Ranma 12 : The Masquerade
Chapter 1
Authors Notes: I do not own rights to Vampire: The Masquerade, or Ranma 1/2. This is a fan work of fiction written for free distribution. So don't sue me.
Ranma couldn't help but think about her offer. It would make him faster, and stronger? No, faster and stronger than ANYTHING, as she had put it. What was the catch. Why would she offer him a sample with no apparent reason. Unless...
Steriods.
She was a drug dealer. That had to be it. This woman sold drugs to kids, thats why she was out by the school that late. Ranma felt his anger rising. Some woman had though he would do something so dishonerable as taking drugs. Ranma smiled that he had managed to figure her out without getting into a fight. He hated fighting girls, and she was a girl.
She was fast though.
How had she moved so fast. Ranma was the fastest person he knew of, and he couldn't even follow her. How could a modern drug dealer move so fast. Faster that any of his friends.
Not stronger than any HUMAN, stronger than ANYTHING.
She made sure he realized there were other things out there. But what. Slowly his picture of a latenight drug dealer was starting to crumble. Something more was going on here. Maybe Nabiki would know something of this strange woman. Ranma had a feeling that he wouldn't like whatever Nabiki charged, but he needed to know. With a new resolve he walked toward home, but stopped next to a familier building.
Maybe Dr. Tofu would know what this vial was.
Ranma walked up hoping the good doctor was still in his office. I was rather late, but occasionally Dr. Tofu would remain there overnight due to some work. Ranma tried the door and it slid open.
"Dr. Tofu? You here?" He yelled into the clinic. Betty was over against the wall, and Ranma made a conscious effort to stay away from the hanging skeleton. Ever since his first day here when Dr. Tofu and scared him with that thing, he had been skidish of it. His attention was diverted when a voice called from the office.
"Oh, Ranma, is that you. I'm back in my office, come on in." Dr. Tofu yelled to him. Ranma stole one more glance toward the skeleton before making his way back to the office.
"Sorry to bother ya, Dr. Tofu, but I needed to talk to someone." Ranma mumbled as he walked into the office and sat down in the leather couch along the wall. Dr. Tofu looked up from the medical book he had been skimming through and could see Ranma was worried about something.
"Don't worry about it Ranma. You know you and Akane can visit me anytime you need to talk to someone. What seems to be bothering you?" He asked. Ranma pulled out a vial of liquid and held it up for the good doctor to see.
"What is this? I havn't drank any of it, but curiousity has gotten the better of me." Ranma explained, trying not to sound to worried, and failing at it. Dr. Tofu got up and walked over to where Ranma sat and took the vial. He was able to tell immediatly what it was.
"I certainly hope you didn't drink any of this, Ranma. Blood isn't good for you." The doctor told him as he sat the vial down on his desk.
"But why do you have a vial of blood, and what makes you think you should have drank this?" He asked. Ranma was prone to do foolish things, but surely he knows how bad blood is for a human to drink. Ranma looked around the office and then took a deep breath.
"It's a long story doc." Ranma started. He then proceeded to explain about the odd meeting with Victoria and how she had given him the vial.
"And that's when I decided to stop here. So, what do you think doctor? Could this blood accually be a steroid or something that just looks like blood?" Ranma asked, hoping that maybe thats all it was. Dr. Tofu picked up the vial one more time and looked closely.
"Well, it looks a little off in color for blood, but I can't imagine it being anything else." The doctor told Ranma. Ranma glanced down to the vial where Dr. Tofu had sat it once again and started thinking back to the meeting with Victoria.
"Ranma, I must go take care of a couple of things in the back. I'll be right back." Dr. Tofu told a thoughtful Ranma, then stood and left the room.
"This is all too weird, and I'm already late. Akane is going to kill me." Ranma stood up and grabbed the vial, then headed out the front door, wondering if he finally had met something he couldn't begin to handle.
"Ow, my head." Ryoga mumbled as he sat up. He was laying in an alley in the middle of Tokyo, or so he assumed. He couldn't remember how he got here, other than talking to the to darkskinned women who had proved to him they were indeed excellent martial artist. Possibly better than Ranma. How could he turn them down when they offered to give him the same power.
"Just drink this, and when you wake up, you will be stronger than ever." The one named Fatima had said. Without worrying, Ryoga had quickly drank down the entire vial and swiftly passed out. He did feel very different, however.
"I guess I should find out how much stronger I am. Then I'll find Ranma." Ryoga decided, getting angry at the mention of his nemisis.
"It's about time you got home, boy!" Genma yelled as Ranma walked through the front door of the house. Ranma, in no mood to put up with his father, swiftly threw him out the door and into the koi pond without saying a word. Walking into the livingroom brought him to a halt.
"Ryoga? I didn't expect to see you here for a few more months." Ranma insulted toward him. Ryogo, however, instead of his usual attack now, never ask question method of dealing with Ranma, simply chuckled. Not the typical Ryoga insanity chuckle, but the laugh of someone who genuinely didn't care what you thought. Ranma, once again that night, felt uneasy.
"Ranma, I have you know I came here tonight to fight you and finally have my revenge, but..." Ryoga paused and looked out to the koi pond where the panda was sitting, "...your just too slow for me anymore. With my new abilities, you couldn't ever hope to compete." Ryoga explained. Ranma wasn't sure how it happened, but at some point during the conversation, Ryoga had gotten up, moved across the room and managed to get behind him.
First Victoria, now Ryoga! What's going on! Ranma screamed in his head. Akane could see the confusion in Ranma's eyes, and agreed. She hadn't been able to follow Ryoga's movements any better than Ranma. Something was definatly going on.
"Ryoga, surely you know that no matter what you do, I'll still always find a way to defeat you." Ranma taunted as the threw as fast a punch as he could at Ryoga. He almost cheered when he felt it connect, but quickly panicked when he saw that Ryoga had stopped his fist with just two fingers. That's the last thing Ranma saw before passing out from the attack Ryoga had unleased while stopping his fist.
"Ryoga, how did you manage to get this strong?" Akane asked, looking at Ranma on the floor, but when she looked back up, Ryoga had already left.
Ranma woke up the following morning, about an hour before sunrise, in his bed. He was sore all over his chest and arms.
"How could he move faster than my chestnut fist?" Ranma thought as he lay there, looking at the ceiling. Slowly, he looked around the room and found his bag sitting next to his bed.
Stronger than any THING. Faster than any THING. He recalled Victoria telling him. Ryoga and definatly become stronger and faster than Ranma, and Ranma was, of course, the best. Could someone like Victoria, or maybe Victoria herself contacted Ryoga? Either way, that vial was the one thing Ranma could think of to get back at Ryoga.
I've done stupider. Drinking some strange potion shouldn't hurt. He rationalized as he dug through his things and found the vial, with the card from Victoria right next to it. Without pause, the took the cap off and drank the contents. He breifly thought it tasted extremely sweet for blood, but passed out before the though could advance. Outside, a figure walked down the hall, invisible to the other occupants of the house and headed down the street, pulling out a cellphone.
"Ms. Ash, your target has drank the vial. What shall I do?" The man asked. Victoria smiled on her end.
"Just let things play out. When it wears off, he will definatly come back for more." She explained. The man mentioned one more thing before hanging up and the smile faded from Victoria's face.
"Ryoga? I'll have to see who else is "working" in this town." She mumbled before headed down to the cellar for the day.
to be continued........
AUTHORS NOTES:
First off, sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. School was killing me, but things are ok now. As for replying to reviews, I'll say this:
This fan fic is crossing over Vampire: The Masquerade. Bloodlines, the new game that was mentioned, is part of that series, but it all started with a Pen and Paper game. That is what this is referencing. Generation's are a secret (in vampire society, asking generation is one of the most offensive things you can ask, but who knows, maybe i'll let some slip:), and as for clans, Victoria Ash is leader of Clan Toreador, and lived in Atlanta until she moved to Japan for my fanfic, and Fatima is an assassin of Clan Assamite. Other clans will show up as well:)