The All-Americans
By
Joshua Trujillo

Part 13 - Let It Rain

"I can't believe we're doing this."

"It's the only way," Ranma replied, struggling with the pads, "You 
wanna be in the game? Fine. But I ain't lettin' you play."

"Ranma, this is nuts," Akane said from her chair in the corner, 
"Just tell the coach. I'm sure-"

"No!" Ranma and Ryouga shouted.

Akane shrank back slightly under the united rebuff.

"Well...Won't you wear yourself out doing this?" she asked.

"Nah, Mom, I'll be okay," Ranma muttered sarcastically.

She just looked crossedly at him.

"It smells in here," she said for the hundredth time.

"Daisuke knows?" Ryouga asked, ignoring her.

"Daisuke, Hiroshi, the entire defensive line, everyone but the 
coach," Ranma said, "Don't worry. This is going to work. There. 
How do I look?"

Akane and Ryouga looked him over.

"Not a whole lot different," Ryouga said, beginning to get worried, 
"But you'll do."

"Okay, let's do this," Ranma said.

***

The air was cool. Cool, but not cold. It was late September. The 
stands were already filling with the anticipated hundreds, maybe 
even thousand for tonight's...Tussle. Coach rubbed the stubble that 
he'd allow to build for the last couple of days on his grizzled chin.

A thought came to him. Next year, they'd have to make the game 
against Arlington the homecoming. It was generally about the 
same time next year. This year was messed up because of the 
damned union. He looked across the field as the Arlington players 
mulled around. Good looking kids, all of them. Not the roughnecks 
that seemed to get thrown into the Earnest program, but not half 
the talent either. Coach decided long ago that he'd rather have the 
talent.

The air was cool. Cool, but not cold. It was late September. It was 
real football weather. And this year they'd go all the way. It made 
an old coach's heart proud to think of his kids at the top. The new 
kid, Saotome, was a real horse. A stud he could count on for two or 
three touchdowns. Ryouga leading the countries' best 
defense...Coach loved it.

The last of his players, including Saotome and Hibiki hit the field 
and he put on his headphones.

Time for Arlington to die.

***

There was a light knock on the door. Nodoka didn't know if he was 
awake or not. The cherrywood door swung open to reveal the room 
filled with people. She smiled as she entered. Nabiki turned from 
the door and back to Ranma, who was still in bed. Nodoka looked 
to her son. It worried her that he still looked so pale and drawn. He 
smiled at her unspoken concern as she went to his side. He was 
strong, or at least he was trying to be.

"Okay, so you got to the field, then what happened?" Nabiki asked.

"Yeah, we were in the stands," Ukyou said from the other side of 
the bed, "All we saw was the game. What happened from your 
perspective?"

"He screwed up," Ryouga said from the chair in the corner behind 
Nodoka.

"He helped you with this and that's how you treat him?" Akane 
asked from the foot of the bed.

"Sorry," Ryouga straightened, "But he shouldn't have played the 
whole game. That was-"

"Stupid. Yeah, Ryouga, I know," Ranma said weakly, "Okay 
where to begin?"

"We came out and I went into the line up for the kickoff as usual. I 
tried to stretch it out as long as possible, but there was just no 
defense to stop me and I scored in the first four minutes."

"Yeah, the Coach even yelled at him for being lazy," Akane said.

"Wait a minute," Nodoka was confused, "How did you get onto the 
field?"

Akane blushed and looked nauseous at the same time.

"I had to promise to give Kuno a date."

"What?!" everyone in the room shouted at once.

Ranma turned a light shade of green at the thought and even 
Ryouga looked sick. Akane crossed her arms.

"Look, it was the only way for me to stay there on the sidelines," 
she said sourly, "It's not something I'm really looking forward to 
either."

Nabiki swallowed reflexively and turned back to Ranma.

"So what happened next?"

***

Ranma ran off the sideline closest to him. He looked down the line. 
Coach was preoccupied with the defensive set up. It was a good 
thing Ryouga was so good. Coach never put him in the lineup in 
the first set, even though he was a starting end. Coach had 
something of a sadistic streak in him and never inflicted Ryouga 
on an opponent. He always waited until later in the game, when it 
would hurt the most. Ranma sighed. It gave Ranma some time to 
get things set up for later.

He made his way to the table near the fence at the back. Ryouga 
was there as well as Kuno and Akane. Akane looked sick for some 
odd reason, but Ranma didn't have time to ask why. A cheer rose 
from the crowd across the field. Apparently Toma got off a clean 
strike deep into their territory. Ranma thought he could almost feel 
the heat coming off Coach. Ryouga knew it too and tossed his 
helmet to Ranma.

"What are these for?" Ranma asked, pointing to the bandana's that 
lined the insides of the helmet.

"Put it on," Ryouga replied, smiling.

Kuno slipped away to distract the Coach. Ranma slipped the 
helmet on his head and frowned. He realized that the bandanas 
were there as padding. Hmm, he guessed that Ryouga had a pretty 
big head. Well THAT wasn't surprising...

"This thing's still loose," Ranma said.

"Are you saying-"

"That you have a fat head! Yes!"

"Come on, you two," Hiroshi said, joining the table, "Not now."

"Don't worry," Ranma flashed his patented smile.

Ryouga pulled his helmet off Ranma, who looked puzzled.

"I almost forgot," Ryouga said.

He then tied one of his bandanas around Ranma's head.

"Much better," he said, tossing his helmet back to Ranma.

Ranma smirked and put on the helmet, scrambling to the front 
lines.

***

"That was why Ryouga, uh-you, whichever, kept adjusting your 
helmet during the game, isn't it?" Nodoka asked.

"No, I usually adjust my helmet anyway," Ryouga said.

"Oh."

"We could feel the shouting and cheers coming from the sidelines. 
It was almost palpable," Ranma smiled at the thought, "It's one of 
the reasons I still play sports. I didn't really have much chance to 
look in the stands, what with rushing back and forth all the time."

"Toma didn't make it any easier," Akane said, unable to hide the 
acid in her voice.

"Speaking of Toma, I noticed he was limping coming on to the 
field," Ryouga said at Ukyou, "Do you know anything about that?"

Ukyou just blushed, smirked and tried to appear less maidenly than 
Akane, who was trying to hide in the corner.

"After what he did, I'm surprised you two didn't kill him," Nabiki 
said sullenly.

"Nabiki!" Ranma hissed.

"It's okay Ranma, she knows," Ukyou said, crossing her arms, 
"Your mother knows too."

"Yes, and I wish you'd let us help dear," Nodoka said, sitting 
down, "You made such a nice young boy too."

Ukyou just put her head into her hands.

"The MindFucker."

"Ryouga!" Nodoka scolded.

"Sorry ma'am," he replied, "Akane had dropped it when she 
apologized to me. Nabiki picked it up and it activated on her."

"Yeah, what a shock that was!" Nabiki said, "Seeing my little sister 
and Ukyou being forced to...Do that. Mom grabbed it from me 
when I didn't respond to her and she got shocked. I was able to 
wrap up the handle and take it back."

Ukyou nodded and looked back at Akane. The youngest Tendo-
Saotome had shut her eyes trying to forget.

***

Ukyou settled in and looked over her shoulder again.

"Don't worry, he'll get here," Akane whispered to her.

"How do you know?" Ukyou asked, turning to Akane, "This 
entrance doesn't look like it leads anywhere."

"Look, with a sister like Nabiki, do you think I couldn't find out?"

Ukyou smiled and nodded in agreement. It was true. If anyone 
could find out which entrance the other team used for the locker 
rooms, Nabiki could. Ukyou and Akane had hidden themselves in 
the bushes near the entrance when they realized that Toma hadn't 
arrived yet. Ryouga said he was usually late. Something about 
knowing him. Ukyou dismissed it though.

She snickered slightly, earning a shushing look from Akane. She 
guessed that Ryouga did know the little bastard after all. There was 
a low mechanical rumbling as a motorcycle pulled up to the back 
doors. It was him. It was Toma.

He sneered as he lifted the equipment from the hog. He didn't even 
seem like he was worried about the upcoming game. Ukyou 
smiled. He'd have more to worry about than the game. He walked 
slowly towards the back door and Akane motioned to Ukyou. 
Damn, she wished there were some other way to do this...Shorts 
were so damned cold at this time of year.

***

"We grabbed him then," Akane said quietly.

"Wait a second," Ranma said, "Shorts? What were you doing 
wearing shorts?"

"Well, we had to get his attention some how," Ukyou said, trying 
to hold her dinner down.

She smiled shyly.

"I mean, I do have great legs though..."

Ryouga chuckled as Ranma just shook his head.

***

After taking him off his feet, Akane clamped a hand over his 
mouth and leaned all her weight on him. He tried to fight out of it, 
but Ukyou sat on his legs so that he could see them both. He 
stopped struggling as the air of anticipation hung heavy around 
him.

"You see Toma," Ukyou said, pulling her bag close, "You violated 
Akane and me and we aren't going to stand for it."

"Yeah, you little prick," Akane hissed, "It's payback time."

Ukyou reached into her bag and pulled out a small metal bat that 
she kept in her car for just such an emergency. Well, not this, but 
emergencies like this. She brought it down hard into his groin and 
he mercifully passed out.

***

Ranma turned green again and Ryouga coughed. The females in 
the room, aside from Nodoka, just nodded in agreement.

"So..." Ranma finally croaked out, "You beat the shit out of him."

Akane just smiled again and nodded. Ukyou nodded sadly, almost 
like she didn't want to stop. Ranma couldn't blame her from the 
little bit he'd heard. Nodoka handed Ranma some water from the 
nightstand.

"Uh, is that why you were late?" Ranma asked, taking a sip of 
water.

Akane smiled lightly and nodded her head again.

"He almost got away a couple of times, but we held on until he 
didn't move much anymore," Ukyou said.

"He was a slippery quarterback too," Ranma put the water back on 
the table beside his bed, "He kept faking and playing bootlegs. It 
was all I could do to keep up with him."

"Even with his injuries?" Akane gasped.

"Oh, you'd be surprised how much I've beat on him and have him 
come back the next day," Ryouga said.

Ranma thought about something that struck him odd about the 
blast he threw at Toma that day at the bar. He couldn't place it, so 
he dropped it.

"Well, as far as the bootlegs and stuff, that's pretty normal with 
Toma," Ryouga said, he frowned then, "But, you got a clear shot at 
one point, didn't you?"

Ranma smirked and nodded.

***

The clock had rolled down to twenty seconds. The score flashed up 
on the billboard twenty-one to fourteen, in favor of Earnest. Toma 
had been able to drive the Arlington team down to the five-yard 
line and Ranma knew that they would have real problems if they 
let Arlington score. He had to stop him here. There was a bigger 
problem though.

He felt like Hell. He'd played almost twice the amount of time he 
normally did and the hitting he'd been doing and taking really had 
an affect on him. His muscles ached and didn't want to go along 
with the plan that there was only twenty more seconds left. Ranma 
took two deep breaths and made his muscles obey, they'd have 
time enough to collapse later.

They lined up. Something was different this time..That's it! The 
hole!

Toma hiked the ball and Ranma shuffled in the little hole that 
opened up between the two large linemen in front of him. Toma's 
eyes became wide saucers as he realized what had happened. He 
closed his eyes as the person across the line slammed into him. The 
air rushed from his lungs as the ground met him.

Toma swore to himself as the ball slipped from his grasp and 
tumbled back across the fifteen-yard line. One of his little monkeys 
jumped on it and saved the fumble, but the damage had been done. 
Toma looked back down at the person...He sighed as the noticed 
the little tiger spotted bandana that covered the person's forehead. 
Hibiki. It was probably that Saotome's fault. He would've finished 
Hibiki off if it hadn't been for Ranma Saotome.

Hibiki looked up at him and gave him a lopsided grin. And the fear 
began to grow in Toma. Not the fear that he had done something 
wrong. Not the fear that something was wrong with what he was 
doing. The fear was that someone was out to get him.

Hibiki didn't have a lopsided grin like that.

Only one person he had met recently had a lopsided grin like that 
and he'd only seen it once. Saotome. But, he was wearing Hibiki's 
headband? And playing Hibiki's position? What was going on 
here?

"You..." Toma eeked out, trying to push the person off him, 
"You're not Hibiki? What's going on here?"

The other persons' eyes became large as he began to look around. 
There was a flash of light as Toma felt the chi slam into his face, 
and the arms of Morpheus folded gently around him.

***

"Was that the bright light that I saw?" Nodoka asked, having taken 
up position near Nabiki.

Ranma just chuckled softly and winced as the pain in his ribs acted 
up again.

"Yeah, it was him," Ryouga said, smiling to himself, "He powered 
up a bit of chi and shoved it in Toma's face."

"I think I hit him a little too hard though," Ranma said.

"Not hard enough, if you ask me," Akane muttered.

"Yeah, well, I broke his helmet and knocked him out of the game."

"Still not hard enough," Akane said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Akane," Nodoka chided, "Ranma, you didn't play much in the 
second half, did you?"

Ranma shook his head.

***

Ranma felt like his chest was going to explode. The little critter 
inside was pounding away against his heart and his lungs and his 
limbs wouldn't stop burning. Okay, so Ryouga was right. This had 
been a real stupid idea.

Ranma sat up, against all the protests from his body, and tried to 
relax and come together mentally as Burning Crow had taught him 
long ago.

Ryouga sat next to him. He looked to his friend and had to do a 
double take as Ryouga was soaking wet. Ryouga touched his 
shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked, helping Ranma get his shoulder pads 
off.

"I don't know if I'm going to be able to do another quarter of that," 
Ranma confided to him, "Everything hurts."

"Okay guys," Coach screamed as he walked in, "Listen up!"

***

"Screamed?" Nabiki asked.

"Huh? Oh, that's just how he normally talks," Ryouga said.

"Yeah, he came in and gave us a good talking to and most of the 
guys went back out onto the field, but Coach wanted us to stay 
behind for a second," Ranma said.

***

"Hibiki, that was a good hit on Toma in the last few seconds 
there," Coach said.

"Uh, thanks."

"Especially since you didn't do it."

There was a silence as Ryouga looked from Coach to Ranma and 
back again. Ranma thought he was doing good just to stand there.

"Do you know how I know?" Coach asked.

Ryouga shook his head.

Coach pointed to Ranma's head. Ryouga sighed and closed his 
eyes as he saw that Ranma had forgotten to take off the bandana 
that he'd tied earlier. It was at that point that Ranma's legs decided 
that they didn't want to hold him up anymore. Ranma tilted 
forward and collapsed into Coach's arms.

Coach and Ryouga acted quickly, got him down and began to 
check him over.

***

"I can't really repeat what he said to me then," Ryouga said.

"Why not?" Ukyou asked.

"Well, I mean," Ryouga indicated the other women in the room, 
"You're all...Uh, women."

Ryouga cowered as four sets of eyes critically bit into him. He 
shifted uneasily in his seat, but held firm. Ranma chuckled softly. 
Even he didn't have that little tact.

"Let's just say that he said I was an idiot for letting all this go on," 
Ryouga said quietly.

"Coach didn't like the fact that we'd kept it from him," Ranma said, 
"But he understood that Ryouga couldn't play."

"He also understood that I was needed as a kind of figurehead for 
the team," Ryouga said.

"So we concocted a story that Ryouga had been hurt as well during 
the last play of the half. The one where they just piled on me? 
Well, it DID hurt, but not that bad," Ranma continued, "I got a rest 
in the second half, no one expected Ryouga to play, and Toma was 
gone. That was when they carted me off to the emergency room."

"And I made a nice little profit from the win," Nabiki said.

"Do I even want to know, young lady?" Nodoka asked.

Nabiki smiled and shook her head.

"No Mom!" she chirped.

A light ripple of laughter went through the room.

"How long did the doctor say you'd be out?" Ryouga asked.

"Only until Tuesday," Ranma said, "They said it was just 
exhaustion."

Ryouga nodded. He knew the feeling, especially after his fights 
with Toma. Silence descended as the obvious question crowded 
into the room like an unwelcome houseguest. Nodoka finally asked 
what Ranma didn't want to think about.

"So," she began, "Is that all there is with Toma? Or is he going to 
be looking for revenge?"

Ranma looked to Ryouga, who nodded...It wasn't over yet.

Not by a long shot...

***