Sonic

*Flash back <----*

Akane, Emeral, Ranma and Joe all stared at each other for a while, then got onto their feet. "Sure has been an unusual day," said Joe. Ranma nodded, "Even the old ghoul is a bit freaked," he said. Emeral went over to a soft spot of grass and opened the basket, "Say Akane, would you like to help me set up lunch?" she asked smiling. Akane blushed, "S..Sure," she said walking up to her.

Just as the two started to set up the picnic, the barrier began to glow bright white. Ranma and Joe looked at the town, noticing that the weather had finally made up its mind. "Although I'm not to comfortable with this barrier glowing, I'm sure glad the weather returned to normal," said Ranma. Joe glanced at Emeral who was staring at the barrier with Akane. Emeral glanced over at Joe, "It's a bit strange, but I suppose we should just go on with our normal lives," she said continuing with the picnic.

14 Minutes later the group was eating the picnic. Emeral had packed in extra goods, being able to serve 5 people. "Why did you pack so much today Emeral?" asked Akane, "Did you plan on eating with other people?" Emeral looked at Akane, "No, I just wasn't sure how much Joe or I would eat," she said. Joe was just about to take a bite out of the new sub Emeral had whipped up when the entire city went black.
"Wha, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" yelled Akane. "Don't panic," said Joe, "Just stay where you are, this black out should pass away soon." "I agree," said Ranma, "If we try to move around, we'll definitely get hurt."

The group sat there for about 3 minutes before an icy wind blew through their area. "Oh damn," said Emeral, "That crazy weather is back again." All three curled themselves up as the blizzard passed them, followed by a nice warm breeze. Akane sneezed after the warm breeze settled in for a while, "I hope you aren't catching a cold," said Emeral. Suddenly they began to hear loud crashes coming from the city, which they didn't realize was parked cars on hilly roads falling down because of no friction.

After another few minutes of total darkness, the barrier suddenly allowed light back into the town, which temporarily blinded the group. "The best thing to do is keep your eyes closed, and let your eyes readjust," said Joe. After two minutes, the group seemed to be able to open their eyes, but at a shocking (Literally) surprise. Ranma, and Akane both screamed when they looked at each other and fell back, "WHAT'S WITH YOUR HAIR!" yelled the both of them. Joe put his hands on his hair, feeling it all a float. "I say we just got hit with static electricity," said Joe turning to Emeral. Emeral was there with a strange expression, as if she was underwater holding her breath. "Hey, why isn't Emeral's hair all static?" said Akane. "I don't know, any idea Emeral?" asked Joe. Emeral's face began to turn beet red, "Emeral? EMERAL?" yelled Joe. Finally Emeral popped and began to laugh really hard. She fell backwards on her back pointing at Joe and just laughing. The rest of the group gave a odd look, "I guess she was trying not to laugh," said Joe.

After she calmed down, she sat back up, "Sorry, but I couldn't help me self," she said. As she said this, the static began to ware off, and everyone's hair came back down. "So why didn't your hair get all static?" asked Akane. Emeral pondered for a moment, "Not really sure," she said. If things couldn't be worse, the barrier began to pulse over and over again. Not exactly sure what was going on, Emeral stood up. A quick energy pulse shot through everyone. Emeral just blinked, "What was that?" she asked.

Akane looked back at Ranma and Joe who were back to eating, "What are you guys doing? Aren't you concerned what just happened," she yelled. Ranma looked up, "What good will it do?" he said with his mouth full. Joe picked up a napkin and padded his mouth, "We are powerless to do anything, might as well eat, find the others, then look for the rest of the discs," he said.

*A Little Later...*

The group had just finished their lunch when a cat came up to them. Ranma instantly freaked and jumped on Akane, who slammed her fist into his face. "Say, isn't this the cat that was with Kalshion," said Emeral looking at it. Joe got closer and looked at it, "I do believe you are right," he said. The cat began to run a slow pace back to town, "I think it wants us to follow it," said Akane with Ranma behind her chattering his teeth. "Well then, lets follow it," said Joe following the cat.

As they went by the town, Ranma decided to give the fence another try. He jumped on it, only to find himself launched right into the air and fall onto Akane. Ranma laid on top of Akane coming to his senses just as Akane did. The two looked at each other, then blushed. Akane then realized that Emeral and Joe was watching, so she threw Ranma off, took out her mallet, and slammed his face into the ground. "YOU PERVERT!" she yelled. Emeral giggled, while Joe jus smiled.

The cat lead them to the other end of the barrier, where they found Katarina and Kalshion. Tommy wasn't with them, but finding two out of three wasn't bad. "Hey, how are you two?" asked Joe as they walked up. "We're ok, but what's with this barrier?" asked Kalshion who noticed Emeral and Joe were not normal. Joe signaled that they couldn't fully discuss the matters with Ranma and Akane there, "A Curse has been placed on this town." he said. Emeral pulled out a disc, "These discs are the keys to breaking the curse, but we need all 30. We currently have 22, so the other 8 must be in town." she said. Katarina who had a bit spooked look, examined at the disk and noticed the "MM". "That's the image I saw when I heard a voice talk to me," she said pointing at the initials. "Then you must have heard the person who cursed this town talking to you," he said, "Just don't take anything to series that he says, he seems to be the prankster type." Katarina relaxed at the sound of that.

After a bit of making sure everyone was ok, the group decided to split up. Akane and Ranma went of near the school in search of discs, while Kalshion and Katarina stayed behind with Joe and Emeral. When Ranma and the others were out of range, Kalshion then asked the question, "What's really wrong with you two?" he asked. Joe frowned a bit, "The barrier is not only blocking objects, but it is also blocking our powers," he said. "So, you mean to say that you two are now..." said Katarina. Emeral nodded, "Mortals," she said, "Your father has been kind in giving us a place to stay while you were gone." "Do you know who did this?" asked Kalshion. "Yes we do," said Joe, "The old man that has been making weird events all over town." Kalshion and Katarina had a flashback to their skates. "Apparently, this is some sort of puzzle or test," said Emeral, "Like I said, these discs are the key to removing this spell." The two nodded, "Well then, let us help you," relied Katarina and Kalshion. Emeral and Joe smiled, "Arigatou," they said.

*An hour later*

The 4 of them and the cat sat down in the park, empty-handed. "So far, no sign of another disc," said Emeral. The cat sat on Katarina for a while, then jumped off and headed into the bushes. Katarina was a bit curious to why it suddenly took off, but soon saw it come back. The cat jumped back on Katarina's lap and laid a piece of paper down. Katarina picked it up and looked at it, "Seems like a map," she said. "Let me see," said Emeral receiving the map. "Well I'll be," she said, "Seems this map points to a location that is important to us." "How so?" asked Kalshion, "Because it has symbols that only Joe and I would recognize," she said. They then set out to the "X" on the map.

After following the map, they came up to a huge house, and Joe went over to the door to find "Kunou Estate" written on it. "Oh please, not him," said Emeral. Kalshion eyed the house, "Someone's comming," he said. Joe looked at him, "You sure?" he asked just as the door opened. To their amaze, it was Tommy who was walking out. "What, WHAT are you doing HERE?" asked Emeral. Tommy grinned, "On my way in from the barrier, I ran into Kunou. Since he took some bad injuries, I brought him over to his house," he said. He then changed his expression, "So what are you guys doing here?" he asked. Joe and Emeral were unsure how to respond, but Katarina stepped up, "Remember that disc in the barrier?" she asked. Tommy nodded, "Well it appears to be part of a key that will break the barrier, and we believe that Kunou has one," she said. Tommy smiled, "You mean this?" he said taking out the disc in his bag, "Seems Kunou insisted I help him to the baths since his servant Sasuke wasn't there. I found this on the bottom of the bath floor." The other 4 were a bit shocked, but smiled at the fact that they didn't have to go into Kunou's house for a scavenger hunt.

"So, how many more of these do we need to find?" asked Tommy as they walked away from Kunou's. Emeral smiled, "Just seven more," she said. Tommy smiled back, being glad to help, though he kept getting a strange feeling something was going on with Ranma.