"speech (English mainly)"

"radio, feline language, 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.

It was night, and once again a red furred panther was stalking the streets of Freedom City. Sleep had been denied, so it had gone out for a prowl. But what really was annoying the great cat was why it couldn't sleep. The reason was simple enough, it didn't know who it was anymore. For most of the cat's life it had gone by the name Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome branch of Anything Goes.

That self had lived a carefree life of travel and training. And it had been a happy enough life, or at least the only life known. For most of the cat's life it had been a boy, and a human at that. All her identity had been wrapped up in those three facts. Martial arts, being a boy, and being human had been constants. Ranma was a 'man among men', or at least told to be one. It was also important to be The Best. And not just the best 'he' could be.

No, it had to be 'the best' out of everyone. Best of his generation, best ever. If he lost a fight, Ranma's baka father would beat him and call him a 'weak' girl. If he had nightmares, it was because of being a 'weak girl'. For ten years all traces of femininity got ruthlessly beaten out. The end result had been a two dimensional arrogant jerk, a mere caricature of a man. And then one day in the Bayankala mountain range everything changed.

With a splash one third of Ranma's stable existence was shattered. One splash, and the 'man among men' was a woman. At the time it had been horrifying. And it was made even worse just a few short days later. Not only was Ranma now a woman, but after visiting a rural village a girl wanted to kill 'her'. As for why her death was demanded, it was because of a stupid challenge. A challenge which Ranma had won.

Even that wasn't enough to truly break a person, although it came close. More recent events had been even more traumatic. For years she'd believed herself to be the best. No one had been able to beat her, or at least not more then once. Even people who claimed to be dragons or gods couldn't beat her. Not when it mattered at least. A few months ago that pillar too got shattered. The 'great' Ranma Saotome had lost three times in a row, and two of those times to the same person.

The blow to her ego had been great. What made it worse was that it hadn't been ancient relics like Cologne or Happosai who defeated her. No, it had been people close to her own age. People in their thirties and forties had been the ones to defeat Ranma. People using styles which she'd already mastered, or so the young adult had thought. At first she'd assumed they had to have some special trick they used to win.

Discovering the 'trick' had been a sobering experience. There had been no trick. There was no fancy maneuver or nearly unstoppable technique. It was just pure skill. Skill that made all her speed and strength useless. Three times Ranma had been able to spar against that 'emerald avenger' person. And each time they either fought to a draw, or she lost. And the worst part was, it wasn't because he could hit her reliably. It was because she couldn't land a single solid blow. Especially if he stopped using that weird spinning style of his. When he used basic kung fu, the man was nearly unstoppable. Put a weapon in his hands and it was even worse.

Back in Nerima Ranma had also been convinced she was a chi expert. According to Doctor Tofu before he'd left, she'd forgotten more about chi then most ever learned. So when she finally encountered a true chi master, the results had not been in Ranma's favor. Even with a talent for duplicating techniques after only seeing it once or twice, she still couldn't figure out how that green goof had done it.

All in all, the notion that Ranma Saotome was the best martial artist ever had been ruthlessly crushed over and over. But at least she still knew who she was, right? That too had been stolen. She had been stolen. There was no 'Ranma Saotome' at all. This fact alone had made everything ever believed into a lie. It had taken weeks to recover from that devastating blow. Weeks of questioning who she was.

This had left only one pillar standing to hold up who she was, the fact she was human. But now this too had been taken away. More and more it felt natural to be a cat. The embarrassing fear was gone, but that didn't help matters as much as she'd have thought. The mere fact of no longer being human was enough to cause some distress. Oh sure, Ranma could take on a human form, and mostly wore it.

Nights like this put lie to the action. She no longer was human, and never would be again. Similarly, being a boy felt more and more wrong as time passed. It wasn't that Ranma's personality was changing, although this too was slowly happening. It was more that being male felt off. And sometimes being male made her physically ill. Especially during that time of the month. That had never been a problem before.

Then again, before coming to America she'd made sure to change back to male long before a month had passed. It was also a bit disturbing that it took increasing amounts of hot water to change into a male. A fact which made her wonder if eventually there would be no change. If eventually the 'curse' would be the only state. And if that was true, could she handle it? It was a question Ranma hated to think on.

A cry of "Where on earth am I now?" filled the air, which caused the red furred cat to pause her introspection.

She padded closer to the figure, and looked on. Yup, it's Ryoga all right. Seeing how many warrants for arrest he had was an eye opener. There was someone with the Hibiki though. Nabs is here too? She smells like she's afraid. Why? The cat approached the two and rubbed her side against them. I give em an hour ta stop petting, Ranma thought as she purred happily. Oooh, that feels good! The purring grew louder as Nabiki began to scratch behind her ears. Maybe two hours.

The feline nuzzled her head against Nabiki's hand a bit more. Then to the surprise of both fugitives it started to stand upright. Fur melted into the body as facial features rearranged themselves. The bone structure shifted and morphed in ways that looked exceedingly painful. Not all the fur receded completely though. Some changed nature and became a hot pink hello kitty belly tee with matching skirt. As proportions continued to shift and alter the two found themselves in the company of not a large cat, but Ranma in her female form.

"I have several emergencies Ranma. Sam's already heading to the warehouse district to look into reported explosions, and I'm still tracking an escaped GP prisoner named Nabiki Tendo. You'll have to head to Metro General. I have reliable reports someone is going to try killing Cree."

Ranma scowled as the message was relayed to her via the transmitter in her ear. Her eyes narrowed as they took in the Tendo girl's presence. Learning that Ryoga had hurt many people rather badly, and even killed a few had been shocking to say the least. While he was sure many had been accidents, it had been because of deliberately caused damage to buildings. Then there had been that subway tunnel Ryoga reportedly caused to collapse several months ago.

"Head to the hospital Moth, I got Nabs covered. Pig-boy's here too, where ya want em delivered to?" He tried to sub-vocalize.

Still tryin ta figure out how I know english now, the girl thought. Watching Ryoga slip into an aggressive combat stance warned that she'd not been as silent as intended. As did the panicked look in Nabiki's eyes. Stupid alien thingie. She didn't have time to continue complaining though. Not only was Ryoga unlimbering that heavy umbrella, but Nabiki had started to run. This created a dilemma.

On the one hand, Ryoga was a clear danger to everyone around him. On the other hand it would be nearly impossible to keep him in one place for long. Then again, Nabiki was also a danger. She was just dangerous for different reasons. The Tendo woman would also be easier to capture and hold. What bout those roaches Sam gave me? A hand reached into a nearly invisible belt pouch and withdrew a small silver object.

With a flip the pink clad girl arced over Ryoga. One palm struck him in the middle of the back. After that she took off after the other. She could hear the other cursed martial artist screaming about hell and vengeance, then the screams stopped. He's lost, she concluded. And I lost her, I hate having to use that form. Between jumps Ranma once again metamorphosed into a large red furred cat.

XxXxX

"RANMA! GET BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!" He screamed.

While Ryoga had no idea where he was, it didn't matter. This was his eternal enemy in front of him. An enemy who had attacked, then ran off like the coward he always knew Ranma to be. Would he actually follow through on the threat? Even he didn't know. After all, he'd yet to actually beat Ranma in a fight. Sure there was that time Ranma's strength had been removed. But that had felt like cheating. And only a real victory would satisfy his stolen honor.

"Wait, when did they put a desert here?"

XxXxX

"Well this is a fine mess I'm in," a white haired man muttered while staring at a now destroyed machine. "Stuck so far in the past it's not even funny, no real way home, and my only means of communicating with the others just blew up. At least I now know why the precinct was targeted. They somehow knew one of us officers was 'The Streak', just not which one. Figures. Till they can figure out where I am, guess it's gorilla warfare time."