Butterfly Wings = A Horse's Hooves 8

Good afternoon or whenever I post this folks. This is Chapter 8 of the newly renamed Butterfly's Wings = Wild Horse's Hoofs. The journey part, where Ranma’s life was first taken randomly off course, and his own journey back to Cassie and Diana is over, if only technically in Diana’s case. Now comes the changes to the DC verse, although do NOT expect me to follow anything like an arc or timeline from the comics. That is just not going to happen. I will include specific events, but only as I decide to. It will be more interesting to me to have the foursome randomly interact with characters as we go.

This has been edited by Hiryo. I haven’t gone over it with Grammarly, as I had to rewrite several segments, and add others in, which slowed me down a lot. That, and, well, just look at the size of this thing!!  Still, without further ado, here’s the chapter.

Chapter 8: A Quartet Traveling

Wanting to keep going as fast as they could for a while, it was around one in the morning by the time Cassie, then being carried by Kara, demanded they stop. She’d been passed around the flyers a few times by that point, much to her chagrin, and their good humor. “I don’t know about you three but I actually like to get a good solid six or seven hours of sleep. So unless Mr. Master Martial Artist and you two alien invaders don’t need such…”

“You’re being awfully mouthy for the person being carried,” Kara teased, leaning in to nuzzle the top of Cassie’s head. “Still, I’m fine with stopping. Mmm… Though, I might demand you share the name of your shampoo at some point. I know you worked up a sweet in the battle and during the reconstruction and you didn’t stop to have a shower but your hair still smells good.”

Fighting back a shiver at Kara’s breath over her ears, Cassie chuckled ruefully, while Kara blinked behind her, confused as to why her action had caused her friend’s heart to speed up. “Diana badgered a chemist friend of hers to create a type of shampoo where the smell stays for seventy-two hours regardless of sweat or anything else. Unfortunately, it was back in her apartment, and can’t be bought on the market, it’s too expensive to commercialize. Sorry, Kara.”

“Eh, I get by with just water most of the time,” Ranma remarked, having finished explaining the sarcasm behind Cassie’s joke to Kori, who’d pouted at the term invader. “Don’t know what the big deal is.”

“Considering your magic form’s kept you from sweating, friend Ranma, I believe the correct way to respond to that would be your opinion is not necessary, thus please be silent,” Kori attempted to joke and the others all dutifully laughed.

Ranma then gave her pointers. After all, repartee was pretty much like taunting, and, while Ranma occasionally still had trouble with it, his time with Lara had allowed him to expand his starting point in the Anything Goes Make ‘em Mad, Make ‘em Stupid technique™. “You’re initial point was good, Kori, but you got too wordy at the end. Instead of saying ‘your opinion is not necessary, you should have just said something simple like ‘shut it.’

“Ah… I believe someone back in Star City said something applicable.” Kori nodded sagely, grinning in the darkness at Ranma’s friendly, upbeat feelings as she had several times on this journey. They were so nice, especially after her time on Warworld. Better, what he felt was what his expression showed. It was almost like being back on Tamaran. “Brevity is the soul of wit?”

“When did someone say that?” Kara asked quizzically, shifting sideways to be closer to Kori, bumping elbow with her fellow alien gal.

“One of the officers down at the docks, I believe,” Kori replied, doing the same, her grin widening. My new friends are SO NICE!!

For Kara, being around three friendly, outgoing people, who didn’t bother hiding what they were thinking or feeling was a balm to the soul. It was like going from being in a cage surrounded by dangerous animals who wanted to intimidate, kill or hurt her to suddenly having a group of large, friendly cats or dogs frisking around her. Just plain fun.

“I see a sign for a motel down there in that small town. It looks like the only one there, so we’ll have to keep going if we want to find something better. On the other hand it’s got a diner and that pizza place also looks twenty-four seven. Damn… now that’s nice.” Ranma pointed to the side and down, where neon lights had just appeared along the horizon along the highway they’d been paralleling at a distance. Anyone on the highway wouldn’t be able to see them, not at night.

“While I’d never dare compete with the bottomless pit that is your stomach, a pizza would be amazing right now,” Cassie agreed, before smirking. “Unless that’s changed since we were kids?”

“Nope,” Kara answered before Ranma could, nuzzling into the back of Cassie’s neck this time as she shifted her grip on the other girl and the trio of flyers turned their course towards the neon lights. “Ranma’s stomach still more resembles that sarlacc thing from Star Wars than anything else.”

“Ooh, nice one.” Ranma flashed Kara a thumbs up, while Cassie’s mind skipped at Kara’s actions and Kara blinked, once more hearing her heart speeding up.

Feeling the flustered, mildly aroused and happy feelings coming off Cassie, Kori was about to say something, but then decided not to. Despite her Linguistic Assimilation powers, she didn’t know if pointing out surprised feelings like that was polite in human society. Indeed, it feels as if it would be the exact opposite given their lack of emphatic powers. Instead she asked, “Should we look for someplace to set down away from the local population so as to not attract attention?”

“Yep,” Ranma said, looking down at himself for a moment. “Gonna be nice to be back in my own body. Don’t get me wrong, I’m never gonna just try to ignore this form again, see it as just another technique to be used only when necessary, but still, I can’t say I’ve got the costume right just yet, and it ain’t the body I’m most used to. That, and I don’t have access to my ki space in it.”

“Those sound like training goals. And considering that all of us have demanded a spar in that form, having a few goals of your own while in it sounds like a good idea,” Cassie pointed out, her tone making it clear that was more of an order than a suggestion.

“Yeah, I guess. Ugh. Meditation time, then. I just don’t know where ta start with that particular problem. I mean, where the heck does my normal clothing go? The ki space is still there too when I change back without any sign the ki matrix has begun to fail, which is a good thing, but adds another whole level of ‘whaaaa’ to it, y’know?”

“While I want to once more remind you not to talk with that overdone hick accent you emulate, seriously I’m going to start smacking you upside the head every time you do, I have to admit, reluctantly, when it comes to the meeting of ki and magic, ‘whaaa’ just about covers it,” Kara murmured, before her face firmed. “For now. I am going to get to a bottom to ki at the very least. Magic… that’s a whole different basket of eggs.”

“Basket of eggs?” Kori and Cassie asked, causing Kara to roll her eyes as they passed over a small RV camp, with only a few RVs within currently. It was backed by an equally small forest, which the group circled a few times until there was no traffic on the road before landing within.

There, Ranma took a moment to change into his normal body, grateful that returning to his normal body didn’t come with a light show. Meanwhile, Kori turned on the image inducer that Aquaman had given her, pouting just a bit at the fact it didn’t seem to have any kind of settings or anything she could fiddle with. “The problem now becomes I cannot look at myself, drat. Friend Kara… it is right to call you that now that we are no longer going to be acting heroes, yes? How do I look?”

“Yep, you can start using our real names. As for your looks, um… you look like a young female gym teacher,” Kara said, waiting nearby for a chance to use Ranma’s tent, so the girls could change their clothing a bit. It wouldn’t do for either her or Cassie to be wearing the same clothing two of the heroes from Star City had, after all.

Cassie nodded agreement. “The image inducer can’t do anything about your height, and, well, you’re tall for a woman on Earth, Kori. Especially compared to Kara here You’re only a bit shorter than Diana, if that. Most women don’t break six feet..”

The blonde Amazon stuck her tongue out at her friend’s whispered ‘HEY!.’ “Oh hush you, you’re perfect and you know it.” That caused Kara to blush rosily and for Ranma to grin from where he was working on the tent, but Cassie didn’t notice in the dark of the forest. “Um, I can’t tell what color your skin is without a light, but it looks heavily tanned at least. Your hair is no longer that dark red it was either. I think it looks kind of fetching in dark black. Like, it’s so dark it’s standing out even in this darkness. Neat.”

Kori perked up at that, one hand going to her hair, but fell silent as Ranma finished his work. It took much less time for Kara to change once in the tent, and she was soon out, changed into one of the many outfits Ranma had kept in his ki space for her over their trip: a pair of blue jeans, a nice t-shirt, and belt. Cassie then ducked into the tent with Kara who quickly chose a shirt for her from her own clothing.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite fit. Cassie was taller than Kara and less busty on top, meaning it hung loose up top, but didn’t quite reach her midriff, leaving a shred of her stomach visible. Still, it only looked like she was borrowing a shirt, which was good enough for now, and Cassie actually enjoyed showing off her abs, so this was fine by her. “We’ll get you some more clothing in the future.”

“Thanks. I wish I’d remembered to grab my wallet when stuff started happening, but…” Cassie shrugged, then smiled, shaking her head. “Whatever. I’ll pay you back, promise.”

Kara rolled her eyes at that, and Ranma, pulling his eyes away from where Cassie’s new shirt was tight in very interesting places and too loose in others, taking his tent down quickly. “Let’s move out to the road. Not through the RV camp. There’re still a few people around outside listening to music or drinking and I heard dogs barking when we flew down.”

This took them a little out of their way, but with Kori floating a few feet above the ground and Kara and Cassie’s Amazon training, the three girls were able to move through the small forest as quietly as Ranma could until they were out and away from the RV camp. Soon, they were out on the road, where they sped up, running into the small motel’s parking area, which it shared with the 24/7 pizza place, a local store rather than a chain and the diner.

Even with that, though, it was pretty much the same as thousands of other motels all over America: a two-story affair where the rooms were set up to be entered from exterior hallways. The shared parking lot was far larger than any of the actual buildings, and had a few trucks parked in various places, along with a few cars and rather beat-up pickup truck.

The motel’s sameness had Cassie chuckling and shaking her head. “Those poor, poor serial killers.”

Kara and Kori both looked at her in confusion, but Ranma cocked his head thoughtfully, scratching at his pigtail. “Yeah, it does give kind of the same vibe as that Bates Motel place, or a few other motels that’ve appeared in horror movies.”

“What is a horror movie?” Kori asked quizzically. “We tamaranians do not have that genre, it sounds most strange.”

Ranma snorted. “Horror movies are meant to scare people watching it by showing them the adventures of a group of idiots, usually faced with a crazy serial killer, a monster, some kind of magical horror, or whatever. They start dying off in ones and twos, sometimes in horrible, bloody or overdone manners until the monster or serial killer is beaten. This kind of motel appears in a lot of those movies. Although, I’d be interested to know why Cassie knows about them.”

“Seen a few of them when I first arrived in America, and yeah, Ranma’s description is pretty bang on. I couldn’t watch a single one, where I wasn’t basically commenting about how the group being tormented by the serial killer was acting stupidly. The joke was what’d happen to any of that sort if they ran into us here.”

“Ah, I see.” With that description, I don’t know if my folk have such a genre, as I could see some enjoying such, but I never saw any; suppose I could put that down to my being a princess and my age when Komand’r betrayed our planet and handed me over to Mongul, though. “Then it is very true their luck would be atrocious to run into any of us. I would probably tear such asunder with a certain amount of glee.”

“While in some cases that might be acceptable, Kori, most of the time, when fighting humans, or even single aliens, it’s better to take them captive and hand them over to the local authorities,” Kara advised, shaking her head. “Don’t get used to the idea of treating everyone with the same level of violence we were forced to use in Star City against Mongul and your pursuers.”

“Yet, are serial killers not killers themselves? It is in the very term friend Cassie used to describe them. Should you not treat them as they would treat someone else? I do not remember much about Tamaran, but I do remember that our criminal system was quite simple, with the punishment fitting the crime in every case applicable. A killer was executed, publicly with any surviving family members looking on. A person who took advantage of someone else physically had his ability to use his or her sexual organs removed for a time. People who stole lost their property and so forth.”

While Kara was intrigued by this enough to want to ask what kind of judicial system an entire planet full of empaths would use, Cassie shook her head. “It’s not so much about the punishment fitting the crime, as being an appropriate response. We’re all a lot stronger and far more dangerous than most people, so when we deal with normal humans, we need to tone it down a lot. We also need to be aware of local laws and the locals who have the right to prosecute people for their actions.”

“On the other hand, if their magic users, cannibals or just plain crazies, yeah, I’d kill them,” Ranma quipped, completely undermining Cassie and Kara’s point.

“Okay, yeah, magic users I suppose would sit somewhat beyond normal laws, unless, well… I don’t think America has any laws specifically pertaining to magic users, let alone any way to really detain them. Huh. Something to ask my cousin I guess,” Kara said, frowning a little. “But even with that and even with so-called supervillains, superpowered individuals who make trouble here on Earth, we’re, generally speaking, supposed to hand them over to the locals. We aren’t judge jury and executioners.”

Snorting at that, and noting that Kara was talking more like a hero there than normal, Ranma quipped, “Yeah, but you didn’t have a problem with me accidentally killing the Joker, did you?”

“One, it was indeed an accident. Two, it was the Joker. King Crazy in a city full of them.” Kara snorted, shaking her head. “There is regular crazy, and then there’s Gotham. Besides, I’ve never been as big a proponent as humanity seems to have become in general of insanity being a defense against one’s actions. I just think that’s stupid. Punishment isn’t just to punish the guilty, but to make certain they don’t do it again.”

Cassie, the daughter of Amazons, Ranma, itinerant martial artist, and Kori, empathic alien, all nodded at that, by which point they had reached the entrance into the motel’s office. Ranma ducked inside for a moment to get them some rooms, figuring to pay with the cash he had taken from the drug lab he, the Green Arrow, and Kori had found in Star City.

As they waited, Cassie moved over to Kara, leaning her head against the side of Kara’s, ignoring a group of young men who had just come out of a nearby room and stopped to look at the trio of ladies. A few began making catcalls at them, while one or two of the fivesome seemed to want to come over and flirt with them outright.

“I know I’ve said it a few times since we literally bumped into one another, but it is really nice to see you again. Diana is fine, and I loved living with her, but she’s not my best friend, you know?” the Amazon said, ignoring the inconvenience coming their way.

“There’s too much of a difference in your ages and experience, I totally understand. I already whined and moaned about my own circumstances, and the whole whether or not I want to be normal thing, so I’m not going to bring it up again, just return the sentiment,” Kara chortled, pulling the taller girl into a sideways hug, then snorting as Kori instantly opened her arms, wordlessly demanding a hug of her own.

This drew more wolf whistles and the boys started to make their way over, only for Ranma to come out from the motel’s office, which, given where the young men had been in relation to the office and the girls, put him between the young men and his friends. He looked at them quizzically, then handed the keys over to the girls. “So, we’ve got rooms up on the second floor. I also grabbed a local map. I figure a look at that tomorrow morning will let me figure out where we are. Right now, Kara, you should probably be calling home soon, and I’d like to get some food, if it’s all the same to you.”

At his words, Ranma’s stomach roared agreement, so loudly it made the local guys look around, wondering if someone had just run a V8 engine nearby or some wild animal had walked in. Kara giggled, shaking her head, and, grateful that had stopped the boys from flirting with them for a moment. “I’ll call home first, but I’m sure that they’ll want to talk to you as well, Ranma.”

With the group of local boys, or maybe not so local, considering there was only that RV camp nearby, who knew, within hearing range, she didn’t mention Martha or Jon’s names. I’m getting better at this keeping secrets thing.

“Hey ladies, if you’re going to be spending the night here, how about we have some fun? We got a lot of beer to go round, and even some other stuff too. We’re all sure to have a good time you know,” one of the guys said.

Ranma stared at him blankly, then looked over at Cassie. “Is, is that the pickup line? Like… really?”

“I don’t know, but it was certainly foolish sounding.” Cassie shook her head. “In all the romance movies and stuff I’ve seen, you’re supposed to try and introduce yourself, or strike up an actual conversation, rather than just invite someone around for a good time.”

“That feels more like you’re trying to hit up someone who’s already drunk or something in a bar,” Kara agreed.

Kori stayed silent. She understood the idea of beer as being alcoholic thanks to her Linguistic Assimilation skill, and was not in any way interested in such. The other stuff also made her wonder if maybe that had something to do with drugs, which Ranma had explained to her back in Star City when they had come across that local drug laboratory.

“Now don’t be like that, we can get to know one another, sure, and what better way than by drinking the night away? What’re you doing here, where’s your car, and where you going from here? We’re heading south ourselves.”

“Good. That’s exactly the opposite way we’re going,” Kara said bluntly more to get the idea across they weren’t interested than anything else. During her time on the road with Ranma, she had begun to lose any inhibitions she might once have had about being as blunt as possible when dealing with such approaches. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to call home.”

Jilted, the group of boys sneered, and one of them even made a comment about how lame it was for a girl Kara’s apparent age needing to call home like that. But Ranma simply shook his head, and moved towards the nearest staircase heading upwards. “Come on, I’ll show you the rooms.”

When the girls joined him a few of the boys tried to block his passage, growling angrily at Ranma.

Ranma reached over, and very gently, for him anyway, picked them up, holding them up over his head, causing Kara to shake her head again. She still wasn’t used to how open Ranma was about his far greater than average strength. “Look, guys, we’ve been on the road all day, and I’m tired. The girls ain’t interested, and I really don’t want to get your blood on my knuckles, or worse my clothing. It’s one of those annoying stains, you know. So I’m going to set you two down, and you and your fellows are going to walk away. Or else, I’ll get to see how far I can throw you.”

One of the other boys tried to pull out a switchblade of all things but Cassie was in his face suddenly, grabbing his wrist and squeezing gently but very, very firmly, with the very obvious message that un-gentle was around the corner. “Really? You’re going to get angry and try to attack us because we don’t want to be picked up by you? Are you already drunk?”

“That would explain much of their actions,” Kori said, not adding, and what I’m getting from their emotions. Their emotions were very muddled to her, Kori figured that was probably caused by the drink, since it was something she’d run into occasionally when she was a child among her folk back on Tamaran.

She stepped sideways, reaching over and grabbing a knife out of one boys hand even as he pulled it out, before hurling it out into the darkness beyond the lights of the motel and its parking lot. I doubt they can see how far that will go, right? “They are also rather uncoordinated in comparison to what I would assume would be the norm; although, I could be wrong. Perhaps these young men are disabled in some other fashion?”

“WOOF…” Ranma snickered, while Cassie and Kara laughed, and a few other motel goers whistled in appreciation as the remaining young men all winced, staring at the heavily tanned, black-haired girl. “Damn. I know you didn’t mean it that way, but that was one heck of a burn, Corey.”

That was the name that they had decided to use for Kori when she was using her image inducer. Kori cocked her head to one side, her brow furring. “What does a burn have to do with anything?”

“It’s a colloquialism, I’ll explain it to you later,” Kara said shaking her head and grateful that this incident hadn’t escalated. She was in no mood to deal with that, or anything else. And I suppose I should be glad that image inducer thing changes Kori’s voice, too. While my voice and Cassie’s are too normal to be recognized, Kori’s manner of speaking is too distinctive.

Stepping around Ranma, she headed up the stairs, looking at the key card he’d given her. “Come on you three, leave the little boys alone, so they can get back to drinking and killing what few brain cells they’ve got left. I want to get off my feet for a little bit.”

Cassie nodded, gently taking the knife from the boy whose arm she had grabbed, before kneeling and stabbing it into one of the motel’s wooden pillars near the base, twisting. The knife broke easily in her grip and she tossed the hilt of it down at the boy’s feet before following her friend. “Dibs on the shower.”

“Wh, y, you can’t, oh fine! Drat it all,” Kara grumbled. Like her friend, she was feeling quite dirty at the moment. Still, I can call home before taking my own shower.

The boys, looking completely cowed by this point, allowed the girls to head up to the second floor of the motel without further incident, and Ranma gently set the two he’d lifted up over his head on the ground. They looked remarkably more sober now than they had when they had come over to try and flirt, if such a term could be used for what they done anyway, the trio of beauties that Ranma was currently traveling with. Yeah, I can acknowledge that in my own head. And even understand why random guys might come up to flirt with them. Doesn’t mean I’m going to like it, and doesn’t mean that I won’t call them out on going about it in such a stupid way.

“Why don’t you take your friends over there and get back to drinking, or whatever it was you were doing, like my friend said,” Ranma suggested. “Given what I can see in the back of that pickup truck, you’ve got a lot more to get through tonight.”

That seemed to cheer a few of the youths up at least, while two of them were still glaring at him. Given the fact they were both normal people and seemed to be the drunkest of the fivesome, they were about as dangerous as a pack full of kittens, and he ignored them as he headed up after the girls.

They’d stopped to explain the term dibs to Kori, so Ranma was the first one to open the door to the second room. “If any of you to want to borrow the shower in this room to get cleaned up, you can. I’ll wait,” he stated.

“Now that is a true gentleman,” Kara said, smiling at him. “However, I think Kori should get her shower before me. I can’t imagine that your facilities as a prisoner on Warworld were anything to write home about, and these won’t be either in comparison to what we can find later, but it’ll at least let you get clean.”

“Cleaning myself… without people looking in on me, without people watching me…” Kori murmured, almost as if it was a mantra, or perhaps a dream that she had long since forgotten. She seemed to forget herself for a moment and floated through the doorway towards the inner door leading into the bathroom and Ranma was almost sad to hold up a hand to stop her.

“Just don’t expect a lot that’s all, this place is going to be… Well ,it’ll probably be really dirty and run down if everything else we’re seeing here is any indication. I know a shower is a shower, but if you wanted to wait until we found a little lake or something to get clean in, I’d completely understand.”

Kori opened the door to the bathroom and saw what Ranma was talking about. It was tiny, with a square shower in one corner, a small sink, and a toilet. The tiles were old, broken in places, and discolored, and the showerhead looked to be barely holding on. There was no smell she could discern but even so, most people would have thought twice about using anything but the sink and the mirror above it.

The girl who had been groomed for years to become a sex slave couldn’t care less. “It doesn’t matter. It truly doesn’t. Having a shower where I am not being watched, where I do not feel the jealousy of those who could never touch me, because they knew that Mongul owned me, the leering looks, the horrible desires, well, a shower on my own will feel magnificent. I will be getting clean of more than just the dirt and sweat upon my body.”

Ranma nodded, and made to pat her on the shoulder, but instead, Kori turned, and pulled him into a hug. Feeling his sympathy and understanding, she felt that a simple pat on the back was insufficient.

While he didn’t instigate the hug, Ranma chuckled and went with it, causing Kori to smile even wider as his arms went around her waist, his chin moving to rest on her shoulder, noting absently that she was a few inches taller than him now, the complete reverse of when he was Shazam. Ranma was a little shorter than six feet, while Kori stood at six feet and an inch or so.

Still, he’d gotten used to that fact when they were fighting alongside one another, and it wasn’t a big issue, quite unlike the feel of her chest where he could feel two very big issues indeed, pressing into his own pecs. Thankfully, he had several years of training to fall back on when it came to controlling certain reactions to such, and he released her slowly, turning her around toward the shower. “Go on. When you’re done in the shower, head next door. I’m going to head out, out to get us some food.”

“A turkey club for me please,” Kara said, shaking her head having watched this little moment with a smile on her face as Cassie headed into the room to shower. “I know you and Cassie are probably going to want to try the local pizza, and I’m not going to try and guess what Kori will like, but I’m not in the mood for all that grease. Oh, and before you go, could you pull out something for us all to wear in bed?”

Ranma nodded, and a moment later, Kara entered the room she was going to be sharing with Cassie with several shirts and her flannel sleepwear in hand. Huh. Come to think of it, how did we decide on that? I mean, I know Ranma will change into his girl body, which heh, he hasn’t shown Kori or Cassie yet, but how did we decide Cassie would be with me? Weird.

Shaking her head at that and putting it down to some strange social thing she hadn’t noticed, Kara sat down on the bed, there being no chairs here, then laid out as she pulled out her phone and called the Kents.

When Kara called home, it was Jon rather than Martha who answered. “Well, it’s about time, young lady. What kind of time do you call this, hmm?” he said jokingly, even if it was near to eleven at night. He went on more seriously, his voice full of commiseration and sadness. “Especially with what all you’ve been getting up to, how mad worried we’ve been. We’ve been watching the news from Star City since the invasion began.”

“It isn’t like I headed to Star City knowing there’d be an alien invasion, Uncle Jon,” Kara instantly protested. “It just sort of happened that way. And after, it didn’t feel right to take a break from the rebuilding project to call home.”

“It just sort of happens that way seems to happen a lot to you superpowered types. I think that that is God’s way of compensating, or perhaps sending you challenges equal to your abilities,” Jon said tartly, before sobering. “It… looked bad. How are you holding up? With what you saw, with what you had to do, I mean.”

Leaning back against the headboard, Kara pulled her legs up for a moment. “I… It was a lot harder and a lot easier than I expected, if that makes any sense. I… cleaning up afterwards, seeing what the aliens left behind, the bodies, everything else. That, that’s going to give me nightmares, I think. But on the other hand, it was… most of the aliens, they couldn’t hurt me or do much to me at all outside of their leader Mongul.”

Kara shivered. “That guy was on a whole other level, and if I was on my own, he’d probably have beaten me. But for most of the fight, it was… not easy per se, but a lot of easier than it should feel, you know? As to what I think about it, I’m trying to describe what happened, and even that is hard, but it’s a lot easier than trying to figure out what I feel now that I’m on my own for a few minutes, and able to start really decompressing.”

“It’s always that way after a fight. You can’t quite remember what you did at certain points, only remembering the highlights, the adrenaline. When you’re with your friends, your battle brothers, it’s one thing, you buoy one another along,” Jon explained, shaking his head where he lay in bed, remembering his own wartime service in Vietnam. At least Kara’s never going to need to worry about the public turning on you, on being ashamed of her service.

“But when you’re alone or asleep, the trauma hits. Especially when you’ve seen people die on your own side, not just that of the enemy.” Jon’s tone firmed up, and Kara just knew for a moment that if he had been there, he’d have been nearly glaring at her to get his point across, “You and your friends, you did all you could. You fought the enemy the way you had to. If you had given them quarter, if you had tried to fight the invaders with kid gloves, they would’ve been able to take advantage, to maybe kill more civilians. You stopped them cold, saved the city, and helped that alien girl remains free. You did the right thing start to finish, Kara, don’t ever doubt that.”

Kara gulped at that, feeling teers nearly coming to her eyes for a moment as Jon continued. “Hearing that won’t make it any easier to deal with the fact that you’ve taken lives, that you’ve seen hundreds die and you couldn’t protect them all. But it’s still the truth, and that has weight, Kara.”

“T, thanks Uncle Jon,” Kara said, nearly letting her tears fall for a moment before wiping them away from under her glasses. “I have to say helping afterwards, hearing the cheers as we reached this or that milestone of repairing the city, that was soothing after the battle. I like building things a lot more than I like needing to defend them, I think,” Kara said, frowning a little. “Not certain how that ties into my future plans, but it will in some fashion for sure.”

Jon hummed at that, not agreeing or disagreeing, simply very verbally saying that it was none of his business one way or the other. Which, in his mind, it was. Kara might still be young, but she had proven to be an adult in one of the oldest ways possible: by going to war and surviving the experience. Her advantages didn’t change that equation in his eyes.

Their conversation continued for a while, until Cassie stepped out of the bathroom, gesturing into it. Kara ended the call for now, promising to call back after her shower to talk to Aunt Martha. Jon agreed, even as Martha could be heard in the background coming in from the bathroom or elsewhere in the house perhaps, shouting something about keeping her on the line.

Thankfully, Jon didn’t do so, and Kara and Cassie shared a high five as Kara passed the other girl. “Don’t expect to enjoy it unless you like cold water,” Cassie warned. “I was so happy just to get clean I didn’t care, but the hot water cut off at seven minutes or so.”

“Ugh. I’d prefer warmer showers, but eh, I can handle it, I guess,” Kara grumbled, finding her eyes lingering on Cassie’s form for a moment as she stood there in a towel, looking down at a jokey sort of T-shirt that Ranma had bought Kara once and which Kara had pulled out of her backpack, having retrieved it from Ranma’s ki space prior to chancing out in the woods.

It was extra-large, so would do as something to wear for Kara in bed coming down to down to her knees. On Cassie it would be just a little below her waist. Huh, that’d be kind of sexy, wouldn’t it?

Shaking that thought off, Kara decided that was her cue to leave and headed into the shower. There, she quickly learned that Cassie’s idea of having seven minutes was too optimistic.

Left alone in the bedroom, Cassie wound a hand through her hair, thinking about how the past day and night had gone. Unlike Kara, who was facing the aftermath of having needed to take so many lives, with some misgivings and a good amount of simple sorrow, Cassie was able to compartmentalize and deal with that aspect of the events in Star City easily. Her training as an Amazon had forced Cassie to understand from the start that she might need to kill her opponents.

Certainly, there was no mercy given to minotaurs and other monsters when they crossed into Amazonian territory. Similarly, Diana had told her of the occasions where she’d been forced to take a life in Man’s World, above and beyond her experiences in World War II of course.

In her case, it was the aftermath which had bothered Cassie a lot more. Finding the bodies under the rubble, needing to help get people clear of where they’d been buried, or simply disposing of the bodies of the aliens and humans alike. The alien bodies had smelled so bad, and the need to incinerate most of them had been horrific, while the need to catalogue and gather the civilian dead for identification had been far, far worse on her soul and Cassie hadn’t been prepared for it.

Yet, it had been the smell which was the worst aspect. The mix of smoke, ash, dirt, grime and human and alien refuse. UGH. Kori said they were all vat-grown, so why couldn’t someone have figured a way to make sure they don’t relieve their bowels when they die? she thought, shaking her head at one particular memory of a horribly smelly body she’d had to deal with.

Worse by far for the young Amazon were the children. Whenever she had found a body of a child who the Flash and the other heroes hadn’t yet evacuated, it had been all Cassie could do to not collapse, a fact she knew could be attributed to Kara’s presence more than her own ability to push past her horror. The two of them had helped one another due so several times

Very, very rarely were children of any age mixed up in the fights on the Isle of Women against the monsters there, even against the minotaurs or other more organized opponents. Seeing so many youngsters after the battle had thrown her, but she was grateful that most of them, those who hadn’t lost anyone in the fight anyway, seemed to be able to bounce back quickly, and Cassie thanked Eirene and Hecate for how swiftly the Flash was able to work in getting so many out.

A knock on the door had her twitching, and quickly Cassie dropped her towel, grabbing the shirt and pulling it on over her head before going to answer the door. She found Kori there, smiling. She too was wearing different clothing this time, a shirt from Ranma, which, oddly, fit her far more than Cassie had expected it would. I mean, I know they are relatively close in height, but that sure looks like it was made for a woman. Weird, did Ranma buy it for Kara in his own size accidentally and just not have a chance to return it?

That made sense to Cassie, who waved Kori in, then moved over to sit down on the bed again as Kori looked around thoughtfully. “Should we not have a table? Even as a prisoner I had a table to put my food down to eat it rather than a bed.”

“These places are more for people to sleep in than anything else. But you’re right. The dresser will have to do for a table. Let’s reorganize it a little bit.”

Kori blinked at that, then shrugged as Cassie stood up, pulling the dresser away from the wall for a second to get behind it. Quickly, she unhooked the TV and the small box it sat on, which she set in a corner, asking Kori to do the same to the small bedstand set between the two beds.

She did so, and Cassie easily lifted the dresser into the air, shifting it into position between the two beds. The small lamp was moved to the same corner as the TV, for now. “Now we can each sit on the edge of the bed and eat the food from the dresser. We can even lounge a little bit, which reminds me more of how we ate back on Isle of Women than anywhere I’ve seen here in Man’s World.”

“That has come up several times, but I’m still not sure I understand the reference. I understand the words you are using, and the term Amazon means female warrior thanks to my Linguistic Assimilation. But you always talk as if your country or nation is completely separate from the rest of the world. Why are you calling it Man’s World? Surely not every woman I’ve seen since arriving here is an Amazon,” Kori said, half teasing, half serious.

Cassie shrugged her shoulders at that, beginning with, “Well, first of all, we Amazons are indeed separate from men, and it’s a very deliberate separation. It goes back a few thousand years ago, when...”

Her explanation took a while, and Kara had time to finish her shower and change into her pajamas. Once she was out of the bathroom, knowing it was getting later, she quickly called the Kents again, unsurprised to get Aunt Martha on the first ring.

“My girl! My dear girl, I can’t believe how much trouble you ran into on a simple trip to meet your friend! If I hadn’t seen such things happen a lot with your cousin, I’d wonder about whether or not Ranma had some magic attraction curse on him with all the stories his mother told me. As it is, I think if he does, he’d simply fit in far better with the rest of you costumed types.”

As Kara chuckled at that, Martha went on more seriously. “You and yours, you all did so well! Not just protecting Star City, but freeing that alien princess girl from that horrid yellow skinned fellow! I’m so proud of you my heart could burst, and I’m so worried about you it almost did!”

Kara smiled wryly at that, wondering idly how her own parents would’ve reacted to her being in some kind of military operation. She didn’t think they would be nearly as effusive with their emotions as Martha was being, although they would probably have approved just as much. “I’m fine, Aunt Martha. Like I said to Uncle Jon, only that yellow-skinned guy, his name was Mongul, could really hurt me. He did land a few really nasty blows on me, and he did the same with Cassie, but one of the local heroes was a magic user, who could use healing magic on her and our new friend, Kori.”

“Are they both there with you now? Good, it’s always nice to meet new friends, and it would’ve been sad if you had to part after such an event, not even considering how much effort you’d gone to meeting your friend Cassie. Oh, if she’s there, could you introduce us?” Martha asked, still speaking faster than normal, but slowing down noticeably now, down that she had heard that Kara was fine for herself. “In fact, I’d like to say hello to all your friends.”

While Martha wanted to ask more questions about how Kara was doing, she knew that Jon already had, and he was the better person to speak about such things, given his military service when he was younger, and he had told Martha he’d already been talking to Kara about it. Any more such discussions would probably need to happen in person. The fact that Jon had said that her friends would probably help Kara through it far more than he would counted for a lot in Martha’s mind, however.

He knew enough about the Amazons to know they were warrior culture, and Ranma was similarly mentally trained to keep a distance between his psyche and the violence they had been faced with. Plus, his own experiences said that friends always worked better than authority figures regardless of anything else.

“I’ll put you on speakerphone if that’s all right,” Kara said, just as someone knocked at their door again.

When Cassie opened, Ranma stood there, holding a bag in one hand, and balancing four pizzas in his other hand, on top of another bag that was sitting on them. He took her in for a second, making Cassie remember the shirt she wore only barely covered her waist as his eyes racked down her body, but thankfully, Ranma’s self-control was such that one look was all he allowed himself, and his stomach took that moment to growl angrily.

The noise caused Cassie to giggle, her embarrassment evaporating as Martha, now on speaker, demanded querulously, “Was that a dang grizzly I just heard? I thought you were in a motel somewhere.”

“No Aunt Martha, it was just the bottomless pit moonlighting as Ranma’s stomach,” Kara explained. “He just arrived with food.”

“Er, nowhere near as good, or good for us, as your food is, ma’am, but considering we’ve been mostly subsisting on one good breakfast and protein bars the past day and a bit, I figured we were due to consume mass quantities,” Ranma said, spotting the phone as he tried to not take in the sight of Cassie’s legs, or how well his shirt fit Kori, for a given value of the term. Freaking hell, how does Kori make a simple shirt look like a stripper prop!? That shirt is so tight on her it’s damned indecent. A part of me loves it, the other part hates it!

“I have drinks, this nifty dragon fruit lemonade that a nearby farm makes, wings, your turkey club, Kara, and of course, pizzas,” he continued aloud, glad to have something more important to concentrate on. “They actually look decent, even if they’re smaller than I’m used ta seeing.”

“I’d ask why you bought so much food, Ranma, but considering I’m almost positive you’ll demolish at least the wings and two pizzas entirely on your own, I’ll just say thank you,” Kara teased and thanked him in one breath as she set the phone in the center of the table and helped Ranma set out the other pizzas.

Sitting down the food, Ranma and Cassie, who’d had pizza with Diana before she’d had to leave on her peacekeeping mission, showed Kori how to eat a pizza properly with just her hands, which she seemed to enjoy. Meanwhile, Kara introduced Martha to Kori and Cassie, who were quite happy to talk to the older woman on the phone for a bit, even if Kori looked sad for a second. She was reminded of her own family for a moment, but as she had no way of knowing what had happened to them, or indeed, any means with which to discover that, Kori was able to shunt them to the side.

Their plans for the near future came out quickly, and Martha happily agreed to put all of them up at the farm with Jon adding an affirming ‘sure’ in the background. “I imagine that putting the two girls up in the guest room will be tough as we still need to replace the bed in there and will have to rearrange things a bit, but we can do that before you four get here. And I’m sure we could make up another bed for Ranma in the TV room. But for now, if you’re going to be sharing a room with any of those young ladies, I hope you are still keeping to your promise to transform to your alternate form at night,” Martha teased.

She didn’t really have any worry on that point, of course, or else Martha would never have let Kara go with Ranma in the first place, though she had been worried that second night of their trip when they’d been forced to share a tent due to the weather. That mishap though, had caused him to promise to continue to use his female form at night, which was good enough for Martha. From the beginning Ranma had come across to her as a very forthright, and almost doggedly straightforward person. And at this point, he’d been traveling alone with Kara for a little over a week, most of it well away from anyone else.

Still, Martha figured she’d say it for form’s sake if nothing else.

“I’m confused. Why would his being in his other form matter all that much? In fact, if you are worried about what I believe you are worried about, would not friend Ranma’s alternate form makes things worse, as in that body he is noticeably stronger…” Koriand’r began, before she and Cassie stared as Ranma, without any building or warning, upended one of the water bottles he’d bought along with the lemonade up over his head.

He was careful to only upend enough to get his hair and shoulders wet rather than the bed underneath him. That was a trick he learned early on, and it served him well here.

Kori’s mouth dropped open, and she floated up from her seat, staring as her hands flared with green energy. “By the great moons of Zanzi, what just happened!? Who are you, and where did friend Ranma go!?”

The alien girl wasn’t the only one in shock. Cassie was too, although she was simply staring. “Hera’s bountiful breasts! What just happened?!”

As Kara began to laugh, Martha understood what Ranma had done, reinforced a moment later when the now female Ranma spoke up, addressing Martha rather than Kori’s worries. “Yes, Aunt Martha. Don’t worry, I figured that before I paid for two two-bed rooms for the night.”

As Kori’s hands began to glow even more with whatever her power was, Ranma hastily explained the curse, to which the alien girl began to giggle, and Cassie just flushed, staring at him. The idea that Ranma had willingly gotten himself that specific course in order to be allowed back onto the Isle of Women, was an astonishing thing, and caused her to blush for some reason that she didn’t quite understand, even as Ranma had made a point of mentioning both her and Diana as being the primary reasons why. Good grief, he was willing to become a girl to see me again? What the heck am I supposed to say to that? It was a sign that she had made just as big an impression on Ranma as he had her.

Possibly sensing Cassie’s inner turmoil, although how she would through the phone Kara had no idea, Martha changed the subject. “As for Cassie, what were you doing up until the invasion?”

“Um, not much. Keeping in shape, running around the city, oh, I also helped the Green Arrow take down some supervillain he called the Onomatopoeia or something,” Cassie said, smirking at the memory, her confused, happy thoughts about how serious Ranma had taken their time together as children fading. “Fought like one of the ninjas Ranma once told me about, led Green Arrow into an ambush point.”

Her smirk widened as she made a motion with one hand, as if coming in from the side. “He never saw me coming. I was on him, and didn’t let up until he was down. The guy wasn’t prepared to fight someone stronger and faster than me.”

“Not many people are, especially assassins and supervillains. Ranma and I ran into two supervillains ourselves. I had to get some wounded security guards and civilians out of the area, so Ranma fought the pair for a while on his own. One was using a set of trick boomerangs, and the other was using a body suit filled with advanced technology, the kind of stuff that wouldn’t have been out of place on Krypton to simulate magic for some reason,” Kara explained.

“Yeah, the boomerang guy was more a distraction than anything else. The future tech user was more dangerous, but didn’t seem able to deal with my ki,” Ranma said, before smiling over at Kara. “Then Kara was done getting the civvies out of the way and came back in. At that point, they were screwed.”

Cassie demanded more details, and Kara and Ranma filled her in on the fight more while Kori ate her way through a whole pizza. Martha then cut in, having heard about that incident before, asking Kori about her past. She got some more of the sympathy that she had expected from humans but also less understanding from the older woman on the other end of the communication device then she got from Kara or Cassie. Martha, it was clear, didn’t have any real contextual framework to connect to what had happened to Kori. Still, the sympathy was nice, as was the promise to feed them all the food that they could eat.

Indeed, at that point, Kori decided to try some of the witty repartee the others had been doing. “I have to wonder exactly where all the food necessary to fill friend Ranma’s stomach will come from, as I doubt that any one farm could produce such an abundance.”

“Eight out of ten,” Ranma judged, holding up a sign to that effect. “Good word play, but yer still a little too wordy. I didn’t take as many points off for it this time since it seems to be part of how you just speak generally.”

The girls all stared and it fell to Kara to demand, “Where in the world did you pull a sign? Do you have those in your ki space?” with a growl in her voice, pushing her glasses up her nose as she stared in annoyance.

“Anything Goes Sign Language… get it?” Ranma quipped causing even Kori to growl at her.

“Moving aside from Ranma’s attempt to pun, I have to congratulate you all on how you handled that interview,” Jon interjected. “It was clear from the start that young lady had an agenda. But you all came off as personable, down to earth and likable.”

Kori pouted a bit at the memory. “Ugh, her emotions did not match her polite façade at all! She was all anger, jealousy, avarice and ambition. The jealousy was stronger when she looked at me, the ambition stronger when she looked at friend Kara for some reason.” She smirked a little bit. “I could understand the jealousy of me, but not the ambition when speaking to friend Kara. Or the disdain she felt for Ranma and Cassie.”

“I have to imagine that she might have looked down on us as barbarians,” Ranma mused, shrugging. “Not like it matters much. Both her opinion and whatever she wanted to get out of talkin’ to us, ‘cause she didn’t get it.”

“Again with the hick accent; Kori, smack him for me, would you?” Kara growled. “Honestly, just stop it.”

Ranma didn’t bother dodging as Kori, confused but dutiful, smacked her upside the head lightly. “Sorry, force of habit.”

“We weren’t acting at all. That reporter took us completely by surprise, and I honestly was kind of thrown off about the whole thing,” Cassie admitted. “If not for the Flash interjecting some questions from the crowd, getting the onlookers involved, we would have had a much tougher time of it. I doubt any real secrets would have come out, but I don’t know that was what she was after, either.”

“Well, regardless, you all did well enough with the prissy little miss.” Martha huffed. “And you did a better job getting back to the real task at hand. I’ve never liked people who would rather just stand around recording than getting stuck in.”

The teens all shrugged, and then Jon asked Kori about the weather and geography of Tamaran as she remembered it, and if her planet was as high tech as Krypton had been. That changed the topic for a while, with Kara lamenting the lack of certain technologies, especially medical ones, here on Earth, before shifting to talking about education in general, with Cassie commenting on how such things were handled in Themyscira and Ranma keeping silent, knowing her opinion would not be welcome here.

Eventually, after talking for more than forty minutes, Martha hung up, and all of them began to concentrate more on the food than anything else, consuming mass quantities swiftly and efficiently. Kara finished off the turkey club that Ranma had gotten her from the café, complete with still-warm French fries, and found she was still hungry enough to start eyeing some of the pizza.

When Ranma teasingly held out a slice to her, she huffed and grabbed it, eating it quickly. With talking falling by the wayside, Kori became the center of attention quickly, as the others all watched her face light up with every bite she took, her own eyes gleaming as she felt the enjoyment, they too were taking her own actions.

When the food started to disappear, Cassie and Ranma began to dominate the conversation once more as they had during the flight that night and evening, exchanging still more stories about their lives. The idea that Ranma’s hand had been sold off multiple times by her/his father was bizarre and infuriating to Cassie, while Kori had to have the idea of arranged marriages explained as they had never been a thing for her people as far back as their writings went, at least as far she knew. Which, she was quick to remind them all, didn’t mean much.

Several of the adventures Cassie had enjoyed prior to Kara coming to Themyscira had Ranma pouting exaggerating in jealousy, while her own tended to be more on the humorous side for his listeners. Right up until she started to talk about his main rivals.

Ryoga, the first, got quite a bit of scorn, along with Kuno. Taro was faced with a shiver from Cassie, as he sounded far too much like a larger, trained minotaur who could fly and soak up damage like a herd of elephants to her. Herb, Mint and Lime all sounded troublesome, although Kori and Kara sneered at what Herb called ‘flight’ and the tamaranian in particular was eager to show Herb what she thought of his opinions and skills. Saffron had all three of them in shock, especially Kara. “I heard about that, the destruction of that mountain. That was you!? and he was immortal, healing from any damage done to him before that? That sounds troublesome.”

“It was, he was, he did, and yeah,” Ranma answered snarkily. “Yeah, it was most definitely troublesome. And that wasn’t even his final form, or whatever.”

All of them greatly enjoyed the chance to simply eat, talk, and not do anything, not even flying after events in Star City, and it did more for Kara mentally than she expected. The memories, the dreams of what she had seen, were rapidly shunted aside, not forgotten, but their impact, the harsh, jagged edges of her emotions and the turmoil, were softened. Her friends, who had seen a lot of the same things she had and fought and killed in the same manner, were not looking down on her, were not judging her. They were simply there, helpful and happy.

Ranma held out her bottle of dragon fruit lemonade, having found that it was indeed as tasty as he’d (at that point) hoped. “Ladies, I propose a toast.”

Luckily, she didn’t have to explain the idea of a toast to Kori, who eagerly held out her own drink, grinning cheerily, her emerald eyes gleaming in her orange-skinned face, having turned off the image inducer and taken it off to shower. Kara and Cassie quickly joined them, and the group clinked their drinks together as Ranma intoned, “To friends new and old and the fun to be had in the future!”

“Here, here,” the girls all cheered, before going back to finishing off the last of the food.

Soon after they were finished eating the last pizza, Cassie began to get a little sleepy, and, after cleaning away the trash, she leaned back against the head of the bed, closing her eyes.

This left Ranma and Kori to shift the dresser back to where it was, complete with reconnecting the TV. When she finished putting the bedstand and the small lamp back, Kori let out a magnificent yawn, and asked if the girls had any preferences for sleeping arrangements. “We seem to have simply assumed that friend Cassie and friend Kara were sharing this room; but friend Ranma’s room also has two beds. He also professed earlier in the conversation to snoring, so if that would bother either of you, I will cheerfully take it. Warworld was many things but it wasn’t quiet.”

Cassie and Kara exchanged a glance, then gestured that they would prefer to stay in their own room. “Even if it smells of pizza at the moment, I think I’d rather stay here,” Cassie said, glancing over at Kara with a smile. I like the idea of sharing a room with Kara again, and honestly going from seeing Ranma for the first time in years to sharing a room sounds a bit strange.

Honestly, considering the times they’d share a room before this, Kara had no trouble with Ranma’s snoring, which she did in both forms. But it felt more natural to share a room with Cassie, as that had been the status quo for the years she was on the Isle of Women.

As Ranma left to toss the trash away, Kori bid the other two good night, and headed back to her own room. Getting into bed, Kori felt an almost sinful amount of pleasure as, she quickly divested herself o the shirt she’d been wearing onto the floor between the two beds. This was followed by her bra and panties. Now thoroughly naked, Kori stretched luxuriously underneath the closing her eyes contentedly. My word, but how my life has changed, and all for the better. Three friends where I had none, a young man who I think I will enjoy having all sorts of fun with, and a whole world to explore, a shower I was able to take without anyone watching, and now a bed that is at least somewhat better than the one I had as a slave and prisoner. Yes, indeed, these have been excellent few days.

Ranma soon came back and helped do what she could to get rid of the smell of the food, then bid Cassie and Kara good night. The redhead hugged Cassie tightly, murmuring, “I know the situation when we met up sucked, but I still am happy to see you again, happy to be traveling with you, getting to know you again. That makes all the shit we had to deal with in Star City worth it in my mind.”

“Mine too,” Cassie said, hugging her back firmly, before reaching over to the bed and pulling Kara into the group hug. We might have to make up this up to Kori tomorrow, she thought with some amusement. She had been sitting beside Kori as they ate, and Kori had taken every opportunity to touch or lean into Cassie. Which she was fine with. Even though she wasn’t normally all that touchy-feely, she understood where the tamaranian was coming from. Many a woman who came to the Isle of Women had escaped from somewhat similar circumstances, having been groomed, captured or sold to men who had abused her.

“Everything seems so much better and more fun with friends,” Cassie said aloud.

“Yep,” Kara agreed, while internally adding, Oh, definitely. I definitely want more of this!

Soon, Ranma left and Cassie and Kori got under the covers. They continued to speak well into the night, telling each other more about their time since Kara had left the Isle of Women, what Kara most missed about it, what she liked most about Man’s World and vice versa. Cassie did the same, but soon after explaining difference between jazz, R&B and why she disdained country to a certain extent, Cassie began to yawn even more, and within thirty minutes or so of Ranma leaving, she started to fall asleep.

Kara let her, falling silent as she watched her friend’s eyes close, then watched her slowly shift underneath the covers, getting comfortable in her sleep. Not feeling quite as tired as the others thanks to her kryptonian heritage, she pulled out a small notebook, and began to write notes into it, smiling over occasionally as she heard her friends light gentle snoring or when Cassie moved in her sleep.

Yep, I definitely want more of this, she thought, before deciding it was time to head to bed herself, turning off the light, and setting her notebook on the bedstand. Tomorrow looked to be a full day, and Kara found herself looking forward to it.

OOOOOOO

“Well, I think that our Kara is doing as well as could be expected,” Martha decided as she hung the phone up next to the bed. “Cassie matches Kara’s description of her, and young Kori sounds a delight, even if her language is terribly confusing.”

“I imagine it is because she learned it all at once via the, what did Kara call it? A single download? She isn’t used to using English, but I think she’ll eventually get used to it,” Jon mused. “It will be interesting to have so many youngsters around the place. We’ll have to make it clear; they can’t use their powers or anything else around here. And I think you might want to sit with Kara and talk about that image inducer thing. Just in case.”

He snorted. “Foreign is fine. Ranma seems to be able to get along well enough. But alien isn’t.”

Martha made to turn the bedside light off, before pausing. “Hmmm… I wonder if I should have reminded Ranma to call his mother, as she will undoubtedly have seen some of the news from Star City. Then again from what Kara told us, Cassie doesn’t come from a particularly happy home. And the less said about what poor Kori has gone through the better. So perhaps it was best not to rub such things in.”

I also have to wonder how Nodoka will react to Ranma traveling not just with Kara, but with two other attractive young ladies. I’m a little worried about the propriety of it, even if I trust Ranma as an individual. Nodoka though, given our discussion, she would be at the far end of that spectrum: she’d be hoping that something would happen.

“Ranma might well have forgotten his mother could have seen him on the news and be worried. He mentioned once how he was still getting used to that.” Jon shrugged. “Still, I imagine that Kara will nudge his elbow about it tomorrow.”

Martha nodded at that, knowing without asking that Jon’s lack of care on that point was more a sign of how happy he was with how Kara seemed to be dealing with her first deadly conflict. It had been a good few months into his time as a hero before Clark had faced the same, and he’d come home broken and weeping. Only the return of Wonder Woman to Man’s World had broken the last of his funk from that, but from their earlier talk and what they had both sensed during the conversation with the four youngsters since, Jon knew Kara would come through this faster than Clark had. Changed, certainly, but still whole.

The chuckle Jon released as Martha finished turning off the light, told Martha she was correct about that. “Oh, I have no doubt about that.” And even if Ranma’s reluctant to call home, he’s outnumbered three to one. Good grief, I’m not certain if I feel sorry for him, or jealous. While there’s nothing there that I picked up on that hinted at romance, being around three beauties is sure to have some serious ups and downs. Heh, I wonder what Clark and Diana will think of what’s happened here with their young charges and that youngster?

OOOOOOO

That night, neither Ranma nor Kara slept easily.

Ranma still felt a lot of guilt about not using the powers of Shazam earlier in the invasion. Because of this, her dreams were a cycle of ‘why didn’t you do more’ or ‘you could have saved us’ and many other iterations of that horrible, debilitating theme.  Every time the images, of broken people, of burnt faces, dead children grew worse. Eventually, it was so bad Ranma woke up and then dosed herself with some sleeping pills Kara had once given her that she was able to get back to sleep.

Plagued by nightmares, Kara also had a bad night, although in her case, it had been nightmares about what they had seen, and how many Warworlders she had killed.  Guilt rode her just as much as Ranma, although perhaps for less reason. She also never woke up fully, because while she started to toss and turn, Kara also began to cry in her sleep.  This noise roused Cassie, and, seeing her friend in such distress, Cassie had moved over to hug the other girl.  That touch soothed Kara, and her dreams had fled, letting her fall asleep, which in turn let Cassie return to her own bed.

The next day, still feeling a little under the weather thanks to those dreams, Ranma woke up a beam of light streaming in from the super thin blinds right into her face. While Ranma was something of a morning person, she had figured that after the past few days she had earned a lie in, without even bringing in the damned nightmares, which, Ranma grimly knew, she deserved. I’ve made enough mistakes in my life, but that one’ll stay with me for damn sure.  And it should.  Never again.  My Shazam body’s mine, and I need to remember to use it, whatever I think about magic.

Holding back a growl of annoyance with some difficulty, Ranma blindly rolled out of bed. Standing between her bed and Kori’s, she pushed himself upright and finished stretching out her back and neck before opening her eyes. This proved to be a mistake, as she found herself facing Kori’s bed, where she lay with the blankets bunched up to one side of her, her arms interspersed with them as if half fighting, half hugging them to her body.

Kori’s totally naked body. She hadn’t just divested herself of the shirt Ranma had given her, but also the panties from the other day. If, indeed, she had ever put them back on after her shower.

For all of her self-control, Ranma was still straight (well, when in his male body, but the point still stood) and the redhead could not stop the hiss of indrawn breath, the widening of her eyes. Nor could she turn away, rather, Ranma simply stared, her throat going dry, all her earlier thoughts about guilt, about her dreams disappearing.

Koriand’r was built like a young goddess, there was no other way to put it. Despite, or, Ranma knew, partly because of her time as a slave waiting to serve in a very specific and horrific manner, Kori’s body was completely without blemish. Light orange skin that Ranma had learned was almost silk suit smooth to the touch was bare for her gaze at the present moment from near halfway down her thigh to her foot, the rest of her thighs and the womanly parts within covered by a portion of her blanket. Yet her toned, firm stomach all the way up to her head was almost free of such coverage.

One breast was visible laying on top of the other, which itself was covered by some of the blanket that Koriand’r had done battle with during the night. It was big and full that breast, more than big enough to overflow one of Ranma’s hands as Shazam, and currently it was moving very gently with her breath as she slept, bringing even more attention to her dark purple nipple as it shifted with the rest.

Kori’s face was composed in sleep and showed even more than normal how young she was, with just a hint of baby fat still visible on her cheeks, a small, pert mouth, and lines around it showing both worry and smiles alike. Kori’s face lacked any of the liveliness it would have when she was awake, but was still beyond alluring. Kori’s hair was currently flung out every which way around Kori’s head and down her back, which was similarly bare, providing still more acres of light orange flesh for Ranma’s all-too appreciative eyes.

It was with a supreme effort of will that Ranma pulled her eyes up and away from Kori, staring up at the ceiling for a moment as she tried to get her thoughts under control and push down at the head and arousal she was feeling. FUCKING HELL!! W, well, I now have a new number one sexy thing I’ve ever seen! But just remember, Kori didn’t set herself up like that to be seen, and she was basically only allowed to train and keep her body fit so she could become a sex slave when she hit eighteen. Remember that too, Ranma! She doesn’t need you ogling her.

A part of Ranma knew that that was kind of false. Koriand’r had shown absolutely no distaste for being looked at. Quite the opposite, really. But Ranma had also seen that she preferred to be looked at with appreciation rather than simple lust, and right now, Ranma wasn’t certain where her look would fall on that scale.

Cologne in a bikini. Cologne in a bikini with that weird love bracelet thing she tried to get Shampoo to use on ya. Except she wants to use it on you herself! Repeating that thought like a horrible mantra in her mind and staring at the ceiling slowly helped Ranma regain control of her hormones, the two tiny protrusions in the front of her shirt disappeared slowly, and Ranma breathed out a sigh of relief.

With her eyes firmly on the dresser and very much not flicking up to the mirror on the wall above it, Ranma moved toward the dresser from between the beds, grabbing up her pants, grateful that she could sense the ki space within was still there as it should be. It had shrunk, but Ranma, like every ki space user, had left sufficient ki embedded in the matrix to allow for such when he wasn’t in direct contact with the piece of clothing in question.

Quietly, Ranma sat down on the foot of her bed and held the old pair against the new one, closing her eyes. This part was really tricky, and Ranma only learned of it from Mousse after he had helped Mousse gain a few points with Shampoo after the Chinese Amazons (Ranma always made that distinction in his mind) had been in Nerima for a few months.

The trick was to create a new ki space in the new pocket, and then slowly shrink the old one. This process would squeeze everything within up and out into the new pocket, like someone slowly rolling up a toothpaste . It was tough going, and Ranma normally wouldn’t have bothered with it, but she didn’t have anything else to do this morning, figuring that the girls would probably all sleep in like Ranma had wanted to and it was good practice anyway.

Besides, I need something to keep my mind off the temptation that’s literally lying within touching distance right now, Ranma acknowledged ruefully. And maybe figure out some thoughts about how the hell my ki space survives unchanged in my clothing when I shift to my Shazam form. If I can figure that out, I should be able to try and figure out a way to transfer just the ki space to my Shazam suit. I was able to change the original… call it the original template, doing more to it like that should be doable, right? Even if the freaking cape came back when I wasn’t thinking of it.

Slowly, the new ki space in her pockets formed, and Ranma no longer desired to turn and sear the image of Kori into Ranma’s still very-much-male mind. When Ranma was satisfied with the new ki matrix, she started to transfer items from her old ki space. As the old ki matrix started to fad out in segments, items were thrust out from one pocket into the other.

In total, this took more than an hour, but then Ranma stood up, heading into the bathroom to change into her normal body. Once Ranma was male and had changed into a new shirt to match his pants, Ranma took a moment to brush his teeth before exiting the bathroom. He tried hard not to look over to Kori, but failed. Yet, he was able to keep his eyes on her face this time. God, she’s gorgeous!

Forcing another moment of hormone-induced paralysis away, Ranma made for the door, slowly closing it behind him.

At the noise of the door clicking into place, Kori blinked, a portion of her mind rousing itself. Then she rolled back, presenting her rear towards the door, as naked as the race rest of her, refusing to wake up.

Luckily, Ranma was already outside, and while the blinds didn’t do much to keep the sunlight out, they at least meant that anyone looking in would only see a blurry image from on the far bed, not Kori’s magnificent rear. This Ranma checked now, and was grateful for, before hopping up and over the safety railing to land on the ground below.

Barely needing to dip his knees as he landed, Ranma made his way away from the motel, pulling at the map he’d gotten and heading over to the diner. There, he bought a bottle of that awesome dragon fruit lemonade he’d gotten the night before, then made his way outside, sitting on the curb for a second as he looked at the map, unwilling to have breakfast without the girls. I might not have much in the way of manners, but eating by myself with my friends here feels both lonely and rude.

Staring at the map and trying to remember any landmarks they had seen since leaving Star City, Ranma tried to figure out where they were. After a few moments, he decided that they’d probably gone a little too far south, but he wasn’t certain. Racking his brain, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d seen signs last night before he had seen this hotel on the horizon, and scowled a little bit at how much flying had made him forget the need to navigate.

It was only when remembered that not only did the phone have a clock, which he’d been about to use, but also a GPS system did Ranma start to make progress. Clicking it ‘on’ in the settings, he was able to figure out where they were far better than using just the map and discovered that his instinct had been correct. They had indeed gone too far south. They’d need to figure out a better route to the Grand Canyon than they had hoped.

We’d hoped to cut across above Las Vegas to Utah, then make our way down to the Grand Canyon. If I’m reading this right, we’re way too south for that. Hmm… make for Bullhead City, then. Ranma quickly marked out a route for them towards the Grand Canyon, then up again following the Colorado River basically across from there into Colorado and from there to the Kent house.

I’ll have to figure out where we are, once we’re actually in Kansas of course, because their place definitely isn’t exactly marked on this map. Heh, that’d be pretty freaky if it was. Heck, this whole GPS thing is a little too bizarre still. It is useful enough, but it feels kinda like a slippery slope kind of thing to me. Hmm… but access to the internet, that’s more important. Now. Let’s see what I can find out about the Grand Canyon.

Thirty minutes later, a somewhat annoyed Ranma scowled, stopping that for the moment to go back to learning more about where they were currently on his phone. Enlarging it rapidly, he slowly shook his head. Unless they wanted to go out of their way by more than a hundred miles, it didn’t seem as if it was going to be worth it to try and find camping gear for a while. The diner and the pizza place here were kept in business by the motel and the RV camp nearby. There wasn’t even any nearby town for another sixty-five miles in every direction, none of which looked big enough to be a sure bet to have a dedicated hiking store. Not even one of those big American mart places, either K or Wal, heh.

There was a laugh nearby, and Ranma glanced up. He could also see a dozen large trucks in the combined parking lot that hadn’t been there when the quartet had arrived before, and several women were now moving away from a few of them, meeting up and moving on to a van. What did that one bar worker call the gals who came around just for the truckers? Lot lizards? I ain’t the kind to question other people’s choices but, damn.

He looked at the map again, scowling once more. As for this rest area, what did that one fantasy novel I read at Furinkan call places like this. Somewhere put there so that mapmakers don’t need to have so many blank spaces or something? Ranma snickered at that, then looked over as one of the men from the other day rolled out from the bed of the pickup truck, where he had apparently stayed the night.

The guy hit the concrete still in a sleeping bag, before he slowly unzipped it, tossing it back up over onto the truck, making his way towards one of the doors into one of the rooms on the ground floor. Around the guy’s weaving route Ranma could also see the remains of several beers, and what looked like a game of cards laid out on the floor.

I guess someone loss at cards, he thought, snorting. Mind you, if six guys were only able to get one room, with two beds … Yeah, they’d have to share their bed, or lay out on the floor everywhere. Not so fun. I’d be very afraid of getting stepped on at night.

Well, Ranma personally wouldn’t be afraid of that. He well understood that his time with his father had developed his mastery of the secret art of Sleep-fu to the point where any such threat would be dealt with severely without the bother of waking Ranma up. But in an enclosed space like one of the motel rooms, even that would have caused issues.

As Ranma turned his attention back to his phone and he began to make notes of their future plans and what camping gear they’d need for Kori and Cassie, Cassie was waking up in the room she’d shared with Kara. Going through much of the same motions as Ranma had, she also found herself faced with a sight that caused her eyes to widen just a little bit.

Unlike Koriand’r, Kara didn’t sleep naked. Frankly, the entire idea would have appalled and embarrassed her in equal measure. But she had kicked off most of the covers last night sometime after Cassie had fallen asleep back in her own bed. Kryptonians ran hotter than humans did and her flannel sleepwear was more than enough for Kara, even if she, like many a human, preferred to fall asleep with something weighing her down.

Kara also hadn’t buttoned her flannel shirt the whole way. The way that she was sleeping now, not only showed Kara’s beautiful sleeping face to Cassie, a sight she’d seen numerous times before but also a view down Kara’s top.

Cassie had also seen that before numerous times. Indeed, she and Kara had seen one another naked in the communal baths on a daily basis. Yet, perhaps the old saw about absence making the heart grow fonder was true, because as she looked at her friend, Cassie began to blush and found herself biting her lower lip a little.

After a second, Cassie shook herself off quickly, deciding not to think about that right now. Not when Kara was asleep, and unaware of her friend’s strange thoughts, and certainly not when Kara had such a hard night the night before. Not that she’s the only one I’ve caught myself checking out. I mean damn, Kori is… Kori and in any of his three bodies, Ranma’s a looker. At least to me anyway. I don’t think I like his Shazam form being so much taller than me, but his normal body’s is much better for that kind of thing. Not that I’m going to do anything more than look of course. I don’t know Kori well enough, Ranma and I just met up again after more than a decade, and Kara, Kara’s just… Kara…

That made Cassie frown a bit, thinking about how lonely she’d been without Kara around, how she’d hoped to see Kara again in Man’s World, and how happy she had been just meeting Kara once more, let alone Ranma back in Star City. How she had basically said she wanted to remain by Kara’s side and vice versa even if they eventually created Okay, maybe I… maybe, I need to think about this more… but that’s only er, half the equation I guess… ugh.

Deciding to set such thoughts aside, Cassie’s legs carried her into the bathroom for a moment, where she performed her morning ablutions, and continue, really tried to set aside the fact that all of her friends were incredibly attractive and that was doing things for her at the moment.

Having changed into the outfit she’d been wearing back in Star City with the shirt reversed, Cassie headed outside, seeing as she passed that Kara stirring but not quite awake. Outside, she saw Ranma down in the parking lot near where the road began, and hopped up and over the safety railing as he had the day before.

This drew a squawk from a man as he came out of one of the nearby rooms, heading back to the pickup truck, but Cassie ignored him, heading on to where Ranma was sitting, now watching her come. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, for us anyway. Not so much for that guy,” Ranma chortled, shaking his head.

Cassie snorted at that, waving it off is immaterial, before closing her eyes and tilting her head upwards, enjoying the feel of the sun’s rays on her face. She didn’t notice Ranma looking at her, a blush forming on his face, before he resolutely concentrated on her face. Enough of that! Ya just met up with Cassie again for the first time in a while, and you don’t know Kori all that well just yet. Now isn’t the time to let that kind of thought into your brain for any of these girls.

An insidious part of Ranma’s mind acknowledged that even thinking along those lines meant that Ranma was indeed willing to admit his attraction to the girls he was currently traveling with. That was the exact opposite of his time in Nerima where any thought beyond a surface thought that the girls around him were attractive was beaten down with all the force of a mighty army. Ranma had no desire nor interest whatsoever in being tied down to any of his old man schemes at the time.

Here, though, such schemes were not only out of the equation, but Ranma was also free to flirt or start a relationship without his debt to the Japanese government hanging above his head. Or indeed any other prior engagements at all, since his old man was nowhere around. A somewhat startling thought that Ranma still had trouble realizing. And I’m just not gonna think about at all right now, not when I’m surrounded by three girls, each of which I could see myself in a relationship with. Kara for sure after the past few days. Kori, well she’s as hot as a freaking star, but I don’t know her all that well. As for Cassie, I think I know her, but it’s been more than ten years since we last saw one another. As for her body…

While Cassie wasn’t an alien beauty like Kori, she shared some of the same qualities that had caused Ranma to blush around Kara a time or two, being very much a girl next-door body type. She leaned towards the more athletic body type than Kara did, despite the fact that Kara was stronger and faster. Cassie was built like a sprinter or a track star, with visibly muscled thighs, easily seen currently by her formfitting jeans, the same she’d been wearing back in Star City. Unfortunately, Kara’s pants wouldn’t fit her around the thighs and didn’t match her leg length either.

Coupled with that, were the very obvious marks of training visible to Ranma’s discerning eye. An old scar here, a tiny mark there, along with calluses built up over years upon years of training on her palms and knuckles. She still wore the shirt from last night too, showing off a slim line of her abs, which Ranma could see a lot better now than he had the night before.

Cassie’s face, despite being a little bit younger than Kori, lacked any baby fat, being a little thinner, a little more refined, and had a slightly larger, more expressive mouth. Her dirty blonde hair seemed to glow in the reflected light of the sun, and she grinned cheerily up at the sky before turning that grin on Ranma, whose heart went pitter patter for a second. Yep, I’m now freaking surrounded by beauties.

Unaware of Ranma’s thoughts, Cassie looked down at her feet, lifting one up towards him so he could look at her shoe, breaking him out of his paralysis. “So, since you’ve been awake for a while, I wager you’ve figured out where we’re going from here? Only, I think I might need new shoes shortly. These look as if they’re falling apart on me.”

“Kori’s in the same boat I think. In her case, it’s more because she accidentally opened the side of one of them on something in the debris back in Star City,” Ranma reflected, grateful for something real to concentrate on. “She took them from a shoe store there at my suggestion soon after we were done at the airport, brand new at the time. When you look at them now, one side has a long gash in it. I’d wager they won’t last more than a few days, if that, once we start jogging.”

Cassie seemed to blink at that, then remembered their traveling plans didn’t include a lot of flying and nodded enthusiastically. “I’m always up for a run.” She smirked. “In fact, we could make a race out of it, you know.”

“Not so much a race as an endurance contest,” Ranma retorted. “We’ll be hiking for a long period of time, rather than quickly after all.” Well that and flying. We need to make up a lot of distance, and there’s the bad news about the Grand Canyon I need ta share.

Cassie shrugged unconcern to that, then looked up towards the second floor of the motel. “Should we get them up, or let Kara and Kori keep sleeping?”

Ranma paused, then looked towards his door, the memory of what he’d seen earlier that morning going through his brain despite efforts to stop it. He coughed, his mouth dry again, and shook his head, trying not to look at Cassie for a moment. “I, er, I think it would be best for everyone concerned if you woke them both up. I, I noticed that Kori had left some of her clothing on the floor, and I don’t want to know if she’s naked or not underneath the covers.”

Thankfully for Ranma, it had been more than ten years since Cassie had last been around Ranma, and while Ranma would never be good at lying outright, she didn’t catch it. “HAH. You say that as if you’d complain about getting a look. As if anyone with a pulse wouldn’t want to look at that!”

“Does that include you?” Ranma retorted, and Cassie blinked, thrown off entirely by the question.

When Ranma began to snicker, Cassie grumbled, smacking him hard on the shoulder. “Quiet, you.”

If they had still been kids, that thump would’ve sent Ranma flying forward. She had been far stronger as a child than Ranma had been. Now though, thanks to his training since, the difference wasn’t nearly so wide, and he simply grunted under the impact, his shoulder shifting just a bit.

Justice done, Cassie demanded that Ranma go over to the diner and see what they had for breakfast, while she followed his suggestion and headed up to the second floor to wake up Kara and Koriand’r. “I’d like to eat outside somewhere, but I doubt there are any picnic tables around here.”

Cassie woke up Kara first, her fingers lightly brushing up over Kara’s forehead, then lightly tugging at her hair a few times until Kara’s eyes again to flutter. “Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty. I thought you said once you kryptonians don’t need as much sleep as we mere humans.”

“We don’t,” Kara said, her hand flashing up to catch Cassie’s. a second later, she released her first grip, and their fingers intertwined as she stared up at her friend, a small soft smile on her face pulling a similar one from Cassie. “But I stayed up a little later than you to write down ideas for that gravitic anomaly detection system I mentioned back in Star City. Well that and a few other things.”

Cassie didn’t reply for a moment, simply basking in the smile on her friend’s face, the feel of their fingers intertwined. There were, however, some more serious things to talk about.  “How are you doing?  You, you weren’t having an easy time of it last night, Kara.  Bad dreams.”

Kara flinched at that but didn’t look away.  Cassie’s understanding look helped more than she would have thought, and she nodded. “I, um yeah.  What we saw in Star City, what I had to do… it, I know Diana and the queen tried to explain to me how sometimes lethal force would be needed, but that’s a far cry from going to war.”

“It is, and it should be.  But if you ever want to talk, or simply cuddle, Kara, I’m here.  I can’t pretend the use of lethal force bothers me as much as you, but what we saw in the cleanup does,” Cassie answered soothingly.  “But we’re in this together.  Heck, I’d wager even Ranma would be a willing ear.”

“I know.  He’s, he’s also helped me work through some stuff,” Kara admitted.  “I’ll, I will get through it.  Just telling myself how much worse things could have been helps a lot.

Cassie nodded, and Kara, deciding that was enough serious talk for the moment, pulled at their still-joined hands, nearly upending Cassie into the bed with a giggle. Instead, Cassie put a foot against the bed quickly enough to stop her plunge, regained her balance and tugged on the other girl, pulling her up out of the bed. “Okay, that’s enough of that! If you’re feeling better, I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the day, and it’s getting on.”

Kara laughed but allowed Cassie to help her out of the bed, before pulling the taller girl into a hug that Cassie returned tightly. For a few seconds, they just held the hug, no words needed, then they pulled back, as Kara looked around for clothing from the day before. “Is Koriand’r up? I assume Ranma is the one whose heartbeat I can’t detect from next-door.”

Cassie laughed at that, then nodded, indicating Kara’s guess was right, before heading towards the door. “I’ll go over and get her up while you take a shower if you want to.”

“Clean my face and brush my teeth for sure, but shower no. I don’t know if you can hear it, but the pipes are seriously loud here. That, and you only get what, five minutes of warm water, if that?”

“Yeah, something like that. I didn’t notice it until it started to get really cold yesterday, but hey, at least it doesn’t smell.”

Kara snorted at that, remembering how Cassie had come clean about how her nose was especially sensitive. Indeed, her sense of smell was closer to that of a bloodhound then a human and even that wasn’t doing it justice. “True enough.”

With that, Cassie headed next-door, opening the door to find that Kori was awake, sitting up on the side of the bed and stretching. And as Cassie had been warned to expect, Kori was completely naked.

For a moment, Cassie stared, torn between a little bit of jealousy, and simple appreciation for the other girl’s beauty. Good grief, but she is amazingly attractive. If a painter or sculptor saw this, he… or maybe even she would want try and do it justice, but they’d fail, Cassie thought to herself, before shaking her head quickly. “Well, I’m glad I’m the one that came to wake you up. We’re going to get out on the road as soon as possible, okay? We’re not in a rush or anything, but these accommodations aren’t exactly the best, and you and I need a full wardrobe at some point.”

Kori smiled at that, nodding her head, before frowning a little as she noticed Cassie wasn’t looking at her. Rather, the young Amazon was staring over Kori’s head. She stood up, bringing herself up into that line of sight quickly, and then watched as Cassie twitched her eyes elsewhere. Quickly, Kori began following, making for a very odd sight as she seemed to dance side to side and up and down. “Why are you not looking at me?”

“I’d have thought that you wouldn’t want people to look at you giving your time as a slave,” Cassie answered, stopping the little game to stare into the much taller girl’s eyes, fighting back a blush. I still can’t get over the fact that she’s almost as tall as Diana! Let alone everything else.

As Cassie tried to not let her eyes straight down to that ‘everything else’ Kori cocked her head thoughtfully to one side, then smiled widely. “Looking was never the problem. It was the fact that I could not control who was doing the looking. The emotions behind such gazes made the events worse, a hurricane to a tsunami of ruin.”

She shivered. “No person on Warworld ever looked at me as if I was a person, as if I mattered more than my physical form. There was always a desire to dominate, to own me, an ephemeral kind of lust, the wish to use my body to sate their lusts. That is what I felt from those who looked upon me while I was on Warworld.”

Her lips twisted a bit. “That, and a goodly amount of fear, considering that I was to be the slave of Mongul and if Mongul thought that they were taking too much pleasure in even looking at me, they would be killed. Mongul’s looks were much the same, whenever he came by, but his emotions were far more possessive. I was simply an object to him as well, an object that he would soon claim completely, and then use until I was spent up.”

Cassie grimaced at that and she looked away for a moment, then felt Kori’s hands on either side of her face. The tamaranian girl pulled lightly until they were looking at one another again staring into Cassie’s earnestly.

“None of you think of me in that manner. Being around the three of you in particular, it has been, I believe the phrase would be a balm to my soul. You are open, happy, friendly, affectionate. You see me for me. You also appreciate me. When you look at me, it is not just sexual desire, but appreciating more than just my body, you know how much work I put into looking this good, regardless of why I had to. You don’t just desire to dominate; you desire to understand and know me.”

Kori smiled. “I understand that looking at me now embarrasses you even if I do not understand why. Yet still, I would prefer you to look at me rather than the wall.”

At that, Cassie could only laugh, and Kori grinned. “All right, I’ll try to, er, appreciate you I suppose, without feeling too embarrassed or jealous. I’d say I’d be willing to kill for curves like you, but I wouldn’t quite…, and I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with whatever food or what you were given, while on Warworld to keep that kind of shape.”

“I believe that physique is more due to my genes and my own work ethic, no matter how enforced some of that might have been, but you are correct. The food I was served on Warworld was, well I was a slave, of course. So it wasn’t very good. The food I have had since arriving on Earth has been most delectable in contrast, the difference between a monochrome image and that of a rainbow,” Kara said with a smile.

“Well, if you get dressed, we’ll have time for breakfast before heading out,” Cassie wheedled, and following her or earlier words, she allowed her eyes to rake down Kori’s body. Just once though, before concentrating on her new friend’s face, trying to keep a rush of heat from filling her body at the sight. “Although if the diner’s busy we might have to beat boys and men off you with a heavy club.”

“I believe I could deal with such myself, but as for the food, there is a proper incentive,” Kori said, feeling just a little bit smug at the feelings she was getting from her friend. They were so confused, though. Cassie was very clearly unaware of the depth of her appreciation for the female form. Still, Kori didn’t say anything, feeling it would be impolite.

The two girls continue to joke with one another, as Kori found her clothing and pulled it on, grimacing a little at how dirty it felt. Cassie caught that look, and nodded agreement. “Yeah, clothing is going to be one of our priorities when we leave here.”

Kori agreed wholeheartedly with that, and the two of them exited the room, finding Kara waiting for them leaning against the banister, her notebook out once more and a pair of glasses that Cassie thought made her look quite cute on her face. She smiled at the pair, then hefted up her backpack and gestured down to where Ranma was waiting for them. “He says they have bacon. And I’m glad you remembered to turn on your image inducer before coming out, Kori.”

“Bacon gets my vote,” Cassie said, while Kori hummed approval. While a little greasy, bacon was so tasty she could easily make a whole meal of it and not be bothered.

Later, as the four of them were sitting around a table, trying to ignore the stares from the locals and dozens of truckers the three gorgeous girls were drawing, Ranma told them what he thought their plan for the day would be. “Alright, so, good news, bad news. I’ve got a plan to get us over to the Grand Canyon, and it should be pretty easy. I figure if we cut back north for a bit, we can then just go practically straight east to here to a place called Bullhead City. I know we wanted to cut down on a diagonal, missing Las Vegas from up top and head towards the Grand Canyon, but we came too far south. From Bullhead City, if we keep going east, we can then head straight to the Grand Canyon. If we can fly as much as I hope, it shouldn’t take longer than a day or so.”

“You’re mentioning flying… without me needing to point out that option…” Kara narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. She’d gotten used to using the glasses almost as a bit of armor against anyone taking interest in her, even if she refused to use them while running. “What’s the bad news?”

For some reason, that caused Cassie to giggle, and Kara smiled, leaning against her, putting an arm around the taller girl’s shoulders. There was a story there, but Ranma decided not to ask, instead explaining. “So, you know how we wanted to go white-water swimming there? Yeah, that’s not gonna be happening. There’s apparently white-water rafting all through the canyon, and what parts don’t have it, are too shallow. There’s also a lot more tourist activity, and a lot more park rangers there. I think we’d still be able to get away with it, but only at night, and even then, it isn’t a certain thing. So unless we wanna deal with needing to run away, I think we should postpone the white-water swimming thing.”

Kara pouted, while the other two just shrugged. They’d not been yet, so only had Kara’s words that it was fun in the first place. “Okay, so what’s the plan then?”

Ranma pulled out his phone, and quickly brought up the map he’d been looking at. “So, what we can do is hike through the Grand Canyon. Starting from the southern-most point, we head northeast. The park ends here. From then on, we make our way via flight and a few other large state parks along the Colorado River, and get between the Escalante and Dirty Devil rivers, we’ll be in the wilds, like serious wilds, not even state parks. I think we could spend a few days there, just sparring, camping out and swimming.”

“Ooh… that sounds nice,” Cassie smiled. “I missed having nature so close and living in Star City really annoyed me.”

One of the things that Cassie had gotten from her mother, despite being somewhat estranged from her, was a love of astrology and the stars. She just enjoyed looking at them, and the lights in the city had ruined it for her.

“That was amazingly fun when we did that in the mountains,” Kara agreed enthusiastically.

Kara’s bright smile caused many of the men who were looking their way to reexamine her, having taken her for the token nerd among the trio of girls. What they thought of Ranma was unprintable and well-colored by jealousy. Honestly, most of the truckers and the others just tried to block him out entirely. The few who had attempted to get close enough to flirt with the trio had already been dealt with, and their groaning, moaning forms, stacked in another booth nearby, served as a sign that further such was a bad idea.

“Given a few decisions I’ve made about my personal future, and this whole going to school thing that was decided for me, I don’t think we’re under any kind of timetable, so finding a place like that we can enjoy for several days, sounds like fun,” Kara continued, keeping her voice to a whisper for a moment.

“Really? Well, good for you,” Ranma said, giving her thumbs up. “Any help in that area you need, you only need to ask.”

Cassie quickly added her own words of encouragement to Ranma’s, adding, “And I think whatever our so-called civilian identities are, we need to stay together. That needs to be a thing.”

Kori agreed with the sentiment wholeheartedly judging by the hum of approval that she released even as she kept on eating some bacon, having slowed down to savor the taste of the last few rashers. The others had all finished, and a moment later, after paying for their food, the group exited the diner.

“If we head to Bullhead City, will we be able to find a place to purchase shoes and other things on the way? Remember that Kori and Cassie are both going to need new clothing,” Kara reminded Ranma. “We made that plan back when we first left Star City.”

Tongue-in-cheek, Ranma retorted, “I have no memory of any such conversation. As a guy, I am required to forget everything and anything to do with the ‘S’ word. Our minds, you see, work subconsciously to suppress such horrors.”

Kori and Cassie just stared at him at that one, but Kara, quickly opened up one of the waters bottles they were all carrying, which Ranma had bought for the trip from the diner. The next moment she plashed Ranma with it, ignoring the fact there were several people still watching them from inside the diner and there were several other “There, is that better?” she cooed.

Ignoring the shocked exclamations from the nearly packed diner around them, Ranma decided to roll with it, blinking, then grinning over at the two girls on the other side of the table cheerily. “Oh yeah, I remember that for sure, shopping right? Let’s get going, that’ll be fun!” She even added a little bounce in her seat to go with her words, and that was seemingly enough to have Cassie and Kara laughing wildly, while Kori simply grinned, unable to follow the joke, but basking in the fun and happy atmosphere despite the shocked, frightened and freaked out expression from the people around them.

Ranma smiled a bit, using a ki trick to heat up his own glass of water and pouring it over her head. I might no longer need my curse, for its original purpose, but at least I can use it occasionally to make people laugh, and to allay Aunt Martha’s concerns too when needed. That’s a nice little bonus.

Halfway around the world, the spirit of Jusenkyo began to rage once more. It could sense it, it could sense one of its toys, one of its victims was pleased with the curse it had gotten. This toy was not just pleased which its curse, but had chosen that curse deliberately! This was not to be. This could not be. This toy would need to be punished somehow in the future.

Back in California, leaving the flummoxed and confused watchers behind, Ranma and his three friends soon headed out onto the road, where Kara and Ranma quickly set the pace. Cassie kept up with them easily, even enthusiastically. She loved running, and jogging like this for hours on end was simply a good time for her.

Kori was a little more ambivalent about things. She had never enjoyed just running everywhere, but being out in the open under the sun, with real wind in her hair, was making it pleasant enough. Better, the shoes that she had gotten back in Star City, despite being  damaged, as Ranma had pointed out, were still up to this rigorous movement.

Ranma had made the decision to head back north a bit since it would be easier to use fly eastward from that point straight to Bullhead City. However, he hadn’t reckoned with how much traffic there would be, something that started up as they had been eating and continued for a while. Only after an hour did the quartet stop seeing cars coming and going in either direction… and stop hearing horns aimed their way. Thanks to Cassie and Kori joining them, that rather annoying American affectation seemed to have multiplied.

At that point, with Ranma changing into his Shazam form and taking a turn carrying Cassie, they headed directly eastward. They flew for a good portion of the morning, joking and laughing, before setting down as they started to see more roads and cars in the distance. They landed on the outskirts of a small town, where they only stopped long enough for Cassie and Kori to get new shoes.

Then they were running off once more.

Following the directions from Ranma’s phone, they cut across still further eastward, until they started to parallel a highway. There, they simply ran along, with Ranma using ki to now enhance his speed enough to keep up with a much faster pace.

By later afternoon, they started to see signs for Welcome to Nevada. This was quickly followed by signs that read Laughlin, and Bullhead City, Arizona soon after.

By evening, the group was running through a city full of small casinos and other things of that nature, making Ranma shake his head. “Ugh, this place looks like a poorer more spread out version of what I’ve seen of Las Vega in movies.”

“I know, it looks extremely… Gaudy, I suppose you could say?” Kara muttered from behind him, while Cassie raised a hand to her nose, clamping down tightly. “It’s also dirty as heck. I don’t think I saw as much graffiti before this, or so many homeless.”

“While I would say the colors are most pleasing, I think that all together it is overwhelming like one of those poisonous frog things friend Cassie was telling me about a moment ago,” Kori stated firmly. “The feelings I am getting off of some of the people here are rather… desperate too. Also greedy. Neither is pleasant to feel.”

“Then I think we made the right choice to not go to Vegas,” Ranma snickered. “Come on, let’s just get through this, we should be seeing the Colorado River soon, I think.”

Ranma was correct in this assumption. By cutting straight across a tiny tip of Nevada, they passed through the city, more a town really, of Laughlin quickly finding several bridges leading into Bullhead City, Arizona.

Like Laughlin, Bullhead wasn’t a very large city as such places go, but while Laughlin had been spread out more widely, Bullhead was built directly on the Colorado River, which was important for their plans going forward.

As they crossed into Bullhead, Cassie released a sigh of relief. “That place was bothersome, and I’m not just talking about the gaudy signs, the music or anything else. The smell was awful, what the heck!?”

“I spotted a few open sewers,” Ranma said helpfully. “I’d guess they’re having an issue there.”

“Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad we didn’t have to spend much time on this side of the river.”

Ranma stared at his childhood friend, slowly shaking his head and only half theatrically. “Why’d you gotta jinx us like that?”

“Before meeting Ranma, I had no understanding of how such statements could be legitimately linked to seemingly randomly occurring events,” Kara said shaking her head. “Yet, after spending time with Ranma and listening to his stories, I can understand why things like jinxes and luck are somewhat believable.”

She glanced up at the sky, which by this point was pushing evening, hence, why the lights and everything had been coming on in Laughlin moments before. “Come on, we still need to find a hotel. Then I want some food, and then we should still have enough time to get all the shopping we need done before shops start to close.”

“How are we paying for the clothing? I didn’t grab my wallet or anything when I ran out of Diana’s apartment, and I don’t want Ranma to pay for everything,” Cassie said, rather shamefacedly bringing that up for the first time. Back at the motel it hadn’t bothered her, but clothing and stuff, especially when someone was buying several sets of outfits, was something else.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a credit card. I’ve only rarely used it, and I imagine he’ll have a few questions when he sees the monthly bill, but, you and Kori need clothing, so it’s for a good cause,” Kara replied.

Soon, they found a nice local hotel, one a lot nicer and more respectable looking than the ones in Laughlin, and thankfully, crossing the river seemed to have let them get away from the smell, too. There, the three girls would be able to share one room, which had two beds and a pullout sofa bed in a small sitting area. Ranma would get one room to himself.

With that done, they decided to get the shopping out of the way first, rather than food, as the concierge said most places in Bullhead City were going to shut down early due to it being Sunday.

Finding the shipping district, Ranma split off from the others, heading to a few outdoor type stores. There, he bought a family sized tent so that the three girls could share one, and he could go back to using his own on his own. They’d still have Kara’s tent in reserve, but Ranma figured the girls would like to share a single tent. He bought a few supplies like a flashlight, a small trawl, plates, forks, and sleeping bags for Cassie and Kori.

Dropping all that stuff off at the hotel, Ranma made his way back out onto the streets, heading in the direction of the shopping area, where he found Cassie waiting outside one store. “Kori and Kara are talking about skirts. Well, Kori is talking to the locals about them, and she’s dragging Kara around. I was able to escape and decided to get out of there rather than get roped into the conversation.”

“Heh, I suppose we should have seen Kori’s interest in clothing coming, given she was a princess and all,” Ranma mused, then smirked a bit as he bowed over his clasped hands towards the store front. “We salute your sacrifice, Kara.” Straightening, he smiled over at a chuckling Cassie. “Do you need to buy anything special? I’ve got our camping supplies coming. The sporting goods store here is massive and really well stocked.”

“That’s good, but as for something special, so long as you’re not worried about money, I’d like some headphones. One set for when we’re running along, another pair for just listening to, and a new phone. Like my ID and everything, I didn’t have a phone,” Cassie said.

After sticking his head into the clothing store and telling Kori and Cara where they were going, the two childhood friends walked along the road until they saw signs for a Staples. Finding what Cassie wanted after that was easy, and soon, she was downloading music to her new phone, a pair of large headphones on her head.

By this time it was dark out, and the Staples parking area have several lights out. This convinced Ranma they could head up onto the rooftops, which the two succeeded in doing easily. However, as they did, Ranma chanced to glance back down at the far corner of the parking lot. A second later, he held out a hand.

Cassie found that hand pressing into her midriff, pushing her back slightly until she was out of sight from below. “What is it?”

“Look at the superrich looking car down there, and the three people around it,” Ranma ordered.

Cassie did so and instantly realized that the three people around the car, which she recognized as some kind of Maserati, very much did not match with the car. She could not look at any of the three and assume that they were the owner of the car. Her eyes then narrowed as she watched one of them trying to work at the car door, while the other two were looking around. They were also all of them wearing hoods over their heads obscuring a goodly portion of their faces.

“A carjacking?”

“Almost certainly. And while I wouldn’t really care much about a pretty boy’s car getting messed up, it’s happening right in front of us, and I do need some money now since I bought that stuff for ya. Unless we want to keep using Kara’s cousins money anyway.”

“I’m not so happy about charity either, but would you think those three will have any money on them?” Cassie said somewhat tartly, shaking her head. “I’m not so sanguine about the idea of stealing from a thief either. Two wrongs aren’t supposed to make a right.”

“Those three might not have much money on them, true. But I’d wager that they’re also working for a larger operation. Kori and I ran into something like that up in Star City. And they’re sure to have money on hand.”

“Hmm…” Cassie thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. It was true they needed money, and this was, while a very low-key crime in comparison to the kind of crimes normal superheroes would deal with, still happening right in front of them. “Okay, so are we going to wait until they break in and take the car away or try and trail them after they fail or something?”

“Ya’d be fine with them stealin’ the car?” Ranma questioned, curious. Either way was fine with him. A person with a car like that probably had money to spare, so could afford to get the car repaired and everything once it was returned to him, after all.

Cassie snorted. “Please, I’m an Amazon, and Diana trained me in hunting too after you left the island. Letting vermin steal some food so you can track it back to its layer and deal with the whole clutch is simple enough.”

“Huh…” Ranma shrugged at that, then smirked. “I don’t think we need ta go that far. How fast can ya throw pebbles?”

Confused, Cassie cocked her head to one side, then began to smile as Ranma explained his impromptu plan. After all, panicking the vermin is also a viable tactic.

Within seconds, the pair were in position. Cassie crouched on the roof of the Staples, a few pebbles in her hand, while Ranma had, somehow, crossed much of the lit up area of the parking lot. He’d then blended into the darkness right outside one such cone of light so well that even Cassie, who had tracked his movements up to that point with difficulty, almost lost him.

Good grief, I’m going to need Ranma to explain more of his adventures to me, aren’t I? none of the ones he’s told me about yet have mentioned anything about his having developed stealth skills like that… well, bar his tale about how he escaped from Gotham. But he didn’t use that odd disappearing trick of his here. Neat.

A moment later, Ranma bellowed, his voice drawing attention not to his current position, but rather what he was shouting at. “What the fu, hey assholes, that’s my car!”

With that, Cassie launched her first pebble. It zoomed over the head of one of the men by the Maserati, close enough to nearly clip his hood off his head.

“Fuckers, I’m gonna put ya all in the ground!” Ranma roared again, trying hard to sound, well, Cassie wasn’t certain what kind of accent he was going for, but it sounded almost Texan, or rather, movie-style Texan to Cassie’s ears. Not like I have much to compare it too, I only watched a few movies with Texan characters to them. Though, he does sound like that ranger guy, she thought, loosing another stone as the three carjackers panicked. One was reaching under his hoody, and he yelped as her stone slammed into the ground right in front of him, ricocheting up and between his legs, missing his boy bits.

“Who knew all those times Kara and I competed in trick shots with our slingstones would come in handy?” Cassie giggled, loosing a third stone.

“You just stay still, fuckers!” Ranma roared once more, while a security guard from inside the store rushed out, gun in hand.

That seemed to do it for the three would-be carjackers, but Cassie decided to add a bit more. Four stones in rapid succession slammed into the concrete all around the group, which she had hurled harder than the others. Now they caused bits of shrapnel, and all three took hits from them, causing them to cry out in pain even as they turned and fled. They raced away out of the parking lot, heading to a nearby alleyway and away as the security guard charged out, looking around wildly for the shooter.

Cassie watched as Ranma seemed to almost slink out of the darkness, making his way towards the other side of the parking lot, then up onto the rooftops. She lost him for a moment, but a second later saw him waving her way from another rooftop and raced to meet him, easily clearing the distance between the roofs easily. Up here, above the lights of the city, no one saw her moving, and soon the pair met up, racing along above the three fleeing carjackers.

“Good work with that last attack,” Ranma said enthusiastically as the two of them jumped from one roof to the next. “Without those injuries these three idiots might’ve tried to lay low somewhere or blend into the regular civvies.”

“I figured that might be the case. Now, though, they should run straight to where they feel safe…est…” Cassie’s voice slowed as the roofs around them came to an abrupt end, overlooking a small footbridge spanning the Colorado River. It led across into Laughlin, an area far less brightly accoutered than the segment the quartet had run through along the highway earlier.

She felt Ranma’s glare drilling into the side of her head and huffed, turning to meet his eyes with a scowl. “You can’t blame me for this!”

“Oh I certainly can,” Ranma retorted. “Ya dared Lady Luck, and here we are, heading back into the weird and sleezy.”

Rolling her eyes, Cassie hopped down to the ground. “Come on, they’re nearly out of sight. Let’s get across before they leave us behind.”

It turned out that Cassie’s initial assessment was bang on: this segment of Laughlin wasn’t nearly as ‘nice’ as the area they’d passed through. It didn’t have any of the strip clubs, casinos or bars that lined the highway. Rather, it had dozens of old homes, small businesses, mechanics and other such things that Cassie supposed served the more ‘visible’ segments of the city. Huh, whereas Bullhead looked more like an area to live in.

Regardless of the style of it, this area was also very dirty, not very well looked after, with a lot of graffiti and even more trash than the more central area. Worse, there were dozens of homeless people, and the smell! The smell was even worse here. Cassie began to hold a hand over her nose the moment they crossed the river, and quickly became miserable the further they went. UGH.

She didn’t look sideways again at Ranma, the smug roiling off him was enough to turn her stomach right now. “FINE,” she ground out. “You were right. Let’s just get this over with before my nose falls off!”

“Heh, fine by me. Looks like they’re entering that building there. It’s got a skylight too. Nice. Let’s pull back a second, and put on some masks… I think I’ve still got the ones Kara and I used against that future tech and the boomerang idiot…” Ranma mumbled. “I might even have something ya can stuff your nose with.”

“Yes please. So long as it isn’t poison ivy. I remember that little adventure all too well,” Cassie snarked.

Thankfully, it was just bits of cotton, although where they were from even Ranma looked a little confused as he pulled them out of his ki space. Still, though disturbing to the touch, they did work.

Getting into the building via the skylight was easy, and moving from there through a small, currently empty office out into what was indeed a well hidden chop shop was equally easy. Even if Ranma had stopped by for a few seconds to tear open a safe and grabbed several wads of cash from within.

They moved out of that office and crouched on the small metal walkway leading to it just in time to hear a man, possibly the owner of the small office, down on the floor shouting at the trio of would-be carjackers, “-- and you just ran straight back here, you dumbasses?! If the police get your faces from that store’s security cameras, I’m going to make you both take a walk into the river with cement shoes.”

Knowing a queue when she heard one, Cassie leapt up over the safety railing, landing in among a group of workers who had stopped to watch the dressing down. Their somewhat nasty grins at their fellow’s bad luck faded as they turned toward the sound of her landing, but not before two of them fell, unconscious to the ground. The other three were hurled in every direction, as Cassie didn’t bother to hold back more than half of her strength. Her blows didn’t quite shatter bone, though enough to make each bone act as if small explosions had gone off in their bodies, but they were certainly hurled away, crashing into the walls like so many marionettes.

Ranma stayed hidden for a second as some of the men pulled out guns, with two in particular near what looked like the doorway into the chop shop rounding on Cassie with machine guns in hand. Both of those men were sent flying backwards into the wall as small stones, like the ones that Cassie had used earlier crashed into their sternums courtesy of Ranma.

Then Ranma was leaping upward, bouncing off the ceiling and down into a group of gunmen even as they started to fire wildly towards Cassie. Most of their shots went wide thanks to his abrupt arrival, but several were able to fire despite that, and this close they couldn’t miss.

Growling, Cassie blocked the bullets coming her way with her forearms, sending the bullets every which direction.

His fists and feet lashing out, Ranma could still see this, and blinked. “Wait, aren’t you entirely bulletproof? Or are you worried about bruises?”

“We at least tested that at one point,” Cassie said, lashing out and catching one bullet, crushing it in her grip before flinging the mangled remains down into the hand of a man who had just tried to grab a long dagger from his belt and stab her leg with it. He screamed, but the screaming abruptly stopped as her knee slammed into his face. “Nothing smaller then a… can’t remember the name of it, I think it was called an anti-material rifle, or BF-something? The round was big anyway, a little bigger than my hand outstretched. One got through my defenses once and had my head ringing but that was all.”

Ranma blinked at that information, but he really didn’t know much about guns. He had run into them occasionally in his travels with his father, but never so much as he had after the government had taken over his father’s debt, and even then he hadn’t really seen the point of making any great study of them. Here in the US, he understood that guns were very much a part of their nations concept of rights and so forth, but that was very much not the case in Japan and even less so in other places.

There was, however, one question he wanted answered now as he watched Cassie block several more bullets before taking their shooters down, while others had ducked behind cover and were firing at them both. This forced Ranma to dodge, but Cassie was still blocking the bullets coming her way with her forearms. “So if you’re entirely bulletproof, why do you bother blocking?” he asked as he slid into cover.

Cassie blinked, then realized what she was doing, before shrugging and stopping, going on the attack once more, charging forward. The next second, several dozen bullets hammered into her stomach and chest, causing her breasts to bounce dramatically, far more than they should in a sports bra like the one she was currently wearing. It was the same one that she had been wearing back in Star City after she and the other girls had taken the opportunity to change at the airport. It had served very well, but didn’t seem to do so well with direct concussive force.

They jiggled so much Cassie just stared down at her chest, blinking, while the gunfire petered out for a second, then resumed as one wit fired directly at her chest, watching the breast bounce. “Damnnnnn…” he whispered.

That worthy fell an instant later as Ranma’s fist slammed into the side of his head with enough force to send him flying into several others, Ranma having been the only one who had kept moving, even as his eyes had locked on Cassie’s chest much like every other man there. “I see your point.”

“Yep, definitely going to keep blocking bullets from now on,” Cassie muttered, even as she charged forward. “I better tell the other girls about that kind of thing too.”

“I’d wager anything that K already understands, but… Do you really think that Carla would understand or even care?” Ranma said, fumbling for a moment as he completely forgot their hero names, and also figured that they wouldn’t be safe to use here anyway.

Cassie clotheslined one man as he tried to sprint out of a hiding place near to one side between two cars, sending him to the floor gagging before her foot slammed down into the back of his head with near surgical precision, launching her forward into another man, taking him down with a punch to the jaw.. “Probably not.”

At that point, with his men dropping like flies all around the hidden chop shop, the man who had been shouting earlier before Cassie and Ranma attacked, pushed himself to his knees, reaching into his pocket. Now he pulled out something. At first, Ranma, who had just stomped a man’s head into the wall, thought it was a normal pistol, if built up around the barrel for some reason. Then that barrel opened wider, becoming almost like a series of radar dishes. A moment later, a blast of some kind of energy, wider than the man’s forearm, flashed out crashing into Cassie’s side.

“ARG!!” Cassie roared, more in shock than pain as she was hurled off her feet and slamming into one of the cars that had been almost entirely taken apart. The mass of metal molded around her body, shifting several yards back from the impact.

“C, er, Nancy!” Ranma bit back his first response to this sudden reversal, instead flinging a handy bit of detritus, in this case, a person, towards the man with the blaster. Both unconscious flying man and former gang leader went down in a huff, by which point Cassie had already begun to pull herself out of the shattered bit of debris.

“I’m fine, it hit like a battering ram, but didn’t do enough to really hurt,” Cassie growled, stomping forward, grabbing at the neck of a man who had just tried to bring a wrench down on her head. She hurled him to one side, then her foot caught the gang leader in the side of his head, sending him into the realm of the comatose with several missing teeth and a broken jaw.

Seconds later, the fighting ended when Ranma hurled one man up into a car that had been lifted into the air to let the workers get at the undercarriage. The man slammed into and through a window to hang there, unconscious even before he hit the glass and remaining so after.

A lot of the men were groaning and moaning, but that quickly ended as Cassie and Ranma moved around, ruthlessly chopping it next to silence them. With that done, Cassie lifted the blaster to look at it for a moment, then around. “This doesn’t quite match. A prize, maybe, something from another rival gang?”

“Maybe. You think we should destroy it?” Ranma questioned. “Keep it maybe from finding its way into the hands of another gang?”

“No… I don’t think so. Best to leave it to the local authorities. Do you think they will have heard this fracas?”

“Fracas?” Ranma snorted, shaking his head. “The locals around here might not be willing to call in cops just for the noise that got out. But we can solve that for sure.”

The pair opened the front of the garage and spent several minutes firing bullets all around into the walls, emptying the guns of the gang two at a time.

The sound of that discharge, no longer muffled by the garage doorway, resounded through the streets, and no matter how run down and neglected this area of the city appeared, there were still policemen. In the distance, sirens began to blare. With that, the two childhood friends decided that was a good signal to leave, good deed done for the day, and further cash for Ranma’s resources acquired.

Soon, they were across the same bridge they had taken to go back into Laughlin. One the other side, Cassie pulled the cotton balls from her nose, breathing in deeply the far nicer air of the Arizona city, ignoring Ranma snickering beside her. Ranma stowed the two masks, then wound their way via the rooftops for a few moments, before jumping down and making their way back to the shopping area on foot, both of them exchanging stories about the short fight, the faces the men they’d been fighting made when they were hit and so forth, having had a quite nice time of it.

Kara and Kori were waiting for them still outside the clothing store. As they approached, Kara facepalmed, while Kori looked on quizzically. “So, what kind of trouble did you two get up to?” the blonde kryptonian groaned into her palm.

“Eh, we found a few locals trying to carjack a car, scared them off, followed them back to where their base of operation was, smashed it to pieces, then took their cash,” Ranma reported with a grin, before looking over at Cassie. “And Cassie has something to mention to the two of you.”

“Yeah, the momentum of bullets can cause annoying bouncing if you’re not wearing the proper bra,” Cassie scowled. “It’s annoying as heck.”

“And?” Ranma prompted, his smirk widening. “Something about why this all happened?”

Glaring at him, Cassie grumbled but complied. “I’m also sorry for tempting fate. Ranma and I were indeed forced to cross into Laughlin when we trailed the three would-be carjackers.”

“So long as you don’t do it again, I think that’s fine,” Kara said, mock-censoriously, before shaking her head. “Come on, we still need to get you some clothing. I hope you’re not going to make as much of a production about it as Kori did.”

“You know I can do my own shopping now,” Cassie said, pulling out a wad of cash, her half of the take from smashing up the pawn shop. “And perish the thought.”

She winked at Kori, who took her teasing in good stride, having gotten somewhat used to such over the past day, but Kara shook her head. “I’d prefer you to hold onto that for a little while at least. You can pay for our meals in the coming days, as well as for the food supplies we’ll need when we start cross-country hiking. After all, if you two left the people at this chop shop alive, and then called in the police on them, the police will know you stole their money. That means they might be looking for someone who spends a lot of cash.”

Realizing her friend had a point, Cassie nodded. “That makes sense. We’ll meet you two back at the hotel, okay?”

When Ranma agreed with that, Kara led Cassie back into the store, linking arms with her friend as they walked through the door.

Shaking his head, Ranma chuckled. “Come on, let’s get some food ready for when they arrive back at the hotel. The hotel has room service, but there’s also a sandwich place nearby. I know Kara is addicted to turkey clubs. Do you want to try anything?”

“A turkey club sounds divine to me, so long as I can get it with extra bacon. I am now firmly of the opinion that that particular type of food is one of your race’s greatest creations,” Kori agreed. “The gastronomic equivalent of inventing the wheel.”

Soon, the two of them had bags of food, and were heading back to the hotel, where they went up to the room where the three girls would be. It had a small table in front of the pullout sofa, which would do for the food.

Ranma laid out the food, while Kori placed her bag of clothing on the dresser. Then, deciding to have some fun, looked over at Ranma, tapping the bag. “Friend Kara was most generous. She let me pick out several sets of underwear, several sets of running gear, a few things to wear in bed, some heavy-duty clothing for when we are in the mountains, and even a few skirts to try on. I didn’t like any of the skirts, but the thought was there at least. Would you like me to try some of the them on for you?”

“Er, I mean…” Ranma’s thoughts stumbled to a halt for a moment, wondering if this was some kind of trap. “If Kara was there, I’m sure they’ll fit you in everything. And I’m not exactly fashion conscious, I couldn’t tell you anything about what colors clash and what have you.”

“So you don’t want to see me in the new clothing?”

Realizing now that that had indeed been a trap, Ranma fondled with an appropriate response. “Er, I always think that it’s the body underneath that makes the clothing amazing rather than vice versa, and in that area, you’re going in armed with the equivalent of a planet crusher, so I don’t think ya need my opinion or anything.”

Kori giggled, enjoying the confused, embarrassed, appreciative and mildly aroused feelings coming off of Ranma at the idea of her trying on clothing for him. “I believe that is a sufficient answer. Still, I do want a second opinion from someone I actually trust. You say you are not fashion conscious, but that is fine. You do not necessarily need to be to simply give your opinion.”

Ranma frowned at that, but shrugged his shoulders. “Er… Fine I guess.” It isn’t like it’ll take long, and I don’t think Kara would’ve let her get anything too sexy, right?

His blood pressure would quickly come to regret this choice. Because Kara had missed several outfits when they were paying for them, having just wanted to be done with the chore and moving on to Cassie, knowing she would be far easier to shop with.

The first outfit Kori tried on wasn’t all that bad. It was simply a women’s exercise outfit: formfitting sweat shorts, with an equally formfitting sports top. On Kori, it showed a dangerous amount of side boob and cleavage just this side of indecent. “This one is the one friend Kara thinks is good enough to run along with the rest of you on terra firma.”

“Ehh, looks nice,” Ranma said, trying hard not to stare.

Kori, on the other hand, grinned internally as she felt Ranma’s interest, his spike of arousal. Yes indeed, this is going in the proper direction.

Tamaranians were a very emotive, very sensual race. Now that Kori was once more in charge of her own destiny, in charge of who she could share her body with, she was feeling a lot of urges to do just that, and Ranma, her enemy turned friend, with his magnificently open personality, his good humor and charm, was at the top of a list of one at present. Mind you, perhaps in the future, when Kara and Cassie realize they are attracted to the female form that might change, but at the moment, while I enjoy feeling out their emotions towards one another and toward Ranma, he is the one I wish to concentrate on.

“Well, that is good, but I was wondering about the color. Does it work with both my image inducer self and my real colors? Orange is so hard to pair with anything.”

Ranma blinked at that, his spike of desire fading as he thought of it. “Um… gray goes with everything, but ya don’t have ta keep your image inducer on in here. The blinds’re closed, and no one else is gonna see you. Besides, I kind of prefer your natural looks.”

He’d added this as an afterthought, but Kori’s smile in response was so dazzling it nearly took his breath away. She quickly reached up to her neck, pulling off the choker-like image inducer, setting it on top of the dresser before she posed once more.

The grey jogging shorts and shirt hadn’t changed, but somehow, it just made her orange skin stand out even more. “Er, yeah, definitely prefer you like that,” Ranma mumbled, looking away.

“Excellent! On to the next one.” With her beaming smile still on her face, Kori twirled around and headed into the bathroom. A large part of her wanted to change right there in front of Ranma, but she sensed that would make him wary, or even too flustered too quickly. Keep it slow, like that wonderful saleswoman said, and then, whammo, hit him with my swimsuit. Although, why the term hit is used here, or what a whammo is I don’t know.

When Kori stepped out of the bathroom, Ranma gaped, blood slowly trickling from his nose. His brain going offline for a moment, his body acted on its trained instincts to quickly redirect the blood that should have flowed south to a certain appendage went upward instead.

Kori had changed into what could be called a sexy dancer outfit. Her skirt came down to just above her thighs and was paired with a blouse up top that was button down, open in the front to an almost indecent degree. The skirt was a mix of grey and black stripes, the top a light pink with grey stripes in the same manner as the skirt. And Ranma could not take his eyes away from her cleavage, from the amount of orange thigh on show.

This was completely different to dealing with Lara, Nabiki, Shampoo or any of the other overtly sexy girls that had tried to flirt with Ranma occasionally. For one thing, Kori wasn’t giving off the impression she was flirting with him to get something out of him. Kori was just showing off her body to him, something she was rightfully proud of. For another, she had given the impression that his reactions mattered a lot more to Kori than any of the girls had.

Finally, Kori’s sheer personality, the fact she didn’t pose, instead just hoping out as if she should have shouted, “Tada,” gave her actions a hint of cuteness and childishness that did not match her body. This bounce showed that Kori had not put on a bra underneath her current outfit.

That was enough to tip Ranma over the edge. He froze, his entire body just locking up, his eyes wide, his mouth dropped open releasing a “GUH…” noise as his face flushed.

Blinking as the emotions she was sensing from Ranma registered Kori waved her hands in his face a few times.  When she didn’t get a reaction, Kori giggled. “Well, I have one more outfit I want to show you.  Hopefully that will shock you out of your stunned state.”

Seeing her words not registering on Ranma, Kori turned back heading into the bathroom again. “This outfit is the one the saleswoman called everyday wear.”

With Kori no longer in his line of sight, Ranma.exe began to come back online, but slowly. Before he could move or decide to run away, which, given his current level of arousal and thoughts, however, Kori was back.

This time, she wore shorts, simple jean-type shorts. Ranma had seen hundreds of girls wearing similar, in fact Kara had worn them too. But just like on Kara, on Kori they looked very sexy. Above that, she wore another blouse, but this time, instead of being overtly sexy because she had to unbutton it so much, this one was a kind Ranma had never heard the proper term for. It sat directly above the curve of her breasts, leaving them, her shoulders and everything else bare, while being tight around the biceps with frills. It covered her from there down, but somehow, despite being more innocent than the dance outfit, it hit Ranma just as hard.

“Wuhgh…” Ranma.exe once more went online. He just froze, staring straight at Kori.

Giggling again, Kori exulted in the emotions of desire and awe coming off Ranma. She stepped forward, about to lean over as she had before, but paused as she noticed Ranma’s eyes weren’t tracking her at all. “Ranma?”

Stepping to the side, she blinked as Ranma once more didn’t track his movement. Giggling, Kori reached forward, poking Ranma in the cheek. He still didn’t respond, and she kept poking him, enjoying this despite this moment not going quite how she had hoped. I doubt there are many that can say they were able to knock a boy out without the use of violence or even touching him at all!

Slowly Ranma came back to himself, shaking his head. By that point, though, Kori had switched to poking him in his side, and he yelped twitching away. “Gah, how did, you were over… huh?”

Kori’s eyes widened, that reaction reminding her of her own at one point when her father and mother were teasing her and her sister. “Friend Ranma, might you perchance be ticklish?”

“OY!” Ranma yelped, his normal composure entirely gone as he backed away rapidly, thumping into the armrest of the sofa as Kori followed him. “I thought that we were, I was just supposed to, you’re sense of styles good, no need for my opinion…”

Completely setting aside her more romantic desires at present, Kori smiled mischievously. “Thank you, but right now, I am far more interested in exploring this new aspect of your body I have learned.”

The oddity of that phrase made Ranma’s brows furrow in confusion for a second, a blush suffusing his features as several different meanings came to him. Before he could work through that and the final bit of embarrassment from how he had reacted to Kori’s little fashion show, she pounced, landing on him, her legs on either side of his body, one hand blocking his attempt to defend himself, her other hand open, fingers twitching. “Death of the thousand ticklers!” she shouted, something her father had once done to him during a similar moment.

Ranma blocked them, catching her fingers with her own, and the two strove against one another, with Kori’s greater strength and better position forcing Ranma on the defensive until his hips heaved, and sent her sideways off the sofa. Kori pulled him with her, and the two ended up rolling on the ground. “Let’s see how you like it,” Ranma shouted as they rolled around, trying to go on the offensive, with mixed results.

Where the hell can I tickle her that isn’t perverted? He mentally wailed, trying hard not to let his hormones rear their oh-so ugly heads again, while Kori had lost herself in the more childish enjoyment of the moment.

As the two wrestled around, the door to the girl’s hotel room opened, and Kara and Cassie entered, pausing to look at the two on the floor, who also paused to look up at them.

“What did we miss?” Kara asked as Cassie moved around her to drop off their purchases on the dresser, smirking just a bit at the pair. Cassie was dressed in a pair of simple shorts and a t-shirt with a ‘Race Ya!’ logo on it, the pair sharing her earbuds for a moment before Cassie pulled hers out, setting it on the dresser as well.

Smiling cheerily, Kori went to explain only for Ranma to try and cover her mouth. “No! Stop! Too damn embarrassing!”

“Friend Ranma is ticklish!” Kori laughed as she took advantage of this to start tickling him with both hands. “It is most hilarious!”

That was enough for Cassie, who grinned and charged forward, eager to get in on the fun. “Oh, so it’s that kind of night, huh?”

Kara on the other hand snorted, and moved over to the bed, sitting against the headboard, watching them with a smirk on her face even as she pulled out her notebook. “Just don’t break anything kids. I doubt Ranma’s well-gotten gains will pay for it. I’m also getting a bit hungry, so if you knock over that food, I’m going to get angry.”

OOOOOOO

The next morning, Ranma met up with the girls at around seven in the morning. The group had, after the tickle-fest had subsided, a moment that was, despite his being overpowered by the terrible twosome working together against him insanely sexy for all that he’d spent most of it being tickled to the point of his lungs hurting, decided they wanted to get out on the road quickly. To that end, they met up next to the hotel at a place that made smoothies and breakfast burritos, a type of food Ranma hadn’t tried before this.

Despite another rough night, Kara giggled quietly as Ranma very deliberately sat next to her at the strange bar-like area the place used instead of Kori despite her fellow extra-solar visitor waving him over to her side enthusiastically. So enthusiastically that Ranma instantly got some glares from a few men around them, and then worse ones from a few women when he ignored her. “Still feeling a little emasculated are we?”

“I wouldn’t call it that, especially if I was as ticklish as you are, Kara,” Ranma warned. “Who knows, they might gang up on you next time.”

While there was a bit of that in Ranma’s choice of seats, Kori was wearing the exercise outfit she’d shown off to him the night before. Ranma really didn’t know if he would be able to tear his eyes off her if he sat next to her and didn’t want to deal with that this morning.

“Hmm… I wonder how that would go?” Kara mused, before shrugging her shoulders, flushing faintly at something, causing Ranma to quirk an eyebrow at her. “Eh, even if they did, I wouldn’t hold I grudge I don’t think. Nor would it go as badly for me as it did for you.”

“Do not worry, friend Ranma, I promise not to send you into unconsciousness again.” Kori giggled, wishing internally that every day and night could be this good. She’d had a nightmare last night, and Kara, who had already been awake with her own nightmares, had gotten into bed with her in the pullout bed. The girl’s soothing touch had woken her up, and, better, her emotions had helped Kara get back to sleep, hugging the stuffing out of the shorter kryptonian, who seemed to enjoy and need that touch too.

This was, in fact, why Kara was flushing just a bit. Being woken up by Cassie with her head stuck in between Kori’s prodigious chest had been beyond embarrassing, but thankfully, for reasons Kara wasn’t quite certain of, Cassie hadn’t seemed annoyed or worried. Rather, she had seemed amused by the sight.

“Oh, just wait until we get ta spar,” Ranma grinned evilly. “My desire to hold back is now entirely gone,” he mock-warned,

“Bah, don’t threaten me with a good time,” Cassie interjected, looking up from where she’d been creating a playlist on her new phone. She waved it at Ranma. “Thanks again for this, by the way. It’s going to make running and everything else way more fun.”

“No problem. Remind me ta pick you up some stuff like that at some point, Kori. I’ll wait until you know what style of headphones you want and everything else, but I figure you and I can share earbuds for now.”

“Do it,” Kara advised, as Kori looked a little bemused. Apparently her people had never developed headphones that went into the ear, and the idea made her a little leery. “Ranma’s taste in music might be eclectic, especially the European stuff, but it’s really fun too. He’s even able to explain some of the events or people mentioned in the songs.”

At that Kara, nodded, while Ranma dug into his breakfast.

Around thirty minutes later, they were on a bike and run trail set along the Colorado river. It apparently followed the river for a goodly while, which would let them get away from the city and, indeed anything else. “We follow this to near the end up here near this town between the tip of Lake Mohave and where the Colorado River shifts into Nevada,” Ranma explained, showing the girls his map and succeeding thanks to truly beyond human self-control to not look up.

Kara was currently wearing a pair of long leggings, which showed off her, admittedly thin, looking legs to good effect. Before, she’d worn a sweatshirt, but now that shirt had been stuffed into her bag on her back, showing she wore a t-shirt with a NASA logo on it underneath. It wasn’t overtly sexy, but it still looked very nice on her. In contrast, Kori’s outfit showed a just-shy of indecent among of cleavage and side boob.

Yet it was Cassie’s outfit which challenged Ranma’s self-control the most. She wore leggings too only shorts rather than full, which showed off her powerful calves, and the tights short put her more powerful thighs (and ass) on display to the point that several youngsters had nearly crashed into things watching Cassie pass. Up top, the blonde Amazon had opted for a crop top tank top, which showed off just a little bit less in the way of cleavage than Kori’s. No side boob, but Cassie’s crop top showed off her abs too, and Ranma had not been able to stop himself earlier from commenting about how she had better abs than Ranma’s female form. That glimpse of strength and training enticed him almost as much as all their curves combined.

Trying not to drink in the sights on offer, Ranma continued to outline his plan. “I figure we can either take a break to spar there, and then fly out for the rest of the day. Get up high enough we can avoid being spotted and just head straight for the south-eastern segment of the Grand Canyon. We could also try some hot springs at Lake Mohave, though they sound too much like a tourist attraction to me. I’ll let you three decide on that one.”

“Will he be able to try this white-water swimming somewhere along the route? I understand that it is in the plans for later, but getting a little taste of it now would be very nice given how enthusiastically friend Kara has described it” Kori asked, looking down at the water below them. Here, the river didn’t look all that particularly dangerous in terms of rocks or anything sticking out of it, but the speed of it was still impressive.

“Sure, but remember, will have to then make up the time we lose doing it,” Ranma warned. “I’d recommend we try that up near where we should think about starting to fly to cut down on time. Or, if we really wanna do that, keep going up towards the Hoover Dam and do it somewhere else along that route. Again, though, same problem as in the Grand Canyon. Too many people around, too many questions.”

As Kori pulled at her long, currently black-looking hair, Cassie grinned, and then began to jog away, her new earbuds in place, and a song already beginning on her phone, Kara hastily moving after her with a laugh. “What are we waiting for, let’s go.”

Ranma hastily held out his own earbud to Kori who hesitantly stuck it in her ear. “I’ll start us off soft with some soft jazz, but I’ll warn ya it won’t last long.”

“As I know only what friend Cassie has imparted about human music, I will simply listen and tell you what I enjoy,” Kori said, tapping her earbud and grimacing. “Yet I can already tell you my own headphones will not be these bud things.”

With that, the two of them raced after the other two, with Ranma trying hard not to stare at the blondes’ rears, while Kori shamelessly did so until they caught up. At that point, the four sped up, and soon were racing along the trail fast enough to leave even the best of bikers in the dusts.

Following the river for the rest of the morning, they were able to reach and pass lake Mohave before midmorning, then pushed on easily. They were indeed able to stop and spar as Ranma had hoped well away from other people, yet with the closeness of the trail, it was decided Kori should keep her image inducer on, and Ranma not transform just yet. So they sparred at his ki-assisted speed.

As Kara had discovered in their fights before her pursuers arrived, Ranma was wickedly fast and agile. His aerial style, much like when they were kids, threw Cassie off her game something fierce. “UGH! How is it that fighting someone who can’t fly in the air is worse than fighting someone who can!?” she grunted as a kick got through her defenses, noticing absently that Ranma’s shirt had rode up a bit, showing off his toned stomach. “I’ve fought Kara and harpies in close combat for goodness sake, and you’re still dodging better than either! How are you even better at this than you were when we were young?”

“It is most annoying and makes me very glad it is not just me who has problems with it,” Kori agreed, even as she ducked under a punch from Kara. She returned one, but the blonde caught it, pulling her into a strike to the head that sent Kori reeling. “OW!”

“It’s how he uses your own momentum against you. It’s really hard to deal with except by simply retreating away the moment he’s in the air. Which, admittedly, GAH!” Kara broke off as a kick from Cassie caught her in the thigh sending her stumbling, but she was able to duck under a kick from Ranma, grabbing it as he passed and trying to toss him aside.

They were currently fighting free-for-all, and it was definitely a learning experience. Already, it was clear Ranma was more at home in this kind of fighting than either of the two blondes, who had mainly trained to fight one-on-one or as part of a larger band.

Bounding off a large rocky crag set to one side of the trail, Ranma flipped himself downward with a grin. “Gives me the advantage of setting the pace of the fight,” he caroled, just as he ducked under a wild blow from Kori and slammed an elbow into her head.

Even though he wound up being by far the most bruised of the trio as Kori had little training in holding back, the free-for-all told Ranma a good deal about his companions. Kara, he’d already had a good idea of, of course. But fighting Cassie was just a treat. As much as she still struggled with his own preferred style, she was the best in terms of overall training. Kara forgot about her legs too often and also wasn’t so good at pulling back from an attack or using combos. Cassie had all of that, a versatile style that included both striking and grappling.

He realized quickly though that what Cassie lacked was speed. Ranma could keep up with her in terms of speed just as much as he could Kori, something that astonished the tamaranian, as she had thought that it was only because of her chains he’d been able to during their fight in Star City. Cassie could also dish it out more than she could take it. Unlike the two alien girls she was also sporting a few bruises by the time they stopped the spar at midday after yet another group of exercisers had passed them by on the trail only to stop and gawk.

On the other side of the spectrum though, Kori quickly showed what Ranma had known after fighting her previously. For one thing, she didn’t seem to want to take to the air, she lacked situational awareness, and worst of all, she wasn’t trained at all. Kori admitted she didn’t even have any self-defense lessons from her childhood to fall back on. She was simply relying on brute strength and speed. “That, and my other powers,” she admitted. ‘I cannot read your mind, but sometimes your intent can come through via your emotions. Responding appropriately at that point is much harder.”

Still, her body control was phenomenal, and Ranma thought she would be able to pick up some kind of martial arts quickly enough. Which one he’d recommend was in question though, but he promised to think about it. For now, though, he offered to start her up with the basics.

At that point, Kara posed a question that had intrigued her. “Here’s a question, for both of you, well it sorts of builds into one to you, Ranma, if I’m right about the answer to this one. Kori, where do your powers come from?”

“I was told this as a child, friend Kara. Much like your race can apparently do with the rays from a yellow star, my own people can take in energy from light. In our case, however, it is ultraviolet light, thus is available by any star,” Kori responded cheekily, leaning into Kara’s side as the four of them sat watching the river, sharing sandwiches.

She paused then, humming happily as Kara obligingly wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I feel as if I am stronger now than I was when I first escaped. That is interesting. I also feel as if that power is… full? As if I have reached the upper limit now?”

“That makes sense,” Ranma and Cassie said as one from Kara’s other side. Both alien girls turned to look in their direction, and Ranma nodded to Cassie to speak.

“Well, Warworld wasn’t a natural planet, and inside it they wouldn’t be relying on natural sunlight, right? So they could come up with lights and stuff in your section that doesn’t have ultraviolet light, right? I’m no scientist, but if I wanted to make certain a slave girl couldn’t become too strong…”

“That makes sense. Not too weak, or else Mongul would lose face needing to make me such, but yes, that makes sense,” Kori mused.

“It also makes sense that there’s an upper limit to how much energy both of you plant-types can take in,” Ranma teased, causing both alien girls to react, with Kara sticking her tongue out at him and Kori pouting, not liking the comparison. “Or else Superman would continue to become stronger even now, yeah?”

“Hmm… he’s certainly stronger than me because of the decades he’s been here on Earth,” Kara agreed. She had figured there was no reason not to mention Clark’s real name to Cassie, who already knew thanks to Diana, and Kori, considering where they were going. “But does that mean she could also learn how to use your ki space?”

“Er, if she’s converting that energy inside her body, maybe? You do it with your energy, I know that.” Ranma had very limited ki sight, but way better ki sense, and Kara was like a glowing star, even if she hadn’t yet figured out how to manipulate that energy consciously. “But considering she can release those energy blasts, I don’t know. It might be she stores it differently than her actual ki reserves. You can’t do that, release energy like that, except in the form of your eye-beams, and when she’s flying, the energy she’s using becomes visible…” Ranma shook his head. “We’d need a lot of tests and stuff to figure that out, I think.”

“Hmmm…” Kara mused, pulling out her notebook from her bag. “That sounds like more science is needed!”

The other three laughed at her, while Kori continued the sideways hug until the meal was done. At that point, the group, after making certain there was no one in sight, took to the air, with Ranma calling on his Shazam form.

They were able to get high enough that no one on the ground below was able to spot them, then zoomed eastward, staying low and slow enough to not be seen by any passing planes. When they reached it, they had to set down well away from the Grand Canyon, as there seemed to be a few helicopters in the air there. Thankfully, large segments of this area of Arizona were uninhabited, and less than an hour later, they arrived at the southwestern most portion of the Grand Canyon barely a few hours after lunch, and even then both Kori and Kara knew they could have made it in much faster time if they weren’t worried about being seen.

As a tourist and hiking attraction, the Grand Canyon was the basis of a massive national park, and quite busy at it any time of year. This time of year, early August, alas, was its busiest. So the quartet got some odd looks as they ran in on foot, but not all that many. It was after all a prime hiking destination. People jogging in was somewhat unusual, but not all that way out there as there were a lot of hikers who did the same thing.

Their lack of equipment and general outfits drew some stares. This included a shout of “You’re all gonna get sunburned, and then won’t you feel like idiots!” from one wag as they spotted Ranma going along in a muscle-T. A sight the girls all appreciated with varying levels of openness.

That comment, though so funny considering the two alien girls that Ranma and Cassie both burst out in laughing, before being elbowed into silence by Kara as Kori gave them her best kicked puppy expression. As for the two of them, Cassie was an Amazon, and her vitality was such that, while her skin could change tan, she would never be burned. Ranma was much the same, an added benefit of his own durability carrying over.

Soon, the four of them soon stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, staring down into it. Much of it was lined with safety railings, and there were numerous park rangers standing here and there, explaining the geologic features of the area, what Native Americans thought of it, and so forth, but none of them were interested in that. Rather, all four were lost in the beauty of it.

Here, where the quartet currently stood, the sides of the canyon went down sheer down for several thousand feet, its edges shorn down by years of the Colorado River working at this particular area of stone. The sides were far more colorful than Kara and Kori had expected, looking almost like someone had come around and painted it in various shades of orange, white and even occasionally a light pinkish hue.

“Now I’m wondering if geology is a lot more interesting than I thought back on Krypton,” Kara murmured.

“It is a most amazing view,” Kori agreed, with even Cassie just staring. “Truly, I now understand why so many people were talking about it back in Star City.”

Deciding not to comment on that, the other three stayed silent for a moment, looking around them at the Grand Canyon.

The Colorado River at the bottom was shallower than they had seen up to this point on the journey, right now, and did not line the entirety of the Grand Canyon here. Rather, it had receded away from the edges of the canyon leaving behind small sandbars of gravelly rock. Yet even so, Ranma could tell that its speed would be pretty good even here.

For a time, the four of them just stood, then Kara turned to Ranma and pointed at him, keeping her voice low. “Take some pictures. You should send them to your mother, I’d bet she’d get a kick out of this, just like the Kents will.”

Ranma could only nod agreement to that, and the pair pulled out their phones, taking pictures. Here, though, Ranma did something that would come back to bite him later that day: he took pictures of the girls posing in front of the Grand Canyon along with the canyon itself.

For the next few hours, the quartet was content to simply walk along the edge of the canyon, staring down into it and across, shifting through or avoiding the other canyon goers around them as best they could. Passing through a few segments currently closed to hikers allowed them to move at an okay clip but eventually Ranma pointed out the obvious.

“Okay, so we could spend a few days here just hiking the Grand Canyon from one end to another. Its nearly three hundred miles long, and we can’t just run it, not with so many people here and us stopping for pictures.”

“I am not apologizing,” Kara defended herself. “This place is amazing.”

“I’m not trying to get ya to stop, don’t worry. That skywalk was incredible,” Ranma soothed.

To that, the others all agreed, and Ranma went on. “I’m just pointing out the obvious. We also might not be able to find a place to camp out without the locals finding us, and we didn’t buy a pass. I could ask, but I think I remember them saying online the campsites were already full. This is just bad timing here.”

He sighed. “I also think we should completely shelve the idea of going white-water swimming here. It just looks too boring.”

“I agree with friend Kara, and also agree with friend Ranma’s point, about the white-water rafting here being somewhat underwhelming. It looks like something I did once as a child with my parents, and if a five-year-old me could do it on a raft, I doubt an eighteen-year-old me would find it all that interesting to be in the water,” Kori said cocking her head to one side.

Cassie also agreed with that idea, although she had also noticed how many glances Kori was getting. While the image inducer did a great job of hiding her actual identity, it hadn’t exactly made her ugly; rather the opposite. Despite how well-built she looked, she was still an extremely attractive girl, and she’d been getting a lot of looks as had Cassie and Kara, despite her glasses.

While Kara tried hard to not get noticed though, Kori didn’t seem to care. In point of fact, she seemed to enjoy some of the attention. The only time she had objected and glared at someone was when an elderly gentleman looked her way. For some reason, which she had not elaborated on to her friends, Kori had objected to his gaze, and had stared back at him, crushing the water bottle Ranma had just handed to her.

“Let’s push on until evening, then find one of the campsites and ask them to use one of those small grilling stations, and have our dinner now before we push on hard. I think once evening hits we’ll be able to make better time in various ways,” Cassie advised, speaking about their ability to run faster than most could track or just fly if they wanted to.

At around five in the evening, Ranma and Cassie found a campsite where the campers said they weren’t going to be eating until later. With that, they went to work preparing the grill. While she didn’t really cook all that well (IE, without causing disasters) with modern appliances, Cassie was able to help prep some fish that Ranma had caught on the road. He had then stuffed them into his ki space, where the chill of it had kept them remarkably fresh, something Cassie remarked on.

Kara made a note of it in her notebook, humming thoughtfully. “Yet it still doesn’t bother electronics, so it isn’t that horribly cold. Is there an upper limit to how cold it can get in there?”

To that, Ranma could only shake his head in ignorance, which did not satisfy Kara. “So I’ll be adding a thermometer to the scanner device as well. Ugh, how can you know so much but so little about ki, Ranma, honestly!”

“Well, how does your body transform light from a yellow sun to your superpowers?” Ranma retorted in a low tone. There were at least forty people coming and going around the campsite, and the background chatter wasn’t loud enough to obscure their conversation.

“…touché,” Kara grunted. “Though, that’ll be interesting to discover too. Same with Kori’s power,” she added, winking over at the other girl.

“Whereas mine is because of a god who couldn’t keep it in his pants, and refused to understand the term ‘no’,” Cassie said, somewhat brittlely. “And if you ask about doing tests on me to isolate that portion of my genes or whatever, Kara, I don’t care if it’s you, I’ll still thump you one.”

“I know that’s a sore subject for you, Cassie, and don’t worry. I have no idea where to begin examining me or Kori for our powers.” Kara took her friends hand, squeezing briefly before going back to her notebook. “On the other hand, ki doesn’t have anything to do with our genes or cellular makeup, and Ranma’s ki space are both quantifiable with the right sensor equipment.”

Soon, the fish were cooking, and Cassie shifted her attention to a salad, while Ranma watched the fish, and Kori people-watched. The news from Star City was still dominating the discussions around them that weren’t about the Grand Canyon or hiking, but it seemed to have shifted focus. The Green Lantern Corps was getting a great deal of bad press from the fact that Warworld was able to invade so quickly, and a Green Lantern still hadn’t shown up on Earth to check on it despite the Green Lantern Corps having stated they would patrol this territory to make up for the lack of Superman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Man Hunter and Earth’s own Green Lantern.

Kori wondered about that herself, bringing it up to her companions, but none of them had any knowledge of anything beyond Earth, and only Kara had even met some of the heroes that were now off-world. “So I can’t tell you anything about the Green Lantern Corps as a whole, how they’re organized, or anything else. I know there supposedly some kind of peacekeeping, but how wide their territory is or what their remit really looks like, I can’t say.”

“And neither Diana-nee nor your cousin gave any indication of when they might return?” Ranma asked, speaking circuitously even as he kept his own voice down as he looked at Cassie and Kara.

“Ten days to two weeks was what I was told. It’s been around seven and a half days since then,” Cassie said shaking her head.

Gently touching the already glazed fish, Ranma started to pull them off the grill one after another placing them on a plate between his friends. “Whatever. The future will be whatever it will be. Let’s just have more fun in the now, yeah?”

“Hah, is that what passes for philosophy for you,” Cassie teased.

“I like it,” Kori said, giggling and leaning her head against Ranma’s shoulder, eliciting a blush from him as well as numerous glares from the men around him.

Cassie grinned eagerly at that, while Kara was more ambivalent, and Kori more interested in the food at present.

As they all began to relax, Ranma blinked as his phone went off. Looking at it, he blinked in surprise. “Huh, I’d have thought my texts’ be enough.”

“Your mom?” Cassie asked, a somewhat complex expression on her face. While Diana had done her best to train Cassie and look after her, she had never been comfortable enough to completely step into a parental role. IN contrast, Kori just looked whimsical, almost longing.

“Er… yeah.” As much as he was somewhat slow on the uptake in terms of visual cues and such things, even Ranma could tell what the girls were thinking. “Um, I don’t wanna rub it in or anything, so, should I step aside or something?”

“No, no. If anything I want to talk to your mother,” Cassie snorted. “I want to see what she’s like in person, and I also want to congratulate her for kicking your father to the curve.”

“As for me, while the idea of your talking to your mother makes me think about my own, I know that there is naught I can do under sky and star to figure out what has happened to her yet. I don’t even know where my home system is from Sol, for example.”

“That’s something to ask this Green Lantern guy about perhaps, when he and the others returned? If the Green Lanterns are supposed to be peacekeepers, they have to know what’s been going on in your home star system, right?” Ranma asked, before grinning over at Kori. “And once we know that, maybe we’ll be able to figure out a way to get there and help if they need it. I’d be down for that.”

Cassie and Kara both agreed with that idea, with Cassie adding the caveat that she’d probably need a spacesuit or at least a spaceship to keep up with the others. “Of course, that supposes that you can fly in space, Ranma.”

This put a questioning expression on Ranma’s face, but he shook it off to answer the still-ringing phone while several parkgoers glared his way. “Hi Mom, did ya like the pictures I sent you? I figured they’d serve to tell you at that I’m fine and so are my friends.”

“They did indeed, and given the life you’ve led Ranma, I’m not going to lose sleep over you dashing wholeheartedly into whatever mess suddenly appears in your path. Or more like, decides you are the correct shape to attract it for some reason,” Nodoka said from the other side of the line. Yet, there was something about her voice though that made Ranma stiffen, for some reason he could understand.

“You also didn’t mention to me that you would be traveling with not one, but three attractive girls. Kara I recognized, and I think you’ve described Cassie enough to pick her out as well. But who is that black-haired beauty? I will admit she has a bit too much height and tanned skin to be truly beautiful as most Asians would see things, but beauty can sometimes surpass such social norms and it certainly has there and with the other two, my son.”

Ranma flushed a bit, scratching his chin. “Er, I’d agree with ya on that,” he mumbled, before going on quickly to stop his mother from commenting on it. “That’s Kori, Mom. Er, you might have seen her in the news at some point alongside the three of us and my other form. I think I told you about it right?”

“Yes, your magical form,” Nodoka replied dryly even as her fans appeared in her hands and she did a little jig in the privacy of her sitting room. “You mentioned it to me in your normal offhand fashion when speaking about things you don’t like to get into, and I don’t think you actually ever showed it to me.”

“ERK…” Ranma grunted, while Kara, who was able to hear Nodoka’s side of things despite the static, giggled.

“But someone added some of the combat going on in Star City to the reports about the four of you, and I recognized some of your combat style.” She was an excellent swordswoman, and could easily recognize the bits and pieces of Anything Goes that Ranma used at various points during the conflict in Star City. “But does that mean that she’s the, I believe it was a princess? My son, friends with an alien princess!”

“One princess, one scientist, and one Amazon, yep,” Ranma said, smirking just a little bit despite himself and his worries about where this was going. “Honestly, when I put it like that, it sounds like the start of a joke.”

Laughing, Kara and Cassie agreed with that, while Kori cocked her head to one side in confusion. Nodoka however simply asked if she could be put on speakerphone to introduce herself. “I will demand a video call at some point Ranma, but given that this call’s quality is somewhat horrible, I won’t try to overburden the bandwidth or whatever it is at the moment.”

With a shrug, Ranma put the phone down in the center of the picnic table they were using at the moment, gesturing to it with his fork. “Girls, my mom wants to introduce herself.”

“Hello, Nodoka-san,” Kara said, having learned the honorifics and stuff like that after they had left the Kents.

“Kara-chan, hello to you too. I’d ask if you’re having any luck in trying to keep my son in line, but considering what I’ve seen on the news, I rather doubt that you tried overly hard in the first place or would be successful if you had. Thankfully, it seems as if you have brought in help.”

“Oy, the betrayal. As if I’m the only one here who gets into trouble all the time,” Ranma grumbled.

“You’ve got a point,” Cassie said, before formally introducing herself to Nodoka.

Nodoka had barely a few seconds to say hello to her and tell her that she had heard all about Cassie and her son’s adventures while they were young before Kori spoke up, almost vibrating her chair as she stared down at the phone. “Hello, friend Ranma’s Mother! How are you doing today? Your son was most incredibly helpful in gaining me my freedom and has been a most excellent friend since.”

“My, you sound quite polite,” Nodoka said, seemingly a little bemused by Kori’s enthusiasm. Unfortunately not enough to stop the moment that Ranma had been dreading. “So, ladies are any of you interested in my son? As more than a friend, of course. Only, I gave been hoping some girl would come along and help settle him down, and it hasn’t happened yet lamentably.”

Kara and Cassie both twitched at that, but Kara at least had some idea that this was coming so she simply chuckled woodenly, pushing down a blush on her face with some difficulty. Beside her, Cassie gaped at the phone, a blush rapidly suffusing her features as she twitched her eyes to Ranma then felt them almost dragged over to Kara. To her best friend’s face, thinking of some of the moments they’d shared, of the warmth that sometimes came to her when looking at her.

Whatever Kori’s response might have been, and she had actually opened her mouth to respond in some fashion, would go as Ranma grabbed up the phone. “Okay Mom, sorry, you’re breaking up! I’ll call you when we’re back in civilization, bye!” With that he hit the off button, Nodoka’s laughter still coming from the phone even as the call cut off.

This action caused Kori to pout a little bit. Then she smiled over at Ranma, a certain quirk to her lips that had Ranma’s heart thumping loudly in his chest, even as Cassie and Kara stared at him.

“Is that normal for her? Just coming outright and asking if girls are interested in you?” Cassie asked, before smirking just a little as she recovered from her shock. “Although, I do like the idea that you need a woman to take you in hand.”

“I have two feminine hands of my own if I ever needed such, thanks,” Ranma retorted, causing the girls to giggle even if it didn’t quite make sense while Kori still didn’t look away from him. “Now, come on. My embarrassment aside, let’s eat, okay?”

After dinner they had to slip by a few park rangers, as they were now deep in the segments of the canyon area that you needed permits and permissions to camp out in and it was pushing night. That was easy enough, and it wasn’t as if any of them had to worry about heatstroke, dehydration, or in fact getting hurt in any kind of fashion. Even Cassie, the least durable of them if you counted in ki, could probably have been flung off the edge of the Grand Canyon and landed in the water below without taking any harm besides that to her pride.

Away from the Granite Gorge they still occasionally saw or had to bypass other people, but the four of them did so quickly that few among the other parkgoers could respond fast enough. One park ranger shouted after them at one point to stop and present their passes, but the four simply kept on going, leaving him easily in the dust behind them.

As evening fell, the group made their way down into the Grand Canyon itself, moving through the evening light quickly and efficiently. Even from the bottom the canyon was still amazing, and they weren’t going nearly as fast as they could have because of that, but they were still pushing well away from where anyone else was allowed to be at that time of day.

Once more, another park ranger, this one part of a white-water rafting tour, spotted them.

Thinking quickly, Kori and Kara grabbed Ranma and Cassie, and, giggling, burst up into the sky above, as the ranger tried to round the corner beneath them. He stared all around, but by the time he looked up, the two flyers had found a hiding place among the jumble of rocks and scree that lined the canyon in that area and made it a no-go zone for hikers.

The quartet peered out over the edge of the tiny cliff face they were on, watching as the ranger scratched his head and then turned back to the rest of his group.

“You can let me go; you know?” Ranma grumbled, blushing heavily as Kori’s chest pressed into his back, her arms around his waist. And was it just him, or was one of er hands gently caressing his lower stomach? “I can cling to the rock here myself.”

“While I have no doubt you could, this is easier, and we can respond faster if you and Cassie remain where you are.” Kori’s argument might have had more weight behind it if not for the giggle she released after a few seconds, pressing her chest even harder into Ranma’s back, her one arm going up to hold him even tighter against her across the shoulders. “Besides, this is quite nice.”

Ranma blushed at that, but thankfully, the man below them turned away at that point, distracting him from the amazing softness pressing into his shoulder blades. “He’s gone now. Let’s stay up here until he and the rafters move on, then we can jump back down. How are you at moving over scree and small stones, Cassie?”

From where she was being held in a princess carried by her friend, Cassie shrugged, her head leaning against Kara’s shoulder companionably, having no issue whatsoever with her friend continuing to hold her like that unlike Ranma. Indeed, she was finding it quite nice, and her heartbeat told Kara that, causing the kryptonian to tighten her hold a little. “I’m good enough to be sent out on night patrols and hunts. Why?”

“Because as we continue, we might run into more people camped along the canyon bed,” Ranma said, shrugging, which again made Ranma remember the two large soft things pressing into his back. Don’t think of them, don’t think of them as bre--dammit! With that, his blush and his emotions came back, and Kori’s next giggle was a little throatier as she nuzzled into his neck.

Okay, now I know she’s flirting with me! But what am I supposed to do about it? We really haven’t known each other long, and rushing into something is, well it feels wrong.

Sensing Ranma’s confusion and turmoil, Kori backed off a little, but just a little. Her arms still stayed around Ranma until the rafters were well out of sight down the river, before dropping back down to the ground. There, with Ranma dunking himself to avoid the curse coming at him unawares, they continued upstream for a while until it was fully dark out, by which point they had found an area of the river which looked dangerous and interesting enough to intrigue all four of them.

However, as Ranma had predicted, there were several tent sites set up along the riverbed, making them forgo any chance of white-water swimming as Kara had hoped. Still, with their plans going forward, the group was fine with that. Eventually they got away from even that area and flying along the Kori and Cassie pushed on past a pair of bridges above them, which Ranma thought meant they’d exited the Grand Canyon.

“Huh, I wonder if there were any cars up there?” I didn’t see any,” Ranma said, from where he had changed into his Shazam form. He’d had to change back into his male form, as the curse form interfered with it, but he also knew that went the other way so Ranma was happy enough with that.

“I didn’t see anyone either, I think we hit those bridges at just the right time. What will we hit next?” Kara asked.

“Well…” Ranma thought about it for a moment, going over their route. Damn flying really cut out a large segment of the canyon… “If that was the bridge I think it was, the one on Alt 89—”

“Why Alt?” Kara interjected. “Why not just name it another road?”

“No idea, alien girl, remember, I ain’t-OW!”

“I warned you I was going to smack you if you kept up that silly accent,” Kara said with a huff, flying away a second later, with Cassie giggling in her arms.

“That wasn’t a slap, that was kick, trust me, I know the difference!” Ranma shot back, causing all three girls to laugh. “Anyway, we probably should stop sometime soon. I think there’s a city, or town, not certain, called Page coming up, along with Lake Powell. Let’s set up came somewhere down there. We might need to move on quick in the morning. I can’t remember offhand what the area between Alt 89 and Page is like up top of the Canyon.”

“Hmm… if we get up while it’s still dark out, we can get up into the air and follow the river from on high out of sight and then on the other side of the lake before continuing to follow the river,” Kara suggested.

The girls all agreed and soon, Ranma was setting up. He set up camp along the river at a small curve, which not only blocked them slightly from sight up high thanks to the way the stone of the canyon hang over the area and allowed them to stare both up the river and down it easily.

It being barely ten and having flown for several hours, the girls and Ranma all had energy to burn before they turned in, Cassie suggested a round of sparring. “But only one-on-one this time, not a free-for-all. And Ranma, you need to use your Shazam form.”

Ranma, who had changed back to his normal body to pull out the tents and set them up, had barely a millisecond to notice that his concentration on making sure his darned cape didn’t join the rest of his ensemble had worked this time before a fist was coming at his face. He redirected Kara’s small but incredibly powerful punch, then flowed around her, flipping her up and over his outstretched hand, only for her to suddenly begin to fly halfway through the throw, grabbing at his arm and pulling him in.

Their free arms exchanged several punches and blocks, before Ranma’s foot caught Kara straight in the chest, and a whoof of air escaped her as she was flung backwards. She stopped her passage again before she could crash into the side of the canyon, scowling a little as she rubbed at her stomach. “Okay, in that form you’re strong enough to hurt without using your ki or anything. And I wasn’t holding back any of my speed either.”

“You’re telling me, I could barely follow some of those punches. Some of them I could, but not all,” Cassie grumbled, tugging at her hair thoughtfully. She had put it up into a long ponytail much like Kori’s during the day, only hers flowed down her chest rather than behind her for the moment and wasn’t nearly as long, ending barely above her chest. “What was with that arm slap then leading up into a jab to his throat? That was a new one, Kara.”

“I taught her that,” Ranma said with a grin, before looking at Cassie solicitously. “How are you two doing with night vision? I know ya were the one that suggested we start sparring, but there’s not a lot of light here.”

However, Cassie simply shrugged her shoulders. “I’m actually doing all right. I can’t see quite as well as a cat would in the dark, but thanks to the part of my heritage I don’t like talking about due to the fact that he is an asshole I can see pretty darn well. Kori?”

“I am not so blessed in the realm of sight at night, unfortunately. I can make out movement and your shapes, because it is a full moon out, so I can see all right, but I wouldn’t say I’m all that comfortable,” Kori admitted. “This canyon is making it worse, of course.”

“Did you decide to rhyme twice, or was that just random?” Ranma asked, before shrugging when Kori also shrugged and turned toward Cassie. “Well, in that case, we can take the fighting up onto the top of the canyon, I hope.”

The trio agreed with that readily enough, and with Ranma carrying Cassie this time, they all headed up to the top of the canyon, finding a wide rocky area there that continued away from the canyon and out of sight. There were no people nor buildings around, just as they had hoped, and with the moon above and the canyon walls not casting shadows, Kori was able to engage in combat.

“Let’s set a timer for an hour,” Kara said as he and Kori stood across from one another. “I know you Ranma, and you probably more than willing to fight the night away, but we should get at least five or six hours of sleep if we want to get up into the air before dawn.”

Ranma pouted a little at that, more because she was so very right than anything else, but he nodded agreement. “In that case, you and Cassie should get to it,” he shot back. “I wanna start training Kori on how to properly fight.”

Kara and Cassie also began to spar, but not before, as Kara did indeed set a timer on her phone. With said phone set aside, the two friends squared off as Kori and Ranma began to exchange punches and kicks, with Ranma explaining about martial arts styles, and some simple things about how to put Kori’s weight into each punch. “So, rules of engagement?”

Cassie scoffed, crouching down low, knowing that her friend preferred to go high and stay in the air. Thankfully I doubt she’s learned that weird momentum manipulation trick of Ranma’s. “Don’t hit me with enough force to send me into a mountainside a few dozen miles away and we’re good.”

Chuckling at that, Kara agreed, then charged forwards, lashing out with a punch that Cassie, already half crouched, was able to duck under. She whirled around, kicking out, but Kara blocked it with her forearm, trying to catch the kick before Cassie could pull it back. This failed and got her hand hit by a stinging punch from Cassie which had her fingers stinging for a little bit, although not enough to make her open for the punch that Cassie next launched, which should’ve caught her in the side.

Kara twisted to the side instead, bringing an elbow down into the arm, only to find that elbow grabbed by Cassie before she could make contact, and nearly pulled out of position for a knee up into her chest. This she blocked in turn, and the two of them pushed away from one another, grinning.

“You’ve gotten better at anticipating my leg attacks,” Cassie said with a laugh.

“Sparring with Ranma again. It’s a learning experience for sure, even if I was forced to hold back a lot of my speed and strength. With you, I don’t have to quite to that point.”

“You’re not sparring with me, so why am I getting taunted,” Ranma mock-whined even as he and Kori exchanged punches and kicks. “It ain’t my fault I’m not an Amazon or an alien with sun-based superpowers.”

“Because your ego is an easy target?” Kara quipped, only to yelp as Cassie went on the attack, a blow nearly catching her in the nose despite jerking her head back.

Unfortunately, clouds started to obscure the moon above, decidedly cutting into Kori and even Cassie’s ability to see before Kara’s alarm was set to go off. It was with manifest reluctance that they called a halt and turned in for the night, with Kori pointing just a little bit at the fact she was forced to join the girls in their tent that night.

“We’re going to have to come back here at some point,” Kara mumbled as she changed into her normal pajamas, a flush filling her as she felt eyes on her.

“You’re very pretty,” Kori announced as if she was saying the sky was blue. She turned to Cassie as Kara sputtered. “So are you.” Cassie joined Kara in blushing, the two blondes looking at one another, before rapidly looking away. Despite the time they’d spent together on the Isle of Women, for some reason, seeing one another in states of undress at this moment was somehow… startling? Enticing? Surprising, like Kara was seeing something for the hundredth time but also the first time? Kara wasn’t certain how to explain it, but she both liked and was confused by it, much like her feelings when watching Ranma run, or Kori laugh.

Satisfied with the emotional confusion her little observation had created, Kori pulled out her sleeping shirt, tossing her top to one side, reveling I the feeling of the other two girls looking at her. MMM… awe, delight, shock a bit of arousal, wonder. Yep, I quite like my new friends.

Shaking her head Kara turned away, glancing over at Cassie again. Suddenly both of them were giggling for reasons beyond either blonde, but it felt good, a release of the odd, buzzing tension that Kori’s words had begun. Within minutes they were in their sleeping bags, the small lamp-like flashlight was turned off, and even Kara closed her eyes.

Ranma had changed and gotten into his sleeping back at the same time, without use of the flash-lamp. He now turned away from where he’d been facing the girls tent, shivering. Note to self, get a darker tent for those three. Holy hells, those shadows were just… too much.

OOOOOOO

At the sound of his alarm going off right by his head, Ranma grunted, reaching for the phone and squeezing for a few seconds. He heard the sound of metal grinding and glass starting to crackle before shaking himself and letting the phone go. Right, waking up before dawn to get in the air. Ugh.

Twisting around in his sleeping bag, he stared at his phone, blearily thankful that he hadn’t crushed the thing, as the screen seemed to still be working, blinking the 5:20 alarm he’d set barely six hours before. Ranma rolled out of his sleeping bag, and got changed before exiting the tent.

Looking at the girl’s tent, he saw no movement within. Yea… no way am I going in there to wake them up, he thought, shaking his head, the memory of the silhouettes from last night coming back to him and threatening to create a very physical reaction once more. Instead, Ranma reached out to the side of the tent and shook it. “Wake up girlSSS!!”

Ranma dodged aside as far as Kara’s eye beams flashed out, along with Kori’s green energy blast, and even a hurled stone from Cassie tore through the side of the tent. The hurled stone was the only attack to follow his movement, making Ranma internally nod in approval even as he was forced to smack it aside, grimacing just a bit at the force behind it.

The rock, about as big as Ranma’s fist, flew up over his head and landed in the river behind him. It was with a certain amount of inevitability that Ranma sighed as he felt the water splash down across his back and head, triggering the curse.

“Because of course it would,” she grumbled, still crouching down as she warily eyed the rents in the side of the tent. “Nice reflexes you three, but it was Kara’s idea to get up into the sky before the sun was up.”

“I knowwww,” Kara said, her voice more awake than the grumbling mutters from Cassie or Kori even as she moved towards the tent entrance, sticking her head out that way rather than the various holes the three attacks have made in the side of the tent facing where Ranma had been standing. “Doesn’t make me like it though. Especially not after those damn dreams of mine.”

At that Kara nodded but said nothing. It was clear Kara hadn’t said that consciously, and Ranma figured if she wanted to talk about her nightmares after Star City, then Ranma would listen. 

“Erm, sorry for attacking you like that,” Kara apologized. “For some reason the whole tent shaking like that really hit my flight or fight instincts.”

“Good to know,” Ranma shook her head, thinking internally it probably had more to do with her nightmares than Kara’s instincts as she turned back to her own tent and began to take it down. “look at the bright side though, at least all three of you are so pretty that you don’t have to worry about taking time to do your hair or makeup or anything.”

“As if I’d wear makeup anyway,” Kara said, although she was smiling as she did, while Kori and Cassie snickered just a little bit from within the tent, with Kori popping her head out of the hole her attack had made to wink at him, cheerfully ignoring the smoke rising from the edges of the ragged hole. “Do you think we could take some time to have some tea or something?” Kara rather liked tea, whereas Cassie had begun to develop a taste for iced coffee.

“I’ll put a pot on as soon as my tent’s down,” Ranma agreed.

“I’ll get it,” Cassie grumbled, shifting up and over where Kara was crouched in the entrance into the tent, causing Kara to blush just a little bit as her friend’s chest pressed into her back for a second. “Kara, you and Kori get our tent down. After you change.”

Flushing, Kara pulled herself back into the tent and a moment later, she and Kori exited the tent, whereupon Kara dutifully turned to start taking it down. Meanwhile, Cassie used the small portable heater to start up a pot of tea, grumbling all the while about it not being her own favored drink of choice.

Instead of helping Kara, though, skipped over to Ranma, pulling Ranma into a hug with a giggle. “By the Lights of the Sheleu Nebula, you’re so short in this form, I have yet to get used to how cute you are.”

Ranma’s arms waved frantically as a blush suffused her features, her face pressed into the delightful softness of Kori’s chest. With Ranma in his female form, Kori was more than a foot taller than her, which meant yes, her head was equal with Kori’s breasts. Damn, they are so soft, she thought.

Kori tightened the hug a little, before Ranma pushed herself away by pushing her shoulders. What the heck is this gal doing to me?!

The answer to that, of course, was precisely what Kori wanted to do, as she felt the aroused and stunned feelings of her friend with gelee. Still she didn’t want to push just yet. Maybe once we stop? She turned away for now though as Kara demanded her help with the tent.

“Ya don’t need ta bother with putting it away cleanly,” Ranma said, staring at the damage the three had done. “I was thinking you gals should get a bigger tent anyway. This one’s kind of wrecked now.”

Cassie scowled. “I could maybe fix it if we had the material, but given Kori elbow me in the head and I think I kicked Kara a bit when you woke us up, I’m not going to argue.”

“Huh you kept that up? I remember you making little patches and things for your clothing when I was on the island” Ranma remembered.

“Yep. I even made a few full blouses for Kara and I, though I left them in my room in the palace,” Cassie answered.

After Kara and Kori had their tea, Ranma shifted back into his male body with the remaining water before stowing everything in his ki space. He then transformed into his Shazam form and the group, with Kori carrying Cassie, flew up into the air, with the sun barely peeking over the horizon as they zoomed northeast, following the Colorado River once more. Soon, they were over a town, but as it was still too early for any shops to be open, they continued on, zooming over the river and towards the lake in the distance that they could see as a wider band of gleaming blue distance.

As the sun rose, the girls, who were not exactly going at their fastest speeds obviously, not wishing to leave sonic booms or any other trace, reached and started to pass over Lake Powell. It was very oddly shaped lake, not a circle or ovoid as, in Kori’s opinion, such things should be, but a kind of deformed tree shape. Regardless, they were well past it by the time the first boaters and people were out, the terrain slowly changing from hardscrabble and very, very rocky to greener and living.

At that point, the trio of flyers settled down on an outcropping of rock overlooking the river as it started to create a sort of zigzag pattern, it’s edges sharper and far more defined than the more winding curves of the Grand Canyon. There were numerous trees and bushes growing along it, with more in the distance.

There, Ranma had brought out everything necessary from his ki space, Cassie cooked them some breakfast from their supplies.

As she was doing that, Ranma was looking down at the damage he’d done to his phone, having transformed back into his normal body again. Flying and sparring with his Shazam form was all right, but he knew that in terms of strength and speed training, he wasn’t getting anything he be out of sparring with the girls.

My strength and everything else in that body’s based on magic, not something I can build up in a spar. Heck, I’m still not certain I can even build up its flexibility or agility, since I haven’t seen any evidence the spars so far on this trip have done me any good there, and they should have. No, getting stronger in that form means figuring out more about its underlying magic, or finding those other soul shards out there. That’s a long-term project I’ve got no idea of how to start, though maybe that Zatanna chic or that Fate guy will.

Whereas, in my human body, he thought, a smirk on his face, there’s always room for improvement. I can almost feel my durability’s gone up over the time I’ve been sparring with Kara and the rest. Well, that and the fighting in Star City.

Thankfully for Ranma, it really did look as if his cell phone had survived. The sides of its protective casing were warped by his grip a little, but the screen was still fully intact, and the ports looked to be still in place.

With that seen to, he looked over at the girls seriously. “We might need to buy some supplies soon. We’re down to our last packet of sandwich meat and we don’t have more pancake mix once Cassie’s done with what she’s working with now. We don’t have any vegetables any longer except for some carrot sticks, and we didn’t buy nearly as many clementines and other fruits as we should have. Looking at you, Kori,” he ended teasingly.

“I will accept your look with grace, friend Ranma, and then point at myself and say making up for lost time,” Kori said, mock primly, causing the others to laugh and nod in agreement, as Ranma held up a sign with a 10/10 on it.

Sitting to her side Kara even went so far as to give Kori a sideways hug, having learned by this point that Kori quite enjoyed such contact. She wasn’t prepared for the taller girl to pull her into a tight hug, the sides of her chest smooshing against the side of Kara’s cheek and shoulder, but went with it.

“I’ll head out some supplies and a new tent for the girls and I when we get to this area where you think we’ll be able to set up camp for a few days, Ranma. Where did you say it was again?”

“Between the Dirty Devil and Green rivers,” Ranma supplied. “It’s an area that’s national land, basically to preserve the river itself, and the waters there are deemed too dangerous to white-water raft or anything else because of how many rocks and crags there are. I figured it sounded perfect for us,” Ranma said with a shrug.

He then smirked a little as he looked down at the river for a second. “Mind you, we can also have a good bit of fun heading there in the first place.”

All the girls nodded, although Kara reflected that while this trip was nice and all, and she greatly enjoyed seeing a smile on Kori’s face considering the life she led, she and Cassie would need to make some decisions going forward soon on what to tell their respective guardians about their plans for the future. That we’ll both be doing that, and demanding we stay together though, is a balm to me.

With a smile for her friend, Kara pulled out a map on her phone. Soon she pointed at a city that was a little way beyond where Ranma said they might set up camp for a few days of fun and sparring.

“The nearest city would be this place, Moab, right?” She quickly pulled up an information page about the city, whistling at some of the nearby state parks. “There are some interesting sites around there too, but it doesn’t look nearly as green as it does where we are right now.”

“Yeah, most of this segment of Utah isn’t all that well-watered, I suppose,” Ranma recalled from his own readings when he’d been planning out this segment of the trip. “That’s why there are a lot of dams and… I can’t remember the term for them, basically redistribution places for the water from the Colorado River, and why so much of the river’s national property. But the segment between Green River and Dirty Devil is just a bit too craggy and steep for that kind of thing, as it’s the star of the Rockies. It won’t be nearly as green as where you and I stopped on our way to Star City, Kara, but it should be good enough.”

Once breakfast was done, Ranma packed everything back up into his ki space, and then, with a grin at the girls, leaped down into the craggy riverbed, bouncing off and away from them at an angle like a giant frog, covering several hundred feet to land on the other side, before doing the same once more bouncing from one side to the other again and again. “Well, what are you three waiting for, let’s get going!”

Kori grinned and followed, using her powers to first float over to the other side, then after a second, began leaping after Ranma, bouncing shorter distances but faster. Cassie followed, and with her better agility was able to close with Kara quickly then passing her, landing on the rock right before her, then continuing on. “Tag, you’re it, Kara!”

Kara sighed, rubbing her eyes behind her sunglasses before jumping off after them. “Wait for me!”

Despite this method of transportation being far slower than flying, the superpowered foursome were still able to make pretty good time, winding their way up northeast away from the Escalante River where it merged with the Colorado above Lake Powell quickly. By midday, they passed the runoff leading into the Colorado River that was the Dirty Devil. At that point, they had to shift from bouncing up and around the river to simply racing alongside it, as the river had straightened out a bit more, and there weren’t nearly as many rocks for them to jump from along its confluence. The river had also picked up speed, becoming deeper and faster.

Soon, still a little bit away from the river, they were starting to spot actual white-water on it. Even better, as Ranma had said, this area of Utah was also greener than the rest they’d been seeing up to this point. It wasn’t a forest yet, not at least as Ranma would have termed it, but it was closer, and they started to see animals even as they started to wind up through the start of the Rocky Mountains.

Breaking out from one small patch of trees into a small open area between another patch of trees, Ranma stared upwards and to the side, pointing at where a significant portion of the mountain acted almost like a ledge above where he could hear the sound of the river. “You know, I think we just got lucky twice, Kara.”

Having pulled ahead from Kori when she got her leg stuck in between a few tree roots, Kara blinked as she followed him and Cassie out into the open, staring at the area above them. Between them and the outcropping was a mix of sheer rock faces and small trees sticking out from odd angles of the steep ground but that was no impediment for any of them. Within minutes, they were standing on top of the ledge, with Kara and Kori having beaten Cassie and Ranma up, as the two of them had climbed up rather than flown.

As Ranma reached the top of the craggy, he heard a low growling noise ahead of him, and pulling himself up the rest of the way, he found Kara and Kori kneeling down in front of a small brown bear cub, rubbing its back and belly. “By Rao, they really are so cute,” Kara nearly squealed. “Better, bear fur is just as soft to the touch as I thought.”

Cassie joined Ranma second later, staring at the scene, as Kori, cooed over little one. “It reminds me of some of the animals in my family’s garden. Could we feed it?”

“No, because it’s a wild animal, and you don’t want them to become used to getting handouts from people. in fact, you shouldn’t…” Cassie began almost censoriously, before a loud roar erupted from the other side of the ledge, where it headed eastward deeper into the mountains. A second later, a mama bear came roaring out towards them, snarling angrily.

It did not, to put it mildly, get the reaction it would have from normal humans. Cassie and Ranma simply watched while Kori whirled around, batting aside its paw lightly before reaching up to boop it on the snoot. It recoiled, and then she was scratching its tummy, ignoring its arms as it flailed at her side and head. “This one’s fur is just as soft!”

“Yeah, well, that’s why hunters still hunt bears for their pelts occasionally. But if you keep letting it smack at you like that, it’s going to tear your clothes, Kori,” Ranma advised.

Blinking at that, Kori looked at her shoulder, where the bear had indeed slashed through the T-shirt she was currently wearing, which matched one that Kara had bought, white with a NASA logo on it. “Stop that, friend bear,” she said, batting its arm aside again, then reaching up grabbing its face and tugging it down towards her, shaking it from side to side so much that the bear’s entire body shifted.

Animal instincts telling it that it was now completely overpowered, the bear’s entire attitude shifted, and it started to whimper a little. Feeling somewhat sorry for it, Ranma pulled out their cooking supplies and pulled out a fish he had snatched idly out of the water earlier that day when it had made the mistake of leaping out of said water at a most inopportune time.

He tossed it towards the mama bear, who caught it in her jaws quickly, backing away from Kori even as Kori tried to hug it. It shuffled around her, wolfing in an annoyance at Kara, who was still gently stroking the baby bears back. With a small cuff, the mama bear sent the baby bear tumbling a little way away from Kori and Kara, then nuzzled it, and got it going away from the strange two legs.

Shaking his head, Ranma looked around, taking in the top of the outcropping for a moment, nodding his head. “Looks good. I’ll set up my tent and bring out our supplies. Cassie, why don’t you build a more permanent cook fire.”

“All they get out then head back down and grab stones from further down the slope,” Cassie agreed. “Kori, could you find us some large flat stones or maybe a downed tree somewhere? We’ll want to have something to sit on.”

“What about me?” Kara asked, pointing at herself.

“Well, you were the one who said you could go into Moab for supplies,” Ranma said, pulling out a wad of cash which he tossed over to her. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll have a temporary ki space in your backpack for you.”

Her eyes widening, Kara nodded, and moved over to watch. Cassie and Kori also gathered around to watch, but there really wasn’t much to watch. Ranma simply held the edged of the backpack’s large opening, gathering his ki into his hands and pushing it into the bag. Kara couldn’t detect anything, while Cassie frowned a bit, staring at the bag as it seemed to almost heat up to her gaze, as if someone had put a small fire within.

Soon, that heat seemed to shift, to change as she watched, disappearing almost, but not quite. “What did you just do?”

“Shifted the ki from within the sides of the bag into the matrix for the expanded interior,” Ranma answered between clenched teeth. “Now hush. Creating a ki space is damn hard.”

Cassie fell silent, and then, when Ranma announced he was done, Cassie stuck her arm into the bag, the arm disappearing up to the shoulder and then some. “Good grief. I’ve seen you use your ki space several times every day, but this is still amazing. And it’s made through manipulating your own life force?”

“Yep.” Ranma held out the backpack to Kara again. “I put in enough ki to maintain the matrix for at least a day, and don’t worry. It doesn’t matter how much ya put in. The opening can even expand to a certain point. You couldn’t put a tree in there, but a kitchen sink will fit no problem.”

“Your old frenemy Mousse, right? The one who was convinced you were interested in that Shampoo girl?” Kara mused. “You’ve mentioned him a few times connected to your ki space, but never a kitchen sink.”

“He threw a kitchen sink at me once,” Ranma drawled, shaking his head. “I used it as a springboard to come down on him from on high and kick him upside the head.”

“Which is how you made friends until you met that Lara woman,” Kara teased, before she pulled out her phone, and figured out where they were in relation to Moab, before flying up into the air. “Huh, we’ve got signal up here. Amazing. Text me a list of the supplies you need to buy. I’ll head out now, as there are some supplies of my own I want to look into.”

Surprisingly, Kara didn’t have all that much difficulty finding a place to land without anyone seeing her do it. Moab really wasn’t what she would call a city, it was more a town in terms of size, and not all that spread out. She simply put down in one of the local national parks and took in the sights of Arches National Park for a time, before jogging into town.

By the time she did that, Ranma and Cassie had gone through their supplies, making a list of the food they wanted her to get. They had even found the type of tent Kara should get; a larger, thicker tent made like an octagon rather than a pyramid. It was made for four or five people rather than three admittedly, but was also nicer on the interior, with places to hang lights, a small area in the center for a heating pad.

Reading it over and having already found a sporting goods store that was her best bet to have it in stock, Kara left that to last, buying the food and other things first, stuffing it into her expanded backpack, shaking her head as more and more of it went inside.

I seriously need to make up that scanner, don’t I? she thought, before making a small stopover at a local library. There, Kara spent several minutes there downloading movies to her phone via the free Wi-Fi. She then found a store that sold tents, buying one that pretty much matched the specifications Cassie and Ranma had agreed on for the new tent.

At that point, Kara found a parking lot that wasn’t busy and ducked between two cars. There, she proceeded to pull the tent out of its box and stuffed it into her bag, marveling anew at how the opening expanded slightly as she worked.

With that done, Kara made her way back out of town, racing along the road until she once more entered the state park where she’d initially landed. With no one in sight, Kara flew up into the air, making her way back towards the Colorado River and southwest.

Back with the others, Cassie, Kori and Ranma had finished setting up a more permanent campsite for themselves at around the same time that Kara had made a stopover at the library. Ranma’s tent was set up to one side, and an area had been cleared away for the new tent for the girls, with areas marked out by Cassie helpfully.

The cook fire reflected this more permanent setup being marked by a circle of stones, buried deeper, with a cover able to be pulled up over the fire to keep smoke from rising, instead pushing it along the ground and down over the side of the ledge. Kori had also found a few downed tree logs, despite needing to go far afield to find them. Bringing them back, Kori had removed the branches and then, with her powers and Ranma’s direction created pretty good, if primitive, benches.

There was even a very primitive outhouse set well away from the camp, visible only because the old, torn tent was set up as a tarp over a small area there. Ranma and Cassie had even set up a series of small stones to act like a primitive toilet, and the hole was deep, with a lot of dirt nearby ready to be tossed back in.

With all that seen to, Ranma had suggested a spar, with Ranma and Cassie giving Kori more instruction, even as Cassie and Kori ganged up on Ranma in his Shazam form.

Ranma felt that Kori was already starting to develop a certain amount of style. She was fast, spry, and happier in the air than Kara, as she had already begun to fly before she had been sold to Mongul, and had then incorporated flight into her combat style from the moment she began her escape. A mix of grappling and Anything Goes would make her incredibly deadly in Ranma’s opinion.

When it came to Cassie, Ranma really didn’t have any suggestions at this point. She had to work on her situational awareness, as she occasionally got tunnel vision in on him, ignoring the idea of the spar being more for Kori’s benefit, but he had seen that before. Despite being the weakest of the group, Cassie was sneaky, and overall better trained than the other girls.

She also had no tells. Absolutely none. Ranma could not anticipate her strikes at all, needing to react in the moment rather than ahead of time as he could with Kara or Kori. She also had a grappling style to her based on pankration that caused him occasionally some trouble when he couldn’t get into the air fast enough and was way better at using her legs than either of the alien girls.

“I’m back,” Kara announced as she came out of the sky above them, pausing above them to hold out the bag towards Ranma. “And Ranma, seriously, I am going to make that scanner to figure out what’s going on in your ki space the moment I can get my hands on a machine shop. That kind of thing is too amazing for me to ignore any longer.”

“That’s fine by me, scientist girl,” Ranma said, taking the bag from her, then holding out his other hand up towards her, almost chivalrously, as if he was helping her down a step. It was an impromptu gesture, but Kara found herself smiling at it, while Cassie released Kara from a hold she’d locked in on the alien girl. “Although, I would think you would need a full lab and a computer store or something similar for that.”

“That too,” Kara admitted dryly. “For now, who’s on cooking duty between you and Cassie? Oh and the tent you all asked me to buy is in there too, obviously. I even got rid of the old one and had time to download some movies for us all to watch on my phone, and even bought a few solar-powered charging strips for our phones.”

“Huh,” Ranma hummed, then nodded. “Sounds like a good idea, even if it’s not something I’d have thought of. Heck, I’m still having trouble thinking of my cell phone as more than just a phone occasionally and I’ve used it to map our route.”

“Don’t worry, you Luddite, we’ll get you comfortable with modern tech eventually,” Kara quipped, while Cassie simply nodded. She also was still having trouble in that area.

“What is a luddite?” Kori asked, rubbing at her neck and shoulder. “While I have gotten used to the human type of humor where you call one another names, that word is unknown to me.”

While Kara explained, Ranma and Cassie put up the girls tent quickly, causing all three girls to smile. While none of the girls exactly objected to the enforced closeness of the tent that Ranma had originally bought Kara for the trip, having more room to spread out and to change in would be nice.

That night, Ranma joined them in the girl’s tent for a little while, more listening than watching as Kara, Cassie and Kori watched a movie that Cassie had recommended, which Kara had downloaded to cell phone. It wasn’t exactly the best screen, and having all of them crowd in to look at it pushed them into close contact, something that three out of the four of them had second thoughts about, yet still enjoyed despite themselves.

The fourth, Kori, had no such second thoughts, and simply enjoyed the closeness. As for the movie itself, some of the jokes of course went over Kori’s head, but she still got a lot of the wordplay, even if some of it was a bit weird or mean-spirited to her. In contrast, the songs both intrigued her with the history they spoke of, and amused at the same time. “The Inquisition, let’s begin… The Inquisition, look out sin!”

The next day, much to his chagrin, Ranma was outvoted about what to do. He, of course, wanted to train the entire day, but the girls put their foot down on that idea. They would train during the morning, with Ranma in his Shazam form, but in the afternoon, all three of them wanted to go white-water swimming.

Ranma couldn’t argue that it was going to be fun. He just thought that going swimming for that long would be a bad use of their time. Still, much like Martha and Jon had thought, when the girls presented a united front, Ranma had no chance whatsoever. It was just to his luck that they hadn’t abused this special power of theirs all that often so far.

That morning, Ranma started to teach Kori a bit of Anything Goes, Cassie taught her a bit of grappling, and Kori, in turn, helped Kara get more comfortable fighting in midair. She even taught Ranma some tricks about fighting in midair under his own power rather than just using his Anything Goes Aerial Style. “Mind you, mixing the two would probably be a better idea, but I see you are already doing that. So I will not attempt to lead a horse to water that is already upon the river.”

After a series of such spars, Ranma and Cassie began to make a light lunch for everyone. After lunch, Ranma demonstrated a few of his own ki attacks in his normal body. The ki claws, his normal ki blast, the ki enhanced speed technique that was the more advanced version of the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, the solid cloth technique, and more; all of which Cassie lapped up eagerly.

When he described some of the other techniques he wasn’t going to show them because they were too deadly or too dangerous, such as the various Hiryuu Shouten Ha attacks, and the Soul of Ice techniques, which he had used against Saffron, Cassie started to chuckle under her breath. “I think I’m going to have to ask you at some point to make an introduction between me and these Chinese Amazons of yours. Well, them, me and Lady Diana. I think it would be fascinating. It’s almost as if, because they couldn’t take their basic abilities and skills to the level we Themysciran Amazons could, they made up for it in ingenuity and an entirely new skill set.”

To Ranma’s astonishment though, his Umi-Sen-Ken technique, his ultimate technique for sneaking around, didn’t work so well in the present company. After a few moments of confusion, Kori was able to close her eyes and then pointed directly at him as Ranma moved around the camp. “Whatever that technique is, it only impacts my physical senses, and yet it does not completely hide out your emotions. It mutes them, and it makes me it very hard for me to concentrate on you. I have to really really push through this hazy, ‘nothing is interesting there’ kind of impression. I’m not sure I could do that and anything else at the same time.”

Kara on the other hand, after a few moments of confusion, looked around herself, shaking her head. “I can still hear your heartbeat Ranma, but I can’t localize it. That’s a very confusing feeling.”

Ranma reappeared where he had been initially sitting, shrugging his shoulders. “It worked well enough to help me get away from various gangsters, undead, and cannibals over the last few months. I suppose if it can’t help me against aliens, that’s fair enough.”

The others all laughed and then it became Cassie’s time to show some of her Amazon exercises for the others. In their time on the Isle of Women, the Amazons had developed numerous stretching and yoga exercises, some of which resembled stuff that Ranma had already learned, particularly from India, but mixed up in a way that Ranma hadn’t seen before. It was almost Anything Goes-like, something that he teased Cassie about as she was taking one particular yoga pose, causing her to stick her tongue out at him.

The sight of that small pink appendage caused a spike of arousal to go through Ranma, and he quickly looked away, not realizing that he wasn’t the only one who had felt it at that moment. Watching Cassie doing yoga would’ve been interesting enough for anyone who liked the female form. The smile and the stuck out tongue was like a cherry on top to anyone with that inclination, which included all three of her friends. Even if Kara was still blind to her own preferences in that direction.

Eventually, at around three in the afternoon, it became time to break from training for the day as the girls had decreed that morning. Ranma tried to protest again the idea of spending that long a time just swimming and flying back and forth but that was yet again roundly overruled.

Soon, they were all heading off in different directions to get changed into their bathing suits. Despite Kori saying she was fine with the others changing or changing in front of them, she was forced to take over the girls tent for a moment. Kara took over Ranma’s, while Cassie and Ranma went in different directions to change elsewhere hidden from the camp.

When Ranma came back, Kara was the only one who had finished changing, causing her to joke with her for a moment about how she really already seemed to have the whole quick outfit change things necessary for to be a superhero down pat. Her outfit and Ranma’s were actually quite similar. Both of them were one-piece swimsuits, made for serious type swimming rather than showing off, which, in Kara’s opinion, a good deal of swimsuits were made to include in their design.

Kara’s wasn’t quite as simple as Ranma’s, as it had segments cut out on the sides and up top, and it’s blue was lined with gold. This showed a small but enticing little window given her C-cup breasts, which Ranma found her gaze drawn to occasionally before she could pull her eyes away.

Cassie came back at the same time that Kori came out of the girl’s tent and the sight of the pair blew both Ranma and Kara’s minds.

The blonde Amazon wore a bikini, but it was a sporty one, going both over her shoulders and under her armpits, fully securing her breasts entirely while also putting them on display given the tightness of the bikini. It also bared Cassie’s ripped abs, something Ranma was mildly jealous of, as she had even more definition there than her female form. Below, Cassie’s bikini bottom also showed off her thighs, the front of the bikini being a tight v, smaller than Kara or Ranma’s leaving her thighs almost entirely bare.

That was bad enough and would’ve had both Ranma and Kara staring for a few seconds, but Kori’s swimsuit was… very much not as simple. It was a one-piece, but it had so much less material then either Ranma or Kara’s examples of said it seemed to be an entirely different type.

It fully covered her down below, in fact, it spread out to her sides and covered her thighs more than Cassie’s bikini bottom. Yet it had segments from the sides and chest removed enough that it showed off her own stomach, which, while not nearly as abs-terrific as Cassie’s, was still flat. The white of the swimsuit also showed off her orange skin to amazing effect.

It also had segments cut out of the sides, showing her side boob to go with a serious amount of underboob. Thankfully, it also didn’t show much from the top, but still, there was so much on display a part of Ranma was very, very glad she was currently in her female form.

Seeing that Ranma couldn’t tear his (Ranma’s mind still came across as male to Kori in some indefinable way), Kori smiled happily, preening just a little bit. “What do you think? That most helpful saleswoman back in Bullhead City said I would slay in this. After she explained that she meant I would stop hearts and why, I agreed with her, even if I had to argue to purchase the white version rather than one in black.”

Ranma couldn’t say anything, and Kara and Cassie both gaped at her from different angles, even as Cassie continued to move forward around the other girl. “Damn, that’s… wow, Kori. I… A part of me wants to approve, but I’m not sure that wearing it around a lot of other people would be a good idea. You’d probably attract a lot of attention, even if you had your image inducer on, both positive and negative.”

“I’m perfectly fine with it. It is if people decide that because I put myself on display they are free to take liberties with me that we will have issues,” Kori declared firmly. “This is my body, and now that I’m free, it is my choice to put it on display or not. I enjoy being looked at by my friends, and even strangers, so long as their emotions aren’t too dehumanizing.”

“I’m just saying that’s going to be a very fine line to walk Kori,” Cassie warned, with Kara nodding agreement as Ranma slowly reached up to her face and slapped it a few times.

Very visibly tearing her eyes away from Kori’s rear, Cassie smiled at Kara’s much more modest fashion sense. “You’re looking good to Kara.”

“Meh,” Kara shrugged her shoulders, showing how much disinterest she had in fashion, which Cassie understood. Even back on the Isle of Women, it had been clear that Kara really didn’t care much for fashion, whereas Cassie understood the point of it, but didn’t enjoy dressing up overmuch except for special occasions. Kori’s very different in that regard, but that’s all right.

“Friend Ranma, I have a question. Did it not occur to you to try and swim in your Shazam form? I understand that your female body is more than strong enough to deal with the various issues we will see in white-water swimming, but wouldn’t that have been possible?” Kori asked, feeling a slight bit of annoyance now.

Kori had some plans for this activity, and she would’ve preferred Ranma to be male in them. It wasn’t a requirement but it was a preference.

“Actually, I got back here in enough time to see what would happen if I called on my Shazam form and tried to change my outfit to that of the swimsuit. Didn’t work. It’s gotta be a full-body thing or nothing. And wearing a full-body swimsuit is just silly,” Ranma said with a chuckle, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s also completely waterproof, so I wouldn’t even be able to feel much of the water on my skin except my face and hands. Not even my feet, because it comes with those little boots.”

“So it would be like wearing a dry suit?” Kori asked, her mild annoyance disappearing.

“Yep. It isn’t so much like it acts like a swimsuit in the water or anything, it just repels the water. My skin underneath was completely dry to the touch afterward.”

“I was wondering why your hair looked all like it was already wet when I came out of your tent,” Kara murmured, then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, whatever. Let’s get this show on the road!”

The others all chuckled at her eagerness, and pulling the goggles that Ranma had bought back in Bullhead City over their eyes, they then headed over to the edge of the outcropping, where, without any preamble, they all jumped in one after another. The quartet fell a few yards through the air before splashing into the water, where they were rapidly pulled away downstream.

Kori found herself underwater for a second thanks to a slight undertow, smacking into and off rocks in a way that would’ve badly bruised a normal person, but barely even jolted her,. The speed of everything, the impact and the shifting simply causing her to grin wildly, then she was bumping into another soft form, and saw a splash of crimson in the dark water. She had barely a second to poke Ranma in the side, causing the much shorter girl to twitch, and grin back at her before they were swept down the stream, with Kara and Cassie ahead of them for a few seconds, before being bumped and thrust into the side of the river, allowing the pair of them to skim onward.

The white-water portion of the river went on like this for a good forty minutes, before spitting them out below it. All four girls began to float in the water for a few seconds, laughing deliriously, with Cassie whooping and throwing her hands around Kara in a hug. “Damn! You are right, that is fun. It’s like being the ball in a pinball machine!”

“I don’t know if I’d put it like that, but it really is just as much fun as those roller coasters and stuff are supposed to be for those of us who can’t fly or go at insane speeds,” Kara said, hugging her friend back tightly. As they hugged, the two blondes became aware of their state of undress, their closeness, yet set any small teaspoon of awkwardness aside. That awareness of one another was new, but for right now, neither of them could find it in themselves to push it aside.

“Friend Ranma, are there any other sports like this that could be as fun?” Kori said, finding herself in the shallows of the river for a second to one side, a small sandbank having been hidden underneath the water enough that she had beached herself. She was also fighting to keep from giggling at the amount of emotions, the sheer joy coming off Kara and Cassie.

Ranma stared at her for a few seconds before answering, quickly dunking herself deeper into the water, causing Kori’s smile to break out once more even as the redhead replied. “UM… Well, there might be skiing I suppose, I’ve only been skiing a few times, so I don’t know if that would be as much fun as this was to you three, but it was pretty fun for me.”

“Once I figured it out anyway. It didn’t exactly come easy to me at first, kind of like skating…freaking Mikado,” Ranma grumbled. “There’s also… I can’t remember the name of it, a winter sport where a single person goes down on a thin sled or something through a long series of tubes. I saw it once on TV.”

The others all shrugged ignorance but agreed that sounded somewhat similar and something they could try.

Kori rolled off of the sand bed and pushed herself to her feet, finding the water went up to her waist even there. “So, shall we fly back and go again, or should we head further down the river?”

Ranma had the best memory for terrain among the four of them, no surprise given how much traveling he (currently she) had done, and the redhead quickly shook her head. “I’d say fly back and do this segment another two times if you guys are certain you want to just keep doing this for the rest of the day, and then end with a fourth swim through by following the river for another… I want to say it took us like ten minutes between this point and where I next saw some white-water stuff? Not sure how long it would take us to get there via the river, probably a little longer given the speed we can all hike.”

This idea felt agreeable, and then Ranma blushed heavily as Kori, now floating above the water, reached down towards her, giving Ranma a view of her swaying breasts that many a man would probably have cheerfully committed murder for. “What are we waiting for then, let’s go!”

With a laugh, Kara put her arms around Cassie as well, one arm around her stomach, the other underneath her legs, lifting her up slightly out of the water as she thrust her legs down and pushed herself out to hover above it as well. “You heard our orange skinned companion. Round two beckons.”

Cassie laughed, playing an arm around Kara’s shoulders, and the two flyers were off, carrying their companions back up the river to their starting point. This time, they pushed a ways further upstream from where the outcropping was, starting at a low rock that was sticking out of the middle of the river. There, one after another they settled down, and jumped off into the churning water.

Ranma found Kori beside her for much of the rest of their time in the river. The alien girl started to touch her occasionally, one hand lightly going down Ranma’s back, her lower leg or Ranma’s stomach grinning at her underneath the water when they swam alongside one another. It confused and made Ranma blush heavily, her arousal growing, but the currently cursed youth was still uncertain whether or not to return Kori’s flirtations, a question that had been on Ranma’s mind since back in Bullhead City.

It took Kori taking one of her arms at one point as they wound around a bend in the river, pressing it into Kori’s chest for Ranma to finally get over his various worries. FUCK IT.

At that point, Ranma shook her head, then darted forward, her hand grabbing Kori’s and pulling her close. The two found themselves hugging under the water, staring eye to eye. Kori cocked her head to one side, her previously teasing smile turning softer, as she stared into Ranma’s likewise goggled eyes.

Then Ranma was leaning forward, Kori was leaning forward, and they were kissing under the water. It was brief that moment, because the next, they slammed into a rock, bouncing off of it and tumbling end over end through the water, slamming into still more jagged rocks that would’ve broken a normal person’s bones, but barely registered as more as mild thumps to the two of them, causing the pair to break off.

When their heads broke the surface of the water, Ranma and Kori found that they had left Cassie and Kara behind somewhere. With that, Ranma pulled Kori into her again, kissing the taller girl, grateful that the water allowed them to be at the same level as it might’ve been awkward otherwise. Kori giggled happily and returned the kiss just as ardently, her mouth open, her tongue questing and Ranma replied.

Not that either of them were very good at this whole kissing thing. Kori had a lot of hypnotically instilled knowledge on how to please her companion, forced upon her mind via mental indoctrination by Warworld so that she could better please her ‘destined’ master, Mongul. Even there, kissing was but a very small part of what she had learned.

Ranma didn’t have any such thing, the Asian youth’s only experience in kissing being that brief peck on the lips from Mikado. When setting that beside what she was doing now with Kori, there was really no comparison to make. Mikado’s stolen kiss had been a brief instant of pressure on Ranma’s lips and had made Ranma embarrassed and near murderous.

This, this was something else entirely. Soft, the two of them continued to press their lips together as their tongues danced, with, Ranma giving is good as she was getting. Ranma’s arms remained around Kori, and vice versa, but Ranma didn’t yet let his hands wander, while Kori’s moved up and down the shorter girl’s back and thighs, flowing over her rear, not touching, but hinting that she would like to.

They only broke apart as the water of the river continued to try and pull them downstream, causing them to bump into another rock. At that point, Cassie and Kara became visible, two blonde heads sticking out of the water, along with two arms raised waving at them as the pair joined them.

Cassie looked at her companions, one eyebrow rising as she noticed the faint flush on Ranma’s face, the look of serene satisfaction on Kori’s. What is that about? she thought, feeling a tiny stirring that could have been jealousy. “How are you two doing? I think I’m getting a little pruney.”

Ranma glanced away from Kori for a second, then upwards, staring into the sky. “…We’ve got about another hour-and-a-half of light left before it’s nighttime. One more round like I said earlier, but we should stop by the campsite and set up one of the flashlights there just in case we have trouble finding it from the air. I don’t think we should but it’s better to be sure.”

The others all agreed, and Ranma did not hesitate to open her arms towards Kori, who laughed. She floated up out of the water with a burst of green energy, visible underneath the water for a second and heating the area around her, before pulling Ranma up out of the water too, then switching to carrying Ranma in a princess carry.

Soon, the two pairs were up in the air once more, with Kara having pulled Cassie into a similar princess carry. Cassie leaned her head against Kara’s shoulder, releasing a hum of happiness even as Kara did the same. The two friends caught one another’s eyes and chuckled before falling into a discussion on what kind of rivers back on the Isle of Women could have given them as much fun as this one.

Unfortunately, the answer was very few, as there was only one really large, powerful river on the island, which wound down from one of the mountains in a series of waterfalls. The waterfalls might be fun, though, and both were interested to see what it would be like when they visited again, but probably wouldn’t be allowed up near the top of the mountain as that was holy ground for the temples of Athena and Hera. They both also knew going to the Isle of Women wasn’t easy but still.

If the two of them enjoyed one another’s closeness, if Cassie’s arm around Kara’s shoulder was a little tighter than friendship would normally allow, no one was there to comment. Similarly, if Kara spent most of the flight back simply following the other two, most of her attention on Cassie and how she was becoming more and more aware of Cassie’s beauty, no one noticed, not even Kori. She and Ranma had their own discussion going on.

“So, um, I know this is kind of after the fact, but um, I noticed you were flirting with me before this, but I… We really haven’t known one another very long, Kori. And I am very much not a kiss and walk away kind of guy. Stuff like that, it’s… it should be important you know?” Ranma stumbled over his words, trying to forge coherent thought from his currently hormone-addled thoughts.

“I would not have kissed you if I felt that we could not become something more in the future. However, I think you are under a misapprehension. You do not have to be in love already to start flirting and dating. Even from what little I have learned of American culture over the past few days tells me that,” Kori chortled, nuzzling into the top of Ranma’s head. “But I have been interested in you from almost the moment where you started to blush and tossed me your spare shirt, embarrassed and worried for me when we should have been locked in mortal combat. The amusement you were having, the fact that you didn’t automatically seem to hate me or want to hurt me. It all drew me in. Your emotions since have continued to that trend.”

“I…huh, I never thought of it that way,” Ranma blinked at this bit of knowledge. “I thought, I thought ya needed to already feel more than simple attraction to someone to be in a relationship. A serious one anyway.”

“But we do feel more than simple attraction to one another. We are friends,” Kori replied simply, hugging the shorter redhead to her even tighter. To the point where, if Ranma was normal, she might have broken ribs. Kori had shown a time or two that she couldn’t’ control her strength as well as Kara and Cassie. As it was, though, that didn’t matter at all.

“We are friends, we have much in common, we enjoy being around one another and we are attracted to one another. We are also forthright about things to a degree such that we will be able to simply ram through any issues in the future that crop up between us. Is there any reason for us to not try to see if our friendship could deepen into something more?”

While Ranma wasn’t so at-home with the idea of linking friendship with attraction and thus the idea of building something from that during a relationship prior to building up to one, Ranma had to admit that Kori had a point. But there was something the currently cursed martial artist needed to say first. “I don’t want us to hide it, but neither do I think we should, well, I’m not so at home with being affectionate in public. You know I come from another nation on Earth right? In my home nation, we don’t go into that kind of thing.”

“That is acceptable. I will not ask to be kissed or hugged or anything similar in public, nor will I initiate such if it makes you uncomfortable. Remember Ranma, I am an empath, I can feel such things directly,” Kori nearly caroled, fighting the urge to do barrel rolls in the air out of sheer joy. Yes! “However, in private, I might demand more cuddles and kisses.”

“I’m fine with that,” Ranma snorted. What guy wouldn’t be? Still that wasn’t the only thing Ranma wanted to say right now. “Just so long as you realize I might also be uncomfortable with other guys looking at you. And remember, this form, I hopefully won’t have it for very long. Does that bother you?”

While Jusenkyo raged again hallway round the world and began to put plans in motion, Kori shook her head fervently. “No. While I am attracted to the female form as well, I liked you in your normal male body and your Shazam form before I knew you could transform into a girl. The girl form Ranma is just an interesting addition.”

Ranma nodded, happy with that. “And this part ya might not like. I’m, well, I’m kinda a conservative sort of guy in a lot of ways. I’m not going to want to take things quickly. Beyond it being your body your choice, just remember that I might not be comfortable with some things either. Such as seeing you naked. What you’re showing off now is, well, that’s about the limits to what I’d be willing to see for a while.”

While Ranma could tell Kori was so open about her body for a variety of reasons, that didn’t mean Ranma was comfortable with it and she figured speaking about that now was a good thing. Ranma also figured that if he (if not currently in body then in mind) slowed the physical side of things down, the pair would be able to build a closer relationship emotionally at the same time. I know I’m into her, big time, but we haven’t even known each other

“That is more than acceptable. And I do like that phrase, your body your choice. That is at the heart of why I am so happy to enter a relationship with you. Because for so long it wouldn’t have been.” Kori once more nuzzled the shorter girl’s hair, humming contentedly. “And... I am fine with taking things slow or after this, so long as we take things slow together. Does that make sense, boyfriend Ranma?”

Hearing that phrase despite currently being in his cursed body made Ranma laugh quietly, and she leaned up, kissing Kori’s neck. Kori let loose a low moan, causing Ranma to stop, then just nuzzle into her neck which Kori seems to like almost as much, almost purring like a cat. “Then, yeah, it’s a lot faster than I would’ve wanted, but it takes two to tango, and I’m not about ta deny I’ve been attracted to ya too. So yeah, that both makes sense and sounds good to me, girlfriend Kori.”

Kori giggled wildly at that, which certainly did interesting things to her body and to Ranma’s considering the position they were currently in, and Ranma leaned up and gave Kori a kiss on her chin, before Kori leaned back down and kissed her on the lips in turn.

So enthusiastic were the pair about such things, that it should have come as no surprise to anyone when Kara and Cassie caught them kissing near the end of their last swim through the water. They had just come out of a series of very fast rapids well below where they had stopped the first three times, Cassie and Kara pushed themselves up out of the water, laughing as they had beached themselves on a hidden sandbank much like the one that Kori had found herself on earlier.

“Damn, but this is fun! It’s like having your own waterpark all to yourself,” Cassie said, flopping sideways. Her arm wrapping around Kara’s middle, her hand resting on her upper thigh for a second.

Kara blinked a little bit of that, but twisted her upper body to face Cassie, finding their heads were within a few inches of one another. “I know! I had a lot of fun with it when Ranma and I first tried it out. We then, or, really, he then built a raft and we headed further down the river for a bit. It was really fun. Maybe in the future we can do something like this again, or just keep on exploring the Rocky Mountains for similar places?”

“So long as we can convince Diana and your cousin that we should be allowed to do our own thing like that, I suppose. I don’t know if they’ll go for that,” Cassie warned. She really didn’t want to say that, but Diana was, in the laws of their people, Cassie’s guardian. That wasn’t something she could just wave away. Not without the Ceremony of the Warrior. I’ve been ready for it for a while, physically, but mentally… after the fight in Star City… maybe I am?

“It’s our lives to lead. I understand Clark wants to help, and I understand why he thinks it’s important for me to have a normal life. But that isn’t the way forward for me. Like I told you back in Star City.” Kara’s voice was firm in contrast. If she had learned anything on this journey, Kara had learned she was done with trying to fit in. No, I will make my own way, with my friends beside me. With Ranma, Kori, and Cassie most of all. Wherever the future takes us, we do it together.

“And like I’ve told you a time or two, I’m fine with anything so long as we are together,” Cassie answered, her own thoughts mirroring Kara’s. “You, me, Kori, even Ranma, much as I’ll bet that’ll be a sticking point for your cousin. Not so much lady Diana. She remembered him too, you know, mentioned him a few times to make over the decades, wondering about the young boy that she had helped train. I think Diana will be proud of the man he’s become. Even if he’s currently well you know…” Cassie ended with a laugh.

Kara nodded, then, as if summoned by their discussion, both of them turned, a hint of red in their peripheral vision catching their attention. Jaws dropped, and the pair of blondes stared as a shock of red and dark umber hair came out from the rocks behind them, the owners practically glued to one another as they continued to kiss even as they bounce off rocks and into the open, being carried straight past the leading pair by the current.

“Huh?!” Kara grunted, while Cassie remained silent. Slight feelings of jealousy went through both girls, before being drowned out by some happiness for their friends in Cassie’s mind even as Kara wondered internally if this was a bit fast before setting that aside.

That’s probably being caused by Kori more than Ranma. From that I know of his personality, he’s very much not the type to make the first move, if only because he just doesn’t know how, Kara reflected, a feeling of bemused happiness for her friends drowning a bit of jealousy. Although, who she was jealous of just then Kara wouldn’t have been able to tell you, a realization that caused her to shiver a bit.

“Well, isn’t that a thing?” Cassie muttered. “I thought I’d seen signals that Kori was interested in Ranma, but I didn’t think he’d give in so quickly.”

“He’s a guy, whatever form,” Kara answered a little more casually than she normally would say such a thing, before shrugging off the weird feelings she was currently experiencing with a somewhat forced laugh. “Mind you, I honestly don’t know if she ever gave him a choice. Would you have been able to say no to Kori? Even after only knowing her a few days?”

“Nope. Very much nope.” Cassie laughed, her laugh deeper, more… open? Kara wasn’t certain why, but the admission and that laugh send shiver through her, which grew stronger as Cassie continued. “I’ve known I liked girls as much as boys for a while now, and saying no to someone like her would’ve taken far more willpower than I possess. I just hope Ranma convinced her to take it slow, as I don’t think he’d be comfortable with going very fast.”

“Judging by what I’ve learned of him over the past few weeks, I think that’s pretty accurate,” Kara said, now realizing how close they were, where Cassie’s hand was, the feelings that garnered shifting.

Over the past few days, both of them had felt closer to one another, had become more aware of one another in a way that went beyond friendship. This had been bubbling under the surface for a while, perhaps even back on the Isle of Women. Whatever the case, when Cassie turned back to Kara, Kara looked at her and then leaned in.

Cassie’s eyes widened for second, before she realized with a start that perhaps their friendship had been moving in this direction for a while. And that despite her new attraction to Ranma. This felt right, it felt good. She leaned in too, and soon, their lips connected.

The kiss quickly turned passionate within seconds as the two of them hugged, their tongues dueling, their ands roaming, until Kara fell off the sandbar, pulling Cassie with her. The pair only broke apart with a laugh as they found themselves nearly dragged under the water.

Further down the river, Kori and Ranma had paused their own make out session to breathe in, and had seen the pair kissing. Ranma looked at them for a few seconds, then began to laugh. “Well, it looks like Aunt Martha was worried about the wrong person when she said ya could come with me, Kara. And I wanna be there when you explain to Clark that this is a thing. From what she’s said, Mr. Outside Underpants seems to be a very straightlaced kind of guy.”

“If by that you mean incredibly old-fashioned even when you consider that he grew up on a farm about relationships and what is and isn’t appropriate, then yes, you’re quite correct. But I’ll be there to help, and like I was just saying a moment to go to Cassie, it’s my life. There’s a limit to how much control he has over me,” Kara declared firmly as she dug her feet into the sand underneath the water, pulling herself and Cassie to a stop despite the best efforts of the current with an ease no human, not even Ranma, could have matched.

Soon Cassie was helping with that, and the two of them pushed themselves upright in the water, standing almost waist deep in the water. “As for me, I think I’ll get Aunt Martha and Uncle Jon on my side first.”

“Wise,” Ranma and Kara said as one, causing the other two to laugh. Even Kori, for all that she had only a young girl’s memories to rely on, knew that getting two parental figures on your side before you confronted a big brother figure with the fact you were dating his sister, or cousin in this case, was a good idea.

To say that the rest of the night passed quite pleasantly for all concerned was to stretch the term quite widely. Ranma and Cassie took some time to fish in the river, bringing back several fish, then pulled Kori in to help prepare them, and a few other ingredients. Kori did so with a will, but she and Ranma, now in his male body, also kissed, and nuzzled. The pair did so while moving around Cassie, close but not touching, in a way that should have been annoying, but somehow wasn’t, while Kara watched, her notebook, pulled out to make further notes on her energy sensor, forgotten for now.

“MM, these are done, now, boyfriend Ranma,” Kori murmured, leaning over to give him a kiss even as she settled a plate of cleaned and rosemary and thyme-spiced tomatoes on a plate. “And I think I much prefer kissing your male body. There is just too much of a size difference with your female form.”

“Hah! Good to know on many levels,” Ranma snorted, and, feeling daring, leaned over to lick at the back of her neck, causing Kori to shiver and the nearby Cassie to bite her lip, the motion giving her ideas.

Soon, they had grilled fish steaks, with capers and tomatoes, along with a kind of glaze that Ranma had made up from things he’d found somehow out in the forest. The two couples set across from the fire, eating, talking quietly, occasionally leaning into one another and kissing, but for three of the four, that was about as much as they were willing to do at the moment. The relationships were too new to push further, and while a part of her tamaranian heritage was telling her to push for more, the ex-slave Koriand’r was more than satisfied with the feelings she was getting from Ranma as she leaned against him, his arm wound around her waist, his thumb gently pressing into the side of her boob.

For their part, Kara and Cassie found it remarkably easy to slip from being the best of friends to being girlfriends, exchanging small kisses and neck nuzzles throughout the meal, but feeling no great desire to push anything further, simply luxuriating in what they had. The quartet did talk about what kind of dates they all wanted to go on, and whether or not the afternoon spent swimming would count as a group date, which they all agreed it rather did.

After cleaning up after the meal, Kara turned in early, having had a few ideas about some of the things she’d seen Ranma do with his ki energy while swimming, what it could mean for the specific wavelength ki resided on, and how to detect it. Kori followed her, eager to talk to the other alien girl, wanting to get her impression about romance and such things on Earth, and where to find more information about how it was handled both in America and Japan, not wanting to offend Ranma in some subtle way.

Not that Kara was going to be much help in that area. She knew a few romance novels offhand, but had never looked into it, being somewhat thrown off by how prevalent romance and relationships were among humans compared to how it was back on Krypton and frankly not having seen the point to it, much like fashion or gossip in general. She instead imparted some advice to the other alien girl: Always listen and never assume. Ranma had told Kara more about Akane and Nerima than he had any of the other girls yet, and Kara knew that Ranma disliked it immensely when people made assumptions without listening to him.

While Ranma moved out of the camp to practice some balance work on a nearby tree branch the width of a finger, Cassie spent time listening to music. She sat at the edge of the ledge, staring out over and down into the river pensively, thinking about this recent change and where it would go, coming up with no real insight, but still feeling right in her choice to see where it led. Not being around Kara for the months they’d been separated had been worse than the first few months after Ranma had been forced to leave the Isle of Women, and the idea of being separated again from her was painful. Whereas the idea of seeing where their relationship went was… well, it was quite a heady feeling.

Cassie didn’t look up as Ranma sat down next to her, simply pulling her headphones off, setting them on her shoulders and turning the volume up a little so that he could listen to the music as well. They don’t cross their music tastes across the board, but they both enjoyed heavy metal, rock, other genres. Ranma was more into the European scene than the American, and enjoyed Chinese and Japanese music, while Cassie had yet to get into either. Currently, though, she was listening to some classical music, more in keeping with her mood.

They both stayed silent for a while, staring up at the stars. “They are different you know. Here in comparison to the Isle of Women. The stars I mean. The stars on the Isle of Women never change, it’s always the same skyline at night, just the constellations that the Greek gods are connected to and nothing else. Here, the sky is more alive, more prevalent,” Cassie murmured. “And our girlfriends are both from somewhere up there.”

“Well, if you expand the term ‘up there’ to include all of space, then sure. Considering Kara’s mentioned a time or two that Earth is nowhere near where Krypton used to be, and Cassie has no idea where her people’s star system is in comparison to here,” Ranma said, chuckling quietly. “Still, yeah, it is a lot to think of. I mean, the whole girlfriend thing is kind of odd to me. I’ve known for a while that I was free ta start such a thing eventually, with my old man out of my life along with all of the weird honor obligations there. But that’s a far cry from actually being in a real relationship, one me and Kori will build as we go, have chosen from the start without any, any external foundation, I guess ya could say? I’ll also say it came at me kind of suddenly… but it’s still amazing.”

“I’ll bet,” Cassie said, feeling a slight spurt of jealousy, although for some reason, she had just imagined herself in both Kori and Ranma’s place in turn, before she reminded herself that she had also just gotten into a relationship with Kara. “Also, the use of the term ‘external foundation’ proves beyond a shadow of a doubt your accent is as much a put on as a woman’s makeup.”

Ranma snorted in laughter at that, and Cassie grinned, looking over at him and winking. “As for our relationships, yeah, it’s kind of awesome isn’t it? Having someone to kiss and cuddle with. Within reason.”

“Within reason,” Ranma agreed, trying hard not to look sideways at Cassie, who, he had to admit, he’d had some romantic ideas of leading up to their meeting one another again in Star City, and then after. Then again, he’d also noticed Kara before and after, and Kori a good deal of time since meeting her. I guess in that, I’m more of a typical guy than I would’ve thought. “And it’s good to hear that you and Cassie are firm in your position that you’re going to want to build a life together regardless of what kind of alter ego’s or what have you the two of you make.”

“What about you?” Cassie asked a question she’d been pondering for a while. “I know that you and Kara wanted to come to Star City to meet me, and I’m more than happy about that aspect. But what were your overall plans for your life? And now that you’ve been forced practically at knifepoint to accept the fact that your Shazam form is a part of you, will that affect your plans?”

“Plans, what are these things you call plans?” Ranma chortled, shaking his head lightly, glaring up at the sky. From what he could make out in the darkness, it looked as if it might rain soon. I have already spent too much of today in my female body thank you very much.

“I’m serious. What are your future plans? Did you just want to keep on getting stronger in the Art? Do you still want to just travel the world with you and Kori?”

“Since she and I are now in an actual relationship, any plans for the future are going to have to include Kori both in the planning and in whatever actual plans we make,” Ranma demurred for a second, before shrugging his shoulders. “As for future plans, I just wanted to get to know you and Diana-nee, maybe head back to the Isle of Women but without the two of you there, there’s no point to that. With that seen to, I don’t know.”

“Traveling the world sounds like fun sure, I’d like to see of a lot of places in Europe.” Maybe look up those other shards of memory Shazam left behind. “Maybe climb the Eiffel Tower on the outside or something,” snickered. “I gotta imagine that would be one heck of a date.”

“I might steal that one,” Cassie acknowledged, and the two laughed for a second, before she poked Ranma in the side demandingly. “But what about your Shazam form? The good you could do with it?”

Ranma blinked, his nose wrinkling a little in disdain. “You mean as a hero?”

“Yep. I know you disdain heroes for a few reasons, some of which I think are kind of silly, and you know it Ranma.” Ranma acknowledged that with a chuckle and a nod of the head, barely visible in the campfire behind them and the light of the stars above, the moon hidden currently behind clouds. “But Diana and I talked about it one point, the reason why she wanted to continue to act as a hero in Man’s World. She told me a line that she had read once, that with great power came great responsibility.”

Cassie could feel more than see Ranma’s grimace at that, but she went on unhurriedly. “Not the responsibility to solve all the world’s problems, not the responsibility to try and fix things, whatever that might mean. Rather, the responsibility to be available to help defend those who cannot defend themselves against things they cannot face on their own.”

Those words eased Ranma’s grimace, and he flopped backward onto the ground behind them for a second, staring up at the stars. Cassie followed him, also looking up at the stars, occasionally glancing sideways at Ranma’s profile.

“That… Okay, that’s closer to what I follow as part of my Code than anything I’ve gotten from the Flash or the rest of ‘em. I just don’t like the idea of going around looking for trouble and solving crimes that the locals should be able to see to if they were willing to in the first place, not without stumbling over them like you and I did, anyway. But helping against invasions, magical problems, that kind of thing I guess I could see myself doing. Although, I’m still not much of a joiner. I don’t want to be held to the rules and regulations of the Justice League or anything like that.”

“Those rules might not be as inhibiting as you think Ranma,” Cassie soothed. Ranma turned to give her side eye, and she shrugged. “Okay, I’ll admit sometimes they can seem a little weird to me, as yes, I would’ve killed that Onomatopoeia guy when I had the chance, but my point still stands. Still, if Kori decides she also wants to become a superhero, like me and Kara, you’ll join us?”

“I have joined you anyway without the whole hero thing. But…” Ranma sighed, shaking his head, then flipped himself upwards over his head to land on his feet, reaching down to help Cassie to her feet as the first droplets of rain began to fall. “That ancestor of mine, he decided to hand his powers down to me for a reason. Not just to master that power, not just to have it, but to use it.” Against a threat Prometheus could see coming to the whole world. Can’t believe I forgot that part for so freaking long. “If I have to be a so-called hero to do that, I suppose I’ll go along with it.”

“Good,” Cassie said, before pulling Ranma into a tight hug, then rapidly pushing him away, feeling a blush that she really shouldn’t considering her relationship with Kara. “I’m glad you’ll stick the course with us.”

“Me too. The past few days have been great, but you and I, we’ve got more than a decade to make up for,” Ranma said, also flushing lightly, unseen in the dark as he rapidly turned away, grabbing up the teapot and dumping it out over the fireplace. With that, the fire pit itself and the incoming rain, the fire would go out entirely soon. “And I aim to make certain we do.”

Cassie laughed at that before she raced for the girl’s tent, having no desire to be rained upon, while Ranma made for his own. To his astonishment, Ranma even got inside before the rain really started to come down. If that isn’t a sign from the gods that I’m on the right path irrespective of my mixed emotions towards Kara and Cassie, I don’t know what is.

OOOOOOO

Relationships or not, Cassie and Ranma were both determined that sparring and training would continue apace. Thus, the next morning, Cassie led all three of her friends through a few Amazon style training katas, before Ranma took over teaching the two flyers some of his own.

As he did, all three girls stared for a few seconds. Watching Ranma in motion like this was like watching a hunting cat race along, all poise and perfect control. His muscle-T also showed off in ways that made two of the girls watching embarrassed for their reaction, and one quite gleeful.

After running the two flyers through the pair of katas he wanted them to learn, Ranma then taught Cassie one that was specific for spear fighting, and another one that was for sword fighting in the Japanese-style. He honestly didn’t think Cassie would get much out of that one, as she very much a sword and shield style type of fighter, whereas the use of shields in close combat had never been that prevalent in Japan. While the samurai often used the tedate, small wicker shields, at range, in close they preferred mobility and agility over protection. Regardless, Cassie was eager to learn, and Ranma was eager to impart more training to Kori in particular.

“No girlfriend of mine is going to just keep flailing around, relying solely on strength and speed. You’re gonna learn some actual technique!”

And if some of those training moments were broken up by kisses between the couples, well, no one there was going to comment. Even if Ranma did complain that being pinned by Kori because she had thrown off his concentration by kissing him as he tried to lock in a hold was cheating.

It was around noon when Kara turned away from where she had been watching Cassie and Ranma sparring in his normal body staring out over the horizon through the trees and over the mass of the mountain downriver. Kori touched her shoulder gently, talking head quizzically. “What is it, friend Kara?”

“I’m hearing something in the distance. I think it’s something I heard back in Star City…” Kara began, causing both Ranma and Cassie to stop where they were, moving away from one another, also looking in that direction. “I think it’s a helicopter, although with all the rock and whatever between us, I can’t be quite sure.”

“That’s not all that unusual,” Ranma mused. “It might be the first one we’ve heard, but we are, what, within an hour and a half’s flight away from Moab?”

“Pretty much that, yeah. It isn’t coming from Moab, it’s coming from the south.”

Ranma was about to shrug, when the helicopter in question crested the horizon above the mountainside, flying quite a bit lower to the ground then Ranma would have thought helicopters like to go. Even stranger, it was moving in a zigzag pattern around the river then suddenly it shifted, coming straight towards them. “Huh, they’ve seen us.”

Ranma’s tone made that statement into a question, and Cassie shrugged. “If someone aboard got binoculars, then yeah, they could’ve spotted us. And that doesn’t look like a park ranger or police helicopter to me. It looks almost exactly like some of the helicopters we saw in Star City during the battle there. Military.”

“So the question is, is there something going on in the area that we don’t know about, or… Or is it here for us?” Cassie muttered. “Given how it’s heading straight towards us…”

“Crap,” Kara muttered to herself, scowling. “And us without any way to hide our features or anything else. Not that you or I did anything of the sort back in Star City, but still.”

“Yeah, I doubt the sunglasses we’re all wearing will do much to hide your features. Me and Kori might have a better luck there, and maybe if you messed up your hair and your clothing a little bit more?” Ranma mused, before frowning. “Bigger question, how did they know we were out here in the first place? I mean, no offense, but blondes are not exactly unusual here in America, and while we might get in trouble for camping out here, Cassie’s right, that’s a military looking helicopter to me.”

“I have to assume that they both know we’re here, and who we are, or at least, who Cassie and I are. They just might make assumptions about you and Kori given our presence,” Cassie agreed.

“We could run away,” Ranma suggested. “Dive into the water, put distance between us and the helicopter, hide out someplace else. You three could even fly off. I could hide under my the Umi-Sen-Ken until they leave, then bundle everything up and meet you somewhere.”

“Tempting, if a little premature,” Kori said, shaking her head. “Besides, they’ve undoubtedly seen me by this point as well, so they know precisely who we are.”

Kori had not used her image inducer since they’d left the Grand Canyon. Ranma and the others enjoyment of her normal self had made it clear there was no need for it.

“Besides which, it isn’t as if the military could stop us from leaving anytime but we wanted to.” Ranma shrugged. “I might not be bulletproof in this body, not beyond most pistols anyway, but the three of you don’t have that problem, and I’ve got my Shazam form to call on if I need to.”

“You think you should change now? Keep your identity a—" Cassie began, before cutting yourself off. “I guess that’s pointless at this point. But good grief, if we ever do go that route, having our own alter egos, we’re going to need to put in a lot more work into them than we would otherwise.”

“Ha, no you won’t. Just ask Diana-nee for the same kind of magic trick that makes certain that her Wonder Woman alter ego can’t be connected to her civilian identity,” Ranma disagreed with a snicker. “Or whatever tech Clark uses to hid his. I mean, ya showed me two pictures of him, Kara, and it’s not like a pair of glasses should change much.”

That caused the three girls to all perk up a little, as that was indeed true. With magic like that, they would be able to create alter egos for themselves regardless of how much information the military or whoever that helicopter represented knew about them beforehand. With that in mind, Kara nodded, straightening up a little, her face twisting into a moue of distaste.

Still, as one of the two flyers, and the one who, thanks to her cousin, probably had the greater amount of good will built up, she couldn’t avoid this. “It isn’t like they’re going to be able to land here. This outcropping isn’t big enough for that helicopter. I’ll go up and meet them, ask them what they want with us. If they attack me though, don’t expect me to leave anything for the rest of you to do.”

At that, her friends all snickered, and she lifted off the ground heading upwards quickly. For a second, the helicopter juked sideways, as if it hadn’t anticipated that, before it started to lazily circle the area, letting Kara close without forcing the issue.

So close to the helicopter, it was incredibly noisy, but while Kara’s were sensitive, they weren’t like Cassie’s nose. She couldn’t be hurt by sound like this or really anything as far she knew. Kara waved, before shouting, “I’m presuming you’re here for us?”

“If you’re Supergirl, and the other blonde down there is the one called Nyctimene, along with the alien princess named Starfire, then yes,” one of the men in the back of the helicopter shouted. His face was lined, his eyes deep-set, and he had several scars on his hands, all showing his age. The other three men sitting in the open cargo area of the helicopter with him and the two up front in the cockpit all looked to be in their twenties. All the men were armed with pistols, and Kara noticed there were military style rifles tucked under the legs of the three young men in the back.

The older man’s voice didn’t carry to Kara from his mouth, but rather a small speaker set into the side of the helicopter, as he spoke into a headset. “We don’t know the name of your male companion, as he doesn’t look anything like the one we were supposed to find.”

“Who is we, why are you looking, and no Ra- dammit, I am not Supergirl! I am absolutely not going with that name. What would you do if you were suddenly named helicopter boy, and had to wear that appellation for the rest of your life?” Kara growled, before blinking as Ranma suddenly appeared from below.

The helicopter had been circling the area, and had come close to the top of one of the trees, more than close enough for Ranma to kick off of. Getting far more air than even the greatest Olympian high jumper could ever do, by using the whole tree almost as a springboard, Ranma grabbed onto Kara’s foot with a brief wink up at her, then flipped himself upwards again to grab onto the foot of the helicopter, whereupon he pulled himself up, to the point where he was perched on the side and leaning in.

One of the men in the helicopter with the guy would been talking reached down for his rifle almost automatically, but found his hand pressed down onto the metal of the rifle held there. That grip was very light for Ranma, but there was no way the man was going to break it, as Ranma grinned at them, more a showing of teeth than his normal smile. “Yo.”

A second later, the helicopter pilot twitched the copter sideways as Kori, carrying Cassie on her back, flew up to bracket him on his other side. “Hello,” Cassie drawled as if she wasn’t currently riding her newest friend like she was a horse.

“These gentle folk were about to tell us who they were, and why they were trying to find us,” Kara supplied, somewhat amused by the suddenly wary look in the men’s faces. The only exception being the older man, whose eyes simply flicked between the four without showing any other reaction on his face.

As he turned, Kara noticed he seemed to have some rank tabs on his uniform. Unfortunately, Kara didn’t know enough about the US military to read them.

“You can lift into the air if you feel more comfortable,” Ranma addressed the copter pilot with a shout, almost lazing back on the landing leg of the helicopter for second, letting the guy who had been reaching for his gun to pull his hand away from the holster of his pistol. Showing a modicum of intelligence, he responded by simply leaning back as well it back into his chair.

“As to your question, we represent the US military and government and we’re trying to set up an informal meeting with you three and Shazam,” the man with the headset said, even as the helicopter did indeed lift higher into the air. “Who, sorry, doesn’t seem to match your appearance, youngster.”

“I mentioned back in Star City my powers were magical, it isn’t that big a stretch to imply that my current form is my normal form,” Ranma retorted.

Kori moved closer to the helicopter, allowing Cassie to pull herself over to it, to the point where she was now hanging off the side of it just like Ranma. In fact, she was giving the man on that side of the helicopter one heck of a view at her chest, given that she was still wearing her exercise outfit. The fact that he looked away said good things about his training and personal self-control.

“Point I suppose, although I’m kind of surprised that you’re willing to say even that much. None of you are in your superhero costumes, and while it was very clear that Miss Shielder and Nyctimene had yet to create their own identities, I didn’t think it would be the same for you,” the man mused, reaching up to scratch at his chin thoughtfully.

He also earned some points with Kara, using her assumed name from Star City rather than the appellation Supergirl. Kara was still adamant about that.

“Eh, I doubt I’ll ever go the full assumed identity thing like these three might. My name’s Ranma. What that’ll get you I don’t know, as I don’t know what kind of resources you’ll put to it. But you’ll eventually find that there’s only one real person I care about in this world connected to my normal name, beyond my friends here, anyway.” Ranma’s smile became even thinner and more toothsome, causing a shiver to go up the spine of several of the men in the helicopter who saw it, although the man who was speaking simply looked back at him calmly. “And if any government or criminal types mess with her, well, I’ll just start from the top and work my way down so to speak.”

After a second, the man reached over to shake Ranma’s hand. “You got balls on you, kid. I kind of like that. Lord knows I’d do despicable things to anyone who went after my wife or even my extended family. Like I said though, this is informal. Frankly, we’re more interested in some of the technology that Shielder let slip that you could maybe provide shield, but we also want to get to know you four on a more personal level.”

“Personal and informal, huh. But you still haven’t told us who you are? Only that you supposedly represent the US government.”

“Names General Eiling, kid. I’m in charge of a think tank built to try and figure out ways to fight alien threats or supervillains without the help of superheroes. You all can’t always be around and can’t go everywhere if you are. This battle in Star City also showed that we, as in Earth, need our own dedicated space defense.”

At that, both Kori and Kara nodded their heads, as they fully understood that idea, while Ranma and Cassie looked at one another through the open portion of the helicopter before shrugging. Both of them could detect a bit of scorn underneath the general’s voice when he mentioned superheroes, as, indeed, Kori could with her empathic powers. Yet the basic idea seemed sensible enough, and Kori could feel both genuine interest and concern from the man. That wasn’t enough to outright say he was telling the truth, but he certainly didn’t seem to be lying.

“We’re not willing to come into the White House or anything, so I hope your talk of this being informal is spot on. But first, how did you find us?” Cassie demanded.

“You four did a disturbingly good job of disappearing from Star City to be sure, but a few of you ran into some low-level trouble in Bullhead city down in Arizona, not going to ask which two of you. Doesn’t really matter,” Eiling waved that off. “The smalltime gang you met up with, though, had ties to something larger that the FBI is looking into. When the surviving gang members were being asked some pointed questions, how they were taken into custody in the first place came out.”

“That gun that hit you, Nyctimene,” Ranma muttered, crossing his arms, showing absolutely no fear of his current position balancing on the moving strut of the helicopter.

That told the general a good deal about the young man, although whether or not that ability was magical, he didn’t know. General Eiling had read enough reports about people like Batman, Ra's al Ghul and other martial artists out there to leave open the possibility that it wasn’t anyway.

“That makes sense. Drat. I’d wondered at the time if I should destroy or not,” Cassie grumbled.

That this implicated the two who had been involved in that bit of vigilantism didn’t seem to occur to either youngster, but frankly, Eiling didn’t care. “Good thing you didn’t. A few of the components found in the gun have the FBI all atwitter about maybe cracking that particular case wide open. Whether or not they’ll do so, I don’t know, I’m not fully into that loop. But scanning through the security cameras of various stores and other places in Bullhead City was easy enough for a horde of analysts to do, and they came up with the site of two blonde girls, who, generally speaking matched the appearance of the new superheroes on the block, Shielder and Nyctimene,” the general responded with a shrug, grateful that the helicopter had a built-in speaker so he didn’t need to shout to be heard.

“After that, and some photos of the two of you and a black-haired girl showed up online on some pic sites with the Grand Canyon in the background. One of those selfsame blondes was spotted in Moab, and we started to just work our way in between. The idea that you might be somewhere along the Colorado came up at that point, and we decided to come looking for you.”

That made all too much sense, with Cassie grumbling on her breath about annoying photographers as the general continued. “As to the informal nature of things, right now, I’m here to invite you to a cookout on my family’s ranch.”

For a few seconds, all four of the youngsters looked at one another, then as Kara and Kori shrugged, Cassie and Ranma exchanged another glance, before Ranma said, “Can you we assume that there will be steak? I can’t cook a good steak to save my life, and I’ve yet to try traditional American steak.”

Eiling laughed. “In that case, son, I think we’re both gonna be learning things at this shindig.”

End Chapter

Okay, so I had hoped to have more in this chapter, but the ‘getting to know you’ bits ran longer than I expected. I also decided that Batman wasn’t the type to try and intimidate over the phone. I really should have thought of that before trying to outline the chapter, but that, and the whole ‘how’ question would stop me from doing that. Bats is also… well, he’s a creature of the city. I don’t see him able to sneak up on and intimidate Ranma out in the wilderness. So he’s gonna need to wait. I also decided I wasn’t giving the segment with general Eiling and how I hope to start the hints of the next group of enemies enough time/detail.

I hope you enjoyed the quartet, how they interact, and what is building up between them.