The following is something that caught fire in my
imagination last night and refused to leave.  Oh well.
 Depending on the feedback, I might pump out a
prologue and a few chapters... 

Crossing the Line Teaser


All though not well educated, Ranma wasn�t stupid.  As
 many of his (former) enemies would have attested to,
one of his greatest strengths was having an extremely
adaptable strategy.  During a fight, a small part of
his mind would take in the situation and devise
various ways on which to effectively counter the
situation.  The pig-tailed martial artist, while still
in the shroud of the Umisenken, pondered his next
move.

Obviously, he was outnumbered.  They had weapons that
were artificial, yet extremely effective.  Fast as he
was, Ranma didn�t even begin thinking of trying to
catch or block the bullets.  All of them were
professional soldiers.  They wouldn�t hesitate in
trying to kill him.  And those three women were
potential hostages.  Soul of Ice or not, Ranma would
die before letting someone else die an undeserving
death.  

His advantages?  He was physically stronger and so
much faster than them.  Strong and tough though these
terrorists were, their body structure could not
withstand a prolonged assault from any kicks or
punches that he would throw.  They probably had combat
experience and weaponless fighting, but Ranma was
multiple levels above what was considered a normal
martial artist.  Even Akane, as slow and uncoordinated
as she was, could beat a second dan in karate with
relative ease.  For close range combat, he had his
Chestnut Fist.  For long range attacks, he had the
Mouko Takabisha and the vacuum blades.  For group
tactics, he had the Hiryu Shoten Ha and the Demon God
Dance.  For secrecy, he had his own stealth, and also
not to mention the Mantle of the Thief.  

Ranma nodded as he mentally tabulated everything up. 
He would disable the leaders first with a quick
decisive strike, then attempt to lead the underlings
away from their captives.  After that, he would either
take them out en masse or one by one, whatever the
situation called for.  He would not fail.

His greatest advantage was that they had no idea he
was stalking them,  they had no idea what he was
capable of, and they had no idea of the kind of power
needed to kill a god that lied in his callused hands. 
  

Sealing his emotions away with the Soul of Ice, Ranma
engaged the Umisenken and made his way into their
midst.  	

*************************************************************
They were caught.   

Resignedly, Jinx, Lady Jaye, and Scarlett dropped
their weapons and stood away from them.  Standing in a
semi circle around them were Monkey Wrench and Torch
of the Dreadnoks, as well as seven Vipers.  

�So much for my idea,� murmured Scarlett to Jinx as
the Dreadnoks walked towards them.  In a confident
voice, the ninja replied, �Don�t worry, another
opportunity will present itself.  All we have to do is
wait till then.�

Further talk was discouraged when Torch, visibly
shaking with anger, walked right up to Scarlett and
suddenly punched her full in the stomach.  The red
haired covert operations specialist was bent over, her
breath expelled out of her lungs, and a second punch
caught square in the face.  When she was knocked down
by the blow, her head hit the cement hard and she lost
consciousness.  

��Dat was fer Buzzer, bitch!�  spat the maddened Torch
as he gazed hatefully down upon her.  His rage
increased as he saw that she was not conscious and he
began kicking her with all the force he could muster. 


�Scarlett!!�  Lady Jaye screamed in horror and reacted
instinctively.  She leapt forward and slammed into the
Dreadnok with all her might.  Taken by surprise, the
man stumbled back and fell flat on his ass.  Lady Jaye
stood in front of the fallen Scarlett in a defensive
stance, determined to not allow any more harm come to
her friend.  Jinx silently yet quickly moved to back
the brunette up.  

If Torch was furious before, now he was absolutely,
totally pissed off now.  His face crimson with rage,
he scrambled to his feet, raving like a lunatic. 
�H-I�ll-da-grrr!!�  he growled incomprehensively and
yanked his pistol from his belt.  �Kill YOU!! Dead
bitch!!�  he shouted, his wrath contorting his ability
to speak.  �Dead! Dead! DEAD!!�

The Dreadnok began to reach for his revolver from his
belt, with the obvious intention of making his claims
real.  But suddenly, out of thin air, a man appeared
out of thin air.  His arms seemed to flicker so fast
that only the results were able to be seen.  As if
struck in abdomen, Torch bent over, gasping for air,
then the newcomer smoothly grabbed him and threw the
hapless Dreadnok directly at Monkey Wrench.

The entire sequence of actions had taken place within
one second.  

Too shocked by the recent events to even react, Monkey
Wrench could only say, �What the-� before an airborne
Torch collided painfully into him.  In a whirl of
legs, arms, and bodies both of them impacted on the
asphalt road hard.  

As the Vipers struggled to make sense out of what was
happening, they raised their weapons (though they were
careful not to point them anywhere in the general
direction of either Dreadnok).  But the unknown
attacker wasn�t able to be seen.  Each of the
terrorists scrutinized the immediate area, trying to
pick out anything on the obviously invisible enemy.  

Lady Jaye and Jinx exchanged completely confused
looks.  They were now flat on the ground next to an
unconscious Scarlett.  Although they were the closest
to Torch when it had happened, they didn�t see anyone
or even a hint of an outline.  It seemed that whoever
the new mystery entrant into this situation was, he or
she had perfected a way of being completely invisible.
 As Lady Jaye wiped away some of the blood on her
teammate�s face, Jinx recalled back to the time when
Cobra had captured a certain Dr. Ehks.  

Dr. Ehks had been a scientist trying to perfect a
machine capable of turning things invisible.  Cobra
Commander had thought it would be an extreme advantage
for Cobra to have an invisible army and had promptly
kidnapped the poor doctor.  After Crystal Ball had
snatched the missing component from Ehks subconscious,
Cobra Commander then proceeded to construct the
invisible device.  

On that mission, Sneak Peak, Tunnel Rat, and Law and
his dog, Order, had played a significant role in
rescuing Dr. Ehks and foiling Cobra�s plans.  Jinx
wondered if somehow General Hawk had used the
invisiblity device to slip more Joe team members
undetected into Japan.  

*************************************************************

	
While the terrorist soldiers were anxiously and
looking for a trace of him, a certain Ranma Saotome,
cloaked in the Umi-senken, mentally calculated his
next move.  The terrorist leaders were down and
unconscious.  Now, he had get rid of all eight of the
soldiers, as well as avenge Tendo-san.  

He jumped into the air, crossing well over twelve feet
and extended his right foot out.  When he was about to
strike the chosen terrorist, one who was the nearest
to the women, he let go of the Umisenken and
immediately fired a Mouko Takabisha from each hand. 
His leap kick knocked the Viper flying away; his
double ki blasts also knocked their designated targets
down.     

The commotion instantly alerted the other soldiers. 
Simultaneously they swung around, lifting up their
assault rifles to shoot at the martial artist.  

They were too slow.  

Ranma�s mind, reactions and reflexes were working
overtime.  As he touched down from his leaping kick,
he was already focusing on the remaining soldiers.  By
reading their body language, he knew that they were
going to turn around.  By the time they were in
position, Ranma had already acted. 

He leapt up in the air again and became invisible.    

Cursing soundly, the Vipers held their fire, not
wanting to kill the prisoners.  Not that they wanted
them to live or anything like that, Zartan would have
the head of anyone who would kill a potentially useful
hostage, especially against G.I. Joe.  Then one of
them had the bright idea of calling for backup.  None
of the Cobra soldiers wanted to admit it, but they
were starting to feel panicky.  Fighting invisible
foes was something a bit out of their field of
experience.  

While his fellow Vipers clustered close around him,
the Viper who had the idea of calling for backup
proceeded to do so.  It was the worst tactical mistake
that all of them would ever make.   

Ranma appeared in front of the radioing Viper.  With a
speed few on Earth could follow, let alone match, a
fierce sidekick propelled the terrorist against the
backs of his fellow Vipers, staggering them off
balance.  Like an unstoppable tsunami, Ranma flowed
towards them.  To the young Saotome, the outside world
seemed to slow down, and his reflexes and instincts
were greatly focused.  His purpose for living had
shrunken down to one single directive.

Avenge his family.

His first opponent desperately tried to get his weapon
in line with the pig-tailed fighter.  Unfortunately
for him,  Ranma was there first.  The following
assault took all of a split second to execute.  A
quick jab broke the terrorist�s wrist, which caused
him to drop his rifle, and was followed up by left
hook that shattered the faceplate and did the same to
his jawbone.  Ranma unhesitatingly used him as a
projectile against two other terrorists who were
standing close to each other.

The terrorist on the right received the full package,
but the one of the left reacted quickly enough to
duck.  He lifted his gun and pointed it at the
Japanese martial artist; before he could fire, a
blinding yellowish glowing blast rocketed straight at
him.

The final Viper had sufficient time to aim his rifle
at the martial artist. He unhesitatingly yanked on the
trigger and started shouting victoriously.  But in the
next moment when he didn�t hear the expected roar of
gunfire, he looked down in confusion.  He  quickly
found out that it was pretty damned hard to fire a gun
when nearly half of it is gone, the victim of a thrown
vaccum blade.  

Cursing roundly, he dropped it and grabbed for his
sidearm in his belt.  But he failed in that too as
Ranma displayed his displeasure in having a lethal
weapon aimed in his direction.  The Viper was hammered
by a blazingly fast Chestnut Fist, a mere thirty
punches, ten each to his chest, abdomen, and face. 
The terrorist�s faceplate shattered, along with his
nose and most of his front teeth.  The physical shock
of the unbelievingly strong punches being delivered
was too much for the poor terrorist.  He soon joined
his fellows in the blessed land of the unconscious.   

As the last Viper fell, Jinx and Lady Jaye were
already moving to pick up the rifles dropped by their
former captors.  Although the newcomer (who was
obviously in control of his invisibility) had taken
down the Cobra foot soldiers, that didn�t necessarily
mean that he was on G.I. Joe�s side.  Besides, they
still had an unconscious teammate to protect, which
meant  extra caution in all situations.

 Keeping in front of Scarlett, the two female Joes
pointed their rifles downward and studied the
impossible young man. 

He was tall for a Japanese, around 5�8, with raven
black hair tied in a pigtail that reached the small of
his back.  By his face, Lady Jaye placed him between
sixteen to eighteen years old.  He wore a red Chinese
silk shirt with rolled up sleeves and black silk
pants.  A matching pair of black kung fu shoes
accompanied his pants.  Even from this distance, Jinx
could see that he was in a ready stance and that he
was tightly muscled.  As young as he looked, both
women had to admit that he was quite handsome; he
would probably be a lady killer when he matured into a
man.  

Their examination was interrupted when he dropped his
stance and gave a bow towards them.  As he
straightened back up, he was unconsciously scratching
the base of his pigtail as he introduced himself with
a somewhat embarrassed expression on his face.

�I Ranma Saotome.  This sorry I am for.�  



		
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