A Different Type of Were - Edge Guard

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

The Edge Guard looked over this 'Ranma Saotome'. They weren't sure what to make of what he was, he was like some sort of demonic werecheetah. Black and gold fur all about, with mostly black fur all over his body. His backside was covered with golden fur, spotted with black like a cheetah. His long hair was also the same cheetah-patterned fur. The only thing breaking the monotony of gold and black of his fur were two white stripes of fur over his eyes as eye-stripes. Naturally, the reactions and emotions of the Edge Guard gathered were varied.

Gar wasn't sure how to react. This unknown werecat before him had literally saved them all, saved his sister's life, AND kicked ass with a vengeance... As well as an incredible amount of brutality, but Gar was willing to overlook that. Those thugs had been brutal themselves, and it was going to take a bit of action to put them down for some time.

And yet, as Gar looked 'Ranma' over, he couldn't help but compare him to a werecheetah. Same pattern coat, though the coloring for the rest of the fur and the eye-stripes were switched... And those were some really sharp, and long fangs. "Maybe he's an undead Vampire-cheetah?" Gar questioned mentally.

Holding onto her stomach, Sheila looked over her savior. He was definitely unique, and not so much in a bad way... Heck, even the fangs somehow added to his charisma, making him look dangerous and somehow handsome at the same time. This werecat had such a incredible ice-magic. It was like nothing she ever felt before. It made her look like a novice in comparison. "And then there was that other stuff... Maybe he's an aura mage?" Sheila wondered

Like the jagwere siblings, Tirga was looking over Ranma as well... However, his thoughts were not on the appearance and brutality of this strange werecat. No. He was more concerned over the fact the bloomers he was wearing were bunched up his butt. Damn, was it EVER uncomfortable! "How do women stand these things!?" The irate weretiger groaned mentally.

Thropan was stretching slightly. It had taken him awhile to get ahead to the area the others were, but he really wasn't prepared for the sight. This was the most unusual-looking werecat he had ever seen. "Maybe he's a cross between a werepanther and a werecheetah..." Thropan thought, but then shook his head. "Nah. No way is he a werepanther. I don't know others of my breed that have teeth THAT sharp..."

Onoli took to the situation more calmly than his compatriots. True, everybody was tired, hurt, and just wanted to rest up. But there was still this man. This unknown werecat that seemingly came out of nowhere and pulled their asses out of the fire. So it was Onoli who made the first move to acknowledge Ranma.

Walking over to the sabretooth werecheetah, Onoli bowed respectfully. "Thank you for your assistance, Ranma Saotome. I am Onoli, head of the Northern Edge Guard. Allow me to give you our thanks."

Ranma blinked his eyes in surprise, but mentally sighed in relief. After the long moments of silent tension with no one speaking, he thought he had done something wrong. "No, Onoli-san, it is all right. I was just doing what anyone would do."

It was at this point that Gar moved himself back to his feet. He walked, (okay, he limped) over to Ranma. "Hey. The name's Gar Silvear. And thank you, Ranma Saotome. You really pulled out bacon out of the fire. You saved my sister's life."

Ranma blinked. "Sister? I thought she was your daughter."

Sheila growled, but winced as she tried to. Her body was still hurt, and she would need time to heal. "The name's Sheila Silvear. And for your information, this was a trap for those bandits, we were pretending to be a small family."

Ranma blinked and nodded his head. "Ah, I see..." Ranma was tempted to comment about them being the ones trapped, but held back. He didn't want to make a bad impression. He turned to look at the weretiger. "I take it the girl over there is your girlfriend then, Gar?"

It was at that point that Thropan Sheila started busting a gut. In Sheila's case, literally, as she was holding onto her hurting sides. Gar looked white as a ghost, and Tirga was growling. "For your information... I AM A MAN!" Tirga growled. To prove his point, he pulled down the top of his dress to bunch it around his waist, showing off his muscular pectorals. "SEE!?"

Ranma blinked his eyes once, then twice. He just shrugged his shoulders. "I seem to meet more and more cross-dressers lately."

"CROSS-DRESSER!?" Tirga yelled.

To that, Ranma once again shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if the shoe fits... I mean, you're wearing a full outfit!"

Thropan continued to laugh out loud. "HE'S GOT YOU THERE, TIRGA!"

"AH, CAN IT, THROPAN!" The ticked-off tiger yelled back at the werepanther rolling with laughter.

Ranma watched as Tirga tried arguing with Thropan, and grinned. There was no way he could annoy the werepanther, Ranma could see the black-furred cat-man was just too laid back. It brought a smirk to his face as it reminded him of times when Akane would go at him, and he kept his cool rather easily. He always loved and would never forget those sparring sessions.

Still there were more important matters at hand. Ranma walked over to the female jaguar-looking girl. "Hey, are you alright?"

Looking up at Ranma, Sheila froze. Seeing Ranma up close, she could see that Ranma was as tall as Onoli, albeit leaner than the werelion... But he was still muscular in his own right.

Realizing Ranma had asked her a question, Sheila nodded her head. "I, I'm okay. I just need time to heal..." Sheila trailed off as she was looking up into Ranma's eyes... He may have looked scary, but his eyes... They were the most beautiful sapphire-color she had ever seen. Almost made her feel rather... 'Warm'.

Ranma waved a hand back and forth in Sheila's face. "Hey, you alright?"

Sheila blushed, realizing she had been daydreaming. She decided to cover that up... "Sorry! I was thinking."

"Thinking?" Ranma asked. "About what?"

Sheila blushed a little, unsure of a good scenario. Then it hit her. "I was wondering... What kind of werecat are you? I've seen a a few that were similar, the were cheetahs, but they were nowhere near your build or coloration..." Sheila then blushed. "Not to mention that they have nowhere near the set of teeth you do."

Thropan, who had calmed down, had walked over to Ranma and Sheila. "Come to think of it, I was wondering the same thing. What kind of werecat are you, Ranma?"

Ranma, for the most part, looked rather confused. "I'm a 'werecat'? What's a werecat? Are they like werewolves or something?" Noticing that all five the the Edge Guard gathered around him were staring at him in shock, he asked, "Was it something I said?"

by Philip Weigel

Oloni blinked, "Hmm, you really don't know what a werecat is? Do you?"

Ranma shook his head. "Nope, hell, just yesterday I was a normal, well, not-so-normal human." His eyes flashed, "Then a jerk faced Phoenix named Saffron showed up and decided to get his revenge on me for beating him about a year or so ago. He showe up and' then just started flinging fireballs around, killing people." He closed his eyes, trying to stop the emotions and pain that came with it. "I tried to stop him, I did, but he wasn't following me out of the area and he was just blasting everyone, and suddenly I snapped and something inside of me just woke up and then I changed into what you see here." He gestured to himself. Ranma then narrowed his eyes, "Then I killed him." He shuddered, "Sorry."

Gar winced, it didn't take a genius to know that some of those people had been the guy's family. Having lost his own parents when he was young caused him to be a bit more sympathetic than most would be.

Thropan winced, "That sucks. Still, how did you end up here? And where are you from?"

Ranma shrugged, "I'm from Japan, on Earth."

Oloni nodded, "Well, at least that explains why you don't know what a werecat is."

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I don't know what a werecat is, at least until you told me." He then scratched his head and blinked, "Oh and for how I got here, well, there was an old woman named Cologne who gave me a scroll that allowed me to come here."

Tirga wasn't really paying attention. "Damn it! I just want to get out of these clothes. Can we just go?"

Sheila sighed, she had wanted to find out a bit more about this werecat. She stood up, but winced and had to grab her stomach again. 'Damn, this sucks.' She blinked when she felt some arms go around her to support her. She looked up and saw Gar helping her. "You know sis, you really shouldn't move too much until you heal properly." Sheila just frowned, Gar shook his head, "You know how magic effects werecreatures."

Gar then looked at Ranma and sighed, "Look, no offense, but we are hurting a bit here, I was wondering if you'd like to come with us."

Ranma blinked, "What for?"

Oloni spoke up, "Well, that way we can find out what type of werecat you are. There are some mages that we know and they can figure out what you are."

Ranma shrugged, "Sure lead the way." He then frowned as he noticed how much trouble Gar was having helping Sheila. "Here, let me help." Gar and Sheila were going to say something, but didn't get a chance to. "I'm not hurt, you two are, It'd be best if I helped you out." Gar nodded and Ranma picked up Sheila and carried her. Sheila flushed at the close contact and Tirga growled a bit. Gar then put his arm around Ranma's shoulder and they walked towards Seer's Hamlet.

"I think this will do." Oloni spoke as they started walking.

The Great Stooges Gang finally quit running after about twenty minutes. Moe and Larry looked at Curly. "Well, now what?" They asked at the same time.

Curly was just gibbering to himself, "Can't stop, cat will eat me. Can't eat, cat will eat me. Can't sleep, cat will eat me."

Larry looked at Moe, "I think he snapped."

Moe just nodded, "Yep. Well, let's hope he recovers."

"Can't stop, cat will eat me. Can't eat, cat will eat me. Can't sleep, cat will eat me." He then passed out.

Moe blinked, "Well, let's wait until he wake up."

...

...

...

...

...

We'll come back to The Great Stooges Gang later.

Meanwhile in a certain tower of a certain undead knight.

Rook couldn't put his finger on it, but he had just felt an incredible amount of power. Power that he had never felt before. He peered into his crystal ball and blinked when he saw a werecat with the Edge Guard that he had never seen before. "What the?" He looked at this new creature. He couldn't figure out what it was, "A vampire-werecheetah perhaps? But I thought that the werecheetah living with the Diggers was the only one to survive." He shook his head, obviously another werecheetah had survived the slaughter and had remained hidden all this time.

Rook then groaned, "Great, anyone with any access to the Ethereal Stream will be able to feel the power that he used."

Indeed Rook was right, for many of the Arch-Mages had felt the power, and the only ones who didn't weren't on Jade at the moment.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Brianna was currently working on tuning up her Peebo Scouts. She had finished with uploading new data into PeeGi, and tuned-up PeeBrit's speed boosters, and was now going to put a new weapon her PeeBri. "Want something' that makes BIG BOOM!" PeeBri said rather energetically.

Brianna shook a finger at her Peebo Scout. "Sorry PeeBri. No big booms for you..." She smiled, "However, I have included a new taser-option onto your stun blasters!"

"Yay!" PeeBri cheered. "Up-close combat! GO SHOCK!"

And so, as Brianna was fastening a new small, taser-cannon onto her precious Peebo Scout, a mechanical voice echoed throughout the Lab.

"Media sample found! Media sample found!"

Rolling her eyes, Brianna sighed. She knew that when Gina had first set up a monitoring network to keep an eye on international news broadcasts and such, everyone was pretty sure it would be useful, keeping everyone on top of the game when it came to finding out about Lycanthropic activity around the world. Instead, what the computer was finding were a number of rather pointless news broadcasts, television shows, and old horror movies.

"It can wait..." Brianna said, and went back to working on her precious little Peebo Scout. "Hold still, while Brianna does her thing!"

"Thanks, Bri!" PeeBri said in thanks.

"You know, Brianna, you should check what the computer found." PeeGi said. "Gina always checks."

"Well, there you go." PeeBrit said. "She ain't Gina!"

Hearing that, Brianna sighed. "Since when the hell did my Peebos get in charge?" She grumbled as she walked over to a computer. She typed on the keyboard and called up an image. A Newscast from Japan. A major battle between some sort of fire-bird monster and a rather cute guy with a pig-tail... And then he changed...

Brianna's eyes widened. She ran over to an intercom and slammed her hand down on the button and screamed as loud as she could manage. "CHEEEEEEEEEEETTAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! GIIIIIIIIINNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GET YOUR BUTTS DOWN HERE!"

(-)

In the offices of Agency Zero, the head of the Agency, an 'Agent M', was watching a television set intently. A Phoenix. A damned fiery phoenix had appeared in Tokyo and was causing mass amounts of property damage.

And there was that human fighting the phoenix. Either he was very brave or very foolish. Probably both.

And M watched the fight, genuinely wondering how people watching this were going to take to it. It was a tremendous fight, and it seemed like the poor human couldn't get an edge in...

And then M recieved a bit of a surprise. The boy wasn't even human. "What is that?" M wondered. "He looks like some sort of werecheetah, but the color is slightly off.

M leaned back in his chair and continued to study the scene, while making a mental note to contact his old friend Theodore Diggers. He would probably want to hear of this. Most definitely.

(-)

In his office in Hokkaido, Gothwrain was taking time out of his busy schedule to watch the evening news. He had spent a lot of time working on the budget earlier that day, and decided to keep in touch With what was going on with the world. It made him want to laugh, seeing how pathetic the humans were with their interest in such mundane things as sports, music, and their travesty of political leaders...

But there was one story. Coverage of an event in Japan. A Phoenix! Well, that was very surprising. Usually beings of magic were secretive when in the Earth Realm, not wanting to attract attention to themselves or their species...

And the Phoenix seemed to be attacking the town, no, a martial artist. The town just happened to be unfortunate as to be the vicinity of where the battle was taking place. Still, no skin off his nose. They had nothing to do with the Phoenix race. So this event would make for good coverage and...

Then Gothwtain's eyes widened, his cigar falling from between his fingers and landing on the floor. Gothwrain practically shit a brick in his pants. "No, it couldn't be..."

The scene was so vivid, and brought back up old, powerful memories of Gothwrain's. The prophecy of the Wererat Clan's Seer. A powerful, fanged cheetah leaping through a wall of fire. Gothwrain himself had seen the prophecy when the Seer projected it. And this was the exact same scene.

The Prophecy was being fulfilled!

Gothwrain didn't know what to think. He had worked so hard to make sure that the werecheetah race had been extinguished, even had the survivors being watched. And now, out of the blue, there's a new werecheetah! A monster of a werecheetah. "Ah well," Gothwrain thought, "Hopefully my fire magic will... Protect... Me?"

Seeing the werecheetah literally tear out a Phoenix's throat with it's jaws, and not flinch, Gothwrain DID shit a brick. Oh hell, this thing seemed to be immune to fire. Oh hell, was he ever screwed!

But then... As if someone was listening to Gothwrain's prayers, he watched as the demon werecheetah, and the Phoenix corpse literally fell into a canal, the water steaming and bubbling well beyond it's boiling point as waves of steam shot up. The Phoenix and the werecheetah were gone, leaving behind one heck of a watery mess. The water had become so hot, it had melted the concrete that made up the canal.

"Oh shit... That was incredible..." Gothwrain mumbled, and reached a shaking hand for a cigar. It seems that the werecheetah had vaporized itself with the Phoenix and the water. Still, it wasn't something to take lightly... "If there was one, there could be more..." Gothwrain muttered. He'd have to send a few men down there to question survivors of the attack.

But first... Gothwrain felt a need for a few doses of Valium...

(-)

Britanny, Gina, and Brianna were crowded around a computer screen, having watched the new-report. All three looked a little down. "I can't believe it..." Britanny muttered. "Another werecheetah, and he bites the dust..."

"I know what you mean..." Gina said. She had been interested, seeing a phoenix, but she had become genuinely excited once she watched the nice studly guy turn into some sort of breed of werecheetah... "Poor guy... Vaporized in a splash of water..."

Brianna sighed. It looked like there had been a chance for survivors... But now... The one they saw was being listed as dead. "What a bummer."

All three Diggers girls sighed and gave a moment of silence for the recently discovered and lost werecheetah.

(-)

"ACHOO!" Ranma sneezed, quite violently. He had his head turned so he would not sneeze in the girl in his arms, nor her brother that was leaning on his shoulder.

Looking up at Ranma, Sheila asked, "Do you have allergies?"

Sniffling, Ranma said, "Not that I know of."

by Philip Weigel

Cologne made her way to the Saotome household, she just hoped that Nodoka could shed some light on what had happened to Ranma. When she got to the front door, she knocked. And waited several minutes for Nodoka to open the door. Cologne winced inwardly as she saw that Nodoka had been crying, and it didn't take two guesses as to why. "W-what is it that you want?"

Cologne smiled gently, "You shouldn't cry."

Nodoka nearly snarled, "Why not?! My son fought that bird-person, unlocked his true power and then died on me!"

Cologne shook her head, "He's not dead. In fact he's very much alive at this moment."

Nodoka blinked in shock, "Just what do you mean?" She asked anxiously.

"I saw him after the battle was over, trying to make sense of what he was, but Ranma is very much alive at the moment."

Nodoka sniffled, "Just what do you mean?"

Cologne smirked a bit, "I said I saw him after the battle, in fact I met up with him, and I gave him a scroll to teleport himself to a place called Jade."

Nodoka backed up in shock, "He's in Jade? With the other werecats?"

Cologne raised an eyebrow at her, "I see that you know of what your son is. But I do not. Just what type of werecat is he?"

Nodoka smirked, at odds with her teary face. "Well, he's a cross between this." She then shifted into hybrid form, stretching her kimono to the max. And Cologne blinked in shock at the sight of Nodoka being a werecheetah, but before she could say anything, Nodoka continued, "And the rarest of all werecats, a were smilodon, or saber tooth weretiger if you will."

Cologne was in pure shock, "So, then Genma isn't Ranma's real father then?" Nodoka shook her head, and Cologne laughed, "Ha! At least Ranma doesn't have to worry about polluting the gene pool if he ever has kids." They shared a laugh at that. Cologne grew somber after a moment, "I'm afraid I don't know what a sabre toothed weretiger is, just what is it's strengths?"

Nodoka smiled, albeit a bit sadly. "Well, you see, a were smilodon is the strongest of all werecreatures. Stronger than a werewolf and werelion combined."

Cologne's eyes widened, "Holy! Now that's strong!" Seeing Nodoka raise an eyebrow, she continued, "You see the Musk Dynasty is modeled after werecreatures, they used to dunk animals into the girl spring, lock them and then force them to have children, anyways, the tiger men have always had incredible physical strength and one time I watched a tiger man fight a werewolf when I was only sixty." Cologne shook her head, "The werewolf proved to be much stronger and tougher and then beat the tiger man into unconsciousness."

Nodoka nodded her head and frowned at the mention of a werewolf. "Yes, but the werewolves killed all the were cheetahs as far as I know." She shook her head, "The only reason I'm alive is because I decided to take a trip a few days before my people went to meet the werewolves." She shook her head, "Let's go inside, I don't want anyone else to listen."

Cologne nodded, "Yes, and perhaps you should get some clothes that will fit you better." She laughed a bit when Nodoka flushed.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Nabiki groaned in despair as she walked through the wrecked district with two of her associates/lackeys, Kikuko and Ryonami. Nabiki had made a point to make sure she could find everyone that she could that had worked for her, to make sure that everyone was alright, gathering her associates together to make sure everyone was all right.

After all, Nabiki did not want to stay at 'home' for the moment. There was nothing left of the Tendo compound and Dojo, it having all been blasted to ash. Still, while her family had made it out, they were all devastated mentally.

Her father had truly become a mere shell of a human being. He was a listless wreck, not moving, or even reacting much to what was going on around him. Nabiki couldn't help but compare his current state to that of him when her mother had died. Soun would more or less be useless to anyone for quite sometime to come, the sheer shock at what has occurred having drained him of all will to live.

Nabiki frowned as she thought of her father's state of being as she continued to walk. That bastard, Genma, had literally high-tailed it out of there as soon as the Dojo was obliterated. He didn't try to help fight back. He didn't try to help anyone to safety. The fat panda just ran.

Then there was Nabiki's elder sister, Kasumi. Much to Nabiki's sadness, surprise, disbelief, and a bit of anger, Kasumi had, surprisingly, degraded to a state similar to their father. The only exception was that she did realize what was going on around her, and managed to say a few things now and again when someone spoke directly to her. But otherwise, the dutiful Tendo daughter was 'out of it'.

And then there was Akane. The poor girl had become hysterical to the point of near-loonacy. She had been completely angered when Saffron had come, and wanted to fight back. But seeing all the destruction around her, and witnessing Ranma... 'Change' into some sort of beast himself, and then DIE while taking the Phoenix God with him... Akane just lost it. She was taken to a hospital, where the doctors and staff will, hopefully, be able to calm her down.

"Ranma... Just what the hell were you..." Nabiki grumbled to herself, enough so that her 'business associates could hear her, but were smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Nabiki couldn't understand what had happened. Ranma had turned into some sort of cat-like beast. "Was it an after-effect of the Neko-Ken, or... Was it something more?" Nabiki asked herself, racking her brain for answers. But she had no clue as to what could have caused such a change in Ranma.

Still, even with all that happened to her, Nabiki knew that her partners were dragged down into this deeply as well. Kikuko's home had been destroyed, but luckily, her family and she were all right. Ryonami's home was in the Western half of Nerima and escaped the carnage brought forth by the fiery phoenix... Although, it seemed that her older sister, who was at a community college was still missing, and quite possibly dead.

"Alright ladies... We don't have to worry about Hiroko, she was out of the country when this happened." Nabiki said calmly, although it was going to be quite a feat getting in contact with the girl and telling her that her home was now missing the top floor. "But still, we have to account for Asami's disappearance."

"Yes, Nabiki-san." Both girls drolled out. They were pretty happy to act like sheep. In these very chaotic times, Nabiki appeared as one to bring order... Something both women needed desperately.

And soon, much too-soon, Nabiki and her crew reached Asami's home... Or at least, the area that would have held her home. There was nothing but literally, a huge crater that was still steaming, and a bit of rubble, which was practically melting...

"Oh dear God..." Nabiki muttered.

"Asami..." Kikuko breathed out.

"This can't be happening..." Ryonami sobbed.

Nabiki leaned against the wooden barriers that the police had set up around the crater. It's obvious that anything in this area had not survived. "Damn it..." The middle Tendo sister grumbled. This was just too much shit to handle.

Ryonami mustered the courage to tap Nabiki on the shoulder. "Boss, what are we going to do?"

Nabiki sighed. "I need time to think... For at the moment, I have no clue."

Kikuko and Ryonami slumped their shoulders. This was bad. Very bad.

"Excuse me, ladies!" Came a voice. All three women turned their head to the sight. A man in a dark Italian suit, looked as though he were a definite foreigner. He wore dark shades so that one couldn't look at his eyes. "May I ask if you were here when the 'attack' happened?"

"And if we were?" Nabiki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Then I would like to ask you a few questions." The 'man' answered. "As well as pay you for your help."

Nabiki raised the other eyebrow now. Now was not a time to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

by Philip Weigel

Moe and Larry were just lounging about waiting for Curly to wake up. They had helped several members of their gang recover from the savage mauling they had received. Joe was walking bow-legged, that Werecat had nearly crushed his family jewels to nothingness and Shep was sitting on a pile of towels and sheets and getting them bloody. Moe sighed, "I still don't know how that werecat put Shep's staff up his $$."

Larry nodded, a bit green after seeing that. "I know."

It was at this moment that Curly finally started waking up. "Uuuh." He glanced around, seeing that everyone was, more-or-less alright he started chuckling.

Moe blinked, "Uh, Curly? What's wrong?"

Curly just laughed, "I had the craziest dream."

Larry raised an eyebrow, "Oh, what?"

"Where we were about to take out an Edge Guard group when a black and gold Werecat came and beat us. Isn't that funny?!"

Moe grimaced, he didn't know how his brother was going to take this. "Um, that actually happened Bro."

Curly blinked, "Say what?"

Moe nodded, "Yeah it did. Joe's jewels got crushed by that Werecat and Shep had his staff shoved up his $$."

Curly stared, thought about what had happened and started growling out loud. An interesting sound from a human. "Damn that Demonic Werecat!" He stood up, looked straight up and pointed a finger to the sky I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!" Since the sun was setting right behind him it looked damn impressive.

Moe nodded, "Nice. But still, how are we going to get revenge?"

Larry frowned, "Yeah, no kidding. He was a lot better a fighter than those Edge Guard were." He neglected to remember that Curly had hit three of them with a magic attack and had caught them by surprise.

Curly sulked, pulled down his hand and started pacing back and forth for several minutes. He blinked a few times, "I've got it!"

"Huh?"

"What?" His two brothers asked at the same time.

"To get back at that Werecat we'll have to lay a trap for him and then catch him when his guard is down."

Larry and Moe blinked, "Lay a trap?" They asked in weird synchronization.

Curly nodded, "Yeah, we follow him around a bit, find out where he goes all the time, then lay a trap for him to fall in and get caught in. It's brilliant! Nothing can go wrong!"

Famous last words Curly.

Back in Nerima. . .

The 'man' thanked Nabiki for the information about the fight and who had been fighting the Phoenix. He handed her a card. "You shall be paid in full for this information. The address where you can pick up the money is on the card."

Nabiki took the card, read it and blinked when she saw the address. "That's near the pumping station that's at the edge of the district."

The 'man' nodded and said his goodbyes and left. While he was walking away he kept going over what had been told to him. The person who fought the Phoenix had never shown himself to be a Werecat before, at least, that's what he had gathered anyways, and he was one of the, if not the, best fighter in the area. But what the kid had done had placed a healthy bit of respect in him for the fighter. The fighter was trying to lead the Phoenix away from the area before he caused serious damages and death, and in the end he had sacrificed himself to protect those he cared about. Self-sacrifice was something all Wererats could respect, regardless of who it was that did it.

Across town. . .

Nodoka, back in human form, nodded at Cologne. "I thank you for the information on my son Elder."

Cologne nodded back at her, "No problem. I figured you should've been the first to know about him." With that she bounded over the outer wall of the Saotome Home and away.

Nodoka sighed, "At least my son is all right." She then smiled, "I wonder if my manly son has met any good looking female Werecats yet?" She then sighed and clasped her hands together on the right side of her face, just below her chin, and tilted her head slightly and got a picture in her head about a lot of chibi-Ranma's running around with various Werecat features. "Oooh they'd be so kawaii." Anyone who knew Nodoka would not disturb her at this moment.

Back on Jade. . .

Ranma shook his head, "Damn, that's the fiftieth time I've sneezed, I swear someone is thinking about me."

Thropan shook his head, he had to admit that the kid was unique. "Well, we're almost to Seer's Hamlet. How are you two holding up? Gar? Sheila?"

Gar waved, "I'm fine, but don't expect me to be able to run or do any fighting for awhile." He started to remove his arm from around Ranma's shoulder, but the instant he put any pressure on his injured leg, he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Argh! Guess not!" He then placed his arm around Ranma's shoulder again.

Sheila shook her head, "My stomach still hurts. That fireball that hit us originally was pretty strong. And then I used up most of my energy trying to stop the next attack." She then frowned, "Stupid jerk."

Ranma looked over towards Tirga. "Hey, how come you're not hurt?"

Tirga frowned, "Actually I am. (Both physically and mentally.) It's just that I shouldn't have even gotten hurt from that fireball. Magical fire isn't supposed to harm me."

Thropan shook his head, "Not exactly. When your weapon is out, it absorbs magical fire and it makes you more resistant to fire damages as well as helps you heal from them. But if it's not out, then you're as vulnerable as any of the rest of us. Though you heal quite a bit faster."

Tirga looked at him, "You're kidding?! Why didn't you tell me?"

Thropan shrugged, "You never asked."

Ranma chuckled. That Tirga guy reminded him of some the Nerima crew. They'd use something, know it's strengths, but none of its weaknesses.

Sheila blinked at him, "What's so funny?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nothing really, that Tirga guy reminded me of some of the. .folks. .back. .home." He then sighed, 'How many of them died because of that jerk Saffron?'

Tirga winced, "Hey, sorry about that. Didn't mean to drag up bad memories." Sure he was a happy-go-lucky kinda guy that lived life for the moment, but he had his share of bad experiences in life, one of the more notable ones was when his mentor Gaja was killed by G'Nolga. That had been a sad day for everyone, and none of them liked to remember it. There were other instances as well, but Gaja's death stood out most prevalently.

Ranma just shook his head and buried his feelings, "It's alright. You didn't mean it."

Oloni frowned as he walked behind the group. That new kid was bottling up his emotions, not a good thing. And it seemed to be an ingrained response, considering how fast he had changed from being depressed to being almost normal again. 'This bears looking into.'

They reached Seer's Hamlet a few minutes of compatible silence later. Ranma blinked as he looked around, slowing his pace a bit to take in the sites. He had never seen so many magical creatures before or in the same place. 'And considering what I've gone through, that's saying something.' He wasn't naive enough to think that he had seen it all, but when living in Nerima, one tends to think that there isn't much more out there to see. He blinked when he saw people stopping to stare at the group, no, they were staring at him. "Um, why are they looking at me like that?"

Sheila smirked as she moved a bit to get the blood flowing in her arm again, it had fallen asleep while she was being carried. "Two reasons actually. One, they've never seen a Werecat like you before."

Ranma nodded while looking down at her, "Okay."

"The second thing is is that you're carrying a member of the Edge Guard in your arms and another Edge Guard member is using you to support himself." She didn't feel like telling him that Gar had been trained by the Armsmaster of Jade and was considered one of the best fighters that wasn't a Weapons Master, and the fact that this group was rather famous in Seer's Hamlet, so seeing them like this would cause people to stare.

Ranma didn't know what it meant to be a member of the Edge Guard, but he had the feeling that they were good fighters. He quickly glanced at Thropan and Oloni, them being the least injured and noticed what he hadn't been looking for before, that they were indeed fighters of some skill, better than most actually, with the way they handled themselves. He watched and blinked when he saw people start shrinking away from him. "I wonder what their problem is?" He muttered to himself.

Gar looked at him, being a Jagwere meant that he could hear an ant marching from a mile away if he wanted to, combined with such close proximity allowed him to pick-up what had been said easily. "They're kinda nervous. You see, you're a Werecheetah, a rare species, but you're also as tall as a Werelion, just a bit slimmer, and then there's your teeth. Frankly, they don't know what to make of you."

Ranma nodded, he didn't like people being afraid of him. If he knew how to, he'd switch to either a pure Werecheetah hybrid or a pure Were Smilodon hybrid form and quit scaring everyone. Oloni then walked to the front of the group. "Here Ranma, I'll take Gar off of your shoulders so that you can get to Nali's Clinic."

Ranma shrugged, "Sure." Gar got let go of Ranma and Oloni caught him before he hit the ground.

Oloni nodded at Ranma and then placed Gar on his shoulders in a fireman's carry and started climbing the rope ladder up to Nali's Clinic. Tirga followed him, then Thropan went next and Ranma followed last. The only reason it took him so long was that he had to adjust his hold on Sheila a bit, without it looking perverted, so that he could climb the ladder. Ranma had one arm around Sheila's waist, while she had her arms around his neck, her head was looking over his shoulder as he ascended the ladder to the clinic.

Once they got to the top, Oloni motioned Ranma to take Sheila inside, "Um, are you sure it'll be alright?"

Oloni chuckled, "Don't worry Ranma. Nali is one of the best healers around."

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

In Seer's Hamlet, there existed a well-known Healer's Clinic. The Healer Nali was well-known to all the people's of Seer's Hamlet. It didn't matter who you were, what your standing in society was, or how much money you could pay. The Healing Mage, Nali, would do whatever she could to help those in need of her assistance.

And currently at her office and home, Nali was taking care of a patient. A Lycanthrope who had come into her office with some rather nasty silver burns.

Kneeling down as she rubbed a special salve onto the werecheetah leg to take care of the silver burns, Nali sighed and looked at him. "You know, Raphiel, you really should be more careful when it comes to disposing of silver weaponry."

The werecheetah, Raphiel blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, yeah, I know... I kinda lost balance because I was trying to carry too much tuff at once, and had the stuff literally crash down at my feet."

Chuckling a little, Nali rubbed the salve into Raphiel's shin thoroughly. "Perhaps you shouldn't be in such a hurry to do your work then." She suggested to the rather light-hearted werecheetah/advanced golem.

Raphiel smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right, Nali. I know I should have been more careful, but I just wanted to make sure I had my job done before the other got back, and had those nasty weapons disposed of." Raphiel sighed a bit. "I was hoping they'd take me on a mission soon."

Nali smiled warmly as she wrapped a bandage around Raphiel's leg. "Now Raphiel, you should know that rushing through your work can come off to others as to show you being impatient and immature. Both are characteristics unfitting members of the Edge Guard."

Flattening his ears back, Raphiel apologized to the healer. "Sorry, Nali..."

Nali couldn't help but laugh lightly at the werecheetah naive nature and almost child-like innocence. "It's okay, Raphiel. Just make sure to take your time when doing your work, and to be more careful from now on."

"I will!" Raphiel said brightly, already out of his saddened state.

Finishing up with wrapping a bandage around his shin, Nali stood back up and looked at Raphiel. "It will be all right for you to stand now."

Hearing that, Raphiel sat up from the chair wooden chair he was sitting in. He stood on his feet, and was relieved when he didn't feel any pain from the pressure he had on his burned leg. "WOW! I feel okay! Thanks, Nali!"

Nali giggled a little and smiled. "Anytime. And for being a good patient, I'll give you a lollipop." Yeah, it sounded corny to say that to someone who looked like an adult, but seeing Raphiel's eyes widen and sparkle, she knew she made the right comment.

"Do you have any cherry-flavored ones?" Raphiel asked, his eyes wide and bright, sparkling with a mixture of hope and joy.

"I'll see what I have." Nali said. "Wait right here." She commanded as she opened a door and left the room to check on her storage.

Raphiel sat down in a chair, grinning widely. "Mmm... Cherry..."

However, his ears perked up as he heard another door open. He turned his head and saw his teammates, practically limping into the office. "Oh, hey guys!"

They stopped in their tracks. "Raphiel?" Onoli asked. "What are you doing here?"

Raphiel shrugged his shoulders. "Silver burn..." His eyes then widened as he concentrated on the werecat carrying Sheila. "WOW! Are you a werecheetah like me? You're pretty big! Oh, what's with the teeth? They dentures or something?"

Ranma's left eye twitched a bit. He looked down at Sheila in his arms. "That's a werecheetah?"

Sheila chuckled nervously. "Eh heh... They're not all bad, you know..."

Ranma sighed, but accepted that answer from Sheila. "All right."

"Hey, Raph." Gar said, while still leaning against Ranma. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, but what happened to you guys?" Raphiel asked.

"The bandits were prepared for us." Onoli said seriously. He looked over at Ranma and said, "Fortunately, Ranma here had interrupted the fight, and turned the odds over to our favor."

"Ah! Ranma eh?" Raphiel asked as he walked over to the Sabre Toothed werecheetah. "I'm Raphiel Rey! Pleased to meet ya'! Thanks for helping my friends."

Ranma smiled a little. This werecheetah seemed a little 'slow' mentally, but he seemed to have a heart of gold. "Ranma Saotome. Pleased to meetcha."

It was then a door creaked as open and Nali stepped out, holding a wrapped lollipop in her hand. "You're in luck, Raphiel. I did indeed have cherry... Flavored... And..." The Healing Mage trailed off as she looked at the gathered group of battered Edge Guard, and in the center was something akin to a werecheetah... But the black fur, and those fangs... Those dangerous-looking fangs.

A few flashes of memories from nali's childhood, as she was the only person to realize a bit of the truth behind what Ranma was. "Sabre Toothed?" She asked, before she literally fainted from the overwhelming feelings and fell over onto the ground.

"NALI!" "MY LOLIPOP!"

by Philip Weigel

Thropan quickly made his way to Nali and checked her over, "She's alright, just fainted." He frowned, "I don't know why though." He turned to Tirga, "Help me put her on the bed over there until she wakes up.

Tirga nodded, if there was one thing he didn't want to do was get on Nali's bad side if he molested her, she may not treat him next time he got hurt. He helped pick her up and carried her over to the bed in the room.

Oloni looked at Ranma, "Here, I'll take Gar." Both Ranma and Gar nodded, Gar then slid off of Ranma's shoulder and Oloni caught him and took him over to some chairs. "Just stay here until Nali wakes up and heals you."

Gar just nodded while thinking, 'Can't believe I got hurt so badly.'

"Don't worry about it Gar."

Gar looked up, "Oloni?"

The Werelion sighed, "You know how magic and silver affects us. And we were caught off guard, so don't worry about it so much. No one is going to think less of you for you it." Gar just nodded, it wasn't the fact that he had gotten hurt or nearly beaten that rattled and depressed him, it was the fact that he was powerless to protect his sister.

Ranma just looked at Gar a bit sympathetically, he knew the type, prideful, confident, and sure of themselves. Losing or nearly losing a match and needing help to win sucked for people like that, hell, he was like that himself. He then glanced at Raphiel and just blinked and wondered, 'Everyone says I'm some type of Werecheetah, I wonder what I'd look like?' Suddenly he found himself shifting, getting slightly shorter. "What the?"

Sheila blinked, she suddenly found herself closer to the floor, not much, but noticeable. She looked at Ranma and found that his face was now white with black eyes stripes. "Huh?"

Raphiel blinked, "Oh cool, you can change into different hybrid forms. I didn't know that that was possible."

"Huh?!" Everyone that was conscious looked at Ranma and blinked, he now looked like a Werecheetah, correct coloring and everything, lithe, though decently muscled, but his muscles weren't as big as Britanny's muscles, they seemed more dense though.

Oloni nodded to himself, "Okay that settles it. As soon as I'm healed enough I'm going to the Earth Realm to speak with the Diggers."

Tirga blinked at him, "Uh, that isn't exactly necessary Oloni. There are Archmages that live in the Hamlet that can look him over."

Oloni shook his head, "There are reasons for telling the Diggers this." He held up a finger, "One, he's from Earth like they are, which leads to," he held up a second finger, "Two, they'll want to know about a Werecheetah as they thought that Britanny was the last one in existence. There are others, but those are the most important ones."

Tirga nodded, "Right, right."

Thropan blinked at Ranma, "Just how did you do that?"

"I don't know, I was just thinking what I would look like as a correct Werecheetah and then this happened."

Thropan nodded, "Okay, concentrate on what you looked like before." Ranma shrugged and thought about it, then he shifted back into the mixed hybrid form.

It was at this moment that Nali woke up. . .

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Nali came to consciousness quickly. She still had understanding of her situation, but there was still a haze to her thought. "Oh dear, I fainted... How unprofessional..." Nali thought. However, she couldn't help but wonder WHY she had fainted. Then it came to her. "The Sabretooth!" She screamed in her mind.

Nali sat up, and realized she was on the floor, and Onoli was kneeled beside her, his hand resting behind her shoulders to help her sit up. "Hello, Nali. Are you alright? You had just fainted on us."

Without answering, Nali looked around the room quickly, noting all the Edge Guard were there, and pretty wounded. She then saw it, and pointed her finger at the fanged feline. "IT'S A SABRETOOTH! YOU ACTUALLY BROUGHT A SABRETOOTH HERE!?"

Ranma winced. Cologne had told him that people in this world would be accepting of him, but this woman was just freaking out at the mere sight of him.

Sheila frowned at seeing Ranma wince. He wasn't a bad man, and it was obvious that Nali's reaction to him was hurting the fanged were cheetah's feeling. But on that same note, WHY was Nali somewhat freaking out? That wasn't like her at all! She was about to ask what her problem was, but her brother had beaten her to the punch.

"Hey, Nali, no disrespect or anything..." Gar began, obviously puzzled by Nali's actions, if the expression of confusion on his face was any indication. "But why the nine hells are you freaking out because of Ranma?"

Nali blinked her eyes. "R, Ranma?"

Ranma managed to smile, albeit nervously. "That's my name. Don't wear it out." Seeing Nali shiver, Ranma chuckled nervously.

Onoli sighed. "Nali, please, this is highly unlike you. What is wrong?"

Rubbing the temples of her head in frustration, Nali sighed. "You don't realize what he is, do you?"

"Actually, we were hoping you could answer that." Onoli said.

"From what I know, I'm some kind of werecheetah." Ranma commented.

"What?" Nali asked. "Some kind of werecheetah?" She looked Ranma over, and took more of his features into account. She realized that he has eye-stripes. And his fur, while not striped, or fully black had the gold and spots of a werecheetah. If anything, it was as he said. He did look more like a werecheetah than a were smilodon.

Nali shivered slightly. She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions. Your fangs kind of set me off balance."

"My fangs?" Ranma asked.

"Yes." Nali admitted. "I've only known of one breed of werecat to have a set of teeth like that. And they're not all that pleasant."

"What breed am I?" Ranma asked very curious.

Nali sighed. She stood up from the floor, with Onoli's help. She rubbed at the temples of her head again. This seemed to be a VERY uncomfortable subject for the Healing Mage to talk about. "There was a rare breed of werecat, that supposedly didn't survive past the Age of Magic. They were the Sabretooth Tiger Clan."

"Sabretooth Tiger Clan?" The Edge Guard, and Ranma repeated.

"Yes." Nali said. "It was known that Iceron experimented with MANY kinds of animals before settling on certain classes of Lycanthropes to produce. One class of werecat made were were smilodon fatalis. Of, more commonly known as, the sabretooth weretiger." Nali sighed. "These brutes were the strongest of all the Lycanthrope, said to be even greater than the werelions and werewolves... They were also known to be the most brutal."

Shrugging her shoulders, Nali continued. "Still, for all their ferociousness and power, they were naturally a small clan, and were said to have eventually died off. The last known group was said to have been in China, before the Age of Magic came to a close."

"And you think Ranma is a sabretooth weretiger?" Sheila asked in surprise.

Nali nodded her head. "Yes, as besides the were smilodons, NO species of werecats have 'fangs' like that!" Nali did relent a little. "However, you did bring up a point. He seems to appear to be just as much a werecheetah, as he does a were smilodon."

"Well, Ranma can change into a full werecheetah." Sheila said in Ranma's defense.

"What? He can?" Nali asked in surprise.

"Really!" Raphiel said. "He looked like me!"

"Yeah. Show her, Ranma!" Sheila said.

Ranma shrugged, but did as asked. He changed once more to his werecheetah form, causing Nali's jaw to drop. "What do you think, Miss Nali?"

Nali blinked her eyes once, then twice. She shook her head in disbelief. "Another werecheetah... Hmm..." Nali narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'll say this... I have NEVER seen anything like this."

"Nali, do you think you can find out how it is that Ranma can change to such forms?" Gar asked, getting into the conversation.

"Yeah! I mean, even I have to admit it's pretty cool." Tirga complimented.

Nali blinked her eyes once, then twice. She looked Ranma over. He seemed pretty okay and innocent as a werecheetah. She didn't have to deal with looking at those ferocious fangs, either. "All right. I'll see what I can do." Nali said. "This ability to mix forms sounds familiar to me. Give me time to search through my collection of books, and I'll see what I can come up with."

Ranma bowed politely. "Thank you, Nali-san." Ranma said honestly.

Sighing, nali said. "Don't mention it." She then smirked. "Now, I should get to my job. Who needs medical attention first?"

Raphiel raised his hand. "Me! I didn't get my lolipop!"

The rest of the Edge Guard, Ranma, and Nali sweat-dropped.

by Philip Weigel

Onoli looked at Nali, "Can you heal me up first Nali? I'd like to go to Earth and tell Dr. Diggers about this." Nali nodded and healed him, considering that he was the least injured, it went quickly.

Onoli was about to leave when Nali spoke up again, "Actually, I don't think you'll be able to get to Earth for a week."

Ranma looked at her, "Oh, why not?"

Nali shivered, regardless of the fact that he was kind around Sheila and the others, he still made her nervous. "Because of the Solar Eclipse that's happening, oh, right now." Onoli looked outside and blinked when he saw the sky dimming for a few moments.

Onoli winced, "Well, I guess they won't know for some time then."

Ranma looked at him, he still had Sheila in his arms, considering Gar had the only bed in the room. "What do you mean?"

Sheila looked at him, "Well, you see, when there's a solar eclipse on Jade, the Ether of the Realm won't allow anything to leave for at least a week." She was tempted to just curl up in his arms and go to sleep, considering how nice it was to be held by him, it made her feel safe and warm. She didn't realize it, but she was cuddling a bit close to him, closed her eyes and started to purr a bit.

Ranma just blushed at this, he knew he'd be in trouble for this, someway, somehow, someone would blame him for being perverted, or stealing their girlfriend, or corrupting Sheila.

Thropan just smirked at him and chuckled, 'Seems life's going to be interesting, that it does.' Last time he saw Brianna, she had given him some comics about a wandering samurai with a reversed blade, it influenced his mind a little.

Onoli just blinked at the sight and shrugged. Didn't matter to him too much, just as long as it didn't hurt the team any, though he had a feeling that it would stress things a bit for a little while.

Nali just blinked at that, she then smirked, 'Seems Sheila's interested in that one. Hmm, might have to watch and see what develops.'

Tirga's left eye twitched, 'I'm going to have to start making more moves on Sheila before this new guy gets too close.'

Gar, well, he was in his over-protective brother mode. 'If it wasn't for the fact that I was hurt, I'd teach that mixed breed a thing or two.' Of course right now, he conveniently forgot that the mixed breed in front of them had saved their lives.

Raphiel, well, he was just happily sucking on his lollipop and didn't pay any attention to what was going on around him.

Nali shook her head, as amusing at it was, she needed to do her job. She took her salve, which had magical herbs and soothing lotions in it, it also helped speed up all healing for Werecats, regardless if it was silver or magical damages that they had received. She rolled up the pant leg on Gar's injured leg and started rubbing it in. Gar flinched and moved his leg back unconsciously.

"Hold still, the herbs can't take full effect with you moving like that."

"Sorry, reflex."

Nali nodded and just rubbed more salve in, when she was done, she took the bandages that were on the table near the bed and started wrapping his leg. "There you go, should only take a day or two at the most to completely recover." When she was done, she helped move him to one of the chairs in the room. "Next?" She said looking at Tirga.

"Nah, let Sheila go first. I'm healing from the damages, she got more banged up than I did though."

Ranma nodded to him, truth be told, he didn't really want to put her down, but he didn't know why exactly. He walked over to the bed and gently placed Sheila down on it. He then stepped over to where Tirga was.

"Huh, wha? Yaaawn. Sorry, dozed off for a bit there." Sheila stretched a bit and winced when she felt her body protest. "Damn, I must've been more hurt than I realized."

Nali frowned and looked her over, "Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere."

Nali frowned and looked at everyone, "You'll all have to leave. I think Sheila would like some privacy for this."

"Oh, what for?"

Nali looked at Tirga exasperated, "Because I'm going to have to check her whole body to see where she's hurt and I don't want perverts like you making her agitated."

Tirga shrugged, "So, wouldn't be the first time I've seen her naked. And I've seen better." Everyone looked at him with narrowed eyes, save Thropan, he knew Tirga's behavior and knew that he'd be paying for it in a moment.

*WHUMP!*

'Looks like I was right and. . .where did Ranma get a steel mallet that size?'

Indeed Ranma had smacked Tirga's head into the ground with a 50 ton mallet, at least that's what the mallet said on it's side. Ranma just shrugged at all the looks he was recieving, "This is how we brain perverts, especially perverted idiots back where I'm from."

"Ouch, that hurt you know." Tirga said as he pulled himself out of the small hole.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ranma then shrugged and walked out followed by Tirga. Thropan had already helped Gar out and Onoli had stepped out first.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Nali helped Sheila onto her feet. She was trying hard to make this easy for the petite jagwere, but Sheila still winced a little in pain. She placed a hand on Sheila's back, between the shoulder blades and pressed down. "Does it hurt here?"

Sheila winced and nodded her head. "Yes."

Nali 'hummed a little. She placed her hand onto Sheila's shoulder, and placed her other hand onto Sheila's other shoulder. She pressed her hands down slightly. "Do your shoulders hurt?"

Sheila winded a little. "Yes."

Nali nodded her head. Moving one of her hands down, she pressed lightly on the small of Sheila's back, just above her tail. "And here?"

Sheila nodded her head. "Very."

Nodding her head again, Nali placed either hand on the side of Sheila's thighs. "Do your legs hurt?"

Sheila nodded her head again. Nali just sighed a little. "Sheila, would you please undress?"

Sheila nodded her head a little and started taking off her clothing, albeit reluctantly. She knew Nali was a professional, but Sheila was always rather sensitive about her body and looks, and it embarrassed her to let others see it.

Once Sheila was fully unclothed, Nali turned around and went to grab her jar of salve. She still had a good amount, as she had just made the batch this morning, and there was still plenty. "Sheila, hold still. I'm going to apply this salve."

"All right..." Sheila said uncertainly.

Cupping her hands, Nali picked up a bunch of the salve. She then placed the salve onto Sheila's back and began rubbing it up and down her backside, and onto the skin. "I warn you Sheila, that when we're done, you're going to be covered in bandages for awhile."

Sheila nodded her head. "Understandable. But at least my head won't have to be, right?"

"Don't worry. I can leave your head, hands and feet alone." Nali assured. "But I must advise you don't change between forms. You'll want to keep the bandages in place for awhile, so the salve settles in."

Sheila grumbled a bit, but nodded her head in understanding.

Nali blinked her eyes. A small smirk appeared on her face. "Let me guess. You wanted to show off your human form to Ranma?"

Sheila nodded her head a little. "Yeah."

Nodding her head, the small smirk on Nali's face grew. "So you like him, huh?"

Sheila's face flushed a deep shade of red. "W, whatever gave you that idea?" Sheila asked.

"Just a hunch." Nali said, the smile on her face hadn't lessened any. "I know how sensitive you are about your looks, and I think you wanted to try to show off a little for Ranma..."

Sheila's blush deepened, confirming Nali's assumptions. "It's okay, Sheila." Nali said. "It's okay to like someone. Still, don't you think liking a Sabretooth is a bit much?"

Sheila turned her head around to look at Nali. "What makes you say that? Ranma is, by far, one of the sweetest guys I've ever met."

"Seriously?" Nali asked, her hands still rubbing salve onto Sheila.

"Yes." Sheila said. "And heroic too. I was literally about to be killed and he swooped down and literally saved my bacon from the frier. He repelled that fireball and saved us all." Sheila then began to blush a little. "And he was so gentle when he carried me all the way back here. Ranma was even able to handle letting Gar hang on him while he was carrying me!"

Nali nodded her head. "Seems like a very impressive fellow."

"He is." Sheila said with a wistful sigh. "But still, how am I going to get him to see me as something besides a little kid, if I can't change to my human form?"

"Well, Sheila..." Nali began, taking a moment to choose her words carefully. "I admit, I am a bit prejudiced against Sabretooths. They are literally a 'boogeyman' in certain regions. But from what you told me about Ranma, he seems to be a decent enough a person. I don't think he'll mind getting to know you with or without a pair of breasts to catch his attention"

"Nalllllliiiiiii..." Sheila whined a little, while blushing.

"I'm serious." Nali said. "If you want to get to know him, just be yourself."

Sheila nodded her head, but that advice seemed hollow to her. She had tried to 'be herself' with different guys. All that did was just make them think her some sort of Tomboy. "I hope Ranma won't mind..."

by Philip Weigel

Meanwhile outside Gar was speaking to Tirga with Thropan helping him, Onoli, Ranma, and Raphiel listened in. Onoli stood by the rope ladder, Raphiel was standing next to him and Ranma was leaning against the wall. Gar glared at Tirga, "Tigra why did you shoot off your mouth like that? You know Sheila's sensitive about her hybrid form you dummy!"

Tirga shrugged, "So? I've made comments like that before. She's never thought anything about it." Ranma started listening a bit closer to the conversation.

Gar rolled his eyes at that, "She usually kapows you for those comments."

Tirga shrugged, "Yeah? She usually ka-pows me for anything really. But I mean, seriously, she needs to lighten up some."

Gar narrowed his eyes at Tirga, "How is your teasing supposed to help lighten her mood up?"

Thropan spoke up, "Seriously man, you tend to put her down more than anything. We all know that Sheila's got a complex over her birth defect and she's sensitive about others seeing or discussing her body."

Tirga just shrugged this off, "Seriously, she should lighten up some, I've seen her naked before and teased her and she's never gotten too upset."

"Oh really?" Gar's eyes narrowed, "Where?"

Tirga shrugged, "Many times when she was taking a bath." At this moment, Sheila, wrapped up in bandages walked out at exactly the wrong moment. "She should stay in human form more often. She's sexy in human form and rather plain in hybrid form." Sheila's eyes widened as she heard that coming from Tirga. Tears started to gather in her eyes as she realized that everyone just saw her as plain and not good looking.

Tirga then blinked as he felt a shadow loom over him, he looked and saw Ranma frowning at him. "Excuse me."

Tirga blinked, "What?"

Ranma then grabbed Tirga spun him and headbutted him against the wall. The other male members of the Edge Guard winced at this, Sheila was still trying to hold back her tears.

Tirga groaned, "What's your problem?"

Ranma glared at him, "You need to have more respect for your teammate pal. Especially since she's standing right there" Ranma then pointed to Sheila, who was just about in tears. Tirga's eyes widened as he realized that she must've heard the whole thing.

But before he could speak, Sheila spoke up, "Why?" She couldn't stop the tears anymore and just let them fall. "Is that how you really feel about me?"

Tirga winced, "I, er, well. Well uh ya gotta admit your hybrid form does leave a bit to desire. ."

Onoli frowned at this, he had to make sure that the team worked together effectively, this wasn't cutting it. Ranma growled at the Weretiger and Sheila ran off with tears in her eyes, unminding of her body's protests. Ranma sneered at Tirga and went up to him and grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall, causing Tirga's back, which was already in pain, to flare up even worse.

"What's your problem?"

Ranma snarled, "You don't have a right to ask you know. Now listen up, I'm not a gentleman myself, but you're totally out of line pal." Ranma snarled, his lips curling, somehow making his fangs seem longer and more menacing. Nali had stepped outside when Sheila did and saw the whole thing and got extremely nervous when Ranma got pissed off.

Tirga gulped and got wide-eyed at the sight, "Mommy."

Ranma growled his next words out, "A word of advice. Unless it's respectful or courteous and unless she wrongs you, THEN NEVER MAKE RUDE COMMENTS ABOUT A GIRL'S BODY!"

Ranma proceeded to lay Holy Hell upon Tirga, as he punched, kicked, and basically beat Tirga up at high speeds. Nali shivered at the sight even though Ranma was in his Cheetah form, she still remembered the fangs, 'It's exactly like that time.' Onoli, Gar, Raphiel and Thropan winced. Though Gar had to admit, he had never seen anyone, save possibly Julia, lay into someone like that in their anger.

When Ranma was done, Tirga was nothing more than a bloody pulp. "I'll admit, I've made fun of girl's looks before, but I learned my lesson, and most of the time when I made fun of their looks, it was because they hurt my feelings somehow."

Ranma just turns and storms away, intent on finding Sheila. Nali walked out to the group, hiding her demeanor as she walked to the group. "Will someone help me get this insensitive jerk into the clinic so I can heal him?"

Meanwhile Ranma was running around sniffing the air, he found that his enhanced senses benefitted him greatly. He took a whiff of the air and nodded to himself, "That's Sheila's scent, just a bit differently, must be because she's not burned up right now." Ranma followed the scent and ended up at Dragon Jaw's Inn. He shrugged and walked inside and looked around, eventually spotting Sheila at a corner table crying to herself as she ate some food. Ranma walked over to her until the barkeep, Dragen stopped him, "Hey, you shouldn't bother her, she said she wants to be alone."

Ranma looked at him, a man with wings and an horn on his head, "Don't worry, I'm a friend of Sheila's."

Dragen narrowed his eyes at him as he looked Ranma in the eyes, "Your eyes don't betray you, fine, I'll let you go over there, but cause problems and I'm kicking you out, got it?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I got it." Dragen nodded and let Ranma go over to Sheila. "Hey Sheila." He said when he got over there.

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Sheila nursed her bottle of scotch as she sat down in one of the booths at the back of the Dragon's Jaw Tavern. She had ordered a small meal, a plate of stew, but she really wasn't hungry at all. Instead she just nursed her drink.

"Damn you Tirga..." Sheila thought as she took a swig. It really sucked, being small and petite as she was. She always knew that no one ever took her seriously, but this took the cake. Tirga's always insulted her before, but now... Now she knew her hybrid form, her true self, couldn't hold his interest with the petite frame and child-like looks.

Sheila went to nursing her drink again. It hurt her when she reared her head back to chug, but she didn't care. She just didn't freakin care anymore. Looking down at her untouched meal, Sheila knew that no one cared for her, so why should she care about herself? It's not like anyone would want anything to do with her anyway.

"Hey Sheila," came a male voice. Sheila looked up and saw that Ranma had come by to see her.

Sighing, Sheila looked directly at Ranma. "What do you want?"

"Sheila... Could I please sit down?" Ranma asked.

Sheila just shrugged her shoulders. "Sure why not?" However, Sheila was surprised as Ranma too the seat right next to her, instead of sitting across from her. "Ranma?"

"Yeah, Sheila?" Ranma asked.

"Why are you sitting so close?" Sheila asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, you seemed sad and alone, and I thought I'd give you company." Ranma said honestly. "As for why I'm sitting here... It just seemed right." Ranma said with a little blush.

Seeing that blush caused Sheila to smile a little. "Sorry, but I'm not much for talking."

"I understand." Ranma said. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry that Tirga said all those mean, nasty things about you..."

Sighing, Sheila nodded her head. "Tirga talks like that all the time. It's nothing new." She was trying to sound confident, but she was coming out as sounding monotone.

"And that I think the damned fool doesn't know what he's talking about." Ranma said.

Now hearing that made Sheila curious. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah." Ranma said. "I mean, that was just cruel on his part. From what I know, you did nothing to deserve such a brutal bout of verbal beating from that dumb bastard."

Sheila just stared at Ranma. She could see he was obviously angry at Tirga. It also gave the small jagwere a small internal thrill that he was standing up for her. She managed to smile at Ranma. "Thanks for saying such things... Even though we both know it's not true."

Ranma raised an eyebrow to that. "Excuse me?"

"Come on..." Sheila said. "You and I both know I just look like a freakin' kid..." Sighing, Sheila said, "This damn birth-defect has been a freaking curse for me all my life."

"Aw, Sheila... Don't look at it that way." Ranma said.

"And why not!?" Sheila snapped. "I've never had a damn boyfriend, no guy looks my way unless I'm in human form..." Sheila's shoulders shook a bit. "N, no one's ever wanted to care for me much. I only had my brother around while growing up, and gods damn it, I just want to know I can turn a few heads. Know I'm a woman, you know?"

Sheila sighed and shook her head at Ranma's silence. "No, you wouldn't." Sheila said. "What would a man know about wanting to feel like a woman... I just want to know that someone cares..."

"I care." Ranma said in all seriousness.

Sheila blinked and looked at Ranma. She then chuckled and shook her head. "I don't want your pity... I know you're probably just saying that because you can't bare to see me down like this."

"I'm serious." Ranma said. "Sheila, I lost a lot in the past 24 hours... My home, friends, family, my humanity, EVERYTHING. I cannot go back, no matter how much I want to."

Ranma looked at Sheila seriously. "Even though we haven't known each other for long, you're one of the best friends. I mean, you haven't tried to be mean to me, or try to intimidate me once! That's a new record for people I know, believe me." Ranma said.

Sheila was silent with that. Ranma saw her as a friend? Well, that was something. Still, she'd need to do something to catch his attention. After all, Sheila looked down upon her own hybrid form. She knew she'd have to blind-side Ranma with some 'flash' before he would try anything with her. It was the same way with all guys she met.

"Besides..." Ranma said after some time. "I can't bare to see someone as nice and cute as you feeling upset."

Now hearing that surprised Sheila a lot. "You think I'm cute."

"Very." Ranma said. "You're very pretty cat-lady."

Ranma was then surprised as Sheila literally latched her arms around him, holding tightly. He could feel his fur moisten after some time. "Sheila? You're crying?" Ranma asked.

Sheila nodded her head a little. "Just hold me... Please..."

Nodding his head, Ranma wrapped his arms around the smaller frame of Sheila. The small jagwere continued to weep lightly into his fur. Ranma just held the small girl to comfort her, realizing that her problem ran deeper than he knew.

by Philip Weigel

Ranma just held on to Sheila as she cried into his chest, allowing the Jagwere to let her pain out. While he was holding her he started to rub her back, but he did it lightly as he remembered how much her body was injured and he didn't want to cause her undue pain. Though a part of him was a bit surprised that he could comfort anyone like this, oh sure, he had done so in the past to his fiancee's, but they were probably dead by now from his fight with Saffron and, 'Calm yourself Ranma, there's no need to dwell on that.'

Sheila for her part, just continued to hold on, not wanting to let go and lose the feeling of comfort that she was receiving, but she knew that it would go away soon, all feelings of comfort eventually went away for her, since no one cared for her romantically.

After a few minutes of this Ranma asked Sheila a question, "You going to be okay Sheila?"

Sheila just sniffed and shook her head, burying her face into Ranma's chest, she sniffled, "Why doesn't anyone care for me?"

Ranma blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Why is it that a woman has to have at least a C-cup to get any attention from men?" Sheila started shaking a bit, "No one thinks of me romantically, and when I try to be myself, most people think of me as a tomboy or a little kid."

Ranma hugged the distraught Jagwere to him a bit tighter, "Most men are jerks and perverts, and you shouldn't care what others think about you."

Sheila just started sobbing harder into his chest, "Besides Gar, I've had no one. Do you know what it's like growing up alone with only an older brother who's not there because he's trying to make ends meet? To be considered an outcast no matter what, not even becoming an Edge Guard has gotten me any respect."

Ranma frowned as she cried, he held her and rocked her gently as he thought about his own life. "I think I do. I think I understand you."

Sheila sniffled miserably and looked up into Ranma's eyes, "How would you know?"

Ranma gave a wane smile at her, "I know, because for most of my life, I was alone as well. Just me and pops on the road learning martial arts. I left home when I was six years old and spent the next ten years learning martial arts, I hardly had any friends whatsoever, and any I made I had to leave behind soon. I mean, I got used to it, but I was always so lonely."

Sheila was speechless, even her childhood wasn't that lonely, she hugged Ranma tighter, "I'm sorry."

Ranma shook his head and returned the hug, "Don't be, it's not your fault."

Sheila shook her head, "I shouldn't be pouring my troubles out to you, I mean, you just lost your family and everything, and here I am, pouring my troubles out to you."

"Sheila." Ranma sighed, "Sometimes, one just has to let their pain out, believe me I know.

Sheila just nodded her head and rested her face against Ranma's furry chest. "Your fur is nice and silky smooth."

Ranma blushed a bit, "Thanks, are you going to be all right?"

"I think so, but, but just don't leave. I want to keep feeling this."

Ranma nodded and let Sheila rest her head against his chest, he looked over to her unfinished stew and his mouth watered and his stomach growled. Sheila giggled at that, "You want some of my stew?"

Ranma nodded, "Please? I haven't eaten all day, I didn't even get to finish breakfast because I was savagely attacked."

"Sure."

Ranma kept one arm wrapped around Sheila, while he used his free hand to lift the small bowl up to his mouth and he guzzle it down. "Ah, thank you Sheila. I needed that."

Ranma squeezed a bit tighter, much to Sheila's discomfort, but she didn't say anything, she didn't want him to leave her. "How are you feeling Sheila?"

"Physically? I'm a bit stiff and sore. Emotionally? I'm not too sure."

Ranma frowned a bit and then picked Sheila up and placed her in his lap while he hugged her to him tightly. Sheila started relaxing against his body and started nuzzling her face to his chest. 'It's just like that time he held me when he brought me all the way back to the Hamlet.'

Ranma smiled as he felt her nuzzle his chest, he started purring unconsciously, he then blinked, 'I'm purring? Just like a c-c-feline. But then how come I'm not running away in fear?'

Sheila just smiled as she felt Ranma purring, she just closed her eyes and leaned her head against his chest. As Ranma was thinking about why he wasn't running away in fear, one of his hands, the one on the middle of Sheila's back, seems to run on automatic and runs down and starts feeling her butt.

Ranma blinked, 'Oh man, I hope she doesn't get mad at me.'

But Sheila didn't, she actually seemed to enjoy what he was doing to her, she snuggled a bit closer to Ranma and started purring. Anyone who was around the two of them from the Earth realm would've thought that there was an air conditioner going off right now. Ranma blinked and mentally shrugged, 'As long as she isn't angry at me.' He then kept up his ministrations on Sheila's rear-end.

Even though her eyes were closed, Sheila smiled cattily and started nuzzling closer to Ranma. The mixed breed started thinking, 'She's the first girl to ever enjoy me doing something perverted to her that isn't trying to get me to marry her."

The barkeep, Dragen, had watched all of this and decided that now was a good time to go over and talk to the, apparent, Werecheetah. Most people in the tavern were looking at the Werecheetah, since they were extremely rare, especially after that massacre. When he got to the table he spoke to Ranma, "I don't know how you did it, but this is the first time I've seen Sheila calm down so quickly. For that I'll give you free eats next time you come in here. As well as my own personal thanks. I hate seeing my friends upset. So you better take care of her, all right?"

Ranma just nodded his head at Dragen, "Don't worry, I never hurt my friends on purpose."

Dragen just nodded and walked back to the bar. Ranma just continued to hold Sheila, caressing her firm yet soft butt with one hand, caressing the base of her tail.

Sheila, even with her eyes closed, let off a soft purr of contentment.

by Philip Weigel

Meanwhile, back at the clinic, Tirga was shirtless and lying face down as Nali rubbed some healing balm into his back. Thropan and Onoli had stayed behind to talk to Tirga, while Gar and Raphiel had taken off to see if they couldn't find Sheila instead. However Nali wasn't being very gentle at the moment.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Onoli looked at the Weretiger, "I want you to know Tirga how upset I am with you."

"Oh? OW!" Nali just raised an eyebrow as she applied healing balm, extra hard.

"Ooops, I'm so sorry." She said in a sarcastic voice.

Onoli ignored Nali, "We're supposed to be a team, and your bashing Sheila like that isn't helping any."

"But I was telling the truth!"

Thropan frowned at him, "She ran off in tears man."

"Yeah? OW! Damnit Nali! Do you have to rub it in that hard?"

"Hmmm, oh I'm sorry, does it hurt?"

"YES!"

Nali raised an eyebrow, "Then imagine how Sheila must've felt when she left."

"But... I didn't hit her."

Nali shook her head, "No, you didn't. You hurt her worse."

"Huh?"

Nali sighed, "Physical wounds are easy to deal with, emotional wounds are impossible to deal with as they never fully heal."

Tirga blinked, "Huh? Just what do you mean?"

Thropan just shook his head, "You just don't get it do you?"

"Just tell me!"

Thropan sighed, "You hurt her feelings, badly, I might add. She's probably out there feeling like shit right now."

"Tirga. . ."

"Yeah? What Onoli?"

Onoli shook his head, "You've got to realize she's very sensitive, and she's always felt inferior around other females. Especially female Werecats. And. . . and she feels inferior around you, when you pay more attention to other women, instead of her." Onoli shook his head sadly, "She always feels like she doesn't belong and isn't loved, nor cared for."

Tirga thought about it and winced, "I screwed up huh?"

Nali scoffed, "That's putting it mildly."

Onoli nodded, "Tirga, you need time to think. So, I suggest you think about what you've done, while on the Night Shift for the next week."

"All night for the whole week?"

Onoli nodded and Tirga groaned, but he nodded, "I guess that's only fair."

"Very much so."

Thropan then spoke up, "I suggest, when you've had time to think about it, to appologize to Sheila." He then shook his head, "I just hope she's okay."

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Gar Silvear made haste as he moved through Seer's Hamlet. His sister had run pretty fast and had evaded him by going into the crowds. And, with all the people here, Gar could not just easily rack her scent, since it was easily being overshadowed by more than a few constant scents.

And of course, the search has been anything BUT easy. Gar had stopped at two of Sheila's regular haunts, the Brass Bone Tavern, the Eagle's Feather Inn, and he and Raphiel have been checking the marketplace constantly. But no such luck.

"Damn it..." Gar growled as he moved through the crowed, his eyes constantly moving about, focusing on as many faces as he could in his hope to find Sheila. (Which didn't seem like it would be a possibility).

"SHEILA!" Gar called out. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

A few people turned to look at Gar, but easily shrugged it off and went back to what they were doing. Gar could see that Sheila wasn't around. "Gods damn it..." Gar began to growl again. "When I see Tirga again, I am SO going to give him a piece of my mind!"

"But Gar!" Raphiel said. "If you give him a piece of your mind, what will happen to you?"

Gar sighed in disbelief. "It's a figure of speech, Raph."

"Ah! Okay!" Raphiel said.

Gar nodded his head. He looked at Raphiel seriously. "Did you find Sheila anywhere?"

Raphiel shook his head. "Nope. I looked around the market, checked with a few fortune tellers, and asked people about Sheila, but I couldn't find her."

"Damm!" Gar growled. This was horrible. His sister was probably out there alone, crying, and feeling low as one can get.

Raphiel then continued talking. "Though, I did see Ranma feeling up some petite female Jagwere at the Dragon's Jaw Tavern, but it couldn't have been Sheila. She pounds Tirga whenever he gets fresh with her."

Gar blinked his eyes once, then twice. His left eye twitched as he looked at Raphiel. "What?"

"Yeah!" Raphiel said. "He kept feeling her butt, and both were purring loudly and.. Hey, Gar, that vein on your head looks like it's gonna burst."

"Rrrrrrraaaaaannnnnmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." Gar said. Oh, he was seething in anger. Well, NO ONE would take advantage of his sister as long as he was around. "C'MON, RAPH! WE'RE GOING TO THE DRAGON'S JAW!"

"Yay!" Raphiel cheered. "Are you paying?"

Gar just slapped himself on the face and grumbled at Raphiel's stupidity.

by Philip Weigel

Gar stormed into the Dragon's Jaw Tavern, intent on stopping the new guy from molesting Sheila, however, when he got there, he blinked as he took in what was going on. Ranma was in his Werecheetah form, his eyes were closed and he was hugging Sheila, who was sitting in his lap, to him with one hand, while the other hand rubbed and caressed her butt.

Normally Gar would've done something to someone molesting his sister, but didn't this time when he noticed something, Sheila's eyes were closed, sure, she had tear tracks on them, but that was from what Tirga had said to her. But Sheila was smiling, her tail wagging slowly and she was purring in contentment as she hugged Ranma. Because Sheila was looking so happy Gar couldn't bring himself to be angry at Ranma. Though the two of them would 'talk' later. He went over to Dragen, with Raphiel following him. "What can I do for you two?"

Raphiel smiled, "Can I get some of that stew of yours that's good?"

"Sure. And you Gar?"

"Ale."

Dragen shrugged and went to get their orders. A couple minutes later he came back and gave them what they ordered, "That'll be 5 copper pieces total."

Gar blinked, "That was cheap." He handed over the money and Dragen took it. "Why so cheap? Normally it's at least 3 bronze pieces." Raphiel nodded, but dug into his meal.

"Simple, business has been good lately, so I can afford it just this once, besides, Sheila came in here earlier and I had a feeling that you'd show up sooner or later."

Gar nodded as he took a swig of his ale. "Yeah, Sheila ran off in tears and Raphiel and I went to look for her."

Dragen nodded, "So what happened? Did she catch Tirga doing some girl again or what?"

Gar shook his head, "It's worse, we were all at Nali's clinic, getting healed up after a surprise attack from some bandits and well, most of us had to go outside cause Sheila had to get undressed and get healed up. Tirga made a stupid comment before we went outside, Ranma, the one sitting with Sheila right now, clocked him over the head and we all went outside. I started to talk to Tirga about that and then he made a rather mean comment about how Sheila should stay in human form more often, because her hybrid form is so plain."

Dragen winced, "And Sheila came outside to hear this right?"

Gar nodded, "Yeah, she then took off in tears and was going pretty fast." He then looked at where Sheila was sitting and had to stop himself from going over there and beating that perverted mixed breed of a Werecat up for rubbing his sister's butt. "So how did this happen?"

"You mean with Sheila and that Werecheetah? What's his name?"

Raphiel spoke up, "His name is Ranma. He's a Werecheetah? I thought Nali said he was a Sabertooth."

Dragen blinked, "Huh?"

Gar shook his head, "Ranma has two different hybrid forms that we know of, that one is a Werecheetah, he has another form which switches the black and white color scheme of a Werecheetah around and he gains sharp fangs."

"Fangs? But all Werecats have fangs don't they?"

"I mean fangs that go down to his chin."

"Ah, I see."

"Anyway, how did that happen?"

"Well, Sheila came in looking a bit banged up and all depressed, she ordered a bottle of scotch and some stew and asked for a corner table and to be left alone. I gave her the first two easily enough, but not long after that Ranma came in and went over to her, I tried to stop him, but he convinced me to let him speak to Sheila. Well, then he went over to talk to Sheila and then she started crying out her pain onto his chest."

Dragen smiled a bit, "The two of them talked a bit and eventually, Ranma picked Sheila up and placed her in his lap and she seriously calmed down." Dragen shook his head, "I've never seen Sheila calm down so quickly before. So if you can, hold off your "big-brother-to-little-sister's-prospective-boyfriend" speech until later okay."

Gar blinked, "I don't know what you mean."

Dragen shook his head, "You know what I mean. I've known you for several years Gar, and I know you want your sister happy, however, you're also highly protective of her and her feelings. My advise is to you, stand back and see how this works out, be there for her if she needs comfort, but otherwise stay back and just see what happens."

Gar grumbled, but took the advise, "I can't say I will. But I'll try, for Sheila's happiness if nothing else."

Dragen nodded and looked at the Sheila and Ranma, Ranma was still feeling Sheila's butt and the two were purring just a bit louder than before. Sheila's tail was wagging back and forth in apparent happiness. "Besides, I think he's a decent enough person."

Gar nodded and continued to drink his ale.

by Philip Weigel

It was evening in Atlanta and Theo and Julia were sitting down eating supper. Amazingly, Britanny, Brianna, Gina, Strype, Genn, Seance and Dao had come to eat with them as well. The girls were in a somber mood, but they had asked that Strype, Genn, Seance and Dao show up for supper as they had an announcement to make. Julia couldn't take it anymore, "Alright girls, what's wrong? You look as if someone died or something?"

The girls sighed, and Brianna pulled out a combination T.V./DVD player and set it up on the counter. Theo blinked, "What's so important that you have to show us instead of tell us?"

Gina smiled a bit, "You wouldn't believe us if we told you."

"Oh? Try me?"

"A million copies of Peachbody and Benji showed up in Japan and took over."

Everyone blinked, Julia recovered her wits first. "You're right, I don't believe you."

Gina grinned, "Good. Because I wasn't being serious."

"All set Gina." Brianna pulled out a DVD and placed it in the machine and played the media sample. "Prepare to be amazed."

Everyone watched what was being played and the first thing they saw was a bird monster of some sort. Dao blinked, "A Phoenix?"

Everyone glanced at him and Brit hit the pause button. Gina spoke up, "You know something Dao?"

Dao nodded, using one of his six hands to stroke his beard, the Djiin then spoke, "The Phoenix race is an incredibly powerful, vengeful, but rather rare breed."

Theo blinked, "Oh? I've never actually met a Phoenix in person mind you, so I'll take your word for it."

Dao nodded, "Yes, most are not that powerful, but some get really powerful, like this Phoenix that's attacking that town right now. When they're able to throw attacks around like that, then they're at the level of a God."

Seance goggled, "A God?"

Dao nodded, "Yes, a God. Not as powerful as Deities like Ra, Odin, Zeus, but still more powerful than most creatures out there."

Britanny nodded, "Yeah, well, watch what happens." She then hit play and everyone watched as the Phoenix attacked someone who was trying to get the bird to get away from the city, but the creature wasn't listening, even when the human struck him to the ground, the Phoenix just got back up and continued to fling fireballs around. Finally the human leaped at the Phoenix, but then everyone who hadn't seen it before, received a surprise as the human wasn't even human and he transformed into a Werecheetah, except for the fact that the color scheme was backwards.

Completely black, with gold spots, the Werecheetah also had fangs on his face and leaped through the Phoenix's attacks and crushed his throat with his jaws and then the two of them crashed into the canal, which was then vaporized. Brit turned off the DVD after that.

Theo couldn't believe it, "A Werecheetah? Still alive?" He thought he had failed to save any but Britanny, suddenly another one shows up and then he dies.

Julia shook her head, 'What a way to go.'

Dao hummed, "A Werecat that can fight a Phoenix evenly, he must've been extremely powerful."

The girls remained silent, they had seen this before.

Genn couldn't believe her eyes, that fight had been incredible, that Werecat had fought most of the battle in human form and was even able to land blows on the Phoenix.

Seance was in a similar state of mind.

Strype hummed, "Did they find the body?"

Britanny shook her head, "No muffin, they didn't. But nothing, not even a Lycanthrope could've survived that." Britanny didn't know just how wrong she was.

Just then Strype's cell phone rang. Strype blinked and answered it, "Hello? Oh hi boss. Yes he's here. How'd you know we'd all be eating dinner together? Right, right." He pulled the phone away from his ear and handed it to Theo, "It's for you Dr. Diggers."

Theo nodded and put the phone up to his ear, "Hello? Agent M, how are you? What? Oh, I just found out myself, saw a recording of it. Same to you." Theo then handed the phone back to Strype, "Agent M just called to tell me about what we just saw."

Everyone nodded, Britanny spoke up, "I know this may sound a bit heartless, but there's no use dwelling on what happened."

Everyone nodded.

Meanwhile in Nerima, the Wererat agents had gathered the information about the individuals that had partook in the fight and had compiled the data and was ready to send it to Gothwrain.

Lee looked at Helen, "Are you sure that it's correct?"

Helen nodded, "Yep, we put down all the information we could."

Lee nodded, "Then let's go." The Wererat agents all nodded and left the district.

Helen looked at Lee as they left, "I'm rather surprised that less than 150 people died from that attack."

Lee nodded, "I know, seems they have a good rescue system there in Nerima and most everyone knows how to handle themselves in a crisis.

Helen hummed, "Yeah, and most of the people that died, died in the first attack."

Lee nodded at that.

by Philip Weigel

Ranma blinked as he opened his eyes and he took a look around, first thing he noticed was the fact that he and Sheila were purring, and rather loudly at that, second thing he noticed was that his hand still was rubbing and caressing her fleshy bottom. He looked around and noticed that the place wasn't as crowded as it was when he came in, Ranma mentally groaned, 'Great, we've been here so long that it's gotten fairly late, well, I better take Sheila home.'

Ranma shook Sheila lightly so that he could wake her up, Sheila just mumbled something and snuggled closer to him. Ranma sighed and leaned his head close to her ear to whisper to her, "Say Sheila?"

Sheila cracked one of her eyes open and looked up a bit, at first she was confused as to why she felt so comfortable, but then she realized that she was leaning against someone who was holding her close. She blinked a bit when she saw a male Were Cheetah's face that wasn't Raphiel's, but then she remembered Ranma, she spoke softly, "Hmm? What?"

Ranma smiled a little at her, "Hey, it's getting' pretty late, how about I walk you home?"

Sheila closed her eye and nuzzled her face on Ranma's chest, as well as snuggled closer, "Can't, too tired, and you're comfy."

Ranma sighed a bit, "How about I carry you home then?"

Sheila nodded and dozed off against Ranma's chest. Ranma sighed as he picked her up, using his arm that wasn't holding her to support the middle of her back, his other arm, that was supporting her already, went to supporting her shoulders, Sheila just continued to rest her head on his chest. Ranma stood up and then blinked as he realized that he didn't know where she lived, he then just shrugged, "I'll ask that guy who tried to stop me from talking to her, he'll prolly know where she lives."

Ranma walked up to the counter and blinked when he saw Raphiel and Gar there as well, "Hey guys." He called out softly, so he didn't wake Sheila up.

Raphiel waved at him, his mouth was full at the moment, so he didn't say anything. Gar nodded, "Hello. What are you doing right now?"

Ranma blinked, "Well, I was going to take Sheila to her home, but then I realized that I don't know where she lives."

Gar shook his head, "I can take you, I'm her brother and I live there as well."

Dragen looked at Gar and whispered to him in a tone set for Jagwere hearing, "Remember what I said to you."

Gar whispered back to Dragen, "I know, I'm just going to speak a little with him is all, nothing too bad." He then spoke to Raphiel, "You going to be okay?"

Raphiel nodded, "Yeah, I can make my way home from here."

Gar nodded and stood up walking outside, Ranma followed him. They walked down the road a bit in compatible silence, finally Gar broke it, "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For calming my sister down. You don't know how hard that is when she gets that upset."

Ranma blinked, "I guess."

Gar shook his head and sighed, "I guess you should know, Sheila, well, she was born with a rare Werecat birth defect."

Ranma blinked, "Hmm, Sheila mentioned something like that, not that I know what she was really talking about." He then looked at the petite Jagwere in his arms, "I don't see no defect to her. I mean, she's not missing a limb or anything, does she have a bad sense of direction or bad eyesight or something?"

Gar looked at him, "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

Gar sighed, "Look at her body, notice how small and child-like it is?"

Ranma looked at Sheila again, "So? She's short, cute and petite."

Gar shook his head, "All right, I'll just come out and tell you, Sheila's hybrid form is what she should be in human form, while her human form has all the size, strength, stamina, endurance and build that her hybrid form has. Though because she has that small a body she does get hyper regeneration abilities."

Ranma blinked, "So that's what Sheila and Tirga were talking about then. But Sheila said she never even had a boyfriend, why not?"

Gar sighed, "Look, the only reason I'm telling you this is because I think you should know okay. The real problem is, is that most people don't want to have anything to do with Sheila because they don't want their kids to have that birth defect."

Ranma blinked, "Oh now that's just plain stupid."

"Huh?"

"You said it yourself, her so-called birth defect is rare, there's a good chance that any kids she has won't have it. And besides," Ranma looked at her, "It's not the body that matters, it's the person. I've known a lot of good looking people, and plenty of them have a personality of a rampaging demon."

Gar looked at Ranma as he continued, "I really don't care what a person looks like physically, it's what they're like on the inside that counts. Hell, Sheila's the first person I ever met that was kind to me right off the bat that didn't turn around and smack me for some stupid reason. Everyone else I ever met was rather mean to me at one point, even my own parents."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, well, you see my old man was my martial arts instructor, and everyday he had me go through the most insane training known. If I showed any weakness or unwillingness to the training he'd berate me and beat me down over it. Then there was my mother, the first time I met her, we didn't know each other. The second time we met, well, she stormed in waving a contract about how I'd be a man among men or commit seppuku."

"Seppuku?"

"Ritual suicide. Because of a. . .condition I had, I didn't think I could fulfil it for her and had to hide from her in plain sight. Later I found out that she didn't care about it and dropped the contract."

Gar blinked, "You've had an interesting life I guess."

Ranma nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, this is our home."

Ranma blinked as he looked at it, "Hey! This is a decent sized house, must've cost a fortune."

Gar smirked, "Wasn't too bad." He walked into the house, Ranma following, Gar pointed to a hallway, "Down that hall, the second door on your left is Sheila's room."

"Thanks." Ranma started to walk off.

"Say Ranma?"

Ranma stopped and turned to look at the Jagwere, "Yeah?"

"I suppose you don't have a place to stay? Nor any money, correct?" Seeing Ranma nod, Gar continued, "So I'll be a nice guy and let you stay a bit, at least until you find your own place to live."

Ranma smiled, "Thanks." He then walked off to put Sheila to bed.

Gar shook his head, "Anytime."

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Evening was starting to fall upon the East Continent of Jade. The moon shone high in the air as stars twinkled all about. A rather nice evening when one thought about it.

On the outskirts of the Seer's Desert, under the moonlight, the remnants of the Great Stooges Gang were preparing for their next plan; their revenge upon the members of the Northern Edge Guard.

They were digging a hole...

"Uh... Hey, Curly." Larry said as he continued to use his pick-axe on some of the harder bedrock. "Why are we digging a hole again?"

"Because, these Edge Guard are going to have an idea on how we work, so we have to hit them with something they wouldn't expect." Curly said.

"And that's why we're digging a hole?" Larry asked.

"Of course!" Curly said. "We'll dig this hole deep enough, and then use camouflage to hide it. We'll lead them here and they'll fall in! And then we'll seal this hole with a boulder and trap them! THEY'LL NEVER BOTHER US AGAIN!"

Larry blinked his eyes. "Uh... Are you sure this is gonna work?"

"Of course!" Curly said. "It's fool-proof! MUAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAANYUK, NYUK, NYUK!"

Moe, who was shovelling all this time, turned his head towards his brothers. "Hey, you two! Less talking, more shovelling!"

"Oh, I'll shovel, all right." Larry said. "You just gotta get Curly to do his part."

"NYUK, NYUK, NYUK, NYUK-"

*WHAM*!

"OW!" Curly said as he held onto his face. "You broke by dose! What was dat for?" Curly screeched as he looked at Moe. "Are you trying' ta ruin by fase?"

Lowering his shovel with the Curly-face imprint Moe said, "Ah, quit your bellyaching, chowder-head! I have to say this is the stupidest plan yet." He then smirked. "Besides, I probably fixed your ugly-mug a little."

"Heh heh! He's got ya there, Curly!" Larry said as he laughed.

Hearing that, Curly growled. "Oh, a wise-guy, eh?" Not waiting for Larry to answer, Curly poked his brother in the eyes.

"WOO, WOO, WOO, WOO!" Larry said as he covered his eyes. he kicked out to hit Curly...

And his Moe in the shin instead.

"OW! You dunderhead! Why I oughtta..." Moe lifted his shovel again, and a fight broke out between the three brothers...

by Philip Weigel

Rook frowned, as well as he could, considering that no one could see his face outside of his eyes, "Hmm, just how am I going to get revenge hmm? HANZO!"

"It's Hanza you prick!" Said the man-turned-woman as she walked in and glared at Rook.

"Whatever HanzO. I got a job for you."

Hanza rolled her eyes, "Yeah, what?"

Rook looked at her, "There's a new male Werecat in Seer's Hamlet."

"Yeah, so?"

"Truthfully, I've never seen one like this one before."

Hanza blink-blinked, "Wait, you mean you, a high ranking Undead Knight has never seen a Werecat like this one before?"

Rook nodded, "Yes, I want you to go to Seer's Hamlet and find out what you can about him, he seems to be taking a liking to someone we both want revenge on."

Hanza's face darkened, "Sheila." Seeing Rook nod, Hanza balled up a hand into a fist and shook, Sheila had frozen Rook, who was then shattered, and it took him a lot of energy to pull himself back together. Because of Sheila, Hanza drank a potion which turned her from a guy into a woman. She looked at Rook, "One question, did the potion I slipped those two Edge Guard work?"

"You mean Gar and Tirga? Yes. Gar happens to act a LOT more protective of Sheila than he normally would, which will cause friction between the two siblings, and Tirga is acting more cold to her as well as more lecherous as of late."

Hanza grinned, "Good." She turned to leave, as she walked out the door, she looked back at Rook, "All I have to do is find out what this new Werecat is?"

Rook nodded, "Yep. He'll look a bit like a Werecheetah, but slightly different."

Hanza then smirked, "What about that gang you're using as a Cat's Paw?"

Rook shook his head, "They're good for distractions, heh, they almost managed to do our dirty work for us." Rook chuckled a bit, "That mage I hired to train one of them in magic actually did his job and the one he trained nearly killed the brat."

Hanza giggled as she walked out. Rook leaned back in his chair, scanning Seer's Hamlet and laughing at Tirga's discomfort as he had to patrol the whole night by himself, suddenly Rook's crystal ball was filled with the image of a short, though busty red-head, but her eyes glowed green, "What the?"

The image smirked, "I have a deal for you."

"Just what are you?"

"I'm a spirit you numbskull. Nevermind, you know that new Werecat? Well, you don't but I do. I want revenge on him, so how about you get me a body so that I can kill him and we'll all be happy."

Rook blinked, "Huh?"

The image sighed, "Okay, the deal is, is that I want revenge on that new Werecat, you want revenge on a girl who is close to that Werecat. I can help us both get what we want."

"How so?"

"Simple, I heard that you know of someone who can make bodies, correct?"

Rook nodded, "Yeah, her name's Array."

"Well, get her to make me a body that looks like the one you see here."

"Hmmm, why not? You think you can take this Werecat?"

The image chuckled, "I know all of his moves, not to mention that we've met before."

"Alright, I'll do it, but I need your name and how you think you'll be effective?"

"My body will be human, however, I happen to have the abilities of a Werecat and the essence of a demon."

"Hold up, I think that any mage will be able to tell that you're not human if you have that essence."

"Don't worry about it, I can conceal my essence to anyone. As for my name, call me Ranko."

Rook waved her off, "Fine, fine, I'll get you a damn body if you think you can take out this Werecat. Though if you can, try and kill that girl he's with as well."

"No problem."

by Philip Weigel

Rook looked at the image in the crystal ball, "Okay 'Ranko' just who and what are you?" The image was about to say something, but Rook held up a hand, "I know you said that you're a spirit, but you're not just one spirit, you're three in one, so what exactly are you?"

'Ranko' grinned, "Well, I gotta say, you're smarter than you look. You're right, I am three in one. The body is because two of the three that make me up happen to have used this body at one time. As for the Werecat abilities, well, that was because of a cat-ghost named, Mao Mo Lin."

Rook just looked at the image hard, "Get on with it. Just what are you?"

"Impatient aren't we? Oh well, you see, two thirds want to kill him, the other third wants to screw his brains out, truthfully, I don't really care, just as long as he's dead."

"GET ON WITH IT!"

"Yeesh! You need to lighten up some. Okay, okay. The first part of me happens to be a girl that was born from a cursed mirror that makes an almost perfect clone of someone, including their moves and memories, of that particular body."

Rook blinked, "Huh?"

"Well, if the person can shift genders, then the clone only has memories of what that person can do in that particular body, okay."

Rook nodded, "Ah! I see. So this Werecat can switch genders then?"

"Yep! Splash him with cold water and he becomes a girl, though I'm not sure how his female side would look right now."

"So, is that the only reason the clone is almost perfect?"

"Nope! The clone will try and sleep with anything of the opposite gender that has two legs."

Rook nodded slowly, "I see. What about that Ghost Cat thingy?"

'Ranko' shrugged, "As for him, well, the Werecat stopped him from getting himself a bride, as well as stopping his revenge, so he agreed to help out, that's why we've got Werecat healing, senses and physical abilities, even if they're just basic abilities and nothing super-powerful."

Rook hummed, "I see. What about that Demon essence?"

"Oh that. Well, you see, an old pervert by the name of Happosai used some sort of magical incense to split that Werecat from his cursed form in the past and he messed up and Evil Spirit Ranko was born. They defeated her and the body reunited with Ranma's."

"Ranma?"

"The new Werecat. Anyway, the three united together to get back at him in one way or another. The mirror clone just wants to screw his brains out, the other two that made me up want revenge."

Rook chuckled, "I see. Well, there's nothing wrong with revenge, just take out that female Werecat that he's hanging around and we'll call it even."

"Deal. So what are you going to do about getting me a body?"

"Give me a second here." Rook turned to one of his Undead soldiers, who was standing in front of him with a couple of Trolls. "Go and get me Array, I'm sure you know what she looks like."

The Undead looked at him, in a gravely voice he asked, "Uh, which one?"

Rook blinked, then deadpanned, "Good point." He shook his head, "Remember the version that can make bodies, get her."

The Undead nodded, causing his head to fall off. A Troll caught it and gave it back the Undead and then they all left. 'Ranko' blinked a couple of times, "Just what were those creatures?"

Rook looked at her, "One of my Undead soldiers and a couple of Trolls that I have under my service."

'Ranko' nodded, "I see."

Gar blinked and muttered to himself, "Hmm, Ranma has been gone for awhile now, it shouldn't have taken him this long to put Sheila in her bed."

So saying he got up and went to Sheila's room. He opened the door and blinked when he saw that Ranma was laying on Sheila's bed with her and holding her, "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Gar started walking purposely up to the bed, but Ranma held up a hand, even with his eyes closed, "I'm not asleep just yet."

Gar frowned and hissed at him, "Why are you in Sheila's bed?"

"Easy. I tried to get her to let go of me, but I couldn't. I put her on the bed and tried to move her arms, but she started whimpering and then she hugged me tighter than before, so, what could I do huh?"

Gar scowled, "Fine. But you do anything, and I mean anything to her, I'll kill you."

Ranma chuckled, "You're not the first to make that threat, but I promise I won't do anything to her, okay?"

Gar frowned deeply, but nodded and left. As soon as he was gone, Ranma wrapped his arm back around Sheila, causing her to cuddle up to him more.

by Philip Weigel

Hanza shook her head as she left Rook's castle, as soon as she was out of the castle, she used her ring and teleported all the way to Seer's Hamlet. "Still useful." She shook her head and walked down the streets, dressed in a loose fitting cloak. The ring she had was something that she had stolen from a mage a while ago. The ring had three spells in it, a Haste, teleportation and invisibility. She could either use each spell once or one spell three times. "And I just used up the last spell for the day."

Hanza shrugged, it didn't matter to her at all, in the morning the ring would be recharged and that was that. As she walked around, all she saw were the late-owls, the type of people, or in this case magical beings that you found in most major cities, and some night creatures, the type that only came out at night.

She looked around a bit and ducked behind a building as Tirga walked by, grumbling about working the late shift. As soon as he was out of sight, Hanza let out a sigh of relief at not being caught. She shook her head and started walking into the crowds again, to see if she could find information on the new Werecat that was in town when she felt something grab her, "You did not just grab me on my ass did you?"

"I did, it is kind of firm you know."

Hanza growled, spun and kicked the man who grabbed her, she wasn't too surprised to see that it was Tirga, "Stupid pervert."

Hanza turned to leave, but Tirga's voice stopped her, "Now don't be that way."

Hanza looked back at Tirga, "Why don't you stay down?"

"How can I? Especially when there's a sexy girl in the area."

Hanza growled and kicked Tirga again and started running from him. Tirga shook his head and smirked, "Heh, she's a feisty one, that's for sure." He got up and ran after her.

Hanza growled, "Why did I drug him like that?"

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

Ranma relaxed on the bed with Sheila. The little jagwere had drifted off to sleep already. He could hear her breathing all right, and he could see some eye-movement from underneath her eyelids. "I wonder what she's dreaming about..." Ranma wondered to himself.

Wanting to know the time, Ranma looked around Sheila's room for a clock of some sort. He frowned upon not seeing one. "I guess she doesn't have one..." Ranma thought.

Knowing he'd probably have to depend on instinct, Ranma looked towards the window of Sheila's room to see if he could find the placement of the moon. If there was a moon, Ranma couldn't see it. What he could tell was that it was very dark out, and there were quite a couple of stars out, shining brightly.

Ranma yawned a little and stretched out his legs. He stopped as he felt Sheila squirm.

Seeing Sheila settle down, Ranma let out a sigh of relief that he hadn't woken Sheila up. He knew that she was going to need a lot of rest. She was very wounded from the attack by the Great Stooges Gang.

As Ranma saw the starlight reflecting off of Sheila's sleeping face, he smiled. She really was such a cutie. How could anyone think that she was worthless? He didn't see anything wrong with this so-called 'birth-defect'. To Ranma, this petite jagwere was the most beautiful creature he'd even laid his eyes on.

"If anything, I'm the freak..." Ranma thought with a sigh. He wasn't a 'real' werecat as far as he knew. He was changing between a bunch of forms. His species was nothing concrete. "And all because I'm a werecheetah and... What was it Nali called me? Oh yeah, a were smilodon... Sabretooth Weretiger."

Ranma let out a yawn and started to settle down again, all the while he was holding Sheila. Ranma smiled a little. "With all that's been going on, I'm surprised I haven't become a smilodon... Smilodon... Smilodon..."

And Ranma drifted off to sleep alongside Sheila. However, he began to chance. He started to become larger, gaining a more muscular frame. His fur became a complete coat of black, and the gold spots he had as a hybrid elongated into stripes, and the color changed from gold to silver. And finally, his fangs elongated to the point where they were resting on his mandibles. They didn't detract from his face though.

And so, Ranma, now a Sabretooth Tiger, slept on the same bed with a rather petite jagwere.

by Philip Weigel

Array, her spellcaster version, blinked as she heard an alarm, she idly wondered what it was all about when suddenly two Trolls and an Undead creature walked up to her, "What do you want?"

The Undead looked at her and spoke, "Master Rook requires your presence."

"Now why should I help him?"

"Simple, he said so, that is why."

Array shook her head, "Nope, ain't doing it. Why does he need my help?"

"He needs you to create a body for a spirit to inhabit."

"I see. I'm still not going."

"You have to create the body for the spirit."

Array shrugged, "I'll create the body, what does the spirit look like?"

The Undead frowned as best he could, "A redheaded girl."

Array blinked, "That's it?! No other descriptions?"

The Undead nodded, "Yes, I suck at giving descriptions."

"I can tell you what she looked like."

Array and the Undead looked at the Troll who spoke. "She wasn't very tall, roughly as tall as that short Edge Guard member, bright red hair, glowing green eyes, a rather large chest, that's all I can tell you."

Array blinked and nodded, "Oh Okay. I guess you're smarter than the average Troll, but here goes." Array concentrated and suddenly there was a redhead on the floor.

The Troll frowned a bit, "She was a bit shorter, her breasts were a little larger and her hair was brighter."

Array nodded and made the adjustments necessary, "There you go. I gave her green eyes since you said that the spirit's glowed green. I didn't give her a personality though."

The Troll nodded and picked her up, but he noticed something, "Um, there is no muscle structure to this girl."

Array rolled her eyes and gave the girls some finely toned muscles, "There? You happy? Now leave me alone!"

The Undead nodded and he and the Trolls left. Array shook her head, "I just know helping that Undead waste of space is a bad idea, but this way I can get him to quit bugging me."

by Red Priest of the 17th Order

The morning sunlight started to shine through the windows of Sheila's room as the curtains were left un-drawn. The forms of the small jagwere and the large were smilodon were illuminated on the bed.

Sheila's eyes opened slowly as the light began to shine down upon her. He mumbled a little bit as consciousness came to her, and she got quite a sigh when she had awoken.

Silver.

Sheila was staring at silver.

With a shriek, Sheila literally fell off from her bed, landing with a thud. Breathing heavily to catch her breath, Sheila wondered why the heck there was silver in her room. She looked over the side of the bed to see what was in her bed. She gawked at the sight of the large black-furred werecat. And what was with those stripes!? What kind of were had silver stripes!?

Sheila was on the verge of freaking out a first, but thankfully, she then remembered yesterday, and how she met Ranma. And remembers what Nali said about his possible were SMILODON roots.

Sheila sighed. Those silver stripes were making her feel rather uncomfortable.

However, all of Sheila's movement had awoken Ranma. The were smilodon didn't realize that he'd changed forms again. He looked at the petite jagwere and mumbled, "Sheila?"

Looking at Ranma seriously, Sheila asked, "Ranma... How did you do that?"

Ranma blinked his eyes in confusion to Sheila's question. "Do what?"

Sheila sighed.

Scratching the back of his head in confusion, Ranma asked, "What?"

Looking at Ranma seriously, Sheila told the were smilodon, "Ranma... YOU'RE HUGE!"

Ranma blinked his eyes at hearing that and looked down at himself. "What the?" "Exactly!" Sheila said. "You're larger than a WERELION!"

Ranma just nodded his head. "I guess..." Ranma then realized something about earlier, what had initially woken him up. "How come you yelled and fell out of bed?"

Now, while this may sound like a dumb question, one should remember that Ranma doesn't know the FIRST thing about Werecreatures!

"You have SILVER stripes." Sheila explained. "I woke up and saw SILVER!"

Ranma had a blank look on his face from hearing Sheila's answer. "Um... What's the big deal about silver?"

Sheila just stared at the larger werecat, while Ranma scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Sheila then explained, "Ranma, silver can KILL weres!"

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise. "It can?"

"Yes!" Sheila yelled out.

Ranma nodded his head. "Okay. I didn't know. Hell, I don't know ANYTHING about weres."

Sheila sighed. "It's okay but... Damn, you're huge!"

Ranma looks himself over again, and realized just how much larger he was than before. "Geeze! You're right!"

"You're bigger than Onoli now!" Sheila added.

Ranma nodded his head. "You know, I think I can understand why Nali was so scared of me," Ranma said as he started to stand up at the side of the bed, only to bang his head on the ceiling. "Ow!"

For a long while, as Sheila and Ranma stood there, there was only silence. Finally Ranma broke the quiet by asking, "You okay Sheila?"

Sheila nodded her head. "Yeah... Sorry. It's so odd seeing you like this. You're kind of intimidating..."

"I guess..." Ranma said with a sigh.

After another moment of two, Sheila tentatively moved over to Ranma and hugged him around the waist. Ranma raised an eyebrow at this. "Sheila?"

"Mmm... Your fur is still nice and silky," Sheila said with a purr. She tightened her hug around Ranma's waist. "Mmm... So much werecat..." Sheila then began to nuzzle her face into Ranma's abdomen.

Ranma just smiled a bit and hugged the petite Jagwere back. Ranma's smile widened at hearing her purr; he found it sexy.

As Sheila continued to nuzzle, she couldn't help but think, "I wonder how big his thingy is..."

Sheila let out a content sigh. She felt so small and vulnerable compared to Ranma, yet, she also felt completely and totally safe around him. "Purr... Such a big, strong werecat."

Ranma chuckles as Sheila smiled and nuzzled him more.

However, it was bound to happen, but Gar walks in to check on his sister before heading off to report in to work. "Hey Sheila, it's morning so you should... Wake... Up?" Gar trailed off as he looked up at the were that was a good two and a half feet taller than him, his jaw dropped to the floor. "T, that's a lot of silver..."

Sheila just purred and nuzzled Ranma's abdomen a bit more. "It's not real silver."

Ranma smiled a bit in embarrassment and waved his hand. "Hey Gar."

Gar blinked his eyes once, twice, thrice! "... Ranma?"

Ranma nodded his head and purred more as Sheila even licked Ranma's navel a little.

Gar was utterly shocked at seeing his sister do that. " ... SHEILA!?"

Sheila just continued to nuzzle Ranma's abdomen and lick his navel a bit.

Gar's eye twitched as he saw his sister licking this guy's belly-button... And enjoying herself while she was at it, too! Gar looked at Ranma, he shivered from seeing all that silver on him.

Purring, Sheila suggestively thrust her tongue back and forth in Ranma's navel. She then winked suggestively as she continued to thrust her tongue back and forth in Ranma's navel.

Growling a little at this spectacle, Gar grabbed his sister around the waist and pulled her off of Ranma, and then he threw her over his shoulder.

"HEY!" Sheila complained as Ranma just blinked his eyes in surprise.

Gar looked at his sister seriously. "Sheila, get ready. We have to report into work soon!"

At hearing that, Sheila pouted and Ranma frowned. Sheila then said, "But I don't want to..."

"Gar!" Ranma called out seriously. "She's injured."

Looking back at Ranma, Gar spoke quietly. "But she can still do desk work."

Folding his arms over his chest, Ranma stared at Gar. "She should rest until she gets better."

Leveling a glare at Ranma, Gar snorted. "I get the feeling she won't get any rest while you're around..." Turning his vision towards his sister, Gar then added, "Sheila, if you want you can sleep at your desk."

Sheila just continue to pout as Gar started dragging her off with him to work.

Ranma shook his head. "Fool. Sheila should be resting at bed."

by S.A.M.

Sheila frowned as Gar was carrying her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Sure, she knew that he looked out for her and was protective, but this was over the top. "What the hell are you doing Gar?"

"I'm just trying to get you away from that playboy Werecat."

Sheila growled at her brother. "GARFIELD SILVEAR, PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Of course, Sheila leaned in and yelled into Gar's ear to scream that.

Gar winced but still made his way into town, he ignored the stares of the people around him as he answered his sister. "Don't worry Sheila, I'm not taking you to work, I'm taking you to Nali's clinic so that you can rest and get some sleep."

Sheila pouted. "I just wanted to spend the day at home."

Gar growled. "Not with that Werecat there."

Sheila sighed, she oh-so-wished that her brother would calm down and see reason, but that seemed less-and-less likely as the day went on.

Unknown to the two Jagweres, Ranma, still in his smilodon form was following them cloaked in the Umi-Sen-Ken's invisibility. Normally, this wouldn't help much, but there was a slight breeze that was blowing in Ranma's, and incidentally Gar and Sheila's faces. Even if the Jagwere's couldn't smell him, they could probably hear his footsteps or his heartbeat, but Ranma's stealth abilities were highly impressive and he was walking without a sound. The pigtailed Smilodon was using the Soul of Ice technique to keep his emotions in check, he wasn't very happy with the elder of the two Jagweres at the moment, this had the side effect of keeping his heartbeat from pounding to loudly.

by Philip Weigel

Sheila sighed as she sat on the bed, her whole body was hurting right at that moment, what with the falling out of bed and Gar's carrying her roughly to Nali's clinic, she was in a bit of pain.

Normally she'd already be healed, but that damned attack from the Great Stooges Gang that had used magic had hurt her severely and slowed down her healing.

Yawning the petite Jagwere muttered to herself. "Why can't I just stay at home? It's not like I was going to do anything?"

"I don't know? Gar was acting like a jerk to me as well."

Sheila brightened a bit and looked around, she recognized that voice. "Ranma? Where are..." She blinked, she could hear his heartbeat right behind her. Turning around a bit, she looked, but didn't see anything.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Heh, sorry. I forgot how invisible this move makes a person." With that, Ranma phased back into view, smiling at her.

Sheila smiled and wrapped her arms around Ranma's neck, hugging him.

Ranma chuckled a little uneasily and hugged her back, albeit gently. He smiled a bit when he heard her purring. "Sheila, I wasn't kidding to Gar. You do need some rest."

"Purr, I know, but don't leave. I just want you to hold me."

Ranma smiled a bit at her and lay back, holding her to him. Running a hand through her hair, he had to wonder why Gar was acting like that. 'Oh well, worry about it later.'

Nali was standing just outside the room with a hand to her chest, trying to control her breathing. 'Damn! He HAD to find a way into his Smilodon form didn't he?'

Nali shook her head, as nervous as she was, she had to make sure that Sheila was okay. Picking up the blanket that she dropped, she walked into the room.

"R-R-Ranma?"

"Hmm?" The pigtailed Smilodon looked at her. "What Nali?" He completely forgot that he was in his Smilodon form and not in his mixed hybrid form.

"I g-got S-Sheila a b-bl-blanket so that she can cover herself u-up."

Ranma nodded. "Right. Just toss it over us okay?"

Nali nodded nervously and placed the blanket over them, as soon as she was done, she high-tailed it out of there.

Ranma frowned. "Why was she so scared?"

"You're in Smilodon form silly. Nali seems to be afraid of Were Smilodons for some reason."

Ranma blinked. "Oh, right. And you should be sleeping, you won't get better without rest."

"Who are you? My brother?" Seeing that Ranma wouldn't relent, Sheila sighed. "Very well then."

Cuddling up to Ranma, Sheila nuzzled her face against his chest and started to drift off to sleep.

Onoli looked up as Gar came in. "Say Gar? Have you seen Thropan? I needed to discuss some final things with him on today's assignments."

Gar shook his head. "Nope. Haven't seen him."

Onoli nodded. "Okay. So, how's your sister recovering?"

"I dropped her off at Nali's, she'll be fine."

Onoli raised an eyebrow. "Really? She's old enough to stay at home alone Gar, she doesn't need to be at Nali's; unless there's something you want to tell me?"

Gar shook his head. "Nothing important."

"Okay."

by The Demented Redhead

Brianna sighed as she returned to her lab. Agency Zero had asked her father to go to Japan to investigate the incident, and the others were getting ready to go with them.

It wasn't that she didn't want to go; she felt she owed this new were-cheetah that at least. He had given his life to stop that Phoenix, and she wanted to at least pay her last respects.

As she opened the door to her lab, she was startled to hear her creations fighting amongst themselves.

"I wanna tell her!" yelled Peebrit.

"No, me!" yelled Peegi. "I'm the one who noticed it."

"Was not!" yelled Peebri.

"Noticed what?" asked Brianna, causing the three Peebos to run right up to her.

"The were-cheetah's alive!" they yelled out at once.

Brianna blinked. "What? And one at a time."

"Well," started Peegi, "I noticed that it plowed through one attack of fire like it was nothing. Even his clothes weren't signed."

Brianna nodded.

"And then I noticed that he held onto the Phoenix all the way into the canal," said Peebri. "He wasn't smoking or anything."

"So he couldn't have been burned up!" happily shouted Peebrit as she spun around in circles. "And if he wasn't burned up..."

"Then he has to be alive..." muttered Brianna. It made sense. If he could take a full force fire attack that had to be in the thousands of degrees if Dao was correct about those attacks, plus hold onto the thing to take it down into a canal, then there was no way boiling water would have killed it, or even vaporized it.

Part of her wanted to smack her own head into a wall for missing the obvious. Of course they weren't going to find a trace of him. After that, he would have bolted to make certain his friends and family were all right, or at the very least, hide to keep from being captured by someone like Pee-wee.

But a much larger part wanted to run straight to her father and Dao and confirm what she and her little ones had just deduced.

"Wow," said Peebrit, "Mommy's running fast. I'm going to chase her!" shouted the happy Peebo as it took off.

"Wait for us!" shouted the other two, taking off.

Herb sat on his throne, his wife currently off in her garden—she loved it so much, he'd never deny her time to spend with it, even with official business to tend to. "I must say that given the latest news, I'm quite surprised to see you here," he said.

"No more than me," muttered Kiima, her left arm in a sling, her head bandaged.

Herb nodded. A few hours ago, a party of Phoenix had descended onto his kingdom's doorstep. And with his father away dealing with the Amazons over a treaty, it fell onto him to deal with the Phoenix request. "I take it then you tried to stop ... his ... actions."

"We did," said a heavily bandaged elderly man beside Kiima, named Jol. "But Lord Saffron would not be denied."

"We lost thirteen warriors trying to contain him," said Guf.

Herb nodded. "Why stop him at all? I thought you all would enjoy the chance to see Saotome suffer."

"He was enraged," said Kiima. "He didn't care about secrecy, about keeping hidden from the landings, or the possible results of his quest. It would have been easy enough to get Saotome to come here," she continued, noticing Herb's demeanor didn't change. "But he was insane, slaying any of his own people he came across on his way out."

Herb nodded. "And how did he get so strong? Last I heard, Saotome had both the keys, and one of the taps was destroyed."

"We were able to restore the taps," said Guf. "They didn't need the keys."

"Maybe that in itself was the reason for his madness," muttered Jol.

"No," said Kiima, her heart hurting from what she was about to say. "He wanted this ever since he had grown to speak a few words, his revenge consumed his birth. I only hope we can stop him after he sates it."

Herb smiled a bit. "That won't be necessary," he added as Mint started up a television, a recent purchase his wife made that he was fast becoming attached too as well. "It seems that once again, your Lord bit off more than he could chew."

As the assembled Phoenix watched the video, Herb noted that a few were stuck in disbelieving shock, a few paled, and some like Kiima turned slightly, crying at the death of their Lord. They were loyal and caring, even as he went mad.

Such a rare trust in family, even if the betrayal was obvious.

"A ... about our request," said Kiima, her voice crackling as she struggled to stay in control over her emotions.

Herb nodded. "Your people may come into the Musk Kingdom as refugees. The lands in the south should fit your needs for the moment. I trust you will police your own people and keep ... incidents from happening? I rather enjoy the peace we've acquired these last few decades."

Kiima nodded. "Thank you."

Herb nodded. "I will dispatch workers and healers to accompany you both to the site and to help your people into the settlement.

"But hear me," said Herb, standing tall. "If Saotome comes here looking for answers, you will give them. Just pray he doesn't come seeking blood as well."

Those that had paled before paled even further as they turned in left. After they were gone, Mint turned to Herb. "Are you sure he's still alive?"

Herb chuckled a bit. "Oh, he's still quite living, I'm sure of that. If he could survive a direct fire blast as well as hold onto that flaming bird, then he's definitely alive. I've seen him get out of worse."

"Excuse me," said Lime. "But the Princess was wondering if her 'favorite assistant' could help her with her plants." That said, Lime held up a pink gardening suit.

"I just had to give her that idea, didn't I," muttered the Dragon Prince, as he used a glass of water to assume his cursed form. Maybe this time we'll actually garden and she'll keep her hands to herself. She's a bigger pervert at times than my Guard.

by The Demented Redhead

It had once been a proud dojo, planned to be built by the hands of Soun Tendo right after he and his new wife had been given the funds by their families to build it.

After two hours, real workers came by and with the direction of Kimiko Tendo, actually built the house and dojo while Soun dug in the yard. That hole eventually became a koi pond.

For over twenty years, it had been a home, a sanctuary, a memorial to a proud woman, and one of the few places where the style of Anything Goes had held any honor.

Now, it was one of the many scorch marks around the Nerima district.

The outer wall was cracked from heat exposure, reduced to rubble in others. The house was no longer standing, just a few stray pieces of burnt wood remained.

There had been no deaths, even though Kasumi had delayed her own departure to quickly grab her mother's urn. But despite that, all of them had survived.

But they were all that survived; the urn, the people, and the clothes on their backs.

The rest had gone up in an instant inferno that had spots on the ground already changed to glass.

Soun sat on his knees, continuing to face the charred lot, his eyes crying slow tears.

Kasumi stood beside him, trying to comfort her father.

Nabiki was already on her phone, trying to ensure what friends and associates she had hadn't died in the Phoenix God's attack.

Akane was almost as bad as her father, seeing her home destroyed by the same creature that had almost taken her life; it was a nightmare made real.

Putting away her phone, Nabiki sighed. There had been three people whom she hadn't been able to make contact with. Either they were dead, or their own searches were preventing her from making contact.

"Don't worry, Father," said Kasumi, rubbing the elder Tendo's back. "Everything will be fine, you'll see."

Shaking her head at her older sister's eternal optimism, she opened the phone for one last call, hoping that the lines weren't tied up already.

Besides, if he was still alive, it would be the one place he would head to, if for nothing else than to say goodbye.

Plus, it was the only probably place they had left where they might find a place to stay until this new mess was cleaned up.

She looked at the number and dialed Nodoka Saotome.

Hearing Nali scuttle near the door, Ranma sighed, as he tried to shift slowly to his full were-cheetah form. It seemed anything that looked near a were smilodon frightened her for some reason.

He had a good guess. After all, before his ... shift ... during the fight against Saffron, he had had a fear about cats, even though logically he knew they couldn't harm him.

Fears like that tended to stay with you, no matter how silly you knew they were.

"You can come in, I'm full cheetah now," said Ranma quietly, trying not to disturb Sheila anymore than what his shift had done.

Nali peeked through the small opening of the door, releasing a sigh of relief that even Ranma heard. "I need to check her wounds."

Ranma nodded, preparing to wake her up, before stopping. Turning to Nali, he simply said one sentence. "I know."

"Know?" she asked, a bit of fear in her voice.

"I know the fear," he said. "You know I'm nothing like the ones that made you afraid, but the fear ... it's just too strong to ignore."

Nali tried not to shake at his words. "How...?"

"We all have fears," said Ranma, rubbing Sheila's neck, and sending the tiny werejaguar into a slight purr. "The trick is not to let them win."

Turning to face her again, he held out his hand. "I'll help. I'm Ranma Saotome, a were-cheetah and a were smilodon. Wanna be friends?"

by Nysk

Nali's eyes darted quickly from Ranma's outstretched hand and then back to his eyes, recalling what Sheila had said about him, about how kind he had been to her and that he was a nice guy. Figuring she would give him a chance, after all he had already made a gesture of friendship towards her by not being in his were-smilodon form Nali firmly took his hand in hers, "Nali, and I'd like very much to be your friend Ranma."

Ranma smiled in response.

"Now, why don't we get to know each other a bit while I look over my patient." Nali took a step away, a teasing smile on her lips. That is if you could pry her away from you for a moment so I can check her bandages that is."

His cheeks reddening slightly Ranma slowly slipped off the bed managing to free himself of Sheila's grasping hands but only with Nali's help.

"R..Ranma…" A groggily Sheila opened her eyes slightly seeking him out. She relaxed a bit when she felt Ranma take her hand.

"Right here Sheila. I'm not goin' nowhere. Nali just' needed to take a look at ya is all."

Turning her head slowly Sheila noted Nali's presence for the first time, "Oh. Hi Nali." – yawn– "Ranma can stay right?"

"Of course he can stay Sheila." The heeler answered, her voice taking on the typical friendliness she used when tending to a patient. "Now just sit still while I check your bandages ok?"

Sheila nodded and closed her eyes again, "Sooo tired."

"Is that normal?" Ranma asked in a low whisper, not that it mattered as anything said that Nali could hear Sheila would easily make out with her superior hearing.

"Yes Ranma it is. Her wounds were caused by magic and the regenerative abilities of a werecat don't heal such wounds as they do most others. That and the ointment on the bandages tend to make her a bit sleepy to help her body relax in addition to helping to hear such wounds more efficiently." Nali said as she removed a few bandages that had gotten dirty since yesterday, her hands moving deftly to replace them. Despite her gentle touch Sheila moaned a few times in pain. "Sadly I can do nothing for her pain as mixing the alchemical compounds contained within the bandages with an anesthetic could produce a dangerous catatonic state."

Nodding in understanding as he was familiar with such things from not only his father's ministrations when he was younger as well as some of his more recent experiences in tending to his own wounds since Dr. Tofu had moved his practice from Nerima. He had in fact taken up learning more about shiatsu techniques to deaden his pain or speed up his own recovery as a result learning much from various books and scrolls he'd managed to gather without anyone except Nabiki noticing – he simply paid her off to keep her silent.

"Um Nali? Can I try something?"

Looking at him quizzically Nali spoke, "And what would that be Ranma?"

"I um… I get into a lot of fights and I often have to drag myself to this doctor I know who used to live close by to where I was staying. I learned a few ways to lessen the pain of wounds through use of shiatsu and acupressure. I'd like to see if I can help her but I didn't want to do so without your permission as her physician."

Nali was familiar with acupressure and shiatsu massages but didn't think that either would do much good for Sheila and was about to say so when she saw how Ranma reacted to another painful groan the wounded were-jaguar let out as she shifted slightly in her semiconscious state. "Ok Ranma, if you'd like to give it a try I am willing to ok it. But! I would like to observe your treatment and if at any point I feel you need to stop you must promise me to do so. Agreed?"

Sighing in relief at being able to possibly help his new friend with her pain Ranma eagerly nodded, "Anything you say doc!"