"Aw, jeez! How am I ever gonna watch all these movies in one night?" Jon sighed and leaned back against a mound of pillows at the head of his bed.

"Honey! Are you doing your homework?" His mother’s voice echoed up the stairwell into his room.

"Uh, yeah. Sure am!" he called downstairs. Walking over to his television, he looked at the movies. "Let’s see, better do this the right way. I’ll start with the first in the stack, watch them all tonight, and return them tomorrow!" Jon popped in the first tape on the pile, checking to see what it was. "Evangelion... okay!" Pushing PLAY on the VCR, he jumped onto his bed and relaxed. Checking the clock, he sighed. "Already seven? Better hurry!" He concentrated on the screen, humming the theme song.

* * *

"Shinji, you idiot! Wake up! We’re gonna be late for school!" *Slap!*

"Huh?" Jon opened his eyes. "Shoot, musta dozed off..." he mumbled. "Gotta get up..." Standing up, he shuffled over to his dresser. Or, where his dresser was.

"Huh? Where’d my dresser go?" His eyes opened as wide as they could. "What the...!!"

Looking around, all he saw was a bunch of trees and a crashed car. Beside the car, laying on the ground, was a girl and a boy. Running over, Jon touched them to make sure they were alive. They twitched, and the girl lifted her head.

"R...Ranma? Is that you?" As she stood up, Jon stepped back and shook his head. "I’m not... Ranma..." He was trying to figure out how Akane Tendo was standing next to him when the boy stood up.

"Curse you , Ryoko! Why’d you do that?" Tenchi Masaki rubbed his head. "And where am I, anyway? And who are you two?" he asked, looking at Jon and Akane.

"I’m Akane Tendo, and why was I in your car? I thought Ranma was driving me to school today... Oh, this is... is... um..." She looked over at Jon, who was stunned.

"Uh... uh... um... well...where am... I? This isn’t my bedroom..." He trailed off as he looked around. Surrounding him was forest, strikingly similar to the forest surrounding the Masaki residence. "Huh?"

Weaving in and out of the trees was a tall girl with bright yellow hair that hung down her back in two strands. She was carrying a bookbag, and she had a really puzzled look on her face. All at once she started crying, and Jon was amazed that it looked like the animes that he watched on television, the tears going in two long streams out of the girl’s eyes.

"I-I-I-I wanna g-go ho-ooooome!!!!"

Jon rushed over and hugged the girl. "It’ll be all right, Serena. Calm down," Jon said in a rush.

The girl stopped crying. "How did you know my name?" she asked, wiping her nose.

Jon gave her an embarrassed smile. "Um... lucky guess?"

Serena looked at him suspiciously. "Well, anyway, if you guys don’t tell me where the heck I am, I’m gonna get really upset!"

"First," Jon began, "Tell me what is going on. One at a time," he warned.

Akane spoke first. "Ranma and I were on our way to school when all of a sudden, I was laying on the ground next to some boy who is not Ranma."

Tenchi went next. "About the same as her story; I was on my way to the store for food so Sasami could cook breakfast when I looked over and saw that girl in the seat next to me," he said, pointing at Akane. "I panicked, crashed into the tree, and blacked out."

Serena just stood in one spot and wailed, "I’m gonna be late for school!"

Shaking his head, Jon sighed. "Me too... well, the logical thing to do would be to find everyone who was originally involved in this whole mess- that includes Ranma and any friends Serena might have been walking to school with. I still don’t know what’s going on, though."

Akane walked off down the path. "I can take care of myself, but thanks for the offer. See you." She disappeared down the path.

Tenchi sighed. "This is great... and it’s raining, too," he commented, catching a couple raindrops as they fell into his hands.

Whirling around, Serena hid behind Jon as she stared into the woods. "What’s that???" She pointed to a black figure darting from tree to tree.

Shaking Serena off of him, Jon went towards the trees to check it out. All at once, he was attacked by a small black pig and knocked into a nearby mud puddle.

"P-chan! What are you doing?" Jon grabbed the pig by the bandanna around it’s neck and flung it at Tenchi. "Here, catch!"

As P-chan fell into Tenchi’s hands, he shook his head and squealed. Jumping again, he aimed himself at Jon and landed perfectly on his head.

Laughing, Jon looked at Serena, who was bewildered.

"How do you know who all of us are?" she said, edging a little bit towards Tenchi.

Jon sighed. "It’s a sorta long story... let’s find some shelter, I’ll explain on the way."

The three walked together down the path, looking around for anything that looked unusual. Tenchi was the first to see anything in the thick woods.

"Hey, look!" Scattered all over the pine needles on the ground lay a bunch of broken machinery. A girl with wild pink hair was bending down, picking up the pieces one by one. All the while she was muttering something under her breath, but no one could hear what she was saying because of the heavy rain.

"Hey!" Jon waved to the girl. "Can we help you? We-"

"NO!" Tenchi grabbed his hand. "Don’t! Let’s just sneak away without her noticing us. C’mon!"

"Why?" Leaning closer, Jon saw that the girl was Washu, a very mad scientist. "Hey, isn’t that-"

Tenchi grabbed his arm and started to drag him away. "C’mon!!" He stuffed P-chan in Serena’s bookbag and raced down the path with Serena and Jon dragging behind him.

* * *

"What was that all about? Why are you avoiding Washu?" Jon fired questions at Tenchi, one after another. "Huh? Why? C’mon, tell me!" While he was yelling at Tenchi, Serena heard a rustling in the bushes and grabbed Jon’s arm again.

"How come you guys never pay attention?" she cried, pointing to the bushes. "If I got kidnapped, you two wouldn’t even notice!"

"We sure wouldn’t be too sad about it," Jon mumbled under his breath. Walking over to the bushes, he reached in and pulled up a girl with a long red ponytail. "Okay, who is this?" Doing a double take, he gasped. "Ranma?"

The girl stood up and shook some of the water off herself. Glaring at P-chan, who had popped his head out of Serena’s bookbag, she mumbled something.

"What?" Jon leaned forward.

"What’s it to you? Where’s Akane?" the girl demanded. "Where am I, and where is everybody else?"

"Okay," Jon said, putting a hand on Ranma’s shoulder. "I think I’ve sorted mostly everything out."

Everyone leaned towards him.

"There is a girl named Washu, a genius scientist who is a little bit psycho. She likes to create machines that warp time, space, whatever. I think she built some sort of machine that took all you guys from your television shows-umm--I’ll explain what I mean by that later," Jon added, seeing the circle of bewildered faces. "So somehow we all got dumped here... Serena and Ranma and Tenchi and everyone else is around here somewhere and not where they belong. Why I’m here is a little more complicated- I think Washu sucked me out of the real world, that is, my world, and brought me here. That’s just a general theory," he finished, and folded his arms. He looked around at everyone.

"Okay..."

"Sure... whatever you say..."

Ranma stared hard at Jon, who was looking triumphant about figuring things out. "Okay... just explain one thing, though."

"Shoot."

"What did you mean by television shows? I watch a lot of television and I never see myself on that little screen, nor have I ever been taped for a show."

Unfolding his arms, Jon sighed. "Well, back where I come from, I watch a lot of movies. The movies that you are in are called Japanese Animation, or anime. For instance, you," he said, pointing to Ranma, "have your own movie series called Ranma ½ . Tenchi here has a series called Tenchi-Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, and Serena has a series called Sailor Moon."

Serena leaned over towards Jon. "Um, don’t tell anybody, please?" she whispered. "No one is supposed to know I’m Sailor Moon."

Jon smiled. "Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Guys, let’s go find somewhere to crash, okay?" He marched off with the others following him.

* * *

"Finally! Let’s crash here for the night." Jon walked up to an apparently abandoned cabin and pushed at the door. Motioning to Ranma to come over and help him, they pushed on the door together and it creaked open after Tenchi had joined them as well.

Walking inside, everyone set their things down on the floor by the door and surveyed the cabin while Jon lit a lamp he had found hanging on the door handle.

"Not bad!"

"I think I’ll stay."

"Let’s just get some rest, guys."

"Yea!!" Serena was the first to lay down. As she immediately fell asleep, Tenchi boiled a kettle of water for tea. However, as soon as it started to boil, Ranma grabbed it and poured it over herself.

As the steam cleared, everyone looked at Ranma, who was now a boy. Unfortunately, the water had been so hot that Ranma had burned himself.

"AAAAAAAAA!HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!!!!!!!!!" Ranma jumped up and started doing cookies. After a few minutes, he ran into a large black figure that was sitting in the corner and fell down, began twitching, and continued doing cookies on the floor.

"What the?... Uh oh," Jon mumbled under his breath. "If that’s who I think it is..."

The figure slowly rose, wielding a sword that was easily half as large as the figure itself. "And who are you?"

Stepping over Ranma, Jon walked over to the figure. "Cloud?"

"Who wants to know?" As the person stepped out of the shadows, Jon took a step back. Cloud Strife appeared in the glow of the lamp, holding a large sword that looked like a feather. Being easily six feet tall made him seem menacing. "Are you with Shinra?"

Jon gave Cloud a weak smile. "Um, no. I’m harmless. I just want to go home..."

Time seemed to freeze at that moment. No one had ever asked Jon how he felt about the whole situation; everyone had assumed he was willing to help the others get home. As everyone stood staring at Jon and Cloud, a faint echoing of a pikachu sounded throughout the woods behind the cabin. It sounded like a pikachu on speed, so it must have been really excited. (F.Y.I.: Pikachu on speed sounds like this: "pikapikapikapikapika

pikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapikapika!")

Cloud cleared his throat.

Jon stuck his head out of the cabin window to see what the commotion was. Suddenly there was a flash of yellow as Pikachu bounded up the cabin wall, jumped onto Jon’s head, and bounced into the cabin. Everyone stopped as Pikachu glanced around the cabin, confused.

"Pika? Pikapika- Pikachu!"

Electricity flew out of it’s cheeks, thoroughly frying everyone in the cabin. Everyone- save Jon- stopped screaming, sighed, and collapsed to the ground. Just then, Ash Ketchum stuck his head in the window, looked around, and glared at Pikachu, who was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by sizzling masses of scorched clothes and fried hair.

"Shocking," Jon commented.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed. "They’re not Pokemon! I thought you stopped shocking people!"

"Ka-chu..." Pikachu apologized.

Cloud, who wasn’t off of a cheesy anime show, stood up from where he was crouched and stepped up to the window.

"What is that?!" he asked, pointing at Pikachu.

"That’s Pikachu, my Pokemon," Ash stated.

"Well, look what it did to my hair!" Cloud exclaimed, pointing to one of his singed hair spikes.

"Hey," Jon said, stepping in, "you wanna take this outside?"

Cloud needed no second bidding. Stepping outside, he glared at Ash. "Let’s finish this."

As Cloud was preparing his ultimate limit break, Omnislash, Ash pulled out a pokeball.

"Go, Pid-"

"Now what the heck is that?!!"

Ash stopped in mid-throw. "It’s my Pidgey. Hey, where’s your Pokemon?"

"Pokemon?!" Cloud exclaimed. "Is that how you fight in your own sick, twisted little world? With POKEMON?! Can’t you even fight right?! Shocking rats, teleporting, sex-changes; and Pokemon? This sounds like something off of a kids cartoon!"

"Well," Jon started, "it actually is."

"What?!" screamed Cloud. "I’m supposed to be saving the planet right now! Sephiroth is killing my friends, they’re out of "Life 2", and I have to get back there and kick his butt! But as long as I’m here, I might as well be kissing it!"

Just then Washu walked into the clearing. Tenchi, who had just emerged from the cabin, screamed and ran back in. Washu approached Cloud and pointed at Pikachu.

"Is that yours?" she asked.

"No, it’s that little brat’s over there."

"PIKACHU!" Washu and Ash fell over.

Cloud was in a mad rage. "I’ve had just about enough of you!" He raised his sword to cut Pikachu in two when Aeris appeared in its path.

"Whoa!" Cloud almost dropped his sword. Then the image shifted into the familiar form of Ryoko.

"Gotcha!" She smiled.

Cloud, getting even madder, prepared to swing. Just then, Sailor Moon ran out of the cabin.

"I am Sailor Moon! On behalf of the moon, I right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means you!" She pointed at Cloud and grinned.

"Huh?" Cloud looked over at her.

Suddenly Ryoko extended her arm, nailing Cloud in the jaw with her super-human strength. Cloud made a funny-looking anime face before toppling over.

"Hmmmm." Washu nodded. "He would make a satisfactory ‘cheesy anime’ character."

Sailor Moon picked up Pikachu and hugged it. "I saved you from that nasty man who was going to cut you in two!"

"Pikachu!" Now Sailor Moon fell over.

Washu, having recovered from the first shock, snatched up Pikachu and headed for the woods.

"Pikachu!" cried Ash. "Use ‘thundershock’!"

*Zap, pop, crackle, ssssssssssss...*

"It’s out of electricity," commented Ryoko.

Cloud had recovered from the blow by then, and he stood up to face Ryoko. As he glared at her, she offered him a smile. Suddenly, all thoughts of Tifa left Cloud’s mind.

She was HOT!!

Ryoko was grinning.

"You know," she smiled, "You’re kinda cute..."

Cloud was entranced. "That’s what Tifa said," he blurted.

"Tifa?" Ryoko questioned.

"Um, my, um, friend."

Ryoko flung an arm over Cloud’s shoulders. "Oh! That’s good. I’d like to be your friend too..."

"Heh, heh..." Cloud smiled feebly.

Tenchi smiled. "Good. At last she’s like that with everyone else," he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Washu was running away with Pikachu under one arm. Thinking quickly, Pikachu bit Washu’s hand.

"AAAAAAAAH! The little rat bit my hand! AAAAAAAAH!"

*thud*

Washu fell into a hole.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

Two silhouettes appeared over the edge of the hole.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

‘To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

The two silhouettes stepped into the light, revealing a woman with pink hair and a man with blue hair wearing uniforms with a big red R on the fronts of them.

"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

Suddenly a white, cat-like Pokemon vaulted in between Jessie and James.

"Meow! That’s right!

Jessie stepped forward. "We want your Pikachu, so you better just--hey! You’re not that little brat with the Pikachu!"

The cat stepped forward. "Hey, that’s the Pikachu. Grab it!"

* * *

Ash ran up to Cloud and Ryoko. "Help! We have to get Pikachu back!"

"What! That little mouse!" Cloud scowled.

"I’ll do it!" Ryoko smiled. "Ryo-Ohki!"

A cabbit bounded out of the woods and into Ryoko’s arms.

"Here," she said, plopping Ryo-Ohki into Cloud’s hands. "You can watch her."

Cloud held Ryo-Ohki out at arms length. "Is this another- Pokemon?"

"No!" Ryoko smiled. "It’s my spaceship."

With that she grabbed Ash and flew away, regardless of his terrified screams.

"A spaceship? This?!" Cloud cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh!" Sailor Moon squealed. "It’s sooooooooooooooooo cute!"

* * *

After a while, Ash calmed down. He, too, agreed that Ryoko was hot and decided that it wasn’t so bad after all. They both scanned the ground, but didn’t see the cat balloon until they hit it.

*thump*

"What the?" Ryoko rubbed her head.

Still flying, Ryoko leveled herself with the riders in the balloon.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled.

"Hey!" Jessie cautioned. "I worked really hard to get this Pikachu and I’m not giving it up!"

"You mean we-"

*smack*

"Shut up, Meowth!"

Suddenly James pulled out a huge bazooka. Just before they were fired at, Ryoko teleported behind James, dropping Ash in the process.

"AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa------------" *crash, crunch, snap, thud*

Ash fell through a large grove of trees and landed on the ground below.

"Whoops." Ryoko shrugged.

"Hey!" James spun around. "How’d you do that?"

James had fallen into her trap. "Do what?"

"Do--that--that thing..."

"You mean this?" Ryoko hovered up to the canvas of the balloon and laid a finger on it, poised to poke a small hole.

All four occupants shook their heads wildly.

"Nononononononononononono.........."

Ash stood up and saw Ryoko. "Ryoko, don’t! Pikachu is still in the balloon!"

*Pop-----hissssssssss------*

"Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off AGAIaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaiaia-----n!"

"Pikachuuuuuuuuuuu------!"

"Whoops."

* * *

Ryoko flew down to pick up Ash, but something pink distracted her.

"Hey! RyokoOoOOooOooOoo!" Ash wailed.

She flew down to the convulsing pink object, only to find Washu slamming herself against the wall of a deep hole.

"Hey! What are you doing down there?" Ryoko questioned.

"What do you think I’m doing down here?!" Washu screamed. "That darn ‘Team Rocket’ took off with the electric mouse."

"Why would you care about Pikachu?" Ash asked, running up.

"Why do you think?" Washu snapped. "I need the Pikachu’s electricity to power my Time Vacuum."

"Time Vacuum?" both Ryoko and Ash asked.

"Yes, the TV. NOW GET ME OUT OF THIS HOLE!!!"

* * *

"That’s what I used to bring you all here," Washu continued as they reached the clearing.

"What?" Ranma came running out of the cabin.

"The TV; the Time Vacuum."

"You mean--the television?" Serena asked.

"Yes, well, I altered it a bit. I was watching TV and accidentally pushed the wrong button on the remote."

"Well now what are we supposed to do?!" asked Akane, who hadn’t said anything in a while.

*whoooooOOOOOSH, CRASH*

A huge--thing fell out of the sky and into the middle of the clearing.

"What the..."

A large machine was standing up and getting straightened out. It was bright white and had EVA UNIT-00 on the back of it. It kneeled back down onto the ground and something was shot out of the back. As the pod-like thing opened up, a young girl with light blue hair rolled out.

"Hey!" Jon ran over to the girl, who moaned a couple of times.

As she stood up, she looked around. "This isn’t Tokyo 3... where am I? Where’s Commander Ikari? What... what’s going on?" she asked in a soft, quiet voice.

Jon sighed and stepped back a little. "Rei, you’re about a million miles away from Tokyo 3, taking into consideration the fact that Tokyo 3 doesn’t even exist yet. You’re here with you’re Eva, none of us are angels (except maybe you), and we will try to get you back home."

As soon as Jon finished talking, he heard Akane squeal and point up above all of them at the sky. Something that was large and red was rapidly descending towards them.

"Oh, sh--! Everybody MOVE!" Jon pulled Rei out of the clearing into the woods. Everyone else scattered to get to shelter. Just as everyone was out of the way, the object landed and the sharp end drilled deep into the ground, just missing Unit 00 by a fraction of an inch.

As Jon began to breathe again, he looked over at Rei. She was the only one who didn’t have a stunned look on her face. Everyone slowly walked towards the object. Jon recognized it as the Spear of Longinus.

"I think we get the point," Ranma cracked. Everyone laughed a little, and the tension eased. "But... what is it?"

"It’s the Spear of Longinus, a spear used by the Angels," Rei replied quietly.

"Umm..." Washu looked bewildered for once. "Let’s just go and leave this thing here..." Everybody agreed and they all turned .

"Hey, guys, let’s go to the Pokemon racing track," Cloud offered, sounding sane for the first time. He concentrated on the map that he had found in Ash’s backpack "It should be down this path, supposing we are in Ash’s world, I guess..."

Everyone agreed and started walking.

"Okay, what is going on here?" Serena turned around and saw three people standing in front of a couple large trees. One of them had spiky brown hair and was wearing a vest with a backpack, one had overalls on and a small duffel bag slung over her shoulder, and the other was a short, flat girl who wore a cape and held a large sword. They all looked really confused at seeing the variety of people.

"Uh, who are all of you?" asked Ash. "Wait a second... Brock? MISTY?!? How’d you find me? I thought I lost you--I mean, I thought we got separated for good!"

Brock spoke first. "Well, we thought we lost you too, but we followed the trail you left of scattered crumbs--probably left because you are such a sloppy eater--and I guess we found you."

Misty just started yelling. "How dare you, Ash! Leaving us in the woods like that! After everything you’ve done already! AND I WANT MY BIKE!!!!!!!"

Ash grimaced. "Forget the stupid BIKE already!! Jeez!!!"

The short girl coughed and leaned against the tree.

As Misty and Ash yelled at each other and Brock tried to referee, Cloud walked over to the girl. "What’s your name?"

"Lina. Lina Inverse. You?"

"Cloud Strife."

"Whoa!" Cloud turned around and looked at Ranma. "Strife? That’s your last name? Coooool...."

Shaking his head, Cloud turned back to Lina. Smiling at her, he took her arm and led her over to the others. "This is Lina, you guys."

"Hi."

"Hey."

"Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, sure."

"Whatever..."

"Can we go now?"

Brock looked around, his mouth dropping in disbelief. "So many... pretty... girls... ohhohhohhhohh..." He smiled stupidly and turned red. "Ohhohhohhohh..."

"What’s going on?" Ryoga ran out of the cabin wearing one of Ranma’s outfits.

Seeing him, Ranma burst into laughter, pointing at Ryoga. Steaming, Ryoga walked over and decked him in the side of the face.

As Ranma lay twitching on the ground, Ryoga faced the others. "I didn’t have any spare clothes, so I have to wear his."

Akane frowned. "Where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a long time. Hey, where’s P-Chan?" she asked, looking around. All she saw was Ryo-Ohki sitting on the ground, munching on a carrot.

Blushing, Ryoga pointed to the woods. "Maybe he went in there..."

"Hey," Ryoko spoke up, "how’s about we get going to the racing track?"

Everyone nodded agreement and started off on the path, even though Misty was still chewing Ash out and Cloud was staring at Ryoko with a funny look.

* * *

Meanwhile, Team Rocket was having problems of their own.

"Where the heck are we?" Jessie waved her arms around in the air, frustrated.

"At least we have Pikachu," James offered, holding out the rubber anti-Pikachu balloon with Pikachu inside.

"Pika..."

"So? I wanna get to the races so we can steal more Pokemon!" Jessie scowled. "That obviously isn’t going to happen anytime soon!"

"Let’s wander around some more--we’ll get there soon," Meowth suggested.

*Thwack, slap, punch, punt* "Meooooooooowwwwwwww!"

"Shut up, Meowth!"

* * *

"Yeah! Kill ‘em! Yeah!"

Finally at the races, Cloud turned around and grinned at everyone who was not racing. He was third in the lineup, with Brock and Lina on his left and Ash, Misty, Rei and Ryoko on his right.

"And now for the next race," the announcer blasted through the speakers. "First up we’ve got Brock, who is racing on Onix. Next we have Lina Inverse, who has chosen Ponyta to ride. Then we’ve got Cloud Strife, a newbie, who is racing on Dodrio. After Cloud is Ash, who is racing with Vaporeon. Next is Misty, who is riding Starmie. Then we have Rei, who is using her Eva, UNIT-00. Lastly we’ve got Ryoko, who is racing Ryo-Ohki. I want a good, clean race. Let’s get it on!"

Everyone looked at each other, happy to be doing something fun for once. The race started, and Cloud and Lina raced ahead of everyone with Rei following behind closely.

After a few minutes of close running, Cloud pulled ahead of the others. Feeling confident, he raced steadily and quickly. Not paying attention to anything around or in front of him, he didn’t notice a small kid in a bright orange parka run onto the track.

*splat*

Thinking it was just a speed bump, Cloud paid no attention to it and kept going.

Keiichi and Belldandy sat in the front row of the stands, watching the race while eating food that Belldandy had cooked that morning. As they watched Cloud run over the kid, Keiichi stood up and gasped.

"Oh my goddess! He killed Kenny!" he shrieked.

Behind him, a girl jumped up and screamed. The boy sitting next to her grabbed her arm and yanked her down again. "Calm down, Lime!" he hissed.

As Cloud sailed across the finish line, he looked around and grinned. When Ryoko pulled up next to him for second place, she smiled at him and flew over to him, giving him a big hug. Tenchi, who had been watching Ryoko and Cloud the whole race, felt disgusted and watched the others cross the finish line.

"And the grand prize for the winner of the last race is a date with our very own, very lovely Tifa Lockheart, who entered our contest for the loveliest out-of-towner and won!"

"What?!!??!" Cloud’s jaw dropped as he stuttered. "Gih....gih-gih...guh....uhhhh..."

Tenchi frowned as he watched Cloud and Tifa.

As Washu watched Tenchi, she smiled. She walked over to Tenchi and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled weakly.

"Hey."

Washu grinned. "You’re jealous."

"What?" Tenchi turned away. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Sure. It’s Cloud and Tifa, isn’t it."

Tenchi blushed. "Of course not. What makes you think that?"

"Well--"

"Hey!" Ash came running up to them. "Hey, you guys! Team Rocket is here! And they have Pikachu!" He pointed to the stands. Sure enough, Team Rocket was standing there. James held Pikachu in the balloon while Jessie surveyed the crowd and the Pokemon. Meowth was nowhere to be seen.

Washu scowled. "Tenchi, why don’t you just take them out? You have your Light Hawk sword, don’t you? Go on, show up Cloud! C’mon!" She started pushing him towards the two.

"But I don’t--"

"C’mon!"

Approaching Team Rocket, Tenchi smiled timidly. "Hi... umm, would you mind just giving me back Pikachu and leaving? I would really appreciate it."

Jessie looked at him. "Weakling. Go away--Team Rocket wants nothing to do with weaklings." She looked away.

Getting mad, Tenchi stepped up to her. "I’m not a weakling. Give me the Pokemon, and I won’t hurt you."

James scoffed. "Sure. What can you do to us?"

Tenchi backed away and closed his eyes. A blinding ring of light moved over him. When the light dissipated, Tenchi was standing still, wearing a white outfit that looked like it had wings. He held a sword that was long and narrow, and it glowed a bright white. He had an angry look on his face.

Jessie and James stood frozen, gaping at him. "Uhh..."

James dropped Pikachu and started to run. Grabbing him by the collar, Jessie scowled. "You wanna play dirty? Fine--try this! Ekans, go!" She threw a Pokeball at Tenchi. It opened, and a large snake came out of it and landed on the ground.

James threw one of his Pokeballs. "Koffing, go!" A large purplish-gray ball with gas leaking out of it floated in the air next to the snake.

Tenchi glared at them.

"Ekans!"

"Koffing!"

When Ekans and Koffing saw Tenchi, they got scared and jumped back into their Pokeballs.

Tenchi scoffed. "Paltry Pokemon..."

Stunned, Jessie and James started running. "Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off again!"

Ash picked up Pikachu and hugged him. "Pikachu! You’re safe!"

"Pika!" Excited, Pikachu sent off waves of electricity. Ash, now a Post-Toasty, fell over.

"Pikachu!" Ash twitched a couple times.

"Chu..." Pikachu sighed.

Cloud, Tifa, and Ryoko came over. Ryoko smiled at Tenchi and took his arm. "Good going!"

Cloud just smiled at Tifa with huge eyes.

Tenchi blushed and laughed nervously.

Cloud walked off with Tifa towards a door. Ryoko grinned at Tenchi. "I think he’s in love, don’t you?"

Tenchi cringed as Ryoko took his arm. By then, he had turned back to normal, and he was dragged off towards the crowd surrounding Cloud, congratulating him on his victory at the races.

Cloud smiled at Tifa again. He told Tifa something, and she smiled at him and hugged him closer.

"Hey, Misty." Ash walked over to her, holding Pikachu.

"What?" Misty glared at him, still upset over the bike. She was also disgusted with Ash, since Caterpie had just rubbed against her leg in its attempt to get her to like it. "Now what do you want? Another bike?!"

Ash scowled. "No! I just wanted to say I was sorry, but never mind!" He walked off angrily.

Misty sighed. "Ash..."

Washu walked up to Misty, smiling. "Gee, this is fun." She cocked an eyebrow mischiviously. "Hey, you have a thing for Ash, don’t you?"

Misty scowled. "Of course not!" She walked off in a huff. Washu grinned.

"Hee hee... playing matchmaker is just so much fun!"

* * *

As the group walked through the forest, some of the people were trying to figure out who liked who so they could try to get who they wanted. Jon tried to sort it out in his head when the group came to a large clearing.

"Hmm," Jon thought, "let’s see if I got this right. Cloud is attracted to Ryoko but he really likes Tifa. Ryoko likes Tenchi, but she could really like Cloud, so maybe she is using Tenchi to get Cloud. Ryoko scares Tenchi, though, so Tenchi doesn’t like her at all. Misty could like Ash a little. Ash is always hanging around Lina, trying to get noticed. Brock definitely has something for Lina, although he is always staring at all the girls like a sick puppy. Ranma likes Akane, but is too afraid to show it. Ryoga also likes Akane, but won’t--or can’t--show it either. Akane likes Ranma, and Lina likes Brock. Serena likes Darien, but since he’s not here, she could have a thing for Ranma, because of him being so much like Darien, since both are macho morons. Ryoko seems to be popular with Brock and Ash. Rei doesn’t seem to notice anyone. Pikachu and Ryo-Ohki are developing a great friendship. Tifa really likes Cloud. Washu just likes to mess with people’s heads. Me? I just wanna go home!!" Jon sighed.

"Hey, Cloud." Tifa ran up next to Cloud and took his arm. He seemed preoccupied and didn’t see her come up next to him. "Cloud? Cloud??"

"Huh?" Cloud turned around. "Oh, hi, Tifa. What’s up?"

"You have to go on a date with me, remember?" She grinned. "So? Where do you wanna go?"

Cloud shrugged. "Whatever. Hey, I’ll be right back." He ran off towards Washu.

Tifa stood there, stunned. "Okay... I’ll be waiting..." She sighed.

Cloud ran up to Washu. "Hey, I have to ask you something. Does Ryoko like anyone? Do you think she could go for Tenchi? He needs a girlfriend."

Washu stared at him. "What about Serena?"

"Well..."

Washu sighed. "Jeez... this is getting weird...Cloud, go back to Tifa. Stay with her, okay?"

Cloud sighed. "Sure, fine." He jogged back to where Tifa was standing.

Washu walked over to Misty and grabbed her arm, dragging her over to Ash. Annoyed, they glared at her. "What do you want?" they asked in unison.

"Well, I wanted to see if you guys would tell me something."

"What?" they asked in unison.

Washu bit her lip, trying her best to act innocent. "Do you guys... you know, like each other? Be honest," she added.

Misty stared at Ash. "Well, I dunno..."

Ash just stood, frozen, looking at Misty. Frowning, he asked. "Uhh, what exactly do you mean by ‘like’?"

Washu sighed. "Do you like Misty or not?"

"Well, if I have to..."

"WHAT!?!?!?!" Misty loomed over Ash. "Can’t you even like me a little?"

Ash played with the hem of his vest. "To be honest, I kinda like Lina," he mumbled.

"WHAT!?!?!?!" Washu screamed. Everyone looked over at the three of them. Washu calmed down and turned towards Misty as everyone else shrugged and looked away. Misty looked around nervously.

"Umm, do we have to talk about this?"

"YES!!!!... I mean, yes." Washu wrung her hands together, trying to control her temper.

"Well, I’m outta here." Ash walked off towards Brock, but stopped when he saw Brock and Lina talking. Lina was laughing and Brock had a huge smile on his face. Glancing around, Ash spotted Ryoko and walked over to her with a huge smile on his face.

Washu smiled, looking at Brock and Lina. "Maybe I should hook them up... hey! Where are you two going?" she yelled. Ash and Misty were walking towards the others, ignoring Washu. "Hey! Get back here!!"

* * *

Rei sighed. "Watching that pink-haired girl makes me mad. She has no right to fix people up!" she exclaimed.

Ryoga looked over at her.

Rei kept talking. "I mean, if she has the nerve to fix someone up someone else, how does she know that they don’t like someone else?"

Ryoga smiled. "You know," he said, "you’re exactly right. Washu has no right to do that!"

Rei looked at him. "You think so? Really??"

Ryoga nodded. "Really. Hey, let’s go over here. I wanna ask you some questions about that spear thing..." He kept talking as he took Rei’s elbow and led her away from the huge crowd of people.

* * *

Serena looked over at Ranma. She started to walk over to him, but stopped when she saw Akane walking in his direction. Figuring Akane liked Ranma too, she started walking away.

"RANMA!!!" Ranma flinched.

"Aw, jeez, Akane, now what?" He turned around and immediately looked into the flashing eyes of Akane.

"You know what you did!"

"Huh? I really don’t know what you are talking about this time, Akane!"

Curious to see what was going on, Serena turned around and watched them. Akane was screaming at Ranma, but he just stood there and ignored her. Serena, sensing something behind her, whirled around. She started screaming so loudly that everyone else looked at her. She even interrupted Ranma and Akane’s fight.

"What is it?!" Tifa exclaimed, running over to Serena. "What is that???"

A cute creature that looked like a small dragon that was bright orange with a fire tail was standing in front of Serena, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Char?" It smiled.

"Oh, cool!" Ash exclaimed. "A Charmander! I’m gonna catch it!" He took a Pokeball off his belt loop and started to throw it. "Go, Poke--"

"HEY!" Ryoko grabbed his arm in mid-air. "This is a wild Poke-mon-thingie. Let it go!"

"Char?" It started to wander back into the woods. "Charmander char char charmander char charmander..." it chanted, waving it’s tail.

"Aww, man..." Ash’s face drooped. "You idiot!!" He started pummeling on Ryoko’s stomach. Ryoko stuck a hand out and put it on Ash’s head, shoving him away and preventing him from moving closer and hitting her more.

"Pathetic..." Ryoko sighed. "Give it up, Ash."

"But I wanted that Charmander!!!" Ash’s eyes filled with tears. "I really did!!"

Misty whacked him on the head. "Quit it, Ash. You’ll get one some other time!"

Ash walked away, sniffling. "But... but... but..."

* * *

Ranma sighed. "Well, better get out of here," he mumbled, trying to sneak away from Akane.

Akane turned around and grabbed his ponytail. "You’re not going anywhere, Ranma!" She dragged him off towards the woods, Ranma whimpering from the pain and from the fear of getting really hurt.

Ryoga grinned happily. "Ranma will never learn..." He took Rei’s arm and led her towards Jon. "Hey, man."

Jon turned around. "Huh? Oh, hi. What’s up?"

Rei frowned. "Are we ever gonna get home?"

Ryoga nodded. "I agree. I want to go home."

"Me too." Jon frowned. "But I don’t know how we’re gonna get back home. I really don’t know." He looked around at the huge crowd of people. A few were fighting, and a lot of them seemed to be yelling at Washu for some reason. "I wanna go home too, you know." He sighed. "Talk to Washu. She got everyone into this mess." He pointed to the crowd of people gathered around Washu, yelling at her. "My guess is that she did something to get a lot of people mad, don’t you think?"

Jon laughed.

* * *

Sitting down on a tree stump, Ranma pulled Akane onto his lap. He took Akane’s face into his hands, looking at her with soft eyes.

"You know...you’re really pretty. Have I ever told you that?" He smiled at her.

She took Ranma’s hands into hers. "No...but you can tell me now..."

"Well, you are, and...I love you."

"I love you too."

Ranma leaned forward and gently brushed his lips on Akane’s. Akane pulled back and smiled after a second.

"You know, you’re a really good kisser, that being our first time and all." She leaned forward and kissed him again.

And the rest is history. Their parents would be proud. :)

* * *

"We better make it look like we still hate each other..." Ranma commented.

Akane smiled, brushing the hair out of her face. "Here, your ponytail is messed up... there you go," she said, fixing it. "And just leave it to me..."

*punch*

*thwack*

"Oof!"

* * *

Walking over, Ranma put a hand on Ryoga’s shoulder. He had a black eye and his arm looked a little red. Strangely, he had red lipstick smeared from his mouth to his ear. "Well, P-Chan, guess you’re just gettin’ all the girls, huh?" He winked at Rei.

"RANMAAAAAA!" In one swift motion, Ryoga grabbed Ranma’s arm, swung him up into the air, and smashed him down face first into the pine needles scattered on the ground.

"Well, maybe not all the girls," Rei said, smiling knowingly.

Smiling at Rei, Ryoga sheepishly took her arm while apologizing and led her away from where Ranma twitched. Misty walked over and stared at Ranma.

Stepping over him, Misty walked over to Jon, who was standing off to the side. "Hey, you know about everyone here, don’t you?"

Jon smiled. "Uhh... sorta. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to know if Ash liked me or not."

Jon frowned. "I don’t know if I should be telling you stuff like that..."

Misty glared at him.

Jon gave her a half-smile. "Umm, I gotta... go..." He hurried off.

Misty stamped her foot. "Darn it!!"

* * *

"So, why are you here?" Brock stared intently at Lina. "I wanna know everything about you..."

Lina smiled. "Uh...heehee...well, I guess that girl brought me here," she said, pointing to Washu.

"That’s nice..."

"So, what do you do?"

"Huh?" Brock focused. Lina was looking at him strangely because of the weird look on his face.

"I said, what do you do? Obviously it’s something to do with Pokemon."

"I breed Pokemon. I’ll take care of your Pokemon anytime..." He smiled stupidly.

Lina slapped him across the cheek. "Hey, snap out of it, you freak!"

"Sorry!" Brock stood up straight. "Sorry, I’ll leave now..." He started to slink away.

"Wait!" Lina grabbed his arm. "You don’t gotta leave--stay with me for a bit. Or is that to much to ask of your brain?" She smiled.

"I....uhhhh..... I guess not..."

"Hey, do you always lose your basic talking functions like this when you’re around a pretty girl?" She grinned at him.

"Not always. See, I’m...I’m...I-I-I’m ta-ta-talking all-ll r-r-r-right..." Brock stuttered. "Darn drool," he muttered to himself, wiping his chin.

Lina smiled. "Well, that’s okay, but don’t you dare call me ‘shrimp’ or ‘flat’ or anything, all right?" she warned.

Brock grinned. "Okay..."

Lina pulled Brock in the direction of the abandoned cabin.

* * *

"Hey, Ryoko!"

"Yeah?" Ryoko turned around and saw Ash running towards her.

"Well, I was wondering... could you ever like a kid, say, ten years old or so?"

Ryoko smiled. "Depends. Why?"

Ash shuffled his feet. "Umm... I was wondering... I mean, nevermind." He hurried away with Misty following behind him.

Ryoko frowned. "Hmm... I wonder what his problem is..."

* * *

Brock stumbled out of the cabin with a stupid look on his face. Lina poked her head out of the cabin window and giggled.

Brock collapsed at Ash’s feet.

"What’s up, Brock?" Ash asked.

"Lina has pretty Pokemon!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Tifa had led Cloud to a gurgling stream. They had removed their shoes and were dangling their feet over the cold water. Cloud lay on his back, looking at the light filtering through the trees.

"How do you think the others are doing?" Tifa asked, looking down at Cloud.

"I don’t know..."

"I hope they’re okay..."

*crack*

"What was that?!" Cloud sat up.

Tifa pulled her feet out of the water. "I think it came from over there."

*thwack*

*splash*

Suddenly, a large sapling was sliced down the middle and landed in the stream. A large, forboding shadow appeared on the other bank.

"Sephiroth..." Cloud glared at the figure, rising to his feet.

Tifa, battle-ready, leaned over to Cloud and whispered, "This isn’t the clone--it’s the real one, the one you pushed into the reactor!"

Tifa was right. Sephiroth was dressed in the exact same outfit he was wearing the night he went insane. He even had small pieces of broken Materia clinging to his long, gray hair.

Cloud scowled. "I already killed you! What are you doing here?!"

Sephiroth grew melancholy. "I’m here to pay my respects."

Cloud looked puzzled. "To whom?"

"My father...I was told he died some years ago, today." Sephiroth appeared to be quite sane.

"You mean--Hojo?" Tifa stammered. "But we killed him--a long time ago..."

"Hojo? That vile thing?" Sephiroth grew cross. "You think that he is my father?! I beg to differ!"

Tifa looked confused. "But--you said--"

Cloud put a hand on her shoulder. "The clone’s father is Hojo."

Sephiroth grew madder. "Clone--is that the thing you were fighting...?" It was more a comment than a question.

"Bizzaro-Sephiroth--" Cloud trailed off.

There was an evil gleam in Sephiroth’s eye. "I must help you defeat him. You are quite brave to take him on yourself."

"I have become considerably stronger since our paths last crossed," Cloud defended himself.

"Still, I would like to see this monstrosity fall!" Sephiroth raised his long, thin sword and it glinted in the sunlight.

"I’m sorry, Sephiroth." Tifa looked brave. "This is one quest we make take on ourselves."

"Fine then," Sephiroth said. "May our paths cross again sometime..." With that, he turned and walked into the woods.

"Wow." Tifa stared in the direction Sephiroth left.

Cloud winked. "Now where were we?..."

Tifa smiled. As Cloud was wrapping his arms around Tifa, preparing to kiss her, something appeared behind Cloud. Exasperated, Tifa pulled back.

"Now what the heck is that?!"

A large bubble was forming behind Cloud, and he turned to look at it. As it glinted and shook, Cloud caught a glimpse of three people fighting a large machine.

"Let’s check it out!" Cloud grabbed Tifa’s hand and pulled her into it.

"Clooooooooouuuuuuuuudddddddddd!!!!!!!!!--" Tifa wailed, right before she was sucked into the bubble, hanging onto Cloud.

* * *

"What the heck?..." Cloud looked around as the bubble spit them out onto the ground. "Where...are we?..."

Looking around, he saw a building which resembled the first reactor he had blown up in Midgar. Noticing something down the path they were standing on, he saw three people fighting a huge machine, two of which looked oddly familiar...

"C’mon!" Cloud pulled out his sword and charged towards the machine. Leaping up into the air, he proceeded to slice it onto many pieces using Omnislash. He landed on the ground in front of a man that resembled himself, only with brown hair that wasn’t as pointy as Cloud’s.

Tifa was standing in front of a girl who looked like Tifa, only she was wearing a really cool dress and she had shorter hair. The other man looked like a surfer, wearing baggy shorts and a loud t-shirt.

"Who are you?" The man that looked like Cloud swung his sword over his shoulder and stared at Cloud.

"I’m Cloud. You?"

"I’m Squall."

"Hey, I’m Tifa," Tifa greeted the girl, extending her hand. "What’s your name?"

"Rinoa. This is Zell," she said, pointing to the other man, who looked really bored.

"Who’s that?" Cloud asked, pointing behind Squall. "He looks like Sephiroth..." he mumbled to himself.

"That’s Seifer," Squall replied as Seifer came up to them.

"Hey, look who I caught," Seifer said, leading two men behind him. "Soldier Biggs and Commander Wedge. Say hi, boys."

The two men looked at Cloud as though they recognized him from somewhere, and one of the men mumbled something.

"What was that?" Seifer asked sharply.

"Nothing..." one of the men replied.

"Umm, could someone tell me what is going on?" Cloud looked baffled.

Sighing, Squall stepped in front of him. "We are members of SeeD, a secret group. We are trying to rid the world of a certain evil. Really, that’s all I can tell you. If I told you any more, I’d have to kill you." He looked pleased at his little joke.

Cloud laughed. "Funny... Tifa and I are part of a group called Avalanche and we are trying to rid the world of Midgar, which is a certain kind of evil. Also, our main enemy looks amazingly like that guy," Cloud said, pointing to Seifer. "Now, isn’t that a coincidence?" He smiled and took a pop out of his bag, which Tifa was carrying.

Zell frowned at Cloud, who was chugging pop. "Hey, Squall, can I use Meteo Barret on him?"

Cloud almost choked in mid-chug. "Barret?!?!??" He started laughing so hard that he spit pop on the ground and Rinoa walked over to him, annoyed.

"Got a problem?"

"It’s--it’s--it’s jus--just th--that..." Cloud was laughing too hard to speak.

Tifa stepped forward. "Look, girlie, I don’t care who you are, you better not mess with my Cloud!"

Rinoa scoffed. "Your Cloud? Give me a break. I could make him mine in a heartbeat!" She tossed her hair over her shoulders.

Tifa smiled. "Oh yeah?" She walked over to Cloud and grabbed him up on her arms, kissing him deeply and passionately.

Rinoa turned away, madder than ever.

Breaking the kiss, Tifa walked over to Rinoa. Cloud fell to the ground, smiling cheesily.

"See? He’s mine."

"Really?" Rinoa swung at Tifa, connecting with a hard blow to the cheek.

*slap*

Tifa stepped back, stunned at the memories of Scarlet. "Ohh ho ho...try this!" She did a triple move on Rinoa, first slapping her on the cheek, pummeling her chest second, and then kicking her legs out from under her.

"CAT FIGHT!!!" All the guys gathered around Tifa and Rinoa.

* * *

"I wonder where Cloud and Tifa are..." Akane sounded worried.

Ranma and Akane were laying down on a patch of leaves, staring up at the stars. Night had fallen in Ash’s world where everyone else was, and Akane and Ranma were pointing out certain stars.

"Remember the last time we did this?" Akane was laying next to Ranma with her arm draped over his chest. "It was last Christmas, and I had given you that scarf I had knit for you. I still remember how you hated it. But remember when you put it on, and Kasumi called us out to the patio, and the sky was filled with shooting stars? That was so pretty..."

Ranma rolled over and kissed Akane on the top of her head. "I remember..." He reached down into his pocket and pulled something out. "Look, Akane."

"The scarf! You still have it!"

"I carry it with me all the time."

"Oh, Ranma..." Akane’s eyes filled with tears and she snuggled up to him and kissed him soundly. Hearing something rustle in the bushed behind her, she swung around.

"What was that?"

Ranma stood up and moved Akane behind him. Walking over to the bushes, he saw a pair of eyes flash with anger.

"What the?..."

Ryoga sprung out of the bushes, his eyes shining with hatred. "Ranma! So you couldn’t wait until we got home to admit your feelings for Akane!"

Ranma backed away. "Hey, man...wait a second..."

"Why should I?" Ryoga moved toward Ranma slowly, clenching and unclenching his fists. "You know how I feel about Akane, yet you kissed her anyway!"

Akane’s face drained. "Ryoga, what are you talking about?..."

"Huh?" Ryoga turned around. "Akane...I..."

"Ryoga?" Rei came walking out of the bushes. "There you are! Let’s take a walk in the woods." She grabbed Ryoga’s arm and led him away.

Ranma pulled Akane close again. "Where were we?" he murmured into Akane’s ear.

Smiling, Akane pushed away. "I’ll get back to that a little later, okay? I have to talk to...someone first. Meet you here a little while?"

"Sure..."

"Bye!" Akane ran off in the direction Rei had taken Ryoga.

Ranma sighed. "I love her, but she sure is stubborn sometimes..." He sat down at the edge of the river and skipped a couple stones.

* * *

"What’s wrong, Ryoga?" Rei rubbed his back while Ryoga looked everywhere but at Rei.

"Nothing...hey, can I tell you a secret?"

"Of course, Ryoga. What is it?" Rei looked into his eyes.

"Well...you know when Ranma gets wet, he changes into a girl?"

"Yeah...weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but yeah, I know. Why?"

"Well..." Ryoga sighed. "When I get wet, I change into a little black pig, and my nickname is P-Chan, thanks to Akane." Ryoga blushed.

"Really?" Rei smiled. "That’s not so bad."

"Really? You think so?" Ryoga smiled gratefully at Rei. She smiled back.

"You know, Rei, I...I really like you."

"Me too."

As they smiled at each other in the moonlight, Ryoga leaned forward and hugged Rei tightly.

Akane was startled. "P-Chan? Oh, my gosh..." She hurried off towards where Ranma was waiting.

Ryoga hugged Rei again, and they sat in the moonlight leaning against each other.

* * *

"Akane? Is something wrong?" Ranma stood up when he saw Akane running towards him, crying.

"I let Ryoga sleep with me every night! How wrong can you get?" she wailed, leaning against Ranma.

As he stroked her head, she kept talking. "I mean, I never would have found out if I hadn’t overheard him telling Rei!"

Ranma pulled back and faced Akane. "He told Rei? That must mean..." He shook his head, trying to clear it of the realization that Ryoga must really like Rei. "It’s gonna be okay, Akane..." He picked her up and sat her on his lap, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down.

Eventually Akane cried herself to sleep and Ranma, furious because Ryoga told Rei and not Akane, went off in search of Ryoga.

* * *

"Hey, Ash! Wait up!" Misty ran to catch up with Ash. "Where are you going?"

"Towards the woods, away from you." He glared at her.

"But..." She looked at the campfire that someone had started in the small clearing, next to the Eva and the spear. "Let’s go sit by the campfire and talk."

"Fine..." Sighing, Ash walked with Misty and sat down on a log. Ryo-Ohki was laying on Pikachu’s head and they were both snoring.

"Meow..."

"Pi..."

"What do you want?" Ash sounded mad.

"Why are you so mad at me?" Misty’s eyes filled with tears. "Why do you hate me so much? I just wanna be friends and get along!"

Ash leaned forward. "Misty... I get mad at you a lot because all you ever do is bug me about your bike, or how lousy I am at catching Pokemon, or stuff like that!"

"But... well..."

"Why do you say that stuff to me, anyway?"

"I... *sniff* I...just wanted my bike back!"

"WHAT?!" Ash jumped up. "Can’t you stop bugging me about that stupid bike for one night? Sheesh! You’re obsessed!" He stalked away, leaving Misty by the fire.

Washu looked at the two of them sitting by the fire. "Why can’t we all just get along?" she mumbled, grinning to herself.

* * *

Tenchi leaned over and whispered at Ryoko. "You know, I’m really glad I got stuck here with you. I mean, all these other people kinda scare me."

Smiling, she moved over closer to him on the pine needle bed she had made. "Me too... you know, I’m glad you finally realized you like me and not that brat, Ayeka!"

"Ayeka is not a brat!" Tenchi exclaimed. "She is a princess, and I happen to be related to her!"

Ryoko stood up in a huff. "That’s right! Act all high and mighty around me now, why don’t you! When we finally get home, I don’t care if you want me then--you ain’t getting me! So there!" Ryoko flew away towards the camp that Lina had made for everyone.

"So there!" Tenchi yelled in the direction that Ryoko had flown. As his voice echoed around him, he sighed. "Shoot..." He started walking towards the camp.

* * *

Jon walked around in the forest, shuffling his feet. "This sucks," he mumbled. "Am I ever gonna get home? I’m already failing half my classes, and I don’t need a detention for skipping school on top of it!"

As he walked along, he noticed someone sleeping in a small clearing. moving closer, he saw that it was Akane.

"Akane? I wonder what she’s doing here," Jon whispered to himself. He walked over and sat on a tree stump, watching Akane sleep.

* * *

"Ryoga..."

"Huh?!" Ryoga whirled around. He had been in the middle of a hug with Rei when he had heard Ranma’s voice behind him. "What do you want, Ranma?"

"I wanna know why you told Rei about your problems and not Akane!"

Ryoga looked down at his hands. "If Akane ever found out about me being P-Chan, she would be devastated! She would never speak to me again! She’d hate me...and I don’t want that..."

"Well, buddy, guess what--Akane knows."

"WHAT?!?" Ryoga sprang up, knocking Rei over. "How did she find out? Did you tell her, Ranma?" Ryoga moved towards Ranma, one hand curled into a fist. "I’ll kill you!"

"Whoa, Ryoga, wait--she heard it from you!"

"What?...I never...told her..." Ryoga dropped his fist. As it dawned on him, his eyes grew wide. "She must have..."

"Overheard you telling Rei. What a way to find out that she’s been sleeping with you all this time, huh?"

Rei stood up. "Sleeping with her? What do you mean, Ranma?"

Ranma sighed. "Akane thinks--thought--that P-Chan and Ryoga were two different people. She just found out otherwise."

Ryoga stared at Ranma. "Where is she? I gotta talk to her!"

"She’s in the woods, sleeping. Let me show you, you’ll only get lost." Ranma took Ryoga’s arm and started of into the forest.

"But..." Rei stood, frozen, helplessly watching as Ryoga left. "What just happened here?..." She heard footsteps approaching and whirled around. Behind her stood a tall girl holding a large spatula. She was staring off into the woods as though she had seen a ghost.

"Hey, girl, was that Ran-chan that just walked into the woods?"

"Uhh...yeah, sure," Rei replied.

"Ranma honey!" The girl started off into the woods.

"Great. Just when I thought I knew what was heck was going on, another weirdo shows up..."

* * *

As Ranma led Ryoga through the woods, they passed a small clearing. Stopping for a moment, they watched as a girl in red leather and black shades fired maniacally at a bat demon flying in the air. A girl with three eyes was sitting on a tree branch, laughing hysterically while guiding the bat with her finger.

Shaking their heads, Ranma and Ryoga continued walking until they reached Akane. Stopping suddenly, Ranma stared in front of him as Ryoga plowed into Ranma.

"What--"

"Shh!" Ranma silenced Ryoga and pointed ahead of him to the clearing where he had left Akane. "Watch..."

* * *

"Akane? Wake up, Akane. You okay?" Jon leaned forward and shook Akane’s shoulder. Getting the feeling he was being watched, he leaned back.

Akane stirred and sat up, blinking. Seeing Jon, she smiled, thinking he was Ranma.

"Hi...how long was I asleep?"

Jon cleared his throat and glanced around nervously. "Umm...I’m not Ran--"

"Oh, never mind. Come here..." Akane leaned forward and kissed Jon.

Ranma jumped out into the clearing. "Okay, Jon, that’s enough! First you bring us all here to this whacked-out world, then you kiss my Akane? How could you?" He leaned into a battle stance.

Ryoga ran forward towards Akane. "Akane, listen--I was gonna tell you about P-Chan, but I never got the chance to--"

"HOLD IT!!!" Akane stood up. "What the heck is going on?"

Jon tried to sneak out into the surrounding woods, but Ranma saw him before he could get away. Ranma swung at Jon, but Jon ducked just in time and ran away, freaked.

Ranma came over, shoving Ryoga aside. Leaning down, Ranma picked up Akane. "Akane, I love you." With that, he leaned down and kissed Akane firmly on the lips.

Ranma put Akane down. "Well? Does that convince you that I love you?"

"Oh yeah..."

Ranma smiled. "Great." He looked over at Ryoga, who was standing and looking very bewildered.

"Um, Ryoga? You mind?" With that, Ranma used an uppercut on Ryoga and sent him flying. Smiling, he brushed his hands off on his pants.

Ranma bent over and kissed Akane again, cupping her face in his hands. Akane locked her arms around his neck and hugged him, kissing him back.

"Ranma honey?"

"Oh...crap." Ranma glanced behind his shoulder and saw a shadow of a large spatula reflecting onto the ground in front of them.

"Ukyo...heh heh heh...what a nice...surprise." He smiled sheepishly.

*smack*

"Good-bye, Ranma." Ukyo stalked off.

"Ukyo, wait!" Letting go of Akane, Ranma chased after her down the path. Finally catching up with her, he slowed down to catch his breath.

"Why should I?" Ukyo swung her spatula at Ranma, whacking him upside the head. He went flying into a tree, face-first.

"I...I...uhhhhhhhhh..."

Ukyo ran over to him, acting sympathetic. "Oh, Ranma honey, did I hurt you?"

"Uhhh...just a little..."

"Good. Where am I, anyway?" Ukyo looked around. Spotting a small red puppy on the side of the path, she walked over to it. She bent down at patted it on the head.

"Aww, how cute!"

The puppy looked at Ukyo for a moment. It yawned and shot a burst of flames out of its mouth, crisping Ukyo nicely.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!!"

Ukyo was raising her spatula, ready to smack the puppy into into the next week, when Brock came running up to the puppy and snatched it up.

"Vulpix! Are you okay?" He smiled at the animal. "What are you doing, you idiot?" he snapped at Ukyo. "This is a Pokemon! Leave it alone!"

"You tell her, hon!" Lina coached from the tree branch she was sitting on, watching.

Brock smiled up at her. Remembering what he was originally there for, he glared at Ukyo and charged at her. As soon as he got close enough, Ukyo raised her spatula and smacked him as hard as she could, knocking Brock back a good hundred feet and smashing him into a tree.

"Dang..." Lina let out a long whistle.

Twirling her spatula one final time, Ukyo smiled smugly and started to walk off down the path. Ranma stood still, staring at Brock, who was twitching.

* * *

Serena wandered around in the forest. She had been lost for hours, and apparently no one cared enough about her to search for her. Tripping, she fell face first into a pile of pinecones. Standing up, her eyes welled up with tears.

"I wanna go hoooooome!!!!" Serena wailed.

* * *

*slap*

*smack*

*slap*

"Take that, witch!" *slap*

"Eat this!" *thwack*

Cloud stood still, watching Tifa and Rinoa battle it out. Laughing, he almost felt sorry for Rinoa--Tifa had the upper hand.

"You know," Tifa smiled, "I’m a professional at slapping matches." Her memory drifted back to the battle with Scarlet atop the Sister Ray.

"Oh, yeah?" Rinoa scowled. "Well, I guess that’s where I got it from! But I had a decade to develop it!"

Tifa stopped short. "What?!--Huh--I--I-I-I I---"

"Rinoa Strife! SeeD trainee!" She pointed proudly at her chest with her thumb.

"Oh my God!---*thud*" Tifa fell over.

Cloud looked overwhelmed.

Squall nodded. "That makes sense."

"What does?" Cloud was bewildered.

"My training came in handy." Rinoa looked triumphant. "I was trained not to shake as easily as you old generations."

Cloud scowled. "What do you mean, old, kid?!"

Squall smiled. "Let me show you..."

As so the battle of the generations began. Cloud knew that Squall wasn’t nearly as strong but he didn’t show any sign of pain. The battle raged on for hours, both men curing themselves when necessary. Cloud used an ether and Squall started drawing. When Cloud felt his supply of MP being sucked, he cast Despell, blocking Squall’s reserves. Using sense, Cloud found that Squall was actually incredibly weak, not much stronger than Cloud had been when he had joined AVALANCHE. But why wasn’t Squall dying? Both of them were taking damage and feeling pain, but neither of their life-forces dwindled.

Finally, Zell spoke up. "Hello! This is boring! You guys did know that because you’re from different times, you can’t kill each other..."

Both stopped and looked over at Zell.

"What?!"

"Oh, of course..."

Squall winced. "Wow! You’re really strong! I would’ve been killed a hundred times if we could die! What’s your deathblow?"

Cloud beamed. "9999."

Squall’s eyes went wide. "Whoa! Mine’s 60..."

"I wouldn’t worry." Cloud patted Squall’s shoulder. "So was mine when I joined AVALANCHE."

Tifa had recovered by then and was mentally comparing herself to Rinoa. "Cloud, can we go back now?"

Cloud frowned. "I don’t know if we can..."

Just then, the bubble came back and, without warning, sucked Cloud and Tifa back into the woods.

"Wow..." Tifa breathed.

"I guess we don’t have to worry about anything coming between us."

* * *

Tracing his footsteps back to the camp, Tenchi thought about Ayeka. "I wish she was here...I miss her...stupid Ryoko has to go and ruin things...oh well, I--" He stopped short when he heard muttering coming from the bushes on his right.

"Dumb branches--ow!--I’m too pretty to be stuck in the woods...OW!! Damn tree stump...that’s gonna leave a mark...Dang...AAA! Shoot! Why me?" Tenchi heard a long string of cuss words following after that.

Peering through the branches and leaves, he saw a tall, incredibly well-built girl with long, long hair and a really long legs. She was wearing an outfit that looked sort of like a kimono, only low-cut and shorter. She was wearing high heels and was floating over the really large branches.

Tenchi waved to her. "Hey! What are you doing?"

The girl looked annoyed. "Ruining my perfect complexion and ripping my outfit, that’s what!" She floated over to him. "What’s your problem? Girlfriend troubles? I can help you with that..." She gave Tenchi a sly wink.

Tenchi blushed. "Um, who are you? I’m Tenchi Masaki." He extended a hand.

Looking at his hand, the girl smiled and took it. "I’m Urd. Nice to meet you. Wanna get to know each other even more?" Grinning, she floated over next to Tenchi and squeezed his shoulders. "I wouldn’t mind..."

Tenchi took her hands and guided Urd away. "Uh, that’s okay...well, I better be heading back to camp!" He broke into a run, leaving Urd behind.

Reaching the camp, Tenchi stopped and took a couple deep breaths. "I...lost her...finally..." He sighed and leaned against a tree, smiling from relief.

"Hi!" Urd floated in front of Tenchi and pinned him to the tree. "Miss me?"

Tenchi let out a strangled gasp. "Aaaaaaa!"

* * *

A girl who was wearing a strange outfit and huge, clunky shoes wandered into the camp. She let out a squeal and fairly flew over to Ranma, who was looking for Akane.

"Otaru!"

"HUH?" Ranma pried the girl off of him. "Who the heck are you? My name is Ranma."

"I’m Lime. Where is Otaru?" She looked around. "Where are you, Otaru?" Lime flew off and Ranma sighed.

"Okay...that was mildly disturbing...wonder what that was all about? And who would ever have the name Lime?"

* * *

Washu sat on the ground, staring at Ash’s map. Moving her finger along the routes marked in red, she frowned. "Let’s see...if we go this way, we’ll end up at...Saf--Saffron City," she stumbled, trying to pronounce the town names, "but if we go this way, we’ll get to...Fu--Fusch--Fuschia City, which has a better electronics store," Washu read from a tourist pamphlet. "Shoot...which way do we go, which way do we go?..."

"Boo!" Akane had come up behind Washu, scaring the crap out of her. "AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Washu turned around and saw Akane snickering. "Akane! Don’t do that!" Washu gasped for air. "What was that for?!"

Akane smiled. "I was bored. Hey, whatcha doin’?" She peered around Washu, who was working on building something.

Frowning, Washu threw a spare blanket over the parts in front of her. "Nothing. Now go away! Go bug Tenchi or something! Go on, shoo!" She waved her hand at Akane, who inched away.

"Okay...whatever." She turned and stalked off.

Washu sighed and took the blanket off. "Jeez... okay, now where does this go?..." She picked up a machine piece and tried to fit it with another. "C’mon, fit!!" She jammed the two pieces together, frustrated. "C’mon!!"

Serena wandered up to her, peeking over Washu’s shoulder. "What’s that? It looks like a giant TV or something..."

Totally irritated by now, Washu spun around and glared at Serena. "Yeah, it is! You got a problem with that! I wanna go home!" She turned around and started trying to fit pieces together again, muttering to herself.

* * *

A while later, Washu came over to the clearing where everyone was standing, glaring at each other and arguing. Washu had called everyone to the campsite about an hour earlier, and since everyone was mad at her, Washu was surprised anyone bothered to show.

Washu walked to the middle of the clearing and cleared her voice. Everyone shut up and listened.

"Okay, everyone. I have managed to fix the Time Vacuum." She smiled. "Anyway, now everyone can go home. I have figured out how to set the vacuum so you can type in where you came from and be warped there in a moment. Now, who wants to go first?"

No one raised a hand. They were all to shocked at the prospect of finally getting to go home. Finally, Serena raised her hand a little.

"I...wanna go home!!!"

Washu grinned. "Great! You can be my test run!"

Rei’s face drooped and a large tear appeared on her head from exasperation. "Test run? Umm, haven’t you tried this before?"

Washu smiled. "Uhh...not really..."

"WHAT!?!?!?!?" Everyone in the clearing loomed over her.

"Umm...I’m not saying it won’t work...he he he...uhh..."

"It won’t work."

"Huh?" Everyone turned at looked up at a figure sitting on a tree branch.

"I said, it won’t work."

Washu broke free of the mob and ran over to the tree. "What are you saying, you jerk?"

The figure jumped out of the tree and landed behind everyone. "Can’t you understand me? I’ve been saying it won’t work! I know it won’t!"

Washu stepped over to the boy that was glaring at them. He was wearing a large, wide robe and had dog-like ears. He was standing with his hands on his hips. A white, pudgy, rabbit-type animal with a red jewel on its forehead with slit eyes was sitting on the boy’s shoulder. As Ryoga leaned forward to look at it, he heard it whispering a word that sounded like pu into the boy’s ear.

"How do you know about my machines? And who are you?" Washu snapped at him.

He smiled. "I’ve tried to build that kind of time machine before, and it didn’t work. Oh, I am Inu-Yashu. I am from the past."

"Then how did you get here?" Ranma questioned. He looked curiously at the animal. "What’s that?" he asked, pointing at it.

"That’s Makona, my pet. Got a problem with him?"

"No..."

"Pu! Pu puu!" Makona cried.

"Anyway," Inu-Yasha continued, "I’ve tried that kind of time warp before and I got lost in space with some group of wackos who didn’t know how to fly a spaceship. Anyway, I finally got rescued by that weird girl who keeps following me around and I found my way here, although I don’t know how." He frowned. "Where am I, anyway?"

Ash stepped forward. "You’re in my world. Hey, do you have any Pokemon?"

Inu-Yasha stared at him. "What the heck is a Pokemon?"

"Never mind..." Ash backed away.

"Okay...hey, wanna try my machine first?" Washu pointed to it, then looked at Inu-Yasha, who was yawning.

"What the heck..." He stepped forward and looked it over. "Weird...how do I work this piece of junk, anyway?"

Washu shoved him inside and closed the door. "You type in where you are from and push the button. Got it?"

"Whatever." After a few moments of fiddling with the buttons, there was a blinding flash of light and Inu-Yasha disappeared.

Washu screamed with joy and jumped up and down. "It worked!!! It actually WORKED!! WOOHOO! I’m gonna be a millionaire, I’m gonna be a millionaire, I’m gonna be a millionaire..." She spun in a circle a couple times, grinning.

"Pu puu!" Makona was sitting on the ground, looking lost.

"Pika?" Pikachu walked over to it and patted its shoulder, or what looked like its shoulder. "Pika pika chu, pi pika chu chu pika?"

"Puu pu pu puu..."

* * *

Brock was wandering along the path, thinking about Suzy. He came to a fork in the road, and his jaw dropped when he saw who was standing there.

A girl with short, black hair was leaning against a sweet-looking dark blue, fancy sports car. She was polishing a gun when Brock approached her, and she looked up with a smile.

"Hey, have you seen this man?" she asked, pulling out a picture and holding it out to Brock, who barely glanced at it.

"Uhh...no." He stared at her with huge eyes. "Ohhohhohhohh...pretty..."

The girl smiled at him. "I’m Rally. Who are you?"

"I’m yours...I mean, I’m Brock!" he exclaimed, standing up straight. "Nice gun...is it yours?"

Rally grinned and kept polishing it, checking to see if it had any dirt on it. "Yup."

"You have a gun? Damn...that’s cool..."

Rally opened her car door and started to get in. "Well, I gotta go. I gotta find this guy and settle some things with him. See ya!" She gave him a peace sign and a wink and slammed the door and gunned the engine, peeling away down the path.

Brock frowned. "Darn...she was cute, too..."

* * *

Jon smiled. "So, we can all go home now?"

"Yup. Who’s next?" Washu opened up the door and waved Ranma, Akane, Ukyo, and Ryoga inside.

One by one, everyone got transported home and soon only Jon and Washu were left, after Jon had run to find Brock, who was wandering down a path in a trance.

"Well, I guess this is it..." Jon smiled at Washu. "You know, I gotta thank you for bringing us all here. I liked getting to know everyone better."

Washu didn’t say anything. Right before Jon walked into the portal, Washu sprang forward and hugged him.

"Huh?" Jon stumbled.

"Thank you so much! No one ever has had that much appreciation for me than that!"

Jon just gave her an awkward smile and stepped into the machine. "See you!" He punched in a couple numbers and vanished.

Washu grinned. "Say, this warp gives me an idea..." She stepped into the machine and disappeared. (ominous music starts)

* Dun dun dun... *

"Hey, where are we?"

"I dunno. I just know I’m hungry!"

*smack* "Shut up, James."

"I wanna catch some more Pokemon!"

*slap punch punt* "SHUT UP, MEOWTH!!!!!!"

* * *

Jon sat up in his bed, shaking his head. "What the heck..."

"Honey? It’s time to get up! You don’t want to be late for school, do you?"

Jon sighed. "After that dream, I wouldn’t mind..." He looked over at the pile of videotapes stacked on the floor. He spotted one that wasn’t wound to the end and frowned.

"Shoot...I thought I watched them all." He popped it into the VCR and pushed play to see what it was. The title Ani-Mayhem appeared on the screen and Jon stared curiously at the screen.

"Must not have been paying attention when I rented this one..." As he watched the title fade away, Lime’s face popped up on the screen and she gave him a peace sign, a huge smile and a wink.

Jon shook his head. "Nah...can’t be..." He jumped up off of the bed, ran over to the TV and clicked off the VCR. He sat at his desk for a moment, thinking.

"Or can it?"

The End

(or so we hope)