Disclaimer: Ranma ½, Sailor Moon and the X-Men are owned by their respective owners. And that certainly isn't me. No infringement is intended, nor is any profit being made by this story. No cabbits were harmed in the making of this film.
Fire and Ice
Chapter 2: E=MC2
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The tour guide led the crowd through an archway, passing out of the entrance hall and into a long hallway. Pausing near what was obviously the first exhibit, she touched the control, activating the hologram. "Much of the early lives of the king and queen are undocumented by normal sources. Thankfully, Lady Pluto was kind enough to make these recordings for us using the Gates of Time. What you see here are the actual events, as they really happened. In the past, historians have had to argue over if this or that fact was authentic, but we have no doubt that these events took place as you see them unfold. What you see here is an early event in the life of the king." All eyes in the crowd turn to watch, as the holographic images of the past came to life.
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An ancient crone of a woman, only knee high to most people, can be seen bouncing around, avoiding and exchanging blows with a young pigtailed boy. As the chase nears its end, her voice can be heard, "So. Just what I'd expect from Shampoo's groom."
The young man has his hands in his pockets as he closes his eyes momentarily and shakes his head. "I am not her groom!"
An amused look passes across the old woman's face, before she moves with lightening speed, her walking stick making the air 'swish' as it moves rapidly to poke the youth in the middle of his chest. "Humbug. In two or three days, you'll be begging me for the chance to be Shampoo's groom!"
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The hologram freezes at that point, and the tour guide speaks up, "This was something called the 'Cat's Tongue' pressure point. The significance of this is that it prevented the king from activating his transformation. It is important to remember, that at this time, the king had yet to gain control of his transformation, and was forced to rely upon hot and cold water to activate it. The old woman seen in the image was an early teacher that the king studied under. At that time, life extending magics were much less common; however it is believed that she had managed some crude form of life extension resulting in the physical condition you see. Whoever this Shampoo she's referring to might happen to have been is unknown, although it's rumored that the king had several suitors for his hand during his early life."
The tour guide deactivated the image, and walked several paces down the hall to another exhibit. "To counter the Cat's Tongue, the king was forced to obtain an artifact known as the Phoenix Pill." A soft touch on a control, and the image of a small round object formed. Floating in the air, it was obviously magnified by a large amount, to enable people to view it easier. "This artifact had two properties. Firstly, it enabled whoever it empowered to be completely unaffected by any amount of heat. This was thought to be its only power at the time. However, later research found that the magic that remained in the king's body produced a secondary effect when brought into contact with certain energies the king was exposed to roughly one year later." A gentle touch on a control activates another hologram. "What you see here is the final few moments of the fight that produced those energies."
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The hologram springs into life to show the scene of nature's fury. A tornado composed of violent winds and flames tears into the side of a mountain. The image zooms in until it focuses upon two figures that are almost flying within the center of the maelstrom. One figure in fact has wings and is flying. The other figure is that of the familiar pigtailed youth. Both hold weapons of differing design, and the youth also holds something small to his chest.
Crossing his arms, the winged man gives a loud shout, "Mt Phoenix Royal Family Final Attack!" His opponent looks startled for a moment and he can be heard to shout "What now?!"
There is a blinding flash of light, and a voice can be heard shouting, "Tenka Shunmetsu Koukyuu Dan!!"
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The somewhat abrupt ending of the hologram caused the crowd to stir and murmur among themselves. Speaking up, the tour guide explained, "Roughly translated, that ending phrase means 'Any-Mortal Instant-Annihilation Emperor-Sized Ball Blast." She giggles, "Try saying that five times fast." Her face sobered rather quickly as she touched another control and the image changed. A satellite view of Earth from orbit can be seen, centered on China and Japan. "Unfortunately, it was later discovered that the energies involved in the fight were Phoenix energies. The explosion that occurred when the energy from the attack, and the latent energy in the king's body combined was one of the largest ever produced on the planet at that time.
The peaceful view of the earth is suddenly blemished as a rapidly growing yellow blemish can be seen in the area of China. It grows slowly, but before it begins to fade, it can be seen to cover most of a mountain range in size.
"In the weeks that followed, there were accusations that this was a nuclear attack by foreign powers. There were also rumors that China had tested some kind of experimental bomb with immense destructive potential. It is estimated that the loss of life was in the range of fifty thousand people. The only reason it wasn't higher is that the blast occurred in a very remote region and was partially contained by a mountain range." The tour guide bows her head momentarily in a gesture of respect for the fallen. "The only survivor of this horrible disaster was the king himself. However, it's important to remember that had this not occurred that no one would have survived that which was to follow. Historians estimate that the Shadow War would have left only a handful of humans alive without the actions of the king and queen."
Gesturing further down the hallway, the tour guide motions the group of people to follow her. "Our next exhibit deals with the beginnings of the war, and the actions of the Sailor Senshi during that time period."
Trailing the group, two figures, one male and the other female converse quietly between themselves as they follow the others to the next exhibit.
"He's never forgiven himself for those deaths," the female commented to her companion as she brushed a golden blond lock of hair out of her eyes.
The male grunted as he rubbed his unshaven chin. The rough scraping sound indicated that he hadn't bothered to shave this morning. "Can't blame him. That's a lot a folks to off at once." He shrugged as if dismissing the thought. "You sure you want to continue this?" He gestured at the tour group. "You know this next section will bring back some ugly memories."
Her laugh startled him. He hadn't heard her laugh like that in a long time. "You're just jealous that you're not king." Offering him a gentle smile, she adds "You could have been, you know."
He snorted, shaking his head. "What would I want to be king for? No freedom. It's a sucker job." Reaching out and taking her hand in his, he nodded towards where the tour group had stopped further down the hall. "Let's go."
Author's Notes: I hope to get more into the Sailor Moon/X-Men part of the story next chapter. I'm trying to work away from the hologram/flashback kind of thing to break into a present tense telling of events, but I'm not positive how I'll do that. I've also tried to avoid certain things up to this point. You might notice that I've avoided mentioning anyone's name, and have left the identity of the two mysterious figures somewhat vague. This was done on purpose but this will have to change over the next couple chapters. I'm new to writing, so my experimenting with writing styles might produce writing that seems a bit odd at first.