Chapter Five: Five New Allies

    Ran-kun couldn’t see a thing in the complete darkness that he materialized in. He blinked, trying to get his eyes adjusted, but all that accomplished was being able to see three patches of gray that could have been the others; then again they could be his mind making up things. He held out his arms in front of him and walked slowly towards one of them, and felt a great wash of relief to feel that it was indeed another person, one who he recognized on an almost instinctual level by mere touch. Without bothering to think he grabbed the arm he had found and pulled he surprised body of Ryouga into an embrace and kissed him on the cheek.

    He hadn’t realized how worried he’d been until suddenly he wasn’t anymore. Unfortunately the feeling lasted only for a split second, then he noticed that rather than relaxing, Ryouga was tensing up, and his arms still rested at his sides. He let go of the other boy.

    “Ryouga?”

    “Erm… yeah?” His voice was strangely nasal.

    “You’re the wrong one, aren’t you.” He amazed himself by how calmly he said that.

    There was a pause, and when Ryouga finally answered, his voice was even more muffled. “Yeah.”

    “Oh. Sorry.”

    The silence resumed. Ran-kun stayed rooted to the spot, not daring to move. Ryouga didn’t move either; he was too busy preventing an imminent nosebleed to do such things. Why would that give me a nosebleed? he wondered, but refused to actually think about it.   

    Ranma heard this exchange and had to stifle a bout of laughter. He pushed all of that aside and let his serious persona settle over his features and mind, essentially going into battle mode. Using his heightened senses, he moved towards where the voices had come from.

    Ryouga heard as well and immediately headed towards where he thought the voices were coming from. Quite miraculously he didn’t go off in the completely opposite direction, but he also wasn’t going even remotely towards the other pair and so, quite predictably, bumped into the other person who was also moving a little too recklessly through the darkness and probably would have noticed him if it weren’t for the fact that it was nearly impossible to predict where Ryouga, any Ryouga, was going.

    Ranma, after stumbling for a minute, shot a totally useless glare to the person he knew to be the wrong Ryouga.

    “Sorry,” that Ryouga apologized in a genuinely contrite tone, much to Ranma’s surprise.

    “S’okay,” he brushed the incident off. “Here, let’s go find…”

    Before he finished, however, the room was filled with painful noise and bright, blinding red lights. An alarm? was the immediate assumption of all four, and they seemed to be right; the lights were strobing, circling the room – which they could now see was very large – frantically, searching out the intruders, and the sound was that of a shrill klaxon, high pitched and impossible to ignore.

    The three fighters prepared themselves even as they found themselves blinded yet *again* by the sudden change in light.

    A new voice shouted something, and the noise suddenly stopped and the lights stopped flashing, filling the room with an eerie, but at least steady, glow. Now able to see, they gathered together, making a triangular defensive formation with Ran-kun at the center.

    Ran-kun, for his part, quaked. Oh, of course, it just *had* to be me… the center of all this trouble… brains of the outfit indeed! I’d rather be the brawn right now… why am I here? Oh yeah, you’re the big bad nexus-san, such hot stuff when all you know is the best strategy for taking a multiple-choice test…

     Another command was shouted out by the newcomer who had shut off the alarm, causing the lighting of the room to change to the bright white glare of fluorescents. Ran-kun was startled, but retained his wits enough to turn and look at the source of the familiar voice with a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Oh no, not *another* one… His eyes widened as his suspicion proved to be true.

     “Akane?”

***

[AN: Surprise! Now you will be returned to your regularly scheduled fanfic.]

***

    Akane – or at least the person bore a strong resemblance to the girl they all knew – looked just as bewildered as them.

    There was no recognition in her eyes, however, until suddenly they widened with the revelation. “Ranma?” she whispered disbelievingly. “Ryouga?”

    “A world in trouble, huh…” Ranma muttered in an aside to Ran-kun.

    “She said we would have a guide…” Ran-kun reminded him. Together they looked at the other pair. Both Ryougas were in a state of complete an utter shock, and could only stare open-mouthed at ‘Akane’.

    Deciding that those two would be useless, Ranma asked her, “Are you our guide?”

    “Your guide…” she repeated somewhat dumbly. Then she collected herself, at least enough to ask incredulously, “You mean *you’re* the people sent to us as help?”

    “Yeah… I guess so… um… Akane… maybe you should change?” he suggested, with a tilt of his head towards the pair of lost boys who were on the verge of passing out.

    Akane looked down at her revealing, skintight spandex costume disinterestedly. “Why?” she asked with a mild note of curiosity, and seemed about to say more when they all heard the sound of running feet and several shouts of concern, all in familiar voices. Four people skidded into the room and took up defensive stances that became confused when they, after long hesitation, recognized who had caused the alarm.

    The two groups regarded each other for a few seconds. Kasumi, Nabiki… Mousse and Kuno? What the…? They looked close enough to the ones he knew, although he was almost afraid to know how they, and this world, was different. The outfit Akane was wearing… The other two girls weren’t nearly as shocking, but formfitting, one-piece jumpsuits weren’t the sort of thing that he was used to Kasumi and Nabiki wearing. The two males were wearing similar suits, light blue with green and white triangles on the shoulders, knees and waist, only theirs included open black vests. It looks like a uniform…

The first person to speak, strangely enough, was Kuno.

“Who are you two that wear the cursed body of my beloved?”

***

~Mordain

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