CmptrWz

Chapter 42
RR: Rose's Revenge

Oh, and Kia finally finishes that damn puzzle

In the hours that followed Akane's victory Rose went back to showing her distaste for MM. This time, however, she was utilizing a supercomputer she created for the task, analyzing data that nobody realized she had recorded. Of course, very few people realized the power of the computer, as it was being warn like a watch. One major component of the data she was analyzing was readings taken from the calculator-like device she had bought at Curses R Us.

Kia, on the other hand, was almost done with the puzzle. Once or twice Kalshion and Katarina had felt something was wrong with the puzzle. They decided Kia had been attempting to use demonic powers to solve the thing, and left it at that. That, and Katarina wasn't happy when, half an hour after Shampoo was defeated, she bumped the puzzle while checking out the feeling on her own, causing a piece to fall off. It took six hours and the combined powers of herself, Kalshion, and their father to restore her breasts to their original size, and that wasn't including the hour it took her to find a wheelbarrow to get back to the shrine with. On the other hand, Kalshion had thought about what Kia might do to a guy, and had to be knocked out by Katarina until he regained his senses.

"When are you going to let me in on your revenge plan?" Sonic asked Rose as she manipulated her supercomputer watch.

"When I need your help to execute it," Rose said, not looking away from the watch.

"Could you at least sit somewhere safer then in the principal's pineapple storage room?" Sonic pleaded.

"Nobody but you would dare travel this deep into the pineapples," Rose replied. "Not even the principal."

"For good reason," Sonic mumbled. Not even their powers would keep them fully safe where they currently were, surrounded on all sides by thousands of pineapples. He could even tell that MM had tweaked the room so that any explosion would go to a quantum level, or beyond.

"Actually," Rose said, still staring at the watch. "The small sphere directly above your head is doing the tweaking." Sonic looked up to see a small sphere embedded in the ceiling, between two pineapples. "Date mapping marks a creation date of twenty thousand years ago." Rose paused, pushing a couple of buttons on the watch. "Two weeks from Tuesday, anyway."

This continued for five days, with nothing spectacular occurring during the time period. Curses R Us tried re-opening a couple of times, but Dark Kalshion had spilled soup on the teleportation engine and shorted it out. The result was that the shop appeared in a small cave on Mount Everest, and got stuck there. The avalanche didn't help much either. Finally, however, Kia was down to the last cube in the puzzle.

"One more cube," Kia said, overjoyed. She examined the cube, spun it a few times, and then placed it in the hole left on top of the puzzle. School was in session, so Kia was alone in the house as the puzzle glowed brightly, the cubes fusing together into a solid mass. The final image took form, revealing a sandy beach with a hole in the sand. Next to the hole was a treasure chest, sitting open to show the single treasure inside. Kia, forgetting that the scene in front of her was an illusion, reached over and picked the sliver of what appeared to be a precious gem from the chest. No sooner had she done so then the whole thing vanished, box and all.

Kia didn't know it, but she was now in possession of a single, neutral shard of the Dragon Aura. That, and she wasn't planning on doing anything that would trigger it, so she might never figure out what it did. Kalshion and Katarina, however, knew something was up. They didn't know where, or with whom, but something had just happened to one of the shards. Unfortunately, Emeral was between them and Kia, so the shards Emeral had with her masked their sense. By the time they could try and see where the shard was without Emeral in the way the presence had vanished, due to Kia placing it in a demonically shielded bracelet. After ten minutes of trying to locate the shard Kalshion and Katarina gave up, thinking they had just sensed one Emeral had accidentally poked or something.

As soon as class was out Emeral grabbed Joe and dragged him to an abandoned building right in the center of town. She then pulled the calculator-like device out of her bag and attached it to the watch she was wearing, which beeped. A small red button appeared on the watch as Emeral attached the calculator-like device to the door of the building. To put the finishing touches on it she attached two spheres, one on either side of the calculator-like device, before pushing the red button.

Shouldn't MM be watching this take place?

"Go Happosai!" MM yelled at his screen, watching Happosai get chased by the girl's track team. The mirror showing what Emeral was doing sat there ignored, MM not even making a passing glance at it.

Oh well, he will figure it out eventually

"Now all we need to do is combine into Dragon Mistress and enter with MM," Emeral was explaining to Joe inside the building, which now looked a lot newer. "The only way in or out is with someone else who is willing, so once MM is in here we split again and leave, trapping him."

"Won't that make him mad?" Joe asked.

"Probably," Emeral responded. "But he deserves it."

"How do we lure him in here anyway?" Joe asked, looking around. "It isn't like he would have a reason to come here."

"That is what those spheres were for," Emeral said, grinning a decidedly evil grin. Had Dark Sonic seen it he would have wondered if he was looking at Rose or the sudden appearance of Dark Rose.

"Wait a minute," Joe said, obviously having just realized something. "The old coot puts emergency backdoors in all of his curses. Won't he be able to use that on this one?"

"Nope," Emeral giggled. "I figured out how to lock his backdoor. He won't be able to do anything until someone lets him out."

"Lets just get this over with," Joe sighed. "I have homework to do, you know."

"I don't know why you actually do the homework out," Emeral said, glaring at Joe.

"Because I prefer to not have to defend against Hinako's attack," Joe said, glaring at Emeral.

"So that is why she never targets you," Emeral realized, putting her finger on her chin. "Didn't know it was that easy."

"Shall we go?" Joe said, opening the door.

"Yep," Emeral said, grabbing Joe as she ran by. A moment later she had her pendant out and was pumping energy into it. Joe did the same, both stepping through the portal that appeared for them, their clothes morphing as they went through.

Happosai is still ahead by three inches, barely avoiding the brooms....

Oh, we should probably go to MM, not give a play by play on Happosai

"What do they want," MM grumbled, annoyed at being interrupted. "It isn't like Akane lost or anything." With that he walked into the world Sonic and Rose were in, not bothering to change his appearance. "So what do you two kids want?" MM asked, annoyance present in his voice.

"We are having a party," Rose said, trying to appear happy. "We wanted your expert opinion on the all you can eat buffet."

"All you can eat buffet?" MM said, his attitude changing. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"Hey, can I come too?" Nadeshiko yelled, appearing a moment later looking like a nine-year-old girl. When she realized this she blushed, Sonic and Rose getting a feeling of familiarity. They shook it off, however, as they nodded. Soon the four were at the building's entrance, and passed through with ease. Once inside, Rose pulled Sonic aside and they merged into Dragon Mistress. Dragon Mistress then approached Nadeshiko, still not knowing who she was.

"Can you help us get the drinks?" Dragon Mistress asked. "We left them in a truck down the block."

"Sure," Nadeshiko said, eating a cookie. "Cookies make me thirsty anyway." With that the two left the building, Dragon Mistress tapping the lock on the way by. When the doors shut they literally vanished, confusing Nadeshiko, especially when Dragon Mistress separated and Rose dragged Sonic off. Nadeshiko decided to investigate, so she opened a portal back to MM's living room using a pendant she had grabbed on her way out.

Kia, on the other hand, was searching the house for something to do. She was in Sonic's room when Sonic and Rose arrived, just opening the bedside table. Rose was so happy she didn't notice Kia as she came in, talking to Sonic.

"Won't he be surprised when that food vanishes," Rose smirked.

"Not as surprised as you will be when you turn around," Sonic cautioned.

"What do you keep these around for?" Kia asked as Rose turned around, seeing two guns in Kia's hands. One was pink, the other yellow, and seemed to be partially built upside down.

"DROP THOSE THIS INSTANT!" Rose screamed, both scared at what she knew the guns were capable of and infuriated that they were even in existence. Kia jumped into the ceiling when Rose screamed, the guns falling at her feet. Before anyone else had time to react, Rose had the pink gun in her hand. "Get out," Rose said, trying to keep her voice down but making no attempt to hide her anger. Her anger vanished, however, the instant the top of the gun popped off. Instead she was now in a state of pure fear, shocked into immobility.

"If you value your life," Sonic said, grabbing Kia, "you will get far, far away right now." With that he shoved her out the bedroom door, which he then slammed shut. A moment later he was trying to get Rose to snap out of it. He tried water as the gun started to morph, slapping her as it began to take over her arm, and hitting her with an energy blast as the gun reached her shoulder. Finally, having run out of options, he leaned over, and kissed her on the lips. Her cheeks went from pale white to bright red as the gun retreated down her arm, returning to a state where the top could be re-attached.

"What did you do that for?" Rose asked, still blushing. "Especially with Kia watching through the window."

"I figured it was the only way to get you to calm down," Sonic said, shrugging as he kicked the window open and launched Kia into orbit.

"Fancy meeting you here," Kia said as she caught up to Happosai, somehow matching speeds with him.

"If my body didn't hurt so much I would glomp you," Happosai moaned.

"That never stopped you before," Kia said, looking Happosai over. Not her first choice, but she IS a succubus.

"You actually want me?" Happosai said, recognizing the expression on Kia's face, and surprised it was directed at him.

"If your body can take it," Kia said. Happosai didn't even want to wait to land, he just started stripping. When he got to taking his underpants off he knew he wouldn't be getting any further. Then again, even Sonic and Rose could hear Kia's laughing.

It was around this time that MM discovered he was trapped. He discovered this when he went to complain about running out of food before he had all he could eat. Needless to say, he wasn't happy, and the energy output from his anger confirmed it. The curse on the building held, however, and Rose just smiled.

Two hours later

"You get Kuno to ask for another date with me," Kia said to Nabiki. "Then I will give you these blackmail pictures I took of Happosai."

"And what could you have caught him doing that I could possibly blackmail him for?" Nabiki asked.

"Not what he was doing," Kia said, grinning. "More like where he is lacking." With that she held up one of the pictures she had taken, and Nabiki couldn't help but laugh herself.

"I will get on Kuno right away," Nabiki said, once she stopped laughing. "How much for the negatives?"

"Three pints of human blood," Kia replied. "Kuno's, if possible. There is something I like about his."

Meanwhile.......

"I want to take out an insurance policy on Emeral Bellosom," Joe said to the woman behind the counter. "Biggest policy you have, if possible." The sign above the counter simply said 'Matrix Level Insurance', even though it was in the middle of downtown Nerima.

"Other names?" the woman asked.

"Rose," Joe said. He was wondering just how the insurance company got an outlet in Nerima, but shrugged it off.

"Oh," the woman responded. "Here you go then, fill out this form and we will add it to your bill. I didn't recognize you at first, Sonic."

"I don't have a clue who she is," Joe mumbled as he sat down to fill out the form.

The next day

"Hey Emeral," a girl Emeral knew from school called. "What is up with that person you trapped in that building downtown?"

"WHAT?" Emeral yelled, knowing she had been in her 'Rose' form at the time.

"Did you and Joe think we wouldn't be able to tell who you were?" the girl asked. "With all the disguises people come up with around here, a simple change in clothing and hair color doesn't fool us anymore."

"Then why the hell don't you people notice Ranma?" Emeral asked, in a slight state of shock.

"A few of us have seen him transform," the girl said, her finger on her chin. "I think it is because we are more reluctant to admit that someone can physically change gender, I suppose."

"How long have you known?" Emeral asked, at a point where she didn't care.

"Since, oh....." the girl said, digging through her bag. "You and Joe were caught transforming in a tree that the principal had a hidden camera in." She pulled out a tape and handed it to Emeral. "He passed out copies to all the kids in school he felt couldn't be trusted to keep it a secret."

In an office across town

"AAAA-CHOU!" the principal sneezed. "That was odd."

Back with Emeral

"Give me a second," Emeral said, digging through a bag she hadn't been holding a minute before. After searching for a moment she pulled out a pineapple. "Ah, here we are." A small window appeared in front of her, and she threw the pineapple through it, before the window closed and vanished.

"Special delivery?" the girl asked.

"Yep," Emeral said, grinning. "I figure I don't have to hide my powers around you now. I have to go though, so I will catch you later."

Lets go back to that office we were just at

"Where did this fall from?" the principal wondered, holding the pineapple Emeral had just thrown into his face. A moment later it exploded, launching the principal through the roof and into the sky. As he headed into orbit he found a piece of paper stuck to his chest. All it said was "If you know our secret, you know we don't need to attend school. - J/E".

MM, of course, is getting pissed off

"When I get my hands on that little brat she will wish she never ascended to the next level," MM yelled as he dug deeper and deeper into his full power.

To top it off, Nadeshiko called an emergency meeting

"I don't know how to get him out of there," Nadeshiko explained to her boss.

"Does his computer say anything about it?" her boss asked.

"No," Nadeshiko said, kicking the computer. "It locked itself down when he raised his power level."

"Better call his boss," her boss said, picking up a phone. "I think this is out of my jurisdiction."

"Ok then," Nadeshiko said as the video screen blinked out. She looked at a timer on the wall, counted out three seconds, and then hit the receive button on the video screen. "Hello sir," she said to the image of MM's boss, who happened to be the Director of the entire authority.

"I understand MM is trapped, angry about it, trying to force his way out, and you can't seem to do anything about it," the Director said. "Tell me something I don't know."

"According to the only computer screen that hasn't locked down," Nadeshiko said, pointing to a screen behind her. "His power level hit his previous recorded record ten minutes ago, and is still rising."

"WHAT!" the Director screamed, the video screen cracking. "I will be there right away!"

Nadeshiko didn't have time to respond before the video screen seemed to explode with light, and the Director was standing there in a human form. He didn't even acknowledge her presence before he used a special override MM had given him to remove the lockdown on the computer and began to fully analyze the issue.

"Can you do anything?" Nadeshiko asked, hoping the Director didn't snap at her.

"Someone essentially sealed the backdoor routines of the curse used to seal him in," the Director said. "Someone by the name of Rose."

Where did Emeral head off to?

"Hey Sonic," Emeral called upon reaching home. "Part of our secret is AAA-CHOU! out!"

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked while he played poker with Kia. "And why the hell is poker so popular in this world?"

"I don't know about the poker thing," Emeral responded, "but the principal caught us transforming on tape. He gave most of the school copies, so I informed him we wouldn't be attending classes."

"Good thing I drank a bottle of Blood Wine when I said I was doing my homework then," Sonic said, chuckling. He regretted the comment as Emeral slammed him into the table with her fist.

"ROSE, WHERE ARE YOU!?" a loud, deep voice called, shaking the entire building. A moment later Emeral transformed into Rose as Sonic pushed Kia into another room, just in time for the Director to appear in a blinding flash of light.

"Who are you?" Rose asked, knowing that MM was still trapped.

"I am the Director of the Inter-Nexial authority," the Director stated. "MM reports directly to me at this time, and now you have MM trapped in a building here in this town."

"He had it coming," Rose said defensively.

"I take it you aren't going to let him out anytime soon then," the Director said, obviously annoyed.

"Nope," Rose replied.

"Your seal is doing a good job of masking what kind of power he is unleashing in an attempt to escape," the Director said. "Well before you came into existence MM went into a severe state of emotional distress. His emotional state was more fragile then a butterfly facing a hurricane, and his power output soared."

"And what does that have to do with this situation?" Sonic asked, intrigued.

"The power MM output in that timeframe was his record up until today," the Director stated, materializing a chart. "It was estimated that if he had launched an attack on anything during that timeframe he would have taken out an eighth of the Nexial Matrix. He is currently approaching double that output, and is showing no signs of slowing down."

"Then what is keeping him from destroying everything NOW?" Rose asked, not believing that MM really was putting out that much power.

"The fact that his own energy is being used against him by your seal," the Director stated. "If it weren't for that he would have already freed himself."

"Good," Rose said, grinning.

"If he isn't out by the end of next week then models predict that the structural integrity of this entire node will be compromised," the Director spoke flatly. Sonic and Rose's eyes went wide, as they knew that being trapped in the node as it collapsed was a decidedly bad thing.

"I think we should go let him out now," Sonic said, grabbing Rose.

"Good idea," Rose responded, allowing Sonic to drag her off. The Director followed them until they got within a block of the building MM was trapped in, when Sonic and Rose found they couldn't get any closer.

"That is going on?" the Director asked, going to walk past Sonic and Rose. "There shouldn't be anything stopping you." A moment later he stopped as well, also unable to get closer.

"The non-entry field has expanded," Rose said, tapping buttons on her watch. "The entry/exit gateway can't form across that distance. We can't get in now."

"Then you had better hope he finds a way out himself," the Director said, looking at the building MM was trapped in. "Or that he calms down in time. Otherwise, he will be the only survivor."

"Why will he survive?" Sonic and Rose asked simultaneously.

"The node will collapse onto the largest source of energy available, then expunge that energy," the Director said. "Since he is the largest source of energy, the node will collapse onto him, then spit him out."

"Nice perk for being powerful," Sonic said, eliciting a slap from Rose.

"Can't you be serious for a change?" Rose asked.

"Ok, ok," Sonic said, rubbing where Rose had slapped him. "Hey Director, if you got in, can't you get everyone OUT?"

"Everyone but those MM placed an extra lock level on," the Director replied. "That happens to include the two of you."

"Figures," Rose replied. "How long till you could evacuate the node otherwise?"

"Three days," the Director responded. "In fact, I am going to go now and start making arrangements."

"See you in three days then," Sonic said, dragging Rose off as the Director vanished.

"If we get out of this alive, I hope you listen to me the next time I say something is a bad idea," Sonic scolded.

Sonic and Rose spent all night researching a way to break the curse Rose had created, but it appeared she had done too good of a job. In the morning they were found fast asleep in trees near Furinkan High, and Kia decided to go look for them. Five minutes after she had left to search she ran into Emily, Kia's tail accidentally smashing the watch Emily was wearing.

"Ooops, sorry," Kia said, hoping Emily wouldn't get mad at her. She wasn't in the mood for a fight.

"GET OVER HERE!" Emily yelled, chasing after Kia. Kia decided to try running first, and Emily decided that wasting time at school wasn't worth it when she had someone to give a pounding. Thus, Emily chased Kia for three hours before Kia decided it was time to take a stand.

Emily, on the other hand, was no longer angry, but just looking for a good fight. She figured that spawn from the depths of the netherworld would make a good opponent, if she could just get Kia to stop running and face her.

"If you want to fight, lets fight," Kia called. Emily was happy to oblige, and went for an attack. Kia wasted no time in delivering a coat-shredding roundhouse that was quickly matched by a surprise dose of Holy Water from a squirt gun Emily pulled out of nowhere.

"How do you like that, hell spawn," Emily laughed.

"No fair using Holy Water!" Kia screamed, now angry. After all, her hair had just been blasted off by Holy Water, and it was a pain to grow it back. Emily didn't even notice Kia's bracelet start glowing, probably because all of her clothes burst off of her and she was too busy trying to cover up and escape at the same time. Kia had other plans, however, as she began reciting a spell.

"Oh shit," Emily said as a shockwave burst from Kia, remembering what had happened to Katarina. Granted, it hadn't been made widely known, but it was hard to miss someone in that kind of state leaving the house you were staying in. Bracing for the massive expansion, Emily was surprised when her chest started to feel lighter. The shock was great enough that she fell backwards off-balance, and for a moment forgot to cover herself. It didn't take her long to realize that she no longer had anything on her chest to cover up, the spell having made her chest look like a pre-teen's.

Then she remembered she was butt naked, and she bolted to grab something to wear from her bedroom.

Kia laughed as she headed off to look for Sonic and Rose again, not realizing that her spell hadn't affected Emily alone. Every female within a hundred miles of her when she cast the spell had suddenly gone flat chested, including Rose. The shock was enough to wake her up, and the resulting scream overrode the hundreds of other screams from hundreds of other females who had just had their breasts reduced. This, of course, woke up Sonic, who then immediately fainted upon seeing Rose. Rose immediately started making attempts to reverse the spell, failing her first few times before she realized she had a supercomputer with spell and curse sensors in it strapped to her wrist. A couple of minutes later she had discovered that the spell was demonic in nature, but had been tainted with an energy she couldn't identify, so she kept working.

Back at the house, however, Emily was more shocked then she had been to begin with. Having been the original target of the spell, it hit her harder then anyone else, and as such she was slowly regressing in apparent age. Where she had appeared to be a teenager, now she appeared to be about twelve years old, and the spell wasn't stopping. Emily just stared at herself in the mirror as she continued to shrink until finally she seemed to stop at around nine years old, at which point she broke down crying.

Twenty minutes later Emily was over her age regression woes, realizing that being a little kid had perks. Especially when you still had the same power level as before you were regressed. The first thing she did after getting dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals was to replace all of Kia's shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and other hygiene products with Holy Water tainted versions. The second thing she did was go out and hit Kia with a mud ball from behind.

An hour later Kia had no bodily hair, while Emily ran around town playing childish pranks on the people she came across.

Early the next day Joe walked into Ukyo's shop wearing his ceremonial red robe and hat. "Welcome to Ukyo's" said Ukyo looking at the customer. "Oh, Hello Joe."

"Hey Ukyo," said Joe sitting down and tossing the front part of his robe around his shoulder, "Three deluxe Okonomiyaki please."

"Coming right up," said Ukyo as Ranma walked in, "Ran-chan!"

"I'm starving, how about some seafood Okonomiyaki U-chan," said Ranma, "and something cold to drink, today has been a scorcher."

"You're right, it has been unusually hot today," said Ukyo, "Say Joe, aren't you hot in that thing?"

"Not really," said Joe.

"You're crazy," said Ranma sitting next to him, "It must be an oven inside those. Why don't you wear something cooler?"

"Believe it or not this suit is quite cool. I could be jogging on Venus for hours without working up a sweat," said Joe, "And I'm dressed this way because I have a strange feeling in my gut something bad is going to happen...no thanks to Emeral of course."

"What does Venus have to do with this?" asked Ukyo giving Joe his order.

"Oh, its only 400 degrees Celsius hotter than it is here right now," replied Joe taking a bite, "Didn't you ever pay attention to your science classes?"

"Ummmm, not really," said Ukyo blushing.

"So what's this bad feeling you have in your gut," asked Ranma, "And what did Emeral do?"

"No Comment," said Joe.

"INCOMING," Emily yelled as Kuno fell in through the roof, burnt to a crisp.

"Imagine," Kodachi said, walking through the door. "My dear brother beaten by a mere child."

"Better then the Principal being forced to close the school for a week after the same child blew up half the building," Joe said, not having flinched.

"And you are next," Emily said, blowing Kodachi into the sky. Luckily for her, she ran into Happosai in mid-air, otherwise she would have landed in Jusenkyo.

Rose is still in that tree

"Think Emeral will ever come down?" one girl said, looking at Rose in the tree.

"I don't know," another said, pulling the first along. "Lets not bother her, though."

"Stupid spell," Rose muttered. "There is something mixed in with it and I can't figure out what."

"Did you try one of those shard things?" Happosai asked just after landing in the tree.

Rose paused, looking at Happosai. "Why aren't you trying to glomp someone?"

"That spell you are trying to break has left me with nothing to glomp," Happosai responded as he lit his pipe.

"So every cloud does have a silver lining," Rose smirked, before going back to breaking the spell, using Happosai's insight. Ten minutes later she had a way to break the spell, but only if she could find the exact shard that was used in casting it.

"Figures," Happosai pouted. "You have to find the stupid shard first."

"STOP LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER!" Rose yelled, slamming Happosai into the sky.

With that, Rose finally left the tree, wondering where Sonic got off to.

Back at the Tendo Residence

"Record-breaking temperatures in town today," Nabiki said, watching the news. "Unknown causes, not to mention a growing part of town nobody can seem to get into."

"Sounds normal to me," Akane responded as Kasumi pushed her out of the kitchen. "If something odd isn't going on then something is wrong."

"Odd is you not being pissed at being pushed out of the kitchen," Ranma mumbled as he walked through. Akane just looked at him and reflected at how correct he was.

Then again, Akane was thrown off enough with the recent removal all the girls had involving their figures. Ranma's female form had even been affected, which made Akane feel sorry for him for some reason. This passed as soon as she looked down to her own chest, however, and she decided Ranma was at fault in some way and deserved a beating. This wasn't destined to occur, though, as Emily chose that moment to fly in through the window and onto Akane.

"Sorry Akane," Emily said, helping Akane up after they had fallen to the floor.

"Emily?" Akane asked, looking at the young girl that had just knocked her over.

"The spell that the succubus cast was focused on me," Emily explained, dusting herself off. "It hit me the hardest, turning me into a little girl. What happened to all the other girls in town appears to be a side-effect."

"You deserved it," Kia said, walking in. "The others didn't."

"Then give me the aura shard you used to cast the spell," Rose said to Kia.

"What are you talking about?" Kia asked. "And for that matter, where did you come from? You weren't in here, and you certainly didn't just walk in the door."

"So I teleported," Rose responded, giving Kia a dirty look. "Now give me the shard."

"Now look," Kia said, shooting her hand in front of Rose, pointing at Rose's nose. Before she could continue, however, her bracelet flew off of her wrist, bounced off Rose's forehead, fell to the floor, and cracked open. Rose reached down, grabbed the shard from the split bracelet, and smiled.

"Thank you," Rose said, putting the shard in her watch. A moment later she had vanished.

The next morning

"That is the last of it," Sonic said, materializing a pair of socks in a full bag. A moment later, he threw the bag into the trash and went to leave.

"Where do you think you are going?" Rose asked, standing in the door.

"Antarctica," Sonic said matter-of-factly.

"Why?" Rose asked, tapping her foot.

"Because I don't want to be anywhere near you if MM breaks free today like my dream indicated," Sonic responded, pushing past Rose.

"GET BACK HERE BUSTER," Rose yelled, giving Sonic a nasty glare.

"Rasafrasn female," Sonic mumbled, trudging back.

Meanwhile, at the shrine

Kalshion and Katarina had been getting ready for a trip to the northern side of Japan, they decided to help increase there knowledge on fighting so they wanted to be alone, besides what could go wrong? Sonic and Rose where having a time of there life and both Kal and Kat knew nothing would happen while they where gone.

Who are we kidding? They had disturbing dreams as well and decided to high tail it out of town before they were killed.

Rose, on the other hand, decided to make breakfast

Rose pulled out a bowl for some cereal, figuring it would be good for her nerves. No sooner had she gone to pour cereal in the bowl, however, then the bowl cracked down the middle and fell apart.

"That was odd," Sonic said, looking at the bowl. "If it weren't for us not getting omens outside of our birth worlds, I would probably be worried."

"Stupid bowl," Rose mumbled, punching the table. A moment later the wooden table had splintered into hundreds of chopsticks, each of which fell to the floor and broke in half.

"What's next," Sonic asked. "Black cats coming for the spilt milk?"

"What spilt milk?" Rose asked, pulling the milk out of the refrigerator. No sooner had she asked the question did the bottom of the carton of milk seem to explode, dropping all of the milk onto the floor. Minutes later the windows were filled with black cats trying to get in.

Sonic started to say something, but Rose shot him a death glance and he promptly shut his mouth tight.

The day progressed without severe incident, unless you counted every flower Rose got within five feet of wilting. That is, until teatime. Rose decided to have tea on her own, as the looks she was getting from everyone were starting to get to her. She made it through making and pouring her tea without incident, even though she had five hundred extra teacups just in case.

"Oh, look," Rose said to nobody in particular. "A tea leaf is floating in my tea. That is supposed to be good luck."

The tealeaf promptly sank, and Rose went back to her previous mood. A moment later her teacup burst into pieces, and all she could do was stare at it. As soon as she came out of her trance and put the remainder of the teacup on the table she heard a cracking sound. Before she could investigate it, however, all five hundred extra teacups shattered and the pieces burst into flames.

"Ok," Rose said, looking at the burning pieces of teacup. "Normally, I don't believe in bad omens outside of my home world. In this case, I am making an exception." With that she slowly backed out of the room, turned on her heels, and was about to run to find Sonic when an earthquake hit. She floated in the air as her watch beeped, signaling that it could undo Kia's spell. With that she pulled the shards into her watch-arm so that the supercomputer could utilize them to break the spell, which it did, sending a shockwave of restorative energy through town.

In a nearby earthquake research lab(why didn't we notice this before? The scientists here are local!)

"This has to be the big one," a scientist was yelling. "The end of us all!"

"Why do you say that?" another scientist yelled.

"We just hit 27 on the Richter scale!" a third interrupted.

Two blocks away, just outside of Nerima

"What the hell are they talking about," a scientist asked, looking at a video feed. "A 27 on the Richter scale? We aren't even registering a 0.8!"

At that building in the center of town

The building MM was trapped in had started to glow fiercely, the barriers around it visible due to the strain they were being put under. The sky darkened to inky blackness as lightning flew from invisible clouds. Finally a single bolt of lighting struck the top of the barriers and a minute crack formed. Two seconds later a volcano-like eruption of energy spewed from the crack and a small bright light flew off into town. This went largely unnoticed by the three people on hand to watch as a beautiful, yet obviously pissed-off female rose in the energy and landed in the street in front of the building.

Coincidently, every Rose in Japan burst into ashes at that precise moment, and nobody examining that phenomenon had a clue why.

Meanwhile, the female looked around, not really at her surroundings, but more like she was trying to figure out where something was. Suddenly she stopped, and shot a visible projectile with a glare. The projectile flew through town until it came to Rose, who had just enough time to raise the arm with the shards in it to shield herself. Luckily, the shards acted as a powerful shield, causing the glare to simply knock Rose into a coma while destroying everything within three blocks of where she had been standing. Sonic thought he felt something, but shrugged, figuring that if it was Rose getting slapped she deserved it.

"Damnit," the female said, looking down at her clothing. "Why did I have to end up in a miniskirt?"

Later on Sonic was worried that Rose hadn't come complaining about being slapped or anything, so he went out looking for her. It took him ten minutes to notice the crater, and another eight digging to find Rose. Grateful Rose was still alive, Sonic kissed her, hoping to bring her out of her coma. Unfortunately, it didn't work, and he decided bigger measures were needed.

Five minutes later Sonic had Rose at the Tendo Residence, in Happosai's room. Rose showed signs of stirring there, but didn't come out of the coma until Happosai opened the door, saw Rose, and jumped on her. This prompted a "GET OFF ME YOU PERVERT" from Rose, with Happosai taking a predictable trip.

"Welcome back," Sonic said, grinning. Rose, unsure of whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, decided to err on the side of caution and send Sonic flying with Happosai.

The next day

Sonic, Rose, Emily, and Jeremy were sitting around in the living room chatting about MM's escape.

"So where do you think he went after knocking me out?" Rose asked nobody in particular.

"Probably vented his anger knocking you out, and went on to plan his next curse," Jeremy replied.

Emily nodded her agreement. "He has never been one to stay angry long, but he does hold one hell of a grudge."

"I RESENT THAT!" Kia yelled from the kitchen. "Oh, and can any of you run over to get some blood from Kuno?"

"Already did," Rose yelled back. "Check the red handled cabinet on the east wall."

"DAMN!" Kia yelled. "Fifty-five gallons? Where did it all come from?"

"Healing spell," Rose said, grinning. "Lets someone 'donate' a lot more blood."

"Nice one," Emily said, thinking of the possibilities.

"Self destruct sequence activated," came a voice from nowhere, sounding a lot like the Federation's computer systems.

"WHAT!?" everyone screamed, running for the door. After a moment trying to open the door, they finally decided to just run through it.

"Could you get off my face," a girl mumbled after everyone fell on top of her.

"The house is going to blow up!" Kia said, trying to drag the girl off. "We have to get away from it."

"All of this because someone put a recording of the Enterprise's Self Destruct initiation as your doorbell?" the girl said, brushing her miniskirt off as she pushed everyone off of her.

"And how the hell do you know about the Enterprise?" Rose asked the girl.

"Didn't you see the movie last month?" the girl asked, digging through a bag. She finally found a ticket stub, and handed it to Rose.

"Star Trek, Insurrection," Rose read, surprised. "Interesting."

"So what brings you here?" Sonic asked, giving Rose a 'Don't blow our cover' look.

"I am selling cookies," the girl responded. "Very cheap."

"Here," Emily said, handing the girl a hundred yen. "How many boxes will that get me?"

"Oh, I don't know," the girl said, pulling out a calculator. She punched some numbers in, then pressed a red button on the side. A moment later two billion, five hundred thirty eight million, four hundred three thousand, thirty-six boxes of cookies fell on Emily. "That many, I guess."

"These cookies are over three hundred years past their expiration date," Jeremy said, reading one of the boxes.

"Three hundred thirty three years past expiration date," the girl said. "Why do you think they were so cheap?"

"And who are you selling these cookies for?" Rose asked, suspicious of the girl.

"I needed some extra cash, and this dude at Curses R Us said I could sell cookies at 5000% commission," the girl said. "How could I turn that kind of offer down?"

"Figures," Sonic said, blasting the cookies out of existence. "You get anything else from Curses R Us?"

"Just this ring," the girl said, holding up her right hand to show a ring on her little finger.

"You might want to take that off," Rose said, looking at the girl. "Who knows what it will do."

"What could a stupid little ring do?" the girl replied.

"Anything you can or cannot imagine," Jeremy said, backing away from the girl.

"Yea, right," the girl said, ignoring the scared looks on everyone's faces. She didn't even notice the ring start to glow. "Like a ring could do something like cause that tree over there to blow up." With that she pointed her right hand at the tree, and a small light floated out of the ring. The girl, appearing to be in complete shock watching the light, didn't move even as the light hit the tree and blew it up.

"Told you," Sonic said, shaking his head at the destruction of the tree.

"GET IT OFF ME," the girl yelled, trying in vain to pull off the ring. Sonic, Rose, Emily, and Jeremy joined in, but couldn't get it off.

"It is stuck," Sonic said, giving up. As he walked back into the house he thought to himself. "Not even MM would do this to himself just to trick us, would he?"

"I can't read her mind," Rose said, stepping up to Sonic. "I can sense that the ring she is wearing is blocking me, somehow."

"Probably the surface spell on the ring, with the destructive part being a secondary spell," Sonic said, deciding that MM wouldn't need such a petty spell to keep his mind safe, so the girl had to be someone else caught in one of MM's curses.

"Hey, one more thing," the girl called as everyone was going inside.

"What now?" Rose asked, hoping that the ring wouldn't trigger again.

"I don't suppose you know of a place I could stay?" the girl asked, blushing.

"Don't you have a home around here somewhere?" Sonic asked, curious as to where she had come from if she didn't have a home in the area.

"I did, but this morning some kind of explosion destroyed it," the girl said, looking sad. "I don't know where my parents are, or anyone else from my neighborhood."

"Sorry, you feel," came a voice that sounded suspiciously like Yoda. Turning around, everyone found it was Yoda, sitting where the tree had been before it exploded. "Help her, you will."

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked, glaring at Yoda.

"Visiting, I am," Yoda said as he stood up. "Leave, I shall." With that, he walked away, leaving everyone baffled.

"That was odd," the girl said, blinking a few times.

"Don't suppose you want to take off that body suit," Emily asked. "It does seem to be good at disguising your appearance, though."

"Oh, this," the girl said, gesturing at her body. "I wear it to keep the perverts away. How did you know?"

"I am more perceptive to some of these things," Emily answered. "That, and a small seam appeared when you were staring at Yoda."

"I would want to use a bathroom or something," the girl said. "I don't exactly have room for clothes under the suit."

"Point taken," Jeremy said. "There is a bathroom down the hall, clearly labeled."

"Thanks," the girl said, heading into the house and to the bathroom.

"Good thing that suit doesn't have gloves," Emily said, sitting down in a chair. "That ring would prevent removal otherwise."

"But it does cover her face," Rose said, looking at the bathroom.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" came a scream from the bathroom, followed by a loud smashing sound. Sonic looked out the window to see Ryoga flying off into the distance.

"So that is where I left my hyperspace portal," Rose said, putting her finger on her chin. "Guess Ryoga found the other end in the middle of the forest."

"You ready out there?" the girl called from the bathroom.

"Yep," Rose called back. "Come on out."

The bathroom door slowly opened and a stunning girl walked out. A moment later Rose smashed Sonic into the floor with her mallet.

"What was that for?" Sonic asked.

"I noticed your heart skip a beat when you laid eyes on her," Rose responded angrily.

"And you didn't?" the girl said, looking at Rose. "My heart was the only one in the room that didn't skip a beat."

"You are more perceptive then you let on," Jeremy said, eying the girl with interest. Sexual or otherwise, nobody but Jeremy could tell.

"I think the Tendos will have a place for you to sleep for a few days," Rose said as she forced herself not to blush. "Lets go over there now."

"Just let me get my suit back on," the girl said, gesturing towards the bathroom with her right hand. A small ball of light floated out of the ring on her finger, floated into the bathroom, and everyone knew that it came in contact with the suit, blowing it up. The girl was the most shocked at this, just before doing her best to remove the ring once again.

Two hours later Rose was with the girl at the Tendo Residence. The others had opted to stay behind and work on the repairs to the roof, after they realized Kia had fainted and revived her. The first person to see the girl at the Tendo Residence was Nabiki, who immediately went to get her camera while Akane chased Ranma who was chasing Happosai into the general area. Happosai had a heart attack mid-run and flew into the wall while Ranma's heart skipped a beat before he ran into Happosai and Akane just stopped and stared, drooling slightly from her wide-open mouth. Kasumi then came over, and actually spoke.

"My, don't you look cute," Kasumi said, smiling.

"This girl here," Rose started, looked at the girl. "What is your name, anyway?"

"Wendy Wharfton," the girl responded. "Just call me Wendy."

"Ok," Rose said. "Wendy's house was destroyed in a recent, unexplained explosion, and she can't find her family. Can she stay here for a couple of days?"

"Sure," Kasumi said. "Let me introduce you to father." With that Kasumi led Wendy to where Soun and Genma were playing. No sooner had Wendy entered the room then Soun and Genma stopped playing, forgot all about the game, and almost forgot to breath. Genma didn't even make an attempt to cheat while Soun wasn't looking, not that Genma could tell Soun wasn't looking as neither was he.

"Hello there," Wendy said, giggling. "I thank you for not attacking me in a fit of lust."

"Father, this is Wendy Wharfton," Kasumi said. "Her house was destroyed this morning and she needs a place to stay until her family can be found."

"Sure," Soun finally said. "A martial artist must help those in need, after all."

"Martial artist?" Wendy said, smiling. "Does that mean I could get some sparring in?"

"Sure," Ranma said, coming around the corner. This time he kept his composure, however. "I could use some practice." As he struggled to keep himself composed, he thought to himself. "Fighting a distraction like that should let me fight with ANY distraction."

"You should really not mumble what you are thinking," Wendy said, going to playfully punch Ranma. She tripped and fell over a chair, however, and landed baring her bottom to the pond outside, followed by two thuds.

"Oh my," Kasumi said, looking out at the pond. "Should Sasuke be bleeding like that?" Sure enough, Sasuke was out on his head by the pond in the middle of a massive nosebleed. Interestingly enough, nobody seemed to care that Kuno was in the same state a few feet away. Had anyone been watching, they would have seen Kodachi fall on the other side of the wall, highly embarrassed about what she had seen for reasons she could not comprehend. Shampoo and Ukyo joined her a moment later, none of them even caring who they were next to at that point, their faces all glowing red.

Happosai, for his part, had another heart attack and was currently gripping a tree as if he needed it to stay alive. Kalshion and Katarina were standing at the entrance to the Tendo residence, feeling weird things going on inside, yet unsure if they should investigate further. On one hand, weird things always happened there. On the other, they usually couldn't sense them. That, and they had just gotten back from the trip they had hoped would keep them away from the potentially fatal weird goings on, and were still a little worried.

"Would you two just come in already," Wendy yelled. Kalshion and Katarina looked at each other, shrugged, and went inside. Once they laid eyes on Wendy their hearts skipped a beat and an odd wind passed through the room, before they shrugged it off and turned to Rose.

"What did you do to the shrine?" Katarina asked. "All that is left is the sacred tree."

"Sorry about that," Rose said, blushing. "I didn't expect that explosion."

"What the hell is going on over here?" Tommy asked as he walked into the room. "And Wendy, what are you doing here with these losers?"

"YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Wendy said, shocked.

"YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS?" everyone else chimed in.

"Like I wouldn't recognize the founder of the Sentinels," Tommy said.

"The sentinels?" Wendy asked, looking highly confused.

"Yea," Tommy said, pulling out a book. "Aren't you Wendy Wharfton, founder of the Sentinels, as described on page 8 of this book?" With that Tommy showed a picture of Wendy, looking like the picture had been taken two minutes earlier. "Says here you would show up today for no apparent reason, with no apparent memory of who you are."

"Very interesting," Rose said, looking at the book. "I guess that is why there seemed to be more to you then what was on the surface. Being, I guess, a spontaneous reincarnated clone with false memories would do that."

"That it would," Sonic said, looking over Rose's shoulder. "Suppose she appears in Akane's ancestry?"

"Damned book," Wendy thought to herself. "I guess I accidentally made it a little TOO accurate."

"SWEEEEEEEETO" Happosai yelled as he finally got around to glomping Wendy. Amazingly, Wendy didn't even have time to flinch before Tommy knocked Happosai into orbit around Pluto.

"NEVER GLOMP THE FOUNDER OF THE SENTINELS!" Tommy screamed at the speck that Happosai had disappeared into.

"So you are good for something after all," Rose giggled.

"YOU PERVERT!" Wendy yelled, knocking Tommy into orbit with Happosai. "That perv felt me up when knocking Happosai off me."

"What can I say," Tommy said, somehow walking back into the room again. "I am a guy, you are a beautiful chick. Never said you couldn't be felt up, I just won't let anyone glomp you like that."

"Akane," Wendy said, holding out her hand. "May I please borrow your mallet?"

"Sure thing," Akane said, putting her mallet into Wendy's hand. "Use it well."

"I intend to," Wendy said, an evil grin appearing on her face as she swung the mallet between Tommy's legs. "FORE!"

"That HAD to hurt," Sonic, Kalshion, Soun, Genma, and Ranma said after wincing when the mallet made contact.

"We normally use anvils, you know," Rose said, somehow knowing that every girl in the room knew that Tommy had just gone through some intense pain.

"Really?" Wendy said, handing Akane her mallet. "That was so much more personal, wasn't it?"

"Yep," Emily said. "That was definitely more personal. Next time, though, please use my mallet."

"Don't mind if I do," Wendy said, taking the mallet from Emily who had pulled it out to show Wendy. At that precise moment Tommy was coming in for a landing, and Wendy swung Emily's mallet. "FORE!"

Once again, Tommy was hit right between the legs, and this time went into orbit around mars, paralyzed with pain. All of the males in the room seemed to also be in severe pain from witnessing the act, and most of the females had visibly flinched.

"I think you hit him too hard," Emily said, flinching again.

"What makes you think that?" Wendy asked.

"The six inch deep imprint of his privates still on my mallet is a clue," Emily said, putting the mallet in a biohazard bag.

"Here we go," Nabiki said, looking at Tommy's book. "It says here that any man who feels up the founder of the sentinels may have their privates flattened twice in five minutes, while those that glomp her only get a good beating."

"Tommy apparently didn't study that part of the book well enough," Akane said, flinching again.

Nobody had noticed the small pink pig in the corner with a "leave me alone" sign, apparently holding its privates for dear life.

"I don't suppose you carry any weapons of your own?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, lots," Wendy replied as she started pulling out weapons. "In my shoes I hide daggers, I have a small sword hidden on my back, and I wear a whip for a belt."

"Ok already," Sonic said. "You seem to have plenty of weapons."

"I am a master of hidden weapons martial arts you know," Wendy replied.

"You should fight Mousse," Shampoo said, walking in.

"That weakling?" Wendy said, grinning. "I beat him last month. He seemed to think I was someone named Ranma. Then again, I did break his glasses on accident."

"The only thing you seem to be missing is a gun," Katarina said, looking Wendy over. "Otherwise, the weapons I have spotted seem to cover every other possibility."

"Oh," Wendy said, reaching into her breasts. "I keep my bazooka and handgun in here." With that she pulled out a small bazooka and a golden handgun, causing everyone to jump back in shock.

"You sure MM doesn't haven any other children or relatives," Sonic whispered to Jeremy.

"He created life in this particular world," Jeremy whispered back. "In that manner, everyone native to this world could be considered related to him."

"That explains a lot," Sonic mumbled, watching Wendy put her weapons back.

"I don't suppose you hide clothes as well?" Rose asked, noting that Wendy seemed to be better at hiding weapons then Mousse was.

"Of course," Wendy said, pulling a trunk of clothes from behind her ear. "What kind of martial artist would I be if I had to wear this all the time?" She then pulled a curtain out of the trunk, set it up, and stepped behind it, changing into some clothes from the trunk. When she came back out she was wearing a greenish-blue skirt, a yellow spaghetti-strap top with red trim, greenish shoes, a metallic looking armband and a bracelet on one arm, and some weird hairpiece that looked like it could double as a couple of beating sticks in a pinch.

"Are you sure this isn't really your father?" Rose whispered to Emily.

"I am positive," Emily whispered back. "That mallet was constructed so that no living being that was in any way male could wield it, and she wielded it."

"Then I am seriously freaked right now," Rose responded.

"I like to wear this outfit when I am playing video games," Wendy said, after she had walked around everyone for a moment. "Let me change into my preferred battle suit."

"Interesting ring you have there," Cologne said as she came into the room. "I sense it is more then it seems, just as I think you are much more then you seem."

"What do you mean?" Akane asked, looking at Cologne. "So far she seems to be a powerful martial artist that, for a change, isn't interested in me or Ranma."

"My history book has her name and picture listed as the founder of my tribe," Cologne said, looking at Wendy. "I thought she looked familiar earlier, but after checking my book and seeing her close up, I am sure."

"Would people stop coming in and telling me I am someone I am not?" Wendy said, flustered. In her head she was trying to remember just how many more books had her picture in them, and why the hell she had made them so accurate.

"The book also says that the founder of the tribe would re-appear with a ring stuck to her finger," Cologne said, taking Wendy's hand and looking at the ring. "It speaks of a necklace the founder carries, but does not realize will remove the ring and the dangerous effects it carries."

"A necklace?" Wendy asked, her face brightening. "Come to think of it, I have a necklace in my jewelry box that is supposed to be very powerful." With that she pulled a box out of her trunk and started going through it.

Sonic, Rose, Kalshion, and Katarina, however, all went wide-eyed when the box had been opened. None of them could believe the powerful feeling they had gotten, yet found themselves in a state of shock that prevented them from saying anything about it as Wendy continued to rummage through the box of jewelry. Finally, Wendy pulled out a necklace with what appeared to be the complete, whole, undamaged Dragon Aura on it.

Meanwhile, in the Swiss Alps

"What the..." DS said, waking up suddenly. "THE DRAGON AURA?" His eyes went so wide his face cracked, resulting in his entire body falling apart as if he had been made of glass.

After he had put himself back together, he realized he still had a shard of the aura, and thus there appeared to be two complete auras in existence now. He absent-mindedly formed question marks around himself as he pondered what this all meant, considering time warps and the like, but coming up with nothing that truly explained the second aura.

"Could that prisoner have been right?" he finally thought. "Could there be a being in this node more powerful then anything else in existence? A being that is so powerful it could possibly have created the dragon aura?"

"Not only that," a mysterious voice called from the shadows. "Part of that being has searched you out to make you an offer you cannot refuse."

"An offer I cannot refuse?" DS responded in a shaky voice as his knees refused to stay still. In his head, however, he was debating over whether to scheme his way into the better end of the bargain, or just do what the being wanted.

"You get that second dragon aura for me," the being said as it seemed to pull away from the shadows. "Then, I will show you how to go to the next level, to the world beyond the matrix." By this point it looked a lot like the Godfather, just transparent and with embroidery on his shirt reading 'The Grandfather'.

Back at the Tendo Residence

"Lets see if this can remove the ring," Wendy said, touching the necklace to the ring on her finger. As soon as the two made contact the ring started to glow fiercely, just before it blew off in two pieces. Sonic and Rose sensed that while the ring retained some of the power it had, a phantom ring seemed to be on Wendy's finger, keeping the mind block in place.

"Looks like it worked," Ranma said, kicking one of the pieces of the ring.

"Yep," Wendy said, smiling. "Want to have that sparring match now?"

"You do realize I don't like to hit girls, right?" Ranma replied.

"Well then, lets fix that," Wendy said. A moment later she had thrown Ranma into the pond. As soon as Ranma came out of the water Wendy threw a metal belt on her.

"What was that for?" Ranma yelled.

"Simple," Wendy said, bending over at the edge of the pond. "If you don't battle me, I don't give you the key to that metal belt. The belt is just barely large enough for your female waist, and will be excruciatingly painful if you are hit with hot water right now. After our battle, win or lose, I take it off for you."

"How did you know about Ranma's curse?" Cologne asked Wendy. "I don't recall you being in that particular loop."

"Saw him change when that old lady splashed him with water last week," Wendy responded. "At first I didn't believe it, then I did some research. Did you know that the Jusenkyo Guides keep a pictorial record of every change resulting from the springs, and have a website?"

"Can we get fighting already?" Ranma asked, trying to drag Wendy off to the dojo.

"On one condition," Wendy said, grinning. "You have to try your best to beat me. Unless you do, I don't take off the belt."

Three hours later, at the remains of the dojo

"That was one hell of a battle," Kia said, looking at the charred ground where the dojo had been. "I should know, being from hell and all."

"And you only saw the last twenty minutes of it," Nabiki said, trying to figure out how they would pay to re-build the dojo.

"Amazing how Ranma lost, but didn't seem to be concerned about the loss itself," Ukyo said, closing up her stand as the last of the spectators that had gathered left.

"They both put up a great fight," Cologne said as she and Shampoo closed the Cat Cafe stand they had set up. "I personally won't be fighting those two if they ever decide to team up against me."

"What happened here?" Sonic asked as he, Rose, Kalshion, and Katarina returned. They had left to talk just as the battle was starting, and apparently were a tad dense about it as they were the only ones that apparently hadn't noticed the intensity of the battle.

"Or we were in North Africa," Sonic said into the camera.

"So was I," a tanned man said before heading off on a camel.

"Man she was good," Ranma said, coming back from dousing himself with hot water. "I don't think I have ever gotten a workout that intense before."

"Shouldn't you be training to improve yourself to a point where you can beat her and reclaim your honor or something?" Katarina asked.

"With the workout I just got?" Ranma said, shocked. "Why bother? I think I just got three months of training in a few hours."

"So where is Wendy anyway?" Rose asked, looking around. "I don't see her anywhere."

"Wendy is asleep in my room," Akane said, coming outside. "After that battle, I am not surprised."

"Why did we have to miss what sounds like the most intense battle this town has ever seen?" Sonic asked, kicking a can.

"If you want to see how intensely she battles, go fight her yourself," Rose said.

"Only if you join me," Sonic said, grinning. "Or are you going to chicken out?"

"That's it," Rose said, grabbing Sonic. "Tomorrow we challenge her to a match."

"Then lets go get some sleep," Sonic said, reversing Rose's grip and dragging her off. "We will need our energy if the lack of a dojo is any indication." With that they vanished down the street, just as a large truck pulled up.

"Someone must like this place," the driver said, backing up to where the Dojo had stood. "They ordered a titanium reinforced frame wooden Dojo to replace the old one."

That night

Sonic and Rose were in bed, both tossing and turning. Rose kept on mumbling something about keys and telling Sonic to chase them, while Sonic kept on mumbling something about getting away from MM. Kia, however, had gone out getting drunk after the battle and was currently on the roof in a staring contest with an owl.

Across town, Wendy was having trouble keeping her laughter down as she watched Kia having a staring contest with a plaster model of an owl, while hoping that Sonic and Rose didn't take their sweet time coming to challenge her. She was also trying to clean her many weapons, checking them for issues that might arise in the coming battle.

Off in space, Tommy had been picked up by aliens that were either trying to heal him or perform gruesome, painful tests on him. Tommy didn't care, as anything was better then the pain he had been feeling. Three hours later the aliens fired him into orbit around Venus, having had too much of his attitude for several lifetimes.

Five AM the next morning

"About time you showed up," Wendy said, standing at the entrance to the Tendo Residence. "Emily and Jeremy dragged Kia by earlier with some video equipment, Ukyo and Shampoo already dragged carts down, and they actually got Happosai and Cologne to team up to build viewing stands for the live crowd."

"And I thought gossip spread fast," Katarina said, looking at the slightly shocked Sonic and Rose. "This spread faster then wildfire to have all of this set up already."

"How did you find out anyway?" Kalshion asked. "They didn't even officially challenge you."

"Nabiki is making a ton of money off of the televising and ticket sales, even though she won't be there," Wendy said. "She apparently arranged most of the stuff."

"Figures," Sonic and Rose sighed in unison.

"Lets get going then," Wendy said. "I get the feeling this is going to be a long battle."

Six am, in a large open field just outside of town

"Half an hour into the battle," Happosai said, trying to stay awake. "They haven't done anything but stare at each other."

"The lightshow is interesting though," Cologne said, looking at the two clouds firing lightning bolts at each other. One cloud was over Wendy, the other over Sonic and Rose, both pitch black.

"WOULD YOU THREE FIGHT ALREADY?" Happosai yelled, obviously frustrated. Before he could blink he was knocked back into his seat, tied up with ribbons and handcuffs. At the same time, the three fighters seemed to vanish, with nothing but large gusts of air and bright flashes indicating that there was a battle going on.

Over the next eight hours the battle raged, slowly destroying everything that wasn't nailed, welded, glued, tied, and bonded at a molecular level in the area. Not to mention many things that were. A collection of broken and discarded weapons slowly built up along the battlefield, and a pit slowly formed from all the intense movement.

Finally, the three fighters stood in a triangle, Sonic and Rose facing Wendy, who was facing between Sonic and Rose. All three were covered in sweat and had tattered clothing, but they were also all smiling. Sonic and Rose, however, glanced at each other, nodded, and pulled out their keys from their shirts.

"Now you lose," Sonic said, transforming his key as Rose did the same. They both launched an attack at the same time, intending to either knock out or seriously injure Wendy so that the battle would end. They didn't notice Wendy smile slightly just before they swung down. Time seemed to stop for a moment just before impact would have been made, but only for Wendy. Or at least, that is what it seemed. A split second later a single necklace with two keys on it fell over Wendy's head, to rest around her neck, as Sonic and Rose fell face first into the ground behind Wendy.

"What the hell just happened?" Rose asked, turning to Sonic.

"How the hell should I know?" Sonic responded, looking back at Rose. "You didn't happen to see where I dropped my key, did you?"

"No, did you see where I dropped mine?" Rose shot back.

"You mean these?" Wendy said, turning around. Sonic and Rose looked up at Wendy, focusing their attention just above her breasts where the two keys hung from their chain. A moment later their eyes rolled into the back of their heads and they fell over, unconscious. A referee, that nobody had noticed around at the start of the fight, declared Wendy the winner and sent everyone home. Sonic and Rose were carried home by Emily, Jeremy, Kia, and Wendy, just before Wendy went out to party.

The next morning found Wendy with a horrible hangover. Later Kibou and Hikari admitted to one another that they had a great time, finding it somewhat pleasurable to be worn by someone else for a change, even if it was only for a prank. They did, however, wish that Wendy hadn't had enough alcohol to kill an elephant, as her third drink had gone to her head. At one point they thought she had actually tried to summon, of all things, a dragon from the pits of hell, despite the fact that the world they were in had no hell.

Meanwhile, across town a green dragon was trying to figure out why it couldn't assume human form. More confusing was the fact that nobody in town seemed concerned about a large green dragon walking around town, or at least not while he wasn't doing anything threatening. It did know that there seemed to be a high concentration of the dragon aura shards across town, and it was heading for it. Apparently the spell it had been casting to go to the dragon aura had finally worked, even though the spell said an orange portal would open and it had been pulled through a black and white portal.

It didn't take long for the dragon to run into Happosai, as Happosai has a habit of investigating odd things to see if he can benefit from them. The dragon sensed highly conflicting feelings coming from Happosai, an odd mixture of perversity, overall corruption, a protective nature, and caring for his family and friends with no apparent organization.

"You are a male dragon, aren't you," Happosai said, looking the dragon over.

"Yes, I am," the dragon responded, raising an eyebrow.

"And you are trapped in your dragon form for reasons you cannot understand," Happosai continued, still looking the dragon over.

"You are highly perceptive," the dragon admitted. "You hide what you have decided is a sign of weakness, the caring for and protecting of others, underneath a corrupt exterior, made easier by the perversity you were apparently born with."

"I am not the only perceptive one," Happosai shot back. "And please don't go spreading that around, it is bad for my reputation."

"Don't suppose you would return those garments you stole just before coming here," the dragon asked.

"Not a chance, bub," Happosai said, lighting his pipe.

"In that case," the dragon said, grinning. A moment later Happosai was squashed under the dragon's tail, and the dragon moved on. A block down the street the dragon stopped and scraped Happosai off of his tail, using a three-story building to facilitate it without using his hands to actually touch Happosai.

Back with Sonic and Rose

"Hey Sonic," Rose called, climbing out of bed. "What happened?"

"I think we went into shock," Sonic replied. "That dragon approaching must have knocked us out of it."

Sonic and Rose looked at each other from their doorways for a moment, not saying anything. Then their eyes went wide with surprise.

"THAT DRAGON APPROACHING!?!?!?!?" they yelled, running for the front door. A few seconds later they dashed back into their rooms, put some clothes on, and then dashed back out again. A few minutes later they ran into the green dragon. Quite literally, actually, as for some reason they didn't see it over the building when they were running around a corner.

"Sonic? Rose?" the dragon said, looking at the two as they picked themselves up off the ground. "Don't suppose you can help me? I can't seem to change into a human form."

"You haven't adjusted to this world's energy fields," Rose said, brushing herself off. "See if you can concentrate enough to attune your mind to the energy of this system's central star, then try and transform."

"Never had to do this before," the dragon said, closing its eyes. A moment later it glowed slightly, then transformed into a human form.

"EEEK," Rose yelled, covering her eyes and turning around. "NEXT TIME DON'T FORGET THE CLOTHES!"

"Sorry about that," the dragon said, concentrating further and materializing clothing. "How goes the shard collecting?"

"Why do you have to ask?" Sonic asked, looking at the dragon with curiosity.

"My ability to sense the pieces of the aura is greatly diminished right now due to being in a strange world without the aura aiding me," the dragon responded. "Now that I am within twenty or so feet of them, I can't even tell exactly where they are anymore."

"We currently have 13 shards," Rose said, summoning the shards to her hand. "It appears to be just over half of the entire aura."

"Matters have been helped and hurt by certain forces present in this world," Sonic continued, eyeing Rose in a 'the forces include you' manner.

"Not to mention recent events complicating the matter further," Rose interrupted, giving Sonic a 'shut up or I will shut you up' look.

"Not that I am not interested in what is going on," the dragon said, watching Sonic and Rose give each other varied glares. "But where are Kibou and Hikari?"

"Hey you guys," Wendy called as she came around the corner. "Any of you see that dragon that was wandering through this area earlier?"

"That would be me," the dragon said, turning to look at Wendy. No sooner then it had, however, then its jaw dropped like a ton of bricks, staring at the two keys hanging from a chain around Wendy's neck.

"That would be what happened to Kibou and Hikari," Rose said. "That bitch somehow took them."

Rose got a few odd looks for her language, and the dragon decided that it would be best not to ask what the circumstances were at this point. "What other events are complicating matters at this point?"

"One of her necklaces, for one," Sonic said, pointing to Wendy. "Wendy, can you show this gentleman the necklace you showed us the other day?"

"Sure," Wendy said, pulling out her jewelry box. She opened it up, and the dragon went wide-eyed. A moment later Wendy lifted the necklace out of the box to reveal the second aura.

"Can I see that?" the dragon asked, stepping closer to Wendy.

"Sure," Wendy said, handing the necklace to the dragon. Soon he was examining it, looking for any inconsistency that would show it to just be a VERY good imitation. He could not, however, find any indication of that, even though he knew Rose had thirteen shards of the original aura with her.

"And I thought I had seen everything possible in the Matrix," the dragon finally said, relinquishing the necklace. Even though it appeared to be the aura, he knew that he could not very well steal it.

"By the way," Wendy said, pointing behind Sonic and Rose. "You might want to duck."

"What?" Sonic and Rose asked, turning around. A moment later they were hit in the face by a dark energy boomerang. This, unfortunately, kept them from stopping the dark form that sped past them at that point and grabbed the necklace from Wendy. Wendy, for her part, didn't seem to be bothered by this, but Sonic and Rose decided to give chase.

"Doesn't that look like DS?" Rose asked as they chased the dark figure.

"Could be," Sonic said as they chased the figure. "But then again, in this world, you never know."

"True," Rose replied.

Meanwhile, Wendy took the dragon three blocks to the east, where she hid behind a mailbox. A few minutes later the dark figure came running down the street, right past the mailbox where Wendy tripped it. The dark figure went sprawling into a dark entryway while the necklace flew into the air, where Wendy jumped up and grabbed it. Sonic and Rose, on the other hand, had been so shocked when Wendy tripped the dark figure that they ran into the mailbox.

"Idiot," Wendy said as she landed. "Did he really think he could get away with that?"

"You knew him?" Sonic asked, taking a couple of asprin.

"Yep," Wendy said, turning to the dark entryway where a sharp looking man in a suit was walking out. The man was almost transparent looking, but it was hard to tell with the darkness behind him.

"I believe that necklace is mine," the man said, glaring at Wendy.

"Not today brother dear," Wendy said, putting the necklace on. "From now on, I think I will wear it."

"I will have that necklace," the man responded. "You have won this battle, but the war is far from over." With that he walked back into the shadows, leaving a business card where he had been standing.

"When did he drop the business card?" Rose asked picking it up. "And why the hell does it say The Grandfather?"

"Trust me," Wendy said, walking off. "You don't want to know."

"Rude, isn't she?" Sonic said, shaking his head. He then sighed, and turned to the dragon. "Did you want to meet Kalshion and Katarina? They might have a place for you to stay."

"Thanks," the dragon said, walking off with Sonic and Rose. "I wanted to meet them anyway."

That night

"Isn't this the only bowling alley in town?" Rose asked as Sonic pushed her in.

"Yes, and one of the few places you can throw heavy objects in any way without being thought of as insane," Sonic said. "I figure you can use that to relieve some stress."

"Good idea," Rose said as Sonic paid for a lane for the night. "Lets get started."

"Hi guys," Wendy said as she entered her name into the computerized megascore system. "Didn't expect to see you here, let alone in the next lane."

"Wendy decided to take me on in a challenge I made earlier," Kia said. "I said she couldn't beat me in any competition, as I have an automatic pact with the devil to win."

"Shall we extend that competition?" Rose asked, looking at Wendy with fire in her eyes.

"Sure," Wendy said. "Lets turn on the cross-lane scoring system." With that she pressed a button on the side of the station she was standing at, and a new, larger score screen dropped down between the lanes. Wendy's name was already on it, and she quickly entered in Kia, Sonic, and Rose. The system then randomized their order, putting Rose just before Wendy, followed by Sonic and Kia.

Soon the bowling had started, with Rose and Wendy getting strikes every frame. Soon Sonic and Kia were so far behind they decided it wasn't worth it, and went to the arcade. Meanwhile, Rose and Wendy continued to get strike after strike, the scoring system seeing a strike in the last frame as a reason to add another frame. The longer they bowled, the angrier Rose seemed to get, and the more of a spectacle the competition became. Sonic and Kia finally returned after Rose and Wendy had bowled three hundred thirty two frames, noting that the automatic scoring system was going to skip the last two frames bowled as soon as either of them missed so much as one pin on the first ball of a given frame.

"You do realize that ONE PIN left standing shall constitute the end of the game, tie or not?" Kia said as Rose prepared to bowl.

"So?" Rose said, launching the ball like a rocket down the alley. The ball itself never touched the alley, but seemed to explode as it hit the pins. Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared and the dust settled the number six pin was still standing. Rose's jaw dropped and broke the floor as Wendy smiled and calmly sent her ball down the alley, getting a strike. The automatic scoring system beeped, alerting everyone that Wendy had won with 9900 points to Rose's 9899 points.

"Game over Rose," Kia said, walking away. "Not even demonic help could keep her from winning."

"Lets go Rose," Sonic said, dragging Rose away. When they got back to the house they found Emily and Jeremy watching TV, showing Wendy out getting drunk over her victory.

"How could she have won?" Rose finally said. "There is NOBODY that good!"

"You seemed to be," Sonic said. "And nobody was cheating. Isn't that what counts?"

"What do you mean nobody was cheating?" Rose said, grabbing Sonic. Sonic was expecting Rose to accuse Wendy of cheating, and as such braced himself for the expected outburst. "Do you want to know who was cheating?" Rose asked.

"Sure," Sonic said, preparing for the worst bout of accusations on the planet.

"Well, I WAS CHEATING," Rose yelled. "I CHEATED THAT ENTIRE GAME, and she STILL BEAT ME!"

"Excuse me for a second," Sonic said, taking Rose's hand off of his shirt. He then walked over to the calendar and wrote 'Rose cheated for personal gain and admitted it' in the square for that day. He then went back over to Rose, and put her hand back on his shirt. "Ok, continue."

"I lost the mood," Rose said, letting go of Sonic's shirt again and collapsing on the couch.

"Glad I'm not married," Emily said, changing the channel.

"At least I only have family ties to you," Jeremy said, pulling out his own remote and changing the channel on Emily. Emily changed the channel back, Jeremy changed it again, so on and so forth.

"They like to fight, don't they?" Kia said, watching Emily and Jeremy from the door.

"Yep," Rose said, watching Emily spring a lightsabre from her remote's IR transmitter. Jeremy followed suit, and the battle for the channel changed into a physical fight. Rose then pulled out her own remote and changed back to the news station that had been on when they walked in.

The next morning

"They could have cleaned the room up," Sonic said, kicking the remains of the couch. "Or at least stopped fighting after they destroyed the TV."

"Want to go out for breakfast?" Rose asked, yawning. "The only things in the fridge are blood and some food Akane made for us when we were unconscious."

"Why not go to that breakfast party Wendy decided to throw," Emily said, climbing out of the rubble that was the living room. She apparently had fallen asleep under it.

"Why is she throwing it?" Rose asked, her expression going from 'nice and happy' to 'down right angry' in seconds.

"She arranged it two days ago," Jeremy said, also climbing out of rubble. "She was given a years supply of doughnuts, muffins, and coffee and decided to throw a party with it all."

"Ok," Rose said, her expression returning to 'nice and happy'. After all, who could complain about someone sharing a gift like that?

Ten minutes later Sonic and Rose arrived at the breakfast party, and immediately started chowing down. It didn't take them long to have their fill, though, so they went looking for Wendy to thank her. They found her looking like road kill due to her hangover, downing cup after cup of coffee.

"Thank you for breakfast," Rose said, smiling. She was feeling much better now that she had eaten.

"You are welcome," Wendy said, shaking off some of the effects of the hangover and standing up.

"SWEEETO!" Happosai yelled. Instead of landing on a girl, however, he flew right between Rose and Wendy.

"He apparently loses some of his aim when he is hung over," Sonic said, watching Happosai.

"I missed," Happosai said, pulling himself off of the ground. He then looked at Rose and Wendy, unable to decide whom to glomp. This was obvious to anyone watching him as he kept looking back and forth between the two. For a change, however, he was trying to be rational about it all. "If I glomp Rose then Sonic will beat me up as well," Happosai thought to himself. "If I glomp Wendy then I think I might be scot free. She is under the effects of a hangover, after all." So, with that determination, he glomped Wendy. Wendy, however, again found that Happosai was off of her before she could react. This time, however, it was Rose that sent Happosai flying. Rose was also quite pissed if her expression meant anything, and immediately stormed off mumbling something about Romulan Ale.

"Now what," Sonic asked Rose. "She didn't do anything."

"Don't worry about it," Rose said, pulling some Romulan Ale out of the secret compartment of a tree nearby. She wasted no time in drinking half a bottle as she headed off again.

"Women," Sonic said, concentrating on reading Rose's thoughts. A moment later he had a very disturbed look on his face, and decided that Rose definitely needed some cooling off time. How else could he explain her being jealous that Happosai chose to glomp Wendy?

Rose ended up drinking two hundred forty eight bottles of Romulan Ale throughout the next three hours, making Wendy jealous that Rose was consuming more alcohol then she was. Thus, Wendy starting drinking tons of alcohol as well, until it got to the point where Rose and Wendy were downing bottles of pure alcohol while staring each other down.

"I've never seen Rose down so much alcohol," Sonic said, watching Rose and Wendy go at it. "Well, not at least since our wedding."

"She drank that much at her wedding?" Akane said, shocked, as she helped move a crate of bottles of pure alcohol into the room.

"Yea, her home dimension had a tradition of having a drinking contest," Sonic said. "It happened to be with the groom, so she wasn't the only one drunk."

"Where are they putting it all?" Ryoga asked, amazed at how much the two were actually consuming.

"That is a mystery that may never be solved," Ukyo said, closing up her shop. She had run out of ingredients and places to put the money she had made, so it was time to head to the bank and the market.

"I would have to agree," Cologne said, doing the same thing with the Cat Cafe cart she had set up.

Sonic grinned, thinking back to his wedding day. "Having consumed almost as much as they have, I would know. But I have more fun watching people try and figure it out." Then again, Sonic thought, I had to stop drinking because I ran out of room for the alcohol. They should hit that limit any time now.

Twenty six hours later

"I can't drink any more," Rose and Wendy said at the same time, just before collapsing into a very deep, alcohol-induced sleep.

"I give," Sonic said, getting up out of his chair. "I don't know where they put all of that alcohol."

"Amazingly enough," Nabiki said, returning from talking with one of the cameramen for the local news. "It seems that there was enough money in the commercials for this thing to pay for all of the alcohol."

"That is good," Happosai said, looking slightly green. "I still don't know how they standed that, though. Not even I could drink half of what they did."

"For once," Sonic said, picking Rose up off the floor. "I think I agree with you."

"Just for the record," a judge said, making tally notes. "Wendy drank one third of a bottle of pure alcohol more then Rose did, although Rose drank more volume overall due to dilution."

"WHAT!" Rose yelled, amazingly sober all of a sudden. "I LOST!"

"Don't you have enough alcohol in your system to kill an army of elephants?" Sasuke said, looking at Rose with amazement.

"Oh ye.." Rose said, collapsing again.

Sonic proceeded to carry Rose home, someone else carried Wendy to the Tendo residence, and everything was calm. Well, until Rose and Wendy woke up with hangovers the next morning. Needless to say, life was a living hell for anyone who crossed either of them until that afternoon.

"Think we will see Wendy today?" Sonic asked Rose once she had gotten over her hangover.

"Maybe," Rose said, reading the comics. "Then again, I don't know if she ever had a hangover that bad. She might take longer to shake it off."

"Or she might have taken all morning to build and open a new restaurant," Kia said as she cooked some blood-related dish.

"WHAT!?!" Sonic and Rose said, jumping out of their chairs. "She opened a restaurant today?"

"Yea," Kia said, stirring her dish. "It was all over the news this morning. She apparently all but killed anyone who slacked off when helping her, saying that if she could do it with a hangover then they had no excuse."

"Amazing," Jeremy said, walking into the room. "A girl that can function with a hangover. Who would've thought it was possible?"

Needless to say, Jeremy couldn't complain about the mallet that he was hit with a second later, as his comment had essentially been asking for it.

"Should we go see how she is doing then?" Emily asked, putting her mallet away.

"Sure," Rose said, putting hers away as well. No, I am not telling you who hit Jeremy, but I will tell you that all five decided to go check out Wendy's, where we will now join them ten minutes later.

"Not a bad place," Rose said as they waited in line. "Not sure how she got so many customers in such a short period, or how she is serving them all with no help though."

"Come back after the rush and I will give you a tour," Wendy said, sipping a soda while standing in line behind Rose.

"Ok, how did you do it?" Rose said, noting that Wendy was still behind the counter. "There aren't a lot of ways to pull that kind of trick."

"Who are you talking to?" Sonic asked Rose. "There is nobody there."

"What?" Rose said, turning back to where Wendy had been standing, finding nobody behind her. Her footprints from the damp ground outside hadn't even been smudged. "How did she do that?"

"May I take your order?" Wendy said as the group approached the counter. "Everything is half off today."

"In that case," Sonic said, pulling out a wad of cash. "Give me two of everything."

"Will that be all?" Wendy asked, entering the order.

"That is for me, find out what they want too," Sonic said, jerking his thumb at his four companions.

"Hungry, aren't we," Wendy said, moving on to Kia. "I suppose you want to order from the Succubus menu."

"Yes please," Kia said, accepting a menu from Wendy. While Kia was looking over the menu, Rose decided to place her order.

"Give me the Jumbo Chili please," Rose said, reading the menu board. "Make sure I have plenty of crackers, and throw in an Ultimate Biggie Diet Soda."

"Diet?" Sonic said, raising an eyebrow.

"I have to watch my figure," Rose said, sticking her tongue out.

"Give me the Kuno Bloodbath Surprise," Kia finally said, handing Wendy her menu.

"Talk about customer-pleasing menus," Emily said, shocked.

"What did you expect?" Wendy asked. "Kia is the only succubus I know of on the planet, thus the Succubus menu caters to her tastes."

"She has a point," Jeremy said. "By the way, give me the holy soup with the holy water soda."

"I'll take the Devil's food cake with the chocolate syrup for a drink," Emily said, grinning.

"Thank you," Wendy said, taking Sonic's wad of cash and handing him his change. "Your order is ready to be picked up on those trays down at the end of the counter."

"Talk about fast," Sonic said, sliding his ten-foot square tray onto a cart. "I didn't even see her prepare the food."

Twenty minutes later the group had finished their meals, gone back for Frosties, and finished those as well. Amazingly enough, Kia dodged all of the holy liquid attacks from Jeremy, and Wendy was honoring her seemingly imagined offer for a tour of the back of the restaurant.

"First things first," Rose said, looking at Wendy. "How is it I was the only one who could see you in line earlier?"

"Mental projection," Wendy said. "Next question?"

"Yea, I want to see MM's menu, I know you have one," grinned Sonic.

"He doesn't have a menu, per say," Wendy said, walking over to the register. "I just hit the MM button, and it registers five thousand of each item on the menu and charges it to his account. Any other questions?"

"Yes," Jeremy said, looking around the small area that seemed to be the backroom. "Where do you prepare the food?"

"What do you mean?" Wendy said, eyeing Jeremy. "I don't prepare any food."

"Then where do the meals come from?" Emily asked, eyeing Wendy.

"Replicators," Wendy said, pushing a button on the register and causing a burger to appear on the counter.

"That is oddly efficient," Rose said, eating the burger. "Why not just have a credit card payment system where people enter their own orders?"

"But I do," Wendy said, grinning. "You think I stand around working all day? This whole place is covered in holoemitters. I am really at the beach getting a tan."

"That's it," Rose said, rolling up her sleeves. "Time to talk to the REAL Wendy." With that she stormed out and headed for the beach, a small mob of people following for no apparent, nor logical, reason.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Sonic mumbled to himself. He was wishing he wasn't so loyal to his wife, so that he might actually be able to consider not going with her in the first place. Half an hour later, when they actually reached the beach, Rose seemed to have calmed down slightly. That is, until she saw Wendy playing volleyball, which got her mad again for some reason.

That, or the fact that she was playing volleyball with Shampoo, Ukyo, Akane, Cologne, and Happosai.

Needless to say, Rose snapped at Wendy, probably because Wendy hadn't bothered to even attempt to ask her to join them at the beach.

"WENDY!" Rose screamed, the look on her face scaring every living being that could see it, with the sole exception of Wendy. "YOU LAZY BITCH! WHAT IS THE IDEA OF LEAVING A HOLOGRAM RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS WHILE YOU PARTY ON THE BEACH, WITHOUT INVITING ME TO BOOT, DESPITE EVERYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE DONE TO ME?" By the time Rose was done yelling this there was a parting of the sea behind Wendy leading to the California coastline.

"Bad idea," Sonic kept on saying over and over as he slowly backed a few meters away.

"You," Wendy said, her expression growing fiercer with each word she spoke. "You think you have a right to be mad right now? I did not ask to be drawn into your matters dealing with this Aura you are looking for. When I set up my business I did it in such a way as to make a living while still having a life to live, is that a crime? And to top it off, Cologne invites me to the beach and you accuse ME of not inviting YOU, and this is all in spite of what YOU did to ME to BEGIN WITH."

By the time Wendy had finished speaking her expression was scaring all the NON-living things in the area, and had frightened off all the living things that could move aside from Sonic and Rose.

"I really did it this time," Rose was thinking to herself, looking at her beeping watch. "And what the hell does my computer mean when it says I need to be warned that she is at 1000% AP?"

"Not that I disagree with her other points," Sonic was thinking to himself. "But what did Rose do to her to begin with?"

"Ummmm, Rose," Sonic said, grabbing Rose's arm. "I think we should go before she does something we will regret later."

"Like what?" Rose said, shaking Sonic's grip off.

"Like harness the full power of that second dragon aura," Sonic said, his eyes locked on the glow coming from Wendy's necklace. She didn't even notice her and Sonic's keys returning, as if they were running from Wendy.

"Oh shit," Rose said, trying to get her legs to respond to her brain. She didn't even notice that she had soiled herself. Sonic and Rose did, however, notice that the power Wendy had pulled from the aura was approaching a level that they believed was capable of destroying them. Rose responded to this by going into shock, while Sonic realized that Rose could very well die if he didn't do something. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to him.

"Prepare to meet my wrath," Wendy said in a decidedly evil sounding voice. Without warning, she lifted her arm and unleashed a concentrated ball of all the energy she had pulled from the aura. Just as the ball was about to hit Rose she seemed to vanish, only to be replaced by Sonic. Nobody noticed that his eyes had turned into a solid mass of dark blue except for yellow pupils before the energy ball hit him, tearing apart at his very being. Moments later Wendy collapsed, apparently unable to take that much strain, Rose snapped out of her shock, realizing that she was unharmed, and Sonic fell to the ground, unconscious due to his injury and exertion.

"Wait a minute," Rose said to herself, her brain finally working again. "Did she say that I did something to her first?" A moment later she noticed Sonic's massive injuries and Wendy's unconscious state, and was hit by a guilt trip that actually registered on the Rictor scale. Unfortunately, it was mixed in with the aftershocks from Wendy's powering up and attacking, so nobody is quite sure what it registered as.

It only took her a moment to rush to Sonic's side, holding him in her arms and whimpering apologies to him. It then donned on her that while she had to care for Sonic, she was also basically responsible for the condition Wendy was in as well. After a bit of conjuring she put Sonic and Wendy on rolling stretchers and rushed back to the house with them.

Meanwhile, in the Swiss Alps again

"Damn that hurt," DS said, lying down. He looked to be in almost as bad condition as Sonic was, but for reasons he couldn't fully comprehend. "Maybe I should re-consider this whole destroy Sonic bit," DS thought. "If this really did occur from him taking that blast for Rose, then I might have to destroy myself to destroy him."

The next day

Rose had spent all night caring for Sonic, leaving Wendy to the care of Jeremy. Emily and Kia set up a fort on the front lawn to protect against people coming to see either of the injured, using large stun guns to stop those that tried to pass through the fort without permission.

"Hey!" Kia yelled. "Don't forget the pervert buster atomic powered panty gun!"

"Ahh yes," Emily said, grinning. "The power of nuclear explosive powered panties, just what we need to keep Happosai out."

At any rate, Sonic was well along on the road to recovery. Wendy, on the other hand, hadn't improved much.

"What did you expect?" Jeremy said. "I am good at fixing what Emily has done, not healing!"

And for some reason nobody can understand, Cologne and Happosai are actually concerned about Wendy's health, more so then Sonic's health. Go figure.

"So we are more perceptive then we let on," Happosai and Cologne said as they researched ways to heal Wendy.

On top of it all, Ryoga somehow made it into the house.

"Like you didn't see that coming," Ranma said, clobbering Ryoga.

"And just how did YOU get in?" Emily said, rolling up her sleeve while glaring at Ranma.

"I'll be going now," Ranma said, grabbing Ryoga and running.

Maybe someone should wake up Rose, so that she can heal Wendy.

"Not now," Rose mumbled in her sleep. "I am too tired."

Oh well, I guess being on the floor next to Sonic's bed isn't helping much either. Who bolted the only chair in the room to the floor, anyway?

"Sorry," Nadeshiko said, blushing. "I haven't figured out this restricted mode interface yet, and I think I bolted down all the furniture in town."

"No you didn't," the computer said. "You just bolted down any furniture Rose trys to bring close to Sonic's bed."

"Figures," Nadeshiko said. "Now you speak, but you ignore me when I ask for help."

"That's my job," the computer responded, showing a thumbs-up sign on the monitor.

Ten minutes later, nobody was sure what the hell was going on.

"Shouldn't he have made a comment about jumping to later in the day, when Rose woke up?" Emily asked.

"How do we know it is a he?" Kia countered.

"How do we know it wasn't just the computer?" Sonic said, eliciting several surprised double takes.

"When did you wake up?" Jeremy asked.

"Four minutes ago," Sonic said, cracking his back and neck. "Rose did a great job on me, but I am starving. What do we have to eat?"

"Just this cart full of food Akane brought over," Kia said, turning green.

"On second thought," Sonic said, turning around. "Lets get to work helping Wendy."

Sonic spent a good half hour working healing spells and the like on Wendy, finally coming up with the plan of firing them through the second dragon aura. Once he did that he got enough of a response to put Wendy on the road to recovery, although it would probably be longer then his own. Amazingly, despite the apparent seriousness of his wounds, Wendy's were ten times worse.

"Anyone home?" Cologne called through the open door. "We finally figured out how to heal Wendy."

"Cast healing spells through the second dragon aura she is wearing?" Jeremy asked, looking for places that delivered breakfast in the phonebook.

"Yes," Happosai said, looking at Jeremy. "How did you know?"

"Sonic figured that out twenty minutes ago," Jeremy said, pointing at a closet down the hall. "Now he is looking for the cordless phone. Seems it is the only phone in the house, yet we haven't seen it for days."

"Days?" Emily called from behind the TV. "Have we ever USED the phone?"

"Good point," Jeremy said, turning the page in the phonebook.

The search continued for another twenty minutes, with nobody having a clue where the phone was. Not that anyone had a clue if the phone had ever been used, or even worked.

"I FOUND ONE!" Jeremy yelled, pointing at the phone book.

"Not so loud," Rose said, opening her bedroom door. "Some of us were sleeping."

"Sorry," Jeremy said. "We just didn't want to eat Akane's cooking, and I found a place that delivers breakfast at this hour."

"Oh," Rose said, no longer sleepy. "Smelling Akane's cooking is what put me to sleep, so lets get some REAL food in here!"

"One problem with that," Emily said, climbing down from the ceiling where she had been checking the ceiling fan. "We can't find the phone."

"You mean the phone sitting next to the front door on the charging stand?" Rose said, pointing at the small table the charging stand was sitting on, the phone sitting in the proper location in the charging stand.

"Yea, that one," Emily said, grabbing the phone and tossing it to Jeremy. "Why didn't we think to look there?"

"Idiots," Rose mumbled, going to check on Wendy while food was ordered. She could sense Sonic was perfectly fine now, so her guilt was more with what happened to Wendy then with what happened to Sonic. Once in Emily's room she mentally examined Wendy, noting that she was recovering very slowly. She could detect traces of a healing spell Sonic had cast, and decided that he just wasn't as good at healing spells as she was. She did notice, however, that the only healing spells affecting Wendy also had traces of the second aura's energy in them, so she decided she must have to channel her spells through it. As such, she cast her first spell, sending it through the aura. Rose was shocked when the aura glowed red and Wendy had a heart attack.

"OH MY GOD," Rose screamed. "I KILLED WENDY!" After a moment of frantic thought she pulled out a bullhorn and screamed into it. "SONIC! HELP!"

"ROSE!" Sonic yelled as he barged into the room. After a moment of assessing the situation, he pushed Rose aside and cast another healing spell on Wendy, restarting her heart and putting her back on the road to recovery, albeit slightly slower then before.

"Sorry," Rose said, crying. "I tried to heal her, and her heart stopped."

"BAKA," Sonic yelled, dragging Rose from the room. "Leave Wendy alone to heal! Oh, and DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT. I thought you were in danger!"

This went on for most of the week, Rose making a daily attempt to heal Wendy, and Sonic coming in and reversing it so that Wendy would continue to heal. Wendy didn't actually DIE any of the following times, but she came close. Finally, come Saturday, Rose was about to cast her daily healing spell, when Sonic barged in.

"ROSE!" Sonic yelled, grabbing Rose's arm.

"LET ME HELP HER," Rose yelled, tears in her eyes.

"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO," Sonic yelled, ignoring what Rose had just said. "KILL HER?" Sonic then proceeded to drag Rose from the room, stopping long enough to ask Emily to put a lock on her bedroom door that Rose didn't have the key for. By the time he let go of her arm they were at the Tendo residence. "This should be far enough to keep you out of trouble for the day," Sonic said, walking into the Tendo residence. Rose just stood outside, staring blankly ahead of her.

Three hours later Sonic stumbled out of the Tendo residence, having had a tad too much Sake with Soun and Genma after sparring with Ranma. He sobered right up when he noticed that Rose hadn't moved an inch, though.

"Rose?" Sonic asked. "Hello?" He tried snapping his fingers in front of her face a few times, kissing her on the lips, and hitting her with cold water. None of it even fazed Rose, as far as he could tell. Rose hadn't even blinked, and Sonic was getting worried. He started to concentrate as best he could, probing Rose's mind. On the surface he found nothing, just endless nothing. He didn't give up there, however, and started to search the nothing for something that mind indicate to him what was going on. Finally, he found Rose, standing there, doing nothing but staring ahead blankly, just as she was doing in real life. It was at this point he gave up on the idea of reading her mind to see what was happening, and simply carried her back home, hoping that she might be better in the morning. After all, what other choice did he have?

When Sonic arrived back at the house he noticed that the food Akane had left was still there. He grinned, grabbing a cookie and shoving it in Rose's mouth. When Rose didn't respond he tried soup, rice, hot sauce, and other things on the cart. He even tried the hot sauce himself to make sure it was Akane's cooking, and it took him ten minutes to recover from a touch on his tongue.

"What I need is some of that meatloaf," Sonic said, carrying Rose to bed. On the bed he found a package, addressed to Rose and himself. Picking up the label, he read it aloud. "Here is some of my meatloaf. Hope this batch is better then that batch you got in the RPG. - Mysterious Stranger" Sonic shrugged, put Rose in bed, and carried the package out back to a nuclear testing facility he had installed earlier that week, just in case. He used remotely controlled robotic arms to open the package and extract a single finger full of the meatloaf, which he then brought back up to Rose while wearing an environmental protection suit.

"If she survives that then let me have some," Jeremy said as Sonic carried the meatloaf past him.

"Its your funeral," Sonic said as he walked into Rose's room. A moment later he had put the meatloaf in Rose's mouth, and Rose still didn't flinch. Jeremy walked down to the rest of the meatloaf and had a bite, causing the nuclear testing facility to explode from his reaction.

"Guess it was as bad as I thought," Sonic said as Jeremy landed face-first in the street. "At least I was wrong about the funeral."

"Yea, whatever," Jeremy said, falling unconscious.

Meanwhile, back at the control panel

"Could my cooking really be THAT bad?" Nadeshiko asked herself.

"Analysis of your meatloaf shows it is 93 times worse then Akane's anger-fueled cooking," the computer beeped, showing various graphs and readings.

"In that case," Nadeshiko said, walking over to her bag. "Lets do something about that." With that she pulled out all of her cookbooks and cooking equipment and threw them away.

"Your reaction was not expected," the computer said, showing more graphs. "Shouldn't you have gotten angry with me?"

"No," Nadeshiko said. "If there is one thing I have learned since death, it is to admit defeat when it comes to things as trivial as cooking."

"How noble of you," the computer responded.

"Not really," Nadeshiko said. "I only cooked out of habit. No need to eat when you are dead and all. I don't even know if I HAVE taste buds now."

"Figures," the computer said.

"I think you got something wrong," Nadeshiko said, looking at one of the charts. "According to this, the increase from Akane's cooking to mine isn't a linear increase of 93, but an exponential."

"Ooops," the computer said. "You are right. It is that much worse."

"In that case," Nadeshiko said, going to the kitchen. "I think I will whip up another batch. This stuff might make good fuel."

"Interesting thought," the computer processed. "I wonder how much of that meatloaf would be needed to power Cursix for ten billion years?" It processed various things for a few minutes, and came up with a figure of one nanogram per ten trillion years, unable to process a smaller amount of energy. It then filed away a thousand grams of the stuff for later bundling inside Cursix, and went into standby mode. It had determined that Nadeshiko would donate a couple of pounds for later usage, but it wanted to be sure it had some original in case Nadeshiko screwed up and made edible meatloaf this time.

Back with Sonic attempting to revive Rose

"What haven't I tried?" Sonic asked himself, considering the pile of things that hadn't worked behind the house.

"You forgot the kitchen sink," Jeremy said, tossing the sink to Sonic. "I took the liberty of removing it from the kitchen for you."

"Why not," Sonic said, walking back to Rose's bedside and hitting her with the sink. As you might expect, nothing happened, so Sonic threw the sink out the window onto the pile. "Where did the phone end up?" Sonic then called out to Jeremy, who was starting to put things back where they belonged.

"You tried the phone between Kia and the bookshelf," Jeremy yelled, diving into the pile. A moment later he came up with the phone, and tossed it to Sonic.

"Thanks," Sonic yelled back, dialing the Tendo residence.

"Yea," Ranma answered on the other end.

"Ranma, I need to talk to Happosai," Sonic said. "Very urgent."

"Dunno why he needs to talk to the freak," Ranma mumbled as he grabbed Happosai, who conveniently was running by at that point. This was enough time for Akane to hit Happosai with her mallet and stomp off.

"What did you do that for?" Happosai said, rubbing his head.

"Phone," Ranma said, throwing the handset to Happosai.

"Hello?" Happosai said after catching the handset.

"I have a job for you," Sonic said. "The job is the pay."

"Is that so," Happosai said. "And what would this job be?"

"Grope Rose," Sonic responded. "I want to see if it wakes her up."

"Where is she?" Happosai said before the phone went click on the Tendo end. "And sorry for the delay, I stopped at three houses along the way."

"No problem," Sonic said, hanging up the phone. "Rose is in the bed you didn't notice when you jumped in the window."

"SWEEEETO!" Happosai yelled, glomping onto Rose. He was planning ahead, however, to help avoid injury. It might cost him a pair of panties, but he felt the potential results were worth it. When he saw Rose react to his glomp by reaching for her mallet he quickly swapped her mallet for a pair of panties he had on him, causing Rose to jump up and try and beat him off of her with the panties.

"What the?" Rose said, looking at the panties. Her mind, only partially active, figured she must either be getting dressed, doing laundry, or be a pervert. Since she was already dressed and the laundry appeared to be done her mind assumed the latter and switched into pervert mode.

This did not, however, stop her from knocking Happosai into low Neptunian orbit, just before running off into town. Sonic shrugged, figured it was good for her to be up and about, and left it at that for the time being.

Two hours later Rose snuck back into the house, stashing something in the closet. She also dragged a king size bed into her bedroom, and moved all of Sonic's possessions into the room as well. As soon as she was done Sonic's room turned into a cleaning closet and Rose's room turned into a larger bedroom. Nobody else noticed this, however, as the doors themselves didn't move, although Kia thought that it was odd that the broom vanished from the corner of the kitchen.

That night Sonic discovered that he was now sharing a room with Rose, and figured that she just got fed up with being married and sleeping in separate rooms. Kia, however, grinned all night while she slept due to the noises coming out of Sonic and Rose's room. The next morning Sonic slept till noon as Rose ran some errands, again sneaking in and stashing stuff in the closet. This pattern went on for several days, although the noises coming from Sonic and Rose's room slowly died down from night to night.

Come Thursday Rose was apparently desperate, Sonic having decided he needed some time off and showing it by going out to play cards all night. Unable to contain herself, Rose finally grabbed Kia and went at it all night with her, Kia emerging from Sonic and Rose's room in the morning with a large grin on her face. A few hours later, while Rose was out running her "errands", Sonic returned from his card game.

"Hello Kia," Sonic said, throwing a bag full of money on the table. "You look happy this morning."

"Yep," Kia said, looking at the bag. "So, how much of that did you win by cheating?"

"None of it," Sonic said, grinning. "Ryoga can't even find his way through a poker hand."

"What about the gambling king?" Kia asked, picking the bag of money up and dumping it into a cash counter on the wall.

"That sucker?" Sonic said, chuckling. "We were using a deck of cards he didn't have cards up his sleeve for, so he couldn't cheat. Turns out he was worse then Ryoga without his spare cards."

"By the way," Kia said as the cash counter started counting the cash. "Have you noticed Rose acting oddly this past week?"

"Come to think of it," Sonic said, walking over to a blank section of wall. He pushed on a couple of spots, causing a door to open revealing a security system.

"Nice system," Kia said, looking over the monitors. "How long has it been here?"

"I installed it Tuesday," Sonic said, pulling a tape out of a machine and throwing it in the VCR. He then started the tape, amazingly enough starting right where Rose grabbed Kia out of the hall. He then fast-forwarded it to that morning when Kia left the bedroom with a grin on her face, as the camera was in the hallway. Have to respect privacy and all.

"I can explain that," Kia said, afraid Sonic might be mad at her.

"No need," Sonic said, pulling the tape out. "While I have a pretty good idea what happened last night, I blame Rose for it, not you. Besides, isn't it your job anyway?"

"Well, yea," Kia said. "It is unusual to be grabbed like that though."

"Next stop," Sonic said, walking over to the bedroom. "Finding out what Rose has been stashing in the closet."

"Ooooh," Kia said, grinning. "Can I watch?"

"Sure," Sonic said, going into the bedroom and over to the closet. "I hope that I am wrong about what Happosai has been complaining about all week, but here goes." With that Sonic turned the handle on the closet door, resulting in the door blowing itself off of its hinges as the massive collection of female undergarments in the closet forced themselves out into the room.

"Anyone here?" Emily called as she slammed the front door.

"Be right out," Sonic said, wading his way through the panties. "Just have to get out of this collection Rose has accumulated this week."

"And I thought Jeremy was bad last night," Emily said, throwing Jeremy down the hall towards his room. She had apparently dragged him into the house, and he appeared to be drunk.

"What happened to him?" Sonic said, looking at Jeremy. "I thought he used up all your money in the card game."

"The money he didn't use up he spent on beer," Emily said, glaring at Jeremy.

"You were ok with losing all the money at cards," Sonic said, raising his eyebrow. "What is wrong now?"

"He didn't give me any of the beer," Emily said as Jeremy pulled himself into his room. A moment later loud snoring could be heard.

"If you will excuse me," Sonic said, grabbing a large bag from a closet. "I have to pack these panties up and drop them off at the police station."

"Sure thing," Emily said as Sonic used the force to pack all the panties into the bag. "By the way, wouldn't quantum powers have been easier?"

"Sometimes I like using the force," Sonic said. "Can come in handy when quantum fields are being screwed with."

"Ok," Emily said, going into her room. Wendy was still in her bed, and she had been sleeping on a mat on the floor. For some reason she couldn't explain she felt a need to protect Wendy like family, even though she knew Wendy couldn't possibly be family. Soon that wouldn't matter, however, as Wendy appeared to be nearing full recovery and would be leaving any day.

"Wait up," Kia called to Sonic. "I have to go fill out some forms at the police station, so I might as well go with you."

"Sure thing," Sonic said, Kia joining him as he left. As soon as they were gone Emily snuck into Sonic and Rose's room with a large toolbox, her mallet, and a bag of miscellaneous parts.

A few hours later Rose snuck into the house and went to stash her latest addition to her collection, stolen from Happosai. She didn't expect the closet to be booby-trapped, however, and walked right into the mallet that swung out when she opened the door. She ended up in the basement with a massive headache and a revulsion for some of the things she had been doing over the past few days. This, however, did not stop her from going to Emily and booting her into low earth orbit for rigging the closet with a mallet.

"Shouldn't Wendy be awake by now?" Rose said, sitting on the couch next to Sonic.

"Soon, I guess," Sonic said, noting the bump from Emily's mallet on Rose's head. "So, have fun being a pervert?"

"While I was being a pervert," Rose said. "Once I stopped the fun turned to disgust."

"All of it?" Sonic said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not ALL of it," Rose said. "Just the parts where I raided Happosai's stash and forced myself on three females." Sonic's eyebrow went several inches higher at this, and Kia's eyebrows went up in general.

"Three females?" Sonic finally spit out.

"Yea," Rose said, turning to Sonic. "Although my experience with Kia after that wasn't so bad."

"You can stop grinning now Kia," Sonic said, looking over at Kia's grin. It was literally lighting up the room better then the ceiling light.

"I would have been ready to leave two days ago if it weren't for you," Wendy said from the hallway, looking at Rose. "Why on earth did you grab ME just as I was about to reach full recovery?"

"Sonic wouldn't wake up," Rose said, blushing. "You were the only other one in the house."

"Figures," Wendy said, rolling her eyes. "Who were the other two?"

"Prostitutes I grabbed off the street," Rose responded, blushing more deeply then before.

"Oh well," Wendy shrugged, walking over to Rose. "I am off to meet Totosai, bye." With that Wendy kissed Rose on the cheek, and left. Rose was blushing so badly at this point that she began to feel faint from the lack of blood in her brain.

"That was odd," Sonic said, scratching his head. "Did she just say she was going to meet Totosai?"

"Yea," Rose said.

"That is what I thought," Sonic said, picking up a remote. A moment later he and Rose turned to each other.

"TOTOTSAI?" they both yelled, jumping up and running after Wendy. By the time they caught up with Wendy they were in the forest, just as Totosai arrived in a blinding flash of light.

"Hello there," Totosai said, looking at Wendy. "It seems you are no longer whole."

"Easily fixed now that both halves have had time to recover from the split," Wendy said. "So, what did my new sword come out looking like?"

"Can't very well call it a sword," Totosai said, throwing a pen to Wendy. "It seems to be able to take on many shapes, although it seems to like that one."

"Nice," Wendy said, looking over the pen. "Anything important I need to know?"

"I couldn't find a power source for that device that girl gave me for the handle," Totosai said. "Other then that, I think you can handle it."

"Thank you," Wendy said, pulling a bag of food out from nowhere. "Here, have some more food."

"Thank you," Totosai said, taking the food. "Good luck." With that he vanished in another blinding burst of light.

"Damned Washu," Wendy mumbled. "I thought the energy Nadeshiko took from me was going to help power the handle. Guess this aura will have to do."

"Washu?" Sonic and Rose said, just under their breath. "Nadeshiko?"

Wendy had pulled the second dragon aura from around her neck and was concentrating on the pen in her hand. After a moment the pen transformed into a sword that rivaled anything Sonic or Rose had ever seen, with a handle that looked like it belonged in a science fiction movie. Wendy popped open the bottom of the handle and put the second dragon aura into it, causing the handle to come to life with a couple of beeps. Wendy then transformed the sword back into pen form, and turned to Sonic and Rose.

"Well then," Wendy said, pulling out a bullhorn. "Might as well get this over with too." With that she took a deep breath, put the bullhorn to her mouth, aimed the bullhorn at the sky, and yelled into it. "BROTHER!"

"That hurt," Sonic said, shaking his head.

"What do you want now sis?" a male voice called out. A moment later "The Grandfather" faded into view from a nearby shadow.

"Game's over," Wendy said, grabbing her brother by the wrist. A moment later a blinding flash of light burst from the two, leaving a cloaked figure where they had been standing.

"MM?" Sonic and Rose said at the same time.

"Yea," MM said, willing a portal to his house into existence. "Gotta run." With that he walked through the portal, which closed behind him, leaving Sonic and Rose to put the pieces together.

"I don't know what to feel right now," Rose finally said, sitting down.

"I think I know what you mean," Sonic said, leaning against a tree.

"For some reason I feel guilty, angry, sickened, and embarrassed all at the same time," Rose said, hitting her head against another tree.

"Ok, so I don't know quite what you mean," Sonic said. "I feel guilty, angry, and jealous for some reason."

"About time you two figured it out," Kibou and Hikari said telepathically. "Do you know what it takes to keep a secret from you two?"

"You two knew?" Sonic said, his eyes having gone wide as he looked down. "Since when?"

"Since we had a telepathic conversation with Wendy just as we were about to hit Wendy," Kibou responded telepathically.

"YOU MEAN YOU TWO AGREED TO HELP PLAY A PRANK ON US?" Rose yelled.

"No," Hikari responded. "It was partially our idea. We were bored. Knowing who Wendy really was, we asked her to help."

"I need some sleep," Rose said, grabbing her head. "This pounding headache I suddenly have demands I rest."

"I'll join you," Sonic said, helping Rose stand up. "Maybe this will all make sense when we wake up."