Ranma VS The Red Baron

At tale of rivalry

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from Ranma ½  or the Red Baron, he owns himself.

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"Up and at 'em, Saotome!"

Ranma groaned and shoved away the person yelling in his ear. "Not now, Charlie. I need my beauty sleep." The young man mumbled, thrusting the pillow over his head. "I won't argue with ya there, " Charlie joked, "But you-know-who buzzed the base ten minutes ago."

That got Ranma out of his sack as he began pulling on clothing. "Well why didn't you tell me in the first place?" That was always a sure fire thing to get the pilot moving, he enjoyed his bouts with the Great Red Baron. He secretly admired the rival pilot, he may have been on the Central Powers Side, but he was hero.

The Baron could pull off the greatest of feats with his Crimson Haybailer. He shot many an Allied plane down with his tricks and aerial stunts, making their boys look like monkeys. Though he'd never admit it, Ranma thought that maybe the German pilot was better than even him. The man who could dodge some of their best pilots, stalemate with him, and not even get touched by the anti aircraft guns was a person to be reckoned with.

Ranma finally got dressed an ran out of the barracks throwing on his flight jacket. "Nice to see you final stirred yourself, Saotome." His superior grumbled. Ranma merely gave him a brazen grin as he leapt into his plane and took off.

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The temperature was mild, the winds at a medium, perfect day for a dogfight. Ranma eyes scanned the fluffy clouds and blue expanse for his enemy. As he did so he mentally went over his previous battles with the German pilot. The Baron usually liked to dive down from above or start strafing his plane with gun fire from behind. Smoke screens, barrel rolls, and other stunts were expected. Their fights usually ended with either one or the other crashing or limping away to fight another day.

There were a few strange things about the Baron though. Sometimes, Ranma could almost hear his rival screaming "Where am I?!" another thing was that the Baron seemed to disappear when they stopped fighting.

Ranma then noticed that it was un characteristically dark. Trusting his suspicions he looked up and let out a yelp as saw nothing but red inches away from his nose. Twisting out of the way he gave a cocky grin  as he engaged the Bloody Red Baron. "Hey, Red! Care to dance?" The Baron gave an okay sign and made a pass at him, unloading his guns at Ranma. The flying ace dodged the attack and returned fire. For the next few minutes the battle was nothing more than gun fire and dodges, then the Baron's tail end began to smoke as he went into a swan dive. "Oh no ya don't" Ranma muttered as he followed the spiraling aircraft, he had seen this trick before and wouldn't fall for it twice.

The two planes went into a free fall, plummeting towards a small farm. As Ranma began to gain of the Baron, the smoke became thicker and clouded his vision. He barely managed to pull himself out of the dive before splattering on the earth bellow and trailed the Crimson plane as he flew through a barn.

When both combatants emerged, Ranma had a chicken in his cock pit! The frightened bird began squawking and pecking at the young hotshot, who was flailing his arms wildly. He managed to remove the fowl before begin set up on by his rival once again.

They fight fiercely and then the Red Baron turned tail and flew off. Well, Ranma wasn't going to let him get away and pursued the enemy in to a cloud bank. The Baron suddenly turned and fired his guns, at the same time as Ranma. Both found their wings light on fire and started to fall again, only they couldn't pull up. Knowing it was point-less to stay, Ranma dove out of his doomed air craft, pulling the cord on his parachute. He noticed the Baron doing the same.

Landing with a bump on the barren and muddy ground, Ranma gathered his bearings and ran towards were his rival landed, thinking that he would be famous if he captured the wilily pilot. He found a figure in flight clothing and a red scarf sprawled out on the ground. "Ohhh, man. That's going to hurt in the morning." Groaned The Red Barron as he sat up and removed his goggles and helmet. Ranma face faulted. "Ryoga?!"

The lost boy looked up and glared at Ranma. "Saotome, I should've known." He spat, picking himself out off the ground. "What the hell were you doing up there?" asked Ranma. Ryoga shrugged. "I don't know! All I know is that when I tried to use the Nanban mirror, I ended up in the German barracks in the middle of World War II!" Ranma sweat dropped. "We're World War I, dummy." Ryoga gave his enemy an icy stare as he continued.

"So they shoved me in a plane, and I've been up there trying to land the darn thing ever since." He took a breath. "AND IT"S ALL YOUR FAULT!!" Ranma slapped him in the head. "Me?! Who's the one trying to change the past to his advantage?!" Ryoga hit him back. "Well if you hadn't ruined my life!" The two bickering martial artists were soon brawling, when someone couched politely to get their attention.

They turned to see Cologne standing in front of a shimmering portal, she gave them an amused look. "I was just about invite you back home, but it looks like you two are enjoying this time period…" She turned as if to leave and both boys stood up. "WAIT!!"

*************

"So that's what happened." Ranma said as he and Ryoga sat back in the Tendo Dojo, finishing their story and tea. Nabiki had pulled out a tape recorder and was think of the hysteria she was going to cause when she sent the tape to the Smithsonian.

"So, your the Red Baron?" Nabiki asked as she got her facts strait. Ryoga scratched the back of his head. "I didn't mean to. I was lost and couldn't land." Akane glared at Ranma. "And you just had to keep picking fights with him."

"He kept buzzing the base, I thought he was challenging me!" he shot back defensively. "I was looking for a bathroom." Ryoga explained. Ranma sat back and poured himself more tea. "Well, I can say this ,Bacon Breath, you are an amazing pilot!" Ryoga blinked, he hadn't expected praise. "I mean, that smoke screen trick was devious, and your aim's phenomenal, I mean, you were almost as good as me." Ryoga blushed and turned away bashfully.

"One question though," Ranma said aside, "where'd ya learn to do that stuff?" Ryoga blinked in confusion. "I didn't, the scarf kept getting in my face." Ranma sweat dropped, as Ryoga put on a inquisitive look. "And to be honest, I don't know how to fly a plane."

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R&R Please!!