"speech"
"radio or telepathic speech"
thoughts
/"different language or panda sign"/
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.
Warning: There will be some OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.
There are many types of invisibility methods. They range from psionicly convincing observers you aren't there to true invisibility, and various stages in between. And since coming to Earth Moth had seen practically all of them. She'd encountered people who bent light around their body. There had been those who were able to alter skin color to match their surroundings. Psychics who clouded the mind, and the occasional martial artist who did the same.
But this was something entirely different. That it was a martial arts technique was clear. But not the nature of this technique. It hid from normal sight, but not from thermal optics. If the method had been a mind clouding effect, no advanced vision or optical detection equipment would work. Yet this wasn't a case of actual invisibility either. If so, the security cameras wouldn't have picked anything up.
Then there was the evident shape-shifting abilities of this murderer. Abilities that appeared linked to water. Possibly a psychological trigger rather then physiological. I feel sorry for the kid. Bioblade never really stood a chance. She watched video of the altercation again, paying attention to the most minor of details. While security cameras hadn't been able to pick up what type of projectile the criminal used, it was clear he generated them spontaneously. And they were sharp.
After learning all she could from the fight, Moth rewound to how everything started. And what she saw made the galactic law officer angry. So the girl is connected to all this, and turns into a boy somehow. A boy that our murderer abuses casually. If there was one thing that Moth hated more then anything else, it was child abusers.
It was a hate most societies shared. However for her it was quite personal. After all, a cousin had died because of an abusive father. And not in a pleasant way either. Not that there are many pleasant ways to die. However being locked in a closet for three days while everyone else in the household leaves was the worst to Moth's way of thinking.
Of course her cousin had died long before the three days were up. After all, with no one to sit nearby while sleeping death was assured. Very few beings could withstand the gravity on her home planet. Not even her own people. It wasn't until Moth had entered the academy however that she learned why.
Her people had developed an instinctive control over gravity in the area surrounding themselves. But when sleeping, that natural ability shut off. And without it, surviving thirty gees of downward pull just isn't possible for most. Maybe for a short period of time, but the gravity of her home planet crushed most sentient races.
It was why Moth was one of only six people who ever left her home planet. It was why her people had only recently entered galactic politics. Only within the last twenty cycles in fact. And Moth had been the first to leave her home. So it could be forgiven if she still had some mental issues. If she still needed someone awake near her while she slept for example.
Eighteen years off world is nothing when compared to thousands of years worth of social taboo and personal tragedy. Of course having forcibly induced amnesia for three years didn't help any. It had taken a while to regain control over her abilities, even after the damnable control chip had been removed from her brain. It was rather fortunate that Moth had a noble streak which ran to the depths of her very being.
We are all a product of our experiences after all. Even having her memories stripped by a megalomaniac couldn't erase those experiences, merely suppress them.
XxXxX
Why me? Sam thought as she shook her head. /"You're good kid, I'll admit that. But you ain't the fucking best. For one thing, I'm probably better."/
/"Not possible,". Ranma bragged. /"I killed a god."/
Hearing this caused Sam to chuckle. /"I doubt that. I've met several gods. And a snot nosed kid like you can't beat one, let alone kill one. Me and the others, we FOUGHT a damn god. Took a fucking month. And most of those with us died. They fucking died, and they were more fucking powerful then you. But come on 'godslayer', prove you're the best. Just try an beat me."/
The pig tailed girl grinned at the challenge. She followed her host into a large empty room. Once there the cyan haired girl bowed and dropped into a combat stance with her feet close together and both hands in front of her chest. Like greased lightning Ranma leaped forward with her foot extended. The kick connected, and Sam was knocked to the ground. In a smooth motion the champion of justice rolled to her feet.
Sam spun around, her fist heading towards Ranma's head. The pig tailed youth leaned backwards to avoid the blow. To her amazement however she felt the other girl's knuckles graze her nose. She's good, Ranma thought to herself. Maybe better then Ryoga. Then Ranma was twisting to avoid a clawed strike from the other girl's left hand. However she was too slow to completely avoid it. Even with rolling her body to the side that had hurt.
There was no time to recover though. Sam's foot was hurtling towards the pig tailed marital artist's side in a snap kick. Ranma jumped into the air, flipping to land behind her opponent. That didn't offer any safety though. She found herself flipping through the air again to avoid being tripped by a backwards sweep kick. As Ranma landed once again she found herself twisting to avoid being punched in the stomach.
The follow up strait kick caught Ranma completely by surprise. Even as she started trying to twist out of the way the foot caught Ranma square in the stomach, hard. She allowed her body to be propelled by it backwards a foot and rolled to her feet. Already Ranma could feel a bruise forming where the foot had connected. That's it, time ta take things to the next level. He leaned back to avoid yet another backhand fist. When I get a chance that is.
Ranma slipped into the soul of ice, hoping to end this quickly. As the air chilled around him the youth figured he had this in the bag. His eyes went wide and the soul of ice almost faltered when Sam held out her hands and ice batons formed in them. One of the ice batons came across in a horazontal swing which Ranma leaned back to avoid. He wasn't anywhere near fast enough to pull it off however. The impact knocked him further off balance, dumping Ranma on his rear.
/"That's enough kid."/ Sam said calmly. /"You are skilled. And I can already see you're normal tactics. But those only work when you are the faster fighter. The cold aura is interesting too. But I've seen it before."/
Without any warning Ranma launched a ball of blue energy. His smirk died as the blast sailed past Sam's rotating form. He saw a streak of bluish white, then his vision exploded in stars. As his sight cleared Ranma saw crackling electricity in the other girl's hand. Then he was jumping to the side to avoid the electric bolt. His chi senses extended, but the other didn't seem the least bit winded from the blast.
/"Also nothing I haven't seen before."/ Sam said with a smile. /"Still, it is impressive you can generate it using your chi and training. I've seen chi masters who can't project a concussive force with their chi. Nice trick. What style do you study?"/
Ranma stared at the other girl in shock. Until today, she'd have claimed the only ones who could (maybe) beat her were centuries old. Yet this teenage girl had not just fought Ranma to a stand still, but was easily overwhelming her. Plus she was able to generate electricity via chi... Just who was this person?
/"Listen kid, if what you tell me about yesterday is true your dad is in serious trouble. He killed someone. And that someone has a lot of friends, myself included. He will be caught. So, what do you want to do?"/
It quickly became clear that the young Saotome hadn't been paying attention the the other. /"How did you do that? I spent ten years training to be the best, and you can't be older then me."/
/"Kid, I'm thirty one fucking years old. I spent eight years studying pao pat me. And another eleven years fighting demons, monsters, invaders from other worlds and dimensions, would-be despots, muggers, and everything in between. I've stared down the gullet of a god intending to destroy everything. Compared to that, you don't even register as a threat. Maybe with real training you could take me. Or maybe not. Who knows. Anyone can get lucky once or twice. It takes real skill to repeatedly survive the kinda shit storm I deal with almost weekly."/
Author Notes: (I'm really NOT actually trying to pad wordcount, seriously)
How is it Ranma lost the fight? Well I do have him all statted out for Heroes Unlimited. I had to for this cross over, as well as others I'm writing where HU characters from my campaign setting show up. Remember folks, Ranma's preferred method of defense is to dodge. Which is perfectly understandable considering how much raw power guys like Ryoga put behind their attacks. But in the rules for Heroes Unlimited (and all palladium books games) dodging takes one of you're combat actions for the round UNLESS you have auto-dodge. Which has to be declared, and has a different (usually lower) bonus then standard dodging.
Most don't have auto dodge, and Ranma definitely doesn't. Even in the manga and anime he's not counter attacking while he's dodging. Instead he waits for an opening and overwhelms them with superior speed. A tactic which works great, if you are much faster then you're opponent. The problem here is that he's not that much faster then Cold Snap. In Heroes Unlimited terms, he's got exactly one attack per melee (15 seconds or so) more then Cold Snap.
The problem with this preferred tactic continues I look at his combat bonuses. He has a +5 to dodge, which is not too bad. Especially at low levels, and I have Ranma at level 4 as a physical training power category. His bonus to parry attacks though is higher. Yet he prefers to dodge instead of parry. Parrying would leave him able to counter attack, yet he doesn't do it often.
He also likes to start things off with a jump kick. This right here is the start of his mistakes in the sparring match. In Palladium Books games, a jump kick uses ALL you're actions for the combat round. And if you have no more actions for the current round, dodging barrows from you're actions during the next round. So Ranma leading off with a jump kick was actually a bad thing. Against someone like Kuno, he can easily KO them with a jump kick. Problem is he's not facing Kuno, he's facing someone who's also a world class martial artist with superhuman durability.
What do I mean by superhuman durability? Well in Palladium Books games such as Heroes Unlimited a normal person might have 15 hit points and 15 to 20 S.D.C., or Structural Damage Capacity. A jump kick does 1d8 damage is an automatic critical for x2 damage (x3 damage if you also roll a critical strike). Meaning it can do up to 24 damage with one blow. Ouch. Ranma as he's statted out has 20 hit points and 84 SDC, while Cold Snap has 52 hit points and 74 SDC.
Even so, I did actually play out the combat between them using Ranma's preferred tactics to see how things work out. While he's able to avoid most of the attacks, being unable to counter attack means eventually you will likely be defeated. Ranma badly underestimated his opponent, and got overwhelmed by superior combat skills. Considering Ranma's normal tactics, he can't win if he starts off with a jump kick against someone almost as fast as him. Against someone like Ryoga who might have 4 or 5 attacks per melee, he can win with such tactics. But not someone as fast as he is.
It's why Cologine and Happosai are better fighters then Ranma. Instead of dodging, they parry and/or counter attack. Their speed is on par with Ranma's, so it is the youth's tactical errors that prove his undoing. Every time he's beaten Happosai it's been with a sneak attack or by using a trick (such as the pictures used to pull off the dragon ascension wave). When I diced out the combat, Ranma got initiative the first round, did his typical jump kick as the opener. Then he couldn't get a single attack in for the entire second round. By which point he'd gone from 84 SDC to 18 SDC. So in thirty seconds he had been severely beaten down. For the story I decided not to have Ranma that hurt, ended the battle shortly after the second round begins.
Heck, Ranma wouldn't have gotten an attack in again without deliberately letting himself be hit (which he tries to avoid usually) till probably the seventh or eight round of combat. The fight would have been over long before then. And if he stopped dodging? He'd still have used up actions through almost the entire third round. Again, good chance he'd be defeated before he could counter-attack.
As for the dragon ascension wave (the tornado move)... That works against someone who is generating 'hot' chi. Such as from anger or lust. Of course someone who is generating a lot of heat to begin with might work too. The problem here is he's not facing someone who's enraged. He's facing someone who's calm and focused. Despite the language, Cold Snap is not a berserker. Just rude as hell. It also kind of requires you to be able ta avoid being knocked out of the spiral you're self. A tricky feat when you are being overwhelmed by someone faster then you are, and potentially more skilled to boot.
I didn't forget about the chestnut fist either. He flat out didn't get the opening needed. I am treating his chestnut fist as the Physical Training power punch. Which means if you were to RP the fight in heroes unlimited it requires two actions to use, and does double damage (so 2d4x2). On a critical (natural 20) it would do x3 damage. This power punch in game rules can also do normal damage even to someone who is invulnerable. Meaning that it ignores armor rating for damage purposes. A potentially devastating maneuver, if you have the time to try.
This fits in with canon for Ranma too. Ryoga's breaking point training would basically give him a natural armor rating, meaning any attack roll has to beat his armor rating to actually hurt him. Ranma's been known to use the chestnut fist to bypass Ryoga's near invulnerability by punching the same spot multiple times within a second. Thus it can bypass armor rating.
In a world without superhumans, super spies, and super martial artists Ranma would probably be 'the best'. But it's doubtful even in his world he is the absolute best. He's just not met someone he can't beat yet. Well, he has in Herb as I understand it, but he still managed to come up with something to win. In a world with superheroes and super martial artists though he's nothing special. His ten year training trip is nothing really. Any truly serious martial arts master will have devoted years to studying the art.
Using Ninjas & Superspies as a basis, the training trip was enough to make Ranma a level 1 dedicated martial artist with an exclusive style which counts as two choices. A style which favors tactics that aren't really the best possible. What makes Anything Goes 'nearly unbeatable' in canon is it's versatility and adaptability. That, and Ranma's extreme learning curve. Every style though has it's flaws. Ranma's flaw is that he relies too much on the speed advantage and aerial attacks.
In heroes unlimited terms, the ten year training trip was just enough to make Ranma a level 1 physical training character with the 'speed and agility' focus and 'aggressive and deadly' style. To represent his chi blast I gave him Energy Projection-Energy as a super power, with the flaw it costs 1 chi for every 2d6 damage a blast deals. At level four he can deal up to 5d6 damage with it, or as little as 1d6 damage. With 19 chi, he could fire up to 19 blasts. Fewer if he wants them more powerful.
Just for fun, here's the combat log for the battle I diced out. It wasn't till the second round that Ranma REALLY started getting beaten down. Mostly cause by that point he starts failing the 'roll with impact' save. The only hit Ranma got in DID hurt a lot. But after that he was too busy dodging as is his wont.
Ranma: 8 attacks per melee, 18/84 SDC
Cold Snap: 7 attacks per melee, 58/74 SDC
Round One: Ranma init 12, Cold Snap init 6
attack sequence
1. Ranma- jump kick (attack roll 18 modified), Cold Snap defense-auto dodge (11 modified), 16 damage
Cold Snap-backhand (attack roll 14 modified), Ranma defense-dodge (14 modified)
2. Ranma- na
Cold Snap- claw hand (attack roll 16 modified), Ranma defense-dodge (11 modified), 6 damage
3. Ranma- na
Cold Snap- snap kick (attack roll 18 modified), Ranma Defense-dodge (23 modified)
4. Ranma-na
Cold Snap- backwards sweep (9 modified), Ranma defense-dodge (24 modified)
5. Ranma-na
Cold Snap- strait punch (attack roll 8 modified), Ranma Defense-dodge (14 modified)
6. Ranma-na
Cold Snap- strait kick (attack roll 23 natural 18), Ranma Defense-dodge (natural 1), 8 damage
-na
Cold Snap- backhand (attack roll 14), Ranma Defense-dodge (21 modified)
Round Two: Ranma init 16, Cold Snap init 14
1. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- generate twin batons of ice
2. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- strike with baton (attack roll 17 modified), Ranma defense-dodge, 5 damage
3. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap-baton strike, ranma defense-dodge hit 12 damage
4. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- baton strike, ranma defense-dodge hit 11 damage
5. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- baton strike, ranma defense-dodge 4 damage
6. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- baton strike, ranma defense-dodge 8 damage
7. Ranma-dodged
Cold Snap- baton strike, ranma defense-dodge 6 damage
8. Ranma-dodged
Round Three (not started yet)
1. ranma-dodged
2. ranma dodged
3. ranma-dodged
4. ranma-dodged
5. ranma dodged
6. ranma-dodged
7.
8.