Spoiled Brats - Chapter 16

[DarkFyre99]

Spoiled Brats

Disclaimer: I don’t own PGSM or Ranma ½. That’s all. Nothing else to see here. Move along, move along.

Chapter Sixteen – Airport security isn’t what it used to be

Mousse sat in the living room of Ranma’s posh apartment, waiting for his friend to come out of the bedroom. “Are you almost finished? I need to get to the airport in half an hour if I’m to make my plane.”

Ranma left the bedroom, dressed in an attractive dress that reached her knees. Like a model on a walkway, Ranma strutted sensually towards him. “Ranma, do you have to turn on the girl right now? It’s just me here, you know.”

The woman had the audacity to wink. “Ah, my dear Nyu-chan! I just want to make sure everything’s working the way it’s supposed to be.”

Mousse shuddered. “That’s unnatural.”

Ranma smiled coyly as she turned, and walked back. Just before she turned around a second time, there was a brief shimmer in the air. Replacing the auburn haired woman was a black haired one, her long hair braided and coiled tightly at the nape of her neck. She was dressed in jeans and an aviator jacket. As the woman walked toward him, he noticed that unlike Megumi’s previous swaying gait, her stride was all business, and actually somewhat menacing, in a “I’m going this way, don’t you dare try and stop me,” way. Ranma smirked at Mousse before she turned around and walked back.

There was a flash of light, and a new woman was revealed. As Ranma once again went through her paces, Mousse gulped. That woman was truly menacing, her gait saying, “Go ahead. Make my day.”

Ranma crossed her arms, challenging him. “Well… what do you think?”

Mousse rubbed his chin, and said, “Ranma… I have just the thing to make that outfit complete.”

- + - + -

At the airport, Ranma helped Mousse pile his suitcases on a dolly. As she tightened the last strap, she smirked at Mousse and said, “Look, I’ll have to meet you inside the concourse.”

“What do you mean?”

She slung a long thin case over her shoulder. “It would be kind of hard to explain these things to security, so I’ll just teleport in.”

“Do you really have to carry those things everywhere you go?”

“Probably not, but I’ve got it on good authority that Beryl will try something sooner or later. I’d look pretty damn foolish if those were out of reach when she does. And you know these things have too much power to stash them in stuff space or with Hidden Weapons style.”

“I think you just want an excuse avoid the lines. Well… see you inside, Ranma.”

- + - + -

Ranma had just finished her fifth signature when Mousse arrived at the lounge. This gave her the excuse she needed to beg off. Mousse smirked as she approached. “You’re disappointing your adoring fans, Megumi-san. This is why I like Japan. I don’t get recognized that often.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts. You’ll be back in Hong Kong soon.”

Behind them, a voice shouted, “Li Nyugen!”

Mousse’s shoulders slumped. “And so it begins…”

Ranma glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t think he’s a fan, Nyu-chan…”

The pair turned around, and saw an angry young man before them. Ranma recognized him as Morita Keiichi, the actor who had had played the part of the Warlord before Mousse had come into the production. Ranma thought he had a pretty face, and that was about it. He had starred in a few films targeted for teenaged girls, and this was to be his first action role. His mediocre athletic ability had pretty much limited the stunts he could do, and was responsible for the initial, heavy CGI version of the climatic fight.

Morita clenched his fist as he glared at Mousse. “Li Nyugen, because of you, I’ve seen hell!”

“Wow… that seems familiar,” Ranma murmured.

“That was my role! You stole it! And you stole Megumi from me!”

Ranma cocked an eyebrow at Mousse. “Don’t look at me. I’m a confirmed lesbian.”

“Now you will pay!” Morita hurled something he had in his hand at his feet. The stone broke apart, releasing a sickly orange vapor that surrounded the man. The vapor seeped into him, and he began to change. His right arm spasmed, his hand forming a claw as the arm doubled in size. With a wet tearing sound, the arm split in two.

“Oh, crap!” Mousse glanced at Ranma, who already had her case off her shoulder. She opened it up, and pulled out the Kinjakan. “What are you doing?”

Around the concourse, pandemonium had broken out. “Monster!”

Ranma sent the weapon’s flaming hoop streaking at the writhing man. She cursed as a dome of energy deflected the hoop. “We’ve got to destroy him before the metamorphosis is complete.”

Mousse grabbed the Gekkaja hesitantly. “Is it really necessary to kill him?”

Ranma nodded sadly. “That was a demon heart stone. I’ve seen one used before. The idiot’s already dead. The cult that creates those things never mentions what’s in the fine print.”

“You’re the one with the experience,” Mouse said reluctantly. “How do you want to do this?”

“We alternate. If we do this together, they’ll cancel each other out. I attack for three seconds, and then you. With luck, we’ll overload it.”

Ranma sent a stream of flame at the dome. Three seconds later, the flames died, and Mousse unleashed a beam of cold into the dome. They repeated this for several cycles, as the dome grew, and the figure inside swelled to fill the space, one appendage at a time.

“It’s big enough for us to attack at the same time now,” Ranma shouted over the roar of the Kinjakan. “If we attack from opposite sides!”

“Right!” The two separated, each sending a stream of energy into the dome.

“Megumi!” Mousse shouted after several minutes of sustained attacks. “This isn’t working!”

“Okay… plan ‘C’ then,” Ranma shouted back.

“Which is?”

“We wait until it’s done changing, the dome drops, and then we try to kill it.”

“Two prong attack? Keep blasting it until it’s dead?”

“No. Wolf pack. This thing is probably pretty dumb. We need to stay mobile. When one of us has its attention, the other blasts it. Keep it off balance, until we see an opportunity to hamstring it. Once it’s crippled, then we go in for the kill.”

- + - + -

“Minako-chan! Come here! Hurry!”

Minako hurried out of her bedroom. “What is it, Artemis?”

The white plush toy pointed at the TV screen, where an anchorwoman was speaking above a tag line that read, “Monster attack at Narita Airport.”

“It was a scene straight out of Mamono Hunter Yohko. A man, whose identity has yet to be released, summoned a monster in the middle of the Narita Airport Terminal One Concourse, which destroyed much of the South Wing.

“Opposing the creature was Takeda Megumi-sama, who proved that not only did she play a devil hunter on the silver screen, but is actually one in real life.”

The picture changed to a grainy, black and white video, which showed a huge, four -armed monstrosity, which dwarfed the two figures running around it. Every time the creature turned towards one of them, the other unleashed a flash of light against it. Eventually, the monster turned a little too quickly, briefly getting tangled in one of the booths on the concourse. One of the figures darted in, swinging at its leg.

“Eventually, Takeda-sama and Hong Kong legend, Li Nyugen-san, succeed in destroying the beast. They have been taken to an undisclosed hospital…”

Artemis sighed as he watched his charge race out her hotel room. “I wonder if she knows where she’s going…”

- + - + -

Ono Toufuu dabbed at a cut on the auburn haired woman’s forehead. “You two are lucky to be alive, do you know that?”

“The thing was an idiot, Doc. All brawn, no brain. We had a strategy, the Kinjakan and Gekkaja, and time to prepare. It’s the intelligent ones you have to worry about.”

Mousse reclined in the other bed, his leg in a splint. “Speak for yourself, Ranma. I never want to come that close again. Do you fight things like that often?”

“Once or twice a year. Though most of them are a lot easier than that one. It could certainly absorb a lot of damage.” Ranma grimaced. “I was really glad you were there with me, Mousse. That wouldn’t have been fun on my own.”

“Ranma, you seriously need to redefine what you call fun.”

Kasumi peeked into the examination room. “Ranma, you have a visitor.” She stepped aside, allowing Minako into the room.

“Sempai… are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Minako-chan.”

“Good.” The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you call me? I had to hear about the attack on the news!”

Ranma flinched. “Ah… sorry, Minako-chan. There wasn’t any way you could’ve gotten there in time.”

“If we’re going to be partners in this, then you need to be able to trust me. Even if I couldn’t have gotten there in time, which is guaranteed if I don’t know about it in the first place, I could’ve helped out afterwards.”

Ranma bowed as best she could in the bed. “I am sorry, Minako-chan. I didn’t think.”

“So, partners?”

“Partners.”

“Good.” Minako jumped on the bed, kissing the older woman soundly. “Stop scaring me like this!”

Ranma turned to the older man, who was watching him in amusement along with his wife. “So, am I good to go, Doc?”

Toufuu frowned. “No, Ranma, you are not,” the doctor said as he fiddled with his glasses. “Your ki reserves are seriously depleted, and I can tell you’ve been dangerously draining them repeatedly in the last month. I’m not letting you leave until you’ve gotten two good nights of rest, and a day in Kasumi’s care. After that, I want you to promise me that you’ll take the next week off. No ki techniques, no teleporting, no monster hunting, nothing. You’re not fully recovered from your last bit of stupidity, so you will do as I say. Understood?”

“But…”

“Don’t worry, Ono-sensei. I’ll make sure he follows directions,” Minako said impishly. She kissed Ranma one more time. “I’ll see you in two days, Sempai. I have things to set up. Nice to meet you, Li-san. Sorry it couldn’t be under better circumstances.” With a saucy wink, she left the room.

Mousse cocked an eyebrow at the somewhat dazed woman on the other examination bed. “You realize, Ranma, that I’m going to have to tease you unmercifully about robbing the cradle, don’t you?”

[Dumbledork]

I’ll make sure he follows directions

Sould be 'she'.

Excellent new chapter.

[PCHeintz72]

Man... I hope, for Ranma's sake, that the Minako in the live action series is better at helping sick people than she is in the anime, or Ranma is going to be pretty bad off and wish to face another monster than Aino brand home care.

[khim]

I’ll make sure he follows directions

Sould be 'she'.

Nope. Minako goes out with Ranma, not Megumi.

I presume the whole story will be quite short and we'll not see Junichi on his knees begging for the next Yohko's movie. Pity.

At least this kind of publicity should guarantee crowd at premiere of current movie...

[bissek]

So much for Ranma having a secret identity. Sooner or later someone will recognize the weapons his alter-ego-to-be is using, and said alter ego will be exposed as Takeda Megumi in the morning paper.

[PCHeintz72]

So much for Ranma having a secret identity. Sooner or later someone will recognize the weapons his alter-ego-to-be is using, and said alter ego will be exposed as Takeda Megumi in the morning paper.

Depends... Common sense states yes... Yet in both Ranma and Sailor Moon (well, anime at least), people are extrordinarily dense.

[Ordieth117]

Superman + Glasses = Clark Kent? *shrug* If it works, go for it.

[bissek]

There's also the fact that Clark Kent is more known for his byline than his appearance, while everybody knows what Superman looks like. This would end up being more like how Tim Drake discovered that Dick Grayson was the first Robin. He saw Robin perform an acrobatic maneuver that only a handful of people in the world could pull off, of which the only teenager so capable was Grayson, and put two and two together.

Here we have a very well known singer/actress. She is shown to be in the possession of two exotic staffs, and has been filmed using them. There are probably fans photoshopping images of those staffs onto pictures of Takeda Megumi and hoping that they'll be used in the upcoming movie. Given the unusual design of the Kinjakan and Gekkaja, they probably would be recognized by Megumi fans if they see someone else using her weapons.

[PCHeintz72]

One of them could always claim to have seen the other with them and copied the look.

[Nadrek]

Well, now I've finally read this story, it's actually quite interesting - Ranma drawing a chart of all the people involved, and taking up a large part of the chart by himself, is particularly amusing.

[khim]

Here we have a very well known singer/actress. She is shown to be in the possession of two exotic staffs, and has been filmed using them. There are probably fans photoshopping images of those staffs onto pictures of Takeda Megumi and hoping that they'll be used in the upcoming movie. Given the unusual design of the Kinjakan and Gekkaja, they probably would be recognized by Megumi fans if they see someone else using her weapons.

It depends. If they are TRUE FANS and Junichi will be eloquent enough (we planned publicity stunt but overdid with special effects) fans will just plain out reject any idea that Takeda Megumi is something more then just singer/actress. Even if the photos will be identical they'll just claim it's coincidence or may be that what Takeda Megumi is usuing is replice of real stuff.

The power of spin is immense, but the question is: will Ranma go this route? Yet another film will interfere with his other plans but scale of it can explain why she needed to cancel everything else. Especially if Takeda Kappei will be involved in that same movie too.

[Drawde]

Well, now I've finally read this story, it's actually quite interesting - Ranma drawing a chart of all the people involved, and taking up a large part of the chart by himself, is particularly amusing.

I always find it amusing that people assume that none of the characters will grow up over time, especially Akane. Not to say, as you said, that the changes can't be interesting though.

[bissek]

\It depends. If they are TRUE FANS and Junichi will be eloquent enough (we planned publicity stunt but overdid with special effects) fans will just plain out reject any idea that Takeda Megumi is something more then just singer/actress. Even if the photos will be identical they'll just claim it's coincidence or may be that what Takeda Megumi is usuing is replice of real stuff.

The power of spin is immense, but the question is: will Ranma go this route? Yet another film will interfere with his other plans but scale of it can explain why she needed to cancel everything else. Especially if Takeda Kappei will be involved in that same movie too.

By upcoming film I meant the one Ranma had just finished filming and is currently going through post-production.

The problem with calling the fight a publicity stunt for the new movie is that it would make the studio responsible for the destruction of a sizable portion of the airport, and I doubt they want to pay for the repairs.

[khim]

The problem with calling the fight a publicity stunt for the new movie is that it would make the studio responsible for the destruction of a sizable portion of the airport, and I doubt they want to pay for the repairs.

Not necessary. If government is interested enough in covering the story up poor sap who started the whole mess with demon heart stone will be the sole responsible person in the end - and also conveniently dead. Insurance company will be persuaded to pay in exchange for some incentive and the studio will go away with small monetary penalty.

Of course it's all depends on government will: do they want to cover the story up or are they comfortable with admitting that demons exist in this point in the story...

[DarkFyre99]

Everyone,

Thank you for the discusion about the implecations of the Narita Airport incident. I can see now that I hadn't thought out the consequences fully, beyond "Megumi" getting outted as a devil hunter.

You've given me quite a lot to consider.