Ranma ½: Hell Bound
Disclaimer: Ugh. Ranma ½, Capcom, etc stuff not mine. Is other people's. Ugh. Original stuff mine. No takey.
Speech ""
Thoughts : :
Sounds
Signs
Any form of electric communication
English ""
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Ryoga turned around and got a body full of energy beam, hurling him into the solid steel wall behind him, the metal warping around his limbs and body, his head lolling down to his chest. A young man, in his late teens by the look of it, dressed in strange blue armor that covered everything but his face, gasped in horror and turned at the creature before him that had killed the human that had just appeared out of nowhere.
"You... you monster!" he yelled at the giant head that was apparently attached to the wall.
"Do you have any idea how many laws you've just broken?!" cried the blue teen's companion. He was dressed in full armor as well, but it was red and had square shoulder pads, he had a beam sword in his hand, and looked to be in his mid twenties, a long ponytail of blonde hair falling from just beneath his helmet to his feet. "You will not be forgiven for killing a human, Sigma!"
"Hey!" Two heads and a set of eyes (on Sigma) turned toward the human stuck in the wall, his head no longer limp but staring straight at the giant head on the wall. "That hurt, you sonuvabitch!"
"W...What?" stuttered the blue one. "H-how did he...?"
Ryoga wrenched his arms free, one at a time, then used them to pull the rest of him free, hopping lightly onto the floor. He dusted off his clothes, then looked at Sigma with a glare that would have crumbled lesser beings. Sigma didn't seem to get the message, though, and instead opened his mouth and sent another giant beam easily twice the size of Ryoga himself right at the human. With quick enough eyes, one could briefly see Ryoga with his arms crossed in front of him before letting lose a beam of his own, not nearly as large, but quite equal in power, and both beams dissipated in a thin vapor, accompanied by a quiet hiss. The man in red looked at Ryoga in shock, while the younger strangely clad one was looking from Ryoga to sigma and back again.
"What... How... Didn't..." stuttered the elder of the two strange clad ones as he took a step back. Suddenly the blue teen burst out in excitement.
"WOW! That was really cool! No Reploid has ever been able to match Sigma in strength, let alone a human!" Ryoga turned and looked at the near giddy teenager, who was in fact older than he was, with a puzzled look on his face.
"A
what?"
"You don't know what a Reploid is?"
"Nope," replied Ryoga flatly.
It was the red armored man's turn to reply this time. "A Reploid is a special kind of robot that has the capability to think on its own and make its own decisions, whether good or bad."
"Or ugly." The red man donned a look of confusion on his face. "It's nothing," said Ryoga quickly.
"In any case, all three of us are Reploids, including," he gestured toward the giant head on the wall, "Sigma."
Ryoga thought about this for a moment before starting to formulate a plan. "So you're telling me that this guy over here is a robot?"
"Essentially, yes."
"So there're no biological parts in him?"
"No, but I don't see what that-"
"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga leapt forward with a speed that shocked all present, plunging his finger square in between Sigma's eyes, and the giant head exploded violently. As the smoke cleared, everyone found that they were covered in a fine purple dust.
"Ew," stated the red Reploid.
"Ewewewewewewewewewewewew! That's so nasty!" cried the not-so-red Reploid, desperately trying to get all the dust out of his eyes. "I'm covered in Sigma!" Ryoga was hardly recognizable beneath the think layers of Sigma covering him. He calmly found a nearby cloth lying on the ground and wiped his eyes with it, tossing it back on the floor when he was done.
"I don't see what your problem is," he said, approaching the blue robot. "It's just dust, after all."
"X isn't really as old as he looks," said the blonde Reploid.
"I resent that!" retorted the one identified as X. "I don't say anything about your girly hair, Zero!"
"It is NOT girly!" yelled the one now known as Zero, looking truly furious. "Just having long hair doesn't make it girly, dammit!"
A few minutes later, after wandering around the area, they found a river in which they washed themselves off. Ryoga was about to stupidly enter the stream when...
GRRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLLLEEE
Ryoga collapsed to the floor, hunched over and clutching his stomach. His two new companions rushed over to his side.
"What's wrong?" asked X in concern. "Did that blast do something to your stomach?"
"So..." gasped Ryoga, his face grimacing in pain. "Hungry..."
X gave a sigh of relief before Zero picked Ryoga up and began running to the nearest civilized area, leaping over felled, part-machine trees and scattered boxes before entering the nearby town, Arcadia. Zero continued rushing through the town, X doggedly keeping pace, both looking for a good restaurant to send Ryoga. Finally they found an old fashioned Chinese restaurant, and took Ryoga in, sitting him down at a table. The waiter approached them warily; it wasn't everyday that the two famous Maverick Hunters came into the restaurant.
"What can I get for you?" he asked, mostly toward Ryoga. Before either of the two Reploids could respond, Ryoga said exactly what he wanted.
"Everything..."
That got quite the reaction from the waiter. His eyebrow raised and he had a very skeptical look about him. "Everything? The menu is quite large, sir, I don't think you could-"
"Everything..."
"Whatever you like, sir." The waiter gave Zero and X a look that clearly said 'He had better be able to pay for this' before turning toward the kitchen to systematically make everything on the menu. Zero did not like this.
"So how exactly are you gonna pay for this, kid?" he shot at Ryoga.
"We'll pay, right?" X responded in place of the lost boy.
"What?! Are you nuts?! Do you have any idea how much that will cost?!"
"Not really. I'm sure headquarters will cover it."
"No way!" Zero shouted, highly frustrated at X's willingness to pay. "Why the hell should we pay for him?!"
"Well, he did kill Sigma in one blow." This caught Zero off guard.
"Well... but... he... and..." Zero crossed his arms and looked away. "Fine."
"Good."
-3 hours later-
Ryoga belched loudly and patted his now full stomach as he stacked another plate onto the three and a half foot tall stack of dishes on the table. Everyone had been looking at Ryoga in horror for the past three hours as he devoured all the food that came in front of him with such ferocity that he made a pack of wolves seem civilized. The waiter walked up to the table with a disconcerted frown at the stack of dishes.
"Will that be all, sir?"
Ryoga looked up in thought, and after a moment, turned toward the waiter. "I'll have another bowl of ramen, actually." Everyone in the room facefaulted, causing the precariously stacked dishes to fall over and break. The waiter righted himself and nodded politely at Ryoga.
"Very well, sir, one last order of Ramen, coming up." The waiter turned on his heel and, with a glare, went into the kitchens to make Ryoga's last order.
"Jeez, Ryoga!" said X as he got back up from facefaulting. "You must have eaten 48 full course meals!"
"Fifty-eight meals, actually," stated Zero. "And this next bowl of Ramen will make it fifty-nine."
Just then the waiter walked back into the room, looking rather peeved. "I'm sorry sir, but it seems you have already eaten the remainder of today's supplies. The chef recommends you leave and not return." Ryoga shrugged.
"Oh well. That food was great, though." Ryoga got up and started leaving the restaurant. "Give my compliments to the cook!" he called back as he walked out of the door.
"We'll send you the money later," Zero told the waiter.
"So, being that I have no idea where I am, how about you guys lead the way." X shrugged and Zero simply started walking. "Not that not knowing where I am is out of the ordinary," Ryoga muttered under his breath.
"What's that?" asked Zero.
"Eh?" said Ryoga dumbly. "Oh, nothing. Where are we going, anyway?"
"To the Maverick Hunter HQ," replied Zero. I'd like to find out why you're so damn powerful."
"You mean what I did to that stupid robot? It's just a couple of techniques I learned a while back. That blast I did is the Shi Shi Hokudan. I basically just hurl some heavy "Depression" chi at whatever I want. The more depressed I am, the more powerful the blast. I've only used the perfect version a few times. Boy was I depressed..." Ryoga's voice trailed off as he recalled the horrible feelings he had when using the Shin Shi Shi Hokudan. Soon his footsteps began growing heavy and the ground beneath him started to crack beneath his feet, causing X and Zero to start worrying for their own wellbeing.
"Ryoga, you alright?" asked X cautiously.
"Huh? Oh... yeah... And even when I perfected that technique, my rival, Ranma Saotome, found a way to exploit its source. Damn him!" Ryoga looked to the sky, shook a fist at it and yelled, "Damn you, Ranma!"
"He exploited its source?"
"Depression."
"Oh."
"So, what, he made you happy?" asked Zero.
"Not exactly. He... he said he'd kissed Akane, which caused me to shoot off my most powerful Shi Shi Hokudan ever, but just as it was about to impact he said he was lying."
"And it disappeared?" asked X, almost hopefully. From what he had seen, no human could possibly survive one of those blasts.
"No," said Ryoga, X looking disappointed. "It hit us both."
"It hit you both?!" cried X, Zero looking shocked as well. "And you're still alive?!"
"Well, yeah. It only made me pass out. I guess Ranma had more endurance than me or something, 'cause as far as I know, he didn't. That bastard, he's always out doing me." As they continued, Ryoga looked to the sky again. "He's one hell of a fighter. The only man I can call my rival with pride."
"Jeez," said Zero, impressed with this rival. "Hey, when did this happen? I don't remember any news on such a fight, and something tells me a fight like that would definitely be on the news."
"Well, it did happen a while ago," responded Ryoga. "I guess it would have been few months ago, by now. I'm crap with time. What's today's date, anyway?"
"It's the 23rd of June, 21XX."
"Let's see, 23rd of June, that would make it... wait, WHAT?!"
"What's up?" asked X, curious as to why Ryoga would shout 'what.' Ryoga grabbed Zero by the shoulders and shook him.
"What year
did you say it was?!"
"21XX!" Ryoga went wide eyed and
fell back on his butt. "What's wrong Ryoga? The last year
escape you or something?" Ryoga looked slowly up at Zero, his eyes
just as wide.
"It's supposed to be 1998."
"1998? What are you talking about? That's over 150 years... ago..." Zero trailed off as realization seemed to dawn on him. "Come on," he said, pulling Ryoga up to his feet, "you've just gotten a lot more interesting." However, when Zero tried to make Ryoga move, he found the boy was far too heavy to move. A green aura started forming around Ryoga, coming off in wisps. Ryoga moved his mouth, but nothing could be heard. Zero leaned in to listen...
"Dead..." muttered the lost boy. "They're... they're all... all dead..." Zero's eyes went wide in horror as the aura started brightening and growing larger and he realized what Ryoga was about to do.
"X! RUN!!" he shouted, running himself.
"What?" cried X in puzzlement. He had never, ever seen Zero run away from something before. Whatever it was, it had to have been powerful. "Where should I run?!"
"Doesn't matter, just run straight, don't turn!" Zero shouted over his shoulder.
"What about Ryo-,"X turned to look at his new friend and his eyes also went wide in horror. The boy's aura was brighter than ever and growing to monstrous proportions. X immediately turned and high tailed it, his sensors going haywire at the amount of energy concentrated in and around Ryoga. X opened a small door in his arm and pressed a series of buttons and suddenly a suit of armor with good sized jets on the back formed around him. He leapt into the air and started flying rapidly in the direction his long time partner went, quickly overtaking him and picking him up as he went. Just then they heard a scream behind them.
"SHI SHI HOKUDAAN!!!" A huge pillar of green light with at least a 50 foot radius shot into the sky like a beacon. As the pillar reached around 150 feet in the air, the energy began gathering into a gigantic ball of energy. Encouraged by Zero's shouts and yells, X put on an extra burst of speed as his Flight Armor did the best it could to support Zero's extra weight. The as the massive orb of energy reached a one kilometer diameter, it stopped growing and began its decent to the ground. Deciding they were at a safe distance, the pair landed and X's armor disappeared.
"What's he thinking?!" shouted Zero. "There's no way he can survive that!"
"I... don't think he is thinking..." said X sadly. "He's lost everything. His friends, his family, his home, everything." As the Shin Shi Shi Hokudan reached the ground, the pair braced for a rather large explosion, but none came. It simply impacted the ground and caused a wave of dirt to fly in every direction as it created a half kilometer deep crater, eventually disappearing.
"That... was strangely anti-climactic," said the red Reploid, dirty once again.
"Yeah," agreed an equally dirt covered X. "Wonder if he's ok. I certainly hope he is."
"Me too, though I doubt he did. He'd be an incredible addition to the team. Not that that's the only reason why," Zero quickly added under the heated glare of his partner. "Wanna go check it out?"
"You bet I do!"
-A few minutes later-
X and Zero came running within shouting distance of Ryoga and decided it would be best to walk from there. As they got closer they saw that his head was hanging, his arms completely limp by his side. As they got closer still, they saw the ground directly beneath his head was a darker shade of brown than everywhere else. As they approached touching distance, they saw that there were streams of tears coming down from his eyes and dripping onto the ground below. X was the first to reach him, and he put a hand on the lost boy's shoulder.
"Hey, Ryoga." The boy did not answer. "You gave us quite a scare there, we could have..." he stopped himself, and Ryoga sobbed in response. "You... feelin' better?" Still no response from Ryoga. "You know, I'm sure all of them aren't dead."
"It's been 150 years, humans don't live that long," added Zero.
"It really can't be that bad," continued X.
"Everyone and everything he's ever known is dead and forgotten."
"Shut up, Zero, you're not helping!" shouted X in frustration.
"Whatever." Ryoga turned and started walking slowly in a random direction.
"Where are you going?" called X.
"I don't know," replied Ryoga, hoping to be rid of them soon and begin his worldwide journey of depression.
"Why don't you just follow us?" X suggested. "There's a possibility that we could find or build a time machine to allow you to go back in time." Ryoga whipped around and stared at the Blue Bombers 'descendant'.
"A... are you serious? You mean I might be able to get home?! Where is this base?!" Ryoga promptly ran in a random direction, Zero and X trying to catch him and guide him in the right direction.
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AN: Well, looks like I eventually overcame my overwhelming laziness and finished the chapter, though it's much shorter than the first. Ah well. Hopefully it won't take many months to overcome the next wave of laziness.
