CATOC revised ch 2

[Tovath]

First chapter and non-revised chapters here
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4304874/1/C ... nly_Change

Curses Aren't The Only Change
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I think that you are smart enough to figure out how much of this I own.


Irusan of Knowth was not known for his forbearance of insults. He had once attacked and carried off Bard Seanchan for making an insulting song about him, The bard was able to get away with no more then a fright due to Bardic immunity. Genma had no such protection.
He now stalked the foggy streets of London, hunting down the thief who had destroyed it's home and dared to steal from him. Catching a scent on the wind Irusan knew he was almost there. The thief was in this city. He would get it's revenge on Genma Soatome, the giant cat thought as it prowled though the streets of London.
At dawn Irusan stopped in front of a run down apartment building sniffing the air for the scent of his prey. The thief was on the third floor of this building. This was no problem for the King of the Cats; He simply jumped up and sliced though the wall pulling Genma out.
What he did not expect was that he would be attacked by a young human male who was acting like a cat whose territory had just been violated. The thief attempted to take advantage of the distraction to, presumably, flee. Irusan foreseeing his plan stopped it by using his leg as a scratching post.
No one noticed that the other person in the room disappeared.

xxxxxx

'It's Saturday' thought Minako as she woke up.
She always had liked Saturdays, because she didn't have to worry about her homework until Sunday. She was planning to see her friend, Katarina, this afternoon in much more pleasant circumstances then last time they had seen each other. Aside from that she could just goof off all day. Hopefully, today would be peaceful and nothing would happen to cause her to go back “on duty,” so to speak.
Any hopes Minako had of a peaceful day were shattered when she heard a tapping on her window. Makoto was the last person she expected to see outside her window, not that Minako had ever expected to see someone right outside her window being that her bedroom was on the second floor. Feeling rather confused Minako opened the window.
“Look, ya still want my help with that senshi thing right?” said Makoto abruptly once the window was open,
“Um yes how are you hanging there?” Minako asked the girl hanging upside down outside her window.
“Raingutter. There's a big one of those,” Makoto pointed at Artemis, “ is attacking my brother. If ya help then I won't complain about getting dressed up in that stupid costume.”
“Lets go, you can explain more on the way.”

xxxxxxx

As they got to the rundown tenement near the dock yards, that Minako could hardly believe people actually lived in, they could hear the sounds of yowling and battle. Ranma was on all fours and fighting a cat the size of a horse. Minako quickly transformed
In the name of Love and Justice I will punish you overgrown cat for --”
The cat looked at her oddly and said “Why are you calling me names if you are going to help me take blood price from Genma for his attempts at thievery from my palace?”
Sailor V shook her head frowning in confusion. She didn't know what a blood price was, but it didn't sound good.

xxxxxxx

A young red headed man named Tomas stood on top of Big Ben, focusing his draconic senses on finding who he sought. He had been asked by Lady Titania, who never gave orders, although she could, if he could take care of a group calling themselves the Dark Agency. Sailor V was, to the best of anyone's knowledge, fighting this Dark Agency. There! he had it now. 'Oh great I so don't want to deal with King Iruson right now' thought Tomas as he spread his wings.
Tomas set down on a building overlooking the area. From the state of the street below it looked like a representative of the Council would be talking to Iruson soon When Tomas heard Irusan speck of blood price he knew he had better get down there fast. So he jumped down between the king of the cats and the girl in a short skirt that had a most interesting magical melody flowing around her.
“King Irusan, you can not call for a blood price for so little an offense.”
“That thief,” Irusan as he pointed to an unconscious Genma with a forepaw, “Almost broke one of my son's legs with some attack he called 'Moko Kaimon Ha' as he escaped.”
“That is no--” Tomas noticed the black haired boy with his hair in a pigtail was on all fours stalking Iruson's tail. “Why is he acting like that?” He exclaimed not able to keep a undertone of accusation from his voice.
Unfortunately Iruson caught that undertone. “I have not done anything to him and I would thank you not to accuse me of such, halfbreed. He was like that when I got here.”
“He wouldn't be acting like that if ya hadn't showed up.” said a girl with brown hair.
Suddenly the boy took off running, still on all fours.

xxxxx

Just then, Ranma-neko caught the scent of something REALLY good. So good that, the cat had a craving to find this delectable and immediately acted on it.
Now to understand what happened next, one must understand that while Ranma displayed cat-like mannerisms when in Neko-ken, he still had a human brain that could make assessments. In this case it went like this fighting equals playing, so opponent equals friend. You share food with friends. So when he smelled fish he went to go get some to share with his new friend.
What he smelled was the barrels of salmon being unloaded off a ship down at the dockyards. This led to a great deal of confusion and fear among the dock workers as they saw a young man walking on his hands and knees jump up, slash though the ropes that were being used to unload some barrels of fish and run off with one of the barrels.
As Ranma-neko was rolling the barrel back, Makoto caught up with him. When they got back Ranma-neko rolled the barrel of fish over to Irusan.
Ranma-neko opened it at the end with a punch, grabbed a fish to eat, then backed up so Irusan could get some.

xxxxx

Irusan did so with great gusto, swallowing ten fish in one gulp and spitting out the bones.
“Ah salmon, my favorite. This will do nicely for a blood price.” He purred. He picked up the barrel and walked off with it, trying to look like there was nothing he had wanted more then a barrel of fish. Really he was just trying to keep from losing any honor. He didn't want to kill the kit named Ranma. There was something so likable about him and having a Bard around complicated things.

xxxxx

Tomas watched Irusan go, shaking his head, to claim blood price when you are the only one who has spilled any blood was rather silly to say the least. He looked down at Genma's unconscious form. 'I suppose one of them could try to claim a blood price from Irusan, but that would be a rather stupid thing to do and I doubt they know about it anyway.' Tomas's thoughts were interrupted by the shout of a police man who was coming around the corner.
“What's going on here now?” He looked straight at the group of teenagers “Is this some kind of...“
Then he looked around at the destruction that the fight had caused. He had thought that the sounds of violence that had been reported were just from an overly loud TV, not a real fight. “What the hell?!”

xxxxx

Makoto looked around for the quickest escape route. Cops were always trouble and beating them up just caused more trouble. Before she made any move though, Tomas flashed a badge at the cop. “Tomas Drake, Special Ops, can you please call an ambulance?”
The Police officer saluted, “Right I'll go do that.” He left in a hurry, glad that he didn't have to deal with something able to cause that much destruction.
“Why'd ya do that?” asked Makoto as the cop disappeared. “Doctors 'll just cause more trouble.”
“Why would they be trouble?” Artemis asked, “If you are worried about the police arresting him, we can do a thing or two about -”
“I'm not talking about that.” said Makoto, “A martial artist will heal faster then a normal person, 'cause of their chi. It always weirds them out and then they do stupid stuff.”
'But awen is the only thing that can do that' thought Tomas 'Ryouga did heal fast for a human though.'
“Don't worr--” Then Ranma tried to pounce on a mouse “Why is he still acting like that?”
“Training accident.”
“Oh”
Makoto was glad he didn't ask anymore about it.
Minako asked “So how do you get him acting normal again?”
“After he takes a nap he should be fine.”
“I darst think we have the time needed for that solution.” said Tomas lapsing into an older form of English.
“Told ya having the cop call doctors was a bad idea.” said Makoto trying to get Ranma to stop playing with the mouse.
“I have an idea that should work.” said Artemis. Seeing he had everyone's attention he explained that he could try to do a Mind Meld. He didn't mention that it had been a very long time since he had done one and he had never been the best at them.

xxxxx

“So how do you do this Mind Meld anyway?” asked Tomas tersely hoping he wouldn't have to do anything that would hurt his ability to work with Sailor V.
“It's a ability that we Mau have. We can, um, dampen or bring to the forefront a persons memories.” 'and a few other things dealing with healing the spirit to, but that would take too much time to explain,' he thought.
“Using that will work and not violate the Covenant.” said Tomas.
'Like he has any right to tell me what to do' thought Artemis before putting the thought out of his mind to concentrate on Ranma. He stood before Ranma, the crescent moon on his head glowing, and he dived into Ranma’s subconscious. He found himself, facing another cat in an area filled with wildly churing mist. The other cat immediately jumped at Artemis and he was forced to defend himself. As he jumped back to catch his breath and figure out what the hell was going on, the other cat shot claws out of his paws. There was no way for him to dodge all of them so he braced for the attack pulling his magic around him in hopes that he would not get killed.
And the claws disintegrated against the shield the now human Artemis was holding. Artemis didn't notice the change as he drew his sword and sliced the cat in half.
“Ok now what?” thought Artemis, “If this is Ranma’s subconscious then I guess I should calm the mist down, because this envirment is caused his mind and....”
As he thought this some of the mist swirled around him and then the mist became, calm as a Buddhist monk meditating. Then Artemis ‘woke up’ back in the real world.
“I think I was able to fix Ranma’s fear of cats, but, I think there are a few things Makoto didn't mention about the Neko-ken”
Artemis would have continued, but Ranma had woken up as well. “Uh what school was the martial artist who hit me?”
Before anyone else could respond to the odd question Makoto answered it “Cat”
“Oh right there was a big one of those wasn't there.” Ranma said as he got up “Where did he go?”
“He left after you gave him a barrel of fish.”
“Why'd I do that?”
“Beats me” This little interchange between siblings was interrupted by the whine of an ambulance. The ambulance came and Genma was put in the back of it. Ranma said he better go along with them “ta make sure Pops doesn't get into more trouble.”
“Right, I've some things to take care of with these guys.” replied Makoto.
As the ambulance left Minako said that she knew a good cafe where they could go to talk.
“That sounds fine,” said Tomas, “but first I think it would be best to dispense with any glamories, do you not think?”
“Huh'
“I think he means detransform?” Artemis hadn't heard the word glamories in a long time, but it seemed to strike a cord in his memory. Minako detransformed and Tomas took off the glamorie that changed his features.
Tomas gave a full formal bow did so and said “Bard Tomas Drake, at your service.”
“Hey you're that cute boy I met at that play!” Minako exclaimed then put her hands over her mouth embarrassed that she had said something so stupid. To cover up her embarrassment Minako said, “Well come on let's get to the cafe,” and started to walk in the direction of said cafe. Tomas and Makoto shrugged and followed her as Artemis jumped on to her shoulder.
When they got to the cafe Minako ordered some scones which she said were really good. Makoto didn't know what a scone was but figured that food was food and by now she was hungry.
“What ya want me to do about this Senshi thing?” asked Makoto.
Minako said “Um well you don't have to if you--”
“You helped, I keep my promises.”
Artemis said “Makoto we would have been glad to help you whether or not you had said that.”
Makoto shrugged “Doesn't matter I said I would and I don't go back on my word.”
“Alright, here's your henshin wand.” As Artemis did the flip to get Jupiter's wand he noticed that there was something off about his magic. Nevertheless he gave Makoto the wand. “Um you might want to wait until later to try transforming.”
Then Artemis realized that Tomas had just been quitly listening the whole time.

xxxxx

In the rush of events there was one thing that Minako had forgotten. It was that she had been going to meet with Katarina at her favorite cafe at eleven. It was now eleven and she was at her favorite cafe, so Katarina arrived. “Who are your friends, Minako?”
“Oh, hi Katarina. This is Tomas Drake, he's in Special Ops.”
“Oh, so the mysterious Special Ops has finally made its appearance has it.”
Tomas had obviously heard the extra emphasis that was put on the finally. “I am deeply sorry I was not able to be here sooner. Odin decided to attack us and we needed every able body to repel him.”

xxxxx

Artemis wasn't paying much attention to the conversation going on around him. There was definitely something wrong with the flow of his magic. It seemed to be changing more every moment. There seemed that there was some new power interacting with it, but this new power wasn't any sort of magic, yet it didn't seem foreign let alone malevolent. He tried to touch this new power and next thing he knew he was on the floor, human and naked. At the same time a shield appeared on Ranma's arm.
*What the fucking hell!?* Artemis heard in his head.

xxxxx

Minako was quite surprised when all of the sudden there was a naked man in her lap
instead of a cat. She jumped back or rather would have if it wasn't for the fact that she was sitting in a chair. So what actually happened was her chair fell over, which was even more embarrassing since, um, Artemis was now on top of her.
Makoto forthnly reacted quickly by grabbing the tablecloth off their table, somehow without disturbing the plates on it, and putting it around Artemis.


Meanwhile Artemis was reacting to the voice he was hearing. It sounded like Ranma's voice, and he tried to respond. *Um Ranma can you hear me?*
*Yah I hear ya, I hear ya. Now where are ya and why did this shield appear on my arm?*
*I'm at the Ascot Cafe,* Artemis sent. He was going to ask about this shield Ranma had mentioned but Ranma interrupted him.
*Ya right how does that work, Its a bit far away.*
*I think we better talk face to face,* I hope we can figure out what is going on thought Artemis. *Just stay there, we'll come and get you.* He opened his eyes to see Minako looking rather freaked out. Then he noticed several other things. One he had a tablecloth around him. Two he was human. Three Katarina was talking to a waitress...wait, he was human when had that happened.
Before Artemis had a chance to do more then notice his state Katarina turned and said that they needed to leave now.
It took Artemis several minutes and Minako's help to get to the car. How were humans able to manage with only two legs. His mouth however worked fine. “We need to go get Ranma.”
Artemis worried the whole way to the hospital. He had plenty of things to worry about like the fact that he seemed to have messed up something when he was doing the mind meld, the fact that heir new ally was a bard or the fact that he was human for example. That last one solved it's self when he got nearer to the hospital.
Without any preamble Ranma asked “What's this and why the hell did it show up on my arm?”
“Um it's a shield,” Artemis said “I think it is the one I used to carry... back then.”
“Why did ya shield appear on my arm?” said Ranma looking annoyed.
“Probably for the same reason that I just turned into a human in the middle of the cafe.” Artemis stopped in thought “Ranma try this, imagining a safe place for the shield, then put it there.”
“Why”
“Just do it.” Ranma concentrated and did just as Artemis said “Just great, you use chi right? Tell me how you do something with it will you.”
“Chi doesn't work that way. I can't just tell you.”
Tomas interjected a comment “He's right, if this 'chi' stuff is anything like awen then it can't be explained like magic, not really.”
“Oh shut up, I'm trying to figure this out and I don't need your help.”
“I don't really understand much of this, but I don't think it is going to be solved in one day. So shouldn't we see about some place for these two,” Katarina gesturing to Ranma and Makoto, “to stay. You did say their apartment was trashed.”
“I could find you a...” started Tomas
“No, no I think it would be best if they stayed with us, what with magical connection and stuff.” interrupted Artemis.
“In that case I will get going for now. I will meet up with you at a later date to see about pooling our resources.”
After Tomas left Katarina offered to drive them to Minako's house. An offer which Ranma and Makoto turned down because they were nervous about being around a cop. They told Minako they would meet her there.
This gave Minako a chance to talk to Artemis, which she didn't waste. Right away she asked him why he was being so rude to Tomas.
“I don't trust him, for one thing his magical aura is not right for a human. And for another thing there were Bards around during the Silver Millennium. Just about every noble on Earth seemed to host one. Anytime there was a delegation from Earth, even if it was just a trade delegation about buying ore. Most people thought that it was just because the Earth nobles liked music, but I know there was something more, some other purpose to their presence then simply music. I never could find out what though.”
“Why are you saying that Tomas is an enemy? He is so cute there is no way he could be one.” said Minako “He said he was in Special Ops after all. If he's with the police he must be good.”
“Minako stop jumping to conclusions. I am just saying we don't know anything about him. If I remember correctly Prince Endymion said that they first thought something was wrong when Beryl had one killed or something,” Artemis saw how Minako's face lit up at this, “But we also don't know anything about this Special Ops either and they seem to have taken pains to make sure people don't know much about them. You do remember what happened when Katarina tried to find out more about them, right. What really worries me is that back then Bards were not allowed to fight, but they obviously can now.”

xxxxxxx

“Just wait here while I go talk to my mom, ok” Minako said then she went inside. She found her mother in the kitchen getting ready to make dinner. “Mom, some friends of mine are in some trouble.”
“Oh, what sort of trouble?” asked Mamami Aino hoping it wasn't something to do with drugs or unwanted pregnancy. She didn't want to know that her daughter was involved in either of these, but rather afraid she might be given the hours she had been keeping.
“There was a, uh, gas leak in their apartment and now their father is in the hospital and they don't have a place to stay.” said Minako thinking she is never going to buy this.
Minako's mother was not expecting this. “”Don't they have any relatives to stay with or something.”
“No they have just come here from Japan themselves, so they don't know anyone.”
'Maybe I can find out what is going on with Minako if... she thought, “Well then why don't you let them stay here for a few days.”
“Really?” Minako wasn't expecting her mother to give in so quickly, “Thanks mom. I'll go tell Ranma and Makoto right now.” As her daughter went running off Mamami realized that she didn't even know the gender of the two people who were going to be staying here.

xxxxxxx

“So your plan failed!”
The woman was scared but she didn't let it show. “The failure was not because of my plan. If Petite Pandora had followed it then everything would have worked fine, but she had to go challenge Sailor V.”
“She was your underling, so it is your responsibility. As for Sailor V we must find some way to deal with her, but that is not for now. What are your current plans?”
“The Dark Guys are about to have their debut concert. They will gather us much energy.”
“Good, I also need you to send a team of youma to France to take care of an archaeologist. We can not have him finding to much out about us. Don't fail again, Fluorite.” As the man left Fluorite shivered, the rewards for success might be good but the punishments for failure were quite severe.

[kurushi]

It seems that since you've changed it from the original chapter, you've changed half of the beginning pronouns to "his" and left the other half as "it". A simple editing mistake, thought I should give you a heads up

[Tovath]

Thanks, I'll be sure to look at that.