Standard disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and all elements thereof belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, et al. Sailor Moon, the Dark Kingdom, the Doom-Tree, Ail, Ann, and the Nemesians belong to Naoko Takeuchi, DIC, and so on. Chang Delune, Isamu Delune, and the Delune Family and history are property of their creator, me, David Gordon.

Please don't sue me, I'm poor! Have mercy! etc. etc.

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Chang was deep in thought, waiting for Minako at an intersection in Juuban. {It's been a few weeks since I met her, but she's a nice slice of normalcy in a weird life,} he mused. {She does take off at odd times when her 'parents' call her on that little wrist pager, but that's positively dull compared to the strangeness I've seen in Nerima. Of course, Juuban's supposed to have monster attacks like the one at the beach every so often, but I haven't heard much in the rumour mill since the account of the Sailor Senshi battling a giant tree atop an old apartment building.} He grinned. {Now that one was pretty farfetched. Still, I've seen one of these 'monsters', I've fought it; I shouldn't laugh.} With an amused snort, he continued, {Given my luck, I'm amazed that I haven't run into either monsters or Senshi in the last few weeks! And speaking of time, where _is_ Mina, anyway?!} he finished, tapping his foot.

Several blocks away, a young princess lost in time decided once again that enough was enough, bawled, and released the Moonbeam.

On her way to her date with Chang (not that *he* knew it was a date,) Minako Aino saw the Moonbeam and rushed to find Chibi-Usa before the Nemesis Sisters could.

Up in the sky, Cooan of the Nemesis Sisters saw the energy flare, summoned the new Droid Karateka, and teleported to the spot, sending Chibi-Usa into panicked flight.

Chang, seeing the _massive_ *chi* release, sprinted toward the point of origin. As he turned a corner, he sensed rather than saw the child he was about to collide with, and scooped her up while skidding to a stop, startling an 'eep!' from the girl. Taking a look at his near-collision victim, he immediately noticed her hair - it was done up in two pointed odangos and two wide ponytails, and it was pink! {Now for odd hair, that even tops Minako's friend Usagi,} he thought, then blinked. {Come to think of it, the styles are kinda similar.} "Hi!" he said aloud. "Who're you?"

To his surprise, she paid him no attention at all, instead squirming to get down. "Lemme GO! They're after me! I gotta get away or I'll never save my mommy!"

{What the-} Chang thought, but was cut off by a rough female voice.

"Ha, foundja, brat! Hey, you there, china boy, hand her over or my friend here will give ya a beating!"

Chang tensed, tightening one arm around the girl by reflex. He looked down at her, a question in his eyes: she seemed to understand, and frantically nodded 'no'! Looking back to the voice, he saw two women; one in a ridiculous feather tutu with vertical striping, with blue hair down to her waist and generous curves: the second in a black ragged karate gi, with messy, dark brown hair and an animalistic look to her face. "So why should this girl be given to you, lady? And who are you, anyway?!" he asked.

The blue-haired one gave him a predatory grin. "I'm Cooan, of the planet Nemesis, and I'm in this backwater time to get that little rabbit and the Imperium Silver Crystal!"

--The crystal, our most powerful weapon against evil. It must never fall into evil hands--, stated the voice in the back of Chang's head. For once, he didn't mind. {Well, that settles what side I'm on,} he thought wryly.

Meanwhile, Cooan was still speaking. "As for why you oughta give her up... Droid Karateka, show 'im what you got!" she stated. The girl in the gi - Droid Karateka - charged, and Chang prepared himself.

{Gotta keep the kid safe - and hopefully calm,} he thought. {Best bet is don't take anything seriously - act like Ranma, heh heh!}

As the Droid ran in, Chang reared back and leveled it with a powerful thrust kick to the head. It bounced back up, growled, and leaped in, yelling "KARATEKA RAPID ATTACKS!" which it followed with a series of chops coming about five or ten to the second.

Of course, Chang had trained against the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, a punch attack that one learned by snatching over one hundred nuts out of a hot fire before they burned - and that took only two or three seconds. In other words, while the attack did a good job of scaring Chibi- Usa, to Chang it was plain slow. "You call this a _rapid_ attack?! No, this is just mildly fast. *Here's Rapid!* KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!"

Pounded several hundred times over ten seconds, Droid Karateka hurtled back into a wall.

"Wow!" said the child.

Chang grinned at her, keeping an eye on this 'Droid' as he did. "Thanks! I'm Chang Delune, by the way. And you are..."

"Usagi. But everyone calls me Chibi-Usa, 'cause I'm living with another Usagi."

Chang looked almost comically surprised. "You mean Usagi Tsukino? I know her! She's a klutz, isn't - HEY I'M TALKIN' HERE!" he yelled as he bounded over the Droid's next rush. The following move was pure Ranma: stepping on the thing's head as he came down, he pushed back and sent it careening face-first into another wall, where she slowly slid to a kneeling position, arms bent and hands in the Takahashi Pain Posture. "Geez! Monsters nowadays! Won't even let you finish a sentence!"

Chibi-Usa had already succumbed to the giggles.

{Good! Got her cheery so she won't panic and wriggle at the wrong time. Now-} Chang's danger sense alerted him to trouble to the rear. He backflipped as a stream of blue fire roared through his prior location.

Cooan was just winding up for another Dark Fire volley when Chang landed - right in front of her! "YAAH!" she cried, alarmed. Chang had a mildly annoyed look on his face.

"Now look here, Ma'am," he began, "You're butting in on a one-on-one fight! Among martial artists, that's taboo, y'know, it just isn't done! So-" he tapped her on the hip with one finger.

To her alarm, her legs immediately gave way, dumping her fanny-first onto the bench behind her.

"-why don't you just have a seat there until your friend and I are done, hmm?"

Chibi-Usa had stopped laughing during the sudden backflip, but this set her off again.

Chang turned back to the Droid. A gem in its belt glowed, showing a black upside-down crescent moon symbol, and the Droid took to the air.

"So, you can fly, huh? Airhead," Chang deadpanned. To Chibi-Usa, he whispered, "Watch this! I'll knock it silly with just one finger!" She looked up, wide-eyed, just in time to see Karateka dive at them-

-and abruptly reverse directions as Chang tagged it with a Momentum Strike. {Odd,} he thought, {that aura felt funny! Almost like magic, not living Chi-} he paused to duck as it recovered from its rebound off a ledge and dove at him. Then it landed, its gem glowing again, and held its arms cocked in a gunfighter's stance. Chang tensed. The Droid cried out, "KARATEKA ENERGY FISTS!" and snapped its hands up open-palmed, launching two bolts of dark lightning at Chang. He leaped high, dodging them, and then dashed right at his foe as he landed.

"That gem of yours glows when you fly or throw energy," Chang challenged, "so let's see how you do without it! BAKUSAI-TENKETSU!" He quickly stabbed his finger into the gem, shattering it.

Of course, without its gem, the Droid collapsed into dust.

Chang just stared. "That's it? No rage about 'not fair?' No persisting until I tag you with an energy blast? Mouu...(Awww...) they just don't make monsters to _last_ anymore!"

By now Chibi-Usa was almost hysterical with laughter, and Cooan decided she'd seen just about enough of this guy and teleported. The dust pile soon vanished, and a minute later Minako came running around the corner.

"Chibi-Usa-chan! Chibi-Usa-chan! Where - Oh, Chang, you found her! Thank you! She was with my friends and I when she ran off, and we had _no_ idea where she went! We've been looking all over for you, young lady!"

Chibi-Usa grinned, wiping away tears of laughter. "That's OK, I found my Uncle Chang! And since _he's_ here, now I *know* my mommy's somewhere around!"

Chang grinned back. "So now I'm 'Uncle' Chang, huh? Sounds all right to me! But what d'you mean about your mommy?"

Chibi-Usa suddenly clammed up. "I promised Luna-P I wouldn't tell."

Chang frowned, then shrugged. "OK, suit yourself. Now let's get you home, young lady!"

As Chang headed for Juuban High School, Minako followed in a state of shock. {We figured out from what Chibi-Usa told us as the Senshi that she's from the future, in Crystal Tokyo: if Chang really is her uncle, then he survives until then!! It's supposed to be centuries away! How...} Her mind kept going over that until she met up with the others and she put it firmly out of her head so she could make the most of what free time Chang had left tonight. [No, you ecchi, not _that_ way! Chang's only seventeen and Minako's what, three years younger than that as of R? Gah! Hentai!]

....to be continued