Disclamer: The Marvel characters are the property of Marvel, the Ranma ½ characters are the property of Rumiko Takashi, the Street Fighter characters are the property of Capcom.

>Japanese>
"English"
'Thoughts'

Chapter 1

>Urgh, wha' hit me?> Ranma groaned as he slowly came to. >Right,> he winced as memories of the fight filtered back, >Herb and the Kettle. Probably got hit by a boulder when the mountain was collapsing.>

Slowly, he sat up and looked around the small room he was in. No, it was more of a cell, actually. And he could tell as he had experience with various cells on four continents, thanks to Genma. The room probably wasn't more than two an a half meters in any direction and a single recessed fixture in the ceiling filled the room with a harsh florescent light. The only other furnishings, besides the bed, were a stainless steel toilet, a sink, and door that Ryoga would have trouble getting through.

'Some friends they are. Just leavin' me there.' He sighed and shook his head, 'No use worrying about it now.' Wincing, he got up and began to examine his injuries. Who ever brought him here had taken care of them; wrapping his cracked ribs, resetting left shoulder, giving him a collar, bandaging the deep slashes on his ba-

His thoughts skittered back and he prodded at his new neck wear. 'Hmm, seems pretty light. Can't have much stuff in it,' the collar was a seamless band about two centimeters wide and one centimeter thick. 'Probably just a tracker. Grrr... No seam. Not gonna be easy to get it off.'

"... do you mean he is human?" an irritated female voice drifted into the cell.

'Alright, time to get outta here,' Ranma smirked. Ignoring his injuries, he darted over to the door and stood to the side, just outside of the view slit's line of sight.

"I mean exactly what I said, Raven. The boy has no X-gene, not even a latent one. He is completely human," a male voice said. They were nearer now, almost outside the door.

"I watched him level a mountain as collateral damage! The rock that hit him had to be at least six tons! He was lying under it when I found him, Eric! It was propped up on his chest!" The woman, Raven, snarled angrily. They were at the door and Ranma tensed, readying himself to strike.

"I'm not doubting what you saw, Raven. But, the boy is not a mutant. However, he has all the trappings of being a martial artist of some skill and it is likely that whoever he was fighting is actually the one that destroyed the mountain." The view slit in the door slid back. "Hmm, it appears as though our guest is awake. After you, Raven."

The door opened on well oiled hinges and the woman stepped into the cell. "He recovers faAAHH!" Ranma grabbed her wrist and, with a quick twist, threw her to the back of the cell. He ignored the old man as he darted out and started running down the corridor, he lacked that full body knuckle look that Cologne and Happosai ha-

ZRACK! A massive electric shock from the collar sent him tumbling into a twitching heap at the end of the corridor. As the old man walked toward him with slow measured strides, Ranma got a better look at him. There were more subtle warning signs that he had missed: the cape, the odd helmet, the uniform...

'A supervillian?' Ranma thought as he slowly sat up with a bit of a grimace, the fall had aggravated the cuts on his back. 'Well, thats just great.'

"None of that, young man," the man said as he neared Ranma. "That collar can deliver a shock strong enough to fry your brain. It also has enough explosive in it to take your head off. So," he smiled nastily, "don't get any ideas about escaping."

"Urgh," Ranma looked past the old man and watched as the woman he had thrown stumbled out of the cell. She was blue he noted. "You knew he was going to do that!" she snarled as she stalked up to the old guy.

"No, I did not Mystique," he said without turning toward her. "The boy is injured, quite badly really. I did not expect him to shrug it off quite so easily. Though, it does lend credence to your account of his abilities."

"Hmph," the woman, Mystique, snorted. "Well, you've seen it now. He was almost as fast as your boy. A lot stronger, too," she rubbed her shoulder and winced. "Are you really sure he's human, Magneto?"

"Yes, I'm quite sure about that. Hmm," Magneto eyed Ranma critically, "get up boy, I've got a bit of a test for you."

Ranma stood up slowly, using the wall to brace himself. "And if I don't want?"

Magneto quirked an eyebrow and a small jolt zapped Ranma, "You, don't have a choice, or did you forget? Now," he swept his arm and pointed down the left passage of the corridor, "after you."

"Here we are," Magneto said as they stopped in front of a set of double doors that slid back heavily, revealing a small arena of sorts. He waived Ranma inside, "Your opponent will join shortly."

Ranma glared at the doors as they shut with a depressing thunk. Sighing, he turned from them and started some light stretches. He didn't have long to wait before the doors opened again and a red haired teen in a trench coat entered. He nodded amicably to Ranma and kept shuffling the playing cards he was holding.

"'M Gambit, homme," he said in a thick almost French accent. "Guess de chef be wantin' us t' fight," he pocketed the cards and took out a collapsible bo staff. "So," he started to circle around the arena slowly, "what's your power, HUH!" he asked as he lashed out with a sweeping swing of his staff.

ThhhWish!

"Power?" Ranma asked as he slid around the blow and countered with a light kick. "Whatcha talking about?"

Gambit grunted and flew back, landing in a crouch. He smirked and pulled a card out. "Dis," he said as the card flashed gold, "yo' mutant power," with a flick he threw it at Ranma's feet.

HIshiro-Bang! The card exploded with a small blast, but Ranma flipped back and landed in a one handed stand.

He looked at Gambit and scratched his chin idly, still in the hand stand, "Hmm, can't do that. How're you gett-"

"Enough," Magneto's voice cut in, harshly. "You're here to fight, not talk."

"Yea, yea. I heah ya, chef," Gambit groused.

Th-th-th-th-thwish clank! He twirled the staff and slammed the end on the floor. "Eh, ya' heard 'im. Don' worry," he leaned lightly on the staff and smirked, "I'll go easah on yah."

Ranma shook his head and pushed off the floor. "I ain't tried yet." He landed on the wall and kicked off, flying at Gambit like a bullet. "HiYAH!"

"Woah!" Gambit ducked left and swung his staff, catching Ranma's ankle with a glancing blow.

Ranma landed lightly and darted back at Gambit.

HIshiro-Bang-Bang-Bang! But the Cajun threw a handful of cards, forcing him to jump. Ranma landed near Gambit and did a sweeping kick, knocking him off his feet. Gambit rolled back and to his feet, just avoiding a sharp kick to the ribs. He turned and just managed to block a punch from Ranma. The second blew through his defenses and threw him back to the arena wall.

"Ouff!" he grunted and slid to the floor. "Merde, you super strong or someting?" He threw another handful of cards at Ranma.

Bang-BaBang-Bang! The explosions forced Ranma back, but he wasn't quick enough and one of the cards hit his side.

"AHhh! Kuso!" he cursed and grabbed his side. The bandages were burned through, showing the nasty, now scorched, bruises there. Ranma looked up slowly and glared at Gambit. "I was gonna go easy on you. Now, it's going to be painful."

Gambit gulped and inched along the wall. That had been a full power blast and it had barely phased him. "H-hey, mon ami, n-no need to get hasty, eh? It was an accident!"

Mystique flinched and looked away from the monitor. People who couldn't shape shift quadruple jointed limbs weren't supposed to bend like that.

"Hmm.," Magneto stroked his chin, still watching the monitor. "Maybe I should have had him spar with Sabertooth. The brute isn't as good as Gambi-"

"Ahhhhhhh- CRACK! AHHHHHH!" Gambit's scream suddenly went four octaves higher than anything she could manage.

Magneto slowly turned his head sideways, "Huh, I didn't think you could..." he shook his head and pressed a button. "All right, that's quite enough of a demonstration... And, ah, un-knot Gambit."

"AHHHH-" Snapa-pop! "-Hha-ohgrâceàdieu..."

"Alright Mystique, you can use the boy," Magneto said. "He should prove to be an excellent trainer for the Brotherhood." He turned and swept out of the room, "They may finally prove to be useful under his tutelage."

Mystique fidgeted and patted the pouch on her belt again. The small weight of the collar's remote was not as comforting as it should have been.

Taking a deep breath, she assumed the arrogant pose that she had perfected decades ago and pressed the control that opened the arena.

Cric-Crack! "There ya go. Good as new!" her newest recruit said as he twisted Gambit's arm in a very... unsettling way.

"... m' leg... i can't feel m' leg..." Gambit squeaked.

"Yeah, don't worry about that. Those advanced yoga techniques left me feeling the same way when I first did them, too." Ranma patted Gambit on the shoulder, "You'll get feeling back in a day or so."

"Ahem," Mystique cleared her, catching Ranma's attention.

He turned around, slowly, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a freight truck. "Um, eheh heh," he laughed and scratched the back of his head. "There's no permanent damage, really! And he'll be able to bend a lot better, too!"

Gambit's head slowly rotated toward Mystique, turning it a full hundred and eighty degrees, "help me..."

"See!" Ranma beamed. "He couldn't do that before."

Mystique twitched and then ran her hand over her face. "He probably would have just ended up hitting on Rogue, anyway..." she mumbled. "I don't care," she said more loudly, "he's Magneto's problem, not mine."

"Oh, okay," Ranma nodded and walked out of the arena.

Mystique rolled her eyes and motioned for him to follower her. After a few quite minutes, with their footsteps as the only sound, she glanced at Ranma. He had his hands clasped behind his head and was looking at the ceiling, seemingly without a care in the world.

"You're taking this pretty well," she said softly, looking ahead again.

"Huh? Oh, I guess so. You haven't done anything too bad, really." He snorted, "My Pops sold me to Shadowloo once. Now there are some seriously messed up people."

Mystique stumbled and looked at Ranma, aghast. "Your father sold you to Shadowloo!"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "They did some experiments 'n stuff on me, before I escaped a few weeks later. Even got to meet whatis name- Hippo? Buffalo?"

"You met Bison?" Mystique asked, numbly.

"Bison! Yeah him... Now, he's a real bastard." Ranma fidgeted and looked away from Mystique, "So, um, why'd ya pick me up?"

Mystique shook her head and started walking again, "Magneto had gotten some reports of strange activity in Tokyo and he had me check it out. You were first on my list and when saw you fight I thought you were a mutant. The team I run could really use someone with your skills, so after that mountain collapsed on you, I decided to grab you."

"Oh," Ranma nodded absently. "Whats a mu-"

"Just a minute," Mystique said as she stopped and opened a door to a small office. She ducked inside and, after a minute of rummaging around, grabbed a handful of files. "Here," she said as she handed them to Ranma. "These are the people you'll be training." She gave him severe look, "I'll be expecting good results."

"Um, okay," Ranma nodded nervously and started to flick through one of the folders as they resumed walking. "What's this stuff about powers?" he asked after a bit. "Gamble was talking about 'em, too, but Magneto interrupted him."

"Ah, those are linked to our X-gene. You don't have one, as you're just a regular human; but those of us with them can do things that are beyond the abilities of normal humans."

"Oh, is that why you're blue? I wasn't gonna say nothin', but I thought you were maybe just sad or somethin'."

Mystique gave him a cool look and then shifted into a dark haired Caucasian woman. "No, I'm not sad, that is just my natural form," she said icily and started to walk faster. "Like I haven't heard that a million times," she grumbled quietly, "'Are you sad? You look a little blue.' Idiots."

Ranma wisely decided to be quite and went back to puzzling out the files. He knew how to speak English pretty well, it was almost a requirement for how much wandering he and Genma had done on their trip. Reading it was a different matter, though.

After a few more minutes of walking they came to a small hanger that had several planes in it. Mystique headed to a yellow on that had the wing above the cockpit. Ranma watched as her form changed slightly and she was then wearing a bomber jacket and jeans.

"We're going to be heading down to Anchorage," she said as she opened the pilot's door and motioned for Ranma to get in. "I'll buy you some clothes and stuff there and then you're going to be getting onto a plane to New York where Lance will pick you up. I have to head down to Jackson and take care of some business," she said as she finished preflight checks and climbed into the cockpit. She gave Ranma a sharp look, "Don't, and I really stress this, try to run. That collar Magneto fitted you with can be activated anywhere in the world and he won't hesitate to use it, understood?"

"Yeah, I understand," he said softly.

Mystique glanced at him for a moment and went back to her startup, "There's a coat behind the seat, ah- I haven't asked you your name yet, have I?"

"It's Ranma. Ranma Saotome," he said as he grabbed the coat and slipped it on.

AN: I'm rather proud of this. It started as "How would Ranma fight as a shape shifter?" and evolved into this. Ranma gets to be a "Bad Guy" without changing anything in his personality and gets to show how kickass he is. Oh, it'll be deeper than that, sure, but expect much fighting. And Logan bashing. Maybe into a brick wall. It might well become a running gag.