indentRanma looked up from her book at the knock on the door. "Yes?"
indent"Ranma?" Male voice. "It's me, Chris."
indentRanma's face broke out into a grin almost instantly. "Be right there."
indentShe nearly jumped up from the chair and ran to the door of her hotel room. Opening the door, Chris was greeted by a slightly breathless Ranma, grinning ear to ear and quite nearly bouncing.
indentFor a moment, they were both quiet, until finally, Ranma broke the silence.
indent"Um, hi." she said, putting her hands behind her back.
indentChris tried hard to keep a silly grin off his face, and failed completely. "Hi." he seemed to feel a need to add something clever. "Fancy meeting you here." Nope, that wasn't it. Chagrin washed over his face as he winced about his choice of conversation starters.
indentRanma giggled, not minding. "Goof."
indentChris shrugged at this, and said, "Brace yourself."
indent"Brace myself for whampph!" Ranma's words were cut off as Chris snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her into a kiss. After a startled moment, she leaned into it, giving back as good as she got. By the time they broke for air, they were both breathing heavily.
indent"Umm. Yes. Well, you've proven we're both quite healthy." Ranma said at last.
indentChris shrugged with a wry smile. "Hey, what are friends for, if not to reassure one another of their personal well being?"
indent"Tease." she giggled, and leaned her head on his chest.
indentChris frowned a moment, a serious look on his face. "Ranma, this isn't really a- social visit." His voice was tense and sober, and his earlier ease was all but gone.
indent"Chris?" Ranma asked, looking up into his eyes. "What's wrong?"
indentChris hesitated a moment.
indent"Come on, Chris. We don't keep secrets from one another, remember?" She bit her lip, then went on, "Tell me what's the matter."
indentChris frowned, then chuckled, a fake smile replacing the frown. "Just stuff. Nothing-"

indent"-you need to worry about..." Ranma murmured. Gasping, he came fully awake.
indentThere was someone at the door of his cell.
indent"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!" Shouted a loud, boisterous voice. "Time to get acquainted with your new pals."
indentRanma heard the lock of the door release; the havy steel door swung open, arcing into the cell. The doorway might as well have still been closed, for the man in the doorway looked like he way as much as the door itself had, and looked no softer.
indentHe looks a lot like Pop. Not the face, but the build, Ranma thought to himself. But bigger.
indentThe man was stong and thick with the weight of years of hard exercise, not just power, but conditioned endurance, and big with the accompaniment of about equal amounts of food. The net result was the hulking giant before him, better than six and a half feet tall, maybe as much as seven, and a little over four wide the the shoulders. The combination of these attributes made the man a moving wall. Yet for all his size, he moved with the balance of a beijing acrobat, and Ranma could tell that the man could move all of his mass VERY fast if need be.
indentRanma decided that he didn't relish the thought of fighting this guy any time soon. In spite of his past experience, this guy looked like he could and would put some pain on him.
indentThe guard smiled slightly, and his eyes narrowed, as he shifted his weight forward. He had been sizing Ranma up as well, and there was a hint of respect in his eyes as his hand drifted for the nightstick on his belt.
indent "There gonna be any trouble todday, son?" the guard asked in a deceptively mild voice, subtlely shifting his weight slightly forward to the balls of his feet.
indent"No sir." Ranma said calmly.
indent"Good. Now hustle your ass into the common area."

indentRanma found his pants folded up outside the door of his cell, as he had found them every morning so far this week. The place was run on the strictest schedule, everything done on the hour, by the hour, every hour of the day. Lights out at ten. Wake- up at six("Make your bed or one of us will make it for you- and you won't like that. And pick up your pants and shoes from inside your cell door, don't come out."). Breakfast at six- thirty. Then work details until eleven- thirty, followed by fifteen minutes for lunch where he discovered that there were actually people who ate faster than he and his father. His detail was windows, which kept him outside in the sun cleaning until the smell of ammonia made his nauseous, then kept him there longer just for spite. By the time lunch came, he hardly had the appetite to eat.
indentAfter lunch, it was back to details, if they weren't already finished, and if they were, it was back to the cells until two thirty, which was yard time normally, except that the unit was on lock down for some minor infraction that had happened before he got there. So therefore, his unit simply stayed in their cells until dinner at six. Ranma amused himself by working out in his cell, practicing the art until then. After dinner(fifteen minutes), they all walked by the fold up table at the entrance to their hall and grabbed a towel, then stripped down, wrapped themselves in the towel, and dropped their dirty clothes in a laundrey barrel and headed to the shower room. The water turned on from the outside in the guards' office, and sadisticly, there was no cold water knob, only hot. After his stinging shower(Cheapest shower nozzles he had ever seen, even worse than in American hotels) he walked back to his room, still wrapped in his towel, and on the way picked up his t-shirt, socks, and underwear to go back to his cell and dry off, then dress down for bed. At seven, the book detail would come by with any library requests, and pick up any books that had been borrowed. If he didn't get back the book borrowed, you didn't get to pick up another until it was returned. At seven- thirty he came back with the requests, and then you sat in your cell until nine- forty- five, when line-up evening call came. You stood at the door of your cell while the guard checked your name off the list, then went back inside. The guards killed the lights at ten, and it was as dark as the inside of a wooden barrel until six the next morning. Lights came on. Rise and shine. Make the bed or we'll make it for you, and you won't like that. Pick up your pants and shoes from inside your cell door, don't come out.
indentSame routine so far every day.
indentRanma's first trouble came at breakfast, the seventh day.
indent"You're in my seat."
indent Ranma looked overhis shoulder at the man behind him- a thin, rat-faced man with large round ears that reminded him almost comically of Mickey Mouse.
indentAs Ranma studied him, the man lost patience. "You don't hear too well, do you, pretty boy?" the man snarled. "I said move. You ain't shit in here, and you ain't got no protection, soyou better get moving."
indentRanma started to turn back to his food, when the man grabbed his upper arm. Ranma's response was reflex more than anything else, whipping his caught arm up, over, and behind rat-face's arm and locking it out, slamming the heel of his free hand into the other's solar plexus. The man curled over the blow, muting it, and his free fist slammed with unexpected power- not a lot, but more than expected- into Ranma's jaw.
indentThe men around them were yelling now, and the guards were running over. Ranma's foe pulled him backwards off the bench, tumbling him to the ground. Then there was hissing, and Ranma's skin and eyes were burning, on fire. He gasped, and a whiff of it went down his throat. He began writhing as his lungs were set on fire, and hardly noticed it as he was dragged from the room by a pair of guards, who carelessly threw him into darkness.

indentRanma would find out later that he had been in the box for only a week, but at the time it had seemed like forever. The stifled closeness of the room was compounded by the complete absence of any light what-so-ever. After a bout of eternal hours(he had tried, only once, to practice some katas, until he had smacked his unprepared fist into an unexpected brick, jarring it. Since then, he had decided against practicing, as he couldn't see where the walls were, and it would be hard to explain how that hole got there, sir) a sliver of light appeared at the floor across the room, and steel scraped on the stone floor as something was pushed into the room. Then the room was plunged back into darkness, and Ranma was fumbling his way across the room in darkness again. He found the door, then groped around until his hand came down on something soft and spongy.
indentIt was a tuna sandwich, slightly stale, and he ate all of it. His hand lightly brushed the shallow, wide cup with it, and he greedily drank the water as well.
indentAfterwards, he sat, slowly tensing and relaxing all of his muscle groups, the seconds slowly flowed by, dripping into minutes, trickling into hours. The darkness began to close in on his. Absolute silence, almost deafening in its intensity. His ears felt like they were stuff with cotton, and began ringing, almost painfully. He moaned, his voice loud in the overwhelming silence, then swallowed whole as noiselessness immediately reasserted itself.
indentSuddenly, he made a horrid association.
indentPerhaps it was his imagination that started it. It might have been the darkness coupled with the lingering smell of the tuna sandwich. But it wasn't a sandwich, was it? It was a necklace, and bracelets and anklets of it, and a belt too. And the darkness. Pitch black.
indentThen the meows. They were crawling all over him. Claws. And teeth. Many claws, scratching him, clawing him, tearing into his flesh, himself more frantic, a feline swipe drawing a trail of blood across his cheek, dripping an itchy trail of blood down the side of his face, fighting, swinging blindly at the tormentors he couldn't see, get them off, get them OFF, the claws, yowling, screaming cats as more dove into the unexpected meal-
indent(fight them)
indent -but the fish cakes around him were gone, and HE was the meal, driving him crazy with their noise and their teeth and pain, have to GET THEM OFF ME, the fish is gone, LEAVE ME ALONE, but HE is the meal now-
indent(beat them)
indent-they clawed and bit at him, scratching and screaming cat screams of anger and hunger-
indent(at their own game)
indent-claw my hands, swing back, move faster, faster, FASTER than THEY can(They yowl, so yowl back) still they clawed him and bit him, and Bite and SCRATCH, (fight them) AND bit and Yowled and Scratched and BIT HIM AND CLAWED HIM AND SCRATCHED HIM AND-
indentRanma screamed. And screamed. He didn't stop for several hours, and ran, fighting, around the room. He tore gouges in the wall, the ceiling, and the floor, banged into the door, denting it. And finally, he lay exhausted, whimpering in hoarse, mewling tones, until he fell asleep.
indentOver the next few days, Ranma was never certain when he was awake or asleep. His waking hours were filled with nightmares and his dreams were filled with slivers of light delivering food, rushing to it only to wake up in darkness on his back, clawing at the air as though running on all fours. Several times, he went cat, only to come back to himself after a fitful sleep.
indentAnd then, one day, the door was opened.
indentRanma shaded his eyes from the dim light in the hall, a silhouette holding something in his right hand. There was a click, then blinding light as the foglamp shined directly into his eyes.
indentRanma screamed, and pain shot through his already savaged throat, as the light assaulted his brain, and curled up into a ball in a fetal position. The only response was laughter, as he was grabbed and dragged to his cell to wait for dinner.

indentHe saw Rat face again at dinner, who only sneared and waved impudently. Ranma longed to slam his fist into him again and again- but the memory of his recent confinement was enough to prevent him from attacking him. He could beat him, he knew it, but the pepper spray, or maybe it was mace- that had cut the fight off in seconds, and Ranma knew they could repeat it.
indentRanma finished his meal, and went through the shower routine, then to his cell. Practiced the art until roll call and lights out. Went to sleep.
indentA restless dream was interupted by the sound of the lock on his cell being unlocked quietly, the the door almost soundlessly opening. He barely had time to get up and out of bed before the group of men rushed him.
indentWhile the room was dark normally, there was a small light in the hall which reflected light wafted into the room by. Enough to pick out targets, but not so much that he could see who they were.
indentA hard fist slipped past his guard, mashing his lips into his teeth. Another made a hollow thud as it smacked solidly into his rib cage. But Ranma gave back as good as he got, and then some. His fist drove into something hard, and he felt the crunch of brittle nasal bones beneath it. He lashed out with a kick, heard cracking noises and a strangled screech, followed by a body hitting the wall.
indentThen he was tangled in something- his bedsheet, he guessed. While he tried to fight his way free of it, the blows rained down from all sides. A shoe caught him in the temple, making his ears ring. Then, as suddenly as it began, the feet ran outside, and it was over, except for one who knealt down and whispered, "My name's Nick. Don't ever cross me again, and watch your ass around here." Then he too left the room. The door was closed and locked once more.
indentBut Ranma was a fast healer. By the time morning came, his bruises had already faded away.