Quick note: No, this ISN'T the sequel to A Life Once Lived. ^_^ You'll see.
In Xanadu
By Kyle Emmerson
Ranma 1/2 and all characters and situations are property
of Rumiko Takahashi. I use these characters and situations
without permission.
Spawn and all characters and situations are property of
Todd McFarlane. I use these characters and situations without
permission.
Prologue: The Arcane Doorway
****
The world awakened to her like a white hot metal, the
night itself penetrated deep into her optic nerves as the
slivered moon hung in the sky overhead.
She moved gracefully across the pitch black air, across
rooftops, down walls, and then back up as easily as though
gravity meant nothing. Through the city she moved, not
stopping, not knowing her ultimate destination.
And then she paused.
Who was she? What reason did she have for being there?
She knelt down, allowing her knee to touch the tar and
gravel sheet spreading across the roof of the building she
stood upon and touched it.
Her hands, if one could call them as such, were gloved.
Her nails had grown into sharp claw-like appendages, no longer
fit for a human being.
A human being? She stood up to look down upon herself. She
was female, that much could be told with ease, even from the
tight-fitting clothing she had donned. The gloves she wore
reached up past her elbows, a dark red colour, while the suit
itself was black.
Chains hung down from her at several junction points. Her
hips, her shoulders.
And the cloak. It was worn around her like some kind of
gothic count would wear such a thing. Flared at the neck, and
stretching down past her feet. The cloak itself seemed
well-worn and useless, though she could feel its actual
strength, and it seemed stronger than a suit of metal armour.
There was something foreign about her. Something she
couldn't place, even if it did not bother her any.
As a light green pattern twinged in her view, she looked
down to the streets below. The city... It was...
The city was somehow familiar to her, though she couldn't
quite place it. Sirens rang out from several places below her,
and she could hear it all.
She could hear the scream of sirens and the rev of
engines. The yells of horror and cries of joy. Her senses were
overcome by smells, sights, sounds and even tastes of the city
below.
It was all new to her. But she knew what to do.
There was one sound and smell that stood out. A cry of
fear.
It was all that was needed to send her in to action.
Jumping off of the roof of the tall building, she leaped into
the alley below, using her claws to dig in to the stucco outer
walls of the adjacent building and sliding her way down to
street level.
Once there, she paused. The sound was greater now, and now
her other senses were beginning to pick things up.
A woman's scream. The laughter of one man, but the smell
of two.
She narrowed her eyes in fury. There were near. Across the
street. She scarcely needed to strain her eyes to look out of
the alleyway she stood in.
Yes. Two men. She could see then skulking in the darkness
of the alley.
Something else... the smell of musk. Of...
She bolted out of the alleyway and across the street, not
paying attention to the squeal of tires as the cars swerved to
miss her.
Although she should have been cautious, she wasn't.
Somehow deep inside she knew the cars couldn't hurt her.
And as she reached the opposite side of the street, she
paused.
****
"What the hell is this?" Sango asked, shaking a small fist
full of yen at the quivering girl. "A thousand yen? You
bitches don't keep any REAL money with you any more?!"
The girl just sat propped up against the brick wall of the
building and whimpered.
"Yeah, you know I like THAT, bitch," Shima smiled out of
the corners of his mouth. He reached over to squeeze her jaw
tightly. "Keep whimpering."
Sango shook his head in anger. "You know what this'll get
us, you dumb bitch?" he asked in a fury.
The girl merely sat and cried. "Please don't hurt me!" she
whimpered. "I--"
"ANSWER ME!" Sango yelled, punctuating his statement with
a backhanded slap to her face.
The girl screamed as she was struck, the whole exercise
only succeeding in causing her to sob uncontrollably.
Sango threw the money down on her. "This won't even get us
a cheap whore," he sneered.
Shima smirked maniacally. He knew what that meant.
"You brought this upon yourself, bitch. We can't afford
one because of YOU, you get to BE one. Understand?" he began
to undo his belt.
The girl struggled to get further away, futilely trying to
meld herself into the brick behind her. Just to get away.
But Shima held her firm, laughing.
"What are you doing?" a foreign voice said, invading Sango
and Shima's personal time.
Sango turned around to the mouth of the alleyway.
"Nice costume. Get lost, bitch. This doesn't concern you,"
Sango said.
Shima just laughed. "Hey, San. Maybe this one wants to
play to, huh?"
Sango whipped his belt off and folded it up. "Get lost
bitch, or you get the beats."
The woman at the alleyway took a step forward. "And?"
Sango almost smiled in anticipation. "You really wanna go,
huh? That's good. I like my bitches sassy."
The woman took another step forward.
Sango stretched his belt out in front of him.
The belt was out of his hand in less than a second. Before
Sango or Shima could tell what had happened, the woman had
hooked Sango's belt around his neck, and slid the end through
the buckle.
All she had to do was pull, and Sango's eyes bulged out.
Shima began to react as soon as he had caught view of what
had happened.
"What the hell?!" he cried.
"Move and your friend loses his head," the woman stated.
Shima stopped as he saw her face. While it had been dark
and shaded further down the alley, now he could have a perfect
view.
Her face was masked by a black cowl, with white areas
around her eyeholes.
But that was just it. While unnoticeable before by the
ambient light from the street her eyes were now fully visible.
Hey eyes were glowing green.
Shima didn't wait any longer, he bolted for the street,
leaving his friend behind.
The stranger turned the half-strangled man towards her.
"If I let you go now," she said. "Will you cause any more
trouble?"
The man shook his head furiously.
"You're lying," she replied with a scowl. "But I'll let
you live, just so long as you remember me."
The man nodded.
Slowly, she loosened the belt. The man fell to the ground,
gasping for air. He looked up at the woman, fear raging in his
eyes.
Then he stood up, and ran.
She dropped the leather belt to the ground. Looking down
towards the girl shivering below her, she offered a hand.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
The girl peeked up at her from behind her arms.
Cautiously, she poked her head out from her makeshift wall and
looked around.
There was no sign of the men.
Stifling a sob, she lurched forward, standing on her hands
and knees on the concrete alleyway. Though she was wearing a
skirt and blouse, she could care less about the scrapes she
was receiving.
Quickly, she gathered her dropped money and purse up, then
reached up to grab the strangers hand.
She gasped as she felt them. They were the right shape and
size, but other than the inhuman claws that extended from her
nails, the hand itself was strong and surprisingly hard.
But still, she allowed the stranger to help her to her
feet.
"I'm okay," she said, arms crossed across her chest, and
her face down towards her purse. "Thank you."
The stranger sighed. "They didn't hurt you?"
She shook her head. "Not physically, no."
The stranger nodded. "Very well," she said. "I'll be
going, then."
As the stranger turned to walk away, something clicked
within the mind of the girl.
"Wait," she managed to utter.
The stranger paused, but didn't turn.
"I... I'm sorry you had to help me there. You... You
didn't have to."
"I did what I had to."
The girl looked up with quivering eyes. "But you did save
me, and I do owe you something. What can I do?"
The stranger sighed and looked down toward the ground.
"Nothing." She began to continue walking.
"Wait!" the girl called again, "Please!"
The stranger paused again. She merely turned her head.
"There... must be something I can do," she pleaded.
"Anything."
The stranger paused in thought. "There may be one thing.
Something you can tell me."
The girl sighed. "Anything."
"Where is this?"
"What?"
"This city? Where is it?"
"This is Tokyo," the girl replied, unsure.
Tokyo. The name did sound familiar to her. It did make a
certain sense. She recognized some streets, some sounds.
Suddenly, there was a flash of thought. So quickly that
had she not been paying attention, she would have missed it.
It was simple. A name.
"Nerima," she spoke aloud, half-consciously.
She heard a short pause from behind her. "That's not far
from here," the girl said.
She turned around to face the girl. "Where?"
"Well, I'm not sure when the trains will run there at this
time of night," she replied. "But I know there's a 7:20 train
in the morning."
"Tell me how to get there," she replied.
"It's... well... You go down San street until you reach Ka
Aven--"
"No," she interrupted. "I need you to take me there."
The girl blinked in thought. "Well," she said. "I don't
know... it's late. I should head home."
Her reply was simply to look forward.
"Do you... Do you have anywhere to sleep?"
"Sleep?" she asked. She shook her head. "No."
The girl sighed. There was something in her voice that
portrayed a sense of insecurity, but she still answered. "You
could stay at my apartment tonight. Do you know somebody you
can stay with in Nerima?"
Again, she paused. She knew the name of the city, that
much she was sure of. But did she know what she could do once
she was there? WAS there anyone she knew?
"I'm not sure," she answered.
The girl sighed. "You aren't sure of a lot of thinks, are
you?"
"Forget it," she replied, and began to walk away again.
"No! Wait! I didn't mean to insult!"
Again, she stopped.
"You can take me to Nerima? In the morning?"
The girl nodded, even though the stranger couldn't see it.
"Yes."
She turned to face the girl. "Fine," she said.
The girl smiled lightly. "My name is Keiko. Keiko
Ishigara."
A name? Did SHE have a name?
She strained under the stress of thought, searching every
possible area of her memory for something. Anything.
Suddenly, something came to her. Where from, or who from,
she had no idea.
It wasn't a name. More like a title, but it was still an
identity of sorts.
"Spawn," she replied. "You can call me Spawn for now."
****
Authors Notes:
Now I know what you're all gonna say. "Didn't he already
DO a Ranma/Spawn Fusion?"
Yes, yes I did. I suppose an explanation is in order, ne?
First off, 'Xanadu' takes place in an completely alternate
universe than A Life Once Lived.
Second of all... I suppose I should explain where this
stemmed from. You see, a bunch of us were chatting in FFiRC
and the subject started to stem out from Ranma/The Crow
crossovers. From that point, I made an offhand remark about
how I wished, if I could do it over again, that I could do a
Ranma/Spawn fusion... well... differently. I don't want to say
too much without fiving anything away, but you get the basic
idea. Anyway, everyone in FFiRC started to drop ideas into my
lap, and soon... Well, I just couldn't get it out of my head.
So you see, Xanadu stemmed from that. For any of you who
have read A Life Once Lived, this fic looks much more
promising than that one did. ^_^
Whether or not I continue this is all depending on what
kind of feedback I get. I would, however, enjoy YOUR opinion
on this.
I hope you enjoy what I've done so far. I've got much more
of this plotted out in my head, and even if I myself don't
continue this, I'll probably pass it on to someone else. ^_^
Prereaders? Anyone?
ttyl,
Kyle.
-------------------------
| The TydRipper | "Tyd, you need a smaller
| | .sig. :-)"
| Master of the Tides, | - Gary Kleppe, FFiRC
| Devourer of noodles, |
| Writer of the Fanfic, |
| Baka to the end... |
-------------------------
Questions? Comments? Flames? Email Me.
~ The TydRipper
http://www.ryo-oh-ki.net/tydi-oh-ki <--- Older, unupdated site.
http://www.nabiki.com/tydi-oh-ki <--- Regularly updated site!
kyle_emmerson@geocities.com <--- My usual e-mail.
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