Out There By Lioconvoy

Chapter Three: 2009

Usagi clapped as her best friend got down from the karaoke stage. The redhead had a beautiful voice and a great talent. As Ranma had come down from the stage many people pleaded that she sing one more song, of course she knew her friend wouldn't. The one song was a gift to her, and that was the only reason the short haired girl went up there in the first place. Finally Ranma rejoined her at the table and sat down. “That was great.”

“Yeah, just about everyone agrees with you. I hope you're happy, now I have even more admirers.” Ranma sighed as she picked up her drink. She really hated her growing fan base. She was a guy. Sure only her direct superiors and her closest friends knew that, but it didn't change the fact she was uncomfortable with all the guys staring at her. “Oh well, one more day, and then I can kiss this life goodbye.”

“Oh come on Ranma, please re-enlist. I could use a top rate mechanic like you.”

“I'm sorry Usagi. Ever since the higher ups found out about my curse, I've barely gotten to spend anytime as myself. I'm tired of this life; the last five years have been hell.” Maybe she was exaggerating a little, but it just didn't seem worth it to stay in the EDF. The military decided that because she attended school as a girl, she could serve as a girl and it really ticked her off. If she ever saw that arrogant Col. Edwards again she would kick his ass.

“Rachel?”

Ranma turned recognizing the voice that spoke. “I'm not Rachel.”

A few drops of sweat escaped Usagi's brow. The blonde girl couldn't help but wonder how Ranma even became a Petty Officer First Class with the way she talked to her superiors. “That happens to be Lt. Commander Lisa Hayes, please show her some respect. We're celebrating my promotion, would you like to join us Commander?”

“Ranma? Is that you?” Lisa looked at the redhead in front of her very surprised at who she was. The Ranma she knew had long hair always tied back in a braid, this girl had her hair short and it covered her left eye. Her hair had a distinctly feminine look to it rather than the somewhat gender neutral pigtail. Not only that but the short haired girl was wearing a long black skirt, and a blouse that was unbuttoned enough to show off some cleavage. It did not seem like something Ranma would ever wear.

“Yes is it.” Ranma turned back to Usagi. Secretly she hoped Lisa would join them, although they had both been on Macross Island together for a while now, this was their first time running into each other. Lisa was one of the reasons she joined the EDF in the first place. When Lisa sat next to her, on the outside she kept her brooding frown, but on the inside she was overjoyed.

“You two know each other?” The blonde looked at her superior curiously. With herself as the only known exception, Ranma didn't make friends with officers. They annoyed her, since in her opinion few had a proper grasp on reality.

“Lisa and I met when I first came to live with my aunt. She knows about my curse too.” Arguably those three months were the best days of her life. After Lisa shut herself off and Ryoga moved in things started going down hill. Although the main reason for joining the EDF was to see green eyed girl again, it also served to get him out of the insanity that her new life had become. Although life number two wasn't as bad as number one, it still wasn't what she wanted. Unfortunately life number three, although relatively calm, was the most disturbing. Well there was one more day left and then she'd start life number four. Maybe she'd go to England, she once visited there on a temporary duty assignment, and the TDY was quite enjoyable.

“Oh so that's what the looks were for, I was wondering why you were eying Ranma so strangely. She lost a bet with an Air Force friend of ours. When Ranma's a girl she has to dress feminine.” Usagi giggled. The redhead Lisa knew probably one wore pants and more modest blouses. Although Ranma often complained about the outfits she wore, the redhead had chosen them herself.

“That explains the clothes, but what about the hair?” To Lisa, it didn't entirely explain the clothes, but Ranma was brooding so maybe she wasn't really comfortable with what she was wearing.

“I got hurt between high school graduation and basic training. My hair covers a scar most people don‘t like to see. I can make it look masculine when I'm a guy.” The oldest child of Nodoka and Genma Saotome frowned. Usagi offered to get rid of it, but as much as she hated the scar, she deserved it. It was a reminder of the life she took.

“Oh.” Lisa decided to change the subject as Ranma's mood seemed to worsen.

Lisa waited outside the EDF Navy base's main gate. At the end of the night she agreed to meet Ranma after he was discharged. To think if Claudia and Roy hadn't ditched her at the club last night she might never had known Ranma was on Macross Island too. It had taken her a while, but over time she learned that shutting herself off from the world was a big mistake and eventually she got back in touch with Rachel, by that time though Ranma had already joined the EDF and she wasn't aware of which EDF branch he served under.

--

“Hey Lisa.” Ranma smiled. Lisa wasn't dressed too differently from what she had been wearing the previous night. The skirt she wore today was longer, but the blouse was just as modest. Lisa had looked pretty good in the short skirt the last night, but he was slightly curious why she was there in the first place. She never seemed the type to go to clubs.

“I see you took the time to change.” She was half expecting to see a female Ranma again, but she didn't mind too much seeing him male. He didn't resemble Karl as much now with his muscular build and his short hair style. He was right he could make it look manly.

“I plan on spending as much time male in this life as possible.” As apposed to the last two where he spent them mostly female.

“This life?”

“Yeah, I refer to the time I spent with my Pop as my first life, the short time I spent with Aunt Kagome as my second life, these last six years were my third life, and now I'm starting my fourth. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do this time around, but I plan on being a guy for most of it.” This transition was very different than the last two, then he was running away, and this time he was just completing his time. Although he didn't enjoy being a girl all the time, he did enjoy his work, but it wasn't what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

“Wouldn't it be better to call them chapters, rather than lives?” As she said this she and Ranma started heading away from the base. She assumed they were heading to his apartment.

“Maybe.” That was an idea, given the life he had lead maybe he should write books. “So are you seeing anyone?”

Lisa eyes opened wide as she stared at Ranma. Rachel mentioned he had a little crush on her, but she never thought he'd be so direct. Especially since this was the first time they had gotten together in over six years.

“Um, I'm not asking you out.” Not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind, he could still remember their French kiss, but he figured he was too much like Karl to ever stand a chance. “I'm just curious why you were at the club last night.”

“Oh, one of my friends wanted me to try and live a little. We were supposed to meet at the club, but her boyfriend sort of kidnapped her. I'm glad I ran into you and Usagi though.” If she had been alone last night, it would not have been fun. “Now I know where Usagi got the name of her squadron.”

“What?”

“Her promotion came with a command. She's in charge of the Wild Stallion Squadron, she chose the name herself.” Lisa giggled a little at Ranma's reaction. It seemed to take him by surprise. “Are you two a couple?”

“That would be an unprofessional relationship. Besides, although she knows I'm really a guy she rather think of me as just one of the girls. Then again she thinks of Bobby as one of the girls too.” The ravened hair boy frowned. He really hated being considered one of the girls. It wasn't that he was interested in Usagi, Ami, and Minako; it was just he didn't want to be thought of as a girl.

“Bobby? Someone else has a Jusenkyo curse?” It was her understanding that few people had heard of the cursed springs much less knew where they were, someone else being cursed was hard to believe.

“Nah he's just a cross-dresser with a very feminine figure.” When Ranma finished speaking Lisa started laughing. Apparently she found the idea funny. “First the giggle and now full blown laughs, not to mention you behavior last night. You know you're not the cold hearted old lady the rumors make you out to be.”

“I'm the second in command of the most advance battleship in the entire EDF fleet. I have to be professional while on duty. Today happens to be my day off, and I'm allowed to have some fun.” Lisa pouted. She hated being called an old lady, but she could see how she deserved the remark.

--

Sammy followed behind Lisa, with Kim and Vanessa following her. “I can't believe Lisa's on a date!”

“Quiet Sammy or they might notice us.” Kim bopped the short red haired girl on her head.

“I think its great Lisa has a boyfriend. She's way too serious most of the time.” Vanessa adjusted her glasses. Their commander sure had great taste.

“But isn't not being serious seriously out of character for her?” The redhead quickly ducked into a nearby alley when the boy turned his head.

“That’s true, Claudia can loosen her up a little but then she normally goes right back to serious mode. Smiling like she is right now just isn’t her.” The Korean girl couldn’t help but wonder if maybe their boss was drunk. Lisa didn’t like to drink, but it seemed like a reasonable explanation for her actions.

“Please, with a guy like that I think you’d both be acting abnormal too.” Sticking her head out of the alley she saw Lisa and the boy head into a Chinese restaurant. “How much money do you guys have on you?”

--

Sitting down Ranma felt his scar burn. Ever since then… he didn’t much care for Chinese food. He closed his eyes and reflected on the past that he couldn’t forget, that he had no right forgetting.

“Um, Ranma you can’t look at the menu with your eyes closed.” Lisa wondered what was wrong with Karl’s cousin. Ranma looked as if he was in pain.

“You can order for me, I’ll be fine with whatever.”

“Is something wrong?” The brown hair girl couldn’t help but be a little worried about her friend.

“Shampoo bugging you?”

Ranma opened his eyes wide. That voice… He thought he’d never hear it again. “You want to fight?”

“No, Ranma I want to take your order. This is my restaurant, or rather my wife’s. She’d get really mad if I fought you here. Besides, it looks like you beat yourself up enough over it anyway. I’ve moved on Saotome. So should you.”

“You two know each other?” This had to be what Usagi felt like when she joined them last night. Learning something about Ranma she hadn’t known before. Mr. Lynn was only a year older than her but he acted very mature and so did his wife. She came to this restaurant often, mostly for the tea and chatting with Mrs. Lynn.

“I told you about him, this is Mousse. Although I’m sort of curious where are your glasses.” Ranma examined the male Amazon, overall Mousse’s appearance hadn’t changed. He was a bit taller, but he still wore the same robes.

“My wife had me get eye surgery. I have twenty-twenty vision now. Lisa do you want your usual?” Truth be told he would like to pound Ranma some, but he knew it wasn’t all the half-man’s fault. Amazon Law was to blame for what happened to Shampoo. It would be interesting to see Ranma’s reaction to his wife though. Hopefully she would return from shopping while Ranma and Lisa were still here.

“Two orders please.” Lisa watched as Mr. Lynn walked back to the kitchen. She wanted to know more about what happened to Shampoo so she lowered her voice. “Care to talk about it?”

“Well if you’re a regular here you might hear it from Mousse anyway. I told you about how Shampoo wanted to marry me just ‘cause I beat her. Well there was a time limit to the whole marriage thing, since she didn’t bring me back in time, she had to do the same thing that she had tried to do in the beginning. She had to kill me.” He paused trying to think if there was anyway he could have changed the outcome of that fight. If he knew then what he knew now, maybe. He didn’t though, and so what happened happened. “We fought for the last time in front the entire council of Amazon Elders. In the end I beat her, and she…. She took her own life, because I wouldn’t. I, I tried to stop her, but the old bags stopped watching at that point and stopped me from getting to Shampoo.”

“Oh….” Lisa had no idea what to say.

“Amazon laws are stupid.” Mrs. Lynn had pulled up a chair and sat down during Ranma’s two minute pause. She may not be a martial artist, but popping up unexpected was an art unto itself and there were few better than her.

“First Mousse now you…how far is Akane behind?” Ranma looked at Nabiki. Her clothing style had changed. She now wore a Chinese style silk dress. It didn't look as good on her as it did on his cursed form. Wait...

“No Akane married Shinnosuke; they’re living happily in the Higo Forest. Kasumi ended up with Tofu, my dad with Ms. Hinako, and your parents ended up back together.” Nabiki smirked, Ranma’s expression was pretty calm, but Lisa was surprised, then again she had never mentioned her past in Nerima to Ms. Hayes. She wasn’t aware Lt. Commander knew about Nerima.

“Your father married the size changing teacher?” Lisa had heard a lot about Nerima from Ranma. Although the way he told the story it didn’t sound like Mr. Tendo would ever remarry.

“So just how close are you and Lisa?” So the cursed boy had a new girlfriend. Well Lisa was a lot better for him than her sister, or really any of Ranma’s past suitors.

“What does that mean?”

“Rachel is Ranma’s cousin. She loved listening to Ranma’s tales of Nerima, so I’ve heard them with her.” Lisa had mentioned both Rachel and Karl to Mrs. Lynn before, but never Ranma. That was probably why she never knew they had him in common. She was sort of curious why she never learned Nabiki and Mousse’s first names before though.

“I see. Well it looks like Mousse is coming with your food. It’s on the house.” Nabiki got up and moved the chair she had sat in to table she took it from. The look she saw on Ranma’s face when she said the food was free, was priceless.

--

After Lisa and Ranma, that was apparently her boyfriend’s name, they had over heard Mrs. Lynn call him that. After they left the Chinese Resuarant, they somehow disappeared. Sammy, Kim, and herself split up, but after fifteen minutes they regrouped and they hadn’t found the couple. Vanessa couldn’t help but wonder how did they disappear?

--

Lisa was grateful that Ranma was looking down toward the street and not at her. She was quite sure her face was as red as a tomato after being carried up to the roof in his strong arms. After leaving the restaurant he picked her up and leapt straight up to the roof. It had been about twenty minutes and finally Ranma turned towards her and she quickly lowered her head. “Why did you do that?”

“We were being followed by a trio of girls; they’d been following us since we left the base.” Why wasn’t Lisa looking at him? Had he done something wrong? He figured that Lisa wouldn’t want to be followed as much as he didn’t. “Are you okay?”

“That was a little too much for me. If you don’t mind I’ll go down through the building.” It was good seeing Ranma again, it really was, but she wasn’t really ready for the feelings that were creeping up on her. He was Karl’s cousin, was she just using him to replace Karl? Even if they weren’t much alike there was still some of her former lover in Ranma. “Will you be staying for the Launch tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I promised Usagi I’d see her off. I’ve mastered some new ki techniques. I’ll give you guys a personal send off.” With those words Ranma leapt to the next roof, he could take a hint; Lisa didn’t want to spend anymore time with him. He couldn’t help but wonder what he had done wrong?

As the Rachel’s cousin got further and further away Lisa hoped that this wouldn’t be the last time she saw Ranma. However she didn’t exactly know what her superiors had planned for the SDF1 tomorrow.

--

Usagi dumped a bucket of cold water on Ranma, his pouting face looked so much better when he was a she. “So why are you so blue?”

“I’m supposed to be the blue one Saotome, you’re cramping my style.” Ami spoke while reading her depressing novel. Blue was her favorite color, everything she wore was always blue; she had been reprimanded over a hundred times for dying her uniform blue.

Minako giggled, the blue haired girl went to great lengths to stay depressed. Despite the fact that she was one of the smartest people in the world she always strived to disadvantage herself by applying herself to areas she didn’t have any expertise in. Ami was a good mechanic, but far from the best. “So Ran, why are you infringing on Ami’s domain?”

“I think Lisa is mad at me. I don’t know what I did.” The now redhead frowned. Usagi had promised she wouldn’t turn her into a girl tonight. The only reason she would have broken her promise is if she had been looking too girly as a guy.

“Well what did you do?” Bobby sat upside down on Ranma’s couch. This was supposed to be a going away party, but really it didn’t seem like a party at all. Really they were just hanging out again.

The longer haired blonde was grateful the EDF Airman was wearing jeans. Although he had a feminine figure, if he had been wearing a skirt sitting the way he was, she and the others would be seeing something they really rather pretend he didn’t have. “Bobby, do you have to sit that way?”

“Mina, we’re not in public, and I don’t mind. This is my apartment.” Ranma often wondered if Minako was so critical of Bobby because she liked him, or if she simply saw him as an embarrassment. Girls were hard to understand, even with as much time she spent as one she had no clue how their minds worked. Well Usagi, Ami, and Minako were real girls so maybe they could explain Lisa’s reaction. “Well I noticed we were being followed so I grabbed Lisa and jumped out of sight onto the rooftops.”

Usagi smirked. “Well the answer is obvious; her face was probably as red as your hair after that. I know that I’d be as red as a tomato if I got lifted up by your strong arms.”

“Then why don’t you and Saotome go out. I mean he’s not enlisted anymore. There’s nothing stopping you.” Ami looked up from her book. The short haired blonde and redhead always seem very close. Yes Ranma was the crew chief for Usagi’s plane, but like there was more between them.

“That would be disgusting. They’re practically brother and sister, or sister and sister most of the time. On the other hand you don’t have the same excuse to keep turning me down.” Bobby closed his eyes and pictured Ami in a beautiful blue dress then sighed. It would never happen. “Ranma didn’t you once tell me Lisa was going out with your cousin?”

“You knew Ranma knew Lisa? Why didn’t you tell me I could have gotten them together sooner?” The short haired blonde frowned. Bobby was right; Ranma was too much like a little brother.

“Because, Robert wasn’t supposed to talk about that.” The cursed boy gave the normal boy a death stare. There were some things that were talked about with the girls, and others he talked about with Robert, he didn’t want those things crossing paths.

Minako tilted her head. No one ever called Bobby by his proper name. Even dressed as he was in loose jeans and a T-shirt, he still looked like a girl. His face was soft; his eyes were round and crystal blue; and his hair silky and long down to the small of his back. If the EDF regulation weren’t so laxed, he’d probably never make it in the military. Turning her thoughts from Robert Michel Tailor to Ranma Saotome…. “Well if she was dating your cousin, she may not be sure if her feelings are for you, or she’s just transposing them from Karl.”

“Aino has a point. She may not be sure if she likes you or if she just likes that you remind her of Karl.” The only daughter of Admiral Arimi Mizuno said. She then looked over at the oldest son of General Lawrence Michel Tailor. Their family had known each other forever, but they weren’t very close at all. “Tailor I will never go out with you.”

Ranma couldn’t picture Ami and Bobby a couple anyway. With Lisa on the Super Dimensional Fortress, he didn’t stand much of a chance with her either. It was time to change the subject. “So Usagi, Lisa said your Squadron’s going to be the Wild Stallions.”

“Yeah, I figured I wouldn’t be able to get you to re-enlist, so that’s my going away present. I’ll make sure they’re worthy of your name.” Usagi would have rather healed the redhead’s scar, but Ranma was dead set against her using her magic on her, she wanted to keep the scar.

“Tomorrow’s going to be depressing.” The male redhead was already a little depressed after being turned down by Ami for the umpteenth time. Their little group was separating; Ranma going who knows where, Usagi was taking Minako with her aboard the SDF1, Ami was still going to be on the Deadelus under Commander Davis, and he was getting reassigned to Nevada.

“I don’t know it will be nice not seeing Commander Kuno again.” Minako couldn’t wait to be away from the gluttonous Davis. Because he could, he made sure every dedicated crew chief in his Squadron was female. He also went to great lengths to get Usagi in his squadron as she was the only female Fighter pilot in the entire EDF. Ranma’s nickname for Davis was Commander Kuno, because the jerk believed they were all in love with him.

“I guess this will be goodbye.” The blue hair girl frowned. She enjoyed being blue, but with her friends going it be more than just depression she’d be dealing with. She’d even miss the cross-dresser a little.

--

Lio’s Corner:

-Sorry for the long delay. I knew what I wanted to do, but untill recently I wasn't sure how to do it. I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

-The only two series that are apart of this story are Robotech and Ranma 1/2. Although some character names are taken from other series, these series do not cross in this story.

-Ranma has crossed paths with his Pop between now and the last chapter. That's why he refered to himself as the oldest Saotome child, he's aware his parent have truly gotten back together and that he now has siblings.

-sergwish: Well it's not 2009 yet. Again sorry for taking so long.

-Goku: Your right about Ryoga's not getting lost, and I will touch on that later as well as what happened to Akari.

As for Ranma's control I don't know how to explain it anymore than I already have. He can use his ki to either heat the water splashing him or cool it down. In this way he decides what form he wants to be in. Again this method came from Joe Fenton's "Growing up the Half way."