Insertion

Part 49: Ranma's Revenge

by Sean D'Anna

=====

Chibi-Usa landed on the ground lightly, a cold smirk on her face as she ground 
her foot into the tattered looking red cloak that lie in the dust. "Too easy," 
she muttered as she turned to look at her father.

"So it seems," agreed Ranma as he noticed that there was nothing left of the 
threat except the tattered looking cloak. He hadn't even gotten a good look at 
them. 

"Well, so much for the threat!" said the woman as she threw her head back and 
laughed cruelly.

Ranma paused and turned his gaze to the ground. An odd looking spear was resting 
nearby, it was strangely familiar, and yet he couldn't place where he'd seen it 
before.

+++++++++++++++

Angela was in a panic. All around her there was nothing but a red liquid. She 
thrashed wildly as she felt the thing gripping her from behind.

"Calm down!" said a voice inside her head.

"He's got us!" she replied.

"I'm not going to hurt you, at least...not yet," said the voice again.

Angela paused, realizing that the voice was Carrots. Ranma was holding her from 
behind, but not doing any more than that. "What's going on? Why did you save 
me?" she growled in reply as she seemed to relax a bit.

"I didn't, he did," snorted Carrot. "He probably did it without thinking after 
he saw that brat attack us."

"Well, now what?" snapped Angela angrily.

"Now, you just sit back for a minute. Your spear is outside, so don't bother 
trying to attack us. This is our little world, and you're in over your head. 
Besides, I've got to take care of a cocky little bitch right now."

Ranma released her and pushed away through the liquid like substance that 
surrounded them.

++++++++++++++

"Not much of a trophy," snorted Chibi-Usa as she looked down at the tattered rag 
at her feet. "Tell me father, what should we do with it?"

"Leave it for all I care," replied Ranma as he glanced around the area. "Seems 
you got both of them. Don't be so rash, I'd like to have found out who they 
were."

"Indeed," agreed Tochi as she moved up beside him.

Ryoga was standing as still as a statue nearby, frowning coldly at the scene as 
usual.

"Well, I suppose I could..." Chibi-Usa gasped in horror as she looked down. Her 
feet were sinking into the cloth as if it were made of liquid. "What?!"

"No!" cried Ranma in alarm as he moved towards her. 

Two black claws reached out of the cloth and grabbed the woman. She was pulled 
inside of the cape before anyone could do anything to stop it.

"Spore!" cried Ranma as he dove for her, only to impact on a solid surface. He 
punched down in anger and glared at the cape. "Damn!"

"What happened?" muttered Tochi dumbly.

"It's a damn hellspawn!" snapped Ranma angrily. "Shit! It'll have to come out 
sooner or later. Get ready!"

Ryoga nodded calmly and Tochi growled.

++++++++++++++

Chibi-Usa struggled against the claws that now held her by her neck. She held 
her breath desperately as the burning liquid seemed to seep into her body 
through her skin. The thing that held her was wearing a costume that seemed to 
reach out for her on it's own, holding her arms and legs down with chains and 
slivers of cloth. 

"I have you now," said the thing almost cheerfully as it lashed out with its 
claws.

"No!" she screamed, releasing a large amount of the precious air inside her 
lungs. Her aura came to life, burning brightly and forcing the thing to release 
her. Desperately she shot upwards, hoping it was the right direction. Shooting 
out of the liquid and into the air. 

The others stood around, staring at her in shock.

She opened her mouth to speak, and suddenly found herself surrounded by beams of 
power from her allies. The one her father shot tore through her chest with no 
resistance. "What?" she muttered in shocked horror. A cold laughter seemed to 
fill her head as she looked down at the large hole now present in her bust. She 
hadn't escaped the thing, it had let her go.

++++++++++++

"Now!" cried Ranma as he shot a powerful bolt of energy at the thing. Tochi and 
Ryoga responded by shooting smaller waves of power on either side of it, 
preventing it from dodging.

It had shot out of the cape, attempting to escape them with sheer speed; a 
deadly mistake.

Ranma smirked as he looked down at the fallen thing and kicked it with his foot. 
"It's dead. Easier than I'd thought."

"It was female," commented Tochi with her eyebrow arched. "Interesting. I wonder 
if it's anyone we might know?"

"We wouldn't recognize it if it was," snorted Ranma. "It probably came back 
looking for revenge. We should cut it up, and destroy the costume. Just to be 
sure." He pointed his hand down at the thing and smirked as the suit began to 
melt away from the body. He could swear he heard giggling. "No you don't. You're 
not going..." His words died out in his mouth as he looked down in horror. "No!"

Chibi-Usa was staring back up at him lifelessly.

"Destroy that thing!" snarled Ranma angrily as he pointed down at the cloak.

Ryoga growled and began to burn with energy, Tochi merely stood looking down at 
the dead woman wordlessly. 

"Oops," she muttered under her breath.

Ranma was about to release a huge blast of power, when a black object shot out 
of the cloak, taking him in the chest like a bullet.

"Die!" snarled the hellspawn as it tackled him to the ground.

"Fool!" snapped Ranma as his body burned with the golden power. He shifted 
aside, only to take the blow full on.

"Weren't expecting that were you?" said the hellspawn as it attacked again, 
connecting across Ranma's jaw.

"What is this?" gasped Ranma as his eyes went wild. He was clutching his cheek 
and staring at the ground in disbelief and hatred. "You! I'm going to destroy 
you!" His rage exploded, and his aura doubled in an instant.

Spawn chuckled. "Not if I kill you first!" His aura blasted out as well, dwarfed 
by Ranma's, but also tinted with a sickly looking green color.

"What the hell is that?" muttered Tochi as she stepped back away from the thing. 
Everything about it felt wrong.

"Me? I'm a hellspawn. In return for me leading the army of hell, I was given 
power, and the chance to avenge my death at his hands," said the thing as it 
pointed at the enraged Ranma.

"Don't just stand there you idiots! Kill it!" growled Ranma angrily.

Tochi nodded and moved into a combat stance. Ryoga grunted and looked at the 
thing for a moment, standing completely still.

Ranma looked at him. "Don't think you've been freed just because she died!" He 
backhanded his companion in his face. "Avenge your master, and maybe I'll be 
kind enough to kill you when this is over."

Ranma didn't waste any more time after that. "Die!" he cried as he charged 
forward with his claws extended. 

Tochi intercepted him with a flying kick that knocked him back. The thing landed 
on its feet though, and didn't seem injured at all.

"Don't play with this thing. Transform now!" snapped Ranma as he appeared beside 
her. 

She nodded and her body began to grow, Ryoga and Ranma slowly circled around the 
thing, watching it carefully.

Tochi's form shifted into a golden version of the Takibi monster. A huge 
dinosaur like creature with a spiky finlike protrusion jutting from the top of 
its head.

Spawn was assessing his options carefully. Ranma was the real target, but it 
wouldn't do him any good to attack him if the other two managed to kill him 
because he ignored them. "Damn. We need to get away!" snapped Carrot.

"Right," agreed Ranma as their situation didn't appear to be getting any better.

Angela was hanging back behind the crowd, with her spear in her hand. She 
narrowed her eyes at him and scowled. It was obvious he wouldn't be getting any 
help from her.

"Ingrate!" he called to her. 

She snorted and turned away, only to find Tochi blocking her path. 

"Where do you think you're going?" snarled the creature as it stared down at 
her.

"All I care about is killing him, if you manage to do it, it's just less work 
for me," she replied calmly.

"Oh?" said the thing with what looked like amusement on its face.

"Die!" cried Ranma as he fired a huge bolt of power at the thing.

Spawn dodged easily, but noted the rather large explosion behind him, as a huge 
section of the ruined city in the distance disappeared. "Not good. We've pissed 
him off."

Ryoga rushed him, lashing out with his fists.

Spawn swat him aside with a backhand, and the boy was sprawled across the 
ground. He got back up, as if nothing had happened and charged again, this time 
with Ranma moving in with him.

Spawn blocked fervently, barely keeping up with the pair as they did their best 
to kill him. He was fast enough to avoid taking any real hits, but not enough to 
counterattack with both of them fighting him.

"Damn," grumbled Ranma as he found himself in a stalemate with the thing. "If 
you think I'm going to allow you to escape, after killing my daughter, you're 
sorely mistaken!"

Spawn gasped as he found himself leaning forward in an all too familiar pain. 
His arm had been cut clean off from attempting to block, and he now had a 
familiar Katana jutting from his belly. "Cheater..." he gasped. It was oddly 
poetic that he had been stabbed with the Saotome family blade.

"Whoever you are, you should stay dead this time," growled Ranma as he twisted 
the blade. "My daughter won't be dead for very long, you see. I can revive her."

"How are you going to manage that, without this?" said Spawn as he chuckled and 
held up the Silver Imperium Crystal.

"What?" gasped Ranma in shock. "NO!"

The thing vanished in a flash of green light, leaving an empty blade. 

Tochi frowned as she glanced back, momentarily distracted from her stand off 
with the angel. 

"Damn," growled Angela. She twirled the spear in her hand, and raked it across 
the side of Tochi's face, causing her to scream in pain. Her claws came up to 
clutch her muzzle as she stumbled back away from the woman. "That's for making 
me lose him." In a flash of light, she vanished as well, in search of her prey.

Ranma screamed, waves of power shooting from his body as he literally exploded 
in anger. Tochi and Ryoga both stood silently, seemingly unaffected by the 
display that wiped out everything within a mile.

++++++++++++

Spawn stumbled to the ground, green blood flowing from his wound freely. He 
coughed and started to glow with the green energy again, the wound slowly closed 
up and healed. "Damn, that sucked."

"Well, he's on the run now," offered Carrot. "We have the Silver Imperium 
Crystal, and we've managed to take down three of them."

"So now what?" asked Ranma painfully. He glanced down and frowned as he realized 
that the wound had not completely healed. "What the?"

"Something wrong?"

"I can't heal this wound..." grumbled Ranma.

"What? Why not?" asked Carrot dumbly.

"Because I'm out of power," said Ranma in horror.

"Oh shit," grumbled Carrot.

Angela appeared in front of him in a flash of light. She held her spear down at 
him and narrowed her eyes. After a moment of simply staring at him she frowned. 
"Shit. I'm too late."

Ranma chucked at her calmly, resting with his back against a tree. "Well, I'll 
be seeing you around I suppose."

"The hell you will," snorted Angela calmly. "You're nothing but food for the 
army of the damned."

"You should know me better than that by now," said the dying thing as it smirked 
at her. 

"In any case, you're off limits for the moment," she snarled hatefully. "You did 
fail your mission though, which is a bit of a consolation to me."

"Bastard, you always were," said Ranma weakly.

"Just die," said Angela as she turned into a ball of light and shot up into the 
sky.

Ranma found this funny for some odd reason and the world slowly faded away. 
"Funny, I thought we'd had more power than that."

"Well, going Super didn't help us much," commented Carrot. "I'll see you when we 
get there."

"Right," grumbled Ranma as he finally blacked out.

++++++++++++++++

"Welcome," said Hild as she glared down at the pair from her throne. She had a 
cold smirk on her face as she simply watched them for a moment. "It seems it's 
already time for your test. I expected it to take a few years at least. How 
amusing."

"Right," commented Carrot lamely. "Look, who do we gotta fight? How many are 
there?"

Hild leaned forward, her eyes seemed to be laughing at them both. They merely 
stood there, neither one was particularly afraid or intimidated by her anymore. 
"First you must decide who you must serve."

"Serve?" said Carrot with his eyebrow arched slightly. 

"You must choose a higher demon to be your master. I understand Mara has taking 
quite a shining to you."

"The hell!" snapped Carrot irritably. "Look lady, we don't serve nobody!"

"That's right!" agreed Ranma. "I ain't servin no stupid chick!" 

Hild glanced at him for a moment for the comment, but he didn't appear to 
notice. "Really?"

"Heck no!" they both replied fearlessly.

She reared her head back and roared with laughter. "Oh! How wonderful!"

The two boys looked at one another for a moment in confusion. "Huh?"

Hild grinned. Both of them defied her completely, and totally without fear. 
"This definitely grows interesting."

"What the heck is she laughing about?" asked Ranma in confusion.

"I dunno, but I wish we could get this stupid test over with," grumbled Carrot.

"You've already taken it," said Hild calmly.

"Huh?" replied the pair in unison again.

"Why you foolish demons, you've just passed it," she chuckled. 

"Wait. You mean...that was it?" grumbled Carrot in disbelief.

"You were sufficiently vengeful throughout your entire time on Midigard. You 
also tortured a man to death, delivered a soul to me personally, fought off 
Mara, died for revenge, and were strong willed enough to be defiant to the Queen 
of Hell."

"Oh," said the pair dumbly.

"In any case, I now grant you full demonhood," said Hild calmly. "You should 
enjoy it, well mostly. You do have to live in hell after all. Although, you'll 
be doing the tormenting from now on."

"Wait. You mean we can't go back and..."

"Of course not. There are rules against things like that. You'll be given a 
First Class Unlimited Ranking of course, seeing as you're now a General."

Ranma and Carrot looked at one another for a moment. 

"Screw this."

"I'm gone."

"Huh?" muttered Hild as she watched them turn away. "Where do you think you're 
going?"

"Hey. The only reason we agreed to this was so we could kill that other Ranma," 
said Carrot.

Hild stood up and glared at them. "You don't wish to learn what it means to defy 
me."

"Hey! It was part of the test wasn't it?" grumbled Carrot as he glanced back at 
her. "You should expect this sort of thing from us. We passed after all, right?"

"How do we get out of here?" asked Ranma as he ignored them. He was looking 
around in confusion.

"I dunno. Is there a map or something?" asked Carrot. He blinked and looked over 
his shoulder, in a hallway just outside the room, there was a large map with a 
'You are here' arrow pointing to a spot on the thirteenth level.

"Man, we gotta climb all those stairs?" grumbled Ranma as he pointed the 
stairwell out.

"Well, I suppose so. This is hell, stuff like that is supposed to suck," said 
Carrot with a small shrug.

Hild sat back down and shook her head in disgust. Sooner or later the pair would 
return. No one could leave without her authorization anyway. Well, there was 
that doctor, and the weird Hibiki kid, but they weren't supposed to be here yet 
anyway.

++++++++++++

Hotaru scowled as she looked at the body in front of her. She had stumbled 
across it not five minutes after leaving to find her companion. She had found 
him.

"Damn you. Now I'm all alone..." she muttered. It wasn't a battle she could win. 
The destruction of the world would take them all with her now. That would have 
to do. Tears began to well up in her eyes, she'd long since thought she'd run 
dry of them.

She started to turn away, when she noticed something in the now rotting corpse's 
claws. It sparkled slightly and she bent down. Ranma was decomposing at an 
alarming rate, his costume faded and torn as if it had been there for years. Her 
eyes went wide as she saw what it was. "This is..."

She had the Silver Imperium Crystal. Somewhere deep inside her, a small glimmer 
of hope began to form.

+++++++++++++++

"Where the heck are we?" grumbled Carrot as he looked around. They were both 
standing in the middle of a hallway with various open doors.

"Level twelve I think. We need another one of those signs," said Ranma 
irritably.

"Hey. What's that?" asked Carrot as he looked into one of the rooms.

"I dunno..." muttered Ranma as he looked into the room and went pale. "EEW! 
Gross!"

"Hey. It's Hitler," muttered Carrot as he saw the soul being tortured inside the 
room.

He was sitting on an operating table, whimpering like a baby. A blind doctor was 
standing over him with his eyes stitched shut. He was giving the man a 
circumcision with a rusty looking tool. 

The doctor looked up at them and smiled. "Would you like to try?"

Hitler was muttering gibberish in German, looking at them with pleading eyes.

Ranma backed away, and Carrot shrugged. 

"Sure thing," said Carrot as he walked calmly into the room. 

"What?" gasped Ranma in shock.

"This is for inspiring Saving Private Ryan! I had to sit through that movie for 
three hours!" cried Carrot. "Even if it was a pretty good flick. Oh, and 
Shindlers List too! Both of them were too long!"

Ranma staggered back, feeling a little weak. He turned away from the scene. 

++++++++++++++

Carrot was still wiping the blood from his hands as they stumbled into another 
section of hell. "Man, that was harder than I thought it'd be. I guess there's 
more than just snipping to it."

They walked into the middle of a desert. It was a rather small desert, hardly 
the size of a mid- sized room. A man was standing in the middle of the room, 
chained to a large rock, mere inches away from a small spring. "Water! Please 
let me have a drink!" wailed the man.

"Huh?" said Carrot as he looked down at the pathetic figure as he groped for the 
pool. "What the heck?"

"Please kind sir! Could you scoop me a handful before you pass! I've forgotten 
what water tastes like!"

Carrot blinked. "Tastes like? Water doesn't taste like anything. It's water."

Ranma shrugged and scooped up a handful of water.

Carrot smacked him in the back of his head. "Don't do that!"

"Huh? Why not?" muttered the boy as he dropped his handful of water into the 
sand. 

The man dove for it, scooping up handfuls of dry sand in a pathetic attempt to 
catch it before it was soaked in.

"We're demons. We aren't supposed to help them, we're supposed to torture them. 
If he's here it's because he deserves it."

"Oh," said the boy in reply as he looked down at the crazed man eating sand.

"Come on," grumbled Carrot as he pulled on the boy's arm and led him away.

The next room was a maze, literally. 

"Oh now what?" said Carrot as he threw his arms into the air.

"Excuse me, could you tell me the way out of here?" muttered a ghostly looking 
figure who walked up to them.

Ranma and Carrot blinked and looked at the man for a moment. "Um. No?" said 
Ranma.

Carrot sighed. "No. Do it like this." He pulled a worn looking sheet of paper 
out of his shirt and handed it to the man. "Here's a map. It's pretty dark in 
here though." He pulled one of the torches off of the walls and handed it to the 
man. 

A look of complete euphoria crossed the man's face. "I've been wandering these 
halls for three hundred years!"

"Are we supposed to be doing this?" asked Ranma with a slightly nervous frown.

Carrot turned to look at him, catching the end of the map on fire, seemingly by 
accident. "Huh? You were the one who wanted to give that guy a drink."

"Augh! NO!" cried the unfortunate soul as the map burned in front of his eyes. 
He tried to grab it, but the argument between Carrot and Ranma heated up, and it 
was waved around just out of his reach.

"Hey! You're the one who stopped me!" snapped Ranma. "Then you go and do 
something like this?"

"Well, I didn't think you'd mind!" retorted Carrot as he tossed the burning map 
to the ground, where it burned away completely.

"Augh! The map!" cried the unfortunate soul as he dove for the ashes.

Carrot looked down at him and smirked. "See, wasn't that fun?"

"Huh?" muttered Ranma in confusion as he realized what had happened.

"I'm glad to see that you're getting into this," said Carrot cheerfully.

"Getting into what?" said Ranma in confusion.

"Never mind, let's just go," said Carrot with a small sigh.

"Um...okay..." said the boy with another shrug.

+++++++++++

"Our army?" asked Carrot as he blinked and looked down at the small demon in 
front of him.

"Yes sir, that is quiet correct. I was told there would be only one general," 
said the diminutive creature with a short bow.

"Only one?" muttered Ranma in confusion.

"Got me," replied Carrot. "Anyway, you say all these demons are ours?"

"Yes sir," muttered the tiny creature nervously.

"They have to do whatever we say?" said Carrot with his grin widening.

"Um...that is correct sir," said the demon.

"Wow, there's a lot," muttered Ranma in awe as he looked down at the horde. 

"One million demons sir. Quite impressive," said the creature cheerfully.

++++++++++++++++

Carrot jogged along cheerfully, with Ranma at his side. 

"C-130 rolling down the strip!" he called as he ran.

"C-130 rolling down the strip!" chorused the demons in unison.

"Twenty Airborne Rangers on a one way trip!" continued Carrot.

The demons repeated that line as well.

"Mission top secret, destination unknown!" continued Carrot.

The demon horde continued to sing the cadence. 

Ranma shook his head and sighed as he kept up the pace easily.

+++++++++++++

Hild frowned as she watched the army of demons tear around the tenth level of 
hell in a jog.

"I love you!"

"I love you!" 

"You love me!"

"You love me!"

She smirked slightly at the screams of pain that particular cadence caused some 
of the souls that they passed near too. They had already been there for about 
twelve hours, and already one of them was adjusting well. The other one would 
come around soon enough though. She hadn't finished with them, and she'd get 
around to it. They worked so well as a team. They also generated a lot of anger 
when they were stuck together; a definite plus for a demon.

She sighed and went back to her throne. 

+++++++++++++++++

"What do you guys do for fun around here?" asked Ranma as he looked at a group 
of his soldiers after they had finished their five-mile run.

"Fun?" asked one of the things. They were all relatively alike, things with 
leathery skin and horns. Mostly teeth and claws, with bad breath and evil glints 
in their eyes.

"You must do something," said Carrot irritably.

"Well, we like to torture the souls," offered one of them dumbly.

"We already did that," said Carrot flatly. "What else?"

"The unvirtuous young maidens are fun to visit," said another. "They're on level 
seven."

"Not my thing," muttered Ranma uncomfortably.

"We look to normal for that anyway," agreed Carrot with a slightly sick look on 
his face. "They might actually enjoy having us there, and we can't have that."

"Dere's da bar," said another one of them in the back.

"Ah! Now you're talkin!" said Carrot happily. "It isn't Karaoke night is it?" he 
muttered with a slight frown.

"It's always Karaoki night," said another one of the horde. 

"Oh, right," muttered Carrot. "Forgot where I was for a minute there."

"Bar?" grumbled Ranma with a small frown on his face.

"Yeah. I haven't had a good stiff drink since I got stuck with you," said Carrot 
irritably.

"We've had a few drinks," grumbled Ranma.

"I want a real beer damn it! Not that Sake crap," snorted Carrot.

++++++++++++++++

"It figures. Coors Light and Middle Eastern Beer only," grumbled Carrot as he 
sat with a green bottle of some terrible beer in his hand. 

"What's the big deal anyway?" said Ranma.

"It isn't really," said Carrot with a shrug as he took a swig and made a 
disgusted face.

A group of dead musicians were chained to a few chairs around the stage, 
listening to the Karaokiers butcher their songs horribly. Occasionally a groan 
of pain would float over to them over a particularly bad tune.

"So, now what?" asked Ranma as he leaned against the bar and frowned. "This is 
pretty boring."

"Well, you're supposed to try and get laid," said Carrot as he eyed a group of 
female demons that walked by. They were in various states of undress, and didn't 
seem to care much about anything that was going on around them.

"What?!" gasped Ranma in horror.

"What? Don't try and pull that honorable virgin crap on me Ranma. What's going 
to happen? Are you going to go to hell for sleeping with someone before you're 
married?"

The pigtailed demon blinked at this. "Hey...you're...right..."

"Of course I am," snorted Carrot. 

"Still..." muttered Ranma uncomfortably.

"Hello boys," said a familiar voice from behind them.

They both turned from the bar in unison.

Mara was standing there with her hand on her hip. She had a smirk on her face, 
and a bottle in one hand. "Don't tell me you're interested in those lower class 
whores." She nodded towards the group of demonesses that had walked by them a 
moment before.

"Just window shopping," commented Carrot with a small frown.

"Oh?" said Mara as she pulled a bridle from behind her back and looked at him. 
Her smirk grew into a full-blown grin.

Carrot was off of his stool in an instant, moving up beside her. "I'll see you 
around Ranma."

The pigtailed demon simply stared at him in a sort of disgusted awe. "Hey! You 
can't leave me here!"

"Sorry buddy," said Carrot as Mara pulled him away by his arm.

The instant he was more than ten feet away, Ranma found himself pulled off of 
his stool by an unseen force, after a moment he found himself sliding across the 
floor on his back. 

Carrot paused and looked back at him. "Oh. I guess I really can't leave him 
here."

Mara got a dangerous glint in her eyes as she looked down at the boy. "Well, 
maybe he can join us?"

Carrot frowned at her. "You got any cold water?"

"No freakin way!" cried Ranma in horror.

"Just a thought," replied Carrot with a shrug. "Anyway, this could pose a 
problem."

Mara pouted at him and swung the bridle in front of his face.

"Right," said Carrot as he started pulling her out of the room, dragging Ranma 
along the ground in the dust behind them.

"You jerk! Stop!"

+++++++++++++++++

Carrot took a drag off of his cigarette and looked up at the ceiling. An image 
of an ex-president's current activities could be seen. "You'd think he'd damn 
himself here with a better looking woman. Jeez that guy will do it with anyone."

The pig in the image with him squealed loudly.

Carrot looked at Mara for a moment. "Is it the pig that's damned, or him?"

"He is the pig. We switched brains. Anyway, I find it promising," commented Mara 
from beside him on her bed. "To think that it took so little to tempt him. Maybe 
someday it'll be that easy with everyone."

"Man. I hope not," grumbled Carrot. "I'd like to think they'd retain some 
semblance of taste."

"There aren't very many anymore. In-bounds are slow these days," commented Mara 
with a heavy sigh.

Ranma sat up from the floor at the foot of the bed. "Do you mind? It's bad 
enough you kept me up all night already!"

"Fine," muttered the pair as they looked away from each other.

"It's not like you couldn't have joined," said Mara as she glanced at him with a 
small frown on her face.

"Let him be. He'll come around. He's going to be here a while," grumbled Carrot. 

++++++++++++++++

Hotaru looked at the small dusty settlement and frowned. "Damn, not here 
either."

She started walking again, secretly wishing she could just fly around, or use 
the computer at the base to locate them. She started walking through the town 
and paused. She could feel life here, someone was around.

"What are you doing here?" asked a familiar voice.

"Well. Mamoru," said Hotaru as she turned to look at the man who was standing on 
one of the rooftops. "Hello again."

"What do you want?" he snapped harshly.

"I'm looking for Usagi," said the girl calmly.

"She's not here," he replied angrily.

"I know that. Why are you here?"

"I was sent to find out who you were," he replied. 

"That means I'm not far off," she said with a thoughtful frown.

"You aren't welcome," said Mamoru.

"I'm not asking your permission," said the girl calmly. "But I think you'll 
bring me to her when I tell you what I have to offer."

"Not a chance," he replied coldly.

"Not even if I were to give her the means to heal her eyes?" said Hotaru calmly.

"What?" muttered the man in shock.

"Her eyes, and so much more than that," said Hotaru as she unwrapped a small 
dirty cloth and held up the crystal to him. "Now. Take me to Usagi."

He growled and stepped back, unsure of what to do. After a moment of thought, he 
turned his head away and snorted. "Fine. Follow me."

Hotaru nodded and started walking after him as he jumped down and started off to 
the west.

+++++++++++++++

TBC...

Next Time: The Return of Sailor Moon?!