Disclaimer:
Ladies and gents, all characters contained herein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, should they be Ranma, or Capcom, should they be Megaman X. All rights to the respective owners. For X buffs out there, only the events through X3 have occurred in the X timeline that I'm using. I've played the others, but that's where I'm setting the timeline. You'll find out why later. Now that that's out of the way...
*****************
Toltiir looked up sharply, hearing the distinctive sound of metal being hit against stone. Finding the source of the sound was easy, since there was only one other person in the immediate vicinity, besides for 'Foxie'.
* * * * * *
Flashfyre5 Presents
* * * * * *
The armored humanoid approached Mimir's well with a calm certainty. He had a big grin on his face, and his ice blue eyes glittered in the morning sun.
* * * * * *
A Flaming Amarant Production
* * * * * *
His oversized, armored hands flexed every now and again, and the dark red jewel set in the middle of his forehead glinted, reflecting the sun. His silver and purple body shone, clean enough to reflect.
* * * * * *
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota
* * * * * *
"Hey," Toltiir hissed at Great Fox, rousing him. "You know who this guy is?" Great Fox looked up and located the unusual intruder.
"Yeah," Great Fox returned. "I met him on the job a few years back. He had a different body, though." Raising his voice, he called, "Hey, Siggy! How're you doing?"
"I'm fine," he replied, arriving at the well. "Been a while since we met."
"Yeah. You got a new body," Great Fox commented. "It's a lot classier than your last one."
"Thanks," 'Siggy' replied, his grin getting a bit larger.
"Excuse me," Toltiir interjected. "You going to introduce me?"
"Oh yeah, sorry," Great Fox said, chagrined. "Toltiir, meet Sigma, a Greater Spirit from a remote little timeline. Sigma, this is Toltiir, Elder God of Mischief."
"Nice to meet you," Sigma said politely.
"Pleasure's all mine," Toltiir returned, his politeness superficial at best. "You wouldn't happen to be the Sigma that's been reincarnated more often than any other being, would you?
"That I am," Sigma confirmed. "Ten times, last Wednesday. (Note: That total is accurate as of MMX5)
"I've heard things about you," Toltiir said, distrustful.
"That's just from a mind-affecting virus that they put into his mortal body when they reincarnate him," Great Fox explained. "He's actually a pretty nice guy, once you get to know him."
"Thanks," said Sigma.
"No problem. What brings you here, anyway?" Great Fox asked.
"I heard that you guys were letting spirits in on your Bet. Care to let me have a try?" Sigma asked.
"Sounds fine," Toltiir agreed. "You know the rules, right?"
"Yeah," Sigma confirmed, looking into Mimir's well. A few seconds passed, and images flashed in the bottom until one finally made Sigma smile.
"This one," he said. "Crash it into the baseline."
"Crash?" Great Fox asked, surprised.
"Yeah. I always wanted to see just how tough the human race was. Here's my chance," Sigma said, smirking. Sighing, Great Fox pulled on the indicated timeline until it followed a course that would fuse it with the baseline.
"May Kami-sama forgive me," Great Fox whispered. Toltiir, knowing the immediate effects of a crash, nodded in agreement.
* * * * * *
The Opening Bet
Prelude: Collision Course
A Ranma 1/2- Megaman X crossover
A fanfic for 'A Second Bet'
" " = speech
= panda board
= thought
* * * * * *
Ranma, standing next to his father, gazed at the 'mystical' training grounds and snorted in derision.
"Don't look like much to me, Pop," he commented offhandedly. "Kinda interesting, though. You ready yet?" Ranma asked, dropping his pack.
"Whenever you are, Boy," his father taunted, leaping atop one of the poles. Ranma followed suit, finding that the bamboo poles were more challenging to stand on than he'd originally thought.
* * * * * *
Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of Ranma's universe, another would soon collide with it, changing it forever. This kind of thing, however, was not uncommon. Fusions happened often, and crosses almost weekly. What made them unremarked upon is the Cosmic Law that all planes that dictates that all crossings and fusions are to be magically softened to the point that none can notice them. In this case, the timelines were so close to convergence that they were already affecting one another. In temporal terms, five minutes until the fusion.
* * * * * *
Ranma leapt agilely, avoiding his father's axe kick and landing neatly on a nearby bamboo shoot. His father, recovering from the failed maneuver, did the same, and they faced off again. This time, Ranma attacked his father, feinting a chop with his right hand while truly attacking from below with what would be a vicious snap kick. Genma, though, saw it, and deflected both blows, and the two found themselves regaining their balance upon the dried bamboo.
* * * * * *
A provision made upon the Cosmic Law of Fusions, however, is that a manipulated fusion need not conform to the 'soft landing' model, though it would do so naturally. If, however, this effect is refused, the two planes will 'crash' into one another, causing catastrophic damage and permanent change to the now-united universe. The effect is similar to a crash between a pickup truck and a sedan, the pickup being the baseline and the sedan being the fusing line. Though the truck will sustain considerable damage, it will survive. The sedan, however, will be obliterated in the crash. In essence, during a planar crash, the more potent timeline will absorb the other, at significant cost to itself. This would be the case for Ranma's universe, his home plane being the more potent of the two lines. Time to collision: 3 minutes.
* * * * * *
Ranma grinned, enjoying the sparring match. He'd seen a few openings in his father's forms, any of which would have allowed him to send the old man into one of the springs below, but he hadn't. He was sure that Genma had extended the same courtesy to him, as extended battle on the poles was more than enjoyable. It was exhilarating, and Ranma could now see why this place was mystical. Finally seeing a hole in his father's defenses that he simply couldn't ignore, he side kicked the old man in the stomach, sending him tumbling into a spring below.
"That all, old man?" he called, waiting for his father to surface. A few seconds passed, and Ranma began to grow uneasy. Finally, a panda wearing a karate gi that was too small for it burst out of the spring, leaping for a pole. Ranma, alarmed, leapt backwards onto a pole that was much farther away from the bear than he had originally occupied. Left alone, the panda balanced atop a pole and assumed a kempo stance meant for power. Ranma fell into a guarding position, not knowing what else to do.
* * * * * *
Time to collision: 30 seconds.
* * * * * *
"Pop?" Ranma called. "Where are you?" The panda seemed to try and say something, but Ranma ignored it. Finally, something that he'd dismissed as background noise reached him.
"Oooh, is very bad. Customer fall in spring of drown panda," the guide to the grounds shouted. "Very tragic story of panda who drown there 3000 year ago. Now any what fall in spring take body of panda!"
"Pop?!" Ranma exclaimed, looking back to the bear. "Is that you?" The bear tried to make more noises, then finally produced a sign out of nowhere.
the sign read.
"Pop, look at yourself!" Ranma yelled.
* * * * * *
5...
* * * * * *
Genma examined himself, suddenly realizing what had happened. Seeing the Jusenkyo guide standing next to the pools and making his own connections, the panda made to leap.
* * * * * *
4...
* * * * * *
The guide, surprised and scared by the 800lb. mass of fur flying at him, did the only thing a sensible person would do: he ran.
* * * * * *
3...
* * * * * *
Ranma, resting atop the pole, suddenly felt queasy.
"Pop," he called, catching the enraged panda's attention. "Something's wrong!" Once the panda abandoned his rage, he too could feel the intense uneasiness that suddenly engulfed him.
* * * * * *
2...
* * * * * *
As he stood still, waiting for an attack, Ranma's queasiness grew swiftly. It felt almost as if something inside of him was changing, twisting. Moaning, he gripped his stomach and fought for his balance.
* * * * * *
1...
* * * * * *
Losing the battle to stay aloft, Ranma toppled from the bamboo pole and plummeted towards the springs below. As he fell, the queasiness inside of him turned into a cold, hard knot of pure pain, twisting and growing as he fell. Screaming in agony, Ranma fell.
* * * * * *
Collision
* * * * * *
For one eternal instant, Ranma's entire world was pain, in every sense of the word. He could feel his body and world warping and shifting around him, and as a martial artist highly in tune with his world, this was a most unpleasant occurrence. Then, as suddenly as it had hit him, it was gone. In blissful numbness, Ranma splashed headfirst into the spring below him, beyond caring what it would do to him.
Finding himself underwater and out of air, however, was something that Ranma quite quickly decided was something he did care about, and swam for the surface of the spring. Surfacing, he gasped in a deep breath of sweet air, ignoring the fact that his body felt very different.
"Oooh, very very bad," he heard the guide say. "Customer fall in spring of drown girl. Very tragic legend of girl what drown there 1500 year ago. Now, what fall in spring take body of girl!" Idly noting the guide's words, Ranma glanced at his body. He saw breasts. Breasts which were attached to 'his' chest. From deep in his gut, Ranma screamed, shocked and terrified at the change. After he'd exhausted his breath he took another, slowly and deeply. Building his resolve, he climbed from the spring and looked the guide in the eye.
"There any way to get rid of this?" he asked, barely keeping his voice under control. He wanted nothing more than to take off after his moronic father for bringing him here, but decided that that would solve nothing.
"No way I know to remove curse," the guide replied. "But hot water make you normal again until splash with cold. I get some water for Customers?"
"Yeah," Ranma agreed with a feral look in his eyes. "We'll be in in a minute or two." The guide, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, hurried off to his hut and shut the door. As soon as he did, the sounds of battle broke out from the area outside his hut. Shaking his head, the guide went to heat water in a kettle that he kept for just such occasions. Just as it began to steam, the sounds of fighting died down and the young Customer entered the hut, dragging the elder one. Silently, the guide handed the kettle to the boy, who in turn poured half of the contents on his unconscious father. Instantly, the panda resumed its human state, still knocked out. Smiling in relief, Ranma poured the rest of the water on himself.
As soon as the change happened, Ranma knew that something was Not Right. It took a second for him to decide, but this body felt even more Wrong than the female one. As good a martial artist as he was, his joints were moving with absolute smoothness, and the aches that he'd sustained from his father had vanished. Also, his center of balance was off, even further than it had been when he'd been female. His legs weighed too much, the kettle was too light, and he had something on his head. Also, the Jusenkyo guide, the singular man in the world that had seen more bizarre physical transformations than anyone, was staring in surprise.
"Never see springs do that before," the guide commented, glad that he was already sitting down. Ranma finally braced himself for whatever had happened to him and looked at himself. His scream set off an avalanche on the far side of a nearby mountain.
* * * * * *
The Apocalypse, as it came to be known, had much more far-reaching effects than an odd body for one pigtailed martial artist. As two worlds tried to merge without a magical cushioning, terrible things happened. In places where two buildings would share one plot of land, they were often both demolished. The Vatican, for example, long considered holy by even Maverick forces in the other world, had been left completely intact. However, two identical stone complexes attempting to occupy a plot of land that was barely large enough to hold one ended in dire results for both. The entire cathedral and all its surrounding buildings were flattened. None lived through the disaster.
Great Britain suffered badly. Though it had suffered during the Maverick Wars in the divergent timeline, there was enough left in many places for significant damage to be wreaked. Russia fared well, having been a major battlefield during the Wars, as did Japan, for much the same reason. Much of Europe and Africa was heavily damaged, but damaged in ways that were either easily replicable, in the case of the African nations, or the government was mobilized quickly enough to repair and restore with relative ease, despite the loss in life.
South America went relatively untouched, beyond the fact that much of the Amazon simply vanished in the moment that the planes fused. This was hailed as a Godsend initially, as farmers were now easily able to farm the land. However, the damage to the climate was horrific and, due to the vanishing of the forest, the cures for AIDS and cancer were irretrievably annihilated. Australia didn't change much, aside from the fact that Sydney was leveled. Most of the Australians, being Australians, simply packed up what they could and moved into the Outback. Nobody noticed, or cared, for that matter.
North America, however, fared the worst. For a long time, it had remained aloof from the Wars, disdaining the use of reploids as a viable source of labor. Canada had remained neutral, as always, and America had just started to produce weapons, selling them to the highest bidder. Thus, when the planes merged, there was no such thing as a city left standing in the entire continent. Pristine monuments to democracy and capitalism shattered, finding that it truly was impossible for two objects to occupy the same space simultaneously. The death toll was horrific, and few that had lived in the cities survived. It took the United States decades to rebuild, Canada a full century, and the Central American countries never truly recovered, despite the dedicated work of their surviving populous. Eventually, they united to form the Confederation of Central America. A country founded upon the need for an oligarchy, the new country hoped to prosper. Just the opposite happened. The rich drug barons that now controlled the state grew even richer off Government funds, and nothing significant for reconstruction ever happened. The Confederation disbanded within the first decade of its existence.
All in all, the final death toll was estimated at 2.49 billion killed from falling buildings, resultant chaos, or simply ceasing to exist.
Wide scale destruction was no the only catastrophe that occurred on the Day of the Apocalypse. On a person-to-person basis, people were changed, forced into bodies that they could not control, nor did they want. Thankfully, this was a very small percentage of the remaining population, but it was truly unusual for a community to be free of any 'changed' members. Many times this change was anything but beneficial. Some children were changed into small construction reploids, barely possessed of an artificial intelligence. A few older people found themselves aged greatly, and kept alive only by the presence of nanoids in their systems. Young people found themselves with cybernetic modifications. Middle aged people became defense robots. Of course, this was not absolute. There was variance in all age groups, but those that this happened to were very few and far between. In fact, only a few thousand total were changed worldwide, with a mere handful being different from the archetypes.
Their change, however, forever marked them as a symbol of the Apocalypse. Many people shunned and hated them, believing that those few changed individuals had caused the event. Lives were upended. Faced with a sudden hatred from those that they'd known and loved, many of the changed killed themselves within the first year of their new existence. It became common practice for a community to quietly celebrate the passing of a changed person, however horrible that might have seemed to them before the Apocalypse. Nobody cared. So many people were dead; what would a few more matter?
* * * * * *
Ranma, in his girl form, stared at the still waters of the only spring in Jusenkyo that she could approach. She knew this spring, knew it intimately. This was the spring that had cursed her, that had changed her life. She hated this spring like nothing else, and yet it was the only one that she could even get near to, no matter what she did. Kneeling, she looked at the still waters more closely, making a decision.
she wondered. A minute passed as she stared at the spring. Finally arriving at a decision, she pulled a water bottle from her pack and dropped it into the pool. Using a dead stick to pull on a cloth loop tied around the thing's neck, she submerged it to fill the bottle. Pulling it from the spring, she stared at it, finalizing her decision.
I can't now, she thought as she screwed the top onto the bottle. Solemnly, she lifted the bottle by its cap and set it on a rock, so the water on the outside would dry. she wondered. Sighing, she dismissed it to the back of her mind and waited for her water bottle to dry.
***Author's Notes***
This is the prelude to my Betfic, "The Opening Bet". I know that I haven't explained much yet, but that will come in time. No, I haven't described Ranma's other form, but his dislike stems mainly from the fact that he doesn't know how to deal with it. Also, I will be using 'she' to describe Ranma when he's in his female form, as well as the suffix "-chan" once I get further along into the story. I know that I'm running this thing, but since I'm not deciding upon the winner, I've decided to compete. If anyone doubts my honesty in tallying votes, E-mail me and say so and I'll send you a copy of all voting forms when the time comes. In any case, if you've got any C&C or flames, send 'em to Flashfyre5@aol.com. I may seem weird for soliciting flames, but I am of the opinion that it takes fire to temper steel, so to speak. I'm posting this story on a chapter-to-chapter basis, so I'll post whenever I get one done.
~Flash
Ladies and gents, all characters contained herein belong to Rumiko Takahashi, should they be Ranma, or Capcom, should they be Megaman X. All rights to the respective owners. For X buffs out there, only the events through X3 have occurred in the X timeline that I'm using. I've played the others, but that's where I'm setting the timeline. You'll find out why later. Now that that's out of the way...
*****************
Toltiir looked up sharply, hearing the distinctive sound of metal being hit against stone. Finding the source of the sound was easy, since there was only one other person in the immediate vicinity, besides for 'Foxie'.
* * * * * *
Flashfyre5 Presents
* * * * * *
The armored humanoid approached Mimir's well with a calm certainty. He had a big grin on his face, and his ice blue eyes glittered in the morning sun.
* * * * * *
A Flaming Amarant Production
* * * * * *
His oversized, armored hands flexed every now and again, and the dark red jewel set in the middle of his forehead glinted, reflecting the sun. His silver and purple body shone, clean enough to reflect.
* * * * * *
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota
* * * * * *
"Hey," Toltiir hissed at Great Fox, rousing him. "You know who this guy is?" Great Fox looked up and located the unusual intruder.
"Yeah," Great Fox returned. "I met him on the job a few years back. He had a different body, though." Raising his voice, he called, "Hey, Siggy! How're you doing?"
"I'm fine," he replied, arriving at the well. "Been a while since we met."
"Yeah. You got a new body," Great Fox commented. "It's a lot classier than your last one."
"Thanks," 'Siggy' replied, his grin getting a bit larger.
"Excuse me," Toltiir interjected. "You going to introduce me?"
"Oh yeah, sorry," Great Fox said, chagrined. "Toltiir, meet Sigma, a Greater Spirit from a remote little timeline. Sigma, this is Toltiir, Elder God of Mischief."
"Nice to meet you," Sigma said politely.
"Pleasure's all mine," Toltiir returned, his politeness superficial at best. "You wouldn't happen to be the Sigma that's been reincarnated more often than any other being, would you?
"That I am," Sigma confirmed. "Ten times, last Wednesday. (Note: That total is accurate as of MMX5)
"I've heard things about you," Toltiir said, distrustful.
"That's just from a mind-affecting virus that they put into his mortal body when they reincarnate him," Great Fox explained. "He's actually a pretty nice guy, once you get to know him."
"Thanks," said Sigma.
"No problem. What brings you here, anyway?" Great Fox asked.
"I heard that you guys were letting spirits in on your Bet. Care to let me have a try?" Sigma asked.
"Sounds fine," Toltiir agreed. "You know the rules, right?"
"Yeah," Sigma confirmed, looking into Mimir's well. A few seconds passed, and images flashed in the bottom until one finally made Sigma smile.
"This one," he said. "Crash it into the baseline."
"Crash?" Great Fox asked, surprised.
"Yeah. I always wanted to see just how tough the human race was. Here's my chance," Sigma said, smirking. Sighing, Great Fox pulled on the indicated timeline until it followed a course that would fuse it with the baseline.
"May Kami-sama forgive me," Great Fox whispered. Toltiir, knowing the immediate effects of a crash, nodded in agreement.
* * * * * *
The Opening Bet
Prelude: Collision Course
A Ranma 1/2- Megaman X crossover
A fanfic for 'A Second Bet'
" " = speech
= panda board
= thought
* * * * * *
Ranma, standing next to his father, gazed at the 'mystical' training grounds and snorted in derision.
"Don't look like much to me, Pop," he commented offhandedly. "Kinda interesting, though. You ready yet?" Ranma asked, dropping his pack.
"Whenever you are, Boy," his father taunted, leaping atop one of the poles. Ranma followed suit, finding that the bamboo poles were more challenging to stand on than he'd originally thought.
* * * * * *
Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of Ranma's universe, another would soon collide with it, changing it forever. This kind of thing, however, was not uncommon. Fusions happened often, and crosses almost weekly. What made them unremarked upon is the Cosmic Law that all planes that dictates that all crossings and fusions are to be magically softened to the point that none can notice them. In this case, the timelines were so close to convergence that they were already affecting one another. In temporal terms, five minutes until the fusion.
* * * * * *
Ranma leapt agilely, avoiding his father's axe kick and landing neatly on a nearby bamboo shoot. His father, recovering from the failed maneuver, did the same, and they faced off again. This time, Ranma attacked his father, feinting a chop with his right hand while truly attacking from below with what would be a vicious snap kick. Genma, though, saw it, and deflected both blows, and the two found themselves regaining their balance upon the dried bamboo.
* * * * * *
A provision made upon the Cosmic Law of Fusions, however, is that a manipulated fusion need not conform to the 'soft landing' model, though it would do so naturally. If, however, this effect is refused, the two planes will 'crash' into one another, causing catastrophic damage and permanent change to the now-united universe. The effect is similar to a crash between a pickup truck and a sedan, the pickup being the baseline and the sedan being the fusing line. Though the truck will sustain considerable damage, it will survive. The sedan, however, will be obliterated in the crash. In essence, during a planar crash, the more potent timeline will absorb the other, at significant cost to itself. This would be the case for Ranma's universe, his home plane being the more potent of the two lines. Time to collision: 3 minutes.
* * * * * *
Ranma grinned, enjoying the sparring match. He'd seen a few openings in his father's forms, any of which would have allowed him to send the old man into one of the springs below, but he hadn't. He was sure that Genma had extended the same courtesy to him, as extended battle on the poles was more than enjoyable. It was exhilarating, and Ranma could now see why this place was mystical. Finally seeing a hole in his father's defenses that he simply couldn't ignore, he side kicked the old man in the stomach, sending him tumbling into a spring below.
"That all, old man?" he called, waiting for his father to surface. A few seconds passed, and Ranma began to grow uneasy. Finally, a panda wearing a karate gi that was too small for it burst out of the spring, leaping for a pole. Ranma, alarmed, leapt backwards onto a pole that was much farther away from the bear than he had originally occupied. Left alone, the panda balanced atop a pole and assumed a kempo stance meant for power. Ranma fell into a guarding position, not knowing what else to do.
* * * * * *
Time to collision: 30 seconds.
* * * * * *
"Pop?" Ranma called. "Where are you?" The panda seemed to try and say something, but Ranma ignored it. Finally, something that he'd dismissed as background noise reached him.
"Oooh, is very bad. Customer fall in spring of drown panda," the guide to the grounds shouted. "Very tragic story of panda who drown there 3000 year ago. Now any what fall in spring take body of panda!"
"Pop?!" Ranma exclaimed, looking back to the bear. "Is that you?" The bear tried to make more noises, then finally produced a sign out of nowhere.
the sign read.
"Pop, look at yourself!" Ranma yelled.
* * * * * *
5...
* * * * * *
Genma examined himself, suddenly realizing what had happened. Seeing the Jusenkyo guide standing next to the pools and making his own connections, the panda made to leap.
* * * * * *
4...
* * * * * *
The guide, surprised and scared by the 800lb. mass of fur flying at him, did the only thing a sensible person would do: he ran.
* * * * * *
3...
* * * * * *
Ranma, resting atop the pole, suddenly felt queasy.
"Pop," he called, catching the enraged panda's attention. "Something's wrong!" Once the panda abandoned his rage, he too could feel the intense uneasiness that suddenly engulfed him.
* * * * * *
2...
* * * * * *
As he stood still, waiting for an attack, Ranma's queasiness grew swiftly. It felt almost as if something inside of him was changing, twisting. Moaning, he gripped his stomach and fought for his balance.
* * * * * *
1...
* * * * * *
Losing the battle to stay aloft, Ranma toppled from the bamboo pole and plummeted towards the springs below. As he fell, the queasiness inside of him turned into a cold, hard knot of pure pain, twisting and growing as he fell. Screaming in agony, Ranma fell.
* * * * * *
Collision
* * * * * *
For one eternal instant, Ranma's entire world was pain, in every sense of the word. He could feel his body and world warping and shifting around him, and as a martial artist highly in tune with his world, this was a most unpleasant occurrence. Then, as suddenly as it had hit him, it was gone. In blissful numbness, Ranma splashed headfirst into the spring below him, beyond caring what it would do to him.
Finding himself underwater and out of air, however, was something that Ranma quite quickly decided was something he did care about, and swam for the surface of the spring. Surfacing, he gasped in a deep breath of sweet air, ignoring the fact that his body felt very different.
"Oooh, very very bad," he heard the guide say. "Customer fall in spring of drown girl. Very tragic legend of girl what drown there 1500 year ago. Now, what fall in spring take body of girl!" Idly noting the guide's words, Ranma glanced at his body. He saw breasts. Breasts which were attached to 'his' chest. From deep in his gut, Ranma screamed, shocked and terrified at the change. After he'd exhausted his breath he took another, slowly and deeply. Building his resolve, he climbed from the spring and looked the guide in the eye.
"There any way to get rid of this?" he asked, barely keeping his voice under control. He wanted nothing more than to take off after his moronic father for bringing him here, but decided that that would solve nothing.
"No way I know to remove curse," the guide replied. "But hot water make you normal again until splash with cold. I get some water for Customers?"
"Yeah," Ranma agreed with a feral look in his eyes. "We'll be in in a minute or two." The guide, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, hurried off to his hut and shut the door. As soon as he did, the sounds of battle broke out from the area outside his hut. Shaking his head, the guide went to heat water in a kettle that he kept for just such occasions. Just as it began to steam, the sounds of fighting died down and the young Customer entered the hut, dragging the elder one. Silently, the guide handed the kettle to the boy, who in turn poured half of the contents on his unconscious father. Instantly, the panda resumed its human state, still knocked out. Smiling in relief, Ranma poured the rest of the water on himself.
As soon as the change happened, Ranma knew that something was Not Right. It took a second for him to decide, but this body felt even more Wrong than the female one. As good a martial artist as he was, his joints were moving with absolute smoothness, and the aches that he'd sustained from his father had vanished. Also, his center of balance was off, even further than it had been when he'd been female. His legs weighed too much, the kettle was too light, and he had something on his head. Also, the Jusenkyo guide, the singular man in the world that had seen more bizarre physical transformations than anyone, was staring in surprise.
"Never see springs do that before," the guide commented, glad that he was already sitting down. Ranma finally braced himself for whatever had happened to him and looked at himself. His scream set off an avalanche on the far side of a nearby mountain.
* * * * * *
The Apocalypse, as it came to be known, had much more far-reaching effects than an odd body for one pigtailed martial artist. As two worlds tried to merge without a magical cushioning, terrible things happened. In places where two buildings would share one plot of land, they were often both demolished. The Vatican, for example, long considered holy by even Maverick forces in the other world, had been left completely intact. However, two identical stone complexes attempting to occupy a plot of land that was barely large enough to hold one ended in dire results for both. The entire cathedral and all its surrounding buildings were flattened. None lived through the disaster.
Great Britain suffered badly. Though it had suffered during the Maverick Wars in the divergent timeline, there was enough left in many places for significant damage to be wreaked. Russia fared well, having been a major battlefield during the Wars, as did Japan, for much the same reason. Much of Europe and Africa was heavily damaged, but damaged in ways that were either easily replicable, in the case of the African nations, or the government was mobilized quickly enough to repair and restore with relative ease, despite the loss in life.
South America went relatively untouched, beyond the fact that much of the Amazon simply vanished in the moment that the planes fused. This was hailed as a Godsend initially, as farmers were now easily able to farm the land. However, the damage to the climate was horrific and, due to the vanishing of the forest, the cures for AIDS and cancer were irretrievably annihilated. Australia didn't change much, aside from the fact that Sydney was leveled. Most of the Australians, being Australians, simply packed up what they could and moved into the Outback. Nobody noticed, or cared, for that matter.
North America, however, fared the worst. For a long time, it had remained aloof from the Wars, disdaining the use of reploids as a viable source of labor. Canada had remained neutral, as always, and America had just started to produce weapons, selling them to the highest bidder. Thus, when the planes merged, there was no such thing as a city left standing in the entire continent. Pristine monuments to democracy and capitalism shattered, finding that it truly was impossible for two objects to occupy the same space simultaneously. The death toll was horrific, and few that had lived in the cities survived. It took the United States decades to rebuild, Canada a full century, and the Central American countries never truly recovered, despite the dedicated work of their surviving populous. Eventually, they united to form the Confederation of Central America. A country founded upon the need for an oligarchy, the new country hoped to prosper. Just the opposite happened. The rich drug barons that now controlled the state grew even richer off Government funds, and nothing significant for reconstruction ever happened. The Confederation disbanded within the first decade of its existence.
All in all, the final death toll was estimated at 2.49 billion killed from falling buildings, resultant chaos, or simply ceasing to exist.
Wide scale destruction was no the only catastrophe that occurred on the Day of the Apocalypse. On a person-to-person basis, people were changed, forced into bodies that they could not control, nor did they want. Thankfully, this was a very small percentage of the remaining population, but it was truly unusual for a community to be free of any 'changed' members. Many times this change was anything but beneficial. Some children were changed into small construction reploids, barely possessed of an artificial intelligence. A few older people found themselves aged greatly, and kept alive only by the presence of nanoids in their systems. Young people found themselves with cybernetic modifications. Middle aged people became defense robots. Of course, this was not absolute. There was variance in all age groups, but those that this happened to were very few and far between. In fact, only a few thousand total were changed worldwide, with a mere handful being different from the archetypes.
Their change, however, forever marked them as a symbol of the Apocalypse. Many people shunned and hated them, believing that those few changed individuals had caused the event. Lives were upended. Faced with a sudden hatred from those that they'd known and loved, many of the changed killed themselves within the first year of their new existence. It became common practice for a community to quietly celebrate the passing of a changed person, however horrible that might have seemed to them before the Apocalypse. Nobody cared. So many people were dead; what would a few more matter?
* * * * * *
Ranma, in his girl form, stared at the still waters of the only spring in Jusenkyo that she could approach. She knew this spring, knew it intimately. This was the spring that had cursed her, that had changed her life. She hated this spring like nothing else, and yet it was the only one that she could even get near to, no matter what she did. Kneeling, she looked at the still waters more closely, making a decision.
she wondered. A minute passed as she stared at the spring. Finally arriving at a decision, she pulled a water bottle from her pack and dropped it into the pool. Using a dead stick to pull on a cloth loop tied around the thing's neck, she submerged it to fill the bottle. Pulling it from the spring, she stared at it, finalizing her decision.
I can't now, she thought as she screwed the top onto the bottle. Solemnly, she lifted the bottle by its cap and set it on a rock, so the water on the outside would dry. she wondered. Sighing, she dismissed it to the back of her mind and waited for her water bottle to dry.
***Author's Notes***
This is the prelude to my Betfic, "The Opening Bet". I know that I haven't explained much yet, but that will come in time. No, I haven't described Ranma's other form, but his dislike stems mainly from the fact that he doesn't know how to deal with it. Also, I will be using 'she' to describe Ranma when he's in his female form, as well as the suffix "-chan" once I get further along into the story. I know that I'm running this thing, but since I'm not deciding upon the winner, I've decided to compete. If anyone doubts my honesty in tallying votes, E-mail me and say so and I'll send you a copy of all voting forms when the time comes. In any case, if you've got any C&C or flames, send 'em to Flashfyre5@aol.com. I may seem weird for soliciting flames, but I am of the opinion that it takes fire to temper steel, so to speak. I'm posting this story on a chapter-to-chapter basis, so I'll post whenever I get one done.
~Flash