Chapter 1:
Wild Horses & Pokegirls
Where's Ranma?

WARNING: This is a fic that has silly moments and plotlines, but is set in a
dark world and explores concepts dealing with the darker side of human
nature. It also is *not* recommended for the young, rated NC-17 or something
or like that. There are elements which will disturb me, the writer, for
crying out loud.

DISCLAIMER: Various elements from this come from Greyman and a few other
erotic (or at least adult-oriented) Addventure writers on the web, Nintendo,
R.Takahashi/Viz, and other writers.

-----

Ranma checked the address again from the note Professor Stroak had given
him. Old rambling manor with lots of outbuildings, vaguely Japanese in
style, even if the amount of land of size of the place was odd to modern
Japanese sensibilities.

The sign in front read fairly simply.

He wasn't sure about *any* of this, but he remembered the argument from the
Professor.

-----

Yesterday:

Ranma jerked a thumb at himself. "Hey, I fight my *own* battles!"

"Not here, not now, Ranma," argued the Professor. "I knew a guy like you
once, insisted on doing things his own way. Wouldn't follow the rules
everyone else did. Wouldn't accept that a thing *was* and had to know why it
was like that."

"Yeah, what happened to him?"

"He died a horrible lingering death because he refused medical treatment for
Wasp stings. The point is, Ranma, that even if you're going to buck the
system - you're at least going to have to pay it lip service."

"I just wanna get back to my OWN world."

The Professor waved that off. "And Trauma Team has the plans for the
wormhole device. There is a chance that the backup lab can figure it all out
from the surviving equipment and notes, but you heard them yourself. You're
looking at two years or more before they can replicate the original experiment
that landed you here."

"So *why* do I haveta be a 'Tamer'?" Ranma scowled at the word. He still
wasn't sure about all this stuff. It was definitely a different world, all
the furry chicks were enough to indicate *that*.

Professor Stroak sighed as if he had had this conversation before. He had,
of course. "Ranma, you've only been here one day, and I can already tell you
have *no* skills besides the martial arts and some minor skills in cooking.
Neither of which will allow you to earn a living. As a Tamer, you can wander
around and earn your keep, stay at PokeCenters, and learn more about this
world. Some of it may even come in handy IF you can return to your own
world."

"I can live mainly off the land, Pops and me did that before." Ranma was
getting a bit sullen. He still hadn't thought of any *new* objections and
was just repeating an earlier set of gripes that he'd done with the lab team
that had been present when he'd arrived in this world.

"Ranma, when you attacked those people who were putting out fires in the
backup lab, trying to contain that damage, holding THEM responsible for your
presence instead of Trauma Team, what happened?" The Professor knew full
well, of course.

Ranma flushed at the memory. "Well, I..."

"You got your butt kicked," said the Professor bluntly.

"HEY! I wasn't expecting some gal to throw lightning at me!" Ranma went
defensive. "If I fought her again, I'd be able to beat her!"

"You didn't know what to expect, and you fought a Peekabu." The Professor
pulled a tray of rice balls out of the refrigerator and set them on the
table. "Which is exactly why you wouldn't last if you were trying to live
off the land."

Ranma grumbled, but ate a rice ball anyway.

"Look, Ranma, Tamers fulfill a useful purpose everyday," the Professor said,
holding onto one rice ball so that it wouldn't vanish. "Without Tamers, wild
pokegirls would attack people indiscriminately. Natural disasters would
require more resources than the Fire Departments or Police could field.
There are also Rogue Tamers and groups like Team Rocket that the police
don't quite seem able to handle."

Ranma grumbled again. Partly because he'd just eaten the last rice ball.

"This PokeDex will give you more information about what a Tamer's duties
are, will identify you as a beginning Tamer, and allow you to contact me
periodically for updates on status of the dimension spanning work." The
Professor handed over a small gadget that resembled a Game Boy except it had
a cover. "Be careful with it, they cannot be easily replaced."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Your choice of an Alpha will be very important, and I don't have anything
suitable. However, I know an old friend who is a little strange but owes me
a BIG favor. He runs a PokeDojo not far from Necrima and he can set you up
with an Alpha."

Ranma grunted. It didn't sound like he had much choice. Well, if he had to
be some kinda Tamer (he still wasn't sure what all that meant), he was gonna
be *his* kinda Tamer. As soon as he figured out what that was.

"Ranma, it's not fair, but it is human behavior to pigeonhole you based on
how you're first presented. Someone who has no money and is wandering around
will have problems presented to them based on that perception. Tamers result
in a different set of preconceptions being applied. People will give you
much more leeway in your behavior, since Tamers are pretty much considered
odd in any case."

-end flashback-

Ranma was sorely tempted to go to the back. Challenge the dojo? Perfect!
Familiar ground - Pops and him had done a few of those, making odd yen
through bets and payoff when the dojo bought their signs back. Which wasn't
strictly in keeping with the rules of such things.

However, even if he *had* only been in this world for two days, Ranma
understood that the fight was supposed to be between those weird girls like
the yellow one who'd zapped him. He understood there was more types of them,
but he wasn't too sure what. He'd seen the one who'd zapped him, he'd seen
one with a long tail in that tape of Trauma Team, he'd seen some kinda
Bunnygirl with those researchers too.

Ranma groaned. He didn't like this setup. Didn't like this world.

Unfortunately, as that Professor guy had said, he had to take an "Alpha"
here.

Knocking on the front door, Ranma wondered what to say. What to do. What the
heck an Alpha was. How would he get back? Sure his Pop was an idiot, and
that trip to Jusenkyo was enough for Ranma to want a vacation from that
bonehead! Still, he was his father.

Unfortunately, he was on his own. In a completely unfamiliar situation. And
his father had *never* given him instructions in these sorts of situations.

The door opened. "Yes? May I help you?"

Ranma was still looking at the ground. "Uhm, yeah. Professor Stroak kinda
sent me."

"Oh my, yes. You must be Ranma."

"Yeah I.... I..." Ranma had looked up.

The clothes weren't a problem. Nice little housedress and blouse combination
with a frilly apron. Very feminine, very modest, not at all out of place on
almost any Japanese housewife.

Most Japanese housewives (in Ranma's admittedly *very* limited experience)
did *not* have furry tails sticking out behind them. Or furry little
triangular ears. Or fangs that were revealed in a cute little smile.

"Ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-CAT!"

--------------------

The tired old Professor saw where the call was coming from, and quickly hit
the [Answer] button. "Soun? Did Ranma reach there all right?"

"Yes. However he screamed and fainted when he got here. Low blood sugar?"

"No, he didn't say anything about that. Martial artist type. Is this the
same guy? Rough speech, black hair, ponytail, red silk sleeveless shirt,
black gym pants?" Professor Stroak punched a button and brought up a digital
photo of Ranma. "This?"

Soun nodded. "Yes, that's him. Kasumi has been fretting over him since his
arrival."

"One of your pokegirls? Hmmm. Ranma was part of that mess with the
dimensional tunnel project."

Soun was alarmed. "He's the maniac that attacked the researchers?"

"Well, how would *you* feel if you'd gotten ripped away from your home and
deposited in a strange world?"

"Good point, Professor," allowed Soun.

"Apparently they don't have pokegirls where he came from, so he's never met
many. I gave all of mine away, you know, I needed a break and to get on with
my research, so I set a number of new Tamers up with my old ones. Part of an
experiment on Taming approaches as well."

"Oh yes, I read your memo on that. Each of the Tamers you selected are using
radically different approaches to the whole process." Soun nodded again.
"Back to this Ranma, no health problems you know of?"

"No, here's his physical data." The Professor tapped a couple of keys. "Mind
you I haven't had much time with him. Martial artist, as outdated as that
seems - practices it himself. Seen him moving around in the morning in some
kind of practice. It *could* be lingering effects from the dimensional
transport, though I did a full biometric scan on him earlier."

Soun smirked, knowing of Stroak's research habits. "Still going through the
data?"

"Of course, it'll take the computers days to cross reference everything and
find anything definitive. So far he's very healthy but has some evidence of
many past injuries - including repetitive concussive injuries."

"Really I..."

Stroak leaned forward. "Something wrong?"

"This name? This is his name?"

Samuel Stroak was a little puzzled. Why had Soun gone all pale.

"Saotome?! But this is..." Soun's eyes were obviously tracking the screen
displaying data off to the side. "Father's name: Genma Saotome?!"

The Professor watched Soun's eyes roll up and the Breeder fainted. "Nabiki,
are you there?"

A Kitten's head popped into the video pickup. "Don't worry, Prof, he does
this all the time!"

"Any idea why Ranma's biodata would affect him that way?"

Nabiki shook her head, lips curling in a smirk. "Nah. Ooooo. Looks like he
has a good endurance score. Nabiki LIKE that!"

"I thought you would," agreed the Professor. "Give me a call when your
father recovers. Out."

-------

Ranma recovered slowly. Mental conflicts were not something he'd a lot of
experience with.

He opened his eyes slowly and immediately scrambled away from the THING over
there.

"Oh my. Is there... something wrong?"

"Get away! Get away! Please, go away!" Once again, Ranma found himself
panicking with the old cat fear. Into it had been introduced another
element - as this was both a cat and not a cat. A girl but not a girl. Both.
One made him nervous, and the other he was phobic about.

"But I..."

Ranma saw the tearful, hurt, gaze the woman/THING/c-c-cat turned on him.
Another set of conflicting drives and reactions started up. "P-please."

The reluctant Tamer gave a deep breath of relief as the door clicked closed
behind the girl/cat or whatever. Though his stomach was still upset over all
the odd feelings this was stirring up.

The door slammed open.

"YOU! HOW COULD YOU MAKE KASUMI CRY!"

"Well I..." Ranma was astonished. A human girl in a gi?! Here? Oh, she had a
barcode on her neck. Not really a girl then.

"WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE TAMERS AROUND HERE AFTER ALL? YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF
PERVERTS. it's in the job description, after all. YOU HAVE NO CLASS AT ALL,
JUST A BUM WITH A LICENSE!"

Insults. Finally, this was getting onto more familiar ground. Ranma's father
had given Ranma long hours of practice in this sort of combat. One fought
with insults and the more biting the reply, the better. Ranma looked up and
down the not-girl with a disdaining look. "I didn't want to do any of this
anyway. I don't need some flatchested, uncute, little girl to fight my
battles for me."

The girl looked momentarily confused but recovered to get closer and wave a
fist in Ranma's face. "You're a pretty stupid damn Tamer if you think you're
a better fighter than I am! You're saying you can challenge me PERSONALLY?!"

"Nah," said Ranma, moving in for the kill. He deliberately turned his nose
up at the not-girl and used his most insulting tone. "I wouldn't challenge
you personally. Just cause there wouldn't be no challenge. Ya ain't got a
prayer against me."

"You. WHAT?!" The girl with the barcode actually got angrier. "That's it,
buddy. Dojo. Now. You won't underestimate Akane Tendo of the Anything Goes
PokeRanch again!"

---------

Ranma expected a "dojo" to be similar to those he'd run across in Japan.
This was not like them.

It looked more like a stadium, with seating all around. The floor or ring
area was twice the size of the dojos he was used to, with markings similar
to that of a basketball court.

The girl settled into a stance at the far end of the ring. "Ready or not.
HAAA!"

Ranma took the "girl's" measure in a moment and wasn't impressed. Maybe a
dan ranking. Some variety of kempo. Not a challenge at all. So he settled
for dodging everything she was throwing at him and wondered how best to end
this game.

Akane seemed to get angrier as time went on without her landing a single
punch or kick. She settled back. "Okay, now we get serious. COMET PUNCH!"

The chi attack struck directly in Ranma's face, causing him to fall
backwards. He was up again in a moment and counterattacked, knocking the
not-girl into the air with an uppercut before he realized he was doing it.

Clapping began as soon as Akane slammed into the wooden floor.

Ranma looked up and tried to suppress panic. Another cat/not cat girl/not
girl.

"Bravo! Not many Tamers could do that, you know!" The catgirl with the
pageboy haircut called down. "I'm Nabiki Tendo. Just came in to tell you
that Dad's recovering from a little fainting spell and wants to meet you."

"Yeah, right," Ranma muttered. He was anxious to get this over with anyway.
It wasn't so bad if he didn't look at the vaguely feline audience. "Let's
go."

-------

Soun put Professor Stroak up on the screen as a witness and had his three
principal daughters lined up behind a table. There were also five others
behind THEM.

"Son, you come from another world, so you wouldn't know about this," Soun
began. "In this world I had an old friend, a comrade named Genma Saotome. We
suffered for many years together as we learned the secrets of Anything Goes
PokeMastery under the yoke of a terrible Master."

"Genma? Same name as my Pop?" Ranma scratched his head.

"Parallel universes," explained Professor Stroak from the vidphone. "Means
that some things may be very different, but that there will be things in
common - parallel to each other. Soun, what happened to your old friend?"

Soun toggled a remote control, and a small picture of Genma Saotome appeared
on a monitor. "He died last year. Here's the article."

Everyone read the scrolling data with varying degrees of astonishment.

"What the heck? 'Genma Saotome and his son Ranma, heirs to the Saotome
School Of PokeMastery, were officially declared dead when they failed to
come back from a training mission to Jusenkyo Spell Dump - an area known as
the Accursed Springs.' There was a ME here?" Ranma stared. It LOOKED like
his father, and there had been a Jusenkyo in his home world too.

"What's 'Jusenkyo' anyway?" Nabiki asked.

"I'm curious as to that myself," allowed Soun.

The Professor shrugged on the screen. "Well, Ranma needs a little background
for that. Three hundred years ago, a powerful wizard (and extreme pervert)
named Sukebe created the first pokegirls. The authorities of that time
didn't take too kindly to someone using forbidden technology, much less
magic, and responded with a show of force. There were high explosives used,
which was unwise. The result was Jusenkyo, where recombinant genetic
experiments and magic saturated the ground. It is quite hazardous and
avoided by anyone with more sense than a feral Titmouse."

"Ah, poor Genma. The path to PokeMastery is fraught with peril." Soun sobbed
into his sleeve.

"Sounds like Oyaji," agreed Ranma.

"In any case, you're a Ranma Saotome, and there is an agreement between the
Tendo and Saotome families. Ranma was to take one of my daughters as an
Alpha and continue the School." Soun began to work up enthusiasm. "Maybe
more than one since you're just starting out!"

"Naw, Pops ain't stupid enough to go makin' arrangements like that." Ranma
shook his head. "So that's between you and the Ranma of *this* world."

"Ranma, you have to have an Alpha in order to be a Tamer," pointed out the
Professor from the vidphone. "That's why you went there in the first place."

"What's an Alpha anyway?" Ranma asked, then felt very self conscious from
the amount of staring.

Professor Stroak, who was more used to Ranma's ignorance after spending
almost two days around him, answered. "The Alpha pokegirl slot is an
important choice. She's your lead, your second in command. She handles the
duties you cannot towards the other pokegirls when you have other concerns.
She is also the one you keep outside her pokeball most of the time, and as a
result is the signpost most people will use to determine what kind of Tamer
you are?"

Ranma didn't get it. "Huh?"

Soun broke in, eager to "sell" each of his daughters. "That's right. The
image you want to project is accomplished by the kind of pokegirl you select
as Alpha! A friendly Kitten like Kasumi or a smart one like Nabiki projects
a fairly open, friendly, approach. A Tomboy like Akane would indicate you're
tough and independent."

"He is NOT my type. I refuse!" Akane followed this with a "hmmmph" and
turning so that she didn't have to face Ranma. "He's a Tamer, which means
he's a pervert!"

"Works for me," said Nabiki with a grin and a wink at Ranma.

"Oh my," said Kasumi, who blushed and examined the tabletop.

"Wow!" Some pokegirl with blonde hair and two ridiculously long floppy ears
looked enthused.

"Is he a good pervert or a bad pervert?" Another pokegirl, this one with
long purple hair asked as if she didn't expect an answer. Which is good,
because everyone ignored her.

"..." The pale pokegirl with the odd red eyes continued to stare
unblinkingly at Ranma.

"I'm sure it will all work out for the best," said a calm looking pokegirl
in a housedress next to the albino. She wore odd facial markings, but
otherwise looked mainly human.

"You know, he kinda looks like my sempai," sighed a tall pokegirl whose hair
was in a ponytail.

"Well, he *is* kinda cute, I suppose," said the elf at the far end of that
second row.

"HEY!" Ranma exclaimed.

"So son? Which do you choose?" Soun frowned as the boy began to show signs
of not making a decision. "You MUST choose one of my daughters."

----------

PokeDex Listing:
KITTEN, cat type pokegirl
Type: Animorphic Near Human - Feline
Element: none
Frequency: Common
Diet: Omnivore, preference for fish, eggs, milk, and similar products.
Role: Frequently domesticated pokegirl
Libido: Average, Seasonally can be Extreme
Strong Vs: Mouse types, Bird types
Weak Vs: Dog types, Ghost types
Attacks: Scratch, Bite, Pummel, Leap, Tackle
Enhancements: good night vision. minor psychic sensitivity. enhanced
balance, speed, reflexes.
Evolves: Cheshire (mechanism uncertain - appears psychic), Catgirl (normal),
Tigress (evolves under extreme stress/battle conditions), Warcat (mechanism
uncertain - may be unique)
   Kittens are the young form of Catgirl, though they can evolve to other
forms instead of Catgirl in certain circumstances.
   Kittens have a wide range of personalities, though most share a common
fastidiousness and a desire for creature comforts. Some are domestically
inclined housecats, others are sneaky, others are violent, most are least
slightly catty.

TOMBOY, near human pokegirl
Type: Near Human
Element: None
Frequency: Rare
Diet: any human style food
Role: frequently used in construction and other heavy labor fields
Libido: Low initially, when having found a favored Master this can be raised
to High
Strong Vs: Ghost types, low level flunkies
Weak Vs: Elemental attacks, sex attacks, Domina
Attacks: Hammer, Pummel, Yell, Glare, Tackle
Enhancements: Toughness, High Strength, Enhanced Durability, Healing Factor.
Evolves: Oni (requires elemental stone)
Tomboys are not popular with the vast majority of Tamers. They are slow,
ungraceful, difficult to tame, stubborn, tempremental, and often frigid.
Those who have become favored Masters swear by Tomboys, however, as they are
extremely loyal and will give their all for those who have won that loyalty.
   Tomboys are often found in duties where heavy lifting is required.

============