Ranma Xero.
Part one.
The Engagement.
"Tendo, bringing Ranma from China. Saotome."
Soun Tendo allowed the tears to flow freely down his face as he flipped the postcard over in his hands a few times, as if he was making sure it was real. "Oh how I've waited for this day!" He leaned back in his high-backed chair and placed the card carefully on the large expensive desk he was sitting behind. His office was large and well lit. The window overlooked the city of Tokyo a few miles in the distance from a very high distance up. He stood and looked out over the ocean in the distance with a contented smile on his face. "To think I could feel such joy in these dark times."
He waited a few moments for the feeling to sink in as the sun began to vanish below the horizon. Slowly he walked calmly to his desk and pressed a button on a small console near the edge. "Summon my daughters to my office. I have something I need to tell them."
"Yes sir," said the pleasant female voice on the other side.
He disconnected the line and walked over to the wet bar that took up the entire north wall of the office. "Perhaps this is what I need at the moment. Humanity needs a hope for the future. Such a union may be just what my children need in their lives."
"Akane! Where the hell is she now?" said Nabiki Tendo as she jogged around the corner at a lazy pace.
"Come now Nabiki, we both know where she is," said the girl's elder sister as she pleasantly kept up her pace. Both girls were dressed in tight fitting spandex uniforms. The clothes were a pattern of black and bright orange on Nabiki and a light purple color on her elder sister.
"All the way on the other side of the complex?" said the girl with a slight sigh.
"Of course! She does spend most of her time there these days. I wonder if it's because she's fallen in love with one of the mechanics? Father would be so disappointed."
Nabiki turned down yet another well-lit hallway towards her destination and rolled her eyes. The thought of her little sister falling for one of those grunting Neanderthal morons was a bit of a stretch, even for her. "Somehow I don't think that's it. Come on, there's a com-port near here." The girl rushed around a corner nearly knocking over several men who were moving through the hall with arms full of papers and documents. Most of them were wearing uniforms like theirs, but with small metal pins placed on the collars signifying ranks.
After a few more seconds of rushing around the girls came to a screen on the wall with several pads of keys mounted next to it. Nabiki lazily punched in a code and waited for a screen to appear with her younger sister's face in it.
Akane Tendo stood before her opponent on the large display in front of her and grit her teeth in anger. "Come on! Stop playing around!"
"Now Akane dear, lets not get hostile," said a cheerfully annoying voice from the speakers mounted over her head. "Just because I'm clearly the better pilot is no reason to become indignant!"
Akane clenched her fists inside the large cylinders her arms were encased in and shifted the muscles in anticipation. In response to her actions she felt the frame around her shift.
The gigantic red mech shifted into a ready position. It had a sleek build and a humanoid appearance about it. A few antenna jut from the top of it's head and a single lens like eye stared forward adjusting every few moments or so. "Come on! I warned you about goofing off this way!" screamed the female voice from the speakers hidden inside the torso of the unit.
Standing opposite it was a large black mecha of similar build. It raised its arms up revealing two oversized forearms with a single slit mounted just over the hands. A cruel laughter screamed across the air amplified a hundred times by the loudspeakers. "Foolish girl! You know you cannot defeat me!"
"Just watch me!" screamed the pilot of the red unit as it charged forward. It's arm shot forward in a punch that narrowly missed as the black unit flipped over its head and waved its arms as it passed.
Akane shook violently inside the cockpit as the shielding around her absorbed most of the damage. She spun around and growled angrily. "Hey! This is supposed to be hand to hand you cheater!"
"How brutish! My ribbons are a part of my hands foolish girl!" chimed the black unit as she slowly circled her hands. On the end of each wrist a long metallic strip spun gracefully in the air. She snapped her hands to a stop and the strips reeled themselves back inside the unit's wrists.
The red unit put it's hands back up and seemed to glare forward as it took up an offensive posture. "Fine! If that's how you want to play it!" The pilot raised her hand up in front of her face and clenched the robot's fist. An aura of red energy formed there for a moment. She screamed and charged forward slashing her hand downward at the black unit forcing it into the air. The ground where the defensive unit had been standing erupted in flames and sent a spray of earth flying in every direction.
The red unit slowly stood back to its feet and turned back to face its opponent as she landed a fair distance away. A short flaming blade of energy, about the same length as the forearm on the unit, was coming out of the wrist. The fist could be seen inside the energy opening and closing in anticipation.
"It's time we ended this!" cried the pilot of the back unit as she charged forward slashing the deadly ribbons forward.
The red unit blocked with its forearm. The thin metal strips slammed into the block and sent a shower of sparks into the air. Akane Tendo growled in an almost feral state as she prepared her strike. The black unit was descending from above her. She cocked her arm back with the energy blade ready to strike.
"Akane! Where the hell are you!"
The red robot stalled for a moment. The black unit slammed into her from above knocking her down. With a single precise slash the unit severed the head of the robot below her and stood up on top of her with her hands raised in victory.
Akane Tendo stared in disbelief as the screen in front of her went white. The door opened behind her and she staggered out of what appeared to be a mock up of the torso on the unit she was piloting moments before. Nearby a few other similar units appeared. With one that looked like the black unit she had been fighting. "Wh...what just happened?"
"There you are!" screamed Nabiki with an annoyed look on her face.
"Damn it Nabiki! This had better be damn good!" screamed the younger girl in a rage as she shoved her hair over her shoulder and walked over to her. She stopped at a nearby bin and took out a clean towel throwing it over her shoulder.
"Do you really think I'd have come down to jock central on my own?" snorted the older girl in disgust.
Akane dried her forehead off and sat down on a bench nearby. She grabbed a bottled water from where she had placed it before the exercise. "It couldn't have waited. I had her this time damn it!" snapped the girl bitterly.
"I told you to wait Nabiki," scolded Kasumi without much force in her voice.
Nabiki blinked and rolled her eyes in disgust. "What the hell do I care about that. Come on we've got..."
"Akane Tendo, that was not one of our better exercises. Tell me what distracted you?" said a haughty voice from behind the three Tendo siblings.
"Nabiki paged me over the emergency line in the middle of the fight. I hesitated when I shouldn't have..." Akane glared at her sister and frowned.
"Hello Kodachi," said Kasumi cheerfully at the girl who walked over to the group.
"Ho ho ho ho! It seems your sister is easily distracted. She'll never be a real pilot if she keeps this up." The girl flipped her ponytail back arrogantly and smiled. "If you had enough control to ignore that distraction you might have gained my respect." The girl standing beside them was dressed in an all black uniform with a dark purple rose embroidered just above her right breast.
"Shut up! I would have won if not for that!" snapped Akane girl angrily. Her uniform was red and black, and her long hair was braided behind her.
"And had such a distraction occurred in a real battle?" said Kodachi with a sudden serious demeanor about her.
"I would have died," agreed Akane as she slowly nodded her head.
"See that you remember this lesson; I do not wish to see you fall the next time we are forced to go out Tendo," said the other girl as she turned away and left them to their business.
"So what the hell is it anyway?" snapped Akane indignantly.
Nabiki just smiled.
"Fiancee?" said all three girls in unison.
"Yes, he's the son of a very good friend of mine. He should be here any day now," said Soun sagely.
"Is he cute?" asked Nabiki without a single thought.
"How old is he? Younger men boor me," commented Kasumi.
"Humph, boys," grumbled Akane.
"I don't know, I've never met him," replied Soun honestly.
"You're letting someone in here that you've never met?" said Akane in shock.
"Akane, Genma Saotome is an old friend and very trustworty. He helped found this organization, if it was not for his wish that his son be trained in the arts he would be my second in command at this very time. Please show some respect."
The girls fell silent at this proclamation and merely settled and watching their father uncomfortably. "Please understand, we promised when we were very young that we would unite our two schools of martial arts together. It was a foolish youthful promise from better times I know, but it still holds my word of honor."
"I said no! Honestly! Picking my fiancee for me, without even asking!" cried Ranma as she tossed the bulky form of a giant panda over her shoulder.
"Stop arguing boy! I told you it's our family's honor at stake!" said the animal's sign.
Ranma growled and glared at the animal for a moment before calming. "I'm going back to China. Suck on that old man." She turned away flipping her pigtail over her shoulder as she went.
Genma rose up and hit her over the head with a street sign.
Soun looked at the security guard on the screen and frowned. "I beg your pardon?"
"I said there is a young girl and a giant panda here to see you sir," said the man with his blush increasing with each moment.
"You stupid old freak! I ain't marrying anybody!" said a voice from off screen. Several growls followed.
"What should I do with them sir? I thought that I should take this up with you personally. I apologize for intruding on your business, but this was just too strange."
"I agree, Tell me, who is this young girl?" said Soun as he raised his eyebrow slightly.
"She says her name is Saotome sir. The panda agrees," said the security guard.
"Saotome! Send her up at once! My old friend never told me he had a daughter as well!" He paused for a moment and looked at the screen. "Excuse me, did you just say that the panda agrees with her?"
"Um, yesir."
"I see..."
Moments later the Tendo family sat around a large table in a meeting room. Ranma and the panda sat opposite them with tea set out for the girl. She played with her pigtail nervously and eyed the group cautiously.
Nabiki Tendo smirked as she sat across from the young redhead and her strange animal with her sisters sitting around her. "So, how old is your brother?"
"Brother? I ain't got no brother," said the girl in confusion.
"Uh Daddy, I think we have a little problem here," said the middle Tendo as she turned to find her father passed out on the ground.
"This is all your fault daddy, some fiancee this is!" snapped Nabiki with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"I assumed my old friend Genma's son was a boy!" snapped the man in retort.
"Son! Say something!" said the panda's sign as it hit the redhead on top of her head.
"Nu-uh old man, this is your mess, you clean it up."
Akane glared at her sister as she pointed at the girl across the table. "Does this look like a girl to you daddy?"
"Oh my," said Kasumi sweetly.
The youngest sister jumped up and glared at her family. "I can't believe you! He-she is our guest!" She turned to face the girl and smiled. "My name is Akane, do you want to be friends?"
"Uh sure," said Ranma with a sudden blush appearing on her face.
Akane led Ranma on a tour of the building. It was a twenty story tall complex with the top seven floors used as offices and apartments. After about ten minutes she took the girl to the twelfth floor.
"This is our training center! Neat huh?" Akane spun around with a smile on her face as she showed the young girl the room. It was full of exercise machines and weights. What caught Ranma's attention was the dojo style corner of the room. A twenty by forty foot area of the floor had been set aside for martial arts training. A few punching bags and training dummies were spread out in the area. A small wooden sign hung from the wall with the words 'Tendo Dojo' on it.
"Wow," said Ranma. She was impressed to say the least.
"How about a little match? I promise I won't hurt you," said Akane cheerfully.
The redhead appeared to think about it for a moment. "Uh, all right."
"So that's it is it? It appears he does have some of his mother in him then," said Soun with a nod.
"Agreed Tendo, He tends to do it when he gets excited. I cannot understand the complexities of this. He seems closer to me since that horrible ordeal at the springs though."
"I can understand that Saotome. I suppose he has had trouble growing up that way," agreed Soun with a nod.
"His mother had more trouble adjusting. It was not really noticeable until recently in my son." He smiled slightly and nodded to himself. "I fear it may put our agreement in jeopardy though."
"I do not see why, you and your wife have lead a wonderful relationship over the years."
Akane jumped into the air and launched a kick that was easily dodged by the girl. She spun through and was met by a light punch to the gut as the strange pigtailed girl returned the strike. Akane grinned to herself, the girl was good. Better than her, she could learn a lot from training with her. "All right! This time for real!"
Ranma heard the girl's battle cry and ducked low under the punch rolling away and sweeping her legs from under her. "Ha! Got you!" he exclaimed triumphantly. After a moment he looked down and blinked before patting himself down. "Yup, I'm a guy again," noted his mind. He looked over at the girl who was standing and watching him in shock. "Uh, sorry about that, it happens when I get excited sometimes..."
Akane backed away towards the wall. She moved slowly until she hit the wall and slid a few feet down towards a red button on the wall. Ranma watched her in confusion for a long time before he realized what was happening.
"No! Wait!"
Akane screamed at the top of her lungs and slammed her fist into the alarm. "XOENTHROPIE!"
"Ah shit," muttered the pigtailed boy as he backed away. The sounds of footsteps echoed through the halls and he looked around for an escape.
TBC...
I wanted to turn Ranma 1/2 into a giant robot show without making it a fusion. It's true I'm going to be using, Evangelion, Nandesesco, Gundam, and various other sources for ideas, but no show will be used in this but Ranma itself.
I'd tell you something about what happens next, but it would ruin it for you! Ja!
C&C to: Carrotglace@juno.com