TRTSS 21: Ranma's Zone of Twilight! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: R1/2, SM, ST and the Twilight Zone belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre.
Author's Note: Sometimes, I get ideas that I want to put down on "paper", but end up not fleshing out. So, this story is just a series of vignettes (marked A-Z, so it's a limited series) based upon the "Twilight Zone" television series. As always, C&C are welcomed.
Part 1
A. "Where is Everybody?"
Submitted to your approval: The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch, could be our journey…
Ranma Saotome woke up in the middle of his bed with a splitting headache.
"Aw, man," Ranma said to himself, as he rubbed his forehead. "What the hell did I drink last night…?"
Ranma looks around to see that he was in a nondescript room. A generic painting could be seen on the far wall. On his right was yet another generic painting, although it was next against a dresser and a mirror.
"Where the hell I am?" Ranma asked himself, as he decides to inspect his person. He was wearing a standard US Air Force flight suit and he had his boots on.
"Weird," Ranma replied. "I wonder why I'm in this uniform?"
Ranma hops out of bed, and looks around to see if there was anyone else in the building…
He found none.
Ranma checked the house. It appeared to be a two-floor, three-bedroom home that was straight out of suburbia. Instinctively, he checked to see if there was a phone of some kind.
There was none.
Slightly concerned now, Ranma checked the radio and the television set, and found nothing but static.
And that was when Ranma REALLY became concerned.
Ranma attempted to reach into his personal pocket space, and found nothing.
"Screw this," Ranma said, as he steps outside of the house, and discovered something:
There was nothing.
Sure, Ranma could hear the sound of nature, but no people.
"Aw, man," Ranma said, as he looked up and down the street. The street was lined with suburban homes, but there were no people…not a one.
"Where's everybody?" Ranma yelled aloud.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Lorien the First and the Moon Princess watched Ranma, as he experienced an alternate reality in his mind, while encased in an energy cocoon. The Moon Princess turns towards her companions.
"Is this really necessary?" Usagi asked. "I don't know why Ranma even agreed to this…test."
"If your husband is to make the transition to the status of an Ascended being, he has to be able to deal with loneliness," said the enigmatic being. "One day, Ranma Saotome will have to give up everything, including company."
"I don't like that," the Moon Princess replied. "I WANT to be with him."
"And you will, in time," Lorien said. "But you of all people know what's it means to journey alone."
"My journey was unintentional."
"But necessary," Lorien said, as he turns his full attention back towards Ranma. "And so will Ranma's…"
Usagi nods her head. She knew that the Lords of Chaos and the Lords of Order did not like her relationship with Ranma, in a classic Romeo and Juliet kind of way. Inwardly, she would have to abide by the will of Fate, although she just might bend the rules just a bit…
B. "One for the Angels"
Street scene: Summer…the present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: Pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July; a nondescript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. In just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival, because as of three o'clock this hot July afternoon he'll be stalked by Mr. Death.
"You have no place here, Lord of Chaos," said Mr. Death as he looms forward. "His name was on the Death Note."
"And you can 'suck it'," Ranma replied, as he interceded on the salary man's behalf. "What happened was an accident."
Light Yagami, the keeper of the Death Note, was in a quandary. He had learned that Bookman had accidentally killed a child when he had been stationed in Japan shortly after the war. A neighbor of his had spotted the killer of his son, and sought Light to avenge the death. Light, after careful research, had found Lew Bookman's name, and proceeded to exact divine justice.
However, there was Ranma, who just happened to be an old friend of Bookman's…
"What is your name?" Light said, as he brings up the Death Note.
"Ah, you want MY name?" Ranma sneered.
"Yes."
"Ranma Saotome."
Light quickly writes down Ranma's name.
"Since you are impeding justice, you shall bear the consequences," Light said.
Bookman turns towards his old friend.
"I'm sorry for getting you into this," Bookman said.
"No need to thank me," Ranma said.
"Now, you shall die, for your name is in the Death Note-!" Mr. Death said, before he sees another entity that is…Death. This Death was of the Endless, and was on a higher power than Mr. Death.
"Sorry," said the pale, Goth chick. "Can't let you do that, Ryuk."
"But his name is on the Death Note!"
"And Ranma Saotome has already cheated death," Death said wistfully.
"Ugh!" said Mr. Death.
"What is it, Ryuk?" Light said.
"Death slept with HIM!" Mr. Death said.
"Hey, I use what I know," Ranma said with a smirk. "But, I invoke the right to a game of chance."
"Oh?"
"I'll relinquish my right to live, if Bookman fails to give one last sales pitch."
"Fine, but I'll choose the client," Ryuk said.
"I'll do one better: Bookman will give one last sales pitch…to you."
"What?" Bookman said.
Ranma turns towards the older-looking man.
"Bookman, you're the best salesman I've ever known," Ranma said with a smile. "This is…the big leagues."
"Are you sure…I can do this?" Bookman said.
"Buddy, I wouldn't put my faith in you."
"I'll accept your wager, if I have your word that your wife, the Moon Princess does seek vengeance," Mr. Death said.
"Deal."
"Good," Mr. Death said, as he turns towards Bookman, as he folds his arms. "Sell me something."
Bookman merely swallows hard. Still, he wouldn't be known as the 'Best Salesman West of the Mississippi' for nothing.
"Okay," Bookman said, as he clapped his hands. "Where to begin…"
C. "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"
Submitted for your approval: Portrait of a town drunk named Al Denton. This is a man who's begun his dying early—a long agonizing route through a maze of bottles. Al Denton, who would probably give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance, to be able to rise up and shake the dirt from his body and the bad dreams that infest his consciousness. In the parlance of the times, this is a peddler, a rather fanciful-looking little man in a black frock coat. And this is the third principal character of our story: Ranma Saotome. His function? Perhaps to give Mister Al Denton his second chance.
Deadwood City, Texas: 1890 CE.
"Why should I trust you, a 'Chinaman'?" said Denton, as he washed his face at the horse troth.
"First, I'm Japanese," Ranma said, with annoyance. He was on his way to Los Angeles, California, to catch a ship to Australia, when he came across a former gunslinger that was down on his luck.
"Second, I can't stand to see someone as pathetic as you be so…weak."
"Hey!" Denton yells. "It's not like that at all!"
"I heard," Ranma said, as he throws a towel at Denton. "You got tired of having the reputation of being the best gunslinger around. So, you ended up an alcoholic."
"Humph," Denton replied. "But it don't matter, since I'm not the man I use to be."
"Well, I can help you get your speed back fairly quickly," Ranma said.
"How is that?" Denton asked.
"Let me see your gun," Ranma asked.
Shrugging, Denton does as he is told.
"Okay, now what?" Denton asked.
"Watch," Ranma said, as he turns the gun towards his head.
"Huh?" said Denton, as he attempts to grab the gun in Ranma's hand. "Don't-!"
BANG!
Denton watches Ranma catch the bullet between his fingers, while the gun was six inches from his temples.
"As you can see, I know a little bit about speed," Ranma said with a knowing smile, as he drops the bullet. "Why do you think I don't carry a gun?"
"Huh," Denton said. "Impressive."
Pause.
"So, what am I going to learn? How to be faster than a speeding bullet?"
"No, my friend," Ranma said. "By the time you are ready to face your opponent, you HAVE to."
D. "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine"
Picture of a woman looking at a picture. Movie great of another time, once-brilliant star in a firmament no longer a part of the sky, eclipsed by the movement of earth and time. Barbara Jean Trenton, whose world is a projection room, whose dreams are made out of celluloid. Barbara Jean Trenton, struck down by hit-and-run years and lying on the unhappy pavement, trying desperately to get the license number of fleeting fame.
Las Angeles, California: 1959 CE.
"Ronnie, thank goodness you're here," said Danny Wiess, a movie agent and old friend of Ranma's. The two had met some time during Japan's "Reconstruction Period", when Wiess was helping to set up a movie industry in the country that was not ridden with propaganda, as it was during the Tojo Era during World War II…
"Well, I'm to help and all, but why would you need me?" Ranma asked.
"Look, the things that you do…well, I know that you're an expert in the strange and paranormal."
"Um, that was just an 'oni' I defeated, man," Ranma replied. "And technically, I'm not even supposed to be using my…talents without government sanction."
"Well…I know. But it's…Barbara Jean."
"Barbara Jean Trenton?" Ranma replied. "I remember her. Golden Age beauty, actress and all-around entertainer. Did some USO shows."
"Well, she's in trouble."
"Oh?"
Danny takes Ranma into a study, where the aging actress would sit in day after day, reliving her past life as an actress in her prime. However, something was wrong…
"Where is she?" Ranma asked, as he looks around the empty study.
"You'll see," Danny said, as he activates a nearby movie projector…
CLICK!
As the film begins to play, Ranma's senses spiked. There were powerful forces at work.
"There!" Danny said, as he points to the projection screen. She's right there!"
Ranma looks at the screen, and notices that the woman in the film was moving about as she entertained her guests.
"Explain that," Danny asked, as he points to the silver screen. "She had thrown her scarf in the picture, and I found that same scarf at the very spot she threw it."
Ranma looks at the silver screen very closely…
"Apparently, your friend 'Awakened'," Ranma said, as he sat down on a nearby chair.
"I don't understand."
"What do you think of the term…'magic'?" Ranma asked.
"Just the stage stuff by vaudevillians."
"Danny, magic is REAL, and Barb just awakened to it by forcing reality to bend to her will."
"Poppy-cock," Danny scoffed. "There has to be a logical explanation for all this."
"Logic has very little to do with it. Magic is the ultimate wish fulfillment made real."
"Then how come more people can't do…magic?"
"Simple: not everyone is talented or strong enough to bend reality."
"Okay, say that you are right. How can we get Barbara back?"
"What makes you think she wants to?" Ranma said. "But…I suppose we can ask her."
"How is that possible?"
"Because, I can do magic as well…"
"Bull."
"Well, then sit back, and watch," Ranma said, as he gets up. He handed his hat to Danny.
"And learn…"
With that, Ranma leaps into the silver screen.
FWOOSH!
"My god," Danny said. "It's true…"
In the picture, Ranma turns to look back at Danny.
"It's nothing more that manipulating reality, in order enter another reality," Ranma said, as he reaches towards Danny.
FWOOSH!
Ranma stuck out his hand.
"Come."
"But…it's hard!"
"It's all about belief…and will. We don't have much time for you to make a decision."
Hesitantly, Danny takes Ranma's hand, and is yanked into the silver screen.
"Through the looking glass, I guess," Danny said, as he is pulled through. "The things an agent must do for a client…"
FWOOSH!
And he is gone.
Tbc.
