Gaia's Awakening
---
" " are speaking
' ' are quotes
< > are thoughts
---
Chapter 1
---
Akane was on the end of the cave. After the much needed traps, spikes,
boulders,
she was a the end of the cave. The only obstacle between her and the exit
was a
big cauldron. After inspection, she noted that it was full of boiling water.
<I need to push it in some way>
But the metal was way to hot to touch it, burning her skin.
<I can't possibly use those damn handles! They are as hot as the cauldron
itself!!>
And yet it seemed like she had not the choice. Gathering her bravery, she
tentatively put her arms under the handles on each side of the big cauldron.
"Ouch! That's way to hot... I can't do it!" She said aloud.
"Giving up?" she heard from the other side of the boulder. "You have the
right
to, if you think you can't handle it."
"Never!" she nearly shout in response. "I'll do it!"
A new time, she gathered all her bravery and she add her rage to it. She
take
the handles, burning badly her arms. And in one short effort, she pushed the
cauldron enough to let her exit the cave.
"Good... You succeeded the trial. For now on, you are now one of us, a proud
Amazon warrior. Congratulation, child." Akane recognized the voice, the one
of
the great master of the Amazons, the Matriarch, Cologne.
"Thanks you very much, Elder." She looked then at her burning marks,
somewhat
not as surprised as the thought she would have be : a dragon mark on the
right
arm and a tiger one on the left.
"These are our mark, child. You'll be able to heal them sometime in the
future,
but if you do, you will cease to be one of us." The lady showed Akane her
own
arms, revealing the same burns. "Like you know, I could heal them if I
wanted
to, but this is our sigil. Be proud of them. They are the symbol of the
Taoism
religion we follow here."
Nodding her understanding, Akane let herself to be showed the path to return
to
the village.
"You have mastered the powers you already got, child. But you have a long
way to
go to catch up to others."
"Hum... Ranma said that I have awakened not long ago."
"Yes, he is quite powerful now, he apparently have awakened himself quite a
long
time ago now... but know that I'm a waken myself since the Armageddon."
Akane gaped to this information. The Elder was awakened 50 years ago? But
how?
She couldn't be more than 40 years old... Cologne seeing Akane's face
smirked at
her.
"Unbelievable, hu? You'll see yourself that being a waken is much more that
the
power itself. I need only a couple hours of sleep to be totally refreshed
and I
barely eat at all... and my aging started to slow down for several years
now."
Akane head was now spinning. Between these information and the stress of the
test, she was completely drained.
"Don't worry child, you are not at this stage of your evolution... yet. For
now,
you must increase your power and help us to beat this prideful tyrant." Her
eyes
gleamed with a cold spark. "He dares to insult all of us like this. The
Amazon
cannot accept the fate of being only a hunted prey. Soon... soon we will be
ready, and then it will be time for payback."
With this, the Elder vanished from Akane's view, knowing the girl could
return
back to the village by herself now.
Akane stayed a short moment there, just standing, her mind lost. Then she
was
done, she resumed her pace. A feast was due to celebrate her success.
---
The traditional acceptance feast was a buffet and, for Ranma and Ranko, it
meant
an 'all you can grab' buffet. While they pleasured themselves by vacuuming
food,
the Amazons were busy chatting with their new sister : Akane.
Ryoga was too shy to approach her, even if the desire to do so was burning
through him.
Akane quickly became good friend with Shampoo, the village's best warrior,
elders excluded. Now that they were in good relations, Akane built the
courage
to ask Shampoo a question that plagued her.
"Shampoo, Ranma and Ranko are brother and sister, right?"
"Yes. Twins to be exact."
"I'm a little surprised because, before I came here, my father did mention
that
Ranma was a single child."
"If you had come here before Ranma had, you would have understood easily.
There
was another trial to be accepted, in the last cave just before the cauldron.
You
would have fought your inners demons there. You know about our curses,
right?"
"Yeah, you turn in a cat, Ryoga in a little pig, Ranma and Ranko change
sex."
"Correct. Ranma's curse affected the test somewhat. So, in place of fighting
his
inner demons, he fought his dark inner self. But this dark self didn't
vanish
after the test, it took his own body and became another Ranma. The real
Ranma
changed a little during this, and the new Ranma now goes by the name of
Ranko."
"Hu? You want to make me believe that you let his dark side live? And that
'she'
is his dark side?"
"Even the elders don't know for sure how it happened. But after it was done,
the
magic of the cave used for the test was completely dried up... so this test
can't be used anymore. You had it easy Akane... maybe you wouldn't have
succeeded it if that test was still active." Shampoo teased Akane with a big
grin.
"Yeah, right... whatever. She doesn't seem that bad to me. Are you sure she
is
his dark side?"
"I just repeated what was told by the elders. I don't know more than you in
this..." she shrugged her shoulders, and resumed eating while something was
left.
---
"Come on Ryoga! Don't tell me you are stuffed yet!! There is plenty more."
shouted Ranma to the lost boy. "You lost your appetite, lost boy?" Ranma
then
resumed eating at his normal pace, that is : for a waken of the Saotome
school
of eating-all-you-can-at-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet, very secret technique.
"Argh! shut up! Stuff you face so that I can't hear you, will you? And I DO
NOT
get lost that much, thank you." replied Ryoga.
"Ranma, *munch* don't tease him, *munch* he got better for that. *munch*"
Ranko
came to Ryoga's defense.
"Hu... thanks." Ryoga replied under his usual blush when talking with a
girl.
---
"They are at it again."
"Akane, you know they love each others like siblings. They just tease each
others for fun."
"Well, it look like pretty stupid to me, Shampoo."
"You have not seen my Amazon sisters just before a tournament. This is
nothing."
Akane looks at Shampoo like she had grown a second head. Well, at least, her
new
life promise to be anything but dull.
"Speaking of them, where are theirs parents? Your father cooks at your home
and
your mother is dead, but I didn't heard a word on theirs..."
"For Ryoga, it's easy : they are lost somewhere on earth. Only his awakening
allows Ryoga so stay near the village enough not to get lost."
"It can't be THAT bad?"
"Akane, Ranma told me once that Ryoga could get lost in a room with only a
door
and no windows. I can assure you it was pretty much the case before his
awakening. Because since he came here, he got a lot better, even if there is
still a lot of room for improvement."
"Oh... and Ranma's parents? His father is a friend of mine."
"His mother could be dead for all we know. His father, Genma, on the other
hand... it's a sore spot for him..."
"He is dead?"
"Worse, Akane, for us anyway. He had willingly joined force with the
beetles."
"What? Why would he do that? He left Ranma and Ranko here alone?"
"No. He doesn't know for Ranko, yet. But for Ranma, it was Elder Cologne
that
chassed Genma before he could get Ranma."
"Thanks for telling me. I will be able to avoid the mistake of mentioning it
to
them."
"The big problem is, when we'll be ready to attack, we might face him. I
hope
Ranma get strong enough to hold his own against his father."
"Genma is that powerful? Cologne beat him no?"
"Yeah, but Elder Cologne is more powerful than what we can imagine. Genma
and
Ranma awakened at the same time, but Ranma was very young then, Genma's
power
grew faster than Ranma's at first. I could bet that Ranma is increasing his
power faster than anyone here now."
"Let's hope it'll suffice".
"Yeah."
---
And so, the training continued. Harder than ever, pressing each Amazon well
further theirs limits. Accenting each one advantage. Ryoga's resistance to
damages and resistance, Ranma's speed, Akane's raw strength, Shampoo's
agility
and Ranko's psychic powers.
And so, the return to the enemies' land was planned. I didn't take that long
to
leave. only the bests were sent to gather information. Elder Cologne would
finish
the warriors training while Ranma and the others were doing their
researches.
The travel was quick, thanks to the feeble amount of sleep and food needed.
Ma Yuan being based in Lost Angeles in the USA, the Amazon scout party
decided
to go there to test theirs powers, before they all go to Los Angeles, so
that
they would know how they rank against the beetles.
---
"Guys, hide your auras. We need to appear to be slightly less powerful than
them." Ranma said, dressed in his trademark blue chinese shirt with black
trousers and black combat bracers.
"Pfff.. Ranma, don't tell us something we already know. We want to know just
how
much we can beat them." snarled Ryoga in his yellow shirt and dark green
pant,
with his trademark yellow and black bandana.
"They don't search for power below 50 anyway... so as long as we stay on
human
level, we are safe." Ranko was dressed like Ranma, her chinese shirt blood
red
instead of his sky blue.
"Human level, Ranko? we are at what can be qualified to the top best of the
human level. No human can get to this level..." Shampoo wore the Amazon
battle
suit, colored in white and pink.
"In any case, we are there. This seems to be their quarter in this village."
Akane choose to dress in a yellow gi, a remembrance of her past 'normal'
life.
"Good job Akane. Hum... I think there is a squad leader in there."
"Yeah... who get it?" asked Ranko
"The first to get to him, who else..." answered Ryoga, a big smile on his
lips.
"Less talk, more fight!" announced Shampoo. "We go now!" and she started her
run
along the street, straight toward the inn where are the beetles.
"Ooo-kay, we follow I think..."
"Then think quickly, dear brother, first there gets all the fun!!" shouted
Ranko
while dashing behind her purple haired friend.
---
Inside the inn, a detector began to scream, but too late, as the wall
exploded
to reveal a cute purple haired girl, holding two bonboris.
Before the three beetles could even blink, Shampoo charged one of them and
strike with her mace, hard. The beetle desperately tried to block the blow,
but
the mace wasn't even slowed when it crushed his blue armor and then his
sternum
and ribs, killing him.
Another beetle jumped on Shampoo to punch her in the face, but she
side-stepped
him like she didn't even mean to and crashed her mace down his skull,
imploding
it. She then struck the last one with a double hit with both maces, crushing
him
like an empty bottle.
Satisfied with her handy work, she broke the next wall, not even seeing the
door
on her left.
---
Ranko knew that when Shampoo was the first to enter battle, she didn't let
anything for her friends to play with. She concluded that the better thing
to do
was to break in with her own entrance.
Fixed on her target, she called for her fire-like chi and fired three
simultaneous small chi blast on the wall, on the second story of the inn.
She
then went in the hole to see two surprised beetles on the room. Focusing her
chi
a new time, she fried each of them with a little chi blast each, hurting and
stunning them a little.
Before they can even move, she fired a new couple fire blasts, charging them
a
little more. The blasts killed the first beetle and exploded the second one.
She
sighed because of all the killing she needed to do.
Then, she quickly opened the door et exited the bloody room.
---
Akane, surprisingly, was the first to enter the inn by the door. But she was
noticed by the two beetles guarding it. Her fear was immediately replaced by
rage as her veins were flooded by adrenaline. She charged the first guard.
Her blow was strong and, as she managed to actually hit her opponent on the
stomach, she hurt him bad, shattering his armor, expulsing the air from his
lungs. But the beetle refused to go down, even if he had to sit down,
gasping
for air.
The second one attacked her while she relished on her semi-victory. She
backed
of trying to dodge, but she was hit on her shoulder, just bruised from the
blow.
Pushing a scream of pure rage, she uppercut her aggressor on the gut,
unprotected by the parts of his armor, effectively decapitating the man and
sending his free head flying on the opposing wall, making a nasty blood
trail on
it's path and on the wall.
<Oh my God! I killed him. I didn't want to... No... no, no, no !!>
Unknown to her, the gasping beetle had recovered and prepared to hit her
from
behind. It might have been the case if Ryoga wasn't supervising her. Sadly,
it
was the case and the beetle saw his life end from quick blood loss when a
flying
bandana went to severe the arm he tried to hit Akane with.
"Akane!"
"Oh Ryoga! Don't look at me... I killed him, I'm a murderer. I'm not better
than
them..." she said sobbing.
"Stop this nonsense at once, Akane. I killed more than I wished to. I'm as
much
a killer as you, if you want to look at it like that."
"Why...?"
"Uh?"
"Why do we need to do this? Fighting is okay, but do we need to kill them?"
"Hell! They are more fighting machines than human being. If I'm ever
converted,
I want someone to kill me. I refuse to be reduced to this... this pathetic
excuse of a human."
"But..."
"No but Akane, do you want them to kill your family?"
"N...no."
"Then, help us. If you can't or don't want to kill, stay at the village. But
then you won't be able to defend your loved ones."
"Why do you fight Ryoga?"
"I wish I could say that it's to defend my family, but I barely know them,
being
lost and all... No, I fight for my friends, and my new family, the Amazons.
Come
on, follow me and cover my back. I want a part of the leader too..." he
finished
with a big grin.
"Yeah... sorry. I was not as prepared as I thought I was."
"I know, Akane. I know." He then resumed to invest the inn, a single tear on
his
cheek, unseen by Akane.
---
Ranma entered crashing the last part of the building visible on this face.
<If I want some fun, that's the only 'free' side.>
AS soon as he entered, he saw two things : the only man on the room was
sitting
at his desk and dressed in a brown battle suit, very alike the blue beetles.
The
second thing was that this man power was higher than the others ones,
meaning he
was the leader.
"Found you." announced happily Ranma.
"Fools. Maybe you are strong enough to kill beetles likes bees. But you'll
find
that I'm not like them." The man stand and take a battle stance.
"Come get me!" Ranma dared him, getting ready too.
"You amuse me. I'm a Justicer."
"And you have a big mouth."
Ranma zapped the distance between him and the brown armored guy in a blink,
trying his defense with a simple hit on the jaw. He succeed in hitting but
didn't make much damage.
"Good... I feared you wouldn't even entertain me. Apparently, you'll do
fine."
Ranma said.
"Puny rebel..." howled the Justicer while wiping a little blood from his
mouth.
"Want more? You just have to ask!" teased Ranma just before launching
another
simple attack. This time, his opponent moved out of the fist's path at the
last
second.
"Well, that's better. And how's that?" continued Ranma.
This time, Ranma's body itself seemed to blur while he hit the man just
bellow
the chest armor.
"Urgh... *cough* You dare?"
"You're funny, ya know? Just a moment before, you were sure that you were
going
to crush me... Now that's not gonna happen. Bye!"
This time, Ranma hit the armor and it absorb all the damages.
<Damn. I might have to take better care of my aim.>
The next chi powered blow was perfectly calculated to hit the unprotected
jaw,
pushed forward by the last punch. The man went flying into the wall. He got
back
up with difficulty.
"Ready for more, pal?" <Damn, I'm near my limit. I can't go with chi powered
blows like that forever. Maybe allowing the others a little fun? Well, if
they
manage to get their asses here in time, that is. Wait? He can't even stand
by
himself?> "This is the final blow!" shouted Ranma while he threw himself at
the
Justicer, both his fists glowing blue. "Kachu Tenshin Amagouriken!"
Ranma pummeled the barely standing man in the torso and face a few hundred
times, making him to lose the last of his consciousness.
"Pfiou... It was harder than I thought it would be." Ranma acknowledged,
panting
from his chi massive loss in his last action.
Ranko finally entered the room, looking as fresh as before the start of the
battle.
"Argh! Too late."
"Eh. He was nearly as tough as Ryoga. A good match."
"Really?" Ranko asked him, surprised and disappointed at the same time.
"Yeah. Justicer, my ass. If one of us is able to defeat them in a one on one
fight, we won't have to wait too long before our attack."
"Yeah. But you didn't finished him..."
"Didn't have time... Damn armors."
"Hey... you just gave me an idea."
"Hu?"
"Let's take theirs armors, we can use the boost."
"Why not... It's not like he actually hit me, but I'm the fastest, and maybe
the
others won't have as much luck as me. Hey look!"
"A sword? Maybe Shampoo will be happy to get it..."
"Yeah. Let's get out of here..."
"Okay, let me finish him and take his uniform. We might have a need for it
later." she says, using a fire blast to blow up the Justicer head.
---
Amazon village, after return of the scout party.
"So, children. How are things doing?" asked Elder Cologne.
"Their Justicers are tough. As much as us. The beetles nonetheless are like
weaklings now." announced Ranma.
"Hum... and what is this?" she asked, pointing to a large cloth pile.
"We kind of stole some uniforms... It might come in handy..." answered
Ranko.
"Well done. I think that you can now go prepare our arrival to our nemesis'
hive."
"We can leave as soon as we are ready."
"The use of the beetles uniforms can help you to get in the city."
"We won't disappoint you, Elder." promised Ryoga.
The next morning, the group was once again leaving the village, planning a
new
step needed before the final battle.
---
End of Chapter 1
Next chapter : infiltration in Los Angeles, someone return when he is the
least needed. Genma and Ranma, a fight between father and son
author's note:
I'm in great need for a prereader or two for this fic...
I'm gonna start chapter 2 soon, and I want to as least finish the first arch
(up to chapter 4) as soon as possible... the story plot itself is planned
from prologue to epilogue there will be (if things don't change) 24 chapter
+ the prologue and epilogue...
C&C are very welcome, but not flames...
you can criticize me if you want, but ONLY if you're contructive... (no "you
suck.")
see you soon for chapter 2 :)
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