My Life's Stranger Than Yours

(A/N: Before we get started, a couple of responses to reviews.

SeanHicks: You'd be surpised, but neither Ranma nor Dragon Ball are strangers to Fourth Wall breaks, though in both series, it's more of a manga thing(Such as Gohan as Saiyaman saying he'll introduce himself in the next chapter, or Ranma having his narration hi-jacked by Nabiki and Ranma commenting on it). I'm not going to make it a regular thing here, but if I happen to have one in my system, I may toss it in.

RoboVolcano: Akane didn't open the door before Gohan knocked, Gohan DID knock and it opened by itself. More light will be shed on that in this chapter, but just needed to clear that up.

Pizza Otaku: What are you talking about? Ranma's not learning from Gohan, they haven't even met...at least not yet (wink, wink)

And to that Guest reviewer, I sincerely doubt that DB Super is gonna play ANY part in anything in this story

With that out of the way, Let's get to it!)

First Impressions; Meet Son Gohan

[The Ring]

"Knock it...off!" Strained an irritated Ranma

After childishly turning Ryoga back into his cursed form, a chuckling Ranma was tackled by the furious piglet who attached himself to Ranma's face. As Ranma fervorishly tried to pry P-Chan off, the two bitter rivals paused as the heard a familiar female voice.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Akane?...AKANE!"

With P-Chan holding on for dear life to Ranma's pigtail, the red clad fighter quickly dashed his way out of the ring hall and towards the first staircase he encountered.

[With Akane]

"Gyaaaaaaaaah!"

Gohan let out a fearful shriek of his own as he took a cautious step backwards, slipping on the cape he was wearing and falling on his backside.

"Who...who are you...?" Gohan asked. "Where's Videl?"

His question fell on deaf ears as Akane nigh instinctively grabbed the first large object she could and chucked it at her assailant, which in this case was Videl's wardrobe, many of her clothes falling out.

With a panicked yelp, Gohan quickly got to his feet and caught the large closet with ease. Akane paused with shock as she saw this strange boy's display of strength.

'He...caught it...!? But...how did...how is he...!?'

Akane couldn't dwell on the thought for long as in the next instance, the door burst open and she turned to the sound of her name being called.

"AKANE!"

"Ranma!"

Ranma burst through the door, with P-Chan on his head, kicking it in and rushing over to Akane's side.

"What's going o-Gyaaah!?" Ranma cut himself off and took a panicked step backwards as he noticed Akane was a bit...exposed at the moment.

"Kyaaaah! Don't look!" Akane shrieked throwing a shirt at Ranma and curling into a ball to cover herself again.

As he removed the piece of clothing from his face, Ranma looked to find a guy in a strange costume over on the balcony putting a wardrobe down to the side.

"What the hell is that guy?"

"I don't know! He just came through the door and saw me in my underwear!" Akane blurted out, now wrapped in a sheet.

"Wait really?" Ranma quickly asked. "Then how come he's not out cold on the floor yet? Your tomboy macho-ness run out or something!?" he teased.

"Ranma listen! There's something strange about this guy," Akane warned. "I threw that wardrobe at him and he caught it...easily!"

"Seriously!?" Ranma exclaimed. 'This dude must be pretty strong,' Ranma concluded.

Cracking his knuckles, Ranma prepared to dash at Akane's assailant. Before he could however, an angrily squealing P-Chan hopped off of Ranma's head and launched himself at the mysterious attacker. Unfortunately, his aim was off and he wound up sailing past the strange boy and going over the edge of the balcony.

"P-Chan!" Akane shrieked.

As the black piglet sailed over the balcony rails, Gohan quickly caught him with one hand before he could fall too far out of reach.

"You okay little guy?" he said to the piglet. His question was met with a hard bite to the finger.

"Ow!" instinctively shaking his hand at the piglet's bite, Gohan unintentionally threw him off his finger and over the side of the balcony.

Worried for the animal's safety, Gohan let out a sigh of relief as he saw the black piglet land in Mr. Satan's outdoor hot tub, which luckily was still full of water.

"An opening!"

Thanks to P-Chan's distraction, Ranma was able to dash to the boy nigh instantaneously and fire off a fierce punch. To Ranma's surprise though, he was able to catch his punch with his free hand with seemingly little effort.

'Wait, what!?'

Ranma followed up with another punch from his free hand, but his opponent merely swayed away from his attack. His frustration steadily rising, Ranma attacked with a downward axe kick that once again, his foe dodged. This time however, Ranma was able to follow up by pivoting on his foot and attacking with a spinning round kick that Gohan blocked with his forearm.

With Ranma wide open, Gohan put his hand on his chest and lightly shoved Ranma backwards, making him skid across the floor back into Videl's room.

'Who is this guy? Ranma hasn't even touched him yet,' Akane noted.

'Akane wasn't kidding,' Ranma thought. 'This guy's good, and I don't think he's even trying yet!'

Ranma quickly rushed back into the fray when Gohan frantically threw his hands forward.

"Please, hold on a minute!" Gohan pleaded.

Ranma paused his movements, but kept his defensive stance, cautiously waiting for Gohan's next move.

"Okay pal, what's your deal?" Ranma demanded. "Who even are you?"

"Look, I can explain," Gohan began taking a step forward. "Look...I know how bad this looks, but I assure you I wasn't trying to do anything inappropriate," Gohan stated. "I was just looking for Videl!"

"Videl?" asked Ranma.

"What do you want with her you creep!?" Akane exclaimed.

"What's with all the yelling in here!?" shouted a female voice.

All eyes turned to the door to see Videl, her eyes lightly narrowed.

"Videl!" everyone called out.

Videl's expression briefly fell as she saw Akane wrapped in a blanket, her clothes scattered around the room, her wardrobe was WAY out of place, and let out a surprised gasp when her eyes fell on Ranma attacking (and failing) her boyfriend.

"Gohan? When'd you get here?" Videl asked.

"Just a minute ago," Gohan shakily replied.

"Gohan?" Akane raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell does rice have to do with anything?" Ranma asked.

"Ehhh...she's talking about me," Gohan said raising his hand.

"Wait...you know him?" Akane asked.

"Of course I know him, he's my boyfriend." Videl replied.

There was a brief moment of total silence as the Nerima natives processed what Videl just told them.

"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"

"He's your boyfriend?" Akane exclaimed.

"Wait, you have a boyfriend?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.

"Yes and yes," Videl answered. "Now if you wouldn't mind answering my question, what the hell happened in here!?"

"I'll tell you what happened!" Akane exclaimed. "That peeping tom walked in on me while I was changing!" she said pointing in the boys' direction.

"What!?" Videl replied sharply narrowing her eyes at the boys.

Both boys froze up as Videl steadily approached them, a look of fury on her face.

"I swear it was an accident!" Gohan blurted out, frantically waving his arms.

As soon as she heard Gohan's 'confession,' Videl froze in her tracks.

"Wait a sec Gohan, you're who Akane was talking about?" Videl asked.

Gohan let out an awkward, embarrassed chuckle as he sheepishly put his arm behind his head.

'I feel bad for this guy, but at least Akane can't get mad at me for this,' Ranma thought relieved.

"Okay, it's obvious a lot of craziness just happened that needs to be sorted out, but first things first, can we PLEASE get this place cleaned up!?"

Everybody in the room remained frozen for a brief respet of time until they all simultaneously nodded their heads in agreement.

"Alright. You boys, can finish cleaning up the dojo while Akane and I fix my room back up."

"Yes ma'am!" exclaimed Gohan.

Both boys scampered out of the room, closing the door behind them. Once the boys were gone, Videl let out an irritated sigh as she placed a hand to her forehead.

"Boys, am I right?" said Akane.

"We'll discuss them later," Videl replied. "Right now, you think you can tell me EXACTLY what happened here?"

Videl motioned to all her clothes scatterered across the room and her now empty wardrobe lying on the floor.

Akane let out an embarrassed chuckle as she tightened her grip on the blanket she was wearing.

"I might've...thrown your wardrobe...at your boyfriend..." Akane shamefully admitted.

Videl raised an eyebrow in surprise and slight disbelief.

"What?"

'She's the same age, height, and build as me and she was able to throw a wardrobe full of clothes halfway across the room? She can't be as strong as Gohan or the others, but seriously, how strong is she?'

Videl shook her head, coming out of her mental monologue.

"You know what, never mind. Just help me pick all this stuff up then we'll get your clothes out of the dryer. They've GOT to be done by now. After that, we'll meet up with the boys."

Akane nodded and got to work assisting Videl in cleaning up the mess she made.

"Oh and Akane," Videl started. "Try not to be too harsh on Gohan. Despite...whatever happened, trust me, he's not that kind of guy."

Akane slightly narrowed her eyes. "I'll...take your word for it...for now," 'But I'll believe it when I see it,' she mentally added.

[With the boys]

Ranma and Gohan were both hard at work mopping up the remaining water that covered the dojo floor.

"Man, where'd all this water even come from?" Gohan asked.

"Akane smashed the wall, busted a pipe and damn near flooded the place," Ranma grunted.

"That other girl from before?" asked a surprised Gohan. "Huh...come to think of it, she did throw that closet at me, and it was full of clothes," Gohan recalled. "She must be pretty strong to do all that."

"Speaking of strength you seem pretty strong yourself to be able to catch the thing Akane threw at you, and defend against my attacks," Ranma said.

Gohan backpedaled at Ranma's words, nervously scratching his head.

"Okay Rice Boy, spill it, you a martial artist?" Ranma asked

"Uh...well..."

Gohan was hesitant to answer. Ever since the Tournament, and everyone losing their memories of Majin Buu, he'd been trying his hardest to keep his true power a secret. Although, now that he thought back to their skirmish, he couldn't help but notice that Ranma had a higher energy signal than your average person.

Actually, he had higher energy than Videl who, despite still being somewhat new to harnassing energy, also had higher power than the average person.

With a regretful sigh, Gohan hesitantly nodded his confirmation.

"Yeah I am...sort of," he answered.

"Whadaya mean 'Sort Of'?" asked Ranma.

"I do practice martial arts, although not very often," Gohan replied. "Up until recently, I haven't trained seriously for a long time."

Ranma crossed his arms, not convinced. Ranma's not someone who's very easy to defend against in any sense of the word. The fact that Gohan was able to was enough to pique his interest.

"Yo Gohan."

"Yeah?"

"Why don't we go a quick round once all this water's cleared out?" asked Ranma.

"What? Why?"

"If holding me off is just a small bit of what a 'Sort-Of' martial artist can do, then I wanna see what else he has to offer. Besides, since we're actually in a fighting ring right now, there's no better time or place like the present," said Ranma.

"But...shouldn't we get back to the girls first?" Gohan reminded him. "I still need to apologize to your friend, and it's best not to keep Videl waiting."

Having said his piece, Gohan turned back to the water bucket and continued mopping up the water.

None to pleased with being written off, an overzealous Ranma zipped over to Gohan's position. Unfortunately, as he approached him, Ranma failed to notice the position of Gohan's cape on the floor and wound up tripping on it, crashing and falling into Gohan and a water bucket, it's contents dousing them, and the bucket landing on Ranma's head.

As Gohan shook water out of his hair and wrung out his cape, he asked, "Ranma are you alright?"

Ranma disgruntly lifted the bucket off his head and sarcastically replied, "Peachy."

Gohan took a harsh double take when he saw and heard Ranma when he...she pulled the bucket off her head. The awkward saiyan quickly zipped away from the now female Ranma as she slowly got to her feet.

"Wait a sec...who...what...Ranma!?" exclaimed a dumbfounded Gohan.

"Yeah it's me," she answered.

"Wha-? What...happened...? You're a...?" Gohan stammered.

"Long story short, it's a curse. Cold water makes me a girl, hot water, back to a boy, and before you ask, I'm regularly a boy." Ranma exclaimed.

"A curse?" Gohan asked. "Like magic?"

Ranma nodded. "You're more accepting of this than I expected," she admitted.

"Well...I've seen a lot of crazy things, so while your curse is definitely strange, it's admittedly not too out there," Gohan replied.

Ranma looked at Gohan with a somewhat surprised look, but ultimately just let it go. Gohan knew about the curse, he accepted it easily, let's just move on. Although, now that she took a look at Gohan, she did remember something.

"Actually, if you don't mind, I've got a question for you," Ranma began.

"I already said I'm not gonna fight you," Gohan replied.

"Not that. I was gonna ask, what the hell's up with your outfit? And what's with the cape?"

Gohan took a moment to look over himself and then mentally cursed himself as he realized that in all this confusion, he forgot to change back into his normal clothes.

Gohan once again let out an embarrassed chuckle. His expression becoming more straight faced, Gohan said, "Well...Ranma you showed me your secret...I guess it's only fair I share mine...as long as you can keep it a secret."

Ranma shot Gohan a confused looks, but nonetheless shrugged and nodded.

"The truth is...I am..."

Gohan paused a struck a quick series of poses before finishing.

"The ally of Justice, Great Saiyaman!"

Ranma had a bead of sweat rolling down his head as he watched Gohan strike a more bombastic finishing pose.

"Soo...you're some kind of Superhero...?" asked an unimpressed Ranma.

"Yeah...like I said before, I do still practice martial arts, and I admit, I have plenty of power," Gohan began. "But I'm not exactly the type who goes out looking for more strength unless I really need it. I much prefer to use the power I have to help out those who can't help themselves."

Though reluctantly, Ranma gave Gohan an empathetic look.

"I can respect that. After all, protecting the weak is part of a martial artists essence." Ranma stated. "Although, I wonder what kind of hero peeps on innocent girls?" she joked.

Gohan stumbled over, embarrasment evident on his face.

"T-that was an accident!" Gohan exclaimed. "I was looking for Videl because I needed to tell her something important!"

"Tell her what?" Ranma asked.

"You know about her Dad's dojo getting destroyed, right?"

Ranma raised her eyebrows. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that."

"Well, when I showed up, the officer gave me some info on their prime suspect, and I was rushing to her place to tell her, and...well, you can figure out the rest," Gohan said.

"What'd they tell you?" asked Ranma.

"I'll let you know once this place is cleaned up because Videl should probably be the first one to know this."

Ranma sighed but nodded. "Alright, let's get this done already!" she exclaimed grabbing a mop.

Gohan nodded in agreement and went to grab his equipment. With no more words, they got back to work.

[A short moment later]

Everyone was assembled in the living room, a now male Ranma sitting nonchalantly beside Akane (who finally got her newly dried clothes back on) who had their eyes fixated on a nervous looking Gohan, who was now back in his regular clothes.

Videl stood up and got the 'meeting' underway.

"Okay, let's start with introductions." she motioned to Gohan.

Gohan hesitantly stood up and interrupted the intro.

"Actually, before we begin, I first want to apologize for...what happened before," he said bowing to Akane. "Like I said it was all an accident and I hope I didn't offend you.

Akane's expression notably softened when she heard the sincerety in his voice. Actually she was completely at a loss for words since it's not often she gets such a...straightforward apology.

'I didn't expect him to be so...polite,' Akane thought.

"It...it's fine...I guess," Akane hesitantly replied. "But still, you really should knock before going into someone else's house, even if it is you'r girlfriend's!" she quickly added.

"I did knock," Gohan countered. "I landed on the balcony and saw a girl through the curtain and thought it was Videl. When I knocked on the door it just...came open on it's own."

Akane's narrowed an eyebrow in suspicion. "Sorry but I find that a bit hard to believe."

"It's actually easier to believe than you'd think," Videl chimed in. "You see the latch on the balcony door is...faulty to say the least. It usually stays locked but sometimes the latch will come undone with enough force...I've been meaning to have someone fix that for a while now..." Videl trailed off.

"Oh! Yeah, then that might've been my fault. I was pounding on the door pretty hard," Gohan admitted.

Akane crossed her arms and nodded. "No, like you said, it was an accident."

"Then if it's all the same to you, can we at least start over?" Gohan asked extending a hand.

After a brief pause, Akane shot Gohan a small smile and shook his hand. "Sure."

While Videl breathed a sigh of relief that Akane and Gohan were on good terms for now, Ranma was watching the whole scene with a great deal of disbelief.

"Sooo...that's it?" said Ranma. "Since when did you start accepting apologies as simple as that?"

"Since someone actually had the courtesy to apologize to me at all. Maybe you should try it some time Ranma," Akane replied.

"What do I have to apologize for?"

"How about all the times you've walked in on me?" Akane snapped.

"Most of those times weren't even my fault!" Ranma exclaimed. "Hell, the first time was your fault!"

The two continued to go back and forth while Gohan watched in awe, a bead of sweat rolling down his head.

"Uhhh...excuse me but..."

Videl grabbed Gohan by the arm and whispered, "Apparantly, this is normal for them."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Finally fed up with the arguing, Videl harshly clapped her hands together, getting their attention.

"Now that all that's out of the way, I think we can finally get everyone properly introduced." She motioned to Gohan. "Akane, Ranma, this is my boyfriend, Gohan. Gohan, this is my friend Akane and her fiancee Ranma."

"Fiancee!?" Gohan exclaimed.

"Don't look too deeply into it," Ranma replied. "We ain't gettin' married anytime soon."

"We're not getting married period," Akane backed up. "It's something our Dads set up."

"Oh...I see," Gohan stated.

"Well...now that everyone's been acquainted, any questions?" Videl interjected in an attempt to alleviate the awkward.

"I have one," said Akane. "It's not really a question, but when Gohan came in your room before, he said he was looking for you, and now that I think about it, he sounded like it was pretty urgent," she recalled.

"Hey, yeah," added Ranma. "That reminds me, when we were moppin' up the dojo, he said he knew something about the dude who wrecked your old man's dojo Videl."

Videl's eyes lit up and she frantically turned to Gohan. "Really!?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Gohan exclaimed. "See, I went to the dojo after school like you said, but the police were there and they filled me in. Before I left though, the Captain asked me to pass some new info they gathered onto you."

In a greatly excited fashion, Videl instantly got close up into Gohan's personal space and said, "Well, what'd he tell you!?"

Gohan briefly froze for a moment and blushed at their close proximity.

Before he could calm down enough to speak, however, they were interrupted by the sound of loud barking...again.

"Wait, Videl, is that Bee?" Gohan asked.

"Oh, what's he barking at now?" said Videl.

"I dunno, but it sounds like it's coming from the backyard," Gohan noted.

"Then let's get going!" exclaimed Ranma.

[A short moment later]

The quartet of friends rushed to the back to find Bee barking in the distance.

"Bee, calm down!" Videl ordered.

"What's gotten him so excited?" Gohan asked.

As Bee growled, everyone turned their attention to the canine's gaze and saw a distinctly male figure approaching them.

"Wait, isn't that...?" Ranma thought out loud.

"Ryoga?" Akane exclaimed.

Sure enough, Ranma's eternal rival stood before the group, wielding his signature umbrella.

'Huh, I was wonderin' where he disappeared to,' Ranma thought. 'But how'd he get human again?'

"Who...is that?" Videl asked.

"Ryoga," Ranma answered. "He's kind of my archrival, and he has a knack for showing up where he's not wanted."

"Well what's he doing here?" Videl asked.

"If he's not lookin' for a round with me, we'll find out soon enough," Ranma replied.

Ryoga stepped forward and stopped a couple of yards away from the others.

"You..." Ryoga growled out.

Ranma stepped forward cracking his knuckles.

"So, you do wanna go a round after all, eh Ryoga?"

"Piss off Ranma! I'm talking to HIM!" Ryoga pointed his umbrella at Gohan.

"Me?!" Gohan asked surprised.

"Gohan? What does he want with Gohan?" Videl asked.

"I'm going to make you PAAAAAAY!"

With a forceful yell, Ryoga lifted is weighted umbrella, dashed past Ranma and thrust his weapon at Gohan, who unfortunately was right behind the girls.

As the girls dashed to the side to avoid Ryoga's charge, Ryoga let out a surprised gasp as he realized that Gohan had caught his umbrella with one hand.

Ryoga wasn't the only one who was surprised as Ranma and Akane both looked at the scene with shocked eyes. They knew how heavy Ryoga's umbrella was and the fact that Gohan stopped it with only one hand was astounding.

"What's going on here?" Akane asked. "Why's Ryoga attacking Gohan?"

"I dunno, but whatever the reason, I think we're in for a show."

(To Be Continued)
[I'll be the Roooundabout...]

(A/N: Geeze...this chapter was a pain in the ass to write...and I can't really explain why. I had plenty of good ideas going into this chapter but then I just got stuck like, five different times. Either way, I'm just glad I got this one outta the way. Right now I'm just hoping Akane being quick to accept Gohan's apology feels natural. While it doesn't always happen, I can think of one instance where Akane got walked in on, and though she still hit the guy who did it, she let it go quickly after, although that may have been a special case [In case you're wondering, it was Shinnosuke], although given how well mannered Gohan is, especially compared to boys in Ranma 1/2, she'd probably accept it anyway. So, now that this mess is over with, a new one approaches as Ryoga finally makes himself known to the others and he has his eyes set on Gohan for 'unknown' reasons...oh who am I kidding, everyone knows why. Prepare yourselves as next time, it's Ryoga vs. Gohan and maybe more...emphasis on maybe)