It had been a beautiful morning, with the sun shining, birds singing, and none of the usual sounds of combat coming from the district. It was so peaceful, in fact, that you could hear a faint "Darling no baka!!!" coming from Tomobiki.

And so, Kasumi had suggested to Ranma that he and Akane go for a picnic. Ranma had refused until Kasumi agreed to a) keep Akane out of the food preparations, and b) keep Nabiki from selling the information. It actually seemed like the whole thing might end up turning out all right.

They had tried to make a normal day out of it. Really, they had. Then, unfortunately, just as Ranma and Akane had actually seemed to be getting along well, Ranma put his foot in his mouth, Akane applied the Mallet Therapy Method, and things pretty much went downhill from there. Within a few minutes, the whole thing had disintegrated into chaos, with just about all of the couple's enemies/would-be lovers arriving on the scene in a typical display of Neriman improbability. Oh, well.

"Well, you see, the whole thing is an advanced, high-powered 3D projection system!" the excited student attempted to explain to his lab supervisor.

"So, how does it work?"

"You stick some form of print media here," the student explained, putting a Ranma 1/2 collection into the open drawer, "then close the drawer, and hit the on switch. And, presto, you get a high-res 3D projected image."

Unfortunately for all concerned, no one noticed the fact that the machine was beginning to glow ominously.

Ranma & Ryoga were locked in combat, as usual. Something odd had happened this time, though. When they had respectively launched their Mokyo Takabisha and Shi Shi Hokodan, the positive and negative chi blasts had interacted. Now, in the center, a small area of something was growing.

"Something's wrong!"

"What?!" the lab director asked, bewildered.

"It-it's overloading!"

"Pull the power, then!"

"I did! But it's still continuing to overload!"

Nerima

Both Ranma & Ryoga had stopped, but the portal kept growing. It was exponentially growing, rapidly doubling in size until....

"Get DOWN!" Mousse shouted (just because he was pretty much blind, most people hadn't noticed the fact that he was also rather intelligent). "That thing's gonna--"

"DOWN, NOW!!!" the director shouted. Just then, though, the device exploded in a flash of light. Both the student and the director were flung against the wall, stunned. What neither noticed was the fact that over a dozen humanoid shapes formed by the light zoomed out of the room as the explosion died.

Mark Powell, a few halls down, was deperately attempting to battle the forces of lethargy attacking him in mid-physics class.

"Now, if we take 'a' to equal 9.8 meters per second squared, and 'V-naught' to be zero, then 'V' should logically be--"[WHOOOMP!]

The entire classroom shook with the shockwave, and more than a few people were knocked to the floor, including Mark. As they all got up though, Mark noticed that he was the only one injured, with a gash on his forehead.

"Sir? Can I please go to the clinic?"

"I suppose so."

As he walked down the halls towards the clinic, Mark was suddenly overtaken by a dizzy spell. He sank to his knees for a moment, feeling as though something had just entered his body.

:Right. And P-chan will come dashing out through the halls in a minute. Get a hold of yourself, Powell.:

The rest of the day passed by quickly enough. As Mark got onto his schoolbus, he passed his friend Anne Derths, whom he had always had a secret crush on.

"Hey, Mark."

"Um...uh...h-h-hi, Anne."

"OK...um, hi, Mark."

*What the hell? I may like her, but I've never acted like that before!* He thought to himself as he sat in his usual seat.

Mark was getting into bed, after having had his day continue on its downward spiral into total weirdness. He had completely lost his appetite (truly odd for any teenage male) when he heard about pork chops for dinner, and had a panic attack when he was almost hit by a rogue jet of cool water.

"Oh, well. Maybe a good night's sleep will help me not go nuts tomorrow. Or it could just be the sleep deprivation. Yeah, that's probably it. After all, three hours of sleep a night can't be [Yawn] too healthy..."

As Mark drifted off to sleep, he suddenly awoke in a pale, grey room.

"What the...where am I?"

:Hey! That's my line!:

Mark whirled to face the voice. He stared as a young man about his age in a black sleeveless shirt and pants and a gold/black bandanna approached him.

"What the...OK, that's it. No more cafeteria pizza for lunch, especially if it looks like they added halluciogens."

:What are you talking about?: The boy asked Mark.

"What do you think?! I mean having fictional characters I read about pop up in my head after having a day of total insanity--well, more so than usual," he amended hastily.

:You know me?: The figure seemed puzzled.

"No, I'm just imagining knowing you. Of course I do! You're Ryoga Hibiki, a manga/anime character and insanely tough guy, who gets a cool life. Even if you do turn into a pig."

:Cool, hmm? You think I have a cool life?!:

"Sure. I mean, let's look at this objectively. You're super-strong; you have interesting stuff happen to you; you have beautiful women all around you...I mean, if you ever bothered to look at it objectively, the pig thing isn't THAT ba--urk!"

:I don't know...objectively speaking, of course,: Ryoga said, grasping Mark firmly by the throat. :Do you want to find out?:

"Glaah...saakle..." By his twitching and gagging, Mark indicated that oxygen might be helpful at this point.

:Oh. Sorry.: With that, Ryouga dropped Mark on his rear end and waited for him to catch his breath.

"Gah....ok. No then, I believe that I was about to say...What!?"

:Look, I don't know what happened, but all I know is that I showed up here, and had to find a suitable personality to Bond with.:

"BOND?! Now I know there were some hallucinogens in lunch."

:Would you get over the whole imagined drug thing?! I mean, I need someone to share a body with. And I prefer a personality I can relate to.:

"Y'know something? For Ryoga, you're unusually calm and sane."

Ryoga considered that for a second. :That's probably because I don't have glands at the moment.:

"Ah...."

:So, whaddya say? You get all my strengths and advantages, I get a part-time body. But you would have to get the Jusenkyo thing, and lose a bit of your direction sense. Not much, but a little. I understand if you turn it down--:

"ARE YOU NUTS! This is the sort of thing I dream about! You got a deal!! Even if this is just a dream, probably."
With that, the two shook hands, and Bonded.

Mark felt all of Ryoga's life flowing into him. The pain, the anger, the depression, the romanticism, everything. It was (as he would later describe it) like knowing everything in a full, 26-volume encyclopedia by having shoved into your brain via your ear. All in all, not something that you would care to repeat. Then, he woke up.

"Oy. What a messed-up dream. I need a drink."

He walked a bit confusedly to the bathroom, and turned on the faucet. Groggily, he spilled a bit on himself.

"Bu-kEEE!"
Which translates roughly as, "Wait a minute, that whole dream thing was true after all! WOO-HOO!!!"

And then there was, "Bu-KEEE!"
Which means "Oh, s***, what have I gotten myself into this time?"

And finally, "BU-keee!"
Which is to say, "Hang on...how do I change back without opposable thumbs?! AAAAH!!"