
incredibly strong.  More rending metal -- clanging to the ground next to the
Hunter was the remains of its pulse cannon.  If the attacker continued it would
probably destroy whatever weapons remained in its arsenal, possibly even kill
it.
 
    Shampoo threw as much force into her strikes as she could, disregarding how
tired she was becoming after an entire evening of such fighting.  The monster's
energy weapon had taken a shot at her, destroying one of the maces that made
her set, so she was reduced to putting what she could into single blows.  She
hoped that it would be enough.
    It wasn't.  The now-visible monster pushed itself upward with its arms,
resisting her most recent assault and knocking her back.  Before she had a
chance to react the thing had readied its staff and caught her full-length
across the solarplexus, her diaphragm reflexively emptying her lungs of air.
The force of the polearm continued to lift her off the ground and arc her
through the air, the room's image abruptly changing into blurred patterns
before her eyes.
    Then a distinct impact.
    Then darkness.
    "SHAMPOO!!"
    Ranma had just begun to get to his feet when her saw the floorboards smash
apart with Shampoo's body plowing through them.  The beast stood towering
above her, rearing its spear over its head.  Sharp end or not the alien looked
ready to drive it through her.
    The pain in his shoulder had stopped.  For that matter all the sensation in
his right arm was gone.  The limb just hung limply to his shoulder, a blade of
some sort embedded deeply within, its rear end still poking through the hole it
had created in his red silken shirt.  And on top of it all Ranma was right-
handed.  This battle was looking worse every second.
    Ranma pushed off the ground as hard as he could and practically flying
across seven-yards of floor slammed the monster full-force with his numb
shoulder.
    The monster was thrown away from Shampoo, the staff in its hands flinging
off through one of the holes in the wall.
    The sound of popping bone was heard.  At least the loss of sensation had
kept him from feeling his humerus dislocate from its joint.
    The two went crashing into the entry hall, smashing through a couple of
small tables and into the solid floor at the front door.  The two had barely
come to a stop when the monster put its hand to its side and pulled a rounded
blade from the circular holster on its thigh, small lights suddenly blinking on
its surface acknowledging activation.  Ranma, on top of the prone beast,
swatted as hard as he could with his left fist and knocked the discus from its
hand before it could get a solid grip on the finger holes; with a low hum the
blade rapidly glided down the hall and plunged into the bathroom door, jamming
itself tightly in the wood and staying put.
    The strike had left Ranma open and the alien took advantage of it,
backhanding him across the face and knocking him away.  Ranma was able to flip
himself to his feet, but the useless weight of his arm put him off balance and
he slipped, landing on his rear-end.  The monster had already gotten to its
feet and was over Ranma before he knew it, and with a swift motion of the leg
Ranma was punted headfirst back into the living room like a football.
    Ranma felt the impact of hitting the ground and tried to shake it off when
he felt that he had finally stopped moving.  The room was beginning to turn red
in front of him and as he tried to get up a warm sensation poured across his
face and a thick tangy taste ran through his mouth.  Then another shock, this
time in the gut, and Ranma felt himself flying once more.  As he hit ground
again he felt the blood over his eyes getting thicker making it harder to see,
but he had a feeling that he was somewhere near the dining room, for he could
swear he heard Akane calling his name.
    He would have to get up again, he couldn't allow it to hurt her anymore.
    "_RANMA_!!!"
    At least that's what Akane wanted to scream out.  But somehow her throat
didn't want to function, the only sound coming was a light rasp.  Ranma lay on
the floor of the dining room, barely moving after the monster had kicked him in
the stomach and sent him crashing through the table and onto the floor.  What
if something happened?  What if this was truly the end?  He wouldn't know how
she felt, how much she wanted to save him, how helpless she felt.
    She tried to yell again, and once again the raspy wheeze was all that
emerged.
    Yet Ranma still turned his head towards her.  As though he heard her call
out, after all.
    And with his one good arm he pushed himself off the floor and stood before
the juggernaut, a bloody mess, but refusing to be beaten.
 
    The Prey was practically defeated, yet he still continued to press on,
lumbering to his feet and staring defiantly at his opponent through the gushing
blood that filled his eyes.  One of the greatest features of the human race,
thought the Predator -- even after so much punishment he refused to give up and
let death come quietly, fighting to the end in such a hopeless battle.  The
Hunter was truly pleased with this one; he would have an honored place in its
trophy case, perhaps even a case all to himself with the skulls of his
companions alongside him.
 
    Ranma held out his good hand before him, palm spread outward. This would
have to count.  There were no other avenues of attack he could take in the
condition he was in.  He would have to rely on his own self-confidence.
 
    Enough playing with the Prey.  It was time to bring this Hunt to a
conclusion.
    The Hunter looked at the outline of the fine-edged claw on its right arm, a
pattern of black and blue to its eyes.  It would do the job nicely.
 
    The monster stepped towards him, the silver blades on its wrist flashing,
clearly reflecting the light from above along its surface.  Its
brown-and-yellow skin glistened with a combination of sweat and the neon-green
pallor of its blood, dribbling from the many injuries it had sustained in the
evening.  This was it.
    Ranma concentrated on the beast, a light yellow glow beginning to form
within his hand.
 
    The Hunter lunged at its Quarry, claws thrust forward.
    A heat signature had begun to form in his hand, from what the Hunter
couldn't say.
    It didn't matter.
 
    "_MOUKO TAKABISHYA_!!!"
    A wave of yellow energy blazed from Ranma's hand and engulfed the running
monster.
 
    The heat signature in the human's hand exploded into a fierce blast of
power.
    The Hunter's body felt as it had in the earlier battle against the other
human, an incredible force pressing against its body, the ground around it
ripping apart, the heat signature blazing across its field of vision.
    The Predator was pushed away.
    But there had been too many losses this evening.  It refused to lose
anymore.
    So the Predator pushed back.
 
    The monster still came.
    Ranma's confidence flustered.
    The energy blast fizzled.
    And with almost unbelievable momentum the serrated claws slammed him in the
torso.
    Nabiki screamed.
    Kasumi fainted.
    Akane just watched.  Her world was over.  She felt like it wasn't even
real, anyway.  It was all happening to someone else, poor soul.
    The blade continued, its teeth sharply grating along bone and tissue, and
back into the open air.
    Ranma couldn't feel a thing.  He knew he was being lifted off the ground,
he could see the monster in front of him, he could feel his shirt tear, but
there was no pain, no unpleasant sensations.
    The monster didn't stop with the final cut, however.  It continued to push
forward, carrying Ranma along with it as it ran.  The dining room sped away and
was quickly replaced with the kitchen.  Ranma glimpsed around casually as he
flew and saw what a mess the place had become.  Nearby lay a large panda with a
little black pig by its side, a refrigerator laying on the unconscious panda's
back.  So that's why his father hadn't come back out to fight; he had protected
Ryouga with his own body and took the brunt of the impact.  That would also
explain what Kasumi needed help with in the kitchen.  The two were beaten up a
little bit, but at least they were still alive.  Unlike himself, Ranma thought
amusedly.
    The flying came to a stop with a heavy blow to his back.  The monster
couldn't run any more : there was a wall in its way.
 
    The Hunt was over.  The Prey was finished.
 
    "What do you know," Ranma thought, "The old woman was right after all..."
    He then frowned annoyedly as he began to lose all sense : the water from
that broken pipe on the wall was beginning to clean the blood from his eyes
JUST when everything went black.  How ironic.
 
    What the--??  Something was horrendously wrong!  The Predator shook its
head and looked at the Prey again.
    Just a second before it had the human male impaled on its claws, beaten
completely and rammed against the wall.  Water was pouring everywhere,
drenching them both.  The fight was over, the Hunter had won.
    And then something happened.  Had anything damaged the sensors in its
helmet?  No, they were still functioning normally.
    Where was the PREY?!!  He had vanished, leaving a smaller human female run
through on its blades!  The female was horribly injured, apparently just as
much as the male had been, but there was no mistaking it -- this was not the
Prey.  There were no similarities : the heat signatures were completely
different, size and weight were much smaller, even the heart beat was faster,
although it was beginning to slow down, probably from all her injuries.
    Not AGAIN, dammit, NOT _AGAIN_!!!
 
    Akane tried to fight it as much as possible, but no matter how much she
tried she could feel herself coming back to earth, reentering that life that
she wanted no part of.  The sounds of her middle sister crying was beginning to
gain strength in her ears, the wreckage of the house no longer felt like a
dream.  It was all real.
    Even what happened to Ranma.
    Right now that monster was in the kitchen with him, doing who-knew-what to
his dead body.
    Dead?  Akane stood up and looked at the kitchen entrance.  He might still
be alive.
    She'd have to be sure.  If he WAS still alive he would need her help.  If
not...
    She could always worry about that later.
    Akane walked over to the kitchen door and peeked around the corner, with a
surprising amount of calm she noted to herself.  Water was still pouring from
the entrance, spewing forth from the vacated piping within.  She could see Mr.
Saotome lying still on the floor, transformed into his panda form by the cold
water.  He was apparently only unconscious, his body still rising and falling
from thin breaths.  Akane held her breath as she noticed P-Chan next to him;
what was HE doing there?  And hadn't Ryouga-kun been knocked into the kitchen
as well?  Perhaps he was around on the other side of the kitchen; she'd have to
check on that in a second.
    Akane looked a little farther around the door's edge.
    The alien monster stood there, Ranma hanging limply from its wrist,
two-feet over the ground.  Akane's knees buckled under her, her heart felt as
though it had burst in her chest.  Trembling, she looked at him carefully,
hoping for some sign of life and seeing none.  No breath.  No motion.  Nothing.
He... She looked like a rag doll, nailed to the wall.  Ranma had transformed
into his female-self and the beast was handling her face, examining her with
intense curiosity.
    Then, to Akane's total surprise, the alien removed its claws from
Ranma-chan.  Carefully.  And then placed her to the ground.  Carefully.
    Blood poured from the incredible wound through her stomach and back,
diluting in the water pooled across the kitchen floor.  Akane felt so tired.
So much tragedy had happened tonight; this had topped it off.
    Then Akane received yet another shock.  The alien removed her shirt, the
exposed wound showing clearly in the kitchen light.  Akane wretched at the
sight, bile filling her mouth, yet she was somehow able to resist throwing up.
The monster had no such problems inspecting the wound, and after tearing the
shirt into a long strip it lifted Ranma upright and wrapped the cloth around
her torso, blocking the flow of blood.
    It was trying to keep her alive.  After all it had done to try and kill its
opponents, it was actually trying to minimize the blood loss.
    Akane finally understood.  Why it had tried to attack her but not her
sisters.  Why it had only fired at Kasumi when she was holding the butcher
knife.  Why it had not finished off Mr. Saotome while it had the chance.  And
why it was trying to seal Ranma-CHAN's wounds when it had just earlier tried to
kill Ranma-KUN.
    As long as Kasumi and Nabiki didn't seem threatening the monster would
leave them alone.  As long as the alien didn't associate Mr. Saotome with the
panda he would stay safe.  And P-Chan didn't appear to be to be any threat to
it.  That left Ryouga, Shampoo, her father and herself.
    Akane looked to the hole in the floor Shampoo was still laying in only a
couple of meters away, and cupping some of the water running from the kitchen
into her hands she quietly slipped over to her and spilled the contents of her
hands onto her prone form.  Shampoo instantly transformed into her cat form,
remaining comatose as her body shrank into a small mass of white and purple
fur.
    Akane had no idea where Ryouga had vanished to, but wherever he was she'd
have to trust that he could take care of himself.  So now there was just her
father and herself.
    Trying to remain unheard Akane moved to her father's position.  Kasumi had
passed out next to him, and Nabiki was a complete wreck, still crying to
herself; Akane was surprised that she wasn't in the same condition, especially
after being the intended target, but if she wanted to try and keep the others
safe she'd have to hold herself together.
    "Be strong," she told herself silently.
 
    The female was functionally dead.  Her heart had stopped beating and her
lungs had ceased functioning.  Still, revival was possible if performed before
brain deterioration set in, which would start in only a few minutes.  After
that point there would be twelve minutes at most before complete death took
place.
    The Predator stood up and looked about the kitchen, then stepped out of the
room and surveyed the house itself.  The primary Target had completely
vanished.  All that was left was the huge, unconscious animal buried under the
cold machine, a smaller animal, identical to the one it had encountered earlier
in the evening, another small animal that lay within the hole one of its Quarry
had occupied shortly before, and the two female humans, neither of which seemed
to pose any threat after all.
    Simply unbelievable, every single creature it had stalked earlier in the
evening was gone.  COMPLETELY GONE!  Vanished into thin air, leaving nothing
but other, defenseless animals in their place.  And on top of it all was a
practically-dead human that it had mortally wounded without intention.
    The Predator looked back into the room with the human female's cooling
form.  It considered what it should do with her...  She was of no real use to
it, just a single human, and although the Hunter was skilled in many methods of
cardiological revival the longer it dallied the colder the trail of its Prey
would become.
    It then reminded itself that it was of a higher order than those it hunted.
It had the privilege to deem what was worthy of the Hunt, it had the right to
justify its acts of violence because it was of the higher morality.
    Its justification for violence, however, could be equally balanced by a
justification for mercy.
    A click caught its ear.  The Hunter spun around and caught a quickly-fading
heat source in its eye, on a doorknob leading into a small enclosed room.
Through the thin wooden door it could discern a single figure huddled within,
although the room itself seemed to be generating an unusually large amount of
heat on its own.  As quickly as possible the Predator ran for the door and,
readying itself for a possible attack, ripped it from its hinges.
    One of the female Prey, the one that resided at this location.
    Perhaps this evening would prove better than it had originally thought.
 
    Akane looked up at the seven-foot-tall monstrosity that towered above her,
looking back down at her with a menacing stare.  Amazing, her emotions were so
worn that she wasn't even scared when the closet door clattered loudly to the
ground and the alien found her crouched in the corner of the small room by the
clothes drier.
    Well, she was a LITTLE scared...
    It reached for her.  She didn't bother fighting back as it yanked her out
of the closet by her shirt.  She didn't scream or make a single sound when it
pulled her up to its helmet and eyed her carefully.  She just hung there in its
hand, ready to let it do whatever it wanted with her.
    She was tired.  Ranma was dead.  She didn't care anymore.
 
-------------------------End  -  Step  Four----------------------
 

                  Step  Five  -  Final  Lesson

    "_NOOOOO_!!!"
    Ranma bolted upward, sweat drenching his body in a riddling of clear
granules.  Suddenly the world was spinning like a carnival ride and without
even realizing it he dropped backwards, bumping his head against the hard
surface of whatever it was he was laying upon, gasping for air and finding how
refreshing it was to actually breathe.
    What had HAPPENED?!!  Everything was so cold, it felt as though the blood
in his veins had frozen solid.  And why was it so hard for him to see?  Almost
everything was black, although the vague impression of small beams of light
could be seen cracking along the walls.
    Walls?  Ranma tried to sit straight once more, slower this time to keep
from passing out, and once fully upright he was able to look about.  The room
he was in was practically pitch black except for the thick mist flowing along
the floor, glowing eerily from the the thin stream of light emanating under the
door.  Ranma looked under himself and noticed that he had been laying on a hard
block of metal standing four-feet off the ground.
    Chattering his teeth and rubbing his hands together for warmth Ranma tried
to recall how he got... here.  There was the fight with the alien, everyone had
been beaten except himself, he tried to use a chi-blast, and...
    Ranma, panicky, quickly felt himself over for injury and was somewhat
surprised to find a set of breasts on his body; strange, he didn't recall
transforming into his female-self, although there HAD been water present just
before the darkness had set in. Ranma-chan ignored her altered state and felt
around the stomach area.  A tight bandage of some sort, wrapped around her body
and sealing the wounds that were present on her front and back.  But simple
bandaging wouldn't have been enough to keep her from dying, not with all the
internal injuries she would have suffered from such a deep cut...
    Someone had saved her life?
    Ranma winced as she ran her fingers along the edges of the wounds on her
back and front, still somewhat raw; she didn't want to think what kind of mess
laid underneath the bandaging.  The other bruises and lesions over her body
still stung, and running her tongue along the inside of her mouth she noted
that one of her molars was still missing.  Finally there were a few gashes
across her forehead, but they for the most part had sealed themselves up.
    "Jeeze I feel like a complete idiot," Ranma scolded herself quietly,
holding her head in her hand.  The little ghoul had been completely right about
the monstrosity -- it had taken out her father, Ryouga, Mr. Tendo, Shampoo,
Ukyou, Mousse, and herself in no time at all, even with their combined skill
and training.  There was no telling what it had done to them after she had
passed out...
    AKANE!
    What about _AKANE_?!
    Ranma slid herself off the table, grimacing as she turned her body, and
tried to open the door.  There didn't seem to be any handle or doorknob
present, so she crouched down and took a hold of the ajar portion at the
bottom, pulling upward.  The door was incredibly heavy, and her body was barely
in any condition to lift the huge thing, but with a little effort she was able
to get it high enough to crawl out.  As she squirmed through the space she had
created for herself Ranma quickly noticed that her right arm was functional
once more; a nasty scar was carved into her shoulder where the blade had
struck, but at least her joint had been reset and other than some mild aching
there was nothing wrong with it.
    Where in the world--?  This certainly wasn't like any hospital Ranma had
ever been in : the walls were embroidered with intricate patterns that reminded
her of insect shells, a bronze-like luster shimmering across its curved
surface.  The mist across the ground was much thicker than in the room she had
been in previously, a series of hidden lights in the ceiling and on the floor
giving a deep-orange hue to everything in sight, although still not providing
much in the way of illumination.  The long hallway stretching out before her
was as humid as the little room, and Ranma quickly noticed that the cold she
had felt before was that of her own body; the actual structure was quite warm,
almost jungle-like.
    Looking about carefully, she walked down the corridor, hoping not to have a
run-in with anything... undesirable.  It was kind of embarrassing, walking
around in female form without a shirt, but modesty was not a concern at the
moment.  The air was thick and soupy, almost unfit for breathing.  A dull
thudding sound resonated along the walls at regular intervals, the sharp hiss
of an air vent spraying into the tunnel cutting the monotonous beat. Ranma kept
an ear sharply tuned for any sound of motion as she crept alongside the wall,
but heard nothing except her own footsteps swishing through the mists below.
    A large chamber stood before her, hemispherical in shape with the same
patterns on its walls as in the corridor.  Placed about in a diamond
configuration were four tall, thick monolith-style panels, spaced apart widely
and engraved with a number of strange emblems and symbols, and on the ceiling
was a dome-shaped skylight, radiating the same sickly glow of orange that
pervaded across the rest of the room.  Ranma looked at one of the monoliths
carefully, trying to figure out if it served any purpose and unable to make
heads or tails of the thing.
    Something caught her eye, an open enclave placed within the chamber wall.
There was no light emanating from it as whatever was inside was buried deep
enough within to be lost in shadows, yet Ranma could discern something there,
the faint reflection of the ceiling lights off of a shiny surface.  Ranma
rounded the panel she was examining and walked towards it slowly.
    A light blinked on as Ranma got within a few feet.  The sight within made
her heart skip a beat in fright, it was all she could do not to yelp out in
shock.
    She had found the alien's 'trophy case'.
    The grisly light in the mini-chamber cast a bright glow over the rows of
skulls lining the wall, making them look rather supernatural as they leered
back at her with empty black sockets. Ranma-chan looked at each one in morbid
fascination -- all were professionally polished to a glistening white, hung
from the wall by hooks or propped up on individual stands.  Ranma had never
before seen skulls like these in her life, probably animals or even people from
other planets that this 'predator' had decided to hunt down and kill; a few of
them were minorly damaged, a jagged hole in the cranium or perhaps a missing
tooth blemishing an otherwise perfect trophy.
    There was one shape that Ranma DID recognize however.  She walked up to the
small human skull adorning a pike and fingered it carefully, tracing the
contour of the ridge above the eyehole and down where the cheek would have
been.  Suddenly Ranma was overcome with total anguish as she looked it, a
terrible fear running through her body.  She looked at the skull some more, her
trembling growing stronger the longer she stared at it, until she couldn't keep
herself standing anymore and fell to her knees. Tears began to pour from her
eyes, her nose began to run a little, and an uncontrollable sobbing heaved from
her chest.  Ranma chided herself for being so unmanly and crying like a child,
but she really didn't feel like being very manly at this moment.  She buried
her face in her hands and began to cry.
    Was this Akane's fate?  To be decapitated and displayed for the whole world
to see?  Like some science project or the grand display at a hunting lodge?
And it was all Ranma's fault, for being so stubborn and pig-headed and
over-confident, for not listening to well-spoken advice, for blazing in like
some idiotic cowboy.  It was all her fault.  She had always meant to treat
Akane better, perhaps even tell her what she really felt about her, but now she
would never have the chance.  No more chances at all...
    "Ranma...?"
    Ranma opened her eyes and looked upward at the skull in front of her,
unsure of what she just heard.
    Her mind was playing tricks on her now.  Good, it would serve her right if
she was tortured for the rest of her life with Akane's voice ringing in her
ears.
    "RANMA!!"
    It was Akane's voice, alright, clear as day.
    "I'm sorry," Ranma pleaded to the skull before her, "I'm sorry for being
such a jerk to you all that time.  Please forgive me."
    "What are you babbling about?"
    Amazing, Akane's indelicate tone even carried from beyond the grave.  Well,
if she wanted to be that way Ranma wouldn't contest her this time.  She could
say whatever she wanted without argument.
    "Akane," Ranma started, becoming more sorrowful with each moment she spoke,
"I know I treated you so rottenly all that time, and I won't blame you if you
think I'm an idiot for acting so stupid--" She cleared her throat, trying to
keep talking without choking.  "But for whatever it's worth now..." Ranma's
voice almost became a whisper, "I really cared about you."
    There was just silence for a moment.  Ranma's eyes burned a little as the
tears kept coming, and she hoped that Akane had heard her last statement,
wherever she had gone.
    The silence was broken.  "Thank you, Ranma.  I care about you, too.  Now,
WILL YOU PLEASE UNTIE ME?"
    An awfully strange request for the dead to make... And now that she thought
about it Ranma could swear the voice was coming from behind her.  Unable to
repress a nagging urge to satisfy her curiosity she turned around to see Akane
looking back at her annoyedly, arms and legs latched onto the back of the
monolith she had been examining the moment before.
    She was still ALIVE!  A bit bruised and fatigued from the rigors of the
evening, but alive nonetheless!!  As quickly as she could Ranma jumped up and
tore the shackles off of Akane's limbs. The second she was free the two hugged
each other tightly.
    "I thought you were DEAD!" exclaimed Akane as she gripped Ranma.  "ME?  _I_
thought YOU were dead!" was her response.  After a moment in each other's arms
the two let go, blushing a bit as they realized how they were positioned.
Ranma wiped away the tears from her eyes, somewhat embarrassed at the spectacle
she had made of herself a short while before.  Akane must have noticed this,
and Ranma was thankful that she didn't start rubbing it in.
    A quick change of subject was needed.  "Where are we?"
    Akane rubbed her wrists.  "I'm not really sure.  This entire evening's been
such a daze, I can barely remember anything that's happened to us up to now.  I
think we're at that thing's... home."
    Ranma quickly panicked.  "Good grief, I HOPE not!  Shampoo's grandmother
told us this thing was from _outer space_!!"
    Akane blinked unbelievingly at her red-haired fiance.  "It's an ALIEN?"
Certainly not the explanation she had expected.  But now that she thought about
it that would certainly explain a lot... "Well, if it IS from another planet I
don't think we've taken off or anything like that.  After all, it seemed so
determined to find you..."
    "Find me?  I thought it already did that."
    Akane shook her head.  "No, no, it found your GIRL-self, but it doesn't
know that you two are the same person."
    So THAT's why she was bandaged up.  The monster must have thought it
stabbed the wrong person and out of guilt or whatever it stitched her back
together.  "And what about Pop?"
    "Same thing : it didn't know he was the panda.  I poured some water on
Shampoo and turned her into the cat, and the monster didn't recognize her
either."
    Ranma rubbed her head unbelievably.  "Wow, I never thought my curse would
actually save my life."  Then another question came to mind, one which Ranma
was almost afraid to ask.  "What about your dad?"
    Akane knit her brow in thought.  "That was the strange part...  I didn't
have time to hide him anywhere, so I put him in the clothes drier.  The monster
found me in the laundry closet, and I was pretty sure that when it opened and
searched the drier it would find father as well, but for some reason it didn't
see him.  Even when it was looking right at him!"
    "Now that IS pretty weird...  Was there anything in the drier?"
    "Just a bunch of clothes.  And they weren't even covering him..."
    Ranma pursed her lips; this information might prove useful.  "At least
everyone's safe," she commented.
    "Not everyone," Akane said worriedly, "I never saw what happened to
Ryouga-kun..."
    Ranma cocked an eyebrow in annoyance; Ryouga had turned into P-Chan last
she saw him and was perfectly safe.  Honestly, how long would this stupid
fiasco take place?  For a second Ranma considered letting Akane know exactly
what happened to him, then decided against it -- after all, there was still a
chance they'd get out this hole mess alive, and if she found out she'd probably
kill Ryouga when she found him, then kill Ranma for knowing about it and not
telling her.  "Don't worry," said Ranma, "I'm pretty sure Ryouga made it out of
the house safely."
    "How would you kn--?"
    "Just trust me," Ranma interrupted, not wanting to go any further with the
subject.  So everyone was safe for the time being... Well, ALMOST everyone.
"Akane, why are YOU here?"
    Akane just shrugged in response.  "I don't know.  It just picked us both up
and before I knew it I was strapped to that wall."
    That was weird... Yet another thing they would have to worry about that
later, she supposed.  "Come on, let's get out of here."
    The two headed down the long corridor opposite the one Ranma had entered
in, carefully skulking along the walls in the hopes of avoiding detection.  If
this WAS the monster's base of operations it could practically be anywhere
inside it, invisible or not.  The two continued to sneak as silently as
possible for what seemed like miles of hallway, jumping with a start each time
steam decided to vent itself from the wall, each time something made an
unexpected THUMP, each time a mysterious creak came from the floor.
    Then Ranma saw it, about ten meters up the hall.
    An OPENING! Beyond lay darkness leading to who-knew-what, but at least it
was an exit of some sort, no more insect-pattern walls or ominous orange lights
visible.  Amazing, all they had to do was simply walk out?
    Experience had taught her better.  The amount of effort that monster had
put into tracking and hunting everyone this night was more than enough proof
that it wasn't going to be so easy.  Akane came around the corner just behind
Ranma and immediately noticed the egress as well.
    "An EXI--"  Ranma quickly clasped her hand over Akane's mouth and put a
finger over her own.  "Ssh!  Yes, I know it's an exit," she whispered.  Akane
removed Ranma's hand and whispered back.  "So let's get out of here."
    "You don't really think that thing's just going to let us leave, do you?"
Ranma looked at the open door carefully.  "No, it's got something in mind..."
    Ranma put up a hand, directing Akane to stay in her place while she
searched ahead.  Slowly she made step after step towards the door, the ground
giving the impression of a rough metal grating to her bare feet; amusingly
enough, she had to admit that the mists roiling silently along the floor of the
structure were kind of cozy, almost like walking on an extremely thick carpet.
Each step brought her a little closer to the door, although her snail's-pace
speed made the trek feel like it was taking years.  Ranma kept her eyes (along
with every one of her other senses) peeled carefully for ANYTHING, no matter
how insignificant, and to her relief, and complete surprise, there didn't seem
to be anything out there.
    Without contention Ranma-chan reached the doorway and looked out, keeping
her back to the wall as she peered through the aperture.  The air around the
exit was cold as the night had been before, although no wind could be felt.
Ranma squinted and tried to make out shapes in the darkness but it was taking
her eyes a little while to adjust from the bright interior of the structure to
the shadows of outside.  A dull rumbling sound, louder than the constant
thudding that resounded within the alien structure, could be heard from all
directions with a reverberating quality that gave it the impression of echoing,
accompanied by what sounded like metal screeching upon metal.
    Ranma looked back at Akane, and checking around once more to make sure that
nothing was out of the ordinary she waved her over.  As carefully as she could
Akane walked to her, trying to be equally as vigilant.
    She was almost at the door, only five-feet from Ranma when the mists along
the ground began to churn about energetically.  And out of the thick soup of
clouds burst an enormous distortion, standing seven-feet-tall and looking down
upon her like a bug in a jar.

    THIS was unexpected.  Allowing the injured human female to leave was
originally planned; after all, she had no purpose in its Hunt, but the Predator
hadn't anticipated that she would attempt to escape with the other female.  It
would have to hurry and restrain the Bait once more before the Prey arrived to
retrieve her or else the entire plan would go to waste.

    Ranma couldn't believe it.  The damn thing was laying down on the ground
right in front of them, invisible and completely silent!
    Akane was equally shocked at the sudden appearance of the beast, her mind
suddenly numbing from the immeasurable scare she felt.  She noticed her knees
begin to buckle under her and beads of sweat could be sensed rolling down her
forehead, her mind screaming at her, telling her to run like hell.
    But the exit was so close.  If she ran away now she'd never make it back
home.
    The monster moved forward and began to reach for her.
    Forget fear!  Heck, forget all logical thinking, just go _through_ the damn
monster!!
    To Ranma's surprise Akane bolted straight at the distortion in a fury,
crashing right into it and only succeeding in knocking herself to the ground
hard.  The monster staggered back a little at the amount of force she used, but
that was it, no other damage.
    It was still enough for Ranma to act.  The alien was too enthralled with
Akane to even pay attention to her, not even giving Ranma-chan a glance from
its invisible face, a mistake she decided to take full advantage of.  As the
creature was rapidly regaining its footing Ranma leapt onto its back and
grappled its neck with her arms, then slammed her feet into where she hoped
would be the back of its knees.  As the legs reflexively fell to a kneeling
position the rest of the mess upward went toppling backward and crashed to the
ground, its body arced as the inflexibility of its back tried to compensate for
the strain put on its neck and legs. The beast yelled out loudly at the sharp
pain it must have felt all across its body.  Ranma-chan, safe under the
upward-bent back, released her grip and rolled out quickly, trying to avoid
whatever retaliation the monster was undoubtedly planning.
    "Akane!  Are you okay?!" she cried out as she quickly got to her fiance's
side.  Without answering Akane tried to get up using Ranma's shoulder as a
brace, but Ranma decided she was moving much too slowly for the danger they
were in and hoisted Akane over her shoulder.  "Hold on!!"
    The monster slid its legs out from under it and was able to begin pushing
itself up when Ranma ran over it, kicking it in the gut and she passed, and
flew out the exit at full speed, Akane holding onto her tightly as per
instructed.
    The lighting was weak but still bright enough to tell Ranma exactly where
they were; the rumbling and the sounds of scraping metal, as well as the chill
of the night making complete sense now.  "Jeeze, it's living in the Tokyo
subway system!" she exclaimed as she leapt down from the exit to the ground
ten-feet below and continued to run.  The area they were in looked as though it
hadn't been used for years, dirt and grime covering what once were operational
lanes of track, but the intensity of the clatter made by trains said that they
weren't too far away from civilization.
    A gasp escaped Akane's lips as she peered behind them.  "Ranma, LOOK!!"
Ranma turned her head to catch a quick glimpse and was completely awestruck; a
huge vessel, about the size of the Tendo house and shaped like a stealth
bomber, was comfortably nestled within the vacant tunnel.  Its surface looked
much like the armor the alien had worn and had the same insect-like surface
texture of the ship's interior.  Protruding from side they had exited were a
trio of long cylinders, probably exhaust jets for the ship, and the forward
crest of the vehicle was laden with spikes and huge barbs, making it appear as
ominous and threatening as the alien itself.
    "Holy shit, a space ship..."
    Ranma's revel was immediately cut short with the sound of heavy feet
scuffing upon the ground next to the ship.  Ranma spent a second trying to
focus her eyes to the spot but the area was too dark; if it had been hard to
see before the alien would become completely invisible in the darkness of the
tunnels.

    The human females bolted off down one of the long tunnels towards the
strongest source of noise, probably in the hopes of losing it amidst others of
their kind.
    This was INTOLERABLE!!  If the Prey escaped the Hunter would have to seek
out the primary Target all over again, and now there was that other female to
deal with.  The Predator admonished itself for coming to her aid, vowing to
punish her when the time came...
    Pushing off the ground with vigor the Predator leapt forward and burst
towards the two, a trail of upturned dirt flying behind it each time its feet
slammed to the surface.

    It was so close.  Ranma could hear its growling yards behind them, although
her own running jostled her enough to keep her from knowing if it was gaining
or not.  Under normal circumstances she could probably outrun the thing, but
Akane's extra weight compounded with the stinging of her still-knitting wounds
were slowing her down considerably.  The increasing darkness of the tunnels
wasn't helping any, either.
    Dammit, Ranma hated running from a fight!  But if she stayed to press the
attack there was a chance that Akane would be hurt, so her first priority would
have to be getting her to safety.  Besides, she didn't feel like getting in
one-on-one with that thing just yet...
    "Akane!" Ranma called out, the stale air whipping over her face, "Can you
see that thing?!  How far back is it?!"
    Akane, bouncing a bit off Ranma's shoulder and facing the other way,
squinted as much as she could but the tunnels had grown nearly pitch black,
much too dark to see anything.  "No!" she responded.  "Do you know where you're
going?!"
    "Not a clue!" yelled Ranma, "But there's a dim light a ways up ahead and a
lot of noise!  We might be getting near a terminal!"
    Sure enough, a pinpoint of light laid a quarter-of-a- kilometer before them
down the large tunnel, the only source of light in the surrounding
pitch-blackness.  The pitter-patter of Ranma's feet in the thick dirt and muck
of the ground echoed from the walls, coupled by the rising volume of her rapid
breathing, and on each landing of the foot a grunt would escape her lips.  It
was obvious to Akane that despite Ranma's tremendous physical endurance she was
already pressing her limits just by running; there'd be no way Ranma could win
if it boiled down to a fight.  And Akane knew that it almost certainly would...

    Another day, another yen...
    Mr. Ota Kabushiki rubbed his eyes wearily and quickly gazed at the dozens
of commuters ready to start another day of work, stifling a yawn as he looked
from face to tired face.
    Lemmings.  It was like looking at hordes of lemmings, preparing to make a
plunge from a cliff into the icy depths, and here he was standing on the edge
and looking at the tracks below. Fortunately, however, a long metal subway
would eventually fill the void before them and whisk everyone on their way to
safety; well, as safe as working on the floor of the Nikkei could be...  Ota
took a short glance at his watch before trying to shove his arm back down to
his side.  Good grief, it wasn't even 6:00 in the morning yet and as per usual
the subway depot was packed person-to-person, barely enough room to breathe
much less stand comfortably.  He was beginning to have enough of this stagnant
and deplorable routine, day in and day out packing in the cold underground with
others of his ilk like a bunch of sardines, only to end up going through the
exact same routine to go home in the evening.  And so it would happen tomorrow,
and the day after, and the day after, and the d--
    Mr. Kabushiki's subway-train of thought was cut short as he caught a
glimpse of something coming down the far south-eastern tunnel; strange, he'd
thought that track hadn't been in service since they updated the rail-system.
He craned his neck a little to try and get a better view, but others had also
noticed the motion and were stretching to look down the dark tunnel.  Perhaps
if he shoved a little...
    "OUTTA THE WAY!!!"
    A blur of pink and red flashed before his eyes, followed by the force of a
speeding truck.

    Before she knew it Ranma had reached the light, hit open air and crashed
headfirst into the throngs of people standing at the subway platform.  Akane
went flying from her grip and people went tumbling left and right, and after
rolling across most of them Ranma finally stopped moving herself.
    Without even giving herself a chance to breathe Ranma pulled herself to her
feet and whirled about quickly.  "AKANE!!" she yelled out desperately, "AKANE!!
Where ARE you?!!"  The swarm of commuters were flocking around her, gawking
shamelessly at her half-naked body and blocking any view Ranma may have had.
    "I'm okay!" came a little ways ahead.  After a little pushing and shoving
Ranma was able to get a glimpse of Akane picking herself off the crowd five
yards ahead, near the staircase leading out of the terminus.
    Ranma was about to force her way through the crowd when a sudden series of
screams and yells came from behind her.  Ranma bolted around...
    ...and received an tremendous blow to the head as a huge, distorted fist
slammed her across the face, knocking her through the surrounding masses into
the far concrete wall.

    Humans were fleeing in all directions from it, bellowing and making all
sorts of noise as they ran.  All the better, at least they were leaving an open
path to the Prey.  The injured female had given quite a chase, an entertaining
one at that, but would have to be of secondary concern : the Bait must be
apprehended first.  Then the other female's head could be taken.

    Stars flashed before her eyes as Ranma frantically tried to get back on her
feet.  The pain in her head was tremendous, it was an absolute wonder that she
hadn't blacked out yet.
    With effort Ranma-chan stood up, back against the wall.  The crowds were
all but gone, vanishing through the exit, some even disappearing down the
subway tunnels.  A few stragglers lingered behind, watching the nearly
invisible seven-foot mass squaring off against Akane as though it were a
television drama.
    "HEY YOU BIG BASTARD!!!  LOOK AT _ME_!!!"  Ranma waved her arms about
trying to distract the creature's attention, but it apparently was totally
unconcerned with her.  Ranma staggered bit, hoping to be able to get into a
position of attack, but on her first step she nearly fell over, bracing herself
against the wall once more.

    The injured female called out a number of times, whether the cat-calls were
directed towards the Prey or itself the Predator wasn't sure.  Actually, it
simply didn't care.  The only concern was getting the Quarry, and her wounds
from the night hadn't had enough time to heal, making her an easy catch.
    The two circled one another.

    Ranma looked at the one-sided match, helpless.  The monster didn't give a
damn about her, just Akane!
    No, wait.  It didn't want Akane...

    The Prey tried to throw a punch at it.  The strike was obviously much too
weak, the Predator didn't even bother to block it.  Her fist struck feebly,
bouncing lightly off its chest.

    Akane was just bait.  It wanted Ranma.  The MALE Ranma.

    The Hunter was a bit disappointed at the lack of struggle, but at least the
Prey had provided a good Hunt earlier in the evening and wasn't a total loss.
In a rather halfhearted motion the Predator took the woman's arm and prepared
to casually drag her back to the ship.

    Ranma quickly looked around the terminal and saw exactly what she needed :
a coffee dispenser.
    If it wanted the male Ranma...

    "HEY UGLY!!  OVER HERE!!!"
    Now that the Prey was in hand the Predator could afford to pay some
attention to the other female, attention which for some reason she plainly
desired.
    It looked at her carefully as she stood defiantly in the vacated area,
bracing herself on a large rectangular machine of some sort.  Her muscles were
tense, her heartbeat rapid; she was planning something.
    "YOU WANTED ME?!  WELL HERE YOU GO!!!"

    Ranma-chan's fist plowed into the coffee machine at her side, smashing
through the plastic covering and into the main dispenser.  The hot-water
container within exploded, and scalding coffee sprayed out.

    When the female had first made its move the Predator prepared to leap
forward and take her by the neck, getting in a quick, clean kill if possible.
But to its surprise her assault wasn't directed towards it.
    The machine was violated.  Its contents burst out, a liquid that registered
white on its infrared vision.
    The female was drenched.
    ...
    And it understood.

    Ranma-male stood there, hot fluids running down his body.  The stinging
heat was a godsend, immediately waking him out of his groggy state and
redirecting his attention from the pangs coming from within his body.
    Well, it wasn't going to need Akane anymore.

    The primary Target.  It had the primary target in its hand all that time
and it never even realized...
    The Hunter was furious.  It had been duped into rescuing and harboring the
very being it sought out.  This was complete and total humiliation.  This was
unforgivable.  The Trophy no longer mattered to it.
    All that it cared about now was seeing the Target DEAD.

    This was bad.  Ranma couldn't actually see the beast's features but
something about its whole demeanor had definitely changed.
    It seemed a lot meaner.
    The ominous staccato-growl of the beast grew from beneath its helmet,
immediately followed by the CHING of razor-sharp claws springing from the
distortion making up its left wrist.  With a flick of its arm Akane was thrown
from its hand and tossed angrily aside, sliding across the ground and rolling
to a stop a number of yards away.
    "AKANE!"
    The beast bolted at Ranma, a horrendous roar denoting its rage in full.
Ranma had less than a second to tear his attention away from Akane, strengthen
his hold on the coffee machine's inner workings and swing the whole mess around
him.  In a rain of plastic, metal and glass the machine smashed into the alien
and both it and the coffee dispenser went flying backwards and over the subway
platform onto the tracks a couple of yards below.
    "Hurry, we don't have a lot of time!"  Akane grabbed Ranma's arm and the
two made for the exit, sprinting up the stairs as quickly as possible.
Commuters watched the twosome curiously as they ran through the well-lit
terminal and up the second flight of stairs into the light and noise beyond.
    The first thing Ranma and Akane noticed was the sudden burst of wind
blowing across their faces.  It was practically freezing outside, the
newly-risen sun not having enough time to warm the morning air.  Not a single
cloud floated in the brilliant azure sky, although what view they had was
obstructed by the vast number of buildings standing tall in the Tokyo skyline,
casting huge shadows to the ground below.
    The second thing they noticed was the overabundance of noise. The working
day was beginning, and as was common in Tokyo the streets were packed
bumper-to-bumper with honking, screeching cars and chattering pedestrians.
    "Good grief, it's already morning?!" exclaimed Akane.  "How long have we
been out?"
    "Let's worry about that later, okay?!  Just keep running!"
    Ranma took Akane's hand and sprinted out of the subway entrance, shoving
through crowds of aggravated pedestrians and weaving a makeshift bee-line away
from the source of danger.
    Unfortunately the source of danger was back on their trail and getting
closer very fast.

    The Predator emerged from the hole in the ground and looked about; although
the number of heat signatures in the area increased exponentially following the
Prey would require little effort.
    There, several yards running away from the Hunter's position, the Quarry
and his mate.  Their flight was pointless, the throngs of humans around them
were slowing them down too much.  The Hunter, still hidden to the eye, leapt to
the swarm of primitive metal conveyances and began to make its way to twosome,
bounding from vehicle to vehicle.

    Shouts of confusion and fear were followed by the sound of bending metal
and shattering glass came from behind them.  Akane was tempted to look back and
catch a glimpse of the monster's position, but knew that when plowing through
so many people it was somewhat wiser to keep an eye on the ground before you.
    Ranma's breathing had become much harder since the chase in the tunnel, and
to Akane's uneasiness it hadn't slowed down his running performance; if he kept
this up he would burn himself out in only a few minutes.  Where was he leading
her, anyway?!
    "Ranma, where are we go--?"
    "This looks about right," interrupted Ranma.  "Sorry 'bout this, but it's
for your own good.  Oh, and try to hold your breath..."
    Before Akane knew it Ranma grabbed her by the sweater, and suddenly the
world went from annoyingly chilly to a strong cold wind to all-encompassing
freezing.

    Noise from all directions, so many heat sources in its field of vision, but
the Prey was still within sight, fleeing impending death at the hands of the
Hunter.  They were doing an excellent job of weaving through the hordes of
humans, but the Predator had the higher ground, running across the roofs of the
vehicles and was quickly gaining ground.
    What the--?  One of the heat sources, that of the human female...
    It was gone?!  The Hunter, still jumping from vehicle-to- vehicle, looked
carefully at where it had seen her last.  Nothing.
    To its own surprise the Predator resigned it as yet another loss to add to
the already-humiliating Hunt.  It couldn't afford the time to track her down
despite the overwhelming desire to tear her in half, the main Target was still
winding his way down the street and there would be no way the Hunter would
allow him to escape its sight as well.  Besides, if she shared her mate's
shape-changing abilities there would be no way to find her in the clutter of
this city.

    Sigh...
    Take the Hibiya-Dori Avenue exit, he had told himself, it'll get him to
Expressway Five _much_ faster than using back roads.
    Tofu sat in his car and sighed once more, staring at the car parked less
than a foot in front of him with what could be described as a horrendous case
of the doldrums mixed in with a tremendous case of apprehension.  Traffic
hadn't moved for fifteen minutes, and at this rate it would be at least another
hour and a half before he'd be back in Nerima.
    The preceding night was truly a fight.  First Ukyou, and then to his
surprise the paramedics had wheeled in Mousse half-an-hour later.  Both had
sustained terrible injuries accompanied by considerable loss of blood, and to
Tofu's disappointment his role in the O.R. was restricted to consulting the
doctors since he lacked the surgical skills necessary to help.
    Almost six hours of doing nothing but consulting and watching...
    But in the end it worked out.  Both Ukyou and Mousse made it through the
night and were more-or-less in one piece, out cold but stable.
    And now he was stuck in the thick of Tokyo traffic, moving at the blinding
speed of a tortoise and unable to convey the good news on their conditions.  It
would have alleviated some worry if someone had picked up the phone when he had
called from the hospital, but for reasons unknown no one lifted the line at the
Tendo residence or the Nekohanten--
    Through his open car-window sounds of commotion could be heard coming from
the sidewalking crowd to his left.  Tofu stuck his head out the window, curious
to see what all the ruckus was about.
    "RANMA??"  Yes, there was no mistaking it, Ranma was barreling down the
sidewalk, desperately pushing and elbowing his way through the morning crowd.
A worn mien covered his face, his body completely soaked in sweat; what was he
doing here?  And why was he shirtless and wearing all those bandages?
    "YYAAAHH!!"  Tofu inadvertently called out in surprise as the roof of his
car caved in, soon followed by the roof of the car before him, and so on.  Tofu
wiped what was left of his front window off the dashboard and scrambled to get
a glance of the street ahead, trying to figure out what the heck that was and
seeing nothing.  Well, he thought he saw _something_, but it was more of a blur
than anything.  Whatever the blur was it was moving from car to car, smashing
roofs all along the way and heading in the same direction as Ranma; or was it
moving _towards_ Ranma?
    The door on the other side of Tofu's car was suddenly yanked open, and to
his bewilderment Akane slid into the seat next to him, bruised, battered and
completely drenched in water.
    "Aka--?"
    "H-hi, Doctor Tuh-Tofu," Akane interrupted, teeth chattering, "Th-this is
going to t-t-take a little exp-plaining..."

    Ranma didn't have time to look back, but judging from the continuing
clatter and shouts of surprise the thing was still on his tail.  Good, that
meant that it hadn't stopped to grab Akane and his gamble had worked.
    It was the only place available at the time that he could hide her in, and
he was willing to bet that the alien wasn't going to stop and search around for
her when Ranma was so close.  Besides, if the creature could see perfectly fine
in the dark but couldn't locate Mr. Tendo in a hot clothes drier, chances were
that its vision was heat-sensitive and it wouldn't find Akane in a
freezing-cold water fountain.
    And now he was on his own, leaping over and through Tokyo's morning crowd
in a desperate attempt to lose some extraterrestrial head-hunter who was
probably only a couple of yards back now.  He had to get out of the crowds and
grab an open stretch of ground to run on.
    Through the corner of his eye Ranma glimpsed a back-road behind a couple of
buildings, one that was completely vacant and exactly what he was looking for.
    Ranma ignored the angry yells of the pedestrians as he roughly pushed his
way through them and bolted down the back alley as fast as he could.  Nuts,
even without Akane around to weigh him down he was barely covering his average
pace; his energy reserves were all but gone.  Unfortunately the monster had to
continue following him or it might just decide to go back and search for Akane
after all.
    The sudden sound of heavy scuffing feet accompanied by a low growl about
fifty yards behind him cleared his mind of that worry.
    Ranma continued to push himself, racing down the cold, damp service roads
between the brick buildings.  If he could just find someplace to hi--  Uh-oh.
    No more road.  Standing before Ranma was a tall solid-brick wall,
fifty-feet across and lined by other tall buildings casting foreboding shadows
upon the sidestreet's grounds.  The wall on his right had a metal service exit
built into its back near the center of the T-shaped alley-intersection, and it
didn't look as though it was locked.  If Ranma could get to it before the alien
appeared...
    "Somewhere out here."
    Too late.
    It was Mousse's voice, THAT Ranma had no doubt of, but Mousse was in the
hospital and NO where around here.  This must have been what the old ghoul had
been warning the group about earlier in the evening, about not trusting your
senses...  Okay, so not only was it invisible but it could also mimic sounds.
Big deal.
    "I'm not going to FALL for it, you big bastard!!"  Ranma yelled out at the
top of his lungs to the morning air, "So you might as well come on out and we
can get this stupid mess OVER WITH!!!"
    Silence was his answer.
    Ranma brought up his fists and looked around carefully at the wide open
space around him, seeing nothing.  Not that he was expecting to, but it
couldn't hurt.  The monster had obviously decided that it was going to play
with him a little before it decapitated him/ate him/whatever.  Great, then the
only reason it was giving him the extra time was so he could catch his breath,
making him a more entertaining kill.  For a second Ranma contemplated not
fighting back; perhaps it would see him as 'not sporting enough' and leave him
be... Nah, after what he had put it through that evening there was no way in
Hell it would let him live.  Besides, playing docile wasn't Ranma's style.
    "Are yOu PrePARED to diE?"
    Now THAT was scary.
    The monster had just spoken to him, and its voice -- weird, as though
different people were talking, their voices cut and pasted together to
synthesize the words the alien had wanted.
    "...answer."  This time it had used Akane's voice.
    "So it was a real question," Ranma said aloud.  "Yeah, sure.  But I'm not
going down without a fight."
    "Good..."  Ukyou's voice responded.
    It stepped around the corner of the alley, blocking any hope of escape.  It
was fully visible.  Claws were extended on its right wrist.  There was no way
to tell if it had fully recovered from its wounds in the previous battles, but
Ranma could see no evidence on it that said otherwise.
    It wasn't armed with anything else beyond its claws, and the time it had
given Ranma wasn't enough to get much more than a quick breath or two : it
seemed that while the monster wanted to have some fun in its horrific game by
lessening its arsenal and giving Ranma some breathing room it wasn't willing to
take any special chances.
    Ranma decided it was up to him to make the first move and burst off the
ground towards the monster.  All of its joints were protected with armor, so
Ranma would have to hope that a punch to the gut would disorient it enough.
    The punch connected but lacked the power do any significant harm to it.  The
alien grabbed his wrist and swinging him around its body flung him towards the
brick wall with full force.  Bracing himself for the impact Ranma landed on the
building side feet-first and immediately rebounded at the beast.
    "_SHOOTING STAR KICK_!!!"
    Suddenly exploding in a blaze of chi-energy Ranma smashed into the monster,
throwing it right off its feet with one of his most powerful kicks.

    The Predator yelled out loudly as the Prey flew forward at blinding speeds
and drove his foot into its chest.  The force of the kick was enough to throw
it off its feet and propel it across the alleyway, smashing headlong into the
wall at the other end of the T-intersection with astounding power.
    The Prey was so strong, so powerful!  He had to be admired, despite the
hatred that still coursed through its veins of green. Hatred?  It was an
amusing feeling to be directed towards a lesser beast, but no creature before
had left it with such mortification -- after all, on all its previous Hunts the
Predator had always come up with at least a couple of Trophies.  This time
there were none, and to make matters worse the loss had been the Hunter's
fault, when it failed to recognize the tricks that had been played upon its
senses by the humans.
    But this was not the time to be considering such matters.  The Hunter was
laying on the ground, woozy and out of breath from the attack, and the Prey
would not allow such an opportunity to go to waste.
    Ah, and he wasn't.  As it tried to get back to its feet the Hunter could
see the reds and yellows of the Quarry grasping a metal rod he had found on the
ground, preparing to use it as a weapon.

    "Oh, man," Ranma said as he approached the prone monster, "I swear that if
I get out of this alive I'm going to be MUCH nicer to Akane..."  He completed
that thought with a blow to the alien's head, utilizing the thick pipe from the
alleyway floor.  The monster dropped back to the ground with a grunt and Ranma
drove the pipe into its helmet a second time.  And a third.  On the fourth try
the creature decided it had had enough and rolled out of the way, Ranma's pipe
clanging off the concrete ground.
    The alien hunter got itself to its feet, suddenly towering over Ranma at
its full seven-feet of height.  It growled angrily at him, and to his
dissatisfaction seemed to be completely undamaged.
    Ranma desperately swung the pipe at the monster, a swing the beast promptly
deflected with its claw.  With a clatter half the pipe fell to the ground,
rolling across the ground and coming to a full stop at the base of a building.
    Just what he wanted.  Grabbing the alien's moving arm Ranma threw his leg
upward and slammed his knee into its chest, then sharply extended his leg and
kicked it in the head.  The monster staggered at the attack, then responded by
punching Ranma in the head with its free hand.
    Blood filled his mouth and a couple more teeth were dislodged, but Ranma
kept pressing forward and slammed his feet to the ground, spinning around and
flipping over as quick as a flash.  The beast was caught in the head by his
legs and sent sprawling backwards into the wall once more, discharging bits of
brick and cinderblock into the air.
    "Well, this isn't going as bad as I thought it would," Ranma groggily
though as he completed his flip by landing back-first on the hard ground.
Whatever had been giving it all its strength from the night before must have at
least died down a little.
    Maybe not..
    The beast was standing over him, claws ready, and drove downward at his
head.  Ranma quickly rolled out of the way as the razor-sharp blades tore into
the concrete, remaining totally undamaged as they crashed into the cement.
    "HYYAAAA!!!"  A pair of open-palms were thrown at its gut, causing it to
stumble back coughing, an extremely odd sound to come from its throat.  This
was annoying, to say the least; all of the creature's vital points were armored
-- the joints, the groin, the head...  Only the torso was bare, and it was so
well conditioned that none of Ranma's attacks seemed to have any affect.  To
prove that point the monster quickly recovered from the strike and kicked at
Ranma, the low WHOOSH of its leg narrowly missing him as he dropped back in a
makeshift dodging technique.
    "C'mon, you damn bastard!!  GO DOWN!!!"  Ranma kicked at it as hard as he
could.
    It caught his leg with both its hands as though the strike was nothing.
And he couldn't budge it loose.
    Ranma's leg broke like a twig.

    The Prey howled out in brutal anguish as the Hunter snapped his bone in
two, the sensation of his femur grating within its hands giving it immense
satisfaction, then drew him forward and punched him in the chest. The Prey fell
back, the breath already vacated from his lungs from his previous outburst, but
through some miracle he had kept himself standing, hopping about on his
still-functioning leg.
    Lame, with no physical strength left in him, still plagued with injuries
from the night passed...

    Tears were streaming from Ranma's eyes as he fought to control the pain.
His right leg dangled uselessly, fire ripping through his entire body alerting
him that something was wrong.  Dammit, he already KNEW something was wrong!!
He didn't need his body telling him anymore.
    Blood dripped all over him, and with every breath came a gurgly rasp.  What
worried Ranma the most was that the area under his bandaging was becoming
red-soaked; all the strain he had put himself through had undone whatever
surgical wonders the alien had performed for him.
    The monster punched at him again, and again, and again, and Ranma went to
the ground in a heap.
    Everly tenacious Ranma tried to push himself up once more.  This time his
arms refused to oblige.  "Oh come on," he thought to himself, "Work!  My life
is at stake here!"  His arms answered with a calm no.
    The alien stood a couple of yards away from him, popping its knuckles in
self-satisfaction; every pop sounded like the rending of a tree trunk within
its thick brawny hands.  It began to step towards him.
    A chance to breathe.  All Ranma wanted now was a chance to get a little air
into his lungs.

    The Predator was finally going to bring this Hunt to a close. It wasn't
sure if a feeling of glee or just plain satisfaction was the appropriate
sensation here, but after going through this mess and coming out on top one of
the two was definitely in order.
    What was that?  The sound of screeching, and--
    An incredible force caught it unawares and the ground was suddenly,
painfully lifted out from the under it in the form of a white blur.

    The sound had surprised both Ranma and the alien.  Apparently, however, it
caught the alien off guard more.
    A white Subaru appeared out of nowhere and plowed into the monster at about
sixty miles-an-hour.  And then the monster plowed into the brick wall,
immediately followed by the Subaru.  Rending metal and shattering glass was
heard as the vehicle was quickly brought to a full stop.
    Had someone come to his rescue?  No matter, at least now Ranma had his
chance to breathe.  And as he used this opportunity in full he looked up and
caught a glimpse of his saviors.
    "Aaah!  My car!!"
    "RANMA!!!  Ranma, are you okay?!!"
    Akane and Doctor Tofu climbed out/staggered from the car, pushing aside the
air bags that had saved them from going through the vacant front window, and
ran over to Ranma's side.
    "Good grief, Ranma-kun!!" exclaimed Tofu, "What the heck happened to you?!"
    "I-it's going to... going to take a little while t-to explain," Ranma
stammered out in response.
    Then, to Ranma's utter amazement, Akane hugged him.  "Thank god you're
alright!!"
    Ranma sharply winced.  "Aaah!  N-not quite!"
    "Oops!" Akane quickly loosened her grip on him.  "Sorry."
    The two helped him to his feet, Tofu looking at him carefully as he was
pulled upright.  His leg would need a lot of work, but more immediate were
those bandaged areas across his body--
    Metal shifted.  The threesome quickly turned at the sound and saw Tofu's
car as it was pushed out of the wall and slowly rolled away, revealing the
large, unhappy alien behind it, growling in its trademark guttural snarl
blended with a staccato of intermittent clicks.
    It was a mess.  Glowing green blood was splattered everywhere, most of its
armor was gone, its chest was punctured at various points by thick bone jutting
outward from its body.
   Yet it still moved.  And stood, as best it could, removing itself from the
wall.  Laying at its feet was a heavy mass of metal, the helmet that the
creature had worn throughout this battle.
    ">>THE H-HUNT CONTINUES<<"
    The monster's real voice this time, no synthesized conglomeration of other
voices mixed together in a makeshift pattern.  It sounded just like its growl,
deep and terrible.  The mouth... no, the entire face the words came from was
equally fearsome.  The head was large, ridged along its yellow surface with a
thorny ring of bone, and long black strands hung from its head like thick
dregs.  Like the rest of its skin it was mottled with brown spots, and inside
the deep dark crevices below its brow were a set of almost human-looking eyes.
Its mouth was gruesome, a lipless fanged maw with a quartet of small tusks
surrounding it, flaps of skin joining each pair at the top and bottom. From its
mouth poured the glowing green viscous that painted the brick wall.
    "Alright, THAT'S IT!!" Ranma yelled out angrily, pulling himself from Akane
and Tofu's grip with a surprising burst of strength and hobbling over to the
creature's position with fury.
    "_RANMA_!!  What are you _DOING_?!!"
    "You've been hounding me since last night, destroyed our house, nearly
killed all my friends and ACTUALLY ENDED UP KILLING ME!!  And frankly I've had
_ENOUGH_!!  _TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN_!!!"
    Before Doctor Tofu or Akane could hold back Ranma he had leapt forward on
his good leg and in an amazing burst of speed slammed the mammoth beast back
into the wall, trailing a cloud of dust behind him and throwing a blinding slew
of punches to its body and face.  With each punch the wall behind it pulverized
and crumbled, and for all its previous strength and power the creature couldn't
fight back, taking the riveting of strikes without contest.  Bricks fell, and
in a focussed burst of effort Ranma let loose with his finishing strike,
screaming out the attack's battle cry.
    "_MOUKO TAKABISHYAAAAA_!!!"
    Ranma's hands glowed brilliantly, and with the sound of an explosion a
blazing field of energy left his hands, punching the alien back with living
fire and smashing it through the thick brick wall.
    Debris flew everywhere and a cloud of smoke poured into the alleyway.
Akane and Tofu covered their faces to protect from the blast as wind whipped
through their hair.
    And then it was quiet...
    Only Ranma's panting and the sprinkling of what was left of the wall
falling to earth could be heard.
    "R-Ranma?"  Akane looked at him as he simply stood there, both she and
Doctor Tofu not knowing what to say, totally awestruck by the spectacle.  Ranma
didn't respond, but instead hopped through the gaping hole of bricks and into
the darkness beyond.
    "What is he, NUTS??  Wait here, Sensei!"  Akane left Tofu wondering exactly
what was going on and ran after Ranma, seeing him in the glow of the outside
lighting the otherwise-black room, standing over the alien predator, hands
outstretched over its head.  It was in terrible shape, bleeding from all spots
and breathing erratically in its unconscious state.  "Dammit, I should blow
your head off!"
    Akane was shocked.  Did the thing really push him that far?  Was Ranma
actually going to...?
    "Don't worry," Ranma said to her without looking back, "I won't." He
withdrew his hands and looked back at her with a weak cocked smile.  "You
didn't think I was really that far gone, did you?"
    "Well, I... I wasn't sure..."
    "Nah," he said, wiping the blood from his face, "I'm no killer.  Besides,
it saved my life once.  I might as well pay it back..."
    Akane smiled at Ranma in relief, then looked at the crumpled- up alien
prone on the ground.  "So what are we going to do about that thing?"
    ">>HE IS OURS<<"

    The two humans spun around in shock and faced the Predators.
    All seven of them.
    Each heat signature fluctuated a little, indicating that their cloaking
devices were deactivated and they had become visible to the humans' eyes.
    "Oh shit, not _again_..."
    The lead Hunter looked at the male briefly as he limped between his mate
and himself, then redirected its attention to a more important manner.  What a
dismal failure this Predator was, not scoring a single trophy in this Hunt, and
then being left alive by its own Prey.  Truly sickening...  The Hunt Leader
directed the others to take the body and strip it of its trophies when they
arrived back at the mothership.  The Leader then looked back at the human pair;
from their actions they were surprised that they had not been attacked or
assaulted in any manner, a customary action from most species that never ceased
to baffle the Predators.
    Still, they had survived the Hunt.  They were now Untouchables.  And as
such they deserved a Trophy recounting of their great survival skills and
fighting prowess.

    Ranma didn't know what to make of it.  Out of nowhere appeared seven more
monsters, armed to the teeth and in perfect health.  And there was no way he
would have been able to defend himself from another assault.
    Yet they did nothing to him, gathering up the alien instead and lugging it
off.  As each one left the scene their bodies shimmered and they vanished into
the same hazy distortion field that had hidden the creature before, until only
one was left standing in the room.  It looked much as the others did, large and
packed with tight muscles, its naked face bearing the same ferocious visage
that had been hidden underneath a mask for so long.
    From its belt the beast drew a thin silvery blade, the same type as the
ones that had been set into the alien's wrist-claw.  And in a casual motion the
creature tossed it to Ranma.
    ">>TAKE IT<<"
    The alien turned to the aperture in the wall and prepared to leave, its
body vanishing before their eyes.
    "Wait!"
    The creature stopped in its tracks and looked back at Ranma curiously, its
body becoming opaque once more.  "YOU take it.  I don't want this," he said,
tossing the sharp piece of metal back to it.

    The Leader's burly hand caught the blade.  He didn't want the Trophy?  The
Predator looked at the human, making sure it understood him correctly, then put
the blade back in its belt.  It was the human's prerogative, it supposed, as
well as its loss.
    They were such a strange specie.  Surely many others would have jumped for
the chance to claim an icon of their victory, of their glorious fight against
the odds and the great triumph, but he turned it down.  Why?  He must have had
his reasons, as twisted as they were, but to the Predator they would forever
remain totally unfathomable...
    Enough rambling.  There was no time to be stuck in such a fruitless
contemplation -- every second wasted on such thought was a second lost making
the kill.

    And then it was gone.

    And the Hunt was over.

-------------------------End  -  Step  Five----------------------
 

                             Epilogue

    "You DO!  You snore like a chainsaw!!"
    "You take that back, you lout!  Shampoo darling, tell him how wrong he is."
    "He tell truth, Mousse, I can hear you across city!!"
    "Will you jerks be quiet?  I'M trying to get some sleep!"
    "What you mean 'be quiet'?  You snore louder than Mousse, Ukyou!"
    "What did you say, you Chinese bimbo??"
    Ranma tried to shut out the noise with as many pillows as he could find but
it was no use.  Really, why did the hospital staff have to stick ALL of them in
the same room?  Sure, Mr. Tendo and his dad were lucky enough to get placed in
another ward, but that was because they were adults.
    So now it was almost midnight and these morons were yelling at each other
in the dark.  Ranma caught himself wondering if Akane was having as much
trouble sleeping.
    "Yo, Akane, you awake?" he whispered.
    No answer.  Ranma looked out from under his stack of pillows at the bed
next to him and discovered it was empty.  That's funny, where did she go?
    Sliding out of bed as silently as he could Ranma grabbed his crutches and
hobbled across the room.  Great, why couldn't the hospital keep the heaters on
during the night, it was FREEZING!  And the stupid hospital gown he had to wear
wasn't keeping him warm, that much was for sure; in fact, the only part that
WAS warm was that part of his leg engulfed in the cast.
    Shampoo, Ukyou, Ryouga and Mousse continued their arguments, fortunately
staying loud enough to keep from hearing Ranma creep out of the room into the
lit hall beyond.  He wasn't in the mood to have a platoon of lame, bandaged-up
invalids chasing him around the hospital grounds, especially since it would at
least be a couple more weeks before any of them could leave.
    Ah, there she was, standing at the end of the pristine-white hall and
staring out the open window into the twinkling night sky beyond.  "Hey," he
said as he limped over to her, "Isn't this place cold enough already?  Close
that thing, Akane!"
    "In a little while," she calmly replied, keeping her gaze to the sky.
    Darn her, she had been doing an excellent job of controlling her temper
since this whole disaster started; Ranma felt as though he had lost some common
ground they could speak on.
    "So... uh... You get to leave this place tomorrow..." he coughed out,
trying to get a conversation going.
    "Yeah, I didn't take quite the beating the rest of you got.  Daddy and
Uncle Saotome get out tomorrow, as well."
    "Jeeze, you barely stayed here a week!  And I've got to spend
who-knows-HOW-long here with the goof troop back there."  To make his point
Ranma thumbed back in the direction of his room, where noisy conversation could
still be heard.
    "Mm-hmm."  Akane smirked a little at this, and Ranma couldn't help but
laugh a little himself.
    "So what are you doing out here?"
    "Just looking," she said, staring out at the starry nightscape.  The moon
had since set and the city lights were obscuring all but the brighter stars in
the sky, not the best view of the night, but at least they were high enough up
to get a good view of the pretty lights on the city floor.  "I was wondering,
Ranma, about when that thing gave you that claw as a trophy..."
    "Why didn't I take it?"
    "Yeah."
    Ranma looked out the window to the stars above.  "I'm not one of those
things, Akane.  They're just empty murderers, and I guess taking 'trophies'
makes them think that somehow they're higher lifeforms or some other such crap.
I don't need a trophy to tell me that I'm something -- I know it, and my
friends know it.  That's all that counts."
    "Wow, that's pretty deep coming from YOU, Ranma."
    "Really?  Yeah, I guess it IS," he said, beaming.
    The two just stood there for a moment, unsure of where to go from there,
when some more squabbling from down the hall jostled them enough for Ranma to
talk.  "Well, I guess I'd better get going before they notice I'm gone and try
to hunt me down.  G'night, Akane."  Ranma began to hobble back down to his
room.
    It was so easy, Akane couldn't resist the temptation.  "I'd better not
catch you looking where you shouldn't!  You know these hospital gowns have no
back side, you pervert!"
    For a second Ranma stopped and stared back at her, and Akane considered
that perhaps she shouldn't have said that lest they begin arguing again.
    And then, to her surprise, Ranma smiled amusedly and continued his trek
down the hall without response.
    Akane couldn't help but release a sigh of relief.  She had been trying so
hard to control her temper over these past days, and now it looked like Ranma
was willing to try the same.
    Out of the corner of her eye Akane caught a glimpse of something arcing
through the night sky and turned to look out the window.  A falling star!  Not
as bright as the one she witnessed the night this whole thing started, but a
falling star nonetheless.  Akane began to think up a wish.
    And then stopped herself.  No, she didn't have to make that wish, there was
no need.
    It had already come true.

                             THE  END
 
 

*************
Author's closing words...
    WHEW!!  That was a piece of work for me!  I hope you folks enjoyed my
little experiment, especially since it took me all Xmas and January to write,
(so why, Benares, is it coming out in MARCH?!  Long story, I'll write a
fanfic about it someday... :) as it is my first attempt at story format rather
 than the usual script-type-stuff.  I'm considering writing most of my future
fanfics this way, so if anyone has any comments I'd appreciate them (I need
not say anything about flamers, 'nuff said folks).
    So what got me started on this one?  Well, I was watching WGN when Predator
2 came on.  "Boy," I said, "I'd like to see how the Ranma cast stacks up
against THAT thing."  The rest is history.  Fortunately whenever I needed
reference material WGN or TNT would amazingly play the movie (I believe it was
shown five or six times this month)!!  Additional reference was taken from
Darkhorse's "Predator : Race War" comic line.  Oops, that reminds me...
    Predator is the property of Twentieth Century Fox Ltd.; Ranma is the
property of Rumiko Takahashi and those wacky guys and gals at Shohen Sunday
comics.
    There.  Sorry 'bout that, but otherwise either of these groups might claim
that I believed that they were MY creations.  BWAHAHAHAHAHA!  Now back to the
commentary.
    When I started writing I was contemplating making it really dark and
actually killing off a few Ranma characters.  But no, I'm too much of a Ranma
fan to do that (at least not in this story ^_^;).  The rest sort of wrote itself as
I went.  Now the plot wasn't exceptionally great (let's be honest, it's an
action plot, little more), but I tried my best utilizing a psychotic alien
beast as the villain.  I had also considered using Kodachi and Kunou somewhere
in this story, but due to size constraints they had to fend for themselves.
    Quickly, before I head onto other topics, I would like to thank my band of
proofreaders; Heaven knows I need 'em.  Arigato!
    Now, future fanfic stuff : RanmaTrek II is in the works, but it may be a
little while before it hits the net so be patient.  Actually, writing this has
seriously burnt me out so ANYTHING I put out will be a while in the wait (no
more than a month, though, I promise).  I've also got a little love-story in
the works called Ranma 1/2 : Fleeting Love, but that's in the rewrite stages
and may be there for some time.
    Right, it's 4:00 AM, I haven't done my homework and its a Monday.  I'm
gone!  Oh, and to those of you who have written me fan letters in the past I
would like to give you a big THANK YOU!!  Your letters keep me going!!
                                        Jya ne,
                                        BENARES
 
 

A very special thanks to these two fellas that made such wonderful and exciting gift pieces to add to this story. Artists : Derrick Fleece and Raymond Haney