Astral Minds

Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all related characters do not belong to me. None of the X-Men belong to me either.

* *: Thoughts

Capital letters: Shouting or loud noises

{ }: Author's own thoughts

_ _: Stressed words

[ ]: Chinese Language

< >: Psychic Projections

Chapter 9

BIG Trouble

Ryoga Hibiki walked along the side of a road looking at a map sideways. Some people pointed this out to him along the way and he would just smile sheepishly, turn the page so that it was upside down or on the other side and continue on his way...the wrong way. When he always ended up in the wrong location than where he was trying to go he would generally blame it on whoever had pointed him in the wrong direction...the people who actually pointed him in the _right_ direction.

"Where the HELL am I?" He asked to himself, Annoyed. He stopped in his tracks and looked again at the map he was reading. He looked up at a road sign and then back down at the map...which was now upside down. "CRAP! I must have gotten a map of Alaska again!" He crumpled the map up and threw it away.

Ryoga looked up at the sign and sighed. "At least I'm in the right country this time. That's definitely Japanese." Ryoga began walking again but the ground began rumbling and threw him a little off balance. "AAAH CRAP ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE!!" He yelled. The rumbling stopped as soon as it started and people around were looking at the bandanna clad youth funny.

Ryoga looked around sheepishly and put his hand behind his head, laughing nervously. "Heh heh. Guess I was wrong." He said. Everyone just kept looking at him and Ryoga blushed. He twiddled his thumbs for a moment and then snapped his head around when he heard a scream.

"What the..." Ryoga then noticed that there was four gigantic red and black robots standing just a block or so away. One of them was slouched over a building with no roof and had a girl trapped in it's huge metallic grip. "HOLY!!" Ryoga took his umbrella off of his large pack and leapt to a nearby rooftop heading to the rescue of the girl.

***************

Ranma stood helpless as he watched Shampoo get grabbed by the four story metallic monster. She couldn't believe she was powerless on her first encounter with these things. Shampoo screamed at the top of her lungs as the sentinel began to squeeze. She tried to use her powers, to change and get out of there but she couldn't concentrate.

Ranma snapped out of her revery when she heard Shampoo scream. She faced Cologne and glared at her. "Find that potion to change me back! I can deal with these things easily if I have my powers!" Ranma then charged her fists with Chi and leapt towards the hand that the Sentinel had Shampoo in. "LET HER GO!!!" She screamed as she soared through the air and landed on it's wrist. Ranma let loose an Amaguriken on the hard metal surface and yelped in pain. "What's that thing made of!?!" She said in surprise as she dropped to the ground.

Shampoo whimpered as she felt herself begin to slip away. The grip on the Sentinel tightened with every passing second. She looked down sadly towards Ranma and then forced a smile. "Airen." She whispered before passing out.

Ranma couldn't tell from where she was standing but it looked like the Sentinel had crushed her and she was dead. Her head lay limp as the Sentinel raised it's fist. Ranma growled and just as she was about to attack again. A figure screamed out in rage and leapt overhead towards the sentinel.

"MONSTEEEEERRR!!"

Ryoga Hibiki leapt from a standing telephone pole straight towards the Sentinel with his umbrella unsheathed and ready to strike. He came down upon the Sentinel's hand that held the purple haired amazon and sliced through it. The large metallic fist dropped to the ground making a huge dust cloud as it impacted with the rubble of the Neko Hanten. Ryoga rushed over to the hand that still held Shampoo firmly and grabbed the fingers, tearing them off in a display of inhuman strength. Shampoo fell from the grasp of the huge hand as soon as the fingers were torn off and Ryoga caught her limp form.

The sentinel reeled back with the loss of it's limb and then looked at Ryoga, and Ranma. "Hostile subjects non-mutant, proceed with elimination." came the word on the sentinel's screen.

Ryoga and Ranma looked up at the Sentinel's as they raised their arms towards their direction. "Oh CRAP!" Ranma yelled. Ryoga cradled Shampoo in his arms and jumped out of the way just as the sentinels fired bright orange lasers from their palms at them. Ranma and Cologne also jumped out of the way but the vials that Cologne had pulled out had caught the blast.

"NO!" She cried out as she saw the vials shatter from the explosion that ensued after the blast. "THE REAL VIAL WAS IN THAT PILE!" She called out to Ranma.

"WHAT!?!" Ranma screamed at the old lady. Ranma growled and tore her Chinese shirt off of her body revealing the gene blocking suit that she always wore underneath it. She held up her left arm and pressed her thumb on the back of her wrist. "Hank? You better be hearing this! I've got sentinels after me and a few other people. I could really use some backup since MY POWERS ARE GONE!" Ranma let go and then jumped out of the way just as a barrage of laser fire erupted in her direction.

Ryoga jumped over to where Ranma was and jumped alongside her dodging the laser fire. "YOU GIRL'S NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! THIS ISN'T A PLACE FOR LADIES TO BE!" He yelled at Ranma. Ranma frowned.

"THANKS FOR THE ADVICE! I'LL KEEP IT IN MIND WHEN I END UP PULLING _YOUR_ ASS OUT OF THE FIRE!" she yelled. She leapt to the wall that was barely standing up and rebounded herself towards the Sentinel that had grabbed Shampoo. "TAKE THIS!" She screamed at it. "MOKO TAKABISHA!!!" Ranma charged up and let loose a blast of chi towards the sentinel. The ball of chi impacted with the side of it's head and caused a huge explosion. Ranma dropped to the ground and smiled. "YES!"

Her smile faltered however when she saw that it had only taken out a small portion of the Sentinel's face, and it was still operational. She then jumped away as a barrage of laser blasts came towards her.

Ryoga was having his own problems. They currently had about two sentinels directed towards each of them. Ryoga jumped up and rebounded off of a telephone pole, just barely evading another blast from the sentinels. *How the HELL am I gonna be able to attack this thing if I have to carry this girl around the whole time!?* he lamented to himself in his mind. Ryoga all of a sudden found himself alone.

"WHAT THE...?" He said realizing that Shampoo just up and disappeared. He looked around desperately trying to find her and then saw the old woman running away with her. Ryoga smiled. "Just the distraction I needed."

Ryoga saw that one of the sentinels decided to split from it's partner and go after the girl. The other one stayed on Ryoga though. Ryoga stood still smirking at the sentinel that was after him and then jumped towards it, over the laser blast it let off moments later. He kicked it as hard as he could, putting a dent in it's face and sending him towards the

other one, after the girl. Ryoga pulled out his umbrella and sliced down the back of it's head right down to it's shoulders.

The other sentinel raised it's hands towards Ryoga and let off a double laser shot. The blast struck the sentinel that Ryoga was standing on right at the base of it's neck and it's head exploded. Ryoga jumped off and down to the ground, out of harm's way.

Ryoga smiled as he watched the sentinel fall to the ground. He went pale though when he realized that there were people right in it's landing spot.

The people fled panicked as they saw their impending doom come in the form of a large headless sentinel, obeying the laws of gravity. Just as it was about to hit, it stopped. And moved to the side where there wasn't any people. The people under looked up at their saviour in shock.

There, standing where the sentinel was going to land stood Daisuke, a large two headed monster, that stood just over two stories tall, wearing a dark purple gene masking suit, with a long tail whipping back and forth. Daisuke bowed to the people showing off his first super-heroic display.

The people looked at Daisuke for a moment and then burst out screaming in terror. All the people fled from the area at the sight of Daisuke, who looked confused. "I just saved your lives! I'm not Gojira! AAAARGH!!"

Daisuke collapsed to the ground in pain, his back smoked from the laser blast he had just took from the Sentinel. He wasn't dead though. Both of Daisuke's monstrous heads glared at the four story robot and he got to his feet leaping at it in rage. Ranma smiled as he saw Daisuke leap at the Sentinel.

"ALRIGH...when did he grow a tail?" She asked to no one in particular.

Ranma yelped and jumped out of the way as another laser blast streaked towards her. "DON'T THESE THINGS EVER GET TIRED OF THOSE LASERS!?!" he yelled in annoyance. She rushed towards the sentinel and jumped at it's chest. "MOKO TAKABISHA REVISED!! TEN CLAW STRIKE!" She called as she powered up another chi blast. When she let it loose however it split into ten smaller versions of the Moko Takabisha and struck the sentinel in several different places.

The sentinel never fell though and advanced once again to attack Ranma. It was a horrible mess though, it had half of it's face torn off, revealing the interior, one hand missing, and now at least twenty smaller holes covering it's arms and chest. "CRAP!" Ranma whined when she realized that it wasn't dead yet. Ranma was about to jump out of the way when a huge blast of atomic fire melted through the sentinel's head.

Sunpyre, then flew through the same hole in the Sentinel's chest and smiled. "The cavalry has arrived!" She stated. She then moved over to let loose another blast towards the other sentinel that Ryoga was currently jumping around like an irritating flea. She got cocky however and didn't notice the other sentinel come up behind her. "PREPARE TO BE...!!"

WHAM

Sunpyre fell to the ground in pain from the blow that had been dealt to her by the last sentinel. Ranma noticed the girl falling to the ground and leapt to catch her. She caught the other girl in mid air landed and then dodged a laser blast from one of the sentinels. She landed behind a wall with Leyu cradled in her arms.

Daisuke's two massive heads smiled as he held on to the back of the sentinel that was trying desperately to knock him off. "TIME TO SEE IF THESE CLAWS ARE AS SHARP AS THEY LOOK!!" He growled as he raised his clawed hand up to strike the Sentinel. He swung and tore open the back of the giant robot. He then began swinging repeatedly. Tearing into it's body deeper and deeper.

The sentinel fell forward as Dai cut the main power supply and landed with a crash overtop of a small house. Daisuke sat there smiling for a moment before jumping off and running over to the last standing sentinel. "This is a piece of cake!" He said to himself as he leapt straight at the massive machine. The sentinel tried to hit Ryoga who was jumping around on the ground dodging laser blasts and accidentally hit Daisuke with a double blast right in the chest.

"CRAAAAPPP!!!" Daisuke screamed as he was flung into the ground, where he made a large crater.

Ryoga all of a sudden realized that he was alone, against a huge robot, Just then two giant two headed monsters jumped towards the sentinel with claws extended. Ryoga boggled as he watched the two creatures topple over the robot and tear it apart. "This is way to weird." He muttered to himself.

***************

Later on at the Saotome household. Ranma, Marina, Hank, Ryoga, Leyu, Cologne, Shampoo, and Nodoka sat around the kitchen table. Shampoo was silent and looked a little shy, though that was hard to imagine with a girl who could rip through solid concrete like it was nothing.

"I'm terribly sorry for not being able to get you that potion son in law." Cologne said sheepishly. "If I had known that this would happen I never would have done so. I'll contact my village immediately to get you another vial."

Ranma smiled. "Thanks. What I'd really like to know right now is what Shampoo's mutant power is. I remember her taking on feline characteristics earlier when she first attacked me..."

Shampoo blushed. "Sorry."

Ranma shrugged. "It happens. Anyway, today when Daisuke and the Daisuke look alike finished off the last sentinel one of them turned back into Shampoo. Are you just a shape shifter?" Shampoo shrugged.

"Not know. Shampoo able to change ever since little girl." Shampoo replied.

Cologne chuckled and set the cup of tea she had been drinking down. "Shampoo has had her mutant powers much longer than most. She gained them in the wilderness when she was attacked by a tiger. From then on she was able to take on the form of that same tiger, she also took some of it's agility. Later on she found out that she could take the form and powers of any living thing she touched. She touched your monstrous friend when she came to and took on his form."

Ranma nodded. "Interesting. You say she takes on powers, such as mutant powers and attributes?"

Cologne nodded. "That's right. She's only able to take those forms and attributes for short periods of time. The longest she can go in any form is five minutes so far. She can go up to an hour in the form of the tiger though since she's been changing in and out of that form since she was a little girl."

Ranma smirked menacingly at the old woman. "Are you still going to hold that marriage thing against me? I saved Shampoo and you locked me like this without my powers." Ranma said as she motioned to her current female form. "If anything Ryoga here should marry her." She said as she put her hands on Ryoga's shoulders. "After all if it weren't for him she would be dead."

Ryoga, who was sitting beside Ranma, looked shocked and confused. "WHAT!?! Why should I marry her!?" He asked. "All I did was save her life! It's a martial artist's duty to protect those who can't protect themselves!"

Ranma chuckled. "Well what about it Cologne? What would you say to being married to Ryoga here Shampoo?" He asked with a mischievous smile.

Cologne nodded her approval. Shampoo looked thoughtful and looked the boy over. "Bandana boy is looking very cute..." She lamented.

Ryoga stood still shocked. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. *Sh...She thinks I'm......_cute_!?!* He thought in his little direction impaired mind. *I've never been so HAPPY!* Ryoga then got a wistful look on his face as he sat down and began imagining him self raising little mini Ryogas and Shampoos.

Ranma chuckled as he noticed the look Ryoga had on his face. *Heh heh! Still the same old Ryoga from middle school.*

"The boy doesn't seem to mind." Cologne stated. "He's also very strong, we could use that in our tribe. When do you think we could have this challenge?" Cologne asked.

Ranma shrugged. "I'd say in a week. I'll let him stay here until it's official or something." Cologne nodded in agreement. Ranma turned to Ryoga. "Hey Ryoga." Ryoga didn't move he just stared out into space. Ranma sighed and punched him in the face as hard as she could.

Ryoga looked around confused. "Huh? Someone say something?" He asked.

Ranma rolled her eyes. "Hey Ryoga! Welcome back o the land of the living. I was wondering whether or not that insane strength you possess is a mutant power or not." Ryoga looked thoughtful for a moment and then stared at Ranma.

"What's a mutant?" He asked.

Ranma groaned as did a few other people in the room. Ranma moved back a little so that Ryoga could see Marina who was on the other side of her. "This is Marina." Ranma said putting a hand on the snake skinned girl's shoulder. "She is a mutant."

Ryoga leapt back a little bit. "HOLY! That girl's got SCALES!" He said shocked.

Marina looked a little sheepish and sad. Ranma pointed to Hank. "He's a mutant."

Beast nodded towards Ryoga. "Pleasure to meet you."

Ranma then pointed to Leyu, Shampoo, and herself. "Leyu, Shampoo, and I are also all mutants." Ryoga nodded.

"How come you guys look normal though?" He asked confused. "If you guys are mutants like Marina shouldn't you all have scales or something?"

Ranma groaned again. "This'll take a while to explain."

Ryoga furrowed his eyebrows. "Where am I anyway? Who are you? How did you know my name in the first place?" He asked Ranma. "I've been looking for the Saotome household for years now and I don't have time to sit and have tea. I have important business."

"Hold on Ryoga." Ranma said. Stopping the boy from getting up. "What do you need to go to the Saotome house for?"

"Do you know where it is?" He asked. "TELL ME!"

Ranma put her hands up to calm him down. "Hold on Ryoga! Tell us why you want to go there in the first place!" Ryoga frowned but sighed and nodded.

"What the hell! If it'll get you to tell me where it is I guess I might as well get it off my chest. You see it all started back in my old school, with the arrival of this new kid"

{Flashback}

Ryoga is sitting in class waiting for the teacher to start the lesson. The teacher had some new student up at the front of the class who was smiling. The boy had a ponytail that ran just past his shoulders and a school uniform. He was smiling and Ryoga frowned because it reminded him of how much problems he had. It seemed that every student had a better life than him. Everything bad happens to him. The teacher finished introducing the new student and sent him to sit right next to Ryoga, at the empty desk. Ryoga turned away from him to hide his discomfort until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see the new kid looking at him with an extended hand. "Hi." He said in a whisper. "I'm Ranma... Ranma Saotome." Ryoga let a little smile on his face and shook Ranma's hand.

"Ryoga Hibiki." The boy responded casually.

Ranma let go and smiled. "I'm gonna need some friends while I'm here, might as well start with you." He said.

Ryoga smiled. *It would be nice to have a friend. For once.* he thought. After that class Ranma and Ryoga ran down to the lunch room to get their lunches. Neither of them packed lunches and headed to the cafeteria to get some meat buns.

The lunch lady who was handing out the lunches threw it into the air and yelled out. "THIS IS THE LAST PORK BUN!!" Ryoga stared at the flying bun and got ready to leap for it but Ranma was already in the air before he could even react. The pony-tailed boy caught the pork bun and landed lightly. He walked over to Ryoga, unwrapped it and ripped it in half. He gave the larger piece to Ryoga and kept the smaller one for himself.

"Here." He said. "You're probably hungry by now eh?"

Ryoga just stared at the pork bun that Ranma had handed him and thought shocked. *Nobodies ever shared their lunch with me before.* Ryoga smiled at Ranma. "Thank you... friend."

Ranma shrugged and wolfed his down in a few seconds, "No problem. It was just a meat bun."

{Present}

Ryoga had tears in his eyes. "He was the only friend I've ever had! It wasn't only the meat bun, every day he helped me find my way to school, and after a while I was able to find my way around just by him being around." Ryoga was on the verge of crying. "But then he left mysteriously and I never saw him again. The moment he was gone I started getting lost again, nobody would be friends with me and everyone made fun of the fact that I couldn't find my way around. I set out in search of Ranma to find out how he was able to make me find my way...to get rid of my curse. But... following him just gained me another curse.

{Flashback}

Ryoga looked around the valley that he was at, there was many pools of water that stretched as far as his eyes could see. He looked confused. "Where am I now?" He pulled out a map and looked at it while walking forward. "Where is Jusenkyo?" He asked to no one in particular. All of a sudden he fell into one of the bodies of water.

{Present}

Ranma looked bored. "Let me guess you thought you were heading away from the springs and ended up walking right into them."

Ryoga looked amazed. "How did you know?" He asked bewildered.

Ranma groaned. "Let's just call it a lucky guess."

{Flashback.}

Ryoga reached an arm out of the water and grabbed onto the earth pulling himself out of the water. Just then a Chinese man ran out of a little shack and ran towards Ryoga. "Oh honored customer, what you doing here at Jusenkyo?" He asked.

Ryoga looked happy. "Jusenkyo? I made it?" Ryoga then noticed something weird about his voice. "FA SO LA..." Ryoga looked confused at the Jusenkyo guide. "You should put up signs around this place. That water does horrible things to your voice."

The guide looked at Ryoga strangely. "Uuhh do you know what spring you fell into?" He asked.

Ryoga looked inquisitive. "Why what's the difference?"

The guide noticed the sign on the spring he fell into and looked mortified. "Uuhh Sir? You fall into spring of drowned traditional Japanese housewife. Whoever fall into spring take a body of a girl and take on ethics, morals, and values of traditional Japanese Housewife. Very tragic story of Traditional Japanese Housewife what drown here about three weeks ago."

Ryoga looked down at himself and noticed that he sported a pair of breasts. She screamed. And ran away from Jusenkyo as fast as her new legs could take her.

{Present}

Ranma looked confused. "Spring of drowned traditional Japanese Housewife? What does it do to you? From what you told us you were normal just in the body of a girl." Ryoga had tears streaming from his eyes.

"It's the most TERRIBLE CURSE IN THE WORLD!! Especially for somebody like me. I get lost no matter where I go, and if I get splashed with cold water... I get these horrible, HORRIBLE URGES!!!" Ryoga nearly broke down. "I don't know if I can go on, every time I'm in my girl curse I get the urge to cook, clean, fix things and wear FRILLY CLOTHING!!" Ryoga couldn't handle anymore and broke out into full blown tears.

Ranma looked confused. "So what does this have to do with Ranma?" She asked Ryoga, Ryoga sniffled and sat up straight.

"Oh yeah... anyway, The guide caught up with me and told me that Ranma had gotten a similar curse, after he asked me why I was looking for Jusenkyo, and maybe he could help me cope with it. If Ranma turns into a girl then he'd have these same urges right?" Nobody answered and Ryoga looked a little insane. "RIGHT!?!" He asked desperately.

Everyone except Ryoga looked over at Ranma who sighed. "Fine! I'll tell him." Ranma cleared her throat and looked Ryoga in the eye. " Ryoga... I am Ranma Saotome. This is the Saotome household."

Ryoga looked at Ranma in surprise then his eyes started watering up. "After all these years of searching... finally my questions will be answered!" Ryoga grabbed Ranma in a literally bone crushing hug. "OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU GOD!!" Ranma, being the martial artist that she was, was able to withstand most of the power of his hug so that it was just choking her and not killing her.

"R...Ryo...ga. You're...ch...ch...choking......." Ryoga let go of Ranma.

"What'd you say?" Ranma took a few deep breaths of air and looked at Ryoga a little saddened.

"Ryoga, the only reason you found you're way around town when I was around was because I was mentally pointing you in the right direction with my telepathy. I don't have the same curse as you either, I just turn into a girl, not a housewife."

Ryoga's face fell from happy to depressed. "Not the same curse...?"

Ranma nodded. "There's no cure for Jusenkyo curses so you'll just have to deal with it in your own way, I'm still dealing with mine and I've had it longer than you have."

Ryoga nodded and then smiled. "Sure. No problem, why don't we have some tea or something... to catch up on old times."

Ranma nodded. "Sure." She then turned to Marina. "Wanna boil some water for the tea?" Marina nodded and got up to go to the kitchen.

Shampoo looked at Ryoga curiously as the rest of the people at the table began talking again, [*I wonder what he looks like as a woman... if he's addicted to cleaning and cooking then he'd make a perfect husband.*] Shampoo picked up a glass of water that she saw sitting on the table and looked at it with a mischievous smirk. [*One way to find out.*] Shampoo stood up and then dumped the glass of water over Ryoga's head. The boy in question's eyes boggled in fear as he realized what had happened, as the change took place his expression did an about face into a Kasumi like smile.

Everyone boggled themselves at the change that took place, instantly Ryoga became the single most beautiful woman that they had every seen, his hair grew to stunning black locks of hair that cascaded over the bandana that he wore. She grew breasts that were just the perfect sise for the frame that she now held, wich was about the same size as Ranma's girl half except a little taller. Ryoga stood up and walked towards the kitchen. "I guess I should go help Marina-chan in the kitchen with the tea." she said pleasantly. Ranma looked after Ryoga with nothing but sympathy.

"That man needs more help than I think I'm able to give." Ranma said.

***************

Ranma sighed as she collapsed onto her bed. Shampoo and Cologne had taken off after she had given Shampoo a gene masking suit, Daisuke headed back to Tokyo bay where he would more than likely be the talk of the news the next day, Leyu flew back to her apartment, His mom and Dad were in bed and Ryoga... Ryoga was in the kitchen cleaning up the Mexican meal that she had made for everyone that night. He went in for tea and came out with at least seven dishes of Mexican decent. Apparently she got lost once when she was looking for the bathroom and ended up in Mexico where she learned how to cook Mexican.

"Man that was good." Ranma groaned as she rolled over heavily and patted her belly. "Feel like I'm gonna esplode." She muttered drowsily. She yawned and then pulled the covers up over her body, not bothering to get changed into her night ware. She was just about to drift off when she heard her door open. "Huh?" Ranma muttered as she turned her head to see who it was.

Her jaw dropped when she saw who. Ryoga Hibiki, fellow Jusenkyo cursed martial artist, was in female form wearing a pink nightgown, carrying Marina's teddy bear, and a pillow. "R...Ryoga?" Ranma asked surprised and shocked, "W...What are you _doing_?" Ryoga blushed and looked a little sheepish.

"Well..." She said, "The guest room is so big and dark, and I feel so alone. You're my only friend and I'd just feel more... comfortable if I could sleep with you tonight." Ryoga-chan blushed as she awaited an answer, expecting Ranma to say no.

Ranma nodded and rolled over so that she was facing the wall. "Fine. Hop in," Ryoga smiled and crawled into bed with Ranma.

"Thank you." She said, cuddling up to the big thick blanket that covered the two girls.

"Yeah whatever. Ranma grumbled. *I can't believe that a guy who can bust up giant robots with his fists is afraid of the dark the moment he's hit with cold water. I'm psychic and I didn't see this coming.* Ranma sat there for a moment listening to Ryoga's breath and eh began thinking. *What... what if his parents ever found out? God I'm glad I'm not in his shoes, the poor guy must be a nervous wreck coming in and out of two personalities all the time.*

"Ranma?" Ryoga asked the red haired girl. Behind her. "Do you think anyone could love a person like me?"

"Eh?" Ranma asked surprised. *That's not the best thing to ask me when were lying in BED of all places.* "Er... what do you mean?" She responded.

Ryoga shifted her position and sighed. "You know what I mean Ranma. Do you think any girl could ever love a man that changes into a woman at the splash of cold water, with no directional sense? I'm not stupid. I know I'd get lost in a room with one door. Now tell me..." Ryoga said as she shifted her body on top of Ranma's, looking her dead in the eyes. "Do you think anyone could love me?"

Just then the door to Ranma's room opened. "Ranma do you know where my toothbrush i..." Marina stared at Ranma and Ryoga. "I.....m sooooorry. I hadn't realized you were _that_ good of friends. I'll find my toothbrush on my own." Marina then exited the room, slamming the door behind her.

Ranma looked confused for a moment and then realized what it must look like from where Marina was standing. "Ranma grumbled and then turned away so that Ryoga couldn't see her face. "Go to sleep Ryoga, we can talk about this tomorrow."

Ryoga sighed, got off Ranma, and nodded. "A...Alright. I'll go to sleep." About five minutes went by before Ryoga spoke up again. "Ranma?"

Ranma groaned. "Whaaaaaat do you want!?"

Ryoga blushed. "You never answered my question. Do you think anyone could love me?" Ranma sat up and glared at Ryoga, who also sat up.

"Ryoga, I am psychic, or at least I was, until Cologne took away my powers and locked me in my female form. I also have a Jusenkyo curse and I'm pretty sure that there's a few girls that've fallen to my charms... You just have to be patient, the right girl _will_ come along. Now go to sleep." With that Ranma plopped herself onto the bed and stole a large amount of the blankets so that there was next to nothing for Ryoga. Ryoga sat there contemplating this.

"Maybe I can find love." She said wistfully.

Ranma nodded. "Uh huh. Great! Sleep! Now!" Ryoga smiled and pulled some of the blankets off Ranma for herself. She then cuddled up to Ranma's back smiling. Ranma jumped up and stood on the bed glaring at Ryoga. "What do you think you're DOING!?!" She said sternly as she breathed heavily.

Ryoga smiled and waved it off. "It's all right Ranma, we're both girls right now. I was just trying to get comfortable."

Ranma frowned. "Yeah well that's what we have pillows and blankets for. Just go to sleep!" Ranma said exasperated. "And don't try anything funny." She warned the black haired Jusenkyo cursed girl as she lay back down and pulled up the blankets.

Ryoga smiled and lay down. Her dreams were pleasant that night, thinking of old times, and the possibility of finding love.

***************

Author's Notes: {Well that be chapter nine of Astral Minds. I kind of rushed this one and I'm not very good with group conversations or fights. Especially fights. I REALLY need help with that. I can do it with one two or even three people but seven or so, not to mention the fact that they all have different proportions and powers. This chapter was difficult. Really love writing and I can come up with the initial ideas but I just have trouble with everything else. I'm going ot re-write Dragon's Bond next and then finish the Saotome Blade. I'm taking things one at a time from now on, doing it all in little sections. I've got a few ideas for Dragon's Bond that'll make things a little less confusing. It's my favorite story, but I just need to write it properly, I'd like to think of these stories as scripts for big budget movies or something along those lines. The vision in my mind is FANTASTIC but portraying that image for others to see is the challenge. Especially when you come up with each chapter on the fly. I'm going to plan out the rest of Dragon's Bond while I do the re write and then add a few more chapters. I'm gonna plan out the first story arc of Astral Minds as well. Then I'm gonna write more Adamantium Rage. It's a great fic...it just needs to be written. I loved the first chapter and was really happy with it, the second was a filler to get people ready for what was going to happen NEXT. That's all for my rant.}

Morden Night: anime_morden@crystal-tokyo.com

http://josh_vh.tripod.com/mordensranmapage/