Disclaimer:
Megaman X character designs belong to Capcom. I'm just borrowing 'em, guys. I'll have 'em power washed before I bring 'em back. Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em. Ranma characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I'm just borrowing 'em, Rumiko-san. I'll have 'em power washed before I return 'em. Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em.
Flashfyre5 Presents
A Flaming Amarant production
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota
The Opening Bet
Chapter One: Here's Ranma!
" " = speech
[ ] = panda board
= thought
/ / = written
* * * * * *
Ranma-chan trudged disconsolately beside her father. As some might think, this was not a result of her current form. No, quite the opposite there- she preferred being human to... her other form any day of the week, even if that meant that 'he' had to be a 'she'. Nor was it the fact that it was raining; she'd gotten used to that by her eighth birthday. No, it was the fact that her stupid father had decided that she needed to be engaged to one of the daughters of his friend. Despite the problems both his forms would cause in such an arrangement, the stupid old man refused to nullify the engagement without his friend's agreement.
* * * * * *
/Tendo- Bringing Ranma from China. Problem with engagement. We'll talk when I get there. -Saotome/
Soun held the postcard, shaking in excitement. His eyes tearing, he could just barely make out the first line. Shoving it in his gi, he dashed towards the kitchen.
"Kasumi," he shouted. The girl glanced up from the watermelon that she was slicing.
"Yes, father?" she asked quietly.
"Family meeting, right now," Sound said, then ran off upstairs.
"Nabiki!" he called.
"What's up, Dad?" she called back, from her room, where she was reading a manga on her bed. Soun stuck his head inside.
"Family meeting, downstairs," he told her.
"Should I get Akane?" Nabiki asked, rising from her bed.
"Err... no, this doesn't concern her," Sound answered.
"I thought that you said that this was a family meeting," Nabiki returned. "You've really got to stop doing this to her, Daddy. Ever since the Apocalypse you've been avoiding her like the plague. Why?"
"Err..." Soun stammered. Nabiki tapped her foot, waiting impatiently. "Well... it's just that she looks so much like my dear Kimiko did just after they found the cancer." Realization dawning, Nabiki's face fell.
"I'm sorry, Daddy," she apologized. "I didn't know. I'll go get Akane." Saying nothing more, she rose and exited the room, leaving her father to ponder the consequences of what he'd just said. Arriving at Akane's room, Nabiki knocked on the door softly. There was no response, by Nabiki was sure that she'd heard the creaking of bedsprings. "Akane, I know that you can hear me," she called through the door. "We've got a family meeting. You coming?" Akane said nothing, but Nabiki again heard the creaking of bedsprings. Silently, she cracked open the door and peered in. Akane was lying on the bed, asleep, her changed form making the bed creak despite the fact that both mattresses were box springs. Nabiki wondered again at the effects of the Apocalypse. It had changed so much in the world. Entire nations had been toppled, people had been changed, and people had been killed.
Her sister had been a victim of the changes wrought by the apocalypse. During school, right in the middle of a speech that she'd been giving, she'd suddenly fallen to the ground in agony. The entire audience had been forced to watch as her body had twisted and grown into what it was today. She'd heard that several of the students had lost their lunches on the spot. Remembering her sister as she'd been before the Apocalypse, Nabiki smiled a brief, sweet smile. She'd changed so much since then, and not only in body.
Her body, though, was truly something to marvel at. Made of some superstrong metal, and painted a beautiful shade of scarlet for the most part, her body was incredibly sleek. Akane's lower legs and ankles had been inflated to be as big and wide as her feet, which were about three times the proportions that they had been. They were trimmed with what Nabiki suspected was pure gold, but didn't test. She cared a little more about her family than that. Moving upwards, Nabiki trailed her finger after her gaze. Her sister's upper legs and upper arms were a solid black, as nondescript as if they were just normal legs covered in black tights. Her pelvic area was covered by a white guard with a small vent in the front. Her lower torso was covered in bands of silvery metal, while her chest area was armored in solid red. The only aberration was a white vent that jutted out at the juncture of her bust and chest. The bust itself was covered by a heavy, red breastplate, giving the appearance of a shirt, with two emerald orbs adorning the peaks. Akane's shoulders were covered by angular white shoulderguards, trimmed with red. Her lower arms and hands were changed in a similar fashion as her legs; from her elbows, her arms widened to about twice their previous size, and lined themselves in silver. Her hands were white, and it would've looked like she was wearing gloves, had it not been for the fact that her hands themselves were twice the size of any pair that Nabiki'd ever seen. Akane's hair was still long, but had been pulled back into a long ponytail that fell like an ebony river to her ankles. Nabiki smoothed her sister's hair, allowing herself a single rare moment of tenderness.
Reaching over to the bedside stand, Nabiki picked up her sister's helmet. It was an angular work of art that, when Akane chose to wear it, made her look both incredibly dangerous and quite alluring. The helmet covered her cheeks and forehead, but arced away from both areas to give her eyes plenty of room and excellent prehipheral vision. Starting at the peak in her brow, the red part of the helm arced away and up, coming to a pair of points on each side before arcing gracefully back together and down the back of her head. The middle of the helm was white, and held a great, triangular sapphire over her brow. Akane was truly stunning when she wore it.
Unfortunately, the change set her apart from the crowd. Her classmates, scared by her transformation, were repelled by the sight of Akane. Many of her former friends had grown distant from her as a result, and now the only people that would even talk to her were Yuka and Saryu, her best friends.
Sighing, Nabiki put the helmet down and reached over to grab Akane by the shoulders. Gently, she shook her sister. Slowly, Akane opened her eyes and looked at her elder sister, hovering above her.
"What is it, Nabiki?" she asked, rubbing the last of her sleep from her eyes. She didn't really need to, but it was a habit that she'd never been able to give up.
"Family meeting, downstairs. Daddy says that you don't have to be there if you don't want to, but I think that you should come," Nabiki told her. Internally, Akane marveled at the way her sister had changed since the Apocalypse. Nabiki had become, at least to her family, a warm, kind, caring person who would go to any lengths to help out her little sister. On the other hand, she was still the Ice Queen of Furinkan High. Akane nodded, and Nabiki smiled one of her all-to-rare smiles and left.
Left alone, Akane sighed, thinking of what this meeting would bring. As she rose, she wondered if whatever it was could possibly make things worse. Internally, she knew that she was no longer the person that she had been before the Apocalypse. She was no longer the center of attention- people avoided her, and whispered behind her back. Almost all her friends had deserted her. Too bad that Kuno hadn't followed suit. Within the space of a few days, Akane's entire world had fallen apart.
Not even her martial arts, which she'd prided herself upon so much, were of any interest anymore. The Change, as she referred to it, had made her so fast, strong, and tough that nobody could even think of challenging her. She could break whole towers of cinderblocks and hardly notice it. She could beat, even kill, anyone that was dumb enough to challenge her, but she got no pleasure from it. Thus, she had withdrawn from her normal life. Usually, she stayed in her room, thinking, sleeping, or whatever she happened to choose at the moment.
Akane arrived at the top of the stairs and glared down the wooden structure with thinly disguised loathing. She'd come to hate stairs. Taking in a breath, she put one foot forward and began her descent.
*Thump*
*Thump*
Akane hated the thumping noise that her legs made on the stairs, but it couldn't be helped.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump
After the Change, she found that she weighed over 140 kilos, nearly twice what she had been. Add to that that she was made entirely of metal, and there was nothing that she could do to stop the noise.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
It marked her, set her apart. People stared when she came down stairs, or went up them. She tried to smooth things over, but nobody cared. She had been touched during the Apocalypse; nobody trusted her.
*Thump*
*Thud*
Akane breathed a sigh of relief as she finally stepped down onto the ground floor. Much more quietly now, she walked to the kitchen table, where everyone was already waiting. Without a word, she took a seat at the table, one which she hadn't used since the Apocalypse.
"What did you call us here for, Father?" Kasumi asked once her sister had seated herself.
"Well, a good friend of mine, whom I trained with, is finally returning from a ten-year training trip," Soun began. "He has a son, and they both will be coming here sometime today."
"So?" Nabiki asked. "What does this have to do with us?"
"I must remember to prepare the guest room," Kasumi noted aloud. Akane stayed silent. She was sure that her father didn't want to hear her opinion anyway. He'd barely spoken to her since she Changed.
"Well," Soun said, sweating. "our families had an agreement to join our schools of martial arts. Thus, one of you two will be marrying him." A silence followed, as the three girls stared at their father in shock.
"A fiancee?" Nabiki deadpanned.
"Oh, my," Kasumi added. Akane just sat there, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Yes, they should be here any moment!" Soun said triumphantly. They'd taken things much better than he'd expected.
"Well, what's he like?" Nabiki asked.
"Umm... I don't know," Soun answered.
"You don't know?" Nabiki asked, incredulous.
"I've never met him," Soun explained.
"You said 'One of you two,'" Akane said quietly.
"What?" Soun asked, confused.
"You said that it was an agreement between the families, and then said that 'One of you two will be marrying him,'" Akane told her father. "You were referring to Nabiki and Kasumi. Does that mean that I'm not a part of the family?"
"Huh? Umm... err..." Soun stammered, dumbfounded.
"Of course you are, Akane," Kasumi reassured her.
"Right," Nabiki agreed. "Say it, Daddy," she commanded. Silence ensued. "Daddy," she said, a menacing tone in her voice.
"Wait, Nabiki. I want to hear what he has to say," Akane said. "Well, Dad, am I?"
"Well... after all that you've been through, I don't think that you should be burdened with such a commitment, but the agreement was between the two families...," Soun hedged. Akane looked down, into her lap.
"I see," she said quietly, then rose.
"Akane, where are you going?" Nabiki asked, worried.
"Just out to the dojo. I wouldn't want to intrude on the Tendo family's home," Akane answered, stepping out the shoji and onto the paved rock path the lead to the dojo.
"Akane...," Kasumi said, reaching out to her sister. Without a word or a glance backward, Akane shut the shoji and walked to the dojo, wincing at every sound her feet made as they struck upon the stones of the pathway.
"Real smooth, Daddy," Nabiki deadpanned. Soun looked appropriately ashamed. Suddenly, a sharp knock sounded from the front door, and Soun jumped up, excited.
"That must be them!" he shouted, running to the door. "Saotome, my friend, I'm coming!"
"I'll keep an eye on him," Nabiki told her sister, then got up and followed her father. Arriving at the door, Soun threw it open, expecting his best friend. That was not what he saw. Dominating the doorway was a giant panda and a short redheaded youth. Soun promptly turned and made what he would later claim was a 'strategic retreat.' In essence, he turned and ran. Nabiki, watching from the hallway, was unnerved but held her ground. She wasn't one to retreat lightly. she thought.
"Great, Dad," said the youth in a distinctly feminine voice. "I might as well have just shown up in my other form too." The panda held up a sign reading, [It's not my fault!] The youth just shook his/her head. Nabiki wasn't sure yet, as he/she wore rather baggy clothing.
"And you are?" Nabiki prompted the youth.
"Oh!" he/she said, looking back down the hallway, seeing Nabiki for the first time. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." Once again, Nabiki noted the rather feminine lilt of his/her voice, despite the male speech patterns.
"You're a girl, aren't you?" Nabiki asked, placing her bet.
"Umm... yeah, I guess so," Ranma said, looking down at herself.
"Daddy sure knows how to pick 'em," Nabiki muttered. More loudly, she called, "Well, why don't you come in. I'm sure that Daddy'll straighten things right out." She looked backwards in the hall severely, to where Soun was cowering. "Won't you?" she said menacingly. Soun, overwhelmed on all sides, fainted.
* * * * * *
Soun opened his eyes slowly, taking in the crisp afternoon air. His two eldest daughters hovered over him, and there was a damp cloth on his forehead.
"Ahh, Nabiki, Kasumi," he said, sitting up. "I just had the oddest dream." At this point, Ranma walked out of the kitchen, carrying a steaming washbowl. Soun froze, staring at her. "It wasn't a dream, was it?" he asked.
"Nope," Ranma said, setting the bowl down carefully. She was very careful not to slosh any of the hot liquid over the sides of the large bowl, even though it was only half full.
"So, Daddy," Nabiki stated, a feral glean in her eye. Not the 'hunting' kind either, the 'I'm gonna kill you for this one' gleam. You know, the one you mom makes at you whenever you get bad grades. "We can't exactly be engaged to a girl, now can we?" she asked, her voice matching her glare.
"Umm... no?" Soun replied, seeming to shrink in on himself.
"And Ranma's definitely a girl, isn't she?" Nabiki asked, grabbing Ranma by the breast to demonstrate her point.
"Hey!" Ranma exclaimed. "Stop it!" Hearing this, Nabiki released the girl, who backed away from the confrontation. Kasumi, sensing that this was one of those fights that shouldn't be broken up, joined her.
"Err... yes," Soun agreed.
"Then the engagement's off, isn't it, Daddy?" Nabiki asked, her eyes boring holes into her father.
"I suppose so," he answered meekly, trying to find a path of escape. Apparently, that answer had been it, because Nabiki immediately backed away.
"Good. I'm glad that that's settled," Nabiki said, calm once again. "Ranma," she said, looking around the room. It was decidedly devoid of redheads. "Umm, Kasumi, where's Ranma?" she asked her sister, who was standing nest to the shoji.
"Oh, she asked to see the dojo," Kasumi answered brightly.
"Umm... Kasumi, Akane's in there," Nabiki said.
"Oh, my," Kasumi replied. "Oh... my..." she said after a second, remembering how people tended to react to Akane these days.
"That's an understatement," Nabiki deadpanned, and prepared to deal with one scared, confused redhead who would probably be coming through that door any second now. Any second...
* * * * * *
Ranma sighed, sliding the door of the dojo open. She really didn't want to be around when her father told Mr. Tendo about Jusenkyo. That would involve a demonstration of the curses, and Ranma liked her cursed form better than her normal one. Not that she liked either; it was just a matter of being human to the alternative.
Stepping inside, Ranma immediately noticed the figure curled up and crying in a corner of the dojo. It's back was turned to her, displaying a wild river of ebony hair, and huddled inside of a pale yellow blanket. The figure's sobs were soft, but it hurt Ranma in a place that she wasn't too experienced in handling- her sympathy. Quietly, she walked over to the figure and tentatively touched the side of its head. It swiveled, revealing a distinctly feminine face, streaked with tears.
"Hey," Ranma said softly. "What's the matter? Whatever it is, I can promise you that I prolly got it worse off," she continued, in an effort to cheer up the girl. For some reason, as Ranma spoke, the girl hugged her blanket to herself more tightly.
"Who are you?" the girl asked, distrustful.
"Me? I'm Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Who're you?" Ranma answered.
"I'm Akane Ten... Just Akane," the girl replied. "I used to be a martial artist, but I had to give it up."
"Give up martial arts?" Ranma asked incredulously. "Why would you give up martial arts?" Akane visibly braced herself before replying.
"I was Changed during the Apocalypse," she said, looking away.
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
"I was Changed. I'm too strong now; I might hurt someone," Akane said, her voice trembling.
"Changed? Apocalypse? What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, bewildered. Exasperated, Akane stood up, faced her, and threw off the blanket, revealing her body. It gleamed in the faint afternoon light that shone through the dojo doorway. Seeing it, Ranma gasped in surprise.
"Now do you understand?" Akane asked, her voice thick. This was how things always were; as soon as someone saw her, they hated her for what she represented. Trying to keep from crying, Akane spun away. Another potential friend lost. A moment of silence passed as Akane stared at the corner, fighting to repress her tears.
"Have you ever been to a place called Jusenkyo?" Ranma suddenly asked.
"Jusenkyo?" Akane asked, surprised. "Training ground of accursed springs? No, but my fath... Mr. Tendo's mentioned it before. Why?"
"Then it wasn't the springs," she heard Ranma whisper to herself. More loudly, she asked, "How'd you get to look like you do?
"I told you already," Akane said, a hint of her old temper beginning to show. "The Apocalypse. Where have you been the last few weeks?"
"Training in China," Ranma answered flatly. "Don't get a lot of news out there. Ya get even less when you're running for your life."
"Oh," Akane said, slightly chagrined.
"What happened?" Ranma asked, motioning for Akane to sit. She complied, and Ranma followed suit.
"It happened almost two weeks ago, now. About one in the afternoon. I was giving a speech for a school tournament. I was doing really well, too. Then, all of a sudden, I start to feel funny," Akane said.
"Kinda like something in your stomach was tryin to get out?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Akane replied.
"I'll explain later," Ranma reassured her.
"Oh well. In any case, I just kept going. This jerk had just given a speech that said that anyone who wanted to date me had to beat me. I figured that if I won, nobody'd pay attention to him. Well, it just kept getting worse, until it hurt so bad that I collapsed. Next thing I know, I'm in this body, and it's a good hour later," Akane told her. "The Apocalypse had a lot of other effects too. A lot of buildings collapsed, and lots of people died."
"How many?" Ranma asked.
"I don't know. They're still counting bodies. Last I heard, though, they'd reached the two billion mark," Akane said.
"By all the Gods," Ranma breathed.
"Yeah," Akane agreed. The two sat together quietly for a few minutes, thinking. "So," Akane finally said, "Why did you ask that question?"
"Huh?" Ranma returned.
"You know, the one where I asked you why you wanted to know how I felt during the Change and you said that you'd explain later," Akane explained. "Well, it's later."
"I guess so," Ranma agreed. "Well, I guess that I was sparring with my Pop at Jusenkyo when the Apocalypse happened. Hmm... two weeks ago... yeah, that'd be just about right. In any case, I ended up in a spring, and my normal form got messed up. In any case, I just stay in my cursed form as much as I can these days. It's a damn sight easier than you'd think," Ranma told her.
"Curse?" Akane asked. "You mean that magic really exists?"
"Oh, yeah. I still gotta explain Jusenkyo to you," Ranma remembered. "Okay, it's this training field with about a hundred or so springs in it and a bunch of bamboo poles sticking straight out of each of the springs. You fight by hopping from one pole to another, and hitting the other guy in midair. If ya get knocked into a spring, you get stuck with the body of whatever last drowned there. Hot water turns you back to your normal body, but cold water activates the curse."
"What spring did you fall in?" Akane asked.
"Drowned Girl," Ranma said bluntly.
"Then..." Akane mused.
"Yep, this is my cursed form," Ranma confirmed her unasked question. "My normal form got... uhh... what did you call it?"
"Changed?" Akane supplied hopefully. she thought hopefully.
"Yeah, that's it," Ranma confirmed. "Anyway, I change back to normal with warm water. Well, if you can call having a big, blue hunk of metal for a body normal..." This comment caused Akane to smile in a mixture of sympathy and amusement.
"Can..." she started. A part of Akane berated herself for believing Ranma's crazy story. "Can you show it to me?" she finally asked, blushing. She looked down at her lap, somewhat embarrassed, but not quite sure why.
"Sure," Ranma agreed after a minute. "Lemme go get some hot water," she said, then left the dojo. Akane waited alone for a few minutes, wondering if Ranma would come back, if the girl had just pulled her leg as a sick joke, if maybe, just maybe, she'd get a friend that would actually understand what the Change had done to her. All in all, she worried. Finally, Ranma reentered the dojo, carrying a steaming teakettle and a glass of ice water.
"Sorry," she explained, "Your sister had this on the stove, so I had ta put a new one on before I left."
"It's okay," Akane said. "I'm sure that Kasumi won't mind. Now show me your other form," she commanded. Suddenly, she noticed that Ranma had figured out that she was Kasumi's sister, and therefore Soun's daughter. She hadn't said anything too obvious to clue her in; Akane's estimation of the girl went up a notch. Akane's musing, though, was immediately halted when Ranma began to disrobe. "Umm... Ranma? What are you doing?" she asked.
"I gotta strip if I wanna change," Ranma explained, tossing her red silk shirt to the floor of the dojo. "I get a lot bigger; my clothes'll rip if I'm not careful."
"Oh," Akane said quietly. Ranma released the tie on her black worker's pants, and tossed them with her shirt. Clad only in boxers, Akane could see that Ranma was blushing from head to toe. Literally. She wondered why; they were both girls, weren't they? Her mental question went unanswered as Ranma upended the teakettle over her head.
The most immediately noticeable thing about the change was the color blue. There was lots of it. In fact, the only parts of her ( Akane noted) that weren't one shade of blue or another were her hands, her face, and a gem that was set into her helmet. Further observation revealed a distinct lack of anything that might pass as breasts, and a distinctly more masculine facial structure.
"You were a guy, weren't you?" Akane asked.
"Before Jusenkyo? Yeah," Ranma confirmed. Her suspicions confirmed, Akane continued to examine Ranma's other body, mentally comparing it to her own.
As for overall construction, where Akane represented a earthy, fiery element wither her bodily decoration, wildly long hair, and machined edges, Ranma was definitely trended towards water and/or air. Though his boots were essentially the same as her own, Akane noticed that the lines were somewhat less pronounced, more rounded, and without decoration. The only exceptions were twin metal discs on each of his legs. His upper legs were done in the exact same fashion as her own, save that his were dark blue, rather than black. His pelvic guard was rounded on all sides, and without vents. In other words, it was so featureless that the eye tended to gloss over it as it traveled the body. His abdomen was seemingly bare, blue skin, even showing a 'six-pack' of abs that were most likely his internal micro fusion generator. Ranma's upper torso was armored with a sleek blue breastplate, with a thick band of light blue metal that started where each of his nipples might have been had he been human and wrapped around his back. Looking carefully, Akane noted that each had a line near the arm area, as if they could be removed.
His arms themselves were much like the rest of him: unremarkable. His upper arms were the same dark blue as his abs and upper legs, and his lower arms were simply egg-shaped constructs, sheared off at one end for his arm and at the other for his hand. His hands were stark white, just like hers. His face was hard, chiseled out of alabaster, but with a seeming mobility of emotion that belied this. His helmet was blue, and came from his brow to cover his ears and the back of his head. There was a lighter blue raising along the middle of it, and a large, beautiful ruby. The gem was incorporated into the helmet so as to seem to be the logical conclusion of the raised area of the helmet. A few small circles were etched into his helmet, but they didn't seem to be important.
"I aint as impressive as you," he conceded, "but it's what I'm stuck with."
"Looks aren't as important as function," Akane countered.
"I guess so," Ranma agreed, his hand rubbing the backside of his helmet.
"Hey," Akane said, remembering something. "Do you do martial arts?"
"Yeah. 'S why my Pop took me on the training trip," Ranma replied.
"You want to have a little match? I can't fight normal people, but I think that we should be pretty safe from one another like this," Akane proposed. Ranma, hearing this, smiled.
"That'd be great," he agreed. "I'm ready when you are."
"Then... let's go!" Akane cried, rushing at the blue robot. Her first attack, a straightforward punch meant to test his defenses, never connected. Ducking agilely, Ranma spun away from the fist and its thrower. Undaunted, Akane lashed out with her heavy leg, and nicked him on the shoulder. A sharp rapport rang out, and Ranma faded backwards, avoiding Akane's follow-up kick.
"You're pretty good," he said.
"I got a lot better from the Change," she admitted, charging forward once again. This time, instead of dodging, Ranma blocked her attacks and even launched a few of his own. "You're pretty good yourself," she added after a few seconds of close combat with him. The sound of metal crashing against metal rang through the dojo as the two combatants hammered at each other's defenses. This went on for a short while, Akane enjoying the first true test of her martial skills in two weeks, and Ranma just plain enjoying the fight.
* * * * * *
Nabiki drummed her fingers, still waiting for Ranma to reenter the house. Kasumi was off in the kitchen, getting beer for her father and some old friend of his that had suddenly popped up. She didn't know the visitor, and wouldn't have cared if she did. Idly, she noted the sound of clashing metal, but dismissed it as the sound of her sister getting ready for dinner. Daddy's guest, who was currently playing shogi with him, seemed considerably more alarmed at the sound.
"Tendo," he asked after a short pause, "did you hear that?"
"It's just Kasumi making dinner," Nabiki's father replied, moving a shogi piece. "Don't worry about it. Now, what was this problem with Ranma, aside from the fact that your 'son' turned out to be a girl?" Nabiki took a sudden interest in the conversation- she could smell when something sensitive was about to be discussed, and her father's friend was displaying all the signs.
"Well, Tendo, it all starts at Jusenkyo," he began. Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out again, and the overweight man went silent. It was soon followed by more sounds of a similar nature. "Soun, I certainly hope that that is not your eldest daughter," he said quietly. Nabiki herself was beginning to wonder. Especially so once she determined that the sounds were coming from the direction of the dojo. Nodding to herself, she quietly got up and padded out of the room. Silently, her father and his friend followed. Kasumi, carrying a tray laden with to great mugs of beer, saw them leaving and decided to follow them.
As she approached the dojo, Nabiki noted that the noise level was growing, as was the frequency. Worried, she jogged the rest of the way to the dojo and slid the door open. Inside, she was Akane facing off against a blue robot, who was obviously giving her a run for her money.
"Akane!" she cried, worried for her sister.
* * * * * *
Akane was giving her all to her opponent. Her speed augmented from the Change, she found that she could just barely keep up with Ranma, and she had greater strength, reach, and toughness than he could ever hope to. All in all, she was able to hit him sometimes, and those blows were telling on him, but his little bee-sting hammering was finally beginning to wear on her too.
Suddenly, she heard Nabiki call, "Akane" from the doorway of the dojo. Instinctually, she looked to her older sister. Nabiki's face was a mix of respect, worry, and just a hint of fear.
Akane cursed mentally as Ranma cried, "An opening!" Helpless, she felt a heavy fist strike her in the gut, a heavy hit on one of the few areas in her armor which she had minimal protection. Suddenly, his hand disappeared, and Akane found herself knowing what would come next. Time seemed to crawl as she spun her head back to face Ranma, even as the whine of his plasma cannon built. Just as she was able to come face-to-face with her attacker, his cannon fired a blast of plasma carefully calculated to end the fight without seriously hurting Akane. Ranma's triumph was written clearly on his face.
Propelled backwards by the blast, Akane grabbed frantically around, and latched onto Ranma's arm. Her momentum was enough that Ranma was brought along for the ride as she flew backwards. Holding his arm tightly with both hands, Akane pieced together a hasty, all-or-nothing plan. As her back impacted the dojo floor, she allowed herself to skid, instead bunching her legs between herself and Ranma. He immediately knew that she planned a counterattack, and squirmed wildly, trying to escape. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't touched down yet, and had no leverage.
Knowing that she was out of time, Akane shoved upwards and outwards with her legs, catching Ranma right in the chest. The force of her kick propelled him upwards, and would easily be enough to send him across the dojo. However, this was not Akane's plan. Just as Akane's legs reached the farthest point that she could extend them to, she fired her built-in dash jets. Twin gouts of blue flame flared out, striking with more force than heat. The additional jolt of propellant jerked her legs back up to her chest and sent Ranma through the opposite wall of the dojo. He flew for some time, as Akane elated in her victory. Suddenly, she realized where he was going to land.
"Ranma!" she shouted. "The koi pond!" However, it was far too late for Ranma to adjust his flight path. He splashed into the pond with a loud *whoosh*, and all was silent for a split second, as the water sloshed in the pond. Then, a redheaded girl burst from the water. Kasumi, Soun, Nabiki, and Soun's friend stood around the pond, only Soun's friend looking unsurprised.
"Umm... hehe...," Ranma-chan stuttered, grabbing her pigtail. Akane suddenly realized what Ranma had been doing earlier when he'd grabbed the back of his helmet.. "Sorry 'bout all this."
***Author's Notes***
Well, this is the first chapter in my first (and prolly only) entry to A Second Bet. Yes, Ranma's gotten X's body and Akane has Zero's, in case my descriptions weren't enough. I plan to take this in stride with the manga for a little while, then to diverge, due to *ahem* other causes. You'll find them out sooner or later. In any case, send me as much C&C as you can, cuz I really loooooove getting mail! Well, I'll try to have the next chapter out sometime soon, but no promises. I don't write very fast, usually.
Megaman X character designs belong to Capcom. I'm just borrowing 'em, guys. I'll have 'em power washed before I bring 'em back. Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em. Ranma characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I'm just borrowing 'em, Rumiko-san. I'll have 'em power washed before I return 'em. Yeah, yeah, I'll even hot wax 'em.
Flashfyre5 Presents
A Flaming Amarant production
In association with Digital Wizardry Studios, Minnesota
The Opening Bet
Chapter One: Here's Ranma!
" " = speech
[ ] = panda board
= thought
/ / = written
* * * * * *
Ranma-chan trudged disconsolately beside her father. As some might think, this was not a result of her current form. No, quite the opposite there- she preferred being human to... her other form any day of the week, even if that meant that 'he' had to be a 'she'. Nor was it the fact that it was raining; she'd gotten used to that by her eighth birthday. No, it was the fact that her stupid father had decided that she needed to be engaged to one of the daughters of his friend. Despite the problems both his forms would cause in such an arrangement, the stupid old man refused to nullify the engagement without his friend's agreement.
* * * * * *
/Tendo- Bringing Ranma from China. Problem with engagement. We'll talk when I get there. -Saotome/
Soun held the postcard, shaking in excitement. His eyes tearing, he could just barely make out the first line. Shoving it in his gi, he dashed towards the kitchen.
"Kasumi," he shouted. The girl glanced up from the watermelon that she was slicing.
"Yes, father?" she asked quietly.
"Family meeting, right now," Sound said, then ran off upstairs.
"Nabiki!" he called.
"What's up, Dad?" she called back, from her room, where she was reading a manga on her bed. Soun stuck his head inside.
"Family meeting, downstairs," he told her.
"Should I get Akane?" Nabiki asked, rising from her bed.
"Err... no, this doesn't concern her," Sound answered.
"I thought that you said that this was a family meeting," Nabiki returned. "You've really got to stop doing this to her, Daddy. Ever since the Apocalypse you've been avoiding her like the plague. Why?"
"Err..." Soun stammered. Nabiki tapped her foot, waiting impatiently. "Well... it's just that she looks so much like my dear Kimiko did just after they found the cancer." Realization dawning, Nabiki's face fell.
"I'm sorry, Daddy," she apologized. "I didn't know. I'll go get Akane." Saying nothing more, she rose and exited the room, leaving her father to ponder the consequences of what he'd just said. Arriving at Akane's room, Nabiki knocked on the door softly. There was no response, by Nabiki was sure that she'd heard the creaking of bedsprings. "Akane, I know that you can hear me," she called through the door. "We've got a family meeting. You coming?" Akane said nothing, but Nabiki again heard the creaking of bedsprings. Silently, she cracked open the door and peered in. Akane was lying on the bed, asleep, her changed form making the bed creak despite the fact that both mattresses were box springs. Nabiki wondered again at the effects of the Apocalypse. It had changed so much in the world. Entire nations had been toppled, people had been changed, and people had been killed.
Her sister had been a victim of the changes wrought by the apocalypse. During school, right in the middle of a speech that she'd been giving, she'd suddenly fallen to the ground in agony. The entire audience had been forced to watch as her body had twisted and grown into what it was today. She'd heard that several of the students had lost their lunches on the spot. Remembering her sister as she'd been before the Apocalypse, Nabiki smiled a brief, sweet smile. She'd changed so much since then, and not only in body.
Her body, though, was truly something to marvel at. Made of some superstrong metal, and painted a beautiful shade of scarlet for the most part, her body was incredibly sleek. Akane's lower legs and ankles had been inflated to be as big and wide as her feet, which were about three times the proportions that they had been. They were trimmed with what Nabiki suspected was pure gold, but didn't test. She cared a little more about her family than that. Moving upwards, Nabiki trailed her finger after her gaze. Her sister's upper legs and upper arms were a solid black, as nondescript as if they were just normal legs covered in black tights. Her pelvic area was covered by a white guard with a small vent in the front. Her lower torso was covered in bands of silvery metal, while her chest area was armored in solid red. The only aberration was a white vent that jutted out at the juncture of her bust and chest. The bust itself was covered by a heavy, red breastplate, giving the appearance of a shirt, with two emerald orbs adorning the peaks. Akane's shoulders were covered by angular white shoulderguards, trimmed with red. Her lower arms and hands were changed in a similar fashion as her legs; from her elbows, her arms widened to about twice their previous size, and lined themselves in silver. Her hands were white, and it would've looked like she was wearing gloves, had it not been for the fact that her hands themselves were twice the size of any pair that Nabiki'd ever seen. Akane's hair was still long, but had been pulled back into a long ponytail that fell like an ebony river to her ankles. Nabiki smoothed her sister's hair, allowing herself a single rare moment of tenderness.
Reaching over to the bedside stand, Nabiki picked up her sister's helmet. It was an angular work of art that, when Akane chose to wear it, made her look both incredibly dangerous and quite alluring. The helmet covered her cheeks and forehead, but arced away from both areas to give her eyes plenty of room and excellent prehipheral vision. Starting at the peak in her brow, the red part of the helm arced away and up, coming to a pair of points on each side before arcing gracefully back together and down the back of her head. The middle of the helm was white, and held a great, triangular sapphire over her brow. Akane was truly stunning when she wore it.
Unfortunately, the change set her apart from the crowd. Her classmates, scared by her transformation, were repelled by the sight of Akane. Many of her former friends had grown distant from her as a result, and now the only people that would even talk to her were Yuka and Saryu, her best friends.
Sighing, Nabiki put the helmet down and reached over to grab Akane by the shoulders. Gently, she shook her sister. Slowly, Akane opened her eyes and looked at her elder sister, hovering above her.
"What is it, Nabiki?" she asked, rubbing the last of her sleep from her eyes. She didn't really need to, but it was a habit that she'd never been able to give up.
"Family meeting, downstairs. Daddy says that you don't have to be there if you don't want to, but I think that you should come," Nabiki told her. Internally, Akane marveled at the way her sister had changed since the Apocalypse. Nabiki had become, at least to her family, a warm, kind, caring person who would go to any lengths to help out her little sister. On the other hand, she was still the Ice Queen of Furinkan High. Akane nodded, and Nabiki smiled one of her all-to-rare smiles and left.
Left alone, Akane sighed, thinking of what this meeting would bring. As she rose, she wondered if whatever it was could possibly make things worse. Internally, she knew that she was no longer the person that she had been before the Apocalypse. She was no longer the center of attention- people avoided her, and whispered behind her back. Almost all her friends had deserted her. Too bad that Kuno hadn't followed suit. Within the space of a few days, Akane's entire world had fallen apart.
Not even her martial arts, which she'd prided herself upon so much, were of any interest anymore. The Change, as she referred to it, had made her so fast, strong, and tough that nobody could even think of challenging her. She could break whole towers of cinderblocks and hardly notice it. She could beat, even kill, anyone that was dumb enough to challenge her, but she got no pleasure from it. Thus, she had withdrawn from her normal life. Usually, she stayed in her room, thinking, sleeping, or whatever she happened to choose at the moment.
Akane arrived at the top of the stairs and glared down the wooden structure with thinly disguised loathing. She'd come to hate stairs. Taking in a breath, she put one foot forward and began her descent.
*Thump*
*Thump*
Akane hated the thumping noise that her legs made on the stairs, but it couldn't be helped.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump
After the Change, she found that she weighed over 140 kilos, nearly twice what she had been. Add to that that she was made entirely of metal, and there was nothing that she could do to stop the noise.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
It marked her, set her apart. People stared when she came down stairs, or went up them. She tried to smooth things over, but nobody cared. She had been touched during the Apocalypse; nobody trusted her.
*Thump*
*Thud*
Akane breathed a sigh of relief as she finally stepped down onto the ground floor. Much more quietly now, she walked to the kitchen table, where everyone was already waiting. Without a word, she took a seat at the table, one which she hadn't used since the Apocalypse.
"What did you call us here for, Father?" Kasumi asked once her sister had seated herself.
"Well, a good friend of mine, whom I trained with, is finally returning from a ten-year training trip," Soun began. "He has a son, and they both will be coming here sometime today."
"So?" Nabiki asked. "What does this have to do with us?"
"I must remember to prepare the guest room," Kasumi noted aloud. Akane stayed silent. She was sure that her father didn't want to hear her opinion anyway. He'd barely spoken to her since she Changed.
"Well," Soun said, sweating. "our families had an agreement to join our schools of martial arts. Thus, one of you two will be marrying him." A silence followed, as the three girls stared at their father in shock.
"A fiancee?" Nabiki deadpanned.
"Oh, my," Kasumi added. Akane just sat there, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Yes, they should be here any moment!" Soun said triumphantly. They'd taken things much better than he'd expected.
"Well, what's he like?" Nabiki asked.
"Umm... I don't know," Soun answered.
"You don't know?" Nabiki asked, incredulous.
"I've never met him," Soun explained.
"You said 'One of you two,'" Akane said quietly.
"What?" Soun asked, confused.
"You said that it was an agreement between the families, and then said that 'One of you two will be marrying him,'" Akane told her father. "You were referring to Nabiki and Kasumi. Does that mean that I'm not a part of the family?"
"Huh? Umm... err..." Soun stammered, dumbfounded.
"Of course you are, Akane," Kasumi reassured her.
"Right," Nabiki agreed. "Say it, Daddy," she commanded. Silence ensued. "Daddy," she said, a menacing tone in her voice.
"Wait, Nabiki. I want to hear what he has to say," Akane said. "Well, Dad, am I?"
"Well... after all that you've been through, I don't think that you should be burdened with such a commitment, but the agreement was between the two families...," Soun hedged. Akane looked down, into her lap.
"I see," she said quietly, then rose.
"Akane, where are you going?" Nabiki asked, worried.
"Just out to the dojo. I wouldn't want to intrude on the Tendo family's home," Akane answered, stepping out the shoji and onto the paved rock path the lead to the dojo.
"Akane...," Kasumi said, reaching out to her sister. Without a word or a glance backward, Akane shut the shoji and walked to the dojo, wincing at every sound her feet made as they struck upon the stones of the pathway.
"Real smooth, Daddy," Nabiki deadpanned. Soun looked appropriately ashamed. Suddenly, a sharp knock sounded from the front door, and Soun jumped up, excited.
"That must be them!" he shouted, running to the door. "Saotome, my friend, I'm coming!"
"I'll keep an eye on him," Nabiki told her sister, then got up and followed her father. Arriving at the door, Soun threw it open, expecting his best friend. That was not what he saw. Dominating the doorway was a giant panda and a short redheaded youth. Soun promptly turned and made what he would later claim was a 'strategic retreat.' In essence, he turned and ran. Nabiki, watching from the hallway, was unnerved but held her ground. She wasn't one to retreat lightly. she thought.
"Great, Dad," said the youth in a distinctly feminine voice. "I might as well have just shown up in my other form too." The panda held up a sign reading, [It's not my fault!] The youth just shook his/her head. Nabiki wasn't sure yet, as he/she wore rather baggy clothing.
"And you are?" Nabiki prompted the youth.
"Oh!" he/she said, looking back down the hallway, seeing Nabiki for the first time. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." Once again, Nabiki noted the rather feminine lilt of his/her voice, despite the male speech patterns.
"You're a girl, aren't you?" Nabiki asked, placing her bet.
"Umm... yeah, I guess so," Ranma said, looking down at herself.
"Daddy sure knows how to pick 'em," Nabiki muttered. More loudly, she called, "Well, why don't you come in. I'm sure that Daddy'll straighten things right out." She looked backwards in the hall severely, to where Soun was cowering. "Won't you?" she said menacingly. Soun, overwhelmed on all sides, fainted.
* * * * * *
Soun opened his eyes slowly, taking in the crisp afternoon air. His two eldest daughters hovered over him, and there was a damp cloth on his forehead.
"Ahh, Nabiki, Kasumi," he said, sitting up. "I just had the oddest dream." At this point, Ranma walked out of the kitchen, carrying a steaming washbowl. Soun froze, staring at her. "It wasn't a dream, was it?" he asked.
"Nope," Ranma said, setting the bowl down carefully. She was very careful not to slosh any of the hot liquid over the sides of the large bowl, even though it was only half full.
"So, Daddy," Nabiki stated, a feral glean in her eye. Not the 'hunting' kind either, the 'I'm gonna kill you for this one' gleam. You know, the one you mom makes at you whenever you get bad grades. "We can't exactly be engaged to a girl, now can we?" she asked, her voice matching her glare.
"Umm... no?" Soun replied, seeming to shrink in on himself.
"And Ranma's definitely a girl, isn't she?" Nabiki asked, grabbing Ranma by the breast to demonstrate her point.
"Hey!" Ranma exclaimed. "Stop it!" Hearing this, Nabiki released the girl, who backed away from the confrontation. Kasumi, sensing that this was one of those fights that shouldn't be broken up, joined her.
"Err... yes," Soun agreed.
"Then the engagement's off, isn't it, Daddy?" Nabiki asked, her eyes boring holes into her father.
"I suppose so," he answered meekly, trying to find a path of escape. Apparently, that answer had been it, because Nabiki immediately backed away.
"Good. I'm glad that that's settled," Nabiki said, calm once again. "Ranma," she said, looking around the room. It was decidedly devoid of redheads. "Umm, Kasumi, where's Ranma?" she asked her sister, who was standing nest to the shoji.
"Oh, she asked to see the dojo," Kasumi answered brightly.
"Umm... Kasumi, Akane's in there," Nabiki said.
"Oh, my," Kasumi replied. "Oh... my..." she said after a second, remembering how people tended to react to Akane these days.
"That's an understatement," Nabiki deadpanned, and prepared to deal with one scared, confused redhead who would probably be coming through that door any second now. Any second...
* * * * * *
Ranma sighed, sliding the door of the dojo open. She really didn't want to be around when her father told Mr. Tendo about Jusenkyo. That would involve a demonstration of the curses, and Ranma liked her cursed form better than her normal one. Not that she liked either; it was just a matter of being human to the alternative.
Stepping inside, Ranma immediately noticed the figure curled up and crying in a corner of the dojo. It's back was turned to her, displaying a wild river of ebony hair, and huddled inside of a pale yellow blanket. The figure's sobs were soft, but it hurt Ranma in a place that she wasn't too experienced in handling- her sympathy. Quietly, she walked over to the figure and tentatively touched the side of its head. It swiveled, revealing a distinctly feminine face, streaked with tears.
"Hey," Ranma said softly. "What's the matter? Whatever it is, I can promise you that I prolly got it worse off," she continued, in an effort to cheer up the girl. For some reason, as Ranma spoke, the girl hugged her blanket to herself more tightly.
"Who are you?" the girl asked, distrustful.
"Me? I'm Ranma Saotome, of the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Who're you?" Ranma answered.
"I'm Akane Ten... Just Akane," the girl replied. "I used to be a martial artist, but I had to give it up."
"Give up martial arts?" Ranma asked incredulously. "Why would you give up martial arts?" Akane visibly braced herself before replying.
"I was Changed during the Apocalypse," she said, looking away.
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
"I was Changed. I'm too strong now; I might hurt someone," Akane said, her voice trembling.
"Changed? Apocalypse? What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, bewildered. Exasperated, Akane stood up, faced her, and threw off the blanket, revealing her body. It gleamed in the faint afternoon light that shone through the dojo doorway. Seeing it, Ranma gasped in surprise.
"Now do you understand?" Akane asked, her voice thick. This was how things always were; as soon as someone saw her, they hated her for what she represented. Trying to keep from crying, Akane spun away. Another potential friend lost. A moment of silence passed as Akane stared at the corner, fighting to repress her tears.
"Have you ever been to a place called Jusenkyo?" Ranma suddenly asked.
"Jusenkyo?" Akane asked, surprised. "Training ground of accursed springs? No, but my fath... Mr. Tendo's mentioned it before. Why?"
"Then it wasn't the springs," she heard Ranma whisper to herself. More loudly, she asked, "How'd you get to look like you do?
"I told you already," Akane said, a hint of her old temper beginning to show. "The Apocalypse. Where have you been the last few weeks?"
"Training in China," Ranma answered flatly. "Don't get a lot of news out there. Ya get even less when you're running for your life."
"Oh," Akane said, slightly chagrined.
"What happened?" Ranma asked, motioning for Akane to sit. She complied, and Ranma followed suit.
"It happened almost two weeks ago, now. About one in the afternoon. I was giving a speech for a school tournament. I was doing really well, too. Then, all of a sudden, I start to feel funny," Akane said.
"Kinda like something in your stomach was tryin to get out?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Akane replied.
"I'll explain later," Ranma reassured her.
"Oh well. In any case, I just kept going. This jerk had just given a speech that said that anyone who wanted to date me had to beat me. I figured that if I won, nobody'd pay attention to him. Well, it just kept getting worse, until it hurt so bad that I collapsed. Next thing I know, I'm in this body, and it's a good hour later," Akane told her. "The Apocalypse had a lot of other effects too. A lot of buildings collapsed, and lots of people died."
"How many?" Ranma asked.
"I don't know. They're still counting bodies. Last I heard, though, they'd reached the two billion mark," Akane said.
"By all the Gods," Ranma breathed.
"Yeah," Akane agreed. The two sat together quietly for a few minutes, thinking. "So," Akane finally said, "Why did you ask that question?"
"Huh?" Ranma returned.
"You know, the one where I asked you why you wanted to know how I felt during the Change and you said that you'd explain later," Akane explained. "Well, it's later."
"I guess so," Ranma agreed. "Well, I guess that I was sparring with my Pop at Jusenkyo when the Apocalypse happened. Hmm... two weeks ago... yeah, that'd be just about right. In any case, I ended up in a spring, and my normal form got messed up. In any case, I just stay in my cursed form as much as I can these days. It's a damn sight easier than you'd think," Ranma told her.
"Curse?" Akane asked. "You mean that magic really exists?"
"Oh, yeah. I still gotta explain Jusenkyo to you," Ranma remembered. "Okay, it's this training field with about a hundred or so springs in it and a bunch of bamboo poles sticking straight out of each of the springs. You fight by hopping from one pole to another, and hitting the other guy in midair. If ya get knocked into a spring, you get stuck with the body of whatever last drowned there. Hot water turns you back to your normal body, but cold water activates the curse."
"What spring did you fall in?" Akane asked.
"Drowned Girl," Ranma said bluntly.
"Then..." Akane mused.
"Yep, this is my cursed form," Ranma confirmed her unasked question. "My normal form got... uhh... what did you call it?"
"Changed?" Akane supplied hopefully. she thought hopefully.
"Yeah, that's it," Ranma confirmed. "Anyway, I change back to normal with warm water. Well, if you can call having a big, blue hunk of metal for a body normal..." This comment caused Akane to smile in a mixture of sympathy and amusement.
"Can..." she started. A part of Akane berated herself for believing Ranma's crazy story. "Can you show it to me?" she finally asked, blushing. She looked down at her lap, somewhat embarrassed, but not quite sure why.
"Sure," Ranma agreed after a minute. "Lemme go get some hot water," she said, then left the dojo. Akane waited alone for a few minutes, wondering if Ranma would come back, if the girl had just pulled her leg as a sick joke, if maybe, just maybe, she'd get a friend that would actually understand what the Change had done to her. All in all, she worried. Finally, Ranma reentered the dojo, carrying a steaming teakettle and a glass of ice water.
"Sorry," she explained, "Your sister had this on the stove, so I had ta put a new one on before I left."
"It's okay," Akane said. "I'm sure that Kasumi won't mind. Now show me your other form," she commanded. Suddenly, she noticed that Ranma had figured out that she was Kasumi's sister, and therefore Soun's daughter. She hadn't said anything too obvious to clue her in; Akane's estimation of the girl went up a notch. Akane's musing, though, was immediately halted when Ranma began to disrobe. "Umm... Ranma? What are you doing?" she asked.
"I gotta strip if I wanna change," Ranma explained, tossing her red silk shirt to the floor of the dojo. "I get a lot bigger; my clothes'll rip if I'm not careful."
"Oh," Akane said quietly. Ranma released the tie on her black worker's pants, and tossed them with her shirt. Clad only in boxers, Akane could see that Ranma was blushing from head to toe. Literally. She wondered why; they were both girls, weren't they? Her mental question went unanswered as Ranma upended the teakettle over her head.
The most immediately noticeable thing about the change was the color blue. There was lots of it. In fact, the only parts of her ( Akane noted) that weren't one shade of blue or another were her hands, her face, and a gem that was set into her helmet. Further observation revealed a distinct lack of anything that might pass as breasts, and a distinctly more masculine facial structure.
"You were a guy, weren't you?" Akane asked.
"Before Jusenkyo? Yeah," Ranma confirmed. Her suspicions confirmed, Akane continued to examine Ranma's other body, mentally comparing it to her own.
As for overall construction, where Akane represented a earthy, fiery element wither her bodily decoration, wildly long hair, and machined edges, Ranma was definitely trended towards water and/or air. Though his boots were essentially the same as her own, Akane noticed that the lines were somewhat less pronounced, more rounded, and without decoration. The only exceptions were twin metal discs on each of his legs. His upper legs were done in the exact same fashion as her own, save that his were dark blue, rather than black. His pelvic guard was rounded on all sides, and without vents. In other words, it was so featureless that the eye tended to gloss over it as it traveled the body. His abdomen was seemingly bare, blue skin, even showing a 'six-pack' of abs that were most likely his internal micro fusion generator. Ranma's upper torso was armored with a sleek blue breastplate, with a thick band of light blue metal that started where each of his nipples might have been had he been human and wrapped around his back. Looking carefully, Akane noted that each had a line near the arm area, as if they could be removed.
His arms themselves were much like the rest of him: unremarkable. His upper arms were the same dark blue as his abs and upper legs, and his lower arms were simply egg-shaped constructs, sheared off at one end for his arm and at the other for his hand. His hands were stark white, just like hers. His face was hard, chiseled out of alabaster, but with a seeming mobility of emotion that belied this. His helmet was blue, and came from his brow to cover his ears and the back of his head. There was a lighter blue raising along the middle of it, and a large, beautiful ruby. The gem was incorporated into the helmet so as to seem to be the logical conclusion of the raised area of the helmet. A few small circles were etched into his helmet, but they didn't seem to be important.
"I aint as impressive as you," he conceded, "but it's what I'm stuck with."
"Looks aren't as important as function," Akane countered.
"I guess so," Ranma agreed, his hand rubbing the backside of his helmet.
"Hey," Akane said, remembering something. "Do you do martial arts?"
"Yeah. 'S why my Pop took me on the training trip," Ranma replied.
"You want to have a little match? I can't fight normal people, but I think that we should be pretty safe from one another like this," Akane proposed. Ranma, hearing this, smiled.
"That'd be great," he agreed. "I'm ready when you are."
"Then... let's go!" Akane cried, rushing at the blue robot. Her first attack, a straightforward punch meant to test his defenses, never connected. Ducking agilely, Ranma spun away from the fist and its thrower. Undaunted, Akane lashed out with her heavy leg, and nicked him on the shoulder. A sharp rapport rang out, and Ranma faded backwards, avoiding Akane's follow-up kick.
"You're pretty good," he said.
"I got a lot better from the Change," she admitted, charging forward once again. This time, instead of dodging, Ranma blocked her attacks and even launched a few of his own. "You're pretty good yourself," she added after a few seconds of close combat with him. The sound of metal crashing against metal rang through the dojo as the two combatants hammered at each other's defenses. This went on for a short while, Akane enjoying the first true test of her martial skills in two weeks, and Ranma just plain enjoying the fight.
* * * * * *
Nabiki drummed her fingers, still waiting for Ranma to reenter the house. Kasumi was off in the kitchen, getting beer for her father and some old friend of his that had suddenly popped up. She didn't know the visitor, and wouldn't have cared if she did. Idly, she noted the sound of clashing metal, but dismissed it as the sound of her sister getting ready for dinner. Daddy's guest, who was currently playing shogi with him, seemed considerably more alarmed at the sound.
"Tendo," he asked after a short pause, "did you hear that?"
"It's just Kasumi making dinner," Nabiki's father replied, moving a shogi piece. "Don't worry about it. Now, what was this problem with Ranma, aside from the fact that your 'son' turned out to be a girl?" Nabiki took a sudden interest in the conversation- she could smell when something sensitive was about to be discussed, and her father's friend was displaying all the signs.
"Well, Tendo, it all starts at Jusenkyo," he began. Suddenly, the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out again, and the overweight man went silent. It was soon followed by more sounds of a similar nature. "Soun, I certainly hope that that is not your eldest daughter," he said quietly. Nabiki herself was beginning to wonder. Especially so once she determined that the sounds were coming from the direction of the dojo. Nodding to herself, she quietly got up and padded out of the room. Silently, her father and his friend followed. Kasumi, carrying a tray laden with to great mugs of beer, saw them leaving and decided to follow them.
As she approached the dojo, Nabiki noted that the noise level was growing, as was the frequency. Worried, she jogged the rest of the way to the dojo and slid the door open. Inside, she was Akane facing off against a blue robot, who was obviously giving her a run for her money.
"Akane!" she cried, worried for her sister.
* * * * * *
Akane was giving her all to her opponent. Her speed augmented from the Change, she found that she could just barely keep up with Ranma, and she had greater strength, reach, and toughness than he could ever hope to. All in all, she was able to hit him sometimes, and those blows were telling on him, but his little bee-sting hammering was finally beginning to wear on her too.
Suddenly, she heard Nabiki call, "Akane" from the doorway of the dojo. Instinctually, she looked to her older sister. Nabiki's face was a mix of respect, worry, and just a hint of fear.
Akane cursed mentally as Ranma cried, "An opening!" Helpless, she felt a heavy fist strike her in the gut, a heavy hit on one of the few areas in her armor which she had minimal protection. Suddenly, his hand disappeared, and Akane found herself knowing what would come next. Time seemed to crawl as she spun her head back to face Ranma, even as the whine of his plasma cannon built. Just as she was able to come face-to-face with her attacker, his cannon fired a blast of plasma carefully calculated to end the fight without seriously hurting Akane. Ranma's triumph was written clearly on his face.
Propelled backwards by the blast, Akane grabbed frantically around, and latched onto Ranma's arm. Her momentum was enough that Ranma was brought along for the ride as she flew backwards. Holding his arm tightly with both hands, Akane pieced together a hasty, all-or-nothing plan. As her back impacted the dojo floor, she allowed herself to skid, instead bunching her legs between herself and Ranma. He immediately knew that she planned a counterattack, and squirmed wildly, trying to escape. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't touched down yet, and had no leverage.
Knowing that she was out of time, Akane shoved upwards and outwards with her legs, catching Ranma right in the chest. The force of her kick propelled him upwards, and would easily be enough to send him across the dojo. However, this was not Akane's plan. Just as Akane's legs reached the farthest point that she could extend them to, she fired her built-in dash jets. Twin gouts of blue flame flared out, striking with more force than heat. The additional jolt of propellant jerked her legs back up to her chest and sent Ranma through the opposite wall of the dojo. He flew for some time, as Akane elated in her victory. Suddenly, she realized where he was going to land.
"Ranma!" she shouted. "The koi pond!" However, it was far too late for Ranma to adjust his flight path. He splashed into the pond with a loud *whoosh*, and all was silent for a split second, as the water sloshed in the pond. Then, a redheaded girl burst from the water. Kasumi, Soun, Nabiki, and Soun's friend stood around the pond, only Soun's friend looking unsurprised.
"Umm... hehe...," Ranma-chan stuttered, grabbing her pigtail. Akane suddenly realized what Ranma had been doing earlier when he'd grabbed the back of his helmet.. "Sorry 'bout all this."
***Author's Notes***
Well, this is the first chapter in my first (and prolly only) entry to A Second Bet. Yes, Ranma's gotten X's body and Akane has Zero's, in case my descriptions weren't enough. I plan to take this in stride with the manga for a little while, then to diverge, due to *ahem* other causes. You'll find them out sooner or later. In any case, send me as much C&C as you can, cuz I really loooooove getting mail! Well, I'll try to have the next chapter out sometime soon, but no promises. I don't write very fast, usually.