Disclaimer: the characters in this fanfic aren't my personal property; they belong to their respective owners, as do any storylines or plot points adapted from the source material. This is not an attempt at making a profit, or anything else that is unbecoming of a fanfic. This is merely for the entertainment of others, and myself as a writer. The characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, Stan Lee, and of course the original writers of Norse mythology and its adaptations in popular culture, whether or not they're all that accurate.
Author's note: This fanfic is an attempt at me to merge two disparate concepts together, in an effort to explain certain situations as a back-story to the universe of Ranma ½, by using concepts taken largely from Marvel Comics and Norse mythology, and a number of other sources that contain information I need. This isn't meant to be all that serious, despite the way it seems at time, and if there's an unbalanced fight on the part of Ranma, namely if it seems Ranma's losing too easily, that's because it's a plot point that will be addressed during said fight, with help from an unexpected source.
Somewhere in a forlorn, dark part of the fabled Asgard, there was a plot underway. It wasn't anything overly complex, just a nice game between family members, as it were. Sitting up in a large, throne-like chair was a young-looking man wearing a dark button up shirt with the top three buttons undone, a gold necklace, a black overcoat, black pants, dark shoes, and a black right glove on, his legs crossed and feet planted firmly on the edge of the cauldron before him. He had pale skin, long dark hair in a ponytail, and deep green eyes…malicious, emerald green eyes…and slightly pointed ears. His visible fingernails were colored a black shade of nail polish, and after a few moments, began tapping his fingers against the left armrest of the throne he was seated in.
"My my my oh my…where does the time fly?" He sang softly, grinning and sitting up straighter, before pushing up from the throne and standing, placing his hands on the edge of cauldron in place of his boots, causing an image to form in the thick, dark liquid, which began shimmering until it was nearly crystal clear. The image forming was of a tall woman of Norse descent, with long blonde hair, wearing a silvery cap/helmet with wings on it, a sleeveless blue and black bodysuit with two blue circles on the outer thighs, a long red cape, blue and white gloves, a golden belt, and large yellow boots. "Ah, dear sister…it's been so long, hasn't it? I've missed you…oh, how I've missed you. But I've had fun while you were away…I influenced your mortal life so that I'd have my revenge sooner than later…but frankly, I've grown bored with just influencing…so I'm going to step things up a little…"
The person talking was the Norse God of Mischief and Evil, a god with a very checkered past, and a number of children of his own in all senses of the phrase 'having children,' though that had been so long ago he'd stopped caring. No, what really mattered now was finding his old 'playmate', his sister Thor. Or half-sister, or foster sister, or whatever one wanted to call their relationship. The point was that the two had been brought up as family, even though Loki had made her childhood hell. And of course it had been Loki who spread the word that Thor was a male god, rather than a female Goddess, a prank of his he had always snickered at, even when Thor turned it around and laughed at him for all of his transgressions, including the transgendering. So Loki played one massive prank on the world, in a certain region of China, in a certain training ground.
Centuries ago he had cursed the many pools of water to quite naturally curse others who fell in them with the form of the first thing that fell in them. Why? Because he had far reaching plans with those pools, though ultimately he gave up on them, and just had a good laugh at the expense of whoever fell in them. Occasionally there were those who became more than just cursed, empowered even, and that had made him a bit upset – the curses were jokes, not meant to make people more than human. Though in some cases, it also made them less than human. He certainly hadn't meant for so many people to be using them, or to be growing up around them. It was distressing, really. But nothing he could blame on one of his siblings. More than likely it was one of his wives – or husbands even – who had done it, to pay him back for being so distant, either as a male or female. The Cursed Spring of Drowned Girl was his personal favorite, particularly enjoying the plight of whoever fell into it. Loki himself was immune from the curse, as each spring had a portion of his power, and he had learned long ago there was no point in cursing oneself with one's own power. It was…for lack of a better word…retarded. Not that his extended family hadn't tried. But Loki was a shape shifter, first and foremost, and able to change back after each curse attempt, no worse for the wear. Eventually Odin decreed that Loki had to stop having his fun with the springs, so he let them be, thinking they'd dry up one day. Surprisingly, they didn't. They endured for centuries, never drying, and never stopping the power of the curse. It was Loki's little guilty pleasure; each and every life the spring ruined was a testament to his power and brilliance.
Then one day fate offered him a way to really teach his hated sister a lesson. Well, actually, several ways. The first was a contest of sorts, between Thor's forces and Loki's forces, to determine who was more skilled in combat. Of course Thor always won, because Loki was a trickster, not a warrior, and Thor was always the better fighter, even when they were children. Of course, then came the various other competitions between the two, ultimately ending in a beating for the trickster and less of a chance of beating his sister. Finally, one day, Loki tricked – no, tricked wasn't the word…the word would be 'opened his eyes' -their father, Odin, into realizing that Thor had become contemptuous of the All-Father's rule in some manners, and that Thor had become egotistical and arrogant, and getting into one too many fights with those she deemed lesser than herself, and that in order to learn a lesson, Thor had to be made into a human being herself, and that should be enough to teach her a very thorough lesson about humility, and perhaps even morals, as Thor's had gotten someone…loose…over the centuries.
The problem was, not even Loki really knew who Thor was at first, despite being the one to propose the idea to their father. All the gods and goddesses and valkyries and honored dead were stunned, though quite a few of them later judged the idea to be wise indeed, as Thor's behavior was stunningly appalling, even for Norse men and woman. However, roughly sixteen years ago Loki figured out who Thor was, and set about orchestrating his biggest prank yet, deliberately affecting the life of the reincarnated Thunder Goddess so that it would reach the stage it was at now, with delicate handling and a fair dollop of humor to keep Loki amused. This was his own private joke, however, and not even his own personal family had a clue as to what he was doing. Some time ago, he had given Thor's new incarnation the walking stick that was secretly Mjolnir, her mighty uru mallet, and sometime after, the incarnation used the stick and became Thor again…nine years too early.
However, things didn't turn out as simple as they could. And Loki had no one to blame but himself.
His first mistake in his grand game was taking the time to have fun with other, natural born humans. One of whom happened to be the lumbering green monstrosity known as the Incredible Hulk. When Rick Jones tried contacting the Fantastic Four, Loki bounced the signal and it instead reached new heroes Iron Man, Giant Man, and his assistant of sorts, the Wasp. The three tried reining in the Hulk but failed, and when all seemed lost, and when Loki was having his fun, Thor appeared. Thor at first battled the Hulk, then seemed to sense something familiar…and promptly revealed Loki to the other four. The five then teamed up against Loki, who at the time was wearing his old green and gold bodysuit with the horned helmet and the ornate cape, and drove him off, proclaiming themselves a superhero team. And they remained a team for several months, until the Hulk left after an argument, and the team had to expand. Luckily for them, the frozen body of the World War II era hero Captain America had been found, and the Avengers were there to greet him.
Thor was naturally embarrassed, as the two had met before, decades before, during the height of the war, when Hitler's sorcerers summoned the Norse Goddess to battle the Allied forces, though Captain America snapped Thor out of it, and as a token of her thanks, the goddess shared a kiss with him, leaving the more straight-laced soldier surprised and flustered. Thor then helped to battle the Nazis' super-humans, and the War was won in the favor of the Allies, though both Captain America and Thor had gone missing before then – in the case of the Captain, he'd been frozen after crashing into the water while riding a missile belonging to his old nemesis and counterpart, the Red Skull. In the process, he lost his side kick Bucky, as far as he knew, and Thor? Thor had been summoned back to Asgard, Odin furious that Thor would lend her power to such a petty conflict. Despite her failings, Thor had compassion towards the humans, and wanted to protect them, even though they had all turned their backs on the Norse ways and instead began worshipping different deities, before settling on the creator of the universe as their God.
Now it was Thor's turn to be embarrassed when the Captain awoke, and was somewhat surprised to see the Norse Goddess, but was even more surprised to find that he was in his future, and that everyone he knew and loved was gone. He was saddened, but he was offered membership in the Avengers, and, seeing the chance to do some good in the world again, he agreed, and became their sixth founding member, which was a full-fledged title, despite it being honorary, and things had gone from there. None of them knew that Thor had a human identity, let alone that that identity didn't even reside in the United States. No, Thor actually lived in a part of Japan, a small island in the Eastern part of the world, and to a loving family that suffered its own trials and tribulations…as Loki intended. The Avengers were a mistake of his, but he adapted his plan on the fly to include them, as he had already had his fun with Captain America's life in freezing him solid and taking away everything the man knew and loved, just to get him to the point now where he would help move Thor towards her inevitable goal…as well as to embarrass her, as that now she was human, she had human sensibilities. And of course, she was just as useless with common human things as she had always been. One could call Thor the original Tomboy, and her human incarnation, no matter what gender she, or he, was, would have the same personal failings, as well as a not-so pleasant personal life, in order to teach her humility and respect for others, and to curb her of her violent temper, though Odin did not want to take away his daughter's fighting spirit. That was why she was born into the family of martial artists. As a way to compromise, and keep Thor inherently Thor, no matter what changes she would go through in her personal evolution.
And now it was time. After all that time, after all that shepherding, it was time. Thor's identity in the public was firmly established, the proper villains and opposites to her had been created, and the belief in old gods had returned, strengthening all of those in Asgard as Thor's appearance brought new belief to the peoples of the world, and it was a perfect time to FINALLY knock her down a peg, now that she more or less had her humility again…yes, if Loki had waited, then things could possibly be much more sweeter than they were now, but he felt that this was the right time. This was the right place. He had caused certain events to take place over the past sixteen years, herding a number of mostly unrelated people into conflicts in a part of Japan called Furinkan, in the Nerima district, an area that was highly unusual for its number of high-level fighters and even powerful bystanders, and general impossible-ness. And the delicious part was many of those people had been cursed by Loki's beloved springs. Of course he had manipulated them to become cursed, but quite frankly, that was the beauty of this plan. All of it was to test Thor's resolve, and if all went according to plan, she would acquiesce to his demands, and hand over the mallet in all its power, and make him the new Thunder God.
At least, that was the plan. There was a chance it would all fail, and Loki would be left with nothing to show for it but more bruises and cracked teeth, which were a great pain to fix. That part nagged at Loki for quite some time, even while the reincarnated Thor was still an infant – the Trickster god knew that this wasn't as cut and dried as it could be, and there would be no second chances if he failed completely. His brush with the Avengers had been a near-miss, but ultimately proved to actually advance his plan along more successfully – before Thor had no reason to show herself, hiding behind her human self, even though her human self was far more than an average person, but thanks to this super team, Thor had to show her face to the public, and protect her secret identity to the death, to keep her loved ones safe from harm, as they'd suffered enough…well, not all of them. Loki knew this secret identity, as did Odin, but none of the other gods in Asgard had a clue as to who Thor was, with only half-truths and assumptions to go on, as Loki was very tight-fisted with that information, earning him a bit of scorn from his families as he continued to plot his revenge, and with nothing concrete to go on, the gods wouldn't know which of the humans to protect and which would be the casualties of the Trickster's ultimate plan.
It was pure genius, really. To orchestrate Thor's life to cause her great sadness, discomfort, and heartache, as well as to cause her to end up in one ridiculous situation after another, even if Loki had to fabricate most of those himself. It was really quite clever, and none of the others, not even his closest allies, would have a clue as to what he was doing…
He fell back in his dark throne, and began to laugh, softly at first, but growing louder as he laughed, bursting out loudly in near-hysterical, maniacal laughter as he threw his head back, and put his arms out over his head.
"It's time, Thor! It's time! Time for payback!"
There was a loud smashing sound as, again, Akane malleted Ranma for the perceived crime of stealing her underwear. To be fair, it was really Happosai that did it, only sticking the evidence down the back of the redhead's pants and in her pockets, before groping rather vigorously.
"AGHH! You ghoul! Get the hell offa me!" Ranma snarled as she grabbed the old man, tossed him up in the air, and punted him through the rooftop and into the sky, her face a deep red color, nearly matching her hair, one fist held out in front of her. "And stay out, ya jackass!" she shook her fist violently, panting a bit as she breathed heavily, trying to calm down. Then she heard the sound of someone behind her, and the shifting in movement that signaled that that person was lifting something rather heavy… "Huh?" she turned, blinked, then went pale when she saw Akane behind her, her mallet high over her head, her eyes blazing with fire and a furious look on her face. "A-Akane!"
"RANMA! JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, STEALING MY PANTIES! AGAIN!"
It was only too late that the redhead looked into her pockets, and reached into the back of her pants, squeaking as she realized she was holding the other girl's undergarments. She held her hands up in supplication, panicking and beginning to sweat profusely.
"I-It wasn't me! It was Happi! You have to believe me! I'm just a victim--!!"
"YOU'RE A VICTIM!? HAH, DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH, YOU PERVERT!" With that, the dark haired girl brought the mallet down on her fiancé's head.
WHAM!
"OWWW!" Ranma went down hard, reaching up and feeling the beginning of a bump swelling up on the top of her head, eyes watering as she looked up at the tomboy tearfully, her masculine pride damaged as she tried to stand, quite shakily at that.
"MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU'LL KEEP YOUR DAMN HANDS TO YOURSELF!" Akane screamed in the redhead's ear, slapping her across the face and leaving a stinging red handprint on her face. Sighing, Ranma proceeded downstairs, being careful not to trip now that she was suffering from a concussion of sorts, and made a padding noise as her bare feet hit the wooden floor, sighing as she made her way into the area where her father and Soun Tendo were playing a game of Go, falling down into an Indian-style seated position, leaning her left arm onto her left knee and placing her fist up against her face, sighing again. Genma, currently in the form of a Panda, looked over to her and lifted up a wooden sigh, with the words 'What's wrong now, Boy?' written on it in black marker and Japanese Kanji.
"It's the Tomboy again. She's throwin' another fit."
The sign lifted back up, this time with 'Well, if you weren't stealing her panties all the time, she wouldn't be mad at you.' Ranma got as far as 'panties' before flipping out.
"I AIN'T STEALIN' HER DAMN UNCUTE PANTIES! It's the old lech!"
Soun motioned for both to be silent, or at least for Ranma to be silent and for Genma to stop silently provoking his son/daughter. "Now now…we all know its Happosai stealing the panties. He's ALWAYS stealing the panties, as distressing as it is. He's been doing this for as long as Saotome and I have studied under him. The sad thing is none of us are immune to him, and none of us can fight on his level. The master truly is worthy of his title as Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."
"Man, why are we stuck with him? It's bad enough we have all th' fiancés to deal with, but this?" The question Ranma was posing was often asked after one of the old man's frequent – really frequent – panty raids on the town, with Saotome and Tendo called in to deal with it, and temporarily dealing with the matter, only for the old master to return in some improbable manner, defying all common sense and logic in some farfetched manner. It was at times like this the entire household – save for Kasumi – thought that someone up there was having a good laugh at their expense. Which they were. Or at least one specific person 'up there' was.
"That's a question I often ask myself. Sadly, there seems to be no answer…" As Tendo spoke, his eldest daughter Kasumi entered, holding up a tea tray and laying down the cups near her father and his old friend, trying out a new type of tea to see how well it would go over, not minding when Ranma reached over absentmindedly and helped herself to a tea cookie, chewing on it slowly as she sighed a third time for the day, and fell back against the floor, arms splayed out over her head, her rather ample bust bouncing a bit underneath her red Chinese-style shirt. She continued to eat the cookie, just using her lips to hold it in place, her dark eyes looking up at the textured roof thoughtfully. "Thank you, Kasumi."
Up came the sign again. "Yes, thank you."
"Oh, you're both welcome, Father and Mr. Saotome. Please tell me if you need anything else." With that the apron-wearing young woman was gone, returning to the kitchen to prepare dinner while everyone else just sat about, mostly being lazy.
All-in-all, just another Saturday afternoon in the Tendo household.
And so, Ranma was bored. Really bored. Sighing, she got up from where she was laying down, and stood up, stuffing her hands in her pants' pockets as she started walking. Finally, she decided to go out, and headed for the front door, slipping her slipper shoes on, and, stretching, opened the door and headed outside, looking up at the overcast sky, thinking. Which wasn't something the redhead did often, no matter what form she/he was in.
It hadn't been all that long since the failed wedding attempt was broken up by all the fiancés and suitors, and Nabiki had been appropriately punished, but Ranma could almost swear a part of Akane was relieved at how things turned out. Then she started acting like her old self again – varying degrees of violent and mopey. But this time it didn't seem to be because of Ranma him/herself, but something else. At first the redhead thought it was because of Nabiki – that girl could get anyone down – but no, because the day after Akane was cordial enough to her, not showing her any malice, but not exactly being nice to her either.
The martial artist sighed yet again, and started walking, hands still in her pockets and eyes focused on the ground below, thinking still – Akane had largely been there through everything that happened, always lending her support, at least until Ranma stuck her foot in her mouth and angered the tomboy, leading her to either a malleting or some other form of physical violence. It seemed like that had been cooling down since Saffron, but here it was, starting up again, worse than ever. And Ranma wasn't the only one suffering from Akane's wrath – Tatewaki Kuno was getting beat up even worse, Akane seemingly pummeling him for trying to grope, or using his fancy words on her, as if he reminded her of something she particularly despised, though repentant afterwards, looking worried, as though she had lost herself somehow, and became someone else. Ever since then, Akane had been becoming as distant as she'd been when she first met Ranma, and the redhead had, for some reason, been feeling the heartache ever since.
Yes, she loved that tomboy, despite all the teasing, and smart mouthed comments. It wasn't a possessive pride that kept her going, but pure love. She could see Akane felt the same way, so it hurt all the more whenever the dark haired girl turned on her, that old familiar look in her eye. Things had been calming down lately, like the calm before the storm. It was unsettling. Ranma had never felt this creeped out before in her life, as if everyone had just vanished from the face of the Earth, except for the occasional meeting on the street. She certainly hadn't any seen any rivals or suitors around. She was hoping it was because they had seen the light, and decided to back off and leave the young Saotome alone. She just wanted to be happy for once – her entire life had just been one misfortune after another, as though someone were purposefully making her life a living hell and sticking her with this stupid curse. She had never felt right since, but someone, being around Akane made it all better.
The tomboy once told her – technically him, as Ranma was a guy at the time – that she liked her just the way she was, which really touched the martial artist, who was quite inept when it came to emotions. She just tried to shrug everything off in a stoic manner, but she had to admit she was jealous of Shinnosuke when Akane was with him, and understood where that moron Ryoga was coming from…but a part of her wanted Akane to be happy, and that's why she was willing to leave before things went crazy with the over-sized animals and the Orochi. But Ranma was strong enough to not start crying over the prospect of losing a growing love, something she felt Akane felt as well, despite everything she said and did.
And so, at a loss of what to do, she just kept walking around the block, hands in her pockets, and a depressed look on her face.
Back in her room, Akane was laying on her bed, staring up at her roof with an equally depressed look on her face. She couldn't tell Ranma what was going on, but she did share the other boy/girl's feelings, even if it was impossible to admit them without embarrassing herself or without the help of outside intervention (she was mortified over what she said thanks to that stupid Reversal Jewel, which was why she reacted so violently afterwards)…and after the wedding, she felt a mixture of depression and relief. She really did want to marry her long-time fiancé, she really did…but another part of her was terrified at Ranma finding out her secret.
To the dark haired girl it was a truly terrible secret, something that could possibly undermine everything in her life…she knew Ranma enjoyed being the strongest person out there and never losing, but Akane felt that she had actually surpassed her fiancé some time ago, even if she held it back…but she wouldn't let anyone know how she had done it…
As she looked over at the roof, she looked over in her opened closet, and spotted the out-of-place wooden walking stick she'd had for some time now, since she was younger, and only fairly recently knew what it was meant for…what she was meant for. Akane Tendo was destined for greater things, but what about Ranma? Would Ranma be satisfied playing second fiddle to Akane's true self?
The answer, as she figured it, was no.
And so she sighed, and looked back up at the roof, before finally reaching over and picking up her pillow, jamming it over her face and letting out a soft, choked sob, terrified of what the future would bring.
It only she had an inkling of what was going to happen, maybe she would be able to steel herself and be ready. But the only thing she truly felt was sadness; a deep, terrible sadness that she rarely expressed, but had become all-too common recently, since Saffron's defeat some months ago. Then all of the hidden memories came back, and the full import of what she had become had been made clear to her, and she realized that, sadly, she would have to leave her family, once and for all.
She could only hope that Ranma would forgive her transgression.