Ranma belongs to Rumiko Sensei
X-Men belongs to Marvel Studios
Homo Superior
Special Thanks to Riniko and Mingyu for tag teaming to edit this chapter! Without them, this would be terrible!
Apocalypse -Sinister War: Part Five
*** Ranma ***
'Crap!' Ranma thought as he fell down the hole, which appeared to be bottomless. He turned around and was relieved to see that Apocalypse's large frame had dropped down with him. At least until he noticed the First Mutant's descent appear to slow.
What was it that Professor Caliban said about Apocalypse's abilities again…. Oh right! Limited flight too.
'Crap Crap Crap!' Ranma berated himself. It would look really stupid if Apocalypse showed back up top with the X-Men, and just after he "sacrificed" himself so nobly too. He'd be the laughing-stock of the school!
Not if he could help it!
Within the split seconds since Ranma thoughts began to run their course, the pigtailed boy angled his arms out and began throwing out sharpened wind blades.
"Shin Saidaikyu Kijin Raishu Dan!"
It worked just like Ryu's old Ultimate Demon-God Multiple Strike move, but with only one difference. Ranma had improved on it. Cutting regular stones and metal might have been good enough, but after the things he had witnessed at the Xavier school, the knowledge of Vibranium and Adamantium, and learning about mutants that can turn into diamonds, he needed to improve every aspect of his abilities as he realized that his opponents were no longer just human martial artists.
So, while his wind blades would not be able to slice through Celeste's diamond form they should, in theory, sting quite furiously. Perhaps maybe even make Professor Wolverine think twice. It wasn't made for them but people like them. The moment his attacks struck Apocalypse he was pleased that his experiment had paid off as the First Mutant's eyes widened when the wind blades cut deep into his body.
"Narrgh!" Apocalypse roared in pain as his concentration was broken from the feeling as if multiple swords were cutting deep into his armored flesh. He turned back to the source of his pain and saw the pigtailed boy, the one known as Ranma Saotome spinning like a top. His sensor system told him that the air currents had been condensed incredibly to become sharp and durable.
"Pest!"
An energy shield flickered to life around Apocalypse, shattering the rest of wind blades on contact. Now recovered, the First Mutant charged quickly towards the still falling boy and smashed into him with his energy shield, pinning the boy against the side of the wall. He then shifted his hand into a cannon and fired a powerful energy beam at the flatscan.
"Arggh!" Ranma bounced painfully as he skidded across the floor into the empty room. Apocalypse's beam had hit him so hard it punched Ranma through the wall behind him. Recovering quickly, he twisted his body to avoid another one of the large mutant's energy beams.
"Nyah Nyah, ya missed! I know blind mutants with better accuracy!"
Apocalypse was getting annoyed as he stood at the entrance of the hole he created on the 37th level. They had fallen down thirteen levels from where they had started from his throne room.
He was fast, but the boy appeared to be faster as he narrowly dodged the beams every single time. Each beam strike was capable of hurting an X-Man and outright killing a human. It was overkill but this was his weakest shot, he was not going to waste precious energy on the flatscan.
"Nice shot! Almost had me that time!" Ranma bent his body in a way that would have made Spider-Man proud as he straightened back up to taunt the feared mutant.
"Seriously though, are you even trying? I can do this all day!"
Apocalypse, the High Lord, the Forever Walker, SON of the Morning Fire, known as the First One, worshiped as the god Set, Huitxilopochii they called him, Sauru, they named him! Kali-Ma, he was described as such and so many more. His titles were endless, the respect shown by both servants and enemies were too numerous to count from throughout his entire existence! Yet here was a mere human, sixteen years of age, disrespecting him! Taunting him! He was a King, a GOD!
"INSOLENCE!" Apocalypse changed both of his hands into canons, even forming smaller ones on his body, and renewed his bombardment against the pigtailed pest.
Ranma was dodging for his life as he back-flipped, cartwheeled, bounced off a wall or broken piece of flying debris to change his angle midway, sometimes even just mundanely ducking, the evil mutant's energy attacks.
'Kami above! Does he not run out of energy?!' the pigtailed boy thought as his muscles began to burn having to continuously dodge, duck, and weave through the ancient mutant's attacks. The level they were on was being completely wrecked! Doors were lying on the ground, walls were torn apart. Ranma knew one thing, he wasn't going to let any of those beams hit him!
The First Mutant continued to lay down suppression fire, letting his instinct and targeting system take over to try and snuff out the pest. Yet as time wore on, he just got more and more aggravated.
'This is a waste of time!' Apocalypse thought in annoyance before he realized something and froze. How could he have been so obviously baited? Though in his defense, no one had ever been so childish with him. He halted his attack immediately.
Ranma dodged an attack that never came, and the phantom one after that, before he took up a more defensively stance. Apocalypse was merely standing there, looking at him.
"Hey Alpaca Lips! What's a matter! Ya ran outta steam?" Ranma taunted, but fear gripped his heart as the First Mutant merely turned towards the entrance with his energy shield up and began to float out to the platform shaft they had just fallen down.
"Shit."
Apocalypse was now angered for another reason. He had foolishly let himself get distracted by the wily flatscan named Ranma Saotome. Once, he had thought the boy was like the martial artists he had faced in the past, strong and cunning, but then he found out the true reason for his nemesis Saffron's defeat. It was a fluke, a mere coincidence, both times. Thanks to the information sold by one Nabiki Tendo, he was able to piece together what happened with Saffron at Jusendo. Saffron was aged prematurely and thus not in full control of his power, the pigtailed boy had fought a Phoenix Lord that was crippled. He had given the flatscan too much credit. His deceased servants had told him the flatscan fought the Lord of Jusendo again at the Xavier Institute, but he was sure the X-Men had more to do with his millennium long bane's defeat rather than anything the boy did himself.
So, comfortable in his knowledge, Apocalypse merely turned around, raised his energy shield and levitated away. He knew the boy was running at him, but it mattered little. The flatscan would not be able to break through his shields.
Ranma quickly closed the distance between himself and the intimidating mutant. Ranma thought back to a class he took with Professor Pryde, Cable and Amara, about energy and energy shielding (both technological and biological). He had found out that a Moko Takabisha would just be absorbed by energy projections through trial and error. Elemental attacks would likewise be absorbed. So he had modified a very specific set of skills for this particular instance.
On the last step, Ranma leaped out into the shaft so that he was directly above Apocalypse's shield. He saw the mutant raise an eyebrow the moment before he fell down upon the mutant's shield.
Apocalypse could not help but be curious about just what the flatscan thought he could achieve by this desperate attempt until he saw the boy clasp his hands together as if he was about to dive into water. His hands were, oddly enough, glowing a light yellow color. The next thing he knew, something unexpected happened as the boy's two hands pierced his energy shield, and then his leg bent and did the impossible.
"Moko Kaimon Ha! Revised!" Ranma shouted as his dense ki infused hands ripped open the shield as his foot, kicked through the head of the First Mutant. The kick obviously stunned the mutant as he saw spittle fly from Apocalypse's mouth.
'Damn you for making me do this!'
For the second time in his life Ranma made the conscience decision to kill, the first instance being Saffron. He struggled with it because he really did not want to practice the art for the purpose of killing, yet Apocalypse left him with no choice. The assault on the school, the war that was going on right now, everything. Apocalypse underestimated him, and thus paid the price. He had heard the whole laundry list of his skills from Professor Caliban, and he was sure that had THAT Apocalypse fought him it would have been a hundred times harder.
Ranma roared in anger, both at himself and the mutant as he used the most gruesome attack from the Yama-Sen-Ken.
"Dokuja Tanketsu SHO!"
Ranma punched through Apocalypse's chest all the way to the other side, holding the ancient mutant's still-beating heart in his hand. Then, with a finality to it, he squeezed the mutant heart into mush.
Of course, that was when something went wrong for Ranma as he dropped the heart and had decided to use Apocalypse's corpse as a springboard up, only to find that he couldn't.
"Going somewhere?" Apocalypse taunted as his head snapped back to glare at the Ranma. His hands then enclosed around the pigtailed boy's arm.
"W-but- I ripped out your heart!" Ranma gaped as he tried to pulled his arm out of Apocalypse's chest only to find that the flesh had closed in around it and refused to budge.
"I can always regrow it!" Apocalypse laughed before he spun his body and smashed them through the shaft walls to end up on another level. The room that they were in was full of dead mutants, both those serving Apocalypse and from Sinister's invading forces.
A fitting place to bury this boy.
Ranma gritted his teeth as he tried to use Apocalypse's body as leverage to pull his arm free but he couldn't, then he felt something stabbing into his flesh before the hole in Apocalypse's chest opened and let him go. Ranma quickly rolled to his feet and got into a defensive stance even as he took note of the dead bodies all around them. Still, something was odd. Apocalypse was not attacking him, instead the First Mutant was merely looking down on him and smiling.
"What?" Ranma asked with narrowed eyes.
"I am changing my assessment of you," Apocalypse said genially. The X-Men could wait a while longer. The feedback from having his shield broken had stunned him. Likewise the heavy blow to the head, a blow that was as strong as one of the Hulk's punches combined with the ruthlessness to try and kill him. That was admirable to him.
"Become my Horsemen of War. Serve me and you can live."
"Hard pass," Ranma still shifted his feet as Apocalypse had yet to attack him. Why hadn't he?
"Pity, then I shall watch you die," Apocalypse said as he put his hands behind his back and gazing at the pigtailed boy.
"You could have become a general, a leader. Now you will become a slave. My techno-organic virus will ensure it."
"Techno- what?" Ranma began to ask until he saw it, there was some sort of silvery thing on his arms.
"What did you do to me?!"
Apocalypse merely laughed as he watched the boy struggle with the virus.
Ranma, on the other hand, began to feel off and he could see it was spreading up his arms into his chest. He could feel it trying to take over. His mind was working furiously.
'He said this was a techno-organic virus. Where have I heard this before? When?'
Suddenly it came back to him. Professor Cable's class, his arms was made out of a techno-organic virus. He had been able to halt it's spread because of his telekinesis.
'Argh! That's not gonna help me at all! What else, who else got infected with it? Oh right, Professor X!'
But then Ranma remembered Professor X's techno-organic virus was removed by Apocalypse himself. The asshole was clearly enjoying Ranma's pained expression, so that option was out of the question.
'Wait a second, techo-organic,techno…- it's a machine!' Ranma looked at Apocalypse, seeing the mutant not attacking but he had a feeling that the old mutant wouldn't. Ranma got into a meditative pose and closed his eyes.
Apocalypse saw the black-haired teen close his eyes. He could kill the boy now if he wanted to, but then, that was not his way and the boy knew it. He had to chuckle at that, the boy was beginning to intrigue Apocalypse. In a way, the youth understood the warrior's code Apocalypse lived by. After ten minutes with the boy in a meditative trance, Apocalypse began to see a change.
'The virus' progress halted? How very… interesting.' Apocalypse eyebrow raised at what he saw next.
Ranma's face scrunched up in pain as he focused his ki into doing something that he had been experimenting with, generating super hot ki. Hot enough so he could pull off that move Fyro had used, the molten attack. However, now instead of channeling it through his fingers, he had to flush it through his entire body. It was the complete reversal to the Soul of Ice, but he had to do it. After all, machines melt in lava. Slowly the heated energy pooled into his center before he opened his eyes and allowed the ki to explode out of his body.
"Naargghh!" Ranma gasped as he fell forward, his body was hot, incredibly so. His temperature would have killed a normal human, but he looked at his hand and saw the silver webs on his arms were gone. He quickly channeled the Soul of Ice to cool down as he panted from the exertion.
"Hahaha!" Apocalypse let loose a roaring laugh as he clapped his hand in delight. Living as long as he had, he would take the time out to observe things that were usually outside his normal purview. Seeing a human actually defeat the techo-organic virus was a first, and so he applauded the human for the feat.
"I extend to you my final offer. Join me, rule the world. You would want for nothing, not women or riches, all will be beneath you save me and your fellow Horsemen."
Ranma slowly picked himself off the floor, feeling slightly better now, and looked at the First Mutant. "Uh, let me think about it for a moment."
The moment he said that Apocalypse's hand transformed into a cannon and fired even as Ranma jumped away and fired off more wind blades at the mutant. Apocalypse knew the pigtailed boy would not join, while Ranma knew the mutant would never take no, in any form, for an answer.
*** Top Side ***
Celeste had run to the edge of the broken platform where Ranma had fallen. The pit was so deep she could see neither the pigtailed boy nor Apocalypse.
"Ranma!" she tried to pick him up telepathically but he had literally fallen out of her range.
"Out of the way, I'm going down there," Wolverine growled as he looked down into the pit trying to judge exactly where the both of them went.
"Wolverine!" Cyclops shouted, stopping the mutant from making a mistake. "Don't! We need to find the others!"
Wolverine looked over to his team leader in utter shock. "You can't be serious?!"
"Right now we are the only ones that can actually find the others and Ranma knew this," Cyclops gritted his teeth as well, before another explosion of light showed Illyana had come back to grab the next batch of X-Men. The girl looked like she was on her last legs too, they wouldn't be able to depend on her to escape after this one.
"You go down there, we lose your ability to help free any others, you're more experience at tracking than Laura!"
Wolverine looked down the pit, over to the scared and tired blonde girl, and back to his team leader. He was about to say screw it all and go down and help the little runt, but… Cyclops was right. He was the best tracker they had, and between him and Laura they could find the others, the younger students that had not been found.
"Damn you!" Wolverine grunted in dissatisfaction before stepping away from the edge.
"No!" Celeste looked at the group who appeared (to her) content with leaving Ranma to his fate. "You can't abandon him!"
"Celeste," Emma Frost looked at her protege. She was more than aware of what the girl felt for the pigtailed boy, despite how much she protested.
"He would have wanted you to find your sisters. He did what he did to buy us time, and the more time we waste here the more we waste his sacrifice."
Celeste looked stricken, remembering that her sisters were still imprisoned.
"Celeste, remember. If you three link, you can find Ranma faster," Emma encouraged. The power of the Three-In-One was extremely potent. Not to mention their range.
Celeste looked down once more and reluctantly pulled herself away before she turned to Laura and Hellion. They actually looked remorseful, which made her feel better.
"It's time we execute Ranma's plan." Celeste reminded them. Her two teammates gave a nod in response, even as Illyana teleported away with the last of the incapacitated X-Men.
"What plan?" Cyclops asked, curious. The girl shot him a displeased look, but he was willing to shoulder the burden. In truth, he also wanted to go and help their little human project but more lives were at risk. He knew Ranma would understand.
"To unleash chaos inside Apocalypse's sanctum," the blonde teen replied as she opened two pouches on her hip filled with round brown pellets of some sort. Hellion and Laura likewise opened the pouches on their hips, also revealing the same brown pellets.
"Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!" the bird on top of Hellion's head suddenly squawked as it looked at the pills hungrily.
The three adults were stunned as the three student's began to feed the bird. Was now really the time for this?!
*** Ranma ***
Ranma was tossed into the wall so hard he created a dent.
'Of course the wall would be made out of metal too! Why not?!' Ranma thought angrily as he winced in pain. He saw that, despite everything he did to the mutant, the old fogy did not look winded at all.
'Oh, come on! Story of my life!'
Ranma quickly dodged a punch from Apocalypse, his arm extending much like Mr. Fantastic, and saw that it created an even larger dent in the wall where he had been.
"What's the matter?" Ranma taunted as he dodged another elongated punch. "Run out of energy to shoot me with?"
Apocalypse, on the other hand, was frowning. The boy was quick, very much so, and his sense for anticipating attacks almost rivaled the one known as Spider-Man. Almost, as he was finally able to tag the flatscan in mid-dodge, sending him spinning in pain.
The First Mutant realized that his prey was elusive and any and all attempt to grab the human just ended up in frustration, so he was just punching at the boy as quick as he could while using his telekinsis to fired any sharp debris he could at the boy. Although those few times he was lucky enough to hit him were more flukes than actual strikes.
By this time he very much doubted that the X-Men were still in the his throne room, so he was content with tracking them remotely until they got closer. After all, if they were looking for their younglings, they would be crossing paths real soon. In the meantime, he was going to snuff out this annoyance.
"Nah Nah! Missed again! Seriously, switch back to the lasers. At least they're more fun to look at!"
Correction, MAJOR annoyance!
Ranma, on the other hand, was flipping, cartwheeling, inverting his body and performing every form of evasion taught in the Saotome school to keep himself away from the terrifying mutant. He knew what this mutant was capable of, he had aced Professor Caliban's class after all. Yes, a lot of his classmates were surprised also. However at it's core, Professor Caliban's course was a combat class. One that dealt with fighting Apocalypse specifically.
Now, because Ranma aced Asshole Apocalypse 101, he knew that the First Mutant was out of his league. Simply put, there was nothing in his arsenal that was guaranteed to work against the ancient conqueror. He had a few ideas, and he was working on them, but he was not confident enough. After all, everything he learned about Apocalypse told him he didn't exactly have what was needed to defeat him.
That one thing he needed? A god-tier cheat. That's right! The X-Men have never defeated Apocalypse in a straight up fight, and as far as anyone knows, no one ever has! The way the X-Men have beaten him in the past, however, was via the Phoenix. Without that, they pretty much just got their heads kicked in. Professor Caliban's course detailed the battles between the X-Men and Apocalypse's Horsemen more than the battles against Apocalypse himself. Now, if it was a Horseman facing him, Ranma was confident he could pull out a win. But, last he checked, he didn't have any Phoenix powers.
So, while Ranma was not confident in defeating Apocalypse, he was very confident in his ability to just dodge the mutant's attacks. Which meant the more he tied the mutant up here, the more time he bought for his friends.
"Enough!" Apocalypse retracted his arms back to normal and stared at the boy, who was looking at him curiously. Apocalypse could not believe this, never had he fought such an annoying opponent! Where was the satisfying combat he usually had when faced with martial artists that wanted to test their mettle?
"Aww, what's the matter trouty mouth?" Ranma taunted, seeing that the First Mutant stopped. That was definitely not what he wanted. Time to ramp up the old insult machine.
"What you didn't know? Your mouth looks like a frigging fish? Look in the mirror sometime. But wait, what mirror can stand to reflect you without cracking? Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, is catflish lips the ugliest of them all? Ding ding! The answer is yes!"
"QUIET!"
Apocalypse would not tolerate such insult any longer. No one in all of his history has ever shown him such blatant disrespect! No one! He wanted to crush this bug, but judging the effectiveness of his physical and energy attacks just now, it was like spitting in the wind. Even a low-level telepathic attack had proven fruitless! While Apocalypse's own telepathic defense was second to none, his offensive capability left much to be desired. After all, a psi-shield crafted by both Jean Grey and Charles Xavier was not an easy thing to destroy. So that left him with one option, one that he would never use against such low-level trash, but nothing else was working!
He just wanted to shut the boy up. Permanently!
Apocalypse charged at the human and fired his cannons, pushing Ranma further into the floor and away from any escape exit.
Ranma dodged the mutant's attacks easily enough, but something felt off. It felt almost too easy, almost as if he was being herded somewhere. Even though he sensed nobody around. It wasn't until after a long series of attacks, combining physical and energy along with some minor telekinetic attacks, that the mutant abruptly stopped.
Ranma had jumped backward to dodge the final swipe from the mutant. In truth, he was trying to draw Apocalypse into a spiral for a Hiryuu Shoten Ha, but the mutant was not even generating enough heat! There was absolutely nothing to work with! And now the mutant was oddly still.
"Wow, out of steam already?" Ranma tried to taunt the large being, but felt a pit form in his stomach as Apocalypse smiled.
Ranma braced his aching body to move at a moment's notice. They were tired from being acrobatic non-stop! He watched as the old mutant...extended his hand out and stood there?
"What are -Oh!"
That's when Ranma saw it, the floor underneath Apocalypse had disappeared in flames. Not only the floor, the ceiling too!
'Wait, is the wall disappearing as well?!' Ranma thought as he saw the walls also burned away and dissolved. That's when Apocalypse eyes opened wide and gave him an evil smile as Ranma finally figured out what the First Mutant was doing. Somehow, some way, there was some sort of invisible energy shield or barrier expanding outward at a spherical rate. Everything that touched it was being destroyed as the bubble got bigger. A visible energy shield was one thing, but he wasn't gonna try and stick his hand in this thing. Nope, no way no how.
Still, that's when Ranma noticed something else.
"That's just stupid!" the pigtailed youth pointed out incredulously to the now floating mutant. Why was he floating? Because the ancient mutant had destroyed the floors beneath him. Missing floors, apparently, was not a problem for the old mutant. "You realize I can just leave right now and you'd be left standing there looking dumb right?"
As if to emphasize his point, Ranma increased the distance between himself and the mutant.
"Yes, I was certain you could run from this," Apocalypse replied with a gloating look that did not make Ranma feel relieved at all. At this point his sphere was almost one hundred and twenty feet, both vertical and horizontal.
"But you would not be able to outrun your friends' screams."
"What are you tal-" Ranma began until he saw what was behind Apocalypse, below the floor that had just been destroyed. It was a large room filled with surgical equipment of some kind. That alone looked pretty damn scary but in that room, lined up horizontally against the furthest wall, were coffin-sized mechanical capsules with a glass opening. To his horror, he could see some very familiar faces in those capsules: Irma, Phoebe, Ryoga and the other young mutants. Breathing tubes had been placed in their mouths while some others also had wires attached to them. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't look like they had been experimented on yet. He saw them as they, in turn, watched wide eyed as their ceiling disintegrated.
"You cowardly bastard! Fight me like a real man!"
Apocalypse laughed as he saw the despair on the flatscan's face. "Even if you were to use the Bakusai Tenketsu, you would not reach them in time."
Ranma was surprised by how the mutant pronounced it perfectly.
"Oh yes, I am very familiar with that Amazon technique."
'Ranma?! Help!' Irma and Phoebe telepathic pleadings were directed to Ranma. Ranma looked down to see the two girls struggling against their bindings along with the rest. They all looked to him to save them. Him!
"Apocalypse!" Ranma voice was filled with anger at the First Mutant's underhanded way of getting even. He cupped his hand together and began to gather his ki. While the Twin Lion Roar attack was great to use in situations like the Sentinel factory, it was unfocused. He needed something more fitting. Unlike the Moko Takabisha, which drew upon his confidence, or the Shishi Hokodan that drew upon Ryoga's depression, he made an attack that drew upon every one of his most primal emotions.
"Raging-" Ranma cupped his hand in front just like how he would use a Moko Takabisha.
Ranma was focused, channeling all of his will into this attack. It was not confidence, depression or any of the other myriad selfish emotions that Ranma had experimented with, this one was different.
"-Phoenix-" A ball of golden energy began to materialize. Unlike the other ki attacks in his arsenal, Ranma made this one as hot as he could on purpose.
Ranma had always been emotionally stunted, Jean had told him as such many times. But his time at the Xavier school, away from parents and crazed fiancee engagements, had helped him more than he realized. His skills had always been based on his confidence and pride, he had only gained a ki attack because he could not accept the fact that Ryoga had one while he did not. His hubris had always been a pillar of strength for him, but now he realized that there was something else within him that was greater than his pride.
"- ROAR!"
It was Ranma's desire to protect those closest to him.
A narrow beam of golden red ki shot out and slammed into the invisible barrier around Apocalypse, making the mutant's eyes widen in surprise.
Apocalypse felt the barrier's energy beginning to thin out at Ranma's point of attack. Immediately he pulled energy from the sphere to reinforce that point, but the boy's ki attack was powerful. So much so that he was forced to react by tightening up the sphere, shrinking it to condense its power. To his amazement, the energy was not enough.
The Raging Phoenix Roar was fueled by his selflessness. Akane, Ryoga, the Stepford Cuckoos, Saffron, Jean, the Xavier School, the other students, and many more were important to him. He wanted to save them all and he was willing to die for them if need be. This revelation stunned him and doubled the size of his ki attack along with its strength.
At Apocalypse's core, his strength lay in the fine molecular control of his body. Saffron's attacks would break those links and burn through with his magma heated flame when boosted with the Kinjakan, while the Gekkaja could freeze him with subzero temperatures. They were the most basic of all primal forces, fire and ice. Even a spiritual attack from an enlightened martial artist could never hope to match Saffron's fire. It could never burn him at the molecular level. That's why he could just shrug off regular energy attacks. He would never have expected the martial artist before him to be able to create such an intense ki attack, and at so young an age!
Ranma poured his all into his ki attack, knowing that letting up for even a second could spell doom for his friends down below. Unfortunately, unlike Herb, his ki reserves were not as deep. It was yet another item that he had been working on during his training trip, but unfortunately the only thing that could enlarge his reserves was training and time. Both of which had been cut short. The good news was that it looked as if his ki attack was almost closing in on Apocalypse, the sphere shrinking until it formed a tight bubble around him. His ki attack was not reflected away, but seemed to be canceled out. The First Mutant showed a frown on his face as the ki beam continued to close in on him.
Now Ranma was at a fork in the road, should he try to keep some ki in reserve or pour everything into the attack? If he saved some of his reserves it would allow him to run if this attack failed. If he poured in everything it would momentarily boost the attack, but afterward Ranma would be left defenseless and at Apocalypse's mercy.
When it came down to it, with everything on the line? It was never even a choice as Ranma threw everything into the attack.
Apocalypse eyes widened as he saw a lump of energy that traveled from Ranma's hands all along the length of the golden red beam, closing in on him not unlike a missile. Had Apocalypse known about this attack beforehand he might have prepared better. All the time that he was blocking the boy's attack was spent desperately redirecting his energy to the barrier output.
So Apocalypse could do nothing except face the torpedo coming toward him at blinding speed.
"RANMA SAOTOMEEEEE!" Apocalypse roared, not wanting to accept the outcome as the missile struck true and broke his energy barrier, letting Ranma's attack fully engulf him.
"DIE ALREADY!" Ranma yelled back as his attack washed over the First Mutant and pushed him through several walls out into the platform shaft.
As soon as Apocalypse was no longer in sight, Ranma ran out of juice and fell forward through the broken ceiling into the room below.
THUD!
"Ugh..." Ranma lay flat on the cold metal grid-like floors, unmoving and breathing hard.
'Ranma!' Phoebe and Irma cried out in unison as Ranma blinked he saw that there were tears in their eyes. He also saw looks of respect from Ryoga and his other imprisoned classmates.
"Bleh..." Ranma groaned he would like nothing better than to lay here for a bit more, but he was Ranma Saotome, damn it! So he forced himself to get up, his body protesting every single step of the way, and limped tiredly to the capsule with his two blonde friends. What was it that Evan told him to do if he was ever caught in an awkward situation with girls again?
Oh yeah.
"Ladies." Ranma said in a deep flirty voice while flashing them a roguish smile. His smile disappeared a moment later when he realized they did not react how Evan said they would. It was supposed to be funny. The two were red-faced, that was the opposite of funny. They were probably angry. He guessed it was probably an inappropriate time for humor.
Story of his life.
Sighing, Ranma used his natural strength to rip open the capsule door and then the bindings on Phoebe first.
"Ranma!" Phoebe cried out as she leapt to the pigtailed boy's side the moment she was freed to support him as he gave her sister's capsule the same treatment. She had witnessed the energy attack that Ranma had thrown out against the most feared mutant in all of existence. She couldn't believe Ranma did that! It was on a totally different level than what she had seen Ranma do, even when Saffron went crazy. However, what touched her the most was being able to read what was going through his head at the time. Irma and herself had been in there to protect him from any telepathic attacks and knew just how close Ranma had come to defeat. His determination in that moment moved them beyond words.
"Ranma!" Irma came to support him from the other side of her sister once she was freed, but Ranma waving them off.
"Can you change into your diamond forms and free the others? I need to take a little breather real quick," Ranma, after saying that, slumped to the floor, finding it difficult to stand after exerting his strength to break out the two girls.
The twin blondes nodded obediently and turned to diamond before prying open the other capsules, freeing Ryoga, Surge, Elixir, Prodigy, Ms. Moonstar, Rahne, and many others.
"And someone remember to hold Ryoga's hand, or else he'll end up lost!" Ranma shouted quickly as he saw Ryoga was left unattended.
"Damn it Ranma! I'm not a little kid!" Ryoga ran over to his rival and knelt down, checking him for any fatal injuries. However, Surge and Armor did bookend Ryoga just in case. Akane had been happy about seeing two other Japanese girls her age at the school.
"What's the SITREP, Mr. Saotome?" Dani Moonstar asked as she looked down at the pigtailed boy in respect. He was part of the Elite program, so she found it easier to address him that way. She was definitely not going to call him by his chosen callsign right now.
"Phoebe, Irma, can you link everyone and get the information from my head?" Ranma sighed as he continued to rest. The blondes were surprised, but with Ranma's permission they gathered the information and got everyone up to date.
"Whoa!" Prodigy muttered as he realized all of what Ranma and his teammates had done.
"You kissed Ms. Grey?!" Irma shrieked as she glared at the pigtailed boy. "Seriously?!"
Ranma gaped in surprised as he too saw the other boys giving him envious looks, except Ryoga. He did notice Elixir giving Rahne some sort of weird look but seriously, they were worrying about that in this situation?!
Whatever Ryoga felt was muted as he realized Akane and Ranma were no longer an item. He no longer had to defend her honor. If Ranma wanted to be a lucky son-of-a-bitch and kiss his incredibly hot teacher, who was he to care?! He could bang her if he wanted, not like he was envious or anything! He had Claire and Akari!
"Here, let me," Joshua Foley, aka Elixir the healing mutant, knelt down and placed a hand on Ranma. The pigtailed boy blinked as he felt his exhaustion melting away and the soreness in his muscles was soothed.
"Thanks man!" Ranma told the bronze boy, who merely nodded, and got up. He felt better, Elixir couldn't restore his ki reserves, but now he could generate more without the burden of having to heal his exhausted body.
Suddenly the room began to shake, making everyone freeze. Then it shook again, this time even more violently as sounds of multiple explosions could be heard nearby. Explosion after explosion rocked the place and went on for a few more moments. The most disturbing thing about the explosions was that it sounded like they were getting closer. Finally, when an explosion that sounded as if it was right on top of them went off, they heard another sound accompanying the noise.
"RAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"
"Uh… what was that?" Rahne, aka Wolfsbane, asked wide-eyed as she heard a sound that made the fur on her body stand on end. "It sounds like pure evil!"
"I can't believe it, you really did it," Ryoga blinked as he remembered the terrible evil creature Ranma and him had once fought.
"We need to get out of here before the whole place caves in on our heads!" Prodigy spoke up. He had seen the how the structure shook, and with his super intelligence realized they would not have long before it collapsed entirely.
"Can you girls do your wi-fi thingy and find your sister or see where she's at?" Ranma turned to the two blondes, who looked very offended.
"W-Wi-fi thingy?!"
"Just do it!" Ranma urged the girls, who glared at him before their eyes did that freaky white glow again. Damn Myst for making him watch Children of the Corn.
There were a few tense moments as the building continued to shake while the girls tried to find their sister, until finally the glow in their eyes became brighter.
'Found them!' three voices echoed in everyone's mind.
"We need to get to the outside of the building. They are going to bring the Blackbird around while Hellion's pet destroys the citadel." The twin cuckoos explained.
"Ok, Ryoga, do your thing!" Ranma pointed in a direction that was away from the platform shaft.
Ryoga had wanted to tell Ranma not to tell him what to do, but realized that this was not the time nor place.
"Rockslide, make sure he stays in a straight line," Dani Moonstar knew well of Tectonic's directional problem. It was not an easy mutation to have, and Rockslide was one of the few strong enough to course correct for the other rock mutant.
"Ya got it teach! Let's do this bro! " the gray rock mutant nodded eagerly as he pointed Ryoga in a direction and watched as Ryoga plowed through those walls with his Breaking Point technique. And with those two leading the way, their bodies blocked the shrapnel from the exploding metal.
Ranma watched as the train of classmates followed Ryoga like baby chicks as the place began to shake harder.
"RAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!"
The other students looked behind them in paranoia, but breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened other than more falling beams and debris from the upper level. Finally, after a few minutes of Ryoga just blowing through the walls, they reached the outside only to see the once beautiful island in flames.
"I didn't realize it had gotten so bad..." Rahne muttered as she saw ships from afar lobbing missiles onto the giant fortress.
Ranma brought up the rear with the Cuckoos and took a moment to admire the devastation wrought both by human and mutantkind in their hatred.
"I don't see the Blackbird!" Elixir, the bronze-looking mutant, said in a panic.
The Stepford duo moved from Ranma's side to stand in the open area, despite the battle that was raging around them. They stood immobile until they both pointed at the sky. At first there was empty air, until the Blackbird decloaked to the whooping cheers of the younger mutants. The plane turned around and lowered its rear ramp, revealing Emma Frost, Cyclops, Wolverine and Celeste.
"Get in!" Wolverine yelled as he stood guard for any potential attacks on his students with Cyclops providing ranged cover. The kids did not need to be told twice as they all shuffled onboard, making Ryoga go in first since he was the closest.
Ranma watched as the group moved quickly, and was about to join the line as well when his senses warned him of danger. However, it was too little too late as the floor beneath him erupted and a severely burned Apocalypse wrapped his fist around his neck, his other hand already morphed into a gun that was pointed at the Blackbird.
"Kid!" Wolverine roared in anger!
"RANMA!" the Cuckoos' shouted.
"DIE!"Apocalypse roared as he fired at the rear entrance toward the students. Wolverine jumped in front of the blast and was thrown into the depths of the plane. Cyclops immediately returned fire, but the ancient mutant shrugged off his beams.
"Go!" the vizored mutant shouted to someone inside the plane.
"You can't leave him!" Celeste shouted as the Blackbird turned, closing it's ramp and flying away from Apocalypse's repeating cannon fire.
After they were clear, the First Mutant turned to the boy in his grasp who was kicking his wounded area.
"ENOUGH! Apocalypse shouted as he savagely slammed the pigtailed boy onto the metal floor.
Ranma scoffed the first time Apocalypse smashed him into the floor. Then he was lifted up and hammered down again. He felt something burst by the time he counted twelve, his vision was hazy and unfocused. However, he still had enough willpower to do one final attack against the mutant. He spat in his face. For that he was rewarded with ten more trips to the floor. All the while Apocalypse kept his hand firmly wrapped around Ranma's neck.
Picking the boy back up, the ancient mutant saw that the boy was bleeding all over his body, his clothes doing little to soak up the blood. Apocalypse then fired at the opening in his citadel, caving it in to leave just the two of them.
"You deserve praise," Apocalypse spoke genially as he casually hovered, even as his fortress was falling apart around him.
"I was not expecting such skills from one so young."
Ranma however was limp in the mutant's grip, the only sign of life was his deep breathing. All around them debris, beams of metal and other items rained down.
"It would be a shame to kill such a promising prospect," Apocalypse mused to himself as he called his single escape ship. His fortress was lost, his enemies had earned this victory.
"It would be easier if you embrace being my Horsemen of War rather than be forced, you'd easily become ten times more powerful."
Ranma still remained silent as a spear-tipped ship arrived, looking as if it could only fit four people standing.
"Come now, I know you are playing possum, lying in wait for the perfect moment to escape," Apocalypse raised the human boy to eye level, and slowly the pigtailed boy opened his blood-tinted eyes. The look on his face was oddly serene as Apocalypse floated onto the ship.
"Better. It looks like you understand your destiny now."
"Sure do, pack of lips," Ranma agreed softly before he suddenly gripped both his hands onto the mutant's face.
"What are you-"
"Fyro Molten Grip!" Ranma, realizing that the things around Apocalypse's head was kind of like machinery all over, flooded the mutant with the very last of his ki reserves that had been building back up from earlier.
"ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Apocalypse released his hold on the pigtailed boy and gripped his face in pain.
Ranma looked up in fascination to see tiny dots of red embers emerging from the mutant's face. It looked like spider cracks as the hot ki moved through the techno parts of Apocalypse's face and destroyed them.
"UAAAAAHHH!" Apocalypse gripped his face in sheer pain as he trashed around the ship.
"UAHAAAAHHHH!"
Ranma forced himself onto his feet and kicked Apocalypse's chest with both of his feet, shoving the First Mutant deeper into the ship and propelling himself out. Ranma's eyes widened in disbelief as a metal pyramid-like object smashed into the ship the moment he cleared it, dropping screaming Apocalypse and his ship like an anchor.
"Wah-ARGH!"
Ranma skidded on the gridded ramp, this time exhausted beyond belief! He really had to thank Elixir for that little boost he got, it was good enough to allow him that one last, desperate attack. His body suddenly felt very heavy, red tinted his vision now and fatigue was weighing down on him. The crashing destruction of the citadel didn't even register in his ears. In fact, at this point the loud canopy of noise was like a lullaby to his ears. He didn't even realize that several large broken beams had fallen and narrowly missed him.
Hey, he'd done a good job. He'd earned his rest, right? Ranma looked up at the rain of debris and watched even as he felt his eyes slowly dropping.
'RANMA!' Celeste's voice cut in clear.
'Hng...,' Ranma thought back and heard the girl gasp on the other side. He didn't even want to think back words at the girl.
'Show us where you are! We'll come get you!' Celeste urged the pigtailed boy, this time her voice sounded in triplet. So Ranma showed them, earning echoing gasps, must be the other Cuckoos.
'Do not close your eyes Mr. Saotome' Emma Frost came in clear and authoritative and something else. He wanted to comply, however, he was losing that battle. 'Ranma don't you dare!'
'Kid! We don't teach quitters, move your ass! Find an exit!' Wolverine voice came through loud and clear.
'So tired.' Ranma thought back. What exit was Wolverine talking about? Everywhere was closed off. He mentally showed them what he saw, hearing them gasp and swear as he scanned the area for them. For all intents and purposes, Ranma was alone on an island.
'Damn it, Ranma! Do you know how sad your death would make Akane! I'll kill you before I let that ever happen!' Ryoga shouted through the link.
Ranma frowned at Ryoga's rant, that didn't even make sense!
'Get up, kid! I know it's hard, and you probably don't even have a healing factor after getting your head kicked in so many times. But I've seen you, you're made of tougher stuff.' Wolverine spoke up again. This time his voice was soothing, even understanding.
"What was it that you keep on telling your friends, that Ranma Saotome doesn't lose? If you don't find a way out, you lose! Do you want that?'
'Thanks Professor,' Ranma smiled. He knew what they were trying to do, but he was on empty, there was nothing left in the tank. This rarely happened to him. Ever.
'You know what?' Celeste suddenly thought back. 'Go ahead and lay down like a girl. We understand.'
Ranma blood-tainted eyes snapped opened, anger clear in his thoughts.
'What did you say?!'
'Oh, I'm so tired. My legs hurt. I can't go on! Do you know how girly you sound? But you know what, I guess you are an X-Man after all, emphasis on the X.' Celeste smug taunting tone came through.
It infuriated him.
'I AM ALL MAN!' Ranma bellowed through their link.
'THEN PROVE IT! FIGHT FOR YOUR DAMN LIFE!' Celeste practically screamed in his mind.
'I WILL!' Ranma was now fueled by pure anger and adrenaline as he grumbled. "Show you who's a real man. Just watch me! Hah! Girl? Not this guy!"
Once more the wounded boy reassessed the situation around him. Ranma heard some suggestions over the mental chatter, but he ignored them. He was pretty much in the center of the citadel with no visible way out. His ki reserves was shot to shit and who knew how much more rubble was blocking the way out. Below was a deathtrap as those floors were currently breaking apart.
That's when he saw it, a glint of yellow all the way at the top. Did the fortress crack enough to create an opening? Suddenly the yellow glint got brighter.
"The crack's wider!" Ranma knew now his only way out was up.
He looked around at the different sizes of falling debris and snapped his fingers. That was it, that was his way up. It would require exact timing and precision, but damn it he was Ranma Saotome, the practitioner of the Saotome Anything Goes School of Indiscriminate Grappling, which also specialized in mid-air combat. Precision was his middle name!
"Naraaaaaaaaaaaaaaggh!" Ranma roared in pain from his broken bones as he jumped on the first piece of falling debris and then jumped higher onto a smaller falling beam. Each jump burned through his already damaged body, each one caused him untold amounts of pain. But his anger and the need to prove a certain blonde wrong was fueling him. So on and on he made his way up.
KRAAAAARRAAAK!
Ranma was midway to the top when the fortress began to fracture like a peeled egg and collapsed in on itself as it struck the ground. There was hope, however, because at the very top, which had only a small glint of daylight before, was a larger opening. Of course, with the way the building was shifting around, the tear began to close back up.
He needed to get there before it did.
The light rain of debris became torrential as Ranma jumped back and forth between the enclosing debris toward the top. He ignored the smaller pebbles that hit him or the sharp edges that cut his body. His sole focus was getting to that small opening at the very top.
Just as his body was about to clear the small opening, the shifting of the plates in the fortress' structure moved and sealed it, with the pigtailed boy barely through the opening.
"HUKKK!" Or so he thought.
Ranma spat out blood as his felt his bones from his chest down to his legs cracking. The tear had collapsed on itself just as he was starting to clear it.
"Nagghhh!"
Ranma growled in pain as he felt himself being crushed. He never thought he'd get done in like this, such a gruesome death. He could feel the pressure, both front and back trying to squeeze him, to pop him like a tomato.
"NGGGHHHH!" Still Ranma struggled to move, even with the rubble pressing on him threatening to bury him deeper. The battered boy began to feel himself sinking, the pressure so powerful now he couldn't even breath.
That was when Ranma felt a...a massive tremor beneath him.
'What the-'
"RAWWWWWWKKKKKKKK!"
The large yellow bird burst up through the rubble, angry as hell, and not caring that it knocked Ranma away as it was attacked by the ships at sea. Narrowing its eyes, it charged towards its next target and began to decimate everything it thought might have hurt it.
Ranma, however, was lying on his back, two pieces of sharp, elongated metal piercing through his body. One penetrating the right side of his chest, the other was through his leg. The pigtailed boy stared at the sight in shock and resignation. Talking about adding insult to injury, he had known the stupid bird was gonna cause nothing but trouble.
With the adrenaline gone and him bleeding out, Ranma's consciousness faded. He woke up once when he thought he felt a prick on his right arm. He saw a very worried Maddy along with Sinister extracting blood(?) from his arm. The man was simply smiling at him as if the situation was completely normal.
The next thing he knew, he heard a loud roar of an engine. Ranma's eyes fluttered open to see the Blackbird slowing its descent, its rear ramp open with Wolverine already jumping out with Laura and Hellion. He looked down to his arms and noted that it didn't look like anyone took his blood. Did he hallucinate seeing those two?
"Hellion, lift him gently. And bring that first aid kit here, Laura!" Wolverine's voice came through clear as he reached Ranma and sliced off the protruding pieces of metal with his claws while Hellion and Laura lowered the pieces gently so as to not rock the foundation. The X-Man looked down and saw the boy looking at him with a glare.
"To-ldja ain't no gurrl," Ranma slurred his words, but declared it proudly.
"Yeah kid," Wolverine grinned proudly at the boy. "You're all man. First beer is on me when we get back."
As if that was all Ranma needed to hear, he closed his eyes and let darkness claim him.
TBC...
AN: Woot! FINALLY! I DID IT! I reached the first END Goal I ever set for myself when I first wrote Homo Superior. A Ranma Apocalypse fight! When i first penned the very first chapter, I wanted this fight and this encounter to feel epic, only you guys can be the judge of that, but that scene I had stuck in my head is now finally on paper. Some of it changed but most of it was how I initially envisioned it. The journey itself to get here was odd and too different Routes but in the end, it all capped off with Apocalypse War. For that that ever go back and re-read the older chapters, the people I cameo at the end of Orientation should have all shown up by now.
Now, as for the Apocalypse fight itself, I knew that this would be a very different take from Ranma. As Ranma, THIS Ranma was never a match for Apocalypse. Apocalypse was even able to choke out the Hulk at one point in time. At Ranma current level while lower Upper Teir in terms of the Marvel Universe, still is no match for Apocalypse. So the one that that Ranma do a lot when facing a superior foe is dodge, evade, insult, and use any and all advantage he could until he's his back is against the wall. Which gave birth to the Raging Phoenix Roar.
Yet another Skill, I wanted to make to be the counter of Ranma Dragon Skills in the Hiyruu Shoten Ha. Of course any fool can go hot, so what make this special? The molten vein that lets Ranma destroy the Techno Organic virus. The Techno Organic virus cannot be combated normally but I have seen one instant where the onset infection was fought off. It was by Red Hulk, he made his body hot enough with gamma radiation to flushed it out of his system. This is also a skill High General Ranma never created.
In Chinese myth Men are Dragons and Phoenix are Women. I figure he got he should get both in terms of ultimate attacks since he has both aspect.
Now Apocalypse himself was a bit hard to write but hubris was always his main weakness, other than that he was damn nigh unstoppable. The Skill I had him use was from the X-Men Apocalypse movie. If you watch it, it was the final fight where Magneto, Storm, Cyclops was all firing at him, and he had was dispersing all of the energy form their attacks. It took Jean to finish him off just like in the Comics. Every other instance he won. The only other time he was defeated legit was when he was taken off guard by Magneto in Age of Apocalypse.
Now, some might take Issue with Ranma accepting Death. I would like to reference the Herb Ranma fight, he was outfought and beaten down by Herb in male form. In that moment where he was running on E pretty much, and too tired to move, he accepted his death and waited for it. Ryoga came out last minute to bailed him out. Of course he was in that predicament because of them but you know how it goes.
Finally, I bet all of you guys thought the Phoenix on top of Hellion head at the start of Apoc- Sin war was just a throwaway joke huh. :D
So what's next?
The whine down, the fall out, the repercussions, and where Ranma stands in this new world.
Thanks for those that stuck with me this long to see this come to fruition!
As Always C+C welcome, Reviews gladly appreciated.