RanPorn15

Porn World!

By
Jim Robert Bader

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi
and so many others who do not deserve the
blame for putting me up to this series...)


The Fifteenth Encore.

Weapons of Math Obstruction

("World Without Men...")


WARNING---LEMON MERANGE FANFICTION AHEAD!
CONTAINS SCENES OF AN ADULT AND HIGHLY
SUGGESTIVE NATURE THAT MIGHT NOT BE TO
EVERYONE'S PALET. THIS IS A FANTASY WORLD
IN WHICH 99.9% OF THE MEN HAVE BEEN KILLED OFF,
LEAVING THE SURVIVING FEW A HUNTED, HOUNDED
AND PERSECUTED MINORITY ON A PLANET FULL
OF PROMISCUOUS LESBIANS/BISEXUALS, ALL
OF WHOM WILL DROP EVERYTHING TO SCREW
THE NEAREST GIRL THEY CAN LAY HANDS
ON IF YOU GIVE THEM THE SLIGHTEST
HINT OF INTEREST...AND GUYS?
THEY'RE WELL PAST THE ENDANGERED
SPECIES LIST! YOU HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED!





In a lonely castle located in the Balkans a woman gazed out over the land 
that was her domain, which included the sleepy village known as Doom Town, 
capital city of the postage-stamp sized republic of Latveria, a land steeped 
in mystery and clouded in both rumor and fable.

To most of the world at large she was an enigmatic creature known only as 
the Crimson Dawn She was the only heir apparent of the late beloved 
sovereign who had ruled until quite recently with an iron fist over both the 
land and its people. A tyrant and autocrat who was widely regarded as the 
worst villain who had ever lived, to his people he had lived and died a 
hero, and while not everyone mourned his passing he was still highly 
regarded in death and spoken of in mere whispers by those who remained and 
dared even mention him in passing.

This was not due purely to courtesy but had a very practical element behind 
the fear that gripped some hearts, for in Latveria it was known that the 
walls literally did have ears, and that every word spoken would be repeated 
elsewhere. Those that those who showed less than the preferred level of 
respect for their late master would be paid a special visitation by those 
elements still loyal to him. No one died by overt causes of an oppressive 
nature in Latveria, but some might disappear for a time, to appear much 
later feeling less inclined than before to express dissent towards the 
establishment and its political position.

On the surface it was a rustic looking village, but beneath this façade 
there beat the heart of a machine whose like was unknown anywhere else upon 
the earth. The late master had been a genius of nearly unparalleled scope 
who had worked tirelessly for the benefit of his people...even if, 
sometimes, he had to crush the aspirations of those very same people in 
order to reshape their dreams in the cast that he deemed proper and fitting. 
The lives and welfare of the people of Latveria was certainly of a much 
higher standard than in other parts of Europe, but at the cost of their 
freedom since the old master had been nothing less than zealously parental.

All of which meant that Crimson Dawn was the inheritor of an oppressive and 
heavily isolated police state that was better organized than many and 
arguably less corrupt than most democracies, yet far from the envy of the 
world, especially given the ambitions of her predecessor. Many times they 
had been threatened from without, but always the Master had thwarted the 
attempted intervention of the great world powers and had kept Latveria 
strong and independent. His technological superiority and advanced 
armaments programs had held in check even the vaunted powers of NATO and the 
former Soviet Union. Through a skilled combination of subterfuge and 
playing their enemies off of one another (to say nothing of utilizing public 
relations and the UN to his advantage) he had managed to keep Latveria free 
and independent...but at a cost of making himself into a target for all of 
the world's enmity. They demonized him and used Latveria as a model of 
repression whose example should be avoided by all means. Under the Master 
Latveria became both politically and economically isolated, a pariah to the 
world at large, not to mention a place to be feared and avoided by all who 
might otherwise do business. In spite of this isolation the nation managed 
to thrive autocratically and self-sufficiently due to the genius of the 
Master.

But then one day the unthinkable happened, and the Master lost in battle 
against his greatest enemy, who then deposed the Master and replaced him in 
authority with a member of the old aristocracy, and for a time Latveria was 
governed by a hereditary monarch from the old deposed regime that the Master 
had long ago displaced. A new constitution was drafted shortly thereafter 
and a prime minister and body of regents were appointed to stand as an 
interim government until such time as when they could hold regular elections 
with the intent of brining Latveria in line with the standards set by rest 
of western and central (non-Soviet) Europe.

On paper it was a noble ideal that was unfolding, but in practice it lacked 
something of real solidity, especially given that old elements still loyal 
to the Master were set and determined to strangle this infant democracy 
while still in its cradle.

Not least among these were those closest to the Master.

It was a simple enough ploy, a textbook standard of subversion. A few drugs 
slipped into the food supply of the new monarch, coupled by rumors of plots 
and treachery that would keep his paranoia on edge and make him question the 
loyalties of even his chosen vassals. Once the seed of doubt had been 
planted it was not long before the new king became corrupted by his own 
obsessions and soon had the entire kingdom on the edge of civil discord. In 
due course his fears would bring about the very revolution that he had 
dreaded, and then war itself resulted as he used the tools that the Master 
had bequeathed the realm to crush dissent under a ruthless bootheel.

All of which set the stage for the return of the Master, who was horrified 
to see that his plans had gone so horribly awry that his beloved Latveria 
was being torn apart while he watched helplessly from exile. So great was 
his mortification at the overachievement of his schemes that he was forced 
to turn to his most hated enemies and appeal to their sense of justice to 
help undo the very thing which they both had accomplished. Together, 
utilizing their combined resources, they brought an end to the burgeoning 
despotism of his successor and then the Master resumed his rightful place as 
sovereign of his small but potent empire.

For who but Doom could bring peace and order back to a land that was soaked 
in ethnic and tribal hatreds?

Yet there was a story behind this tragedy that the world at large had never 
been told, the story of Crimson Dawn's own origins, for among those who had 
perished during the brief-yet-bloody period of revolution was a young woman 
who had been in the Master's service and still felt loyalty towards him that 
led to her own demise.

And that woman was none other than Crimson Dawn's much beloved mother.

Backstepping by almost a decade from these events, the woman named Margali 
Kristoff and come into the employ of the Master as a peasant serving girl, 
one of the few humans whom their sovereign had permitted to actually dwell 
within the castle, as opposed to the regular automatons whom the Master 
tended to favor. Though the man whom the world knew as Doctor Victor Von 
Doom often professed that he did not need anyone to share his life, he was 
still a man at heart and sometimes needed to look upon a human face that was 
not of his own construction. A perfect gentleman in all respects, he never 
abused or mistreated his servants, being aristocrat enough to view such 
petty behavior as beneath him, yet he was stern and aloof and did not brook 
to be approached by underlings either. He preferred the cold company of 
passionless machines to the swirling and chaotic ambiguities of 
flesh-and-blood human beings, yet still there was a deeper passion burning 
within him, to be admired and accepted for what he was without qualm or 
hesitation.

To his dismay Victor Von Doom had discovered such an individual in the 
person of Margali, a simple woman lacking the complexity of shadow in her 
nature who had grown up believing the Master to be a good and decent man, 
for all the fear that he inspired within others. Even being directly 
exposed to his presence did not diminish this innocent belief, for she saw 
in him the kindness and compassion that he hid beneath an iron mask of 
authority. She was not privy to the plots and schemes that Doom was 
visiting upon his enemies half way round the globe but instead concentrated 
on the burden that she saw him shouldering like a father for the good of 
their entire nation. She believed in him utterly and silently wished that 
she might somehow be able to reach out and relieve some of his burden, but 
did not dare to broach such girlish fantasies for fear that she might offend 
her master.

Then one day Doom retired early to his labs, weary from yet another plot 
gone wrong and the subsequent doubts that would plague him like a hoard of 
festering demons. He shut himself off and would not allow himself to be 
disturbed, throwing himself into his work with a feverish intensity that 
bordered on true madness. In time Margali came to fear the worst for her 
master for she had discovered by means of her womanly whiles that Doom had 
neither eaten nor slept within the scope of three days. This fear produced 
in her a most remarkable resolve, giving her the courage that she might 
otherwise have lacked to go against the commands of the Master for his own 
welfare, even if it meant having to confront his loyal cadre of Doombots.

Her approach was simple yet devastatingly logical, telling the machine that 
its Master's life was imperiled and that to do nothing might bring 
irreparable harm to the Doctor. The Doombot she faced countered that it had 
explicit instructions from the Master and could not contravene them. To 
this Margali shot back that the order had been to the robots and not to her, 
that she could check on the Master for them if they but stood aside and 
permitted her to do her duty. The more the Doombot tried to argue the point 
the more she came back to the issue of Victor Von Doom's health and welfare, 
and the more she did this the longer the hesitation she would see behind the 
artificial eyes of the lifelike machine, until finally she won the construct 
over by stressing its loyalty circuits to the point of total breakdown.

A good thing, too, for once Margali gained admittance to the laboratory she 
found the Master slumped unconscious on the console of the machine upon 
which he had been working. She did not understand the complex mechanisms 
and dials that were on display all around her, nor was she intimidated by 
the unfamiliar sights, perceiving them more as evidence of her Master's 
brilliance rather than view them as monstrous perversions of science turned 
against the designs of nature, which would have been the response of any 
less good-hearted creature.

By means of her whiles she contrived to get the good Doctor to bed, then 
nursed him as best she could the way she once had done for a younger 
brother. Her motherly attention had won Victor back from the abyss of the 
grave into which his exhausted body had been about to cast him. 
Unfortunately he awoke to a delirium that was frightening indeed, indicating 
to Margali the scope of the horrid demons that were tormenting her beloved 
King, frightening words and visions that her simple mind could not 
comprehend, yet which hinted to a life of torment whose wretched nature had 
been hidden beneath the lonely mask of his existence.

Rather than be repelled by what she uncovered that day, Margali's heart went 
out to the scarred and desolate man who lay unarmored in his bed recovering 
his strength from the ravages of a persistent illness. Her efforts to nurse 
him back to health proved more than successful, and yet took an unexpected 
turn when the Master had woken up one night in a wild fit of delirium, and 
without sense of what he was doing attacked his own benefactor, throwing her 
down upon the bed and then using her with animal-like carnal intentions.

It was an experience as far from the childish romantic fantasies of 
Margali's imagination, and yet her shock was short-lived as she found 
herself under assault from a demon who was in possession of her Master. 
There was pain and brutality in the beginning, and yet it softened mid-way 
into something less thoughtless, as if the heat of Victor's rage was 
expended mid-way into his rape of the kind-hearted Margali. Something of 
the man he truly was began to creep back to the surface, and it was to that 
which Margali reached out and clung with greater passion, going from limp 
victim to aggressor as the woman within her rose up in retaliation. Having 
experienced the worst in the previous five minutes that Doom had to offer, 
her original regard of him rallied to counteract what would have been a 
normal response in any other woman. Rather than go into catatonic shock 
from the pain, fear and helplessness of her position she instead turned into 
a nurturing wanton who smothered the wrath of the demon and conquered his 
fever with a strength that would surprise even her upon reflection.

Needless to say that night was the end of much of her youthful innocence, 
yet still she remained as kind and gentle as ever as Doom slowly came back 
to himself and knew with a silent horror what he had done to a woman who had 
intended him only kindness. Margali was half-afraid that he would be stern 
and reprimand her for her disobedience, for violating his sanctuary and 
presuming to take care of him without instructions. Much to her surprise 
the Master instead spoke kindly to her, but then dismissed her summarily 
from his service, excusing that her services were no longer required and 
that he would be employing machines to do the tasks that had normally been 
assigned to her. He sent her back to her village without further 
explanation but saw to it that she was paid handsomely in severance wages 
and given a good recommendation so that her family would know that she had 
done nothing to displease the Master.

Of course Margali later heard a rumor that the Master replaced the entire 
line of Doombots then in service and demoted them to labor machine status, 
but then again one tended to hear a lot of rumors of this sort about the 
Master...

Fast-forward once again to the night of Doom's revolution, when a woman 
named Margali had boldly stepped forward and acknowledged Victor Von Doom as 
her one and only master. For a brief instant there was confusion, then 
recognition in his eyes, and then Doom accepted Margali's profession of 
loyalty, using her as an example to shame the village elders who were less 
quick to receive him.

But then servants loyal to the new regime attacked, and Margali fell prey to 
shot fired in Doom's direction. For an instant she saw dismay and pain in 
the eyes of the man behind the mask, and then she perished, but what she did 
not live to see afterwards was the terrible rage of retribution that Doom 
visited upon those who had dared to slaughter HIS woman!

Margali had been under Doom's protection yet had perished, a flat 
contradiction of his will that Doom's ego could not endure. He at once 
pledged to do right by the slain woman and formally adopted her only child, 
a young boy by the name of Kristoff, who was just old enough to have been 
born in the time since Margali had been in service to the Master.

Officially anyway, Kristoff was only Doom's heir, not his acknowledged 
son...yet shortly after his adoption something new had entered the world, an 
element that the nine-year-old Kristoff knew little about until the ravages 
hit Latveria proper. The dreaded Millennial Virus, also commonly known as 
Lilith, was sweeping over the world killing men left and right without 
regard to rank, title and position. By means of cross-border immigration it 
had even made its way through the ranks of the gypsy camps into the rest of 
the kingdom, and not long after this the death toll began to skyrocket.

Kristoff was not certain how he himself had contracted the Virus...after 
all, the Master took great precautions and installed many safeguards in 
order to isolate his castle fortress against penetration by even the merest 
microbe. He only knew that, one day, he felt perfectly fine...then the next 
he developed a persistent cough, followed by a wave of nausea and sickness 
that left him bedridden and at Death's mercy. The Master at once placed 
Kristoff under quarantine in his labs and devoted his considerable 
scientific prowess in an effort to spare the boy's life, even fighting as 
though he were wrestling with Death itself to keep his adopted heir alive, 
though even his extensive scientific genius was tasked to its limit against 
this particular opponent.

In a feverish daze from which he did not expect to recover Kristoff had even 
imagined hearing the Master rage at the fates one time, accusing God of 
rejecting him, claiming it unmanly of any deity to punish a mere boy for the 
crimes committed by his father. He even imagined he could hear a sobbing 
note in Doom's voice as though crying softly over and over, "My son...my son 
is dying..." but that could not have happened in real life and was surely 
the product of a wild imagination gone rampant, for Doctor Doom did not 
speak in such maudlin terms and would never permit himself such weakness.

Nevertheless, Kristoff felt oddly comforted to think that the Master might 
regard him with any slight degree of affection. At least he would be 
missed, and that was something to cheer him...

But then a very strange thing happened...Kristoff drifted off into a 
death-like sleep, only to awake twenty four hours later refreshed and 
invigorated without a single trace of the ravages caused by the Virus. At 
first Kristoff concluded that the Master's genius had finally triumphed over 
the seemingly unbeatable Virus. But then the Master himself declared that 
this was not the case, for the Virus was still very much a part of 
Kristoff's body...only it no longer was harming Kristoff for a very good 
reason...

Kristoff the boy was now entirely...female.

Doom ran extensive tests but only confirmed the initial assessment, but then 
again...how to deny the blatantly obvious fact that Krystoff no longer had 
the possession of a male organ between his legs? The changes to his anatomy 
were both internal and external, and he was effectively a "she" in all the 
ways that truly mattered. Moreover, somehow Kristoff had gained an 
incredible boost to her mental and psychic abilities, giving her 
intellectual prowess that could easily match---nay---surpass even that of 
the Master...and coupled with telepathic and telekinetic abilities of an 
extremely high order.

Doctor Doom was nothing short of methodical and relentless, however, and 
persisted in researching the cause for these radical changes. His heir no 
longer in peril of immanent death, Doom strove with all his considerable 
might to discover why this was so, and in doing so made a discovery that 
only his unsurpassable intellect could uncover, a truth behind the mystery 
of the Virus that had defied the rest of the scientific community, yet which 
led Victor Von Doom to some inescapable conclusions.

Up until that time everyone had believed that the Virus was the creation of 
a renegade Soviet scientist whose grief over the death of his wife had led 
him to graft a strain of the Ebola virus with some alien DNA that had been 
uncovered in the Antarctic. But the behavior of the Virus was strange, 
mystifying, even paradoxical, defying conventional theories concerning germ 
research and pointing in the direction of some radical new theories of 
biology that most scientists in the world had difficulty accepting, let 
alone comprehending.

But Doom was not a conventional mind in any sense of the word, and his 
entire career had consisted of taking radical departures from accepted 
theory. Thus he was pointed relentlessly towards the conclusion that the 
Virus was not an ordinary strain, not even one mutated to behave in ways 
different from it Ebola-style parent. Rather Doom---the acknowledged master 
of the science of Robotics---was drawn to the model of Nanotechnology as the 
likeliest explanation for the behavior of the Virus.

But the Virus was not mechanical in nature, and beyond question its DNA was 
patterned to fit the human anatomical model, implying a technology far 
beyond anything that existed on the Earth or in the present. The likeliest 
conclusion for its origins was either extra-terrestrial or temporal, coming 
either from the distant past, the far future, another world or some 
combination of the three. Whatever the cause it had clearly been 
deliberately inflicted upon humanity with the evident intention of 
decimating---even eliminating altogether---the male half of the human 
population.

This conclusion was a logical one since only humanoid life forms were 
affected by the Virus, and no primate lower on the evolutionary tree was so 
much as afflicted with a case of the sniffles, but humanoid aliens were 
affected and even demons from the nethersphere. Further research uncovered 
the fact that the Gods themselves were likewise affected, causing a radical 
shift in the balance of the heavens. Doom briefly allowed himself to take 
some small pleasure in watching long-time enemies such as Thor and Hercules 
succumb in their turn, along with the rest of the male half of the so-called 
Superhero population. Yet such pleasure was ephemeral as it only guaranteed 
in Doom's mind that it was but a matter of time before every male on the 
planet was effectively erased from existence, the mere possession of a "Y" 
gene constituting an irrevocable death sentence.

And that meant that Doom's time would inevitably come in due course since 
even the likes of the dread Thanos had proven vulnerable, along with the 
rest of his so-called "Infinity Watch." Could even as vaunted a mortal as 
Doom expect to be spared, given how easily Kristoff had been infected in 
spite of Doom's best precautions?

Yet the mere existence of a bio-chemical nano-styled virus was too 
intriguing for Doom to resist pursing the siren call of logic to its 
inevitable resolution. That had brought him to the source of the strain 
that was named Lilith...a monstrous being encased deep in the ice who was 
99.8% human, yet composed of a strange type of matter that was definitely 
extraterrestrial in nature.

Further inquiry uncovered a peculiar tale of the long-ago ancestry of man, 
and the true origins of the being known as Lilith, as well as the true 
nature of masculinity and the "Y" gene and how it had been introduced into 
the human population. That in turn led to discovering why men were being 
targeted for total worldwide elimination, and with that discovery Doom truly 
learned the meaning of real terror, for his research concluded that the 
Virus that had resisted all efforts to eliminate it was being intelligently 
guided by the sleeping Lilith, and it would continue to rampage so long as 
there were men on the earth for it to target.

This proved very disturbing indeed, for Doom was aware of constant projects 
currently being employed to preserve the male gene so that it did not die 
off entirely from human existence. Some men were being cryogenically frozen 
and preserved for future revival, while others were being masked or 
concealed from detection by means both magical and scientific, the 
transformation of Kristoff being one such example. Indeed, the Virus itself 
was selectively altering some men and transforming them into hermaphrodites, 
while a few rare individuals went the whole way from male to female with a 
radical enhancement to their abilities that made them virtual superhumans in 
all aspects, including the curious ability to grant other women 
special...favors.

This latter part fit in well with Doom's theory that the Virus was intended 
to eliminate men but not humanity itself since it had broken out at exactly 
the right stage of history where the scientific means existed to preserve 
and perpetuate itself through future generations. Gene-splicing, cloning 
and recombinant DNA therapies could grant women the ability to bear children 
by other women, even as the supply of male sperm slowly dwindled and ready 
donors became scarce. The power of Fusion Pregnancy itself would assure a 
ready replacement population would be available to make up for the half of 
the world number that were shortly to perish. Added to this was the fact 
that women now had extended health and vitality due to the ability of the 
Virus to stimulate cell restoration, for old women were becoming young while 
the ugly and infirm were gaining enhanced looks and beauty with limbs 
regenerating that had been severed, and nothing short of immediate death by 
physical trauma could kill a woman whom the Virus had thus enhanced. Other 
diseases were methodically eliminated with even cancer and degenerative 
nerve disorders going into permanent remission.

The Virus, it seemed, was a jealous mistress when it came to sharing the 
body, but in other respects it created such vitality in women that they 
would lose all self-control and inhibitions with a crying need for sexual 
stimulation. Whereas before an average man was said to think of sex every 
six seconds, with women that was reduced to less than half that interval, 
and without the ability to shut off their sex drive they would become raging 
sex kittens incapable of saying "No" to their baser urges.

This applied mainly to the so-called "Heterosexual" population, while those 
labeled as "Lesbians" and "Hermaphrodites" tended to have some measure of 
resistance to their own sexual urges. This only confirmed in Doom's mind 
that a truly warped and perverse sense of humor was behind the Virus. More 
importantly, that this intelligence was vast and comprehensive enough to 
know that efforts were being made to thwart its own design...AND it was 
patient enough to wait out these efforts so that it could one-by-one find 
and eliminate them until no trace of man was left...AND only then would it 
bring an end to the rampages of Virus.

In other words the many plans that Doom had been hatching to preserve his 
own existence were fated to fail, and that such efforts were even 
self-defeating since he would be serving to perpetuate the very Virus that 
he hoped to eliminate.

A Virus that, he was shortly thereafter to discover, had somehow found a way 
to penetrate the protective casing of his armor.

For Doom this was intolerable, for to concede that a mere Virus could 
overwhelm his best defenses and infect him so relentlessly was to grant that 
a mere microbe could get the better of his genius. The fact that his true 
enemy was Lilith itself only added to his chagrin, but like it or not it was 
but a matter of time from the point of infection before Doom underwent the 
first fatal symptoms.

To grant himself more time he at once placed his body into stasis, thus 
freeing his mind to continue exploring the riddle from the relative safety 
of isolation. His latest generation of Doombots became his eyes and ears to 
the outside world, and Kristoff herself was able to participate in these 
researches since her expanded intellect made her a valuable asset to his 
researches. Try as he might, however, Doom found himself arriving back at 
the same unavoidable resolution, and as he reached the grim prospect of 
dying with his enemies---who even then were dropping like flies the world 
over---he discarded many a plan and backdoor scheme to at last come to a 
resolution point that was acceptable to his needs and would grant him the 
chance of seeing a final end once and for all to the accursed Virus.

And so he gave new orders to his Doombots, then commanded Kristoff to place 
herself at their disposal. The young girl bravely endured being placed 
under a knowledge transfer helmet whereupon Doom downloaded into her 
yet-unformed mind the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of a lifetime, then 
designated her as his official regent, transferring most temporal powers 
over Latveria into her small hands, thus entrusting to his daughter the fate 
of a world, and not just a tiny postage-stamp sized nation.

And that was how the Crimson Dawn had been brought into being, the enigmatic 
woman in armor whom the world knew as a mystery, yet beneath that armor was 
a girl grown to womanhood who bore the name Victoria Kristoff.

In Victoria's mind, however, she was a Von Doom, the proper heir to her tiny 
empire, and gifted with the genius of her father (both biological and 
temporal) to carry on his mission of bringing order and reason to a world 
that was steeped in chaos and darkness.

As for her father, Doom had left her precise instructions on what to do, 
allowing his body to finally perish while transferring the rest of his 
personality into a specially designed mainframe that would act as a 
"Soul-Catch," preserving the essence of Doom at the very core of the 
machinery that he himself had labored so long to create. Her father thus 
existed as a presence who could be consulted at her leisure, to say nothing 
of the hold he still maintained over most systems throughout Latveria.

In all other respects Victoria was her own woman.

That was not to say that she had the power to contravene the will of her 
father, only that, in day-to-day affairs, she was granted a wide degree of 
latitude and allowed to conduct the daily affairs of Latveria as befit her 
own judgement. Being considerably less aloof and authoritarian than her 
father before her, she nonetheless had the will of iron that was needed in a 
Doom, and she was determined to live up to her father's legacy and would 
brook hearing no one criticize his memory.

At least within her presence.

Victoria sighed as she finished her daily reflections from the lofty 
purchase of a window in the uppermost tower of the left wing of her father's 
castle. Such maudlin thoughts ill behooved a dutiful sovereign and she was 
neglecting other duties that more properly demanded her attention. It was 
still a faint indulgence that she had entertained from childhood, gazing out 
upon Latveria and imagining life as a simple, humble peasant. Ordinary 
people had such common woes to occupy their waking hours and few ever 
suspected what life was like beyond the outskirts of their tiny nation's 
royal borders, out beyond the reach of the Master's shadow, where life was 
very different on the whole, and yet nowhere near as leisurely and idyllic.

Victoria knew because she sometimes traveled out among the people incognito. 
One advantage of wearing armor in public was that it masked her real 
identity...and unlike her late father she had no disfiguring marks to drive 
her away from the eyes of other women. She also frequently traveled abroad 
and enjoyed a double life as an anonymous worldly heiress, but always in her 
heart she was Doom, and so she always came back to her true self, locked 
away in her fortress home that was literally a castle.

One other indulgence that she enjoyed at such hours awaited her downstairs, 
and without further rambling discourse she retired to her main office of 
state in the West Wing, whereupon she sat down in a well-cushioned chair and 
plopped her booted feet up on the desk while automated systems flashed onto 
a series of monitor screens that each were tuned to a different channel.

Here Victoria could smile from behind her mask as she scanned the flashing 
images, instantly triggering through corneal implants a lock-channel fixate 
that would expand a single image to full size and give it holographic 
projection. In such manner could she keep tabs on what the other great 
powers were doing, and---more importantly---her enemies and rivals (as such 
they might be called, though a Doom never acknowledged any mere mortal to be 
their equal, let alone their rival).

In particular what drew her interest this hour was an intimate view of her 
father's old nemesis, Sue Storm-Richard, current leader and chairwoman in 
charge of the Fantastic Four Enterprises (LTD). Victoria gazed fondly upon 
the ageless beauty, who alone remained from among her original team members. 
Sue was breathtaking in every sense of the word and the mother of two 
fine, strapping daughters who were proving to be worthy heirs of their late 
father. Frankie Richards and her younger sister, Chris, were the inventive 
geniuses who kept the technological wizardry of the late Reed Richards alive 
even though they both were still quite young and only just beginning to come 
into full possession of their powers. Of the two Chris was the one who 
showed the greatest tendency towards reflecting the beauty and spirit of 
their mother, and despite feeling a bit like a cradle robber, Victoria had 
to admit that she felt a certain...attraction to the youngest daughter.

Of course where it concerned the mother, Victoria also had to admit to a 
certain wry bit of amusement since their occasional clashes always seemed to 
wind up with the both of them in bed, much to the chagrin of the ghost of 
Victoria's late father.

Current membership of the Four included Crystal, the so-called She-Hulk and 
the Skrull-born alien known as Lyja Storm, though sometimes the membership 
changed with substitutions such as the Atlantean, Namorita, and the Inhuman 
Queen known as Medusa. These were mere sparring partners, not real enemies 
in any significant sense, and while they were often on the other side of 
their numberless conflicts, Victoria respected them without granting them 
the status of peers.

That honor alone was reserved for Susan.

Currently the object of her private fantasies was giving an outstanding 
performance with one Frankie Rae, otherwise known by the name of Nova. The 
fiery former herald of the world-devouring Galactus (who himself had sworn 
off the Earth for fear of contact with the Virus) was engaged in a 
passionate sixty-nine with an equally passionate Sue, and while the sight of 
them together did elicit mild thoughts of jealousy in Victoria herself, on 
the whole she found their performance...highly entertaining.

Switching away from the latest sexual escapades of her favored Susan, 
Victoria next looked in upon Avengers Mansion to see what was happening 
there, and as she had anticipated ahead of time things were moving rather 
swimmingly with a pool party-slash-orgy in full progress. Avengers Assemble 
indeed...about a dozen or so were forming a ring with head-to-tail action 
that would give the Midgard Serpent fits of envy.

Interesting...it seemed that Moondragon was no longer anathema with her 
former partner and Infinity Watcher, Gamora, and was that not the so-called 
Celestial Madonna, Mantis, currently on the make-out with Moonstone? 
And...yes, that was definitely the Eternal witch Circe conducting affairs 
like the virtual Bondage Queen that she resembled with an errant 
Firebird...and who would imagine that someone as prim and proper as Ms. 
Janet Van Dyne would be "digging the fur" with the hirsute Tigra?

Victoria briefly wondered which parts of the current roster were actively 
pursuing relationships and which parts were merely swimming in the field to 
test out the local poontang. Who was their leader this week, she silently 
asked in amused reflection? It was difficult keeping up with roster 
changes, and sometimes she wondered if they did not just draw their 
membership ranks from a hat like some sort of raffle for all the bizarre 
changes they underwent on a regular basis. Perhaps their current leader was 
the Wasp, or the Scarlet Witch, or that former Shield blonde bimbo who 
called herself Mocking Bird (honestly, where did these superhero types go to 
get their preposterous names? Was there a registry somewhere that let them 
know which ones had yet to be taken to avoid the risk of copyright 
infringement?).

Privately Victoria rather doubted it would be the Danvers woman. That lush 
had difficulty controlling her urges, and the flighty way she behaved 
sometimes left one to marvel that she could have ever been in the military, 
let alone held the rank of an Air Force Colonel.

Victoria continued to monitor the activities of the significant 
paranormally-gifted individuals currently on registry, everyone from the 
glorified Specter to the Mystically gifted types such as Mystic, Clea 
Strange and the enigmatic Doctor Inza Fate. Checking in on these powerful 
individuals was actually relatively simple despite their various protective 
spells and special privacy measures since there was no place either on the 
planet, or within the various attendant folds of dimensional overlay, that 
was beyond the reach of Victoria's advanced monitoring system. Some quaint 
wag once postulated the theory that Victoria's father had bugged every 
structure on the earth in order to keep track of his enemies, but the truth 
was much simpler than that since all detection equipment functioned on the 
basic principle of perceiving and transmitting information. With enough 
advanced material to penetrate through the boundary layers of physical and 
metaphysical separation she could spy on anyone on or off the planet, within 
about four or five standard light-years.

As she was just beginning to look in upon the satellite-based (and rather 
immodestly named) Justice League, however, she received a notification from 
the Master that she was overdue in a private meeting with the Tjuro. 
Victoria acknowledged the summons and promptly closed off the external 
monitor system, preferring to let her data-recorders preserve the important 
parts for...later inspection.

Her voyeuristic inclinations only partially abated, Victoria made her way 
through the secret panel in the back of her office and traveled by express 
shaft to the underground chamber where the Gypsy Council was waiting. 
Making a sweeping entrance that conveyed an air of impatience she briskly 
made her way to the spot reserved for her exclusively, then swept the 
gathered members of the council with a stern gaze meant to be intimidating, 
yet which she knew had less of an effect than might a similar regard 
delivered by her late father.

Much to her annoyance, Zenobia---the reigning matriarch of the Romanji 
tribes---returned Victoria's stern gaze with much better effect and said, in 
a slightly ruffled tone, "You are late," as though chiding an errant 
youngster.

"I am here," Victoria responded, "So why does the Tjuro require my presence 
at this particular time?"

"Oh, nothing much, your Majesty," Zenobia replied, "We have heard disturbing 
rumors that need to be explained to our satisfaction. It seems as though 
the times are moving at their own pace once again, and we need to take stock 
of these events in order to decide how they will relate upon the fate of the 
world, let alone the realm itself."

Well, that was certainly ominous and vague enough, Victoria reflected. Not 
like Zenobia to beat around the bush and talk in strange generalities rather 
than cutting to the chase and getting to the point with her usual erasable 
temper. To judge by the sternness in the old matron's (well...old in 
chronological years anyway) expression one would think she was having 
difficulties with her sex life, or needed to get laid very badly. Of course 
the Tjuro was hardly gathered together for an early morning orgy.

They usually reserved those for Tuesdays, and this was a Monday, clearly in 
violation of strict regimented patterns.

Knowing that, if she did not say something soon, the matter was likely to 
hang in the air like a dangling participle, Victoria steeled her nerves and 
said, "What events will effect the fate of the world? Is there something to 
which you are privy that I am not...old woman?"

"Where to begin in answering that question," Zenobia responded in a faintly 
amused tone of voice, only to grow serious once again as she looked Victoria 
directly in her masked eyes and said, "We are referring to the recent 
discovery of others who are like you, dread sovereign...others who began 
life as a man yet now are quite definitely female."

"Others...like me?" Victoria replied, her focus growing more alert as 
certain instincts flared to the surface.

"Actually," said Elder Alexandra, "It's not just that rumors are circulating 
of others with your gifts coming into public light...it is more of a concern 
that we of the council wish to convey here that we worry what will become of 
these newly discovered trans-genders when certain parties become aware of 
their existence."

"What is that?" Victoria asked sharply, glaring at the young-seeming blonde 
gypsy, "Are you implying something by that statement?"

"Not at all," Alexandra replied without the least hint of being intimidated 
by the tone of her Mistress, "It is simply known that certain groups, like 
the Evists, are adverse to the existence of any and all traces of Man that 
might yet linger in the gene pool...and we are well aware that hostile acts 
have been known to be undertaken by such individuals against anyone 
suspected of attempting to bring Men back into existence."

"That is a preposterous notion," Victoria retorted, "The Master labored hard 
with all of his considerable resources to discover a cure for the Virus, but 
all of us know the results of his researches, and all of the men of our 
various clans met the same fate as befell the rest of the planet. There are 
no true male survivors left anywhere, only hybrids and changelings who mask 
their male legacy under the cover of an X-gene."

"That is not entirely accurate," Zenobia contradicted, "Word has reached us 
that several men yet live who have survived the ravages of the Virus through 
other means, both metaphysical and preternatural. For example, in the Isles 
of Japan, a young girl has been registered with the government in Tokyo as a 
licensed man and engaged to multiple partnerings with several young women 
with the intent that he marry them and render them...fertile."

"What?' Victoria reacted, momentary too shocked to fret about the 
impertinence of being contradicted by the Elder.

"We have yet to identify him by name, but that is our best information upon 
the subject," Zenobia replied, "We were hoping that you, with your 
considerably more vast resources, could obtain more detailed and accurate 
information, and could satisfy us in other respects on whether other such 
male survivors might yet exist...and if their relative safety may be assured 
to the satisfaction of this council."

This time Victoria sufficiently mastered her surprise to the degree that she 
narrowed her eyes and gazed directly at the 
young-seeming-yet-very-much-elder gypsy, "You may be assured that I will 
look into these affairs, but as for the satisfaction of the council, I do 
not much care for the inference of being dictated to by you. I trust that 
this was an informal request and not some thinly veiled attempt at 
usurpation?"

"We would never dream of assuming any sort of authority over you, my lady," 
Zenobia assured, "You are the rightful Queen of Latveria, and as such we of 
the Tjuro acknowledge you as our lawful liege sovereign..."

"And here I was under the impression that Romani did not care to be 
associated with any authority other than their own," Victoria sniffed, "But 
as I am partially Romani by birth, I will accept your pledge of loyalty in 
the name of our kinship."

"That pledge was given the day the Master passed over his authority onto 
you," Zenobia replied, "And we will continue to trust that you will do what 
is right in all things pertaining to these and other matters. You have the 
blessings of the Master, and as such we lesser mortals bow our heads meekly 
in respect to your brilliance."

There was nothing particularly mocking or condescending in her tone, but 
nonetheless Victoria bristled at the old witch's baiting commentary. As it 
was beneath her dignity to respond with a sharp reply of her own she allowed 
the matter to pass unnoticed. But still she could not help but reflect on 
how her father would have dealt with Zenobia's insolence, and how long it 
would have taken the gypsy matriarch to expire from the wounds she would 
have suffered.

But Victoria was nowhere near that vindictive, nor so ruthless. She needed 
the support of the Tjuro in order to properly govern Latveria, for it took 
more than machines to keep people in line, you needed to work from the heart 
in order to keep them satisfied, obedient and happy.

The thought was largely in her mind, however, when she returned to the main 
laboratory that she had inherited from her father. There, as expected, she 
found her father's "Ghost" awaiting her arrival, and like any stern parent 
his first words of greeting to her were, "Well, daughter, what have you to 
say for yourself?"

"What do you mean by that, Father?" Victoria asked, then answered her own 
question, "You overheard our meeting, of course."

"But of course," said a holographic image of the masked face of Doom as it 
peered down upon her from above, "There is nothing that takes place within 
this realm of which I am not aware. You should know this better than any."

Victoria only gave her father's image a frosty glare then said in an 
imperious tone, "I am aware of the implications of this new revelation, that 
if men still live who have managed somehow to thwart the intentions of 
Lilith it will mean that the Virus will continue to perpetuate itself. But 
your solution would be a harsh one, and I am troubled by the implications."

"What troubles you most, Child?" Doom asked, "The conclusions that we both 
have reached, or the necessity of what we both knew needs doing?"

"I am quite naturally concerned at the need for extreme measures that may 
well have to be undertaken, Father," Victoria replied, "But more at the 
concern that we may well be doing Lilith's dirty work when our ultimate aim 
all along has been to thwart her."

"Yes, this is true enough," Doom replied, "But you are not having second 
thoughts about carrying through with my directive?"

"Do you doubt that I have the strength to do what is needed, Father?" 
Victoria bristled, "I am a Doom, and I do not hesitate to act where it is 
needful. I am merely...concerned that to follow your directives might take 
us beyond the point of recall. You must concede the point that to destroy 
every trace of male DNA in the world would leave us incapable of restoring 
the balance at a later position."

"Did you think me incapable of conceiving this point while I was still 
living, Child?" Doom retorted, "You know what contingencies I have 
undertaken towards that end...but the fact remains that Lilith will not 
permit the seed of man to endure, and so long as she has the means of 
carrying out her deadly edict her will remains unbroken. Or have you 
discovered some other means of defeating her that escaped my notice?"

"No, father," Victoria replied, "You know perfectly well that I have had no 
greater success towards that end than did you. Nor have I ever found fault 
in your reasoning, for you were always in the right in all of your 
researches."

"I am naturally quite gratified to hear you acknowledge this, my child," 
Doom remarked, "But do you think me so far beyond the pale of the grave that 
I would fail to detect the 'but' hidden within your statement?"

"I am merely considering the corollary to your argument, Father," Victoria 
explained, "What if fulfilling Lilith's desires in order to lull her into a 
false sense of victory does not bring an end to the Virus? It has been ten 
years since men were widely believed to have been slaughtered, yet still the 
Virus continues to ravage us, turning women into sex-crazed fools whose 
eternal youth and beauty beguiles the wits and distracts the reason..."

"You mean such as your longstanding affair with the widow of my greatest 
enemy?" Doom remarked, "Do not attempt to deny it, I have seen how you fawn 
over her, not that I can fault you as Susan Richards was quite the charmer 
even in my day."

Victoria opened her mouth to respond to that but no sound came out, and for 
a moment she was positively speechless.

"Or that collection of home-made pornograms that you have recorded for your 
personal archive?" Doom asked airily, then appeared to smile scornfully down 
at his heir as he added, "As I said, I am aware of everything that goes on 
within this castle."

"Including matters that should be of concern more to me than to you, I would 
think," Victoria grumbled resentfully, having only briefly been taken aback 
by the revelation that her father kept that close a watch over her private 
activities, a thing she would have sworn that she had gone to great lengths 
to isolate from his outward systems.

"Everything about you is of concern to me, Victoria," Doom replied, "After 
all, I am your father."

"And you act more like it in death than you ever did in life," Victoria 
grumbled under her breath before resuming, "The mere fact that I have 
greater control over the effect the Virus has upon me than most other women 
does not mean that I am cold and unfeeling. I have needs that I must 
satisfy from time to time, and while I refuse to be a slave to my baser 
lusts, still I am a woman, and women need each other to feel completion."

To her considerable surprise the expression of the masked visage above her 
greatly softened, "I understand this better than you know, Victoria, which 
is why I have not mentioned my awareness of your numerous private trysts 
before now."

Victoria stared incredulously at the recreated image of her father, "You? 
How would you understand what needs torment me, Father? You needed no one 
in your day, especially not my mother..."

"That is not entirely the truth, Victoria," Doom said with a faint air of 
unease in his voice, "I many times declared that I needed no one...but there 
were times when I felt drawn to certain women whom I found to be quite 
fascinating. Your mother was one whom, at first, I did not notice...but I 
found such strength within her that even my vaunted army of Doombots was 
powerless against her."

"But still you sent us away," Victoria shot back, "You told mother that her 
services were no longer needed..."

"I told her what pride demanded of me," Doom replied, "That I had dared show 
weakness before a woman was...a humbling affair, and it shames me to know 
how badly I used her. I confess I put her out of my mind the moment she was 
gone from my affairs, but many a night I would feel shame over allowing my 
darkness to even briefly eclipse her light. That is why I felt honor bound 
to acknowledge you as my heir, because even in death your mother shamed me 
with her courage, and I knew such strength as she had would be needed for 
the realm to endure. I am pleased to say that---for the most part---you 
have vindicated my trust in you, all save for these stray moments when you 
permit softer emotions to weaken your resolve, which is yet another legacy 
of your mother."

Victoria narrowed her eyes and said, "I knew it. You were just now praising 
me, but always you seek a handle by which to manipulate me, Father. I am 
wise to your games after all these many years, so do not think so little of 
me that you would play upon my emotions and my memories of my departed 
mother."

"I do not think so little of you when I said this, Victoria," Doom insisted, 
"But you are right to suspect me of manipulating you. I have my eyes and 
ears throughout the realm, but you are my hands in the world, and as I hover 
between life and death I grow more aware of my precarious situation."

"Father?" Victoria asked, confused at this strangely wistful tone in the 
voice of the man whom she had always believed was as cold as the iron of his 
mask.

"I designed the current system that contains my soul because I 
was...concerned about what might be waiting for me in the afterlife," Doom 
continued, "I had made so many pacts with so many netherworldly beings that 
I dreaded discovering which of them might seek to claim my soul once 
detached from the prison of my flesh. It seems strange that I, who have 
faced death on countless occasions, should nurture such a concern once death 
stretched out her icy fingers to claim me, but..."

"But you knew that such a fate was inevitable," Victoria remarked, "Yet 
still you found a way to cheat death and preserve yourself against the 
designs of Lilith."

"I did not cheat death...I mere bought more time in which to fulfill my 
work," Doom assured, "Once that purpose is concluded the need for me to 
remain upon this plane of reality will be done with, and then I will be 
happy to move on to join the spirits of both your mother and my own in the 
afterlife."

"But Father," Victoria protested, "If you die then your soul will be drawn 
to the realm of the demons!"

To her surprise Doom actually chuckled, "That might once have daunted even 
me, Child, but recently I have become aware of a...shall we say, change in 
the state of affairs regarding the afterlife. I no longer find the prospect 
of journeying to the realm of the dead to be that onerous a burden. If 
anything I see great potential for advancement, especially given how many 
dread lords of the underworld are now...shall we say, beyond recall."

"What are you saying, Father?" Victoria asked in confusion, "That it is 
better to rule in Hell than to serve in heaven?"

Again the daunting laughter of Doom filled the chamber, "Oh, my dear 
ignorant child, Heaven should watch its back should I come to power in the 
realm of undead. But that is of no immediate concern to you in the here and 
now...what matters is the mission, and in that I must depend upon you, 
Victoria, to do what you know to be right and fulfill my designs. You may, 
of course, use your discretion in choosing which path you will take, but in 
the end all trace of men must die in order to fulfill Lilith's designs...and 
when that is done, then and then alone may you conquer the Virus."

Victoria watched as the image of her father disappeared, then grimly turned 
away and frowned as she considered his words carefully. At long last she 
bowed her head in resolution before straightening out once again as she 
turned to the main computer relays that were at the core of the castle and 
said, "I wish to make an inquiry regarding a certain rumor centered in the 
Japanese Islands. Report any accounts regarding a girl becoming a licensed 
man and being betrothed to one or more young women. I wish to know the 
truth concerning this matter...and I want that report no later than this 
time tomorrow."

"Affirmative, Mistress," the computer replied, and thus began to reach 
around the globe to process the data it had been collecting from numerous 
mainframes littered about the planet. It would access great stores of 
seemingly random data and process the information with a human-like 
sensitivity to nuance and subtext, and soon arrive at the required file 
report of a certain secretary for the Tokyo region, about a project 
code-named Jusenkyo and the numerous cases of specially designated "men" who 
had been masked from the detection of the Virus, in particular naming 
individuals such as a certain youth in Nerima who went by the name of 
Saotome Ranma.

"In the meantime," Victoria turned away, "I am weary of fulfilling my duties 
to the realm and seek to retire to my private chambers. If there is need of 
me then I can be contacted through my personal channel...BUT only if there 
is a pressing need for my attention, else the matter will be relegated to 
the Doombot Cadre."

"Understood, Mistress," the computer replied, only to shift back to the 
voice of her father as he rather condescendingly remarked, "And give my best 
regards to Susan when you see her, my dear. Tell her Victor Von Doom thinks 
fondly of her and wishes it could be me giving her the satisfaction of my 
presence."

Victoria actually froze in mid-stride and grit her teeth in irritation. 
Trust her father to add the twist to the lemon of her existence, but she was 
much too distressed by these new developments to allow him to dictate her 
affairs. Besides, even if she were planning to see Susan it would be at a 
time and place of her own discretion.

Which, as coincidence would have it, was sometime within the next twenty or 
thirty minutes, depending on how long it took to make the transit to New 
York by means of her specially designed shuttle...


* * *


"Do you know what the problem with young people is these days?" asked Nodoka 
of her fiancée.

"No, darling," Kimiko replied as they snuggled close together, "What?"

"No patience for taking your time and letting things happen as they will," 
Nodoka remarked as she stroked the fine silken hairs of the woman in her 
arms and enjoyed the hot soak in the furo that they were both sharing 
together, "Like with Ranma and Ukyo...they could hardly keep their minds 
focused upon their studies whenever they were together. You could feel the 
love and lust they both radiated in the rooms they shared together, and it 
was all I could do to keep them directed upon their training."

"I know exactly what you mean, dear," Kimiko sighed, "Kasumi showed very 
little interest in following the traditions of the martial arts, especially 
when she and Nabiki were old enough to feel the change coming over them 
both. They would begin with light sparring matches but invariably wind up 
rolling on the floor and forgetting all about their lessons. I finally had 
to turn to a different sensei who teaches a specialized form of Aikido 
relating to female sexuality."

"You mean a combat system based on female sexual techniques?" Nodoka asked 
with an intrigued expression, "I found someone like that to help Ranma and 
Ukyo, but I had no idea that anyone in Japan was as specialized as that."

"Oh, you'd be quite surprised at what you can find locally," Kimiko 
chuckled, "Of course Kasumi never did become all that aggressive in her 
training and tends instead to specialize in a more domestic form of martial 
arts training. With Nabiki her training tended to specialize even more 
towards pleasure and seduction techniques, which I'm sure you can appreciate 
have only limited effect in the field of combat."

Nodoka chuckled softly, "Believe me, I well know how true that is. Ukyo and 
Ranma gradually learned how to control their baser urges, but every once in 
a while they would come up against a foe who was better trained and more 
tightly regimented, and then they would have to be more aggressive in order 
to survive the encounter. But I take it that Akane was much easier to 
handle since she apparently is a full lesbian and not bisexual, like the 
rest of your children."

"She does indeed seem to have a better handle over her urges than either of 
her sisters...or her mother for that matter," Kimiko mused while slipping 
her hand under the water to caress the soft fur between the legs of her 
lover, "And that is why she is the current heir to the Tendo Ryu, even if 
she is the youngest. She studied hard to become quite expert as a 
fighter...and from what I hear at school she truly needs those skills just 
to make it to class in the morning."

"Oh, I see," Nodoka mused, "A little too popular with the ladies?"

"Like someone else we both knew a little too well?" Kimiko chuckled, then 
paused before adding, "Not that I enjoy dredging up sad memories...but do 
you miss your husband as much as I do mine?"

"There are times...when I feel a great weight about my shoulders," Nodoka 
replied, "I have tried so hard to be a good mother to my children, but 
sometimes...I cannot help but wonder if Genma might not have managed things 
better than me. I've made some...questionable decisions over the past 
fifteen years, and not all of the choices I've made have been...good ones, 
though for the most part we've managed to survive them."

"Well," Kimiko smiled, moving her fingers a bit more intimately under the 
water, "To judge by the results that I've seen so far I don't think you've 
managed things too badly. Ranma and Ukyo seem like very fine, well behaved 
children...and considering the secret that you've been hiding from her all 
of her life that's saying quite a bit..."

"Only now that the secret is out I may have doomed my...son to a life of 
hardship," Nodoka sighed as she shifted her hips a bit to allow Kimiko 
better access, "My son...it's going to take some doing to get used to 
thinking of her like that. I've conditioned myself to think of her as my 
daughter so that I did not use the wrong tense and let slip her big secret. 
Now I have to work to regain my son's trust since finding out her real 
gender has proven to be quite...disconcerting."

"Disconcerting?" Kimiko asked as she worked one finger in through her 
lover's slit, followed by another, "How?"

"Well, take for example the way your daughters and Ukyo lost total control 
the first time they saw him naked," Nodoka mused, "And the Amazon, Shampoo, 
who has had some training in restraint. The mere sight of a 
man's...organ...ooooh, that's so nice..."

"I have to admit I felt a bit tempted myself when I saw him as his true 
self," Kimiko mused as she worked her skillful digits around the opening of 
her fiancée's sex, "It's been quite a while since I saw one myself, and I'd 
never guessed that I would find one so compelling. Not, of course, that 
I've lost my interest in female anatomy altogether..."

"I certainly hope not," Nodoka chuckled, then gasped a little as she added, 
"Oh yes...now that's definitely the spot...just a little further, 
darling....Kimi-chan...my love..."

"Now that's music to my ears," Kimiko grinned broadly as she snuggled in 
even closer, "But I won't be satisfied until I hear you beg me to put my 
whole hand into that silky..."

All at once there was a loud crashing sound, jarring both lovers into 
sitting fully erect within the furo. They turned in time to see the figure 
standing amid the ruins of the outward wall and found---much to their mutual 
dismay---the half-remembered figure from their mutual past who staggered 
into the room large as life and with a terrifying expression of livid 
outrage.

"NODOKA!" she snarled with animal-like fury, taking a step towards the 
soaking pair and raising a fist as she cried aloud, "AT LAST I'VE FOUND 
YOU---AND WITH THAT OTHER BITCH, KIMIKO! NOW AT LAST I WILL HAVE MY 
REVENGE---- WHOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The latter part of her declaration was punctuated by her feet leaving the 
floor as one encountered a bar of soap dislodged from its resting place by 
the violence of her entrance...and all at once the strangely familiar girl 
hit the floor head-first and knocked herself out cold, much to the dismay of 
the intended targets of her outrage.

"What in the name of the Mother of all Kami?" Kimiko asked, leaning over the 
edge of the furo as she tried to get a better look at the face of the 
stranger.

"Not quite," Nodoka replied as she stood upright and rested her palms upon 
the tiles, "Don't you recognize her, Kimi-chan? I know it's been more than 
twenty years, but surely you recognize our old friend Hibiki Atsuko?"

"Hibiki...Atsuko?" Kimiko blinked her eyes then said, "Now there's a name I 
hadn't expected to hear again. What is she doing here in my house, and what 
did she mean by revenge against us?"

"I'm not really quite sure, but you know how excitable she was in the old 
days," Nodoka mused.

"That's quite an understatement," Kimiko said as she got up out of the furo, 
reaching for a towel, even as Nodoka sought her bathrobe, "So...what's this 
Oni-spawn upset about now? I can't believe she's still holding a grudge 
against you for stealing Genma away from her?"

"I didn't steal him," Nodoka replied, "I...oh, wait a moment...um...now I 
think I am starting to remember..."

"Remember what?" Kimiko turned a questioning expression towards her fiancée, 
who had suddenly adopted a very sheepish expression.

"Oh dear..." Nodoka winced prettily, "It all comes back to me now. Two 
years ago we met up once again when I was living in the Juuban area and 
sending my daughters to middle school. It seems that Atsuko had a daughter 
of her own, and my children grew very fond of her...so I...oh my..."

"Let me guess," Kimiko said with a mild frown towards her lover, "You 
decided to engage her daughter to Ranma, anticipating yet another girl whom 
your son could impregnate as part of his harem."

"Well...that was my basic intention, yes," Nodoka grimaced slightly, 
"Only...I kind of found out something a bit later that changed the whole 
dynamic of the situation. It was after we'd sealed the honor pact and went 
to bed together to formalize the union of our two families..."

"You slept with her?" Kimiko blinked.

"Yes," Nodoka replied with a somewhat puzzled look towards Kimiko, "So?"

Kimiko opened her mouth then slowly closed it once again, "Good point. Go 
on."

"I know it sounds odd," Nodoka reassured her future wife, "I mean...we were 
rivals in the old days, and not exactly the best of friends...but...well, 
look at her. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn't be tempted by a face 
like that?"

"To say nothing of the rest of her?" Kimiko grinned, giving the unconscious 
Hibiki a look-over, "All right, I forgive you...but what was it that changed 
your opinion about marrying your son to her daughter?"

"That's just it," Nodoka replied, "I found out that Ryoko was not really her 
daughter."

Kimiko blinked, "You mean...she was adopted?"

"Oh no," Nodoka replied, "She's definitely the mother of her child...but her 
child was born a boy, not a girl, and her real name is 'Ryoga.'"

Kimiko blinked then said, "Come again?"

"And that isn't the worst of it either," Nodoka continued, steeling herself 
before adding, "You will never guess who was the father of her daughter."

Again Kimiko blinked her eyes, then they got very round as a stunning 
epiphany hit her between her well-plucked eyebrows, to which she finally 
managed to gasp, "You've got to be kidding! He cheated on you?"

"He wasn't even aware that he slept with her," Nodoka replied, "You remember 
how crazy things were in those days, how everything imaginable seemed to 
carry about us as though our lives were some sort of Anime series..."

"Oh yeah," Kimiko rolled her eyes, "Tell me about it."

"So you can see how that...kind of upset me, hearing it from her lips while 
we were...snuggling together," Nodoka grimaced slightly, "And it makes the 
very idea of a union between our two children...completely out of the 
question."

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that," Kimiko turned back to Atsuko and said, "So 
what was this dim-bulb thinking even considering marrying them 
together...and how in the name of the kami did she learn about Jusenkyo?"

"I'm not really sure of that myself," Nodoka replied, "Or even if Jusenkyo 
was involved in this...I only know that Ryoga is a man...and no matter what 
she felt towards my children, it would be quite inappropriate to have them 
be married...at least as far as it concerns Ranma."

"Well, Ukyo might have him," Kimiko shrugged, but then a mischievous look 
crossed her eyes as she slyly smiled, "So...what are we going to do to calm 
her down this time? You know how long it takes her to wind down from one of 
her berserker rages?"

"We'll just have to think of some means of restraining her," Nodoka grinned, 
"And of getting her calmed down so we can talk reason together...or whatever 
other means might work to change her mind about killing us."

"That's one of the many things I love about you, darling," Kimiko mused as 
the two of them bent down to attend to their unconscious house-guest, We 
think so much alike when it comes to sneaky dealings..."



* * *



"Well now, are you fully rested?"

"Huh?" Ryoko asked as she blinked her eyes and began to regain 
consciousness, staring around herself and immediately recognizing the 
waiting room of the clinic where she and her mother were now staying, then 
she looked up and saw the anxious face of her younger sister...and---beyond 
that---her eternally ageless great-grandmother.

"I mean did you enjoy your little nap?" Ganglot inquired, "Do you feel fine 
and fully rested now, and possibly even in the mood to listen to a very 
interesting story?"

Ryoko tried to sit up but found that she was still a bit dizzy, to which she 
moaned softly and asked, "What hit me?"

"The sidewalk," Rui promptly answered, "Honestly, Oneechan, when are you 
ever gonna learn not to pick fights with things that are bigger than you?"

"Hey, how am I supposed to get better if I don't test myself first, Squirt?" 
Ryoko replied, finally managing to sit semi-upright on her third consecutive 
effort.

"Well, there is testing yourself, and then there is going a bit too far over 
the top," Ganglot remarked, "And I suppose I did rather drop a bit of a 
bombshell on you by revealing your deeply held secret before you were 
actually ready."

"Uh...what deeply held secret, Granny?" Ryoko asked, seeing a nervous 
expression on Rui's face and frowning before adding, "And why do I get the 
feeling I'm the last one to know about it?"

"Not quite," Ganglot replied, "But you've been held back for long enough, 
and I think it's about time that we straighten you out on a few things...at 
least, in a manner of speaking."

"Straighten me out?" Ryoko gave her great-grandmother a rather odd look, 
"Are you getting funny on me or something, Granny?"

Despite her serious expression Ganglot had to smile at that, "Young thing, I 
was working both ends of the track back when they still pit the Lions 
against the Christians in the Coliseum. Funny thing about the old days, you 
really don't appreciate the good things until they become fodder for the 
history books. But the point of the matter is, you really are not as 
prepared to know the truth as you would be if your mother---darling child 
that she is---were not a completely hopeless idiot in things that truly 
matter."

"Not telling us anything we haven't found out the hard way here," Rui said, 
turning back to her older sister and saying, "But you know...I'm not sure 
I'm ready to know the truth about...oneechan. I mean, we grew up together, 
you think you know everything about somebody...only...this has to turn out 
to be the truth, but..."

"But what?" Ryoko gave Rui a puzzled look, "What are you going on about, 
little Munchkin?"

"The reason why your engagement to Saotome Ranma was never going to be 
consummated into full marriage," Ganglot replied, "Your mother had no 
business making that arrangement with Saotome Nodoka, it just set the both 
of you up for a lot of heartache and trauma."

"You're not making any sense, Granny," Ryoko frowned, "Just what the heck is 
wrong with me? Why can't I marry Ranma...and what the heck is it with her 
and those other girls?"

Rui blinked her eyes again, "You don't remember? But great-grandmother..."

"I cast a minor forget spell to ease her back from the trauma she suffered," 
Ganglot replied, "No sense having a repeat of what happened a few minutes 
ago when she passed out after I...um...let slip her little secret..."

"Let slip her secret?" Rui looked incredulously at her elder, "Granny, you 
dumped it on her...on the both of us, out of the blue and without any 
warning, so little surprise she got a nosebleed and fainted!"

"Well, I had to say something to keep her from rushing off again in search 
of the Saotomes," Ganglot shrugged, "And with her being possessed of the 
family sense of directions it just would have meant postponing explanations 
until much, much later."

"You could at least have waited until we had time to even know what a man 
is," Rui insisted, "I mean, before today, I can hardly even remember seeing 
one outside of a textbook or a museum..."

"Huh?" Ryoko looked askance at her little sister, "A man? Where the heck 
would you find one of those? Have you been taking her to one of those new 
Pleasure Domes where they got those robots that look like real humans?"

"Only with the freaky equipment that ain't supposed to be there?" Rui asked, 
"Yeah, right...like they let kids like me within a hundred meters of those 
places."

"With very good reason," Ganglot replied, "It is a well documented fact that 
young people have one of three instinctive reactions upon seeing male 
genitalia upon display. In general women either react positively or 
negatively, depending upon their sexual orientation, while Herms are either 
indifferent or tend to feel a sense of vague inadequacy, even going to far 
as to compare sizes of their equipment. In the case of those who react 
positively, the effect is rather like tossing raw meat before a pack of 
starving tigers...while those who have a negative reaction either seek to 
avoid a male phallus or physically abuse its possessor."

"Hah?" Ryoko asked with a puzzled expression.

"Um...why is that, Granny?" Rui asked with a strangely guilt-ridden 
expression.

"Because of what a phallus represents psychologically," Ganglot replied, 
"The ability to penetrate female genitalia, which is either a positive or a 
negative thing, depending upon the orientation of the one observing the 
possessor..."

"You mean like wearing a strap-on, Granny?" Ryoko asked while continuing to 
puzzle at why her younger sister was behaving so weird all of a sudden.

"Well...somewhat like but unlike that, Dear," Ganglot conceded, "What I am 
trying to work around to explaining to you is that it really was quite 
natural within my time for women to...admire a well-hung bull, even if I 
tended to prefer the occasional salad with my beef. For the longest period 
of human existence...or at least, the present species of humanity, one half 
of the population had a set of balls to go with the male organ, which is how 
the race perpetuated itself for the past three-hundred thousand years or so. 
But in less than a single generation the entire male half began to die off 
rather suddenly...in a mere five years time they were gone, a virtual 
eyeblink's time, which was frighteningly swift for a lady of my rather 
substantial years."

"Mom told us all the men in the world were dead," Rui noted, "So why is 
oneechan different?"

"I am?" Ryoko said in blank-faced astonishment.

"Because..." Ganglot paused before saying, "Fifteen years ago your mother 
sought me out in my pyramid prison and begged me for the secret to spare her 
only son from the doom laid upon men by my former client, Happosai. I 
explained to her a list of possible options that could be used for 
preserving the life of your brother..."

"Now wait a minute!" Ryoko protested.

"She weighed her options and eventually decided to contract with me for a 
simple charm that would conceal your true gender against the ravages of the 
Virus. That charm is the one you are wearing now, Ryo-chan, and for fifteen 
years it has protected you from the horrible fate that afflicted other 
nearly three billion men who used to inhabit this world, for which you 
should be grateful."

Ryoko absently put a hand to cover the pendant charm that she had worn about 
her neck for as long as she could remember, "What...this? But...wait a 
minute...!"

"You mean by wearing that pendant oneechan was turned into a girl?" Rui 
asked, "But when you had her say the words just now..."

"What words?" Ryoko stammered.

"A special charm-spell that activates the pendant and can be used to 
magically switch your chromosomes from Y to X genes, dear," Ganglot 
explained, "You see...you were not born as you are now, but by means of the 
pendant's Gemini magic you switched from being a Taurus to a Virgo."

"I don't believe you!" Ryoko cried as she shot to her feet, feeling her 
breasts under her shirt and saying, "Are you telling me that these aren't 
real...that I'm supposed to have...something between my legs?"

"Oh, it was real enough when I saw it just now," Rui shuddered, "A little 
too real for my tastes..."

"Huh?" Ryoko turned to her sister once again, "You saw it?"

"Hey, you were the one who insisted on stripping down in the middle of the 
street and taking a good look just to prove it!" Rui shot back, "That's when 
your nose started to bleed and you passed out right in front of this clinic! 
I just knew we should have waited until we were indoors, but no, you just 
had to see for yourself that great-grandmother wasn't lying."

"Why should I lie?" Ganglot replied, "The truth has always served me so well 
when I wanted to stir up mischief. Only this time I admit that I might have 
gone too far with anticipating that you could adapt to the knowledge of your 
condition, Ryo-chan, because you will obviously need much more time to get 
accustomed to the changes in anatomy and---ahem---endowments that come with 
reverting back to your true gender..."

"Great-grandmother," Ryoko growled, "Exactly what do you mean by 'changes?'"

The Oni princess sighed, "No words can describe it adequately for you...so I 
suppose I'll just have to again make a private demonstration. Eposit 
Domanii."

"Eposit Domanii?" Ryoko repeated, only to find that those words caused the 
pendant on her chest to glow, and then her body to inexplicably tingle all 
over, and suddenly she felt her flesh begin to shift and change as though 
momentarily converted into something pliable and expansive.

"Those are the magic words you use, Granny?" Rui asked as she once more 
watched her older sister expand and grow by several centimeters in all 
directions.

"You were expecting maybe 'Shazam?'" Ganglot asked, "Sorry, that one's 
taken..."

"What...what...what?" Ryoko stared down in disbelief at her---that is---HIS 
new body, at once hearing the deeper masculine tone of her words, which 
seemed oddly alien and yet somehow right to her on a level that went beyond 
instinctual understanding.

"Welcome to your body as you were originally meant to be...great-grandson," 
Ganglot gently informed him, "Your real name is Hibiki Ryoga, not Ryoko, and 
I would be very careful about rushing things, such as checking out the full 
scope of your...um...anatomical changes."

Ryoko-ne-Ryoga was patting his chest down and finding hard muscle had 
replaced the firm softness that had seemed proper until mere instants ago, 
but then those hands strayed down to crotch level and he felt a certain 
bulge down there that seemed impossibly enormous, so he just had to zip down 
his trousers and take a good look at what he would find there.

"Ogawd," Rui winced as she hastily looked away, "Here she goes again...!"

Ryoga's eyes were as wide as plates as he stared at a thick fireplug that 
extended outward from his crotch in a slightly upward-curving manner, and 
then he rolled his eyes up into his head as his noses started gushing blood 
and he once more promptly fainted.

"I just knew that was going to happen," Ganglot sighed, "Oh well...I did try 
to warn him..."

"What's going on out here?" said Doctor Ogeguri Ai as she came rushing into 
the clinic office, "Doctor Ganglot? Oh, you're back, and you found the 
child---WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?"

"Oops," Rui winced, "Busted."

"She does have a nice rack at that," Ganglot said with an admiring glance at 
her business partner, then she promptly stepped closer to Ai and said, "What 
is what, Darling? My great-granddaughter has merely had a faintly spell, 
nothing here to disturb you, certainly nothing where it is not supposed to 
be, right?"

Doctor Ai blinked in surprise, but then a faintly glassy look clouded her 
vision for a few seconds, and when they cleared she visibly relaxed as if no 
longer able to perceive the half-naked boy upon the floor, or the anatomical 
feature that decidedly marked him as other than female.

"Oh...quite right...don't know what I was imagining there...it's quite 
slipped my mind," Doctor Ai remarked, then shrugged and said, "Well, let's 
make her comfortable and see that she isn't suffering any traumas. Young 
people think they're all but indestructible these days---which they are, of 
course---but that hardly justifies their also being so reckless..."

As the owner of the Ogenki Sexual Health Clinic turned and retreated back 
into her office Rui leaned closer to her statuesque great-grandmother and 
asked, "Is it legal for you to do that to her? I mean, she is your client, 
not to mention business partner..."

"Whether it's permitted or not, I am hardly about to try and explain things 
in detail to Ai-chan...at least not without more preparation," Ganglot said 
as she stared wistfully down at the unconscious Ryoga, "Proof enough right 
there of what happens when you're too honest with the wrong people. Ah 
well, help me get your brother back onto the couch, Dear, and then we'll try 
and start this again all over."

"Again?" Rui complained, "Wouldn't it be easier if you didn't blank out her 
memories this time? It would sure save time on having to explain things all 
over."

"Oh hush, Child," Ganglot grinned, "Where is the fun in that? Besides, I 
think he's starting to adjust a bit to the idea of being a man. It actually 
took twice as long this time before he got to the fainting spell, and with 
enough practice I'm sure he'll get the hang of things...at least long before 
your mother gets back and has to do some real explaining."

"That's for sure," Rui said grimly, wincing a bit as she glanced at Ryoga 
and said, "Do I have to touch that thing of his? It creeps me out the way 
it just keeps standing to attention, like some kind of giant mushroom."

"It is a rather handsome stool at that, now that you mention it," Ganglot 
said admiringly, "Reminds me more than a bit of my son, your late 
grandfather...now there was a fellow rich with endowments, and extremely 
popular with the ladies."

"Do you mind, Granny?" Rui grimaced, "I haven't eaten lunch yet and I've 
already lost my appetite. But what about her...uh...his fiancée, Saotome 
Ranma? How do you think she's gonna react when she finds out about my 
brother?"

"That...is another half of the story that I'm hoping I get the chance to 
explain to you," Ganglot reluctantly conceded, "You see...Saotome isn't 
really Ryoga's fiancée...she is...well...actually your mutual half-brother. 
Well, Ryo-chan's brother, actually, but in your case that would sort-of 
mean..."

"My...brother?" Rui gasped as she suddenly tried to picture the stunning and 
petite redhead as a man...and then she followed the example of her brother 
and promptly fainted dead away.

"Oh dear," Ganglot said sheepishly, staring at both of her slumped-over 
grandchildren then sighing rather dramatically, "I guess I should have seen 
that coming. After all, they are Hibikis..."



Continued.

Comments/Criticisms/Eichiido Lessons: shadowmane@msn.com

Next time around we see how Akane deals with some romantic troubles of her 
own making, while Ranma gets to hear the other side of what it's like to 
have multiple fiancees...and Doom pays his respects to her own romantic 
interests in, "Love Chain Gangs of Nerima," or, "Looking For Clubs In All 
The Wong Places..." Be there!