Ranma Unleashed
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A fan fiction story revolving around the world of "Lois & Clark: The New
Adventures" and "Ranma 1/2." No infringement of ownership is meant. It is
just for fun.
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"I won't go easy on you, boy!" the stout, middle-aged man wearing a white
karate-dogi yelled. The fact that he was balanced on a bamboo pole set in
the middle of a small pool seemed to matter little to him.
His son, similarly clad and also standing on another bamboo pole, just
seemed happy about the challenge. "Just the way I like it!" he crowed
back.
All around them lay many pools, each with one or two bamboo poles. It
looked like some sort of exotic training locations, just perfect for two
martial artists on the path of self-improvement. Which it supposedly was.
For just a moment, the air hung still. Neither martial artist took note or
heeded the cries from a Chinese guide or the pulsating energies that were
hidden just below the waters. With a mutual yell, they leaped at each
other, fist and feet trying to snake past the other's defense.
The young man prevailed, kicking his father into a pool. Things became
confused as a panda leaped from the pool, not his father! It attacked
viciously, attempting to hit him with punches and kicks. The boy was so
rattled that he barely heard the guide say something about it being "too
tragic" and "pool of drowned panda!" Finally, the panda broke through the
shocked boy's defenses, sending him plummeting into another pool.
The first thing Ranma noticed (as the boy was named) after he stood up was
that he was feeling rather off-center and that his clothing wasn't hanging
correctly on his body. Off to the side, the guide seemed to be blathering
on about "pool of drowned girl" and "terrible story about girl who drowned
here..."
Suddenly, the guide's words finally penetrated his consciousness.
Typically, Ranma would have listened to his intuition that was screaming
that danger was about to descend upon him. But he, no she, was too focused
on checking for upper-female body parts.
She suddenly screamed like a girl, even as energy started to arc from the
pool, golden yellow like the sun. With a blinding flash, energy screamed
into her body like an electrical monsoon.
-
Ranma woke up to a throbbing headache. He seemed to be on some sort of mat
in a hut of some sort. "Oh, man! I had some sort of weird dream. I fell
into this pool and turned into a girl!"
A broad faced man in a Chinese uniform took a pipe out of his mouth.
"Customer is too, too funny! That was no dream, that was accursed training
ground! Customer fell into pool of drowned girl."
The boy patted his chest very quickly. "But I'm not a girl!"
Genma Saotome nodded sagely. "Hot water can temporarily cure us. Until
cold water activates it again."
"Us?" Ranma echoed. "Oh, yeah! You turned into a panda!"
"Our guide has promised to lead us to a nearby village that may have some
help for us." Genma said.
"Whatever."
-
"Stupid rain," Ranma groused to herself. She tried to keep it from her
voice, but this was really freaking her out. Everything seemed to feel and
look just... different. She also couldn't understand why she felt so much
better. It was like her steps were extra bouncy, and gravity could barely
hold her to the ground. She kept bouncing five feet when she meant to just
take a step.
Genma-panda and the guide just watched blankly as Ranma seemed to struggle
not to jump into the air, striking branches and trees with far too much
frequency. When she grabbed at a tree to stand up and crushed it to pulp,
she started to worry. The tree crashed to the ground, torn up from her
casual strength.
Genma-panda swatted her hard and then started to moan like he had hurt the
paw.
"Hey, Old Man! Hold still a second." Ranma tried to carefully pick up her
father, to test her suddenly increased strength.
Genma-panda gasped and started to make more weird moaning noises. When
Ranma put him down he just lay on the ground moaning.
She could also swear that for just a moment, here and there, she could see
the bones in the panda in front of her. But whenever she blinked, it went
away. It also looked like a couple of ribs might be broken.
"This is really freaking me out, Pop!"
The guide, from a safe distance, spoke up. "Too, too strange."
"Um, Mr. Guide? Could you heat up some water. I think we need it." Ranma
sounded scared even in her own ears. Genma hadn't stood up yet.
After quickly heating the water and reverting them both to their original
forms, Ranma found out just how much "she" had inadvertently hurt his
father.
"Ungrateful boy," Genma wheezed. "You didn't have to break my ribs!"
"I don't get it! I thought you said girls were weaker than boys?" Ranma
yelled out.
"They are, normally! But something is unusual about your curse. It is
inhumanly strong," Genma said.
Ranma started to wrap his father's ribs. "Everything is just wrong. I
could swear I even saw your bones... though your skin!"
"We must figure out the secret of your cursed form! If we could harness
that power, our school would become unstoppable!" Genma exclaimed, and
then grasped his ribs in pain. "That's going to be a few days to heal."
Ranma blinked as the thought percolated through his brain. "That power! It
will be mine! I'll do whatever I can to master it!"
Proud words, but after another day of this, she was only slowly getting
the hang of it, even if her clothing was pretty much trashed.
They were walking into the village the guide had mentioned, finally.
"Oh, customer is too lucky! Today is great day, many warriors test
themselves in tournament!" the guide exclaimed brightly as two girls
finished their duel. The prettier girl bested the hulking, barely female
figure.
"That girl has some serious power," Ranma commented around the food she
was wolfing down. The panda right next to her nodded his agreement.
He turned to tell his 'customers' something more when he noted that they
were eating the Prize of the tournament. "Aie! What are customers doing?"
He was interrupted by the winner of the match as she stomped up, looking
very angry and yelling something out in Chinese.
"She ask what you do eating her prize, since she just won tourney!" the
guide supplied helpfully.
Genma and Ranma looked over to the sign that they had totally missed just
a moment ago. They shared a quick glance at each other, before Ranma spoke
up. "Well, if I win the tournament it'll be alright, right?"
The guide translated for the champion. "She agrees!"
The two girls bounced to onto the large log that was being used as the
battle-platform to the cheers of the on looking crowd. The village
champion charged the girl with a snarl, seemingly confident of her
victory. She swung her two bonbori to crush the impudent outsider to dust!
Ranma focused on the girl, watching her as she charged. She almost felt a
crackle in her nerves as everything seemed to slow down in some form or
another. Ranma just shook her head for second, never taking her eyes off
of the girl. This champion was leaving herself terribly wide open. And
incredibly slow, by her standards.
With a carefully controlled weak snap-kick, Ranma launched the girl into
the air. The red-head just grinned to herself as she saw the girl fly
slowly up... up... and up above the village to crash out of sight,
trailing blood from her jaw. "Huh?" Ranma said to herself, blinking her
eyes. Had she really seen that correctly?
The crowd stood silent for just a second, before a couple of the warriors
ran towards where the champion landed.
"Huh. Didn't mean to kick her... quite so hard. I barely touched her. Hope
she's fine. Oh, well. That prize is mine!" Ranma just grinned at the
thought of all that food. Unpleasant thoughts were best ignored for as
long as possible.
The panda next to her just nodded his agreement. He hadn't really seen
that kick or what had happened to the girl. All he seen was a blur and the
girl arcing over the village.
One of the girls that had run after their champion finally returned, her
face twisted with the anger she felt. She started yelling something
quickly while pointing at the pair at the table. Whatever it was seemed to
be upsetting many people.
Suddenly, a young man with long hair and wearing voluminous robes leaped
above the crowd.
The guide was starting to sweat nervously. "Er, they say you killed
champion! This young man swear ever-lasting blood feud against you and
your own!"
Ranma gaped! "Wha-?"
Surprisingly enough, the crowd dove away from the duo sitting at the food
table. The robed figure suddenly unleashed a hail of knives. Ranma was so
surprised she barely dodged most of them. She mentally cringed at the cuts
she expected to feel. But no pain erupted from the weapons, even the one
she felt bounce off her bicep! She new this cursed body was tough, but to
ignore blades?
A weird bellow roared out from near her as she slid across the ground.
Genma-panda clutched his arm with his other paw. A dagger was buried up to
the haft.
Ranma snarled suddenly as she turned back around. "You hurt my father!
I'll never forgive you for that!"
Genma hooted something that only he had an idea of what meant. He hopped
to his feet and dashed off, at a surprisingly fast pace for a panda. In
moments, he was out of sight.
"My name is Ranma Saotome! I accept your challenge," she cried out as she
raised her fists up in challenged.
The onlookers just looked on in surprise. Did she feel that she could
defeat all of them by herself?
The young man in robes yelled out something in anger. He only understood a
little of the Japanese that the girl was speaking. "Die!" he finally
screamed as he charged the girl, his swords out and ready to sweep her
into several pieces.
Ranma watched the slow attack. She didn't even bother to move. At the very
last moment, she merely caught the blades in her hands, effortlessly.
The crowds, and Mousse, just gasped. "Demon!" the young Joketzu man cried
out in shock in his native tongue.
"Good night, Gracie!" the petite Japanese girl said as she lightly
flat-palmed Mousse away. He rocketed away a good sixty feet, feeling his
ribs break. She turned to start after her father when an old woman moved
in front of her.
It sounded like she was ordering two slightly younger woman to do
something and then something to the crowd that caused them to flee. She
turned back to Ranma. In passable Japanese, she called out, "Demon, you
shall not pass from the lands of the Joketzu with the blood of our
champion on your hand. So swears Lo Shwan!" She took a martial pose,
easily balanced on one leg.
Ranma felt a formidable fighting spirit from her. That just caused the
young martial artist to just grin ferally. "You don't have enough power to
stop me."
"Pi-Do-Po-Ti-Shi!" the matron cried, her hands moving fast, even by
Ranma's new, superhuman speed. Arcs of light streaked from her hands and
at Ranma.
Ranma leaped out of the, barely! But, so unused to her new strength she
stripped the ground out from under her own feet. She spun into the air,
arms and legs akimbo. The ground where she had seemed to explode from her
jump and the light that slammed into it! "Wa-a-a-a-a-a-a!" Ranma cried as
she bounced off of a tree.
"Fool! You have power, but no skill!" the matronly Joketzu said, even as
she charged into the battle. "I am the battle master of the Joketzu! Skill
will always defeat strength! Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire!" Her
fists blurred into action striking the barely rising Ranma in death vitals
with no mercy.
The red-haired girl was flung back into the air, mostly unhurt. She had
actually felt that! It had taken Genma going all out to hit as hard as
this woman had! And she had hit her dozens of times. Ranma flipped to land
on her feet, surprising Lo Shwan.
That had been rather graceful, all in all. If this demon was actually
skilled, she was as good as dead, Lo Shwan thought to herself. There may
only be one way to defeat her. And at that, it would come with a great
cost.
"I almost felt that!" Ranma called out in shock. Suddenly she was engulfed
in flames that only singed her very tough skin. It did burn away most of
her dogi though. "Hey!"
"She survived the Purifying Flames of Faltine?" one of the women that Lo
Shwan had sent off earlier said in apparent shock, flame licking out from
an amulet she wore.
Ranma charged the two newcomers, slipping and sliding in her haste. These
people were trying to kill her! Her feet moved frantically to push her,
but the hard-packed ground was too soft. She forgot her strength for just
a moment as she spun between the two new attackers. The two women barely
even saw the foreigner move before she struck. The ground exploded behind
her running form as Ranma's hand passed through the left woman's shoulder
in a spray of blood. The shock of seeing that managed to get the girl to
pull back on her stupendous strength at the very last moment; merely
shattering her partner's thigh into a dozen pieces. "Crap! I didn't mean-"
Ranma started to say as she tumbled across the ground.
"Demon. You will now die. Three thousand years of Joketzu battle-lore will
eradicate you! You will harm not harm anyone else!" Lo Shwan screamed as
she charged.
I can't hit her hard, she'll just die, Ranma thought furiously as she
bounced to her feet. She started to try and slap Lo Shwan. But she was as
elusive as the wind.
"As graceful as a cow." Lo Shwan felt the thumb scrape her face.
"The face of a goat hind." The matriarch's shirt ripped from the near
scrape.
"As talented as a slug!"
Again Ranma missed by the barest margins.
"As stupid as a man!"
Ranma's face twisted up in anger at each of Lo Shwan's insult.
"Dragon's Rising Ascension Blast!" she managed to scream at the last
moment. Never had she pushed her body so fast, never had she fought such a
swift demon. Her cold fist missed the stranger by what seemed a mile.
Ranma never knew what hit her. It felt like a bomb went off in her
stomach, which was a fair approximation of the power that hit her. That
moment would be etched Ranma's mind for all time. The tornado that was
powered by her own growing strength and anger. Later, she would wonder at
the hot and cold winds that she could somehow see.
But that would be far later, when she awoke days later.
Off in the distance, a panda watched a tornado of epic proportion explode
into existance. He saw the the village explode as if one of the mighty
bombs of great nations had gone off. He managed to hide behind a large
boulder just in time as trees were ripped from the ground and tossed into
the air.
As suddenly as it came into existance, it winked out. Genma felt an
unfamiliar pang of worry. There was nothing left of the village bigger
than a stick. Debris started to rain from the sky.
The panda watched the sky closely. Perhaps Ranma had been thrown into that
maelstrom and was going to crash to the ground wounded and dying. He
waited five minutes.
Then ten minutes. Ice was starting to creep into his heart.
Suddenly, a shooting star lit up the daytime sky. The meteorite flashed
through the air like a spark of the Sun to slam into the earth just a few
miles away with a shattering trans-sonic boom.
If... that was Ranma... there was no way he could have survivied that.
None! But Genma couldn't ignore the fact that he felt like that was most
likely Ranma. The panda took off, hoping beyound hope that Ranma was still
alive.
If he had been a man, he would have sobbed in relief when he got to the
prone body. Her hair was singed, her skin red and burned.
But she breathed.
Genma carefully lifted the girl into his ursine arms. Such power that
those women had! It dwarfed the Master's own power significantly! He must
steal those techniques.
With a sudden surge of will, Genma released something he thought he would
never have to use again.
Against the power to destroy cities, his Umisenken, the Sea of One
Thousand Fists was nothing. For his and his son's sake, he released his
forbidden techniques.
-
Arthur Hansen
----
Arthur Hansen
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