Ranma X By Dale Ratner Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma or the X-Men. I did not seek permission or get permission to use them in this story. This is a not for profit story (job offers from Comic Book companies will be considered though.) Ranma is copyrighted by Rumiko Takashi and Viz Communications. The X-Men are the property of Marvel Comics. All comments on this story should be sent to Shadow6865@aol.com. Chapter 2: The Danger Room. Ranma and Akane could not believe their ears. There lives have been far from normal over the past year but this was one of the weirdest things to happen to either of them. They were just asked to join the X-Men, for Ranma it was a childhood dream come true; for Akane it was a predicament. To join a group, that was an enigma to her and most of the world. What little she knew about the group was a mixed batch of positive and negative opinions, most of them negative with very little base in fact. The awkward silence was broken by a question from her overly-ecstatic fiancé. "You mean you want us? To join the X-Men?" squealed Ranma, in a voice that sounded more like a child on his first trip to Disney World rather than the martial artist he was. "Yes" responded Professor X, the wheel-chair bound founder of the X- Men. " I feel that you and Akane can become very valuable members of the team." "How about Akane, do you want to join?" Ranma said to his future wife, his voice still showing excitement over the prospects of joining the X- Men. The only thing he was not looking forward to wearing the spandex uniforms he saw the X-Men wearing. "No, problem" he thought to himself, "I can probably just add a "X" to some of my current clothes." "I don’t know about this, Ranma" responded Akane answering Ranma's question. "We still have one more year of high school left and then college, and you know how overprotective and overemotional my dad is." "If education is the object you worry about, let your fears subside" said the purple mass known as the Beast who spoke in a rich accent obviously learned at a fine University like Oxford or Cambridge. "Professor Xavier and I are still doctors and can provide you with a very fine education with accreditation from the New York State League of Private Schools and the United States Department of Education.." "I believe we can assure your father that you will be safe here." Cyclops, the handsome leader of the X-Men said in a clam, steady voice that would give security to even the most nervous people. "I guess it's okay then, I'd like to use this week as a trial period though." responded a still somewhat unsure Akane. "Of course" said Jean Grey placing a sympathetic hand on Akane's shoulder trying to assuage her fears. "We all felt the way you did, when he first arrived here but soon you will find out that we are very supportive of each other." "How about it, mom? Can we join" asked Ranma of his mother Nodoka however, was only slightly paying attention to the transaction of dialogue that just happened. She still was trying to figure out what happened, a nagging feeling haunted her head since the letter from Professor Xavier arrived. She knew that Ranma's grades were pretty good but they weren't great. Academically, Akane or Nabiki would have been more logical candidates to attend a boarding school. At least, she knew who the X-Men were, they were all Ranma talked about when he was six years old. "Six years old, that his when Ranma was taken away from me," Nodoka thought still mad that she allowed her husband to take him on a ten year long training trip. When she was finally reunited with her son, so much happened to him. She gained four fiancés, three actually since no one ever counted Kodachi as a real one. Now it looked like her son was being taken away from her again. "I don’t know, we'll see" was all she could say as a response. "Ranma and Akane I would like to see your martial art skills. Which one of you would want to go first?" asked Professor X. Ranma and Akane stared at each other for a minute not sure of what to answer. Finally, Akane agreed to be the first volunteer. "Excellent, you will spare against Psylocke, she is a very good martial artist" "May I change into my fighting Gi, please?" asked Akane "Of course, you may. Psylocke please escort Akane to her room and take her to the Danger Room when she is done changing." "Danger Room?" asked a nervous Akane not liking the name of the room. "Why do you call it that?" "Don't worry, Akane you won't get hurt in their" responded Cyclops trying to be as assuring as possible. Ten minutes later Akane found herself in, what can only be described as a black room. No decorations, no floor mats, no anything. "Why do you call this the Danger Room? It doesn't look very Dangerous." asked Akane. "You will find out soon enough" responded Psylocke. "Beast give us a forest setting." Akane could not believe what happened next, right before her eyes a room that had been completely empty changed into an extremely dense forest complete with animal noises. That shock caused her to stumble back into a large oak and emit a small scream of pain. "Are you okay?" asked Psylocke. "I think so" answered Akane standing up again and getting into a fighting stance. "I am ready to begin when ever you are." With Akane's remark Psylocke also got into a fighters stance. Both women stood still for about a minute, waiting for their opponent to make the first move. Suddenly Psylocke leapt forward and tried to give Akane a quick, low punch to the chest. Akane easily dodged the punch and managed to land a counter attack punch on Psylocke's side. "That was close" Akane thought to herself. All the experiences she had with Ranma over the last one and a half years improved her martial art skills greatly. She was now even able to hold her own against Shampoo which was no easy task. Ranma also began to teach her some special techniques after their ordeal in China just so he could feel better if she ever had to fight someone and she wasn't around. This thought made Akane a little mad, she loved her fiancé but wished he wasn't so overprotective sometimes. A quick kick from Psylockemade Akane realize that she should calm down and start taking this bout seriously. After twenty minutes of sparring, the match seemed to be a perfect tie both Pyslocke and Akane each taking about twenty hits. Realizing that the fight was going nowhere Professor X sent a mental command to Psylocke asking her to jump about fifteen feet and send a low-level psychic blast towards Akane. Akane wondered why the woman she was just sparing heavily for the last twenty minutes did a quick summersault away from her. Akane knew that the woman who called herself Psylocke was far from losing her energy. She must be planning something. As soon as Akane's last thought reached her mind, she saw what Psylocke was planning. Some sort of chi-blast quickly made its way towards Akane. Akane not knowing what to do, simply closed her eyes, covered her face with her hands and waited for the blast to hit her. It never did. After a few minutes, Akane gathered enough courage to see what happened. As she slowly lifted her hands from her face, she saw a dumb founded Psylocke looking at her and a severed branch from one of the virtually created trees that fell just a few centimeters away from both of them. It slowly dawned on Akane, what happened she somehow managed to create some sort of shield around herself and the shield not only protected her but deflected the blast towards the tree. Akane slumped downwards partly out of exhaustion and partly out of fear as the Danger Room changed from the forest to the empty room it was when Akane first entered. "AKANE" Ranma screamed as he ran into the Danger Room after seeing what happened. As soon as he reached her, he held her in his arms tightly and asked if she was okay. "I guess so" responded a meek Akane who suddenly became very emotional. "No, I'm not, I'm scared Ranma. I never noticed that before." "It's okay. You will be okay" cooed Ranma trying to calm down his fiancé as he ran his hand through her hair. "I can't believe, I am being caring" he thought to himself. A year ago he would have probably made fun of Akane for acting so emotional. But after nearly losing her too many times to count he decided to admit that he truly loved Akane and promised to protect her until the day she died. Truth be told he fell in love with Akane the first day he met her. She had to be the cutest girl he ever met. She was so delicate, yet she had spunk which made her even cuter. Maybe she couldn't cook or sew but she was still Ranma's first true love. He probably would have admitted sooner if her father wasn't involved but he was and Genma fucked up Ranma's personal life, too many times for Ranma to care for. Engaging him to Akane was probably the only good thing he ever did for Ranma.